This Persistent Life #9

#3 Tabula Rasa

There's been quite a bit of talk about Tabula Rasa (mostly from Lord Richard Garriott himself), but since I've missed the last couple of chances to see the game in action, I'm eager to catch up with it at E3. From the sounds of it, there are some good ideas in here; hearty AI for enemies is something that MMOs have always struggled with. NCSoft is promising to rectify that with Tabula. There are some novel ideas going into the character system as well; you can clone your character at certain milestone levels, essentially saving its' statistical state in order to develop it along several different paths. Basically, once you hit 10, you clone yourself, and continue leveling as, say, a melee class. At any point thereafter, you can access your level 10 clone, and level it in a completely different set of disciplines. It sounds pretty cool on paper, but when I was playing Final Fantasy XI, I never had to roll an alt character either, which is pretty much what the point of this mechanic is.

Anyhow, any game that's attempting to flip the script on the MMO formula is one that deserves my attention, so I'm hyped to check this one out.

#4 The Agency

The Agency, in my mind, is a prototype for what a lot of games will be like in the future, when persistent-world elements will start creeping into games that aren't necessarily RPGs. Now, from the sounds of it, The Agency will have a lot of the trappings of an MMO--if you read the early coverage, there's talk of reputation systems, leveling, upgradeable gear, and the like. But the focus is on action, which is a far cry from the comparatively-deliberate pacing that we're used to in MMOs. As far as the world goes, I'm not sold yet; it could either be really cool and subtle like the best spy films out there, or it can be an over-the-top videogame-ified version of them. Seeing that one screenshot with the bikini spy chick in it makes me think it'll be more like the latter. But ultimately, the jury is still out. I'm real excited to learn more about this one, so let's hope it'll make the show in good form.

#5 Age of Conan

Well, I saw this one last week at pre-E3 event at Eidos, and while it certainly looks promising, I found myself getting frustrated that it clearly wasn't finished yet. The combat system still needs a bit of work; I've complained about its lack of heft in the past, and it's still not there. Hopefully this will be something that will continue to get some attention. I know that Funcom has a "strike team" devoted solely to making sure that combat feels solid, so let's hope they're on the case. Otherwise, though, the outlooks is pretty good. The world is gorgeous, and the tone is just right; there was lots of savagery written into every quest I encountered. It probably won't be much different when I see it next week, but I'd still hyped to check out some new areas or something.

Comments [0]

post a comment

Post a Comment