Lately, I've been playing 'Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic'. It's a nice little roleplaying game from Bioware with a good story and lot of good rpg play into it. Nice games don't come often, and I don't usually give games high ratings, but KotOR is indeed a classic that needs to have a place in the list of games people must play. It's certainly dated on a technical aspect, but it doesn't loose it's allure. I certainly don't miss newer games when these old gems can really still bring you some good enjoyment.
These past months have been somewhat a time warp for me, checking out older games. I thought to check out Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, which is one of the newer RPGs and by Bethesda. Judging from videos and screens, I'll probably never pick up a new RPG by them. Oblivion is a highly touted product, and with good reason too. So much work has been put into it, but it's all so strange that everytime I see it, my interest level drops to zero. I've put in countless of hours on Morrowind, it's predecessor and while Morrowind was a good product, it wasn't a great one. You have to acknowledge the flaws alongside its strengths, but overall, after playing Morrowind to the ground, the lasting memory of it isn't the roleplay that you do (or lack of), but the tedious nature of the game.
I'm sure Oblivion attempts to solve many of those issues but for a game that's built from the ground up, it sure looks a lot like Morrowind in motion. Morrowind's graphics are eye-gougingly bad by today's standards and for all the accolaides that oblivion receives from the visual department, it looks like crap. Everytime I see it makes me cringe, from the facial acting to the character models and the lighting effects. That's me talking from a visual aspect which isn't much to speak of when I play games. I play even older games with far less fancier visuals.
Oblivion's gameplay from videos look a whole lot like Morrowind did, and the Elder Scrolls series is the kind of game after I play once, I don't really look forward to going back. It's the same with Oblivion. It moves so much like Morrowind, the battles seem so much like it, and it really looks like another tedious game. I know Oblivion has a little bit of some thing like those teleport to location things, which by the way is a bad idea. I think that when a Dungeon Master warps his players to the 'exciting' parts just because his players are getting bored, something is definitely wrong with the game. Come on, Bethesda, you're more creative than that.
Or are you? Perhaps the Elder Scrolls series will benefit from a fresh different approach. Perhaps Bethesda ought to give another studio a shot at building this epic and gigantic RPG. I want to like The Elder Scrolls series. Don't let Morrowind be the last TES game I play.
Moving on, I suppose...
As depressing as TES is, the Linux gaming is just as depressing. The opensource games out there don't really peak my interest, and the games available are and few in between. Some people hinge their hopes on emulation which is a valid solution and has been for the past few years. This, though, only alleviates the problem to a certain degree. Emulation, for one thing, is always going to play catch up, and it isn't likely to run every game conceivable. The allure, I think loses its sheen when you have to work to get the games running and sometimes, there's just too much work to be done and too much waiting. The only solution I think is that Linux gaming leans on porting. For the same amount of effort you push into emulation, it's far more productive in the long term that portability tools be developed, hence giving development studios and big game companies a good reason to port for far less the cost.
I do think that unlike the previous topic, the Linux gaming scene is slowly changing. More games are coming and LGP surely has some aces under its sleeves. I hope this is the start of big and better things to come for the Linux community.
All in good time, I suppose. All in good time.
These past months have been somewhat a time warp for me, checking out older games. I thought to check out Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, which is one of the newer RPGs and by Bethesda. Judging from videos and screens, I'll probably never pick up a new RPG by them. Oblivion is a highly touted product, and with good reason too. So much work has been put into it, but it's all so strange that everytime I see it, my interest level drops to zero. I've put in countless of hours on Morrowind, it's predecessor and while Morrowind was a good product, it wasn't a great one. You have to acknowledge the flaws alongside its strengths, but overall, after playing Morrowind to the ground, the lasting memory of it isn't the roleplay that you do (or lack of), but the tedious nature of the game.
I'm sure Oblivion attempts to solve many of those issues but for a game that's built from the ground up, it sure looks a lot like Morrowind in motion. Morrowind's graphics are eye-gougingly bad by today's standards and for all the accolaides that oblivion receives from the visual department, it looks like crap. Everytime I see it makes me cringe, from the facial acting to the character models and the lighting effects. That's me talking from a visual aspect which isn't much to speak of when I play games. I play even older games with far less fancier visuals.
Oblivion's gameplay from videos look a whole lot like Morrowind did, and the Elder Scrolls series is the kind of game after I play once, I don't really look forward to going back. It's the same with Oblivion. It moves so much like Morrowind, the battles seem so much like it, and it really looks like another tedious game. I know Oblivion has a little bit of some thing like those teleport to location things, which by the way is a bad idea. I think that when a Dungeon Master warps his players to the 'exciting' parts just because his players are getting bored, something is definitely wrong with the game. Come on, Bethesda, you're more creative than that.
Or are you? Perhaps the Elder Scrolls series will benefit from a fresh different approach. Perhaps Bethesda ought to give another studio a shot at building this epic and gigantic RPG. I want to like The Elder Scrolls series. Don't let Morrowind be the last TES game I play.
Moving on, I suppose...
As depressing as TES is, the Linux gaming is just as depressing. The opensource games out there don't really peak my interest, and the games available are and few in between. Some people hinge their hopes on emulation which is a valid solution and has been for the past few years. This, though, only alleviates the problem to a certain degree. Emulation, for one thing, is always going to play catch up, and it isn't likely to run every game conceivable. The allure, I think loses its sheen when you have to work to get the games running and sometimes, there's just too much work to be done and too much waiting. The only solution I think is that Linux gaming leans on porting. For the same amount of effort you push into emulation, it's far more productive in the long term that portability tools be developed, hence giving development studios and big game companies a good reason to port for far less the cost.
I do think that unlike the previous topic, the Linux gaming scene is slowly changing. More games are coming and LGP surely has some aces under its sleeves. I hope this is the start of big and better things to come for the Linux community.
All in good time, I suppose. All in good time.
