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Showing posts with label games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label games. Show all posts
18 August 2010
Freeplay - Independent Games Festival 2010 - Melbourne
10:34 AM | 
Posted by
sortius
A friend of mine was volunteering at the Freeplay event on at the State Library in Melbourne and asked if I wanted to head over when he finished on Sunday. I headed in with the better half in tow, and was pleasantly surprised.
What was on offer wasn't so much complete games, but game projects and pre-betas with the designers there to talk to you about concepts, hurdles and direction. It was a refreshing change from the disappointment that eGames was last year.
A few standout games were:
Colourbind - A novel concept for a platformer using gravity as it's hook. As the designer said, most of the comments have been that the game is hard. Which, was his main intention. The aim is to make a game you can't just roll through, but have to spend some time thinking about to get through.
Hazard: The Journey Of Life - This game is a stand out as it very much as a feel of an FPS, but it is much more than this. Being a puzzle game using logic and lateral thought. I was very impressed with the game's graphics and concepts. It's very much one that could make it far. We didn't get an opportunity to talk to the developer as this was one busy little table.
Noontide - This UDK based game is a nice little gem. A little Devil May Cry, a little No More Heroes, a little anime art style, and you have a game that's got a lot of potential. Still in the VERY early stages, but showing a lot of promise, I spent some time talking to one of the devs for the game. His attitude toward the future of the project and the future of games was refreshing, as was most of the developers at the festival. The attempt to avoid carbon copying another game's style is an important belief for the Noontide team.
There was some great talent on show, with games like Shadow Field (iPhone/iPad tactical strategy game), A Noir Tale (First person noir style game), MineQuest (A Farmville style game for Facebook that the better half got stuck into). It was a refreshing change to the big game shows where only hired staff man the booths to stop people from stealing stuff. Actually giving feedback like "Make sure it's an iPad native game" (to the Shadow Field crew) really gives a connection to the whole process.
All in all Freeplay was a great event and I'll probably end up going next year for both the games and the talks (rather than just the games).
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| Colourbind - Nice gravity platformer. |
A few standout games were:
Colourbind - A novel concept for a platformer using gravity as it's hook. As the designer said, most of the comments have been that the game is hard. Which, was his main intention. The aim is to make a game you can't just roll through, but have to spend some time thinking about to get through.
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| Hazard:The Journey Of Life - Well worth waiting for. |
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| Noontide - Lots of anime style action here. |
There was some great talent on show, with games like Shadow Field (iPhone/iPad tactical strategy game), A Noir Tale (First person noir style game), MineQuest (A Farmville style game for Facebook that the better half got stuck into). It was a refreshing change to the big game shows where only hired staff man the booths to stop people from stealing stuff. Actually giving feedback like "Make sure it's an iPad native game" (to the Shadow Field crew) really gives a connection to the whole process.
All in all Freeplay was a great event and I'll probably end up going next year for both the games and the talks (rather than just the games).
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11 July 2010
Mass Effect 2 Review
I decided to get Mass Effect 2 the other day, mainly because I really liked Mass Effect. I was waiting out the price drops and so forth so I could grab it cheaper than the $100 they want to charge here in Australia.
I must say, I'm quite pleased with the result. Unfortunately my profiles were lost last time I reformatted my machine, so I didn't have the option of playing through as one of my previous characters. This didn't matter much, although some interactions are changed due to not having a frame of reference to what you did in the first one.
The game is similar, but there's been some quite big changes to the morality & leveling system. The most notable changes are that you no longer decrease Paragon with Renegade choices, and vice versa. This is quite welcome as with Mass Effect you had to be very careful what you said or you would end up cancelling out previous work. While it is recommended that you focus on one, it is not necessary. The leveling system has done away with making the powers tiered (to a degree), and now gives you two options when you have maxed out one power/skill.
It seems that with one hand they giveth, and the other they take away. Gone are the horrible Mako (the bounciest vehicle in the universe) missions and single scan of planets. You now scan planets in a sonar style interface to recover minerals that can be used to upgrade your character & squad members' armour, weapons, biotic/tech skills and even the ship. The new system removes all inventory in favour of standardised weapons & armour with upgrades such as damage, shield penetration, range, health increase, shield size, etc. While the planet scanning was quite boring, it was much less frustrating than landing on a planet only to find you and your team didn't have the necessary skills to decrypt/analyse something. After a few upgrades it becomes easier allowing for more probes and faster scanning. The hacking system has changed too, no longer relying on skill points but on your own knowledge of how the hack works. The "mini-games" are much smoother and more enjoyable to do - whether it's rewiring a circuit board or finding code snippets, much less frustration than in Mass Effect.
I can see they tried their hardest to remove what was complained about while enhancing what was great about the first game. The combat is more of an on rails cover shooter, which I don't really have a problem with as it has been implemented quite well, although I did have some frustrations due to the run/interact/cover being the same key (space bar in PC). I died quite a few times because I took cover in front of something while stealthed and became unstealthed with 4 or 5 enemies around me.
Now that we've got the gameplay out of the way, I want to write about the plot. This is a biggie, and Bioware haven't held back at all. The first Mass Effect had a solid plot that really drove gameplay and the sequel has continued, and dare I say it, improved on the narrative that the previous game gave us. Sure, there's a few cheesy parts, but I think that's what makes the plot so good. Bioware know when to add in cheesiness to get the right Sci-Fi feel to it. It's got the same driven feel as Star Trek and the likes.
I personally think there's bigger morality choices in Mass Effect 2 than in the first game, really challenging your concept of right and wrong. To the level of raising some interesting questions - is it "racist" (speciest?)to enforce our concept of right and wrong as humans on other species? The whole plot culminates in a massive morality choice at the end, leaving you questioning yourself and your decisions. No spoilers, but you really need to play all the way through to have a true understanding of where Bioware wanted to go with this.
All in all the game feels very much like an interactive film that's broken up with combat sequences. The driven plot, well written dialogue, and smattering of Hollywood actors (Martin Sheen, Seth Green, Carrie-Anne Moss, to name a few) does really make me feel that Mass Effect & Mass Effect 2 go beyond the concept of an RPG to give us a blend of film, shooter, RPG and philosophical exploration.
I am about to do a second play through using the same character to level her even further. Although my fiancée may get the shits with my "militant lesbian" character (she seems to think this is a fantasy of mine, I have no idea what she's talking about). The only misgiving I have about the 2nd play through is that you cannot change your class at all. Big bummer, but I suppose I can always roll a new class later.
All in all I am quite impressed with the game and would recommend it for any RPG fan who wants a bit more action in your RPG. One thing I will say is that this is NOT a kids' game. The concepts will go over their heads and all you'll get is a foul mouthed child from it.
Available now for Xbox 360 & PC.
08 July 2010
Kane & Lynch 2 - Exclusive Demo
Yesterday I got my hot little hands on a Redeem Code for the Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days exclusive demo. I found it odd at first that you had to have a Redeem Code to play a demo, after all, demos are what showcase the game before you buy it. I was sceptical that there would be any added value in this.
To my surprise, the demo seems to be a lot "bigger" than other demos I've come across. So maybe there is something in these "exclusive demos" after all.
Aside from the delivery method, I must say, I'm impressed with the new game so far. I played the original Kane & Lynch, it wasn't great, then again, it wasn't horrible. The story was actually quite good, for a cheesy criminal story (two dudes escape from prison, one goes nuts unless he has his pills). The new one seems to have them in Hong Kong for some reason, this has not really been explained in detail, just that the HK cops are on your arse and you need to kill everyone you see.
I did notice that the faces of people you kill get blurred. I saw a video of the demo a week or so ago and I thought the blurring was done by the site showing off the demo. Not so, it seems that people find it offensive to see the face of a dead person, but dismembering said person is A-OK!
Anyway, I'm not that far in to it, but it's looking pretty good. I'll reserve judgement until the full game comes out.
Cheers 1up for the Redeem Code.
06 July 2010
The Holy Trinity of RPG
After a recent post on the Star Wars: The Old Republic site showing off the multiplayer combat system (source), and the ensuing trollfest that seems to be squarely aimed at the use of a trinity (damage, heal, tank - DHT) system in the game, I thought I'd post some of my own thoughts.
Firstly, I've been gaming for well over 20 years, I can remember playing my first game on a Mac Plus back in 1987. While this may not qualify me to be an expert on gaming, I do feel that my experience gives me some insight into gaming.
I've seen franchises come and go, even seen them come and not go when they should. Gameplay can be seen in mainly two parts, solo or team based. While not all games adhere to this, a majority of games do.
I'll focus mainly on team based games in this post, as this is what we're looking at.
When you look at how team based games are designed you can see that a majority of them are aimed at a trinity style gameplay. From Team Fortress 2 to the Battlefield series to World of Warcraft, there seems to be an aim to bring a team together by giving people options to fill the trinity of roles - Damage, Heal, Tank.
Why? Well, it's natural to have this kind of system. From Dungeons and Dragons to modern shooters, it's always smart to have the person with the highest health or mitigations taking the damage, for someone to be giving health to the group, and for others to be damaging, crowd controlling, or lowering enemies' mitigation. It's human nature to do the best for your tribe, so why should it be so different in games? I know there are games out there that are team based and don't offer all of the roles described, but people still try to fit into them anyway.
I think to condemn a game that has not even reached closed beta for using the trinity is just delusional. With all the calls of "it's just like WoW", well, I say "WoW is just like Everquest" and "Everquest is just like Ultima Online" and "Ultima Online is just like D&D", the list can go on. Why? Well, the trinity has been around for a LONG time, longer than computer games. It's even a valid tactic in war. Pikemen up the front, Archers to the rear, and medical staff keeping people in the battle.
I'm not sure my rant has done anything other than show I feel strongly toward not invalidating gaming mechanics that have been around for years (centuries?). If you do not wish to play with the trinity of gaming, then don't play a team based game. I'd suggest something like Bejewelled, no healers, or tanks... or even damage.
Split/Second Review
Well, I must say, I've not been this annoyed by a game since Dirt 2 came out. From the onset the claim that you're in a TV show that will be watched, I kid you not, by "billions of people worldwide", just annoys me to death. I tried my hardest to get by this, but it really isn't easy when between races you have the same annoying reality TV show voice overs.
This is supposed to be a racing game, but it really doesn't feel like it. The races seem to have been devised purely to showcase how many explosions one can kick off, not your racing skill. The cars control like you're driving a gummybear at 200 km/h, the drifting that you are supposed to do has no relationship to the stats of the car (some have high drift but make no difference on maintaining speed or starting drifts), and the controls are focused around creating the Michael Bay-esque explosions everywhere.
While this may seem fun, the novelty wears off when you realise no skill in the world will allow you to win if you actually want to race. It's all about luck, pumping your "power" to do "power plays" (blow shit up), and hoping to god the AI doesn't decide to randomly pop one just before the finish.
Gameplay aside, the game does look very polished, the cars don't look too bad, but the big downfall is that there are only 2 views available - near behind and low bumper. Both of which I cannot stand.
All in all this didn't hold my attention for very long, but merely served to piss me off to no end with cheesy voice acting, muddy car handling, and no real tactical racing to speak of. If your game collection is too full and you are somewhat of a masochist, go ahead and buy it. If you want a decent racer, avoid this at all costs.
Available for Xbox 360, PS3, & PC.
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