By Craig Pearson on January 11th, 2013 at 8:00 am.
I asked Adam if the Neverwinter remake was out, and he said he thought it was. Then I checked and it turns out it’s not. We were both wrong. I was thinking of the Baldur’s Gate remake, and Adam just got confused and believed every game ever was released. The boy’s been planning a Half-Life 5 marathon, and I had to break it to him. That is the worst part of the job, believe me. He can make a puppy face like no-one else. The best bit is when I get to show you all trailers of upcoming games, especially when they toss around terms like “Great Weapon Fighter”. Click your strong internet browser and use your average eyeball lookers to watch it.
To be honest, if I had an attack that would whack at least four enemies with one sword stroke I’d come up with a name like “Great Weapon Fighter”, too. Alas my life is not so interesting. I’m a Good Shoe Walker, or a Decent Pizza Chewer at best. Here’s the trailer.
I hunted high and low for a release date, but all they’re saying is early in 2013. But in my head, it’s been out for years.
11/01/2013 at 08:11 MasterDex says:
Great! I hope they have some great great weapons. I don’t want no mediocre great weapons. Also, it’d be great to be able to dual-wield great weapons in it. You could call the skill Great Strength!
Also, this looks like it’s coming along great. It’s great that it’s going to be out early this year, I need my RPG fix.
11/01/2013 at 10:05 frightlever says:
Such hyperbole is grating.
11/01/2013 at 08:14 blackguard says:
Uh, WEAPONFACE SPACEWAR HULKFIGHTER?
11/01/2013 at 08:37 Shepardus says:
No, just GREATFACE.
11/01/2013 at 08:39 Velko says:
WARWEAPON
11/01/2013 at 09:17 rapier17 says:
FACEFIGHTER
11/01/2013 at 09:22 brulleks says:
These comments are really beginning to Great.
11/01/2013 at 09:29 blackguard says:
Don’t Fight it.
11/01/2013 at 11:43 yogibbear says:
If you don’t know what it is
12/01/2013 at 16:16 Aardvarkk says:
Why did I think about curds and whey, ‘pon watching that video.. I’ll probably never know.
11/01/2013 at 08:17 ViktorBerg says:
I enjoyed the Wilhelm Scream.
11/01/2013 at 11:15 Toberoth says:
As did I, as did I.
11/01/2013 at 08:19 Svant says:
Wow… that looked… really really bad.
11/01/2013 at 08:25 11temporal says:
Looks positively great
11/01/2013 at 08:39 Hatonastick says:
A generic looking fantasy RPG (I love RPG’s BTW, but this I’m not too sure about…) with a generic sounding class, what’s not to like?!? :P
11/01/2013 at 10:40 Tellus says:
Shut up and take my generic gold coins!
12/01/2013 at 20:44 Hatey says:
I’m not that bothered by genereic classes, monsters or worlds, this game is gonna stand or fall based on the user created content. Personally i have high hopes, if it gets as much attention from the modding scene as NWN then it’s gonna be a smash and we will have tons of content to play through.
11/01/2013 at 08:50 unangbangkay says:
You can blame D&D 4th edition for the Great Weapon Fighter stuff.
When Wizards of the Coast came out with 4th Edition and its powers-and-cooldown-based combat system it was clear that they were taking a page or two from the MMO playbook. Players accused it of becoming WoW-lite.
Problem is is that their implementation of the system ironically made it even MORE difficult to wrestle 4th edition into the actual videogame format. Now poor Cryptic has to identify classes by their intended role, which in a generic fantasy RPG setting (few are more generic than The Forgotten Realms) makes everything sound so mundane.
See also: Trailers for Neverwinter’s “Control Wizard” and “Trickster Rogue”.
11/01/2013 at 09:39 sebmojo says:
So 4th ed is simultaneously too much and not enough like a video game?
Nonsensical edition war double flick flack and twist!
9.0 from the French judge!
11/01/2013 at 11:13 Arglebargle says:
The loyal Bulgarian judge glances at the Russian judge before making his notation….
11/01/2013 at 10:19 Screwie says:
Well I am a 4th edition advocate, but what this game presents doesn’t much interest me either. Cryptic seem to have strayed form the meat of what makes 4th edition great while retaining what makes it feel clunky, unoriginal and ‘gamey’.
Cryptic picking out and adhering to what were intentionally generically named builds for each class as a title, is silly. It’s not evocative, even for players of 4e – because in the PnP a build is nothing but an entirely optional list of suggested features that almost everyone ignores after reading the first time. Hell I had to look it up, to see if “great weapon fighter” was actually a thing.
WotC intentionally made these build names as generic as hell to keep them fluff-free and usable in any of their many worlds. If you’re only concerned about Forgotten Realms there is surely a more explicit title you could use. Cryptic either aren’t trying hard enough or they’re tone deaf.
11/01/2013 at 13:23 DK says:
4th Edition would have been brain dead easy to make into a videogame and perfect for the conversion. If they had made it turn based. 4th Edition is the edition ToEE wished had been out.
11/01/2013 at 14:30 gritz says:
Your argument doesn’t make any sense, just like most “4ed ruined D&D” arguments.
11/01/2013 at 08:59 AmateurScience says:
Ah, another game that makes swinging a humongous sword look like the PC is waving a giant feather duster around. Great.
11/01/2013 at 09:03 f1x says:
Static enemies that stand still waiting for your sword to hit them … check
bland combat where you are just mashing your attack button …. check
awkward animations and flying crash test dummies … check
big ass numbers popping using an awful typography…. check
The game looks quite generic and uninspired, which is a shame because I would love to play a new “classic” RPG
11/01/2013 at 13:25 DK says:
It doesn’t help that they cut the part of the trailer that was in all the other class trailers: the class specific defensive mechanics and why it’s important to *not* stand still and get hit by every attack
11/01/2013 at 09:07 Loque says:
Swords should hit the body and stop as soon as the enemy is hit.
It’s not like you slice the body 4-5 times like you do with a hot knife through butter… It makes no sense at all.
11/01/2013 at 09:21 Narzhul says:
I always look out for news on this. Just to confirm that everything they’re doing is specifically designed to piss on all we’ve come to love about d&d cRPG.
11/01/2013 at 10:21 Rastaanparta says:
This is the dungeon based MMO right? What I’ve heard, there’s supposed to be some kind of a creation kit released with the game itself, so one could create own adventures. I understand that if that’s reality, tools and trinkets you have in your possession has to be limited, but still I can’t help it that my dungeon master sense is tingling. Hopefully this will turn out to be something neat. I mean personally, I wouldn’t mind raiding crypts and old temples with my friends, if it’s fun and won’t be ruined by greedy cash shop. We’ll see.
11/01/2013 at 13:19 Hobz says:
Indeed, the creation kit is the reason I’m excited about this game. Combats is but a fraction of an rpg experience, maybe the least important if the critical success of PS:T is any indication. So I can see myself enjoy a good adventure with my friends however action-oriented is combat. Hell, it might even be more “fun” granted the fights are not stupidly easy (which I’m confident it won’t be since it’ll be in the hands of the DM)
Don’t dismiss an rpg because you see some hacking and slashing, there is always more to it than the way you kill monsters…
11/01/2013 at 10:43 TwwIX says:
Could this look anymore cookie cutter?
11/01/2013 at 10:58 Tellus says:
Not if it tried.
11/01/2013 at 11:46 yogibbear says:
Well… they could get a cookie cutter shaped cookie cutter and cut out the cookie cutter from the cookie cutter shaped cookie cutter, that’d be a little more cookie cutter than this cookie cutter video clip, don’t ya thunk?
11/01/2013 at 12:02 efexuy says:
3 digits damage for a melee weapon. I thought this was going to use D&D rules
11/01/2013 at 12:05 Daarck says:
I hate to be that guy (lies, fecking love it) but doesn’t it mean that his weapon is of the Great class i.e. a Great-sword, two handed etc rather than his prowess with said Gnoll-cleaver?
11/01/2013 at 13:03 Felixader says:
Do you remember that Sound that your mother makes (used to make/ makes whenever you visit home) when you again have done that thing she already told you thousand times u shouldn’t do?
(Marge Simpson makes a similar sound)
I watched this and then heard myself making that sound.
Thing is, i shouldn’t care. I am not interested in this so i should just walk by.
But that is not how it works. I care that hundred or so of people are working for years on something that looks so, for a lack of a better word to describe it, so la la, IN EVERY WAY.
The worst thing is that there is discussions EVERYWHERE what people don’t really like or see as not good enough any more and all theses things can be found in this trailer.
11/01/2013 at 13:20 Cinnamon says:
Fantastic weapon fighter can use fantastic vaulting strike so is better.
11/01/2013 at 14:42 aliksy says:
Wait. Is this 4th edition? I don’t hate 4th edition but I despise 3rd edition.
11/01/2013 at 15:43 gritz says:
It’s no edition.
11/01/2013 at 16:11 JFS says:
It’s only WAR and huge weapons and huge damage numbers. For in the grim future of D&D, there’s only bad videogame implementations.
11/01/2013 at 16:44 Morph says:
Was anyone else hoping they could play that hyena-man in the picture? That would be so sweet.
11/01/2013 at 16:45 Urthman says:
All I could think of while that guy was talking was this:
“The Wizard engages his foes from afar, forgoing close combat in favor of powers far more arcane and inscrutable, including Spectral Blade, Improved Spectral Blade, and a magic missile so devastating you’ll regret ever crossing paths with this rebellious foe.”
http://youtu.be/KiirzOcH_0U?t=47s
11/01/2013 at 21:33 Highstorm says:
0:25 is my favorite part. Where the guy takes a heavy swing from the left, then inexplicably warps to the left, and falls off the bridge.
The Wilheim scream was a nice bonus.