Caltrops - Devil May Cry 4





	[quote name="Jerry Whorebach"][quote name="<a href="http://forum.insomnia.ac/viewtopic.php?t=2272&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0">Jerry Whorebach</a>"]Excellent series of articles! <b>Much like my other favourite topics, politics and sex, it's rare to read a treatise on games that stands up to logical scrutiny.</b> I have only one question: what's Deus Ex got that Fallout hasn't? Thanks, Jerry[/quote] [quote name="<a href="http://forum.insomnia.ac/viewtopic.php?t=2272&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0">icycalm</a>"]It's a fine line, but when you look at the whole game it is clear that Fallout is on the wrong side of it. At the end of the day you are usually controlling a team of characters, and therefore the focus of the game is on strategy. Sure it gives you some choices, but so does Baldur's Gate II or Torment. These choices should not be enough by anyone's standards. It's also worth pointing out that Deus Ex is far more FPS than it is RPG. Still, it goes further down the RPG road than any other game before or after it, and that's why you see me bringing it up again and again in all RPG-related articles. (For more details read Matt Warner's review of the game, if you haven't already.) Defining the exact point at which an electronic game should be considered an RPG is tricky. It depends on your standards -- if your standards are too high then even Deus Ex should not be viewed as an RPG. I guess I'll write an article on this at some point in the future. <b>By the way, I've read a few of your reviews on Caltrops. Great stuff.</b>[/quote] [quote name="<a href="http://forum.insomnia.ac/viewtopic.php?t=2272&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0">Jerry Whorebach</a>"]Hmm, I can't say I agree with your assessment of Fallout. For one thing, you have no control over your NPCs, direct or indirect. Nor can you level them up, increase their hit points, or replace their default armor. Top it off with there being only four, total, in the entire game, and I find it hard to see Fallout as a game of small-unit tactics, even a poor one. Also, Fallout's story is substantially less linear than the Infinity Engine games you compare it to. The end state is achieved when The Master is dead and The Military Base destroyed, two tasks you can accomplish in any order, each through a variety of means. Couple that with multiple endings for nearly every important location in the game, and I find it hard to see Fallout as anything less than our best attempt at single-player computer role-playing to date. (Bear in mind I'm speaking only of the original, not the sequel, which was nearly as good at missing the entire point of its predecessor as Deus Ex 2.) <b>But I can certainly see how you might consider Deus Ex closer to the ideal, and I have nothing but respect for that opinion.</b> I just wouldn't be much of a Fallout fan if I didn't try to shove a deeper appreciation for it down everyone's throat, now would I?[/quote] [quote name="<a href="http://forum.insomnia.ac/viewtopic.php?t=2272&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0">icycalm</a>"]<b>Well, perhaps you are right.</b> My experience with Fallout is limited to a couple of afternoons of playing time using a borrowed laptop back in '98. I don't think I managed to get that far before I had to return it. I've been meaning to play it properly and write a review, so I'll get back to you once I get around to doing that. It would be a real rush for me to discover a second real CRPG.[/quote] I may be a despicable human being, but I'm not going to troll a guy after he compliments me and admits his own ignorance. That would be <b>wrong</b> v_v[/quote]