MuttersomeTaxicab

Hey all,

So I've kept a close eye on Diamond: Trust of London for a while now. A full-fledged cart for the DS, designed by Jason Rohrer? Sold. Thing is, nothing really came of it. Apparently it took the better part of 6-8 months to get the game approved and now Rohrer is having trouble getting the carts manufactured. As always these days, when one hits a roadblock, a kickstarter is created.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1443658586/diamond-trust-of-london

Obviously it kind of sucks that the game's done but has nowhere to go. Not sure how many bombers still use their DSes, but this is also the guy behind Inside a Star-Filled Sky, which is a delightfully insane bullet hell shooter. Super interested in whatever he wants to do.

F2P FPS? FFS.

@MrCandleguy said:

I just saw this game on steam and know nothing about it, the idea's seem cool. But I want to know anyone's experience with the game.

I pre-ordered and played the beta. It's kind of insane how much that game has changed over the past six months. Arcen is phenomenal with post-launch support of their games. I'm pretty sure AVWW will feel like a completely different game by this time next year.

I don't really know how to describe this game. If you've read what Arcen has said about AVWW, then you're not far off.

1. If your character dies, they are dead forever (but might come back as a ghost to attack you)

2. You lose whatever personal upgrades you applied to that character, but items in your inventory and enchantments/spells you've collected stay with you.

3. Large portions of the world are procedurally generated

4. You need to collect resources to upgrade spells/settlements

5. You need to complete rescue missions to attract people to your settlement.

The actual feel of the game is interesting. Platforming is pretty reasonable. "Enchantments" are basically like armour that can be applied to your character and give them passive buffs. Happily, one of the first enchantments you find negates fall damage (though it begs the question on whether you're ever going to take it off.) One of the major complaints I've seen so far is that a large portion of enemies are glowing sprites that shoot glowing sprites, and all of your spells look like you're shooting different glowing sprites at the glowing sprites while dodging THEIR glowing sprites. Though, having seen later stages of the game, there are other, more varied designs, and said glowing sprites seem to be the game world's version of rats, effectively.

I haven't had time to really delve into the settlement stuff, and I'm curious to see if there are missions beyond "go here, kill monsters, rescue person, kill more monsters, talk to person at your settlement."

At any rate, describing AVWW is hard. Going deliberately against established conventions of game design for different genres seems to be Arcen's wheelhouse. AI War is, far and away, unlike any strategy game on the market. Just as Tidalis takes a pretty weird spin on the "match 3" sort of genre. AVWW kind of takes some cues from stuff like Metroid and Minecraft and roguelikes, but it really never comfortably fits into those genres. As a result, some of it might feel broken. (For example, fully exploring every randomly-generated house in a specific territory is kind of tedious and actually something that they warn against during the tutorial, but you're guaranteed to find at least some resources in nearly every house.) They use a lot of RPG tropes, but there's no actual weapons. You can just cast spells - most of which have a cool-down time until you can get some upgrades.

As mentioned above, I really think it's worth trying the demo before picking it up: http://arcengames.com/w/index.php/avww-downloads

Also, I guess there's a bit of a foofurah about the graphics. Personally, I think they improved upon them immensely. Yeah, some of the animations still look a bit weird and it's possible this sort of thing isn't your graphical thing, but it's not really something I'm worried about.

It's occasionally pretty awesome, also a little nuts and maybe sometimes a little broken, but I can't fathom where or how I'd find an experience like it. Which, yeah, could be a double-edged sword.

@pepsimaxofborg said:

I don't give a fuck as long as the game turns out to be playable and the locked framerate is constant.

I'd hope if it sells well, they'll put more effort into future PC releases, but I won't hold my breath.

This.

Okay. I was as stoked for this port as anybody else, but here's a few things we might forget in our haze of nerd rage:

1. Framerates locked at 30 is actually an improvement over Xbox and PS3. Blighttown? Forget about it. Pinwheel servants in Tomb of Giants? Fuck man.
2. Remember that press release a month or two back promising DLC for PS3/Xbox? You really think they churned out a brand new area that's separate from that DLC?
3. Chances are high that this game was never intended to come out on PC. I'd love to see Namco/From bust out a full fanservice release for PC gamers, but there's a very fine point where a PC release may not be deemed profitable.
4. It's shitty, but expecting a game that didn't have PC in mind during the design process to play nice on the platform the way we're used to is a little unrealistic. Sure, they could delay it a year and do it right but then the moment would be gone.
5. Games for Windows Live: Look, the game was built for Xbox. Much as I'd love to see steam achievements, it's probably a lot easier for the team to work with a similar architecture and roll that way.

The mere fact that they entertained the idea of a PC port in response to a fucking internet petition is goddamn insane. Let's stop and consider how fucked up that is.

A BUNCH OF ASSHOLES ON THE INTERNET TYPED SOME WORDS. SOME OF THOSE ASSHOLES ARE PROBABLY FICTIONAL. THEN A COMPANY MADE A BUSINESS-ASS DECISION BASED ON THESE STRANGE INTERNET-DWELLERS.

I'm still reeling.

You also don't need to own a copy on Steam. You could always add it as a shortcut to launch through steam. Should be able to take screencaps that way.

I've had a PC ever since I was a wee lad, so there was no major game that really made me get one. The impetus for upgrading typically game from whenever an Elder Scrolls game came out.

PS3: Dark Souls

Wii: Technically got it for my fiancee, but Silent Hill: Shattered Memories made me extremely pleased that I had a Wii.

DSi: Chinatown Wars plus all the weird-ass roguelikes on it.

iOS: Nethack

Doesn't FRAPS have screenshot capabilities?

Excited about this. I know they announced DLC for Dark Souls a couple of months back, so I'd be amazed if the added bosses/areas for the PC version aren't essentially the DLC that will come to the other platforms. I don't particularly care, though. Dark Souls has, for me, been one of the most significant games in the past however many years. Will support until I'm burger.

Bummed about the GFWL, but let's look at the facts before flipping the fuck out: I don't think From is particularly well versed in developing for the PC. Plus, they've already put the game out on 360. I'd be amazed if there wasn't some overlap between whatever they had to wrap the game in for Xbox and the GFWL platform. Given the fact that they weren't even considering a port and are now scrambling to strike while the iron is hot, stripping out GFWL is probably not worth the time and effort. What's important for me is that From realizes that the PC is a viable platform, and there's a reasonable amount of interest in another Souls game (because, really, a sequel is inevitable at this point, right?) so that they keep the PC in mind as they're developing the other versions. In the long run, GFWL isn't popular or successful enough to really trundle along for too much longer. We've already seen a pretty marked reduction in its visibility in PC games these days. Either Microsoft will have to come out with a whole new thing during the next cycle (which I'd like to see. I mean, steam works exceptionally well, but some competition wouldn't go amiss) or just concede.

From can be weaned off GFWL later. Right now, I'd rather just see them put out a "Souls" game on the PC so I can give them (more) fucking money.

@Animasta said:

it's probably my favorite visual novel, but did you do the thing with arianna? I always thought it was way too creepy to do myself.

Analogue's pretty cool, a little short for 15 but I got my entertainment out of it.

I'm not 100% sure what I wound up doing. We were dating, that's for sure. I think I called it off at the end, but I don't remember any other significant choices that I made. But yeah, throughout that relationship I felt super-creepy.