-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Shadowrun: Hong Kong |OT| Little Trouble in Big China
- Thread starter cj_iwakura
- Start date
terribletwo
Member
Played Street Sam in Returns and Shaman in Dragonfall
this time.... Rigger maybe
this time.... Rigger maybe
Not so much avoiding the deluxe version as just ensuring the base game is also going to be 20 dollars, and not 30 - was a bit confusing because prior to launch the only listing is the sale price for the deluxe version.
MichaelFassbender
Member
I desperately hope we get to smash up more Renraku labs. That was one of the best moments in DMS.
LurkerPrime
Member
If you preorder now you're getting the deluxe edition for the price of the standard edition. Come release, the standard edition will be the same price, without the discount, at launch, with the deluxe being more expensive.
Unless I'm really missing something, there's absolutely no benefit to waiting. Unless they do something like a launch discount on the standard edition, which there is no mention of there.
Yeah I understand that. I still need to play through Dragonfall: Directors Cut so I am debating if I should just pre-order now for the deluxe version or hold off on purchasing it until I work through my backlog some more first.
Aztechnology was my favorite run in Dragonfall, but Renraku was good too.
Alright, so this has been teased and hyped for a bit but now I can post my transcription of of my interview with Mitch Gitelman held the other day.
Mitch got started writing video games in 1993 after transferring from writing P&P RPG and training Blockbuster Video managers.
Mitch never wrote for the P& P version of Shadowrun but was a playtester for the game.
Working with Hong Kong locals to make sure the writing will be culturally accurate on the Shadowrun Hong Kong game,
Idea of working with locals stemmed from Shadowrun: Dragonfall which takes place in Berlin and this is how a major NPC became Turkish.
Nothing was discovered via this collaberation that would not have been in the game othrwise, the Hong Kong colaberation was to avoid a "Hogan's Heroes" reality.
Accuracy in the setting tied into the deep, persona and human stories they tell in their games.
The Hong Kong setting was chosen due to the survey done with the Shadowrun Returns Kickstarter with the setting of the next game, Berlin won but Hong Kong was a very close second choice for that is what the people waned.
Hong Kong isn't a well documented area in the P&P books but there are some Runnerhaven resources available right now.
Harebrain likes working within the confines of the Shadowrun rules at they feel it makes the more creative writers.
They also try to very accurate to the Shadowrun canon.
They do work together with the P&P team but not closely.
They are currently working with the P&P team on the logistics of the Battletech Kickstarter.
Working with Catalyst Game Labs vis a vis Kickstarter Rewards is working on a full on dedicated sourcebook for the 2050s Hong Kong setting and also a novel written by Mel Odom based on the setting.
Nixed Shadowrun Hong Kong tablet because of graphical fidelity concerns and a lack of market for games of that nature on those devices.
The previous Shdawrun games did okay on Tablets but were a lot of effort to create; felt that focus on PC platforms would create the best game possible.
Nothing in Hong Kong that would not be possible on Tablets save for improved graphical fidelity and the number of objects on screen.
Keeping exceptions in line with what was promised in the Kickstarter for the most part but have gone beyond the scope in certain areas.
Example given is that the animation has been upgraded and improved in spite on nobody asking for it.
Not doing any sort of crazy open world GTA style dynamics or anything wildly out of scope of what was promised.
Completely revised The Matrix game play in comparison to previous games.
"They have done a metric fuck-ton of stuff."
The look and feel of The Matrix have changed, there are new enemy types have been added and not just combat anymore.
Stealth component added, not too much details elaborated on to avoid spoilers.
Kevin Maloney was in charge of The Matrix revamp and worked his ass off doing it.
Best character to write for, tough question to answer since there are so many, but one stood out,
Lead Writer Andrew Macintosh came up with the crew and the trust dialog as seen in the other games.
Character creation is completely open and karma can be put towards any skill, archetypes can be used or from scratch are available.
New skill tree added for Shadowrun Hong Kong
One other tweak made to character creation not divulged as they want you to experience that without being informed beforehand.
Over 20 hour campaign if you do everything in Shadowrun Hong Kong, 15 hours main campaign.
Things done differently on the Hong Kong Kickstarter, they planned more as they had gained much experience from the last two Kickstarters.
As a contrast they were making it up as they went along on the Returns Kickstarter do to the nascent nature of the platform at that time.
Hurt themselves by overpromising on Returns Kickstarter and then trying to reach all of the promises, very grueling work but delivered in the end.
"Improvisation on a Kickstarter will land you into hot water."
Much more discipline and rigidity on the Hong Kong Kickstarter, pre-production was used, goals outlined with clarity.
Did a lot more research on the Kickstarter market of 2014 and were expecting much less then the got in the end due to various factors and they hope they have proved to be trustworthy.
Music of Shadowrun Hong Kong is being done by Jon Everist once again.
The Hong Kong locals said that Jon has done an excellent job capturing the mood of the city in the future with his music.
OST already available via the Deluxe version.
Music in Hong Kong is more dynamic and of a higher fidelity then in previous games as combat ebbs and flows so does the music; little musical stings to let you know the combat is over.
Finally Digital Deluxe Version available for pre-order for 19.99 USD, which is the price of the regular version, after launch DDV will increase to 29.99 USD.
There, that should be just about everything Shadowrun: Hong Kong related, hope you all find this information useful.
Mitch got started writing video games in 1993 after transferring from writing P&P RPG and training Blockbuster Video managers.
Mitch never wrote for the P& P version of Shadowrun but was a playtester for the game.
Working with Hong Kong locals to make sure the writing will be culturally accurate on the Shadowrun Hong Kong game,
Idea of working with locals stemmed from Shadowrun: Dragonfall which takes place in Berlin and this is how a major NPC became Turkish.
Nothing was discovered via this collaberation that would not have been in the game othrwise, the Hong Kong colaberation was to avoid a "Hogan's Heroes" reality.
Accuracy in the setting tied into the deep, persona and human stories they tell in their games.
The Hong Kong setting was chosen due to the survey done with the Shadowrun Returns Kickstarter with the setting of the next game, Berlin won but Hong Kong was a very close second choice for that is what the people waned.
Hong Kong isn't a well documented area in the P&P books but there are some Runnerhaven resources available right now.
Harebrain likes working within the confines of the Shadowrun rules at they feel it makes the more creative writers.
They also try to very accurate to the Shadowrun canon.
They do work together with the P&P team but not closely.
They are currently working with the P&P team on the logistics of the Battletech Kickstarter.
Working with Catalyst Game Labs vis a vis Kickstarter Rewards is working on a full on dedicated sourcebook for the 2050s Hong Kong setting and also a novel written by Mel Odom based on the setting.
Nixed Shadowrun Hong Kong tablet because of graphical fidelity concerns and a lack of market for games of that nature on those devices.
The previous Shdawrun games did okay on Tablets but were a lot of effort to create; felt that focus on PC platforms would create the best game possible.
Nothing in Hong Kong that would not be possible on Tablets save for improved graphical fidelity and the number of objects on screen.
Keeping exceptions in line with what was promised in the Kickstarter for the most part but have gone beyond the scope in certain areas.
Example given is that the animation has been upgraded and improved in spite on nobody asking for it.
Not doing any sort of crazy open world GTA style dynamics or anything wildly out of scope of what was promised.
Completely revised The Matrix game play in comparison to previous games.
"They have done a metric fuck-ton of stuff."
The look and feel of The Matrix have changed, there are new enemy types have been added and not just combat anymore.
Stealth component added, not too much details elaborated on to avoid spoilers.
New type of ICE added, Blocker ICE, which has resulted in puzzle elements in order to bypass.
Best character to write for, tough question to answer since there are so many, but one stood out,
Kindly Chang.
Not too much detail given to evade spoilers but apparently you will at one point need her help and she is "profane" and a "piece of work."
Not too much detail given to evade spoilers but apparently you will at one point need her help and she is "profane" and a "piece of work."
Orc-Rat Shaman Gobbit is only 19 but has been a Shadowrunner for years.
Gobbit has a dwarven best friend from Somalia named Isoble whom is also a Decker, they go on runs together.
Russian Rigger Racter has a custom built walker drone named Koschei which you get to control.
Red Samurai Gaichu is a former elite security specialist who contracted a virus and became a ghoul, instead of committing seppuku, he ran off and embraced his nature, every turn you can use your sword or eat that person.
Gobbit has a dwarven best friend from Somalia named Isoble whom is also a Decker, they go on runs together.
Russian Rigger Racter has a custom built walker drone named Koschei which you get to control.
Red Samurai Gaichu is a former elite security specialist who contracted a virus and became a ghoul, instead of committing seppuku, he ran off and embraced his nature, every turn you can use your sword or eat that person.
New skill tree added for Shadowrun Hong Kong
called Cyper Weapons/Cyber Affinity.
Place karma points within the skill tree you gain skills with internal cyberweapons such as retractable claws, bone spurs, mono-filament weapons and more.
Place karma points within the skill tree you gain skills with internal cyberweapons such as retractable claws, bone spurs, mono-filament weapons and more.
Over 20 hour campaign if you do everything in Shadowrun Hong Kong, 15 hours main campaign.
Things done differently on the Hong Kong Kickstarter, they planned more as they had gained much experience from the last two Kickstarters.
As a contrast they were making it up as they went along on the Returns Kickstarter do to the nascent nature of the platform at that time.
Hurt themselves by overpromising on Returns Kickstarter and then trying to reach all of the promises, very grueling work but delivered in the end.
"Improvisation on a Kickstarter will land you into hot water."
Much more discipline and rigidity on the Hong Kong Kickstarter, pre-production was used, goals outlined with clarity.
Did a lot more research on the Kickstarter market of 2014 and were expecting much less then the got in the end due to various factors and they hope they have proved to be trustworthy.
Music of Shadowrun Hong Kong is being done by Jon Everist once again.
The Hong Kong locals said that Jon has done an excellent job capturing the mood of the city in the future with his music.
OST already available via the Deluxe version.
Music in Hong Kong is more dynamic and of a higher fidelity then in previous games as combat ebbs and flows so does the music; little musical stings to let you know the combat is over.
Finally Digital Deluxe Version available for pre-order for 19.99 USD, which is the price of the regular version, after launch DDV will increase to 29.99 USD.
There, that should be just about everything Shadowrun: Hong Kong related, hope you all find this information useful.
Thanks for sharing, Shard! I love long interviews that goes into the past of the person you're interviewing.
When you do the Battletech interview with Mitch (I assume?), I'd love to hear more stories on when he did Mechcommander 1 & 2, and Mechwarrior 4, and his reflections on those productions.
When you do the Battletech interview with Mitch (I assume?), I'd love to hear more stories on when he did Mechcommander 1 & 2, and Mechwarrior 4, and his reflections on those productions.
Actually we are slated to do Battletech with Jordan Wiseman currently though we did talk about the Battletech Kickstarter in the interview and our other guest Andrew Dice asked about The Unseen. I didn't transcribe that here as that goes beyond the scope of this thread. Still glad you liked the interview.
Muskieratboi
Member
Dunkelzahn Approves.
Bought.
Bought.
Elf/human decker/face opens up most options I find
shaman/face is good too
Ingueferroque
Banned
Can someone summarize what makes this different from the other two Shadowrun games in this series, functionality and feature wise?
Or is it just a new scenario with new graphics and characters?
Or is it just a new scenario with new graphics and characters?
grandwizard
Member
Karak
Member
I could be wrong totally wrong. But I don't think that's an actual review. The PR people contacted many of us and held the copies back due to polishing the final code. Maybe they looked at preview code but that doesn't cover almost anything you would expect in a review. In fact its just sort of...an overview. I am not really familiar with their stuff so maybe that's how they do a review there. The only reason I bring it up is because the 10 other people I know were getting review code none did. RPS is huge though so maybe they got an exception but the way that is written really doesn't detail much if anything.
EDIT: Found another R/preview FYI this is based on an unfinished playthrough and unfinished code http://www.idigitaltimes.com/shadow...t-cyberpunk-franchise-gets-even-better-468224
I don't know anything about their review code but Wot I Thinks are definitely full reviews at RPS.
Karak
Member
Wow then that is just horrid as a review. The one I posted was far more indepth. I just linked it in my post.
EDIT: Looks like the other review states that people started getting preview code in some kind of window of access which matches up with the contact I had today from the studio. I hate reviews of games the person hasn't damn finished.
Just a personal pet peeve I know some people don't mind reviews based on preview code or unfinished playthroughs.
From the idigitaltimes review
That doesn't sound too overwhelming, but then again, it reads like he was merely on 'good' terms with Dragonfall too. And the
Ghoul Samurai
Karak
Member
Much better information in this one. Thanks!
MichaelFassbender
Member
The game is currently rising past Darkest Dungeon on Steam's top sellers, even with the slightly larger pricepoint. Let's see how far up it'll go by tomorrow.
Do we know how well the sales (non-Backer) of Returns and Dragonfall have been?
I recently picked up Dragonfall again, after not playing for a few month.
While I really like the game, I'm having problems remembering the specifics about some of the quests I picked up earlier and already fucked up pretty badly
.
ATM I'm at the mission where
A questlog would be nice, but I guess this is a game that you should play from beginning to end and not let sit for half a year.
How far am I from finishing the game?
I'm not doing many side missions aside from one or two here or there and I can't really say how much I have played so far, since I played most of it on the train in offline mode, so the timer doesn't work and I don't remember how much I played earlier this year.
I'd love to finish it for the release of HK this weekend, but I only have about 4-6 hours left where I can play.
While I really like the game, I'm having problems remembering the specifics about some of the quests I picked up earlier and already fucked up pretty badly
not taking Dietrich on his mission because I forgot it was his
ATM I'm at the mission where
I'm getting the 50k for Alises information and I'm about to level a building to get about 36k.
How far am I from finishing the game?
I'm not doing many side missions aside from one or two here or there and I can't really say how much I have played so far, since I played most of it on the train in offline mode, so the timer doesn't work and I don't remember how much I played earlier this year.
I'd love to finish it for the release of HK this weekend, but I only have about 4-6 hours left where I can play.
On steamspy, the games break down to 800k for Returns and 400k for Dragonfall roughly. Don't really know if they were part of a humble bundle and how many were sold at full price though.
Also, no idea about the tablet versions.
That's pretty good, considering that there were "only" 36,276 backers when the KS ended.
I'm disappointed that the much superior Dragonfall only has half of Return's sales, but I think that's because of unfortunate marketing and branding.
they had 2 promotional sales we're dragonfall was $5.00-7.50 and returns was ~$2 after the hong kong kickstarted ended
The fact returns has gone so cheap many many many times is probably why it has sold more
It also was an non-standalone expansion first and Returns wasn't received too well everywhere, so I guess that it was an uphill battle with Dragonfall.
My guess is that HK will sell better than DF, if the reviews hold up.
While I don't have insight in the managing of the Kickstarter, most of the sales are most likely profits and not much has to go towards returning their investments. So HBS should be fine, even with a little less sales too.
Phat Michael
Banned
i never understood these. These are those symbols on the ground yes? Do you just stand on them and attack people and different things happen?
Intheflorsh
Banned
The game unlocks at 10 am PDT.
cj_iwakura
Member
^Yes. Well, in that they're great games, not that they have tied-in plots.
Nice interview, Shard. Think I'm going on media blackout for this one, since they've gone to such great pains to keep the plot under wraps, but I'll add the reviews in.
Nice interview, Shard. Think I'm going on media blackout for this one, since they've gone to such great pains to keep the plot under wraps, but I'll add the reviews in.
It's not required to play the previous games, but if you want to play them, then Dragonfall. It's worth of a playthrough regardless.
TheMrPliskin
Member
The waiting is killing me, I just want to play more Shadowrun.
They're for mages. When a mage stands on a power circle the spells cast by the mage gets a power boost. The larger circles on the leylines have stronger effects. In Hong Kong there are apparently different types now, with different bonus properties other than just boosting the power of any spell.
Sanctuary
Member
They weren't always worth using though. Most of the time they were out in the open, completely devoid of any kind of cover.
On a side note: this sucks. I just finished Dragonfall as a Mage, and now it looks like they've been improved? I usually always play a caster type first, but man...
I went through Dragonfall as a mage first and will probably do the same in this mainly because there are no mage companions. Next play through when I know which companions I'll want to take with me then I'll choose decker or shaman.
The more you know... That makes my choice a little easier! I was going to jump in as a decker, but I'll leave that for another day.
toastyToast
Member
Man, I don't know what class I wanna play as. I played DF as both a street samurai and as a decker. I think I enjoyed the street samurai more but with the matrix upgrade I'm thinking Decker again.