[Cornsnake]

The demo in one word. Short. Really short for an open world game. Just two short levels with only a few smaller enemies before your thrown into a boss battle. Those are quite nice though. Climbing on to them helps you attack them in specific places to turn the battle to your advantage. Like attacking the wings on the Griffin will cause it to fall down to earth. It can get very hectic with 3 pawns, the boss, and a few smaller enemies all in the same battle.

It took me a few play throughs of the demo to get used to the controls, but now plays fine, and I enjoyed it. I'm curious to see what the reviews will say about this game.

[Shifty Geezer]

I just started downloading it and saw you were on. I'm making 1 megabyte every 12 seconds. Digital distribution is sending physical media into the grave!!!

[Cornsnake]

Yeah, Sony is getting some impressive speeds out of those carrier pigeons they've got hooked up to their servers.

I was hoping the demo would be a bit longer for being 1.7 Gb in size.

[joker454]

Originally Posted by Shifty Geezer

I just started downloading it and saw you were on. I'm making 1 megabyte every 12 seconds. Digital distribution is sending physical media into the grave!!!

Damn I feel bad for you UK folk, all I ever hear from there is how terrible your internet is I get 6 megabytes/sec download here in LA so getting demos on Live takes no time at all. Having said that the game look and runs kinda archaic...but it was semi entertaining. One issue is it's hard to see what's going on sometimes as the game litters the screen with text messages. Seemed tough to control as well. Also all the characters often blather at the same time. Seems like it has some potential though, but will prolly go for Amalur instead when the craving strikes for such a game.

[Shifty Geezer]

I can get pretty close the the 8 Mbps maximum during the day. I don't know how much of the Wednesday night snail is Sony's server fault with the ramped demand for the latest store offerings, although in an evening I always get abysmal speeds. The worst of it at the moment is the 1-2 minutes to start loading a webpage, and really intermittent downloads that can see streamed media cut out.

I thought Dragon Dogma sounded best for coop though and team mechanic, in contrast to KoA. Well, I'll get to try the demo in a cuple of days...

[orangpelupa]

and ill wait the demo to be uploaded on normal web server.... then copy it to flashdisk

my ISP block xbox live ha ha ha, ugh..

[3dcgi]

Originally Posted by Shifty Geezer

I thought Dragon Dogma sounded best for coop though and team mechanic, in contrast to KoA. Well, I'll get to try the demo in a cuple of days...

I thought the developers said the game wouldn't support co-op.

[Shifty Geezer]

Oh, you're right. Monster Hunter for console this isn't.

[Cornsnake]

Originally Posted by joker454

One issue is it's hard to see what's going on sometimes as the game litters the screen with text messages. Also all the characters often blather at the same time.

You can clean up the HUD and switch off the pawns talking in the full game.

[orangpelupa]

i though DD will support coop.

with drop-in-drop out coop by the other human player act as "pawn" for the host.

[Sigfried1977]

Nope, it's a single player game. I really liked the demo by the way. I also wonder how people could praise the likes of Skyrim and call the visuals in DD archaic. DD runs at a nice and smooth framerate and the animations don't look like they were lifted from the video games stone age either.

[Prophecy2k]

Originally Posted by Shifty Geezer

I can get pretty close the the 8 Mbps maximum during the day. I don't know how much of the Wednesday night snail is Sony's server fault with the ramped demand for the latest store offerings, although in an evening I always get abysmal speeds. The worst of it at the moment is the 1-2 minutes to start loading a webpage, and really intermittent downloads that can see streamed media cut out.

I thought Dragon Dogma sounded best for coop though and team mechanic, in contrast to KoA. Well, I'll get to try the demo in a cuple of days...

Shifty have you tried putting your PS3 in the DMZ?

My bro did that after his d/l speeds were contantly abysmal and it helped GREATLY.

[Billy Idol]

Can you explain please 'putting your ps3 in the dmz'??? I dont get it!?!?

[Cornsnake]

I'm definitely buying this day one. The demo just keeps getting better the more I play it. Those bosses go down really fast if you know what you're doing.

[Brad Grenz]

Seems like the demo actually randomizes some abilities in the prologue at least.

[Shifty Geezer]

Um...I'm not a fan. First up I want to make a request for someone to fly out to Japan and teach their games designers about modern UI design, because they seem tied to 8bit 'White fixed-spaced text on black backgrounds' and other very messy, clunky interfaces. SD sets are dead so please stop designing interfaces to be viewable on blurry CRTs.

Getting past that to the gameplay, I was mildly lost and felt my possé were doing all the work. They were casting spells and stuff, and all I could do was hit. I couldn't find any inventory (beyond herbs and lamp) or skill-tree or such, so I was left with the impression I was a dumb brawler. And with my teammates constantly getting in my way so I couldn't see nuffink, it felt like button masher. I will give it another go or two, but first impressions were not positive.

The positive I did find was the real-time lighting outside. That was pretty cool and changed the nature of the combat. Well, it didn't as I still just shot arrows until the griffon landed and then hit it, but once the sun set I had to pull out the lamp to do this.

[BoardBonobo]

Originally Posted by Billy Idol

Can you explain please 'putting your ps3 in the dmz'??? I dont get it!?!?

The DMZ is the De-Militarised Zone. In router parlance this is a private IP address that is placed out side the firewall. Basically no stateful packet inspection is done and all ports are available. So all the overhead is removed but you are potentially left open to hackers.

Most modern routers have an option to use the DMZ.

[BoardBonobo]

Originally Posted by Shifty Geezer

Um...I'm not a fan. First up I want to make a request for someone to fly out to Japan and teach their games designers about modern UI design, because they seem tied to 8bit 'White fixed-spaced text on black backgrounds' and other very messy, clunky interfaces. SD sets are dead so please stop designing interfaces to be viewable on blurry CRTs.

Getting past that to the gameplay, I was mildly lost and felt my possé were doing all the work. They were casting spells and stuff, and all I could do was hit. I couldn't find any inventory (beyond herbs and lamp) or skill-tree or such, so I was left with the impression I was a dumb brawler. And with my teammates constantly getting in my way so I couldn't see nuffink, it felt like button masher. I will give it another go or two, but first impressions were not positive.

The positive I did find was the real-time lighting outside. That was pretty cool and changed the nature of the combat. Well, it didn't as I still just shot arrows until the griffon landed and then hit it, but once the sun set I had to pull out the lamp to do this.

That about sums up what I feel about the demo. I get a feeling that lending your NPCs out to other players will make an interesting mechanic but will it make up for the feeling of disconnection in the game?

The Kingdoms of Amalur is looking much more welcoming now.

[Cornsnake]

These should give you a good idea of what Dragon's Dogma is all about.

Gameplay.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrCiV4LOYk4

Pawn guide.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEsVm...feature=relmfu

Classes and Skills guide.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_c8kr...feature=relmfu

[BoardBonobo]

Originally Posted by Cornsnake

These should give you a good idea of what Dragon's Dogma is all about.

Gameplay.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrCiV4LOYk4

Pawn guide.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEsVm...feature=relmfu

Classes and Skills guide.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_c8kr...feature=relmfu

I think they should have chosen their demo material more carefully. Watching those vids makes it look and sound so much cooler and interesting.

[Cornsnake]

Their marketing has been terrible so far. Yet, a while back they said they were expecting 10 million in sales. I wasn't interested in the game until I saw those vids.

[Prophecy2k]

Originally Posted by BoardBonobo

The DMZ is the De-Militarised Zone. In router parlance this is a private IP address that is placed out side the firewall. Basically no stateful packet inspection is done and all ports are available. So all the overhead is removed but you are potentially left open to hackers.

Most modern routers have an option to use the DMZ.

Cheers BoardBonobo

[BoardBonobo]

Originally Posted by Prophecy2k

Cheers BoardBonobo

You're welcome! The DMZ is a useful tool. At work I have a couple of honey pot servers in the DMZ. Every week or so I inspect them to see what interesting things they have picked up off the internet.

Within weeks they're usually more riddled with viruses than an inbred victorian dandy with an opium problem and the keys to a whore house...

[Rangers]

Hmm, I usud to put DMZ on and just let Windows Firewall protect me That way multiplayer gaming stuff can get through easier without restricted NAT and all that crap problems. Besides as I have heard it said " in reality all firewalls are software firewalls" even though people say a router firewall is a "hardware" firewall.

I'm not sure how I have it set up lately, lost track. Probably not on DMZ as I think XBL tells me I have only a moderately open NAT or something not the best.

[Billy Idol]

Thanks BoardBonobo!!