Well, sorry about the extreme lack of posting recently, just been kind of lazy. BUT!… I have a whole host of things coming up. Reviews mainly. Three album reviews and one or two game reviews! There may be some extra posts to do with GameDevGo! and the other things I’ve been doing recently. But hopefully, within the next week, posts shall be abundant.
Can you guess where I am in terms of story?
Click for larger!
Yep!
Well, I haven’t posted in a few days. Hell, almost a week!
Quick update: Started and finished Mass Effect purely so I could have a save (that is my own) to transfer onto Mass Effect 2 this thursday.
Since finishing ME1, I’ve gone back to Dragon Age: Origins with my dwarf. Got a long way to go.
Really, I wanna see how many games I can finish before going back to Uni. Yes, this includes all my programming as well.
Now, I’m a little conflicted. I’ve been doing some reading on the XNA forums and what I’ve seen is that its best to know C# away from XNA long before you even touch XNA. Sure, that makes a bit of sense but considering my short amount of programming experience I wonder if I should take it. I might as well, there are a couple of things in C# that I don’t quite understand 100%.
Now that I’ve reconsidered what I learn in terms of C#, I’m wondering should I go back to C++ and really get my shit sorted out there first. I mean, I’ve programmed quite a bit on it but nothing that ever involved graphics. Also, my computer science course will be focussing on C++ and Java (which I have done tonnes of). Well, it won’t even touch C++ until second year. I guess I have to way up my priorities.
Now 1 and 3 would obviously allow me to release (or near release) are very tiny game before Uni begins again. 2 would help me for later and get my maths thinking back into gear. 4 is just ridiculous.
I really think 1 would be best because it would give me a large focus on OO programming and would allow me to release something soon-ish. But I would also have to go back a bit and re-learn outside of the XNA world and once Uni begins, I can do all my Java stuff without having to think to much because I’ve done so much already.
Hopefully though, I can put something out. That would be nice.
To sum up this post: I should go back and learn the basis of C#.
Well after a very rocky start with some annoying problems, Darksiders finally proved itself and continued to do so for the next 9 hours. It turned out to be an awesome experience despite its several technical flaws.
Like most people that have played this, you just can’t help but think of Zelda, especially once you acquire the hookshot abyssal chain and Epona Ruin. Let’s not forget the one syllable named protagonist, Link War.
Gameplay:
Pretty simple style of play with a few little variations thrown in. Much of the time you’ll be hitting the X-button as it swings that monster of a sword about but combos and finishers help freshen that up. Soon into the game, you’ll get a second weapon which helps change the style of play unless you’re like me and barely use anything your sword. I was hoping that is was going to have multi-button combos (a la Devil May Cry) but you really only combo buttons with themselves or RB. Little disappointing but it does keep you away from random button mashing and helps you focus on the awesome amount of carnage that War deals out.
There are a few set pieces such as flying a heavenly beast, fighting with one style in a locked arena and shooting with giant guns. These help bring some more variety into the game but they mostly disappear after the halfway mark. I personally found that the locked arena battles more of a tutorial or really extra practice on using a technique. Quite handy for later in game.
What good would an action game be without puzzles? Well, that depends on the puzzles and luckily Darksiders has lots of pretty simple but enjoyable puzzles. They kick up a notch once you get a hold of Voidwalker, which is basically the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device but with a tiny little difference. You can have strong portals or weak portals. I won’t go into much detail but it makes one of the final puzzles very long but very fun.
Story/Presentation:
The story is just awesome. Plain and simple. The story starts with a bang and pretty much the whole way through is intense. A couple of awesome twists and a wee bit of emotion makes for a very memorable story but I don’t think it would be as memorable if it weren’t for the cutscenes and acting. Not too many cut-scenes in the game, I personally would have liked a few more minutes worth but it did the job just fine.
Sound/Music:
Ok, these were the stand out points of Darksiders. The score is incredible and it really annoys me that they have showed no plans to release it. What do reckon one would need for the soundtrack to apocalypse and its following events? Heavy orchestras? Check! Large choirs? Check! Dark-brooding low notes? Check! It fits almost perfectly with the game but I wish there was more of it.
The sounds throughout are exactly what you would expect but they didn’t really have much environment processing done to them i.e. large stone hall sounds should have a good chunk of reverb. I’m assuming this is due to memory/CPU constraints.
The voice-acting is stellar. War’s voice is deep and a little gruff and not over-the-top like many people would one of the four horsemen sound like. He actually sounds human. Well, a rather evil, menacing one at that. The biggest part of the voice-acting is the voice of the character called “The Watcher”. He just so happens to be voiced by Mark Hamill. Just like all of his other voice roles, he is quite amazing.
Graphics:
From a technical point of view, they are pretty excellent if not a little dated, no more than a year though. Both pre-rendered and in-game cut-scenes look amazing. The overall visual feel of the game is not quite apocalyptic but close. The main thing that makes it not so is the weird colour palette they chose. It’s not that it is weird, it’s that it is rather plain, boring and way too bold. My initial impression of was that they took the Kingdom Hearts colour pallet and for much of the game, that remained by opinion. I personally think everything should be have been a little darker, ‘more evil’ and other such apocalyptic shades of colours but I imagine that it was a design point. It certainly helps it stand out from the other action games on the market. A minor gripe I had was with the camera which would stay glued to you while you go up and down stairs giving a slight bobbing effect. Basically, the camera really didn’t enjoy level changes much.
My main gripes with the graphics were the insanely large amount of screen tearing and frequent pauses. Screen tears occurred roughly every 1 – 2 seconds which at some points got really annoying. It was basically this much the whole way through the game. The frequent pauses were very apparent in the early parts of the game and died off later but still occurred. For the first couple of hours, they were terrible. Any time an animation would load, everything pause for a very short amount of time but it did get in the way. After a while, it does go away so I’m attributing this problem the actual Xbox360 itself. I’ve heard that the PS3 version doesn’t have these issues but don’t take my word for it.
Score:
Overall, it is a most enjoyable game with a few large issues and a few minor ones (like not being able zoom out on the map) but the story and incredibly visceral combat makes up for these 10 fold.
8/10
A little screencap of 2D tutorial in Learning XNA 3.0
Well, I’ve been using Microsoft XNA Game Studio and Visual Studio C# 2008 Express for the past couple of days and well, its fun.
I’ve been using the book Learning XNA 3.0 by Aaron Reed to teach me and its doing a good job.
The screencap is the end result of the 2D tutorial of the book in which basically you are the spinning rings of doom and you avoid pointy things.
Riveting isn’t it?…
So, what have I learned from my short experience of C# and XNA:
Yep, that’s all I’ve learned but then again, this is only my 3rd day of doing it. Plus, I’m still only doing 2D programming so I’m sure I will get a nice shock once I get to the 3D.
I should have outlined my GameDevGo! goals before but I shall now:
These would be what I consider ‘immediate goals’. Hopefully with the stuff I’ll be doing in Computer Science, my ‘more complex’ game should be rather interesting.
Now, how to get my fiancée to do the game art…
Well, now that my Mathstrack is finally finished, I have a couple of months until uni starts again and thus a couple of months until I start Computer Science. So I’ve been thinking, I might get a start on designing and programming my first game. Granted, I shouldn’t make too much of a deal out of it considering there is a very high chance of it not being all that great. But I might as well, because really, this is the main reason why I’ve been wanting to do computer science for so long.
Having never programmed games beyond a tiny text adventure in C++, I am a little bit daunted by the choices but I have narrowed down my options as to how I shall program my first game. After some deliberation I have come up with 2 choices.
Flash or XNA Game Studio.
Why these two? Well, both have bucket loads of free tutorials, both use languages that a very common in game development and both are easy to get your head around. But now to pick and begin my fun and, no doubt, rather stressful journey.
Lets do this in pro/con lists!
Pros
Cons
Pros
Cons
That wasn’t very helpful was it? Especially as I had made up my mind long before I finished writing these lists.
For the types of games I want to start making (RPG/RTS/Adventure), both bits of software have excellent results with all of these genres but I do believe that XNA has the upper hand.
XNA has a very centered community (The XNA Creators Club) and Flash has the millions of people that have written articles, e-books and other such things.
Both C# and ActionScript3 have their place in game development but for my purposes now and over the next few years while doing the degree, C# would be better.
And thus, my decision is XNA Game Studio! I shall start downloading it right now.
I really hope I get committed to this and update this GameDevGo! feature often.
Well, this year is off to a great start with gaming. Bayonetta and Darksiders are excellent and its not even the middle of January!
Before April I have quite a few games that I must order and play.
The game I’m looking most forward to is Heavy Rain.
Why am I looking forward to this the most? Well, Farenheit (or Indigo Prophecy it was called in the US) is one of my favourite adventure games. Such a compelling story and gameplay, so compelling in fact, I finished it in about 3 days. The graphics look amazing from what I’ve seen so far plus the constantly changing story shall be interesting if not very, very stressful.
Release Date: 24/02
Another game I’m looking forward too is Bioshock 2.
As you’ve already seen, if you’ve read more of this blog that is, I’ve already pre-ordered this. I’m really hoping it has the same quality as the first one plus the multiplayer modes seem pretty interesting, despite the fact that the only multiplayer games I play are WoW and Team Fortress 2.
Release Date: 9/02
Another PS3 preorder which is going to set me back the most is God Of War 3: Trilogy Edition.
I’ve really only played about 70% the way through God Of War 1 but that I thoroughly enjoyed. In this country, the remastered editions of God Of War 1 and 2 aren’t being released (well, its not 100% known just yet) so the two ways to get it are with this massive pre-order or by ordering from overseas. Sure, the latter is perfectly viable and way cheaper but this pack is just too awesome to pass up. Apart from the 3 games, the awesome packaging it comes with skins, postcards, an artbook and all 3 soundtracks. Totally worth its nearly $AU250 value!
Release Date: Sometime in march.
One game I’m not that looking forward but thats mainly because I haven’t finished the first one is Mass Effect 2. I’m quite sure it will be a top-notch game as everything Bioware does is amazing its just that I would feel kinda wrong playing it without finishing the first one. I think i’ll probably wait until it hits Steam at a sale price. Might give me enough time to finish the first one!
Release Date: 28/01
I almost forgot one, a very important one at that. Final Fantasy 13. There really isn’t much I can say apart from how awesome this should be. Although I do wish Nobuo Uematsu would do Final Fantasy music again.
Release Date: 09/03
I think that’s about it for pre-orders for now. Uni starts again on the first of March so game playing will be cut down severly 
But until then lots shall ensue.
I do believe that Mistwalker (Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon) will be making an announcement in the near future about a large project so I can safely assume that whatever they announce will be on my pre-order list.
Ok, now if you’ve seen my District 9 review or my top 5 films of 2009 you may have seen me briefly gush about the magnificent film called ‘Moon’.
If you don’t know about it, there is of course a wiki about it but just briefly, it’s directed by Duncan Jones (who is David Bowie’s son) and it stars Sam Rockwell. I could get into the plot and the rest of it but I do believe that it must be seen. Alas, here is the trailer.
Sam Rockwell’s performance(s) are astounding and really he deserves some serious recognition for it. But alas, this is one goal that seems a little bit hard because of the magical people at Sony Classic Pictures.
Due to it currently being the time where the 5,777 Academy members do their voting, common practice is for distributors to release screeners of the majority of films the the Academy members so that they may watch them and hopefully vote for certain aspects of the film on the ballot. With ‘Moon’, Sony Classic Pictures have refused to do this simply because voting started before the American DVD/Blu-ray release of ‘Moon’, which was yesterday. Their main reason is of course, piracy. Sure, this would be understandable if the film hadn’t already been out for 2 months in the UK. Sony have also hoped that their advertising campaign for it would encourage Academy members to go and purchase it. A bit bastardly of Sony but of course, its a business.
Now, the #SamRockwellOscar campaign has been running for several months with hopes that the Academy will get wind of how brilliant this film is but most importantly, get Sam Rockwell the Oscar that he deserves for his amazing performance. But, its not just Sam Rockwell who should be acknowledged. The soundtrack, written by Clint Mansell (who is probably most well known for his Lux Aeterna piece on ‘Requiem For A Dream’) is astonishing and carries the mood of the film almost perfectly. The soundtrack is available on Amazon and iTunes and I think its a worthy purchase.
Kevin Spacey, who of course has won many awards, deserves something for his voice only performance. He manages to bring life and emotion to GERTY, a robot.
The set itself is astonishing as are the models. There is very little CG work, from what I understand, but it still manages to look like a several hundred million dollar production rather than the five million it cost.
The story as well at least deserves a mention as it is extremely thought provoking, emotional and has enough sci-fi and reality to make a perfect balance.
And of course, there is Duncan Jones. His direction in his first feature film is astounding and beautiful. If you buy the DVD or Blu-ray, a short film of his called “Whistle” is on there which is another very interesting watch.
I think that’s enough gushing.
If you want to know more about the #SamRockwellOscar campaign you can visit http://blog.manmademovies.co.uk/rockwell-oscar/ which is the official source of the campaign.
Here is a campaign video made by @malusman, under the guise of Brick Hardmeat and it features sad faces of ‘Moon’ lovers around the world. My picture is in there somewhere!
Well, I’ve had a very mixed experience with this game over my fairly small clocked play time of 4.5 hours.
Initial: Marvellous graphics…until the intro cutscene ends then its WoW characters using the Kingdom Hearts colour palette. Seriously?
20 minutes: Serious graphic glitches ensue. Pauses for half a second every 3 seconds. Uh-oh. Is it really this bad?
1 hour: Well, the story has picked up quite a bit and the colours are far better now. Not as many over the top bright colours. Bit repetitive gameplay though.
2 hours: HOLY SHIT, epic battles are epic! Keep running out of health way to easily. Story starting to get a little dragged out. This soundtrack is pretty top notch though.
3 hours: DIE GIANT BAT THING, DIE! *maniacal laughter as ripping wings off*
Sometimes, you just have to work at a game to realise that it’s bloody awesome.
I really hope that they release the soundtrack though, its quite amazing.
