A couple things to go over this morning. I was going to talk about how ludicrous the idea of 3D gaming/TV is, but I’ll save that for another day.

First up is an “old school” game called Eschalon Book 2. I saw this game in passing during one of the Steam sales and I immediately passed it over for a number of reasons. First, the graphics. The screenshots were really not that good and it really looked like something from 1998. Second is the resolution….it’s stuck at 1024 by 768 which usually is an automatic “no buy” for me as I have a wide screen monitor and most times that resolution looks like ass. So I went on my merry way during that Steam sale not giving this game a second thought. Fast forward to the past couple of weeks when I started hearing about this game on various podcasts and other gamers. The terms “old school” and “really great” were thrown around. It’s also an indie title, which as you know I have a soft spot for. Being an indie developer gives you all sorts of wiggle room in my head for how the graphics are and what you’re resolution is set at. So, it turns out that the game has a demo and I finally had a chance to try it out last night…and yeah, VERY old school. Surprisingly, I ended up really not caring about the graphics or resolution issues because the game actually looks really, really good. I was shocked actually. The world is sharp and very well put together as is the characters and monsters. I think anyone who has loved Buldar’s Gate should certainly give this one a try if they are looking to recapture gaming days past. I’m going to be trying out the demo some more tonight and more than likely I’ll be adding it to my Steam collection.

Second is a game called Crusader Kings. To be honest, I’m not too sure about this one. It’s made by Paradox, so it’s a very solid strategy game…but with a bit of a twist:

While the game has historically accurate scenarios to start from, featuring interesting personages such as William the Conqueror, Robert Guiscard, Alexius Comnenus, El Cid, Friedrich Barbarossa and Edward III, a significant part of the game’s charm is that from that point on, a new alternate history always starts building. Unlike past Paradox titles, there are very few predetermined historical events and no predetermined historical personages that would always appear after game start. Twists to the story are created by simulating the lives of tens of thousands of individuals of note (courtiers and nobles), intermarrying, having children, moving, inheriting, plotting, accumulating wealth and titles etc. Each is at birth assigned a number of inherited scores (‘DNA’) that determine health and fertility as well as administrative and military capabilities and the characters will, through the course of their lives, usually add a few noninherited traits that alter the scores. The qualifications and relations of individuals will highly influence their fate and is therefore of great interest to their player. This all makes for highly unpredictable game dynamics as the state of affairs on the ‘world stage’ is the product of the interplay of myriad events on the micro level.

…so essentially it’s a big strategic/political sandbox that you get to play in and I have absolutely no clue on how to proceed even after about a week of play. It’s a somewhat frustrating place to be as a gamer. Playing a game where you know that there is something great on the other side but not knowing how to get there. The game seems to be designed in a way that makes it hard to know what to do with yourself. The AARs (…how I learn most strategy games…) on the forums aren’t much help because most seem to be in story telling format instead of a blow-by-blow account on how things work. Oy. Going to keep grinding away but this one might not work out for me.

..oh yeah…I really wish I was at Comic Con.

D out.

Posted in Editorial
4 Comments Posted by Darren