I'm your average guy trying to make his way into the gaming industry and I've got a lot to say. Be it about games, certain events, or even just news of my life, I've wanted to give my word on a lot of things and now's the best time. Give me your questions and I'll give you answers
While I wasn’t able to attend the
workshop on Wednesday due to my job, I was able to read the two readings on the
wiki and this is my response to them.
!Q 1. How can Henry Jenkins's idea of "narrative
architecture" apply to game design even in games that lack a strong,
conventional narrative plot line?
Jenkins talks about how narrative
can be told not just through dialogue or narrative or some grand big story, but
through gameplay and art itself. This is something I’ve always believed in
personally. All parts of the game tell a story in more than one way. Take for
example the game Bioshock. The entire world you travel in is the ruined
underground utopia that carried philosophical beliefs of Ayn Rand’s Objectivism.
You get the feeling that this wonderful, grand city was once something amazing,
but now it’s a ruined waste land with insane druggies trying to kill you. The
large scale buildings, the advance technology, the big streets and advertisements
for wonderful powers and abilities, all speak of the underwater city’s rise and
downfall.
Another example would be Fallout,
where you have a desolated wasteland that’s been ruined by war. There are radioactive
areas, a tower that broadcasts news and information, towns with various people
and their own quests. You don’t even need to follow the main story in the game and
spend hours exploring the level. Each new area gives new insight to the world
around you and the people you interact with will give you a sense of their own
backstory and how the towns they live in are like.
Besides art and level design,
gameplay is another key element that can be used to tell narrative. Take the
game Journey, where your goal is to get to the top of the mountain and you have
to rely on help to do so. However, you can’t speak and can only communicate
through sound. The single goal of the game is one big tale of how you and
another face impossible odds to reach the top of a mountain. That itself is a
tale and how you get to the top is the process of how the story unfolds.
Designers can use anything from
level design to music to help relay the game’s world, lore, characters, and
more. Narrative is not limited to just one means of telling, but in all forms.
Q2 : How might I position either my
capstone game concept or one of the concepts to be produced in the spring as
part of a larger transmedia enterprise?
Our game I can see being part of a
transmedia enterprise, but it might be considered a bit controversial in some
aspects. Please keep in mind that as I write this that this is an idea and nothing
more and that the issue being brought up is serious and should not be joked
upon. I am not an expert in psychology nor the understanding of kidnapping and
the damages it can bring up. Again, this is just an idea.
After 9/11, many people went to
various therapies that had them watching the towers fall down or just hear the
sounds of planes in order to help overcome their fears of what happened that
day. It’s been proven to work and similar tests are done, like watching fire
for those scared of fire or hearing gunshot for those who have been near
shootouts. My idea is something similar
What our game, Pale, could do is
be a psychological test to help people who have been kidnapped or stalked by
strangers, and are attempting to face their fears. Being surrounded in a lone
place with only one way out while trying to avoid possible danger is something
that can help people open up to what happen and face the reality of that
feeling. Granted, there doesn’t need to be a person in the game chasing after
them, it could just be sound effects to give the illusion of the presence. The
way the player controls their character in the game could reflect the player/patient’s emotional and physical state
of being. Psychologists can use to see how they are reacting, and help them understand
their patients more.
The game could be changed by
locations, objects, sounds, and more based on each patient’s memories of how
the location of where they were kidnapped. In return, they could be placed in
other areas to see if it’s the location that they fear more, or the thought of
being chased.
Games have been used for psychological
treatments before and in the purpose of what Pale gives is the sense of you,
the player, in an unknown and possibly dangerous location that you must escape
from. It’s a primal fear we all have, but at the same time it can be used to
face this fear and discover how to overcome with or come to terms with a scary
situation.
Well, it's time to get transferred to a new team soon. There are a couple I want to work with such as Eeb and Flo, Magnosphere, and maybe Mageball. I just hope I did enough advertising of myself to get noticed by the team. All of the teams have at least one member that knows me well so my odds are increased a bit.
The only main thing I have worry about now is the final core paper I have to do. it's not due for another two weeks or so and I'm going to start on it tonight and work my way towards the finish. It's mainly me talking about how the game I worked on came to be and what are my final thoughts on it. Why did not pass? What could we have done differently? What worked and what didn't. Things like that.
I'll answer some of those questions below:
1. The genesis of the idea for the game: To create a classic horror game that was more geared towards scaring the players with atmosphere and sounds rather then violence and blood.
2. What your game’s genesis taught you about how game concepts originate: That it takes more then just one idea to fuel a concept. There are more steps and factors that have to be thought out before it can even begin.
3. How your game would be received by your target audience: When we tested the game, a lot of people were pleased by how it was more focused on scaring the player and the way we made it caused survival horror fans to compare it to other such games such as Slender.
4. What your game’s arguable appeal suggests about the values at the core of successful games: That is the little things that need to play out with the overall look that make it stand out from other games.
5. What your work in developing your game’s mechanics and systems has taught you about this important facet of game development: Simplicity is something that works wonders because it can do so much. We realized that complex mechanics were hindering us so we went with something geared towards simple ideas and concepts. It worked.
6. What the arc of your game’s development has taught you about the nature of conceptual development and the challenges of collaborative work: That the scope has to start of small in the very beginning. Our biggest weakness is that we started this project thinking too big and it caused us to have to lower our scope late in the game. Designers have to plan out their games as small as possible and then make it grow over time.
There will be more in my finished work, but for now this is just a taste of it.
I was going to do a post over the break, but it slipped my mind while I was enjoying the vacation. I'll post another one this Friday to even things out. Anyway, my team's game was cut and we're officially out of the race for greenlight. We did work on it more during the break to see if we can get one last shot, but Vinny told me that Bemis already shot that down.
I feel that overall, we did good as a team despite some mess ups and a few communication issues. We all knew what we wanted and we had an idea what direction we wanted to take it. But the problem, I believe, is that it required too much execution for the short time needed for it to be done and we started our narrow scope at a very late time.
There were bugs, some stuff we had to cut, and overall additional gameplay that we tried to add, but didn't make in time. I heard from some of the others that while we did improve the game more and more each time, it felt still incomplete and that maybe we choose to high a genre to apply.
I don't regret working on this project, I've learned a lot from it and from my team as well. I just hope that next semester I'm put in a team that will use my abilities to the fullest.
Well, tomorrow is the day we get our answer if were going to be in the presentation or not. We're going to challenge for stage four and I feel we might pass it, but thankfully we're in stage 3 so if Bemis and Eric think were good enough we should be fine. Our testers love our game and it's given us confidence that things are have been getting better so we should be okay. There are a few things that we are still glitching on, but they are easy fixes we can fix.
I just hope tomorrow will work out and everything will be great.
Well, I'm going to keep this short because I'm busy with a lot of other things, including this project, but here it goes. We've managed to come up with what changes we want our vertical slice to be and we've changed the level a lot for a better. We just need to finalize some stuff, test it, and then challenge this week.
We're then going to challenge for stage 4 the follow week as most of the requirements for that week are already being worked on as I type this. With luck, we'll be ready for the presentation soon.
Well, the presentation practice was so and so. It's clear they get the idea of what we are making, but we didn't show enough of it. We need to make it clear the context and direction this game is going to and I've been asking people for their thoughts on what we need to do.
I have a plan that might be able to help us get to the level we need to compete with the other games. Thanks to the new rule about Stage 3 people able to challenge for the presentation, we stand a better chance now. The first thing we need to do is create a new level layout. It's too clustered and me and Vinny can work out some path ways to make six rooms, plus the locked door. Instead of eight keys, we'll cut it down to four. The randomizer will be used too, either by the rooms or the keys themselves and we'll have the maniac appear after the player gets one key.
We'll set up some sounds and moments where the player see a shadow or hears a faint noise to draw suspension from the atmosphere. Lighting will have to be carefully planned and the textures will need to be double checked. A start and gameover screen is definitely needed at this point and we can easily put one in.
Creating the right atmosphere is the biggest thing and we need to make it scary. I just hope we can do it in time.
Now that we have arrive at stage 2, every minute counts on getting everything prepared and ready for the next stage challenge. We'll only have one opportunity and that's on the 2nd of November. Anything beyond that will just make it harder for us to get to Stage 3. This upcoming week is all about putting our stuff in and getting it tested.
Documents are also going to be a major focus, but I'm sure we can all handle that. Josh has already gotten a good start on the art assets and will be working with Mason to make sure it looks good. Since Mason and Vincent live together they'll be the perfect team to work on level design and coding. Since Vincent is a better coder then I am he'll be there to also help Mason with a few things. My main job will be to make sure everything remains in tact and I can handle the issues and documents presented to me that I can work on (Excluding the ones that require the specialists to oversee them).
I've also been given the the Lead Writer position, so I'll need to start making character bios and overall Writing Bible in the next two weeks to come. I really want our game to pass because I don't think a horror game like ours has been done before, not to mention it's got a pretty good narrative based idea with it and I don't know how many other projects are going to need a narrative designer if our's doesn't pass. Nearly everyone is making a multiplier game, and while I won't say that narrative designers can't work in a multiplier setting, I find it easier personally if I have a single player setting to work in. Still, I will do what I can.
Getting to stage 2 was a success, now comes the hard part. While we have basic mechanics and directions, we need to now brainstorm and deeper the meaning more. We already have plans to combine both mechanics of sound and sight into one gameplay feature, but now we must decided which of the new mechanics to work on first. Barricades or the random room factor. Bemis suggested working on the later since that's the key to making our game unique, something we wanted to find as early as possible in this stage.
Tomorrow my team and I are meeting and we shall plan the next few weeks. Our goal will be to get to stage 3 some time around the start of November.
This week I got to meet with some of the members of Eidos who went to talk at our school about their career's and their famous game Deus Ex: Human Revolution. It was an interesting talk and I managed to talk to the narrative designer of the team where we shared a brief talk on the creation of the lore of the game and how such things expand the gaming world.
When the speakers spoke they helped me reinforced my belief that my skills in narrative design can help me get into Triple AAA titles like Deus Ex. My one fear is that my lack of programming skills will hinder me, but seeing how these guys managed to develop their skills very fast and rise above the latter helps me calm that fear down.
Yet this also challenges my view of the gaming world as well. It seems that you really need to spend more years then I thought was needed in order to get to the position you want to get into. It took one of them at least 8 years to get to a Triple AAA game and in this industry today, where people with less experience are finding it harder to get a job, it makes me realize that it's going to take longer unless the industry changes.
If anything, this presentation gives my view of the capstone project a sense that there is really more we need to look into if were going to go Greenlight. It only seems that were at the tip of the iceburg with our current project and in order to make it great we're going to focus more on what we can do with the mechanics we have and will be creating in the future.
Well, we've hit a snag in our attempts to get QA done this week. Both our prototypes are still in need of some work. A few bugs here and there before we can get it done. I'll have to ask Bemis if we can get QA done without the whole "Contact the QA person" and have that count.
In other news, next week we're finally going to challenge stage 1. We feel ready and confident to move forward. We just got to document everything and then make it into a presentation. I'll be sure to make sure the group keeps up to date with what they have and I already set up the sprint.
Also managed to find some notes about horror that I've learned over the past week.
Survival Horror Notes: Why play Horror games? What makes a
Horror Game? Why are Horror Games not popular anymore?
-These days horror games have become more action adventure
games that feature zombies or monsters and other supernatural things
-Horror is about human psychology. Using the earliest fears
of mankind to scare people
-Horror is about the breakdown of logic and how things we
once thought normal turn out to be untrue
-Horror is about facing things we don’t want to face, we are
so helpless that we can’t deal with these things despite whatever
self-assurance we give.
-Horror is about embracing the savage natural human instinct
we have in order to accompany our everyday life. Sort of a thrill seeking
thing.
-Villain is more important than the protagonist
-A main reason why horror is no longer horror in game is due
to the increase of technology. The indistinct models and textures hidden in
shadows and fog helped hide the limited graphics while also giving the game a
scary feeling of asking “what’s beyond this?”
-Center horror around the unknown. It’s both scary and
intriguing.
-Leave the player in a unexplainable position and have them
try to find out the truth
-Divide the player between fleeing and wanting to know more.
-Build up the fear and then release it
-Some enjoy the ambience of someone else’s dark imagination.
-In horror video games, the soundtrack and the visuals
become very realistic making the player feel that he is actually playing a part
in a movie.
-Another reason why horror games are no longer big is
because of squeals. You can only replay the same mystery only so many times.
-Horror doesn’t sell as well as action adventure
Interesting huh? Well got to go bed for next class.
Well narrowing our project has helped a lot. We've gotten a clear focus and we now ready to start sending the prototypes to testing in the QA department. There are a few things we need to do before we start changing, but I think we might be able to make it in a week or two. Too tired to keep tying.
(Warning: This review contains spoilers. Also the author doesn't own any of the pictures or videos in his reviews)
Oh, I feel nostalgic about this. How long as it been since I've done a review for this blog? Too long. In fact, I think I should start by reviewing the one game I promised to review so much, but didn’t get a chance to when I quit this blog months ago.
Mass Effect 3
If you even dare to remember, I wrote that I wasn’t going to review Mass Effect 3 because I wasn’t satisfied with the ending—despite the rest of the game looking good—and when I heard about the extended cut endings I decided to play all those and then give my final thoughts. I did so a long time ago and I’m happy to say that I am satisfied. Mostly.
A quick recap about me and Mass Effect. Mass Effect is the reason why I got into Game Designing in the first place, specifically Game Narrative. The fact that such a great game managed to create such a thrilling story with consequences based on your actions in a universe that could be this generation’s Star Wars sparked something in me. I wanted to go out and create such games and unique worlds, interesting characters and races, as well design well written lore.
Now I’m a senior at Champlain College. Hopefully I'll be working in the game industry about a year from now. But in any event, let’s finally close the chapter of this amazing series.
1.Graphics
One thing that I’ve always praised about Mass Effect is its ability to improve their graphics with every release. Mass Effect one today still isn’t as bad in the graphics department despite the game coming out years ago. Mass Effect 3? We got bigger, detailed graphics.
Let’s talk character art first. The expressions on the characters look even better than before. Since Mass Effect has a lot of talking, it was a smart move on Bioware’s part to improve the necessary facial details. Scars, mouth movement, cheek bones, even the old wrinkles on characters help show just how old and experienced your characters are as they progress through this war. Admiral Anderson is, in my opinion, the best example. He’s old, but he’s still got the fire of a solider that burns inside him thanks to the facial expressions. Other characters have gotten much improvement thanks to these upgrades like Wrex, Liara, and even your Shepherd with new colors and looks to customize your character.
Environment art is just as amazing. With worlds like Tuchanka, Paladin’s Moon, Earth, and Rannoch. Your mouth drops at the sight of each worlds well crafted look. The worlds also speak the story as well with the biggest being Earth and Tuchanka. Earth is obvious because the first time you see this nice, clean white world before the Reapers come and hell is soon on the third rock from the sun. When you get back, it looks like the Fallout 3 World Wide Convention came to town. Tuchanka, however, was my favorite. The desert world and rubble cities spoke of the destructive behavior of Krogans, but the green luscious ancient ruins you find show that behind that shell of bloodshed there was a time when Krogans were a civilization that had deeper meanings then war and death.
And the climactic battle against the Reapers on Earth with every species in the galaxy helping you out only makes you drool. This game is beautiful and it deserves high marks for it.
2.Controls
I’ve never really complained about the controls of Mass Effect before, but I do have one or two issues now with this game. First, let’s talk about what works. The power wheel is still in play, the cover system still keeps its old ME2 feel and switching between weapons still works fast enough. Shooting is awesome,it feels more relasitic the way you handle guns. Also, you have an improved melee system to helps you deal with close quarters.
Yet there are a few issues. First, the running and the cover system. There were times when the cover system didn’t respond or always made me jump out when I didn’t want to. It was too sensitive and there were a bunch of times when I got killed because of it. But the one thing I really hated was how my ability to send my players to locations got screwed up in this game. Every time I tried to position them, they either ignored it or the control always sent them to the wrong area. It got frustrating because there were times when I wanted to play that tactical commando feeling the game promises to give you, but how can I do that if I can’t control my teammate’s actions? Not to mention there were time when my teammates got stuck or something so the characters are a little buggy.
It doesn’t feel that the controls really increased that much, but at the same time they’ve taken a step back with some problems. And yes, I know people are going to say the game feels more like a Gears of War game then an RPG shooter, but I'll get to that in a minute.
3.Gameplay
I guess the first thing I should address is the one complaint a lot of diehard Mass Effect fans have talked about from ME2 to now. Mass Effect got “simpler” as some people call it in the nice term. By simpler, it means Mass Effect slowly started to lose its RPG elements in favor of the ever popular third-person shooter style. It tended to be a popular thing with EA games that year with the games showing easier controls and focusing gameplay more on already existing popular franchises. In this game, you can make similarities to Gears of War.
While I didn’t see the issue too much in the last game, it’s obvious from this stand point that Mass Effect was more intended towards new players then old players, which I find to be a mistake. By now you already have a growing audience of fans waiting to play Mass Effect 3. You shouldn’t focus so much on making this game for an audience that’s never bothered to play it before; it’s got to be focused more to the core audience.
Mass Effect 2 was such a big hit because it continued that pathway. This game sometimes treats its audience members like newborns. If you want new players to join the series, let them buy the old games first or come out with a triple pack. Don’t waste the audience you already have just for new blood when you already have that huge audience.
Let’s address single player. As usual, a lot was put into the single player campaign. The maps are unique, level designs are good (Sometimes a bit more clustered together, but not always) and the enemies were awesome. We mostly face Cerberus in this series, but we also get our fair share of Reapers as well and more than just husks. We got converted Turians, Krogan, Asari, and more. We do occasionally get a bunch of grunts or Geth back in the battlefield, but it’s q much better variety then the usual three gangs we had to face in ME2. And the AI for the most part remains pretty good.
The AI that lacks is that of your allies, at least in some parts. For the most part your allies will find cover and fight pretty decently, you don’t always have to babysit. But then there will come times when your characters will start waiting in the same spot while your ten miles ahead. Many times I was ready for the next battle only to find my allies three rooms behind me from a fight ages ago. It’s annoying and I’ll tell you right now, Solo Sheperding is very hard. Still, the combat is faster and requires more careful thought so that’s a plus.
Let’s talk about gathering resources or War Assets. In order to get the archived good ending you’ll need Total Military Strength. This is judged by two things, your EMS, or Effective Military Strength, which is judge by the amount of War Assets you get, and your Readiness Rating, but more on that later. This is all the resources that you’ll need to fight the Reapers in the final battle for Earth. Depending on how high your TMS is shall effect how the battle goes, who lives and dies, and what choices you’ll have come the ending. EMS and War Assets can be gained by three ways. First is by following the main quest. Second, going to various planets and searching for them. Be warned, however, as by scanning the area you alert Reaper scouts who will try to kill you. One missed opportunity in this game is if you do get tagged by them, you should have a mini-shooter game with the Normandy to see if you evade them or not.
And finally, the other way to get War Assets is by the side quests. Unlike, the previous two games where you could listen into conversations while also talking to characters to get them, most of the game features you running around trying to listen in on conversations so you can hear what they need. Then you travel the galaxy, take part in missions, and keep an eye out for the item they need so you can complete the quest. It gets a bit tedious, especially since the mission log does a poor recording of your quests so you don’t know where you are on them, especially when they start to pile up.
Continuing with main story, the one key feature about Mass Effect is the choice system. Is that still working well? Yes and no. Yes it’s still awesome and every dialogue choice affects the game and relationship with the characters. However, it doesn’t appear for every moment in the game like in Mass Effect 1. Sometimes you’re going to say something without a dialogue wheel. What’s even worse is that you don’t have many Paragon or Renegade choices. They are nearly not in this game, what the hell?! The whole point of that system was to give players the chance to say or do something more heroic or bad ass. But now they don’t make much difference?
That’s just a big mistake that I can’t help, but shake my head at.
Finally, we’re going to talk about Multiplayer. Remember when I said about Readiness Rating? Well, that’s part of the whole Galaxy at War thing, but I’m just going to talk about the multiplayer aspect. It’s no surprise to us that there was going to be a multiplayer mode. However, the overall feel of this is just like Gears of War’s horde mode most of the time. You take on waves of enemies while sometimes unlocking new data, but it’s still horde mode. Yes you can play as other aliens and gain cool weapons and abilities, but why not try to create a more unique multiplayer like actual team combat or rescue situations? Why not scenarios taking place inside the game while Shepard is battling the Reapers? How cool would it be to drop on Earth and take it back during the whole grand battle as a squad of four?
The reason why it exists is to increase your Readiness Rating. By increasing it, you up the cost of how much your War Assets are, making them more valuable. Before the extended cut, the EMS requirement was 4,000 (as appose to the 3,100 now) and even if you found so many War Assets it was way difficult to get the number needed. By playing multiplayer you can increase, your chance. Before the extended cut, you pretty much needed to play multiplayer which always seemed to be a forced gameplay in my opinion and one that didn’t need to exist in the first place. Mass Effect has always been about single player only. So why multiplayer in this game? Because of the popularity of multiplayer shooters.
It just seems that, while it was a good idea, it should have been on hold to be made more unique and put down as a downloadable content. I know they had it and decided to just put it on here, but still.
Overall, Gameplay has improvements, but also suffers a lot of critical misses. The game can’t decide if it wants to help you or screw with you sometimes.
4.Story
And now we come to the big part of the review. The story. For the longest time we’ve been told that an advance machine race called Reapers were going to come and harvest all advance galactic life. Even worse, it turns out they’ve been doing this for millions of years even. After so long delaying and trying to prepare for their arrival, they have finally come. Earth is nearly concurred 10 minutes into the game and you later learn that other worlds are under attack as well.
The Turians and Asari homeworlds are in chaos, the Batarians are pretty much never going to recover having taken the first blow, and the entire galaxy is an absolute mess. We’ve gone from a single renegade Spectre agent to an entire armada of cuthulu machines and you, as the awesome space marine that you are, must stop them. The entire story is built on the premise of uniting the galaxy and it’s a good theme to go by. The galaxy is broken, scattered, and its leaders aren’t much help (Is that a surprise?). You’re the only hope the galaxy has to unite everyone and lead a final last stand. Every choice you make will affect your successes or failure, every resource and race you gather will be your shield, sword and hammer, every moment you waste is another millions of humans dying as they cry out for someone to save them.
The whole story is as dark as can be, even the humor is darkening. It really seems that all hope is nearly lost and it will take the biggest miracle ever to save everything. That comes in The Crucible, a Prothean weapon that was supposed to end the Reapers, but the ancient civilization never finished it in time and now humanity must build it. Some people criticize at the idea of a “Big Super Weapon” to be the grand destruction of all the Reapers, but it’s not that bad. Earth needed to be the last battlefield in some way and this was the best they could come up with. This game is also not just the final conflict with the Reapers, but also finally ends a lot of loose ends such as the Genophage, Cerberus, and the Geth/Quarian conflict which will be resolved by your choices. It’s nice to see so much finally get resolved.
Theme wise, there are two important things to look at. The first is Commander Sheperd’s mental state when dealing with the war. You know those dream sequences with the kid and the shadows? Their supposed to be Shepherds guilt that he’s survived all this time and yet people he’s cared about have died in this war. It only makes sense that the commander is breaking down. This is a war for survival. Plus, we were seeing some of this in ME2 especially when it was all about a suicide mission so it's nice to see this theme carry out.
The next important theme is sacrifice. This is a game where anybody can die, even Liara believe it or not. Sometimes your actions will result in the deaths of teammates and people you knew in the past, but there are going to be some you can’t avoid killing like Thane or Legion. In a war like this, sacrifice is required to win. It’s even more dangerous than fighting the Collectors. In some gameplays, you may only have, at most, 3 companions only fighting side by side with you during the entire game from start to finish and even then all of them can possibly die, including you in three out of the four endings.
Ah yes, the endings. I think I don’t need to go into discussion about that fiasco since you guys have mostly likely taken part or heard about the issue fans had with them (If you want a short summery this link explains it all: http://i.imgur.com/ZrHPY.jpg). I’ve talked about them already so let’s just move on to the extended cut. The free DLC managed to help give added scenes and scripts to the endings, explaining what had happened, who survived, and what the future of the galaxy will be. I know some people still bitched about even these, but honestly, this is what I wanted. Some detailed information about what my actions caused in the end of the game. I was given it and I was satisfied.
I forgive Bioware for this mistake, though I still needed some retribution for Dragon Age 2.
Let’s talk about how the endings are chosen exactly. It all comes down to what pissed me off about Deus Ex: Human Revolution. A single button changes the fate of the world or in this case a galaxy. What is up with the use of this system of solving endings? It just seems like my work was all for nothing if in the end it comes down to a choice regardless of what I do. Granted, some actions have further consequences then others, but I will get to that in a minute. It just frustrates me to have something like this. At least with KOTOR there was build up and the ability to perform evil and good actions before the final choice. In this we get nothing of the sort.
I’m not even going to go to the sense of the Reapers’s reason for why they do this or else I’ll be typing ten more pages.
The first ending is the destruction ending. The Reapers are destroyed, but so is EDI and the Geth if they survived. All advance AI and VI’s gone, meatbags rule the universe. This is also the only ending Shepard may survive if you have a high enough EMS rating. The second ending is the control ending, in which you do what the Illusive Man wanted to do and control the Reapers by having them obey your subconsiousness. This means getting rid of your flesh and becoming sort of a god of machines. Using your new Matrix powers you use the Reapers to heal the galaxy and keep the peace between the species with your rule sort of being implied is absolute. That’s right; Shepard can become God of the Universe. After all, you have the ancient machines of death under your control. The third ending is the synchronization in which you create a new brand of life by turning everyone, sentient and machine, into a mix of both. Making everyone have green eyes, part machine and part flesh, and have some sort of collective consciousness that makes everyone share data. In other words you all become geth with the ability to have half flesh and half machine babies….WHAT?!
How the hell is that even possible?! I can understand the control the Reapers thing thanks to enough Sci-fi, but this? A beam of light suddenly makes geth half human and humans half geth? And they can create life like this? Why do I suddenly think Krogan and Geth porn is going to be popular now. This isn’t science! This isn’t even magic! This is just a big WTF!
And finally the last one is you can reject the three choices like an idiot and let everyone die. Great job hero.
Mass Effect 3’s story has a good start and good build up, but even with the added content to the endings, its still not the big epic finish we were all hoping for like in the previous games. That’s not to say it’s a good story, it’s just somewhat disappointing.
5.Characters
Every character from all three games is back. Old teammates like Ashley, Kaiden, Wrex, and Liara. Friends of old such as General Oraka, Councilor Din, Admiral Hackett, and even Doctor Michael. Plus the team from ME2 (If they survived) is also back along with a few new friends. Since there are too many characters to talk about, we’ll just focus on the ones in your squad.
-Liara: Right from the start Liara is back in action and is awesome in every way. I really like how she’s changed from the nervous, young archeologist who had sexual feelings for you to this dark, mysterious and cold blooded killer who still has sexual feelings for you. Liara is, quite possibly, the closest person Shephard has in dealing with the Reapers and has been a playable character for all three games along with Garrus and Tali. Her focus on the Reapers and her duty to Shepard is heartwarming and she really remains the best developed character in the series.
-Ashley/Kaiden: While you get either of these two at first, they are out for the first half of the game due to the story. They can join later, but only if you help convince them that you are on their side. I found it annoying how these guys still thought I was with Cerberus after everything I did for the Alliance. I proved the Collectors were behind the attacks, I surrendered myself to the Alliance for judgment. I cut all ties with Cerberus and yet these idiots are all “OH I CAN’T TRUST YOU ANYMORE!" Depending how you treat them when they’re in the hospital they’ll either be your friends again or you’ll have to shoot them. I’m serious.
-James: The new guy. He’s pretty much your gunho tank. As for his personality… he’s boring. I know they try to get him to act like the everyday common grunt, but really the guy has nothing. He’s not a bad character, very useful in some fights, but he’s not the greatest. Mixed feelings about the guy. I will admit it's nice to see a Spanish character get a few moments in a game like this, since I'm Spanish myself. Still, I feel there is wasted potential in this guy. The best moment you get with him is during a spar where he opens up about himself and he kind of gives off the "I don't care if I live" attitude, but I don't buy it that well. Maybe because of his voice actor, Freddie Prinze Jr.
-Tali (If survived): Next to Liara, Tali has had the most character development. She’s grown from a young girl on a pilgrimage to an Admiral of her people. You get her late in the game, but her part is very big as she has to deal with the fact her people might go to war against the Geth. She’s stronger, smarter, and more indepentdent. I honestly think she’s a good archtype for strong women video game charcters. I do wish she came by a bit earlier, but I’m content.
-Javik(DLC): You get a Prothan. That’s right, you get a Prothan as a teammate. That is both awesome and a bit silly. What’s awesome is that Javik isn’t what you expect, he’s this cold and ruthless individual who explain that the Prothans may have not been the ancient saints the galaxy thought they were. Needless to say this shatters a few of Liara’s dreams. He’s a very powerful character will a kick ass beam weapon and a set of biotic powers, but green. What’s silly is how some characters take the guy. He’s the last of an ancient species and some people go “Oh, hey a Prothan, cool”. Oh, well. Still a cool guy. Also he has a Jamaican accent which in of itself is cool.
-EDI: USELESS! NEVER USE HER! THE ENTIRE IDEA OF HER HAVING A BODY FOR SEX APPEAL AND TO GIVE JOKER TO ROMANCE IS STUPID! FORGET THIS EVEN EXISTS!
6.Sound
The sound quality of this game is awesome. With amazing battle themes that range from epic to tragic. The best parts are the moving moments like curing the Genophage or seeing the fall of Earth in the beginning. Even if you destroy the Quarian fleet do you feel a pinch in your hear thanks to the music. All in all, this entire game has a great soundtrack and I don’t think I even need to go into amazing voice acting.
OVERALL: 4/5
SERIES OVERALL: 7/5
While this game is the weakest in the franchise, it’s still a great game to play. The entire series itself is one of the most influential and greatest game series to come out and it looks like Mass Effect will still continue. I stay play the entire series from start to finish and enjoy it.
Sorry for the late update, but I'm proud to say that my goal for this week was accomplish. The rough draft of my prototype is finally done. Granted the mechanics are a bit weak and there is definitly a lot of need for improvement, but the basic are done and we have another week to work on them
The player is in first person and travels around a series of room where monsters (Shown as capsules) are looking around. If the player is caught in his vision he turns red. Around the area are boxes that the player can pick up and uses as weapons to throw and stun the capsules which turn black if stunned.
The player has to look for three green spheres so they can unlock the red door to be free. To also help them, the players can hide in shadows to avoid the eyes of the monsters.
The monsters are able to move around thanks to a Waypoint script I created last year, but the weakness of this script is you have to input every waypoint instead of making them repeat over and over so at some point they will stop. Me and Mason think we cna fix this later.
I'm only hoping that the shadow collider script will work. Anyway, can't wait to show this and get responces in the next class.
Well, if this week has done anything for us it's helped us narrow down what we want our game to be focused on. A lot of thanks really goes out to the other teams for pointing out things and giving us suggestions on what we should focus on.
It's been decided that were going to go for a stealth horror game with a very dangerous creatures looking for you. You have to defeat them to move on and you do this by avoiding them, gathering items to build a trap, and then setting the trap to defeat them.
Some of the games that inspired us were Haunting Ground: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-r1kyzYbNU
And Amnesia: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1nY_5-UrY4
While the environments and story sound interesting, with what we have planned, we're focused on getting the mechanics, stealth, and the interaction between the player and the monsters planned out first. Our protoypes have been changed as have many of our issues.
Vincent and I will be making the protoypes after Mason makes the Stealth mechanic. Josh is going to be continuing his art direction as that's been going pretty well so far. Lastly, we all have documents to try and get done this week. While we won't be able to get past First stage this week like we planned, next week looks to be a better chance.
Plus, I think the extra week will give us a chance to really nail down what we need.
So the first class of the year for Capstone has started. Over the summer, my team and I were actually pretty much ready to start focusing on making an idea for a game we had, but then we learned we had to have two prototypes for stage one and two.
This upset us a bit, but we quickly recovered and already are in the process of making the mechanics and puzzles to apply to them. I've been made the production leader of this group of four which isn't so much a problem for me since I've had production experience over the year by becoming the leader of a group that's making a visual novel. Note to self: find out if that would be good material to use for Senior Show when they show our individual presentations. Sure it's My Little Pony, but eh.
While Mason and Vincent start making the mechanics and Josh starts some early concept art for both prototypes, I'm going to be starting on the iterative process and finding some testers who would be willing to test the prototypes early on. I can think of a few friends.
Only thing left to do is make all the issues we need and since I'm production leader I should get a head start on that.
Wow, it's been so long since I've been on this. Yeah, so your wondering why I'm writing an entry now when I took a big break months ago. Well, school piled up and I lost interest in doing this blog. I didn't feel like I really had anything to do with it and as such I left it as it was for a long time.
However, my final year in college requires me to blog about the senior project that I'm working on and since I already have a blog I figured I might as well return to this one. Does this mean I'll still chat about the industry and stuff. Sure, just don't expect many reviews. I've got a lot of time to waste on school and very little money to spend playing games.
Well, I completed Mass Effect
3 twice already so normally I should review it, but I’m not going too. Now let
me say this much, it’s a great game and should be played, but because of the
ending I’m holding back on reviewing it. Like many others, I was very disapointed in the ending that Mass
Effect 3 gave us. However, ever since I read about this Indoctrination Theory, it got me wondering if their’s more to this ending then meets the eye. To
explain more about this theory, please watch the video below done by the
legendary Angry Joe:
I happen to agree with a lot of the theories behind this. Many people say that Bioware dropped the ball or sold out on the ending, but I think maybe this was their plan all along. This wouldn't be the first time companies have added real endings to DLC.
I know some people are going to say "Well why not just include the ending anyway?". There might be a bunch of reasons. Maybe production went longer then expected and they had to ship before the ending could be completed (A problem all games face as no game is ever shipped with everything in it). Either way, I doubt Bioware really did this on purpose and even if they didn't the outcry of this ending has been so big that Bioware can use this time, and this theory, to give the fans what they want.
Granted it all comes down to how they sell it. When this DLC comes out (Most likely in April) what's going to be the price? If Bioware is smart they will release it for free. Having us pay 10 to 15 dollars for the ending we want isn't going to help them get forgiven by their fanbase. People were up in arms about the one-day DLC issue, the Origin issue, the forced Multiplayer issue, and now this ending issue. Bioware shouldn't add another one to their list.
But either way you look at it, a lot of hardcore fans will most likely never forgive Bioware for what they did. I mean, I hold no grudge and I still love Bioware, but it's obvious that some choices they made have costed them.
That doesn't mean, however, that fans should be acting like idiots. You want to create a protest and demand a better ending with a charity fund. I'm find with that. You want to give videos on why the ending sucked? Cool. But to demand Amazon for refunds on a game that is really good overall as well as going to the FTA to sue Bioware (Really kid, you went there) is just plain dumb.
Like I said. This is a really good game. I'm not reviewing it yet, because I want to see where Bioware takes all this and go from there.
We are Gamers and We are Legion
Later.
P.S. Sorry if I haven't been updating a lot. We just finished Alpha for our Production II class.
While I count the seconds for Mass Effect 3, chances are you already know of the leaked info on how Bioware will be releasing a $10 DLC for those who didn't get the Collector's Package on the day of Mass Effect 3's release. The DLC is called "From Ashes" and it takes place on Mars where you find a new companion. A Prothean.
That's right, the legendary Prothean race who were thought to be wiped out, or turned into Collectors, has a survivor! He also has a Jamaican accent which is weird, but cool.
This has got people up in arms because many are pissed at EA and Bioware for adding what they think is an "important character and plot twist" to the overall main story and charging them on day one, after paying 60 dollars for the game already, to get this.
Many are up in arms, emailing at Bioware for what they call a betrayal. There are even people asking for boycotts to cancel their purchases and demand that Mass Effect change this.
My opinion? I'm buying it and the DLC.
Yeah, it's ten extra bucks and I wish this was part of the game or came out later, but you know what I don't care.
I want to play Mass Effect 3 and if something comes out with it and I need a few extra bucks, then okay sure. Yeah I wish it was free, but come on. It's ten dollars. The economy is that bad yet.
All these calls for a boycott are stupid. Chances are half of them are still going to buy the game and still get the DLC. Or better yet, just buy the game and not the DLC if it pisses you off that much. This game is most likely going to be one of the greatest games ever so your only hurting yourself for not buying it.
Everyone's been talking about it and you want to play this game. Are you really going to let this one thing just stop you from enjoying a good gaming experience that hundreds of employees spend months and years making for you? As a Game Designer, I'm buying that game to show respect for all the dedication on those who worked their butts off to entertain me and create a work of art.
Sure some might call me a corporate lapdog or a sellout to consumerism.
But you know what?
I'm going to be blowing up Reapers with a Jamacian sounding Prothean by my side while you moan and complain on Reddit. Your logic is invalid!
We are Gamers and We Hope to see Legion in this game.
Yup, this year I took place in the Global Game Jam. For those of you who don't remember, last year I talked about how I took part in this awesome event. It's a world wide event where gamers all over the world come together into groups and make games in 48 hours based on a theme.
The games can be electronic, card games, board games, or even games with words. It's not about being first or last, it's about having fun and showing your creativity.
This year I managed to create another board game based on the theme: Ouroboros. It's called Alchemy, based on the mystical symbol being used for the ancient art. The game is a card game with a drawn board where players place cards on the board in order to get combinations and earn points. The first person to get all their points wins.
Last year, my classmates and I in Game Technology II created a game in less then three weeks using Unity. My task, as well as my partners, was to create a level for the swinging rope mechanic as well as the overall level design. Take a look and see what you think.
Finally. After countless matches,
countless times playing single player, and countless dead Russians or
terrorists. I finally am ready to give off my opinion on which of the FPS
behemoths is better. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 or Battlefield 3. Chances are you’ve heard
many people say which is the better game and why. Well, that’s what I’m also doing.
Except I spend since the debuts
playing these games because I wanted to give my best analyses possible. But in the end their
can only be one…
Now about me and Call of Duty. I’ve been a fan since the
first game and I still consider the start of the Battle of Stalingrad to be one
of the best moments in any game. Ever since then, each game has only gotten
better and better. Then we suddenly were given Modern Warfare and all our minds
were blown.
Call of Duty in modern era? Access
to aircraft and bombs? A plot that actually is original and decent? Hell yeah
this game series is awesome. To this day Activision’s Modern Warfare is one of
the greatest games to ever come out and each sequel has only gotten better and
better.
Now I’ll confess something. I’ve
never played a Battlefield game. Never.
I knew of the series, but was never that interested in it. That was
until I saw the trailer for Battlefield 3. I, like many, was hooked and wanted
to know more about the game. What really stunned us all was the new Frostbite
engine and how the game looked like it could seriously compete with Call of
Duty.
Everywhere on the internet, the two
games were being talked about and how much they were going to bring to the
table of FPS’s. Both games have come out a while ago, but to this day there are
still arguments on which are better. Well this is my opinion guys so let’s
start.
1. Graphics
Call
of Duty has always had stunning graphics. The level design of the
multiplayer maps always managed to capture attention and during the main story,
you’re going to have major epic scenes. With all the bombs,
bullets, and explosions going on around you actually feel like you’re in a real
battle.
The NYC levels are just awesome!
The greatest city in the world is in flames and crumbling all around you. I
lived half my life in that city and they captured the entire island perfectly.
France and England are no slouches either as that Big Ben moment really hits
you.
The only thing I may have an issue
is with the skyboxes. I don’t know, they kind of seem less improved then before.
However, Battlefield 3 makes graphic look like life itself. Now I played
this on the Xbox and I know that the graphics are tons better on the PC, but
even on Xbox the game plays beautifully. Characters look better then Call of Duty and the environments are
more detailed, especially when it comes to the desert and night levels. Best
desert combat ever. And the weather? My god is it great. The sea and water are just so well done I think it might be one of the top ten water effects I've ever seen in a game.
And with the levels of Battlefield 3 so huge it’s like you’re
actually in a living warzone. Character animations are the best and the
customizations for your characters make them stand out well.
Winner:
Battlefield
2. Controls
Call
of Duty, for the most part, has had an average control scheme. And that’s a
problem. I keep wishing the controls would get better or different then its
previous counter parts, but that’s not the case. The game feels the same as it
did before. For some it’s a good thing, but after playing the same controls
after 3 games you would think we would get something different.
Plus, sometimes the controls just
seem a bit weak.
Battlefield
3 has a much better control scheme and it has to. After all, you’re not
just running around on the field of battle. You’re flying jets and driving
tanks! When you move, you feel like
you’re moving. Turning is much better and the animations, my god. The Parkour
like gameplay you get when you jump or dive is a thousand times better than
anything Call of Duty gives (Or Brink
for that matter). Shooting works well and aiming is just as par as the aiming
system in Call of Duty.
But the real credit goes to the
vehicle controls. They do get some getting used to, but as you master them you start
to feel like a real jet pilot or a tank driver.
Winner:
Battlefield 3
3. Sound
If you have your own sound system,
do yourself a favor and send it to the max! This game continues to capture the
realistic gunfire and explosions that you would expect in a Modern Warfare
game. But the best has to be the voice acting. Top quality work on this one
and I give it full credit for the accent’s they put in for the Russians. Plus, Price is just a bad ass.
Battlefield
3 has pretty realistic sounds as well. In fact, both Modern Warfare and Battlefield
sound perfect together…only one little thing. I hate the voice acting in BF3. I really think they could have gone
a lot better with it then they did. But one thing that they really do well
together is the vehicle sounds. Still, I love voice acting. And I don't want any ties in this game so credit goes to COD.
Winner: Modern Warfare 3
4. Single
Player
I really like Call of Duty’s single
player. Why? Because unlike other FPS’s army stories that are focused on terrorism or a war that’s happened in history, Modern Warfare actually has an original plot. Sure
some events might be inspired by previous ones in real life, but did any of us expect
General Shepard's betrayal in MW2? Or the backstory of Makarov? Not to mention
Soap’s death in MW3!
And the impacts the story gives you
such as the falling of the Eiffel Tower, the Big Ben explosion, and the last
level when your killing Makarov? Just epic.
This is an epic tale that will make
you want to replay all three games over again.
Battlefield 3’s single player…is
just not good. Really not good. I really didn’t think they were trying with
this one and it kind of shows. I don’t know anything about the characters, the
story just confuses me the moment it starts (And I get what they’re trying to do,
but A. COD Black Ops did it already
and B. So did Black).
I don’t know if they were focusing
so much on the Multiplayer that they didn’t want have that strong of a single
player, but either way. This is an easy one.
Winner:
Modern Warfare 3
5. Multiplayer
This is the big one everyone has
been talking about.As usual, Modern Warfare 3's is godlike. All the things we’ve come
to expect from Modern Warfare in terms of Multiplayer are there. Awesome
matches, new perks and weapons, and an excellent range of maps.
One thing I really find cool is the
new Kill Streak system. You can choose to have one based on your kills, like
before, but now you can also have on based on your deaths. What I also really
like is the new level experience. Where the more you use your weapon, the
better it gets.
What is also great is the other
co-op missions and the Survival mode like game. The Co-op missions were tons of
fun and I and my friends played them all night long when we got the game. I
especially like the ones where on player is the shooter on some sort of vehicle
or sniper position and the other has to go around shooting and moving to the
objectives while his partner protect him. That’s awesome gameplay experience
right there.
And then there is Survival mode.
This is when you and a friend have to last as long as you can against bigger
and deadlier waves of enemies that range from common soldiers, to dogs, to
Juggernaut armored enemies. Each successful repel gives you money that you can
use to buy ammo, perks, armor, and more. You’ll spend hours a day on this
experience and never stop playing it.
Again, just the multiplayer
experience alone is enough to make you have this game.
Now to Battlefield 3. Big maps with huge teams and huge guns. That’s just
what you can say about this game. Each map is very well designed and very big.
Enough to fit 50 players even. Matches go on for a long time and you’ll have
plenty to do with the huge amounts of vehicles post everywhere. Teamwork is
definitely needed for this experience as you cannot win this game on your own,
you will die a lot if you don’t stick close to your teammates.
It sounds like a really good
experience…but there are flaws. One, you will need to really spend a lot of
time on this game to get more equipment. If you thought being a noob in COD was
bad, this is much worse. It took me nearly forever to get enough credits to buy
better equipment when nearly everybody was killing me every five seconds
because I was so poorly equipped. At least in Call of Duty, you had some balances to help you out. I give credit
to all the customization and the Battlelog system Dice made.
But there aren’t as many types of
games you can play on these maps and the only one that really made me play was
just Conquest. Modern Warfare as a
lot more to offer. And while Battlefield 3 does have Co-op missions, they just
don’t feel as good as Modern Warfare’s
does.
Winner:Modern Warfare 3
OVERALL
WINNER: MODERN WARFARE 3
So yes, both games are good.
However, once again Modern Warfare is
the king of all First Person Shooters. Everything about this game is great and
this is the side I choose in the war between the two games.
