I’m celebrating Valentine’s Day by giving myself the day off (what’s left of it). So, once again we have open (game-related) comments. Go to it!
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and *BITS* Seen On This Website Are Made in the *USA* |
Badly done gaming-related study of the day:
Among the study’s other faults, the hobby is supposedly 2/3 female, as all gamers know well.
the study was about 65 female and 36 male college students asked to play a modified version of a popular shooter.
the survey could have been of just ‘NORMAL’ folks finding the modified version to be fun. NOT about what ‘GAMERS’ found fun.
I finished Fallout 3 yesterday. It was a decent game, though not really what I would have liked it to have been. As might have been mentioned, unlike Oblivion, once you have completed the main story line it’s over, you can’t continue doing other side quests. Now I am trying to decide what to do next. I am leaning to either giving Kings Bounty or the Witcher another run through. I completed The Witcher before the Enhanced Edition came out so I have downloaded the upgrade files from their site to make my the equivalent.
One bit of semi-gaming news, the web host of Home of the Underdogs has went bankrupt so it looks like the site might not be coming back this time. Sarinee Achavanuntakul hasn’t updated it in a long time anyway since she has been pursuing other interests. I didn’t go there for the abandonware, rather the wealth of old gaming information on the site. I hope that the information itself can be retrieved and rehosted elsewhere.
Speaking of bankruptcy, Midway is the latest victim. I wasn’t a Mortal Combat fan, but I did play Gauntlet. What is surprising to see is the list of creditors. It shows how a bankruptcy trickles down and affects a lot of other companies. $150 million to Wells Fargo alone, why that could have paid for a Las Vegas weekend getaway for it’s execs.
http://kotaku.com/5153517/this-is-why-midway-is-totally-screwed
OK, then, a miscellaneous game-related comment: Since I’ve been messing around with Oblivion again, I’ve been thinking about the various Elder Scrolls games.
I’m an older game-player who always loved turn-based, party-based RPG’s. I like the strategy involved in those. And, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m terrible at ‘real-time’ combat. So the Elder Scrolls games weren’t at all what I wanted in a game,… but I still loved them. Frankly, a lot of that was because they were easy, even for me.
I loved Arena, at least partly because the Absorb Magic spell was so powerful and long-lasting. And you could pause the game at any time. These features meant that even MY poorly-run character could survive in a dungeon easily enough. (I think, in fact, that was the last time I could effectively use magic in combat.)
Then, I was just blown away by Daggerfall. I loved the graphics (hard to believe these days – have you looked at the game recently?), especially the snow falling. And the game was unbelievably huge. Plus, you could just wander around, from dungeon to dungeon, from city to city. Everything in the world fit together! It was just amazing! I could easily overlook the many bugs, for a game like that. As it turned out, the combat in the main quest was too tough for me, but I could still have plenty of fun just wandering around.
Morrowind was another amazing experience. I missed the snow, but the thunderstorms on the Bitter Coast were incredibly realistic (with the speakers turned up, I almost jumped out of my chair at the first crash of thunder). I kept finding myself trying to shelter from the rain, and avoiding the low spots for fear of getting bogged down in the mud (too bad the game wasn’t THAT realistic).
This game was also huge, which meant lots of opportunity for exploration (even underwater). Has there ever been a city as big as Vivec in a game? And the combat was easy enough, as long as I carefully planned my leveling up. I heard complaints that the Cliff Racers were irritating, but I never understood why. I guess my only fault with the game – a very minor detail – was that much of it was (deliberately) ugly. I didn’t like the dust storms much.
Oblivion, on the other hand, was beautiful everywhere (unless you went through a gate, of course, in which case it was hellish). I loved the beginning, coming out of the sewer system into that beautiful land. (There was even snow, in the high mountains.) My only problem with Oblivion was that it was so very much like Morrowind that it felt like I’d been playing the same game for years. (But I suppose, if they’d changed it too much, I’d have been disappointed in that, too.)
These games are some of my all-time favorite RPG’s, despite the fact that they weren’t at all what I normally prefer in an RPG. I would never have expected to like these games. I’m just thankful that I took a chance on Arena, when it first came out.
PS. I wish you had a preview feature for comments, Scorpia (especially since I’m also incompetent when it comes to HTML tags).
Some info on two different indie games:
WORLD of GOO – play testing and piracy
DHSGiT – is up for a Writing award.
World of Goo is an indie puzzle game that has been about as successful as an indie puzzle game can be. Now, I’m not gonna try to sell anyone on the game – (It’s either your cup-of-tea or it’s not) But I did want to share a few articles by the game’s creators that touch on gaming topics. I found them interesting, and figured some readers of this forum might too. Anyway here are the links:
http://2dboy.com/2007/11/12/rons-rules-for-playtesting
http://2dboy.com/2008/11/13/90/
The first is about Play testing. While such an article may seem to be for game makers only (Hiya Coyote) – Many of their suggestions are also good for
getting a friend or family member interested in a particular game (Especially #3). The second is about Piracy rates and DRM – from the game creator’s perspective. NOTE: ‘World of Goo’ has NO DRM.
I also want to share some info on another indie game called “Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble” (DHSGiT for short).
Now, despite the suggestiveness of the title, this is NOT a naughty game (like say ‘Leather Goddesses of Phobos’) – Nay, it is a game where you control a clique of four High school girls in the 1920s. You taunt other girls, lie to teachers, and sacrifice boyfriends in order to stir up trouble in the town of Brigiton. It is really unique in several facets, and it is nominated for a MAJOR award from the Writers Guild Of America.
Here is an old internet blurb that got me to try the demo:
Dangerous High School Girls on rockpapershotgun
And here’s a better overview of the game:
DHSG at jayisgames
Xian, Midway went into chapter 11, which is a means of restructuring debt. So they may have a chance of staying alive.
wcg, you handled the html just fine. I liked the first three ES games myself, but was not at all happy with Oblivion. Especially (a) the auto-scaling and (b) the combat system.
Hal, I’ve heard about both games before. Goo doesn’t attract me. DHSG sounded intereting, but not sure it’s quite my thing, either. Thanks for posting those links for everyone.
Scorpia, why are you so down on ES IV? All of the ES games had the auto-scaling monsters and the same basic combat system. The only thing is, ES IV had mana that regenerated.
I was wondering that, too, CGW. Certainly, Morrowind had the same auto-scaling and the same combat. My memory of the other games is a bit hazy.
One thing I liked about Oblivion was how my character was hailed as the “hero of Kvatch,” since I really like getting some recognition for my character’s accomplishments (NPC’s would also comment about events from other quests, though not tying my character directly to them).
Unfortunately, when I returned to Kvatch much later, the townspeople were still living in tents on the road. No one had started rebuilding the town. That was disappointing. But it’s typical of most (all?) games. I can’t think of one that really showed – rather than just talked about – the results of my character’s actions.
I don’t recall auto-scaling in Morrowind, actually. Have to check on that. But the combat system was different in IV. Your skills had nothing to do with whether or not you hit. It was all in your own reflexes. You know, like consoles.
Scorpia, I can remember that even clearback to Arena, combat was base on your reflexes as well.
Not to mention that is a hallmark of all action/real-time RPG’s for that matter. That is the case with Diablo, Titan Quest, etc.
No, up until IV, skills did matter for combat in terms of hitting. First-person view doesn’t always mean FPS fighting style.
Skills matter in D2, as well.