RPGCast - Episode 163: "Release Gauntlet!"

[sabin1001]

RPGCast - Episode 163: "Release Gauntlet!"

It's a week of release dates and pre-order bonuses. But we've also got some interesting statements from EA about The Old Republic. Sony may also be spicing up the NGP's appeal with a way to play UMDs.

You can find the links to all our stories on delicious: http://delicious.com/rpgamer/163

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[Azilis]

"Kiro in the chatroom says the 2nd one was terrible . . . " referring to Dungeon Siege 2.

Kiro is wrong. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he never played the first Dungeon Siege and just doesn't like this sort of game, because Dungeon Siege 2 was just a much better game than the original. The combat and character leveling systems were completely redone in such a way that playing the game requires a decent amount of brain activity. Classes don't simply autolevel as you use specific skills, and the game never plays itself.

Dungeon Siege 1's party AI was good enough -- and the combat system was simple enough -- that if you didn't turn down the AI from the default settings, the game was perfectly capable of killing swarms of enemies without player input.

I had a lot of fun with Dungeon Siege 2. Its main flaw is that the developers tried to bring the story into the foreground without the ability to tell a good story. I'm thinking Obsidian might be able to fix that problem in DS3. I just hope they get the combat right.

[Shaymin]

Not sure if anyone in the chatroom bothered to correct this, but After Years on the Wii costs $37.

First and last episode are $8, the middle 7 are $3 each.

Of course, having the original + all of the After Years content and having it portable is still superior.

[Nyx]

The release gauntlet was cute.

Also I really want TitS now because the pretty order bonus sounds boobielicious.

No, I'm not a pervert.

[MasterChief]

I don't get why you all are assaulting Ricitiello about Old Republic (at least before he tried to deflect criticism about the spending on it). All he's saying is that, while he'd like for Old Republic to be the new number 1 MMO, EA's not going to start doing a mass impersonation of Foxconn employees if they don't beat WoW as long as they're profitable. It's called pragmatism, and it's a rare trait among those in this absurd industry that can call high-selling systems failures because they weren't the highest selling of a generation, that believes that only games in the NPD top 10 are worthwhile investments. It's absolutely mind-boggling how stupid and myopic gaming execs, pundits and fans are. At some point, this "war" mentality has to go away. It's not a race; profitability is the goal, not internet street cred.

[silktail]

Do companies have to adjust their games to work on PSN? I'm assuming that is the case and would be why they wouldn't want to re-release their old games on it.


Well pre-order bonuses have made me pre-order games which I was going to buy on release day anyway. That counts, right?
I guess all it really means is that I don't shop around for a slightly cheaper price.

[Paws]

It depends on the game. A lot of times older titles no longer have a source code available -- or the source belongs to 8 people spread across six companies and it'd be a giant pain in the *** to get the rights/royalties sorted out.

[shoptroll]

Do companies have to adjust their games to work on PSN? I'm assuming that is the case and would be why they wouldn't want to re-release their old games on it.

There was an article somewhere fairly recently about the PSN release/certification process. I'll try and dig it up for you.

EDIT: Here it is

[Xybec Katta]

I have only pre-ordered one thing and Gamestop screwed it up. It was a collectors edition for the last EQ2 expansion for my wife. They took her money and never bothered to order it. Come release day, they had no copies and had to spend the next 3 days trying to find one to give her.