Wizardry said:
What a bizarre argument. The purpose of skills is to give players options in how they approach situations. Realms of Arkania had a lot of skills but they weren't used nearly as well as in games like Fallout. Some skills are just never used (geography, animal training), others are checked passively during events (climbing, history, danger sense), others modify passive combat values (tactics, swords) and there are a few you can use on command (pickpocket, treat wounds). I cannot think of a single situation in the entire Realms of Arkania series where the player is given multiple paths that utilize different skills to solve a problem. It's always "DO X UNTIL YOU SUCCEED". Fallout and Torment always gave players multiple ways to find solutions, even if they were just dialogue checks.
I don't think he was implying that Planescape: Torment was the game to ruin RPGs. I think he was implying that it was one of them. My guess is that the template formed with games of that era is one focused more on the story and characters, one where you don't create a party and one that doesn't have turn-based combat. Though obviously previous games had some of these things too, with Ultima VII being perhaps the best example, but saying "Chris Avellone is one of the people responsible" isn't too inaccurate if you look at his games. Even though the execution of the formula in Planescape: Torment is a hell of a lot better than the majority of its "successors", in many ways games like Dragon Age II follow on from that Baldur's Gate/Planescape: Torment style.
This is true, but if you've seen other posts by Wizardry you'll notice that he doesn't particularly care for games with those goals. He doesn't see things as "good for what it is". Personal preference I guess.
I think the mistake you are making here is that you're bringing Fallout into the discussion when he was specifically talking about Planescape: Torment and the BioWarian formula. And don't forget that Fallout had some near useless skills too, and a hell of a lot of contextual skill usage. It wasn't the perfect system either. My guess is that he avoided picking Fallout because 1) it's more popular, 2) it's newer, 3) it's from the same company as Planescape: Torment and 4) it's a single character RPG.
To be honest I just want to see the PS:T fans and the mondblutians finally fight it out for once.
In general, yes, except for the Bethesda school of games. They have their own place with their own fans and their own expectations. But I think since around 2000, RPGs in general have moved more towards "epic stories" and "character drama", to the point where people equate role-playing games with games that tell a good story. On the other side of the coin, Bethesda games have caused people to claim that role-playing games are about "immersion".
Baldur's Gate and it's sequel only used so much space because they weren't compressed. You'll notice the releases had all the same data on fewer disks (I think down to 2 for each one). I don't know if it's because of technical limitations at the time (lack of good compression algorithms and/or it would take 10 hours to decompress on a CPU), or Bioware/Interplay just not knowing what they're doing.
Some dipshit said:
No, jpgs would be blurry as shit and is a lossy compression. But you are right that something like DXT would make sense.
), and I would have tried to make it better if I'd realized it would be posted on here and mocked before I wrote it. Which I honestly don't mind; it's always good to get feedback, even from people who disagree fundamentally with you and hate your fucking newfag consolekiddie guts.
ALSO I SWEAR I DO NOT USUALLY EDIT THINGS THIS MUCH YOU GUYS
To be honest I just want to see the PS:T fans and the mondblutians finally fight it out for once.
Wait, you mean to tell me it's just sitting out there, not making any money or stinking up the console scene?
