All sorts of tidbits have been revealed about D&D ver 4.0 which is scheduled to release this June. Any arguments for or against various changes have been hashed out ad nauseam on geek boards all over, so I won't repeat them here. I have my misgivings about certain decisions being made, but until I actually get my hands on the core books and roll a game or two, I'm withholding judgment.
As expected, WoTC is promoting this update pretty fiercely. While most of it is the usual fluff, I have to admit, this little promo is irresistible. The gnome is just too precious.
Showing posts with label Games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Games. Show all posts
March 16, 2008
March 9, 2008
Wiiiiiiii!
Super Smash Bros. Brawl is ours! I should probably post a review at some point, but for now, it's just too much fun to stop playing.
February 25, 2008
The Gamers
For those of us who have spent countless hours playing D&D, this is simply too funny:
The Gamers Part 1
The Gamers Part 2
The Gamers Part 3
The Gamers Part 4
The Gamers Part 5
The Gamers Part 1
The Gamers Part 2
The Gamers Part 3
The Gamers Part 4
The Gamers Part 5
February 8, 2008
Assassin's Creed
Even without an HDTV, the infamous birds-eye panoramas in Assassin's Creed look amazing. Needless to say, the graphics in this game are fantastic. Beautiful textures and animations, with lots of environmental details and wonderful use of imagery and sound.
In the game, you access memories of an ancestral past life. The past life takes place in 1191, during the Third Crusades, and your memories are of Altair, an Assassin. You play as Altair, who is commanded to kill political figures in an overarching conspiracy theory that runs throughout the game.
As a Crusades buff, I'm delighted with the setting. They stuck with Masyaf as an Assassin stronghold and you can visit three other cities: Jerusalem, Acre, and Damascus. While I don't know how close to the real thing the maps are, they got the ethnicities right; for example, Jerusalem belongs to Muslims and Acre has a number of French and German guards. It would have been better to assassinate Conrad of Montferrat instead of William, since Conrad supposedly died via an Assassin attack (though in Tyre, which isn't one of the cities in the game), but that's just nit-picky. Overall, they did a good job bringing the period to life and filled the plot with actual events like the seige of Acre and disagreements between Richard and the contested rulers of Outremer (however, it was Richard who ordered the execution of the 3,000 prisoners at Acre, not William...). The inclusion of the Templars and Hospitallers were a nice touch and it was interesting to play a non-Christian in an era usually romanticized by Europeans but demonized by everyone else.
This is one of the better stealth games, with a "low" and "high" profile system. If you keep a low profile, your actions are much less noticeable than aggressive high profile actions. But of course, it also limits your speed and range. People around you act realistically: making comments if you do strange or rude things and alerting guards when you kill someone. If you're careless, you spend a good amount of time running and hiding, so it's a constant, enjoyable struggle between quiet, patient killings and outright bursts of violence. There are also mini-quests to help citizens, who later return the favor. Sneaking up behind someone and slipping a knife into their throat without anyone noticing is pretty damn fun too.
The climbing algorithm is really well done. Instead of a set path, the system figures out if your next movement is plausible given the map and your position, and then transitions you into the appropriate animation seamlessly. The character looks absolutely beautiful and smooth when scaling walls, darting across beams, and leaping rooftops, all in motions that are determined ad hoc.
The art direction is great and the story is actually decent. It's preachy at times, trying a little too hard to make the targets "evil" and the code of the Assassins "good" (for example, not killing innocents). But I like how they didn't go for the obvious Holy Grail or Ark of the Covenant angle, and instead invented their own powerful icon.
Innovative as the game is, it's also immensely repetitive. While the climbing mechanism is awesome, the combat could use more work. Sword and hand-to-hand combos are well animated but very limited, and using the same old moves on the same old enemy patterns gets...well...old. The missions could use more variety, perhaps with different goals and citizen reactions in different cities, or more mini-games aside from capturing flags. Once you complete two or three assassinations, you pretty much have played every scenario the game has to offer. All the missions follow the same steps and the beauty of the world can only hold your attention so long.
I think there are sequels planned, so hopefully they carry over the good elements and add more diverse missions and combat mechanics. That was definitely holding back this installment from true gaming greatness.
In the game, you access memories of an ancestral past life. The past life takes place in 1191, during the Third Crusades, and your memories are of Altair, an Assassin. You play as Altair, who is commanded to kill political figures in an overarching conspiracy theory that runs throughout the game.
As a Crusades buff, I'm delighted with the setting. They stuck with Masyaf as an Assassin stronghold and you can visit three other cities: Jerusalem, Acre, and Damascus. While I don't know how close to the real thing the maps are, they got the ethnicities right; for example, Jerusalem belongs to Muslims and Acre has a number of French and German guards. It would have been better to assassinate Conrad of Montferrat instead of William, since Conrad supposedly died via an Assassin attack (though in Tyre, which isn't one of the cities in the game), but that's just nit-picky. Overall, they did a good job bringing the period to life and filled the plot with actual events like the seige of Acre and disagreements between Richard and the contested rulers of Outremer (however, it was Richard who ordered the execution of the 3,000 prisoners at Acre, not William...). The inclusion of the Templars and Hospitallers were a nice touch and it was interesting to play a non-Christian in an era usually romanticized by Europeans but demonized by everyone else.
This is one of the better stealth games, with a "low" and "high" profile system. If you keep a low profile, your actions are much less noticeable than aggressive high profile actions. But of course, it also limits your speed and range. People around you act realistically: making comments if you do strange or rude things and alerting guards when you kill someone. If you're careless, you spend a good amount of time running and hiding, so it's a constant, enjoyable struggle between quiet, patient killings and outright bursts of violence. There are also mini-quests to help citizens, who later return the favor. Sneaking up behind someone and slipping a knife into their throat without anyone noticing is pretty damn fun too.
The climbing algorithm is really well done. Instead of a set path, the system figures out if your next movement is plausible given the map and your position, and then transitions you into the appropriate animation seamlessly. The character looks absolutely beautiful and smooth when scaling walls, darting across beams, and leaping rooftops, all in motions that are determined ad hoc.
The art direction is great and the story is actually decent. It's preachy at times, trying a little too hard to make the targets "evil" and the code of the Assassins "good" (for example, not killing innocents). But I like how they didn't go for the obvious Holy Grail or Ark of the Covenant angle, and instead invented their own powerful icon.
Innovative as the game is, it's also immensely repetitive. While the climbing mechanism is awesome, the combat could use more work. Sword and hand-to-hand combos are well animated but very limited, and using the same old moves on the same old enemy patterns gets...well...old. The missions could use more variety, perhaps with different goals and citizen reactions in different cities, or more mini-games aside from capturing flags. Once you complete two or three assassinations, you pretty much have played every scenario the game has to offer. All the missions follow the same steps and the beauty of the world can only hold your attention so long.
I think there are sequels planned, so hopefully they carry over the good elements and add more diverse missions and combat mechanics. That was definitely holding back this installment from true gaming greatness.
January 16, 2008
the cake is a lie
In terms of gaming concepts, Portal is one of the most innovative implementations I've ever seen. It's relatively short, but beautifully executed. Everything you want in a game is here: interesting puzzles, well developed physics, world immersion, and memorable characterization. Gameplay revolves around a gun that lets you create two portals, orange and blue. Entering any of the portals allows you to emerge outside the other. Simple concept...but here is where the game kicks your ass: the momentum and angle at which you enter a portal carries through to the other side.
In other words, depending on where you shoot these things and how you run/jump into them, your brain explodes.
Like this.
Insane physics aside, the world of Aperture Science Laboratories, where you are a test subject using the gun to solve navigation and escape puzzles, is lovingly rendered in stark white (for rooms where you're supposed to be) and industrial blight (for rooms where you clearly were not meant to go). Foreboding scribbles from past test subjects litter the environment and the graphics are nice but nothing spectacular. The world really comes alive due to a single factor: the calm, unnerving voiceover of GLaDOS, the AI guiding you through the testing facility.
I can't do GLaDOS justice. I can only give you quotes that provide insight into the character. Just imagine these lines delivered by a soft, computerized female voice, similar to an elevator recording or teleprompter:
"If at first you don't succeed, you fail. And the test will be terminated."
"Please note, we have added a consequence for failure. Any contact with the chamber floor will result in an unsatisfactory mark on your official testing record, followed by death. Good luck."
"Please be advised that a noticeable taste of blood is not part of any test protocol, but is an unintended side effect of the Aperture Science Material Emancipation Grid, which may, in semi-rare cases, emancipate dental fillings, crowns, tooth enamel, and teeth."
"You should have turned left before. It's funny, actually, when you think about it."
And finally:
"I'm going to kill you, and all the cake is gone, you don't even care, do you?"
Not only does GLaDOS make this game incredibly entertaining (and a bit terrifying at times), she is the reason why the ending to Portal goes down as one of the best in gaming history.
In other words, depending on where you shoot these things and how you run/jump into them, your brain explodes.
Like this.
Insane physics aside, the world of Aperture Science Laboratories, where you are a test subject using the gun to solve navigation and escape puzzles, is lovingly rendered in stark white (for rooms where you're supposed to be) and industrial blight (for rooms where you clearly were not meant to go). Foreboding scribbles from past test subjects litter the environment and the graphics are nice but nothing spectacular. The world really comes alive due to a single factor: the calm, unnerving voiceover of GLaDOS, the AI guiding you through the testing facility.
I can't do GLaDOS justice. I can only give you quotes that provide insight into the character. Just imagine these lines delivered by a soft, computerized female voice, similar to an elevator recording or teleprompter:
"If at first you don't succeed, you fail. And the test will be terminated."
"Please note, we have added a consequence for failure. Any contact with the chamber floor will result in an unsatisfactory mark on your official testing record, followed by death. Good luck."
"Please be advised that a noticeable taste of blood is not part of any test protocol, but is an unintended side effect of the Aperture Science Material Emancipation Grid, which may, in semi-rare cases, emancipate dental fillings, crowns, tooth enamel, and teeth."
"You should have turned left before. It's funny, actually, when you think about it."
And finally:
"I'm going to kill you, and all the cake is gone, you don't even care, do you?"
Not only does GLaDOS make this game incredibly entertaining (and a bit terrifying at times), she is the reason why the ending to Portal goes down as one of the best in gaming history.
December 29, 2007
Consumer Whores
That would be us and our shiny new XBox 360. Vic's already unlocked a bunch of songs in Rock Band. The drum part is harder than I thought it would be, since there's also a foot pedal component. But the set lists are pretty awesome and I'm curious what you'll be able to download online.
Speaking of online, the official MS wireless adapter is 100 fucking dollars. Unbelievable. A third of the console price. It's an insult. You've laid down big bucks for the system and they ream you with this little hardware that isn't all that revolutionary. I can get a wireless adapter for my PC for less than $40. So we're holding off on XBox Live, until the outrage subsides (or we find some way around having to buy the adapter).
Speaking of online, the official MS wireless adapter is 100 fucking dollars. Unbelievable. A third of the console price. It's an insult. You've laid down big bucks for the system and they ream you with this little hardware that isn't all that revolutionary. I can get a wireless adapter for my PC for less than $40. So we're holding off on XBox Live, until the outrage subsides (or we find some way around having to buy the adapter).
December 18, 2007
Temptation
When it was released, I couldn't justify the price of an XBox 360 since none of the games were appealing to me. But it seems the titles are catching up to the console. There are some real gems out there:
* Bioshock
* Orange Box (mainly for Portal, since I'm not a FPS fan...though Team Fortress looks like a hell of a time)
* Assassin's Creed
* Rock Band
* Mass Effect
I think I might be talking myself into forking money over to Microsoft...
* Bioshock
* Orange Box (mainly for Portal, since I'm not a FPS fan...though Team Fortress looks like a hell of a time)
* Assassin's Creed
* Rock Band
* Mass Effect
I think I might be talking myself into forking money over to Microsoft...
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