Dragon's Dogma [multi]

[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]

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]

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=qEsVmmXQqWA&feature=relmfu

Classes and Skills guide.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_c8krHCKHDI&feature=relmfu

 

[BoardBonobo]

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=qEsVmmXQqWA&feature=relmfu

Classes and Skills guide.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_c8krHCKHDI&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]

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]

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!!

 

[Cornsnake]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-05-09-dragons-dogma-event-mode-detailed

Upcoming Capcom role-player Dragon's Dogma will include an event mode, allowing players to fight the mighty Ur-Dragon via Xbox Live or PlayStation Network when the game launches on 25th May.

The event mode's battles will be asynchronous encounters for each player and their party of Pawns.

Players will need to fight the Ur-Dragon multiple times before it falls, with the player who deals the fatal blow gaining the biggest share of loot.

Sounds interesting. Although it seems a bit arbitrary to award the most loot to the player who deals the final blow. With god knows how many players involved that may come down to luck more than anything else. And there's no telling if that player also did the most damage.

 

[Sigfried1977]

That does sound a little dumb indeed. like the ultimate evolution of kill stealing. Whatever, I think that's something I can deal with. Really looking forward to this game.

 

[warcrow]

 

[Cornsnake]

The reviews seem to be all over the place.

Gametrailers 8.7
IGN 7.5
Eurogamer 7
Joystiq 4

I guess the game isn't for everyone. Good thing there was a demo.

I'm getting the game this friday. And then I have 4 days of nothing planned.

 

[poopypoo]

looking forward to the review, Cornsnake. I trust your opinion a lot more than most. Sounds like it's pretty fun but gets repetitive. Let us know!

 

[Sigfried1977]

I decided to stick with my pre-order as well. The critical acceptance is rather mixed so far, but I think it's a game for me regardless.

 

[Rangers]

Game has surprisingly impressive visuals. Two offshoot GAF topics related

 

[BoardBonobo]

I often wonder if the problem with reviewers these days is that they are all too jaded and full of preconceptions that cloud any true judgement they might make about a game.

Perhaps they should be there to do the usual clichéd comparisons but the game play should be done by someone who is relatively fresh to that genre.

 

[Brad Grenz]

I do find the comparisons to Skyrim pretty funny. That game garners universal acclaim despite having awful writing, a tacky design sense, terrible combat and catastrophic bugs. But in the case of Dragon's Dogma they've done a lot of hedging, as if worried about being too critical or praising, perhaps fearful of being caught on the wrong side of Demon's Souls type fan reception.

 

[Sigfried1977]

I often wonder if the problem with reviewers these days is that they are all too jaded and full of preconceptions that cloud any true judgement they might make about a game.

Perhaps they should be there to do the usual clichéd comparisons but the game play should be done by someone who is relatively fresh to that genre.

I don't think that's true really. I think game journalists of all critics are usually the ones all too eager to turn a blind eye on a game's problems. Just compare book or movie reviews to game reviews. There are probably more 90+ game reviews on metacritic every year than there have movie reviews in well over a decade. The problem is that most games are really scored on a 70 - 100 scale, especially when it comes to major releases. Game sites are awfully dependant on the mercy of publishers.

From what I've read so far, most critics had issues with the world of Dragon's Dogma because it doesn't feel alive or meaningful. NPCs just run around aimlessly, and there's no lore to discover either. The world is just big for the sake of being big. It also looks incredibly bland, and from what I've seen so far I can't really disagree with any of that.

Maybe some of that holds true for Skyrim as well (although I think the world was really fun to explore, bad writing or not), but this is Dragon's Dogma and not Skyrim. Lower the Syrim score if you must, but for god's sake don't raise the score for DD just because you mercifully overlooked similar problems in previous games. That'd be twice as dishonest.

And since DD is an RPG, it should absolutely be reviewed by someone with experience in the genre, and it should be compared to other entries in the genre. That's how reviews work. Games don't exist in a bubble, and that's especially true for a game as DD which borrows heavily from other prominent rpgs.