I May Be Paranoid, But Not An Android

• 1Nov 09

  Review Blog--A One-of-a-Kind Roleplaying Experience

  Role-playing owes it's origins to the classic board game "Dungeons & Dragons" in more than one way. The genre as we know today, has not only inherited many of it's finer tactical and strategic elements from the board game, but also the core element of adventuring, party-mechanics and decision-making from it.
  Baldur's Gate wasn't the first attempt at making a D&D based game. However, it was the first attempt in making a real-time D&D game. Back then, the announcement of such a feature was met with ridicule. The fact that it was being developed by a then-little known developer, BioWare further fueled such thoughts. A board-game as a real-time action-RPG would surely end up as a horror show, most of the people thought.
  Turns out BioWare had couple of cards up their sleeves. All aces.
  
  Baldur's Gate isn't only a tremendously brave and fantastic re-imagining of the cla$$ic board game, but it puts nearly every role-playing game that has come out before it to utter shame. It seamlessly combines multiple genres like turn-based combat, RTS-like party management and real-time action into a seamless game that doesn't falter even once in it's 30-40 odd hours length.
  
  Baldur's Gate starts like almost any other RPG of it's time albeit with a minor difference. You get to create your character, choose his/her race (which will have implications in the game) and even a unique sound set for them. The difference is it utilizes the attributes used in D&D for your character. So, like you have a fixed number of throws to decide what will be the value of say, your character's strength, in the board game, the same idea is carried forth here.
  
  Relatively newcomers back then, BioWare realized the single largest obstacle that stood between a successful transition of D&D into real-time was the fact that D&D being a board games utilized dice, saving throws and cards to play whereas one couldn't utilize them in real-time. Here, they came forward with an ingenious idea that is the very foundation of what Baldur's Gate is. They relate your actions in real-time game as a trigger to the actions you would perform while playing the board game.
  
  For instance, attacking an enemy would be equivalent to you and your enemy throwing the respective dies and then depending upon who gets the bigger number, appropriate damage (or no damage) is taken up.
  However all of this takes place, without you even knowing it is taking place. If you just keep your eyes transfixed on the action happening on the screen, you may never realize all this is taking place "behind the screen". BioWare adds spice to this and displays a small window at the bottom showing what's going on. This will certainly please the hardcore D&D fans who love this particular element of the game.
  
  Moreover, on hitting the space bar, the game pauses and you're free to look around the screen and issue commands to your party members. Upon hitting the space bar again, the game returns to the real-time and your party carries out your orders virtually making this particular element of gameplay seem like a turn-based RPG.
  
  If you haven't realized it by now, then any knowledge about Advanced D&D and it's rules is absolutely NOT necessary to play and enjoy Baldur's Gate. However, a mere knowledge of what's what goes a long way in making the role-playing experience even deeper for you. I had no previous experience with anything to do with D&D but by the time I was done with Baldur's Gate, I was well-acquainted with all it's nuances.
  
  
  If at this point, some of you might be wondering if this is all there is special about Baldur's Gate, then one is doing a great deal of injustice to this stellar RPG. Aside from all those innovations in gameplay, Baldur's Gate has got a superbly narrated plot rich in political skullduggery, intrigue and mystery. Your character has grown up within the walls of the fortress of Candlekeep, a place where all the books containing knowledge about Sword Coast and the far-reaching lands can be found. Raised by your foster-father, Gorion, you know little of your past, until suddenly Gorion asks you to leave on a long journey along with him. Gorion gets murdered by a mysterious figure, early on, and what starts as a mystery of who murdered your foster-father turns out into a tale of political backstabbing, involving rebellion guilds. A twist midway also turns the story on it's head which speeds up the and eventually culminates in a thrilling finale.
  
  Baldur's Gate is set in Forgotten Realms, a hugely popular D&D setting containing most of it's basic elements as well as adding a few of it's own. This particular game focuses only on a particular part of Forgotten Realms, namely Sword Coast. The world is vastly detailed when it comes to history of it's races, their relations with others, as well as depicting the increasing tensions and rising suspicions between two neighboring states.
  Needless to say, anybody will find the Sword Coast tremendously immersive and likeable as a setting.
  
  You will meet a variety of heroes and villains on your journey, some of which will join you, the others meet their end with your blade. The characters that accompany you in during the course of the game are nothing short of amazing. They provide a tremendous sense of companionship and camaraderie as you journey across Sword Coast. You are allowed to have six members including yourself in the party. You'll meet various NPCs on your journey, some of whom you can recruit. Each of these playable NPC is tremendously well-written and come with a unique personality of their own which make them instantly memorable. Few of them strike particularly as being instant favorites when it comes to popular opinion. The likes of Minsc, the amnesiac,hot-headed warrior who carries a "space hamster" Boo on his shoulders and has got some golden-humorous lines in combat like, "Go for his eyes Boo!!" or "I need healing immediately lest Boo becomes an orphan". Such lines are refreshing in a day and age when dialogues in games are becoming very predictable and clichéd.
  
  There is also an element of morality and decision-making influenced from earlier games like Ultima. When you create your character, you choose a particular alignment for your character based upon the D&D default alignments. There's the basic Good, Neutral and Evil with Lawful, True and Chaotic being the subsets of them. However, this idea which developed a lot in BioWare's later games isn't fully realized here. No matter how much contradictory decisions you make to your alignment, they seem to have little effect on your set alignment. You might be a "Good Lawful" character, but can commit evil acts without your character's conscience hurting.
  
  The only impact the alignment makes is the way some characters might react towards you. The kind of decisions and actions you take have an indirect or direct implication in the world you live. Often a decision you make might either end a small sub-quest or might instead trigger a major side-quest.
  Decisions like these often tend to put players into dilemma since there isn't a clarity whether being good will lead to good consequences or vice-versa. In short, there are shades of grey when it comes to morality.
  Your reputation is numbered in points which depends upon the kind of decisions (or more specifically the kind of outcomes your decisions lead to). A higher reputation has it's benefits with minor discounts at shops and temples. A low reputation might lead to hostile civilians and guards which isn't so good.
  
  The playable NPCs which are tremendously well-written also are indirectly affected by the decisions you make. They're too have their own moral alignment and agenda. So if you start making "evil decisions", which some of your party members may not agree with, they might start complaining more, sometimes even leaving your party in the midst of the combat. Such a kind of action really helps you realize that you're traveling in a party of sensible characters with their own minds and not some mindless AI controlled puppets.
  
  The party mechanics are further deepened when you delve into scripting. Scripting refers to setting basic stance to your characters. If you set one of your character's stance as "Cleric Defensive", then the character will cast defensive spells at the sight of an enemy. Similarly for a "Fighter Ranged", a character uses ranged weapons only and maintains a distance even when an enemy is chasing him around. Such minor AI variable help make Baldur's Gate a truly one-of-a kind gaming experience back then, and it mostly remains unique even until this day.
  The downside of such scripts is that they're limited and they can be mis-assigned. For example, if you assign "Cleric Defensive" to a non-cleric, then they will often not do anything at all.
  You do have the option to create your own scripts and while it is fun, it is something that can't be recommended to all, as it tends to be a bit time-consuming. There is also a journal system to keep track of all the quests, side-quests or mere observations you notice during your travels.
  
  The graphics weren't too advanced for it's time, and they haven't aged too well,but it's top-down perspective does a good job in showing both the immersiveness of the world as well as serving as a good vantage point to carry out all the tactical, strategical and turn-based actions that the game has to offer. There are minor clips of cutscenes at various points of the game as well.
  The sounds of Baldur's Gate plays a key-role in contributing to the immersiveness of the world you play in. In a town, you often hear the sounds of spouses quarreling with each other, or tavern drunkards roaming around the streets, or dogs barking, guards going about their usual patrol duty. It all makes the world feel like a beating, breathing place.
  There are bits of voice acting for each of the characters that appear in the game, all of them being well-done.
  
  The BioWare back then, much like today excels when it comes to writing. Their quick and tightly narrated plot with richly-written dialogues peppered with fiery interjections, interesting banters and often humorous punch-lines makes it an adventure you just won't want to get off until it's over.
  
  There are hardly any flaws in the near-perfect game, and if there are any they have been mostly brought out by time and the sheer superiority of it's sequel. One can point out that some of it's ideas could have been better implemented, or there was an apparent lack of party interaction (especially when compared with it's majestic sequel), but those come out as half-baked excuses to point out flaws at this superlative role-playing experience.
  
  Whether or not you've had any acquaintance with D&D in past shouldn't stop you from trying out this wonderful example of clever implementation of tons of innovative ideas. A tremendous fulfillment of a vision to reimagine the ****c board game into a real-time RPG seamlessly combining multiple genres like turn-based combat elements, RTS-like party mechanics, and real-time combat. Baldur's Gate is a one of a kind role-playing experience and truly there is nothing quite like it.

  http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/baldursgate/player_review.html?id=689788&tag=player-reviews;continue;1

  If you liked the review,then please do recommend it. I had to do a lot of convincing to myself to write this review before I wrote the review of it's stellar sequel (the best game ever.Period. ). The latter's review is coming up next.

  How is everyone faring? Hopefully, everyone out there is doing well (in whatever they're doing )

  Take care now guys and gals.

  C ya

  Lightwarrior179

  • Posted Nov 1, 2009 11:34 am GMT
  • Category: Writing
  • 19 Comments
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg
  • Tweet
• 29Sep 09

  A Mouthful of Words

  Another month has flown by confirming my suspicions that time is indeed flowing at warp speed. Soon after a few months, it will be 2010—the year of reckoning. The year where I give one very important exam. It's also the year that holds three of my most anticipated releases of the year, two of them being my most awaited games this gen. So unlike my last few blogs, this time I do have something to say about games. *hears the readers of his blog scream out, "Thank god!!We were sick and tired of this warrior punk writing boring things about how busy his life was"*

  As surprising as it might sound, I DO seem to finally have something to say on the topic of gaming. Despite the fact that I haven't touched any game in weeks (making me a temporary celibate gamer ) , I've tried my best to stay in touch with the gaming world. So, when the TGS 09 finally arrived I was getting ready to write a blog with loads of things to write about. Turns out TGS was as bland as they come. Other than few announcements like Ryu Ga Gotoku 4 (a.k.a Yakuza 4) and Shirokishi Monogatari 2 (a.k.a White Knight Chronicles 4) ,TGS was mediocre. As for those two games, it would be better if they first released Yakuza 3 and WKC 1 in English FIRST!!

  Who can be blamed for such a boring TGS? Nintendo? They went in too hard at E3 trying to impress everybody (whether they were successful at that or not is contentious). Is that why they had little to nothing new at TGS?

  What about Sony? They were going ga-ga (not to be mistaken for that so-called singer with a weird fashion sense) about PSP Go which I honestly don't care about. It lost it's credibility in my eyes when it was announced that all the previous UMD-based games will not be functional on PSP Go! And you're supposed to pay 250USD for that too! Humbug,I say!

  As for MS,they were always like spectators at TGS for me. They did one or two bits of promotion for Halo 3 ODST (which has impressed me for the series successful transition into a spin-off title) but that was as far as they went.

  However,that wasn't all there was to TGS.

  There was a MASSIVELY EPIC 7-minute trailer of Final Fantasy XIII. And did I say it was MASSIVELY EPIC?

  I've always emphasized on this point before and I do it again. Final Fantasy was what got me into gaming. It was what KEPT me into gaming when I thought of quitting it (it was back in 2005) and it has always been what has rejuvenated my interests into gaming when I was going through a dry patch in gaming.So once again it was Final Fantasy to the rescue of lightwarrior179 from getting lost forever in the big,bad world!

  Jokes aside, I thought that this was a proper time to give my thoughts and expectations as well as fears related to two of my most anticipated games this entire GEN!-- Final Fantasy XIII and Mass Effect 2

  Let's start with FFXIII shall we? If you haven't watched the FFXIII TGS 09 trailerhen click the linkhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjpcknSFFqU. It is a subbed version,so it's recommended in that sense as well!

  So...why is FFXIII so special? Surely when Final Fantasy games are coming out like Megadeth albums why should anybody even bother? One,this is the MAIN series. Traditionally,main series games have always been critically and commercially successful (and that even includes the "black sheep of the series" FFXI too). Secondly, FFXIII is very important to Square Enix for a variety of reasons. There has been obviously a lot of money and effort put into this game and the fact that they traded their Sony exclusivity and went multi-platform SHOWS that they intend to sell this game well and earn back the costs.

  I think FFXIII looks promising enough. One cannot easily trust SE's games nowadays (I am looking at you Last Remnant),but they've always been great with the FF main series so I trust them on this. I read the plot premise on Wikipedia for the first time, and it showed instant promise in my eyes. The main group becoming something like "enemies of mankind" against their will. Such a plot premise hasn't been explored much in previous games. Add the first female protagonist (I still believe that TERRA from FFVI was the first female protagonist of the series,though many disagree on this) who's not only looking incredibly hot (kudos to Nomura for adding the strawberry blonde colour to her hair, thus helping to differentiate her character from Cloud) but sounds like an interesting character as well.

  The battle system has been a subject of debate for months now amongst fans and I don't really have much to say other than it looks good. There seems to be a lot of pace injected into the battles making them seem frenzy and very "FFVII and FFVIII-ish" which is great. I still don't understand much about the break system. It's hard to keep your eyes on the screen with so much happening during combat,which once again reminds me of FFVII and FFVIII.

  We all can trust SE to do extremely well in the graphics department,so no worries there.

  My worries are with the "over-the-top" factor. SE have talked about bringing over-the-top nature of the combat reminiscent of FFVII and FFVIII back into the series,thus deviating from it's more strategic and complex predecessor,FFXII. Sure,we all love flashiness. Who doesn't love flashy moves? But I was recently appalled when I saw a summoned creature (like Shiva) turning into a BIKE! And another fire-elemental summoned creature (no,not Ifrit) turning into a car with mounted cannons!! Seriously, is this the best SE can think of??

  As a die-hard FF fan, I feel kinda sad to see summons being part of such a pathetic idea.

  Overall,it is going to be a treat and challenge for all of those who will play FFXIII,since every installment in the series tends to bring something new. As for me, it is even a BIGGER treat and a BIGGER challenge since this will be probably my first FF since FFIX.

  Now to Mass Effect 2.Let's face it! There may have been a great deal of amazing RPGs,both Western and Japanese but none have come even close to matching the superiority of Mass Effect. And I say that being a long-time RPG nut. Mass Effect isn't a superlative sci-fi adventure with a plot that makes even the likes of Empire Strikes Back look down, it is an amazing RPG experience which could have been perfect with few refinements.

  Those refinements would mainly have been something to do with the cover system and driving with the in-game vehicle called Mako. Both these have supposedly been addressed in ME2. If BioWare had just left ME2 at that, it would have been a fantastic sequel.

  But no! BioWare aren't content with making a "fantastic" sequel. They want to make ME2 a kind of game that would make Mass Effect obsolete. It's just dizzying the amount of features they're adding into the game. Moreover,the shooting mechanics have been refined (which is already evident from the gameplay vids) making ME2 seem more like a shooter than a RPG.

  The plot seems to be designed in a very unique way such that all the decisions,minor and major you made in the first game will have an impact in the sequel as well. BioWare earlier tried doing this with the Baldur's Gate Trilogy box set linking BG1 and BG2 with such but weren't quite successful in doing so.

  So what are my fears related to ME2? I fear it might get a bit too action-oriented and forget what genre it actually belongs to? I wouldn't want that to happen. I still want the combat to retain it's strategic nature. Also, considering ME1's plot was such an EPIC, ME2's plot might fall short of it. But that's just a MIGHT. Who knows what BioWare has in store for us next year?

  That's all for the thoughts part,dudes and dudettes.

  Hope you all liked it.

  C ya

  Lightwarrior179

  • Posted Sep 29, 2009 12:14 pm GMT
  • Category: Games
  • 42 Comments
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg
  • Tweet
• 30Aug 09

  The Return of the Warrior

  They tried to kill him. Tried to bury him in the ground with all his ambitions. They tried to drain out his desire to live and enjoy his life. They tried to take him away from all the things he loved and lived for. They tried to take him away from those whom he loved and cared for. His friends. They tried to make him into their slave and turn his vibrant,artistic and occasionally rebellious mind into a robotic one that would function only monotonically thinking only about one thing--study. But this warrior wasn't born to be any slave. Instead he was going to take revenge on them.

  Revenge for making him stay away from his "home away from his home" (cheesy! ). They had wanted to take away his will to live, now he shall take away their RIGHT to live.They shall realize the extent of his revenge only when his sword has pierced through their dark heart flowing with RBC,WBC,platelets and stuff like that. Sure he won't be allowed to make a movie on this because it might get too gory but hell he is a warrior and not some Tarantino-wannabe.

  So he stares at the Death-List Five (yeah I know it's been taken from some samurai movie with over-the-top action). The list that holds the names of his fiercest enemies written in the gentle ink of the pen that he was gifted when his father's father's father's wife's husband (which again means father )'s father got from the French Revolution. Supposedly stolen from Hitler (I know he came MUCH later,but let's assume there was some time warping involved) who has developed a strong dislike for cats after seeing there were more cats than humans in Paris. Yes,he was allergic to them! AACHOO!

  Oh wait. Where was I? Yeah so I,the warrior was staring at the names of my enemies that have constantly tortured me (in other words reasons for my absence) for nearly two months and have kept me away from my friends (you)and my "home away from my home" (that is GS! ) :

  1) The Nerd (meaning studies)

  2) The Man With a Suitcase with Clothes in it (meaning vacation)

  3) The Dude with Chart Paper and Sketches (meaning projects)

  4) The Gamer Who's Having the Time of his life (meaning I've been playing some AMAZING games like Baldur's Gate II, The Longest Journey and Blazblue : Calamity Trigger )

  5) The One Who Clicks the "New Blog" Button first but is unable to write anything (meaning Blogger's block)

  These were the enemies that would taste the steel (along with a little rust) of my sword. *gives a vicious snarl* YAARGH!

  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  That was a little childish but of a different way of telling what I've been upto in the past two months,what have been the reasons of my absence etc. As many of you may have noticed, I wasn't really away from GS for THAT long. I've tried my best to comment on as many of your blogs as possible. It's just that it's been long since I've written a blog.

  Nothing else. The gaming world has been pretty busy I guess.

  PS3 Slim's announcement was probably the biggest thing though really it didn't come as a surprise to many of us. While a cheaper PS3 might make some consider buying it, it hasn't made me change my mind much. Yes,I am still going to get a PS3 eventually but not with that much heart. The reason? Lack of PS2 backwards compatibility in ANY of it's current versions. The 60GB version is now out of production and it's becoming increasingly frustrating for the likes of me who're waiting for PS3 to have a PS2 b/c.

  If people like me are Sony's "potential target" then they should be trying to convince me. Wii plays GC games,360 does the same for Xbox,then why not PS2? Is it because Sony still expects people to be buying PS2? (actually there are many doing so as the numbers suggest). But still it appears as a mere excuse to me for not putting b/c on PS2. Either way whenever I get a PS3, I am ALSO getting a PS2 along with it. If Sony wants to FORCE me to buy two of their consoles,then FINE!

  Gaming-wise, I've been having one of my best times with games since a long,LONG time! I am playing three ABSOLUTELY TOP-CLA$$ (it feels nostalgic typing the "$$" again ) games. Baldur's Gate II (mark my words.BEST ROLE-PLAYING GAME EVER MADE. PERIOD! A better RPG than all the Final Fantasies and Oblivions and Mass Effects of this world), The Longest Journey (wonderful adventure game that drifts slowly like a dream ) and BlazBlue : The Calamity Trigger (which is a "kick-your butt" kinda fun fighter with "kick-your butt and hand it to you" kinda characters ) which I bought a month or so ago (on NeonNinja's recommendation) hence breaking my promise of not buying any game until May within a week or so of making that promise.

  2009 is turning out to being an okay year. After seeing the various big delays (BioShock II and StarCraft II most importantly) many of us thought that 2009 will be a dud year. But there have been couple of interesting games so far. SFIV, BlazBlue, Sims 3,Killzone 2,Infamoushave so far done pretty well. Arkham Asylum looks good from it's videos too and I might consider getting it in May (that's right no more games until May. I promise. ...Hey,I am trying...stop giving me those looks! ). Alpha Protocol seems like a promising action-RPG hybrid but since it's Obsidian and their reputation of buggy games (examples? KotOR II and NWN2) precedes them. I don't care much about MW2. Beatles Rock Band will be good and popular (hey,it's the Beatles. The least thing you can expect from them is to top the sales charts )

  But of course,the ONLY game I am REALLY looking forward to this year is Dragon Age Origins. Sure,it might be a spiritual successor to the legendary Baldur's Gate series (which has heavily inspired all future BioWare projects in some or the other way) but besides that it seems to be bringing forth loads of undeveloped ideas from past BioWare games into reality. Take this for example. You make a decision that goes against the morality of your party member. Then they might initially raise their voice against your decision,which might turn into argument and can in ultimate cases lead the party member to backstab you in the middle of the combat. Just how freakin cool is THAT! .I remember something like that happened in BGII but only amongst party members not involving me.

  I also have decided that it's time for me to start writing some reviews seeing the last one I wrote was for Mass Effect and that was waaay back early this year. So,expect some reviews from me in one or two blogs.

  But for now, I am just glad to be back here.

  C ya

  Lightwarrior179

  P.S : *see below*

  Question of the Blog : What have all of you been upto?

  • Posted Aug 30, 2009 11:05 am GMT
  • Category: General
  • 36 Comments
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg
  • Tweet

See Previous Blog Posts »