Shadowrun vs. Shadowrun 67
eToyChest's regular 'I roll 20s' column today looks at the different faces of Shadowrun in the world of Videogames. Before the most recent, ill-conceived, 360 title there were several other attempts to bring the rich cyberpunk-meets-Tolkien world to gamers with controllers. Some met with more success than others. From the article: "In the Genesis Shadowrun, you played an actual Shadowrunner, the sort of guy a corporation would pay to do their dirty work, and then deny the existence of after the fact should things manage to find a fan and hit it. Moreover, you were given the ability to create a character designed after whichever abilities and archetypes you found to be most savory, and as a result, a huge array of hybrid character styles were available, creating a game with a good deal more replay value than most Sega Genesis action RPGs."
Sounds familiar (Score:5, Insightful)
Hmmm, take a product that somebody else produced. Modify it slightly, slap your name tag on it, and sell. Sounds familiar.
Re:Sounds familiar (Score:1)
Re:Sounds familiar (Score:2)
How is this insightful at all? He obviously doesn't know what he's talking about. They didn't modify it slightly, they pretty much screwed the whole thing up. Butchered it, if you will. It bears even less resemblance to Shadowrun than MechAssault does to Mechwarrior (the last license they butchered). Once again, someone gets voted up for taking a shot at MS by mods who don't know
Re:Sounds familiar (Score:2)
Kind of like what the makers of Shadowrun did to Gibson and Tolkien's work?
Re:Sounds familiar (Score:2)
Look, I'm all for giving Gibson props as creator of Cyberpunk or whatever, mainly because I don't care, though I'd probably put in a compelling argument for Philip K. Dick and some other more obscure authors if I did.
But Tolkien? Tolkien didn't create High Fantasy, he just wrote some good High Fantasy books. Heck, I could say Tolkien butchered Grettir's Saga [omacl.org] if I was feeling particularly churlish. (Yes, I know the summary says Tolkien-Gibson, but I don't excuse the ignorance there, either.)
Re:Sounds familiar (Score:2)
Tolkein very explicitly created a world with races of elves, dwarves, trolls, orcs/goblins, halflings and humans. In one case (halflings as food-loving home-makers, for example) he invented the archetype, and he "standardised" the others from various disparate sources in order to make them distinct species. He even invented the elf/dwarf conflict which doesn't e
Other, More obscure authors... (Score:1)
I guess that makes Asimov an obscure author as well, eh?
To be honest, I did not originally find Asimov at first, I found others such as PKD and then was led into sci-fi and then got into the "mainstream" authors.
Just curious how PKD was an obscure author
Re:Sounds familiar (Score:2)
SNES Version (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:SNES Version (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:SNES Version (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:SNES Version (Score:3, Insightful)
Gleh.
Re:SNES Version (Score:2, Informative)
Re:SNES Version (Score:3, Informative)
Trust me, you don't want to read any more. - The Laughing Man
Re:SNES Version (Score:2)
Yup, as detailed in, as I recall, two published adventures and a novel. And Universal Brotherhood was a sweet suppliment.
I actually have a ton of first and second ed Shadowrun splatbooks, adventures and novels (as well as about thirty or so other RPG series) that I'm slowly selling off; if anybody wants something, email me and we'll see if I have it.
Re:SNES Version (Score:1)
dude totally (Score:2)
Re:SNES Version (Score:2)
My impressions with Gibson books (Score:1)
As far as "The Sprawl" trilogy goes I'd say "Mona Lisa Overdrive" gives about as much reading pleasure as "Neuromancer" did ("Neuromancer" still having the definite advantage of creating the genre), "Count Zero" is somewhat weaker but still worth it.
"Mona Lisa Overdrive"'s got some of the funniest dialogue lines I ever came across in a Gibson book, mostly by Sally/Molly, including
Re:SNES Version (Score:2)
Yes, they are. Then, go read Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash and The Diamond Age, in that order. Then you can think about reading Gibson's Virtual Light/Idoru/All Tomorrow's Parties/I think there's one in there I'm forgetting.
Re:Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive (Score:1)
Wasn't the Matrix was based on a Shadowrun novel? (Score:2)
Re:Wasn't the Matrix was based on a Shadowrun nove (Score:2)
very excellent game (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:very excellent game (Score:5, Interesting)
Take the piece of crap Microsoft is making and you have... a big, smelly, piece of crap.
Xbox: The Elephant Graveyard (Score:4, Funny)
It has become the platform where old video game companies and titles get lame and go to die on.
Re:Xbox: The Elephant Graveyard (Score:2)
I'm stuck (Score:2)
Re:I'm stuck (Score:1)
Re:I'm stuck (Score:2)
Genesis Shadowrun (Score:5, Interesting)
I felt it was a lot better than the SNES version, which was incredibly linear. The Genesis version let you free-roam for the most part, in both "the Matrix" and the streets of Seattle, and complete the missions when you wanted. I figure that I looked at it the same way kids look at San Andreas today.
It also made the first Gibson novel I read (when I was thirteen or so) all the more entertaining. "Wait a second, Black ICE, Chiba City, Runs...I know this!"
Tried eBay? (Score:2, Informative)
On eBay I see genesis shadowrun for about 20 USD incl. shipping.
Re:Genesis Shadowrun (Score:2)
Get a Genesis emulator and download the ROM.
Shadowrun vs. The Matrix (Score:2, Insightful)
Now why would I want a Shadowrun game that will, in essence
Re:Shadowrun vs. The Matrix (Score:2, Informative)
An interesting side note - Gibson can't STAND shadowrun. Detests it. Mostly, from what I've heard, because of their "fantasy" concessions - the dragons, the magic, etc. True Gibsonian cyberpunk is straight up technology and its use as a metaphor for the direction of humanity.
Re:Shadowrun vs. The Matrix (Score:2)
Gibson cyberpunk" and it's not supposed to be! If that's what you want there are a ton of games with a setting like that (for instance, Cybepunk).
Gibson can whine about Shadowrun all he wants, but that just says to me that he's too busy dwelling on how they changed things from 'his' setting
and missing out on one of the most interesting (not necessarily original,
Re:Shadowrun vs. The Matrix (Score:1)
Shadowrun vs. Johnny Mnemonic (Score:2)
-Rick
The good ol' days (Score:2, Insightful)
The SNES version was okay, but the Genesis version was always my favorite in that it allowed more customization. Both games allowed you to hire other runners, and I'm not quite sure which one had more to select from, but Genesis gave you the options of either hiring them for a single run or hiring them as permanent com
Rip (Score:4, Informative)
Dystopia (Score:5, Informative)
pompus ass (Score:1, Interesting)
Well, it's nice to see you've got an open mind at least... I take it you've actually played the game even though it's nowhere near finished? I mean otherwise a statement like that would just make you a pompus ass, right?
Well, usually... (Score:2)
When the holder of the license goes "Well, we sold them rights to use the name & backstory, and we didn't demand creative control, or even a veto right... So when they showed us some of the working code, and we were like "That's not our game", they said, "Tough shit." " a fan of the original story
Re:pompus ass (Score:2)
Microsoft's new Shadowrun diverges so far from the classic that the company producing the pen and paper version, FanPro LLC, has all but disowned the title, distancing themselves from the project by explaining that "Microsoft has finally unveiled their Shadowrun FPS computer game for X-box 360 and Windows Vista. Fair warning, however: Microsoft rewrote the timeline and setting for this game, so it is not in continuity with the tabletop RPG. It may be more accurately described as a game loosely based o
Karma will get them (Score:3, Insightful)
Now, I will bad mouth this game every single chance that I get. I hope that they choke on the costs and release the brand to someone who can give us a good game that actually hase something to do with Shadowrun.
Re:Karma will get them (Score:5, Insightful)
Same here. Been GMing the game since the first edition came out.
Initially when I heard that there was going to be a 360 Shadowrun game coming out I had figured it was an RPG and fully intended to purchase one of the consoles solely to play this game.
Then I find out it's to be a first person shooter...and then I hear that they are ripping out the entire history and starting from scratch in a rather warped way...then I see the movie promo for the game and see that it's a deathmatch game with pointy eared avatars, some magic (rocket launchers by any other name...), and what looks to be a rez spell...What the heck? I also seem to recall reading something about magic being a finite resource controlled by possession of a handful of artifacts which seem to be the "prizes/flags" you fight for in the game?!?
Honestly, Microsoft, why did you bother getting the license if you are going to completely gut the entire game world? All you do is annoy those of us who love it...and for people who don't know it, well why would they care about the Shadowrun name being on the game in the first place?
Re:Karma will get them (Score:1)
Re:Karma will get them (Score:2)
http://xbox360movies.ign.com/xbox360/video/articl
Re:Karma will get them (Score:2)
AFAIK When FASA went bust MS picked up the computer game licenses for all their games. It was more a case of "well since we own the license, why not do something with it?".
Earthdawn would make such a good 3d RPG or MMO, t
Re:Karma will get them (Score:1)
This from the game with the slogan "it's only a fleshwound"
Rockstar/Take2 should have taken this over.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Rockstar/Take2 should have taken this over.. (Score:2)
Hell, with the success that Fable and the GTA series had, I would be loved to see a third person shooter/action game base