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Arma
Mysterious Lady
Joined: 24 Oct 2003
Posts: 1230
Location: in the middle of hell |
Well, I was sazing that Interplay is undoubtzedly going down - not that I want to see it, but they are surely headed for the graveyard.
Why? I think that in the last several years someone on the top of that company made some big mistakes :
- First of all, they sold one of their best studios - Shiny, which not only is known to have developed great games (Sacrifice, Earthworm Jim, Messiah, MDK) and they were developing Enter the MAtrix, which however bad, has sold up to date in about 3 million copies. Also, when sold, they kept the rights for their games.
- BioWare, undoubtedly one of the best studios around, is no more working with them. And that was months before Neverwinter Nights got out.
- Interplay has cancelled several very interesting projects - TORN, which was based on their own IP, and Jefferson
- Up to date, for reasons unknown, their Van Buren project is still not officially announced as Fallout 3. The lead designer quit just several weeks ago (which is another point - the rats are quitting the ship going down?). Why is it still unonnounced - not to dissapoint the fans (well, at least not much) when this is their next game cancelled?
- after the latest news bits, I can't think fo a more stupider thing than what Interplay has did with the Baldur's Gate license - swap the rights to publish such titles for PC with the rights to publish titles with that name for consoles - as Baldur's Gate's fan database is mainly PC.
- Although known as a publisher of great RPGs in the past, as well as other great games, I can't recall any game Interplay is publish in the near (and that near) future, except for Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance 2 and Fallout Brotherhood of Steel for consoles, and the unannounced Falloutt 3
@Wolfgarou - I doubt that they will ever publish a TORN game. Mainly, because we got Lionheart instead.
@Pinky's Brain - I currently think that a next Arcanum game is being developed by Bill Roper & Co @ Flagship. Mainly because of the concept art they have released (that woman with the pethagrams is wearing jeans!) and someparts of his numerous interviews, where he said that their game is based on an existing and known to the players universe. |
Mon Dec 01, 2003 8:10 am |
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corwin
On the Razorblade of Life
Joined: 10 Jun 2002
Posts: 8376
Location: Australia |
Goshuto, Bioware were JUST the developers!!!! I know BIS produced the games etc., but the Devs MAKE the game, which is what I was saying.
Pink, do you know something about KoTOR that I don't? That's a Bioware game which I think will be bigger than BG!!
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If God said it, then that settles it!
I don't use Smileys, I use Emoticons!!
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Mon Dec 01, 2003 11:38 am |
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Arma
Mysterious Lady
Joined: 24 Oct 2003
Posts: 1230
Location: in the middle of hell |
corwin, I don't think so - the game may be good, by I don't like it much - it sounds too much like NwN in Star Wars. |
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Mon Dec 01, 2003 1:34 pm |
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Pinky's Brain
Eager Tradesman
Joined: 28 Nov 2002
Posts: 40
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Kotor combat and NPC interaction are utterly simplistic compared to BG2. It is a typical dumbed down console game, it has high production quality and is in 3D ... which as Morrowind has shown is enough to get even the poorest gameplay proclaimed as world class.
It's a nice game compared to say Morrowind ... but to me it is not level with BG2, hell to me it is not even level with Arcanum.
Lady Armageddona, oh well ... I liked Diablo more than NWN, so even if that is true it is not the end of the world. I wouldnt be very happy about it though  |
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Mon Dec 01, 2003 3:10 pm |
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Arma
Mysterious Lady
Joined: 24 Oct 2003
Posts: 1230
Location: in the middle of hell |
Well, Pinky's Brain, I think that few RPGs can match Arcanum, and definately none of since Arcanum got out. |
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Mon Dec 01, 2003 3:47 pm |
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Lucky Day
Guest
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Don't compare a console game to NWN simply because it uses the same engine.
Conceptually NWN has more content and options available than any other game. If you don't like the official campaign there's 3000 mods to choose from and an array of PW's including my own Wheel of Time The Third Age.
Heck, and if you like sci fi there are even some sci-fi mods. |
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Mon Dec 01, 2003 6:53 pm |
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Pinky's Brain
Eager Tradesman
Joined: 28 Nov 2002
Posts: 40
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When someone writes a mod to let you control an entire party (would have to be some kind of hack using multiplayer mode) maybe Ill be interested in NWN as a single player game ... |
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Mon Dec 01, 2003 7:15 pm |
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Lucky Day
Guest
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back on topic it would be nice if Bioware themselves got the rights to these two names but with Atari locking up the the computer rights from WotC we know this won't happen and Bioware seems to be divesting themsleves in favour of their own engine and working with Microsoft.
We can hope maybe they'll get the rights to Fallout and the SPECIAL system once interplay is gone.
Interplay was failing for years. Selling off the rights to shiny and Matrix was a desperate attempt to stay afloat. Jefferson was clearly dropped because of lack of cash ($7000 in the bank and $2million in debt) and they wanted to get Fallout3, their dream project, done before they went totally under.
I doubt that'll even happen with JE Sawyer gone. Another case of Sir-Tech. |
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Mon Dec 01, 2003 7:22 pm |
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Guest
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> Kotor combat and NPC interaction are utterly simplistic compared to BG2
Combat may be more simplistic, mostly due to the limited magic options in the SW universe and the limited number of characters possible in 3D, but NPC interaction? BS. Most party NPCs have more dialogue than the party NPCs in BG2, and all of it spoken and nicely animated. Only the romance NPCs in BG2 come close. Hell, even the nameless NPCs have a lot more to say, and what they say gets adapted to your latest deeds all the time.
But even regarding combat, the difference isn't that big in practice. In most fights of both games, I can simply lean back and let the melee AI do the fighting. Only the better enemy casters resp. Jedi really need manual intervention.
I wish KotOR (and other non-dumb CRPGs) had something like ToEE's turn-based d20 combat implementation, though. I really liked that, although it was wasted on ToEE itself, which lacked challenging enemies (very few enemy casters, most of which dropped dead in the first round or didn't cast any useful spells). |
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Mon Dec 01, 2003 8:02 pm |
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goshuto
Wanderer
Joined: 29 May 2002
Posts: 1142
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quote:
Originally posted by corwin
Goshuto, Bioware were JUST the developers!!!! I know BIS produced the games etc., but the Devs MAKE the game, which is what I was saying.
Corwin, Bioware was mostly responsible for the technical aspects of the game, like writing the Infinity engine. The writers may have been Bioware's, but they were inexperienced in writing RPGs, and without BIS' people to lead them by the nose ("do this," "no, that won't work," "that's just lame, redo it"), I guarantee you the BG series would never have become such great RPGs.
edit: Just like in the movie or music industry, producers are vital in games. There's no good game without a good producer, just as there's no good movie or good CD without a good producer.
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"Tree stuck in cat. Firemen baffled."--Simcity 3K
"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."--Soren Aabye Kierkegaard |
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Mon Dec 01, 2003 10:04 pm |
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konny666
Noble Knight
Joined: 03 Jul 2003
Posts: 219
Location: Babylon 6 |
It is interesting to note that many of the present BioWare employees are former BIS and Interplay people...
Also, note that the legendary Fearqus Urquhart (sp) isn't with BIS or IPLY, he's with Obsidian (founder?).
BIS is a lost cause... find a different company to be "fanboys" of. 
As for tactical all-party control, that was never what D&D or AD&D was about. That was something invented in the mid/late 80's (anyone remember WIZARDS CROWN or THE ETERNAL DAGGER?? Didn't think so...) and continued by SSI Inc. through the 90's in their various TSR/Gold Box and non-Gold Box games. The reasoning behind "control all 6 party members" was threefold: AI was not an option at this point in time; neither was multiplayer; the result of those 2 non-options was, the only way to simulate a multi-person D&D game was by having one person control all 6 members.
Game technology wasn't at a level where real "role-playing" could be possible. The best that could be done was tactical combat a la *wargaming*. And so they focussed on that, instead of all the other (arguably more important) elements of RPGs in general and (A)D&D in specific. It's no surprise that many of the designers behind all those wonderful Gold Box and pre-Gold Box fantasy RPGs (by SSI in particular) were actually *wargame* designers. But technology has progressed so much, that it's now possible for something very close to the original D&D experience (you control ONLY ONE CHARACTER) to be conveyed well via cRPG's. And I welcome that. |
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Tue Dec 02, 2003 12:42 am |
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Guest
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quote:
Originally posted by Pinky's Brain
Kotor combat and NPC interaction are utterly simplistic compared to BG2. It is a typical dumbed down console game, it has high production quality and is in 3D ...
No it's not. LMAO KotOR and BG2 are VERY similar in NPC interaction and actually, SW:KotOR places a higher priority on it because your Jedi goes to the light and dark side with most of his decisions which makes dialogue even more important than BG2. The only difference is you're only allowed 2 henchmen (which sucks, I know ) instead of the 5 in BG2. Don't hate on SW:KotOR because it's also on a console. An XBox has the same system specs that the computers in BG2's day did, those consoles are getting pretty powerful. |
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Tue Dec 02, 2003 9:25 am |
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Arma
Mysterious Lady
Joined: 24 Oct 2003
Posts: 1230
Location: in the middle of hell |
BioWare don't deserve the rights to BG series! - they really are responsible for (obviously) mostly the technical part of the games. And IWD - oh my god, they haven't lifted a finger for that.
Neither does Atari - when Interplay goes out of business - cause I don't like them anymore.  . Sadly, it would be best if the rights to Interplay's DnD based series goes to Atari, cause that would mean that we may actually see Jefferson released (I mean if Interplay goes bankrupt in the next 6 months that would mean that in a year and so we would see the game on shelves ... hopefully). |
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Tue Dec 02, 2003 4:13 pm |
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Guest
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> you're only allowed 2 henchmen
Don't call them henchmen, you can fully control them after all, unlike NWN's idiotic henchmen. |
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Tue Dec 02, 2003 5:28 pm |
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konny666
Noble Knight
Joined: 03 Jul 2003
Posts: 219
Location: Babylon 6 |
quote:
Originally posted by Anonymous
> you're only allowed 2 henchmen
Don't call them henchmen, you can fully control them after all, unlike NWN's idiotic henchmen.
NWN's "idiotic" henchmen... which are fully compliant with the AD&D concept of henchmen.  |
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Tue Dec 02, 2003 7:48 pm |
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