Comments on: Rise of The Argonauts, vids and games

By: Chris R

Chris R — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 20:27:43 +0000

I’m really curious to see how the combat in this game pans out. I’ve been led to believe that “a hit equals a hit” in this game, and that “a block equals a block.” None of that nonsense of the sword passing completely through an enemy for 5 points of damage or 10 points critical hit! I HATE that so much.

So far the combat seems pretty good, but I hope it feels more fluid than it looks, cus currently it looks like the enemies are waiting to attack one at a time ala Assassins Creed. Boo.

By: Real Horrorshow

Real Horrorshow — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 20:17:52 +0000

To be fair, hoplon shields are pretty big.

http://www.xyfos.com/images/Promakos1.jpg

By: Ninja Dodo

Ninja Dodo — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 16:51:35 +0000

Caiman: Noted. Speaking as an animator, what works at a distance in the middle of an action scene may indeed look like gentle copulating in a close-up, but often what ends up happening is that devs don’t have time to make special conversation animations.

Still, I’ll bear it in mind next time I do an idle animation. ;)

By: Weylund

Weylund — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 16:47:10 +0000

Yeah, which is why I won’t play it.

“Hey, let’s make a game about Salamis and make the Egyptian marines *walking mummies with pulse rifles*! It’ll be so cool! And then, we’ll make the ships have motors, and the oarsmen will be dressed up like in The Road Warrior, and they’ll all glow because Xerxes was actually a super-magical wizard who was MADE OF MAGIC…”

It’s not as bad as that.

But if you’re going to use stories (or legends, or what have you) that have definite grounding in a well-known period of history, get it right. Dammit.

By: Ninja Dodo

Ninja Dodo — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 16:39:58 +0000

If the Iliad were a movie it would be “inspired by true events” at most. There’s little consensus on the degree to which it is factual and reading it I find the sheer amount of direct meddling by the gods put it as much in the realm of fantasy as other myths. Troops rally around gods disguised as humans, heroes only succeed because they have been granted temporary strength by Zeus, Poseidon or others… The Iliad is as much about the bickering of the Olympians as it is about Hektor and Achilles.

By: Bobsy

Bobsy — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 13:21:42 +0000

Er, right. Well there definately was a Troy, and it was attacked, besieged, burnt down, built up, burnt down again many, many times, exactly the same as every other Aegean city-state. Schliemann excavated a crapload of different Troys built on top of each other. The one guessed to be Homer’s Troy is Troy VII or VIII.

But then myths are rarely based on single events. They’re an amalgam of dozens of folk stories, each with their own scores of varients.

Accuracy in myth is not the issue at hand. The problem that I and others have is that that fellow in the picture is holding what looks like a fricking lightsabre because “it’s fantasy” so it’s allowed.

By: Rook

Rook — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 12:52:38 +0000

The Iliad is supposed to have some historical accuracy to it. There probably was a city of Troy, there may have been a siege somewhere etc. Certainly at the time it was accepted as an historical event with a bit of poetic flair. The Argonautica on the other hand though, was written 400-500 years after the Iliad, full of superheroes, beasts and monsters etc. It’s not something that people would have mistaken for a real story.

By: Caiman

Caiman — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 02:02:50 +0000

Why does everyone these days use that “rocking back and forth as though gently copulating” standing animation these days? I know it’s supposed to simulate the character breathing, but it’s completely wrong and looks ridiculous. All you have to do is add your own sexual noises and the illusion is complete.

By: Duke Goosington IV

Duke Goosington IV — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 20:40:12 +0000

RooK: Thanks for the un-necessarily sarcy comment, but I wasn’t under the impression that this was a word-for-word retelling of Jason and the Argonauts search for the golden fleece, but rather a ‘re-imagining’ of the myth, and so giving away the plot of one of their sections of the game is a spoiler. But then I’ve not actually read the myth, and I’m not all that familiar with it, so what the hell, right?

By: Ninja Dodo

Ninja Dodo — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 18:03:43 +0000

Rook: I’m reading the the Iliad right now actually, and am reasonably familiar with the other stories in their original form. Sure there’s a range where Homer’s work represents the more grounded realistic side (though not exactly historical) while myths like Hercules or the origin of the Olympians veer more towards the fantastical… but all the same, I maintain that these stories feel connected.

By: DSX

DSX — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 17:28:24 +0000

I’m intrigued by the fatality and blocking physics, as well as the RPG / mythology elements. The set design and landscape all look superb, but man, the NPC’s just look horrible IMHO, like the medium poly chunky style that are made to be viewed from a top-down most of the time with occasional close-ups sort of like like old school WC3.

By: Erlam

Erlam — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:41:37 +0000

I saw this game at PAX, and it actually looked really fun. People get fucking annihilated by your weapons, and once you learn to avoid their blocks/shields/etc, it avoids my largest complaint in action games – enemies, even basic ones, that take multiple mortal wounds to actually down.

Keep an eye on it, looks quite fun.

Also, ancient Greek and Roman myths rule.