Quick Look: Sorcery

@mrfizzy said:

Seeing a wand in any context other than Harry Potter looks super lame. It probably looks just as bad in Harry Potter but I refuse to let my childhood be ruined.

The wand my D3 Wizard uses is pretty cool.

@AlexanderSheen said:

@Baal_Sagoth said:

I'm way on board with the hands vs. wand casting of magic argument. Everything about commanding spells with hand gestures says 'I'm bending reality with raw willpower' while the wand variant is the gimmicky fools way of 'I'm trying to look like I know what I'm doing but I really don't ... herp derp'.

And when your wand is broken or you lost it, you're just fucked. The need for a stupid-ass stick is dumb.

Yeah, I kinda agree too, though I think a case could be made for proper staffs.

Man, just started this video and first thought is "This theme kinda sounds like Titanic music..."

@fisk0 said:

@AlexanderSheen said:

@Baal_Sagoth said:

I'm way on board with the hands vs. wand casting of magic argument. Everything about commanding spells with hand gestures says 'I'm bending reality with raw willpower' while the wand variant is the gimmicky fools way of 'I'm trying to look like I know what I'm doing but I really don't ... herp derp'.

And when your wand is broken or you lost it, you're just fucked. The need for a stupid-ass stick is dumb.

Yeah, I kinda agree too, though I think a case could be made for proper staffs.

If you can use magic with or without staves, then I'm okay with them. They look cool and you can use them as melee weapons.

Warning: Gratuitous use of Move controller ahead.

Generally I do not like motion controlled games...but this look alright actually.

Re-AGENT, Ryan. Not regent. That's another thing.

Looks like fun.

Mann, I was hoping would join this one to give his Move E3 Commentary again...

As soon as I saw the glowing wand, my mind immediately went to the Harry Potter "rave" quicklooks. I also started making rave noises with my mouth. :)

STYEUUUUUPIFY!

I would play the SHIT out of a fantasy game where you play as a gritty, grizzled wizard that is basically Magic Max Payne, complete with narration, and potion abuse taking the place of painkillers.

i'm finna do all the magic

"Kids will love opening these doors. It's like they're really opening a door!"

@DeadDorf: Hopefully soon after E3. They mentioned a while ago that the space they're in now is only temp. Brad posted a picture on twitter of the QL room and it's pretty small by the looks of things.

@TheBrainninja: Zap that guy?

Also I'm with Jeff. Magic wands look stupid. Get yourself a staff or just use your damn hands Harry Potter.

You know what would make this actually interesting? magic combo's, just like it's done in Magicka. Open up a radial menu, slows down time so you can make a selection and use the appropriate action for the magic type (punch down for earth attacks for example) that would be pretty awesome.

Unless this actually does do magic combos.

Oh hey, it's QB.

@DeepSpaceJesus said:

Oh hey, it's QB.

Thought the exact same thing.

And just like that, the Alex Kidd janken song is stuck in my head. Thanks, Jeff (and Sony Santa Monica!)!

There are 2 reasons why I prefer wands over hands in magicians casting magic:

1. Wands embody the whole notion of don't judge a book by its cover: Just think about a magician being able to cast magic that breaks open the heavens and brings chaos on his/her enemies just by waving a puny stick.

2. Wands are vastly more elegant than hands: Whenever magicians use hands to cast magic at some point they start looking like they are making gang signs (see Naruto for example). Using hands to cast magic just looks silly. And aside from a fireball spell what kinds of motions can a magician make with his/her hands that won't make him/her appear sillier than just using a wand? When a magician makes weird motions with wands it looks mystical but when a magician makes weird motions with hands it becomes hard to distinguish between a magician and a special needs child.

Just to be pedantic, it's pronounced "re-agents", Ryan, not "reegents". Psshh, everyone knows that!!

This game looks pretty fun.

This game works, and that's an achievement. But it seems like The Workshop and Sony Santa Monica didn't design a game after getting the engine working. They just focused on combat, and twitch action with motion controls is really stupid. Red Steel 2 and Skyward Sword pulled it off, but it still isn't what motion controls should be about. This game's world is boring - I kept expecting the levels to get less linear, less static, and be filled with more stuff to play with. But no; it's nothing but invisible walls, the rare sheep you can turn into a pig for no reason, and a retarded "put the key into the hole" puzzle - which is SO CLOSE to what they should have done, actually!

The whole focus of the game should be manipulating things in the environment. There should be Havoc physics applied to EVERYTHING, and EVERYTHING should be playable with. Levels should have hay bales or something that you can build staircases with, and get on top of rooftops. The thing Jeff said - you should light three fires and a treasure chest should appear. You should come across piles of leaves, and then animate brooms to sweep them up to find things, etc. It's like these guys set out to design a motion control game, than completely ignored the 5 previous years of motion controlled games that came out on Wii. They didn't learn from the failures, and they sure as shit didn't look at the successes (Zack & Wiki, Silent Hill Shattered Memories, Red Steel 2, Skyward Sword, Fragile Dreams, Epic Mickey, the Slingpod levels in Super Mario Galaxy, etc.). They just thought kids(?) would want to flick the shit out of the Move controller for...what, five hours? Ugh.

Combat + Motion Controls = Bad. Design a more meaningful adventure. Datura had more the right idea. Why won't Frictional Games (Amnesia) make a motion controlled console game? They seem to get it. Playing around with objects in the world, I mean. They just do it with a mouse cursor.

And Jeff's right. Fuck dinky little wands. Give this kid an enchanted sword or a staff; something he can beat people with. If there was an element of melee to the combat here, maybe it wouldn't look so brainless and monotonous. Like I said, Red Steel 2 and Skyward Sword pulled that off.

I just found the presentation really boring from the Quick Look. Think I'll pass.

I have all 1000 achievement points in Knot Magic: Origins.

This is made by The Workshop not Sony Santa Monica, they just advised on the game. They do that for a lot of games, like the PixelJunk games and Journey

Argh, when I hear Jeff commenting anything I lose interest immediately.

He makes such jaded, disinterested, ill-conceived, dishonest comments on any game. He has been in the industry for too long.

@K9: 1. Everyone has hands, not all hands look as assuming of magic potential of others. I prefer hands casting magic over wands because I like the idea that the magic is coming through the caster, and not out of a or magical object. It makes impressive spells all that more impressive (See Dark Souls Pyromancy class). I don't mind staves though. :)

2. I've seen some pretty elegant looking hands.

@Zol: Dude please go to another website then. You are like someone who is watching The Tonight Show and complaining how much you dislike Jay Leno.

not trolling. This looks like a wii game with better visuals.

I don't think think this looks too bad, seems like a fun game for kids.

@robot4me: This what the Move is.

the cat's tail is hypnotizing

@thebigJ_A said:

Just to be pedantic, it's pronounced "re-agents", Ryan, not "reegents". Psshh, everyone knows that!!

@Zol said:

Argh, when I hear Jeff commenting anything I lose interest immediately.

He makes such jaded, disinterested, ill-conceived, dishonest comments on any game. He has been in the industry for too long.

Jeff just seemed very bored here, and I can't blame him for that. You want enthusiasm, go see a QL for an interesting game. And calling him 'dishonest' is a wildly ill-conceived accusation.

"Shut up cat, you're not a wizard"

watching this makes me want to go play dragon age: origins, maybe that's just because i'm drunk

Pay the troll toll.

SHUT UP CAT!

Guys, you can't make a game about a kid casting magic for Playstation Move and have him use anything other than a wand.

"Is he at a magic tournament? ...What kind of deck does he have?"

I fucking love Jeff sometimes.

when Ryan was saying "...I can create a potion of heroism" I thought he was going to say heroin. o_0

@DeepSpace9MM said:

The only reason wands were ever legal was because we needed to keep the King of England out of our face. It's time for stricter wand control laws!

That's fine for the small concealable wands. But I'll be damned if I'm registering my long shaft hunting wand with the government.

I've been playing a preview build of this. It's allright, but the progression and story isn't all that interesting... It's partly because it's a very basic 3rd person shooter. People frown on the covermechanic in modern 3rd person shooters, but truth be told I think it adds that extra depth that makes them interesting compared to just circlestrafing dudes.

@SejsCube said:

I would play the SHIT out of a fantasy game where you play as a gritty, grizzled wizard that is basically Magic Max Payne, complete with narration, and potion abuse taking the place of painkillers.

If I'd be a game developer, I would be starting a Kickstarter project for that right now. "Fucked Up Wizard" or "I'm A Wizard" or...hmm...

Also, the game looks decent, but still far from something that would make me want to buy Move.

What the hell is a sub controller? Is that the nav controller?

This Quick Look really drives home Ryan's inability to pronounce words correctly.

That Alchymist looked liked Vinnys dream class to play.

I bet he gets a native +10 on carrying bonus.

@dezvous said:

Man, even with a lackluster game like this it is ridiculous to sit here and watch someone complain about things that are clearly at the fault of the player. Ryan didn't even use the shield once against that boss and I get the feeling he was just wagging the wand around like crazy just because it worked earlier with a larger crowd of enemies.

It seems like sometimes the downfall of a quicklook is they just want to get through it as fast as they can and end up giving the game a fairly poor representation.

this.

I downloaded the demo and gave it a go. It's far from perfect (or, I'M far from perfect with my aiming), but I enjoyed the game play.

I was not a Wii adopter, so the motion controller phase passed me by, I picked up a Move and SharpShooter for SOCOM 4, played throught Killzone 3 with it, dabbled around with the Move and Nav controller with inFAMOUS 2, and enjoy playing Tiger Woods with Move.

I'm always looking for purchases that have Move support and have been disappointed with a lot of the selection but Sorcery has been on my radar since the announcement at E3 (last year?) Will probably pick this up.

Certainly a try-before-you-buy purchase but don't expect any great improvements over previous motion-controlled games.

(My biggest issue with the demo was the camera control, but it's been done worse in other games)

I would play the SHIT out of a fantasy game where you play as a gritty, grizzled wizard that is basically Magic Max Payne, complete with narration, and potion abuse taking the place of painkillers.