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Apr 29th, 2011 at 11:57:01 - Dragon Age 2 (PS3) |
Dragon Age 2 – Saturday, Apr. 2nd (both games)
Dragon age 2 is the sequel to the popular Dragon Age Origins. It is a very story driven RPG, and the characters in it are extremely memorable. I played the version for the PS3.
Genre:
As I already mentioned, this game is a role playing game. However, Bioware (creators of the game) really stepped up the pace of this game with their character animations and the speed of various possible movements. In my opinion, this makes the game play feel like the game play of an action game while still being an entirely stats driven, tactical RPG like Dragon Age Origins. I consider this quite an improvement.
Initializing play:
For my first game, initializing play was about character creation. I messed around for a long time trying to get my character to look the way I wanted. After trying the look out, however, I decided to go with the default look for the male character. It was not all about looks, though. I also created my character to be a warrior (out of warrior, rogue, mage), and I set his stats by giving him almost entirely points towards constitution as I planned on making a tank.
Initializing play for my second gaming session was simply a matter of loading my save file.
The hero/plot:
One of the best things about this game, in my opinion, is that you get a lot of control over what your character says and how others perceive your character. Your hero could be a reluctant hero or the more traditional hero just depending on the various dialogue options you use. In Dragon Age 2 they added in voice acting for the main character, and it is my opinion that this really made Hawke likeable as character unlike in Dragon Age Origins where the Warden really seemed to have no personality or character.
This game builds on the tension present in the first game with the mages versus the templars and the chantry. And it has not lost its appeal as I found this still fascinating. There is also a lot more in this game to give the Qunari some background rather than just being foreign strangers. It also presents more mystery about what lies in the deep roads when Hawke and the others find that magic idol.
The world:
This game takes place almost exclusively within the city walls of Kirkwall. There are accessible areas that exist on the outskirts of this city too. This is a bit of a drawback to the game as I really wanted to see more places. However, it is also a great strength of the game because they really put a lot of work and detail into giving this city a lot of character. It was a very interesting place, built on the foundation of slavery. This parallels excellently with the city’s current form of slavery – the circle – which they so aptly placed in the gallows.
Game play:
For my first playthrough, I played up until Hawke joined with either the mercenaries or the smugglers (I chose the mercenaries). This was not very far into the game because I had spent so much of my time trying to create a decent looking character. The controls felt natural, likely in part to them being relatively the same as the controls for the first game. Leveling up was actually a lot more fun than in the first game. Most likely this is due to the level up system being a series of graphs rather than some table like in the first game. It may not be much different in the end, but the way that I perceived it changed the experience. I was most impressed by how much faster paced the game felt as well.
My second playthrough took me from that point until some point after finding Isabela. Isabella was a minor character that made an appearance in the first game. It was a little unnerving that she was supposed to be the same character, given that her appearance was so different. This was somewhat the case with Flemmeth earlier in the story, but Flemmeth was a shape-shifter anyway. So far, I am very interested in the backgrounds of Isabela, Anders, and Varric. I feel like their personalities are all very interesting. Anders (from Dragon Age Origins: Awakening) has become a very interesting character. I have watched my wife some as she played through the game, so I know how Anders becomes a terrorist in the end, and I really look forward to watching his progression into madness throughout the game.
Overall:
You cannot ask for a whole lot more from a game in terms of plot and character development (ESPECIALLY the latter). The gameplay is even very interesting, which is something I usually care the least about in an RPG. I really feel like they did a much better job making each character interesting than in the first game (I really hated Sten and Ohgren and did not care too much about them in general). Of course in this game, there is Sebastian. And Merill. However, neither are quite as bland as Sten was. Overall, this is a must play RPG, even if you only play for the interesting characters.
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Mar 29th, 2011 at 23:07:05 - Zelda II: The Aventure of Link (NES) |
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link – Saturday, Mar. 26th (both games)
Zelda II is the sequel to the successful The Legend of Zelda title. Both games are for the Nintendo Entertainment System. This game is similar in play to the side scrolling Castlevania games from the same era.
Genre:
Zelda II is an action game at heart, a role playing game in its execution, and a platformer in practice. The action element stems from the player’s limited inventory. The primary weapon that the player uses is the sword (which looks like and is used like a dagger for whatever reason). The player must be quick at the controls to hit his/her enemy in the weak spots while dodging incoming blows. However, the player has three primary stats that can be leveled which give it an RPG element: health (effectively defense), magic (reduces cost of using spells), and attack. In addition, there are stats which can be modified: defense can be modified with spells that the player may find, and max health and max magic points can be increased by collecting items. Most spells modify the character, such as the Jump spell (which increases the height of Link’s jump). Some spells, however, modify nearby enemies, such as the one that kills all enemies on the screen. Experience points are gained by killing enemies and by collecting EXP bags, and the points can be spent on a stat or saved for a different stat. In the end, though, this game is a platformer. This game is side scrolling like the original Mario and Castlevania games, and because of this, the player must often jump across ravines or traps and must dodge enemies.
Initializing play:
When the player first loads the game, he/she can name his/her game/character and begin the game. The game can be saved via a combination of buttons that will stop the game or by dying and running out of lives which also causes the save screen to come up. A player can resume his/her game on the load screen by selecting it. Unfortunately, he/she will start out at the very beginning of the game with the only differences being that his/her stats will be updated to whatever they were when the player saved, and his/her items/spells will remain as well. However, any experience points used to level up stats disappear, which can be very annoying, so it is best for the player to spend his/her experience points when he/she is about to lose the last life.
The hero/the plot:
The story is not very fleshed out. Supposedly, Link is the same hero from the first Zelda game. In the first game, Link was a traditional hero in that there was really no reason for him to have gone on his journey to save Zelda save that he is just a nice guy and could. His motives in the second game are rather unclear. Zelda has been put into an eternal slumber by Ganon’s followers who remained after his death. They are trying to resurrect Ganon – by using Link’s blood. This introduces a second motive for Link; if he sits around and does nothing, then Ganon’s followers will eventually kill him and succeed.
The world:
The game is spatially segmented with an over world. In this top-down view, Link journeys across the world looking for towns and dungeons, neither of which are necessarily easily discovered. Enemies appear after a certain time period and roam around the screen. If Link comes into contact with an enemy, he enters into an area with the traditional side view. This area is small, but it is filled with whatever types of enemies are native to that location. Once Link makes it to the end of the area (the boundary) on either the left of right side, he returns to the over world.
The over world divides the world up in two major ways. First, it spatially separates towns, dungeons, and caves (and often caves are two-way and divide the over world). Second, various obstacles, such as water or large rocks, separate one part of the map with another, requiring Link to obtain a specific item to continue. This divides the game into some linear pieces, requiring some levels to be beaten before others. Otherwise, any level can be beaten in any order.
Towns in this game have residents, many of which who will talk with you and tell you next to useless information. In addition, some of the younger women will let Link inside of their homes to heal him, and the older women will do the same but restore his magic (and who knows how this is accomplished). Also, a select few inhabitants have items to give, spells to teach, or sword techniques to teach Link so that he can become more powerful/continue on his journey.
Caves generally separate areas of the over world, but they may also contain items (some optional). Heart containers increase max health. Bottles increase max magic. And finally, little trophies shaped like Link increase the player’s number of lives by one. Caves generally contain enemies, and most of them are pitch black unless the player has obtained the candle.
There are many dungeons in this game. All of the dungeon bosses of the first six dungeons (also called palaces) must be defeated to unlock the entry to the final palace. Dungeons are mazes full of enemies and are progressively harder (by type/frequency of enemies and by complexity of maze).
Game play:
In my first session, I played through the first level and part of the second level. My strategy was to primarily level up my attack. Each level up in attack halves the number of hits that it takes for an enemy to fall, and I knew that I would not need as much health if I could kill the enemies quickly. I learned anew that the little blue blobs that are able to lunge at your character are extremely annoying, even if they are easily dispatched. This is due to the mechanics of controlling the game. It is very difficult to jab their small hitbox, especially given the speed at which they jump at you. I remember them being easier, probably due to the ability that the player gets further into the game which allows him/her to jump and stab downwards exactly as Link does for his in the air downward smash in the Super Smash Brothers series.
I have never done well at killing iron knuckles in this game, and this was especially true during this play through given that I am really rusty on the controls. The action element of this game really comes into play fighting these things. I know that there is an easy way to kill them (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9yhg7_zelda-ii-how-to-kill-a-iron-knuckle_videogames), but timing my jumps and strikes is difficult. The alternative though is to watch whether or not it will strike at your head or your gut and to try to block it and attack in the narrow timeframe between attacks, which I certainly cannot do.
My second session was nothing short of a disaster. I finished up level two easily enough, but level three was just too difficult. First of all, there was an abundance of enemies with high health that could jump and throw stuff at you. Second of all, there was an abundance of high health iron knuckles which I have yet to be able to kill easily.
The primary reason for failing at this dungeon, however, was the introduction of the blue iron knuckle. This thing can throw his knives at you at a very fast pace. I just cannot control my character well enough yet to kill these things effectively. What was worse though was that the first blue iron knuckle was placed immediately following a dark red one (similar to the regular iron knuckle, but with more health). Once I did finally manage my way through these enemies, the boss was none other than a supercharged blue iron knuckle. Its first phase is on horseback where it tries to gore you with a lance. Once I made it past this form, I found that it turned into a regular blue iron knuckle which then killed me. Out of frustration, I ended my gaming session.
Overall:
Overall, this game is enjoyable, albeit incredibly frustrating and difficult. I played this game years ago and never could beat the final level because I would lose most of my lives travelling from the beginning (since this is the location on the map it puts you when you load a save) to that level. If the developers had just added a few more spells or reduced the number of enemies, the game would be more enjoyable. As it is, you should not play this game unless you want a real challenge and have the time to overcome the timing issues for executing moves properly. Also, you need some time to level your character’s stats up. Good luck staying alive long enough later in the game to get the number of points necessary to level your stats.
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Jan 27th, 2011 at 00:15:34 - Spades (Other) |
Spades: Tuesday, Jan. 25th (both games)
Spades is a fairly simple (depending on what extra rules you use) multiplayer (2v2) card game. The game is similar to Hearts in that play is segmented into rounds which are segmented into “tricks.”
The cards:
For both games, we used standard player cards 2-10, Jacks, Queens, Kings, and Aces of all four standard suits (hearts, spades, diamonds, and clubs). Cards are ranked by their number in the case of cards 2-10. The remaining cards are ranked as follows: Jacks < Queens < Kings < Aces. These rankings only apply to cards of the same suit. Cross-suit rankings depend on the current state of play. The spades suit is considered the suit of trumps and always wins versus any card of any other suit. There are some limiters placed on spades that will be discussed later on in this review.
Initializing play:
Each team is made up of two people. It is important that when seated (such as at a card table) that team members sit across the table from one another as table talk between team members is prohibited. Each team starts with a score of zero. Cards are shuffled and distributed evenly such that each player receives thirteen cards at random. This process of shuffling and dealing occurs between each round of play. The role of “dealer” is passed on to the person to the left of the last dealer.
Bidding:
Bidding is one of the primary strategic elements of the game. Good bidding can easily make the difference between a bad hand and a good hand or a good hand and a great hand. Simply put, each player takes turns telling how many tricks they believe they will win.
There are two major options for bidding. First, players can bid 1-13 tricks. During the round, teams aim to take exactly the number of tricks that they bid collectively. If a team does not make what they bid, they are deducted points equal to the number of tricks that they bid times ten. If the team collectively makes exactly what they bid on collectively, then they are rewarded points equal to their bid times ten. If the team makes over what they bid, then they are rewarded points as if they made exactly their bid plus one point per trick over their bid. They are also given “sandbags,” one for each trick over their bid. If a team collects ten sandbags at any pint during the game (and this can happen multiple times to the same team during play), then that team is deducted one hundred points. This system encourages exact bids.
The second option for bidding is for one (or both, if so desired (you really should not so desire)) member(s) of a team to bid “nil.” This means that this player has decided to not win any tricks in the round. His/her team member or enemies can win tricks, but a player who bids nil and wins a trick forfeits one hundred points for his/her team. On the flip side, if said player manages to not win any tricks that round, he/she is rewarded with one hundred points for his/her team. Note that rewards and punishments for going nil are often variable depending on who you ask. Adding/deducting one hundred points for nil hands is my preference.
The first person to bid per round must be the player to the left of the dealer. Bidding is one of the few ways that a player can communicate to his/her partner (consequently, this communication is available to all players). If a player’s team member bid very high, then the player may want to bid nil, knowing that his/her teammate may have a complimentary hand which could keep him/her from winning tricks. In addition, knowing what others have bid can help a player decide what he/she would like to bid. Each round (or hand) has thirteen tricks to win, so if you are the last to bid and if there are only seven tricks bid on collectively, you may wish to consider whether or not you can take the other six tricks. Of course, other players may underbid just to throw you off, so you must be careful.
Playing a hand:
The player who bid first must be the first to play. He/she begins the first of thirteen tricks by laying down a card of any magnitude and of any suit other than spades. This is the limiter on spades – they cannot be played immediately. Other players must lay a card down from their hand. They do so in order (after one player lays down a card, the player to his/her left must play a card). The card that each player lays down must be of the same suit as the card from the one who began the trick (the leading suit) if possible. If a player does not have a card of that suit, he or she must play a card of a different suit. The leading suit is higher than any card of any other suit played in the trick other than a spade. Therefore, if the player who cannot follow the leading suit wishes to take the trick (assuming that other players can still follow suit and will not win the trick with a more powerful card), then the player should lay down a spade. This is one way that spades can be introduced into play. The other way is if the one leading a trick has only spades left in his or hand, then he/she must play a spade. Once spades have been introduced into play during a hand, players can make them the leading suit for a trick whenever they lead.
Leading the first trick of the game is usually easy if a player has any aces. These cards should be played first, followed by any kings of the same suit(s) as the ace(s). This is of course assuming that the leading player wishes to win several tricks and has not gone nil for the hand.
After all four players have laid a card down during the trick, the trick is over. The winner of the trick is decided by the rules previously mentioned and must collect the cards face-down for their team. The winner then becomes the leader for the following trick and play cycles in this manner until all thirteen tricks have been exhausted. At this point, teams are rewarded or deducted points and the new hand begins with shuffling, dealing, and bidding again.
Playing the game:
First game:
My partner and I played a safe game for the majority of the time as did our opponents. Our bids averaged at six collectively for each hand. Near the end of the game, the scores were 433 (my team) and 462. It was apparent that the other team would win since they had few sandbags (we were playing to a score of 500). Therefore, I decided to go nil (I was the second to last to bid) even though I knew it would be difficult with two aces, the jack of spades, and the ten of spades (not to mention a lack of twos and the fact that my partner only bid three). The other team bid eight collectively (when a player bids nil, the hand is much different, and players often win more hands than they would otherwise – a fact I was counting on). Within the first few tricks, I had already broken my nil bid! This of course meant that we would lose one hundred points. However, my plan was for my team to win as many tricks as possible so that the other team would lose eighty points, thus extending the game and giving us another chance. Apparently, my partner had overestimated his hand and could not win those three tricks he bid (he won only one). And I was unable to win more than four tricks. So, the other team received their eighty points, and our team lost.
Second game:
We decided to play a variant in which a team that was behind by at least 200 points could “blind nil.” A blind nil must be declared before a player looks at his/her cards in some hand. This person then can trade one card with his/her partner. The points that can be won or lost with a blind nil are much greater than with a regular nil; you are playing for 200 points, and if you do not get them, then you lose 200. This element is fun to play with, though with it, at almost any point it could be either team’s win (unless of course you keep the other team consistently behind by more than 100 points but less than 200 points which is difficult to do).
My team’s bad luck at the end of the first game continued into game two. So it was no surprise that we were down by 200 two-thirds of the way through. My partner went for the blind nil, but unfortunately our trade was not good enough. We never caught up, and the other team made quick work of us.
These were my favorite two ways to play spades. I usually stick to the first way, but sometimes it is fun to goof off a little more (not play so competitively) and just add in the blind nil element to the game.
Overall, spades can be a pretty competitive or light game. The amount of time spent per game is variable depending on what you set the score limit to and also depending on how many times each team gets deducted points. The most annoying part is having to keep score, but honestly, it is not that big of a deal. The fun of the game greatly outweighs the annoyance of score-keeping. My family has played a more boring ten tricks version with a fifty point limit on going nil for as long as I can remember, so Spades has been a part of my whole life. Try it yourself if you have not already. With the right group of friends, it could become a staple for get-togethers for you too!
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Jan 27th, 2011 at 00:21:03.
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