Official Site: http://www.gamersfirst.com/fallenearth/
Steam Site: http://store.steampowered.com/app/113420/
Source: Youtube Channel MMOHut
Fallen Earth looked like an interesting game when it first released. Players are dropped into a post-apocalyptic world torn asunder and are free to roam anywhere they want. The game is played like an Action game so it requires aiming and attacking in real-time rather than auto-target and auto-attack. It was like a dream MMORPG for fans of Fallout 3 and to those who like open-world RPGs. However, the game received poor reception from critics and players for its low quality in graphics with erratic animations and dated textures. Well back 2 years ago, the game was a pay-to-play game and I didn't really have the intrigue to play the trial. The game recently went free-to-play a few months ago as it has been taken up by GamerFirst and has also been added to Steam which players can use their steam accounts to log-in with. With the game so readily available for me to play, I thought I tried it out.
One thing that a lot of players and I myself find worth praising is the atmosphere and immersion with the world that the game is set in (post-apocalyptic earth). The dialogues have voice-acting, the environment is dark and grim, and the world outside is massive. The one thing that caught my attention when the game first released was that it was a First-Person Shooter in a MMORPG, much like what Borderlands did. I suppose the game had its influence from Fallout 3 (or perhaps other open-world games similar to it) with the freedom to go anywhere, the action of an FPS, the depth of an RPG, while adding the ability to play with hundreds of players in an MMO. This aspect made combat different in that players play the game like an action game and have full control of their character's attacks rather than the traditional auto-attack. Aiming for the head will grant the player more damage to the enemy and missing a shot or hit would be justified and not relied on chance. The game seemed great, but I quickly picked up on all its fallacies and made me realize what so many negative feedback was given to the game.
I was expecting the game to be played more like an FPS than anything else, but the controls were split into two different modes: combat and interaction. The game can be played in first-person or 3rd-person, it's up to the player to choose. First-person makes it easier to shoot, 3rd-person makes it easier to see around the player when wielding a melee weapon. Then the player has to switch between combat where they fight, aim, and shoot and interaction where they drag the camera around, interact with objects, and speak with NPCs. Switching between the perspectives and modes was clunky and a hindrance to the flow of the game. One moment you have to fight an enemy, another you're picking up an item, you and you don't know if you're looking around or moving your mouse cursor. This made combat incredibly aggravating. Sadly, even with an action-orientated combat system, it was still pretty boring. When you shoot an enemy, you aim and shoot. When you use a melee weapon, you stand and click. Moving does little in combat unless the enemy happens to stay where they are and there's cover nearby. With the enemies, their paths are predetermined and their AI is programed simply to hit anyone close to them. There isn't much dynamics to combat and sometimes they'll just glitch out and starting doing their own thing. I saw enemies getting stuck halfway into a wall, some running back and forth in the same area, and the smartest ones are the ones that stand there to hit or shoot you. It was already bad enough that the combat was boring and the controls cumbersome, but the graphics would spaz out or lag, animations would be rigid or erratic and affect combat, the looting system was annoying with the way the controls are set up, and the inventory is really messy considering that it's pretty similar to all other MMORPGs. Despite having an amazing atmosphere and a life-like living, breathing town outside, the color palette combined with an insane amount of texts and UI (from player names, NPCs, skill hotbar, etc.) create a convoluted crowd of people and information that the game doesn't quite explain clearly.
The game has a lot of potential and great ideas, but like many other games with potential and great ideas, it was executed poorly and had many mechanics that just didn't work fluidly and effectively. It was a big disappointment and I highly doubt I'll revisit the game again. I couldn't stand the game anymore so I didn't continue farther, which is why I didn't write a full review as I didn't truly see all the aspects of the game. It's fine though, I rather not bite that bullet.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
GameLight- Hybrid
Official Site: http://www.whatishybrid.com/
Source: Youtube Channel gametrailers
Another developer is taking up the task of creating another shooter, and it's a fierce competition in the market right now since there are so many of them. I'm not really sure how I came across this game anymore, but Hybrid is a competitive multiplayer 3rd-Person Action Shooter that is set to launch on the Xbox Live Arcade and PC. From the trailers I've seen, players can fly around with jet packs and take cover behind obstructions and walls. The heavy sci-fi theme isn't unfamiliar, but still leaves quite the impression looking at it. As I've mentioned many times in the past, I'm really sick of all the multiplayer-only shooters that keep releasing in the market when they can't hold a community longer than a couple of months. More accurately, I'm sick of spending money on those types of games only to end up not being able to play them because no one plays them anymore. Look at those graphics and fast-paced action. It looks like a lot of fun, right? When the community dies out, there's no possible way to play it anymore because the game's experience relies solely on its players. Unfortunately, many of these multiplayer-centric shooters are created by indie-developed teams and distributed digitally which means it won't reach all of its potential audience and the team may not always have the resources to keep the community stable. There isn't much detail on the game other than that it's a competitive multiplayer 3rd-Person Shooter where the player takes the role of a Paladin or Variant. You can fly, hide, and shoot and possibly stab too judging from the ending of the trailer. Whether there will be a single-player campaign or any relevant storyline following the game is unclear at the moment. The release date of Hybrid is TBA possibly sometime in 2012.
Source: Youtube Channel gametrailers
Another developer is taking up the task of creating another shooter, and it's a fierce competition in the market right now since there are so many of them. I'm not really sure how I came across this game anymore, but Hybrid is a competitive multiplayer 3rd-Person Action Shooter that is set to launch on the Xbox Live Arcade and PC. From the trailers I've seen, players can fly around with jet packs and take cover behind obstructions and walls. The heavy sci-fi theme isn't unfamiliar, but still leaves quite the impression looking at it. As I've mentioned many times in the past, I'm really sick of all the multiplayer-only shooters that keep releasing in the market when they can't hold a community longer than a couple of months. More accurately, I'm sick of spending money on those types of games only to end up not being able to play them because no one plays them anymore. Look at those graphics and fast-paced action. It looks like a lot of fun, right? When the community dies out, there's no possible way to play it anymore because the game's experience relies solely on its players. Unfortunately, many of these multiplayer-centric shooters are created by indie-developed teams and distributed digitally which means it won't reach all of its potential audience and the team may not always have the resources to keep the community stable. There isn't much detail on the game other than that it's a competitive multiplayer 3rd-Person Shooter where the player takes the role of a Paladin or Variant. You can fly, hide, and shoot and possibly stab too judging from the ending of the trailer. Whether there will be a single-player campaign or any relevant storyline following the game is unclear at the moment. The release date of Hybrid is TBA possibly sometime in 2012.
Monday, February 27, 2012
GameLight - Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes
Official Site: https://wrathofheroes.warhammeronline.com/
Source: Youtube Channel gamespot
Over the weekend, I finally took the time to download and play Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes as it has been released to the public in its open beta testing. Wrath of Heroes is a special PvP (Player vs. Player)-centric multiplayer take on Warhammer Online's main MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) Age of Reckoning. It takes two modes (at the moment, Capture Point and Death Match) and pits three teams against each other using pre-made characters, each with their own unique abilities, role in the team, and 5 usable skills. Joining a game from the main menu is much like joining a PvP in other MMORPGs with players joining getting matched up and placed into a server to play. When the match starts, the player can choose from any of the characters available and can purchase more later on when they earn enough in-game currency. When a player dies, they will respawn and choose to play the same character or choose a different one to adapt to the situation. Like any MMORPG PvP match, knowing your role and complimenting them with your team mates' characters is the key to victory. You have the tank who charges in and pins down the enemy while the damage dealer takes care of them, the healer who keeps their team alive, the support who buffs allies and debuffs enemies, the DPS (Damage Per Second/Damage Dealer) who causes the most damage, etc. Since each character only has 5 skills to cast from, sticking to their role is very important. An assassin charging in head first will probably get killed before they can take down their target. A healer trying to hard to fight will do no damage and have their team suffer. And the classic: if everyone chooses a DPS, the team will most likely fail to achieve anything as their tanks, disablers, and healers will overwhelm the team.
The gameplay feels a lot like any MMORPG in PvP mode, which is great for anyone who like PvP but hates grinding for levels and farming for equipment. The game provides the most bare necessities for a fun PvP experience placing everyone on equal levels. Victory is dependent on skill and teamwork and focuses on that as they take out any variables of class paths, items, character level, or perks. The game is very fast-paced and can be confusing for new-comers of the genre, but I believe it's pretty easy to pick up after a few rounds (considering that I don't PvP that much in MMORPGs, I learned pretty quickly). By simplifying it down to 5 skills, players won't have to juggle a series of skills to figure out what does what and be able to catch on the strategies to the character more quickly. The game is free to play and is available as an open beta. Click on the official site up top and register for an account to try it out. It's great for any players who likes PvP but don't have the time to play a full blown MMORPG to do so.
Source: Youtube Channel gamespot
Over the weekend, I finally took the time to download and play Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes as it has been released to the public in its open beta testing. Wrath of Heroes is a special PvP (Player vs. Player)-centric multiplayer take on Warhammer Online's main MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) Age of Reckoning. It takes two modes (at the moment, Capture Point and Death Match) and pits three teams against each other using pre-made characters, each with their own unique abilities, role in the team, and 5 usable skills. Joining a game from the main menu is much like joining a PvP in other MMORPGs with players joining getting matched up and placed into a server to play. When the match starts, the player can choose from any of the characters available and can purchase more later on when they earn enough in-game currency. When a player dies, they will respawn and choose to play the same character or choose a different one to adapt to the situation. Like any MMORPG PvP match, knowing your role and complimenting them with your team mates' characters is the key to victory. You have the tank who charges in and pins down the enemy while the damage dealer takes care of them, the healer who keeps their team alive, the support who buffs allies and debuffs enemies, the DPS (Damage Per Second/Damage Dealer) who causes the most damage, etc. Since each character only has 5 skills to cast from, sticking to their role is very important. An assassin charging in head first will probably get killed before they can take down their target. A healer trying to hard to fight will do no damage and have their team suffer. And the classic: if everyone chooses a DPS, the team will most likely fail to achieve anything as their tanks, disablers, and healers will overwhelm the team.
The gameplay feels a lot like any MMORPG in PvP mode, which is great for anyone who like PvP but hates grinding for levels and farming for equipment. The game provides the most bare necessities for a fun PvP experience placing everyone on equal levels. Victory is dependent on skill and teamwork and focuses on that as they take out any variables of class paths, items, character level, or perks. The game is very fast-paced and can be confusing for new-comers of the genre, but I believe it's pretty easy to pick up after a few rounds (considering that I don't PvP that much in MMORPGs, I learned pretty quickly). By simplifying it down to 5 skills, players won't have to juggle a series of skills to figure out what does what and be able to catch on the strategies to the character more quickly. The game is free to play and is available as an open beta. Click on the official site up top and register for an account to try it out. It's great for any players who likes PvP but don't have the time to play a full blown MMORPG to do so.
Friday, February 24, 2012
VGCulture - Mass Effect 3 DLCs on day 1
Official Site: http://masseffect.com/
Source: Youtube Channel biowaremasseffect
Mass Effect 3 nears its launch date of March 6th, 2012, and apparently EA has made quite a few fans unhappy after announcing that there will be a DLC available the day it releases. Downloadable-Content (DLC) has been looked down upon by the community as what was once a great idea to offer more out of a game well after its release as it has become a dirty practice in the industry to purposely taking out contents of a game that should have already been in the game only to sell it back to the players for a price. What keeps this trend going is that it is an effective business system as people still buy the DLCs knowing that it will eventually cost more than the game itself. It's a reflection of what business model works best in this generation. Games or content that cost only $1-$15 has become a normal trend in buying games through digital distribution or micro-transactions/DLCs for existing games. With such small price tags, it gives the illusion that one is not paying all that much for their purchase. $5 doesn't seem too bad for a DLC, but the customers are already paying $60 for the entire game already and would expect the most out of it for full price. Just a few years ago, games would launch at its full entirety for the retail price people would pay for. With the new trend making more money, games are rushed out sooner with less content for the same price which is what's bothering a lot of people.
Personally, I am very against DLCs and have only bought them for insane discounts on Steam as I find their existence to lower the quality and ethics of game development in the industry. I think it's great when a developer wants to offer more out of an existing game; however, the price tag that they (or their publishers) place on them just feels like a cheap way to make more money without being justified as a worthy purchase. The matter on Mass Effect 3's DLC doesn't really bother me too much as I don't plan on getting the game anytime soon. I have yet to finish 1 and 2 (lost my save files from my laptop crashing, remember?) and so I feel I can wait it out and eventually get the game when I'm ready and play through just the main story. Mass Effect 3 releases on March 6, 2012 and the demo is available for download now.
Source: Youtube Channel biowaremasseffect
Mass Effect 3 nears its launch date of March 6th, 2012, and apparently EA has made quite a few fans unhappy after announcing that there will be a DLC available the day it releases. Downloadable-Content (DLC) has been looked down upon by the community as what was once a great idea to offer more out of a game well after its release as it has become a dirty practice in the industry to purposely taking out contents of a game that should have already been in the game only to sell it back to the players for a price. What keeps this trend going is that it is an effective business system as people still buy the DLCs knowing that it will eventually cost more than the game itself. It's a reflection of what business model works best in this generation. Games or content that cost only $1-$15 has become a normal trend in buying games through digital distribution or micro-transactions/DLCs for existing games. With such small price tags, it gives the illusion that one is not paying all that much for their purchase. $5 doesn't seem too bad for a DLC, but the customers are already paying $60 for the entire game already and would expect the most out of it for full price. Just a few years ago, games would launch at its full entirety for the retail price people would pay for. With the new trend making more money, games are rushed out sooner with less content for the same price which is what's bothering a lot of people.
Personally, I am very against DLCs and have only bought them for insane discounts on Steam as I find their existence to lower the quality and ethics of game development in the industry. I think it's great when a developer wants to offer more out of an existing game; however, the price tag that they (or their publishers) place on them just feels like a cheap way to make more money without being justified as a worthy purchase. The matter on Mass Effect 3's DLC doesn't really bother me too much as I don't plan on getting the game anytime soon. I have yet to finish 1 and 2 (lost my save files from my laptop crashing, remember?) and so I feel I can wait it out and eventually get the game when I'm ready and play through just the main story. Mass Effect 3 releases on March 6, 2012 and the demo is available for download now.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
NewNews - The Last Story confirmed for localization
Source: Youtube Channel IGNentertainment
According to Gamasutra, publishing company Xseed Games will be bringing "The Last Story" for the Wii to North America. To have Xenoblade Chronicles confirmed for localization was a special treat, but this announcement was mind blowing! From before, the decision to "not" bring it over to stateside seem adamant and irrevocable, but I suppose seeing the strong support from the fans in the West convinced Nintendo to bring Xenoblade Chronicles over to North America. Upon seeing the overwhelming positive reaction by the community, publishers might have felt a bit more optimistic about taking the responsibility to bringing the other games over.
For those unfamiliar with "The Last Story", it is an Action-RPG developed exclusively for the Nintendo Wii with Hironobu Sakaguchi of "Final Fantasy" leading the project with Takuya Matsumoto along with renowned videogame composer Nobuo Uematsu. Sakaguchi takes on the Action-RPG genre by formulating a new and unique combat system that mixes tactical planning with fluid hack 'n slash attacks. As always, there is a focus on story, the environment, and character development to keep the game's progress moving and the player involved.
The game has received high ratings and praise by critics and players who played through the Japanese version. One of the major arguments pointed out by a lot of supporters of the petition to bringing the 3 JRPGs (Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story, Pandora's Tower) to the western market was that they are possibly the last few games developed for the Wii considered worth buying anymore for the aging console who has failed to come out with anything new or interesting other than those developed directly by Nintendo (The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword). Judging from 2011's abysmal list of game releases, I'd say that seems to be the situation. So Wii owners and JRPG fans rejoice as 2 out of 3 of the petitioned games have now been confirmed for a stateside release. The Last Story does not have a release date yet.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
GameLight - ORION: Dino Beatdown
Official Site: http://spiralgamestudios.com/
Source: Youtube Channel SpiralGameStudios
When I first heard the name "ORION: Dino Beatdown", my first reaction was "oh no, not another dinosaur game". But upon watching the video above, I'm rather keen on the idea. The gameplay looks fluid, the user-interface is clean, the fact that it's a large open-world map interests me, and gaining more credits to upgrade items and equipment is a nice incentive to play the game more than once. Spiral Game Studios is a new development team formed by talents ranging those who have worked on BioShock, Ghost Recon, Unreal Tournament, Forza Motorsport, Jade Empire, Halo, Borderlands and Mortal Kombat. I like Sci-fi games where you can jump and hover around with jet-packs in large worlds. I guess I like the freedom of it as opposed to be limited to realistic gravity which feels limited. I guess in a way, the presentation of the gameplay reminds me of FireFall. Everything is so "large" in scale and a lot of action is going on. Here are some key elements from the game posted directly on their official site:
KEY FEATURES:
5-PLAYER, OPEN-WORLD CO-OP
Varying Objectives, Multiple Bases A.I systems populate the worlds.
3 MASSIVE WORLDS
Covan (Desert), Depth (Night Forest), Eden (Grasslands)
IN-GAME SHOPS & STORES
Three types of stores - Barracks (Player), Armory (Weapons), Garage (Vehicles)
CLASS-BASED GAMEPLAY
Three player classes - Assault (Jetpack), Support (Medic), Recon (Cloak)
PERKS & UPGRADES
Class Abilities, Player Upgrades, Weapon Upgrades and more.
CREDIT SYSTEM
Earn and Spend credits from completing objectives and progression.
15 WEAPONS, ITEMS & GRENADES
Magnums, Shotguns, Machine Guns, Laser Rifles, Rocket Launchers and more.
4 VEHICLES
Hover-bikes, Buggies, Tanks / Mechs & VTOL’s.
3 UNIQUE DINOSAURS (@LAUNCH)
T-Rex, Raptor, Rham-Phorynchus.
50 STEAM ACHIEVEMENTS
Gotta catch them all!
"Large worlds with tons of stuff to kill dinosaurs with" is what I got out of everything, and I'm liking it. I'm really hoping that this game will turn out to be great because I'm really enticed by the concept of its design. There's a bit of Action, First-Person Shooter, some adventure, some RPG, and some co-op tactics involved. I'm not sure how many friends I can convince getting this game, but having at least one person I know to play alongside with me would be nice (anyone who plays online games with pubs know what I mean). The game is set to launch March 2012 on Steam and OnLive for a very affordable price $9.99. As long as they don't start spamming with DLCs and constantly charging extra for every little thing, I'm in.
Source: Youtube Channel SpiralGameStudios
When I first heard the name "ORION: Dino Beatdown", my first reaction was "oh no, not another dinosaur game". But upon watching the video above, I'm rather keen on the idea. The gameplay looks fluid, the user-interface is clean, the fact that it's a large open-world map interests me, and gaining more credits to upgrade items and equipment is a nice incentive to play the game more than once. Spiral Game Studios is a new development team formed by talents ranging those who have worked on BioShock, Ghost Recon, Unreal Tournament, Forza Motorsport, Jade Empire, Halo, Borderlands and Mortal Kombat. I like Sci-fi games where you can jump and hover around with jet-packs in large worlds. I guess I like the freedom of it as opposed to be limited to realistic gravity which feels limited. I guess in a way, the presentation of the gameplay reminds me of FireFall. Everything is so "large" in scale and a lot of action is going on. Here are some key elements from the game posted directly on their official site:
KEY FEATURES:
5-PLAYER, OPEN-WORLD CO-OP
Varying Objectives, Multiple Bases A.I systems populate the worlds.
3 MASSIVE WORLDS
Covan (Desert), Depth (Night Forest), Eden (Grasslands)
IN-GAME SHOPS & STORES
Three types of stores - Barracks (Player), Armory (Weapons), Garage (Vehicles)
CLASS-BASED GAMEPLAY
Three player classes - Assault (Jetpack), Support (Medic), Recon (Cloak)
PERKS & UPGRADES
Class Abilities, Player Upgrades, Weapon Upgrades and more.
CREDIT SYSTEM
Earn and Spend credits from completing objectives and progression.
15 WEAPONS, ITEMS & GRENADES
Magnums, Shotguns, Machine Guns, Laser Rifles, Rocket Launchers and more.
4 VEHICLES
Hover-bikes, Buggies, Tanks / Mechs & VTOL’s.
3 UNIQUE DINOSAURS (@LAUNCH)
T-Rex, Raptor, Rham-Phorynchus.
50 STEAM ACHIEVEMENTS
Gotta catch them all!
"Large worlds with tons of stuff to kill dinosaurs with" is what I got out of everything, and I'm liking it. I'm really hoping that this game will turn out to be great because I'm really enticed by the concept of its design. There's a bit of Action, First-Person Shooter, some adventure, some RPG, and some co-op tactics involved. I'm not sure how many friends I can convince getting this game, but having at least one person I know to play alongside with me would be nice (anyone who plays online games with pubs know what I mean). The game is set to launch March 2012 on Steam and OnLive for a very affordable price $9.99. As long as they don't start spamming with DLCs and constantly charging extra for every little thing, I'm in.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
GameLight Review - Realm of the Mad God
Official Site: http://www.realmofthemadgod.com/
Play on Kongregate: http://www.kongregate.com/games/Wild_Shadow/realm-of-the-mad-god
Steam Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/200210/
Source: Youtube Channel MMOHut
Developer: Wild Shadow Studios, Spry Fox
Publisher: Wild Shadow Studios
Platforms: PC
Release Date: June 20, 2011
Genre: MMO Danmaku-Bullet Hell Shooter
Pros:
-No need for registration, can use account of Kongregate or Steam to login for saved account
-Fast-paced, instant-action, easy to pick up and play
-Lots of content to extend its replay value
-Designed to continuously keep players involved and working together
-Challenging, provocative, and downright fun
Cons:
-The game was intended for browsers, so it doesn't run smoothly full screen
-Lag can be an issue in the harder parts of the game as the player loses control of their character
-Cooperating with other players can be great, but they can also steal the loot you fought for
-Perma-death sound unforgiving, and for some players this is a turn-off
-Needs to have a better method of keeping track of friends and finding each other
Realm of the Mad God has been in development as early as 2008 and was put in public beta in 2010 before being officially released in 2011. This is why it surprises me that I have never heard of it till just yesterday when it was released on Valve's Steam client as a free-to-play MMO. Upon watching some videos and looking at screen shots, I was already entranced by the simplicity and design of the game. It's a truly unique online game where it plays like a shooter in a fantasy MMORPG-like setting. Players don't have to worry about setting up parties, instances, gathering quests from NPCs or preparing a path for a skill tree to play on. Players simply just jump on, choose a dungeon and start fighting against hordes of enemies with other players with the capacity to have 85 player co-op in one dungeon. The game is designed so that players would inevitably work together, play carefully/on edge (perma-death is implemented, meaning you lose your character when it dies), and continue playing even after dying (gain currency through each death and unlocks new classes). It's definitely worth a try for ANYONE as it is free, very accessible, and doesn't take long to get the gist of the game. You won't even be wasting that much time as you can start playing immediately by playing on the official site or Kongregate (Steam version requires download, but only 36 MB) and the tutorial is at most 3-5 minutes (and can be skipped). The game still has a lot of room for growth: more items, dungeons, classes, enemies, and any additional mechanics they choose to add, and so it will still be a game that has a lot to offer after hours of playing.
Aesthetics
The first and most noticeable aspect of the game is the retro 8-bit pixel art style the game goes for. It's simple, very easy to distinguish between objects and differences in classes, and quite charming. Bullets and enemies are easily detectable on screen which is extremely important as players will come to understand when enemies and bullets start to move quicker and dangerously close. Although the inventory/equipment system is archaic and has a limited space, its intended design is impeccable. The game cannot be paused and action is constantly around the player in the battlefield. It's fairly easy to keep an eye on health, mana, and items as well as the map and the actual gameplay screen. The map can also be zoomed in or out using the buttons above it or by using the mouse scroll. The user-interface is well thought out and implemented into the game quite effectively. The game can also be played on full-screen; however, the game's frame rate and response rate drops dramatically around highly populated areas and can cause the player to lose control of their character or have very delayed responses. It might have something to do with resolution as my 17" laptop screen has a high resolution but causes everything to slow down in full screen. Using full screen on my 20" secondary monitor that has a low resolution ran a lot more smoother, though still a bit laggy at times. It would also be nice if the screen was pulled back a little as everything just comes out of nowhere and gives little time to respond to it. I understand it's part of the design to keep the tension high and the risk consistent, but it's so hard to see things sometimes. Although the graphics are two dimensional, the camera can actually be rotated and can be very useful in the battlefield.
Sound is an important aspect in the gameplay as the visuals can get overwhelming. Sound effects cue players of having "no mana", types of enemies near-by, and feedback on hits and damage. The music, unfortunately, doesn't take much precedence in gameplay. There's only one song loop that plays throughout the entire time you're playing the game and it gets really boring/annoying after a while. You can turn off the music and play your own music in the background (which is what I eventually did), but I generally try to play a game with its own music. It'd be nice if there were more songs that it could cycle through (like what Dungeons of Dredmor or Granado Esapada did). Placing consideration of the faults in optimal process speed in the visuals and lack of variety in music, the graphics and audio are sound and used effectively. Aesthetics: 8/10
Buttons
Almost all the keys in the game are configurable which is good for anyone used to playing their games with a certain part of the keyboard or a certain way. The game is played like a top-down 360 degree shooter using WASD keys to move the characters and the mouse to aim and fire at enemies. If the player decides to enable camera rotation, they can use the Q and E keys to turn it at an angle they find comfortable. The special ability, by default, is set on the space bar and so any player who is used to the left-hand crab style/FPS style controls will feel comfortable. As mentioned in aesthetics, the user-interface is well designed and placed for the most effective use of the player's information without obscuring the screen with menus. The controls can go a bit haywire and incontrollable when there's a lot going on or if full screen is used on a high resolution monitor which is troublesome in dangerous dungeons. Buttons: 8/10
Concept & Content
The major points of the game's design is: to keep players constantly interacting with each other without having to create parties or guilds, having high risk - high rewards through its difficulty and harsh consequences, and being able to continually enjoying the games without any obstructions or slow downs. It's common in MMORPGs to have a ton of dialog, picking up quests everywhere and running around to talk to people. Then after grabbing a lot of quests, the player is then usually set out to fight and kill a certain number of enemies. Realm of the Mad God touches upon those aspects of "fantasy" and "RPG" in terms of growth, cooperative play and looting; however, they skip all the towns, dialogs, running to grabs quests and such and focused on its core "combat design" which plays much like a top-down action shooter combined with a danmaku/bullethell shooter. It's a very simple concept of killing waves of enemies and quests randomly generate to have the player fight strong boss monsters. The arcade like feeling makes it very easy to pick up and learn how to play and isn't too complicated so that even non-gamers would be able to play should they take the chance to try it out. The way it's set up, players can play anywhere from 5 minutes to 5 hours and have their character eventually die. The points they gathered then becomes the currency used for their next characters. Along the way, more classes will be unlocked for players to try out and play. Dungeons seem to appear by chance or through items. So much like an MMO, the world is consistently changing. Another design within the "cooperative" play with others players I find interesting (evil to some) is that players don't receive their own loot and so items go to whoever grabs it first. This reminds me of the old school arcade days where players work together (in a beat-em-up or top-down shooter like gauntlet) but can take food and gold from each other. That bit of competition reminds players that they need to be aware of their surroundings and that it's still every man for themselves. The main objective essentially for the player to survive as long as possible while fighting and looting more items. There are many aspects to the game that certainly aren't new (online game with pixel characters, top-down shooter, MMORPG experience in a short amount of time, etc.) but the combination they put together seems to blend well and offers a new innovation to online gaming. The one major draw back from the way it's set-up right now is that the player can touch upon all the game's content and unlock everything in a short amount of time. From then on, it's up to the player to keep the game interesting and find the draw from the randomly generated dungeons, enemies, loot, and events to stay entertained. There's also a cash shop (micro-transaction style business) where players can pay real money for in-game currency for certain items (but they're main cosmetic and does not alter the balance in gameplay between players). For the most part, the developers intended design has worked and has been continually updated for more content. Concept & Content: 9/10
Duration
This game is super fast-paced. A player can hit their max level of 20 in 30 minutes if they go straight to the more difficult areas. There isn't a long intro or a required grind so players can jump right in and play with everyone else. The beauty of this game is you can play for 5 minutes and still get something out of it or play for hours and still be entertained. For someone like me who's always busy and can't find the time to play for long durations (which is generally required for a lot of MMOs, especially RPGs), this game really does well with what I want in a online game. It starts up quickly, I get instant action and gratification, and offers a variety of content for me to stay interested and continue to play. I'm not sure how long this game will keep me entertained. I'll eventually unlock everything and have seen all the levels available, but so far it's doing a great job of bringing me back to it. Duration: 10/10
Fun
I knew I had to try the game when I saw it appear on Steam. The first thing I noticed when starting up the game (besides how quickly it started up) was that I didn't need to make another account specifically for it just to play (something I dread doing now for every new online game). This saved me the time of creating a new account, going through registration, verifying my e-mail, activating the account and THEN finally getting to play it. Even if you don't play on Steam and on their official site, you can jump in as a guest and play right away to try out the game yourself. When I started the game, the game made sense right away (WASD to move, mouse to aim and shoot). I then configured it to run on full screen and really didn't like how unresponsive and choppy the frame rate became. I also didn't like the music after a while but remedied that by turning it off and playing my own music (something I generally don't like doing for games). While I was preparing to go into a dungeon, a kind player started a trade with me and gave me a strong weapon for my Wizard for free. I thanked him/her and went into my first dungeon. It wasn't a big deal at first. I killed a few enemies, walked around and watched what other players did, got the quest pointer asking me to kill a boss monster and fulfilled them. After about my 2nd boss monster, I was hooked to the game. It was fun killing things and leveling up. I was gaining more power, getting stronger, fighting more enemies, and finding better loot. I kept wanting to explore and I eventually ran into some players and we started following each other. At one point, there were 5-8 of us fighting hordes of enemies. It's very possible to reach 85 players cooperatively fighting enemies together, and that possibility interests me. When I decided to exit the game and finish for the day, I still felt like I wanted to play it. Just like now, I still want to play it. I think I genuinely like the game, a rare feeling to a lot of games I play nowadays. Fun: 9/10
Overall
Realm of the Mad God isn't without its faults, but its core game design is solid and has plenty of room for growth. The game is easy to get into while still being able to challenge players with unforgiving waves of enemies. There's a lot of content and random events to keep the game interesting. And like other online games, I think the community/players is what creates part of the experience within the game. Sometimes there will be groups who will work flawlessly with each other while other times there might be players following around taking all the loot but not doing any fighting. There's a lot of dynamics despite not having complex gameplay mechanics or in-depth leveling systems. It's a fun distraction from all the main games and can very well be treated as a main game to play depending on how involved a players becomes with the game in finding more loot or reaching the highest score. Overall: 8.8/10
Play on Kongregate: http://www.kongregate.com/games/Wild_Shadow/realm-of-the-mad-god
Steam Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/200210/
Source: Youtube Channel MMOHut
Developer: Wild Shadow Studios, Spry Fox
Publisher: Wild Shadow Studios
Platforms: PC
Release Date: June 20, 2011
Genre: MMO Danmaku-Bullet Hell Shooter
Pros:
-No need for registration, can use account of Kongregate or Steam to login for saved account
-Fast-paced, instant-action, easy to pick up and play
-Lots of content to extend its replay value
-Designed to continuously keep players involved and working together
-Challenging, provocative, and downright fun
Cons:
-The game was intended for browsers, so it doesn't run smoothly full screen
-Lag can be an issue in the harder parts of the game as the player loses control of their character
-Cooperating with other players can be great, but they can also steal the loot you fought for
-Perma-death sound unforgiving, and for some players this is a turn-off
-Needs to have a better method of keeping track of friends and finding each other
Realm of the Mad God has been in development as early as 2008 and was put in public beta in 2010 before being officially released in 2011. This is why it surprises me that I have never heard of it till just yesterday when it was released on Valve's Steam client as a free-to-play MMO. Upon watching some videos and looking at screen shots, I was already entranced by the simplicity and design of the game. It's a truly unique online game where it plays like a shooter in a fantasy MMORPG-like setting. Players don't have to worry about setting up parties, instances, gathering quests from NPCs or preparing a path for a skill tree to play on. Players simply just jump on, choose a dungeon and start fighting against hordes of enemies with other players with the capacity to have 85 player co-op in one dungeon. The game is designed so that players would inevitably work together, play carefully/on edge (perma-death is implemented, meaning you lose your character when it dies), and continue playing even after dying (gain currency through each death and unlocks new classes). It's definitely worth a try for ANYONE as it is free, very accessible, and doesn't take long to get the gist of the game. You won't even be wasting that much time as you can start playing immediately by playing on the official site or Kongregate (Steam version requires download, but only 36 MB) and the tutorial is at most 3-5 minutes (and can be skipped). The game still has a lot of room for growth: more items, dungeons, classes, enemies, and any additional mechanics they choose to add, and so it will still be a game that has a lot to offer after hours of playing.
Aesthetics
The first and most noticeable aspect of the game is the retro 8-bit pixel art style the game goes for. It's simple, very easy to distinguish between objects and differences in classes, and quite charming. Bullets and enemies are easily detectable on screen which is extremely important as players will come to understand when enemies and bullets start to move quicker and dangerously close. Although the inventory/equipment system is archaic and has a limited space, its intended design is impeccable. The game cannot be paused and action is constantly around the player in the battlefield. It's fairly easy to keep an eye on health, mana, and items as well as the map and the actual gameplay screen. The map can also be zoomed in or out using the buttons above it or by using the mouse scroll. The user-interface is well thought out and implemented into the game quite effectively. The game can also be played on full-screen; however, the game's frame rate and response rate drops dramatically around highly populated areas and can cause the player to lose control of their character or have very delayed responses. It might have something to do with resolution as my 17" laptop screen has a high resolution but causes everything to slow down in full screen. Using full screen on my 20" secondary monitor that has a low resolution ran a lot more smoother, though still a bit laggy at times. It would also be nice if the screen was pulled back a little as everything just comes out of nowhere and gives little time to respond to it. I understand it's part of the design to keep the tension high and the risk consistent, but it's so hard to see things sometimes. Although the graphics are two dimensional, the camera can actually be rotated and can be very useful in the battlefield.
Sound is an important aspect in the gameplay as the visuals can get overwhelming. Sound effects cue players of having "no mana", types of enemies near-by, and feedback on hits and damage. The music, unfortunately, doesn't take much precedence in gameplay. There's only one song loop that plays throughout the entire time you're playing the game and it gets really boring/annoying after a while. You can turn off the music and play your own music in the background (which is what I eventually did), but I generally try to play a game with its own music. It'd be nice if there were more songs that it could cycle through (like what Dungeons of Dredmor or Granado Esapada did). Placing consideration of the faults in optimal process speed in the visuals and lack of variety in music, the graphics and audio are sound and used effectively. Aesthetics: 8/10
Buttons
Almost all the keys in the game are configurable which is good for anyone used to playing their games with a certain part of the keyboard or a certain way. The game is played like a top-down 360 degree shooter using WASD keys to move the characters and the mouse to aim and fire at enemies. If the player decides to enable camera rotation, they can use the Q and E keys to turn it at an angle they find comfortable. The special ability, by default, is set on the space bar and so any player who is used to the left-hand crab style/FPS style controls will feel comfortable. As mentioned in aesthetics, the user-interface is well designed and placed for the most effective use of the player's information without obscuring the screen with menus. The controls can go a bit haywire and incontrollable when there's a lot going on or if full screen is used on a high resolution monitor which is troublesome in dangerous dungeons. Buttons: 8/10
Concept & Content
The major points of the game's design is: to keep players constantly interacting with each other without having to create parties or guilds, having high risk - high rewards through its difficulty and harsh consequences, and being able to continually enjoying the games without any obstructions or slow downs. It's common in MMORPGs to have a ton of dialog, picking up quests everywhere and running around to talk to people. Then after grabbing a lot of quests, the player is then usually set out to fight and kill a certain number of enemies. Realm of the Mad God touches upon those aspects of "fantasy" and "RPG" in terms of growth, cooperative play and looting; however, they skip all the towns, dialogs, running to grabs quests and such and focused on its core "combat design" which plays much like a top-down action shooter combined with a danmaku/bullethell shooter. It's a very simple concept of killing waves of enemies and quests randomly generate to have the player fight strong boss monsters. The arcade like feeling makes it very easy to pick up and learn how to play and isn't too complicated so that even non-gamers would be able to play should they take the chance to try it out. The way it's set up, players can play anywhere from 5 minutes to 5 hours and have their character eventually die. The points they gathered then becomes the currency used for their next characters. Along the way, more classes will be unlocked for players to try out and play. Dungeons seem to appear by chance or through items. So much like an MMO, the world is consistently changing. Another design within the "cooperative" play with others players I find interesting (evil to some) is that players don't receive their own loot and so items go to whoever grabs it first. This reminds me of the old school arcade days where players work together (in a beat-em-up or top-down shooter like gauntlet) but can take food and gold from each other. That bit of competition reminds players that they need to be aware of their surroundings and that it's still every man for themselves. The main objective essentially for the player to survive as long as possible while fighting and looting more items. There are many aspects to the game that certainly aren't new (online game with pixel characters, top-down shooter, MMORPG experience in a short amount of time, etc.) but the combination they put together seems to blend well and offers a new innovation to online gaming. The one major draw back from the way it's set-up right now is that the player can touch upon all the game's content and unlock everything in a short amount of time. From then on, it's up to the player to keep the game interesting and find the draw from the randomly generated dungeons, enemies, loot, and events to stay entertained. There's also a cash shop (micro-transaction style business) where players can pay real money for in-game currency for certain items (but they're main cosmetic and does not alter the balance in gameplay between players). For the most part, the developers intended design has worked and has been continually updated for more content. Concept & Content: 9/10
Duration
This game is super fast-paced. A player can hit their max level of 20 in 30 minutes if they go straight to the more difficult areas. There isn't a long intro or a required grind so players can jump right in and play with everyone else. The beauty of this game is you can play for 5 minutes and still get something out of it or play for hours and still be entertained. For someone like me who's always busy and can't find the time to play for long durations (which is generally required for a lot of MMOs, especially RPGs), this game really does well with what I want in a online game. It starts up quickly, I get instant action and gratification, and offers a variety of content for me to stay interested and continue to play. I'm not sure how long this game will keep me entertained. I'll eventually unlock everything and have seen all the levels available, but so far it's doing a great job of bringing me back to it. Duration: 10/10
Fun
I knew I had to try the game when I saw it appear on Steam. The first thing I noticed when starting up the game (besides how quickly it started up) was that I didn't need to make another account specifically for it just to play (something I dread doing now for every new online game). This saved me the time of creating a new account, going through registration, verifying my e-mail, activating the account and THEN finally getting to play it. Even if you don't play on Steam and on their official site, you can jump in as a guest and play right away to try out the game yourself. When I started the game, the game made sense right away (WASD to move, mouse to aim and shoot). I then configured it to run on full screen and really didn't like how unresponsive and choppy the frame rate became. I also didn't like the music after a while but remedied that by turning it off and playing my own music (something I generally don't like doing for games). While I was preparing to go into a dungeon, a kind player started a trade with me and gave me a strong weapon for my Wizard for free. I thanked him/her and went into my first dungeon. It wasn't a big deal at first. I killed a few enemies, walked around and watched what other players did, got the quest pointer asking me to kill a boss monster and fulfilled them. After about my 2nd boss monster, I was hooked to the game. It was fun killing things and leveling up. I was gaining more power, getting stronger, fighting more enemies, and finding better loot. I kept wanting to explore and I eventually ran into some players and we started following each other. At one point, there were 5-8 of us fighting hordes of enemies. It's very possible to reach 85 players cooperatively fighting enemies together, and that possibility interests me. When I decided to exit the game and finish for the day, I still felt like I wanted to play it. Just like now, I still want to play it. I think I genuinely like the game, a rare feeling to a lot of games I play nowadays. Fun: 9/10
Overall
Realm of the Mad God isn't without its faults, but its core game design is solid and has plenty of room for growth. The game is easy to get into while still being able to challenge players with unforgiving waves of enemies. There's a lot of content and random events to keep the game interesting. And like other online games, I think the community/players is what creates part of the experience within the game. Sometimes there will be groups who will work flawlessly with each other while other times there might be players following around taking all the loot but not doing any fighting. There's a lot of dynamics despite not having complex gameplay mechanics or in-depth leveling systems. It's a fun distraction from all the main games and can very well be treated as a main game to play depending on how involved a players becomes with the game in finding more loot or reaching the highest score. Overall: 8.8/10
Monday, February 20, 2012
VGCulture - Dungeon Defenders welcomes the presidents
Steam Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/65800/
Source: Youtube Channel TrendyEnt
Today's Presidents' Day in honor of what used to be Washington and Lincoln's Birthday but was put together because schools and work places had 4 day weekends or 2 consecutive 3 day weekends which disrupted academic lessons and productivity in February. Anyways, the team at Trendy Entertainment has announced a new DLC that will be free to those who own the game for a limited time before it's up for sale.
The Presidents Day Battle Royale DLC Includes:
• Presidents Day Battle Royale Challenge Mission
• Squire Punching Gloves
• Monk Punching Gloves
• Democrat Donkey Pet
• Republican Elephant Pet
...and 4 Unlockable Character Skins!
• Monk -- President Obama
• Huntress -- Michelle Obama
• Squire -- Mitt Romney
• Apprentice -- George Washington
-Directly from the video info
It's cool that they keep the content up and thinks of the community who supported them. The game does get quite a bit of DLCs that require some payment, much like Magicka does. Too many paying DLCs makes me stop supporting a lot of Indie games as it starts to feel like greed practiced by big name publishers and less of helping the indie scene. Still, this DLC in particular will be free to those who already own the game though requires some leveling and playing before acquiring them.
Source: Youtube Channel TrendyEnt
Today's Presidents' Day in honor of what used to be Washington and Lincoln's Birthday but was put together because schools and work places had 4 day weekends or 2 consecutive 3 day weekends which disrupted academic lessons and productivity in February. Anyways, the team at Trendy Entertainment has announced a new DLC that will be free to those who own the game for a limited time before it's up for sale.
The Presidents Day Battle Royale DLC Includes:
• Presidents Day Battle Royale Challenge Mission
• Squire Punching Gloves
• Monk Punching Gloves
• Democrat Donkey Pet
• Republican Elephant Pet
...and 4 Unlockable Character Skins!
• Monk -- President Obama
• Huntress -- Michelle Obama
• Squire -- Mitt Romney
• Apprentice -- George Washington
-Directly from the video info
It's cool that they keep the content up and thinks of the community who supported them. The game does get quite a bit of DLCs that require some payment, much like Magicka does. Too many paying DLCs makes me stop supporting a lot of Indie games as it starts to feel like greed practiced by big name publishers and less of helping the indie scene. Still, this DLC in particular will be free to those who already own the game though requires some leveling and playing before acquiring them.
Friday, February 17, 2012
GameLight - Asura's Wrath
Official Site: http://www.capcom.co.jp/asura/
Source: Youtube Channel gamespot
Asura's Wrath is an Action-Adventure Beat-'em-Up announced back in 2012 to be an over the top game influenced by Buddhism Mythology and Japanese Animé. The player takes the role of Asura, demigod guardian of Heaven and Earth, to exact revenge against his former allies who had killed the emperor, his wife, and kidnapped his daughter. A demo was released just a short while ago. Though I didn't get the chance to try it out, many who did claimed it was boring and repetitive. From the gameplay footages, it seems that a lot of boss battles consists of quick time events where the player presses the buttons on the screen. The styling of combat are similar to animé series' such as Dragon Ball Z, Hokuto no Ken (Fist of the North Star), or JoJo no Kimyō na Bōken (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure) where Asura's attacks pummels his enemies with hundreds of strikes and at incredible speed. That sort of over-the-top action sounds really entertaining, but many who have played the demo fear that the whole game is played just like what was available for the demo. Others are staying optimistic to the case and believes that there's more to Asura's Wrath than was was presented to the public in the demo. Here's a trailer to the opening of the game:
Source: Youtube Channel gamespot
I think Asura's Wrath might be a game I'd enjoy; however, I probably won't be getting it right away as I'm far behind my Action-Adventure games with Ninja Gaiden Sigma 1 (yes, 1!!!), Devil May Cry 4, and a yet to be open Vanquish (I'm even farther behind RPGs. C'mon 9 of them???). I recently finished Bayonetta and it felt pretty lengthy to play even if it was just 12-13 hours of gameplay time. I can't Action-Adventure games for long durations, especially if they're difficult. Even if I wanted to play Asura's Wrath, I think I'd need to pick up Castlevania: Lords of Shadow first before I get around to buying it. Asura's Wrath releases on February 21st, 2012 for $59.99 and if you pre-order from Amazon you get the Guardian Mode and Iconoclast Mode in the Devastator pack.
Source: Youtube Channel gamespot
Asura's Wrath is an Action-Adventure Beat-'em-Up announced back in 2012 to be an over the top game influenced by Buddhism Mythology and Japanese Animé. The player takes the role of Asura, demigod guardian of Heaven and Earth, to exact revenge against his former allies who had killed the emperor, his wife, and kidnapped his daughter. A demo was released just a short while ago. Though I didn't get the chance to try it out, many who did claimed it was boring and repetitive. From the gameplay footages, it seems that a lot of boss battles consists of quick time events where the player presses the buttons on the screen. The styling of combat are similar to animé series' such as Dragon Ball Z, Hokuto no Ken (Fist of the North Star), or JoJo no Kimyō na Bōken (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure) where Asura's attacks pummels his enemies with hundreds of strikes and at incredible speed. That sort of over-the-top action sounds really entertaining, but many who have played the demo fear that the whole game is played just like what was available for the demo. Others are staying optimistic to the case and believes that there's more to Asura's Wrath than was was presented to the public in the demo. Here's a trailer to the opening of the game:
Source: Youtube Channel gamespot
I think Asura's Wrath might be a game I'd enjoy; however, I probably won't be getting it right away as I'm far behind my Action-Adventure games with Ninja Gaiden Sigma 1 (yes, 1!!!), Devil May Cry 4, and a yet to be open Vanquish (I'm even farther behind RPGs. C'mon 9 of them???). I recently finished Bayonetta and it felt pretty lengthy to play even if it was just 12-13 hours of gameplay time. I can't Action-Adventure games for long durations, especially if they're difficult. Even if I wanted to play Asura's Wrath, I think I'd need to pick up Castlevania: Lords of Shadow first before I get around to buying it. Asura's Wrath releases on February 21st, 2012 for $59.99 and if you pre-order from Amazon you get the Guardian Mode and Iconoclast Mode in the Devastator pack.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
VGCulture - On Sony & Valve Hack incidents
I just read an interesting article discussing on the two hacking incidents on Sony's PSN service and Valve's Steam service. Mid-year 2011, Sony was hacked and millions of players' credit card information, addresses, names, etc. that was submitted to PSN when players bought things in the PSN store. Just a few months ago, Valve also had a breach in the system and the same thing happened to them and their community. What the article pointed out was that the reaction from the community is quite different seeing how both companies were hacked. The announcement from Sony that player's information has been taken by the hacker surged uproar from the players and media. The criticisms were relentless and were very prominent to the public. When Valve got hacked, they didn't receive the same hostility as those involved with Sony's predicament.
There are a lot of factors we can account for, but I think one of the main differences was that Sony had to take their entire service down in order to secure each player's account and to cease any further damage to the system the hackers had already done which disable numerous programs and access to certain games among other things while Valve simply apologized for the incident and asked to have players keep an eye on their credit card balance. Steam and all its functions still worked. This staggering difference is notable as having no access to PSN and little information to the progress of the situation seemed to have made many PS3 players uneasy, confused and left in the dark. Steam users knew exactly what was wrong as dozens of other companies have been hacked before Valve did throughout 2011 and thus possibly taught many of us how to deal with situations similar to it.
Sony's PSN was back up after a few weeks it shut down and continued to provide its service as usual and seemed to have done quite well in the digitally distributed games afterwards. Valve just recently made another announcement of its on-going investigation on the hacking incident and letting players know that they're still with them and haven't abandoned the case yet.
With the hack incident that Sony faced, many other game companies as well as the players within their community have learned from it and deal with the situation a lot more clearly. It's still not fun for any of us to be "hacked" and told that our information is in the hands of a hacker, but I guess we've learned to do something about it rather than pointing fingers and finding someone to blame.
There are a lot of factors we can account for, but I think one of the main differences was that Sony had to take their entire service down in order to secure each player's account and to cease any further damage to the system the hackers had already done which disable numerous programs and access to certain games among other things while Valve simply apologized for the incident and asked to have players keep an eye on their credit card balance. Steam and all its functions still worked. This staggering difference is notable as having no access to PSN and little information to the progress of the situation seemed to have made many PS3 players uneasy, confused and left in the dark. Steam users knew exactly what was wrong as dozens of other companies have been hacked before Valve did throughout 2011 and thus possibly taught many of us how to deal with situations similar to it.
Sony's PSN was back up after a few weeks it shut down and continued to provide its service as usual and seemed to have done quite well in the digitally distributed games afterwards. Valve just recently made another announcement of its on-going investigation on the hacking incident and letting players know that they're still with them and haven't abandoned the case yet.
With the hack incident that Sony faced, many other game companies as well as the players within their community have learned from it and deal with the situation a lot more clearly. It's still not fun for any of us to be "hacked" and told that our information is in the hands of a hacker, but I guess we've learned to do something about it rather than pointing fingers and finding someone to blame.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
GameLight Review – Crysis 2
Official Site: http://www.ea.com/crysis-2
Source: Youtube Channel Crysis
Developer: Crytke Frankfurt, Crytek UK
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Platforms: PC, Playstation 3, Xbox 360
Release Date: March 22, 2011
Genre: First-Person Shooter
Pros:
-Incredible city-scape environment with beautiful graphics
-Unique upgrade system favors to different play-styles for both single-player and multiplayer
-Immense freedom in allowing various ways to reach a goal
-Plenty of maps, weapons, and builds to keep multiplayer fresh
Cons:
-Story wasn’t as good as the first installment
-Odd glitches are prevalent throughout the game (though hilarious sometimes)
-Some checkpoints can be pretty far apart while others are very close
-Higher level players have a lot more abilities than lower level ones in multiplayer
The plot and progression of Crysis 2’s story doesn’t have the same surprising and engaging experience that the first one did; however, the gameplay excelled in every way. The boost mechanic is simplified and works much smoother and efficient compared to the clunky wheel menu it utilized in the first one. Combat is a lot more intense and dynamic with more upgrades, enemy types, weapons, and play style options. Although I enjoyed the story to the first Crysis, I felt that it didn’t flow very well and that there were a lot of boring and/or frustrating gameplay. Crysis 2 was constantly entertaining with tension always on the rise and challenges present in every battle. What I really enjoyed in both single-player and multiplayer is the versatility in upgrade customization that changed the play style. You could take it slow and eliminate enemies from far range, ram through with high armor and high rate of fire, or my favorite: you can discreetly eliminate enemies using a new and improved stealth mode that makes so much more sense than Crysis 1. It was an overall enjoyable experience and possibly the best single-player campaign for a first-person shooter that I played throughout 2011.
Aesthetics
Crytek put a lot of time, effort and thought into how they were going to create an urban jungle out of the city of “New York
Buttons
I really liked how the controls to Crysis 2 felt. I especially liked how the boost effects worked. I no longer had to fumble around with a wheel menu and switch between 4-5 different modes. Having armor mode and stealth mode was sufficient to create a dynamic combat experience. I really liked how you can execute your enemy in stealth rather than just shoot them and causing attention to your position like the first one did. The ability to jump incredible high, grab and hoist yourself up edges, and drop kick enemies “boot to the head” style felt so natural due to the familiar control layout and ease of use of them. The usual “aim-shoot-crouch-run” key mappings are the same as other shooters and should be fairly easy to learn to even those who never played one. Some of the difficulties in controls is bringing out grenades (double tap triangle, which can be troublesome when trying to quickly switch between primary and secondary weapons), switching between boosts in mid fire fight (in multiplayer), and when trying to ground pound as the right thumb needs to leave the right analog stick which leaves the player wide open if the attack didn’t kill the enemy (I guess PC players don’t have to worry about this). Although the boost system is simplified and easier to switch between, the problem occurs when the player is practically out of energy but could use that 1-2 second of armor to win a firefight. The player might accidentally turn it off when they want to turn it on or vice versa depending on the energy usage which causes the player to fumble between modes. For the most part, the controls to the game are very smooth and fairly easy to learn after a while of playing and experimenting. It’s also a whole lot of fun sliding around. Buttons: 9/10
Concept & Content
As I’ve mentioned, the story isn’t that great. Crysis 2 picks up shortly after the ending of Crysis 1 and introduces a new character that didn’t have that much of a personality. There weren’t any other characters that were meaningful, interesting, or “that” important. The enemy didn’t have a true face or leader, but rather the entire alien race is the enemy. Crysis 2 is pretty much “guy fights to save world” kind of storyline. I didn’t mind too much as I found the gameplay to be really engaging and challenging. One of the aspects I thought they would take out is the freedom that Crysis 1 had since the 2nd one was in a city and didn’t have that many vegetation and space to make it as large. I was happy to be proven wrong as the city has sewer lines, subway stations, high altitude building tops, and all sorts of cover on ground floor to create a large, dynamic map to get through. What really got me into the game was the new and improved stealth mode where the player can subdue enemies quietly and even avoid an entire fight by walking through enemy lines undetected. The armor mode didn’t have too much of a change, but the player is still able to run quickly and have the strength to take down enemies if upgraded. Because of this versatility, the developers didn’t stick with all the boosts that the first one had as switching between power, armor, speed, and stealth was cumbersome and annoying. Crysis 2 didn’t seem to have as much dynamic variety in environment that Crysis 1 did, but I felt that the level designs were used much more creatively and effectively in the 2nd one. Still, there were some parts of the game where it was boring from the map being to empty or repetitive in task if not frustrating from having little to no ammo. I was a bit disappointed with the last level of Crysis 2, but I don’t want to spoil anything so I won’t say anything past that.
As for multiplayer, utilizing all the skills, weapons, and abilities in online combat was truly a unique experience for a first-person shooter. The level system is unbalanced and unfair for low leveled players after level 10 as those with high levels have a significant amount of abilities and weapons that does affect the balance in advantage unfortunately. The level system; however, has a lot of depth and content for the player to unlock as a player puts more hours into multiplayer. There’s a fair amount of maps and modes to play from, so variety isn’t too much of an issue. Although multiplayer is quite entertaining, it doesn’t seem to have a pull factor where it makes me want to continue to play other than to unlock more items. The original concept Crytek had for Crysis in futuristic abilities, open map goals, and dynamic load out customization is further used more effectively and creatively in Crysis 2. Everything, in terms of gameplay, feels more polished and thoughout. It’ll be interesting what Crytek will do next for the series. Concept & Content: 8/10
Duration
I’m actually not sure how long I spent playing Crysis 1 or 2, but I do know that Crysis 1 felt like an eternity while the 2nd felt more leisurely. The flow of Crysis 2 was a lot smoother and connected each event between missions. The game constantly felt engaging and challenging at a fair level (though sometimes not) when compared to its predecessor where some events seems really amazing but is followed up by really annoying or boring gameplay. Crysis 1 felt like a lot of great ideas pieced together along in a jumble. Everything felt disconnected and the broken flow between fast-action fire fight, slow moments of sneaking away from a helicopter, and frustrating enclosed areas with minimal ammo made Crysis 1 very difficult to enjoy. Crysis 2 had a lot of the same ideas with vehicle chases, enclose areas to fight, and some parts where the player can sneak through; however, the gameplay felt consistent and enjoyable throughout each of those events. The different between the duration of Crysis 1 and 2 was that I couldn’t wait to reach the end of Crysis 1 while I didn’t pay much attention to getting to the end in Crysis 2. I felt the campaign was a decent amount and multiplayer could have a lot of hours put in if I really wanted to continue playing it. Duration: 8/10
Fun
I’ll admit it; I had a lot of fun with Crysis 2. When the game was announced and finally released, I didn’t care too much for it. When I finally decided to play Crysis 1 and somewhat enjoyed it and partially didn’t, I was skeptical about how the 2nd one would be like. I went and played Crysis 2 anyways as to continue the story that left off from Crysis 1 as it was one aspect I actually liked about the game. Unfortunately, the game’s story just got really boring and I stopped caring; however, the gameplay was surprisingly fun for using similar concepts from the first one. I essentially played the game like a stealth game unless I was found out and play the game like a brawler when I got close to the aliens. I just had a lot of fun deceiving the enemy, silently killing aliens and having the occasional chaos blow up in their faces. It was also fun utilizing the different abilities to jump around like a platformer, grab onto ledges, sliding around, and ground pounding from high up. There were frustrating battles in some areas, but none compared to some of the shenanigans I had to perform in Crysis 1 in order to finish the mission. I was also disappointed with the last mission as it lacked the challenge that the rest of the game had throughout my playthrough. Still, it was fun playing through Crysis 2 and multiplayer was fun for a while too. If I had the time and given the chance to play Crysis 2’s campaign again, I’d be willing to do so. Fun: 9/10
Overall
Crytek pushed their technology as far as they could and revised the interesting concepts that made Crysis 1 a revolutionary game to the first-person shooter genre and create a compelling action experience in Crysis 2. There’s beauty, creativity, and variety to make up for its lackluster story and that’s okay because the game is ultimately a lot of fun. Whether you like to play games strategically, covertly, or outright gung-ho, Crysis 2 seems to satisfy all playstyles. The freedom and challenging campaign is possibly the best of 2011 for first-person shooters while its deep and engaging multiplayer is sure to entertain casual and highly competitive players alike. I would recommend this game to anyone who wants a fun single-player campaign or something different in their online multiplayer in their first-person shooters. Overall: 8.6/10
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
GameLight - Love Plus 3DS
Official Site: http://www.konami.jp/products/loveplus/index.html
Source: Youtube Channel IGNentertainment
After a year of seeing videos and news reports of dating simulator/visual novel game "Love Plus 3DS", the game finally releases in Japan today on Valentines Day. This is one game that's more than likely not being brought over to the western market. Visual Novels based around love stories or love simulators where the player interacts with a virtual girl have been around in the Japanese market for over two decades and have become "sort of" normal there now (It's still weird to those who don't play it there I suppose). In the western market, it is looked down upon as a terrible product targeting the single male population (or something they take as a normal oddity from Japan's otaku culture).
Within the game, the player talks (from choosing multiple choices answers I suppose) to the characters in the game, goes out on dates, takes pictures, and simply interact with them as if they were real. Konami added an extra function where players can receive virtual e-mails from the characters within Love Plus by subscribing for $4 per month. I shouldn't judge, but Love Plus is after all still just a game and a player shouldn't get "that" involved. The gyroscope (motion sensor), 3D camera, and dual screens allow the player to interact with their virtual girlfriend within their own environment with Augmented Reality. You can see this happening at 2:05 in the video above. Now if this can be utilized within the development of other games, we can see a lot of interesting gameplay from action, fighting, and adventure genres.
I don't pay much attention to these types of games mainly because they're rarely brought over or translated. My interest in it lies within the story, though I can't really find any specific story for any of the characters for the game. One such game series that played like a visual novel that captivated me is the Gyakuten Saiban/Ace Attorney series, though that is quite a drastic difference between that and Love Plus. There could be a chance that the western market would be a bit more open to the game if it was more emphasized as a game heavily based on "story" rather than just interactivity with the female character; however, the latter seems to be what works in Japan's marketing. I hear the game has a manga series spin-off in the works, and so the focus on story would be interesting for the series.
In any case, Happy Valentines Day!
Source: Youtube Channel IGNentertainment
After a year of seeing videos and news reports of dating simulator/visual novel game "Love Plus 3DS", the game finally releases in Japan today on Valentines Day. This is one game that's more than likely not being brought over to the western market. Visual Novels based around love stories or love simulators where the player interacts with a virtual girl have been around in the Japanese market for over two decades and have become "sort of" normal there now (It's still weird to those who don't play it there I suppose). In the western market, it is looked down upon as a terrible product targeting the single male population (or something they take as a normal oddity from Japan's otaku culture).
Within the game, the player talks (from choosing multiple choices answers I suppose) to the characters in the game, goes out on dates, takes pictures, and simply interact with them as if they were real. Konami added an extra function where players can receive virtual e-mails from the characters within Love Plus by subscribing for $4 per month. I shouldn't judge, but Love Plus is after all still just a game and a player shouldn't get "that" involved. The gyroscope (motion sensor), 3D camera, and dual screens allow the player to interact with their virtual girlfriend within their own environment with Augmented Reality. You can see this happening at 2:05 in the video above. Now if this can be utilized within the development of other games, we can see a lot of interesting gameplay from action, fighting, and adventure genres.
I don't pay much attention to these types of games mainly because they're rarely brought over or translated. My interest in it lies within the story, though I can't really find any specific story for any of the characters for the game. One such game series that played like a visual novel that captivated me is the Gyakuten Saiban/Ace Attorney series, though that is quite a drastic difference between that and Love Plus. There could be a chance that the western market would be a bit more open to the game if it was more emphasized as a game heavily based on "story" rather than just interactivity with the female character; however, the latter seems to be what works in Japan's marketing. I hear the game has a manga series spin-off in the works, and so the focus on story would be interesting for the series.
In any case, Happy Valentines Day!
Monday, February 13, 2012
GameLight - BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend
Official Site: http://us.playstation.com/games-and-media/games/blazblue-continuum-shift-extend-ps3.html
Source: Youtube Channel jourdal
I'm both excited and disappointed with the release of BlazBlue Continuum Shift Extend. I'm happy that there will be two new modes to play, all DLC characters added into the roster, a story mode for all characters, and the extension of some story paths from Continuum Shift. The problem is that story mode will be the return of Calamity Trigger's Story and Continuum Shift's Story. I was hoping that they'd reveal the next chapter of the universe of BlazBlue in their next game but it's pretty much a slight continuation of Continuum Shift and minor improvements here and there. If you happened to have NOT played any BlazBlue games but have some interest in it, this next iteration would be a great purchase. With a full roster of 19 characters, full story mode from both previous games for each individual character, 2 new modes with the 5 existing ones (Arcade, Versus/Network, Challenge, Legion, and Story), and a fair price of $40, BlazBlue Continuum Shift is a great purchase for anyone new to the series. For those who own one or both of the first two iterations, it'll be more of an upgrade. As I've discussed before in older posts on BlazBlue, I got into the series because of Guilty Gear and absolutely love the music done by Daisuke Ishiwatari. What I didn't expect out of the game was how uniquely designed each individual character played and how deep the lore got when playing Story mode. Story mode has had moments where it made me laugh, cry, angry, excited, and shocked. It went far and beyond all expectations I had about the game and has become one of my favorite fighting games. The combat system can be a bit tricky, but a beginner's mode allows even the least experienced of gamers to pick up the game and figure out how to do crazy combos and amazing abilities. The game can get quite technical and challenge even the most elite 2D fighting game players at tournaments like EVO (recently added to the list of games played there). BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend releases tomorrow February 14th, 2012 for $40. I highly recommend this game to fighting games of all experience level and encourage those who haven't played fighting games before. I think it's become a better starting game for most beginners than Street Fighter is (Street Fighter has become very technical).
Source: Youtube Channel jourdal
I'm both excited and disappointed with the release of BlazBlue Continuum Shift Extend. I'm happy that there will be two new modes to play, all DLC characters added into the roster, a story mode for all characters, and the extension of some story paths from Continuum Shift. The problem is that story mode will be the return of Calamity Trigger's Story and Continuum Shift's Story. I was hoping that they'd reveal the next chapter of the universe of BlazBlue in their next game but it's pretty much a slight continuation of Continuum Shift and minor improvements here and there. If you happened to have NOT played any BlazBlue games but have some interest in it, this next iteration would be a great purchase. With a full roster of 19 characters, full story mode from both previous games for each individual character, 2 new modes with the 5 existing ones (Arcade, Versus/Network, Challenge, Legion, and Story), and a fair price of $40, BlazBlue Continuum Shift is a great purchase for anyone new to the series. For those who own one or both of the first two iterations, it'll be more of an upgrade. As I've discussed before in older posts on BlazBlue, I got into the series because of Guilty Gear and absolutely love the music done by Daisuke Ishiwatari. What I didn't expect out of the game was how uniquely designed each individual character played and how deep the lore got when playing Story mode. Story mode has had moments where it made me laugh, cry, angry, excited, and shocked. It went far and beyond all expectations I had about the game and has become one of my favorite fighting games. The combat system can be a bit tricky, but a beginner's mode allows even the least experienced of gamers to pick up the game and figure out how to do crazy combos and amazing abilities. The game can get quite technical and challenge even the most elite 2D fighting game players at tournaments like EVO (recently added to the list of games played there). BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend releases tomorrow February 14th, 2012 for $40. I highly recommend this game to fighting games of all experience level and encourage those who haven't played fighting games before. I think it's become a better starting game for most beginners than Street Fighter is (Street Fighter has become very technical).
Friday, February 10, 2012
GameLight Review - Battlefield 3
Official Site: http://www.battlefield.com/battlefield3
Source: Youtube Channel eavision
Developer: EA Digital Illusions CE (DICE)
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Platforms: PC, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, iOS
Release Date: October 25, 2011
Genre: First-Person Shooter
Pros:
-Huge maps with a large array of vehicles to utilize
-Sense of camaraderie and of belonging within a unit
-Beautiful visuals and powerful/realistic audio
-Level up system has a lot of depth in customization and item/ability acquisition
-Emphasizes cooperative play a lot more than most FPS games
Cons:
-Single-player is boring and forgettable
-The game is riddled with bugs, glitches, and server lag
-Communication and cooperation can be a problem for console players
-PC players have better graphics, but struggle with even starting a match successfully
-Multiplayer experience relies heavily on the players one sides with
It is clear that all efforts and resources were focused on the multiplayer side of Battlefield 3. If you’re one to look for a strong cooperative, team-based, first-person shooter to play online, then perhaps Battlefield 3 is the game for you. If fighting solo and instant action is one requires in their online multiplayer, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 might be more appropriate. If one seeks a fun and intuitive single-player experience, I would recommend Crysis 2. Cooperative scenario modes are rare, but perhaps Resistance 3 might be a better choice for an FPS player if they want to play next to a friend in the same room. Battlefield 3 may be an FPS game, but it’s not for all FPS fans. Battlefield 3 doesn’t have a very good single-player campaign, but those looking for an extensive online multiplayer experience will be able to enjoy playing the game for the rest of the year and beyond should the community stay strong. There are plenty of vehicles, weapons, gadgets, classes, and unlocks to keep the game fresh and keep players intrigued to try something new. The game does suffer from many technical problems, but the developers have always been diligent in correcting them as quickly as possible should any arise. The game feels a lot more like a sequel to the Bad Company series than the main series, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s a lot of fun and challenges even the most experienced FPS players.
Aesthetics
The graphics in Battlefield 3 are beautiful. I think what I really like about the style of graphics done in the game is how bright and inviting it looks. FPS games in the past have been mostly dark, brown, muddy, boring, and difficult to distinguish objects. Battlefield 3 has an amazing lighting system that just makes everything pop out and bring it to life. The physics and effects are very detailed to get the most out of explosions and destructible environments. There’s also an improvement in the audio from Bad Company 2; however, it’s still not as powerful and life-like compared to DICE’s previous work on Medal of Honor (2010) (it still has the best audio for a military shooter I’ve heard so far). While the graphics might be incredible, it’s mainly for those who have a PC that can handle them. Console players will have textures with a lower resolution than the PC, so it sadly has graphics that are great but not incredible compared to the PC put on max settings. The load out screen right before deploying can be a bit difficult to get used to on console as it was set up originally for the computer mouse on PC, but it eventually makes enough sense to utilize. I really like the neon-like layouts for the mini-map, HUDs, and menu. It sets a certain atmosphere to the game that distinguishes itself as “Battlefield 3”. Some of the problems within aesthetics are texture glitches, objects disappearing, players getting stuck in each other or pushed into a wall when spawning, graphics lag from explosions and smoke, and the audio of gunfire suddenly going silence for an entire match. Aesthetics: 8/10
Buttons
Playing Battlefield 3 on console is a lot different than playing on PC. It’s much easier to tag people while still moving on the keyboard. On a controller, the player has to leave their analog stick in order to press the select/back key (PS3/Xbox 360) in order to tag enemy units which sadly leads to players tagging a lot less on consoles. The load out menu is a bit confusing between choosing a class, weapons and gadgets, but it eventually makes sense. Those who have gotten used to the usual FPS settings on controllers will need to adjust a little as keys cannot be customized or changed. The right thumb stick will be to crouch or prone instead of a melee. R2 will be the key used to knife. L2 tosses a frag grenade. The circle face button is used to interact with gadgets, setting a bomb, defusing one, etc. I mainly find the spot key to be the biggest problem as tagging enemies is a pivotal action in team fights but leaves the player vulnerable while doing so. Not being able to customize the keys and switching them around from the norm does make it confusing and takes some getting used to, but it makes sense for multiplayer (for the most part). Buttons: 8/10
Concept & Content
I was very disappointed with the single-player campaign as I enjoyed DICE and EA’s last two game’s campaign modes (Medal of Honor 2010 & Battlefield Bad Company 2). The story was told very similar to Call of Duty Black Ops in that the main character is being interrogated and the player relives all the flashbacks. The progression of single-player is extremely sectionalized with the player just constantly going forward requiring that the player stays undercover for long durations and popped their head out once in a while to fire at the enemy (at least for the more difficult settings). The story wasn’t cohesive, the gameplay was boring, and the level designs were odd considering its core concept (you have to be under cover a lot, but there is VERY little cover in every level and they can be blown apart). One thing I have to praise the single-player for is its incredible settings and environment. Sadly, the campaign mode didn’t feel like there was a lot of thought and consideration put into it. Co-op mode is unfortunately online multiplayer only and won’t be as fun unless you have friends that you know you can play with (and cooperate with). I would’ve been nice to have SOME sort of local multiplayer, but there isn’t one. Thankfully, online multiplayer is really fun (or I would have felt ripped off). There’s a variety of maps that are large (sometimes too large for its player capacity), plenty of things to unlock as the player progresses their level, and an array of vehicles to fly and drive. After a good dozen hours of playing multiplayer, I realized that the game still has problems with glitches; however, I already saw problems from the beta fixed while new ones are quickly addressed and remedied. Multiplayer actually feels more challenging than Bad Company 2 did, but it also feels more balanced. Consoles unfortunately have half the player capacity that PC players do and it can be difficult to find or even see any enemies for a while. I find it upsetting that the DLC was planned from the beginning to be sold separately, but I can’t say I’m surprised seeing how a lot of game developers and publishers has turned to purposely excluding content from a game to be resold to players. Still, the core content within Battlefield 3 is enough to satisfy me on what I want out of it for the rest of the year. Concept & Content: 7/10
Duration
Single-player wasn’t very long, and that’s alright by me since I didn’t enjoy it that much anyways. I’m not sure what to say about online multiplayer. I’ve barely scratched the surface of multiplayer and I’ve already played 10-20 hours on it. I’m mainly playing as assault as I’ve come to enjoy playing healers in games now (this started when I realized other players not doing their jobs when choosing to play as one). There’s a lot of things to unlock and experiment with and each match can last anywhere from 10 minutes to half an hour. The gameplay is slower paced than most FPS games, but that tension right before a really big fight is what makes the game so exciting. Other times, it’s not but action and both sides are constantly in a fire-fight. I have to admit that I can’t play the game for long durations (it can be a tiring game), but it’s a game I feel comfortable revisiting again and again as long as I feel up for playing it. Duration: 9/10
Fun
I had mixed reactions throughout playing Battlefield 3. I started with campaign first and marveled at the amazing graphics and how breath taking the environment was. The gameplay was okay for a while and then I started realizing how very little safe cover there were in every area. Enemies were killing me in 2 shots if not one and that led me to staying in cover a lot. As the game progressed, it got worse and the story didn’t interest me anymore. With multiplayer, it was difficult to adjust to the controls in the beginning. I died a lot trying to knife but ended up crouching or trying to throw a grenade and accidentally knifing the air. I really hated how the spot key was in a position where I had to leave my analog stick. It was mainly getting used to playing on controller as opposed to keyboard and mouse (I purposely chose to purchase the console version because the PC version had so many problems that I couldn’t even start it). After having a grasp at the concept, controls and area of each map, I began to play a lot more naturally and enjoyed the game. Then there are times when I play multiplayer and can’t enjoy it because no one on my team seems to want to fulfill the main objective and I’m always put in the losing team (which makes sense because the only games with free slots are ones with players leaving a losing game). When all goes well, I get a game where I get tons of kills, lots of points from healing and support, and the whole team wins which feels so good. It’s like a crazy roller coaster ride with Battlefield 3. Fun: 8/10
Overall
The single-player campaign wasn’t that great. Co-op is only online play and it’s difficult to coordinate on console if you don’t have a microphone (which most people don’t even use for team-work in the first place). Content that could’ve been in the game to begin with is cut out to be sold as a DLC. There were plenty of reasons that made me look down upon BF3 and made me wonder why I got it. Battlefield had always excelled in is multiplayer mode, and although BF3’s multiplayer is really fun, it’s not entirely polished. I would much rather have had the developers focus on the multiplayer and take out all the problems before it actually launched, have the content that should have been in there stay there and justify the $60 it charged players, and truly have a complete multiplayer. Still, I thought they did a good job on rebalancing the game from what they did for Bad Company 2 such as changing the roles of each class and the power output of each weapons. Teamwork is still a must and does a good job emphasizing it by punishing those who go off on their own through its game design. The game isn’t entirely up to expectations from all the hype it gathered, but I still ended up enjoying it for the most part. Overall: 8/10
Thursday, February 9, 2012
GameLight - Hyperdimension Neptunia MK2
Official Site: http://nisamerica.com/games/neptunia2/index.php
Source: Youtube Channel MyKOEITV
Hyperdimension Neptunia MK2 releases very soon (19 days to be exact). It is a moé-animé heavy Action-RPG that seems to target a very specific audience of RPG players (more so outside of Japan). I have kept an eye on the first game ever since its release but have been reluctant to purchase it as it had an average price of $60-$70 (some online stores sold it for $180) with an average Metascore of 45/100 from critics. I eventually found a copy at GameStop for $30 (surprising since it's a new copy AND it's at GameStop) and decided to make the purchase. Thankfully, the game turned out to be pretty entertaining (albeit the beginning tutorial, that was long and boring). Hyperdimension Neptunia MK2 takes place in a fictional world called Gamindustri as did the first one. CPUs are gaming consoles personified as goddesses and each goddess protects the part of the land within Gamindustri. As one might guess, the game references the Game Industry quite often with certain lingo or specific game characters. The game plays like a turn-based, dungeon crawler, RPG but looks a lot like a visual novel during conversations as dialogues stretch for quite a duration sometimes. The turn-based combat in MK2 will differ a bit from the first one as characters can freely roam the battlefield similar to Star Ocean or Eternal Sonata. And instead of 3 party members on the field, a maximum of 4 characters can participate in battle. Each character has their own special abilities and the player can customize the different attacks to create their own combination of attacks. I'm not certain whether there will be an open world to traverse or if it will be similar to the first one where the player chooses a dungeon to explore for each mission and quest.
It worries me that MK2 is rated "M" for mature when the first was rated "T" for teen. The first game did have some risqué images and moments, so I can only imagine that MK2 has furthered the fan service a bit more. The fan service neither really "adds" to the gameplay or nor "deter" it in any way, it's just there and so one can take it or leave it. It can be troublesome if one plays the game when others around as some images and dialogue can raise quite a few eyebrows or raise the obvious question of "what in the world are you playing?" So with that aside, it seems the game focuses on the "portable" systems of the game industry (namely the Sega GameGear, Sony PSP, and the Nintendo DS). I really like the first one and I'm hoping the 2nd will be even better by fixing the problems the first one had (an more organized item menu system, faster-paced battles, etc.). Hyperdimension Neptunia MK2 releases on February 28th, 2012 exclusively for the Playstation 3.
Source: Youtube Channel MyKOEITV
Hyperdimension Neptunia MK2 releases very soon (19 days to be exact). It is a moé-animé heavy Action-RPG that seems to target a very specific audience of RPG players (more so outside of Japan). I have kept an eye on the first game ever since its release but have been reluctant to purchase it as it had an average price of $60-$70 (some online stores sold it for $180) with an average Metascore of 45/100 from critics. I eventually found a copy at GameStop for $30 (surprising since it's a new copy AND it's at GameStop) and decided to make the purchase. Thankfully, the game turned out to be pretty entertaining (albeit the beginning tutorial, that was long and boring). Hyperdimension Neptunia MK2 takes place in a fictional world called Gamindustri as did the first one. CPUs are gaming consoles personified as goddesses and each goddess protects the part of the land within Gamindustri. As one might guess, the game references the Game Industry quite often with certain lingo or specific game characters. The game plays like a turn-based, dungeon crawler, RPG but looks a lot like a visual novel during conversations as dialogues stretch for quite a duration sometimes. The turn-based combat in MK2 will differ a bit from the first one as characters can freely roam the battlefield similar to Star Ocean or Eternal Sonata. And instead of 3 party members on the field, a maximum of 4 characters can participate in battle. Each character has their own special abilities and the player can customize the different attacks to create their own combination of attacks. I'm not certain whether there will be an open world to traverse or if it will be similar to the first one where the player chooses a dungeon to explore for each mission and quest.
It worries me that MK2 is rated "M" for mature when the first was rated "T" for teen. The first game did have some risqué images and moments, so I can only imagine that MK2 has furthered the fan service a bit more. The fan service neither really "adds" to the gameplay or nor "deter" it in any way, it's just there and so one can take it or leave it. It can be troublesome if one plays the game when others around as some images and dialogue can raise quite a few eyebrows or raise the obvious question of "what in the world are you playing?" So with that aside, it seems the game focuses on the "portable" systems of the game industry (namely the Sega GameGear, Sony PSP, and the Nintendo DS). I really like the first one and I'm hoping the 2nd will be even better by fixing the problems the first one had (an more organized item menu system, faster-paced battles, etc.). Hyperdimension Neptunia MK2 releases on February 28th, 2012 exclusively for the Playstation 3.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Retroview - Demon's Crest
Source: Youtube Channel LordTyphoon
I remember being scared of this game when I was a kid, and for good reasons. Look at those deep, rich and eerie backdrops drawn by the artists. There is so much detail and mystery within the environment. And just listen to that music:
Source: Youtube Channel 61u
It’s a simple melody, but is also entrancing and haunting. The subtle nature of the music is truly atmospheric, completing the aesthetics of the game's world and environment. You know why the music is so good? Because it's by Toshihiko Horiyama, the same composer who has created incredible tracks for games like Megaman X1, X3, X4, Megaman 7, Megaman & Bass, Onimusha 2, and Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney.
Demon's Crest is a far cry from its predecessors. No longer will Firebrand be walking through boring towns with empty houses or running into random battles in a large empty map that's linear anyways. No longer will Firebrand be subjected to flying for only 2 seconds or running errands having to go back and forth. He will; however, still be slower than his enemies and have an ambiguous hit-box around spikes. As you can see from the video above, Demon's Crest start off with a boss battle right from the get go and goes about his usual platforming. After completing the first level, the player is presented with a world map. BUT, you fly around instead of walking around AND the map is non-linear. This means that the player can complete the levels in any order they wish rather than being subjected to a single path. The way the map is presented reminds of Actraiser where the player hovers above and chooses a level to go into with a similar side-scroll platforming gameplay. The archaic vial and lives system has been taken out entirely and the player can continue as many times as they want. This, by no means, makes it any easier. The level designs are challenging, but fair (much more fair compared to the first two games). The bosses have diabolical movement patterns that's a lot harder to predict and can inflict quite a bit of damage if the player doesn't have certain items yet. After about 2-3 hours of playing, I finished the game. I was surprised to have reached the ending when I only had 20% of my items. I realized that I had the most basic ending and that there was still about 60-70% of the game that I haven't played yet. Many levels can be revisited several times over as multiple paths branch out into different areas. Demon's Crest has a lot more abilities than the first two and requires a lot of switching between forms and abilities to get through some areas. This was extremely bothersome in the first two Gargoyle's Quest and even more so this one as the pause screen would be an entirely different screen rather than a small sub menu on the bottom. There are 5 abilities and 5 forms to choose from, and having to constantly “pause” the game to switch between them really broke the flow of the game. Using the R and L shoulder keys would have been a great solution to switch between the abilities via a wheel selector or at the very least kind of like what Secret of Mana did for a menu. Still, the transition between Gargoyle's Quest 2 and Demon's Crest is so significant that it's like a game of its own. There's a lot of thought put into concept, level design, the aesthetics, and even the story is vastly different from the first two. Demon's Crest is undoubtedly the best in the Gargoyle's series and is sadly underrated and forgotten by many SNES players. After playing these three games, I find Firebrand to be a very enjoyable character to play in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. I would recommend playing Demon's Crest out of the three.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Retroview - Gargoyle's Quest 2
Source: Youtube Channel nesguide
So the day after I finished Gargoyle's Quest 1, I decided to play the 2nd one. To be honest, I didn't know there was a second one. I always thought Demon's Crest was the only sequel Gargoyle's Quest ever had. Gargoyle's Quest 2 was developed on the NES and released two years after the first one. To get straight to the point, I didn't like the sequel as much as the first one. GQ2 had many similarities to the first one in gameplay, concept, and premise (story); however, the changes and "lack" of changes to problems from the first one made it less entertaining and more frustrating. Instead of starting the combat immediately, the main protagonist Firebrand starts off in a town getting ready to be initiated as a warrior. From there, problems already arise. There are a lot of empty houses in the town and NPCs that block your path with their "randomly generated move sets." Thankfully, two things also have been fixed and improved. The text doesn’t move in an odd staccato of a pacing like the first one did and everyone speaks at a normal pace. Also, Firebrand walks faster during the overhead view which is good for this game as I'll explain later. I have to correct something I said about Gargoyle's Quest 1 on yesterday's post: after you lose all your lives, you just start from the level you had died on rather than the whole game over. It's the same for GQ2 as well. I guess I was complaining about that tid bid before since it felt like starting the whole game over when I was playing the first one as a kid (I never actually lost all my lives when playing GQ1 and 2 this past weekend, so I didn't know until I checked just now). Now onto the actual game:
The gameplay is essentially the same with platforming, flying, and shooting at enemies. One surprising element they took out in GQ2 is the random enemy encounters in the open world map. Instead, players choose to fight an enemy or not to receive vials to exchange for "lives." If they were going to do that from the beginning, they should have made the world map smaller. The world map is like a lot of the towns: empty and boring. You'll walk around a lot with very little to do or fight. This is why it’s good that Firebrand can walk faster now, because there’s really nothing to do on the world map. What made walking around the world map in GQ1 scary is that you never know when you'll suddenly encounter a formidable foe that's going to eventually use up all your lives. It had a "tension enticing" or "fear" factor into the world map. But in GQ2, the world map was just there for the player to explore (sort of) and get from one place to another. It was boring. Level designs still had the same problem from the first ones in that you can really see what's up ahead or down below unless you dive right in; this sometimes results in death. I suppose this is why the player can accumulate up to 9 lives, so that they can continually make mistakes and learn from them. There are still problems with graphics lag and hit-box obscurities. It's consistent throughout the series (all 3 games) that the graphics will slow down at some point, hit-boxes aren't very clear (especially with spikes), and that enemies will always be faster than the player's character. There are multiple situations where a player can react fast enough to an enemy attack, but the character is simply not fast enough to perform that reaction. The game, boss battles especially, require a lot of foresight and fooling the enemy into moving or attacking a certain way in order to beat them because Firebrand is sadly a slowpoke. I find this ironic seeing how he's one of the fastest characters in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. So the rest of the game is very similar: walk back and forth through a lot of empty maps and towns, collect items, fight through enemies and bosses to get to progress, and stop the destruction of the demon realm. The abilities, enemies, level designs are all very similar to GQ1 from the gameboy. I would say that GQ2 is more of a remake than a sequel to GQ1 (somethings better, others not). The one new ability introduced is the tornado. It allows Firebrand to spit a temporary platform to reach higher places. One of the new level designs that weren’t in the first one is the Mirror level. There are tons of mirrors everywhere and the player has to find the right ones to get to the main boss. It doesn't hint at which ones are the right one, the player just has to experiment and see which one brings them forward and which ones just take them back to an earlier part of the level. Some bosses seemed a bit difficult at first, but they were a push-over after figuring out their patterns compared to the bosses in GQ1. Even the last boss was laughable after figuring out how his projectiles move. After about 3-4 hours, I completed the game (it might have been less; I didn't keep an eye on the time attentively). I was disappointed with the 2nd one. The game was challenging at some points, but it wasn't as fun. The music wasn't as memorable or appropriate. In fact, some of the music I found to be really cheesy for the game. I felt as if GQ2 was a cheap rehash of GQ1 and didn't have as much thought put into the development as much as GQ1 did. Still, I'm glad I got through the game and knew that it at least existed. It had a lot of great ideas, but executed poorly and made it boring. GQ2 was definitely the weakest out of the Gargoyle's Quest series.
Monday, February 6, 2012
Retroview - Gargoyle's Quest
Source: Youtube Channel Sele1908
I remember playing Gargoyle's Quest on my cousin's Classic Gameboy and failing to get past even the first level. Being the retro game that it is, the difficulty of the game was quite high as to challenge the player and having them fail time after time until they were good enough to overcome those obstacles. Retro games were like that because they didn't have a lot of memory space to fit in a whole lot (not to mention development teams were really small). So a lot of retro games were intentionally difficult and have certain game designs to make it last longer than it actually is for gameplay time. With the addition of Firebrand in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, I was reminded of the game (as well as Demon's Crest which is essentially Gargoyle's Quest 3) and decided to play it once again and try to complete it. I took the time over the weekend to play through Gargoyle's Quest 1 (and had enough time to complete even GQ 2) to see if I can overcome the struggles I had with the game.
Sure enough, I was still having difficulties with the first level as there are always enemies and traps beyond the screen that the player just has to know or be extremely cautious of to avoid. The player also starts off with only two drops of health, so it's really easy to die and having to start over. Well, what's different now than when I played back then is that I'm a lot more patient and I'm able to learn from mistakes a lot faster (or at least I hope so). I finally got past the first level and "BAM", it presents itself looking like an RPG. When you walk around the world map, you'll go into random encounters like in Pokémon, Final Fantasy, or Dragon Quest, but the player will fight enemies in a small platform area and finishes when all enemies are defeated. This mix of RPG and Action platforming reminded me of The Legend of Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link.
So after about 2-3 hours of playing, I completed the game feeling satisfied that I was able to finish a game that I couldn't even get past the first level to when I was a kid. Here are some of the things I noticed while playing:
Pros:
-The ability to fly presented an entirely new factor to the platforming
-The light RPG elements mixed the gameplay around and made it more than just a run 'n gun platformer
-Each level, concept, and ability was designed to compliment each other and had a purpose
-Gargoyle's Quest is hard, but it's fair (for the most part)
-It was fairly easy to figure out what to do next
-The music is atmospheric and memorable
Cons:
-A lot of problems with hit-boxes, you'd get hit by things that barely skim past your character's head or toe
-Some levels are unforgiving and losing all your lives means starting the whole game over
-Towns are boring with empty buildings and non-informative NPCs (mostly)
-The pacing of each dialogue drove me nuts, just watch 0:40-0:57, everyone talks like this
-There is a LOT of running back and forth. You will revisit some areas two to three times
-Hated how the player couldn't hit anything outside the screen, which means having to get closer to danger
For the most part, I enjoyed playing the game. The ability to fly along with the jumping was quite different and fun to do. It's probably not a game I'd revisit soon again, but at least it was fun for that one playthrough.
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