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the_christian, plus SW: KoToR stuff.
2004-Feb-24, Tuesday 20:08thorfinnFor those of you that don't know ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
the_christian, well, you should, and you can read something of his, entitled Break Steel with Hands. You can stalk him further on his website at http://www.f1-comics.com/read/.
That aside... I recently bought Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic (PC Version). I have now finished it once. I like it, and I like it a great deal.
The story is good, the pictures are good, and the illusion of non-linearity is particularly good, at least first time through. And whilst the order of subquests is mostly linear (a generally shrinking tree for each locality, plus a couple of arching quests that take you through the localities), the outcomes available for each subquest aren't linear, and they are entirely meaningful and have an effect, if nothing else, on your alignment.
I love the fact that almost every conversation you have with someone potentially affects your light vs dark alignment, and I really like the way that force powers are structured. First time through, I played everything fully goody-two-shoes light side, resulting in the rather nice 50% force power reduction cost relatively soon. I just have to say, too, that a light sabre equipped with a critical range extension (critical threats on 17-20, ow), plus waving around "master critical" feat, making that threat range 5-20, plus "master duelling", plus a +3 to hit and 2 damage crystal is just nasty.
The location designs are really very good, and there are plenty of excellent views to be had. I should probably take pictures this time through, it occurs to me. One striking map feature is right towards the end, when your spaceship is on a beach, and there's a sandy path that curves uphill and forks to the north... but they've added a twistback so that you can stand on the rocky cliff, overlooking the spaceship, peering over the beach and out to sea... Talk about cinematic moment, and this game really has them aplenty, both in "in game" scenes and pre-rendered movies.
As for the sub games... I didn't like the swoop racing, but that's because I'm not a twitch-game fan... but after the first set of races, I proceeded to ignore swoop racing entirely... And I was very happy that it didn't matter. Pazaak was, err, a bit silly, and a vaguely amusing mild diversion... And shooting down enemy fighters? Reminded me of a crappy 3d Galaga... If you blow them all up the first time they fly in all bunched up, it's much easier. Fortunately, they don't force these sub games on you (well, except for the fighter shooting, and that only a couple of times), and I liked that.
This time through I'm playing it dark-side all the way, just to see what happens. Should be fun, especially as I'm selecting my feats a bit more carefully this time.
the_christian, well, you should, and you can read something of his, entitled Break Steel with Hands. You can stalk him further on his website at http://www.f1-comics.com/read/.
That aside... I recently bought Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic (PC Version). I have now finished it once. I like it, and I like it a great deal.
The story is good, the pictures are good, and the illusion of non-linearity is particularly good, at least first time through. And whilst the order of subquests is mostly linear (a generally shrinking tree for each locality, plus a couple of arching quests that take you through the localities), the outcomes available for each subquest aren't linear, and they are entirely meaningful and have an effect, if nothing else, on your alignment.
I love the fact that almost every conversation you have with someone potentially affects your light vs dark alignment, and I really like the way that force powers are structured. First time through, I played everything fully goody-two-shoes light side, resulting in the rather nice 50% force power reduction cost relatively soon. I just have to say, too, that a light sabre equipped with a critical range extension (critical threats on 17-20, ow), plus waving around "master critical" feat, making that threat range 5-20, plus "master duelling", plus a +3 to hit and 2 damage crystal is just nasty.
The location designs are really very good, and there are plenty of excellent views to be had. I should probably take pictures this time through, it occurs to me. One striking map feature is right towards the end, when your spaceship is on a beach, and there's a sandy path that curves uphill and forks to the north... but they've added a twistback so that you can stand on the rocky cliff, overlooking the spaceship, peering over the beach and out to sea... Talk about cinematic moment, and this game really has them aplenty, both in "in game" scenes and pre-rendered movies.
As for the sub games... I didn't like the swoop racing, but that's because I'm not a twitch-game fan... but after the first set of races, I proceeded to ignore swoop racing entirely... And I was very happy that it didn't matter. Pazaak was, err, a bit silly, and a vaguely amusing mild diversion... And shooting down enemy fighters? Reminded me of a crappy 3d Galaga... If you blow them all up the first time they fly in all bunched up, it's much easier. Fortunately, they don't force these sub games on you (well, except for the fighter shooting, and that only a couple of times), and I liked that.
This time through I'm playing it dark-side all the way, just to see what happens. Should be fun, especially as I'm selecting my feats a bit more carefully this time.
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-02-23 04:54 (UTC)For the moment, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction is entertaining me, but hwen I tire of it, KOTOR will be bought.
Unless Thief III arrives first ...
Re:
Date: 2004-02-23 05:04 (UTC)Oddly enough, new on the stands, ask my boss
Re:
Date: 2004-02-23 20:53 (UTC)BioWare R0X0Rz
Date: 2004-02-24 22:07 (UTC)Re: BioWare R0X0Rz
Date: 2004-02-24 22:10 (UTC)Re: BioWare R0X0Rz
Date: 2004-02-25 04:38 (UTC)KOTOR is brilliant on the X-Box, however there is the usual thing from Micro$oft, making you spend more money by only getting updates to it through X-Box Live ($90 + required Broadband access) Makes me wish I waited till it came out on PC. Also, it shipped with a few bugs and since you can't update it, you just have to put up with it. Nothing serious, just annoying when they hit (which actually isn't very often)
In the X-Box's defence though, it is a good gaming machine. You don't have to worry about performance issues and it is the most powerful gaming console out there with some fantastic games. (I'll have to check out Jade Empire now...)
And you're right, BioWare is fantastic. All I have to do is count the hours of sleep I've lost with Neverwinter Nights and KOTOR...
(no subject)
Date: 2004-02-23 05:12 (UTC)The one thing I did find, though, was a mixed party of light and dark side jedi can make short work of just about anyone - the light side jedi get cheaper heal/cure and other things like stun, destroy droid, etc and the dark side jedi get cheap drain/disease/force lightning, etc. You can really do some damage while a bunch of enimies are in stasis and heal quickly afterwards.
Re:
Date: 2004-02-23 16:32 (UTC)That's because stupid people *do* serve the dark side.
However, if you want to quickly max out (and then keep maxed) your darkside points, you don't need to be anything but cunning and nasty. If you want the dark side to serve you, well, that's a harder proposition.
By the by, I cannot think of anything sillier than playing a game that (pretty much) lets you take any approach you like to a situation, then criticising it "because it makes you play it like this". You don't "have to be stupid and mean," to be evil - but being stupid and mean *does* make you evil.
Just like life.
Re:
Date: 2004-02-23 16:44 (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-23 20:50 (UTC)Being evil...
Date: 2004-02-25 04:41 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-02-26 05:20 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-02-26 15:57 (UTC)