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The surprising accessibility of older RPGs
This is a weekly column focusing on "Western" role-playing games: their stories, their histories, their mechanics, their insanity, and their inanity. One major problem with loving role-playing games is that old titles can be hard to accept due to difficulty. RPGs are particularly vulnerable to this because their focus on plot and core mechanics over technology mean that they age well. Fans and critics view games in the genre over a historical continuum of relative equality, instead of simply making the assumption that better technology makes for better games.While mechanics and storylines may be roughly comparable, interfaces have definitely improved, and this is the problem. It's one thing to say that Wizardry VI has the best and most complex class system in gaming, but quite another to try to play it without knowing that you need to draw or find maps of its dungeon. Alternately, I can't count the number of people who I convince to try the original Fallout, only to see them getting frustrated at its difficulty spikes, lack of effective auto-save, and occasionally obtuse item manipulations. It happens to me to sometimes, especially with games that I didn't play when I was younger, which is why I was surprised recently to fall in love with Might & Magic III: Isles Of Terra.
A mighty good deal on Might and Magic games
Do you like vintage first-person RPGs? Do you have a decent supply of graph paper at hand? If so, Good Old Games has an offer on Might and Magic classics that could provide you with thousands of hours of gameplay for a pittance.The site has has added the Might and Magic 6-Pack to its shop, which is essentially the same as the Might and Magic VI Limited Edition. It packages the first six Might and Magic games bundled together, with (digital) bonus materials like soundtracks and maps. The whole package sells for just 10 bucks! Considering that we'd get lost about fifteen minutes into the first one and never finish it, the set offers infinite gameplay.[Via Big Download]
