I Love Heroes of Might & Magic

I absolutely adore Heroes of Might and Magic. You may also refer to the series as "HOMAM" or "Heroes" if you so desire. I shall be the first to admit that I have neither played "King's Bounty" nor the first game in the Heroes series. From what I've seen on the web, Heroes 1 looks a bit old (in a negative sense) and seems to lack style. Heroes 2, on the other hand, is a true piece of art in every possible way. The gameplay is rock solid, the soundtrack is one of the best ever, and the colourful graphics are better looking than anything that's going to be released for the PS3 (citation needed). There's no need to go into further detail with the sound and gameplay, and since this week is "Graphics Week", I'm going to make a keen observation of the development of graphics in the Heroes series.
Observe - a battle scene from Heroes 3; favourite of many, loved by all. Favourite of mine? No. Take a better look at that battlefield. Then compare it to the battlefield above. You think the difference is subtle? You think Heroes 3 is prettier because it has a higher resolution? You are wrong - look again. Where did the colours go? (Yes, I spell "colour" that way, as you can clearly see). Everything looks, well, kinda brown, doesn't it? There are some blues, but they are certainly not very distinctive.

Also notice how the characters are no longer beautifully hand-drawn. They are now primitive 3d-models - and be thankful you don't have to see them move. This is a perfect example of the fact, that three dimensions do not make anything look more impressive. Just look at that so called "Hero" up in the left corner. The Heroes 2-knight could kick his butt any day. "Yeah, but that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with 3d, it's just a matter of art direction". Oh, do you think so? Well, why don't you just write your own blog about your own keen observations then, you buffoon? Anyway, I'm sure you get my point. Onwards.

At this point, it would be reasonable to let Heroes 4 enter the equasion, and so it shall be. You might be disappointed though, because I am not about to introduce a screenshot from a Heroes 4-battle and compare it to the other games. Be reminded, that this is not "The Duke's Game Comparison Service". That site is on another server.

Actually, it is more interesting to behold this picture of a city-screen from Heroes 4. Notice how the various structures, that are supposed to look inviting and magnificent, instead blend into the background and end up looking, well, dull. Unfortunately, this depressing tendency also holds true for the now isometrical battles, whose participants look just as dull as their hometowns.

Since the relatively new Heroes 5 does not run very well on my hardware, I don't know how that game looks when running as it should, and so any comments about that game would not be fair today. Somehow, I don't feel like being unreasonable at this moment.

I Love Art

Being as intellectual as I am, I have long since realized that graphics do not make a game. Back in the C64-days, there were games that looked awesome, but at the same time sucked. There is no doubt, however, that nice-looking graphics are a great way to enhance a great experience. Neither is there any doubt, that good graphics necessarily have much to do with resolution of textures and amounts of normal-maps. Good graphics, I guess, are graphics that suit the feeling and mood of the game, and makes the player feel like a part of the adventure.

As everybody knows, the best realistic-style graphics, ever seen in a game, are those of Capcom's Resident Evil Zero for the GameCube. Of course, the comparison with RE0 to most other games is not fair, since RE0 uses pre-rendered backgrounds. Make no mistake, however - Resident Evil Zero is the best looking game of its type ever.

Since you are so horribly persistent on knowing what the prettiest not pre-rendered game of all time is, then you just need to add four to the title, and you'll end up with Resident Evil 4.
There's no need to fool yourself in this matter.

Resident Evil 4 has the most solid feel to its characters, like, ever. Also, the game includes numerous areas, especially in the castle, that made me say out loud: "This place looks neat", every time I entered a room.

"These games are not art", I can hear all the bad boys thinking. "Where is ICO? Where is Shadow of the Collossus? By the way, did you know that the plural of Colossus is 'Colossi'? I'm gonna use that word in all my sentences from now on". Well ain't that something! First of all, a game needs something called a frame rate to be considered a game - otherwise, like Shadow of the Coloussus, you are just a picture, not an actual game. Second, you need something called gameplay to be considered a game - otherwise, like ICO, you are just a picture, not an actual game.
"Fine, fine. RE0 and RE4 do look nice - but those games are in 3d. Everybody knows that real games don't need all those dimensions". I hear you, don't worry. The best looking game of all time is, of course, none other than Street Fighter III, goes without saying. With animations that make the player drop his jaw every time Ryu kicks someone in the face, you just can't go wrong. How will they ever improve on those graphics?

Still not satisfied? Very well, I do have one award left; the award for the best-looking game with funky graphics. You already know the answer - it is of course Nintendo's Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. Just look at all those funky Dry Bones. Outstanding!

That's it. I'm sure the whole world can agree that these four games have the best graphics ever. If you wonder what happened to Vagrant Story, see the above reason for why ICO was disqualified.

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I Love Civilization

No, I really do. Civilization is all about gameplay and interesting choices, as Sid would have it. Now with the expansion "Warlords" being released tomorrow, I can't help but wonder if Civ 4 is/was really good enough. It's a great game, no doubt about that, but I must say that it has annoyed me much more than the first three games in the series.

First of all, I really don't like the interface and much of the control system. Sometimes I end up inside a city when all I wanted to do was change the production. I can never remember which of the little buttons on the top right to press. When attacking with stacks of units, the units have a really mean tendency to deselect themselves although the game knows that I'm going to attack with all of them. Then there are the graphics. I can never seem to see the country borders, although I don't remember this being an issue in Civ 3. Also, do I sense a lack of charm? There's just something about the appearance of Civ 4 that makes is less feel-good than the previous games. This might just be because of my never-ending fondness of 2D-graphics. Finally, the music. I remember Civ 3 as having quite nice music, especially during the medieval times, but in Civ 4, I find many of the tunes too depressing. Yes, yes, I know that the Middle Ages were such-and-such, but I'm just playing the game to have a good time.

Gameplay-wise, well, I guess Religion is nice, but... I'm not blown away. I was very pleased with the inclusion of Culture in Civ 3, but I don't feel that Civ 4 stays fresh nearly as long as Civ 3 did.

I guess I would still pick Civ 4 over Civ 3 today, but...

It's not that there's that much wrong with Civ 4, and I certainly don't know what kind of gameplay additions or tweaks that would make the game more fun. All in all, I guess Sid did a good job, and I might even pick up the expansion...

Note, that I do know what kind of changes would make most Japanese RPG's more fun. My first move would be to actually include gameplay.

^_^

I Love Dragon Quest

"When you have a Japanese PS2, then you gotta have Dragon Quest VIII", that's what I thought back then.

After playing for a few minutes, my first reaction was something like "Oh this is as mediocre as games get". The game went back on the shelf (actually a cardboard box), and was replaced by games, such as Bujingai, Katamari Damashii and, of course, Street Fighter III - 3rd Strike. Katamari lasted, what, a week? Bujingai... Yeah, Bujingai is just great. I knew exactly what I was buying back then - pure quality. Let's just say that Bujingai went in the box with Dragon Quest VIII, because you just don't throw games in the trash, even if that's where they belong (I still don't get how the Bujingai trailer made the game look so fantastic).

Then, after about 4 months of Street Fighter III - 3rd Strike, I decided to give Dragon Quest VIII another chance. After playing as far as to the entrance to the first dungeon, my impression was, of course: "Damn, this game is hard". This, however, is not true; especially not if hard has anything to do with challenging. Ikaruga is hard. Devil May Cry is hard on hard, and harder on Dante Must Die. Heck, even Blood Omen 2 is hard (to keep from crashing). Dragon Quest VIII is hard compared to other RPG's I have played because you need to level up frequently; not only to beat the bosses, but even in order to survive the hordes of random encounters. Does this make Dragon Quest VIII any less boring than other RPGs? No, not really.

I admit, however, that i was under the spell of Dragon Quest for some time. "Well, I guess leveling up is part of the charm, and I'm sooooo freakin' excited to see what Zeshika's next skill is going to be". And of course, the graphics are stunning, and the music is nice, although a bit repetitive, I guess. But the fun doesn't last.

After having played around 30 hours, I have finally gotten myself a ship. Joy! Now I can spend ages sailing around, exploring the vast exciting world of Enix, just like in Wind Waker. But what is this news I hear? Random battles while sailing? Fantastic - more battles means more experience for me; isn't that wonderful. Plus: All I know is that I'm going to the western continent, but I have no idea where to dock my ship. Yes, I'm aware that I can enter land from any beach, but the thought of walking across a new continent with even harder monsters just doesn't seem that appealing anymore. Besides, I wouldn't know whether or not I was on the right western continent. But I really do enjoy this kind of freedom in games. Yup, nothing like illusions of freedom in a completely linear game. (I have nothing against linear games, by the way).

To the point: I'm writing all this because I am quite annoyed with Dragon Quest VIII at the moment. Mainly because I don't see the point in the whole "escape system". Since you can't die anyway, what's the point of an escape command that only works sometimes? Since Enix, or whoever, have already been kind enough to get rid of the whole Game Over-thing, why must I still be pestered by this extremely frustrating luck-based escape-crap?

"You cannot escape; you are surrounded". Surrounded. Feh, by one freaking enemy.

Back in the box, Dragon Quest VIII.

Blog Reborn

Finally I have moved away from Geocities and the Wonderful Yahoo Pagebuilder. We (the Royal "we") have simply concluded, that it will be much easier to maintain any kind of blog on a site such as this.

The blog that started all this might still be found at http://geocities.com/theff6/blog.html.

I grow ever more hateful everyday, and this blog will most likely follow my example.

^_^