Dragon's Dogma

[SomTervo]

Yeah there's a big emphasis on lighting, which is pretty important as a gameplay mechanic, so it generally looks good, and some of the textures are nice, specifically the damage models on the big enemies.

 

But the animations are definitely Japanese clunky RPG ones; this is the pedigree of Resi 4-5 and DMC after all (not that DMC had bad animations). it has those stuttering moments after hitting bad guys and very little smooth fluid transitions between animations. But this doesn't seem to detract from the gameplay, so I'm happy.

[TheMightyEthan]

From watching videos the running animation is just god awful, to the extent that it's somewhat immersion-breaking every time the character starts running.

[SomTervo]

Sniper Elite V2 had that...

 

But isn't this just the sprinting animation? Which is meant to be your guy throwing him into a sprint (usually before jumping). The general running animation looks fine?

Edited May 14, 2012 by kenshi_ryden

[TheMightyEthan]

idk, like I said I've just seen it in videos. I downloaded the demo but never got around to actually playing it.

[SomTervo]

It's definitely worth a go. Your general running speed is fine, but if you sprint, he does fling his arms about (though it is a frantic 'shit I'm fucking going' move).

[CorgiShinobi]

What kenshi said. As frantic as your character might look when sprinting, I think there are more than enough monsters in the game to justify an "oh shi-" animation to the character.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

Finally played the demo and was greatly underwhelmed. Menus and UI are a clusterfuck. Got rid of everything except for the minimap so that helped. Gameplay... is not anywhere close to Demons Souls. I felt like it was quite clunky and imprecise. It really feels like they tried to throw in too much at once and didn't do any of it well. Then again, it was just a demo.

 

Also, don't see the big deal about the sprint animation.

[TheMightyEthan]

I think part of it was that the videos I saw never showed them running, only sprinting, so I thought it was the regular run animation and that it looked retarded. If it's sprint that's more okay.

[SomTervo]

@FDS: I think if you're playing the full game, all the HUD elements will probably be pretty useful. Due to the game being an odd mix of item/resource management and action gameplay. Demon's Souls was about precision and reserved combat, with RPG bones, DD has weaker RPG bones and the combat about just getting in there, it's a hack 'n' slash. If you just get sucked into the plunge of the combat it's great. Not about precise tactics like DS, it's teamwork and damage dealing.

 

Actually, I think the only HUD element that isn't required is the needless massive boxes for Pawn subtitles. Remove that and just listen to them. So much more immersive.

[TheMightyEthan]

I find that when I can hear then it's more immersive to have no subtitles, but when I can't hear it's much much worse than subtitles. I always turn subtitles on if possible.

 

Speaking about games in general, not DD specifically.

[SomTervo]

That's true. I try to play this sort of thing (big singleplayer games) with really good headphones, so I hear everything; but if I have to use speakers and hearing is an issue, I turn subs on. Though it breaks the immersion a little for me, even if it's useful.

[CorgiShinobi]

A part of me wants to keep the pawns' subtitles on because they might actually say something useful, but then the rest of me can not stand how much space those dialogue boxes take up.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

It's kind of a clusterfuck audio-wise too. Even in surround sound. Too many people talking at once, trying to talk about enemies, saying they're doing this and that, etc.

[TheMightyEthan]

Yeah, even when I'm wearing headphones I usually leave subtitles on because games often have just atrocious sound design.

[CorgiShinobi]

So there's a more permanent spot for my video.

Ask away if anything appears confusing, but I'll add some detail anyway. This was my first attempt, and you'll see that in two spots I almost failed the quest. As we're all aware, nighttime is very much not optimal for doing quests for traveling. I had done a few side quests before this, so I didn't exactly do myself any favors (though one side quest should pay off).

As for the video itself, the raw footage is better, but I needed to cut some footage and make it more YouTube "friendly." Thus, the text doesn't look as sharp as it should, but this does the job.

[TheMightyEthan]

Is the whole game letterboxed like that?

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

The demo was. Anyone know what resolution it makes the game? Obviously it's less than 720p

Edited May 25, 2012 by Faiblesse Des Sens

[CorgiShinobi]

That's the way it was recorded. On the PS3 version, the highest resolution is 720p (most open world games are, so nothing surprising). I'm wondering if my Game Capture letterboxes 720p, or if the game is stretched in some way on HDTVs because it's never letterboxed when I play.

 

I'll have to see to this...

 

EDIT: lol, it has been letterboxed on my HDTV. I haven't noticed since it blended in with the black of the television. Eh, it's rather minor letterboxing if you ask me.

Edited May 25, 2012 by Atomsk88

[TheMightyEthan]

Letterboxing doesn't bother me, it just struck me as odd and I was wondering if it was actually the game or if it was something about the capture/upload process.

[CorgiShinobi]

I'm curious about why the game is letterboxed though because it doesn't look like there's enough space on the bottom with my health, stamina, and X button.

 

Though once I get use to my attacks I'll probably remove the face button HUD.

 

EDIT: It's letterboxed on the 360 and PS3, and looking at the G4 review, the reviewer has the same suspicions as me.

 

From the review:

Editor's Note: One word of warning for owners of plasma TVs, though - Dragon's Dogma is letterboxed, meaning there are black bars at the top and bottom of the screen during gameplay. This was likely done to save screen real estate and improve performance, but if your TV is prone to burn-in or image retention, make sure you take the proper precautions.

Edited May 25, 2012 by Atomsk88

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

Probably because it can't run at 720p and they're not upconverting it like every other game that runs below 720p does.

[CorgiShinobi]

It's so strange how I never noticed until I looked at my recording. I noticed it once during the demo, but I thought something must have glitched because the other times I played it I could have sworn it filled the entire screen.

 

I can see why though as I've started another quest and it's essentially a gigantic pit.

 

EDIT: (Man, been doing this quite often.)

 

With the letterbox, it is 1280x720. My television tells me the dimensions depending on the games resolution. If it can go to 1080p (or 1080i) it'll go to 1920x1080. If it's only capable of 720p, the resolution on the television adjusts to 1280x720.

 

As far as the actual dimension of what you see, well it's definitely 1280 wide. My Game Capture HD records whatever the output signal is, which is when I discovered the Wii's anamorphic widescreen. Anyway, the raw AVI is set at 1280x720.

Edited May 25, 2012 by Atomsk88

[TheMightyEthan]

Quick trip into photoshop with a screenshot from that video shows that the resolution of the game without the black bars is about 1280x600.

[CorgiShinobi]

So about 60 on top and another from the bottom, which seems to be around the standard. Given how many television commercials and shows are letterboxed on widescreen, I think I've simply gotten use to those added black bars. It especially helps when an HDTV is a good solid black.

 

But enough about this, I'm going to talk about actually playing the game some more!

 

I'm trying to do one of the early side quests, one where I have to find a girl (the love interest) in the Witchwood. I've died twice trying to take out the head bandit atop the cliff leading to the forest. Seriously, the jerk is leagues above his goons. Before this quest though, I tried to take out a monster that my pawns and I could only take a quarter of its health away. I tried climbing on its back and the thing falls backwards to CRUSH ME!

 

This is the kind of game where people accustom to enemy levels may get a bit annoyed when they can't gauge the difficulty right away. Bandits are usually the grunt enemy type, but in this game, don't underestimate them. So far, at Lv. 13, I can only take out goblins, harpies, and wolves easily. Even skeletons and zombies are tough as nails.

 

At least spiders are still a piece of cake.

[madbassman39]

So i'm new to this game, wondered around before I figured out I had to sleep to activate the quest to get to the capital city. I'm a level 10 and have no f'in clue what I'm doing... Openworld games are my favorite but I rarely get anything done....

 

How do I unlock more skills?