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Mar 6th, 2008 at 00:18:07 - Shadowrun (360) |
GAMELOG #2
GAMEPLAY:
As always, with customization, comes trends. Your defense isn't complete without a Troll carrying an accuracy-enhanced minigun or a Dwarf that can summon creatures and cast ice barriers. Offense will almost never capture a flag without an elf that has a sword paired with enhanced reflexes for bullet deflecting and increased speed. Certain exceptions always apply, and other combinations are usually more fun. But people always figure out what is most effective.
The tutorials, as helpful as they are, grow boring and a bit tedious after a while. I got tired of hearing the instructors voice. He talked entirely too much to explain relatively self-explanatory things. I ended up ignoring most of what he said, spamming 'X' to continue through his talking, and talking to my roommate until I was able to move again.
This game came out a long time ago. Around it's release date, I'm sure there was a lot of activity, but now there is next to none. I went online after the tutorials and there were about twenty matches happening, total. I joined a few, and the players were standing around beating their teammates with the flag they were supposed to capture. Nobody was actually playing. That left me with bot matches, and I had pretty much had my fill of those by the end of the tutorials. Overall, I'm really glad I didn't spend the money to buy this game, because I shot through pretty much all it had to offer in about three hours.
DESIGN:
The levels are designed to take advantage of the enhanced mobility and defensive capabilities of the spells. There are lots of high ledges and long drops, perfect to teleport up or fling someone from. There are rooms ideal for refuge where you can cast healing spells, and bridges and ramps for barricading. The environment combined with either offense or defense, and what stage in the match you happen to be at, really promote on-the-fly changes in style and strategy. I think this was well done. Not perfect, by any means, but well done.
Each race looks distinct. Humans are rather default, Dwarves are about half their height, Trolls are very large and box shaped, and Elves are tall and very thin. This distinction is very important in games like this where what race you're fighting makes a large difference. I don't want to approach a Dwarf for fear of losing my mana, and I know if I get into trouble I can outrun that Troll. Magic objects are also very large and distinct. Trees of Life are stationary objects that heal you, and appear as a rather large golden tree with glowing particles floating from it. The ice move produces crystals about as tall as a Human that are rather hard to miss. Summoned monsters are taller than the other races and are colored very brightly as blue or red. The idea is, you always know what each object or creature is without having to concentrate on figuring it out. You can spend more time thinking of how to behave accordingly. The only issue I had with this was, while all of that is distinct, the team colors are very dull. I ended up concentrating on player heads and shoulders to figure out teams, as the red team wore a headband and the blue had shoulder pads. This wasn't that big of an issue, and I got past it relatively fast, but I think it would have been overlooked entirely if the colors had been more clear.
I was really looking forward to a campaign and story behind this game. I'd heard good things about the Shadowrun RPGs that predated this game, and I have a soft spot for fantasy worlds. The campaign (or lack thereof) was disappointing, as I hope I've made clear. That didn't stop them from trying to add a backstory anyway. Before each tutorial mission was a sorry excuse for a cutscene, mostly consisting of still images and a female narrator telling you the story. You never participate in the story, it is merely giving some facts you don't care about as the character's motivation for shooting the other guys. I watched two and skipped the rest, as they felt like a waste of time. Essentially, they told you that people found magic, some people are trying to steal your artifacts, and we're going to train you to use magic so you can stop the thieves. That truncates to 'shoot the guys trying to take the shiny thing' and that's about all that matters.
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Mar 5th, 2008 at 22:55:39 - Shadowrun (360) |
GAMELOG #1
SUMMARY:
Shadowrun is a first person shooter with a lot of fantasy elements. There are four races to choose from, each with different traits. Along side the weapon purchasing, is a menu to purchase magic and techniques as well. The game emphasizes customization of play style and the multiplayer to use it in.
GAMEPLAY:
Going into it, I was really excited to play this game. I had played the demo when it was released almost a year ago, and remember really enjoying it. They gave a taste of about half of the skills with tutorials, followed by a match against computer players. The surprise I ran into upon playing the full version was that it's the exact same thing, but there are tutorials for all skills and races, instead of just a handful. There is no campaign, just lessons and multiplayer (against bots or online versus humans).
The tutorial has a voice telling you what to do, and has you apply each skill in one or two situations each. The match is you and a handful of bots against a team of the same size, and the goals are the same as the online multiplayer: either capture the flag, or kill everyone. After each tutorial, the skills you get to use during the match were the ones they just taught you to use. This ended up being a very good way to learn the menu navigation and the effects of each skill, without going too far and covering all of the ways the skills can be combined strategically.
I seem to be developing a growing acceptance for FPS on consoles, so even though the dual analogue is certainly not preferred to mouse and keyboard it didn't bother me for very long. The movement seems to be slower and more appropriate for the controller. There was skepticism around the games release, because it also came out for Windows, as to how they would either strengthen the 360 owners or weaken the PC users to make the cross-platform matches fair but I didn't get a chance to experiment online. I can't imagine this game being as fun on the PC, though. With a mouse and keyboard I would want the pacing to be a lot faster than I experienced on my Xbox.
As for the skills and races, I like how they implemented them. They narrowed it to four stereotypes: Human, Troll, Dwarf, and Elf. Humans, as always, are average and start with a bit more money. Trolls can take more hits, but move slower. Dwarves can drain the mana from other players or magical objects. Elves are faster and more fragile. The skills range from defensive ice patches, to teleporting and ressurecting teammates. The techniques include a glider that lets you jump really far, a sort of heat vision that can reveal the position of enemies through walls, and a move that enhances the accuracy and zoom of your weapons. I've only got to play as Humans so far, and have a few defensive and healing spells, but so far just these few options allow for a lot of decision making and freedom of travel.
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Feb 21st, 2008 at 02:00:54 - Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES) |
GAMELOG #2
GAMEPLAY:
Each world has a miniboss and a boss. They reside at the end of their respective levels, the miniboss being in the level halfway through a world, and the boss being at the end of the last level. They added a bit of a story by making all of the last levels the castle of its world, and the kings have been transformed into animals. The boss after each world holds the wand that turns the kings to their human form. The bosses themselves are just enemies with a bit faster and more varied movement, and are aggressive toward the player. They will move side to side and jump at you, and the major bosses will zap their wand at you as well. Instead of taking one hit to kill, they each take three. Although there are no other enemies to fight simultaneously or platforms to traverse, the fights are still all about placing jumps and landings, because stomping on enemies is the main form of combat.
On the overworld map, you can sometimes use your upgrades in different ways. I found out that one that lets you throw hammers, will also break rocks on the map, which gave me access to extra huts where I could acquire more lives and upgrades. This feature is in no way necessary, but I thought it was a very nice addition for those with a curious or explorative style.
DESIGN:
Everything is sized to fit on a grid, with most things being two by two. This being the case, I consider a two by two object the size of their normal tiles. This is very geometric, which I think is a good thing for a platformer because it is much easier to gauge whether or not you can make a jump versus having to find an alternate route.
There is a large variety of obstacles, allowing a lot to be done. There are platforms that move, spin, disappear, and can be moved by the player. There are enemies that shoot bullets, lob hammers, jump, and even drop more enemies on you. Half of the gameplay is trying to reach the appropriate platform, the other half is trying to conquer the monster blocking your path. All of this is accomplished by jumping with the correct timing and precision. It is a simple gameplay element used in a multitude of circumstances, and it's well done.
The colors are all bright, but the backgrounds and environment textures are kept simple, while the character, enemies, and critical objects have bold lines and are distinct. This keeps the focus on what is important, while still making the overall screen aesthetically pleasing. It also keeps it simple with regards to what will hurt and what won't. Generally speaking, if it is round, it's safe to hit, if it has spikes, it's not.
Hidden rooms and items are usually very satisfying to find. Their reward is commonly one of the good upgrades, or a few extra lives. As someone with a long background in playing Mario games, RPGs, and the like, seeking out hidden things and exploring is part of my play style. I really like to find as many side paths, extra content, and easter eggs as I can, so jumping into thin air and having an invisible block be triggered feels really good.
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Feb 21st, 2008 at 01:07:11 - Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES) |
GAMELOG #1
SUMMARY:
Super Mario Bros. 3 is a platformer in which you proceed through levels only by running, jumping and swimming. Your travel is aided by occasional upgrades that let you take additional hits, jump farther, shoot fireballs, etc. The final goal is to rescue the kidnapped princess.
GAMEPLAY:
The directional pad moves your character left and right, and if you hold the B button down, he runs. The A button jumps, and the longer you hold it the higher his jump. With this control scheme, there is a lot of control over how far and how high you jump, allowing for a lot of variety and challenge given the limited modes of travel. The player can also change their horizontal velocity while in midair by holding either direction, sometimes allowing them to jump onto a platform directly above them. As free as this allows the player to be, there is a low friction between you and the ground, so landing on small platforms after a long jump is still quite a challenge.
Your character starts off small, at about one tile wide and one tall. If during a level you hit a block that would give an upgrade, a mushroom will pop out and you will double in height. After that, you can get one further upgrade at a time. Fireballs will kill most enemies, the raccoon tail will let you jump farther, the frog suit will let you swim faster, and the famous Tanooki suit lets you jump farther AND turn into a statue that your enemies can't hurt. This last upgrade also lets you take one additional hit before dying. Each hit will remove your highest upgrade, unless you have none. Falling off the bottom of the screen results in death no matter how many upgrades you have.
The stages are divided into levels and worlds. In between levels there is an essentially linear overworld map. You're character icon hovers over the last level you completed, and can be moved over all of the previous levels in the current world. When you complete the last level of a world, you proceed to the start of the next one. However, in between some levels are optional huts where you can play a small game of chance to get an upgrade that goes into your collection. Before starting a level, you can view your collection of upgrades that you won from these huts, and choose to use one of them before entering a level, so instead of starting off small, you start with a bonus. This is particularly useful if a level is giving you a hard time.
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Jaadus has been with GameLog for 16 years, 3 months, and 13 days |
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