mardi 27 novembre 2007

Difficulty in games

I read David Jaffe's comments about difficulty in games : http://criminalcrackdown.blogspot.com/2007/11/aaaaaaaaannnnnnnndddddd-scene.html
and how he hates it when designers make a game difficult.

He says he doesnt want to be challenged when he plays games, he hates difficulty curves in games and how games should be all easy to go through and fun...

I'm really with him on this point, cuz I'm usually playing on Easy mode at some games if they're too difficult since I'm playing a game to have fun and forget about my bad days (or whatever) not be frustrated at the tv. I'm playing hardcore games when I need to, but ...

It's just weird hearing it from mr. Jaffe though ... who produced God Of War ... who had the most difficult and frustrating level in a game ever!!! I just hated that walking on the edge thing and going up that chopping moving column, anyways ...

Some games make it hard just to make it hard because some designers thought it had to be hard to be fun ... thats why we have difficulty settings for those "hardcore" gamers who want it hard in life and enjoy a big challenge (i.e. COD 4 on veteran setting).

Like I said before in my posts about this issue ... I want to have fun and I dont have enough time to play over and over the same areas because its just too hard !!!

So you are right mr. jaffe! (but you dont have to use those CAPS) ;)

All those games ...

So many games came out lately ... Call of Duty 4, Assassins Creed, Mass Effect, Rock Band and Mario Galaxy (which I didnt have time to play yet)... luckily I had 4 days to play them during Thanksgiving (U.S.) YES!

And these are like some of the best games that came out this year...

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Rock Band
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Rock Band comes from the guys (Harmonix) who did the first 2 Guitar Heros... but with drums and a microphone included (anyways you guys know this right ...)

This game is soooo good and I only played the guitar solo campaign so far.

Why is it sooo goood (even if I played the guitar only) ?

It feels just right (and a lot better than Guitar Hero 3... A LOT).
I'm playing at medium and I dont fail the songs and I enjoy them a lot.
I like the new presentation, I like the new way the power ups are shown(bar that fills up and you can use the whammy bar to get more bonuses, I like the second set of buttons on the guitar that you can press during solos and u dont have to strum during them, I love the new guitar (even though mine is broken ...have to return it ).

The drum part is really hard...even easy mode is hard.

The songs they have on there are really good (compared to GH3) even though they have 13 songs from unknown bands that kinda suck anyways ... you can download more songs :)

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Call of Duty 4
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This game has (one of) the best endings in video games ever ... I loved that last section which is soooo different than the rest of the game. And at that moment (youll know) ... it happened :)
(I heard there was an hidden level after the credits ... what?!?)

The game looks so good ... all those details the team had the time to put in ... wow !

There are a lot of good scripted scenes, the dialogues make the game, the story is actually good.

The weapons are good to play with and they feel right, I like to play the night scenes with the goggles, I like the missions with some urgency timer type of thing and I loved the ending.

I felt that there were a lot of spawning dudes if you would just sit there and try to kill them all, but would stop if you'd move forward faster instead.

I like the fact that its short.

The multiplayer rocks, I love it even if I'm not that good, but I like to upgrade and get more perks and weapons!

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Mass Effect
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I really enjoy the story in this one.

I love the dialogue trees and I like to be a Renegade :)

The indoor environments look good, I wish we could visit more planets even though there are a lot of galaxies around, the buggy is well okay... I dont really enjoy "exploring" the planets cuz you're really only going to 3 points on each planet ... right ?! oh well that gets old fast.

I like the fact that I can do a lot of sub missions or the story path and still act the way I want, but that gets me in trouble sometimes.

Being a combat dude only in the game, I feel I'm missing some electronic capacity to open safe or get information from computers even though my "helpers" have those skills, but I cant send them to do it ... kinda sucks!

The combat is okay for me cuz I'm a combat character, but I hear its horrible for other types of people ... ouch ! The combat still feels bad for me even though I have all of the weapons.

I'm still going to play further but I enjoyed the story so far and piss off other soldiers :)

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Assassin's Creed (might contain spoilers)
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I hear a lot of people hate this game, but I sure am not one of those guys ... I just love this game.

I love the story and I want to know more and whats going to happen next. I know I'm being used ... everybody is kinda telling me that I am, but ... I just want to go in the future world also and see what I can do there!

I really like the way they set up the cities, how you can climb all buildings and that looks soooo good ... the animations are incredible.

I dont like how people always suspect you when you're on the ground and you have to blend in and walk slowly, but then you can just climb up and be "free".

I like the ways I can kill somebody with my little hidden blade ... that feels soooo good when it works... I feel great after ;)

I like the spying elements you have to achieve before doing an assassination (except pickpocketing which is not fun) and the informer "sub missions" are a good change also from normal spying, but I like listening to what characters say.

I like to defend citizen and I love their rewards... it's soooo great to blend in using the scholars and they drive your character around without any inputs.

But the combat is not so great ... how they are all waiting in a queue to hit you, but the killing is still better than I expected, cuz when I was watching other people combat ... I though it was the worse ever ... I guess they were bad playing it ;)

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update
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i completed the game...the end is quite a big letdown ... why can't you finish your game better we listened to so many cinematics during the game and at the end ... nothing!?!? geez

The last couple of Assassinations and the way to the last level was so bad...why cant I hit the guy while he's on the ground while everywhere else in the game I could do it ?

So many soldiers to kill for the last battles it was no fun and on the way to the last level...so many guys spawning out of nowhere and right in my face, kinda clumsy.

like i said before i still loved the missions before the assassinations, i dont mind it that much that its all of the same even though more variety would have been welcomed.


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