Dragon games

[Spirit]

Here's another one for you, although I've not tried it.

Journeys of the Dragon Rider - http://www.mistkeep.com/

There was also an old Dos game (3d vector graphics oh yeah) that had dragon combat, but I cannot locate it at the moment. It was on an abandonware site I cannot locate atm.

Drakan was awesome, both on pc and ps2. Oh and no one has mentioned Lair on the PS3. That's pretty good, although the framerate gets a bit poor at times.

Rakku

[Shen Long]

The monster hunter series is just so much win. It is the best-selling psp game of all time and it is preciselt what got me into dragons even if the point is to brutally murder them with huge swords. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6O7Eg2spJ1w The thing with this game is that the dragon designs are so unique and the dragons tend to interact with their environment(prey runs upon sight of dragons, dragons eat carrion in some levels, they sleep, they bathe in rivers). There is a new one on wii that came out recently in Japan and is coming here.

Also, another good series is Spyro(only the first and last 3 games are good though). I grew up with Spyro and Crash Bandicoot and i still play them today on my psp and wii. I can't wait til the Spyro movie comes out

Also, dragon age: origins has some dragons. In that game, only adult female dragons can fly and they are about as smart as a dolphin. Their are even dragon cults in that game apparently, but I doubt the dragons have much to do with storyline. But also, their are humans that can resurect as dragons apparently and they are probably the antagonists. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb3uj...om=PL&index=46

[Takora Drakan]

Drakan was awesome, both on pc and ps2. Oh and no one has mentioned Lair on the PS3. That's pretty good, although the framerate gets a bit poor at times.

Rakku

I did mention Lair :P

[Spirit]

I did mention Lair :P

You did indeed! Infact there are loads more replies than I saw yesterday. My internet connection was going seriously screwy...

Oh and I also think the Spyro game on PS3 is really good, albeit with some stupid design flaws.

Rakku

[Vahrokh]

At least its controls actually -worked-. I tried the PC Drakan quite a number of times, but try as I might, I could never get a working control set without having to redo the controls between the girl and the dragon multiple times before giving up in frustration. I'd get a working keybind set for the girl, then hop on the dragon, and... blah. Now I have to redo everything to get it to work

Drakan was made for a joystick. I had one that had also "airleons" axis off flight sims and I could completely turn however I wanted and even turn while sliding with the rear.
No other game so far could achieve that.

About the I of the Dragon:
I doubt anyone tried this: try playing it in 3D. It's so freaking AWESOME it looks better in 3D than in 2D and the feeling of immersion is sick.

[CallakDW]

Here is somthing in developement you might want to look at:
http://www.foundationsofhope.com/mainindex.php

I also played one for the console that I can't quite remember the name of some time ago. It was pretty cool because you pretty much flew around toasting armies and villiages and such with various ability upgrades, it wasn't Drakan I think, as I believe Drakan had a rider, you were actually the dragon.

/edit NM, I think that was I of the dragon.

[Spirit]

Here is somthing in developement you might want to look at:
http://www.foundationsofhope.com/mainindex.php

I also played one for the console that I can't quite remember the name of some time ago. It was pretty cool because you pretty much flew around toasting armies and villiages and such with various ability upgrades, it wasn't Drakan I think, as I believe Drakan had a rider, you were actually the dragon.

/edit NM, I think that was I of the dragon.

I think Foundations of Hope is infact Minions of Mirth ... perhaps a rehash with a new version of the Torque game engine. Looks promising anyway. I've registered on the site, but can't download anything yet.

I've just pre-ordered Divinity 2. Don't know where I'm gonna find the time to play all these games... :| Shame we can't make more hours like the uk treasury is printing more money (a la Zimbabwe).

Oh and Drakan was easy to play on keyboard/mouse (original on pc). I don't recall any oddness switching between Rynn and Arokh. Aerial combat was basically straffing while constantly firing at your target and Never stop. It was somewhat harder on the ps2, but still the same basic method...

Rakku

[CallakDW]

This was also a game in developement that involved player dragons, the original ideas were quite promising, game mechanics was designed to force dragons into being hunted loners that are very weak in the beginning, but can become a real terror if they survived. And if you die too much eventually your charactor could actually become terminated, so if your dragon survived to adulthood, they were supposed to be real terrors to the bipeds.

Unfortunately as I look now, aparently they ran out of funding for developement, which is sad, because the idea sounded very interesting.

http://www.trialsofascension.net/

[Takora Drakan]

Loool ToA xD Did you saw a render of their dragons?

They look like mutated Giraffes, the shot of that is floating somewhere around here in the istaria forum.

Edit: Oh there it is: http://trialsofascension.net/graphics/metallic.jpg

That looks like something I don't want to meet even in my nightmares.

[Dhalin]

Loool ToA xD Did you saw a render of their dragons?

They look like mutated Giraffes, the shot of that is floating somewhere around here in the istaria forum.

Edit: Oh there it is: http://trialsofascension.net/graphics/metallic.jpg

That looks like something I don't want to meet even in my nightmares.

Eeew.

They need to get better artists/renderers/etc.

That is just... horrid.

[Hrough]

Okay, so Divinity II is out on PC in Europe. The tables have turned with us NA users having to wait - or not! Getting an import PC copy in. I'll have to get the 360 version when it comes out here, but I'm wanting to see how good this is (plus I have two Dragon-Slayer-turned-dragon characters and the fact that this game has character creation and will let me make them? Yeah, that's what sold me).

[Takora Drakan]

Do you have to kill dragons in that game? I dont like games where I have to do that D:

[Hrough]

There does appear to be some dragon killing, but right now it looks like evil-mutated dragons pieced together by the bad guy.

My only real complaint about the game is that it's really flippin' hard. Finally got to the point where I get to see my dragon form for the first time and it had to deal with air-fighting 'bad' dragons. It does seem like although you start the game as a dragon slayer, the story is already going in the direction of dragons and humans having a common enemy.

Sadly I can't yet change into a dragon at any time (looking forward to that) , and everything is killing me too easily. Suddenly everything is level 8 or higher and in large mobs. I don't stand a chance.

[Spirit]

There does appear to be some dragon killing, but right now it looks like evil-mutated dragons pieced together by the bad guy.

My only real complaint about the game is that it's really flippin' hard. Finally got to the point where I get to see my dragon form for the first time and it had to deal with air-fighting 'bad' dragons. It does seem like although you start the game as a dragon slayer, the story is already going in the direction of dragons and humans having a common enemy.

Sadly I can't yet change into a dragon at any time (looking forward to that) , and everything is killing me too easily. Suddenly everything is level 8 or higher and in large mobs. I don't stand a chance.

Not out in the Uk until the 20th November.

Where did you order it from overseas?

Rakku

[Hrough]

Hrm, maybe it wasn't the European version then.
Actually, I was a bad girl and pirated it in the end (the only site I found to buy it on was actually for the german version, whoops!) because I plan on purchasing the North American release when it comes out next year (though I might get the console version, the PC version is annoyingly buggy in places.) There is a version in english floating around out there, and I assumed it must have been the UK release due to the british voices. There was a release in August and September for other regions, perhaps it's one of those.

In the meantime, I think I may actually hold off until the NA release and hope some things like pacing are fixed between now and then, though it'll probably only receive a change of voiceovers and that's it. I've had the game hang on loading twice in the beginning, and I've had it crash a couple of times in the few hours I played. It's kind of annoying.

[Spirit]

(though I might get the console version, the PC version is annoyingly buggy in places.)

Why doesn't that surprise me lol? It's almost like they're trying to screw up pc versions so they can push the 360 more. I.e. PC version of Gears of War I coming out *after* Gears of War II is out on 360. They did the same trick with Halo on the original Xbox, except that other than the first few levels Halo degenerated into a repetitive corridor fighting game that I *forced* myself to finish to see the vaguely interesting end.

Anyway back to topic... I'll leave my pre-order going for the sake of a fortnight. Got Risen to do yet. That's good btw, although No dragons.

I Miss Trials of Ascension. Ok the concept art for the dragons and gryphons looked odd, and giraffe like for the former ... but the whole idea was fantastic. In the end I think that was its downfall... too much for the current tech, and the end result would almost certainly fall short of expectation. Of course we could have been surprised with some Crysis-esque super-graphical oddity with gameplay to match it... but who am I kidding? Aion talking about true flight lol... it's the kind of flying I would end up coding. But hey you can glide at least, although that acts seriously weird at times. An improvement on Istaria I hate to say, but then perhaps Vitrium could be persuaded to tweak the code a little... puuuuuurleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease? *puppy eyes* (re: puppy with big Dragon eyes getting ready with his fire...)

Rakku

[Hrough]

Hehehe.

Okay, I figured out the problem I'm having with this game, difficulty wise: The game WANTS you to do the sidequests. You can't just decide to go through on the main quest like you can in games like Fable, and that's what's throwing me off. I actually have to go find the sidequests and do them to get the exp boosts, and sometimes even monster grind a little bit.

This isn't really a bad thing, but it is rather aggravating when I just want to get about halfway through the main quest before I romp around town doing absolutely nothing just for my own amusement.

It definitely looks like the console version will be the better buy, unless someone makes a mod pack for the character creation. There are very few options if you want to create a male character (Blonde and brown hair, versus females getting blonde, red, black and brown. females also get more face options.).

I'm also having this graphical issue where hair and things like the brims of hats are translucent even at a distance, instead of just close up. I can't tell if this is a design choice or just a glitch, but I don't like it.

ToA does look like it had an interesting concept, but maaan they needed better concept art. Though remember that Istaria was supposed to be quite a bit more complex than it is today - funding and technology limits really do slow down games with lots of potential. It's sad to see dreams swept under the rug because they're not practical.

[Spirit]

It's sad to see dreams swept under the rug because they're not practical.

Urgh the story of making money rather than making great games. Too rare do you get a true game that does both, then you end up with ten thousand clones. Istaria, back in 2003, really did make me sit up and go WTF ... and it was enough to make me try my first mmorpg. I mean how could I resist.

I've been playing Ego Draconis for most of last night... *urgh yawn*... on a friends pc. I'm still in the early stages around the first town where you go to the chapel and kill stuff, batter loads of goblins, etc. I think I'm about to go to the actual tower and investigate after having battled, then spoken with, the Dragon Slayer ghost in the chapel ... although not sure on that. I wondered aimlessly then the mouse batteries went flat ha ha ha... D'oH!

The premise of the game seems great, but I hope fighting/flying in the air is better than moving the stupid goon around on the ground. The clipping of your character on the environment is nothing short of criminal. Just getting past chickens can be a challenge if they're standing around in a group since they, presumably, are all made of lead and stop you in your stride. Same for some stairs, bricks, pieces of wood, rocks, badgers, slightly inclined slopes, dragonflies that have been working out, etc . The general awareness and common sense of the game with regards to collisions is bl00dy horrendous. The game does look rather pretty generally, and the dialogue cutscenes seem to look nicer than the actual game (depth of field for example). The way the mouths move on characters is rarely good on any game, but here it looks silly. Of particular complaint are the far-too-frequent emotes that the characters do while talking. Do they have compulsive twitch disorder or something?? I was anywhere between giggling and swearing as your lady boss was waving her arms about for a seemingly benine piece of conversation.

Risen, and a multitude of other recent games, handles all of this better. Just seems more believable. I'm having a hard time caring about the story and, like you, been lead down the side quests when I really don't care. I just want to burn all the npc's.

As I said before, the game looks nice but things don't move smoothly or cleverly. It's all jerk jerk jerk, including the balloon ship in the *cutscenes*! It looks like the cutscenes are generated with the game engine, on the highest settings presumably for the benefit of lower spec pc's, then turned into wmv's (literally). h264 anyone? Looks nicer.

I appreciate that game engines sometimes have to make sacrifices when going for scale, rather than detail, but I thought that was something now left in the past with some of the awesome engines out there? I wavered over the "Cancel" button on my pre-order just now on play.com, but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt until a few patches are released. Also, if the dragon combat/flying rocks with an great visual field of view, that could make things better - especially once the main story kicks in.

As you may or may not know, I really want to enjoy any game that has any unusual playable race ... especially dragons. I really want to enjoy this game, as I have enjoyed Istaria for many a year, but Ego Draconis is pushing me to hate it in that critical customer grabbing first experience.

Rushed to market. Am I unfair if I say that about Ego Draconis?

Rakku

[Dhalin]

It also doesn't help that many game makers feel the need to do their best to jack graphics, voice acting, and sound up to "TEH MAXX" and eat up huge loads of CD/DVD space to do so. Not to mention, for PC games, it requires you to have a _huge_ PC just to play the game.

I'm not saying Istaria does this, but I'm talking about newer MMORPGs, dragon or no... I hate it when they release an offline RPG that can be completed in <20 hours. Oi. I miss the days when games took 40-45 hours plus on first play-through. Remember that FF12 game everyone talked about? 25 hours flat, last storyline boss dead. Optional bosses nothing but a ridiculous grind with little storyline/events and nothing but some stupid overpowered sword. Once you actually get the dumb thing, nothing else in the game stands a chance against you, so it is useless anyways.

[Spirit]

It also doesn't help that many game makers feel the need to do their best to jack graphics, voice acting, and sound up to "TEH MAXX" and eat up huge loads of CD/DVD space to do so. Not to mention, for PC games, it requires you to have a _huge_ PC just to play the game.

I'm not saying Istaria does this, but I'm talking about newer MMORPGs, dragon or no... I hate it when they release an offline RPG that can be completed in <20 hours. Oi. I miss the days when games took 40-45 hours plus on first play-through. Remember that FF12 game everyone talked about? 25 hours flat, last storyline boss dead. Optional bosses nothing but a ridiculous grind with little storyline/events and nothing but some stupid overpowered sword. Once you actually get the dumb thing, nothing else in the game stands a chance against you, so it is useless anyways.

I know what you mean. I bought an off the shelf dell box pc and while its run every game I've thrown at it (not literally ), I can't crank up options anymore unless I want a slideshow. The monitor has a high res, and if you don't use it things look nasty, so I've hit this problem quicker than I would have with an old crt. I just kept dropping the res on that, as they all looked ok.

Back to topic!! Aion has some slick coding and runs well. Divine Divinity ... I've seen the first bit with flying the dragon now (starts with moody black and white ). If you remember Drakan then it basically works the same, although you can't roll the dragon like in Drakan. I've not seen any serious combat yet, since I have to fight through a valley of death to recover a soul crystal (drakan again hmm hmm?). I have no idea how I'm gonna do that as there are a Huge number of enemies all grouped. I might even consider putting the game on Easy!! I normally just go with... err.. Normal.

It's not a game, but reading a kids dragon novel called Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke. It's a fun read and worth a look.

Ears to the ground and eyes to the sky (both at once can be challenging ) ... not heard of any other new dragon games yet.

Rakku