Decline Sword Coast Legends Pre-Release Thread

[Snorkack]

Hardcore and old-school are buzzwords nowadays.

I will believe it when I see it, and I sure as hell dont trust Digital Extremes and N-Space.

There's a fairly large group of college students that I met a few weeks ago and the topic of video games came up. They told me that they really enjoy the "old-school, hardcore games of the past." Intrigued but a bit cautious, I responded, "Oh, you mean like the Wizardry games?" I got blank stares. "Ultima?" More blank stares. Out of desperation, I said, "Well you've at least played Doom right?" Nothing. "Well what do you mean by old-school, hardcore games then?" The students then replied, "You know, like Halo and stuff."

Sometimes I wonder if there are some middle-aged uber nerds that frown upon us and be like "stupid popamolers don't even know about oubliette" and the likes.

 

[Xenich]

Hardcore and old-school are buzzwords nowadays.

I will believe it when I see it, and I sure as hell dont trust Digital Extremes and N-Space.

There's a fairly large group of college students that I met a few weeks ago and the topic of video games came up. They told me that they really enjoy the "old-school, hardcore games of the past." Intrigued but a bit cautious, I responded, "Oh, you mean like the Wizardry games?" I got blank stares. "Ultima?" More blank stares. Out of desperation, I said, "Well you've at least played Doom right?" Nothing. "Well what do you mean by old-school, hardcore games then?" The students then replied, "You know, like Halo and stuff."

Sometimes I wonder if there are some middle-aged uber nerds that frown upon us and be like "stupid popamolers don't even know about oubliette" and the likes.

Nah, the progression from the early days of PC games were an actual evolution due to faster processors and more memory providing increased options in their development. While I do enjoy the fact that text systems provide for more imagination, I don't see graphical systems as being a sell out, just a furthering of ones vision when making a game. Besides, most of the early graphical games were nothing more than taking the previous text systems and overlaying a graphical interface/environment to it. Consider the games today and how they have progressed where they write for inferior systems and the focus of their design is to attend to the lacking traits of kids today (ie designing systems that account for short attention span, lazy effort, etc...).

Yea, so that is why I don't personally have such view of the gamer who lagged shortly after my generation. These days though, today's gamer? They aren't a gamer, they are just blobs moving around looking to smash buttons.

 

[GrainWetski]

1. "Hardcore"
2. PS4 and Xbox One

Pick one option. What constitutes for "hardcore" on consoles these days are action games that don't hold your hand like you're a 6 year old.

So these are the people who got tired when Bioware decided to go full on romances and shit? At this point, if it's anything like Dragon Age: Origins I will be happy because you can't really expect anything deeper than that from a console game.

See, this is what I hate though. Dragon Age: Origins wasn't a shining example of cRPGs. It was obviously console at its core and had many short comings due to that design focus. It is sad that we have been conditioned with so much pure garbage out there that we look to these lacking titles as the hope for the future.

While it was still a console game, it was an infinite amount better on PC. Can't say the same for any ShitWare game released since. There's a reason they went full action game instead of making the combat actually deep and tactical, they shifted the focus more towards consoles.

 

[Xenich]

1. "Hardcore"
2. PS4 and Xbox One

Pick one option. What constitutes for "hardcore" on consoles these days are action games that don't hold your hand like you're a 6 year old.

So these are the people who got tired when Bioware decided to go full on romances and shit? At this point, if it's anything like Dragon Age: Origins I will be happy because you can't really expect anything deeper than that from a console game.

See, this is what I hate though. Dragon Age: Origins wasn't a shining example of cRPGs. It was obviously console at its core and had many short comings due to that design focus. It is sad that we have been conditioned with so much pure garbage out there that we look to these lacking titles as the hope for the future.

While it was still a console game, it was an infinite amount better on PC. Can't say the same for any ShitWare game released since. There's a reason they went full action game instead of making the combat actually deep and tactical, they shifted the focus more towards consoles.

Good point, I forget sometimes that there is a segregation within that community as well concerning the decline of gaming.

 

[Bio Force Ape]

world-renowned fantasy franchise

Not many of those. LOTR, A Song of Ice and Fire and uh... D&D?

 

[34scell]

Nah, the progression from the early days of PC games were an actual evolution due to faster processors and more memory providing increased options in their development. While I do enjoy the fact that text systems provide for more imagination, I don't see graphical systems as being a sell out, just a furthering of ones vision when making a game. Besides, most of the early graphical games were nothing more than taking the previous text systems and overlaying a graphical interface/environment to it.

I think you need to play more text based games. Adventure game design completely stopped progressing with the move to point and click, as far as I know.

 

[Xenich]

Nah, the progression from the early days of PC games were an actual evolution due to faster processors and more memory providing increased options in their development. While I do enjoy the fact that text systems provide for more imagination, I don't see graphical systems as being a sell out, just a furthering of ones vision when making a game. Besides, most of the early graphical games were nothing more than taking the previous text systems and overlaying a graphical interface/environment to it.

I think you need to play more text based games. Adventure game design completely stopped progressing with the move to point and click, as far as I know.

Was talking about cRPG games mainly. Mouse point and click severely dumbed down the systems and eventually led to the demise of the entire adventure game genre.

Edit:

Now that I think about it, it did have a negative effect on cRPGs too. Early cRPGs allowed for text input while later ones adopted similar mouse techniques with dialog selection trees. There is something to be said about the "play" when you have to consider everything written and then respond specifically with appropriate text rather than simply clicking a pre-generated response. hmm....

 

[Sensuki]

Hardcore RPG ... Dragon Age ... Xbone/PS4

 

[Suicidal]

The only "hardcore" I expect from Bioware is more fucked up deviant porn shit, rather than anything related with actual RPG gameplay (unless we're talking about the kind of RPG that involves handcuffs and a ball gag).

 

[LeStryfe79]

Hopefully it will be an isometric Hack 'n Slash set in the Zork universe. I've been wanting gather up some of my pipe-hitting friends to curb stomp Frobozz for quite some time now.

 

[Bubbles]

world-renowned fantasy franchise

Not many of those. LOTR, A Song of Ice and Fire and uh... D&D?

We already have recent action-RPGs for the first two. I think a D&D action-adventure that's basically Shadow of Mordor in the Forgotten Realms is the likeliest bet.

 

[tuluse]

How come no one uses the D&D lisence anymore? inb4 Roguey answer "because it's a horrible system"
Obviously consolization is to blame, but D&D games were still a prominent part of CRPGs during early to mid 2000s. Now that there's a CRPG revival going on, you'd think that some developer would've put 2 and 2 together.

4th Edition was in license hell where 3 different companies all owned aspects of the video license. I believe Hasbro/WotC now owns everything for 5th Edition. So I would expect to see some licensed games with it.

Don't get your hopes up though, the time of big budget d&d games has long sailed. Companies spending big money would rather use their own IP and not have to share any profits while also not having to deal with someone else's restrictions. I doubt Hasbro will pony up to fund a game themselves, so it will all be shovelware.

 

[pippin]

Bring back Dark Sun ffs
edit: not too long ago there was a comic book set on Dark Sun. It's not like they can't use that particular license...

 

[Grunker]

How come no one uses the D&D lisence anymore? inb4 Roguey answer "because it's a horrible system"
Obviously consolization is to blame, but D&D games were still a prominent part of CRPGs during early to mid 2000s. Now that there's a CRPG revival going on, you'd think that some developer would've put 2 and 2 together.

4th Edition was in license hell where 3 different companies all owned aspects of the video license. I believe Hasbro/WotC now owns everything for 5th Edition. So I would expect to see some licensed games with it.

Don't get your hopes up though, the time of big budget d&d games has long sailed. Companies spending big money would rather use their own IP and not have to share any profits while also not having to deal with someone else's restrictions. I doubt Hasbro will pony up to fund a game themselves, so it will all be shovelware.

If we get 5th edition D&D games it is highly likely that it will D&D in name only.

 

[Grunker]

I recall for instance Sean Punch telling me something along the lines of "we'd love to do a GURPS video game but the reality is that selling books is hard enough on it's own, selling video games based off of those books, well..."

 

[TheGreatOne]

Why can't they use old rule sets then? I guess it's bad PR, but that could help sell old rule books as well.

Bring back Dark Sun ffs
edit: not too long ago there was a comic book set on Dark Sun. It's not like they can't use that particular license...

How are they? The art looks quite bad, judging by that panel. That kind of style might fit tintin or something but not Dark Sun. Needs an artist who has drawn Conan or some similar comic.
Imagine Planescape comics drawn by some good surrealist artist

 

[Jaesun]

Designing your entire game around a console controller.

That is some fucking SERIOUS HARDCORE! Holy shit.

 

[Perkel]

Designing your entire game around a console controller.

That is some fucking SERIOUS HARDCORE! Holy shit.

player will be controller

 

[Gondolin]

Obligatory: In Soviet Russia controller plays you.

 

[Night Goat]

Fucking Florida.

Spoiler

Those look like fun people to party with, I don't see the problem.

How come no one uses the D&D lisence anymore? inb4 Roguey answer "because it's a horrible system"
Obviously consolization is to blame, but D&D games were still a prominent part of CRPGs during early to mid 2000s. Now that there's a CRPG revival going on, you'd think that some developer would've put 2 and 2 together.

Fourth Edition happened. Wizards of the Coast discontinued an edition that was really good, in hopes of making everyone buy the new edition that was incredibly bad. It backfired, hilariously; turns out that unlike in every other medium, the pnp audience tends to prefer things that are good over things that are shit.

5e may have potential for a crpg; in fact, this may avoid one of my biggest problems with the pnp game (the fact that, instead of having rules for things, it usually just tells the DM to make something up). It remains to be seen whether 5e will be a success though, I think anyone who might make a crpg based on it is waiting to see how it does before going all in.

 

[naossano]

Will it be as hardcore as skyrim ?

 

[Roguey]

See, this is what I hate though. Dragon Age: Origins wasn't a shining example of cRPGs. It was obviously console at its core and had many short comings due to that design focus.

Dragon Age: Origins was a PC game ported to consoles, not the other way around. It was a tens of millions of dollars project at its core.

 

[Dorateen]

Dragon Age: Origins was announced as a PC exclusive, even announced uncharacteristically early in development by bioware, to appease their older fan base who had to sit by and watch console releases since Neverwinter Nights.

Then, late in the development cycle, bioware confirmed DA:O would come out for consoles as well.

bioware lied, children died.

 

[Xenich]

See, this is what I hate though. Dragon Age: Origins wasn't a shining example of cRPGs. It was obviously console at its core and had many short comings due to that design focus.

Dragon Age: Origins was a PC game ported to consoles, not the other way around. It was a tens of millions of dollars project at its core.

It was released simultaneously for the PC, Xbox, and PS3. It was designed with console in mind, for console limitations, with console play and focus. The game looks and plays like a console game. /shrug

 

[Bubbles]

The console port had a troubled development and needed several extra months of dev time to get into shape. Have you even played any of DA:O's console ports? PC was plainly the lead platform.
If you want to see a Dragon Age game with "console limitations and console play", play DA2.