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Processing Destruction

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Next-gen consoles are supposed to be incredibly powerful, but it is hard to measure that power without a test. Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction seems to test the power of the PS3, cramming in as many explosions, sounds, AI, and activities on the screen as possible. It is a slight departure from previous Ratchet and Clank games, but this fast-paced platformer certainly performs well.

I was only able to play through the demo of this game, but I was impressed. From start to finish, the demo was a rush. It takes place in a city with incredibly tall buildings and vertical space is utilized in a unique way. Ratchet seemed to fall far enough be considered fatal, but then he would hit be some sort of trampoline device and he would fly through the air to a new destination.

The game was truly action-packed. There was a plethora of scripted events happening around Ratchet, but many did not directly affect him. It reminded me of the original Half-Life, where I could often look around and see events that could be missed if I was not vigilant. The processor on the PS3 handled all the scripted events and explosions beautifully; the console never slowed me down. The PS3 also allowed for greatly improved visuals - the animation was incredible and felt as sharp as that in a Pixar animated feature film.

Despite its intense pace, Tools of Destruction still preserved many of the best features of the series, including the humor and fun weapons. The characters were rich, as always. The weapons were creative, from a weapon that could morph enemies to a groovitron, which made all enemies in the vicinity dance.

Gameplay was similar to the rest of the series. There were some difficult parts that seemed unbalanced with the rest of the game. Fortunately, there were many checkpoints, so the game was fairly forgiving if you died. Also, most of the gameplay was very solid. There was a wonderfully creative part where I got to use the sixaxis tilting to steer Ratchet through multi-tiered air traffic. It was a fantastic moment of gameplay and an experience that felt strangely realistic.

I really enjoyed the demo for Tools of Destruction. It seems like a great use of the PS3’s power and I hope that the whole game lives up to the high standard set by the demo.  

Return to WoW

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After my 10-day trial, I was left unimpressed by World of Warcraft (WoW). I decided that I had seen what I wanted to see and left the game to the hardcore fans. Recently, one of my good friends picked up WoW and encouraged me to give it another shot. Hoping that the game would take on a different meaning with a real-world connection, I bought the WoW Battle Chest to give it another chance.

One of my frustrations with my previous character, a Night Elf druid, was that I didn’t admire her. If I was going to play WoW again, I needed to have a character I was proud of and wanted to see every day. Fortunately, The Burning Crusade expansion brought the addition of Blood Elves, an attractive race from a beautiful city. I modeled a female Blood Elf to look similar to me (but better) and chose to be a hunter. I couldn’t be a druid, and the hunter class seemed like the next best.

WoW soon became a part of my daily routine. When I had extra time before class, I would play WoW in my empty classroom. It was fun because there was always something to do. In 20 minutes, I could complete most or all of a quest and feel as if I’d accomplished something. While I would tire of the format after a couple of hours, I enjoyed the process of going on quests and leveling up. WoW continually rewards the player, so it was fun for me. I really enjoyed the positive feedback I got from the quest givers and the way the game made me feel like I was helping the community.

The game mechanics were highly polished. I really appreciated the indicators on the map for people to talk to that were relevant to my quests. It made questing much more efficient. I rarely felt as if I was wasting time, except perhaps when traveling between locations on foot. Even so, it was always with purpose, and careful planning could help me to group my quests by location. Other refined mechanics included the respawn rate of enemies and the item system. The game progressed with an efficiency and polish that kept me focused on enjoying the game.

Given my limited prior experience with the game and MMOs in general, I am learning understand a few important conventions of MMOs. For example, I can lead enemies away from groups to pick them off slowly. Then there are interesting social dynamics, such as an insane number of group invites on my server from people I don’t know. Also, I found it disconcerting not to have a real pause button. If I needed to take a phone call or get some food, I had to plan ahead on how to stay safe in the virtual world or log out.

So far, I have been having a lot of fun with WoW. It lacks the cohesive, tightly-woven story of a normal single-player RPG, but WoW certainly is a nice way to unwind after a long day. It allows me to have fun and feel productive, all while escaping the mundane reality of everyday life. I hope that I can continue to enjoy this game without getting addicted.  
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Buggy Pirates

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I wanted to like Pirates of the Caribbean (PotC) Online. It seemed like a cool concept. However, what I played was a game released well before it was ready. There was a severe lack of polish in this game that made it nearly unplayable.

I picked up the game after a co-worker had created a character and accepted a few quests. The game seemed to run slowly and the graphics were average for an MMO. I was happy to give the game some credit based on the fact that it was dealing with pirates, which is a fun premise. Unfortunately, there was little story outside the scattered quests and I soon found myself forgetting the idea of fun I had when I began.

When I went to solve a quest, there was no indication regarding when I was getting close to a quest objective. For example, if I was supposed to talk to a certain person in a town, I would have to search through the whole town. In World of Warcraft, there are indicators on the map when your character approaches NPCs relevant to completing active quests. This is immensely helpful when completing multiple quests at once, as you can run into a town and see immediately which few people matter to you. When I completed a quest in PotC, I had no idea where these people were and wasted a lot of time trying to find them.

The game was riddled with bugs. There were camera bugs, where my character was obscured by plants and buildings. The maps were incredibly poor in general and provided little direction. It was really hard to isolate enemies, so many would gang up and I would die quickly. The respawn rate was fast on the enemies, so by the time I returned to the spot, any progress I made on cutting down enemy numbers was lost.

One of the worst mechanics by far was the sailing mechanic. Sailing between two places seemed to take forever. Sometimes other ships would attack, but it was difficult to aim and retaliation was near impossible. I was dying frequently due to my enemy isolation and respawn issues, and, each time I died, I would have to spend five minutes sailing back to that island. Sometimes I didn’t make it, especially when ship was attacked.

PotC Online suffered from a severe lack of adequate development and polishing time. The core mechanics were in place, but the balance was off on much of the game, from sailing times to the enemy behavior. This game may have the potential to be fun, but in its current form, it is too unrefined to be enjoyable.  

Solid Assassin

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When a game about the past is mixed with science fiction, it runs the risk ruining the realism of the game. Even if we have not lived during that past, previous eras are often carefully represented in games with characters we can understand. Fortunately, Assassin’s Creed has Altair, a very solid lead character who feels more real than his descendent in the near future.

The best part about Altair is how believable he feels. When he moves around, he feels heavy. There are clinks when he walks from his weapons and gear. He can push through a crowd or weave through less dense groups. He can also collide with people if he runs into them, and they respond accordingly. Despite his weight, Altair is still graceful enough to carry out acrobatic feats reminiscent of Prince of Persia.

Supporting the realistic Altair is a fantastic population of NPCs in towns. There are so many people in the towns, each traveling to and fro as if they have their own agenda. They make surprised comments if Altair leaps up onto a rooftop and notice disturbances he causes. The towns feel believable to a degree that has rarely been achieved in games to date.

Some of the visuals are fantastic, but other visual elements detract from the realism. The scenery is beautiful. The backgrounds in particular are incredibly real. However, the eyes on people are a little too bright and look slightly odd, slipping into the uncanny valley. Also, the motion capture technology is inconsistent. The doctor in the future looks great, but the assassin leader in the past has movements that seem a bit stilted.

The dialogue and visual presentation are two of the game’s main weaknesses. There are many lengthy cutscenes that could be a lot shorter if the dialogue were tighter. The lines are often repetitive and give too many details. Unfortunately, the camera angles during cutscenes can be controlled by the player. I frequently found myself flipping through the angles out of boredom and it severely detracted from my immersion in the game. Sometimes none of the angles would look right, and it felt like this mechanic was a cheap substitution for a cinematographer.

I had a few more frustrations with this game. First, the tutorial was way too long. It went on and on, going over abilities I didn’t need to know until much later. It is impossible to remember everything when too much is presented at the beginning. I was so excited to play the game that I could not retain as much as normal. Also, the game soon takes away all these abilities that it spent so much time teaching me. It seems pointless to learn how to use several abilities only to lose them. Why not learn them gradually? Finally, the combat system is essentially a few non-strategic button presses. It felt unremarkable and dull.

Assassin’s Creed is not a horrible game. It does a lot of things well, most notably many visuals and the realism in towns. However, its weaknesses detract from this game’s merits and can become frustrating. While I did enjoy playing Assassin’s Creed for a while, I hope that games in the future can model themselves after its strengths and learn from its weaknesses.  

Uncharted Territory

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I finally made friends with someone who owns a PS3. After a horrible experience with Genji near the release of the PS3, I had vowed to keep my distance from that console. Fortunately, game developers have been working to utilize the capabilities of the PS3. When I saw the screenshots for Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, I wanted to see if the game looked as good as the promotional images. Fortunately, I was not disappointed.

The PS3 felt similar to the 360 in terms of next-gen console quality. The PS3 controller was oddly light compared to the PS2 controller, but that was the only significant difference that I noticed. The PS3 start menu seemed confusing compared to the more straightforward layout of the 360 menus but the PS3 menu was prettier. After getting over my fascination with the new and unfamiliar, I started up the Drake’s Fortune demo.

I’ve had limited experience with adventure games that involve a lot of shooting, with the exception of a couple hours with Lara Croft. I didn’t have many expectations beyond the spectacular visuals I’d seen in the screenshots – and the vast jungle scenery didn’t disappoint. The jungle felt lush and alive. The water looked fantastic. It was great to be able to walk into a lake and have jeans appear wet only where my character’s legs were submerged.

The gameplay felt a lot like Tomb Raider until I got into a shooting match. While I could easily run at enemies shooting in the beginning of Tomb Raider: Legend, Drake’s Fortune was more realistic. I had to aim and use more stealthy tactics. I hid behind cover and darted from one area to another as quickly as possible.

The realism in Drake’s Fortune immediately pulled me into the game. The enemies I shot felt like real people, not just faceless alien clones. They would flank and attempt to get closer. There was no health bar, so a drop in health was indicated a loss of color on the screen and a heartbeat when my life was on the line. Health recovered relatively quickly when behind cover, so I never felt like it slowed me down. It was refreshing not to have to worry about resource management for health packs. Fewer fictional elements to manage health systems create a more immersive experience.

While there were a lot of enemies, there were plenty of elements to help me survive. Sounds such as footsteps always alerted me as to enemy presence. There was plenty of cover. This cover would sometimes get damaged due to grenades and other weapons, but there were always sound and visual cues before the grenades detonated.

The Drake’s Fortune demo was a very cinematic experience. The opening cutscene was just the right length and got me straight into the action. From there, I was fully immersed and enjoyed exploring the rich world and fighting off the realistic enemies. I probably won’t buy a PS3 to play Drake’s Fortune since I’m not a big fan of adventure games with lots of aiming and shooting. However, it is certainly a well-rounded game that gives me hope for the capabilities of the PS3.  

Size Doesn't Matter

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Whether it’s on a PS2 or a PSP, Ratchet and Clank feels fantastically the same. I admit that the original PS2 game didn't draw me in like Insomniac’s other popular series, Spyro the Dragon. However, Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters is a well-rounded PSP experience that seamlessly translates the ideas of the original games into a portable experience.

I was surprised to hear that Size Matters was not developed by Insomniac. It was the first project created by High Impact Games, which seems incredible given the level of polish. This is easily explained by the fact that High Impact is partially composed of former Insomniac developers.

While I have not had extensive experience with the Ratchet and Clank series on traditional consoles, I really enjoyed playing through the first couple of hours on the PSP. The Ratchet and Clank series consistently demonstrates solid 3D platformer elements, from the intuitive level design to the clever use of gadgets.

Gadgets were a fun and essential part of many levels. The challenges of the levels encourage the use of different weapons, which creates a fun puzzle feel. The hack-and-slash method doesn’t work due to the limited resources, such as the rarity of ammo for the most powerful weapons. Not all weapons are used for fighting, such as the grappling hook. While it’s obvious when to use a grappling hook for crossing gaps, the weapon can be used to move objects in the level as well. This lends a realism to the world and makes the game more fun.

One particularly strong moment in Size Matters was when I got to take play as Clank. He gained control of a small team of mini robots, which I could then control with basic commands. These robots were too short to climb up to certain platforms, so there was a launching device to fling the mini robots to higher ground. I really enjoyed being able to command a small team and then fling them around without fear of harming them. I would feel terrible launching a cat or some other living animal, but these endearing robots felt no pain and bounced around without even getting a scratch.

My only complaint about Size Matters is that some parts felt much more difficult than others. I'd be progressing just fine and then I'd get stuck at something trivial for several minutes. With a limited character improvement system, it became frustrating; I felt that certain parts required more luck than skill to advance. Perhaps I just need to get more familiar with platformers.

Overall, Size Matters was an enjoyable experience. The graphics were strong and the game successfully utilized some of the best mechanics from the console games. It was a near identical to a console experience on the small screen, proving that size doesn’t matter when it comes to making a strong Ratchet and Clank game.