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16 years ago
My journal is so very, very stale.. so here's some thoughts on some video games I've been playing.
Dragon Age Origins. I thought this game would be right up my alley, and a lot of people whose opinions I trust love this game, but I just can't seem to get into it. It's mostly the combat system that's bugging me. I was promised an intricate strategic experience, but I don't see any evidence of that in the early game. Sure, you can pause the game and fire off a spell or ability, but during the long recharge times you're left with the stupid old MMO standby of watching your guy and a monster run through their attack animation cycles while facing each other until one falls over. Lame lame lame lame LAME. There's no physicality to it. Sure, the story may be dynamic and engrossing, but if the game itself is no fun (and I don't see any evidence of that, either) why bother? Also, launch day DLC can go eat a dick.
Torchlight. It's an honest Diablo clone made by people who've made a lot of Diablo clones, and also Diablo. I haven't quite reached the end yet but it's been really solid, and it is ever so pretty. Some of the monsters are pretty damn smexy, too. My one complaint: the difficulty curve, at least for mages, seems a little unbalanced (too easy at the start, too hard near the end). The possibility of good mods for this game is promising. Good enough to tide me over until Diablo III comes out.
Demons' Souls. That physicality that's missing from Dragon Age? It's here. You can practically feel the weight of your weapons. The combat here is glorious, but the gameplay mechanics around player death are infuriating. The dedication required to get past any particular part of the game is both refreshing and truly painful.
Dwarf Fortress. Oh my God. This game has tunneled into my brain and refuses to leave. Don't let the ASCIIish graphics fool you -- this is an intricate civilization-building sim that plays out in deeper 3D than any game presented in actual 3D ever has. It's Dungeon Keeper plus Civilization plus Legos, as interpreted by Nethack. If you're trying to get into this game, look for the "complete and utter newby" tutorial on the web, because most other tutorials (including the in-game help) are absolute crap.
Dragon Age Origins. I thought this game would be right up my alley, and a lot of people whose opinions I trust love this game, but I just can't seem to get into it. It's mostly the combat system that's bugging me. I was promised an intricate strategic experience, but I don't see any evidence of that in the early game. Sure, you can pause the game and fire off a spell or ability, but during the long recharge times you're left with the stupid old MMO standby of watching your guy and a monster run through their attack animation cycles while facing each other until one falls over. Lame lame lame lame LAME. There's no physicality to it. Sure, the story may be dynamic and engrossing, but if the game itself is no fun (and I don't see any evidence of that, either) why bother? Also, launch day DLC can go eat a dick.
Torchlight. It's an honest Diablo clone made by people who've made a lot of Diablo clones, and also Diablo. I haven't quite reached the end yet but it's been really solid, and it is ever so pretty. Some of the monsters are pretty damn smexy, too. My one complaint: the difficulty curve, at least for mages, seems a little unbalanced (too easy at the start, too hard near the end). The possibility of good mods for this game is promising. Good enough to tide me over until Diablo III comes out.
Demons' Souls. That physicality that's missing from Dragon Age? It's here. You can practically feel the weight of your weapons. The combat here is glorious, but the gameplay mechanics around player death are infuriating. The dedication required to get past any particular part of the game is both refreshing and truly painful.
Dwarf Fortress. Oh my God. This game has tunneled into my brain and refuses to leave. Don't let the ASCIIish graphics fool you -- this is an intricate civilization-building sim that plays out in deeper 3D than any game presented in actual 3D ever has. It's Dungeon Keeper plus Civilization plus Legos, as interpreted by Nethack. If you're trying to get into this game, look for the "complete and utter newby" tutorial on the web, because most other tutorials (including the in-game help) are absolute crap.
Its pretty good if anyone else wants to try it, I'll look up the 'complete and utter newby' one as well
Here is the video tutorials, complete with about 400 minutes! :D
http://www.bay12games.com/forum/ind.....?topic=28477.0
And I've been tossing up whether or not to get Torchlight, because it does look pretty awesome.
From what I've seen on Demon's Souls I really want it, it looks amazingly in depth and very immersive.
Aaaand, I have never heard of Dwarf Fortress, but I will definitely have a look at it.
I have found porn in DF, which amused me greatly ("On the wall is an engraving of an elf and a human engaged in a shameful act").
My second experience with HFS involved Spirits of Fire and didn't exactly end well.
im a cautious person.
A true beast of a game. Its nice to know that you get the same feeling of pioleting an AC as you do your class in a world with the odds stacked against you - From Software really kept up their prose in providing a game with an epic feeling to it. It bothers me though to think that the servers might die in April 2010 (which will make it impossible to manipulate World Tenancies).
Shame to hear about Dragon Age, the commercials really look rad... its all like "A HERO ISN'T PURE - LIKE YOUR MOTHER" and you're like "oh no it di'n't~"
... ^^;
Something about the tone of Dragon Age bothers me. I killed a couple of freaking spiders and suddenly my guy was drenched in blood. Like it's waffling between being a really dry RPG and being ZOMG X-TREME HARDCORE.
Maybe if they threw in some of those Blood Insects from Demon's Souls 5-1, they could have had that blood XD
Thanks for the info - i'll recomend to my bf and we'll check it out!
As a fan of "Blizzgames" I also wait for Diablo 3 and for Starcaft 2. Well SC2 not so much, since they said that it'll be a trilogy-scennario. I don't like trilogies, since SW:K.o.t.o.r. I'm still hoping that one day Kotor 3 will come out - But not soon, since they are busy with old republic mmo (which'll bring them big money, i suppose). So yay for Diablo 3! I spent many years to beat D2 -LoD with all chars in n ormal and with the necromancer on nightmare...i'm not that of a mazochist to even think on beating it on Hell dificulity.
Dragon Age? I'll have to play it to form an opinnion. I would love to see a Portal 2 but no such news are existing, so D3 FTW!!!
it works just like the old action fantasy games; neverwinter nights, baldurs gate and the such; click attacks and the number buttons are your spells
what were you expecting really?
Yeah that game is fuggin BRUTAL but it does yield the occasional reward for your efforts, if nothing else finding hidden short cuts thru the various stages helps loads. Also the Boss Fights have been continuously some of the most INTENSE battles i've had in AGES! That Giant Tower Knight took me forever to figure out how to beat, and the Phaylanx scared the shit outta me and kiteless XD
............i only bearly beat the Firelicker (lurker?) when he got caught between the bones in scattered around the end of the stage and i kept zapping him with Soul Arrow. (after like my 50th try)
I don't think I've gotten to the firelicker guy yet..
“Sure, I’ll honor your treaties and send my army to help fight the dark hoard that is about to curb-stomp civilization, BUUUUUUT first I need you to find a cure for this guy, save this village, bring me back 5 of these one of a kind shoes, repair this armor with a shard of the ark of the covenant, find Jimmy Hoffa, and…”
*SMACK!!*
“Bitch, when I say jump, you say HOW HIGH!! When I asked for an army, I asked for it 3 weeks ago, now MOVE!!”
Demon’s Souls reminds me of an old RPG with new mechanics. I got one DS game called Dark Spire, and that one has a similarly unforgiving hard difficulty curve, but it plays just like old dungeon crawler RPG’s like the original Wizardry game that was played with primitive vector graphics. This one is a similar idea with new mechanics, make a game that is difficult as hell and forces you to progress out of spite, if only to make you attempt to beat the computer to prove you are better then it is.
And its friggan awesome to find someone else who is as hopelessly engrossed in Dwarf Fortress as I am. I hope they keep working on both the raw and the graphical version. I’d love to see this thing grow into a monster life simulator, just covering ever facet you could ever imagine for making little underground folk make a underground castle of death and pain. Would be also fun to see you do a pic or two based on the game, maybe like some of those funny comics I find now and again recounting silly behavior quarks or just horrific happenings that go on in some games.
One game I might suggest is Borderlands. Take one part FPS, add in a Diablo/World of Warcraft loot system with weapons that can have wildly different effects/stats/abilities/mods, and also add in a Diablo 2 like skill tree system, and throw in jump-in-jump-out multiplayer, 4 man parties, 4 different character types, and even split-screen single console play, and you get a fun ass game. Like Fallout for people who want to blow the shit out of stuff right friggan now. Hell, if you grab a copy, look me up on PSN and we can do some team loot’in.
Borderlands sounds interesting... if there's a demo on PSN I'll have to check it out.
Strike the earth!!!
Except the end boss
Did you max your improved criticals skill?
Cause it still works for me
The new version with 'warrens' will make fortress security a lot easier, as well as streamlining the material flows for production.
Dragon Age: Origins is a good game, but not a great or epic game. you are right, it is kinda diabloish. im disappointed how every game on the market is moving towards 'squad based' stuff... what pisses me off the most about DA:O is how often you walk through a door and get your ass handed to you on a platter.
That all seems to change once you get dragon form - then you realize there are barriers that, if you fly through them, you instantly die. Yea, lovely.
My advice is to level up Alistair in sword and shield abilities and the warrior one that has the passive threaten ability. This will make him an excellent tank and you'll soon have him in the thick of things while you can direct other party members to pick off ranged enemies and stab them in the back. If you look at the tactics function, you'll find you can set your party members to respond to any kind of situation. It really is a very good feature.