White Gold - Preview @ CVG

CVG has a quick look at Deep Shadows' FPG/RPG, White Gold:

It's quite similar to Boiling Point and dipping into the inventory shows that Deep Shadows are simply broadening the scope, including things such as addiction to the FPS staple of painkillers, as well as alcohol (which has the expected effect: overdose on the 70% proof and the character sways and stumbles around). They're also adding a reward system - perks - so on top of levelling up your gun aim and running speed, you'll get, for example, 25% at animal skinning.

For the time being, I haven't been told how it all affects the game or story: Boiling Point's freeform nature meant it was a game of sundry delights, and while White Gold has 60 main missions, there are an additional 250 to just grab on the go.

More information.

I have a deep fondness for Boiling Point despite how much of a mess it was … and am enthusiastically looking forward to this one!

Hm. That's an awful lot of missions. It's very hard to get to numbers like that without falling into the Oblivion trap -- gobs of stuff to do but none of it makes any difference or is connected to other stuff in any meaningful way.

Originally Posted by Prime Junta
Hm. That's an awful lot of missions. It's very hard to get to numbers like that without falling into the Oblivion trap -- gobs of stuff to do but none of it makes any difference or is connected to other stuff in any meaningful way.

True, but when you think of Boiling Point, some 'main missions' were things like 'follow X and get your car', and I'm sure that the 250 divide up quite a bit between factions.

I don't know that quantity of missions *necessarily* means they will meaningless/boring/generic: I'm fairly sure PS:T must have had at least that number of little of little sidequests along the way. However, it's fairly obvious Boiling Point isn't going to have anything like the writing or creativity of PS:T (after all, BP is meant to be somewhat freeform, not story-driven), so I think your fears may be founded.

Originally Posted by mogwins
I'm fairly sure PS:T must have had at least that number of little of little sidequests along the way.

Yes and a lot of them were in fact pretty meaningless and boring. I remember that I almost quit the game in the first few hours because I was sick and tired of running FedEx errands in the hive or whatever the area was called. Besides, I don't think that Planescape is a good example for a game with meaningful choices. As you said, it's a good example for a game with pretty good writing (for a game) and a creative setting, characters etc. but for a game where you can affect the game world and really make a difference you'd have to look elsewhere.
Anyway, I'm pretty sure that PJ's concerns are 100% valid for the 250 side quests/missions. The more interesting question in my opinion is what's in the 60 main quest missions.

PS:T sidequests were quite often meaningless, yes, but most of them were entertaining, to me at least. They usually contained some small piece of character development or information about the world, or something. Besides, I think Balder's Gate 2, Fallout 2 and a number of other quality RPGs also hit a similar number of quests, and I'm all for more of those!

However, I think we're all in agreement: BG2, F2 and PS:T are very different beasts to BP, though I hope it will still turn out to be a fun game.

I never checked out Boiling Point. I was quite interested in the game, it sounded like good fun but every review I read for it mentioned colossal quantities of bugs and other issues, so I've never taken the leap to purchasing the game. For quite some time I kept watch on whether a demo was available and there never was, so I just let the game drift off my radar.

That is a lot of quests though, which actually turns me off. I find 99% of FPS games are entirely too long and I never finish them, losing interest well before nearing the end. And, far too often, you get quantity rather than quality in mission-based games. Give me a few good, interesting, well-made missions rather than a slew of shoddy, dull and ill-conceived quests any day.

I didn't like Boiling Point and I think that I quit playing it after about the five hour mark. It had too many problems and it just wasn't fun to play.