The Ryse: Son of Rome (Xbox One) Thread - £5 download code

Trelliz wrote:What are the odds all the Romans will be white

Trelliz wrote:What are the odds all the Romans will be white

Drunken_Master wrote:

Trelliz wrote:What are the odds all the Romans will be white

Of course they're white. The Moors did all their strawberry floating much later.

1cmanny1 wrote:

Trelliz wrote:What are the odds all the Romans will be white

You didn't think they were white? What PC BS is this?

I don't even think they had many black slaves, the favorite choice was a angelic Saxon children. Plus there wasn't many black civilizations they conquered I don't think.

Alvin Flummux wrote:

There was a lot of movement of people within the borders of the Roman Empire. There were plenty of white people, of course, but you also had people from the near and middle east, from North Africa and Germany and Gaul and elsewhere, all moving through the empire; some as traders, some as refugees, many as slaves etc. The Roman military inevitably took some of these people into its ranks as well. They may not have been nearly so common as sight in the Roman armies and navies in Nero's day as they would become in later centuries, but they were there.

Trelliz wrote:

1cmanny1 wrote:

Trelliz wrote:What are the odds all the Romans will be white

You didn't think they were white? What PC BS is this?

I don't even think they had many black slaves, the favorite choice was a angelic Saxon children. Plus there wasn't many black civilizations they conquered I don't think.

Manny in "being totally wrong" shocker.

Alvin Flummux wrote:

There was a lot of movement of people within the borders of the Roman Empire. There were plenty of white people, of course, but you also had people from the near and middle east, from North Africa and Germany and Gaul and elsewhere, all moving through the empire; some as traders, some as refugees, many as slaves etc. The Roman military inevitably took some of these people into its ranks as well. They may not have been nearly so common as sight in the Roman armies and navies in Nero's day as they would become in later centuries, but they were there.

Basically this - Rome was tiny, so out of necessity they enlisted anyone who could throw a spear or swing a sword - in addition to not forcing conquered people to give up their language etc, so Rome was the most multicultural society of the ancient world, but Ryse looks to be ignoring actual history and going with the ol' "make 'em all white" plan.

I'm not getting an Xbone anyway, just wanted to make the point.

Ryse: Son of Rome's E3 show didn't do a terribly good job of conveying the game's subtleties, Crytek producer Michael Read has admitted. The build shown at the expo was very much work in progress, he told Siliconera in an interview - you can expect more elaborate, tactical brawling with less signposting once Ryse hits shelves.

We probed Microsoft Studios' James Goddard on the subject ourselves following Ryse's demo at the Xbox press event, and we're reassured to hear that it's a lot more complex than it looks. According to Read, many of the key combat mechanics are still being finalised, which is why Crytek brought an incomplete, purposefully dumbed-down version to the show.

For starters, you can hold buttons to charge up heavier versions of the standard attack and shield bash, and combine these to create knockback moves such as a shield bash followed by a kick. There won't be any button prompts when performing executions in the final build - you'll need to watch out for less obvious visual and audio cues in order to nail the timing. It's impossible to fail an execution, but the better you time it, the more in-game boosts you'll unlock. Read shed light on an intriguing system that allows you to specify execution benefits via the D-pad before launching into the fray. If you're hurting, you might plump for health boosts, whereas if you're anxious to unlock new executions, you could prioritise XP. Button inputs will apparently correspond to limbs when performing executions - X is your right arm, for instance.

"What you're going to see in the final game, you're going to see various levels of difficulty from easy mode I think up to nightmare," Read explained. "I don't know if they have decided on that. But, what's going to change in there is the amount of the damage that enemies [are] going to do to you and how accurate that [you'll need to be] at blocking.

It'll take more than a few blows to trigger an execution state, depending on the foe. "Some of the higher archetype guys, I mean they are going to take a lot of hits. We are going to throw some stupid guys in there, where it's probably going to take two hits, especially early on in the game to get you used to the control system and how that all works. There's a lot we should have explained. We didn't do a good job of doing that."

Apparently, throwing in all the unpolished additional design elements would have resulted in an "awful experience", but Read does worry that "we simplified things a little bit too much" for the occasion.

I played a build of Ryse last week, some new levels on kit, and it’s the best thing I’ve seen on Xbox One. Just incredible. Not only the combat…a lot of people are asking about combat, and combat is coming along…It’s strong…

Crytek always did a great job with graphics, and you can see these scenes that truly…I mean I just sat there and stared for a little while. It’s amazing work.

It is (a different game from Crysis), and that’s one of the reasons why we wanted to partner with them on this. They’ve traditionally done shooters, think about FarCry, think about Crysis. We have a lot of shooters on the platform and they came and said “We want to try something new, we want to be first party for the first time”. I’ve known that team for seven, eight years back when they did FarCry and thought: “what a great opportunity to come together”.

Ginga wrote:This been posted?

At gamescom today, Microsoft Studios and Crytek debuted Gladiator mode, the cooperative multiplayer experience in “Ryse: Son of Rome,” and offered an in-depth look at a myriad of never-before-seen features and refinements to the game’s combat system.

First Look at “Ryse: Son of Rome” Multiplayer

In Rome, the Coliseum was the heart and soul of the city; in “Ryse: Son of Rome,” it becomes the stage where you’ll forge your path to glory as a fearless gladiator. Take to the sands cooperatively with your friends and do battle against an ever-changing horde of enemies.

According to Crytek, key features of the multiplayer experience include:

Be Your Own Hero. “Ryse” offers a large variety of armor, weapons, shields, and consumables to customize your own unique gladiator. These items are earned through gold rewarded from victories in combat and impact your stats by improving your focus, XP, crowd reaction, and health. Consumables are elixirs that have a temporary effect, such as improving health or allowing instant kills.

Dynamic Tile Sets. Inspired by the movable floor pieces used to re-create historic battles in the ancient Colosseum, “Ryse” uses dynamic “tile sets” of scenery to provide a continuous stream of unpredictable challenges. Scenery hidden in the hypogeum literally erupts from the floor, providing players with settings ranging from strongholds, to ruins, to naval battles.

Custom Challenges and Arenas. “Ryse” allows you to create your own experiences by using the challenge editor to mix and match the maps and events into custom playlists. Each challenge has its own leaderboard and the more players who have played, the higher the reward at the end of the challenge.

“Ryse” will feature 11 multiplayer maps at launch, plus an additional bonus map for those who purchase the Day One edition of the game. At gamescom, Crytek showcased the following:

Courtyard is an open environment highlighting the dynamic nature of the Colosseum. With each wave new dangers are introduced to the Arena, from flaming pits, to deadly traps, to automated catapults.

Stronghold shows off the ability to completely change the environment, re-creating a battle between Roman forces and the barbarian hordes in the distant pagan lands of Germania.

More Details about the Combat System

Alongside the first look at multiplayer, Crytek revealed more details about the combat system in “Ryse: Son of Rome” in a behind-the-scenes ViDoc. “Ryse” features a deep, multi-layered combat system that arms the player with a plethora of tools. Here are some of the highlights that fans can expect from the development team at Crytek:

Attacks and Timing. The basis for all combat is a mastery of timing of attacks and blocks: the tighter the timing the better the player will perform. For example, a perfectly timed block will not only deflect an incoming attack but also throw the enemy wide open, making the counter attack much more effective. And the shield is not just for blocking; it can be just as potent as the sword if used correctly.

Executions. When an enemy has been nearly defeated, an Execution can be enabled to finish them off. These are made up of a series of timed blows using either the sword or the shield, with associated rewards that can be assigned to different perks. There are three Execution Tiers; players must open up the higher level tiers to experience the most dramatic Executions. There are well over 100 different Executions in the game: some are location-sensitive, like dropping an enemy on a conveniently-placed spike or kicking them off a wall; and some are performed by executing multiple enemies at the same time. There are also special combo-Executions that can be performed in co-op mode.

Perks. The Perk system lets the player decide which rewards they want from hitting the execution timing windows. They can choose between increased damage, XP, health and Focus. When Focus is sufficiently built up the player can trigger a large area effect that slows enemies. In Gladiator Mode, perks are assigned based on which god players choose at the beginning of the match, and players can receive benefit from their partner’s perk if they are nearby.

Combo Counter & Execution Tiers. Each successful hit without taking damage increases the combo counter when the player crosses certain combo thresholds they move up an execution tier.

Ranged Weapons. The basic ranged weapon is a pilum (javelin), but scorpios (huge crossbows) can also be encountered.