I really need to get my sorry ass back to Might and Magic 3. I have my Turbo Duo and the jewel case sitting there in front of my PS3 and on top of my Atari 800 so it can judge me, like Inspecta Deck.
I just keep being lazy about it.
I mean I could write a review NOW but not a I HAVE FINISHED THIS one. (Not that you really need to fully play a game to give a review of it. I am having an issue like that in my Master System review project. If after an hour or so for most arcade styled games you aren't enjoying it I think its safe to say it can be covered, albeit INFORMING THE READER of how far you made it. Like Half Life was really good. Then you reached XEN and it kind of went pear shaped. I like how that CRPG blog says he gives most games about 6 hours. Some he enjoys enough to press on, others he just leaves behind, some to return to if enough readers convince him to do so.)
Course if I would stop playing MWO and Borderlands 2 it would help. I have a save game of Wasteland 2 that is mocking me.
(Can we get like 30 hours in a day somehow?)
Right now my basic synopsis is that MnM 3 is a curious halfway point between modern and older eras of RPGs. Its got an easier start than the older ones, and the interface and automap are attempts as being friendlier, yet it fails to make keeping track of gear and what said gear does USEFUL and in many cases it is closer to a lighter feeling yet prettier Bard's Tale 3.
(I'm also posting this here so I can maybe have some notes to get back to should I forget or a Warmachine/Hordes Journeyman league starts up and I get the fire to paint little tiny metal Fantasy Russians again and my brain goes a different way for a bit.)
That's honestly a cool thing this book might show readers. How the goddamned games evolved as technology and not just being made by autists inspired by Gygax's weird ass rulesets and play style made these games evolve and improve as much as decline in various ways.
I mean not knowing what your gear does or the basic odds you have to hit things? That's so 1st ed AD&D its not even FUNNY. (Yes the combat system is mostly in the DMG. Which was the last of the three then annually released books.)