Computer and Console RPGs

[erilar]

Putting this in the Xbox forum, but definitely wanting to include PC games in the discussion. I've been playing a lot of fantasy CRPGs lately, and wanted to chat about it.

Started off with Zack and I jumping back into WoW. We've been having a fun time, but once our duo got to Outland (Burning Crusade), the content really started to grate on me. Too much grinding, not enough story to hold my interest, etc. We ended up rolling two brand new toons to play through the dwarf lands to see the new story. The old "vanilla" WoW areas that were rebooted (thanks, Deathwing!) with the Cataclysm expansion are freaking fantastic.

Enter other CRPGs. I started looking for stuff with more story, and ended up resuming my progress in Oblivion in Xbox. Having a fun time with this one, although I'll still argue that Morrowind was a better game. Can't wait to see what Bethesda's next offering will be like, especially considering that they bought Id Software a while back and should (presumably) have access to their superior engine tech.

[erilar]

I've also been keeping an eye on the Windows 7 family pack price, and it finally fell to about $100 on Amazon, so Zack and I now both have Win7 installed via Boot Camp. With all the great indy stuff coming out on PC lately, plus a number of cool current and upcoming releases, I was feeling that my access was limited.

Anyway, I've been wanting to play The Witcher for a long while, but it was a PC only title. This had been a sleeper / reviewers' darling in '07, and was re-released in Fall '08 as The Witcher (Enhanced Ver). This new version smoothed out a lot of bugs, and the Polish developer CD Projekt had re-translated and -recorded all the dialog and done a lot of other things they ostensibly couldn't originally afford as a fledgling studio launching their first title. (Side note - CD Projekt RED is the sister studio to the guys that do Good Old Games.)

Anyway, The Witcher is a fantasy CRPG based on the fantasy fiction of Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. My buddy at work had given me two of his novels, and I'm part way through the first - pretty good read. The setting is very dark and brooding. Reminds me of a more mature take on Moorcock's Elric idea. It also has a bit of a dark faerie tale vibe - very cool.

The Witcher game itself is effing incredible. It started off a little slow, and the controls were a little fiddly. Once I got into it though, I was enthralled. The story is on the level of a Dragon Age or Mass Effect, although as main character Geralt you are usually adventuring alone. The character-building talent trees are also deep and interesting, and the game adds more combat and spell options as you play.

In many ways, this 2007 game is as (or more) advanced as many of the more recent highly-lauded games. The quest system, map, and journal are all 100% dynamic, and I rarely need to keep written notes. In the end, I think this game suffered due to a flawed launch and a half-hearted, struggling publisher (Atari). Given the development and marketing dollars that were thrown at Dragon Age, for instance, this game would have been a blockbuster.

Speaking of Bioware, the game actually runs on their Aurora engine, and looks better than Dragon Age ever did, even downres'ed to 1280x800 so my gimpy iMac GPU can handle it. It has aged very well.

I highly, highly recommend this game. If anyone is interested in checking it out, the latest patch actually removes all DRM and CD checks, so I'd be happy to lend the disks out for you to try. (It's about $17 on Amazon.)

[erilar]

Then there's DC Universe Online. I was kind of surprised that Bob hadn't jumped on that one, but I know he's been really busy. This was one of the ones that kind of coerced me to get Windows again - the podcasters I listen to have all been talking it up.

Anyway, it's pretty fun, and pretty easy on a mediocre system. I'm only at the beginning of the game - maybe like level 8 out of 30. The game is pretty fun, and it very action-game-based, vs the more plodding style of play of WoW. I actually use an Xbox 360 controller to play the game, as it is much more applicable. (Microsoft makes a USB-based wireless receiver for the 360 controllers.)

The DC setting is treated with a lot of reverence, and they use a pretty interesting caveat to explain the influx of new heroes (and villains). I won't spoil it, as it plays out in the main game intro movie which is available all over the internets.

The main DC heroes and villains are integrated as mentors and endbosses respectively (and vice-versa if you're playing a villain). For example, an early instance has you fighting Bane (haven't done that yet).

The gameplay is kind of light - reminds me of the Star Wars game The Force Unleashed or the like. You only have 6 or 8 special abilities at any given time, unlike WoW. When you get new, more advanced ones, you roll out the powers that are made redundant or less desirable.

The setting is really the star of the game. I chose Batman as my mentor, so I get Bat-calls from him and Oracle as I adventure around and complete quests. Gotham is brooding and dark, and Metropolis is largely shiny and impressive. Each hero has a travel power (flight, super-speed, or acrobatics), and zooming around the rooftops unfettered is really exhilarating.

More as I play more - I've just scratched the surface. Still, I don't expect to keep playing the game after I hit the level cap. I don't think the gameplay is deep enough to avoid becoming repetitive by then. But for a month or so, it will be a fun distraction.

[erilar]

Last ramble for the day - the Dragon Age 2 demo. Yes, the interface and gameplay have been pretty successfully retooled. But Jesus, couldn't Bioware have thrown a few more dollars at some higher-res textures??! It honestly looks like a PS2 game.

Sure, they did use higher res textures on the PC models this time, but the enemies are still wearing out-of-focus fuzzy armor and such. I'm sure the story will be bitchin' and all, but I don't want to live it out in Pixellated Barfy World! Guhh...

Hopefully, they are only skimping on this franchise so they can dump all their money into The Old Republic!

[Lars Porsenna]

Glad you're liking some of the computer RPGs. I'm looking for something decent as well. So far I am totally underwhelmed by pretty much every console RPG I've tried. I've even thought about selling my Star Wars KotOR games on ebay and re-buying in PC. IMHO, console RPGs have the same problem they always had: limitations on interface. I'm pretty forgiving in the graphics department if the gameplay and story are good.

Damon.

[Hardcorhobbs]

I can't wait for Dragon Age 2 on my 360!

I thought the graphics looked awesome. Not too excited about the redesign of the darkspawn... but everything else looks great IMHO.

[erilar]

I thought the graphics looked awesome.

Really?? I agree that the models look decent and the animation is good, but the non-party-character textures are sooo low-res and dithered, and there are still sparkly lines showing all over the character models where two polygons join. The engine is just looking really dated. The landscapes in particular are just pukey, muddled, and uninteresting.

As Damon said though, I can certainly enjoy a good game with mediocre graphics. (Contrast DA2 with Fable 3, which was a beautiful game with shitty, watered-down, lead-you-by-the-nose gameplay, IMO.)

That said, DA2 is a HUGE blockbuster title, surely forecasted sell like hotcakes, and Bioware should have had tons of resources to invest in the development. Mass Effect 1 & 2 looked great - stunning in places. So does The Witcher given its age, and it was made with Bioware's engine - so why doesn't Dragon Age 2?? I'm hoping that maybe Bioware just compressed a lot of the textures in the demo to make the download smaller or something.

Not too excited about the redesign of the darkspawn...

Yeah, that was very confusing. It took the characters continually referring to them as Darkspawn for me to understand that's what they were. I'm guessing Bioware thought the Darkspawn looked too much like the typical fantasy orc, but now they just look like skeletons or some other generic undead, so I'm not sure what they accomplished.

[EvilGenius]

That said, DA2 is a HUGE blockbuster title, surely forecasted sell like hotcakes, and Bioware should have had tons of resources to invest in the development. Mass Effect 1 & 2 looked great - stunning in places. So does The Witcher given its age, and it was made with Bioware's engine - so why doesn't Dragon Age 2?? I'm hoping that maybe Bioware just compressed a lot of the textures in the demo to make the download smaller or something.

I thought they reported the lower end graphics on DA:Origins as a result of being in development for so darn long. The graphics standard had advanced by 3 or 4 generations by the time they brought the game to market. At this point, it might just be too darn expensive to improve the graphics of the entire game.

[erilar]

I thought they reported the lower end graphics on DA:Origins as a result of being in development for so darn long. The graphics standard had advanced by 3 or 4 generations by the time they brought the game to market. At this point, it might just be too darn expensive to improve the graphics of the entire game.

True and possibly. DA2 is also coming out very soon after DA:O, so the development was probably mostly writing the new content within the existing engine. Still, I'm spoiled dammit! [Ah-nuld] Give me eye candy, naow! [/Ah-nuld]

[EvilGenius]

Then there's DC Universe Online. I was kind of surprised that Bob hadn't jumped on that one, but I know he's been really busy. This was one of the ones that kind of coerced me to get Windows again - the podcasters I listen to have all been talking it up.

I know it's out there but I really dont have the time now. Hopefully it sticks around for a while.

[Hardcorhobbs]

Really?? I agree that the models look decent and the animation is good, but the non-party-character textures are sooo low-res and dithered, and there are still sparkly lines showing all over the character models where two polygons join. The engine is just looking really dated. The landscapes in particular are just pukey, muddled, and uninteresting.

Either you pay way more attention to the graphics... your TV is too big. :p Seriously though, I didn't see any sparkly lines. I thought the graphics were way better than DA:O, and on par with Mass Effect 2. I will agree that the first landscape was uninteresting... but I thought the City was great! Much more detailed than anything in DA:O. Can't wait to play

[erilar]

Either you pay way more attention to the graphics... your TV is too big. :p Seriously though, I didn't see any sparkly lines. I thought the graphics were way better than DA:O, and on par with Mass Effect 2. I will agree that the first landscape was uninteresting... but I thought the City was great! Much more detailed than anything in DA:O. Can't wait to play

I do not understand this phrase you are using: "TV is too big". I am a very visual person and visual thinker though, so I do key in on that stuff. Like the rampant space acne in Mass Effect 1.

Agreed - the city did look much better. Perhaps "blasted wasteland" just isn't one of my preferred setting locations...

[Hardcorhobbs]

I do not understand this phrase you are using: "TV is too big". I am a very visual person and visual thinker though, so I do key in on that stuff. Like the rampant space acne in Mass Effect 1.

LOL couldn't resist the tv joke I never saw the space acne in ME1 either. I'm more of a gameplay/story guy so I tend not to pick to much at the graphics. I think it's the reason why I'm a DS guy and you're a PSP guy. (PSP having the better graphics, ds having the better library... IMHO of course )

Agreed - the city did look much better. Perhaps "blasted wasteland" just isn't one of my preferred setting locations...

Idaknow what the heck that was supposed to be. It was certainly a wasteland... and it was supposed to be the edge of the forest... It looked like it was hit with an atomic bomb! Or a spell plague! From what I've seen there should be a lot more interesting places than that first location. A poor decision on the designers part to start there...

[NukeHavoc]

On a somewhat related note ... I want to kill dragons:

http://www.ign.com/videos/2011/02/24/sk ... mpid=ign40

[erilar]

On a somewhat related note ... I want to kill dragons:

Wow - that looks amazing! I <3 Elder Scrolls games.