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Apr 25th, 2013 at 01:12:12 - Heavy Rain (PS3) |
Heavy Rain is an interactive drama action-adventure video game that was developed exclusively for the PlayStation 3 by Quantic Dream. I have finished the game twice, the first time was one year ago and I just finished the game again 2 weeks ago. This game has brought me an unique experience in the gameplay and a very strong impression on the story.
-Story and Characters-
In this game, you will have 4 playable characters and the game is divided in to a number of scenes, each scene you can only play one of them and learn the story via their actions. This is like a Point-of-view type of novel (A Song of Fire and Ice is a great example of this). You will start by playing Ethan Mars, an architect who has a happy family with his wife and two sons. Later, his son Jason dies in a accident which is kind of his fault, and he blames himself so much after that. Everything falls apart after that. After that, you will learn a story about a serial killer, which is called The Origami Killer, who takes his second son Shaun and test Ethan to make him sacrifice in order to get his son back. Other characters are Norman Jayden, a detective FBI who tries to catch the Origami Killer with the police force, Madison Paige, a pretty journalist who meets and becomes friend of Ethan, then later help him find the killer and his son. The last character is Scott Shelby, a former police officer and currently working as private detective, also works on the case of the killer. All of them have their all troubles, they have different stories, motives and methods to work on this case, and their perspective help you understand the story in different way. The story of the game is intense, depressed at times but very intriguing, once the you get a better understanding about the game you will not want to stop playing it to know what happen next.
-Gameplay-
This game has very special gameplay, but it does not mean that is greater than other games. Half of the time the player has to move the character around and make them interact with other people or objects by pushing series of button of shaking the controller vertically or horizontally. Also, they can pull up "thoughts" to show clues about what they are supposed to do. Although it is quite boring and frustrated sometimes because there are not much you can do, sometimes you can still feel happy after finding an important clue about the game, which will greatly change the outcome. The other half of the time is quick time event. It is quite simple, you just have to push the required buttons showing up on the screen in a limited time, or your character will fail at that event. This is kind of easy in my opinion, and in some events, when you screw up most of the quick time events, the outcome does not actually change. It only matters in the later of the game.
The game has 3 difficulties: Easy, Normal and Hard.There are not much difference between the three level, and even the Hard difficulty is not challenging at all, so if you are a hardcore gamer who just want a tough game, you will not find it in this game.
-Design-
The graphics in this game is great. The characters are well design, and they are model after certain people in real life. The voice acting, the animation is also developed very careful, however sometimes it seems a little bit chunky and awkward (characters walk with their head straight forward most of the time). The environmental design is not just good, they are excellent, when the environmental atmosphere serves the purpose of the game very well. There are rains, lots and lots of rain, which is very depressing, and of course the story is also very depressing too. The way the Origami Killer kills his victim is by putting them in a sewer and wait for them to drown when it rains too much, so the environmental atmosphere is not just to make players feel sad, it serves the killing method as well. The sound effect and the background music of this game are also spectacular, they fit the scene perfectly. The game takes place in a real world with normal people so it is very realistic, there are no abstract levels of this game.
-Ending-
This game has so many different endings, and what makes it even more special is there are no "game over" screen. Even when player has screwed up and could not find the killer, there is still an ending. For the playable characters, they can die in the middle of the game as well, and the story still continues. When a character dies, the follow chapters in which the player can control him/her is skipped, so the player cannot learn further clues from his/her perspective. However, at a point you will still know who is the killer, only the other characters in the game might not know, and the killer might escape when the game ends. This is an unique feature of the game, and no matter what ending you get, it all makes sense.
-Replayability-
Although the game has numerous of endings, it is a very linear game and the killer is revealed the same way every time so you might not want to play it more than once. Just be happy with whatever the ending you have.
-Gamelog-
It took me about 8 hours to finish one play-through. The epilogue of this game seems a bit too long, although it is necessary as it builds up the later part of the story. After about two hours of epilogue and getting to know all the character background, the main story of finding the Origami Killer began. Every chapter is important in the game, they are not made just to make the game long enough, they are there to provide you clues about the origami killer. However, I am not a big fan of the control of this game. I started playing in hard difficulty, and I felt very frustrated after shaking my controller so many times, so I switched back to easy. The point is the hard difficulty is not hard, it has more complicated series of button but it is not more challenging, I just did not want to destroy my controller. I think it would be better if I played with PlayStation Move.
Without spoiling major things, let's just say I screwed up 2 parts when playing Ethan Mars, not because I failed at something, just because I decided not to choose to listen to the killer's instruction (I felt very sorry for Ethan so I did not want to do it to him). The result is I ended up having to guess where is his son with 3 over 5 clues he is supposed to get. Turned out later when I played Madison Paige I found who is the killer. I was very surprised and excited when I made it. Later I was able to save Ethan's son and catch the Killer, so I was very happy about the game. In the second play-through I only play to get to know better about the game and test several different things to see if it may affect the outcome. Turns out there are not many things that affect the consequences, even when I fail intentionally on some quick time event scenes. Only in the later part of the game, you will receive real different consequences if you fail at something.
-Verdict-
This is a very well made game with an intense story and detailed design. I cannot express my feeling when I first finish the game. For what I feel that is not good enough, it is definitely the gameplay and the control. Although the developer tried the best they could to deliver unique gameplay and experience, I think it would be better if the gameplay was various. For example, there was a shooting scene but all you do is still pushing buttons in the quick time event, that just feels disappointed in my opinion. However, If you are the type of player who likes to appreciate many aspects of a game, not just gameplay, I highly recommend this game. It is like reading a book or watching a movie where it is up to you to decide what the ending is going to be.
This entry has been edited 3 times. It was last edited on Apr 25th, 2013 at 01:46:50.
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Feb 28th, 2013 at 13:41:41 - Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction (PC) |
Diablo II, with an expansion pack named Lord of Destruction is an action role-playing hack and slash video game developed by Blizzard. The game was first released on 2000, and one year later, the expansion pack LoD came out with a lot of new features and improvements, making it one of the best games to play ever.
=Storyline= (as I played the game a long time ago, I might not be able to point out every single details or telling the proper story, but I will try to describe it).
The game has a dark, horror theme with violent actions (including blood). At the beginning, the game's story is divided into 4 Acts with 4 different locations. Act I you began in Rogue Encampment, a camp near the forest of Tristram. Act II is the desert of Lut Gholein, Act III is the fallen kingdom Kurast, Act IV is Hell. After the expansion, the game is added one more act located on Mount Arreat in the northern Barbarian Highlands. In each act, you have a set of quests that you need to do as the story proceed. There are some quests that are optional, however, you always have to complete the last quest, which is killing the Boss of that Act, in order to proceed to the next Act. The game is very linear, as you play the game, the things you do are pretty much predetermined, however, there are still some random generated dungeons or areas where you can spend time discovering and killing everything inside, just for fun, or for the sake of looting and leveling. The game has 3 difficulties that is unlocked after you finish the previous one (Normal, Nightmare, Hell).
=Characters=
The game initially has 5 different characters, with different skill set and equipment. These include Amazon, Paladin, Barbarian, Necromancer and Sorceress. Later, they added 2 more characters, Assassin and Druid, making the game even more fun to play. As mentioned above, the character that you choose has an unique skill set and their stat attributes that can be increased when leveling up (you get 1 skill point and 5 attribute points to spend each time you level up). Based on your play style, and your strategy, you can decide to build your characters in different way and find different skill combos to fight. However, if you play long enough and get to high level with tough enemies, you will know that there are only some ways you can build one character, because not all skill are that great versus enemies. Your stats, besides providing more strength, speed and health or mana in combat, can be used to meet the requirement to equip some armors or weapons, so be careful and build it accordingly. Last but not least, besides your main character, you can hire a follower to support you during the game, and you can also equip items for him/her.
=Items=
It is undeniable that items play a very important role in the game. Each character has a number of slots that can be filled with armors, weapons and accessories. Items that you equip can aid your character in various way: increase attack, defense, speed, attribute points, skill points and special abilities. As you proceed to higher difficulty, the enemies are stronger but also have higher chance to drop rare items. Item names have different colors indicated the rareness of it, and of course the rarer it is the stronger it is likely to be. First you start with mainly white item, which is item with no bonus stat. Then, the blue items with only a few lines of bonus. The rare items (yellow) will bonus even more (up to 6 lines). Set items (green) can be specialized for certain character (for example, set items for Paladin cannot be equipped on Amazon) and if you have the whole set, then they can bonus you with special stats and abilities that are unlocked when you equip the whole set. Legendary items (dark yellow), are of course the rarest and most powerful items in the game, with a strong stats and a lot of bonus lines. However, sometimes having the whole item set makes you stronger that having only legendary items.
=Gameplay=
As mentioned above, the game is action hack and slash type of game, so pretty much what you do in the game is smash the mouse and skill buttons. Mainly, you can choose 2 skills on the two slot that can be triggered with your mouse. Does that mean you can only use 2 skills at one time? Well not exactly, since you can switch very fast between skills by setting up the hotkey. So that means when using only left mouse and right mouse to use your skill, you can use your hotkey to switch between different skills very fast, making it pretty easy to use as many skills as you want. During combat, if sometimes you are hurt pretty bad, you can use potion to regenerate your health and mana. The potions are placed in your belt, so the type of belt you use allow you to equip a certain number of potions. However, you can always open the inventory and right click the potion to heal, it works just fine, but only less convenient.
After killing single enemy on the map, what do you do? You loot. As simple as that, but looting is the most fun and enjoyable part of the game. You pick up items on the ground, see which item is strong to equip, and which item is valuable to sell in shop. Some items are not yet identified (which means you cannot read the "value" of that item yet), and you have to use the red scroll to "read" it. The game makes you only be able to carry a limit amount of items, so you have to go back and sell it, or just drop it on the way.
=Enemies=
In each Acts, there are certain types of enemies, mini bosses and one final boss. The enemies initially are weak, and not aggressive. They only hit you if you attack them first, which is nice. And then they become tougher and tougher, with special abilities (deal lightning when being hit, freeze you when attacking, or explode when they die), but you can read the tiny description that is located below their name and health, to know what ability they have, in order to have proper strategy against them. Besides the Mini Bosses and Final Bosses that always appear in some certain area, there are elite packs and mobs that can be very powerful that are randomly generated. Killing these enemies can drop a lot of rare items, so finding and killing them is very fun.
=Overall=
This is the first game that I have ever played on my very first computer (I did not own any consoles until college, so my life sucks) and it is indeed one of the best games ever. With fast paced actions, easy control and the glory of looting makes it still enjoyable after you clear the map hundreds of time. It is too good that it makes Diablo 3 quite failed the expectation that huge fans like me had hoped for.
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Feb 5th, 2013 at 13:33:10 - Horse Race (Board Game) (Other) |
Because I haven't played any board games or card games since I came to the States, I will choose a very famous board game in my Vietnam my country, called "Cờ cá ngựa" (meaning Horse Race). This is a multiplayer, non co-operative (every-man-for-himself) kind of board game, but it is very fun and simple, because its main audiences are kids. The theme of the game is very casual, with maybe some sort of PG-13 violence (no blood or whatsoever)and may require some decision makings at times. Players are managers of a horse stables, trying to get their horses out and make them run around the board by rolling the dice , then make the horses arrive to their new stables safely.
= Players =
This game allows maximum 4 players (player can even play all by himself if he is a sad lonely person, like me sometimes). Each person will have their own stables with 4-5 horses, which depends on the board you buy. That means their roles are all the same and they need to reach the same goal, only in different locations.
= The Board =
This is the picture of the board
http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc261/lamngocrang/Cocangua.jpg
The original stables are located at 4 corners of the map and painted in 4 different colors. There are 4 starting points that can be seen as highlighted circles place next to the stable. The ending points for each stable are actually on the left of starting points, however that does not mean players need only one step to get there, they have to make the horse go all the way from right to left to get to the point, which means 1 whole round. The horses cannot go further than the ending point, it can only run maximum one round. When the horse arrive to the ending point, it needs one more condition to go in the new stable safely, otherwise it maybe endangered (will explain later in gameplay)
= The Horses =
As mentioned, there are 4-5 horses for each stables, depends on the type of board you buy. The horses look like the Knights in Chess game. The horses do not have any kind of super powers of special abilities, however it does have one ability: kick opponents back to their stables. To get the horse out of the stable, you need to roll the dice and get maximum point (which is 6,and after that, it can move according to the point you get each time you roll the dice, as long as there is no other horse ahead of him (will explain more specifically later)
= The Stables =
This refers to the stables at the end point. As shown in the picture of the board, the stables have 6 spots marked from 1 to 6. When a horse finishes his race and stand in front of the stables, the player needs to roll the dice one or few more times to make it go the highest spot possible (for example, the first horse to arrive the ending point needs 6 points from the dice to go to spot 6, the second horse needs 5 points, and so on).
= The Gameplay =
This game has very simple gameplay, requires no complex rules or logic. As mentioned, to make the horse start the race, players need to roll the dice and get 6 points. However, getting six points means he can get another chance to roll the dice, so if someone is lucky enough or cheats (I do not know how to cheat though) to get a lot of 6 points, he continue his turn for a really long time. If he gets 6 points when he already have one horse running, he can either choose to move that horse further, or getting another horse out of the starting point. Since the game does not allow more than one horse at the same spot, players cannot have 2 horses sitting on the starting point, or any other points on the board.
When there are several horses on the board, the violence starts to trigger (no blood though, but you can add ketchup if you want). In before, the horse have one and only one ability: kicking other horses back to their stables (normally there are no friendly fires but if the player is crazy enough then why not, he can do whatever he wants). However, to kick another horse, it has to be in range (from 1 to 6 steps away), and player needs to have the exact points needed to kick it (for example, if the opponent's horse is 3 points away from your horse, the player has to have 3 points to kick it, he cannot have 5 points to kick the horse then move 2 more steps further. If he cannot kick it, he can move 1 or 2 steps to get closer to his opponent's horse). There are only one spot where the horse is completely safe and cannot be kicked, that is the starting point. The horses cannot move to other stables' starting points, they simply move past that. They can step to the ending points however, which mean that they can kick or be kicked when standing in the ending points. This makes the game very interesting and hurtful at times, and believe it or not, it happens more than you think.
To make the game even more fun, some additional rules are added sometimes. For example, the players can roll 2 dices at once, the horses can kick back (this is the rule that I particularly enjoy, and it means that the horse step back and kick other horses if he wants, the rules is basically the same as forward kicking). One more rule to make game pace faster and has been applied a lot is that if you get one point from the dice, you can make the horse sprint to the most nearby ending point, as long as there is no horse standing in the way.
= State of winning =
Obviously, the first person to make his horses arrive the new stables safely is the winner.
= Overall =
This is a very simple, quick, fun and mostly based of luck game. I think everyone can play it, no matter how old you are. At times it may require some decision makings or few tactics. Just buy the game and invite a few friends and you will have a great time, or you can play by yourself and cry because you are a pathetic, lonely human being.
This entry has been edited 3 times. It was last edited on Feb 5th, 2013 at 13:42:47.
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