Edge of Twilight

[toblix]

Why do I have to fucking fight monsters?

Uh, it's a Video game, what the fuck else would you do?

[brkl]

Killing army guys in a steampunk game wouldn't make any sense.

[elmuerte]

what about steamy punk army guys?

[Garple]

what about steamy punk army guys?

I agree...I could fight people. I could not fight.

"It's refreshing to see a movie where people don't solve their problems with guns and chasing." -Marge Simpson-

[kuddles]

Also...I LOVED Fable II, so don't get the wrong idea. I'm just not sure this game is being taken in the right direction from the looks of it, but any direction should be worthwhile just for the sake of, as others have said, getting a steampunk game out onto the streets.

I've seen a couple interviews with the dev team so it sounds like it might not be a straight-up hack'n'slash. They talk about both factions in the game being neither the "good" or "bad" side, and discuss puzzles that sound Zelda-ish, naturally they're going to show off the action bits for the trailer.

I guess my biggest concern is a relatively new development team making their first big budget title for...Southpeak Interactive. Take the non-generic setting and you can almost see the inevitable right in front of you: The game ends up shipping lacking the polish it needs since the dev has very strict time/resource restraints, and is further marred by a marketing campaign that is either terrible or non-existent, and ends up selling about 50k the first week before being crushed by the holiday AAA onslaught.

[Erkki]

i remain optimistic

[zomboid]

i remain optimistic

Me too. Kuddles has some good points - to be sure, but I'm hoping for the best - as it's been in production for a while now. The trailer at least demonstrates (to me) that the team wants this to be pretty slick, and possesses high production values.

[Cigol]

I hate being reminded that I've never played Arcanum or Anachronox outside of their respective demos

[elmuerte]

Anachronox had a demo?

[Cigol]

Yep;

US, July 9, 2001 - In development ever since the beginnings of Ion Storm, Anachronox, which is already in stores, is a console style RPG that follows the travels of one dusty detective by the name of Sylvester "Sly" Boots as he ventures to a planet that splits in half. From there it's basically up to you to find out what the heck is going on... Who's crushing the universe and why? If you're anything like us, you'd prefer to play a game before purchasing it, so this should be welcome news to you. You can grab the demo here, It's 92.3 MB, so you might want to order a pizza and break out the Victoria's Secret catalogs (JCPenny for all you poor folks out there) and prepare for a wait. Just be sure not to anger your dad by tying up the phone line or hogging the bandwidth.

-- IGN (http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/096/096422p1.html)

[elmuerte]

"you might want to order a pizza and break out the Victoria's Secret catalogs" - ign.com

*sigh*

[Garple]

"It's 92.3 Megabytes!" Ign.com

[Scrobbs]

So what's this dick Tim Langdell going to say about this? I've only just heard about him, but it sounds like this is his legal bag (of shite).

[MrHoatzin]

Man, I really hate steampunk and all it stands for. There is a little bauhaus duder inside me who starts foaming at the mouth at the notion of random brass gears glued to things made of mahogany and adorned with random bits of green glass. I have nothing against the Victorian era as far as its design and industry and technology and fashion and sci-fi go, but I really hate steampunk.

I have never seen anything (a work of art or craft or whatever) that eagerly embraced the Steampunk moniker that at the same time competently referenced the Victorian era. Everything steampunk is superficially and whole-heartedly based on other steampunk conventions and works. It is a very inbred, incestuous aesthetic. Kitschy too.

[Scrobbs]

I would say that the Baroque cycle from Stephenson skirts the steampunk arena. It's set a long time before the victorian period, but seems to embody steampunk's ethos somewhat with it's advances. There are references to steam driven databases in there.

I presume you detest Gibson for 'The Difference Engine' then?

[MrHoatzin]

Never read it so I can't judge. Maybe it is actually amazing and worthwhile literature and the wiki page makes it seem actually interesting. I don't have a problem with actually interesting things that happen to be thrown into the steampunk genre. I have a problem with the steampunk that only has other steampunk as inspiration, that just cashes in on the aesthetic and forgets to do anything worth doing with it.

A steam powered database sounds exciting. On the other hand, a town square grate that contains randomly rotating gears for some reason is annoying, does not seem thought through in the least. Babbage's analytical engine is a gorgeous piece of machinery, but IT DOES SOMETHING. A lot of steampunk is full of purely decorative gears; the uniquely steampunk notion of a decorative gear pisses me off.

[zomboid]

I know (and have known) a number of people throughout my life that share my interest in science fiction and fantasy, but are unable to embrace anything that breaks the suspension of disbelief membrane or doesn't sustain intellectual plausibility. I totally see the validity of this, but I'm the kind of person that still marvels at the gee-whizzery of stuff without feeling the need to understand the inner machinations of a thing to think it plausible. At least not in an escapist/fantastical context.

It's kind of like film students criticizing things about films that never would have occurred to me. I find it more fun to retain some sense of wonder and not need to peek behind everthing's curtain to enjoy it or be immersed in what it represents.

Still, I'll have to agree with you to an extent. Steampunk has unfortunatley seen an abundance of cheesy and creatively bankrupt interpretations (I blame the anime scene for the brunt of this). Thing is, I can't hold up one shining example of this "style" done perfectly right - I just see the potential for someone to pull it off.

Kind of rambling, sorry...

Edited June 29, 2009 by zomboid