ZZzone

Sunday, July 31, 2005

Neverwinter Nights Impression

This entry about a video game impression is more likely to be read in one of Amazon's consumer reviews columns but just let it go posted here first.

This game is huge, immense I'd more like to say. So unless you are fairly ready to sacrifice some of your precious leisure time with your little disgruntled girlfriend and pretty daring to test her impatience you should just halt there looking for something more urgent to deal with. Nice little warning here first.

I got the game in Futureshop as soon as the game came out in 2002 when it was just few days after I sailed abroad for the first time if I remember right, so it could be the first genuine version software I bought abroad. A big fan of both the Chinese version and English version of the former series Baldur's Gates and other similar Dungeon and Dragon PC game series such as Icewind Dale and Planescape Torment (this one may not be but it really rocks with its outstanding novel), I know there is a guarantee that for me it is worth the money. However, the stupidity is that the fanatical compulsion clouded one's basic judgement as I found out later that the game's minimum configuration requirements just exceed what my notebook could possibly handle at that time, so somehow not until recently did I play it through, together with its two expansion packs Shadow of Undrentide and Hordes of Underdark, and came up with the following words exclusively based on the solo campaigns of the three official modules.

It did not let me down I'll say, even after three years before another following NWN2 is right in projection and supposedly be dished out next year. The 3D engine is often quoted to add criticism like saying it is not advanced enough to meet some fancy needs so that the models may look blocky when camera zooming in, but like the previous Baldur's Gate, the real power of the game much resides in the well designed D&D rules of its latest version applied, which enables you to well experience the very development of your own character in the fantasy world of the forgotten realms. With the newly learned skills, feats and spells of all sorts of classes that can be right off showed before the fierce beasts, and the enriched prestige classes and epic character feats in the expansions, as well as the big assortment of all kinds of powerful magic weapons and items, the game experience may easily surpass one's original expectations. You can either play a half-orc howling and fearless barbarian or an elven cunning and arcane sorcerer, and the game experience may vary substantially because you've got to learned totally different disciplinary skills and feats and used totally different weapons and items. Surely you can multi-classed, say a barbarian/sorcerer, but there is possible arcane spell failure penalty applied if you get some nice-looking armour equipped but feel wanting to cast some nasty spells to dissipate the enemies. Also, you really need to consider experience points penalties when get multi-classed or even further triple-classed (I've got a Wizard/Arcane Archer/Pale Master in the game, man). As a wizard, every spell has its specific subject and area affected, durations, damage inflicted or enhancement applied, saving throw related and such things that can be accessed in the spell book, so you know what it can do and cannot do, thus change your battling tactics against different situation and foes accordingly. All the detailed rules and somesuch seemingly make no sense to a new D&D player but it was just the rules that secure and yield great fun when exploring the depth of the game and produces much much more replay values.

Well, you can focus on your character's growing and hack-n-slash your way through the game till you see some big nasty dragons or the final bosses, just like what you might have already done in Diablo2, and ignore most of the NPCs' dialogues consisting of millions of words, but keep in mind that you can also click your dialogue options more slowly to experience the power of words. One reason to call the game large is its dialogue-oriented style. Every NPC seems to be much more talkative than it would be in real life so you may need get used to be a good listener. Besides the persuade, intimidate, insight etc options that sometimes pop out and the possible success depending on your skill and ability check, the dialogue selections develop many different solutions to a good number of quests you may come across, and can affect your character's alignment depending on your choice, enriching the game experience in another facet. Personalities are well set for some main characters through diverse dialogues with different phraseology or accent and some voice acting as well. Look at those plot writers, it seems that they are telling something that really happened beside them, my lord, those people are unworldly… I hold a strong vote on their names to be on the legendary list of amazing story tellers;)

Hold on, to be continued…

Saturday, July 09, 2005


Ever Remember This Bad Guy?


Cool Portrait of Lv Bu in Koei's Game Sanguozhi X

CCTV Romance of Three Kingdoms Impression

把央视三国演义84集又陆陆续续重新看了一遍,感觉直到今天仍可以说是一部经典作品,也许是沾了原著的光,个人感觉的优缺点如下:

pros:

1。尊重原著,重要剧情和对白与书中比较改动不大,原汁原味;
2。一些小的细节的改动更有味道,有的是为了符合电视剧的表现形式,如刘禅在诸葛亮上表时和宦官嬉笑私语,根本没听进去,还问相父所报何事,有的改动甚至超过原著,如空城计司马闻琴声谈杀气,之后孔明不慎断琴,大惊,冷汗直下,司马闻之亦大惊,肋马狂奔而去,就很有意思;
3。尊重历史,人物服饰、道具、礼仪,场景的布置基本和后汉三国时期的格调相符;
4。重要角色的演员遴选和造型化妆很成功,给人一看就知道是谁的感觉,如董卓吕布,刘关张,曹操诸葛;
5。重要造型演员本身的演绎,对白和神情很到位,做到了神似,特别是刘备的仁、曹操的奸、关羽的义、诸葛的智,都作了很好的诠释,如刘备的哭戏,曹操的奸笑,关羽永远张不开一张开就杀人的丹凤眼,诸葛亮的胸有成竹和鞠躬尽瘁;
6。插曲音乐渲染达到了效果,如吕布骑赤兔时、古城相聚时、败走麦城时、卧龙出山时、刘备结亲时、单刀赴会时、秋风五丈原时,等等,无不感人肺腑,作词者的文学修养无可非议;
7。战争气势渲染得很好,旌旗飘扬,战鼓震天,人喊马嘶,场面大,人数多,南征孟获的战斗很有特色;
8。主题曲和片尾曲,三个字:唱得好!

cons:
1。既然拍了84集为什么不能再多拍一些,把一些大量省去的情节补上,让整个剧本更平衡。特别是东吴那边的事,原著中本身就叙述得少,电视剧里就更少了,看来看去就孙权周瑜张昭几人,全集中在赤壁鳌战了,之前和之后基本没有什么叙述,而且赤壁之战也拍得太详细,书中也只有十来回,电视剧却占了十几集;还有孔明死后直到三分归晋的半个世纪的过程书中有将近二十回的叙述,电视剧里却只有七集,什么毌丘俭叛魏文鸯单骑退雄兵,羊祜陆抗等人全部没有,顶多给句旁白,就算是为了突出三国的主要部分也太省了点,给一般人感觉怎么后来莫名其妙三国就统一了;
2。武戏的确比较粗糙,都只是提刀骑马上去打个照面而已,甚至有搞笑效果;
3。配音口型不对之处比比皆是,配音演员少,老是那几种声音;
4。次要角色的演员换得频繁,甚至包括赵云魏延等人,不同演员差异甚至很大,而且也有一人演多个角色,引起混淆,除了主要人物,这些人物都不能在观众心中留下较深印象和准确定位;
5。个人认为的一些演员不怎么和胃口,就不说了。

目前想到的就这么多。