Buy it now: http://www.magickagame.com/
Developer: Arrowhead Game Studios
Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Platform: PC (Digital Download Only)
Release Date: January 25, 2011
Genre: Action Adventure
For a mere $10, an absurd story of satire and cliché is unfolded to the players with a unique spell system that has fans of magic, wizards and mages laughing the whole way through. The solo campaign is interesting enough to provide the player with enough entertainment and humor to make the $10 worthwhile; however, the game truly shines when multiplayer is put into play. Despite the faulty connections, crashes, and bugs involved in multiplayer, the developers' ingenious spell combination system works so well that it will keep you coming back to see what other strategies work with your friends helping/killing you along the way.
Source: Youtube Channel Games
Story
A powerful wizard who had an insatiable thirst for knowledge is locked away for his ambitions as it's considered to be too dangerous. Based off of Norse mythology, Magicka follows a typical western RPG sort of story and makes all sorts of jokes and references that pokes fun at itself. The main story is told in multiplayer as it is in single-player. This allows those in multiplayer to experience the same cutscenes and dialogues as those who played solo. Honestly, the whole story can be taken out and it'd still be a great game to play. The journey is separated by 13 chapters stays consistent story wise with Vlad guiding the heroes. But no story is greater in Magicka than those told between friends after playing multiplayer with alongside each other or with others online in adventure or challenge mode. I've heard stories where players try to heal another and instead blow them up. Others where someone summons a lightning storm and ends up killing everyone on their team. One of my stories within the game was a friend was trying to heal us and dropped health mines around him and it exploded and another friend and I flew off the screen and died from it (at least we got healed). The ridiculous antics made by doing crazy experiments using the spell systems is far more interesting to tell than the actual story which I find is much more difficult to create for players, and so I must applaud the developers for providing that even if they did not intend to. Story: 8/10 (C'mon, it's pretty hilarious when someone tries to heal themselves and ends up dropping a chunk of ice and ends up killing themselves).
Graphics
Hmm, I might have to be a bit more harsh on this category for certain problems this game had. The biggest problem I ran into when I first started the game was the amount of graphics lag that persisted for simple graphics on the screen. The environment and models were drawn wonderfully, but they shouldn't demand so much resource and processing power to run. So there's the problem with optimization that made the game lag graphically a lot of the time and eventually made certain games crash (I've gotten the blue screen of death 3-4 times already from playing the game). Certain enemy colors sometime meld with the environment a little too well and causes problems when the game doesn't progress and the enemy is glitched somewhere that matches its color. There are camera focus problems in multiplayer where one player might fly off screen and the camera would focus off screen for a while away from the other players for quite a duration. Luckily, these are all minor problems that the developers have been working hard on fixing. The character design for the players are unique enough for know which character for which player. The lighting effects are pretty impressive as well since they add a lot of depth into the spells. Considering that this game consisted of a team of four people and started out as a student project make this a remarkable feat to achieve. Until the graphic problems and addressed and solved, I'm going to have to mark it down a little. Graphics: 8/10
Audio
The jibber-jabber voice acting has always been pretty annoying in gaming to gives life to characters as dialogue; however, Arrowhead Game Studios took the time to use specific words that have meaning of its own while still have relatively similar meaning to the text. It really does add to the humor factor in the game. Maybe they really are speaking a language and I just don't know it. The music is typical, but sets the mood pretty well. My favorite track has been the one for the title screen/main menu. It's not entirely memorable or catchy, but it's really nice to listen to and creates a certain mode that's appropriate for the game. The sound effects are dead on and work well with the spells and characters of the game. I find the most useful sound to hear is the sound of a player dying (especially in challenge mode) because you know it's time to revive a team mate. There isn't anything I could really ask for more from the audio section of the game. Audio: 9/10
Gameplay
I don't remember the last time I played a game that had such an intricate combination system and have such a nice flow to the game. It is definitely a refreshing break from RPGs where spells relied a lot on mana, stats, and cooldowns. Since Magicka is an action adventure game, the spell casting and gameplay relied heavily upon skill, memorization, creativity, and improvisation. In multiplayer, team work can really help but is not always necessary. Playing multiplayer is really where the game shows off how fun it can really be when pitted against hordes of monsters with 2-4 players combining their smarts together to fight them off. Friendly fire is bound to happen, but my friend and I agreed that it's part of the humor and fun to the game. Things you wouldn't normally believe to happen might happen and surprise you. Though it's possible for all players to use all the abilities that are available, groups of players have devised game plans that has each member of their team take a role like in a RPG in order to fulfill a goal. One player supresses attacks, one slows or freezes the enemies, another charges up for heavy damaging spells while the last one might decide to be the healer and keep everyone's HP up. My friends and I played however we liked and took cues from each other on what to do. It's really exciting to experiment or accidentally create a spell you may not have done before and unleash it for the first time. It might kill your buddy and perhaps yourself, but you get the feeling of "oh, that's what it does, haha." I have waited a long time for a game where creating spells and casting them were fast, diversified and fun to do. Not that I don't like RPG style magic users and cooldowns, but it's fun to be able to cast a wide range of spells in a short amount of time. The developers had their vision set on this game and stuck with it through the end and made sometime amazing. I hope to get at least 50 hours of gameplay out of this. Gameplay: 10/10
Overall
I was planning on buying the game when it had a sale of $5 because of all the games I have already bought over the holiday steam sale in December; however, I got tempted when I saw that the DLCs were going to be included into the game. It looked interesting and had that Diablo-ish look to it that I love so much in RPGs (even though it's an action adventure), but I resisted and added it to my want list. The next day, I saw news over the internet that it already sold 30K, one of my friends bought it, it had a demo and I tried it out, and I heard good reviews from fellow game developers that they played it a lot in their studios and enjoyed it. I am very satisfied with my purchase and continue to play with my friends whenever we get the chance. The game crashes, connection issues, and getting dropped mid-game has been the bane of our experience within the game; however, we're doing our best to ignore it and hope for the developers to fix it soon. If you haven't bought the game and don't feel sure, download and play the demo on Steam. If you like magic-based systems in games or looking for something entertaining and affordable, I highly recommend Magicka for its $9.99 price tag (it's worth it). Overall: 8.75
Monday, January 31, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
NewNews - Hand Cannon in Dead Space 2
So I planned on doing a review on newly released FPS "Breach" today but ended up playing a lot of Magicka last night instead and was going to do a review on that first. Well, work took up practically the whole day and now I'm too tired to write a review so I thought I'd share a little something I found on Kotaku instead until next when I'll do some reviews.
Article Source: Kotaku - Beat Dead Space 2 And It Will Give You The Finger
Source: Youtube Channel hayabusaDGO
So I got through half way of Dead Space 1 and it crashed on me for some odd reason and it would crash every time I tried to run it. Because of it, I gave up and didn't want to play through it all over again. I found the game to be hilarious actually (along with some parts where it startled me). Being able to individually break limbs off the enemies and pick up objects to throw at them is pretty amusing and lots of fun. Despite that, I didn't have much interest in playing Dead Space 2 even though it looks pretty amazing. When I saw the video for the Hand Cannon, it totally reminded me of Phantasy Star Universe when I got "The Real Handgun":
Source: Youtube Channel DJBigz1988
Even though Dead Space 2 is supposed to be a horror game with things popping out you with gory deaths and all, the developers rewarded those who played through Hardcore mode to give them something to laugh about and let the player ease up a bit since they probably already seen most of the horrors of the game by the time they get it. It's fun to see these looney antics happen in games. Last night when I was playing Magicka with some friends, one of them picked up a M60 Machine Gun. "A Machine Gun in a magic game?" one of my friends asked.
Source: Youtube Channel Afoxi
Well that's it for now, have a good weekend all~
Article Source: Kotaku - Beat Dead Space 2 And It Will Give You The Finger
Source: Youtube Channel hayabusaDGO
So I got through half way of Dead Space 1 and it crashed on me for some odd reason and it would crash every time I tried to run it. Because of it, I gave up and didn't want to play through it all over again. I found the game to be hilarious actually (along with some parts where it startled me). Being able to individually break limbs off the enemies and pick up objects to throw at them is pretty amusing and lots of fun. Despite that, I didn't have much interest in playing Dead Space 2 even though it looks pretty amazing. When I saw the video for the Hand Cannon, it totally reminded me of Phantasy Star Universe when I got "The Real Handgun":
Source: Youtube Channel DJBigz1988
Even though Dead Space 2 is supposed to be a horror game with things popping out you with gory deaths and all, the developers rewarded those who played through Hardcore mode to give them something to laugh about and let the player ease up a bit since they probably already seen most of the horrors of the game by the time they get it. It's fun to see these looney antics happen in games. Last night when I was playing Magicka with some friends, one of them picked up a M60 Machine Gun. "A Machine Gun in a magic game?" one of my friends asked.
Source: Youtube Channel Afoxi
Well that's it for now, have a good weekend all~
Thursday, January 27, 2011
GameLight Review - Half-Minute Hero
I bought Magicka & Breach for PC, tried out Modern Combat Domination for PS3, and beat Half-Minute Hero last night. I accomplished a lot for one night, haha. Anyways, I'll be doing some game reviews since it's been quite a while since I've done one (a month), and I wanted to do it on Magicka and Breach; however, I think I need a bit more time with it to give it a fair review. Even though I'm very late at giving a review for Half-Minute Hero, I think it deserves some recognition.
Developer: Marvelous Entertainment
Publisher: XSEED Games
Platform: Sony PSP
Release Date: October 13, 2009
Genre: Action-RPG, RTS, Shoot 'em up (It will make sense, don't worry)
Upon first glance, Half-Minute Hero seemed like a silly parody of RPGs with the nostalgia of pixel-based art; however, I now realize it is much more than just a short laugh and a tiny gimmick after completing the game. It tells an epic tale spanning 500 years of a never-ending war with charming characters, catchy music, and fast-paced gameplay suited for playing in short and long term durations.
Source: Youtube Channel TheGamingCriticz
Story
I wasn't expecting any sort of real story out of a game based on having each mission lasting 30 seconds, but there was a story and it really added to the game (surprisingly). The game tells of a tale that spans over 500 years of constant conflict between the Time-Goddess and the Ultimate Dark Lord who tries to destroy the world by casting a spell that activates in 30 seconds. The story is told chronologically through four individual characters with each one stopping the Ultimate Evil Lord from being resurrected into the world. The structure of the story is generic, but is done so in parody of typical Japanese RPGs. There is a main antagonist trying to destroy the world to rid a life of fear, sorrow, pain, and such but along with happiness, love, and tranquility. Heroes of different time periods approaches and stops the efforts to destroy the world. More detail on each character's story will be explained in gameplay. I liked how the narrative is separated 100 years from each other with different characters and gameplay each time. It created a distinctive bridge between each character's story and brought it all together at the end. Each character had a unique personality to them (maybe except the hero parodying the silent protagonist) that connects with the player after playing their story for a while. With each mission lasting only 30 seconds (more or less, depending on the mode) and each character having their own little story, the overall feeling doesn't seem all that grand. But near the end, everything is brought together and shows how pivotal each character was to the peace that is finally realized at the end (I'm trying my best not to spoil anything). It could be just me, but the ending of the whole story truly moved me and it was a good feeling after finishing the game. For a game based on small proportions on gameplay, the story had a rather big impact to the whole experience. Story: 9/10
Graphics
This will be a category that will be a bit more difficult to determine a score for since the graphics were more pixelated than a Nintendo Entertainment System/Famicom on a system capable of rendering 3D graphics. The only fair way to judge this is by giving my own opinion to its design of the game rather than on how far the developers went with the capabilities of the hardware. I personally loved the pixel-based graphics for the game because it's easy on the eyes, takes zero loading time (except for loading a save file), is distinctive from the way RPGs typically look now, and has a nostalgic charm to it. Alongside the pixel art are images of typical Japanese RPG-ish drawn characters for cut-scenes and progressing the story. They don't appear often (except for Princess 30 mode), but it has a nice contrast to the retro art and reminds the player in a subtle way saying "hey, you're playing a new game on the PSP and not the Famicom!" The direction of the art style in both pixel and hand drawn is appropriate to the type of game the developers wanted to portray. I do have to admit that after a while playing the game I had the urge to play a game with better graphics. So I guess it's good for the short term and not the long term. Graphics: 8/10
Audio
Although the game went for the retro pixel-art, it did not go for retro 8-bit music in its game. The sound effects is typical in an action game nowadays and works well with the format in art and design. It's not too retro, but it's not too realistic either. The music, though not all of them are memorable, are well composed and has that new age techno-rock genre to contrast the retro look.
Source: Youtube Channel koukoupuffs
Source: Youtube Channel asukacrystalrose
Yuzo Koshiro even did some compositions in the game. There are 65 tracks according to the music player you receive as a gift once you beat the entire game and has various composers contribute to the list. The main theme seemed very cheesy and has that "this game is so epic!" wannabe sound to it the first time, but it changed my mind when I heard it at the very end of the game. Some of the tracks are definitely worth listening to outside of the game. Audio: 10/10
Gameplay
So as mentioned before, there are four distinctive characters that the player takes control of throughout the game, and each character comes from a different era within the story. After naming each of the four characters, three of the game modes will be available and can be played in any order. The last three modes can only be played after finishing the first three the then the previous one before it. Each mode plays differently and tells their own story that all links to a larger plot in the game.
Source: Youtube Channel XSEEDgames
Hero 30 - Goddess Era 100: The Action-RPG mode that follows a blond haired boy who thwarts the efforts of the evil lords from reciting the ruination spell that destroys the world. Fight monsters, gain levels, buy equipment, talk to NPCs, and fulfill quests within 30 seconds. The time-goddess offers to reverse time back to 30 seconds again...for some money (that cheapo). Each mission consists of all the above with an evil lord at the end casting the spell. This mode is the main game and has a nice balance between action and RPG elements such as leveling among others listed above. Some of them are pretty difficult and forces the player to think more tactically rather than just bum rushing.
Evil Lord 30 - Goddess Era 200: The Real-Time Strategy (RTS) mode where the Evil Lord summons and commands numerous monsters to protect his beloved Millenia. The mode is chaotic, has lots of action with the strategy, and is a ton of fun. The mode has a very satisfying feeling similar to playing Starcraft or Age of the Empires and you see a swarm of your men decimate the opposition.
Princess 30 - Goddess Era 300: The Shoot 'em Up mode where the King of the land has fallen ill. It's up to the princess with her trusty crossbow to fight through dozens of enemies and find a cure for her father and unite the people of the land. The princess' personality was both light-hearted and humorous which sets up the conception of the princess being pretty crazy out in the field when she's firing 30-50 bolts a second. The mode wasn't particularly difficult for a shoot 'em up, but it was very relaxing compared to the other three modes which required much more thinking and strategy.
Knight 30 - Goddess Era 500: The fast-paced Action mode where a lone knight must protect a pretty boy Sage who holds the power to defeating all that is evil in the world. The concept is reversed in that instead of fighting against the clock, the player aims to have the clock go down to zero each level in order to win. This was perhaps one of my favorite modes in terms of gameplay because of how much control is given to the player in fighting. There's still a lot of strategy involved, but it doesn't distract the player from the action aspect of the game.
Hero 300 - Goddess Era 500: Everything is brought together to sum up the whole story and the player takes the role of the Hero once more to save the world in a final effort under 300 seconds (5 minutes). This was hard, not gonna lie. It was fun though, and really brought the whole game together in one final mission.
Hero 3 - No Era: Yes...3 Seconds. Nothing to explain, it has to be played to be understood. I beat it though.
With all the game modes put together, it's a nice distraction. And depending on the price, it could be worth it. The game has a fairly good replay value with a hard mode for each one, different ways of approaching a situation for each mission, and little secrets scattered around that can be found. Gameplay: 9/10
Overall
After beating Hero 30, I didn't plan on playing the other ones and was going to put the game aside as (finished). Once I started playing the other modes, I realized how diversified the game was and how well the story flowed once it was brought together. I'm very glad I went through the rest of the game and beat it. I'm not sure if I'm ready to go through the whole game again on hard mode since I've accumulated 12 hours and 47 minutes of it already and have a backlog of 50+ games I still need to finish (no joke). Still, I'm very glad I picked up the game and gave it a go and got through it. It was fun, charming, made me feel good, and has music I'm willing to listen to. Overall: 9/10
As an ending note, a sequel to Half-Minute Hero is in the making but I have heard that the other three modes will not be back for the second installment.
Developer: Marvelous Entertainment
Publisher: XSEED Games
Platform: Sony PSP
Release Date: October 13, 2009
Genre: Action-RPG, RTS, Shoot 'em up (It will make sense, don't worry)
Upon first glance, Half-Minute Hero seemed like a silly parody of RPGs with the nostalgia of pixel-based art; however, I now realize it is much more than just a short laugh and a tiny gimmick after completing the game. It tells an epic tale spanning 500 years of a never-ending war with charming characters, catchy music, and fast-paced gameplay suited for playing in short and long term durations.
Source: Youtube Channel TheGamingCriticz
Story
I wasn't expecting any sort of real story out of a game based on having each mission lasting 30 seconds, but there was a story and it really added to the game (surprisingly). The game tells of a tale that spans over 500 years of constant conflict between the Time-Goddess and the Ultimate Dark Lord who tries to destroy the world by casting a spell that activates in 30 seconds. The story is told chronologically through four individual characters with each one stopping the Ultimate Evil Lord from being resurrected into the world. The structure of the story is generic, but is done so in parody of typical Japanese RPGs. There is a main antagonist trying to destroy the world to rid a life of fear, sorrow, pain, and such but along with happiness, love, and tranquility. Heroes of different time periods approaches and stops the efforts to destroy the world. More detail on each character's story will be explained in gameplay. I liked how the narrative is separated 100 years from each other with different characters and gameplay each time. It created a distinctive bridge between each character's story and brought it all together at the end. Each character had a unique personality to them (maybe except the hero parodying the silent protagonist) that connects with the player after playing their story for a while. With each mission lasting only 30 seconds (more or less, depending on the mode) and each character having their own little story, the overall feeling doesn't seem all that grand. But near the end, everything is brought together and shows how pivotal each character was to the peace that is finally realized at the end (I'm trying my best not to spoil anything). It could be just me, but the ending of the whole story truly moved me and it was a good feeling after finishing the game. For a game based on small proportions on gameplay, the story had a rather big impact to the whole experience. Story: 9/10
Graphics
This will be a category that will be a bit more difficult to determine a score for since the graphics were more pixelated than a Nintendo Entertainment System/Famicom on a system capable of rendering 3D graphics. The only fair way to judge this is by giving my own opinion to its design of the game rather than on how far the developers went with the capabilities of the hardware. I personally loved the pixel-based graphics for the game because it's easy on the eyes, takes zero loading time (except for loading a save file), is distinctive from the way RPGs typically look now, and has a nostalgic charm to it. Alongside the pixel art are images of typical Japanese RPG-ish drawn characters for cut-scenes and progressing the story. They don't appear often (except for Princess 30 mode), but it has a nice contrast to the retro art and reminds the player in a subtle way saying "hey, you're playing a new game on the PSP and not the Famicom!" The direction of the art style in both pixel and hand drawn is appropriate to the type of game the developers wanted to portray. I do have to admit that after a while playing the game I had the urge to play a game with better graphics. So I guess it's good for the short term and not the long term. Graphics: 8/10
Audio
Although the game went for the retro pixel-art, it did not go for retro 8-bit music in its game. The sound effects is typical in an action game nowadays and works well with the format in art and design. It's not too retro, but it's not too realistic either. The music, though not all of them are memorable, are well composed and has that new age techno-rock genre to contrast the retro look.
Source: Youtube Channel koukoupuffs
Source: Youtube Channel asukacrystalrose
Yuzo Koshiro even did some compositions in the game. There are 65 tracks according to the music player you receive as a gift once you beat the entire game and has various composers contribute to the list. The main theme seemed very cheesy and has that "this game is so epic!" wannabe sound to it the first time, but it changed my mind when I heard it at the very end of the game. Some of the tracks are definitely worth listening to outside of the game. Audio: 10/10
Gameplay
So as mentioned before, there are four distinctive characters that the player takes control of throughout the game, and each character comes from a different era within the story. After naming each of the four characters, three of the game modes will be available and can be played in any order. The last three modes can only be played after finishing the first three the then the previous one before it. Each mode plays differently and tells their own story that all links to a larger plot in the game.
Source: Youtube Channel XSEEDgames
Hero 30 - Goddess Era 100: The Action-RPG mode that follows a blond haired boy who thwarts the efforts of the evil lords from reciting the ruination spell that destroys the world. Fight monsters, gain levels, buy equipment, talk to NPCs, and fulfill quests within 30 seconds. The time-goddess offers to reverse time back to 30 seconds again...for some money (that cheapo). Each mission consists of all the above with an evil lord at the end casting the spell. This mode is the main game and has a nice balance between action and RPG elements such as leveling among others listed above. Some of them are pretty difficult and forces the player to think more tactically rather than just bum rushing.
Evil Lord 30 - Goddess Era 200: The Real-Time Strategy (RTS) mode where the Evil Lord summons and commands numerous monsters to protect his beloved Millenia. The mode is chaotic, has lots of action with the strategy, and is a ton of fun. The mode has a very satisfying feeling similar to playing Starcraft or Age of the Empires and you see a swarm of your men decimate the opposition.
Princess 30 - Goddess Era 300: The Shoot 'em Up mode where the King of the land has fallen ill. It's up to the princess with her trusty crossbow to fight through dozens of enemies and find a cure for her father and unite the people of the land. The princess' personality was both light-hearted and humorous which sets up the conception of the princess being pretty crazy out in the field when she's firing 30-50 bolts a second. The mode wasn't particularly difficult for a shoot 'em up, but it was very relaxing compared to the other three modes which required much more thinking and strategy.
Knight 30 - Goddess Era 500: The fast-paced Action mode where a lone knight must protect a pretty boy Sage who holds the power to defeating all that is evil in the world. The concept is reversed in that instead of fighting against the clock, the player aims to have the clock go down to zero each level in order to win. This was perhaps one of my favorite modes in terms of gameplay because of how much control is given to the player in fighting. There's still a lot of strategy involved, but it doesn't distract the player from the action aspect of the game.
Hero 300 - Goddess Era 500: Everything is brought together to sum up the whole story and the player takes the role of the Hero once more to save the world in a final effort under 300 seconds (5 minutes). This was hard, not gonna lie. It was fun though, and really brought the whole game together in one final mission.
Hero 3 - No Era: Yes...3 Seconds. Nothing to explain, it has to be played to be understood. I beat it though.
With all the game modes put together, it's a nice distraction. And depending on the price, it could be worth it. The game has a fairly good replay value with a hard mode for each one, different ways of approaching a situation for each mission, and little secrets scattered around that can be found. Gameplay: 9/10
Overall
After beating Hero 30, I didn't plan on playing the other ones and was going to put the game aside as (finished). Once I started playing the other modes, I realized how diversified the game was and how well the story flowed once it was brought together. I'm very glad I went through the rest of the game and beat it. I'm not sure if I'm ready to go through the whole game again on hard mode since I've accumulated 12 hours and 47 minutes of it already and have a backlog of 50+ games I still need to finish (no joke). Still, I'm very glad I picked up the game and gave it a go and got through it. It was fun, charming, made me feel good, and has music I'm willing to listen to. Overall: 9/10
As an ending note, a sequel to Half-Minute Hero is in the making but I have heard that the other three modes will not be back for the second installment.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
NewNews - Magicka sells 30,000 yesterday on first day!
Article News Sources:
Gamasutra - Arrowhead's Debut Magicka Sells 30K PC Digital Copies Day-One
Joystiq - Magicka sells 30,000 on first day, being patched 'as often as possible'
Whoaaaa, randomly talked about seeing it yesterday and seeing posts on how it sold 30k already is so weird. I think it's telling me to buy it, despite it being $10 instead of $5. So I got too busy last night and couldn't try out the demo (although I got to try out 007 Goldeneye on Wii finally, awesome game), but I'm more convinced now that I should buy the game. I should probably try out the demo really quick and make the decision to buy it or not so I can get the 3 DLC it comes with if bought before Jan. 31st.
Source: Youtube Channel GamerSpawn
So I heard there were bugs in the game, especially in multiplayer; however, it was unexpectedly counter-acted by the intentional whacky gameplay it was designed to be. The game has the player taking the role of a mage/wizard that utilizes eight elements (fire, water, ice, earth, lightning, arcane, healing and shield) to combine in order to summon a spell forth to be casted on one's self, an enemy, imbue onto a weapon, or to heal/hurt an ally. I personally love the idea of magic and elements but rarely ever play the spell casters in RPGs because of how fragile they are and how slow they attack. But this game seems to be designed on fast paced action and crazy antics. I am wondering if 13 level is enough for this game to have good replay value. Thinking about it, maybe I shouldn't worry about that since it's $10. I spent $5 on games like Trine and Torchlight, and I was satisfied with it. Oh well, I'll get the demo and see what I think. Congratulations to Arrowhead Game Studios for a job well done and in selling 30,000 in the first day. I hope the game continues to have more sales throughout the following months.
Gamasutra - Arrowhead's Debut Magicka Sells 30K PC Digital Copies Day-One
Joystiq - Magicka sells 30,000 on first day, being patched 'as often as possible'
Whoaaaa, randomly talked about seeing it yesterday and seeing posts on how it sold 30k already is so weird. I think it's telling me to buy it, despite it being $10 instead of $5. So I got too busy last night and couldn't try out the demo (although I got to try out 007 Goldeneye on Wii finally, awesome game), but I'm more convinced now that I should buy the game. I should probably try out the demo really quick and make the decision to buy it or not so I can get the 3 DLC it comes with if bought before Jan. 31st.
Source: Youtube Channel GamerSpawn
So I heard there were bugs in the game, especially in multiplayer; however, it was unexpectedly counter-acted by the intentional whacky gameplay it was designed to be. The game has the player taking the role of a mage/wizard that utilizes eight elements (fire, water, ice, earth, lightning, arcane, healing and shield) to combine in order to summon a spell forth to be casted on one's self, an enemy, imbue onto a weapon, or to heal/hurt an ally. I personally love the idea of magic and elements but rarely ever play the spell casters in RPGs because of how fragile they are and how slow they attack. But this game seems to be designed on fast paced action and crazy antics. I am wondering if 13 level is enough for this game to have good replay value. Thinking about it, maybe I shouldn't worry about that since it's $10. I spent $5 on games like Trine and Torchlight, and I was satisfied with it. Oh well, I'll get the demo and see what I think. Congratulations to Arrowhead Game Studios for a job well done and in selling 30,000 in the first day. I hope the game continues to have more sales throughout the following months.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
NewNews - Kongregate back on Android, MNC/TF2 Crossover, and Magicka on Steam
Article Source: Gamasutra - Kongregate Android App Modified Slightly, Back On Marketplace
Last week, Kongregate had an application that acted as a portal to its 300+ free games for android phones and was taken off by google for violating rules of selling an app store in their app store. After a little bit of modifying and clarification that it was a portal and not an app store, the app is back on the android market and 300+ free flash games are available to play. Too bad I don't have an android phone:
Source: Youtube Channel Flashuploads
I found out about Kongregate through business and work and didn't try any of the games. After hearing about Kongregate on the Gamestop channel in one of their shops, I went back home and tried it out. It's actually pretty interesting having so many quality flash games in one area, and it's mainly due to the games being created by indie game developers. On browsers on computer, there's over 1000+ games. If you're bored and looking for some short term (or long term, depends on which game) entertainment, look no farther than Kongregate.
Article Source: Joystiq - Monday Night Combat PC launched; includes TF2 crossover, 'Juice Bot'
Source: Youtube Channel UberEntChannel
Heh, I get all three references since I bought Team Fortress 2 a year ago, Monday Night Combat the day it was released on Steam PC, and I read Penny Arcade's comics. I'm still not sure how strong the community for Monday Night Combat is since I barely see anyone playing Multiplayer, but hopefully this little update will bring some interest from the TF2 community. I found this video and update to be awesome and humorous at the same time since a lot people ridiculed MNC for looking and playing too much like TF2 ever since its launch on Xbox Live Arcade. This is obviously not true for those who watched gameplay videos and read descriptions on how it plays like DotA in a 3rd-person shooter format. I honestly find it very interested and a good break from all the First-Person shooters I've been playing. I only regret that I don't find the time to play it more often. With the inclusion of these crossover items, it'll probably suck me back into playing some more TF2 (I never get sick of that game for some reason) and hopefully encourage me to take the time to play MNC more. Good luck to Uber Entertainment and thank you for constantly updating the game.
Game Source: Magicka on Steampowered Store
So I did my usual check on Steam to see what the Mid-week madness sale was and saw that it was just Greed Corp. I want to try it, but not really buy it and play it long term. When I went back to the main screen, I saw a game called Magicka released today. If it weren't for Steam, I don't think I would have heard a lot of these games that aren't talked about all that often.
Source: Youtube Channel GrowuPGaming
It looks interesting, and it even has a demo! I'll probably check it out when I get the chance, but I'm not sure if I want to buy it right away. If I buy it before Jan. 31st, there will be 3 DLC with it. Is it worth it? I was hoping to just wait for a $5 sale. I guess I'll try out the demo first and decide then. I did spend over $200 on steam last year, and it was all after I graduated from college too, haha. So if you have a Steam account and have interest in magic, RPGs, and parody, go download the demo and check it out.
Last week, Kongregate had an application that acted as a portal to its 300+ free games for android phones and was taken off by google for violating rules of selling an app store in their app store. After a little bit of modifying and clarification that it was a portal and not an app store, the app is back on the android market and 300+ free flash games are available to play. Too bad I don't have an android phone:
Source: Youtube Channel Flashuploads
I found out about Kongregate through business and work and didn't try any of the games. After hearing about Kongregate on the Gamestop channel in one of their shops, I went back home and tried it out. It's actually pretty interesting having so many quality flash games in one area, and it's mainly due to the games being created by indie game developers. On browsers on computer, there's over 1000+ games. If you're bored and looking for some short term (or long term, depends on which game) entertainment, look no farther than Kongregate.
Article Source: Joystiq - Monday Night Combat PC launched; includes TF2 crossover, 'Juice Bot'
Source: Youtube Channel UberEntChannel
Heh, I get all three references since I bought Team Fortress 2 a year ago, Monday Night Combat the day it was released on Steam PC, and I read Penny Arcade's comics. I'm still not sure how strong the community for Monday Night Combat is since I barely see anyone playing Multiplayer, but hopefully this little update will bring some interest from the TF2 community. I found this video and update to be awesome and humorous at the same time since a lot people ridiculed MNC for looking and playing too much like TF2 ever since its launch on Xbox Live Arcade. This is obviously not true for those who watched gameplay videos and read descriptions on how it plays like DotA in a 3rd-person shooter format. I honestly find it very interested and a good break from all the First-Person shooters I've been playing. I only regret that I don't find the time to play it more often. With the inclusion of these crossover items, it'll probably suck me back into playing some more TF2 (I never get sick of that game for some reason) and hopefully encourage me to take the time to play MNC more. Good luck to Uber Entertainment and thank you for constantly updating the game.
Game Source: Magicka on Steampowered Store
So I did my usual check on Steam to see what the Mid-week madness sale was and saw that it was just Greed Corp. I want to try it, but not really buy it and play it long term. When I went back to the main screen, I saw a game called Magicka released today. If it weren't for Steam, I don't think I would have heard a lot of these games that aren't talked about all that often.
Source: Youtube Channel GrowuPGaming
It looks interesting, and it even has a demo! I'll probably check it out when I get the chance, but I'm not sure if I want to buy it right away. If I buy it before Jan. 31st, there will be 3 DLC with it. Is it worth it? I was hoping to just wait for a $5 sale. I guess I'll try out the demo first and decide then. I did spend over $200 on steam last year, and it was all after I graduated from college too, haha. So if you have a Steam account and have interest in magic, RPGs, and parody, go download the demo and check it out.
Monday, January 24, 2011
VGCulture - Graphics on PC Games
So I saw this on Josué Pereira's "Nerf Now!" comic today:
When I play game on PC, it's not so much a matter of reaching the FPS rate of 30 or 60 as much as it is in making the game playable, especially for a First-Person Shooter. I generally turn the settings as high as possible and look at what the graphics would look like if I had it on the highest. I would stare in awe for several minutes and once I'm done drooling over the graphics I set it back to a setting that allows me to play without too much lag. If I'm playing an RPG or something non-action intensive, I sacrifice a bit of a smoother gameplay for nicer graphics. But there are times where it can't be ignored and I have to put the settings all the way down to avoid graphics lag in order to play at my best such as competitive First-Person shooters, racing, or anything that requires immediate action. I love gaming on PC for many reasons (lots of freedom with the data, all sorts of peripherals that will work, controls more suited for certain games such as FPS and RTS, largest library of games out of all the systems) but the biggest problems I always face when playing on PC is incompatibility and games that run on settings my computer can't handle and would have to turn down in order to play effectively (I play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on 640 x 480, that's pretty bad). The strange thing is, it hasn't driven me away from PC gaming. I've come to accept the limitations of my laptop and tower and play games at lower settings and perhaps go back to them when I get a better computer to play them again in the best settings (the way they were meant to be played). I heard Nvidia patented a new computer chip that allows games to be loaded instantaneously and have zero graphics lag. I'm willing to wait for chips like those to come out and invest in those technologies to create the best gaming PC I could possibly have (I've always had average to low-end computers in the past). I think the worst thing in buying a PC game is finding out that the graphics are so laggy or problematic that it's unplayable, even at the lowest settings. Other times, it's finding out that there's a game breaking bug that prevents the player from even playing (I'm looking at you Red Faction Armageddon!). EDIT: I meant Red Faction: Guerrilla, haha.
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| Source: http://nerfnow.com/comic/image/457 |
Friday, January 21, 2011
GameOn - JVG Music Composers - Nobuo Uematsu
Today, on the last day for this week's GameOn, I am going to be talking about the master, the legend, Nobuo Uematsu.
Even if the name Nobuo Uematsu (植松 伸夫) might be unfamiliar, it is near impossible that anyone hasn't heard of the game Final Fantasy. Uematsu was working at Square as a side-job composing simple tunes for games like 3D World Runner and Rad Racer. Square was at a time where it couldn't keep up in the game industry and soon had to file for bankruptcy. When director Hironobu Sakaguchi was asked what kind of game he wanted to make, he replied "I don't think I have what it takes to make a good action game. I think I'm better at telling a story." (Final Fantasy Retrospective - Gametrailers.com) So artist Yoshitaka Amano and music composer Nobuo Uematsu with director Hironobu Sakaguchi prepared themselves and worked on what the believed to be their "final" game at Square. What seemed like the end for the company was actually the beginning of the industry's most successful RPG series. And so it began:
Source: Youtube Channel Artificialraven
Uematsu's music is more than just background music, it's an experience in itself. His compositions are known throughout the world to those who don't even play videogames. His music captures the audience at an emotional level known to move those through melody itself. If you want a battle theme, he'll make it upbeat and exciting. Is there a need for a touching piece for a dramatic scene? He'll do that too with the most simplest structure. Even if there are those of you who may not think he's the best or even like his music, it is undeniable that he is one of the most influential men in the videogame industry and in music.
Source: Youtube Channel Akumarujr
The first piece of music I ever heard of Uematsu is 3D Runner (though I didn't know it was him until much much later) but didn't hear any of his compositions for Final Fantasy until Final Fantasy IV (Final Fantasy 2 in America). I listened through the music from FFIV (FF2 in US) and FFVI (FF3 in US) as a child by watching my father play through the games and always remembered how beautiful the music was. When I was a freshman in high school, I messed around on the keyboard my grandmother bought for me a lot and always tried to play the Overworld theme from Final Fantasy VI. Believe it or not, but that's how I first began taking piano a bit more seriously and learned how to play:
Source: Youtube Channel SupraDarky
This single song alone has been one of the most influential piece of music in my life, no lie. I have always wanted to learn how to play the piano since I was four years of age from hearing my father play it whenever we went to my grandmother's house. Because of complicated issues and such, I was never given lessons. My grandmother always encouraged my curiosity towards the piano and bought me a small Casio and then in Jr. High a Yamaha PSR-240 (which I still have and play with almost daily). The music from Final Fantasy VI were always the songs I aimed at playing along with whenever I had free time. Back then, it was just for fun. Now, it's still just for fun, I've gotten better, and it has a possibility of directing me towards a career in music composition. It's just amazing that I was able to do all of that on my own without someone teaching me. This is probably one of the reasons why I respect Nobuo Uematsu so much. I did research on him years after I started playing the piano and found out that he was self-taught in piano and music as well.
Source: Youtube Channel itsuki31
Although most of Uematsu's compositions sound Classical, he is known to be diverse in various genres of music such as Orchestral, New Age, electronic, rock, symphonic rock, and neo-classical metal (Wikipedia). His music is tied to classical music so much because of how popular his piano pieces are.
Source: Youtube Channel VideoGameMusicCenter
The music has a way of capturing the experience within the game and suck the players into it that keeps them interested and enthralled. My parents have told me (and they still do) that music is an incredibly important aspect in visual entertainment that should never be overlooked (television, movies, videogames, etc.) and that it sets up everything the audience will get out of the experience from watching/playing. Whenever I mention videogame music, my father would always point out that Final Fantasy VI had the best videogame music he ever heard from all the games he's played and that the composer was a genius (he doesn't know his name, just that he's a genius). It was always this piece that he loved the most other than the overworld theme:
Source: Youtube Channel contrafool
Other than composing music for Final Fantasy games, Uematsu has composed for animés, made an album not game related, and toured around with the Black Mages playing rock-ish renditions of his Final Fantasy music with him on keyboard.
Source: Youtube Channel anthemis
Truth to be told, I'm actually working on a Final Fantasy music project and planned it out 3-4 years ago. Right now, I'm still debating whether to do it all at once or wait for my skills in music to get better first. Anyways, there is no need for me to ramble on about this great man, because most of you (if not all) should know who he is already and probably have listened to his music before. I'm hoping to have the opportunity to meet Nobuo Uematsu and maybe even get to know him. I feel like I could learn a lot just from talking to him. He is definitely one of the biggest influence in my work in music. I leave now with a few more of his music. But before I do, I highly recommend watching the Retrospective of Final Fantasy on Game Trailers.com. It talks about the history of the company and games of Final Fantasy and has some insights about Nobuo Uematsu.
Source: Youtube Channel Phason9
Source: Youtube Channel FFMusicStation
Source: Youtube Channel Merhawk102
Haha, I still remember the first time I watched the Super Smash Bros. Brawl Trailer and said to myself "WOW, this sounds like something Nobuo Uematsu would write". I look at the caption below the video and it said "music by Nobuo Uematsu".
Even if the name Nobuo Uematsu (植松 伸夫) might be unfamiliar, it is near impossible that anyone hasn't heard of the game Final Fantasy. Uematsu was working at Square as a side-job composing simple tunes for games like 3D World Runner and Rad Racer. Square was at a time where it couldn't keep up in the game industry and soon had to file for bankruptcy. When director Hironobu Sakaguchi was asked what kind of game he wanted to make, he replied "I don't think I have what it takes to make a good action game. I think I'm better at telling a story." (Final Fantasy Retrospective - Gametrailers.com) So artist Yoshitaka Amano and music composer Nobuo Uematsu with director Hironobu Sakaguchi prepared themselves and worked on what the believed to be their "final" game at Square. What seemed like the end for the company was actually the beginning of the industry's most successful RPG series. And so it began:
Source: Youtube Channel Artificialraven
Uematsu's music is more than just background music, it's an experience in itself. His compositions are known throughout the world to those who don't even play videogames. His music captures the audience at an emotional level known to move those through melody itself. If you want a battle theme, he'll make it upbeat and exciting. Is there a need for a touching piece for a dramatic scene? He'll do that too with the most simplest structure. Even if there are those of you who may not think he's the best or even like his music, it is undeniable that he is one of the most influential men in the videogame industry and in music.
Source: Youtube Channel Akumarujr
The first piece of music I ever heard of Uematsu is 3D Runner (though I didn't know it was him until much much later) but didn't hear any of his compositions for Final Fantasy until Final Fantasy IV (Final Fantasy 2 in America). I listened through the music from FFIV (FF2 in US) and FFVI (FF3 in US) as a child by watching my father play through the games and always remembered how beautiful the music was. When I was a freshman in high school, I messed around on the keyboard my grandmother bought for me a lot and always tried to play the Overworld theme from Final Fantasy VI. Believe it or not, but that's how I first began taking piano a bit more seriously and learned how to play:
Source: Youtube Channel SupraDarky
This single song alone has been one of the most influential piece of music in my life, no lie. I have always wanted to learn how to play the piano since I was four years of age from hearing my father play it whenever we went to my grandmother's house. Because of complicated issues and such, I was never given lessons. My grandmother always encouraged my curiosity towards the piano and bought me a small Casio and then in Jr. High a Yamaha PSR-240 (which I still have and play with almost daily). The music from Final Fantasy VI were always the songs I aimed at playing along with whenever I had free time. Back then, it was just for fun. Now, it's still just for fun, I've gotten better, and it has a possibility of directing me towards a career in music composition. It's just amazing that I was able to do all of that on my own without someone teaching me. This is probably one of the reasons why I respect Nobuo Uematsu so much. I did research on him years after I started playing the piano and found out that he was self-taught in piano and music as well.
Source: Youtube Channel itsuki31
Although most of Uematsu's compositions sound Classical, he is known to be diverse in various genres of music such as Orchestral, New Age, electronic, rock, symphonic rock, and neo-classical metal (Wikipedia). His music is tied to classical music so much because of how popular his piano pieces are.
Source: Youtube Channel VideoGameMusicCenter
The music has a way of capturing the experience within the game and suck the players into it that keeps them interested and enthralled. My parents have told me (and they still do) that music is an incredibly important aspect in visual entertainment that should never be overlooked (television, movies, videogames, etc.) and that it sets up everything the audience will get out of the experience from watching/playing. Whenever I mention videogame music, my father would always point out that Final Fantasy VI had the best videogame music he ever heard from all the games he's played and that the composer was a genius (he doesn't know his name, just that he's a genius). It was always this piece that he loved the most other than the overworld theme:
Source: Youtube Channel contrafool
Other than composing music for Final Fantasy games, Uematsu has composed for animés, made an album not game related, and toured around with the Black Mages playing rock-ish renditions of his Final Fantasy music with him on keyboard.
Source: Youtube Channel anthemis
Truth to be told, I'm actually working on a Final Fantasy music project and planned it out 3-4 years ago. Right now, I'm still debating whether to do it all at once or wait for my skills in music to get better first. Anyways, there is no need for me to ramble on about this great man, because most of you (if not all) should know who he is already and probably have listened to his music before. I'm hoping to have the opportunity to meet Nobuo Uematsu and maybe even get to know him. I feel like I could learn a lot just from talking to him. He is definitely one of the biggest influence in my work in music. I leave now with a few more of his music. But before I do, I highly recommend watching the Retrospective of Final Fantasy on Game Trailers.com. It talks about the history of the company and games of Final Fantasy and has some insights about Nobuo Uematsu.
Source: Youtube Channel Phason9
Source: Youtube Channel FFMusicStation
Source: Youtube Channel Merhawk102
Haha, I still remember the first time I watched the Super Smash Bros. Brawl Trailer and said to myself "WOW, this sounds like something Nobuo Uematsu would write". I look at the caption below the video and it said "music by Nobuo Uematsu".
Thursday, January 20, 2011
GameOn - JVG Music Composers - Daisuke Ishiwatari
Daisuke Ishiwatari (石渡 太輔) is the man known for the concept, design, characters, art style, and music of the Guilty Gear series as well as the most recent IP BlazBlue. What he does is what I aspire to do when I finally get into the interactive entertainment industry: have a solid concept of an entire game and stick to it. In the various projects I have worked in the past, they have always been a collaboration of multiple ideas put together. Collaboration is a beautiful thing, but it can be scattered and unorganized. It also takes away a lot of the originality and main concepts that the original designer might have wanted. This isn't to say that Ishiwatari did everything on his own. Being born in South Africa and strictly forbidden from playing videogames drew his curiosity towards the subject and had him thinking about all sorts of designs and concepts for a game. Once he acquired the skills to run his own team and create his first game, he touched upon a lot of the process in the game such as voice acting, story writing, character design, concept design, and the compositions to the music. So he knew what he wanted and stuck with it, but admitted that he had a lot of help from the team which was also great. He had a strong team backing him up on the project and has then gotten him the attention from the industry and its community.
So aside from his amazing background in the game industry, what is it about his music that made me inclined to talk about him in this week's GameOn series? He doesn't come out with a ton of music each game using MIDI-like programs like ZUN does in his Touhou series. The music isn't nostalgia-inducing with 8-bit music like Daisuke Amaya for Cave Story. The tunes don't have the influences of classical, electro, and rock music such as in Michiru Yamane's compositions for the Castlevania series. No, his compositions is influenced from a music genre I haven't heard in a videogame until I played Guilty Gear, and that genre is heavy metal:
Source to all 3 videos: Youtube Channel shinryuu10901
Guilty Gear (and I think even BlazBlue) has a LOT of references to metal and music. One of the most obvious ones I can point out is the character Axl Low from the Guilty Gear game looking a lot like (if not identical to) Axel Rose from the band Gun n' Roses:
I actually didn't get into metal until high school when a friend introduced me to music from Metallica, Dream Theatre, and such. Before then, I was always under the impression that it was just loud drums and guitar with lots of screaming (granted the idea came from stereotypes in pop culture and my parents not listening to metal). Did anyone hear any screaming in the three songs above? No? Good, then you can hear the amazing guitar riffs and powerful beats from the drums. Daisuke Ishiwatari putting metal into a videogame genre without the vocals created metal with the whole song being one incredible solo (or that's one way to think about it). The riffs are still complex, but it isn't muddled. In fact, a lot of his music have a clear melody and audible instruments playing. I say this because I have heard a lot of metal sounding like a jumble of noise and bass (metal fans tell me that those are the bad ones...unless you're high, then it sounds great). But not all his music in his games are so heavy and dark. In fact, some of them sound very happy:
Source: Youtube Channel nobodyknows182
Source: Youtube Channel serenade123
Source: Youtube Channel serenade123
Ishiwatari has come a long way from when he started Guilty Gear up to BlazBlue Continuum Shift. One of the most facinating aspects of a fighting game (for me at least) is the stories and how each character interacts with each other (I mean, it's a fighting game, they all fight each other). Sure, both Guilty Gear and BlazBlue has a convoluted story going on, but it's very intriguing how it plays out when going through each character's story. The characters he creates are all eccentric and very out of the ordinary. It ranges from interesting to humorous to down right creepy. The gameplay emphasizes a lot on fluidity, combo making, and flashy animations. The graphics are vibrant and the background is rendered in 3D for BlazBlue (2D for Guilty Gear). But many people, including me, agree that the music that Daisuke Ishiwatri composed and recorded is one of the biggest highlights of his games.
Source to all four videos: Youtube Channel serenade123
Sorry, I would have given as much effort and love to the past three composers if I had more time. I started very very early on this post today, so I was able to put this all together. Please take the time to listen to the other composers music as well as Ishiwatari's.
Anyways, I do believe that wraps it up. BlazBlue was created in an unfortunate turn of events when Arc System Works lost the rights of Guilty Gear to Sega. A lot of the aspects of BlazBlue mirrors that of Guilty Gear. Despite that, BlazBlue is an amazing game and I do not regret one bit on purchasing the game (even though I barely have the time to play it). It's available on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, so pick up a copy if you like fighting games or like Ishiwatari's music.
Daisuke Ishiwatari, YOU ARE THE MAN!!!
So aside from his amazing background in the game industry, what is it about his music that made me inclined to talk about him in this week's GameOn series? He doesn't come out with a ton of music each game using MIDI-like programs like ZUN does in his Touhou series. The music isn't nostalgia-inducing with 8-bit music like Daisuke Amaya for Cave Story. The tunes don't have the influences of classical, electro, and rock music such as in Michiru Yamane's compositions for the Castlevania series. No, his compositions is influenced from a music genre I haven't heard in a videogame until I played Guilty Gear, and that genre is heavy metal:
Source to all 3 videos: Youtube Channel shinryuu10901
Guilty Gear (and I think even BlazBlue) has a LOT of references to metal and music. One of the most obvious ones I can point out is the character Axl Low from the Guilty Gear game looking a lot like (if not identical to) Axel Rose from the band Gun n' Roses:
 |
| Source: http://www.videogamelookalikes.com/a-m.html |
Source: Youtube Channel nobodyknows182
Source: Youtube Channel serenade123
Source: Youtube Channel serenade123
Ishiwatari has come a long way from when he started Guilty Gear up to BlazBlue Continuum Shift. One of the most facinating aspects of a fighting game (for me at least) is the stories and how each character interacts with each other (I mean, it's a fighting game, they all fight each other). Sure, both Guilty Gear and BlazBlue has a convoluted story going on, but it's very intriguing how it plays out when going through each character's story. The characters he creates are all eccentric and very out of the ordinary. It ranges from interesting to humorous to down right creepy. The gameplay emphasizes a lot on fluidity, combo making, and flashy animations. The graphics are vibrant and the background is rendered in 3D for BlazBlue (2D for Guilty Gear). But many people, including me, agree that the music that Daisuke Ishiwatri composed and recorded is one of the biggest highlights of his games.
Source to all four videos: Youtube Channel serenade123
Sorry, I would have given as much effort and love to the past three composers if I had more time. I started very very early on this post today, so I was able to put this all together. Please take the time to listen to the other composers music as well as Ishiwatari's.
Anyways, I do believe that wraps it up. BlazBlue was created in an unfortunate turn of events when Arc System Works lost the rights of Guilty Gear to Sega. A lot of the aspects of BlazBlue mirrors that of Guilty Gear. Despite that, BlazBlue is an amazing game and I do not regret one bit on purchasing the game (even though I barely have the time to play it). It's available on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, so pick up a copy if you like fighting games or like Ishiwatari's music.
Daisuke Ishiwatari, YOU ARE THE MAN!!!
GameOn - JVG Music Composers - Michiru Yamane
What an absurdly busy day I had. I literally just finished work just 12 minutes ago. Now this post is going to show up as tomorrow's post...Oh well. Today, I'm going to present one of my favorite videogame composers Michiru Yamane. She is most well known for her contributions to Konami's on-going series "Castlevania." The first time I really took notice of her name is in "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night" when a friend of mines let me listen to the soundtrack. Here is one of tracks from the game:
Source: Youtube Channel shadowtheoblivious
Carving Wood Partita has the theme of an old Victorian feel to it using the harpsichord has the main melody with a backing of a full orchestra with layers of melody and harmony melding into one another. The intricate composition has the complexity and flow similar to Bach with his subtle tunes within the pieces he wrote.
Source: Youtube Channel SupraDarky
Anti-Soul Mysteries Lab is an example of Yamane's ability to create genre specific music within videogames. It has the strong beat of electro-house of an action game, but that haunting ambiance and melody keeps the Castlevania mood in mind.
Source: Youtube Channel Tabuu101
When I first heard Eneomaos Machine Tower, it blew me away. The mix between classical orchestration with a rock-ish bass and drums really melded well into the song and emphasized the adventure and conflict within the game. That dissonance in the melody of the piano, wind instruments and strings goes so well with all the harmony and melodic notes played by all of them in a round.
Source: Youtube Channel VGMChannel
Michiru Yamane's tunes are well known to Castlevania fans and highly regarded in the game industry. The melodies are memorable, the sound is unique, the compositions are complex, and just listening to them is magnificent even out of the game. The video above is actually an arranged version of Yamane's latest Castlevania work "An Empty Tome" from "Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia."
I have been listening to Michiru Yamane's music for a long time and have bought every Castlevania game that has come out with one of the reasons of her music being in it. I personally love the Castlevania series not only for its long history of good music, but the unique twists that have been implemented into the action side-scroller throughout the decades. I won't get into gameplay since the post is about the music. Castlevania has been strongly defined because of Yamane's contribution. The tunes never gets boring, and there have been a lot of songs that reoccur (granted that not all of them are from Yamane) and is appreciated by those who play the games over and over again. I would really love to meet her one day along side with the original composer of Castlevania Kinuyo Yamashita. I actually got a message from Yamashita thanking me for playing her music, it was truly an honor (too bad I stayed anonymous in the message). So go out and check out Michiru Yamane's music, even those not Castlevania related:
Source: Youtube Channel groudon2006
Her music is truly listen worthy outside the game. Gotta love her music~
Source: Youtube Channel shadowtheoblivious
Carving Wood Partita has the theme of an old Victorian feel to it using the harpsichord has the main melody with a backing of a full orchestra with layers of melody and harmony melding into one another. The intricate composition has the complexity and flow similar to Bach with his subtle tunes within the pieces he wrote.
Source: Youtube Channel SupraDarky
Anti-Soul Mysteries Lab is an example of Yamane's ability to create genre specific music within videogames. It has the strong beat of electro-house of an action game, but that haunting ambiance and melody keeps the Castlevania mood in mind.
Source: Youtube Channel Tabuu101
When I first heard Eneomaos Machine Tower, it blew me away. The mix between classical orchestration with a rock-ish bass and drums really melded well into the song and emphasized the adventure and conflict within the game. That dissonance in the melody of the piano, wind instruments and strings goes so well with all the harmony and melodic notes played by all of them in a round.
Source: Youtube Channel VGMChannel
Michiru Yamane's tunes are well known to Castlevania fans and highly regarded in the game industry. The melodies are memorable, the sound is unique, the compositions are complex, and just listening to them is magnificent even out of the game. The video above is actually an arranged version of Yamane's latest Castlevania work "An Empty Tome" from "Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia."
I have been listening to Michiru Yamane's music for a long time and have bought every Castlevania game that has come out with one of the reasons of her music being in it. I personally love the Castlevania series not only for its long history of good music, but the unique twists that have been implemented into the action side-scroller throughout the decades. I won't get into gameplay since the post is about the music. Castlevania has been strongly defined because of Yamane's contribution. The tunes never gets boring, and there have been a lot of songs that reoccur (granted that not all of them are from Yamane) and is appreciated by those who play the games over and over again. I would really love to meet her one day along side with the original composer of Castlevania Kinuyo Yamashita. I actually got a message from Yamashita thanking me for playing her music, it was truly an honor (too bad I stayed anonymous in the message). So go out and check out Michiru Yamane's music, even those not Castlevania related:
Source: Youtube Channel groudon2006
Her music is truly listen worthy outside the game. Gotta love her music~
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
GameOn - JVG Music Composers - Jun'ya Ota & Daisuke Amaya
Hey everyone, I forgot to mention on Friday that Monday was a holiday. I've been working so much that I totally forgot, mainly because I didn't get a day off. Well, to make up for missing last Monday's post and not having one yesterday because of the holiday, I decided to make a post on two people for this week's GameOn topic on Japanese Videogame Music Composers Jun'ya Ota and Daisuke Amaya.
太田順也 Ota Jun'ya
Better known ZUN is the creator of the super popular Shoot em up Danmaku (bullet hell) series Touhou (東方). I can't even begin to express how much I respect this man. Establishing Team Shanghai Alice as the sole developer, ZUN went on to create 23 games on his own working on the programming, art, music, and design to each one of those games. This isn't considering the other few dozen fan-made or 3rd-party made games based off of the Touhou universe. The catchy tunes, challenging gameplay, intriguing characters, and strong community fan base has made this man and his creation one of the most popular topics among Japanese Animé and videogame fanatics. Last thursday, I put in a filler video and said I would explain the video a little. Here's the breakdown:
This video...
Source: Youtube Channel taifunbrowser
Is a Lucky Star video remix of this video...
Source: Youtube Channel DaSniper2
Which is a remix audio and video of the original song composed by ZUN for Imperishable Night...
Source: Youtube Channel PineappleDisciple
His music is memorable, iconic, intricate, and has an elegance to its midi sounding instruments. Touhou's gameplay has established much of today's Danmaku or bullet hell sub-genre within Shoot em ups. The characters themselves have become iconic figures, although it has been popularized by fan-made drawings (ZUN isn't exactly the most talented artist, but it's enough to create the games they are today). But ultimately, it is his music that has the largest wide-spread popularity that accompanies his game and characters. Type in Touhou in any search engine and you'll find tons of remixes and reiterations of his music. Here are some of my favorites songs:
Source: Youtube Channel PineappleDisciple
Source: Youtube Channel PineappleDisciple
Source: Youtube Channel PineappleDisciple
I'm hoping to one day meet ZUN among other Videogame Composers. His work has truly inspired me in my music and influences my decision to create my own games as well.
Daisuke Amaya
I respect this man as I do ZUN, for he also created his own game which took 5 years of programming, composing, designing, drawing, and such in order to create the game he is most well known for: Cave Story. Cave Story (洞窟物語 Dōkutsu Monogatari) was a game created by Daisuke Amaya who is also known as PIXEL that took 5 years of hard work. It's a action-platform adventure game that has many elements to old retro games that is regarded as charming and a masterpieces. The catchy 8-bit tunes are memorable written alongside a quirky story about a war robot finding his way off the island full of creatures calll the Mimigas. There are tons of secrets, special items, and hidden pathways that many retro games had that had gamers playing through the game several times over to find out other possible outcomes of the story and gameplay when played differently.
Source: Youtube Channel Chaddicl
As you can hear from the fan-made trailer, the music PIXEL creates are simple but has a clear hook to its melody. The 8-bit quality adds to the nostalgic feeling of a game made in the past with its pixel-like graphics and simple dialogue. The game's story, character and gameplay is much more deeper than one would expect from a one man development. Pixel really thought out how he wanted the game to look, sound, and play. The game has gotten the attention of the game industry and should be on WiiWare by now for Nintendo Wii and it should be coming to PSP. I also heard that they were going to have it on Nintendo's new 3DS as well. Anyways, the PC version is still free and can be found on the tribute site: http://www.cavestory.org/
Source: Youtube Channel Metoolx597
太田順也 Ota Jun'ya
Better known ZUN is the creator of the super popular Shoot em up Danmaku (bullet hell) series Touhou (東方). I can't even begin to express how much I respect this man. Establishing Team Shanghai Alice as the sole developer, ZUN went on to create 23 games on his own working on the programming, art, music, and design to each one of those games. This isn't considering the other few dozen fan-made or 3rd-party made games based off of the Touhou universe. The catchy tunes, challenging gameplay, intriguing characters, and strong community fan base has made this man and his creation one of the most popular topics among Japanese Animé and videogame fanatics. Last thursday, I put in a filler video and said I would explain the video a little. Here's the breakdown:
This video...
Source: Youtube Channel taifunbrowser
Is a Lucky Star video remix of this video...
Source: Youtube Channel DaSniper2
Which is a remix audio and video of the original song composed by ZUN for Imperishable Night...
Source: Youtube Channel PineappleDisciple
His music is memorable, iconic, intricate, and has an elegance to its midi sounding instruments. Touhou's gameplay has established much of today's Danmaku or bullet hell sub-genre within Shoot em ups. The characters themselves have become iconic figures, although it has been popularized by fan-made drawings (ZUN isn't exactly the most talented artist, but it's enough to create the games they are today). But ultimately, it is his music that has the largest wide-spread popularity that accompanies his game and characters. Type in Touhou in any search engine and you'll find tons of remixes and reiterations of his music. Here are some of my favorites songs:
Source: Youtube Channel PineappleDisciple
Source: Youtube Channel PineappleDisciple
Source: Youtube Channel PineappleDisciple
I'm hoping to one day meet ZUN among other Videogame Composers. His work has truly inspired me in my music and influences my decision to create my own games as well.
Daisuke Amaya
I respect this man as I do ZUN, for he also created his own game which took 5 years of programming, composing, designing, drawing, and such in order to create the game he is most well known for: Cave Story. Cave Story (洞窟物語 Dōkutsu Monogatari) was a game created by Daisuke Amaya who is also known as PIXEL that took 5 years of hard work. It's a action-platform adventure game that has many elements to old retro games that is regarded as charming and a masterpieces. The catchy 8-bit tunes are memorable written alongside a quirky story about a war robot finding his way off the island full of creatures calll the Mimigas. There are tons of secrets, special items, and hidden pathways that many retro games had that had gamers playing through the game several times over to find out other possible outcomes of the story and gameplay when played differently.
Source: Youtube Channel Chaddicl
As you can hear from the fan-made trailer, the music PIXEL creates are simple but has a clear hook to its melody. The 8-bit quality adds to the nostalgic feeling of a game made in the past with its pixel-like graphics and simple dialogue. The game's story, character and gameplay is much more deeper than one would expect from a one man development. Pixel really thought out how he wanted the game to look, sound, and play. The game has gotten the attention of the game industry and should be on WiiWare by now for Nintendo Wii and it should be coming to PSP. I also heard that they were going to have it on Nintendo's new 3DS as well. Anyways, the PC version is still free and can be found on the tribute site: http://www.cavestory.org/
Source: Youtube Channel Metoolx597
Friday, January 14, 2011
NewNews - Blacklight: Tango Down 2 Free to play?
Source: Joystiq - Blacklight sequel going free-to-play
I'm going to have to keep this post short since I'm still running at a busy schedule. What am I busy with exactly? Well, along with my job and making posts on here, I've been asked to help out on a week-long game development competition by producing music for two teams.
Anyways, it seems Joystiq got word from Dev team Zombie Studios that they're planning on releasing a sequel on a free-to-play basis with micro-transactions rather than charging a one time fee. They're improving the game from the feedback they got from players of the first one, which I'm very upset about. Instead of staying faithful to those who bought, played and gave feedback for the first one by releasing patches and updates, they're coming out with a sequel. Sure it's going to be free, but it's also going to have players who spend money for premium items versus those who don't. I bought the first one because I sincerely enjoyed trying it out at E3 2010, but was sadden to see 1-3 games tops available on average on team deathmatch.
Source: Youtube Channel MILEYCYRUSTHEVIRUS
There are a number of things the game could be improved for, but they were largely ignored on PC and was updated for the PS3 version. I like the game, but I think I could enjoy it a lot more if the developers took the time to improve it. Kills are sometimes delayed by lag, players die near instant (so those complaining about how Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is about who sees who first will absolutely hate this game), camping seems to be the main way to win, the user-interface for the menus were cluttered, and a lot of the social aspects just weren't there. The only way to play co-op missions is to have the players within your friends list be invited directly, there isn't in-game text chatting, and the player never knows how many players there exactly on playing in each mode (practically zero in every mode except for team deathmatch). What I did like about the game was the large array of customizable parts for each gun. They affect what the gun and its reticle looks like, statistics, and the way they shoot. The futuristic theme was also a nice touch to the graphics and environment. Although near immediate death can be very annoying, it does its job of keeping a fast-paced match going. The co-op missions was badly designed on the co-op part, but I find the mode to be very enjoyable (to an extent). It's challenging, it lets the player practice all the controls and uses of the items and weapons, and it feels very different from other FPSs in terms of single-player/story mode. The problem with it is that there's only 4 missions, the enemies become very predictable, and if you manage to die the game is over and you'd have to start from the very beginning. I really want this game to be as good as the developers hope it to be, and so I'm hoping that the sequel really will be an improvement. From the article on Joystiq, the developers won't be using assets from the previous game and will have entirely new content.
I'm going to have to keep this post short since I'm still running at a busy schedule. What am I busy with exactly? Well, along with my job and making posts on here, I've been asked to help out on a week-long game development competition by producing music for two teams.
Anyways, it seems Joystiq got word from Dev team Zombie Studios that they're planning on releasing a sequel on a free-to-play basis with micro-transactions rather than charging a one time fee. They're improving the game from the feedback they got from players of the first one, which I'm very upset about. Instead of staying faithful to those who bought, played and gave feedback for the first one by releasing patches and updates, they're coming out with a sequel. Sure it's going to be free, but it's also going to have players who spend money for premium items versus those who don't. I bought the first one because I sincerely enjoyed trying it out at E3 2010, but was sadden to see 1-3 games tops available on average on team deathmatch.
Source: Youtube Channel MILEYCYRUSTHEVIRUS
There are a number of things the game could be improved for, but they were largely ignored on PC and was updated for the PS3 version. I like the game, but I think I could enjoy it a lot more if the developers took the time to improve it. Kills are sometimes delayed by lag, players die near instant (so those complaining about how Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is about who sees who first will absolutely hate this game), camping seems to be the main way to win, the user-interface for the menus were cluttered, and a lot of the social aspects just weren't there. The only way to play co-op missions is to have the players within your friends list be invited directly, there isn't in-game text chatting, and the player never knows how many players there exactly on playing in each mode (practically zero in every mode except for team deathmatch). What I did like about the game was the large array of customizable parts for each gun. They affect what the gun and its reticle looks like, statistics, and the way they shoot. The futuristic theme was also a nice touch to the graphics and environment. Although near immediate death can be very annoying, it does its job of keeping a fast-paced match going. The co-op missions was badly designed on the co-op part, but I find the mode to be very enjoyable (to an extent). It's challenging, it lets the player practice all the controls and uses of the items and weapons, and it feels very different from other FPSs in terms of single-player/story mode. The problem with it is that there's only 4 missions, the enemies become very predictable, and if you manage to die the game is over and you'd have to start from the very beginning. I really want this game to be as good as the developers hope it to be, and so I'm hoping that the sequel really will be an improvement. From the article on Joystiq, the developers won't be using assets from the previous game and will have entirely new content.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
VGCulture - Filler with Lucky Star Overdrive
Sorry, I am immensely busy and I can't take the time to write a post today. @_@;
Source: Youtube Channel taifunbrowser
I'll explain this video a bit more tomorrow!
Source: Youtube Channel taifunbrowser
I'll explain this video a bit more tomorrow!
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
VGCulture - Sony Ericsson Xperia Play
So if there are those of you who keep up with tech news or tech for gaming, you would have heard tons of updates about Sony's new Playstation Phone. I kept up with the news on Engadget and they had quite a lot of updates on it: Engadget - Sony Ericsson Xperia Play
Source: Youtube Channel pocketnowvideo
I mention this now because "I WANT IT!" There are concerns that I have about application support, battery life, and processing power because it doesn't really make sense to get a gaming phone with no games on it. I'm actually qualified to get a free phone right now from my phone services and I started looking for a new phone. I had my heart set on a Motorola but couldn't get it because of a required data plan that costs $30 a month. It doesn't make sense to have that right now since I'm mostly working near a computer with internet access all the time. So right now, I have to settle with a Samsung and maybe wait a bit longer before getting a new one. It's because of this that I'm looking forward to the release of the Xperia Play from Sony. Phone games have always served as a method of passing time when stuck somewhere: waiting for the bus at a stop, waiting at an office for an appointment of sorts, or just to pass by time. The problems so far is that most phone games have long load times, tiny screens, terrible controls, and poor quality in development. I'm not expecting the Sony phone to be the next big handheld gaming champion, but I'm hoping for some good quality games. I'll admit that the iPhone has a history of decent development support from big name companies such as Capcom and Square Enix, but the fact still remains: games developed on phones do not have the design to support the type of games developers try to make on them. We'll see, I'm hoping for the best out of this phone.
Source: Youtube Channel pocketnowvideo
I mention this now because "I WANT IT!" There are concerns that I have about application support, battery life, and processing power because it doesn't really make sense to get a gaming phone with no games on it. I'm actually qualified to get a free phone right now from my phone services and I started looking for a new phone. I had my heart set on a Motorola but couldn't get it because of a required data plan that costs $30 a month. It doesn't make sense to have that right now since I'm mostly working near a computer with internet access all the time. So right now, I have to settle with a Samsung and maybe wait a bit longer before getting a new one. It's because of this that I'm looking forward to the release of the Xperia Play from Sony. Phone games have always served as a method of passing time when stuck somewhere: waiting for the bus at a stop, waiting at an office for an appointment of sorts, or just to pass by time. The problems so far is that most phone games have long load times, tiny screens, terrible controls, and poor quality in development. I'm not expecting the Sony phone to be the next big handheld gaming champion, but I'm hoping for some good quality games. I'll admit that the iPhone has a history of decent development support from big name companies such as Capcom and Square Enix, but the fact still remains: games developed on phones do not have the design to support the type of games developers try to make on them. We'll see, I'm hoping for the best out of this phone.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
GameLight - Modern Combat: Domination
Ack, I was so busy yesterday that I totally forgot to do a post. I was up to my neck with work today too, and it's only going to be crazier the next following days. Anyways, I saw this on Kotaku today:
Source: Youtube Video gameloft
Article Source: Kotaku - This Video Game Looks Awfully Familiar
I was honestly blown away by the video. It's by Gameloft who are best known for their mobile games, it's only $8 dollars for the Playstation 3, and it utilizes the Playstation Move peripheral. It astounds me that Stephen Totilo of Kotaku would make a reference to Call of Duty and claim it looks like it via headlines because it seems more like a way to cause fanboys to flame and troll in the comments page. Even more surprising is how civilized people expressed themselves on the comments to the article; that is not true for the comments to the video on Youtube. The graphics look amazing for a digital download game (I'm assuming since $8 for retail sounds like a lost on profit), the gameplay looks clean and straight-forward, and it seems to offer a game for the hardcore gamers who own the Playstation Move that other developers have yet to make (not counting those that became compatible with it such as MAG). I don't own the Playstation Move myself, but if the game turns out to be good and meets some of my expectations, I'll probably buy it (as long as I can still play it with a regular controller). Gameloft, I think I just gained new respects for your company.
Source: Youtube Video gameloft
Article Source: Kotaku - This Video Game Looks Awfully Familiar
I was honestly blown away by the video. It's by Gameloft who are best known for their mobile games, it's only $8 dollars for the Playstation 3, and it utilizes the Playstation Move peripheral. It astounds me that Stephen Totilo of Kotaku would make a reference to Call of Duty and claim it looks like it via headlines because it seems more like a way to cause fanboys to flame and troll in the comments page. Even more surprising is how civilized people expressed themselves on the comments to the article; that is not true for the comments to the video on Youtube. The graphics look amazing for a digital download game (I'm assuming since $8 for retail sounds like a lost on profit), the gameplay looks clean and straight-forward, and it seems to offer a game for the hardcore gamers who own the Playstation Move that other developers have yet to make (not counting those that became compatible with it such as MAG). I don't own the Playstation Move myself, but if the game turns out to be good and meets some of my expectations, I'll probably buy it (as long as I can still play it with a regular controller). Gameloft, I think I just gained new respects for your company.
Friday, January 7, 2011
NewNews - Razer Switchblade (Portable Gaming PC)
So appearently the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) started yesterday and had reports of a new gaming laptop being developed by Razer that has the functions I need to have awesome PC gaming on the go.
Source: Engadget - Razer Switchblade preview
Source: Joystiq - Razer announces Switchblade 7-inch PC gaming tablet concept
Source: Gamespot - Razer CES 2011 Booth Tour
Source: Youtube Channel cultofrazer
It's very rare that I, personally, buy or receive a computer or laptop. Thinking about it, I've only bought one that I chose myself; it was a laptop. I bought a Lenovo Y710 gaming laptop 17" and dual-booted it with XP/Vista. Because of this 17" "gaming" (emphasis on gaming, meaning heavier) laptop, I rarely bring it around with me. It's much easier than lugging my tower and 22" monitor around from before, but it's still problematic whenever I want to just lift up my laptop and bring it somewhere to game. So seeing the Razer Switchblade got me excited. I'm guessing that the keys are programmable? That's good, since I usually use my Saitek Cyborg Command Unit Speed Pad to remap all the keys to fit my game controls. Here's some of the things I'm hoping for when learning more about the product:
-Portable 7" design, hopefully it's light as well
-Touch Screen takes away the need for a mouse when surfing internet/checking email
-Strong Processor with smooth graphics (Good Graphics Card)
-Tactile, programmable keys aligned to adapt to any and all games
-A reasonable price (I'm hoping it's $300, but I doubt it)
-At least 500 GB worth of Hard Drive
-Runs other programs (like Steam because I have a ton of games on there)
-HDMI port to hook up to a Large LCD HD TV
-A battery life of at least 5 hours
-All the required ports like USB and Cable port just in case wireless is being stupid
Yeah, Razer's stuff has always been flashy and cool, but always expensive. Looking at the Switchblade, it'll be a convenient device as a netbook and gaming laptop on the go. I'll consider buying one depending on the price, but it's definitely a product to look out for in the future even to just take a look at.
Source: Engadget - Razer Switchblade preview
Source: Joystiq - Razer announces Switchblade 7-inch PC gaming tablet concept
Source: Gamespot - Razer CES 2011 Booth Tour
Source: Youtube Channel cultofrazer
It's very rare that I, personally, buy or receive a computer or laptop. Thinking about it, I've only bought one that I chose myself; it was a laptop. I bought a Lenovo Y710 gaming laptop 17" and dual-booted it with XP/Vista. Because of this 17" "gaming" (emphasis on gaming, meaning heavier) laptop, I rarely bring it around with me. It's much easier than lugging my tower and 22" monitor around from before, but it's still problematic whenever I want to just lift up my laptop and bring it somewhere to game. So seeing the Razer Switchblade got me excited. I'm guessing that the keys are programmable? That's good, since I usually use my Saitek Cyborg Command Unit Speed Pad to remap all the keys to fit my game controls. Here's some of the things I'm hoping for when learning more about the product:
-Portable 7" design, hopefully it's light as well
-Touch Screen takes away the need for a mouse when surfing internet/checking email
-Strong Processor with smooth graphics (Good Graphics Card)
-Tactile, programmable keys aligned to adapt to any and all games
-A reasonable price (I'm hoping it's $300, but I doubt it)
-At least 500 GB worth of Hard Drive
-Runs other programs (like Steam because I have a ton of games on there)
-HDMI port to hook up to a Large LCD HD TV
-A battery life of at least 5 hours
-All the required ports like USB and Cable port just in case wireless is being stupid
Yeah, Razer's stuff has always been flashy and cool, but always expensive. Looking at the Switchblade, it'll be a convenient device as a netbook and gaming laptop on the go. I'll consider buying one depending on the price, but it's definitely a product to look out for in the future even to just take a look at.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
NewNews - Future of First-Person Shooting?
Source: Cubic's COMBATREDI combat simulator takes augmented reality to new, awesome levels - Engadget
A new device for simulating combat was reported on Engadget and they talked about something that every gamer probably thought of when they saw the headlines: Augmented Reality First-Person Shooter. So what the device does is simulate combat through real life environments by implementing projections through the funky looking, Sam Fisher goggles and gun scope; have 3D Audio technology hooked up to their helmets to simulate sound coming from a direction and replicate the equipment to its respective weight and feeling with even magazine switching. It's funny how we have barely succeeded in creating good virtual reality devices/consoles/games within the industry and population and we're all looking forward to augmented reality already. The iPhone already has a augmented reality games to show for:
Source: http://www.jessplays.com/2010/11/08/augmented-reality-app-brings-star-wars-down-to-earth/
The environment doesn't necessarily change the way the game plays (as far as I know), but it is fascinating seeing a game interact with the real world. Here's another augmented reality game I read about today:
Source: Youtube Channel thetubebompo
Article: Joystiq: PacMap lets you chomp around your city as Pac-Man
And then there's the up and coming Nintendo 3DS device that will have similar functions of implementing games within the real world:
Source: Youtube Channel Nintendo3DS
I remember seeing a PSP game that does something similar. Anyways, it'll be interesting to see how games evolve and are implemented to our own physical world.
 |
| Source: http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2010/05/100519-cubic-01.jpg |
Source: http://www.jessplays.com/2010/11/08/augmented-reality-app-brings-star-wars-down-to-earth/
The environment doesn't necessarily change the way the game plays (as far as I know), but it is fascinating seeing a game interact with the real world. Here's another augmented reality game I read about today:
Source: Youtube Channel thetubebompo
Article: Joystiq: PacMap lets you chomp around your city as Pac-Man
And then there's the up and coming Nintendo 3DS device that will have similar functions of implementing games within the real world:
Source: Youtube Channel Nintendo3DS
I remember seeing a PSP game that does something similar. Anyways, it'll be interesting to see how games evolve and are implemented to our own physical world.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
GameLight - Angry Birds
Anyone heard of this game? I've been hearing about it in the past month or so showing up as one of the most successful mobile games out right now. I didn't have much interest in looking it up, but I had a friend who was playing it last week and another talking about how addictive it was. When I went to hang out with some buddies of mine, one of them was playing it on their touch screen cell phone. Well, this is what it is:
Source: Youtube Channel RovioMobile
Simple, easy to control, and has a bit of challenge into it. Most games on cell phones I've played in the past (prior to touch screen) has had jerky controls, laggy graphics, and easy/impossible gameplay due to the limitations. Phones are now possess processors stronger than my first computer and has a large touch screen. Even then, there are developers creating games with virtual joysticks and archaic controls. The developers of Angry Birds (and other good phone games) understand the limitations of screen size, processors, controls and the amount of time people put into playing phone games and work with those limitations. I'm getting a new phone soon, and I saw a free version of Angry Birds. Anyone with a mobile device should go check it out, no harm in playing a free game.
Source: Youtube Channel RovioMobile
Simple, easy to control, and has a bit of challenge into it. Most games on cell phones I've played in the past (prior to touch screen) has had jerky controls, laggy graphics, and easy/impossible gameplay due to the limitations. Phones are now possess processors stronger than my first computer and has a large touch screen. Even then, there are developers creating games with virtual joysticks and archaic controls. The developers of Angry Birds (and other good phone games) understand the limitations of screen size, processors, controls and the amount of time people put into playing phone games and work with those limitations. I'm getting a new phone soon, and I saw a free version of Angry Birds. Anyone with a mobile device should go check it out, no harm in playing a free game.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
VGCulture - Permadeath
Last week, I posted a blog about "Hardcore Games" and my interest in challenging games. I missed out on a lot of aspects that made difficult games exciting, but there was one I really want to mention that I haven't tried yet: games with "Permadeath". Permadeath is a shortened form of Permanent Death where your character and progress is all lost at the time of defeat of death of the character. It is generally used more in RPGs (Table-top, offline or online, text based, etc.) as losses in a RPG is much greater than any other type of game. Retro-games can be considered to have permadeath where the player has to start all over if all the 1-Ups/free-mans, but these games consisted anywhere between 10 minutes to 3 hours. RPGs, some players will have spent 100 hours to 5 years on playing, questing, meeting new players, etc. To lose a character in an RPG is like losing all that time that was spent into working on it. It is because of this that I haven't tried yet (though, there is Fire Emblem, I'll get to that), I spend quite a lot of time on my RPGs. The usual trade off for such a dangerous mode of play is that player are rewarded with better items, more experience points, and rare loot. For offline games, the player just have to be weary of stronger enemies. For online games, it's much more dangerous because a lag, server crash, stronger player in PvP, or glitch in the system can cost the player their work and time put into their characters.
One MMORPG I've played that had the option of permadeath was Shaiya: Light and Darkness. The game had difficulty levels that affected player growth, enemy strength, and capacity to level. Hard mode is unlocked by playing through normal mode (I never finished the game, I was too busy and had other games to play through) and Ultimate mode, which turns on Permadeath, is unlocked by playing through hard mode. If you die and your character is not resurrected within a certain amount of time (I think, I'm not 100% sure how it works) the character is then deleted off the server and the player has to create another one and start over. This level of challenge could be exciting and really pits the player into the risk/reward factor of the game. From what I hear, Diablo 2 has a "Hardcore Mode" which enable hardcore mode. I'm sad that I didn't get into Diablo when it first released. When I tried it years later (we're talking about 8 years later), it failed to captivate me. I think I would've liked it if I had more time to play games. Oh well, still waiting for Diablo 3, definitely going to buy that.
In the Online games, yes, you can choose whether to turn on permadeath or not, but the player has very little control when and how they die when it does happen. For Offline games, there are times where the player can cheat. Fire Emblem is one game I've actually played that has permadeath where I chose not to let anyone die. If a character is defeated on the battlefield in Fire Emblem games, they are gone for good. The player can choose to accept that sacrifice to progress through the story or cheat and restart the game to go to the last save they had or restart the chapter entirely. Some offline games won't even allow that. Two games I know that has an anti-cheating method is Dokapon Monster Hunter for Gameboy Advance and Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja for Gameboy DS. When dying inside a dungeon in either game, the player loses ALL items and gold found when exploring. If the player tries to turn off the game while inside the dungeon, it counts as a death and the player is brought back to the town with all items and currency gone. That was annoying and stupid about Dokapon, but I really enjoyed the difficulty and challenge in Izuna to a point. It got really difficult in the last dungeon and I only got to the boss twice and had to leave if I didn't want to die and lost my belongings. I ended up giving up and continued to play my other games. Maybe I'll go back to it someday.
Permadeath is a difficult aspect to add into a game that people are willing to play. It's very discouraging when the player constantly has to start over each time something goes wrong, even when it's the player's poor decision that brought them to it. On the other hand, it's that pressure and nerve wrecking chance of losing everything that causes players to make careful decisions, play smarter, and having the patience to progress through the game at a slow pace if needed rather than rushing in head-first and beating the game without breaking a sweat. I haven't read any articles on permadeath, but I remember seeing some as a big debate on whether it makes a game fun, is it fair, and some issues it has with players.
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| Source: http://photo.mmosite.com/picfile/2006-04-01/20060401003848446.shtml |
In the Online games, yes, you can choose whether to turn on permadeath or not, but the player has very little control when and how they die when it does happen. For Offline games, there are times where the player can cheat. Fire Emblem is one game I've actually played that has permadeath where I chose not to let anyone die. If a character is defeated on the battlefield in Fire Emblem games, they are gone for good. The player can choose to accept that sacrifice to progress through the story or cheat and restart the game to go to the last save they had or restart the chapter entirely. Some offline games won't even allow that. Two games I know that has an anti-cheating method is Dokapon Monster Hunter for Gameboy Advance and Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja for Gameboy DS. When dying inside a dungeon in either game, the player loses ALL items and gold found when exploring. If the player tries to turn off the game while inside the dungeon, it counts as a death and the player is brought back to the town with all items and currency gone. That was annoying and stupid about Dokapon, but I really enjoyed the difficulty and challenge in Izuna to a point. It got really difficult in the last dungeon and I only got to the boss twice and had to leave if I didn't want to die and lost my belongings. I ended up giving up and continued to play my other games. Maybe I'll go back to it someday.
Permadeath is a difficult aspect to add into a game that people are willing to play. It's very discouraging when the player constantly has to start over each time something goes wrong, even when it's the player's poor decision that brought them to it. On the other hand, it's that pressure and nerve wrecking chance of losing everything that causes players to make careful decisions, play smarter, and having the patience to progress through the game at a slow pace if needed rather than rushing in head-first and beating the game without breaking a sweat. I haven't read any articles on permadeath, but I remember seeing some as a big debate on whether it makes a game fun, is it fair, and some issues it has with players.
Monday, January 3, 2011
GameLight - Nintendo 3DS Anticipation
Happy New Year Everyone and welcome to the new decade! I missed out a lot during 2010 and have 50+ games waiting for me to play through and beat; however, I'm already excited for some of the things coming out this year. More than anything, I am excited about the release of the Nintendo 3DS.
Source: Youtube Channel giancarloparimango11
I still regret that I didn't go try it out at E3 2010 when I was there. I was so excited about the whole experience that I ran out of time to check out most of the Nintendo products. Anyways, I'm excited about the device having the ability to project a 3D image out without glasses to process them. This doesn't only push one step forward for gaming, but for all media entertainment in general. 3D TV, 3D graphics cards, and 3D movies are the trend in entertainment now like it was back 30-40 years ago with Red/Cyan 3D. With the newest Gameboy coming out, I'm hoping that 3rd Party companies in the industry are hard at work on developing interesting games to rejuvenate portable gaming. The NDS and PSP still has entertaining games coming out once in a while, but the traffic has slowed down tremendously. I am a bit skeptical about the initial launch of the 3DS as it seems that most of the games will be ports of old games made into 3D. I'm hoping for innovation and the return of the true gaming experience rather than games that try to follow the fads. I really don't mind the Street Fighter 4 port though, since it seems to stay true to the original game and has a lot of additional content. I'm hoping for a better interface for the log in screen. The NDS was okay, but I liked how PSP was able to stop the game and start exactly where you left off at any given notice. From the looks of the video, you can even use the internet and then go back to the game using the home key. With the stereoscopic camera function, I'm hoping that developers can be creative with augmented reality and create real life involving games. There are plenty more functions such as a motion sensor (or so I heard they added), but I am looking more forward to the release of real games again. I think the last game I bought for my DS was Phantasy Start Zero. I love it, still playing it. Still, I think I'm ready for another wave of games.
Source: Youtube Channel giancarloparimango11
I still regret that I didn't go try it out at E3 2010 when I was there. I was so excited about the whole experience that I ran out of time to check out most of the Nintendo products. Anyways, I'm excited about the device having the ability to project a 3D image out without glasses to process them. This doesn't only push one step forward for gaming, but for all media entertainment in general. 3D TV, 3D graphics cards, and 3D movies are the trend in entertainment now like it was back 30-40 years ago with Red/Cyan 3D. With the newest Gameboy coming out, I'm hoping that 3rd Party companies in the industry are hard at work on developing interesting games to rejuvenate portable gaming. The NDS and PSP still has entertaining games coming out once in a while, but the traffic has slowed down tremendously. I am a bit skeptical about the initial launch of the 3DS as it seems that most of the games will be ports of old games made into 3D. I'm hoping for innovation and the return of the true gaming experience rather than games that try to follow the fads. I really don't mind the Street Fighter 4 port though, since it seems to stay true to the original game and has a lot of additional content. I'm hoping for a better interface for the log in screen. The NDS was okay, but I liked how PSP was able to stop the game and start exactly where you left off at any given notice. From the looks of the video, you can even use the internet and then go back to the game using the home key. With the stereoscopic camera function, I'm hoping that developers can be creative with augmented reality and create real life involving games. There are plenty more functions such as a motion sensor (or so I heard they added), but I am looking more forward to the release of real games again. I think the last game I bought for my DS was Phantasy Start Zero. I love it, still playing it. Still, I think I'm ready for another wave of games.
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