25 posts tagged “gaming” (page 2)
This game is a blast! It's a fun, musical twitch game. It's really surprising to see who else plays through the music I have as well. And I mean, I've got some obscure stuff:
Hito Ookami's Hyper Eurobeat Arrangement of Battle 2 from Romancing Saga.
Running Hell from Cave Story.
Final Fantasy VII Boss Theme.
Opus Xero's remix of The Mighty Obstacle from Ys VI: Ark of Napishtim.
Big congratulations to the fine trio at Easy Game Station on their newest release. Recettear was released at Comic Market for those lucky enough to go to the event but today they released it at a number of well known doujin shops for those of us who couldn't get to Tokyo on Christmas weekend to brave the massive waves of nerdy-types. I've been to a Comic Market and it was so crowded, I got crowd surfed just trying to get to some stairs on the way from the West Halls to the East. Tokyo Big Site has to be one of the largest convention areas I've ever seen and Comic Market makes TBS burst at the seams. I know I could have gotten this game via torrent months ago, but I look forward to some of my favorite retailers hooking me up with a legitimate copy. Seriously, EGS. Look into selling your games on Steam. You guys could even make Valve quake in it's boots for a bit, no pun intended.
Yeah, I know, Super Smash Brothers Brawl is also out, but seeing how I doubt I'd have people over to enjoy local multiplayer which has always been SSB's strong point, I'm paying visits to friends who are raving mad for this game. Especially since they've got bigger entertainment rooms and nicer TVs. The single player game doesn't come close to teaching you how to be really good at that game. You can button mash your way through story but if you even think about trying that "tactic" against a seasoned pro, don't count on landing a single hit. Almost all of the friends I'd go play the game with are the "seasoned pro" type, not looking for the equivalent of Mario Party, The Fighting Game.
The iPhone/iPod Touch SDK is out! I'm still looking for info on touch sensitivity and tilt accuracy that could help me come up with a design for a platform specific game. Hardware horsepower-wise, the platform veers on the PSP's specs. One fellow on a forum said:
"Think of a Dreamcast with 8X the RAM, 2X the CPU, and a generation newer graphics chip pushing 1/4 the pixels."
Dreamcast. That console has some games with absolutely stunning graphics(Soul Calibur, Grandia 2) and now that power is in a wee little device along with a trio of accelerometers that work like Sony's SIXAXIS controller.
Oh, the possibilities....
To Do: Brush up resume, register for Game Developers Conference and so forth.
I was recently contracted to play through a game. I am under an NDA so no, I won't divulge any identifiable details about the game in question whatsoever.
I wanted to get through the game as quickly as possible. I wasn't there for the game itself, I had ulterior motives. The game did feature leveling up your character. I found myself running through levels, not fighting too terribly often then occasionally getting into trouble when going up against the boss. I'd go back to older areas where enemies were easier to kill to grind and build up my persona.
Then, I started to wonder. Why am I doing this? Why am I avoiding encounters that would give me a chance at much needed experience during the actual levels, only to begrudgingly grind elsewhere? In the case of this particular game, it doesn't abide by standard RPG rules of letting you enjoy your level ups as soon as you get them. You only enjoyed the fruits of your labor after successfully completing an area. So of course I go back to easy areas, unless I do something really foolish, I'm absolutely positive I will win and gain the ability to power up my character.
I realize, though, this is by far not the only game I've avoided encounters like mad. I'm an RPG enthusiast, Unless I've got some insatiable urge to utterly dominate the ins and outs of a certain game, I have a tendency to go through under-leveled. This is true for games whose combat I've enjoyed. If a player hates the game, then
What is with under-leveling and why should it matter? Under-leveling is a balance issue. A very important balance issue, especially for RPGs. Chances are, if a gamer goes to an encounter and gets horribly beaten down multiple times, their reaction may not be to go level up and try again but to curse the programmers for making a game too hard. Yes, I know, it's not the programmers fault, but I've seen a lot of rants and vitriol directed at programmers.
Towards the end of the game I was playing-as well as some other RPGs- I've hit a lot of "forced encounters." Sub-bosses/Mini-bosses you have to beat in order to keep going through the final dungeon. These can be particularly devastating for the under-leveling gamer. I never finished Final Fantasy IX off my own personal save file because of this. I didn't run away from any enounters, but I didn't do a lot of the "extra curricular leveling" activities. I did a few side quests that were readily accessible to me but I didn't seek out certain high powered items that would have both leveled my characters on top of giving me a special move with astonishing power. Power that usually breaks the balance, but you spent all that time chasing the item instead of leveling up so it's essentially the same result. Only, with brighter, bigger fireworks.
Well...I'm still not sure why I do the whole under leveling thing...I'll have to give it a bit more contemplation.
I do love my friends who can buy just about every new game as it comes out. They're rockin' people, have fuzzy cats and the most amazing gaming rig ever. Complete with +10 Couch of Comfinesses.
At their place, I was able to try some games I'd been curious about as a designer as well as games that piqued my crazy gaming intrigue.
-Zack and Wiki(Wii)
This looked like it made very good use of the Wii Remote and had interesting puzzles to solve.
In concept, anyways. Said friend of mine I visited has been a programmer on a Wii game. There's a lot of perception about what the Wii Remote is capable of doing that his experience suggests otherwise.
We went through the first area most of the first area, without even stopping to look anything up on GameFaqs, as tempting as it got at times. Wiki the flying monkey has some neat abilities that make for interesting situations. He can turn enemies into items!
You really do have to think about a lot of aspects of what goes on in the game world to solve puzzles, and the game makes you think outside of boxes it has you thinking inside in the first place. This isn't completely a brain game, as there are portions when reflexes really do matter. You have an extremely short amount of time to react in a few situations which will no doubt, anger players.
This game also loves to throw brutal, wretched curve balls at you that you have absolutely no way of anticipating. After getting one of these sucker punches to the gut when almost beating the first boss, Zack and Wiki's quest ended forever.
Wii Remote Use:
The game tells you how you should hold and move the remote. Even then, it's so insanely sensitive that you could hold the remote perfectly still when the game says STOP and it twitches anyway. There is a horrific bell ringing mini game that is immensely finicky about timing but doesn't account for any sort of delay and...ugh.
Pushing the remote forward and turning it as if it was a key in my hand was a nice touch on multiple occasions, I needed to turn the remote more than my arm was realistically capable of turning. I just roll it along the table whenever I need to open a key now.
The remote's censors are very crude. I think the engineering team of Zack and WIki understood this, hence the game SHOWS you how they want you to hold the remote. Even then, this is just...nonsense.
-Mass Effect(360)
This was the game I was interested as a gamer. Oh Bioware, you have made up for the sin that was Jade Empire. What a brilliantly crafted world and they build it, your character's story and other NPCs' personalities in so many angles it amazes.
The controls are a bit complex in a sense that every single button does something different. Once I got the buttons down, it wasn't so hard to get into. Having played RE4 and a number of other 3rd person shooters plus Phantasy Star Online, a shooting oriented sci-fi RPG with good cover integration was easy to catch onto.
The dialog so far has all been well worth paying attention to, something I've rarely done in other RPGs.
This game makes me happy!
-Super Mario Galaxy(Wii)
Which way is up? Seriously! This game is a 2D platformer on a Mobius strip! The control is responsive and doesn't feel sensitive to stupid levels like Zack and Wiki did. It helps that Super Mario Galaxy doesn't try to do as much with the Wii Remote either. Furthermore, if you are supposed to do something a little unusual, the game doesn't tell you that by killing you in some out of the blue event Deux Ex Machina-ing your doom.
You've got to roam around and talk to these Luma critters and this Rosalinde gal. Um, this is not Mass Effect. I just need to know where to go next to jump around, collect star bits and spin attack stuff. I know what the story of Mario is: go rescue Princess Peach. Super Mario 3 did a fine job of letting me hop from world to world with a minimum of text to eye-roll over.
I wanted to be better about posting here, but I haven't. For this I apologize.
The Job Hunt Stats:
Applications Sent = 23
Attempts at Using Network to get somewhere = 6
Interviews Held = 1 Phone Interview, 2 in-Person(outside industry position.) 1 recruiter called, didn't identify the recruiting agency she works with or provide me her last name.
Offers Received for a full time position = 0
Playing Games:
Went to a friend's house. This friend buys games like crazy, has a drop dead gorgeous HDTV, surround sound system and oh so comfy couch. Plus a cat that likes to rub up against my feet.
Played
-PAIN for PS3
-Assassin's Creed for 360.
-Folk Lore for PS3(different visit)
-Phoenix Wright 3(one of the few indulgences I allowed myself.)
Games I really want to get:
-Zack and Wiki for Wii.
-Super Mario Galaxy for Wii.
-Mass Effect for 360.
On my personal game dev front:
-Still begging and pleading for an engineer I trust to help with a prototype for the last month.
-Still drawing on paper to just get better at it since I'll most likely be doing all the artwork for it.
-Stopped trying to get the prototype.
-Going back to just generating and writing down ideas again.
-Watching the feces hit the fan over the Gamespot firing debacle.
I'm still looking for a job. It seems like companies are taking forever to respond. The more I want to hear back, the emptier my email in-box is.
Echochrome looks insanely cool.
A really well done N64 game, Sin and Punishment by Treasure is finally hitting the states via Wii Virtual Console. I suppose when I succumb to the Wii camp, this will be mine.
I've been playing Eternal Sonata as well. No, it's not innovative and cause people to interface differently. But holy moly is it one damn well crafted experience aurally, visually and gameplay-ally. Innovation can be cool and all.Being really quirky can be REALLY cool. But for the love of all buttons to be pushed, bust out some polish. Thanks.
It's Rose & Camellia. A Jane Austin license might help this game sell in the West. Or not...
Bah. Licenses are no fun. Playing this game with a Wacom tablet on the other hand, has been fun!
1) You're the girl on the right, attacking the girl on the left ..
2) Select attack, and run the mouse in a half-circle over her to attack.
3) Select dodge, and run the mouse in a half-circle under her to dodge.
4) Whether or not you're attacking/dodging depends on the flower's movement & direction in the top left.
5) The flowers under the characters represent HP, more powerful attacks seem to do more damage.
After viewing Japanese and English language trailers of Trusty Bell/Eternal Sonata, I really hope the American release of this game will let us choose between Japanese and English languages.
At retailers willing to ship outside of Japan, that is. I'm not affiliated with Palet Web or Himeya in any way, but I do hope more people give Chantelise a try and support Easy Game Station. I really enjoy this game and as an indie product, I really wish for it to succeed. It gives me hope for my own endevours.
