The Avid Coder

I am not a fan of the original Fallout games. I suppose by the time I got around to playing it, too much time had passed since its release and comparing it to other games in terms of graphics and controls was just too tempting. I could never get used to the turn based action point style of play: for me it somehow removed an element of fun and immersion from the games. So when I heard that Fallout 3 was officially in production I was not all that excited; that is until I heard that Bethesda were the ones developing it. Suddenly I started imagining the Fallout background and the post-nuclear-holocaust setting combined with the technology and gameplay behind Morrowind and Oblivion. Suddenly the tables were turned – Fallout 3 could turn out to be a great game.

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When I first heard that there was a sequel to Far Cry in the works I was very excited. I liked Far Cry, until the monsters came and the main character suddenly became some ghastly mutated being with feral powers. Then I heard that CryTek was not going to be developing Far Cry 2, but that it would instead be a team from Ubisoft. That caused my interest to wither a bit, but I kept an eye on the game nonetheless. When I saw the first videos of the game my interest was piqued once again. Seeing the game is set in Africa, and seeing how well they managed to recreate the African atmosphere made me very excited for the potential of the game. The combat shown in the videos also gave me the impression that this was going to be a strong shooter. Then the game was finally released, and with great anticipation I started to play it, but alas after a couple of hours I disappointedly quit the game, realising that the faults of the game outweighed its strengths.

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I had high hopes for Spore. After Will Wright’s success with The Sims and The Sims 2 and their respective collosal lists of expansion packs one cannot be blamed for suspecting that Will Wright knows a thing or two about making games. So when Spore was announced I immediately started paying attention. As more and more details emerged I became ever more excited about the game. A game about evolution? Interesting. You can create and shape the course of your creatures’ evolution? Cool. The final phase will be a massive space-age where you can battle, ally and trade with other races? Wow, yes please. Then they announced what sounded like the gem that would complete this would-be crown of a game: your creations, those of your friends and every other player will be shared through an online service, free of charge. This means endless free content, every planet could be truly unique: populated with life created by countless individuals around the world! This is a game that sounds great on paper, and maybe it was great at some stage during its development as well. What we ended up with though is something that is only half of what we came to expect.

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