I don't understand the "engaging with NPC's" thing. Any game where I have to spend a bunch of time having fake conversations with pre-hashed NPC responses is a game I wont be finishing.
No. I like sandbox games where there's hundreds of different things to do, and interacting with near-sentient NPCs, and making decisions and getting different reactions, as well as engaging narratives and witty non-childish writing.
Actually they do.
I don't understand the "engaging with NPC's" thing. Any game where I have to spend a bunch of time having fake conversations with pre-hashed NPC responses is a game I wont be finishing.
Actually they do.
No. I like sandbox games
where there's hundreds of different things to do
near-sentient NPCs
making decisions
different reactions
engaging narratives
witty non-childish writing.
you're putting HL in the same boat as Monkey Island;You fail to acknowledge and assimilate the splendid atmosphere of the game within your mind. If you are incapable of perceiving and experiencing the environment of the game, then I can understand how it could be boring to you since you simply don't understand it. To understand the game, a lot of work is required on part of the experiencer to put himself or herself in the shoes of the character of the game. This requires your utmost attention while also opening oneself emotively to the world of the game.
Half-Life and Half-Life 2 are the greatest games ever made for those with the eyes to see, with the ears to hear, with the mind to understand and the heart to feel. If you lack any of these, then a wholesome experience of the game falls apart.
Let's take a closer look.
Deus Ex isn't even a sandbox game, so that is out of the picture.
Yes, there are lots of things to do. Unfortunately in Skyrim, 90% of the time it boils down to "go to dungeon x filled with draugr and fetch me some item you don't care about.
I don't think you truly know what you are implying. Game AI isn't anywhere close, especially in Skyrim and Fallout.
Yes, look at these near sentient NPCs.
What decisions? Whether to kill the draugr in the cave and grab the item, or whether to kill the draugr in the gave and grab the item?
Again, what reactions? This isn't Bioware we are talking about.
What narrative? There is barely any.
"I used to be an adventurer like you. Then I took an arrow in the knee..."
"Let me guess... someone stole your sweetroll."
"You see those warriors from Hammerfell? They've got curved swords. Curved. Swords."
Great writing. 10/10. So witty.
All in all, they are good games. They fill their niche. But they are nothing as you describe. The AI is extremely shallow, the story generic, the world static and nearly indifferent to your presence and progress. What those games offer is a lot of content, even if they content is shallow. It is quantity over quality, and freedom of pacing.
Someone may play Skyrim 60 hours, another 100, and another 300. The difference between those people is how long they can do the same thing over and over before they get bored. You see more of Skyrim's content in the first 10 hours, but how long before you get tired of it? The game will spit out content at you until you give up.
Except akyrim does react to your actions. You can become wanted by a certain governments or guilds and be attacked or arrested. It isn't as lifeless as you make it appear.
Except akyrim does react to your actions. You can become wanted by a certain governments or guilds and be attacked or arrested. It isn't as lifeless as you make it appear.
No those are the exact fetch quests I was talking about.Actually they do.
there was a guy once who wrote a great Skyrim review; a real genius if you as me. He really did get everything right.I am the dragonborn, wearing full daedric, and people still treat me as if I am some backalley hobo. Bandits still try to rob me.
I am the master of the mage's guild wearing the grandmaster's robes, yet people still try to get me to join.
I hit a chicken in one city and guards want to arrest me across the continent.
Skyrim tries to fake reactiveness, and the holes in their approximation are quite glaring. You can complete multiple quests to their end, yet your actual effort on the world is minimal. Nothing ever really changes. It feels the same walking around the world in the beginning of the game as 300 hours later.
I am the dragonborn, wearing full daedric, and people still treat me as if I am some backalley hobo. Bandits still try to rob me.
I am the master of the mage's guild wearing the grandmaster's robes, yet people still try to get me to join.
I hit a chicken in one city and guards want to arrest me across the continent.
Skyrim tries to fake reactiveness, and the holes in their approximation are quite glaring. You can complete multiple quests to their end, yet your actual effort on the world is minimal. Nothing ever really changes. It feels the same walking around the world in the beginning of the game as 300 hours later.
Wait a minute. Half-Life Episode 1 and Episode 2 - Aren't they just Half-Life 1 and 2? Did I miss something?
Actually no, you're just making extreme examples. Ever been hunted by the Falmore because you attacked the embassy and drove them out of Skyrim? Ever been attacked by bounty hunters? They don't just appear out of thin air. That is the game reacting to your actions. You really expect any game to react to everything your character does? I don't think there's ever been an RPG I've played that reacted to your armor or how you were dressed. Like Knights of the Old republic. Nobody cared that you wore Mandalorian Battlearmor. In reality people would assume you were a Mandalorian and be afraid of you.
But I realize now that you and a few others just hate everything that isn't shoehorned into your own little idea of what a perfect game should be while spewing falsehoods about the game and using extreme examples that aren't representative of the game taken as a whole.
You missed something. There's Half-Life 1, Half-Life 2, then HL2 Episode 1-2.
There was supposed to be an episode 3, then it became HL3 and stalled out.
The original half-life was better, but half-life 2 is still an awesome game.
Yes some parts of HL2 got drawn out, but it is still a great game.
Man, not me. I find Fallout 1 & 2 to be unplayable (not bad games, just not my cup of tea) whereas Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas are probably my two all-time favorite games. I play them as first person shooters, but I really enjoy the RPG aspects and the immersive atmosphere as well. I don't give a crap if the lore is "correct", just that the game is enjoyable. I haven't played any other Bethesda games - although I have bought Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim - but if and when I do, I'll judge them primarily on whether or not I have fun playing them.I think it's more about Bethesda bandwagon hate. They've become the EA of RPGs ever since they bought the Fallout Franchise in 2003 and the whole Fallout fantard-base started creating a stigma about them all over the internet.
Even though all the essentials of an RPG, the world and its people reacting to your actions, lively/sentient NPCs with huge conversation trees and don't just stand in place like quest dispensers, branching and varied sub-quests among sub-quests (which by the way aren't the least bit repetitive), Skyrim does these things better than any other RPG, but regardless you're gonna get these people nitpicking the smallest details in the game and ignoring everything else, or just flat out making false claims about it.
Man, not me. I find Fallout 1 & 2 to be unplayable (not bad games, just not my cup of tea) whereas Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas are probably my two all-time favorite games. I play them as first person shooters, but I really enjoy the RPG aspects and the immersive atmosphere as well. I don't give a crap if the lore is "correct", just that the game is enjoyable. I haven't played any other Bethesda games - although I have bought Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim - but if and when I do, I'll judge them primarily on whether or not I have fun playing them.
It's been far too long between games for me to be excited about Fallout 4, but if and when it comes I'll judge it on its own merits, not how well or ill it adheres to existing lore.
You play them as first person shooters... because they ARE first person shooters...
They are not first person shooters. Firstly, your chance to hit is done by a virtual dice roll rather than how precise you are with your mouse.