From what I've heard: Capcom wasn't thrilled with the original, and had no plans of going forward with another one. A small but dedicated team worked on it after hours and pitched it to Capcom, and they green lit it. Thus was born one of the greatest gaming sequels of all time!
Great Review Jamie - one of my favorite aspects of the Mega Man mythos is how the second game came to pass because it was a labor of love project of a team at Capcom who knew Mega Man had a lot of potential as a series.
Also, reading this reminds me of why I love retro reviews so much!
Awesome article Julian! I think how cathardic gaming can be is an often overlooked aspect of it, and it is great to hear how a particular work helped someone pull through a tough time.
Happy 5th Birthday Pixlbit! Congrats to Nick for bringing his dream brought into the world, and to everyone who helps make this site the awesome place that it is!
Have you played The Witcher 2? It has a really good story with lot's of variation due to player choices/allegiances that actually effect the plot. I think you'd enjoy it!
Connecting with an open-world title is very dependent on individual player tastes and overall preferences towards art direction, tone, etc; it has to be a world the player as an individual wants to explore. It's the reason I could never get into the GTA series.
It's all about what kind of experience that a gamer as an individual enjoys the most, and generally each gamer has their own set of priorities in terms of what they are looking to get out of a title. Personally, I feel that when games are strictly bound by directorial narrative, the gameplay tends to take a back seat. I am a serious lover of retro games, and I think a lot of that has to do with the art direction and gameplay being the emphasis, as opposed to the medium trying to shoehorn film-style narrative into gaming. Some gamers don't mind a lack of emphasis on gameplay as long as the narrative is rewarding, I seldom find the experience enjoyable.
Not to say that I believe open-world games are always better, or that they are the end all be all of player experience; I find GTA4 to be one of the most overrated games of all time, and I have really enjoyed TellTale's Walking Dead so far. I do love how open-world games let the gamer experience the world at their own pace, and I'd certainly take Skyrim, Red Dead Redemption, or Dark Souls any day over David Cage's work.
Thankfully, between the vast catalogue of retro titles to today's fairly varied gaming landscape, there truly is something for every gamer that will satisfy their own personal tastes. To each their own!
Actually planning on diving into New Vegas once I finish The Witcher 2 - two massive RPG's to finish back to back, why did I do this to myself haha! I have played a bit of New Vegas, and I am loving the faction/reputation system and the overall "Western" vibe!
Put about 400 or so hours into my first character play through, and never once did it feel like work or I was just going through the motions. Considering how many games today have your interest dwindling about 15 mins to a half hour into playing, this is truly an impressive feat. It isn't only the amount of content in Skyrim that is impressive, but how damn fun, rewarding, and engaging most of that content is!
And agreed, the Daedric quests are quite awesome - do you have a certain favorite Daedric artifact?
I hope so, too! It would actually be worth splurging a little more on memory and a graphics card just to be able to run some of the incredible mods that are out there.
Agreed - the level of detail and to the degree that Skyrim feels like a living, breathing world never ceases to amaze me. I think what really creates a sense of immersion with open-world games is to make the player feel as if they are NOT the center of world; if a game makes you feel like you are just a participant in a living, thriving landscape, and not the sole catalyst for change and growth, than that creates the most believable world.
