Yst

Rome: Total War. Though seeing as it included meaningful resource/economy management and some actual unit tactics, I don't know if it counts as an RTS. Nonsensical, over-simplistic resource management and non-existent unit tactics might be a prerequisite to the title "RTS", and anything with any depth in either respect is "strategy" or something else, in which case I guess my favourite RTS would be AoEII.

Meh. None of my top three or four games are on the list, and comparing those that are on the list is impossible. Comparing, for example, a historically important RTS series (C&C) to a single-player FPS (HL2) and and an elaborated multiplayer mod using the same engine (CS Source)? How does one begin to compare? In other burning questions this day, which is better? (1) The Battle of Waterloo, an irate German mime named Hans and the colour vermillion. or (2) Machiavelli's The Prince, dermatological self-examination and the half-life of Carbon-14. But seriously, not only are these games selected from genres with entirely different goals, many of the options on this list contain, within a single option, both great and terrible games from multiple, distinct genres. Comparing groups of often dissimilar games, both successful and unsuccessful, with other groups of often dissimilar games of equally variable quality? Huh?

For once I'm going to say: download it! Bethesda hasn't rereleased it even once since 1996, and the copies that are on the market are going for 50-200$, depending on condition. It's insane that a 9 year old game is more expensive than a brand new game from 2005. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I saw a complete boxed copy with manual in good condition for sale at a local EBGames for $9CDN and didn't buy it. Thought about it, but I've already played it, and it's not like I have much space for more boxed classic games anyways. Whoops.

Maybe recently playing Zelda II for NES from beginning to end and, without cheating, beating the game for the first time, on the same NES on which I first played it, on the same cart, with the same controller, using the very same save slot I first used 17 years ago. Same applies for Dragon Warrior. I created my character 17 years ago, and just finally used him to beat the game for the first time in the last year. For story elements, maybe in Planescape: Torment. Either that or . Very haunting.

I don't think there's any way to twist the math to get anything like that conclusion, no matter what you do. Going back to the inception of the modern console era, you're looking at the N.E.S., which debuted for $200USD and fell to $50USD by the end of the NES2's production run. Preceding it as headlining systems in the console wars were the Atari 2600, which debuted at $200USD and fell to under $100USD, and the TI 99, amongst others, which debuted at $200USD and fell to $99USD. If one were to generalise a comfortable marketable price for game systems in the NES/SMS and shortly pre-NES period, I think "$200USD falling to under $100" would be about as safe a generalisation as you could make. I don't see prices today sitting below that area, and I don't see a 50% increase in consumer purchasing power adjusted for inflation having occurred over the past 15 years.

The question is, will the action be as hot and heavy as it was in Super Smash Brothers Melee:

I'm a fan of planar fantasy. The Planescape setting, both in Torment and in the originating texts. And Zelazny's Amber universe, both in the ten Amber books and in the Amber diceless roleplaying game. And if this has to be a computer or console gameworld, well, there was an Amber graphical text adventure game for Apple II, so there.

Yeah, I've been tempted to get a symbol of Torment or other Torment-related tattoo ever since I played the game my first few times. I can't think of any other piece of art or literature I adore which presents so readily the possibility of symbolic representation in tattoo form. And few other pieces of art have been as long and complete an obsession for me. If I got a Torment tattoo back when it came out, I certainly wouldn't regret it today. And if I got one now, I don't think I'd regret it down the line five more years.

In fact, a quick consultation with its spec sheet reveals that the system's CPU was a 68000. The 68000 is a kind of quirky beast so even generalising it alone (let alone the graphics and sound chips on the Jaguar's board) is a bit hard, but the bottom line is, if you want to measure things in terms of CPU bus width, as was the style at the time, well, the 68000 operated on a 16-bit CPU bus and so the Jaguar, measured in terms of CPU bus, should be considered a 16-bit machine (for what such measures are worth - which is practically nothing). Mind you, I think putting all that emphasis on CPU bus width is ridiculous (if slightly less ridiculous than measuring system performance in terms of the addition of the collective bus widths of multiple peripheral chips) given the complexities which doing so ignores, but that's what the manufacturers wanted to do in those days and the fans fell for it, so there you have it. But of course, we're looking at similarly stupid calculations in the present day. The days of adding together the widest buses OR registers on the board to get the highest and most utterly meaningless number possible have given way to the days of adding together the greatest number of minimal (i.e., worthlessly unrealistic) floating point operations calculable by every processor on the board to achieve the greatest sum total possible, and the fans are still interested in hearing and eating up every lie the industry shoves down their throats.

Even though it's extremely close to the shot from the film, a few things are wrong with it. On second thought, I suspect it's a fan photo probably by one of the local casts which attempted to replicate the shot very precisely and is just a bit off in a few small respects (position of Frank's hands and of the stole). And yeah, regardless of where the original shot comes from, Avellone's head was clearly just stuck in front of the head of the costumed individual (whose wig is still clearly visible) after the fact.

No, it's actually a side effect of damning material surfacing on the net. laffo <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Looks like someone put makeup on Avellone and stuck his head on the shot of Currie in front of the RKO Radio tower from the second last scene in Rocky Horror without even bothering to edit out Currie's wig. The shot itself almost has to be from the film itself, as the fog, the tower and the outfit are just too precisely right to be anything but the original shot (or an intentional exact reproduction of that particular shot using essentially identical props and the same camera angle).

So I guess my cynical take on Nintendo is that innovation has harmed it more than it's helped it. In-house innovation is at best irrelevant to its success. The NES was the right machine at a reasonable price at the right time, but it didn't make its name on the basis of innovation. And the unit itself is pretty boring technology, with most components being outdone by hardware which had been around for a decade by its release. The vast majority of Nintendo's early attempts at innovation, the Powerglove, Powerpad, Four Score, R.O.B., etc. were rather unsuccessful, and more often mocked than lauded. Later attempts, like the SNES Mouse and N64DD just weren't sufficiently popular to be meaningful contributions. The Satellaview, XBand and SNES Multi-Tap were third party and, in the XBand's case, cross-platform, so they have nothing to do with Nintendo innovation. As far as game development goes, Nintendo is kind of the David Bowie of the gaming industry, in that its work almost effortlessly wanders into and out of the styles of the times as they come and go and continues on toward the next fad. But its best successes are seldom its most innovative products. Nintendo learned its lesson when it released a genuinely unique and innovative sequel to The Legend of Zelda in Zelda II, and was told that fans wanted something more derivitive and conventional which reminded them of the original. So it released LttP as a remake of the original's gameplay. The best-favoured platformer of the late SNES era wasn't anything unique, but rather a very traditional side-scroller, Donkey Kong Country (and its sequels), which pasted shiny-looking sprites on top of plain old side-scroller gameplay and convinced the market it constituted something new because the graphics were somewhat improved over predecessors. Meanwhile, Nintendo's own in-house Super Mario World 2 languished in relative unpopularity thanks to its odd variation on side-scroller art styles and gameplay. Nintendo didn't gain its popularity or make its successes through innovation, and if it tries to innovate the way it has in the past with the expectation that this will lend it market dominance, it can't hope to succeed. This isn't just a matter of the market being composed of uncultured swine who don't respect its creative achievements. This is a matter of the majority of Nintendo's in-house innovation over the years being genuinely misguided.

I'm certainly a supporter of Nintendo, as much as I'm willing to support any console manufacturer, but this appears to be among the worst-argued, most historically dubious defences of Nintendo I've ever read. For one thing, you keep pointing out Nintendo's tendency towards innovation as if it brought them a win in the console wars with reference to all its most horribly unsuccessful and widely ridiculed peripherals rather than anything that actually brought them customers and cash. I mean, the R.O.B.? It sold so horribly and proved so useless that they're now adequately rare to be collector's items merely on the basis of the historical significance of their strange uselessness. Nintendo's peripherals, however they might embody the company's tendency towards "innovation" have always been its biggest commercial and creative flops with the Power Glove and R.O.B. being particular standouts in that regard. As for light guns, those hadn't constituted innovation since the seventies and Sega offered a better selection during the NES era. By the SNES era, the Super Scope, despite Nintendo's advertising campaign, failed to convince anyone (even Nintendo Power) that it was anything but an attempt to repackage the same dumb gameplay concept in a marketable new package. To give you credit, you mention the Mario games as embodying Nintendo's tendency to innovate, but for some reason you mention the least innovative Mario game in history as the example: Super Mario Bros 2 was developed in Japan as little more than a series of somewhat more annoying add-on levels for the original game with a few extra twists that increased the gameplay's frustration level. Only in the American release under that name was a game developed as Doki Doki Panic repackaged with Mario sprites and intro screens to look like Super Mario Bros 2. The original Super Mario Bros 2 was later rereleased in the west as The Lost Levels.

Awesome stuff. I'm not much a fan of comics, but I may have to pick that one up, as KotOR lore and on account of CA having written it.

Best use of a system's sound hardware: Zelda II. Keep in mind, the NES's music production capabilities were almost non-existent, so the fact that any listenable game music was ever produced for it is pretty amazing, but it certainly was in a number of games. Favourite track: Zelda II final palace theme.

Those Darth names tend to indicate something appropriate to the styling of the character usually it seems. Darth Insufferable Nattering Shrew? I'm pretty sure that's what it was.

I don't buy Lucasarts products if I can avoid it. Same policy as I hold with regard to other companies who I prefer not to patronise if it can be avoided, like Microsoft and Sony. So will I buy LA products after KotOR II? Not unless the benefit of the product to me outways in my eyes the benefit of withholding my support. KotOR III might do that, but I'll have to wait and see.

Yeah, no wonder they packaged the soundtrack in the IWD/HoW/IWD2 collection. Certainly a worthwhile addition. As for Baldur's Gate, I seldom hear people discuss the soundtrack, and it's been so long since I played the game (played it four times in a row at release, then stopped) that I don't recall a critical opinion. I'll have to take a listen.

It's funny. I think I know pretty much everything there is to know about PS:T And I've played it many times indeed. But I don't even know where I'd begin, in reviewing it. Years of exhaustive play and discussion of its various aspects have robbed me of the ability to stand back and look at it objectively. I can critique certain aspects of it with a great deal of accuracy, but as far as the sum total of its parts goes, my impression of that was formed quite a while ago, and I'm not sure I can invent a new analysis at this point.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I'm a big fan of Rome: Total War's soundtrack. Fantastic stuff. A couple of the lyrics (what few there are) are a bit cheesy or otherwise off, but overall it's great.

The Longest Journey's entire soundtrack is free for download on the TLJ site here. Well worth the download.

Torment of course. The Longest Journey has a nice score as well. Icewind Dale has a very lovely soundtrack. And for remixes, FFVI would probably be my favourite.

I guess I should furthermore make it clear that I don't think that the KotOR/JE style of play is entirely a bad thing. While I do believe that the KotOR/JE school of game design is sufficient to the creation of great games, I on the other hand still hope that more "open-ended" variations on character creation/development in the RPG genre aren't dead, because I'd prefer a genre with some significant variations and alternative playstyles to one where everything looks the same *cough*JRPGs*cough* and centres around a very few linear plot and character clichees reused ad nauseam. So while I don't by any means object to the KotOR/JE style of play in principle, I'd like something different once in a while instead of universal convergence. And incidentally, I think the idea of being able to choose from complex and detailed but strikingly different character types (which don't merely *look* different or simply do different amounts of damage) at character creation is a quality which I'd like to see maintained

Definitely, just for a change, I'd like to play a master, with a padawan of my own. No excuses for the protagonist not having a significant backstory, or not knowing his past, but having it all filled in ultimately by prefab cinematics and binary (good guy/bad guy) dialogue choices. I like that KotOR and KotOR II try to break away from the traditional RPG formulas by having a character with a meaningful history and identity, but I think it can go further, and the amnesia trope is an unfortunate and now overused cop-out as far as character development goes. Though I know open endedness flies in the face of the idea that games should throw all the better qualites of the RPG gaming genre out the window in order to better emulate the appearance of being a semi-interactive Hollywood movies, I'd nevertheless hope for as much open endedness as possible in the next generation. Let the character be a character from the start, and not a blank slate (e.g., the anonymous padawan who becomes the 'chosen one') to be inscribed with characteristics assigned by a script. Let the character be a master, with a history and a personality if he so chooses. Maybe the days of open-ended character creation are dead, and we're all destined to play at best whichever we choose from two available prefabricated personalities (Evil Anonymous Student/Adventurer who becomes The Chosen One or Good Anonymous Student/Adventurer who becomes The Chosen One) defined by dialogue choices of each kind in any RPG from this day forward, but I hope that's not the case.