Saturday, February 11, 2012

CAREER ERA: 3.46. THACO: 11: Curt Schilling's swords and sorcery RPG, Kingdoms of Amalur, has released to surprisingly strong reviews.

When one considers the personnel behind the Amalur product, the strength shouldn't be surprising at all. Salvatore for lore. McFarlane for looks. Morrowind/Oblivion and EverQuest vets for quests and world building. Yes, that should work. And yet, since I first heard about Schilling's 38 Studios, maybe 18 months ago, I have been braced for disappointment rather than tingling with anticipation. Somehow, the idea that a notoriously serious and successful person from the notoriously serious world of baseball had a long-standing and yes, serious, interest in fantasy gaming, one of my guilty pleasures, and was diving in with some of his millions to create the games he'd always wanted to play as a fan ... well, it seemed like great PR, and so it had to be too good to be true. Right? Wrong, apparently. And it's hard to quantify how gratifying it is to be wrong. 3d6+3, at least.

Really, this could not come at a better time. Many RPG-dependent escapists are hitting the long tail of potential returns from further investment of time in Skyrim, and as the highs become progressively lower and the minutes spent in game searching for overlooked side quests or investigating theories about leveling mechanics feel more and more completely wasted, we're nervously eying The Old Republic and wondering if we can really afford to go back to an MMO (the hard stuff) for a fresh fix. A well-made, relatively wide-open RPG from a new market entrant is just the thing to keep the neurons humming.

17 comments:

  1. What I'll say about TOR is that both by design and because of underpopulated servers, it plays very much like a single-player game with a finite story and ending--though, admittedly, the quests apart from the main storyline are largely "go kill 9 of this enemy type" or "gather 5 moisture farms' output."  For the most part, it's not the constant "LFG!" in the chat window and "well, you don't have an optimal build!" you get in other MMOs.

    I'm intrigued by Amalur, but since I tend to prefer playing massive RPGs on the PC, I'm hoping it doesn't play like it's a bad port there.

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  2. I've got the DL for PC going on Steam now, and will let you know what I think.

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  3. Great timing for this thread.  In the next two months I'll be getting my first-ever XBOX.  I already have a copy of Red Dead Redemption.  What else should I get?  Something that I can have fun with without devoting my entire life to it.  I'm a scifi/comics/RPG fan (or at least used to be).  Any recommendations appreciated!

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  4. Lego Star Wars, for the kids.  Trust me.

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  5. Jordan12:02 PM

    I haven't played xbox in awhile, pretty much exclusively wii these days (shut up, I'm the target demographic!), but for RPGs, stay the fuck away from the Fable games, unless you want your reaction upon finishing to be "This is so stupid."  If you like sports games, I always found them to be the xbox's strongest point, but I was never big into call of duty.

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  6. I've never liked how FPS games control on a console (and that includes FPS-styled RPGs like Skyrim), but some people love it, and there's a lot of multiplayer options.  For comics fans, the two Batman games (Arkham Asylum and Arkham City) are quite essential, but are steadfastly NOT kid-friendly--this is Frank Miller Batman, not Adam West Batman.

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  7. Wish I could help.  Strictly PC gaming for me.

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  8. The Pathetic Earthling4:34 PM

    The NY Times article seems to be oblivious to the fact that Curt Schilling has been involved in gaming -- and, indeed, the table top gaming business -- for years.  When Avalon Hill was sold to Hasbro, Schilling began to independently support Advanced Squad Leader, a complex (to put it mildy) table top infantry game.  Apparently, he'd get together and play ASL on his off days during the season and invite local ASL fans to the ball game.  So while he's new to the video game business -- and it's a thousand times more complex -- he's not a complete babe in the woods in understanding the business end of the game industry.

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  9. Adam C.7:46 PM

    Lego indiana Jones too.

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  10. Adam C.7:53 PM

    Schilling's Phillies teammate (and my former undergrad classmate) Doug Glanville was also a big gamer, and he and Curt reportedly had some pretty fierce online rivalries, both before and after the Phils dealt Curt away.  

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  11. Thanks, folks!  I've played some Legal SW and Indiana Jones for Wii but never got really into either.  (And I assume that the 8-y/o will most enjoy the Kinect games, but maybe that's wrong.)

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  12. As a general rule, multi-platform games on the Wii stink, because they haven't been well-designed to control with the Wii's interface.

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  13. Joseph Finn11:25 AM

    Not to harp on a typo, but now I want to try a Legal Star Wars game.  Thrill to dealing with contracts and subclauses with the Trade Federation!  Work out the probate for Uncle Ben and Aunt Baru!

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  14. So Schilling spends a lot of time promoting awareness of both ASL and ALS?

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  15. Okay, a few hours in, I'm giving Amalur a strong thumbs up.  People crying about the lore being impenetrable are neither big readers nor big listeners.  It doesn't look or feel or play like anything you've never seen before, but it is a solid experience all the way around.  Solid.  Not pathbreaking.  Just solid.  I'll take it.

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  16. Anonymous2:07 PM

    Damn you, autocorrect! :)

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  17. sea0tter129:35 AM

    Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect, Dragon Age Origins. Some really like Eternal Sonata, but I wasn't a huge fan.  If you want co-op RPGs (my husband and I are always looking for RPGs we can play together), try Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance among others.

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