Geekdom

So I finished Dreamfall.

I thought it could have had a better ending. You end up with more things left unresolved then you started with. Clearly they are working on a sequal. At least I hope so. It’s a successful franchise so I think we’ll get one, but I remember bitterly ‘Beyond good and evil’ (although there are rumours it’s sequal is in the works).

Being an adventure game it had pretty much to most linear plot possible, but that’s not what we play it for. It was a painful ending, lots of things happened that I wish had happened differently. I can respect that though as long as it stays true to the vision of the world. Which it did. Unashamedly so.

Like I said in my previous post.. It has expanded my imagination, I loved it. It deserves the aclaim for it’s story and depth. That’s what I played it for.

One thing that I was impressed by was the way it explored things so often avoided in video games. Particulary romance and love from the perspective of a female protagonist. And both the main characters were strong female characters, one strong female in a game (or movie) is rare enough. I still wish Zoe was gutsier, but she was certainly persistent and determined. Oddly I thought April was too gutsy, but seeing as I didn’t play the first game where she is star, I guess I just don’t fully understand what she is so bitter about.

I know lots of April’s friends are being killed by the enemy etcetera etcetera, but she seems to have a deathwish. Also, why couldn’t she shift between worlds anymore? Why does she never go back to her homeworld Stark? And why does she hate even thinking about Stark? Gah! I really need to play the first game. From what happened in this game the next one will be equally confusing without playing the previous ones. I wonder if we will ever find out what happens to Zoe.

Ahhhh Dreamfall. What to say about it..

I got a hold of this game just yesterday and played it all night. I have a bad habit of doing that with games that captivate me.

Something to put this into perspective, I initially hated Elder Scrolls 4 : Oblivion, but I eventually changed my mind, and quite enjoy roaming the vast world it provides. I have played into into the long hours of the morning. However it doesn’t captivate me nearly as much as Dreamfall has.

Being a story based game, aka adventure game, I know that it will soon end, and I’m not looking forward to that time.

Firstly the visuals are fantastic, I don’t mean it has fantastic graphics (which it does by the way), but that it visually tantilizes. The whole game feels like concept art. Like you are living in an artist’s dream. I really wish I’d played the first part ‘The longest Journey’, but there is enough in this game so that you aren’t completely clueless on the plot.

I understand not everyone likes adventure games, so I’m not too annoyed about the 80% review average it has on gamerankings. The story can get slow, some of the errands can be tedious. Playing this game though, I feel like my imaginative powers are expanding. I really really love the world.

The main protagonist Zoe annoys me sometimes, she has a spine in her own world Stark, but when she’s in Arcadia she’s empty headed. I really wish she’d say to April, “Fuck you!”

They have a great way of telling the story, the way it switches between Zoe, April, and later on a tall warrior I can’t remember the name of.

I’ll have more to say on this game when I’ve finished it, but for now just really enjoying the places it’s taking my mind. Thank you Funcom!

I didn’t really have much of a reaction to the name, but I’ve been reading what the gaming world thinks of it. It’s all rather silly really.

[edit] Actually I did, I started thinking about what their plan is. It fits in really well.[/edit]

Perhaps this is a way Nintendo will enable it to reach out to the mass market, there’s dickhead gamers everywhere giggling at it. Soon enough the wider market will just see it as a brand, but certainly a distintive brand. They are definitely seperating themselves from the other consoles with this name. The non gamers will be intruiged by it. The way grandma’s are using and talking about iPod’s now, that’s Nintendo’s hope. That it becomes a ubiquitous term for an experience.

Thinking about it, the Wii will offer an experience unavailable from any other medium. PC’s and the other consoles have no way of acheiving what the Wii can (not out of the box anyway). So people who think about some particular task they want to perform with this thing will be thinking of nothing other then the Wii. Since there is nothing else like it.

It’s a medium, not a console. Wow I should go into marketing.

To achieve that, will really come down to software. From the few bits of info on Wii games in production at the moment, it seems feasible. For instance ubisoft are making a Yukuza game where you’ll do you’re own sword slashing, and supposedly you must become simpler and more efficient in your slicing as you progress through the game.

But the real power of the wii will be in non games, like braintrainer stuff. And unconventional games, such as a puzzle game where you slide blocks around with the controller physically. It fits that slogan they came up with for the DS, “Touching is good”. It’s a little sexy really. That’s not the Nintendo of old. That’s a Nintendo that went to Apple marketing school.
Okay, I refuse to further their cause without pay any longer.

I made a very crude level editor for my game yesterday. Ludicrously simple. But it’s a simple game. It makes having levels load from xml files a useful idea. Fuck hand writing xml levels bleh!

Once I’ve handed in this game, I really want to expand it a bit and add some basic 2d physics. I want to make a puppet show tool

So I finally found a web hosting service that I am happy with.

My previous site roserpens.net was hosted by liquidchain.com, they never answered my emails which demanded they give me access to my domain account details (so that I could change hosting services).

That is why I had to get a new domain name. They must truely have the worst support of any hosting company. Anyway they are now gone from my mindspace.

I’ll update in future on how my new host works out, but for now I think I am willing to recommend them to people.

A Small Orange

The have cheap basic plans, but they still have full funcitonality. ie As many MySql databases as you can fit in your space. Perl, Php, MySql, Python, etc.
I am also changing the name of the blog from Serpens (which is silly) to Planet Nectarius (which is sillier).
In other news Neverwinter Nights 2’s website has finally launched. At nwn2.com or it redirects to:
http://www.atari.com/nwn2/

RUMOUR Beyond Good Evil sequel in the works Revolution News Australia’s PAL Gaming Network

[edit] wp messed up this link.. bleh. [/edit]

This news in both heartening and suprising.
There is a rumour that the fantastic game, Beyond Good and Evil, may actually be getting the sequal it deserved. For all platforms when next gen hits.
It’s makes sense if you think about it, with the revolution and ps3 people will be searching for games ‘new’ games (not bad ports) that show off their potential.
If BGAE is expanded to it’s potential, it may get a third which would then complete the story.
This game was pretty much thought left for dead by it’s fans. I think they over marketed it, and didn’t get the sales they needed to cover it.