reizak on 23/7/2008 at 21:36
I replayed through DX, and it was even better than I remembered. I was tempted to start again at the beginning once the credits stopped rolling.
I also played through Rogue Trooper, which was a very pleasant surprise, albeit an incredibly cheesy one. The beginning was a bit weak, but once it got going I couldn't stop playing. My new favorite third person shooter.
After those two I went and subscribed to WoW again in a moment of weakness, thanks to some Wrath of the Lich King preview that made me feel all nostalgic. It took me less than a day to remember why I stopped playing it in the first place, but it looks like I'm going to end up sinking way too much time into it regardless.
Wille on 24/7/2008 at 06:05
Quote Posted by Neb
The addition of characters to share the adventure and danger with backfired for me because the narrative shifted mainly from plausible necessity to instructions from an NPC. Maybe I'm just an asocial gamer because if I'm told I should be doing something then at least I'd like the option to disobey, or perhaps I'm just bitter because they teleported me right outside the window and then told me to bugger off.
Agreed. Compare these:
In HL1 a dying scientist tells you to fire the rocket engine before the tentacle beast grows any larger. Shortly after that you see tenctacle killing two NPCs without mercy. You immediately know that this is your main enemy of the section and it will require more than a machinegun to take it out. You also recognize that in order to fire the rocket engine you'll need to bring up both fuel and power systems. Nothing is told by a sidekick or any other NPC who is unable to do anything but taunt and remind the player of something obvious. So in HL1 the environments and events guide you, characters only describe what is going on and maybe give you a goal for the section but don't give you direct "orders" or hints how to solve everything.
In HL2 you enter a control room with turrets. Your beloved sidekick tells you the combine is heading your way and keeps reminding the player of the obvious until she arrives, surprise surprise, too late to actually do anything. So the player (at least I) gets a feeling that he is just doing someone elses business because they are too incompetent. In other words the game underestimates player on many occasions.
Sure HL2 and episodes had moments where player had a change to think with his own mind but the constant babysitting and underestimating of the player gets old quickly.
