not sure Todd Mcfarlane would come cheap.....kind of famous.
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Kingdoms of Amalur demo impressions thread [Up On 360/Origin/Steam/U.S. PSN]
- Thread starter CrunchinJelly
- Start date
not sure Todd Mcfarlane would come cheap.....kind of famous.
Fine Ham Abounds
Member
BROWNORFUL
Todd Mcfarlane was heavily involved, and seemed to have tried to put his style into the game, which is why it kinda looks like WoW, because WoW and warcraft 3 look like 90's comic books come to life, to the point of almost ripping off joe mad's art style, which is why darksiders looks so much like WoW.
Black-Wind
Member
This.
people try to tell me that fighting isn't what's important in a game like Skyrim when I comment on how boring the combat is but really ... it IS ultimately a VERY important part of the game and if that's boring then a whole chunk of the game just falls flat.
That makes perfect sense considering I've hated every single thing I've ever seen that had the Todd McFarlane name on it.
I found myself loving the art and atmosphere in general. The use of color is excellent and the world just breathes. Kind of like a high fantasy comic come to life. The music reflects this as well and all of it together had me soaked in an atmosphere that I felt had a vibe all it's own.
I played this for a few minutes. I heard good things from Game Informer about it and I thought it looked nice. The story didn't catch me and I didn't follow it really, but it did look good for the most part. I set up a character and started playing. As soon as I moved I hated it. The movement and stuff is too loose and moving the camera around is horrible. Pair this with a seemingly generic game and it caused me to dislike it. I deleted it already.
Would also like some more HUD options, too (scalable, fading out when inactive, etc).
Confidence Man
Member
He won't be winning any awards for those running and sprinting animations. It's like Morrowind running implanted in this game.
Evolved1
make sure the pudding isn't too soggy but that just ruins everything
No... to the bolded. Replay Morrowind please. Be fair.
The female running animation is pretty good. Once they have some armor on.
The sprint is rather awful (and completely useless) but I've seen a lot worse in the genre. Sneaking animation is also kinda shitty.
But the regular walk/run cycle is very decent (only played female so far) especially for the genre.
And NPC animation is very good. You want to see bad NPC's... look no further than Bethesda.
I'd rate this game a solid B for overall animation. There are times when it's A-tier and other times when it seems like something out of a budget-ware game. So, B overall.
Yeah no. Amalur's animations are in whole a different league compared to Skyrim's/ES'. Skyrim's animations are one of the worst this gen.
Yup, same here and also using an ATI card. Hope this isnt in the final build because everything else runs fine
TetraxShards
Member
Played the Xbox version. I thought it was very good overall. I like the combat much more than in Skyrim. Can't decide whether to buy now or wait until my new PC build.
Yes I commented about that on my post about the demo. I have a nvidia card and my framerate was not dipping under 60, it seems to be an in game thing. I don't know what feeling they're trying to give off by doing that but after a while of breaking things it gets really annoying.
Wait...why is the sprint useless? It let's you run faster, which is what a sprint does, right?
I can see where you're coming from, but while I'd say Kingdoms combat is far more fun, overall I still prefer the overall gameplay aspects of an Elder Scrolls game. I actually enjoy the slower pace traveling around and not having groups of enemies thrown at me all the time.
Still, I can see this game really pushing Bethesda to improve on their combat mechanics cuz this coming out after people are dying down with Skyrim a bit, so the comparison will be more like a back-to-back thing and will be more apparent.
There's definitely going to be room for both styles of game, either way.
This.
Downloaded the game last night on PC, hoping for a more involving Skyrim-esque game and what I got was something like a weak, cheesy Fable game. Extremely disappointed in KoA.
-UI is bad, bad, bad. Unresponsive and works terribly with the mouse. Switching out gear takes forever. Have to go through 3(!!) tabs just to equip a damn weapon.
-Controls in general are pretty poor for Keyboard and Mouse. Moving around feels awful and floaty, and it feels like your hero moves too quickly (the animation doesn't seem to match up with the speed). Camera is awful.
-Combat consisted of mashing left click to slowly whittle down an enemy, hit space bar to dodge, and then repeat. Maybe throw in a storm bolt or weapon swap in there if you're feeling bored. Combat is not engaging. The backstab animations are nice though.
-Talking to people is annoying. If I'm skipping through all the dialogue in an RPG then something is very, very wrong. Cutscenes are awful, do away with them.
-Quests are boring and I couldn't care less for them or the people involving them.
-Ugly graphics, art, and animations that look like a badly made WoW clone.
Would only buy this game if it was on sale for $5 on Steam.
ii Stryker
Banned
The vibe I got while playing the Amalur demo was that this was the Fable that Peter Molyneux promised us but never delivered.
A vibe all its own? C'mon now. The world feels almost copy/pasted from a Fable game. Its appealing in its own right, but not terribly unique by a long shot.
There really wasn't much to explore in the demo. As for how awesome things are, things tend to 'seem' quite awesome when you're just starting out. I got the same feeling from Skyrim. The real test will be how unique and awesome everything you find still is after playing for a hundred hours, ya know?
SpaceBridge
Member
Played the demo on PS3. I was so psyched for this, but now Im not. I still like the art design, and overall look of the world.
But man on man, the bugs: sound issues during conversations, slight animation stalls when hitting enemies and boxes, texture pop in, and the worst? A really trippy moment when the ground turned into the sky, or when weird (but huge) graphical triangular lines appeared between enemies. So odd.
This was day 1, but Im gonna wait a few months or at least GAF impressions.
But man on man, the bugs: sound issues during conversations, slight animation stalls when hitting enemies and boxes, texture pop in, and the worst? A really trippy moment when the ground turned into the sky, or when weird (but huge) graphical triangular lines appeared between enemies. So odd.
This was day 1, but Im gonna wait a few months or at least GAF impressions.
Maleficence
Member
Is there any news on a camera fix in the full game? I'd love to know cause if they fixed that I would be much more inclined to buy it.
StevePharma
Member
Nice demo, but not great. Good at best for me. Played on PC and PS3. Camera control on both version is horrible, can't look past that. Turned me off right from the start. I also didn't have sound on PS3. Lol. Great demo guys,probably made me less excited to buy your product. I can understand now why a demo can hurt your product.
The used gameplay systems are things I like in RPGs, basically a nice mix of everything. Story seems uninspired and generic, as does the artstyle and dialogue. I'm just not feeling it yet.
I will buy the full game but probably not day 1.
The used gameplay systems are things I like in RPGs, basically a nice mix of everything. Story seems uninspired and generic, as does the artstyle and dialogue. I'm just not feeling it yet.
I will buy the full game but probably not day 1.
Neuromancer
Member
I think there's something to be said for fantasy games not having to reinvent the wheel every time, art design wise.
Angelus Errare
Banned
The fuck?!
MotionBlue
Member
I wasn't sure what to expect going into the demo. I'm neutral towards McFarlane, and a fan of Salvatore.
Gameplay reminds me of Fable and Darksiders, I'm certainly interested in it now. Won't be a day one purchase, but if the story turns out to be of quality I will buy it.
Gameplay reminds me of Fable and Darksiders, I'm certainly interested in it now. Won't be a day one purchase, but if the story turns out to be of quality I will buy it.
evilromero
Member
Playing this demo made me appreciate the focus of Skyward Sword. I just didn't feel the magic in this one. Maybe the retail release will change all that and I'll hear nothing but rave reviews but right now nothing.
British Monsoon
Member
Seems exactly like the loot whore sort of game I love, regardless of the quality (hell, I enjoyed Dungeon Siege III more than enough) - although, that being said there were some pretty glaring flaws in the demo, weak animations, ugly textures, generic art and the sound cues kept screwing up with the music often cutting out seconds after walking into an area. I'm definitely interested, but I may wait until it's dropped in price a bit.
I didn't hate the demo, but I didn't find it all that amazing either. It just felt a bit average and lacking polish. It took a lot of ideas from other games, but didn't really take the time to refine on those mechanics.
I still somewhat want to get it, but it went from being a day one to I'll wait for the price to drop a bit.
I still somewhat want to get it, but it went from being a day one to I'll wait for the price to drop a bit.
Yu Narukami
Member
How am I supposed to see how strong I am if there is no statistics menu with all the attributes?
Opinions vary, friend. Yeah, it is yet another high fantasy setting, but I still felt like it had it's own character within that sort of setting. Some will feel it and others won't. That's the way it goes.
Do you have to play through the Well of Souls bit every time you play the demo? I'd like to skip ahead to the 45min free play part because that was so much better.
I'm definitely intrigued. The game seems like the full product will be awesome. I wish Fable had been closer to this game in terms of design.
I'm definitely intrigued. The game seems like the full product will be awesome. I wish Fable had been closer to this game in terms of design.
thetrin
Hail, peons, for I have come as ambassador from the great and bountiful Blueberry Butt Explosion
The Selkie Veil? It's part of a quest.
Some seem to want each new IP to reinvent the wheel, but I was not expecting this game to. I just wanted an addictive and fun action RPG in a beautiful and magical setting. That is what I got, so I can't complain.
Sure, but its still nice to have some uniqueness, especially in a game that could potentially rival the giant of open-world RPG's.
And thats the biggest problem I see with Kingdoms so far: it does most everything good, but nothing especially great. Not necessarily an insult to the game, but there's more potential there if they get a bit more ambitious with things instead of just taking things from different genres and games and putting them together and calling it a day.
Neuromancer
Member
Seems to me you have to start over from the beginning every time.
There are a lot of unique hand-placed items. That is one of them.
No, if you got up to the point where the 45 minute timer started, you can choose to skip ahead from the main menu beyond the escape portion.
Neuromancer
Member
Oh that's good.
RPGCrazied
Member
Played the PS3 demo. Very impressed. Until my sound effects stopped working. Trying to talk to any NPC the text like fast forwards, to impossible to read. Outside the tower it looks great, until you start moving. Noticing a lot of pop in. Oh well. Least there is no screen tearing, and the framerate looks pretty smooth.
Thank goodness. That's probably the smartest demo implementation I've ever seen.
Looking forward to actually using the full 45 minutes soon.