The Mage's Tale - inXile VR game set in the Bard's Tale universe

[Morkar Left]

I have one too if someone wants it...

 

[agris]

Zombra reported for apathy harvesting.

 

[Bester]

Players total: 1,293
http://steamspy.com/app/766320

15 reviews on Steam.

Another demonstration of Fargo's keen sense of the market.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

I also have a coupon for this game that randomly came up on Steam for me.

Because I don't like to cause pain to people, I'm going to let it expire.

Unless one of you really pisses me off. Then you're getting it.

 

[Viata]

I also have one coupon. If anyone is thinking in commit suicide, I can give this coupon to help you take that right step into hell.

 

[Bester]

randomly came up on Steam

We all got it. I think there's nothing random about it.

 

[Bumvelcrow]

Unless one of you really pisses me off. Then you're getting it.

Unless these coupons stack then you have no power over me, as I have one as well. In fact, until I read this thread I had no idea what it was for.

 

[agris]

Players total: 1,293
http://steamspy.com/app/766320

15 reviews on Steam.

Another demonstration of Fargo's keen sense of the market.

I'm happy to dump on inXile when they deserve it, which is a lot, but in this case I think Fargo was being shrewd. My intuition tells me that a VR consortium paid him to develop Mage's Tale and he realized he could use a lot of that money to cover the training of new-ish employees on their UE4 tools for BT4, while producing a lot of game assets that would also get used in BT4. I wouldn't be surprised if Mage's Tale's funding provided a much needed infusion of cash for BT4, regardless of how it sold. As that whatever-site's review stated, there are very few proper games for VR right now, which sounds like Mr. Wells Fargo would have had an upper hand in negotiating the cost of development, i.e. they were better paid for it that comparable non-VR work.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Bester]

Oh yeah, I can just see it... "Our game is so HOT, why is no one buying it? *thinks for 3 days* Wait, I know, it must have been a bad trailer. We just need a new one and all will be fine again!"

 

[Doktor Best]

So the game is for sale and together with this onimous coupon its sitting in my checkout for 10 bucks and an egg. Is it worth that price?

 

[Shackleton]

So the game is for sale and together with this onimous coupon its sitting in my checkout for 10 bucks and an egg. Is it worth that price?

Hmmm, tough one. As one of the few Codexers who's actually got the game and played it, I'd say- probably not. I bought it in my 'wow, VR is so cool' honeymoon period a few days after buying my Rift and at first, it seemed like an awesome dungeon crawler. Throw spells, solve puzzles and find secrets, what's not to like? Well unfortunately quite a bit. The spells are all pretty underwhelming. Burn stuff, freeze stuff, shock stuff or blow stuff back, that's pretty much it. Yes, you can get various modifiers for them like bounce, seek etc, but it doesn't make them much more interesting. The puzzles are moderately entertaining, but this is InExile we're talking about so it's all quite telegraphed and straightforward. The VR is well done, in my limited experience. Lots of movement options and secrets hidden in the environment that you need to look carefully for. I was quite pleased that I could circumvent one trap entirely by craning my head and arm over the fire stream to pick up the item I needed, rather than searching for the hidden switch to turn it off.

The worst failing by far though is that the game takes no time at all to devolve into a dull pattern of 'open door, kill mobs that spawn in waves, then explore room and solve easy puzzle' repeat until bored. Which for me was after about 4 hours. I think I was quite near the end as well, but I just lost the will to boot it up. It'd probably be a good game for kids, but not for Codexers.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

You know, I was hoping for VR remakes of Deadly Towers, sword of Kadash, and Hylide. That latter one you might need to be in a padded room (for bumping into monsters not because the game will drive you mad with that annoying music)..

I’d like to try this maybe once... I thought it was going to get non-VR ports.

 

[Themadcow]

In honesty, it plays far more like Grimrock 1 than a Bards Tale game - it's highly linear, real time combat and puzzle centric. As mentioned above, the game is on the short side, like most VR games, and you're mostly following that puzzle > open door > fight mobs > locate next puzzle structure. However, the graphics are excellent and you really feel like you're in a dungeon environment with huge statues and caverns particularly impressive - sound effects help a lot with the atmosphere too. Movement is probably the biggest barrier to enjoyment, with the blend of grid-like movement jarring with some of the freeform room design - this is very noticeable when climbing ramps or steps.

It's obviously not a hardcore RPG experience but for anywhere near a tenner it's an enjoyable romp through a well designed dungeon environment. Sad to say, but I think they did a better job on Mage's Tale than Bards Tale 4.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Does VR make a lot of people sick? I suppose there will be no Drake & The 99 Dragons VR The Redemption coming out?

 

[Renevent]

The only people who've I've seen get sick using my Vive were old/middle aged women, all of whom never really played video games. Probably 3 dozen people have tried it too.

 

[Themadcow]

I've only experienced sick feelings in a couple of VR games - mainly racing games where the track is a bit hilly. There's the occasional moment of disorientation if you're doing something like staring over your shoulder trying to land a ship on a platform in Elite Dangerous (which is fantastic in VR) but it's few and far between. More than anything else it's just a bit hot and uncomfortable to wear an Oculus style headset for more than a few hours.

 

[Infinitron]

Example of Microsoft's hands-off approach: The acquisition hasn't stopped Mage's Tale from being released on Playstation VR: https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/the-mages-tale-ps4/



Interview with David Rogers: https://blog.us.playstation.com/2019/02/05/the-mages-tale-casts-a-spell-on-ps-vr-today/

 

[FeelTheRads]

Yeah, nevermind that maybe there were contracts in place before Microsoft came in, it must be that awesome deal with Microsoft at work. Just like at couple of years ago it was awesome to have no publishers.

"Example of Microsoft's hands-off approach"



Seriously, that's an embarrassing level of shilling and cocksucking, even if it was true.

 

[Infinitron]

Yeah, nevermind that maybe there were contracts in place before Microsoft came in, it must be that awesome deal with Microsoft at work.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Maybe, but this wasn't a Kickstarter so you can't say they'd made a promise to people to release the game on all platforms. Nobody would have cared if this game didn't come out on Playstation VR.

 

[LESS T_T]

It looks like a complete game not tech demo or minigame collection which most of dedicated VR titles are. I think there are more PS VR owners awaited this game than we might expect.

I think honoring the existing release plans is kinda obvious for the new MS that is planning to expand its service beyond their own consoles. They don't want to look like a high-handed one, meddling (even small) audience expecting these games and contracts with third-party publishers. Hell, even with Sony, MS probably wants to sell Xbox Game Pass and streaming on Playstation systems too IF that's possible.

 

[Bohr]

"The best prices on 3d models, guaranteed"

 

[LESS T_T]

Interview with Fargo and David Rogers about this game and VR in general for some reason: https://twinfinite.net/2019/11/inxi...opment-share-thoughts-on-vr-industrys-future/

Briefly mentions Frostpoint:

Brian Fargo: We’re working on another VR title right now, but it’s not a sequel. We’re really charting some unexplored territory for inXile with this one. We’ve actually been working on it for a few years in secret and are getting pretty close to sharing more. I will say that I’ve always been fascinated by emergent gameplay, and exploring that space is exciting.