Tuesday 17 May 2011

That Was Left Out.... Why?

This week, due to my irritating issues with Black Prophecy, I’ve decided to talk (more question) about game designing that doesn’t make sense for us (gamers) in 2011.  If you never read Tueday’s review go take a look right now; I will be bringing it up.  

Key functions being left out

I have yet to find a good review for Final Fantasy XIV (highest being 2 out of 5 stars), but the main reason I’m bringing it up is the lack of “jump.”  For a game being released this day and age it makes no sense to leave out something (although minor) that prevents you from getting stuck on the terrain.  There is nothing more irritating than running, running, running and, BAM, you’re stuck on a flower pot.  Other games you could just jump over it and carry on.  This game had far too many complaints to discuss here (lack of containers, targeting, lack of auction, copy pasted terrain).  It blows my mind that a company, with so many hits, would put their name to this game with all of its faults.
Don’t hate me for this, but I’m bringing up Star Wars The Old Republic.  We’ve been hearing  about all the money going into this game and all the amazing features it will have; then I hear this: SWTOR will not have swimming.  It’s said that you can wade out into the water and a message will flash on your screen telling you to turn around or you will drown.  While the lack of “underwater combat” makes me happy I do not like that my Jedi cannot swim.  Many people will argue that lightsabres don’t work underwater which is understandable (Kit Fisto’s did) but that shouldn’t stop a Jedi from being able to swim.  One of my biggest pet peeves in many single player games was falling into water and drowning because I couldn’t swim.

Mac vs. PC

At this point, with so many gamers spread between the two systems, our games need to be released for both.  Console gamers have these options (as long as designers didn’t sign on exclusively with one console) why don’t we?  World of Tanks did not release for Macs and Nexon announced that they had no intentions of releasing their games for the other system.  This seems strange to me and leaves me with no intentions of ever owning a Mac.  For more on the state of Mac gaming I suggest reading an article posted on Macworld: http://www.macworld.com/article/157700/2011/02/stateofmacgaming.html

Graphics are too high for a regular gamers system

There is no need for a game to be that awesome to look at if no one will be able to play it.  If you read Tuesday’s review you’d know my problem with Black Prophecy.  The short story, my computer (a year old) did not meet the system requirements to run Black Prophecy.  I am not about to run out and buy a whole new system to play your little space game no matter how awesome your character creator is.  I could play EVE or Star Trek and get my space MMO fix.
Why are these games leaving out these attributes?  I recall a month ago being so excited for ARGO online; only to log in and find that I can't play because there is no inverted y-axis.  Company's are wondering why it's so hard for a new MMO to make it in the market, it's because the older games we have did almost everything right that everyone can play. 
That's it for me the this week.  You can follow me on twitter @akaDarcee and don't forget to leave comments below.  Share with us your biggest disappointment in a game that you could not play or lacked something you enjoyed.  I'll be back on Tuesday with a game that (hopefully) lets me play it.

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