Fadook wrote...
pheared wrote...
Once upon a time, roughly 10 years ago, baldurs gate 2 was released, the compelling storyline and the imensely varied and tactical gameplay, the ability to customize your character to the extremes (kensei mage anyone?) overshadowed the fact that this game had for its time a very inferior game engine (infity) which caused the game to have sub standard graphics. Most oldschool fans of this gerne remember these facets of baldurs gate(2) with nostalgia and would like to see those elements incoperated back into its so called successor games (dragon age series), the fact that it is being released on the console and has seriously limited the options for customization and tactical gameplay leaves just the storyline, which i consider a sad direction for the game to go.
Now i dont begrudge any of you the action gameplay or the smooth graphics at all, but the core audience of this game I believe has little care for it*, and if you are wondering where this is comming from try and play Baldurs Gate 2 for a change. On the bright side i did like DAO and Awakening, however as far as calling it a spiritual successor to Baldurs Gate, not really.
I will likely buy this game and play through it before calling it a console port, but Bioware is walking a thin line to lose a large part of its core audience, while the appeal of new and younger audience is clear, as that's where the money lies, do remember that we were that same audience 10 years ago hungering for the successors to the games that put bioware on the map as a serious and well liked developer.
*This does not mean we dont care at all, just not nearly as much.
BG2 actually received plenty of praise for its graphics (particularly the art style) when it was released. Just check the wikipedia entry to see some comments. I continue to be confused by the snobbish attitude the so-called "core audience" have towards graphics. Good graphics have a vital role to play in creating the sense of immersion RPG players value so highly.
It's been repeated about a million times that BW isn't going to make DA2 an action-RPG. This video goes some way towards proving that. There's really no justification for this claim that BW is dumbing things down to the point that the "core audience" (who I doubt matter as much you think if ME2's success is anything to go by) will be turned off.
Wikipedia
GamePro praised the game's graphics, saying that "the backdrops
are stunning and the spell effects are impressive with or without 3D
acceleration."[6] IGN
echoed this statement by stating "The comparison between [the graphics
of] Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II is astounding—like looking at a
still oil painting, and then turning to see the scene in living motion
on a big screen TV."[10] FiringSquad said that the game's artwork surpassed that of Planescape: Torment, and called the background artwork "fantastic"
This quote comes directly from wikipedia, to draw a conclusion from what a single reviewer said about the game is slightly over the top not to mention that what was mostly stated was that the game has improved compared to Baldurs gate, the infinity engine was at the end of its days and its capabilities maximized due to its inability to properly render 3d.
Also i do care about graphics, it is the reason why I have a pc thats, to put mildly, above average, my gaming addiction did start with games like Baldurs Gate, however in rpg's the immersion is what counts, the ability to immerse yourself into a world relies mostly on your sense of imagination and ability to identify yourself with your character through choices made, customization and progress through the world, graphics dont immerse as much if the rest of the game doesnt pull you in in other area's.
The only thing this video has proven for me is that there have been changes made to in order to appeal more to people as me, the fact remains, and this is not snobish at all, and more than obvious in DAO, that to accomodate for the lesser amount of controll that can be excerted through a controller on consoles the amount and complexity of gameplay has been reduced and so by default moved the game closer to an action rpg and further away from the game they call its spiritual ancestor.
At heart I am a pc gamer, and i believe that in its current format the consoles wont live to see another decade before taken over by more multifunctional systems, which essentially transelates back to game pc's, the console vs pc "war" that has been raging only has an impact when games are build to suit an at this time larger market while its predecesors are pc games.
To your point regarding ME2's success, what game does it try to follow? Its a new genre that only few games so far have explored by combining shooters with rpg's, ME and ME2 were successfull as they put it in a format that was closer to an rpg than to a shooter, but has nothing whatsoever to do with its core audience, other than that bioware has build a new type of game and never claimed it to be anything other than what it is, not to mention that in the ME series there was little need to "dumb it down" as shooters do not tend to have any large amount of skillsets unless you think of war simulators like ARMA and OFP and the addition of aim assist which when turned off on pc's many pc gamers would still have "the edge" over consoles due to the mouse's precision and controll.
Modifié par pheared, 18 décembre 2010 - 11:16 .
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