When I first heard about Project Ego, I was really excited. It sounded like an amazing, revolutionary game. Perhaps the designers were a bit too ambitious. Some quotes of note from the article:
Back to numbers. sigh
Straying back into the realm of standard action RPGs.
This is bull, quite frankly. I see nothing exciting at all about this. There is absolutely nothing new or exciting about being offered a good and evil path. It’s been done before. KOTOR, Morrowind, Baldur’s Gate, Fallout, etc.
Very simplistic, and very boring, I have to say.
Again, a very simple, dumbed down morphing system.
Fable still has the potential to be an excellent game. What worries me is that all of the things that made it sound so revolutionary and new have been reduced to gimmicks. So, what do you think? Has Fable gone down the tubes?
i was never “OMFG” hyped about it, but i did and still do think it’ll be a pretty damn fun game. the only thing i was disappointed about was when they said they were removing co-op play
i’d venture to say that co-op could never hurt a game, thus it should always be considered seriously by the devs at the conceptualizing stage. in retrostpect it seemed like they did just kind of throw it in in one of their updates on the game so maybe it wasn’t really a solid idea…
I agree that Fable has gone down the slopes, before it was revolutionary, now it contains nothing that hasnt been done before. The most interesting thing left is probably the character changing based on actions however this is done at levelup so doing its a trivial thing to do.
I was hoping this game would push the envelope, if developers are too afraid to try revolutionary features then RPG games will be stuck in a rut. I had high hopes for this game being revolutionary, what with it being directed by Peter Molyneux (Black and White). In the past he has ensured that the games are revolutionary(even if they have to be several years late in production!) however it seems to me that he has taken the easy road out.
This said, Fable will probably turn out to be a good game and ill buy it, however i would have preferred a crappy revolutionary game.
I’m not sure I will buy Fable regardless of whatever form it takes in the end (the entire RPG genre has basically gone to hell if you ask me).
The Xbox isn’t exactly an RPG fan’s best friend anyway. That title once belonged to the PC but after the new head of Interplay cancelled Baldur’s Gate 3 and Fallout 3 (two cancellations that were fatal mistakes) the future of the entire RPG genre seems rather grim to me (with the flow of adult RPGs being reduced to a mere trickle).
That’s exactly why I was so excited by Fable in the first place. It looked like it might pump some originality back into the genre, maybe give it some new life. That doesn’t look like it’s going to happen now, though.
I still find RPGs to look forward to, but they tend to be off the beaten path so I don’t think it’s that RPGs have gone to hell so much as they’ve gone mainstream (mainstream being more safe and less interesting). Of the three RPGs I’m most looking forward to this year two are Shin Megami Tensei games so I can get away from the traditional fantasy setting, and the third game is a historical fantasy RPG set in the real world. Granted with all three coming out within a span of few months I may very well OD on alternative-setting RPGs, but I think there’s still entertainment to be had. It might not be “revolutionary” but generally nothing ever is when it first comes out. It takes time for the revolution to have its impact and be recognized for what it’s done.
Fable never really got any interest out of me (other than to see what everybody else was hyped about) so I can’t say I’m disappointed particularly. But these days my RPGs tend to get lumped in two categories: D&D PC RPGs and traditional Japanese console RPGs. Given so many games come out each year I tend to buy more of what I know I’ll like rather than trying something I only might like. It’s unfortunate, but both my time and money is limited. My gaming backlog is fearsome to behold.
That’s exactly why I was so excited by Fable in the first place. It looked like it might pump some originality back into the genre, maybe give it some new life. That doesn’t look like it’s going to happen now, though.[/quote]
Personnally, I am still looking forwards to Fable. Even if this preview is correct and it isn’t as revolutionary as it was going to be, it should still be a good RPG, which is something that the xbox is in dire need of.
The moron in charge of Interplay stated that Fallout 3 would still be published by Interplay but finished by an outside studio. Too little, too late. Also, Interplay will almost certainly declare bankruptcy within the next few months, so the Fallout liscence will be one of Interplay’s first franchises to be liquidated (Titus has already gone bankrupt). The fate of Fallout 3 is still uncertain after it was initially cancelled. Cancelling it in the first place was a bad decision in my opinion.
Fallout 3 was cancelled by the new head of Interplay in favour of developing Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel for the Playstation 2 and Xbox due to “changing market conditions”. In other words, the head of Interplay didn’t believe that Fallout 3 would be as profitable as the aformentioned console RPG. Firing most of the PC RPG developers working on Fallout 3 and cancelling the game was indeed a mistake. Interplay’s decision at the time was based on the opinion that a certain type of (arguably lame) console RPG would sell more copies than any type of PC RPG would. Was it the correct decision? I can’t bring myself to believe that gamers no longer want great RPGs like Fallout.
The only RPGs I’m looking forward to at the moment are Dragon Age and the Playstation 2 incarnation of Shining Force, which according to GameSpot will be a big-budget Sega RPG:
[quote=“GameSpot”]Shining Tears is scheduled for release in late 2004. Screenshots and illustrations were recently posted on the game’s site. While the Shining Force series has been known for its illustrations by Yoshitaka Tamaki, Shining Tears will be illustrated by Tony Taka, an artist known for his work in more-mature-themed games. (Gamers familiar with Korean publisher Softmax’s simulation RPG Tempes may be familiar with the new artist as he created the character designs for that game.)
The other title, Shining Force, is slated for release in 2005 and is currently in development at Sega’s own Amusement Vision studio, which provided comments in a press release that read: “A (re)born Shining Force appears on the PlayStation 2! We have assembled staff from a variety of locations to create a game with impressive characters, music to pump up the adventure, and high-quality animations equivalent to those seen in movies.” [/quote]
I hope Yoshitaka Tamaki is rendering the artwork for the new Shining Force if only to maintain some semblance of continuity.
I don’t have to like mainstream RPGs, especially if they rob me of the RPGs I want to play. Developers now seem to be afraid of making anything other than the type of RPGs that are popular in the here and now as opposed to the past or future. No one wants to risk developing anything innovative either out of fear of losing money. I think and I hope that Dragon Age will fill the huge gaping void currently present in the PC RPG market just like Baldur’s Gate did all those years ago, but I also want to see more RPGs like Morrowind find their way onto our computers.
That’s exactly why I was so excited by Fable in the first place. It looked like it might pump some originality back into the genre, maybe give it some new life. That doesn’t look like it’s going to happen now, though.
Why?Because of what you read in a random preview?[/quote]
I’m stuck with dial up for the remainder of the summer, so I can’t download the video. I don’t suppose you could describe this niftiness of which you speak?
