The design and business of gaming from the perspective of an experienced developer
In the wake of perhaps one of the most conservative MMO designs that enjoyed great success, we have Guild Wars, possibly the boldest and most original MMO designs to be released. Yeah, yeah, they’ve got swords and sorcery, combat, a grind, etc, but it’s the stuff where they really differentiate themselves from the competitors that should make any student of MMO design sit up and take notice.
I’m really surprised more people aren’t talking about it. Continue reading
I finally finished God of War. Overall a smooth, cinematic treat of gaming that I enjoyed, although today was more frustrating than average. It’s a shame to end on a down note, but here are really the only hiccups in what is otherwise a superb gaming experience. Continue reading
Note: Everything I said about realism and 3D doesn’t change the fact that God of War is shit hot. I mean, it’s really, really visceral. I haven’t even gotten a chance to play it yet — I invited friends over Saturday, and just watching it made me twitchy. In a good way.
That’s not to say that God of War totally contradicts what I said. One thing you notice really fast is that the hero is very iconic. It’s hard to mistake him for something you see in another game, and that really helps brand identity. Or maybe I’m just playing CYA.
Last year at E3, God of War was one of two games that I thought were really innovative and interesting. The other being, sadly, Playboy Mansion — last year was awash in sequels, Vietnam shooters, and bad GTA wannabes that didn’t understand what was so cool about GTA. This year, I’m taking a pass on E3. Maybe it’ll regain it’s magic if I skip a year.
So I finished Neverwinter Nights over the weekend. It took a lot to get into it, but thankfully, I had almost interminable insomnia. This allowed me to finish it, and better yet, gave me something more entertaining to do than count ceiling fan rotations.
My overall review: the single player game is good, but made me want to run crawling back to the infinitely better Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale. The multiplayer game was laggy, but so far hasn’t really lived up to its promise as ‘reinventing the D&D experience’. Currently, it’s sort of like Diablo with a better story and worse rules. The tools editor is a breeze. I give it 3 out of five stars.
That being said, I’ve read so many people talking about this game with such sparkly gleams in their eyes that I feel compelled to offer the truth. I’ve seen no end of shiny, happy things written about NWN that I thought that someone needed to say the things that I’ve seen missed or glossed over in all of the reviews. That being said, here are 10 things to hate about Neverwinter Nights. Continue reading
Edit in 2014: When I interviewed at BioWare 5 years later, I was somewhat terrified they’d google and find this.
When they say that the game has 120 hours of gameplay in single play mode, is that counting all of the times I’ve replayed the first level because of save and load crashes? Other things to not like about the game: there’s no way to see bad guys down the hall. The only way to see behind walls is to rotate the camera, which results in confusion and disorientation unless you have the large and obnoxious minimap up at all time. The game isn’t that good to look at, with the character models in particular being substandard (seriously, can’t we spend just a bit of our texture memory on making sure faces look good?) The world isn’t nearly as attractive as Baldur’s Gate, as it is all assembled from pieces parts. The story isn’t nearly as good, and the characters lack all of the charm found in the BG series. The radial menus are more confusing than useful. The quests are nonsensical.
And then there’s the henchmen. Actually controlling a henchman is almost non-existent. You can’t tell him to search a door for traps, you just bring him close and hope he feels inspired by it. You can’t tell him to unlock a chest, you have to actually try to open it and have him notice. And if it’s trapped, well, he’ll notice after you take damage. Henchmen also have a penchant for attacking anything they see, even if it is a crowd of baddies much larger than you can take on without strategy. And given that my henchman can apparently see bad guys through walls, he is quite happy in bolting off, getting into a fight, and dying before I’ve had a chance to say “WTF?!?”
I haven’t tried multiplayer yet, and while the game does have flaws, it is admittedly not bad, with Bioware’s usual dedication to quality and balance. I’m just somewhat annoyed at reading all of the reviews that state the game walks on water and heals lepers. It’s not all that, much less the bag of chips.
© 2024 Zen Of Design
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑
Recent Comments