Risen - BBQ Report and Preview @ WoR

They did...which is why this doesn't make sense to me.

Have the standards become stricter recently?

Yes - haven't you heard? Children no longer have to urinate as it would involve coming in close proximity with parts that are inherently nasty and of no use for anyone who is not properly married ... so they enacted laws to eliminate urination, so games can no longer show that foul and banned practice either.
 
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I think Risen is just following the natural progression of the industry. They're targeting a larger market now, and according to various previews, PB have been making certain mass market compromises - though I don't know what they are.

While I don't really understand what's wrong with people urinating in a way that corresponds well with the setting, I know a lot of people would find it offensive. Some modern cultures seem to be very uncomfortable with the human body and what we do with it every day - and having nudity is apparently bad enough. Urinating is supposedly obscene, so that obviously won't fly with the mass market.
 
They were already targeting a larger market with Gothic3, they made many compromises with that game. The most important aspect for them was the graphics, they said themselves that they had huge problems with the engine and it took most of the time, which showed.. Gothic3 got very good reviews here in Sweden, most magazines compared it to Oblivion, which i think was exactly what PB intended.
 
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What? PC Gamer, the biggest PC only gaming magazine, completely thrashed it (only a bit unfairly) for being a badly performing buggy pile of a game released way too early. Don't get me wrong, I loved G3 w/ CP1.7 but when it was released that review, which was the only one I saw, was only a bit worse than the game deserved.

On topic: I like pretty much everything I've seen of Risen so far, maybe except the general look of the NPC models. I can't wait!
 
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Yes, I agree. But this is taking it a step further - and they have the console audience to consider now.

Natural progression, I'm afraid.
 
What? PC Gamer, the biggest PC only gaming magazine, completely thrashed it (only a bit unfairly) for being a badly performing buggy pile of a game released way too early. Don't get me wrong, I loved G3 w/ CP1.7 but when it was released that review, which was the only one I saw, was only a bit worse than the game deserved.

I read a few (non-gaming) magazines here, just the normal newspapers and it got good reviews in all of them. I bet they spent like 30-mins with it and they liked the graphics, then its automaticaly a 4/5 heh.
 
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I read a few (non-gaming) magazines here, just the normal newspapers and it got good reviews in all of them. I bet they spent like 30-mins with it and they liked the graphics, then its automaticaly a 4/5 heh.

Ordinary newspaper reviews are useless. They never mention bugs or other technicalities for starters. Industry reviews of Gothic 3 were pretty grim (and arguably justly so due to the technical state of the game) and are better indicators, even if they also tend to gloss over certain aspects and give some genres/devs a pass (the Total War series with its bugfesty release versions spring to mind:D)...
 
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Fallout 3 is a good example, because it's an extreme crashfest on PC - at least according to MANY users posting on technical forums. It certainly crashed a ton while I was playing it, and for some reason it goes unnoticed by major reviewers.
 
Fallout 3 is a good example, because it's an extreme crashfest on PC - at least according to MANY users posting on technical forums. It certainly crashed a ton while I was playing it, and for some reason it goes unnoticed by major reviewers.

Personally I never had a crash with FO3 ... even when playing the whole thing again to do the DLC's.
 
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Personally I never had a crash with FO3 ... even when playing the whole thing again to do the DLC's.

No, I'm sure you haven't.

But you should go look at the threads about this on Beth forum - as it seems a disturbingly large percentage of players are experiencing CTDs very often. A completely useless "shot in the dark" would be around 20-30% are experiencing relatively frequent crashes. This might not be THAT bad, because the game loads very fast - and many are only crashing once every few hours. But still, pretty damn serious in my opinion.

Oblivion had similar issues for many users - but it seemed less pronounced.

Since I'm a techie - I solved the problem myself by fiddling with various settings, but it wasn't trivial. IIRC enabling VSYNC solved most of the crashes, and in particular those related to "small enclosed areas" that I suffered from.

I'm well aware of the problems regarding PC gaming and the multitude of configurations - but in this case, I think there's more to it.
 
Ordinary newspaper reviews are useless.

Ordinary newspaper reviews are what the casual gamer reads !

Which means that they are directed at a totally different type of customer !

People who would rely on Newspaper reviews would perhaps hardly ever buy gaming magazines !
 
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