Rage

I've been sitting on this one for a long time. I bought Rage when it came out; I might have preordered it. Hey, I don't have any other id game, they seem to be rather reputable (they made the FPS genre), and a wizard lives there, so you can't go wrong, right? Well, it's easily my third worst gaming disappointment.

Rage Screenshot, driving through one of the many canyons

I was sold on the vehicular combat. I was hoping that there would be vehicular carnage like that of yesterdecades, but there was not. To say that racing is the central part of the game is incorrect. Generally, you have a gun on your car, because everyone else has guns on their cars, and they start attacking you when you drive around to your missions. I'm not sure whether or not the driving feels "arcadey" or not. Though, what racing or game with driving isn't arcadey? Is there any other kind? It's like cameras being "point-and-shoot". Aren't all cameras like that? What camera do you not point at something then "shoot" it?

For all that it is, Rage is beautiful. The wizard seems to have chased all visual duplication, as supposedly there are no repeating textures. I think that is a little overkill. If something came out of the same factory, its sensible for it to have the same texture. Unless there are a few of them beside each other, I won't even notice that the pattern of dirt is the same. Also, this game "weighs" over 20 gigs, so it's fat for a 2011 game. The weapons handle rather well.

The game itself I can't really get into. I simply don't care about the world it presents, and it's only the desire to get to the end that makes me play it. It doesn't end well either. The characters are bland, and they don't do much besides dispense missions and rewards. The story doesn't build up to anything, nor does the action at the end make any real sense. Later on in the game, I was looking at all the dudes with really cool armor, and I wanted a suit of my own or something like it, but nope. The town gradually had more of those dudes, and I was expecting them to suddenly go crazy and wreck the place and start killing everyone, but that didn't happen either.

I have a policy about DLC: I will get it only if I like the game itself. Rage fails that test. I recommend not getting this game. It's like really good origami: pretty, but ultimately flat.

Since you've made it this far, you might be interested in reading:

Taking down a vehicle convoy in the canyons. — Rage 2

Once upon a time, I played Rage. It was a competent FPS, but forgettable. So forgettable that I forgot that it had a sequel. Looking through my Epic Game Store collection, it escaped me that I acquired it at some point. It must have been a freebie once. Judging by the fact I hurried my way through it in 5 days and had fun, Rage 2 is not forgettable, and is, in fact, quite enjoyable.

Skyrim's initial wow, look at that moment, with Bleak Falls Barrow in the distance. — The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Well, I've done it. The dragon is dead, and it only took 97 hours to do it. Let's start at the beginning.

Borderlands screenshot from the Trash Coast area — Borderlands

It's about time that I went back and replayed a game I had, but play it differently. Recently, I realized that I had bought the DLC for the original Borderlands at some point, and decided that I should probably get to playing that. Even though the sequel has been out for some time, it's not that old of a game.

Screenshot of a golden dome — Riven: The Sequel to Myst

Riven is a deceptive game with difficult puzzles. I can kind of see where it's in the same vein as Myst, but it is a different beast altogether. So different, that it's like an installment to The Elder Scrolls or Fallout. This is the first time I've ever played this game, despite having played its predecessor many times over the years. And what do I mean about deceptive? Let's start with that dark bulbous tree thing on the box. That's not in the main Riven age, and you can't even explore it! It doesn't come along until about halfway through, and you see it for about 5 seconds.

Screenshot of the Oregon Trail, about midway through the trip. — The Oregon Trail Deluxe

After doing some spooky games for Halloween, I wondered what games would go well for another part of the year. I realized that the Oregon Trail kinda fits for Thanksgiving, since it's old-timey, and about people moving to a new land. There were several versions, but I had the Oregon Trail Deluxe growing up. Its VGA graphics are more detailed than the original, since it's from about 10 years later. Since the Internet Archive has thousands of DOS-based games, I wondered if they had it. They do!

Project Twentieth Century: Planning