Finally - the first Candid Talk is incoming...

They're gonna answer questions and play the game for 2 hours, which will lead into their video review and eventually the written review. The broadcast's gonna air in a couple of minutes, so if you're as into Kingdoms of Amalur : Reckoning as I am, consider yourself informed. Hopefully they won't make the mistake and show the beginning of the game again and rather show something more meaty a couple of hours in. Somebody ask them to turn difficulty on hard. That's what I'm most curious about.

Here's the direct link, if the embed player doesn't work for you...

Direct Link to IGN's player, if youtube doesn't work out.

Cool, something to listen to while playing MW3. And I'm also calling it: 8.0.
 
But why would you care about hard difficulty? That seems like an insane thing to care about in this game.
 
Edit: Wow he used the word "hype" about the game. That's maybe an exaggeration.
 
Edit 2: Combat the best part of the game? Sure hope that's not true. Ha! Ha!
 
Edit 3: People like fetch quests. Ha! Ha! At least he's somewhat honest, unlike that shady Battlefield guy they had in.

@Grissefar said:

Cool, something to listen to while playing MW3. And I'm also calling it: 8.0. But why would you care about hard difficulty? That seems like an insane thing to care about in this game.

I'm gonna say 8.5. A 9 wouldn't shock me. But an 8.5 at the least. Media outlets generally don't get exclusive early review clearance without that kind of score.

Not that it matters. I don't care for Colin Moriarty as an editorial writer.

Who's that old guy with them? :x

@Grissefar said:

Cool, something to listen to while playing MW3. And I'm also calling it: 8.0. But why would you care about hard difficulty? That seems like an insane thing to care about in this game. Edit: Wow he used the word "hype" about the game. That's maybe an exaggeration. Edit2: Combat the best part of the game? Sure hope that's not true. Ha! Ha!

From the demo the game is super easy and does not require tactics or even paying attention in combat with good gear. You don't get to flex your combo muscles and there is little incentive to try imo.

Hard difficulty will actually determine if there really is any proper variety/depth in combat.

Also that's how Seppli usually plays rpgs, wich is why he cares.

Ugh, I know it might be a minor thing to some people, but watching him see where he needs to go, and having to run all the way around because the game doesn't let you jump down a ledge annoys the hell out of me.

Dialogue choices: to accept a quest or not. Deep.

(just like in Skyrim)

Watching the game in action is actually proving to be a surprisingly fun past-time; kept one eye peeled when it came to this game, though I reckon I will wait for reviews before making a purchase. What I still haven't really figured out, is just what this game is trying to be. The story-line reminds me of Dragon Age, the world of Skyrim; the conversation system of... Well, let's go with Skyrim, again; and the combat seems resembling of Fable more than anything else. I actually appreciate the visual style of the game. Don't get me wrong: I love all that gore-dark, but inbetween Dark Souls, Skyrim and The Witcher 2, there simply was no room left for colours. It's a nice change of pace.

That said; I feel like I'm punishing myself for doing questionable things to small children or something equally frowned upon while listening to these guys talk; it's torture. "You know; they uuh.. tried to.. carve.. uuh, out a very.. unique.. visual space.. you know, uhhh.. And uuh, that's where the inspiration, uh, came from; you know!" I half-expected Ryan to roll into the room, slapping folks with each side of his hands at the sheer bastardization of game-journalism and the english language. "UH UH UH UH UH", and that's how it's done.

Edit: "UHM" - I'm out of here.

@Tennmuerti: There are, like other ones. Those are just the system-critical ones, so they're highlighted.

@Do_The_Manta_Ray said:

That said; I feel like I'm punishing myself for doing questionable things to small children or something equally frowned upon while listening to these guys talk; it's torture. "You know; they uuh.. tried to.. carve.. uuh, out a very.. unique.. visual space.. you know, uhhh.. And uuh, that's where the inspiration, uh, came from; you know!" I half-expected Ryan to roll into the room, slapping folks with each side of his hands at the sheer bastardization of game-journalism and the english language. "UH UH UH UH UH", and that's how it's done.

Edit: "UHM" - I'm out of here.

Colin and the PR guy definitely lack charisma, BUT! Watch.

@Blind_Evil: I know. Those aren't choices. Just a list of exposition options that have 0 effect on anything.

This makes the entire dialogue system super bland. Take quest. Get exposition (if you even bother). Every conversation is like that.

Once in a blue moon there is a persuade check for more loot.

Looks better than I thought. Perhaps I'll give the demo a 2nd try. Maybe 20 seconds of playing it the first time wasn't a fair way to judge it....just maybe.

@Tennmuerti: Some people take lore pretty seriously. Look at the Mass Effect book controversy this week, haha.

I'm sure there'll be a few important choices, but the choices I'm more interested in are the character-building variety. Skill points n shizz.

For someone who reviewed the game he sure is getting plenty of shit wrong or forgetting it.

No different from GB crew I guess.

(wow he just keeps piling on the misinformation, i would never trust a review from someone like that)

The Moriarty guy doesn't seem like the sharpest knife in the drawer. Why the hell does he still have the basic Sorcercy ability equipped? Too wierd.

Game looks bloody amazing. Too bad he didn't play it on hard.

@Grissefar said:

Cool, something to listen to while playing MW3. And I'm also calling it: 8.0. But why would you care about hard difficulty? That seems like an insane thing to care about in this game. Edit: Wow he used the word "hype" about the game. That's maybe an exaggeration. Edit2: Combat the best part of the game? Sure hope that's not true. Ha! Ha!

From the demo the game is super easy and does not require tactics or even paying attention in combat with good gear. You don't get to flex your combo muscles and there is little incentive to try imo.

Hard difficulty will actually determine if there really is any proper variety/depth in combat.

Also that's how Seppli usually plays rpgs, wich is why he cares.

I think the most shocking aspect of this is... Since when has Youtube had livestreaming? :O

@Zithe said:

Ugh, I know it might be a minor thing to some people, but watching him see where he needs to go, and having to run all the way around because the game doesn't let you jump down a ledge annoys the hell out of me.

That annoyed me in the demo as well. No jump button? Preposterous! Such a thing should be standard in pretty much any game.

Could you imagine Gran Turismo with a jump button?

@Grissefar said:

@Tennmuerti said:

@Grissefar said:

Cool, something to listen to while playing MW3. And I'm also calling it: 8.0. But why would you care about hard difficulty? That seems like an insane thing to care about in this game. Edit: Wow he used the word "hype" about the game. That's maybe an exaggeration. Edit2: Combat the best part of the game? Sure hope that's not true. Ha! Ha!

From the demo the game is super easy and does not require tactics or even paying attention in combat with good gear. You don't get to flex your combo muscles and there is little incentive to try imo.

Hard difficulty will actually determine if there really is any proper variety/depth in combat.

Also that's how Seppli usually plays rpgs, wich is why he cares.

Because with a combat system that clunky, turning up the difficulty would probably just make the game more tedious and flexing combo muscles is probably still not encouraged. And wow that old guy really doesn't have interesting stuff to say. "So um.. there's different races, like elves an humans so um... lot of variety there, definately. And um... there's weapons like swords and daggers and um.. you can get effects such as fire so really a lot of variety there."

What exactly is clunky about the combat system? It ain't as forgiving as Soul Calibur, but you can cancel out of pretty much anything, as long as you don't mash like a madman. The seamless 2-weapon system with the multitiered active ability system together with the active evasion and timing based parry system allows for a shit-tonne of fun playstyles regardless of what combination of talent builds and weapons you go for. Being able to easily slot 8 consumables on a radial menu and either use 'em on the fly with the d-pad or via mutator and L-stick while auto-pausing the game is also way convenient and functional.

I still wonder how people can praise the flashy, but in many ways cumbersome, UI of Skyrim - and turn around and shit on KoA:R's UI, which ain't pretty, but certainly more functional with its junk button and radial menu. The favorites list in Skyrim is great, but gets crowded and clunky quite quickly. Everything else is more flash than functionality.

Or does KoA:R's control scheme using mutators prove to be too much of a challenge to pick-up in a 45min demo? Likely so.

These guys are worse at the game than I was after spending 2 hours with the demo. And seem to be less informed too. I am always quite surprised when I see such things. They've yet to do a proper block for example. That's just way wierd.

Especially as a Warrior build with tonnes of +Block gear on. Oh boy - shallow player for a reviewer is irksome.

I say, any reviewer worth his salt should have spent a lot of time playing a MMORPG seriously, being ballsdeep into theorycrafting. How else would you ever understand gamedesign basics, since all of it is generally applicable to pretty much every genre?

@Grissefar said:

@Tennmuerti said:

@Grissefar said:

Cool, something to listen to while playing MW3. And I'm also calling it: 8.0. But why would you care about hard difficulty? That seems like an insane thing to care about in this game. Edit: Wow he used the word "hype" about the game. That's maybe an exaggeration. Edit2: Combat the best part of the game? Sure hope that's not true. Ha! Ha!

From the demo the game is super easy and does not require tactics or even paying attention in combat with good gear. You don't get to flex your combo muscles and there is little incentive to try imo.

Hard difficulty will actually determine if there really is any proper variety/depth in combat.

Also that's how Seppli usually plays rpgs, wich is why he cares.

Because with a combat system that clunky, turning up the difficulty would probably just make the game more tedious and flexing combo muscles is probably still not encouraged. And wow that old guy really doesn't have interesting stuff to say. "So um.. there's different races, like elves an humans so um... lot of variety there, definately. And um... there's weapons like swords and daggers and um.. you can get effects such as fire so really a lot of variety there."

What exactly is clunky about the combat system? It ain't as forgiving as Soul Calibur, but you can cancel out of pretty much anything, as long as you don't mash like a madman. The seamless 2-weapon system with the multitiered active ability system together with the active evasion and timing based parry system allows for a shit-tonne of fun playstyles regardless of what combination of talent builds and weapons you go for. Being able to easily slot 8 consumables on a radial menu and either use 'em on the fly with the d-pad or via mutator and L-stick while auto-pausing the game is also way convenient and functional.

I still wonder how people can praise the flashy, but in many ways cumbersome, UI of Skyrim - and turn around and shit on KoA:R's UI, which ain't pretty, but certainly more functional with its junk button and radial menu. The favorites list in Skyrim is great, but gets crowded and clunky quite quickly. Everything else is more flash than functionality.

Or does KoA:R's control scheme using mutators prove to be too much of a challenge to pick-up in a 45min demo? Likely so.

Are you serious!!? IGN always puts the negatives when showing the final score, but not this time?? Because the producer of the game is there, maybe?

I would watch it save for my complete distain for the format IGN uses for their video reviews. It's horrible. Seems more a useless way of over complicating a review system. To many numbers.

@Grissefar said:

@Seppli said:

@Grissefar said:

@Tennmuerti said:

@Grissefar said:

Cool, something to listen to while playing MW3. And I'm also calling it: 8.0. But why would you care about hard difficulty? That seems like an insane thing to care about in this game. Edit: Wow he used the word "hype" about the game. That's maybe an exaggeration. Edit2: Combat the best part of the game? Sure hope that's not true. Ha! Ha!

From the demo the game is super easy and does not require tactics or even paying attention in combat with good gear. You don't get to flex your combo muscles and there is little incentive to try imo.

Hard difficulty will actually determine if there really is any proper variety/depth in combat.

Also that's how Seppli usually plays rpgs, wich is why he cares.

Because with a combat system that clunky, turning up the difficulty would probably just make the game more tedious and flexing combo muscles is probably still not encouraged. And wow that old guy really doesn't have interesting stuff to say. "So um.. there's different races, like elves an humans so um... lot of variety there, definately. And um... there's weapons like swords and daggers and um.. you can get effects such as fire so really a lot of variety there."

What exactly is clunky about the combat system? It ain't as forgiving as Soul Calibur, but you can cancel out of pretty much anything, as long as you don't mash like a madman. The seamless 2-weapon system with the multitiered active ability system together with the active evasion and timing based parry system allows for a shit-tonne of fun playstyles regardless of what combination of talent builds and weapons you go for. Being able to easily slot 8 consumables on a radial menu and either use 'em on the fly with the d-pad or via mutator and L-stick while auto-pausing the game is also way convenient and functional.

I still wonder how people can praise the flashy, but in many ways cumbersome, UI of Skyrim - and turn around and shit on KoA:R's UI, which ain't pretty, but certainly more functional with its junk button and radial menu. The favorites list in Skyrim is great, but gets crowded and clunky quite quickly. Everything else is more flash than functionality.

Or does KoA:R's control scheme using mutators prove to be too much of a challenge to pick-up in a 45min demo? Likely so.

You're praising the combat like it's Ninja Gaiden and it's like you take the game more seriously than anybody else, developer or otherwise.

I take every game that seriously. I care about my gameplay. I've got the responsibility of applying 'the finishing touch' to their work of art. I better damn well take that seriously.

The only praise I level here is, that the combat ain 'that' clunky as you say it is, because it isn't, unless you're doing it wrong.

@Grissefar said:

@Seppli said:

@Grissefar said:

@Tennmuerti said:

@Grissefar said:

Cool, something to listen to while playing MW3. And I'm also calling it: 8.0. But why would you care about hard difficulty? That seems like an insane thing to care about in this game. Edit: Wow he used the word "hype" about the game. That's maybe an exaggeration. Edit2: Combat the best part of the game? Sure hope that's not true. Ha! Ha!

From the demo the game is super easy and does not require tactics or even paying attention in combat with good gear. You don't get to flex your combo muscles and there is little incentive to try imo.

Hard difficulty will actually determine if there really is any proper variety/depth in combat.

Also that's how Seppli usually plays rpgs, wich is why he cares.

Because with a combat system that clunky, turning up the difficulty would probably just make the game more tedious and flexing combo muscles is probably still not encouraged. And wow that old guy really doesn't have interesting stuff to say. "So um.. there's different races, like elves an humans so um... lot of variety there, definately. And um... there's weapons like swords and daggers and um.. you can get effects such as fire so really a lot of variety there."

What exactly is clunky about the combat system? It ain't as forgiving as Soul Calibur, but you can cancel out of pretty much anything, as long as you don't mash like a madman. The seamless 2-weapon system with the multitiered active ability system together with the active evasion and timing based parry system allows for a shit-tonne of fun playstyles regardless of what combination of talent builds and weapons you go for. Being able to easily slot 8 consumables on a radial menu and either use 'em on the fly with the d-pad or via mutator and L-stick while auto-pausing the game is also way convenient and functional.

I still wonder how people can praise the flashy, but in many ways cumbersome, UI of Skyrim - and turn around and shit on KoA:R's UI, which ain't pretty, but certainly more functional with its junk button and radial menu. The favorites list in Skyrim is great, but gets crowded and clunky quite quickly. Everything else is more flash than functionality.

Or does KoA:R's control scheme using mutators prove to be too much of a challenge to pick-up in a 45min demo? Likely so.

You're praising the combat like it's Ninja Gaiden and it's like you take the game more seriously than anybody else, developer or otherwise.

I take every game that seriously. I care about my gameplay. I've got the responsibility of applying 'the finishing touch' to their work of art. I better damn well take that seriously.

The only praise I level here is, that the combat ain 'that' clunky as you say it is, because it isn't, unless you're doing it wrong.

@Grissefar:

Having been in developement for 6 years, 3 of those in earnest, with lots of ups and downs, this definitely is not a 'yearly sequel'. It's a survivor of development hell and an original through and through.

IGN's final verdict:

9 is pretty high praise. i usually don't follow IGN reviews but seems like a good indication of what to expect from the press.

@Seppli said:

The Moriarty guy doesn't seem like the sharpest knife in the drawer. Why the hell does he still have the basic Sorcercy ability equipped? Too wierd.

Game looks bloody amazing. Too bad he didn't play it on hard.

By putting one point in to sorcery you can unlock a blink ability, which allows you to teleport instead of dodge. Rogues can later attach poison damage to it and warriors can add fire I think

@jtman54179 said:

@Seppli said:

The Moriarty guy doesn't seem like the sharpest knife in the drawer. Why the hell does he still have the basic Sorcercy ability equipped? Too wierd.

Game looks bloody amazing. Too bad he didn't play it on hard.

By putting one point in to sorcery you can unlock a blink ability, which allows you to teleport instead of dodge. Rogues can later attach poison damage to it and warriors can add fire I think

Still doesn't explain why he'd keep an 1 in 5 points sorcery ability slotted rather than a might or finesse ability. Makes no sense whatsoever.

@Seppli said:

@jtman54179 said:

@Seppli said:

The Moriarty guy doesn't seem like the sharpest knife in the drawer. Why the hell does he still have the basic Sorcercy ability equipped? Too wierd.

Game looks bloody amazing. Too bad he didn't play it on hard.

By putting one point in to sorcery you can unlock a blink ability, which allows you to teleport instead of dodge. Rogues can later attach poison damage to it and warriors can add fire I think

Still doesn't explain why he'd keep an 1 in 5 points sorcery ability slotted rather than a might or finesse ability. Makes no sense whatsoever.

Get over it. Maybe he was playing the game, not necessarily trying to optimize his character.