Friday, February 20, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
RPG attempt 4.0
I have a long and brief career with RPG video games. It's never been a genre I've been attracted to, it's just something I've dabbled in. So here's the rundown.
First there was Sword of Vermilion, a Genesis RPG I bought almost two decades ago for reasons I forgot almost one decade ago. I remember that the music was awesome, but at a certain point I hit a wall where I needed to level up way too many times to continue the story quests than I had the patience for. I'd already bought Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and my friend had Sonic & Knuckles, so fuck this RPG shit, it's ring-collectin' time.
I didn't play another RPG for nearly ten years, when Garrett left Panzer Dragoon Saga in my possession for a while. I loved that game, and actually played it through to completion at least three times. I didn't know at the time that it was one of the most rare and coveted US Saturn games in existence, but I understand why. It was a very linear game, but the atmosphere, exploration, and action (real-time combat) hooked me immediately. It helped that I owned (still own, actually) Panzer Dragoon 1 and 2.
Roughly eight years later, I picked up S.T.A.L.K.E.R. via Steam, a first-person RPG/shooter. I played it pretty regularly for a couple weeks, but the slow pace killed it for me. I'd spend half an hour walking around for two minutes of combat, then another hour of walking to buy an upgrade, which would let me walk for another hour to get somewhere I'd spend 20 minutes looking around for a specific item I could bring back to some lazy fuck two hours walk away, and that constitued a quest. I'm sorry, but that's not action/RPG, that's just time-killing, and I do that at work five days a week, nine hours a day already. Call me when you've got something interesting to do, OK, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. developers? Also, enough with the fucking acronyms. I played this game for weeks, and I still don't know that the title of the goddamn game even stands for.
Which brings us to today. For Valentine's, Jenny and I went out and shoveled down some Italian food, then went shopping. I bought her a nice blouse, some nice earrings, and The Sims 2: Apartment Life (which was nice). And I got Fable: The Lost Chapters. Which is not only nice, it's one of the most awesome and addictive games I've ever played. It runs great on my PC, has tons of depth and replay, looks fantastic, has an amazing score, and is accessible enough for me (still an RPG n00b) to understand everything and kick ass/take names, while still presenting enough of a challenge to keep me on my toes. If this keeps up, I may end up spending what's left of my tax refund (after bills) not on a PC upgrade, but on an XBox 360, just so I can play Fable 2. Then again, I may blow it all on booze and cheeseburgers. Either way, WIN.
First there was Sword of Vermilion, a Genesis RPG I bought almost two decades ago for reasons I forgot almost one decade ago. I remember that the music was awesome, but at a certain point I hit a wall where I needed to level up way too many times to continue the story quests than I had the patience for. I'd already bought Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and my friend had Sonic & Knuckles, so fuck this RPG shit, it's ring-collectin' time.
I didn't play another RPG for nearly ten years, when Garrett left Panzer Dragoon Saga in my possession for a while. I loved that game, and actually played it through to completion at least three times. I didn't know at the time that it was one of the most rare and coveted US Saturn games in existence, but I understand why. It was a very linear game, but the atmosphere, exploration, and action (real-time combat) hooked me immediately. It helped that I owned (still own, actually) Panzer Dragoon 1 and 2.
Roughly eight years later, I picked up S.T.A.L.K.E.R. via Steam, a first-person RPG/shooter. I played it pretty regularly for a couple weeks, but the slow pace killed it for me. I'd spend half an hour walking around for two minutes of combat, then another hour of walking to buy an upgrade, which would let me walk for another hour to get somewhere I'd spend 20 minutes looking around for a specific item I could bring back to some lazy fuck two hours walk away, and that constitued a quest. I'm sorry, but that's not action/RPG, that's just time-killing, and I do that at work five days a week, nine hours a day already. Call me when you've got something interesting to do, OK, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. developers? Also, enough with the fucking acronyms. I played this game for weeks, and I still don't know that the title of the goddamn game even stands for.
Which brings us to today. For Valentine's, Jenny and I went out and shoveled down some Italian food, then went shopping. I bought her a nice blouse, some nice earrings, and The Sims 2: Apartment Life (which was nice). And I got Fable: The Lost Chapters. Which is not only nice, it's one of the most awesome and addictive games I've ever played. It runs great on my PC, has tons of depth and replay, looks fantastic, has an amazing score, and is accessible enough for me (still an RPG n00b) to understand everything and kick ass/take names, while still presenting enough of a challenge to keep me on my toes. If this keeps up, I may end up spending what's left of my tax refund (after bills) not on a PC upgrade, but on an XBox 360, just so I can play Fable 2. Then again, I may blow it all on booze and cheeseburgers. Either way, WIN.
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