Fallout: New Vegas Dev: Recent RPG Advances "Undermine" the Genre

[Eclectic Dreck]

I'd say that I appreciate having more direction in such games. While I don't always want to be pointed at the exact thing I need to continue with the quest, I do enjoy being pointed in the right direction with something more precise than "head west from town and then turn north at the pile of rocks that looks like a bear if the bear were constructed from a haphazardly stacked pile of rocks".

 

[DarkRyter]

Whatever Chris, I just don't want to go through Vault 34 again.

 

[Brawndo]

I think they need to change how difficulty settings are done. Instead of harder difficulty just giving enemies more health/damage certain features need to change,while still keeping the game balanced. Also as a personal preference I'd like more games with melee combat to adopt the bushido blade style and instead of your dps v wall o health it's glass cannon v glass cannon. And also, no more big enemies to increase difficulty. Yeah it's big omg so scary but hey 100% chance that boss is all gimmick and 0 skill.

I agree. RPGs tend to minimize the importance of the player's personal skills with the controller/mouse in favor of stats and more stats. So if you have the ultimate build, all you have to do is know how to click on the bad guys and the game takes care of the rest.

 

[Epona]

I don't find getting lost to be fun. I like quest markers. In Skyrim or Oblivion I can head towards a quest marker and stop to explore caves or go off in another direction to explore a tower I see in the distance without worrying that I will have trouble getting back on track towards my quest destination.

How can anyone say journals are bad? I get that some people want to be hardcore but I play games to have fun, not to pull my hair out in frustration. I don't even use the dungeon maps in Oblivion or Skyrim most of the time but I would rather have them there than not to because when I need help, I am going to get it one way or the other. Be it via the ingame map, the strat guide or the internet. I would prefer that it be a single button click away.

 

[Sir Prize]

I like quest journals, maps and makers for one reason, I know where to go when I get around to doing the main quest. This mostly applies to Skyrim, since that's what I've been playing on and off for a good couple of weeks.

If I didn't have a quest maker I'd be screwed right about now, since I spend most of my time going into caves, shrines and doing at least three quests at once. In huge open game like that, most people do end up sidetracked along somewhere along the line and maybe even forget where they were going. With makers and journals, you don't have to go back and basically ask the NPC where you're meant to be when it happens. Also, in the case of a moving objective, you're not going to end up tearing you hair out from spending a heck of a lot of time just looking for the thing.

Also an ingame map is key to this sort of game, if only to give the player some slight direction. Cities in games like Skyrim are generally where quests begin and end, as well as where most of the shops are.

My main example is during the Dark Brotherhood quest-line, when you get the side-contracts. Three targets in different areas, one of which moves and two of which are far apart as well as having the main-quest to do. That's a total of four possible areas I'm moving around, all of which have a healthy number of camps and caves inbetween. If there wasn't a journal I'd be a little lost, since I don't always get to play for more than an hour. Without a maker the moving target would be near impossible to find. Without the map, I wouldn't know if I could get away with murder by using the Thane title of if I needed to be more sneaky, as well as clueless as to where I'm meant to be. NPCs can be vauge at times, which is annoying.

I can live without makers but they do make moving targets less of case of luck, unless the NPCs were to say where they travel. I'd say the other two are improtant to Skyrim.

I'd don;t want hand-holding in games, but developers should be able to understand where the lines are drawn. A challange is fine, but don't make a player stop having fun.

 

[Arakasi]

I'd like to have a map ingame, perhaps bought from a merchant which has locations already marked on it (you know, like a real map), so if I had to do a quest I could locate it on the map and trek (not insta-warp) there. Perhaps I'd even have to pack a lunch if it's a long way away.

 

[Jimbo1212]

"...players like brain-dead automatons."

The problem is that many nowadays are and they make up a big part of the market. Sadly, many new low grade games like FarmVille have reinforced this, along with high levels of impulse buying.

In short, if you want games to get better, then stop buying shit.

 

[Azure-Supernova]

I don't mind having my compass, doesn't bother me one bit. The way it works could be better however. In Skyrim if my character can see Bleakfalls Barrow it should appear on my compass, if he cannot then it doesn't.

Quest Markers are the same. If someone sends me to retrieve the blade of Bjorn Storm-Strider and they tell me where it is, sure I don't mind if it pops up on my map and points me there. However I noticed during Skyrim that I felt like I was playing WoW. Get quest, go to point, get item/kill NPC, return to quest giver. Over and over. I wasn't even given directions like I am in WoW, the game just tells me where to go.

Also the current state of journals pisses me off. I miss reading my characters thoughts on the current objectives. I recently played Penumbra again and it made me feel a hell of a lot more connected to the game.

@Chris Avellone
Ever played Skyrim on Master ?
A broad mind has a broad field of view and opinions.

I did. Was no different than on any other difficulty. The only thing that changes with difficulty setting is numbers on enemies. Their health pool and Their damage output. It doesn't really make game harder, enemies don't use smarter tactics, it just makes the fights longer/more expensive early on.

Concerning difficulty in games overall this is pretty much the case. The difference between 'Easy' and 'Hard' is the difference between a five man dungeon and a Heroic, fights just last longer. It's only harder because the enemies have been made tougher, the same tactics still work it just becomes tedious instead of fun.

 

[Senare]

"Made it clear"? Judging from the original article and this post on the escapist I feel the tone has been changed somewhat. Am I alone in this feeling?

 

[Pearwood]

Exploration makes a good RPG? No... fairly sure that makes a good Metroidvania...