grabbed the updated Bard’s Tale demo for the pc. It runs a lot better than the previous demo and it allowqs the user to configure controls somewhat. I just wish I could configure them to what the Xbox has
Ouch they needed to do an updated demo? Hmmm Anyway, where did you grab it. Didn’t find time to try it yet and by the sound of it I better grab this version then.
I got it off Gamespot.
It’s a much better demo. I liked it enough to play the demo all the way through this time, anyway. Still feels like a console game though.
Ok, will check it out.
Thx
I really enjoyed the classic BT… it’s hard to believe that EA used to help develop and release games like this (link to classic Bard’s Tale), isn’t it? Back in the day… ;)
Anyone like this newest iteration? The reviews all seem to be pretty luke-warm but I long for the sense of humor and personality of years gone by… Will I be disappointed? (I’m assuming so)
They proabbly think the nostalga and name recognition will make people buy it so are only doing a half-assed job making it.
Why spend a lot of money to make a game when you can spend a minimal amount and got almost as much? I am pretty sure that sentiment is in EA’s mission statement somewhere.
Actually EA has nothing to do with the new game. It’s made by inXile Entertainment which was founded by Brian Fargo who worked on the original games. You are actually correct about the game not having a terribly large budget but that had everything to do with inXile being a tiny startup company and nothing to do with any desire on the part of that company to not make as great a game as they could.
dear Brian,
get to work on Wasteland.
love, jafd
You know jafd, I was just about to post something very very similar.
I don’t think he still owns the license for it?
I believe they bought it.
I really wanted to like the Bard’s Tale (on xbox), and parts of it were very funny, but it got old REAL quick. The first time you fight your way up to the top of a tower, then find out you have to also fight your way out of that same tower it just screams PADDING (ala Halo). Now, imagine doing that 3 more times! The extra warriors you can summon get killed WAY too easily, and new weapons were too few and far between.
The writing and voice acting were some of the best I’ve seen in quite a while, but the padding was horrible.
I disagree. I thought the writing was terrible, and the game no better.
The pacing, both on the jokes and the action, was almost non-existent - a thoroughly bland hack-and-slash that occasionally threw in something a little bit wacky to remind everyone that it was a comedy, but was otherwise quite content to rely on exactly the same tired, cliched crap that it was supposed to be mocking.
A learning curve that would occasionally turn round and beat you about the face and neck for no reason. Long, pointless fetch quests for no good reason (especially on routines like the bit where you’re sent to go and jump in a well, despite it being INCREDIBLY CLEAR that it’s just a big wild goose chase). Joke-free empty forest after joke-free forest. The belief that the word ‘Fiddlesnarf’ counts as a joke. The single worst, most boring lever puzzle in the entire history of shit puzzling. Tower levels of nothing but hacking at the same couple of guys time and again, and then back again. Villages I couldn’t tell the difference between when looking at my own screenshots. That tiresome “It’s Bad Luck To Be You” song, which raised a faint smile the first time around, then nothing but sighs at hearing a troop of goblins not quite saying ‘bollocks’ for the fiftieth time, in between singing about how bad they smell, and how a grieving mother would have to bury her dead son and how hilarious that is. I was bored senseless by the time I got to Chapter III without even being introduced to Chapter II.
The whole thing is just a complete mess, and when I read the reviews on MetaCritic, I honestly can’t help but wonder if we were playing the same thing, or I’d accidentally installed Farscape again. Certainly, where reviewers have said “This game is satire in its sharpest form. It’s self mocking, self aware attitude is always at the forefront”, all I see is a game that mistakes making fun of bad games for actually being one itself.
A bitter disappointment over here - I’d been looking forward to playing a good comedy again. Luckily: Psychonauts.
I liked the PC version of Bard’s Tale more than I expected – I think that’s at least partially attributable to the fact that the engine is new to PC gamers, while it’s been oversaturated on consoles.
Ack, I loved the original Bard’s Tale and the second one wasn’t bad either, though I hated the third. I thought the new Bard’s Tale web site looked promising - funny, nice graphics, good voice acting. Charybdis’ review is seriously discouraging, I had high hopes that this would be a fun revival of a true original classic. :(
Well, the originals are included as a bonus with the PC release, heh.
But the remake definitely has nothing in common with the originals (I also hated the 3rd, btw)