nVidia has dumped support for older games...
Their new drivers are 'breaking' games that at one time worked on their video cards (such as the 8 series [and lower]). Players have had to 'roll-back' their drivers to play their favorite games, some of which are only 1 to 2 years old. The games work with the older drivers, which means it's a driver (software) issue and not a hardware issue.
This wouldn't be much of a problem except that older drivers may be less secure and newer games require newer drivers. This means that players have to install old drivers to play old games, then new drivers to play new games, then re-install the old drivers to play their old games. (A very foolish thing, considering that nVidia could support both the new games and old games with one set of drivers!)
If this keeps up I could see nVidia losing a lot of market share. There are a lot of great games that have been made and have cult-like fallowings. Neverwinter Nights (the first one), Vampire Bloodlines, and Silent Storm to name a few. Just cause a game is 'old' doesn't mean no one wants to play it. Just cause there aren't copies on the shelves or being sold doesn't mean no one is enjoying them (or trying to enjoy them).
Every video card I've ever purchased to date has been an nVidia video card. Now I'm feeling let down by nVidia and will have to seek other video card venders unless nVidia wakes up and realizes how many people they're pissing off.
Until next time...
Sources:
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=2222f2057d4257600d2f5559b7e367d2&t=98609
http://www.strategycore.co.uk/forums/Silent-Storm-Sentinals-Issue-t6619.html
http://games.slashdot.org/games/07/09/16/1940215.shtml
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?act=ST&f=33&t=77021
http://www.ironworksforum.com/ubb/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=7;t=003894
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Spore: Some more thoughts...
I don't like the idea of reading other reviews before I finish reviewing a game myself. However, I decided to take a peack out there and see what other critiques and players thought of the game. I had a great laugh!
I noticed that certain other critiques gave the game a 10 out of 10, or 100%. Those are some huge ratings. After playing the game myself, and then looking at those reviews, I tend to wounder if those critiques even played the game!?
I can't imagine anyone who's played Spore giving it 10 out of 10. (I did see some players rating it as perfect, but even then I can't believe it.) This makes me believe the critiques rated the game on hype, what they saw in previews, and what the developers told them about the game. I believe those critiques expected Spore to be a huge hit, and so they jumped right out there and said "It's 10 out of 10 Awesome!"
....
To toot my own horn here: I will never do that. I will never rate a game before I've played it myself. I may not finish a game (if it's just that terrible), but I will play it as long as I can tolerate and give you my readers my honest thoughts and feelings on the game.
I noticed that certain other critiques gave the game a 10 out of 10, or 100%. Those are some huge ratings. After playing the game myself, and then looking at those reviews, I tend to wounder if those critiques even played the game!?
I can't imagine anyone who's played Spore giving it 10 out of 10. (I did see some players rating it as perfect, but even then I can't believe it.) This makes me believe the critiques rated the game on hype, what they saw in previews, and what the developers told them about the game. I believe those critiques expected Spore to be a huge hit, and so they jumped right out there and said "It's 10 out of 10 Awesome!"
....
To toot my own horn here: I will never do that. I will never rate a game before I've played it myself. I may not finish a game (if it's just that terrible), but I will play it as long as I can tolerate and give you my readers my honest thoughts and feelings on the game.
Spore: Thoughts...
If it wasn't for the fact I want to see what the end-game is for Spore, and the fact that I want to try and find something fun in it... Some light at the end of the tunnel... I would stop playing Spore right now.
I just keep hoping that I get to the space age and finally say, "Holy cow, the space age is awesome!"
However, the more and more I play the more and more my hopes are being crushed.
I just keep hoping that I get to the space age and finally say, "Holy cow, the space age is awesome!"
However, the more and more I play the more and more my hopes are being crushed.
Spore: Part 3.5: City Phase (First Impressions)
I was a bit put-off that I could not design my buildings in the Tribal Phase of Spore. All that is changed in the City Phase.
The objectives for the city phase are pretty much the same as they have been in all the other phases. Destroy or win over the other cities to win. This proves to be just as challenging (or lacking challenge I should say) as the other phase after the swimming phase till this city phase. Another slight difference in the city phase is that instead of gathering food one has to gather gases that come up out of the ground.
Unlike the tribal phase you can design the buildings and also now you can design vehicles. The upshot of this is that you get to be creative. The downside is that you have to design EVERYTHING! Oh sure, I was upset that I could not design the buildings in tribal phase, now every building has to be designed and there are quite a few!
There's also a bit of strategy to how one designs their city. The city layout effects how happy your people are and how much money you can make. As well as what types of vehicles and other product you can make.
Sadly there weren't enough vehicles. You can design military vehicles and religious vehicles, land, sea, and air. However one can pretty much get by with only one type of vehicle. (I conquored the whole planet with a single type of religous vehicle.) So, there's not really any strategy to the types of vehicles you make; it's more of about having a choice of what vehicle or vehicles you want to rule the world with.
I'm going to play around with the city phase a bit more and post my final thoughts on it.
The objectives for the city phase are pretty much the same as they have been in all the other phases. Destroy or win over the other cities to win. This proves to be just as challenging (or lacking challenge I should say) as the other phase after the swimming phase till this city phase. Another slight difference in the city phase is that instead of gathering food one has to gather gases that come up out of the ground.
Unlike the tribal phase you can design the buildings and also now you can design vehicles. The upshot of this is that you get to be creative. The downside is that you have to design EVERYTHING! Oh sure, I was upset that I could not design the buildings in tribal phase, now every building has to be designed and there are quite a few!
There's also a bit of strategy to how one designs their city. The city layout effects how happy your people are and how much money you can make. As well as what types of vehicles and other product you can make.
Sadly there weren't enough vehicles. You can design military vehicles and religious vehicles, land, sea, and air. However one can pretty much get by with only one type of vehicle. (I conquored the whole planet with a single type of religous vehicle.) So, there's not really any strategy to the types of vehicles you make; it's more of about having a choice of what vehicle or vehicles you want to rule the world with.
I'm going to play around with the city phase a bit more and post my final thoughts on it.
Spore: Part 3: Tribal Phase
Alright it stands.
Spore's tribal phase can definitely be very boring. It's one giant game of Simon Say's just like the "making friends" of the single creature/pack phase.
I was rather upset that I couldn't design my buildings in the Tribal Phase, but then I got to the City Phase...
Spore's tribal phase can definitely be very boring. It's one giant game of Simon Say's just like the "making friends" of the single creature/pack phase.
I was rather upset that I couldn't design my buildings in the Tribal Phase, but then I got to the City Phase...
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Spore : Part 2.5: Tribal Phase (First Impressions)
So I've entered the Tribal Phase of Spore...
After one enters this phase you can no longer alter your creatures appearance. I was pleasantly surprised about that, since before I was able to alter my creature so often it didn't even appear to be the same species from one phase to the next. I was glad to see that now some choices had to be made, and whatever they were; they'd stick!
So: At the start of the Tribal Phase I got to alter my creature for one last time. I sat there looking at the four armed monkey with a bulls face and wondered what to spend with the nearly 600 extra "DNA" (money to buy bits and pieces with) on. After several generations the creature looked exactly like I had wanted it to look... Well, almost; I couldn't find a mouth I really loved, but I had every herbivore mouth and out of my choices I picked the one I felt was best. I had all this bloody money (I mean DNA) and nothing to spend it on. I felt jipped!
Just as I had suspected: When I was finished with my critter all that extra DNA disappeared and was gone.. wasted... I was jipped! I mean: No bonus points; No larger brain; No extra tools or anything (that I could tell) for having the extra DNA. I got nothing for it! Nothing!
OK, SO! Tribal Phase!:
New things:
1. You now control multiple creatures instead of just one. (Anyone watching a preview for Spore knew about this already.)
2. Your tribe now gets tools; Like torches, spears, and didgery-do.
Goals:
1. Gather food for your tribe so you can spend it on building new buildings (like spear huts and didgery-do huts)!
2. Defeat or Befriend other tribes.
At first this phase sounded like more of the same from the last phase: Gather food which is in such plentiful amounts that my tribe couldn't starve to death if it had a population the size of New York (and I'm only allowed a max of six tribe members to start); Kill or Befriend tribes.
However, I got very excited when an opposing tribe showed up and raided my tribe's food! I was like, "Neat! Some action!" Then another tribe came along and tried to destroy my torch-hut. 'Awesome! More action!' A third tribe showed up and attacked my main-hut! Ok, this phase of the game could be interesting!
Sadly, it wasn't. I went over to the first tribe that attacked me, gave it an offering, played my marraccas for them and made them my allies. Then I went and did the same thing for the other two tribes, only the third tribe required I play didgery-dos and wood-horns for them too!
After I had befriended the nearest tribes: I no longer had the threat of being attacked by them. In fact, the friendly tribes would often bring my tribe offerings of food! As if there wasn't already enough food that my tribe could all be as large as huts themselves and still never feel hungery!
Occasionally some little critter of lesser intelligence would sneak up and attempt to steal some of my food. However when I've got a stock pile of 600+ food and the critter can only eat 5 to 10 pieces before it felt full; Most of the time I didn't even bother to shew them away.
Conclusion: Tribal Phase is more of the same Simon Says crap of the "Solo Creature Phase".
Heck, at least in the "Solo Creature Phase" I could alter my creatures appearance. At the start of the Tribal Phase I threw some clothing on and I haven't felt the neet to alter it since. If it wasn't for the fact that I'd like to play this game all the way through to the 'end' in some hope that it'll become more fun; I'd stop playing right now.
Until next time, this fool will be fooling around!
After one enters this phase you can no longer alter your creatures appearance. I was pleasantly surprised about that, since before I was able to alter my creature so often it didn't even appear to be the same species from one phase to the next. I was glad to see that now some choices had to be made, and whatever they were; they'd stick!
So: At the start of the Tribal Phase I got to alter my creature for one last time. I sat there looking at the four armed monkey with a bulls face and wondered what to spend with the nearly 600 extra "DNA" (money to buy bits and pieces with) on. After several generations the creature looked exactly like I had wanted it to look... Well, almost; I couldn't find a mouth I really loved, but I had every herbivore mouth and out of my choices I picked the one I felt was best. I had all this bloody money (I mean DNA) and nothing to spend it on. I felt jipped!
Just as I had suspected: When I was finished with my critter all that extra DNA disappeared and was gone.. wasted... I was jipped! I mean: No bonus points; No larger brain; No extra tools or anything (that I could tell) for having the extra DNA. I got nothing for it! Nothing!
OK, SO! Tribal Phase!:
New things:
1. You now control multiple creatures instead of just one. (Anyone watching a preview for Spore knew about this already.)
2. Your tribe now gets tools; Like torches, spears, and didgery-do.
Goals:
1. Gather food for your tribe so you can spend it on building new buildings (like spear huts and didgery-do huts)!
2. Defeat or Befriend other tribes.
At first this phase sounded like more of the same from the last phase: Gather food which is in such plentiful amounts that my tribe couldn't starve to death if it had a population the size of New York (and I'm only allowed a max of six tribe members to start); Kill or Befriend tribes.
However, I got very excited when an opposing tribe showed up and raided my tribe's food! I was like, "Neat! Some action!" Then another tribe came along and tried to destroy my torch-hut. 'Awesome! More action!' A third tribe showed up and attacked my main-hut! Ok, this phase of the game could be interesting!
Sadly, it wasn't. I went over to the first tribe that attacked me, gave it an offering, played my marraccas for them and made them my allies. Then I went and did the same thing for the other two tribes, only the third tribe required I play didgery-dos and wood-horns for them too!
After I had befriended the nearest tribes: I no longer had the threat of being attacked by them. In fact, the friendly tribes would often bring my tribe offerings of food! As if there wasn't already enough food that my tribe could all be as large as huts themselves and still never feel hungery!
Occasionally some little critter of lesser intelligence would sneak up and attempt to steal some of my food. However when I've got a stock pile of 600+ food and the critter can only eat 5 to 10 pieces before it felt full; Most of the time I didn't even bother to shew them away.
Conclusion: Tribal Phase is more of the same Simon Says crap of the "Solo Creature Phase".
Heck, at least in the "Solo Creature Phase" I could alter my creatures appearance. At the start of the Tribal Phase I threw some clothing on and I haven't felt the neet to alter it since. If it wasn't for the fact that I'd like to play this game all the way through to the 'end' in some hope that it'll become more fun; I'd stop playing right now.
Until next time, this fool will be fooling around!
Spore: In Depth Review: Part 2: Solo Creature Phase
Or better named: The Solo Creature Until You Get a Larger Brain and Then Become a Pack Phase.
In this phase ones goals are to find food, avoid being eaten (much like the cell phase) and make friends. I also got some sort of special ability called Siron Call that I have no idea what exactly it did except make my creature sing out. Your other goals in this phase are to get points called DNA which equates to money that you can spend to modify your creature, and in the process you get a larger brain.
To gather DNA you need to either kill other creatures or befriend them. Since I had choosen to be a herbavour I wasn't interested in killing the other creatures so for me to gather DNA I ran around befriending as many of them as possible. A task that was kind of neat and felt a little like Close Encounters of the Third Kind the first time I did it, but then quickly became a repetitively boring game of simon says where the creature you wish to befriend performs some move or manuver and you have to copy it with your creature. Interestingly enough if your creature has a very high skill in one manuver, in some cases you can simply perform that manuver over and over and still achive the desired effect, while in other cases no matter how perfect you as a player copies the creature your trying to befriend: If your creature doesn't have a high enough skill they won't befriend you. No fret though, since most creatures are harmless and wont eat you wether you make them your allies or not. (At least for me. I know the game is based on player content (or supposed to be), but I'm sorry it was utterly peaceful most of the time; With the scariest creature I met being some giant-green-spider looking thing that I managed to befriend.
The idea of collecting food and staying alive can make for a very exciting game. However, I'm sad to say while the concept sounds exciting it really falls flat on it's face in Spore. Most of the creatures I ran across were not interested in eating me, and even those who might think to nibble on me were extremely easy to befriend.
Things might have been a little bit more interesting if I had been a carnivour, but some how I doubt it. At one point I was amused when a UFO flew in and started abducting creatures. However, it didn't bother me. (Too bad, I would have loved to have seen the inside of their space ship. :P )
In this phase ones goals are to find food, avoid being eaten (much like the cell phase) and make friends. I also got some sort of special ability called Siron Call that I have no idea what exactly it did except make my creature sing out. Your other goals in this phase are to get points called DNA which equates to money that you can spend to modify your creature, and in the process you get a larger brain.
To gather DNA you need to either kill other creatures or befriend them. Since I had choosen to be a herbavour I wasn't interested in killing the other creatures so for me to gather DNA I ran around befriending as many of them as possible. A task that was kind of neat and felt a little like Close Encounters of the Third Kind the first time I did it, but then quickly became a repetitively boring game of simon says where the creature you wish to befriend performs some move or manuver and you have to copy it with your creature. Interestingly enough if your creature has a very high skill in one manuver, in some cases you can simply perform that manuver over and over and still achive the desired effect, while in other cases no matter how perfect you as a player copies the creature your trying to befriend: If your creature doesn't have a high enough skill they won't befriend you. No fret though, since most creatures are harmless and wont eat you wether you make them your allies or not. (At least for me. I know the game is based on player content (or supposed to be), but I'm sorry it was utterly peaceful most of the time; With the scariest creature I met being some giant-green-spider looking thing that I managed to befriend.
The idea of collecting food and staying alive can make for a very exciting game. However, I'm sad to say while the concept sounds exciting it really falls flat on it's face in Spore. Most of the creatures I ran across were not interested in eating me, and even those who might think to nibble on me were extremely easy to befriend.
Things might have been a little bit more interesting if I had been a carnivour, but some how I doubt it. At one point I was amused when a UFO flew in and started abducting creatures. However, it didn't bother me. (Too bad, I would have loved to have seen the inside of their space ship. :P )
SPORE: In Depth Review: Part 1: Cell Phase
Alright, I've decided that since Spore is sort of several games wrapped into one: I will review spore in sections. One section for each phase in the game Spore.
Spore: Cell / Water Phase
I found the water phase of Spore very enjoyable. In fact, as of this review I am currently in the tribal phase and I have had the most fun with Spore in the cell phase. The graphics are great, the challenge (on normal difficulty) is just enough to keep things exciting. It's not so easy that I could fall asleep or leave my computer and then wake up or come back expecting to be alive; While not being so difficult that you die so often you want to throw your monitor across the room.
In the Cell / Swimming Phase (For those of you who have been living under a rock and haven't seen a preview for Spore) you start out as a cell and run around eating trying to eat either green stuff or red stuff (depending on the type of mouth or mouths you have) that is smaller then you while trying to avoid being eaten by bigger things. You can modify your little spore to either be a quick little bugger who avoids danger, a spiky slow moving prick who kills anything that tries to eat it, or any variation and combination of that.
The things I found great about the Spore Cell / Water Phase are:
1. Trying to gather food while staying alive is very exciting. It's a bit like pack man, and almost exactly like some fish game where you eat little fish, avoid being eaten by big fish, and you keep getting bigger and bigger.
2. Being able to modify your little Spore / Cell / Fish? (I guess at some point it's like a fish, though there isn't really any phase that says your a fish.) is also very fun. The modification of your species is the whole point of Spore, and it is definately very fun at this stage of the game.
3. The controls are properly easy.
4. The graphics are great.
5. The veriety of things trying to eat you helps spice things up. (It's not all one type of larger fish trying to eat you.)
Thing I didn't like about the Cell Phase of Spore:
1. It's far too short in my opinion.
2. There is no phase where one becomes a "fish". You just sort of keep becoming a bigger and bigger cell until suddenly it's time to grow legs and hop onto land.
Until next time, this fool will be fooling around!
Spore: Cell / Water Phase
I found the water phase of Spore very enjoyable. In fact, as of this review I am currently in the tribal phase and I have had the most fun with Spore in the cell phase. The graphics are great, the challenge (on normal difficulty) is just enough to keep things exciting. It's not so easy that I could fall asleep or leave my computer and then wake up or come back expecting to be alive; While not being so difficult that you die so often you want to throw your monitor across the room.
In the Cell / Swimming Phase (For those of you who have been living under a rock and haven't seen a preview for Spore) you start out as a cell and run around eating trying to eat either green stuff or red stuff (depending on the type of mouth or mouths you have) that is smaller then you while trying to avoid being eaten by bigger things. You can modify your little spore to either be a quick little bugger who avoids danger, a spiky slow moving prick who kills anything that tries to eat it, or any variation and combination of that.
The things I found great about the Spore Cell / Water Phase are:
1. Trying to gather food while staying alive is very exciting. It's a bit like pack man, and almost exactly like some fish game where you eat little fish, avoid being eaten by big fish, and you keep getting bigger and bigger.
2. Being able to modify your little Spore / Cell / Fish? (I guess at some point it's like a fish, though there isn't really any phase that says your a fish.) is also very fun. The modification of your species is the whole point of Spore, and it is definately very fun at this stage of the game.
3. The controls are properly easy.
4. The graphics are great.
5. The veriety of things trying to eat you helps spice things up. (It's not all one type of larger fish trying to eat you.)
Thing I didn't like about the Cell Phase of Spore:
1. It's far too short in my opinion.
2. There is no phase where one becomes a "fish". You just sort of keep becoming a bigger and bigger cell until suddenly it's time to grow legs and hop onto land.
Until next time, this fool will be fooling around!
Friday, September 12, 2008
Spore: First Impressions!
This Fool Review is not a Full Review of the game Spore. I have begun playing the game and this post will cover my first impressions.
*** SUMMERY AT BUTTOM ***
This game has had a lot of hype and I must confess I've been anticipating it's release for quite some time now. The concept of living and surviving through the evolutionary phases of a single cell organism to a galactic space ferrying civilization is a very cool one. Also the concepts of everything I create being shared with other players and the things they create being shared with me, and thus creating a sort of psud0-MMO-Universe is also very cool in my foolish opinion.
First Impressions: Things I Like:
I found the single cell/water stage very exciting. The objective of the game is to run around finding things to eat while avoiding things that are trying to eat you. It's a bit like another game I played where you start out as a little fish and get bigger the more smaller fish you eat, but there is always a bigger fish to eat you.
I also like how I can upgrade (a large point of the game) my little critter at various stages (by mating) to improve the stats of my little swimming critter.
After the water phase your little critter grows legs and heads for land. On land one also has to search for food and avoid being eaten. In concept that's the exciting part. Another thing one can do on land is make friends with other species. (In order to make friends you must be able ti mimic the other creatures. If they sing, you have to sing; If they dance you have to dance; and you have to do as good a job or better then they can.)
First Impressions: Things I don't like:
The swimming phase was way too short. I can understand that the game designers would feel people would want to get on with the land-based portions of the game as fast as possible; and thus I can understand that they would design it so one can complete the swimming phase in one sitting. However, I was able to complete the swimming phase in about five to ten minutes. (I didn't time it, I think I will time it for my next review.) Since the swimming phase was very exciting, I would have definitely liked there to have been more of it. One can of course always start a new critter and play the swimming phase again, but... Well, it's not the same: I am trying to get to the space age after all; It's just that I feel an important part of a game is it's challenge and I didn't find the short swimming-phase challenging enough.
I would have liked to gotten to a phase where I no longer looked like a cell but perhaps more like a fish before jumping right onto the land. Something more between single cell with testicles to land critter. Maybe even going to a phase where I could be very fish-like or lobster/crab like.
Also, while one can construct their creature to look like an insect, it might have been neat to be an insect for a while.
Another thing I didn't like is that one literally has the freedom to do whatever they want to their creature. Another area where I can understand the designers wanting to give players the freedom to do what they want; It is a game about people creating their own creatures after all; But since one can always start at any phase up to the last one they've completed... I think they should have made the "Absolute Freedom of Creature Creation" more of an unlock sort of thing then part of the "Main-Game" or "Main-Story" if you will.
The reasons I don't like this absolute freedom of design at each upgrade point are:
1. Your creature can look entirely different then it did before. You may have had six arms in one phase, and in the next phase have no arms and a bunch of spikes, and then the next phase have four arms again. - When you don't want a part any longer, you can sell it back and buy something else.
I would have liked to have seen it so you can't sell items you had from a previous phase back. I'd can see allowing the player to remove them, but they shouldn't get the value back. - In my foolish opinion. - Making the choices more challenging. Also, it would make your previous choices count for more.
2. It's too easy (especially if you know how the game works; So, say second time around playing:) to tailor your creature for to be the best at one thing in a phase, then the best at a completely different thing the next mating cycle, and then yet another specialty after the next mating cycle, so that your crature isn't really surviving on it's previous merits.
[Ok, I'm not the best at organizing a Blog. I'll work on it.]
Another thing I do not like is how easy it is to befriend other creatures. The thrill of trying to collect food without getting eaten just isn't there when a giant carnivore can be made your friend by simply approaching it in a friendly stance and then singing to it. I don't care how well a deer can sing, a wolf will always see it as a meal.
The idea of befriending creatures is a good one, I just wish It would have been made more difficult. If a carnivorous creature is hungry and on the hunt, I shouldn't be able to walk up to it and start singing to it to make it my friend. Maybe if it's got a full belly already I could see a lion talking to an antelope, but if the lions hungry I don't care how well that antelope can sing it's best chance for survival is running!
I'm not saying one shouldn't be able to befriend meat-eaters: Just that is should be more difficult, and impossible if they're hungry.
On the subject of hunger, the game says eating is important but yet my critter doesn't seem to really need to eat that often. I wouldn't want it to be as annoying as a Tomigochi when it comes to feeding, but I seem to be able to get away with a single meal per day.
As an Herbivore I'm able to find fruits laying around and hanging from trees, which is all fine and dandy, but I found that my creature can not reach the fruit at the high tops of the trees (without wings). Despite the fact that I look like a four armed (six limbed) monkey, I can't get to the fruit at the top of the trees. There's no climbing, and while I haven't tested out wings yet there doesn't appear to be any true flight in the pre-technology phases. Wings seem to only allow creatures to jump higher and glide a bit.
And my last Dislike before I go off to play some work done or play some more Spore: I am currently playing in the pack phase. I am awarded points for befriending other species. So far I've been able to befriend nearly every species I've come across, and the ones I am unable to befriend aren't meat eaters. So basically I can wonder around the world without any fear of being eaten. I'm attempting to collect allies and pack mates, and to do this I have to communicate with the other species (singing, dancing, whatever: I have to be able to copy them), and frankly it's rather dull. I mean, the whole process is: Walk up to creature in friendly stance, wait for creature to make a gesture, mimic gesture, and then repeat. I hope later phases of the game are more interesting.
=-=-=-=-=-=
SUMMERY:
GOOD STUFF:
1. Neat Concepts
2. Fun to play around with. (Like Play Doe)
BAD STUFF:
1. Repetitive
2. Not very exciting (so far) after swimming phase.
3. Gets boring (Like Play Doe)
4. No climbing
5. No true flight
6. Not challenging (so far)
Other Thoughts:
Spore seems to have broken new ground in concepts of player/user/communit made content. It has some neat ideas, but as a first generation of it's kind it seems to have lots of other short commings. I have no doubt there will be spin off games and perhaps the next evolutionary phases of games like Spore will be more enjoyable. (I can already picture games where players create their own creatures and battle them out like Monster Rancher or Pokemon.)
*** SUMMERY AT BUTTOM ***
SPORE: FIRST IMPRESSIONS
This game has had a lot of hype and I must confess I've been anticipating it's release for quite some time now. The concept of living and surviving through the evolutionary phases of a single cell organism to a galactic space ferrying civilization is a very cool one. Also the concepts of everything I create being shared with other players and the things they create being shared with me, and thus creating a sort of psud0-MMO-Universe is also very cool in my foolish opinion.
First Impressions: Things I Like:
I found the single cell/water stage very exciting. The objective of the game is to run around finding things to eat while avoiding things that are trying to eat you. It's a bit like another game I played where you start out as a little fish and get bigger the more smaller fish you eat, but there is always a bigger fish to eat you.
I also like how I can upgrade (a large point of the game) my little critter at various stages (by mating) to improve the stats of my little swimming critter.
After the water phase your little critter grows legs and heads for land. On land one also has to search for food and avoid being eaten. In concept that's the exciting part. Another thing one can do on land is make friends with other species. (In order to make friends you must be able ti mimic the other creatures. If they sing, you have to sing; If they dance you have to dance; and you have to do as good a job or better then they can.)
First Impressions: Things I don't like:
The swimming phase was way too short. I can understand that the game designers would feel people would want to get on with the land-based portions of the game as fast as possible; and thus I can understand that they would design it so one can complete the swimming phase in one sitting. However, I was able to complete the swimming phase in about five to ten minutes. (I didn't time it, I think I will time it for my next review.) Since the swimming phase was very exciting, I would have definitely liked there to have been more of it. One can of course always start a new critter and play the swimming phase again, but... Well, it's not the same: I am trying to get to the space age after all; It's just that I feel an important part of a game is it's challenge and I didn't find the short swimming-phase challenging enough.
I would have liked to gotten to a phase where I no longer looked like a cell but perhaps more like a fish before jumping right onto the land. Something more between single cell with testicles to land critter. Maybe even going to a phase where I could be very fish-like or lobster/crab like.
Also, while one can construct their creature to look like an insect, it might have been neat to be an insect for a while.
Another thing I didn't like is that one literally has the freedom to do whatever they want to their creature. Another area where I can understand the designers wanting to give players the freedom to do what they want; It is a game about people creating their own creatures after all; But since one can always start at any phase up to the last one they've completed... I think they should have made the "Absolute Freedom of Creature Creation" more of an unlock sort of thing then part of the "Main-Game" or "Main-Story" if you will.
The reasons I don't like this absolute freedom of design at each upgrade point are:
1. Your creature can look entirely different then it did before. You may have had six arms in one phase, and in the next phase have no arms and a bunch of spikes, and then the next phase have four arms again. - When you don't want a part any longer, you can sell it back and buy something else.
I would have liked to have seen it so you can't sell items you had from a previous phase back. I'd can see allowing the player to remove them, but they shouldn't get the value back. - In my foolish opinion. - Making the choices more challenging. Also, it would make your previous choices count for more.
2. It's too easy (especially if you know how the game works; So, say second time around playing:) to tailor your creature for to be the best at one thing in a phase, then the best at a completely different thing the next mating cycle, and then yet another specialty after the next mating cycle, so that your crature isn't really surviving on it's previous merits.
[Ok, I'm not the best at organizing a Blog. I'll work on it.]
Another thing I do not like is how easy it is to befriend other creatures. The thrill of trying to collect food without getting eaten just isn't there when a giant carnivore can be made your friend by simply approaching it in a friendly stance and then singing to it. I don't care how well a deer can sing, a wolf will always see it as a meal.
The idea of befriending creatures is a good one, I just wish It would have been made more difficult. If a carnivorous creature is hungry and on the hunt, I shouldn't be able to walk up to it and start singing to it to make it my friend. Maybe if it's got a full belly already I could see a lion talking to an antelope, but if the lions hungry I don't care how well that antelope can sing it's best chance for survival is running!
I'm not saying one shouldn't be able to befriend meat-eaters: Just that is should be more difficult, and impossible if they're hungry.
On the subject of hunger, the game says eating is important but yet my critter doesn't seem to really need to eat that often. I wouldn't want it to be as annoying as a Tomigochi when it comes to feeding, but I seem to be able to get away with a single meal per day.
As an Herbivore I'm able to find fruits laying around and hanging from trees, which is all fine and dandy, but I found that my creature can not reach the fruit at the high tops of the trees (without wings). Despite the fact that I look like a four armed (six limbed) monkey, I can't get to the fruit at the top of the trees. There's no climbing, and while I haven't tested out wings yet there doesn't appear to be any true flight in the pre-technology phases. Wings seem to only allow creatures to jump higher and glide a bit.
And my last Dislike before I go off to play some work done or play some more Spore: I am currently playing in the pack phase. I am awarded points for befriending other species. So far I've been able to befriend nearly every species I've come across, and the ones I am unable to befriend aren't meat eaters. So basically I can wonder around the world without any fear of being eaten. I'm attempting to collect allies and pack mates, and to do this I have to communicate with the other species (singing, dancing, whatever: I have to be able to copy them), and frankly it's rather dull. I mean, the whole process is: Walk up to creature in friendly stance, wait for creature to make a gesture, mimic gesture, and then repeat. I hope later phases of the game are more interesting.
=-=-=-=-=-=
SUMMERY:
GOOD STUFF:
1. Neat Concepts
2. Fun to play around with. (Like Play Doe)
BAD STUFF:
1. Repetitive
2. Not very exciting (so far) after swimming phase.
3. Gets boring (Like Play Doe)
4. No climbing
5. No true flight
6. Not challenging (so far)
Other Thoughts:
Spore seems to have broken new ground in concepts of player/user/communit made content. It has some neat ideas, but as a first generation of it's kind it seems to have lots of other short commings. I have no doubt there will be spin off games and perhaps the next evolutionary phases of games like Spore will be more enjoyable. (I can already picture games where players create their own creatures and battle them out like Monster Rancher or Pokemon.)
Update on Half Life 2
I uninstalled Half Life 2 and then reinstalled it, to see if that fixes the problem. It didn't. When I start a new game it still says "A.I. Disabled..." I suspect that the uninstall didn't remove all Half Life 2 files (and thus not all the settings) and so will attempt another uninstall.
However, I wanted to share some other interesting things:
A friend of mine has "The Orange Box" as well, and his version of Half Life 2 works just fine. He is running Windows XP Media Edition. While I am attempting to run Half Life 2 on Windows Vista.
His Steam program/browser works just fine.
My Steam program/browser constantly tells me I need to install the latest version of Flash Player even though I already have it installed and Flash works just fine for me in both Firefox and Internet Explorer, and the same Steam page loads just fine in both Firefox and Internet Explorer.
I also learned that "The Pirated Copies" of Half Life 2 have the same problems with the A.I. that I'm having.
This leads me to believe the problem lies in Vista & Steam not working well together. I'm starting to suspect the A.I. Disabled thing is some part of Valve's copy protection (if the game doesn't call home or something, the A.I. shuts down so people can't play: Which makes sense.). If that's the case, then Half Life 2 not being written for Vista and Vista blocking some sort of communications or something coming out of Half Life 2 (or going to Half Life 2) is causing the A.I. to shut down, then that might be my problem.
In any case, I wrote Valve's support (Steam Engine) requesting that they patch their program. So far I've gotten no response back. This may be another case of copy protection screwing the legitimate purchasers, where the crackers find ways around it (though not always).
I might have to start looking into seeing if the crackers managed to get around the problem in their cracked versions.
Until next time, I'll be fooling around...
However, I wanted to share some other interesting things:
A friend of mine has "The Orange Box" as well, and his version of Half Life 2 works just fine. He is running Windows XP Media Edition. While I am attempting to run Half Life 2 on Windows Vista.
His Steam program/browser works just fine.
My Steam program/browser constantly tells me I need to install the latest version of Flash Player even though I already have it installed and Flash works just fine for me in both Firefox and Internet Explorer, and the same Steam page loads just fine in both Firefox and Internet Explorer.
I also learned that "The Pirated Copies" of Half Life 2 have the same problems with the A.I. that I'm having.
This leads me to believe the problem lies in Vista & Steam not working well together. I'm starting to suspect the A.I. Disabled thing is some part of Valve's copy protection (if the game doesn't call home or something, the A.I. shuts down so people can't play: Which makes sense.). If that's the case, then Half Life 2 not being written for Vista and Vista blocking some sort of communications or something coming out of Half Life 2 (or going to Half Life 2) is causing the A.I. to shut down, then that might be my problem.
In any case, I wrote Valve's support (Steam Engine) requesting that they patch their program. So far I've gotten no response back. This may be another case of copy protection screwing the legitimate purchasers, where the crackers find ways around it (though not always).
I might have to start looking into seeing if the crackers managed to get around the problem in their cracked versions.
Until next time, I'll be fooling around...
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Half Life 2
I purchased "The Orange Box" yesterday and began playing Half Life 2. I liked the original Half Life and am thinking about playing through that one again.
My first impression of Half Life 2 was a positive one. I noticed I'm playing the role of Gordon Freeman again, and that the game starts with Gordon on a train again. I wounder if Half Life 3 will begin on a train as well, I think it should; It seems to be a Half Life trade mark.
I loved the cinematic intro, the way it displayed the developers names as though I was watching a movie instead of playing a game. The graphics were great, the game was beautiful. I also like the way the guards were all jerks and would slam you if you got too close to them.
All was fine and dandy!
Half way through the first chapter I began to really get into the game. I was running for my life, being chased, when suddenly I slipped and fell off a roof-top to a quick death. (I suppose someone else would have to save the world now! ... Oh wait, respawn!) After respawning at a check-point/auto-save-point I noticed a phrase in the middle of the right hand side of my screen. It said, "A.I. Disabled..." I also noticed that one of the camera drones drifted and bounced off a wall, it was kind of neat to see. I thought one of my allies had perhaps turned off the drones and that "A.I. Disabled..." was the name of the new chapter...
Well, it turns out "A.I. Disabled..." meant the A.I. of the game had been disabled. Birds weren't flying in fear from me, NPC enemies weren't shooting at me, helicopters weren't flying after me, and when I got to a particular room where a cut-scene was supposed to take place the game came to a grinding stop for me because I could not go through any of the doors nor back (and if I could go back there was nowhere to go).
So, I did some searching on the internet and found a few websites with forum posts about this problem. Turns out lots of people have been having this problem for a while now. I fallowed the instructions that I found on two of the sites (same instructions, two different websites) and then loaded the game up with my fingers crossed.
Sure enough, the A.I. worked! Some bad-guys busted through the doors and well... I don't want to put in too many spoilers. After the fight though there's a good looking woman who starts informing Gordon about some of the stuff that's been going on. She pushes a button for an elevator and then stands there not saying a word. I walked into the elevator, but she still just stood there. She didn't move, she didn't speak, she became a statue!
I saved the game, check out the websites again, looked over my 'fixes' again, saw that everything appeared in order, and loaded the game up again. She still did not move. I checked my fixes again, loaded the game from an earlier save point, went through the whole chase scene again, and still when I got to the part with the elevator the woman wouldn't send me up or down, or where-ever I'm supposed to go.
I started the game over from scratch and got the same problem at the same place.
So, sadly for me the game is not playable. (From what I'm reading on other websites, it seems un-playable for other people as well.) Some people have reported that they've made it past that point after using the fixes; I can not get past the elevator.
Until Valve patches Half Life 2 so that it runs properly: I do not recommend buying Half Life 2, or anything that comes with Half Life 2 (like "The Orange Box"). When Valve fixes the problem, I'll play the game again and post a fallow up review.
Until next time, I'll be fooling around...
My first impression of Half Life 2 was a positive one. I noticed I'm playing the role of Gordon Freeman again, and that the game starts with Gordon on a train again. I wounder if Half Life 3 will begin on a train as well, I think it should; It seems to be a Half Life trade mark.
I loved the cinematic intro, the way it displayed the developers names as though I was watching a movie instead of playing a game. The graphics were great, the game was beautiful. I also like the way the guards were all jerks and would slam you if you got too close to them.
All was fine and dandy!
Half way through the first chapter I began to really get into the game. I was running for my life, being chased, when suddenly I slipped and fell off a roof-top to a quick death. (I suppose someone else would have to save the world now! ... Oh wait, respawn!) After respawning at a check-point/auto-save-point I noticed a phrase in the middle of the right hand side of my screen. It said, "A.I. Disabled..." I also noticed that one of the camera drones drifted and bounced off a wall, it was kind of neat to see. I thought one of my allies had perhaps turned off the drones and that "A.I. Disabled..." was the name of the new chapter...
Well, it turns out "A.I. Disabled..." meant the A.I. of the game had been disabled. Birds weren't flying in fear from me, NPC enemies weren't shooting at me, helicopters weren't flying after me, and when I got to a particular room where a cut-scene was supposed to take place the game came to a grinding stop for me because I could not go through any of the doors nor back (and if I could go back there was nowhere to go).
So, I did some searching on the internet and found a few websites with forum posts about this problem. Turns out lots of people have been having this problem for a while now. I fallowed the instructions that I found on two of the sites (same instructions, two different websites) and then loaded the game up with my fingers crossed.
Sure enough, the A.I. worked! Some bad-guys busted through the doors and well... I don't want to put in too many spoilers. After the fight though there's a good looking woman who starts informing Gordon about some of the stuff that's been going on. She pushes a button for an elevator and then stands there not saying a word. I walked into the elevator, but she still just stood there. She didn't move, she didn't speak, she became a statue!
I saved the game, check out the websites again, looked over my 'fixes' again, saw that everything appeared in order, and loaded the game up again. She still did not move. I checked my fixes again, loaded the game from an earlier save point, went through the whole chase scene again, and still when I got to the part with the elevator the woman wouldn't send me up or down, or where-ever I'm supposed to go.
I started the game over from scratch and got the same problem at the same place.
So, sadly for me the game is not playable. (From what I'm reading on other websites, it seems un-playable for other people as well.) Some people have reported that they've made it past that point after using the fixes; I can not get past the elevator.
Until Valve patches Half Life 2 so that it runs properly: I do not recommend buying Half Life 2, or anything that comes with Half Life 2 (like "The Orange Box"). When Valve fixes the problem, I'll play the game again and post a fallow up review.
Until next time, I'll be fooling around...
An Apology...
First an apology: I wanted my first review to be something special; I wanted to review a classic game that I love (so it might have been a bias review) named Quest For Glory I. It's the computer game I remember playing.
To review it I wanted to play through it again as for both nostalgia and a refresher (even though I practically have the game memorized). However, I have not been able to find my old copy of the game anywhere (to run in the DoxBox emulator). I shall have to review it in the future it seems, for the blog must go on!
To review it I wanted to play through it again as for both nostalgia and a refresher (even though I practically have the game memorized). However, I have not been able to find my old copy of the game anywhere (to run in the DoxBox emulator). I shall have to review it in the future it seems, for the blog must go on!
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