Obsidian assisting on Wheel of Time games

N'Al on 12/2/2010 at 18:33

(http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/53041/Obsidian-Entertainment-Developing-New-Wheel-Of-Time-Titles) Press release

Personally, I've never read any of the books (and only dabbled in the demo of the 1999 Wheel of Time game), but I know there's much nerdlove for the series here, so I thought this might be interesting.

Renault on 12/2/2010 at 18:38

The original Wheel of Time game was actually really good (for it's time); I'd definitely be interested in more games based on the series.

I read maybe the first 4-5 books from the series, and they were also very good. After that, the story just started to drag out and you'd read 500 pages without anything getting accomplished, so I gave up. Kind of like the X-files or Lost near the end of their run.

DDL on 12/2/2010 at 19:12

While I hate myself for it, I have actually read all of them so far.

The latest book is actually much more readable, since he's dead, and the new guy is less obsessed with hateful shrewish women who like spanking*.

It'll be interesting to see what they do with it, since the..well, (for want of a better term) "magic system" is very non-gamey (such that the last WoT game basically sidestepped it all and went for a slightly more elaborate version of unreal: you've found a balefire artifact! Allows you to fire balefire once).

Still fun though.

*yes I know, but there's a time and a place, man..

pbldcttr on 13/2/2010 at 01:16

Quote Posted by N'Al

same here. though i did end up buying the game, because i really liked what i played on the demo. and there are a lot of great levels on it. at least for when it was released, lots of awesome details from what i remember.

i am interested on this. i just wish alpha protocol was out already.

ZylonBane on 13/2/2010 at 01:33

Hopefully this Wheel of Time game won't suck.

NamelessPlayer on 13/2/2010 at 23:19

I found the 1999 title in a thrift store not too long ago.

So far, it's...okay. Very finicky on modern hardware for an UnrealEngine1 game, though-far moreso than Unreal Gold, Unreal Tournament, or Deus Ex. Perhaps part of that is because the cutscenes are based on goddamn QuickTime 4 of all things. (If it were a Mac game, I would understand, but this is a Windows version!)

I can't judge it in terms of accuracy to the source material, not having read any of the novels, but this already gives me a vibe that this is anything BUT typical high fantasy.

One thing is for sure, though-Air Pulse SUCKS for a backup weapon-er, ahem, ter'angreal. I find myself circle-strafing against just one enemy quite a while trying to hit him with it, which is more difficult than it looks...but once you get Dart and Fireball, it eases up quite a bit (so long as you don't run out of charges for either).

Chimpy Chompy on 15/2/2010 at 10:47

The original game takes the basic WoT setting but has nothing to do with the events and characters from the books, which was kind of disappointing. It has some interesting ideas but gets fiddly with alll those spells.

Also I loved the books even if they are a glacial sprawl across 10+doorstoppers that it is. I hadn't realised Sanderson had finally managed to release something so must grab a copy. Not surprised the final book ended up becoming three tho...