tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post185060813833371911..comments2024-03-28T15:25:30.216-04:00Comments on The CRPG Addict: Lord of the Rings, Vol. II: The Two Towers: Summary and RatingCRPG Addicthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-46825413930228428102022-09-20T12:00:54.392-04:002022-09-20T12:00:54.392-04:00Mount & Blade has an amazing LotR mod for it.
...Mount & Blade has an amazing LotR mod for it.<br /><br />And the Amazon LotR series just released. Just noting for posterity.Zack Macomberhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18077050078436768492noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-26847569865045378812021-07-27T10:56:52.542-04:002021-07-27T10:56:52.542-04:00There was (is) a Civilization 2 scenario based on ...There was (is) a Civilization 2 scenario based on Lord of the Rings that I liked very much. Of course it's a strategy game, not an RPG. It makes very ingenious use of the limited possibilities of modding civ 2.<br /><br />I think the makers captured the "feel" of Middle Earth very well, although of course it's a pretty free adaptation of the material. With good strategy and some luck it's quite possible to defeat Sauron militarily, although it's a lot easier to sneak Frodo and Sam into Mordor and kill most of Sauron's armies in one stroke.<br /><br />I also remember that it was possible to kill at least one Nazgul by trapping it in Fornost and capturing the closest enemy city and then Fornost. Nazgul took the slot of fighter planes so if the base is captured and the nearest base is too far away, they would "run out of fuel" and die.<br /><br />Good memories. I would almost reinstall civ2 for this scenario alone.Theonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-84104875555231721672019-10-21T23:28:07.021-04:002019-10-21T23:28:07.021-04:00For a more gritty, closer to the original myth Art...For a more gritty, closer to the original myth Arthur, you could try the Bernard Cornwell book series on Arthur. I enjoyed them even if they give a different interpretation to the Romantic version in Excalibur, which I also love.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06571349010191110365noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-34911896682957314782019-10-17T19:57:44.140-04:002019-10-17T19:57:44.140-04:00Oh, god, that frigging thing. I think I've tol...Oh, god, that frigging thing. I think I've told this story before, but Irene tried to make me watch it and after like six scenes in a row of attractive wealthy people saying extremely reserved things to each other in sitting rooms, I said, "No time or place in the history of the world has been more in need of an alien invasion." I was so excited when <i>Pride and Prejudice and Zombies</i> came out. That managed to tell the story in in one-third the time as the A&E series AND it put zombies in there!CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-84383621015528367072019-10-17T12:23:41.994-04:002019-10-17T12:23:41.994-04:00Well, I'm not a Tolkien nerd, although it was ...Well, I'm not a Tolkien nerd, although it was the Hobbit that really got me into reading fantasy when I was a middle-schooler. I don't mind how the LoTR movies came out, and I thought they were enjoyable particularly the extended cuts (little more character development). However, I thought "The Hobbit" was too over the top and all just a money grab from Tolkien/LOTR movie fans. I did not like how they changed the story even though they claimed they were pulling from Tolkien's notes on how he would like to have redone the Hobbit in light of how he wrote LoTR. <br /><br />Speaking of adaptations of Jane Austen, I still like the old A&E adaptation of Pride and Prejudice quite a bit.BoardGameNuthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03573162816708652568noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-52258098794649920042019-04-03T04:02:21.717-04:002019-04-03T04:02:21.717-04:00Yes, there is. Initially, I assumed it would be a ...Yes, there is. Initially, I assumed it would be a remake (which pleased and surprised me), but now I hear that it's actually going to be based on other Tolkien materials, because the Tolkien Estate has, for the first time, given permission to license the Silmarillion. But yeah, it's still all speculation.Jakub Majewskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04346544936010598248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-5354025223780702072019-04-02T18:57:27.080-04:002019-04-02T18:57:27.080-04:00There is a lord of the rings tv-series in the maki...There is a lord of the rings tv-series in the making from amazon but most that is known is just speculationsstmpnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-80161350496199903472019-04-02T06:45:25.027-04:002019-04-02T06:45:25.027-04:00A good summary of the game and its chief flaws. I ...A good summary of the game and its chief flaws. I especially strongly agree with this part of final paragraph:<br /><br />"The 1990s were the only era in which Tolkien fans were likely to get an RPG that was technologically and graphically advanced enough to be fun, but not yet influenced ("tainted," as I'm sure some would have it) by the films. While the two Interplay titles have some promise and fun moments, it's too bad that they were the only attempts."<br /><br />Exactly.<br /><br />With regards to the movie "taint", while I do happen to be in the "movies were controversial at best" camp, I think even people who utterly loved the movies in every way should agree that their tremendous success is also a curse, as it blocks virtually all other possibilities. There are books - I'm thinking mainly the British and their Jane Austen adaptations - out there that get a new adaptation almost every decade, and while some of those adaptations are inevitably bad, it's just fantastic that you keep getting different takes and interpretations on the same story.<br /><br />The Lord of the Rings movies got many things wrong, plot-wise, but the worst thing about them is that they got so much right in terms of visual interpretation, that they will be, for a long time, considered to be the definitive version, and no one will see any point in "challenging" them with an alternative take. This is not good for anyone. I'd be very happy if we saw half a dozen terrible LotR adaptations being made, if in return, we got another one or two excellent ones. Instead, we're going to be stuck with one "almost great" adaptation for a long time...Jakub Majewskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04346544936010598248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-22165907408917922262019-03-27T01:39:31.978-04:002019-03-27T01:39:31.978-04:00I probably did take it more personally than I real...I probably did take it more personally than I realized :) Of course I respect y'all's opinion, I think I was frustrated in a general sense, less towards anyone in particular- I think it's good to put work into trying to get into the spirit of someone else's vision, rather than dismiss something when it doesn't match our expectations.<br /><br />The thing about schlockmeister... is that film history is very much cemented in "low" material, and much of the classic building blocks of the medium come out of what could be described as trash. Cinema was born from children's toys and carnival sideshows (zoetropes and nickelodeons.) Filmmakers who know their history are more willing to delve into that territory and still take their work seriously.<br /><br />And finally... I think the goofy action sequences had less to do with Jackson and more to do with The Matrix and Star Wars (and more indirectly, Crouching Tiger)- in other words, a consequence of the expectations of the time for highly choreographed, Hong Kong inspired action set pieces. <br /><br />I never saw Bad Taste or Braindead, but I did see Heavenly Creatures, which is a very serious movie that uses imaginative fantasy visuals in service to a dark, psychological drama.Joet88https://www.blogger.com/profile/06298640825880372478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-49289103498143878432019-03-25T07:52:22.301-04:002019-03-25T07:52:22.301-04:00@CRPG Addict - Charlie Brooker, creator and writer...@CRPG Addict - Charlie Brooker, creator and writer of Black Mirror, used to write for PC Zone in the mid 90s. But i guess that's general knowledge now.RuySanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05560670798869378094noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-74705004013365860622019-03-25T06:12:24.754-04:002019-03-25T06:12:24.754-04:00Bmp, Bad Taste and Braindead are brilliant films! ...<b>Bmp</b>, <i>Bad Taste</i> and <i>Braindead</i> are brilliant films! The former was made on a budget of more or less nothing, which makes it even more impressive. I don't think Jackson has made anything quite as good since.thekelvingreenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01928260185408072124noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-65637147058136074782019-03-24T23:33:33.916-04:002019-03-24T23:33:33.916-04:00That's what the author of the Book of Job said...That's what the author of the Book of Job said.Mr. Pavonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13286558267156792637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-7544101794665381512019-03-24T19:02:33.380-04:002019-03-24T19:02:33.380-04:00I second the praise of the Boorman Arthur film, &q...I second the praise of the Boorman Arthur film, "Excalibur". If anyone asks me to recommend a good fantasy film, it is my first mention. The next mention is the Rankin and Bass version of "The Hobbit". <br /><br />Since my early days of paper role playing games, I never met players who relished playing in a scripted fantasy world. I saw many attempts to roleplay "Dune" or "Middle Earth". They did not work out. Either they knew the stories too well and did not want to defile the source, or they never read the stories and so found gaming in such places to be too forbidding. The genius of Dungeons and Dragons was to create generic high fantasy settings, such as "Greyhawk" and "Forgotten Realms", with no central narrative. JJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-5135440063141572632019-03-24T17:38:33.712-04:002019-03-24T17:38:33.712-04:00What about the fake journal entries? I always love...What about the fake journal entries? I always love that kinda stuff.BobbleDognoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-74950150111269256942019-03-24T16:28:44.263-04:002019-03-24T16:28:44.263-04:00I think that with Tolkien in particular, fans can ...I think that with Tolkien in particular, fans can be defensive because Tolkien himself was. He wrote a withering letter to a proposed film treatment of LotR where he ripped apart the writer's story, criticizing not only large-scale things but minor nitpicky things as well. Kurisuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00132568197501054206noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-82814735039285722019-03-24T10:20:05.782-04:002019-03-24T10:20:05.782-04:00Writing job is a writing job...Writing job is a writing job...ERobertshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10100273633659655294noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-1358541137538559642019-03-24T06:00:06.825-04:002019-03-24T06:00:06.825-04:00So a story-driven RPG that fails at telling a stor...So a story-driven RPG that fails at telling a story - regrettable, but at least more interesting than Ultima Clone no. 265.<br /><br />Hope you have fun with Star Control II. Great game. You would probably have to reject it as a CRPG. But then, it does link Starflight to Mass Effect - and it's just such an idiosyncratic cult hit, that it should be covered somewhere.Alexander Sebastian Schulzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15135338616598357444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-42057491482291843212019-03-24T00:09:42.322-04:002019-03-24T00:09:42.322-04:00@Joet88:
"As a fellow nerd, I encourage you a...@Joet88:<br />"As a fellow nerd, I encourage you all to avoid impulses towards elitism, and warm yourself to the idea that everyone has the right to enjoy the things you enjoy, even if they enjoy it differently, or for different reasons- it doesn't mean they don't get it, or that they're stupid or that they've ruined it."<br /><br />Sure, I'm not claiming otherwise, and I didn't mean to disparage fans of the movies. Did you write this because of my polemic "schlockmeister" comment? Somebody who directed movies like Bad Taste and Braindead really can't complain about that epithet. :) This doesn't mean that he's _only_ this and not a good director otherwise. But his predilections do seem to make themselves visible in those over-the-top scenes you speak of.<br /><br /><br />"It's easy to patly say it lacks visual imagination, but the amount of work it takes to bring a fantasy world to reality on the level of Fellowship is insane."<br /><br />I agree, it's very hard. Several illustrators have adapted the LOTR to excellent paintings, such as Angus McBride (for example, https://www.les-ailes-immortelles.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10205), and John Howe and Alan Lee who worked on the films. But despite the nearly unlimited technological possibilities afforded by computer-generated imagery, I think it's still very difficult to turn these into movie scenes of a similar quality.<br /><br /><br />@CRPG Addict:<br />Have you seen Tolkien's interpretations of Arthurian legends, the books "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, and Sir Orfeo" and "The Fall of Arthur" (unfinished)?<br /><br />I first read about King Arthur in the Prince Valiant comic, where Camelot is a recurring backdrop for Val's adventures. It contains allusions to some tragic end for the Round Table and a few incipient conflicts between Arthur, Mordred, Guinevere, Gawain and Lancelot that hint at the larger story. (Actually I just realized that the character Geoffrey in the comic is probably supposed to be Geoffrey of Monmouth, chronicler of the Arthurian legend.) (If anyone is interested, Prince Valiant is being reprinted in an excellent edition by Fantagraphics Books since 2009.)<br /><br />This made me look for more Arthurian works, and after reading The Once and Future King and unsucessfully trying to read some centuries-old original source a couple years ago, I think I'll try The Crystal Cave, which you recommend in this post: http://crpgaddict.blogspot.com/2014/01/game-137-spirit-of-excalibur-1990.html<br /><br />If there are other books that adapt the whole legend (or a large part of it) that you can recommend, I'd like to hear it! The Once and Future King is a great but also quirky adaptation I think, and The Crystal Cave also seems to emphasize its own angle, going by the description. Is there any somewhat "canonical" and complete adaptation in order to get a better understanding of the legend, aside from centuries-old hard-to-read original sources?Bmpnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-69381256440507666812019-03-24T00:03:01.938-04:002019-03-24T00:03:01.938-04:00Interesting thing about that movie. (I wrote a who...Interesting thing about that movie. (I wrote a whole thesis on this in school.) Nowhere is Arthur said to be the king of "England" or "Britain." No specific geography ever appears except that the Duke whose wife Uther steals is called "Cornwall," but even that seems to be his name rather than his land's name. When Arthur's knights come back from years of war, they also completely avoid proper names: "How did you fare in the North?"; "The East is ours again!" "The West is free and with us!" I'm not entirely sure why Boorman avoided explicitly placing his version of the tale in Britain.CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-91854882300919618172019-03-23T23:24:51.417-04:002019-03-23T23:24:51.417-04:00In the name of God, St. Micheal, and St. George, I...<b>In the name of God, St. Micheal, and St. George, I give you the right to bear arms, the power to mete justice.</b>Harlandnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-33757489408923689802019-03-23T19:26:58.827-04:002019-03-23T19:26:58.827-04:00I agree that Excalibur is probably the best extant...I agree that <i>Excalibur</i> is probably the best extant Arthurian adaptation, but I don't think that nothing will ever beat it. Some of the acting is horrible, and there are times that the limited budget is all-too-clear. I also think Boorman made some questionable choices in the conflation of certain characters and events. I particularly don't like how the move portrayed Gawain, who has a long and noble history in the literature and deserved a more nuanced treatment.<br /><br />But I can almost forgive all its flaws for that one scene when Arthur kneels before Uriens (his enemy) in the heat of battle and demands that Uriens knight him. That was entirely invented by the screenwriter and ought to be a lasting part of Arthurian canon.CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-57006740587235719322019-03-23T18:56:50.286-04:002019-03-23T18:56:50.286-04:00That's what I love about reading this blog. Ch...That's what I love about reading this blog. Chet always goes along with things if they're not game breaking. Rather than reload to get the optimal result, he just rolls with it and sees what happens. If a game has multiple paths he will try those on a second playthrough, if it's feasible, such as in the Quest for Glory games.<br /><br />Makes for a fun reading experience. JarlFrankhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08139422412722665286noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-43488859810158830312019-03-23T18:53:30.333-04:002019-03-23T18:53:30.333-04:00If we're talking King Arthur adaptations... no...If we're talking King Arthur adaptations... nothing will ever beat Excalibur, the movie from the 80s,with its Wagnerian atmosphere for me. That movie is just amazing. JarlFrankhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08139422412722665286noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-72673991518231559142019-03-23T18:09:02.253-04:002019-03-23T18:09:02.253-04:00Slightly different, since it was his day job, but ...Slightly different, since it was his day job, but a few years ago I came across a bit in a site report for the temple of Nodens written by one JRR Tolkien, examining the linguistics of the deity's name. That was pretty cool, but I was also tickled that HP Lovecraft used Nodens as one of his less-horrific gods (he was probably attracted/repulsed by an amazing fishy mosaic there). That's a lot of old school nerd-lit credit in that report. Menigalnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-76634273548373109362019-03-23T16:26:22.133-04:002019-03-23T16:26:22.133-04:00guy ritchie´s king arthur 10/10.. nothing more to ...guy ritchie´s king arthur 10/10.. nothing more to sayAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com