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Spending too much on frivolous stuff...
Sep. 29th, 2004 10:49 amIt's always fun.
I gave Fable another chance -- got through the tutorial, and on to the actual game, and it just... continued to suck. The combat was random and chaotic, your 'allies' kept stabbing you in the back (literally, in a way that looked like a bug as opposed to a feature), there didn't seem to be any depth to the equipment or advancement schemes, and the interaction with the NPCs was all through this incredibly clunky system of 'expressions' that shared shortcut space with things like 'health potions'. Basically, after giving it more of a fair shake, I still hated it, and stopped playing it.
Instead, I went out to get X-Men Legends, which I saw at Conifur and sounded interesting. While I was there, I also had to pick up Gradius V (since I like R-Type Final) and Sly 2 (since I liked Sly Cooper). And a couple Chevelle albums. And season 4 of Futurama. And part 2 of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.
So far, I've listened to the music, watched GitS:SAC, and played X-Men Legends... the rest of the stuff is going on various piles of as-yet-unwatched/unplayed games and/or DVDs. Volume 2 of Stand Alone Complex wasn't up to the level of the first DVD, IMO. Plus, its default sound was DTS, which meant that every time I turned on the DVD player I had to go into options and switch it to Stereo sound, which my TV can actually play. ARGH!
X-Men Legends seems pretty neat -- it's in the style of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and the other clones. Which means it's neat, and I like it. Unfortunately, you have a team of superheroes that you lead around -- all of you share the same set of health potions, but you don't have much control over them except for the one you're controlling at the time. Fortunately -- and this saves the game -- they're pretty good at not getting hurt. They aren't so good at killing things, but I haven't had one die on me yet, even when I was in situations where it looked like *I* was going to die.
Now, this isn't a matter of good AI or anything -- looking at how little they're often damaged after combat, they have to be getting a huge defense boost while under AI control, because they're hurt less than a single hit from the weakest enemy. It works, though.
I gave Fable another chance -- got through the tutorial, and on to the actual game, and it just... continued to suck. The combat was random and chaotic, your 'allies' kept stabbing you in the back (literally, in a way that looked like a bug as opposed to a feature), there didn't seem to be any depth to the equipment or advancement schemes, and the interaction with the NPCs was all through this incredibly clunky system of 'expressions' that shared shortcut space with things like 'health potions'. Basically, after giving it more of a fair shake, I still hated it, and stopped playing it.
Instead, I went out to get X-Men Legends, which I saw at Conifur and sounded interesting. While I was there, I also had to pick up Gradius V (since I like R-Type Final) and Sly 2 (since I liked Sly Cooper). And a couple Chevelle albums. And season 4 of Futurama. And part 2 of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.
So far, I've listened to the music, watched GitS:SAC, and played X-Men Legends... the rest of the stuff is going on various piles of as-yet-unwatched/unplayed games and/or DVDs. Volume 2 of Stand Alone Complex wasn't up to the level of the first DVD, IMO. Plus, its default sound was DTS, which meant that every time I turned on the DVD player I had to go into options and switch it to Stereo sound, which my TV can actually play. ARGH!
X-Men Legends seems pretty neat -- it's in the style of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and the other clones. Which means it's neat, and I like it. Unfortunately, you have a team of superheroes that you lead around -- all of you share the same set of health potions, but you don't have much control over them except for the one you're controlling at the time. Fortunately -- and this saves the game -- they're pretty good at not getting hurt. They aren't so good at killing things, but I haven't had one die on me yet, even when I was in situations where it looked like *I* was going to die.
Now, this isn't a matter of good AI or anything -- looking at how little they're often damaged after combat, they have to be getting a huge defense boost while under AI control, because they're hurt less than a single hit from the weakest enemy. It works, though.
