GamesCom & BlizzCon

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Shir'le E. Illios
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GamesCom & BlizzCon

Post by Shir'le E. Illios »

Last week(end) was GamesCom, a games convention held in Germany, with lots of new game information coming out of it. And overlapping that was BlizzCon, Blizzard’s own convention. But since I had my brother over for a visit last week (and since my computer died and I had to fix it in that period) I haven’t been able to keep that close of an eye on it.

Still, I managed to find a number of bits that you might be interested in for a number of different games.


[b:2mckh30l]Dragon Age: Origins[/b:2mckh30l]

BioWare’s upcoming epic fantasy roleplaying game of course had a showing at the convention with a number of tidbits. As I understand they’ve been showing one particular quest and showing what choices players could make and the consequences of that. First there’s a video interview with Mike Laidlaw (lead designer), which contains spoilers about that one quest.

[center:2mckh30l][html]<embed id="mymovie" width="432" height="362" flashvars="playerMode=embedded&movieAspect=4.3&flavor=EmbeddedPlayerVersion&skin=http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/cn ... t%3D362%2F" wmode="transparent" allowscriptaccess="always" quality="high" name="mymovie" style="" src="http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/cn ... oteus2.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"/>[/html][/center:2mckh30l]
BioWare also unveiled the [url=http://dragonage.bioware.com/world/have ... t:2mckh30l]village of Haven[/url:2mckh30l] with sceenshots, concept art, a wallpaper and a movie. No spoilers there I think (except for a small one perhaps that shows how it’s connected to the earlier quest). Here’s the (spoiler-free) introduction text:

[quote:2mckh30l]Some years ago, a lone traveler paid a visit to a tavern in Denerim, and after imbibing a great quantity of ale related a tale of his travels to the tavern-keeper. The traveler claimed to have stumbled upon a strange village high in the Frostback Mountains. The village was peaceful, he said, and the villagers polite, if a little aloof. They fed him and watered his horse, and then urged him to be on his way. When he lingered too long, suddenly their mood changed. Their faces grew cold and knives appeared, and the traveler was told that what was to happen next "was done in Andraste's name and for the good of all." He fled in a panic and could not afterwards retrace his path. The traveler took a room at the tavern and yet never slept there. He disappeared that night and was not heard from again.[/quote:2mckh30l]
Also tigrina on the official forums has some, spoiler-free, [url=http://daforums.bioware.com/viewtopic.h ... 5:2mckh30l]hands-on impressions[/url:2mckh30l] of the game. To give an excerpt:

[quote:2mckh30l] Gameplay feels smooth, a bit WoW like. Lootable containers sparkle the same for example. You can put skills and potions in your skillbar by dragging them with your mouse. Moving around feels natural. All options are where you expect them to be (like J for Journal, I for Inventory). You can point and click for moving, also when paused. The world feels nice, although I would have loved to be able to open more doors and that kind of thing. I guess that is a bit of being spoiled by something like WoW and Morrowind where you can literally go everywhere. I haven't seen any real outside areas yet, so I hope you can walk around freely there.[/quote:2mckh30l]

[b:2mckh30l]Mass Effect 2[/b:2mckh30l]

BioWare’s other upcoming single-player roleplaying game also had a showing as GamesCom. To begin with GamesSpot has a [url=http://gamescom.gamespot.com/story/6215 ... 9:2mckh30l]Hands-On Impression article[/url:2mckh30l] up. Here’s an excerpt:

[quote:2mckh30l]"One of the biggest improvements we've made to the game is the combat," said Houston before we sat down to play the game. "We're not trying to make this an action game--it's still an RPG. But the combat is much better than before." While the combat wasn't too bad in the original game, it's certainly more refined in Mass Effect 2. Running and taking cover with the A button will be familiar to Gears of War fans, while swapping weapons by holding the left bumper and moving the left stick is very intuitive. You can still order your squad members to attack by using the D pad, but everything feels more responsive than before, and the allied AI is smarter. The heat-seeking missiles also help, as they curve around objects and other cover to take out their targets.[/quote:2mckh30l]
And VG247 has [url=http://www.vg247.com/2009/08/21/exclusi ... /:2mckh30l]an interview with Jesse Houston[/url:2mckh30l] (associate producer). Here’s an excerpt:

[quote:2mckh30l][b:2mckh30l]Some were some pretty significant differences in the controls between the PC and 360 versions last time round. Is it the same with the sequel?[/b:2mckh30l]

We learned a lot from building the PC version before, and having built it six months later there was a big difference. So we actually took what we learned from PC and put it back into 360. Fundamentally, we want you to have the same gameplay experience, but just with the difference in controls. This time round, doing it at the same time for a sim-ship, we can control the differences much more smoothly because it’s the same team building it now.[/quote:2mckh30l]

[b:2mckh30l]APB[/b:2mckh30l]

Though not a roleplaying game as such perhaps and more of an MMO (though they’ve already said that there won’t be a monthly fee) another game I’m keeping an eye on is APB; with its customization and such it [i:2mckh30l]could[/i:2mckh30l] be a great environment to roleplay in. Though the articles focus mostly on combat this time around.

First there’s an [url=http://kotaku.com/5342045/apb-impressio ... t:2mckh30l]impressions article[/url:2mckh30l] up on Kotaku where they talk a bit about missions and such. Here’s an excerpt:

[quote:2mckh30l]Those were the sights and sounds we experienced during our demo, a pair of missions that involved picking up packages—simply referred to as "evidence"—and delivering them to various locations. The Enforcer team we watched were given that mission by a man named Malcom, who set them up with a nine chapter long series of tasks, a mission we never actually saw the developers complete.

That's because the Criminals interfered. A real life team of players aligned with the Criminal faction were alerted to the Enforcers' activities as soon as the police force picked up the evidence.

What really happened there was that a squad of four Criminal players were matchmade by APB when the cops started their mission, as by design. The same would be true for a group of Criminals, should they solicit a mission. That's where the player-based conflict comes into play, as you won't face anything but human opponents in APB, according to Realtime Worlds.[/quote:2mckh30l]
It’s worrying me that you will only fight players, though if their matchmaking truly works then it could be fun. Question remains though how well suited to roleplaying it really is.

GameSpot has a video interview up with Guy Cocker:

[center:2mckh30l][html] <embed id="mymovie" width="432" height="362" flashvars="playerMode=embedded&movieAspect=4.3&flavor=EmbeddedPlayerVersion&skin=http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/cn ... t%3D362%2F" wmode="transparent" allowscriptaccess="always" quality="high" name="mymovie" style="" src="http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/cn ... oteus2.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"/>[/html][/center:2mckh30l]
And they also have an [url=http://gamescom.gamespot.com/story/6215 ... 2:2mckh30l]updated impressions[/url:2mckh30l] article. Here’s an excerpt:

[quote:2mckh30l]The combat in APB looks to be a lot of fun, thanks mainly to the strategy involved. One of the players we saw was using a rifle, but the second opted to use a nonlethal shotgun. The shotgun wasn't as powerful as the rifle, especially from far away, but it did allow him to incapacitate enemies and then go up and arrest them. The benefit of this is that it takes criminals longer to respawn if they're arrested rather than killed--15 seconds rather than eight, according to Moreland. There will be 30 weapons in the full game too, with some of the weapons accessible only once you've reached a certain player rating.[/quote:2mckh30l]

[b:2mckh30l]Diablo 3[/b:2mckh30l]

Moving on to BlizzCon then. Next to revealing details on their new BattleNet and on the next expansion for WoW they also showed some of Diablo 3. And it might perhaps be odd to look forward to a game whose predecessors are generally considered the antichrist of computer roleplaying (mostly due to Diablo and Diablo 2 claiming to be roleplaying games, and then ignoring everything that’s good about roleplaying games and focusing on everything that’s bad about them), but if you ‘forget’ for a bit that they’re supposedly roleplaying games and just see them as action games then they can be quite (if fairly hollow) fun for a while.

Anyway, Blizzard unveiled the fourth class this BlizzCon, namely [url=http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/charact ... l:2mckh30l]the Monk[/url:2mckh30l]. To me this class feels a bit like a flashier Assassin, but it seems that the Monk’s abilities work a bit differently. You don’t have building skills and finishing skills; but all skills are both; each skill has three stages and doing stage one of a skill is followed by stage two of whatever skill you do next, which is followed by stage three. Which could make for some interesting combinations… if I understand the system right.

To give you a brief excerpt from the description page linked above:

[quote:2mckh30l]The man seemed ignorant of the cold. He was dressed like a beggar, wearing little more than an orange sheet wound around his body, leaving half of his chest exposed. A garland of large wooden beads hung around his thick neck. His head was completely shaved, with the exception of a wild bushy beard. Then, recognition struck me: upon his forehead he had a tattoo of two red dots, one larger than the other. As any informed student of the peoples and cultures of this world must also realize, this man was one of the monks of Ivgorod, the secretive and reclusive holy warriors of the country.[/quote:2mckh30l]
Kotaku also has some [url=http://kotaku.com/5342933/details-on-th ... r:2mckh30l]details on the class[/url:2mckh30l]. Here’s an excerpt:

[quote:2mckh30l]The Monks are known throughout the world, respected and feared...holy killing machines.

Wyatt Cheng, produder for the game, said that one of the team's goals was to create a fighting game combo system that fits with Diablo III. They want to add depth to the melee moves. They referenced Diablo II's Assassin and World of Warcraft's Rogue.

They went over some Monk skills, like the Way of the Hundred Fists. The power features three clicks of the same power that transitions from a single attack to a massive AOE. Then there's Crippling Wave, which first slows the enemy, then reduces damage to the Monk. Each skill seems to have different stages. In Exploding Palm, the first and second hits do damage, the 3rd adds a damage-over-time effect, and, if the enemy dies by this DOT, it explodes.[/quote:2mckh30l]
And The Escapist has some [url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/vi ... k:2mckh30l]hands-on experience with the class[/url:2mckh30l]. Here’s an excerpt:

[quote:2mckh30l]Since the Monk doesn't have much in terms of defense, unlike his brother in arms the Barbarian, you've got to be wily to survive with him. That means busting out skills like the shield move where the Monk starts spinning his staff fast enough to create a forcefield or blinding enemies, but the best defense in a game like [i:2mckh30l]Diablo[/i:2mckh30l] is obviously a good offense, and the Monk's combo system shines here.[/quote:2mckh30l]

And that’s it for now. If you’re interested in Star Wars: The Old Republic I also recommend watching the [url=http://moonendor.blogspot.com/2009/08/g ... l:2mckh30l]gameplay videos[/url:2mckh30l] and perhaps read [url=http://www.swtor.com/community/showthre ... 9:2mckh30l]some of the articles[/url:2mckh30l] that have been posted. Or, in general, just keep an eye on [url=http://moonendor.blogspot.com/:2mckh30l]my SWTOR blog[/url:2mckh30l]. ;)


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Shir'le
F'sarn natha tithaur wun l'su'aco.

-= Shir'le E. Illios =-
Chosen of Eilistraee
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