Video Gaming - the essence:

the fun in videogameing comes from solving a problem, in other words, from being creative

the given task has to be solved within a set of rules wich define whats possible and whats not... the most basic task is something like "kill that enemy" or "kill that enemy before you are killed" ... the set of rules is something like "player can move" - "player can jump" - "player has weapon X and deals Y amount of damage every time when button Z is pressed"

with this "set of rules" a player has for instance the task to clear an area off of enemys - and suddenly there is gameplay...

importent to understand is, that every game regardless of type forms a "labyrinth" for the player, who gets his joy by exploring the possibilities and tasks and risks the gamedesigner has created by definig goals, rules and constrains... every ego.shooter can be seen as game where the task is to point the center of the screen at something in the gameworld and to press a button at a specific time... defined by the rules of the game...

so "gameplay" means being creative and solving tasks or to quick react to events to solve situations ... in most cases the motivation for playing or, in other words, the reward for solving a problem is a beautiful, rich, and fantasy bracing gameworld and the pure act of solving a task inside of it...

but there can be a problem with games, wich offer emotional rewards but without demanding that "creative" effort, games like world of warcraft... and even games like god of war and almost every multiplayer-ego.shooter gives much visuls and audio feedback, wich means "reward" for the simple act of pressing a button or a simple kombination of point and click commands...

those easy to accomplish virtual-rewards in such games, wich are essential only present in the mind of the gamer, can function as replacment for necessary real-life rewards and achievments....

PERFECT ENTERTAINMENT - future of video.gaming:

whats entertainment ? ... entertainment offers the possibility to forget or to retreat from real life, from struggles and worries, to expereience something thats something different from the normal routine...

first there where books... and they are still the media wich is able to stimulate and inspire fantasy and mind the most, because of the total absence of visuals and audio... reading creates a virtual world inside the mind...

then there where film and cinema and television... but now, visuals and audio are creating a virtual world from outside and around the mind ... entertainment is fully there because a virtual world in wich normal life struggles can be left behind, is now created by stimulating eye and ear directly ... the border between real-life and as-should-be-life becomes indistinct

importent to understand is, that entertainment is and was always a way to flee from real-life and to forget about things in the past and about things that has to come in the future... the fantasy inspiring effect of books and reading is only an unneeded sideeffect by trying to block the sences from percepting reality... and mankind will not hasitate if better and stronger ways of creating virtual reality become available to use them all to full extention, as in present time happening with games like World of warcraft and SIMs where people exchaging there real-life for a totally virtual existence ... in WoW, players transfer there social identity, activitiy and network into the server-world and in SIMs, people guiding virtual versions of themselfs to a fullfilled life, theyself cant life cause they have to sit in front of a screen, guiding a virtual version of themselfes...

but whats so bad about reality, that everyone wants to be entertaint to death...? well, in real life everything you do, really matters, everything has consequences, you will have to deal with.. so most time, nothing nice takes place...

in a world, only existing to entertain you, there can be no bad consqeuneces, no physical constrains, no real failure... video.games are played , when you where a child, you have played... in a protected world ... in a world defined by clear rules and goals... as a child you lifed in a world in wich you could explore new and interesting things around every corner...

so , the ultimate goal is to create a virtual world, totaly conform with reality but able to create everything the mind can think of, a replacment world in wich the player can exist as boundless child without the need to learn or to grow up...

this is the direction the industry is heading for ... on one side the enormous evolution of realtime 3D graphics, on the other side the heavily industry-driven sales of menchanic input devices like Wii-mote, motion-sensors, cameras, force-feedback etc.

CASUAL and NORMAL gaming:

the difference between them both is simply the "set of rules" and the depht of the "cause-and-effect-tree", wich forms the frame of the game-world in almost every modern type of game...

casusal games have always a very simple set of rules, where the exploring and uncovering of those rules is not part of the creative process anymore... casual games sacrifice a rich and well balanced rule-environment in exachange for "show and effects" ... while normal gaming always needs a layer of abstraction to transfer the gamemechanics, rules and goals, into something resonable, the players fantasy can adapt on, casual games are happening just on that abstract layer where the rules and goals dont need to be resonable at all...

but, also here, the borders are shivering and are not distinct ... that is why we should look at one of those gams that may look insignificant at first, but bears so much inside and under the surface that it can be seen as an outstanding representative of those kind of games, that stay absolut true to its roots but manage to modernize every aspect of itself in unique fashion

HIRED GUNS: JAGGED EDGE - hybrid.genre ... peak of gaming

I expected nothing and I got everything, you know those modern TSG's are a special breed of game, most interesting in my eyes ... combining individual character development, turnbased and realtime strategie, base building and corp- and squad-managment...

the core of the game is a system in wich you get total control over a soldiers actions by spending actionpoints in turns ... those turns are micro-turns and represent a vey short amount of time, so even if you spent hours in combat, the whole situation would probably only last a few minutes if played in realtime without interuption... all actions of the soldier are conected to his abilities, wich are a lot, those abilities form the role of the soldier in combat ... all this is backed by a very detailed modeling of all kinds of real-world weapons and amunition types and accesoires... and there damage... you will have squads up to 6 soldiers, packed with all kinds of equipment... theres an extreme complex and well conected network of values and stats from the characthers the weapons the equipment and so on in place... and everything plays together to bring the most engaging and most dynamic turn-based battles you have seen... the thing is, that everything feels real-time, but the level of control is unmatched and will be ...

it seems like every key-aspect of this hybrid-genre is well thoughtout and polished here ...

you will spend hours and hours on the good designed maps, plotting hardcore.tactics while controlling and issuing every move and action of your mercs, in a very well modeled environment, graphics-wise and in terms of real-world dimensions and timings, this is very important.... because, the game is called to be very hard... yes on medium and even on easy you will have a tough time, but it is not frustrating, just tuogh, and this is good, because it makes those hardcore.tactics, in wich you think over every ability and actionpoint of your soldier twice, necessary... and constant, not to much, saving

the interface and your mercs are giving you all the information you need to plan your steps but the UI does not show any weapon or sight ranges and no hit-probability ... so you need to develop some kind of sence for distances and accuracy and so on...

thanks to the above mentioned superb mapdesign, getting this sence is not difficult and you will quickly feel like acting inside a dense and believable space... forming this believable space is the games big pro... beside the combat missions theres a tactic-mode, in wich you manage your "corp", your mercs, equipment and so on.... you fight to gain controll over terretorries inside the country you have to take over... there are a few opposing factions that will try to get areas back and stuff... this bigger tactic-layer effects the setting and settup of your combat missions... and you will have to make as tough decisions as in the missions itself to ensure the positive outcome for your "corp"....

the overall appereance of the game is vey polished, the graphics and the UI is professionel and the Portrais of the individual Mercs for instance are turning out so well that you will start to pick them after Image and not after stats...

they have not much sentences but some have very distinct charcters, like Shaman or Pitbull ...

you dont find a game where you have so good and deep combat, with charachters such personal as those mercs, embedded in layers over layers of control and details, topped with roleplaying elements, dynmaic factions and multible endings... but its not something for everyone... you have to take control of everything...

the music is clearly 11 out of 10 .... nothing you expect from a game with mercenaries set in the savanna, but the music is so great it gives the game a very unique atmosphere... eventually you will notice when you have listened to the same track since hours and it still gives the motivation to march into a hot and sandy firefight... but I am afraid there are just a few tracks...

How has this not become the official 3. part of Jagged Alliance ?

If you have the full game but not the demo, put this .tga file into the full games launcher.prog ...game/launcher/images ...

http://www.mb-druckservice.de/stuff/0001.tga

replace the 4 original .tga's with 4 copys of it but keep the original names... the demos launcher pic was this ... :D

greetz - and check the demo, its in english

PS: another type of such special-breed games is NEXUS - the jupiter incedent