Any more nice games from teh east?

[Humanophage]

Yeah, guys, count yourself lucky you were spared the terror of Russian adventure games.

Sounds interesting. Do tell.

Well, adventure games sell well to casual gamers and require little skill to make, whether in programming or writing. The gameplay is basic and requires no innovation. A Russian adventure game is essentially an illustrated book that is almost not at all interactive - obviously, they aren't making games like The Last Express or Blade Runner.

Since these games are targeted at casual gamers and teenagers, the plot is generally centered around a popular franchise, a Soviet cartoon or a folk character. The idea is to put in as many Russian jokes and, possibly, to surprise the audience by using typically Russian characters in such a seemingly Western medium as games.

 

[Tycn]

If that last picture isn't the epitome of Codex I don't know what is.

 

[Admiral jimbob]

I think all three of them epitomise certain aspects of it perfectly.

 

[KalosKagathos]

The idea is to put in as many Russian jokes and, possibly, to surprise the audience by using typically Russian characters in such a seemingly Western medium as games.

I believe the idea is to put as little money into the project and thought into puzzle design as possible and then make a small profit on impulse purchases alone.

They don't come out as often as they used to these days, though. I guess people finally learned the lesson the hard way. Still, I think they made 9 Chapayev games before they stopped. Even King's Quest stopped at 8 (or 7, depending on whether you count Mask of Eternity, which you probably shouldn't).

 

[markec]

Ascension to the Throne is a really good mix of RPG and TBS, there is also a sequel AttT: Valkyrie.

 

[commie]

Glad to see others mentioning Death to Spies and Ascension TTT.

I'll add Fantasy Wars/Elven Legacy series. Good turn based strategy along the lines of the old Fantasy General/Panzer General.

Evil Islands for a kind of H&S RPG with neat stealth mechanics.

Nexus The Jupiter Incident. Kind of a Homeworld game, badly balanced though so play on easy.

Don't know if you like sims, but if you do then the Reds are about the only ones still making them. Apart from Il-2 there's all the Eagle Dynamics stuff, Rise of Flight, a bunch of tank sims like T34 v Tiger and the brutally hard PT Boats series.

 

[ortucis]

Death to Spies is okay but pretty flawed. One of those games which try to be realistic but aren't at all and just end up being awkward cause of shitty camera or controls (like ArmA) and fucked up AI.

 

[commie]

Death to Spies is okay but pretty flawed. One of those games which try to be realistic but aren't at all and just end up being awkward cause of shitty camera or controls (like ArmA) and fucked up AI.

What the fuck are you talking about? It isn't trying to be realistic, or do you think a one man sent to recover secrets in the heart of a Nazi base by dressing up as a German and casually walking past guards is realistic? Camera and controls aren't shitty either. Granted it doesn't flash 'press e to to open' or cover mechanics and harks back to pre-2004 elaborate control schemes, but I think the monocled gamer can get past such 'archaic' throwbacks!

The AI also is a lot better than most stealth type games. Just wait until you set off an alarm on the hard level (which is what you should play a game like this on always) and see how the AI communicates with each other and aggressively starts to patrol. It's nice how they don't turn off the alarms either, something which IS realistic unlike many other games where after searching for a minute the enemy forgets about the dozen dead bodies and goes back to relaxing.

 

[ortucis]

Death to Spies is okay but pretty flawed. One of those games which try to be realistic but aren't at all and just end up being awkward cause of shitty camera or controls (like ArmA) and fucked up AI.

What the fuck are you talking about? It isn't trying to be realistic, or do you think a one man sent to recover secrets in the heart of a Nazi base by dressing up as a German and casually walking past guards is realistic? Camera and controls aren't shitty either. Granted it doesn't flash 'press e to to open' or cover mechanics and harks back to pre-2004 elaborate control schemes, but I think the monocled gamer can get past such 'archaic' throwbacks!

The AI also is a lot better than most stealth type games. Just wait until you set off an alarm on the hard level (which is what you should play a game like this on always) and see how the AI communicates with each other and aggressively starts to patrol. It's nice how they don't turn off the alarms either, something which IS realistic unlike many other games where after searching for a minute the enemy forgets about the dozen dead bodies and goes back to relaxing.

This is why I hate debating when I have to explain that realism in games comes in more than just "setting" package. Realistic animations/movement vs stealth games like Splinter Cell (which is still more fun than sitting through retarded fuck of a game that is Death to Spies most of the time).

If you enjoyed it, good for you. I still think it's shit.

EDIT: Indoors, controling the character is a pain thanks to the camera. Force faking realism only kills the game (explains why most people don't care about this game, it isn't because it's "challenging").

 

[Humanophage]

There's a charming fantasy TBS called Eador. The Genesis, which hasn't been translated into English yet. It has been discussed on the Codex [1, 2] on more than one occasion, but it deserves a mention. Here are some screenshots: http://www.eador.com/gallery.html

Terra Bellica, an MMO traditional TBS dominated by a Codex clan, was developed by Russians as well: http://rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=52702

 

[Hamster]

The easterners are actually pretty good at making games. Well, if you ignore the bugs, that is. Is it because of lower salaries, thus allowing them/investors to take more risks?

Of course, lower investments means more room for taking risks.

But i would say that another important factor is a price of games here, it's about 5 times lower than in the west. But the prices on computers are the same, even higher, so the ammount of minimum wealth needed to become a gamer is about the same. The gamers here just pay less for games and so have lower expectations from them, you just don't care as much when a game you bought for 10$ turns out to be shit, i can tell you from personal expirience, ending up with a shit game for PC(10$) and a shit game for PS3(>60$) are two very different levels of disappointment.

So publishers here care much more about agressive marketing campaign than customer satisfaction. The positive side of that approach is that publisher will not force the developer to cater to retard audience as much, he will just not care and will let the developers do what they want. Thats where the good and original games come from.

The negative side is that for every honest developer there will be 5 who will just attempt slam dunk of the worst kind, and once again, publisher won't really care. But those shit games are easy to spot and nobody is forcing you to buy them, so i dont know why skyway is so butthurt about the issue.

 

[markec]

so i dont know why skyway is so butthurt about the issue.

Like skyway needs a excuse to be butthurt.

 

[commie]

So ortucis, first you say it's 'okay', now it's 'shit'. Which is it? When I again pointed out your consoletard bias as I did in CodBlops thread you suddenly throw a tantrum with the 'it suxors' line. Admit it, you don't like complicated games, you like popamoles and that's it. Anything with a complicated interface is too much for you, though really, if DtS has a complicated interface then imagine the complexity of OFP/Arma in comparison. Chill out man it's cool. Some like complicated games, others like Halo Reach and MW2.

 

[MetalCraze]

So publishers here care much more about agressive marketing campaign than customer satisfaction.

You are confusing something here.

I'm sure you wanted to say publishers don't give a shit about customers and don't spend money on marketing either. They simply don't give a fuck about games which is evident from attrocious VOs done by the same 4 people that every single publisher uses and of course non-existent support.
Does it bring some money? OK. Typical Soviet mentality.

So they released all games they were licensing. As a side effect some good ones got through.

It's only now that they started to care about some (very minimal) standards when EA Russia came so at least to be somewhat competitive (as in releasing just as bad games as EA does). That's why there are no good russkie games anymore. Only crap.

Your price argument is also not valid.

$50 for West is like $15 for us if not less.

 

[ortucis]

So ortucis, first you say it's 'okay', now it's 'shit'. Which is it? When I again pointed out your consoletard bias as I did in CodBlops thread you suddenly throw a tantrum with the 'it suxors' line. Admit it, you don't like complicated games, you like popamoles and that's it. Anything with a complicated interface is too much for you, though really, if DtS has a complicated interface then imagine the complexity of OFP/Arma in comparison. Chill out man it's cool. Some like complicated games, others like Halo Reach and MW2.

Okay is pretty much close to "shit" when it comes to games, as far as I am concerned. While we're at it, what you call "complicated" is just developers making shitty interfaces and gameplay decisions most of the time (again, ArmA). I don't hate DTS cause it's not a polished AAA games like MW or BLOPS.

If playing ArmA and DTS makes you feel special, good for you.



PS: You must be a fan of Derek Smart.

 

[MetalCraze]

It's not hard to polish a cutscene where you are just a camera operator, bro.

 

[Peter]

Hasn't it been quite well established that ortucis is not the sharpest tool in the shed? Why argue with him?

Anyway, another recommendation for Death to Spies. Gret Lithuanian Hitman clone that, I would say, exceeds it's inspiration gameplay (but not in style obviously).

Metro 2033 is a pretty cool mix between a Half-Life type of presentation and narrative and STALKER gameplay. Incredible atmosphere and servicable gunplay and stealht. If you don't scream the moment you hear the word 'corridor shooter', you will enjoy it.