My column this week is about the word EDGE. Well, sort of. It’s about the guy who owns it. This story has been simmering in the background for a while, and I only just recently heard about it from Corvus. It is not a nice story, although it is nice to see that it’s coming to the forefront.
More proof that I am a hopeless romantic at heart.
You know, seeing this guy talk about his work really changed my perception of Crytek and, by extension, Crysis. I still think their pursuit of graphics spectacle is self-defeating, but I was glad to see it was because the guy has a genuine passion for graphics, and not because they thought it was the key to great sales. I thought it was hilarious that he began by talking about the fact that his favorite games were always the ones that didn’t run on his computer, since Crysis has now become the poster child for that very problem.
I do take issue with his praise of the AI they have. I think it is and was the weakest aspect of their games. (Aside from the difficulties in running them.) The fact that sticking your elbow out from behind a fern at 100 meters will result in every single foe in the area zeroing in on you and then flawlessly tracking you through the foliage is a major frustration. The fact that they can hear your footsteps three rooms away and then know that they are the footsteps of an armed foe (and not one of their own guys) is another glaring shortcoming. They’re not particularly good at flanking you or working together to flush you out. They’re drooling morons with superhuman eyes and ears.
It’s also interesting to see how deliberate the play of Far Cry was. They made it big, bright, open, and unscripted because other games (I’m sure they were thinking of iD Software) made games about fighting in dark tunnels. Looking at Far Cry, you can see what parts of the game they cared about and had a passion for (lush outdoor visuals, action set pieces, dynamic encounters) and which ones they thought were unimportant. (Story, dialog, acting.)
And yes, the graphics are pretty amazing. It’s five years old and Far Cry still looks great.
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Crap. I was supposed to save that last bit for the end. Maybe I should have used a spoiler tag. Ah well. Just pretend like you don’t know how the series will turn out and I’ll make like I didn’t say anything.
The gameplay in Overlord II is much improved over the original, fixing my various gripes and polishing the established gameplay. The game is a much improved version of an established formula, so why don’t people dig it? I think the main problem here is that the designers did a poor job of introducing newcomers to the series. I’d point out how stupid this is, but I just did the same thing. Let me back up…
You play as the Overlord, a towering guy who looks like Sauron and sounds exactly like the main character from GTA III. In the game you command groups of minions: amusingly mean little imps who will obey you without question. They come in four colors: Brown (damage absorbers) Red (ranged attackers) Green (damage dealers) and Blues (healers). Most of the game revolves around managing these groups to get the most out of them in combat. Sometimes you’ll be fighting waves of hapless wimps, sometimes you’ll be fighting organized forces, and sometimes you’ll be fighting a single large foe. Each one requires a different approach.
Your Overlord also has some melee prowess and a few magic spells, and you can generally improve the survivability of your forces if you don’t mind placing yourself in harm’s way. (But if you’re risking your own life to protect your underlings, then I have to wonder just what sort of Overlord you are. What is it about this whole “evil” thing that’s confusing you?)
The original game lacked any sort of map or compass, which led to players becoming frustrated by the occasionally labyrinthine areas. Now you get a nice in-game map. The original game had occasionally frustrating areas where you might see your forces wiped out several times and still have no idea what you’re doing wrong. In the new one the transition from “combat strategy mode” to “puzzle mode” is much cleaner, and it does a far better job of teaching you how gameplay elements work before expecting you to use them under pressure. The gameplay adds a bit of depth without adding too much complexity by introducing mounts for your minions to ride. The strategy gameplay is more interesting, the puzzles are more fun, your tower is cooler, the controls are better, the interface is better, and the changes to the story undercut the entire point I’m trying to make about this one being better. Still, this is one of those sequels that will ruin you for the original.
As an aside: The game has SecuROM:
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To my knowledge this is the standard garden-variety of SecuROM that just… I don’t know… mildly inconveniences hackers? It’s not tied to online activation or phoning home or anything insidious. Still, it’s there and you should be aware of it. I wouldn’t have noticed it if not for the dialog that popped up when I tried to play without the CD.
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This is a console port, but it’s a graceful one. I have a USB controller which is the functional equivalent of the current-gen console controllers, and I was able to set it up to behave exactly like the Xbox. It feels like I’m getting the best of both worlds: The clean controls of the console version and the higher resolution of the PC version. (I’m not actually all that into high resolution for the purposes of gameplay, but it does make it much easier to make comics.) Startup time is short. Load times are brief. I’ve plowed through the game twice and had one crash.
I’ll get into the gameplay in a later post. Try the demo if you’d like to play along at home.
I don’t usually go in for lists like this. They invariably end up loaded with skanks and dunces who think “sexy” means “malnourished and underdressed”. For example: I’ll take Audrey Hepburn in her Sunday best over a bare-assed Jessica Alba any day.
However, I must admit that the #1 spot in this list of the Top Seven Sexiest Women of Fantasy is a triumph.
EDIT July 2020: The original link to thetorchonline.com is long dead, now claimed by malware scam site. However, archive.org remembers the original.
Once again: How are things going on the Twenty Sided Servers?
If a moderator is harshing your mellow, this thread is the place to out him. Everyone having fun?
Just a reminder that you can donate to keep the servers running. I’ve pledged to pay for one of them if the fund runs dry. The Team Fortress 2 servers are $30 a month, each. The billing cycle hit about two weeks ago, and we’ve got $13 USD in the hat. That’s amazing, considering I haven’t mentioned the server fund (much less linked it) in over a month. You folks are great.
If you want to nominate some fresh maps, I think we’re due. The Lawful server will stay 100% vanilla stock levels, and will stick to ones that have broad appeal. (Ergo: No 2Fort.) But we can add some controversial or community maps to Chaotic if enough people demand them. Just nominate in the comments. (be sure to specify which server.) If the comments don’t paint a clear picture, I’ll take the nominees and run a poll later in the week.
Also, Rutskarn (one of our mods) has a post that allows us to view the game through the lens of hilarious, fiery death: A Review in 11 Deaths. I appear in one of the deaths. Also, congratulate him on 200 posts if you’re a base-ten landmark sort of person.
Also be sure to read this bit: SPAWN CAMPING FOR FUN AND PROFIT. (It’s not actually advocating spawn camping.) It’s from bbot, one of the server regulars and (last time I looked) one of the top players on our server. It’s a good bit and has a lot of insight on the game for new0ish players like myself. (It’s a rare game where you can clock 100 hours and still be “new”.)
My picks for what was important, awesome, or worth talking about in 2015.
Even allegedly smart people can make life-changing blunders that seem very, very obvious in retrospect.
I wanted to take the file format of a late 90s shooter and read it in modern-day Unity. This is the result.
A long-form analysis on one of the greatest horror games ever made.
I was trying to make fun of how Silent Hill had lost its way but I ended up making fun of fighting games. Whatever.
My picks for what was important, awesome, or worth talking about in 2014.
Obviously they are. Right? Actually, is this another one of those sneaky hard-to-define things?
People fault EA for being greedy, but their real sin is just how terrible they are at it.
Imagine if the original Star Wars hadn't appeared in the 1970's, but instead was pitched to studios in 2006. How would that turn out?
It seems like a simple question, but it turns out everyone has a different idea of right and wrong in the digital world.
T w e n t y S i d e d
