|
 
| Bi-weekly Shot |
|---|
|
"Knee deep in wyverns gets a literal meaning..."
(Mask of the Betrayer screenshot submitted by Blackthorne TA)
Submit/Discuss/Archives |
|
|
 
Latest General News Headlines:
Weekly Wizards of the Coast News Round-up - November 14, 2009, 8:27 pm by Taluntain
Electronic Arts Lays People Off, Cancels Projects - November 14, 2009, 5:39 pm by chevalier
Resolution Welcomes Baldur's Gate Re-Release - November 14, 2009, 5:29 pm by chevalier
Bethesda Lied in Interplay Lawsuit? - November 14, 2009, 5:18 pm by chevalier
Which Edition to Play - November 14, 2009, 4:47 pm by chevalier
End of Dedicated Servers for PC Games? - November 14, 2009, 4:40 pm by chevalier
Fallout MMOG Screenshots - November 14, 2009, 4:17 pm by chevalier
Imperial Agent at The Old Republic Official Site - November 14, 2009, 4:10 pm by chevalier
Latest Poll Results - Dragon Age: Origins DLC - November 9, 2009, 11:28 pm by Taluntain
Dragon Age: Origins Toolset Released - November 8, 2009, 3:47 am by Taluntain
Check out the best online casinos and get rid of some stress.
 If you enjoy single player games like Dragon Age, Dungeons and Dragons, and others, you're most likely into sports as well. Some sports games like NHL 2010 and Madden 2010 are one player specific. Another one player specific activity is BetUS sports betting, and BetUS is a great place to wager on your favorite teams.
Try your luck at an online casino where you can play many slots games like Tomb Raider or Stash of the Titans.
Weekly Wizards of the Coast News Round-up
Posted: November 14, 2009, 8:27 pm by Taluntain
 » Draconomicon: Metallic Dragons: Alternate Powers (Excerpts)
» Savage Encounters (Cartoons)
» Here's How to Write for LFR! (RPGA Report)
» The Honest Few (Features)
» Stealth Challenge (Ruling Skill Challenges)
» Gregor's Tangent (Adventures)
» Draconomicon (Art Galleries)
» City of Stormreach (Tutorials)
» Melora (Features)
» Amreth Gaunt, Master Merchant (Eye on the Realms)
» Legacy of Io (Adventure Path)
» Winning Races: Halflings (Features)
» The Winter Scourge (Fiction)
» Performing the Pact (Class Acts)
» Draconomicon: Metallic Dragons: Hall of Fame (Excerpts)
[Add/Comments: 0] - [View Comments/Permalink] - [Top]
Electronic Arts Lays People Off, Cancels Projects
Posted: November 14, 2009, 5:39 pm by chevalier
 BioWare's owner, Electronic Arts, is implementing a restructuring plan that involves terminating lots of jobs, cancelling a dozen or so unannounced projects and relying on sequels. Here's a snip:
During the company's financial investor call this afternoon, CEO John Riccitiello gave a bleak outlook to many "risk" titles fans were hopeful for release in the next couple years. When asked by an analyst where the reduction in work force would reflect its current crop of projects, Riccitiello responded by saying the company had decided to cut over a dozen still unannounced titles, and added the company is focusing on guaranteed hits going forward in this struggling economy.
Read the rest at IGN. There's also a bit more about staff lay-offs at Kotaku, including Mythic, BioWare's counterpart in the EA empire:
Also rumored to be affected are EA Redwood Shores' quality assurance team and Mythic Entertainment. Tweets from ex-staffers at those studios indicate "huge chunks" let go at the former, approximately 40% laid off at the latter.
Rumors of Electronic Arts' plans to cull staffers began circulating last week. The cutbacks appear to have been rolled out over the course of the past few days, ahead of EA's quarterly earnings report and alongside confirmation of the publisher's acquisition of Playfish, said to be a $300 million investment in the social gaming developer.
[Add/Comments: 3] - [View Comments/Permalink] - [Top]
Resolution Welcomes Baldur's Gate Re-Release
Posted: November 14, 2009, 5:29 pm by chevalier
 The old Baldur's Gate is getting re-released by Interplay, tweaked to work on the computing power we have today. Resolution rejoices at this event and reminisces about the impact Baldur's Gate has had on us and on the genre:
Baldur’s Gate wasn’t a difficult game to learn. Its design allowed the modified AD&D Second Edition rule set to work its magic behind the scenes, leaving the player to concentrate on enjoying the experience of the narrative and characters. Knowing how the rule system worked and taking the time to master all the elements involved made the experience a little less punishing along the way. But the true magic behind the game was that, whatever the player’s level of knowledge, Baldur’s Gate remained accessible to all. Nothing was overly complicated, and the initially harsh combat simply encouraged a more cerebral approach. Simple controls and well designed menus kept things tidy and intuitive, all adding to its phenomenal success.
Read the rest at Resolution.
[Add/Comments: 4] - [View Comments/Permalink] - [Top]
Bethesda Lied in Interplay Lawsuit?
Posted: November 14, 2009, 5:18 pm by chevalier
  Bethesda claims that Interplay abuses Fallout 3 sales by selling collections titled Saga or Fallout Trilogy. Except those sales were around before Fallout 3 - at least before Fallout 3 was released - which is as early as 2004. Interplay offers documentation - that Bethesda claims was not authenticated, so one can't ascertain the dates. Except I saw some of those sagas and such on my own eyes before Fallout 3 came out and it's lame for Bethesda to do that because, eventually, sales will be documented because there will be invoices, possibly financial statements and tax stuff. And then they're going to lookd doubly stupid for questioning Interplay's counter. Here's from Fallout Wiki:
Thanks to Kevin from the Copyright in the Internet Age blog, as well as another, anonymous source, I managed to get access to all of Bethesda's filings regarding the Bethesda v. Interplay court case.
In the original complaint, Bethesda not only claims that the name Fallout Trilogy for a compilation sold in the United States and containing Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics is misleading and cannibalizes on Fallout 3 sales. They also claim that around August 2009, Bethesda became aware of compilations of Fallout games distributed under the titles Fallout Collection and Saga Fallout in other countries. "Upon information and belief" Bethesda alleges that Interplay began packaging, advertising and promoting these packages after Bethesda's launch of Fallout 3.
While a lot of Bethesda's arguments in the filings are reasonable, this claim is entirely false. Saga Fallout has been sold in Poland by CD Projekt since 2004, and the White Label Fallout Collection has been available in the UK since 2006, while a previous Ultimate Fallout Collection was released in 2004.
Read the rest at Fallout Wiki. There's also some court stuff at Duck and Cover. Some of the writing looks rather personal, e.g.
There is no dispute between the parties as to the plain and ordinary heaning of the language setting forth the conditions in the TLA, or that both of the conditions—“full-scale development” and the minimum financing requirement of $30,000,000—had to be met before April 4, 2009 in order for Interplay to retain the MMOG rights. Interplay does not seriously dispute that it failed to meet both of those conditions. Instead, the Opposition argues that Interplay should not forfeit the conditional MMOG rights because, in the personal opinion of Herve Caen, Interplay’s CEO, Interplay “substantially” satisfied the conditions, Opp. at 4, by entering into an unauthorized development agreement with Masthead Studios, another violation of the TLA. As a fallback position, Interplay asserts that “the [$30,000,000] funding requirement serves no material financial purpose.” Id. at 18. Interplay is wrong.
While I'm not an American lawyer, it doesn't take one to know that, no matter if Interplay's reliance on it is justified or not, substantial completion is not a bizarre construct in contract law. It exists specifically to prevent all-or-nothing oops delivery is one minute late lawsuits. On the other hand, Interplay won't likely get far arguing that the $30M requirement doesn't serve any material financial purpose...
Read more at Duck and Cover.
[Add/Comments: 3] - [View Comments/Permalink] - [Top]
Which Edition to Play
Posted: November 14, 2009, 4:47 pm by chevalier
 There's been one more interesting article at The Escapist recently. This time, the author gives a run-down of options you have when starting a new game. Here's a snip:
If you're willing to play any version of D&D, you have at least nine different editions to choose from, and arguably many more. If you toss in the D&D variants that the Open Game License for Third Edition spawned, you have countless other choices.
You can even find and download versions of these older games for free. If you like the original D&D, check out OSRIC (Old School Reference & Index Compilation). If 3rd Edition (or the updated 3.5) is more your style, you can find lots of copies of the d20 SRD (System Resource Document) around, including the excellent Hypertext d20 SRD.
Read the rest at The Escapist.
[Add/Comments: 0] - [View Comments/Permalink] - [Top]
End of Dedicated Servers for PC Games?
Posted: November 14, 2009, 4:40 pm by chevalier
 Well, we're all skeptical about the end of something news. Let's take a look, however, at what The Escapist thinks about the tendency by publishers not to host dedicated PC servers. Here's a snip:
3. End of the Server-Based Community
The end of dedicated servers means the end of the communities they supported. On the PC side, lots of people frequent favorite servers. The servers act as a meeting place and a hangout. They have forums and regulars and moderators. People form friendships and rivalries, clans and communities; none of which is possible in games based on friend lists or random strangers. There is an entire multiplayer culture that is being abandoned here.
Well, in some sectors of the games industry, we've never really had dedicated servers, such as our part of the world: the Roleplaying Games sector (as opposed to the Rocket Propelled Grenade sector). Wonder what this is going to mean for us, if anything. Are we going to see a more vivid multiplayer when we've switched to consoles (those of us who will... yours truly doesn't even have a mobile PC, much less a console!)... or are we going to take some kind of a hit in some other area? After all, we can point out things that seem to be due to money cuts on projects. Short play times, dumbification of system rules, recycled area design and all other counterparts of a big fat polygon that wouldn't be acceptable in today's flashy graphics.
Anyway, enough of my brooding and voila, the link.
[Add/Comments: 0] - [View Comments/Permalink] - [Top]
Fallout MMOG Screenshots
Posted: November 14, 2009, 4:17 pm by chevalier
 Apart from the "V13" (project name?) concept art that I wrote about the last time, it seems three actual screenshots have apparently leaked as well. You can view them at Kotaku. Is it just my impression or does the graphics look like it's from the old times when Interplay was still big, except higher resolution, naturally? It does have a certain very specific cartoonish feel.
[Add/Comments: 1] - [View Comments/Permalink] - [Top]
Imperial Agent at The Old Republic Official Site
Posted: November 14, 2009, 4:10 pm by chevalier
 Outfitted in the smartest, sleekest, high-tech gear, the Imperial Agent always has the right tools at the right time. Using their abilities of subversion and subterfuge, these covert operatives infiltrate and assassinate enemies of the Empire with deadly efficiency.
Besides the obvious James Bond cliché, remember Mara Jade, Luke Skywalker's eventual wife? She was one of those until she went rogue some longer time after the collapse of the Empire, finally to become a Jedi Knight. Speaking of, they also have a story by Drew Karpyshyn, who, apart from being the Lead Designer of the first KotOR (Knights of the Old Republic), actually wrote a couple of Star Wars novels. This gentleman is working on the Jedi for Star Wars: The Old Republic as well. So here's some:
And let’s be honest: the Jedi Knight is *the* iconic character in this universe. Nothing says Star Wars like a brown-robed figure brandishing a shimmering energy blade of righteous destruction. The Jedi Knight is the classic take-charge, smite-evil, save-the-girl action hero. We’re all familiar with Luke Skywalker, of course. But he wasn’t the only lightsaber wielding champion of virtue to flip, spin and somersault his way across the big screen. Young Obi-Wan Kenobi and Mace Windu both proved you can kick ass and take names while still valiantly battling to uphold the ideals of the Jedi Code.
Links: one, two.
[Add/Comments: 0] - [View Comments/Permalink] - [Top]
Latest Poll Results - Dragon Age: Origins DLC
Posted: November 9, 2009, 11:28 pm by Taluntain
 What we asked:
Q: How do you feel about the announcement that Dragon Age: Origins will have extra DLC (downloadable content) available for purchase from the day of the release?
(453 votes total)
I hate it, this content should be included with the game (318) 70%
I'm indifferent to it; I'll buy it if I think it's worth it or ignore it otherwise (84) 19%
I love it, more content to play with (51) 11%
The results are quite clear - the majority of our visitors (70%) hate the concept of 0-day DA:O DLC and feel that it should have been included with the game instead.
19% of those who voted, however, don't see the Dragon Age: Origins DLC as a big deal and are indifferent to it.
Only 11% of the participants in the poll love the fact that DA:O had extra paid downloadable content available on the day of the release.
» Current Poll
» Previous Polls
[Add/Comments: 0] - [View Comments/Permalink] - [Top]
Dragon Age: Origins Toolset Released
Posted: November 8, 2009, 3:47 am by Taluntain
 Feeling creative? Own Dragon Age: Origins? You're in luck. BioWare has just unleashed the game's toolset on the unwashed masses. Here's what they have to say about it:
The Dragon Age™ Toolset puts the power of the game developer in the palm of your hands. The Dragon Age Toolset will allow you to produce your own content including dungeons crawls , full-length campaigns, and even cut-scenes you can share with friends and the BioWare community.
Registered game owners of the PC version of Dragon Age: Origins can download the toolset here and start creating their own epic adventure stories.
[Add/Comments: 0] - [View Comments/Permalink] - [Top]
Dragon Age: Origins Patch 1.01
Posted: November 8, 2009, 3:39 am by Taluntain
It sure didn't take long... the first patch for DA:O is now available. The details?
- fixed potential corruption of character statistics
- fixed portrait appearance sliders when importing a character from the downloadable Character Creator
- fixed import for preset face settings from the downloadable Character Creator
- made Easy difficulty easier
- slightly increased attack, defense, and damage scores for all party members at Normal difficulty
- fixed video issues when running on a very wide screen display, including ATI Eyefinity displays
A must install, especially if you're finding the game too hard to play! Grab it here (13MB).
[Add/Comments: 0] - [View Comments/Permalink] - [Top]
Weekly Wizards of the Coast News Round-up
Posted: November 8, 2009, 1:35 am by Taluntain
» Draconomicon: Metallic Dragons: Draconians (Excerpts)
» Guardians of the Labyrinth (Expeditionary Dispatches)
» The Assassin and Primal Power (Podcasts)
» The Duelist Rogue (Class Acts)
» Savage Encounters Preview 5 (Previews)
» Micromanaging for Fun (Save My Game)
» Power Play: Martial (Features)
» November News and Reviews (News)
» Big Things, Big Packages, and Combat Styles (Ampersand)
» Wizard Spells of the Feywild (Class Acts)
» Dragons of Eberron (Tutorials)
» The Brothers Gray (Adventures)
» Gator Man (Editorial)
» Warlord Essentials (Class Acts)
» Defenders (Features)
» Stepping Out of the Spotlight (Editorial)
» Savage Encounters Preview 4 (Previews)
» November and Beyond (Previews)
» Draconomicon: Metallic Dragons: Orium Dragon (Excerpts)
» Dragon 380 (Art Galleries)
[Add/Comments: 0] - [View Comments/Permalink] - [Top]
Neverwinter Nights Premium Modules Pulled Down
Posted: November 7, 2009, 11:41 pm by Taluntain
 Remember BioWare's downloadable Neverwinter Nights premium modules? Kingmaker, Shadowguard, Witch's Wake, Pirates of the Sword Coast, etc.?
A few days ago I somewhat accidentally noticed that all of their pages on BioWare's website, as well as their web store, have been removed. I inquired about this over at BioWare and learned that the premium modules were removed from BioWare's website at Atari's instruction. What's more, BioWare can no longer sell them nor advertise them.
Through further inquiries we've learned that this has happened at the end of August and that BioWare had almost no notice from Atari and had to remove the premium modules within a day for "legal reasons".
The modules that have been purchased and redeemed are still playable, but all support or further sales for them now rest with Atari.
The only problem is, Atari is not currently selling them, except the first 3 in boxed compilations, such as Neverwinter Nights Diamond. Oops?
We'll see if we can get some more information on this over the next few days...
[Add/Comments: 6] - [View Comments/Permalink] - [Top]
Greg Zeschuk Talks about Voiceovers
Posted: November 7, 2009, 9:41 am by chevalier
 BioWare's Greg Zeschuk, "reminisces about the highly detailed stories and voice acting from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, and the Mass Effect series," as the short description of Retronaut's video interview tells it. Here is the link.
[Add/Comments: 0] - [View Comments/Permalink] - [Top]
Devs Talk about Future at 1UP
Posted: November 7, 2009, 9:38 am by chevalier
 At 1UP, four developers (Bill Roper from Cryptic, Alan Miranda from Ossian, Marcin Iwiński from CD Projekt and Feargus Urquhart from Obsidian) met up for a conversation about the future of single-player RPGs. Here's all four talking about indie games:
1UP: How does the indie scene fit in the single-player RPG market?
BR: I really believe [the indie scene has a role], as I hinted at in the last question. The biggest issue speaking against an indie RPG is that players have the highest expectations in terms of time to play and differentiation of content with an RPG. An indie approach to this would be to create a smaller, extensible system that features either episodic content (campaigns and dungeons) or user-generated content to feed the beast.
FU: I'd love to be in it in a lot of ways. But more seriously, the indie scene is important for games, just like indie movies are important to the film industry. We old guys can get stuck in our ways and think that we can only entertain someone if we have $20 million to make the game. The indie scene proves that you can make great games with only a small percentage of that money.
MI: I haven't spotted any RPG equivalents to World of Goo or Audiosurf, but there are a lot of good mods that tell great stories utilizing, for example, the Neverwinter Nights engine.
AM: I think the indie-RPG scene can fill in the "old school" RPG niche, where you won't be expected to have full VO, and hence have as much dialogue as you want; where you can have that 100-plus hours of gameplay; or where you don't need to pay for a bleeding-edge graphical engine to ensure maximum cinematic effect. You can still have fun without those things. For example, I tried out the Eschalon: Book 1 demo a while back and had fun with it. It had good exploration and world interactivity.
Also, as an indie developer, you aren't constrained by what a publisher's marketing department dictates is a viable RPG product for the market. History is filled with examples of games or movies that execs/marketing said shouldn't be done -- or if had already been completed were considered garbage -- but which turned out to be megahits and all-time favorites. Indie RPGs may never be able to compete head-to-head with big-budget RPGs in the mainstream commercial marketplace, but they don't have to if they can excel at giving gamers what the big RPGs can't.
Read the whole thing at 1UP.
[Add/Comments: 0] - [View Comments/Permalink] - [Top]
Check
our recent
news archives or the entire archives
listing.
|
|
| Supporting SP |
|---|
|
Has Sorcerer's Place been useful? If you would like to show your appreciation for all our hard work on the site, and help us pay the bills the site generates every month, please see how you can help support SP. Thank you!
|
|
|
|
Baldur's Gate, Tales of the Sword Coast, Baldur's Gate 2, Throne of Bhaal, Baldur's Gate 3, Neverwinter Nights, Shadows of Undrentide, Hordes of the Underdark and Dragon Age: Origins are © BioWare. Icewind Dale, Heart of Winter, Trials of the Luremaster, Icewind Dale 2 and Planescape: Torment are © Interplay. Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor is © SSI. Dragonshard, Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone, Neverwinter Nights 2, Mask of the Betrayer, Storm of Zehir, Mysteries of Westgate, The Temple of Elemental Evil, Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach are © Atari, Inc. Dungeons & Dragons material is © Wizards of the Coast. All original content is © Sorcerer's Place. Please read our Privacy Policy and Legal Disclaimer. | |
|
