Niten_Ryu

I think Mass Effect is much closer to Babylon 5 then any other scifi. Iirc Stormwaltz was a big fan of that show. I have to admit that I didn't expect much from Mass Effect but strangly enough, game got better on second and third run. Maybe it was because I played paragon character at the first time and it was a bit bland. Full renegade, higher difficulty and more interesting class (Sentinel) made it much more enjoyable experience. Like with Mass Effect, these walkthru videos give rather bland first impression. I'm not going to draw any conclusions about that and Dragon Age is probably one of those games that I have to play myself to see how good or bad it is. First I didn't like too much about Bioware's cinematic dialogue system but now it feel like something is missing from Dragon Age as it has old skool player character text options. Oh well, I'll get used to it again.

This must be the most stupid that still plagues game design. Cutscenes should be always optional and unless there's techical limitations, saving should be possible at any point. Cutscenes are generally bad if you have to watch 'em over and over but nothing is worse then non-game engine cutscenes that load forever. I recently played KotOR again and I almost didn't finish it because of all the stupid videos (that sometimes crashed on Vista). It didn't help that videos still were in extremely low resolution, while I could play much higher resolution (while KotOR was bad in this, Farcry must be the worst I've ever seen). Thankfully this is less likely to happen with games today as in-game engines allow really high quality cutscenes if needed. Also developers should give players more optional ways to get more info about the story / world. Cardinal sin would be to hit every player with wall of text but it's equally bad not to give info for those players who enjoy it. I think Mass Effect's codex and Warhammer Online's Tome of Knowledge are big step in right direction.

I don't like how Lucasarts tries to push these games based on boring era between episodes III and IV. How many stupid minions Darth Vader need anyway ? They all are dead anyway in few years. Post episode VI era ain't that good either but at least Kyle Katarn and Jan Ors have some freedom how their story develop in the future. And Dark Forces / Jedi Knight series were much better then Force Unleashed.

TOEE had two main problems. First was Atari's poor support and second was that it was based on old PnP adventure. After I finished TOEE, I was sure that PnP campaign wasn't that crappy. I mean we did have fun with it when we were kids in 80's. Worst case of rose colored glasses from my part. I did read the adventure book again and it was garbage. It would need serious modifications to make it even somewhat good campaign. Yeah, in PnP DM can do that but they might as well could have done their own custom campaign. "Let's see how many different type of monsters for no reason we can add to this place" Well, it's Troika's fault that they chose to make game based on PnP TOEE. Bad mistake.

I really liked Bloodlines combat, but that's because my long history with fps games. There was nothing better then to beat zombie graveyard zerg with lousy weapon skills. Your characters aim would wander around and you would have to carefully time your shots or be at certain range to hit. Too bad that game didn't have archivements, it would have been nice to know how many headshots I got. "One shot, one kill" system worked suprisingly good for action RPG. Mass Effect's combat system is definately a step up from KotOR's and zero skill sniper rifle is lot of fun. Whole combat system from how buffs work to manual aiming, everything just feel better then in KotOR. Then again, that's more of d20 problem as something like unbuffed 8 str / 8 dex character couldn't hit anything while maxing one of those stats let you kill everything with ease. On my last playthru, final battle with Malak was fun as I didn't get a single hit thru. I had to kill him with granades. Normally you just flurry him few times and he's chopped. Oblivions combat was fun only as stealth marksman, othewise with Morrowind it's the worst combat system I've seen in any games. Arcanum and Fallout's also had hidiously crappy combat system, but at least it did work at certain stages of game with certain amount action points. I'd even say shotgun / low quaily melee weapon with 6-8 action points combat vs. equal opponents was really fun (especially in maps with some cover). ToEE, Silent Storm and Jagged Alliance series have fun combat systems. Then again, all those games were more like "strategic combat simulators", then actual RPGs (or the quality of RPG elements were very low).

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=aCgeVDLpV6k&fmt=18 Bit background info about this project. Around 3.35 you see that model in motion.

In over 25 years of gaming, Star Control 3 is the only game that I've bought but not played thru. And I'm not going to do it as it's pure garbage. Technically sandbox games like Sim 2 or MMOGs can't be really beaten but I guess max level or max (something) is certain type of archivement. X-com - Terror from the Deep was also close one as those crabmen started to invade my bases just about each round. In the end, I probably spent more time killing those mobs then anthing else in the game. Let's see... Both Jagged Alliance 2 and Commandos 2 crashed to desktop before I could reach the end. But I always tried 'em again after I bought new computer and finally after several years I managed to get to end.

Been playing games bit too long to give good list of just 10 of my fav games of all time. Let's try something anyway. In random order. GTA - Vice City Best GTA game I've played. San Andreas had better game mechanics and larger world, but 80's influence and better soundtrack tipped the scale for Vice City. Team Fortress Classic Could have also been Quakeworld Team Fortress but I did play this version longer and unlike most who played both TF, I liked physics better in TFC. Ashero's Call When the MMOGs where still a very young genre, Asheron's Call tried to take it different direction then EverQuest. I don't think Asheron's Call and it's game mechanics would work for today's MMOG audience, but I'm happy that Turbine took a chance and made this great game. World of Warcraft It's Dikumud deriative like EverQuest and most of the other MMOGs available today but Blizzard just about perfected that sub-genre with WoW. For better or worse, this is a good as Dikus get. Half-Life 2 Tough choice between HL2 and Portal. Valve and Blizzard have some thing in common. They aim for the fun (for the majority of the potential customers) and test game as long as it takes to find that fun. Fallout 2 Better, larger and more fun then Fallout. Turnbased combat is ok but npcs are still suffer from stupid virus. Planescape - Torment Usually I don't care much about the story but PST is big exception. Also best world ever in any fantasy media, even better then Star Wars. Ultima IV Sometimes I still can't belive how great the idea was behind this game. No final boss, just virtues (and how you played the game). X-com - Apocalypse Majority of the fans hated turnbase / realtime hybrid but I loved it. For me it made smaller or less important fights faster and allowed more control for larger battles. Baldur's Gate 2 Swansong for the certain era of CRPGs. Very few compromises with difficulty that seem like distant dream in today's game design. Also very long adventure and certainly worth to play thru over and over again.

I kinda liked this years E3. This is from PC players point of view. Spore, Dragon's Age, NWN2 expasion, Mirror's Edge, Fallout3, Operation Flashpoint 2. I also like the idea of freeform exploring of the Far Cry 2, but not sure if it's good enough otherwise from game mechanics perspective. I was looking forward of to see something from Half-Life2 episode 3 or Bioware's (KotOR) MMOG. Maybe next year.

Unlike SWG, KotOR era is great for MMOG. Everyone can be Jedi/Stih if they choose to without it messing "lore" or role of the too important characters from the movies. There's virtually none to stop players being the HERO in KotOR. I'm looking forward to it. Good job Bioware !

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/36201.html first half is 50's parody and second half gameplay.

There's 2nd trailer of the same scenario http://www.gametrailers.com/player/36127.html It gives bit more of Total War feel and that's a positive thing. I don't mind if world feels bit plain if "Total War" part of the game is done correctly.

I like it. Idea of momentum is great and while it's been part of the FPS genre for years as bunnyhopping, it's nice to see some developer actually try to include similar game mechanics on purpose. Extra points for beautiful Faith model.

Solid bargain bin material. With cracked .exe of to ignore online and installation cap.

I find it interesting that Crysis leads the piracy charts. It seem like certain type of games suffer much more from piracy then others. I read a good blog entry few weeks ago about this subject. It's by Brad Wardell, founder of Stardock. Piracy & PC Gaming Computer game piracy has been around for while now and for some reason many development houses haven't done their homework on this area. Or maybe they have and know the risks and still choose to make a certain type of game that may or may not make profit.

I wasn't too intesrested about 4th edition just few months ago but more I read about it, the more I begin to like it. My focus haven't been on PnP since the mid 90's so I look new setting more from world/universe or rule theory perspective then actual PnP. First I wasn't happy of rebuilding the cosmology but fact is that 2nd edition "great wheel" is long gone and won't come back. Maybe that concept (that I still think is great) should have been killed complitely when WotC moved to 3rd edition. 2nd edition FR creations like "Wall of the Faithless" made sense as those who were judged to it became petioners to the planes based by their alignments (and thus outside of FR cosmos). In 3rd edition as seen in NWN2 expansion, "Wall of Faithless" is just cruel torture device, that players couldn't even tear down because some legacy issues from 2nd edition. Well, good thing that 4th edition will clean up 3rd editions mess. Blood Wars did end, elemental planes totally changed into something else and law/chaos axis is complitely removed from the system.

Funny thing, since that was one of the reasons why The Witcher felt much more like our PnP RGP sessions from the late 80's then any other cRPG in long time. Getting drunk in local tavern, getting busy with waitress, then waking up from the gutter stripped almost clean and totally skint. You notice that you don't have any booze left either. No problem because you're one of the few monter slayers in the world, you go and blackmail some poor bastard to pay you some cash in exchange of some monster parts. Still bit drunk you go and kill few trivial monsters and try to keep your guts inside of you because of terrible hangover and/or potion poisoning. Yup, felt like I was playing PnP again Was the plot that hard to follow ? I didn't get stuck nor lose track of the main storyline and I didn't know anything about The Witcher's world untill this game. I even learnt where characters lived, times when they went to eat/drink something in tavern and who sold what. Maybe this is because I always care more about world aspect in games, then often weak "main" storyline. Then again, in The Witcher I did enjoy both main storyline and the world.

Yup, Harvey Smith is credited as Lead Designer in Deus Ex ans iirc both Warren and Harvey did agree most of the changes done in Deus Ex: Invisible War. Then again, that might have been just empty words for fluff inverviews in various magazines or web sites. It could even be that neither of 'em really agreed on design changes but did 'em anyway because some of the play testers ran out of ammo or were scared that they make "wrong" choice. While not on Deus Ex: Invisible War (it's from Bioshock), there's excellent video IGDA Montreal presentation - Saying yes to the player. If you have time to watch the video, you start to understand how many developers think these days. Streamline everything and eliminate any challenge

Time of 3.5 edition is soon over and we're not that far away from 4th edition. If I've understood correctly, 4th edition skips about 100 years forward in Forgotten Realms so now would be great time for ultra high level adventure. Game developers could allow players to do fundamental changes to cosmos, godhood, even that freaking wall. It would give players great sense of power and purpose but it wouldn't do any permanent harm to Forgotten Realm setting since 4th edition is going to change just about everything anyway. Gone are the great wheel, bloodwar, old style elemental planes and most of the FR deities. let players to take part of the destruction

What is Bioware these days anyway ? I haven't followed Bioware that much lately but it feels like company is betting heavily on Mass Effect series and that unknown MMoG. Mass Effect might be the next Halo and that MMoG might be the next World of Warcraft but chances to fail are huge. Especially with MMoGs. Dragon Age might as well be vaporware and even if it turns out to be very good, it's still niche PC game and that doesn't create enough profit these days for any larger company. This takeover don't really move me one way or the other. Maybe if this would have happen around year 2000 or earlier, I might have been upset about this. Bioware, as most of the successful game development houses, had already moved away from "traditioal" PC gaming and more towards multiplatform and streamlined gaming experience. Good doctors finally got payed big time and they should run away as fast as possible and never look back. Thanks for the Baldur's Gate series, KotOR and NWN 3rd expansion.

I think situation is similar in most, if not all stores in Finland. They got small shipment at release date and sold out fast. Now for some reason they can't get more copies.

Sounds like dream team for sure. Then again, Jeremy Gaffney left Turbine just when Asheron's Call went to alpha and beta stages. Early Asheron's Call was a lot of fun and unlike MMoGs these days, didn't bother too much with balance. In those days designers could still let loose and not worry too much about huge budgets what plague game development nowadays. Not saying that it's only a good thing since most of those mad designs fail horribly, but there was always a chance to see something new. Jeremy Gaffney left to work for Ultima Online 2, a sort of holy grail of MMoGs those day and bonus working with **** Garriot (who at that time had much more prestige with highly successful Ultima series and of course Oltima Online). I think everyone in this board know Timmys positive and negative aspects when it comes to game developement. He has some great ideas but at the same time he can crash and burn development houses like Brad McQuaid or Warren Spector. Timmy is working with MMoGs now and that industry have really high failure rate... Let's just say even if Timmy manages to design a game I like, it'll be commercial failure like Arcanum or Vampire Bloodlines, but with several more millions burnt. Didn't remember who Kevin Beardslee was, even thou I've played WoW over 2 years. Checked from credits and he was lead animator. No arguments there, WoW have absolutely beautiful animations and I bet new game will have 'em too. I think with team like they should go for some niche MMoG genre with relatively low budget. They should aim to create a good game that would be able to turn profit with 100k subscribers and not to go after WoW numbers.

Too Human... It's great to see that consoles have their own little (ok, not little but damn expensive) Duke Nuken Forever type of project Too human was hyped back in e3 I think 1999. I think development started years earlier so I guess it's ok to say that it's been 10+ years in development. Not that I care too much about consoles or that game anymore but some reason design documents sounded interesting back in 1999. Now it's all just vaporware.

Yeah, I agree this complitely. Even the good games in the past played more like strategic combat simulators (Goldbox series, ToEE) if they followed combat rules. BG series and PS:T did loosen up rules system a bit and managed to be successful in other areas too but then again especially in PS:T combat was worst part of otherwise great game. Following rules too carefully limits just about every area of game design. If you use death as plot device, you really should make sure that story allows dead character to be somehow brought back to life. Or met again in some plane. I don't envy developers who try to balance game after lvl 6 or 7. Within limits of current rules it's hard to do even with live GM, so it's just about impossible to do in computer game.

Yeah, same year when everyone was playing Fallout, I somehow managed to buy this little gem too. At that time 3d graphics as we now know 'em wasn't that sure deal and Blade Runner was (unfortunately) one of the games that used voxels (I think most probably remember Outcast best out of all voxel games). I havent played this game for long time but I think characters in game were not always the same on each playthru. Sometimes replicant in you previous game would really be human this time and so on. I kinda liked that, it gave game replay value and it had multiple endings too. It wont make my top 10 or even top 20 list of all time fav games but it was good game at the time anyway, at least if you like adventure and puzzle solving games. Blade Runner crpg would be fine option but first Obsidan should show us that they can make complite and solid game unlike their previous games.