The future ages in Empire Earth are my favorite parts of the game. All parts of the game, excluding the Modern Age receive my attention.
Take a look at the screenshot here. It showcases the Nano Age cities with its smooth lines and high-tech architecture.
In the screenshot above is bit more intimate than the other screenshot. It shows multiple Guardian soldiers standing in military formations near the sea. The Guardian soldier is the apex of soldiers in Empire Earth. In the Nano Age, they look more like astronauts with guns than soldiers we recognize.
The AA guns are also another great part of the game.
They are intimidating and look like air guardians waiting to smash any enemy airplanes that approach.
The towers of the Nano Age stand gleaming white alongside the snow and the sea.
This is why Empire Earth still stands among one of the best video games in history. The presentation of the game is awesome.
This is what video games need now. They need an aesthetic vision to help distinguish themselves. Genre orthodoxy is getting in the way and people to embrace some more creativity.
That is the only way that the video game industry can regain some strength. It will take time of course, but breaking out of genre conventions and having some unique vision that goes beyond graphics is what games need in this age.
There will always be room for tinkers working on their gaming pcs; the age however of everyone having to shell money on them is going to give way to cloud streaming games.
I have talked about Nvidia’s GeForce Now many times on here. I think that the service is great for those who have great internet connections and lots of bandwidth. With an internet connection, you do not have worry about the system requirements only the strength of your internet connection and to a lesser extent, the location of your router and bandwidth usage. Such requirements are easier to deal with than the arcane internal structure of computers.
The Strength of Nvidia GeForce Now
The main strength is the ability to play any device you have. This is a major change which will bring more opportunities for different kinds of gamers. One of the issues we have with our gaming industry right now is that there is genre orthodoxy. You simply cannot be syncretic like in the past; your game has to be certain way or have a certain style.
This is where the RTS genre began to stumble after the release of Empire Earth. There was no sense of how the genre could move on with Starcraft breathing down its neck. Starcraft II, while a great game, would ossify the genre and prevent it from growing here. There were many experiments and crossovers such as Activision’s Battlezone series. Such experimentation is rare now.
This is what Nvidia GeForce Now can bring to the table.
What we need in the gaming space is an opening up of the player base. Sometimes we are too arcane in the way we talk about our games. Sometimes we need new perspectives to help innovate. This isn’t to say that our traditions are not important, but we need to take our time to invite newcomers.
This is the only way that the industry can truly start being healthy again. New perspectives will beget risk but no great artform was able to change without someone taking the first step in an uneven river.
In comparison with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Oblivion is very different game in its style. Skyrim takes in a time of change, and it seems that the Septim Empire is no longer the great juggernaut that it once was. It is a time of the Nords reawakening to their ancient imperial past and the Imperials are finding themselves in an age of much greater competition than had existed in Oblivion.
The catalyst of this imperial decline and turmoil? The Oblivion Crisis caused by the Mehrunes Dagon, the Daedric Prince of Destruction. Unlike the other Daedric Princes, he is blatantly a chaotic and vicious entity and the amount of damage he caused by his armies descending upon the Septim Empire can’t really even be seen in the game. However, if we were to think about it realistically within the confines of the lore and culture, the Oblivion Crisis severely weakened the whole empire, causing the Mede Dynasty to come to power and the metaphysical strength of the empire gone and various Mer and Beasts rising to power in their various realms.
Unlike the Dragons in Skyrim, the Oblivion Plane of Mehrunes Dagon is a land of contrast with the land of milk and honey in Cyrodiil in spite of the bandits and the dangerous creatures walking around in that area.
When you enter the Oblivion Gates, the graphics of the Remastered Version showcase the power of the original design with a new coat of paint.
Many games do not even come close to how powerful this demonic realm appears to the player, especially in the new version.
Here is a gallery of photos showcasing the immense weight of the Oblivion Realm.
While it does not have much color variation, the details in the Remastered version are incredible; this is also only on the GeForce Now version. On more powerful computers, the quality must be even higher. The Oblivion Gates are huge contrast to the world outside; everything is twisted and vicious. Even the plants seem demonic and more akin to violence than giving life in this realm. There are no butterflies, no flowers, no lilac pads of any kind. It’s just black rocks soaring into the sky with rivers of lava everywhere.
This is a truly unique experience. It makes you understand why saving the world outside the Oblivion Gates is so important. Unlike the Dragons which are so easily hit by arrows in Skyrim, the separation of the Oblivion Gates from the regular world helps to provide the importance to the mission of the hero in this story.
There is nothing greater in Oblivion than being able to close those gates and reenter the world of Cyrodiil knowing you are standing against the forces of Mehrunes Dagon and engaging in a great struggle of survival.
It is what makes the game interesting and have the weight that has kept it fresh for so many years after its original release in 2006. Oblivion Remastered show that age on a video game can truly make some great wine that everyone wants to enjoy.
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