HOME | DD
KainTheVampireLord β Guardian of Mind
Published: 2014-04-29 15:20:17 +0000 UTC; Views: 2778; Favourites: 80; Downloads: 0
Redirect to original
Description
Acrylic paint 40x50 centimetersSewn the own eyes and mouth shut to deny the outer world though can't escape the nightmares and madness of one's own mind
You have NO permission to use, repost, copy, trace, alter or redistribute this work in any form!
Related content
Comments: 108
The brain looks like entrails, great colouring, powerful work. 
π: 0 β©: 1
Yes the brain of the guy meant to look reminiscent to guts and intestines, I'm glad you like it 
π: 0 β©: 1
I do like it, shit for brains, who or what does it represent?
π: 0 β©: 0
Oh my, this is a different approch on Nupraptor, he looks so calm in his act of self mutilation
π: 0 β©: 2
There was only that little card with less details of him as a base, so used a lot of imagination. Who knows maybe crazy people find pleasure in their own pain
π: 0 β©: 0
Approach* even (typonese be gone!)
π: 0 β©: 0
Alas, poor Nupraptor! For I knew him well!
...Well not really.
π: 0 β©: 1
Kain had a good humour.Β
π: 0 β©: 1
Oddly enough, yes
π: 0 β©: 0
Wow he's really disturbing but really cool at the same time! Always wondered what the guardians would look more like - in a modern game they'd be so detailed compared to the little squares they used to be
π: 0 β©: 1
Thank you
Yes the positive thing about oldie games is you have a bunch of pixels on your screen and imagination and creativity to adapt it to a realistic picture.Β
π: 0 β©: 1
Indeedie 
π: 0 β©: 1
Thought of Rune (it's mostly based on viking mythology) and Heavy Metal FAKK.Β
Tomb Raider classics are my all time favourite of oldie games but never felt like painting Lara, she's just not fitting for the subject of artworks. But maybe for comic art.Β
π: 0 β©: 0
Ohhh myy Godd, you know what, he really scares me lol ! If Ariel saw him I'm sure she loves him much better than when he was a cute human for sure!
Blood Omen is the best of all the LOK series, so horrific and terrible! I love the Circle's members <3!
They are really all mad!
It's good to see it finished, great job as always beautiful and horrific! Best Nupraptor I had ever see !!!
I will be sleep well tonight thanks to this painting xD!
π: 0 β©: 1
Yes a woman like Ariel with a half-rotten face shouldn't complain
I also like Mortanius and Bane the druid from the guardians, they'd be interesting to paint them. Especially Bane, he was just a group of pixels on the screen, lots of freedom to the imagination to adapt him into realism.
Good to know you need to look at creepy guys for a good sleeping
π: 0 β©: 0
Alas, poor Nupraptor, I knew him well... well, not really.
I'm glad to see BO fanart, it has been scarce lately.
π: 0 β©: 1
Kain and his humour
That's true, can meet gazillions of raziels in various situations, but not often can see works related to the original game.Β
π: 0 β©: 1
It looks like most of the fans that are active now are fond of the Soul Reaver saga in particular and don't care much for the original game, most of them probably didn't play it at all. At least that's the impression I have.
π: 0 β©: 1
That's exactly true, they usually didn't played Blood Omen but know Blood Omen 2 and keep bashing it for not being another Soul Reaver game.Β
I'm rather preferring the Blood Omen games and belonging to the rare few who draw SR related stuff in a critic context
π: 0 β©: 1
Me too, I prefer Blood Omen over the others and I was disappointed that Blood Omen 2 didn't resemble the first game. And now there's Nosgoth.
It's a pity the series has taken an entirely different path from its origins, not because I disliked the story from SR and its sequels but because with every new game that was created based on SR, the original plot of BO was left further behind. I guess I'll never see that prequel of BO with Vorador I always wanted.
π: 0 β©: 1
I love both Blood Omens, BO2 was my first of this series, loved it a lot and was very exciting to get BO1 (it was already 13 years old or so when I met the title so wasn't easy to get it) but as much exciting the Blood Omens were as disappointing the SR side was, disliked the story was all about an entirely different character out of the blue and Kain was defiled with that greenie-green thing claiming itself being Kain and all the pathos about the world-saviour rightful vampires made me facepalming what happened to the originally dark and wicked world of Nosgoth. And considering the popularity of Raziel and co. there's no point to expect any more Legacy of Kain titles that are really the legacy of KAIN and not someone else's.Β
That Nosgoth thing is beyond words but on the other hand it was time for the fans of the SR side to get disappointed in their fave title too 
π: 0 β©: 1
I played BO first and when I had the chance of playing the second I was excited because I thought it was going to go back to basics with the arsenal of weapons and the bloody spells but I ended up with the impression that it was more like a 'SR with Kain' kind of deal. Also, the version I played was the one for PS2, it had some annoying glitches like the screen freeze that made me lose progress several times and the controls were very unresponsive. Is no fun like that. I also missed Kain's monologues.
It's good to find someone who also disliked the all 'jolly vampires' setting, I think they made the humans too weak-minded and the vampires too angelic, before Twilight there was Soul Reaver
It wasn't like that at first, things were more even and neither side was particularly good. That was one of the things I like about BO, the way I see it, it wasn't about being a vampire or a human but about a wicked world were everyone is trying use others and how the main character reacts to this situation. Kain was very different too, he still had some of his naivete that blinded him from the truth. Because in the SR saga the story is that Kain was fooled by Ariel when in fact she told him since the beginning that there was no cure vampirism, only death. All that he did afterwards was driven by his own denial, he can't just blame it all on Ariel. Not only they pretty much put Kain aside completely but they also simplified the story a lot.
π: 0 β©: 1
I played it on the pc and already came with a patch so BO2 was glitch-free. I didn't found it any similar to Soul Reaver, that was my major problem with the SR side that it hasn't the slightest reminiscence to either of the Blood Omens. BO2 could rather be the siebling of Rune by Human Head while SR is a picture-perfect Tomb Raider clone.Β
In BO2 we had no cruel spells but had a nice variety of Kain's sadism with various weapons. Loved smashing the victims' faces or crotches with an axe or kicking them when they were on the ground.Β
Haha nice (and true) pair with Twilight
Yes that's what I liked a lot about Blood Omen that nobody was on the good or bad side, the whole world was wicked in which the Β characters used their power to forge their own good. Of course the guardians were Kain's enemies because he meant to kill them, but Kain wasn't the rightful or good person either and he didn't wanted to pose in the good hero's role. And true Kain's vampire nature was an absolutely secondary factor, there were no stoopid humans vs clever vampires thing, Nosgoth was crowded with various creatures as demons, ghouls, trolls, zombies and also wasn't cleared whether the guardians were humans or something supernatural. Kain's vampirism was rather about casting spells and gaining abilities such as mist or wolf form.Β
π: 0 β©: 1
Comparing BO2 to BO and SR, I think the gameplay is closer to SR's. BO has stronger RPG elements while BO2 is more of a straight action game like SR. There's no menu, usable items and stuff like that. BO2 tries to go back to the style of BO but retaining the main mechanics of SR, that's what I meant when I said that.
I was expecting BO2 to have all the skills Kain had in the first game and he doesn't have them, he has different skills based on BO but with mechanics like SR.
If the information given in Neogaf is true, it appears BO2 was similar in origin to SR. They took an unrelated game and turned it into a LoK game which resulted in its particular visual style and the plot holes, like Vorador being inexplicably alive. This is one of the ironies of LoK, a heavily story-driven franchise with a main plot that was stapled together from different games. That's why Kain is so disconnected from the story, while he supposedly is one of the important players, Raziel is the one who does most of the story development. We see again characters like Ariel and Vorador that were so relevant to Kain's first adventure yet the one they deal with is always Raziel. Kain is somewhere else doing who knows what, like he doesn't belong anymore, like if they threw him a bone just because his name is on the title.
What is the legacy of Kain in the end? Anyone who wants to know the answer should play BO to find out because Kain's story ended there, BO2 is a good game but, due to the inconsistencies of the story, I consider it more of a spin-off of the LoK franchise than a sequel of BO. In those terms, there should be a BO3 that polishes the rough edges of the second and perhaps recovers a bit the spirit of the first one
Instead of that, what we got is Nosgoth. A game where both, Kain and Raziel, are somewhere else doing who knows what. All the Raziel fans seem so happy about it, haven't they realized yet the franchise is being rebooted on their noses and that Raziel is unlikely to return? Nosgoth is to Soul Reaver what Soul Reaver was to Blood Omen. It comes to change everything.
π: 0 β©: 1
BO2 is different in gameplay, BO1 is 2-dimensional open world RPG type and BO2 is a third person action game, but that's just the difference of genre, BO2 has no relation to the SR side at all.Β
That's true both BO2 and SR were made of the materials of unrelated games, still the two cases are different as BO2 was made of low budget, Crystal Dynamics didn't invested into a Kain game so the creators did the best of the money they had and that included the necessity of working from the concept of the cancelled Chakan game. But they still took BO1 their base and ignored the SR-side which is very very welcomed. SR1 is a different issue as Silicon Knights didn't wanted to give away either Legacy of Kain or Shifter, still Crystal Dynamics took them and made their own totally unrelated game from Shifter and sold it under the Legacy of Kain title, they didn't meant to take Blood Omen their base, their Soul Reaver game has nothing to do with it at all. Maybe they kept a few names of characters and locations but it's way not enough to call it a sequel when it is absolutely unrelated to the source. They kept calling their world Nosgoth but Crystal's Nosgoth is the place of jolly vampires. They kept Ariel's name who's an emo self-pitying spirit and no more the same character who guided Kain. They kept Kain's name too but honestly I don't see any Kains in the entire SR series, that green creature is the worst joke ever. Still a lot of fans love what Crystal did and in their view the Legacy of Kain title is more associated with Raziel and the Soul Reaver than with the original game, and if you say Kain they recall the image of the greenie-green but not the original Kain character. It's rather the 3 Raziel games I'd call a spin-off.Β
If I try to put logic into these standalone games and call SR the "sequel" of Blood Omen that timeline ended back in the BO1 ea sort of unmade itself (Ariel was released, Raziel forged the reaver with all purifying angelic crap and merged himself with the blade and healed corruption so the SR1 era can't happen again after the events of BO1) so the time bending stuff it resulted by changing the past caused a new timeline to take place abd BO2 happening after BO1. In that meaning BO2 is the end of the story, it's not followed by any raziels and greenie-greens. That's what logic says, but profit say it different to the game company as they'd be mad to make a proper Kain game while it's the Raziel and SR era junk that sells better.Β
That's why this Nosgoth thing is funny, we kept disappointed in series with the SR games and obviously have no chances for a Kain game but now the Raziel fans have no chance either to see the blue zombie on screen again. They keep cussing the Nosgoth game for having no relation to the series, but honesly why they do think the SR did.
Crystal is doing the same they did to Tomb Raider, they made a complete reboot and changed everything about the game from it's treasure hunting genre to Lara's entire character, the whole title is beyond recognition and it sold better than any of Crystal's previous tries to revive Core's game. And that's where it is now, Tomb Raider is now a survival game and no more the Indiana Jones kind of stuff. Same issue with Legacy of Kain, they poked the fans eyes with placing the Nosgoth game into the SR era but the game is a complete reboot unrelated to the previous installments, hopefully Raziel got drowned into a dead-end and exhausted the story enough not to get back to screen again. Fans will buy any unrelated games anyways that has any connection to Soul Reaver, they commented that many times. A few years ago when Crystal created that Warcraft style Tomb Raider game that was a fail at the fans they passed it to the Soul Reaver fans by releasing alternate skin packs included raziel and the greenie-green. SR fans are the top most haters of Tomb Raider, still they bought the game for those skins. (and they never realized whenever they played a Soul Reaver game they actually played Tomb Raider)Β
π: 0 β©: 1
I thought Shifter was a Crystal Dynamics' concept, I remember reading an interview with Amy Hennig where she mentioned her team was working on Shifter after finishing BO and they were ordered to turn it into a LoK game by Crystal Dynamics' executives or something. The conflict with SK and Activision was because Crystal Dynamics was using BO without their consent or involvement. I think that's why SR is not a direct sequel, maybe they got the rights to use the name but not the plot. So they took Shifter's plot and placed it several thousand years after BO to make it feasible.
SR fans are the top most haters of Tomb Raider? LOL Soul Reaver is a TRC. If it weren't for Tomb Raider, Soul Reaver wouldn't exist as such! If they don't like it, that's fine but they should acknowledge Tomb Raider was the base of Soul Reaver and stop the drama. I've seen better games getting a terrible reception just for being accused of TRCs by the critics, Soul Reaver is one of those lucky franchises that got away with copying another game and delivering the same repetitive gameplay over and over without being bashed for it. They should realize how lucky they are their favorite IP got so many sequels despite not being among the best selling of the studio. My favorite game is Primal, one like far more than SR and it wasn't well received because some assholes from Eurogamer and Edge Magazine kept trashing it relentlessly before it was even released. In one single game Primal managed to present a far more complex and consistent plot than the entire SR saga. I'm still waiting for that promised sequel, though I know it's far too late and I'll never happen -Same goes for the BO saga!- meanwhile SR fans got three games and whatever Nosgoth really is. So when I hear these bratty gamers complaining so much I wanna kick their asses, partly because they deserve it, partly because I'm butthurt. I admit it, lol.
I think SR fans are starting to accept Nosgoth and, like you said, whatever game it's released after this, they'll buy it no matter what it is.
I don't like how they're dealing with old IPs nowadays, remaking and rebooting them is not always the best option. Unfortunately even the gamers are being conditioned to want that. They keep asking the companies to reboot or remake they fav games and then they are the first to complain when the story is changed. They seem to forget they were the ones begging for a remake or reboot in the first place. What ever happened to the good old sequels?
π: 0 β©: 1
Shifter's concept belonged to Silicon Knights and they broguth the lawsuit onto CD for taking Blood Omen and the Shifter concept. Maybe SK collaborated with CD, but still Blood Omen is Silicon's work, also met an article telling about Crystal tried to talk Silicon off Kain as in their opinion the character was not marketable because he represented the opposite of the genreic protagonist, that explains why Crystal's first thing was kicking Kain out once they put their paws on the title and put a "loveable" gary stu character into his place as main character and his name got slapped onto that greenie-green secondary character.Β
Doesn't matters how much glue Crystal pours onto Soul Reaver it hardly matches Blood Omen and not going to do so. I rather think they don't bother anymore with glueing the two titles together, instead they shoved aside Blood Omen and any further releases will be built onto the SR era.Β
Yes they do hate Tomb Raider for a very stupid reason: jealousy. They can't deal with the situation that CD invested a lot of money into Lara's games, and wanted them make sequels for Raziel instead. "U like Tomb Raider U-re teh betrayer of Lord Kain and Prinze Raziel and U will rot in hell"Β
Tomb Raider was one of the first third person 3D games of the '90-s and as such it became the most popular title so Crystal's recipe for success was simple, they copied TR and that's why SR became a successful game and overshadowed Blood Omen and not because it was really such an unique and good game. When I played the SR games their puzzles needed not much thinking, rather brought the feeling of deja-vu as I already played the same in TR. Same moves, same acrobatics and same puzzles and environments in 3 years delay (although TR had no retarded block puzzles nor "tough" boss fights like killing Rahab or whoever was that jerk in the water )Β
I heard of Primal but that's for playstation only. My all time faves are the Tomb Raider classic series, Rune, Heavy Metal FAKK and the Monkey Island games.Β
As for the Legacy of Kain series I'm rather malevolent seeing the pain of the fans about the Nosgoth game, they demanded a sequel for years even started petitions for a new game and in the end they got their wish but not in that way they wanted it. Their fave zombie had 3 games and always could see them wanting more "Legacy of Kain with Raziel" but never seen them wanting anything Blood Omen related. Still they'll play Nosgoth saying "oh it has nothing to do with the series but at least it plays in the world we love" and they'll buy any unrelated games that have easter eggs or skin packs referring to SR. Really if you give them a piece of turd and stuck the reaver into it's top the fans would run to buy it.Β
Sometimes it'd be better for the exhausted titles to leave them alone instead of rebooting them to something entirely different. I liked Core killing off Lara when they found nothing more to be pulled out of the TR title but disliked Crystal reviving it with a series based on those not-so-great movies with Angelina Jolie making Lara a naive "I can't kill a fly" typical mary sue character.
Also noticed remakes of old titles get dulled down, the character moves are mostly automatic so don't have to do any actions precise and also takes not much brainwork to beat the game, today's games have less puzzles and everything important on the screen is higlighted or see hints continuously. And of course the necessary game cliches to fit today's requirements with giving detailed info about the main character's life, tragic stuff and some love interest issue. I doubt any of the old titles would be remade in their original form.Β
π: 0 β©: 1
Ha! I should've figured that when I read what she said, Hennig actually made it sound like her team had to help SK to finish the game because their initial concept was very poor 
"Really if you give them a piece of turd and stuck the reaver into it's top the fans would run to buy it. " Lol, I was thinking that same thing earlier today.
Exactly, that's the reason I don't want to see good games being remade or rebooted, not only the entire concept of remaking is just a shorter and less obvious way of saying "we recycle good old IPs so we don't have to risk money on new ideas", but also the newer generation of games are easier and more packed with cliches and stereotyped characters than ever. With Lara what they did was simply to replace her stereotyped appearance with a stereotyped personality and backstory, which is far worse than just an oversized racket. It's what it sells now, there's no more room for originality. All the innovations on the gaming industry were done years ago, now they're just surviving on that. At least the big companies, the indie developers still refuse to follow this model. It's harder for them but the real video game industry has always been like that, the big hits only exist because someone had a great idea and the chance to make it real, putting that kind of risks aside in favor of secured money making it's like bitting the hand that feeds them.
π: 0 β©: 1
Of course she wants to sound like the rightful one
You're right, releasing unrelated games under a well-known (and financially secure) IP is just laziness and title raping. Whenever something is released as (for example) Tomb Raider pr Legacy of Kain related content the publisher can go for sure it'll be sold. And the eyes of some fans can be poked with anything when they say "Crystal turned Legacy of Kain into gold" while if you wrap a piece of turd into a golden foil it'll still remain a turd so even if mr. gary stu Raziel has numerous fans they still butchered the Legacy of Kain title and morphed it into something it never supposed to became. Also seriously dropped down the maturity level, while BO1 was made for adult gamers Raziel was made as simple and stereotyped as possible to give an easy-to-adapt character to the target audience of kids.Β
I liked the classic Lara, maybe her appearance went downhills with proportions (her exaggeration to a "sex-idol" was horrible) but she simply shot everything and everyone who got into her way and kept doing her job, just like in the Indy films nobody digged into Indy's person why he killed the baddies. Crystal's games are rather focusing on the emotional side of the character and gave her a genreic tragic backstory (any soap opera writers could come up with that) really I don't believe a game has to play the psychiatrist with their characters to justify their behaviour and make them the "victim of the circumstances" to present an idolized goodie-good character to the gamers.Β
Recent games feel like canned products, always the same protagonists with the same tragedy around them, only the title and names varying. And can't miss mentioning the movie-to-game adaptations of blockbuster titles, these games are usually rushed together crap that sells by the title as long as the source movie is a top hit at the theaters.Β
Agree I'm rather preferring the indie games, maybe lacking of fancy graphics and long gaming time but still far more enjoyable and original than some of the best-selling top titles of the big companies.Β
π: 0 β©: 1
It's a pity Denis Dyack has garnered such a bad reputation and SR supporters, of course, tend (or better said 'like') to think SK are the bad guys on all of this.
What happened to Tomb Raider is a clear indicator of the tendencies lately, all the stories tend to have all that dense psychological stuff with characters that need to be justified in every detail and every action. And apparently what takes to make a hero out of someone is some terrible personal tragedy that forces them into that path, I think they try too hard because heroes are perceived as being less interesting than villains, so they add the tragedy plot because is a sure way to make a hero character as morally ambiguous as a villain can be. It's funny how they try to present complex characters by using the easiest concept to develop
π: 0 β©: 1
It makes me think the entertainment industry is trying to teach morals and ethics to people by presenting them the ideal personality to adapt in movies and games. These heroes have no flaws and even their reprehensive actions get justified by some personal tragedy. Silicon's Kain is a good example to compare with Raziel, while Kain is violent and sadistic because of the why not, it's the part of his nature being like that, so he wasn't a plausible character to Crystal Dynamics. They created Raziel who's doing violent things too but not because he likes it, rather because the circumstances forced him doing it. And sadly this type of character turned to be the more popular amongst the gamers. That also assumes simple thinking as it's easier to adapt stereotype goodie and baddie characters as everyone grown up on them since the childhood fairy tales but these characters are the most boring and uncreative stuff, seen one, seen them all.Β
I'm rather welcoming stuff like Sin City or the Millennium trilogy where you meet a world which can't be divided to goodies and baddies, the protagonists have twisted morals, not the kind of people anyone would identify with, they're not idolized into a perfect person at all and that's what makes them unforgetable.Β
Dulling down Tomb Raider also shows the need for simpliness of this generation of gamers, I doubt they'd play with the classics claiming the graphics old and the puzzles too difficult as if thinking was a problem. Today's games presenting everything with fancy movie-realistic graphics and easy gameplay, requiring no imagination and no brainwork.Β
π: 0 β©: 1
One other thing that always annoys me about stories like SR's is that humans are always inferior, weaker and stupid whether they the bad or the good guys. That's another stereotype that's popular nowadays, if not always, I even read comments among Nosgoth's players saying why they bother to include a human class, since they're so lame and everyone wants to play in one of the vampire clans. Blood Omen didn't have that, Kain's personality is the same as human or vampire while Raziel is depicted as an evil asshole when he was human and super noble as a vampire. That was really lame and it doesn't make any sense, how can he drop dead as an asshole human and resurrect as a noble vampire?
I hope eventually they move onto something different because I, personally, don't play video games for moral lessons and I don't like how lame human race is in fiction.
I still don't think everything is lost, while most games are the same mainstream stuff aimed at gamers with a lazy brain, every now and then someone makes a really good game.
π: 0 β©: 1
Exactly, those stories focusing on a particular imaginary race the main hero comes from is always superior while others necessarily have to be portrayed as stoopids and weak, unworthy people. There are tons of wannabe vampire fans recently, whether they're the fans of Soul Reaver or Twilight, they're following the same dulled down stereotype. Good point about the human vs vampire self of Raziel, I think Crystal was intended to make human raziel an evil jerk to show the gamer with the simlpliest tools he's a character to be hated while vampire raziel was really the most noble and honourable character who rightfully killed the evil jerk (regardless to the fact all sci-fi fans know that travelling back in past and killing your own past self make your own existing a nonsense) Vampire raziel was so much a naive and innocent character (how can a vampire be like that anyways if not living in Forks) it's impossible to see him as the former fanatical elite warrior. Looking at the fanarts is a good reflection on how Crystal wanted their character to be seen, raziel is always drawn as some prettyboy in his early 20's as the fans see him. He's a typical teen idol, not a warrior.Β
Janos irritated a lot too as the greatest vampire with his monologues about understanding and tolerance as he's the top-most noble and pure person unrightfully murdered by the mob of narrow minded weak and stupid humans.Β
The Avatar movie was a very similar theme (though it was nothing but a plain reimaging of the Pocahontas story) there were those nature-loving and endlessly noble blue creatures and their perfect and peaceful world attacked by the stupid, greedy and selfish humans, all movie fans were on the navi's side of course and at the ending the main character happily left behind his human body to keep on living in that blue avatar body.Β
True Blood Omen wasn't about vampirism in first place, that was rather a background for Kain to put around hum a dark atmosphere and give him special skills that were needed for the gameplay. The "vampires are superior" issue didn't came into picture all along.Β
I don't need moral lessons in games or movies either, got enough of them when growing up, normal people have a need for a rich world with interesting characters in a fiction, and not the same old fairy tale cliches and Marvel superhero characters.Β
π: 0 β©: 1
Exactly, that the reason I play videogames, I want a good story with compelling characters and I don't look for stories based on reality all the time.Β
I think the videogames are simplified because the companies intentionally avoid creating a complex plot, they prefer to focus on impressive graphics and the gamers are getting used to this, even if they don't like how easy these games can be, they still buy them and have a stronger negative reaction to games with good stories but "average" graphics. I'm afraid it's not possible to make games with impressive graphics AND impressive stories very often. It's too costly, so they choose only one and it's usually the visual aspect because they want to show off the capabilities of their console more than anything else.
That's the direction the gaming industry has decided to take. Every year the companies rush more to release a new, more expensive console with games that are visually impressive but incredibly poor in everything else, it looks like they're trying to compete with Hollywood. I remember when I was interested in the PS3 a couple of years ago, I asked someone who had it if the console was good and he told me I wasn't missing much. The games looked great but nothing else.
π: 0 β©: 1
Games, movies, books supposed to be for entertainment to get an excape from the grayness of the daily routine and the real world around so I don't like at all when these media are about reality and can do in a videogame the same things you're doing in real life.Β
That's true companies are not heading for complex plot and keep the gameplay as simple as possible that requires no thinking and anyone can beat them easily. The needs of the average gamers got simplified down too just as they get amazed by the crappiest movie if it's a CGI fest in 3D, they're also blown by the hyper-realism of a videogame even if it gives no gaming challenge.Β
Games used to be stylized before the engines didn't allowed as many polygons as nowadays but it wasn't a bad thing when you had to use your imagination. That's what I like a lot in indie games, though these are short games, their graphics can be really stylish, like when they look handdrawn or cartoonish. And can't rush through them easily, need to think to get to the end of the game.Β
That's it, companies focusing on the graphics side of their games and raising up the system requirements with their newest releases. I found it quite pathetic how mard Square Enix is trying to push on with their survival Tomb Raider game, one thing this reboot warped the original IP beyond recognition, but how many skins can be peeled off the same game as their greatest recent project was it's "enchanced release" for consoles. Honestly what does it change about the gaming experience of the same title if it's coming out with raised number of polygons. Don't like at all companies focusing on the graphic possibilities of consoles, the pc side of gaming seems to recieve less care though there are many people who can play on the pc only and can't afford consoles.Β
π: 0 β©: 1
I miss 2D games, they were stylish in their own way. Not even handhelds have 2D games anymore and I don't think we should consider them outdated just because they're not realist enough, and I've seen very impresive pixel artists out there, they can make realist stuff if they want to.
It's a pity because with the technology these consoles have the developers could create some mind blowing 2D graphics and take this visual style to the next level instead of discarding it like old garbage. It would also bring some very welcome variety and better use of the money because it would allow the developers to make stylish graphics with less money and invest the rest on the other aspects an actual videogame has, like a plot and decent gameplay. And they could be more creative with the use of 3D graphics too. Making a character look like a real person is not a bad goal, sometimes, but there are other ways of using the graphical capabilities of a platform to create cool visuals. Instead, they put millions on making the games look like movies with some minor interaction. They should move to Hollywood, they're obviously working in the wrong industry.
Β
PC gaming should start getting more attention than ever now. Like you said, many gamers can no longer afford a console and their PCs are the best option. The way things are now, I don't think this will change anytime soon, consoles and their games are looking to be more expensive with every new gen. The indie developers will see this soon enough and start focusing more on bringing their games to PCs. I hope this happens, the console market needs something to make it slow way down, the more people choose PC gaming the better.
Β
π: 0 β©: 1
That's why I like GOG.com a lot for re-releasing the oldie games. I like game remakes when the original is too old to run on any computers, but only if the remake doesn't alters the source.Β
If you met Limbo it's a good example of the creative use of 2D graphics for a mindblowing gaming experience, if indie games could rival with the popularity and selling of the products of great companies that game would have put the mainstream games to shame. That game proven sometimes the less can be the more with the silhouette characters and not a single dialogue during the game, it left a great impact the leading companies trying to achieve by pulling the maximum out of the engines of their consoles with graphics and writing epic heroic scenes to their leading characters and long and overcomplicated tragic past that set them on their recent path.Β
That's true many recent games are like interactive movies and you hardly have to do anything for the controlling and to keep the story going, also the moves of the characters are automatic so you don't have to precisely line up the character to jump to the desired direction, also don't have to press many keys for a complex movement, enough to press one key and the character is doing the rest for you.Β
I'm a pc gamer too, can't afford consoles and wouldn't spend a lot of money on gaming machines that can be used for gaming only. A friend of mine said the various release games are not compatible with each console versions so pc-s are better in that meaning too as you can play games on win7 that were released for older OS.
π: 0 β©: 1
I like game remakes when the original is too old to run on any computers, but only if the remake doesn't alters the source.
I completely agree with this, sometimes games are just too old to work and need a software update, specially PC games, but the story should remain the same unless it's a reboot. Reboots, on the other hand, are more frequent than they should. Many rebooted games only needed a graphical and gameplay update.
Too bad Gog can't sell Blood Omen, when they announced the LoK saga was going to be added to their catalog, I hoped for a patched and working BO on newer systems, then I read that Activision refused to grant them permission. If there's a LoK game that deserves a modern remake it's Blood Omen, in my opinion. I'm starting to believe Blood Omnicide will never be released, it's been along time.
Too bad the copyrights of that game seem to be kinda messed up, I don't think Square Enix has any rights over Blood Omen anymore, if the refusal came from Activision I guess BO is theirs.
Hopefully the current situation of console gaming will benefit indies, if they focus on PC games and cheaper but popular consoles, they will caught the attention of all the gamers that turn to these platforms for not being able to buy consoles anymore.
I read the PS Vita was one of these consoles with a fanbase of hardcore gamers and many indies developers supporting it, albeit it is a pricey one but at least more accesible than the PS4. However, Sony recently announced there won't be AAA titles for the handheld anymore, because it's too expensive. They just doomed their own console and screwed Vita owners and all the indies that supported the handheld... the funny part is that they announced it around the same time they released the slim version of the console. Frankly, I don't understand what they're doing.
So PC gaming is looking to be the best option for people who can't afford pricey consoles. Some Android-based consoles offer variety at a lower price but none of these devices are very attractive yet.
π: 0 β©: 1
There's the Monkey Island series, the first two games were for IBM pc totally unplayable on today's machines and got a very decent re-release with stylish cartoony graphics but everything else in the games were kept the same, the 2D point-click gameplay, dialogues, environment. In most cases the remakes of old titles never keep the original content rather making alterings to it that not always a positive thing.Β
The Blood Omnicide project has my respect with their statement saying their work is to remake Blood Omen in it's original context and they don't do any alterings to it to fit the SR side of the series. That's a very respectable thing, I doubt any companies would treat this game the same way. (also it's not the original that have to be changed to fit the add-on anyways)Β
Blood Omen seems to be left abandoned as an uncleared property, also I hate seeing Blood Omen2 stuffed into the same pack with the SR games for selling as it doesn't belong to the Raziel games. Blood Omen's PSP version has Square Enix's logo on it, and the refusal for a pc remake came from Activision, quite messed up who has all the rights over this game. Ironic after all that Silicon Knights was the only owner who cared with this game and after Crystal tried so hard to take it away from them none of the companies seem to have an interest about the property of this game.Β
Still BO1 can be nicely patched to run under Windows7.Β
Not feeling sorry for Sony, they were too over the top with the rivalry with xbox. These companies put their most interest and invested a lot into beating their rival while completely forgot about their users, the average people who only wanted some entertainment with the games.Β
π: 0 β©: 1
That's what bothers me about remakes, for me a remake should focus on updating or improving the technicals aspects of the game in order to re release it for newer systems. There's no reason to change the story and the characters, changing these aspects not only alters the original game but also is not necessary as it doesn't affect the graphical aspect, which is often what needs to be updated, along with whatever glitch or clunky gameplay problem the original game had.
However, remakes often involve deeper changes that make the end result look closer to a reboot than a remake. I support remakes in these terms, when is for the sake of re releasing good old games on newer systems, I'm all up for it. But when they start messing around with key aspects of the game such as the story I don't like it, there's already the risk of seeing the gameplay dulled down, I don't want to see the plot going through the same.
I'm still waiting for Blood Omnicide, I hope they can finish the project. It's the only new LoK game I'm looking foward to play and it should have been a SK project. I hope they can continue making games, BO is lost to them but maybe they can make a spiritual successor of it like they tried with Eternal Darkness
π: 0 β©: 1
Yes remakes more likely adjusting the game to today's requirements, the oldies completely ignored the psychological aspects of the main characters and also their backstory while today's games are often full of emo stuff to justify all the kills or violence of the main character. Dislike the story and dialogue changes too that terribly distorts the original content, also the dulled gameplay that simplifies the whole thing. Requiring some brainwork is not a drawback in a game, at least those who can't think should rather play with the mindless run forward and shoot stuff or cheat with a walkthrough.Β
Oldies would rather need a software and graphics update only, that's what makes Gog.com's work a cool thing though they don't touch the graphics, but the re-releases of the old games work on today's computers.Β
Not sure if I know it right but Blood Omnicide is like a patch on the original game so will need the original anyways.Β
Too Human also seemed a good game, I liked the viking myths adapted to a sci-fi setting and had several things in common with Blood Omen, I just never had the chance to play it as it was released for console only.Β
π: 0 β©: 1
All that effort to make some emo background and profile for the characters ends up being a waste, it's a game after all, if the gameplay is not engaging the players won't care about the rest the game can offer.
Since I can't afford console gaming I read reviews to see how people are reacting to newer games and it's usually the same: too easy, completed 100% of the game on the first try, repetitive gameplay, no replay value. Played it once, put it away to never touch it again.
For all the money people spend on console gaming they should get a better experience, not just nice games that cost a lot and don't even have replay value.
Yes, I think Blood Omnicide works as a patch and an original copy of Blood Omen is required.
I've read mostly bad reviews about Too Human but every now and then there's someone who says they liked the game. It's one of those games you just gotta try yourself and see how is it because, with all the garbage that is said about SK games, it's hard to know what is true.
I visited their forums recently and it looks like they'll continue with the development of their game after all, and it'll be for PC too.
π: 0 β©: 1
That's the movies and books resort to tell us about the background of a character, still the tragic past and emo profile is not a necessary cliche to be used. Flawless and justified characters are boring anyways, they're for children.Β
Games are stylized (or they were) and the entertainment part is getting to the end of the game, solving puzzles, fighting or whatever, the past of the character and long lamenting monologues are not a needed add-on.Β
The too easy gameplay shows on some pc games too, offered challenges such as time trials are dumb as what's the fun in rushing through a game in the shortest time. Completing the games on 100% usually don't offer anything extras, those achievements on Steam are ridiculous, they don't unlock anything, they're just useless badges adding to your profile like the llamas here on dA. Achievements are not a motivation to play again the game.Β
Silicon's games often got pulled down, in Blood Omen's case they were presented as the weak link in the chain so I don't trust the critiques on their games. If I know it right Too Human and Eternal Darkness were amongst the titles ordered to be destroyed so chances gone to play them.Β
π: 0 β©: 1
I think Eternal Darkness wasn't a part of that, the ones ordered to be destroyed were Too Human and X-Men Destiny, along with some unreleased IPs. But the games are not hard to find, there are still plenty of copies on ebay.
Definitely Silicon Knights has always been received coldly by critics and public alike, but sometimes they are given some credit for their work
π: 0 β©: 1
You're right Eternal Darkness wasn't amongst the destroyed titles. Still no chance to play it or Too Human, they were released for console only.Β
Maybe it's their series of lawsuit issues that brought Silicon a bad reputation and they're a too small company to kick back, but their games weren't bad.Β
π: 0 β©: 1
They took a risk with those lawsuits and paid the consequences. Most of their problems came because SK always was a small studio without the capability of self publishing its games. They needed a publisher for Blood Omen and ended up loosing it when the IP proved to have potential.
With Too Human the problems were more complicated but in both cases they lost because they were a small studio without enough resources to develop and maintain the legal rights over their IPs. It's the tough reality of indies when they try to go hand to hand with bigger studios and game companies, hopefully they'll do better now that they're not involved with any major studios anymore. I think the only sponsorship that worked well for them was with Nintendo.
π: 0 β©: 0
Whoa! This somehow reminds me and of one of the God Hands from Berserk manga ^^. I think his name was Void
π: 0 β©: 1
I'm quite unfamiliar with manga characters, but at least he wasn't confused yet with Megamind or the green invaders from Mars attacks.Β
π: 0 β©: 0
interesting piece of art sometimes is also the people that Β control the mind of the person also a friend can control your mind and you are not able to choiche ot act how you wish doing cuz there is no freedom and stay trapped in this abyss without back bu you can save yourself only remove the person doing it yourself you can take back control of your mind and aggire spontaneously with your headΒ Β
π: 0 β©: 1
| Next =>