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posted by martyb on Monday January 07 2019, @07:43PM   Printer-friendly
from the Figured-it-out dept.

ArsTechnica:

Gaming was like breathing. It was the biggest part of my life as a teenager, one of my priorities as a college student, and eventually one of my most expensive “hobbies” as a young professional.

Then all of a sudden, after thousands of hours spent playing across genres and platforms, boredom hit me hard for the very first time in my early thirties. Some of my favorite games soon gave me the impression of being terribly long. I couldn’t help but notice all the repeating tropes and similarities in game design between franchises.

I figured it was just a matter of time before I found the right game to stimulate my interest again, but time continued to go by and nothing changed.

Is it that games have failed to innovate, or that real life is ultimately more engaging?


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  • (Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday January 08 2019, @03:20AM (1 child)

    by bzipitidoo (4388) on Tuesday January 08 2019, @03:20AM (#783545) Journal

    I quit the Ultimas after 6 proved unplayably buggy. They came out with a patch, but I didn't feel like starting over like I had to do in Ultima 5 because I entered the final dungeon without a crucial item, only to discover it couldn't be exited. Wouldn't have been a big deal, but couldn't have multiple save points either, and I saved after entering the dungeon. Oops. Heck, I didn't even solve Ultima 3 the kosher way. Got tired of the needle in the haystack problem of looking for the Mark of the Snake, and hacked the character disk to give myself the mark. Gave the Ultimas one more shot with Ultima Online, but that was a PVP killfest. 7 is the best, huh?

    I played MoM, and yeah, it's mostly a clone of Civ, with a fantasy skin. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it. Played the original Civ and Civ 2 as well. The same guys who made MoM also made Master of Orion, did you miss that one? MoM is good, but MoO is better. There's a MoO2 as well.

    One of the great classics is M.U.L.E. Multiplayer alien colonization and economics game. 4 people could crowd around one Atari 800 or Commodore 64 to play it.

    In recent years, I have had to confine myself to games that I can break away from in an instant, and not come back for several hours, so that pretty well kills off arcade games, unless they have a pause key. Totally kills the MMO stuff. I really enjoyed SpaceChem, a nice puzzle game.

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  • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday January 08 2019, @03:55PM

    by Freeman (732) on Tuesday January 08 2019, @03:55PM (#783704) Journal

    Master of Orion should be on my GOG list, but isn't. It's a great strategy game. Though, I think Master of Orion 2 is the better one, if I remember correctly.

    Yes, Ultima VII is the pinnacle of the series. The interface is acceptable from a playability point of view even by today's standards. Multiple save points and Exult (Hobbyist engine recreation.) backports some of the features in pt2 to pt1, like the key ring, and things like that. It also makes it a breeze to setup and play on a Modern OS. Sure, GOG sort of does that already, since they preconfigure DOSBox for you, but Exult is still better. You are missing out, if you skipped Ultima VII. Ultima VIII was a disappointment and Ultima IX I never even gave a chance. I played on an Ultima Online PvE Shard (Unofficial Server), but that eventually died. After that I swore off anything with a monthly subscription. The shard was only monthly donation, for extra characters, but it was "worth it" if you were into it. Which I was.

    I may give M.U.L.E. a look.

    Give Ultima VII a try, you won't be disappointed. You can generally pick it up and put it down at a moment's notice. Yet, it has a huge and rich story, compared to 99% of the RPGs released in recent years.

    --
    Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"