I absolutely get why this game is so popular - it's easy and has mass appeal; the same reason many of Nintendo's products do so well. Regardless, I played a free version all of once, and after 30 minutes, was done with it. If people enjoy it, kudos to them, I'd say it's easily worth the price. I need something a little more complex to keep me entertained beyond a day, and I find it absolutely laughable when people say that games like this will crush the market for traditional console games. There will always be people in abundance who like tic-tac-toe - that doesn't mean chess is going to disappear.
It's funny how people will rage at things they haven't even bothered to try yet. People just have nothing better to do. It's a GAME. Try it or don't, nobody cares but the ones who stand to make money off of it. It's not like I have a personally vested interest in Amalur, but I've found it to be a ton of fun so far. The graphics are fine. They're not revolutionary, but art direction>>>>pure graphics, and the art direction is fantastic. It's exactly what I expect when I hear "fantasy." The world, creatures, and lore are colorful, and play off of each other beautifully. This isn't Crysis 3; nobody is using it as a benchmark for the next graphics engine, or spazzing out as it maxes their $5,000 computer. Some of you are amusingly hypocritical too. You try to slam the game's combat system, which pretty much every reviewer thus far has exalted as some of the best combat seen in an RPG to date. Simultaneously, you try to counter with "it can't compete with Skyrim," a game that has abysmal combat. I'm sorry, but even people/reviewers I know that are CRAZY in love with Skyrim usually admit that the weakest element of the game is the combat engine, which feels stuck back in 1998. What modern AAA title besides Skyrim relies on the old "strafe back and forth and swoosh your sword around and try to hit something"? None.
@nocoolnamejim The great thing is, that demo (which I've loved and play obsessively) is based off an obsolete build, and is therefore rather buggy. The new build is reportedly a lot smoother, and IGN's reviewer has stated that after playing it for weeks, it hasn't frozen on him a single time. More on topic, I loved this interview. Salvatore's ambition to present fantasy as the answer to our inherent desire to identify with something which defies explanation is spot on. This was a very informative article, and makes me even more excited to see what nuances he's managed to work into Amalur. And I couldn't agree more with the conclusion of this article - interactive media (ie videogames) are definitely the way of the future in terms of storytelling. Don't get me wrong, I love films and literature, but participating in the experience yourself is another thing entirely.
@Sorrien9 I couldn't agree more. The game was a lot of fun at launch, and while I never played it much, I watched my brother level his beast handler for some time and it looked great. The idea of exploring different worlds, interacting with different lifeforms - it definitely seemed original. Then, for no appreciable reason, they decided to take a wrecking ball to SWG and reduce it to mediocrity. The only game I can think of that even came closs to pulling the same nonsense was Asheron's Call 2, where they essentially pulled the same "hey let's implement 1-2 patches that change the way the entire game works." That never seems to go over well. Minor tweaks and buffs/nerfs come with the MMO territory, but NOBODY wants to invest hundreds of hours into a tank character and wake up the next day to, "Well, we decided your class didn't really allign with our philosophy after all, so now you're kind of a mediocre dps/tank hybrid."
Mariner32, that's some dedication. I admit the game looks amazing, but wouldn't it be easier to have it shipped to you? That is, after all, at least part of the advantage we enjoy living in a modern world. Not to say that I wouldn't go on a 1,000 mile pilgrimage if that's what I had to do to obtain a copy of Skyrim.
While we're at it, if we measured someone's level of aggression after any competitive sport/endeavor, wouldn't they probably tend to be a little on the "aggressive" side? It's not violence, per se, but more akin to an adrenaline rush. If I've just been running, debating, or if I've just played a mean game of basketball (the thought makes me laugh, because I'm atrocious, but you get the idea). Basically after any activity that gets the blood going, if you sit me down and have me watch pictures of kitties while you blare an air-horn in my ear, yeah, I'm probably going to be more perturbed than if I was in a neutral state, but is that the same thing as violence? I think not.
@MichaeltheCM Exactly. Like so many areas of our law (immigration, corporate, and business law), we HAVE safeguards in place. The fact that nobody enforces them half the time is a different matter. Furthermore, regarding Dr. Anderson, I wonder if he hasn't been studying this topic just a little too long. 1986 - over twenty years of a life dedicated to proving video games cause violence. I don't know. On the one hand, his assertion that the advocates of gaming regulation are more highly-published than their counterparts suggests they are better qualified. In another light, it suggests they are so zealous and myopic that they've become obsessed with proving a point, which clouds objectivity (as the article mentioned). Despite my lengthy posts below, I think it's all summarized by a time-tested philosophy - apply some damned common sense. Realizing that common sense is something of an oxymoron nowadays, I think our generation needs to stop leaning so heavily on legislators to tell us what's "right" and "wrong" and just take control. We're not automatons in need of programming. My dad caught me watching a violent movie when I was seven. You know what he did? He turned it off, told me to go do my homework, and said I could watch that kind of stuff in a couple of years, i.e. he exercised judgement. That's what we need, not more laws.
I work in an area of law that focuses on safeguarding the well-being of children, at least theoretically. I find that often, the real motivation which turns the cogs of the system is, perhaps like most societal machinations, to perpetuate the system itself. The countless "specialists" -- child psychologists, psychiatrists, doctors, social workers, physical therapists, etc. (some with less than rock-solid qualifications) -- whatever their initial, often noble, motivations, become so entrenched in a process that the process becomes all-consuming, and the children become an afterthought. Let's not make the same mistake here. Games are the trees, but let's see the forest. We have become, in my opinion, an increasingly callous society. At least in Los Angeles, where I live, I've observed a transformation over the last two decades that I despise. People have become so driven by instant gratification and self entitlement that anything which fails to deliver an immediate, tangible benefit is discarded. This is what the media glorifies, and this is what I see children adopt. It's not their fault. It's no one person's fault, and also everyone's fault. We live in an age where having the newest i-Phone app is a determination of worth. We live in an era where sports stars are paid millions and a scientist who just might be working on an alternative energy solution that saves our world in years to come is scraping for funding (this isn't hypothetical, I know him).
What I'm saying (in an incredibly nebulous and unfocused way) is that pointing to things like violent games as we reach for our torches and pitchforks won't solve the problem. It might feel good to some people, because it paints a target on something we can see, and it incites an immediate call to action - but to what end? The root of the problem is something far more insidious and incalculably harder to fix. What needs adjusting is our attitude. It's not as simple as pointing to a violent game, or movie, or what have you. It starts when a parent performs their sacred role and instills a young mind with a sense of worth, responsibility, and integrity. It continues when a young man or woman carries those morals into their community, and their workplace. It ends, I hope, never. I enjoyed martial arts as a child, but I have never started a fight. I enjoyed "Commando," but have never single-handedly dispensed of an entire third-world army while spouting cheezy one-liners. I have been an avid fan of the World of Warcraft, but have never donned a pair of elf ears or a druid staff. It appears I've drifted somewhat off course, if I ever had one. Good day.
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