tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post487482514932709133..comments2024-03-29T10:21:29.354-04:00Comments on The CRPG Addict: Martian Dreams: A Man, a Plan, a CanalCRPG Addicthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comBlogger41125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-31399894604469111462021-08-19T22:52:26.124-04:002021-08-19T22:52:26.124-04:00A possible small correction and a brief note:
The ...A possible small correction and a brief note:<br />The phrase "wasn't sure if could plant" seems to have a missing word.<br /><br />"How is my pocketwatch even telling the correct time on Mars?"<br />I can't answer that, but the Martian day is only a half hour longer than Earth's, so maybe you reset it once a day... When NASA sends its rovers to drive around on Mars, a few of the main staff have occasionally gotten custom watches that accurately tell Mars time! Maybe the Avatar traveled forward in time and grabbed one of those before this adventure began....<br /><br />AlphabeticalAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-69465020706020863772017-06-13T06:17:31.216-04:002017-06-13T06:17:31.216-04:00Also, the manual does have potted descriptions of ...Also, the manual does have potted descriptions of all the historical characters featured, and specifically mentions Méliès' "expertise in the area of things photographic". MockFerrethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08931362526047570416noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-33942605751389963552017-04-23T12:58:30.414-04:002017-04-23T12:58:30.414-04:00Repeatedly, in the Ultima games, including this on...Repeatedly, in the <i>Ultima</i> games, including this one, players are expected to have talked to a particular NPC to get a particular clue, so I don't think it would be asking too much for them to have spoken with each NPC and gotten a sense of that person's contribution to history. If Méliès never mentioned anything to do with film in his dialogue, I agree it would be unfair, but he talks at length about how he makes movies.<br /><br />Even if they have to provide a few more clues, "find someone who can develop this film" is a better quest than "go to Méliès to get the film developed."<br /><br />There is no excuse, I agree, for passwords that rely on interpreting horrid fonts.CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-58805585024575280552017-04-22T16:54:33.380-04:002017-04-22T16:54:33.380-04:00> nging the camera back to Hearst wasn't en...> nging the camera back to Hearst wasn't enough. Next, he wanted the film developed. It would have been a better quest if the game had let me figure out which NPC to ask myself--who has experience with cameras and film?--but Hearst himself told me to simply seek out Georges Méliès.<br /><br />Unless he's clear about that when you talk to him earlier, that would be a very bad idea. Remember, this is pre-internet. Requiring that the player suspect that Méliès is a real person is probably okay, but requiring they know something about him to know what to do is not. Having to pull out an encyclopedia if you are lucky enough to have one, or take a trip to the library or some other source of knowledge if you don't is out of what should be expected in a game like this.<br /><br />Since you presumably talked to him for a dream puzzle, they could have forced the knowledge on you though, so it could have been appropriate in that case.<br /><br />Or I guess you could have just traveled around and talked to every character. I hated when I ended up having to do that in my youth because I didn't understand the clues given with the world knowledge I had at the time.<br /><br />A fairly simple example of this (sort of) is in the beginning of Prophecy of the Shadow, where one of the first quests is telling someone a password which is the name of their favorite wine, White Zinfandel. Unfortunately the font made the i after the Z look like it was a flourish on the Z, and 12 year old me had no idea there was a real wine named that. I tried for a few hours with different variations of casing and spacing, and restarted a few times, before finally calling my Mom and asking. Happens it was her favorite wine. This is probably something easily figured out for anyone a few years older than I was. <br /> I passed that part and played for another 20-30 minutes, and stopped for the night. I never played it again, likely because the experience was so frustrating, and so early in the game.<br /><br />Apparently I wasn't the only one this got, as others have noted the same situation: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/what-is-the-most-insanely-difficult-crpg-youve-ever-played.14380/page-3Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14874291376019276497noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-68527024597937201542017-03-16T06:50:51.183-04:002017-03-16T06:50:51.183-04:00River City Ransom has LIGHT RPG elements? Then why...River City Ransom has LIGHT RPG elements? Then why do i need to grind for more than 50 hours and STILL have not unlocked the full list of moves for every playable character?Kenny McCormickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01553499727945099493noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-14702794913523191952017-03-13T09:22:02.962-04:002017-03-13T09:22:02.962-04:00@HunterZ I'm not familiar with engines in gene...@HunterZ I'm not familiar with engines in general, but I'd say a 2D adventure-based engine that didn't focus on statistics. For example, something like SanitariumPedro Q.https://www.blogger.com/profile/03572150497835442981noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-23426987445285961732017-03-13T00:44:20.506-04:002017-03-13T00:44:20.506-04:00A bit hard to escape the D&D aspect, given it&...A bit hard to escape the D&D aspect, given it's a D&D setting. I didn't hate the combat, even if it was pretty random, especially since the consequences of dying were minimal. The relative lack of ranged weapons also made it feel less like an exercise in kiting. Tristan Gallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16769219573533545742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-74933555658614464512017-03-12T22:26:40.994-04:002017-03-12T22:26:40.994-04:00@Pedro interesting thought about engine. What do y...@Pedro interesting thought about engine. What do you think would have been a more fitting contemporary engine?HunterZhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17049065099652976143noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-50391423593882044022017-03-12T17:49:38.750-04:002017-03-12T17:49:38.750-04:00QfG was the game that turned me into RPGs. It was ...QfG was the game that turned me into RPGs. It was like good old KQ and SQ but hey! Stats! Combats! No insta-death!<br /><br />As for Torment games, PST used the wrong engine I think. RT combat and D&D was just wrong for it. Numenera is just... strange. Let me attack NPCs! Let me fight baddies!Pedro Q.https://www.blogger.com/profile/03572150497835442981noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-7259029502942235132017-03-12T13:24:51.394-04:002017-03-12T13:24:51.394-04:00I nearly titled it, "Sram,lan,a canal: Mars!&...I nearly titled it, "Sram,lan,a canal: Mars!"<br />CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-5614187840658538762017-03-12T12:16:28.260-04:002017-03-12T12:16:28.260-04:00Part of the problem is the state of Steam Greenlig...Part of the problem is the state of Steam Greenlight, so many fly by night developers buy pre-made assets from the Unity store and cobble them together into some vague semblance of a game, stick a tiny price tag on it and hope to make a few bucks from the card sales, then set to churning out the next one, which is often little more than a palette swap of the last. The problem has become so bad that Steam's total library has more than doubled in the last three years and they have vowed to do away with the system altogether. As for the RPG tags, those are user defined so really, anything goes, if a game has any kind of an XP counter you can bet it is labeled RPG. Wonkohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05147422102351323674noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-60144871816204301662017-03-12T01:44:28.693-05:002017-03-12T01:44:28.693-05:00I've never been able to get into adventure gam...I've never been able to get into adventure games - QfG excluded. I don't think Torment (which had quite a lot of combat) or it's sequel (in which I have yet to raise my hand in anger) feel like adventure games.<br /><br />IWD games had great maps, but the lack of personalities or societies meant that there wasn't as much inducement to keep slogging through composite longbow driven combats.Tristan Gallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16769219573533545742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-11193657560193892842017-03-12T01:40:16.396-05:002017-03-12T01:40:16.396-05:00This comment has been removed by the author.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15479919904867159434noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-86599313110665783952017-03-11T23:31:09.389-05:002017-03-11T23:31:09.389-05:00Icewind Dale was awesome. I got it for xmas back i...Icewind Dale was awesome. I got it for xmas back in the day, and stayed up half the night just making my party. The music is some of the best I'd heard in a PC game. It was a lot easier to bite off than Baldur's Gate, which I still haven't managed to completely beat to this day (let alone the sequel).HunterZhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17049065099652976143noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-31552192159940704092017-03-11T20:44:03.323-05:002017-03-11T20:44:03.323-05:00If this blog tallied reader bonus points, I'd ...If this blog tallied reader bonus points, I'd say you just earned three. Quirkzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16409671254311123117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-26937522230532627242017-03-11T15:57:16.891-05:002017-03-11T15:57:16.891-05:00This is why I couldn't get through Torment. I...This is why I couldn't get through Torment. It was fairly well-written, but after a while, it just didn't feel like a game anymore.<br /><br />On the other hand, I seem to like Icewind Dale more than most (I like it better than BG). But I like it because it felt more like the sort of RPG I grew up with: you create the entire party, it was a bit hack-and-slashy, etc. It was still too linear, but at least it had elements of what I like in a CRPG.KenHRhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11613789646908929989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-2277497833519150172017-03-11T15:44:10.333-05:002017-03-11T15:44:10.333-05:00Somehow, without noticing, we've started to en...Somehow, without noticing, we've started to enter one of my favourite era in computer art: That VGA-ish dithered look, where you have almost all the colours you needed, and dithered the rest. It gives everything a shaded look that I quite like. This game isn't the best with it, but I'm sure we'll see it put to good use in the coming years. Canageekhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03770924810559440307noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-80443963370235321242017-03-11T14:42:43.659-05:002017-03-11T14:42:43.659-05:00I assume the original title of this entry was &quo...I assume the original title of this entry was "Martian Dreams: A man, a plan, a canal...Panama's ma er'd, <i>na</i>? I tram!"PK Thunderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14416777230563913195noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-78789576045402805382017-03-11T05:10:06.531-05:002017-03-11T05:10:06.531-05:00Steam's requirements for "RPG" are i...Steam's requirements for "RPG" are incredibly loose. At least half of the full games (A lot of DLC and soundtracks have their own entry, and bloat the list) wouldn't make the cut, and I wouldn't be surprised if the figure was closer to three quarters.<br /><br />Among the "RPG"s on Steam are the River City Ransom remake (a beat-em-up with light RPG elements), Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation (an RTS with hero units), and Crusader Kings II (A Grand Strategy game with emphasis on the social and political interactions of the ruling families).<br /><br />That doesn't get into the sheer number of dust-in-the-wind f2p MMOs that bloat the count.Gnomanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13920812227941556716noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-51749244863147606292017-03-11T02:57:00.433-05:002017-03-11T02:57:00.433-05:00Obviously they designed their robot to get in earl...Obviously they designed their robot to get in early for all the lucrative merchandising of the Metropolis movie!<br /><br />Seriously though the design is close enough that the devs probably just wanted to sneak it in as a reference.<br />Honor Sharpehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02992100501425422093noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-58474390155879765882017-03-10T16:41:42.559-05:002017-03-10T16:41:42.559-05:00The screenshot captions in this post are an absolu...The screenshot captions in this post are an absolute delight.VKnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-54649975478900459702017-03-10T16:40:48.446-05:002017-03-10T16:40:48.446-05:00God, how I loathe this idea, fairly ubiquitous in ...God, how I loathe this idea, fairly ubiquitous in RPG circles, that a game where all you do is click dialog options is an Adventure game. Torment has nothing to do with Adventures, Adventures should have puzzles to them, of which Torment has next to none. It's more of a visual novel or a CYOA.VKnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-86735689566446986692017-03-10T16:12:27.416-05:002017-03-10T16:12:27.416-05:00Seems high to me also. The number given in the 2-8...Seems high to me also. The number given in the 2-8-17 article re GOTY at RPGCodex was 1810. I'm not sure what Steamspy is or what it was counting, but it does seem that there has been an explosion.Grinderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16861457025711685946noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-44555408586294246272017-03-10T15:49:41.223-05:002017-03-10T15:49:41.223-05:00That 1,500 figure can't be right unless it cou...That 1,500 figure can't be right unless it counts a lot of independent games or mods for existing games. Even MobyGames only has 234 RPGs listed for 2016, and that will include a lot of games from previous years that had re-releases in 2016, plus quite a few console-only games.CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-68871829802829801812017-03-10T15:47:10.529-05:002017-03-10T15:47:10.529-05:00I like RPGs. If the RPGs tell an interesting story...I like RPGs. If the RPGs tell an interesting story, I like them more. If they offer adventure-style puzzles, I at least don't like them LESS.<br /><br />But if they use an RPG engine to offer a game in which character development, inventory, and combat are fundamentally unimportant, then yes, expect a lower rating.CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.com