Game News Titan Quest almost as cheap as piracy

[DarkUnderlord]

Tags: Titan Quest

If overwhelming mediocrity is your pick or you just haven't had enough Diablo 2 yet, <a href="http://www.impulsedriven.com/products/ESD-IMP-W116">Titan Quest is out for $3.99 this weekend at Impulse Buy</a> (down from the regular $14.99). Here's a bit from <a href="http://au.pc.ign.com/articles/714/714552p2.html">IGN's review of the game</a> three years ago:
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<blockquote>If I'm harsh on Titan Quest, perhaps it's because I expected something clearly better than D2 to come out of the subgenre, after several years of opportunity -- and Iron Lore looked like a good fit. I recommend grabbing the demo, and if you like it, you'll probably like the game, too. If you find yourself a little disenchanted, though, it's probably not just you. I think it looks impressive and offers a ton of content, and there are certainly worse games with which to spend your summer days (and there are worse games coming out of new development houses). I find, however, that there's a bit too much churn to keep me hooked the whole way through. I thought the pyramids were a cool, atmospheric segment of the game, but they were more the exception than the norm.</blockquote>
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For those who are interested, you can <a href="http://www.gamershell.com/news_30179.html">grab the 500 MB demo from here</a>.
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Spotted @ <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com">The same place we stole our news from yesterday, Pinky</a>

 

[ArcturusXIV]

I'll download it when they pay me to have it on my computer.

 

[Rhalle]

I purchased TQ when it came out but didn't play it for more than a few hours.

It's a AAA tiltle, is solid and looks good; but I didn't find it all that fun, tbh.

Hardware requirements for smooth frames are also surprisingly steep.

$4, though? Definitley worth picking up at that price.

 

[Andhaira]

What are system reqs for this puppy?

Specifically:

-Ram and 3d Card memroy requirements?

 

[Shoelip]

What are system reqs for this puppy?

Specifically:

-Ram and 3d Card memroy requirements?

According to steam:

Minimum: Windows® 2000 or XP, 1.8 Ghz Intel Pentium IV or equivalent or AMD Athlon XP or equivalent , 512 MB RAM, 5 GB free hard drive space, 64 MB NVIDIA GeForce 3 or equivalent or ATI Radeon 8500 series with Pixel Shader 1.1 support or equivalent, DirectX® 9.0c compatible 16-bit sound card, Keyboard, Mouse

Recommended: Windows XP, 3.0 Ghz Intel Pentium IV or equivalent, 1 GB RAM, 128 MB NVIDIA GeForce 6800 series or ATI Radeon X800 series or equivalent, Soundblaster X-Fi series sound card

Hey speaking of D2 clones, Sacred Gold is on GOG. Is that worth it?

 

[Andhaira]

Sacred 2 is also out.

Also will TQ work on Vista?

 

[MaskedMan]

Sacred 2 is also out.

Also will TQ work on Vista?

Works on mine, 32 bit.

 

[ArcturusXIV]

You're better off waiting for Diablo 3. Titan Quest was rather boring, and it doesn't have much replayability by comparison.

 

[Serus]

You're better off waiting for Diablo 3. Titan Quest was rather boring, and it doesn't have much replayability by comparison.

By comparison to what, Diablo 3 ? How can you know this, D3 can be the worst game you ever played.
TQ is better than most Diablo-like games but it doesn't say much as most of them are very bad.

 

[ArcturusXIV]

You're better off waiting for Diablo 3. Titan Quest was rather boring, and it doesn't have much replayability by comparison.

By comparison to what, Diablo 3 ? How can you know this, D3 can be the worst game you ever played.
TQ is better than most Diablo-like games but it doesn't say much as most of them are very bad.

True on both counts, but you're guilty of ignoring empirical evidence. Every game Blizzard has put out has gotten high scores and been quite good. WoW wasn't up my alley, but other than that, they're a generally good company. Plus, we have gameplay videos.

Titan Quest was decent for a Diablo CLONE, but it added nothing new to the table. I'd rather go back and play D2.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Thanks for the headline, I bought it and enjoy it very much - as long as you don't expect a Diablo killer, it's definitely an enjoyable romp. Well worth the 4 bucks.

 

[Serus]

You're better off waiting for Diablo 3. Titan Quest was rather boring, and it doesn't have much replayability by comparison.

By comparison to what, Diablo 3 ? How can you know this, D3 can be the worst game you ever played.
TQ is better than most Diablo-like games but it doesn't say much as most of them are very bad.

True on both counts, but you're guilty of ignoring empirical evidence. Every game Blizzard has put out has gotten high scores and been quite good. WoW wasn't up my alley, but other than that, they're a generally good company. Plus, we have gameplay videos.

Titan Quest was decent for a Diablo CLONE, but it added nothing new to the table. I'd rather go back and play D2.

1. Warcraft 3 is only average imo. Better than most rts games but much worse than Starcraft or Warcraft 2. Most of games of blizzard are of very good quality but they will do a mistake one day. Everybody does.

2. Exactly this. A good Diablo clone (better than most) but only average game overall. I'd rather go back to D2 too.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Most of games of blizzard are of very good quality but they will do a mistake one day. Everybody does.

Not quite. Everybody else fucks it up royally where-as Blizzard have a pretty strong track-record of releasing well-balanced, well-thought through games that make it all seem easy. Any patches are usually for minor things or small adjustments to balance compared with other games that either get completely re-balanced in patches (See Dawn of War) or need patches just to work properly or are poor imitations of a game Blizzard did better anyway.

 

[McShifty]

Saying Blizzard puts out patches for minor things is an understatement. They release games so well tested and bug free that the eventual patches deal with incredibly odd issues that 1 in 100,000 people experience mainly due to obscure graphic cards or computer set ups, or minor graphical oddities. They also have balance fixes, something that no other developer wants to deal with (WHAT? You mean my perfect creation is not so perfect? BLASPHEMY! No balance patch for you! MY GAME IS PERFECT AS IS!)

Anyways, TQ has a nice community and an extensive fanpatch project for anyone interested. I don't know if it works with this downloaded version, but it requires the expansion, Immortal Throne.

http://www.titanquest.net/forums/bugfix ... patch.html

Titan Quest is a really fun game with a ton of replay value that gets put down for no good reason other than being a hack n' slash, and apparently any hack n' slash that isn't named "Diablo" isn't good by default. Bullshit.

 

[Crichton]

that gets put down for no good reason other than being a hack n' slash, and apparently any hack n' slash that isn't named "Diablo" isn't good by default. Bullshit.

That is a good reason. And Diablo 1+2 are shit too.

 

[McShifty]

... and that is the reason you have a DUMBFUCK!!! tag.

 

[ArcturusXIV]

Saying Blizzard puts out patches for minor things is an understatement. They release games so well tested and bug free that the eventual patches deal with incredibly odd issues that 1 in 100,000 people experience mainly due to obscure graphic cards or computer set ups, or minor graphical oddities. They also have balance fixes, something that no other developer wants to deal with (WHAT? You mean my perfect creation is not so perfect? BLASPHEMY! No balance patch for you! MY GAME IS PERFECT AS IS!)

Anyways, TQ has a nice community and an extensive fanpatch project for anyone interested. I don't know if it works with this downloaded version, but it requires the expansion, Immortal Throne.

http://www.titanquest.net/forums/bugfix ... patch.html

Titan Quest is a really fun game with a ton of replay value that gets put down for no good reason other than being a hack n' slash, and apparently any hack n' slash that isn't named "Diablo" isn't good by default. Bullshit.

I found it rather dull. The world lacked the atmosphere of a good Diablo game, and didn't have a lot of excitement either. I played through it once, then put it aside. It does have replay value, but the world isn't randomly generated, so you're going to be exploring the EXACT SAME AREAS twice if you decide to replay it once. Also, the online element is terrible. Characters are saved on your own computer, which means cheating is rampant. They should have gone with a remote server.

Performance is also an issue. It runs pretty slow, even on decent PCs. Graphics are pretty, but nothing amazing. Given how the designers were whining about the people complaining about their game (most of it valid criticism), I have issues with the game. I don't really want to support people like that.

 

[kingcomrade]

blizzard dick sucking goes here
RAINBOWS
MULTIPLE BUILDING SELECTION
BLIZZARD RUIN GAMINMG

 

[McShifty]

Saying Blizzard puts out patches for minor things is an understatement. They release games so well tested and bug free that the eventual patches deal with incredibly odd issues that 1 in 100,000 people experience mainly due to obscure graphic cards or computer set ups, or minor graphical oddities. They also have balance fixes, something that no other developer wants to deal with (WHAT? You mean my perfect creation is not so perfect? BLASPHEMY! No balance patch for you! MY GAME IS PERFECT AS IS!)

Anyways, TQ has a nice community and an extensive fanpatch project for anyone interested. I don't know if it works with this downloaded version, but it requires the expansion, Immortal Throne.

http://www.titanquest.net/forums/bugfix ... patch.html

Titan Quest is a really fun game with a ton of replay value that gets put down for no good reason other than being a hack n' slash, and apparently any hack n' slash that isn't named "Diablo" isn't good by default. Bullshit.

I found it rather dull. The world lacked the atmosphere of a good Diablo game, and didn't have a lot of excitement either. I played through it once, then put it aside. It does have replay value, but the world isn't randomly generated, so you're going to be exploring the EXACT SAME AREAS twice if you decide to replay it once. Also, the online element is terrible. Characters are saved on your own computer, which means cheating is rampant. They should have gone with a remote server.

Performance is also an issue. It runs pretty slow, even on decent PCs. Graphics are pretty, but nothing amazing. Given how the designers were whining about the people complaining about their game (most of it valid criticism), I have issues with the game. I don't really want to support people like that.

I've never had a top of the line PC, and Titan Quest has played good on the past two I've had, so I could never understand the performance complaints. Yes, it hiccuped once in a while, but what game doesn't?

They couldn't go with a remote server because they had no money, but yes online is terrible... but it's more of a single player game anyways.

The developers did turn into dicks towards the end there. It also didn't help that, in pirated versions, instead of putting in a big image that said "YOU'RE PLAYING AN ILLEGAL COPY, YOU STUPID TWAT!" they opted for a crash-to-desktop. They only really whined about the piracy, though, unless they whined about something else that I happened to miss (and you could possibly provide a link to).

 

[ArcturusXIV]

Saying Blizzard puts out patches for minor things is an understatement. They release games so well tested and bug free that the eventual patches deal with incredibly odd issues that 1 in 100,000 people experience mainly due to obscure graphic cards or computer set ups, or minor graphical oddities. They also have balance fixes, something that no other developer wants to deal with (WHAT? You mean my perfect creation is not so perfect? BLASPHEMY! No balance patch for you! MY GAME IS PERFECT AS IS!)

Anyways, TQ has a nice community and an extensive fanpatch project for anyone interested. I don't know if it works with this downloaded version, but it requires the expansion, Immortal Throne.

http://www.titanquest.net/forums/bugfix ... patch.html

Titan Quest is a really fun game with a ton of replay value that gets put down for no good reason other than being a hack n' slash, and apparently any hack n' slash that isn't named "Diablo" isn't good by default. Bullshit.

I found it rather dull. The world lacked the atmosphere of a good Diablo game, and didn't have a lot of excitement either. I played through it once, then put it aside. It does have replay value, but the world isn't randomly generated, so you're going to be exploring the EXACT SAME AREAS twice if you decide to replay it once. Also, the online element is terrible. Characters are saved on your own computer, which means cheating is rampant. They should have gone with a remote server.

Performance is also an issue. It runs pretty slow, even on decent PCs. Graphics are pretty, but nothing amazing. Given how the designers were whining about the people complaining about their game (most of it valid criticism), I have issues with the game. I don't really want to support people like that.

I've never had a top of the line PC, and Titan Quest has played good on the past two I've had, so I could never understand the performance complaints. Yes, it hiccuped once in a while, but what game doesn't?

They couldn't go with a remote server because they had no money, but yes online is terrible... but it's more of a single player game anyways.

The developers did turn into dicks towards the end there. It also didn't help that, in pirated versions, instead of putting in a big image that said "YOU'RE PLAYING AN ILLEGAL COPY, YOU STUPID TWAT!" they opted for a crash-to-desktop. They only really whined about the piracy, though, unless they whined about something else that I happened to miss (and you could possibly provide a link to).

I don't have linkage offhand, but when complaints were levelled against the game about performance issues, they tried to defend the game and say there was all sorts of other shit on people's computer like spyware, and it wasn't their engine's fault.

The game hiccuped along pretty nicely on my system, and for the time, I had a pretty good video card (6800 Ultra). Maybe it had something to do with either my RAM or processor.

Either way, the game wasn't TERRIBLE, it just wasn't as amazing as other games I've played. Really, it brought nothing new to the table, which is my main qualm with it. Why should I play Diablo 2 over again with better graphics? Originality, boys. It's the same reason I only play a very select group of shooters (HL2 for instance), most of them don't have the balls to go out and innovate. They are just standard "shoot things" formula without much improvement or progress on the method.

 

[Serus]

Most of games of blizzard are of very good quality but they will do a mistake one day. Everybody does.

Not quite. Everybody else fucks it up royally where-as Blizzard have a pretty strong track-record of releasing well-balanced, well-thought through games that make it all seem easy. Any patches are usually for minor things or small adjustments to balance compared with other games that either get completely re-balanced in patches (See Dawn of War) or need patches just to work properly or are poor imitations of a game Blizzard did better anyway.

I agree with you. Blizzard makes quality games. They probably will continue releasing high quality games but it wont last forever. Only gods do and you are not telling me Blizzard are gods. There was once a company called Microprose - all their games were of excellent quality, but in early 90 they started to lower their standards and make mostly sequels. They are no more. There are some symptoms already: Blizzard only works on sequels, they will probably try to sell one game 3 times (Starcraft), etc... I am not very optimistic about them.

 

[JarlFrank]

Still, Blizzard is one of the companies that still care about making good games and providing proper customer support. Heck, their latest WC3 patch includes a no-CD crack so you can play without the CD in your drive. Compare that to the likes of EA who screw over customers with horrible DRM or to companies who put out unfinished products that run like shit on most PCs [like the GTA4 PC port]. Blizzard is a company with the heart at the right spot. They want to make money by actually making *good games* instead of simply hype, graffix, buzzwords and fake promises. And that should count for something.

 

[Dragon]

Blizzard is a company with the heart at the right spot.

Uh ?!? They wouldn't make MMORPGs f it was the case.

 

[ArcturusXIV]

The important thing about Blizzard is they are technical experts. Even if they do make a mistake, they tend to fix it down the line. Balance issues, for instance. Yes, they might misfire on a game and change something that doesn't need changing, but at least when I buy from Blizzard I know I am not getting a buggy piece of software, and it should be reasonably balance, or at least will be somewhere down the line. The only problem I have with them as a company is how all their games tend to wank it to the concepts of Warhammer 40k--Starcraft, Warcraft, all of them are derivative. Diablo is their most original concept, and though it is relatively shallow, it is the one I am most excited to play in the future.

 

[Xor]

I remember reading a while ago that Blizzard was going to work on a new franchise for their next game after Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2.

Blizzard is pretty much the only game developer left I have any respect for. They consistently release quality products (all the MMO hate on the codex aside, there's a reason why WoW has nearly 12 million subscribers), and they continue to support their old games years after most developers would have abandoned them.

Diablo 2 and Starcraft are STILL getting occational patches, although I think the most recent patch for both of those games was to remove the CD check, and I doubt they'll receive another patch with D3 and SC2 on the way.