Kingdoms of Amalur

[Tossica]

Checked out the demo. Ghey. *fart noise*

[Griever]

I have it downloaded and probably will try it tomorrow, but so far I've heard it's surprisingly good. I'm sure you are comparing everything you play in the fantasy RPG genre to Dark Souls now when that really isn't a fair comparison.

[Lyion]

I downloaded it and enjoyed the demo for the 45 minutes it let me play.I liked the combat, and the class/skill combinations.

I'll definitely buy it eventually, but I'm not sure if it's worth 60 bucks. Then again, I don't think Diablo 3 is worth 60 bucks so my opinion may be in the minority.

[Tossica]

Didn't care for the cartoon graphics, the controls or the combat. Didn't hold my interest for more than a few minutes. Pass.

[Lyion]

The graphics were quite nice and not too cartoony for me. The controls were fine for the PC. I didn't play the console version. As I said, I'll pick it up as it seems a solid game, just not for full price. I got Skyrim for 40, and tried to go cheaper. If I had to do it over I'd have waited for Skyrim until it was on sale. Dark Souls was 10 bucks.

The next game I'm looking forward to really is this guy:

http://www.amazon.com/Sorcery-Playstati ... B003O6HAS2

[Lyion]

Might try to score an earlier copy.

http://penny-arcade.com/2012/01/27/amalur

Once again I was able to beg an early copy of a game. This time I scored Kingdoms of Amalur. I’ve been playing it now for a few days and I am in love. I’m probably not supposed to talk about the game yet but I figured it would be much easier to ask for forgiveness rather than permission as the old saying goes.

I’m not incredibly far in the game and I don’t want to spoil anything but I do want to give my impressions. Yesterday on Twitter I said I thought it was better than Skyrim and I want to tell you why that is.

I’ve mentioned before that I have a problem with open world games. When given all these options I tend to get paralyzed rather than excited. for some reason Amalur is different and I think I know the reasons why:

The combat in Skyrim is miserable. If games like Bayonetta and God of War are on one end of a spectrum, games like Skyrim are so far on the other end that they have fallen off the spectrum and actually can not even see the spectrum from where they are. It seems like if you want to play a massive open world RPG you have to give up a fun,energetic combat system. The thrill of discovering a cave full of vampires in Skyrim is diminished by the knowledge that once I get in there, fighting them is just going to be a chore.

Amalur is the polar opposite. The combat system in Amalur is fast paced and incredibly deep. I’d say the way this game handles class choice is one of my favorite things about the title. There are three skill trees, might, finesse, and sorcery. As you level up you earn talent points and can invest them into any branch you like. So far pretty standard stuff. The twist is that throwing points into these trees will slowly unlock hybrid classes. For example, I started off in sorcery and chose a pretty standard wizard type class. I got a bonus to my mana pool and that sort of thing. Then I started putting points into finesse and I unlocked a couple of hybrid classes. Now I’m a spell casting rogue with magic blades! I get a bonus to blade weapons and a boost to magic damage. There are tons of these hybrid classes encompassing all the various combinations of talent points and trees. So as you play the game and shuffle your points around you can also be cycling through different class choices each with their own bonuses and special powers.

Having cool powers and a great class wouldn’t matter if the combat itself sucked though. thankfully Amalur delivers a visceral, smooth, flashy combat experience that I’d put up alongside games like Darksiders and Devil May Cry. I think that in Skyrim, story, exploration and discovery are the things that are supposed to keep you playing. Amalur has all that stuff too but it doesn’t sacrifice the game play to deliver it. This combat would feel right at home in an action game but they have combined it with solid writing and a massive open world.

The other big thing that keeps me in Amalur is the art. Skyrim is nice looking in its own way but I found the gray and brown to be incredibly boring after a while. The world felt procedurally generated to me rather than built by a designer. Obviously Amalur’s style isn’t for everyone. It has been compared to WoW and Fable which, honestly I think is fair. If that sort of style doesn’t turn your crank then Amalur isn’t for you. personally I lost interest in exploring Skyrim and Dragon Age 2 because I never saw anything that looked very interesting. A big part of the reason I play games is for “new art”. That is the thing more often than not that keeps me progressing. What will the next level or zone look like? Amalur in my opinion is absolutely beautiful. This world has been thoughtfully and artfully constructed. It is vibrant and unique in a way that makes me hungry to explore over the next hill.

In the end I just want to make sure this game doesn’t slip past your radar. I think it would be easy to look at it and think it’s a pretty standard RPG. In reality Amalur is a unique experience full of great ideas. Do yourself a favor and check it out.

[Zanchief]

A lot of what he says about Skyrim is true, but a few things that need to be pointed out. The dudes that run Penny Arcade are morons. God of War has pretty terrible combat mechanics if you ask me. The game doesn't really interest me much. I don't think I'd get anything out of it that I haven't already from better titles.

[Lyion]

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/advan ... -of/726282

This actually looks pretty good.

[Kaemon]

This is Curt's RPG precursor before the MMO correct?

[Harrison]

This was supposed to be the MMO but it got gutted I think. I may be mixing up what I read weeks ago, though.

[Durothil Skyreaver]

I was reading something about that. It was going to be an MMO originally, but was spun out as single player. There are still plans for an MMO based on the lore though, or so I've heard.

[Zanchief]

The lore in the trailer was hilarious. All these fantasy settings have terrible stories.

[Tossica]

*yawn*

[Drem]

gameinformer compares it to fable. fable is fucking awful. will not play

[brinstar]

gameinformer compares it to fable. fable is fucking awful. will not play

what the

how can you hate fable

i clearly understand how it's possible to not LUUUURVVVV fable, but how can you literally hate it? christ

[Drem]

i don't like games like that. the first fable was fun but i was a lot younger. kim bought fable 2 and fable 3 and i just can't stand them. so cartoony and contrived. i feel like i've done everything in those games in other, better games

for RPGs i really only enjoy the sandbox type. i wouldn't like dark souls at all if it weren't so hard, because it's still basically a straight line and all the enemies are always spawned in the same places. but fable isn't hard at all. far as i remember it didn't even have difficulty settings. game was like ez mode. an rpg lite with lots of cute british accents and laffy taffy humor

what exactly is so likeable about them anyways? i just wish that guy would've made more black & whites. fable sucks

[Zanchief]

gameinformer compares it to fable. fable is fucking awful. will not play

what the

how can you hate fable

i clearly understand how it's possible to not LUUUURVVVV fable, but how can you literally hate it? christ

I hate fable. It's really really bad. I only played the first, but from what I can see and from what I've heard from friends, it hasn't improved at all.

[Griever]

IGN gave Kingdoms of Amalur a 9.0 and says it should be in the running for 2012 game of the year. I'm sold.

[Tossica]

Their Dark Souls review was pretty glowing as well. Yep, Dark Souls is great! Today I did not have the overwhelming urge to turn it on and play for a bit. It's pretty much the first day since the game came out in October that I've felt that way.

[Zanchief]

Hey Toss, what do you think about Dark Souls?

[Tossica]

Hey Toss, what do you think about Dark Souls?

Meh, it's no Fable.

[Tossica]

So does this game suck or does this game suck?

[Drem]

hahahahahah. it's all "from the minds of r.a. salvatore and todd macfarlane!!!" and i just thought wow..... sad. sorta like when all those dudes from final fantasy and chrono trigger came together to make blue dragon. and it was fucking awful

witcher, dark souls or skyrim anyday plz and thx

hell i even like two worlds more than this shit

[Tossica]

hahahahahah. it's all "from the minds of r.a. salvatore and todd macfarlane!!!" and i just thought wow..... sad. sorta like when all those dudes from final fantasy and chrono trigger came together to make blue dragon. and it was fucking awful

witcher, dark souls or skyrim anyday plz and thx

hell i even like two worlds more than this shit

I thought Blue Dragon was decent. I never finished it but got a good 100hrs of play out of it.