Posts Tagged: Videogames

Videogames

An Aside | My thoughts on the GAME OF THRONES MMORPG

By Aidan Moher March 2nd, 2012
Game of Thrones MMORPG screenshot

I blogged about this over at Suvudu, so head there for the details, but I just wanted to chime in here with some more detailed and persnickity thoughts about the recently announced MMORPG based on George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire.

The gist, from Venturebeat:

Martin and HBO spilled the news about the game last year, but Bigpoint hasn’t had a chance to show off its work until now. Bigpoint’s new web site for the game offers you the chance to sign up and “die for your house.”

Bigpoint grew big as a browser-based game publisher in Hamburg, Germany, but in the past couple of years it has expanded into the U.S. and moved its headquarters to San Francisco. The company will show a sneak peek of the game, a browser-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game (an MMORPG that doesn’t require a long download) at the upcoming Game Developers Conference next week in San Francisco.

The game will be set in the fictional medieval world of Westeros and its Seven Kingdoms, where summers can last for decades and winters can last a lifetime.

First of all, it’s nice to see Martin’s series continuing to get recognition and attention from the videogame world, but doesn’t he deserve better? The MMORPG is being developed by BigPoint, the illustrious developer of such legendary titles as Drakensang Online, Lord of Ultima and, most convincing of all, Zoomumba. Now, I know George has to eat, but wouldn’t it behoove him and Bantam Spectra to do a bit of quality control before licensing out the IP to just anyone? Is a browser-based MMORPG really the best fit for the series? And does this move to (probably) free-to-play browser-based model suggest that the Game of Thrones MMORPG will be adopting a more socially-driven nature (as seen in many of BigPoint’s other games), as opposed to a more solid, deeply considered structure like the other MMORPGs that gamers actually give a damn about? Why not look towards Turbine’s successful MMORPG adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings for inspiration? At least BigPoint’s other browser-based MMORPGs look good, regardless of how they might play.
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Videogames

An Aside | Are you ready to return to BALDUR’S GATE?

By Aidan Moher February 29th, 2012

A new BALDUR'S GATE coming?So a new website has appeared. No big deal, right? Well, this one’s special. You see, it’s for Baldur’s Gate, the near mythical CRPG series developed by Bioware. And all signs point to some exciting news coming down the pipeline.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun reports:

This is, apparently, coming from former BioWare developer Trent Oster, who worked on the original BG, as well as the first Neverwinter Nights. His new company, Beamdog, is a digital distribution platform, brought to wider attention recently via the release of MDK 2 HD, and this, GameBanshee claims, will be the source of new Forgotten Realms chat-n-chopping.

[…]

The rights to the games are owned by Atari, who have spent the last few years re-releasing the series, along with NWN and others, in about 30,000 different packages. It’s clear that the company has been trying to make the best of owning all the BioWare classics for quite a while, and in fact back in 2008 there were rumours they were going to add to these franchises.

The most intriguing part of all is found if you dig into the website’s HTML:

< -- February 28, 2012 -->
< -- Shadowy Figure- Raise Dead : Infinity Engine -->

< -- For years, I clung to the memory of it. Then the memory of the memory. -->

< -- And then... it returned. Better than it was before. -->

< -- Pore over the tapestries and works of art hanging from our walls if you wish, Child of Bhaal... perhaps you will find a clue. But patience, ah... patience would reveal it all. -->

I’m frothing here. But can it possibly live up to the series’ reputation? Many would argue that Baldur’s Gate 2 is the pinnacle of the CRPG genre.

Videogames

An Aside | THE LAST STORY coming to North America thanks to XSEED

By Aidan Moher February 22nd, 2012
THE LAST STORY coming to North America thanks to XSEED

Oh victory, you taste so sweet.

Thanks to the fine folks at XSEED Games, North American gamers are going to have the chance to experience The Last Story, an action-based RPG from Mistwalker, a Japanese developer/publisher headed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of the legendary Final Fantasy series. This is, of course, the result of much hard work from dedicated fans operating under the Operation Rainfall umbrella, which was already successful in convincing Nintendo of America to publish Xenoblade Chronicles in North America (though with a very limited release).

Of the game, NintendoLife, awarding the game an 8/10, said in their recent review:

The Last Story is, in many ways, a significant achievement on Wii. With gameplay that is both simplified and complex, solid controls, attractive presentation, online multiplayer and a touching, well-paced plot, this title can be considered as a definitive entry in its genre. Technical problems with the performance, in particular regular and punishing drops in frame rate, unfortunately drag the experience back. When the game engine performs it’s terrific, but too often it struggles and significantly impacts your ability to control the action. The Last Story’s many strengths, however, ensure that it’s a story that can’t be missed.

The Last Story was just released in Europe by Nintendo of Europe. The North American version will presumably use the European English translation and voice acting, with XSEED doing the heavy lifting in localizing the game to American English and publishing/distributing the game to its North American audience. No release date has been set, but expect The Last Story to land on North American soil sometime this year.