The Gamer’s Quagmire #53: Bastila Catches Kerrigan
Everything you wanted to know about gaming, and less.
by Jamison DeLorenzo
I managed to resist overreacting to the news of EA purchasing BioWare several weeks back. Part of me felt like I was betraying a long standing heritage of raising warning flags about EA, singing the praises of BioWare, and lamenting yet another game publisher being assimilated by the Borg. BioWare has brought an incredible source of joy to me and millions of other gamers. The news of them being purchased by Microsoft back in 2003 was scary enough.Looking at that last statement concerned me some. When Microsoft was looking to buy them way back the thought of the soul being drained from BioWare was enough to make me queasy. The company that churned out Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, and Knights of the Old Republic was going to the Evil Empire? BioWare did make a lot of games that only appeared on Microsoft OS’s, so from that standpoint I managed to hold back the fear (which leads to anger, and so on).
Soon we got a taste of Jade Empire and soon we will see Mass Effect. BioWare is one of my favorite publishing houses. In fact, I have consistent weekly debates with myself over whether Square/Enix or BioWare is my favorite. I have the badge and everything ready to bestow on the eventual winner. Making the decision is a painful process. It may not become as painful as finding a Wii in a local store, but you get the idea.
Anyway, the point of this is that any gamer that holds an affection, in some cases potentially a very unhealthy one, for a game company anything can cause the person to freak out. EA soaking up BioWare was enough to cause me to consider playing DDR last week. While that may not seem traumatic to you, I once wrote a nicely worded rant about DDR which prompted in my first series of hate mail as a web author (in other words - it was a proud day). As a gamer without much of a social life, losing BioWare is like losing a best friend. It does sound very pathetic and I accept that, but it is an accurate statement.
This week another rumor has surfaced that has forced my hand. I already knew about the upcoming sequels for Mass Effect (is anyone else highly disturbed by planned sequels to an original work that has not even been completed yet?) and the upcoming Dragon Age (which is described as the sequel to the Baldur’s Gate series), but now there are talks of an MMO whose backdrop is… get ready… KOTOR.
Forgetting for now that we already had an MMO with a Star Wars universe, we have to look at this game as fans of the franchise first. We, as fans, have been pining for a KOTOR 3 for a couple years now. We, as fans, have been lusting for a completed version of KOTOR 2. While the blame with that error does lie with LucasArts for forcing the game out the door before it was finished, we can find salvation in that Team Gizka is very close to a completed mod that will sew up the game the way it should have been (and if you did not know that SHAME ON YOU).
As a fan of dreaming of having a life, the last thing I need is thoughts of getting onto another online game. What does frighten me is that the franchise has been a godsend for me because the story has been phenomenal. Yes, it also has lightsabers, but the interactive dialogue and fluent story has made the franchise a legend in my book. I have yet to see this in any online game. I have yet to think about how this can translate well into an online game. Maybe there are powers that be that need to repair the emotional damage that was done with the last Star Wars MMO (thank you very little Sony), but I do not see how EA can be the ones to do that.
I am an overly cynical person. The trick is to convince myself that this current rumor will turn fact and BioWare will continue its amazing string of superb games like how Blizzard kept its string going with World of Warcraft. Maybe EA will be hands off like they have been with Will Wright’s studios and everything will work out. As a service to fans of BioWare, heed my advice when I tell you that you should pocket this rumor now and wait at least another year before considering the possibility that this could happen and that it might be good. If you don’t do this it will absolutely drive you insane. If you do not believe me consult your nearest StarCraft fan and ask them about their emotional rollercoaster ride over the last six years with that franchise.
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March 12, 2007
The Gamer’s Quagmire #43: Getting What You Ask For
Everything you wanted to know about gaming, and less.
by Jamison DeLorenzo
Something struck me this past weekend that I feel that I should share with you. No, I didn’t get run over by a tour bus (although that almost did happen). I have been spending an extravagant amount of time looking over launch lists for each of the consoles wondering about which console looks like it is going to be the most promising this year. I decided that it was possible for a console to become my primary gaming platform in lieu of my PC. The Sony online Home announcement aside the launch lists are going to be the most telling. It will tell me which console will be naughty and which will be nice.
Wait- did I just make a Christmas reference in March?! With a list and everything else?!!!?! Sigh…
It struck me that every game I was most likely to want to play, with the big exception being Spore, is a sequel in a franchise. Granted, it is hard to see which new games are going to be good and it’s hard to plan for those. Assassin’s Creed, as interesting as it sounds, is on my list of games that may be rented at some point. I believe I have mentioned this problem here before so I am not going to elaborate on it. The reason I bring it up is that I started to walk down the path of what games would sound the most appealing to me if they were to be released.
Hearken back to Knights of the Old Republic II if you will. It is a quality game that was not finished in time of its release and there is plenty of content the developers at Obsidian completed that we never saw. However, because we have hints and bread crumbs in the game as to what this missing content is, people are working on the restoring this content. It is this type of news that has been the most intriguing in a while. Find a game that has some extra content in it that I have not seen before you and I am probably on the line ready to bite at purchasing it.
This is a strange notion for me to consider. I am not the person who jumps at the extra content that is on a DVD or looks for Director’s or Extended cuts of a movie. Music, on the other hand, does grab me that way. Finding several concerts and unreleased Dave Matthews Band tracks pretty much made my week despite a stomach virus, more Mets drama, insane work hours, a leak in my ceiling at home, almost being run over, and no gaming of any kind. Somehow this idea of viewing previously enjoyed media with some added bonuses has struck a chord with me.
Now, do I really want to see all of my past favorite games with some added content? Hardly. Several of my favorite games have been re-released within the past couple of years that I simply have no intention of getting (especially any of the Square games with added Anime). Most of these re-released games are simply fluff on top of the same game. Fables: The Lost Chapters, on the other hand, is in the ilk of the type of game I am very much interested in playing. That offering was a little too shallow for me to consider picking up because they finally made the game a decent length for an RPG and it was still not a whole lot more than the original offering.
In general I love seeing new takes or extensions on old ideas. This is still tricky to pull off with games because adding enough content to a game that makes it worth buying again is always tough. Fans of the Rainbow Six series should understand what I’m talking about here. Every once in a while a new release in the franchise does make the campaigns and the multiplayer vastly different experiences. Meanwhile Madden is still bogged down with the same gameplay that existed in 2001 (aaah, another cheap shot at EA). When you whore out a cool game, such as what happened with Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, you go in the opposite direction of what I’m looking for.
As that is one of my least popular phrases, which is true with any phrase that is beyond tired, I feel I should elaborate on what I mean by that. After all that comment is highly subjective. The only real difference between “good new content” and a “whored out franchise” is a highly subjective opinion on the new release. They sound completely different. The latter even sounds like I’m saying something extremely poignant instead of just being guilty of something every radio shock DJ does on a daily basis.
Take Sands of Time- the game was designed from the ground up by the creator. Everything about the game was brand new for the franchise. The next step, The Warrior Within, had a gutted story and a deeper battle system. Overall the game did not really offer anything new. After this came The Two Thrones which, although it offered an interesting story device, did not offer anything new to the game worth getting excited about. I am not saying that the games are not worth looking at if Sands of Time provided a good amount of enjoyment for you (it is in my all-time Top 10 for games), but after a ton of incremental changes you are effectively beating a dead horse.
Hmm, that’s still pretty subjective. Maybe I have no idea what I am looking for. Not knowing what I want could be my real problem. Maybe there is no winning formula for expanding on an old game. Maybe I only want expansion packs for games I love and complete rewrites for everything else. Maybe I just need to take a closer look at the titles available now and give them a try instead of being a chicken. Either way, I am starting to get a sense for why not too many games are appealing to me right now and that online games have a tendency to nuke one’s ability to find other good games to play.
Or I just may need to be 10 years old again and get a slew of video games for Christmas one last time.
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