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Feb 8th, 2008 at 16:20:29 - Road Rash (N64) |
Gameplay 2
The second time playing this game is pretty much the same as the first. It can get a little monotonous because you basically do the same thing over and over. Neither the concept or the gameplay are very deep, which is good in some ways, but bad in others. It’s good because it makes the game easy to pick up for half an hour and then put back down. However, this also works against itself, because it’s really easy to exhaust interest in this game.
One thing the game is good at is relieving stress. I went and played the ‘Ped Hunt’ (ped= pedestrian) after taking my Calculus midterm, and it actually helped me chill out.
Design
I think for its time, Road Rash had a few innovations. The most fun is definitely the weapon system. Aside from the varied choices, and being able to hit other racers while racing, the player can steal a weapon from another or collect one that may be on the racetrack.
Being able to attack other racers brings me to one of my favorite parts of the game: the Rap Sheet. After every race, there is a screen that displays how many times you attacked other racers, how many crashes caused, weapons stolen, pedestrians hit, and police officers assaulted. This is more fun than winning money in the story mode, and is definitely a great reward system. The other part of the reward system that I like is that if the player comes in last in a story mode race, he still gets a prize, but it’s really lame, like a moist towellete, a cheese plate or a pet rock. Overall, the tone was consistent, due to things like the rap sheet, the crappy last place prizes, the music and character names.
The controls are a different story. Maybe it’s just me, but the turning was really hard to get the hang of. Also, if the player crashes into anything- signpost, cow, building- he automatically wipes out. Buildings I understand, but cows? Unfortunately, the levels I played (I don’t know about the later ones) were not differentiated very much from each other. Of course, there are limits to the graphic capabilities of the time, but each level tended to feel similar, except with a few twists thrown in.
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Feb 8th, 2008 at 16:19:46 - Road Rash (N64) |
Road Rash on Nintendo64
Summary
Road Rash is a one to two player motorcycle racing game. Each player chooses a motorcycle and a biker gang member to play as. Usually the object is to win each race by placing first but there are some modes where the player who hits the most pedestrians wins. There is also a story mode where the player can get prizes and possibly join a motorcycle gang.
Gameplay 1
When I first saw this game I thought it was really stupid. It’s obviously meant to appeal to guys and the whole idea of the game seemed kind of pointless to me. But then I started playing it, and it’s actually really fun.
I think the simplicity of the game, especially the gameplay, characters and goals, make it fun. There isn’t much to get hung up on in terms of sidequests or plot twists. All you have to do is pass the finish line first.
The game also brought out some good-natured aggression that I didn’t know I had. My friend and I played the two-player mode a few times, and sometimes the competition got pretty heated. One aspect that ties in to the biker gang theme of the game is that your character can hit other characters while racing, either with hands or weapons (nunchucks, pepper spray, taser, etc…) So, it’s fun to target the other player’s character. If you hit them at the right time, you can cause a crash.
All of this description about the competitive side of the game brings me to another point: it is hard for me to take this game very seriously. I know that in real life, motorcycle gangs should be avoided, but this game really glamorizes the lifestyle. None of the characters are shown wearing helmets, for one thing, and even though crashes are common in the game, no one ever gets hurt. There is also angry rock music played in the background and some character names are ‘Olin’, ‘Dave’, and ‘Big Jim’.
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Jan 24th, 2008 at 11:36:35 - Final Fantasy (PSP) |
Gameplay, Take 2
It seems things can really change from day to day. While this may be good for people who like variation, it’s not good for a video game level system. After I grew my characters a level or two, the difficulty of the enemies seemed to increase steeply. Right now I’m pretty frustrated with the game, since it seems impossible to safely get to the next area without power-leveling for hours on end. It takes a ridiculous amount of experience points to get to the next level, and you don’t even get the freebie levels some games give you at the start. The sharp difference combined with the general unhelpfulness of the game (unexplained abbreviations everywhere) could be enough to make me stop playing this game for a while.
While RPG’s generally don’t lend themselves to improving social relationships, this one can, in a way. It is so ancient, and rarely seen anymore, that people will sit down and watch you play for a few minutes, saying things like ‘Whoa! So oldschool!’ Then you may reminisce together about games you played when you were a kid. But then the novelty wears off, and the bystander leaves. Still, it can be a good way to break the ice.
Design
Ok, I haven’t finished the game, and probably never will, but for a very good reason. As I have mentioned at least once before, the levels, in particular the difficulty from one to the next, is really bad. It is too hard to play the game without gaining a lot of levels before progressing, but power-leveling can literally take hours. To improve, the necessary amount of levels to progress to the next level should be obtained through gameplay as the player progresses through the story.
The tone of the game is a different matter. Although when compared to any of today’s games the graphics and music are laughable, they combine to give the game a very distinctive feel. There is a sense of epic-ness but it’s hard to take it too seriously because it doesn’t feel very realistic. I wouldn’t change this aspect of the game.
One more thing the game could do better in is being user-friendly. That means no more abbreviations, explanations of what kind of character can equip which weapons and armor, and exactly what each item and spell does.
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Jan 23rd, 2008 at 18:02:49 - Final Fantasy (PSP) |
Final Fantasy on the NES
Summary
Final Fantasy is a role-playing game for one player, though the player controls four characters (the Light Warriors) at once during combat. In exploring the world, the player encounters monsters that can be defeated by means of a turn-based combat system.
The object of the game is to restore light to each light orb and defeat the bad monsters.
Gameplay, 1st time around
The first thing the game does after the opening narration is to make you choose your party’s character classes. Choices range from fighter to red mage, and while there are six choices in all, you only have four party members. Already, before I even knew the controls, or anything about the game except a basic story, I was having to make some strategic choices. Other elements that required strategy were also present right from the beginning of the game. For example, you start with 400 gold, but no weapons, armor, abilities, or knowledge of anything else in the game. With so little information, it is hard to know how to use (very) limited resources. Out of habit from other RPG’s, the first thing I did was to go save my game at the Inn… but it told me I had to pay thirty gold just to save! Right away, the seemingly unforgiving nature of this game had me on edge.
However, that didn’t stop me from getting engrossed in the game from the very start. One thing that contributed to this was being able to name each character in my party. Even thought they are really just colored dots on a screen, I felt like I had a connection to them, because I “created” them. Having an emotional investment made me not want to stop playing—I had to stay and see what happened to them.
The story was also intriguing. The game starts off by the kingdom of Coneria, which is fun to run around in for a little while. But then, adventure calls, and you leave the safety of the town, going off into the great wide open. What I’m saying is that for the most part, there is a continuing sense of discovery, and that there is a world beyond what you can see on the screen at the moment.
All of these elements: the challenging unfamiliarity, the personalization and the intriguing story, make this game fun to play.
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