Game of Thrones

[John]

So we reviewed today's big release not called Diablo III.  Any big ASOIAF fans going to pick this one up?

[Britton]

RPGFan has the highest rating I've seen for this game so far. A lot of 4-6/10 scores. I hope it's at least playable. A buddy preordered it for me for my birthday.

[Eusis]

So we reviewed today's big release not called Diablo III.

That's not Max Payne 3!

I was hoping for a pleasant surprise, but that doesn't sound to be the case given your review comes off as one of the more positive. Ah well, I'd need to seriously read the books/watch the show beforehand anyway, I'll just have to hope this at least makes more for Atlus than Cursed Crusade probably did.

[John]

RPGFan has the highest rating I've seen for this game so far. A lot of 4-6/10 scores. I hope it's at least playable. A buddy preordered it for me for my birthday.

Honestly, I saw a lot of the reviews and I was surprised the scores were that low.  It has its flaws, but I found the combat endearing.  Maybe it's because it reminded me of KoTOR, though.

[cj_iwakura]

Someone's feedback at NeoGAF who knew people that worked on it was brutal. He said it was a fluke they got the rights to it, and didn't have the technical prowess to make it work like they wanted, just love for the series.

Sadly, that only goes so far, I guess. I love the series, but no way would I give this a go at $60. Still, it doesn't sound dire like Cursed Crusade, just flawed.

[Logick]

Preordered it for the art book(ASOIAF fanboy), I'll get to it eventually.  I hear the story is good, which is good enough for me for this game.

[Britton]

From what little I played tonight, it's not all that bad. I like in the beginning when you pick your perks they are given a point system. if you pick 9 points worth of character perks it makes you pick 9 detrimental anti-erks. Kinda cool. And the combat is pretty cool and unique. Lots of talking, which you'd expect in a GOT game. I have seen glitches pop up, but it's not as bad as some games out there. I also got the art book, it's a nice one too.

[beLIEve?]

atlus coming off cursed crusade and cyanide having botched the last GoT game is sorta why i waited for the reviews i was really optimistic anyway though. i was hoping they'd knock it outta the park somehow. i'm glad i waited for the reviews. i'm reading the books right now and they are just compelling enough to keep me invested. i think i'll maybe get this when its super cheap.

john do you know who has more say in the quality, the publisher or developer?  with this case i assume the developer makes the call but i'm pretty ignorant of how that works. 

[John]

atlus coming off cursed crusade and cyanide having botched the last GoT game is sorta why i waited for the reviews i was really optimistic anyway though. i was hoping they'd knock it outta the park somehow. i'm glad i waited for the reviews. i'm reading the books right now and they are just compelling enough to keep me invested. i think i'll maybe get this when its super cheap.

john do you know who has more say in the quality, the publisher or developer?  with this case i assume the developer makes the call but i'm pretty ignorant of how that works. 

In this case, the developer.  Atlus came into the process pretty late, and Cyanide is a fairly independent developer.  It's different when a developer is contracted by a publisher who is bankrolling the process (like Activision hiring X, Y, or Z outside developer to work on one of their licenses).

[deathsaber]

All in all its actually a pretty decent game and almost must have to me if you are a fan of the books/tv series. 

The entire thing with it is that it is low budget.  As such you get some sketchy prodcution values (some graphical uglyness, clipping issues, attack animations that aren't pretty, voice acting adequate but unspectacular), but at the end the day it scrathes that RPG itch quite well, has some really good RPG character bulding elements, and the story is quite good- its certainly not a broken game, and fans won't be able to put it down.   

Think of games like Risen, Divinity 2, or Alpha Protocol on console- if you saw past some of the technical problems and minor glichyness these had, didn't mind they had lessor production values than Bioware/Bethesda, and enjoyed them regardless because they were finely crafted experiences, its kind of a similar situation here. 

[Logick]

http://grrm.livejournal.com/279996.html?thread=15978684#t15978684 (not a spoiler)
Dunno what to think of the storyline now :-/

[Yoda]

^ I agree with that. There's now way you could tie that all together and have it make sense. Anyone who's read the books and watched the show can see the differences.