Preview RPG Codex Hands-on Preview: Might & Magic X: Legacy

[Dorateen]

Ultima, with its pre-generated Main Protagonist and joinable companions, combined with its emphasis on "story" over combat, were precursors to what would become bioware philosophy.

first they came for the popamole
then they came for the infinity engine
now they come for the ultimas

It's OK if you like the Ultima series. All I'm saying is, looking at the evolution of the genre objectively, which is more inline with bioware design philosophy:

Play the Avatar and fight for Virtues out of Social Awareness!

or

A turn-based, grid based party dungeon crawler.

 

[Infinitron]

@Dorateen Whether or not Bioware and Black Isle were directly inspired by the Ultima series when they designed their games back in the late 90s is an interesting question worthy of its own thread. It's surprising how little we know of this.

Personally, I'm not sure whether they were really directly inspired by Ultima 7, or if they just happened to create a similar product via convergent evolution (Baldur's Gate = Gold Box AD&D + adventure game-style storytelling and dialogue trees + Darklands RTwP = pseudo-Ultima game design)

In contrast, the influence of Ultima on the Elder Scrolls series is much more obvious.

 

[HiddenX]

Both, Lord British and the founders of Bioware loved D&D tabletop games. This is well documented.

 

[mondblut]

From a technical standpoint they are obsolete.

From a technical standpoint Fallout is laughably and utterly obsolete. Go play Skyrim.

I hope MMX fails. Long live Ultima....bitches.

Still butthurt over Ascension?

 

[Junmarko]

From a technical standpoint they are obsolete.

From a technical standpoint Fallout is laughably and utterly obsolete. Go play Skyrim.

I hope MMX fails. Long live Ultima....bitches.

Still butthurt over Ascension?

Haha what?

Ok. My response, by this knobs logic.

Might and Magic is laughably and utterly obsolete. Go play Roller Coaster Tycoon 2.

Never played Ascension, what's a paladin?

 

[Grunker]

MY PA CAN BEAT YOUR PA

 

[mondblut]

Ok. My response, by this nobs logic.

Whose logic that was, again?

Might and Magic is laughably and utterly obsolete. Go play Roller Coaster Tycoon 2.

I am utterly crushed now. How can I possibly play an obsolete game?

Wait. I can.

Never played Ascension

How could it happen? Among Ultimas, that one is definitely the least obsolete. Or was, until mr. Garriott blessed us with an up-to-date, totally unobsolete facebook Ultima.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Might & Magic and Wizardry were true RPGs.

Said no one, ever.

Who the fuck is this moron? Drog, is that you again, bro?

 

[Junmarko]

Might & Magic and Wizardry were true RPGs.

Said no one, ever.

Who the fuck is this moron? Drog, is that you again, bro?

Some one who obviously needs to type 'Sarcasm Incoming' Before every post.

Ok. My response, by this nobs logic.

Whose logic that was, again?

Might and Magic is laughably and utterly obsolete. Go play Roller Coaster Tycoon 2.

I am utterly crushed now. How can I possibly play an obsolete game?

Wait. I can.

Bravo Cornelius bravo. You do that. With your low standards and all. You queen you

Never played Ascension

How could it happen? Among Ultimas, that one is definitely the least obsolete. Or was, until mr. Garriott blessed us with an up-to-date, totally unobsolete facebook Ultima.

I don't play facebook games either, so again, I can't comment. But you seem intent on bringing up the flaws of LB after he was bought out by EA. Here's some extra trivia: Warren Spector made a Mickey game!!

 

[Nael]

Both, Lord British and the founders of Bioware loved D&D tabletop games. This is well documented.

But did they love tabletop games or did they LOVE tabletop games?

 

[FeelTheRads]

Some one who obviously needs to type 'Sarcasm Incoming' Before every post.

Moar like retard incoming.

I don't think you know what sarcasm is. At best what you're doing is called "trolling". At worst, you're just dumb.

 

[HiddenX]

Both, Lord British and the founders of Bioware loved D&D tabletop games. This is well documented.

But did they love tabletop games or did they LOVE tabletop games?

Matt Chat 196: Lord British on Ultima and Akalabeth and D&D in the 70s:


and this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BioWare

BioWare's founders and staff were keenly interested in both computerized and pen-and-paper variants of role-playing games.Their next development project, therefore, was determined to be an RPG. When Interplay financed "exploratory development", BioWare presented the publishers with a demo called Battleground: Infinity. Interplay suggested that the demonstrated gameplay engine would be well-suited to the Dungeons & Dragons license which it had acquired from SSI. Accordingly, Infinity was reworked in line with the Dungeons & Dragons ruleset.[9]

 

[Broseph]

Real hypocrisy is to say everything bethesda release is shit and being excited about the release of a game that seems even more shallow and generic .

Might & Magic X: even more shallow than a Bethesda game. Fucking please. Cut the hyperbole, Edgy McEdgerson.

 

[Nael]

limited class selection

I was skeptical too when I first created my party but there's more skills to choose from than the older titles and alot of those skills seem to cross over between the different classes. I think with the other classes available in the full game you will have a pretty good range of customization for each character.

no puzzles(maybe?)

Not as many but I've found one puzzle so far and it's a doozy. Actually had to bust out a pencil/pad to write down the sequence of patterns I was observing to unlock a door.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

So another game actually delivers on the promise of being based on "old school" mechanics just to see the inclined prestigious gamers turn on it. At least no one is surprised any more. Please tell me again how New Vegas is awesome.

Anyway, I cautiously like what I'm seeing. I always liked both simple and more complex crpgs. As long as they are crpgs. And not shitty console action games.

Also lol @ Junretardo, such simple trolling is always so effective

 

[Wizfall]

It doesn't look bad at all.
But M&M combat system has always been a bit too simple for my taste.
Looking at it i can't stop thinking it could have been a great Wizardry game.
I may buy the game though (not sure because of Uplay)

 

[Nael]

So another game actually delivers on the promise of being based on "old school" mechanics just to see the inclined prestigious gamers turn on it. At least no one is surprised any more. Please tell me again how New Vegas is awesome.

To be fair I think some have valid complaints and others just don't like the Might and Magic series, period. However I do think MMX is a solid Brofist to fans of the early part of the MM series and after some polishing should be a high water mark in the series after the abortion that was MMIX.

 

[IDtenT]

The irony is of course, that if it is a success the follow up will be with a bigger budget and introduce more decline and so the cycle will continue.

 

[Zeriel]

They did say that in the article explaining why they went with grid-based: that if X does well, the next game will likely be a wide open, non-grid-based title in the style of 6-8. I was like, "So if this does well I'll never see anything like it again? Way to set me up for disappointment."

Market forces, man. They're fucking obscene.

 

[Infinitron]

They did say that in the article explaining why they went with grid-based: that if X does well, the next game will likely be a wide open, non-grid-based title in the style of 6-8.

They've never said that, they only hinted that it might be a possibility.

BTW, the game seems to be selling reasonably well on Steam.

 

[Zeriel]

I take all "by the way, we might do this horrible thing" hypotheticals as fact, based on my past experiences.

Admittedly, such pessimism cannot account for something like M&M X existing at all.

 

[Nael]

The irony is of course, that if it is a success the follow up will be with a bigger budget and introduce more decline and so the cycle will continue.

MMXI will see the return of Sheltem vs Corak and will be a AAA Zombie fantasy RPG shooter with rayguns. Cycle complete.

 

[Zeriel]

I'd almost be okay with a popamole shooter if it brought back Erathia.

 

[Darkforge]

I just went through the Alpha.

I like it.

So Fuck you all.

And I'm glad their are no fucking puzzles too. I don't play RPG games for puzzles. Fuck that shit.

Again it maybe simply because there has not been a decent RPG released in years but...

 

[Darth Roxor]

I like it.

So Fuck you all.

And I'm glad their are no fucking puzzles too.