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[Deleted member 17706]

Not yet can't post the OT until 7 days before release which is the 7 its pretty much done though, also Skyrim is not high fantasy. It's low fantasy.

No. It would most definitely be classified as high fantasy. It's a completely made up world with wacky races, crazy magic, dragons and all manner of beasts, etc. It might be gritty, but that doesn't mean it isn't high fantasy.

 

[burgerdog]

The UK Steam store has it for ~45$. If you could find someone to gift it from there, it would be under the price threshold you're looking for.

Thank you. I have a friend in the UK, game is as good as bought.

 

[Hannar]

I wouldn't judge the "soul" of the game based on the small size of the initial village or the summer court where the Fae are located. There are definitely larger cities in the game. And if you just slow down and watch some of the little things that they've added to the game to add that lifelike feel, it's something to appreciate -- boggarts chasing fireflies, bandits doing pushups and situps when no one is around, and there's even one location where an NPC is "relieving themselves" on one of the lorestones that you're tracking down. All of the things that bring life to a modern RPG are present.

 

[Smokey]

Definitely getting this on PC. I was running it locked at 120fps (have a 120hz monitor) and this in 3D is going to be so good.

So colorful

 

[Snapshot King]

Something that really struck me, on 360 at least, is that the framerate actually STAYED locked. The only time I got a single hitch is when it dropped down to about 25fps when I walked between some burning spiderwebs. Im so used to openworld games, Skyrim included, janking all over the place depending what was happening, but this one it felt real, real smooth. It's a nice change.

 

[daedalius]

So many artistically informed opinions, there are a lot of artists in this thread.

I mean, there must be, right?

amalur is, in my opinion. I think they did try to play safe when designing the scenario/universe. Its like a mish-mash of fable/wow/generic f2p korean mmo and other rpgs. it simply has no own soul. Well, thats just like my opinion.

Fable/WoW and Korean MMO styles couldn't be more different.

Skyrim is also low fantasy, as it has a very rugged/rough vibe to just about everything excluding glass armor(which I would classify as high fantasy).

 

[NullPointer]

So many artistically informed opinions, there are a lot of artists in this thread.

Its a thread dedicated to impressions of the game demo. You don't need a degree to feel something looks "samey" or soulless or to justify your experience. Its all in the eye of the beholder.

 

[Baconsammy]

I wouldn't judge the "soul" of the game based on the small size of the initial village or the summer court where the Fae are located. There are definitely larger cities in the game. And if you just slow down and watch some of the little things that they've added to the game to add that lifelike feel, it's something to appreciate -- boggarts chasing fireflies, bandits doing pushups and situps when no one is around, and there's even one location where an NPC is "relieving themselves" on one of the lorestones that you're tracking down. All of the things that bring life to a modern RPG are present.

I love stealthing around and coming upon those things. Bears rolling around on their backs, bears sleeping, bears mauling brownies and other brownies attempting to fight him off. The way wolves in packs have one member circle the group while the others eat a corpse. That's not the stuff you find in a soulless game.

 

[daedalius]

Its a thread dedicated to impressions of the game demo. You don't need a degree to feel something looks "samey" or soulless or to justify your experience. Its all in the eye of the beholder.

Who the hell said anything about a degree?

You don't need a degree to tell the stylistic difference between fable/wow and korean MMOs; which is mostly what I was pointing out. Otherwise, I think some of the opinions in here are ill-informed.

That said, Amalur does look quite a bit like WoW; but that isn't necessarily a bad thing in my opinion. Quantifying a 'soul' in said art is quite a different discussion.

 

[shaowebb]

Played the demo yet again and those machine gun sceptres are just as awesome as everyone says and great to combo with things. The deal is that they are really dangerous to play with in large crowds. Went for a run (trying to get places on a timed demo you know) and had a crowd on me. I tried to sceptre when I noticed I wasn't gonna get away, and they circled the hell outta me. Took a lot of rolling around to try to deal with it and it didn't always play out for the best with me. I'm thinking a sword would play best on main with sceptre on sub so I can sweep heavily at crowds, roll out, and fire at them if I can get enough to one side of me. The shadow blade stunning helped slow them down enough to setup stuff like this via daggers too though when I played so you'll have to check how sword/sceptre combos up yourself. I can state though that daggers and sceptre go well together. Daggers push you forward a lot with attacks and punch holes as you attack through crowds. When your foe drops you're generally a bit out of the pack and can hold them at bay with daggers long enough to either lightning bolt them or roll in to pick off a straggler from the side.

I can tell combat is gonna get a lot more tactical as enemy amounts/levels increase during this game. Shield play and countering will likely become bigger for me at that point. Game keeps delivering and its just the demo. Bring on the release!

 

[ReaperXL7]

No. It would most definitely be classified as high fantasy. It's a completely made up world with wacky races, crazy magic, dragons and all manner of beasts, etc. It might be gritty, but that doesn't mean it isn't high fantasy.

Well todd howard would disagree with you as would most fantasy authors and artists. Just. Because it has a few elements of high fantasy does not make it high fantasy. Low fantasy is gritty, dirty, less fantastical overall, high fantasy is usually clean, stylized, colorful, and the nature of the world is magical in general, which Amalur leans into much more. The amount of detail in the would of reckoning is what gives it its "soul" in my opinion many examples have already been given. The way the wildlife, creatures people behave, the vibrant lush and colorful world, the unique handcraftedd dungeons, lots of great stuff here.

However it won't be for everyone, as it probably should not be as everyone has different tastes.

 

[Ledsen]

amalur is, in my opinion. I think they did try to play safe when designing the scenario/universe. Its like a mish-mash of fable/wow/generic f2p korean mmo and other rpgs. it simply has no own soul. Well, thats just like my opinion.

Thanks for putting words to my thoughts. It really looks like random korean mmorpg #694 and it's actually putting me off wanting to play the full game.

 

[Astra]

Well todd howard would disagree with you as would most fantasy authors and artists. Just. Because it has a few elements of high fantasy does not make it high fantasy. Low fantasy is gritty, dirty, less fantastical overall, high fantasy is usually clean, stylized, colorful, and the nature of the world is magical in general, which Amalur leans into much more. The amount of detail in the would of reckoning is what gives it its "soul" in my opinion many examples have already been given. The way the wildlife, creatures people behave, the vibrant lush and colorful world, the unique handcraftedd dungeons, lots of great stuff here.

However it won't be for everyone, as it probably should not be as everyone has different tastes.

Skyrim is, by definition, high fantasy. It's set in a completely different world than our own, populated by its own unique races, and governed by a different set of rules than our own world. Sure it's gritty looking, but how it looks doesn't make it high or low fantasy. Honestly, how would you classify books using that logic? A Song of Ice and Fire, for example, is described as a gritty, dirty world, and that's considered a high fantasy series.

Todd Howard can disagree all he wants, but Skyrim (The Elder Scrolls in general) is still High Fantasy.

That aside, I don't think Amalur looks soulless at all. The world looks great, especially when looking at screenshots from later area in the game. It's pretty diverse in it's locales, and I love the vibrant colour of the world.
I have no doubt I'll be completely absorbed in the world when I dive into it.

Probably the fact that the two towns we can visit (even the great mysterious Fae place) consist of 3 buildings and 10 people standing/sitting and doing jack shit.

BUT. It's a first outing in one of the HARDEST genres to nail. I'm willing to meet them halfway here.

I always find this a little offputting in games, but I understand why it has to be done. Still, that first village is a little TOO sparse. Where do all these people live? Probably at the inn, I guess.
They could make it look a little more populated by putting several houses around the village you couldn't enter. I don't need to enter every single house. (I'm sure people would complain about not being able to enter them)
They could do like Skyrim, and have several NPCs who don't engage in active conversation, but rather say random lines when you talk to them.

Still, like you said, it is a first outing, and I'm always willing to look past it. (Unless it's too out of hand, of course.)

 

[Castor Krieg]

So many artistically informed opinions, there are a lot of artists in this thread.

I mean, there must be, right?

News flash for you: People are discussing art. They have a right to do so.

Fable/WoW and Korean MMO styles couldn't be more different.

Skyrim is also low fantasy, as it has a very rugged/rough vibe to just about everything excluding glass armor(which I would classify as high fantasy).

Actually, it looks very WoW like for me as well.

Also, Skyrim is high fantasy - stop doing high fantasy = clean colors, that's not how it works.

Low fantasy is gritty, dirty, less fantastical overall, high fantasy is usually clean, stylized, colorful, and the nature of the world is magical in general, which Amalur leans into much more.

Stop comparing everything to LotR definition of fantasy. I love the book, but the genre moved on in 50 years.

 

[goober]

So, played around some more with the demo on my laptop.

Is it capped at 60 fps? Anyway, I get around 40+ when actually playing/fighting.

Loving the gameplay so far, might check out Fable after all the comparisons.

edit: wondering if 40 fps is normal on a laptop. i believe everything is on high with post-processing off.

 

[graywolf323]

really enjoyed the demo

this just became a day one buy for me (assuming I get my tax return in time...)

 

[soultron]

Thanks for putting words to my thoughts. It really looks like random korean mmorpg #694 and it's actually putting me off wanting to play the full game.

As someone who doesn't play MMOs, this game is a treat.

 

[sneakypete]

Same here. Saw a buddy playing it on Live and gave it a try.. ended up making 3 diff characters. I just happen to have a $45 gift card to BestBuy so I'm gonna see if they won't price match Toys'r'us. If not I'll pay the difference anyway, demo left me very intrigued.

 

[soultron]

I was always hyped for this game, but this demo changed my "day 1" posts to an actual pre-order. Good move on 38/BHG's part.

I cannot applaud them enough for putting together a good demo too. The 45-minute freeplay is amazing. If they'd have only let players do the Well of Souls bit (which was terribly bland) I'd have a really bad taste in my mouth, but the freeplay section blew my mind. I just hope enough interested players made it to this point in the demo.

 

[burgerdog]

Just had my friend gift me the game from Steam UK. $45

 

[Lonesome_Raod]

After playing the demo several times I really am torn on what build to go for. I usually avoid casters but for some reason I really fancy going down the finesse/sorcery path. But then I see destinies like Warlord and I think MIGHT!

 

[Freak]

Had my eye on this one since it was 1st announced. Played the demo last night and really enjoyed it
Story looks to be intriguing, combat is tight and refreshing for a game of this type. The game looks gorgeous, very lush colourful environments.
If i have one gripe it would be the fact not everything i equip primary, secondary and shields dont show on my character. Only the thing im currently using is shown (think it looks odd when blocking with a shield and it pops into existance as its going through its block animation).
Definately going to be picking this up though

 

[Pierre Levegh]

Judging by the demo and what people here are saying about a locked framerate on the ps3 version, looks like this game'll be the same as every other case this gen. 360 has better AA and slightly better effects but runs at sub-HD, whereas PS3 runs native but doesn't have as good AA.

Can you point me to where you found this? I hadn't seen that the 360 version would be running at less than 720p.

 

[David Incorporated Esq.]

I want to like this demo. I really do. I can tell there's a great world in there to explore and probably a pretty good story but...but...

The Camera... I couldn't even get through the 45 minutes of the demo. It's the worst camera I've ever dealt with in a game, hands down. I haven't really seen it mentioned so am I missing something? Is there a way to make it not suck buckets and buckets of dicks? I mean, once I got out of the tutorial dungeon I constantly ran at right angles to the camera without it reacting (out of combat), realized it had a horrendous acceleration to the camera control and was often attacked by monsters who were within 10 feet of my character but completely off-screen. I just put the controller down and gave up on it, I simply couldn't deal with it.

Even walking around town everything about it is off. The angle, the rate of turn, how the camera reacts to player motion, everything. It's fucking abysmal.

Someone please tell me that I'm just missing a "Camera Sucks" toggle in the option somewhere.

 

[Someone47]

I want to like this demo. I really do. I can tell there's a great world in there to explore and probably a pretty good story but...but...

The Camera... I couldn't even get through the 45 minutes of the demo. It's the worst camera I've ever dealt with in a game, hands down. I haven't really seen it mentioned so am I missing something? Is there a way to make it not suck buckets and buckets of dicks? I mean, once I got out of the tutorial dungeon I constantly ran at right angles to the camera without it reacting (out of combat), realized it had a horrendous acceleration to the camera control and was often attacked by monsters who were within 10 feet of my character but completely off-screen. I just put the controller down and gave up on it, I simply couldn't deal with it.

Even walking around town everything about it is off. The angle, the rate of turn, how the camera reacts to player motion, everything. It's fucking abysmal.

Someone please tell me that I'm just missing a "Camera Sucks" toggle in the option somewhere.

Don't touch the camera. It'll follow you and adjust automatically.

 

[David Incorporated Esq.]

Don't touch the camera. It'll follow you and adjust automatically.

So just don't ever touch the camera? I don't think I can do that--it goes against every gaming instinct I have.

 

[Someone47]

So just don't ever touch the camera? I don't think I can do that--it goes against every gaming instinct I have.

I know. It was really hard for me too. Luckily the devs will be fixing the camera with a patch. You can give feedback at the official forums.

 

[scy]

Honestly, barring a few instances of the demo (which have been brought up by devs as fixed and due to issues of that area), the camera was relatively fine. PC version with 360 controller. And that was with me messing with the camera constantly so I'm not sure what to say.

 

[soultron]

So just don't ever touch the camera? I don't think I can do that--it goes against every gaming instinct I have.

I agree that the camera sucks, but yeah, if you just leave it, it'll do a better job than you would if you were to manually adjust it. It's awesome when it zooms out/pans automatically in combat against multiple enemies.

 

[ced]

Don't touch the camera. It'll follow you and adjust automatically.

That's half the problem with it, the auto camera sucks hard.

Honestly I think all they need to do is back it out a tad bit while out of combat and give an option to disable that auto centering. Better yet just give options for both.

 

[AgentOtaku]

Can you point me to where you found this? I hadn't seen that the 360 version would be running at less than 720p.

VERY interested in hearing this as well

Indeed the 360 version has more/better motion blur for sure

 

[Baconsammy]

I went the complete opposite with the camera. If I leave it alone and let the game do it, I'll be stuck in awkward views far too often. I turn camera sensitivity way down and babysit the camera most of the time. I've gotten used to it, but I still don't like how close the camera is during non-combat situations. Also not a fan of how often the camera gets stuck in the ground during combat, especially in the Fae quest dungeon. Hopefully that's been corrected and isn't in the final game.

Just received an email from Amazon. They only price-match TVs apparently. No deal on Amalur to match Toysrus.

 

[Apeboy]

I've heard this song before, I just can't place it.

Pre-demo and game convention hype;

New! Exciting, genre redefining game!
Open world to explore with 100s of hours of content.
Made by gamers, for gamers.
Quality control is job one.

Post-demo;

The bugs in demo is from old build, they are not in gold master, honest.
We will be releasing more content via dlc, in fact, it is already done.
Buy our game or we may not be able to make another, think of the children!
edit- price drop just prior to release.

If this was from anyother developer the handwriting would be on the wall but the wild card is Schilling. The guy put his money where his mouth is and may have not allowed the complacency found in other dev houses. I guess we will see in a couple of weeks.

 

[Dr. Kitty Muffins]

45 bucks if you preorder.

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=12564323

This can't be reposted enough.

 

[KKRT00]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nvs6F4GdccY

I don't know how many people seen this, but this shows off the combat WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY better than the demo. *cause the demo is limited as fuck*

Wooooow, those combos at the end of video are insane. Juggling reminds me Tekken so much.

 

[chifanpoe]

360 Demo is up now for Silver users.

 

[chifanpoe]

Amalur preorder is $45 at Toys R Us, FWIW. Probably enough to get me to bite.

360: http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=12564323
PS3: http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=12559244

Wish Gamestop would match this, I think I still have around $73 of in-store credit.

 

[Phonomezer]

amalur is, in my opinion. I think they did try to play safe when designing the scenario/universe. Its like a mish-mash of fable/wow/generic f2p korean mmo and other rpgs. it simply has no own soul. Well, thats just like my opinion.

I totally agree with this. Generic and ripped out of 2005.

 

[Nista]

Origin blocks IP. So when I go to the site to get information or games it's all in Japanese. I can change languages to see the U.S. site, but the moment I actually try to download anything, it takes me to the Japanese site. It's incredibly frustrating, which is why I've avoided it. I can download and play the demo on the Xbox easy with no hassles, but the moment I want the PC one, it's blocked to hell and back. Looks like I won't be able to get the items for my PC ME 3 playthrough. I'm just a little mad about this.

Maybe try one of those VPN services that people were using to unlock Skyrim early?
You can unlock the ME3 items in the steam demo, as long as you have a valid EA account. Don't have to go through Origin this time around.

 

[Baconsammy]

Avatar items

I think I might spend some space bucks on a boggart pet if the animations are funny.

 

[Smokey]

So, played around some more with the demo on my laptop.

Is it capped at 60 fps? Anyway, I get around 40+ when actually playing/fighting.

Loving the gameplay so far, might check out Fable after all the comparisons.

edit: wondering if 40 fps is normal on a laptop. i believe everything is on high with post-processing off.

Don't think it's capped...I was playing at 120fps.

 

[SuicidalSteve]

Bit of a headache playing it on steam just look at what happened when i was playing it.

Here

 

[ironcreed]

I wouldn't judge the "soul" of the game based on the small size of the initial village or the summer court where the Fae are located. There are definitely larger cities in the game. And if you just slow down and watch some of the little things that they've added to the game to add that lifelike feel, it's something to appreciate -- boggarts chasing fireflies, bandits doing pushups and situps when no one is around, and there's even one location where an NPC is "relieving themselves" on one of the lorestones that you're tracking down. All of the things that bring life to a modern RPG are present.

This right here.

Sure, at first glance it appears to be just another high fantasy setting. However, it's all the little things added together that make this world feel alive and magical. But as you mentioned, this is just coming from a sampling of the first little area beyond the tutorial. It is laughable to write this game's world off based on the demo area. The world is huge, with all sorts of environments and touches we are yet to even see. That said, I feel like it most definitely has it's own high fantasy vibe going on. Can't wait to experience the full measure of it.

 

[paperboywriter]

Would you say this game is more mechanically driven or narrative driven? I'm getting the impression it leans a bit into the direction that dark souls took. I'm not speaking about presentation here.

 

[Effect]

So did they say they were addressing the camera angle in the game before release? Or just that they were aware of people's concerns with it?

 

[scy]

I will say this about the game and "soul": The demo didn't seem like it had a lot of enemies just ... around. Starting area and all so this is more of a, "I hope later areas are packed with shit to kill," thing rather than an actual problem with the game.

 

[The_Darkest_Red]

I found this comment interesting in the IGN "Review in Progress." It's part of a Q & A:

boardbrtn asks... Colin, I'm curious if you would compare this to Dragon Age: Origins. From what I'm reading, this seems to be similar in a lot of aspects.

Colin answers... I wrote IGN's strategy guide for Dragon Age: Origins, so I obviously spent an incredible amount of time with that game... far more than anyone really should. While I think Origins' heart was in the right place, almost everything about the game was utterly underwhelming. I just didn't care much for the game. So far, just about everything Reckoning does, from presentation to combat to overall usability, feels light years ahead of what Dragon Age: Origins did.

"Light years ahead" is some pretty powerful language. Hopefully I end up agreeing.

 

[goober]

Don't think it's capped...I was playing at 120fps.

Must be my laptop specs.

I didn't get anything above 60 fps but then again I'm on a laptop.

 

[Mindman]

Loving this game the more I play the demo. Likely a day one.

 

[Someone47]

So did they say they were addressing the camera angle in the game before release? Or just that they were aware of people's concerns with it?

I think they are still taking feedback from people on their forums. There'll be a patch addressing camera issues after the launch. Or so the devs have said.