NFL Blitz 2000

So this week being a break week I was sans a current console system almost the whole time. But thankfully I was able to dig out an N64 and a copy of Blitz 2000. Yeah I know, very fitting for Thanksgiving week.

This game is nothing like the Madden games, and thank God. Those games get really detailed and I don't really like sports games all that much. There are some basic plays to choose from, but there is a lot of room to freestyle in this game. Also, there isn't this whole lame 10 yards for a first down, try 30. This is because the plays are more dramatic and often result in lots of yardage. This game is all about excitement. And to heighten it there are only 7 players on each team. This not only makes the game more simple to control, but also allows for runners to get by defensive players a lot more ease.

But who really cares about all that? What really makes this game awesome is that you can pound your opponents, even after the play has stopped. It is really easy to vent frustration when you can jump on your opponent even after they have scored and not be penalized for it. This game is a more violent and fast paced version of football. Pretty much it takes everything boring about football and gets rid of it. They don't even do extra point field goals, you can take the automatic 1 point or go for 2 points.

The game also makes it more difficult for the team in the lead to make the games more exciting. Yes it can be frustrating when you want to destroy a friend's self-esteem, but games are more thrilling when the result is uncertain until the end.

Maybe it is just my nostalgia talking, but this game earns a solid 5 out of 5 stars for its entertainment value alone.

Game update 4? Or 3? Whatever.

So unfortunately we could not get a reschedule for our appointment with the powerhouse people last Monday and no one in our group could  make the meeting. That will be rather costly as the time we have left to get this done grows ever shorter. Hopefully we can have something substantial for the digital prototype play testing.

We did get some good feedback about our character designs. Not necessarily about the designs themselves, but people asked questions that made us think about other parts of our game.

So there isn't much to update at this point, but there should be a lot more to talk about next week.

Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour

So for silly reasons I own a gamecube. I don't like it very much because the controllers were very silly and I found most of the games inferior to those of XBOX when it was actually a relevant console. But this is one of the few games that I have and got some amusement out of it. I brought this game out only because I recently watched Funny Games (the original one, maybe I'll watch the remake after we finish Shitty Shuttle Shervish so I can actually participate in making it without hating myself) so I don't feel that it is appropriate to review a game with lots of violence. Violence is not entertaining.

But back to the review. This is the sequel to the N64 game. I never played it, but thought it should be mentioned. I usually don't like sports games, unless they involve soccer, hockey, or snow sports, but the Mario sports games are usually pretty fun. This is an example of a fine Mario game. It's still golf, and golf is golf even with a giant ape. As frustrating as it can be I think I would prefer to play the Wii Sports golf game over this. The motion controller makes the gameplay more involving. Did I mention golf is pretty boring? I'm not really willing to spend much time playing a golf game where I just hit a few buttons every few minutes. At least with the Wii game there is a bit of action in between the boring bits.

There is one huge negative part to this game. It is really hard to make short puts because the way the power meter works. It involves a very quick "tap tap" but even then it can easily power over the hole. What is worse than a boring sport? A frustrating boring sport.

As much as I like playing games with friends, this is one of those games I'd rather play with just one other person or go solo. I don't have the patience to wait a long time until it is my turn. Again, golf games are fine to play, but watching them is really boring.

This game is fine all around, the courses are fun, the controls are fine except for that putting, but it isn't anything great. So for a very middle of the road game I give an average score of 2.5 stars out of 5.

Game update #3

So last week was a pretty big week for our game. After inspiring words about killing bears we decided our game would be more fun if the object was to hit things. So say goodbye to trying to avoid freshmen and hello rampage. This will truly be one Shitty Shuttle Shervish.

A few days after we decided to make this change my boss, a conservative woman in her 60s, was driving me to one of my classes and mentioned how she wished there was a 3 hour period every once in a while where you could hit all the dumb people that walk out into the road without looking. So I told her about the game and she was ever so excited to be able to play it. So we've got at least one fan!

We also met with someone at whatever that thing is called in the Powerhouse. We feel pretty good about making the game after talking with them. It will still take quite a bit of work, but just by talking with someone that really knows coding and flash we were able to simplify things a bit. This initial meeting was extremely helpful because without it we would have done a bunch of design work that would likely not be used.

Right now we are doing well on getting all the design stuff done. However, we are very worried about the digital prototype being due the Monday after break. We will hopefully meet with said Powerhouse people twice before that class, but it may not quite be enough to get a very good prototype. But we will work hard to get as much of the first draft of the game done by then as possible. We will certainly not have any sort of menu, opening animation, or sounds by then though.

A lot of work in a short amount of time, but we got this.

Battle Bears: Zombies

I could only find Battle Bears: Zombies! in the Android market. I don't know if my phone just doesn't like it, but it didn't work to well. The first time when I finally got a weapon to work it just continually shot and all I could do was aim it. The second time I couldn't even get a weapon to work at all. My phone just updated last night, so maybe it has something to do with that, but it's a Droid Incredible so it should be fine with handling anything.

Had everything worked like I assume it is supposed to I could see it providing maybe 10-15 minutes of entertainment. It is not the kind of app I would spend money on. Well to be fair I have never paid for an app and do not plan to. Also to be fair I really only like puzzle games on my phone. I only play games on it when I have to kill a few minutes and I generally like something that I can easily look away from. Obviously many people like this game, it's just not the right kind of app for me.

Benjamin Vu Questions

1) How much of a time/money investment is it to create an app like Battle Bears?
2) Why did you get into making phone apps?
3) Any new and exciting things coming from SkyVu Pictures?
4) With so many apps, how do you create an app that will be noticed?
5) With so many free apps, what makes people willing to pay for certain ones?

JJKJKJKK Game Update Take 2

Recap of idea: shuttle bus driver has to race against clock. Obstacles get in the way down McKinley. For more information see previous post.

We have narrowed down our obstacles to a more manageable number. Other than that there is not much to update on. We did complete our physical prototype and we had fun doing that. It is a pretty simple concept that at least in some way reflects what the actual gameplay will be. There is a strip of paper with 3 columns that have predetermined obstacles on them. The player must choose which column they wish to be in before pulling the paper down to reveal the next row, to see if they get time added, subtracted, or neither. The actual game will have a timer, but that is much too difficult to replicate with a physical prototype without an insane setup.

Oh we also came up with our game name: "Shitty Shuttle Shervice". Shervice may also be changed to Shervish in the future. It is also known as "JJKJKJKK's Shitty Shuttle Shervish." Say that any times fast!

Far Cry 2

Far Cry 2 is another open world game. I have not been able to get extremely far in the story, but it is still a very fun game. Set in Africa, the expansive map offers beautiful jungles, savannas, deserts and towns with many things that are destructible. The game even offers full day and night cycles, although I don't like the long nights.

The government of the Central African country has collapsed and two factions fight for control. As the player, you can team up with the factions as you find fit. You will need many friends if you will find a way to kill the Jackal, an arms deal of near god-like power.

Let's look at what the game gets right. The map is absolutely huge and the player can navigate it as they wish. There is just something fun about tearing through an African jungle and then engaging in a gun fight. There are a wide array of weapons and vehicles, and best yet are that they degrade, making the game more realistic. Yes you can pick up a weapon from a dead enemy, but then you run the risk of the heavily used weapon jamming or overheating. There are so many ways to play this game and that really increases the groups of people that would enjoy playing this game. People can just explore, go on mad killing rampages, gain allies to help with the fighting, or try to complete every side mission and collect all of the diamonds scattered about the terrain.

Now I enjoy killing things in games, but in this game it gets to be a little much at times. Factions control checkpoints along the roads. You can kill all of the soldiers off and be on your way, but the next time you go back through the faction will have regained control of the checkpoint. When you have to pass 10 checkpoints to get to the next town, and you have to make that trip several times, it gets to be a bit much. You can, however, just drive right through, but they will still shoot at you and chase you.

This game is very fun, but some of the combat could be a little better and sometimes it just takes too long to get places. Four out of five stars.

Call of Duty World at War

In this installment of the Call of Duty franchise the player fights as a Russian soldier on the front lines in Russia and ultimately in Germany (spoiler, the Germans lose), and as an American soldier in the Pacific theater. This game added more realism to the franchise, and as I will later discuss is not always a good thing.

Call of Duty has now also done three more games (or maybe one is just about to be released?) beyond World War II, so this is the latest in the series for that war. I've barely played the modern version ones, and the campaigns seem like quite a bit of fun, but a bit is lost in the multiplayer gameplay. Or maybe it is just that I almost punched a 13-year-old over the ethics of using a heartbeat sensor. I mean really, a heartbeat sensor? Why don't we just stand ten feet from each other and just pull the trigger of whatever is in our hand?

But I digress, this game is pretty fun, although I didn't really like the Pacific campaign so much. If you have read any of my blog you know how much I enjoy shooting Nazis because they barely count as human beings. The horrible things the Japanese did to the Chinese during this time period is not nearly as big a part of our culture as the Nazis are, so I have to keep reminding myself what they did to make it all okay. But then I remember what we did to Japanese Americans during the war and then it because less fun. I know, silly mean bringing ethics into a war game, right? But speaking of which, no one warned me about the dogs in the game. The first time I played this game was during my Freshman year and I was just innocently trying to kill some people when a dog jumped on me. The screen said push the joystick in, so I did. I snapped the dog's neck. I then justifiably freaked out for a while yelling expletives because it was really graphic and I had not been prepared for that.

But minus the whole ethics and overly realistic violence, this is a fun game. I do, however, miss the African fighting from Call of Duty 2, the only other game in the series that I have ever owned. Honestly update Call of Duty 2 and I will buy that game. Fighting in France and Africa is my ideal WWII game. Perhaps this game was the real wake up call for the game designers. The series was getting stale and they needed to do something. But I do hope that they return to their roots in the future once there is something to completely overhaul the way the game is played to make another WWII game worth playing.

There are some great moments in this game, but there is enough working against it to earn 3 out of 5 stars.