Like Tears in Rain

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lotusreaver
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Unread postby lotusreaver » 06 Jul 2011, 20:43

A very very good article. The information about M&M X is especially juicy as it sounds like the game would have tied together all the loose plot points in the M&M and Heroes series.

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vicheron
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Unread postby vicheron » 06 Jul 2011, 22:19

I wonder why JVC chose to sell NWC to 3DO instead of another publisher. Had he never heard of the 3DO console?

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Corlagon
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Unread postby Corlagon » 06 Jul 2011, 22:28

It says why at the start of the article.

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Unread postby ThunderTitan » 07 Jul 2011, 05:41

MMO's where ruining games even before they where popular...

And why do companies keep doing that "X games every Y months" thing... it's never ended well unless it's a sports game with very little changes between editions (and some FPS's nowadays)...
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vicheron
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Unread postby vicheron » 07 Jul 2011, 06:06

It says why at the start of the article.



Any other publisher could have offered financial backing.



As for 3DO publishing Meridian 59, Ultima Online was being developed at the time, and Neverwinter Nights had already been made.

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hellegennes
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Unread postby hellegennes » 07 Jul 2011, 10:26

@vicheron:



Ahem... Neither of these were 3D and especially Neverwinter Nights had abysmal graphics, reminiscent of the early 80's. JVC was interested in a modern, 3D platform.

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CloudRiderX
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Unread postby CloudRiderX » 07 Jul 2011, 14:25

Neverwinter Night's graphics were not abysmal. The model quality was low for the time of its release, but I think its a worthy trade for a fantastic frame rate, vibrant textures, and great particle effects.
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hellegennes
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Unread postby hellegennes » 07 Jul 2011, 16:48

Sure, considering when it was released. But that wasn't what JVC was looking for.

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vicheron
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Unread postby vicheron » 07 Jul 2011, 20:32

@ hellegennes



And JVC could have developed a game on his own with the backing of a better publisher.



The failure of the 3DO console was a huge deal. It was one of the biggest flops in gaming history. Having to deal with the company that lost a ton of money due to that failure entailed a much greater risk than finding the support of another publisher and developing a 3D MMORPG on his own.

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MMXAlamar
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Unread postby MMXAlamar » 08 Jul 2011, 01:41

Here are some of the rare RPG screen shots from the original LOMM: http://legendsofmightandmagicheadquarte ... M-RPG-days



There is actually some more concept art by Keith Talanay depicting a Monastery of Legends and a place called Dusk Town that were planned for the original game.



Also there are 66 fan-made maps for LOMM using a Lithtech editor. Some of them are amazing!

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Unread postby Marzhin » 08 Jul 2011, 07:42

@MMXAlamar : great pics, I remember seeing some of those in a magazine a long time ago (the one with the dragon looking down on the heroes for instance).

Too bad the creatures and characters do not look very good in LithTech... The scenery was OK in Legends and MM9, but the characters and animations... yuck.
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hellegennes
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Unread postby hellegennes » 08 Jul 2011, 10:15

@Vicheron:



3DO, despite the failure of their console, wasn't an unreliable company. No one can say Trip Hawkins isn't a guarantee. Who could imagine that a company founded by the founder of EA would fail?

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MMXAlamar
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Unread postby MMXAlamar » 08 Jul 2011, 20:15

@Marzhin



The other thing that sucks about LithTech is the lag, not to mention all of the bugs! We're also trying to hunt down the original .ed files for lomm maps that were made and not released with the final version of the game. There are plenty of texture files that are in lomm but not in any of the game maps.



So far we've found a few archived concept drawings by Keith Talanay, one of which he says were concepts for a place in lomm called Dusk Town (which presumably was developed and there might be a map file on someone's hard drive somewhere). Keith says the others are an unnamed lizard warrior ruins, and a Monastery of Legends. There's also a drawing titled Temple of Terror on Keith's portfolio which I think is mislabeled MM8 and was a concept for a dungeon in lomm. There's also a random picture of a treasury that I just found here: http://stareh3.heroes.net.pl/legends/treasury.jpg



Cool stuff that I love talking about! :D

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Re: Like Tears in Rain

Unread postby ThunderTitan » 08 Jul 2011, 21:55

hellegennes wrote:>>Who could imagine that a company founded by the founder of EA would fail?<<
I'm still surprised EA is around... i guess sports game profits make up for a lot...
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Re: Like Tears in Rain

Unread postby GreatEmerald » 09 Jul 2011, 08:09

ThunderTitan wrote: I'm still surprised EA is around... i guess sports game profits make up for a lot...
With their policies, I don't think they will last too long. :disagree:

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hellegennes
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Unread postby hellegennes » 10 Jul 2011, 01:13

@TT:



EA has tons of IPs under their banner. Count them:



Fifa and the rest of EA Sports

Need for Speed and Burnout

Sims, Simcity and other Maxis sim games + spore

Wing Commander

Battlefield

Command and Conquer

Harry potter

Medal of Honour

Bioware games (dragon age, mass effect)

Bullfrog IPs which are mostly defunct but EA still has the publishing rights (populous, magic carpet, dungeon keeper, syndicate, theme)



Not to mention a number of other IPs from defunct subsidiaries.

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ThunderTitan
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Unread postby ThunderTitan » 11 Jul 2011, 19:38

Ok, now name one they haven't ruined...
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hellegennes
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Unread postby hellegennes » 12 Jul 2011, 00:54

Fair point.



Though this holds true for most franchises. I am sure many MM fans would agree to that (especially MM9 was a disappointment, whether it was NWC's fault or 3DO's -doesn't matter). I am sure Alien and Terminator fans feel the same way, as do fans of every franchise lasting for more than a decade.

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Unread postby GreatEmerald » 12 Jul 2011, 06:33

Unreal Tournament 3 is awesome, and the Unreal franchise has been going since 1998. Of course, some people wouldn't agree, but then some people don't like MM6 as well.

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Re: Like Tears in Rain

Unread postby ThunderTitan » 12 Jul 2011, 13:54

hellegennes wrote:>> as do fans of every franchise lasting for more than a decade.<<
Dr. Who fans seem to be fine... and i'm sure i could find more examples... rare as they might be.
Disclaimer: May contain sarcasm!
I have never faked a sarcasm in my entire life. - ???
"With ABC deleting dynamite gags from cartoons, do you find that your children are using explosives less frequently?" — Mark LoPresti

Alt-0128: €

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