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Mar 5th, 2008 at 02:49:36 - Supreme Commander (PC) |
GAMEPLAY
Continuing to play Supreme Commander I'm still impressed by its massive scale, no other RTS has ever come close to implementing battles this large. Though on the downside this makes the game an enormous system hog, even my dual core system with a 512 mb video card occasionally slows down.
Multiplayer is quite a bit of fun, but as stated before its quite a time hog. I do enjoy the subtle maneuvering and jockeying for position mixed with all out head on combat. Occasionally I do feel though that sometimes all strategy and though goes out the window and it becomes a matter of who can fling more guys faster at his opponent.
On the social side of gaming, because multiplayer games take a long time, it does make for some interesting joint strategies and or backstabbing in these longer and larger games.
In playing I've also found it can be difficult to effectively use navies and aircraft. They are extremely vulnerable , and for the higher powered units require very high time and resource investments.
It is also worth mentioning the “experimental” units. These are what make the individual sides unique. For the most part each side is a clone of each other, but these units are extraordinarily large and powerful. One of the cybran's for example is a large walking robot with missile launchers and an enormous laser, that takes the combined firepower of 40-50 tanks to destroy, and still takes a large amount of time, or for the UEF side you can build a mobile factory or submarine aircraft carrier. These units add flavour and a nice goal to reach for in playing what would otherwise be extremely similar sides.
DESIGN
The Good:
HUGE scale never done before as well or effectively.
Zooming feature is new and intuitive, allows for easy navigation of the battlefield. You can quickly zoom out to view the whole map just with the mouse wheel, and then position the cursor on the map, use the wheel again and zoom in on where the cursor is focused.
Unit and building queuing also new and intuitive, and VERY useful and time saving. You don't have to constantly tend your builder units, but instead can give a series of orders telling them where and what to build in one go.
Experimental units are a blast to play with, visually stunning, and impact playing styles.
Ferry system for transporting large numbers of units. You can set up two points on the maps and your transports will automatically move your units between these two points with a minimum of fuss.
The Bad:
System hog, the large scale of the game can kill some systems.
Limited field of view due to the large interface.
The 3 sides you can play are basically clones of one another with only a few distinguishing units, as opposed to warcraft III or starcraft with very unique sides lending themselves to very different styles of play.
Can be overwhelming to play at times trying to keep track of ten zillion units wandering around.
The formations for units kind of suck, very limited.
Bottom Line:
A blast to play, if a bit intimidating in its scale initially.
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Mar 5th, 2008 at 01:06:00 - Supreme Commander (PC) |
SUMMARY
Supreme Commander is a large scale real time strategy game where the player takes control of one of 3 sides and battles it out over large maps using armies of air, ground and naval units.
GAMEPLAY
First off, the story, while not much in of itself, the story is semi-engaging and while some what humdrum (the standard “only you our best commander can save our way of life”) it isn't annoying. I don't get particularly worked up about it, but its enough that keeps me interested to see how it progresses. For example, in completing one mission against the “Cybran Nation” you find out that your efforts though valiant weren't enough to stop the onslaught motivating the following missing to protect and evacuate a base.
The interface is clean and crisp, but a little obtrusive into the play field. You have a strip down the center for your view of the battlefield and it can occasionally get annoying when you would like to see the action, but cant maintain any sort of decent control at a zoom level where you really get to see it because of this limited field of view.
I can definitely say that time flies by when playing this game. It is very engrossing and keeps you busy due to its very large scale, and battles involving literally dozens of buildings and hundreds of units across literally square miles of virtual battlefield. Its impressive, and occasionally annoying, the enormous scale of the game. The fastest air units (scouts) can literally take minutes to travel across the largest maps. But the flip side of this is that you really do feel like a general as the player, moving vast armies across huge terrain which allows for a great deal options in terms of maneuvers, feints, and ambushes.
The enormous scale also brings up one of the games (sort of) negative points: time expenditure. Some missions require several hours of play to complete, and a large multi-player game can occasionally take even longer if you get stalemated.
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Feb 16th, 2008 at 19:39:36 - Super Mario World (SNES) |
GAMEPLAY
Continuing to play Super Mario World Ive found that the variety of levels combined with its art direction is its greatest appeal to me. Though like any platformer, the levels are variations on a theme, Mario World does an excellent job keeping things mixed up. One level I might be doing the standard Jump And Bop the whole way through, the next I might have to bet timing jumps between moving platforms, the next riding a boat on a pool of lava watching for enemies leaping up from below.
I also found I enjoy the light puzzle elements that Mario World throws in, particularly on the ghost house levels, where you have to position move a power button around to the right position before activating it in order to make platforms appear for you to jump on.
My personal favorite aspect of the game is when you get the cape power up, and be able to fly about and glide across levels, just plain fun.
I have a hard time coming up with negatives for this game despite my normal animosity towards platform games (mostly stemming from the fact I suck at them). The levels are colorful and interesting, the music is entertaining, the game world is fun and light hearted, and there is a wide variety of play available between the numerous levels.
DESIGN
Though my ignorance of the time (I was very young when it came out) must be taken into account, it is my opinion that Super Mario World really pushed the platformer genre ahead in many areas.
The game had excellent music for its time, it was lively, energetic and accentuated the mood of any given level.
The visuals cant be overstated, at the time they were wonderful and light years ahead of most platformers available. Pleasant, bright, and colorful.
The variety of levels and enemies is also paramount to this games success.
The continuous game world and the ability to save was new for platform games, no more did you have to beat in one sitting or keep the power on.
The check points in the level were of extreme importance for lousy or less experienced players like myself. This saves a tremendous amount of frustration in having to redo the level for those of us who almost finish only to die at the last moment.
Given the time it came out, its very difficult to find something wrong with the design of Super Mario World, it truly was revolutionary for its time.
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Feb 16th, 2008 at 18:55:35 - Super Mario World (SNES) |
SUMMARY
Super Mario World is a 2D side scrolling platform game whereby the player must control "Mario" through a series of levels and challenges in order to rescue the princess.
GAMEPLAY
Super Mario World first hit me with its wide range of colors and environments, compared to earlier platformers it was exceptionally vivid and took full advantage of the expanded graphical capabilities of the SNES system over the previous Nintendo console. This is hardly enough on its own though to make an interesting game.
Story wise its the typical Mario story, which is really of no interest or motivation to me as the player, princess kidnapped, blah blah blah, go save her AGAIN from bowser.
Controls and game play are standard fare for the Mario platformers, with jump and bop style play for taking on enemies, and then with the fire flower the ability shoot enemies. The ability to run, while not 100% new and innovative at the time of its release did add another dimension to the controls and play. Some of the new play concepts in Mario World were the ability to pick up some objects (Were you able to do this in Super Marion 3?), a new method for flying with a cape, and the ability to "Save" one power up for use later in the game or level.
Despite the (in my opinion) lack of any coherent story, the characters were interesting and fun, if lacking any sort of personal depth. They are all colorful and exhibit unique play characteristics making the game more engaging.
There is the obvious Mario player avatar, but also a new helper yoshi who can eat enemies.
The enemies ranged from some of the classic ones like the turtles and ghosts, to an armored football guy who charges you down. These colorful (if simple) characters add alot of life an personality to what could be a drab game.
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ifa10911 has been with GameLog for 16 years, 10 months, and 8 days |
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