Sunday morning brunch - OB-info/hype

[Excrément]

When I'm interested into something (like the ES games) or when something bothers me (like an opinion on the ES games), I will troll a forum about it for months: I can't ignore it and will never forget about it.
I can't understand that my counter-bashing is fun. And some stupid people seem to never have enough of my counter-bashing.

Fixed again. (More fanboy crap please)
PS: je sais: c'est facile. Mais c'est plus fort que moi.

abruti

 

[kris]

or there is no more demand for challenging games in any other aspect than action

Most people don't find following bad directions to be a fun type of challenge -- it's just a pointless time sink. It's a sensible compromise to the fact that you can't ask for clarifications and such, because you're forced by the medium to deal with whatever the designers wrote.

I can't remember when I had to search for a quest really. better would have been to point out houses on maps and such.

50 hours of recorded dialogue is still not enough.

While it can be because the game is so big, that should be solved with scaled dialogues and the stupidly limited fully voice acted.

 

[Irwanday01]

here is a quote from the reviewer of PC Gamer about his RAI problems and the quests in bOblivion :


50 hours of recorded dialogue is still not enough.

actually it was cut to 25 hours of dialogue.

I don't have a link, you can find a link to the article in one of the topics here at the codex.

 

[Micmu]

Actually it was cut to 25 hours of dialogue.

Pete Hines himself corrected that to 50 at ESF when the panic started. Apparently there was an error in that interview.

 

[Relien]

actually it was cut to 25 hours of dialogue.

I don't have a link, you can find a link to the article in one of the topics here at the codex.

No, it was only a rumor:

I don't know where that came from. A typo, something, I don't know. We did that piece last August so we had pretty much forgotten about it entirely.

It's 50 hours.

 

[Stupid Man]

More fanboy crap please

abruti

Merci! Comme quoi, il suffit de demander.

 

[Solik]

I can't remember when I had to search for a quest really. better would have been to point out houses on maps and such.

I had several directional problems in Morrowind. A couple of them resulted in me wasting an hour or two of my time each doing nothing (time I really don't have to waste now that I work full time instead of attending class). After a few of those, I actually started using GameFAQs when I got more bad directions. It's not that Bethesda (& other developers) habitually give bad directions. It's just that there's a huge number of quests, so there's pretty much a guarantee that there will be a few miscommunications on where to walk (and incidentally, those will likely differ between people -- things some people had a lot of trouble finding, I probably found very quickly and easily).

Pointing out spots on a map isn't really any different than this, either. It just means you'll be pulling up your map often, pausing the game and digging through the interface. It's much sleeker to just have something like that a small part of the main screen, if there's room for it. Now, if the thing actually did pathfinding for you, that I'd complain about. But it doesn't, so eh.

It'd still be nice if it (and everything else interface-wise) was togglable, of course, because minimalist interfaces can really help immersion, particularly when you don't really need it at the time (aimless wandering with little or no danger around, etc).

 

[GhanBuriGhan]

Thats what confuses me. I am not denying the compass can't be useful sometimes. But I don't understand the flat out refusal to make it a toggle - are they afreaid people won't find the button to turn it on again? After all the heated discussion, you'd think they would do that, but no! That doesn't even have anything to do with dumbing down, thats flat-out stubborness.

 

[Micmu]

Not all reviewers liked it.

The compass contains important hotspots that are nearby like towns and ruins in the form of little icons. The closer you are to the hotspot the less faded the icons are. Similarly a pointer is placed on the compass that shows the direction of the location you need to be at for your active quest. To begin with this is red but when you are near your target area the pointer will turn green. For example if you need to visit an alchemist in Cyrodiil a red pointer will lead you directly to where the alchemist is. Once you enter the alchemist building the pointer will turn green and lead you to exactly where the alchemist is in the building. Once again I’ll be cynical and say if I wanted someone to hold my hand and make me feel “special” while doing quests I’d have invited a friend over to do it all for me. If you were one of those people in Morrowind who couldn’t follow directions, never learnt how to read a map or were impatient in finding what you were looking for then this feature will be a god send to you. If you enjoy finding your own way to places and using the map for things other than fast travel then you’re going to have a hard time trying to ignore the pointers on the compass.

...Slightly worried I entered the problem house (now easy to find with the handy-dandy all-purpose “I’m special” compass)...

(Source).

And he's right.

 

[Bolgard]

I’m not sure there’s much more that can be said that hasn’t been said already. There’s no doubt in my mind that Oblivion will be RPG of the year 2006, and most likely candidate to make game of the year in publications world-wide. It’s just that good.

He's probably right here, too.

 

[sheek]

When I'm interested into something (like the ES games) or when something bothers me (like an opinion on the ES games), I will troll a forum about it for months: I can't ignore it and will never forget about it.
I can't understand that my counter-bashing is fun. And some stupid people seem to never have enough of my counter-bashing.

Fixed again. (More fanboy crap please)
PS: je sais: c'est facile. Mais c'est plus fort que moi.

abruti

Salope!

 

[dongle]

Usually I reread the journal, looked around, and found that cave/tomb/whatever. It's not a big problem to write good directions or let the player ask NPCs when he gets closer and needs further info etc.

And that’s a key to good gameplay. Force the player to look around, absorb the world, and decide for themselves where the seedy side of town (or whatever) is. Force the player to actually interact with the world a little. This connect the dots shit where you zip from goal to goal following the arrows to gain Xbox achievements as quickly as possible sounds boring to me. Yes, I could stop and look around a bit on my own, but will I want to as much with the compass pointing out what I need to do next?

Thats what confuses me. I am not denying the compass can't be useful sometimes. But I don't understand the flat out refusal to make it a toggle - are they afreaid people won't find the button to turn it on again? After all the heated discussion, you'd think they would do that, but no! That doesn't even have anything to do with dumbing down, thats flat-out stubborness.

Especially since it seems so easy to turn it off with a game setting.

Perhaps, just perhaps, maybe knowing that the compass will be ever-present the quest writers took some shortcuts? Maybe instead of interesting directions, all we get is a “follow the arrow to Mr X”? Maybe enough shortcuts were taken that we really can’t play without it? That would be a shame.

 

[Irwanday01]

For all you Pete Hines Haters out there.......prepare to be dazzled.

Pete Hines: Yes, absolutely. We had to. We knew that the hard drive was going to be an option and not a requirement. So from day one we always planned on being able to run the game without it.

Apparently this genius knew three and a half years ago that microsoft would give xbox360 consumers the core/hard drive option.

Full article:
http://www.xbox365.com/news.cgi?id=GGrGLiNudN03092320

 

[Lumpy]

Thats what confuses me. I am not denying the compass can't be useful sometimes. But I don't understand the flat out refusal to make it a toggle - are they afreaid people won't find the button to turn it on again? After all the heated discussion, you'd think they would do that, but no! That doesn't even have anything to do with dumbing down, thats flat-out stubborness.

Especially since it seems so easy to turn it off with a game setting.

Perhaps, just perhaps, maybe knowing that the compass will be ever-present the quest writers took some shortcuts? Maybe instead of interesting directions, all we get is a “follow the arrow to Mr X”? Maybe enough shortcuts were taken that we really can’t play without it? That would be a shame.

Yes, that's been feared for a long time. Although MSFD said that there actually are written directions, it's been said several times that it's impossible to play the game without it.

 

[Relien]

I believe it's extremely hard to FINISH the whole game without the compass, but I really doubt it's impossible to play without it showing you everything all the time.

 

[Lumpy]

There might be a mod that replaces the compass with written directions.

 

[VenomByte]

Here's to hoping.

 

[Excrément]

There might be a mod that replaces the compass with written directions.

There is a dev quote from MSFD saying you can mod the compass out (at least the indiccations but not the N/W/S/E directions)

 

[Lumpy]

There might be a mod that replaces the compass with written directions.

There is a dev quote from MSFD saying you can mod the compass out (at least the indiccations but not the N/W/S/E directions)

Of course you can... The hard part will be modding written directions back in.

 

[ANDS!]

This is the second time a reviewer has taken to using story format to convey the details of a quest, which is a terrible way of being objective about a game.

Uh - guh? Its a writing style, nothing else. Obviously the reviewer was impressed with the quests he took part in, and wanted to convey that in the review. I wouldnt read to much in it.

until you realize it's just a fancy way of saying their is no enemy AI.

Again - huh?

At what point will you realize the pretext is worthless, as you'll end up in a button-mashing slug-fest anyway?

Combat situations are inevitable. Are you saying the "buildup" is invalid because youre going to get into a knife-fight with enemies? That seems like a pretty petty standard to hold up to these scenarios. As for "Buttom-Mashing" - have you spent time with the combat engine? From what we've been told, and according to reviewers, its anything but the rapid "clickity-clickity" of MORROWIND. Again, inevitably, you're going to be hitting buttons, but with the BLOCK SYSTEM (that rewards a succesful block, and penalizes having your attack blocked) it seems that theres more to this clickity-clickity than you think.

If not, what other parts of this guys stories are made-up bull?

Another lame nit-pick. Did anyone read (other than you) "dark and stormy night" and think anything BUT "Oh the writer is setting the mood". Your assuming that another style choice is meant to be taken as actual in-game effects (and it could be storming outside - if if theres no indication of it inside), and then from there positing a query on the validity of the ENTIRE article.

Aside from the lameness of a wack stealth system, it seems as if all horses magically travel at the exact same speed. How sweet is that.

All horses dont move at the same speed. The horses THEY were on may have been the same type, but different types of horses move at different speeds, and I'd imagine have different health ratings.

RE: The compass - I can see where its good, and where its bad. There are MANY quests in Morrowind where the directions left A LOT to be desired.

 

[LlamaGod]

RE: The compass - I can see where its good, and where its bad. There are MANY quests in Morrowind where the directions left A LOT to be desired.

your head would explode if you tried to play Ultima 4.

 

[ANDS!]

your head would explode if you tried to play Ultima 4.

Doesnt sound like much of a fun game to play then. Immersion is one thing; obtuse and exclusionary for the sake of being obtuse and exclusionary is a whole nother matter entirely.

To each their own then.

 

[Zeb]

Ultima IV was/is one of the best 'old school' cRPGs out there. A game where you actually used your imagination. Not like todays 'purdy graphics','no brains needed' FPSesque action RPGs, where it's almost like a movie with little or no thinking required. I blame these console kiddie's who are just to lazy to think for themselves, for the dumbing down of this, and every genre of game.

I used to play Ultima IV on the Apple ][, and then again recently on an emulator. It still holds it's own.

Also i enjoyed MW for what is was, a giant sandbox/action/explorer game. And i am sure i will enjoy OB for the same reasons, but they are NOT the definitive cRPGs by any strech of the imagination.

Just my two cents.

 

[ANDS!]

Isn't the point of technology, to showcase it? These games that were focused on immersing the player in the world by virtue of its own atmosphere - you dont think theyd have hopped on the "purdy graphics" bandwagon if they had access?

As for holding the players hand - some games are simply meant to be FUN. Ill use X3 again as an example - no doubt its fun (to me at least), but to others. . .easily it can be seen as a chore simply because of the level of involvement that is DEMANDED to get the most out of this game. TES I think stradles that line. Its not a DIFFICULT game (I really dont remember any puzzles in MW honestly). . .but its simply one that says - heres our world - discover it.

 

[Tintin]

New Oblivion video on main page..

http://www.elderscrolls.com/downloads/media_movies.htm