POWER IS… LOSING CONTROL… UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!

  • Reading time:2 mins read

I would still like to be able to duck, in Morrowind.

I mean. There are two buttons mapped to the menu. There is both an action button and an action-after-you-have-drawn-a-weapon-or-readied-a-spell button. That’s kind of a waste. You can save two buttons there. Put attack on the face action button, and put, say, duck on the trigger. Then allow me to put run on the other face button, so I am not forced to use analog, if I do not wish. As it is, I keep finding myself running when I do not mean to. It will feel better, to my sensibilities, if running is turned into a conscious decision, rather than just a side effect of trying to get somewhere. Or if I have that option, anyway.

I further wonder why both the left stick and the D-pad move the character. Yet more repetition! Yet more waste! Why not allow the player to map four different functions to the pad!

So. Here is my idea of a (fully remappable) control scheme — some of which would entail altering the game mechanics somewhat:

Left stick: character movement (with an analog on/off function)
Right stick: camera movement
Left trigger: jump
Right trigger: ready shield
A: action
B: run
X: sneak
Y: menu (notebook would be included here)
White: use item 1 (equipped on belt, say)
Black: use item 2
D-pad left/down: ready spell
D-pad right/up: ready weapon
Start: pause/save/load
Back: rest
L-stick click: duck
R-stick click: camera change

Yes. This would be nice.

The cat, at some point since last I was in the living room, turned on the PS2 by itself. Somehow.

Shadow Over Bethesda

  • Reading time:1 mins read

by [name redacted]

Neither Vince nor I were entirely sure what we were doing in Bethesda’s private room. While I am as fond of Elder Scrolls as anyone who might be me, I’m not really as versed in Bethesda’s catalogue as I might be.

What we ended up with was a brief demonstration of a couple of the developer’s most recent projects — both licensed, both examples of why a popular license is not necessarily a bad thing in terms of game design.

We stepped in to the middle of a lengthy overview of Pirates of the Caribbean. For a game based off of a movie based off of a theme park attraction, the design is surprisingly deep.

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