spindrift

For me, the problem is that I grew up and what seems like most of the games industry didn't. There are more games now that at least attempt to not be juvenile, but it's happening too slowly. I don't think that games are no longer for me at all, but I do feel like I am no longer in the primary target audience. Happily, I can still enjoy most games, but I have to try and get into the right state of mind. Which is entirely possible, but takes some effort and means that I maybe don't always feel like trying so often.

Quest for Glory series was weirdly ahead of their time in terms of being a hybrid of multiple genres. I have nothing but praise for any of them. Except the 5th one which I had forgotten existed until this thread and as far as i can recall now was garbage.

He was only just hired there afaik, so his input in this project so far has probably been limited to faxes. ps this game is gorgeous

Tell your publisher overlords that they made a bad decision and to just release it on the pc already. It's DLC damn it, it's not like there's even any significant porting to be done, is there? Anyways, apparently IGN dot com were blown away, so congrats there.

Hey, there we go. CM is pretty public-facing so I'm glad Chris isn't going to disappear down a game dev black hole. I hope this also means some involvement in season 2 of the podcast. How's the first week treating you, Chris?

That citadel demo is extremely impressive. I like the look of how it controls too.

Good times. Best of luck to you guys in the future.

Yeah, Irrational seems by far the most likely candidate. It's the first one that immediately came to mind when I heard, and now seems even more likely the more I think about it.

Congrats Chris (fuck youuuu). When will you be able to say where you are going? Also, this was a particularly great episode.

I guess I'm in favour of more diablo-like games, but, 'Darkspore' ... really?

In this particular case I think that the Assassins Creed series was deliberately made in such a way that the cutscenes really are the story. Sure, there is a separate, better, story that emerges from the environment & the players actions in the world. But I feel like Assassins Creed is blind to this. For Assassins Creed the story is the cutscenes. And every system in the game contorts itself to ensure that it doesn't interfere with the story (cutscene). Which I find immensely problematic. anyways, I agree with you, but I suck at games nomenclature I also recently finished Battlefield Bad company 2, which suffers from similar issues (this post is totally on topic).

Ok a story. In the first assassins creed, on an early mission where I had yet to fully appreciate how they wanted me to play the game, I located the assassination target and scouted the surrounding area, removing guards along the outer perimeter and along my chosen escape route. Leaping from rooftop to rooftop, hanging from ledges to avoid guards' line of sight, climbing up and knifing them while their back was turned or dashing in close when their attention was elsewhere. I then found doorway that I thought the target would emerge from and moved into place on the rooftop where I was out of sight from the guards on the ground but could see the door and could simply drop down on top of the target stab him in the face and leap back up the wall, running along my pre-cleared escape route. Of course then I realised that the target wouldn't emerge from the door until the assassination event was triggered. So I inched closer and closer, still in cover, until I triggered the Assassination Area, but that only made the screen letterbox and pop up a message that I was in the right area. The actual target still wouldn't come. Abandoning my cover I moved closer and closer to no effect until I realised that the trigger volume was in the crowd. The crowd surrounded by guards, in a pit below the stage where the target would emerge. What. Ok so, I go there and the goddamn cutscene triggers and I can't even attack until the target is in the open with a dozen guards between the two of us. You know how this story ends. A huge battle to reach the target, a frantic escape along the streets and rooftops when I get bored of fighting the remaining guards, etc. This happened time after time until I learned to just give in and be passive and fight lame guard battles and not act like I'm, you know, and 'Assassin' or anything. The second game is no different, although to be fair, they do have a few assassinations that are a whole lot more fun to actually carry out, but it's the same basic problem. So in my previous post, by 'framework' I mean they have a basic set of movement and semi-stealth combat mechanics that actually can support the kind of gameplay I want, but then they arbitrarily prevent you from deploying those mechanics in a way that makes sense within the context of the premise. You are absolutely right in that there is a paucity of systems for a game of this length and the heuristics aren't perfect, sometimes misjudging what you want to do. Annoying, but whatever. The point is that they have the basic systems for an amazing high agency game and they don't expand on them, building supporting systems or setting up appropriate situations to use them in. It devolves into lame battles because it forces situations in which a battle is inevitable. And they do it, as far as I can tell, solely because they want you in a good position to watch their sweet cutscene.

What bothers me is that they have the framework in place to make pretty much the game of my dreams. And they keep hamstringing it. Possibly my biggest issue with both AC games is that for some reason they keep crippling the gameplay to suit the shitty story they are intent on telling, seemingly with total disregard for player agency. I would still find it problematic even if the story was actually fantastic.

Those aren't at all mutually exclusive...

Haha, fuckin' Brayko. Worst fight in that game. I was stealth spec & he raped me in half until I figured out how to bug out the AI. Still an awesome game, though.

That is fantastic

awww, shit. With Mass effect & Dragon Age, Bioware was doing story-driven rpgs in two very different lineages. They were both cool, but it looks like they are letting one die (the one I am more interested in) and focussing on the other. I'm sure they will make a very good game that I will enjoy playing, but I was looking forward to the resurgence of the kind of game that Dragon Age was, and this isn't it.

Pleased that it's coming out. Not pleased that you are being forced to be a pre-determined character. I guess there's not enough information out there to make judgements, but having a named character seems weird & points in a direction that almost seems antithetical to the first game.

Only if they choose to display their real name in-game. It is supposed to be opt-in. The only time it's mandatory is if you choose to post on the forums. Not saying it's a good thing at all. Just that it's not like Blizzard is giving out the real names of every player without their consent.

Just time shift one of the phase-ticks, they grow big and all the others turn on it. I don't think I ever killed one of those things directly.

I finished this and it's pretty good, actually. It's a straight-up linear shooter and it doesn't pretend to be anything else. It's fun, it's got a cool story (for a video game about shooting people in the face) and it's got some pretty interesting art (despite lapses into overindulgence. backwards Rs, etc). These days I am hard pressed to finish a linear FPS without losing interest, but I flew through this without problems. ps, finding out that the stupid font thing makes the pronunciation "Sieegulayaty" only makes me like it more.

Ken Levine & Shawn Elliott interview Todd Howard from Bethesda. http://irrationalgames.com/insider/irrational-interviews-pilot/ Apparently a pilot episode for a series of informal talks with game designers. This first one is really good, so I hope they continue doing more. [edit] Also, this isn't gaming related at all. But if you like listening to lectures, MIT has an open courseware program where they host audio/video recordings of their classes. Depending on how lively the professor is they can be great little podcasts on their own. I really recommend the Intro to Psych audio lectures.

Oh, Shit I thought the Pc version was already announced and was being released concurrently. Sometimes a self-imposed media blackout to increase enjoyment of a game really backfires. fuuuuck.

Recently finished Alpha Protocol. It tried my patience almost to breaking point, but ended up being worth it overall.

I dunno, I think it looks good. Colour me interested. [edit] Also, way to be accidentally culturally relevant (Oil monsters).