Another way to spice up multiplayer: spend almost a decade with such an abysmal ping that you simply can't participate, so that by the time you do have a fast enough connection, it's all brand new to you! ';D (I don't recommend this method, btw. The prep-time is a pain.)
I like the ideas in your article, though user-content in multiplayer could quickly mushroom in size. (I'm not even talking about connection speed; I've quickly filled up my half-terabyte hard drive with games and...
Thanks for the spoiler warning! I'll make sure to come back to this once I've finished [the game title you mentioned that I haven't finished, which I'm not naming in case someone then decides to post a spoiler for it. ':P] But glancing briefly over the text, I think I vaguely got the gist of it (w/ help from the title.) And while I am not a fan of anti-climax, I don't necessarily equate this with "too easy." Some of my favorite game endings were ones where the antagonist in question...
I can see the logic behind the gun trade/upgrade scenario, because that's something someone might actually consider. Whereas the Schroedinger's grav guy is far too counterintuitive. That would be like having a special end boss who can only be defeated by not trying to fight him. (Actually, that might be a good twist since it wouldn't be an alternate plot route as such.)
This article makes me wonder what changes they might be making in Starcraft II. Granted there's only been one previous title (plus its expansion), but the fans since who been waiting since its late 90's release will want/expect a similar experience, but geared toward modern systems/sensibilities. (Enemy AI and game interfaces have progressed somewhat since then.)
Part of what's kept me away from Mass Effect 2 is the amount of changes they've made. Removing inventory may have str...
I think television/movies/traditional media still see video gaming as a threat on some level, and are still slow to embrace it as a result. Even shows "about" geeks like NBC's "Chuck" still have an underlying tone implying that gaming is a sign of weakness/failure. And though the general populous has been fairly quick to embrace shiny gadgetry (particularly of a certain fruit-based brand), it seems that gaming is still regarded in some circles as a guilty pleasure, a disti...
Hey, where's that song of mine that I really liked from that game you may or may not have played? o_O
(Kidding.)
That's cool that there are two "Still Alive" songs. As long as neither was ripping off the other...
As far as "cheats", I rather enjoyed the "Set The World On Fire" song from the opening of Fallout 3.
I'd been told that Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO was supposed to be the "completion" of the KOTOR trilogy, but if it's just more backstory (or takes place decades later) then no, that won't suffice. Especially considering how the plot was left hanging at the end of the second installment.
Actually, there was a third Gabriel Knight game, "Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned." But it came out during Sierra's awkward phase right before they stopped making adventure games altogether. (In fact, it might have BEEN their last adventure game, but don't quote me on that.)
Honestly? I had not run into the phrase "narrative justification" in relation to games until this article. Then again, I've not been keeping tabs on the expansion/DLC world, either.
Having said that, it bugs the $#!+ out of me that there's a guy with an exclamation point over his head in my party's camp that will never go away unless I cough up some dough. It's my first exposure to what feels like "quest extortion."
At the risk of sounding like an MMO elitist (which, I'm not; I've never come close to reaching the level cap in any MMO, ever), I'd rather not play an MMO with people too "lazy" to actually download/install the game in question. Especially considering how auto-pilot most games' installations are anyway.
I suspect 2011 will be the year everyone's fawning over Dragon Age 2 screenshots, gameplay footage, etc., but that it will actually come out in early 2012. (Or right at Christmas 2011, at the earliest.)
Company politics make me dizzy, even when involving things that interest me.
I think the last Final Fantasy I tried was VIII. I have very little memory of it, however, other than that I was in no hurry to play the others.
Unlike movies, I don't expect to finish a game in one sitting, or even two. For me, if I can get more "entertainment hours" from a book than I can from a game that cost twice as much, that game has failed me. And though I don't have the amount of free time to game that I had when I was younger, I still find the need to stretch my entertainment dollar.
Having said that, you're totally right -- there's no point in a game having dozens of hours of content if it doesn't gra...
@shoinan: I actually like Tomb Raider: Underworld. o_O (Though I can't say I recall its ad campaign.)
Nicely put.
(Though to me, a story that isn't linear isn't a story, despite what Quentin Tarantino may have us believe. Even a non-linear game becomes linear when the player goes through and experiences it. They're just forming their own line through it. Which may or may not make for a good story, depending on how it's handled.)
Wow, so this LSL is actually worse than that college one whose name I've forgotten?
Yeah, it would be nice to just play the game straightforward, choosing the dialogue options WE most prefer, but to be honest, I tend to go with whatever answer I think will work out most favorably with the NPC in question. Not because I'm being avoidant (though in real life that could be the case), but because I know that game-wise it will work out better later on. The only exception I really make is when dealing with major plot points; I won't do something horrific plotwise just to appease a...
I'm sorry to hear that, actually. For me with the first Mass Effect, I dealt with the tactical portions just so I could get to the rest of the game's parts. Though I will still want to play this once I have a system that can run it (either a 360 or a pumped-up PC). I have, after all, drank the Bioware Kool-aid. o_O
It's funny how some of the biggest electronic news is inadvertently leaked via inoccuous tweets...