Computer Game Stories
by joeabercrombie on Jul.29, 2009, under Brent Weeks and Joe Abercrombie
Ah, Brent, Brent, Brent. Your parting shots remind me of someone. Who is it? Ah, yes, it’s this guy, on the canvas.
But let us set aside our differences (particularly the massive difference between my amazing arguing ability and your frankly quite poor one) and concentrate instead on computer games. I’ve been a keen gamer for pretty much all my life, from being captivated by big blocks of falling pixels on the black and white tv we had attached to our 2K Acorn Atom to pummelling Medieval Total War on my PC or inFamous on my PS3. I’d have to say though that even today computer games aren’t always the most interestingly plotted things around, which makes anything surprising or unusual pretty interesting. Often those that are more or less open-ended (like Elite on the BBC Micro, greatest single game of all time, no doubt, or Sim City or Civilisation, or the aforementioned Total War, all games into which I have poured literally months of my life) and can be played in many different ways are the most interesting. Ones that actually have good stories tend, for me, to fall into the roleplaying camp. Casting my mind far back, a game called Legend on the Atari ST blew my mind at the time because it had a very nice twist in the plot. Probably not spoiling anything if I say the goodly King who sends your adventuring band on their quest turns out to be the villain. Baldur’s Gate (and its sequels) was a later classic, which was one of the first games I played that really seemed to have a sense of humour in the dialogue options, and felt like a truly huge game world to explore. Indeed the developer Bioware who were responsible for that, for Neverwinter Nights and Knights of the Old Republic among many others, have always been some of the best and most interesting storytellers in the gaming business, for me. Final Fantasy games, though frequently incomprehensible, also manage often to involve me closely, especially number 7, which quite blew my mind when it first came to the UK, and managed to wring quite a lot of raw emotion from some really rubbish sprites…
Man, I could be here all day, but come on, dig up some of your own…
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10 Comments for this entry
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July 29th, 2009 on 7:27 pm
I wish I could have played Neverwinter, an old school pk guild I used to battle with in UO had great stories about that game on their webpage (KAAOS, Killing As An Organized Sport).
Best game I have ever played is EverQuest, which I hated for a while, but, upon reflection, was easily the best game for PKing (from like 2000-2004). The game had depth, roleplaying, cool loot and graphics, and great battles.
keatskeatskeats
“because it sounds like skeet skeet skeet”
July 30th, 2009 on 2:36 am
NNNoooooooooooooooo
FF8! F-F-8!!!..
hehe
Seriously though, 7 was probably better but 8 always had a special place in my heart and will always be my choice. I had to sell my PC copy of FF8 just recently for financial reasons. I was welling up!
July 30th, 2009 on 3:55 am
Baulders Gate was phenomenal, but what did you make of Mass Effect?
July 30th, 2009 on 5:29 am
keats,
never played everquest. You should play Neverwinter Nights, though. Tis good.
Hillsy,
Sorry to upset your applecart, but FF8 was the runt of the litter. A lot of experimentation that really didn’t improve on 7. But then that is one thing you have to admire that series for, it does constantly try different things with the game system, the graphics, the way the worlds work. For me 7, 10 and 12 were all brilliant games.
Ginger,
Mass Effect I thought was good, but a bit repetitive, and the play balancing seemed a bit dodgy - you could get very powerful a long time before the end if you did a lot of side stuff. Not nearly as dodgy as the play balancing on Oblivion, though…
July 30th, 2009 on 7:34 am
DAMN YOU!!!….right, time to start my “Joe Abercrombie should burn in hell”, FF themed website!!..hehe
7 is the bench mark, I grant you, but I found the whole son-father thing grating in 10 (and Tidius just annoying) to be an enjoyable story. 12 is really good, and to say I’m eager for FF13 is like saying Gordon Brown can be “a little glum now and then”.
Maybe with 8 it’s because I’m a stat freak, so the junctioning system was just too good almost, but I still say the story to 8 stands up to scrutiny even if the gameplay gets slapped about.
July 30th, 2009 on 9:45 am
You know, Joe, I was about to say that you win for mentioning Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights, which I really love. Then you mentioned Final Fantasy VII.
I admit, Final Fantasy VII was quite a good game. But it’s not exactly the best answer for those who may consider themselves avid Square fans - especially with all the sequels and money makers Squeenix has been pumping out lately. 8 isn’t one of the best either.
Honestly if you want to go for great, old Final Fantasy games, or Square in general games, Final Fantasy VI (III in America on the SNES) and Chrono Trigger are the best. They had the best graphics of their time and, in my opinion, one of the best stories ever. And some of the best villians. Maniac clown vs. Mama Boy Sephiroth? I love 7, but I gotta admit a lot of the time I love 6/3 more.
Still, I give you props for NWN and Baldur’s Gate.
And Knights of the Old Republic.
Kudos to Brent for choosing a great topic too.
July 30th, 2009 on 10:51 am
Loved KOTOR 1 and 2. Mass Effect did awesome stuff with the acting and dialog system, but dang those planets were boring. NWN was great for the freedom it gave–and I burned lots of hours there–but none of the stories were that interesting. I, too, try to stay away from the life-sucking maw that is all MMORPG’s. Forty hours of game is enough for me–too much these days–forty hours per week? Whoa.
August 4th, 2009 on 4:39 pm
I agree with the post.
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November 11th, 2011 on 9:37 pm
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