Exercise 2 for DM2232

Game: Vector Tower Defence

Platform to port to: Nintendo DS

REPORT

The DS console has a limited screen size. Therefore I would shift all selectable icons to the bottom screen, and let the use select items by touching the appropriate icon with the stylus.

Towers and power-ups description may be read from a pop up at the top of the screen, and are placed by touching the type of tower the player wants, and tapping the position on the grid where the player wants the tower to be.

The top screen will contain the status of the game, what enemies are next, and other important information. Should the player lose a life, or win a round, a sound will be played, and the information area will glow. Pop up displays also have this sound and glow to attract the player's attention.

Since there is an auto spawn function, I would allow toggling of it using the L or R buttons, depending on an extra setting that allows the player to select which hand is holding the console.

Instead of having a pause button which must be clicked like in the original game, the start button may be used to temporary suspend the game should the player need to attend to other things. As for the other buttons on the console, they would not be put into use, as there is no need for them.

Graphically the only change that needs to be done is the health bar of the enemies. The bars should change color depending on the amount of health that the enemy has, to make it stand out.

Painkiller

Painkiller. The first game by People Can Fly. Among all the First Person Shooters in the world today (most annyoingly trying to be like halo), this game is one of the most straight foward games, where all you need to do is go from the start to the end, killing everything in your path.

Simple enough to pick up and play straight away.

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~~Story~~
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Daniel Garner - Protagonist of the game. Is killed in a freak accident. Sent to purgatory for 30 years. Is visited by Samuel, who offers him a chance to be purified and sent to heaven. Accepts the assassination job to kill the 4 generals of Lucifer's army.

Catherine - Daniel's wife. Is also killed in the same freak accident as Daniel. Awaits Daniel in Heaven.

Lucifer - Lord of the underworld. Planned the assult on Heaven, and sends his army to Purgatory.

Alastor - Lucifer's right hand general. Is impatient and not happy that Lucifer constantly calling off the invasion of Heaven, and takes matters into his own hands.

Really, we're not here for the story, we're here to kill everything. (NOT like Grand Theft Auto, no annoying fetch quests or being chased by police here.)

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~~~Gameplay~~~
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As soon as the first level loads, you're placed in the cemetary, armed with a rotating blade... thing... which can slice through enemies and scatter their body parts (gibbing).

Throughout the game, you find a number of different weapons, including a Rocket launcher cum chaingun, a stake gun and a shotgun. A new interesting weapon included in the game is called the "Electro driver", which shoots out limited ranged explosive shurikens and electricity.

Nothing much to say about gameplay, except kill everything.

MapleStory SEA

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~~Basic Information~~
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Title of the Game: MapleStory SEA
Platform of Game: PC
Genre of Game: MMORPG
Developer: Wizet

Released June 23, 2005, in Singapore.
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~~Opening Note~~
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Sigh... After seeing so many reviews on MapleStory, saying how awful or how great it was, I feel that it's high time for me to have my say at this game.. MapleStory is a game developed by Wizet, a South Korean company. It is a 2 dimensional, side scrolling, massive multiplayer online role-playing game, which is free to play. Alright, so its to play, surely that means a great deal of people'll come and try it? True, many people did. First, let me list down all the good things about MapleStory. It's a fairly easy to understand game, the controls can be configured to your own liking, the maps are fairly big in contrast to characters so that players don't feel too cramped. It is still a fairly popular game. Right, now that I've listed everything I felt was ok about it, on to the... "undesirable stuff". The first thing that was really undesirable for me was when I first ran the MapleStory program. I know that MS (common abbreviation here) is meant to be a cutesy kind of game, nothing too violent about it. But, in my humble opinion, the music... was pretty "not nice". Seriously, the fact that this game is "cutesy" makes it on the downside for me already! Music aside, the graphics were pretty decent, even if it was cutesy like. Facial expressions were available, and the animations on everything I have seen in this game so far were ok. But here's another problem. its just TOO cutesy. Imagine drawing something really demonic looking, then someone takes your drawing and somehow manages to integrate it into the Powerpuff Girls or some really kiddy show. It just does not feel right... On to the most disappointing part about this game. For the first 30 or so levels, its pretty easy to level your character up, as the amount of experience you require to level up is quite on par with the amount given per monster slain. Beyond that, the game play starts "looping", as the monsters that give you the fastest experience are usually the same ones you'll face for the next 10 levels or so.. Now, why couldn’t they make the damned leveling up bit a little bit easier? I mean, it was ok for me for the first 20 levels after I hit level 30, but it REALLY started to get boring, dull, monotonous, tedious, irksome, tiresome, and humdrum. Seriously, it totally sucks killing the same damned enemies for hours and hours to gain a level. Yes, there are quests which help you gain experience, but some of them are just so screwed-up hard! Lets say you're given a quest to kill a hundred Dangerous monsters which take maybe 10 million hits to kill, and you're required to collect their drops (items that monsters sometimes leave behind. e.g. Kill a snail, and it may leave its shell for you. Gross.). You can bet on it that around 40% or so of the time the monster just REFUSES to give up its drop, and you've got to waste the next year or so going back and forth town, getting your potions to fuel your mana, going back to slay more of them, rinse, wash, ring out, repeat. TEDIOUS. Not to mention that the same goes for leveling up your character. Kill a whole bunch of monsters (like say another 10 million of them), running out of mana potions, going to town and get more so that you can go back and kill more of the same monsters blah blah-de-blah blarg. As most of us know, hackers, scammers and the like are ever present in game, and we also all know that at times the Moderators can't respond to every little cry that anyone makes. Still, is it too much trouble to ban someone that the whole world's calling a hacker because he is really hacking?! And what the hell is up with the ban time? A 14 day ban for saying a swear that a Moderator sees?! Seriously, swearing is so damned common (no doubt you've come across parts of this review which I really wanted to say that 4 lettered swear word that starts with , but I have to calm down and not cuss.), and people get banned 14 days for swearing at the wrong time... Ridiculous.
One more part about this game, because I had enough. The cash shop. You spend like 10 bucks to get 10k A-Cash to use in the cash shop. What do you do with it? Beautify yourself with clothing that gets spoiled within 90 days and are generally so gaily overpriced that it'll be cheaper to just go draw the sprites yourself on some picture editing program like Photoshop or stuff. There are one or two items that are sort of worth it, like the 2X experience coupons or the safety charm, but the rest of them, generally put in for beautifying purposes.

Overall, if you're the type of person who likes to be known for being totally lifeless, training from level 1 to 120 in a month, this game is for you. For everyone else, steer clear of this game, because unless you're stupid and get addicted to MMORPG's (like myself, last time).

By the way, this game is not bad. It is just averagely boring.

Guess I'd better do a better game next time... I nearly typed out the real cusses.

Symphony Of The Night

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~~Basic Information~~

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Title of the Game: Castlevania Symphony of the Night

Platform of Game: Sega Saturn / Playstation

Genre of Game: Defining Adventure-RPG

Developer: Konami

Released 1997.

[Opening note]

Symphony of the Night. This is one of those games that I still find enjoyable even after many playthroughs. Sure, that's my opinion, but it's a fact that even now, it is still regarded as one of the top Castlevania games of all time.

[Story]

Upon starting the game, you find yourself controling a whip-weilding man, who's name is revealed to be Richter. He goes to the top of the tower to battle the vampire Count Dracula, who falls easily.

Usually in most Castlevania games, Dracula is the final boss in the game! But wait! After Richter slays Dracula, the screen turns into a photograph, which burns up. Then you get to read the prolouge, and after that, the game switches to the Real beggining, where you control a completely different character, Alucard.

Alucard awakens when Richter mysteriously vanished 4 years after he slayed Dracula, and travels to his homegrounds, in order to face his immortal father again in battle. No man shall say who will emerge victorious...

[Graphics]

Although not as impressive now, the graphics back then were extraordinary for the time. Every character, monster and skill all had very smooth animations, and the backgrounds had animations, which was quite uncommon back then. With graphics this smooth, it sometimes causes lag while playing, but the lag can be ignored.

Alucard's animation was one of the best in all the castlevania series so far. Well detailed, and it was just right. As for the User Interface, The only thing visible was the amount of Health present, the Magic Points bar, the current Sub-weapon that Alucard possesses, and the number of Hearts left.

Everytime Alucard takes damage,the amount of damage he takes is reflected on the screen for a short time, then turns into a shiny red star which flies up to just below the Health indicator, to draw attention to the amount of health the player currently has. The Health text colour changes to yellow when the player's health has fallen to a danger level.

The MP bar is colored blue, and when MP has fully regenerated, a blue arua will surround Alucard temporary, and the bar glows bright blue, to show that mp has been fully regenerated.

Also, the number on the hearts will not glow green if the player has a subweapon that uses more hearts than he currently has. (E.g. the Cross uses 100 hearts, and Alucard has 99 hears only)

Overall, the graphics are simply fantastic, and the only critisim that I can give it is that on some ocassions there is so much animation on the screen that it can get pretty messy and laggy.

Graphics score: 8/10

[Gameplay]

You take control of Alucard throughout the entire game, except for the pre-beggining. Unlike previous Castlevania game, where the protagonists are stuck with a whip for a main weapon, Alucard can weild any weapon that he picks up.

The equipment menu is extreamly diverse, and allows the player to equip a whole assortment of items to power-up himself.

As you can see, the player may equip up to 7 different items! Equipping different items causes minor changes to Alucard's sprite, although only weapons, sheilds and capes are reflected.

Not only do you get a whole assortment of weapons to weild, some of them even has extra abilities! For example, the Alucard Sword has a cool teleporting slash move, which causes Alucard to warp foward, turns around and slash twice, and return back. During the entire animation, Alucard is invincible to anything.

Basically, you're trying to get to the top of the castle to face the final boss, but there are plot twists here and there which eventually leads you to fight againts Richter in the same tower which Richter fought Dracula in the beggining! I'll just spoil this part and go on to say that if you save Richter from possession, you will unlock a new place to explore, which is the same castle, but inverted!

This Inverted castle is where you face Dracula, and essentially, it doubles the size of the game, in a rather cheap way.

Overall, the gameplay is NOT totally linear, but it does get a bit repetitious when you enter the Inverted castle.

Gameplay score: 7/10

[Music and Sound]

When I first turned on this game, the intro music sounded creepy and I felt that the whole soundtrack might be horrible. How wrong I was.

I was expecting some kind of MIDI file or something similar. What I DID NOT expect was that the music was fully ochestrated! Out of all the Castlevania in-game music I've heard before, this one was the BEST. It sounded wonderful, and each area had its own distinct score which blew my mind. I've never heard such a wonderful soundtrack inside a game like this back in 1997!

Not only the sound, there was also something I was not expecting.

The usual dialoge in a Castlevania game was just text, and you had to press buttons to get it to continue. But in Castlevania, instead of that, the dialoge will just scroll through, and the characters actually voice act them out! Voice acting was really rare, at least in most of the games I've played back then.

But there was one slightly dissapointing thing about the music. In the inverted castle, most of the areas played only one song, which kinda got boring after a while. Even so, it was a pretty nice song.

Overall, the music was simply awesome. No complaints from me about that.

Music and Sound score: 9/10

[Conclusion]

Another Must Play game that I've reviewed. Still, no game is perfect, as it seems really easy. There's not much of a challenge for most of the bosses, final boss included, with the only exception being Galamoth.

That aside, I give this game 8/10 as a playability score.

Devil May Cry 3

~~~Basic Information~~~
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Title of the Game : Devil May Cry 3 : Dante's Awakening

Platform of Game : Playstation 2 / Personal Computer

Genre of Game : Fantasy Action Adventure

Developer : CAPCOM

Released on March 1st, 2005 for the PS2. Re-released on October 16th, 2006 for the PC.

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~~~ Description ~~~
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Chronologically, Devil May Cry 3 is a prequel to the original Devil May Cry game. It features the story of Dante (the game's main protagonist) in his younger days. He has a cockier attitude than in the later games (his dark side awakens in later games), and seems to be more carefree.

~~Basic Rundown Of This Game~~

1. Get to the end of the level.

There are some secrets that could be skipped, but seriously, secret hunting's fun most of the time.

2. Kill enemies to get "Red orbs"

Red orbs are the currency of the game. They can be exchanged at the start of a mission or at "Divinity Statues" for power ups and items which improve your character's overall strength.

3. Get higher stylish points and finish the level quickly.

Getting higher stylish grades during combat (D -> C -> B -> A -> S -> SS -> SSS) makes enemies drop more Red orbs, and increases the amount of bonus orbs you recieve at the end of a level. Finishing the level quicker gives you more orbs at the end too.

~~~Graphics~~~
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Although not comparable to morden games, the in-game graphics are really good for its time. Textures looked pretty realistic, lightings were just right, water would ripple and splash realistically enough, and ice sparkled when light shone on them.

However, there are some parts which does not look too good. When Dante pressed a button on his jukebox in the beginning of the game, it just showed a red glow instead of actually pushing a button. Some objects would have a painfully visible line on them, where there would be an edge, like in the picture. This makes the objects look and feel flat at times. (Where either horn like statue is.)

Hair was also not well done, they were done in chunks. Fire effects looked alright for its time. Interestingly, hardly any smoke was produced. One element that I was looking out for were shadows, and I was certainly not dissapointed, as shadows were present, as well as realistic.

Overall, the graphics were pretty good, but there is one place where the graphics really looked terrible. I have to wonder, why is the backgrond graphics so odd, and since it is also the last level, I wonder if they ran out of time to produce decent graphics for this part of the game.

Graphics score: 7 / 10

~~~Gameplay~~~
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Basically, you take control of the devil hunter Dante, in third person view. Your basic goal is to get to the end of each mission (there are 20 missions). The first 3 missions are fairly linear, introducing the player to the basic controls, which key activates what skill, and basic actions. After the initial stages, the gameplay becomes less linear, with hidden secrets to find, puzzles to solve, and boss battles frequently littered throughout the stages.

There are different styles available in the game. You can play as the agile and dodgy "Trickster", the close range combater "Swordmaster", the bullet spammer "Gunslinger", or the firm and defensive "Royalguard". These styles may only be switched at the beggining, or at special statues located in the maps. These styles can "Level up", unlocking better moves in the process.

Beating the game on different difficulty settings, and depending on how well your performance was, unlocks special bonuses, including different artwork, costumes which either alter the appearance of the characters or giving the character an unlimited "Devil Trigger", and an alternate game mode, "Bloddy Palace". This game mode makes you go through 9999 levels, battling various combinations of monsters up on the way, with a boss battle every 10 levels.

The special edition made for the computer shares the same controls as the playstation version, except that the player uses the keyboard to play, instead of a controler. This makes playing the game on the computer a little more challenging for those who are used to using the controler. However, once I got used to the keyboard, everything works out quite ok.

The bonus features in this game includes the options to speed up the gameplay to 120% of its original speed, and the ability to play through the game with Dante's twin brother, Vergil. The Vergil storyline follows that of Dante, except that he has his own set of moves, a slightly altered storyline (shown in a few cutscenes), and a different set of clothings. Aside from that, playing through the game with Vergil is no different than playing with Dante.

Gameplay: 9 / 10

~~~Sound~~~

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The music in the game is just awesome. When there are no enemies around, the music being played has this eerie feel to it, like something evil lurks around the next bend. Battle music, however, is based on a gothic theme, and is fast paced, which is just right for fighting in this game.

Sound effects are pretty good as well. Weapons give off sound when they are used (Sword swishing when swung, rockets blast out of the launcher and explodes upon contact).

Interestingly, sashing most enemies gives off a sound like a sword going through sand. This should make sense, as most enemies are composed entirely of sand, save for their weapons.

However, there are enemies made of stone, molten rock (i think, because they have a weakness to ice based attacks) and flesh (Vergil of course, what do you think he's made of? wood?). Hitting them produces different sounds (like the squishy sound made by hitting enemies comprised of molten rock), and if they block, the familiar sounds of two swords clashing together can be heard.

There are sounds in the background as well. Waterfalls, lava pits, gears turning. Moving further away or closer to these sounds dims and heightens the sounds in a realistic manner.

Sound: 8 / 10

~~~Conclusion~~~

This game is a must play for hardened fans of Devil May Cry, and for newbies to the Devil May Cry world. It is a game that is equally easy going as challenging, as the level difficulties differs slowly throughout the missions.

So if you like games which involving the combination of puzzle solving, exploration, survival and mad comboing, this is a game for you.

IMHO score for this game: 8 / 10

~END~

Testing

1st post to this blog..

Testing.