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Kingdoms of Amalur demo impressions thread [Up On 360/Origin/Steam/U.S. PSN]

Anyone played the PS3 version want to fill me in on how the game looks for them? I just played the PS3 demo and the resolution was god-fucking-awful. Jaggies... jaggies everywhere, oh the horror.

So I downloaded the 360 demo to see if it was as bad, and it wasn't even close. It was actually, dare I say, good, as far as modern console games displaying in sub-HD resolutions go, but it was ten times better than the PS3 version.

Trouble is the PS3 controller would be so much better for this sort of game, and I'd prefer to get it on that platform.

So if anyone can confirm they're having the same resolution issues as I am on the PS3 version, i'd appreciate it. I just got a new TV and I've noticed some awful looking PS3 games on it, mainly Saint's Row 3 and Batman: Arkham City, and in all of those games it's always the horrendous jaggies, so maybe something is going on between my PS3 and my new TV. PS3 is set to 1080p and the TV confirms it's outputting in that resolution, so I'm baffled, and very annoyed at all the fucking jaggies. Console gaming blows.
 
if the game turns out to have anything resembling 'heart', or an interesting main storyline (unlike, say, skyrim), i'll eventually check it out. the demo's fine, but the prospect of yet another elf/dwarf/orc wrpg excites me about as much as yet another spiky-haired/emo jrpg does others - iow, not a whole lot :) ...

i'll also add that, were it not for the curt schilling connection, i probably wouldn't've even tried the demo :) ...
 
I liked the game and will be picking it up but I had issues with the sound but otherwise it plays like a simplified GoW or Onimusha reminded me of Darksiders. Reminds me I have to pick that up as well
 
So apprently theft is chance based, I was messing around with a rogue build and stole some loot from the chest in the alchemy shop, no one was in the room and the only person in the building was the shop owner. I steal a hood from the chest and guards are on me in a few seconds. I did notice a % next to the items so it appears that it's based on your stealth skill on wether or not your caught stealing.

That's odd. When I had to steal something from the Alchemy Shop, the guard was in the next room. He couldn't exactly see me, but he knew I was in the room. In stealth mode, the eye above his head was half full, and my chance of stealing from the desk was about 14%.
So, I waited a bit, and watched as the guard walked up the stairs, and the eye above his head was completely empty. Checked the desk again, and my chance to steal was 100%.
That is a pretty big jump in percentage for the eye going from half full to empty.

So, it appears to me that as long as no one can see you, or as long as they are unaware of your presence, you can steal from chests, desks, and bookshelves no problem.

I recall another poster saying he tried to steal from the same area, and he checked around and all eyes were empty, but he still had a low chance to steal. So, perhaps there's a glitch in the demo concerning theft percentage? Or maybe it has to do with destinies.

In any case, I think I'll load up the demo again and experiment with this some more.
I did steal from several different desks and such this way, and never got caught once.
 
Also LOL
at the Ghost gnome when killing him before the bear. got a kick out of that one.

Yeah, I loved that, and I just tried something similar with the girl standing in the middle of the pillars. She's the one that tells you to kill elk to summon a boss. Unfortunately if she dies first the quest is stopped immediately. Oh well. I was trying to kite a bear to her but was amused to find that harpooning a bear pulls you to him instead of vice versa. Nice touch.

Anyone played the PS3 version want to fill me in on how the game looks for them? I just played the PS3 demo and the resolution was god-fucking-awful. Jaggies... jaggies everywhere, oh the horror.

So I downloaded the 360 demo to see if it was as bad, and it wasn't even close. It was actually, dare I say, good, as far as modern console games displaying in sub-HD resolutions go, but it was ten times better than the PS3 version.

Trouble is the PS3 controller would be so much better for this sort of game, and I'd prefer to get it on that platform.

Something must be wrong with your PS3 setup. The PS3 version is visually nicer to me than the 360 version, the big difference though that led me to pre-ordering the 360 version is that the framerate on the PS3 demo isn't capped, which means lots and lots of horrible framerate drops. The other thing that has me favoring the 360 version is the controller. The controls on the PS3 version feel like I'm skating around, whereas I have a better feeling of weight with the 360 demo, but that's probably just because the 360's sticks have more tension. I'm not a fan of how loose the dualshocks analogs are.
 
I'm dling the 360 version right now, played the PS3 version a bit already though.

idk if anyone else felt this way in the PS3 demo, but I felt like the game got sluggish whenever I was trying to break destructible things like boxes, etc in close environments when the camera was zoomed in. Don't know if that's just the game, or if it's a problem on the PS3 version.
 
Played the demo through one more time, yet I still can't get the second Mass Effect 3 unlock. :/

http://social.bioware.com/user_entitlements.php

Only Reckoner-Knight is listed there. I've played through the demo to its end (after the 45 minutes) and watched the end trailer too. Also clicked all the links at the end too. How do I get the second piece of ME3 DLC?

hm... maybe you have to complete a certain amount of quests? My time ran out like 5 seconds after I completed my 7th quest. *shrug*
 
I'm dling the 360 version right now, played the PS3 version a bit already though.

idk if anyone else felt this way in the PS3 demo, but I felt like the game got sluggish whenever I was trying to break destructible things like boxes, etc in close environments when the camera was zoomed in. Don't know if that's just the game, or if it's a problem on the PS3 version.

I think that's the game. I've seen it in the 360 version, PS3 version, and I've seen PC users claim the same thing happens there. The biggest difference you'll notice between 360 and PS3 is that especially indoors the PS3 version jumps up to about 60FPS but can rarely stay there, so what you end up with is a lot of stutter-stepping. It's really annoying.
 
Well, I did a quick test with the theft from desks and chests. Again, I had no problem stealing from anywhere. This time I chose a human brawler, decked out in heavy armour. Stole from the alchemy shop, and the inn. Each time I just waited until all eyes in the building were empty, and the theft percentage was at 100%. While eyes were partly filled, it was around 40%. So, it seems as long as no one is aware of your presence, you can steal with impunity.


I think that's the game. I've seen it in the 360 version, PS3 version, and I've seen PC users claim the same thing happens there. The biggest difference you'll notice between 360 and PS3 is that especially indoors the PS3 version jumps up to about 60FPS but can rarely stay there, so what you end up with is a lot of stutter-stepping. It's really annoying.

Agreed, it is pretty jarring. They really ought to lock it in at 30FPS, as others have said.
Even between 30-40 would be better, than such a drastic jump to 60.
 
Something must be wrong with your PS3 setup. The PS3 version is visually nicer to me than the 360 version, the big difference though that led me to pre-ordering the 360 version is that the framerate on the PS3 demo isn't capped, which means lots and lots of horrible framerate drops. The other thing that has me favoring the 360 version is the controller. The controls on the PS3 version feel like I'm skating around, whereas I have a better feeling of weight with the 360 demo, but that's probably just because the 360's sticks have more tension. I'm not a fan of how loose the dualshocks analogs are.

I have no idea what it could be, I mean like I said- my PS3 is set to 1080p, and according to my TV's info while running the games, it's outputting at 1080p as well. What could the issue even possibly be? Bad HDMI cable?

If anyone has any idea why my PS3 appears to be running things at such low resolution, I'd love some help on the matter. I just upgraded my tv from a Panasonic 42-inch plasma I bought in 2008 to an LG 50-inch plasma I bought about three weeks ago. They're both 1080p TV's, and I thought initially the reason I was having these issues was the jump from 42-inch to 50-inch was simply making things like jaggies more pronounced, but it's not as apparent in some games, like Resistance 3, and it's god awful in others, like Arkham City, Saint's Row 3, Space Marine, and the Amalur demo. By comparison, I don't have any jaggie issues on my 360, beyond what I've already noticed in games before.

I'd make a thread on the matter, but I'm still a junior member. How many damn posts do I need to make before I get upgraded ;_;
 
Enjoyed the demo more than I thought I would. Still not sure if I should get it, my backlog is so large but on the other hand it's good to encourage new IPs :/

Anyone else got a completely black screen with post processing on?
 
I have no idea what it could be, I mean like I said- my PS3 is set to 1080p, and according to my TV's info while running the games, it's outputting at 1080p as well. What could the issue even possibly be? Bad HDMI cable?

If anyone has any idea why my PS3 appears to be running things at such low resolution

Any chance that you have game mode (removes all image processing to alleviate lag) on for the PS3's TV input and not for the 360? To be honest, both games look low-res to me on PS3 and 360, but neither are a jaggy mess. Other than the framerate differences, they look pretty much the same to me.
 
Just did a full run of the 360 demo.

Seemed like a decent game, but perhaps low B tier. I can't really pick it apart and say what I didn't like, but at the same time there's really nothing here that jumps out at me as being particularly amazing. It screams "competant".
 
Enjoyed the demo more than I thought I would. Still not sure if I should get it, my backlog is so large but on the other hand it's good to encourage new IPs :/

Anyone else got a completely black screen with post processing on?



Yep, thought it was part of the intro at first.

(ATI 4870)
 
So what's the MMO talk... is this going to be an MMO at some point?
 
So what's the MMO talk... is this going to be an MMO at some point?

Curt and 38 studios are making a MMO based on amalur, but they randomly bought big huge games who were making a open world RPG for THQ but couldn't get funding, and 38 turned the RPG into a amular game to promote the MMO.

However they have plans to keep BHG making single player only RPG's.
 
At this point I'm pretty optimistic that my main issues from the Demo have been resolved in the retail release (or retail release + first patch), but I am having a hard time justifying the full $60 price tag. But if 38Games can work out the camera issues and provide the PC version with options that allow us to get better use out of our hardware it'll be an easy day one (or soon thereafter) pick up.
 
Curt and 38 studios are making a MMO based on amalur, but they randomly bought big huge games who were making a open world RPG for THQ but couldn't get funding, and 38 turned the RPG into a amular game to promote the MMO.

However they have plans to keep BHG making single player only RPG's.

So this game isn't foreshadowing the gameplay style of the MMO? I was hoping an MMO would eventually come along that actually had fun gameplay for once...
 
Just finished the steam demo. Liked it a lot. So nice to see some color in a game these days! Camera & UI didn't bother me. Loved the intro to the different fighting mechanics. Can see myself going full on mage with a staff. Can't wait to play more!
 
So what's the MMO talk... is this going to be an MMO at some point?

Curt is an MMORPG and high fantasy guy. When he built 38 Studios, it was with the intent to build an IP that could house an MMORPG, then grow it to other genres. The MMORPG, currently known as "Project Copernicus" has been in development for many years, and was in place before 38 acquired BHG. They acquired BHG after the publisher pulled out on the deal BHG had for an RPG, and 38 Studios rolled them into the mix to take a similar engine and craft Reckoning.

We will be hearing about Copernicus in the near future. They've ramped up http://www.amalur.com with a whole lot of lore surrounding the Amalur universe. You can see a timeline there that describes the universe's history. Reckoning takes place in the Age of Arcana, while Copernicus takes place many years later during the Age of Heroes.
 
So this game isn't foreshadowing the gameplay style of the MMO? I was hoping an MMO would eventually come along that actually had fun gameplay for once...

No, it does not appear so. They don't believe the technology exists to make that feasible. The MMORPG is a class based game, that we know, and it will have an art style that is different from Reckoning.
 
Curt and 38 studios are making a MMO based on amalur, but they randomly bought big huge games who were making a open world RPG for THQ but couldn't get funding, and 38 turned the RPG into a amular game to promote the MMO.

However they have plans to keep BHG making single player only RPG's.

This is lovely. I enjoyed the demo so I'm glad 38 bought BHG and let the game live on in a sense.

Edit: What's lovely is that BHG's gonna make more single player RPG's.
 
Any chance that you have game mode (removes all image processing to alleviate lag) on for the PS3's TV input and not for the 360? To be honest, both games look low-res to me on PS3 and 360, but neither are a jaggy mess. Other than the framerate differences, they look pretty much the same to me.

Are you talking about a TV setting? If so, my TV's settings under "sport," "game," "cinematic," etc. are all purely for brightness/contrast settings, and at that, my TV is set to the "sport" preset. I'm not sure what other settings would entail a game mode on my TV, I've never even heard of such a thing. TV's can turn off post-processing in console software?
 
So I caved in and downloaded the demo again. I just wanted see to the race bonuses and which class I should play as. I wasn't gonna play it but of course I got hooked in and started exploring. Now I know which race and class I'll pick when the game releases: Female finesse dokalfar. Now I'm off to delete demo, again.
 
Just played a bit of the demo on PC with a 360 pad. I love open world, I love Elder Scrolls, but I'm not sure about this. It feels... cheap. Like any of a thousand Korean action MMORPGS, even though it's single player. The art style really doesn't do the game any favors in my mind. Everything form the graphics to the combat is fine, but nothing is outstanding. The designs are mundane, the little lore and dialogue I had the patience to read seemed as snooze-worthy as any bit of WoW quest text, and nothing was really that interesting. I may pick this up in a future Steam sale, but on launch it's a definite pass.
 
Any idea if movement keys will be able to be re-mapped on 360 version?

Jarring and opposite of Skyrim controls. Not a deal breaker though.
 
Finally played the demo myself. I gotta say, while the camera is far from great, it certainly isn't "terrible" or "unplayable" as it's been pegged. It just needs a few tweaks here and there (being able to zoom out a bit being the biggest issue).

I liked the combat too, but the buttons aren't very responsive. There's a bit of sluggish delay between switching from scepter to staff, in particular.

I'll be playing this for sure, but as it stands, I can wait until the sales after a month or two.

EDIT: Also wish they voice-narrated the main character. So lifeless without it. :(
 
I'm very close to picking this up but at $60 bucks....

Unless they fix the camera I'll wait till a sale
or cave due to TF2 items.
 
Played the demo this morning. Seemed like a bit of a mess - the game couldn't make up its mind on what kind of tone it wanted.

Lore seemed serious, characters seemed slightly comical, art seemed jumbled. Like a hodgepoge of western RPG, JRPG, and WoW. At one point (maybe it was the camera or something in the story) I got a Too Human vibe.

Uninstalled it after I confirmed I got the ME3 goods.
 
Played it on ps3. Game is very sloppy technically. Sound effects completely cutting out. Choppy/inconsistent framerate. Just 'meh' graphics overall.
And I was running around without a head for the first 2 minutes lol

My character was hot though (especially dat ass).

Game just seemed kinda generic overall. Not bad, but nothing I can get excited about.
 
Enjoyed the demo more than I thought I would. Still not sure if I should get it, my backlog is so large but on the other hand it's good to encourage new IPs :/

Anyone else got a completely black screen with post processing on?

I am in exactly the same boat. Really enjoyed the Demo but I have too much stuff left to play through.

I also get the black screen with post processing on.
 
Yeah... I liked the CC in this game, even though it was a bit limited. I'd say, for example, even through there aren't a ton of options, most of them are viable. Like most of the hairstyles are actually pretty good. That never happens with CC's. Omg, just never.

I was able to make a pretty attractive chick in each race... so that's something. They get some props from me on the CC. I swear most other devs must spend about 5 seconds designing their CC options like hair and whatnot. Shameful.
 
After playing the demo two more times, my biggest concern is the world itself. I really hope there are more interesting places to explore and visit then whats in the demo.

Also really hope there is a big desert type area, those are always my favorite.
 
After playing the demo two more times, my biggest concern is the world itself. I really hope there are more interesting places to explore and visit then whats in the demo.

Also really hope there is a big desert type area, those are always my favorite.

Check at the world map it looks that it is of a considerable size.

As for my feedback on the demo on PC I can say that I am completely enamored by this game. It certainly gives me the same feeling I had when I first started playing WoW with the sense of discovering a new world.

I choose a mage/stealthy build and the combat felt great. Certainly far better than what I am used to in this sort of games. Really deep (and the demo only unveiled a small part of it, I checked the moves list), and the ability to change on the fly the "class" of your character with just a weapon/armor change is great. The upgrade trees seemed promising too.

The negatives now. It felt better tailored to controller play. I have a controller with my PC but for someone that is going for the PC version keep that in mind. The camera felt a bit weird at times, mostly when using a ranged weapon (a scepter in my case) but that could be due to the auto targeting system. I wasn't able to understand if there's a way to choose the target with ranged weapons or if there's only the automatic targeting system. And finally some performance problems in audio with desyncs and graphic pop in of textures and some glitches. Also had 2 freezes (3 seconds) just before fights and the demo ended with a crash (maybe intended? How does the demo ends for you guys?).

All in all, I want to play this game. It hits all the right notes for me. I just need to be certain before buying that the audio/graphic problems are just a bad demo build.
 
Anyone played the PS3 version want to fill me in on how the game looks for them? I just played the PS3 demo and the resolution was god-fucking-awful. Jaggies... jaggies everywhere, oh the horror.

So I downloaded the 360 demo to see if it was as bad, and it wasn't even close. It was actually, dare I say, good, as far as modern console games displaying in sub-HD resolutions go, but it was ten times better than the PS3 version.

Trouble is the PS3 controller would be so much better for this sort of game, and I'd prefer to get it on that platform.

So if anyone can confirm they're having the same resolution issues as I am on the PS3 version, i'd appreciate it. I just got a new TV and I've noticed some awful looking PS3 games on it, mainly Saint's Row 3 and Batman: Arkham City, and in all of those games it's always the horrendous jaggies, so maybe something is going on between my PS3 and my new TV. PS3 is set to 1080p and the TV confirms it's outputting in that resolution, so I'm baffled, and very annoyed at all the fucking jaggies. Console gaming blows.

Turn down your TV's sharpness setting to 0.

I played the PS3 version and noticed no jaggies at all.
 
So I caved in and downloaded the demo again. I just wanted see to the race bonuses and which class I should play as. I wasn't gonna play it but of course I got hooked in and started exploring. Now I know which race and class I'll pick when the game releases: Female finesse dokalfar. Now I'm off to delete demo, again.

heh, okay be honest guys, how many of you actually play as male character in this game? come on, let it out. since there doesn't seem to be any romance aspect in the game, and if I'm playing a game for 100 hours, I'd rather see appealing female character than male character, so I make mine female dokalfar. just wondering if I'm the only one who thinks like that. ;-)
 
Enjoyed the demo more than I thought I would. Still not sure if I should get it, my backlog is so large but on the other hand it's good to encourage new IPs :/

Anyone else got a completely black screen with post processing on?

Are you talking about a TV setting? If so, my TV's settings under "sport," "game," "cinematic," etc. are all purely for brightness/contrast settings, and at that, my TV is set to the "sport" preset. I'm not sure what other settings would entail a game mode on my TV, I've never even heard of such a thing. TV's can turn off post-processing in console software?

Game mode is a specific setting on most newer TVs to turn off any processing that can affect the refresh rate of your screen (inducing lag).
 
heh, okay be honest guys, how many of you actually play as male character in this game? come on, let it out. since there doesn't seem to be any romance aspect in the game, and if I'm playing a game for 100 hours, I'd rather see appealing female character than male character, so I make mine female dokalfar. just wondering if I'm the only one who thinks like that. ;-)

I did the same thing, Dark Elf female character. In Skyrim, a male protagonist just felt right, whereas here, a female character fits better, in my own personal opinion. Plus, you know, dat ass.
 
If I'm staring at the ass of a character for 100 or so hours, I'm going female. The odd exception being Mass Effect, where I just couldn't stand the fem-shep voice.
 
Demo was meh. Won't be buying this.
Cons
-framerate drops
-way too linear
-easy/boring
-graphics are also meh
-NPCs are uninspiring and downright dull
-Story is uninteresting.
 
Been playing the demo some more...it's really growing on me now. You guys got any plans for builds? I honestly can't decide what to do...they're all so damn fun. I'm leaning towards mage/rogue hybrid class with faeblades and chakram combo. But damn, the warrior class is mighty badass too with that scorpion move, quake magic, and greatswords. Decisions, decisions.
 
Planning all finesse for the first play through. But I'll tell you, after getting some chakrams, I can see some real value in a Finesse/Sorcery build so that you can get the weapon bonuses for those. They could be a devastating secondary weapon.
 
Been playing the demo some more...it's really growing on me now. You guys got any plans for builds? I honestly can't decide what to do...they're all so damn fun. I'm leaning towards mage/rogue hybrid class with faeblades and chakram combo. But damn, the warrior class is mighty badass too with that scorpion move, quake magic, and greatswords. Decisions, decisions.

I'm pretty torn, myself. That's what great here, though, you're not stuck with whichever build you choose. The ability to change destinies, and respec your character is great. I'm usually iffy about the option to respec, but I think it's a great idea here. It definitely fits with the theme of not being tied down by fate.

I think I'll start off as a mage/rogue, as well. I wanted to do so in Skyrim, but magic was completely nerfed in that game. Glad to hear it's pretty badass here. (I sure hope it is, considering it's the Age of Arcana!)
 
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