Hey Man, well this is Babylon

I’m slowly falling out of love (again) with Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition. My love affair with this game has been a tumultuous one, I admit. When I first perused the leaked PDF copies pre-release, I practically loathed it. It did not seem the game for me. When I finally got a chance to actually play it, I was wowed by the tightness of its combat mechanics, the interoperability of the team roles, and the constant awareness of all your available options. In recent times I fought a brief addiction to the process of character-building, very similar to a previous addiction I had when first introduced to 3rd Edition’s drastic rules changes.

But now I feel that fling coming to an end (again?). The big kicker for me this time are the jolting unnatural transitions between the game’s core modes of play. In no other tabletop game do the words “Okay, everyone, roll for initiative” make me cringe so deeply. The switchover from Talk-Time to Fight-Time is so drastic, sudden, and severe that it breaks me out of my imaginative reverie and reminds me that yes, I really am only here to grind mobs for XP.

Consider these transitions as if they were part of a Japanese video RPG. These games have three basic modes. In Exploration Mode you move Your Guy around a typically disproportionately-represented dungeon, town, or world map. Sometimes you interact with the scenery when exclamation points appear above Your Guy’s head. Sometimes you talk to other NPCs in the game setting, most of which just repeat the same lines of dialog every time you select the talk command. Read more

Last night I played 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons with some folks here in town, getting my very first actual play experience with the new system from Wizards of the Coast. All the guys were spot-on fellas, and I had a lot of fun. Yes, I do look forward to playing again, too. Can ya believe it? Anyway, here are some of my thoughts on 4th Edition so far, and some of my mixed reactions to the game. Yes, there is a good bit of griping ahead, but like I said, I do hope to find out more as the system unfolds. Read more

Some miscellaneous gaming-related tidbits today, about Primal, Resident Evil 5, and yet another game company saying no to 4th Edition.

On Video Games

Last night on a whim I pulled Bethany’s copy of Primal off the shelf and gave it a spin through the PS3. My soon-to-follow reaction: why the hell have I not heard of this game before? The gameplay is pretty fantastic, aside from a handful of control lags here and there, and I really love games with well-implemented buddy mechanics and associated puzzles (especially those of the non-ridiculous type). My favorite part? Getting to hear one of the last performances by the extremely talented, late and lamented Andreas Katsulas, as the game protagonist’s gargoyle companion Skree. Rest in Peace, G’Kar.

I’ll likely post a more in-depth review of it after I give it some more quality play time.

Also, Capcom has leaked that the controls for the new Resident Evil 5 game may actually include side-stepping and shoot-while-moving features. This, of course, excites me. The lack of such features is why I still can’t stand the gameplay of Resident Evil 4, and I’m sure that including them in the new game will ensure that Bethany and I will be playing it co-op for many, many hours. Read more