Hey all, I just turned my computer on for the first time in almost 24 hours. I’ve been very busy with RL (Graev’s been in the Hospital with Pancreatitis) and on top of going to visit with him I’ve had classes and assignments due. Since I always prioritize RL over the game (I do these days, really), my time in Darkfall has been very limited. I’ll be lucky to play later tonight after I’m done reading a story called “Recitatif” or something and write a page or two on it.
I had planned to write a really nice writeup on my epic adventure in Darkfall yesterday, but it’s just going to have to wait. The short version: The Haven members who were in the human lands decided to migrate to the Elf lands. A clan mate (teleth) who makes mounts made us all horses and we rode together for about an hour to the Elf lands. Here are some screenshots (including stuff not from the ride over).
Suffer through using a google Picasa thingy for now. Click the image you want to enlarge if you want to see them bigger. The quality should be a bit higher on these because I told fraps to save as PNG and not JPG.
The graphics naysayers are really wrong about the game. The animations do suck in some places, but graphically it’s one of the better games for what it’s pulling off.
I have the video footage done and I’ll get it edited when I have more time.
March 4th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
some of the best screens I’ve seen so far. Can’t wait to see the vid.
March 4th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
Good times, good times. Last night was a great adventure and I see many, many more for Haven. Sorry to hear about your bro Keen, your family will be in our prayers.
March 4th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
“…but graphically it’s one of the better games for what it’s pulling off.”
The close up on the human face and the pic with you guys all riding on horseback looks the best to me. I think you nailed it though with your mention of “what it’s pulling off”. People have to remember this isn’t an AAA gaming development team with gazillions of dollars. Therefore, with that in mind, I think they’ve done much better than expected.
The key thing that seems to standout and turn people off though in games today is the animations (i.e. hilarious looking distant animations in WAR). If anything, they have to be top notch and fluid to really pull everything together. Hopefully over time, they’ll revise them.
Thanks for the effort on this Keen and pass on a get well soon to Graev in the hospital.
March 4th, 2009 at 10:38 pm
I had Pancreatitis 11 years ago. It wasn’t fun. But the doc fixed me up and all is good now. I hope your bro gets better fast. Nice screen shots. I think the game looks okay. As long as it doesn’t lag when you get a bunch of characters on the screen is all that matters. Have fun, once they open this thing up I’ll be on to have some fun.
March 4th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
Damn….. you gotta tell Graev to stop hooking up with fat girls, that stuff can kill you!
Buuuuut on a more serious note, I hope he gets better. I know a few people that have gone through that and it’s a grind… Amazed that you even got your review out with RL getting in the way. Well good luck with everything and I have a good vibe that I will get in the game tomorrow!
March 4th, 2009 at 11:48 pm
I’ve seen about 30+ people on the screen and no lag at all.
March 5th, 2009 at 12:01 am
Hey keen, was wondering if you could let me know where to pick this game up? Or order it online at least… the stores near me don’t carry it and no convenient links from the darkfall website.
Posted on the last post, but figured id ask here as well
March 5th, 2009 at 12:32 am
[...] easy to digest morsels. He’s obviously much too skilled at this whole MMO blogging deal. His last batch of screenshots even makes it look relatively [...]
March 5th, 2009 at 1:54 am
30 people at once? That’s … small. 300 people at once doing their stuff without lag, with up to 1000 people at once in the same area (the size of some of the bigger Lineage 2 sieges I’ve been to) with little noticeable lag and – most importantly – the server handling it gracefully should be the bare minimum if you want to design a game with sieges in them.
March 5th, 2009 at 4:45 am
Danath: I studied the news section of the official dark fall forums in order to get in. Not sure if they do physical copies, but I had to download off of an official torrent.
March 5th, 2009 at 5:44 am
Get well soon Graev!!!
March 5th, 2009 at 7:27 am
This game looks great. As soon as I get a bit more time on my hands I am definitely going to try it out.
March 5th, 2009 at 7:38 am
HELP~!!~ I cant find where to buy Darkfall. I’ve checked their site high and low. Google gives me nothing. Are they not selling it, or is there some place I haven’t seen. Anyone have a linky?
Thanks!
March 5th, 2009 at 8:23 am
@Akjosch: Oh, I agree totally that it’s not many. That’s just the most I have seen on my monitor at one time so far.
You buy Darkfall from the official website (digital DL only). You’ll need to watch their official forums news section for an announcement of when more copies go up for sale. They usually give a little bit of notice, but they sell out fast.
March 5th, 2009 at 8:58 am
“You’ll need to watch their official forums news section for an announcement of when more copies go up for sale. They usually give a little bit of notice, but they sell out fast.”
I have to say this is pretty much against the grain of most game publishers. Typically it’s dump it out there and sell it to as many as possible and we’ll fix things later. Nice to see the dev team recognizing and fixing the issues with the initial launch and seeing the need for a go slow approach to building and stabilizing the world.
I mean I’m sure they’d rather upset potential customers with not getting the chance to play yet versus completely losing actual customers due to problems with an overloaded environment. You often only get one chance to make an impression, so sounds like they’re trying to make it a good and lasting one.
March 5th, 2009 at 9:18 am
Get well soon Graev.
March 6th, 2009 at 3:49 am
This game looked rocky at launch but I think it’s really starting to look up. I hope your bro gets better soon and keep up the blogs.
As far as people on screen I’ve heard reports of 200+ on screen with no lag, but this wasn’t be, it could of been a fanboy lie for all I know, or he could of had a beast of a machine.
I’m curious keen, how good is your computer, the game looks pretty good IMO in your screens, but my primary gaming computer is a laptop with a 8600M GT in it.
March 6th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
I’m on a Quad Core (2.3 ghz each or something), 4gig ram, 2x 8800gt 512mb SLI.