Kingdom Come: Deliverance II [XBSX|S, PC, PS5]

From an IGN article: "Kingdom Come: Deliverance II will once again utilize the CryEngine, which studio spokesperson Tobias Stolz-Zwilling attributed to familiarity and established pipelines, and will feature a variety of environments, including lush forests and other areas."

I'm glad for this because it ensures that whatever they produce should at least match the strengths of KCD1.
 
Easily my most wanted game this year and also the next if the release of KCD2 slips into 2025.

The first one is one of the best and most memorable games ever made. It's rare these days to play a big game that has that "by gamers for gamers" feel.
 
From an IGN article: "Kingdom Come: Deliverance II will once again utilize the CryEngine, which studio spokesperson Tobias Stolz-Zwilling attributed to familiarity and established pipelines, and will feature a variety of environments, including lush forests and other areas."

I'm glad for this because it ensures that whatever they produce should at least match the strengths of KCD1.
additionally it is a testament to CryEngine being alive, one of my favourite engines to date. And a breath of fresh air in this UE 5 days, some variety is always nice to have.

Still surprised that they managed to port the original game to the Nintendo Switch knowing how demanding the first game is.
 
Easily my most wanted game this year and also the next if the release of KCD2 slips into 2025.

The first one is one of the best and most memorable games ever made. It's rare these days to play a big game that has that "by gamers for gamers" feel.

I would liken my introduction to KCD with the first time I played Deus Ex. They both asked a lot of me in terms of setting aside my preconceptions of how I thought the game was going to play, but once I was able to do that it was quite special and I'm glad they made the decisions that they did. Even right down to the cumbersome and sometimes punishing save system; it's one of those examples where weaning you off the habit of saving before every dubious encounter or decision completely changes how you play the game. In a game where every character, from yourself to the "bosses", can potentially die from a single hit, you really don't want to be in the mindset of wanting to find the optimal hero path through every encounter.

It's really not an RPG so much as it is an immersive sim. You can't expect to build and roleplay a character however you want and have the game world bend itself to make your choices viable. Archery, sword fighting, and charisma aren't either/or propositions. You can't talk your way out of every fight. When you realize you're in over your head it's usually too late to try running away. You can't roleplay as someone that doesn't wear heavy plate armor and be surprised when enemies cut you down. When you get jumped by a group of enemies you are probably going to get ripped off your horse, swarmed, and overwhelmed even if you are fully kitted out. The game really doesn't care if you're having fun or not, and that's a welcome breath of fresh air against a landscape of AAA games that have become utterly toothless from trying to accommodate every conceivable customer.
 
@Dictator

Will you guys be analyzing the debut trailer of KCD2?



Even right down to the cumbersome and sometimes punishing save system; it's one of those examples where weaning you off the habit of saving before every dubious encounter or decision completely changes how you play the game.
Here's a relevant quote from the manual of Daggerfall:

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And, like the original, it's running on Cryengine, which makes me happy. Should be interesting to see the results.
 
Here's a relevant quote from the manual of Daggerfall:

rpzrfxodc3e41.jpg

While I agree with most of these, one of the problem is that unfortunately many games, due to their mechanisms, sometimes it's not obvious how you do what you want (or if it's even possible to do what you want). Therefore, sometimes you end up in a situation where you don't want but it's not because of your decision but because of the game's mechanism.
I think if one day we have games that allows the player to do what they want naturally (e.g. the UI is so intuitive that everyone understand how to do everything) then we can really say it's fair to "let it play out."
 
While I agree with most of these, one of the problem is that unfortunately many games, due to their mechanisms, sometimes it's not obvious how you do what you want (or if it's even possible to do what you want). Therefore, sometimes you end up in a situation where you don't want but it's not because of your decision but because of the game's mechanism.
I think if one day we have games that allows the player to do what they want naturally (e.g. the UI is so intuitive that everyone understand how to do everything) then we can really say it's fair to "let it play out."
I feel like there's just this divide between people who like D&D style roleplaying and everybody else. I know for many, role playing video games are kind of an alternative medium for D&D role playing, but lots of other people do not see it like that. I've never played D&D and never really had any interest in doing so. I'm not gonna replay this 70-100+ hour game just to see what different situations/consequences I can experience(at least not for quite a while), so I want my one experience to be fun and satisfying, not this compromised experience because the game decided to punish me in ways I couldn't predict and I missed out on all kinds of things because I chose badly.
 
Not really enthused by how these trailers market the game. Focusing entirely on big action moments and cutscene dialogue and nothing at all to do with the environment, NPC interaction, world simulation, character progression. I'd sooner see a few minute uninterrupted gameplay sequence of walking through a forest, down a road, into a town, robbing a merchant and then getting thrown in jail. A sequence like that would immediately communicate what you're getting that you'll never get from an Elder Scrolls game.
 
Not really enthused by how these trailers market the game. Focusing entirely on big action moments and cutscene dialogue and nothing at all to do with the environment, NPC interaction, world simulation, character progression. I'd sooner see a few minute uninterrupted gameplay sequence of walking through a forest, down a road, into a town, robbing a merchant and then getting thrown in jail. A sequence like that would immediately communicate what you're getting that you'll never get from an Elder Scrolls game.
That's also exactly the sort of trailer that would only cater to the limited fanbase of the first game who understands what it's about.

I get what you're saying, but there's no reason to be upset about a trailer not catering to us when we know what the game is gonna be like. And it's kind of a like an immersive sim sort of thing - very hard to advertise through a trailer or something. Really no great way to advertise what the game is actually like in a way that wont make it seem very boring on the surface.
 
I'm thinking of Todd's "live" E3 demo of Oblivion where he's showing the NPC interact with her dog. Or moments in Starfield's showcases where they show the sandwich hoarding. That tells me what the game is like, what makes them unique, and they're memorable. Cinematics are rarely memorable, and studios like BGS and Warhorse will never appear favorably when juxtaposed with AAA studios who are nothing but technical artistry in scripted cinematics and cutscenes.

I have no memory of KCD1's trailers or launch. Looking on Youtube at KCD1's trailer now gives me a clue why that is, because it's exactly the same kind of trailer that KCD2 is using. Dated looking mocapped cutscenes and rapid cuts of action. That's the sort of trailer that I normally don't even bother to finish watching, never mind buy the game. There's nothing there that highlights the technical strengths of the game's graphics or systems simulation, or communicates what the actual gameplay is like. The only reason I discovered KCD1 in the first place was because it was free on EGS, and the only reason I persevered through the lengthy tutorial and UI/controls learning curve is because I watched a streamer playing it for a couple hours. What I feel KCD2 has going for it is word-of-mouth by fans of KCD1. That and maybe the luck of having an unusually thin field of competition at the end of this year.
 
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