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Oct 21st, 2012 at 12:05:33 - League of Legends (PC) |
With the subject of balance in mind, League of Legends does an outstanding job putting together new champions almost every week that don’t overpower previous champions. As of now, there are over 100 champions to choose from, so balancing all of them is a tremendously sensitive and difficult task.
Just recently I purchased the champion Olaf, the berserker. He is a bearded barbarian who carries around 2 axes wearing a 2-horned hat. The first thing I did when I purchased Olaf, as I do with all new champions, is look at the 4 abilities assigned specifically to him. Typically, his first ability is a damaging/slowing ability, his second adds lifesteal/damage to his auto-attacks, his third is a heavy-hitting damage attack, and his ultimate gives him extra armor/magic resistance along with making him immune to stuns/immobilizes.
As I began to play a few rounds with Olaf, I rather enjoyed his first three abilities but couldn’t quite understand how a damage mitigation ability fit in with the rest of his offensive abilities. I found myself not using it as much because I saw it as an “oh crap!” button for use when I’m about to die.
Knowing that there must be a reason for this, I played a few more rounds to further understand Olaf’s mechanics. What I learned was that his ultimate ability, in my opinion, is most certainly not for use only in near-death situations, although it can definitely help there as well. As I became more comfortable with Olaf and his other abilities, I began using his ultimate offensively as well to counter enemy champions slowing attacks. This allowed me to power through their slow while using my own slowing attack to not only catch them, but kill them and get away safely.
Overall, I enjoyed playing as Olaf and learning his mechanics. I also feel that he is balanced just as all the other champions are through his assigned offensive and defensive abilities.
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Oct 13th, 2012 at 19:08:06 - Guild Wars 2 (PC) |
The other day I got the chance to get back into the world of Tyria in Guild Wars 2. I decided to play my level 35 Ranger as he is my highest and fastest progressing character so far.
When I logged in I decided to try out a new zone, so I ventured to a place called Harathi Hinterlands which the game recommends to characters of levels 35-45. Being at the bottom of that bracket made the quests a bit more challenging, which was certainly a nice change of pace. Something great about Guild Wars 2 is the higher level monsters you fight relative to your own level, the better chance you have of getting more rare loot. During my few hours of play in this zone, I actually got a piece of “rare” armor. A MMO veteran may scoff at this, claiming that they get rare pieces of armor from completing quests all the time; however, the rarity system in Guild Wars 2 is a bit different. In Guild Wars 2, an items’ rarity is determined by color as well as whether it is “junk,” “basic,” “fine,” “masterwork,” “rare,” “exotic,” and “legendary.” Normally, I’ll come across a good amount of masterwork items when I play for a few hours, but never have I received a rare item until yesterday when I was battling against enemies 7-9 levels my senior. What stunk was that I couldn’t even use the item that dropped! It was a pair of cloth boots, and I can only wear medium weight (leather) armor on my ranger.
Other than loot, I had an amazing time the other day and definitely experienced what I felt was the most intense dynamic event I’ve been a part of so far. It involved myself and about 20 others running around a campsite that had been taken over by a Centaur tribe in an effort to take it back for Humans. Once we had killed several named commanding officers among the Centaur tribe, there was an overall leader with the power to control wind or something along those lines. He was extremely powerful and had a TON of hit points. Even with ~30 players, it took us all about 10-15 minutes to bring him down. The scale of the entire event is what really drew me in, though. I felt like I was part of something that required teamwork and coordination, not just a mass of bodies throwing themselves at another raid boss.
I hadn’t even noticed that while doing all this that I had leveled 5 times! It’s rare that I don’t pay attention to leveling up, so for me this meant that the game had drawn me in to a degree I can’t remember the last time I experienced.
Another great day in the world of Tyria, for sure.
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Oct 5th, 2012 at 18:06:39 - Jetpack Joyride (iPd) |
Months and months ago I had downloaded Jetpack Joyride after reading a few reviews saying it was the most awesome game people had ever played. While I didn't think it was absolutely the most awesome game I'd ever played, I definitely was not let down.
Jetpack Joyride is a free one-touch endless runner game for mobile devices. What makes it so great and gives it a substantial amount of replay value is it's in depth "stash" system. The stash is essentially a store where you can spend coins which you collect while on your joyride to buy new items such as different jetpacks which have different visual effects, gadgets that alter the mechanics of your joyride, one-time use items, and even a different set of clothes for Barry Steakfries, the main character! Throughout the ride, you touch the screen to boost Barry up, and let go to decelerate down. As your distance is tracked in the corner, you are basically tasked with dodging things in your way while trying to complete missions that are given to you one after another such as, "Get 350 coins in one run."
This game could have been just another endless runner, but made it big because Halfbrick Studios realized its true potential and really capitalized on it.
Here I am writing this GameLog about a year later picking this game up again because my girlfriend recently purchased a Kindle Fire, and now plays it as well. In Jetpack Joyride, there is a lot of competition to be had in who can fly the longest distance, pick up the most coins per run, etc. Also, being a completionist, I feel this urge to get all the achievements and purchase all the gadgets too! Honestly, this game has turned into a major time sink, making it great, but in the worst way!
If you enjoy dodging electric zappers and missiles, riding in mechanic dragons and teleporters, and "jetpacking" your way across an endless room, you'll certainly want to try out this game.
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Sep 30th, 2012 at 20:27:08 - Zenforms: Protectors (iPd) |
Just the other day a game for iOS was released called Zenforms: Protectors. It is a monster capture and battle game in which the player is a young child whose first day of “protector” school is right around the corner. After what seems like 10 minutes of instructions (which may have seemed that long because I have been impatiently awaiting this games release) the player gets through some story fluff and follows Keith, your best friend in the story, to Protector school where they learn about Zenforms. You’re prompted to pick your first Zenform out of a pool of 3 different types. It’s fair to say that the entire game so far feels a lot like Pokémon, but with a twist. So far, if what I understand is correct, there are only 3 Zenforms, which are called “newborns.” These newborns can then evolve into 3 different phases. The phase they evolve into is determined by which stat you choose to increase over time: strength, defense, and speed.
Just like Pokémon, when the player runs into some brush, there is a chance that they will be attacked by a wild Zenform. Something that I found interesting is that the same Zenforms can be found in a variety of different colors. I’m not 100% sure, but so far I don’t believe color has an effect on the stats of a Zenform. I have only put about 45 minutes into Zenforms: Protectors so far, but the last thing I remember doing is following Keith to a Zenforms shop where you can buy new ZENCrystals which are used to capture new Zenforms. These are essentially Poké balls from Pokémon used to catch monsters. The last thing I learned before saving my game is that the only way to progress through the story is to return to your house and choose to sleep through the night. I’m not sure exactly how I feel about this just yet as I’m not sure of the scale of the world as of now. If the world is enormous, returning home to progress the story would seem like a pain to me, but I’ll find out soon enough. Overall, I am really enjoying the experience Zenforms: Protectors generates so far and I’m glad someone has come even remotely close to recreating the Pokémon look and feel.
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sharri21 has been with GameLog for 12 years, 2 months, and 22 days |
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