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Mar 6th, 2008 at 04:02:37 - Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War (PS2) |
GAMEPLAY
Now that I'm near the end of the game, things have picked up since my last entry. I've gotten past the hurdles of the early and mid game, and levels are much more a test of my flying skills then my ability to manage my resources to get a plane that would let me dominate a level. The level I started with was an interesting one. I had to fly through a network of radars while remaining undetected. As I flew closer to the ground, the radius of the radar decreased, opening small holes that I could slip though. Sadly, the radar can only been seen on the "radar" screen, leading most of my level to be played as a small red triangle avoiding various sizes of circles. In another level, where I had to shoot down an orbital laser platform, I began to feel that the with the large target on the underside labelled "Laser" and the dodgeable bullets, it almost felt like I was playing a 3D shmup. The other level that really stood out to me was the last level. Though the begining of the level is trivial (simply shoot some ground targets) the most annoying thing about the level is its opening, which takes several minutes. This would not be much of a problem if not for the second stage of the level, which requires the player to fly quickly through a narrow corridor. As mentioned before, the collision detection in this game is a little quirky, and the control scheme tends to fall apart when trying to maneuver through tight corridors. Crashing is common, and to crash sends you all the way to the begining of the level, much to your chagrin.
DESIGN
In general, Ace Combat is one of the few remaining flight simulation series. Its success is attributed to its strong story, realism, and incredible gameplay.
When it comes to realism, Ace Combat does not disapoint. The aircraft's parts move realistically as you fly, missiles behave reletively realistically; even the Prandtl-Glauert singularity can be seen when you hit mach 1 in your fighter. Mission objectives are now much more focused; where AC4 would simply have "Score so many points in this time limit" AC5 chalenges you to protect friends, destroy enemy contingents, break through fortresses, and even fly in formation. With its story, Ace Combat 5 has a number of realistic cutscenes which depict your fighter wing. The many characters have a realistic feel to them, and make you want to get farther into the game. The story's few downsides are, without a doubt, the miserable poetry your wing mates spout during missions. When you're in an intense dogfight, a wingman breaking in to eloquently (and sometimes ineloquently) describe the snowy terrain below really kills the mood. Otherwise, the controls are well thought out, and the camera system, which allows you to follow enemies and missiles, is a joy. The only issue I had with camera was with bombing, as when in 3rd person view, it was often difficult to get the bombing indicator on the target without loosing a good deal of altitude, leading me to either crash on bombing runs, or drop my bombs point blank onto their targets.
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Mar 5th, 2008 at 16:46:03 - Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War (PS2) |
SUMMARY
Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War, is a Fighter simulation game by Namco. The series is well known for its realistic game play and engaging stories. In Ace Combat 5, the player controls "Blaze" a fighter Ace from the country of Osea (which is similar to the United States). Unlike its predecessor, Ace Combat 4: Shattered Skies, The Unsung War has replaced the point system often used as mission objectives in the former game with more focused mission objectives. The game has a very focused and realistic story, following the members of the Wardog (and later Razgriz) squadron that your character is a member of.
When actually playing the game, the player flies a single fighter jet, using the control stick to adjust pitch and roll, while using the R2 and L2 buttons to adjust yaw. With the simple control scheme (offered in the options menu) control is simpler, though advanced maneuvers are not possible. The player's fighter jet can carry an unrealistically large number of missiles and special munitions; late game fighters can carry upwards of 80 basic missiles.
A number of aircraft are available to the player, all based on either actual aircraft used by real-world militaries, or concept aircraft that were designed but never entered production. When engaging air targets, the player must maneuver to where the enemy plane is in front of them, then either lock on with missiles and fire, or close to close range and use its machine gun. Missiles can typically turn sharply about once, and inexperienced players may find themselves missing enemy planes with their missiles at first. Planes also have special weapons, which range from unguided bombs to quick air to air missiles. In Ace Combat 4, many aircraft were equipped with missiles that could easily target multiple enemy aircraft at long range, but in Unsung War, early fighters that specialize in anti-air typically come with SAAMs (long range, single target, easy to miss with) out of the box, making mid-game antifighter combat difficult at times.
GAMEPLAY
I decided to replay through Unsung War on Very hard mode for this game assignment. My missile-launching skills have been getting rusty, and I trashed a number of my missile shots. The most difficult missions, hands down, were those where I had to protect something from attack. This was often a helicopter under attack from fighters, or some sort of structure. At this point, my fighters did not have multi-shot missiles, which made defence difficult because killing the attacking fighters requires damage output that is difficult to get. Interestingly, I've found that using my wingmen is very important, especially because its quite easy to run out of ammunition. Luckily, unlike AC 4, I have infinite machine gun, though hitting with that can be a challenge. On very hard mode, enemies take many missile hits, dodge like crazy, and missile evasion, unlike the easier difficulties, is a challenge. Collision detection is a bit better over AC4; I don't crash into things like telephone wires any more, though its still very, very easy to crash. The ground attack missions were mostly fun: my favourite mission pits you against an entire fleet and later, a gigantic submarine armed with ballistic missiles.
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Feb 18th, 2008 at 21:28:02 - mario 64 (N64) |
GAMEPLAY
After my first log, I used a number of glitches to put the final levels at my disposal (I'll talk about a few of these later on). The final levels though, are amazing to play. Tick Tock Clock and Rainbow Road are two probably two of the most skilfully designed levels ever. First is Rainbow Road. With the slightly bizarre tone of rainbow riding flying carpets and lots and lots of instant death bottomless pit (veritably, the entire level is floating in the sky) the level forces the player to think and jump quickly in order to stay alive. The other level, Tick Tock Clock, is even more interesting. Since the entrance to this level is a giant clock face, depending on what time it "is" (the clock moves absurdly fast), the level will be different. If you enter at 12, the moving parts in the level will stop. At 3, they move at normal speed. At 6, they move at absurd speed, and finally, at 9, they move backwards. With relatively normal objectives of getting to various areas of the clock, the level keeps you interested with an amazing theme and multiple modes within the level itself.
DESIGN
Without a doubt, Mario 64 is one of the greatest video games ever created. With huge, thematic levels and lots of replay value for each, the game keeps a player going until he or she is done. That said, Mario 64 also pushed the N 64 to its limit graphics wise. As a Nintendo product, Mario 64 could have no load times, since Nintendo games almost never break the 4th wall or do anything to cause their gameplay to not be seamless. This, however, forces developers to take some short cuts. The glitches I used to advance into the game are some such short cuts. One is in a stairwell on the way up to some of the higher areas of the castle. The ceiling, although it appears to be solid, is, in fact, not, and can be jumped through using mario's famed wall kick. Another such glitch allows you to pass through doors by using a jump glitch that propells you backwards. As you need to "talk" to a door to pass through it, the dialogue that should have come up could not come up, and game physics brought me flying through the door. The other thing I find interesting are mario's many moves and jumps. Though easy to understand, the many jumps are all needed in different ways in order to progress. A puzzle may require you to jump onto a platform high above you, and in order to do it, one might have to combine jumps, such as a side jump and a wall kick. In addition, mario's attacks all seamlessly flow from and into his jumps, allowing you to perform some sort of attack at any point.
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Feb 18th, 2008 at 21:09:18 - mario 64 (N64) |
SUMMARY
Mario 64 is the first effective 3D platformer. The player controls our favourite portly plumber, Mario, as he gathers stars and fights bowser to save Princess Peach and get his cake(which, coincidently, is not a lie). The player progresses through the game by going to different worlds from the central world (Peach's castle) which has links to all of the other worlds. Each level has 8 stars hidden within it, which are used to unlock more levels. There are also a number of levels with Either two stars, or a star and a power up (such as the three bowser stages, the three cap stages, and the famous "slide" level). To obtain a star, the player must do a variety of things, from simply jumping up (or across) a number of platforms to the star, beating a boss, collecting all of the 8 red coins in a level, and many other things. The most obvious aspect of Mario 64 is its level design: almost every level is non-linear, allowing many different approaches to obtaining each star.
GAMEPLAY
As a long-time veteran of Mario 64, I decided to simply start a new game. As usual, my first star came from bob-omb battlefield. Since I wanted to talk about the level design of the more interesting levels, I went ahead and sped through the first set of available levels. The one level that I'd like to point out, though, is the first of Mario 64's two snow levels. In this level, there is the so called "ice slide." I have to note that the ice slide has probably claimed more lives from me in my time playing Mario 64 then any other area. Especially as a kid, attempting to control a skidding mario on a snow and ice slide, and, even worse, actually turn with some accuracy, was quite difficult.
After beating bowser, I went along to the Haunted House level in the basement garden. Interestingly, this level was one of the most difficult for many people to find, and is also the only one that is actually contained IN an enemy. The level can't be properly executed without the vanish cap, a power up that allows Mario to pass through some walls. Activating the Vanish cap can be difficult, requiring you to complete a treacherous jumping puzzle. The Haunted House level has a number of interesting stars to be collected, such as the star that requires you to find your way to the very top of the house.
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Hunter.Requiem has been with GameLog for 16 years, 10 months, and 11 days |
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