What All is Wrong With Gothic 1's Back Cover

I was looking at a few games on my shelf recently and decided to grab a few and take a closer look at them. Upon closer inspection, I realized that a lot of what's printed on the back of the box for Gothic 1 is straight up wrong or subtly misleading. I'm not sure if this is due to basic ignorance, as if the person writing these blurbs on the back of the box had no first-hand experience with the game and was simply making stuff up based on general statements they'd been told by someone else, or if it's a deliberate marketing spin to try to sell the game. This has no bearing on the quality of the actual game, of course, and I don't think it even affects anyone anywhere anymore anyway anytime since anyone buying Gothic for the first time is likely buying it digitally based on word of mouth, not what's printed on the back of the box. Most people won't ever even see the back cover unless they own a physical copy or deliberately search for pictures of it. Anyway, since I found this so interesting, I figured I'd share these observations with you and give you a quick rundown on what all is wrong with the back cover.

Prey: My Favorite Game of This Decade

Prey is a science-fiction-themed first-person shooter from 2006, in which you play as a Cherokee named Tommy running loose on an alien spaceship as he tries to rescue his girlfriend, Jen, after they're both abducted in an alien invasion. Built on the Doom 3 engine, it plays pretty much like a standard Doom-style corridor-crawler of that era. What makes it noteworthy, besides its convoluted 11-year development cycle and infamously-canceled sequel, is its implementation of mind-bending alien technology that allows you to move through dimensional portals, change gravity, and shrink to minuscule sizes, in addition to its array of strange alien weaponry. I pre-ordered the "Limited Collector's Edition" back in the day and enjoyed the game well enough (it's still on my shelf), but never felt a fanatical attachment to it.

Prey is also a science-fiction-themed first-person immersive-simulator from 2017, in which you play as Morgan Yu making his (or her -- you choose your gender) inaugural trip to the moon-orbiting research station Talos I. Once you arrive, you discover that the station has been attacked by a strange alien lifeform; most of its crew is dead, many of its systems are out of operation, and you have seemingly no way off the station. The rest of the game sees Morgan piecing the history together of what happened to Talos I and its crew while combining stealth, combat, hacking, and alien abilities (among many other skills and options) in an open-ended system that gives you a lot of freedom about how you complete objectives and how you play your character. This new Prey, in fact, bears no resemblance to the original Prey, having absolutely no connection except for the name.

Conceived by developer Arkane Studios (Arx Fatalis, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, Dishonored) as a spiritual successor to System Shock 2, the name Prey was given to the game by publisher Bethesda, who owned the trademark ever since they picked up the publishing rights to Prey 2, which they canceled several years ago. With no official work being done on Prey 2, I guess they wanted to get some kind of use out of the name that they'd already bought, and since Arkane's pitch of surviving an alien attack on a space station vaguely matched the theme and basic concepts of the Prey license (in addition to making linguistic sense -- the aliens prey on human life), they decided to go with it. Hence Prey (2017) having the same name as the 2006 cult hit, even though it is, essentially, System Shock 3.

None of that really matters, though, because the game is great. I'm a big fan of the style of games pioneered by Looking Glass Studios (and similar developers, some of them borne directly from Looking Glass survivors) in the late 90s and early 2000s like Thief, System Shock 2, Deus Ex, Vampire Bloodlines, and so on, and I've enjoyed every game that Arkane has ever created. Putting Arkane in charge of a System Shock-like game is like a match made in heaven, and they pulled it off with near-perfect mastery. Prey is what I wanted BioShock to be, since it's a much more faithful adaptation of the System Shock 2 formula, and plays a lot like those games I mentioned previously, except with the added benefit of modern production values. It ticks every box for things I enjoy in video games; it's one of the most enjoyable games I've ever played, and it's my favorite game to have come out in this decade.

The Nocturnal Rambler is Now on Patreon!

Some more news to go with the other minor changes I've made to the blog: I've decided to launch on Patreon. I've been running this blog long enough (nearly seven years) that I figure it's time I start trying to capitalize on the work I put into it. The advantage of Patreon is that it creates a direct avenue between content creators and their fans, allowing me to get paid for my work while also giving back to you all with extra rewards and content for supporting me.

My reviews have always been free to read, and that's not going to change; I'll continue to post reviews and articles here on the blog as usual, and you'll be able to continue reading them as normal. For those of you who choose to support me on Patreon, I'll be posting more frequent thoughts, opinions, and observations (over on Patreon) in the form of "Random Ramblings" and "Early Impressions," while also keeping you more informed with status updates about what games I'm playing and what articles I'm planning. I'll also be setting up polls to let you vote for what games I play next, and I may even take special requests on occasion. These extras are split into separate reward tiers so you can choose how much you want to give based on what extras you'd like to gain access to.

All of the money you contribute will go directly back into the blog by helping me pay for the games I play and review. With enough support, I could buy (and review) new releases more frequently, and I could look into doing other things besides written reviews like live streams, let's plays, and/or video reviews. Patreon is, essentially, a way for everyone to get more out of the work I do; Patrons gain access to extra content, I get paid for my work, and everyone benefits from me being able to produce more and better content. There's more information over on Patreon, so I encourage you to check out my page there to read more on the subject. 

I also want to thank you all for all the support and appreciation you've shown through comments and emails over the years; it's meant a lot to me, and has been a primary motivating factor in keeping the blog running for so many years. If you like the work I do and want to help this blog grow into something more substantial, then I hope you'll consider also supporting me on Patreon. Thanks again for your consideration; I look forward to seeing where this blog can go in the future.