Comments on: Tabula Rasa NDA is down… and so are the reviews. http://www.keenandgraev.com/?p=321 Keen and Graev bring you their latest PC/Console views, Online Adventures, and more from a unique and refreshing perspective. Wed, 08 Sep 2010 20:41:12 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Killed in a Smiling Accident. » Blog Archive » Be wary of men wielding dead languages. http://www.keenandgraev.com/?p=321&cpage=1#comment-96580 Killed in a Smiling Accident. » Blog Archive » Be wary of men wielding dead languages. Sun, 06 Sep 2009 13:20:02 +0000 http://www.keenandgraev.com/?p=321#comment-96580 [...] hadn’t really thought about preparing a review for Tabula Rasa because reviews from several other bloggers are already out there, and say pretty much all there is to say; if I were going to [...] [...] hadn’t really thought about preparing a review for Tabula Rasa because reviews from several other bloggers are already out there, and say pretty much all there is to say; if I were going to [...]

]]> By: Keen and Graev’s Gaming Blog » Blog Archive » Richard Garriott’s ideas could be the beginning http://www.keenandgraev.com/?p=321&cpage=1#comment-4314 Keen and Graev’s Gaming Blog » Blog Archive » Richard Garriott’s ideas could be the beginning Mon, 12 Nov 2007 20:14:36 +0000 http://www.keenandgraev.com/?p=321#comment-4314 [...] I never gave my opinion on Tabula Rasa. Back in September when the NDA was lifted those in beta were eager to share their thoughts and opinions on the game and having never personally played the beta I felt it was inappropriate to weigh in my thoughts. Since then I have given TR a try and my views of the game align with those in the beta impressions I blogged. It’s an “ok” game - On the verge of 2008 “ok” doesn’t cut it anymore. While the game itself may fall short of expectations placed upon it, Richard Garriott’s way of thinking does not. “As many kudos as I would like to give World of Warcraft, it’s basically a remake of EverQuest, just incredibly polished and refined. There are harbingers of failure in that model. Everyone in these games is obsessed with the concept of how much damage-per-second they are inflicting and maximizing their DPS. When you do that, you are no longer playing a role; you are playing an inventory-management game.” - Richard Garriott [...] [...] I never gave my opinion on Tabula Rasa. Back in September when the NDA was lifted those in beta were eager to share their thoughts and opinions on the game and having never personally played the beta I felt it was inappropriate to weigh in my thoughts. Since then I have given TR a try and my views of the game align with those in the beta impressions I blogged. It’s an “ok” game – On the verge of 2008 “ok” doesn’t cut it anymore. While the game itself may fall short of expectations placed upon it, Richard Garriott’s way of thinking does not. “As many kudos as I would like to give World of Warcraft, it’s basically a remake of EverQuest, just incredibly polished and refined. There are harbingers of failure in that model. Everyone in these games is obsessed with the concept of how much damage-per-second they are inflicting and maximizing their DPS. When you do that, you are no longer playing a role; you are playing an inventory-management game.” – Richard Garriott [...]

]]> By: Keen and Graev’s Gaming Blog » Blog Archive » Richard Garriott’s ideas could be the beginning http://www.keenandgraev.com/?p=321&cpage=1#comment-4313 Keen and Graev’s Gaming Blog » Blog Archive » Richard Garriott’s ideas could be the beginning Mon, 12 Nov 2007 20:14:20 +0000 http://www.keenandgraev.com/?p=321#comment-4313 [...] I never gave my opinion on Tabula Rasa.   Back in September when the NDA was lifted those in beta were eager to share their thoughts and opinions on the game and having never personally played the beta I felt it was inappropriate to weigh in my thoughts.  Since then I have given TR a try and my views of the game align with those in the beta impressions I blogged.  It’s an “ok” game - On the verge of 2008 “ok” doesn’t cut it anymore.  While the game itself may fall short of expectations placed upon it, Richard Garriott’s way of thinking does not. “As many kudos as I would like to give World of Warcraft, it’s basically a remake of EverQuest, just incredibly polished and refined. There are harbingers of failure in that model. Everyone in these games is obsessed with the concept of how much damage-per-second they are inflicting and maximizing their DPS. When you do that, you are no longer playing a role; you are playing an inventory-management game.” - Richard Garriott [...] [...] I never gave my opinion on Tabula Rasa.   Back in September when the NDA was lifted those in beta were eager to share their thoughts and opinions on the game and having never personally played the beta I felt it was inappropriate to weigh in my thoughts.  Since then I have given TR a try and my views of the game align with those in the beta impressions I blogged.  It’s an “ok” game – On the verge of 2008 “ok” doesn’t cut it anymore.  While the game itself may fall short of expectations placed upon it, Richard Garriott’s way of thinking does not. “As many kudos as I would like to give World of Warcraft, it’s basically a remake of EverQuest, just incredibly polished and refined. There are harbingers of failure in that model. Everyone in these games is obsessed with the concept of how much damage-per-second they are inflicting and maximizing their DPS. When you do that, you are no longer playing a role; you are playing an inventory-management game.” – Richard Garriott [...]

]]> By: Kurt http://www.keenandgraev.com/?p=321&cpage=1#comment-2861 Kurt Fri, 05 Oct 2007 20:51:08 +0000 http://www.keenandgraev.com/?p=321#comment-2861 I played Auto Assault from launch up until the day the servers were terminated. I can tell you with 100% certainty that they took the Auto Assault code and just tweaked it in minor places to make Tabula Rasa. Tabula Rasa is not even close to be a different game than Auto Assault. The character models are the same, the UI elements are the same, some of the music is even the same! I looked at some of the quest rewards in Tabula Rasa, and they even use the same exact item fonts that they did in Auto Assault! If you ask me, this is purely ridiculous. Auto Assault failed miserably, so their answer is to rip all the code from it and try to turn it into a different game? Why would people even purchase this game knowing full well that this is NOT a new game, but just Auto Assault with a different flavor. The developers are either extremely lazy, or they were given such a tight schedule that the only thing they could possibly do was rip code, rather than start from scratch. Either way, I won't be buying the game. I played Auto Assault from launch up until the day the servers were terminated.

I can tell you with 100% certainty that they took the Auto Assault code and just tweaked it in minor places to make Tabula Rasa.

Tabula Rasa is not even close to be a different game than Auto Assault. The character models are the same, the UI elements are the same, some of the music is even the same! I looked at some of the quest rewards in Tabula Rasa, and they even use the same exact item fonts that they did in Auto Assault!

If you ask me, this is purely ridiculous. Auto Assault failed miserably, so their answer is to rip all the code from it and try to turn it into a different game? Why would people even purchase this game knowing full well that this is NOT a new game, but just Auto Assault with a different flavor. The developers are either extremely lazy, or they were given such a tight schedule that the only thing they could possibly do was rip code, rather than start from scratch. Either way, I won’t be buying the game.

]]> By: Velcan http://www.keenandgraev.com/?p=321&cpage=1#comment-2691 Velcan Tue, 25 Sep 2007 14:46:24 +0000 http://www.keenandgraev.com/?p=321#comment-2691 Truly. We certainly should not believe everything we read. If I let written reviews rule my judgement 100% in what I choose to play I would probably still be glued to my NES console... The best reviews always come from yourself. IMO try the beta for 5 bucks and if you don't like it... don't buy it when it goes retail in ~3 weeks. Truly. We certainly should not believe everything we read. If I let written reviews rule my judgement 100% in what I choose to play I would probably still be glued to my NES console… The best reviews always come from yourself.

IMO try the beta for 5 bucks and if you don’t like it… don’t buy it when it goes retail in ~3 weeks.

]]> By: QforQ http://www.keenandgraev.com/?p=321&cpage=1#comment-2514 QforQ Thu, 13 Sep 2007 03:40:24 +0000 http://www.keenandgraev.com/?p=321#comment-2514 Yes, I did. My statement is consistent with that. I find it laughable that other bloggers are citing this post as a comprehensive review when you admit to not playing the game and that these are what you found on the web. They aren't your actual feelings about the game, they're just negative reviews from the interwebs. Yes, I did. My statement is consistent with that. I find it laughable that other bloggers are citing this post as a comprehensive review when you admit to not playing the game and that these are what you found on the web. They aren’t your actual feelings about the game, they’re just negative reviews from the interwebs.

]]> By: Keen http://www.keenandgraev.com/?p=321&cpage=1#comment-2484 Keen Wed, 12 Sep 2007 17:35:52 +0000 http://www.keenandgraev.com/?p=321#comment-2484 Hey QforQ, thanks for reading the blog entry. :) OH wait, you didn't. Hey QforQ, thanks for reading the blog entry. :) OH wait, you didn’t.

]]> By: QforQ http://www.keenandgraev.com/?p=321&cpage=1#comment-2474 QforQ Wed, 12 Sep 2007 07:30:50 +0000 http://www.keenandgraev.com/?p=321#comment-2474 This "review" is worthless. You didnt even play the game, all you did is quote negative forum posts. I could do that same thing and make WOW look like the shittiest game ever...doesn't make it true. This “review” is worthless. You didnt even play the game, all you did is quote negative forum posts. I could do that same thing and make WOW look like the shittiest game ever…doesn’t make it true.

]]> By: The Prisoner's New Village http://www.keenandgraev.com/?p=321&cpage=1#comment-2462 The Prisoner's New Village Tue, 11 Sep 2007 13:21:07 +0000 http://www.keenandgraev.com/?p=321#comment-2462 <strong>The Common Sense Gamer Hates Consoles?...</strong> "The NDA is lifted and now my “non-press” lips can start flapping A couple of warnings though. First... The Common Sense Gamer Hates Consoles?…

"The NDA is lifted and now my “non-press” lips can start flapping A couple of warnings though. First…

]]> By: Jesse http://www.keenandgraev.com/?p=321&cpage=1#comment-2457 Jesse Mon, 10 Sep 2007 20:54:18 +0000 http://www.keenandgraev.com/?p=321#comment-2457 I played Tabula Rasa for a period of probably 15 hours when it was bug free enough to enjoy on its merits. I did not find any of the content particularly innovative. The control system itself was new and I enjoyed that quite a bit. They fashion it like a 3rd person shooter even though the backend is all numbers. The problem with this is if you put most of your skill points into martial skills instead of logos skills (which is a viable option) there is very little decision making in combat besides movement, target choice, and weapon. All in all, I would not buy this game even if it did not have a monthly subscription fee, simply because most of the so called innovations are just old gameplay mechanics in new wrappers (Although the IDEA of collecting logos has merit I found it to be akin to messenger quests). To be fair I have to mention my bias. I have not thought any of the games since DAoC have been terribly innovative - with the exception of EVE-Online and DAoC. And Anarchy Online for introducing instanced quests. I played Tabula Rasa for a period of probably 15 hours when it was bug free enough to enjoy on its merits. I did not find any of the content particularly innovative. The control system itself was new and I enjoyed that quite a bit. They fashion it like a 3rd person shooter even though the backend is all numbers. The problem with this is if you put most of your skill points into martial skills instead of logos skills (which is a viable option) there is very little decision making in combat besides movement, target choice, and weapon.

All in all, I would not buy this game even if it did not have a monthly subscription fee, simply because most of the so called innovations are just old gameplay mechanics in new wrappers (Although the IDEA of collecting logos has merit I found it to be akin to messenger quests).

To be fair I have to mention my bias. I have not thought any of the games since DAoC have been terribly innovative – with the exception of EVE-Online and DAoC. And Anarchy Online for introducing instanced quests.

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