The co-op mode is great and the new addition of playing different song parts is even better. I'd really like to see Guitar Hero combined with a Karaoke Revolution type thing where you can either play the guitar and have to sing along or else you can play the guitar and someone else could sing.
Are we eventually going to get to a point where we can have all our friends over to play Guitar Hero type songs as a full band? One guy has the guitar, another has the bass, another on drums and a singer! That would be great party fun.
I love the idea of ARGs. I played in Majestic when it came out and I loved the interaction. E-mails from characters, telephone calls at 2am with threatening messages, video diaries of kidnappings. It was awesome. Then I started interacting with the other players. Nobody was interested in the feel of the game. They just wanted to answers fast so they could try to get ahead of everyone else. It wasn't about solving the mystery through clues on your own for them. It was about winning. Other players would contact me and I'd offer them cryptic clues, but they would get angry at me for not just giving them the answer.
I tried a couple since then, but could never get on board. Because so damn many people are hitting the mysteries so hard and so fast, the games have to keep pumping out stuff all the time. So while I'm still trying to figure out the first part of the game I'm getting clues to later parts that spoil or reference the stuff I'm still trying to work out.
I think the future of this genre is going to be friends running small ARGs for each other in their spare time as a hobby.
Online multiplayer (not massively) mystery/adventure game. Basically I'd like to see something like Gabriel Knight 3 put online with cooperative mystery solving as the main purpose of the game.
Each server would be a single detailed town or city in which the mysteries take place. Server population is kept low to encourage tight communities and the ability for everyone to have a role in solving the plot. Every couple of months the game designers come up with a new mystery plot to solve. They scatter clues around the town, give certain bits of information to certain PCs and then let them go wild trying to search for clues and combine information to solve the mystery. To make things interesting you make other PCs people who are trying to cover up and protect the mystery. So they're out looking for clues in order to steal them or killing off other players who have information on the plot.
It would take some brainstorming to figure out how to work all this as far as game rules go, but if it could be pulled off I think it would be one of the most interesting games out there.
Agreed. G4 proved it's long time pandering to the least common denominator with hot chicks, atheletes, and lame skits.
I want to see game/hardware reviews and news as reported by real gamers, not models picked to host a TV show. Another good idea would be interviews with industry leaders and not celebrities, atheletes, and booth babes.
I suppose the influence system was a large problem then. I missed out on much of the game story because I wasn't nice or agreeable to my sidekicks. Seems kind of unfair to say "We'll let you play a mean character, but then you don't get to know what's going on in the game". Couldn't they just as easily allowed you to intimidate or even beat the information out of your sidekicks?
From what I understand there were differences depending on how you played through the game.
I played Dark Side Sith Lord class and got a really lame ending. After I finished the last battle it just sorta zoomed out into space and cut to game over. No Ebon Hawk flying away even. I believed it had crashed down into the depths of the planet killing all the side characters. The cut scene before the endgame portion made it seem that way.
My wife, on the other hand, played through Light Side Jedi Knight and apparantly Kreia explained the fate of all the side characters to her. Not sure her final ending cutscene was any better than mine, but at least she got told what happened. I just had to assume...
And at the end of the game I still had no idea what the story was about. What Scion and mask dude had anything to do with besides being bad guys for you to beat? I just didn't get it. I still don't.
that seems somewhat out-of-place in a post-apocalyptic struggle for the freedom of humanity
I'd say it depends on whether or not you're inside or outside the matrix. Inside they'd have to maintain some sort of cover to keep from being found out and eliminated.
I used to broadcast a radio station for one of the in-game clubs for Anarchy Online when it first came out. It really helped build the community and immerse people in the club atmosphere.
We used to have dance competitions (as you could macro together different animations to create complex dance routines) and theme nights. Hell, I spent more time in the club playing music than I did out in the world on the level treadmill. Also I would do things like play "Bad Boys" when a group would walk in wearing cop armor.
Hopefully it will work out well for those Matrix inhabitants. My advice is tie it into the game world as much as possible. Set up a place in game to function as the radio station and have events. Radio "call-in" contests giving away in-game items might be cool to do. Things like that...
Yes, but you still don't get to choose your gang like you did in GTA2. You're stuck with the gang your character used to hang with (at least for as far through the game as I've gotten, which granted isn't very far).
I liked GTA2 because each city had 5 or so gangs and from the start you got to pick any one of those 5 to belong to. Even better, you could totally be a bastard and jump ship to a rival gang in the middle of the game, all because you wanted to and not because a linear storyline made you.
If the location the videos/photos were taken was public property, can't they legally photograph anyone they please?
I know with personal security cameras you can't have their view extend onto another persons private property, but if it gets the street in front of your house then that's ok. Say there was a naked 17 year old girl standing there in the street... I'd say it's obvious that the person who owns the camera (and thus took the picture) wouldn't be in trouble, but someone who took that tape and tried to sell it would be.
Is that right or do I have a no clue on the actual laws?
I wish they would bring back to the GTA series the idea of choosing a gang and earning street rep from them. This is the sole thing that makes GTA2 shine above and beyond any other game in the series in my opinion.
When they beefed up the linear storyline with GTA3, I felt that they lost something great with actually being able to choose which gang you took missions for and which gang you were out to destroy. Not everyone likes being forced by the storyline to run with the Yakuza or be on the hunt for the Jamacian gang.
So I highly recommend playing GTA2 if you haven't before and that sounds like something you'd be into.
This is a suprise in a world where it's popular to watch other people drive cars in a circle for hours? Imagine if they could press a button over and over to affect that car! Everyone would be there!
Wow, with a movie description that includes "it's like The Matrix or Pirates of the Caribbean", how can you go wrong? Hell, why now throw some other stuff in there. It's Gone With The Wind meets Citizen Kane in space like Star Wars... and they all can do Matrix stuff. Crapfest coming up...
On a more serious note, why does the Dorothy of this movie need "powers"? That's always been part of the draw to the Wizard of Oz. An innocent normal girl ends up in this strange land and has to make friends to surivive and find her way home. Give this character super powers and I don't see how it's going to be any good.
You can tell that their little list is complete crap seeing which games were ranked more violent than Postal 2. The game where you can beat a stereotypical arab to bloody death with a shovel and then piss on his corpse while lighting it on fire. Yeah, I'm sure Half-Life 2 is more violently offensive.
The only thing Postal 2 was missing was corpse raping... and many fans were upset that it didn't have that feature.
If you need an article to tell you that the ICCR's list is trash, you're one of them!!!
Playing a game early is kind of bad, but star treatment at E3 really pisses me off. It's supposed to be a convention/trade show for game industry professionals to show off their new stuff to each other and to game magazine/review site folks.
The average game fan can't get in (without some social engineering anyway) or at least has to spend a long time in line for the most popular games. But some shitheel like Carmen Electra can waltz right up to any game they want to play.
Keep the feel of the original games. Update the engine all to hell of course and give us flashy things (we like flashy things), but don't go changing the basics. The feel of the world with the whole retro 50's nuclear age motif is perfect. Don't do something strange like give it a fantasy, victorian, or God forbid 80's theme. Keep the gritty feel that the environments had. Bring us new plot devices, but make sure our old favorites (Radscorpions, mutants, slavers, Brahmin, etc.) are lurking around every corner.
Most of all, don't go dicking around with the game system too much. Fallout fans are Fallout fans because the system was so beautiful. You had really good character customization with the perks, skills, and stats. It was like playing a REAL RPG!!! I can see them trying to simplify it or automate it or something really dumb.
There's also this trend to move turn based games into real time combat. Fallout doesn't need it. It goes along with the system and how it makes it feel like you're playing a real table-top style RPG. Just because the world is twitch oriented, doesn't mean people always want their games like that. Even twitch action gamers like to calm down and strategize their combat now and again.
We want new stories. We want a flashy new engine and updated technology. Beyond that, what's so difficult to understand? If they can't understand why we like the original games in the first place, they have no reason to be building the new one.
Luckily, I think Bethesda understands and will have little problem making us happy.
Majestic showed the main reason that episodic online games don't work too well. The Majestic episodes were way too short and people got bored with it quickly.
Also, the interaction with most other players in the game was actually detrimental to the game experience. You were supposed to be able to team up with other players to solve clues and what not, but most of the time the other players you talked to would straight out spoil the game for you by telling you everything you needed to solve everything.
When people would contact me to ask me about stuff in the game I would always play as if I were in on things and give them cryptic hints and tips to try and keep the game interesting for them. Mostly they'd just get pissed off at me and go on to someone who would just give them all the answers.
It was a really fun and deeply interactive game that I wish would have survived. Unfortunatly they just couldn't keep the content coming quick enough and keep it varied enough that players wouldn't ruin the game for each other.
Any time lack of innovation in adventure games comes up, we have to point out Gabriel Knight 3.
Beautiful game in it's day. Took the Sierra style adventure game into a fully 3d environment and had an amazing story. However, it's release during the FPS/Action boom doomed it to failure. It came out even before the repopularization of RPG's, let alone adventure games. People saw "Sierra", "Gabriel Knight" and "Adventure" and said "Screw that, give me more FPS'".
So even though it was one of the best adventure games (if not THE best) to ever grace the screen of a PC, it's failure against the FPS/Action game boom told game makers that fully 3d adventure games don't work.
I was so excited when I played GK3, thinking of all the great 3d adventure titles that would be released in the future. What a let down...
I think some of you have it confused. Mary Sues aren't about using the game mechanics to build the perfect character. People skilled at tweaking out the rules to max their character are fully in the right to do so. Lame in my opinion, but in the right.
Mary Sues have standard character stats (or no character stats in games that don't use them), but role-play as if they're perfect. Every girl is a hot, catsuit wearing, sexy but independantly strong woman. Every guy is a bad ass trench coat sporting, dual pistol weilding, mysterious assassin. Blah, blah, blah. What Mary Sues don't realize is that by playing that sort of character they're wearing out the things they love most about the character. Now, whenever my characters meet the seductive temptress or the mysterious assassin I get to go "That's nice. I think there's a booth for you guys over there. Go sit with them" because they're played out.
In games that use character stats, Mary Sues are really about people saying to hell with those stats and not role-playing appropriately. They need to be reprimanded by whoever is in charge of the game. Games without stats and poor leadership are just asking for Mary Sues so I'd say they deserve what they get for not laying down the law.
I agree with the arguments of people who whine about them. Whining doesn't get you anywhere though. Good role-players will use them to their advantage. The real world has Mary Sues; kids who think they know everything, who think that they're invincible. Fantasy worlds should have them too. They're fun to proove wrong.
Thanks for your condolences (I guess that's the right word for it). I really do wish things were different online and people could be a bit more mature in their online attitudes.
Personally, I enjoy the social aspect of it too, but I enjoy meeting *people*. Men, women, gender benders... it doesn't matter to me. And it shouldn't to other people either. It's not like these people are your real life friends and companions. They're people you play a game with. Which is great and all, but not what I would consider a deep relationship.
I have actually had long-time party members completely ditch me to go do things with my wife's character because OH MY GOD! It's a real, live, breathing, girl on the other side of that character! Attack! People give tons of free stuff to my wife's characters just because she's really a girl. I'm guessing this is the new online pathetic equivalent to buying a woman a drink at a bar.
People, especially repressed gaming nerds, need to chill the hell out when it comes to women. You're just participating in another form of sexism which, the last time I looked, was a bad thing.
Slashdot Mirror
The co-op mode is great and the new addition of playing different song parts is even better. I'd really like to see Guitar Hero combined with a Karaoke Revolution type thing where you can either play the guitar and have to sing along or else you can play the guitar and someone else could sing.
Are we eventually going to get to a point where we can have all our friends over to play Guitar Hero type songs as a full band? One guy has the guitar, another has the bass, another on drums and a singer! That would be great party fun.
I love the idea of ARGs. I played in Majestic when it came out and I loved the interaction. E-mails from characters, telephone calls at 2am with threatening messages, video diaries of kidnappings. It was awesome. Then I started interacting with the other players. Nobody was interested in the feel of the game. They just wanted to answers fast so they could try to get ahead of everyone else. It wasn't about solving the mystery through clues on your own for them. It was about winning. Other players would contact me and I'd offer them cryptic clues, but they would get angry at me for not just giving them the answer.
I tried a couple since then, but could never get on board. Because so damn many people are hitting the mysteries so hard and so fast, the games have to keep pumping out stuff all the time. So while I'm still trying to figure out the first part of the game I'm getting clues to later parts that spoil or reference the stuff I'm still trying to work out.
I think the future of this genre is going to be friends running small ARGs for each other in their spare time as a hobby.
Online multiplayer (not massively) mystery/adventure game. Basically I'd like to see something like Gabriel Knight 3 put online with cooperative mystery solving as the main purpose of the game.
Each server would be a single detailed town or city in which the mysteries take place. Server population is kept low to encourage tight communities and the ability for everyone to have a role in solving the plot. Every couple of months the game designers come up with a new mystery plot to solve. They scatter clues around the town, give certain bits of information to certain PCs and then let them go wild trying to search for clues and combine information to solve the mystery. To make things interesting you make other PCs people who are trying to cover up and protect the mystery. So they're out looking for clues in order to steal them or killing off other players who have information on the plot.
It would take some brainstorming to figure out how to work all this as far as game rules go, but if it could be pulled off I think it would be one of the most interesting games out there.
Agreed. G4 proved it's long time pandering to the least common denominator with hot chicks, atheletes, and lame skits.
I want to see game/hardware reviews and news as reported by real gamers, not models picked to host a TV show. Another good idea would be interviews with industry leaders and not celebrities, atheletes, and booth babes.
I suppose the influence system was a large problem then. I missed out on much of the game story because I wasn't nice or agreeable to my sidekicks. Seems kind of unfair to say "We'll let you play a mean character, but then you don't get to know what's going on in the game". Couldn't they just as easily allowed you to intimidate or even beat the information out of your sidekicks?
From what I understand there were differences depending on how you played through the game.
I played Dark Side Sith Lord class and got a really lame ending. After I finished the last battle it just sorta zoomed out into space and cut to game over. No Ebon Hawk flying away even. I believed it had crashed down into the depths of the planet killing all the side characters. The cut scene before the endgame portion made it seem that way.
My wife, on the other hand, played through Light Side Jedi Knight and apparantly Kreia explained the fate of all the side characters to her. Not sure her final ending cutscene was any better than mine, but at least she got told what happened. I just had to assume...
And at the end of the game I still had no idea what the story was about. What Scion and mask dude had anything to do with besides being bad guys for you to beat? I just didn't get it. I still don't.
does 360 mean something in japanese culture?
Uh, yes. It's the number of degrees in a full circle. Just like in the rest of the world thanks to Babylonian mathematics!
that seems somewhat out-of-place in a post-apocalyptic struggle for the freedom of humanity
I'd say it depends on whether or not you're inside or outside the matrix. Inside they'd have to maintain some sort of cover to keep from being found out and eliminated.
I used to broadcast a radio station for one of the in-game clubs for Anarchy Online when it first came out. It really helped build the community and immerse people in the club atmosphere.
We used to have dance competitions (as you could macro together different animations to create complex dance routines) and theme nights. Hell, I spent more time in the club playing music than I did out in the world on the level treadmill. Also I would do things like play "Bad Boys" when a group would walk in wearing cop armor.
Hopefully it will work out well for those Matrix inhabitants. My advice is tie it into the game world as much as possible. Set up a place in game to function as the radio station and have events. Radio "call-in" contests giving away in-game items might be cool to do. Things like that...
Don't worry. Stevie Case will probably be there trying to get under the table for Peter Molyneux so she can become president of Lionhead.
Yes, but you still don't get to choose your gang like you did in GTA2. You're stuck with the gang your character used to hang with (at least for as far through the game as I've gotten, which granted isn't very far).
I liked GTA2 because each city had 5 or so gangs and from the start you got to pick any one of those 5 to belong to. Even better, you could totally be a bastard and jump ship to a rival gang in the middle of the game, all because you wanted to and not because a linear storyline made you.
If the location the videos/photos were taken was public property, can't they legally photograph anyone they please?
I know with personal security cameras you can't have their view extend onto another persons private property, but if it gets the street in front of your house then that's ok. Say there was a naked 17 year old girl standing there in the street... I'd say it's obvious that the person who owns the camera (and thus took the picture) wouldn't be in trouble, but someone who took that tape and tried to sell it would be.
Is that right or do I have a no clue on the actual laws?
I wish they would bring back to the GTA series the idea of choosing a gang and earning street rep from them. This is the sole thing that makes GTA2 shine above and beyond any other game in the series in my opinion.
When they beefed up the linear storyline with GTA3, I felt that they lost something great with actually being able to choose which gang you took missions for and which gang you were out to destroy. Not everyone likes being forced by the storyline to run with the Yakuza or be on the hunt for the Jamacian gang.
So I highly recommend playing GTA2 if you haven't before and that sounds like something you'd be into.
This is a suprise in a world where it's popular to watch other people drive cars in a circle for hours? Imagine if they could press a button over and over to affect that car! Everyone would be there!
I find it disturbing that performance on the average system (according to Steam stats) is considered unacceptable.
Wow, with a movie description that includes "it's like The Matrix or Pirates of the Caribbean", how can you go wrong? Hell, why now throw some other stuff in there. It's Gone With The Wind meets Citizen Kane in space like Star Wars... and they all can do Matrix stuff. Crapfest coming up...
On a more serious note, why does the Dorothy of this movie need "powers"? That's always been part of the draw to the Wizard of Oz. An innocent normal girl ends up in this strange land and has to make friends to surivive and find her way home. Give this character super powers and I don't see how it's going to be any good.
American McGee = Overrated Trash
These people have other issues then. Somebody should tell them that numbering things implies some sort of logical order.
You can tell that their little list is complete crap seeing which games were ranked more violent than Postal 2. The game where you can beat a stereotypical arab to bloody death with a shovel and then piss on his corpse while lighting it on fire. Yeah, I'm sure Half-Life 2 is more violently offensive.
The only thing Postal 2 was missing was corpse raping... and many fans were upset that it didn't have that feature.
If you need an article to tell you that the ICCR's list is trash, you're one of them!!!
Looks to me like 4 hours 42 minutes.
NEED THE FIX!
Playing a game early is kind of bad, but star treatment at E3 really pisses me off. It's supposed to be a convention/trade show for game industry professionals to show off their new stuff to each other and to game magazine/review site folks.
The average game fan can't get in (without some social engineering anyway) or at least has to spend a long time in line for the most popular games. But some shitheel like Carmen Electra can waltz right up to any game they want to play.
It should be easy enough. Just don't be stupid.
Keep the feel of the original games. Update the engine all to hell of course and give us flashy things (we like flashy things), but don't go changing the basics. The feel of the world with the whole retro 50's nuclear age motif is perfect. Don't do something strange like give it a fantasy, victorian, or God forbid 80's theme. Keep the gritty feel that the environments had. Bring us new plot devices, but make sure our old favorites (Radscorpions, mutants, slavers, Brahmin, etc.) are lurking around every corner.
Most of all, don't go dicking around with the game system too much. Fallout fans are Fallout fans because the system was so beautiful. You had really good character customization with the perks, skills, and stats. It was like playing a REAL RPG!!! I can see them trying to simplify it or automate it or something really dumb.
There's also this trend to move turn based games into real time combat. Fallout doesn't need it. It goes along with the system and how it makes it feel like you're playing a real table-top style RPG. Just because the world is twitch oriented, doesn't mean people always want their games like that. Even twitch action gamers like to calm down and strategize their combat now and again.
We want new stories. We want a flashy new engine and updated technology. Beyond that, what's so difficult to understand? If they can't understand why we like the original games in the first place, they have no reason to be building the new one.
Luckily, I think Bethesda understands and will have little problem making us happy.
Majestic showed the main reason that episodic online games don't work too well. The Majestic episodes were way too short and people got bored with it quickly.
Also, the interaction with most other players in the game was actually detrimental to the game experience. You were supposed to be able to team up with other players to solve clues and what not, but most of the time the other players you talked to would straight out spoil the game for you by telling you everything you needed to solve everything.
When people would contact me to ask me about stuff in the game I would always play as if I were in on things and give them cryptic hints and tips to try and keep the game interesting for them. Mostly they'd just get pissed off at me and go on to someone who would just give them all the answers.
It was a really fun and deeply interactive game that I wish would have survived. Unfortunatly they just couldn't keep the content coming quick enough and keep it varied enough that players wouldn't ruin the game for each other.
Any time lack of innovation in adventure games comes up, we have to point out Gabriel Knight 3.
Beautiful game in it's day. Took the Sierra style adventure game into a fully 3d environment and had an amazing story. However, it's release during the FPS/Action boom doomed it to failure. It came out even before the repopularization of RPG's, let alone adventure games. People saw "Sierra", "Gabriel Knight" and "Adventure" and said "Screw that, give me more FPS'".
So even though it was one of the best adventure games (if not THE best) to ever grace the screen of a PC, it's failure against the FPS/Action game boom told game makers that fully 3d adventure games don't work.
I was so excited when I played GK3, thinking of all the great 3d adventure titles that would be released in the future. What a let down...
I think some of you have it confused. Mary Sues aren't about using the game mechanics to build the perfect character. People skilled at tweaking out the rules to max their character are fully in the right to do so. Lame in my opinion, but in the right.
Mary Sues have standard character stats (or no character stats in games that don't use them), but role-play as if they're perfect. Every girl is a hot, catsuit wearing, sexy but independantly strong woman. Every guy is a bad ass trench coat sporting, dual pistol weilding, mysterious assassin. Blah, blah, blah. What Mary Sues don't realize is that by playing that sort of character they're wearing out the things they love most about the character. Now, whenever my characters meet the seductive temptress or the mysterious assassin I get to go "That's nice. I think there's a booth for you guys over there. Go sit with them" because they're played out.
In games that use character stats, Mary Sues are really about people saying to hell with those stats and not role-playing appropriately. They need to be reprimanded by whoever is in charge of the game. Games without stats and poor leadership are just asking for Mary Sues so I'd say they deserve what they get for not laying down the law.
I agree with the arguments of people who whine about them. Whining doesn't get you anywhere though. Good role-players will use them to their advantage. The real world has Mary Sues; kids who think they know everything, who think that they're invincible. Fantasy worlds should have them too. They're fun to proove wrong.
Thanks for your condolences (I guess that's the right word for it). I really do wish things were different online and people could be a bit more mature in their online attitudes.
Personally, I enjoy the social aspect of it too, but I enjoy meeting *people*. Men, women, gender benders... it doesn't matter to me. And it shouldn't to other people either. It's not like these people are your real life friends and companions. They're people you play a game with. Which is great and all, but not what I would consider a deep relationship.
I have actually had long-time party members completely ditch me to go do things with my wife's character because OH MY GOD! It's a real, live, breathing, girl on the other side of that character! Attack! People give tons of free stuff to my wife's characters just because she's really a girl. I'm guessing this is the new online pathetic equivalent to buying a woman a drink at a bar.
People, especially repressed gaming nerds, need to chill the hell out when it comes to women. You're just participating in another form of sexism which, the last time I looked, was a bad thing.