That deserves five out of five fist pumps.
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@Richard Moss
Thanks for the kind words! And good idea, I'll go back through the article and start archiving the images instead to be on the safe side. That's what I did for a few articles, like my Ys one, but I linked the images this time around only for expediency's sake. I'll take another look and see what's happening here and move the troublesome ones to a more reliable spot.
I agree that's the only thing that some players might find difficult to deal with: the time investment. The Might & Magic pack, especially, is just brutal in that regard. Even with most of these titles' ability to save anywhere, it's not easy to pull that many hours out of a hat. I've still got a huge backlog of RPGs (who doesn't?) that I want to get through. The only thing I can suggest is to focus on the kind of stories that interest you as a player and start chopping the list down from there and take it slow. The good news is that Bloodlines isn't particularly long, certainly not as long as Planescape or Arcanum, probably to allow multiple playthroughs with different clans and character builds. That's what's going to eat up any time you have if you decide to go back, but for one playthrough to get a taste of its story, it's more lenient in the hours it wants from you than the others on the list.
@Andrew Lynes
Thanks! I'm glad you found the list useful! Good luck on whatever you choose as your next big adventure.
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As far as it being utterly revolutionary and beyond imagining after being in development for so long, I think that's probably too much to hype for. But as far as I can expect it to be, at the very least, a solid experience with plenty of Dukisms backed by loony weapons (I hope the shrinker comes back), that's about all that I'm hoping it will bring to the table.
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I agree that camping can be useful when it comes to defending strategic stuff like the M-COMs in BC2 and wondering who will be brave enough to lay down cover and protect the crazy bastard that runs out to it. But it's also just as satisfying to sneak up on a camper while they're looking down their scope and grab a free dog tag.
But I agree that spawn camping is just a cheap way to get kills, there's no excuse for it, and you can get accidentally blamed for doing just that. Running around and having someone pop in front of you isn't spawn camping, just bad timing. On the PC side, there've been a few funny COD 2 mods I remember seeing way back such as dropping artillery on whoever is standing around for more than a few seconds. :)
Can't wait for Goldeneye, though. I'm curious to see who all of the unlockable multi characters are. Rosa Klebb FTW!
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I hope Xseed and other publishers keep doing these. I miss seeing Working Designs' fanservice on shelves. At least more Western publishers/devs here doing the same with their own CEs, like the Big Daddies for Bioshock. Or Halo's crazy Cat Helmet!
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Fallout for retro goodness. Be sure to patch it first!
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The only WW2 game that I've played through that even touches on the Holocaust in some way is Velvet Assassin. At one point, as the protagonist, I suddenly found that I had to make my way through the Warsaw Ghetto and I felt that its inclusion was far from being a cheap attempt at shock value. It confronted the player in a surprisingly frank way as a reminder that there is a history behind these games, that the Third Reich is more than a giant spawn point for soldiers.
Aside from Velvet Assassin, Saboteur also looks to finally do something "different" with the WW2 genre and I'm excited to see how it will treat the French Resistance within its context. I wouldn't even mind seeing a few adventure games in the genre, although attempts such as Operation: Wintersun haven't done as well at that as they could have.
There are so many other stories that can be told in WW2 and so many tools with which to tell them that don't require a player to be a one-man army in every iteration, an immortal pilot, or an all seeing general. I just wish more developers and publishers would take a chance on approaching it with more than a regenerating health bar"
Happy Birthday, Playstation"
In my first run-through with this, I supported Alistair and watched as he used his first act as king to decapitate Loghain (I let him do it in the hopes that he would reconsider when having to do it himself, but alas...). It was clear that his character had never left Ostagar. In my view for how I wanted the story to play out, I didn't want someone like that sitting on the throne after all. As fun as he was to be around, Alistair's own hatred blinded him to the greater good.
So I went with Anora and supported her position. I lost Alistair, but here is where I felt railroaded by not having an option to explain to him how killing Loghain would not bring Duncan or any of the other Grey Wardens back. I had to cut him loose by choosing Loghain's redemption over his own petty desire for revenge, but felt as if my hands were tied without much recourse.
Still, that felt like a better story to me, and I also share your enthusiasm for Bioware's efforts in challenging players in this way. Although...I'm still curious to see how things would have turned out if I decided against a duel and go postal instead. I love choices. And save slots"
Interesting viewpoint, but from my perspective, Black Ops is a militaristic fantasy in the same vein as Dogs of War, Where Eagles Dare, or even Kelly's Heroes. I agree in spirit to what you are saying in that it and others shouldn't be as defining as it is for the genre and, by extension, glorifying the need for a military complex. No one wants war.
At the same time, however, it's simply a story. A fantasy. It isn't history, though it borrows liberally from it to tell the kind of story that belongs with other Cold War thrillers. I doubt that most anyone growing up seeing Rambo III would agree that the Soviet withdrawal from the country was due to his actions, however.
That's not to say that other games haven't tried the more serious route of questioning whether the "industrial complex" is glorifying war or not.
One perspective that I can suggest is with EA's Medal of Honor. Despite its USA-centric view on the war in Afghanistan, it's not filled with the kind of heroic candy that Black Ops uses to feed its audience with every cutscene. One is clearly dedicated to seeing the conflict from the viewpoint of its soldiers, the other is the kind of storytelling that makes for mindless entertainment. Both are night and day as far as I'm concerned in their approach to the same subject matter.
I also agree with your point that games are reaching the kind of attention-getting range that popular media has long enjoyed. Your argument over Black Ops' material mirrors those arguments which faced Oliver Stones' JFK in '91. Unfortunately, there will always be people within the audience that will take what they see as one viewpoint to be the truth.
The advice to question everything is sound for players that want to dig a little deeper into the conflicts that are being used to varnish the action. The real question is whether enough will actually do so, or even pay attention to the story onscreen long enough, to even matter.
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