Free Games to Review/Other Games Forum

[Unorthodox]

Have you tried Tactics Ogre?  I think there was a GBA remake of it (look for let us cling together, I can't speak of knights of lodis, as I don't do mobile gaming) similar to the FFTA remake.  I can't speak to either remake, but Tactics Ogre was basically a deeper FFT.  Both made by essentially the same team, Tactics Ogre had the poorer graphics, but your map was much larger, and you fielded twice the number of units.  The important characters were not as overpowhelmingly powerful as the were in FFT, and their living or death at the end influenced the ending(s). 

Definite downsides to TO, though.  Most notably, training up an army can get PAINFULLY dull unless you know a trick or two...that just makes it annoyingly dull. 

As with all ogre battle series...I always end up 'evil'.  In fact, March of the Black Queen marks the first game ever I just EMBRACED the evil side.  I was really trying to be good, and that meter kept nudging dark, so I said the hell with it. 

(yes, ogre battle games are based on Queen songs.  Really)

[Buster's Uncle]

So I googled CRPG, and I've actually played a bunch of those.  Are you old enough to have played the SSI D&D games like Pool of Radiance?  I still have several of those, and really loved them back in the 90s when they ran slow enough.

I looked at it recently, but it didn't look interesting for me to bother.  RPG's have to be heavy enough on the RPG element now for me to care, otherwise they ought have some really excellent strategy/tactical element like FFTA should have had.  in my opinion, they ought to have both.  Then we can finally have a good game.

Wanna write a whole essay on what the perfect game would be like?  Or a whole series covering the perfect game in each genre you prefer?

SSI had some killer games back in the day.

Yes.



Gentlemen, even just shooting the breeze about what you like and don't and your playstyle may be useful in this.  Chat away.  Try to be extra articulate, but chat away.

[BlaneckW]

Wanna write a whole essay on what the perfect game would be like?

I thought that's what I'd been doing..  Really just saying that RPG's and strategy games don't have to be different genres.  In many strategy games they really aren't, as far as the campaign goes, except for not going far enough with the RPG element. 

(click to show/hide)

(Not sure how StarCraft 2 did with this, haven't played it yet, though I don't like what I hear of the story as much (StarCraft 1 story was genuine space outpost story, StarCraft 2 is some sort of babble about democracy for Christ sake, and zerg story looks to be a WarCraft 3 RPG).

RPG combat, especially that of like, DND style, has been... meh.  I mean, Diablo you know, gets old past teenage years.  But you know, other people like Adventure style or something?  While you can call a Daiblo 2 an action RPG, I'd call Divinity 2 essentially a combat RPG.  The game runs out when you've tried the different classes, gets older faster than Diablo 2 did.  And I don't really even call those two games RPG's because they have no RPG choices.

I like strategy, so ideally a good RPG could also be a Tactical RPG.  Not that TRPG wouldn't get old, it's just what I like, and it's not really been done.  The right combination, with the right quality, would be real art.  But I don't want RTS combined with a genuine RPG, like Larian tried.  I'd have bought it if it was a plain, deeper RPG, like I bought their other two games.


You're already somewhat familiar with my gripes about RPG's.
1.) Fantasy Strategy game like AOW puts you as the good king.  Or AOW1 has a compelling story for the evil king!
2.)  RPG's make you as a gangster!  As a result, strategy games sometimes have more compelling stories than RPG's! (overall, there can be good chracters.)  Why do they do this?  Even If I'm "adventuring", and it's not a tactical RPG like I'd like, doesn't mean I want to be a damn robber.

NWN2 realized this, and makes a different path for the robber, than the decent enough story for the Lawful Good character. 

But regarding evil, I'm going to be evil, than make it interesting like a necromancer, not the robber path.  Or give me a lawful neutral necromancer!, grey morality and all that.  Or the lawful evil cleric, for what was the Lawful Good story.  But of course, NWN 2 only gives you the lawful good or rouge path.  Trying to play the good path alternatively aligned becomes terribly uninteresting.

3.)  You've read about my complaints about magic.  Tedious should just be auras; and they don't give it atmosphere! Make it macabre!  Give the magic itself a story, in the game, make it a part of the RPG.  It's not like we don't already have real-life religions to be drawn from, like a favorite of mine, Zoroastrianism.  Have the Clerics actually in contact with the gods!  And don't do the DND class system.  DND had a funny story so wizards and clerics could be different classes, but they're really the same thing in older religions.

[BlaneckW]

Have you tried Tactics Ogre? 

I think I tried to play it on SNES emulator, my understanding is that it was more of a Grand Strategy or something, didn't have the tactical battle field.

As with all ogre battle series...I always end up 'evil'.

My understanding was that evil didn't mean a great deal.

[Unorthodox]

Have you tried Tactics Ogre? 

I think I tried to play it on SNES emulator, my understanding is that it was more of a Grand Strategy or something, didn't have the tactical battle field.

As with all ogre battle series...I always end up 'evil'.

My understanding was that evil didn't mean a great deal.

You're thinking ogre battle of one version or the other, I think.  TACTICS OGRE is, almost literally, a bigger, deeper, FFT. 

First video review on a quick search, for the ps vita remake version.  (Only caveat I have with his review is he says you can have 12 characters on the map, 2 of them will be guests you have no control over, you control up to 10) 

[HD] Vita Tactics Ogre : Let Us Cling Together Review ( PSP ) [ Review Zone HD ]

As far as evil/good goes, having never beaten one of the games as a GOOD character, I can't say definitively, but March of the Black Queen's ending for my character had me being worse off for the country than the black queen I was on a quest to destroy.      In Tactics Ogre, if you go all Chaos (evil), you can have a hard time keeping Lawful characters in your army.  (EVERY unit has an attitude towards you, and alignment weighs heavy in that, as does race and a couple other things) Considering the more powerful priestess ladies are all lawful, that can make things difficult.  (as well as other classes that are of less importance)

[Valka]

The only game reviewing I've done has been on the Big Fish Games site. I've beta tested some of them, and posted in some of the forums. I guess that's not the sort of games meant here, though. 

[BlaneckW]

I wanted to mention that i also like moogles.

[Buster's Uncle]

The only game reviewing I've done has been on the Big Fish Games site. I've beta tested some of them, and posted in some of the forums. I guess that's not the sort of games meant here, though. 

It might be - just as well link a review you're proud of...

[Unorthodox]

Gentlemen, even just shooting the breeze about what you like and don't and your playstyle may be useful in this.

I vary greatly in my likes and dislikes as well as my play styles, depending on my mood. 

In an RPG, thus, I appreciate something that will give me a nice variety to play around with.  It's important that the different classes and whatnot FEEL different as well.   Preferably with multiple ways to play individual classes, and expect me to go 'against the grain' and roll up that elite archer class as a 2 handed hammer wielder or something off the wall like that. 

I'm a guy that will quickly roll multiple characters and try varying builds.  I consider it a 'good' game if I can enjoy those differing builds, and want to make MORE.  I'll generally not play too much "end game" loot treadmill stuff, in favor of exploring other ways to play, and appreciate the ability to respec characters to minimize my need to play the really early tutorial crap.  Now, "end game" actual new content, I will tend to play, especially if it presents new challenges and not more of the same.  If it's just another mob farm, forget it. 

Strategy games, I'm similarly influenced by random whims.  I'm equally as likely to turtle as I am to zerg rush (and more likely to do one or the other if it is an 'inferior' path in a given game), and in MP, "winning" is virtually NEVER my primary goal.  Though what that goal is changes.  I've joined games specifically to make sure a newer player survives the initial bloodletting, and formed entire teams with the specific goal of just throwing a monkey wrench into the normal boring progression.  My failure to play according to game theory really pisses some people off, and some games really don't like either. 

I like my strategy games, thus, to provide the ability to handle differing play styles.  Campaigns that force you to rush or turtle instead of letting the player choose how to go about it are just not as fun.  I tend to enjoy the tactics level gameplay more than the grand strategy level, but like games that provide BOTH.  I really enjoy RPG elements thrown into the strategy as well.  Let me grow my units and become attached to them. 

Oh, and I don't like cheating. AI with infinite supplies/money/etc is really past it's usefulness people.  Let it beat me by the same rules I play with, thanks. 

[Valka]

I can't link my reviews, since they were sent directly to Big Fish Games. The way it works is, they occasionally email me with an offer to beta test a game, and when I've done that, I click a link to answer questions and provide a review. I never saved any of them. The only other extensive posting I've done re BFG has been a rather snarky series of comments on "Design This Home."

[Buster's Uncle]

If you wanted to write about anything gaming/reviewish to provide a sample, right here would be fine.  You're a mature poster with good grammar/spelling, and I can recommend you with confidence already, but samples to show would help.  I think.

[Buster's Uncle]

http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?board=28.0

I know we have some Uno threads here in Rec Commons that belong there - I'll wait for input before I do anything, and want input in general.  This is your place, not just mine.

This thread should probably be moved there, in fact, and replaced with a notice...

[ete]

Possibly interested, depending on style of game (TBS/RTS preferred, not interested in FPS) and how early a version I'd get to try/whether there was opportunity for feedback to be used to improve the game. I'm much more interested in helping improve games than getting a free game if I'm honest.

I don't have game review samples, but I've done quite a lot of reviews of AC custom factions (see my posts here: http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=3819.285 ) and built the wiki for this site. I can write and have a pretty good feel for game balance and strategy in the types of game I like.

[Buster's Uncle]

ete is once of my best, most useful, people, and I endorse him.

[Buster's Uncle]

I wish I was getting more feedback here.  There are a number of questions outstanding...