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              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC">volume 
                1, issue 41</font></b></font></p>
              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC"> 
                </font></b></font></p>
              <p>  <p><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono"><b><font color="#339900" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Today 
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        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0022A8"><b><a target="" href="../../corner/index.html"><font size="-1">Beaker's 
          Bent</font></a><font size="-1">:</font></b></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+3" color="#0022A8"><br>
          The Baldur's Gate Rant</font></p>
        <p align="RIGHT"><font color="#804000"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By 
          Rich &quot;<a target="_self" href="mailto:rich@loonygames.com">Beaker</a>&quot; 
          Wyckoff</font></b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The point is that BG is just 
          not a great game. The engine really isn't that special - it doesn't 
          actually look better than a tile-based game could look nowadays, and 
          simultaneously it has a totally non-interactive world because of its 
          vaunted lack of tiles. The spell effects are remarkably lame and undistinguished 
          and in the awful old style it has hundreds of NPCs who look exactly 
          the same and say exactly the same trite sentence over and over again 
          adding nothing but yawns and reducing the overall realism rather than 
          adding to it. Its interface is awkward and its battle system, all that's 
          left to an RPG when there aren't complex story or item-manipulation 
          puzzles like in <b>Ultima</b>, varies between requiring no user intervention 
          or too much to make the player really feel in control.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">So it is all the more frustrating 
          to read certain high-flown gaming sites crowing about how BG has "raised 
          the bar for RPGs." Raised it from what? 0 to 1? On a scale of 100? I 
          look ahead at the forthcoming RPGs and I don't see it getting a lot 
          better - a couple weak-looking <b>Diablo</b> clones, the <b>Planescape</b> 
          game based on the BG engine, which despite seeming to concentrate on 
          being a better adventure than BG will be unlikely to overcome the basic 
          engine shortcomings, and<b> Pool of Radiance II </b>which despite its 
          Gold Box heritage currently looks an awful lot likea <b>Baldur's Gate</b> 

          clone.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Diablo II is the only game 
          resembling a traditional RPG that I'm currently looking forward to, 
          but only because I enjoyed the simplistic action-oriented hack and slash 
          of the first one and not because I'm expecting much more in the way 
          of actual RPG-like depth to the adventure than the first <b>Diablo</b> 
          - just a lot more levels and monsters and weapons and skills. Perhaps 
          I'll be surprised, but after BG, it's better not to expect too much 
          from anything. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I guess there's a reason 
          why I said near the start of this article that I <i>used</i> to call 
          myself an RPG fan. There are other games that I'm really looking forward 
          to, like <b>Deus Ex</b> and of course <b>Final Fantasy</b> VIII, but 
          I wouldn't really call either of these an RPG, not like I used to know 
          them. I'll always hold out hope that I might be wrong about this, but 
          I'm beginning to think the traditional RPG is dead. It sure isn't growing 
          and evolving, like a living thing would, and it seems to me that the 
          occasional signs of life we've seen for the last few years have been 
          little more than reflexive twitches after death.</font></p>
        <p>&nbsp; </p>
        <p align="right"><i><font size="-1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">- 
          Rich Wyckoff is a professional game designer.</font></i></p>
        <p align="RIGHT">&nbsp;</p>
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    <td><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2"><b>Credits:</b> 
      Beaker's Bent logo illustrated by and is &copy; 1999 Dan Zalkus. Beaker's 
      Bent is &copy; 1999 Rich Wyckoff. All other content is &copy; 1998 <a target="_self" href="http://www.loonyboi.com">loonyboi 
      productions</a>. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited, so don't 
      do it. We have ways of making you talk.</font></i></td>
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