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Here is a example (spoiler alert!): Early on in Skyrim, you get a quest to find a fugitive. When you find her, she says, "Actually, I didn’t do anything wrong! They’re trying to kill me! Go kill them instead!” So you go off to kill the thieves who are chasing her. When you find their leader, he says, “Actually, she is a criminal! We don’t want to kill her; we just want to bring her to justice!” So you can either kill the leader of the thieves (and get 500 gold from the fugitive), or turn over the fugitive (and get 500 gold from the thieves). Which decision is right? Who do you trust? You are given no information beyond a he-said, she-said quest. No matter what you choose, you never find out what the right decision was.
So what role do you get to play here? Are you the chivalrous hero who dispatches hordes of thieves to save an innocent woman? Are you the courageous law-abiding citizen who turns in a wanted criminal to bring her to justice? Or are you, in both cases, a gullible dupe who believes whatever story he most recently heard? That’s not role-playing; that’s choosing two tracks on the same railroad.
As far as immersion, he is also correct that there’s not a feeling of urgency. “Open world” doesn’t have to mean that everything freezes until you actually show up for a quest. Someone once asked, “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?” But in Skyrim, that’s a non-issue, because the tree doesn’t even fall until you get there. If you’re supposed to watch the tree fall, then it will wait patiently while you roam around towns, explore barrows, and clear out thieves’ dens. Then, when you get around to the tree quest, it will dutifully fall when you show up. There is no sense that things are happening, or that events will progress without you there. I would love to show up to a town and find it in flames, with the inhabitants saying, “Where were you?? You were supposed to be here weeks ago!”"
All of these complaints sound vaguely reminiscent of the response to the Nintendo DS, when people didn’t understand its control scheme or appeal. I believe that the Wii U will be the HD console for the rest of us, combined with a revolutionary controller and an iPad Junior. Oh, and being able to play your console titles on a portable screen when someone else is using the TV."
REZ.
Seriously, Rez was specifically based on Kandinsky’s works, including his concept of synesthaesia (marrying light and sound). During development, the code name was “The K-Project.”
Rez (and from all appearances, the upcoming Child of Eden) is pretty much the poster child for what can be done with non–photo-realistic graphics."
Criticisms of a work, without actually experiencing that work, are meaningless and infantile."
