Posted February 14, 2016
[...]As to "good" crpgs, the games that could be called crpgs because they fit crpg principles of character building and suffering the consequences to player's choices. If the player can think logically, he can get certain skills/attributes/feats, to play differently and win over the game's world in various ways. He will most probably never see all the content, because while his character/-s build lets him do X, it doesn't let him to do Y. That's why the classic Fallout games are cprg (they're not perfect and they never were, we must put the nostalgia glasses off). Because you could ace the game without a single bullet shot (except an ant in temple of trials in Fallout 2), finish the game in 20 minutes with a stealth character or play it for 100 hours in a single run with a moron shooting rockets (side note: that's why Wasteland 2 was so badly received by its initial target audience - because its character building and developing aspects are so subpar, that attributes mostly don't interact with skills - !!!). And every single time the game will be different. That is not the case with Fallout 3 (because Oblivion, although being really retarded with absurd level scaling - hint, hint it's the accessibility feature to the max that eventually broke the game - limited the player to two separate builds that couldn't be joined in a single run: a warrior and a mage, but the world was blind to it anyway and a player didn't suffer any consequence to choosing a warrior - he/she still could become the Archmage of the Mage Guild), that was meant to hold the player's hand to see everything and do everything at once. It's the game about hoovering over the landscape and shooting raiders, ghouls and orcs. BUT there were still gameplay mechanics in the engine, that could be used to make a crpg. And Obsidian did take them and managed to craft a game that is FUNDAMENTALLY different from the Fallout 3.
The only common feature - is the engine, some models and textures. It's impossible in New Vegas to do a 100% run through the content in one go. It's impossible to use everything possible. It's possible to do X while not being able to do Y and suffer consequences to it. Fallout 3 sold well, but Bethesda wanted to sell it EVEN MORE. To EVERYONE. So they threw out any "unnecessary" gameplay mechanics (a player doesn't want to waste his time in boring excel tables!) and throwing in perfect marketing material: crafting and base building. Because the survival "simulators" and Minecraft are HOT for MILLIONS WORLDWIDE, rite? And that's what they did. And it sold in TRUCKS. The notable exception of Fallout 4 is the incompetency of the developer using the same engine for almost 15 (!) years and STILL not managing to use it properly, that resulted in a partial "fanbase" (I hate this word) and game journos backlashing at it. Because from the technical standpoint, the sole "production values" standpoint, this game is dog shit. It's fucking awful and if not the marketing campaign (teen celebrities to target the audience that isn't even playing games at all!), a "Bethesda" stamp in the box and rabid fans' damage control on the Internet, this game would be universally shat on everywhere and it's "metascore" would probably sit at ~30 with comments like "an inexcusably badly put together open world shooter with extremely wonky base building". Just remove the marketing campaign, rename Bethesda with, say - C1 and rename the "Fallout" with, eh - "Mutant Apocalyptic Rampage". Doesn't look so hot now, does it? Because that's the game's name and marketing's $ are responsible for this game's success. Not the game itself.
Good crpg? There's a ton of them and even few are appearing nowadays. The most notable examples are Age of Decadence and Underrail, of course (fuck Underrail is so great even if it's combat centred). Lords of Xulima are pretty good, in my opinion (I didn't play it much, depending on my friend's opinions).
But there are tons and tons of pre 2006 games that belong strictly to crpg genre and its subrengres that hold extremely well up to this day. The Ultima series (except the last one), Wizardry (6,7,8), Betrayal at Krondor, Arcanum is a bit wonky but manages it (if you're not after the combat), Vampire the Masquarade Bloodlines, even Gothic 1-2 if you're looking for a "lite". Darklands, Deus Ex (fuck yes), M&M series (except the 9th, the 10th installment is really rudimentary on the other hand, still enjoyable). Albion, although I didn't play it in ages. These are from the top of my head, there's a fuckton of more, it's not like real crpgs are rare or something. They just don't exist in the collective's anymore. I didn't really enjoy Darklands, but it's a fucking fine game.
And on the ending note: liking/disliking has nothing to do with the objective quality of a product along the distinct genre's merits. Games are not to be consumed, they're meant to be played. Playing != tourism through the content.
I'm also not a grump if it comes to the nowadays games, really. I DO ENJOY these products as a consumer that likes from time to time sit through passively absorbing the colours on my monitor. Just as I like to visit a KFC from time to time. And I dislike some really good games that are good as games (Darklands).
On the side I just hate that games are being taken away from me as games, and being replaced with fast-food with invasive and aggressive marketing telling me that it's something it's clearly not. It's like KFC tried to invade my home to replace my home made tomato soup and pancakes with its trash food while screaming at me "IT'S JUST THE SAME! DON'T BE A HATER". That's where my hate art turns on and I go on hate spree telling people I fucking hate Fallout 4. Fuck Fallout 4 and everything it stands for trying to replace what crpg are in a collective memory.
If you get it, if you get the fundamental difference between enjoying something and the objective quality values of a certain product, I can only be content with it. Treat the above hate-fest as a general hatred fuckride on modern gaming's model that implemented the TV cable to video games telling me it's not the regression and in fact it's a progress, everything's being improved, don't be a grandpa. I can't be the same after witnessing the cringe fest straight from MTV teen show that the promotional even for Fallout 4 was.
If that game was released under the different name and without the multi-million advertisement campaing - it would be missed by everyone and rare reviews would sum it for what it is: a shit.
A bonus attachment:
The only common feature - is the engine, some models and textures. It's impossible in New Vegas to do a 100% run through the content in one go. It's impossible to use everything possible. It's possible to do X while not being able to do Y and suffer consequences to it. Fallout 3 sold well, but Bethesda wanted to sell it EVEN MORE. To EVERYONE. So they threw out any "unnecessary" gameplay mechanics (a player doesn't want to waste his time in boring excel tables!) and throwing in perfect marketing material: crafting and base building. Because the survival "simulators" and Minecraft are HOT for MILLIONS WORLDWIDE, rite? And that's what they did. And it sold in TRUCKS. The notable exception of Fallout 4 is the incompetency of the developer using the same engine for almost 15 (!) years and STILL not managing to use it properly, that resulted in a partial "fanbase" (I hate this word) and game journos backlashing at it. Because from the technical standpoint, the sole "production values" standpoint, this game is dog shit. It's fucking awful and if not the marketing campaign (teen celebrities to target the audience that isn't even playing games at all!), a "Bethesda" stamp in the box and rabid fans' damage control on the Internet, this game would be universally shat on everywhere and it's "metascore" would probably sit at ~30 with comments like "an inexcusably badly put together open world shooter with extremely wonky base building". Just remove the marketing campaign, rename Bethesda with, say - C1 and rename the "Fallout" with, eh - "Mutant Apocalyptic Rampage". Doesn't look so hot now, does it? Because that's the game's name and marketing's $ are responsible for this game's success. Not the game itself.
Good crpg? There's a ton of them and even few are appearing nowadays. The most notable examples are Age of Decadence and Underrail, of course (fuck Underrail is so great even if it's combat centred). Lords of Xulima are pretty good, in my opinion (I didn't play it much, depending on my friend's opinions).
But there are tons and tons of pre 2006 games that belong strictly to crpg genre and its subrengres that hold extremely well up to this day. The Ultima series (except the last one), Wizardry (6,7,8), Betrayal at Krondor, Arcanum is a bit wonky but manages it (if you're not after the combat), Vampire the Masquarade Bloodlines, even Gothic 1-2 if you're looking for a "lite". Darklands, Deus Ex (fuck yes), M&M series (except the 9th, the 10th installment is really rudimentary on the other hand, still enjoyable). Albion, although I didn't play it in ages. These are from the top of my head, there's a fuckton of more, it's not like real crpgs are rare or something. They just don't exist in the collective's anymore. I didn't really enjoy Darklands, but it's a fucking fine game.
And on the ending note: liking/disliking has nothing to do with the objective quality of a product along the distinct genre's merits. Games are not to be consumed, they're meant to be played. Playing != tourism through the content.
I'm also not a grump if it comes to the nowadays games, really. I DO ENJOY these products as a consumer that likes from time to time sit through passively absorbing the colours on my monitor. Just as I like to visit a KFC from time to time. And I dislike some really good games that are good as games (Darklands).
On the side I just hate that games are being taken away from me as games, and being replaced with fast-food with invasive and aggressive marketing telling me that it's something it's clearly not. It's like KFC tried to invade my home to replace my home made tomato soup and pancakes with its trash food while screaming at me "IT'S JUST THE SAME! DON'T BE A HATER". That's where my hate art turns on and I go on hate spree telling people I fucking hate Fallout 4. Fuck Fallout 4 and everything it stands for trying to replace what crpg are in a collective memory.
If you get it, if you get the fundamental difference between enjoying something and the objective quality values of a certain product, I can only be content with it. Treat the above hate-fest as a general hatred fuckride on modern gaming's model that implemented the TV cable to video games telling me it's not the regression and in fact it's a progress, everything's being improved, don't be a grandpa. I can't be the same after witnessing the cringe fest straight from MTV teen show that the promotional even for Fallout 4 was.
If that game was released under the different name and without the multi-million advertisement campaing - it would be missed by everyone and rare reviews would sum it for what it is: a shit.
A bonus attachment:
Post edited February 14, 2016 by Imachuemanch