Those of you who follow Dungeons and Dragons closely probably know this already, but if you don't, permit me to enlighten you:
Pathfinder is awesome.
Pathfinder, developed by the good folks at Paizo Publishing is a "spin off" product for Dungeons and Dragons, not dissimilar to Ebberon or Dark Sun. But while those are campaign settings, Pathfinder goes a step beyond those and comes with a modified rule set, a "D&D 3.75", if you will.
Paizo, like a lot of people, didn't like the direction that Wizards of the Coast was going in with Dungeons and Dragons 4.0. So, they released Pathfinder, with the blessings of Wizards of the Coast, which I think is something worth celebrating. In an age of ruthless corporate competition, two companies putting a new Intellectual Property first restores a bit of my hope in humanity.
If you liked Dungeons and Dragons 3.5, you will love Pathfinder: The rules are streamlined, they make an effort to balance the classes and the setting is interesting. And the SRD is updated on a semi-regular basis, with the Samurai, Ninja and Gunslinger classes being the latest additions.
But you didn't come to listen to me ramble all day:
Pathfinder SRD
Pathfinder wiki, for setting information
Here's a link to paizo.com to take a look at the various goodies they have to offer.
Friday, August 19, 2011
Friday, July 15, 2011
Chaos Legion
I occasionally buy old games to try if they a) look interesting and b) are cheap. One such game that caught my eye was Chaos Legion.
I had heard about it years before and I was interested: summoning hordes of the damned to do your bidding is always a good time. Plus it was made by Capcom, so I figured "what could go wrong?" Plenty, as it turns out.
I hesitate to declare the game bad, because that implies that the game failed in what it was trying to do. The game play is easily Chaos Legion's strong suit. You can kill dudes easily enough and controlling your Legion minions is simple. There's even a bit of a strategic element when deciding to summon the Legions, as doing so weakens Sieg's (the protagonist) ability to attack with his sword as well as slowing his movement, possibly as a result of the concentration necessary to control them.
Aside from the titular Legions, the game is relentlessly mediocre: you go through bland empty levels, killing bland uninspired enemies, and at the end of each one you receive a piece of bland, poorly exposited plot. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Whoever was working on Chaos Legion clearly put in the minimum effort and moved on, which is a shame because I can't help but feel that a little more work could have made the game much better.
Let's take level three as an example: At the end of the level, a wave of demons arrive to finish off Arcia (the female lead) after picking off the rest of her squad, but Sieg arrives in time to help her out. The problem is you don't learn any of this until after you kill the boss of the level, and Arcia explains her situation in the cut scene that follows. This left me scratching my head because there was no indication given that these demons were hunting anyone besides Sieg, nor did anything in the boss chamber indicate a fight had occurred or that anyone was in need of being rescued.
But if this information had been relayed to me at the beginning of the level, instead of the end, I would say "Oh, it's a rescue mission. That puts this level into context" rather than "Hmm, this level doesn't seem much different than the last one."
The story revealed to you in cut scenes has no impact on the game play and can be safely ignored, because it is silly. The plot twists that come later are either predictable ("You mean I can't control the Legions free of consequence? Gasp!") or have no real value (The reveal of who killed who for what reason has surprisingly little impact on how the endgame plays out, despite how all the main characters talk about it).
If you want to hack your way through hordes of dudes, there are worse ways to spend your time. But if you're looking for a deeper experience, I'd suggest looking elsewhere. I've loved Capcom ever since I picked up a copy of Mega Man X2 and this game hasn't changed that. But I dislike seeing great companies publish mediocre games, especially when it comes to an original Intellectual Property.
I had heard about it years before and I was interested: summoning hordes of the damned to do your bidding is always a good time. Plus it was made by Capcom, so I figured "what could go wrong?" Plenty, as it turns out.
I hesitate to declare the game bad, because that implies that the game failed in what it was trying to do. The game play is easily Chaos Legion's strong suit. You can kill dudes easily enough and controlling your Legion minions is simple. There's even a bit of a strategic element when deciding to summon the Legions, as doing so weakens Sieg's (the protagonist) ability to attack with his sword as well as slowing his movement, possibly as a result of the concentration necessary to control them.
Aside from the titular Legions, the game is relentlessly mediocre: you go through bland empty levels, killing bland uninspired enemies, and at the end of each one you receive a piece of bland, poorly exposited plot. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Whoever was working on Chaos Legion clearly put in the minimum effort and moved on, which is a shame because I can't help but feel that a little more work could have made the game much better.
Let's take level three as an example: At the end of the level, a wave of demons arrive to finish off Arcia (the female lead) after picking off the rest of her squad, but Sieg arrives in time to help her out. The problem is you don't learn any of this until after you kill the boss of the level, and Arcia explains her situation in the cut scene that follows. This left me scratching my head because there was no indication given that these demons were hunting anyone besides Sieg, nor did anything in the boss chamber indicate a fight had occurred or that anyone was in need of being rescued.
But if this information had been relayed to me at the beginning of the level, instead of the end, I would say "Oh, it's a rescue mission. That puts this level into context" rather than "Hmm, this level doesn't seem much different than the last one."
The story revealed to you in cut scenes has no impact on the game play and can be safely ignored, because it is silly. The plot twists that come later are either predictable ("You mean I can't control the Legions free of consequence? Gasp!") or have no real value (The reveal of who killed who for what reason has surprisingly little impact on how the endgame plays out, despite how all the main characters talk about it).
If you want to hack your way through hordes of dudes, there are worse ways to spend your time. But if you're looking for a deeper experience, I'd suggest looking elsewhere. I've loved Capcom ever since I picked up a copy of Mega Man X2 and this game hasn't changed that. But I dislike seeing great companies publish mediocre games, especially when it comes to an original Intellectual Property.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Hello World!
It is I, Jimborg, here to regale you with tales both noble and profane!
This is pretty much my first major project on the internet, due in part to my relentless shyness. But I have found that you cannot be heard if you do not speak, and so compelled, here I am.
I will try to get the Index firing on all cylinders as soon as possible; thankfully our future overlords at Google have made the process pretty easy, so it shouldn't take too long.
I like to share awesome things, and don't want to leave you empty handed on my inaugural post, so I've provided a link to Hiterby Dragons, the Blog of Jenna Katerin Moran. She is one of my favorite writers of pen and paper games and a look at her blog will give you a taste of her rather unique style. If you enjoy Hiterby, then I encourage you to check out her latest work, Nobilis, 3rd edition on drivethrustuff.com.
Hope to talk to you again soon!
This is pretty much my first major project on the internet, due in part to my relentless shyness. But I have found that you cannot be heard if you do not speak, and so compelled, here I am.
I will try to get the Index firing on all cylinders as soon as possible; thankfully our future overlords at Google have made the process pretty easy, so it shouldn't take too long.
I like to share awesome things, and don't want to leave you empty handed on my inaugural post, so I've provided a link to Hiterby Dragons, the Blog of Jenna Katerin Moran. She is one of my favorite writers of pen and paper games and a look at her blog will give you a taste of her rather unique style. If you enjoy Hiterby, then I encourage you to check out her latest work, Nobilis, 3rd edition on drivethrustuff.com.
Hope to talk to you again soon!
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