Game of Thrones RPG Official Site Opens, 2nd Trailer

[DragonAge93]

There isn't that much of open exploration. Sure, you can walk around a little in the area your in, but it's not Skyrim-exploration. Think Dragon Age when it comes to exploration. The load times go fairly quickly as well.

[The Bastard of Bolton]

Honestly I'm no graphics whore and will never argue that graphics make the game. As a PS3 owner I can easily enjoy games which look a million times better on pc.

That being said, this is a really poor effort. I watched a few walkthroughs and both for the xbox and ps3 the graphics are cringe inducing, especially character animations movements and face, and the lip syncing. Some of the voice acting is terrific, some of it is terrible. The gameplay looks interesting but not varied. For a game built on the unreal 3 engine this is awful. I see soldiers clipping through the main character, I see weapon hits not connecting when they should and I see horrible AI.

The story seems tight and I'd love to experience a condensed version via an HBO animated movie but a story can't hold together a game. GAME. GAMEplay. It isn't storyplay. It isn't a novel, it is supposed to be a game.

If the game aspect is lacking and you still defend it on the merit of its story than you're a deluded fan.

[Teeem3000]

http://www.gamespot.com/game-of-thrones/reviews/game-of-thrones-review-6377141/

Gamespot review.

[camradio]

Sigh its depressing but not unexpected. Cyanide managed to make two very poor agot games in like what a year? I really hope a different company gets the license and does it right.

[J_Crews]

Honestly I'm no graphics whore and will never argue that graphics make the game. As a PS3 owner I can easily enjoy games which look a million times better on pc. That being said, this is a really poor effort. I watched a few walkthroughs and both for the xbox and ps3 the graphics are cringe inducing, especially character animations movements and face, and the lip syncing. Some of the voice acting is terrific, some of it is terrible. The gameplay looks interesting but not varied. For a game built on the unreal 3 engine this is awful. I see soldiers clipping through the main character, I see weapon hits not connecting when they should and I see horrible AI. The story seems tight and I'd love to experience a condensed version via an HBO animated movie but a story can't hold together a game. GAME. GAMEplay. It isn't storyplay. It isn't a novel, it is supposed to be a game. If the game aspect is lacking and you still defend it on the merit of its story than you're a deluded fan.

I play games, but I don't guess I'm much of a "gamer;" the story is all I care about... literally. And that's not just with ASOIAF. Betrayal at Krondor looks atrocious after all these years, but it's still a favorite of mine.

[salt]

The universe of ASOIAF has such rich potential for games. Its really a shame that Cyanide got the license.

[The Bastard of Bolton]

I might be swayed if a large section of the ASOIAF fanbase genuinely ends up loving this game.

I know some will find me a tool for taking into consideration reviews when buying games but I just don't see the sense in spending $60 on something that won't be enjoyable.

There are hundreds of amazing games you could be discovering and enjoying right now that will cost you less than $30.

Just doesn't make sense to impulse purchase the game just because you have a loyalty to the series not if it has been proven to be substandard.

There are extended walkthroughs on the internet that'll prove it which I probably can't post here so I wont.

Here is a review from someone who hasn't read the books but watched the show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUfwKN_1ssg

There is no decent PC review of the game.

The consoles seem pretty much shit, PS3 and 360 alike but the PC version might be miles better in more than just graphics.

[DragonAge93]

Sad to see such hate for it. I'm really enjoying it. I'm especially enjoying Alester's story. Really interesting. Haven't really played much of Mors's story, but it seems like it's starting to pick up!

[The Bastard of Bolton]

How does the gameplay feel to you in comparison to dragon age, dragonage93?

[Talleyrand]

Does anyone know if there is a trainer or save file editor for the pc version?

The combat's getting annoying and I just want to try and get through it easier so I can enjoy the story everyone seems to be praising.

[DragonAge93]

In comparison to DA's combat, I prefer DA's, GoT's combat is a little on the clunky side at times, but it's tolerable once you play it for a good 10-15 minutes.

[The Bastard of Bolton]

Does anyone know if there is a trainer or save file editor for the pc version? The combat's getting annoying and I just want to try and get through it easier so I can enjoy the story everyone seems to be praising.

I hope it is praise and not just people overstating the only good part of the game.

In comparison to DA's combat, I prefer DA's, GoT's combat is a little on the clunky side at times, but it's tolerable once you play it for a good 10-15 minutes.

At least it grows on you...

[Talleyrand]

The voice acting so far either seems half-arsed or just odd. It confused me to hear a Ranger complain about the pampered lifestyle of nobles when it sounds like he just got off the train from Eton.

[Talleyrand]

Though I must say I rather like the graphics so far. They may not compare to recent games like the Witcher but that doesn't bother me that much. The designs are good, especially for armour and some of the buildings have a nice look to them.

[DragonAge93]

Yeah Talleyrand, the armor and weapons do look good, and get the job done. And the environments are actually really beautiful to look at, especially in King's Landing.

[DarkSnow]

is the story obviously not all as its varies per person being a rpg but is any information we gain from its or general story arc and history capon, because GRRM was involved?

[Lord Godric]

I'm disappointed that this game isn't all that I hoped it would be. I want a great ASoIaF game, not a mediocre one. Hopefully the MMO turns out great so I can get my fix.

[Tyrionthebest]

I'm disappointed that this game isn't all that I hoped it would be. I want a great ASoIaF game, not a mediocre one. Hopefully the MMO turns out great so I can get my fix.

But the story is great at least . You can enjoy that .

[arkestry]

Hmph. I've played for about 15 hours. The overarching story is much better than the average RPG; it does clever things like having a character introduce himself to you as a certain knight as one player character in one timeline and then meeting someone else claiming to be that knight in a different one. Your protagonists, although certainly not lucky, don't start out as powerless shitmunchers (I don't mean in game terms, I just mean in how other characters treat you because of your position in the world), which is a nice change from the RPG norm. The moral choices presented are actually things I have to think about what the character I'm playing should do, not something where you can just pick "be nice, be sarcastic, be a dick" and stick to it for the whole game.

That said, the actual lines the characters say are mostly horrible, and mostly horrible obviously because they were written and translated from French. I don't know why it's so hard to hire a competent native English-speaker to give things a once-over, but CDProjekt seem to have trouble with this too. The voice acting runs the gambit, but there's enough garbage readings thrown in there to make it not a strong point. The game is like half conversation or more. It would benefit a lot from someone replacing the ridiculous stylized swooshy letterbox with a regular one, or not at all; I can't help but notice the conversations aren't in the same aspect ratio on my screen as the show they're trying to imitate.

The graphics also vary wildly (I mean from like 2009 graphics to inexcusable). With King's Landing bearing no resemblance to the HBO Dubrovnik one and looking like a user-made shooter map from ten years ago but the throne room and Castle Black looking like something from Dragon Age Origins or the first Witcher and seeming like it was at least based on HBO concept art, I can't help but feel like they've been making this game for five years since they acquired the licensed and don't have the budget to touch up the first stuff they finished. There are some nice-looking armors available to the main characters. The northern areas and Riverspring (Westerlands) and the Red Keep and presumably the Riverlands look a few notches better than King's Landing. On the bright side, I'm not in this boat, but one might be able to play this on a computer that can't play other new games. The animations for fighting are acceptable but there's a lot of awkward leaning in the conversations and often characters far in the background just aren't doing anything. Doors opening especially have no weight to them.

I disliked the combat until I got enough abilities to make it have some depth; I noticed after a few hours it was fun and I turned the difficulty up. Warging into the dog is fun, and you can often hide and take out most of the enemies in an area with the dog if you're patient. The characters play noticeably differently. I even chose both the sword classes--hedge knight for Mors and water dancer for Alester--and the Red Priest has to rely a lot more on his abilities and immobilizing or knocking down enemies and retreating with healing flames whereas the Nightswatchman is a lot heavier duty but runs out of energy pretty quickly. You're often solo or with one partner (other Nightswatchmen, your cousin, your bastard brother, a knight of the Vale, a knight of the Riverlands, a criminal...) but are sometimes given a whole squad of black brothers or other folks to follow you around. You can only directly control one partner at a time (plus the dog for Mors).

The load times are short. (They had better be...)

I'm enjoying it in spite of its shortcomings because of the setting. That's not to excuse something of a mess of a game, but this is the Game of Thrones game that exists. I guess if you want to like it but you're not sure if it's playable or fun, it is. If you really like the setting and other (better) games of the linear conversations and swordsfighting genre, you will probably enjoy it. It's not nearly the mess Genesis was, and wasn't developed by the same team within Cyanide. I'm sure this won't happen, but the best situation would be that it sells enough to get an enhanced edition like the first Witcher (which was also a bit of a mess upon release if anyone remembers). I'd hope they'd clean up the most egregious voice actors and off translations, put out HD textures, bring the older elements that don't match HBO inline (Goldcloaks and Vale soldiers, which also happen to be the worst modeled and textured--even a retexture of King's landing with some more scenery thrown in when you peek over the walls would go a long way), and clean up the menus and maps, because those are low-res and homemade-looking. I don't know how open to modding it is, but it's in the Unreal Engine 3, which lots of people know how to use, so if modding is possible or were enabled later and the community could probably fix the game themselves like has been done with Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlings and Knights of the Old Republic 2.

Obviously I'd rather a company that I know knows what they're doing have the license, but I don't think that's going to happen, so I hope enough fans support this game that they can do a sequel with a bigger budget, more time, more voice actors from the show, and better localization. I'd certainly want to see more of Mors and Alester's story intertwining with the series as it goes on, assuming they survive. I could see other archetypal characters thrown into the mix down the line; playing a Faceless Man would be a joy.

is the story obviously not all as its varies per person being a rpg but is any information we gain from its or general story arc and history capon, because GRRM was involved?

I'm not sure if this is what you're asking, and I'm not finished with the game, but the general thrust is a story taking place a few months ago intertwined with one in the present. In the past, you're Alester Sarwyck, the first son of one of Tywin's bannermen who went to Essos after the war and converted to R'hllor-ism. Alester returns upon receiving news of the death of his father and gets embroiled in a plot in the south to return a Targaryean to the throne. In the present, you're Mors Westford, a warg and the Nightswatchman responsible for tracking down fugitives from the Wall. Mors is also a former Lannister bannerman from Robert's war who took the black after refusing to kill children on Tywin's orders. He knew Jon Arryn and get involved in a plot to conceal one of Robert's babymamas. Somewhere their interests will intersect in the present, I think in the riverlands, which I haven't visited yet but am right up to.

If you're asking if the game will reveal any plot points related to the books that hasn't been revealed in the books, almost certainly not. You do get to visit Mole's Town. I think the other new locations are original.

The makers of the game seem to think any bastard gets bastard names, not just noble bastards, yet they seem to understand that peasants don't have surnames. Odd.

[Talleyrand]

I'm pretty sure from the dialogue that every veteran ranger other Mors and Mormont have a tendency to rape new recruits.