I’m curious … why do so many people dismiss Microsoft’s Project Natal as being casual? Of course it’s casual. Remember: we as “hardcore gamers” are an absolute minority. We aren’t even the tip of the iceberg, we are merely the ice cube put on the tip of the iceberg. Plus, we actually happen to enjoy the casual stuff as well – if only we weren’t so dickheaded and would actually admit it. First and foremost to ourselves.
And in this light Penny Arcade’s comic hits it straight on (pun intended):
UPDATE: i find it interesting how many people find my blog and specifically this post in search for the keyphrases Natal sucks. Wow, you just really hate the fact that Microsoft is about to release an additional device for your Xbox360! How about just ignoring Natal if you don’t like it? There’s no need to buy it then, right? It won’t affect your gaming experience. It doesn’t have to if you don’t allow it. It’s completely optional. Or do you hate the thought that suddenly your mom might want to occupy your Xbox360? And did you also search for “pink Xbox 360 controller sucks”? No, according to google you did not.
In a way it reminds me of the all too common criticism against EA’s sports titles. It’s the same every year and costs as much as any other game. I’m not going to buy it. Whine, whine. So, you don’t buy it, maybe only every other year as i did most of the time. Then you get enough fresh new material for your money. In the meantime, shut up. It’s just a business model that works, it doesn’t mean that the millions of players buying the same game every year are the same buyers. There are a lot of them, and if that’s what they do, let them. But there’s also a lot more who don’t buy the same sports game each and every year but when they buy it, they want to buy the current version. Not the one that’s two or three years old.
There’s no denying after 20+ hours of running and riding around in Ancaria – i’m all into Sacred 2: Fallen Angel. 
However, a disclaimer: i’ve tried the PC version when it came out and i was heavily disappointed. The user interface and generally how playing the game felt somewhat awkward with mouse and keyboard made me put the game away. Now with the Xbox 360 version out, i gave it another shot and to my surprise it plays a lot smoother and just feels more natural on the console!
But it doesn’t come without it’s flaws, i would have almost put it away in the first two hours. The RPG part is completely overdone. You get so many different stats thrown at you that – quite frankly, i stopped caring about the stats. If there are so many, i don’t care for them anymore because each one of them can’t make a big difference anyway and i don’t want to finetune my RPG character like a Formula 1 racing car. And i’d rather enjoy walking around the world, exploring the countryside and completing quests. In addition the tutorial was stuck onto their existing quest interface with a few additional text messages. They don’t help much to understand the intricacies of the game’s design and features, and the game throws too much information at you at the beginning. This is a great example of where less would have been more. Much more.
What got me hooked then? Well, for me personally it was the world itself. Even though the sheer size of it was daunting at first (a more linear start would have helped) i became to love it because it is so beautifully crafted. And in addition, it reminded me of the great level design work that has been done for SpellForce. No wonder if you consider that our Lead Map Designer joined forces with Ascaron.
Then, there’s just a lot of little things to do in this world. It has this “oh, just one more quest” feeling going for it. It is also very relaxing to play being that it rarely throws really dangerous enemies at you. And for me, exploring the world and finding new places is already half the fun, progressing my character and completing quests the other. Even though the writing is … well, i wouldn’t say “lame” per se but it isn’t good writing (english version). The problem with the quests is that it doesn’t get the motives across in a compelling way. Want an example? Ok, so the typical drama in the quest texts goes like this: “You’re back! And you found my daughter. She’s dead, you say? Oh well, at least i now know i don’t have to worry anymore. Thank you anyway.” … errr, no, i’m not exaggerating here! But luckily, the story or dialogue isn’t what’s most important in a hack & slash (some prefer: hack & slay) game – sadly though because i believe it would have added a lot to the world’s “liveliness” or “believability”. Am i making up words here?
Sadly, Ascaron is now insolvent and it’s unsure wether a Sacred 3 will ever see the light – but you know how things go in this business. Maybe JoWooD picks it up and produces an addon for it, developed by a team located in India. They’ve done it with Gothic 3, they’re doing it with SpellForce – producing an addon 3.5 years after release of the original is just … weird – so it wouldn’t be so out of place to think they would do the same with Sacred 2. 
And if there’s one thing i would change about this game right now, it would be to add more teleporters. If there’s anything we learned from SpellForce is that you can’t have enough teleporters. Never!
Also, if you were wondering why i haven’t been writing much lately, Sacred 2 is one reason for that. The other i’m going to blog about in a few days.
Today i’d like to talk about something that is just wrong.
Call of Duty (5) – World at War on the Xbox360 has all the typical Achievements you would expect, including winning missions. As it’s predecessor it has Achievements for completing each mission. Actually there are two: one reads “awarded by completing Mission X on any difficulty” and the other replaces “any difficulty” with “Veteran difficulty”. So you would expect that, like Call of Duty 4, you would get both Achievements by playing on Veteran right away. Wrong! Apparently, for this game “any difficulty” means “any difficulty but Veteran”. Ouch!
Unfortunately, vaguely or even incorrectly detailed Achievements are quite common and not including the information wether an Achievement is gained by playing on the exact difficulty level, or if you get the lower difficulty Achievements by completing the missions/game on a higher difficulty is the most common flaw in Achievements.
I urge every Xbox360 developer to carefully phrase their Achievements. Too often you are left wondering “what the heck?”. Don’t label your Achievements “Ka-Booom!” with a description like “This one is a mystery.” … Achievements aren’t about viral marketing, i don’t want to invest time to figure out how to get a certain Achievement. I also despise Secret Achievements because i know when i see one it’s not a secret at all. It’s just a description i’ll have to look up someplace else, and it’s been a loooooooong time since i last saw a Secret Achievement that actually gave away something about the game you shouldn’t know unless you’ve played it (aka spoilers).
Please!
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