Half-Life 2 and why it isn't even half fun - Page 5

jjacob · 01-30-2005, 08:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ragnar

I'm looking for a demo of KOTOR, but can't find any. Is there really no demo for it?

No, but that's not because they're ashamed of their product

Quote:

Originally Posted by scout

I agree with that. I shelved KotOR after about 12 hours. I resented the inability to explore. Like the markers in the Sand Planet that would stop you from deviating, forcing you where the game wanted you to go. And the story and character were not at all intrguing to me. Fallout did it all better, IMO.

I haven't played Fallout, but wasn't that a top-down game? It takes considerably more production cost (and effort, ofcourse) to do it in the way KOTOR did it, I would venture to guess. Aside from being 3d, KOTOR also has voice-overs for all conversations, which, from what I read, Fallout wasn't too big on. I think it aims for a more 'cinematic' experience, and succeeds. And about the sand dunes, what more would you have liked to see? A vast and empty but explorable desert? More NPCs/locations there for you to visit? Granted, Tatooine was one of the less lengthy planets, but it wasn't that bad, was it? How far into the game did you go? Did you only go as far as Taris and Tatooine?

ragnar · 01-30-2005, 10:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjacob

No, but that's not because they're ashamed of their product

So much for me getting to try it out then.

SoccerDude28 · 01-30-2005, 10:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scout

I agree with that. I shelved KotOR after about 12 hours. I resented the inability to explore. Like the markers in the Sand Planet that would stop you from deviating, forcing you where the game wanted you to go. And the story and character were not at all intrguing to me. Fallout did it all better, IMO.

KOTOR got the best game last year in the game developers choice award. This award is the most prestigious award in the gaming industry. http://www.igda.org/awards/archive_2004.htm

Quote:

Originally Posted by squaresie

It also got the Excellence in Writing award and Original Game Character of the Year which might explain why girls seem to like it. Storywise, I think, it beats the starwars movies with its depth.

SoccerDude28 · 01-30-2005, 10:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scout

I agree with that. I shelved KotOR after about 12 hours. I resented the inability to explore. Like the markers in the Sand Planet that would stop you from deviating, forcing you where the game wanted you to go. And the story and character were not at all intrguing to me. Fallout did it all better, IMO.

KOTOR got the best game last year in the game developers choice award. This award is the most prestigious award in the gaming industry. http://www.igda.org/awards/archive_2004.htm

Quote:

Originally Posted by squaresie

My g/f did too, and she hates Star Wars. She just got into the quests, the story, the characters... she's a big bookreader, so my guess is the plot enveloped her. She's the sort of person that reads 600 page novels with small writing in about a day, and English isn't her first language.

Says a lot about Bioware's storytelling talent.

It also got the Excellence in Writing award and Original Game Character of the Year which might explain why girls seem to like it. Storywise, I think, it beats the starwars movies with its depth.

squarejawhero · 01-30-2005, 11:22 AM

It beats them with a hammer, saws them into pieces and then buries them in the woods.

scout · 01-30-2005, 11:37 AM

Good for KotOR. Lots of people seem to love it. I found it a servicable commerical game. Solid, well built. No complaints other than I didn't particulary see any reason to continue playing like I did a game like Anachronox or Fallout. Just no reason to rave that I could see. The recorded sound was cool at first till you realized half the lauguages were like tulip roots talking. I played through Taris, the Sand World and part of the water worlds and never really heard any writing out of the ordinary. And despite all the "it ain't Star Wars" claims, it sure looked, tasted and fel like Star Wars to me. I might finish it someday.

EDIT: Technicially is was admirable. It just felt cold to me.

Intrepid Homoludens · 01-30-2005, 03:17 PM

I can understand what you mean, scout. But for me personally it would be unfair to use one single game as the unerring standard by which to measure every single game of its ilk for rest of eternity. As much as I had fun with, say, Serious Sam, I can't compare it to Half-Life, even though they're both first person shooters. I prefer to judge a game on its own merits with perhaps a side trip to how other games have done particular elements they all share.

scout · 01-30-2005, 06:17 PM

Naw, I'm just bitching about KotOR mainly because I just abandoned it. I take every game on its own terms, one at a time. My feeling for KotOR doesn't relflect on any other game, be it Riven, Planescape Torment, Morrowind, or Noctropolis. ....

Yes....they're all special little snowflakes.

C_Knight · 01-30-2005, 07:45 PM

Same situation as me scout, I felt KotOR wasn't that addicting for me. It was like a meal that went cold and I didn't want to eat it anymore. That and being evil never really changed the progression of the storyline...so meh

ConcreteRancor · 01-30-2005, 10:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scout

Good for KotOR. Lots of people seem to love it. I found it a servicable commerical game. Solid, well built. No complaints other than I didn't particulary see any reason to continue playing like I did a game like Anachronox or Fallout. Just no reason to rave that I could see. The recorded sound was cool at first till you realized half the lauguages were like tulip roots talking. I played through Taris, the Sand World and part of the water worlds and never really heard any writing out of the ordinary. And despite all the "it ain't Star Wars" claims, it sure looked, tasted and fel like Star Wars to me. I might finish it someday.

EDIT: Technicially is was admirable. It just felt cold to me.

Huh. My personal opinion of the game was the opposite. My issues with the game are all technical, like the clumsy way of handling inventory and the fact that the game's use of OpenGL causes it to crash on a lot of ATI video cards.

Other than that, I loved the writing, the environments, and so on.

scout · 01-31-2005, 01:08 AM

Huh? Bummer. I played it on an ATI 9600XT/XP Sp2 without a hitch or a single crash. Like buttah.

Won't argue about the inventory management though. That was just a minor annoyance for me compared to the "not-getting-my-groove-on-thing".

Intrepid Homoludens · 01-31-2005, 01:32 AM

I played it on Xbox. Crashes? Wot's that?

squarejawhero · 01-31-2005, 01:40 AM

X-Box doesn't have the little extras the PC version does though.

After patching KOTOR ran smooth on my ATI machine. Verrry nice.

Intrepid Homoludens · 01-31-2005, 01:46 AM

I didn't give a damn about the extras. NYAH!

ConcreteRancor · 01-31-2005, 09:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scout

Huh? Bummer. I played it on an ATI 9600XT/XP Sp2 without a hitch or a single crash. Like buttah.

Yeah, I've got an X800 Pro. The drivers that work best with KOTOR are those before the X800 came out, so I can't use them. Apparently the issue has been getting better with each new set of drivers released, though.

C_Knight · 01-31-2005, 10:04 AM

I played it with a 9800 pro and it would crash often on auto-save and loading :/
But maybe that's cause I had an illegit version? lol

SoccerDude28 · 01-31-2005, 10:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Intrepid Homoludens

I played it on Xbox. Crashes? Wot's that?

It crashed at least 2 times on the XBOX. It would just freeze. Also there were some major slow downs sometimes.

jjacob · 01-31-2005, 11:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SoccerDude28

It crashed at least 2 times on the XBOX. It would just freeze. Also there were some major slow downs sometimes.

Plus I read there are some serious showstopper bugs on the xbox version which render your game unplayable - like doing something in a particular order early on in the game will block you later on in the game.

And sadly, Sith Lords (xbox) also suffers from the same "jerkiness" bug which occurs when you get above 100 savegames, for some reason combat will slow you down to about 5 fps

SoccerDude28 · 01-31-2005, 11:40 AM

I have a general question. How do you patch a console game if it is buggy? Is there a way ?

Intrepid Homoludens · 01-31-2005, 02:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjacob

And sadly, Sith Lords (xbox) also suffers from the same "jerkiness" bug which occurs when you get above 100 savegames, for some reason combat will slow you down to about 5 fps

Why the hell would anyone want to save 100 games?!

01-30-2005, 11:22 AM	#85
squarejawhero Epinionated. Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: London Posts: 5,841	It beats them with a hammer, saws them into pieces and then buries them in the woods. Share Share this post on Twitter

01-30-2005, 11:37 AM	#86
scout Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2003 Posts: 109	Good for KotOR. Lots of people seem to love it. I found it a servicable commerical game. Solid, well built. No complaints other than I didn't particulary see any reason to continue playing like I did a game like Anachronox or Fallout. Just no reason to rave that I could see. The recorded sound was cool at first till you realized half the lauguages were like tulip roots talking. I played through Taris, the Sand World and part of the water worlds and never really heard any writing out of the ordinary. And despite all the "it ain't Star Wars" claims, it sure looked, tasted and fel like Star Wars to me. I might finish it someday. EDIT: Technicially is was admirable. It just felt cold to me. Share Share this post on Twitter Last edited by scout; 01-30-2005 at 11:56 AM.

01-30-2005, 03:17 PM	#87
Intrepid Homoludens merely human Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Chicago Posts: 22,309	I can understand what you mean, scout. But for me personally it would be unfair to use one single game as the unerring standard by which to measure every single game of its ilk for rest of eternity. As much as I had fun with, say, Serious Sam, I can't compare it to Half-Life, even though they're both first person shooters. I prefer to judge a game on its own merits with perhaps a side trip to how other games have done particular elements they all share. Share Share this post on Twitter __________________ platform: laptop, iPhone 3Gs \| gaming: x360, PS3, psp, iPhone, wii \| blog: a space alien \| book: the moral landscape: how science can determine human values by sam harris \| games: l.a.noire, portal 2, brink, dragon age 2, heavy rain \| sites: NPR, skeptoid, gaygamer \| music: ray lamontagne, adele, washed out, james blake \| twitter: a_space_alien

01-30-2005, 06:17 PM	#88
scout Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2003 Posts: 109	Naw, I'm just bitching about KotOR mainly because I just abandoned it. I take every game on its own terms, one at a time. My feeling for KotOR doesn't relflect on any other game, be it Riven, Planescape Torment, Morrowind, or Noctropolis. .... Yes....they're all special little snowflakes. Share Share this post on Twitter Last edited by scout; 01-30-2005 at 06:25 PM.

01-30-2005, 07:45 PM	#89
C_Knight Professional Life Lover Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 257	Same situation as me scout, I felt KotOR wasn't that addicting for me. It was like a meal that went cold and I didn't want to eat it anymore. That and being evil never really changed the progression of the storyline...so meh Share Share this post on Twitter

01-31-2005, 01:08 AM	#91
scout Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2003 Posts: 109	Huh? Bummer. I played it on an ATI 9600XT/XP Sp2 without a hitch or a single crash. Like buttah. Won't argue about the inventory management though. That was just a minor annoyance for me compared to the "not-getting-my-groove-on-thing". Share Share this post on Twitter

01-31-2005, 01:32 AM	#92
Intrepid Homoludens merely human Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Chicago Posts: 22,309	I played it on Xbox. Crashes? Wot's that? Share Share this post on Twitter __________________ platform: laptop, iPhone 3Gs \| gaming: x360, PS3, psp, iPhone, wii \| blog: a space alien \| book: the moral landscape: how science can determine human values by sam harris \| games: l.a.noire, portal 2, brink, dragon age 2, heavy rain \| sites: NPR, skeptoid, gaygamer \| music: ray lamontagne, adele, washed out, james blake \| twitter: a_space_alien

01-31-2005, 01:40 AM	#93
squarejawhero Epinionated. Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: London Posts: 5,841	X-Box doesn't have the little extras the PC version does though. After patching KOTOR ran smooth on my ATI machine. Verrry nice. Share Share this post on Twitter

01-31-2005, 01:46 AM	#94
Intrepid Homoludens merely human Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Chicago Posts: 22,309	I didn't give a damn about the extras. NYAH! Share Share this post on Twitter __________________ platform: laptop, iPhone 3Gs \| gaming: x360, PS3, psp, iPhone, wii \| blog: a space alien \| book: the moral landscape: how science can determine human values by sam harris \| games: l.a.noire, portal 2, brink, dragon age 2, heavy rain \| sites: NPR, skeptoid, gaygamer \| music: ray lamontagne, adele, washed out, james blake \| twitter: a_space_alien

01-31-2005, 10:04 AM	#96
C_Knight Professional Life Lover Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 257	I played it with a 9800 pro and it would crash often on auto-save and loading :/ But maybe that's cause I had an illegit version? lol Share Share this post on Twitter

01-31-2005, 11:40 AM	#99
SoccerDude28 Homer of Kittens Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: San Francisco, Bay Area Posts: 4,374	I have a general question. How do you patch a console game if it is buggy? Is there a way ? Share Share this post on Twitter __________________ -------------------------------------------------- Games I am playing: Jeanne D'Ark (PSP) Firefox rules

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