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Mar 6th, 2008 at 03:14:35 - Sins of a Solar Empire (PC) |
GAMEPLAY
While playing through my second session, I tried a new faction. I prefer this faction as it gives me access to more fighter craft, which I like to watch swarm over enemy positions. This is distinct from the first faction I had tried which stressed using fewer stronger ships.
I also had more experience dealing with the pirate faction in the game which is not playable but can be influenced through bounty. I got much better at “sniping” the bidding war which comes every fifteen minutes or so much like one would snipe an eBay auction. This made it much easier to pull ahead of my opponent as he had to deal with pirate raids while I colonized new planets. In fact it seems that on a small map such as I was playing, pirates may be more dangerous than the opposing team. They get stronger over the course of the game and essentially get fleets for free.
The games empire management is much simplified over most games in its genre, because players don’t have time to pore over screens of statistics. No longer must taxes be adjusted and such. This is an improvement in my opinion, especially since I am more of a fan of real time strategy games and I prefer to focus on commanding my forces.
DESIGN
The art aspects of this game are excellent. All of the graphics and ship designs are beautiful as are explosions and weapon effects. The civilizations all have a cohesive tone which represents their respective philosophies well. The Advent which I am currently playing is meant to be a more decadent society with themes of ascension. As such, its ships are much more ornate than those of the other races with curves invoking sea shells or rams’ horns.
The music is also decent. It sets the mood well and changes tunes according to what’s happening on screen. It hasn’t gotten annoying yet, which is also a point in its favor.
One final thing that the game does well is give the player control of his or her forces throughout the star system. With a simple scroll, a player can go from a close up of a fighter smoothly to an overview of the empire. The game abstracts the units more and more as the player zooms out, progressing from full 3D models to icons to an image of the planet with three bars representing player ships, player structures, and non-player ships. Each of these things will show an infocard with more details when moused over. There is also a so called “empire tree” which can be expanded to show lists of units and structures at any planet which the player can see. Players can select and even target units through this tree.
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Mar 6th, 2008 at 02:47:28 - Sins of a Solar Empire (PC) |
SUMMARY
Sins of a Solar Empire is a space empire management game fused with a real time strategy warfare game. Players explore, colonize new planets, and engage in diplomacy or war with other factions. The ultimate goal is to control the entire star system or series of star systems.
GAMEPLAY
Sins of a Solar Empire is a very unique take on the RTS genre. While none of its features may seem innovative by itself, the way they are combined is what makes things interesting. The game strongly resembles a turn based strategy game in the way the player gathers resources and constructs units, but everything is executed in real time. This makes the game even easier to get pulled into than the already addictive turn based games. Where before there were breaks in gameplay between player turns while the computer player made its moves, in this game the player is constantly giving the game input and reaching new landmarks. The pacing of the game was surprisingly good for a game taking such big steps for a genre.
The game does have fairly weak narrative besides the initial setup. However the setup is pretty neat and the three playable factions are all cool. I would have found more background to be very interesting.
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Feb 21st, 2008 at 02:07:23 - Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) |
GAMEPLAY
The gameplay continued to be fun into the second hour. The game keeps things fresh by introducing mini games such as manta surfing. It also brings back the concept of giving Mario multiple costumes, similar to those that were in Super Mario Bros. 3. These make for a nice change in pace.
Controls in the game are well tuned. It is easy enough to execute any of Mario’s jumps. Actions controlled by the accelerometer are responsive, and make the game standout a bit more from the competition.
One thing that did disappoint me slightly in Super Mario Galaxy, is that there are fewer methods of attacking enemies than in Super Mario 64 or Super Mario Sunshine. No longer does Mario have a three hit combo or a sliding kick. He now only has a spinning attack triggered by a shake of the controller. This isn’t a big deal as combat isn’t the focus of the game, but it did add some variety.
DESIGN
Super Mario Galaxy does a great job of utilizing the Wii’s relatively limited horsepower. The levels are very vibrant, with lots of primary colors. The level designs are clever in many cases. One of the nicest things in the game is that few objects look blocky as levels in Mario 64 might. I haven’t come across any problems regarding my color blindness either. The games enemies are mostly recycled from previous Mario games, but they are nicely animated, and in several cases are given updated looks reflecting the space setting of the game.
The game’s music is also a strong point of the game. It sets a strong lighthearted tone for the game. It was also nice to hear many of my favorite tunes from the series reinterpreted in higher quality. The original compositions are of similar quality. Some of the sound effects utilized by the game are really nice as well. I remember in particular the sound effects during a boss battle with a giant robot were cool.
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Feb 21st, 2008 at 00:05:54 - Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) |
SUMMARY
Super Mario Galaxy is the latest in Nintendo’s popular series of platformers. In the game you collect Power Stars while traversing levels composed of miniature planetoids which each have their own gravity fields.
GAMEPLAY
There is a lot to like about Super Mario Galaxy. The most striking aspect of it is the way the developers play on the variable gravity in the game. Most surfaces in the game have their own gravitational attraction. This serves a few different purposes in the game. It gives a sense of novelty, in that the player has to learn how to navigate a world upside down. It allows much more freeform level design. However, one of the more interesting changes this allows, that is not immediately obvious is that it makes the game much more forgiving than older Mario titles. If a player jumps off the edge of a platform, often he will curve around the planet and land on the bottom rather than plunging into the depths of space to his doom. This makes the game much more accessible to newcomers to the genre.
The game also allows a second player to influence the game, another first for the series. The second player can stun enemies for the first, collect star bits which net the player extra lives, or even make Mario jump. The last can be used to either help out the first player when he is caught unaware of a danger or can even be used to sabotage him, which is often just as entertaining.
The story in this game is more complex than the story of , say, Super Mario 64, but that isn’t saying much. It certainly isn’t on the level of the Mario RPGs, but it serves it’s purpose. There is more interaction with non-player characters than in previous Mario platformers in the form of Toads scattered throughout the levels who occasionally have useful advice.
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Scrawnto has been with GameLog for 16 years, 10 months, and 10 days |
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