Now Playing
In the last couple of weeks, two of my biggest gaming addictions, Battlefield 1942 and Nascar Racing 2003, have been put aside for calmer, but not necessarily greener, pastures. This shift in my attention was forced on me but the overall effect has been refreshing. I’ve been spending a lot more time ridding the world of evil than making bombing runs or turning that 50th lap, an activity which is much friendlier to my partially blinking eye.
Role playing games have been stealing a lot of my time. Two of them came off the shelf after a long, dusty stay. A third is brand new and has sunk its claws deep into me.
An earlier post mentioned the travels of the wife and I through the land of Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance. This action RPG was a lot of fun. The statistics are dumbed down to the point where all you really need to do is run around and smack stuff – or, in my case, hide in the back and chuck spells at things – and that’s a good thing. It’s easy to pick up and and easy to play. My only disappointment revolved around the story. It seemed more like two stories than one and the two didn’t seem to have much to do with each other. Our disjointed style of play, which was stretched over several months, surely didn’t help the matter.
Neverwinter Nights, which is now more than a year old, came off the shelf because of an opportunity to play it with a friend. That friend had purchased the newest expansion pack, Shadows of Undrentide, and was interested in tackling one of many user made modules for the game. The result is that I’m not actually playing the game, per se. I’m playing a game someone made using the tools the developer so kindly provided.
Birthright of the North, chosen from a list of hundreds because of its high rating in the Neverwinter Vault, is impressive, especially when you consider it was constructed by a single person. I’m always stunned at the amount of work individuals put into game modifications. This one boasts 40 hours of play time, a ton of things to do, and a very open ended style of play. We’ve probably got thirty hours left. I’m looking forward to them.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, the new kid on the block, does a lot to appease my disappointment with Star Wars: Galaxies. It’s the first role playing game I’ve ever played in the Chewbacca’s universe and – oh my – it’s a good one. The first thing you notice is how much story and dialog there is. All the dialog is spoken, regardless of the language. Want to hear some Wookie spout off about his grooming? This game has it.
The other thing that becomes immediately obvious is the number of choices you can make. Every situation has choices that decide whether you will follow the light or dark side of the force and, because of this, you get a good sense of freedom. I might be a good boy now but a second play through might be necessary to see how much of a bastard I can really be.
That’s what I’m playing now. As soon as I get better, I’ll return to a more balanced meal on the action front. My poor eye better start blinking soon, though. Madden 2003 comes out in a week. I want to be ready.
