“Portal 2″ is a much larger game than the original, eschewing the latter’s densely packed rooms and corridors for sprawling, wide-open areas. Puzzle-solving is extremely satisfying, as the puzzles tend to be delightfully difficult and follow simple rules. Even when new mechanics, such as gels that coat walls and change how the player interacts with the environment, are introduced, the game ramps up the difficulty slowly by starting with simple tutorial puzzles and iterating on these concepts.

I still don’t have that time. In fact, it seems I have less time than ever! I still want to write, though.

So, I created one of those Tumblr microblogs so I could post very short entries about copy editing or journalism in general (and probably video games sometimes).

www.corywoodrum.tumblr.com

Twitter was serving this purpose, but the 140 character limit was a tad too constraining for when I want to specifically highlight something.

See you there!

http://expoweb.purdueexponent.org/?module=article&story_id=22530

To Bungie’s immense credit, there are enough fantastic set pieces that players won’t have any trouble finding the motivation to set aside eight hours to beat the game despite the flat narrative. The tried and true Halo combat has returned; one of the game’s strengths is how physical and weighty gunfire and melee attacks feel, making every combat situation dynamic, difficult and immensely satisfying. There’s a stunning amount of variety throughout the ten or so missions, and just when an event starts to overstay its welcome, the game shunts the player off to do something new.

Video Review:

http://archive.purdueexponent.org/?module=article&story_id=21194

“God of War 3” is competent, but it will leave many players unhappy. The hackneyed ending will disappoint fans invested in Kratos’ story, and the developers’ slavish devotion to stale game mechanics won’t appeal to new players experienced in similar games that have more depth.

The game’s opening splash screen features a prominent warning message cautioning players susceptible to seizures to be careful due to the visual effects in the game, and the developers really aren’t joking. Beat Hazard features an absurd amount of flashing and strobing full screen graphical effects that can be painful at times. At its worst, thousands of bullets will be flying out of both the player’s ship and the dozen or so enemies on-screen while the background rapidly pulsates in time with the selected song, made more vibrant by the momentary volume and intensity of the song. Enemies and asteroids explode into debris that further obscures the play area. All this insanity takes a while to get used to, but there are easier difficulty modes that lessen the graphical madness.

Beat Hazard supports the Xbox 360 controller, which is better than the awkward mouse and keyboard controls. As in Geometry Wars, the left stick moves the ship and right stick shoots laser beams. The goal is, predictably, to survive each song with the highest score possible. There are power-ups to collect from downed enemies that will increase the player’s score multiplier, laser strength, or song volume.  All the points collected during each track add up towards granting the player new perks, such as more lives or a higher starting score multiplier. Beat Hazard also uses Valve’s Steamworks service to offer save syncing and Steam-wide leaderboards and achievements.

Unfortunately, Beat Hazard suffers from significant design issues that limits its long-term appeal. The menus are haphazardly designed so that scrolling through music and moving in and out of folders requires an absurd amount of work that makes large music collections annoying to sift through. There are no playlists or other conveniences to make finding music less of a chore.

The most significant issue is the lack of variability. There are very few enemies that can be generated in the levels, with the only distinguishing factors between the enemies are size and durability; they behave exactly the same. Even the bosses that appear at certain points in songs lack much differentiation; the game usually spawns either one big boss or two little ones. There are simply not enough variables that are alterable by the player’s tracks to make the game less repetitive.

For the first few hours, Beat Hazard is a blast. It’s not mechanically unique, but the game is flashy and outrageous enough to be enjoyable until the limitations of the game become clear. Different enemies, a better interface, and more variety in what is generated from tracks would go a long way towards making Beat Hazard worth hopping into every once in a while.

• Developer: Cold Beam Games
• Publisher: Cold Beam Games
• Release Date: 4/15/2010 (Steam)
• Also available on Xbox 360 (Indie Games)
• See also: Audiosurf (PC), Geometry Wars (Xbox 360, PC), Robotron 2084 (Arcade)

Mega Man 10

http://archive.purdueexponent.org/?module=article&story_id=20937

“Mega Man 10” is a loving tribute to classic gaming. Gamers who grew up on the series will embrace the game’s retro difficulty, but players who lack that nostalgia will likely find only frustration or boredom. For most, the game will serve better as a history lesson – a glimpse into what video games used to be, faults and all.

Heavy Rain

http://purdueexponent.org/?module=article&story_id=20667

Few people will play “Heavy Rain” and have the same experience, which is the game’s greatest strength. The ending is a collection of countless variables based on a player’s successes, failures and snap decisions. Because of this, “Heavy Rain” is intimately personal in a way other mediums could never hope to emulate.

(This is an assignment I did for my Writing in Virtual Worlds and Games class, posted on my personal blog with permission. I have made minor changes to the text and images.)

Background Information

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is the third game in The Legend of Zelda franchise and was developed and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.  It was released in the United States in April 1992 to great commercial and critical success.  The game sold nearly five million copies on the Super Nintendo alone and has a 92.78% on the GameRankings review aggregator.

Technical Details

When The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was released in 1992, it was twice as large as most other Super Nintendo games, requiring a then-gargantuan one megabyte cartridge. Even so, the engineers at Nintendo had to invent many tricks and tweaks to fit the entire game on a single Super Nintendo cartridge.

Nintendo ported A Link to the Past to the portable Game Boy Advance in 2002. There were numerous changes made to the game, with the most significant additions being a new dungeon and an entire four-player “cooperatively-competitive” multiplayer mode dubbed Four Swords.

In 2007, A Link to the Past was made available on the Wii’s Virtual Console service.

Gameplay

While the exact terminology for the franchise’s genre is up for debate, The Legend of Zelda games incorporate a mixture of action and role playing elements.  The game is played from a two-dimensional, overhead perspective. The overworld is large and contains many hidden items, while completing dungeons advances the game and provides rewards and challenges for players.

The main character, Link, has limited health, represented by hearts in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Link’s standard attack is a sword swing, though A Link to the Past introduced a powerful spin move that requires the sword button to be held down and charged before use. The player also can use a variety of weapons and items to defeat enemies and solve puzzles. Defeated enemies can drop rupees, the game’s system of currency, which are used to buy items and consumables such as bombs and arrows.

Rules and Objectives

The most basic rule in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is if Link runs out of hearts, he dies and the player is forced to restart.  Enemies, holes, and traps are a few examples of obstacles the player must avoid to prevent losing health.

The first portion of the game tasks the player with finding three pendants located in dungeons scattered throughout the overworld in order to find and wield the Master Sword. The second part of the game revolves around rescuing Princess Zelda and six “maidens” from seven more dungeons. Finally, after saving Zelda, the final dungeon becomes available.

Every dungeon follows a pattern that anyone who has played a contemporary Legend of Zelda game will find instantly familiar. After finding the dungeon’s location on the overworld, the first task for the player is to find the “big key,” which is usually necessary for both opening the chest containing the dungeon’s special item and opening the door to the boss room. This is done while the player navigates through the often labyrinthine and large dungeons featuring many difficult puzzles and enemies.

Outside of dungeons, there are many optional side quests to participate in. Most of these quests lead to pieces of heart, and if four are collected Link gains a higher maximum health level. These upgrades are generally optional, but can make the game much easier.

Variety

Nintendo made a number of design decisions in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past to slightly change the experience and keep it fresh throughout the game. Players are given access to a number of strange weapons that include a staff that creates pushable, remote-detonating blocks used for puzzle solving and a medallion that calls lightning from the sky, causing tremendous damage against enemies. Link’s tunic and shield can be upgraded for extra protection along with the boomerang and Master Sword.

Nearly every dungeon in the game has its own interesting style and gameplay challenges, usually centering on the special item located within. The dungeon containing the fire rod has a horror theme, with unique enemies including mummies and disembodied hands that fall from the ceiling.  The ice dungeon’s floors are often completely covered in ice, making progress through the labyrinth difficult. Each dungeon ends with a different boss monster that requires new tactics to defeat. Towards the end of the game, a few of the early bosses reappear as mini-bosses that are much more difficult than they were in the first encounter.

One element that was first introduced with A Link to the Past is the inclusion of alternate “Light” and “Dark” worlds; this concept of world duality would not only be echoed in future Legend of Zelda titles, but also extend to other Nintendo franchises such as Metroid.  The Dark World, which becomes fully accessible after receiving the Master Sword, gives players a familiar but much more challenging environment to explore and allows the use of switching between the light and dark realms to solve puzzles or access new, previously inaccessible areas.  The Dark World is much more sinister than the Light World that is the basis of the first section of the game.  Skulls litter the ground and the entire overworld is covered with an oppressive gloom. This change in scenery gives players further incentive to finish the game.

Audience

As with almost any Nintendo franchise, The Legend of Zelda games have always appealed to a wide variety of people and A Link to the Past is no different.  The game is suitable for all ages and skill levels due to the lack of realistic violence or other “mature” content while also managing to be mechanically simple and not particularly difficult.

Experience

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past has three distinct aspects to the core gameplay that often intertwine. The integration and execution of the games’ combat, puzzle solving, and exploration are all important parts of what makes the series unique.  The game consists of a constant stream of varied situations based on those three elements that give players a constant and satisfying sense of accomplishment.

Sources

“The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past for SNES – GameRankings”. GameRankings. 22 Feb. 2010 http://www.gamerankings.com/snes/588436-the-legend-of-zelda-a-link-to-the-past/index.html.

“The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 21 Feb. 2010. Web. 22 Feb. 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Zelda:_A_Link_to_the_Past.

“Zelda Universe – A Link to the Past”. Nintendo of America. Web. 22 Feb. 2010. http://www.zelda.com/universe/game/past/.

Borderlands

It’s hard not to enjoy Borderlands.

Borderlands is best described as a mix between two genres commonly associated with Diablo and Halo. Like Diablo, there are quests to complete, levels to gain, and tons of loot and equipment to collect off vanquished foes. Like Halo, the game is a first person shooter with rechargeable shields and everything else one has come to expect in a modern shooter. One of the reasons this game works so well is that both halves of the gameplay is simplified enough so it never feels like the two different genres are competing for the player’s attention, unlike many other hybrid games. The ability to aim precisely is needed to effectively down tough baddies, certainly, and there are tons of stats to consider whenever upgrading weapons and armor, but that’s about as deep as each aspect gets.

And, boy, are there lots of weapons and armor. Developer Gearbox has made a big deal about their random item creation algorithms, and for good reason. Like any good loot-based RPG, each item has its own stats and attributes that determines the amount of damage it will deal or absorb and any of four elemental affinities that allow it to cause or prevent extra damage. That’s normal for the genre, but Borderlands takes it a few steps further. Every equipable item has a manufacturer that changes the basic behavior of the item; one gun from a manufacturer might have a larger ammo clip but be significantly less accurate, while the same gun from another manufacturer will have a smaller clip with a higher chance of causing elemental damage.  Additionally, some guns can be found that have very strange behavior, like a shotgun found early in the game that shoots a Metroid-inspired wave beam instead of the usual buckshot. Finding and trying out new weapons is a joy, and new upgrades appear frequently enough from enemies, chests, or shops that old weapons and shields are constantly being discarded for better-performing ones.

There is four-player co-op, and it’s obvious the developers spent a great deal of time balancing the game specifically for multiple players. While playing alone, it’s hard to shake the feeling that enemies absorb too much damage before dying, even taking weak points into account. But with even one other player this issue evaporates and the game feels more balanced. There are four classes available, and each one has one unique skill and roughly two dozen selectable talents within three distinct skill trees. But Borderlands is not a hard game, even playing alone. While the bullet-sponge enemies are annoying, they’re not much of a problem and death’s only punishment is loss of cash. There are only a few quests that will challenge a properly specialized solo player.

The game allegedly features a story, though it is not interesting enough to really notice. There’s a desert planet called Pandora. There’s an ancient “vault” on Pandora that supposedly contains a wealth of advanced technology. In order to access the vault, you need a key. The key has been split up into several pieces. Each piece is held by a bad guy. You kill the bad guys to get the key fragments.  There is nothing here that hasn’t been done a few thousand times before. Each class has its own backstory, but it is never mentioned in-game and serves only as instruction manual filler. And if it is ever revealed why there are only six different types of boxes throughout the entire planet, I happened to miss it.

On the brighter side, Borderlands’ art style is fantastic. The game employs a beautifully subtle cel-shaded look that makes the game’s visuals pop and stand out from other first person shooters. Most locations look distinct, ranging from the beginning area’s generic desert to a glacial mountain path to an overgrown urban area. Many of the friendly outposts and bandit headquarters throughout the adventure have an interesting trashy and hobbled-together look to them, matching the bleak, apocalyptic landscape perfectly. The characters and enemies feature a grimy and somewhat comedic design with exaggerated movement and behavior. When enemies are attacked, how much damage was dealt sprays out with the blood and behaves differently depending on what kind of damage was done. It’s a surprisingly awesome effect that doesn’t get old even by the end of the 20-hour campaign.

Borderlands does have its faults. The final few missions seem haphazardly designed and eschew much of what makes the rest of the game interesting by eliminating all open-world exploration and becoming little more than a boring corridor shooter against frustrating enemies. Bosses are uninspired; they are either regular enemies with several times more health and tons of buddies or huge hulking monstrosities with obvious weak points. While the co-op is a blast to play, solo-focused players won’t have many choices to make during the campaign since as many as half of a class’ talents are dedicated to helping party members rather than oneself, rendering them useless. The lack of non-weapon character customization is a bummer; there isn’t any armor in the game except for shields and every class will look exactly the same for the entire game.

Performance can be uneven. Load times are outrageous and happen often enough to make traveling annoying, which you have to do way too much in the last half of the adventure. There are a few select enemies throughout the game that cause the engine’s framerate to hit rock bottom for a few moments due to the amount of blood and particle effects. This can make even routine battles against low-level enemies needlessly difficult.

Despite these issues, Borderlands is a blast; it manages to have a compelling mishmash of the best qualities first person shooters and western role playing games have to offer.  There’s enough here to satisfy any fan of either genre for a playthrough or two and should definitely be considered by those lamenting the lack of quality co-op experiences.

• Developer: Gearbox Software
• Publisher: 2K Games
• Release Date: 10/20/09
• Also available on PS3, PC
• See also: Hellgate: London (PC), Sacred 2 (360, PS3, PC), Halo 3 (360)

Rock Band 2

(EDIT: This article was featured on Bitmob at http://bitmob.com/articles/how-rock-band-has-affected-how-i-listen-to-music )

I am a huge fan of Rock Band. I play it almost daily, but not as a social function like many who play the game; for me, it’s a solitary experience that I find both relaxing and stress relieving. I do some of my best thinking with a plastic fake guitar in my hands.

It was during one particularly long session of Rock Band late into the night that I came to a pretty shocking realization: not only have I not purposely listened to music outside of the various music rhythm video games for several months, I also hadn’t even realized this fact until that moment.

Rock Band and its ilk have completely changed how I purchase, consume, and think about music.

A few months ago, a few members of the band Styx were in-studio at “The Bob and Tom Show,” which is a very popular morning radio program that I listen to through subscriber podcasts. I had been somewhat familiar with the group but had never really paid attention to them. However, I was very impressed with many of the songs they performed and decided to look into buying a few of the band’s tracks. I could have done this by going to the iTunes Store built into my iPod Touch, surfing to Amazon.com, or by visiting a nearby bookstore. Instead, I went home and bought an entire pack of their music through the Rock Band music store for a significantly higher per-song price than the other options. This method was also less convenient compared to the others and requires a bulky plastic guitar in order to enjoy the music.

Truth be told, I didn’t even think of the other options at the time. At some point, “listening to music” became synonymous with “playing Rock Band.” There are many possible reasons for this. For one thing, I’m a podcast fiend. During any given week I might listen to 30 or 40 hours of spoken audio content. If I’m walking to class or playing a video game, I am likely listening to podcasts at the same time. Podcasts are cheap and the discussions in them might inspire me in ways that music simply cannot while requiring a similar amount of concentration to enjoy.

Another possible factor is, while I had previously held music as little more than background noise and a means to help pass time, Rock Band requires more attention to the music. Seeing the visual representation of the music, however inaccurate or simplified it may be, helps me appreciate technical aspects of the music that I, as a complete musical idiot, would never notice through just listening. The game is almost educational in that regard. Additionally, the video game clichés of arbitrary points, difficulty progression, and winning and losing really appeals to the part of me that has been conditioned from childhood to work towards earning high scores and overcoming challenges. The new downloadable songs keeps me engaged with the Rock Band platform, and the small number of new tracks per week introduces me to new songs and artists that would otherwise be swallowed up by the din and chaos of iTunes or Amazon stores. All these factors come together to make Rock Band more compelling on multiple levels than simply passively listening to my iPod.

Depending on one’s view, there may be a significant downside to my attachment to the music rhythm genre: namely, that my taste in music is evolving based on what I enjoy playing, rather than solely based on the merits of the songs themselves. I love the band Dream Theater, but there is no way I will ever be able to properly enjoy the songs “Panic Attack” or “Constant Motion” due to the painful and crippling difficulty. Instead, I find myself more attracted to relatively simple songs that are infectiously catchy such as the ones by Paramore, Maroon 5, or Kings of Leon. These bands aren’t what I would traditionally listen to, but my constant exposure to their songs in Rock Band have created a certain amount of enjoyment whenever I play them. Whether or not a song is “good” is almost irrelevant to me anymore. Instead, how fun the music is to play is the prime motivating factor for what songs I decide to purchase and experience.

At this point, I keep music on my iPod out of habit more than anything else. There are quite a few artists that I wish would appear in Rock Band, or even Guitar Hero, such as Murder By Death and Metric. But these glaring omissions are offset by the huge number of new bands that I’ve encountered in a way that appeals to me more than any other way possible. Maybe one day I’ll drift away from Rock Band and start relying on my iPod as my primary music player again, but I don’t see it happening any time soon.