Arkane's Dishonored

http://www.bethblog.com/2012/08/03/q...

IMAGE(http://cdnstatic.bethsoft.com/bethblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/voicecast-dishonored-1.jpg)

Well. I'm sure that big name voice actors attract some people, but to me they suggest that a lot of money that could have gone towards art assets, architecture, or QA went to something else instead.

That strikes me more than a token celebrity voice to attract buyers. They could've stopped at half that cast and gotten the attention. This tells me that the budget on the game just much higher than I anticipated.

Stilgar Black wrote:

That strikes me more than a token celebrity voice to attract buyers. They could've stopped at half that cast and gotten the attention. This tells me that the budget on the game just much higher than I anticipated.

That's it. How many times in this thread or anywhere else on the internet have people been saying "I wonder what voice actors they've got" or will change their purchasing based on this new knowledge of the cast. Sure, I've heard some ropey voice acting, mostly in mods, but I don't really associate voice acting as a place where games are lacking, and top talent is a good spend.

Maybe Susan Sarandon is working pro bono cos she's been dying for a true stealth game?

Gravey wrote:

Maybe Susan Sarandon is working pro bono cos she's been dying for a true stealth game?

Just as long as Roger Sterling doesn't go tripping balls again while I assassinate Michael Madsen like some Kill Bill low rent villain, I'm cool with the voice cast. Some top talent, but, here is to hoping the story and everything else is top notch!

Have these two official gameplay trailers been shared yet? Basically showcasing how the player's choice of skills will define how he approaches kills, escapes etc.

System specs: http://www.bethblog.com/2012/08/14/p...

Minimum Spec:

OS: Windows Vista / Windows 7
Processor: 3.0 GHz dual core or better
Memory: 4 GB system RAM
Hard Disk Space: 9 GB
Video Card: DirectX 9 compatible with 512 MB video RAM or better (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 / ATI Radeon HD 5850)
Sound: Windows compatible sound card

Enhanced for:
64-bit
multi-core

Recommended Spec:

OS: Windows Vista / Windows 7
Processor: 2.4 GHz quad core or better
Memory: 4 GB system RAM
Hard Disk Space: 9 GB
Video Card: DirectX 9 compatible with 768 MB video RAM or better (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 / ATI Radeon HD 5850)
Sound: Windows compatible sound card

So the only difference between the minimum and recommended is extra cores and extra 256Mb of video RAM? Interesting.

The latest gameplay report on RPS is brilliant.

I was thinking this was Assassin's Creed like but actually it's starting to feel more like Thief.

It seems to me to be a good combination of the components from the talent making it, Deus Ex and Dark Messiah, and a bit of Bio/System shock too.

The thing that kind of bugs me about the stealth video, is how much the vision mode shows you, that could be presented intrinsically.

Scratched wrote:

It seems to me to be a good combination of the components from the talent making it, Deus Ex and Dark Messiah, and a bit of Bio/System shock too.

The thing that kind of bugs me about the stealth video, is how much the vision mode shows you, that could be presented intrinsically.

It's a definite departure from the almost HUD-less Thief, which was particularly brilliant in how much information about the world was indirectly communicated.

I think part of the issue with the vision mode is that the aesthetic doesn't match the rest of the game. Slick icons that fit in, say, Deus Ex look out of place here. The viewing-cone thing seemed to almost fit the rest of the game, but the agitation icons around the characters' heads don't.

KingGorilla wrote:

Any word from Arkane is this is, more or less, what The Crossing became?

I don't think so, or at least there's nothing to indicate that. I'm sure they probably reused some work, but one of the 'things' with The Crossing was apparently 'cross-player', or some kind of link between people playing multiplayer and singleplayer. There were never many details released about it. Wikipedia notes it as cancelled for financial reasons, and then they went on work on Speilberg's LMNO, also cancelled.

I glanced at this. Any word from Arkane if this is, more or less, what The Crossing became? For those not in the know, The Crossing was announced about the same time as Left 4 Dead as a similar sort of online competitive co-op game, but set in a quasi Renaissance era like Assasin's Creed. It went on indefinite hold for a long time, never officially cancelled.

Yeah, this is the project they replaced The Crossing with when they couldn't find a publisher for that. That had the cross-player thing, plus it was like a modern zombie game I think.

New developer video out. This time on stealth. *swoon*

What are the chances this will have a mod kit?

MoonDragon wrote:

What are the chances this will have a mod kit?

It's unreal engine, but going by other UE3 games I'd say the chances are pretty slim.

Cross-posted from the video game deals thread:

GameStop has a set of tarot cards (feelies) and the Arcane Assassin pack, with the Whale Statue for an extra bone charm slot, and bone charms which increase your magic duration and damage, make white mice non-hostile toward you, and let you eat white mice for mana.

Walmart has the Acrobatic Killer pack, with Hagfish statue (extra charm slot) and bone charms to restore health on a drop assassination, increased swim speed, and a bonus to dodging projectiles.

BestBuy has a "Whale Oil" USB Lamp. Don't know what exactly that is. Also the Shadow Rat Pack, with the Golden Rat Statue for an extra bone charm slot, "Delicate Touch" for breaking glass and noise reduction, "Voyeur" for keyhole peeping magnification, and "Deep Breather" for underwater breathing capacity bonus.

Amazon has the Backstreet Butcher Pack with Wolfhound Statue (extra charm slot), "Fencer" for increased sword v. sword damage, "Fire Water" for increased whiskey bomb explosions, and "Blast Resistant" for reduced explosion damage.

Target gets you a free sticker for your smart phone.

Steam gets you a free copy of Arx Fatalis.

All of the "Pack" bonuses also come with their own "unhidden text" and 500 coins, whatever that means.

Target is really tempting, but right now I'm leaning toward BestBuy, if only to avoid giving GameStop my money.

LobsterMobster wrote:

Cross-posted from the video game deals thread:

GameStop has a set of tarot cards (feelies) and the Arcane Assassin pack, with the Whale Statue for an extra bone charm slot, and bone charms which increase your magic duration and damage, make white mice non-hostile toward you, and let you eat white mice for mana.

Walmart has the Acrobatic Killer pack, with Hagfish statue (extra charm slot) and bone charms to restore health on a drop assassination, increased swim speed, and a bonus to dodging projectiles.

BestBuy has a "Whale Oil" USB Lamp. Don't know what exactly that is. Also the Shadow Rat Pack, with the Golden Rat Statue for an extra bone charm slot, "Delicate Touch" for breaking glass and noise reduction, "Voyeur" for keyhole peeping magnification, and "Deep Breather" for underwater breathing capacity bonus.

Amazon has the Backstreet Butcher Pack with Wolfhound Statue (extra charm slot), "Fencer" for increased sword v. sword damage, "Fire Water" for increased whiskey bomb explosions, and "Blast Resistant" for reduced explosion damage.

Target gets you a free sticker for your smart phone.

Steam gets you a free copy of Arx Fatalis.

All of the "Pack" bonuses also come with their own "unhidden text" and 500 coins, whatever that means.

Target is really tempting, but right now I'm leaning toward BestBuy, if only to avoid giving GameStop my money.

I cancelled my pre-order on principle. I will not support this vendor unique crap or developers that do it.

Whale Oil USB lamp:

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/zpsUb.jpg)

Found another too-small-to-post pic of it with a usb cable running out the back, so I assume it lights up via usb and is not a drive.

EDIT: confirmed

bestbuy.com wrote:

- Set the mood as you play with this Whale Oil USB Lamp
- Features a lovely blue glow when turned on

Sounds like BestBuy is the way to go for us sneaky types...

The lantern is also way too small to be of any use other than another glowing thing on your rig. Since I've moved to a laptop for my gaming I guess the lantern is going to the office so that people can scratch their heads over what it is.

Though I did find a fellow anime fan thanks to my NERV keychain today.

I wouldn't punish the developers for this pre-order stuff. It's between Bethesda's marketing people and the stores' purchasers. It isn't costing me a dime extra and I don't need to equip any add-ons I don't want. I can get riled about day one DLC that holds back whole levels of a game but stupid knick-knacks meant to make me go "oh! shiny!" aren't a trigger for me.

I don't really understand why anyone would leave that thing plugged in. I was looking at USB drives on NewEgg yesterday and they have one about the size of a thumbnail that has a bright blue LED on it and also stores 32GB of data.

I like using Steam and I am lazy. Despite the tempting pre-order in-games bonuses, I will likely just buy it on Steam, even though I can probably just add the other retailer copies to Steam.

Out of the blue my wife asked me if I've heard of this game called Dishonored. It was featured on a reality show called Face Off last night, and now she wants to get it. For me this is huge because she's not much of a videogamer these days, and it's one of the few games this year I've really been wanting to get on day 1.

So I said, "I've heard of it. Supposed to be pretty good. I guess we could check it out."

Heh heh.

Score one for product placement then.

Aaaand...score -2 for product placement.

Who honestly thought it was a good idea to dupe a non-profit, violence prevention group into filming a documentary about their work, only to use it to promote a video game about revenge killings?

Don't get me wrong-- I want to play Dishonored-- but this was not, in any way shape or form, a mature or intelligent way to promote your game. I really, REALLY wish Bethesda would come out and denounce such a deceiving action.

WipEout wrote:

Aaaand...score -2 for product placement.

Who honestly thought it was a good idea to dupe a non-profit, violence prevention group into filming a documentary about their work, only to use it to promote a video game about revenge killings?

Don't get me wrong-- I want to play Dishonored-- but this was not, in any way shape or form, a mature or intelligent way to promote your game. I really, REALLY wish Bethesda would come out and denounce such a deceiving action.

Wow. I guess if Bethesda wants to run with the big publishers like EA, they have to... have just as insensitive and vile PR stunts?

I guess it's Vice's doing, but Bethesda should shut down that partnership immediately. What were they even thinking? It's Vice after all. If you're trying to make me throw up, why not just also mention Pitchfo—oh *hurrrrk*