Saturday, September 20, 2008

Coincidentally....

So I realize that I usually change the picture every time I talk about a new media item and therefore I should have put up a picture about Spore. BUT Fallout 3 is coming out in like... 3 weeks and I think it would great if I just left the picture from a month ago up there until it came out because it should be just that good. Of course it won't be because the gameplay demos always show just a snapshot and you don't ever get to the point with them where you're wishing they would skip dialogue because you've heard the same person 4 times, but it was from 4 different people (If you take my meaning) or when you get tired raiding the same cave or ancient shrine that looks like its made up of remarkably similar pieces to the last cave or ancient temple you came through, just in different order. Oh yeah, there's that same gate. Oh the same glowing pedastel in the center of the room. Oh, more wraiths, didn't see that coming. What I'm referring to are some of the problems with the generally remarkable game "Elder Scroll IV: Oblivion". This is a great game, BUT when you play it for well over 100 hours like I did you stop talking to average citizens because they all have the same talking points, you stop exploring caves because they all have mediocre equipment strapped to skeletons guarded by giant rats and trolls, and you only go into the ancient temples because they have those shiny artifacts that the one elf looking guy wants and getting them all earns you an achievement.

I guess what I'm getting at is, I hope they got this sort of feedback from other people and were able to take the past nearly 3 years to change it so that I'm not hearing the exact same person in 5 towns across a post-apocalyptic ex-metropolis. The game will definitely be good for the short term, the first play through I reckon will resemble how I felt on my first two play throughs of Mass Effect (On the third one you start to see where your decisions do and don't matter, and that a lot more really don't) but we'll see how the long term gameplay holds out... At least until Fable 2 comes out 2 weeks after.

1 comment:

jimmylikescoffee said...

I haven't yet decided if I'm gonna look into Fallout 3 or not. While there's certainly plenty of hype surrounding it, I honestly think the primary draw for me is the legacy left by the previous Fallout games (which I haven't played).

The other issue is that there are a vast number of other games right around the corner that I'm looking forward to (Left 4 Dead, Farcry 2, Aliens: Colonial Marines, WotLK, and Starcraft 2), and don't know that I'll have time for this one. Time will tell.

Hey on the PC gaming front: If you're interested, I and some friends of mine here in MD could build you a very competent gaming PC, at no cost beyond the parts. Assuming you already have a monitor, a good system could be as little as $400.

That leads to another thing: I've been running LAN parties at Belcroft, if you're interested. The games have so far been primarily shooters (Team Fortress 2), but we've been looking for a wider variety of games, and more players, if you're interested.