Yeah last bundle was awesome, I wanted Race the Sun >.< I had no monies to use though. Going to give like 10 cents for the Mobile Bundle, Doodle God and Doodle Devil sound interesting and I mean I don't even have to give much, lol.
Oh, now don't do that. When you give that little, HB loses money. At least give a dollar.
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On another note, I bought Shadow of Mordor the other day ($30
here for those interested (Steam), and yes, it's region free and in English). It was well worth the price I paid. Pretty much Batman mixed with AssCreed, but unique enough to stand on its own. The Nemesis system is easily the game's greatest feature. The idea of creating unscripted relationships between a player and their enemy is truly brilliant, and I really want to see more games do something like this. Open-World games are often restricted by that lack of organic content. In the Sims (which they said was one of their inspirations for this), everything that happens is sort of based on this. Sims will interact with others, think about others, and even live out their average lives based on their relationships and encounters with those characters. It makes a game that has no story or basis feel personal. The relationship isn't scripted and, as a result, every surprise feels less synthetic.
With Open World games, though, you run into the problem that, when the story's over, the clock starts ticking. You feel less inclined to play the game because you've fulfilled one of those things that either drove you or, despite not acknowledging it you kept on the backburner, so even though there are other things you can do, you feel less inclined to do them. There may be people in the games that you know, but they won't really remember you, they'll just respond as their relationship dictates. This is why the Nemesis system is brilliant and needs to catch on.
To make an already long post even longer, let me recount the battle I had with my rival, Nurag. Nurag was an average captain with little prestige and renown. One day, I waltzed in with my Caragor, a vicious mount (and wild animal) that can be encountered in the game, named Agro (after the horse from Shadow of the Colossus). He was my first mount, and little did I know, one of Nurag's strengths was Monster Slaying. I stormed his stronghold and fought side by side with Agro. Nurag killed Agro rather quickly, growing in power as a result. I, barely believing my eyes, went after him in a blind rage, only to have been killed by him. I quickly went after him again and again, him often calling me out for having been beaten by him, and would often either day or run with my tail between my legs. After a while, he became cold and demeaning, going so far as to strike me down and walk away rather than dealing the final blow, deeming me unworthy of death at his hand because I'd proven in the past that I was so little of a match for him. At that point, I wasn't even his rival, but my story, my goal in the game, was to kill him. After each encounter, and even when I didn't go after him, his power would rise, and he became one of the strongest generals. I'd created my own endgame boss.
It's that type of unrestricted, unscripted storytelling, and with an enemy no less, that makes a game feel more personal. He wasn't just calling out my character, he was calling
me out. I previously mentioned in that discussion about Elder Scrolls that I wanted ES to be more personal, saying that it puts more emphasis on action rather than choice and character development as a fighter and a protagonist rather than a person in a world living a life, but this game, which is almost devoid of life aspects, manages to put emphasis on action and the former character development rather while still creating a personal experience. If a system like this were extended to other things, such as more mutual and friendly relationships with characters, mercantilism, life aspects, so an and so forth, or even just other characters in a game- creating a world that is truly shifting and developing in a way that feels realistic and makes the aspects feel more 3-dimensional, I could see the Open-World genre evolving into something that is more vibrant and alive.
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Oh, and thanks for the birthday wish!