I feel that I’ve been living a bit of a dual life lately – Professor Layton and the Curious Village is my faithful companion that I bring with me, and Mass Effect is my passionate affair in the evening. I tend to play Professor Layton before class and Mass Effect when I have some time to really sit down and enjoy it.

I recently finished Professor Layton after two months of frequent puzzle-solving. I spent nearly 12 hours on it, solving every puzzle (including bonus and downloadable weekly puzzles). I admit to looking up help and using hints on rare occasions, but, for the most part, I solved the 144 puzzles on my own.

Professor Layton is a perfect match of game and platform. The DS is perfect for its point-and-click interface. I had suggested how well this interface would work for a portable game after my experience with Zack and Wiki, and it was fun to see it realized.

The gameplay was flexible enough to allow me to feel satisfied with a play session of three minutes or three hours. I found that most puzzles were relatively short, but for those that required more thought, I could continue thinking about them after I turned off the DS. I would never lose my progress because the game allows you to quit out of any puzzle very easily and to save at almost any point in the game. This made Professor Layton the perfect game to travel with, since I would never get stuck in the middle of something. This also encouraged me to play it more than other DS games because I never had to worry about losing my work.

The game was packed with content that made it really fun for me. There were collectible items that often unlocked more puzzles, such as the inn and painting scraps. The puzzles gave out picarats as a score (and sometimes the collectible pieces as well). The picarats seemed to have little significance other than indicating the difficulty of a puzzle. However, some puzzles with a higher picarat value were easy for me (such as spatial slide puzzles), while others were harder for me (such as some geometry-based puzzles). I found that, if a puzzle was harder for me, an indication of its difficulty would be how many hint coins I had to spend to solve it. Hint coins were another fun collectible item that rewarded me for clicking in many random locations on the screen. I loved the collectible items that encouraged me to fully explore the game.

Aside from the optional collectibles and the short puzzle structure, I found that this game also catered to the portable platform with its audio. The game didn’t require sound to be enjoyed and had subtitles over all the movies. While I am a firm believer in sound enhancing a game experience, a portable game should be designed to be enjoyed with or without sound. When I could have sound, I really enjoyed the music and sound effects, even if some of the characters’ voices were cheesy and had silly accents.

The story of this game was well-paced. Important plot elements were revealed in evenly spaced chapters. The game would give a brief summary of the current events when you loaded a save to get you up to speed. The story was light but engaging because of the many mysteries. I could tell when I was getting close to the end because mysteries kept getting solved. One of the methods of storytelling was short animated movies. They were done in a 2-D animation style that suited the game and its aesthetic quite well. All the movies were short and to the point, so I never felt like I was taken out of the action.

I found very few flaws with this game. I could claim that certain picarat values seemed too high or too low, but a puzzle’s difficulty can be very subjective depending on a person’s intellectual strengths. Another subjective issue I noticed with this game was my dislike of certain character drawings. The character designs looked a little strange to me, but it was all very stylized. After playing more of the game, I got used to it and minded it less. Also, toward the end of the game, the story helps explain some of the characters’ odd appearances.

I was excited to finish Professor Layton, but now I think that I will miss it. I have had some great experiences on the DS, including Elite Beat Agents and The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. Now I guess I will be searching for the next great DS game, at least until the next Professor Layton game is released.  

There are few moments in a game where I get so frustrated that I just want to quit. Most of the time, I’ll get annoyed with a flaw in the design, but I try to stick to my guns and get through it. In Mass Effect, there were a few moments where I got so frustrated that I would swear profusely. However, I knew that I would avoid the game if I had a seemingly insurmountable obstacle waiting for me, so I stubbornly persevered.

The first major source of frustration that I ran into were battles with alien creatures called thresher maws. Like overgrown sand worms, these creatures would appear with no warning from random places in the ground and attack. One of the main sources of frustration in these battles stemmed from the fact that thresher maws appeared while exploring in the mako. Due to the unwieldy controls of the mako and its offensive weapons, this became quite the issue. Not only did the thresher maws appear in random places, but they would kill you instantly if you happened to be on top of it when it shot up through the ground. Then, the thresher maws would shoot toxins that went straight through the mako’s shields. They were tough creatures that gave me only a few seconds to shoot in one tiny area.

I found that there was little strategy involved in fighting a thresher maw. I fought two and ran from another two because I felt that it is simply not worth the effort. The vague strategy I developed consisted of continually moving and shooting as much as possible in the general direction of the maw. If you’re careful, you can also try to jump over the toxins. This will keep your mako in good repair. The main issue here is just trying to survive long enough to outlast the thresher maw.

The second source of frustration was fighting rocket drones on Earth’s moon. There were three stations to explore in this particular sidequest, and each station’s defenses were stronger than the last. In the final station, there were geth rocket drones. The rockets would destroy my shields and kill me instantly. I grew incredibly frustrated because there got to be five to ten geth enemies stuck in a little hallway, and I couldn’t shoot at them unless I was exposed. Once exposed, I would get shot with a rocket and die. I started adapting my strategy, using techniques such as running back and forth in front of the enemies while shooting, throwing bombs, and sending my companions in to get shot in my place. (I could revive my companions, but if I died, it was game over). Eventually, my strategies paid off and I got past the rocket drones.

I have enjoyed most of the gameplay so far in Mass Effect. However, the few design flaws can lead to a lot of frustration for a player less experienced with shooting games like me. I have found the difficulty to be well-balanced for the most part, and most enemies provided a reasonable challenge. I’ll continue playing Mass Effect, but I hope that I don’t run into too many thresher maws or rockets drones. If I do, I’ll probably just run.  

Please do not read on if you intend to play Mass Effect. I will do my best not to reveal unnecessary information, but it is impossible to discuss the impact of a certain portion of the game without giving away a few details. Click here to skip to the previous post.


I wish I could say that I followed my own advice and did not hear about a certain part of Mass Effect before I played it, but, in the course of searching for help a couple of times, I accidentally saw a hint of what was to come. I had heard that I would lose a companion at one point, and I would have to make a tough choice. This information haunted me as I chose my team members for each mission. I kept thinking, “Will this be the mission where I lose someone?” Unable to take the stress, I consulted a friend who had finished the game. He kindly told me that the game would strongly imply when that point would come, and I had no need to worry.

I didn’t worry until I got to a part of the game where my team was suddenly split up. I had to choose one of two companions to leave behind. I thought, “Will this be the tough decision?” I saved compulsively as I moved ahead. By the end of that mission, it turned out that I did have to make a choice to rescue the separated team member or to rescue another. I was very upset, because I had imagined this moment over and over again. I had thought that my party member choices would allow me to leave behind a companion that I never used or someone that I didn’t care about. Unfortunately, the choice happened to be between the two companions I always took along with me. I was torn, as I had spent some time talking to each and learning about their backstories, making them seem like real friends. After all, these characters had been through nearly 20 hours of gameplay with me, and I felt that I could depend on their help.

I agonized over the choice. There was no option to save both. It was simply one or the other. I was sending one of them to their death, and they each wanted me to sacrifice the other. While I considered both equal in terms of friendship, there had to be some deciding factor for me. Soon, it came down to two factors: fighting style preference and the romantic sub-plot. I had begun to enjoy one of the team members’ fighting styles more than the other’s style. This is because my Shepherd’s style complimented the one companion’s well, making my life easier. The other team member had combat skills similar to mine, so it created an overlap that wasn’t quite as helpful. Second, I had begun to pursue the romance subplot with one of the characters. As a writer, I was really curious to see how it would play out (and perhaps my girly desire for a juicy romance got the best of me). These factors may seem trivial, but I had to find some way to choose and these factors tipped the scale for me.

I felt that I had made the best choice for me, but, when I turned off my 360 that night, I felt terrible. I wandered out of my room in a daze, confessing to my roommates that I was torn up about losing a virtual friend that I been through 20 hours of missions with me. I realized how silly it sounded, but I was genuinely sad. I went online, talking to other friends and searching in forums to see if I really did have to make the choice between those same two characters or if I could’ve changed it. While everyone had to make the choice between the same two characters, it was easier for some due to their personal preferences for certain characters. Some of their choices involved romantic interests like me, but others were simply because one character bothered them.

The fact that I let a good friend and member of my team die has stayed with me and I don’t think I’ll forget that moment soon. It was a fantastic moment in game narrative. I hate to think about setting out to make a game that makes people cry, but this type of choice really can have a profound effect on a person. Tough choices seem to be the heart of creating real emotion in games, since you can affect a person’s conscience and make them realize that hard decisions have to be made in situations where the fate of the universe is at stake.  

Rock Band seemed like a neat idea ever since I heard about it, and I enjoyed my first brief experience with it. I liked the concept of being able to assemble your own band. Whether you play alone or with others, you can gain a new appreciation for music by focusing on an instrument you don’t normally listen to, especially bass and drums.

I don’t own Rock Band (and probably won’t for a while due to limited space), but I do enjoy playing it. I have found that it’s fun to play with one other person, but the more people, the better. I like being able to cheer my friends on and work together as a team of four. It’s unique to have a game these days that allows for up to four players in a co-op mode.

When I was playing in a group of three, I often ended up singing vocals. The vocal part is really strange because all you have to do is match the tone. It doesn’t make a difference what words you sing. Songs can be really hard if you’ve never heard them before, but the lax policy (just tone-matching) makes it easier. For drums, it seemed that many songs had similar patterns that would repeat. Even if there were a few tricky parts involving the pedal, the pattern would greatly reduce the difficulty. The guitar part was fun, but my other friends often played it since they were better at it from playing Guitar Hero. It tended to hurt my hand (likely due to inefficient techniques) and tended to be finicky. The guitar controller looks cooler than that for Guitar Hero, but the well-known fact that they break easily greatly detracts from the aesthetic improvements.

The game itself it structured in a fun way, especially with the customizable characters. I enjoyed creating an avatar that looks like an improved version of myself. However, the game doesn’t allow you to switch your character to a different instrument. This was annoying because the people I played with often rotated instruments, so I felt silly playing as an avatar that looked like my friend while the “me” avatar was busy on another part.

I have enjoyed playing Rock Band, and I’d like to play it more. It seems best played with a group of people, so the best gameplay sessions take a little coordination. No matter how much fun I have though, I don’t think I’ll ever forget the silliness of the concept. Rock Band is a game that takes the “be a rock star” fad that began with Guitar Hero even further, but it’s ok to enjoy it as long as you remember that it’s just a game.  

Prior to playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl, I had no experience with the series. I had often heard of Brawl tournaments, but I was intimidated by the frenzy and skills of the dedicated fans.

However, there was one tournament that I chose to attend. At GDC, one of my fellow volunteers (CAs) had brought a Japanese Wii with a copy of Brawl. This was before the game’s release, and I thought it would be worth checking out the game, even if it was just for educational purposes. Soon we had a tournament, with rounds scheduled in the evenings. I signed up to play a round, even though I knew that I had no shot at winning.

During the few minutes that I played, I felt that I was given a crash course in crowd dynamics and the real spirit of Smash Bros. While there was some skill involved, a lot of the game seemed to be based on chance and being in the right place at the right time. The controls aren’t very refined, but there are a few things you can do to gain an advantage, such as getting power-ups. The crowd added a whole new dimension to play, as they would cheer when someone did major damage. The crowd also helped me when I got a smash ball by shouting “Press B!” I was playing as Samus, and it was great fun to unleash the Zero Suit version from the bulky armor.

I never bought Brawl, but I have had the chance to play the localized version with my friends. I tried out the co-op mode with one friend, which turned out to be more frustrating than fun. When playing in co-op mode, you only get the number of lives as you would on single player mode. This seems fair until playing through the levels, where enemies are all over the screen and it actually becomes easier to die with a partner taking up prime strategic locations on the screen. It’s much harder to avoid certain ranged attacks, so lives seem to disappear faster.

I played group melee mode with a few different friends. It’s tough to be a beginner because I had little chance of winning, but I felt that I could improve my chances by sticking with certain dependable characters like Pikachu. The skill gap still makes it a bit difficult to have fun (for a sustained period of time), but there is the option of teaming up in melee. I found that it was a lot more fun when I was helping a friend instead of fighting against them.

I didn’t play much of the other modes, but I did watch other friends play. One friend complained about the single-player mode, claiming that the levels were poorly designed so many features were frustrating. When I observed the levels, I began to see how some tricky areas of the levels depended more on chance than skill to get through, such as an area where enemies would continually freeze you because of the way they were lined up.

There were a few elements of this game that really bothered me. First, the sounds were incredibly annoying when you weren’t watching or playing the game. The sound effects were short and repetitive. Characters such as Pikachu with odd voices got on my nerves fast if I wasn’t involved in the game. The pace of the game itself is hyper like the sounds, with changing environments and fast moves. However, the controls can seem slow to respond due to set animation loops, so it leads to impatience on the part of the player. Also, there seemed to be a lot of useless features, such as being able to arrange and photograph trophies or make a virtual scrapbook with stickers. While these features may have appealed more to a Japanese market, it seems a ridiculous waste of time and resources to me when the single-player levels could’ve used more refinement.

While Super Smash Bros. Brawl does come with a few neat features, such as building your own levels, it seems to have a lot of frustrating elements in single-player mode and other areas of the game. It is certainly strongest in the group melee modes, but that comes as no surprise, given the proportion of time players will spend on that mode. It seems that this game could’ve benefited from a better allocation of resources by cutting a few single-player levels or additional features that seem to detract from an otherwise decent fighting game.  

It’s easy to complain about a game. When something goes wrong, I can often pinpoint the problem and propose a solution. However, when something goes right, it’s often harder to explain why. If someone asked me why I like chocolate milkshakes, for example, I would have a very hard time explaining it. Fortunately, with a game like Mass Effect, it’s a little bit easier to find the positives. I may have complained about achievement difficulties and the mako, but this game is becoming my new addiction.

It’s no secret that RPGs are my favorite genre. I have some trusted favorites from the past, but it seems that few RPGs can compare these days. Then I found Mass Effect. This game has been able to pull me in and immerse me in a new universe. The HD graphics look fantastic, from the environments such as presidium in the citadel to the futuristic clothes. I love being immersed in these fantastic environments, even if texture popping prevents me from seeing all the great details immediately. The outfits are a lot of fun, especially since the characters’ appearance changes with new armor. Most of the time, my female Commander Shepherd looked pretty cool in her armor. I once had a good laugh when I realized that the best armor for my krogan companion was a pink and white getup very similar to Ashley’s from the beginning of the game.

My main motivation for playing most RPGs is an epic story. I love watching a complicated plot unravel slowly and sinking my teeth into some rewarding side quests. Mass Effect is clearly focused on the story. I really wanted to explore the cities and talk to everyone, because I felt I could learn a little something from each NPC. The main worlds felt alive and interesting. I’m not sure how the story will play out, but at this point the missions feel very well paced and have great story arcs.

While I have not been very good at shooting games in the past, Mass Effect requires a lot of shooting. I like to think that I’m getting better at it, but the game is structured so that it is accessible for people like me that aren’t as familiar shooters. I could’ve chosen to be a biotic (giving me talents that can do damage without aiming) or could I rely more on my AI-controlled companions. I found that the game was never too difficult for me on normal mode.

I’ve really enjoyed Mass Effect so far. Despite my frustrations with the mako, the fantastic story and effective gameplay are keeping me addicted. I’m looking forward to playing it again soon and getting lost in Mass Effect’s universe.  

Full of inspiration from GDC, I was suffering from a severe lack of creative expression once I returned to my liberal arts classes. Many people I had talked to suggested creating a module, so I decided to work with BioWare’s Aurora toolset. It is included with Neverwinter Nights, and it has many features that make the writing process very easy. Since I want to learn more about game writing, I figured a module focused on storytelling through dialog would be a place to start.

My first writing module was a matchmaking module inspired by Jane Austen’s Emma. I knew that a romance plot would require very little difficult scripting, so I could complete it entirely on my own. I wrote over just over 5,000 words and had a great time. Soon, I asked my friends to play it and critique it. Since I wanted to write games with more powerful choices, one friend suggested that I make another module that dealt with matters of life and death.

My next module was about a shipwreck. I made sure to give the player opportunities to kill several people, and had other characters react accordingly. I spent many hours refining this module and I listened carefully to the advice of trusted friends. I wrote and rewrote in order to make my dialog better. This module had around 5,000 words of dialog as well, but it was drastically different from my first module.

After completing the second module, I went back to play the first. It was shocking to see how simple the dialog looked. Every line seemed to be a glaring example of something I had worked so hard to fix in the newer mod. I was so glad to see that I had made an improvement. I haven't decided if it’s worth the time to rewrite that module at this point, but it did teach me a lot. No matter how long you spend on a module, it takes focus and dedication to write good dialog. Not only do you have to write something that sounds natural, but you have to write it so it flows well in response response to each of the many dialog choice the player can select. It is essential to own your characters and think how each situation affects them. Like a good actor, a skilled writer knows their characters’ priorities, motivations, and personalities.

When I began making these modules, I had no idea that game writing was so complicated. However, the challenges that game writing presents are incredibly stimulating for me. I have always loved honing my writing until I find the best way to say something. I enjoy setting high standards for myself and becoming immersed in a fictional world. For the first time in a long time, I found myself forgetting about eating and time flew by. I love this type of writing, and I plan to work had to improve so that I can become a game writer in the future.