Free Games to Review/Other Games Forum

[Buster's Uncle]

My Buncle powers are giving me a strong feeling that the next post is going to be solid gold.

[Rusty Edge]

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.

This thread has me thinking about what makes a game great.  I'm  about making games better, not about getting something for nothing.

One of those things is more ways to play. In Civ IV, you have the variety of victory conditions- Conquest, Domination, Cultural, Space, Diplomatic, and the cheesy Religious victory. In Sid's Pirates! you can play as someone loyal to his country, as a mercenary, or as an outright pirate. In both, you can change as the game goes on.  Where they come up short is that the score doesn't give proper credit for playing with high ethics, but you can at least win.

In Civ V your play style is dictated from the start by the leader you play as. In Civ IV Colonization, the winning play style was counter-intuitive. It was more of a puzzle. Once solved, it loses it's luster and replay ability. The glorious graphics don't overcome the constraints to play style. They made me a bird in a gilded cage.

It's better to have plenty of possibilities. Not just in play style, but in customization. I never played them myself, but I think that's part of the success of SIMS and SPORE. In Pirates! you collect stuff that helps you play better. You can customize the sails and flags. You can make several  improvements to the various ships in your fleet.  In Civ it's about cities, landscape, units and your civilization yourself. There's opportunity to specialize. Lots of choices.

That brings me to another point. Games I like to tend to reward decision making rather than fast reflexes. Reflex games are for teenagers. I'm not as quick as I used to be, and being reminded of that is annoying rather than challenging. It certainly isn't fun.

Another thing that makes a game great is the introductory premise. The opening in the original Civ did that beautifully. So did the parchment/Leonard Nimoy remake in IV. It's up to you to build a Civilization that will stand the test of time.  It was the same way in Sid's Pirates. It gives you a brief Count of Monte Christo type story. It's up to you to free your family, recover your fortune and seek revenge.  These things are easy to understand...
You know what the game is about before you buy it.

I like adventure in my games. My sister likes to play Tomb Raider. I like to watch her play.
Easy to understand what the game is about. You can think of the character as more of a scientist or more of a grave robber.

I think there's a lot of potential for a Robin Hood game or a Flash Gordon game, provided you could play the different characters, as fit your mood or personality. People would know that the goal is to get the girl and depose the tyrant so that you can go home. Unless you're
Dale Arden or Maid Marion, then you have more options.

[Buster's Uncle]

My Buncle powers are not to be trifled with.

I think you're right about the sandbox aspect - it's actually the way I play SMACX.  I like to leave one opponent alive in one city and play out the rest of the time limit like it's Sim city or something.  -That part isn't actually as fun once the conflict/challenge element is gone, which is why I'm not playing Sim City instead, but it's fun enough to keep doing it that way rather than going for a quick victory.

A lot of that is just my personality - my mother's family all gravitate towards things like jigsaw puzzles and solitaire - what I call "sorting games"...  I imagine many people in the community have similar stories.  The best TBS games are sorting games if you like to micromanage.

[Rusty Edge]

Yeah. Omnipresence and Omniscience. Maybe you should be in my Super Hero group.
It's been one of those multitasking Mondays.

Sorting games is a good term. I like to do jigsaw and Mahjongg solitaire as a way to maintain my skills. Micromanaging more than a few of my Civ cities drains the fun from my game. I wish doing that kind of sorting exercise actually improved my eyesight as well as my brain function. Oh well. Can't have everything. Where would you put it?

I've come to appreciate a couple of other things about computer games.

The ability to Modify. Civ is modifiable. Pirates! is not. Well, it was designed to be theft proof, and guys at Hooked on Progress are only recently hacking and modding it. Modifiable has helped Civilization a lot. Modding communities tested and developed ideas as well as designers and programmers for use in future versions.

The other is the ability to "Toggle" game settings. I love random events in Civ. Not knowing what will happen next makes me want to play "One more turn". Knowing that each game will be unique means that the game is more replayable. Other people hate random events. They want to test and develop and measure their skills against a predictable program.   Fortunately we can have it both ways and make everybody happy. There is an On/Off switch for this feature.

[Dale]

The ability to Modify. Civ is modifiable. Pirates! is not. Well, it was designed to be theft proof, and guys at Hooked on Progress are only recently hacking and modding it. Modifiable has helped Civilization a lot. Modding communities tested and developed ideas as well as designers and programmers for use in future versions.

Pfffft.  Don't believe that for a second.  Pirates! on the C64 was the first game I ever modified.  Got sick of taking days to sail from one end of the Main to the other just to chase down a map in Vera Cruz.  So I modified the map and moved all the towns to the east.  Wow, that must've been late 80's?

[Rusty Edge]

I think I knew that fact...
But I never had a C-64. Or heard of Pirates! back then.

I'm talking about the version circa 2005.

[Buster's Uncle]

Because it will give everyone a laugh - I was on a Radio Shack TRS80 Color Computer 1980-1990, roughly.  Couldn't have made it through college without that thing.  I still have it in the room with me, in fact, and it still worked six years ago...

[Dale]

This was my first computer.  Very early 1980's, 81-2 I think?  Got a C64 in 83 and that was my mainstay childhood computer till my first PC in 89.

[Buster's Uncle]

1980, and the only thing I ever thought I pulled one over on my dad about.  Then momma bought me a printer and I ended up computer-literate, and I guess it really WAS educational like I'd told him in 79...

[Dale]

Sorry, forgot to add the image.  This was my first computer, 1981.

[Buster's Uncle]

And your early games?

[Buster's Uncle]

Again, I'm looking for volunteers and some info on their tastes and some samples I could show to demonstrate why I endorse who I endorse.  Please speak up if you're interested in trying and reviewing free games.  I don't know if there's a possibility of some formal beta testing or if this will remain purely promotional.  I imagine any formal beta testing experience would help in either case, but solid reliable citizens who will post about what they've tried is what I'm basically looking for until I know more. -IF something in this line happens.

Someone into way off-genre games like shooters and racers and Mario Barbie's Fashion Whatsis and I don't know what will have an unfair advantage, I'm guessing.  Interest in 4x and TBS, even RTS, is rather assumed as a given in this community.

[BlaneckW]

Racing is apparently the most common genre. 

[Buster's Uncle]

Rusty, my buncle powers tell me that you like wargaming and are a little interested in scoring free games to review if the genre is right.  I need you to let me know how my buncle powers are doing there and elaborate on your preferences if I got that right...

[Buster's Uncle]

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."

Can you tell us anything about genres you beta'd and your tastes in general?  I imagine you have some atypical likes, and as I mentioned above, that's an advantage, probably.