Eragon gameplay update
by Alan Rose 
{ Sep 22nd 2006 at 10:35AM }
Your next Panzer Dragoon Orta fix might be coming from Eragon, based on the book and movie of the same name. According to Vivendi Games producer Tim Ramage, you'll spend one third of the game engaged in glorious aerial combat on the back of your dragon, Saphira. Unfortunately, there are the other two thirds of the game, which at this point appear to be standard third person combat and puzzle-solving fare. GameTrailers has some in-depth gameplay vids and interviews.
Eragon will be shipping this holiday season on every platform except the Wii and PS3, and fans of Chistopher Paolini's bestselling novel also have the film to look forward to in December.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jose @ Sep 22nd 2006 11:01AM
This game does look oddly like PDO. While, not necessarily a bad thing, it'd dang well better be good enough to distinguish it from that game, otherwise it'll be another Batman Begins/Splinter Cell type clone, which is just dissapointing.
retromancer @ Sep 22nd 2006 11:13AM
Yes! a PDO clone that's based off a LOTR clone!
Ben @ Sep 22nd 2006 11:12AM
Please can we try not to hype anything related to Eragon? Any self-respecting fantasy reader can see that his books are nothing but carefully crafted rip-offs of other fantasy masters. Just because the kid is 15 and writes a books doesn't make it good. (A 10 for effort) Maybe we'll see some more original thought from him in 10 to 15 years, but honestly, the hype comes from Random House telling everyone how great he is.
End rant, get off soapbox. (Can you tell who is a fantasy snob that worked in a bookstore for far too long?)
~B.
Boxclocke @ Sep 22nd 2006 11:16AM
"Unfortunately, there are the other two thirds of the game, which at this point appear to be standard third person combat and puzzle-solving fare."
Actually, the above statement is false. I played a few minutes of the game at a traveling XBox 360 pimpfest that was set up on my campus. Let me assure you that those two thirds are actually sub-standard third person combat and puzzle-solving fare.
Huzzah!! @ Sep 22nd 2006 12:06PM
WTF?? This looks like a perfect Wii game!!
knot_U @ Sep 22nd 2006 12:16PM
@ben I agree, while Eragon was a good book, it did rip off a lot of good frachises. Also I think that Eldest was terribly borring and pointless.
PS. please no flame war
knot_U
Ecto @ Sep 22nd 2006 1:09PM
The graphics are looking a bit dated. And yeah, the first thing that came to mind was Panzer Dragon
All Your Lost Socks @ Sep 22nd 2006 12:45PM
I know, #5! One of the first things I thought when I saw Wii games in development was how cool it would be to have some kind of a PDO clone of sorts, though I know the original game would never get ported over. The chances are slim, I suppose, but wouldn't it be awesome to have that done well?
I couldn't get through Eragon. I had to put it down in fear that my eyebrow would get stuck in a cynical arch.
Subnet6 @ Sep 22nd 2006 1:01PM
@Ben,
While I respect your opinion, I have to disagree. I am a self-respecting fantasy reader and I enjoyed Eragon. I will give you the "carefully crafted rip-off" comment. I believe that's true. That being said, I have read alot of not-so-carefully-crafted ripoffs that faired well in the press too.
Also, thanks for not calling it a LoTR ripoff. A ripoff yes, but it was nothing like LoTR. It was more along the lines of the overused, "coming of age, discovers he is actually very important, and his parents/guardians get killed so he has nothing to lose cliche".
This young author certainly filled Eragon with cliches, but it was as you conceded "carefully crafted". It was for that alone I enjoyed it. Once he learns to "unlearn", I see him being a very talented storyteller.
And more on topic, I am looking forward to this game because, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe its being developed by the team that gave us The Two Towers, and Demonstone. Both of which were great (and simple) action adventure games that I really enjoyed.
Woody @ Sep 22nd 2006 1:05PM
I've read both books and although I'm awaiting the third, I have to say the first book was fair reading (in terms of ability to write) with the second having shown some improvement in writing skills. The books are without a doubt a ripoff, but its one thing to rip off fanasty stereo types, but it seems he ripped off a few very obviously (McCaffrey, Tolkien mostly). He doesn't really re-invent anything.
A good example (in my opinion) of good writing with a good twist on an old subject (magic), is "The Bartimaeus Trilogy"
PachuyiChomp @ Sep 22nd 2006 1:37PM
Me and my girlfriend played the demo at Comicon it was pretty fun. Although there was no dragon riding sequences. It didn't feel too much like PDO. Totally differen't style of graphics I felt. It might be a fun game 2 player Co-Op although we got stuck a couple times in the demo saying "ok so how do we get past this part??" and I really hate it when games don't give you any indication on what your supposed to be doing next.
Guess we'll have to wait and see!
retromancer @ Sep 22nd 2006 3:27PM
@ #8
allow me to defend my "LOTR Clone" statement. reading the book, the thing that struck me the most when reading Eragon and ESPECIALLY Eldest is how the entire setting and mythology of the books seems entirely ripped from LOTR. there is literally nothing in those books that is original in those two respects. and as if to cover his tracks he named the orcs "urgals" and put other such nonsense in his book. The only thing in his setting and mythology that one might see as original is that the development of dragon mythology was much more deep in Eragon. other than that, the race relations and mythology are damn near identical.
Gavin @ Sep 22nd 2006 6:12PM
Paolini didn't just rip off Tolkien...the first book is also extremely derivative of Star Wars. I picked up the first book because it was compared in reviews to Harry Potter, but Eragon was crap. The main character's name is Dragon with the first letter changed to "E"!!! The rest of the book is that painfully obvious and mundane. The only reason the book ever was published in the first place is because his parents were in the industry and they put it out themselves and then constantly promoted it to kids hooked on the Potter series.
The movie looks dreadful and I wouldn't hold out much hope for this game being anything more than you standard licencsed Meh-athon.
The Origin Of Species @ Sep 22nd 2006 10:48PM
Everything is a rip off of something else.
Comic book superheroes still follow the same generic "hero" formula that the Greeks used, the Lion King was a comeplete rip off of Hamlet, and even Star Wars closely resembles some Western Novel whose name escapes me at the moment.
The point is, don't get too upset if the book resembles other forms of literature. I'm sure that if you looked closely enough, every book on the planet would appear to be an outright copy of another.
That said, he did use an awful lot of cliches in his books, and cliches are for chumps.
Kay @ Sep 24th 2006 3:57AM
@ #9
Ah, The Bartimaeus Trilogy ... I loved it. Makes fun of and plays tribute to the fantasy/magic genre, all at the same time.
Dman @ Sep 29th 2006 9:59PM
Hell naw there not puttin that game for sale.
kftgr @ Sep 27th 2006 2:12PM
Dragon riding + 3rd person combat + puzzle fare? That's not PDO, it's Drakan: Order of the Flame. Rather underrated game at the time.
Loaf of Bree @ Oct 14th 2006 10:41AM
Eragon in itself isn't a horrible book. But all of the rave, resulting from literary know-nothings who adore it, and especially Paolini considering himself a great author, is what bites me. Anyone, ANYONE who claims that Eragon is not outright plagarism knows little to nothing about literature, and thus his of her opinion should not be regarded.
Loaf of Bree @ Oct 14th 2006 10:41AM
Eragon in itself isn't a horrible book. But all of the rave, resulting from literary know-nothings who adore it, and especially Paolini considering himself a great author, is what bites me. Anyone, ANYONE who claims that Eragon is not outright plagarism knows little to nothing about literature, and thus his of her opinion should not be regarded.
george w buch @ Nov 30th 2006 7:10PM
It iz COOOOOOOOOL!!!!!!!!!