ADOM: Exercise in Frustration

The addictive values of this game are fading. How the fuck do you get anywhere in this game? Seriously, it's getting old fast.

Ancient Domains of Mystery...

...sucks ass.

"Oh, look! I'm starving again!"

"Oh, I'm blind and poisoned! Darn the luck!"

"Gosh, the second room in EVERY GODDAMN DUNGEON I've run across has a locked door."

It is addictive though, and I've only been playing a few hours, so maybe it gets better. But for now, it sucks.

Richard Garfield on removing busywork in games

An old article, but I just ran across it: Removing Busywork.

Short and worth reading.

The Witcher: Enhanced Edition? So it crashed MORE before?

Cool game, but seriously, the constant crashes are getting to the point of unplayability. Particularly when it crashes while saving the game. Which I do frequently because of the crashing.

Gave up on Dead Rising

I picked up Dead Rising about a week and a half ago - how could I not? It's basically Dawn of the Dead on the Xbox360!

Very cool game in many respects - graphics, gore, zombies, etc. But, very frustrating, mainly due to the "save point" system. It takes the game from very cool to not fun. There's a few other issues as well, but that was the deal-breaker for me. I don't have time for hours of something that's not fun.

Hopefully, Dead Rising 2 will fix the problems.

Zombies Don't Belong in a Mall?

I found this in a review I ran across for Dead Rising:

"But the mall itself is a strange place for a zombie game."

A mall is a strange place for zombies? (I know he said "zombie game" - close enough).

Obviously not a connoiseur of the genre. Damn hippy.

Oblivion: The Wait is Over (for me...)

Xbox 360 + Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion + HD TV = Holy Cow.

My Xbox just arrived today so I've finally been able to play Oblivion. I've only played it for a couple hours so far but it is very cool. I can't wait to see the graphics when I actually get outside...

Morrowind was my favorite computer game thus far, but I strongly suspect it will soon occupy the number two spot.

The End of Warcraft for Me

Yesterday I got my rogue up to level 60 (my second 60th-level character; third character of level 59 or higher). Tonight - once I finally got in - I bought my epic mount. And next Tuesday, my account will be closed. I cancelled it earlier in the week, as the game no longer has any appeal to me. I've talked about this before; basically, PvP doesn't appeal to me nor does spending hours upon hours raiding the high-level instances for my armor sets.

It was fun, but I'm done. The game took over $200 from me but worse, well over an entire month of the last year (in total hours). Only work and sleep rival that.

I happened upon a quote from Ursula Le Guin that fits my approach to WoW (and most any RPG for that matter);

"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end."

Fortunately, my XBox 360 finally shipped yesterday, so Monday or Tuesday I'll finally be able to play Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. I'm anxious to see whether it will unseat Morrowind (Elder Scrolls III) as my favorite computer game...

Tabletop vs. MMO - An Important Point to Keep in Mind

From this post on ENWorld:

And there's a big gap between what can be done with tabletop and what is done. [Emphasis mine]

This is a big point that a lot of tabletop defenders tend to forget. While the possibilities are virtually endless for a tabletop game, how many GMs or groups take advantage of them? Some people like to point out that certain things can't be done in a computer game because it hasn't been programmed for it (you can't swim in Neverwinter Nights, rogues can't scale sheer surfaces in WoW, etc.). But many people don't take advantage of the flexibility that a tabletop game offers. Worse, many people (particularly players of "player power-favoring" systems like D&D/d20) assume that games cannot deviate from the existing rules in any way regardless of whether the deviation is on the part of the GM or the players - often assuming that if a rule doesn't exist to cover some action, it cannot be done in the game. Some examples I've read or personally experienced (quotes are not verbatim):

• "You can't have a DR over 15 - that breaks the game."
• "I can't try to hamstring that ogre; I don't have a feat for that."
• "If you want to mess around with the abilities/powers/whatever that lower-planar creatures have, you can only do it with demons. Devils must adhere to how they are written exactly in the Monster Manual since they're Lawful."
• "If a spell in the Player's Handbook can't lift that curse, then there's nothing that can be done about it."

With attitudes like that, going outside the rules (or what the game has pre-programmed for you) isn't even a consideration, so the advantage a tabletop game has is lost. (Note for the over-literal: Yes, the rules exist for a reason but that doesn't mean that you can't do or try to do something that's not covered if you have a good reason).

Sundry Bits

I've been dealing with a bad cold this past week, which has limited my ability to do much on the Web site (or anything else, for that matter). What's worse is that the nastiest days were Thursday and Friday - both days that I already had off from work. So a vacation day and a company holiday got eaten up by being sick. That blows...

Anyway, the next Chronicle is in development but may be delayed a bit due to this cold. Hopefully I can get it done by next weekend.

I was able to finish Halo 2 earlier this week (since sitting around in front of a TV was something I was capable of). Overall a good game and an improvement over the original. However, the ending really pissed me off, much in the same way the Half-Life 2 ending did. One wonders if Valve or Bungie are familiar with the concept of "closure"? Given the sales numbers for both games (particularly Halo 2), I'm sure that a "#3" is in the works for both, but I don't want to wait two-four years to see how these stories turn out. Seems to me like a case of the marketing department running the show. Or, in the case of Halo 3, having a "AAA title" ready to launch the XBox 2.

Finished Half-Life 2

OK, I finished Half-Life 2 last night. Very cool game once I got over the issues with motion sickness (Half-Life did that to me as well, though I have no problem with most other shooters, like UT2004...). I'd say the graphics engine is as good Doom 3's, though maybe not better.

Can't say I cared for the ending, though. If you've finished it yourself, you probably know what I mean. Also, the bug preventing you from jumping in the "Benefactors" area/scene/act/whatever was very annoying.

Maybe if You Use ALL of It...

From a discussion board:

D20 ... thanks to the OGL one of the most over-developed systems out there. It has even far surpassed Rolemaster 2nd Edition, which had a reputation for having rules for almost everything. D20 not only has rules for everything, but often has several variations of each rule, which in turn makes it much much more complex than Rolemaster ever was...

Why do some people think that just because everybody and their dog has their own d20 publishing venture, d20 is "over-developed"? Everything outside of the core rules is optional (and much of that is optional as well).

Maybe it's just a semantics issue, but to me the term "over-developed system" implies one in which the official or "standard" ruleset has an overabundance of rules. For d20, the standard ruleset is the d20 SRD - that's it. Everything else is gravy.

I suppose if you buy every d20 supplement you can get your hands on, and your DM allows you to use all that, you may think the system is "over-developed". Personally, I look at it as a host of options you can add to your game if you wish. If you don't want to use it - don't. There's a big difference between that and having far too many rules to play a game (as written, at least).

Speaking of which, now that Complete Arcane is out I need to figure out what to allow from it. Wild Mages, definitely :) The remainder will have to see.

BTW, Halo 2 is very cool. If you have an X-Box, get it. If you don't, wait for X-Box 2 so you can play Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. The previews I've seen for that game are amazing.

Got Fable...

I planned on starting to post here regularly tonight (my plan is Thursdays and Sundays - that way I can keep up a meaningful dialog without degenerating into posts about my yard or what I'm listening to or troublesome co-workers...). Unfortunately, I picked up Fable for my XBox yesterday, so that didn't really happen...

It's no Morrowind, but it's still very cool. And, unlike...well, any RPG I've ever played, your character can fart and belch. And the game keeps track of how many times you've had sex (among other things). So, in some circles, that would make it the Best RPG Ever.

(It also has magic, monsters, quests, villages, and all the standard trappings of a fantasy RPG, so don't think that it only focuses on what I mentioned above ;)

Long Time No Post

I really need to get off my backside and post more. Of course, I complained about that a month ago, and it didn't do a lot of good, so I guess I'm going to have to resort to threats of violence. I'm not sure how I'll respond to that, but I'll do my best to coerce myself to comply.

WTF?

Anyway, I've uploaded the latest issue of the Mythosa Chronicle to the World page. It was actually done a few days ago, I just haven't gotten around to updating the site until today. Due to time constraints, the majority of it is re-prints from articles I'd already posted, though the piece on weapon groups (from UA) for religious classes is new. Eventually, I'll run out of articles from the World page and have to stock the Chronicle with new material. Expect shorter issues in the future...

I finished Doom 3 a couple of weeks ago. Amazing game. I was turned off a bit by the "Guardian" (if you've played the game you know what I'm talking about), as I felt it took away from the feel of the overall game. In retrospect, I believe I approached the encounter wrong, so that may be partly to blame. Outside of that, though, an excellent playing experience. I hope Half-Life 2 can match up.

I'm also looking forward for Fable for the Xbox. It's supposed to come out this month, though with many features removed from the original design. Still sounds pretty good, and I've seen it compared favorably with Knights of the Old Republic, which is good news (KotOR is in my top five favorite electronic games, along with - in no particular order - Morrowind, Doom 3, Unreal Tournament 2004, and C&C: Generals).

My plan is to start posting here regularly, if for no other reason than writing practice. Not sure what I'll be discussing, though I'll try to keep it at least tangentially related to gaming. And non-political. I'd really love to post some of my opinions about the current goings-on (going-ons?), but I don't want to turn this into yet another soapbox. It's nice to have a few havens away from the constant tide of partisanship.

Doom 3

So I picked up the much-anticipated Doom 3 yesterday. Installed it, loaded up, started to play. It was pretty good, then shortly it crashed. Restarted the game and it crashed in the same spot. I was able to get past that point and it crashed again elsewhere. It crashed about 4 or 5 times - very frustrating.

Since the errors seemed to be video in nature, I went to the ATI website to download the latest drivers for my card (Radeon 9600 XT), hoping that would fix the problems. Thankfully, it did, and without being interrupted by crashing I was able to really evaluate the game. I can pretty much sum up my opinion in two words:

Holy crap.

Now, I don't have the best machine in the world (2.53 Ghz P4, 1 GB RAM, previously-mentioned video), but this game is incredible. The graphics for the characters are the best I've seen in any PC or XBox game. The detail, the actions of the monsters, the UI, everything is great. And the mood is perfect.

Up until now, my favorite FPS was Halo, on the XBox. I've only played Doom 3 for a few hours between yesterday and today, but it may end up taking the top spot on my list (for FPS games - Morrowind is still my favorite RPG and favorite computer game in general).

The Suffering is Over...

Just finished The Suffering for XBox. For those unfamiliar with the game, it's a "survival horror" shooter (first person or third; you decide) set in a prison on an island off the coast of New England - sort of an Atlantic Alcatraz. Though the ending was a little...goofy (if you've played it to the end, you know what I mean), over all I thought it was a great game. I haven't played the Resident Evil games or the other survival horror console games, so I don't really have anything to compare it to, but I liked it all the same. Definitely not for the kids, though (besides the extreme violence, Samuel Jackson would have a tough time keeping up with the language in this game...)

Since Fable and Halo 2 aren't going to be here for some time, perhaps I can finally play the Morrowind expansions now. I finished the standard game some time ago, and I've been meaning to play the full thing. Best computer RPG ever :) I read someone commenting on how boring they thought it was, and how they gave up on it after a few hours. I can't understand that, particularly since there's so much to this game, that's not even remotely enough time to come to a judgement. Maybe they were expecting a Diablo-style clickfest, rather than an in-depth RPG. Oh, well. I don't care enough about such a wrong opinion to devote any more thought to it ;)

Not that I don't like Diablo; I do. Just two different styles of game.