Recently I have been spending quite some time playing an oldie that I dug out of the closet(well not so much dug out of the closet as downloaded through torrents), Civilization 2. This game, well more like the entire series, is friggin' awesome. Sid Meier created a timeless game that outdid Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and all other strategy games. Undoubtedly, his civilization series has amazing gameplay, which can even make up for outdated graphics and UI, which is why I still love playing part 2. Most other games become outdated within the same year they are released.
Civilization 1 which he made for Microprose occupied my entire middle school years. That game was gold. Personally, I loved the simplicity of the interface. Sure graphical cutscenes are nice, but when your in the meta game and attacking 15 times per turn, you just want to do it fast.
I recommend also to any Civilization fans out there who want to try something new FreeCiv. It's an open-source project that was inspired by Civilization. It's graphics are somewhere between 2 and 3, and for the most part follow the Civ 2 ruleset. You can find it here:
FreeCiv Download page
I am anxious to try the new expansions for Civ 4, Warlords, and Colonization. But what really catches my eye is Civcity Rome. Looks like Sid may be venturing out from his traditional style and trying a Simcity type game. I can't wait to see how it plays.
Gametrailer Retrospective Documentaries
I dug up some oldies I thought you would like to watch. Gametrailer did a lot of documentaries on fan favorites. They cover the entire Final Fantasy series(which is embedded below), Legend of Zelda , Metroid, Metal Gear, Star Wars, and Grand Theft Auto . These videos are well done, and they did a fine job of fact finding. Although they do skip over some important points they cover most of them
And heres the entire list of all of them
http://www.gametrailers.com/search.php?s=retrospective
Final Fantasy Retrospective Part 1
Final Fantasy Retrospective Part 2
Final Fantasy Retrospective Part 3
Final Fantasy Retrospective Part 4
Final Fantasy Retrospective Part 5
Final Fantasy Retrospective Part 6
Final Fantasy Retrospective Part 7
Final Fantasy Retrospective Part 8
Final Fantasy Retrospective Part 9
Final Fantasy Retrospective Part 10
Final Fantasy Retrospective Part 11
Final Fantasy Retrospective Part 12
Final Fantasy Retrospective Part 13
And heres the entire list of all of them
http://www.gametrailers.com/search.php?s=retrospective
Final Fantasy Retrospective Part 1
Final Fantasy Retrospective Part 2
Final Fantasy Retrospective Part 3
Final Fantasy Retrospective Part 4
Final Fantasy Retrospective Part 5
Final Fantasy Retrospective Part 6
Final Fantasy Retrospective Part 7
Final Fantasy Retrospective Part 8
Final Fantasy Retrospective Part 9
Final Fantasy Retrospective Part 10
Final Fantasy Retrospective Part 11
Final Fantasy Retrospective Part 12
Final Fantasy Retrospective Part 13
The state of affairs in RPGs today...
When I think back to the yester-years, I begin to miss how innovative and creative battle systems used to be. I mean, look at Final Fantasy 3(6 if your going by the Japanese title). It has the most creative bttle system I've ever seen in an RPG.
Every character's custom abilities were executed differently. For example; with Sabin, the muscle of your team, you had to pull off some Street Fighter type motions on your controller correctly, with Terra, You had to go through many battles without using her ability to let it charge, Celes, while her Rune ability was active, absorbs any spell casted at her, and Relm could sketch a drawing of the enemy and the drawing would use one random ability of the monster against it.
What's my point? Well, after Final Fantasy 7 was released, I began to realize it may be ages before I could see that same kind of creativity in RPGs again, as it has seemed the public traded in their demand for innovative, well-developed, and creative gameplay for flashy polygon graphics. While my hopes are high for Final Fantasy 13, my expectations are going to be low. Hopefully I will be surprised by Square Enix this time around... I'm not going to be holding my breath.
Every character's custom abilities were executed differently. For example; with Sabin, the muscle of your team, you had to pull off some Street Fighter type motions on your controller correctly, with Terra, You had to go through many battles without using her ability to let it charge, Celes, while her Rune ability was active, absorbs any spell casted at her, and Relm could sketch a drawing of the enemy and the drawing would use one random ability of the monster against it.
What's my point? Well, after Final Fantasy 7 was released, I began to realize it may be ages before I could see that same kind of creativity in RPGs again, as it has seemed the public traded in their demand for innovative, well-developed, and creative gameplay for flashy polygon graphics. While my hopes are high for Final Fantasy 13, my expectations are going to be low. Hopefully I will be surprised by Square Enix this time around... I'm not going to be holding my breath.
Un po di me...
Okay the real me, I will be discussing my thoughts on games, they can and will range from the old RPGs(Role Playing Games) of yore, to puzzle games on a hand-held system. But for the most part I will concentrate on Roleplaying games... maybe... perhaps...
My love of RPGs began with my first copy of Final Fantasy 1(I ended up buying a second copy after I blacked out from blowing on the first Final Fantasy cartidge because the game was glitching). I was around I had learned the basics of playing an RPG faster than I finished my homework, I believe I was around 9 years old at the time.
I continued to follow the Final Fantasy series up until 7, (for reasons which you can see in a my blog about creativity). For some time after FF7 was released my love for RPGs began to whane, that is until I discovered... Everquest 1. I played this game since launch and for another 7 years. My dedication can be seen in my poor GPA which was sacrificed so I could have more time to raid Nagafen's Lair, or help my friend finish his epic weapon quest.
So, my thoughts, reviews, criticisms, and general opinion of video games is what you can expect. I'm not a designer; I don't work for any video game development company or publisher. I'm merely an end-user who likes to share his thoughts.
Spero che voi goderete leggere i miei blogs...
My love of RPGs began with my first copy of Final Fantasy 1(I ended up buying a second copy after I blacked out from blowing on the first Final Fantasy cartidge because the game was glitching). I was around I had learned the basics of playing an RPG faster than I finished my homework, I believe I was around 9 years old at the time.
I continued to follow the Final Fantasy series up until 7, (for reasons which you can see in a my blog about creativity). For some time after FF7 was released my love for RPGs began to whane, that is until I discovered... Everquest 1. I played this game since launch and for another 7 years. My dedication can be seen in my poor GPA which was sacrificed so I could have more time to raid Nagafen's Lair, or help my friend finish his epic weapon quest.
So, my thoughts, reviews, criticisms, and general opinion of video games is what you can expect. I'm not a designer; I don't work for any video game development company or publisher. I'm merely an end-user who likes to share his thoughts.
Spero che voi goderete leggere i miei blogs...
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