BlueMak

It is (STEAM) down from 39.95 to 9.95 for this weekend only.
Is it worth it? I don't want another Gothic X with a huge number of bugs. Just a good long RPG game.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

Vikingod

I think most reviews said it was pretty average. Fun, but not great; deep, but not engrossing. Siort of an Oblivion clone that couldn't quite capture the magic.

Probably worth $10 if your looking for an RPG to spend time with. There is even online MP as a bonus, so it might be worth checking out.

edit: Since the release, there have been several patches which supposedly fix a lot of issues. Most recent patch was 1.6GB.

BlueMak

Haha, seriously? 1.6GB patch? Very funny.

The reviews make it appear like a solid average RPG.
For about 8 euros with taxes sounds like a good offer.
The only thing I am worried about is what some people say about the game requiring online registration and only being able to install 3-4 times etc. I don't know if I want to support such copy protection schemes, even for 8 euros.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

Vikingod

I don't think that applies to the Steam release. Steam has (is) it's own copy protection system.

BlueMak

I would think so too, only that for example Bioshock still had its own copy protection.
But for 8 euros...and it doesn't have auto leveling for the creatures...which is good.

__________________

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

BlueMak

ok, done.

__________________

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

Vikingod

Whadaya think?

BlueMak

it downloaded the first 90% at 700kb/sec and now it is at 100. Have to wait a bit longer to try it.

__________________

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

BlueMak

First of all what is wrong with the people that developed this game? Yes, graphics are fine, music is fine, sound effects are fine. Did anyone bother to check the voices in the game? Some of the worst dialogue and voices ever heard by me in a game. I include in them the voices of the bipedal creatures that attack you early on in the game. I can almost visualize a couple of people in a room making these voices trying to sound silly and recording them. I was a bit suspicious when I watched a video a while ago that had your character fighting a bear like creature and you could easily recognise a human making bear like noises. This is just so stupid.

I play on medium and the fights are hard and it is very easy to die. You have to run a lot. This might change later on when I get more and better armour.

I like the game so far, but the voices in the game and the dialogue are silly, and not only in the "haha funny" level of silly.


BTW, there is a button in the main menu that says Product Activation. Two clicks away and it gives you a "key". It doesn't actualy ask for the key anywhere, so I guess it is done automaticaly. I just hope that the key is not locked on the hardware configuration or else I will be very upset whenever I upgrade or change the PC.
I will post more when I play more.

__________________

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

Vikingod

Well, I took that plunge too. For $10, it might be worth it. I've heard about the voice acting, so I don't think your observation is unfounded. I guess after a couple hours of play, the game takes off and can be quite fun. Anyway, post your impression, and I'll do the same.

Vikingod

Couple hours into it now, and I have to say, the game is pretty damn good. Voice acting aside (not as bad as I was expection, btw), the game is very fun to play. There are a few bugs, but no game enders, it's challanging, and the world is beatiful. Hell of a bargan.

BlueMak

A couple of hours playing the game and I have a few more things to say.
The fighting is fun (medium difficulty setting). NOT easy, but not as hard as I first thought and read about them. You just have to play it smart and retreat when needed.
Horse riding is not the easiest thing in the world, but I don't find it the problem many in their reviews have said. I would say, in its way, it is realistic, and after using one for about 20 min I have become quite good at it. Fighting while on the horse is fun too. Running towards the enemy slashing a couple of times and running away. Very nice. The only still trouble I have with it is that while on one the camera auto resets after a while.
Using a bow to shoot at slow creatures then running away with your horse makes up for it.
Enemy wild animals are tricky when in packs. Be careful.
While travelling at night you might encounter "ghosts" of fallen creatures. Unless you have enchanched (sp?) weapon (so far cold and lighting works, spirit not, poison probably not), don't try to use the weapon against it, you will do no damage to the ghost.
I try to not use any magic (fire etc) except for healing. Next time I will play I will focus on magic. Though there is nothing stopping you from playing both ways. Yes, I said next time, the game is very fun to play.

I found the quest log working and not troublesome as some people have. The no auto leveling is very good.
The auto save feature might be good but I see no point in it, unless the game crashes or something.
I can't figure out how to change between weapons without going in the inventory screen. Also I have no idea how to set keys to weapons/skills/magic. The game seems to auto place them in the "taskbar" at the bottom (4 of them F7-F10), but I would love to be able to set all magic related to the F8 taskbar, melee F7, range F9, other F10.
One thing that I have figured out is to go to the options screen and change the option for the mouse wheel. At default it changes the camera (Tab also works fine with it since there are a number of presets), but after you change it you can scrool through the taskbar that is on and with the right mouse button perform the skill/etc.

The voices that are really bad, I just don't pay much attention to their bad quality. The rest of the game is good enough...

EDIT: Oh yes, in case I didn't make myself clear enough, if you like RPGs, get this game. For $10, it's a steal!

__________________

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

Vikingod

Couldn't have said it better myself.

BlueMak

A few more things to add.
You can "forge" more of the same exact weapon in one. So if you have 2 short swords X, you can forge them into one, that will look the same as any of them, but will have increased stats. You can do this many times. The stats of the weapon will not double, but they will increase enough to make you want to do this till you have found a much better weapon. It may not sound very good, but in this game it works and it is very cool.

You can "cook" your own potions and magic items. You don't need a magic book to learn how to, very easy and very fun.
This is the first RPG that I want to try to prepare my own potions. Also the first RPG that I want to set my own traps for the enemy. VERY satisfying watching a fast approaching yelling creature getting pierced by your trap, or being trapped and not able to move while you rain it with arrows.

I don't know if it is just me, but so far I am having more fun with this game that I did with Oblivion.

__________________

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

BlueMak

After experimenting a bit found a solution to the key binding for weapons and etc.
It looks like the F7 bar and its icons/keys cannot be changed. But, the same is not true for F8, and my guess the same for F9 and F10.
So you can go to your inventory and drag and drop a weapon from your pack (not from your hand) to one of the 10 slots of F8. You can do the same for magic and skills (like stealth).
So F7 is handled automaticaly by the game (and changes depending on the situation), while F8 (and perhaps the rest) are for you to change as you wish.
Which is GREAT!

__________________

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

Markius

i played this on 360 and although it had some frame rate issues i thought overall it was a very good action rpg, well worth $10-20 (what ever it converts to in aussie $ )

some of the visuals (frame rate aside) were beautiful imo.
and yeah the voices were a bit corny, but imo give the game its own uniqueness (if thats even a word)

__________________
DriverHeavens Aussie...

"Lifes tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late"

BlueMak

About the voices, I am in about 6-7 hours now and I am used to them. Of course if one needs to spend hours to get used to them, might be a problem, but you do get used to them.

The game is huge. I have explored only a part around the starting village, with several missions and the rest of the map is huge. I don't know if the map is as large or larger than Oblivion's, but it sure is more packed with missions, and all this wild life (friendly and not) really adds to the game. Oblivion's outdoors was a desert compared to this. Another thing I like about the environment is how realistic it feels. Mountains and hills feel like they could be real.

Animals, even in packs are no longer a threat. I am level 13 I think and have a very nice two hand sword that has upper hit slash value of 230ish. For example a silver wolf dies in about 2 hits.

I still have problem dealing with skeletons. One on one I can take, but they are almost never alone. My weapons do very small amount of damage to them. Anyone?

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

Markius

get a blunt weapon for skellies, like a mace or hammer

__________________
DriverHeavens Aussie...

"Lifes tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late"

BlueMak

Yes, thanks. I figured it out eventualy. I was focusing too much on my bow and sword skills.

My focus now is on improving my defenses. I found a monster guarding some treasure chest in a mine belong to the Dwarves and (don't remember its name), it is one tough nut to crack. It killed me in one hit. I guess I could do some hits with arrows and retreat, but I don't want to spend an hour doing that so I left it be till I can absorb at least 3 times as much without dying.

Wild animals, zombies, bandits are relatively easy to beat now, even in numbers of 6+

I have a problem with alchemy. All the potions I make tend to keep only one of the 2+ attributes of the ingredients, and always work to enchance weapons. Frustrating when you waste something that gives you 20% resistance to fire, to get a 10% other attack for a weapon.

EDIT: I almost forgot, BE VERY CAREFUL with your horse if you use it to carry loot. Your horse might get stuck in some places. I had a weird clipping issue where I was inside a newly found empty cave riding my horse, approached one of the walls and found myself outside, but couldn't continue going in that direction. Tried to go back, but nothing. I got off the horse and I saw that while I was now ok, the horse was stuck inside the cave wall. Very frustrating since I had no idea where to find another horse (I had already lost 2), and more importantly I had about 10000 gold pieces worth of loot on it. After about 10! minutes with trying everything I could think off, I managed to get it outside. Lesson learned, never against near a wall or inside a building or cave with my horse.

__________________

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

Vikingod

I continue to be impressed by this game. I'm at level 12 now, and things keep getting better. I've got an excellent sword, and I like the way you can customize and improve on your gear. the game remains challanging, but not frustrating. Over all, I would say I prefer this game to Oblivion, flaws and all. It just seems like more of a classic RPG, alot like Morrowind did.

BlueMak

I agree. This is a superb (even with some bugs and glitches remaining) RPG and I have no idea what the majority of reviewers played. It feels like most of them only played 30min to an hour into the game.

My guess is I have explored about 12% of the game in about 12 hours. Currently level 25 and enjoying every min of it.
Hint to any new players, Q is your friend. Also, fighting riding your horse is cool, relatively easy, but your horse dies easily. I always get off the horse before I fight just because I don't want to risk it getting killed. Reasons for this are A)it is way faster to explore with it, B)I use it as a pack mule to sell back at the markets.

Here is a screenshot from my inventory.


I was experimenting with resolutions and I lowered it down from 1920x1200 to 1680x1050. I am just too lazy to change it back, plus I don't notice any further graphical improvement.


BTW, isn't the mist/fog wonderful?

__________________

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

Vikingod

I do love the fog, especially by the "nodes".

BlueMak

I thought it would be fun to record a battle or some gameplay from the game using fraps and even at recording at half the resolution the file for 37 seconds is over 700MBs. Meh.

The story is not shockingly original so far, but it gets better by the hour. Voices and dialogue have improved a lot, or perhaps I am just getting used to them lol.

__________________

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

Vikingod

Story wise, it's pretty unoriginal so far, and it does suffer the typical cliches associated with the genre, but I atually kind of like it. I do like the way they introduce the races. It's not totally original, but it's also not the "Elves are good, Orcs are bad" thing.

The mechanics of the game, and the character development I do really like. It seems like they took out a lot of the annoying stuff and improved on things. Such as, being able to redevelop your character, (as in, I don't want to be a warrior anymore, I want to be a mage) and the way you can be involved with several guilds and see the way the story developes by what you do. I think what they have done with teleporting is great too; it doesnt eliminate the need for exploration (like Oblivion did), but its not painfully long to get where you want. I do wish the horse could come with you though. Really well done, all-and-all.

BlueMak

I thought I would post some screenshots.

__________________

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

BlueMak

The next screeshot is funny, yes, i took a screenshot of the "hill" and you can see the shadow of a deer, but I didn't take one of the deer itself.


At least there were some tasty wolves on the other side.


I haven't been to the deserts or the ocean side, or even across the river, or to the far north to the glaciers, but the rest is very beautiful, very realistic ground and shape.

I had a small accident the other time. I went into a small vilage where I was supposed to find someone and there was a guard outside that just wouldn't let me in. I thought about sneaking and killing him from behind, but only after the time I kind of, killed him with my sword.
So, I manage to open the doors and the other guards weren't too happy. So I had to kill them too. Then the rest of the people there, they attacked me! honest! So in the end only 2 people survived from the whole village.

So I go to another one relatively close, I am on my horse with my sword drawn out and I accidentaly push someone. Guards got upset and surrounded me, then demanded I pay them 30,000 gold!!! or that I leave and never return. I thought about bribing them, but decided against it. So I told him that I was going to leave instead. BUT, they had surrounded me and my horse wouldn't move and I couldn't get off the horse. So long story short, I had to kill everyone there too. I didn't want to kill anyone..yes, that's my story and that's the truth.

Funny though.

__________________

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

Vikingod

I got an Undead Horse, f'ing cool. Really fast, and seems to handle better than the other one I had. I guess there are ridable lizards and other monsters as well.

Also, there is a registry key avaiulable whigh give high quality shadows.

Looks really great, but once I got into a dungeon, performance was murder, so I took it off. Might want to give it a shot, considering your system is better than mine.

BlueMak

I checked the link and I am a bit confused. It reads to me like if you have a graphics card that it doesn't let you set to the max the in game shadows, then you need the reg file, but I have no problem setting (as I have) the shadows to max.


I found one undead horse as well, under one of the...buildings, correct? I thought about using it but decided to leave it there if I ever need it because it can carry less weight than my current horse (530 my current horse can carry if my memory serves me right).

But you say faster and better handling, interesting.

I am playing as a fighter, I am level 33 and I still can't decide if I want to have a two hands sword or one with shield. I found this katana that has upper value of almost 1300 which is about 450 more than my best single hand sword. What do you suggest?


Also, how do you play? So far I support mainly the status quo with a slight touch of Skelden.

Oh yeah, one more question, do you know where and who can provides me with training of the stone skin skill? I vaguely remember meeting one once, but I can't remember any more.

__________________

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

Neshi

looks good, and really tempted to buy it. It's 16 euros here though.
And I disliked Oblivion, faces looked ugly to me, and fighting and traveling were a pain.
Is it better here?

listening to you, I thought with 16 euros I could take the plunge.
Can't really go wrong with it.. I ordered it now.

__________________
If one does not attach himself to people and desire, never shall his heart be broken. But then, does he ever truly live?

Life is just too damn short for if's and maybe's

Vikingod

Stone Skin: I believe the guy in Gorelin (the Necro) teaches that.

Weapon: I use a two handed sword, and have a nice two handed maul for undead. I've still not found two single handed weapons that come close to my sword, so I just stick with it.

Shadows: The registry hack enables stencil shadows with totally new shadow maps which are unavailable to select in-game. With my card, things were noticabley better looking, but performance took a HUGE dive in dungeons.

As far as my play style, I'm sitting on the fence now. I do missions for everyone, and the story is starting to develop. It's funny, but there seems to be no true "good" or "evil" side, everyone has their problems. Do you find that doing missions for one group will disable you from working with another group?