Project Gray Company: EA's next gen RPG

If the first developer diary is any indication of the final product, we're doomed.

What a curious name! Reading the title, it sounds like a modern/futuristic RPG. Thankfully it's just a working title.

"advanced AI (based on Sims 2 technology)"

Last I checked my sims were quite retarded i can only hope the in game NPC's dont piss their pants every 5 minutes

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ... *deep breath* ... "Oblivion killer" ... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Now, if some independent developer (Project Offset, anybody?) was to say they were developing a new RPG that was intended to "follow in the footsteps of Oblivion," that might be possible. Especially if they were willing to invest the time and effort to get it right, none of which EA does.

I'm going to go on record now predicting the following:

1) This game's "soundtrack" will be stuffed full of pop/rap/hip-hip music, otherwise known as "crap." No sweeping orchestral music tailored to the game here, folks ...
2) It might look pretty, but it will be incredibly buggy and essentially unplayable at release. Expect this to go up exponentially if they really try to make the game "open ended" and "massive."
3) It will be rushed to production in little better than beta status. This falls in line with #2, but bears repeating - Bethesda delayed their product until it was done. EA's history tells me they will not.

So, I'm not holding my breath. EA's track record ensures that this will come nowhere close to an Oblivion killer.

If I recall Correctly (IIRC), The Gray Company is a group of people dedicated to teaching Elvish to those willing to learn.

They are based on Tolkien's Elvish teachings, and therefore, based on the Lord of the Rings.

Seeing how E.A. has control over the LotR games...
I expect yet another LotR game...

Steve Gray, Exec Producer
How much ego would someone have to code-name the project after themselves? Not that it really matters anyways, just felt like pointing it out.

It's nice to see that they have a whole team devoted just to story. So who knows, it could turn out great after all.

Also if you look at the source code of the website, it indicates that for now this is only for PS3 and Xbox 360. Damn EA screwing over PC users yet again!

E.A. Couldn't Develop a reasonable plan to Kill a poisoned fly in a wet brown paper bag! INSTEAD they would just buy the boot that was used to kill other insects successfully, fire all the people that had any innovative ideas on how to use the boot. Then make the boot, horribly boring, and inefficient. Then produce boring boot clones in different colors. Then blame lack of productivity, and revenue by the boot on the XBOX 360 shortage.

If by screwing over, you mean not subjecting them to eternal damnation in video game form, then yes ea is screwing pc gamers.

oblivion sucked anyway it was horrible for hte 360 idk about pc

lol @6 v. funny

A whole year?!?! Wow it's gonna be the bestest of all RPG's then with such a lengthy dev period!!!!

The thing is EA probably think that spending over a year on a game is a massive amount of time.Dicks.

I really like the concept art. It seems to have a nice, dark feeling to it...kind of like if all of ES4's environments were inside the Oblivion Gate.

That being said, as others above me, I am still concerned about EA's ability to make their projects lackluster. You can't half-ass an RPG. Well, you can, but it invites the scorn of one of the largest fanbases on the internet. I don't know about EA, but I don't want THAT kind of attention.

From reading the description it sounds like an Oblivian clone, but looking at the pics I get a bit of Deja vu of Lord of the Rings.

Hmmm...if done correctly could be very interesting but seeing as its EA, probably wont be.

The concept art does indeed look cool...but any game that uses "_________-killer" is almost destined to land short of "killing" whatever game it is competing against.

omg does EA have to do everything everyone else does? do they even realize everything they try to do like this sucks ass EA plz just stop

I don't know, after all, there are countless iPod killers ;)


shame all of them suck. Hey I just proved you right.

Well...the one exception (in my opinion) is the Creative Labs MP3 players.

Zsavior sums up my feeling about EA much better than I ever could.

"advanced AI (based on Sims 2 technology)"

Great, all the NPCs are gonna be wetting themselves in public while their children are getting picked up by social services.

#9 you are so full of crap. have you played oblivion? Have you played it on hd? the game is absolutely breathtaking and there are so many sidequests that I have played for 24 hours and played cracked into the main quest. and this is from a gamer who's first system I bought was a colecovision (as if a young derelict like you would know what I'm talking about.) damn $ony fanboys. good luck with your drm when you try to borrow a game from your friend. you may wanna look that up on wikpedia because it's obvious you have no idea.

But seriuosly an rpg from ea does not excite me an. what does EA know about RPGs? the only thing they know about rpgs is their research on lotr. Maybe they got some new talent that we don't know about. it could happen. they picked up maxis (alot of talent) and with lotr tried to break away from the sports market. with the money EA has they could have gotten some great talent and may blow our minds away. but I definitely think that they should not implement any sims 2 crap into their game. I love the custimization and personilization of the sim series, but I really don't wanna worry about feeding my character in an rpg. imagine if you had your character at full health and then after some exploring of a large countryside (ala Oblivion #9) you come upon a fight and you only have 70% health because you haven't ate. this is something us rpgers don't have to deal with. just my 2 cents plus a dime.

jay (#15) are you serious? I would never buy an Ipoo in my life! For starters propietary songs are crap and second I can buy a creative Zen for cheaper with the same drive size, Voice recorder, video, am/fm, and will plug into any component I want. but then again I just guess you buy what people tell you to. get an opinion

PROJECT GRAY COMPANY: Sounds something like a military, Army oriented Game based on the Third World War. I log on to EA to find that Its a game based on the Lord Of The Rings, Another round of Goblins, Dragons, Orcs, and other mythical stuff. Heck, Its already boring. Its only for 360 and the PS3. Screw 'em. I reckon that EA is on a mission with Sony and Microsoft to erase any kind of a PC Game.

#20 Todd Rabanus

He does have an opinion. He chose the ipod as did millions of others who are very happy with the technology.

Get over yourself, just because he didn't choose your views does not make him wrong. Perhaps all that crap in a mp3 player like the Zen is as well implemented and thought out as a Iraqi yugo.

----
Back on topic.

#20 Todd Rabanus

I bought an iPod because at the time it was the ONLY music player in the entire market that could offer me a 26 hour battery life (iPodlounge tests or whatever they're called) AND a 6gb storage. Rather than going for a larger, regular iPod. I chose a mini. :) I got my effin opinion, nothing else at the time could offer me what I wanted. Only Apple.
Oh, and somehow, my iPod Mini, SOMEHOW plugs into any hifi equipment I have too. hmm. Oh and I don't give 2 craps about radio, movie or voice recording :) I just wanted an MP3 player with a hell-useful scroll wheel, something that was light and good looking and had very good battery life. ZOMG! IPOD MINI WONZ!!!

I have an idea. Before judging people why don't you think that maybe, just maybe, they don't want what you like or they the competition couldn't deliver exactly what I needed?
And also, propietary songs aren't good? Right, even though it offers better quality for low file sizes over MP3 I suppose AAC must be crap, aye? And that's funny. I have MP3 and AAC on my iPod. HMMMM! I be so limited to "propietary songs". WOWZAS!
what a tard.


Anyways. Is this company in any way related to Gray Matter?

"It sounds like EA is trying to build an Oblivion-killer with talk of a massive open-ended world, advanced AI (based on Sims 2 technology), and the availability of numerous story quests."
This kind of technical jargon is useless unless EA can come up with simething substantial. The market of computer game is beocming too much competitive and to survive and excel here you need more than just talking jargon.

Well, no denying its an LotR game.

The names tips the hat, but the concept art gives it away. Dwarven halls, a Rohan town and an Uruk character model.

So it'll be a Lotr-themed Oblivion running on Sims 2 AI. So what Fable should have been, but with a LotR license.

I know its EA, and I should know better, but that has me excited.

oh c´mon EA!!!!!
Everything that you (the company) "develops" is crappy, get over it......
Sequels, sequels and more crappy sequels.........

btw, what´s 1 (ONE) yeaor of development when you are creating an RPG??! NOTHING!!!!!!

"advanced AI (based on Sims 2 technology)"......

HAHHAHAAHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAAHAH........................!!!!!! OH MAN,,,,, THAT WAS HILARIOUS!!!!!

All of a sudden as I realize that it's not an awesome cyberpunk militaristic setting and becomes a retarded LoTR setting I lose all hope. Sounds shallow but it's true, they're just making another cookie cutter game which would be consoled out even more so then Oblivion.