» Thu Dec 15, 2011 1:26 pm
I pesronaly think every game ever made has svcked or was a failure since playing Arena in the mid 90's. How can anything compare in open world to an actual open WORLD? It had almost everything, werewolves, wereboars, vampires, An Entire Continent! not just one part of it, but the Whole Thing! Yes Yes, ever since Arena they've had to focus on smaller portions of Tamerial and limit content because of improved graphical engines and consumer demands for more involved mechanics which requires more programmers and years of work, because they are not happy with random generated terrain, but I look back at all the things that didn't make it, Horses with Wagons, buyable ships, taking out loans from banks in small provinces and fleeing the country. Killing bandits and raiding tombs, loading up ALL their stuff in your wagon and taking it back to town to unload and barter entire stocks of goods. We have seen lots of things be lost of shelved over the years in Elder Scrolls, but they were left out in favor of things the general consumer says they require, flashy graphics, realistic physics, forensic approved blood droplets and much more impressive magical effects, all of which requires enormous amounts of time and work that takes precedence over things like massive open worlds, purchasable ships that are used as homes that can also be sailed from port to port ect. The learning curve has been lowered too, I remember when learning magic from an institution in Arena and Daggerfall was almost like bartering your soul, the mages were unhelpful, suspicious and insulting. They would teach you for large sums of gold but they were pretty sure you would just kill yourself with the knowledge. Now they are rather nice and helpful, offering tips and discounts and free use of enchanting stations ect. Whatever happened to the overly hostile city guards who treated you like a possible terrorist everytime you entered the city telling you to keep your hands to yourself and showed up with 4 or 5 backup guards to take you into custody? Atleast those rough, vocal city guards talk to you first before drawing blades and taking swings at you, in later games they would just start swinging if you were trespassing. It had horse mounted combat, it was a bit over powered since you could ride back and forth smacking guards in the face with a sword without them getting their hands on you, but saddly that was taken out in later games as well since it became much much harder to code in and took more time then they were allowed in development.
What breaks my heart is knowing that we will probably never see a game as open as Arena was ever again, they had all the time in the world and no expectations when making that game. Today its all about time limits, publishers, expectations and hype. Yes I still play Arena, on a mini laptop I drag around to occasionally pop open and play around in my virtual world, some day i'll pay off that loan I ditched out on in hammerfell... someday..