Posted June 17, 2012
Recently I noticed that I really like flavour text in my games, or more specifically it feels like something is amiss when the devs skipped a good occasion to put some of it in the game.
The most recent example, I can think of, is Far Cry 2, where your weapon/tools inventory could be filled with neat little "history lesson" on their uses in African warfare, but instead is little more than a boring excel sheet.
And to beat on a dead horse a little more; Fallout just isn't the same without those little blurbs, ranging from interesting to humorous, for every item you pick up.
I just love reading in my games, it doesn't matter if it's serious or a funny anecdote, some simple lines do a lot to spice the game up. The best examples of flavour text done well, i know of, are probably the unit descriptions in the Total War games and those little stories you get when you pick up and artifact in HoMM 3/4.
Never liked things like the Mass Effect codex or books in the Elder Scrool Series, while some of the entries are interesting enough, there's just too much of it written in a rather mediocre manner. I much prefer having the text next to the item/point of interest it is relevant to and dosed in small bits.
So what are your opinions? Do you enjoy flavour text, or is it just clutter hoggin UI space? any examples of particularly good or bad flavour text?
The most recent example, I can think of, is Far Cry 2, where your weapon/tools inventory could be filled with neat little "history lesson" on their uses in African warfare, but instead is little more than a boring excel sheet.
And to beat on a dead horse a little more; Fallout just isn't the same without those little blurbs, ranging from interesting to humorous, for every item you pick up.
I just love reading in my games, it doesn't matter if it's serious or a funny anecdote, some simple lines do a lot to spice the game up. The best examples of flavour text done well, i know of, are probably the unit descriptions in the Total War games and those little stories you get when you pick up and artifact in HoMM 3/4.
Never liked things like the Mass Effect codex or books in the Elder Scrool Series, while some of the entries are interesting enough, there's just too much of it written in a rather mediocre manner. I much prefer having the text next to the item/point of interest it is relevant to and dosed in small bits.
So what are your opinions? Do you enjoy flavour text, or is it just clutter hoggin UI space? any examples of particularly good or bad flavour text?