The Two Worlds games are some of the best RPGs I've played. Though a lot of people hated Two Worlds 1, and most people view Two Worlds 2 as an "Meh" kind of game, I find them most enjoyable. The whole idea (at least from what I gather) is that Two Worlds games are not so much about the destination, but are rather focused on the journey there.
The first Two Worlds game is fun in a way that's hard to describe. I suppose you could say it's addictive, but it's a little deeper than that. At the time of its release, many criticized it for the voice acting, the poorly structured plot line, the terrible mount controls, some useless perks, and some notably overpowered enemies. Oh, and the fact that the most attractive female in the game is...... the Hero's sister. Although hated by many Oblivion fans, I found that most, if not all, of these "issues" really enhanced the game, though not in the traditional way. For starters, the voice acting is pretty horrible. It pretty much circles all the way through every amount of terrible, and comes right back to being good. "So bad it's good", is an apt way to describe it. Though it could be game breaking for some people, I found that after a while, it wasn't really that bad, once I'd gotten used to it and grew to accept it. The poor story line didn't bother me too badly either. Again, for a game that focuses on the journey, and not the destination, it's not as bad as it could be, and is mostly an enjoyable "extra feature"-esque addition to the game. The mount controls weren't that bad either. In Two Worlds, the horse doesn't like scraping its side up against a rock or a tree, and for that matter, real life Horses don't like that either. And again, horses in Two Worlds don't like going up or down steep hills, and real don't either. The controls and behavior of the horses was annoying and downright frustrating at times, but they were realistic and were easy to master once I'd played enough to be able to pick out my paths more carefully. The useless perks were just that, useless. You could spend your perk points on "Un-horsing" enemies, but there were no mounted enemies, at all. Which made the skill useless, unless you were going to use it in Multiplayer. The overpowered enemies weren't so much an issue to me as they were a challenge. If you thought you could just waltz into a new area and kick the butt of every creature you came across, you were downright crazy. The enemies in new areas never "Level up" with your skill, so if you want to start exploring in a new area, you have to explore the current area and do a lot of grinding and loot collecting to keep going to the next. It's not so much of a burden as it is an incentive to keep playing and pushing yourself onwards. It's all part of the "Journey" and I think it's very well done.
There's no real "Crafting" system in Two Worlds, but there's a very good weapon and armor upgrading system in its place. If you find two of the same weapon (eg, two "Destroyer" maces) you can combine them to make an even more powerful weapon of the same type. Weapons are ranked in "Classes" so if you combine two "Class 1" "Orc Slayer" Swords, you'll create a "Class 2" "Orc Slayer" sword. Enchanting these weapons is as easy. In the world, you can find enchanting crystals that do various damages, such as fire, ice, poison, or spirit damage. Combining these crystals with your current weapon adds that new type of damage to your weapon. So you can have a sword with 50 slash damage, and 50 fire damage, leading to some pretty powerful hits. Though nothing new, the system is very well done, and makes looting a very valuable part of the game.
Yet another well-executed aspect of the game is the exploration. The game world is completely open, and it's massive. Instead of a system of fast travel, each town has a Teleport that has to be activated before you can use it. There are also Personal Teleports that can be obtained, so if you find yourself in a pinch needing to head back to a town to pick up some potions, you can just lay down a personal teleport to instantly travel back to a town with a teleport that you've activated in the past. I'm no fan of fast travel, but the system presented in Two Worlds leaves little to be desired. It's more or less a perfect hybrid between fast travel and traditional travel.
The combat in Two Worlds isn't bad either. There's very little variation between combat animations and the combat isn't near realistic, but it's fun nonetheless. Leveling up and searching dead bodies and chests really doesn't get old, and I soon found myself one-hit-killing most of the creatures that beat the snot out of me early on. There was something overwhelmingly satisfying about finding an axe that did some real damage to those Orc bandits, and then a few hours and levels later, finding an even better weapon that one hit killed em. There are also some enemies are are immune to certain types of weapons. The Stone Golem was barely scratched by a sword that could beat the living daylights out of Cyclops, but could have his butt handed to him by a decent hammer or mace. This made the game feel even more realistic, in a way, and even makes sense (hitting a sword against a rock doesn't do much more than dull the sword).
There's so much more to say about it, but the best way to explain it is for you to pick it up yourself. Two Worlds 1 isn't perfect by a far stretch, but it's incredibly addictive and fun in a very deep way. I'd wholeheartedly recommend it to someone looking for a good 40-50 hours (if not more) of fun. And right now, it's only $1.50 on Amazon.com.
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Monday, May 27, 2013
Rant: Youtube
What on earth was Google thinking when they acquired Youtube? I'll tell ya what. They were thinking of all that ad revenue they were gonna channel (heh heh) their way, and in addition to that, how to cut costs for them overall with the new service. So what'd they do? Lots of stuff, but I'm just gonna focus on the one change that TICKS me off the most: The Rendering.
I remember (back when all I had was Dial-up) being able to start a Youtube video at night, letting it render overnight, and then playing it the next day. I'd have to pick which one I wanted to see, and was always excited about seeing it the next day ( though I don't recall why I couldn't do two or more...). Now, however, Google's Youtube Only lets the video render something like 30 seconds ahead of you. So if you were planning on letting it render before you watched, you're out of luck. But another thing that perhaps makes me even more furious is that once you've watched it, you cannot go back and watch it again without it re-rendering! And for that matter, you can't even skip back 2 seconds without it requiring a re-render! What the heck, Google?! The 30 second limit I can maybe understand... from the little I understand about web technologies, only rendering 30 seconds of video may cut the payload on their servers, and for people only planning on watching 5 seconds in a video walkthrough or something, it may work out nice, while saving Google's servers the hassle of letting you download more than what you "need". But re-rendering what you just waited to have rendered? That doesn't make any sense whatsoever! For one, it means you have to wait all over again to have it render, and it means that Google's servers have to work once again to let you download it, but more importantly, it means that anyone with a download cap is definitely going to suffer.
So in a nutshell, this whole deal with Google limiting and cutting off renders isn't good for any of their users, but I don't know how it could be helping them as well. Time'll tell if this "Issue" is ever solved, but from what I've seen of Google, if it requires very much cash or time to fix, they'll be all to happy to let it remain unsolved.
/Rant
I remember (back when all I had was Dial-up) being able to start a Youtube video at night, letting it render overnight, and then playing it the next day. I'd have to pick which one I wanted to see, and was always excited about seeing it the next day ( though I don't recall why I couldn't do two or more...). Now, however, Google's Youtube Only lets the video render something like 30 seconds ahead of you. So if you were planning on letting it render before you watched, you're out of luck. But another thing that perhaps makes me even more furious is that once you've watched it, you cannot go back and watch it again without it re-rendering! And for that matter, you can't even skip back 2 seconds without it requiring a re-render! What the heck, Google?! The 30 second limit I can maybe understand... from the little I understand about web technologies, only rendering 30 seconds of video may cut the payload on their servers, and for people only planning on watching 5 seconds in a video walkthrough or something, it may work out nice, while saving Google's servers the hassle of letting you download more than what you "need". But re-rendering what you just waited to have rendered? That doesn't make any sense whatsoever! For one, it means you have to wait all over again to have it render, and it means that Google's servers have to work once again to let you download it, but more importantly, it means that anyone with a download cap is definitely going to suffer.
So in a nutshell, this whole deal with Google limiting and cutting off renders isn't good for any of their users, but I don't know how it could be helping them as well. Time'll tell if this "Issue" is ever solved, but from what I've seen of Google, if it requires very much cash or time to fix, they'll be all to happy to let it remain unsolved.
/Rant
Sunday, May 26, 2013
REDkit -- My Experience (So far)
REDkit is a modding tool that kinda got me pumped for its public release. It's creator, CD Projekt RED, is one of my (if not my single) favorite game development companies. They hold a very strong opposing viewpoint of any form of DRM, and launched a completely DRM-free game purchasing website, GOG.com. They're the creator of both the Witcher and the Witcher 2, and are set to release the Witcher 3 sometime in 2014. When I heard that RED was planning to release the tools that they used to create the Witcher 2, I was pumped. The very idea that a game dev company would release their tools is pretty awesome, so when REDkit was finally released to the public, I set it to download overnight, and went to bed pretty hyped. What I found the next day, however, really shoved my spirits down. In all honesty, I went to the program expecting a Skyrim Creation Kit like experience, with most everything already set up, and an open world to play around with and mod. REDkit isn't like that at all though, rather than the world already set up, you simply get a black screen in the "Render" window. I was stuck for a while before any tutorials surfaced to give me some general pointers into how to proceed.
What it boils down to, is that REDkit offers much, much more versatility and customization than Skyrim or Morrowind offer in their CK and CS's. Rather than most everything being set up and easy to use, REDkit allows you to craft your world and tweak every detail while doing so. You have to start off by actually picking how large you'd like your world mass to be, and by setting some options that were rather foreign to me (hence me just doing what the Youtube Tut did, and not worrying about them). Once your world mass is created, you have to set the Skybox you'd like to use, and the lighting/sun conditions thereof. So where most stuff is already set up in Skyrim's CK, it has to be set up manually in REDkit. But from there, it gets even more complicated.
After my world was set up, I was directed to the terrain tools. When you set up your world mass, it appears as a big white square. Terrain tools fix that. You can set the default ground texture, so instead of the default ground being white (or dirt, in the case of Morrowind's CS), you can set it to be grass, moss, or any other texture, thereby potentially saving you a lot of ground texturing time. There's also many options for terrain elevation. Where Skyrim/Morrowind only allow you the options of dragging ground up or down, REDkit allows you to paint cliffs or valleys (similar to the system used in Zoo Tycoon 2, if you've played that....), without dragging ground around. The system used is quite advanced, but it just takes so much time to set up to use, which leads me to my next point...
The static object system is just messed up... Up to this point, I was really ready to forgive the extremely long set up time and complex system to prepare a level. Sure, everything takes time, but it allows for incredibly detailed options, right? Yeah... following the tutorial, I placed a bridge between two cliffs I'd set up. Placing the bridge was easy, but I wasn't prepared for what was going to happen next. The character couldn't even walk on it. Apparently there are separate options for each mesh when you put them in the level, one of which determines if the character can walk on the mesh -- oh, and that option is disabled by default. So in a nutshell, every single mesh that you're planning on coming into contact with needs to have that option enabled manually.
The last straw that REDkit pulled with me was the "areas". If you want the character to be able to walk anywhere, you have to specifically place a big box (area) over where you want him to be able to walk; but you can't make the box too big. So if you want the character to go very far, you have to have a number of boxes. This is when I stopped, saved my work, and closed down the program. In the fantastic trailer RED released regarding REDkit, they talked about building worlds. To me, a world (at least in gaming standards) is something that you're free to run around in, and do whatever you want to do in, Not, a connected grid of overlapping boxes. This isn't to say that REDkit is a bad piece of software, it's just not for me.
As a recap, I'm still very glad that RED went ahead and released REDkit. It's a fantastic modding tool that allows for a far greater scope of detail than even Skyrim can offer. I'm really excited about the potential for new mods and stories that are bound to start being published with this new tool, and it'll be interesting to see just how far some of the more advanced modders can push the boundaries of REDkit. And I guess that's just it. REDkit isn't really meant for mod-dabbling people like myself; it's for the hardcore modders -- the guys who are passionate about what they create. I guess I could keep trying to learn REDkit, but I don't think I will. For most of the simple stuff my brain is capable of, Morrowind's CS works just fine.
What it boils down to, is that REDkit offers much, much more versatility and customization than Skyrim or Morrowind offer in their CK and CS's. Rather than most everything being set up and easy to use, REDkit allows you to craft your world and tweak every detail while doing so. You have to start off by actually picking how large you'd like your world mass to be, and by setting some options that were rather foreign to me (hence me just doing what the Youtube Tut did, and not worrying about them). Once your world mass is created, you have to set the Skybox you'd like to use, and the lighting/sun conditions thereof. So where most stuff is already set up in Skyrim's CK, it has to be set up manually in REDkit. But from there, it gets even more complicated.
After my world was set up, I was directed to the terrain tools. When you set up your world mass, it appears as a big white square. Terrain tools fix that. You can set the default ground texture, so instead of the default ground being white (or dirt, in the case of Morrowind's CS), you can set it to be grass, moss, or any other texture, thereby potentially saving you a lot of ground texturing time. There's also many options for terrain elevation. Where Skyrim/Morrowind only allow you the options of dragging ground up or down, REDkit allows you to paint cliffs or valleys (similar to the system used in Zoo Tycoon 2, if you've played that....), without dragging ground around. The system used is quite advanced, but it just takes so much time to set up to use, which leads me to my next point...
The static object system is just messed up... Up to this point, I was really ready to forgive the extremely long set up time and complex system to prepare a level. Sure, everything takes time, but it allows for incredibly detailed options, right? Yeah... following the tutorial, I placed a bridge between two cliffs I'd set up. Placing the bridge was easy, but I wasn't prepared for what was going to happen next. The character couldn't even walk on it. Apparently there are separate options for each mesh when you put them in the level, one of which determines if the character can walk on the mesh -- oh, and that option is disabled by default. So in a nutshell, every single mesh that you're planning on coming into contact with needs to have that option enabled manually.
The last straw that REDkit pulled with me was the "areas". If you want the character to be able to walk anywhere, you have to specifically place a big box (area) over where you want him to be able to walk; but you can't make the box too big. So if you want the character to go very far, you have to have a number of boxes. This is when I stopped, saved my work, and closed down the program. In the fantastic trailer RED released regarding REDkit, they talked about building worlds. To me, a world (at least in gaming standards) is something that you're free to run around in, and do whatever you want to do in, Not, a connected grid of overlapping boxes. This isn't to say that REDkit is a bad piece of software, it's just not for me.
As a recap, I'm still very glad that RED went ahead and released REDkit. It's a fantastic modding tool that allows for a far greater scope of detail than even Skyrim can offer. I'm really excited about the potential for new mods and stories that are bound to start being published with this new tool, and it'll be interesting to see just how far some of the more advanced modders can push the boundaries of REDkit. And I guess that's just it. REDkit isn't really meant for mod-dabbling people like myself; it's for the hardcore modders -- the guys who are passionate about what they create. I guess I could keep trying to learn REDkit, but I don't think I will. For most of the simple stuff my brain is capable of, Morrowind's CS works just fine.
It just had to start sometime....
Well, this is the inevitable first post. Hi. Now, that we've got the introductions out of the way, I'll explain myself. Apparently, my highly informative rants and observations were considered "preaching to the choir" on the forum chat that I frequent, so I set this up to save them some long overdue grief. (Interpret that sentence as you will) So essentially, I'll be posting my viewpoint on a few topics that interest me, and really do my best to abuse your ears with nonstop ranting about said viewpoints.... To start with, I mostly blab about technology, gaming, polerticks and the like, so until post #2, Ta ta.
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