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Reader Comments (40)

Posted: Jan 27th 2012 5:29PM Softserve said

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I notice a lot more Japanese games put that "code may change before release" stuff in demos. Maybe that needs to be done more often?

I was mostly bothered by the frame rate issues, but it was fun and I enjoyed it more than I expected. My main hope is that that is fixed and I figured I'd just wait for reviews to see if that's the case.
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Posted: Jan 27th 2012 5:30PM Crimsic said

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This is the guy who pitched with a bloody sock, right?

Anyways, that's a pretty great way of going about it.
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Posted: Jan 27th 2012 5:44PM simplicity14 said

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@Crimsic
Yes!
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Posted: Jan 27th 2012 6:02PM Crimsic said

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@simplicity14
Ha why thank you for the enthusiastic answer!
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Posted: Feb 7th 2012 3:08PM eat it said

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@Crimsic

but more importantly he was part of the '93 Phillies
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Posted: Jan 27th 2012 5:31PM FinderKeeper said

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Kudos to him for speaking up about the demo. Not every studio exec will own up to mistakes like that. I'm hopeful that they can take care of the bugs before release.
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Posted: Jan 27th 2012 5:32PM (Unverified) said

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The demo pissed me off. I had to disable what made it look pretty to play it? No thanks! This explains a lot. I'm still going to wait for reviews, but I'm even more interested now that I read the write-up on Penny-Arcade today. The idea of a magical rogue reminds me of the main character of Brent Weeks Night Angel trilogy, and I LOVED that. So I'm thinking this is going to be a go if reviews for PC don't state massive performance bugs/issues.
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Posted: Jan 27th 2012 5:33PM (Unverified) said

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@(Unverified) God damnit, it won't switch me from "unverified." It's been like a year Joystiq!
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Posted: Jan 27th 2012 6:04PM gamersrstupid said

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@(Unverified)

nice article on penny arcade, thanks for pointing it out.

http://penny-arcade.com/2012/01/27/amalur
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Posted: Jan 27th 2012 7:24PM (Unverified) said

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@gamersrstupid NP man. Thanks for linking it for others to read. It really has sold me on the concept of this game, and what makes it stand out from the rest of the RPG pack. I feel like it's what I've been looking for. The new video Joystiq posted earlier also has helped me lean towards a "I'll buy this."

It looks like they took the cool fun exploring features of World of Warcraft and wrapped it around a very solid single player PVE RPG. My hopes are being raised with the more and more that I read about the game. I'm just sad the demo was such a blunder, and hope the final game ends up being just as fun as Mike wrote it out to be in his post on PA.
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Posted: Jan 27th 2012 9:15PM commonperson said

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@(Unverified) Same here, I have a pretty beefy gaming rig and it was showing a black screen. I had to dig around the forums to find out that I needed to disable some of the graphical features and really this close to release that makes me nervous. Honestly probably going to wait on this one. Maybe one day get it when it's on sale on Steam.
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Posted: Jan 27th 2012 10:34PM chrisredfield31 said

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@commonperson apparently these black screen issues were confined to AMD cards. My Nvidia card ran it perfectly.
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Posted: Jan 27th 2012 5:32PM SisypheanLife said

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I was vaguely aware of this game before the demo, but I quite liked the demo and will look to pick it up later this year.

BTW, including unlocks as a reward for playing a demo is a great incentive. I heartily approve.
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Posted: Jan 27th 2012 5:35PM NathanDTS said

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"Hey, we have this relatively unknown game, let's not put out a demo for it herp derp" .

Also, Why did they have to use old code?

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Posted: Jan 27th 2012 5:43PM Ellimem said

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@NathanDTS

Both Sony and Microsoft have a lengthy certification process. You can get bumped up or down the list for importance. A demo is low priority, so they know they will be low on the list. So to get it out in a timely fashion, they probably had to submit the game for cert at least a month before it was released.
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Posted: Jan 27th 2012 6:02PM llaurus said

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@Ellimem

Ah! I also was wondering about that. Thanks for the info.
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Posted: Jan 27th 2012 5:47PM gamersrstupid said

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very nice, that's the kind of support and honesty I would expect from a company. I am preordering the game...
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Posted: Jan 27th 2012 5:52PM Korbie said

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I'm just glad to hear that they're aware of the bugs. The first time I played the demo all music and voice acting stopped halfway through my 45 minutes (though it did make a good enough impression on me that I'll be picking it up in February).
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Posted: Jan 27th 2012 6:03PM Traptz said

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Demo could have a million bugs and I wouldn't care. It's a demo, with an old beta build.

But I do care that a "die hard PC gamer" like you, Curt Schilling, goes and makes a console port.

Here's to hoping you big dawgs at 38/Big Huge change the PC user-interface around.
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Posted: Jan 29th 2012 12:42AM cheesehound said

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@Traptz

Having played both the PC and PS3 versions of the demo, I'd say the PS3 version is definitely the step child here, especially UI-wise. The equipment menu in the PC version has context menus, even! That's a pretty PC-centric UI, imho.
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Posted: Jan 27th 2012 6:07PM Assmar said

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AHA! I was wondering if it was just me. I didn't try fudging with the settings, but there was nothing on the screen except the HUD. I thought I started out the game asleep, just listening to the other characters speak, and I fully expected that cheesy eye-open-and-blink-to-focus moment that would revewal the to happen at any second. Never did.
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Posted: Jan 27th 2012 6:07PM Assmar said

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AHA! I was wondering if it was just me. I didn't try fudging with the settings, but there was nothing on the screen except the HUD. I thought I started out the game asleep, just listening to the other characters speak, and I fully expected that cheesy eye-open-and-blink-to-focus moment that would reveal the world to happen at any second. Never did.
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Posted: Jan 27th 2012 6:14PM Hoops said

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Ha ha, I love Curt Schilling. This is EXACTLY how I would expect him to handle this. He was always so in your face and forthcoming as a player. And you have to like his chances of being the first video game studio head to make the Baseball hall of fame...
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Posted: Jan 27th 2012 9:17PM commonperson said

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@Hoops I have to say it was a pretty classy way of doing it. Own it and fix it. A lot of game execs could learn a lesson or two from him.
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Posted: Jan 27th 2012 6:49PM TheRedComet said

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This guy could have been a MLB manager and chose to make this game instead. I can tell from playing the demo that they worked very hard to make a FAST action RPG. The speed and the fluidity of the combat is not something that we usually see.
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Posted: Jan 27th 2012 7:14PM KungFuChaosNinja said

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Bugs or not, the demo was great. Schilling's a class act. Newegg has it for $45, which I think is right in my range for this.
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Posted: Jan 27th 2012 7:20PM pierogi210 said

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This demo was the worst demo i have ever played.
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Posted: Jan 27th 2012 7:30PM drunkingamebar said

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@pierogi210

I don't know if I'd go that far..
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Posted: Jan 27th 2012 7:31PM drunkingamebar said

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@drunkingamebar

Er.. correction, maybe it was, and this was your first demo.
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Posted: Jan 27th 2012 7:49PM DemiurgicSoul said

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I was sold on this game after the demo, but was going to hold off on buying it for a while, to catch up on my backlog. After reading his post though, I'm buying it day one. I always appreciate when people are real, and cut through the business talk and marketing bull. This guy is cool, I like how he gave us some personal information about himself, and judging from the demo his studio made a great game. And I didn't even know he was a pro baseball player until I read his post. This guy has successfully persued two of his dreams. That's admirable.
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Posted: Jan 27th 2012 8:35PM Hoffer said

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I played through the demo for the Mass Effect 3 unlocks. I don't recall any bugs on my play through.

I'm not a big RPG fan, but I thought this game was pretty decent. Not $60 decent, but I'm kinda interested in playing it.
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Posted: Jan 28th 2012 10:50AM SisypheanLife said

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@Hoffer

I'm thinking $30 sounds about right, but that's mostly because I have a considerable backlog right now. By the time I put a dent in it, I'm guessing this game will have come down to at least $40, which would be reasonable.
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Posted: Jan 27th 2012 8:48PM Jenks said

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I intended on buying the game, but played through the demo on 360 for the final release unlocks. I ran into 1 bug, I killed an npc, then got the quest to kill him and couldn't. Not a dealbreaker.
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Posted: Jan 28th 2012 5:42PM MDizzy said

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@Jenks I stole something for someone and the guards came to arrest me. I slaughtered the entire town and lost all quests for that area.
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Posted: Jan 27th 2012 9:00PM CaptainProtonX said

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He was always a class act with the Phillies. Probably the only sports icon I truly admired in town. If the economy doesn't keep screwing me, I will pick up the game.
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Posted: Jan 27th 2012 9:42PM Golgo13 said

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I vaguely knew about the game but paid no mind to it. The ONLY reason I tried it was for the ME3 gear. Next thing I knew, I started enjoying the game...a lot. Enough to where I downloaded it from both Steam and PSN in which I've probably spent 5 hours trying different things amongst the playthrough times allotted.

I will definitely be purchasing this game soon because minus the demo's bugs, it's a fun game.
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Posted: Jan 28th 2012 8:10AM db2 said

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Whoa, when did Bruce Willis and Kevin James have a son?
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Posted: Jan 28th 2012 2:12PM OGC said

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Even with the bugs Im glad they released a demo. I know the bugs are already fixed. I know they didnt do the demo themselves. Now I have a better grasp on how the game plays, how the world feels, and how much I'll enjoy the game.

This went from maybe buying when its on sale at 35-40 on Amazon to my id battling my superego over paying 60 for a preorder or waiting for a sale. Good job 38, good job.
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Posted: Jan 30th 2012 7:50PM iceveiled said

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dude, it's 2012. We're used to completed games having bugs. Chill out, big guy.
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Posted: Jan 30th 2012 11:48PM LordBlackass said

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I didn't realise Schilling was head of this studio. I am going to buy this game, but it's good to know the studio head is a gamer (and curse breaker), not some suit wearing money hungry so-and-so...ohai Bobby...
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