I agree with your observations on interfaces & graphics, Matt, though I think that graphics aren't the big hindrance here - which is proven by the Wii to some point: Sometimes graphics only need to be "good enough" - it's often more important to get "into the game" quickly and to get instant gratification. For example by *not* fighting a single party fight for minutes (though there are certainly people out there battling for an hour against bosses in J-RPGs). I definitely won't ever fight through the dungeons of U4 or U5 ever again - killing all incentive to touch these games again.
When I analyze the games I play now I come to the conclusion that I favor deep story-based single character non-multiplayer games like Ultima Underworld, System Shock, Deus Ex and most importantly the Dark Project / Thief games - which of course aren't RPGs.
All of these provide good-enough graphics (some even have enhancement packs by fans) and instant gratification. Also the games consist of "levels" that I can work with (=finish) in a sleep-work-play-sleep-cycle.
By the way, the "amazonian" Ultima is called Savage Empire, and it's a good game. The presentation is IMHO a bit better than U6 (on which engine it is based) but the game is less grand in scale and finished much more quickly. There is one showstopper that can ruin your game which I did run into so I never finished it. It's also featured in the now famous Ultima blog: http://bloggingultima.blogspot.com/2007/04/savage-empire-day-1-2.html
It's successor is "Martian Dreams" which I consider a brilliant game with many historic references and a very though-out setting. I had no problems with this game at all and I personally like it much better than U6. http://bloggingultima.blogspot.com/2007/04/martian-dreams-day-1.html
There may be conversions of these two games (Mac/Amiga?) but I never have seen/played them.
Wasteland is a terrific game though I didn't play it much as I'm not into combat systems like Bard's Tale.
However, I finished Fallout 1 and nearly finished Fallout 2 which are somewhat similar and were already ancient when I started to play them.
The game I now wait for is Fallout 3 which maybe a reason to upgrade my hardware - which I seldomly do now.
I agree with your observations on interfaces & graphics, Matt, though I think that graphics aren't the big hindrance here - which is proven by the Wii to some point: Sometimes graphics only need to be "good enough" - it's often more important to get "into the game" quickly and to get instant gratification. For example by *not* fighting a single party fight for minutes (though there are certainly people out there battling for an hour against bosses in J-RPGs). I definitely won't ever fight through the dungeons of U4 or U5 ever again - killing all incentive to touch these games again.
When I analyze the games I play now I come to the conclusion that I favor deep story-based single character non-multiplayer games like Ultima Underworld, System Shock, Deus Ex and most importantly the Dark Project / Thief games - which of course aren't RPGs.
All of these provide good-enough graphics (some even have enhancement packs by fans) and instant gratification. Also the games consist of "levels" that I can work with (=finish) in a sleep-work-play-sleep-cycle.
By the way, the "amazonian" Ultima is called Savage Empire, and it's a good game. The presentation is IMHO a bit better than U6 (on which engine it is based) but the game is less grand in scale and finished much more quickly. There is one showstopper that can ruin your game which I did run into so I never finished it. It's also featured in the now famous Ultima blog:
http://bloggingultima.blogspot.com/2007/04/savage-empire-day-1-2.html
It's successor is "Martian Dreams" which I consider a brilliant game with many historic references and a very though-out setting. I had no problems with this game at all and I personally like it much better than U6.
http://bloggingultima.blogspot.com/2007/04/martian-dreams-day-1.html
There may be conversions of these two games (Mac/Amiga?) but I never have seen/played them.
Wasteland is a terrific game though I didn't play it much as I'm not into combat systems like Bard's Tale.
However, I finished Fallout 1 and nearly finished Fallout 2 which are somewhat similar and were already ancient when I started to play them.
The game I now wait for is Fallout 3 which maybe a reason to upgrade my hardware - which I seldomly do now.
take care,
Calibrator
take care,
Calibrator