Monday, July 13, 2015
In Defense of Fallout New Vegas
Here’s the thing. You kids can hate New Vegas all you want, because unlike 3, it didn’t have a constant, unrelenting, oppressive atmosphere of misery and horror, and didn’t look like it took place in the Matrix under the same green haze.
I like that game, so I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that.
But New Vegas FITS THE TONE OF THE INTERPLAY GAMES MORE ACCURATELY, okay? Fallout 3 is the diversion in this series.
These games were always a combination of ultraviolence and goofiness. New Vegas adopted a lot of stuff from Van Buren, and Van Buren was right in line with the other Interplay games. All of the stuff you probably don’t like about New Vegas is probably stuff FROM INTERPLAY. As in, it’s original, old style Fallout, what this series was about from day one.
You can prefer Bethesda’s version in 3. As I’ve said here before, Interplay kept ramping up the goofiness and smut and swear words with every new game, until by Brotherhood of Steel they’re making extended Vault Boy sex jokes and every woman you meet in the game is a hooker who says the f-word all the time.
Granted, I personally would LOVE a really good Total Recall RPG. But I don’t think the Fallout universe was the place for it. Interplay was getting too broad and desperate with it, perhaps in a desperate attempt to appeal to a wider audience (see everything THQ did right before they fell apart). And Van Buren / New Vegas are right in the midst of that, so you’re within your rights to think the tone of New Vegas is too sassy and goofy to be a “core” Fallout game.
But if your only real experience of Fallout is 3, then you want something this series was for literally only that one game. And again, fine, but I don’t know if Bethesda intends to do that again. Clearly, they decided to let Obsidian make a Fallout game that was way more in line with the old Interplay years than 3. Was that itself just a temporary diversion? Were they trying to see which was going to sell better?
…Kind of stupid then to let Obsidian put out something that barely worked.
Plus, I think it came out too soon after 3. People had wasteland fatigue and weren’t ready for another game like that, of that size.
But maybe Bethesda knew that, which is why they had Obsidian do it. Maybe it really was yet another temporary diversion, this weird throw-back to the old Interplay stuff.
But that seems an odd thing to do, when you’ve only done the one other game, and the next one is so highly anticipated by most people.
At any rate, we’re going to have to see what they do with 4 to know their intentions. Based on the trailer, I think they’re certainly going for more of a serious, melodramatic tone. …In a game with flying war robots that yell like drill sergeants as they’re fighting deranged, invisible purple Hulk-Frankensteins. And most of the other Vaults you come across are stupid joke vaults, because Vault-Tec knew the Apocalypse was coming, but figured the resulting 500 years of devastation would be a great time to see what happens to 1000 people when you lock them in a metal box for half a millennium with only oatmeal to eat. Ha ha ha!…anyone would care to see the results of that experiment are going to be BEYOND dead. Why would you…?
But THAT’S FALLOUT. That’s the kind of thing that underpinned the Interplay games. That sardonic, broad commentary about unchecked human greed and stupidity being the one unbroken constant in the world - that’s what the entire game was about. “War Never Changes” - and war is the ultimate expression of rampant human stupidity. That’s, like, the whole POINT. That’s why the Apocalypse happened. The US and China were fighting over oil and uranium rights, so China invaded Alaska, the US annexed Canada, and when we reached a stalemate we responded by NUCLEAR BOMBING THE ENTIRE PLANET. The entire premise is fucking goofy and stupid. But that’s the point!
Google them, and compare the Fallout 4 trailer with the opening cinematic from Fallout 1. The Fallout 4 trailer is about the dark devastation and human toll of the apocalypse. The opening cinematic from Fallout 1 makes a joke about ‘50s cars being ugly and slow, and shows a flying robot octopus holding a spatula, right after it shows American space marines committing war-crimes against Canadian citizens and laughing and waving at the camera about it.
Fallout NEEDS that kind of dark sarcasm. Otherwise it’s just oppressive misery and shotgunning rage-zombies in sewers. I really like Fallout 3, but it erred too much on the side of melodrama. I personally think New Vegas is, tonally, a more perfect Fallout game: it has strains of the melodrama and anxiety, but it’s also colorful and boldly goofy, and everything works and is held together by the good writing and great characters. It’s not too much Interplay goofiness, and it’s not too much Bethesda washed-out brooding.
I don’t need more Fallout 3. We’ve had enough of that. I don’t need more Fallout 2. We’ve had enough of that. But more New Vegas would be perfect. That’s the mix I’m looking for in a Fallout game. That’s when Fallout becomes 100% Fallout, and really works as an IP. If anyone could figure that out and stick to it, it’s Bethesda. I don’t think they’ll do 100% what I want, because they never will (see the Elder Scrolls progression as proof of that). But I hope in 4, all of the Sims and Minecraft and dog-petting stuff don’t trample the guts of the series. And I personally hope it’s not Fallout 3: II.
Excellent post my man.
But dwell on this… What if with New Vegas, Bethesda were setting themselves up with a [I hate to say this] Call of Duty style franchise? They do the core game title. Fallout 3. Fallout 4. Fallout 5. Obsidian get to do a follow up title which is more ‘Falloutverse’ than the previously released Core title.
This way, they get to please the fans that came on board with 3, and the older fans get to enjoy the slightly more goofier follow up.
It’s all just a pipe dream of course, but it would be lovely to get a couple of Fallout games every seven years rather than just the one!
In a perfect world they might try something like this, but I think these HD games just cost too much to make at this point for them to do it. They didn’t bring Obsidian on board for New Vegas as a cost-cutting measure - it was literally because they wanted to put out a new Fallout game, but the entire Bethesda team was working on Skyrim, and TES games are their principle IP.
Plus, remember that Obsidian employs a handful of old Interplay people who worked on the old Fallout games, so they could trust that the story and characters would at least be “core Fallout.”
But that said, they vetoed some of their ideas. They agreed to Obsidian’s choice to set the game in the West, near the Fallout 1 map, but Obsidian also wanted to make it a PREQUEL to Fallout 3, set between it and 2, which probably meant they were looking to tie it into the Fallout 1 map. But Bethesda said no. Who knows why, but I’d guess it’s because Tod Howard and crew really wanted to continue to establish that these were BETHESDA’S Fallout games. Yes, it’s a continuation of the old series, but it’s not Interplay’s bag anymore. It was either simple ego, or because they knew, as I said above, what these same guys had done to the series before Interplay fell apart. They wanted to keep a tight rein on it. So we still got a ton of Van Buren stuff, but Bethesda forced it to more closely fit their new, slightly more serious and brooding tone.
If they were going to “split” the series, they would’ve done it then. They would have let Obsidian make whatever goofy nonsense they wanted, because they wouldn’t have cared. They clearly do, so that means they’re keeping it a single, consistent, AAA Bethesda franchise.
Plus everyone knows what Fallout looks like as a simplified shooter, and it’s gross and hollow and not what anyone wants. -Via tumblr
I like that game, so I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that.
But New Vegas FITS THE TONE OF THE INTERPLAY GAMES MORE ACCURATELY, okay? Fallout 3 is the diversion in this series.
These games were always a combination of ultraviolence and goofiness. New Vegas adopted a lot of stuff from Van Buren, and Van Buren was right in line with the other Interplay games. All of the stuff you probably don’t like about New Vegas is probably stuff FROM INTERPLAY. As in, it’s original, old style Fallout, what this series was about from day one.
You can prefer Bethesda’s version in 3. As I’ve said here before, Interplay kept ramping up the goofiness and smut and swear words with every new game, until by Brotherhood of Steel they’re making extended Vault Boy sex jokes and every woman you meet in the game is a hooker who says the f-word all the time.
Granted, I personally would LOVE a really good Total Recall RPG. But I don’t think the Fallout universe was the place for it. Interplay was getting too broad and desperate with it, perhaps in a desperate attempt to appeal to a wider audience (see everything THQ did right before they fell apart). And Van Buren / New Vegas are right in the midst of that, so you’re within your rights to think the tone of New Vegas is too sassy and goofy to be a “core” Fallout game.
But if your only real experience of Fallout is 3, then you want something this series was for literally only that one game. And again, fine, but I don’t know if Bethesda intends to do that again. Clearly, they decided to let Obsidian make a Fallout game that was way more in line with the old Interplay years than 3. Was that itself just a temporary diversion? Were they trying to see which was going to sell better?
…Kind of stupid then to let Obsidian put out something that barely worked.
Plus, I think it came out too soon after 3. People had wasteland fatigue and weren’t ready for another game like that, of that size.
But maybe Bethesda knew that, which is why they had Obsidian do it. Maybe it really was yet another temporary diversion, this weird throw-back to the old Interplay stuff.
But that seems an odd thing to do, when you’ve only done the one other game, and the next one is so highly anticipated by most people.
At any rate, we’re going to have to see what they do with 4 to know their intentions. Based on the trailer, I think they’re certainly going for more of a serious, melodramatic tone. …In a game with flying war robots that yell like drill sergeants as they’re fighting deranged, invisible purple Hulk-Frankensteins. And most of the other Vaults you come across are stupid joke vaults, because Vault-Tec knew the Apocalypse was coming, but figured the resulting 500 years of devastation would be a great time to see what happens to 1000 people when you lock them in a metal box for half a millennium with only oatmeal to eat. Ha ha ha!…anyone would care to see the results of that experiment are going to be BEYOND dead. Why would you…?
But THAT’S FALLOUT. That’s the kind of thing that underpinned the Interplay games. That sardonic, broad commentary about unchecked human greed and stupidity being the one unbroken constant in the world - that’s what the entire game was about. “War Never Changes” - and war is the ultimate expression of rampant human stupidity. That’s, like, the whole POINT. That’s why the Apocalypse happened. The US and China were fighting over oil and uranium rights, so China invaded Alaska, the US annexed Canada, and when we reached a stalemate we responded by NUCLEAR BOMBING THE ENTIRE PLANET. The entire premise is fucking goofy and stupid. But that’s the point!
Google them, and compare the Fallout 4 trailer with the opening cinematic from Fallout 1. The Fallout 4 trailer is about the dark devastation and human toll of the apocalypse. The opening cinematic from Fallout 1 makes a joke about ‘50s cars being ugly and slow, and shows a flying robot octopus holding a spatula, right after it shows American space marines committing war-crimes against Canadian citizens and laughing and waving at the camera about it.
Fallout NEEDS that kind of dark sarcasm. Otherwise it’s just oppressive misery and shotgunning rage-zombies in sewers. I really like Fallout 3, but it erred too much on the side of melodrama. I personally think New Vegas is, tonally, a more perfect Fallout game: it has strains of the melodrama and anxiety, but it’s also colorful and boldly goofy, and everything works and is held together by the good writing and great characters. It’s not too much Interplay goofiness, and it’s not too much Bethesda washed-out brooding.
I don’t need more Fallout 3. We’ve had enough of that. I don’t need more Fallout 2. We’ve had enough of that. But more New Vegas would be perfect. That’s the mix I’m looking for in a Fallout game. That’s when Fallout becomes 100% Fallout, and really works as an IP. If anyone could figure that out and stick to it, it’s Bethesda. I don’t think they’ll do 100% what I want, because they never will (see the Elder Scrolls progression as proof of that). But I hope in 4, all of the Sims and Minecraft and dog-petting stuff don’t trample the guts of the series. And I personally hope it’s not Fallout 3: II.
Excellent post my man.
But dwell on this… What if with New Vegas, Bethesda were setting themselves up with a [I hate to say this] Call of Duty style franchise? They do the core game title. Fallout 3. Fallout 4. Fallout 5. Obsidian get to do a follow up title which is more ‘Falloutverse’ than the previously released Core title.
This way, they get to please the fans that came on board with 3, and the older fans get to enjoy the slightly more goofier follow up.
It’s all just a pipe dream of course, but it would be lovely to get a couple of Fallout games every seven years rather than just the one!
In a perfect world they might try something like this, but I think these HD games just cost too much to make at this point for them to do it. They didn’t bring Obsidian on board for New Vegas as a cost-cutting measure - it was literally because they wanted to put out a new Fallout game, but the entire Bethesda team was working on Skyrim, and TES games are their principle IP.
Plus, remember that Obsidian employs a handful of old Interplay people who worked on the old Fallout games, so they could trust that the story and characters would at least be “core Fallout.”
But that said, they vetoed some of their ideas. They agreed to Obsidian’s choice to set the game in the West, near the Fallout 1 map, but Obsidian also wanted to make it a PREQUEL to Fallout 3, set between it and 2, which probably meant they were looking to tie it into the Fallout 1 map. But Bethesda said no. Who knows why, but I’d guess it’s because Tod Howard and crew really wanted to continue to establish that these were BETHESDA’S Fallout games. Yes, it’s a continuation of the old series, but it’s not Interplay’s bag anymore. It was either simple ego, or because they knew, as I said above, what these same guys had done to the series before Interplay fell apart. They wanted to keep a tight rein on it. So we still got a ton of Van Buren stuff, but Bethesda forced it to more closely fit their new, slightly more serious and brooding tone.
If they were going to “split” the series, they would’ve done it then. They would have let Obsidian make whatever goofy nonsense they wanted, because they wouldn’t have cared. They clearly do, so that means they’re keeping it a single, consistent, AAA Bethesda franchise.
Plus everyone knows what Fallout looks like as a simplified shooter, and it’s gross and hollow and not what anyone wants. -Via tumblr
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
State of Gaming
"Listening to all too depressing gamer rants, on why games fail to meet their marks these days, wanna know why? They bite too much off, they promise too big then what their capable of.
Medieval Total War 2, was supposed to be multiplayer for up to 4 people, same for Empire, and Napoleon the same. Why they couldn't they go into mass mess story of the why, filled with big words meant to distract you and make you think how they dodged a bullet by being smarter. Till you look those words up in a good old fashioned page turning dictionary, and it all sums up to mean, "we don't, nor will ever know how to do that shit."
My rant isn't the I don't know stance game devs have when they fail, it's their hubris. The fact that they revolve around their games so heavily, when asked what other games they play and are excited for, they lie, maybe this is why games suck massive ass these days, because outside of the games being developed by ass hats, outside their studio, nothing really exists."
Via friend Jesse E. on Facebook
Well said Jesse.
Medieval Total War 2, was supposed to be multiplayer for up to 4 people, same for Empire, and Napoleon the same. Why they couldn't they go into mass mess story of the why, filled with big words meant to distract you and make you think how they dodged a bullet by being smarter. Till you look those words up in a good old fashioned page turning dictionary, and it all sums up to mean, "we don't, nor will ever know how to do that shit."
My rant isn't the I don't know stance game devs have when they fail, it's their hubris. The fact that they revolve around their games so heavily, when asked what other games they play and are excited for, they lie, maybe this is why games suck massive ass these days, because outside of the games being developed by ass hats, outside their studio, nothing really exists."
Via friend Jesse E. on Facebook
Well said Jesse.
IGN: Fallout 4 To Be Officially Announced and STALKER SoC review
IGN reports that Fallout 4 will be officially announced tomorrow officially on June3rd, 2015 on it's official website.
My Fallout 4 has been STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl, very similar to Fallout 3, richly detailed and an under appreciated gem with a great soundtrack.
New Vegas is great as well. After I finished that I began playing the PC game Stalker Shadow of Chernobyl. It did not disappoint either.
Great gameplay, graphics, sound, 24 hour day/night cycle, realistic physics, shadows, lighting and weather in real time, realistic physics, one shot kills, intense gameplay combat and CQC combat as well, weapons and armor breakdown after degrading with each use, you must eat food and use medkits, bandage's and anti radiation drugs when needed
16km of the Russian landscape/Chernobyl area have been recreated in great, rich detail. There are various factions competing in the Zone for survival, mutants and various anomalies. You can trade and talk to people and go on dozens of quests to make money.
The game is 1st person view with many Sci fi and paranormal elements in it, a good story and 7 different endings.
It is also similar to Tom Clancey's Rainbow 6 and Ghost Recon game plus Heroes of Stalingrad.
The soundtrack by Firelake (one song is stunning and hauntinglybeautiful, sung by a woman with a voice like Amy Lee of Evanescencefame) and guitar riffs throughout the game are awesome (yes characters play guitars by open bonfires and will have radios as well to listen to).
Enemy AI is very intelligent and will run, walk, duck, take cover and try and outflank you. Same for friendly AI too.
There is splinter damage, bullets will pass through wood. The ambient sounds are excellent and there are many scary moments in abandoned buildings in the game.
Sadly the game has no fast travel options.
I give Stalker 4/5 stars.
My Fallout 4 has been STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl, very similar to Fallout 3, richly detailed and an under appreciated gem with a great soundtrack.
New Vegas is great as well. After I finished that I began playing the PC game Stalker Shadow of Chernobyl. It did not disappoint either.
Great gameplay, graphics, sound, 24 hour day/night cycle, realistic physics, shadows, lighting and weather in real time, realistic physics, one shot kills, intense gameplay combat and CQC combat as well, weapons and armor breakdown after degrading with each use, you must eat food and use medkits, bandage's and anti radiation drugs when needed
16km of the Russian landscape/Chernobyl area have been recreated in great, rich detail. There are various factions competing in the Zone for survival, mutants and various anomalies. You can trade and talk to people and go on dozens of quests to make money.
The game is 1st person view with many Sci fi and paranormal elements in it, a good story and 7 different endings.
It is also similar to Tom Clancey's Rainbow 6 and Ghost Recon game plus Heroes of Stalingrad.
The soundtrack by Firelake (one song is stunning and hauntinglybeautiful, sung by a woman with a voice like Amy Lee of Evanescencefame) and guitar riffs throughout the game are awesome (yes characters play guitars by open bonfires and will have radios as well to listen to).
Enemy AI is very intelligent and will run, walk, duck, take cover and try and outflank you. Same for friendly AI too.
There is splinter damage, bullets will pass through wood. The ambient sounds are excellent and there are many scary moments in abandoned buildings in the game.
Sadly the game has no fast travel options.
I give Stalker 4/5 stars.
Monday, June 1, 2015
Thursday, May 7, 2015
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Phantoms and Monsters: Pulse of the Paranormal: John Keel's Search For Mothman
Phantoms and Monsters: Pulse of the Paranormal: John Keel's Search For Mothman: The following list encompasses the Mothman encounter reports collected by ufologist John Keel , two years prior to the Silver Bridge collap...
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Sunday, March 8, 2015
Saturday, March 7, 2015
Super Adventures in Gaming: Dark Seed (MS-DOS)
Super Adventures in Gaming: Dark Seed (MS-DOS): Developer: Cyberdreams | Release Date: 1992 | Systems: PC, Amiga, PSX, Saturn, CD32 Today on Super Adventures , I'm taking a quick loo...
Super Adventures in Gaming: Wolfenstein 3D (MS-DOS)
Super Adventures in Gaming: Wolfenstein 3D (MS-DOS): Developer: id | Release Date: 1992 | Systems: DOS, SNES, Mac, Jaguar, 3DO, GBA, Apple IIGS, PC-98, Archimedes, etc. Today on Super Adv...
Sunday, March 1, 2015
Super Adventures in Gaming: Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (GB)
Super Adventures in Gaming: Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (GB): Developer: Nintendo | Release Date: 1992 (JP) | Systems: Game Boy Today on Super Adventures I'm playing the final game of my Mari...
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Super Adventures in Gaming: Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)
Super Adventures in Gaming: Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES): Developer: Nintendo | Release Date: 1988 (JP) | Systems: NES, SNES Today on Super Adventures my Mario Marathon Month continues with S...
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Monday, February 9, 2015
Sunday, February 8, 2015
Saturday, February 7, 2015
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Businesses Offer A Link To The Past For Lovers Of Old Video Games - npr.org
For people of a certain age, the sound of the video game character Mario growing after eating a mushroom brings back great memories.
A generation that played the original Nintendo Entertainment System title and other games as children in the 1980s and 1990s has now grown full-sized, too. And they're returning to the games of their childhood.
Inside the Save Point Video Games store in Charlotte, N.C., it's like being back in the 1990s. Nintendo, Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis cartridges line the store's shelves. Synthesized rock blares from an arcade game against one wall.
"It's here that 35-year-old Cameo Stevens is rediscovering an old love, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!
for Nintendo. He mashes the joystick. His character on-screen dodges
and counters the jab of an opponent.
Stevens has seen the store many times; walking in out of curiosity, he reconnected with his youth.
"This is like one of the games I used to play on like Nintendo ... all the time when I was a kid," Stevens says. "This is like one of my favorite games."
That joy in Stevens' voice as he plays Punch-Out! is what's helping drive a surge in interest for old Atari, Nintendo, Sega Genesis and other '80s and '90s video games. Many people use the same word: nostalgia.
For Wilder Hamm, who opened Save Point in 2012, it's not a surprise. He says many customers have the same story: Their parents either gave away all their consoles once they got new ones, or they traded them, or they sold them to a friend.
"And they all regret it — all of them," he says. "And they come here and
see all this stuff, and they're like, 'Oh my god, this is incredible,
this is all the stuff I want,' and then they buy it.
Games can range from a few dollars to a few hundred, depending on popularity and scarcity. It's an attractive demographic, says Scott Rigby. He consults for video game developers about why customers buy and play games.
"They're at the height of their careers, they're in their 30s and 40s, and so they can kind of make these purchases," Rigby says.
Economists have no idea what this market is worth, but it's clear the industry has taken notice.
Nintendo, for example, has combined old games, like Zelda, Dr. Mario, and Donkey Kong, into a new one called NES Remix for its latest console. Other businesses are getting in on the action, too. Some bars are pairing beer with video games. Barcade in New York, Headquarters Beercade in Chicago, and the owners of Soda Popinski's in San Francisco all opened new locations in the last year, just to name a few.
Nick Chambers repairs a Nintendo Entertainment System at his
store Video Game World in Huntersville, N.C. He says many of his
customers are parents wanting to buy the games they played as kids for
their own kids.
Ben Bradford/WFAE In his store, Video Game World, Nick Chambers is repairing an old Nintendo console. He unscrews the plastic case, replaces a broken part and screws it back together — one down, about 40 to go. Chambers says his customers, in this family suburb, are slightly different. Parents shop for their kids.
"I've come to find that most parents are coming in to do this because the newer games are more violent," Chambers says. "So they're coming in to get some of the older stuff they grew up with, because they know what it is."
But there is one more demographic. At Save Point, some of the most ardent customers missed Nintendo's heyday completely.
Nineteen-year-old Shay Marceau is an avid gamer; she plays the new stuff and seeks out the old stuff that preceded it — like a music lover listening to formative bands.
"I've probably been in here three times this week, and it's only Thursday," Marceau says.
As the modern video game industry grows, more players like Marceau are getting nostalgic and exploring the past. And that means even more customers for new businesses selling old games.
Via npr.org
http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2015/02/04/381973030/businesses-offer-a-link-to-the-past-for-lovers-of-old-video-games
Also roms and emulaters work fine don't forget :)
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
A Plea for the Gaming Industry to Respect Gamers
This current generation of consoles has seen the onset of numerous new money-making tactics. While expansion packs had been offered in the past, downloadable content became the norm for nearly every game, delivering everything from horse armor to new characters, maps, and more. Online passes have attempted to fight used games sales, encouraging gamers to buy new copies of their games or, failing that, forcing them to pay money directly to the publisher for access to certain (often multiplayer) content. Always-online connections, allegedly intended to enable new features but with the obvious benefit of trying to ward off piracy, spread from games where its use was implicit to those where its use is a detriment more than anything else
http://www.xploder.net/news/1631/A-Plea-for-the-Gaming-Industry-to-Respect-Gamers-.htm
The Return of System Shock 2 - IGN
After thirteen years lost in cyberspace, Bioshock's ancestor is back.
For the past decade something has been lurking amid the vast electronic tangle of cyberspace: a name whispered with a strange mixture of fondness and fear by those who remember it; a creation that reigned supreme at the tail end of the last Millennium, and then almost completely disappeared. Just a few days ago, however, it suddenly came back, determined to regain its former glory. I’m here to tell you why you should be afraid and delighted in equal measure.
The alluring monster in question is, of course, System Shock 2, often referred to as the spiritual predecessor to Bioshock, the game that earned Ken Levine a place in the virtual hall of fame. For more thirteen years, legal problems have kept it locked in cyberspace, inaccessible to anyone who didn't buy it in 1999. But now, finally, that's all be resolved, and Good Old Games has released a version of it optimised for modern PCs.
Bioshock and System Shock 2 are linked by far more than spirit.
In both form and function, so much was carried over from the harrowing hallways of SS2’s Von Braun to the underwater dystopia of Rapture. The spacecraft is divided into a sequence of open environments, each with its own particular flavour. The story is largely told through recordings made by the ship’s inhabitants. Most of the crew have been infected by a hive-minded alien organism known as the Many, and are less extroverted, more unsettling versions of Bioshock’s Splicers. The tools at your disposal range from conventional weapons to hacking abilities to psionic powers analogous to Bioshock’s plasmids. It even has creepy vending machines.
Bioshock is a cataclysm within a circus, all action and spectacle, whereas System Shock 2 is about survival.
Yet whilst they are structurally similar, the two games play in strikingly different ways. The Bioshock games are a cataclysm within a circus, all action and spectacle, whereas System Shock 2 is about scavenging and survival. The former explores grand political and philosophical ideas, the latter simply presents to us a struggle for existence, as the squishy, organic Many clash with synthetic AI, with you trapped in the middle of this inedible sandwich.
Artificial Intelligence is a massive component of System Shock 2 on both narrative and mechanical levels. Built with Looking Glass’ famous Dark engine, it utilised the same tech that powered Thief, and the standout feature of the Dark Engine was how its sound system was interwoven with its AI system. Consequently, AI could locate and respond to sounds made by the player, and even sounds made by other AI. This in turn influenced another major theme of the game: horror.
System Shock 2 is frequently cited as one of the scariest games ever made. Despite the suggestive title, however, it never really tries to shock you. Enemies patrol freely through the Von Braun’s metal halls, and you frequently hear them before you see them. Nothing leaps out of vents making weird gargling noises a-la Dead Space. Instead of cheap thrills there is a constant sensation of dread, upheld by the knowledge that you are being perpetually hunted, that something might attack at any moment. Worse, the longer you hang around, the more desperate the own situation becomes as ammo, health and psionic energy are expended with each encounter.
Pervading this oppressive atmosphere throughout is a deep underlying sense of wrongness. The ship’s infected crewmembers apologise to you as they try to kill you. Escaped lab monkeys, their brains exposed through scientific experimentation, chatter pleasantly when unaware of your presence, but shriek with rage the moment they spot you. The Cyborg Midwives are the antithesis of birth and life, their womanhood replaced with cold, bloody steel. And the game is obsessed with worms, hiding them under every shelf and table, sometimes in huge writhing piles. Unlike most survival horror games, where you gradually numb to the unpleasant surroundings, the Von Braun becomes more unnerving the longer you spend trapped beneath its metal hull.
It’s a challenge intended specifically to provoke defiance, for the player to demonstrate their freedom.
Only when SHODAN finally reveals herself does the significance of this become apparent. From that moment, the player is subject to her every whim, and knowingly so. She proposes an alliance to defeat the Many (and of course to regain the powers she lost in the first game). It’s an alliance in which you have no choice, and so you follow her orders and complete her objectives while she taunts and belittles you. It’s this complete control SHODAN appears to have over you, contradicting the game’s own apparent freedom, that makes her such a memorable adversary.
Fourteen years on, System Shock 2 feels remarkably fresh. The Dark Engine holds up far better here than it does in the original Thief. The clean lines, angles and surfaces of the Von Braun are well matched with late nineties 3D rendering, although character models look rather like the developers beat the polygons into shape with a tenderising mallet. The eerie, pulsating musical score from Eric Brosius also helps to keep things lively. The skills system shows its age in places – distinguishing between repairing weapons and maintaining them seems completely arbitrary, and the ending is weaker than a McDonald’s coffee. The game is so strong otherwise though, that these issues can be easily forgiven.
System Shock 2 was probably the last great game of the twentieth century.
Nevertheless, it’s wonderful to be able to play it again; and more importantly for newcomers to access it for the first time. Night Dive deserve a lot of respect for sifting through the rights wrangle between EA and Meadowbrook insurance group and rescuing it from legal limbo. System Shock 2 has been lost in the wild for too long, we should all be glad to see it finally shepherded from the darkness.-Rick Lane via IGN
http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/02/15/the-return-of-system-shock-2
Why I Love Fallout 3's Capital Wasteland - PC Gamer
"When I first leave Vault 101, I can see the Capitol Building and the Washington Monument off in the distance. When I reach the river, I can make out the statues on the Anchorage memorial. Tenpenny Tower is usually a sign I’m going in the wrong direction. I’m never in the middle of nowhere in Fallout 3—Bethesda mapped the landscape so it’s very difficult to see nothing in all directions. This layout feeds your sense of exploration. Following the main storyline is a good way to get a tourist’s snapshot of each quadrant of the world, but wandering without a waypoint is the way to properly experience that world. When I first played through Fallout 3 years ago, it was following the skyline that randomly led me to the Oasis side quest with a nuclear tree man and his insane followers, probably the game’s best. Objects and quests are not randomly placed in this world—but their locations aren’t clearly spelled out for you, either. It’s a delicate balance of encouraging the player to explore and not making it too hard to further the narrative. No-one is better at finding the point in between than Bethesda." Excerpt from PC Gamer
Monday, January 26, 2015
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Thursday, January 22, 2015
Why I'm A Hardcore PC (and console) Gamer
I am a hard-core PC (and console) Gamer and no. Games stimulate our brains, relieving stress, anxiety, worry and boredom plus enhancing critical thinking, logic, multitasking and puzzle solving skills plus reflexes, hand-eye coordination and so forth.
(Just remember people to take breaks every 1-3 hours of playing a game, for at least 20 minutes.)
Also PC Gamers last year raised $50 Million + for various charity's including Doctors Without Borders (source: PC Gamer) and some games run complex programs that help figure out future cures, treatments for diseases like cancer, etc.
I love console games but PC games are the absolute best. I will admit consoles are more PC like these days.
Great memories of not just NES games but also SNES ones, Playstation, N64 and PC games like SimCity 2000, Doom, Quake, Normailty, etc.
The keyboard WASD and mouse controls are a plus.
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
I've Had Enough - PC Gamer
•I’ve had enough of being asked to follow a character whose walking speed is slightly slower than my own, meaning I have to keep stopping every two seconds.
•I’ve had enough of stealth sections where getting spotted means a restart, rather than adapting to the new circumstances in a creative or interesting way.
•I’ve had enough of people shouting at me, telling me to hurry up or reminding me of the mission objective, when I stop to explore the environment.
•I’ve had enough of playing as powerful characters who are brilliant at everything. That’s boring. I want to play as people with flaws and shortcomings. Something to overcome.
•I’ve had enough of games with limited resources (like, say, fuel) that are so cheap to buy, the limitation is rendered totally meaningless, and resupplying becomes little more than a tiresome chore.
•I’ve had enough of the camera zooming in on the solution to a puzzle just as I’m about to use my brain to figure it out for myself.
•I’ve had enough of games with a dozen unskippable dev/middleware logos before I even get to the main menu. Yeah, I can delete them or tweak the .ini, but I shouldn’t have to.
•I’ve had enough of games I have to restart to apply new graphics settings, especially when they’re guilty of the last thing.
•I’ve had enough of menus with fancy 3D in-engine backgrounds/visual elements that pointlessly increase the time it takes for them to load.
•I’ve had enough of games that use a cut-scene to show something that could have easily been put in the player’s hands.
•I’ve had enough of open worlds littered with arbitrary, meaningless collectables that have no real benefit other than increasing your completion percentage.
•I’ve had enough of unskippable cutscenes placed just before the checkpoint of a particularly difficult section.
•I’ve had enough of diaries, documents, tape players, and audio logs being used to tell a story, rather than something that plays to the strengths of the medium.
•I’ve had enough of games replicating the flaws of camera lenses. Dust, flares, simulated chromatic aberration. Why the obsession with cameras? What about the human eye?
•I’ve had enough of big, beautiful skyboxes that are actually just fancy window dressing, showing you places you’ll never be able to reach or explore.
•I’ve had enough of defending a character while they slowly fix a broken machine or hack a computer or turn a valve to open a heavy door.
•I’ve had enough of games that have to reload the entire level when you change certain graphics settings.
•I've had enough of developers not recording enough dialogue variations, and hearing the same barks over and over again until they become knives in your ears.
•I've had enough of having microtransactions waggled in front of my nose, to the point where a game feels more like a shopfront than a place I want to spend time in. Via "I've Had Enough" article by PC Gamer
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