Tales of the Old

What makes a good game? And what makes a great game?

2008-07-31T10:43:00.000-07:00

We have all seen games that are great and I am sure we have all seen games that are good. However what is the quantifiable difference? Well all I can do is give you my opinion. For the sake of argument let us take two big titles at E3 2008 Gears of War 2 and Star Wars The Force Unleashed. One of them is great and the other is good (in my opinion). Gears of War 2 is great because every feature (innovative or not) works within the fictional rules of the game world. For instance every feature they added worked within the established characters and all in all seemed like something they would do. They did not just decide to let the player turn into a giant rhino and charge around the battlefield. This would not fit within the world as magic does not exist in the Gears of War universe.

Now that I have covered great let us move onto good. Star Wars The Force Unleashed is a good game that could have been great. However this game is a shining example of why you do not break your own fictional rules. In this game you are made to believe (as you are in the movies) that your lightsaber is somewhere around 2,000,000 degrees (basically it is really really hot). And indeed you can cut droids in half seemingly without effort which obeys this fictional rule. Yet when I was watching the demo I noticed that when your flaming hot lightsaber connected with one of the storm troopers they just said "owe" but didn't die or seemed injured. This instantly broke any fictional rule that was established about the lightsaber. Now I do clearly understand that they wanted to keep a T rating but even so there was no attempt to explain why lightsabers don't cut people in half (as they do in the movies), no story about special armor..nothing. Thus this took away in a very large way from the immersion and automatically made me decide to rent this game instead of buy it.

Obviously both of the above titles must be as close to bug free as possible and have solid controls but for the sake of the post I am looking beyond the obvious.

Gamers are Smarter

2008-06-01T12:10:00.000-07:00

I was reading the Escapist's recent interview with a well known chainsaw-bayonet totting game designer. In the interview this game designer was talking about how gamers are smarter then movie goers, He explained his reasoning saying that most gamers are very active in the medium. They not only play games, but they also talk about the games and rant about it on forums (or blogs!). I think this is an excellent point. Game designers cannot take short cuts, because the gamers will see them.

GTA IV Believe the Hype (for the most part)

2008-05-04T19:22:00.000-07:00

Well I recently took a nose dive into the intriguingly dark world of GTA IV, Rockstar's latest installment in the consistently controversial GTA franchise. Let me get this off my chest, I really did not like the earlier GTA games (I'm expecting flame mail for that one). All of the earlier games felt really shallow in their detail and often horrendous story telling. My biggest complaint is, as usual, an incredible lack of melee combat. Thankfully GTA IV delivers on all levels. This game is the deepest world yet. For instance after listening to the same radio station for at least four hours the radio announcer was still spouting new stuff (only the commercials repeated). The story is now about a Russian named Niko. Niko is by far the deepest character i have ever seen Rockstar put out. You almost feel for Niko in his struggle to establish himself in Liberty City and bury a few hatchets of his own. The level of depth continues to the melee combat as well. This time around your character an dodge, counter, kick, disarm, and punch his way through the city. I loved that the moves were based off of Krav Maga, and well they could have been deeper, i still felt a sense of satisfaction after beating someone down in a Mano Y Mano throw down. Aside from the main items mentioned above the citizens are also surprisingly unique as well. Each citizen depending on who they are yells different things and has a huge variety of reaction animations and dialogue. Well i won't bore you to death with examples but it is suffice to say that this game is a gem and really needs to be bought, i found the world extremely deep and enjoyable. I'll be playing this game for months to come and i hope you do the same. The only thing i would even possibly downgrade it for is the lack of realistic bullet damage. I feel that if you are going to make a dark world (like the one Rockstar created) you should have that realistic bullet damage so you really get across to the player that guns are not something to be tossed around absent mindedly they do have an impact! Now granted they do have the leg shooting ability and things to a similar effect but lets face it a point blank shotgun round is going to do a little more then knock you down!

Condemned 2

2008-03-29T19:40:00.000-07:00

Condemned 2 is the newest title developed my Monolith, it is an action/horror game with a rather unique story. What I liked most about the original condemned was the vicious melee combat (using pipes, bricks, or whatever is within arm's reach). Thankfully Condemned 2 kept the melee combat and even improved it, with the combination moves and the finishers. I won't get to into the details of the story but let it be suffice to say that the twist involving sound is completely unexpected and rather unique. However I felt that same twist detracted from the story's believability. And what made the original Condemned so freaky was that all the enemies were (pretty much...aside from a few blue dudes)grounded in reality. But it you liked the original you will still like the blend of brutal attacks and surprising events. The graphics are also juiced up and the game looks great. Now perhaps the most controversial addition is the mulitplayer mode. I really like the multiplayer, i completely disagree with X-play on this. The multiplayer is far more engaging then most. Yes it does sometimes end up as people spinning around each other hitting each other with bricks but hey it's fresh and i am getting really sick up just shooting people online. The crime scene mode...a sort of hid the boxes and guard them from the other team mode is highly addicting. One of the little things i like is that the weapons aren't just lying on the ground they are placed in a location where you would expect to find them such as a fire ax in its red case with breakable glass i felt that really added to the immersion factor. Overall i feel this game was very enjoyable and I liked the multiplayer far more then COD4. Can't wait for Condemned 3 great job Monolith!

The Goal of the Designer

2008-02-07T16:49:00.000-08:00

What is the goal of a designer? I would argue that as a game designer the end goal should be to create a compelling experience for the end user (the gamer). The compelling experience I am speaking of is the combination of a visceral world (take Rapture or instance), and a compelling reason for a player to proceed through the game. At the point at which a game designer simply creates a world and plops the player down in the middle of it, then I really don't think the person making that game is to be considered a designer. The person creating the game needs to add a "rez a vi" or a reason for the player to exist. It doesn't even necessarily have to be in the form of a story. For instance Pong has no story but the rez a vi for the player is to defeat the other rectangle. I realize that I am in no position to make claims about game design, but I promised you my musings and here they are.

Saga Review!!

2008-02-04T13:55:00.000-08:00

Here is the review of the game I promised. It is called Saga and it is a brand new type of MMO.

Well, it certainly has been a while since I have even heard of a new type of MMO. A breath of fresh air in this relatively World of Warcraft dominated genre would be shocking and truly something to check out. Recently I got into the beta for Silverlode Interactive’s new game, Saga, a brand new type of MMO that promises to be the shining light in this sometimes creativity starved genre. Let me start off by saying that I really respect what the guys at Silverlode are doing with Saga, it takes a lot of guts to try something different in this industry especially with the cost of games skyrocketing. That being said I am not writing this to heap compliment after compliment on Saga. I am here to write what I thought was good about the game, what I thought was bad, and why.
Starting with the good, and there is a great deal of good stuff in this game. There is no monthly fee and that is always a welcoming incentive. More importantly, the game itself is like nothing you have ever played before with regards to an MMO or an RTS. If you have ever played a game of Age of Empires, online with a group of buddies for hours on end you know how much fun it can be to build up a nation and crush you friends. Not to mention it is also great fun to ally with friends and attack other helpless people. Saga seeks to recreate this genuine fun in a much more persistent setting.
You may be wondering how the guys over at Silverlode know what makes a game like Age of Empires fun. This is a valid question and there are two answers: firstly, they are gamers too so they know exactly how much fun Age of Empires is! Secondly, Dallan Christensen wrote the battle code for the project; Dallan was a programmer on that little known game Starcraft: Brood War. Back to the point, it is honestly thrilling to create an empire from scratch and not have it disappear when you decide to go to bed. They also manage to pull off the RTS aspect of the game quite nicely.
From the start off the game you get to pick your race, flag, and name. From there it is on to assigning tasks to peasants, organizing an army, completing quests, expanding your city and becoming a dominant power. The battle system allows you to create battles with friends as allies or enemies along with organizing a group to complete quests. The center of the game is obviously strategic battles, but Saga really has a great economic system as well. Peasants work at collecting resources while you sleep, that can be used to expand your empire or trade to others through the market for troops.
One of the surprising pluses I found in the game is the idea of booster packs. Initially, I didn’t really like the idea of buying these little booster packs to get more units but after working the idea over in my head I began to warm to it. Indeed the more I played Saga the more I really came to see the idea of booster packs as brilliant. For instance online poker is a huge craze and a key component of online poker is the ability to buy in. In my mind I see these booster packs as a way to buy in, and it’s a marvelous idea.
The problem that plagues many MMO’s today is that when someone convinces his/her friend to sign up for an MMO they have found enjoyable the person who signs up has to go through a long newbie phase to get up to his/her friend’s level. The booster pack idea solves this dilemma. Your friends can agree on an amount to spend from the start so that you can all start on equal footing. Granted you still need to train your units by questing but the max unit level is 10 so you can meaningfully contribute to cooperative quests. At release the max nation level will be 35, which determines the amount of troops you can field at a time and the item level those troops can equip.
One of the complaints some gaming sites raise is Saga’s graphics. I mean granted they are nowhere near Crysis or Unreal Tournament 3 but neither is any MMO. Saga is not about being the prettiest kid on the block it is about blazing a new trail and the graphics in Saga are pretty good for the type of game Silverlode wants to make. You look at many other free MMO’s like Runescape and you see that their graphics aren’t amazing but that is not the point (if you are primarily interested in graphics what are you doing playing an MMO anyhow?). Saga easily has better graphics than Runescape and the graphics are more than enough to enjoy creating a huge army and engaging in large battles. If that was all you wanted to know about Saga then I would say go try for the beta and for sure give it a shot when it gets released.
Inevitably I have to get to the bad, as I do with every game I talk about (even Mass Effect my game of the year had its flaws). Saga suffers from a few flaws and luckily they are mostly cosmetic in nature and can be fixed with a few patches.
I found the chat screen interfered with my commanding of the troops. The problem is when you scroll up to the top left corner of the screen the chat menu pops up and keeps you from commanding your troops in that direction. Another thing I noticed was that the WASD keys were not mapped to move the map, the arrow keys were. It was just uncomfortable for me to have to move my hand and use the arrow keys to move the map; I am not quite sure why WASD keys weren’t mapped to move the map as a default. I would like to remind whoever reads this that I am reviewing a beta build so these things could all be changed before it is released publically.
The big flaw I noticed came right at the beginning with the tutorial. Saga is a bit of a hard game to get into initially because the tutorial does not immediately pop up and show you a sample scenario. I was hoping for maybe a small rundown tutorial that a user could choose to run off like, maybe simply a video explaining everything I had to start with and all the things I could do (note: I have heard from the folks at Silverlode that they are working on the tutorial levels so it is quite possible all of these complaints will be null and void at launch).
The tutorial you are given is quite brief and sets you up on a few quests and gives you a brief rundown of the buildings when you first click on them. To be fair, on the initial quests it does help you along pretty significantly but I still would have liked a simple overview of my HUD, possible actions, and menus I am sure there are those out there that will disagree with me on this and just wanted to get right into the game. I completely understand where those people are coming from but it is my opinion that some reworking of the tutorial would be extremely helpful.
In closing I did indeed find Saga to be a breath of fresh air in the MMO or RTS genre. As far as free MMOs go it is one of the best I have ever seen (if you even considered playing a free MMO check this one out). If RTS is your thing and you loved those late night Age of Empire (or should I say Starcraft?) campaigns, then Saga is the game for you, it delivers that experience on steroids. If you are someone who enjoys developing an online character and spending all of your time socializing and crafting items then perhaps look elsewhere, but for the rest of you who want a free MMO with an ingenious buy-in option in the form of booster packs, give Saga a second look. It’s definitely worth it.

The Danger of Games

2008-02-03T20:48:00.001-08:00

Below is a copy of the post I wrote for my philosophy class. It is about the danger of games and the duty of game designers to remain story tellers an not gods. Enjoy!!

I have dreamt of being a part of the interactive industry since I was twelve. So when given the choice to write about what ever topic I saw fit to write about it was only natural that video games, and more specifically their unique interactive characteristics, came to mind. Philosophically video games pose a very interesting dilemma. Video games are unique from any other medium in that they are interactive, player decided how the main character acts and how they achieve their goal or ending (or in the case of games like Mass Effect endings). However what happens when, not so far in the future, games become so interactive and realistic that those playing the games have trouble differentiating the real from the virtual? What happens when everything in a game world tastes real, smells real, and even feels real? I am by no means the first person to think of this dilemma, the movie the Matrix poses a similar question, but I think it bears further thought as graphics become so much more advanced, and controllers more and more interactive (look at the WII for instance). I wonder whether people will ever want to leave these virtual paradises? Indeed if the only thing that makes like real is being able to touch, taste, and smell the world around us why would you leave a virtual paradise? There must be something more to life them simply what we can sense. I think that thing is the sheer unpredictability of life, the anger, the deceit, the mortality that makes life diverse. Without all of those things we become like the gods of the Iliad, spoiled, infinite beings with no sense of loss or death. Without that sense of loss all our choices in life mean nothing, they are merely passing thoughts that you act out because it is convenient at the time. So, though I am the biggest advocate of the interactive industry and I believe game have a huge potential as a storytelling medium that can bring these deep questions (like the ones posed on this blog) to people who otherwise never consider them, I think there must always be a line so that the player always knows what is real and what is not. Even if it is just simply the death of your avatar that snaps you out of the virtual reality, otherwise game developers corrupt their purpose. If no line is draws a designer becomes a god and not a story teller. In the spirit of Homer I say being a story teller is a nobler goal.

Dissapointing Demos

2008-01-30T15:00:00.000-08:00

Here I was last night, all excited, watching the download bar tick to 100% on my PS3. I was downloading the demos for Turok, The Club, and Devil May Cry 4. So without delay i plunged right into the club. I was initially very interested in the Club, i mean who wouldn't be interested in a modern age gladiatorial game. Sadly after playing the demo any glimmer of hope i had for this game quickly burned to the ground.
First off, there is no real story to the game at all. The game simple plops you down in the middle of whatever map you pick and says one of two things. Either "Hey you have 5 minutes kill as many people as possible and be sure to get a lot of head shots in a short amount of time to get points!" or "Hey you have to get to this exit which happens to be way the hell on the other side of the map...oh yea and get a lot of head shots!". Basically the tutorial tells you that you get points based on where you shoot people and how quickly you do so. The people I keep referring to are usually nameless generic guards with the IQ level of a four year old ( yes that's right you are not shooting the other competitors...merely competing for a higher score). Lastly melee combat in this game is absolutely non existent it is as if the developers decided hey there is no way a hardened criminal would have the gal to attack a man with his bear hands. Oh pardon me I misspoke you can hit someone with your rifle butt however there isn't even a sound acknowledging that you did so! In conclusion the club seems to have the creativity of a cinder block and it doesn't even look that good! It says that it is using a nice fancy engine all of us have seen in a few too many games (unreal..cough...cough). Not that I have anything against said engine but come on the club looks like an Xbox or a PS2 game that engine should only be used by developers who know what they are doing.
Enough of that onto Turok, sadly another horribly disappointing game. I had high hoped for Turok because it seemed to make ample use of melee combat. The problem comes when you make a game around a mature theme and mature game play and then try to tone it down (rather comically the game still has an M rating). Lets get one thing out of the way the dino combat is way fun, who doesn't wanna tear a raptor's head off? The problem in the melee combat comes when you use your over sized hunting knife on people. I mean the team obviously spent a lot of time working on the animations for all of the fatalities, because they look great, but when you see your character plunge said knife into said npc you are rewarded with a few yellow sparks, no blood, no dismemberment despite the whole movement clearly demonstrating a dismembering move. Don't get me wrong I am not saying all games need to be blood baths, but seeing sparks fly out when blood should instantly shatters any suspension of disbelief the player may of had. It's not like the game is against blood either I mean the dinos bleed like there is no tomorrow but people seen to have sparking metal in their vains.
Lastly we have Devil May Cry 4 and i am happy to say that i wasn't really disappointed with this game. It is exactly what you expect from Devil May Cry it really doesn't bring anything new to the franchise it just looks prettier. So if you liked it before you will like this one, if you didn't then this will not change anything.

Saga

2008-01-23T19:39:00.000-08:00

I am currently beta testing Saga a brand new style on MMO and i will give a full review once i have had a sufficient amount of time to play it.

Suggestions??

2008-01-23T19:38:00.001-08:00

Let me know if there is something you would like to see on this blog, or simply wanna hear my opinion on (I can dream can't I). Send me an e-mail.

Teaser!!

2008-01-23T19:36:00.000-08:00

I have begun work on a unnamed TBG (Text Based Game) using the Quest 4.0 engine.... i will be telling you more about it in the coming weeks.

In defense of my game of the year (WARNING: RANT!!!!)

2008-01-23T19:07:00.000-08:00

Wow it has been awhile since i sat down and wrote a post, gotta love final exams! Anyhow onto the pressing matter at hand.
Exhibit A
http://play.tm/wire/click/1697822
Exhibit B
http://kotaku.com/348187/ea-calls-fox-out-on-insulting-mass-effect-inaccuracies

Here is a brief summary of the outrage. Basically fox news bashed the hell out of Mass Effect because of a two minute sex scene in the game that only arises after developing a complex relationship with one of two possible female teammates.

Now let me first attach the utter ignorance of an incredibly dense and flagrantly outrageous reporter. Mass Effect is an extremely deep game with a story non of their terrible TV shows could ever hope to match. Mass Effect takes the player through this 30 + hour experience using branching story mechanics and yes one branch does lead to a very brief sex scene THAT IS NOT INTERACTIVE! The whole scene involves a profile shot of the two characters and if you really try hard you might be able to make out some nudity (it would be easier just to watch almost any of fox's prime time shows... plenty of sex scenes there). I think EA is dead on in saying that this became a news story because FOX feels threatened. Indeed games are outselling everything they have ever put out (yes i know fox does have an interactive division but their games don't exactly sell like hot cakes). To respond to the accusation that young boys would undoubtedly choose to view the sex scenes, shouldn't we ever point the fingers at parents for letting their kids play a game that is IN NO WAY market towards children. Secondly it is pretty damn hard to get to that point in the game, it requires a lot of thought and tactical fighting to get past enough levels to reach that end of the game scene, not to mention it takes at least 30 hours. I don't know any young boy that can spend 30 + hours on a deep story driven game, they have enough trouble paying attention in math class. To further respond their are many other ways boys could find nudity that are not nearly as difficult, say for instance watching FOX for an evening or two, oh and there is that whole Internet thing. Indeed almost nothing FOX reporters said was right, the studies they speak of are a joke, there are a few other studies that contradict those findings it just happened to be convenient for the reporters to leave out that little tidbit. In closing I stand by the letter EA sent along with my decision to put Mass Effect as GAME OF THE YEAR no other game i have ever come across was that engrossing and deep. I also would like to say in closing that i hope one day those reporters at FOX realize that in any other profession being that wrong about something would get you fired or thrown in jail.

Call of Duty 4 Not So Modern Warfare

2008-01-09T17:57:00.000-08:00

Well since i have been talking so much about he reviews of call of duty 4 i figured i would toss my own review into the smoking heap of criticism. Let me start off by saying Call of Duty 4 is an extremely well made FPS (first-person shooter). This shooter actually has a semi-well put together story line and a few pretty spectacular slow motion interactive cut scenes. I do however have a few qualms with the story, for one your character continually blacks out. I mean he falls off of things, gets hit by a bomb, crashes and every time (bear in mind this is during a cut scene) he falls into a blacked out stupor. I understand that there must be some sort of transition but a little variety would be nice. Perhaps maybe have the character look at an airplane in the sky as it flies by and then have him look back again only to find themselves in a new level. Now onto the game play itself. The shooting is as well done as you would expect, my qualm in this regard comes from the fact that you cannot see the bullet wounds your firearm inflicted on the hordes of enemies. I mean the walls have holes and blood on them but if you go and take a gander at the body he looks like a wax figure, no holes or blood. Secondly your guns feel a lot like noise makers when all you can do is make them fall down. If we are talking about realism (as many of the reviewers do) then how come the enemy still had a head when i shoot them with a .50 caliber round the size of baseball? Another instance is when you use a shotgun. I understand that body armor can soak up a lot of punishment like dragon skin body armor for instance ( click here if you want to see for yourself http://www.pinnaclearmor.com/body-armor/dragon-skin.php)
but if i shoot someone in the leg and you claim to be creating a realistic game then said person should at least go down on one knee from the impact, if not have the whole leg blown off. My last complaint shooting wise is that everything feels like it is made out of paper, anytime you shoot something short of steel all of these particles fly off in a supposedly realistic manner. It really ends up looking more like putting a hand grenade in a paper factory. Getting onto the rest of the game play i really enjoyed the tension of the Gillie suit missions, especially having a tank just barely miss you as it drives by. However the rest of the missions feel just like the other's with a new setting. Since you never get to know your teammates nothing interesting ever happens to them and emotion seems to be something you don't need in a war game. You never see one of your teammates try to revive a fallen comrade, or completely freak out from shell shock. Indeed the only power you ever really feel is when you blow away the small helpless terrorists with the super over kill cannon you control while flying in an attack bomber. One of my main buzz points MELEE COMBAT is damn near completely non existent in COD4 all you can do is swing your knife in a small arc. If the game expects me to use my suspension of disbelief to pretend that i am a special forces operative then i would assume as a Spec. Ops. agent i could at least choke a few people.
Now onto the mulitplayer i honestly really enjoyed the multiplayer it had a pretty good amount of depth and aside from the complaints listed earlier all of it felt really well put together. The only thing i have to complain about that i would have done differently is that they should have used some sort of matchmaking system because getting into a room with a expert guy and spending the entirety of a match watching my guy fall over dead again and again.
That's is there you have it my take on COD4. all in all i think it is a pretty looking game (not nearly on the same level of Mass Effect or Bioshock), the shooting mechanics are solid and the story is mediocre enough to allot 7 hours to (too short if you ask me!). So if you are looking for a run of the mill shooter with an upgraded setting and a pretty new coat of paint COD4 is for you!

Mass Effect Game of the Year

2007-12-19T19:45:00.000-08:00

Well if there is any question as to whether or not Mass Effect should be on your Christmas list or after Christmas buying list let me answer it now....Yes. I am writing to you after finishing my first play through of Mass Effect and let me say out of all the game i have played (i recently played COD 4 also) i have concluded that Mass Effect is the game of the year, hands down. The sheer emotion the game evokes as each NPC shows levels of emoting that are scarcely imaginable is unparalleled. You could replay any given section of the game 15 times just to see how the conversation changes based on your character's background, the members of your party, the predisposition you chose for your character, or just the conversation options. The combat didn't seem to difficult to me although i would have loved to see some CQC. Quite honestly that is the only thing Mass Effect was really missing a CQC system (close quarters combat) all of the shooting mechanics felt solid and i didn't miss the fact that Mass Effect doesn't have any multi player. My only complaint story wise is that SPOILERS!!!!! the death of Saren doesn't feel quite as satisfying as it could have if your character got up close and personal with him. Did i mention the graphics...and IGN thought COD4 looked good Mass Effect cripples COD4's graphics. All in all the greatest thing Mass Effect does for gaming is for the first time in gaming history it actually gives the player the experience of catharsis, you feel for your teammates in a way never be for seen and you actually consider your decisions for their impact instead of there statistical advantages or disadvantages. In conclusion buy Mass Effect it is Game of the Year by far in my opinion and it shows us a great example of how impactful video games can be as a medium.

Assassin's Creed

2007-11-27T16:48:00.000-08:00

Well i just finished playing through the entirety of Assassin's Creed and let me tell you what a ride (despite what some so called reviewer from IGN said)! First off the crowd dynamics are really impressive, just seeing Altair weave through the crowd is awsome! The combat is almost dead on as all of the counters work nicely and the grab breaks are very well done as well. The only critique i have of the combat system is that i wish there were a few more counter animations, lets face it 15 or so animations work great for small fights but when you pick a fight with a large group of enemies it gets a tad repetitive (not enough to give it anything below a 9 though Mr. Ign reviewer). The story is perhaps Assassin's Creed's strongest aspect, i really liked the addition of the other playable character, i felt that it really added to the storyline and broke up the game nicely. Also the well thought out and utterly controversial storyline (you thought the Da Vinci Code made some bold claims!) kept me intrigued all of the way through (what an ending!). The assassinations themselves were also very enjoyable all of the assassinations felt incredibly solid ( i do wish there were a few more ways to investigate you target though). Because it has such Strong combat and assassination mechanics i really wanted to see a multiplayer mode added. How cool would it be to have to race to assassinate a given target first, while setting traps for the other players to get caught in! All in all go pick up this game it is great and one of the few unique experiences i have played no other game really feels like Assassins Creed. Cant wait for the sequel.

P.S. IGN i really recommend you check out your reviewers! Between the Call of Duty 4 Review and now the horrendous Assassin's Creed review i am really starting to doubt the integrity of your site!

The Witcher Sleeper hit of 2007?

2007-11-06T14:21:00.000-08:00

I recently picked up The Witcher from atari and CD Projekt, mainly because i hadn't heard about it at all. First off let me say i was plesently surprised to find that is one of the most mature RPG's around. I thought to new click n' hit gameplay mixed in good amount of uniqueness and really pushes the bar for RPG's of this nature. The choices in the game are not black and white either which i find really interesting. There is no good path, no bad path just the decisions you make and what happens because of them. So if you want a sufficiently long game (around 40hrs minimum gameplay time) to tide you over till mass effect and assassins creed then pick up the witcher. I would argue it is the sleeper hit of the year!

IGN's Modern Warfare Review

2007-11-05T19:29:00.000-08:00

I just finished reading Ign's review of call of duty modern warfare. Now i normally agree with most of IGN's reviews however the call of duty modern warfare review seemed extremely biased. First off they say it has the best graphics on a console yet. I don't know what gams they are playing but bioshock has much better graphics then call of duty 4. The gameplay is COD 4 is also not exactly revolutionary. I am not denying that it is a great game just that it does not live up to the over exuberant praise it was given by IGN (next time they should try not to base there reviews on ad money!!!........just kidding IGN you know im a die hard fan, i'll be here if you slip up again :) )

violence in games (Warning: rant!!)

2007-10-30T14:06:00.000-07:00

It is time to beat a dead horse (all be it a very apt dead horse with the release of manunt 2). I am speaking of course about violence in video games. Now my personal opinion is that violence should not be put in a game if it has no purpose other then shock value (by the way manhunts violence does have a purpose other then shock value, it is to demonstrate the psycosis of the main chracter and his inability to "turn it off"), however that being said if a story calls for violence i.e rainbow six then by all means yes it should be included. I also see graphic violence as a way of making the player realize the affect of his/her actions. For instance if i shoot someone in star wars battlefront they say "oooo" and fall over, no entry wound, no blood, no nothing (yeah for double negatives!!) and as an extension of that i feel nothing as a player when i shoot them. When you play a game such as brothers in arms which graphically shows what happens when a piece of lead hits you going faster then the speed of sound and i as a player too some extent feel like what i did had an impact, what i did was dramatic and final. And i believe the latter is more of the kind of game i would want to play, i feel it is a much mroe gripping game. Now i realize the target audience was a bit differant for both games (i am not going to open up the can of worms regarding underaged kids playing M games this post...ok maybe i will it is just o tempting) but the example still works. Now let me narrow the topic down to Manhunt 2. Is the game violent.........YES. Does the violence have a point.......more or less. Should children play it........hell no. However too all those who believe this game should be AO i say do we not make parents responsible for their children at all anymore ?!? Too which the response from those hypocrites would probably be, "But kids are still getting ahold of these games!" Kids still get a hold of porn, but do we blame the porn industry for not labeling their porn effectively (sorry to use such a crude example but it does get across the analogy quiet well)? No because it is so much easier to go after and infant industry like video games, regardless of wether or not we have any evidence to support our claims (which they do not.....at least none i have read or heard about). They tried to blame columbine ( and for any of you who are reading this that were present on that day i apologize for bringing back hard memories) on Doom, but for the love of god someone had to allow the kids access too guns, some one who instead of saying "well maybe i should lock up my guns" or "maybe i shouldn't sell a gun to an underaged kid" whichever it ended up being, instead of admitting their faults they blame a infant industry. Lastely if you are going to make the claim that games effect our children waht about when little timmy watches Hostel? Or if you are going too claim that the interactivity of games means the player is pressing the button that they know will kill that person so in a sense they want the person to die, i say well when you press play on the menu to watch Hostel aren't you saying you want too see those people die? So in the end don't blame us gamers or us game creators for your lack of parenting, responsibility or overall lack of competance (which you obviosly have if you are making said claims)! There ! That is the end of my rant if i offended anyone well then depending on who you are i am either proud or sorry, but for the record i will be including the warning that i will be ranting in any posts like these so those of you who merely want to hear my thoughts on game design and the like can feel free to ingnore these posts.

My Pitch

2007-10-29T14:49:00.000-07:00

Here is a link to the video of my game pitch along with my competators. I am the one who pitches the game titled "evolution".....enjoy
http://operator11.com/shows/5144/episodes/26655

Blood sweat and tears

2007-10-29T14:13:00.000-07:00

Minus the tears, and you have Conan the newest game from THQ. Now i enjoyed the game much in the same way that i enjoyed stranglehold, it was fun but by no means revolutionary. It's defiately a violent game and i really like the way you could parry into a slow-mo counter. The rest of the fighting system was not so successful, while you have a variety of differant moves and combinations, the respective combos do not "combine" fluidly. in between combos you will often see conan stall or pause for a second before the next animation begins. I felt that this down-time really took away from the player feeling like conan. The puzzels also could have been a little more creative and character realivent, for instance instead or mearly pushing a lever or throwing a block, maybe conan (being as violent of an antihero as he is) could stack bodies to create sufficient weight to more and obstical or maybe he could have hit opponants against a door to get it to open. I also agree with what gamespot said regarding weapon specific moves, conan had the same finishing moves regardless of whether he had a pike or a broadsword aslong as it fit under the category of two-handed weapon. overall i feel that Conan was a well meaning game that got bogged down by a lack of creativity on the part of the developers, but its definatly still worth a play through just to see its gory gory goodness.

Give a shout out!!!

2007-10-09T19:30:00.000-07:00

Hey loyal fans (i have a overactive imagination i know!)! I will be at the e for all expo and the game carrier seminar over MEA. i will also be giving a 1 minute pitch of a game design idea (sorry the idea itself is a secret you'll have to be there to hear it) as part of the game career seminar. if you see A teenager who's first name is Chris and last name starts with an O giving a game pitch, give a shout out !

Reinforcements!!!!

2007-10-09T19:25:00.000-07:00

Today i finished playing "world in conflict" now, the game has wonderful visuals, and top notch sound but the aspect i really want to focus on is the reinforcement system. In "World in Conflict" you do not build units......instead you call in reinforcements. Now when i first heard that i was kinda disappointed.....but it worked surprisingly well! i felt much more in control of the battle when i was simultaneously giving my troops orders, calling in reinforcements, and launching an artillery strike, all while monitoring enemy troop movement! So i think the teams at Massive entertainment and Sierra deserve a big pat on the back for introducing this new way to play an RTS!

Know your stuff!

2007-10-09T19:20:00.000-07:00

For those of you who have read my blog before i apologize for this rant but it has to be said. If you want to become a game designer (like i do) you better really want it (or at least know what it is)! Today i went to a college fair and met some very nice representatives from many great colleges, however every single person i met who told me "hey me too i want to get into game design as well" didn't actually know, A. What it takes to make a game, and B. What game design actually is!!!So the moral of this rant is know what you chosen career path entails.

As always thanks for reading

Comments!!!

2007-09-26T20:23:00.000-07:00

Got any comments or recommendations for my blog? Drop me an e-mail at Americandude313@yahoo.com and i'll be sure to send you one back!

Halo 3 Is it worth it.

2007-09-26T20:18:00.000-07:00

Yes! it is worth it and yes it does live up to all the hype. I personally bought the legendary edition (almost got in a fight doing it too) and do not regret spending the $130 at all. I have just finished playing through the campaign and let me telll you i was blown away by all the tweaks to the differant items/weapons in the game. For instance the brute shot now shoots more or less straight with out the whole Ping-pong ball bouncing thing, and the tank now has a seperate turret that another player (or AI) can hop into. I also applaud Bungie's art department for all the falir and depth they put into the foliage and water. You cannot forget the sound crew either, every sound is crisp and brilliantly layered. I only wish there was a little more CQC type hand to hand or hand too knife combat, but that is being picky.
So if you havent, go by halo 3 and have a blast ( - the CQC fighting :( )

CEO

The Return of Fun

2007-09-14T20:52:00.000-07:00

Fun......the word fun gets tossed around alot in the videogame industry, but how many games have you played that are just pure fun? I am probably the biggest supporter of strong, involving stories in videogames, however there are those times when one just wants to play a simple game for the
"fun" of it. For those "fun" times there is a little game known as stranglehold. Put simply stranglehold, is non-stop adrenaline fueled fun. Seeing the entirity of a three level casino get desimated by your gunfire is amazing. However there is no deep story or intriguining narritive in this game, but does there
have too be? All in all Stranglehold is a great game that is just fun, I wish there were more games like that.....

The Forgotten Art of Story Telling

2007-08-21T11:30:00.000-07:00

I come to this topic after playing 2K games's newest title BIOSHOCK (released today in North America). Bioshock had an incredibly deep story line filled with not only plot twists but moral choices (don't get me wrong i do see some problems with the game .....i.e. no good melee combat!!). However Bioshocks deep story made me realize that publishers are forgetting about story telling in their games, i think we as gamers need to realize that story telling is important
to a good game
experience.
For instance i am hoping to get into the game industry as a writer so i suppose i am a little jaded on this topic but still i think you everyday gamer agrees with my point that us gamers are begging for deeper more interesting stories in our games! So until the realise of Mass Effect in November i will have to be happy with Bioshock's rather linear story....there you have it another rant!! Thanks for reading!!!

An exerpt from a book i hope to publish

2007-08-16T17:17:00.000-07:00

The following is one of the three stories i have put together (a fourth is in the works....SPOILERS) in a compelation titled Tales of the Old, i would love to hear opinions and critizisms (smart ones "it sucked" doesn't help me improve my writing ability).

THE LOTTERY

57,383,15 to 1 those were the odds of winning the national lottery set forth by the death of a famous billionaire who wished, in his last will and testament, for his wealth to be given away in a national lottery. Barry Sopchick was not a gambling man, in fact he was 35 years old and since turning 21 he had only gambled twice. The first was a scratch game his dad had bought him on his 21st birthday, he lost of course. The second time was three seconds ago when he cast his name into the lottery for the dead billionaire’s money.

After casting his name he calculated the odds in his mind, 57,383,15 to 1. He sighed,

“Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.” He thought. He sighed again and turned off his computer, then he slipped into bed, secluding himself to the sobering reality that the odds were against him.

Odds, Barry’s entire life was about odds. In high school it was his father telling him the odds that he would get into the college he wanted to go to. In college it was the odds of getting a job, and now it was the odds of a stock going up or down, or the odds of a stock making the client money.

Needless to say Barry hated his job, price to earnings ratios, financial history, proposed outlooks he hated it all. In this incredibly unlikely lottery Barry saw a chance to start over, a chance to live his life for himself, not his father, not anyone.

The alarm beeped twice before Barry struck the off button with a sharp slap. He spent the next twenty minutes getting himself ready for what most people would call work. Barry internally had given it what he believed to be a more fitting name, the mad house. The mad house was located on the 13th floor of a very tall corporate building located in the middle of downtown New, York. As usual it took Barry thirty-eight minutes of driving his beat up Toyota Highlander to reach the private parking structure underneath the corporate building.

“Morning Percy.” Barry said to large security guard on the way to the elevator.

“Morning Mr. Shopchick.” The security guard said calmly.

68 seconds, it took the elevator 68 seconds to reach the 13th floor. Perhaps the large, or rather to be politically correct, charmingly rotund man who was slowing the elevator down. Regardless of how long it took to reach Barry’s office, when he reached it, it was a madhouse.

58, 49, 245 on and on the numbers poured in. Barry crunched them all and in some strange coincidence, perhaps formed by the endless possibilities of an un-comprehendible universe, at the end of the day Barry’s calculator read 57, 383, 15. Barry chuckled at this and thought to himself,

“I need a vacation, I’m starting to lose my mind.”
Chapter 2

Barry’s routine continued like this, endlessly and inevitably circling through the meandering frivolities of life. Fourteen days after Barry had cast his name in the lottery he found himself in his home, knuckles white with anticipation, staring at his computer screen. Barry’s own actions were surprising to him, he was a very practical man and had convinced himself that he would not get worked up about this lottery. He concluded to himself that we wanted so much to have a life for himself that he would jump at any chance to have one.

A flash on the screen snapped Barry out of his contemplation. The screen read, “The winner is Alfred B. Calawick.”

Barry’s knuckles were no longer white, they had calmed themselves with the reality, numbers and the physical do not lie. The odds were against him and just as the odds said he would, Barry lost. Almost silently Barry initiated his nightly routine and soon found himself lying him his bead staring at the ceiling.

Three A.M. “Why am I awake at 3 A.M.?” Barry thought as he wiped the sleep from his eyes. The ringing……there was a definite ringing noise. As his mind became more aware Barry realized the ringing was coming from his phone. Slowly, yet purposefully Barry grabbed his cell phone, opened it up, and placed it on his ear.

“Hello?” Barry struggled to articulate.

“Is this Mr. Shopchick?” The feminine voice on the phone asked.

“Yes it is.” Barry said.

“I would like to speak too you about the lottery you signed up for.”

“I thought a winner was already declared.”

“Yes, however when Mr. Calawick was an elderly gentleman who unfortunately had a rather severe heart attack which cause him to pass soon after.”

“So who is the winner now?” Barry asked with a slight hint of elation in his voice.

“Well Mr. Shopchick we did another drawing and it appears that you are the new winner. On behalf of everyone who worked on the lottery project I would like to congratulate you.”

It took the synapses in Barry’s brain three-and-a-half seconds to register the revelation. After the three-and-a-half seconds Barry clutched the phone with both hands, after calming himself with a few deep breaths, uttered,

“Oh…a … Thank you…my….my…gosh this…this is unbelievable!!”

“Once again congratulations sir, now too where would you like the money wired?”

Barry gave them his bank account number, then he slowly closed the phone. His hands were shaking so he decided to go get a glass of water to calm his nerves. He took three steps away from his bed and then his brain finally comprehended the enormity of what had just happened.

Barry fainted…

He awoke baptized in wealth, as he pushed himself up off the ground he looked around what he used to consider a quaint apartment. He saw only a prison, the size of his apartment was suffocating him.

Why should I live like this? Barry mused to himself.

As he stood up he decided that he shouldn’t live this way. Everything about this prison reminded him of his once menial life. Barry forgot about the glass of water and went straight for his closet. He pulled out his favorite suit and put it on. At this point Barry decided to check the clock, it was nine o’clock in the morning, his alarm hadn’t gone off. Normally this would have caused Barry to break into a dressing and eating frenzy in an attempt to get to work before his boss fired him. Today however Barry merely smiled slightly and slowly sat down to tie on his favorite pair of black dress shoes.

After thirty-eight and a half minutes of slowly eating breakfast, shaving, and brushing his teeth Barry grabbed his car keys and his wallet and headed for the door. He didn’t look back at his prison as he walked out the door and dropped his keys to prison on the doormat. He never planned on returning, why should he? That wasn’t his life anymore.

Barry didn’t see his car as his car anymore either.

A man of his wealth would not drive such a car!

Barry then abruptly drove his car too the local charity, walked in the door and dropped the keys to the car in the volunteers hands.

“Give it to someone who needs it.” He said thinking himself a very generous man.

To Barry’s surprise the volunteer scowled at him and said,

“Would you like a medal sir?”

“I’ll buy my own.” Barry said thinking the lady was being very ungrateful. With that he turned his back on the volunteer and walked out of the charity.

Forgetting about the obscenely ungrateful volunteer Barry walked over to the pay phone outside the charity. He pulled some change out of his jacket pocket and called the local cab company. He was about to give them the charity’s address when he had a change of heart. He hung up the phone, pulled out some more change, and called a local limo company.

No more taxies for a man of my wealth Barry concluded.

The long black limo drove up to the curb about twelve minutes later. It was a stretched Lincoln town car with shiny silver rims and fully tinted windows. A well dressed chauffeur got out of Lincoln, walked around the back of the Lincoln and proceeded to open the door for Barry.

This is more like it. Barry commented to himself.

Once Barry was situated in the car the chauffeur bent down and asked in a polite voice with a slight British inflection

“Where too sir?”

“Manhattan Bank.” Barry replied.

“Right away sir, enjoy the ride.”

Barry nodded to the chauffeur and poured himself a glass of Bourbon on the rocks.

The ride took a blissful thirty-eight minutes after which Barry exited the limo feeling rather good about himself.

“I’ll be back in a few minutes.” Barry said over his shoulder too the chauffeur. Who, in response, tipped his hat politely.

The Bank was deserted and why wouldn’t it be? It was right around ten o’clock in the morning and everyone was at work. Barry walked up to the closest teller and asked,

“I would like to check my account balance.”

“Absolutely sir may I see some ID?”

Barry reached in his jacket pocket and extracted a beat-up gray leather wallet.

Another thing I’ll have to replace Barry thought to himself.

Barry extracted his license and handed it to the teller.

“Thank you sir.” The teller said as he took the license from Barry. Then he typed in Barry’s information and brought up his account Balance. The teller’s eyes widened briefly after seeing the balance. The teller coughed softly and said

“Sir…a it appears you have an account balance of seven-hundred and fifty-eight billion dollars.”

Barry felt queasy again but he hid it well from the teller.

“Can I withdraw one billion?”

“Well…ah…sir I hate to be the one to tell you this but the bank does not carry anywhere near one billion dollars worth of cash in its vault.” The teller said as he rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

“Fine. Can I have 300 billion transferred to my checking account?”
“Absolutely sir.” The teller said as he happily transferred the money with a few strokes of the keyboard.

Barry said, “thank you.” Rather curtly and exited the bank feeling slightly irritated that he had nothing more material then a simple piece of plastic linked to a checking account, to account of his intense wealth. He got in the limo without so much as a glance at the chauffeur.

“You know a sports car dealer around here?” Barry asked the chauffeur.

“Yes sir there is a Lamborghini dealership just down the street.”

“Go there.” Barry commanded.

“Yes sir.” The chauffeur said while remarking to himself about his customers supreme lack of etiquette. He concluded the wealthier they are the ruder they are. This generalization was the product of years of work as a limo driver and, whether true or not, it was the motto this limo driver lived by.
Chapter 3

The Lamborghini dealer was just opening up when Barry stepped out of the limo and shook hands with the nearest salesman. Twenty minutes later Barry closed a deal on a brand new Lamborghini Diablo it was bright red so that it could not be missed by anyone as Barry drove down the street in it. The salesman shook Barry’s hand once again and handed him a new shiny pare of keys. Barry walked out of the dealer ship swirling the keys around his pointer finger. He walked over too the driver side window of the limousine, paid the Chauffeur with the last of the paper bills in his wallet, and walked over to his new Diablo. It purred to life almost instantly as Barry turned the key and gunned the million dollar machine out of the parking lot. He was on the highway in the blink of an eye zipping by cars as quick as he could. Seemingly just as quick a pair of red and blue flashing lights turned up behind him. Barry pulled over and parked his car, flicked his hazard lights on, and slammed his palms on the steering wheel angered at the nerve on this cop ruining his good time. The cop walked up rather pompously and signaled Barry to role down his window.

“License and registration sir.” Barry didn’t say anything as he handed the cop his license and registration.

“Stay here sir.” The cop said as he returned to his squad car and wrote Barry a five hundred-dollar speeding ticket. The cop returned to the Diablo ticket in hand.

“Do you have any concern for your fellow motorist sir?” The officer asked withholding the ticket.

“How much?” Barry asked.

“It’s a five hundred dollar ticket sir. If you want to you can appear in court a week from today.”

“Great thanks.” Barry said as he took the ticket and gunned the Diablo back on the highway. He took the next exit and followed the road signs right to the front door of the ritziest hotel in all of New York.

“Welcome sir.” The valet said as he opened Barry’s car door.

Barry nodded to the valet, got out of the Diablo and handed the valet key to the valet. Then he walked into the gold-adorned lobby. There was no line so Barry walked right up to the front desk and said,

“I’d like your penthouse suit and your finest tailor brought up to it.” The Front desk manager gave him a look of disbelief as he typed the order into a computer.

“How many nights do you plan on staying with us sir?” The front desk manager asked almost jokingly.

“At least seven days.”

“You’ll have to pay for those seven days now.” The Manager said apologetically.

“Fine.” Barry said and handed the manager his check card. The payment went through fine and the desk manager handed Barry a key card.

“ Have a nice stay sir.” The front desk manager said.

Five minutes, and a gold plated elevator ride later Barry was standing in the penthouse, feeling that he finally found an apartment with some breathing room. This breathing room consisted of a five hundred square foot room with a large balcony, a pool sized hot tub and a private butler. The tailor came up to the room a little while later and as Barry stood on his balcony letting the tailor size him up for fitting he made a decision.

Why should I only have one room? Why can’t I have the whole hotel.

Barry’s eyes widened as he saw the berth of possibilities he had. He signaled the tailor to stop and walked over to his room phone with a new sense of purpose. He picked up the phone and dialed the front desk.

“I am buying your hotel.” Barry said.

“So from there you purchased a large chain of these hotels, a five hundred million dollar mansion in the Bahamas and a three hundred million dollar winter home in Vermont?” The reporter asked.

“Along with millions of other things and a few very nice British suits, yes.” Barry said as he sat in a large leather chair in the middle of his winter home with a blazing fire quintile burning in the background..

“Looking back on the last twenty years of your life are you happy with what you have accomplished?”

The question hit home with Barry, it caused him pause. He had never really thought too deeply about his life after getting the billions. He sighed deeply and said, “I see all my purchases, my fake friends, and the lap of luxury and I realize that what I saw as my future and my happiness was ultimately my crippling black dot.” The reporter looked at her cameraman, this was not the answer she was looking for.

“What are you going to do with your money after your gone? Will you put it in another lottery?” The reporter asked trying to save her story. Barry thought about it and said, “There will be no more lotteries and I will take my money too my grave, for I wish no one too have to endure the realization that I just endured. I wish no one to come to a realization that there life was meaningless.” The reporter almost dropped her mike there was not way she was going to get this story broadcasted, there is no money in philosophy.

I should have covered the fashion show…at least people would have learned something interesting from that !

Lack Of Melee Combat

2007-08-16T11:04:00.000-07:00

One thing i am sorely disappointed in is the distinct lack of melee in many big name titles. Now bear in mind that when i say melee i mean real combat (like CQC or Judo) not just hitting
someone with the butt of your shot gun. SplinterCell had some truly amazing CQC moves in the latest installment DOUBLE AGENT, for instance when you grab an NPC by hitting him in the throat and pinning him against a wall. I feel the good melee combat strengthens a players immersion ten-fold as they feel like a real solider/badass (depending on the game). Im looking forward to Splintercell CONVICTION to see what ubi can cook up next
with regards to melee combat.
I would
also like to note one of my favorite games "The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay" for having the most immersive melee combat i have ever seen in the 1st person shooter (especially the knife/shiv fights). There latest game the Darkness also had some awesome finishing moves but felt the game had less of an immersion factor because the two sharp toothed heads on either side of the screen had no melee ability whatsoever (yet somehow were able to eat human hearts after the fact)......i know that is being pretty critical but it was something that bothered me the entire way through. So if any developer ever reads this (there i go again dreaming........) please put more immersive melee combat in your games! (and hideo kojima i love you as a developer but if you say you are going to put CQC in a game do it all the way not just the few moves you gave us in
Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater)

The Answer to Reloading!!!

2007-08-15T17:53:00.000-07:00

This is simply one of the many game related thoughts that popped into my head today. Basically i was thinking about the conflict of reloading in games. Reloading does allow for an important break in the action, however it does have a major downside, back-tracking!!!! So i thought that an answer to this would be a weapon that does not require reloading
in the typical sense, instead it would require you to oxygenate (or cool/heat depending on the games setting) the clip (by pulling it out of the gun, and loading it back in).
That way there is no need for backtracking but you still get the all important break in the action
(there is also the added bonus of not getting players frustrated by running out of ammo in the
middle of a fire-fight)! Let me know what you think of my thought....no pun intended (if anyone ever decides to read my rantings......which probably won't happen but alas i can dream!).

*NOTE: Halo has done something like this but in a less perfect sense (overheating) and the weapons still had a finite amount of ammo.

Halo an Analysis on Success!

2007-08-12T20:51:00.000-07:00

Halo is an extremely well known title, and a great success ( a multi-million dollar success!), but why is that? Today i examine why i believe halo was so successful. Lets start with the single player campaign. The story in the single player campaign was not all that complicated (don't kill me bungie!), you had the good humans, the bad covenant, and the out for themselves flood. In halo 2 some of this changed but from a player's perspective you always had a clear enemy. What i think made the halo campaign so much fun was the mixture of seriousness (the idea of entire planets being destroyed tends to be a mood killer) and comic relief (the grunts and the bantering of the human soldiers). Also the ability to play through the campaign cooperatively leads to some hilarious moments (such as "accidentally" strapping a plasma grenade onto your buddies head....) but this feature also gives you a reason to play through the campaign again (can u say replay value!). Less specifically Halo 1&2 allowed you to throw grenades on-the-fly with out switching weapons. This seemingly small feature actually adds allot to the flow and general speed of the game. This leads us to another point simplicity, Halo's features are not hard to learn or understand, which makes the game fun and easy to pick up and play.
Now let me move onto the main reason i think Halo is such a great success as a franchise, multi-player. First off Halo's multiplayer is easy to set up, this is because of two things, first off all the screens where you pick your map and general rules are well layed out and easy to read. Secondly (and i touched on this point earlier) Halo has a very short learning curve so any newcomer can get into the game quickly. However Halo succeeds where many game's fail when it comes too easy too learn hard to master game play. The more you play halo the more you learn about the subtle feature of many of the weapons and maps such as the pistol in Halo 2 having a red dot come up, or the recces on one of the cliffs in the famous map "beaver creek". These hidden features and locations separate the experts from the newcomers and allow for an ever ongoing competition on xbox live.
Well there you have it my rather short synopsis on how i think Halo succeed (their huge PR campaigns may have helped too!). Hope you enjoyed it and as always comments are appreciated!

2007-08-12T20:40:00.000-07:00

I started this blog because i felt that it was time for me to take my paper and pen writings into the digital era. I have been writing videogame analysis, short stories, and design documents since i was 10. My major interest has always been (and always will be) becoming a game writer and eventually (with any luck) a game designer. I hope that my passion for the game industry, storytelling, and interactive media in general will shine through my writings. Please enjoy what i have written and any feedback is appreciated!

                                                                             -Sincerely
                                                                                     CEO