Preview Bard's Tale IV Gameplay Snippets on Twitch and Shacknews E3 2018 Broadcasts

[Infinitron]

Tags: Brian Fargo; David Rogers; InXile Entertainment; The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep

Although many new games were announced at this year's E3, the traditional RPGs that the Codex is most interested in haven't had much of a presence. One of the few exceptions to that is inXile's upcoming The Bard's Tale IV, which made an appearance both on the Shacknews "Indie Heaven" stream on Tuesday and on today's Twitch E3 broadcast. Presenting the game was a very enthusiastic David Rogers, also joined by Brian Fargo in today's broadcast. They appear to have brought a new gameplay reel with them, which offers a glimpse at areas which aren't part of the currently available backer alpha, as well as at the game's character creation UI. Both streams are about ten minutes long. Watch here:

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Other than the footage, there's not much new information here, but it is worth noting than in both presentations, David only says the game is due out "this year", without specifying the Q3 release window that was announced back in February. Hmmm.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Jesus, they couldn't have picked gayer music for the trailer if they tried.

 

[ArchAngel]

Already looks better than PoE2: shitfire.

 

[Aim1ess]

Nothing says RPG like "COMBAT, COMBAT, COMBAT!"

 

[Diggfinger]

So looks less shitty better than Underworld. Fingers crossed it does well, so Fargo can enjoy his retirement and print gold Fallout 1 big boxes for his fans

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

So looks less shitty better than Underworld.

That's what I call "setting the bar low".

 

[aweigh]

Movement grid and long animations are gonna be two huge problems impeding enjoyment of combat. Mark my words.

 

[Sacred82]

Movement grid and long animations are gonna be two huge problems impeding enjoyment of combat. Mark my words.

goddamn blobber oldfags

 

[Gylfi.Fenriz.Conquests]

ooh puzzles. I like it. Too bad there's so much combat, i like peaceful solutions, or at least the challenge to find the least painful ones, and that's infact the "reason of life" for a puzzle

 

[MurkyShadow]

The combat feels condensed in BT IV to fit with console sensibilities.
It might very well become a good game in regard of what they're intending it to be.
Though I don't know how I feel about it being a successor to the original trilogy.

 

[theSavant]

The 3d models of the party members look bulky... and why is that many textures and the environment look rough and bulky as well? Or is that just bad video compression?

As already mentioned, I can see the slow combat becoming an issue. It's even tedious to watch now...... chrrr..... *falls asleep*.
Also the many glowing, sparkling, flowing effects and lines in the combat UI become fatigueing on the eyes.

I liked the dialogue though when they fell through the floor (somewhere in the youtube video). Nice and entertaining.

 

[cvv]

I liked what I saw. InXile needs some love now after the embarrassment with Numanuma.

 

[Nazrim Eldrak]

Music is optimizable... a LOT!
Give the Creative Director a little bit weed if he can handle it. It could optimize his enthusiasm:D!

Burning effects like seen in the stream is just too much imo.
1. In this case red glowing doesn`t fit
2. Glowing in general could destroy the beauty of the art (Monster looks shitty)

Solution:
Realistic blisters

All these flashy and glowing effects is just

The stupid grid takes too much attention.
What is the point making a visually attractive game if you congest it with lines.

Solution:
Give the player a hotkey e.g. by pressing "CTRL" the grid gets visible and releasing the key disables the grid.

 

[Sacred82]

Music is optimizable... a LOT!
Give the Creative Director a little bit weed if he can handle it. It could optimize his enthusiasm:D!

son.

 

[Glop_dweller]

BT4 looks unchanged from the beta release; that's bad news. Many had hoped that their forum feedback would clue them in a bit—if they'ed listen.

Sadly, it's not just misguided brainstorming, this is the game that they want to make.

I cannot believe that they showed off the simplistic door puzzle in the official demo/trailer; that's a telling harbinger.

As for the low quality texturing... It looked like that in the demo. It's not impossible that the private beta textures were placeholders, but it's seemingly unlikely now, since they appear to be the same in an industry PR event.

 

[Infinitron]

It's an alpha release, the beta will be out in July.

 

[Glop_dweller]

One can postpone their hopes until then... But I expect no major changes to what we've already seen.