KoA: Reckoning - A Hero's Guide @ GameSpot

Yes, I'm difficult. Have always been, I'm sorry.

I think it's the chosen "sort of colours". Hm, it's really difficult for me to put it into words …

I'll try it this way : WOW actually is colourful - yet it is *not* the sort of colourfulnes that I'd prefer … Was this understandable ?

KOA is rather of the "wow-type of colourfulness", so to say, to me.
 
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Alrik, doesn't like games that use American colors. He prefers European colours. He's always been that way.
 
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You can say WoW colors are may be Hollywood colors but certainly not American colors.
 
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Alrik, doesn't like games that use American colors. He prefers European colours. He's always been that way.

Nope, he just prefers games that are made in Europe.
 
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Here it is in a nutshell,
There is a new game coming out.
By a new company.
That looks good for the most part and could be great.
Hard to please everyone in everything in a game
Lets just see how it is when it comes out...
We really have no way to base what it is going to be like with this new company.
It isn't like we sort of new what the witcher 2 was going to be like or any of the crap bioware is releasing now of days...
 
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Nope, he just prefers games that are made in Europe.

I have even the suspicion that there does exist a certain cultural bias for the looks of games ... And perhaps even more than only the look.

And not only with me, but so far I haven't ever heard of any Sociology study working on this ... And by the way, NA games more or less dominate gaming anyway, that's why I asume that no-one has noticed any bias yet.

By the way, does anyone remember the graphics sets for Arcania ? I found it rather odd.
 
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You RPGwatch.com people are a tough crowd to please. I like that though, that you don't buy into hype right away and just roll over for these companies. More gamers should share those qualities.

That said, KoA is looking absolutely crazy right now, and I find it hard to not be excited for this game. 6 joinable factions each with their own unique story to tell is reason enough to purchase the game. That's a ton of lore-driven content right there. Plus you can change the fate of each faction in a variety of ways, meaning you get lots of juicy player choices to make. How awesome that is going to be.

Plus the art style and direction is absolutely gorgeous. Plenty of pretty colors and nice environments to look at. Sure the combat may turn some people off, but at least they are attempting to create something fresh and exciting with their combat, and not just rehash the same systems that have been in place forever. The combat might feel like an action game, but underneath it all you have crunchy, deep RPG systems at work. Trust me, as a hardcore RPG fan I wasn't screaming for action combat in my games, quite the opposite. But it's here and we might as well give it a shot and see how it handles. At the very least it looks like it can be some fun taking out the various well-thought out baddies.

So again, I look at the 6 factions and that right there is enough to get me to purchase the game. Plus add in all the Diablo-esque loot, the main story with deep and intriguing implications, the fun looking action combat, the deep, deep lore of the world, all come together to create what's going to be a very special game that comes out in February of next year.
 
Alrik, doesn't like games that use American colors. He prefers European colours. He's always been that way.

Do you mean Eastern European colors? 1990 East Germany does seem to the the color palette du jour for many game designers regardless of where they're actually located. I admit the art style is a little unusual - but then again Todd Mcfarlane is one weird dude. I'd probably have to play around in it to decide whether or not I like the approach.

I do normally prefer the art direction of games like Two Worlds II (aspects of it), what we've seen of Skyrim (aspects of it), and Risen (the beaches - god those people knew how to do stormy beaches.) I guess I'd call that saturated color pallette applied to fantastical realism? But I do like some of Mcfarlane's work quite a bit - despite hating some of his work he's still one of my favorites.

If it does turn out to be some of his better work though I am pleased I will have the option to turn off the giant yellow punctuation defacing one of my favorite comic book artist's artwork. If it ends up being kind of meh I'll be glad I can cover up my disappointment in one of my favorite comic book artists lesser works by defacing it with giant yellow punctuation.
 
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So again, I look at the 6 factions and that right there is enough to get me to purchase the game. Plus add in all the Diablo-esque loot, the main story with deep and intriguing implications, the fun looking action combat, the deep, deep lore of the world, all come together to create what's going to be a very special game that comes out in February of next year.


Are you sure you don't work for 38 Studios? ;)
 
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I have even the suspicion that there does exist a certain cultural bias for the looks of games … And perhaps even more than only the look.

And not only with me, but so far I haven't ever heard of any Sociology study working on this … And by the way, NA games more or less dominate gaming anyway, that's why I asume that no-one has noticed any bias yet.

By the way, does anyone remember the graphics sets for Arcania ? I found it rather odd.

I think there's something to this. I mean if a game comes out of Japan and looks remotely Anime or even more semi-realistic FF style, it could be the best RPG ever but most people here would never find out because they'd write it off immediately.

I used to not care for the Euro RPGs so much but I've come around and enjoy most of them now. Even among them, they're very different. I mean if you compare say Gothic to Venetica? Yeah, totally different.

To me the American style is sort of in between Japan and Europe's styles. WOW and DA2 are almost sort of pseudo Anime to me. They aren't quite Anime but they're very cartoony and brightly colored, large weapons, pretty elves and all that sort of thing.

This game I would say is more along the lines of Fable which is cartoony in a much more Western way. Actually, it seems like the bastard love child of Oblivion and Fable.

It's hard for me to judge too much because it's all just hype and previews. I'll keep an eye out on it. I'm cautiously optimistic. I suspect it will be a bit too combat focused and streamlined for me to absolutely adore it, but it will probably be good for a light romp if I am not expecting much. We'll see.
 
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I think there's something to this. I mean if a game comes out of Japan and looks remotely Anime or even more semi-realistic FF style, it could be the best RPG ever but most people here would never find out because they'd write it off immediately.

Why wouldn't they though? When 90% of the RPGs from a certain region play a certain way, I would expect people to start making assumptions about them. JRPG developers have no one to blame but themselves for the perception people have of their games.


To me the American style is sort of in between Japan and Europe's styles. WOW and DA2 are almost sort of pseudo Anime to me. They aren't quite Anime but they're very cartoony and brightly colored, large weapons, pretty elves and all that sort of thing..

This game I would say is more along the lines of Fable which is cartoony in a much more Western way. Actually, it seems like the bastard love child of Oblivion and Fable.

I don't mean to nitpick, but the Dragon Age games were developed in Canada, not the US.

I agree with your analogy of KoA though. In an earlier thread, I referred to it as the bastard child of Fable and DA2.
 
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To me the American style is sort of in between Japan and Europe's styles. WOW and DA2 are almost sort of pseudo Anime to me. They aren't quite Anime but they're very cartoony and brightly colored, large weapons, pretty elves and all that sort of thing.

Hm, this vaguely reminds me of superheroes comics. Which are a genuinely "american product", so to say. I don't know of "classical" superheroes coming from europe.

Europe instead has comics like ... Asterix, the Smurfs, Tintin, Lucky Luke ...

I think, art and graphics style/direction has some resemblance in comic art & graphics styles. Not in the sense that games look like comics, but imho rather in the sense of game graphics bing influenced by the cultural impact of comics/of comic graphics.

By the way, Little Nemo stands out of all this. This is one of the few truly genuine comics.
 
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The graphics look the way they are because Todd McFarlane who is known most for spawn is the art director. Just read his comics and look at his action figurines there just like the game.
 
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Are you sure you don't work for 38 Studios? ;)

Hah, nope. I'm just very excited about Reckoning and I think it's going to be an amazing RPG. Ever since I heard Ken Rolston was involved I've been hooked. Yes, Oblivion sucked, but he did make Morrowind, so that made me optimistic about the game before even hearing any information about it. Then I heard about the 10,000 years of lore that was written by a famous author, and I love good lore in my RPGs, so I was sold. The rest of this information is just overkill to me, making me all the more excited.

I do think Reckoning will easily be one of the best RPGs this generation. I consider Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon the 2 best RPGs of the 360 generation (yes, I'm a big fan of JRPGs, when done well). I think Reckoning will stand up there with those 2 games and be just as good in it's own way.

Besides, with the amount of money being thrown around involving this game, it's damn near impossible it will fail. Money can't buy everything, but it can buy a lot of things. One of those things is a good game. When's the last AAA title that had a 50+ million budget that utterly failed? Money buys these talented people to work on the game, and when you have a talented game studio putting in 4+ years of work on a game, the end result can really be fantastic.
 
Hm, this vaguely reminds me of superheroes comics. Which are a genuinely "american product", so to say. I don't know of "classical" superheroes coming from europe.

Europe instead has comics like … Asterix, the Smurfs, Tintin, Lucky Luke …

I think, art and graphics style/direction has some resemblance in comic art & graphics styles. Not in the sense that games look like comics, but imho rather in the sense of game graphics bing influenced by the cultural impact of comics/of comic graphics.

By the way, Little Nemo stands out of all this. This is one of the few truly genuine comics.

I have to say after reading this post that I really think there is some cultarul divide here. Little nemo had great art, but it was a childrens story and I really do not wish it's art influences on a game. Of course games will be influenced by your culture.

Oh, and for the record....Fable was made in England so....
 
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