107 réponses à ce sujet

[Maerimydra]

I just bought the game, so I cannot say if the story is bad or good. However, there is one thing I can say : when a compagny, like Bioware, make a game that take place in an already existing franchise, like Forgotten Realms for Baldur's Gate and Star Wars for Knight of the Old Republic, all the devs have to do is to worry about the story, but the story is limited by the franchise, thes devs cannot do all what they want (for the best and the worst). On the other hand, when the devs create their own settings, they must split their work between the creation of the story and the creation of the new franchise, but in this case, the franchise is at the service of the story.



IMO, I prefer playing a game that take place in an old existing franchise, because it gives me the feeling that the background of the world is more rich and solid. The world of Jade Empire seemed hollow and cliché vs the world of Baldur's Gate. However, once the franchise is created, the devs can make sequels for the game and those sequels can be more focused on the story while their new world become richer and more complete with every sequels. That's why ME 2 seems more kewl than ME 1 and if they do DA 2, the effect will be the same.



I'm sorry for my writtings, english = second language

[Maerimydra]

Lord Phoebus wrote...

I agree the plot was fairly uninspired and really fell into the standard Bioware mold:

• You're the chosen one (Grey Warden, Jedi, Spirit Monk, Bhaalspawn).
  
  
• You have to go to 4-5 locations to get the widget (in this case troops, as opposed to star map or word of power) after which the game becomes linear.
  
  
• One of your companions is lost to you at a critical point in the adventure (you can avoid this but there are two companions you can lose at the same point).
  
  
• The main villain presented to you in the game isn't the real main villain but you still spend most of the game fighting him.

*''SPOILERS'' ALERT* 
The last one is not true. In Bioware's games, the main villain IS nearly ALWAYS one of the first villain OR character you encounter in the game. Think about BGI, BG2, BG2-ToB, KotOR, JE, and ME...
*END OF ''SPOILERS''* 

Modifié par Maerimydra, 26 décembre 2009 - 11:51 .

[ttrnet]

I'm enjoying DAO very much but am not going to argue about the fantasy setting as it's been hashed over many times over in this thread. I think there are enough permutations and differences that to say DAO copied derivatively from LOTR is not true. People need to differentiate from what are called standard fantasy "tropes" in the genre as opposed to "copying". There's a big difference and even the law recognizes that in copyright law. Which I won't get into to spare people a pedantic lecture on US copyright law.



That being said, I AM very disappointed that DAO did indeed take its visual cues and art design from the LOTR movies. The architecture, visual character design, depiction of the Darkspawn (they look like all the permutations of uruk hai, orcs and goblins from LOTR movies). I was hoping that DAO would have a more original visual focus, reflecting some different culture cues and the like. Guild Wars has a very striking and unique fantasy art design and DAO didn't even come close to that originality. Even BG2 had some very strong art design that didn't borrow its visual cues from standard fantasy. As a dark fantasy, I was hoping that DAO would be some amalgamation of Conan and A Song of Ice and Fire, something dirtier, more primal fantasy with fantastic alien settings.



Still, I'm playing DAO like crazy so it's not that a big deal for me

[Zenon]

Maerimydra wrote...

Lord Phoebus wrote...

I agree the plot was fairly uninspired and really fell into the standard Bioware mold:

• You're the chosen one (Grey Warden, Jedi, Spirit Monk, Bhaalspawn).
  
• You have to go to 4-5 locations to get the widget (in this case troops, as opposed to star map or word of power) after which the game becomes linear.
  
• One of your companions is lost to you at a critical point in the adventure (you can avoid this but there are two companions you can lose at the same point).
  
• The main villain presented to you in the game isn't the real main villain but you still spend most of the game fighting him.

*SPOILERS ALERT* 
The last one is not true. In Bioware's games, the main villain IS nearly ALWAYS one of the first villain OR character you encounter in the game. Think about BGI (koveras), BG2 (sucineri), BG2-ToB (nassilem), KotOR (kalam), JE (il retsam) and ME (gnierevos on the video screen in the normandi). You must read the names backward to understand.

*END OF SPOILERS* 

I would like to comment, that often in Bioware's games the things are different from what they appear in the beginning. Even though for example in JE the character, who turns out to be the actual main villain is introduced early in the story, that character can't be identified as such during most of the game. Especially in JE where the main target seems to be obvious until you learn the complete truth.

An advantage of a preset setting is of course, that there was more work and lore contributed to it. But then again often you feel you walk on tested grounds, the situation is pretty clear, who or what is evil, what is good, etc. is already given. So a new setting allows to turn the tables for some sides to find new alignments. Still it is easier to add to something, than to create all new from scratch and still make it look as complete as something grown over years. So, in DA2 I'd expect some more details in game-world, history, bestiary, skills, talents (crafting!), spells, character classes even.

I know it's off-topic, but also Bioware: Also for ME2, I hope they added some stuff, which they had lack of time for ME like females for Turians (and Salarians). I also hope the RPG part including story and character interaction stays at a simlar level and is not substituted by more action (It's ok to add more action and make the game bigger, but I pray the RPG part didn't get smaller than in ME, where some of the character dialogue options were exhausted already soon enough.)

[Zenon]

@ttrnet:



I don't see much resemblance of the Uruk-Hai compared to a Hurlock. Perhaps the regular orcs look somewhat similar to the Genlocks. But then I could also argue that the Genlocks look a bit similar to Warcraft III, or WoW orcs. Then again after creating many variations of humanoid monsters with distorted, or decomposed features, which are supposed to have recognizable human features have to become similar to a certain degree sooner or later. Suggesting the artists just copied some stuff is not only unfair, but probably not true. Inspired by is more like it. And if we didn't like LotR, D&D (FR), Warcraft (obviously inspired by LotR) we wouldn't want so much more of the same (similar) stuff.



Concerning GW: I tried it, but it's not for me. Perhaps the races or monsters are more unique, but it's not my favrourite gameplay. It's undoubtly a good game, but I don't play it.

[DragonRageGT]

There are no Orcs like those in Gothic. I'm a huge Tolkien fan but Gothic's Orcs are simply the best ever! (IMHO) And they hit hard, ooh they hit hard!!!

LOL... just found this... quality ain't that great but still... amazing vid! With Orcs!!!

Modifié par RageGT, 26 décembre 2009 - 01:01 .

[James L Buchanan]

Pretty comprehensive trolling by the OP.



I thought it particularly amusing when he referred to "those old 80s dragonlance novels" as examples of superb storytelling.

[GHL_Soul_Reaver]

those 80s Dragon Lance Novels has some excelent stories that could actually be used in RPGs... also the characters would be very useable as companions... also the Forgotten Realms universe has some lore... much of the RPGs that is based on D&D has forgotten realms lore into them which pretty much is written in the same kind of way with of course there small differences between Dragon Lance and Forgotten realms as it is.



Even Tolkien with Lord of the Rings got a game made as well as a movie trilogy so what is the friggen deal about it? all three books got different ways of tackling the ways of how it is.



All the lore origins from Northern Mythology, Asian Mythology, Greek and Roman mythology and so on and so forth, and those are all under D&D, Forgotten Realms, Tolkiens Universe, Dragon Lance as well. So what is the deal about all this whenever it gets to it?