Comments for Kill Ten Rats

Comment on Lost in the Sandbox by AlexTaldren

AlexTaldren — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 03:07:49 +0000

I can definitely see this. The same thing happened to me with Fallout New Vegas and Oblivion. Not so much Skyrim, but I can see how it might be that way for some.

In the end, sandbox games are much better as online games. While the choices in a single-player sandbox are left for you to discover, playing online with others allows you to define what your choices are, or at least react to the choices made by others. While the same does happen with AI and scripted events in single-player sandboxes, the longer you play, the more apparent and obvious the patterns become. When this happens, the sandbox world loses its sense of wonder, because events don’t appear as random or engaging.

Comment on Lost in the Sandbox by Jezebeau

Jezebeau — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 03:04:27 +0000

I enjoyed the story in a few of the main quest arcs. However, most of my experience was that of playing in an enormous, beautiful world full of filler-quality content backed by a somewhat tolerable combat system.

It pains me to see it get such high praise. Publishers will continue to think we want graphics at the expense of all else.

Comment on The Illusion of Persistence by Nom

Nom — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 23:20:21 +0000

Many of my favourite games are like this: the game doesn’t give you unlimited time to build a mega-engine, and if you focus on doing so the game will end just as you start to feel you are “ready” (see also Puerto Rico, Race for the Galaxy, San Juan, for example).

In Agricola, those last 2-3 rounds are your chance to convert everything into points, so you need to be ready to go from round 12, not for a non-existent round 15 or 16.

With the cards mixing things up every game, my wife and I find that Agricola has enormous replay value. We’ve played a hundred or more games of Agricola over the last two years, and can sometimes do two in one evening. The only problem is that it can take 4-5 games to get fully up to speed, which makes it hard to easily recruit others to join us when we have friends over.

Comment on Lost in the Sandbox by cschwarz

cschwarz — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:38:59 +0000

Yeah, I have to agree. I’m over 70 hours in, also playing a stealthy character, and I just can’t get myself psyched up to explore another cave or redoubt. I think it’s too free, and the main questline is just sitting there waiting to be done whenever I care to get to it, which may be never now. I have to say, the dragons are really well done.

So, this issue is what I’m waiting to hear about with Kingdom’s of Amalur, more than any other.

Comment on Lost in the Sandbox by darkeye

darkeye — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:21:55 +0000

I made that mistake with Oblivion, relying too much on the wiki, and needing to know everything right away. Power-gaming makes these game too easy. Avoided the wiki/guides as much as possible for Skyrim, and it is a more enjoyable experience, just to wander around and take what ever I find.

Comment on Lost in the Sandbox by Telwyn

Telwyn — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:19:02 +0000

I agree both with your summary and the original article’s main points. I bought Skyrim as a PS/3 game to play as a break from always sitting in front of my PC on MMOs.

In the end I lost interest after about 15 hours max. It is very free and sandboxy but all so bland. The story there is for the most part forgettable (other than the core dragonborn bit).

Funnily enough I think I’d enjoy Kingdom of Amalur a whole lot more despite that games possible technical flaws – the combat is more compelling and even from the demo I felt more connected to the game world.

Comment on Lost in the Sandbox by Ethic

Ethic — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:04:43 +0000

I’ve pretty much ignored most of the game’s systems. Did a very few quests. Mostly I’ve been wandering around aimlessly and, at least in this game, I really love the lost feeling.

Comment on Lost in the Sandbox by Jeremy Stratton

Jeremy Stratton — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:43:40 +0000

Coincidentally, I have a friend who loves the Elder Scrolls series, has played through every bit of Oblivion, and just told me he’s lost a lot of interest in Skyrim, before getting very far.

His reason was he thinks he power-gamed too much, from the starting gate.

But, he still considers it the Best video game out, right now.

Comment on Lost in the Sandbox by dndhatcher

dndhatcher — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:54:06 +0000

I had the same experience with Oblivion. Played most of the main storyline but lack of having any real objective left me bored.

This emphasizes my one real fear about GW2. Once again we will have an open world with localized problems at every turn, but no major objective outside of a personal story that is only a small chunk of the game.

I’ve always been motivated by getting to the next region, getting high enough level to do some instance or quest chain that looked interesting or learning how to farm some boss for a piece of gear I want. GW2 will have enough of those that I am going to buy it, but I am not confident it will be a 1000 hours played the first year addiction like GW1 was for me.

Comment on The Illusion of Persistence by Ravious

Ravious — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:56:13 +0000

I’d argue that roguelikes are very similar in a way. You can have persistence, but hardcore dying is so integral to the game no one can feasibly see a character as a persistent thing.

I’ve been wanting Agricola for awhile. Hopefully this will give me the push to pick it up.