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Comments
Malk's point is not that DA and ME are bad, but that they're not unexplored territory
Yeah, but I would rather not lose out on some very good games simply because they retread ground that has been trod before.
> Really, fuck both ME and DA. I want them to start making more Jade Empire.
but you are the one who said that
Predictably enough, I'd like to see more medieval European fantasy games.
Or rather, medieval European folklore games. The industry is really obsessed with the standards set by D&D, so we don't have any games that use the folklore in its base form. The medieval fantasy genre is falling short of its potential by recycling the same ideas rather than either doing something different or going back to basics.
Don't get me wrong. I love taking out trolls and ogres and shit, but my favourite combat experiences are always to do with overcoming the obstacle through skill and cunning rather than the strength of my character alone.
alex
let me send you my dossier
Yeah, but when it comes to a videogame company, with a finite number of resources and which can't tackle various projects at once, they obviously can't do both Mass Effect and Jade Empire at the same time. So if Bioware has to make a game, they have to schedule and invest in one of them. the fact that Mass Effect and Dragon's Age have both got a sequel, and Jade Empire didn't says where Bioware wants to go.
You know what would be cool?
A samurai RPG.
Not even kidding. There's so much propaganda and misinformation around samurai that doing a game that leans towards realism with the inclusion of Japanese folklore would be a lot of fun. Basically what I'd like to see of a medieval European fantasy, except in weeaboo format.
> It doesn't have to be either/or though.
but he also said that, juan
I'd like to see a sequel to Alpha Protocol.
It was really flawed, but it's one of the few games I've played where your choices actually had far-reaching consequences and you had to think hard about everything you did.
what i was getting at is that in the context of general games, it is true that it is a false dichotomy, but in the context of Bioware's catalogue, it isn't.
The first comment was mostly a joke, but it basically relates to the fact that Dragon Age and Mass Effect don't really tread new ground.
I don't think it needs to be an either/or thing, especially now that supposedly with TOR being done they have more manpower.
However, given two choices.
1) A good game exploring ideas I've already seen
-or-
2) a good game exploring barely trodden ground.
I'll always take the second.
Where was the last game about being a space pirate?
Was there ever a game about being a space pirate?
Man, the last game worth a damn about Pirates period I remember was Sid Meier's Pirates.
Which is a shame since PoTC shows they have a market and it'd be perfect for an open-world action-adventure game.
A Book Of Lenses has some interesting segments about PotC and gaming, although not in a home console medium. The writer was a game designer on something that was halfway been vidya and a ride at Disney Land, and they had to come up with an experience about simple naval battles. The process of theming a game around this was a fun one to read about, but my favourite part of theming was actually entirely unintentional.
The designers went to test-ride their own game at Disney Land, posing as a regular visitor of the theme park. They had always been troubled over how they were going to theme the 3D glasses, and had tried making them into bandanas, eyepatches and all sorts of things before giving up. So they were lining up, the the attendant, in full costume, said something that wasn't in the script at all:
"And now, ye must place upon yer head the Eyes o' Bluebeard!"
The author of the book loved it; a single sentence had themed a completely mundane object in a way they couldn't with hours upon hours of labour.
In any case, a good PotC game would be cool beans indeed. I'm thinking Zelda-like setup with naval battles and crew management.
Yeah, that's always been my opinion, especially after Skyward Sword.
SMP's problem, to me, was it was too much of a management sim and not enough of an adventure with epic quests.
Okay, it's more realistic to have to deal with food resources but it would also be more realistic to be hit by a stray bullet and then die of scurvy or infection because the wind was still while we were trying to get to port but we don't see that in the game.
RPG-wise, or story-wise? Because story-wise it is a reconstruction of space operas of the 70s, 80s and 90s (the first two for the first two, at least. The last should hold true).
^^ Stuff like food management is one of those limiting devices game designers put in there to ensure you don't rise above your means too early. A literal beef gate, if you like.
I should play Skies or Arcadia one of these days.
Skies of Arcadia is the game that convinced me that JRPGs might not be all bad.
^^Remember that great part in Star Trek when Captain Kirk and Spock engaged in tactical shooting tactics?
Even if I believed that ME was actually the reconstruction of Star Trek/Buck Rogers/Star Wars the developers hype it up to be, that's not treading new ground.
It is only one insofar as it isn't about how bad the space military is.
Freelancer.
I think Mass Effect does innovate in a few ways. This article covers it pretty nicely.
Moved to the Media category.