Cav's Place

I’m writing this review about a game I played some five years ago, if not more, so the details are understandably far less clear than they should be. Yet the simple fact that I thought to review it and still remember enough to be able to do so after all this time should tell you something of the kind of impression it left on me. Admittedly, at least one of its bad points is part of that lasting impression, but the good far outweighs the bad and there’s at least one particular good part of this game that I’d like to see implemented in a similar or better fashion in many more others. But that unfortunately seems less and less likely, considering the direction the gaming industry is speeding into…

As usual, I’ll start with the game mechanics and say that what impressed me the most in this game was the crafting system. It was very fun to play around with, pretty complex but at the same time rather easy to understand. Back when I played it, which was already four or five years after its release, I started giving it as an example of how a crafting system built into a game should be like, even though of course it also had its flaws. Unfortunately, I have found myself doing the same thing a few times even more recently, because I can’t think of a newer game that’s better in that aspect, so do let me know if you know of one…
Even those flaws I mentioned had less to do with the system itself and more with the available components. Especially towards the end of the game, when you gain access to materials like mithril and meteorite, you should be able to craft some really powerful magical equipment, assuming you have an equally powerful magic user in your party. Such equipment could perhaps require some special blueprints, as long as you had a way to obtain them, but you don’t really have that option. You can find ways to put some pretty useful spells on certain pieces of equipment, but none of it can hold really complex ones and in fact there aren’t all that many basic spells to begin with.

Which leads me to another complaint, though this is probably more a matter of preference: While you wouldn’t manage to get through the game without magic, it often has a support role, physical prowess being more important. Needless to say, that didn’t go too well with me, seeing as I enjoy playing magic users almost exclusively. I think I eventually managed to turn Zak into a pretty powerful magic user who could still hold his own in combat up to a point, but it took a whole lot of effort and he still died way too quickly if the enemies took a real interest in him.
Then again, your characters dying very often and very quickly is something you’ll really get used to during this game, because the difficulty is quite punishing. And that’s on “novice”, because there’s basically no way to play the game on “normal”. They really should have called the difficulty settings “hard” and “impossible”, because the enemies you’ll end up facing are usually at least a match for your party members, and often even stronger, and there usually are far more of them than there are of you. In addition, on the “normal” difficulty level the amount of experience you receive for killing a certain type of enemy decreases the more enemies of that type you kill, so not only are the enemies more powerful but you’ll also be far weaker than you’d be if playing on “novice”, which means that soon enough you’ll bump into enemies who’ll crush you like a bug without you being able to even scratch them.

Yet the combat does work quite well for the most part. It’s nice to see that hurting an enemy’s arms or legs has the effect you’d expect it to have on their attack or movement speed, that a properly chosen and timed spell can completely alter the fate of battle, or that a solid blow to the head or a good backstab can take down even powerful enemies right away. Of course, the enemies can also do all those things to you, so you need to be very careful every step of the way, especially since here you won’t see enemies standing around while you damage them, as it happens even in some really new games, but any who notice you will immediately react and also alert all those who are in sight or hearing range to come to their aid.
However, these realistic reactions, while certainly very welcome, make sneaking around, which is something you’ll often find yourself doing, extremely difficult and at times completely impossible, especially since you can’t run away from enemies. Fortunately, there is a spell called “Fireworks” that, if used right, will usually just draw a single enemy to a location of your choice, so you’ll be able to take care of them. But if that fails you’re in real trouble, because your stamina runs out extremely quickly while your enemies never tire… I would have appreciated the realism to be added in that area as well!

Thankfully, the character development is flexible enough to allow you to respond to these challenges, at least if you play on “novice”, because it uses a system I’m very fond of and unfortunately rarely see: Instead of gaining levels and skill points, you directly spend the experience you earn to improve your characters, and the amount of available experience is pretty much the only thing limiting your options, without things such as class or specialization forcing you to stick to a certain path, though of course you’ll need to focus on just a few skills if you want to become really good at them, especially since gaining a rank in a skill doubles the cost of all the others.
I could also say that the inventory management, or more exactly the lack of it, is another great help, considering how many things you’ll be picking up and, in fact, how many things you’ll need to pick up and carry around if you want to craft really good equipment and advance in the game. That’s because only the weight of your actual equipment matters, while everything else you have in inventory is constantly treated as if stored elsewhere, somewhat like it is in Gothic. Unfortunately, unlike in Gothic, you can’t access your inventory unless you’re at a shop! So if you just found something interesting that you’d like to use or if your equipment is close to being destroyed, you need to rush back to a shop to do so. And sometimes there’s no shop for you to rush back to…

As a side note, considering when it was released, I should really mention that this game looked absolutely stunning. It wasn’t just the quality of the art, but also the style chosen, which appeared to fit just right with the atmosphere. You have to take into account that we’re talking about a game that’s about a decade old, so it had to make do with the hardware capabilities of the time, and that it did wonderfully, making all the different areas you’ll end up exploring come to life as well as could be expected, and sometimes even better than that.

But I mentioned one bad part of this game that made a lasting impression on me and I should now say what it was, because I wasn’t talking about the difficulty. The problem was the story, or more exactly the end of it. There were some pretty nice moments in between, but the main story left a lot to be desired and if you didn’t figure out the “big surprise” saved for the end of the game about halfway through it there must be something seriously wrong with your reasoning abilities. Not to mention that the final fight itself is a major disappointment, as is what happens just before it…

As always, I tend to focus on the negative, making the games I review seem noticeably worse than I actually think they are… You may read what I wrote above and say this is probably not something you’d want to play, but if you enjoy RPGs I really think you should, assuming it would somehow still work with newer operating systems and drivers. In short, I could say that I see it as a great crafting system and a good character development system packaged in a rather pretty but also really challenging game that was probably ahead of its time, so if any of that seems interesting to you, why not try tracking it down?

Got a brief little hug yesterday, when I met Andreea. Was too surprised and feeling too crappy to even get to return it, but it still counts. Since the last one I got was on June 8th, 2007, from Jen, it means a period without hugs of no less than 1138 days, or 1138 days and about two and a half or three hours, to be even more exact, finally came to an end… It’s really sad when a little hug is such a major event, but it really is, so what can I do?
But that wasn’t yesterday’s only notable event. The other was that she took me to a few bookstores she knew of and I recognized one of them. The furniture was slightly different and the kind of books they were selling had changed quite significantly, but I was sure I knew the place the moment I walked in and a few seconds later I also realized how I knew it: Andra had discovered it back in the beginning, when she was visiting me here and dragging me along as she was exploring the city. I even recalled something bought from there, as well as exactly where something else I was interested in but decided against buying at the time was placed. Of course, it’s been some eight years and I said the kind of books they were selling had changed significantly, so what I remembered had nothing to do with what I saw, but I was flooded by memories nevertheless…
Now I guess I’ll have to figure out exactly where that place is, since Andreea got a bit lost at some point and I just tagged along until she could figure out where we were again, because we were in an area I had never been to since I got thrown back here and certainly didn’t have the slightest clue where we were myself. That means I can’t even say I’ll get there by starting from the last place I know how to get to and then going the same way we went yesterday… But I’ll figure it out somehow and then go there myself, even if just for the memories… Would sure be a sight if I’ll end up hunched in a corner and whimpering, but who the fuck cares…

Otherwise, I noticed a few days ago that my old blog was working again and sent Jen an e-mail asking how did that happen, after not working for a month and a half and forcing me to get my own site, and what’s up with the accounts, since I meant to delete everything and just put up a redirect to the new address but found myself unable to log on. Also took the opportunity to ask what does she know and is hiding from me, though of course I didn’t expect any reply seeing as she has been ignoring me completely for quite a few months.
Well, I did get a reply. Actually, she sent me two e-mails. One was a forward with some new account information, which I should use to do what I meant to do, and the other looked like an actual reply to my message. Needless to say, I’m too much of a coward to read that reply, just in case she answered my other question as well and she’ll confirm what I’m fearing, which is nothing short of the worst thing that could possibly happen… I’m only checking my e-mail late at night anyway, after eating, to make sure I’ll at least be able to eat that day, and don’t even feel up to using that new account information to put up that simple page instead of the old blog.

The European Parliament supports extending the minimum maternity leave to 20 weeks on full pay and one of the key reasons given in support of this decision is that it would encourage women to have more children and therefore alleviate Europe’s aging population problem. As if the world’s overpopulation problem and Europe’s overconsumption problem would be irrelevant in face of what is essentially just an economic issue generated by the current economic model. But, of course, that actually is what they are thinking, since money always come first for such people, or at least second, after power.
But in fact the problem is not the duration, as that would actually need to be increased much more, but the “full pay” part. Replace that with “no pay” and the effect would be the exact opposite, since people would know that they won’t be able to have any income for a certain amount of time after having a child and therefore they’d need to have a whole lot of money saved in advance. It’d stop being an incentive and become a penalty, which is what any law dealing with those who have children under the current circumstances must be, because we must think of the world before we think of anything dealing strictly with the systems we have decided to base our society on.
Just imagine what message would be sent by a decision to force both parents to stay home with no pay, and not even allowing them to work from home, for the first year after the birth of the child, and then only let one of them get back to work, making the other still stay home and not work for two more years. Then I could go even further and say that one parent should stay at home, though they could also work from home if they so choose, until the child is about ten years old, though that could vary depending on how quickly the child grows up. Of course, they’d get to choose which one stays home and which one works, because it’s discrimination to only have such laws for mothers, but at least one parent should be made to stay home. This is something that should happen anyway, since parents need to be there for their children, so two serious problems would be tackled by passing such a law and making sure that the parents in question will receive no pay during this time.
I really don’t like to use the current economic system to pressure people into doing the right thing because this economic system is something I wish would be completely destroyed and replaced by something very different very soon, but the overpopulation problem really needs to be solved right away, so anything that can be done right now has to be at least tried. And what I suggest could certainly be done right now. Nobody has the courage to support such a measure, of course, but if someone would have the courage then it could be done, because it doesn’t require any other changes.

But there’s no hope of any of that coming from the current European leaders, no matter what kind of leaders we’re talking about. One only needs to remember that Robert Edwards was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the development of human in vitro fertilization. They said he deserved the prize because his work has helped “treat” a “medical condition” that affects 10% of couples. It certainly never crossed their minds that the “medical condition” in question is in fact a blessing for the world under the current circumstances and should preferably somehow spread to about 90% of people instead of being “treated” even in the 10% in does affect…
Interestingly, Edwards’ work did make it possible for researchers to eventually create human embryonic stem cells, which are extremely useful in treating a large number of serious illnesses, or at least they could be if this field of research would be properly encouraged and funded. But the prize was specifically awarded only for the basic technology behind IVF, the Nobel Committee making it clear that it makes no statement about human embryonic stem cells. Because, of course, praising a technology that could cure so many people that are currently suffering terribly could be seen as a bad thing, but praising one that adds even more people to an already overpopulated world is a good thing…

That’s how the European mind seems to work. Of course, that’s how the human mind seems to work in most cases, regardless of the location. It tends to turn itself off when it comes to the issues that the gonads have something to say about, and the results of that are seen everywhere around us, in more ways than one. But European leaders do have one little argument that they always throw at the very few who dare to challenge them on this issue: The fertility rate is already very low in Europe, they say. And indeed it is below replacement level in nearly all countries, but still two or three times higher than it should be if we are to reduce the population to sustainable levels, especially considering how much the average European citizen consumes and pollutes, compared to the average Asian or African citizen. So this “low” is far from low enough, governments needing to encourage this trend more and more instead of struggling to come up with ways to reverse it.
Yet it’s still only other governments that take suitable action. You won’t see anything like that in the “democratic” Europe because, of course, here it is a person’s right to breed as much as they want, no matter how much that harms everyone else and the world as a whole in the long run. It doesn’t matter that in this same “democratic” Europe people may not have the right to marry the person they love, for example, or that they may find themselves unable to afford medical care, healthy food or even a roof over their heads. Oh no, those things can be set aside for later, but try to say something about a person’s right to spew forth even more people and everybody wants to have your neck!

Didn’t feel sorry for myself on here since I turned 26, did I? I was actually trying to string a few non-personal posts together before trying something else and darting right back under that rock I’ve been living under for the past two and a half weeks or so, but that doesn’t seem to be working at all. Well, there’s also the fact that I’m struggling to write something else as well, so even when I do manage to write it’s not on here, which spells trouble for this blog in the future. But I’ll just have to figure out a way to keep both going I guess. It’s not like I have anything better to do, after all…
Crawled just a little out from underneath that rock for the past few days because I realized there’s really no chance of getting a reply so there’s nothing to be afraid of in that aspect… Which, of course, means I’m just as afraid of the issue itself. I’d say even more afraid, but that’s impossible.
I’m just dirt under toenails for her and pretty much everyone else. And people keep thinking: “He’s harmless. You can do whatever you want and if you just don’t tell him about it he’ll usually find a way to lie to himself and say it’s not so bad. If not, you can always just vanish, since you don’t give a damn about him anyway. It’ll be all right; once he ends up thinking that you are close he’ll never do anything to hurt you on purpose no matter what you do to him, so it’s not like he’ll come after you with a chainsaw or anything, no matter how insane he may appear.” Unfortunately, they keep being right each and every time. And keep vanishing each and every time. But that’s an older issue…
So I’m sitting here and writing this in the middle of the night, thinking of the same things I’m always thinking of, hurting for the same reasons I’m always hurting, worrying about the same things, fearing the same things… That’s what my pointless life is all about. And nobody understands, or in case someone does they firmly disagree. That’s how it always was and that’s how it’ll likely always be. And it’s ironic how I sometimes still manage to tell people to fight to change the world, so things will no longer be like this and people will no longer be hurt in such a way, when it’s all too obvious that it’s not going to happen no matter what.
But hope’s a very hard thing to kill. It’s not the last to die, despite what the saying says, but it is very hard to kill nevertheless. Especially when someone is keeping it alive artificially simply because they need to keep it alive, even though they know it’s not real, such as I do… So perhaps someone will have real hope and somehow be helped by it to create this change… And perhaps something will eventually be all right… Perhaps…

In their misguided fight against what they (as well as other governments and obviously those in the industry) wrongly call piracy, the French government has yet another plan, and this time they want to make it appear nice: People will be able to buy a card worth €50 for only €25, then use it to make music purchases on certain sites. Which you have to admit does sound pretty nice, doesn’t it?
Well, it’s not! Firstly, it’s not nice because the French government doesn’t create those funds out of thin air, but takes them out of what is available, which means out of the taxes paid by French citizens. Secondly, it’s not nice because it supports the music industry as it currently stands, encouraging it to continue the current model of business instead of pressuring it to change. What’s more, it in fact actually forces those who fight for copyright reform and legalized file-sharing to work against themselves, by financially supporting the very things they actively fight against!

The thing is that the concept itself is not bad. I actually strongly support the idea of such cards being made available in as many places as possible so people will be able to use them to charge on-line accounts and then use those accounts to easily and safely purchase digital goods even if they don’t have or simply don’t want to use credit or even debit cards. And exerting some amount of control over the shops that would accept such cards would help in ensuring potential buyers that they are safe to buy from, but also could and should be used to pressure them and the industry as a whole to change. Of course, in order for those shops to sign up to such a project they’d need some incentives, but those should be of a different nature.
In fact, those incentives are the first thing that’d need to be changed in this plan. Instead of the government matching the amount paid by the customer, financing the shop out of taxpayers’ money, the plan could call for reducing or even eliminating some taxes for the shops that agree to take part in the project and respect the terms and conditions. The amounts would need to be calculated to generate roughly the same increase in net profits as the current plan estimates, assuming those levels are the desired ones, so it won’t really make a difference for the shops or for the government’s coffers, but would make a world of difference when it comes to what the plan implies and how ethical it is. Quite simply, if the government would decide to take less money from such shops instead of paying them, the national budget would be hit in exactly the same way, but none of the other taxpayers’ money would go towards subsidizing this industry.
Yes, that’d mean that a card that costs €25 would also be worth exactly €25, but if the tax cuts would mean that the shops could expect similar profits if they’d halve prices it would be assumed that they’d do just that, because those who won’t do it will likely be kicked off the market by those who will. And there’s really no problem with halving prices for digital goods, especially when it comes to songs, because there are basically no costs associated with selling a copy of a song! (When it comes to software or movies, there are some costs associated with it due to file sizes that can even be 1000 times larger than those of songs, which means that the storage space and bandwidth requirements are also much greater, but even in those cases the costs are only a tiny fraction of the current prices and therefore halving said prices wouldn’t be much of a problem.)
After all, the idea should be to force the industry to change, so the terms and conditions should include such a drastic price reduction and not, as the plan currently specifies, simply set a maximum price that would most likely be in the general vicinity of the current prices. But, far more importantly, the first clause that needs to be included is that no shop could possibly be accepted unless the digital goods it sells include no form of DRM whatsoever and do not require the customer to download, install or run anything other than the program or media file they want in order to be able to obtain and use it! And there could also be a clause about a minimum download speed that needs to be guaranteed for all users so those with fast connections won’t need to wait far longer than they’re used to waiting in order to get the files they purchased.

These would be the changes this industry really needs: Make it easy and affordable for people to legally purchase and use digital goods, show that you are willing to meet them halfway, and plenty of them will do so, at least when it comes to the things that they feel are worth their money. That is, if the industry has any intention of ever again working with its customers and not against them, which really doesn’t seem to be the case in the least. Still, markets and governments should act in such a way as to protect the few companies that may still “see the light” when it comes to this and kick out all the others, not the other way around!
But, of course, it’s the industry that currently has a hold on the governments and makes the most out of the current crisis in order to force them to grant it additional benefits at the expense of everyone else, and this practice isn’t likely to change unless a very large number of people will very visibly and actively, possibly also violently if necessary, rebel against it. However, keep in mind that when you ask someone to change something you should also offer them something better to replace it with… So I for one am going to start working out the details of my own version of such a plan, even if only as a stepping stone towards what I really think should happen.