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Feb 9th, 2008 at 01:21:20 - World of Warcraft (PC) |
Game Play
In the more advanced levels the gameplay remains fundamentally the same. Single player consists of repetitive quests and endless monster grinding (killing the same monsters over and over for experience).
Group combat is also the same; healers heal, damage dealers to damage, and tanks absorb enemy damage.
A feature available for players at the top level allows ranked PVP (player versus player) arena combat. Players can form teams and compete for rank, as well as accumulate points used for powerful gear. This new feature is enjoyable once again, based more on the social interactivity rather than the gameplay itself. The gameplay stays the same, but now I can play with a team of my friends against other people competitively.
Design
World of Warcraft designs its content to force players to interact socially, which makes the game fun. Players are forced to find groups to take down harder monsters, and each member must play an active role within the group for the group to function.
The fact that all the people on the screen are players also makes this game a more believable world, rather than a game. I went into a capital city, and it was filled with hundreds of players, talking, trading, repairing and socializing, just like a real city. Except full of trolls and orcs.
The artwork of the game is very stylized, more like a cartoon than realistic, and consistent. Orcs are stooped and exaggeratedly muscular. The people all look perfect, the men handsome and muscular and the women slim and beautiful. Orc cities are filled with spikes and yurts, while human cities have cottages and Though the art is certainly interesting, I would prefer a more detailed, realistic style. Many of the enemy characters also look the same, just with a different name and colored blue, or slightly larger.
The game is designed to be a social game. The cities have open forums for people to interact and trade on the auction houses. The instance dungeons require groups to complete. Arena combat requires teams of players. This social dynamic is what makes WoW so addicting. I've already made some friends by joining a guild (a player organization, complete with its own customizable tabard), and enjoy the feeling of comaradery when raiding or PVPing together with them. Despite the repetitiveness of the gameplay, and even the cartoony design, the social aspect of the game is keeping me hooked. The move to make WoW an open multiplayer world outshines the gameplay itself. Most of the time I log on now, I don't even "play" much, but help around the guild, chat, trade, or wander around. And I enjoy it!
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Feb 9th, 2008 at 01:23:49.
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Feb 8th, 2008 at 05:45:36 - World of Warcraft (PC) |
Summary
World of Warcraft is a massive multiplayer role playing game. The objectives are optional but involve completing quests and killing monsters to gain levels and items, and PVP (Player versus player) combat through battlegrounds.
Gameplay
The first step in game is character creation. Race and gender are only cosmetic, but class determines play experience. The classes each have their own flavors, but usually breakdown into three types: Damage dealers, tanks (damage absorbers), and healers.
The game's tasks are divided into quests, which award experience and items. Quests almost always involve killing monsters, retrieving items, or a combination of the two. Performing these tasks quickly grows tedious, especially since the length of time to gain levels seems to exponentially increase each level. But these tasks are part of the single player aspects of the game; it is in its multiplayer aspects that World of Warcraft becomes enjoyable.
Since its a massive online multiplayer, almost every character is another player. Players group together to complete quests, some quests even require a group to complete, so Warcraft forces social interaction on the players, which is fun. The fact that the opponents in the battlegrounds are actual players also adds a lot of enjoyment to the experience. The night elf hunter I just flattened is screaming in agony somewhere!
Sometimes the gameplay isn't even a factor when I play; I simply enjoy hanging out with my new found friends in the WoW universe. It is this social aspect that makes WoW so enjoyable and addictive.
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Jan 25th, 2008 at 00:07:59 - Goldeneye 007 (N64) |
So I sat down for another few rounds of Goldeneye with my friends with a heavy sigh. As usual, I was destroyed in every round, the game making my shortcomings all the more painful by adding notes such as "Most Harmless," and "Most Cowardly" after each battle. It was annoying enough listening to my friends shreik with laughter at my noobishness, but now the fucking video game itself is insulting me?! AGRAA! This is not incentive to practice...but to smash the thing.
My incompetence aside, I can understand how the competitive aspect of the game is so engaging to those who invest years of practice into mastering it. Battles and firefights can be intense and close, often sending my friends into a manic state. It's almost worth playing just to participate in the experience... until I spawn gunless in the middle of said firefight, running around very slowly and jerkily, chopping at nothing as I'm blasted into oblivion.
Design
I played a little single player on my own and found it pretty boring. Shoot a bunch of soldiers. Shoot a bunch of scientists. Shoot a bunch of whatever. The aesthetics change from level to level, but there is no variation to the game play, which gets old quick. Like I said, people don't play Goldeneye for its single player mode; they live for multiplayer.
An interesting note about the game's reward structure I found out was that it was purely psychological (regarding multiplayer, single player unlocks levels and characters, but like I said, nobody plays the single player mode; it was beaten fifty times in fifth grade already). Players compete to win various reward titles at the end of the game, such as "Most Deadly," or "Most Professional." My neanderthalic friends always eagerly shout their reward titles after every match with glee, totally oblivious that there really is NO reward; they have all been duped by the game into believing having the title "Most Deadly" for a round of multiplayers bears some kind of significance, or that its something to be proud of, even though it vanishes after a few seconds when they begin yet another match. I tried to point this out to them, but they reacted with violence. I'm reminded of Plato's allegory of the cave, when the enlightened being tries to help free those trapped who can only see the shadows of real things. They resist, preferring their familiar lie over the scary truth. Whatever.
As I stated in my last post I hate the radar, which makes hiding or ambush impossible, There is no character customization, infact, some of the characters are badly designed: Jaws, for example, is so tall that he basically always head shots any normal character. On the other spectrum, Oddjob is so short that he's incredibly hard to shoot at all. Guns are near impossible to see against the often dark grey backgrounds. The character models themselves are hideous blocky looking things, with big polygonal heads and hands.
The unofficial sequal to Goldeneye, "Perfect Dark," addresses many of the aforementioned concerns, improving graphics tremendously, varying level play by adding co-op mode and vehicles (though its still fundamentally just shooting hordes of evil doers), and letting you model and name your own character for multiplayer play. The controls are also more responsive and sensitive. Nobody ever plays this game over Goldeneye though, despite the clear improvements. It's the nostalgic value of Goldeneye that makes people keep playing it. These kids were blown away by it in fifth grade when it came out, when it knocked all previous FPS games out of the water. Their young eyes couldn't get enough guns, blood and James Bond. To them I say, keep your memories, but it's time to grow up. Let's play some Halo.
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Jan 24th, 2008 at 23:20:43 - Goldeneye 007 (N64) |
Summary
Goldeneye is a first person shooter game based on the James Bond movies. In single player story mode, the player progresses through levels shooting and killing hundreds of drone like enemies in various evil villain complexes, as well as the evil villains themselves, which include classic Bond enemies such as Jaws and Oddjob (though he cannot throw his hat!).
The game also features multiplayer mode (which is why it is still popular), allowing up to four players fight it out in any of the single player levels, minus the computer controlled enemies. There are variations on the multiplayer modes that limit the type of weapons available, such as "Proximity Mines" mode (my personal favorite), "Automatics," "Pistols," and even "Throwing Knives."
Game Play
I was expecting a whole lot from this game when I sat down to play it. All of my friends rant, often frothing at the mouth, of how awesome Goldeneye is, how it's the best game ever made forever and how anyone who disagrees is clearly a stupid fucking idiot. Well, I disagreed. I hate this game.
Yes, yes, it was innovative. It defined what the first person shooter was, and would become. That's great; I acknowledge this. It did do a lot for modern FPS games, but its far from perfect, and now outdated. Though my friends will probably continue to play it until their sixties, I've found much more enjoyable FPS titles such as Halo or Unreal Tournament. Okay, about the game itself.
I hate the controls. Everything is awful and inverted and wrong. The joystick in the middle of the N64 controller controls the direction the character faces, but I can only work this thing with one thumb while my other fingers rest on "Z" (fire weapon), "A" (change weapon), and "B" (open doors). My other hand works the yellow directional pad which allows me to side step, which assists in dodging gunfire. Anyway, I'm working the joystick with that one thumb furiously (...pause) and I keep pushing the damn thing up or down instead of sideways, so I keep looking up and down too much and shooting at nothing while I get killed.
The avatar is also incredibly slow to respond (especially when compared to modern FPS games). I run at an agonizingly slow pace, making escape from enemies impossible. And I can't see the damn guns (first of all, what magic gun fairy leaves nice little bundles of ammunition and automatic weapons lying around everywhere?)! The guns are so dark they blend in with also dark (and often grey and ugly) tilesets. Without a trained 007 eye developed over years of obsession, I find myself often unable to find a gun, while my friends blast me to pieces with RPC 90s.
I hate the radar system, which points a nice arrow in your direction for your enemies, making ambush or hiding impossible.
All these stupid little things take getting used to, and when playing in a room full of veterans, there is NO learning curve. I'm essentially canon fodder in multiplayer, which gets frustrating as hell.
I can only conclude that this game has retained its popularity due to its nostalgic value, especially considering the new FPS games on the market right now with features ranging from character customization, less aggravating and more responsive controls, interactive environments (beyond the power to open doors), and of course, much, much better graphics. Aesthetics count too.
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baizerker has been with GameLog for 16 years, 10 months, and 8 days |
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