Really? Name a more successful fantasy series in the past decade. Tolkien doesnt count because it was written in the 50's. GoT has spawned an immensely popular HBO series, plus been on the top of the NY Times bestseller list for ages.
EDIT: Whoops, forgot about Harry Potter. Duh-'doy.
But after Harry Potter...
Last edited by Hooahguy; 06-08-2012 at 22:20.
On the Path to the Streets of Gold: a Suebi AAR
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Hvil i fred HoreToreA man who casts no shadow has no soul.
Greatest doesn't equal most popular
Then the entire notion of sonething being "great" is purely an opinion.
On the Path to the Streets of Gold: a Suebi AAR
Visited:
Hvil i fred HoreToreA man who casts no shadow has no soul.
lmao XD
you say that he created arguably the best fantasy series, and then you are going to complain when someone argues. thats funny XD
We do not sow.
What? How am I complaining? I am arguing that GoT is the greatest fantasy series in modern times. He disagrees, which I have no problem with, he can have his opinion, but I will still argue why I think so.
On the Path to the Streets of Gold: a Suebi AAR
Visited:
Hvil i fred HoreToreA man who casts no shadow has no soul.
Oh dear. I sense a Backroom argument raring to go.
I like the series. I consider it the best fantasy series in modern times. Which is saying a lot since I never knew the book's existence until after season 2 came out. Which is when I went back and started watching. I shall read the books, in due time. I didn't like Harry Potter. At all. And yet, I've read all of them.
I'd give the game a go. If I had quite a bit of money to burn. Otherwise, it can wait.
I'm not a big fan of the series, to be honest, and I started reading long before all the publicity and "Greatest modern fantasy!" stuff hit. I thought that the first three books were generally good. The last two books were pretty poor; 'Dance' was worse than 'Crows'. I've seen series 1 of the TV series and liked it a lot. I haven't seen any of 2, and won't until it's out on DVD.
I know what kind of gamer I am: I'd rather play the Divinity IIs of the RPG world than the Mass Effect 3s. Flawed ambition is more interesting than safe polish. It sounds like the game is strongest in the areas I care most about, and weakest in areas I can live with. It's not going to be a game for everyone, however.
Anywho, I'm renting it. Will post impressions when able.
Frogbeastegg's Guide to Total War: Shogun II. Please note that the guide is not up-to-date for the latest patch.
All right I got this today morning. Been playing it since. Finished three chapters, must say that generally, the game is very similar to The First Templar (aside from combat, which unlike TFT isn't hack and slash).
Combat is averagely challenging even on easiest difficulty. On medium and high difficulty, dieing often is the norm. It's mainly queuing attacks and powers, nothing extraordinary but fun, specially in encounters where you have allies to mix and match the attacks.
The story seems interesting up until now, although it does not feel like something gritty set in the ASoIaF world. The voice acting is rather lackluster, and the dialogue wheel at times does not clearly indicate, as to what the actions of your choice are going to be.
My two main gripes till now are the camera, which is too zoomed in and low for a game where you need to click on an enemy and queue attacks. Second is the large number of loading screens and how this game seems to be a resource hog and rather unstable. I had a BSOD and a CTD in the first hour.
The horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight.
It's been a month? It can't have been a month. It's been a month. Stupid work, stupid commuting, stupid getting ill, and stupid everything else which eats up my time! :cries:
I'm halfway through, right at the point where Things Kick Off Dramatically. It took a while to get going. The early Alister chapters aren't as interesting as the Mors ones, and that slowed the game's flow down somewhat. Now I'm starting to see how the two characters link together and it's all getting rather interesting. Even at its slowest, the plot had sufficient interesting beats to hold my attention. It's a nice change from the usual fantasy RPG themes; the motivations so far have all been personal and low-key rather the grandiose save the world guff. That makes the questing more believable. If I didn't have other things eating up my time I suspect I'd have ripped through the whole game in the space of a weekend in order to follow the plot.
There are choices, and I rather like the implementation. I don't think that there is a right choice in many of the cases. It's more about what fits the characters you want to play. Help the nobles or help the peasants? Forgive the guy or tell him he's scum? Lie or be honest? It's not an easy selection of lol-oppression or lol-hero. I replayed a few choices on a separate save to see how the other side would turn out, and I felt both sides turned out equally validly.
Combat starts out quite rough. It's easy to die, and you absolutely must use your character's skills in every battle. After ~5 levels and some fresh equipment it's gotten a bit easier in that my characters are less likely to go from half health to dead in the blink of an eye. I'm enjoying that challenge though - this isn't an RPG with a new battle encounter at every fifth step so battles feel relatively meaningful. It's nice to need to use a bit of brain-power.
Some of the voice acting is dreadful. Most of it is tolerable, and the odd character is almost good. The writing is ... well, mostly good, I'd say. Better than plenty of games.
Areas like King's Landing feel more like corner squares than medieval metropolises. The North fares rather better, and the sound effects ensure that it's suitably chilling.
Definitely not for everyone, but certainly interesting.
Frogbeastegg's Guide to Total War: Shogun II. Please note that the guide is not up-to-date for the latest patch.
The choices are one thing I'm liking about this game. I'm still unable to tell what kind of consequences my choices will have in the future (I really do hope they have some consequences, I'm on chapter 7, and up until now, no serious ramifications). I'm just using my knowledge of the game world to decide matters, and keeping my fingers crossed that (for instance) the murderous mercenaries I forgave and recruited will help me later, and not stab me in the back.
Replaying/saving-reloading is a pain though. I've probably already spent as much time on loading screens as much as I have actually playing the game.
The horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight.
would u guys recommend it?
We do not sow.
Chapter 7 was very good, my favourite chapter so far by a good distance. Heh - I'm still in chapter 8 so that may not mean much! I do feel that the game is ramping up ready for some big revelations/events now. Going to try and finish chapter 8 tonight ... assuming I can stay awake for long enough. :brews strong coffee:
Is that the PC version? I've got the xbox one and I thought the epic loading times were probably due to a PC-oriented engine not scaling well to the hardware.I've probably already spent as much time on loading screens as much as I have actually playing the game.
If (big and important if) you are the type of gamer it appeals to, then yes I would. GoT:RPG is definitely not a game for everyone! If you're a strongly gameplay oriented gamer, avoid it. Likewise, if you suspect the rough gameplay edges, occasionally wonky engine tech, and low-budget presentation will bug you, avoid it. It's a storyteller's game, in that the plot is by far and away the strongest aspect of the game. Consider it an interactive novel with decent RPG combat and limited exploration.
I would say that the Rock, Paper, Shotgun 'Wot I think' is pretty on the mark. There's a link a few posts back. Read it and see if it sounds like a game you'd enjoy.
Frogbeastegg's Guide to Total War: Shogun II. Please note that the guide is not up-to-date for the latest patch.
I'm nearly done with Chapter 8 now.
Combat is getting a lot more fun with all the new skills. I am seriously considering ramping up the difficulty a notch.
Plot is indeed getting thicker. And 'hotter'. I do fear though that whatever big twist is one the way, this being Game of Thrones, might be too sad/tragic.
Yup I have PC version. I've ended up deciding that i'll just go with the flow and not reload again and again to see the different choices. The combat is fun enough, so I'll probably do a second playthrough with different classes and check the alternatives out then.
@The Stranger
You should also consider waiting for an update that might fix bugs and the load time. They're planning on releasing a few small DLCs, so the update will probably come alongside.
Last edited by rajpoot; 07-06-2012 at 02:26.
The horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight.
I'm loving this game ^^
Warging is funny :D
The story is also quite nice...
I finished it day before yesterday, but it was late night so completely forgot to post.
There were a few unpredictable twists. And the story does after all, stay true to the GRRM spirit. Probably even takes it a step further than the books.
It's all right to feel sad about videogame characters right....
The horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight.
Game of Thrones hit the flash sale. Worth the money?
Days since the Apocalypse began
"We are living in space-age times but there's too many of us thinking with stone-age minds" | How to spot a Humanist
"Men of Quality do not fear Equality." | "Belief doesn't change facts. Facts, if you are reasonable, should change your beliefs."
Imo absolutely yes!
The story and the characters are awesome, there are very interesting concepts and in overall makes for an entertaining game :)
But as frog said, if you can't get past the graphics and the battle system (the latter isn't incredible, but is not even as bad as most say if you ask me), then no don't buy it :P
Yes, but it is 3x the price of Dragon Age.
I will try it out anyway.
Days since the Apocalypse began
"We are living in space-age times but there's too many of us thinking with stone-age minds" | How to spot a Humanist
"Men of Quality do not fear Equality." | "Belief doesn't change facts. Facts, if you are reasonable, should change your beliefs."
First thoughts so far.
Gameplay is pretty basic, it is a less streamlined system than Dragon Age 1. Which isn't that bad considering this is not Bioware. The lack of camera options is the only thing which brings discomfort, as I would prefer it "further back". The rest is tolerable.
Voice-acting... wow...
You have Varys and Morment, the voices were spot on and perfect. Mor and Alester are both okay. However, there are others which I will sum up with "Ravella", you would expect a more older and wiser voice, but instead, it sounds more like somebodies younger sister with a cold and a blocked nose. What horrible voice acting.
Last edited by Beskar; 07-19-2012 at 22:15.
Days since the Apocalypse began
"We are living in space-age times but there's too many of us thinking with stone-age minds" | How to spot a Humanist
"Men of Quality do not fear Equality." | "Belief doesn't change facts. Facts, if you are reasonable, should change your beliefs."
Last edited by Arjos; 07-19-2012 at 23:11.
How much did you pay Beskie? I'd consider getting it at 75% off, even then I'm not sure.
For the record it is a good game.
The story, although it has pacing issues in the beginning gets interesting around the halfway point, and like Arjos said, if GRRM references this in the books, you don't want to be left out of the loop.
Plus you can meet Maester Martin and asking him some questions.
The horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight.
Aaaand I'm still in chapter 8!
This weekend. I will complete it. I'm determined!
Frogbeastegg's Guide to Total War: Shogun II. Please note that the guide is not up-to-date for the latest patch.
I did chapters 8, 9 and 10 yesterday. All very good, and the story is really in its stride now, gathering pace and momentum with each event sequence. It's managed to surprise me a few times, and I particularly like some of the character dynamics they have going on. It's a story which would make a good book - it's not just "good for a video game".
I finished chapter 11 this afternoon. Holy heavens! That just happened! That, I believe, is what you call getting real. That's obviously not the total end of that but all the same, shocking.
Also: if you cut Mors in two you would find the word "awesome" running right through him.
:hurries off back to the game:
Frogbeastegg's Guide to Total War: Shogun II. Please note that the guide is not up-to-date for the latest patch.
Finished. Well, finished with 2 out of the 3 major ending variations. I'm going back to an earlier save to get the final one out of the trio. At some point in the future I will replay the whole game, see how the story works when you know all the detail. That was one heck of a finale. I could see some of it forming, yet seeing it play out ... heart-rending.
Very good game, very good indeed. The slow start was the only real fly in the ointment aside from a tragic lack of development budget. I would love to see what Cyanide could have done with a Witcher 2 or Bioware style budget. With more polish and presentation, people would probably be hailing this as one of the best RPGs in recent years. I replaced my rented copy with a purchased one, and it will sit proudly next to Witcher 2 on my shelf.
Problem is, it's hard to tell people why the game is so good without breaking into spoilers, and for once this is a game where spoilers matter a lot.
I agree with the Rock, Paper, Shotgun article linked to earlier in the thread. The voice actor starts out passable, and then seems to click on to the fact this isn't a bog standard low-budget game with poor writing. He has some excellent speeches in the second half. One right at the end was - well, I'm sure it's the one RPS described as mesmerising. The growly, gravelly tones fit the character brilliantly.
Frogbeastegg's Guide to Total War: Shogun II. Please note that the guide is not up-to-date for the latest patch.
I really liked this game and it is one of the few with great writing and good characters...
Ofc I would like to see it succeed and get money for a better sequel, but what I care the most in an RPG was covered and I'm an happy player :P
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