Diablo, Bhaal, and Fus MMO Da all in one day

Just one of those days that I can’t get away without doing a conglomoblog post.

Diablo 3 releases May 15

This makes me wonder just how much of of the delaying can be blamed on the PvP they recently postponed.  Now that the game has a release date, I think I should start looking at what character I will play as first.  I know I’ll be doing a lot of playing in a ‘regular’ mode before going to hardcore.  I’ve also been looking at the skill trees, or lack thereof.  I didn’t realize they removed skill trees from D3 like back in 2009.  D3 now uses a very streamlined “you level up, you get 3 new skills” system.  Hopefully the ‘runes’ that can be slotted into skills will be enough customization.  This is one of those “wait and see” how it plays out situations for me.

Elder Scrolls Online?

We’ve talked a lot about an Elder Scrolls MMO’s being an awesome idea… if they do it right. I guess we’re going to see if they can.  It’s no secret that an MMO might be happening, but some sort of official announcement, according to rumors, will come in May. Make this a sandbox title true to the franchise and you’ll make some very happy fans.  Mess it up, and this could be the end for Elder Scrolls.  I really can’t even begin to speculate how they’ll pull it off because, in reality, the idea of an Elder Scrolls MMO actually happening has always been more of a “it’s cool because it’ll never happen” concept.

Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition

I don’t know whether to be mad or excited.  Graev and I just bought the original BG1 and BG2 from GoG.com and now an enhanced edition is coming out with more content and ‘enhancements’.  Right now we know a whole lotta nothing about the game other than its release date: Summer 2012.  The debate has already begun as to whether or not we continue with the originals or play the enhanced edition when it comes out.  I guess it depends on if there is multiplayer?

Information overload.

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  • I hate the idea of an Elder Scrolls MMO. I love the series and Bethesda, but I have zero confidence that they will make a good MMO. The best baker in the world doesn’t need to try to be a chef – just bake good bread! I would rather see more Fallouts and TES games. The other issue Bethesda has, they’ve never made a balanced game in their life. That’s okay for single player, but it will make for an awful MMO. Yuck!

  • Playing BG1 & BG2 again will be so nostalgic, my head just may explode. Those rpgs were practically spiritual experiences for an old-timey gaming nerd such as myself!

  • I hope you’re already playing BG1 and BG2 with the MASSIVE number of improvements and fixes and customizations available out there on the web. I wonder if they’re really improving the game or just bundling in all that fan created stuff and calling it new.

    BG2 was already really replayable but all the awesome mods out there make it massively more so.

  • The TES non-MMO team is NOT working on the TES MMO. Matt Firor (producer / designer at Mythic on DOAC from 2001 to 2006) has been the working on this project with an MMO-veteran team since 2007. He’s hinted it will be heavily influenced by DOAC especially with many simultaneous combatants possible in one place (200-300+). Maybe he was hinting bullshit to me but I dunno. The game certainly couldn’t have TES-style combat with that many people at once. Anyway thought y’all most of all would be excited given how much y’all like DAOC.

  • DAoC was good in spite of Firor, not because of him. He’s the guy who drove a stake right through the game’s heart with ToA. MMO with totally awesome PvP? Let’s release two expansions in a row with no PvP in them at all! Yay us!

  • I could not care less about Diablo III (won’t touch it with a 10 foot pole, even if it becomes free), but an Elder Scrolls MMORPG would be awesome news, IF and ONLY if they respect the sandbox model of the single player titles, as Keen said.

  • Diablo3 – never played the first two so zero nostalgia factor. Not interested.

    Elder Scrolls MMO – Played Daggerfall, didn’t like it. Played Morrowind, didn’t like it. Didn’t play Oblivion or Skyrim. Negative nostalgia factor but curiosity will probably lead me to at least take a look if it happens.

    BG Enhanced – BG1 probably my favorite offline RPG. BG2 good if limited in comparison to BG1. Nostalgia factor very high. Depends what the “enhancements” are, I guess, but unlikely I would find time to play through these again. Too many other more interesting options available. If it plays on a Tablet-style device though, that could be interesting.

  • I’ll take a look at TES Online but I won’t expect it to be more than a “Free Month Only” MMO. An FMO 🙂

    BG Enhanced I’ll need to see more info nearer the time, I loved BG1, BG2 and the IWD games.

  • Is it just me… or does the rumor of a 3-faction game already sound like they’re doing it wrong?

    I just want them to build the build the entire Map with skyrim detail, including all the same number of locations such as dungeons and towns, except for every region in Tamriel. Put a skill point cap in place around 800-900 or so, and give the various ingame factions/guilds all reputation meters that can be worked up at the expense of the meter of the rival, and have the ability for players to obtain positions within that guild/faction, such as guild leader of the Cyrodill faction of the fighters guild, or Jarl of Windhelm, etc, etc. Then cut us loose in the world at about 2000 online players per server or so. The map should feel somewhat sparsely populated by players IMO, especially when leaving town.

    Toss in some item durability, and we’re good to go. Stuff like the legendary weapons give by deadra? Make them sorta like the SWG Jedi. Unique and ultimately temporary. You stumble upon a random daedric quest, acquire the item of power for pleasing the daedra, then have it for a determined amount of time before the deadra repossesses it and sets up shop somewhere else in the world with another quest for someone else. Only one person on the server at a time ought to be able to have any of the daedric artifacts.

    This IP screams to be the modern day improvement on the UO model. Too bad they’re almost 100% likely to screw this up.

  • @ Polynices

    I have no evidence, other than what I’ve read other people say on forums (primarily the VN DAoC boards, which were the most active (and somewhat still are today) for DAoC enthusiasts), but I heard the exact opposite re: ToA. What I heard is that Matt Firor was not happy with direction taken with ToA, which is why he left the Mythic team around that time. This is why many DAoC vets speculate that it was actually Matt Firor’s influenced that helped DAoC so much and once he left it just slowly spiraled out of relevance.

    Like I said, I have no real evidence to point to. If you have any sources/links for your claims I would be curious to check them out.

  • As I’m slowly playing through BG right now (the ‘complete mod, so BG1 and BG2 together), an enhanced edition would be interesting if it’s just UI/graphic/sound upgrades and it leaves all of the content as is. Somewhat disappointing (but not surprising) that they are splitting the two games into two enhanced editions though.

  • I have to admit that even though I played the entire series and loved it, I never played it as a multiplayer experience. How did that work in regards to the combat? The pause feature was essential when managing a group of 6, but did the multiplayer have a pause?

    Also, just picked up the masters collection on Gamersgate for $6. Even if the enhanced version looks great, paying $6 for BG1/2, Icewind Dale1/2, and Planescape:Torment is hard to beat.

  • Elder Scrolls online announcement made me so happy. I seriously dont see them straying to far away from the open ended sandbox model of the single player RPG’s. So I wont even speculate on if it becomes a themepark or my Carotid Artery may burst from anger.

  • From Twitter/Facebook, the GW2 beta invites have begun going out.
    Check your mail and good luck 🙂

  • I know they’re doing some work on BG and BG2. I read it as upgrading the old BG Infinity Engine to the newer BG2:ToB Infinity engine, dropping in a few more characters and their voices, a few more quests and leaving it at that.

    I’m just curious if it’s going to be in line with their more recent ‘Cash-Grab’ model of game development and release, or treating the franchise with a bit of respect.

    I wouldn’t mind buying the series. I have the series. But getting it updated so it’ll play on a Windows 7 machine with clock managers, windows 95 emulators and that kind of stuff would make it nice.