Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

[Banshee16]

Yes, and like I say, it doesn't bother me. Everyone has the right to do what they want. If it bothers anyone enough, then they should certainly vote with their wallet. I was just stating the other side, and that if one enjoys video games, it's a good idea to support the industry.

Oh, believe me...I support the industry *and* believe in not blocking a used market. I had to buy a bookshelf from IKEA to hold my collection of 360 games...most bought new. So, do I feel guilty for wanting to sell some to clear up space? Nope, my conscience is clear. They've got more than enough of my blood.

Banshee

 

[Krug]

I wonder how well this will do coming so close after Skyrim. The comparisons are inevitable. It better have one heck of a story.

 

[Super Pony]

I don't think the Skyrim effect will be too detrimental. If it had released in the same month or even with some new DLC it could be shakey, but Skyrim launched three months ago and most people looking to buy new releases will already be looking for "somethin' new" anyway.

I replayed the demo again last weekend. All in all it seems like it'll be fun (provided there is a bit more depth in the full release). The story of KoA isn't really anything staggering from the openingn cinematics (bad guy doing bad things laughing like a bad guy and rubbing his hands together plus zombies). I'm going to have to test it out at my cousin's setup before I go and dive in though. He's getting it this morning and planning on junkin' out on it for a while.

I'm still having a ripping good time with Dark Souls. Game play is super rewarding, replay value through the roof, and THAT game has a seriously under appreciated story world. So much so that I'm planning on running a Burning Wheel take on it for some "old neighborhood" friends this upcoming summer when we get together to be smelly old nerds.

I'll be curious to see how people enjoy the full release of KoA. Even if it is a "single player" version of WoW it could be awesome. There was a lot to WoW, and I never got to see more than about 40% of it due to not being a 40hr per week player.

 

[Agamon]

This game looks plenty different form Skyrim. Graphically, it looks WoW-ish. It's less sandbox-y and more story-oriented. It's 3rd person, where Skyrim was 1st person as a default. It plays more as an action game than a tactical one.

I'll probably pick it up some time this year, but I'm busy with Batman and some other games until ME3 ships.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Just order a copy, so, hope to be playing by this weekend

 

[erf_beto]

This game looks plenty different form Skyrim. Graphically, it looks WoW-ish. It's less sandbox-y and more story-oriented. It's 3rd person, where Skyrim was 1st person as a default. It plays more as an action game than a tactical one.

Being 3rd person is what makes me consider it over Skyrim, as I can't seem to get used to that format (and IMO Skyrim in 3rd person plays..., idk, weird)

I played the demo on my x360, and really enjoyed it, despite my initial lack of faith. I think it's worth checking.

But after reading about Oline Pass and such, I'm unsure to buy it, even if not used. I haven't gamed on consoles for a long while (since PSOne!) and all this DLC, XBL, security issues crap on the plataform are new to me. And so far, I've only been put off by it: living in Brazil I have restricted access to downloads (I like and support indie titles mostly, not mainstream) and most of them are very badly translated with no option to turn it off. And the prices are so very steep, due to currency exchanges, that you end up double thinking all your purchases - specially when they sell you "half" a game, with the other half sold in DLC. So this news of online blocks only adds to my list of bad things about gaming today.

So I'm not sure I'll get this game, but from the demo, I'm tempted to.

 

[Super Pony]

The "Online Pass" stuff is just a couple bits of DLC that are by no means mandatory to enjoy the game. There's some Mass Effect themed armor, a couple faction quests, and some other misc. items but nothing that would bar someone from enjoying the game.

STILL...it sucks that the person that purchases the game "new" gets more than anyone would get "used" without purchaseing DLC. But theres no need sprialing out on that again

 

[Banshee16]

Well, in 1981, Pac-Man for the Atari 2600 cost $40. Really, the price of new games should probably be higher than they are, much higher. Instead, they're just getting shorter and not as good.

There's a huge difference in sales levels though. Yes, Pac-Man cost $40. That was 30 years ago. But if you put in 30 years worth of inflation, that would be what.....$101.60 now?

You can bet they wouldn't sell nearly as many games at $101.60 as they do at $40. And the market is much bigger than it was in 1981.

Pacman supposedly sold 7 million copies in total. Modern Warfare 3, by comparison, sold 6.5 million copies *in the US alone, in the first 24 hours of release*.

Those are *huge* differences in numbers. You can bet those numbers go up quickly when you add in other markets, and also when you consider it's been available for weeks already. There's probably different popularity of games based on country...but I'm just guessing. In Canada, in 2011, Skyrim was one of the top 10 search terms used on Google....Modern Warfare didn't even come close, I believe. So I might guess that Skyrim sold better than MW3 in Canada. But that's a complete guess.

The games industry is bigger than Hollywood now, in terms of total revenue. I really don't think they're hurting.

Banshee

 

[Banshee16]

The days of physical media games are coming to a close. As much as I hate to see it happen, in another 6-10 years we'll either be downloading directly or streaming from dedicated servers. My two year old son will point and laugh at me when he's 12 and hears stories about how I used to go to a "store" and buy game discs and then drive all the way home and then install them. Never mind discussion of "cartridges" or 5.5" floppy disks.

Is anyone other than me not enthused by the idea of physical media being gone?

At least where I live, in a new development (new meaning our street was put in 8 years ago, and we moved into the brand new house), we don't have fibre available, and the lines for our ADSL are supposedly only rated to 5 Mbps max...there's been no improvement. Yet the phone company is advertising fibre services that run upwards of 20 Mbps....but only in "new-er" type developments. Cable's a possibility, but everyone I know who has it says the speed depends on time of day, etc.

Downloading games, particularly in high def, would suck. I downloaded the Age of Conan FTP client and files on Sunday, and it took....uh.......14 hours?

I'd much rather just walk to the local EB, buy it on a disk, walk home, and start to play. Until higher speeds become available, I just don't see that happening.

Banshee

 

[Agamon]

There's another thread for this side track stuff, so we can keep this one about KoA.