Game of Thrones - Preview @ Pocket Lint, Screens

A site called Pocket Lint has a new preview of Game of Thrones, though the article only served to confuse me. They quote lead designer Sylvain Sechi as saying "We think of it like Mass Effect without the planets exploration" but then go on to compare the game variously with The Witcher 2 and Baldur's Gate:

Combat itself, of course, is going to be key to the whole affair. What it resembles most closely is a non-button thrashing version of the Witcher 2 and its redesign for Xbox. Talents, abilities and menus are presented in a very similar circular style that pop up during the action in the middle of the screen when you hold down the relevant button. Again, like the Witcher, calling them up doesn’t quite pause the action altogether but just puts it in a very slow motion. Take too long over your decisions and you will start to receive some hefty blows.

It’s at this point in the combat, though, where the similarities with CD Projekt Red's top title end. Game of Thrones takes a much more “pen and paper approach”, according to Sechi, and its command-based (as opposed to button thrashing) style is more akin to the kind of strategic manner you’d find in games such as Baldurs Gate. Choose and stack the abilities and actions which you would like your characters to invoke - and which targets you would like to invoke them upon - unpause the action and hope it works out okay.

While we're on Game of Thrones, five new screens have been released at the official site.