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kk, new here, dont know if there has been a thread on here about this, but i havent seen one yet and rules here dont seem to be as strict as some more populous forums
I heard of the game Advent Rising (due out end of may) here and there but never really looked into it until i read on this weeks weekly update on bungie.net that OSC was working on it. i was shockfully shocked by the shocking shockingness of it all. I looked into the game the setting and everything is very OSC, and it looks to be very kick-ass. thoughts?
Posts: 5 | Registered: May 2005
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OSC seems to be downplaying his involvement in the game these days. I guess he simply was involved in the dialouge at the begginning of the story. Bummer eh?
Funny, when I saw the trailer, I also thought the story looked "very OSC." Guess its just a coincidence, or perhaps we just wanted to see his signature in it.
Still looks kick-ass though. Can't wait to try it.
Posts: 94 | Registered: Mar 2004
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I wanted to be involved with it precisely because it was "my kind of story" - you know, where no matter what you decide, the outcome will suck. That story is there, and it's terrific.
What I've been downplaying is the idea that I created it. Donald Mustard is the creator of the story and the game - and I don't want my involvement to take away from the credit he is owed. Advent Rising is a great game - innovative, transformative, and cool.
But my dialogue in the first part of the game is extraordinarily entertaining. So I'm not downplaying what I actually did!
Posts: 2005 | Registered: Jul 1999
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I work at a video game store. It's odd that all the promo materials for the game say that OSC wrote the story for the whole thing! Am I being decieved? That stinks! The game is scheduled to release June 1st and it looks great. The early reviews said, in short, that the gameplay was average but the story rocked.
Pre order the game and they give you a bonus dvd with OSC talking on it.
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I think that some people (in this case the gaming media) see Mr. Card's name attached to the game and make the assumption that any developer would be foolish not to have him write EVERY SINGLE LINE INCLUDING TUTORIAL TEXT. We valued his time far too much for this (after all, there be series what needs finishin'!)
What we desired most from Mr. Card was some instruction on creating living, dynamic characters who could rise above all the exposition in a science fiction setting. The Ender Series, the Homecoming books, and my personal favorite, Wyrms, were all amazing examples of this. Character-driven stories that also happened to take place in fascinating and exotically different universes. By writing the dialog for the first several levels, Mr. Card set a tone (and some important foundational elements) which made it possible for me to complete the script with this in mind.
So, while the story existed pre-Card (p.C.), it didn't really come to life until he came on board.
Now everybody go out and buy the game.
Posts: 28 | Registered: May 2005
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No worries, the 31st was the official ship date so most stores won't have it until today. I'll be picking my copy up after work.
Posts: 20 | Registered: May 2005
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Unfortunately, I don't think Best Buy will be carrying the game (until we go platinum, of course), but any other game peddler worth his silicone should have it.
Posts: 28 | Registered: May 2005
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Well, the reviews are in! And they're pretty mediocre so far ... which is weird. The IGN reviewer loved the game, but snagged on some technical hitches and gave it a score in the seventies. The GameSpy reviewer apparently loved the basic gamplay, too, but had some polish issues, and got snooty about the story, which he criticized using the EXACT language that Card always uses to make fun of writing critics who don't know their ass from a hole in the ground (specifically, "The characterization was a little thin").
I thought that last bit was hilarious. He ultimately gave the game a 2.5/5. Altogether, though, this actually sounds like a really worthy game from a studio that has never actually made one before. And it's on the high end of Majesco's offerings. Assuming they sell well and get to make a sequel, most of the kinds of problems they faced this time around will surely be ironed out.
Of course, I'm speaking without having PLAYED the game yet. Maybe these reviewers are more full of crap than I realize. Or maybe they're dead on. I'll let you know when I know more ...
Posts: 1907 | Registered: Feb 2000
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Of course (and this is Dog again), I may just be giving them the benefit of the doubt because they're my friends and I've been in the same boat before I'm still going to give it an honest play before I come to my own conclusions.
Posts: 1539 | Registered: Jul 2004
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Since this isn't a video game website I thought I'd post something about the framerate issue which seems to be getting the game it's mediocre scores. Donald Mustard (the creator of the game) explained that the reason for this was that the reviewer copies of the games were burned onto 2 discs because of all the content in the game. The retail copy of the game will be on a dual layered dvd which microsoft produces and ships straight to stores. This version should be better in the framerate department (although I hear it still slows down somewhat but never below 20fps). I wish the reviewers would have done a little research into the topic. For those that wish to see this straight from the horses mouth go to the official website's forums and find the post started by Donald Mustard.
On another note, and to add to what Mr. Card said, the story behind the game was created by Mr. Mustard (in the kitchen with the wrench! Sorry, couldn't resist) when he was a teenager with his brother. I guess the game is sort of a realization of his dreams which I think is really cool. I hear there are books in the works, however who the author is I can only *hope* and speculate, which I'm not sure I want to do quite yet.
*edit* of the 2 scores that I saw only one was mediocre (the gamespy review), which in my opinion had little to no substance to it and upon actually playing the game found alot of what he said to be false (which makes you wonder...). The IGN review gave it an above average score. There were other reviews out which gave it better scores than this and I have it on good authority in a month or so several magazines will have some nice reviews as well. Sorry for my novel of a post, I just *hate* it when a good game with alot of great people behind it gets a bad rap even before the majority of people have had a chance to play it.
Posts: 1 | Registered: Jun 2005
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I happen to love blowing my mind out on a good computer of console game. Escape Velocity, Starcraft, Homeworld, Fallout. How come there are so few good ones out there?
I suppose it's because developers pay no heed to story, graphics, music, gameplay and testing.
Oh, and originality.
What most games lack, however, is a coherent style. Games, after all, are interactive entertainment. You are trying, at some level, to immerse the player within a world, however deep or shallow that world might be. And when you don't provide the gamer with a definitive view of this world, the game inevitably is junk.
Posts: 28 | Registered: Jun 2005
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Actually, you'd need to play every video game ever created to determine that 99% of them are junk. Sure, the majority of games ARE junk, but not anything near 99%.
quote:I happen to love blowing my mind out on a good computer of console game. Escape Velocity, Starcraft, Homeworld, Fallout. How come there are so few good ones out there?
I find it interesting that all those games you listed are a type of RTS game. There are other genres out there, with tons of good games.
quote:I suppose it's because developers pay no heed to story, graphics, music, gameplay and testing.
Now, that I don't agree with. There probably isn't a game with all of those traits in full force, but there are good games with many of those. There aren't too many good stories out there in comparison to the amount of games, but there ARE some dang good stories. I play video games with great graphics, music, and gameplay all the time.
quote:Oh, and originality.
I believe that there ARE original games out there. Unfortunately, many of them don't do that well. Is that entirely the developers fault? I don't think so. How can an original game do well when we're all to afraid to try something new, and just go back to playing our Halo clones?
quote:What most games lack, however, is a coherent style. Games, after all, are interactive entertainment. You are trying, at some level, to immerse the player within a world, however deep or shallow that world might be. And when you don't provide the gamer with a definitive view of this world, the game inevitably is junk.
Once again, I believe this isn't always hapenning, but there are plenty of games that do this. And do it well. There is much room for improvement, but then again, the video game industry is relatively young. (Although it's always been here since I've been alive! ) I'd have to say that it's doing relatively well.
Anyway, I don't mean to "flame" you or anything (since video games are generally just trivial, and don't have the impact that some of the discussions on this board are about). This is just my opinion on the subject matter.
But on the note of Advent Rising, I personally think it looks pretty good, and I'd like to play it. Despite the fact that it has some problems, and the reviews are giving it a rather poor score.
Posts: 290 | Registered: Sep 2002
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quote:Originally posted by A Rat Named Dog: Well, the reviews are in! And they're pretty mediocre so far ... which is weird. The IGN reviewer loved the game, but snagged on some technical hitches and gave it a score in the seventies. The GameSpy reviewer apparently loved the basic gamplay, too, but had some polish issues.
Well it is kind of good to hear that the main problems seem to be technical problems. I was planning on looking into the PC version, which I figure will run better if you have a good setup. If not, I can always wait until a patch is released to polish up the framerate and such.
Posts: 29 | Registered: May 2005
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Scott R: The Best Buy problem is some crazy publisher thing that I'm sure will get ironed out soon.
As per the reviews: If you check out the forums on these sights, or read the reader/gamer reviews, it appears that some kind of grass-roots rebellion is taking place by those who have bought the game and are playing it. They claim that the frame rate issues (if any) are similar to those in any other game and that the story is, and I quote, "awesome." Yes, yes -- I know, I'm biased on this, but it is good to know that the game is fun enough (and the story powerful enough) to stir up some defenders amongst the common folk.
Posts: 28 | Registered: May 2005
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All right-- so I bought the game yesterday from Electronics Boutique. I played for about an hour, and haven't gotten too far, I don't think.
Anyway, here's my initial review:
1) Guns named Faust, Talmage, and Porter Young. Heh. A world named Edumea. I'm expecting Kokaubeam to pop up somewhere. . . You'll only get the joke if you're Mormon, but it was a pleasant suprise. And it explains how MoTab got involved.
2) The story so far is good. I've just gotten off the space station and crash landed in a strangely familiar desert landscape. . . southern Utah, maybe?
3) I haven't noticed any framerate problems.
4) The faces of the humans ARE a little bland-- it's the musculature around the eyes, I think. That's why the Halo characters all wear masks-- human faces are tough to animate. One particular scene which succeeds is the escape pod scene. . .
5) I'm not a fan of the hero's 'look.' It's so. . . angular. He doesn't stand-- he straddles.
6) Getting the shuttle to dock was the HARDEST thing I've ever done in a video game. Seriously, even Ninja Gaiden was easier. The controls just aren't intuitive-- for the longest time, I thought that the right thumbstick was just the camera, as it kept spinning around and around the shuttle. Once I realized that it wasn't just the camera but the directional control, I was able to dock pretty smoothly.
For anyone who needs a hint-- smooth, slow movements. Apply the left thumbstick at the same time as you turn using the right thumbstick.
7) Combat system is flawless. I love the Flick.
8) I'm having a hard time figuring out the system of levelling up-- it may be that I'm a dope, or it may be that the concept really isn't explained that well. Part of the problem, I think, is that you level up during combat, and still must continue fighting-- there's no opportunity to take a moment to absorb the idea that you can use a weapon's grenade launcher now, because one of the aliens is about to plunge your innards.
9) The graphics are good, mostly. The space station is a little monochromatic and the surfaces are fairly static. I've seen some environment screenshots, so I'm willing to table my concerns until I see more of the game.
So far, I give it 8 of 10.
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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I thought i would post here to let all of you that are interested know how the Advent Rising game was. I just finished the game on the Normal Difficulty, and i have to say that it was a great game! The story was about a 9.0/10 i'd say and the gameplay gets a solid 9.8/10. However, there were some issues that i was rather upset about. You may not notice it early on in the game, but my lord is there a serious framerate issue in this game. This is the first console game i have played that has had such a bad framerate. Unfortunately the XBOX does not show a framerate number so i cannot tell you exact details.
However, the fun of the gameplay definatly made up for the framerate issue. I have not had this much fun playing through a game on a conole in a while. I tend to finish games quite quickly, (this one took about 10 hours) but this was one of the most fun times I have had playing a game of this style. The boss battles must recieve the most note here due to the fact that they require so much strategy to defeat them (if you don't use a strategy guide). One battle in particular took me nearly 40 minutes just to figure out how to damage the boss.
(SMALL SPOILER ALERT) Also, remember to beat the game on NORMAL or above and watch the credits. After them the game CONTINUES for a bit more, including another serious boss battle.
I have to thank OSC for helping flesh out the story on this one because otherwise it may not have been as entertaining as it was. I cannot wait for the next games to come out, though I hope and pray that Majesco Entertainment and the games developers will fix the framerate issue.
Overall: 9.5/10 Great game!
Posts: 2 | Registered: Jun 2005
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There is no doubt that this is a game that osc has at least partialy writen. the evidence to thus is the use of anisble, which can be found in his books. also it, as some others may have said, just feels like cards work. the game is really good but iv had issues with it slowing down or crashing. but im rather far and it is really fun. and sad.
infact, i have just beat the game, and the screen play was writen buy osc and cameron dayton.
posted
got the game. combat system is terrific, story is pretty good, game engine is a little sketchy. 7 or 7.5 would be an accurate overall score. just because it lacks a bit of polish (not just technically, the level design could use some work) that you can't give without millions of dollars.
knights of the old republic was far more glitchy.. crackers, i could go on and on about why i feel that game was grossly over-rated, but wutever. we all kno those major internet gaming sites write reviews based on how much the producer is will pay them. well, cept for a few. some are completely bought out by M$ or sony. its like the west and eastern camps from the cold war.
Posts: 5 | Registered: May 2005
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Ansible was invented by Ursula K Le Guin in her novel Rocannon’s World. It has been used by several authors since and I believe is the generally accepted term for an instantaneous communication device (in the sf world, anyway).
Scott R, Sarlacc, aragron, et al -- thanks! Glad you're having some fun with our baby! The framerate problems that some have mentioned are issues of frustration for us because our testers have been unable to duplicate them on any one of our dozen Xboxs. I don't doubt that they are there, but . . . let's just say that the classic triangle of Time, Money, and Quality was stretched as far as it could go in our present situation. Hopefully this game will sell well enough for us to get a little more "triangular flexibility" for the sequel.
Armored, I'm flattered that you were able to sense that the screenplay "feels like Card's work." That was my prime concern in creating the remaining levels. Having devoured every book, essay, and sponge review he'd ever published definitely helped.
Rat named Dog: Do I know you?
[ June 05, 2005, 06:44 PM: Message edited by: Pathos Bill ]
Posts: 28 | Registered: May 2005
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Well after initial reviews I deceded to try and rent the game rather then buy it, but when Blockbuster took too long to get it in, I said what the hell and bought in anyway. And boy did I make the right decision. The game is great. Story is good action is good and it is quite compelling. I really don't see much problem in the frame-rate department, my biggest problem though is the Bugs. Elevators that won't move (one elevator near the end I kept having to reload becasue it would never go Down) Game freezes, or even Charecter Freezes. About one 3rd of the time that I do the Full body energy blast thing I freeze in mid air after doing it and stay there until I am killed. Though things like this you just have to work through it didn't really detract from the experience. I really look forward to the next instalments of this grand trilogy.
Posts: 37 | Registered: Mar 2004
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Just finished the game today. I'm happy with the game play and over all feel of the game. The art direction is fantastic in my option. A sort of American Anime. Ever since I played the game at E3 last year I've been aching for it to come out. Got to play the mostly finished version at e3 this year and was impressed at the polish on the game. I love the xbox controls and couldn't wait until it came out for PC, otherwise I would've probably got the PC version. I hit about 4 or 5 game breaking bugs. Very annoying. I actually gave up last night because I was so frustrated and couldn't get the elevator to work right. Controls are top notch, fairly transparent. Unfortunately it was easy to see where OSC stopped writing. It's almost like character development ceased after teh first few area's. I really wanted them to seem more deep, like Gideon and Ethan getting pinned down and Ethan saying something about "Remember during the colony wars when this happened to us?" Quality Dialogue disappeared after a certain point :/ It seemed like cutscenes were filler between action, not much in the way of monologue and dialogue. Plus some cut scenes didn't seem to fit with what was happening in the game. Regardless of that you have me hooked. The game world is amazing, although I'd like to hear more about what other Human worlds may be out there. I'm picking up a PSP just for Advent Shadow. Did OSC collaborate on that as well?
Posts: 3 | Registered: Jun 2005
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A ninja game developer? Wow. That's almost as good as being a robot dinosaur or a space pirate.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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Glad you liked the game, AMCSteel. I always cringe when I hear about the bugs - to maintain my sanity in cases like this, I just have to remember how many times I fell through the terrain in Halo 2.
Jester, you make some good points about dialog. The entire screenplay filled over 350 pages and much of it never made it into the game due to time restraints and technical problems (For instance: a conversation very similar to the line you mentioned takes place in the level following your entry into the city. As Gideon and Ethan are picked up by a military caravan moving through Bahr Han, they have some interesting dialog concerning their respective pasts. Unfortunately, the functionality for the vehicles making up the caravan was never completed and so I had to scrap a beautiful vehicle, a beautiful level, and someone's * important dialog. All this a month before we go Alpha. I'm hoping future projects will put more priority on the story, but I don't think my experience was too unique in the industry. Puppy?)
* Out of Morbid Curiosity: I'd be curious to see where you think OSC stopped writing in the script.
Posts: 28 | Registered: May 2005
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It seemed that his collaboration stopped just after Giedeon gains his powers. At least, that's the last part of momorable dialogue I can remember. I wouldn't be surprised if I'm wrong though. From the sound of it a lot of great parts got scrapped, which is a bummer. There were also a lot of cut scenes that didn't make sense. I won't go into many details due to not wanting to spoil anything, but there were cut scenes that didn't seem to match the in game action prior to the scene, and after the scene. An example is the Volcano level. I played the game pretty hard so I may have just been tired when it didn't seem to make sense. I must say though, the game is outstanding. It has an incredibly rich single player experience which is quite rare for a game on any platform. there's just a few minor snags that I feel kept it from being incredibly outstanding. Hopefully the game will do well and you'll be able to make those leaps on the sequel.
Posts: 3 | Registered: Jun 2005
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It was easy to tell the influences of Card's pen at work in the early dialogue; certain exchanges between characters, particularly the bar room scene, just struck me as very "Card." I think it was the way the characters talked, and the attitude they had that reminded me of the witty exchanges of dialgoue in other Card books. Maybe that's just me though.
But the story IS very good. It did start to slow down and got kind of confusing at the end; certain things felt out of place or out of order, or weren't explained as fully as I would have liked. Oh well, probably had something to relate to the next game.
I have to say, I did like the ending quite a bit. It wrapped things up, but still left enough questions unanswered that I wanted to know more; again, this struck me as very "Card" because of how the Ender series has seemed to play out, where each book is it's own story, but also has enough of an unresolved ending that leaves you wondering what happens next.
I have to admit, hearing them talk about the "ansible" made me grin and laugh with a sort of euphoria at getting the small in-joke. Very nicely done, Mr. Card. =)
Posts: 208 | Registered: Jun 2005
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Scott - yeah, I've done a bit of RPG'n in my time. I assume you are referring to the Deadlands game? Don't let that distract you from my idea of a horrible frothy-mouthed wolf wearing shiny red-leather cowboy boots on each paw. That is the single best idea I've ever had and I will not let it be forgotten.
Hitoshi - I agree, Mr. Card's dialog is wonderful. I'm glad you got a kick out of the game!
Posts: 28 | Registered: May 2005
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I'm still going to give it an honest play before I come to my own conclusions.
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) I'd have to say that it's doing relatively well.
