• 23Nov 09

  Update#1: On Dragon Age - Origins

  FORE-WARNING: MINOR (BUT INTERESTINGLY VAGUE) SPOILERS AHEAD

  After forking out an amount of cash to allow the rental shop that I go to get this game as quickly as possible to that shop, I finally managed to rent this one.

  Firstly, be informed that I do not intend to play this game for the gameplay. I already know that some of its elements are going to be quite bland compared to, say, AD&D-themed games. Talents that seem more skills and skills that seem more like talents? Mind-boggling indeed. Having a Warrior that can pilfer others' pockets and lay down traps that he/she made are very, very uncharacteristic.

  (The systems concerning items and their usage/creation do seem interesting though, especially the tiers of equipment. I dislike the Poison/Potion Recipes feature, but then I have only come across ho-hum typical potions and traps recipes so far. From what I have read on the game, there are some very interesting combo traps, one of which is inspired by the so-awesome - and rather overpowered - Blob of Acid traps in the first Neverwinter Nights game. How I loved those!)

  I am not playing this game for the graphics either. Other than some nice special killing animations (which apparently render the killer invulnerable during that animation - which can be exploited), the graphics are just satisfactory. No dazzles and swooning aesthetics here. Even the highly publicized blood splatches and streaks on characters that survived deadly battles are nothing more than static decals that make conversations look really awkward.

  No, I am playing this game for the awesome story and the decisions that the player can make to alter it. As Tycho of Penny Arcade and some GameSpot officials have mentioned, every decision made in this game has powerful consequences, even more so than the ones in the Witcher. Consequences of particular note are those that occur if the player should fail at pickpocketing attempts, the consequences of which are usually ignored in AD&D games or simply resolved (by turning every NPC on the screen hostile - way to go for sophisticated programming, Black Isle).

  Notice that I made the link to the Enhanced Edition of Witcher. That is the game one should play if he/she is not familiar with the digital game that honors Andrzej Sapkowski. The launch version sucks.)

  If you are about to play this game, just think twice before attempting to pickpocket a particularly powerful character, who tends to require the highest level of pickpocketing skill. The consequences tend to be... rather inconvenient and dangerous, but not entirely unrewarding.

  Speaking of rewards, the game does a very good job of offering different rewards for different decisions that the player makes, though some are rather oddball, e.g. calming down an enemy and successfully negotiating for a peaceful outcome will offer certain items that said enemy has but don't seem to drop when strife is opted for instead.

  Furthermore, neglecting quests or postponing them will also result in unforeseen consequences. Here is where a player's skill at predicting turns and twists in fictional stories will come in handy. Personally, I prefer having my party leave most characters alive as I have the presumption that living ones would give out quests or rewards later, but I was surprised to find out that some of the ones which my party -*ahem*- rendered dead would come back, as per threats that they have made prior to their deaths pertaining to beyond-the-grave vengeance. I found these consequences to be refreshingly amusing and intriguing - in an RPG of course.

  However, I feel that it is unfortunate and dissatisfactory that I have to resort to the approach I used for Neverwinter Nights 2, the first RPG that I played where the player character's relationship with other party members actually mattered in the long run. As conversations can be had with certain characters in the absence of other characters aligned against the former (do recall the sometimes nasty antagonism between Qara and Sand of NwN 2), I had my guy/gal acting like a dastardly chameleon of emotions and feelings, picking out dialogue options that would be most favorable to said person.

  In Dragon Age - Origins, the incentive to stay on the good side of every character is even greater, considering that said character can get actual gameplay bonuses just by having the main guy/gal suck up to them. Now, I feel that my main guy/gal for this game is even more despicable as ever, showing signs of philanthropy to philanthropically aligned characters but would certainly have conflicted with my main guy/gal's statements of severe indifference and/or brutality that would appeal to the more violently inclined characters. This extends to interactions with NPCs, of which I quick-save before and discard & replace party members accordingly (if possible and convenient at the moment) - something that I did heavily in Neverwinter Nights 2 and even more so now.

  Fortunately, the developers did take notice of this sort of exploit, and incorporated a very amusing gift-giving system that compensates for losses in approval caused by resentment against the player's actions. It made the game feel a heck lot more like some Japanese dating sim (except that dates are actually deadly quests that personally concern said characters), but it actually made good use of cash, something which is usually inconsequential in BioWare's games, where most good stuff are found, not bought.

  UPDATE #1:

  As I have mentioned earlier, I will be including some minor spoilers in this update. Read at your own risk.

  It would appear that BioWare's RPGs tend to have companions of unshakeable loyalty, or at least they stay with the player character throughout the story. In the case of Dragon Age: Origins, that's the Mabari Warhound.

  

  So here's one of my character's mutt, the one for my female Human Noble.

  The Mabari Warhound is easily one of the ugliest fictional dogs that I have ever seen. It's practically all muscle, tendon, claws and teeth. Yet, it has some of the most endearing animations that I have ever seen in BioWare RPGs, putting to shame some of the animations that Obsidian used for Neverwinter Nights' (& the second game's) animal (or animal-shaped) companions. The notion of dogs bred for war is not new to me, but this is perhaps one of the best fictional renditions thus far. It actually has a background story of its own, how Mabari Warhounds came to be (legends and facts - in the game - and all) and the game has even information on the traits of Warhounds and why they do the things they do.

  The Mabari Warhound would probably set the standard for the thematic design of animal companions or party members for Western RPGs. BioWare's effort on designing this character (and its ilk) has pretty much put to shame designs for similar characters in other games.

  Of course, certain animal companions in other games, such as the recent Torchlight, would be more useful, but as Torchlight did came out rather late into the development of Dragon Age: Origins, I believe BioWare did not have the time and leeway to change the programming for the Warhound.

  (As a side note, it is notable that there is no Human Commoner origin story. After playing through the game and seeing that Human commoners have otherwise rather mundane lives, I believe Bioware axed this origin story.)

  • Posted Nov 23, 2009 8:12 pm GMT
  • Category: Games
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• 11Nov 09

  Update #2: More on New GameSpot Video Player Renders Multi-Tabs Browser Unstable

  On November 12, I used my Mozilla browser to open up lots of GameSpot movie tabs, as usual, knowing well that the videos won't load until I view those tabs, and the other stuff in that page can silently load while I view another, current one.

  My PC hung, for minutes while it sorted all those new video playing instructions. While the videos appear to have better quality now, the new GameSpot video player appears to gobble up lots of memory and CPU capacity, especially when it is run in multiple tabs.

  Videos don't appear to initialize in some cases either.

  Update #1:

  For perhaps what is the nadir for the new GameSpot video player, users are subjected to a terrible noise substituting for the audio in trailer for C&C 4.

  Update #2 (Nov. 24):

  It would appear that the new player doesn't do a good job in making sure everything that has been streamed into my browser (Mozilla Firefox) stays in the memory allocated for the browser. Replaying a video would seem to require a refresh of the entire video (resulting in a minor but unacceptable hitch in playing a video again from the start). Also, seeking specific moments in a video is quite busted for some videos, such as the recent trailer for the addition of Dark Elves to Warhammer Fantasy: Blood Bowl.

  Someone's Flash programming really sucks.

  • Posted Nov 11, 2009 5:48 pm GMT
  • Category: Opinion
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• 5Nov 09

  On Game Reviewers' Jobs and Reason to Be Grateful to Them (At Least to GameSpot)

  Now, I have some GameSpot staffers among those tracking my blog, so this is probably going to be screened through thoroughly.

  Now, why would I want to write such an article that carries a big risk of offending all the wrong people? Simple, for game reviewers have helped me make good decisions in choosing which games to play. In light of recent, very disappointing games like Fairytale Fights, Painkiller: Resurrection and Marvel Super Hero Squad, whose shortfalls that their developers and publishers thought can be glossed over with some semblance of "unique" presentation.

  Playing games and reviewing them is not necessarily a fun task. Depending on the product being reviewed, game reviewers either will nurture fond memories, or have nightmares burned into their mind. The latter typically results in usually temporary loss of emotional faculties and of course professionalism.

  (No, most bad games will not drive one insane if he/she has to play it. There isn't any news of US intelligence agencies forcing suspects to play terrible video games after all - at least none that I know of.)

  "Well, they are paid to do that - even playing bad games," one (insensitive person) would say.

  Monetary remuneration and other employment benefits will hardly make up for the trauma, apparently.

  Recall (now absent from GameSpot) Alex Navarro's review of Big Rigs, one of the worst games ever to tarnish the PC platform. In his video, he was quite derailed. Of course, his antics was intentionally filmed, but for him to consider filming what is not exactly a professionally performed video review, that's saying something about how terrible the effect on the mind that this game has.

  (In fact, the game was so bad, most reviewers at that time did not even review it - probably because this game does not have big brands attached to it, as said big brands are not so stupid as to not notice how terrible this game is.)

  

  If bad games do not result in uncharacteristic behavior, then it would be severe frustration, depression, cynicism and sarcasm. Perhaps people studying gamers' psychology ought to do a paper on bad games. Examples include Andrew Park's video reviews of a certain game and another too terrible to mention, and These reviews would be hilarious, were they not attempts by said reviewers to keep hold of their respective sanities.

  

  As a side note, notice how many times Andrew blinked in that video review. Perhaps he's trying to blink out the terrible memories that are invoked when he speaks of the game?

  

  Some games were so bad, that the reviewers dare not even show their faces when they do the video review. Instead, company time is spent on making a pseudo-documentary with a persona that is a mockery of the game's theme, such as Bob Colayco's review of the very lacking game that is Terminator 3: War of the Machines.

  

  In fact, there can be so many bad games that game reviewers even have the gall to reserve special halls of shame for them. (2005's dubious honors were simply the most amusing.)

  

  WARNING: CLICKING ON ABOVE PICTURES WILL LEAD TO VIDEOS OR WEBPAGES THAT MAY INDIRECTLY CAUSE INJURIES FROM EXCESSIVE EXPRESSIONS OF AMUSEMENT

  2nd. WARNING: DO NOT PESTER ABOVE-MENTIONED INDIVIDUALS ON THEIR VIDEOS - YOU (AND I) MAY GET A TERRIBLE BEATING

  Of course, for some who react in what is technically an irrational manner, there are some who can provide reviews of bad games with uncanny - should I say this - professionalism. A good example would be Kevin vanOrd's review of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, in which every down point of the game is described in excruciating detail, one by one. Only the most idiotic of people would consider playing, much less purchasing the game.

  

  (Though it is likely in the aftermath of that hideously inadequate game, Kevin drowned himself in Demon's Souls.)

  • Posted Nov 5, 2009 4:14 am GMT
  • Category: People
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