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Feb 23rd, 2007 at 13:05:48 - Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES) |
Having played more of SMB:3, I can definitely say that the life system is really all I would chance. I love the way the levels are set up; They feel very different from sonic and even from each-other. Perhaps this comes from SMB:3 being the first Mario game I've ever played, but in Sonic all the levels blend together. Indeed, even the games often blend together. The first level is always a grass-based-level, then you have ruins or Technology, then more ruins... It's become predictable.
SMB:3 probably became predictable too; But I have not played enough Mario to know. Other than that, I really did enjoy how the game worked once I got the hang of it. The art doesn't strike me as being quite as high quality as Sonic art, though I realize that this was for the NES which doesn't have even close to as powerful spec's as the Genesis. Still; I would have liked more content in the art.
But yeah. I'm not really sure what else to say. It's definitely an interesting game either way. I look forward to playing more of it.
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Feb 23rd, 2007 at 13:05:40 - Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES) |
Gamelog
I'm not really sure where to begin with Super Mario Brothers three. The game is incredibly expansive and, as this is my first time playing a Mario game, I'm not exactly sure what, specifically, is new. Mario is one of the quintessential platform games out there, perhaps second only to Sonic in being Iconic to the genera.
I am, as a whole, not a big fan of Mario. Perhaps this stems from the fact that I played Sega as a child, and never had the urge to touch a Nintendo. Indeed; That probably is where my feelings come from. After all, back in the early 90's, it really was one or the other. You couldn't like both at my age. It just wasn't done.
Anyways; In regards to Mario. I like a lot of the aspects of the game. The vast array of power-ups present in SMB:3 gives the game a very unique feel for a platformer. The one thing I truly dislike, however, is that you lose powers on collision and that you cannot stack powers.
Perhaps these are just views brought on by my experience with more recent games; But perhaps not. I dislike games where you only have two or three hits before you die. In sonic, you had the opportunity to go and pick up the rings you lost. In Rocket Knight Adventures, you had hearts much like in Zelda. In mario, however, two hits and you're as good as dead, three and you are dead.
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Feb 9th, 2007 at 13:36:34 - World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (PC) |
WoW:TBC Part Two
When one compares the original Warcraft with the new warcraft, one finds that there is still hope for the game to become something better than it is. The Burning Crusade marks a sharp shift away from many of Blizzard's long standing ideas that had plagued the original WoW for most of it's life.
As a prospective game designer, It's something I'm glad to see. Given that blizzard payed almost now attention to WoW's players before the expansion it showed me that they can change their minds and add new things. Alas, there is still a lot of stuff in WoW:TBC That simply is not done well on the PVE side of things.
For example, one of the most highly anticipated additions was the Flying Mount. The Flying Mounts, however, do not really live up to the hype. It may just be that the first mount moves at the very slow speed of 160% of your base movement speed, a 40% drop from the Epic ground mount.
But there is more to it than that. The Epic mounts use the same interface as swimming, which is not an overly well done portion of the game, to say the least. This leaves the mounts lacking in terms of interest. It is impossible to do anything overly interesting with them, such as loop-de-loops or summersaults. Now, this is perhaps not an overly important issue, given the total lack of any mounted combat, however there are signs that mounted combat may soon be added. There are several quests which allow players to drop bombs off rented mounts, and numerous NPCs now have graphics for mounted combat.
The other things the Mounts are lacking is a way to decline at a reasonable pace. Other than flying straight down or jumping off, there are no other options. Compare this with the ability to rapidly rise by 'jumping' on the mount. Perhaps what mounts need most is a 'free fall' button that would turn off the flying aspect until it's hit again, so that you can get down from some of the boarder-line ridiculously tall towers at a reasonable pace.
All in all, however, I'm pretty impressed with how TBC Turned out. There's a lot here that I still need to digest, but I look forward to doing so. Hopefully we'll see more good ideas from Blizzard in the future.
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Feb 9th, 2007 at 13:28:02 - World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (PC) |
Gamelog: WoW: TBC
Part 1
Several weeks ago the long awaited Expansion to The Burning Crusade was released. With it came a host of new dungeons, 10 new levels, and more new content than we'd seen combined in the two years of WoW. Not only that, the new content was awesome. Most of the issues had been fixed.
Today, unlike last time, I'm going to focus on the PVE side of things and talk about the instance known as the 'Shadow Labyrnth' or 'Shadow Lab' for short. Shadow Lab is the fourth and final wing (for now) within the Instance Series known as Auchidoun.
Unlike the instances of the original WoW, many of the new instances have very little going on in terms of plot and/or quests. Shadow Lab is sadly no exception, despite how many opperunities there would be to add content. For the majority of the instance you're fighting Orc's and Demons of the Shadow Council, one of Warcrafts long time evil organizations. You're not really told why; Only that they're evil and must die. Oh, and they've summoned the Elemental Titan of Sound.
All in all, however, the instance proves to be a rather amusing passtime. Like many instances in TBC, the encounters have been drastically increased from the simple 'Tank and Kill' type to much more amusing fights. The first fight, against the Illidari Ambassador, is ofcourse a simple Tank fight. However, before you can battle him, you must defeat a large number of warlocks keeping him banished.
The Second fight is where things become much more interesting. After clearing a large room, you come face to face with an ogre mage. The fight begins simply, the mage casts a few spells, and mostly swings at the tank. However, at random intervals the Ogre will mindcontrol the entire party and make them fight eachother, generally draining manapools and causing havoc. A very interesting battle all in all.
Then, after another few hallways full of the same old mobs, we come to the third boss. This boss, yet another warlock, has the abilitiy summon and eat voidwalkers. The players must not only down the boss, but kill the voidwalkers before the reach him, or he'll do a rather large ammount of damage and heal significantly. At times the Boss will also freeze everyone and port them to him, before dropping fireballs on their heads. Over all, the fight is fun if not overly challanging. It does finally show that WoW can have some very cool scripted encounters, however. Hopefully we'll see more of this sort of thing in the future.
The final boss is against Murmur, the Elemental Lord of Sound. First off, let me just say I love the name murmur and always have. Other than that, the fight is interesting. Like all elemental lords in the game, (Ragnaros and Thundarrian), Murmur does not move. At all. Instead he uses a variety of interesting attacks. Perhaps the most interesting attack is one where he lashes out with a beam and flings the player around in circles. It's nice to see that WoW is losing its aversion both to knockback and to taking control away from players. Murmur also comes with several large and normal attacks such as a massive AoE attack, and a focused blast of sound that "liquifies your characers insides."
Over all, Shadow Labrynth showcases what WoW can do. It is a fun and amusing instance.
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Ramenth has been with GameLog for 17 years, 10 months, and 26 days |
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