I definitely finished playing Pillars of Eternity, but getting there via its expansion pack(s) didn't really help.
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Listen to a special audio message from Bill Roper to the Hive Workshop community (Bill is a former Vice President of Blizzard Entertainment, Producer, Designer, Musician, Voice Actor) 🔗Click here to hear his message!
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Read Evilhog's interview with Gregory Alper, the original composer of the music for WarCraft: Orcs & Humans 🔗Click here to read the full interview.
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Ten years after launch and the only time I've played it before, I took the fancy that I should give Pillars of Eternity another try. How much do I even remember? Spoiler: not a lot!
And so I arrive at Dawn of War's final expansion pack, Soulstorm. Are we going to end on a high note or will it be another slug-fest against overwhelming odds?
Blog 970: Soulstorm
Oh Sisters of Battle, don’t cry for me. Oh Sisters of Battle, it’s all alright for me.
raodaozao.net
Dawn of War: Dark Crusade is as infuriating as it is moreish. For all the lumps and bumps though, it sure has been a great opinion generator.
Rao still working on projects? How's it going?The problem with developing a lengthy RPG map is that you have to endure lengthy test runs to make sure it all works. And then, sometimes... it does not.
Dawn of War: Winter Assault may fulfil its cosmic destiny as the Obligatory Snowy Expansion Pack, but it's also more exhausting than fun. Brrr.
Despite an abiding love for tabletop terrain and space operatic bombast, I have actually barely engaged with Warhammer 40,000 for myself. I figured it was time to put that right with some Dawn of War.
I was ambivalent about the first No One Lives Forever game, but not enough to resist tracking down a copy of the sequel -- which I found quite a bit more enjoyable!
You're right, I should have stopped playing SpellForce ages ago rather than forcing myself through its third expansion pack. What can I say? I'm there for the... uh... one good level.
Blog 964: SpellForce: Shadow of the Phoenix
As a bird that is permanently on fire, is it even possible for the Phoenix to have a shadow?
raodaozao.net
Given that I've just spent ages rebuilding so many different systems, I figured it was high time I rebuilt all my mech artwork. Sigh.
I'm only still playing SpellForce because I want to like it, not because I actually do -- and first expansion pack The Breath of Winter has merely clarified the game's myriad flaws.
I think we know by now that I am incapable of doing small things quickly and cleanly. Needless to say, adding a blocking mechanic to Exon has led to... ah... further work...
When is a side quest not a side quest? When it has an effect on how you implement the main quest. Sort of. A bit.
I should have played SpellForce at the time. I got it for crimbo but the disc was dud and it wouldn't install -- it has sat on my shelf all that time, taunting me. No more!
The only way to start a new year of game development is to rip a system apart and introduce a new combat mechanic. This time it's attacks, damage and shields!
Just when I thought it was safe to mod Warcraft III once more, they only went and relaunched it AGAIN.
Blog 957: Warcraft III 2.lma0
“Yes, but how do you _really_ feel about post-1.26 Warcraft III?”
raodaozao.net
For years, every time somebody's mentioned "first-person fantasy melee combat" (usually in the context of complaining about Skyrim), somebody else has said "Dark Messiah". As usual, I am late to seeing it for myself.
I may be old and jaded, but I still make sure that Santa brings me at least a little Lego for crimbo... though this year's haul was perhaps a bit late.
When I play a game, I take a lot more screenshots than ever make it into the obligatory blog post. So I thought for the obligatory end-of-year round-up, why not share a few more from the games I'd never played before? Video games are pretty.
You know how I've been complaining about physics engines and vector arithmetic for the last year? Time to find out if it was all worth it. The new version of Exon: Fragment is available now!
Unreal is still as tense and serene and frenetic and beautiful as it ever was.
When is the ground not the ground? When it's a tiny divot that's just large enough to trigger all your slope-handling logic. SIGH.
Sometimes you hold off buying a game for years and then wonder why you didn't play it sooner. Slave Zero is a huge dose of exactly what I want -- what I have always wanted. I have been a fool.
Star Wars: Republic Commando is the most mid-00s game I have ever played... and, strangely, I'm fine with that.
I have complicated feelings about Quake II: Call of the Machine. Is it an official expansion close to the source or just another mod made by randoms 30 years after the fact? Does it even matter?
After nine (!) months of rebuilding various core systems, I appear to have reworked a full third (!) of Exon's codebase. Eep.
It's finally happened. I've made spreadsheets to help plan out character progression over a singleplayer campaign. Oh dear.
Quake II mission pack Ground Zero was a massive wall of cheap tricks, but redeemed itself with some fun new weapons... Will second mission pack The Reckoning get the balance right?
When I played Quake II RTX, I wondered why I had any fond feelings for the game -- it's just Not Very Good. RTX mode did not encompass its two mission packs, though, so perhaps those hold the key?
It might have taken a while, but I've finally got Exon's enemies reliably... walking around each other. Yes. (Game dev is hard. You have to celebrate each little victory.)
Blog 943: Round and Round We Go
It’s just a jump to the left, and then a step to the right.
raodaozao.net
I'm sure nobody needs another huge blog post about Mass Effect 3's plot blunders, but fuck it, I've got too many thoughts and I have to get them out of my system. (It's still a really good game.)
I've never made any secret of the fact that Exon is just a massive excuse to play dress-up. Which means a truly comprehensive paint system is an absolute necessity.
A part of me is a little bit sad that Mass Effect 2 tossed the Mako out. There was beauty worth exploring in the uncharted worlds despite the tedium... Luckily ME2 had the Overlord expansion, which is about as close as we got to an ideal driving mission.
Today, on "Physics Engines Were a Mistake and I Regret All Of My Life Choices"...
Blog 939: She Moves In Mysterious Ways (Part 4)
Sisyphus endlessly pushing that boulder through the ground.
raodaozao.net
I know coming out of Mass Effect I was gasping for a sequel, but... not like this. Oh no.
On examination, Mass Effect's plot is kinda broken. I think I always knew this, but luckily it's still a good game anyway.
Sometimes I spend so much time working on gameplay systems that I forget how much fun it is to do narrative and level design. All the systems are meant to lead to this.
I kept seeing screenshots for Oni and thinking "that looks well cool." Needless to say, there's only one way that me liking screenshots for an obscure old game can end.
Enemy AI programming is hard, but boy does it make the game a hella lot better when it works.
Fallout 4 has two expansion packs. I certainly went through them. Then I certainly finished ("finished") the game.
Blog 933: Going Through the Motions
The next time I say I’m going to play an open world RPG, fucking STOP ME.
raodaozao.net
Remember when "AI" meant "sparkling if statements that control game character behaviour" and not "environmentally-destructive grifty industrial plagiarism slop generator"? Those were the days... and I'm going back to them.
Needless to say, Fallout 4 is a big game and I'm still playing it... I can't shake this feeling, however, that some of the many missions it's been throwing at me don't really exist...
At first, I thought "I've made a terrible mistake, Fallout 4 is awful". But after forging through and subsequently ignoring the base-building parts, it's actually... kinda good?
Sometimes making a whole character movement system is a complex task, but sometimes... sometimes you're just doing it wrong. Guess who was doing it wrong?
Over 20 years (erk) after I first started modding Warcraft III, I've finally started to grasp how to make compelling combat encounters. Better late than never, right?
Blog 928: Time Goes By Too Soon
“Don’t fight the engine,” he said, before fighting the engine (but more subtly).raodaozao.net
When I first heard about "the Skittles game" I was as bemused as the next person -- but then I saw screenshots and... it actually looked kinda cool. I simply had to track down a copy and play it.
Rao
Dao
Zao
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire is as spectacular as its controls are broken, and absolutely worth battling through for some incredible levels.
Sometimes you hear a lot about a game and you get excited... then you play it and it just doesn't work. It seems that even I have a limit for how much mediocre third-person shooting I can stomach, and Control goes waaaaay over it.
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