I have finally managed, I think (hope!), to put together a group for some good old-fashioned roleplaying. Yes, the kind that uses dice and paper. I have been playing for some time, but the last few years have seen little real action. So when I went into my local game store, I was a bit disappointed to find that good old roleplaying books are disappearing! Apparently, the new young generation has no interest in this kind of imagination gaming. I guess computer games have taken over, along with the rise in ‘live’ roleplaying (the folks hitting each other with cardboard swords in the forest).
What I was wondering was, is there another kind of gaming out there that can spark the imagination as much as traditional, pen-n-paper roleplaying? I never felt that other games, including so-called ‘computer RPGs’ like WoW and the typical online strategy game, really peaked the imagination (WoW basically a first-person-shooter with a sword and a few more power-ups). I need something that allows me to fully immerse myself in fantastic worlds, including their cultures, strange events, a study of exotic creatures (for other purposes than killing them), and maybe even some drama.
Does anyone know of games like that? It would be cool if there is a whole genre of games I never knew about, but a few imaginative gems are also interesting. And something with lots of background story, pleeeeeaaaaase
Anything by Valve Software. Half Life series, Portal, Drift, Team Fortress 2… they pretty much only make great games. Brilliant story, insane visual style(from cartoon finesse to hyper real).
I used to play a medieval based board games, i cant remember the name but you would take a character and develop its skills, moving through a dungeons and battling all kinds of skeletons and ‘orcs’. It was great fun.
The Diablo games are similar in many ways, probubly the closest youll get to a board game.
The next one, Diablo 3, is going to be huge for multiplayers, Youll be able to play through the whole game with friends by your side.
Theres some cool videos showing it off here and pt2 here
And while your waiting for it to be released, buy Diablo II, it would be pretty cheap these days and its a great game.
Edit It might not be 100% as involving as your looking for, i think Final Fantasy might be, but i dont have much experience with it. A friend of mine is very much into FF though.
Well in the means of computer games, you might like to try something like zork, nethack, moria, other rogue likes, diablo is very fun, but it is more plain hack and slash. Though diablo is based of rogue likes which are mostly hack and slash… You can do a lot more in some rogue likes than in diablo. Final fantasy… maybe, I personally haven’t played too much of it. Baulders gate is very good as well, it is also based off of D&D rules. You may like some of the elder scrolls games, they are quite good as well. Heh, wumpus :D. You may also like to try irc… irc is internet relay chat, it’s just a simple little chat program where you can join separate channels for many different things, there are several channels running around with bots that play rpgs, and also several channels around that do some in channel D&D type things. Though I despise the game, runescape can be ok for a bit, it’s very kiddy though and involves a lot of repetitive actions, it does have a small little fantasy world with some stuff you can do and explore. That’s all I can think of now when I’m barely awake… Send me a message if you’d like more information on anything, or some help on something. Oh I almost forgot some links :D. I haven’t actually gotten it to work, but maybe crossfire.gah no space left. links: http://www.alt.org/nethack/jta/
do what i do. go to your room, close your eyes, and then build your own world in your mind… go into a state of meditation, and then live in that world for a few minutes, or a few hours. its a good way to get away from the real world, you have real “total freedom” that most games brag about, and you dont have to pay, and you can go there anytime you want.
id advise not “exploring the inner caverns” of your mind in public or in dangerous situations. during my first military inspection, my drill instructor was taking a long ass time to get through all the people. the worst part is, you have to just stand there, and for our first time he decided to keep us at attention because people were screwing up orders earlier. that means i had to stand there absoultely motionless for god knows how long… i estimate he took maybe 2 minutes on each person and there was about 25 people in front of me. so, with absoultely, 100%, nothing to do for close to an hour, i let my military bearing and extream focus dip for a little while. thats right, i went to one of the worlds in my head… turns out, somewhere in those 25 people being inspected before me, he had issued a new order, an order… that i didnt hear cause i was jumping out of an airplane, in my head…
so if you can imagine, 49 cadets all following the same order all at once, and one just standing there doing absoultely nothing for at least 15 more minutes AFTER THE ORDER WAS GIVIN, then barely noticing when the hopping mad drill instructor walks in front of him for inspection after those 10 to 15 minutes, forgetting to sound off his name, rank, school, and all that jazz,… no he (still disobeying the order givin earlier) just stares into space. starts thinking ‘oh wait a minute, :eek: thats the drill instructor! oh sh!t, what am i suppose to do again…’ … … … … … “SIR!, uhhhhhhhh… oh no…”
i was sore the rest of the week.
moral,
imagination is good free fun, just know when and when not to use it… :spin:
It’s possible that the genre that you’re looking for is the Japanese RPG game. I spent well in excess of 120 hours playing Star Ocean: Till the end of time (yes, I know… get out more :spin:). It’s a nice sci-fi take on the genre, though the FF games are usually a combination of tech and fantasy.
I will add my vote for Final Fantasy. They are a bit of a mixed bag with each one being set in a different world, but most are good. You should be able to pick them up pretty cheaply second hand if you just want to try them out without forking out the full price. A recent good one (1 or 2 years old) is Final Fantasy XII (not Final Fantasy X-II ). I got this for PS2. Great graphics, great story, lots to do and CG Cinema quality cut-scenes that really add to the depth of the world. Plugged as “next gen graphics on current gen hardware” and not far wrong. But it’s the worlds and characterisation that really set the FF games apart from the competition. I think they are an average of 5 years in production or something…
The classic FF is FF VII for the PS1. Many people cite this as being the best of the series, and up until FF XII that was my oppinion. The story is great and the graphics were ground-breaking for the era, but gameplay and graphics are obviously dated now. There was talk of a remake for next-gen machines it is so popular, but I think this is unlikely. My brother recently got FF: Crisis Core for his PSP, which was possibly the source of the rumours. It’s set 8 years before FF VII in the same world and looks pretty good.
Try looking for the publisher Square Enix. They are the publisher of the FF series and are very big in this genre.
Note: These games are renowned for being very addictive, and it is not unusual for there to be an unofficial public holiday in Japan with the release of a big title such as FF XII.
Hope you find what you’re looking for. I miss the lack of cerebral games out there. Bang Pow Splat Kerchink AAAaaarggh… You Win
It is strange that you had the opposite experience as me, I recently walked into a game store for the first time in almost 10 years and couldnt believe how many more pen and paper games are on the shelves now days. I guess it all depends where you shop. But If you can’t find a good game shop in your area, try finding a good online catalog, or just open a note book and make your own campain setting, something unique. My friends and I did that all the time way back in Jr. high.
JRPG’s are a lot of fun, but very linear. Its like being trapped traveling down a rail in the majority of them. Thats one of the reasons that I would be hesitant to recomend them to anyone who really wants to exercise the imagination. With that said my favorite JRPGs are the Star Ocean series and the Tales Of series. I’m not that into final fantasy, I feel its a bit over rated. American RPGs tend to allow more freedom to stray from the main story line and make the adventure your own. Good examples are the Fallout series, Planescape: torment, and the elder scrolls series.
Spore looks like it will allow you to pretty much make up the game as you go, which is pretty nifty. There’s an old PS2 game called “Shadow Of The Colossus” that is immersive as hell, but not really ‘role playing’ per se. I’ve heard good things about the “ICO” series, but never tried them.
Some stores are getting rid of the old roleplaying books, but D&D and the Palladium games are still going strong, as far as I know. I’m not sure if you’re looking for a computer game or if you’re looking for some alternative to pen & paper games you can play with your friends. Being ‘plugged in’ so much can get frustrating to me… When I get sick of it I’ll spend a day in the woods or downtown drawing. I’ve never really been amazingly good at it, but it’s an awesome way to spend a day, and the resulting pages and memories are worth far more than any amount of EXP or STR.
There’s lots of books at borders down Queen Street if you want to browse there.
Anyways I’ll make this post long to match NJROTC.
So there we was after 3 weeks of cool training and being yelled at and stuff. Then on the second to last day was the big event. We all had about 4 hours to ourselves at the bar and them guys got more than they bargained for. So following day, suffering from hangovers and stuff, the order was given . . . .and one guy spewed right ninety degrees. He was imagining him not drinking heavily the nite before.
okay okay, my post was off the wall, but i had to tell that story man! its a good story.
anyway, one of the best places i find adventure, is my dreams. but whats really really unfortunate… i cant return to the same ones twice to finish business…
but uh games… hm, um… i remember chrono trigger was fun and i got pretty wound up in that one… but it may no be what your looking for. you can change the story to some degree, being that, after a certain stage early in the game you can choose to end the game whenever you want. depending on when you decide to end it, certain endings happen. even if you play the game all the way to its last rope, i think there was a dozen differnt ways to approach the last boss, but only three differnt endingsthat could be caused because of it. oh, and the side quests really affect the game too, and again they’re optional so it feels like your contributing alot to thier world.
oh, its for the super NES by the way. but you can just “borrow” it from the internet if you like (you gets no more help than that)
Well the one and only game that ever really got me completely immersed, and i mean completely was the elder scrolls 3 morrowind. This game is the only game i have ever found that had a completely original and immersive story line and was fun to play. The main quest is one of the best stories i have ever heard and i still to this day havnt found a story, book game or movie, that riveled it.
Well the one and only game that ever really got me completely immersed, and i mean completely was the elder scrolls 3 morrowind. This game is the only game i have ever found that had a completely original and immersive story line and was fun to play. The main quest is one of the best stories i have ever heard and i still to this day havnt found a story, book game or movie, that riveled it.
TES 4 oblivion’s better (for me).
But you made me think of installing it again.
If you haven’t played Baldur’s Gate yet, I think it is still available. I’m pretty sure it can be run on WinXP, with bw compat settings. Black Isle was the developing company, I think they did games like original Fallout as well, or do I misremember?
Gabriel Knight III might also run on a WinXP computer, if you can get hands on it. I had some odd crashes while playing it, so save often.
Games are big business these days, there is very little risktaking happening with big titles anymore. Just more of the same crap, with bigger textures.
For the adventure game genre, there was a site called justadventure, I think it is still alive.
Morrowind probably has the most immersive world and storyline any game will offer you. Couple that with total freedom (ya really) and you’re set for months of exploring and awesome.
I wish I could describe the awesome in a post but sadly I can’t so you’ll just have to take my word on it
Oblivion’s world doesn’t feel as real as Morrowind’s. Sure, the characters are dynamic and actually do stuff, but the whole world just feels plain and boring. Shivering Isles remedied that somewhat but it’s still far from the absolute unique world Morrowind presented. The only thing Oblivion really has over Morrowind is graphics and a more realistic combat system, though the combat system makes the game feel more like an action game then an RPG.
Lots of interesting ideas in here, gotta get going on some, thanks folks!
My problem with computer games is that they are usually either A) about going up to a monster, clicking a button repeatedly, and hoping you had enough super-duper equipment to kill it and move on to the next one (add a colorful background story), or B) about guessing exactly how the designers wanted you to solve problems, like taking Item A to Problem B and clicking a button. I have been playing computer games since the mid 80s, and I’m kinda tapped out on these two things.
I do see games mentioned as being different, and I will look into them, definitely. what I am hoping to find is something that allows me to really EXPLORE. I love examining things in games (I got mad at both Baldur’s Gate and Diablo II when, for the umpteenth time, I could not examine an item or talk to some person in the street). I think I am looking for something that has a very deep background world, preferably something filling several books or a digital encyclopedia. I want to explore and get my imagination rolling on new places and things.
So I’ll be looking at the suggestions for some time, but I really hope to see more, since I am sure someone out there knows the perfect thing for me and my starving imagination
ICO is not a series, it is just one very emo game, by the same people that later made Shadow of Colossus. Very cinematic stuff, almost stat-free gameplay. Tried but haven’t played through either one, too reflex-based at times for me to be honest. PS2, especially in Japan, has such large user base that experimental games like these get released. It will be long time (or never) before the same applies to PS3.
In terms of gameplay, character levelling is such a stupid and unrealistic thing that some JRPGs have extended to ridiculous extents, with levels going up to 999 even. There have been exceptions, like Vagrant Story, without any character levelling at all: no boss fight in that game requires you to be a certain level to succeed.
One of the few games from this century that I have genuinely liked is Beyond Good and Evil. Apart from the stupid name, this one has a different and funny world design (and being European, not aimed at teenage japanese girls), and well designed variety of tactical gameplay.
Well i promise you the elder scrolls morrowind wont let you down. You say you want books and books from just the story. Well try this one, hundreds of ingame books loaded to the brim with amazing amounts of lore and backstory. Every person can be talked to and if you can see it you can go to it and explore it. I promise there is well over 200+ hours of gameplay in this game and i mean well over
). I got this for PS2. Great graphics, great story, lots to do and CG Cinema quality cut-scenes that really add to the depth of the world. Plugged as “next gen graphics on current gen hardware” and not far wrong. But it’s the worlds and characterisation that really set the FF games apart from the competition. I think they are an average of 5 years in production or something…