Growing 'n' Gaming

My Apologies

2011-01-28T11:14:00.003-05:00

I believed I had posted this already. But I AM putting the Growing N Gaming blog on Hiatus. I am not working full time and was accepted to a Software Engineering Major so my time will be completely drained by both work and school work.

To anyone that has been be waiting for a new post I apologize for not posting this sooner. Have a wonderful time until we meet again.

Starcraft II

2010-09-13T13:08:00.004-04:00

I'm going to be attempting to work full time and then pursue a degree in Software Engineering So I'm contemplating cutting back on my posting. Possibly even putting the blog on hiatus. If you want to weigh in on the subject post a comment please.

Concept: 3/5

There was no real amazing concept behind Starcraft II. Make a blockbuster sequel to a hit Real Time Strategy Game that has captured the attention of nations. I'm a huge fan of the original game and was incredibly excited when they announced the sequel but I have to admit. The concept wasn't exactly lightning striking the brain.

Graphics: 2/5*

Unfortunately I have just recently moved so I only have my laptop working at the moment and it's so weak that the graphics are running on the lowest settings. This makes the game quite ugly I have to admit. It still works and the cinematics are still pretty, but during the game the graphics are only tolerable at best. I'm willing to assume that the problem is because I'm running the graphics at the lowest setting so when I can get my desktop up and running again I'll revise this section of the review.

Sound: 4/5

The sound is sound. Everything works the way it should plus it's good to just hear Raynor, Mengsk, and Kerrigan's voices again. The humor of the units saying silly things if you click on them enough is also a point in favor of the audio. Making the sound of this game not just solid but good as well.

Playability: 5/5

This is probably one of the best playing games of this style of RTS. A lot of modern RTS games have moved towards Morale of the units and cover. There aren't that many twitch quick button RTSes anymore like what Starcraft came to embody. But this is probably the best fine tuned game of this style to ever come out and probably ever will come out in this style since the rest of the genre has moved on to a different style.

Entertainment: 5/5

If you're a fan of the first game you will love to see what has happened to your beloved characters. The story is great and continues the saga of Raynor and crew well. The multiplayer is another great entertaining experience. Especially with the new battle.net system Blizzard has set up that lets the community create new maps and sell them to make the online community grow and expand beyond just the RTS genre.

X-Factor: 4/5

I was never really big on competitive online playing of Starcraft. I would enjoy a good comp stomp every now and then and really enjoyed the custom maps, especially the Diplomacy maps. But I definitely feel like the comp stomp nature of the online game is gone completely. You can go toe to toe in a 2 human versus 2 computer player match or even a 3v3 match as well. But you can't out number the players or outnumber the computers. It will always be "fair." And while I was singing the praises of the custom maps earlier, something feels wrong. When I go to the custom maps screen it feels like there's only half a dozen maps to choose from when in the original there were dozens if not more. I'm sure there are more but it feels like there's less. I'm sure the fact that the game is so new doesn't help the lack of variety of custom maps. But I know if I keep playing the game online it will only get better and better.

Total: 23/30 Very Good

The game is still a great example of RTS and should be bought by anyone who is a fan of the genre. If you're wondering if you would like RTS games, buy this one to understand how great the past of the genre was and get Dawn of War II or Company of Heroes to understand how good the RTS genre has become.

Advance Wars: Days of Ruin for the Nintendo DS

2010-08-08T14:36:00.002-04:00

Now that I'm also posting these game reviews for examiner.com I have to try and keep the word count a little limited. So sorry for the length. If my readers ask for more details I can start doing a more detailed version here and a simpler version for examiner.com if people want.

Concept: 4/5

Take an established franchise with its own characters that the fans of the series have known for years and chuck it all out the window. Then keeping the same play mechanics reinvent the story and artistic style. This is the concept that formed Advance Wars: Days of Ruin and make it stand apart from the rest of the series.

Graphics: 4/5

The graphics are great no doubt about it. The developers chucked the cartoony anime style of the past and replaced it with a more serious anime style. It definitely works too because it would be jarring than seeing the old comedic cartoony characters talking about serious and depressing things, that are central to this game’s plot.

Sound: 4/5

The sound is great in this game. It does what is necessary of sound and then goes above and beyond that to actually make the player focus on playing. The soundtrack is one of those musical masterpieces that energize the player into a rhythm which is conducive to playing the game.

Playability: 3/5

The missions are challenging but not too difficult. It is usually possible to beat a mission on either the first try or the second try once some element of gameplay has been revealed and shows the player one strategy is the key to winning on this battlefield. The fact that it sometimes takes two attempts is a little disheartening but not overall game breaking and the mechanics of the turn based strategy game are so tight that it makes the game worth buying.

Experience: 4/5

The characters and the story of what has happened are enthralling, if you let it be. If you’re willing to dive into the story and care about the characters then you’re in for an emotional experience and you’ll love it. If you’re a type of player that doesn’t care about story and thinks it gets in the way than you’re missing out.

X-Factor: 4/5

Advance Wars: Days of Ruin definitely has the X-Factor to make you want to keep on playing. Whether it’s to play through the campaign and follow the story, try some of the challenge missions in the campaign, or to play with friends and see who the better commander is. The game will suck you in and make you want to keep playing.

Total: 23/30 Very Good

This is a great Turn Based Strategy Game. If you like Strategy games in general give it a try. If you don’t, who knows this game may change your opinion about the genre but don’t hold your breath on that.

Back to the Job Hunt AND "The Simple Truth of the 'Are Video Games Art?' Debate"

2010-07-22T14:00:00.007-04:00

So I'm giving up on the QA Job in Montreal. Trying to figure out visas just proved to be to much of a hassle for me. I was feeling the urge to hit my head on the desk every time I attempted to work on it so I gave up. I'm now back to the job hunt.

I posted this as a sample article for examiner.com and they want to "hire" me because of it so I thought I'd share it with all of you. I usually stay out of the "Are Video Games Art?" debate but I figured I'd weigh in on it for examiner.com to see if they'd like to hire me and hey it worked so here's the sample article for you to enjoy:

Can Video Games be considered art? There is a lot of debate surrounding this subject both for the “Yes it is art” side as well as the “No it is not and never will be” counter argument. There are a lot of experts and celebrities weighing in on the subject, from Roger Ebert the film critic to Samoa Joe the wrestler. It is impossible to say who is right and who is wrong at the moment because the debate is so heated and could sway in either direction at the moment.

However, there is one thing that could definitely help the “Yes it is art” side. And that is, surprisingly enough, History. Many years ago the motion picture was invented. It didn’t do anything of any real artistic value. It was used to record two people sharing a kiss or a man sneezing. By modern standards these movies would hardly warrant being posted on YouTube, unless the two people were considered incredibly attractive or the man sneezed milk out of his nose. But even still they probably wouldn’t get many hits.

Time went on and movies became more complicated and eventually were considered art. Then came Rock n’ Roll. When Rock n’ Roll first debuted it wasn’t considered art. It was considered the Devil’s music and a travesty to music as it was known around the world. Then in the 90’s the same thing happened with Rap music. But they have both, more or less, become respected art forms now.

Video Games are at the same precipice. Hated by the older, more conservative, art aficionados and loved by the younger generations. If History repeats itself than Video Games will be considered art eventually. If for no other reason than the younger generation will outlive the aficionados.

I hope you enjoyed that little sample article. I could have written much more about this topic but the article was supposed to be 200-300 words and I was pushing 300 as it was. Who knows maybe this examiner job will turn out to be so rewarding that I'll become a professional blogger about Video Games. You can do that and earn a decent wage right?

Assassin's Creed for the PS3

2010-07-13T10:30:00.005-04:00

Perhaps I should apologize for all the PS3 games I've been reviewing recently. However, I'm currently in the process of moving and the PS3 is the only system I have hooked up and have games to review with. So on with the review!

Concept: 5/5

This has been one of the more refreshing game concepts I have seen in a while. The game is set in the crusades but my first thought for a crusades based game would be to have it be an RTS or a hack and slash 3rd Person action game. And while Assassin's Creed is a 3rd Person action game it's not a hack and slash game. It's a, more or less, stealth game. I enjoy this concept because I do not think of subtlety or stealth when I think of the Crusades I just think of big massive armies. Then you take the game idea a step further when you add the concept of the main character is actually "reliving" his ancestor's memories that have been stored in his genes.

Graphics: 4/5

The graphics are pretty good. I have two complaints about them and one is more of a personal issue that I'm sure other people had no problem with and in fact I'm not even sure how I feel about it. It's such a strange nit pick that it's sort of in limbo for me when it comes to my opinions. This "complaint" is that the HUD that the player uses is all very technical and futuristic looking. Which does make sense, considering that the main character is using a sci-fi machine to "relive" his ancestor's memories. But when playing through his ancestor's memories I get so immersed in the crusade era that when I see the futuristic HUD it kind of jars me and reminds me of all these other things about the game taking me out of my little circle of the crusades. So yeah that's a pet peeve, maybe others share that maybe they don't I don't know. My other complaint is clipping issues. On a number of occasions when climbing a wall Altair's arm would stick straight through his body to hold onto a handhold. When it first happened I thought his arm had been chopped off in a sword fight and I didn't notice. But I quickly realized what had actually happened and put it down to complain about later.

Sound: 4/5

The sound like most games to me, is the sound. I do not find the sound to be amazing or terrible. It simply is. So I give it a slightly more than average rating to signify that the sound designers did a good job on the immersion of it all without distracting me.

Playability: 4/5

The climbing walls mechanic is great, I absolutely love it. I've played a few other games that have wall climbing and they didn't do it well to the point where it became annoying to climb walls. But in Assassin's Creed I found myself preferring to climb walls and go in a straight line rather than try to navigate the city streets.

Now the gameplay does get a little repetitive. But if you find this to be particularly annoying to you than you can actually avoid most of the repetition. This is because you have to go to a section of the city and do certain deeds before you can assassinate your target. But you only have to do these deeds, which are the same every time basically, 2 or 3 times. If you want to 100% complete the game and do everything there is to do in the game than you have to do it 6 or so times in each area of the city you unlock. So if the repetitive nature of the game is getting to you don't try and 100% it. I actually found doing all of the tasks over and over again a bit relaxing and therapeutic.

Now the combat is a little less likable than some of the other parts of the game. To make the importance of staying secretive when assassinating people and to not just hack and slash through the entire population of the cities the developers actually gave the guards brains so that they know how to use their swords and actually fight. This is true enough to the extent that I quickly stopped attacked and relied on the one move that the guards didn't have. Counter-Attack. All my little battles and skirmishes quickly became, "wait for it... wait for it... wait for it... There! He's attacking me press the counter-attack button! Oh it didn't kill him, just knocked him down... oh well maybe next time... wait for it..." I think you get the picture.

This made the combat a bit simplistic and a little boring. I mean the developers gave me a sword, a dagger, throwing knives, a hidden blade, and the ability to punch people. But when in combat all I ended up doing was pulling out my dagger or sword and waiting for someone attacking me to make the first move so I could use their own attacking against them. Basically waiting for an opening. Now this is probably a great way to fight in the real world. But it's a pretty dull way to play a game.

Entertainment: 4/5

Regardless of any complaints I have made about the playability. This game is quite entertaining. Learning the secret plans of the Templar and finding little clues and things to interact with and decode through out the game was quite entertaining and brought me back to when I was a kid and love to try and decode things and solve puzzles. This is probably the first game in a long while that has gotten me to pull out a pad of paper and decode a secret message or jot down some passcodes, which was not necessary but I did it anyway. It made me feel young and giddy again.

Plus I had some people that would come and watch the game for a bit, intrigued by the secret plans and stories that the game was telling. If you want to know if a game is entertaining, getting people to watch you play even though you're the one playing not them, is a great way to tell.

X-Factor: 4/5

Assassin's Creed definitely has an X-Factor. Even now I want to go back and perhaps not play through the whole game again but take a look at some of the clues, puzzles, or perhaps it's gibberish, and try and figure out if there's a code or hidden message. Try and find some new little bit of knowledge that I can learn. The X-factor is so strong that it makes me just want to walk around in the game not just play it again.

Total: 25/30

Amazing. Assassin's Creed is definitely a game to pick up. You may not love this game but it's definitely one of those games that if you on a PS3 or an Xbox 360 you need to get this game, if for no other reason than to have it in your library. Because it's going to be considered a classic of the current generation of consoles.

I "Have" a Job!

2010-06-22T07:36:00.002-04:00

Last month I posted talking about the difficulties of getting a job. But now from my job hunt I have a job in the industry. It's working for Babel Media in Montreal. It's an outsourcing QA company that other companies said their games to, to be tested.

Since QA has been one of my passions while working at Champlain College I was very happy to get this job. Unfortunately, I need a couple visas to work there. And the process is being a bit of a pain in the butt. So while they have said they want to hire me and are willing in such. I'm waiting for paperwork to grant me access to work in Montreal. Which is being a bit of a hassle. Oh well. I'm sure working in HR, we'll be able to figure it all out.

That's all I've got for now, so enjoy your life until next we speak folks!

Backbreaker for the PS3

2010-06-08T14:13:00.002-04:00

This month I am reviewing the new American Football game out on the market.

Concept: 3/5

Unfortunately I can not rate the concept of this game particularly high. It was a simple concept. The people making the game wanted to make a football videogame. Unfortunately, the Madden Franchise owns exclusive rights to the NFL teams, logos, etc. So faced with the fact that they were going to have to come up with all new teams they decided to run with that aspect and make the game very customizable. They also built the engine from scratch, I believe, and wanted to show off that they have a better engine than Madden.

Graphics: 4/5

Other than two things about the visual asthetic of the game I love the visuals. One thing is the players. They all look the same. The linemen look like the guys in the backfield, the kickers look like linebackers, it's just effed up. Other than changing a guy's socks or his skin color they all look like cookie cutter copies of each other. Then there's also their pads. I understand the need to make them look different but they pads have plastic muscles chiseled into the "armor" that they wear making it feel like the whole field is filled with the left overs from an old batman movie.

Now that I've ranted a bit about the players it's time to complain about the other thing which is the stadiums. From the looks of it, unless there's hidden unlockables, there's only a handful of stadiums. Now don't think I'm complaining about the lack of diversity in stadiums. I'm fine with them all looking the same cause I don't look at the stands that much. I focus more on the field. BUT, I do have a problem with the idea of only having 6-10 stadiums when you blatently label some of them. At one point I was facing off against the Oklahoma Stampede in their hometown and the stadium clearly said "DALLAS" everywhere... If you're going to only be making a couple stadiums please don't brand them to specific locations. Unless I am mistaken and there's a Dallas, Oklahoma I didn't know about.

Sound: 1/5

The sound is probably the worst part of the game. EVERY time there's a kick off in a match, the game plays POD's "Here Comes the Boom," then every replay of the kickoff it starts with the same guitar riff and these are the only two songs you will seemingly hear until the game is over. Also since there's no famous announcer in real life associated with this made up league the developers seemed to just say "We don't need one" Which is wrong because not having an announcer, other than the one in the stadium that tells the crowd what just happened, is boring and lack luster. It makes the game devoid of character and personality. There's also a lack of booing or even silence from the crowd. I was destroying a team in THEIR stadium 45 to 10 and the crowd was still cheering as loudly as when I beat a team by a similar landslide in my stadium.

Playability: 3/5

There's a few golden nuggets in the playability of the game and then there's also a number of things that just make you do a double take. One of the nuggets is when you play the quarterback and you're looking for a receiver. The up close looking over his shoulder technique they did in Backbreaker makes me wish that they had done it this way in Madden rather than the pass cone. Then when you want to pass to a player you can either throw it like a bullet or lob it to them. I will not lie to you, even though I did the training and "succeeded" eventually at trying to lob it... I have no clue how to do it. Juking is delayed or something so that it feels like it waits for you to release the thumbstick after entering the command for it rather than doing it immediately which leads to a lot of failed jukes. I sort of figured out how to do a spin but like the lobbing don't ask me to explain how.

I did appreciate the fact that wind seemed to actually affect kicks and such where as in Madden I knew I could overcome it with a couple twitches in the aiming I really had to plan and adjust in Backbreaker which I appreciated. The passing game is also kind of rediculous. It is so easy for interceptions and fumbles, now that I think about it, in this game that it's off putting. If they didn't name the game for the tackling aspect of the new engine they could have just named it "Interception City" and told you what you were going to be getting into. Now don't think I was intercepted on a lot and am now bitter. While a good deal of my passes were intercepted my defense did it a lot too. When I was making my team, which you have to do for "Road to Backbreaker" mode, I decided to make my team Offense oriented. But for 2 or 3 games I spent the whole first half only scoring on Defense cause someone on my defense intercepted it.

In fact it became a joke between my friends and I that my Offense would collapse under the redzone pressure so much that my game strategy was to have my offense get the ball into the redzone lose it to the other team and then score via an interception on defense. Also the playbook is the same for every team and the game will only show you a couple at a time if you're playing in Arcade mode. So if you do get this game do yourself a favor and play in Pro mode. You won't miss anything and it'll be an experience you can control more.

Ending on a positive note. I did like the fact that in interceptions and such it wouldn't autoswitch me to the ball carrier. Strangely enough I liked the ability to be the guy next to the one with the ball and blocking for him so he made it to the endzone and scored. It was strangely gratifying.

Entertainment: 3/5

You can see in some of the team logos that some teams have been around forever, some are fresh new teams, and some have possibly been having bad press so they reinvented their logo and such. All good and cool but other than some hints from how the logos have been designed you get no real understanding of the backstory of the league. I know in sports games stories are usually frowned upon and I'm not saying to include one, all thought it would have been cool in "Road to Backbreaker" mode to have included one since you're forced to be a new team. I would have loved a story about your team being a young upstart team that rises up through the minor leagues to eventually take on the champions in the Backbreaker Bowl. They could have perhaps included some short little history quips about the league in loading screens or something. I get the sense that there was a story behind the league and it's not shared.

It is fun watching the tackles seeing as no two seem to be the same thanks to the game engine. But the Instant Replay of the game was kind of terrible since it only allows you to see what your camera was looking at while you were playing the game. Which is HORRIBLE considering the fun of HAVING an Instant Replay ability is to zoom in and out and rotate the camera to see all those really cool plays that make you want to use the Instant Replay in cool angles. This is especially bad when something happens off camera so you want to use the Instant Replay to see what happened and you can't!

Also even though you can customize your logo and jersey for your team to an exponential degree, I was unable to find a create a player feature, which was again like the lack of an announcer, it made the game feel characterless and without personality. In this case without my own personality and characters as opposed to the lack of an announcer being a lack of the game's own character and personality.

X-Factor: 0/5

Unfortunately there's no X-Factor to this game. After playing it enough for a review I returned the game to get my money back. I can tell that they started with a cool idea and a good engine but it's not polished and defined in the direction they want to go enough. It's like Saint's Row vs. Saint's Row 2. The first one was just a GTA clone that kinda flopped. It wasn't all that great commercially or necessarily even as its own game. However, when Saint's Row 2 came out the hype was extraordinarily great for a bleh original game. But the hype was worth it as the second game turned out to be an awesome game.

I can easily see this happening for Backbreaker. They have the ground work for the game. It's an all right football game right now. But if they make a sequel I can easily see them focusing their work on what people say is a problem with this game and making an amazing sequeal. I can see this so easily in fact that I actually hope they make a sequel so I can get that better version of the game.

Total: 14/30

Well there you have it folks. That's my review of Backbreaker. It's an ok game. If you absolutely adore all forms of football games you should enjoy this one. But for the average Football Video Gamer... You can pass on this one and just wait for the sequel which should be better. I got this one thinking the areas they focused on would make up for the areas they didn't as I cared more about the areas they did focus on. But the truth is it wasn't enough. They need to strengthen their lack luster sections to make the game worth playing. Let's hope Backbreaker 2 comes out and it's good.

The Job Hunt

2010-05-24T10:30:00.003-04:00

Well, it's begun. I've graduated from college and now the job hunt begins. I find myself oddly prepared and seemingly under-prepared for my future career.

I and some of my friends find ourselves in a predicament. Some companies feel we're over qualified for QA work and other places feel we're under-qualified for Design work. Leaving us in a little middle limbo. I mean granted not all of us have had this problem. I know a couple people have gotten jobs at Disney and Vicarious Visions as designers and testers. I know that some of my fellow graduates have gotten jobs elsewhere as well, I'm just unsure of where entirely.

I myself am pursuing both QA and Design positions. Over my four years at Champlain College I discovered that my two greatest enjoyments in the field of Game Development have been Level Design and QA testing. Which I believe, I could be wrong about the level design but I know I'm not about QA testing, are both entry level jobs so I could easily and quite happily make a career of these jobs.

The trick is getting someone to hire me. I'm not only applying to places in the industry but also around town to try and help me get an apartment so I can sustain myself while I hunt for a job. But even though people are hiring all over town and in the area... I find myself unable to acquire a job on the local or career levels. I think I'm driving all my friends crazy talking about how hard it is to find a job.

If I can't find a career and can find a local job I think I'm going to try and go indie. It's not the worst thing that can happen. I have some, what I think are, pretty good ideas for some games and if I can get some artists and a couple other designers/programmers together we could make some pretty sweet games. I just need to get a career, a job, or start up my own little company. It's completely simple...

Well the job hunt continues. If anyone who reads this knows of a position that needs filling at their game company or at a game company they have friends at let me know. I'll gladly apply there.

Heavy Rain for the PS3

2010-05-13T20:06:00.002-04:00

Sorry for the tardiness everyone. Graduating has a tendency to distract a person I suppose.

Concept: 5/5

The concept of Heavy Rain is a genius one. I do not wish to toot the game's horn too much but they really tried to push the idea of an Interactive Drama. You play through the game as four characters and if at any time one of these characters die than you don't lose the game you just lose their part of the story. That coupled with the fact that they were talking of pushing the uncanny valley? It was a game just waiting to be played.

Graphics: 4/5

The graphics of the game are quite good. The lighting was a bit touchy during the opening scene which was in broad morning light. But the lighting in the rest of the game, aka the lighting when there was a lot of cloud cover, was awesome. I admit I am not much of an artist but other than the lighting issue at the beginning and the fact that video games in general, not just this one, haven't figured out how to make human skin not look like plastic. Which this game still suffers the curse of. So unfortunately while the game does look amazing I can't give it perfection on account of the two faults I find in it.

Sound: 3/5

The sound... Now that I think about it for I played the game a few weeks ago... I can't really remember. Other than the whole annoyance of running through a mall and calling out "Jason!" constantly and being annoyed by that. But you know what? I can't fault the game for that. Because it was ME who was choosing push the button to have the character call out the word again and again. So getting mad about that would really be like getting mad at myself. So overall I have to give the sound an average score because nothing about it really screamed at me.

Playability: 3/5

The game plays rather well in all aspects except for one. Movement. I enjoyed the interacting with people, interacting with the environment, interacting with your own thoughts. The problem I had was movement. You see you could move your head with the left thumb stick, and to move around you had to hold a button and move the left thumb stick. Which normally isn't a horrible system but there was something about this game that when trying to walk around in the world you were fighting against the game to go where you wanted as opposed to working with the game. I even had the opportunity to watch other people playing the game and hearing them curse and yell at it simply for being unable to walk where they wanted not for anything particularly difficult in the game. Because WALKING was so hard to do in this game I can't give it a great playability score. The walking really hurt this game THAT much.

Entertainment: 5/5

The game was incredibly entertaining I must say. I was hooked and didn't want to stop playing it. I just kept playing it every time I sat down at my TV. My friends, those that didn't want the game spoiled for them, sat down and watched with bated breath. We were captivated by the story of this game. As the story progressed we were picking out our favorite characters, discussing who we thought the origami killer was, talking about how much we hated certain characters. If the definition of a good story requires you to talk about it and discuss it. Than this story definitely has it.

X-Factor: 4/5

Like I said I was hooked and didn't want to stop playing. This game has an incredible X-Factor for your first play through. You want to know what happens and fight for it and struggle for it and see these characters come through to the end. Unfortunately the game has no real replay value I found. After I beat it once I was done as was everyone else I know who played it. We had sated our curiosity and our drive after the first playing.

Overall: 24/30 Very Good

This game is an exceptional piece of work. Unfortunately there are a few glaring issues that keep me from screaming from the rafters that it is the game the industry has been waiting for to vindicate us to the rest of the world. It is a wonderful technical achievement and a wonderful game for those willing to give it a try. But it is still a fair distance away from the perfection that we all crave.

My Last In College Post...

2010-04-25T10:38:00.003-04:00

... I don't think I want to admit that this is it for College. I've enjoyed my time here and learned so much that I don't want to leave... but this is the way of things. In a few weeks time I will have graduated and begun the incredible journey known as adult life... Are we sure there's no dwarves, elves, or dragons to send me on an epic quest?

Requiem has gone smoothly. I'm in the process of submitting it to Valve to see if they would like to put it up on steam. I'm just waiting for the right build to be hosted on one of our sites so I can send Valve an email and say that the game can be downloaded from there. I would host it myself but....

I'm busy finishing the last two projects I have for college... oh god really? I didn't realize what I was typing until I finished that sentence... Oh well they're good projects. One is a demo reel for my site/the Senior show we're having. There's going to be people, rumor has it, from 38 Studios, Vicarious Visions, Bugtracker, and a few others that escape me at the moment, up here to see us at that time. Which will be awesome! Potential employers are more than welcome to talk to me!

My other project is my level for Advanced Seminar. It's come out ok. I'll need to make it pretty a little more before I can put it up to share but the base mechanics are all there so that should be sweet. I just need to tweak and polish the mechanic a little more is all.

So yeah... My three projects are done/wrapping up, as is my collegiate career. I specifically say collegiate because if I stopped learning I would stop growing and as the name of this blog suggests I am all about growing as an individual.

Also, fate is kinda funny. I started my college production cycle working on a project with Taylor Bjorndahl and Auston Montville, along with a few others, and now I'm working on my last group project in college with Taylor Bjorndahl and Auston Montville, along with a few others. I find that amusing.

Well enjoy your time till my next post!

Pokémon SoulSilver

2010-04-13T15:13:00.004-04:00

This month I take a look at one of the latest games in the Pokémon franchise. I believe the only differences between SoulSilver and HeartGold to be what pokémon are available to you and nothing drastically different in terms of gameplay so I guess this review can work for both.

Concept: 1/5

Continue the remaking of old Pokémon games with updating Gold and Silver to HeartGold and SoulSilver. Overall, knowing how much money Pokémon games make there really wasn't a lot of new thinking put into these games. They just took a couple ideas from other games and put it into this remake. Most noticeably being having a pokémon follow you around from Pokémon Yellow. Nothing else really felt new.

Graphics: 2/5

The graphics are good for the Nintendo DS. Not amazing but it's still nice too look at. I especially liked the pictures they showed when you enter a new area, like the Ilex Forest, or the Ice Path. I feel like they set the world a little better and I'm more immersed. But that's about it. Otherwise it's just the DS pokémon engine... nothing really awesome.

Sound: 4/5

The sound is average. Does what it needs to do, the sound effects and songs are the same ones we've known since the beginning. So that's average, they are updated however from the original midi files to newer better sounding audio. But after you beat the game you can unlock the ability to play the original sound clips which is amusing and gives a good sense of nostalgia that I enjoyed.

Playability: 2/5

The playability is to be expected. It's another pokémon game. You have to wander from town to town beating gym leaders gaining Hidden Moves and the ability to use them outside of battle to unlock new areas of the map. You can still only carry 6 pokémon and they can only know 4 moves. Really a case of same old same old. This formula has not changed since the original. Which is the thing that really ticks me off. They've released more than a dozen games by now, and the formula is still exactly the same? Can we not get any innovation on this section of the game? Are the developers so unwilling to try something new? Or have they been trying things behind closed doors and discovering it doesn't work? I don't know but I can tell you this style of gameplay is getting really old really fast.

They did add a new gameplay element with the pokéwalker. But is a tamagotchi minigame with the element of you need to walk to gain things really new? I feel like they just took some other people's ideas and tried to fit them into the pokémon universe. Again where's the innovation? Where's the newness to the game? Why do I continue to feel like I'm playing the same thing over and over again and again?

Entertainment: 3/5

The game is entertaining. It's a pokémon adventure. It makes you feel like you're a kid again and that you can actually do some of these epic events and journey with friends on a wonderful adventure without fear of death like a normal rpg/quest with monsters/goblins/demons/etc. There is still a bit of fun to have in this game because of it.

X-Factor: 1/5

There's no new X-Factor to this game. It's a pokémon game and it'll be enjoyable on that basis. There's nothing that grabs you. Nothing that makes you think, "Oooh, this is surprisingly fun." There is no soul to this game. Just another game off the pokémon game factory line. Which makes good pokémon games. But it is again just another of the same.

Overall: 13/30 It's Ok...

This game is actually a bit of a weird overall rating. Because when I announced I was going to review games and explained my rating system I said that the rating this game received would make it best received by fans of the series. But as a fan of the series I felt like this was sort of just the same old same old. It's got differences from the others but I felt like I had played this before, just like the latest Zelda games. I felt like it was just another one in the series... nothing to write home about.

We Made Alpha Now on to Beta

2010-03-23T16:56:00.002-04:00

Well congratulations should be expressed to everyone involved in my Senior Team Project. We made our Alpha milestone and the game is a lot of fun. Now we need to buckle down and really see if we can tighten up the (graphics on level 3. Just kidding couldn't resist joking about that silly comercial) game. We still need to balance the game out a bit and make sure that we include the necessity for the player to strategize. But I have a good feeling about it, I definitely think it will all work out.

I offered my Lead Designer and Producer to get in touch with the Vice President of Steam and see if they would be interested in putting our game on their service and they said yes but they wanted to talk to the rest of the team/not in it's current state. So I'll let that sort itself out some more.

I'm still working on my portfolio site. Tomorrow I'm required to have my second piece included for my Portfolio class. I hired a Graphic Designer to help me and he made a wicked sweet logo. He also gave me a business card layout and a gave me a suggestion for what I should try to make my website look like. So right now I'm going to try and get all of my content up there that I want up there, finish my resumé because I need to have it all on one page but looking good, and make my business cards. Then I will try to make a version of my website that looks like what he suggested from scratch. Because I like his layout better I just don't have the time for it at the moment so I need to prioritize getting a website up that looks at least presentable before trying to get it all up perfectly.

As for my Advanced Seminar class. It's going. I'm definitely going to have something done by the end of the semester that I can put in my portfolio but right now Unreal is being a little sassy so I have to make a lamp post from scratch on my own and import it into Unreal. Then I need to make sure that the light mechanic of my level works perfectly with it and then it's just a matter of making it look pretty. So that shouldn't really be a problem.

My C++ class is moving along just fine too. We've started discussing and using classes and pointers. I think after I graduate I might take some online courses to keep learning C++. The reason I'm thinking about this is because I'm in the IGDA QA SIG mailing list, that's actually a bit of a mouth full, but a common thing said in the mailing list is that if you're in QA, or Design I'm inferring, you should know code. So that you can understand and talk to the programmers a bit better as well as point out problems because of how something was coded.

How Champlain College teaches us designers requires us to learn some 3D art skills as well as programming. But I'm startting to think of taking it to the next level. Who knows maybe I'll find myself not getting a job in the industry when I graduate and will have to do the part time job thing while I continue to learn programming and maybe even getting a certificate in it.

Mass Effect 2 for the Xbox 360

2010-03-11T16:42:00.002-05:00

I have been looking forward to this game almost as much as I was looking forward to the original. When they announced the original game I knew I would be owning a 360 at some point in the future. So when I had a chance to play the original I knew that my original assumption was right and I have to say the sequel doesn't disappoint either.

Concept: 5/5

Continue the story of Commander Shepard and his crew in an attempt to defeat the reapers. A species of Giant Alien Robots that want to erase all organic life from the galaxy. Pretty simple and everyone that loved the first game will love the second. Plus the second might draw some people in that the first missed.

Graphics: 4/5

The graphics are definitely improved over the original. I love everything about the graphics except for a couple things. The faces. I don't know maybe it's just me but I felt like everyone's faces were kind of static throughout the whole game. To explain, if their character's default face is smiling than I felt that whenever they showed any emotion it wasn't a case of taking a passive version of the face and making it angry, sad, etc. It was taking that smiling face and then trying to make it angry, sad, etc. It just felt off. But who knows maybe this is just a quirk I have and no one else has or had a problem with it.

I also noticed the texture popping come back. For those who don't know what this is: When you're far away from a character or person, in real life or in a game, you can't make out all the little individual patches on a person's suit. So the engine is set up in a way to pretty much say "why bother" with all that detail if no one can see it. So when at long distances it loads a fuzzier version of the suit so there aren't all those patches and it doesn't take up processing power to render something you can't see. But the "popping" issue is when you're standing next to a character and the character has a low quality texture on because the game hasn't caught on that you're standing next to them yet, then it does and you notice the texture visually "pop" into a higher quality.

But by far the greatest visual complaint I have of the new game is that it will fail to position people properly during conversations. The first time I spoke to the character Jacob I was somehow standing next to him not across from him so whenever the game would go to show me a reaction shot of my character there was no one there. It was really weird. Then another time I was talking to another person and someone from my team was standing INSIDE the character I was talking to. This issue was very experience breaking.

Sound: 4/5

Overall the sound of the game in terms of music and sound effects is average. There is no real particular effect or song that I found really amazing. However, this game does have amazing background conversations and advertisements. Walking around an interstellar market place and hearing an advertisement for the latest show of Hamlet staring all aliens, this particular species can't share emotion like we do so they say how they feel, was hilarious. Or hearing about the latest future video game and what the fans are grumbling about. All the weapons sound like weapons and the atmosphere of the galaxy is amazing.

Playability: 4/5

The game plays amazingly well, it plays even better than the first game. The inclusion of heavy weapons really makes the game a whole lot better. Especially since the heavy weapons replace grenades. Because in the first game you seemed to be the only person in the galaxy that could use grenades. Honestly I never once came across another person that used grenades. But in this game every now and then someone else will have a heavy weapon so it doesn't feel like you've randomly developed this skill that no one else has.

Personally I did not like the fact that this game gives you a lot less information than the first game did. You have to kind of guess what everyone's class is based on how they talk to you and what they reveal about themselves. Which is ok I was able to piece together who I wanted in my squad this way but I think it would be nice if they just told you their classes. Also all of the weapons seem to be the same? There's no statistics so I can't tell if one shotgun does more damage than another or if they just reload differently.

Also the whole finding resources on planets, scanning thing? Horrible. It wasn't fun the first time I did it, I don't know if it will ever be fun. But doing it vs. not doing it has gameplay repercussions so I have to tell you to do it.

Entertainment: 4/5

The entertainment is great. I played this game with a friend watching that had never played the first one and she was getting as excited as I was whenever things went down. People that hadn't met Shepard before would be trying to act tough in front of him and my friend would yell "Don't you KNOW?! That's SHEPARD!" it definitely helped the amusement of the game.

No spoilers, but during the last couple hours of the game, this one particular location, I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. I was so nervous, excited, and energized all at the same time. It was capable of making me that emotionally charged.

X-Factor: 5/5

The X-factor to this game is pretty great. After I played the first game, as a good guy, I wanted to play through again as a badass. But I didn't feel like a badass I felt like an asshole. So I stopped playing. I have tried to play through the renegade side of the first game at least 5 times and I hardly make it past the first mission each time.

This time when playing I was still a bit of a goody two shoes, but I felt my character had evolved a little bit so I allowed him to do some renegade options every now and then and they were so amazing that I plan on playing through the renegade side. Once I catch a break from playing all the other games I need to review for you all.

Overall: 26/30

Insert Witty Title Here

2010-02-19T18:55:00.006-05:00

Sorry about the post name, I just have no idea what to call this update for all of you out there in blog-o-land. So instead of lamenting about it I will just let the unwitty title go and continue with letting everyone know what I'm up to.

I've joined a group in my Senior Team Project Class. I am on Project Requiem. It's a vertical shooter game that is choreographed to Mozart's Requiem and I am the level designer so basically it's up to me to choreograph the game or at least a good chunk of it. The other designers (Producer and Lead Designer) both want to keep working on the levels too. It's actually kind of hard to choreograph enemies to be in beat with the music but on the screen long enough to be shot at by the player I'm really enjoying the challenge of it. This is definitely going to be a portfolio piece for me.

Speaking of my portfolio. It's coming along I was happy with some of the progress I had made but after I went to class on Wednesday and so how professional everyone else's sites were I kinda freaked out so now I have a strong desire to work on mine even more and really get it to look awesome. Which is a good thing, it's part of the whole co-opetion model that everyone loves here at Champlain College. So hopefully in the next couple weeks I will be able to get my site to a workable level and share it with you all.

By the way, I am currently sharing this post with you all from the green room of the Champlain College Theater. I am in the Short Works. Which is a collection of One Act plays and short films. So all you theater geeks out there rejoice that the craft isn't dead I guess. And if you're in the Greater Burlington, Vermont area come check it out! It's FREE!

I'm currently taking a C++ class and we just started talking about classes this past couple weeks and all of my programmer friends are so proud of me now that I've programmed some simple classes. They love to talk about how I programmed the internet, in a flash game, so I think they have a bit of a "younger brother" attitude towards me.

Also in my Advanced Seminar class for this semester I'm working on a level in Unreal Tournament 3. It's specifically a maze that the player has to use a mechanic of turning off lights to discover what are dead ends and what is the right way to go. I was kind of inspired by Scott Roger's talk at MIGS when he was talking about using lights to direct the player in certain directions. I spoke to him at MIGS and wanted to stay in touch with him via email but I couldn't think of anything to say so I still have that email sitting in my client as a draft just waiting to be sent. But something tells me it's a little too late. But I'll leave it there as a reminder to never let these opportunities slip me by again.

Speaking of Scott Rogers he just recently released a book about game design and I really want to get it. Because his panel "Everything I learned about Level Design I learned from Disneyland" was so good and the whole time I was thinking "Oh yeah! That makes perfect sense" and "I knew that!" it was just a great panel to attend. So I'm hoping his book is just as insightful and supportive of what I already know. He has a blog on blogger too. It's over at http://mrbossdesign.blogspot.com. You should check it out.

Killing Floor for the PC

2010-02-08T19:51:00.004-05:00

Killing Floor for the PC

What can I say about Killing Floor? Let's find out shall we?

Concept: 2/5

They didn't require a whole lot of thought to make this game concept. Hey let's take that hit Left 4 Dead game make a mod where people can do that but with a maximum of 16 players and sell that! That's the concept. They took a preexisting game and added the number of players. Well that's not entirely true but that's a gameplay thing so we'll discuss this in Playability.

Graphics: 2/5

The graphics are pretty poor in my opinion. I'm pretty lenient on graphics too. I think Half Life 2 is beautiful and we don't need to increase our graphics from that level of quality for another 5 years while we wait for our programming and design to catch up. But I feel like the graphics in this game could have been slightly better. All the enemies you fight could have been replaced with a card board cut out with no animations and it would have been fine. Maybe even better if they stylized the game properly.

Sound: 3/5

The sound is average. It does the job with only a couple exceptions of both good and bad variety. First the bad, since there's only one, the siren. She's an enemy in a straight jacket so to solve this problem of not being able to claw the player to death she screeches exceptionally loudly and makes their ear drums burst. I'm not even kidding that's what the game says happens when you die because of a siren. And I will not lie to you. I feel like my ear drums, not my character's but mine, are going to burst every time I hear her scream. On the positive end, I really enjoy the voice acting when the players try to heal each other. I find their comments to each other quite amusing.

Playability: 3/5

In Left 4 Dead the players have to go from point A to point B and survive the hordes of enemies thrown at them. In Killing Floor, the players just have to survive until all the zombies are dead then make it to the trader, buy some more weapons and then do it over again until the 8th out of 7 levels, on normal difficulty. On different difficulties there are a different number of levels but on the last level plus one the players have to defeat a boss character... Inspired. The only thing inspired about this game is the "perks" which are actually classes. You can specialize in certain types of weapons and by killing more things with those weapons they become more powerful, they become more accurate, they get cheaper to buy, etc. You also don't have to BE that class to level up in it which is excellent. So yeah, that's the best thing about the playability really.

Entertainment: 2/5

I have a couple problems with the game. For one, to play it unless you get it via a steam sale you have to pay $20 which is the same as a good game that's been out for a while. Then they ram some commercials down your throat in the lobby while you're waiting for your friends to join so you can start playing. It also has some dlc so you can get more characters you can play as. But the thing is... it's a pure cosmetic thing to change your character and it's a First Person Shooter game so you NEVER see your own character... unless you die or beat the game, for like 5 seconds. So that's just some annoyances. Overall the game is mildly entertaining while you're yelling at your friends to look out behind them but you can do that in Left 4 Dead which does this whole genre better.

X-Factor: 1/5

There really is no X-Factor here. It's fun to play every now and then with your friends, as I've said many times. But it is really a once in a blue moon thing. It's pretty pointless otherwise.

Overall: 14/30 It's Ok...

If you find it on sale on steam for $5 get it. Maybe even for $10. But for anything more? I can't suggest you get this game. And to answer my earlier question... Apparently I can't say much about Killing Floor, it's just that unremarkably good or bad.

A New Year Begins

2010-01-20T18:07:00.002-05:00

So a new year has begun and I am back into Senior Team Project.

Unfortunately my project got cut. But as a door closes another one opens... I just don't know which one that is just yet, as I haven't been assigned to another project. If I am assigned to another project I should know by this weekend. If I'm not than I'll be in the QA pool. Which won't be horrible but I'll feel a bit bad because I've spent three and a half years learning something only to not really use it for my senior year. That doesn't sound all that right does it? I'll just have to find a way to make do.

On another note, I'm in Senior Portfolio now and we're talking about what to put into our portfolio, how to host it, how to make the site itself, etc. And I learned that for what I'm doing with the site I've already acquired I could do for free with wordpress.com I would just need to pay like $5 to link it to my domain name. So when my contract with godaddy expires I think that's what I'm going to do.

So here's hoping that I get to work on design on a game this semester and that I can figure out a good hosting experience for after my contract expires.

Mirror's Edge

2010-01-07T13:09:00.005-05:00

This time I'll be talking about Mirror's Edge. I have played a bit of this on the console as well as the PC so I will be able to share with you my feelings of the game on an overall scale.

Concept: 4/5

Parkour! That is the concept behind this game. It's a nice and simple concept. Let's take parkour which has been exploding in popularity on the internet and make a game about it. Better yet! Instead of making it a third person camera viewed game so that we can see the person doing all the parkour stuff let's put the camera in the person's head, aka First Person view, so that the player feels like they're the ones doing all these amazing awesome things.

I expect that's how the concept was made. If it wasn't that energy driven then I don't know how they made such an energetic game.

Graphics: 4/5

The graphics are great. I'm a huge fan of the graphics in this game. Basically what they did was made everything very minimalistic and simplistic. In fact everything is pretty much white washed and kind of blends into each other a little bit. UNTIL you add "runner vision." This is a special game mechanic that lets players see what things on the screen are possible for use in jumps, wall runs, climbing, sliding, etc. And when the "runner vision" notifies you of these special environmental objects they turn into a bright primary color, usually red or orange all though not always. This allows you to see a bit of where you're supposed to go and if you get used to the different types of moves you can pull off you can even figure out where that environmental parkour piece is going to send you and look for the next one.

Sound: 2/5

The sound is sound in this game. It does its job. I really have nothing memorable good or bad about the sound in this game except for one thing.

And unfortunately it's a bad thing but I'm also pretty sure that's because I died so much. When you fall from a great height you hear the air rushing passed your head. Which is cool. Except that it's incredibly loud and when you keep dying attempting the same jump over and over again you keep hearing the wind blasting passed your head at an incredibly high volume over and over again. If this sound effect wasn't so loud and obnoxious I probably would have gotten a lot farther in the game a lot faster but it just wore on my nerves when I was stuck on certain parts so I said "Enough!" and turned the game off for a while.

So a sound effect that can get so annoying it makes you want to stop playing the game? BAD!

Playability: 2/5

The game has some great playability to it. Not only can you beat the game but after you beat a level you can go back into the game and play through it again to try and beat a timed score. Basically racing through the game.

There are a couple problems though. For one, there were times when the cops started chasing me and I just died over and over again. Not because the cops were all that hard to avoid but because I couldn't figure out where I was supposed to go and I couldn't take the time to look for the exit with the cops shooting at me. This forced me to fight them... which wouldn't be that bad except the controls are made for running not fighting.

In fact in the 360 version of the game there's an achievement for never shooting a cop in the whole game. So if you can get away with only disarming and avoiding the cops you're rewarded. But the thing is, it was hard to tell where I was supposed to go at times and I found it really hard to disarm in the game. You can disarm when a cop moves to pistol whip you with whatever firearm he has. His firearm will flash red for a moment right when it's time to press the disarm button. But the thing is that I could never time it properly for some reason. Maybe my reflexes aren't sharp enough? Or perhaps it's that I was able to get away with just about everything I had to do in the game by spamming the "jump" button so when I tried to disarm if you spam the button it breaks it and I didn't know and couldn't stop myself.

Another problem I had with the playability of the game is that you have to line up perfectly. If you're jumping from one roof to a pipe on the side of a building next to you, you have to hit the pipe so that it's in the dead center of your screen. If it's just to the left or just to the right, in the real world I'm pretty sure people could grab onto them anyway. So on the 360 I played this game and died over and over again on one section of the game near the very beginning. It may have even been the first level and I just couldn't do it so I gave up on the game. Then when Steam was having a sale I bought the game for the PC for I think $2.50 or $5 something like that. With the keyboard and mouse I had a lot more control and only died twice before making that jump. But it was still a pain.

There is also the added benefit and detriment of checkpoints in the game. I say benefit because you will die often so the game having checkpoints throughout the level is very helpful and keeps you from losing too much progress in the game when you die. I say detriment because the game doesn't just quick save from where you are when you hit the check point. The game loads you back into the game from where it knows the check point to be. So if you were on a wall when you hit the check point you might be loaded back in after you die in the middle of a hallway. It's weird and disorienting when you don't realize you've been in that place before.

Entertainment: 3/5

The game has some good entertainment points. For one the main character is a nice strong woman and the person feeding her intel through a radio is a guy. It's a nice reversal of roles that have come to be expected from video games. I really applaud Mirror's Edge on this.

The story is a bit poor however. The game starts off talking about some riots and protesting and then how the city is completely controlled by the dictatorial mayor's office now... but I have no proof of this actually being the case except for what the main character told me. Seriously, the player never gets a chance to see how the average people are suffering under this dictatorial dystopia.

It's kind of like in the movie "Star Wars: Episode 1: The Phantom Menace" when you never see the Naboobian people dying or suffering from this trade blockade. When the main characters land on the planet everything seems nice and idyllic, nice lush forests, beautiful cities... No over population... Seriously except for the end sequence during the parade, all the people you see in the Naboobian cities are volunteer guards for the Queen and diplomats! As far as I could tell when the blockade began everyone on Naboo decided to go on vacation and left the planet.

It's the same thing in Mirror's Edge. I saw some civilians walking around street level... once. Otherwise the only people I've seen in this city are runners like me and cops/private military cops people... Where are the suffering masses? Where are the people that need the services the runners provide outside of the system because the government is going to look through their stuff that their shipping? I have no feel for the dystopia. Especially seeing as everything is so nice and brightly light and clean. Except for the occasional rat I see running away.

X-Factor: 4/5

With all my complains about the gameplay and story and sound... There's something that captures you in this game. It's a challenge, like the older games on the NES and such. You may be hitting your head against the wall but you want to. You want to hit your head against the wall until you break it down with your skull. The game makes you want to do this. And for that it has a great X-Factor.

Overall: 19/30 Average

This is an average game through and through. It has some great originality to it and an interesting art style. But the gameplay is lack luster and the story is a bit cliché and contrived. If you can pick this game up cheap do it. But if someone wants you to pay $20 or more I'd say don't bother.

Left 4 Dead 2 for the PC

2009-12-23T14:12:00.002-05:00

I'll add pretty pictures later.

Concept: 2/5

So Left 4 Dead 2 has a really simple concept really. It's the Zombie apocalypse and four people have banded together to try and survive it. Nice and simple. Sound familiar? That's cause this is the concept for Left 4 Dead 1. So Valve decided to try and take the best selling game of last November and do it again. I know a lot of people complained about how L4D2 didn't do anything new... but I find most of the people that complained about that and thought that everything in L4D2 could be released as Downloadable content or patches for L4D1 haven't actually played it. Not to say that there are things that couldn't have been included in L4D1 it's just that if they had it would have stolen some of the thunder from L4D2 where there were things that couldn't have been done in the first game.

Graphics: 3/5

The graphics aren't bad. They decided to go in a different direction than the first game. This time around the zombies are a bit more stylized especially the special zombies. But it's not a bad move. Overall I can't really say that the graphics are any better or worse than the first one they're just different. And when not comparing the game to the first just in general, the graphics are OK. There's nothing to say good or bad... not really.

Sound: 2/5

Nothing special to report here. I mean the sound is the sound. It does what it's expected to do. I really dislike Rochelle's scream when she gets knocked down and needs to be helped up though. She screams at the top of her lungs in a high pitched wail and while I'm sure it lets all the other player's know she was knocked down it made me want to hold my head in pain. Otherwise the sound went unnoticed. Ignoring some beautiful voice acting work from the guy that plays Nick and the other two were so southern I was turned off from playing them because I couldn't relate.

Entertainment: 4/5

If you've played the first L4D and enjoyed it you'll enjoy this one too. It definitely got me excited to be a Zombie killer again. There's nothing quite like rolling into an area with a bunch of your friends and slaying untold numbers of undead. Especially when the undead are really cool/don't sparkle in sunlight. Actually thanks to their normal mapping they might sparkle... Oh well I'm shooting them anyway. Plus some of the new finales and horde alert moments in this game a lot more intense than the first one because you have to keep moving and can't just hold up in one corner and slay they while you wait for a timer to tick down.

Playability: 4/5

A lot can be said for the playability of this game. But I'll try to be brief. Each level has a different feel or theme or specific challenge to it. My favorite has you start in one spot go to a certain location and then make your way back through the areas you passed through before. This means you have to ration some of the supplies you take as you're making your way to the target because when you come back through you may not have needed supplies if you took them all the first time. Plus there are witches EVERYWHERE in that level. Witches are a type of zombie that are passive until you get too close or shine a flashlight on them, then they get angry and will attack you and at the very least knock you down if you're not careful. Playing through this area with my friends I had so much fun especially since during the second half a huge rain storm blows in and reduces your visibility. It was probably the most epic time I had playing the game. But while I preferred this mission they're all pretty epic and I'm sure some people liked the other ones more.

X-factor: 2/5

The game is missing a bit of it's X-factor though. I mean once you've played the first one you've played the second one really. There were definitely things that this game added to the franchise. The fact that there is a bit of cohesion to the individual campaigns is nice. The fact that there are now uncommon common zombies are great. More special infected like the Jockey, Spitter, and Charger are AWESOME it makes the versus mode actually feel a lot more flushed out. But other than those things the major differences are underneath the hood of the engine. The section of the programing that decides how difficult or easy certain sections of a map are was overhauled and it definitely helped. The melee's cool too but it only adds so much.

Overall 17/30 Average

In the end the things that they could have added to the original through patches and such. I feel they should have and taken another year or two to release this game. There were definite improvements but they were so small compared to what they were trying to release it really felt like they were just trying to add a 2 to the end of their title since most of their franchises' greatest hits are the sequels not the originals, i.e. Half-Life 2 and Team Fortress 2. I really wish it was better and it's still a solid game if you liked the original pick this one up. If you think you might like playing either of the L4Ds I say pick this one up too. The first one was nice but compared to the second one it's night and day from how intense and epic this one will make you feel.

Nearing the End of the Semester

2009-11-20T16:19:00.002-05:00

Well it's almost thanksgiving and that means it's almost the end of another semester here at Champlain College.

A couple things have transpired since my last update about what I'm doing. One, Chris Crawford came to the school to do a lecture and workshop with us. Which ended up being two lectures. But it was still interesting. For those who don't know, Chris Crawford worked at Atari back in the day and then he worked on making games for the mac. Which surprised me cause you know... macs don't really do games. But anyway, time went on and he worked on some other projects and NOW he is working on storytron.com. It's a website where you can play a story that is completely character driven. This is relatively unheard of in the Video game world as it is really hard to do programatically. He's basically retired from the world of video games and is now focusing on Interactive Storytelling. Which is very similar but while he was talking you could tell that he had certain feelings about how you interact with people in games that not everyone agrees about. But he was still very interesting to talk to and to hear his thoughts about interactivity.

The second major thing that happened was MIGS, or the Montreal International Game Summit. I don't have the money to pay for this on my own so I had to get a scholarship to go there. Which was great. I met a few industry folks and got their business cards. Which reminds me I'm working on making my own. I have an old one that is pretty terrible so I didn't bother bringing any with me. But I have an idea for a new one that I was inspired slightly by the card I got from Jason Holtman, who works at Valve. When I finish it I'll post up some images or mock ups so you can see what it looks like. But the good news is that Holtman said that my senior team project sounds like something that valve would be willing to put on Steam. So now the only thing standing between my group and greatness is my group AND don't think I'm not lumping myself in there too. It's a group effort we'll succeed or fail together.

But I met a lot of interesting people at MIGS and learned a bit too. Now I just have to continue the networking process which means emailing all of them and keeping in touch. Which is the hard part for me, because I went to MIGS last year and didn't keep in touch with anyone because I tried to send an email or two out but I just didn't know what to say. So hopefully I can do better this year.

Senior team project is going smoothly. We're almost done with our vertical slice of the game. All that's left is for me to fix a couple bugs and then hand it off to the artists really. And then do some more tweaks and such until we finally hand it in. As is the case that you are always doing tweaks. Everyone in the group has decided that this prototype level is in terms of gameplay not really what we want from the game. But at this point we can't change the level. It showcases the puzzles and such that we can put into the game which we like but we want more jumping in the final version, less safe areas. But maybe that's a bad idea. We need to playtest for that. But again at this point we just want to get a solid prototype level down and figure the rest out next semester.

Advanced Seminar is going well too. I've got the card game pretty well balanced. It's just a matter of making it pretty and finding any loopholes and such in the rules that the players may exploit. I also need to tidy up my documentation a little bit because it is definitely not in the best of shape, the lack of needing to communicate with others has left me a little unconcerned with the design document, but some of the folks I talked to at MIGS said that I should include my documentation in my portfolio so people can see how I think.

That's about it for this month. See you al next month. Happy Thanksgiving.

Resident Evil 5 for the Xbox 360

2009-11-10T10:40:00.003-05:00

So here we are again. Another month, another review. I have to say though. I'm a little scared. I've hit the point in my gaming career where a lot of games just don't interest me. So I've basically matured to the point where I'm not like a puppy chasing after every game that comes along... Which is cool I guess, but... it also means I'm not sure what I'm going to review next Month... We'll see if I find anything to talk about in between now and then.

Also in a special note about this review. I've noticed that my previous reviews were pretty wordy and I realize that people probably don't want to read all that. So I'm going to try and keep each section down to a single paragraph. If you disagree with this decision please comment on this post. Or even if you agree, please comment. I'd like to know I'm being read.

Concept: 2/5

The concept of this game is pretty terrible. The Resident Evil Series has this weird rut, where the head designer of the first game made that one and then moved on to other projects and they just kept rehashing that idea over and over and over again. He finally said enough is enough and came back to work on Resident Evil 4 to try and get them to make something new and it worked he jumpstarted the series again. Now that we're on to Resident Evil 5 though... they're just rehashing his idea from 4 again... It's just horrible. The only thing I give it props for is actually having a "zombie" infestation in Africa. Maybe it's because I live in America but every Zombie media I've seen has taken place in America, or England for the 28 whatever series. So Resident Evil 5 gets credit for taking "zombies" out of America and Europe. I'll explain why I put zombies in quotes in the Entertainment section.

Graphics: 4/5

The graphics are amazing. I mean other than a couple facial quirks of one character I think they're damn near perfect. And the facial quirks, I learned from watching the bonus DVD that came with my copy, were little ticks and stuff that the actor did when voice acting and motion capturing the character. Capcom did a lot of motion capturing, they did a lot of story boarding with the cut-scenes, heck they even motion captured the actor's faces when they were voice acting. In the end they spent a lot of money on the graphics for this game and it shows.

Sound: 3/5

Sound is normal in Resident Evil 5. There's nothing particularly amazing about it but at the same time it's not bad. It's doing its job which is to make the game feel right without being distracting. There isn't really much to say about the sound. Other than in the "making of" video in the bonus DVD when they talked about the music and such it definitely made me feel that if I were a musician I would almost exclusively want to work on soundtracks for movies and games. It just seems like a more stable and entertaining job than being part of an orchestra that plays the same 20 famous songs by the same 8 famous dead guys over and over again.

Playability: 3/5

The game handles itself pretty well. There's the all time Resident Evil complaint of not being able to shoot and walk at the same time. But that helps lend to the scariness because it means you can't just shoot everything and keep moving you have to become a target before you can start shooting which makes it tougher and like I said scarier. This game also focuses heavily on co-op. To the detriment of trying to play this game by yourself. The AI of your partner is so abysmal that as soon as I learned that I drafted one of my roommates to play with me and we worked through the whole game together. So this means that this game is 2 player only, really. So I went from Ghostbusters which was single player only, to Resident Evil 5 which was 2 player only. Which was nice I guess. My other complaint about the playability of the game is that during the final boss there's a sequence where you have to do certain things in the perfect order otherwise he will one hit kill you, so as you're learning how to do this you will be replaying the same sequence over and over again for probably close to 20 minutes.

Entertainment: 4/5

OK. Time to explain "zombies." Here's the thing, ever since RE4, there are no more zombies in the Resident Evil universe, well none that you fight anyway. You are instead fighting people infected with a special germ, plant, seed thing which makes them mindless slaves. But it's easier to say "zombies" than to say "people infected with a special germ, plant, seed thing which makes them mindless slaves" so everyone still calls them zombies. Now as for the story of this game it's pretty good. For fans of the series it will explain a lot of the history of how Umbrella Corporation was founded, where the T-Virus, G-Virus, etc. came from, and what's been happening with two or three of the original characters that kind of fell off the face of the planet as far as the series is concerned. So there's a lot of fan appeasement in here. Also the story while not the most mind blowing thing ever, is solid so it will be enjoyable too. A note of warning though. This game is only enjoyable for the people playing it. So if you have people that like watching games being played. They probably won't enjoy it. Mostly because since this is really a two player game each player will be staring at their half of the screen and the people watching won't know where to look and it will be confusing for them.

X-Factor: 2/5

There's not much x-factor here. There's no replay value, there's no feeling of attachment to the characters. It's all about playing with someone else. This game will give you a good couple nights of hanging out with someone and enjoying a story together. But once those couple nights are over... this game is going to go into your library and you're probably never going to look at it ever again. It's a onetime game. You play it onetime and you're done. That's all there is to this game.

Overall: 19/30 AVERAGE

If you're a fan of the Resident Evil Series, or more specifically Resident Evil 4, than you'll love this game... That is you'll love it if you have a person to play with. If you're by yourself you'll probably grow frustrated, annoyed, and not want to play anymore, if you do have a partner in crime it will be a nice fun experience that the two of you can share together.

Ghostbusters for the Xbox 360

2009-10-20T10:44:00.004-04:00

This month I shall be reviewing the Ghostbusters game for the Xbox 360. As a note I am a huge fan of the movies so some bias might seep into this review. Also thank you for patiently waiting for this review. Midterms wait for no one and I should have planned accordingly.

Concept: 5/5

Who didn’t grow up with, or watch, the Ghostbusters movies and think to themselves “I wish I could run around with a proton pack and do that stuff!” Honestly, I can’t think of a single person who has seen the movies and didn’t like them. Watching the ghostbusters running around New York City, getting slimed by slimer, or each other in the second movie, running from the librarian ghost, driving the statue of liberty, making the city a giant s’more

The ghostbusters have lurched from one amazing adventure and story to the next. If any of them ever have any grandkids they will have some amazing stories to tell. It just sparked the imagination and got everyone that watched it to feel like they were a little kid again. Of all the intellectual properties in the world that have been made into video games, the fact that they took so long to make the Ghostbusters video kind of makes you want to smack your head and say “Why didn’t I think of that?”

Graphics: 4/5

The graphics in this game are near perfect. They made everything beautiful but halt just short of trying to make the game look real. They knew they could walk into the uncanny valley and decided to stop just short. For those of you that don’t know, the uncanny valley is when computer graphics get so close to looking real that you notice that all the little things that make it look not real, such as lack of facial twitches and little nuances of the normal human beings.

The graphics of Ghostbusters goes all the way to the uncanny valley and rather than walk into it turn around and take the realistic models that they made for everything and make it slightly cartoony. So that you can easily tell who is who and everything but give it a feeling that it definitely is a video game and everything belongs here.

Unfortunately this amazing graphic style is hampered by one thing. They made everything colorful and beautiful. So when you look at one thing it is awesome looking, but when you put it all together it gets a little busy on the screen and you can’t always tell where certain things are. This is especially hard on the level after the librarian when you’re walking through the city and fighting gargoyles, construction worker ghosts, and other things.

Now I have to talk specifically about the proton pack. I have one great thing to say about it and one not so great thing to say about it. First the great thing, it looks AWESOME! Just absolutely perfect and when you change your firing mode, little doodads on the pack activate and deactivate so if you forget you can just look at the pack and know which mode you’re in. Unfortunately they also included your health bar and your overheat bar on the proton pack. Specifically on the side of the pack making it very small and very hard to see so you have to listen to the sounds of the game to know when you’re overheating and look to other visual feedback for when you’re hurt.

Sound: 3/5

I’ve heard a lot of people complain about the soundtrack and the sound in this game. Claiming that what works for a 2 hour movie doesn’t work for a 10 hour game. Which I can understand I guess, I mean if you’re a bit of an audiophile than I guess you’ll pick up on it and it’ll become annoying… but for the rest of us it works fine.

This game is the epitome of good sound. Good sound, not great sound, just good solid sound in a game is overlooked. It’s ignored. It does its job and doesn’t ask for anything in return. Everything sounds right and everything works properly. It’s like the sound wasn’t even programmed it just naturally happens. This is exactly what happens in Ghostbusters. Everything’s just… right. The only problem I had with the sound was Bill Murray’s performance.

Some people have said he just mailed the performance in and didn’t really try. But what I think it is is that he just isn’t sure how to voice act. It’s a different skill base than what is necessary for stage and screen acting and if you check imdb.com than you can see the only time Bill Murray’s voice acted other than the Ghostbusters video game is the Garfield movies, which from what I’ve been told are some of his worse movies.

Playability: 4/5

The gameplay of Ghostbusters is phenomenal. The controls handle great and once you get passed the lack of feedback for overheating and your health it plays near perfectly. They don’t give you all the abilities that the proton pack has, right from the get go. It seems common in most games these days that they just give you everything and let you go. But Ghostbusters harkens back to its time in the late 80s and 90s by using the unlocking abilities as you go system that was very prevalent back then.

Strangely enough this isn’t a problem. I don’t think the game would have suffered at all from just giving the player all of the abilities from the get go, but it doesn’t suffer from slowly making them available to the player one at a time. Shooting ghosts with the different beams from your proton pack is great. Especially when you’re using the normal proton stream and you wrangle yourself a ghost. After the first time the game asks you to capture multiple ghosts I relished in the nerdiness and said “Two in the box, ready to go, we be fast and they be slow!”

There is one glaring flaw with the gameplay though. There is no local multiplayer, which is just awkward. In this day and age it is just odd for a game to not have local multiplayer. Seeing as games have gone from only multiplayer and only singleplayer, to both, to both with online multiplayer as well, and then some only online multiplayer, it’s weird to see a game that’s singleplayer and online multiplayer. I actually felt a bit gypped. I had heard about all these cool multiplayer modes and I was looking forward to playing them with some of my friends. I can’t afford to pay for Xbox Live and I’m sure there are plenty of people that in the same position too.

Entertainment: 4/5

The story is really great. The developers masterfully use the main character, when he’s present. They strangely enough don’t always use him. There are times where every other character is present and talking to each other and planning stuff out and he’s not there. He’s not even in the background, which is all I would want. The main character never speaks but he should be present. He is part of the team after all it is very strange that he’s absent so much.

The ghostbusters are training this guy so why wouldn’t they want him around to learn from them? It’s just weird. But when he is there, it is amazing; he’s a fully developed character not just a random guy that you take control of at times. There are a few times in particular when they use him that I was so in awe that I now want to see them at least reference him in Ghostbusters III.

Also, in the movies and tv shows they were able to toy the line of funny and scary. So there were some definite situations that were just flat out creepy but never anything too nightmare inducing. They were able to do the same thing in the game. While there are plenty of times where I'm running around and smiling and enjoying myself. There were also times when I was sneaking about afraid to anger any nearby malevolent spirits. They did this masterfully just like in the movies.

X-Factor: 5/5

With everything else having been said, other than the local multiplayer I wouldn’t change a thing. Sure this game isn’t perfect and some things could be done to try and make it better. But honestly, there isn’t a perfect game on the planet.

The sense of coolness I got from just running around with the other ghostbusters and living out a childhood fantasy was too much fun to pass up. Even now I’m thinking back to my time spent in the game and thinking of the adventures I had with the team. How I feel like I was a part of it all and that, if I were a bit more delusional maybe, I’d be telling these stories as if they actually happened to my grandkids one day.

In the end it just captures your heart if you’re a fan of the movies.

Overall: 25/30 A Cut Above the Rest

This game is a definite must have for anyone that's a fan of the Ghostbusters universe. And if you only have a passing interest in the movies and shows than you can still probably buy this game and enjoy it. Honestly, the only people who won't enjoy this game are people that despise Ghostbusters. But something tells me that even a few of those people may come to a better appreciation for the franchise if they play this game.

Please wait just a moment.

2009-10-07T09:23:00.002-04:00

Unfortunately it's midterms week, so I need to focus on that before posting my latest review. But I will tell you what it is about to keep your tantalized and interested for another week, hopefully less.

The next review is about... wait for it... Ghostbusters for the Xbox 360.

Hope that peeked your interest. See you soon!

New School Year

2009-09-22T11:18:00.004-04:00

And thus it begins. A new school year has started... in fact this is my final school year. Which is a bit of a scary thought but at the same time I can't wait to get into the industry. Anyway, this year I have two projects that I'm working on.

The first one is for Senior Team Project. Which is kind of like our Senior Thesis Class. We spend the whole school year making a game. My team has decided that we want to take a simple game that already exists and then make it in Unreal Tournament 3 so that we can show case the artists' skills and my skill as a level designer. So what we're making is The Floor is Lava. Unfortunately, there's about four programmers in our entire major at the moment... they burn out easily. So I'm doing the programming as well as designing and level designing. Which isn't actually a big deal because designers should know scripting anyway and I've worked in UT3 before so it's not like I'm starting blind.

One of the things about Senior Team Project though, is that teams can be cut and the team members from that team diseminated to the other groups. So there's a chance this could happen to us. But I am confident that we can make a product that will showcase our abilities and be fun at the same time so I'm not too worried about it.

The other project I am currently working on is for my Advanced Seminar class. This is an optional class for designers and artists. They each have their own section so I'm obviously in the designer section. In this class everyone chooses a project and spends the semester making a project for that class. My project is currently being called Swords, Curses, and Smites. It's a working title as soon as I come up with a better game name I'll use it. But it's a card game based around the idea of one type of cards allows a person to tank, another kind allows a person to deal good amounts of damage, and the third allows them to heal. So it's a very simplified form of standard roleplaying roles. Once I have the rules more solidly explainable and such I'll perhaps post a link on here. Right now we're in the middle of playtesting so it's still quite finiky and one of the decks is horribly overpowered compared to the others. But again that's why I'm playtesting.

That pretty much covers it for this update. I hope you all enjoyed my review of Madworld and found it informative. I should have another review posted up in a couple of weeks and hopefully you will find that one helpful and informative as well.

Madworld for the Wii*

2009-09-04T22:15:00.004-04:00

Here it is my first review. I will be endeavoring to do a review at the beginning of every month and then an update on my classes/professional life in the middle of every month. Now on to the review:

Concept: 3/5
The concept of Madworld has been kicking around since the Ancient Roman Empire. The only difference being that in Madworld no one actually dies because it's a videogame. Madworld is basically the coliseum, a bunch of people that probably didn’t want to be in the situation are forced to fight in a life or death struggle for the amusement of the “higher classes.” Madworld takes one or two notes from the 80s Schwarzenegger move “Running Man” as it stars an “ex” military man who is set to topple the game’s owners and “string pullers.” It also takes the idea of videotaping or filming the whole “game” for the audience. The concept is a little derived but overall isn’t necessarily a bad starting point.

In this world of sequels that we find ourselves living in however, when a new franchise comes a truly unique concept or game mechanic is necessary to make it stand out and necessary if it wants its own set of sequels to follow. This is something that Madworld simply lacks. It’s a solid concept but so 80s that it feels a little worn and tired. So I rate the concept as average.

Graphics: 2/5
There are three major things to note when talking about the graphics of Madworld. That is the main character Jack, the black and white world, and the bosses. First on the list is Jack. Jack is a very ripped, muscular man with goggles on his head and a chainsaw arm. Ignoring the whole chainsaw on the arm thing was done by the Evil Dead movie series which again points to the fact that the people that made the game wish it was the 80s again. There’s something eerily familiar about Jack, oh wait that’s right he looks like Hellboy!Giant right hand; two lumps on the forehead, being either shaved horns or goggles; ripped masculine body, and a nice lithe waist. Jack is basically Hellboy’s human son! Hell we can even go so far as to point out that they both have nice big belt buckles, a short sleeved jacket that they leave unzipped/buttoned, and a mutton chop styled beard. I have trouble believing no one noticed this in the development process and didn’t raise a flag about the fact that they are so similar. So I’m left to assume that they did it on purpose and some people may be cool with that but again for a new franchise you want as much individuality as possible and this just irks me.

The next thing I want to bring up is the black and white environment. I’m sorry I need to make a correction; it’s black and white and red. This seems like a bit of a rip off from Sin City. But unlike Sin City red is used only for blood, if anything else is red in the environment you wouldn’t know it. This was a gamble on the part of the development studio and I have to say that in my opinion it’s a gamble that did not pay off. It definitely gives the game a different feel from most other games on the market so good job on that front. But the lack of the colors got in the way when I was playing. I would be running around doing things wishing there was a certain environmental asset, called a rosebush, near me and not finding it only to find out that I was standing next to one the whole time. Granted this type of mistake can happen in just about any game but because there’s a lack of color in the game I find myself not noticing things a lot more.

Finally I want to mention the bosses. As part of the basic premise of the game everyone that you encounter is either a normal person driven insane by the game and become a bloodthirsty delinquent or is someone who joined the game on purpose for whatever their own reason is. But in both of these scenarios they’re still a normal human being. As such when I encountered the first boss the only thought going through my mind was “Why is he so big?!” Because he was the size of at least 3 or 4 people put together. After the first boss I became desensitized to the fact that the bosses were larger than everyone else but it really threw me for a loop at the beginning.

The graphics just made me raise an eyebrow at one thing after another. Which is sometimes a good thing. But this time it wasn’t.

Sound: 4/5
I really enjoyed the sound in this game. The fact that I noticed the sound as being really good and enjoying it is almost enough to push it to a 5/5. Unfortunately there was one problem with it that keeps it from being perfect. This is a problem that most sports video game fans will recognized and that’s the commentary track. Don’t get me wrong, I love the voice actors for the commentators. Those voice actors being Bender from Futurama and the Announcer for the Pod Race from Star Wars: Episode 1. It was genius casting on the developer’s part. And what they say is often quite hilarious. The fact that they have announcers sitting there talking about how the main character is doing while killing people is actually kind of fun and new and interesting as well. The only problem is that like Madden or other sports games they begin to repeat what they say quite often, which is particularly annoying.

The voice actor for Jack is also a recognizable voice. I don’t remember his name but he’s that guy who does voice acting for almost every English anime dubbing and a number of games as well. As soon as you hear his voice you think to yourself “It’s that guy!” Which is a bit of a blessing and a curse really. Because there’s nothing wrong with the job he does and it’s nice to have a little more star power too I guess. But there’s this stigma attached to him of being “that guy” so it’s nice but at the same time every time you hear his voice you think of all the characters he’s voiced and say “you’re that guy.” It’s a little distracting.

The music is great though. All my other gripes about sound aside when I sit down and play the game and the music starts up it really gets me pumping to kill some people and bust some heads. I’m sure some people may read into this and draw some conclusions about hip hop and the other music that it plays but the simple matter is that they chose really good music to invigorate the player to run around and commit acts of violence.

Playability: 3/5
Madworld suffers from what all Wii games suffer: the controller. When the Wii was first coming out everyone was excited about the new Wiimote. We all thought it was going to be a breakthrough in gaming technology and design. While the technology has been… more or less proven the design side of things is seriously lacking. They’ve simply replaced button pressing with stick waggling. There are some games that use the Wiimote in new and interesting ways… Madworld is not one of them. Its controls are not bad. It blends the use of the buttons and the motions of the Wiimote well. But the promise of new and inventive ways to play games is far from this title.

Boss battles are often reduced to dodge and block, dodge and block, OOOH quick time event! Where Ala God of War and every other game since God of War you have to time your button presses, I’m sorry stick waggles, to properly beat the boss in a little epic moment. This type of gameplay was interesting the first time it was done but seriously at this point is the industry so out of ideas that we can’t do anything else? It’s like Bullet Time events. Max Payne did them well and then everyone else under the sun decided they needed to have them too so that they could be just like, I’m sorry better than, Max Payne. You’ll be better than the people who did their own gimmick by inventing YOUR OWN!

Other than eventually getting to the point where you just let enemies run up to you and stand there for a couple seconds letting you do whatever you want to them before they even try to throw a punch there’s a few other complaints I have about the gameplay. You get more points for using environmental death traps which are scattered around the environment but like I said in the graphics section the black and white nature of the game means you could be looking at one and not even notice. My other greatest complaint is the item system. You can pick up an item, walk up to a person and use it on them. But after you pick up an item you have to hold a button to carry the item. Which is just annoying in my opinion, if I pushed a button to pick this item up I want it, why should I have to prove my want of this item by holding a button to carry it?

Entertainment: 3/5
The story is pretty cheesy. But it’s cheesy like an old friend, who when you set him up perfectly for a “yo mama” joke you know he will jump all over it; or set him up for a pun and know it’s going to happen. But unfortunately my adoration for the story ends there. It’s pretty dark, which isn’t a bad thing, but IS a you either love it or hate it thing and I’m more on the hate side than the love. The story is also kind of confusing. Preferring to just jump into it and explain it as you go. Which I absolutely love in a novel, but this isn’t a novel and I usually in novels they explain it right after the mention something where as this game will leave it alone for a level or two and then explain what they mentioned a while back.

You can also tell that they really tried to sell this game to hardcore gamers because not only are there ninjas and zombies and sumo wrestlers, etc. in the game. They even have it set up that if you find a pirate hat in the ninja levels you can throw it down and all the ninjas will run over and attack the pirate hat for a while instead of you. This is silly and cheesy and actually had me laughing for a little bit.

X-Factor: 3/5
There’s something captivating about the game. You start playing and you just zone out and don’t think anymore. You see the ninjas attacking the pirate hat and you laugh because you get the joke, unless you don’t get the joke. It’s a very silly game that they just let be silly. Now I say it’s captivating… but that’s until you hit a difficulty wall. I was enjoying the game and would wake up in the morning eager to play this game until I got to one stage and would be stuck on it for a day. When it would take me multiple days to get passed one stage I really stopped caring. The game can be captivating. But not that much.

Overall: 18/30 AVERAGE
This game is exactly what I mean by middle of the road. For every positive thing I could say about this game there’s a negative thing as well and vice versa. I definitely think it’s worth a rental if you have a blockbuster membership or a gamefly account. But I cannot honestly recommend you buying it until you’ve tried it first and discovered whether it’s your thing or not before hand.

*Please note that I do not own the rights to Madworld or any of the images in this post.

Reviewing Games

2009-08-07T14:02:00.002-04:00

I asked the Game Emporium, an online business, if they would like me to start reviewing games for them as I am an actual game designer. I can offer some insight into the games for all of you and hopefully will also give you some good advice on games you may have been thinking about buying. They agreed to let me review games and I shall be posting up copies of my reviews here as well. So not only will I be updating you all on my current happenings in my classes and work I shall be updating with reviews as well.

So that you understand how my reviews are going to work I'm going to break each game down into separate pieces and grade each one individually on a scale of 0-5 as well as grading the game overall. 0 will be the lowest score I can give something and 5 will be the highest. The individual areas that I will grade are: Concept, Graphics, Sound, Playability, and Entertainment.

Concept meaning the originality of the piece and whether it just feels like old games redone or if it brings something new to the table and if it does use old ideas, does it use them well or not?

Graphics obviously means I will grade the game on how well it looks. It's style and feel. Whether the graphics work or if they feel like the belong in an Atari 2600 game.

Sound will be whether the music and sound effects make you feel like you're right there in the action or if they make your ears want to bleed.

Playability is all about controls. Does it feel like you're actually punching someone in the face or does it feel like you're trying to steer an elephant down an alley.

Entertainment is whether the game is fun or a chore.

And for those keeping track if you count up the points above from all the different categories that equals a possible 25 points. So I will personally be adding an X-Factor category. Which will make the score an even 30 possible points.

The X-Factor is all about how good the game is. There can be a game that flunks multiple other areas, such as graphics and sound, but if you ignore those flaws you find yourself playing an incredibly addicting game that you don't want to stop even if people look at you funny.

So this 30 point score will be the overall score for the game.

With 30 being this game is perfect if you like video games at all you should try it.

25-29 meaning amazing. This game is a cut above the rest you should check it out.

20-24 very good. This game is a great example of whatever genre it belongs to. If you're an FPS fan and this is an FPS game you will probably enjoy it. Otherwise it may not be for you.

15-19 average. This game is middle of the road. Nothing spectacular but nothing particularly wrong with it either.

10-14 it's ok... The only people that will enjoy this game are people that are fans of the series. Assuming it's a sequel.

5-9 this is a poor excuse for a video game. There may be one or two things that are good about the game but it's hard to notice with the overall pain that the game brings otherwise.

0-4 means don't even bother.

Seeing as I haven't actually reviewed anything yet this system may prove to not work as well as something else. So I may change the system later. But rest assured if I do I will update you on what the new system is before I start using it. And depending on how slow a month is I may even update some of my older reviews to the new system.

I'll also be writing all my reviews in word for it's spell checking abilities before I post them on here so if anyone's been irritated by my spelling and grammar it should hopefully get better. Now as a special treat since you're reading this here on my own personal blog I will tell you what game I'm going to be reviewing first. It is for the Wii and it's name is MadWorld. I hope to have it up soon.

Being a student...

2009-07-23T12:59:00.002-04:00

... the summer months are a bit slow for me on things to update about. This being that now that it's summer vacation I'm not actually in production of anything. Oh on a note the EMC didn't pan out this summer so I've been working on my own things.

Specifically I've been in the preproduction of my Senior Team Project game. That I will be working on with Husam Al-Ziab, Asa Gillette, and Taylor Bjorndahl. We may be cut during the school year and put to work on other projects or we gain more members as other teams are cut.

We have four game ideas at the moment which is more than some other groups, who have zero, and what we're working on for the rest of the summer is concept art and some very simple level design work so that I can get used to the engine editor and we can get a feel for how the game might play.

Our plan is to pick the two ideas we like the best and really try to run with those two and then present all of them to our professors at the start of the semester and see which one they think we should continue with. I'd share with you some of the ideas but I keep everything pretty close to the chest when it comes to game ideas and putting them on the internet. Because the last thing I want it is to make a game for a class and then see something incredibly similar coming out for the 360 arcade a year later.

That's all for now. Maybe I'll have more to share this summer, probably not. I'll ask my group mates if they have websites and if I can post them on here for you to look at them if you want... and they want.

Finals

2009-05-17T13:14:00.002-04:00

So we delivered our scripts for Interactive Storytelling as well as our gold masters for Production II a couple weeks ago.

I received a digital copy of my script back from my professor for Interactive Storytelling. Except for one section where I seemed to misunderstand what was desired of me, but I still did well enough in the section so it didn't matter that much, I did really well. I received nearly full marks in every section missing a point or two here or there because of a grammar or spelling mistake I missed when proof reading it. Over all my professor was very impressed with the final version and is encouraging me to polish it some more so that I might use it as a porfolio piece.

I will probably want to talk to him some more about it before I decide whether to do so or not. But don't worry, if I do decide to use it as such I will be sure to let you all know.

We also had to deliever a post mortem for our Production II class. Which was a surprising experience. I felt, as many of my fellow producers had admitted as well, that I hadn't done much on the actual project. I believe now that we felt this way because we're all designers and used to helping build the game so when we started organizing things and filling out forms it didn't feel like we were doing as much. No offense to the producers out there in the world. I'm sure you do a lot it just feels different to us.

So during the post mortem we all sat down and talked about what worked and what didn't work. I tried to bring up my job as producer to let them throw me under the bus if they so desired. But I guess I did a good enough job because every time I brought up my producing they would skip over it and talk about something else.

In the end I believe everyone on the project received an A and some of us are talking about converting the game into Source or Unreal so that we can make it prettier and a better game experience. If I can get my two cents thrown in I'm pushing for Source as in my opinion it is a more easily accessible way for us to get our work out there. But who knows maybe I just don't know enough about Unreal Tournament 3 and we can get it out there just as easily.

PS. For clarity's sake I received A's in both of these classes.

On a more unenthusiastic note. I missed some paperwork and in the end did not transfer to the QA side of the UNFPA project. I am not on the project anymore and wish them the best of luck.

I know some of the other students didn't have the same problems I was having, but I felt I had to choose between classwork and the EMC. As a student of Champlain I couldn't really work at the EMC if I failed courses, at least that is how I understand the policy to work, so in my mind it was either one or neither. I chose one.

I have been told that the EMC is aquiring some new projects this summer that they hope to be starting soon, so hopefully I will be able to apply and work on those projects.

Beta

2009-04-14T18:45:00.002-04:00

Beta for RYB was yesterday. I can honestly say that it is the first time I ever remember not needing to crunch the night before to make sure everything is done. I mean yes we worked the night before hand but we were done and went our separate ways at 9:30, all confident in the work we had just produced.

I don't want to brag or anything but on Monday when we showed our game off to the rest of the class I have to say our game looked the most fun and most complete out of the class's. Everything about this project is just clicking. It has been a beautiful experience working with all of these fine gentleman.

We have gold master in two weeks and all that's left for us is to play test, tweak, and polish. I believe that we are going to have a wonderful game come end of the semester. I find myself wondering if maybe there's some mojo surrounding me, because this is the second year in a row where I feel I worked on the best game in the class. Maybe it's just coincidence I do not know.

As far as Interactive Storytelling goes, I am having my decision to write a linear game reinforced by seeing what is happening to my classmates. Quite a few of them are dropping their branching dialogue paths in an attempt to actually finish their scripts. I on the other hand am sitting pretty and not stressing out about the script as it was never my intention to include branching dialogue.

The UN project is pushing forward and I'm applying to work on the Quality Assurance side of the project now. The high level concept of the actual game is what Brian George and I came up with at the start of the school year and I feel that as I will hopefully be graduating next year that I should take a step back and let others finish what we started.

I am also planning on being very dedicated to Senior Team Project as it will probably allow me to make one of my best portfolio pieces so I am not sure if I would be able to continue on the UN project this fall and as such I do not want to be in a Lead role and then abandon the project. So this "transfer" to the QA role would be beneficial to everyone involved.

Alpha

2009-03-16T11:51:00.002-04:00

Just delivered the Alpha for our game in my Production II class. We're coming along pretty well. I'm still very concerned about scope. I'm going to have to sit down with my team during our weekly meeting and find some way to just hack and slash all the extraneous stuff off and leave just what we need.

I believe I have a very minimalist nature when it comes to designing, drawing, writing, etc. So it feels weird when I'm constantly looking at the games I am working on and I see a lot of scope issues. Life is funny like that I guess.

Updates

2009-02-25T20:42:00.002-05:00

Here are some updates on the projects I'm working on.

UN Project:
Things are moving a quick pace as the team is rushing to get a prototype ready to present. It's a very crazy hectic schedule.

Production II:
Our working prototype took a little bit longer than we initially expected. But we're cranking the last few bits of the prototype tonight and then we're set and it's just alpha stuff. The mechanic is working right now we just have a camera bug and need regenerative health and all the mechanics and camera workings will be perfectly and then it's just a case of perfecting the art and such. Which is proving to be a little bit of a hassle as one of our artists has proven himself to be completely unreliable.

Interactive Storytelling:
My original idea for a story to tell in this class was a satire but I've learned from some of my friends who are seniors that there's a designer in their class that does nothing but satires and parodies and such. They consider the man unable to actually come up with original ideas on his own so not wanting to be that guy I threw out my first idea and now I'm working on a second one which is a superhero idea. I'm hoping to push it in a more original path than just a generic superhero story. If it's good maybe I'll put it up on the web.

That's it. Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy your day.

Classes Update

2009-01-21T19:23:00.006-05:00

So last semester has ended and this semester has begun. I passed my Level Design and Game Engine classes with flying colors. Plus I was able to work with Husam, an artist in my grade, on the Game Engine final project. I feel like that in particular was a good practice for when we're seniors in Senior Team Project because we're going to be working together. Level Design I was moderately happy with my level. I wish I had more time to work on it but at the same time as my understanding of Unreal kept changing through the course of the semester I kept updating my design so trying keep as close to the original as possible I think I did a fine job.

This semester I am taking Interactive Storytelling which is helpful for us to understand how a game script is written. Even though there are quite a few different methods to doing that, learning a way to do it is very helpful. I am also taking Game Prodution II. In this class we work in groups to actually make a game. I am the Producer of my group so it's my job to make sure that everything stays on track and we don't go out of scope. I have to say that I'm proud of my group so far. From the ideas I've heard from the other groups in my class I definitely believe my group is the most in scope.

We believe that we'll have a working prototype done in the next week or two, which during Production I for us was completely unthinkable so I definitely feel that this game is going to turn out a lot better. It's going to take a lot of testing and work but I have high hopes.

On the UN project front. Since last I posted I went to NYC to talk with our client. They seemed very pleased with what we had to share and very eager to continue working with us. Tomorrow some more of our team are going back down to NYC to give another presentation on an updated plan and design as well as explain the game to some other divisions of the UN to see if they want to help us as well. I am not joining them as I have some classes tomorrow that I don't want to miss.

It's Surprising.

2008-11-15T10:33:00.004-05:00

It really is surprising how a day can turn into a week and a week can turn into almost a month without posting. I apologize to anyone that tries to read my blog regularly. I understand that I should be keeping a better pace with these posts.

I have three major things to talk about today.

1. Champlain had a speaker come down named Scott Macmillan come down and speak to us. Or up rather as I believe he was from the Boston area. He spoke to us about he got into the industry and what we should and should not be worried about as we attempt to get into the industry ourselves. The two pieces of advice he had for us that I remember best are "Don't Panic" and that networking is important. So relying on the fact that I will have a degree and a decent portfolio thanks to my work at the EMC right now I'm focusing on not panicing and trying to meet as many people in the industry as I can.

2. The Information Literacy project that I'm working on came up for review this past Wednesday. We presented what we had done so far to the librarians so that they could give us a yay or nay on whether we should continue on or stop working on the project. It was a little stressful but I wasn't too worried about the whole situation. In the end they wanted us to keep working on it so I'll be finishing that up during the rest of this semester.

3. The Montreal International Game Summit is starting this Monday. I will be at it. My Lead Designer for the UN project will actually be speaking at the Summit which is pretty amazing. I wish I could be up there on stage with him, but I understand that you don't want to have everyone that's ever worked on a game up on stage when someone's talking about it. In most cases the stage wouldn't be big enough. That's not the case here but the same logic of don't send up 5 people when you need one speaker applies. In addition to my Lead Designer, Brian George, there will also Heather Conover, a designer from the other group, Wes Knee, the artist from my group, and of course Ann DeMarle, the General so-to-speak of the EMC, there speaking as well. So there will be a good representation there from our whole team, I think.

On a more academic note. I had to redesign my level idea for my Level Design. I had originally structured my design so that it would be an assault and defend map so that one side would be attacking and the other side defending. But we've discovered that this is just not possible to do in Unreal Tournament 3. So I am changing my map into a Capture the Flag map. This should make the map simpler and easier to build and play. After I've got it built and we enter the play testing portion of class I'll try and post up some screen shots. That's about it for me. I promise that I will try to get around to posting that comparison post, comparing my trip to South Africa through this project and my trips to Brazil and Japan through People to People Student Ambassadors at some point in the next week.

The Busy Life.

2008-10-23T18:25:00.002-04:00

It's amazing how quickly you can get wrapped up in your work and not even notice it. I was talking to one of my room mates today and he commented on how little he's seen me in the past couple weeks. As much of a hit as my social life is taking I don't mind at all. I love doing my work so coming in to the EMC to work on it doesn't phase me like it does some people at other places.

A quick update on my two projects at the EMC. We were able to hire two new programmers for our project on Information Literacy, so things are moving a lot more smoothly and we're moving at a quicker pace than we were over the summer. As for the United Nations Project, we're really buckling down and working on the conceptual documents for the game ideas we have.

The EMC had a Grand Opening Gala Event on Tuesday night. I went and was able to talk to some people from Microsoft, EA, and Etherplay. There were many other companies represented but I simply couldn't talk to them all as there were just too many people and not enough time. Talking to some of the people there that work in the industry reaffirmed how difficult it is to get your foot in the door. However, I have a hopeful feeling that with the next batch of seniors and my class that we'll start turning heads in the industry and they'll be tripping over themselves to hire us.

As far as classes are going, related to my major, I am currently taking Game Engine I and Level Design. Game Engine I has proven to be a temperamental class as the program we are using is itself temperamental. I won't name what program we are using as I don't want to anger or annoy anyone who might be reading this blog. Level Design is a dream come true. If I could be taking that class this semester and no other classes I would be in heaven. I think I may have found my calling in the Industry as I really enjoy this class.

In the near future I am planning on going to MIGS, Montreal International Game Summit, which I am looking forward to with baited breath. I've got business cards and I'm working on my charm. It's only a matter talking to people and letting them know that they want to hire me now.

Idea Conceptualized

2008-09-29T09:36:00.000-04:00

The teams have two ideas at the moment. So we've each come up with something and we're pushing forward. Thanks to Ann's love of the coopetition method of team work the plan is that instead of having all of us work on one idea and push that one forward we're going to have two teams sort of competing but at the same time working together to help each other and push two plans forward.

I'm not sure how much I can share about my group's idea so I'll just leave it at we have one and let you wait to find out what it is. Now that our two groups have come up with ideas and presented them to our Creative Director who has given suggestions and a thumbs up we're now going to begin the documentation process.

On another note Aminata is coming tomorrow, which is a big thing. She's our client so we're all excited and nervous about meeting her. We hope she likes the ideas we've come up with and where we're planning on bringing the project. She is also giving a talk to the campus so not only is she coming to talk to us but we're also sharing her with the rest of campus, which I believe is in the mission statement of the EMC to share our important guests with the college community as a whole.

Missing

2008-09-19T20:18:00.000-04:00

Have you ever felt like you were forgetting something constantly. Just something at the edge of your mind waiting for you to remember and then you remember and you feel even worse that you forgot your mother's birthday then when you just knew you missed something? That's what I feel like right now. I'll be thinking to myself that something's missing and then I'll realize what it is. One of the artists in my classes, and on the UNFPA project team has decided that game art and animation is not where she wants to be. So she has left Champlain College and the project. We're all walking around and when we're not sure if someone knows we'll bring it up or at random times we'll just turn to each other and say "that sucks."

I don't think any of us expected people to be leaving the project unless they were graduating. I also don't think any of us were expecting anyone to leave the major now, considering most of us are juniors or older. It came as a surprise and a shock. I remember when she told me she asked if I was ready for some bad news and I said "No!" with the straightest please don't tell me something bad face I could muster. I wasn't expecting what she told me and while I had been joking around with the bad news face it quickly turned into a giant frown and puppy dog eyes, that didn't work.

But she's made up her mind, packed her things, and moved on. All I can do now is smile and be happy for her. I Don't feel like comparing my abroad experiences right now. I'm putting it off until next week.

Goodbye Jaime. I think I speak for all of us when I say

we'll miss you.

Taking the Plunge Again

2008-09-12T13:02:00.001-04:00

Sorry for my lack of communication the past couple weeks. For anyone following this blog and not the blog for the UN project I'm on, we made it back safe and sound. It was a very good trip but still quite depressing for obvious reasons. We've begun work on the next step in this phase of the project and that's copying our notes down into digital form, transcribing all our interviews, etc.

Classes have also started up again. This semester the classes most related to my major that I am taking are Game Engine I where we're looking at the Torque 3D engine, specifically Torque Game Engine Advanced, and Level Design where we're working in the Unreal 3 Engine. In no other major can I see them having you buy a game for a class.

Well thought I'd update everyone, but unfortunately I'm already behind schedule with all my homework and the projects for the EMC so I'm going to leave you here and get back to work.

PS. Some of you may know that I've traveled abroad before as a Student Ambassador with People to People. I'm working on a comparison post for all of you in the next week to let you know how it compares to my other travels.

Greetings from South Africa

2008-08-26T17:22:00.000-04:00

So we’ve been in South Africa for a couple days now and the experience and reaction we’re getting from people has been amazing. I think everyone on the trip loves every second that we’re here. The people are nice and friendly and the things we’re learning about making products go viral and how to properly format entertainment-education are invaluable.

The things we learn both about ourselves, the people of South Africa, and how South Africans view games are fascinating to myself. Earlier today I was speaking with some 19 year old South African women and they were shocked to hear that I was still playing video games at my age. They said to Corrin, one of the people on the trip, that they would not want to marry a man who played video games, after she shared that her husband still did.

It’s very interesting to learn all of these things. Not to mention that in the past couple days we’ve pretty much decided on a platform for the project and we’re really starting to nail down some thoughts, at least I believe we are. That isn’t to say we won’t change our minds as we’re still in the conceptual phase, but as time goes on we’re definitely getting a better feel of the country here and definitely, I think, learning how they think and how to talk to them.

Tomorrow

2008-08-21T11:58:00.000-04:00

The day is almost here. Tomorrow we begin our Journey to South Africa. We're all feel very anxious, very excited, and very hectic as we're all running around taking care of all the little last minute things that we need to take care of.

I don't have much more to tell you on this except that the project now has it's own blog and we'll be updating it from South Africa so you can see it on my side links and you can stay up to date that way.

Incredible Opportunity

2008-08-18T13:29:00.000-04:00

I purposefully waited to announce this. Probably because I didn't want this announcement to be the big reason why everyone came here and read what I wrote.

The United Nations has hired my department here at Champlain College to make a game. My department is the Emergent Media Center, hence why it's in my links on the side. The game they have asked us to work on is a game to try and help end violence against women. We're working with Population Media Center who have made many successful soap operas and radio dramas in multiple countries to help promote literacy, AIDS awareness, and awareness on other issues.

This Friday those of us working on the project will be traveling to South Africa. It's going to be a very long flight, which we're all planning on bringing a lot of travel games, but we're all pretty excited for this opportunity. After we fly down we'll be there for about 7 days doing research. I know this doesn't sound like a lot of time but after those 7 days we're going to fly back to Burlington, probably have a meeting including the whole department, then go to our first day of classes.

This is definitely going to be an amazing chance for all of us working at the department to really do something wonderful to help people. We're all looking forward to really buckling down and creating a great product. We just have to be careful, because someone said this about novels but I know it applies to games as well.

"You can have a wonderful idea, but there are only a handful of ways to tell it the right way, and over a million ways to tell it wrong way."

I believe it was Orson Scott Card who said that, or something similar as I probably paraphrased it, but the meaning is still there. There are going to be a handful of ways to properly make this game and a million ways to not make it properly. We're going to have to strive and push for one of those few proper ways to do it.

Declaration of Intentions

2008-08-14T21:25:00.000-04:00

That title actually sounds a bit more important and formal than what I'm planning. But I thought up the phrase and now I'm sticking with it.

I am making this blog for the purposes of sharing some things with the world, or more specifically the video gaming world. This blog is to be a relatively formal place to share how I am Growing 'n' Gaming. Meaning that I will be posting here mainly about the things I learn, all though not all of the things I learn that's what notebooks are for, and design and team challenges I face both now and when I enter the industry. This will not be a place for me to vent my "I can't believe she turned me down on that date!" type of thoughts. I have other places for that and will turn to them get those frustrations off of my chest.

As I said this blog is about my growth in the video game industry and also probably as a gamer as well. I am a believer in the fact that we never stop learning and never stop growing so I expect that even many years from now I will be posting here. Rather than go on about this I think I will tell you a little bit about myself and save more information for my later posts.

I am currently a Junior in the Electronic Game Design major at Champlain College in Burlington, VT. Ever since I was in Elementary School I've cared a lot about games and I developed a drive in my heart to make things that other people can enjoy. Those are probably my two strongest driving factors in pursuing my current career path. I am confident that I will become a productive member of the game developer community, but only time will tell.