Might & Magic X trailer and early access next week!

Originally Posted by dteowner
Iz a Steam key, although I had to set up a Uplay account as well. I must have had Uplay before (or maybe something got merged?) because my ID was already taken. I've got no clue- I'm so behind the times it's embarassing. Oh well, hazards of playing next-to-nothing during a 3 year DDO addiction.

They've got a "no talkie" in place until Monday, with only teasers allowed until then. So here's my teaser:
5+ hours in already and there's a lot of good things to discuss in a couple days.

Thanks. Sounds good and can't wait to see your feedback.

It simply amazes me that people would go through that crap for a game. No game is that important to me to jump through hoops like that, I'll just stick with the mmo's I play if I run into situations like that. Must be an age thing or something cuz most of my friends won't tolerate it either.



-Carn

All info on early access is here

Dear MMX fans,

Yes, it’s true – you can start to play tomorrow !

Might & Magic X - Legacy will be officially pre-released, offering an Early Access, which will then be available through Uplay and Steam. Please note that the box edition of Might & Magic X – Legacy will be exclusive to Uplay.

Through this early version of the game we will give you the opportunity to start your great journey in the peninsula of Agyn.

You will be able to play Act I (out of four Acts), test four classes (out of twelve) and get a first impression of what MMX looks and feels like on an unpolished level (unpolished also means that it will still contain bugs, as this is an “Early Access”, so the game will still be work in progress; we are still developing. For more info, read further down below).

(Please note that the Deluxe box edition is only included in this pack if you purchase via Uplay and available in all countries except the US because of constraints, we are not able to influence.)

You beat me to the punch there HiddenX but thanks for the info. We have a preview and some other information coming soon so be ready everyone.

Originally Posted by Carnifex
It simply amazes me that people would go through that crap for a game. No game is that important to me to jump through hoops like that, I'll just stick with the mmo's I play if I run into situations like that. Must be an age thing or something cuz most of my friends won't tolerate it either.



-Carn

There aren't really any "hoops" to jump through. You double-click the name of the game in Steam and the game runs. MMX doesn't even require you to be online like some UPlay games, as there's only a one-time activation. Having lived through the "good" old days of code wheels, manual look-ups and endless memory tinkering just to get games to work, modern gaming is a pleasure by comparison.

Early Access don't really bothers me. In a world where DLC, Alpha and Beta is common, no wonder that AAA Publishers join this path.

The only thing that saddens me is, that the world is static as in MMOs. There are no items to grab from the world. Everything is "imaginary" in chests and only available in menus.

You cannot drop an item from your backpack into the world and back. This makes me sad. I know thats a developers choice to prevent exploits and it's a lot easier to implement. But it's a very crappy design decission!

I really don't like this at all.

That series is a mystery for me, I played a long time the Mac version of first three but never been that amazed nor never finished any. I also tried played a bit few other but never much.

But I admit that released now with such outdated design rise up a lot the curiosity.

Originally Posted by SiENcE
Early Access don't really bothers me. In a world where DLC, Alpha and Beta is common, no wonder that AAA Publishers join this path.

The only thing that saddens me is, … there are no items to grab from the world. Everything is "imaginary" in chests and only available in menus.

You cannot drop an item from your backpack into the world and back. This makes me sad. I know thats a developers choice to prevent exploits and it's a lot easier to implement. But it's a very crappy design decission!

Prevent exploit? It's more save a lot of 3D model, textures and items design. More time for something else. If also the characters aren't custom through equipments it's even more time and cost saving.

The problem of this approach is perhaps the difficulty to enhance exploration. But frankly very few 3D games setup a good exploration through finding items. It generally ends in highlighted items so replace them by a chest isn't a huge lost.

Originally Posted by HiddenX
All info on early access is here

They clearly studied well the subject, cloth map and big old school manual, it changes from crappy bounties and eternal deluxe (boring) artwork book.

The only satisfying collector I remember isn't a game I like that much but it's still the only very satisfying collector box, it's Skyrim because of the statue, huge, too bad I'm not an as huge fan of the game.

I mostly swear to never buy again any box not even collector but that M&M X collector is tempting.

EDIT: I made a check on uplay and WTF… The box deluxe version is 29.99 (Euro). It's a micro manual to read with a magnifying glass and a micro map to use as a badge?

That remark remind me that physical books are now a nightmare for me because unlike on computer I can't increase the characters size, paper doesn't generate light, and books don't have a 30" size (can you imagine 30" books? woo!).

They put thru an update on Sunday that changed a few things. I've had to re-think some of my preview so it might be a couple more days before I get it turned in.

There are some bugs (1 biggie and a handful of minor ones), but the instructions supplied actually specifically mentioned the major one along with a fix. They also made a simple change to one aspect of the game that was a significant improvement to the overall gameplay.

The game is a great deal of fun and certainly has some of that old "just one more…" magic that kept us up late with the old games. I think they did themselves a major disservice with their choice of available classes for the "demo", though. Only 2 of the classes have ANY access to healing spells, and neither of those (archer and caster archetypes) are really intended to fill the healer role, they're more intended as backup healing. With many of the critters having a nasty little ability called retribution that gives them a free attack every time you melee them, you're going to take a lot of damage and you don't really have a good avenue to heal it up. They mention in their notes several times that they still have some balancing to do, and that's true, but it's not bad right out the gate.

I'm a little pressed for time, so it's easier to quickly focus on the problems but be confident that they're on the right track here, folks. They're targeting an early 2014 release, so they've got time to polish up the rough edges. Unless they somehow lose their minds between now and then, this is likely to be a "must buy" for fans of old skool RPG.

Unless they somehow lose their minds between now and then, this is likely to be a "must buy" for fans of old skool RPG.

Oooh, you tease! You're naughty, but I like you.

Cor, I'm excited now.

I have started a new career of commenting games, or even quick review games I never played, so here the review:

Positive points :
- A nice setup of design choices to mix between lower production costs and amount of details and nice looking. In that area it's even more audacious than Legend of Grimrock. I admire that, and feel the result is good for me.
- Good effort on graphics and details, not much stuff look void and empty, plenty look great with a lot of details.
- There's a clear effort to avoid repetitions and apply a fair level of reuse, huge effort for environments, good effort for monsters, fair effort for combats.
- There's a good effort to try build places that don't feel too much linear.

Negative points :
- They forgot design puzzles, secrets, tricks, traps, and the few ambushes are too tiny stuff to be quotable.
- It seems they didn't focused much on lore development, not much dialogs to cover this, no books, no text description of places with the occasion to include a bit of lore, and so on.
- This first release is only one town and 4 dungeons, some NPC and dialogs, about 4/5 quests. I imagine it's a deliberate choice and they tried polished more that small part, but it rise the suspicion that the game size will be a lot too small for the series.

Conclusion:
I'll buy the game, but perhaps not yet. If I buy it now it will be just for support and certainly not to play it yet.

EDIT: I love play virtually games I save a lot of time.

Finished the preview last night about midnight. There was only a small section of the outdoor map I was unable to mow. Write-up under way.

edit- writeup is done.

dteowner,
Looking forward to your Review, I'm almost finished Act 1 and was surprised that some of the Castle was not accessible. So far the toughest parts of the game was Boss Character at Top of Temple and the damned Ghosts.

Originally Posted by shaf
dteowner,
Looking forward to your Review, I'm almost finished Act 1 and was surprised that some of the Castle was not accessible. So far the toughest parts of the game was Boss Character at Top of Temple and the damned Ghosts.

Agreed. I never did manage to kill a ghost. Saved that for last, but didn't want to hold the preview up any longer. I sent the write-up to Myrthos this morning. He'll probably have to do a little formatting to make it look right on the site and then post it up.

Sweet, looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this!

Yes, this is one of the Watch previews I am looking forward to the most in a loong time.

Man, I've read this, when to the shp, went for a coffee, played a match of LoL, cleared unused contacts on the phone, watched a new episode of whatever series… And it's still not here.


Can't remember the last time I wanted to read something this desperately.

So far I don't see any hints that the article will be uploaded today.

Geez, feeling a little pressure here. It's my first write-up, so hopefully y'all will find it up to expectations.