Haraldur
Augur
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2007
- Messages
- 308
Is the RPGCodex the only decent game-discussion forum on the internet, or are there other "monocled" sites for, say, first-person shooters, JRPGs, strategy games (other than Tacticular Cancer) and Adventure games? "Advice" found elsewhere tends to seem a little too uncritical, following a bandwagon (with games popular in 2008 forgotten five years later) or nostalgia-biased.
For instance, last year I tried Half-Life 2 for between 1 and 4 hours, and was put off by my perception of 1) extreme, immersion-breaking linearity*; 2) an over-abundance of cutscenes, made worse by the fact that one cannot be passive and watch them happen**, but must wait around, managing viewpoint or performing other tedious tasks, while stuck in a confined space (and the cutscenes are unskippable, if I remember correctly); 3) dull-looking environments (in the first hour or so, at least); 4) dull gunplay (though, granted, I never got to the highly-vaunted gravity gun) and no dodging (do all enemies use hitscan weapons?). Yet, across the web, it seems to be treated like the second manifestation of Christ, with the most dissent I have found to be here, on these very forums. Is there no FPS-oriented forum with similar sensibilities to Codexia?
*The Portal games also suffer from this, but for them there are compensations.
**Games like Thief 1 & 2 do this properly, with cutscenes being breathers from, rewards for and set-ups to large, sometimes-rather-challenging levels.
I have a handheld device with many emulators, so JRPGs seem worth investigation, but where am I to get discerning recommendations that go beyond Final Fantasy 6, 7 & 10? Codexia seems a little sparse for this, judging from this list (though I do now enjoy Final Fantasy Tactics because of it). Pointers for worthwhile but not-too-hard platformers would also be good (there seem to be a lot of them; I hope that some have better premises than the Mario games -- save the princess, boring! DOOM has a much better premise, though perhaps platformers are just not my thing).
The great top 70 CRPG list is a wonderful resource, but I would love to find equivalents of similar quality* for first-person shooters, JRPGs and Adventure games. Are there any out there, or would I be better off trying to extract such lists** from the denizens of this hive?
*"High quality" means "gets credibility from acknowledging well the games I have already enjoyed" (and ignoring or ranking low the games I do not like) and, ideally, "recommends games that I shall enjoy", in addition to coverage.
**I think the system used for the top 70 CRPGs list is a good one. Perhaps it would give good results for JRPGs and FPS games, too.
For instance, last year I tried Half-Life 2 for between 1 and 4 hours, and was put off by my perception of 1) extreme, immersion-breaking linearity*; 2) an over-abundance of cutscenes, made worse by the fact that one cannot be passive and watch them happen**, but must wait around, managing viewpoint or performing other tedious tasks, while stuck in a confined space (and the cutscenes are unskippable, if I remember correctly); 3) dull-looking environments (in the first hour or so, at least); 4) dull gunplay (though, granted, I never got to the highly-vaunted gravity gun) and no dodging (do all enemies use hitscan weapons?). Yet, across the web, it seems to be treated like the second manifestation of Christ, with the most dissent I have found to be here, on these very forums. Is there no FPS-oriented forum with similar sensibilities to Codexia?
*The Portal games also suffer from this, but for them there are compensations.
**Games like Thief 1 & 2 do this properly, with cutscenes being breathers from, rewards for and set-ups to large, sometimes-rather-challenging levels.
I have a handheld device with many emulators, so JRPGs seem worth investigation, but where am I to get discerning recommendations that go beyond Final Fantasy 6, 7 & 10? Codexia seems a little sparse for this, judging from this list (though I do now enjoy Final Fantasy Tactics because of it). Pointers for worthwhile but not-too-hard platformers would also be good (there seem to be a lot of them; I hope that some have better premises than the Mario games -- save the princess, boring! DOOM has a much better premise, though perhaps platformers are just not my thing).
The great top 70 CRPG list is a wonderful resource, but I would love to find equivalents of similar quality* for first-person shooters, JRPGs and Adventure games. Are there any out there, or would I be better off trying to extract such lists** from the denizens of this hive?
*"High quality" means "gets credibility from acknowledging well the games I have already enjoyed" (and ignoring or ranking low the games I do not like) and, ideally, "recommends games that I shall enjoy", in addition to coverage.
**I think the system used for the top 70 CRPGs list is a good one. Perhaps it would give good results for JRPGs and FPS games, too.
