Any reason why Orb And Oracle is not listed in the database?

[Damian Mahadevan]

It is a stand alone sequel to Dungeon Lords which i had fun for a bit with but i can understand the relative hatred for the game, but it is almost released i think on the 2nd of February according to gamefaqs. Who knows they may have fixed the gameplay flaws of Dungeon Lords. :lol

http://www.theorbandtheoracle.com/main.php?lang=en

Oh did i mention it looks pretty dated.

 

[Corwin]

I just read their publicity blurb and nearly threw up!! Here it is for all of those who have a strong stomach, or a short memory!!

JoWooD Productions and DreamCatcher Games Announce The Orb and the Oracle. June 25th, 2008, Toronto, Canada: JoWooD Productions and DreamCatcher Games, leading publishers of interactive entertainment software around the world, today announced The Orb and the Oracle as the next installment in the bestselling saga, Dungeon Lords.

"We have eagerly anticipated releasing a new installment in the Dungeon Lords saga," said Byron Gaum, Global Product Marketing Manager at DreamCatcher Games. "We're really excited to offer Dungeon Lords fans a new dose of the combat, magic and incredible quests that this fantasy RPG is known for."

Created by legendary RPG game author, D.W. Bradley, The Orb and the Oracle boasts a massive fantasy world filled with incredible action and meticulously detailed indoor and outdoor environments. Offering both single and multiplayer co-op game modes, the game is sure to engage RPG fans for hours on end!

The game features an advanced and robust combat system coupled with devastating magic spells for a variety of ways to vanquish your foes in real-time. Set to the tone of an epic soundtrack, players should prepare themselves for an unforgettable journey.

I think we'd lose a lot of our credibility if we promoted this, but Dhruin calls those shots, not me. I personally will never buy anything from either Dreamcatcher or DW Bradley again!!

 

[Damian Mahadevan]

Well they cant apologize profusely for Dungeon Lords which is nt as bad as say Wizards and Warriors. D.W Bradley has a habit of making the ugliest games i have seen.

 

[Damian Mahadevan]

Uh. Looking at the scores for Dungeon Lords and Wizards and Warriors, i must say i think the entire world disagrees with me.

 

[JDR13]

Wizards and Warriors really wasn't that terrible. I recently tried to reinstall and play it again, but nothing I tried would get it to run properly on Windows XP. There's also some fun to be had with Dungeon Lords:CE

Wasn't The Orb and the Oracle originally titled 'Dungeon Lords:The Orb and the Oracle' when it was first announced?

 

[Dhruin]

We've posted that announcement (and a couple of others) under "Dungeon Lords".

http://www.rpgwatch.com/show/news?ref=0&id=228#9432

We do that sort of thing sometimes to get a newsbit up quickly - we've obviously forgotten to move them over to a new database entry for The Orb and the Oracle; thanks for the reminder.

There's not a chance in hell it will make a Feb 2 release in my opinion - there hasn't been a single preview, interview, trailer or update about it. Even as incompetent as JoWood are, they'd want a little bit of press to hype the release.

We'll certainly cover it - when they have anything to say or show.

Oh, I'm with Corwin - personally, I won't spend a single cent on a Bradley or Dreamcatcher product ever again.

 

[Damian Mahadevan]

There's not a chance in hell it will make a Feb 2 release in my opinion - there hasn't been a single preview, interview, trailer or update about it. Even as incompetent as JoWood are, they'd want a little bit of press to hype the release.

Did you miss the whole piranha bytes and jowood debacle? I believe that Jowood would actually release an unfinished product like they have shown time and time again.

 

[Dhruin]

Sure, they'd release an unfinished product - but they'd try to get at least a little press. TOatO doesn't even have any video footage. Feb is too close.

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

JoWooD Productions and DreamCatcher Games, leading publishers of interactive entertainment software around the world

Am I living in another world ?

Or are they ?

 

[Kostas]

JoWood?No thanks not in this lifetime.

 

[txa1265]

Sadly I know I will be getting this ... indeed I already slapped down $5 at GameStop, where the release date is still listed as Feb 2nd.

Amazon and some other places have modified it to June 30th, which I still think is a complete SWAG. There has been a total lack of press and no presence in the forum community at all.

As far as I know it was a stand-alone expansion, but seems to be separating itself from DL. While DL sold a ton eventually, the press and reviews were bad, and many folks felt fundamentally betrayed (as Dhruin & Corwin mentioned). I'm an idiotic stooge in general, but also did end up having fun with DL, so I will buy it, play it, eviscerate it in my review, but ultimately enjoy the broken and empty experience I'm predicting ...

 

[Dasale]

The game had unfinished elements but a good gameplay design. For me Gothic 3 and its crap fight system with some ugly holes is more an unfinished game. I don't expect much in the new attempt but I'll look at it.

 

[Dhruin]

I think the underlying design is juvenile. G3 makes lots of mistakes but the underlying concept is far stronger and more ambitious.

 

[Dasale]

I don't know, what a juvenile design is? Could you explain a bit?

For ambition i don't see why bother of this other than the final result. Too much ambition is certainly the cruel failure of Gothic 3. Also it's quite clear that ten time more money had been put in Gothic 3, but then what?

And for the underlying concept I'm not sure what's your point, perhaps you could explain. For the story I felt it totally non realistic and impossible to believe, not the whole as I lack of courage, patience and time to finish it but the basic with a human wandering freely in Orc towns.

 

[curious]

how much did you play gothic 3?
first off the orcs had already killed, enslaved, or employed all humans in myrtana. they had almost zero influence in the other regions except for their camps whose chief goals/duties were retreiving and maintaining relics, etc.
the nameless one and his group come out of nowhere. the orcs in charge of most of the towns are basically warlords who probably have a few requirements from higher ups but other than that their primary goals are to keep the towns producing goods. the confilcts between the orcs/mercenies/and rebels are well explainied and i'm not really sure of a better game that handles the relationships between and opportunites to side with different ones. since many of the mercenaries have free reign, and the orcs confidence that humans are weaker mean they have little to worry about one human running aroud. of course if you played the game you would no that your reputation does follow you and eventually after liberating a certain number (not specific ones) of towns than the orcs will attack you on sight. gothic 3 may have its problems, but factional relations and oppurtunities aren't one of them. besides the gothic games have never had the element of "wear a certain armor" to ally oneselves with a faction.

 

[Dasale]

Well I'm more interested in the juvenile and ambition concepts but if we had talk about the story let go. I played quite a lot of G3, all orcs towns, all rebels, the castle behind the barrier.

What I seen? All humans in relationship with Orcs are in slavery but few mercenaries that are totally linked to Orcs and rebels wandering elsewhere. The few spies are linked with mercenaries or in slavery.

The hero doesn't match at all this and should just be put in slavery and certainly not free to wanderer anywhere in any Orc town. It's strange you find that realistic, if that's your feeling then fine, for me it's very hard to believe.

EDIT: And I totally disagree with your comparison with Gothic 1 & 2, their setup of non friendship factions are much more realistic and much better done, not to mention that both have a depth that G3 lost through its massive quantity.

 

[curious]

your edit comment makes no sense as i made no comparison at all to prior games except to say that i believe the only time armor mattered in a gothic game, which was in night of the raven when wearing bandit armor allowed you access to a camp if i recall. factional relationships were always determined by status in a faction and even in gothic one you could work with the old camp while also going to the new camp and working with them, etc. its only different on the surface not the core in gothic 3. like i said the orcs do not care about a lowly "morra" and they have no knowledge of your "heroic" deads back at khorinis. gothic 3 may have more shallow aspects than its predecessors in some regards but overall all the core elements ARE still there and really at this point it doesn't matter.
thankfully pirahna bytes are starting a new series with risen and people won't be able to judge it by its predecessors nor will it have the high expectations to live up to like gothic did going into gothic 3. it will hopefully be a marvelous game and the discussions will cease, not regarding jowood's effort to further desecrate the series...

 

[azraelck]

I was less than impressed with Gothic 3 myself. After it failed to work on two computers, I see no reason to bother with another game from them.

DL was at least fun, the main issue being it was incomplete content wise. I never had issues with any bugs myself. No more than Wizardry 8 at least, and it's been a mainstay on my hard drive for a long time, save when I only had Linux. I'll check this one out when it gets to the $9.99 bargain bin. Just like I did the last one.

 

[Dasale]

Story failed, fights failed, characters failed, depth failed, all strong points of previous Gothics failed in G3. Only graphics and interface design was much better and landscape design as good. At least that's how I feel G3. I get very average fun with it and finally get bored. I get much more fun from DL that I played twice and a half. But I admit that I got rip off with DL.

 

[JDR13]

Both G3 and DL were tremendous disappointments compared to the hype. G3 isn't half the game that the previous Gothics' were in terms of overall quality. That being said, it's still much better than DL.