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PC Best of E3 2007 Award goes to....
AmazingAvery
Age of Conan AdvocateMember UncommonPosts: 7,188
http://pc.ign.com/articles/806/806820p1.html
IGN deemed AoC Best at E3 this year with T.B runner up.
And to re-iterate a couple of Dev Quotes:
| Jul 15th, 2007, 15:03:24 | #82 |
Product Manager Funcom  Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Norway |
 No, the GameSpot video did not include everything we showed to the press in the Age of Conan area. More coverage may appear later, though, so keep your fingers crossed and you may get the entire thing on video from somewhere. This year's format for E3 meant that only invited press got to see the game in action, and they may choose to show all or only parts of what they saw. At previous E3's you had a lot more press attending the whole show and they could in many cases just wander into any booth they fancied and start capturing stuff. This year's E3 was smaller and strictly invitation-only. Earlier you also had non-press attendees, like fans, who would capture everything and put it on YouTube or write in detail about what they saw on the game's forums. This time we're a bit more at the mercy of the select press who attended and got to see the game. |
| Jul 15th, 2007, 06:02:07 | #53 |
Product Manager Funcom Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Norway |
What new stuff we showed at this year's E3 was basically: 1. We played the Barbarian, the Scion of Set and the Necromancer. 2. We demonstrated the pet system, with melee pets and caster pets. 3. We showed an outdoor area never shown "in-game" before: Atzel's Approach. 4. We showed the first dungeon shown: The Black Ring Citadel. 5. We showed boss fights in the Black Ring Citadel dungeon. 6. We talked about raids and the size of raids in Age of Conan. 7. We demonstrated the NPC conflict in Conall's Valley with a triggered invasion. 8. We demonstrated new spells and combos for all three classes. 9. We showed the magic cone and explained how it worked. Our focus for this year's E3 was really to show how the basic MMO gameplay works in Age of Conan, the dynamic between the three classes and to reveal a dungeon for the first time. We did not go for the more large-scale content like city-building and sieging -- and that was quite intentional. There is another huge convention coming up in August and we're gearing up for that as well (though I do not want to promise anything on what we will be showing there). We're looking forward to reveal even more soon. The format for this year's E3 was very different from previous years, with less press passing through as the Age of Conan area was placed in an "invitation only" section in one of the hotels. That's what the majority of the developers did for their games and that's why you're going to see less coverage this year. This is most likely the reason why there were few huge announcements or reveals this year overall. |
| Today, 03:38:03 | #1 |
Community Manager Join Date: Jul 2007 |
 A Few Words On E3After some conversation amongst ourselves, we wanted to take some time out to speak a little about E3 and the comments and feedback that we've gotten that everyone has had afterwards. The show this year took a little getting used to for everyone involved. Rather than 50,000 attendees, there were about 3,000, and there wasn't the opportunity to show the game on the show floor, where you'd normally get to reveal a few more bits of juicy information, have fans dropping by, and so on. This year, the presentations were focused on the large media sites and the press. It was a wonderful opportunity for us to get word of the game out to an even wider audience—we even popped up in USA Today, both the website and the newspaper itself—but it also meant we had to shift the focus of our presentation from presenting for the hardcore fans who know everything to presenting for a wider audience of journalists. In those presentations, we had to assume that large sections of our potential audience didn't know anything about the game and work from there. That's why you saw us focusing on the combat system and the game world itself. To people who've never seen it before, or don't know Conan that well, it's the first thing that really grabs and holds your attention. If you're used to auto-attacks in MMO games, watching someone actually controlling combat, with blood spattering and heads flying off is really, really cool. Think back to the first time you heard about or saw the combat system. That's what a lot of these guys were seeing for the first time. As much as we would've loved to go into more detail about the game, we had about fifteen minutes per person to say, “Here's who we are, here's our game, and isn't it amazingly cool?” And judging by some of the E3 articles we've read, the answer seems to be, “Yes!” We've already gotten a nice selection of awards, including Best PC Persistent Online Game from IGN, Honorable Mention for MMO of the Show from WarCry, and a nomination for Best Role-Playing Game E3 2007 from Gametrailers.com. We also know a lot of you would've liked to see the video of the presentation itself. Indeed, we went into E3 with the intention of showing off lots of the in-game video. Due to the Internet issues we ran into—keep in mind there was a 3-megabit line being shared between all the companies, journalists, and other guests of the hotel—we decided not to, since the lag was terrible. That said, we understand that all of you who are loyally following the game are eager for more and more information! It means a lot to us that everyone is enthusiastic about the game and wanting to know more. The Friday updates will continue, of course, but as we have said all along, we firmly believe in trying to have things as polished as we can before showing them publicly. Naturally, there are still things we are working furiously to finish, polish up, and tweak, as with any project at this stage, and the team are hard at work ensuring that we can get things precisely as we want them for launch. The beta is also giving us tremendous amounts of feedback, and it also means that some things are getting changed and tweaked based on feedback from our testers. We've said from the outset that the real meaty details (the stats and numbers, etc.) would only be seen very close to launch (if it at all), excepting those taking part in the beta process. So, we do understand that you'd like to see more information and details released (and, as gamers, we know what it's like to anticipate a new game's release!). As to your complaints about the lack of detail, point taken. We understand that we not only need to present more information, but we also need to present more detailed information, and we will be working on getting that information into your hands as soon as we can. We will have to ask for your patience, however, as a lot of the team is currently taking their vacation before the big push to launch. Above all, we'd like to thank you for your enthusiasm. The passion of the Conan community is a remarkable thing, and we're all very grateful you're here. We are working very hard to deliver the true Conan experience that you have all been waiting for! __________________ Shannon 'Pharamond' Drake Community Manager – Funcom |
To GC Germany we go next! and then Dragoncon! (This is North America’s largest sci fi/fantasy convention and the event grows bigger each year. It takes place in Atlanta, Georgia from August 31st thru September 3)
Comments
Good Post!
IGN write: Best PC Persistent Online Game
Age of Conan
Developer: Funcom
Publisher: Eidos
Release Date: October 30, 2007
At the very least, Age of Conan is trying to do something a little different with its combat system. We've seen the game a few times now, and it hasn't performed particularly well, but we still have hope. To attack opponents with melee swipes, you hit one of five keys to trigger specific attacks. As your character progresses you need to chain certain keys together in sequence to pull off special moves. At its core, the system remains similar to the mind-numbing hotkey triggering of past MMOs, but after playing, this seems a little more interactive and involving. We should note that this award is nearly impossible to grant properly. MMOs are meant to be played for hundreds of hours, not two or three. Still, in terms of outlook, this seems to be the most promising. It has a vast fictional universe to use as narrative, and boasts lush environments to draw players in. It's also not an expansion pack, such as EverQuest 2's Rise of Kunark or Guild Wars' Eye of the North. We've got our fingers crossed.
Link: http://pc.ign.com/articles/806/806820p1.html
Trolling?
Nope - Just highlight a few words from IGN
IGN write: Best PC Persistent Online Game
Age of Conan
Developer: Funcom
Publisher: Eidos
Release Date: October 30, 2007
At the very least, Age of Conan is trying to do something a little different with its combat system. We've seen the game a few times now, and it hasn't performed particularly well, but we still have hope. To attack opponents with melee swipes, you hit one of five keys to trigger specific attacks. As your character progresses you need to chain certain keys together in sequence to pull off special moves. At its core, the system remains similar to the mind-numbing hotkey triggering of past MMOs, but after playing, this seems a little more interactive and involving. We should note that this award is nearly impossible to grant properly. MMOs are meant to be played for hundreds of hours, not two or three. Still, in terms of outlook, this seems to be the most promising. It has a vast fictional universe to use as narrative, and boasts lush environments to draw players in. It's also not an expansion pack, such as EverQuest 2's Rise of Kunark or Guild Wars' Eye of the North. We've got our fingers crossed.
I miss DAoC
Sorry guys, It is genuinely not an attempt to troll here but I did not feel there was really a whole lot of new things that came out of the E3 AoC demonstration. The pet class and dungeon were the two main things introduced. The pet class was no different then pet classes in previous games, aside from pet points (which as i understand it was in another game but can't recall the name). As for the dungeon, the rooms were very large but pretty sparse, with clumps of guys here and there. The graphics of teh dungeon were good but not exceptional IMO. They had modified the aggro range of the mobs for the purposes of the demonstration. The final boss was big sized, but we have seen big sized bosses before. Big dungeon and big boss is, no pun intended, not really a big deal. So I'm not sure how it got best of E3. I walked away from the E3 video the same way I walked away from most of the other AoC videos - feeling like they were hiding too much to make any real conclusions one way or another.
The only thing I can think of is that everything else that was shown at E3 must have been pretty bad or showed nothing new at all.
Was the footage that they didn't include in the released video enough to make up the difference? I can't say... but I find it hard to believe that they would intentionally not include the best material. They WANT people to be interested in the game. If they have something cool, they should want to show it off.
Anyway, just a humble opinion from someone that wasn't even at E3 so no reason to get mad over. You can take it or leave it.
Actually, I watched the Gamespot video and the dungeon demonstration made me wary of the direction AoC is taking. A 2-4 hour 24 man instance? OMG, a WoW flashback! Looks like AoC will be a Instance/Quest based economy, not a player based economy, which means to get the good stuff we will have to go through the same damned instance over and over again to be viable in PvP. Also the real-time combat looked clunky with the guy constantly swinging at empty space and a lack of any teamwork displayed.
World Builder GM
Hero's Journey
scratch what i just typed... i didn't fully read the Original post and kinda just recapped it... lol <----on drugs recovering from surgery
This year's E3 was kind of a joke in terms of PC Gaming. I watched some of the live coverage on G4TV (I very quickly remembered why I stopped watching that channel. TV for gamers by gamer? Seriously?) and I very quickly noticed one thing. E3's focus was on console gaming. That's right, the majority of what I saw was Wii, XBox 360 and Playstation gaming. I saw practically nothing at all on PC gaming. It's almost like PC game developers were an afterthought and a way to fill in the empty space between the console gaming booths. And even though EB Games and Gamestop shops in my area want me to believe PC gaming is on it's way out...I fail to see that as even close to being accurate.
Can I play Madden 08 on my PC? Check. Can I play Tomb Raider on my PC? Check. Final Fantasy? Check. Any of the numerous FPS games? Check. Just about any game coming out on a console I'd be able to play on a PC. Now, let's go the other way. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War? Newp. Supreme Commander? Newp. Dungeon Siege 2? Newp. (There was a DS game for the PSP, it wasn't so hot). And those are just some of the games I play right now. Can I hook up and spread a game across 2 or 3 screens on a console like I can do on my PC and get a massive resolution of 3840 x 1024? Newp. Can I download and use mods such as Counterstrike: Source on a console system? Can I use any kind of mods on a console system like I can on a PC? I could easily list more aspects.
There are some really great console games coming up. But the way it seemed PC games were shut out from getting any kind of real coverage at E3 this year was very disappointing. Yes, they did have coverage, but I didn't even realize there were PC developers at E3 this year until I visited Gamespy and found a couple of small little blurbs on some of the games.
tabula rasa as runner up tells me that there musta been only 2 pc games available or they don't have a clue as to what a good game is.
Calm down, I only said it makes me wary that they demoed a Raid, but no PvP, no player built city. I prefer a player-based economy to a quest-based economy. I have done research on the game and right now both of us are speculating, so no need to palm yourself to the face. Neither of us knows how the game will come out, companies always make tons of promises and rarely keep them on release day. We will have to wait and see how much time has been spent on raid gameplay versus pvp, crafting, and city-building.
World Builder GM
Hero's Journey
I have to agree, the coming months have some great PC games coming out. For me it will be Bioshock, Half-Life 2 Orange Box, Unreal Tournament 3, and Gears of War (for co-op play). But the PS3 has some nice stuff coming out too that I am looking forward to, like Heavenly Sword and Little Big Planet. As for Mass Effect, I hope they make a PC port like they did with Jade Empire.
World Builder GM
Hero's Journey
Are you serious? I can tell you why you saw little focus on PC games. Because G4 caters to the 12-18 year old crowd that still finds their stupid, bad acted 'skits' funny, and
at Morgan's clevage constantly. IE, they focus almost SOLELY on consoles, and not only that, but they assume 'wrongly' that console players are mostly 15 year old boys with over-active hormones. They somehow have lost grasp of the fact that most gamers are 25-35.
But alas, you missed out. There are a good number of interesting console titles coming, there always are. But there are a GREAT number of fantastic PC titles coming out as well. To recount a few -
Bioshock (I know it's on console to, but it's a PC FPS first and formost,)
Crysis,
Half-Life 2 EP2/Portal/TF2 (yea, like I'm going to pay $70 for the 'orange box' when I can pay $30 for EP2/Portal/TF2 on steam,)
Age of Conan (had to put that in there,)
Hellgate: London,
Neverwinter Nights II: Mask of the Betrayer,
Starcraft II (yea, a ways off.. but still.. bitchin!)
Call of Duty 4 (again, a PC FPS title through and through, and it looks UBER on a PC compared to a 360,)
Unreal Tournament 3, (I STILL have UT2004 on my machine,)
Tabula Rasa, Fury, Pirates of the Burning Sea, WAR (had to give the other MMOGs props)
Gears of War PC (woohoo a console port FPS. That means a 4 hour highly repetitive mediocrity-fest with pretty eye candy.. but it deserves mention.)
Need I go on? Most of these titles will be out in the next 6-8 months. IMHO, it is a blockbuster year q3/q4 for PC gaming. I personally don't see any console titles even CLOSE to as exciting as most of the above. Well, all of the above accept 1/2 the MMOGs (beside AoC,) and Gears of War PC. Well, the only console title I'm like 'wtf we need that on PC NOW' is Mass Effect. But thats just cause I'm a massive Bioware fan.
I too was sorely disappointed at the G4 coverage, noting it was focused only on the 3 big consoles. I figured there were PC games there as well, but given how they've decreased the number of invitees to E3 it makes it impossible to get any real information from the event. Last year G4 did fairly well touching on a few of the upcoming MMOs, but this year was utter disappointment. I'm sure G4 get's it's funding from the same companies as EB/Gamestop since it seems both are trying to convince themselves and everyone else that PC games are being pushed into oblivion by the indistry.On another note, this year we have "E for Everyone" going on, which is being publicized as an E3 open to the public. I've not seen much information on what companies will be there and a few I've asked on their forumks have failed to even acknowledge my question as to whether they plan to attend it or not - so I'm not planning to go this year but if I hear good things about it I'll most likely go next year if they have it again.
"Death is a dignitary who when he comes announced is to be received
with formal manifestations of respect, even by those most familiar with him."
- Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce
Calm down, I only said it makes me wary that they demoed a Raid, but no PvP, no player built city. I prefer a player-based economy to a quest-based economy. I have done research on the game and right now both of us are speculating, so no need to palm yourself to the face. Neither of us knows how the game will come out, companies always make tons of promises and rarely keep them on release day. We will have to wait and see how much time has been spent on raid gameplay versus pvp, crafting, and city-building.
See thats just it, I'm not speculating. If I can find it, there is an audio file from Funcom's hotel E3 presentation where Jorgen says exactly that PvE gear does not affect PvP and that the two are separate, but not better then the other. And that if you wan't to PvP you're better off getting a crafted set of gear, not using what you find in dungeons. I don't know about you, but when I see/hear a dev state something over and over, over the course of many months. I tend to believe them.
As to how much development time was spent on raid gameplay vs pvp, crafting and city-building, who knows. We do know there are only a handful of high end raid instances. But that still doesn't tell us. But I'm confident that Funcom can find a happy middleground, and separating PvE and PvP gear is a great step in that direction.
My question is, if the game is riddled with PvP, but there are only a "handful" of high end raid instances, why is it that they feel compelled to show people what you're saying is in only a minor part of their game?I mean when you demo a game to people, you're trying to give them an impression of the overall experience of your game, not what you're only going to experience just a few times.
And also let me say that what a dev states over and over means jack. What they show over and over is what you have to go by.
And so far the devs have only shown PvE and a raid dungeon. They also showed a triggered NPC city attacking a player-city, but that's still PvE.
Where's the PvP that is supposed to be the main focus of the game? People have a right to be wary, considering what Funcom has shown their fans in the past 2+ years of development.
For people that haven't read anything about AoC or done any research, looking at the game's demos just says the game is going to be about brutal PvE and a raid dungeon.
---------------------------------------------
I live to fight, and fight to live.
Yes, this is the reason I am wary. For people who have been playing games for a while you tend to expect features to not make it into launch. It does not matter what the devs say until you can see it with your own eyes. If you are playing "he said she said" you are speculating.
Generally E3 is the place for devs to get a journalist to see and play these features so they can share it with us gamers as actual evidence of its existence. This is probably the final E3 before release, and all I actually saw was the promotion of PvE features and what looked like a clunky combat system. If PvP is central to the gameplay then it should be done enough to demo by now, and definitely something they would want to promote at their last E3 don't you think?
World Builder GM
Hero's Journey
Who knows what we will see. At E3 we saw a 1-Man-Raid. Don't expect me to be impressed by that. Also, graphics may impress some, but I prefer gameplay. Also, I have experienced siege's for quite a while now in games like DAoC, SB, and EVE, plus WAR will have sieges, so if I see a 1-Man-Siege don't expect me to be impressed with that either.
I just don't see why you would get all riled up because I'm not gobbling up all the promises and marketing. I bet I will still get the game, but my expectations for it have decreased.
World Builder GM
Hero's Journey
We'll just have to wait and see, I agree. Plenty of games to play until then...
World Builder GM
Hero's Journey