D&D 4E 4e and Computer Games

[Grossout]

... Or a 4 player Xbox 360 game ala D&D Heroes. That's what I really want to see.

Yep. That was a fun game. The only thing I hated about it was that most of the dungeons and especially the castle at the end of the game had no rhyme or reason to the layout. Hallways that would lead to more hallways. Rooms that were just rooms. I don't need to see perfect ecology, but throw me a bone! I can kind of let that stuff slide in an underground lair of some sort, but a castle? Ugh. Great game otherwise...

 

[Rabbitbait]

Something along the same lines as the old Temple of Elemental Evil computer game would work well. I loved how the game switched to tactical mode when a battle started and it really used the D&D ruleset. There are so many real-time fantasy games out there I've I've just gotten bored with them.

Isn't also about time they put a Z axis in fantasy computer games as well? I'd love to be able to jump, climb and fly in D&D computer games. Rogues miss out on half their skills in NWN (not to mention doors that are not plot specific being un-openable).

 

[Ian O'Rourke]

Yes! D&D tactics! I'd be up for that. Or a 4 player Xbox 360 game ala D&D Heroes (with Xbox Live optional, I actually like to play with my friends in the same room). That's what I really want to see.

Yeah, I would love this sort of game as well.

I wanted the PC game The Temple of Elemental Evil to be good, but alas it was crap. It was going for a similar sort of feel, controlling a whole turn-based party through a dungeon.

Imagine that on Xbox Live, with full voice and each player controlling a member of the party with as much 4E rules as possible...I'd play it. Nice.

I only say Xbox Live because my PC probably wouldn't run it.

 

[Snarls-at-Fleas]

The game I want is D&D 4E-base game with vast and open TES-like world and DMoMM-like battles.
What?
Oh... D&D 4E-based Age of Conan-like MMORPG.

 

[SmCaudata]

Actually, I think 4e will be awesome for computer gaming. When you click rest you have two options "5 minute" and "Full rest". Easy. Computer games already know when encounters start and end. Simply have per encounter spells/buffs end 30 seconds AFTER the last combat action. 2nd problem solved.

As to the turn based vs real time. If the AI is good then your allies will do fine. In Baldur's Gate I played real time almost all the time. Then when I got to some of the difficult fights I would change the options to pause at the end of every round so that I could controll each player in the best tactical manner. To be honest, the Baldur's Gate games are still the peak of D&D computer gaming. I think 4e lends itself to having great turn based options. NWN games are excellent too, but play more like an action game most of the time. I'd love to have a Baldur's Gate 3.

 

[Crashy75]

There was something special about Baldur's Gate that I haven't seen since.

 

[FadedC]

Hmm....it seemed like 3rd edition should have been great for CRPGs too. In all the years the game was out I don't think there was ever actually a good one though was there? Elemental Evil made a good try but was too horribly buggy and the complexity of the combat was too much for the enemy AI to handle half the time. Some liked NWN (not me) but it rewrote the game rules to such a degree that it was only sort of a "D&D based" game. Maybe NWN 2 was different?

Given how out of vogue turn based CRPGs seem to be at the moment I don't really have high hopes for anything good in that area coming out for 4E.

 

[Crashy75]

There was something special about Baldur's Gate that I haven't seen since.

 

[Monkey Boy]

There was something special about Baldur's Gate that I haven't seen since.

Baldur's Gate had a sandbox style world where you could complete quests at your own pace, leave the main plot for a while and just explore. It was also lengthy, had depth and told a story similar to reading a good fantasy novel.

It captured the exploration feel of DnD very well. It had excellent voice acting, was well scripted, had great characters (who will ever forget Minsc the mighty Berserker and Boo).

Baldur's Gate was a good story and as such was a good advertisement for DnD.

I love me some Baldur's Gate and I am not alone.

 

[bowbe]

A D&D online enabled computer game for Xbox360, PS3, and PC that played as well as Call of Duty 4 with optional downloadable dungeons for multiplayer play and 6-8 party adventure crawls would rock.

As would a similar level-able Call of Duty 4 system for leveling a chacter to 30 in a 10 on 10 pvp setup. Hell even a prestige mode where you reset to 1st and go thru it all over again to show your hardcore-ness would be pretty tight.

With 4e i don't see how it would be too difficult to hot key/map your various powers and abilities on the fly (and yeah the timers for resetting them). With the various dials and buttons you could literally hot key your character with something 4 presets of 9 different abilities per selected character preset. (What I mean there, is you could say have the same character decked out with a certain preset at the start of a dungeon, click to your pause screen, change to a second preset of that character, and then have 32 options for all the bells and whistles. Of course your gonna have your "standard attack and drink potion/use healing surge" standards in there so ok... 30 options. I think thats plenty for what I have seen of spells and abilities for 4e.

I don't know however if Atari or the other computer companies under the hasbro umbrella have the smarts of activision/infinity ward or microsoft/bungie to be able to pull it off without it sucking.

Hasbro, I know your reading. You know how to find me to send the royalty check. I expect this game in my machine by christmas of 09.


Trust me, a REALLY good online compatible version of 4e will make more money on release day than all the books WOTC can sell+subscriptions of premium D$D Insider. Call of Duty 4 sold 7 million copies at 60 bucks a pop...meaning retailers made about 210,000,000 and activision made about 105,000,000 after paying its licenses to sony and microsoft. Thats freakin Hollywood dollars baby. (BTW Hasbro totally knows this)

Sadly, WOTC won't see a dime of it if(when) such a game ever does come to pass.

Case

PS: Totally agree, no other D&D game experience has thus far caught that certain magic that Baldur's Gate series had going for it. I could go Grognard and say it was the rules, but I'll go elitist and say it was the story and voice acting