-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Shadowrun Returns |OT| Never, ever cut a deal with a dragon.
- Thread starter cj_iwakura
- Start date
Mobile developers. Poor wretches.
*throws scraps from throne made of reverse-engineered x86 assembly*
I did mention something along those lines as the last post of the prior page, but it'd be great if someone could illuminate on if that's the case and why for the rest of us.
EDIT: Though either way the engine (Moai) sounds like it's probably a dead end for cross platform development, as I recall they're content focusing only on improving it primarily for mobile, unlike something like Unity that sounds like it'll be a great, potent cross platform engine. That hopefully is friendly to manual saving given how many damn RPGs are being made on it.
They also wanted to get the iOS version out earlier but did not have time. It does sound like a small team.
Hopefully there is at least some sort of icon or message that lets you know you've passed a checkpoint? Otherwise how do you know when you can safely quit the game?
superdeluxe
Member
More and more reviews giving this a 80% grade or better, more and more fans being disappointed on the forums. Are we thinking Harebrained studios is muscling good reviews to spur sales?
Do they have that much muscle?
I also don't think it would be necessary even if they had the ability to do it, considering it has been the top seller on Steam before release with only 1 review out.
If there's a missing feature I'd also say to at least wait a couple of weeks before panicking. Gunslinger had things like manual graphics options added after the fact -- we might get lucky with postrelease support.
The idea of Harebrained Studios muscling good reviews out of sites that are 5 times larger than them sounds rather unlikely.
I don't think there needs to be a conspiracy about everything. The game certainly doesn't sound like it's a bad game. The disappointments have more to do with expectations and how the project was presented at various points of the crowdsourcing and development process. It's entirely possible that what the game is, is an above average Shadowrun RPG developed with mobile platforms in mind, and still be a disappointment to fans who expected it to be a bit more of a PC-centric experience.
Unlikely, that's more the domain of bigger publishers/developers who can afford to. And I'd need to look elsewhere but this does sound more like it's launch leadup disappointment with what we know versus actual experience: the checkpoint system's damn close to a deal breaker (I'll definitely be waiting for now, though the sale deluge and getting a cyberpunk fix with SMTIV do not help) but I can't deny the game can be pretty good in spite of that.
superdeluxe
Member
Thanks guys, I'm just trying to figure out if the save issue was a issue with the reviewers.
Krappadizzle
Member
Totalbiscuit has a WTF going. Haven't watched it yet, but there it is for those that are interested.
This is what I was thinking.
Sucks there's no scripting in the editor, as the possibilities would be near endless with it. I just wonder how extensive an editor with no scripting can even be and how long it will take before the ideas dry up within the community due to editor limitations.
The lack of manual saving has been known for months, though that doesn't make it any less disappointing.
I am curious about the difficulty now. Eurogamer basically said that you have to really fuck up to die, which may be why Whitehead didn't bring up the saving, but the Polygon review implies that battles can get rough and that by dying you can lose significant progress. Remains to be seen, I suppose.
I am curious about the difficulty now. Eurogamer basically said that you have to really fuck up to die, which may be why Whitehead didn't bring up the saving, but the Polygon review implies that battles can get rough and that by dying you can lose significant progress. Remains to be seen, I suppose.
Qrusher14242
Banned
Shame about the saving That's what i didn't like about Alan Wake. I hate checkpoint saving. At least have an autosave if you don't have manual saving.
That's what i didn't like about Alan Wake. I hate checkpoint saving. At least have an autosave if you don't have manual saving.There's a difficulty setting, the default setting a kind of easy apparently.
Well the polygon review was written by Arthur Gies who I imagine doesn't exactly excel at games requiring any kind of cognitive thought.
Oh interesting, thought they said the game would only have one difficulty setting. Would be great if there's a harder mode.
haha
I'm really liking what I'm seeing with the 'WTF Is...' feature. I'm sure there's plenty of stuff for the Codex guys to complain about, but considering the kind of RPGs we've been getting the past 6 years this is definitely something I can get down with.
If this was the lesser of the successful Kickstarter RPG projects in terms of talent and funding, I'm very very positive about what Obsidian and InXile can make.
If this was the lesser of the successful Kickstarter RPG projects in terms of talent and funding, I'm very very positive about what Obsidian and InXile can make.
Yea I think it looks great. Sure the save thing is a bummer, but I'll live. The linearity of it isn't really any different then the SNES Shadowrun game which is what they constantly referenced in terms of describing what they wanted to do with this, so that shouldn't really come as a surprise.
Well, I'd sooner suspect the engine myself.
What I could SEE being a possible issue is they didn't want to QA all the possible places someone can get stuck, but if they can put in checkpoints they can, in theory, make places safe to warp back to, and if that's no good then simply implement save points like many JRPGs traditionally have. I prefer being able to manage by saves in general, but for something that has you do preparations and whatnot it's good to have a stable point to save at.
MrCunningham
Member
It looks nice from the playthrough. The WTF is... guy did address a few issues with the save system and the lack of exploration. Apparently you can't really leave areas until objectives are done. But on the positive side, the writing and character dialogue sounds positive, I like that you do have a choice to talk your way out of fighting and can play the game passively if you want. I do like that he mentions that objectives can be done using different means, The graphics look clean and solid enough, the character models look alright and visual customization is a nice touch.
It looks good, the game looks like it would be a great fit on iOS and Android.
I think people are disapointed because they were expecting a very hardcore game, and it doesn't sound like it is one. I'm personally fine with a short game with short missions. I don't have the constitution for playing several 100-hour epics in succession anymore. The only thing that sounds terrible to me is the save point thing. We so need to get past that kind of BS already. Artificial lengthening by forcing the player to replay long chuncks is nothing but bad design.
Chance Hale
Member
Don't like how bodies instantly disappear in combat, hopefully that can be adjusted in an ini.
I'm content just getting a good Shadowrun RPG, it's something I wanted more of and why the FPS announcement was so damn frustrating, ESPECIALLY in light of what Bioware pulled off on Xbox.
Of course one of those things I tend to want in RPGs regardless is a controllable save system. Well, games period, but I already delved on that.
More gameplay vids by Youtubers:
Force Strategy Gaming: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu72k6yEfQ0
Also http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvSYvk30ZNI
Masked Gamer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnjwfwoYA3Q
Force Strategy Gaming: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu72k6yEfQ0
Also http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvSYvk30ZNI
Masked Gamer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnjwfwoYA3Q
The prolonged battle mechanics certainly contribute to those numbers.
how do you know? have you played the game yet? the game sounds too easy for this to be the case.
T
TrueMenace
Unconfirmed Member
Total Biscuit's WTF video was very, very positive. Only complaints were the checkpoint save system, linearity of the story, and clunky animations in combat.
Watch any of the numerous gameplay videos online. Some battles take half an hour to play through. I'm totally fine with this; I love tile, turn based combat. Just saying.
JPeeples83
Member
PepsimanVsJoe
Member
Definitely going to wait for the user campaigns to float in.
Mr. Luchador
Member
Tonight!
ooh, that's bad. Sometimes I have to stop playing the game very quickly and that's why manual save system needs to be coded it. Won't purchase this unless it's 5$.
Which ends up making it quite plausible that the mobile (well, tablet) version really IS the better version to grab, in some ways anyway. Shouldn't be a problem to put that to sleep mid session, doubly so if my progress isn't dumped from multitasking, but doing the same on PC... It can be done, but I wouldn't be as comfortable with it.
Though I'm going to assume the game doesn't automatically act when you're not there either and can be paused regardless.
Alt-tab out of the game? That's generally what I do with all of my games, I once left Skyrim minimised for three days without realising.
Snapshot King
Member
Jesus christ. The fonts I'm seeing in that footage are unreadably small. The way it looks I won't be able to play the game. Isn't this a shitty last minute realization.
soulassssns
Banned
Just prepurchased on steam today. Good to see some good review scores.
you know, I have this strange preconception against alt-tabing since my pentium days when a game running in the background could crush the system. But it's not the case anymore so you're right!
Snapshot King
Member
Does anyone know if you can scale the UI independant of the resolution? Or make the UI bigger at all? I'm getting really sad at the 11th hour only to find out I can't play the game if the answer is negatory on both of those.
Yeah, I've kind of been held back by that too, though it doesn't help that your CPU/GPU will still be running quite hot, and sometimes strange things DO happen. This looks to be low end enough to avoid that though, I hope.
It was an issue when games were pushing hardware and memory would run out as you open other tasks. These days even 'higher' end stuff like Bioshock Infinite and Dishonored are pretty menial tasks for a mid-range gaming PC. It should not be an issue unless you're on a terrible laptop.
Are you playing from a TV? The UI seems to be in-line with older cRPGs, suited more for a close-up monitor. I'm not sure about a font-size option.
Snapshot King
Member
Yeah, I'm playing on a TV. Old footage didn't look like a problem, but all the new stuff is super tiny. It'd be unbelievable for this to essentially be money down the toilet for me because of this.
EDIT: Save for this footage, from a few weeks ago, where the fonts are much, much larger and more readable. This is tearing me up inside.
http://youtu.be/KgojXNLtc08
Yeah, I'm not sure how that'll go. I guess try it out for yourself and see how it is in actual gameplay, if that isn't ideal then email the developers. They have to keep the scope for these kind of features small due to the budget, and I imagine the vast majority of backers will be playing it on a monitor like the old-school RPGs were designed for.
I guess the difference from the old footage is one is 720p and the other is 1080p? Try out different resolutions when you install the game.