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

I really wish you could press other buttons during the 'Tutorial' screens. I had just to ALT+TAB out of the demo because my middle mouse wheel does not work.
 
He said he stopped at the first conversation, which is about 1% into the demo.

Except I didn't say I stopped at the first conversation. I said I got bored at the first conversation. Because it's visually and narratively boring.

Isn't every area roughly the same as that intro dungeon, though? I've heard it compared to Fable structurally on several podcasts.

Walk down hallway, fight baddies with bad camera hovering around, continue walking down hallway. Except in the open world there are mountains on either side of the hallway?
 
Except I didn't say I stopped at the first conversation. I said I got bored at the first conversation. Because it's visually and narratively boring.

Isn't every area roughly the same as that intro dungeon, though? I've heard it compared to Fable structurally on several podcasts.

No, they're nothing like that area, because that is a tutorial.
 
Except I didn't say I stopped at the first conversation. I said I got bored at the first conversation. Because it's visually and narratively boring.

Isn't every area roughly the same as that intro dungeon, though? I've heard it compared to Fable structurally on several podcasts.

No, it isn't. The first part is linear because it is a tutorial. It opens up a lot after that segment. You get 45 mins to explore the world when you are done with it.
 
Isn't every area roughly the same as that intro dungeon, though? I've heard it compared to Fable structurally on several podcasts.

No it's not, and you'd know that if you bothered to finish the tutorial.
 
"Unfortunately the only way to get both the demo and the game out the door on time was to branch the demo off of the main game a few months back, then try to copy over bug fixes from the main game to it where possible, while cutting out all the bits of the game that should NOT show up in the demo in order to get the download size down to something reasonable.

As a result, a great many polish bits and bug fixes from the main game didn't make it into the demo (some particualrly noteworthy fixes relate to audio cutting out or being significantly delayed). It's frustrating for us because we want the demo to be as shiny as possible, but in the end of the day we wanted to focus the bulk of our bug fixing and polish efforts on the final game rather than the demo. Hopefully you'll thank us for that on Feb 7th."

Also, apparently EA built the demo with some 3rd party help. (I always thought developers built their own demo's. Huh).
 
I found the demo quite fun. My backlog's too fucking long and prevents me from grabbing this day 1 though, which is a shame.
 
This is going to be an amazing game. I was dead set on playing the 360 version, but the PC demo ran extremely smooth, even on my modest PC setup. I think I'm going to go the PC/360 gamepad route.
 
"Unfortunately the only way to get both the demo and the game out the door on time was to branch the demo off of the main game a few months back, then try to copy over bug fixes from the main game to it where possible, while cutting out all the bits of the game that should NOT show up in the demo in order to get the download size down to something reasonable.

As a result, a great many polish bits and bug fixes from the main game didn't make it into the demo (some particualrly noteworthy fixes relate to audio cutting out or being significantly delayed). It's frustrating for us because we want the demo to be as shiny as possible, but in the end of the day we wanted to focus the bulk of our bug fixing and polish efforts on the final game rather than the demo. Hopefully you'll thank us for that on Feb 7th."
.

I will thank them on February 7th if the game has a nice, shiny polish, and the load times are reduced significantly from what we've seen. In fact, even cutting them in half would be good enough for me. There seems to be so much awesome in this game, that all the nitpicks I've been reading (probably) won't matter in the grand scheme of things.

Now if the demo would hurry to PSN, I'd be happy!
 
I just get a black screen after the intro movie, short of creating my character.


I was really looking forward to it, too :(

If you're on PC, turn off post processing.

I will thank them on February 7th if the game has a nice, shiny polish, and the load times are reduced significantly from what we've seen. In fact, even cutting them in half would be good enough for me. There seems to be so much awesome in this game, that all the nitpicks I've been reading (probably) won't matter in the grand scheme of things.

Now if the demo would hurry to PSN, I'd be happy!

Even in the demo, the load times are far far shorter on PC than what I saw in videos.

Walk down hallway, fight baddies with bad camera hovering around, continue walking down hallway. Except in the open world there are mountains on either side of the hallway?

Do you not understand what open world means?
 
Pc gamling seems to be in better shape than ever judging by this thread ;)

Can't the technical pc issues be discussed elsewhere? I doubt the majority of neogaf cares about filter issues or missing mouse pointers on some graphic card...

I thought the demo was nice, kind of like a "good" fable gameplay-wise with better art. Wonder if it holds up for 30 hours or more though, will greatly depend on story and world design... Two things that did not really impress me yet
 
No it's not, and you'd know that if you bothered to finish the tutorial.

Well, good to know. I'm sorry I didn't play the demo for 45 minutes. The 20 minutes I did play were the definition of linear, they were as visually bland as can be and the camera broke during every combat encounter.

Bad representation of the game, as I said. Read the post above this one where the devs explain that the demo is a bad representation of the game.

And either everyone has been lying when they compare its brand of open world to Fable, or I've misunderstood. I'm glad it eventually opens up.
 
Can't the technical pc issues be discussed elsewhere? I doubt the majority of neogaf cares about filter issues or missing mouse pointers on some graphic card...

There is literally one issue, and it's the game not working with PP on. God forbid we try to help people who are in need of it.
 
Demo done.

Meh stuff was almost exclusively tied to technical issues, which I understand. Aforementioned audio bugs were annoying. Random pauses (often at the start of combat). Pop-in is incredibly awful (the worst I've seen in a long time), especially given the relatively low tech look of the game.

Otherwise I can see fun to be had. It's very traditional. Seems like a pretty old fashioned loot grinder, which I can dig. I like the art. It has a nice clean look. Combat being fairly simple action makes killing dudes enjoyable.

How it wraps up as a full game will really be the defining factor in my purchase. A lot of quests could easily devolve into the fetch variety. Potential for grinding too. As long as those two things don't become tedious, and the game keeps itself interesting, I'll probably bite later down the track. Waaay too much shit in my backlog I need to get through to pick this up now, but after Dark Souls and Mass Effect 3 are done, this will be the next RPG.

Oh, and for those that are wondering, to get the Mass Effect bonus stuff you need to a) Complete the tutorial, and b) 'Complete' the demo, which consists of waiting out the 40 minute time limit.
 
Well, good to know. I'm sorry I didn't play the demo for 45 minutes. The 20 minutes I did play were the definition of linear, they were as visually bland as can be and the camera broke during every combat encounter.

Bad representation of the game, as I said. Read the post above this one where the devs explain that the demo is a bad representation of the game.

Only because of technical issues. Don't expect that the tutorial area and/or the way it is structured changes in the final game.

Pc gamling seems to be in better shape than ever judging by this thread ;)

Can't the technical pc issues be discussed elsewhere? I doubt the majority of neogaf cares about filter issues or missing mouse pointers on some graphic card...

It's one issue, people are asking for help.
 
Seriously, if anyone has a solution to the 'buttons not working on tutorial screens' problem, I'll be your best friend. Specifically, I've got stuck twice at the longbow.
 
Well, good to know. I'm sorry I didn't play the demo for 45 minutes. The 20 minutes I did play were the definition of linear, they were as visually bland as can be and the camera broke during every combat encounter.

Bad representation of the game, as I said. Read the post above this one where the devs explain that the demo is a bad representation of the game.

And either everyone has been lying when they compare its brand of open world to Fable, or I've misunderstood. I'm glad it eventually opens up.

Its in between fable and elder scrolls, its open world, but not just one giant island you explore seamlessly. Probably not the best comparison, but maybe like nier, but on a bigger scale.
 
Fable is open world. Skyrim is open world. Do you not understand the difference between those two games?

You consider Fable open world? Seriously? The game is a succession of corridors.
 
Fable is open world. Skyrim is open world. Do you not understand the difference between those two games?

Are you really just going to sit and continue to argue with people who have actually finished the demo? For fucks sake, I know it's the Internet and everything but say you were wrong and come back when (if) you finish the demo with your actual opinion. Nobody wants to parse out semantic definitions with somebody who has no actual fame of reference.
 
Ian Frazier's Summary
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Note to self, hide linkedin profile and name at all costs from GAF-Detective force!
That info is kind of off-topic for the demo thread.

As for the "open-world" nature of the game, I'd say it's more like FFXII with seamless loading between zones.
 
So so very excited for this! Just two hours until I can go home and wait another hour for it to download! I'm glad to see a new IP getting such great feedback. Feels good man.
 
Seriously, if anyone has a solution to the 'buttons not working on tutorial screens' problem, I'll be your best friend. Specifically, I've got stuck twice at the longbow.

Is that the one where you have to scroll the middle mouse button, not press it?
 
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