I know that Gus has attempted to convince Aaron and I that the FPS genre is a place where a spiritually true Shadowrun game could live. He has so far met with limited success, but today's Penny Arcade post may help his cause. Tycho invokes the holy Tribes in his impressions of gameplay. That association alone is enough for me to possibly seek out the demo when it is released. Or at least not regard it as an utter desecration of what might have been an interesting video game universe. I still think it's the best MMORPG setting around.Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Maybe. Just Maybe.
I know that Gus has attempted to convince Aaron and I that the FPS genre is a place where a spiritually true Shadowrun game could live. He has so far met with limited success, but today's Penny Arcade post may help his cause. Tycho invokes the holy Tribes in his impressions of gameplay. That association alone is enough for me to possibly seek out the demo when it is released. Or at least not regard it as an utter desecration of what might have been an interesting video game universe. I still think it's the best MMORPG setting around.
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7 comments:
When, oh when, will you let me be your Tycho?
It could be the best first-person shooter ever made. It could be the crowning achievement of software-hardware interface and user-software interface.
But why Shadowrun? I don't see what the Shadowrun universe brings to an FPS that you can't get without it. But I can make a long list of things you have to jettison to fit that universe into an FPS.
The things that make a great FPS a great FPS will be consistent whether the game itself is a shadowrun or shooting fluffy bunnies with a marshmallow gun. But unless they find a way for the FPS to bring something to Shadowrun, it will be a conceptual failure as well as a commercial one instead of just the latter (I'm calling it).
I don't think FASA has faith that their RPGs work in the same form as video games. As Tycho points out they themselves have swapped genres on Crimson Skies and Battletech. They may know something we don't, that the demand for their games may be so miniscule that they need to appeal to a broader market first, establish the property in the new medium, then make niche-oriented sequels. Because, really, if you're and RPG and you're not Final Fantasy or Morrowind, you're a niche game.
Fortunately, it isn't my responsibility to figure in anyone's marketing concerns when I consume media.
When content decisions are made by the marketing department, you get... well, content generated by the marketing department.
Oh- and the Shadowrun RPG for SuperNintendo and Sega Genesis might have been better than its contemporary /Chrono Trigger/.
I really wish I knew how to make those a link to wiki articles.
prior to discussing shadowrun, they talk about the JRRT based MORPG, can you guys point me to good info on that?
second, anyone pick up the 'new' JRRT book yet?
third,
I think there are some gamers like AVK who would like a great FPS even if it was fluffy bunnies and marshmallow guns, but I think there are a lot who wouldn't
I've never really thought about it from the FPS angle, but I have alway heald that all RTS games are just figuring out which units are rock, paper, and scissors, then picking the right one to use against the opponent, yet still, a game where your units were Pebbles (which could be upgraded to Stones, Rocks, and Boulders) Nail Clippers, and Post-its, actually looking like pebbles, nailclippers, and post-its in a world full of "Randomly shaped Obscacle Type 3" may have an early appeal because of kitch (sp?) but AFK (<--F for Farryl) type players would rather have the units named and graphiced as Spearman, Light Cavalry, Slingers....or Stormtroopers, AT-STs, and Tie-Fighters
based on the number of times a RTS engine is just reworked to fit into a different genre or historical period, I suspect there may well be more AFK types than AVK.
Of course, us AFK types like it when you take the best game in AVK's eyes, then create different genre out of it
To be perfectly honest, I will be able to enjoy this game if it's as good or better than, say, the aforementioned /Tribes/.
At the same time though, I'm not sure I'll ever be able to put the nagging feeling that it should have been more aside.
I hope to God they prove me wrong.
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