I do think there’s some interchangeability between the Grey Wardens, Spectres and Jedi, but there are enough differences between the games & world that while it sounds similar, it doesn’t quite feel the same. Then again, maybe it’s me. And maybe it’s because I got the PC version.

Well — the feel may be different, but I worry that the idea is getting particularly played out. That being said, I’m honestly only a few hours in. I suspect the game will get awesome, but for now, it’s dragging its feet.

Further, I almost wish I had gone for the potential misery of a PC version; the combat right now feels not at all tactical, which is what I really want out of an intense RPG.

I’m being overly critical, of course. I’m on the Internet, and the Internet magnifies criticism and devotion.

– c.

Hey Chuck,

I can’t get over how amazing the game actually is. I do agree that some aspects seem to be cliche. With that said, though, I am having a blast. The PC version is far more tactical than the console versions. There is a lot of planning, pausing, regrouping, and angling that needs to happen in order to win a lot of fights.

This is one of the few games where the story grabs me so intensely that I actually care about my character and some of my group-mates. Interactions feel real and interesting. I have played through the starting missions (the parts before you actually join the Wardens) and I can say that all of them are amazing, save for the Dalish Elf one. That may just be me, though, as I really dislike anything elven for some reason (I wish some mythical creature would devour the entire lore of elves from planet Earth and erase them from our minds).

I encourage you to keep playing. If this game lets you down…I encourage you to try Borderlands or Fallout 3.

I spend far too much time playing these games…but as my wife says…better to lose her husband to pixellated fantasy nonsense rather than to alcohol, drugs, and cheap women.

I doubt Braid is where it should be at for this kind of thing. Braid is the ultimate result of decades of platformers. But they did the time twisting retread thing with Prince of Persia, which really was kind of groundbeaking… if a little brown.

Now, I am sure you and I could come up with kick-ass new and revolutionary concepts for fantasy/action-adventure/fighty storylines, but I wonder if any of them would ever SELL. And I wonder what kind of color palette you’d use other than shades of ochre and teak and sepia. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed had lots of Evil Black and Blue, but it was also a lot of brown, too.

These days if you want to do something DIFFERENT with fantasy you kind of have to go “oh it’s like the normal stuff only it’s STEAMPUNK” or “oh it’s like the normal stuff only it has ANIME ALL OVER” or “only it has ZOMBIES” or “only it has APOCALYPTIC WASHINGTON DC.”

I would love to write for a CRPG or console game company and have the gist be, “let’s turn this nonsense on its freaking ear. We’ll start you out as the Big Bad Overlord and then reincarnate you after your final (yet first scene of the game) climactic death at the hands of the heroes. Then you can decide if you want to repeat history again and stop the children of those heroes before they kick your ass, or you interrupt the cycle of destiny and be the freaking good guy this time.”

I’d play that. And I would make it all in shades of red, white, and blue.

Paul: *Giant* fan of the entire Fallout series over here. Love it. Haven’t tried Borderlands, but will one day think about it. Also interested in Torchlight. As for Dragon Age — I’m sure I’ll get over my ennui, and the game will kick me in the teeth. I am playing the “elf mage” origin, and it’s… fine, I guess. Again, it’s very, very brown.

Cam: As noted, we have to find an excuse to work together. You just proved it. Well-done. It’s science. … Anyway. I think Things That Are Good have the potential of selling. Bioshock was, for me, a fairly new look — an Ayn Randian underwater art deco city is pretty much its own thing. And since a good game sat behind it with a good story, it all came together and sold very well. As for Braid, I was more speaking of Braid as a vehicle for unique story; that’s a mind-boggler of a tale, the kind I don’t recall seeing in games ever.

– c.

Oh! And on the “brown” thing — listen, the real world has a fuckbucket of color. I look out my window, and even in the growing bleakness of autumn I see bright yellow leaves, a still green lawn, a red car, a wan blue sky. The brown is punctuated with so much color.

In Fallout, when I finally got to the weird side-mission with the people growing that Half-Tree Dude, I about stained my pants with joy. Color! Sweet, sweet color!

Bioshock, for all its underwater bleakness, is punctuated nicely with color — weird lights and neon signs and all that good stuff.

It actually speaks to part of what I wanted to do for the Underworld in Geist. The Underworld, by necessity, is a bleak place. Death is not alive (a-duh). But, you look at the Day of the Dead celebrations, and color is everpresent. So, the Underworld became this thing that’s all gray hoary shadow and bleakness, but it’s punctuated by sharp, bright bits of color: marigolds, red lanterns, neon signs, blood, beads, and so forth.

– c.

The lack of innovation in electronic games is one of the reasons why I’ve stepped on the path to becoming a game designer. When I go purchase a new game, rarely do I see something that makes me want to go home and make sweet love to it. Usually, I find myself having more reasons to put it back on the shelf.

I’m reading up on the Underworld section for my Geist game as my players will likely be traveling there in the near future. Nice to see an author’s take on it though.

As an aspiring game designer and a current game tester, I agree with you on a LOT of points. I have told the company I work for over and over and over again, STOP IT with the depressing color schemes already!

The good news? They listened! The bad news? I work on casual games, so not many of my friends will see the results of my work. (NatGeo’s new game, Mystery of Cleopatra, is a good example.)

As to turning this thing on its ear, didn’t they sort of do that with the first Knights of the Old Replublic? You know, the whole Revan angle?

I didn’t run out right away and get Dragonage, but waited until I saw the Inside XBox episode where they give you tips on how to play best, and it seemed top me that the game consists of hit something for 30 seconds, pause and issue new ‘orders’, lather rinse repeat.
I play games for two reasons depending on my mood. To not think AT ALL, (where games like Puzzlequest come in handy), and to kill fucking everything that moves. Mostly the latter. Better than a double Tullamore Dew whiskey and a few valiums after dealing with the knuckleheads at my work.
Right now, besides Fallout 3 of course, my game of choice is Borderlands. Lotsa color, (although the cell shaded world gets can make my right eye twitch in annoyance from time to time), but it’s got tons of content, 4 different characters you can play as, with each putting a totally different twist on the combat, HUNDREDS of guns and such, etc.
But the big twist on the genre for me at least is the MMO feel to the game. Party up with up to 4 peoples, level up and loot the shit out of anything you can find.
As far as Brutal Legend goes, I played it and was impressed…. for about an hour. After that it was the same shit over and over again, and I found myself playing it just to hear the Jack Black snappy comments. I got it used less than a week after it came out, and the fact that the Gamestop had a shitload of them used that soon after launch was a good giveaway that I would join the returnee ranks of the disenchanted. Meh.

Well, I am thouroughly addicted to Dragon Age, and I think the art direction fits the mood. Ferelden is supposed to be dirty and earthy, and that means brown. If they did that with Orlais, however, I’d be questioning the choice also. I expect the other kingdoms will have more of the majesty areas.

I’d also say the woods areas, like around Haven, don’t have much brown to them. I think the storyline is pretty solid, with an insanely developed world. I’m solidly sold, and I love the gameplay. I really liked Baldur’s Gate, however.

I will agree there is a hell of a lot of dialogue and talky scenes, but I am enjoying them. There’s also usually an option to tell the person to shut the hell up if you don’t want to sit through it, also.

So, to summarize:
Brown: Motivated for this area.
Dialogue: Lots of it.
Wendig: Big poopy head.

Oh, and I am going to agree that the glitz of Brutal Legend wore a little thin. I do like RTS, but it is so limited that it is frustrating in Brutal Legend… so this is a little converse from the person who doesn’t like the RTS genre, as I do like it. I still really dig the game, just now it… meh. Don’t really wanna beat it on Brutal difficulty.

Dragon Age is getting better. Less blandness. Some of the dialogue is still a bludgeoning thwack against my head — once more, I’m not sleepy, and I found myself getting heavy-lidded as I played. So far, too many characters have “info dump” written on their foreheads. “Oh, in crisp, unaffected British, let me tell you about the darkspawn.”

And –

Scionic:

I am a big poopyhead. Can’t lie.

Brown as “fits the world!” is kind of goofy, as it makes it sound like the world they created was out of their hands. You can make dirty and grungy and still have color. Spots of it here and there. It would be fine if it was *just* Dragon Age. It’s not. It’s a video game problem. Brown, brown, gray, brown, black, white, brown, brown. I loved Fallout 3 like I love my own non-existent sonbrother, but… aaaaagh. Graybrown. It was soul-sucking, at times.

I never played Baldur’s Gate.

Bob –

Word. I will peek toward Borderlands when time allows. Oresome. Oh, and we need to get together for those Tullamores and valiums.

Amanda –

That’s true. KOTOR one was nice flip and switch.

Dawn –

Ooooh, lemme know how you like Geist.

– c.

I love Geist. We (the Wrecking Crew) demo’ed it at GenCon for White Wolf’s release and I fell in love with it then.

I am ashamed to report, that I love Geist even more than I love Vampire, and I’ve been a die-hard Vampire fan for many, many, many… okay, a couple of decades now.

It has a lot of the elements that I enjoy running: Death, dark, and spiritual. I love Vampire, but I miss the spiritual exploration (as in the Umbra in oWoD). I’m not a big fan of Werewolf but I loved the spiritual journey aspect. Geist just does it for me on a lot of levels.

My players though, are already asking me when I’ll go back to running the Vampire campaign, and my husband will always be a Werewolf fan.

I’m still finding my voice in Geist, and the story (game world) isn’t developed enough yet on the level that my players have come to expect from me. I’m also trying out my convention style games on them which they don’t particularly enjoy.

Even for all that, we have three new players in the form of our teen age children (mine, and the other main player’s kids). They are being introduced to White Wolf with Geist. I also have two new adult players who are pretty new to White Wolf cutting their teeth on my Geist game.

Of course, come to think of it, I might be a tad biased. Geist is the first book I have my name printed in – only as a play tester – but I get a warm fuzzy feeling when I hold my Geist book.

I’m hoping to shift my name over to the other column in the years to come. One step at a time.

And yeah, it’s 3am here – I’m rambling and should be in bed.

Dawn

Dawn:

This is me being stupid, because I totally did not realize you were Wrecking Crew.

*smacks head*

Welcome to Terribleminds.

And, I’m glad you dig Geist. A lot of work went into it. It’s a shotgun blast of a game: lots to do, lots of options.

– c.

No worries, I tend to be a wall flower anyway. Or a stalker. More like a stalker.

I was with the Wrecking Crew a few years ago, dropped out because I moved out in the middle of nowhere with no transportation. I rejoined them a few months before GenCon.

Dawn