I been mentioning this game since I been talking about Free-to-play games and how this game is doing the Free-to-play business model fairly, so it would be wise to do a full review on this game. While the hype for the game did die down due to the balance issue with the plasma weapons, I still come back to this game to see how the game fairs after a certain amount of time.
As the name implies, the strongest part of the game is that you can make and customize your own weapons while making necessary changes while leveling up helps to buy skills or new parts. What makes this the strongest part of the game is that one cannot buy power in the game; only cosmetics. While you can earn weapons in TeamFortess 2, you can become ANY class without restrictions depending on your weapon's build.
The game has the hilarious cartoon style more in TOONed (sorry for the pun) to the nicktoons' style instead of the Pixar style seen in Team-Fortress 2. When players get shot on different part of the body, parts of the body break off in a comedic, gory fashion that will make the evil part of anyone laugh. While the character design is very voyager.
At least they aren't as sexist as most shooters, with the girl's skin exposed and have a chess the size of bowling balls. Has anyone of these developers seen a normal woman before? but back on the topic, make sure the settings are set because there is nudity that would even make a professional porn star jealous. When they said "this game has balls," they really mean it. Be warned if that sets you off, as you can always turn the underwear options on. Very ew.
Sadly, this game has balancing issues. As stated, the plasma weapons are unbalanced to the point that the bots in the Humans Vs. Bots mode will even make a saint screech at the top of his lungs. Might as well get the glow sticks because of the blue lazier-light show -- of death! While the human players are ok, professional players will be your nightmare if you have a lot of Call of Duty fan-boys on your side, as they suck on their pacifiers. I would have gave them gameboys and pokemon so their nostalgia isn't as bad as today's children games.
Another small issue is that there's only a small handful of modes, which can scare off the majority of the "gamers" that might run across this game. And when I mean "handful," I mean only three. One is bounty mode, as the basic kill the other team and collect their bounty. If a team member is killed off, a player can deny a kill by collecting the bounty. First team to get the points, win. Meanwhile, the classic capture the point returns from other shooters, as well as the collectithon mining game which is the most annoying on of the bunch. Just hope the new modes come soon from the community.
If anyone is going to play this game, at least they should bring a few friends along for the ride. Right now, exploiting the plasma weapons would probably be a "legitimate strategy" until it is fixed, just don't judge me for recommending to cause more trouble. Level up by facing the Bots, have a battle plan like who will become a medic, sniper, and so on in the party. Just do not play alone, expecting to be a Rambo, or else someone will go -- blamo! -- with the head gone but the eyes and brains remaining...
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Shadow the Hedgehog
Sorry for the long delay, as I am currently moving for the sanity of me, after all, how "Merica" is sinking into itself into the sees-pool that it has made itself into since they never learned from infomercials that more money only leads into more problems. While, yes, people do adjust to the times, places don't. And its time that I leave the nest to perhaps into a even dirtier nest because people are complete trail mixes...full of raisins. And like some people, eating raisins is the equivalent to eating bits of rubber: It's garbage.
Anyways, Shadow the Hedgehog.:
It's basically a game where Sega has no idea what to make so they made a game where you can play as Sonic's rival, which is nothing like Sonic Rivals...at least. AS the title implies, you play the dark, Emo, and somehow, "Not a recolor" as he tries to regain his memories from after Sonic Adventure 2.
Really? Why dose he not just ask his friends like Sonic or his over-populated friends on his Facade-Book? Well, during the time, Sega asked the fans via poll, on Sega's website, who should get their fan game should be. And Shadow won. There's a reason most won't go onto official sites -- because of the fans that blow the odor into others faces.
But back upon the game -- To get Shadow's memories back, you have to collect all the emeralds, no matter the cost of good, bad, or sanity that you may have left after playing the game. Why? Because how badly they couldn't make the game liner as the game should have.
The problem is how everything tried to be too open, but in the way that is annoying: Bad interface and a camera that wants to kill. And for pette sake, I DO NOT WANT TO FIND THE COMPUTER ROOM. Vector is the most annoying character to the point that he became a meme on the internet. Which is odd because I expected the bee, but very well. As the controls are made from the local ICE company, there was one cool concept of infinite ammo when enraged with chaos blast energy or chaos control energy. A concept that even Rambo: The Video Game failed to reach and grasp for.
The crime isn't that it's dark since it fits shadow's character but rather Emo-ish since he should have MANED UP since the events of Sonic Adventure 2 since even memory wipes cannot remove personal attitudes. However, the worst crime of all is the endings since the final one is cannon in the game. So all and all, the rest of the other endings are just pointless padding so Sega would add time for players to struggle to beat the copy-and-paste final bosses just to play Super Shadow to face one the awkwardest designed bosses in gaming.
To be fair, to both Sega and Shadow, is that they wanted to appease the murderous fan-base at a time where they are just recovering from their finical lost. That and the fan-base that has been ripped apart because of the 3D games. This is a game you should at least try to see how Sega failed. While the game is a total flop, at least it's not the color cancer that is Sonic heroes because the game has NOT aged too well.
In my humble opinion, they should have made the game around the energy concept of the game. Sure, it would have been more like an Earthworm Jim game, but at least a bad-ass edgy version which everyone would kill for. At the time the game held great potential, but then we all remember that it's Sega, so never-mind.
Anyways, Shadow the Hedgehog.:
It's basically a game where Sega has no idea what to make so they made a game where you can play as Sonic's rival, which is nothing like Sonic Rivals...at least. AS the title implies, you play the dark, Emo, and somehow, "Not a recolor" as he tries to regain his memories from after Sonic Adventure 2.
Really? Why dose he not just ask his friends like Sonic or his over-populated friends on his Facade-Book? Well, during the time, Sega asked the fans via poll, on Sega's website, who should get their fan game should be. And Shadow won. There's a reason most won't go onto official sites -- because of the fans that blow the odor into others faces.
But back upon the game -- To get Shadow's memories back, you have to collect all the emeralds, no matter the cost of good, bad, or sanity that you may have left after playing the game. Why? Because how badly they couldn't make the game liner as the game should have.
The problem is how everything tried to be too open, but in the way that is annoying: Bad interface and a camera that wants to kill. And for pette sake, I DO NOT WANT TO FIND THE COMPUTER ROOM. Vector is the most annoying character to the point that he became a meme on the internet. Which is odd because I expected the bee, but very well. As the controls are made from the local ICE company, there was one cool concept of infinite ammo when enraged with chaos blast energy or chaos control energy. A concept that even Rambo: The Video Game failed to reach and grasp for.
The crime isn't that it's dark since it fits shadow's character but rather Emo-ish since he should have MANED UP since the events of Sonic Adventure 2 since even memory wipes cannot remove personal attitudes. However, the worst crime of all is the endings since the final one is cannon in the game. So all and all, the rest of the other endings are just pointless padding so Sega would add time for players to struggle to beat the copy-and-paste final bosses just to play Super Shadow to face one the awkwardest designed bosses in gaming.
To be fair, to both Sega and Shadow, is that they wanted to appease the murderous fan-base at a time where they are just recovering from their finical lost. That and the fan-base that has been ripped apart because of the 3D games. This is a game you should at least try to see how Sega failed. While the game is a total flop, at least it's not the color cancer that is Sonic heroes because the game has NOT aged too well.
In my humble opinion, they should have made the game around the energy concept of the game. Sure, it would have been more like an Earthworm Jim game, but at least a bad-ass edgy version which everyone would kill for. At the time the game held great potential, but then we all remember that it's Sega, so never-mind.
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Gaming Industry Need Cemo
I was going to move on to the next game review, but with how things how been going ugly, we have to chew though this subjects.
Caution: Longest Blogg Post yet!
Just recently, The gaming industry has been loosing A LOT of money: Nintendo lost TWENTY FIVE percent since of the year delay of good games for the Wii U; Microsoft lost a decent percent because off the Window's 8 Micro interface, the failed mobile systems, and Bing; and Sony lost A BILLON, but not only that, but around FIVE THOUSAND in the game industry.
Because how bad this generation of gaming, more jobs will be lost, especially since Irrational Games shut down because the main developer wanted to step away from shooters to work on more story-based games. Sure, some of the developers will be hired by 2K, but everyone and their mother knows that some will be lost because the industry wants to cut down just to save money so they can use it to make games.
The problem is that there are cancerous things the industry that are causing everything within from slumping over. In short, the gaming industry needs chemotherapy. Here are some ideas....
Free-To-Play games need balancing! The Free-to-play can be a fun experience, but power can be bought to where the term "pay-to-win" where buying the items for real world cash can be unfair to players that either want to play for free or just try the game. I guess that should also keyed the term "free-to-try," especially when Warcraft has a level cap for the "free-to-play" parts of the game.
What makes things worst for FTP can either make or break a game. Team Fortress 2 was a big example as the balance of power was unfair, and when Super MNC switched to the system, they lost more than what it was worth. Power can either make or break, no matter whatever the situation.
The recent, best example of power-balance is Loadout, as you gain the points to make your custom weapons and the only thing you can buy is cosmetics -- costume and other appeal items. Here, the power is balanced without worrying about power can be bought and sold.
Think outside the box and make new I.P.s! Yea, sure some reboots or sequels are O.K. at best, but I personally feel that ideas like this is better left twords indie-developers. But some games like Metroid, Kirby, Silent Hill, and other licenses has been scared because the industry cannot grow up and go out of their comfort zone. No matter the excuse for some people, as they are trying to defend their persona, these games have ideas that they should be on their own.
The biggest example are the rebooted series, as they might look good to some people, they DO NOT sell as much as the original, and are considered to bastercize to the orignal fans, causing a war between the fan-base to fight between each other like the Sonic Fan-base. While sequels can wear themselfs out like Silent Hill and resident evil, some ideas from the series could have been something brand flipping new!
The main issue with this trend is that it is it's a waste of potential and to the gaming industry,
this will burn a lot of profit, a main reason companies have to downsize and leave people out of a job. Companies like Capcom, Nintendo, and Sega tends to make this mistake the most. They still fallow a business model that is outdated in the last few generations.
They fear of leaving things behind, even if it hurts them financially. In the past, the gaming industry boomed withing the 90's as the gaming industry compete with each other, especially how Sega and Nintendo purposely started the counsel wars just to help bring the bucks home. Now, however, the world's economy has changed and people have grown in wisdom and intelligence in today's time. Sadly, they have to look ahead and move on.
Remaster, Remake, and Remix Wisely. While it's great that Double Dragon got a reboot, people have a responsible dislike to some reboots because sometimes. While reboots like Ducktales Remastered was OK at best, the game dose try too hard to marry both the game fans and the animation fans together. Many people who has not seen the show on Disney may feel awkward twords the Remastered game. If you don't want to burn out the "gamer" part of the fans, at least leave an option to auto-skip cut-seances instead of going into the pause.
Also, it's best not to add odd changes in games if it takes away from the original. An example of this would be Conker: Live & Reloaded, as it's just a remake of Conker: Bad Fur Day. While I do agree that the graphics are nice for the time and that it stands the test of time, the game did have unnecessary censorship. Most notably is The Great Mighty Poo, as a singing poop monster is the most musical boss in gaming history. While he dose look nice, it's sad that most of his son is censored. But I do understand WHY change in some remakes are nice, but in Banjo-Kazooie and Tooie felt that they didn't make enough change. That, and requires N&B for the bonus material.
Speaking of Rare, The biggest example of a flop remake is the Halo game, as it dosn't hold up as much as the original PC and XBOX version. While the devs at Rare DID do as much as they could since most of the team moved on since the Mycrosoft buy-out; This was considered the biggest mistake Rareware has ever done as it threw them back for two generations. But back on subject -- this shows that remakes arn't everything MOST of the time, just SOME of the time.
Exspectations must be lowered! As games like Sleeping Dogs felt to be underrated because the developers want almost a billion in money from sales. While I don't agree with some games not getting enough sales, games like Sleeping dogs personally did well. Another is the Wii U, as Nintendo was expecting to sell nine million while they only made three million during last year. This is part of the issue is similar with thinking outside the box, just more with sales.
The industry must accept to only received at least Twenty five to fifty of their normal expectation as this is the least dissapointment woudn't be as bad as it is today. Part of this is linked to the times, as the better the economy, the better the business that could be executed. Right now, the world is not as people would want and need it to be. This doesn't just effect your country as it effect the world as a whole as well.
The only way for the industry to survive is to adjust to with the times, but the gaming industry and companies of foren places like Japan are suffering because they refuse to adjust because of just simple pride. Companies like Sega, Nintendo, Capcom, and others has been effected as well because how they the impacts of events like how the tsunami caused the delay of the Wii U's games as company damages prevented them from mass producing. Things that happen outside do come back inside, as a cause will always have an effect.
Finally, Be nice to your fan-base, but ignore the trolls. They are the ones that spend the most of their time, money, and livelihood just to support the companies like Son Microsoft, uncle Sony, and great-grandpa Nintendo. They get hyped for upcoming games like Smash Bros., the next Halo, or even the next...Sony game. However, the hype train can be abused to bring in the "slaves" of the gaming industry.
The biggest criminal for abusing their fans have to be EA and Sega, as their current licenses like Dungeon Keeper and Most Sonic games can be abused. While Sega did get a few hits like Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations, the bombed Sonic with games like The Black Knight to even Sonic Lost World. While back to EA, They recently made Dungeon Kepper into a Pay-to-win game on the app-store. The heart and soul of Dungeon Keeper (and Original voice-actor) is gone...Unless you bought War for the Overworld, which I recommend to back.
While there are Let's Plays of games on Youtube, Game reviews, parodies, and so forth, most of these are out of love for the game and are more involved with the experience of the player. Sadly, The industy sees them as a block to profit, especially if the game is, in fact terrible like Garry's incident. The party then issue copyright strikes and take-downs on the channel they dislike the most, causing censorship on issues. These people are the ones the industry should apologize, as some abuse them by taking revenue as free advertizement or just purely attacking their business. While copyright law is very gray, this is static at best and NO ONE can copyright this nature, as like rain drops heard outside, it belongs to everyone!
We can only hope things go well within the industry, things seem to get worse later on the line. If The industry wants to prevent a crash, SOMEONE has to stand up like Nintendo did in the 80's. I believe that Inde-games could help bring the attention back to gaming, as games like Doom actually sparked the Shooting gen of games. The problem is the main solution for gaming is not clear enough, but at least the industry has something to look for...
UNTIL THE END OF US ALL!
Caution: Longest Blogg Post yet!
Just recently, The gaming industry has been loosing A LOT of money: Nintendo lost TWENTY FIVE percent since of the year delay of good games for the Wii U; Microsoft lost a decent percent because off the Window's 8 Micro interface, the failed mobile systems, and Bing; and Sony lost A BILLON, but not only that, but around FIVE THOUSAND in the game industry.
Because how bad this generation of gaming, more jobs will be lost, especially since Irrational Games shut down because the main developer wanted to step away from shooters to work on more story-based games. Sure, some of the developers will be hired by 2K, but everyone and their mother knows that some will be lost because the industry wants to cut down just to save money so they can use it to make games.
The problem is that there are cancerous things the industry that are causing everything within from slumping over. In short, the gaming industry needs chemotherapy. Here are some ideas....
Free-To-Play games need balancing! The Free-to-play can be a fun experience, but power can be bought to where the term "pay-to-win" where buying the items for real world cash can be unfair to players that either want to play for free or just try the game. I guess that should also keyed the term "free-to-try," especially when Warcraft has a level cap for the "free-to-play" parts of the game.
What makes things worst for FTP can either make or break a game. Team Fortress 2 was a big example as the balance of power was unfair, and when Super MNC switched to the system, they lost more than what it was worth. Power can either make or break, no matter whatever the situation.
The recent, best example of power-balance is Loadout, as you gain the points to make your custom weapons and the only thing you can buy is cosmetics -- costume and other appeal items. Here, the power is balanced without worrying about power can be bought and sold.
Think outside the box and make new I.P.s! Yea, sure some reboots or sequels are O.K. at best, but I personally feel that ideas like this is better left twords indie-developers. But some games like Metroid, Kirby, Silent Hill, and other licenses has been scared because the industry cannot grow up and go out of their comfort zone. No matter the excuse for some people, as they are trying to defend their persona, these games have ideas that they should be on their own.
The biggest example are the rebooted series, as they might look good to some people, they DO NOT sell as much as the original, and are considered to bastercize to the orignal fans, causing a war between the fan-base to fight between each other like the Sonic Fan-base. While sequels can wear themselfs out like Silent Hill and resident evil, some ideas from the series could have been something brand flipping new!
The main issue with this trend is that it is it's a waste of potential and to the gaming industry,
this will burn a lot of profit, a main reason companies have to downsize and leave people out of a job. Companies like Capcom, Nintendo, and Sega tends to make this mistake the most. They still fallow a business model that is outdated in the last few generations.
They fear of leaving things behind, even if it hurts them financially. In the past, the gaming industry boomed withing the 90's as the gaming industry compete with each other, especially how Sega and Nintendo purposely started the counsel wars just to help bring the bucks home. Now, however, the world's economy has changed and people have grown in wisdom and intelligence in today's time. Sadly, they have to look ahead and move on.
Remaster, Remake, and Remix Wisely. While it's great that Double Dragon got a reboot, people have a responsible dislike to some reboots because sometimes. While reboots like Ducktales Remastered was OK at best, the game dose try too hard to marry both the game fans and the animation fans together. Many people who has not seen the show on Disney may feel awkward twords the Remastered game. If you don't want to burn out the "gamer" part of the fans, at least leave an option to auto-skip cut-seances instead of going into the pause.
Also, it's best not to add odd changes in games if it takes away from the original. An example of this would be Conker: Live & Reloaded, as it's just a remake of Conker: Bad Fur Day. While I do agree that the graphics are nice for the time and that it stands the test of time, the game did have unnecessary censorship. Most notably is The Great Mighty Poo, as a singing poop monster is the most musical boss in gaming history. While he dose look nice, it's sad that most of his son is censored. But I do understand WHY change in some remakes are nice, but in Banjo-Kazooie and Tooie felt that they didn't make enough change. That, and requires N&B for the bonus material.
Speaking of Rare, The biggest example of a flop remake is the Halo game, as it dosn't hold up as much as the original PC and XBOX version. While the devs at Rare DID do as much as they could since most of the team moved on since the Mycrosoft buy-out; This was considered the biggest mistake Rareware has ever done as it threw them back for two generations. But back on subject -- this shows that remakes arn't everything MOST of the time, just SOME of the time.
Exspectations must be lowered! As games like Sleeping Dogs felt to be underrated because the developers want almost a billion in money from sales. While I don't agree with some games not getting enough sales, games like Sleeping dogs personally did well. Another is the Wii U, as Nintendo was expecting to sell nine million while they only made three million during last year. This is part of the issue is similar with thinking outside the box, just more with sales.
The industry must accept to only received at least Twenty five to fifty of their normal expectation as this is the least dissapointment woudn't be as bad as it is today. Part of this is linked to the times, as the better the economy, the better the business that could be executed. Right now, the world is not as people would want and need it to be. This doesn't just effect your country as it effect the world as a whole as well.
The only way for the industry to survive is to adjust to with the times, but the gaming industry and companies of foren places like Japan are suffering because they refuse to adjust because of just simple pride. Companies like Sega, Nintendo, Capcom, and others has been effected as well because how they the impacts of events like how the tsunami caused the delay of the Wii U's games as company damages prevented them from mass producing. Things that happen outside do come back inside, as a cause will always have an effect.
Finally, Be nice to your fan-base, but ignore the trolls. They are the ones that spend the most of their time, money, and livelihood just to support the companies like Son Microsoft, uncle Sony, and great-grandpa Nintendo. They get hyped for upcoming games like Smash Bros., the next Halo, or even the next...Sony game. However, the hype train can be abused to bring in the "slaves" of the gaming industry.
The biggest criminal for abusing their fans have to be EA and Sega, as their current licenses like Dungeon Keeper and Most Sonic games can be abused. While Sega did get a few hits like Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations, the bombed Sonic with games like The Black Knight to even Sonic Lost World. While back to EA, They recently made Dungeon Kepper into a Pay-to-win game on the app-store. The heart and soul of Dungeon Keeper (and Original voice-actor) is gone...Unless you bought War for the Overworld, which I recommend to back.
While there are Let's Plays of games on Youtube, Game reviews, parodies, and so forth, most of these are out of love for the game and are more involved with the experience of the player. Sadly, The industy sees them as a block to profit, especially if the game is, in fact terrible like Garry's incident. The party then issue copyright strikes and take-downs on the channel they dislike the most, causing censorship on issues. These people are the ones the industry should apologize, as some abuse them by taking revenue as free advertizement or just purely attacking their business. While copyright law is very gray, this is static at best and NO ONE can copyright this nature, as like rain drops heard outside, it belongs to everyone!
We can only hope things go well within the industry, things seem to get worse later on the line. If The industry wants to prevent a crash, SOMEONE has to stand up like Nintendo did in the 80's. I believe that Inde-games could help bring the attention back to gaming, as games like Doom actually sparked the Shooting gen of games. The problem is the main solution for gaming is not clear enough, but at least the industry has something to look for...
UNTIL THE END OF US ALL!
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Free-to-play
In this economy, people cannot spend as they used to when that money has to go to other things such as family, pets, their girlfriend/boyfriend, hair, rent, water, and so much other needs and wants that can eat up one's lifetime. Because of this, the game industry has decided to run a new try system know as Free-to-play (FTP.) Which is an ironic term since only few can run the system fairly.
While it is good designed FTP games, there are games that are keyed "Pay-to-win" because of the total corporal ways to milk money from the players.
One way is Pay-walls, which force the player to buy the power they need just to move on to the next stage or to remove a cap that prevents players from moving on. Not only that it's unethical, this can sap a lot of money from anyone stupid enough to pay for this system. The most resent is EA's Dungeon Keeper App for iPhone and android. As you have to pay just for the jems to even minions, as getting new parts of your own dungeon. Another bad FTP game that fallows this evilness is Star Trek: Texels, because it fallows the same tactics. To sum it up, as Angry Joe puts it, Greed-over-game-play. (This is why I had no choice but to boycott EA and Capcom because how they premote bad practice)
The way to prevent this issue is to allow players to find or unlock power without leaving caps or pay-walls, nor timers. I did mention that in Phantasy Star Online 2 where you can find most your rares, but the most recent example is Payload, as you can get most clothes by dailies and winning matches to get points to help adjust and make weapons. Paying for the starter kit dose help pay the developers for the cost of their art and graphic design, but that seems to be optional thanks to how their FTP game is built.
Another issue is Area-lock, which only selected countries can play the game. The biggest example is DragonBall Online. One of the world's biggest animes in the world has an online game...Only for asia. However, they did allow an English patch later on as it bough tons of new fans. While it dose have it's "trolls," as most communities do, they can easily be hunted down with a huge Ban-hammer. That is not a huge issue. While, yes, some English patches can be discouraged, Some can actually be promoted and even help moderators find jobs! this is why the modding community is a major plus for the gaming industry, as we would never get games like Day Z nor The Stanly Parable...But that's for another topic.
Even though the solution for games like that seem to be third-party help-outs, that is not always the case. One example is Play-Asia, as they botched most of their online-ports. Their biggest flop has to be DC Universe online, as they took the best part of the game has been taunted by delays, bugs and glitches that weren't in the original port, and unneeded censors, even when sometimes it works. The sad thing is Japan and other foren companies are aware of this because they fallow their own rules, and because the industry is constantly changing in other countries, companies are taking economical and financial damages because they are refusing to adjust to the changes.
The last thing I have to say is that it's up to people to make the wise decision to what they play and what they spend their money for, but even that's a stretch since adults would even let children play on their tablets while not paying attention to the consequences. That brings up the news stories of how kids managed to spend thousands of dollars on Free-to-play games. That money could have been used for needs like clothing, food, supplies, or your needs like better games made from people who actually put their hearts into their games, instead of cloning from others heartlessly just to make a fast buck!
The gaming industry really needs a drastic surgery to clear and remove this cancer part of Free-to-play and burn off the fatty parts of the industry, or an industry crash will occur, as it seems to slowly creep among us. Luckily, I have managed to prepare with used games and food supplies because soon the soul-less casual gamers will roam and eat our brains. Good-luck on your end, because you'll need it.
While it is good designed FTP games, there are games that are keyed "Pay-to-win" because of the total corporal ways to milk money from the players.
One way is Pay-walls, which force the player to buy the power they need just to move on to the next stage or to remove a cap that prevents players from moving on. Not only that it's unethical, this can sap a lot of money from anyone stupid enough to pay for this system. The most resent is EA's Dungeon Keeper App for iPhone and android. As you have to pay just for the jems to even minions, as getting new parts of your own dungeon. Another bad FTP game that fallows this evilness is Star Trek: Texels, because it fallows the same tactics. To sum it up, as Angry Joe puts it, Greed-over-game-play. (This is why I had no choice but to boycott EA and Capcom because how they premote bad practice)
The way to prevent this issue is to allow players to find or unlock power without leaving caps or pay-walls, nor timers. I did mention that in Phantasy Star Online 2 where you can find most your rares, but the most recent example is Payload, as you can get most clothes by dailies and winning matches to get points to help adjust and make weapons. Paying for the starter kit dose help pay the developers for the cost of their art and graphic design, but that seems to be optional thanks to how their FTP game is built.
Another issue is Area-lock, which only selected countries can play the game. The biggest example is DragonBall Online. One of the world's biggest animes in the world has an online game...Only for asia. However, they did allow an English patch later on as it bough tons of new fans. While it dose have it's "trolls," as most communities do, they can easily be hunted down with a huge Ban-hammer. That is not a huge issue. While, yes, some English patches can be discouraged, Some can actually be promoted and even help moderators find jobs! this is why the modding community is a major plus for the gaming industry, as we would never get games like Day Z nor The Stanly Parable...But that's for another topic.
Even though the solution for games like that seem to be third-party help-outs, that is not always the case. One example is Play-Asia, as they botched most of their online-ports. Their biggest flop has to be DC Universe online, as they took the best part of the game has been taunted by delays, bugs and glitches that weren't in the original port, and unneeded censors, even when sometimes it works. The sad thing is Japan and other foren companies are aware of this because they fallow their own rules, and because the industry is constantly changing in other countries, companies are taking economical and financial damages because they are refusing to adjust to the changes.
The last thing I have to say is that it's up to people to make the wise decision to what they play and what they spend their money for, but even that's a stretch since adults would even let children play on their tablets while not paying attention to the consequences. That brings up the news stories of how kids managed to spend thousands of dollars on Free-to-play games. That money could have been used for needs like clothing, food, supplies, or your needs like better games made from people who actually put their hearts into their games, instead of cloning from others heartlessly just to make a fast buck!
The gaming industry really needs a drastic surgery to clear and remove this cancer part of Free-to-play and burn off the fatty parts of the industry, or an industry crash will occur, as it seems to slowly creep among us. Luckily, I have managed to prepare with used games and food supplies because soon the soul-less casual gamers will roam and eat our brains. Good-luck on your end, because you'll need it.
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Early Access and Kick-Starter
Well, this is a serious subject that recently came up by many critics: The pledge of Early Access that has came withing the last year. While that the games that features early access are cheaper and are less risky as most donation sites like Paypal with, or without, Kick-Starter, the games aren't exactly complete, has ton of bugs, and on rare occasions, been abandoned by the developers.
Part of it is the confusion between what goes on within these systems.
While there are games that where successful on kick-starters like Skull-Girls and River City: Underground, Games like Garry's Incident are a big example of it's failure. When the developers couldn't get enough money, they tried to make the game on their small budget, and they failed. It was one of last year's worst games. They did try to claim the videos and even written false reviews, in bad English, as well.
A misnomer is that some people believe once they give their amount to the developers though donations, they have a small amount of control. Well, wake up: If one takes control away from the developers, that would only complicate things because they cannot have creative control. It's getting to the point where people should at least make their own games, not just to plagiarize the game by making into something else. Not all games can have a customization as Saints Row, the WWE games, or like most avatar games, because it's egotistic. It shows that no one has faith twords the developers to make their own game. What an issue.
What both donation systems have issues with is that both require you to gamble and trust on the developers. While there are good developers with unique projects, there are some that are just trying to cash in on the certain fad.
For example, Wolf Among us help spawned the Werewolf games last year. While the Fable's spin-off is an awesome storytelling game, others werewolf games are knock-offs like modern movie spin-offs. While some are very average, Guise of the Wolf is terrible because they wanted to fallow a trend than just make a good game. The game is full of bugs, has terrible programing, dosn't give any hints of the mechanics, and is a horrible game all-around...
So all and all, The gaming industry is a huge gamble. Even the same old plans from the past cannot help, even though it did work in the past. If there is one hint that I would have to give is know what one is getting into. Getting information of the devs is a major, as the past often reflect on their performance. If they're an inde dev, it all depend on how things look and how people talk about the project. In the most of all, wait until the game is released and wait for the critics and reviews get their hands upon the games and then work it out from there.
Until then, roll that hot pair of dice! Daddy needs a new pair of shoes!~
Part of it is the confusion between what goes on within these systems.
While there are games that where successful on kick-starters like Skull-Girls and River City: Underground, Games like Garry's Incident are a big example of it's failure. When the developers couldn't get enough money, they tried to make the game on their small budget, and they failed. It was one of last year's worst games. They did try to claim the videos and even written false reviews, in bad English, as well.
A misnomer is that some people believe once they give their amount to the developers though donations, they have a small amount of control. Well, wake up: If one takes control away from the developers, that would only complicate things because they cannot have creative control. It's getting to the point where people should at least make their own games, not just to plagiarize the game by making into something else. Not all games can have a customization as Saints Row, the WWE games, or like most avatar games, because it's egotistic. It shows that no one has faith twords the developers to make their own game. What an issue.
What both donation systems have issues with is that both require you to gamble and trust on the developers. While there are good developers with unique projects, there are some that are just trying to cash in on the certain fad.
For example, Wolf Among us help spawned the Werewolf games last year. While the Fable's spin-off is an awesome storytelling game, others werewolf games are knock-offs like modern movie spin-offs. While some are very average, Guise of the Wolf is terrible because they wanted to fallow a trend than just make a good game. The game is full of bugs, has terrible programing, dosn't give any hints of the mechanics, and is a horrible game all-around...
So all and all, The gaming industry is a huge gamble. Even the same old plans from the past cannot help, even though it did work in the past. If there is one hint that I would have to give is know what one is getting into. Getting information of the devs is a major, as the past often reflect on their performance. If they're an inde dev, it all depend on how things look and how people talk about the project. In the most of all, wait until the game is released and wait for the critics and reviews get their hands upon the games and then work it out from there.
Until then, roll that hot pair of dice! Daddy needs a new pair of shoes!~
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Anodyne (PC)
I WAS going to review another game that I had in mind, but I was suddenly gifted a review copy of Anodyne and though "why not?" So instead of a game that everyone has heard on, might as well review a game inspired my the Zelda series, but remarkably, mixed the dark storytelling of the silent hill series before silent hill sold their soul to the devil that is commercialism. So Shadow The Hedgehog might as well relax until I finish bashing the hell out of this game-- metaphorically, after all.
Picture this: You are a player named Young Ying, and you are in a subconscious within someone's mind trying to restore balance within itself and must find your inner brother, Baird Yang.
Within the game, you travel to dark lands and eery places, while there's not really any jump scares like in most horror games, the atmosphere can be somewhat spooky. Like Zelda you start off with nothing until you find your weapon...A...broom... Then you move on to dungeons and reach the end of the game. Along the way, you also have to collect card to open doors to complete the game.
While being a Zelda clone might be a great idea, that also means the game has the similar issues as past Zelda games. For one, the game becomes liner as the Link to the past and you get lost and there's little-to-no-clues to where to go. While this dose help exploration and you can find Blood Fairies that can extend your life, you have to use a guide to just to figure out where to go.
Another issue that players would face would be the level design, while can be fair at sometimes, it can still push back and slap players in the face. For example, you will run across a maze near the end of the game, but to get everything, you have to come back after you beat the game and complete an outrageous challenge just to get ONE card.
While there are some silly, hidden cards in post-game, it feels that they're just in just for spits-and-giggles. There's only so little replayiblity in the game besides the achievements in the steam version of the game. In my opinion, the achievements are not worth it. While it is not easy to get that one achievement, the game has only few achievements in the first place.
If you played the devilish ROM-hacks of the Zelda NES, you would probably get a kick out of this game. If you're a newcomer to Zelda-Hill'ish game-types, I recommenced you to play the Zelda Gameboy series, as they are well implemented, as well as Wind Waker HD . Anodyne isn't a bad game at all, it's just it had ideas that it didn't execute very well because of it's identity crisis. I felt that if there was better programing, it would have run smoothly. Maybe if it stuck out as it's own game instead of feeling like a Zelda ROM hack, it would have been a great game.
Well, that review was short than expected. the game was short, so there was so little to say. now if you excuse me, I have to take cover since the horse-headed people have invaded planet earth and I'm ore than scared by these co-called people. It won't be long until I kill them and sell their corpses for glue, but too bad I just offended the furies of this world....
Picture this: You are a player named Young Ying, and you are in a subconscious within someone's mind trying to restore balance within itself and must find your inner brother, Baird Yang.
Within the game, you travel to dark lands and eery places, while there's not really any jump scares like in most horror games, the atmosphere can be somewhat spooky. Like Zelda you start off with nothing until you find your weapon...A...broom... Then you move on to dungeons and reach the end of the game. Along the way, you also have to collect card to open doors to complete the game.
While being a Zelda clone might be a great idea, that also means the game has the similar issues as past Zelda games. For one, the game becomes liner as the Link to the past and you get lost and there's little-to-no-clues to where to go. While this dose help exploration and you can find Blood Fairies that can extend your life, you have to use a guide to just to figure out where to go.
Another issue that players would face would be the level design, while can be fair at sometimes, it can still push back and slap players in the face. For example, you will run across a maze near the end of the game, but to get everything, you have to come back after you beat the game and complete an outrageous challenge just to get ONE card.
While there are some silly, hidden cards in post-game, it feels that they're just in just for spits-and-giggles. There's only so little replayiblity in the game besides the achievements in the steam version of the game. In my opinion, the achievements are not worth it. While it is not easy to get that one achievement, the game has only few achievements in the first place.
If you played the devilish ROM-hacks of the Zelda NES, you would probably get a kick out of this game. If you're a newcomer to Zelda-Hill'ish game-types, I recommenced you to play the Zelda Gameboy series, as they are well implemented, as well as Wind Waker HD . Anodyne isn't a bad game at all, it's just it had ideas that it didn't execute very well because of it's identity crisis. I felt that if there was better programing, it would have run smoothly. Maybe if it stuck out as it's own game instead of feeling like a Zelda ROM hack, it would have been a great game.
Well, that review was short than expected. the game was short, so there was so little to say. now if you excuse me, I have to take cover since the horse-headed people have invaded planet earth and I'm ore than scared by these co-called people. It won't be long until I kill them and sell their corpses for glue, but too bad I just offended the furies of this world....
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Spelunky (360/ PC)
Like some people having a problem with judging a game for what it is Good, bad, or disappointing, I'm having a hard time to judge Spelunky since the game itself is a heavily luck-based rouge-like game.
The point of the game is that you are one of the many treasure hunters, sending him or herself into the mines to hunt down the legendary treasure of Kali. On your way, you discovered that a wise man has discovered that the mines change at random and that death, itself, is lost as death only ends up forcing you to restart from the start and that you're tuck in your own personal hell. Speaking of which, there are hidden levels LIKE HELL, that you have to get into for the true ending. Yes, like most castlevania games, it has a false ending, so to get the best ending and score, you have to rely on luck and good-luck with that.
While some to most of the deaths are partially on the player itself, the problem is part of it is how the game's random map spawns. For example, I found the game like to spawn the traps and bombs close to the sacrificial alters, or worse, when you set the traps off, they tend to hit the shopkeepers. When shopkeepers are set off, even by accident, they will hunt you down; Even if it means killing the damsels, other shopkeepers or other fiends that stay in your way.
Speaking of the damsels, you can set them as a the dumb, female bimbo; a creepy cross dresser who is gender-confused; and a stupid dog named Rufus, who acts like a doofus. I find them to be somewhat offensive characters, but from the look of things, they made them that way so sacrificing them wouldn't add any emotional weight and that's the problem. The game has a devalue character issue that lower all characters as cartoon-like, unlikable characteristics, which death less painful on purpose. Apparently, this game wants you to commit suicides just to count the death-meter.
However, this game is fun, but it is not exactly fair as other rouge-like games. Unlike games like Rouge Legacy, for example, the game dosn't get easier as you go. While you do unlock new character, they do not attribute since they do NOT have special abilities and there isn't a counter-measurements for unfair spawns. While tools like jet-packs, climbing gloves, and ropes can help you make it to the end, it depends if the game will have mercy and provide the items that you will need via shops and boxes.
In short, the game would have been better and easier to handle if it was an online game, as the multiplayer is only local co-op. Even though there are some advantages with local multiplayer, the game suffers from a lazy port, as it was originally for the Xbox 360 and then the steam release happened a year later. While the game dose support mods, it just lacks any change from the 360 version. The game suffers from what makes other Rouge-like games acceptable because it fears to let the player have an experience with itself.
I have to cautiously recommend this game, as if one plays Mario ROM hacks, this game makes the same mistakes as most game mod-ers that make the game too frustrating for those who do not know for what's coming for them. This is not a game for those with short tempers. Thankfully, I knew what I was getting into, unlike my friends who want to strangle a puppy.
The point of the game is that you are one of the many treasure hunters, sending him or herself into the mines to hunt down the legendary treasure of Kali. On your way, you discovered that a wise man has discovered that the mines change at random and that death, itself, is lost as death only ends up forcing you to restart from the start and that you're tuck in your own personal hell. Speaking of which, there are hidden levels LIKE HELL, that you have to get into for the true ending. Yes, like most castlevania games, it has a false ending, so to get the best ending and score, you have to rely on luck and good-luck with that.
While some to most of the deaths are partially on the player itself, the problem is part of it is how the game's random map spawns. For example, I found the game like to spawn the traps and bombs close to the sacrificial alters, or worse, when you set the traps off, they tend to hit the shopkeepers. When shopkeepers are set off, even by accident, they will hunt you down; Even if it means killing the damsels, other shopkeepers or other fiends that stay in your way.
Speaking of the damsels, you can set them as a the dumb, female bimbo; a creepy cross dresser who is gender-confused; and a stupid dog named Rufus, who acts like a doofus. I find them to be somewhat offensive characters, but from the look of things, they made them that way so sacrificing them wouldn't add any emotional weight and that's the problem. The game has a devalue character issue that lower all characters as cartoon-like, unlikable characteristics, which death less painful on purpose. Apparently, this game wants you to commit suicides just to count the death-meter.
However, this game is fun, but it is not exactly fair as other rouge-like games. Unlike games like Rouge Legacy, for example, the game dosn't get easier as you go. While you do unlock new character, they do not attribute since they do NOT have special abilities and there isn't a counter-measurements for unfair spawns. While tools like jet-packs, climbing gloves, and ropes can help you make it to the end, it depends if the game will have mercy and provide the items that you will need via shops and boxes.
In short, the game would have been better and easier to handle if it was an online game, as the multiplayer is only local co-op. Even though there are some advantages with local multiplayer, the game suffers from a lazy port, as it was originally for the Xbox 360 and then the steam release happened a year later. While the game dose support mods, it just lacks any change from the 360 version. The game suffers from what makes other Rouge-like games acceptable because it fears to let the player have an experience with itself.
I have to cautiously recommend this game, as if one plays Mario ROM hacks, this game makes the same mistakes as most game mod-ers that make the game too frustrating for those who do not know for what's coming for them. This is not a game for those with short tempers. Thankfully, I knew what I was getting into, unlike my friends who want to strangle a puppy.
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