Question for Elara..

[skywalker]

Hope you don't mind if I butt in.

Elara:I think I was one of the two people who liked U9 (you being the other one). I didn't like the end though. Let me know when you finish and I'll tell you why.

Mark

[Elara]

Don't mind a bit, Skywalker. Will do, though since my brother played it at least 7 times, I think I have an inkling why you didn't like the ending. He thought the it was disappointing too!

Though seriously, I've felt for a long time that endings to RPGs have in the main been way less than they could be. It might be that by the time a game team gets to the end of production, they've run out of juice, time and money (not necessarily in that order ) and aren't able to put the same care into the ending as they've invested in constructing the game. But mostly, RPG game endings are a big letdown. Shouldn't a hologram pop out of the monitor with flashing lights, a brass band in full throttle, 1,000,000 gold pieces and the Key to the City? Then we might feel a full sense of satisfaction and completion. Did I mention closure? *chortle*

Elara

[skywalker]

Anyone who has played these games for a long time (my first was Ultima III), will know never to expect a fanfare at the end.

Some games would just about say "Yay! You won!" and drop you to a DOS prompt.

I wish I could remember the name of the game that had your single character at the end being thanked by all the NPCs you helped, while getting a pat on the back from the King.

My problem with U9 was not that it was abrupt, but that it was not the way I'd wanted it to be at the end.(Can say no more, of course!)

Mark

[Elara]

Hmmm.. Was it MM3, Isle of Terra, that had the cast of monsters come out one by one at the end so you could savor their defeat once again? And at the end of Eye of the Beholder II, the whole party was placed in portrait frames with stats and told how great they were..

Elara

[Davros]

My computer was down in the shop - getting a 3D graphics chip at last (Davros bursts into the 90's only to find we have changed decades, centuries, and milleniums ), so I missed all the recent chat on this thread . Many old favourites here, U8 (hey, I liked it even though my 386 back then struggled its butt off coping with it), EOBII, and U9 which looked good, but I enjoyed better when Hannibal put me straight on a few hardware issues and had me download the patch. Most endings of games have tended to leave me flat - if anything, the U8 ending leading to U9 was one of the better ones because it was based on future expectations. The feeling of completion after such a long struggle, the fact that your time consuming hobby has ended, it's like I don't want to give the game up without a really good feeling of either suspense or reward.

So, when are they releasing Wizardry 8 Hmmm!!

[Elara]

Pagan! I loved it. I didn't love playing it on my old Digital 16 megahertz clunker with 2MB of ram though. Somehow I managed to play it with sound, but I must admit, it was a very leisurely game. Jumping (before the patch came out) was incredibly exacting and time consuming. And did I feel proud with each safe landing?! Played Bethesda's Arena on that computer too: Swing sword, file one fingernail, look up, missed! Swing sword, file another nail, hit! Big splat... Swing again, oh no, I'm killed! Start to load save, get up, do some dishes, ah, ambient sounds! Return to computer, swing sword, water a few plants, miss! hehe

Have tweaked my U9 options.ini files and the game is running very smoothly. Rarely crash to desktop anymore. It's a wilely game, giving you keys in one dungeon or house for a chest way across the world? Arrrgh!!! Major inventory bog!

Played (sorta) Wizardry Gold a year or so ago, which was infernal.. how did anyone stay alive to the finish? Moi hard that game. Also played the demo for Grimoire which purportedly will be in beta testing in March or April. Very like Wizardry Gold. We need more RPGs!

Elara