diff --git a/config.toml b/config.toml index 1e3af70..6d413cd 100644 --- a/config.toml +++ b/config.toml @@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ enableEmoji = true home = true [[params.navlinks]] - name = "Games Index" + name = "Appendix" url = "tags/" [[params.navlinks]] diff --git a/content/articles/arxfatalis-review.md b/content/articles/arxfatalis-review.md index f31aea4..0e02ace 100644 --- a/content/articles/arxfatalis-review.md +++ b/content/articles/arxfatalis-review.md @@ -45,3 +45,14 @@ Review-Cat says: A welcome addition to dungeon crawling in real time. Better tha +### Video footage + +This is some gameplay footage I recorded a long time ago. It might still entertain so here goes. + +**Gameplay part 1** + +{{< youtube "TtlEB8U5blI" >}} + +**Gameplay part 2** + +{{< youtube "RfwrjYSeVfU" >}} diff --git a/content/articles/bg2-spellprotection.md b/content/articles/bg2-spellprotection.md index b6322f3..bc735ca 100644 --- a/content/articles/bg2-spellprotection.md +++ b/content/articles/bg2-spellprotection.md @@ -47,6 +47,9 @@ Now we get to the cases and specifics of Wes Weimer's tactics mod. And why I had First, protection from magic weapons and protection from energy stops physical attacks and area effect spells cold. (since the smarter lich script casts and stacks protection from energy, it is completely immune to elemental spells and spells like abi dahzim's horrid wilting) Then spell immunity abjuration will stop remove magic(dispell magic, including inquisitor dispell) cold. So now you must remove the spell immunity so remove magic (or dispell) can work, right? +{{< youtube "Z2r4lgdVPy8" >}} +
Portrait of Ruin is the second Nintendo DS Castlevania game. Maybe, if Komani thinks it'll be worthwile, a third one will follow, since there have been three Castlevania games released for the predecessor the Gameboy Advance. All excellent Handheld Metroidvania games, but which one excels at what? A short overview would be handy indeed. Well here you go! +
++
+Harmony of Dissonance was actually the second Castlevania game to be released on the GBA. Being developed by another game studio, they did not see the gameboy's potential music power until very late in the development process. As a result, the soundtrack uses the gameboy color chip. Compared to Circle of the Moon, it's painful to hear. Despite the failing soundtrack, the castle design has been heavily based upon PSX's Symphony of the Night - which is not a bad thing! The castle is larger and features a different set of monsters. Unfortunately most bosses aren't as impressive as featured in other CV games. +
+The story is barely noticable, but never that much needed anyway. I won't spoil the classic surprises so you'll have to find it out. The game plays like classic Castlevania games: you only have your whip as a weapon and can pick up different sub weapons throughout the castle, varying from holy water to throwing axes. Nothing new or fancy. +
++
+Circle of the Moon actually tried to renew a bunch of aspects previously implemented in Castlevania games. The skill system is an obvious result because of this: combining creature and god cards (if found while crushing monsters: the farming effect appears!) nets you different special skills such as increased attack power or poison claws. The storyline is as basic as Harmony of Dissonance though. Circle of the Moon does feature an excellent soundtrack. I personally have the feeling the castle is a lot smaller and tougher to navigate than usual. +
+CotM's difficulty can be frustrating, but can also be very rewarding. Bosses are easy to beat if using the right strategy, but some area's are insane. That's a good thing, CV games are not supposed to be easy to breeze through! Too bad most locations are not that significantly different. The game controls a bit awkward, sprinting can be done by double tapping the D-pad. Running and jumping when needed can sometimes be hard to pull of. +
++
+The last GBA Castlevania games is for many the pinnacle of the series. Aria of Sorrow fixed most issues with the previous games: it features another awesome soundtrack, has a greatly improved character and castle design and has a colorful variety of places to go to. It also includes a shop, where you can finally sell your unwanted items. Circle of the Moon's monster drops were not that well balanced. The castle is bigger than CotM but not as big as Dissonance's (including the inverse castle, that is). +
+The skill system has been reworked: you now gather skills from your enemies. Even more farming may be required to get a specific skill, which can prove to be a pain. The storyline is a bit more consistent and you meet more characters. The different possible endings are a great extra to an already excellent game! +
++
+The direct follow-up to Aria of Sorrow begins a bit weird, but the more you progress into the castle, the more it makes up for that mistake. The DS has obviously more power capabilities than the GBA, and that is easily visible: the animations are extremely gorgeous! The high resolution monster designs are even prettier than seen in Aria. You can also now use your gathered skills to forge them into a weapon. After finishing the game, you have the option to replay with another set of characters, unlocking the "classic" whipping gameplay. +
+I can't think of many bad things in this game. Except for the maybe annoying touch screen usage: the boss seals and the crystal breaking mechanic. It's nice, but frustrating in later stages when you need to quickly grab the stylus to seal the boss away, before he gets a portion of his HP back to finish you off. I do feel the castle size is a little bit smaller, compared to Aria of Sorrow. +
++
+Portrait of Ruin introduces WiFi multiplay and character switching into the game. Both features have been received with mixed feelings as they do not really enhance the gameplay. You can explore the castle as Jonathan using the classic whip (or other weapons like the Sorrow games). The girl has sorcery at her disposal to kill enemies with. You can also perform combination attacks. The skill system is nontheless very interesting, but I prefer the Sorrow ones, or even Circle of the Moon, as sometimes the required cooperation doesn't turn out to be easy to control. +
+Apart from that, the castle design is disappointing, because the area's have been divided into different "portraits". See the review for more information. Some portrait area's look like exact copies with drab colors, some are beautiful. Same rule for the monster design: the attempt to do 3D designs (the peeping eye) sadly result into very ugly looking meshes. The storytelling part has been made more laughable than serious, and Death looks like a stereotype anime character instead of a terrifying opponent. If you enjoyed Portrait of Ruin, be sure to try at least one of the above Castlevania games! +
++
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/content/articles/jagged-alliance-2-review.md b/content/articles/jagged-alliance-2-review.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6c0a47a --- /dev/null +++ b/content/articles/jagged-alliance-2-review.md @@ -0,0 +1,58 @@ ++++ +showonlyimage = false +draft = false +image = "/img/games/BaldursGate2/logo.jpg" +date = "2007-03-30" +title = "Jagged Alliance 2 Review" +tags = ['Jagged Alliance 2'] +weight = 0 ++++ + + + +After the successful and beloved Jagged Alliance squad-based turn-based strategy game (a whole mouth full), Sir-Tech expanded the genre by adding the sequel, Jagged Alliance 2, which was published later in 1999. On a side note, it's sad to see the JA series become more and more popular thanks to mass download methods like Steam, after the virtual death of the company itself. Well anyway, decide for yourself if the purchase (while you're at it, nab the Gold version!) is worth it or not. + +### Mad Mercs for Hire + + +Arcanum bar test in Tarant. Throwing a molotov results in splash damage within the bar. Every NPC had their own reaction: +
Notice the bartender doesn't completely react the way it should be. At first, he dislikes it I attack his customers and his faction rating drops from 68 to 0 (hatred). If this rating drops below zero he'll attack me or flee. After the massacre, he simply offers me a drink. Ha! +
+ +{{< youtube "eAuAu4BBCKw" >}} + +#### Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion + +During a NPC conference meeting, someone tries to interrupt the peace. Notice the cheering music in the background, which does not change at all while attacking key characters. They even stand up back again - instead of going to sit in the chair or running like mad. This is definatly not the best way NPCs should react. +
+ +{{< youtube "6KN7cKO8-P0" >}} + +#### Wizardry 8 + +Sir-Tech's [Wizardry 8](/tags/wizardry8) includes like VII a beautiful NPC interaction system which allows the user to talk about anything, including obscure words (and you'll get appropriate reactions! Wait for vid#2 to see that) Here, I ask Marten, one of the main plot characters, about the dark savant, the higardi, "die", "f*ck" and some more stuff. I forgot to wear the helmet so all members went insane... Whoops. +
+ +{{< youtube "n9RgBmP5qpU" >}} + +He'Li kicks my butt as I attempt to intimidate her with my impressive vocal skills. Vi teams up, shoving a boot through my rib cage. Amazing stuff, Sir-Tech. I love the voice acting. (Fully voiced, EVERY NPC). +
+ +{{< youtube "HV7P5bCNUZI" >}} + +After chatting with Trynton's Chief, I decide to attack him with Madras (a trynnie) in my party. That was *not* a good idea. Glad to see he reacts properly to my actions in the game. +
+ +{{< youtube "q52EROdDuCU" >}} + diff --git a/content/articles/simon-the-sorcerer-2-review.md b/content/articles/simon-the-sorcerer-2-review.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..61a1bad --- /dev/null +++ b/content/articles/simon-the-sorcerer-2-review.md @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ ++++ +showonlyimage = false +draft = false +image = "/img/games/BaldursGate2/logo.jpg" +date = "2007-03-30" +title = "Simon The Sorcerer 2 Review" +tags = ['Simon the Sorcerer'] +weight = 0 ++++ + + + +Simon the Sorcerer II: "The Lion, the Wizard and the Wardrobe" is an adventure game from the British game company Adventure Soft who also produced the prequel, Simon the Sorcerer. The Simon adventure games are well known for their absurd and mostly weird British humor. If you do not like Blackadder and company, don't bother installing this game. Simon 2 features many references and funny jabs to to popular literature, pop-culture, fantasy and other adventure-games. You can clearly see the subtitle is being borrowed from The Chronicles of Narnia, and there are plenty of references to Lord of the Rings, Monkey Island and even Dungeons & Dragons. However, do not expect this adventure to be over in a couple of hours since Simon the Sorcerer 2 is actually quite hard. + +### Unusual selfish Sorcerers + +Simon is not your average protagonist. One of his most beloved hobbies is insulting people and getting on their nerves, which most of the time successfully applies. Simon the Sorcerer is an arrogant sorcerer who is unluckily teleported to this fantasy Dimension by a young boy, Runt. When Sordid, the evil boss from the prequel, decides to get rid of Simon for good, things are about to fire up real good. Most characters from Simon the Sorcerer I return and sometimes the plot is unclear so be sure to play the first game before installing the sequel. + +Simon loves to harass innocent people, this is an integral part of the humor carefully weaven into the main game. In most other adventure games, you've traditionally given the option to answer a couple of "straight" questions, and a couple of stupid ones. In Simon, you mostly answer sarcastig, ironic or plain brutal. It sometimes made me laugh out loud, but the humor is classified as either love it or hate it. + +Instead of playing a role as the protagonist in the game by moving him around, picking stuff up and solving puzzles, Simon also talks to you - the player. He sometimes makes sarcastic jokes about people walking by or talks to himself. When you're not actively doing anything for a few minutes, he'll lean forward, looking out of the monitor screen, trying to figure out whether you're alive or not. Ha! + +### The Hunt begins + +And with The Hunt, I really mean the hunt. The hunt for the lost pixels! Because that's wat Simon the Sorcerer 2 is mostly about: finding stuff, sealed away in background layers, carefully put aside. Simon 2 is just like its predecessor a painfully difficult game (at least in certain locations). You will find yourself cursing this idiotic sorcerer quite a few times. Thankfully, most characters in the game can provide you critical information on what the hell to do next. Most puzzles in Simon 2 are not as difficult as the first one, but not easy at all. + +Thankfully, Adventure Soft got rid of the strange minor changes to the classic SCUMM engine controls. I'm of course talking about the in-game actions you could perform in Simon the Sorcerer 1: Wear, Consume and those keywords. Simon 1 tried to separate itself from other well-known Lucas Arts adventure games by changing those keywords but this had a reversed effect. Most keywords could be simply replaced by Use anyway. But not to worry, this all has been gone and forgotten, and replaced by mostly clearly pictured icons. Talk is of course the mouth icon, but the first few hours you'll be wondering what the heck the Hat icon is about. + +### I'm a changed man. Or wait, am I? + +Nothing really worthwile has changed in Simon the Sorcerer 2, except for a completely new story line. The graphics are still colorful quirky sprites - which is a good thing - and the music still consists of excellent made tracks. I can't really place it but the sound track can be seen as good and bad. Good because it gives you a nice distinct feeling and the tunes fit in every scene. Bad because they get repetitive after a while (thus not very long). If you manage to breeze through the game in no-time, the sound track will still manage to create a couple of tune memories. + +The humoristic approach is not new either, but that does not matter: after the first game, you're left with a big ugly dark hole which screams I want more!. Simon the Sorcerer is a classic point and click adventure game, but also is not. It may look like an excellent child entertainer but it really is not, the insiders and funny reference stabs are the biggest part of the game. The only bad part about Simon can be applied to other adventure games too: it is sometimes inevitable to perform a full screen scan in order to grab all the stuff you'll need. + +### Conclusion + +Simon the Sorcerer 2 is an excellent follow-up to an excellent adventure game with excellent humor and excellent puzzles. The only downside, compared to the first game, might be the voice acting of Simon himself - the original voice actor has been replaced. You'd expect Simon's voice to be witty and charming since Simon 2 should be a more a grown-up version of Simon 1. After all, it has been quite a few years for Simon to hit the computer screens and puberty can be an ugly thing. But instead, you've given the same teenage wannabe sorcerer with a snidey and whiney voice. Can't beat them all, can you... +For the record: Simon the Sorcerer 1 is unable to produce subtitles and voice acting at once - it's either the lovely voice or the stupid text. For us non-Brittains this can be a pain in the ass, some sentences are difficult to understand. Simon the Sorcerer 2 does feature both, luckily. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/content/articles/test.md b/content/articles/test.md deleted file mode 100644 index 25cd83c..0000000 --- a/content/articles/test.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,39 +0,0 @@ -+++ -showonlyimage = false -draft = false -imageActive = "gif/warioland3.gif" -image = "gif/warioland3_still.gif" -date = "2016-11-05T18:25:22+05:30" -title = "Example game" -subtitle = "sup sup" -tags = ['Wario Land'] -game_name = 'Wario Land 3' -game_platform = 'gbc' -game_genre = '2D Platformer' -game_release_year = '2001' -game_developer = 'Nintendo RD1' -weight = 0 -+++ - -Even the all-powerful Pointing has no control about the blind texts it is an almost unorthographic life. One day however a small line of blind text by the name of Lorem Ipsum decided to leave for the far World of Grammar. - - -Far far away, behind the word mountains, far from the countries Vokalia and Consonantia, there live the blind texts. Separated they live in Bookmarksgrove right at the coast of the Semantics, a large language ocean. - -A small river named Duden flows by their place and supplies it with the necessary regelialia. It is a paradisematic country, in which roasted parts of sentences fly into your mouth. - -1. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. -2. Aliquam tincidunt mauris eu risus. - -> The Big Oxmox advised her not to do so, because there were thousands of bad Commas, wild Question Marks and devious Semikoli, but the Little Blind Text didn't listen. She packed her seven versalia, put her initial into the belt and made herself on the way. - -## Header Level 2 - -Even the all-powerful Pointing has no control about the blind texts it is an almost unorthographic life One day however a small line of blind text by the name of Lorem Ipsum decided to leave for the far World of Grammar. - -The Big Oxmox advised her not to do so, because there were thousands of bad Commas, wild Question Marks and devious Semikoli, but the Little Blind Text didn't listen. She packed her seven versalia, put her initial into the belt and made herself on the way. - -* Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. -* Aliquam tincidunt mauris eu risus. - -When she reached the first hills of the Italic Mountains, she had a last view back on the skyline of her hometown Bookmarksgrove, the headline of Alphabet Village and the subline of her own road, the Line Lane. Pityful a rethoric question ran over her cheek, then \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/content/articles/test2.md b/content/articles/test2.md deleted file mode 100644 index 80b5713..0000000 --- a/content/articles/test2.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,39 +0,0 @@ -+++ -showonlyimage = false -draft = false -imageActive = "gif/warioland3.gif" -image = "gif/warioland3_still.gif" -date = "2016-11-05T18:25:22+05:30" -title = "Example game 2" -subtitle = "sup sup yoo" -tags = ['Wario Land'] -game_name = 'Wario Land 3' -game_platform = 'gb' -game_genre = '2D Platformer' -game_release_year = '2001' -game_developer = 'Nintendo RD1' -weight = 0 -+++ - -Even the all-powerful Pointing has no control about the blind texts it is an almost unorthographic life. One day however a small line of blind text by the name of Lorem Ipsum decided to leave for the far World of Grammar. - - -Far far away, behind the word mountains, far from the countries Vokalia and Consonantia, there live the blind texts. Separated they live in Bookmarksgrove right at the coast of the Semantics, a large language ocean. - -A small river named Duden flows by their place and supplies it with the necessary regelialia. It is a paradisematic country, in which roasted parts of sentences fly into your mouth. - -1. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. -2. Aliquam tincidunt mauris eu risus. - -> The Big Oxmox advised her not to do so, because there were thousands of bad Commas, wild Question Marks and devious Semikoli, but the Little Blind Text didn't listen. She packed her seven versalia, put her initial into the belt and made herself on the way. - -## Header Level 2 - -Even the all-powerful Pointing has no control about the blind texts it is an almost unorthographic life One day however a small line of blind text by the name of Lorem Ipsum decided to leave for the far World of Grammar. - -The Big Oxmox advised her not to do so, because there were thousands of bad Commas, wild Question Marks and devious Semikoli, but the Little Blind Text didn't listen. She packed her seven versalia, put her initial into the belt and made herself on the way. - -* Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. -* Aliquam tincidunt mauris eu risus. - -When she reached the first hills of the Italic Mountains, she had a last view back on the skyline of her hometown Bookmarksgrove, the headline of Alphabet Village and the subline of her own road, the Line Lane. Pityful a rethoric question ran over her cheek, then \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/content/articles/the-hype-train.md b/content/articles/the-hype-train.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f28251b --- /dev/null +++ b/content/articles/the-hype-train.md @@ -0,0 +1,56 @@ ++++ +showonlyimage = false +draft = false +image = "/img/games/BaldursGate2/logo.jpg" +date = "2007-03-30" +title = "The Hype Train" +tags = ['hype train', 'Oblivion', 'Black and White', 'Fallout 3', 'Might and Magic', 'Deus Ex'] +weight = 0 ++++ + + + +I'm pretty sure most of you know the feeling. A new game has been recently announced, maybe with some additional gameplay footage or early concept art. You knew from that point on, the game had to be great, no mistake made. A couple of logical reasons could possibly be: + +- The title is a sequel to your favourite game all time +- The title comes from a well known and loved development studio +- Both title and studio are completely new or unknown, but the genre is to your liking +- None of the above apply. Instead the game has been aggressively hyped by the publisher and media + +Years pass. Every single released or leaked screenshot freaks you (and mostly the media too) out, wanting to play the damned thing more and more. You forward all released media to your friends, and help them aboard the hype train. Everyone is happy, because everyone simply knows the game has to be great. Right? Right! + +Until the game, demo or beta has been released. Wow what happened? Turns out all promised features proved to be false, your favourite mechanics from previous games have been left behind, the game doesn't nearly look as good as on the tasty press screenshots, some core features are in need of repair, the game is unplayable due to bugs, ... (I could go on for a few hours, you know.) +BAM! No more fuel/electricity for the train, everybody out! Game critics still give the released product positive points because they don't see what a hard-core fan sees or because the publisher has simply too much money. Promoted by 'accessibility', the game gets high scores and sells really well (hello Oblivion). Or the company goes bankrupt. And you're doomed forever. +Below a short list of games which couldn't live up to their hype. More will be added soon! + + + +### Mixed Feelings + +Typical examples of those games are Bethesda's Oblivion and Lionhead's Fable. Both games are said to be deep, complex Roleplaying games, but none of those statements turned out to be true. Both games sold enormously well because the core principles of the gameplay had been turned down to attract a new potential market, instead of a subset of gamers (the Roleplaying fans themselves). In Oblivion, a simple compass marker points to your next quest destination. You can instant-teleport to set locations and NPC interaction has been kept extremely basic. While this significantly improves accessibililty, it completely destroys all great Roleplaying ideas behind the Elder Scrolls 2 and in lesser degree 3. The result? angry fans who love to spam on Bethesda's forums. Watch out, Fallout 3! + +Lionhead loves to hype games. The whole company success rates are based on publishing enough hype to sell games. While most games incorporate great ideas, the implementation and end results are mostly lacking. Black & White and in lesser degree The Movies were both hyped like no other game. The result? Mixed feelings, but overall well received feedback by professional game critics. Many promised features and ideas have been cut from the game, same story for Fable. Fable 2's hyping has already started (wow you can interact with the system via your dog! Check this out neighbour!), let's hope they manage to actually pull things off right this time. + +Honorable mentions to the latest Need for Speed games and even FIFA. I have no idea why EA Sports games are still the #1 selling games (for consoles mostly) in America. Every year a new revision gets released, and every year features come and go. Sometimes fans enjoy a breathe of fresh air, but most expert football players are used to some mechanics EA can't simply drop. Most used-to-play-FIFA gamers I know are now playing Pro Evolution Soccer. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right. Icewind Dale also sold relatively OK (not that good, but still) and the game was for some of us a letdown after the amazing Baldur's Gate II. Of course because both games use the same engine and D&D ruleset, we automatically get excited way too much for our own good. + + + +### Games who crash & Burn + +Simply too many games to list... But a few ones worth mentioning, starting with Lionheart. A Roleplaying game overly hyped because it was said to have mixes of Diablo, Fallout and Baldur's Gate. Even listing these kind of games generates enough hype to chew on for years. Besides, a roleplaying game which took place during the Spanish inquisition, that's original, right? It burned, really really fast. A lot of things went wrong here: lacking music (what, only one background tune?), too static and low contrast scenes, ridiculously difficult gameplay and 3 irritating spirits, overly powered or underly powered spell/skill set, ... Lionheart is another reason why we don't see Black Isle making any games anymore. + +Perhaps a bigger and better example: Might & Magic IX. After being disappointed with VIII: Day of the Destroyer (after all, it used the same engine and basically recycled everything from VII and VI), IX did bring a whole arsenary of new features and stuff to do. Too much radical changes, yes! The Lichtech engine suits FPS games, but not First person RPG games. The controls were horribly broken, the awesome paperdoll system from previous games diappeared and it "featured" nothing but bugs. Honestly, this isn't New World Computings' fault as they merely had time to finish the game. The publisher wanted it released and quick (guess what? Money troubles). The result: a big failure. + +Other games, based on their predecessor but going into a different direction quickly vanished after the release. Some games didn't even get reviews! Or were just put into the fridge. Rollercoaster Tycoon 3D failed thanks to it's switch from 2D to 3D. The camera angle was a beast, and the charming interface radically changed. Commandos: Strike Force wasn't even hyped after the lackluster Commandos 3 game. Oh come on Pyro Studios, making an FPS out of that genre? Like there aren't already enough below-average WWII shooters... + + + +### Overly Hyped, now dead games + +MMO (Roleplaying) games usually suffer from a quick and painful death after a few years of investment from the players' and developers' side. Asheron's Call 2 isn't even supported anymore by Turbine. There are so many MMO games hitting the market today, and so many below average. Publishers think it's a good way of extra income, those monthly fees. Until they realise most features and concepts are broken, patches aren't coming fast enough and server capacity is rising. Star Wars: Galaxies knew extra hype thanks to it's George Lucas license. Who doesn't want to wander around in a big world built by a SW community? Sony's Everquest 2 has more luck, but still doesn't live up to it's predecessor. + +What Massively Multiplayer game does not fail nowadays, except Blizzard's World of Warcraft? The recently released Lord of the Rings Online (guess what, by Turbine) receives overall good response, but far from amazing. My guess is the game will drown into the ever growing barrel of MMO's in the near future. Shadowbane is freely playable now, and some games didn't even see any daylight at all. How about that. + +Even the sequel to one of the best FPS/RPG blends of all time turned out to be a waste of time. Deus Ex 2 featured... well, nothing the original game has. The creative skill development system, the bio mod system, the wide variety of gameplay possibilities - were all gone. Oh and say hello to a super buggy graphics engine: it features dynamic lightning! You won't need anything more, right? Technically speaking, critical response by professionals was still more good than bad. Only fans were more than disappointed. I guess this makes Deus Ex 2 a candidate to put into the first few alinea's of this article too. + + diff --git a/content/articles/zeus-review.md b/content/articles/zeus-review.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c6bd761 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/articles/zeus-review.md @@ -0,0 +1,55 @@ ++++ +showonlyimage = false +draft = false +image = "/img/games/BaldursGate2/logo.jpg" +date = "2007-03-30" +title = "Zeus Review" +tags = ['Zeus', 'Emperor'] +weight = 0 ++++ + + + +Argh, my temple, all messed up! Poseidon likes to destroy all buildings I carefully planted down on the coast line because he's cranky in the morning. Acually I did not do him a favour in the past few years and instead joined forces with one of the other major Greek Gods. What choice would you make? A couple of free superman-like heroes fighting side by side with your gaint army, or a couple of free boats to roam and rule the sea? Before we move on I should really collect more taxes. Thank you rich people! - oh, I heard a reply: "No, thank you - ruler of this wonderful wealthy city!" +Yes, I'm getting hooked. All hooked up. Zeus: Master of Olympus is in fact the fifth time something like this happened - thanks a lot Impressions Games! Is this sad coincidence this company also had to close due to bad sell records? +Without further delays, let's head straight into the building fest, because Zeus is (subjectively) simply the best city building game to date. + +### The basics: Building a City. + + +Castlevania games tend to pop up each year on Nintendo’s Handheld platform. The last entries: Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow, followed the story of Soma, who mysteriously inherited Dracula’s dark abilities. Forget about all that, and the soul harvesting system. Portrait of Ruin is the spiritual successor of Castlevania Bloodlines on the SEGA MegaDrive/Genesis. Jonathan Morris is the son of Bloodlines’ whip-equipped hero. PoR takes place during or just after the second World War. Dracula’s castle reappeared because of the many sacrificed souls during that era. Together with your childhood friend Charlotte, you’ll have to explore the castle and beat Dracula, again!
+ +Yes indeed, like the unlockable Julius mode in Dawn of Sorrow, you can now switch between characters (Jonathan or Charlotte). But instead of just switching to the person which suits your combat style, now the AI takes care of the non-active person. For instance, you can order Charlotte to cast a spell by pressing the R button if you are controlling Jonathan, and vice versa. Charlotte will automatically attack enemies and the AI does a pretty decent job at it too. Although sometimes she gets stuck but you don’t have to worry about that since the non-active character teleports directly to you if the distance between both of you is too big.
+ +Using these two vampire hunters, Konami implemented a couple of little puzzles which can only be completed using them both. You can order one of them to “standby” instead of following. New orders are received through cubes like in Symphony of the Night and Harmony of Dissonance. Sadly these puzzles are more annoying than enjoyable, just like the ice blocks in Dawn of Sorrow. Speaking about those: there is no touch interaction, whatshowever. Which is good. The upper screen is still used as a map though. Many monsters make their return (of course there are new ones), mostly copied from Symphony of the Night. Most of them have been completely remodelled, which gives PoR a nice retro feeling. As said before, the soul hunting system has been replaced by a similar skill system: monsters drop either weapon or spell skills, usable by Jonathan and Charlotte respectively. Killing enough minions using these techniques allows you to “master” it and do more damage.
+ +Instead of using souls to create new items, you can now only buy weapons, or of course find them in the castle. And of course, the whip is back in all it’s glory! Buying can be done throughout the usual NPCs or this time even via WiFi. Setting up a shop sounds exciting, but almost every item can be found while playing solo so this feature is kind of useless. To lengthen the game, a series of quests are available. Kill 10 Axe Armors, Find 5 cakes, Build your INT to 100, … All quests are too liniar and involve going back and forth in the castle. Rewards are either items to equip or MP/HP up potions. Yes, they are back, and can also be found in secret areas. Sadly 80% of those secret areas only conceal special food types which completely replenish your HP or MP. Sounds good but most potions can also be bought in the shop and the game is not that hard, apart from some amazingly well animated bosses.
+ +What is really new in Portrait of Ruin? Portraits! In the castle, you will encounter some portraits, which each holds a completely separate level, besides the main castle. Every portrait includes their own unique style: a forgotten city, an egyptian pyramid, etc. The main castle is rather small and uninspired (it only contains four areas) but the portraits more than make up for it. Sadly, the last 4 portraits are complete copies of the first 4 ones. Seems like the developers ran out of level design ideas. This game feels more repetitive than other Castlevania games because of the heavily reused level design. Too bad!
+ +Besides the rather uninspired level design (except the first few paintings of course) and the sometimes clumsy partner system, Portrait of Ruin is still a very good Castlevania game. The soundtrack is as awesome as ever, the whip weapon class is back and the bosses are very nicely done. I really hoped the main castle would be much bigger but oh well. I burned through the game in 10 hours but I did not finish many boring quests (Dawn of Sorrow took me 12). Despite those disappointing facts, Castlevania Portrait of Ruin still stands very strong. No other platform game on the DS achieved this level of addiction, except for the previous Castlevania game and maybe New! Mario bros.
+ +Review-Cat says: If you’re a Castlevania, Platform or Metroidvania style fan: buy! If you’re not, buy Dawn of Sorrow instead..
+ + + +For Quake, you’ll need:
+ +For Duke3D, you’ll need:
+ +For Doom, you’ll need:
+ +For Wolfenstein 3D, you’ll need:
+ +Every shooter fan should by now have played at least one of id’s popular shooters, wether it’s DOOM or the older Wolfenstein3D. However, what most players aren’t aware of is those games really popularized the shooter genre, as well as “cloning” games based on previously released ones. Let us take a look at the gaming history; specifically the shooter genre. We already took a quick look at various multiplayer cooperative gameplay modes and their origin, and we also learned a couple of Apogee’s games used the Wolf3D engine. Let us narrow our viewpoint down to one game at a time, and their sequentially spin-offs.
+ +Wolfenstein 3D is generally regarded as having popularized the first person shooter genre on the PC/DOS platforms. The game was published by Apogee and created by id - it has been ported to many other available platforms including SNES and GBA. Wolf3D was the first game (or at least one of the first) to implement a pseudo-3D world using smart computer graphics techniques such as ray casting, a special case of ray tracing. With ray casting, you bascially draw one big line for each column of pixels and check if it intersected a wall or not. Depending on that outcome it builds the entire screen, without having to draw the whole scene. This rendering technique was already used by id Software in their Catacomb 3D game, in 1991.
+ +Due to the rendering method, Wolf3D lacks many features represent in other First Person games such as Ultima Underworld. Wolf3D only featured base textures: the ceilling and floor are solid colors. Wolfenstein also misses lightning and height differences. Of course the game is not considered true 3D since it uses sprites rather than polygons to draw enemies and objects. Wolfenstein 3D was also the first game to introduce the ExLx map/level idtenfiy: Episode x Level x. Many other shareware games followed its example, not only Shooters.
+ +Initial Wolf3D features:
+ +Shooters utilizing the Wolf3D game engine:
+ +Many listed games implemented some extra’s besides the base Wolf3D engine. For example, in Blake Stone, floors and ceillings were actually mapped to textures. (See Screenshot) Blake Stone also featured an auto-map in which players can track their location and the rooms they have visited before. Wolfenstein’s map system was sometimes labyrinthic and not finding the much needed keys to access the exit zone could get very frustrating. Still no height differences or spectacular lightning sources present though. +Rise of the Triad, the WWII game from Apogee, could be classified as an exception. Yes, it uses the Wolfenstein 3D engine. But the engine was heavily modified. Actually little of the original Wolf3D code remained in the final ROTT version. Rise of the Triad was supposed to compete with the new generation Shooters - mostly DOOM. Therefore, the developers made sure they included some of DOOM’s features and even some DOOM did not have. For example, most objects in ROTT are destroyable (shoot at them). Rise of the Triad featured very wide open levels with trampolines, walkable staircase-like objects, and more. In some rooms, the game uses primitive light sourcing, with torches and lights that can be shot out, dimming the room.
+ +Even though Rise of the Triad pioneered a number of concepts, such as bullet marks, “akimbo” guns, and level-over-level support, DOOM’s non-orthogonal, height-difference maps gained far more publicity. Read the “ROTT in Hell” article for a full overview of ROTT’s features.
+ + + +Rise of the Triad was actually released one year after DOOM I in 1993. DOOM gained far more popularity: it was downloaded by an estimated 10 million people within two years, popularizing the mode of gameplay and spawning a gaming subculture. As mentioned in the Cooperative Arts II article, Doom was also responsible for the overly popular mulitplayer (via local LAN for now) shooters nowadays. Doom’s engine made it possible to create a more immersive feeling while playing the game, partially thanks to the excellent stereo audio system and use of lightning in dark rooms.
+ +Doom the game is widely accepted as one of the most influencive pioneers of gaming in the mid 1990s. Most gamers did not only love Doom thanks to Carmak’s graphics engine, but mostly because the engine was modular! This allows the game content to be replaced by loading custom WAD files. Wolfenstein 3D was not designed to be expandable, but fans had nevertheless figured out how to create their own levels for it, and Doom was designed to take the phenomenon further.
+ +Initial DOOM features:
+ +Obviously, thanks to DOOM’s modularity, the game knew many Total Conversion clones, developed by other companies such as Raven Software. DOOM’s sequel, released in 1995, did not really modify the used engine. Instead, DOOM II featured almost twice as much different enemies, of course all new levels and one new weapon, the double barrel shotgun. DOOM’s levels are also divided into episodes, and DOOM II featured one big episode instead of three little ones. DOOM’s popularity also led to the development of expansion packs: the Ultimate Doom and Final Doom.
+ + + +Shooters utilizing the Doom game engine:
+ +Instead of using ray casting, Doom used the Binary Space Partitioning technique to efficiently render the game scenes. However, this method has a few drawbacks: it is for instance inpossible for different rooms to stack. There are height differences, but you won’t ever see multiple area’s on top of eachother. Walls also cannot move horizontally.
+ +Shooters commonly counted as Doom clones with different engines:
+ +Since Doom was released and the game kept on winning players, industry gaints tried cloning the game in an attempt to push it from the throne. Almost every released shooter game after DOOM was controversially classified as a simple DOOM clone, even ROTT received many negative feedback. The most popular “Doom clone” is Duke Nukem 3D?, released in 1996. 3D Realms built their own custom engine, simply called Build Engine, also used in Redneck Rampage e.a. Like Doom, the Build engine represents its world on a two-dimensional grid using closed 2D shapes called sectors, and uses simple flat objects called sprites to populate the world geometry with objects.
+ +The Build engine did allow more flexible worlds than Doom. Sectors could be manipulated in real-time; their shape, heights, and slope angles being completely variable, without requiring recalculation of rendering information. Later versions of the Build Engine even featured “Voxels” by replacing game selected art tiles by 3D objects. Although this feature appeared too late to be implemented into Duke3D, Blood and Shadow Warrior both use them extensively. The Build Engine was also enhanced a couple of times to be able to run in modern Windows environments. For more information, visit the eduke32 project website.
+ + + +Quake incorporated several major advances in the 3D game genre: it uses 3-dimensional models for players and monsters instead of 2-dimensional sprites like it’s predecessors. Previous shooter games (called “2.5D” games) used mathematical tricks to render a 3D scene - only when looking straight ahead. Quake made it also possible to view from completely different angles: slightly above, down, diagonal, … - Quake invented (Acually it should be popularized since Bethesda firstly implemented this method in Terminator) the mouselook navigation method. You are able to use the mouse as a navigation crosshair and the keyboard to walk or strafe although this option was not set as the standard control scheme until Quake II.
+ +Because of the radically different rendering method, most 486 Computers had difficulties running the game. Pentium processors made it possible to run Quake more fluidly thanks to the more advanced floating point calculator. Quake was one of the first games to support 3D hardware accelleration techniques via openGL. \id Software recognized, before anyone else, that the future of competitive gaming lay with the Internet, and so Quake was the second game whose multiplayer could be played against many people on the Internet rather than with only people on a local network.
+ +Again, thanks to the game’s popularity and engine (and even scripting) modularity, Quake was the source of many fan-made modifications. One of those modifications incorporated the nowadays well-known Capture The Flag (CTF) multiplayer game mode. The Team Fortress modification also incorporated a CTF mode, with class-based player indexing. The QuakeWorld update to Quake allowed the game to be played more fluidly across the internet (using TCP/IP e.a.). Many front-end clients have been released since then to further support the on-line Quake player community.
+ +Shooters utilizing the Quake game engine (with or without heavy mods):
+ ++ + Castlevania games tend to pop up each year on Nintendo’s Handheld platform. The last entries: Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow, followed the story of Soma, who mysteriously inherited Dracula’s dark abilities. Forget about all that, and the soul harvesting system. Portrait of Ruin is the spiritual successor of Castlevania Bloodlines on the SEGA MegaDrive/Genesis. Jonathan Morris is the son of Bloodlines’ whip-equipped hero. PoR takes place during or just after the second World War. + +
++ + People feeling nostalgic can play enhanced versions the games: For Quake, you’ll need: + ezQuake Win32 Installer (Just install in a directory) Pak0.pak Quake Demo version (Or copy pak0 and pak1 from your original Qake) Create a new dir in the ezQuake install dir called “id1” and Unzip pak0.pak Play! (start with ezstart, press ESC in the console!) For Duke3D, you’ll need: + eDuke32 Win32 Installer (Just install in a directory) Duke3D Demo - only keep DUKE. + +
++ + People feeling nostalgic can play enhanced versions the games: For Quake, you’ll need: + ezQuake Win32 Installer (Just install in a directory) Pak0.pak Quake Demo version (Or copy pak0 and pak1 from your original Qake) Create a new dir in the ezQuake install dir called “id1” and Unzip pak0.pak Play! (start with ezstart, press ESC in the console!) For Duke3D, you’ll need: + eDuke32 Win32 Installer (Just install in a directory) Duke3D Demo - only keep DUKE. + +
++ + Castlevania games tend to pop up each year on Nintendo’s Handheld platform. The last entries: Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow, followed the story of Soma, who mysteriously inherited Dracula’s dark abilities. Forget about all that, and the soul harvesting system. Portrait of Ruin is the spiritual successor of Castlevania Bloodlines on the SEGA MegaDrive/Genesis. Jonathan Morris is the son of Bloodlines’ whip-equipped hero. PoR takes place during or just after the second World War. + +
++ + +
+ + +
+ + Castlevania games tend to pop up each year on Nintendo’s Handheld platform. The last entries: Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow, followed the story of Soma, who mysteriously inherited Dracula’s dark abilities. Forget about all that, and the soul harvesting system. Portrait of Ruin is the spiritual successor of Castlevania Bloodlines on the SEGA MegaDrive/Genesis. Jonathan Morris is the son of Bloodlines’ whip-equipped hero. PoR takes place during or just after the second World War. + +
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