Kingdoms of Amalur

Gunmonkey

Decided to throw a bit of info about this game up after a bit of inquiring in the Mass Effect 3/ KoA:R crossover armours thread. That and I think it looks really good so far.

EU website

From what I can tell, its an open world RPG developed by Big Huge Games () with art design by Todd McFarlane (creator of Spawn and made a few dragon statues :P ), setting and world design by R.A. Salvatore (writer of the Forgotten Realms novels and creator of Drizzit) and designed by Ken Rolston (he was lead designer of Morrowind and Oblivion). Gameplay is your traditional fantasy RPG: monsters to slay, quests to complete, gear to loot. Big difference is the combat, seems to echo Devil May Cry, God of War and Bayonetta.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEEaBSi6vpw

Other interesting mechanic is the Abilities and Destiny trees. You have 3 skill trees to invest your points in: Might, Finesse and Sorcery.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2uuNylm9Wk

Destinies are essentially classes, and unlock once you place enough points in the relevant Ability trees. So focus on Might and you become a Warlord, wielding the heaviest weapons and armour. Mix a bit of Finesse in though and you can become a Duelist, hitting with fast, critical attacks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weRpEK4gFM0

The game also has a full crafting system with enchanting, gem crafting, alchemy and such.

Obviously its gonna be compared to Skyrim but after pouring hundreds of hours into Morrowind and Oblivion and hearing the "ZOMG Skyrim is teh bestest" I played it and got bored after about 18 hours split between 2 characters, combat was just so dull and lifeless at times.


Anyways, KoA:R is out Feb 10th on X360, PS3 and PC (its an EA game so no Steam, its on Origin though :pac: )

Dcully

Have my eye on this quite a while,will be interesting to see what the final offering is like.
Like yourself i got bored of skyrim eventually mainly because the combat wasnt great.

Completionist

I got bored of skyrim because i spent 150 hours doing absolutely nothing!:pac:

As much as i want to get this on release, RPG's have let me down too much in recent times for that sort of investment!

Kiith

It looks great. Been keeping tabs on it for a while now, and hopefully it will live up to expectations. Combat looks pretty good, and the world looks interesting.

Shame it's not on Steam though.

Mr Freeze

Completionist wrote: »

I got bored of skyrim because i spent 150 hours doing absolutely nothing!:pac:

As much as i want to get this on release, RPG's have let me down too much in recent times for that sort of investment!

Snap out of it man, and live up to your name, and go back and spend another 150 hours and finish Skyrim before this comes out. :pac:

Gunmonkey

Ok so the demo of this is up on the Xbox Marketplace (need a gold account since 1 week priority), Origin, Steam and should be on EU PSN later today (already on the USA PSN). Its near 2.8Gb so could take a while.

Have to say its a very meaty demo, giving you the basic tutorial dungeon and then letting you loose in a quite large area for 45 minutes with several quests and dungeons to complete. Given the nature of Reckonings Destiny system i find myself going back several times to try new builds and playstyles, something cant be said for a lot of demos (the game also letting you skip the tutorial if you have played it already helps).

Dcully

Excellent ill grab the demo on steam later.

Temptamperu

Ive downloaded the Demo, Its 1.9 gigs, but I got free armor for the game and some Mass Effect 3 armor too.
I love the Art Style, I really like the combat and the story seems alright so far. Ive not yet completed the demo but I think I will pre-order this later today.
Im playing through as a mage but theres a whole stealth system to be explored and warrior style. You can pick from 4 races and male and female of those aswell.
I am really looking forward till the full game comes out because i have played Skyrim to death and I have rage quitted Dark Souls so i am in need of a new Fantasy game.

Zero-Cool

Excellent! Gonna download this later for ma ME3 goodies! Game looks interesting as well so will give it a bash.

Kiith

Will try this later, if only to test how it runs on my pc and to get the free armour. Looks really good though, and have been looking forward to it for a while now.

Shiminay

I was playing the demo last night on XBox - was pretty much the same as what I'd played in London.

I saw at the start of this week's Funday Monday broadcast that Day[9]'s gonna be streaming himself playing this game on Feb 7th so I may pop in when he's a few hours in to see how it's looking, but I'll probably be getting a copy for review.

NunianVonFuch

Played the demo, really good stuff. Bit of humour here and there in the dialogue, but it could do with a bit more as it comes off as bland. However the gameplay mechanics, art style and customization options more than make up for it. One to watch I reckon, having heard little to nothing about it prior to now.

One thing though, the prison system is a bit broken. I was trying to be a bandit but got caught by guards, and chose go to jail. Broke out by slaying all the guards (no witnesses) but everyone is my enemy now. Everyone. Quests are off the table until jail time is served. I know this is a similar system to Elder Scrolls and Fallout, but I recall if you successfully escaped from jail in Oblivion, no one attacked you on sight.

Fable crossed with Oblivion describes it very well, taking only the good parts from Fable and a bit of everything from Oblivion.

Temptamperu

Yeah I was gonna say Nunian, Its like if Fable was good. I didnt go to jail but I did a few quests in my 45 minutes as a mage or whatever they call it in this. The combat is really good and I like the spaz out feature or whatever it is when you fill the bar, Might start again and go for a bandit run now.

Da Bounca

NunianVonFuch wrote: »

One thing though, the prison system is a bit broken. I was trying to be a bandit but got caught by guards, and chose go to jail. Broke out by slaying all the guards (no witnesses) but everyone is my enemy now.

Character X is in prison. People arrive on the scene to find all the prison guards dead and character X has escaped. You don't really need witnesses to put 2+2 together on that one.



Played some of the demo and enjoyed it. There is a lot of scope for different characters and builds. I like the combo'ing system too. No multiplayer is a big no-no for me, but it looks like it will stand up to most of the big name solo RPGs.

Sephiroth_dude

Downloading the ps3 demo,its taking an age,has anyone else played on the ps3?
how are the controls?

Lordhogo

Two of the developers on the IGN GameScoop podcast said it took their playtesters 200 hours on a speedrun to 100% the game so for someone like me who would be taking it slow, listening to all the dialogue etc this is gonna take a while.

degrassinoel

just downloaded and finished the demo.

First impressions are not good.
ATI card users cant see the game until Post processing in the graphics panel ingame is switched to off.

No mouse sensitivity adjustment option.
Bare minimum of graphical tweaking.
Already feels like a poorly thrown together console port. (i'm sure it plays great on XB or PS3, but on pc its lousy)
Framerates drop in combat upon entering combat and it actually freezes from time to time.
Bear in mind my video card is fairly decent and can play a multitude of recent releases at ultra settings without framerate dropping below 40fps.

played through the tower and out into the open world where you get 45 minutes of playtime doing whatever it is.

On the plus side,
The combat was fun.
The Inventory was easy to navigate
whites greens blues purples and golds loot system ala wow.
Water effects were pretty nice but nowere near skyrim quality.
pretty decent voice acting and quests.
Boss mobs (well, the two trolls i found) hit very hard and require you to use more than your smashysmashy button.

For pc users, grab the demo and see for yourself, its decent but i dunno if i'll pay for it until it goes onto a steam-sale. If the finished product improves/fixes the stuff i've been whingeing about, i might consider buying it. Otherwise.. sales.

Gunmonkey

Had that slowing issue with the combat too, think its actually the combat music track starting that bugs it.

Dcully

First impressions are not good.
ATI card users cant see the game until Post processing in the graphics panel ingame is switched to off.

No mouse sensitivity adjustment option.
Bare minimum of graphical tweaking.
Already feels like a poorly thrown together console port. (i'm sure it plays great on XB or PS3, but on pc its lousy)
Framerates drop in combat upon entering combat and it actually freezes from time to time.
Bear in mind my video card is fairly decent and can play a multitude of recent releases at ultra settings without framerate dropping below 40fps.

Lousy on PC? What are your specs because im getting 70-120 fps @ max settings 1920X1080, ATI user and absolutely no issues at all,silky smooth performance.
As for mouse settings, its called camera sensitivity and its adjustable.
I dont know what your talking about having to turn post processing in the graphics panel ingame.
Worked fine for me straight away, all i done was upped the resolution and clicked everything to max.

Robby91

Dcully wrote: »

Lousy on PC? What are your specs because im getting 70-120 fps @ max settings 1920X1080, ATI user and absolutely no issues at all,silky smooth performance.
As for mouse settings, its called camera sensitivity and its adjustable.
I dont know what your talking about having to turn post processing in the graphics panel ingame.
Worked fine for me straight away, all i done was upped the resolution and clicked everything to max.

I'm getting the same issues as degrassinoel (with a 5870 1GB, which hasn't struggled on anything I've thrown at it yet) - intro cinematics/game were black apart from UI prior to fiddling with the settings, momentary freezes during combat. If the problem isn't universal, I suppose it could possibly be a driver issue?

As long as the problems can be resolved, I'll be happy - the game does seem pretty fun (and the dagger kills are pretty damn cool) and it'd be a shame to pass it up because of these issues

degrassinoel

Robby91 wrote: »

I'm getting the same issues as degrassinoel (with a 5870 1GB, which hasn't struggled on anything I've thrown at it yet) - intro cinematics/game were black apart from UI prior to fiddling with the settings, momentary freezes during combat. If the problem isn't universal, I suppose it could possibly be a driver issue?

As long as the problems can be resolved, I'll be happy - the game does seem pretty fun (and the dagger kills are pretty damn cool) and it'd be a shame to pass it up because of these issues

same as mine, the issue with the black screen is apparently very common, i found the fix for it (turning off PP) on the steam forums for the game itself, it was the first topic there at the time. http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2489251

@Dcully
the mouse settings - cam sensitivity didnt do anything on my machine, the camera rotation and characters spin at the same rate regardless of what setting its at. It may be too slight for me to notice, but it felt like it did nothing and i ended up just putting up with it. thats actually another annoying thing, the camera acts wierd sometimes when you're in combat and lets your characters run almost offscreen before it tries to centre back on it. Is that a feature or a fcukup? disorienting either way.
I was originally playing in the standard setting for everything, this is where the black screen was, i could see all of the intro movie and menu's but not the actualy game when it cuts through the 5 or 6 cutscenes at the start. Upon changing res and various other options i still had the same problem, restarted steam and tried everything again and its all the same. Card drivers are up to date, as was steam etc.
If the demo worked fine for you first time, fair play.. took me around 45 mins of messing around with it and checking forums/drivers/restarting this that and the other to get it to run anywere near decently.

johnny_ultimate

This is one of those games where the stupid fantasy title repulses me instantly :P

Looks like it does some interesting things (and a very colourful artstyle), but all that fantasy lore and jargon in the trailer really turns me off.

humanji

I had a go of this last night on PC (only got to play until you first get into the open world) and really enjoyed it. Didn't have any of the graphical issues mentioned above, but did find the mouse sensitivity a bit annoying at first (oddly enough I didn't think of looking for an option to change it, and just got used to it).

The controls are very console orientated, but I didn't mind it too much (I might try it later with an xbox controller to see if that's any better). I quite liked how the tutorial let you try out each of the archetypes (warrior, mage thief) instead of making you choose one at the start, as a lot of RPG's do these days. Although I did notice that the Rock Troll at the end of the tutorial was immune to the only spell I had, so I guess it's the kind of game that you can't really specialize as one type of fighter (which is probably a good thing, anyway).

Graphically, it's not amazing, but it's not trying to be. It's really like WoW or Fable 3. In fact, as said above, this is really like a good version of Fable 3.

Combat has the same simplistic feel of Fable, that also allows for some more complex moves. Unfortunately, like the Fabel games, the menu system is a little too layered. Even when using keyboard shortcuts it's annoying to have to go into another menu.

Also, I kind of like the idea they had of playing the demo and unlocking items in the full game and in Mass Effect 3. It's like an almost viable anti-piracy plan. Granted, pirates will be able to get the full game with all the extra items anyway, but I would feel more incentive to buy a game when the publisher is treating me well, instead of assuming I'm a criminal (I'm talking to you Ubisoft!!!).

Shiminay

I ran into those graphical issues too last night on PC (ATI 6950) so will try the fix suggested above. I fancied seeing it run on the PC to compare with XBox as I'll most likely be playing ME3 on PC, so if I'm getting free stuff, I wanna make sure I can use it

calex71

Played on xbox, I didn't bother with this thread or research the game in anyway but sure there was a demo so I gave it a go.... was enough there to interest me for sure.

Can't put my finger on exactly why but when I started into it and saw the cut scenes I was reminded of fable for some reason Not that it's very like it.

Edit: Just saw the post above re: fable so seems im not alone

Anyway from the demo, nothing ground breaking but enjoyable enough for me to curse having to wait to play the bloody game. Oh before you do anything else sensitivity on the controls needs to be set waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyy down !!!!!!!! the default was way to skitish

sin0city

Dcully wrote: »

Have my eye on this quite a while,will be interesting to see what the final offering is like.
Like yourself i got bored of skyrim eventually mainly because the combat wasnt great.

+1

30 hours in traded it.

NunianVonFuch

Da Bounca wrote: »

Character X is in prison. People arrive on the scene to find all the prison guards dead and character X has escaped. You don't really need witnesses to put 2+2 together on that one.

Ah you're being a bit pedantic now. There's no point in having the prison system with the option of breaking out if everyone remains your enemy no matter what you do unless you serve your time or successfully bribe the guards. Like in Oblivion they'd bring up your past crimes if you escaped and were hunted by guards again, but not if you successfully sneak out. You can't sneak out of jail in this tho as there's only one exit and when it loads up the exterior, you're right beside an instantly hostile guard. It's not a dealbreaker, just an odd setup that might be fixed in the final game.

Niska

Enjoyed the demo - the gme was under my radar until the ME3 bonus items were announced.
Played both the PS3 and PC - found the controls worked better on the PS3, though that was mainly due to being unable to remap the RMB, which is an almost criminal design decision . The PC interface definitely suffers from the feel of a poor thought out console port. The equipment interface is bulky, the camera is very loose and gets unstuck from the character a bit too much.

PS3 had a few technical issues - the sound messed up around 30 miniutes in lopping between silence and music. Also the water effects occasional opaqued to a black mirror-like effect. Controls work well on the controller, though the spell casting feels a little awkward.

Probably will pick the game up - though not at launch.

Sephiroth_dude

Niska wrote: »

Enjoyed the demo - the gme was under my radar until the ME3 bonus items were announced.
Played both the PS3 and PC - found the controls worked better on the PS3, though that was mainly due to being unable to remap the RMB, which is an almost criminal design decision . The PC interface definitely suffers from the feel of a poor thought out console port. The equipment interface is bulky, the camera is very loose and gets unstuck from the character a bit too much.

PS3 had a few technical issues - the sound messed up around 30 miniutes in lopping between silence and music. Also the water effects occasional opaqued to a black mirror-like effect. Controls work well on the controller, though the spell casting feels a little awkward.

Probably will pick the game up - though not at launch.

I played both demo's too and preferred the ps3 version,I walked out of a bar and there was a big black hole in the ground :eek:

Shiminay

Can't re-map WASD for movement in the PC version either which I think is almost criminal! I'm willing to let it slide until the full release, but I'd rather play this on PC than XBox (I find inventory management annoying with a pad vs a mouse). However, it's pretty obvious that this is mainly a console game and the PC port hasn't been top of the priority list with the deadlines approaching. That's not a major criticism or anything, it's the reality of the business and all that, but I think I'm being sent a PC copy to review which is, I will admit, a very small complaint

Kiith

Seems decent, but it keeps crashing for me after about 10-15 minutes. Kind of annoying really, so i might just get it on the 360 once it's out.

Zero-Cool

Can anyone tell me when the ME 3 gear unlocks? I started up the demo and was making a character but had to head away. Other than that, I've just been playing ME 2. Now i'm kinda worried if this is a time release demo and I might miss the stuff.

I went to finally play NFS The Run demo a few weeks back and said the demo was expired.

Kiith

I think it's as soon as you leave the tutorial dungeon. Can't remember exactly, but i think it was once you select your first Fate card thing (Mage, Rogue or Warrior). Got a big popup saying i'd get the item in ME3, as well as some items for this.

Zero-Cool

Thanks Kiith, will give it a lash later!

Shiminay

I *think* I had something else unlock after I hit the 45 mins mark, but yea, when you meet the Fateweaver outside the Tower you escape from, you'll get some sort of notice.

Niska

You unlock the Armour very early (just after Character Creation IIRC) and the ME3 weapon is unlocked at the end of the 45 minutes.

Burning Eclipse

I couldn't bring myself to finish the demo. This did not appeal to me at all and by rights, this should by "my kind of game", but I found nothing of interest here.

Now, before someone says finish the demo and I might find something of interest, it speaks volumes that I thought this was so fundamentally poor that I didn't even bother to finish it.

Temptamperu

Mine unlocked all the stuff before I stareted.

Zero-Cool

Ok, I got past the dungeon and told I have 45 minutes to explore. I don't really like the game so don't want to play it any more but havn't unlocked the ME3 gear. Sounds like it was unlocking for people at different times. Think i'll just let him stand around for a while, see if it unlocks.

Notorioux

Worst demo I've ever played. I don't know if they released the demo to put people off not to buy it or what, but it's just so buggy as ****. It's like I experienced every single bugs in that 45 mins (Froze once, Dialogue skipping really fast when talking to NPC's, No sound, Visual pop-ins, Ground disappearing.) and people were saying "cause it's an old build demo yada... yada... there will be no bug in full game" MY ASS! A huge game like this is impossible not to have a single bug!

I find combat MEH! It wasn't deep enough and it felt very easy. Lock picking seems like a dumbed down version of SKYRIM's lock picking.

and also "Online pass" has just been announced for A SINGLE FECKIN' PLAYER GAME?! :mad: Feck this!

Temptamperu

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/advanced-preview-kingdoms-of/726281

This game sounds amazing, according to the video the bugs experianced are being ironed out.

danthefan

Temptamperu wrote: »

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/advanced-preview-kingdoms-of/726281

This game sounds amazing, according to the video the bugs experianced are being ironed out.

Yes, I will definitely be getting this.

Zero-Cool

Finished the demo, watched the end vid and it went back to the menu. No armour or weapon. Any way to check if I actually unlocked these?

Kiith

Assuming you were signed in, you should have gotten a prompt to say that you had unlocked the weapons. Armour was at the very start.

Zero-Cool

thanks Keiith turns out I wasn't signed in first time. Have the armour and the launcher now! Great idea with the cross promotion. I won't be buying this, not my cuppa but wouldn't have even tried it if not for the unlocking stuff so fair play ea.

Overheal

Gunmonkey wrote: »

From what I can tell, its an open world RPG developed by Big Huge Games ()

I could see that actually. With Rise of Legends they basically tried to dispense with RTS trappings and turn it into an RPG. Also, World of Warcraft kinda started out the same way, as a prototype mod under the WC3 Engine (You can still play it actually, it's a short RPG campaign about the founding of Ogrimmar)

A bit surprising, but not shocking. And they have been a company off the shelves for 5 years, so anything was possible.

danthefan

Just wondering has anyone found this cheaper than the ~€32 (including postage) on gamestop.ie?

Temptamperu

danthefan wrote: »

Just wondering has anyone found this cheaper than the ~€32 (including postage) on gamestop.ie?

Its not even out yet, why would there be reductions

Viral Vector

I honestly wouldn't have touched KoA:R if Mass Effect 3 wasn't doing a cross promotion! Anyways I wasn't a fan of the game....each to their own I suppose and now I have a cool gun and armour for ME3!

Kiith

I've cleared the demo, but i'm not sold to be honest. The combat was supposed to be a selling point, but i didn't really enjoy it that much. I'm also kind of sick of the fantasy setting. Might get it when it's a bit cheaper, or when i might be stuck on the couch for a week in March (knee op).

Sephiroth_dude

Don't think I'll bother with it either,I was really excited about this but the demo let me down,something wasn't right,I'll wait till the reviews come out anyway.