![]() The series is one of the oldest names in computer gaming, first appearing in 1991. I’ve been doing that a bit in the last two weeks with the next-to-last version of Civilization, Civilization V. If I’m playing one of those, I’ll often just leave it on in the background and take a break from writing or other work to play for fifteen or twenty minutes. 4X games that are turn-based, in contrast, tend to be leisurely affairs that may take days to fully play out, whether you’re playing against the computer or other people, and they generally offer fine-grained control over the action of your units. On the other hand, I’ve never liked what are called “real-time” versions of these games, where you typically have to send your armies and commanders against adversaries in battles that you only indirectly control and where speed is typically of the essence. I’ve always been fond of what are called “4X” games (explore, expand, exploit, exterminate) where you begin with a single city, outpost or base and eventually try to control the entire map. (I’m into my second run through Elden Ring now, for example, where I’ve completely changed my character, but it’s mostly boring to me at this point, as the branching points in the narrative are not very compelling and there’s almost nowhere in the gameworld that I didn’t see the first time around.)įor games that are not particularly about narrative content-say, strategic or tactical games-there’s potentially a ton of life in them. This feels like a good thing for some genres and not so great for others.įor games that are built around a single story or adventure, there may be a bit of replayability that comes from choosing another character or making different story-based choices. ![]() The result is that players like me often end up playing some of our favorites from the last decade over and over again, sometimes using player-made modifications and studio-made extra content (“DLC”) to extend the lifespan of the game. (The example of this approach that I have my eyes on most at the moment is Larian Studios’ Baldur’s Gate 3, a role-playing game based on Dungeons & Dragons that was available for purchase in the fall of 2020 but which won’t be finished until some time in 2023.) There’s also a model of “early access” that has ebbed a bit from its highwater mark but is still used by studios trying to develop fairly ambitious games where they use revenues from the sale of an early version of the game to finance the long work of completing the product. And then there’s a lot of smaller, simpler or visually cruder indie releases by small development studios, though often these turn out to be really enjoyable games. There’s sort-of-AAA games that are franchise entries that reuse a lot of the same assets and designs, so they’re easier to develop but also prone to disappointing a lot of buyers. There’s “AAA” games by major studios that have a lot of polish and complexity but take so much money and time to develop that even a company with very deep pockets can only put out a game of this kind every five years or more. The games industry has a somewhat bimodal distribution of products now. ![]() The pace of major game releases has slowed a lot in the last decade.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |