Enjoying a return to some OLDER games
Lately I have been returning to some familiar games for review in Rise and Shiny. It’s been refreshing to see some of these worlds, that I have not seen in ages, and how nice some of them still look. Or, if they haven’t aged that well graphically, they feature some great systems/races/lore.
Not so long ago I returned to Dark Age of Camelot, but need to make a return visit AGAIN. Right now, though, I am looking at Horizons, or what is now called “Istaria.” Granted, I have a test/press account and so I am finally getting to see some of the high-level stuff, but I am enjoying visiting a brand new character as well. I never gave that game enough of a chance, so now would be a great time (I am going to use it in our group review soon.)
Graphically speaking, many of these games turn people off. But I would ask that a small bit of time is given with the game, a chance for the game to grow on you. I’m not so sure that graphics really turn people off as much as the thought that they might be taking a step back into time does, to a time before some of the “higher quality” games appeared. But let’s be honest: many of the “AAA” games that have been released over the last 5 or 7 years have been near duds, or at least not as successful as their budgets might have demanded.
After all, we enjoy games that look like butt already, or games that are barely MUDs. Facebook style games, iPad and iPhone games…all are doing really, really well right now and many of them even act just like a “real” MMORPG. Gameplay is always king, that’s what I am trying to say. I like the fact that some of these indie studios are still around and still kicking, and now I am in a position to bring some attention to many of them.
It’s a little odd, though, being contacted by developers that want me to try their game, or that disagree with what I find. It’s flattering above all, though. The idea of Rise and Shiny is to let the website, but mainly the game, do all the explaining. I have to essentially act just like a newbie would, if not worse. And now it might start being impossible to do that. Mainly, I have already tried, at some point, almost any game you can think of. The only advantage is that a lot of them were played years ago, so trying them now seems fresh and fun again. But one of the other strange things is verifying that people are reading and paying attention, so my opinion is even tainted a bit by that.
I guess I need to just review and play like I am going to be read, and enjoy the fact that there are many writers out there that are much better than me, that do not have the audience. It is a nice feeling, to have a paying job doing this.
And to be really honest: I love press accounts and access to high-level characters that I would never achieve normally. It’s exciting and shows me sides of the game that I would probably never experience. I’m not going to lie, my passion doesn’t lie in things anymore, unless they are made of pixels.
I hope to keep this up for a long, long time. I also hope to grow an audience so I can help bring independent developers art to a wider audience!
Beau
