Has anyone seen the new gameplay movies on Gamespot? If not check them out at: http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/vtmb/media.html
This game is going to be amazing, and possibly revitalize and reinvent the role-playing genre.

Nostradamus-like prediction: Labyrinthian is going to respond with criticism of the FPS-style combat, being the old role-playing fogey he is.

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"They were commanded by royal princes on both sides, and slaughtered each other without mercy."
- Matthew of Edessa

Lab's not the only one who's got reservations about FPS, Somehow it just doesn't seem like it's going to have the "impact" or "pretty-ness" that you get with "look down". I remember seeing the fireball spell on Pools of Radience on C64, and thinking "Cool, you can see the flames!".* although it would definately give it a whole new atmosphere with shit just suddenly jumping out at you from nowhere... anyway, i'm really looking forward to this game.


*I just realised that i feel into that whole "fogey" label, didn't I?.... any of you little snot-pickers know what a C64 is?....

*edit*- Ok, after thinking for a few minute's it may of possibly been on the Amiga... Which is, better I suppose.

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I stand alone.

Wouldn't want to prove you wrong, Sig, so:

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! FPS sucks! I'll never buy another FPS game, even if it means not buying anything Troika makes in the future!

Yeah, so, OK. You all know my reasons at this point, so I won't go into it again.

Of course I remember the C64, although I didn't have one. My parents owned an Atari store in the early 80s, so in addition to the game consoles, I had an Atari400, then 800, then 800XL, then an ST. I didn't join the PC mainstream until 1993.

I actually had some reservations about the 1st person view myself, at least initially. But after looking at the screenshots and watching the gameplay movies, I realized how wrong I was. You can still fight and explore in third-person, which looks great, and you can get a much fuller, more complete view of the environment. But to quell your fears, Lab, I don't think that isometric is dead. Look here: http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/sacred/index.html
Sacred looks like it's going to be a very good, solid game. You can also download the demo, which I highly recommend. The character models are all 3d, on a 2d background, and it looks beautiful. If they made a sequel to Arcanum with similar graphics and camera angle, I would be very happy. And you can ride horses, to boot! I've been waiting a long time for an RPG that allows riding.
Anyway, if you haven't looked at the Vampire movies yet, watch them and then tell me what you think.

I remember the C64, but not exactly what it was. Care to refresh my memory? My family used to have a 386, and then a 486, which went down in Y2K. Yeah, so it wasn't all media hype.

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"They were commanded by royal princes on both sides, and slaughtered each other without mercy."
- Matthew of Edessa

Is it just me or is anyone else completely and utterly sick of the fantasy genre?

Holy shit, why cant we ever get a decent sci-fi rpg? ure we got fallout 1&2 but that was8 years ago or something. Deus Ex isn;t really the kind of sci-fi I'm talking about either. Has anyone played freelancer? Should I go buy that or is it a space sim?

Anyway, Starcraft is still one of my favorite games, but how cool would it be if there was an rpg based on the Ringworld series? That would be pretty sweet, and its not that big of a departure from the whole fantasy concept in terms of mutliple races and possible skill sets you know? I think the fallout character system and humorous atmosphere would work pretty well with it.

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ska is dead, and you're next.
this message was brought to you by Sleek_Jeek; master of the inexplicable sombrero.

Took a look at both of them. Vampire looks cool, sure, and beautiful to boot, but it misses out on the effect I feel from top down, in part because of the whole real time thing. I think I might like FPS in turn-based. I just feel that FPS turns into a twitchfest in realtime. Not my thing.

Sacred looks fabulous. The only issue I have is that you have to choose "stock" characters, race carrying class and all, instead of building your own bottom up.

I'm pretty excited for the Divine Divintiy sequels as well.

Yeah, that's exactly my beef with Sacred as well. It sucks when you can't create a character. That's often my favorite part of the game. Still the characters available seem diverse enough that there should be plenty of retail value. I really, really want to see how the vampiress plays. Vampires are just very cool. I'm writing a vampire hunter novel right now, in fact. The hunter himself is descended from the Anakim, giants in the Bible with angelic blood in them (for those who don't know). But, back to the subject of Bloodlines, although your concerns about a "twitchfest" are certainly well-founded (if you don't like first-person shooters to begin with, which I do), it won't quite be like Halo with character development. Your skill with weapons isn't entirely based on your speed with the mouse. The weapons skill will affect how accurate and damaging your shots will be. I think it makes guns more fun to use, and more challenging. How hard is it to point and click on an enemy and watch your character shoot them (a la Arcanum)?

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"They were commanded by royal princes on both sides, and slaughtered each other without mercy."
- Matthew of Edessa

Unreal 2003 with the speed setting jacked up and instant kills turned on by the stupid n00b server host equates to a twitch fest. Ghost Recon, however, was not a twitch fest, nor was deus ex, and the bow/crossbow/throwing weapon stuff in morrowind wasn;t either. It just depends on how they implement it. Of course the actual aiming requires some sort of hand eye coordination you might not be accustomed to if all you play is turn based games, but if everything game was turn based, wouldnt that be pretty boring?

As for sacred... There are always going to be graphically appealing diablo/zelda/final fantasy type games, and they're always going to appeal to RPG noobs, they wouldn't be able to create a market for games like ToEE if they didnt make games like diablo.

I dunno. I just want Sid Meir's A;lpha Centauri 2 to come out...

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ska is dead, and you're next.
this message was brought to you by Sleek_Jeek; master of the inexplicable sombrero.

I think this is the first time I've completely and totally agreed with everything you've said, Sleek. Especially the part about Alpha Centauri 2. Firaxis has already made Civilization II and III, and several expansion packs, so where's the sequel to Alpha Centauri? Personally, I think that Alpha Centauri is a better game than even Civilization III. Why? The custom government and military options. And tell me it isn't cool to be able to nerve staple your whiny populace.

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"They were commanded by royal princes on both sides, and slaughtered each other without mercy."
- Matthew of Edessa

Seriously. The one time I played through an entire campaign I was the Scientific faction, (i think the bonus was like +4 to research or something) and I had the monopoly on technology (for all you non-alpha centauri aying noobs: once something has been discovered by a faction the other factions cannot research it, they have to be given the information by someone who already has access to that knowledge). It was so great, I basically ignored anyone who disagreed with me by the time I got access to nclear weapons and satlellites, which were 2 technologies I NEVER shared. I would use my infantry units to take the most useful bases from my enemies, nerve staple the captive populace, and then set them to work building nuclear bombs. I was basically the last man standing by the end of the campaign. I was halfway through a diplomatic campaign as the U.N. faction, and then my dad formatted the hard drive... May be I'll install it again...

But yeah, has anyone played homeworld? I know most people here hate the whole "real time with pause" thing, but that was a really good sci-fi oriented game as well.

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ska is dead, and you're next.
this message was brought to you by Sleek_Jeek; master of the inexplicable sombrero.

The Homeworld series is VERY pretty... but, that's about it. Actual gameplay is not very varied or interesting after the first couple of missions, it's just build ship's, move ship's, kill ship's, build more ship's...... the only reason i've still got Homeworld 2 still installed is the player V CPU is actually a good boredom killer if you've got an hour or two to fill in.
Lab, you have no idea how much i'm waiting for Beyond Divinty (previously known as RiftRunner)I've already got my name and number down at two game stores here in town and i've told them both whoever get's it in first i'm gonna buy it from... heh, the perfect plan.

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I stand alone.