Whats wrong with topdown views these days :(

tuftyfella · 10 Jun 2008 at 10:48

i find i cant really play first person RPG's, i much prefer them in the isometric form /third person depending on the game (The Witcher for example). so im not sure what im going to make of fallout 3, it's going to be a love it or hate it thing i think

.

i keep saying it but, remakes of older RPGs like Baldur's Gate series or Diablo 2 in Titan Quests graphics engine would be awesome.

^^^ good call on MC2 btw, i played all 3 a few weeks ago. most enjoyable.

Oxide™ · 10 Jun 2008 at 12:01

I used to really enjoy/prefer the city builder games like Pharoahs, Caesar3, Zues and Rise of the middle kingdom in isometric views but the new 3D versions of city builder games are just not the same ie Children of the nile and caesar4

Uriel · 10 Jun 2008 at 13:21

I have Chaos Engine on my phone. I remember seeing previews of Syndicate on the Amiga CD32 saying they were going for a 3D engine and that you could move the isometric camera round corners. That would have been awesome. Never got released though. I think they must have realised that the machine.

The 3d overhead with zooming etc has been done a few times. The original GTA anyone?

pugheaven · 10 Jun 2008 at 13:32

randal24 said:
All this talk of top down games has given me a hankering to play Chaos Engine again...

WHAT A ******* GAME THAT WAS! COME ON, EVEN NAMED MY PC'S EVER SINCE AFTER IT, ONE OF THE ALL TIME GREATS

EddScott · 10 Jun 2008 at 13:58

krooton said:
I've been replaying Mechcommander 2, and the first thing I do is zoom out to top-down view at the start of each mission

Theres a cracking game. There used to be some additional maps and missions knocking about. Loved pinching the puters mechs in mission.

Got Alien Breed in work when no one is looking. Everyone talks about Chaos Engine and I did have it for the Amiga but I didn't get into it that much.

Surfer · 10 Jun 2008 at 14:13

tuftyfella said:
i find i cant really play first person RPG's, i much prefer them in the isometric form /third person depending on the game (The Witcher for example). so im not sure what im going to make of fallout 3, it's going to be a love it or hate it thing i think .

i keep saying it but, remakes of older RPGs like Baldur's Gate series or Diablo 2 in Titan Quests graphics engine would be awesome.

^^^ good call on MC2 btw, i played all 3 a few weeks ago. most enjoyable.

agreed...whilst i can play 1st person games...for rpgs i prefer isometric/panned out views.

Dont think there is any new party-based 'isometric' rpgs coming to the pc anymore..(apart from maybe indie) which is a great shame....

taz488 · 10 Jun 2008 at 17:17

theo said:
Don't play supreme commander then, it will make playing any other rts more painful than it already is. The strategic zoom was long over due for the genre.

good call

if i go on any other rts i find myself wanting to zoom out to see the battlefield, why dont more games do this? it cant be that hard

lewism · 10 Jun 2008 at 17:20

i miss the old gta topdown look.

manveruppd · 10 Jun 2008 at 19:03

Surfer said:
agreed...whilst i can play 1st person games...for rpgs i prefer isometric/panned out views.

Dont think there is any new party-based 'isometric' rpgs coming to the pc anymore..(apart from maybe indie) which is a great shame....

You'll like this: Bioware have said that although Dragon Age will be normal 3D-thirdperson view for exploration, in battles it'll switch to top-down view (still 3D rather than isometric, but it'll look like their Infinity Engine games)!

manveruppd · 10 Jun 2008 at 19:39

double post

Surfer · 11 Jun 2008 at 10:05

manveruppd said:
You'll like this: Bioware have said that although Dragon Age will be normal 3D-thirdperson view for exploration, in battles it'll switch to top-down view (still 3D rather than isometric, but it'll look like their Infinity Engine games)!

Sounds great - hope it wont require a beast of a machine to run it.
Though to be honest i've never thought that the infinity engine was the best to use for rpgs. Prefer battles to be turn-based. i'd Love it if they re-did ALL the SSI/US Gold gold box rpgs to today's standards.

manveruppd · 11 Jun 2008 at 10:17

I'm sure you could make the Infinity Engine games fully turn-based by switching on autopause on round end, on target dead and on spell cast.

saguy · 11 Jun 2008 at 11:42

I played Shadowgrounds Survivor a month ago when it was on special at Steam. I totally ignored it when it first came out as it was not the type of game that usually go for. Anyway I ended up enjoying it allot more than many first person shooters, Crysis included. My only complaint is that it is way too short.

I also would love to see the return of high res top down RPG games in the mould of Fallout and Baldur’s Gate using a combination of 3d rendering, special effects and good old fashioned artistic hand painted scenery. There is a creative and artistic depth to the worlds created in these games that has not been achieved with 3d. The closest we have to this level of art is The Witcher.

Surfer · 11 Jun 2008 at 11:43

yep but its quasi- turn based...not Real turn based. Basically like playing an action-rpg in a turn-based style. For a better explanation just head over to the RPGCodex ask what they think of the infinity engine.

queamin · 11 Jun 2008 at 12:59

loved cannon fodder as well as chaos engine there was a ps1 game i enjoyed as well but cannot remember the name reminded me of gauntlet

Nullvoid · 11 Jun 2008 at 15:25

I still find the graphics in BG2 (and the other games of its ilk) to be quite breathtaking so I don't really get the obsession with 3D environments and 1st-person viewpoints.

manveruppd · 11 Jun 2008 at 23:05

Surfer said:
yep but its quasi- turn based...not Real turn based. Basically like playing an action-rpg in a turn-based style. For a better explanation just head over to the RPGCodex ask what they think of the infinity engine.

Err... no!

I've been on specialist CRPG forums before and was so scared I ran away screaming! I seriously thought *I* was a bit of an RPG-nut before I saw how some of those people were acting, so I'm not asking them diddly-squat!

The fact is, there's functionally very little difference between BG2 and a proper turn-based game.

Syphon · 11 Jun 2008 at 23:16

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pm-X8zmxpns :cool:

Surfer · 11 Jun 2008 at 23:39

manveruppd said:
Err... no! I've been on specialist CRPG forums before and was so scared I ran away screaming! I seriously thought *I* was a bit of an RPG-nut before I saw how some of those people were acting, so I'm not asking them diddly-squat! The fact is, there's functionally very little difference between BG2 and a proper turn-based game.

i consider myself to be a bit of an rpg connoisseur...

have played quite a few turn-based RPGS in my time and i think...i can authoritatively. assure you that yes it isnt Really Real TM turn based rpg.

Feels tacked on like an addition to please turn-based hardcore adherents but Black isle wanted to appeal to a broader spectrum of gamers (tb rpgs being a niche market) so game is basically real time. e.g. you could set it so the game would STOP everytime X event happened (or u could press space bar) and that for me totally interrupts the immersion you get from a non-turn based (ie real time) rpg.

You see they should have separated the two. e.g. gold box games (and games like Realms of Arkania series) they have exploring as real time (ish) but battles are completely turn-based. Instead with BG we get this mish-mash.
(strangely enuff i didnt mind the combat so much in Arcanum...perhaps because you didnt have a loading screen every time you moved off the screen *cough* bg *cough*

)

Its something you feel...dont think.