Up until a few months ago, I really loved GameFly. Their website was well-organized, they offered a wide variety of games, and they had the most efficient online game rental service. Recently, however, my opinion of their efficiency has changed.

I was a Gamefly member for about seven months last year and had a great experience with their service. Games would be exchanged within two days. I quit due to time constraints but decided to rejoin the service with a new account last September. That’s when the trouble began.

My games were always delivered to my door on time, but GameFly seemed to have trouble receiving my returns through the mail. I would wait patiently for my account to update but my games were never confirmed as received. Consequently, I would spend weeks with only one game, despite paying the service to have two games out at once. After so many weeks of waiting, I was forced to assume that my returns were lost in the mail, so I started reporting them as such. Seriously, Gamefly, what the heck?

Frustrated, I decided to ask my friends about their experiences with GameFly, since I know three others in the Los Angeles area who use the service. All of them complained about the drastically increased turnaround time before returned games were received and replaced. It could be as long as 2-3 weeks for some games, and some were never received at all. However, many of these people had been members for months with proven track records. Because I had rejoined GameFly with a new account, my fifteen previous rentals weren’t counted toward my credibility. My new record stated that three out of the five games I had attempted to return had been reported lost.

I was painfully aware of the damage this would cause my credibility with GameFly, so I had attempted to follow their advice for lost games and use different mailboxes. The three returns marked as lost were sent from mailboxes in two separate parts of the city: downtown Los Angeles and Century City.

At this point, I was incredibly frustrated. I emailed GameFly, explaining my grievances and how I had consulted others in the city with similar problems. I wasn’t sure whether this was a case of mail theft or if there were issues with GameFly, but I wanted them to know that this was unacceptable.

They wrote back, apologizing for the delays. See below:




Weeks later, they had failed to receive yet another game I returned (this time mailed from Santa Monica). I called to complain, and they essentially told me that they could no longer provide service to me unless they received some of the lost games.

I consider myself a reliable person. My eBay feedback rating is 100% after nearly 200 transactions, both as a buyer and a seller. I also sell things on Amazon.com frequently. I’ve never been accused of shipping something late, and I’ve almost never had shipping problems. I’ve rented over 100 DVDs through both Netflix and Blockbuster Online, all of which were successfully received when mailed from those same mailboxes. This problem has been curiously specific to my experience with GameFly.

As you can imagine, I am rather frustrated with this whole situation. What should have been an easy rental service turned into two months of aggravation and false suspicions against my character. I would really love to rent games through GameFly, but I can no longer trust their service. It may be the fault of some mail sorter down at the post office, but it doesn’t alleviate the fact that GameFly can’t sort out shipping problems in their own city (they are based in Los Angeles). This is especially disappointing given that GameFly has what amounts to a monopoly on the online game rental market.

If anyone has had similar issues with GameFly, I would like to know. Given the limited reach of my circle of friends, I’m not sure whether the problem is isolated to the Los Angeles area or if it’s more widespread. I hope that GameFly can resolve this situation soon, whatever the source of the problem may be. Until then, can anyone recommend a better online game rental service?  

I wish I could say that it was just as easy to step away from World of Warcraft as it was the last time. I’ve only played WoW during that ten-day trial almost a year ago and then recently for the free 30-day trial that came with the battle chest. I’ve never been a subscriber to the game, but I did feel a stronger connection to the game after 30 days than I did after the end of my previous trial. So what made it different this time?

Time did not seem to make a huge difference in creating a bond with the game. I got to level 20 after 30 days but I was at level 14 after 10 days last time. I'd seen a much different part of the game world, but that wasn’t what made the real difference. Three factors contributed most to my newly-formed connection to WoW.

The first factor was that I really liked my character. It was fantastic to play as a lovely little blood elf, small and blonde and like a better version of myself. While I did appreciate the level advancement, I liked the fact that I felt like I was doing good for others in the virtual community, even if it was just fiction. I felt immersed and wanted to make my character do well because I liked her.

One of the best parts about being a hunter is that you can gain a pet early on in the game. Having a pet cat (mine was a ghostclaw) was fantastically comforting and instantly gave me an emotional connection to the game. I love cats in real life and miss having one as a pet while I’m away at college. In the game world, I had a pet to look after which would, in turn, help me fight and look after me. The cat made me feel much safer in fights and provided and essential support. Even if it wasn’t real, having an faithful, furry companion that followed me around and helped in tight situations was a great comfort.

The last element that gave me a greater connection to the game world was having a friend join at the same time. He got me to buy the game in the first place. While he soon had other commitments and I leveled up faster than he did, I still had a real person that I could connect with in the virtual world. This made the game feel more real and helped me to internalize how other players really are people sitting at their computers.

Given these new elements tying me to WoW, it seems unlikely that I would quit after my trial ended. However, other issues had arisen since I began playing that made me reconsider a subscription. First, there was a physical problem of my PowerBook lacking a video card. Whenever I played WoW, the fan would become incredibly noisy in its unsuccessful attempts to keep my laptop cool. For fear of overheating, I didn’t dare to play any longer than two hours a day. I'd seen what WoW could look like on more powerful computers, where the settings could be optimized. I was able to see so much more in the game, including the subtle bouncing of my elf’s ears as she ran.

My final frustration with WoW was a bigger issue. I enjoy soloing because I don’t have to schedule time in to play and I don’t have to depend on anyone. Given the great diversity of the personalities of other players in WoW, I prefer to complete quests alone. This can lead to problems, especially in the higher levels. There was one quest where I was trying to rescue people from an unpleasant area full of undead. Unfortunately, the undead were grouped into swarms so they were nearly impossible to pick off slowly. After I'd died several times, making little progress, I decided that it would be best to wait for my friend to level up so I could have some dependable help with that quest. While I enjoy playing WoW alone, there seem to be some situations where I need help and I prefer to wait for the point where I can play with people I can trust from real life.

I let my 30-day trial end, but it has not been as easy to give it up as it was before. I enjoyed playing WoW in the mornings before class and found that, while it was not a stunning game, it was somewhat mindless. This made it a fantastic way to unwind. I miss my blood elf and my pet. However, I feel that I had a good experience with the game and learned a lot. For now, I will shift my focus to other games and school, but I hope to take WoW up again when I can find trustworthy people to join my party.  

It’s been a while since I’ve actually finished a game. Given my academic commitments, a game has to be pretty strong for me to play it through. The fact that The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass was on DS made it much more accessible and I finished it within a month.

I had mentioned in my previous post about Phantom Hourglass how it was relatively easy. It got a little bit more difficult toward the end. Unfortunately, one of the points where I got stuck was when I was stuck in real life in an airport. Stranded without the internet, I called a friend for help and soon figured out what I had been doing wrong. So much of the path in Phantom Hourglass is so straightforward that I got tripped up on something stupid. I had to blow a hole in the wall, but the spot to bomb was somewhat ambiguous. In every other area of the game, the spots to bomb were much more obvious.

Despite a few frustrating inconsistencies, most of the game was fun. The path to completion was fairly linear and I enjoyed playing through to the end. Gadgets were acquired one by one. I loved the puzzles that challenged me to use various gadgets, such as the mouse-shaped bombs that followed paths I drew on the screen.

Given the limited resources and space on a DS cartridge, Phantom Hourglass seemed to be a strong portable experience. Despite the linear path, I still felt a sense of exploration as I continued to visit new islands. The puzzles were clever and varied. The NPCs had personality and quirky backgrounds.

Phantom Hourglass was not without a few flaws. My main complaint and chief frustration was the necessity of revisiting the same temple over and over again. While I could skip certain parts of the level, much of it could still be repetitive. I absolutely hate sneaking around in games, and I had to continue redoing parts where I would sneak around. Also, the money and treasure seemed unbalanced. I found a lot of treasure, but I always had too much money so I never had to sell anything. The treasure was relatively pointless. I had often gone through a frustrating and finicky salvaging minigame to find most of that treasure, so I felt much of my effort was wasted. Finally, there was a possibility to upgrade some abilities, such as adding a shock to my sword attacks. I upgraded a couple abilities but it didn’t make a noticeable difference.

I really did enjoy playing this game. Each dungeon took about 10-20 minutes, which was convenient for short sessions. (However, you cannot save once in a dungeon.) The ending itself was strong and suitable for the game’s theme and story. I enjoyed the characters and the fact that I was a hero. I would recommend this game to people who like creative, engaging adventure experiences in portable form.  

I heard wonderful things about Zack and Wiki, most notably in regards to its innovative puzzles and the return to point-and-click adventure mechanics. Since I grew up with a Mac, I missed the boat on many point-and-click adventures, and I hoped this game would be a fun way to educate myself. While I did learn from Zack and Wiki, the lesson that will likely stick is the scar of its intolerable soundtrack.

Zack and Wiki is full of over-the-top cartoon sounds from the very beginning. While I found it hilarious at first, my good humor wore down after only five minutes. Dialogue is not spoken, but is accompanied by annoying, repetitive sounds. My sidekick, Wiki, would make a high-pitched “Oookiki” sound over and over again. It became very condescending when matched with the tutorial text that made me feel stupid for being a beginner.

While I have very little tolerance for games that belittle the player, especially right at the beginning, there was a plethora of other problems that made Zack and Wiki hard to play. First, the colors were excessively vibrant and felt like a children’s show adjusted to maximum brightness. The graphics of the game looked quite poor on an HDTV and the shortcuts taken in the art cheapened the entire visual style. Cutscenes were way too long and there was simply too much text to wade through. Despite all the dialogue I read, the story was sketchy at best.

As for the click interface, I found it quite limiting. I missed the ability to move freely in an environment. The mechanic where you click where you want your character to go feels outdated. The recent adaptation of this mechanic with the touch screen on the DS is a much more organic use of this type of interface. This leads me to believe that this game would likely be more successful as a DS game. The low-quality graphics and simple puzzles would work better on the small screen. I have found the Wiimote pointer to be much less precise than the DS stylus.

After hearing about the innovative puzzles in Zack and Wiki, I was hoping that it would be fun. Unfortunately, the sound and other shortcomings prevented me from enjoying this game. At its core, however, this game did have spunk. Perhaps it can find a better audience someday with a DS version.  

Sony’s games have a reputation. Ever since I played The Legend of Dragoon seven years ago, I’ve come to expect that Sony will continue to impress me with cutting-edge visuals. Heavenly Sword is no exception. In a brief demo lasting no more than 10 minutes, I was sufficiently awed.

Heavenly Sword definitely raises the bar with its visual style. The environments were stunning. Cinematic sequences looked impeccable and the visuals during gameplay were only slightly lower in quality. The game had a very fluid, cinematic style that, combined with the epic scale, made me feel as if I were the heroine in a movie.

Soon after the cinematic sequence ends, I was sliding down enormous ropes thicker than three of my character’s torsos. I had to jump between the huge ropes and land on a column towering over a hundred feet up. While I fought the enemies there, I tried not to get too distracted by the fantastic view of the untouched beauty of nature surrounding me.

There was also a beauty in the grace of my character’s movements. She had ridiculously long, supermodel legs with enough muscle to justify her incredible strength. The combat animation was fluid and the fights were elegant. She moved with the swiftness of a dancer, but executed attacks at a deadly speed.

Combat, although fluid, felt somewhat unrealistic. I enjoyed being able to use my sword in three different ways: as a ranged weapon, for speed attacks (as two swords separately) or as a power attack (three swords as one). The special attacks were cinematic but didn’t waste time with transitions. Some moves felt artificially effortless, such as picking up and throwing bodies with ease. The intense speed and fluidity was fun but unrealistic. It reminded me of God of War in terms of the bloody hack-and-slash, so it didn’t seem to push combat boundaries.

Other elements in the game felt very polished. The voice-overs were high-quality. Sound effects were spot-on. Certain mechanics, such as using the sixaxis to guide a thrown object, were innovative. Aside from a few irregularities, such as a lack of a block button, this game was quite well-rounded.

After only 10 minutes, it is impossible to truly judge a game. I have heard that it is a short game but, from my limited experience, it seems to be worth the time. I hope that I can play the full version of this game when I finally get a PS3 of my own.  

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.  

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.