While it is criticized by many, often rightfully, Aidyn Chronicles should be, for any Western/PC-style RPG fans, thought of as a pretty good game with some unfortunate flaws. I bought the game four months ago, but stopped an hour in for no good reason. I picked it up again yesterday and I noticed how good it is... yes, it's flawed. It's badly buggy with crash bugs (it's crashed on me several times in just a few hours), 'fall through the polygons' errors (though they reset you to where you started), probably the possibility of irreparably corrupted save files (hasn't happened to me, but supposedly it can), that whole thing about removing the resurrection system at the last minute because there were bugs in it they couldn't fix in time for shipping (understandable, because given its March 2001 release date I'm sure THQ wanted to release the game before the N64 was COMPLETELY dead...), movement is stiff and the camera is pretty awful and not controllable enough, the music is mediocre at best and there often is none (add a great soundtrack to this game and it would make a HUGE difference... the world is interesting to explore, but the sound while you're doing it is kind of bland...), etc...
Behind all of those flaws, however, the actual game is quite good, provided that you like PC-style WRPGs. The battle system is great... why do so many reviews complain? Sure it's a little slow, and you should be able to set formations instead of just having your characters randomly dropped around the battlefield when you go into a fight, but other than that it's great. Being able to actually move makes a huge difference... and here it really does matter, with things like how attacking from the rear gives you bonuses. It's obviously a huge game too, with a big overworld and lots to do and many places to explore both on and off of the main quest path. The script is decently written too... not exactly original, so far, but decently written. The characters are done well and the reason for the hero going on his quest is at least slightly different from usual -- to cure a poisoning instead of the usual "your village was attacked".
It does seem to have a few simplified elements, such as one combined inventory for your party (and no limit on how much you can carry?), and with the permadeath and crashes you MUST save often (but they make up for it by having save anywhere... it does require a controller pak, and 28 blocks per save (and of course it only supports card one, like way too many games on the system :(), but having several save files is essential), but those things don't hurt too much. Characters are reasonably customizable too, with a reasonably complex skill and magic system where which skills you choose to upgrade (or use) will affect character development.
Oh, the magic system is interesting too, requiring spell components you must buy or find that are consumed when you cast spells... casting spells drains some stamina too. Of course the game doesn't tell you your remaining stamina or amount of spell components onscreen all the time; you have to look it up on the pause menu. The pause menu is quite well-designed and comprehensive, though, with a very useful map, journal, inventory screen, and help/saving menus...
Really, the main problem with the game is that its target audience, PC RPG fans, for the most part wasn't on the N64. Maybe on Xbox or X360 it would have done much better... though virtually all Xbox/X360 Western RPGs are released on both the console and PC; this one is console-exclusive, making part of an extremely small subcategory of Western RPGs... and also, on PC they could potentially have patched it to fix all those bugs. Oh well... while it was possibly too ambitious for the system it was running on, it does show design choices that would have been very hard to do on any other console -- the large overworld would have been impossible to do without load times on any other system, for instance. Same goes for the castle... the game as it is has a huge world with absolutely zero loading (well, going through doors or into a battle takes a second. Other than that nothing.), which definitely is showing the advantage of cartridge memory.
Anyway, several hours in, while I can certainly understand why so many people dislike the game, I don't. It's good so far and I'd imagine that if PC RPG fans would actually play it they'd like it, provided that they can deal with the flaws.
They are if they don't give us Sin & Punishment for the Wii VC, given that Europe is about to get it.
... seriously, we need import titles. There are plenty that either have no Japanese in them or are totally intelligible... I don't expect them to translate RPGs or something, but release this one? There's no excuse not to... For another example, for instance, Final Soldier doesn't exactly have any Japanese in it. Why skip over it for US TG16 VC release just because it wasn't released in the US while the other two on the system were?
... so pessimism says that they might not, just to make their fans unhappy? Let's hope that doesn't happen...
I've recently started my bachelor's degree in political science at the Université de Montréal with the goal of eventually doing a master's and entering the Canadian foreign service. With that objective in mind, and because it sounds like so much fun and I've always wanted to do it, I've applied to join the university's delegation to the 2008 NMUN (see title) in New York. For those who don't know what that is, you basically join a team (delegation) who is assigned a country to represent at the United Nations and set up camp at the New York Sheraton, along with delegations from all over the world. Then your team is split into committees who have to prepare position papers on different topics, according to your country's real-world viewpoint, then debate and come to a compromise with the representatives from all the other countries. Plus you get to do all this neat stuff, like meet the ambassador from the country you're representing, and use the actual UN general assembly for a couple hours.
So I successfully passed the written exam, which consisted of two essay questions - "discuss the effect that placing American missile interceptors in Eastern European countries would have on the situation between the US and Russia" and one from a list of questions, I chose "are emerging Eastern countries threatening Western economies?" - and now I have an interview to do tomorrow morning. The selection process is pretty heavy, but I guess it must work 'cause my university placed first two years ago (representing the United States) and in the top five last year (representing Germany).
So basically, wish me luck - also, has anyone ever participated in a NMUN or something similar? Some pointers would be cool.
I call it WinGooie II...
It will completly replace the standard windows task bar...
This new taskbar holds more programs, looks cooler, and gives you thumnails of your open programs when you mouse over an icon for easy selection.
It was a major windows hack, but it is well worth it! Best of all my program switches between the new task bar, and unloads for the old task bar at the touch of a button.
Written in VB.net using Win32 API.
Download Link Soon....
At work now and would like to know if there's a way to make a URL that directs to a different URL. For example, if I made a URL that said http://www.newurl.com that directed to http://www.tcforums.com.
Is it free? what are the steps? thanks in advance.
Dark Jaguar Wrote:Halo 3 is coming out soon and everyones talking about it. I played the second one and it was awesome! Oh you guys will love it! I had this one thing where I would just go crazy with two plasma guns and no one stood a chance and it was awesome!
Dark Jaguar Wrote:Haha! You guys fight about the gayest things! Who cares? Well anyway goodbie ya tools!
Is down. Now I dunno about the rest of you but when i'm writing/drawing/working out/chasing ferrets/picking my nose/staring at a wall and/or cleaning I needs me some music and now.... there's no pandora and that means no Ennio, no Zimmer, no Deathcab and certainly no Nine Inch Nails and this all makes me tight in the ass and like, bored in the thinking department. So when it comes to internet radio and that means good internet radio what do you guys use?
ICQ sucks, and like, MSN is whateva. Or not. I dunno, i'm out of the loop. I black listed -- oh pardon me, I African-American listed IM&M's because it took away the two braincells I have needed to straigten my slinky, so to speak. But from the grace of God or my ferret, Windex, etc I have THREE braincells and am now able to coherently (no) communicate to people while maintaining my straightening efforts and would like to know just what it is the kiddies are using these days to talk 'Jive' and things of or relating to the jive nature.... with..... okay i'll be honest. Trying to find intelligent educated ppl to fuck with in the real world is like forced O'Reily Factor sessions but with more spitting and wrestling.
I'm extremely tired and my nephew just asked me "who's bob marley" and I choked on my cigarette, but yeah i'm tired so i'm trying to make a point which is: what IM bullshit should I get that you all use and that doesn't suck comma space and doesn't slow down an old pooter question mark
