20 years ago was the tail end of the shareware boom, which is a different approach to "freemium". In that model, developers created a great game (Wolfenstein, Doom, Duke Nukem, Jazz Jackrabbit, Quake, OMF 2097, etc) and gave you a sizable, fully playable chunk of it for free as promotion.

The difference is, back then there was not much attention paid to "casual gaming". Games were designed to be fun and challenging. Times have changed and now games are designed to be easy and addictive instead.

Today's freemium model is more like video poker. It's not much fun but you keep putting money in because of the potential for an easy reward. That's the mechanic that keeps gambling addicts going back to the casinos and it's also the business model that makes "casual gaming" so profitable without having to make good games.

Yeah, but there's using history as a basis for say, an alternate history or dystopia (a la Wolfenstein), and there's sensationalizing actual history while retaining a veneer of authenticity.

Not a big fan of the latter, I think you inevitably end up with a lot of people believing it to be accurate, as I think happens a lot with the AC series.

Who said anything about "thought provoking meaningful experience"? =)

You're doing what all classic internet "experts" (ie. arrogant twats who think their opinion is the last word on everything) do, creating a fallacious argument to launch your scathing invective at while missing the point entirely. If you tried to bolt depth on to a title like Wolfenstein, you'd be undermining the core of the game, which is Nazi destroying mayhem. Do you really need a complex story arc giving you motivation to kill a thousand mecha-SS riding T-Rexs? Of course not.

A game does not require depth to be fun. Certainly there are plenty of indie games that also indulge in the "no depth all action" genre (http://www.crimsonland.com/ as a classic example).

I do have to correct one error in my previous post however, it's not a stick up your ass. It's your head... ; )

Sry, how is that a bad thing?

Doom/Wolfenstein/Serious Sam etc, all guns, no depth, tonnes of fucking fun...

Depth can be vastly overrated, particularly when you're trying to stitch it on to something that glories in you getting your bad on and crushing the Nazi scourge in to paste. It doesn't need depth.

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Actually, I never found them all, always ended up two secrets short by the time the mechanized Führer showed up.>> ^ant:
Haha, me too. But do you remember ALL the secrets in the whole game?

>> ^radx:

Even 20 years later, I still remember which of those wall tiles provide access to secret areas, yet I can't remember what I had for lunch on Friday. Way to go, brain.


Haha, me too. But do you remember ALL the secrets in the whole game? I am bad with DOOM 1-2 as well. Ah, my teen(age) days.

>> ^radx:

Mein Leben!


Guten tag!

*step four: change your underwear (again)

(I don't have to worry, because I kick ass in Wolfenstein 3D)

>> ^radx:

0:54 -- "Mein Leben!"
Many a night was spent playing Wolfenstein 3D.


"My Life!" in English. Also, "Guten tag" and others.

0:54 -- "Mein Leben!"

Many a night was spent playing Wolfenstein 3D.

>> ^Grimm:

dead


Fixed and thanks.

Thanks for the promote!

Tex Murphy was the series that got me into PC games and I've yet to find a series of games that matches it, particularly, as you say, in terms of tone and storytelling.

Everything they did was so ahead of their time. They made a full, free-roaming 3D adventure when about the only 3D out there was Wolfenstein and Doom. The FMV was also a great benefit to the game, because it's so much better at getting across emotions - something that isn't effectively done in most games. It was also well-acted compared to so much other stuff out there.

My fondest gaming memories are of Tex and this chance to finally see him back in action has me just as passionate about the games as I was 15 years ago. Here's hoping!