Lol, this has been pointed out to me already, I'll get it fixed
Interestingly enough, Medivh got his name after one of the game designers got frusterated and just randomly mashed a bunch of keys on his keyboard. Amongst the mess of letters was medivh.
The one other thing that bears mentioning is how much Warcraft 2 expanded on the lore from Warcraft. Suddenly the world of orcs and humans was populated with gnomes, trolls, elves, goblins, and dwarves. The war expanded far beyond the borders of Azerzoth, and introduced a number of Kingdoms and orcish Clans as well as new heroes. The back story behind Medivh was also expanded and explained, the Burning Legion was finally explained and the Necromancer Gul’Dan finally emerged as the one behind the orc’s invasion of Azeroth. All of this was expansion masterfully done by Chris Metzen with very little retconning, who was the main driving force behind the design and storyline of WC2.
Erk, I can't let this pass. There was lots of retconning at work here, as well as the Warcraft world suddenly getting crammed with all the most cliched D&D elements imaginable. It's no coincidence that the first game to give Metzen free rein over the lore was also the beginning of Blizzard's reputation for hack writing.
Warcraft 2 was important and notable for many reasons, but lore wasn't one of them, at least not in any positive sense.
Actually your wrong about this. Before writing this I went back and actually re-read the backstory/plot introductions in the manuals for both games (I own both) and there's really no ret-conning. Actually, Warcraft: Orcs and Humans has very little backstory at all, and the game world is literally just Azeroth and the Swamp of Sorrows. There's nothing really there to ruin and the plot is as basic as you can get.
Metzen managed to connect that with a larger world and more involved plot that was necessary to keep a real series running. Some of it was a bit tagged on, but nothing directly contradicted the story from the first game, which is the definition of a retcon. Most of the bullshit actually started in the expansion, Beyond the Dark Portal, which was not developed by Blizz. Also, Metzen wrote the story for Starcraft, which is without question has one of the finest single player RTS campaigns ever made. Unfortunately, afterwards he would just continually write the same story of SC over and over (but that's for another blog )
On June 08 2012 20:48 Aphasie wrote: Ah what a nostalgia trip! I remember most of these games. I especially remember SC2k so well. I loved it untill i made the best city ever imagined. I took me at least a week. Literally every square of the map had something on it. Everything you could wish for in a city was there. Then my friend, who had a taste for chaos and destruction, convinced me we should expose it for every possible natural disaster a couple of times over. (Especially the giant spider with lazers, anyone remember those?) I guess you already know the next part. Yup thats right. After the carnage and destruction i managed to save over the original file and I was bankrupt - my city destroyed. I have never quite forgiven myself and will never play that game again, ever.
5/5
Dear god, this has happened to everyone at least one haha. The giant "spider" was actually an alien robot btw. There's nothing that can keep me away from SC2k, it's just too fucking good.
I honestly think that, when you're done, you should clean all of these up and send them into a major publication (like IGN, or any other gaming publication) and submit it as a freelance contribution.
LOTR2 was an awesome game in it's day.All it really needs is a few AI and graphic tweaks to still be pretty amazing even today.The autocalc was pretty bugged though , if you were going to lose the battle press autocalc = instant win.
not sure if someone else already said it, but Wing Commander isn't abandonware. Parts 1-4 are available on gog.com, and at a very decent price too. I picked them up as soon as they were for sale, they're that awesome.
They're pretty playable too, I played through one and two. For me the graphics are still decent, but I played these games when they were new and state of the art so that's probably why I like them still.
Ah man, dune 2 my first RTS ever, i remember playing on a old pc back then and wondering why the game was so slow compared to when my friend played it. That when i discovered the Turbo button!!
Also best music ever for a battle:
Oh and as far as Red alert goes:
I did go into the music setting to put this one in loop all the time!
Damn... God blog! I don't feel old at all now having played most of the games mentioned =)
Not to be elitist or anything but games back then was just better. They were. Not the technecal aspect of course. Not really the story either. It was the anticipation that ruins games these days. When you buy a new game (SC2 and Diablo III have been my most reason buys) you expect the game to be good. To feel epic and to rock your world. The games can only fail. Back then it was like - and most likely because I was 10 - "hey you, try this" and you would sit down and play a game mentioned by a friend or something and the game would make a huge impact.
@TheToast: Go play HoMM II. It is the game I've spend most time on and even playing it now its fantastic. I'm sure you can find the gold edition somewhere on the interwebz (which included the expansion). I almost want to write a longer part for that game seing how its still awesome. (dammit I want to play it now)
On June 08 2012 22:54 Dirkzor wrote: Damn... God blog! I don't feel old at all now having played most of the games mentioned =)
Not to be elitist or anything but games back then was just better. They were. Not the technecal aspect of course. Not really the story either. It was the anticipation that ruins games these days. When you buy a new game (SC2 and Diablo III have been my most reason buys) you expect the game to be good. To feel epic and to rock your world. The games can only fail. Back then it was like - and most likely because I was 10 - "hey you, try this" and you would sit down and play a game mentioned by a friend or something and the game would make a huge impact.
@TheToast: Go play HoMM II. It is the game I've spend most time on and even playing it now its fantastic. I'm sure you can find the gold edition somewhere on the interwebz (which included the expansion). I almost want to write a longer part for that game seing how its still awesome. (dammit I want to play it now)
The whole issue of games today supposedly not living up to their predacessors or not satisfying long time gamers is a way more complex issue than that, and it's in fact why I'm writing this series. You can't analyse or discuss the issue without the background, and you can't hope to understand how the industry has changed without first understanding how it rose and how it came crashing down. That's what I ultimately hope to explain here, along with introducing some younging's to some awesome games
And yeah, the HoMM series is def on my list.
Also, Mechanical Man is AMAZING ty for posting that :D :D
Of course its a complex issue. My point was that many believe that games have deteriorated in entertainment value or gameplay wise. In my opinion it is not so. It is how over exposed the good games are today that you expect perfection from a good game and your expectations aren't met.
I actually got Dune II when I bought C&C with my brother back in the days but never really played it. The unit control was cluncky compared to C&C so I never got into it. To bad really...
I remember spending my youth playing so many of these games.
Red Alert might be my favourite game I've ever played. The campaign was fun, and it really took what Command and Conquer had done to another level in my opinion. In addition, it was the first game I ever hacked, as you could change the damage outputs of units. (I hacked the attack dogs to shoot tesla coil beams. It was amazing)
edit; Red Alert's campaigns were almost as fulfilling as StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood War. If you haven't played RA and can handle the dated gameplay/graphics, try to find a way to play it. It was awesome. Also the Tanya unit was awesome, and though I'm not sure of this, I can't remember a game where hero units existed before this (the Tanya levels were so, so fun, and remind of a 15 year predecessor to DOTA style gaming). The secret weapons (like the Iron Curtain) also expanded on aspects of C&C.
Having been a big fan of both, RA was leaps and bounds ahead of the original C&C in gameplay.
edit2; oh wow I just remembered my favourite part of Red Alert: THE MUSIC. This game also had a fucking epic soundtrack
Great post. I wish you did mention more about HoMM and I do suggest you play 2 and 3, as other have mentioned! They have aged really well imo, and have great replayability factor with tons of scenario maps even outside the campaign. The highest difficulty of campaign pretty much forces you to save after every turn and not make any errors... Sometimes the wrong army composition causes you to restart the whole mission T-T Also, evil artifacts...
On June 08 2012 22:22 PH wrote: Amazing blog, and even more amazing blog series.
I honestly think that, when you're done, you should clean all of these up and send them into a major publication (like IGN, or any other gaming publication) and submit it as a freelance contribution.
Great job, and can't wait for the next one!
I was thinking about starting my own blog and cross posting some of these. We'll see, I may do that yet. If I could get paid to write about PC gaming and PC/tech stuff, I would be the happiest person in the world. Maybe some day.... o.-
On June 08 2012 23:16 Dirkzor wrote: Yeah Mechanical Man was my favorite from C&C.
Of course its a complex issue. My point was that many believe that games have deteriorated in entertainment value or gameplay wise. In my opinion it is not so. It is how over exposed the good games are today that you expect perfection from a good game and your expectations aren't met.
I actually got Dune II when I bought C&C with my brother back in the days but never really played it. The unit control was cluncky compared to C&C so I never got into it. To bad really...
Yeah Dune II is pretty clunky, especially the fact that you could only select on unit at a time, lol. But a lot of the modern stuff is there, including the usage of hotkeys.
Aaannnddd actually yeah a lot games have deteriorated in design and entertainment. A number of epic game series have been destroyed over the past 8-9 years due to terrible design and just overall poor managment (Uru anyone?). But I'll wait to get into that later
On June 09 2012 00:05 Marti wrote: Why isn't this featured ?
The TL staff all hate me, it's part of a larger anti-Toast conspiracy.
Finally got through both, and holy Nostalgia Bomb. God I wasted so many hours in SC2K just making the perfect map. Also Tie Fighter is so much the shit that I actually bought a flight stick about 2 years ago JUST to play it again. One of the few games that I love dearly but have never finished (though I have come danmed close many times).
I would kind of liked to see the C64 get more love, especially with some of the AD&D titles and especially the early Ultima series. I can also understand why Ringworld wasn't listed, but I had a lot of fun with that game, and it's gameplay style is somewhat of a precursor to MYST in ways. Also Eye of the Beholder better be in here somewhere
While I love the inclusion of Tie Fighter (by the way, I found a functional installer for modern OSes for X-Wing vs Tie Fighter if you want it, I play very occasionally for old school thrills) you're missing my MUDs. I'm horribly offended at the lack of MUDs and roguelikes.
Oh god, I really really want to play X-Com again now, haven't played it for years, such a great game. I love this series, I would like to see a mention of the SCUMM engine adventure games from this era, I'm biased though cause I loved stuff like the Lucas Arts adventure games, the Legend of Kyrandia games, Broken Sword etc., spent weeks of the 90s playing those kind of games...
Sweet jeebus this is one heck of a blog Toastie! Memories man, so many memories. You forgot that Mark Hamill was in wing commander, making an already epic series of games even more epic...er!
I was a bit surprised that system shock got only a mention as it basically defined modern story based first person shooters like bioshock, half life, and deus ex etc. which is still an active and widely played genre. I understand it wasn't widely popular at the time but despite that it caused many development houses to shift how they thought to tell stories for these types of games.
Definitely check out the HoMM series, I think the 3rd was probably the height of the series as 4 and 5 are basically just graphical reskins of the same game over and over. It is one of the few series that I fell in love with that I find myself bored with these days. Talk about no innovation
Regarding turn based strategy games have you ever checked out Masters of Magic? Pretty impressive stuff for its time and a lot of nerds got into it. Unfortunately despite its awesomeness the flash flood of rts clones basically drowned it out.
Finally...xcom. So many hours played. So many. I can play it on my modern pc through steam? Gosh...I need to go add some more hours to that game RIGHT NOW!
*vanishes yelling "Five of Five!!" over his shoulder*
Honestly after reading both blogs nostalgia was secondary to sadness when I realized how well my dad (a programmer) chose what games I played... Comparing the thoughtfulness he put into choosing games that are enriching and of high quality to the way our relationship is now, makes me tear up a little ;-;
EPT
