Re: RPG on 360

Doug Jacobs wrote:
Harris <harishashim@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Since when do offline RPGs need a multiplayer mode?

It is no fun without Co-op mode. All along game console have the
ability to have more than one player.

Most RPGs are offline, single player. I can only think of a few RPGs that
were offline and multiplayer, and those are on the GameCube (though I
don't know if that Zelda title counts as an RPG...) Well, I guess there
were the "Tales..." and Star Ocean titles. There, you could have other
people control the characters in battle - sort of a nifty idea, but when
you're not in battle, those other people have nothing to do but stare at
the screen as the party leader (controller #1) wanders around talking to
people, going from place to place, etc.

Game console has also become and more powerfull. What should we do with
this power? Improve stuff such as graphic, physic, AI, etc. Not to
forget improve gameplay! Co-p RPG play is a must considering how
expensive and powerfull Xbox 360 is.

I personally don't like multiplayer, but if I did, I'd want online play as
it's unusual to have friends over to play a console game.


Over here in Asia, if you have game console you have friends :D

Online play is good! I just hope that game developer did not overlook
offline coop. Overlooking offline coop features is a sad trend in
previous generation console.

Hopefully offline coop in RPG game will make a comeback in powerfull
console like the 360, PS3 and even WII (I hope WII will be more
powerfull then Xbox .. not sure!).

Taken that PS3 is expensive compared to 360. But, let see, a loner
console versus console that have a lot of offline co-op game, shared 2
or 4 person! Which one that people will rather have?

Online, or nothing. Again, I don't have my friends come over to play
video games. We can all do that in the comfort of our own homes, alone.
If we wanted to play together, online would make more sense.


You are making assumption that everyone is having the same scenario as
you. True that online play is very comforting. But, believe me it is
not the same as playing with friend or sibling under one roof. I have
outline the different in my earlier post.

The other thing is that, people have different nature and will want
different thing. And probably this nature and want will differ across
culture and geographic location. I am not surprised if most gamers in
South America will prefer to be what I described in my previous post as
"one loner gamer or multiple loner gamers on online play". But in
general, this does not apply to the Asian market.

I am just making a conjecture here since I really have no idea whether
PS3 will have a lot of offline co-op RPG game. This is just an example
and I am not in anyway saying that PS3 is a better console

Neither the PS1, PS2, or any other console, had many (if ANY) offline
co-op RPGs. And this makes sense if you think about it a bit.
Considering that your typical RPG (not that action-shooter Baldur's Gate
on the PS2) are dozens of hours long. Sure, you might go to a friend's
house to play a few hours...but if the game is 30-50 hours long?


I play both Baldur's Gate series and Gauntlet Seven Sorrows on Xbox
from start to finish with a friend. I play Gauntlet Dark Legacy 3/4 way
with a friend and now waiting for the friend to come back from a long
holiday. It is worth it.

MMORPGs are structured radically different from other RPGs to allow for
the fact that you have players dropping in and out all the time.


MMORPG is online play. So, let say you want to play with a friend or
sibling. This is the step:

1. Buy a PC or console. Don't forget to buy the game.
2. Buy another PC or game console. Don't forget to buy the game
3. Signup with a good and reliable ISP (my ISP sucks, latency is
high!). Make sure you give them money.
4. Skip this step if internet connection can be shared. Otherwise
signup with good and reliable ISP. Give them more money.
5. Register for MMORPG account.Give them money.
6. Register for the second MMORPG account. Don't forget that you have
to give them money again.

The funny thing is you that when you play online you are sending data
to and fro across thousands of miles. Both PC or console can be side
by side or maybe in the next house. Wow! this roxxx!

For offline coop skip step 1 to 5. Save your money and bandwidth for
better purpose like
1. World peace
2. Self enlightenment
3. Suggest way to improve gameplay on alt.games.video.xbox.

We should have game with great single player story AND with offline
co-op ability. What stoping us from having both of this? It is the same
world and the same quest. Just change the third person (loner boy) view
into wider field view for co-op play. It is true that game rules need
to be change too but this is, IMHO just scripting. Shouldn't be that
hard and costly.

The biggest problem I see is that you'd basically be forced to schedule
time with your friend(s) to complete the game - otherwise no one could
play by themselves, right? And if you COULD play without your friend(s),
wouldn't they feel sort of left out if they came back only to find that
you've gone through a large chunk of the game and story without them? Or,
what if you created a game where you could party together with your
friends some of the time, and then go it alone when they weren't around?
Oh, wait, that's exactly what a MMORPG is...


If the friend is not there, I can simply continue on my own. When the
friend come back, it doesnt matter to start back from last position or
to continue my solo game with additional people in the party. Baldur's
gate and Gauntlet allow characters to be loaded at any point of the
game.

One thing to be noted here. Mostly if my friend is not available, I
will just play another game. There really is no reason for me to
complete a game just for the sake of completing the game. I rather
enjoy a game than finishing it prematurely. If it means that I have to
wait for my coop friend and do some rescheduling, then it is worth it.

Hack and slash? This is not necessarily true. With wider field view the
player will have more gameplay option and lot of strategy to take. For
instance:

1. You can see enemy all round you. Hack and slash using sword will
require perfect timing to attack enemy front, back, left and
right.Using bow is fun and chalengging when you are targeting manually.

So you want an arcade game - not a RPG.

You are confusing me here :)


2. With surround view you can have a better strategy for instance
running instead of stand your ground or mixed. With another co-op
player you can run while another player back you up. And then you back
that person up while he/she run. Wide view let you see and make good
use of map terrain to formulate better combat strategy. Most often used
strategy is finding bottle neck to kill lot of enemy.

You might want to check out this series of games called "Gauntlet". It
pretty much satisfies your requirements - offline, multiplayer, "wide
view" with characters sharing the same screen (not split-screen), lots
of hack&slash action, lots of hidden secrets/treasures, and you can
improve stats when your score gets high enough.

I am trying to proove a point here. Gamers on Xbox 360 are going to
miss a lot of RPG fun if developers stick to 3rd person SUCKY/RPG type
of game. The way I see it, SUCKY/RPG is just FPS in third person view.
Not much improvement in gameplay.

Right now, there's only ONE RPG on the 360, so if you're such a big RPG
fan, why do you have a 360 in the first place?


:) I don't have a 360. At least not yet. I hope 360 will have more
titles in the future that meets my expectation.

Just go buy Gauntlet already.

Already done that loooooong time ago! And looking arround for other
similar title on the Xbox. I hope 360 will have better offering by the
end of this year.

Good day!

.

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