
Dhruin
Members-
Posts
391 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Blogs
Everything posted by Dhruin
-
if it's 0% Japanese, then it's kind of obvious it's 100% other. I'm glad such preconceptions dont keep me from playing games anymore <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Most of us bring preconceptions to our gaming: I don't look into sports, driving or realistic flight sims because they don't interest me. Likewise, anime simply doesn't appeal to me visually and makes it very hard for me to relate to or enjoy the characters. It's simply a matter of my personal taste. If you play all genres and categories of games from bridge to cricket sims - more power to you. I am, however, prepared to accept that I somewhat uninformed about JRPGs, because I have only tried a few. I guess a prolific (I'm told RPGs are the largest genre category in Japan) and innovative (your words) must have wide variety of artistic styles in use. So - what non-anime JRPGs should I check out? Preferably one where I can create a character, or at the very least, identify with the ones provided.
-
I don't think it was a matter of "fixating" on one aspect. I think they had the creative ability but project and/or business management was a serious issue. They lived hand-to-mouth with their publishers and any development difficulties/delays meant publishers pressuring them - with rushed results. And before Volourn writes that was their own fault - yes, it probably was (leaving aside the argument that publishers shouldn't ship buggy products in the first place). I still think given enough time and resources they could have produced some amazing games - but the market doesn't work that way unless you bring your own financing.
-
0% Japanese, couldn't count the others. I don't like anime and I don't like the common angsty teenage androgenous protagonists.
-
The idea was to turn around a D&D module in a short timeframe, presumably for a relatively low development cost - something smaller and cheaper than a Baldur's Gate. I think Atari and Troika both felt there was a market for this (I would agree) - and they jointly decided on a "classic" module...Tim Cain probably made a mistake in choosing that module (and/or not developing it further in terms of story) and Troika was unable to pull it off in the intended time. I think it was a good idea but both parties underestimated how hard it would be and Cain underestimated the importance of a strong narrative.
-
I sound like a broken record but here I go again... When consoles have enough games I care about, like western-style RPGs, I'll buy one. I don't think it will happen. *shrug*
-
It is an interesting topic. As Matthias points out, it's hard to get agreement on reviews, so I think most issues are different interpretations, sometimes incompetence - but rarely commercial interference.
-
Not at all. We do a lot of work with indies, which I have developed further and I regularly enjoy them over "commercial" titles. However, broad-based mainstream sites like GameSpot would give low scores to many indie titles because of the low production values - eliminating them removes some lower scores and potentially shifts their average up. Your article says something like the "last couple of months" - I just wanted to clarify exactly what time period. I disagree with your method of examining the number of games with a particular score since it depends entirely on what titles were reviewed. If you happen to have reviewed a bunch of good games lately, your average score will rise, right?
-
I'm not equipped to discuss Madden but it seemed to be Rhomal's specific example. Every reviewer makes mistakes and unquestionably some sites are better than others; I do particularly like Eurogamer, personally. I just don't think showing that a certain percentage of scores above an arbitrary cutoff proves much, without showing a consistent theme of individual reviews that have been inflated - and I'm not sure that can be easily done. I never bother with user scores but people often point to Gamerankings or similar, so plenty of other people put stock in them.
-
Your concept is somewhat flawed, Rhomal. I don't write this to defend the major sites but to debate the article. Your premise is predicated on each of these sites having reviewed every game that came out for the period, across all categories. But they don't. They don't review many indies, smaller games or Euro titles - this automatically removes the bottom tier and leaves you with professional titles that managed to secure a US publishing deal; most of the real crap is already eliminated. It would also be nice to know what period you counted. The RPG market might be crap but frankly, there are some pretty good games out there in other categories. I don't know anything about Madden - don't play sports games. But... is this it? http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/sports/mad...w.html?q=madden GameSpot review - 7.4, average reader rating, 8.3 across nearly 700 votes. If that's it, you'll need a better example, no?
-
It's hard to tell how much bugs affected the sales, although I think there was an initial knee-jerk reaction from players. I can understand it but down the track, a lot of gamers are discovering that Bloodlines is pretty darn good. I'll take a buggy Troika game over most of the competition any day.
-
Since Australia gets games right after they're released in Zimbabwe, I order everything online - haven't bought a game in a store since I argued with the EB idiot that Arx Fatalis really did exist, even as I was showing him the receipt from my pre-order. I get almost everything from the UK, and GAME have never let me down - fast and often still cheaper than I could buy it locally.
-
Does it really matter if you miss out on two or three XP points?
-
The very end is pretty combat heavy - just make sure you either have some reasonable combat or stealth skills to get through it by that stage. On 1Gb RAM, don't even hesitate. Given the prices here, I assume you can grab another 512Mb in the US for <$50, which makes it the best value upgrade you can get. It will make a big difference to Bloodlines.
-
Spoilers, obviously. IIRC, you have to deal with the Gargoyle in Chinatown for the Regent. When you return, you get the haven.
-
Just for reference, the last sales by platform breakdown I have (2003) has the PC second only to the PS2, with the Xbox third and the Gamecube a long way last (not including handhelds or hardware sales). Further, those sales figures don't count online sales...anyone want to add up just World of Warcraft? I accept those figures are changing but the PC isn't dead as a gaming platform. Taken as a single platform and not every single separate console vs PC, it's still in there.
-
I can't see a single game of interest for my tastes, so no sale. For those of you excited, what launch games are you getting for it that makes it worth the $400 to you?
-
Sure, many people don't need a high-end computer for their work. But it's not as black and white as that...I couldn't count the number of people who tell me they need a basic computer only for wordprocessing -- and then five minutes later they're asking if their DV camera will plug straight in 'cause they want to compile movies of the kids and send the DVD to Grandma. Some people never use a computer and some only ever do some wordprocessing but don't underestimate the number of people downloading music, movies, photo editing, video editing...and then all they need is a decent video card and they are game ready. I'm sure there's plenty of people still using a 486 but I bet it's often an overstatement, because that 486 is going to struggle to run a browser with the encryption to do basic internet banking, so they might say they only need a 486 but it often isn't really true.
-
Dell should be shot for selling systems without an AGP slot only two years ago.
-
Most of your cost argument is premised on this but it's a little misleading for many people. Most people need a PC of some sort for study, work, internet, whatever. The only significant additional expense is a video card. Take the PC I already need, add a $200 video card, perhaps $50 worth of RAM and I'm good to go. I can get a decent three years out of this without changes and PC components are getting cheaper all the time. Going further, I can potentially play for free depending on my tastes - older abandoned titles, indies, mods, online gaming. If I buy (say) an Xbox, I have to play for Xbox Live for any online content at all and there's nothing like the range of options. Anyway, horses for courses. The kicker for me will always be there simply aren't many games of interest - there's a whole one "western" RPG I've missed out on (Jade Empire), no space traders etc etc.
-
There are some relatively small console dev teams but the opposite is far more likely - and will only increase going forward. For the PC, in theory anyone with the talent can develop their game and shop for a publisher or sell it online. For a console, you need approval from the platform holder (Sony, MS, Nintendo), expensive dev kits to do the work on and be able to pass certification. All of these are barriers that make it near-impossible for very small outfits. This is both a pro and a con for both sides. PC's potentially get games that just wouldn't have existed otherwise while consoles are likely to have a more uniform level of polish.
-
So, there must be lots of western RPGs on consoles since they've taken over. Give me a list and I'll sign up.
-
No, they won't ever "die" but we are in a terrible slump. There are some games with potential on the near-ish horizon: Oblivion, NWN2, The Witcher, Gothic 3 and beyond that Dragon Age, Divinity 3 and more. There should be something in that group for most fans. Saying only Bethesda and Obsidian remain is both untrue and a little misleading. It wasn't that long ago that many fans thought the cRPG market was humming but much of it lead back to the Black Isle / BioWare Infinity Engine work...take that one engine away and how many cRPGs were left in that period? At any given point, there's only ever really been a handful of companies known as cRPG houses and unknowns would pop up and add their bit - perhaps in turn becoming known as a cRPG brand. What is difficult to see is a middle market and that might hurt. I got an NPD breakdown by genre in 2001 that showed RPGs were 12% of the market - don't take that figure too seriously because I don't know their methodology for categorisation or strength of the titles released that year - but we all know cRPGs are a niche. As development costs rise to keep up with "next gen" visuals, this puts the squeeze on niche markets. In the foreseeable future, North America wil probably be limited to producing a handful of "blockbuster" or franchise AAA titles - Oblivion will sell a truckload, as will NWN2, but there won't be much of a second tier. These expensive titles will need to do whatever they need to achieve wide appeal, which means old-timer "hardcore" fans might be left a little cold at some of the compromises (in general, I'm not making a claim against NWN2 or whatever). That leaves Europe/Eastern Europe/Russia where costs are lower to support the middle market and indies in the lower market. Here's a quote from Chris Bateman, who wrote the script for Kult/Heretic Kingdoms: ...either we will need to play "cheaper" cRPGs (lower graphics, polish whatever) or accept the changes paid for by the casual gamer. I don't necessarily like that but it won't change unless the industry can find a way to deliver high-end polish and graphics on a smaller budget.
-
Let it go. You'll just have to live with the Baudoin, Sawyer, Avellone and so on being capable designers who will presumably do the best job they can for this project. Jefferson is d-e-a-d.
-
It's not my cup of tea but an Aussie guy bought an island for $26k last year, subdivided and made a healthy profit - so it clearly works for some people. *shrug*
-
Do you mean a console that was completely inter-compatible with the PC? Because the whole point of a console is a closed environment that requires developers to pay licensing fees - that's how the console maker gets their money. In an open PC environment, there's no way for the console maker to make an income.