Spoiler Alert - Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning - Part 2 - Spoiler Alert

This is where the spoilers live, so either don't read it, or don't complain. 

So, this game is much like Oblivion and Skyrim in that it dumps you right into the story.  To be direct, you start off dead.  Two gnomes are pushing a cart with a body on it, and you are the body.  At the moment where they are about to whip back the sheet and record information about you, the game pauses so that you can choose your race, and create the appearance of your character. 

Here, the game diverges from standard fantasy RPG format, because you don't pick a class.  There are no classes in KOA:R.  Actually, that makes it similar to Skyrim.  There are three disciplines, called Abilities, Might, Sorcery and Finesse, which equate pretty neatly with Warrior, Mage and Rogue.  You get three points at each level to put where you want in these three disciplines.  Sorcery includes spells, staves, scepters (wands) and chakrams (flying disc weapons).  Might includes attacks with sword, greatsword, hammer, and other weapons.  Finesse includes dagger attacks, archery attacks, and something called faeblades, double ended daggers.  There are also poisons, and other things of that sort. 

After you set up your character, the dwarves reveal your newly created face, and then they dump you onto a pile of dead bodies...which is where you wake up.  Now, you begin to explore and then fight your way out of the vast complex where you were reborn after having died in your first life. 

So, that is enough spoilers for now.  You fight your way out, and you learn about Fate, and Fateweavers.  In the world of Amalur, all are ruled by Fate.  Each person has a path through the weave of Fate which cannot be altered, at least not in any major way...until you come along.  Shortly after escaping,  you are told that you have no fate, that you are the master of your destiny, in fact, throughout the game, you character is called the Fateless One. 

The problem is that the game belies that idea.  You are pushed along a narrow path, as if you have no decisions to make on your own.  You can delay the inevitable next step, but you cannot bypass it, nor can you choose how it will play out, at least not often.  The best way to effect the plot line is to dump all the points you can into Persuasion, because then you may not have to fight as often, however, even that did not work for me during the penultimate confrontation with Gadflow.  My persuasion attempt was successful, but I still had to fight him. 

It reminded me of two spots in Mass Effect, where you have the opportunity to either Charm or Intimidate Saren, but either way, the same scene plays out. 

Game designers need to work on more complicated scenarios, not only with multiple endings, but with TRUE multiple endings, and truly different paths to those endings.  A persuasive or intimidating character should have the opportunity to resolve ending conflicts without a fight, or at least not the fight he imagines. 

In the case of Gadflow, why not have the persuasion work, and Gadflow attempt to change, but then Tirnoch is too strong, and eats him anyway.  Even if Gadflow followed you into the final chamber as an ally, it could still lead to the final confrontation with Tirnoch.  He would still have served his purpose by getting you into the chamber where Tirnoch attempts to use you escape her prison. 

I know there is only so much you can do with multiple storylines in the context of a game, but I think they can do better, and after seeing this in KoA:R, and seeing the same thing in Skyrim, Morrowind, Oblivion, Mass Effect 1 & 2, and reading all of the negative comments about the end of Mass Effect 3, it seems to me that game designers need to get with the program and move on to truly interactive storylines, where the player can effect the story and the ending in a bigger way. 

There is one key part where the main quest line splits into two quest lines, but you either do both, or not and in either case, you end up in the same place, where they come back together. 

So, like so many other fantasy RPGs, you pursue the mainline quest, the faction quests, and side quests.  Some of the side quests are so paltry that they are called tasks.  One annoying problem is that some of the tasks never end.  You cannot complete the quest, which can be quite annoying. 

Fateweavers will allow you to remake your character for a fee.  You are set back to level 1, but you get back all the points you have invested in Abilities and Skills.  This means that you can try out other builds, and if you find that you are annoyed with some choice you made in the past, then you can undo it.  Level 40 is the maximum supported, and I reached that before I even got to the final portion of the game. 

The faction quest lines are not quite as much fun as the ones in Oblivion...about on a par with Skyrim, but Skyrim wasn't as good as Obilivion. 

I've run out of things to say, so I will stop here. 

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Having just finished the game, I thought I would record a few thoughts about it.

Kingdoms of Amalur is the first game from a new company, 38 Studios, which is the brain child of Curt Schilling, yes, the Curt Schilling, former Major League Baseball pitcher. Turns out he was a big fan of Everquest II, and used to hang out online in various places and discuss what was wrong with the game. As he says himself, like every else, he thought he knew how to fix it, only unlike everyone else, he had the resources to do something about it.

He assembled a really good team. Best-selling author R.A. Salvatore is the Executive Creator of Worlds. Ken Rolston worked on RPGs like Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind, before going to Big Huge Games, which was working on a single player RPG (like Morrowind) and was purchased by 38 Studios. Todd McFarlane worked on the Spawn and Spiderman comic books before going to work at 38 Studios as the Executive Art Director.

So, today we have a single-player game built mostly by Big Huge Games, with a story set in the pre-history of the MMO that will be coming sometime in the future. In the game world of Amalur, 2500 years will pass between the events of Reckoning and the MMO...hopefully, we won't have to wait that long to play it.
Now, I should state ahead of time that I am not a big fan of MMOs, but I am a big fan of single-player, and multi-player RPGs. The problem is that I like to Role Play, and most MMOs don't really foster RP, but that has nothing to do with Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (KOA:R), since it is completely single player.
Let me start them by reviewing some of the game factors, before I give the spoiler alert and go into the actual game.

The style of the art is slightly cartoonish, but not in a truly horrible way. Comic-bookish might be a better word, and considering the background of the Executive Art Director, that shouldn't be too surprising. On the other hand, parts of it are truly beautiful. The landscape is often dramatic, though with more than a hint of the fantastic, a fantastic that is often unrealistic, huge jutting rocks and enormous stone bridges are common place. The architecture is monumental, which is good. The characters are relatively realistically drawn, so while all the women are well endowed in the chest area, and all the men large and muscular, it isn't grotesque, some of the monsters are, but they are supposed to be that way.

Of course, like most fantasy games, the armor is awful and the weapons are worse. The armor would hinder your movement and the weapons would all be heavy and cumbersome. As someone who has made armor, I am always disappointed by the armor in games. No one seems willing to study the real thing. The same goes for swords and other weapons, so the one hand swords appear to be at least six feet long, with blades that would bludgeon rather than cut, and the great swords would look accurate if you were 10 feet tall. And, don't even get me started on the hammers (OMG). But, that is a personal peeve, so let's move on.
I've decided to make this into two posts, and put all the spoilers in the other post.

The game is fun, but the combat system is a bit hard to master, and I cannot say that I ever really did. You have several different weapons types, and for each weapon types there are a series of moves. First, there is the basic attack button move, then there is a attack button, pause, attack button move. After that, there is dodge, attack button move, and a block, attack button move. There are also a couple of moves where you hold the attack button while your toon sets him/herself for another special move. The problem is that at times you are surrounded by multiple enemies, and stopping to try one of the various moves means that one of the guys you are facing blasts you into next week. I found that I could really only use a few of the moves, because the key to staying alive and not spending an hour killing enemies was to keep mashing the attack button, which makes it a lot like all the other games out there. 38 Studio tried really hard to make the combat more complex, but really all they did was make it more complicated and only partially usable.

Also, the basic outline of the game is a clone of the one used in Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim, Elder Scrolls 3, 4 and 5. There is a mainline plot, which you must follow in a direct line. You can delay as much as you want, but there is only a single path to the end of the game. The same is true for the factions, one path from the start of the faction quests to the end. Once again, you can delay as much as you want, you can start a faction quest line, and then go back to the main quest line, and then do some side quests, and finally get back to the faction quest line, but it doesn't hide the fact that it is a single path from one end to the other. There are multiple paths through the game, but it is only by leaving one path and then moving to another and then coming back. The side quests and faction quests don't do anything to advance the main quest.

So, while, in game terms, you are the master of your destiny, at some point there is only one way to proceed. After playing a lot of fantasy RPGs, I have to admit that I am getting tired of it. It never really makes a difference at the end. Yes, you get choices along the way, and you can create and devise your character anyway you want, but you are constantly reminded that you are really in someone else's story, and in the end they push you along to the conclusion they envisioned.

I'll try to remember to put another part of my conclusion in the other post, since it includes some spoilers.
I enjoyed playing Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, and I might play it again, but not right away. It has been less than 2 days since I finished the game, and already it seems a little boring. That is not a good sign. I am a little tempted by the idea of playing it again, but I am trying to figure out how I am going to make it different. But, for now the game is over and I need to work on other things.

Next time, there will be spoilers, as I go into the storyline and Role-playing aspects of the game.

Computer Decision

Well, sort of...

The history of my personal computers is long and mostly boring to anyone but me. I have had three portables, a Latitude CPt, an Inspiron 9100 and an XPS M1530. I have had a series of desktops as well, but those have all been homebuilt, from the early models that were made up of parts scavenged from various friends to several that I build from parts that I bought at Frys. The problem is that both my portable and my desktop are getting a bit long in the tooth.  

For most things that is not a problem. The web works great, I can write and post to my blogs, facebook and check my email without any issues. I can even watch Hulu, Netflix and the BBC iPlayer without a glitch....but I like to play computer games. Most recently, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, and I want to buy a copy of Mass Effect 3, and neither of my systems meets the minimum specs for these games. Now, they aren't far off, but the video cards are one notch below what they suggest. Kingdoms of Amalur played just fine though, so at the moment it isn't really a problem.

But, I cannot help but look forward to what I want next.

As you can tell if you have been reading these pages, I am fascinated with tablets, and I think rather than getting another portable, I think I will get a tablet, maybe like this one.

Now, this particular one runs Windows 7. This should not be a surprise to anyone who has read this blog, since I am not a big fan of Apple. Now, I could go with an Android tablet, like say, this one:

This second is the Asus Transformer Prime, which is probably the best Android tablet available right now, though the Lenovo Thinkpad might give it a run for its money.  

Now, each of these comes with a keyboard, at least as an option. The Iconia's keyboard acts like a case when you aren't using it, and the Transformer's turns the tablet into a netbook...with the advantage of extended battery life. Now, I like the idea of having a keyboard, but the Transformer's keyboard is just too small for my big fingers. And there will be the rub with the iPad, which has a couple of nice keyboard/cases and every other Android tablet. They size of the tablet means that they cannot fit a full size keyboard on something the same size as the tablet.

But, because the Iconia runs Windows, it is larger and so the keyboard is larger. I've given the Iconia keyboard dock a try and it is big enough. Plus, the Iconia runs Windows 7 and will run Windows 8, both the Consumer Preview now, and the final release later. That's important to me, because I think that Windows 8, and its ARM tablet iteration, Windows RT are going to blow both Android and iOS (iPad) right out of the water. Now, I am not predicting that it will outsell them, at least not at first, and maybe never, but anyone who wants a tablet that is truly more than a large-screen smartphone is going to move to Windows RT (on ARM) and Windows 8 (on x86/x64).

Maybe by the time I can replace my portable, I will be able to buy a tablet with Windows RT, but for now, this would be the choice.

And, for my desktop, I think I will look for a new motherboard and processor and then start building a new desktop piece by piece, because games are working their way onto tablets, but I think it will be a long time before I am playing a version of Amalur or Mass Effect, or whatever future games I want on a tablet.

Recipe for Success in the Tablet Market

Google Tablet: A very good thing done the right way

Well, the guys over at Tech Republic got me going again. Now, usually I don't like James Kendrick and I cannot say that I like this article either. This was my response...

You're looking at the wrong model again.

Kindle isn't the target. Neither is the iPad. They should take a page from the Galaxy Note. Now, I can hear you groaning and rolling your eyes, and you'd be right if I thought the Galaxy Note was the target...but it isn't.

Why did the iPad succeed? Because there wasn't anything like it.

Why did the Kindle succeed? Because there wasn't anything like it.

Why did the Galaxy Note succeed? Because there wasn't anything like it.

Do you see the pattern?

Samsung copies the iPad, but with a different aspect ratio and Android as the OS (Galaxy Tab 10.1), and????? It failed. Ditto for Asus, Acer, Dell (even if theirs was 7"). They were all designed to lure users away from Apple.

Kindle did things differently and it succeeded. It's aimed at different users, someone who wants something Apple doesn't really offer...no they don't, get over it.

Galaxy Note did things differently, and it succeeded. It ran different ads. It talked about what it does that the others don't. Not what features they have that others don't, but what you can do with a stylus and their new software. Big Hit.

Phones are a different market, and you cannot compare the success of Android in the phone market to the tablet market. Everyone carries a phone. Every gets a new phone every couple of years. It's a repeat market that has already been built, though it is still expanding.

Tablets aren't going to be subsidized. The iPad isn't. The Kindle isn't. Okay, so to a certain extend both may be by the expectation of future sales, but they are not directly subsidized by two year contracts. Kindle comes closes, but you are not required to be a Prime customer to buy one. Yes, people do buy unsubsidized phones, but what percentage of the market? The main phone market is subsidized.

Tablets are never going to be big as a subsidized product, because you cannot charge for the phone contract, only the data.

Tablets have to stand on their own, and so far the biggest problem for Android tablets is that the iPad does it better, and it doesn't cost that much more. There is no firm value proposition to the present tablet market. If I take your suggestion of tying the tablet to Google services as the suggestion of giving it a strong value proposition, then you are at least partially right, but when that set of Services isn't really better than Apple's, of Amazon's, then it just doesn't wash. iPad and Kindle will still beat them.

As the iPad did, and still does, and as the Kindle Fire did, and as the Galaxy Note did, they need to find something that the Google tablet will do better than any other tablet, and sell that as the important feature people should want.

So far, all the Android Tablets are trying to be a better, or cheaper iPad...and they are failing. You are suggesting that Google build a better Kindle Fire...and that is going to fail as well, because the Google services aren't as good and don't have the following of the Amazon Services. And what I was trying to say earlier is that they shouldn't try to build a better Galaxy Note. Each of these successes has its own equivalent of the killer app. Google needs to find theirs.