The Witcher: The game that keeps growing

The Witcher has sold over 1.2 million copies as a PC only game, which isn’t the best I know, but it’s not bad either. It’s one of the best games out there that has been severely overlooked. If any of you people out there are RPG fans you owe it to yourself to go pick this one up. It’s only 20 bucks on steam right now.

Some game footage has been leaked for the game’s sequel Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. Witcher 2 has a chance to be like Half-Life 2. Half-life was a good game. Half-Life 2 was an awesome, genre changing game. The Witcher was a good game. Can it’s sequel be ground breaking?

The current generation of RPGs was birthed with Morrowind, Dungeon Siege, and Knights of the Old Republic, among other titles and perfected in Oblivion, Fallout 3, and Mass Effect. I think it’s time for some fresh ideas on the genre.

Witcher 2 has some interesting concepts from what we’ve seen of it so far. Dynamic NPCs that have things to do, innovative combat with finishing moves, a high end graphics engine, and a unique dark world for the story to develop in. None of this means “earth-shattering”, but it’s a good step towards something great.

Keep on gaming people!

Neverwinter Nights 2: Crash, burn and die

A friend of mine started playing NWN2 recently so I decided to check it out for myself. I install all 11 gigs worth of fun, start it up, get about 5 minutes in, and watch it crash. I can’t fix it, and it always crashes. Oh well. Looks like I’m playing KOTOR2 while I wait for Dragon Age.

Knights of the Old Republic – The Darkest Space

My Pics of KOTOR and Mr. Az

Voice Effect

Ok first off let me say i’m sorry for how long it’s been since my last post. I’m still trying my hardest to get into this seriously.

As of my last update I was playing KOTOR and loving the dialog of the game. Good conversation means so much to a game. You can have the perfect game in all aspects but if you get some half-baked voice acting and poor writing your game will suck. Deus Ex, which I actually enjoyed playing, had some bad voice acting:

As a quick side note i’ll add the i’ve continued to play the newest Prince of Persia game, despite it’s lame gameplay, because of the good dialog and voice acting.

Now i’m playing Mass Effect and the voices are stellar. A solid line of dialog delivered by a good actor pulls you into a game like nothing else. To make things better once you’ve heard a character tell you something in a convincing way you can respond in an equally convincing way. The dialog choices in this game are super.

Now if Edward James Olmos had narrated the Terminator Salvation game would it have sold more copies?

Keep on gaming people!

Dialog of the Old Republic

Don’t tell me what your thinking. This game is old news. Yeah, I know. I didn’t play it so it’s new to me.

This game is awesome. It holds really well for it’s age. The graphics are well on their way to looking ancient, but the atmosphere the game delivers is stunning.

Voice acting is still something that leaves room for improvement in many games. Not in KOTOR. The actors are top notch and sound better then half the cast of Episodes I-III. I turned off subtitles and soak up every minute of the ear seducing words that come through my headphones. I click on every possible conversation options given to me just to hear more. I stop to chat with my party because they seem like people.

Wait… people? In my video game?

Video games strive to be cinematic. Some games achieve this goal well, but is it enough? Is cinematic the best experience you can get from a game? I’m gonna stand up on my soap box and say “No”.

A good video game should be immersive.

Keep on blurring the lines of reality, people.