I totally agree. The problem I guess is that people complained and joked about EQ1's "Vision" and Brad didn't want to repeat that, so they kept changing things in Vanguard according to what the testers said, which imho was their worst mistake. We all know 90% of the posts are made by 10% of the people, so it was this 10% who kept changing the direction of the ship, until it didn't have any more time to steer away from the cliffs and crashed.
Oh there are plenty of areas with lots of solo quests. You can do solo quests all the way up to max level if you want. I recommend googling for vanguard leveling guide or something. There is one I read written by a necromancer who did just that (solo from 1 to max), and tells you where to go for solo content for all level ranges. It's pretty good if soloing is your thing.
In my case, since grouping is my thing, I was screwed.
I totally disagree. In fact, the reason why I'm not playing is quite the contrary of what you mention. Since it's so easy to solo, nobody groups. My lvl 32 *healer* spends day after day trying to find a group, and all I see is people soloing. Definitely not what I thought Vanguard would be.
Vanguard's main problem was actually listening to the forum posts. Because of vocal minorities (as always), the game changed swings so many times during its alpha and beta, that it never really had time to be tested or polished. Complete class remakes and whole regions were done even just a couple of days before the game went live, without any chance of testing them.
Actually, what you don't know is that you and me are actually characters played by some people. This universe is another universe's MMO. I wish it didn't have permadeath though, that kinda blows. I think I'm lvl 30/50 right now, grinding so I can buy a house + 1, the apartment + 1 I've been using for the last 10 levels is kinda obsolete now. I wonder what we'll get in the next expansion:)
Problem is... there will not be a Blu-ray win, or loss. Just like nobody cares if a DVD is -R or +R, we will all use hybrid drives that can play both formats, so people will not even care what format a movie comes in.
I play Vanguard, it's not bad really, in fact I do like it.
It was released too soon, but really, we can say the same thing about 99% of the games out there. The problem with Vanguard, interestingly enough, is that its developers listened to the players too much. Because of user input they kept changing core aspects of the game. Whole classes were redone even 3 days before release date (so much for testing them). With so many changes, they ran out of money and time.
Graphically it's awesome, you do need at least 2GB RAM to play it (and let's not forget 21GB free in your hard drive to install it), so this is not your Bejeweled 2. It's a deep and complex game unlike, say, WoW which is its direct competitor. Playing each class (and there are 15 of them) is a different experience. You can solo all the time but for obvious reasons, grouping is better.
I think he meant like, the Civilopedia and stuff. I did read those entries in Civ 1 and they were interesting reads. Of course, after I closed Civilopedia my Tank was killed by a spearman:)
You guys really don't understand the whole phenomena.
The people forming these lines are the same that formed lines for days for the Star Wars or Lord of Ring movies. They have the same likes and can talk in the same 'language'. When they form those lines, being there is part of the fun. If you're a season ticket holder for any sports team it's a similar feeling of going to the opening day and seeing the other ticket holders that you know from years before.
Also, you're not talking about one person here. Those forming lines are actually teams of people working on shifts.
Luckily I don't have that fanatism. I'll buy my PS3 probably in February or March, I still have plenty of PS2 games to play.
Well, considering that KoToR 1 is 1000 times better than KoToR 2, you should probably just play the first anyway. There are some things in 2 that refer to 1 (not necessary to understand, but makes those moments more enjoyable if you did play the 1 first)
Finally M$oft figured out that not everybody likes shooters!
I just wished they realized that many years ago when I bought my Xbox. I played a total of hmm... 4 RPGs? And I love RPGs! In 4-5 years I had the Xbox I played 4 RPGs. I then bought a used PS2 earlier this year and I've already finished some 7 RPGs, with some 15 more still to play. I've played more hours in the 6 months since I got the PS2 than in the 4-5 years I used my Xbox.
But I'll wait before buying an Xbox360 or PS3. I want to see how many RPGs are done for each.
If they tax me for $ I make selling virtual stuff... will I be able to deduct the expenses I incur in gaining those $? I would love to add a $180 deduction to my yearly taxes
What are you talking about? RPG is nothing more than a game in which you control one or more characters, with characters having stats and skills, and the success of the character's actions depend on those stats/skills (as opposed as your skill). Final Fantasy is completely an RPG, I haven't played Chrono Trigger so can't say about that one. The presence or not of long cutscenes doesn't have anything to do with a game being RPG or not. About Oblivion, I played it 2 times full with 2 completely different characters (first a mage, then an archer/assassin). I didn't find any game-stopping bugs. I only found two bugs that were fixed after with just an exit and load. One of the best RPGs I've ever played, along with Suikoden 3 and Gladius.
I love rumble in my controller. When I saw in the settings menu of some games the option to turn it off I always thought "who would want to turn it off, it's awesome!" Now I see here a few people that don't like it, still beats me why, it gives you feedback, it incorporates an extra sensory dimension to the experience (audio-visual-tactile).
Even if they somehow manage to include rumble in other 3rd party controllers, let's face it, most games will not be programmed to use it. Which is a shame. I could care less about the motion detection thing, I play laying on my bed, there isn't much movement allowed:)
I dunno. Should Barbies be rated M because they have naked bodies underneath the dresses? That's exactly what happened with Oblivion, someone removed the basic clothes from the models and underneath was just a blandly colored texture of skin. I just find this whole thing so ridiculous
See I'm not so sure about it having to be twitch.
Basically, the difference between 'RPG' and 'twitch' is that, in 'RPG' style, it's your character's abilities what matter when deciding the outcome of actions. So, you select a target, select an action and the computer calculates if the action succeeds depending on your character's abilities and stats, and the 'defense' of the target. In 'twitch' style (like Halo or Quake), you have to aim and move, if your aim as a player is good, you will probably hit, if your aim is bad, you will probably fail.
See the difference now?
Now, 'RPG' doesn't necessarily mean 'slow' or 'boring'. City of Heroes has 'RPG' style, yet battles there are very fast and exciting.
I don't think an MMO playable in console means it must have twitch gameplay, I see a combat style like that of CoH being perfectly playable in console, although it'll probably have to be simplified for gamepad playing (in CoH I could have some 20 different abilities available with a push of a key, that's not possible in the 4 or 6 button world of gamepads.
I totally agree. The problem I guess is that people complained and joked about EQ1's "Vision" and Brad didn't want to repeat that, so they kept changing things in Vanguard according to what the testers said, which imho was their worst mistake. We all know 90% of the posts are made by 10% of the people, so it was this 10% who kept changing the direction of the ship, until it didn't have any more time to steer away from the cliffs and crashed.
Oh there are plenty of areas with lots of solo quests. You can do solo quests all the way up to max level if you want. I recommend googling for vanguard leveling guide or something. There is one I read written by a necromancer who did just that (solo from 1 to max), and tells you where to go for solo content for all level ranges. It's pretty good if soloing is your thing. In my case, since grouping is my thing, I was screwed.
I totally disagree. In fact, the reason why I'm not playing is quite the contrary of what you mention. Since it's so easy to solo, nobody groups. My lvl 32 *healer* spends day after day trying to find a group, and all I see is people soloing. Definitely not what I thought Vanguard would be. Vanguard's main problem was actually listening to the forum posts. Because of vocal minorities (as always), the game changed swings so many times during its alpha and beta, that it never really had time to be tested or polished. Complete class remakes and whole regions were done even just a couple of days before the game went live, without any chance of testing them.
Till the End of Time, one of the best console RPGs I've played. The best being Suikoden 3, then it'd probably be SO till the end of time. I loved it!
Actually, what you don't know is that you and me are actually characters played by some people. This universe is another universe's MMO. I wish it didn't have permadeath though, that kinda blows. I think I'm lvl 30/50 right now, grinding so I can buy a house + 1, the apartment + 1 I've been using for the last 10 levels is kinda obsolete now. I wonder what we'll get in the next expansion :)
Problem is... there will not be a Blu-ray win, or loss. Just like nobody cares if a DVD is -R or +R, we will all use hybrid drives that can play both formats, so people will not even care what format a movie comes in.
I play Vanguard, it's not bad really, in fact I do like it. It was released too soon, but really, we can say the same thing about 99% of the games out there. The problem with Vanguard, interestingly enough, is that its developers listened to the players too much. Because of user input they kept changing core aspects of the game. Whole classes were redone even 3 days before release date (so much for testing them). With so many changes, they ran out of money and time. Graphically it's awesome, you do need at least 2GB RAM to play it (and let's not forget 21GB free in your hard drive to install it), so this is not your Bejeweled 2. It's a deep and complex game unlike, say, WoW which is its direct competitor. Playing each class (and there are 15 of them) is a different experience. You can solo all the time but for obvious reasons, grouping is better.
I think he meant like, the Civilopedia and stuff. I did read those entries in Civ 1 and they were interesting reads. Of course, after I closed Civilopedia my Tank was killed by a spearman :)
You guys really don't understand the whole phenomena. The people forming these lines are the same that formed lines for days for the Star Wars or Lord of Ring movies. They have the same likes and can talk in the same 'language'. When they form those lines, being there is part of the fun. If you're a season ticket holder for any sports team it's a similar feeling of going to the opening day and seeing the other ticket holders that you know from years before. Also, you're not talking about one person here. Those forming lines are actually teams of people working on shifts. Luckily I don't have that fanatism. I'll buy my PS3 probably in February or March, I still have plenty of PS2 games to play.
Actually the controller is chargeable. When it's dying just plug it in and keep playing 'wired' while it's getting recharged.0 955&type=product&productCategoryId=pcmcat951000500 15&id=1130981752759 for example
Also, HDTVs are a lot cheaper than 'thousands of dollars' http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=760
Well, considering that KoToR 1 is 1000 times better than KoToR 2, you should probably just play the first anyway. There are some things in 2 that refer to 1 (not necessary to understand, but makes those moments more enjoyable if you did play the 1 first)
Finally M$oft figured out that not everybody likes shooters! I just wished they realized that many years ago when I bought my Xbox. I played a total of hmm... 4 RPGs? And I love RPGs! In 4-5 years I had the Xbox I played 4 RPGs. I then bought a used PS2 earlier this year and I've already finished some 7 RPGs, with some 15 more still to play. I've played more hours in the 6 months since I got the PS2 than in the 4-5 years I used my Xbox. But I'll wait before buying an Xbox360 or PS3. I want to see how many RPGs are done for each.
If they tax me for $ I make selling virtual stuff... will I be able to deduct the expenses I incur in gaining those $? I would love to add a $180 deduction to my yearly taxes
What are you talking about?
RPG is nothing more than a game in which you control one or more characters, with characters having stats and skills, and the success of the character's actions depend on those stats/skills (as opposed as your skill).
Final Fantasy is completely an RPG, I haven't played Chrono Trigger so can't say about that one. The presence or not of long cutscenes doesn't have anything to do with a game being RPG or not.
About Oblivion, I played it 2 times full with 2 completely different characters (first a mage, then an archer/assassin). I didn't find any game-stopping bugs. I only found two bugs that were fixed after with just an exit and load. One of the best RPGs I've ever played, along with Suikoden 3 and Gladius.
I love rumble in my controller. When I saw in the settings menu of some games the option to turn it off I always thought "who would want to turn it off, it's awesome!" Now I see here a few people that don't like it, still beats me why, it gives you feedback, it incorporates an extra sensory dimension to the experience (audio-visual-tactile). Even if they somehow manage to include rumble in other 3rd party controllers, let's face it, most games will not be programmed to use it. Which is a shame. I could care less about the motion detection thing, I play laying on my bed, there isn't much movement allowed :)
I dunno. Should Barbies be rated M because they have naked bodies underneath the dresses? That's exactly what happened with Oblivion, someone removed the basic clothes from the models and underneath was just a blandly colored texture of skin.
I just find this whole thing so ridiculous
See I'm not so sure about it having to be twitch. Basically, the difference between 'RPG' and 'twitch' is that, in 'RPG' style, it's your character's abilities what matter when deciding the outcome of actions. So, you select a target, select an action and the computer calculates if the action succeeds depending on your character's abilities and stats, and the 'defense' of the target. In 'twitch' style (like Halo or Quake), you have to aim and move, if your aim as a player is good, you will probably hit, if your aim is bad, you will probably fail. See the difference now? Now, 'RPG' doesn't necessarily mean 'slow' or 'boring'. City of Heroes has 'RPG' style, yet battles there are very fast and exciting. I don't think an MMO playable in console means it must have twitch gameplay, I see a combat style like that of CoH being perfectly playable in console, although it'll probably have to be simplified for gamepad playing (in CoH I could have some 20 different abilities available with a push of a key, that's not possible in the 4 or 6 button world of gamepads.