In a nutshell, PC RPGs are not even PC RPGs anymore. They've strayed so far from the roots that it's not even funny. All games are either Diablo like hack-and-slashers, or try some sort of hybrid real-time battle system which ends up being a mess. (It's a real shame that Bioware can't put together a half-decent battle system).
If you want a classic style RPG, you're actually better off playing on a console. Like the old Gold-box games? Play Final Fantasy Tactics Advance or Disgaea. Like Wizardry? (Actually, that one is pretty much dead. You don't see any dungeon crawlers anymore). Ultima? The best Ultima style game is the conversion of Ultima 4 for the NES so just stick with that:)
PC RPGs have gone from one disappointment to the next, at least for me. On the otherhand, Console RPGs tend to always surprise me pleasently. Branching out, giving new feelings of a play experience. Changing the flow of a story, or how a game operates can make it feel extremly fresh.
Couldn't really say why. I felt as though the cards were too..vanilla, if that makes any sense. Nothing that really shifted the game outside of the strategic roots. Nothing that shook and rechanged the balance of the game. And once you had an advantage, it was hard to come back.
The new Nintendo device will be a wireless grid networking device. It will both send/receive signals.
The purpose of it, is if you live in a big city or something, you can turn it on, and play with those over a fairly wide area without Internet Access. As well, it will be almost lag free.
Put some voice networking over it, and you have a very interesting idea, although it'll remain to be seen about the range.
They've been working on this for a while now, although mum has been the word since the initial announcement.
(Would be even cooler if you could hook the GBA over it as well and play link-up games through that. That would be neat, especially for something like Pokemon. Killer App!)
Frankly, I think the next gen systems are going to be rather underwhelming. The transition from 64 to 128 bit for Sony took a bit of time, as plenty of good games were still released for the PS1, and the first genration for the PS2 was rather underwhelming. (For the most part. Sony got lucky I think).
Every new hardware generation needs a "Killer App.". From the 2600 to the NES, the Killer App was SMB/Mega Man/Side Scrollers. From the NES to the SNES/Genesis, the killer apps were the increased graphical prowness, SMW and Sonic. Then there was the turn at 32/64 bit. For the N64, it was 3d adventures. For the PS1, it was first the arcade ports. That never really caught on. The big killer app was Final Fantasy VII, of course.
When it jumped from PS1 to PS2, the Dreamcast, first, never really had anything to really vault itself. Soul Calibur was great, but the genre was already done on the PS1. It was technically brilliant, but didn't add too much.
My argument is that the killer app on the PS2 is actually a rather overlooked game.
Dynasty Warriors 2.
That really introduced the idea of being overwhelmed in an action game. Not for consumers, but for developers, I think it opened a lot of eyes towards what could be done on the hardware.
Until they have something to launch this on the new hardware, I think that the focus will be on the current generation.
The problem isn't "Democrats" or "Republicans", it's the public at large has absolutly no respect for freedom.
The thing is, freedom is often seen in the US as a means to an end, and not as an end in itself. Freedom is seen as something you are given, not as something you give. Notice that pretty much everybody will completely trample any reasonable concept of freedom, as long as they get what they want.
The answer is not in politics, but in cultural change. American politicians, for the most part, are either too patriotic, or too pandering to say..yes, we are very flawed, and we can be better than this.
And frankly, Libertarians are the worst. For all their talking about freedom, they still would tear down enviromental and private privacy law that probably does the most to protect our freedom.
I'm just wondering. Why is there such a..well..harsh retribution on the movie equilivient of a hard sci-fi movie?
Why was everybody turned off by the philosophy and world building in Reloaded/Revolutions? I thought that was the best thing about the movies. Forget the fight sequences, I want more thought, more detail, more technology.
The ONLY thing that disappointed me (on an intellectual basis. On an emotional basis it made me giddy) about Revolutions, is that now after seeing the ending, and looking back on it, the story was actually written as a homage to the Final Fantasy series.
Nothing-hero is the chosen one to take command and lead the battle against multiple enemies, only to join forces with one, to fight against an even greater threat to them both.
Then take the music during the battle between Smith/Neo, and the music during the final credits (the underbeat is the same as the Boss music from FF9).
Too easy.
But still a great movie.
Why don't people get giddy about detail like I do?
Start with a person running for councilmen, make decisions accordingly, try to raise to the rank of President, and the final goal, ensuring re-election, all throughout the span of a lifetime, with multiple paths to victory.
I think it would be a bit too complex however. Too bad...
I play online games, almost solely for the teamwork. I don't like Deathmatches, I like feeling as part of a team.
My favs:
Subspace/Continuum:Highlevel play, especially when flagging. The attaching dynamic (You can warp to any spot where one of your teammates are), encourage team play.
Day of Defeat/Counter-Strike:Both, I feel offer impeccable team play, in a bit different style. I prefer Day of Defeat, as there is nothing better than hopping around ruins, laying down covering fire and slowly moving forward. As well, I think that one-kill rounds kinda suck for teamplay. It encourages conservatism which ruins it.
Diablo/Diablo II:Made for co-op.
I'm looking forward to playing FFXI, for some good team play as well.
Exactly. Joe is supposed to be anything but hip. A complete and total dweeb. A guy who would rather watch an old cult movie than make out with his GF. A guy who references EVERYTHING in old movie cliches.
That said, he has more personality than a whole lot of more fleshed out characters.
Actually, most of the characters in that game were very well done. Sylvia may be the best DiD (Damsel in distress) ever. As well, Alistor is just cool. I really hope they come out with a sequel, just longer this time with more direct movie parodies, more moves and more playable characters (With bigger differences between them)
Actually the reason for that was to fufill the whole Final Fantasy VII vibe that was going on. The machines as Shinra, Neo as Cloud and Agent Smith as Sepiroth.
They don't ruin a game, but they make some games worse for sure.
I'm currently playing through Lunar 2:Eternal Blue Complete for the PSX, and it's much better than the original. Mostly because I can avoid battles with annoying enemies and focus on the really rewarding ones.
The thing is, this tends to happen among all entertainment mediums.
You get the people who think the best movies were made in the 30's and 40's and everything now is crap.
You get the people who won't read a book that was written this century.
All the same, you do find some people that believe that modern games are atrocious compared to the "classics".
It's just a matter of taste.
Myself? A lot of those games have aged very poorly. They didn't have enough interesting gameplay to really make themselves compelling in a larger marketplace. Look through the MAME lists sometime, and see just how many duds there were. How many stupid Galaga clones there were without any fun gameplay. How many silly beat-em-up games there were.
Now, there are some games that have aged well I think. Bubble Bobble, Wonder Boy in Monster Land, pretty much all of Capcom's CPS-2 games, and the Konami licensed games. (TMNT, Simpsons, GI Joe X-Men). SMB 3 and Yoshi's Island for platformers. All the FF games, pretty much and DW 4. SFII is still a great fighting game.
But all the same, they are making some pretty damn great games today. Without thinking too deep, Viewtiful Joe, DDR, Metroid Prime, Wind Waker, Halo, GTA 3/VC, Dynasty Warriors series...etc.
All of those games give me an experience that wasn't possible a few years ago. An experience that is wonderfully fun.
I'm amazed at the amount of support that Luskin is getting here. Just shocked, to be honest. Here's the equivilent.
Slashdot reports on an article on how Microsoft is neglecting security concerns, and how they are being negligent.
Microsoft, in turn threatens to sue Slashdot, and erase derogatory postings they might have.
People would be up in arms..wouldn't they?
This is a SLAPP suit...a lawyerpoint exposition..nothing more. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if there are some other interests behind Luskin.
And to those people who say "Who cares..it's just bloggers", frankly, the ignorance astounds me. America has a long history of such grassroots information trading..a good portion of it, yes, anonymous.
The liberal "blogosphere", as it is called, is one of the most important things to happen to American politics in years. It's as influential now as talk radio was for the conservatives in the 80's and 90's.
In fact, it's even better. The decentralized nature of it, gives more people a voice. The open forum nature of it as well, facilitates actual discussion.
If you actually want to see what's going on, other than Atrios' site (which is a good one), try dailyKos.com or calpundit.com for a good start.
In any case, Viewtiful Joe, has some of the best new characters I've seen in a long time. Not too much of a story, but the game itself screams personality.
It doesn't hurt that the game itself is the most kick-ass game to come out in a long time...
What i'm saying, is that Hitler's march should have been stopped WAY before France. That "D-Day" should not have been necessary, because a beachhead should have been estabilished, to land troops and supplies.
Maybe I'm incorrect, but all the same, it's how I feel about the subject, on an emotional basis
Actually, that's exactly how I feel. I feel that the US should have been involved before Pearl Harbour. (And they were, unoficially, see the story of the Dam Bursters, many of who were Americans).
That they wern't...frankly I can't even think about it without tearing up.
I think you misunderstand me. What "offends" me about Normandy, is that it had to happen. My feeling is that such a beach landing, was only forced by an isolationist stance that was pretty prevailent throughout the US at this time. The US should have been involved as soon as Hitler left Germany.
Most of them were, undoubtedly, very accurate. However, I can't play them without crying. Thinking about the lost life, that was basically wasted because of stupid isoloationists and apologists.
I'm not saying that it shouldn't be done. Just that I..physically and emotionally, can't stomach it.
It's a matter of taste. Some subjects in games, just strike me the wrong way. For example...
I don't like "Beach Landing" games. I don't like it one bit. I believe that the fact that Normandy was made necessary to be one of the biggest failings of the West over the last centry. That all those lives were thrown away over politics...well...
I don't like in MOHAA, I don't like it in UT, I don't like it in DoD. Hell, I don't even like it in Conkers Bad Fur Day. Not saying that they shouldn't make it..just that I won't play it. (BTW, the rest of those games didn't bother me. Weird huh?)
In any case. It is a matter of taste, and it doesn't bother me what anybody else does. I'll make the decisions for myself, thank you very much. Often on an arbitrary basis too! See, I'm allowed to do that:)
Some of those old "classics", just did not stand the test of time. My opinion is, that a whole lot of them have serious problems. They just didn't age well.
For example, take Pac-Man. Same Maze, every time. Very repetitive. (Ms. Pac-Man has aged much more gracefully.)
Zelda 1:VERY annoying gameplay. The fact that the sword goes straight out, and the controls are very blocky almost make it unplayable.
On the other hand, a few games have stood the test of time IMO. Bubble Bobble, Wonder Boy in Monster Land, Gauntlet, Arkanoid. SMB 1 and 3.
Strangely enough, even back then I didn't like the repetetive/annoying classics. I'd find my favorite games and play them over and over.
The other thing is that the same thing happened with movies. Before maybe 20 years ago, an overwhelming % of movies were just plain horrid. Glitter-level bad. However, a lot of people tend to forget that and just pine for the "good-ol days"..which never existed.
Slashdot Mirror
In a nutshell, PC RPGs are not even PC RPGs anymore. They've strayed so far from the roots that it's not even funny. All games are either Diablo like hack-and-slashers, or try some sort of hybrid real-time battle system which ends up being a mess. (It's a real shame that Bioware can't put together a half-decent battle system).
:)
If you want a classic style RPG, you're actually better off playing on a console. Like the old Gold-box games? Play Final Fantasy Tactics Advance or Disgaea. Like Wizardry? (Actually, that one is pretty much dead. You don't see any dungeon crawlers anymore). Ultima? The best Ultima style game is the conversion of Ultima 4 for the NES so just stick with that
PC RPGs have gone from one disappointment to the next, at least for me. On the otherhand, Console RPGs tend to always surprise me pleasently. Branching out, giving new feelings of a play experience. Changing the flow of a story, or how a game operates can make it feel extremly fresh.
Didn't like it.
Couldn't really say why. I felt as though the cards were too..vanilla, if that makes any sense. Nothing that really shifted the game outside of the strategic roots. Nothing that shook and rechanged the balance of the game. And once you had an advantage, it was hard to come back.
Just my opinion however.
The new Nintendo device will be a wireless grid networking device. It will both send/receive signals.
The purpose of it, is if you live in a big city or something, you can turn it on, and play with those over a fairly wide area without Internet Access. As well, it will be almost lag free.
Put some voice networking over it, and you have a very interesting idea, although it'll remain to be seen about the range.
They've been working on this for a while now, although mum has been the word since the initial announcement.
(Would be even cooler if you could hook the GBA over it as well and play link-up games through that. That would be neat, especially for something like Pokemon. Killer App!)
Frankly, I think the next gen systems are going to be rather underwhelming. The transition from 64 to 128 bit for Sony took a bit of time, as plenty of good games were still released for the PS1, and the first genration for the PS2 was rather underwhelming. (For the most part. Sony got lucky I think).
Every new hardware generation needs a "Killer App.". From the 2600 to the NES, the Killer App was SMB/Mega Man/Side Scrollers. From the NES to the SNES/Genesis, the killer apps were the increased graphical prowness, SMW and Sonic. Then there was the turn at 32/64 bit. For the N64, it was 3d adventures. For the PS1, it was first the arcade ports. That never really caught on. The big killer app was Final Fantasy VII, of course.
When it jumped from PS1 to PS2, the Dreamcast, first, never really had anything to really vault itself. Soul Calibur was great, but the genre was already done on the PS1. It was technically brilliant, but didn't add too much.
My argument is that the killer app on the PS2 is actually a rather overlooked game.
Dynasty Warriors 2.
That really introduced the idea of being overwhelmed in an action game. Not for consumers, but for developers, I think it opened a lot of eyes towards what could be done on the hardware.
Until they have something to launch this on the new hardware, I think that the focus will be on the current generation.
Two new (and apparently a third) new HL mod releases.
Nice.
DoD 1.1 should be coming soon. Now if only there was a WON version of CS I could play so I don't have to go through crappy Steam....
The problem isn't "Democrats" or "Republicans", it's the public at large has absolutly no respect for freedom.
The thing is, freedom is often seen in the US as a means to an end, and not as an end in itself. Freedom is seen as something you are given, not as something you give. Notice that pretty much everybody will completely trample any reasonable concept of freedom, as long as they get what they want.
The answer is not in politics, but in cultural change. American politicians, for the most part, are either too patriotic, or too pandering to say..yes, we are very flawed, and we can be better than this.
And frankly, Libertarians are the worst. For all their talking about freedom, they still would tear down enviromental and private privacy law that probably does the most to protect our freedom.
I'm just wondering. Why is there such a..well..harsh retribution on the movie equilivient of a hard sci-fi movie?
Why was everybody turned off by the philosophy and world building in Reloaded/Revolutions? I thought that was the best thing about the movies. Forget the fight sequences, I want more thought, more detail, more technology.
The ONLY thing that disappointed me (on an intellectual basis. On an emotional basis it made me giddy) about Revolutions, is that now after seeing the ending, and looking back on it, the story was actually written as a homage to the Final Fantasy series.
Nothing-hero is the chosen one to take command and lead the battle against multiple enemies, only to join forces with one, to fight against an even greater threat to them both.
Then take the music during the battle between Smith/Neo, and the music during the final credits (the underbeat is the same as the Boss music from FF9).
Too easy.
But still a great movie.
Why don't people get giddy about detail like I do?
Start with a person running for councilmen, make decisions accordingly, try to raise to the rank of President, and the final goal, ensuring re-election, all throughout the span of a lifetime, with multiple paths to victory.
I think it would be a bit too complex however. Too bad...
Hard to program, I think, as well
I play online games, almost solely for the teamwork. I don't like Deathmatches, I like feeling as part of a team.
My favs:
Subspace/Continuum:Highlevel play, especially when flagging. The attaching dynamic (You can warp to any spot where one of your teammates are), encourage team play.
Day of Defeat/Counter-Strike:Both, I feel offer impeccable team play, in a bit different style. I prefer Day of Defeat, as there is nothing better than hopping around ruins, laying down covering fire and slowly moving forward. As well, I think that one-kill rounds kinda suck for teamplay. It encourages conservatism which ruins it.
Diablo/Diablo II:Made for co-op.
I'm looking forward to playing FFXI, for some good team play as well.
But mostly, I play Day of Defeat now.
Exactly. Joe is supposed to be anything but hip. A complete and total dweeb. A guy who would rather watch an old cult movie than make out with his GF. A guy who references EVERYTHING in old movie cliches.
That said, he has more personality than a whole lot of more fleshed out characters.
Actually, most of the characters in that game were very well done. Sylvia may be the best DiD (Damsel in distress) ever. As well, Alistor is just cool. I really hope they come out with a sequel, just longer this time with more direct movie parodies, more moves and more playable characters (With bigger differences between them)
Viewtiful Joe and Sylivia:The Return of Alistor.
Wishful thinking:p
Actually the reason for that was to fufill the whole Final Fantasy VII vibe that was going on. The machines as Shinra, Neo as Cloud and Agent Smith as Sepiroth.
That's the problem I have with the books. They meander away from the point so much and so often that they feel totally watered down.
The movies, IMO gets rid of that water, evaporating it away into the essence.
The story is much better for it.
They don't ruin a game, but they make some games worse for sure.
I'm currently playing through Lunar 2:Eternal Blue Complete for the PSX, and it's much better than the original. Mostly because I can avoid battles with annoying enemies and focus on the really rewarding ones.
The problem is that the multiplayer mode, quite frankly is not fully developed.
In a nutshell..
Where's the bots?
Just playing 1v1 or even 2v2, is frankly boring.
Now playing 2v2 while each commanding 6 bots..that's fun.
No set of multiplayer mode challenges, no bots..
It's a good game, and a good engine. Not the best 'tho. Timesplitters 2 was overall a much better game.
(Although I'll stick to Day of Defeat if it's ok.)
The thing is, this tends to happen among all entertainment mediums.
You get the people who think the best movies were made in the 30's and 40's and everything now is crap.
You get the people who won't read a book that was written this century.
All the same, you do find some people that believe that modern games are atrocious compared to the "classics".
It's just a matter of taste.
Myself? A lot of those games have aged very poorly. They didn't have enough interesting gameplay to really make themselves compelling in a larger marketplace. Look through the MAME lists sometime, and see just how many duds there were. How many stupid Galaga clones there were without any fun gameplay. How many silly beat-em-up games there were.
Now, there are some games that have aged well I think. Bubble Bobble, Wonder Boy in Monster Land, pretty much all of Capcom's CPS-2 games, and the Konami licensed games. (TMNT, Simpsons, GI Joe X-Men). SMB 3 and Yoshi's Island for platformers. All the FF games, pretty much and DW 4. SFII is still a great fighting game.
But all the same, they are making some pretty damn great games today. Without thinking too deep, Viewtiful Joe, DDR, Metroid Prime, Wind Waker, Halo, GTA 3/VC, Dynasty Warriors series...etc.
All of those games give me an experience that wasn't possible a few years ago. An experience that is wonderfully fun.
I'm amazed at the amount of support that Luskin is getting here. Just shocked, to be honest. Here's the equivilent.
Slashdot reports on an article on how Microsoft is neglecting security concerns, and how they are being negligent.
Microsoft, in turn threatens to sue Slashdot, and erase derogatory postings they might have.
People would be up in arms..wouldn't they?
This is a SLAPP suit...a lawyerpoint exposition..nothing more. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if there are some other interests behind Luskin.
And to those people who say "Who cares..it's just bloggers", frankly, the ignorance astounds me. America has a long history of such grassroots information trading..a good portion of it, yes, anonymous.
The liberal "blogosphere", as it is called, is one of the most important things to happen to American politics in years. It's as influential now as talk radio was for the conservatives in the 80's and 90's.
In fact, it's even better. The decentralized nature of it, gives more people a voice. The open forum nature of it as well, facilitates actual discussion.
If you actually want to see what's going on, other than Atrios' site (which is a good one), try dailyKos.com or calpundit.com for a good start.
"Sales vs. Shipped"
Sheesh.
Any guesses to what game I'm currently playing?
In any case, Viewtiful Joe, has some of the best new characters I've seen in a long time. Not too much of a story, but the game itself screams personality.
It doesn't hurt that the game itself is the most kick-ass game to come out in a long time...
No argument there.
What i'm saying, is that Hitler's march should have been stopped WAY before France. That "D-Day" should not have been necessary, because a beachhead should have been estabilished, to land troops and supplies.
Maybe I'm incorrect, but all the same, it's how I feel about the subject, on an emotional basis
Actually, that's exactly how I feel. I feel that the US should have been involved before Pearl Harbour. (And they were, unoficially, see the story of the Dam Bursters, many of who were Americans).
That they wern't...frankly I can't even think about it without tearing up.
I think you misunderstand me. What "offends" me about Normandy, is that it had to happen. My feeling is that such a beach landing, was only forced by an isolationist stance that was pretty prevailent throughout the US at this time. The US should have been involved as soon as Hitler left Germany.
Most of them were, undoubtedly, very accurate. However, I can't play them without crying. Thinking about the lost life, that was basically wasted because of stupid isoloationists and apologists.
I'm not saying that it shouldn't be done. Just that I..physically and emotionally, can't stomach it.
It's a matter of taste. Some subjects in games, just strike me the wrong way. For example...
I don't like "Beach Landing" games. I don't like it one bit. I believe that the fact that Normandy was made necessary to be one of the biggest failings of the West over the last centry. That all those lives were thrown away over politics...well...
I don't like in MOHAA, I don't like it in UT, I don't like it in DoD. Hell, I don't even like it in Conkers Bad Fur Day. Not saying that they shouldn't make it..just that I won't play it. (BTW, the rest of those games didn't bother me. Weird huh?)
In any case. It is a matter of taste, and it doesn't bother me what anybody else does. I'll make the decisions for myself, thank you very much. Often on an arbitrary basis too! See, I'm allowed to do that:)
Actually, if you want to know of the real impact of MP3s and P2P, where it has really hurt.
Radio listenership is down by a vast amount. People are choosing to make their own playlists when able.
In essence, that is what we are talking about. Creative "meme" control.
Some of those old "classics", just did not stand the test of time. My opinion is, that a whole lot of them have serious problems. They just didn't age well.
For example, take Pac-Man. Same Maze, every time. Very repetitive. (Ms. Pac-Man has aged much more gracefully.)
Zelda 1:VERY annoying gameplay. The fact that the sword goes straight out, and the controls are very blocky almost make it unplayable.
On the other hand, a few games have stood the test of time IMO. Bubble Bobble, Wonder Boy in Monster Land, Gauntlet, Arkanoid. SMB 1 and 3.
Strangely enough, even back then I didn't like the repetetive/annoying classics. I'd find my favorite games and play them over and over.
The other thing is that the same thing happened with movies. Before maybe 20 years ago, an overwhelming % of movies were just plain horrid. Glitter-level bad. However, a lot of people tend to forget that and just pine for the "good-ol days"..which never existed.
Exactly. That guy is a damn genius. I think the article has a good point, but the Final Fantasy games are in a league of their own.
As personal taste, I much prefer the soundtrack to FF7 to FF6. Especially Aeris's Theme (Death) and One-Winged Angel.