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Blogs Adventures and Adventuring

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by arcticstoat, 11 Jun 2011.

  1. arcticstoat

    arcticstoat Minimodder

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    Three of my five weapons were offline and leaving small ion trails in space, my cargo hold was full of rare and expensive artefacts and a band of pirates was chasing me down a frantically plotted and improvised course. With a route that picked its way in and out of asteroid fields through systems that were well and truly off the charts, it is fair to say I was panicking. I was also pretty sure that my eyes had stopped blinking...

    http://www.bit-tech.net/blog/gaming/2011/06/11/adventures-and-adventuring-2/
     
  2. GravitySmacked

    GravitySmacked Mostly Harmless

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    Such a good game, need more like it.
     
  3. Almightyrastus

    Almightyrastus On the jazz.

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    Good call with Freelancer, I love that game for the feeling it gives you that not everything is about you. The rest of the universe is too busy living their own lives (and having their own adventures) to care about what one lone pilot is up to. You get the feeling that not many people would know about your heroics in the main quest line and probably only a few that knew would care.
     
  4. Aracos

    Aracos What's a Dremel?

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    The RSS feed link for this page is currently broken
     
  5. guvnar

    guvnar What's a Dremel?

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    That's it, I'm digging out my old copy of Freelancer!

    Where's today's Elite though?????
     
  6. Tulatin

    Tulatin The Froggy Poster

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    Though in retrospect the game had it's flaws, and it's limitations, Freelancer really was a wonderful piece of "Here's the story, here's space, now who are you?"

    I really did appreciate coming across all that which was hidden in the skies, wreckage of long dead ships boasting unique curios, the sensation of flying blindly into untamed space, and as always, the flexibility.

    I suppose my only real gripe with the title was that we were presented these mastodons of ships floating around, but never really given the chance to fly them. Battleships, freighters, and carriers would have all radically broken the spirit of this beast, though. Yet years later, I still remember it fondly.

    It was charming.
     
  7. CDomville

    CDomville ^ I am THIS Possum

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    Still play it using the Discovery mod, though have been considering doing a Let's Play for it. Just need to buy FRAPS, and I SHOULD be all set.
     
  8. wyx087

    wyx087 Homeworld 3 is happening!!

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    It was awesome, I remember getting the best ship, Titan if I remember correctly, and acting like the law informers, roaming around in uncharted pirate land and looking for fights.

    Why is there a distinct lack of space game in recent years? Nothing can beat Freenlancer and Homeworld games.
     
  9. barrkel

    barrkel What's a Dremel?

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    I dislike Half-Life 2 and the two Episodes precisely because of their linearity, and I've avoided almost the entire CoD franchise owing to the poor experience I had with its linearity early on (I believe it was the first CoD).

    At this point, the closer games are to Thief / Deus Ex / Far Cry, the better. Not a big fan of Crysis though, the suit makes the game too easy, and the encouraged style of play seems too "Rambo 2+" rather than the slightly more realistic way I like to play (I prefer to kill the enemy before they know I'm there, and only if it's necessary; risk minimization is my style). Far Cry 2 has been the best, most recent, game for that IMO, and has supplied quite a few "adventures", as you put it, sneaking past guard outposts without alerting people, with some tense moments when they think they hear something. I'm still playing it.
     
  10. billysielu

    billysielu Minimodder

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    Black Prophecy tried to be the next Freelander - but it failed.
     
  11. IanW

    IanW Grumpy Old Git

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    Here. :thumb:
     
  12. IronDoc

    IronDoc What's a Dremel?

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    Not played freelancer but it's sounding pretty similar to X3; been meaning to get back into X3TC actually.
     
  13. Phil Rhodes

    Phil Rhodes Hypernobber

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    I think that answers the question.

    If the answer to that question is "I'm a seven year old console owner with twitching thumbs and a well-chewed tongue whose depth of personality, even as an adult, wouldn't drown an ant", you aren't going to get much of a game out of it.

    P
     
  14. DeadMan

    DeadMan Betterer

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    Good call on Freelancer it was a good game, it joins my list of great space games, Privateer, Privateer 2, Elite 1 and 2, Homeworld 1 & 2 Freelancer, I-war, Wing commander (series), Conflict Freespace, Freespace 2, xwing vs tie fighter.
     
  15. bawjaws

    bawjaws Multimodder

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    Freelancer will always lose marks for not being able to skip cutscenes. Always.
     
  16. Bauul

    Bauul Sir Bongaminge

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    I had the briefest of sensations of this at the very end game of Spore - after the six other crappy minigames you're eventually just left to your own devices and to have your own adventures.

    Unfortunately I had had enough of learning new control schemes for a single game and gave up on it.

    Occasionally though I think some RTS games can have this. I have fond memories of the original Dungeon Keeper having loads of opportunity. Possess a powerful creature, get together a band in the Guard Room and head off into the unknown to see what you could find. I always had a real sense of tredpidation/excitement when I set off as I had no idea what I might find up ahead.
     
  17. Lazy_Amp

    Lazy_Amp Entry AMD Engineer

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    Despite my incredible dislike of Oblivion, it did bring one moment of role-playing 'adventure' that stuck with me.

    I had inadvertently become a Vampire, and was actually rather happy with the change: improved strength, being able to see in the dark, and the downsides weren't really that bad, I just had to find a sleeping body every now and then and take some blood. Nothing bad even happened to the victims.

    Come a time later, I was hauling loot back to town to sell. I had been gone for several days, and my vampire attributes had almost come fully out (drinking blood restored your abilities back to a normal person, and your vampire abilities would slowly come back as you abstained from it). It was night when I arrived at town, as traveling in daylight was death for me. Of course this meant that the stores weren't open, so I stopped by my local Mage's Guild and spent the rest of the night comfortably. In the morning I would just cross the street to the blacksmith and unload the heavy magical weapons I had collected.

    I almost died crossing that street, and I would have if it hadn't been for a quick healing spell. The Sun was more deadly than I could imagine, my screen was covered in ash from my burning skin as I made that dash. But I was safe, and now could collect the money...

    "We don't serve your kind here, Mutant!"

    I was stunned. The blacksmith wouldn't talk to me, I was too far gone. All this power I had revived was now worthless: I was truly an anathema. The blacksmith walked around the store, intermittently telling me to get out, but I had to wait for my heath and magic to regenerate before making the terrible return trip. I had never felt so vulnerable and so alone as I had in a game, right there, stuck in a room with a man who despised me.

    Back at the Mage's Guild, I waited until nightfall before leaving in search of a body to feast upon, the abhorred act the only way to return to normal. I was no longer worried about the treasure I would have to drop when I lost my Vampire strength. Not finding any vagrants asleep on the city streets, I broke into someone's house and made my way to their bedroom to preform the deed. It was a disgusting experience.


    In the end, my personal definition is that Adventures are the moments in games where you are playing against the mechanics of the game are truly invested in the outcome, not for material gain but because you personally desire something to happen. In the previous tale, I had given up any thought from the profit of my loot, all I cared about was getting out of my uncomfortable circumstance. So no, you don't have to have a sandbox to create adventure, though a limited one can help foster a personal goal, or create an unexpected challenge.

    Anyway, there's my 3 cents.
     
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  18. Evildead666

    Evildead666 What's a Dremel?

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    Freelancer is a great game, and some of the Mods are brilliant.
     
  19. Elton

    Elton Officially a Whisky Nerd

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    Of course some of the going against mechanics part would lie in the wonderfully underrated game series: Hitman.

    When a plan doesn't go awry it's a great feeling, but it's those times when everything goes wrong that makes the game so memorable. From accidentally killing half a house full of people because you messed up a trap to running and hiding because you botched up that "accident" hitman always has had some of those hilariously botched assassination attempts.

    Of course the Elder Scrolls series does this in spades as well, but there's a feeling of being utterly limited at times in Oblivion. Of course it's also down to the player; most of us just don't have the imagination to do whatever at the end.
     
  20. Ficky Pucker

    Ficky Pucker I

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    I loved Freelancer, might play it again (for the 5th time) :D
     
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