The Last of Us: Red Band trailer. Man, this game makes me wish I had a PS3.

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)

Infidelity

This is a (mostly) platform game made by me and two classmates for a final project. It explores the theme of infidelity, and the feelings one might experience after cheating. It’s short and hopefully not too difficult, so please give it a try!

Click here to download. The link leads to YoYo Games, where I’ve now successfully uploaded it. Please feel free to rate and comment! Any and all feedback is really appreciated. (It’s hard to tell if your games are good if you’re the only one playing them. *sigh* sad life.)

Rayman Origins Review

Rayman Origins kicked my ass. Again and again. And it was awesome.

This game is incredibly hard. Just beating the game is hard enough, and if you’re a completionist, getting all the Lums, Skull Teeth, Time Trial Trophies, Medals, and costumes is going to take you a long time. There is a ton of content, and you can choose if it’s worth pursuing. Me, I was happy unlocking and beating every level, including the last one, which is HARD.

But let’s start with the presentation. It’s gorgeous. The artwork looks hand-drawn, and apparently, that’s because the game uses Ubisoft’s “Ubi Art” framework, which supposedly allows artists to use concept art as real, in-game assets. Well, it paid off, because Rayman Origins looks unlike any other game out there. The characters, enemies, worlds, all look full of life and vibrant colors, making them pop. I would’ve spent more time looking at the game if it weren’t going by in a blur! The enemies are pretty weird and quirky, but I expect nothing less from a Rayman game.

And the music. Oh, the music. It’s fantastic. The music has character. Cute voices sing along in weird, made-up languages to the catchy melodies. I even tried looking for a soundtrack online, since it was so good. The music helps alleviate the frustration of dying over and over.

And speaking of dying: you will die. A lot. If you’re the type of person who gets easily frustrated, and plays games mostly for the story, you should probably steer clear of this one. There’s not much of a story here anyway, but that doesn’t matter, because the gameplay is just so much fun. In fact, I completely forgot why Rayman was on this quest in the first place, and when I got to the final boss, I didn’t even know who it was. But it’s okay, because the gameplay more than makes up for it.

Every time I died, I knew it was my fault, not the game’s. The controls are tight, pretty much as good as a Mario platformer, which is high praise. But it’s the level design where this game truly shines. Each level is designed to be difficult, but achievable, if you memorize the layout and how far you should jump here, whether you should hover there, things like that. The levels that stand out are the “chase” levels, where you chase a treasure chest through a level. You can’t stop at all—you’ve got to keep running the whole way. Every jump, every punch has to be perfect. You’ve got to learn the level by playing it over and over until you can beat it perfectly, and when you do, it’s immensely satisfying.

If you’re a fan of platformers, or Rayman, or are up for a challenge, than I highly recommend this game. I don’t think I’ve played a non-Mario platformer as good as this in a long time.

9.5 

Opinion: All Games Should Have Demos (or at least, more of them)

This past week, I’ve downloaded a bunch of demos on my 3DS: Fire Emblem Awakening, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity, Etrian Odyssey IV, and HarmoKnight. Each demo let me play the beginning of the game, giving me a sense of whether I would like it or not. Combined, they provided me with a great deal of entertainment for the unbeatable price of free. And those demos have sold me on every single game.

Above: Etrian Odyssey IV. Pretty fun, but incredibly complex. Found that out in a demo!

I’m an avid reader of IGN. I check the homepage at least three times a day to get caught up on the latest news and reviews. In fact, sadly, IGN is probably my main source of news, period (besides The Daily Show and The Colbert Report). IGN is my go-to when I’m deciding whether I should buy a game or not. I’ll check the review, watch some gameplay videos to see if I might like it. But sometimes, that’s just not enough.

If you want to watch a movie, you can watch it instantly online for free, or through a service like Netflix. You don’t have to buy every movie you want to watch before you know if you even like it or not. That’s not the way it is with games, however. When BlockBuster was still relevant (well, in business) I would sometimes rent games from them. It was great—I could try the newest game to see if I liked it before I plunked down $50 or more. Now, GameFly is really the only way to rent games, but does anyone actually use it?

And unlike movies or books, games are a significant investment, both of money and time. If I pay $60 for a new game, even if I don’t like it, I’ll play through it till the end, because I want to get my money’s worth. Of course, I’ll still regret paying that much for a game that I don’t even enjoy, and now have to sell to GameStop to get like 14 cents for it.

So what I choose to do is, I wait for Steam’s mega sales, where blockbuster titles like Assassin’s Creed and L.A. Noire are only $5, or if a game is only available on consoles, I’ll wait for the price to lower to $20. (Unless it’s a must-have, like the newest Pokemon or Zelda, which I’ll buy at launch.) But even at those price points, why should I have to buy it before I’ll even know if I like it? I don’t want to own it if I don’t like it.

That’s why demos are so valuable, and should be much more widespread. The 3DS has been pretty good about providing demos for most of its games, and they’re helping me make decisions about my future buys. Demos are amazing for the consumer, and can help good games get the attention they deserve, and prevent bad ones from being bought. I read an article about someone who said that demos are bad for the gaming industry and can hurt game sales. That may be true for bad games, but it’s the opposite for good ones. People who may have been on the fence about a game might end up buying it because of a demo, and people might have cancelled their pre-order for games like Aliens: Colonial Marines if they’d played a demo.

For all these reasons, in my opinion every game should have a free playable demo. The 3DS seems to be leading the charge, and hopefully services like Steam and Xbox Live will catch on soon.

Paper Mario: Sticker Star Review

Wow, I’m glad I got a 3DS. Animal Crossing, Pokemon X&Y, Luigi’s Mansion…there are just too many great games. Having played all the other Paper Mario games, I figured this one would be good too. And it’s…well…it is good, just not that good. After the amazing The Thousand-Year Door, Super Paper Mario let me down, and I have to say, Sticker Star let me down again.

It looks like Paper Mario, it sounds like Paper Mario, but…it just doesn’t feel like Paper Mario. It doesn’t have the charm and humor of its predecessors. What I loved about Thousand-Year Door was its relatively complex story (for a Mario game) and how different it was from any other Mario game. That, combined with colorful characters and epic battles, made it one of my favorite GameCube games. Sticker Star doesn’t really have any of that. The only other characters besides you, Princess Peach, and Bowser are Kersti (your talking sticker companion) and a bunch of Toads. That’s it.

As a result, I didn’t really get invested in the game. Sure, most Mario games don’t have a compelling story or characters, and you could make the argument that that’s not what they’re about—it’s gameplay that really matters. And in the Super Mario Bros. series, you’d be right. But Paper Mario is a platformer/RPG hybrid, and in an RPG, I expect a good story/characters. I’ve come to expect that from past Paper Mario games, and sadly I just didn’t get it here.

So when it came time to fight a boss or collect a Royal Sticker (this game’s important collectables) I found myself asking, Why? Why am I even doing this? I wanted epic boss battles, and instead, got bosses with little or no introduction. You just sort of start fighting. There’s no fanfare, nothing to excite you. 

And again, normally that’d be okay, but not in Paper Mario. I will say, though, that the gameplay is solid. I disliked the direction Super Paper Mario took in getting rid of nearly every RPG aspect, and I’m glad they brought back turn-based battles. Battling in Sticker Star goes like this: you select one of your stickers, like a Jump or Hammer sticker, and use it against your enemy. I liked the variety of different moves I could use, and timing button presses perfectly and learning enemy attack patterns was a lot of fun. However, I don’t like having a finite amount of stickers that you have to use sparingly. I learned later on in my playthrough that it is actually better to avoid enemies when you can, because you often end up using more stickers than you get out of battling them. And because there’s no XP or level-up, there’s really no reason to battle enemies, except to get coins or a sticker. This is unfortunate, because I have always enjoyed Paper Mario’s battle system. If they’d let me have a default Jump or Hammer without having to use a sticker, that would’ve been nice.

Another thing worth mentioning: the boss battles. They all have an insanely high amount of health, and each one basically requires a certain sticker to defeat. You don’t learn what it is until the second time you fight it, so basically you have to fight it three times to beat it, which is terrible design. Not to mention, many of these “Thing” stickers (stickers of everyday objects that do something special in combat or the overworld) are difficult to find, and you really aren’t given any hints about where they are, so you will likely get stuck in a level and have to comb the levels you’ve already beaten to find it. (Use a guide. It’s not worth it.)

Another change made to the Paper Mario formula is the world layout. It now looks more like Super Mario World, where you can select your level via an overworld map, without having to actually travel there. I actually like this, as it better suits play on-the-go, and lets me just sit down and beat one level in a relatively short time, if I don’t have much time.

Despite all my complaints, I did enjoy playing the game. It’s a good game—I never wanted to just stop playing altogether—but it falls short of the other Paper Mario games, making it (I think) the worst in the series. It just lacks the personality and charm of the other games, and by getting rid of leveling up and making you have a finite amount of attacks, it sort of discourages battling, which is one of its stronger aspects. It’s really too bad; I was looking forward to this game. Here’s hoping what they do on Wii U is better.

6.5

JUST SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY ALREADY

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)

The Beach Boys in Bioshock Infinite? Can I want this game any more?

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)

Pixel People Review

Ever since the advent of social and casual games, I’ve been staunchly against them. I consider myself a hardcore gamer through and through, and told myself I would never play an iPhone game. Well, slowly I’ve warmed up to the idea of gaming in short bursts—in the bathroom, in the car, or if you just don’t have time to sit down for a long gaming sesh. It started with Temple Run, then Draw Something, then Flow, and now, Pixel People. I saw that it got a 9 on IGN, so basically I was obligated to check it out. Not to mention it’s free.

I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that this game ate (eats) up a lot of my time. A lot.

Here’s the premise: you are the mayor of the city of Utopia. Utopia exists in a vacuum—literally in space—and as mayor you are able to design it how you see fit. It shows you the city in an isometric grid, and you are given a certain amount of land to use for building whatever you want: roads, waterways, banks, universities, stadiums, whatever. Once you run out of land, you must pay a certain amount of coins (the in-game currency) to “level up” and get more land.

A city needs people, so to add people, you create clones. In an odd but straightforward method, you splice together different jobs to get new jobs. Each clone makes a certain amount of coins per second, and works in a certain type of building. The main “goal” is to get all the (currently 155) jobs. Pixel People doesn’t let you just sit on your ass and let the money roll in, however. A building will only make money for a certain amount of time before it needs to “recharge,” which you do by tapping it. However, the game accommodates your play style. Want to just sit down for a while and play? There’s plenty to do. Or, do something else for a while and the game continues on without you.

Everything takes a certain amount of time, which you can speed up by spending “Utopium.” Utopium is rare, and you get it either from trees you’ve planted, or from gathering love from your people. Alternatively, you could pay real money to get more in-game coins or utopium, but if you don’t want to spend any, you can play just fine. I never spent any money and I’ve kept myself entertained the entire time I’ve played.

Pixel People may seem simple and straightforward, and for the most part, it is. However, it does have depth, more so than most other casual games (at least, the ones I’ve played). It will keep you busy, so if you’re already busy then maybe playing it isn’t the best idea (I probably should have been studying instead…probably should be studying right now actually). But if you’re looking to kill some time, Pixel People is an addicting and worthwhile way to do it.

8/10

Lone Survivor Review

I forgot I wrote this review a while ago when I played the game Lone Survivor. So, here’s what I had to say about it.

Lone Survivor is one of the only games that I thought I understood, but was frequently proven wrong. On the surface, it is simply another zombie game. But there is so much more underneath that I don’t quite understand yet. Often I found myself saying “What’s going on?” out loud. The confusion I had mirrored the confusion of You, the main character. You hallucinate. You meet other characters who don’t seem quite right. I’ll need to play it again in order to understand it further, but here’s what I took from my first playthrough:

Your choices end up mattering, and affect how the game goes. I unfortunately didn’t realize this until late in my playthrough. Your choices boil down to two things: avoid violence and hide, or confront the enemies by shooting them. I chose the latter option—the “Blue” ending. You can take pills to help you, which are mysteriously restocked every day. Blue pills give you more ammo. Green pills give you batteries for your flashlight. Red pills wake you up. When you take a blue pill, it makes you drowsy, and when you go to sleep, you dream you are on stage, sitting in a chair next to a man. You never learn his name, but I believe that he is a part of you, and his name is Draco, which I inferred from diary entries scattered about. He is the violent side of you. When you take the green pill, you dream of The Man with a Box on his Head, who is shown in a better light and presumably wears the box to hide from the world, as you do when you hide from enemies. The game seems to favor the Green path as more morally acceptable. However, both ways require you to rely on drugs to advance. They are easy to obtain and easy to fall back on, since they help so much. Take enough of them and you begin to develop a need for them, and the hallucinations start. I didn’t realize there would be any consequences, so I took as many as I wanted, since they were so helpful.

 

 

There are several side quests and supporting characters whom you meet, who either help you with items or advice—or nothing at all. Most of them are just weird and out of place. It makes me wonder how alone You actually are, and whether the zombie apocalypse is real. There are several scenes where You remember Her, or at least, feel like someone is missing. Her is presumably your girlfriend…I’m not sure. But it seems like she died, and You don’t remember Her. There are scenes in the game where you come across what appear to be relics of the past and signs of some sort of tragic event. However, your observations of them make them seem unrelated to the apocalypse, and out of place.

That’s how I would describe most scenes in this game: out of place. This is not just another zombie game. There are things at work here, layers and layers of meaning. You come across a crashed bus, which I believe might have been what killed Her. You survived, and were sent to the hospital, which explains why You were on the clipboard. And the monster you fight, with the sword things for arms? Apparently that’s your mother, according to the end stats screen. It tells you how many times you shot your mother in the legs. What the fuck.

In my ending, I finally got to control myself on the stage in my dreams. I walked over to Draco, and he was being a dick as usual, and dared me to shoot him, so You did. But it didn’t kill him—“You’ll have to do better than that!” It was incredibly weird. But everything went blank, and it cut to scenes of destruction and a desert and the tree and cliff overlooking it all, with You sitting next to Her, talking and holding hands. I think when I shot Draco, I shot myself, and then I died so I could be with Her. What happens when you get the Green ending? Do you just pretend everything is okay by hiding from your problems? And what happens if I don’t take any drugs at all and have a playthrough with both hiding and shooting? Will I not hallucinate, and see things more clearly? Would the story make more sense? There is a lot of room for interpretation here, and it probably requires multiple playthroughs. I enjoyed my one playthrough, but I don’t think I’ll be playing it again. It would be interesting to see how things could pan out differently, however.

8.0

Part 2 of Bioshock Infinite’s retro documentary-style trailers.

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)