I've been playing through Fallout: New Vegas again to keep from being driven nuts by my shitty DSL internet (which has been practically unusable for large portions of the day for months now). I had a dream the other night that would make a really cool premise for a new Fallout: it started just before the bombs hit and in the dream the player character was a child in the back of some bus on some school field trip or something. The PC survives the blasts but is turned into a ghoul, which immediately gave me several interesting ideas for a number of angles for the story to develop:
-We could get a peek at the world immediately post-bombs (ghoul form would make the ambient radiation a non-issue from a gameplay perspective).
-Otherwise, the player could get trapped somewhere only to be rediscovered in "modern" times.
-The player could stumble across something that reverses ghoulification.
etc etc
If you really wanted to out on a limb you could turn the whole ghoul/not-ghoul thing into a set of Dark Souls-esque game mechanics.
In other news, I tried the Marvel Heroes beta over the weekend. Got through the tutorial and briefly perused the forums before I decided it was completely not worth the waste of time. The former was hella boring and promised a lot of future grinding that if I wanted to commit to I'd pick a better game (made me kindasorta want to play some more Path of Exile) and the latter was filled with the requisite fanboy forum-denizens who are happy and willing to swallow developer cock instead of acknowledge any form of criticism.
It's bizarre how much they're pushing the game's status as an MMORPG, because you get silly stuff like this, specifically #8. It's an ARTS. Diablo clone if you prefer. It's free2play and it's the shady kind where if you want to play a particular hero you're going to need to shell out cash for it or grind ad nauseam. It wasn't eye-catching or interesting in any novel way, but don't take my word for it--go try it yourself. I'm just saying I found it really really boring.
Showing posts with label Dark Souls. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dark Souls. Show all posts
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Holy dicks look at that fucking passive skill tree. Seriously, look at it.
I originally wrote this 2/5/2013.
(http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree)
I've been playing a lot of Path of Exile the last several days and I like it quite a lot not only as a solid game but for what it represents in the state of game development nowadays.
Diablo 2 was a groundbreaking game for which there are now three big games vying to take it's place as a modern interpretation. In my opinion, Path of Exile is the real spiritual successor to Diablo 2, where Diablo 3 is a nominal successor (and nothing but) and Torchlight 2 is...well it's kind of a goofy, awkward attempt at reskinning the classic. There was a MOBA comparison that I keep wanting to draw that doesn't quite fit, where PoE is Dota 2 to D2's WC3 DotA, D3 = LoL, TL2 = HoN etc. Anyways, we can forget about Torchlight 2 for now (and it's rather damnable how easy it is to), because the most relevant contrast is between Blizzard's Diablo 3 and Grinding Gear Games' Path of Exile.
It's no secret that Blizzard has fallen from grace. They had a number of groundbreaking franchises which peaked at the release of World of Warcraft and ever since they've floundered trying to recapture the magic. The latest showings of their big 3 have all really defined what it is to miss the mark; Starcraft 2, recent WoW expansions, and now Diablo 3 joined the cast. At a time when Blizzard is part of Activision's video game marketing machine, Diablo 3 was a classic modern "Triple A" release, with all of that marketing monster behind it. But the results were mediocre at best.
Meanwhile, Path of Exile was developed by a very small team from New Zealand that recaptures the thematic style and gameplay openness that made Diablo 2 such a lasting game all while sliding into a smooth, fairly bug-free-but-not-flawless open beta.
Anyways, it's a great sign that when video games continue to grow into the marketing behemoths they've become, where a game isn't considered a hit unless it has a big stupid action setpiece themepark ride, super srs TV commercials, retarded Pope Doridew™ product placement tie-ins, and can afford to buy great reviews and viral marketers, that there will always be small, dedicated developers ready to step in and fulfill the demand for games that recapture the old spirit of gaming in a modern light.
But fuck "indie" devs, they're arrogant, lazy, and greedy fucks who just want to cash in on hipster chic gamers who have massive hardons for retro graphics.
Also, I haven't finished deepthroating Dark Souls yet. Holy shit that game is amazing. We seriously need more games like it. My dream game is a modern recreation of Vagrant Story with all of Dark Souls' game mechanics (call it Vagrant Souls?). Sadly, it seems likely that its quality was a happy accident as the developer seems ready to abandon a lot of what made the originals great for its sequel in hopes of attracting a wider audience. "Attracting a wider audience" is usually the death knell for any established decent franchise.
I've been playing a lot of Path of Exile the last several days and I like it quite a lot not only as a solid game but for what it represents in the state of game development nowadays.
Diablo 2 was a groundbreaking game for which there are now three big games vying to take it's place as a modern interpretation. In my opinion, Path of Exile is the real spiritual successor to Diablo 2, where Diablo 3 is a nominal successor (and nothing but) and Torchlight 2 is...well it's kind of a goofy, awkward attempt at reskinning the classic. There was a MOBA comparison that I keep wanting to draw that doesn't quite fit, where PoE is Dota 2 to D2's WC3 DotA, D3 = LoL, TL2 = HoN etc. Anyways, we can forget about Torchlight 2 for now (and it's rather damnable how easy it is to), because the most relevant contrast is between Blizzard's Diablo 3 and Grinding Gear Games' Path of Exile.
It's no secret that Blizzard has fallen from grace. They had a number of groundbreaking franchises which peaked at the release of World of Warcraft and ever since they've floundered trying to recapture the magic. The latest showings of their big 3 have all really defined what it is to miss the mark; Starcraft 2, recent WoW expansions, and now Diablo 3 joined the cast. At a time when Blizzard is part of Activision's video game marketing machine, Diablo 3 was a classic modern "Triple A" release, with all of that marketing monster behind it. But the results were mediocre at best.
Meanwhile, Path of Exile was developed by a very small team from New Zealand that recaptures the thematic style and gameplay openness that made Diablo 2 such a lasting game all while sliding into a smooth, fairly bug-free-but-not-flawless open beta.
Anyways, it's a great sign that when video games continue to grow into the marketing behemoths they've become, where a game isn't considered a hit unless it has a big stupid action setpiece themepark ride, super srs TV commercials, retarded Pope Doridew™ product placement tie-ins, and can afford to buy great reviews and viral marketers, that there will always be small, dedicated developers ready to step in and fulfill the demand for games that recapture the old spirit of gaming in a modern light.
But fuck "indie" devs, they're arrogant, lazy, and greedy fucks who just want to cash in on hipster chic gamers who have massive hardons for retro graphics.
Also, I haven't finished deepthroating Dark Souls yet. Holy shit that game is amazing. We seriously need more games like it. My dream game is a modern recreation of Vagrant Story with all of Dark Souls' game mechanics (call it Vagrant Souls?). Sadly, it seems likely that its quality was a happy accident as the developer seems ready to abandon a lot of what made the originals great for its sequel in hopes of attracting a wider audience. "Attracting a wider audience" is usually the death knell for any established decent franchise.
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