Excidium II
Self-Ejected
Even outside D&D, it haunts CRPGs.Looks like the Sword Coast.
Even outside D&D, it haunts CRPGs.Looks like the Sword Coast.
Race Class Specialty Motivation
Drakyri Archer Dabbler Acclaim
Dwarf Knight Deadly Compassion
Feydri Legionnaire Defensive Dominance
Half-Shade Pitfighter Earth Fealty
High Elf Scout Fast Freedom
Imperial Soultender Fire Greed
Kralik Wizard Nature Honor
Shade Elf Wraith Hunter Necromancy Purity
Noble Sanctity
Priestly Seeker
Rogue Self Preservation
Storm Serenity
Tactical Thrill of Battle
Tough
Winter
So unlike R/C/S, Motivations cannot be mixed and matched freely. We can only guess at this point which Motivations will be allowable for a given character type.David Shelley aka 'Design1' said:Goal options are determined by Race/Class/Specialty choices, so not every character has every goal available. Otherwise, players are free to select any combination of Race/Class/Specialty, and choose from around six of the Goals.
It is nice to see some AAA games show up in the RPG space, but the hardcore smaller scale RPGs are more uneven this year. N-Space is closing after getting slammed for Sword Coast Legends, and it looks like Beamdog will struggle with their new Baldur’s Gate DLC. Obsidian is going strong, and we may see Tyranny this year. It will be interesting to see what Torment is going to be like after it emerges from beta. I must say that I am casting about for the next cool time sink.
Well, I finished up my AAA game fix recently, completing Fallout 4 and XCOM 2, and enjoyed them. My standard Bethesda game build of stealthy sniper had a wonderful time splattering heads, and making the world safe for synths. One can argue New Vegas was better, but this version was far superior to Fallout 3.
XCOM 2 continued and improved this rebooted series. I still have a very strong attachment to the original XCOM, which was the first game to get me nervous and scared (though the original series’ sequel was not good). I’m tempted to dig into the mod tools and see what mayhem I can create. Excellent balance of strategy and tactics. Plus, I could make my favorite sniper look like a heroic version of my wife.
Sad to see N-Space closing its doors. While Sword Coast Legends wasn’t well received, it held a fair amount of potential. If they’d had a chance to listen to their audience, a follow on game could have been fantastic.
Obsidian, along with Paradox, has announced Tyranny, which has a number of interesting concepts. Like Seven Dragon Saga, it will start characters as established mid-level powered. The theme that evil won, and you are one of the bad guys is interesting, but that always ends up challenging for character motivation. Can the player be truly evil, or will they have to play the character as a good person overturning the system?
Beamdog is struggling with its Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspire release. They were proud of their new interface when we dropped by to look at it at GDC, but a lot of long time Baldur’s Gate players are complaining. It may have made sense for them to have added an option to revert for those wedded to the old scheme. It’s going to be interesting to see how they emerge from this challenge.
Torment is coming, but I’m curious what else people will be playing over the next few months. Obviously there is a lot in the news about VR, the rise of eSports, and online titles like Paragon and Battleborn. However, there seems to still be a place for hardcore RPGs, and strategy. Do people seek out games which advertise themselves as very hard, or do they like the option to make combats easy and experience the world and story without distraction?
A glaring lack of Larian, huh.
A glaring lack of Larian, huh.
I chalk it up to American company bias.
Nicholas Hanson I don't know when it's coming out but if you like XCOM then Julian Gollop has Phoenix Point in the works. Also Larian Studios has Divinity - Original Sin 2 in the works and if you haven't tried the Enhanced Edition of the first one that's a must play RPG IMHO.
TSI - Tactical Simulations Interactive Played the original Original Sin 2, but haven't gone back for the Enhanced Edition, perhaps I will. I've been watching Phoenix Point, mostly seeing the monster pics, but look forward to seeing more playable elements.
Sigmund Kopperud Why are you just mentioning a couple of cRPG titles? And why are you calling "Fo4" an RPG?
TSI - Tactical Simulations Interactive Just commenting on recent and upcoming notables, especially if they've gotten some buzz. Hard to be exhaustive without filling multiple pages. Fallout 4 has a character which you advance through experience and story, so it qualifies as an RPG. Definitely more sandbox, and sci-fi, but that is Bethesda's thing.
Didn't Spiderweb Software do it first with Avadon?The first thing I thought when Tyranny was announced. "Oh, so the PCs are mid-level officers working for an authoritarian empire, huh? Where have I heard that before?" Of course Obsidian is much better known than TSI, so Tyranny will be a bigger seller, and everyone is going to end up thinking that TSI ripped off Obsidian's ideas instead of the other way around.
More importantly, when you're asking people for their money, you have to actually make what they want, not what you want.
Not that it's clear there is some high demand for Goldbox style games. If anything it's clear the audience found Baldur's Gate style better.
Avadon is definitely authoritarian.But is "Avalon" "evil"?
Avadon is definitely authoritarian.But is "Avalon" "evil"?
Geneforge series also had a similar concept.Didn't Spiderweb Software do it first with Avadon?
Maybe, but that was what? 5 years ago? and Spiderweb isn't so high profile that I'm sure either team heard of it. Maybe TSI was influenced by it, I don't know. I'm not saying that 7DS was the first story ever where the protagonist worked for the bad guys - of course, neither was Avadon.Didn't Spiderweb Software do it first with Avadon?The first thing I thought when Tyranny was announced. "Oh, so the PCs are mid-level officers working for an authoritarian empire, huh? Where have I heard that before?
Fallout 4 has a character which you advance through experience and story