Some praise for Arena
Kevin Murnane
however, IMHO it's a pretty neat game. Granted I haven't played it all
that much (escaped from the sewers, explored the first town, escorted
some damsels, explored outside and partially explored a crypt) but so far
it has been alot of fun. Yes, it is slow on full detail but I'm happy
to be able to slow it down; at full speed the people in town zoom around
so fast it's hard to talk to them (I'm using a 486/50 with 16 MB RAM).
Although it appears that the simple money making jobs are fairly
repetitious and have little to do with any kind of storyline, there do
seem to be more involved quests (e.g., get the $ to buy some info about
Phynaster's ring, find the crypt, find the map and then??). Many of the
typical role playing elements are well done. Nice magic system, good
variety in armor, weapons and spells (and a very interesting design-your-
own-spell routine), and a lot of magic potions, items, weapons etc.
I think the graphics are outstanding. The cities at night are spectacular.
I'm especially enjoying the view from Ebonheart in Morrowind with the
volcano looming over the city in the dark. Wow! The light sourcing is
wonderful. Combat isn't as mindless as it may first appear because the
different strokes have different to-hit probabilities and damage modifiers
(although it still is pretty mindless). I've jumped around to a few
cities and done some exploring around a few provinces just to see what
they look like and, so far, there appears to be quite a bit of variety
in the graphics. I keep coming upon neat new stuff. Although I think
there is virtually no chance I'll put in the million hours it would
take to thoroughly explore this world, I may end up spending many happy
hours with this game. It does have one whole hell of a lot of bugs but
if Bethesda follows through with quick patches I can live with the
critters.
* Dr. Kevin Murnane Cognitive Science *
* Department of Psychology KX...@psuvm.psu.edu *
* Penn State University (814)863-3921 *
* University Park PA 16802 *
Jeffery Thomas
Kevin Murnane <KX...@psuvm.psu.edu> wrote:
>Elder Scrolls: Arena has been getting some nasty press in this newsgroup
>however, IMHO it's a pretty neat game. Granted I haven't played it all
>that much (escaped from the sewers, explored the first town, escorted
>some damsels, explored outside and partially explored a crypt) but so fa
>it has been alot of fun. Yes, it is slow on full detail but I'm happy
>to be able to slow it down; at full speed the people in town zoom around
>so fast it's hard to talk to them (I'm using a 486/50 with 16 MB RAM).
>Although it appears that the simple money making jobs are fairly
>repetitious and have little to do with any kind of storyline, there do
>seem to be more involved quests (e.g., get the $ to buy some info about
>Phynaster's ring, find the crypt, find the map and then??). Many of the
>typical role playing elements are well done. Nice magic system, good
>variety in armor, weapons and spells (and a very interesting design-your
>own-spell routine), and a lot of magic potions, items, weapons etc.
>I think the graphics are outstanding. The cities at night are spectacul
r.
>I'm especially enjoying the view from Ebonheart in Morrowind with the
>volcano looming over the city in the dark. Wow! The light sourcing is
>wonderful. Combat isn't as mindless as it may first appear because the
>different strokes have different to-hit probabilities and damage modifie
s
>(although it still is pretty mindless). I've jumped around to a few
>cities and done some exploring around a few provinces just to see what
>they look like and, so far, there appears to be quite a bit of variety
>in the graphics. I keep coming upon neat new stuff. Although I think
>there is virtually no chance I'll put in the million hours it would
>take to thoroughly explore this world, I may end up spending many happy
>hours with this game. It does have one whole hell of a lot of bugs but
>if Bethesda follows through with quick patches I can live with the
>critters.
>
>* Dr. Kevin Murnane Cognitive Science *
>* Department of Psychology KX...@psuvm.psu.edu *
>* Penn State University (814)863-3921 *
>* University Park PA 16802 *
There's already one patch out available off Compuserve, GENie, etc.
The patch allows one to delete spells from the Spellbook, speeds up
the talk process by allow the talk boxes to just pop on and off rather
than pixellate, and a number of other things.
Jeff T.
Douglas Lee Erickson
>In article <94058.03...@psuvm.psu.edu>,
>Kevin Murnane <KX...@psuvm.psu.edu> wrote:
>>Elder Scrolls: Arena has been getting some nasty press in this newsgroup
>>however, IMHO it's a pretty neat game. Granted I haven't played it all
>>that much (escaped from the sewers, explored the first town, escorted
>>some damsels, explored outside and partially explored a crypt) but so fa
I was really pleasantly surprised by this game, after how wretched
the demo appeared to be. I took a gamble and picked up a copy, and I haven't
enjoyed an exploration-oriented game since _Faery Tale Adventure_ for the
Amiga. I'm *really* surpised by the variety of locales: the crypts, farmhouses,
etc.., to be originally designed (ie: not repetitive), and the sheer size of
the land awes me. I've spent a good 20 or so hours just exploring post-sewers,
raiding crypts and lurking around in the fog and night.
I agree, too, the light sourcing and the nighttime sequences are
incredible, as well as the rainfall/snowfall/fog effects. It's especially
intense at night, when you are wandering around the sprawling countryside, and
you see the dim outline of a building on the horizon, only to discover it's
a crypt or Necromancer temple! Ruuuunnnnnnn....... :) Also, the friendly glow
of the windows and streetlights make civilization actually seem like
civilization, and those deserted areas can really get spooky.
That aside, if you want to prevent the memory list errors cropping up
all the time, make a boot disk with QEMM etc.. on it, plus SmartDrv to speed
up disk access time. I'm running it with 616K avaiable and have yet to have
a memery list error, and with SmartDrv, the access time was halved. Also, turn
the detail down! The only thing it effects is how far into the horizon you can
see, and even on it's lowest level, I really don't notice anything. I'm running
off a 486 DX33 VLB system with 8 megs, and it fairly flies in the overworld.
It's a little slower underground, but still faster than UW2.
I think Bethesda has done an outstanding job, and if they can just
fic that annoying pop-up monster effect, it might just be my favorite role-
playing game this year. I am an exceptionally difficult customer to satisfy,
and this is the first RPG since UWII to capture my attention and suspend my
disbelief so effectively. WHile not everybody will agree, I still say to
check it out, especially if you have a fast system. Likes or dislikes aside,
I still think Bethesda deserves some kudos for creating such a massive,
interactive, texture-mapped world, and still retain a solid degree of
playability. And for timing the release to coincide so perfectly with my
Spring Break...:D
Doug.