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War of the Hotties

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When a classmate showed up at a study session proudly clutching the strategy guide to Warhammer Online: Age of Reconing (WAR), I rolled my eyes. For the past week, he had talked of nothing except WAR. Clearly, his obsession had only gotten worse. I initially dismissed him as a lone fanboy, but then I saw how more and more of my friends were joining this WAR. It was time for me to log on and check it out.

I was initially hesitant to play WAR given my aversion to PvP experiences. Yet I wanted to give it a fair shot, and at least take the time to explore the opening PvE gameplay.

At first, I was impressed with WAR. A fantastic opening cinematic sequence clearly established the characters of the world, from the goofy goblin squig herder to the seductive and deadly dark elf sorceress. There were massive enemies, brutal attacks and flashy effects, all of which helped create a welcome sense of chaos.

Then I was asked to create a character. After consulting some friends, I decided to play as a dark elf sorceress. While I normally like to create a little blonde girl that's a glamorized version of myself, I decided instead to make a fierce Megan Fox lookalike.

Once I got to the gameplay, I became disoriented. The UI was unnecessarily cluttered and confusing; for a game that plays a lot like World of Warcraft (WoW), the UI was rather unintuitive. I wouldn't have minded getting used to a new system, but I felt that a lot of UI decisions didn't make sense to me. For example, the colors for quest givers didn't clearly indicate to me which I had visited and which were strangers. While I did appreciate the indications of quest locations on my map, I found that a lot of the UI changes made from other MMOs (such as Lord of the Rings Online (LotRO) or WoW) were essentially less user-friendly. If I were new to MMOs, my eyes surely would've glazed over.

However, the opening quests in WAR were decent. While the quests themselves weren't written with at the same level as MMOs like LotRO, the actual quests were interesting and went beyond the simple "Kill 5 Generic Enemies" quests. I don't expect WAR to be as detailed as LotRO since WAR is a PvP-focused MMO. Yet the PvE quests still had fun details like firing a special weapon at enemies and unleashing creatures resembling dinosaurs.

I must commend WAR for some great scripting, which helped to create a fantastic atmosphere. It was very rewarding to watch the dinosaur creatures I unleashed run to the nearest enemy and attack. I also liked how the elves I needed to defeat were already engaged in battle, and my allies would aid me when nearby. Then there was the quest that gave me a fantastic bird's-eye view of the war around me.

While I enjoyed playing as a lovely avatar, I have to admit that WAR seems to be more clearly geared toward a male audience than other MMOs. My Megan Fox lookalike started out in what amounted to a bra and skirt. I kept trying to buy clothes, but I couldn't at my low level. So when I finally got a new gown, I was excited to try it on. But then I saw that my new outfit was composed of even less fabric than my default bra and skirt. I wouldn't object if I could choose between the shamelessly exhibitionistic lingerie and the skintight leather catsuits, but there were no catsuits to be found. I also wouldn't have minded if there were more shirtless males running around, but, at least in my starting area, all the men seemed to be fully-clothed. Yet all the women I encountered seemed to be wearing things like Nehmora the Hag, dressed in essentially a bikini and thigh-high boots.

I must admit that WAR does seem to do well sticking to their theme. WAR stays consistent with many details. For example, as a dark elf sorceress, I could choose abilities that followed the paths of agony, calamity, or destruction. When I was continually asked to "kill the poet high elves," I began to feel slightly guilty for being so evil. Despite my feelings, I was glad to see how deeply the developers had explored the dark atmosphere.

As a single-player PvE experience, WAR didn't pull me in like LotRO. While I appreciated the quests and themes, I don't feel that WAR's PvE has the same level of polish as some other MMOs on the market. However, WAR was not made to excel as a PvE game. I tried to explore more of the PvP aspect, but I gave up after queueing for a PvP quest for half an hour. I think I will reserve judgment until I've played more of the PvP. Unfortunately, I fear that I may not be the right person to appreciate WAR, given my preference for the "care bear" experiences.  

Puzzles of the Caribbean

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I'm more of a hardcore gamer than a casual gamer by nature, but I do enjoy indulging in the pleasures of casual games from time to time. I often find casual games to be a nice break from the intense commitments I make to my usual 50-hour RPGs. Like a summer fling, good casual gaming experiences can inspire a sense of fun and freedom that only comes from a short-term, minimal commitment.

I recently tried out the casual game Ikibago: The Caribbean Jewel. Ikibago is not your run-of-the-mill casual game. It takes the usual match three mechanics to another level, much like Puzzle Quest. The game is loosely centered around a the story of a lost jewel. However, the only way to get the jewel is to journey across the high seas and puzzle your way through each level.

The basic mechanics of Ikibago are familiar. The core match three principle is expanded through several variations, such as keys, locks, empty spaces, pattern-making, multiple combos, a moving board, and the unusually flexible piece-switching options. Instead of games like Bejeweled, where only corresponding pieces can be switched, Ikibago allows any piece on the board to switch places with the others. This creates a fun dynamic which allows for a wider variety of play styles. I found that my love of organizing and sorting motivated me to arrange rows of one color each. However, there were many other ways to create combos and get just as many (or more) points.

The overall style of Ikibago was well-suited to the game. The pirates looked cartoonish but not childish, and the bright colors created an upbeat mood. The music was fun and definitely set a nice pirate mood. I enjoyed the aesthetic experience and the cute cutscenes.

Ikibago displays one of the most important traits of good casual games: it is easy to learn, but difficult to master. While I found myself breezing through the opening puzzles, I soon faced a welcome challenge. Ikibago is a polished game experience, with fresh variations on a simple mechanic. I had fun solving the puzzles and I'm looking forward to playing more soon.  

Beautiful Braid

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While I was working on The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom, one of our advisers was a man named Jonathan Blow. He was working on a game called Braid, an independently-created 2D platformer that dealt with similar themes of bending the laws of time. Our lead designer raved about Jonathan Blow's genius and could not wait to play Braid. So when the demo was finally released on Xbox Live, I wanted to give it a try.

Just minutes into Braid, I could see why the critics were charmed. There was beautiful music, a refreshing art style, and incredibly clever puzzles. The opening story was broken into portions that could easily be skipped, if desired. The tutorial was integrated tastefully into the very art of the backgrounds. The how-to tutorial images were simple enough to be understood visually; no words were necessary. The level of polish was clearly obsessive, and the final result was impressive.

I'm not quite sure on where I stand on the whole "games as art" argument, but I'm certain that many of the pieces of Braid are very artistic. David Hellman's art is stunning and quite dynamic; it really pushes the 2D limits and creates a beautifully-animated world. The art fits the story rather well; it's a storybook-inspired style with quaint details like a dinosaur and tiny cannons that fire everything from clouds to enemies. Equally stunning is the musical score. It is lovely and suits the scale of the game. Each level seems to have its own special theme that is thoughtful and filled with emotion. My only complaint regarding the music is that some themes seemed to get slightly annoying when I rewound small portions multiple times in a row (for gameplay reasons). However, this is likely due to my personal lack of skill rather than an error on the part of the composer.

The puzzles themselves were incredibly clever. Unfortunately, sometimes they seemed too clever for me. Even some of the early puzzles baffled me. I'm not sure why, since I love puzzle games. Unfortunately, I felt that some of the puzzles required more chance than skill. Perhaps I was making the puzzles harder than necessary. However, it seemed like some puzzles got very difficult very quickly, and required tediously precise jumps. There also seemed to be some puzzles that necessitated a return later in the game, which is an interesting idea. Regardless, I would've made the earlier levels easier to lure players in and help them develop a confidence through familiarity with the mechanics and conventions of the world of Braid.

However, despite my frustrations with the puzzle difficulty level, I still found some aspects to appreciate. I thought it was brilliant that there is no restart from death in the game; the game can simply be rewound to the precise point a player needs to continue successfully. It was neat to see how certain keys could transcend the laws of time; they magically remained in my character's hand, even through rewinds. The level of thinking required to create these puzzles is certainly admirable.

I'm glad that I played a bit of Braid. I understand why so many critics love it and why it will likely remain inaccessible to a large portion of the gaming population. Like high art, a game like Braid seems to suit a particular audience. I admire Jonathan Blow's efforts, but his game is a bit too difficult for me.  

Dark Demo

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"Dark," "gory" and "brutal" aren't the typical words that attract me to a game. I'd heard that The Darkness was all of those wonderful adjectives and more, which initially drove me away. Then a friend lent me the graphic novel that became the basis for the game, and I soon found a reason to explore the depths of The Darkness.

The demo for The Darkness is incredibly well-rounded and complete, giving an excellent view of the game in chapters one, three, and seven. The stats have been adjusted specifically for the demo, allowing a smooth experience despite the gaps. Each level had a very different feel. The game has a strong sense of narrative despite the limited dialogue; most of the story was told through the protagonist's actions.

I wasn't terribly impressed with the first level. It felt more like an amusement park ride than a game. My options were very limited; I only could rotate the camera. When I finally got a gun, I couldn't wait to fire it, but I had to sit and wait while my character loaded the gun at the pace of a sloth. Supposedly I wasn't allowed to fire until the guy in front of me was brutally killed, and I could take his place in the front seat. I finally did get to shoot a bit, but then the demo portion of chapter one ended. While being in a car chase is exciting, I would've enjoyed it more if I were able to take part in the gunfight earlier. Part of my annoyance with control of only the camera came from the fact that the animations were stiff and the character models were just so-so. After reading a comic with the fantastic art style of Top Cow, I had hoped for characters that looked more sophisticated. Instead, these mobsters appeared to be precariously perched on the edge of the uncanny valley.

Chapter three was frustrating in the beginning, and I died a few times trying to get out of the cemetery. It seemed as if the voices of the mobsters weren't coming from any particular direction, so I couldn't tell where my enemies were until I was shot by them. I had some trouble getting used to the shooting mechanics and trying to identify men in black suits against a very dark background. While I could crouch behind cover, it appeared as if I couldn't shoot while hidden and thus I had to expose myself to harm. After a few tries, however, I managed to run into a tunnel and take the men down one by one by shooting at them through a small window. Following that small victory, I gained the darkness power and the game became much, much easier.

As soon as I got the darkness, I began to enjoy the game. I could wear the demons like a suit of armor. I could summon a minion berserker and command him to kill those ahead of me. All I had to do was shoot out streetlights; the darkness only thrives in the absence of light. Perhaps one of the coolest abilities was the "creeping" darkness. One of the demons would creep away like a snake, suddenly making unreachable areas accessible. I used this mode to crawl through a vent, take out a fan, then slither through the opening to brutally murder a man for a key. If there's one thing the darkness ability does well, it's giving the player the power of a real badass.

By the time I played the demo portion of chapter seven, I was much more familiar with the game, my powers, and the controls. Fortunately, the designers had the foresight to balance chapter seven by adding the extra abilities that would be available at that point in the game. These included a new darkness ability (that allowed an darkness "arm" to lift and smash things) as well as two new types of minions (the gunner and kamikaze darklings). Although I would sometimes panic about a lack of ammo, the help from my summoned darklings soon proved to be more than a match for the various henchmen.

My main complaint regarding chapter seven would have to be the level design. There was a gate I wasn't sure how to pass in the beginning, yet there were many locked doors scattered around. Once inside the warehouse area, the actual layout was rather mazelike, and I found myself constantly retracing my steps, accidentally exiting, and getting rather confused in general. My objective was behind a door that I got open somehow, but only after much button-mashing and frustration. I'm still not sure how I finally got through that door.

Overall, I was quite impressed with the faithfulness of the adaptation of The Darkness graphic novel to the gameplay experience. The game chose a strong storyline to follow and did a fantastic job of allowing the player to explore the depths of the protagonist's very dark powers. The brutality of the game didn't bother me, but that was likely due to my exposure to such images in the comics already as well as my high tolerance for blood and guts. I'm not sure if those unfamiliar with the series would enjoy The Darkness as much as I did, but it's certainly worth playing the demo — if you're not afraid of the dark.  
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