Gaming I'm sick of RPG reviewers.

[kpeezy]

WAAAAH Pitchfork Media gave my favorite band a bad reviewwww waaaaaah

 

[Hitto]

The only reason I disliked Oblivion was that Morrowind was too great a predecessor. I loved it so much, I made mods for it. Oblivion, with it graphic style of quite-traditional med-fan seemed like a watered-down sequel. Also, leveled items worked so much better in morrow.

On topic : RPGs are pretty hard to rate and review. I, for example, don't really care about story in an RPG, but prefer to avoid turn-based combat; But I love roguelikes too. But I hate grinding. But I like experimenting whenever there's a crafting system. But I hate mini-games.
In the end, there is no perfect RPG.
(except morrowind, dammit!)

 

[Kyuketsuki_M]

The West invented video games ...

Just for that comment alone, you've lost all sense of credibility. I wouldn't even bother argueing...you're a lost cause.

 

[Bob Evil]

Video games were invented in the West.

Spacewar! was invented at M.I.T. in 1961 ... The Cathode Ray Amusement Device was invented in 1947, by Thomas Goldsmith Jr. ... The first version of Pong was invented in 1958 by William Higinbotham ... NIMROD was unveiled at the 1951 Festival of Britain ... Ralph Baer began development of the first home system in the 60s ... it was called the Brown Box.

... and I can go on.

All early video games were invented in the West.

 

[Grimalkin]

The West invented video games ...

Just for that comment alone, you've lost all sense of credibility. I wouldn't even bother argueing...you're a lost cause.

I believe you're the one who's lost credibility. The first ever Human Computer Interaction example was a graphical version of Tic Tac Toe which was made in 1952 by A. S. Douglas. Which spawned the first video game ever created in 1958 called 'Tennis for Two' by William Higinbotham. Spacewar was created four years later, in 1962, being the first video game intended for computer use by a man named Steve Russell. It is arguable that the first video game was the Cathode Ray Tube by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann, but it was not intended as a game, but more of an example of how humans could interact with machines.

 

[papyrus]

i see that everyone do their homework.

 

[FAST6191]

First can I suggest some of you have a go at avencast: rise of the mage. It is not genre defining like some of the elder scrolls games or might and magic (on to that shortly) but I really enjoyed it (up until my PC decided to die the other day). Dare I say it is like an earlier build of what Fable should have been.

RPGs now, at the risk of sounding somewhat idiotic I do not especially like RPGs but they seem to be a fairly good delivery mechanism for complexity, interaction and a half decent story so I bear with them (at least until something comes along I can make into what I want to play).

I ranted in the past and see no need for copying and pasting it: http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=55230

Oblivion vs Morrowind: do not get me wrong I played it shortly after I built my new PC and sunk many many hours into it but it was like the time I played Deus Ex: Invisible War having recently replayed Deus Ex. A good game if taken at face value but when you consider the pedigree it feels slightly dumbed down (stats, spells, fewer weapon classes (I was a spear wielding mage in morrowind and loving every minute of it), big for the sake of being big, no "impossible" enemies but this has all been covered). Morrowind also felt darker while Oblivion felt almost pantomime in comparison when it attempted to portray a downtrodden area with the only possible exception being the first (in terms of the story anyhow) gate and the ruined town). However having now played The Witcher that raised the bar for "dark" settings.
However I became a rom hacker/modder as I felt I could do better and I am great fan of improving things as opposed to making new ones and arguably the first step in that is if you find something is dreadfully overpowered do not use it if there is no harder mode.

Real time versus turn based: I say everyone adopts the Might and Magic method of letting the user choose at the drop of a hat: I come across a band of goblins and a volley of arrows takes the all down and they act as little more than entertainment en route to a new place. I come across a dragon/minotaur and I switch to turn based to try and stay alive or escape.
Minigames: forcing them is bad but rewards for well executed ones are good.

As for reviews while they are largely not going to match up with what I want I say learn to read between the lines for while I have time to spare I do not have enough to play around with something that clearly has no potential and reviews are pretty good at picking up on that. For example I read plenty of reviews slating the xbox ninja gaiden titles for being too hard so I picked it up. It was hard but never did I feel overwhelmed: any health lost was my own damn fault most of the time.
I read (actually watched) reviews for The Witcher saying potion making was too hard (it turned out it was not the case and compared to some it was actually simple for me).

 

[Raestloz]

Don't know what happened to the other pages but I only read the 1st post

Well, reviews depends on the reviewer's taste. A fighter fan would do poorly to review Harvest Moon DS, while Strategy fan would not review Dynasty Warriors well.

try 1up.com for reviews, those are a bunch of pretty honest peoples for reviews.

That's all there is to it.

 

[Bob Evil]

Don't know what happened to the other pages but I only read the 1st post

Well, reviews depends on the reviewer's taste. A fighter fan would do poorly to review Harvest Moon DS, while Strategy fan would not review Dynasty Warriors well.

try 1up.com for reviews, those are a bunch of pretty honest peoples for reviews.

That's all there is to it.

Some magazines used to have specialist reviewers ... each reviewer had their own genre to review, and never reviewed games from other genres, at all.

That was a while ago though ... I have no idea if any magazine still uses a system like that, as I don't buy magazines, because I get all my preview stuff online, and don't care about reviews.

 

[Grimalkin]

Personally, I'd rather hear the opinions of my fellow Tempers and make judgment based on an average. Rather than reading from a website like IGN or Gamespot.

 

[jalaneme]

I believe you're the one who's lost credibility. The first ever Human Computer Interaction example was a graphical version of Tic Tac Toe which was made in 1952 by A. S. Douglas. Which spawned the first video game ever created in 1958 called 'Tennis for Two' by William Higinbotham. Spacewar was created four years later, in 1962, being the first video game intended for computer use by a man named Steve Russell. It is arguable that the first video game was the Cathode Ray Tube by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann, but it was not intended as a game, but more of an example of how humans could interact with machines.

the americans indeed create the term "video games" but it was the japanese who have evolved it what it is now, without them we would be never playing great games such as zelda mario nintendo sony and so on, don't be so quick to bring the japanese down.

 

[Bob Evil]

It's not a matter of bringing the Japanese down, it's a matter of who did what first, in this case.

 

[Grimalkin]

I believe you're the one who's lost credibility. The first ever Human Computer Interaction example was a graphical version of Tic Tac Toe which was made in 1952 by A. S. Douglas. Which spawned the first video game ever created in 1958 called 'Tennis for Two' by William Higinbotham. Spacewar was created four years later, in 1962, being the first video game intended for computer use by a man named Steve Russell. It is arguable that the first video game was the Cathode Ray Tube by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann, but it was not intended as a game, but more of an example of how humans could interact with machines.

the americans indeed create the term "video games" but it was the japanese who have evolved it what it is now, without them we would be never playing great games such as zelda mario nintendo sony and so on, don't be so quick to bring the japanese down.

I wasn't bringing them down. Actually, I could go on for days on how the Japanese improved the gaming industry (and programming in general).

 

[cutterjohn]

Wizardry 8 had many red herrings, it wasn't a complete game unlike Wizardry 6 or 7. Wizardry 8 itself was a good game, but due to lack of funding and production problems it never became what Sir-Tech had in envisioned for it to be. Did you ever play Baldur's Gate or its' sequel? These were great CRPG's. The problem is, gamers are far more demanding, and as such developers cannot always deliver what people desire.

I tried to play BG and other Infinity Engline games many times, but the looks-like, smells-like RT engine turned me off, especially since the AI was so useless, and trying to control a party manually in what is, esssentially realtime is a major PITA. (Pausing was no help either as it paused far too often and wasn't customizeable enough to fix that. I ended up with both Mac(for my notebooks) & Windows(for my desktop) versions of BG and still never managed to finish them!)

I've gotten about halfway through both NWN & NWN2's main quests as well, before running into boredom again, but I still plug away at those now and then. NWN1 under linux, and 2 in Windows...

In the end I got about half way through both of them before other better games came out which I started playing, then just never got around to going back to the BGs before I had forgotten where I was at in them. I really missed the highly tactical turn based combat from the SSI gold box days, even if the plots back then were incredibly shallow the combat was fun, and the balancing was usually very good.

Wizardry 8 is, primarily in comparison to other RPGs out at the time, e.g. Wizards & Warriors, Morrowind, etc. Wizardry 8 was the best of the lot, and still a pretty good game IMO and one of my favorites. It's too bad that they didn't make enough money off of the release to fund Wizardry 9 or an expansion of some type.

I'm still waiting to see if Cleve ever coughs up Grimoire, as if it's even remotely like W7 it should be fun for a while, even if it looks horribly dated by the time that he gets around to finishing and releasing it.

Eschalon Book I from Basilisk Games wasn't too terribly bad either.

The Witcher was fun for an ARPG as well. Probably because it was an entirely new setting and a darker more adult oriented game. The first English translated book (The Last Wish) should be out in May in the US. (Just finished slogging through the Black Company series again, along with The Silver Spike...)

 

[Bob Evil]

D.W. Bradley was a genius ... Wizards & Warriors was an fabulous game.

 

[Hillsy_]

Yes D.W. Bradley was good, but he messed up Dungeon Lords.

Wizardry 7

Now that was a game.. Then again, Wizardry 6 was great too

Yes CutterJohn I agree, SSI D&D were great, especially Pools of Radiance and the Krynn Series. I enjoyed Curse of the Azure Bonds too, found the special secret room. Died there too

I nearly fainted when I saw all the monsters..

Baldur's Gate

Thought BGII was Excellent. Just a pity about all the protection spells you have to put up first..

NWN & NWN2 ran into bug problems... rushing games out to make a quick buck.. How many patches for NWN...14??

The Witcher was darker and gloomy, very much adult orientated. Interesting too.. showed promise. That side of the game was well done, but the combat wasn't. Rest my case..

Can't remember Wizards & Warriors, might have to look into it.

People demand too much from games, and the developers have the harder time of trying to 'a please' everyone.

There was a time when Diablo II was classed as an RPG game. It was said to have re-vitalised the RPG genre at the time. To many, it wasn't an RPG, more of an action game with RPG elements... but I am thankful for what it did do, bring RPG's into the mainstream again much in the same way Baldur's Gate did too later. Elder Scrolls Oblivion may not be to everyone's taste, but I do hope it re-kindles RPGs in the West again, as it will be a sad day if RPGs were to ever leave the mainstream of gaming here. As for the Japanese, they too are part of this ever growing circle. The need for both, East and West; is an important one for all to suceed.

It is good to see so many RPG lovers here from all over the world, with this in mind; I hope RPG's survive for many years to come and in people's hearts.

Final Thoughts: Always respect what came before, before reaching further a field.