RoA: Blade of Destiny - Several Patches Released

once the game is in a very playable state (i.e. release worthy) then I will look for reviews and see if it is something I may want to buy.

That is part of my point - many of those who would have reviewed have moved on, and will either dump on the game or not bother. Finding reviews that waited for weeks post-release will be tough.
 
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In the first case no one would be able to play it and it would have been a financial disaster for Coreplay which has the potential of causing small developers to go out of business.
Er, what has Coreplay to do with this? To my knowledge, this ROA remake is done by Crafty Studios and published by Role Playing Company/UIG Entertainment. It has nothing to do with Coreplay.

Well, there are correlations, I guess. Namely to the situation with Coreplay and bitComposer, where bitComposer supposedly wanted to release CC prematurely in an incomplete state, which Coreplay supposedly refused as they didn't want to release an incomplete game - unlike Crafty and RPC/UIG.

It is great that Crafty is patching the game like mad, but in all honesty, the game should never ever had been released in the state it was. That was a total and utter disaster. If you have untranslated text on the intro screen and practically everywhere else, with all sorts of placeholders everywhere, and not even the combat system working properly (e.g. they recently patched spells to work in combat), you really should not release the game, no matter what, that much professional integrity should be taken for granted. If you're running out of money and can't get a loan or whatever, release the game as an alpha funding thing, clearly stating that this is an alpha version and the money it makes now will help to fund the game's development and finalization.
 
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The problem with releasing so many patches, is that each patch will not have enough testing, so some patches will definitely break some new things.
 
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The problem with releasing so many patches, is that each patch will not have enough testing, so some patches will definitely break some new things.

Yeah, they just had massive problems with the 1.07 patch for the CE edition, breaking savegames. But I don't think they have any other choice right now. Working sundays to release another patch is a strong demonstration of good intentions (and a bad conscience), if nothing else.
 
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Somebody should put together a list of the top 10 disastrous video game releases...
 
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No need. I still remember the disappointment with Ultima Ascension and will probably never forget that one.
 
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Somebody should put together a list of the top 10 disastrous video game releases…

The top 5:


Daggerfall
Ultima 9
Gothic 3
Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager
Arx Fatalis

Lesson in CRPG history :)
In the cases of Arx Fatalis and Gothic 3 it was a guy called HiddenX, who found some major bugs; in the case of Gothic 3 I solved the famous memory/savegame bug one month earlier than Piranha Bytes by patching the header of the game's files…
I wish to have so much time for fiddling with games again ;)
 
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There are so many bad/bugged releases, I can't begin to remember them all. Might be better to have a list of good releases. Wiz 8 was the game that most surprised me - firstly I'd written it off as vaporware and then, when it did release, it actually turned out to be playable.
 
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Don't forget Dungeon Lords…

Heck yeah! Please don't forget that one. I still look it up every now and then to see if it is any better-- because I wanted so back to play it and love it. But I was furious that I spent 50 on the first one then they had the nerve to release a second version and charge for it.

I am hoping these guys make it better-- I was hard core looking forward to it but as an old timer with a job-- I just don't have time to Beta everything anymore. I need it to be playable so get to gaming.

I am wondering if this is the forum to "re-review" all badly released but then became "good old games"-- that would be cool,,
 
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In terms of bad releases, Descent to Undermountain and Master of Orion 3 comes to mind though probably not in the same class as Big Rigs it was very much anticipated. While MOO3 was not an RPG, I really wanted to like the game but I seem to recall that the AI simply never attacked back so it wasn't very fun. I'm not sure you could even really prod it into attacking.

They have probably lost me as a potential customer at least for now. Unless they fix the issues and people start raving about how good the gameplay is, I dont see myself getting it but was open to the idea yesterday before I researched it.
 
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Stay on topic please.:[ Just a friendly reminder to not become like the last thread.
 
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I don't remember Arx Fatalis being particularly buggy. Maybe I was just lucky with that one.

Imo, Dungeon Lords' biggest issue wasn't bugs as much as it was just a horribly designed game in general.

Anyways, I think I might have to retract my previous statement about still wanting to play Blade of Destiny. After messing around with it for awhile yesterday, I think I can honestly say the game doesn't appeal to me at all.
 
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Thanks Gorath for the updates. I'm still in and will get it in about a month. Ist/3rd person RPGs are my preference and will always get a look/see. And as I said before, I look forward to their take on an updated ROA.

I think I'm going to have to find a players forum somewhere to see what the players are actually saying.
 
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I don't remember Arx Fatalis being particularly buggy. Maybe I was just lucky with that one.

It was released in Germany first if I remember right.
I was one of the first players and told the devs some major bugs. They fixed them.
 
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I still remember your LAA fix for the G3 executable. Was very grateful for making the game playable for more than half an hour :)

Still Gothic 3 and Arx are a very good argument that for some gamers (hardcore or simply practical ;) ) if a game is fixed and is good then we can forget a botched release and just enjoy the games (those two numbering amongst my favorites).

I'll buy this one if they get it decent in a few months time. That said, yeah, damage done…

P.S At least these guys are fixing their mess themselves unlike some other cases I can think of…

Edit: By botched I was thinking of G3 mainly. There may have been a couple of serious bugs left on the English version of Arx too on release, but I don't remember much of an uproar. It may have indeed been a german release thing...
 
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Well, I never got into G3 after the initial bug feast.... so I guess this is not true for all of us.
 
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Patch 1.08 - August 5th, 2013
Character: Fix missing class restrictions
Character Fix weapon damage display
Character: Fix magic item bonus
Character: Fix twohanded restrictions
Fight: Fix throwing weapon usage
Character: Animations updated
Fight: NPCs flee scene
Villages: some Markets updated
Item: Fixed ST-Belt
Fight: Fixed Opponent Portraits

Patch 1.11 - August 6th, 2013
Travel: Events Varnhome -> Daspota and Ottarje -> Daspota fixed
Travel: Random event handling improved
Event: Temple of the Nameless One event fixed
Travel-Map: Highlight of known Quest locations
Dialog: Frenja Jandasdotter fixed
Quest: Gorah fixed
Fight: Fix variable Spellrange for negative Skill values
Fight: Spell Strength selection fixed
Towns: Thorwal objects fixed
Towns: Guddasunden fixed flying NPCs
Towns: Armory rechecked, should work now for new Hetman missions
Towns: Daspota Vend Vendarrson fixed
Towns: Markets fixed
Dungeon: Activated Mine of Prem
Dungeon: Activated Mine of Upper Orken
Dungeon: made Nameless One reachable again
Character: Levelup negative attribute fixed
Character: NPC Animations fixed
Items: Tinderbox is now usable with Torch and Lamp
Dungeons: now require an active Lightsource (lighted and equipped Torch or Lamp, active Light in the Darkness spell)

PS:
Versions 1.09 and 1.10 were skipped for organisational reasons
 
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So, uhm, is this playable yet? Have they kept to their patch schedule?

Also, is there an RPGWatch review in the works for this one?
 
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