Editorial 2003: The Year in Review

[Spazmo]

Tags: The Year in Review

We examine the big events in the RPG industry in 2003 and explain why they're mostly horrible.

During the summer of this year, the people at Bethesda Softworks saw fit to inflict upon us another expansion to The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.Bloodmoon has you investigating werewolves on the snowy island of--oh, who gives a shit? It's the same old hopelessly dull Morrowind gameplay. You run around fairly pretty countryside beating the tar out of hordes of stupid cliff racers doing completely pointless quests that involve murdering people for no real reason and occasionally 'talking' to the walking search engines the game calls NPCs. Morrowind is a terrible game and the expansions for it don't seem to fix any of that horror.​

Oh, dear. Critical levels of sass are being attained, folks.

 

[chrisbeddoes]

And why my terrible lazy person cannot have a link .

Oh wait. These are not the vn boards.

I can put a link myshelf !!!!

http://www.rpgcodex.com/


http://www.rpgcodex.com/content.php?id=94

 

[Astromarine]

great article, but on the Interplay section shouldn't you mention Fargo?

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Just another great reason to add onto the list of reasons why i've been liking my stay at the Codex :D

 

[Sol Invictus]

Fargo had absolutely nothing to do with the cancellation of FO3 and BG3 nor did he have anything to do with the devaluing of BIS to its present worth. At the time he was made to 'depart' the company (e.g. fired) the company was worth somewhere around 200 million and just about every major publisher in the world had their eyes on Interplay as a trading partner. I remember reading in the newspaper how Sega or some other Japanese company had their eyes on Interplay to distribute their titles in the US. All of this changed when Herve's dumbass policies took over the company's direction.

 

[Transcendent One]

Yes, very nice article. Interplay's stupidity, complete and in one spot.

 

[Astromarine]

I agree, Exitium, but I thought the Interplay section consisted basically of general fuckups. What you said certainly counts as one.

 

[Sol Invictus]

It certainly is one, yeah. Spazmo probably should have covered that but it's alright - we've got forums to make amendments.

 

[Limorkil]

How dare you insult Morrowind, Pirates of the Caribbean and BG:DA - I love those games and have spent many enjoyable hours playing them.

Although, now you mention it, they are pretty shit. I was dissapointed with the lot of them. Come to think of it, I was probably only playing them because absolutely every other game was a load of shit too. Hell, I was playing Asheron's Call 2 at the start of 2003, so you can see how low my expectations had fallen.

The only game I stopped playing rather quickly, even though I made the mistake of buying it like everyone else, was NWN. I might be stupid and desperate enough to play other crap, but even I could see that NWN was a mammoth turd. It reminded me of Tomb Raider because the only fun I derived from the game was looking at my character's arse.

Throughout the year I kept wondering whether I was missing out on some awesome CRPG that I had managed to overlook. Turns out, based on your review of the year, that I didn't miss anything. TOEE sounds kind of fun because I haven't played a turn based dungeon hack for years, but I think I'll wait for the bugs to get fixed and the price to come down. Everything else sounds fucking awful. I think I'll go back to playing Daggerfall, which I installed on an old pc earlier in the year. It's not a perfect game by any means but it looks pretty fucking good compared to the other options.

Of course, I could wait to see what 2004 will bring. But, I think I know the answer: shit. There will be a handful of new CRPGs that pretend to be open ended but, in true Bioware fashion, every choice you make will pretty much end up with the same result. Fable will make your character change appearance based on his skill choices and actions - whoop-de-friggin-doo - but I bet you a groat the story pretty much plays the same way regardless. God it's depressing.

Great review of 2003. Is RPG Codec going to do a preview of 2004? That could be pretty amusing, particularly when you compare expectations to actual results at the end of the year.

 

[Spazmo]

I don't think we have enough to go on for a preview of 2004.

As for Fargo, I may be wrong on this one, but I do believe he left Interplay before 2003, which is why I didn't put him into an article about 2003.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

How dare you insult Morrowind, Pirates of the Caribbean and BG:DA - I love those games and have spent many enjoyable hours playing them.

Although, now you mention it, they are pretty shit. I was dissapointed with the lot of them. Come to think of it, I was probably only playing them because absolutely every other game was a load of shit too. Hell, I was playing Asheron's Call 2 at the start of 2003, so you can see how low my expectations had fallen.

So far, Silent Storm seems to be the best of the commercial lot that I've seen in a long, long time. ToEE's combat was good, but often when playing it, I felt like I could use something more to do - other places to visit. Even more dungeons, perhaps.

The only game I stopped playing rather quickly, even though I made the mistake of buying it like everyone else, was NWN. I might be stupid and desperate enough to play other crap, but even I could see that NWN was a mammoth turd. It reminded me of Tomb Raider because the only fun I derived from the game was looking at my character's arse.

I tried to finish NWN for the review I wrote of it, and frankly, I couldn't. It was just phenomonally bad. I slogged through 2/3rds of Chapter 3 only to find I just couldn't bring myself to cross those crappy maps looking for the last world stone.

Throughout the year I kept wondering whether I was missing out on some awesome CRPG that I had managed to overlook.

2003 looked awesome going in to it. That's the sad part. What's there to look forward to in 2004? Lots and lots of Diablo clones as far as I can tell, and a few Baldur's Gate clones.. errr.. Ugh.

Turns out, based on your review of the year, that I didn't miss anything. TOEE sounds kind of fun because I haven't played a turn based dungeon hack for years, but I think I'll wait for the bugs to get fixed and the price to come down.

ToEE wasn't that bad, really. I just think it could have stood more fleshing out around the Temple, perhaps even more fleshing inside the Temple. However, given Atari's current stance on D&D games, I'd say there won't be much else to play if you like D&D other than D&D ONLINE, which is an awful, awful idea.

 

[HanoverF]

Should do a 2004 prospectus, would be good wrist slitting material

Of course this time last year I don't think I'd heard of Silent Storm, so I'm sure there'll be something new worth playing next year, but I'll be damned if I know what it is :/

(New as in not a sequal)

 

[Azael]

Silent Storm is the best new game I played this year, but it isn't a RPG, even less of one than ToEE. I'm looking forward to some games 2004, but almost none of them are roleplaying games, not a good sign.

 

[Whipporowill]

Fun read... and quite true, all of it.

 

[Sammael]

Good stuff. A bit too easy on Troika and a bit too hard on Bio, but good nonetheless. And I didn't even realize that my Jefferson FAQ was still up.

 

[Spazmo]

a bit too hard on Bio,

Well, after all the undeserved sloppy blowjobs BioWare has gotten over KOTOR, I figured it was necessary to tip the scales back a bit.

 

[Volourn]

Haha. Nice one, Spazmo.

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Well, after all the undeserved sloppy blowjobs BioWare has gotten over KOTOR, I figured it was necessary to tip the scales back a bit.

Go Don Quixote, GO!! :wink:

 

[HanoverF]

Go Don Quixote, GO!! :wink:

Thats not a windmill he's tilting at, tis a windbag

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Silent Storm is the best new game I played this year, but it isn't a RPG, even less of one than ToEE. I'm looking forward to some games 2004, but almost none of them are roleplaying games, not a good sign.

Well, let's see.. Dungeon Siege is called a dungeon crawler CRPG, and it only offers advancement by combat in four skills, which in turn, advance three attributes. Dungeon Siege is pretty darn linear as well. Now look at Silent Storm under the same criteria. You have advancement in around a dozen skills by use, including non-combat skills like spot, medic, engineering, hiding, etc., which in turn advance three attributes. Silent Storm also has Abilities, which are similar in nature to Perks and are both for combat and noncombat things. It's plot flow is also branching, random, and based on how you complete quest objectives in each location.

 

[Azael]

True, I guess I just have a rather narrow definition of what a roleplaying game is, and Silent Storm doesn't fit it. Still a damned fun game though.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

Definitely a good read, Spazmo. Nice job.

As for Silent Storm, I have not had the chance to pick it up yet. Gotta wait another week for payday and then it will be mine. Looking forward to Sacred as well. Sweet looking game, if you ask me.

 

[Sol Invictus]

I just think it's unfair that a game is referred to as a CRPG just because it has swords and magicl; but if it's got guns and WW2 it's referred to as a tactical simulation. What gives?

If you're going to call Dungeon Siege a CRPG, Silent Storm damn well deserves the same mantle. Who wants to bet that if they took the engine and replaced the weapons and uniforms with swords, magic and armor that everyone would simply accept it as a CRPG?

 

[Anonymous]

S2 and ToEE are Combat RPGs to me, heh.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

I just think it's unfair that a game is referred to as a CRPG just because it has swords and magicl; but if it's got guns and WW2 it's referred to as a tactical simulation. What gives?

Yeah, it confused me as well. I used to think things like JA2 and FOT were "suad games", but then someone pointed out on the official FOT board over at IPLY, long, long before they switched to PHPBB, that the only real difference between those games and dungeon crawlers are that they have guns instead of spells and more modern melee weapons. That really got me thinking on the subject, and I'll be damned if he wasn't right. Other than the setting, there's NOT much difference at all.