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Oct 15th, 2012 at 22:40:41 - Minecraft (360) |
Last weekend, my friends and I played the Xbox 360 version of Minecraft. I had never played the PC version of Minecraft but decided to buy it to try it out. I played a little by myself before, but after this weekend I realized that it is a very good multiplayer game. In general, Minecraft is a fun sandbox game that isn’t overly accessible at first, but after a while, can be a whole lot of fun.
When my friends and I were playing, we didn’t really start off with a goal or anything. Basically we eventually just forced to survive the monsters in the area. The good, or bad thing, about this game is that there really isn’t an end game. There is game mandated goal for players to achieve. The player must decide what to do and set out to do his or her own goals. They could decide whether just to build and survive against monsters, or possibly find the best materials to make the best equipment, or just build things. It is totally up to the player, which is really freeing in a world where many games is just funneling players down hallways to get to the end.
When I was playing with my friends, we would always just mess around. We never really had a set goal. At one moment, we would be building a house, then the next we would be exploring caves, trying to find diamond while fighting off waves of monsters. It is really gratifying and freeing, which makes the game a whole lot of fun. It’s a good experience to have a true open world game where anything is possible. The only limitation is the imagination. Many games these days don’t leave anything to the imagination, which is kind of depressing. A game like Minecraft just lets the player get lost in this open world, and that is something we need more of in todays games.
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Oct 8th, 2012 at 22:25:17 - Medal of Honor: Warfighter (360) |
The other day I downloaded the multiplayer beta to yet to be released game Medal of Honor: Warfighter. At first I thought that it would be just another generic military shooter. Although it might be similar to previous military shooters, it does something interesting to multiplayer mechanic that helps separate this games from games like Call of Duty or Battlefield. Even though it might borrow heavily from those games, it does something quite different, which adds intensity and cooperation in this shooter.
Like other military shooters, Medal of Honor: Warfighter is a first person shooter that pits one team against another to complete objectives or just to get the most kills. Where it deviates from the normal military shooter aesthetics is the fact that the player is assigned a battle buddy. It might not seem like a big deal, but this greatly changes the game in a good way.
While games like Call of Duty is played in a more lone wolf style of play, this forced cooperation with the battle buddy makes it feel like the player has to achieve something or help them out. This works best when there is an objective type game where the player has to work together with the team anyway, but even in team deathmatch, it still provides that sense of cooperation as the two players try to keep each other alive.
While this game might not be the first game to use that kind of system, it is more noticeable than in others. Battlefield had a similar system with squads, but with a two-man team, I felt more inclined to watch my partners back. In Battlefield, there were four man teams, but we would eventually go on and do our own thing. With this game, it has this nice cooperation mechanic that helps generate that teamwork style of play, which is always a good change of pace from the run and gun, lone wolf style that Call of Duty implements.
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Oct 2nd, 2012 at 15:24:58 - call of duty modern warfare 2 (360) |
Lately, I have started playing Modern Warfare 2 again, basically because I don’t have that many games to play anymore. I realized that even though this game is very simplistic and somewhat redundant, it still manages to entertain after so many play sessions with it. Not only is this game 3 years old, but it has many seen yearly sequels which tend to be about the same. Nevertheless, it can still be an enjoyable game after so many years and so many sequels.
What this game lacks in narrative and choices, it makes up in gameplay. The gameplay is very simplistic, as it was in previous games. Basically it’s a shoot anything that moves kind of game, which requires very little thought and complexity. However, most people seem to like this concept, including myself, as we see time and again that Call of Duty games outsell almost every game in the market. What the game offers is instant gratification, as people love to compete and get the highest kill scores in the game. This seemingly competitive drive offers the most appealing aspect to this game.
Other than this, the game is basically a boring game. The campaign is only 4 hours long with little to no narrative aspects. The story is basically forcing the player to move through various locations and kill the bad guys in somewhat outlandish Michael Bay action sequences. It gets old pretty fast, as the cheap thrills come fast and hard. Sprinkled with military mumbo jumbo and poor Russian accents, the single player campaign is remarkably dull.
Although people hate to admit it, the Call of Duty franchise will continue to thrive in the game market as long as they are on the shelves. The simple design and a very intense but satisfying competitive drive help to stimulate the customer with hours upon hours of multiplayer mayhem. Although the campaign is completely pointless, it doesn’t hamper the fact that the multiplayer reward system is actually quite impressive from a design standpoint, as the competitive drive continues to be a worthwhile reward system.
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Sep 23rd, 2012 at 19:46:57 - Borderlands 2 (360) |
About a week ago, I bought Borderlands 2. I haven’t played all of the game yet, but it is safe to say that it is one of the best games I have played in a long time. I have played the first one about half way through until I got bored with it. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case with this one.
The reason I got bored with the last game was probably because there was no real plot driving me through the game and also the fact that the classes to choose from were kind of boring. This game remedies that with an actual story that is exciting and engaging which helps me progress. Also, the classes have been given an overhaul, however, still retaining some elements from the first game. I have played through two of the classes and can say that both of them have been very satisfying to use. Each class comes with a special ability. The two classes I tried had abilities such as sending out a decoy and cloaking, so the player can get the kill from behind. The other class I played had a deployable turret, which was useful if playing by myself.
However, the main draw of the game is the loot system. Borderlands 1 and 2 do a great job with this. Instead of the typical reward system seen in many games, this game offers random pick ups almost everywhere in the game. Instead of having to complete high end quests to pick up some good guns, the player can instead just look around, possibly doing some side quests and just stumble onto some great weapons. This system really works in providing a reward for the player without having it feel like chasing a carrot on a stick. This drive for better and cooler items is basically the main reason why I want to play the game.
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dmullig2 has been with GameLog for 11 years, 7 months, and 27 days |
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