Videogames

Message Topic Search Topic Options Post Reply Create New Topic Printable Version Translate Topic

 badrelgnsf wrote:

gravel you  just said you only like linear gameplay, only with 2 paragraphs instead of one sentence lol 

you like linear non open play, you might as well stick to microsofts consoles... and pc ports from them.. those are the only FAKE linear games (like assassins creed... people say its non linear, but it really is) dont know about 2..

also you claim to have info on how games are developed and the intent of the developers... I have some experience in this arena working for small names like sierra online and lucasarts, and even tested for bethsoft..ahem bethesda
morrowind while buggy had an open mod set (for pc) as well as commands to give you so NO bug could EVER bother you. 
at this rate, like the future of fallout 3, USERS will be fixing the bugs, not the devs. its not lazy, its just .. faster.. lol  but maybe you dont know about this area of game dev idk
I do however agree the later titles, after firing most of the original staff, TWICE, bethesda has gone downhill.
Hope good in the future but yeaa not lookin pretty.

It just seems you want the what i call, pop me off games.. meaning, you do X and then it saves at a 
checkpoint vs anywhere.
this is lame... and redundant... if a game has CHECK points, its the same AS save anywhere ONLY adding the horror of doing 100 times the work to get back to the near end of the check point every time.

tsk tsk.. 

as for my last comment.. notice i said USUALLY :P and not something like ALWAYS...

I don't mind non-linear games that are executed properly - Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 (though both, 2 more so, are a bit more linear in the later chapters) are both non-linear through the parts that matter most, the beginning, wherein your character and his party are for the most part defined.  Though definition is a loose term here as the actual role playing is quite limited (amazing writing though, especially 2).

One of the older Bethesda games (pretty sure Daggerfall though I may be mistaken) originally shipped with a bug that permanently crashed hard drives.  Something like that is not fixable with the mod tools and should never, ever be allowed past quality control.  I'm not sure why you think I assume intent, as it's my own personal opinion that they have shittastic quality control and has nothing to do with them.  That said, if I am paying 60$ for a game I expect to be paying for professionalism - bugs are inexcusable, especially the myriad that all Bethesda games ship with - graphical glitches, sound problems, spelling errors, dialogue errors, etc.  There are always a ton, Bethesda patches maybe half of the easier ones to fix for a couple months after a game is released, and then nothing.  The community patches are irrelevant - proper quality assurance and testing would negate the need for community involvement of this sort at all, allowing the community to focus on what the devkits are truly for - making mods, not fixing sloppy ass programming.

Say what you will about Blizzard, they are STILL to this day patching new features into Diablo 2, Starcraft, and Warcraft 3 - that kind of retro-dedication to quality assurance is something very, very few companies in this industry have, and it's one of the reasons they still have so many dedicated fans worldwide.

 if a game has CHECK points, its the same AS save anywhere ONLY adding the horror of doing 100 times the work to get back to the near end of the check point every time.

untrue.  A developer designing levels using checkpoints has far more focus and an end goal.  I'm not an advocate of having to re-do large chunks of level or anything like that - difficult sections should always be bookended by checkpoints.  Encounters in this style of gameplay are better designed, because the encounters play out as intended by developers.  However, when the user can save anywhere at anytime, the developer has no control over any game pacing or flow - the user can save after every single enemy or obstacle one overcomes, and the "challenging" set piece is reduced to a bunch of saving and loading as you crawl through one target at a time.  You're probably going to tell me to just opt out of the save anywhere function, but that doesn't really address my issue with the checkpoint vs save anywhere at all, it's just kind of sweeping it under the rug.

Halo is beautiful in this regard - the first game on legendary by yourself is one of the best paced FPS campaigns ever created.  HL1 was better and maybe a couple of others, and the game itself has a myriad of other flaws, but none of that takes away from the deliberate pace the developers are allowed to set through the use of checkpoints.

Related but on a different note, I really hate how easy games have become.

Edited by Gravel - 10/02/2009 at 15:17

Poll Question: Do you like videogames?
Poll Choice	Votes	Poll Statistics
Videogames suck!	5	[3.23%]
I guess they're ok, but I don't play	16	[10.32%]
I'm a casual gamer	88	[56.77%]
I'm a hardcore gamer	46	[29.68%]
You can not vote in this poll