Hello you lot!

I've been sloshing about on the inactive side of things recently, so I figured I'd write some words about our influences here at RS. I'll let the others post more on what they think, so this will be mostly about what games/etc have influenced me.

I think that after Rooks Keep, you'll start seeing games that are really true to our roots. You'll see more of our influences creeping in with a good ol' helping of RS'ness!

I'll briefly run through a list of things with a short summary on why it's there:

NB: This could be stuffed into the blog at a later point if all goes well
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Doom(1-2): This is really where it began. The theme/setting and gameplay are still timeless.

Quake 1: The theme, level design and sound of Q1 are, quite simply, awesome.

Blood: Blood has a very unique style(mostly in the 1st episode), and I wish more games would experiment with the theme like this.

Unreal 1: Possibly the best SP FPS experience? Why yes! I can't think of any other FPS games since that have done what U1 did.

Diablo 2: The theme! They pulled off the Gothic/Dark fantasy better than perhaps any other I can think of.

Grand Theft Auto (various): Characters! Freedom! Satire!

Assassins Creed: The freedom of movement from this, I reckon, is unparalleled.

STALKER: Very atmospheric, awesome theme. Shame about the often crappy weapons.

Total Annihilation: The immense scale of TA is still unsurpassed. With mods, this is a game to behold!

Warhammer 40k: The theme of WH40k is among my favourites. The thought of the infinite/endless war with untold numbers(akin to TA in this regard), and awesome style that the SpaceMarines and chaos possess is quite something.


May update..

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:Black Eagle's Influences:

These have mostly affected my current thinking...

Unreal 1: No other game as of yet has pulled off the feel unreal 1 did, all alone and thinking for yourself on a beautiful planet filled with it's own goings on as if you weren't there...

Diablo 2: Also for the theme, it was quite something, I also consider Diablo 2 to be the 'classic' RPG in my book, and I base some things around it's structure...

Half-Life 1: A large influence because of it's characters and the same sense of 'growing into the hero' type story that Unreal 1 had, plus the theme was awesome..

GTA: Not just for it's hilarious take on characters and fun gameplay, but it's also one of the few games that has that scale of multiplayer experience, that freedom is something that games need...

Mass Effect: Although I'm not much of a fan of it's theme, it does have a depth that few games have if you really get into it, and I think that is something more games need...

Elder-Scrolls(Oblivion): Not only does it have an awesome world, great freedom and nice gameplay, it has given me great inspiration for games with depth in NPC personality, hidden clues in the world, and the ability to take on the persona of a darker character after dark, unknown to everyone...

Overlord: The parody and crude humor that Overlord has has inspired me to use a portion of such humor in my ideas, and I believe every game MUST have some humor, no matter how dark the theme...

The Witcher: An excellent game all-round and one of the few that has characters with dark personas, and this has inspired me in many ways, no 'goodie two shoes' here!.....

There are others, but I'll leave it there...

Doom, Doom3, and WH40k are some pretty significant sources of inspiration to me.

I love how Doom features a futuristic setting while keeping conventional weapons present as the primary way to kill demons from hell.

I love how Doom 3 brings everything into a futuristic setting yet the futuristic weapons still use wood as a material for some of the weapons.

WH40k offers some impressive artwork, worlds, ideas that are not seen so much elsewhere. Humans might be considered the good guys, except they kill any race that isn't human and treat their own kind as worthless fodder and cheap labor.

It also has a really cool approach to technology, with the people that use it not so sure how it works and generally accept it as magic. Plus some of the weapons are awesome, though I think they look a lot better in miniature scale than in full scale. I do like to try and reimagine some of them as slightly more realistic weapons (Bulldog being my own personal take on the Bolter).

UT2004 with Ballistic Weapons is what inspires me the most, along with Call of Duty: MW2 and 3 (SP Wise).

Unreal 1 yeah for being great

Deus Ex, the open ended gameplay started here, killing or not killing, infiltrating or shooting out the way; choices at every corner
Despite the gun play not being great and most weapons having too much randomness at low levels. A great cyberpunk themed game so far.

STALKER, atmospheric and open ended

Duke Nukem 3D the formula with a charismatic character shouting replicas when you frag, or simply do something in the game was great, formula reused in some other games not all of them worked well but hey this game gave me my first blast.

System shock 2, great atmosphere, complexity and great story

Dark messiah: first person melee combat that feels great

UT 99, my best MP game so far, it pushed forward what unreal 1 had, added new gametypes, mostly the assault mode, and the user created content just added to this game.

Soldier of fortune, yeah just solid gameplay with extreme gore and good gunplay there

Earth 2150, a game with customized units, with real time terrain deformation and tunnels

Total Annihilation; nuff said

Command & conquer generals zero hour; a game without real innovations but with fun because everything has been focused at unit functionality

Fallout, very hardcore turn by turn RPG, post apocalyptic, lots of weapons, great atmosphere and story, somewhat difficult though.

Doom: is what set the bar for FPS and PC gaming.
Heretic: took it to the next level, you could now look and shoot up and down.
Witchaven: Put a new spin on FPS, Melee attacks.
Halo: Was new and unique. Had great game play. Graphics were gorgeous.
Unreal: 1 thro UT3, X-Box and PC Only real objective is to kill or be killed.Game type, style and attribute where so customizable, low grav to instagib.

I've posted mine in the same post under SB's, review it there..

Funny you mention TA, i literally starting playing it again a couple of days ago!

I quite like the 40k universe, its pretty well made! And diablo 2... oh what an amazing game... fond memories there!

Indeed, an excellent RPG, and many great memories, especially in multiplayer...