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My thoughts on videogame design p18
13 min read
It's time for an anniversary. remember what game was I talking about exactly 10 parts back?
Well it's about time to take a look at the sequel.
MDK 2 continues where the previous game left off. Well kind of 'cause we didn't get a proper ending or even a stupid cliffhanger.
Luckily now the game also features a proper intro.
After defeating the Streamriders' leader Gunta, our janitor-sniper hero Kurt is having a toast (maybe not as enthusiastically as you'd expect) along with his employer Dr. Fluke Hawkins and his 6-legged bipedal cybernetic canine assistant Max (even though he was named Bones in the prequel but you already know MDK runs on weirdness, right?) onboard Hawkins' spaceship "Jim Dandy" when suddenly the ship's allarm goes off. Whoa lookslike you somehow forgot about one more minecrawler. And it's headed STRAIGHT FOR EDMONTON!! (the headquarters of Bioware who made the sequel is located there)
No time to waste, Kurt is quickly sent back down to deal with the situation. After all it's the last damn minecrawler. What could possibly go wrong?
The answer is everything.
After succesfully managing to stop the minecrawler the game takes an unexpected turn of events which take you into outer space and onto an alien homeworld.
And there I thought MDK 2 would tone the weirdness down. But let's take it slow.
The first major new feature the sequel introduced is alternating characters you play. And thus also the gameplay style. It's like it wanted to follow the AvP series I talked about 2 entries earlier.
At the end of the first level Kurt gets unexpectedly captured (in a cutscene no less) thanks to his sheer stupidity and deafness. Thus it's another character's job to rescue him. Well sort of. And this character turns out to be Max.
It's no surprise that after doing his part he gets captured as well and then it's Doctor's turn to get down to business.
This way the characters get cycled through the course of the entire game. It consists of 10 levels and in the finale you get to choose what character you want to play as. That means the game has 3 different endings but let's not get too far ahead.
Kurt's gameplay style remains roughly the same as in 1. The HUD is a bit different and there are new items and of course new enemies along with some recycled ones from the prequel. Namely the Poopsies who still look kind of like robots and also still have their crazy antics. Just like almost all other NPCs.
It deserves a mention that now your character is also 3D unlike in first MDK where it was just a sprite. But let's get back on track.
Kurt's style is heavily dependent on sniping. Not only there are puzzles that require this. Many enemies are also either dispatched more effectively by sniping in certain spots or outright immune to Kurt's regular chaingun. They can be temporarily knocked down by it but not killed e.g. Grunt which requires you to break their glass helmet to make them lose their suit's gas and suffocate - even in their native environment.
Honorable mention goes to "Bif" which looks like dumb fat imperial guard wearing just a horned hat and a pair of thongs. They can be killed but take a lot of punishment ... or just a single snipe into their belt bucket which has an eye that blinks. It's tricky but if you manage to hit it while it's open it's an instant kill regardless of Bif's remaining health.
Also regular "Bottrocks" can be insta-killed by sniper headshots. As many other aliens who happen to have some head. One of the exceptions is the aforementioned "Bif".
The sniping puzzles mostly consist of shooting blue spinning balls. In the latter levels they move along predefined paths or even freely bounce around (with a cute balloon sound no less) which is actually a real pain in the ass, because THEY. WON'T. STOP. EVER. Nevertheless I'd want to have such bouncy ball in real life.
As you expect there is also special sniper ammo that is mostly used for certain puzzles but if you have some left, you can always let your enemies have some. Don't worry, anytime you need special ammo, it will be provided to you via reappearing pickups until you solve the puzzle it's necessary for.
Kurt also still has his ribbon parachute so you can also expect some gliding around.
Besides the obligatory bizarre hand grenade and dummy decoy there are also new usable items. The most useful is cloak which ACTUALLY WORKS while the most bizarre is a Black Hole grenade. There are also temporary add-ons for Kurt's chaingun with limited ammo.
That's pretty much all that changed for the world's most badass janitor. Now we're getting to the interesting part.
...
Max's style is completely different. He's all about raw firepower. Do you know what having 4 arms is good for? If you guess cooking, you're rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrWRONG
Of course it's meant to enable Max to fire 4 different guns at the same time. And some of them are not small either. Besides some handguns and "uzis" (they actually don't look anything like real U-ZIs) there are obligatory pump-action shotguns (how does he actually pump them is completely beyond me) or even Gattling guns (that's not a typo - listen to the gun's sound), rayguns and guided missiles. The latter two are kind of rare though. You'll never actually get your hands on 4 of them.
Firing the guns is pretty easy but actually managing them is a bit complicated. You have 2 keys to move through your inventory and another 2 to equip/holster the gun. This is kind of hard to pull of in the heat of a battle. All the guns are one use - after depleting their ammo they are simply thrown away. The only exception is Max special unlimited handgun. Besides it he can carry a maximum of 7 guns which remain in your inventory until depleted. That means you have to stick with almost empty gun or just waste the ammo to get rid of that gun so you can pick up a new one.
Max encounters mostly the same enemies than Kurt but also some different while completely lacking the enemies that require sniping of course. He also faces some Bif's as well as other tough aliens. Thankfully to his powerful arsenal they pose nowhere near as much threat as in Kurt's case.
Max's gameplay also features some puzzles but they are either about destruction or about jumping and flying using a jetpack. Duke Nukem would be proud.
Actually no. The classic jetpack which requires refueling is annoying as hell, especially if you need to float in mid-air around a slowly moving fuel pump. The nuclear jetpack fares slightly better since it self-recharges if not blasting off.
Despite all this it's still most fun to play as Max. Also it's worth mentioning he has twice the amount of health as Kurt. Since he's a robot his health pickups are batteries.
...
Doctor's part is less about action and more about puzzles. There still is some combat but the enemies are mostly weak ones. The only exception is a single Bif you need to get rid of in the 3rd level and there are 2 ways how to do it. Both of them are arguably/ambiguously clever but also partially stupid. And of course the bosses. Those are also mostly defeated by puzzles or environment.
Since Dr. Hawkins is not young either, he's the weakest of all and has the lowest health. He cannot even jump very high or far and cannot hang by his hands. That's why he always uses a telescopic ladder. The problem is you first need to craft it. And now we got to the root of most doctor's puzzles. They're about combining items.
If MDK 2 was an adventure this would mean hell. But here it's done differently since Dr. has 2 inventories - one for each hand. You equip the stuff in your hands by assigned keys and then combine them by pressing fire button. It doesn't make much sense, I know. And every thing you pick up goes only into its specified inventory. This pretty much simplifies figuring out what goes together with what.
Using a single item on your surroundings require "equipping the already equpped item again". Another contribution to the game's weirdness.
To empty your hands you just equip an empty hand that is in your inventory. Simple huh?
Don't forget to mention doctor's weapon which is an atomic toaster that fires various baked goods. This is why the combine item is the fire button. You equip the toaster in one hand, a loaf of bread in the other, then click and voila! There goes an atomic toast plummeting towards that alien scum. Or a homing baguette or ballistic pumpernickel. This game seriously tries to live up to its prequel's weirdness.
There is also one more weapon that's nasty as the doctor remarks when you craft it. I won't spoil it to you but if you really want a hint it's about fire.
Other kind of puzzles Dr. Hawkins needs to solve consist of several step buttons which requires being pressed in the correct order. If you screw up doctor is rewarded by an electric shock and you need to reset the puzzle. This would be actually fine if you had some hint which button to step on next. Mostly it's just trial and error gameplay that is severely high on save-scumming. Luckily unlike the prequel you can save the game at any moment.
There are also a parts when you can or rather require to ingest friggin' plutonium to temporarily morph Dr. Hawkins into hulking brute with 260 HP who is strong enough to jump and climb like the other characters and also can give any enemy up close a painful rearrangement of their anatomy. You can have a guess what work of fiction inspired it.
...
Cycling these three gameplay slyles is quite enough to make the game funny. But wait, there's more.
I almost forgot about the interplays. They also differ with each character and there's few of them. For Kurt it's the already known orbital drop onto the minecrawler while Max and Doctor get to pilot some spaceships and evade asteroids.
Your enemies design is as bizarre as it is various. Besides the already mentioned Poopsies and Bifs there are crocodile-ish Bottrocks which are most common, hovering glass robotic orbs, cowardly farting Coneheads (who also come in civilian variety) and small suicidal explosive frogs which also come in flaming kind. The first boss also looks a bit like a frog. I wonder whether Bioware designers have thing for frogs.
It's also worth mentioning that almost all enemies have a strange habit of pausing for a moment before engaging you. AI in here isn't too sharp. Which is probably for the better.
MDK 2 also tries some wacky humor, mostly in the cutscenes but also during gameplay. The most well known is probably that notorious argument between doctor Hawkins and his spaceship's mainframe if he refuses to wash his hands after using a lavatory.
There are also countless ways to hilariously screw up and get a non-standard game over. Just try lighting a lighter close to a fuse of one of the rockets lying around Dr. Hawkins ship.
This game also features catchy and variable soundtrack. Not only it differs with each character but also with each level segment. Kurt's style is a dramatic mix of orchestral music and hard beats. Perfect for doing air acrobatics and stealth sniping.
Max's style is hard rock and techno, appropriate for the guns-blazing setup of his levels. Sometimes the techno softens for when he's doing platforming segments instead. Like here or here.
Dr. Hawkins' style is orchestral, and heavy on the brass and woodwinds. Sounds like kind of pensive and mysterious with occassional "sentimental sighs" like this one.
And let's not forget the ominious boss theme tune. Also plays during Kurt's orbital drop onto the minecrawler just to let you know how puny he is compared to that ludicrous rolling monstrosity. Not that its size saves it from being destroyed...
Warning spolers ahead!! Skip next 3 paragraphs if you care.
As you probably already figured out from what I wrote up to now, in terms of story MDK 2 doesn't follow its prequel's footsteps. After dealing with the single minecrawler the game takes you to space and then onto the Streamrider homeworld.
Throughout the entire game you'll be dealing with antics of huge purple alien commander Schwang who is actually perhaps the coolest character in the game. He sure loves his hammy smartass attitude and spews excellent quotes. You have to beat him several times and by the latest levels you can even see he's really tired of constantly having to put up with you because he's under orders of his eccentric emperor Zizzy...
...who attacked Earth for his own amusement just to toy with the main characters. That's more than enough motivation for you to beat him into a bloody pulp. Also he's a giant levitating cartoonish frog without hind legs. Bioware likes frogs a tadpole too much
Ok that was a lame pun
Also end of spoilers.
It's not like MDK 2 is excellent game but it has loads of interesting features as you can see. Especially the quadruple gun akimbo is interesting but it still needs some work because its management is tricky. On the other hand I admit it is incredibly difficult to properly manage 4 independent guns. And don't even imagine if they actually had an alt-fire or required reloading magazines.
Maybe if there was some master-slave system. You'd always select one gun as master and would be able to manage and reload it. Other guns would be slaves and just "followed" the master gun i.e. fired along with it until they run out of ammo in magazines. This might actually work. Still it would be a pain to manage them.
Holy cow, I can't believe I ranted so much about such silly game but this actually proves it's worth it. Whether you like sniping, wreaking havoc using 4 gattling akimbo while listening to a catchy upbeat soundtrack or getting electrocuted for stepping on the wrong button while firing radioactive toasts at alien scum accompanied by puzzling/sentimental tunes or just laughing at a bizarre silly jokes MDK 2 has it all.
Go for it if you're into this kind of stuff.
PREVIOUS ENTRY
Well it's about time to take a look at the sequel.
MDK 2 continues where the previous game left off. Well kind of 'cause we didn't get a proper ending or even a stupid cliffhanger.
Luckily now the game also features a proper intro.
After defeating the Streamriders' leader Gunta, our janitor-sniper hero Kurt is having a toast (maybe not as enthusiastically as you'd expect) along with his employer Dr. Fluke Hawkins and his 6-legged bipedal cybernetic canine assistant Max (even though he was named Bones in the prequel but you already know MDK runs on weirdness, right?) onboard Hawkins' spaceship "Jim Dandy" when suddenly the ship's allarm goes off. Whoa lookslike you somehow forgot about one more minecrawler. And it's headed STRAIGHT FOR EDMONTON!! (the headquarters of Bioware who made the sequel is located there)
No time to waste, Kurt is quickly sent back down to deal with the situation. After all it's the last damn minecrawler. What could possibly go wrong?
The answer is everything.
After succesfully managing to stop the minecrawler the game takes an unexpected turn of events which take you into outer space and onto an alien homeworld.
And there I thought MDK 2 would tone the weirdness down. But let's take it slow.
The first major new feature the sequel introduced is alternating characters you play. And thus also the gameplay style. It's like it wanted to follow the AvP series I talked about 2 entries earlier.
At the end of the first level Kurt gets unexpectedly captured (in a cutscene no less) thanks to his sheer stupidity and deafness. Thus it's another character's job to rescue him. Well sort of. And this character turns out to be Max.
It's no surprise that after doing his part he gets captured as well and then it's Doctor's turn to get down to business.
This way the characters get cycled through the course of the entire game. It consists of 10 levels and in the finale you get to choose what character you want to play as. That means the game has 3 different endings but let's not get too far ahead.
Kurt's gameplay style remains roughly the same as in 1. The HUD is a bit different and there are new items and of course new enemies along with some recycled ones from the prequel. Namely the Poopsies who still look kind of like robots and also still have their crazy antics. Just like almost all other NPCs.
It deserves a mention that now your character is also 3D unlike in first MDK where it was just a sprite. But let's get back on track.
Kurt's style is heavily dependent on sniping. Not only there are puzzles that require this. Many enemies are also either dispatched more effectively by sniping in certain spots or outright immune to Kurt's regular chaingun. They can be temporarily knocked down by it but not killed e.g. Grunt which requires you to break their glass helmet to make them lose their suit's gas and suffocate - even in their native environment.
Honorable mention goes to "Bif" which looks like dumb fat imperial guard wearing just a horned hat and a pair of thongs. They can be killed but take a lot of punishment ... or just a single snipe into their belt bucket which has an eye that blinks. It's tricky but if you manage to hit it while it's open it's an instant kill regardless of Bif's remaining health.
Also regular "Bottrocks" can be insta-killed by sniper headshots. As many other aliens who happen to have some head. One of the exceptions is the aforementioned "Bif".
The sniping puzzles mostly consist of shooting blue spinning balls. In the latter levels they move along predefined paths or even freely bounce around (with a cute balloon sound no less) which is actually a real pain in the ass, because THEY. WON'T. STOP. EVER. Nevertheless I'd want to have such bouncy ball in real life.
As you expect there is also special sniper ammo that is mostly used for certain puzzles but if you have some left, you can always let your enemies have some. Don't worry, anytime you need special ammo, it will be provided to you via reappearing pickups until you solve the puzzle it's necessary for.
Kurt also still has his ribbon parachute so you can also expect some gliding around.
Besides the obligatory bizarre hand grenade and dummy decoy there are also new usable items. The most useful is cloak which ACTUALLY WORKS while the most bizarre is a Black Hole grenade. There are also temporary add-ons for Kurt's chaingun with limited ammo.
That's pretty much all that changed for the world's most badass janitor. Now we're getting to the interesting part.
...
Max's style is completely different. He's all about raw firepower. Do you know what having 4 arms is good for? If you guess cooking, you're rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrWRONG
Of course it's meant to enable Max to fire 4 different guns at the same time. And some of them are not small either. Besides some handguns and "uzis" (they actually don't look anything like real U-ZIs) there are obligatory pump-action shotguns (how does he actually pump them is completely beyond me) or even Gattling guns (that's not a typo - listen to the gun's sound), rayguns and guided missiles. The latter two are kind of rare though. You'll never actually get your hands on 4 of them.
Firing the guns is pretty easy but actually managing them is a bit complicated. You have 2 keys to move through your inventory and another 2 to equip/holster the gun. This is kind of hard to pull of in the heat of a battle. All the guns are one use - after depleting their ammo they are simply thrown away. The only exception is Max special unlimited handgun. Besides it he can carry a maximum of 7 guns which remain in your inventory until depleted. That means you have to stick with almost empty gun or just waste the ammo to get rid of that gun so you can pick up a new one.
Max encounters mostly the same enemies than Kurt but also some different while completely lacking the enemies that require sniping of course. He also faces some Bif's as well as other tough aliens. Thankfully to his powerful arsenal they pose nowhere near as much threat as in Kurt's case.
Max's gameplay also features some puzzles but they are either about destruction or about jumping and flying using a jetpack. Duke Nukem would be proud.
Actually no. The classic jetpack which requires refueling is annoying as hell, especially if you need to float in mid-air around a slowly moving fuel pump. The nuclear jetpack fares slightly better since it self-recharges if not blasting off.
Despite all this it's still most fun to play as Max. Also it's worth mentioning he has twice the amount of health as Kurt. Since he's a robot his health pickups are batteries.
...
Doctor's part is less about action and more about puzzles. There still is some combat but the enemies are mostly weak ones. The only exception is a single Bif you need to get rid of in the 3rd level and there are 2 ways how to do it. Both of them are arguably/ambiguously clever but also partially stupid. And of course the bosses. Those are also mostly defeated by puzzles or environment.
Since Dr. Hawkins is not young either, he's the weakest of all and has the lowest health. He cannot even jump very high or far and cannot hang by his hands. That's why he always uses a telescopic ladder. The problem is you first need to craft it. And now we got to the root of most doctor's puzzles. They're about combining items.
If MDK 2 was an adventure this would mean hell. But here it's done differently since Dr. has 2 inventories - one for each hand. You equip the stuff in your hands by assigned keys and then combine them by pressing fire button. It doesn't make much sense, I know. And every thing you pick up goes only into its specified inventory. This pretty much simplifies figuring out what goes together with what.
Using a single item on your surroundings require "equipping the already equpped item again". Another contribution to the game's weirdness.
To empty your hands you just equip an empty hand that is in your inventory. Simple huh?
Don't forget to mention doctor's weapon which is an atomic toaster that fires various baked goods. This is why the combine item is the fire button. You equip the toaster in one hand, a loaf of bread in the other, then click and voila! There goes an atomic toast plummeting towards that alien scum. Or a homing baguette or ballistic pumpernickel. This game seriously tries to live up to its prequel's weirdness.
There is also one more weapon that's nasty as the doctor remarks when you craft it. I won't spoil it to you but if you really want a hint it's about fire.
Other kind of puzzles Dr. Hawkins needs to solve consist of several step buttons which requires being pressed in the correct order. If you screw up doctor is rewarded by an electric shock and you need to reset the puzzle. This would be actually fine if you had some hint which button to step on next. Mostly it's just trial and error gameplay that is severely high on save-scumming. Luckily unlike the prequel you can save the game at any moment.
There are also a parts when you can or rather require to ingest friggin' plutonium to temporarily morph Dr. Hawkins into hulking brute with 260 HP who is strong enough to jump and climb like the other characters and also can give any enemy up close a painful rearrangement of their anatomy. You can have a guess what work of fiction inspired it.
...
Cycling these three gameplay slyles is quite enough to make the game funny. But wait, there's more.
I almost forgot about the interplays. They also differ with each character and there's few of them. For Kurt it's the already known orbital drop onto the minecrawler while Max and Doctor get to pilot some spaceships and evade asteroids.
Your enemies design is as bizarre as it is various. Besides the already mentioned Poopsies and Bifs there are crocodile-ish Bottrocks which are most common, hovering glass robotic orbs, cowardly farting Coneheads (who also come in civilian variety) and small suicidal explosive frogs which also come in flaming kind. The first boss also looks a bit like a frog. I wonder whether Bioware designers have thing for frogs.
It's also worth mentioning that almost all enemies have a strange habit of pausing for a moment before engaging you. AI in here isn't too sharp. Which is probably for the better.
MDK 2 also tries some wacky humor, mostly in the cutscenes but also during gameplay. The most well known is probably that notorious argument between doctor Hawkins and his spaceship's mainframe if he refuses to wash his hands after using a lavatory.
There are also countless ways to hilariously screw up and get a non-standard game over. Just try lighting a lighter close to a fuse of one of the rockets lying around Dr. Hawkins ship.
This game also features catchy and variable soundtrack. Not only it differs with each character but also with each level segment. Kurt's style is a dramatic mix of orchestral music and hard beats. Perfect for doing air acrobatics and stealth sniping.
Max's style is hard rock and techno, appropriate for the guns-blazing setup of his levels. Sometimes the techno softens for when he's doing platforming segments instead. Like here or here.
Dr. Hawkins' style is orchestral, and heavy on the brass and woodwinds. Sounds like kind of pensive and mysterious with occassional "sentimental sighs" like this one.
And let's not forget the ominious boss theme tune. Also plays during Kurt's orbital drop onto the minecrawler just to let you know how puny he is compared to that ludicrous rolling monstrosity. Not that its size saves it from being destroyed...
Warning spolers ahead!! Skip next 3 paragraphs if you care.
As you probably already figured out from what I wrote up to now, in terms of story MDK 2 doesn't follow its prequel's footsteps. After dealing with the single minecrawler the game takes you to space and then onto the Streamrider homeworld.
Throughout the entire game you'll be dealing with antics of huge purple alien commander Schwang who is actually perhaps the coolest character in the game. He sure loves his hammy smartass attitude and spews excellent quotes. You have to beat him several times and by the latest levels you can even see he's really tired of constantly having to put up with you because he's under orders of his eccentric emperor Zizzy...
...who attacked Earth for his own amusement just to toy with the main characters. That's more than enough motivation for you to beat him into a bloody pulp. Also he's a giant levitating cartoonish frog without hind legs. Bioware likes frogs a tadpole too much
Ok that was a lame pun
Also end of spoilers.It's not like MDK 2 is excellent game but it has loads of interesting features as you can see. Especially the quadruple gun akimbo is interesting but it still needs some work because its management is tricky. On the other hand I admit it is incredibly difficult to properly manage 4 independent guns. And don't even imagine if they actually had an alt-fire or required reloading magazines.
Maybe if there was some master-slave system. You'd always select one gun as master and would be able to manage and reload it. Other guns would be slaves and just "followed" the master gun i.e. fired along with it until they run out of ammo in magazines. This might actually work. Still it would be a pain to manage them.
Holy cow, I can't believe I ranted so much about such silly game but this actually proves it's worth it. Whether you like sniping, wreaking havoc using 4 gattling akimbo while listening to a catchy upbeat soundtrack or getting electrocuted for stepping on the wrong button while firing radioactive toasts at alien scum accompanied by puzzling/sentimental tunes or just laughing at a bizarre silly jokes MDK 2 has it all.
Go for it if you're into this kind of stuff.
PREVIOUS ENTRY
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My thoughts on videogame design p17
12 min read
Through the course of this journal series I was mostly talking about games that I liked and impressed me in a good way.
This time I decided to demonstrate how NOT to do things.
Many nowadays players consider Crytek games the best first person shooters ever. I'd like to offer a second opinion on this.
Crytek is best known for their Far Cry and Crysis series. The supposed feature of these games is their ludicrously detailed graphics even though it's still far from realistic. In fact there will probably never be a CG indiscernible from real life, but that's not what I want to talk about.
The thing is Crytek games traded gameplay for graphic detail.
Although I only played first and third installment of the Far Cry series it's enough experience to form a valid opinion or even a critique.
The first installment was so bland that it hardly deserves a mention. It had botched gameplay mechanics and felt like it couldn't decided whether to be arcade or realistic. Even the graphics weren't as awesome as advertised. I never understood the hype around Far Cry that was happening back in 2004. The 2nd Half-Life totally outclassed Far Cry in every single aspect (including graphics) and it came out before it. It makes sense since Valve people were already much more experienced in gamedesign than Crytek.
You'd think that by the time the 3rd FC game comes out the Crytek developers would've learnt their lesson. You couldn't be more wrong. I can hardly bring myself to foreshadow its plot which is so dumb that it hurts. A group of hard-partying teens on some tropical island gets captured by local pirates. You are one of these teens and your task is ... to save all your friends along with helping local native tribe to defeat those pirates and liberate the island. Yup, that's it.
Not that there aren't games with equally dumb plot. They just came out at least 10 years before FC3
Now I'll be describing those annoying mechanics. Let's take it one step at a time.
Probably the worst aspect of FC3 is its "earn your fun" policy. That means the game forces you to do stupid annoying and frustrating tasks just to be able to stand a chance in a fight. In short - hunt wildlife. Let me explain the annoyance a bit.
In the beginning you can hardly carry one gun, one magazine of ammo for it, a bit of cash and some more or less useless stuff. The only way to expand your inventory is to craft yourself bigger backpacks, pouches, purses and other. For this you require animal hides. How do you acquire 'em? By hunting wildlife of course. Did I already mention that you can carry a single (fairly weak) gun and a few bullets?
This makes successful hunting nigh-impossible since the moment you hardly approach an animal it either flees (if it's a herbivore or such) or attacks you (if it's a beast). That gun and a bit of ammo really isn't enough to bring it down so you can skin it. if you survive, you end up almost dry and need to restock immediately (which requires travelling to the nearest store). And most of the time you actually require multiple hides to be able to craft that bag.
The outcome is you being locked in indeterminate loop: lack of firepower > failed hunt > no hides > no pouches > lack of firepower which is totally frustrating and causes you to rage-quit a few first moments into the gameplay.
Not only that. All pieces of luggage have more tiers and every one of them requires different kind of hides. And some of the needed animals live in remote secluded areas you'll be searching for eternity. Sometimes you'll even have to fight your way there through enemies. Which is twice frustrating since you'll waste nearly all ammo on them and then have nothing to slay that animal ... except a friggin' knife/machette which is as deadly as a cotton swab (unless taking down a human enemy). Or your prey is a shark and you have to lure it into shallow water and nearly drown to skin it - all while enemy gun boats open fire at you. Excellent!!
Not enough discouragement? Don't worry, there's going to be more.
Almost all beast are able to tackle/pin you down to ground. This triggers a quick time event (probably the most atrocious videogaming feature ever invented) where you have to lurk what insane key does the game require you to begin bashing rapidly to maybe free yourself from the beast's clutch. The key is always different and appears a good second after the beast is already clawing your face which means you're halfway on the verge of death. That's just great.
Oh, even if you actually manage to free yourself it's not over yet. Most of the time you don't kill the beast that way and it can repeat this nasty trick on you.
Also nearly all boss battles are quick time events. Still having fun?
As I mentioned above one of your goals is to free the island of the pirates' control. To achieve this you have to do two things. First you have to reactivate jammed radio towers (to reveal parts of map and unlock some stuff) which is a brutal jumping puzzle. The final towers are especially atrocious - a single bad step or jump sends you plummeting towards Mother Earth and then (since saving game is checkpoint-based) you can try all over again. If you survive the fall, that is.
The second is liberating outposts which is probably one of the few fun things to do do in FC3. Be wary though - unless you employ stealth approach get ready for helluva firefight. If you raise an alarm the pirates will call in reinforcements and totally ruin your day. But if you behave stealthy not only it saves your fugly behind - you'll actually get to enjoy your foes' funny quips and even a have good laugh at how they're pissing their pants from having no idea what's hitting them.
The liberated outpost is then occupied by your native Rakyat allies - who are a ragtag bunch of dumb machists and spew annoying bulls**t. Their attitude sometimes outright makes you want to open fire at them.
On the other hand the main protagonist Jason Brody is equally unsympathetic. When you look at his picture in the game guide you'll actually want to end his misery. How are you actually supposed to identify yourself with such retarded-looking stoned motherf***er? What's worse not only all his friends but also both of his brothers (who are also among the hostages) look far better than him. I'd actually prefer playing as his big brother Grant who was in the army and thus is more capable for everything happening in the game and actually is the one that manages to free the protagonist (and f**kin' pays for it with his life - whoops spoiler).
I'll doubt you'll hate Vaas (the first big bad) as much as Jason but he also has his moments. But at least he's a bit fun - especially in this promotional show. Have fun.
Despite being annoying as hell FC3 actually features a few memorable moments you'll actually want to replay again. Too bad - the game only uses a single save slot so if you want to replay a mission you have to restart the entire game all over. F%@#!
This also means that certain areas are simply inaccessible outside their respective missions. And this is supposed to be an open world game. Oh really?
Being a first person shooter (with a bunch of botched RPG elements) it also features an ample arsenal. But quality can never be traded for quantity. And let's be honest, most of the guns do totally the same things, have the same accessories etc. All of them feature nowadays almost obligatory iron sights. Including the probably the only unique weapon, flamethrower - seriously people, what are you trying to achieve by this? The fact that you have to keep holding that stupid right mouse button even when using sniper rifles does not make it any better.
Besides aforementioned takedown you probably won't find any of the special skills you can acquire useful. So the RPG elements really are good fo nothing. If you're into RPGs I rather recommend you to play latest Fallout or DragonAge. There are plenty of great RPGs.
What really irritates me is that despite putting so much effort into "realism" the game doesn't allow you to gib bodies. You'd probably think it's because of engine limitations but IMO that's utter bulls**t. Almost all vehicles including the poor overabused BackHawk helicopter can be easily blown into pieces. But you can't gib a friggin' corpse even if you dropped a nuke on it. I strongly suspect that it's because of censorship but what the hell? FC3 is already R-rated and it's full of gore and blatant sexual suggestions. Do you honestly think some bloody meatchunks would make it any more immoral and gruesome? There is no such thing as too gruesome R-rated game.
The overall style that evokes that "Fast and Furious feeling" does not make this game any better. Halfway through the game I was pretty much fed up with all those tattoo-ish logos and credits.
Also why the hell does the game abuse quotes from Lewis' Carol Alice in Wonderland? They have really nothing to do with the game itself. Well except that single one from Cheshire Cat - everyone on that island really are crazy. Including your avatar.
The soundtrack is full of dubstep and sounds just average but there are some tracks that are less painful to listen to and actually the "Make it bun dem" by that Skrillex scum sounds kind of funny. It plays during the stoned weed-burning mission, sounds like a sang by bunch of Arabs and the lyrics can be easily misheard as "We must shoot the pistol, not the piss..."
Hang on we're getting to the final part. Warning! Heavy spoilers ahead.
After you put up with all that annoyance, rescue your friends and defeat both big bads (yes, there's two of 'em) your supposed allies capture your friends again, then also you ... and their leader Citra - a crazy tribal byatch who is head over heels into main protagonist (and coincidentally has the same name as our brand of cleaning powder) encourages you to assasinate them - starting with Jason's girlfriend. The choice is yours but I'll be honest - I didn't spend the entire game fighting for those poor kidnapped bastards just to kill them off and ruin all my effort. They're still by far the best people from everyone involved. I only checked a video where someone actually chose to kill them and the ending is incredibly disappointing. Sparing them is the best ending you can get and even that Citra is accidentally killed off by her 2nd in command (I don't remember his name) who considers your choice a betrayal, his subsequent mourning over her death actually feels kind of satisfying - "that's what you get for your shitty attitude, asshole". Of course I meant him, not you
So what should developers have learnt from this rant?
1. Never ever force player to do annoying nigh-inaccomplishable shit. A videogame is not his job but yours and you're paid for it. Unless you're making a freeware but that's not players' problem. And many indie free games are actually better than mainstream ones.
2. Quit it with those stupid quick-time events. It wasn't funny back in 1980 and neither is nowadays.
3. Allow more save slots in case player messes something up or just wants to replay a certain part. Never force them to replay the entire game for a single moment.
4. Never waste player's effort. Shaggy dog stories are maybe fun in comedies but not in some more serious-minded works. Well not that FC3 is much serious. Also invent a worthy plot.
5. Make a protagonist which player can identify with. They don't need to be a good person. They just have to NOT make you want to bloody murder them when you see them.
6. Allow gibs. It worked fine before - it has to nowadays. I repeat - an R-rated game can never be 'too gruesome'.
7. No machism. Seriously, cut it out.
I can't believe I actually brought myself to play FC3 not to mention finishing this excuse of a videogame, but I certainly as hell know one thing: I'm never going to play it again.
Next time I might as well try the Goat Simulator.
Just kidding. I actually don't enjoy complaining about some inane shit as much as you probably think. Howgh.
NEXT ENTRY
PREVIOUS ENTRY
This time I decided to demonstrate how NOT to do things.
Many nowadays players consider Crytek games the best first person shooters ever. I'd like to offer a second opinion on this.
Crytek is best known for their Far Cry and Crysis series. The supposed feature of these games is their ludicrously detailed graphics even though it's still far from realistic. In fact there will probably never be a CG indiscernible from real life, but that's not what I want to talk about.
The thing is Crytek games traded gameplay for graphic detail.
Although I only played first and third installment of the Far Cry series it's enough experience to form a valid opinion or even a critique.
The first installment was so bland that it hardly deserves a mention. It had botched gameplay mechanics and felt like it couldn't decided whether to be arcade or realistic. Even the graphics weren't as awesome as advertised. I never understood the hype around Far Cry that was happening back in 2004. The 2nd Half-Life totally outclassed Far Cry in every single aspect (including graphics) and it came out before it. It makes sense since Valve people were already much more experienced in gamedesign than Crytek.
You'd think that by the time the 3rd FC game comes out the Crytek developers would've learnt their lesson. You couldn't be more wrong. I can hardly bring myself to foreshadow its plot which is so dumb that it hurts. A group of hard-partying teens on some tropical island gets captured by local pirates. You are one of these teens and your task is ... to save all your friends along with helping local native tribe to defeat those pirates and liberate the island. Yup, that's it.
Not that there aren't games with equally dumb plot. They just came out at least 10 years before FC3
Now I'll be describing those annoying mechanics. Let's take it one step at a time.
Probably the worst aspect of FC3 is its "earn your fun" policy. That means the game forces you to do stupid annoying and frustrating tasks just to be able to stand a chance in a fight. In short - hunt wildlife. Let me explain the annoyance a bit.
In the beginning you can hardly carry one gun, one magazine of ammo for it, a bit of cash and some more or less useless stuff. The only way to expand your inventory is to craft yourself bigger backpacks, pouches, purses and other. For this you require animal hides. How do you acquire 'em? By hunting wildlife of course. Did I already mention that you can carry a single (fairly weak) gun and a few bullets?
This makes successful hunting nigh-impossible since the moment you hardly approach an animal it either flees (if it's a herbivore or such) or attacks you (if it's a beast). That gun and a bit of ammo really isn't enough to bring it down so you can skin it. if you survive, you end up almost dry and need to restock immediately (which requires travelling to the nearest store). And most of the time you actually require multiple hides to be able to craft that bag.
The outcome is you being locked in indeterminate loop: lack of firepower > failed hunt > no hides > no pouches > lack of firepower which is totally frustrating and causes you to rage-quit a few first moments into the gameplay.
Not only that. All pieces of luggage have more tiers and every one of them requires different kind of hides. And some of the needed animals live in remote secluded areas you'll be searching for eternity. Sometimes you'll even have to fight your way there through enemies. Which is twice frustrating since you'll waste nearly all ammo on them and then have nothing to slay that animal ... except a friggin' knife/machette which is as deadly as a cotton swab (unless taking down a human enemy). Or your prey is a shark and you have to lure it into shallow water and nearly drown to skin it - all while enemy gun boats open fire at you. Excellent!!
Not enough discouragement? Don't worry, there's going to be more.
Almost all beast are able to tackle/pin you down to ground. This triggers a quick time event (probably the most atrocious videogaming feature ever invented) where you have to lurk what insane key does the game require you to begin bashing rapidly to maybe free yourself from the beast's clutch. The key is always different and appears a good second after the beast is already clawing your face which means you're halfway on the verge of death. That's just great.
Oh, even if you actually manage to free yourself it's not over yet. Most of the time you don't kill the beast that way and it can repeat this nasty trick on you.
Also nearly all boss battles are quick time events. Still having fun?
As I mentioned above one of your goals is to free the island of the pirates' control. To achieve this you have to do two things. First you have to reactivate jammed radio towers (to reveal parts of map and unlock some stuff) which is a brutal jumping puzzle. The final towers are especially atrocious - a single bad step or jump sends you plummeting towards Mother Earth and then (since saving game is checkpoint-based) you can try all over again. If you survive the fall, that is.
The second is liberating outposts which is probably one of the few fun things to do do in FC3. Be wary though - unless you employ stealth approach get ready for helluva firefight. If you raise an alarm the pirates will call in reinforcements and totally ruin your day. But if you behave stealthy not only it saves your fugly behind - you'll actually get to enjoy your foes' funny quips and even a have good laugh at how they're pissing their pants from having no idea what's hitting them.
The liberated outpost is then occupied by your native Rakyat allies - who are a ragtag bunch of dumb machists and spew annoying bulls**t. Their attitude sometimes outright makes you want to open fire at them.
On the other hand the main protagonist Jason Brody is equally unsympathetic. When you look at his picture in the game guide you'll actually want to end his misery. How are you actually supposed to identify yourself with such retarded-looking stoned motherf***er? What's worse not only all his friends but also both of his brothers (who are also among the hostages) look far better than him. I'd actually prefer playing as his big brother Grant who was in the army and thus is more capable for everything happening in the game and actually is the one that manages to free the protagonist (and f**kin' pays for it with his life - whoops spoiler).
I'll doubt you'll hate Vaas (the first big bad) as much as Jason but he also has his moments. But at least he's a bit fun - especially in this promotional show. Have fun.
Despite being annoying as hell FC3 actually features a few memorable moments you'll actually want to replay again. Too bad - the game only uses a single save slot so if you want to replay a mission you have to restart the entire game all over. F%@#!
This also means that certain areas are simply inaccessible outside their respective missions. And this is supposed to be an open world game. Oh really?
Being a first person shooter (with a bunch of botched RPG elements) it also features an ample arsenal. But quality can never be traded for quantity. And let's be honest, most of the guns do totally the same things, have the same accessories etc. All of them feature nowadays almost obligatory iron sights. Including the probably the only unique weapon, flamethrower - seriously people, what are you trying to achieve by this? The fact that you have to keep holding that stupid right mouse button even when using sniper rifles does not make it any better.
Besides aforementioned takedown you probably won't find any of the special skills you can acquire useful. So the RPG elements really are good fo nothing. If you're into RPGs I rather recommend you to play latest Fallout or DragonAge. There are plenty of great RPGs.
What really irritates me is that despite putting so much effort into "realism" the game doesn't allow you to gib bodies. You'd probably think it's because of engine limitations but IMO that's utter bulls**t. Almost all vehicles including the poor overabused BackHawk helicopter can be easily blown into pieces. But you can't gib a friggin' corpse even if you dropped a nuke on it. I strongly suspect that it's because of censorship but what the hell? FC3 is already R-rated and it's full of gore and blatant sexual suggestions. Do you honestly think some bloody meatchunks would make it any more immoral and gruesome? There is no such thing as too gruesome R-rated game.
The overall style that evokes that "Fast and Furious feeling" does not make this game any better. Halfway through the game I was pretty much fed up with all those tattoo-ish logos and credits.
Also why the hell does the game abuse quotes from Lewis' Carol Alice in Wonderland? They have really nothing to do with the game itself. Well except that single one from Cheshire Cat - everyone on that island really are crazy. Including your avatar.
The soundtrack is full of dubstep and sounds just average but there are some tracks that are less painful to listen to and actually the "Make it bun dem" by that Skrillex scum sounds kind of funny. It plays during the stoned weed-burning mission, sounds like a sang by bunch of Arabs and the lyrics can be easily misheard as "We must shoot the pistol, not the piss..."
Hang on we're getting to the final part. Warning! Heavy spoilers ahead.
After you put up with all that annoyance, rescue your friends and defeat both big bads (yes, there's two of 'em) your supposed allies capture your friends again, then also you ... and their leader Citra - a crazy tribal byatch who is head over heels into main protagonist (and coincidentally has the same name as our brand of cleaning powder) encourages you to assasinate them - starting with Jason's girlfriend. The choice is yours but I'll be honest - I didn't spend the entire game fighting for those poor kidnapped bastards just to kill them off and ruin all my effort. They're still by far the best people from everyone involved. I only checked a video where someone actually chose to kill them and the ending is incredibly disappointing. Sparing them is the best ending you can get and even that Citra is accidentally killed off by her 2nd in command (I don't remember his name) who considers your choice a betrayal, his subsequent mourning over her death actually feels kind of satisfying - "that's what you get for your shitty attitude, asshole". Of course I meant him, not you
So what should developers have learnt from this rant?
1. Never ever force player to do annoying nigh-inaccomplishable shit. A videogame is not his job but yours and you're paid for it. Unless you're making a freeware but that's not players' problem. And many indie free games are actually better than mainstream ones.
2. Quit it with those stupid quick-time events. It wasn't funny back in 1980 and neither is nowadays.
3. Allow more save slots in case player messes something up or just wants to replay a certain part. Never force them to replay the entire game for a single moment.
4. Never waste player's effort. Shaggy dog stories are maybe fun in comedies but not in some more serious-minded works. Well not that FC3 is much serious. Also invent a worthy plot.
5. Make a protagonist which player can identify with. They don't need to be a good person. They just have to NOT make you want to bloody murder them when you see them.
6. Allow gibs. It worked fine before - it has to nowadays. I repeat - an R-rated game can never be 'too gruesome'.
7. No machism. Seriously, cut it out.
I can't believe I actually brought myself to play FC3 not to mention finishing this excuse of a videogame, but I certainly as hell know one thing: I'm never going to play it again.
Next time I might as well try the Goat Simulator.
Just kidding. I actually don't enjoy complaining about some inane shit as much as you probably think. Howgh.
NEXT ENTRY
PREVIOUS ENTRY
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My thoughts on videogame design p16
11 min read
A long time ago in a galaxy far far away ... existed a galaxy but you don't really know how does it look now since it took millennia for that light to reach your eyes. Actually don't look into the outer space too enthusiastically. There lurks an atrocious horror somewhere.
It is mostly black, has exposed ribcage, two sets of teeth one of which is retractable, acid for blood and requires a living host for its life cycle.
With the help of 20th Century Fox mr. Giger managed to give us nightmares which will haunt us for the rest of our puny human lives.
Fear not because there is also another horror to counter the previous one. This one is app. 2 meters tall, wears a mask that covers its devious spiky jaws, has green blood but most importantly wields razor-sharp blades and a homing plasma emitter that fries your pathetic behind.
Both the original movie series were excellent by themselves. But it was the videogame industry that first attempted to merge them and actually managed to succeed. It gave birth to one of the most thrilling and chilling franchises ever.
There were countless Alien vs. Predator games but the one I enjoyed the most is the 2nd installment committed by Monolith Productions - the guys that made the gory and controversial Blood and also F.E.A.R. But let's not get too distracted.
I really don't need to explain the plot or lore to you. The game itself actually doesn't need much of a story since the background is more than enough to drive it. I'll be focusing on how it is played instead.
As you probably already figured out AvP 2 is a first person shooter and also partially whacker, slicer and biter. Do not forget the parasitic infector/personal space invader.
The play differs with each species you will play. While playing as human colonial marine you can expect a conventional shooter and the Predator (or Yaut'ja) is just a slight modification that is supposed to kick more ass, the Xenomorph style is significantly different. Lets focus on each species separately.
Many players recommend starting with the Predator since they're the most powerful and easiest to play. Also there is some chronological story beginning with this character even though the game doesn't force it on you.
As a Predator you will probably gain a bit deceptive impression of invincibility and invulnerability. In the beginning it's kind of justified. Thanks to the special energy generator/siphoning device Mr. Yaut'ja has practically infinite health and ammunition. The thing can be activated any time by a single tap of a defined key. Another key is used for healing yourself. Medkits? Meh, so last millenium. The healing depletes a part of your energy supply but you can replenish it immediately afterwards. The only downside is that it takes a tiny while and leaves you vulnerable since you can't do anything during the process.
Said energy is also used for your weapons and cloaking device but strangely not for your vision modes. Nevertheless you need to learn to properly manage your energy supply. Don't get too carried away by the infinity stuff since in the latter levels you're heavily outnumbered and you will require some safe spot suitable for recharging/healing quite often.
Vision modes is the first interesting AvP feature I'd like to analyze/examine closer. There were attempts to enable such mechanics in other games with varying (un)success. AvP 2 took it as serious business. Changing your vision mode swaps textures on certain objects (characters or other stuff) according to what spectrum you use. If you switch to thermal vision, all human characters get their textures replaces by a ranibow-colored map. Also they gain a shiny aura which makes them even easier to spot. But everything else goes dark blue and it becomes considerably harder to navigate.
"Electric" vision does similar thing to the Aliens albeit they all become white (are they actually cybernetic?) and "surprisingly" to all electrical conduit and devices (most importantly human sentry guns which can really ruin your day) while unsupported objects and environment blend into blurry red curtain.
The Pred-vision on the other hand turns everything negative-colored and actually helps you navigate dark areas as well as easily spot equipment if you lose it by sheer stupidity and even other cloaked Predators.
Speaking of cloaking it is as botched as you'd expect. The invisibility stuff in many games works awkward and AvP 2 is no exception. You remain unseen only if you don't move around. And there are plenty NPCs who will see right through your stealth. Especially afforementioned sentry guns as well as cyborgs and Aliens. Even your multiplayer opponents won't be fooled by the trick. Probably a toll to that weird thing called fair-play.
Other species also have alternate vision modes but not as plentiful as Mr. Yaut'ja. Humans have nightvision goggles wile Xenomorphs can activate some weird greyscale hunt-vision.
I guess it's time to take a look at our puny kind.
Playing as the Colonial Marine is maybe the most difficult of all. Maybe it's easy to steer them and their weapon loadout gives you nightmares but it's outweighted by their incredibly brittle clay. Don't rely on your "armor" which endures exactly one half of a single Alien tooth and lasts exactly one picosecond in Predator's sights. Heck even a fall down a short stairway can send you to the ER.
Maybe I'm exaggerating but believe me, you need to seriously watch your back and be vigilant at all times. This is exactly the silent horrific feeling we know from the movies. Nothing feels as much alike than playing as human.
Marines cannot rely on their senses so they have pretty much ineffective motion sensor which does exactly what its name implies. That means most of the time you'll be startled by opening doors or some other dumb stuff. Which is exactly its purpose - to induce as much angst and paranoia as possible. What if that next moving dot was an Alien coming your way, right?
Also it doesn't make much sense because in reality motion is relative so once you begin walking your sensor should go completely nuts.
To deal with darkness you have flares, flashlight and aforementioned night vision. The latter two share their power supply but NV depletes the battery power much more rapidly and even disables your motion sensor. Not that the thing helps you anyway...
As I already mentioned Marine arsenal is their greatest asset. It expanded by 5 weapons since the previous game. While Predator also has a few impressive weapons, they're a tad impractical to use. Human guns require simple instructions: point away from face and fire. Namely the Smart Gun which is so unfair weapon to the point it qualifies for a game breaker. It automatically targets any enemy, even cloaked Predators and while the targeting range is pretty short it still provides you dominance in combat even against large groups of moving enemies.
The 2nd rocket launcher was cut but the SADAR still remains and can now fire both unguided rockets and homing missiles. Now you also got a proper shotgun. The other stuff is not too useful. Knife is only useful if you get trapped by Predator's net, handgun is weak (save for the special but scarce AP bullets), sniper rifle is useless against fast moving Aliens and cloaked Predators and the grenade launcher? I'm not even going into that one.
I also need to mention the flamethrower which makes wonderful light and fire effects.
Unfortunately conventional FPS mechanics mean that (unlike Predator) Marine needs to collect ammo for their guns. Once you run out of it you're pretty much screwed. You won't placate a Xenomorph with small talk nor haggle it using that stupid knife.
...
Playing as the Xenomorph is perhaps the most unusual and original idea that came around back then. This is thanks to Alien's sole ability to climb theoretically any solid surface. Not only it was an interesting experience to see sideways or upside-down. It also provided you with more stealth than Predator's cloaking. While cloaked Predator can be spotted if they move as much as an inch, the Xenomorph can happily traverse ceilings in plain view without even a hint of getting anyone's attention. I seriously wonder whether humans are blind.
The bugs' another asset is their incredible speed. You don't need to fear human firearms that much since many times they'll have serious difficulty to actually hit you - as long as you remain in motion. Xenomorphs don't need regular jump since they can get almost anywhere by climbing. You should stick to pouncing instead - it enables you to cover large distances in a fraction of a second and renders you even harder to hit.
Since Alien's weapons are only their claws, teeth and tail, you don't need to worry about ammunition at all. You just find an unsuspecting victim pick their head and help yourself to a tasty meal. Feeding on your prey heals you which is simply awesome. As long as there are enemies there is also health. Of course cybernetic and mechanical stuff is an exception.
Pheromone sense is another interesting Alien ability. Every living thing has a colorful aura according to what species do they belong to. Humans have blue ones and Predators have green while your fellow hive-mates have red. The aura makes the characters easier to spot. Unfortunately sentry guns and cyborgs are excluded from this ability since non-living stuff doesn't emit pheromones.
Alien hunt vision works in a similar way to human nightvision but is greyscale instead of green. It's not limited in any way but disables you gravity compass (which informs you which way is down) and your pheromone sense.
There is also a singleplayer bonus - for the first time you get to experience the Xenomorph life cycle. You begin by hatching from an egg and spend the first level searching for a suitable victim to make their Face Full of Alien Wing-Wong. And then in the very next level you get to chew your way out of their chest. It's as bizarre experience as it's gruesome.
This feature can also be enabled in multiplayer.
There is not much else to say about this one but I certainly most enjoyed playing as the Xenomorph. So much fun Excellent job you Monolith guys.
To summarize this entire article's message:
Various vision modes are an excellent way how to add complexity to your game and generally make it more interesting, appealing and challenging. In short - more fun.
A stupid detector that gives you an illusion of awareness is actually the best tool to induce fear. Perhaps the famous Silent Hill portable radio mastered this to perfection. It will make your heart burst several vessels and as a bonus you will soil your pants.
If you're serious about invisibility, make it actually work. Otherwise ... well ... it doesn't make much sense to force this illusion on player. Unlike the detector stuff it's just annoying.
If you want some unusual gameplay experience, the Alien-style climbing and sneaking up on unsuspecting victims is a way to go. But don't give such creature any kind of ranged attack. It would totally break the game.
Glass Cannon Trope is a way to ballance firepower and make the play more challenging but don't overdo it.
Try to avoid putting useless guns into your armory.
And most importantly -DON'T MAKE STUPID SPINOFF MOVIES!! The AvP games are excellent but both AvP movies were totally botched to the point I required brain bleach. I consider them a metaphorical middle finger it the face of the original Alien and Predator motion picture series.
Also quit smoking or it'll kill you.
NEXT ENTRY
PREVIOUS ENTRY
It is mostly black, has exposed ribcage, two sets of teeth one of which is retractable, acid for blood and requires a living host for its life cycle.
With the help of 20th Century Fox mr. Giger managed to give us nightmares which will haunt us for the rest of our puny human lives.
Fear not because there is also another horror to counter the previous one. This one is app. 2 meters tall, wears a mask that covers its devious spiky jaws, has green blood but most importantly wields razor-sharp blades and a homing plasma emitter that fries your pathetic behind.
Both the original movie series were excellent by themselves. But it was the videogame industry that first attempted to merge them and actually managed to succeed. It gave birth to one of the most thrilling and chilling franchises ever.
There were countless Alien vs. Predator games but the one I enjoyed the most is the 2nd installment committed by Monolith Productions - the guys that made the gory and controversial Blood and also F.E.A.R. But let's not get too distracted.
I really don't need to explain the plot or lore to you. The game itself actually doesn't need much of a story since the background is more than enough to drive it. I'll be focusing on how it is played instead.
As you probably already figured out AvP 2 is a first person shooter and also partially whacker, slicer and biter. Do not forget the parasitic infector/personal space invader.
The play differs with each species you will play. While playing as human colonial marine you can expect a conventional shooter and the Predator (or Yaut'ja) is just a slight modification that is supposed to kick more ass, the Xenomorph style is significantly different. Lets focus on each species separately.
Many players recommend starting with the Predator since they're the most powerful and easiest to play. Also there is some chronological story beginning with this character even though the game doesn't force it on you.
As a Predator you will probably gain a bit deceptive impression of invincibility and invulnerability. In the beginning it's kind of justified. Thanks to the special energy generator/siphoning device Mr. Yaut'ja has practically infinite health and ammunition. The thing can be activated any time by a single tap of a defined key. Another key is used for healing yourself. Medkits? Meh, so last millenium. The healing depletes a part of your energy supply but you can replenish it immediately afterwards. The only downside is that it takes a tiny while and leaves you vulnerable since you can't do anything during the process.
Said energy is also used for your weapons and cloaking device but strangely not for your vision modes. Nevertheless you need to learn to properly manage your energy supply. Don't get too carried away by the infinity stuff since in the latter levels you're heavily outnumbered and you will require some safe spot suitable for recharging/healing quite often.
Vision modes is the first interesting AvP feature I'd like to analyze/examine closer. There were attempts to enable such mechanics in other games with varying (un)success. AvP 2 took it as serious business. Changing your vision mode swaps textures on certain objects (characters or other stuff) according to what spectrum you use. If you switch to thermal vision, all human characters get their textures replaces by a ranibow-colored map. Also they gain a shiny aura which makes them even easier to spot. But everything else goes dark blue and it becomes considerably harder to navigate.
"Electric" vision does similar thing to the Aliens albeit they all become white (are they actually cybernetic?) and "surprisingly"
to all electrical conduit and devices (most importantly human sentry guns which can really ruin your day) while unsupported objects and environment blend into blurry red curtain.The Pred-vision on the other hand turns everything negative-colored and actually helps you navigate dark areas as well as easily spot equipment if you lose it by sheer stupidity and even other cloaked Predators.
Speaking of cloaking it is as botched as you'd expect. The invisibility stuff in many games works awkward and AvP 2 is no exception. You remain unseen only if you don't move around. And there are plenty NPCs who will see right through your stealth. Especially afforementioned sentry guns as well as cyborgs and Aliens. Even your multiplayer opponents won't be fooled by the trick. Probably a toll to that weird thing called fair-play.
Other species also have alternate vision modes but not as plentiful as Mr. Yaut'ja. Humans have nightvision goggles wile Xenomorphs can activate some weird greyscale hunt-vision.
I guess it's time to take a look at our puny kind.
Playing as the Colonial Marine is maybe the most difficult of all. Maybe it's easy to steer them and their weapon loadout gives you nightmares but it's outweighted by their incredibly brittle clay. Don't rely on your "armor" which endures exactly one half of a single Alien tooth and lasts exactly one picosecond in Predator's sights. Heck even a fall down a short stairway can send you to the ER.
Maybe I'm exaggerating but believe me, you need to seriously watch your back and be vigilant at all times. This is exactly the silent horrific feeling we know from the movies. Nothing feels as much alike than playing as human.
Marines cannot rely on their senses so they have pretty much ineffective motion sensor which does exactly what its name implies. That means most of the time you'll be startled by opening doors or some other dumb stuff. Which is exactly its purpose - to induce as much angst and paranoia as possible. What if that next moving dot was an Alien coming your way, right?
Also it doesn't make much sense because in reality motion is relative so once you begin walking your sensor should go completely nuts.
To deal with darkness you have flares, flashlight and aforementioned night vision. The latter two share their power supply but NV depletes the battery power much more rapidly and even disables your motion sensor. Not that the thing helps you anyway...
As I already mentioned Marine arsenal is their greatest asset. It expanded by 5 weapons since the previous game. While Predator also has a few impressive weapons, they're a tad impractical to use. Human guns require simple instructions: point away from face and fire. Namely the Smart Gun which is so unfair weapon to the point it qualifies for a game breaker. It automatically targets any enemy, even cloaked Predators and while the targeting range is pretty short it still provides you dominance in combat even against large groups of moving enemies.
The 2nd rocket launcher was cut but the SADAR still remains and can now fire both unguided rockets and homing missiles. Now you also got a proper shotgun. The other stuff is not too useful. Knife is only useful if you get trapped by Predator's net, handgun is weak (save for the special but scarce AP bullets), sniper rifle is useless against fast moving Aliens and cloaked Predators and the grenade launcher? I'm not even going into that one.
I also need to mention the flamethrower which makes wonderful light and fire effects.
Unfortunately conventional FPS mechanics mean that (unlike Predator) Marine needs to collect ammo for their guns. Once you run out of it you're pretty much screwed. You won't placate a Xenomorph with small talk nor haggle it using that stupid knife.
...
Playing as the Xenomorph is perhaps the most unusual and original idea that came around back then. This is thanks to Alien's sole ability to climb theoretically any solid surface. Not only it was an interesting experience to see sideways or upside-down. It also provided you with more stealth than Predator's cloaking. While cloaked Predator can be spotted if they move as much as an inch, the Xenomorph can happily traverse ceilings in plain view without even a hint of getting anyone's attention. I seriously wonder whether humans are blind.
The bugs' another asset is their incredible speed. You don't need to fear human firearms that much since many times they'll have serious difficulty to actually hit you - as long as you remain in motion. Xenomorphs don't need regular jump since they can get almost anywhere by climbing. You should stick to pouncing instead - it enables you to cover large distances in a fraction of a second and renders you even harder to hit.
Since Alien's weapons are only their claws, teeth and tail, you don't need to worry about ammunition at all. You just find an unsuspecting victim pick their head and help yourself to a tasty meal. Feeding on your prey heals you which is simply awesome. As long as there are enemies there is also health. Of course cybernetic and mechanical stuff is an exception.
Pheromone sense is another interesting Alien ability. Every living thing has a colorful aura according to what species do they belong to. Humans have blue ones and Predators have green while your fellow hive-mates have red. The aura makes the characters easier to spot. Unfortunately sentry guns and cyborgs are excluded from this ability since non-living stuff doesn't emit pheromones.
Alien hunt vision works in a similar way to human nightvision but is greyscale instead of green. It's not limited in any way but disables you gravity compass (which informs you which way is down) and your pheromone sense.
There is also a singleplayer bonus - for the first time you get to experience the Xenomorph life cycle. You begin by hatching from an egg and spend the first level searching for a suitable victim to make their Face Full of Alien Wing-Wong. And then in the very next level you get to chew your way out of their chest. It's as bizarre experience as it's gruesome.
This feature can also be enabled in multiplayer.
There is not much else to say about this one but I certainly most enjoyed playing as the Xenomorph. So much fun
Excellent job you Monolith guys.To summarize this entire article's message:
Various vision modes are an excellent way how to add complexity to your game and generally make it more interesting, appealing and challenging. In short - more fun.
A stupid detector that gives you an illusion of awareness is actually the best tool to induce fear. Perhaps the famous Silent Hill portable radio mastered this to perfection. It will make your heart burst several vessels and as a bonus you will soil your pants.
If you're serious about invisibility, make it actually work. Otherwise ... well ... it doesn't make much sense to force this illusion on player. Unlike the detector stuff it's just annoying.
If you want some unusual gameplay experience, the Alien-style climbing and sneaking up on unsuspecting victims is a way to go. But don't give such creature any kind of ranged attack. It would totally break the game.
Glass Cannon Trope is a way to ballance firepower and make the play more challenging but don't overdo it.
Try to avoid putting useless guns into your armory.
And most importantly -DON'T MAKE STUPID SPINOFF MOVIES!! The AvP games are excellent but both AvP movies were totally botched to the point I required brain bleach. I consider them a metaphorical middle finger it the face of the original Alien and Predator motion picture series.
Also quit smoking or it'll kill you.
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My thoughts on videogame design p15
9 min read
Even though I mostly stick to the C&C series, there were times I simply didn't have an opportunity to play any C&C game due to technical limitations or some other reason. Nevertheless I still wanted to play something with similar mechanic (read: not too complicated).
Enter the Krush Kill 'n' Destroy series or KKND for short.
It consists of 2 games and doesn't have much of a story. The world is after some nuclear apocalypse and half of humankind has mutated into the "Evolved" race which is now at war with the other half of surviving human race. In the 2nd game the party is joined by a third robotic faction. And that's it. Happy slaughter.
I hardly remember the first game but I still have the 2nd one so I can quite exactly describe its workings. Saying the game is played like C&C is not entirely correct. Yeah, the basics are roughly the same, mainly the mouse button setup (left=confirm, right=cancel). But otherwise there are a few significant differences.
The greatest one is probably the economy/production.
Building construction is not conducted inside the production tab but outside on the terrain. No construction units required, you just smash the thing on the ground with a single click and it is being built by itself. While this leaves the structure vulnerable to any attacks it enables you to construct virtually limitless amount of buildings at the same time albeit slower (the more buildings the longer it takes). Also even if you lose the "construction yard" as long as a single structure of your base remains operational you can simply build it again. In fact you can build another one any time so you have a backup. No MCV required.
Unit production is also solved effectively. Not only there is limitless production queue (if you order more than 10 units the number changes to infinity and it just keeps going until you cancel it or run out of resources). You can simultaneously produce multiple different units in the same production tab. Which can be accessed from your HUD but is tied to its respective building so constructing another one gives you additional production tab - that can do the same. As long as you have enough resources you can just hurl units like there's no tomorrow.
Also the sidebar/HUD got totally minimized in favor of the actual gameplay area.
To put it simply the developers practically strived to make the production and management as easy as possible so players can focus on the berserkerous combat instead.
Speaking of resources there is only one you need to gather - Oil. You find a black puddle on the ground haul a rig to it and your tankers automatically travel back and forth between the derrick and your power plant. That's right - in KKND power=money (unlike C&C where power affected your defenses and superweapons). You can even leech off enemy derricks if the enemy will let you. The AI sometimes will. It's better than destroying the derrick because the oil will start to burn until it is gone or you/someone deploys a rig on it. Yes the resources here are limited although it depends on the game setting.
And then on the higher tech tiers there are limitless alternative power resource structures (solar collectors, wind turbines and stuff). They don't give you as much cash as the oil but otherwise you'll practically never run out of them.
Research or simply advancing tech tiers is also different. It's probably the only KKND mechanic that requires more effort than in C&C. Just building a research center is not enough. You have to use it on your production buildings to upgrade them and unlock new stuff. Doing it is pretty simple, just select your research center and then the building you want to upgrade and wait until it is complete. The building remains fully operational during that time however the research also costs you. Each building can be upgraded 5 times i.e. has 6 levels. And since you require to upgrade every single building research takes considerable amount of time and resources.
You will be needing that high tech since those units are significantly more powerful than the basic ones. Even to the point that without them you're practically screwed.
There is little to no tactic in KKND2. As I mentioned earlier it's all about massive berserkerous battles. The only you'll be doing is pushing forward using endless divisions of the most powerful and destructive units you can produce. Not even C&C features such immense battles. And they're not short either. Even though the combat between units is rather quick the buildings are another story - they can take quite some punishment until finally going up in fiery inferno.
You can still utilize some smart play by positioning your combatants atop cliffs. Yes, high ground does matter in here (even though the terrain wasn't really elevated and the cliffs were practically one-way barriers) unlike the first C&C and Red Alert and even Tiberian Sun. KKND got this working in 1997 or maybe even sooner. Westwood made it work at least 2 years after them. As for KKND's production tab system - no C&C game truly outmatched it. In fact even to this day it remains undefeated.
While we're at it, let's take a look at the factions and their units. Human survivors use a bit surreal and "punky" but otherwise pretty much generic machines. Evolved on the other hand employ weaponized beasts like cannon hauling mastodons, huge missile crabs or immense beetles that spit large blobs of acidic goo. The Series9 robots are ... well robots. Their war machinery is extremely "purposeful" and is in fact partially named after agricultural machines since these robots were former agricultural automatons ... which now want revenge for their destroyed crops.
Unit types are infantry, mobile armor and aircraft. There are no straightforward naval units in KKND2 but there are amphibious vehicles. But no matter what faction you play, the unit purpose remains the same. In other words each unit has an equivalent in the other factions. Where humans have generic tanks, Evolved have war mastodons and series 9 has robotic tank. Or human amphibious hovercraft vs. evolved hippo vs. robotic hovering "doom dome" thingamajig. Even though each has a different weapon they're all roughly the same effective. Altogether and including unarmed utility units there are 7 infantrymen, 10 vehicles and 3 aircrafts for each faction.
There are also special constructible vehicles that allow you to choose 3 different sized hulls/chassis and combine them with various turrets. Their usefulness is arguable though because they're expensive, take forever to train and don't make much difference in combat. Probably the only one you'll be making is "medium anti aircraft" since only rocket-infantry and defensive AA turrets can fire at aircraft. You can also make repair vehicles but let's be honest - they won't help you even if you build 50 of them. There's really no time for maintenance when you're rapidly losing units in massive combat.
Speaking of aircraft, it has another interesting feature. It doesn't require any air port/landing pad. It lands wherever you send it. Landing anywhere is all it takes for replenishing their deadly payload. On the other hand the aircraft is also expensive, slowly produced and quite brittle. Probably the only type of unit worth mainteance. It also takes much research to finally unlock their production. Bombing alone will never win you the war.
Also about defensive turrets. There are 4 types/tiers: 1. anti infantry, 2. anti vehicle, 3. AA turret and 4. advanced ground tower. The last one will give your army the biggest trouble - especially Evolved "touch of death" which takes considerable punishment and delivers a lot of pain by rapidly firing long lightning bolts. Evolved also have one secret infantry type which is also quite powerful. How unfair
Last there are special secret units. They cannot be produced by anyone. Instead they're stored in special bunkers around the map. You have to find them then wait until they unlock themselves and quickly send a repairman inside before your enemy does. Whoever achiever this is rewarded by some random piece of lost technology joining their ranks. The most interesting is probably a Gemini Flying Saucer - it moves incredibly fast, sucks up endless amount of infantry and destroys everything else with lightning. Unfortunately there is no way to repair it if it suffers damage.
You'll probably won't haul any of these secret units into battle because they're incredibly rare and even though they're quite powerful, they're quickly outnumbered by the sheer number of enemy forces. Mostly they get guard duty. Also they are probably the only ones worth any repairing.
There are no nukes or other weapons of mass destruction though. Not that you'll miss them. Considering what the landscape looks like it's probably better that way
KKND's aforementioned mechanics also have a few limitations but not too significant. First there is a population limit but it's so huge you probably won't even notice it. It allows you to have at least 200 top-tier units if not more.
Second you can have a maximum of 4 buildings of each kind. That means max 4 factories, 4 barracks and so on. This also limits your production tabs number but it's meaningless since a single structure can produce multiple things simultaneously and 3 production tabs are more than enough to hurl more units than you can provide resources for.
It all sounds incredibly complicated when you read it but once you start playing the game, it is easier than f**k. It just takes forever to destroy your enemy and you will waste loads of units. That's the kind of game KKND 2 is.
If you don't have any C&C at hand this is a good choice. In fact it is a good choice even if you do have C&C. Of course KKND 2 cannot completely substitute it but it has proven that it can do certain crucial things more effective.
I need to apologize myself to everyone who got confused about all the KKND and KKND2 stuff. I was talking about the 2nd KKND the whole time but most of its mechanics are practically recycled from the first game and it adds only few new ones. So in a way this applies to both games from this series.
Phew, look forward to the next entry.
PREVIOUS ENTRY
Enter the Krush Kill 'n' Destroy series or KKND for short.
It consists of 2 games and doesn't have much of a story. The world is after some nuclear apocalypse and half of humankind has mutated into the "Evolved" race which is now at war with the other half of surviving human race. In the 2nd game the party is joined by a third robotic faction. And that's it. Happy slaughter.
I hardly remember the first game but I still have the 2nd one so I can quite exactly describe its workings. Saying the game is played like C&C is not entirely correct. Yeah, the basics are roughly the same, mainly the mouse button setup (left=confirm, right=cancel). But otherwise there are a few significant differences.
The greatest one is probably the economy/production.
Building construction is not conducted inside the production tab but outside on the terrain. No construction units required, you just smash the thing on the ground with a single click and it is being built by itself. While this leaves the structure vulnerable to any attacks it enables you to construct virtually limitless amount of buildings at the same time albeit slower (the more buildings the longer it takes). Also even if you lose the "construction yard" as long as a single structure of your base remains operational you can simply build it again. In fact you can build another one any time so you have a backup. No MCV required.
Unit production is also solved effectively. Not only there is limitless production queue (if you order more than 10 units the number changes to infinity and it just keeps going until you cancel it or run out of resources). You can simultaneously produce multiple different units in the same production tab. Which can be accessed from your HUD but is tied to its respective building so constructing another one gives you additional production tab - that can do the same. As long as you have enough resources you can just hurl units like there's no tomorrow.
Also the sidebar/HUD got totally minimized in favor of the actual gameplay area.
To put it simply the developers practically strived to make the production and management as easy as possible so players can focus on the berserkerous combat instead.
Speaking of resources there is only one you need to gather - Oil. You find a black puddle on the ground haul a rig to it and your tankers automatically travel back and forth between the derrick and your power plant. That's right - in KKND power=money (unlike C&C where power affected your defenses and superweapons). You can even leech off enemy derricks if the enemy will let you. The AI sometimes will. It's better than destroying the derrick because the oil will start to burn until it is gone or you/someone deploys a rig on it. Yes the resources here are limited although it depends on the game setting.
And then on the higher tech tiers there are limitless alternative power resource structures (solar collectors, wind turbines and stuff). They don't give you as much cash as the oil but otherwise you'll practically never run out of them.
Research or simply advancing tech tiers is also different. It's probably the only KKND mechanic that requires more effort than in C&C. Just building a research center is not enough. You have to use it on your production buildings to upgrade them and unlock new stuff. Doing it is pretty simple, just select your research center and then the building you want to upgrade and wait until it is complete. The building remains fully operational during that time however the research also costs you. Each building can be upgraded 5 times i.e. has 6 levels. And since you require to upgrade every single building research takes considerable amount of time and resources.
You will be needing that high tech since those units are significantly more powerful than the basic ones. Even to the point that without them you're practically screwed.
There is little to no tactic in KKND2. As I mentioned earlier it's all about massive berserkerous battles. The only you'll be doing is pushing forward using endless divisions of the most powerful and destructive units you can produce. Not even C&C features such immense battles. And they're not short either. Even though the combat between units is rather quick the buildings are another story - they can take quite some punishment until finally going up in fiery inferno.
You can still utilize some smart play by positioning your combatants atop cliffs. Yes, high ground does matter in here (even though the terrain wasn't really elevated and the cliffs were practically one-way barriers) unlike the first C&C and Red Alert and even Tiberian Sun. KKND got this working in 1997 or maybe even sooner. Westwood made it work at least 2 years after them. As for KKND's production tab system - no C&C game truly outmatched it. In fact even to this day it remains undefeated.
While we're at it, let's take a look at the factions and their units. Human survivors use a bit surreal and "punky" but otherwise pretty much generic machines. Evolved on the other hand employ weaponized beasts like cannon hauling mastodons, huge missile crabs or immense beetles that spit large blobs of acidic goo. The Series9 robots are ... well robots. Their war machinery is extremely "purposeful" and is in fact partially named after agricultural machines since these robots were former agricultural automatons ... which now want revenge for their destroyed crops.
Unit types are infantry, mobile armor and aircraft. There are no straightforward naval units in KKND2 but there are amphibious vehicles. But no matter what faction you play, the unit purpose remains the same. In other words each unit has an equivalent in the other factions. Where humans have generic tanks, Evolved have war mastodons and series 9 has robotic tank. Or human amphibious hovercraft vs. evolved hippo vs. robotic hovering "doom dome" thingamajig. Even though each has a different weapon they're all roughly the same effective. Altogether and including unarmed utility units there are 7 infantrymen, 10 vehicles and 3 aircrafts for each faction.
There are also special constructible vehicles that allow you to choose 3 different sized hulls/chassis and combine them with various turrets. Their usefulness is arguable though because they're expensive, take forever to train and don't make much difference in combat. Probably the only one you'll be making is "medium anti aircraft" since only rocket-infantry and defensive AA turrets can fire at aircraft. You can also make repair vehicles but let's be honest - they won't help you even if you build 50 of them. There's really no time for maintenance when you're rapidly losing units in massive combat.
Speaking of aircraft, it has another interesting feature. It doesn't require any air port/landing pad. It lands wherever you send it. Landing anywhere is all it takes for replenishing their deadly payload. On the other hand the aircraft is also expensive, slowly produced and quite brittle. Probably the only type of unit worth mainteance. It also takes much research to finally unlock their production. Bombing alone will never win you the war.
Also about defensive turrets. There are 4 types/tiers: 1. anti infantry, 2. anti vehicle, 3. AA turret and 4. advanced ground tower. The last one will give your army the biggest trouble - especially Evolved "touch of death" which takes considerable punishment and delivers a lot of pain by rapidly firing long lightning bolts. Evolved also have one secret infantry type which is also quite powerful. How unfair
Last there are special secret units. They cannot be produced by anyone. Instead they're stored in special bunkers around the map. You have to find them then wait until they unlock themselves and quickly send a repairman inside before your enemy does. Whoever achiever this is rewarded by some random piece of lost technology joining their ranks. The most interesting is probably a Gemini Flying Saucer - it moves incredibly fast, sucks up endless amount of infantry and destroys everything else with lightning. Unfortunately there is no way to repair it if it suffers damage.
You'll probably won't haul any of these secret units into battle because they're incredibly rare and even though they're quite powerful, they're quickly outnumbered by the sheer number of enemy forces. Mostly they get guard duty. Also they are probably the only ones worth any repairing.
There are no nukes or other weapons of mass destruction though. Not that you'll miss them. Considering what the landscape looks like it's probably better that way
KKND's aforementioned mechanics also have a few limitations but not too significant. First there is a population limit but it's so huge you probably won't even notice it. It allows you to have at least 200 top-tier units if not more.
Second you can have a maximum of 4 buildings of each kind. That means max 4 factories, 4 barracks and so on. This also limits your production tabs number but it's meaningless since a single structure can produce multiple things simultaneously and 3 production tabs are more than enough to hurl more units than you can provide resources for.
It all sounds incredibly complicated when you read it but once you start playing the game, it is easier than f**k. It just takes forever to destroy your enemy and you will waste loads of units. That's the kind of game KKND 2 is.
If you don't have any C&C at hand this is a good choice. In fact it is a good choice even if you do have C&C. Of course KKND 2 cannot completely substitute it but it has proven that it can do certain crucial things more effective.
I need to apologize myself to everyone who got confused about all the KKND and KKND2 stuff. I was talking about the 2nd KKND the whole time but most of its mechanics are practically recycled from the first game and it adds only few new ones. So in a way this applies to both games from this series.
Phew, look forward to the next entry.
PREVIOUS ENTRY
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My thoughts on videogame design p14
14 min read
This is another entry where I will be taking a closer look at certain specific game mechanics. And since most games I play are first person shooters, this time weapon effectiveness will be my target.
Of course there is a necessity to employ some sorting algorithm but that's besides the point. The problem is in some games guns don't really do as much damage as you'd expect them to or vice versa. No, I'm not talking about destroying your surroundings. Even these days few games feature it at minimal scale.
In other words many FPS guns don't live up to their expected capabilities.
The first thing is that some guns have rather weird capabilities compared to each other. For instance in the first Half-Life game the standard handgun does more (albeit slightly) damage than the submachinegun. And these two even share ammo with each other. The .357 revolver deals even more punishment but what is totally ridiculous that the crossbow outclasses them all. A weapon that fires friggin arrows using only force put into it by hand. Gordon Freeman is no jockstrapper as far as I know. And even if he was it still doesn't makes any sense for such weapon to be deadlier than modern firearms. I guess we're witnesses of some serious case of Arbitrary Gun Power. Many shooters do the same thing for the sake of gameplay balance but sometimes it's just too much.
Ocassionally I come across something outright ludicrous - like the first Far Cry game where a Jackhammer shotgun was more effective than a rocket launcher. The launcher was pretty shitty in the first place - I'll be mentioning that later.
Another thing I noticed is that if an FPS features explosives and/or heavy weapons (rocket/grenade launchers, hand grenades etc.) they all do roughly (if not totally) the same damage. Maybe it doesn't matter since most of your standard FPS only feature one of each. But to me not only seems illogical and ridiculous that a hand grenade delivers the same amount of punishment as an H.E.A.T. missile. It also kind of defeats the purpose of having different kinds of explosives.
Speaking of heavy firepower it also kind of lacks the punch it should pack. Anti-tank weapon (as its name implies) should take out a tank in a couple hits - not 10 like most games featuring armor combat do it. Tiger I in MoHAA takes 5 direct hits from a Panzershrek before finally becoming a pile of junk metal. C&C:Renegade (a single FPS in the series) featured loads of armor combat yet even a stupid buggy could withstand a few direct hits from a rocket launcher. The AVRiL in UT2004 Onslaught was as useful against vehicles as a firecracker. Combine gunship in Half-Life 2 took over twice the hits from your launcher than the amount of rockets you were ale to haul. It also shot down your rockets which made the fight even more ammo-consuming and without those stupid infinite ammo crates you'd be dead in no time. I really hated that mechanic - it totally threw all ballance and challenge out of a window. But probably the worst offender is again mr. Far Cry. That "rocket launcher" was a total junk. It was ludicrously weak, the rockets flew slow... Maybe that's why you could acquire that excuse of a weapon so soon.
In some cases because of developer laziness or other pointless excuse of a reason the gun is completely useless against the target which it was designed for in real life. In Postal 2 tanks are completely invulnearable to all weaponry (programmers were simply too lazy to make them interactive). APCs on the other hand can be blown up by taking a couple blows from a shovel or police baton Every Car is a Pinto in this game after all.
I'm even reluctant to mention that most shooters only feature one rocket launcher/anti-armor weapon regardless of how large their arsenal is. There are a few exceptions though - especially multiplayer war games like the Battlefield series. Even some really old shooters featured multiple launchers. Rebellion's 1999 Aliens vs. Predator adaptation featured two different missile launchers and the ancient Rise of the Triad had at least three - one unguided, one heatseeker and a drunk missile launcher. Funny huh?
A special mention goes to Borderlands. This shooter with RPG elements featured a literal metric fuckton of guns but they worked rather awkward. It didn't matter whether the gun was a rifle, shotgun or a rocket launcher. Instead it mattered what element it was based on. An incendiary gun grilled living enemies like chickens but didn't even scratch armored ones. It totally didn't matter whether it was a handgun or a friggin' bazooka.
I wonder whether the game designers were really bored, drunk, stoned or all of that. Whatever, I'm not gonna play Borderlands ever again.
Next.
I like when some videogame guns share ammunition. It provides a resource managing challenge for player and reduces amount of variables in the game engine But it has to make sense. And some "realistic" games seriously botch this. How can guns with different callibres house the same ammunition. You'll never be able to load 7.62x39mm rounds into standard Colt M4A1 assault rifle, much less shoot it, trust me. Yet most nowadays shooters feature simply rifle bullets, smg bullets, handgun bullets... In real life some handguns can even use smg ammunition and vice versa. Probably the best example is the notorious 9x19mm Parabellum ammunition. Some games even commit outright ludicrous things. Blood 2: The Chosen featured 4 lead-hurlers: Beretta handgun, Mac 10 smg, unidentified (probably M16) assault rifle and a 4-barelled Vulcan. They all used the same ammunition. Really? Handgun sharing ammo with a friggin' assault cannon? Are you kidding me?
This is why I approve RtCW and Counter Strike so much. Both of these games did a great job of creating an ammo-sharing system that makes fair amount of sense.
The way the guns are stored in player's inventory and accessed is also different with each game. Forget the fact that in real life a single person would never be able to haul all that firepower with them. I'm not certain about the first game that established a standard arsenal sorting but let's go with Quake II for this one even though it was probably already codified by DOOM. This is because at that time each of the numbers in the 2nd top row on your keyboard could only access a single slot in your inventory. The dilemma here is that Doom contained only 7 weapons but Quake II had full 10, which became kind of a standard until Half-Life came around.
The arsenal in most classic shooter was sorted the following way:
1. emergency weapon (something that doesn't require ammo, be it melee or ranged)
2. your standard pump action shotgun or something thereof
3. submachinegun or some other mundane fast firing gun
4. more powerful version of shotgun - the 3rd and 4th position guns may be vice versa in some shooters
5. heavy machinegun/chaingun/other more dakka gun
6. grenade launcher or some kind of clumsy inaccurate explosive stuff (e.g. hand grenades)
7. standard rocket launcher - again in some games this gun may fall into 6 while grenades may be in 7
8. pulse rifle/cannon, energetic gun or some other exotic stuff. May also be a flamethrower if the setting is more old fashioned.
9. precision weapon of some sort e.g. sniper rifle
0. (not 10, I'm talking a number key on your keyboard) Big ... uhhh... Freakin' Gun. Something that enables you to slaughter ridiculous amounts of basic enemies with little effort ... as long as you have enough ammo ... which is actually quite scarce for this one.
With slight modifications you had similar loadout in almost every shooter until 1999. Some games only featured one shotgun or machinegun, had heavy guns on lower positions or lacked some types of guns.
One of the games that dared to make an exception was my 2nd holy game - Unreal which kind of turned this system upside down. Besides all of the guns being reasonably strong, it had no straightforward BFG (although the 6-barelled "eightball" rocket launcher stood a fair chance of being classified as one), also no straightforward shotgun - instead there 2 alternatives: Flak Cannon regular fire and Stinger altfire. Stinger (3rd slot) also substituted the basic machinegun even though it fired a bit slower and also the projectiles traveled slow.
The eightball and Flak occupied the 5th and 6th slot respectively so they were practically in the middle of your arsenal. The ASMD shock rifle occupied 4th slot and was kind of a compromise between precision, energetic and jack of all situations. The thing that made this gun shine was the universe-famous combo which really ruined anyone's day who dared to be in its blast radius. 2nd slot gun was Automag which was kind of unusual but fairly useful handgun with plenty of available ammunition.
The emergency gun was the Dispersion Pistol which had really nonindicative name, since it could be upgraded by powerups and gradually became another candidate for BFG - that is until certain version of Unreal toned it down. The latter part of arsenal featured a "shuriken" launcher named Razorjack (7) which could decapitate you just as good as your enemies, a slime spewing GES biorifle (8), another precision gun which was names just Rifle (9) and a minigun (0) which was kind of unusual for that position and also was nowhere as powerful as you'd expect for such late gun. It also shared ammo with basic Automag which was more effective in my opinion. That minigun was not even fun to use
...
Another exception worth mentioning was Aliens vs. Predator I game by Rebellion. Since it enabled playing as 3 different species, the designers hat to save precious Bytes and thus featured fewer weapons in the game. The Alien had only claws, teeth and tail which didn't even need switching between 'em. Predator had about 4 guns including the famous Spearun and Shoulder Cannon (aka. Plasmacaster) and obligatory Wristblade. Cannot forget the Disc of course. Human marine had no emergency weapon (neiher handgun or knife) but had 3 "dakka" guns, one of which had an altfire grenade launcher, 2nd aimed automatically and the third was just helluva powerful. There was also flametrower and 2 different rocket launchers. That makes it 6 guns but which made the "dakka" guns kind of overabundant. It wouldn't hurt swapping just one of them for conventional shotgun.
Half-Life, my third holy trinity game, was probably the first shooter which featured more than 10 weapons in the standard release, i.e. not datadisks or add-ons. This required reworking the loadout completely - now each number could access/cycle a category consisting of multiple slots. There were 5 categories: melee, handguns, combat guns, heavy guns and throwables/traps. In some way it made it easier to access them. Also it ditched the conventional sorting algorhitm since now the gun power/effectiveness did not completely match their order in inventory.
Oppossing Force - the first official HL1 addon took it even further and expanded the loadout by another 2 categories. I'd call them extra(6) and weird(7). The extra category contained another 3 pieces of high-damage firepower (FN m249 machinegun, m40 sniper rifle and experimental teleporter weapon). The "weird" one housed 2 extraterestrial living weapons. It doesn't really mater what exactly those guns actually were. There might as well been a flamethrower or some other mess-making stuff. It's the overall thought that counts. Actually this is probably my most favorite storage layout.
Return to Castle Wolfenstein employed similar system. No, there weren't any living guns but the storage order was like this: 1-knife 2-handguns 3-SMGs 4 and 5- scoped rifles 6-hand explosives 7-launcher 8-minigun 9-flamethrower and 0-tesla. While there was no outright "heavy" or "extra" category, it followed similar pattern: emergency > combat > precise > throwable > heavy > weird/exotic. It meant the most powerful guns were stored in the middle or at 2/3 of your inventory while at the end were the most exotic but probably not the most damaging. The most useful/universal guns are always stored in the 2nd quarter of player's arsenal which makes it easy to quickly switch them to some heavier guns and back.
Max Payne was another shooter (albeit 3rd persone one) that employed similar layout. Again it doesn't really matter that there was a sniper rifle in your last slot. What matter is that the most used stuff was approximately in the 2/4 of your inventory or maybe a bit in the middle. Again that makes it easier to switch to some heavier firepower in the latter half.
Medal of Honor Allied Assault on the other hand did it a bit different. Not only it allowed you to carry only 6 weapons at a time. It put sniper rifle into 2nd slot right after the handgun (there was no standalone melee weapon) and the smg and assault rifle occupied the 3rd and 4th slot respectively. 5th slot contained the grenades while in the 6th there could either be an anti armor weapon or shotgun. What the heck? Well the sniper part makes a bit sense since there was loads of sniping in MoHAA along with conventional combat so it was only convenient that you could quickly switch between SMG and a sniper rifle. But comparing a shotgun to a friggin' bazooka is rather weird.
There were still games that stuck to the classic 10-piece or even less but became more and more rare. Honorable mention goes to Will Rock as well as newer ID games Quake IV and reboots of Doom.
For me the best layout would be the compromise between Opposing Force/RtCW and (strangely)MoHAA system. There is a reason to place the sniper rifles between handguns and general combat guns. I'd merge the melee and throwables since there is mostly always only one melee weapon. The latter half would be composed of heavier firepower and ended by devious stuff like flamethrowers or chemical/biological weaponry. The final thing would probably look something like this:
1. melee+throwables
2. handguns
3. sniper rifles
4. combat guns (SMGs, shotguns, assault rifles)
5. heavy guns (launchers and other cumbersome weapons)
6. extra guns (scarce BFGs capable of incredible overkill)
7. "swine" guns (flamethrowers, chemical weapons and other dirty stuff)
...
There were also attempts to make the loadout more realistic with varying success. Some games tried to limit your arsenal by only enabling you to carry 2-4 weapons or by trying to incorporate weight (Devastation). The most succesful though was Counter Strike which simply let you carry one full-fledged weapon (which you could swap for any other), one handgun, knife and a maximum of 4 hand grenades. And a bomb for the terrorists. And it worked out awesomely and nobody did mind that. Well almost nobody
Sadly most nowadays shooters feature immense arsenal which makes some kind of weapon sorting practically impossible. The inventory slots are also accessed in a different way, mostly because these shooters are first made for consoles.
Phew I guess thats enough videogame goofs for this entry but I'm fairly certain there will be more to mention in some of the following entries.
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Of course there is a necessity to employ some sorting algorithm but that's besides the point. The problem is in some games guns don't really do as much damage as you'd expect them to or vice versa. No, I'm not talking about destroying your surroundings. Even these days few games feature it at minimal scale.
In other words many FPS guns don't live up to their expected capabilities.
The first thing is that some guns have rather weird capabilities compared to each other. For instance in the first Half-Life game the standard handgun does more (albeit slightly) damage than the submachinegun. And these two even share ammo with each other. The .357 revolver deals even more punishment but what is totally ridiculous that the crossbow outclasses them all. A weapon that fires friggin arrows using only force put into it by hand. Gordon Freeman is no jockstrapper as far as I know. And even if he was it still doesn't makes any sense for such weapon to be deadlier than modern firearms. I guess we're witnesses of some serious case of Arbitrary Gun Power. Many shooters do the same thing for the sake of gameplay balance but sometimes it's just too much.
Ocassionally I come across something outright ludicrous - like the first Far Cry game where a Jackhammer shotgun was more effective than a rocket launcher. The launcher was pretty shitty in the first place - I'll be mentioning that later.
Another thing I noticed is that if an FPS features explosives and/or heavy weapons (rocket/grenade launchers, hand grenades etc.) they all do roughly (if not totally) the same damage. Maybe it doesn't matter since most of your standard FPS only feature one of each. But to me not only seems illogical and ridiculous that a hand grenade delivers the same amount of punishment as an H.E.A.T. missile. It also kind of defeats the purpose of having different kinds of explosives.
Speaking of heavy firepower it also kind of lacks the punch it should pack. Anti-tank weapon (as its name implies) should take out a tank in a couple hits - not 10 like most games featuring armor combat do it. Tiger I in MoHAA takes 5 direct hits from a Panzershrek before finally becoming a pile of junk metal. C&C:Renegade (a single FPS in the series) featured loads of armor combat yet even a stupid buggy could withstand a few direct hits from a rocket launcher. The AVRiL in UT2004 Onslaught was as useful against vehicles as a firecracker. Combine gunship in Half-Life 2 took over twice the hits from your launcher than the amount of rockets you were ale to haul. It also shot down your rockets which made the fight even more ammo-consuming and without those stupid infinite ammo crates you'd be dead in no time. I really hated that mechanic - it totally threw all ballance and challenge out of a window. But probably the worst offender is again mr. Far Cry. That "rocket launcher" was a total junk. It was ludicrously weak, the rockets flew slow... Maybe that's why you could acquire that excuse of a weapon so soon.
In some cases because of developer laziness or other pointless excuse of a reason the gun is completely useless against the target which it was designed for in real life. In Postal 2 tanks are completely invulnearable to all weaponry (programmers were simply too lazy to make them interactive). APCs on the other hand can be blown up by taking a couple blows from a shovel or police baton
Every Car is a Pinto in this game after all.I'm even reluctant to mention that most shooters only feature one rocket launcher/anti-armor weapon regardless of how large their arsenal is. There are a few exceptions though - especially multiplayer war games like the Battlefield series. Even some really old shooters featured multiple launchers. Rebellion's 1999 Aliens vs. Predator adaptation featured two different missile launchers and the ancient Rise of the Triad had at least three - one unguided, one heatseeker and a drunk missile launcher. Funny huh?
A special mention goes to Borderlands. This shooter with RPG elements featured a literal metric fuckton of guns but they worked rather awkward. It didn't matter whether the gun was a rifle, shotgun or a rocket launcher. Instead it mattered what element it was based on. An incendiary gun grilled living enemies like chickens but didn't even scratch armored ones. It totally didn't matter whether it was a handgun or a friggin' bazooka.
I wonder whether the game designers were really bored, drunk, stoned or all of that. Whatever, I'm not gonna play Borderlands ever again.
Next.
I like when some videogame guns share ammunition. It provides a resource managing challenge for player and reduces amount of variables in the game engine
But it has to make sense. And some "realistic" games seriously botch this. How can guns with different callibres house the same ammunition. You'll never be able to load 7.62x39mm rounds into standard Colt M4A1 assault rifle, much less shoot it, trust me. Yet most nowadays shooters feature simply rifle bullets, smg bullets, handgun bullets... In real life some handguns can even use smg ammunition and vice versa. Probably the best example is the notorious 9x19mm Parabellum ammunition. Some games even commit outright ludicrous things. Blood 2: The Chosen featured 4 lead-hurlers: Beretta handgun, Mac 10 smg, unidentified (probably M16) assault rifle and a 4-barelled Vulcan. They all used the same ammunition. Really? Handgun sharing ammo with a friggin' assault cannon? Are you kidding me?This is why I approve RtCW and Counter Strike so much. Both of these games did a great job of creating an ammo-sharing system that makes fair amount of sense.
The way the guns are stored in player's inventory and accessed is also different with each game. Forget the fact that in real life a single person would never be able to haul all that firepower with them. I'm not certain about the first game that established a standard arsenal sorting but let's go with Quake II for this one even though it was probably already codified by DOOM. This is because at that time each of the numbers in the 2nd top row on your keyboard could only access a single slot in your inventory. The dilemma here is that Doom contained only 7 weapons but Quake II had full 10, which became kind of a standard until Half-Life came around.
The arsenal in most classic shooter was sorted the following way:
1. emergency weapon (something that doesn't require ammo, be it melee or ranged)
2. your standard pump action shotgun or something thereof
3. submachinegun or some other mundane fast firing gun
4. more powerful version of shotgun - the 3rd and 4th position guns may be vice versa in some shooters
5. heavy machinegun/chaingun/other more dakka gun
6. grenade launcher or some kind of clumsy inaccurate explosive stuff (e.g. hand grenades)
7. standard rocket launcher - again in some games this gun may fall into 6 while grenades may be in 7
8. pulse rifle/cannon, energetic gun or some other exotic stuff. May also be a flamethrower if the setting is more old fashioned.
9. precision weapon of some sort e.g. sniper rifle
0. (not 10, I'm talking a number key on your keyboard) Big ... uhhh... Freakin' Gun. Something that enables you to slaughter ridiculous amounts of basic enemies with little effort ... as long as you have enough ammo ... which is actually quite scarce for this one.
With slight modifications you had similar loadout in almost every shooter until 1999. Some games only featured one shotgun or machinegun, had heavy guns on lower positions or lacked some types of guns.
One of the games that dared to make an exception was my 2nd holy game - Unreal which kind of turned this system upside down. Besides all of the guns being reasonably strong, it had no straightforward BFG (although the 6-barelled "eightball" rocket launcher stood a fair chance of being classified as one), also no straightforward shotgun - instead there 2 alternatives: Flak Cannon regular fire and Stinger altfire. Stinger (3rd slot) also substituted the basic machinegun even though it fired a bit slower and also the projectiles traveled slow.
The eightball and Flak occupied the 5th and 6th slot respectively so they were practically in the middle of your arsenal. The ASMD shock rifle occupied 4th slot and was kind of a compromise between precision, energetic and jack of all situations. The thing that made this gun shine was the universe-famous combo which really ruined anyone's day who dared to be in its blast radius. 2nd slot gun was Automag which was kind of unusual but fairly useful handgun with plenty of available ammunition.
The emergency gun was the Dispersion Pistol which had really nonindicative name, since it could be upgraded by powerups and gradually became another candidate for BFG - that is until certain version of Unreal toned it down. The latter part of arsenal featured a "shuriken" launcher named Razorjack (7) which could decapitate you just as good as your enemies, a slime spewing GES biorifle (8), another precision gun which was names just Rifle (9) and a minigun (0) which was kind of unusual for that position and also was nowhere as powerful as you'd expect for such late gun. It also shared ammo with basic Automag which was more effective in my opinion. That minigun was not even fun to use
...
Another exception worth mentioning was Aliens vs. Predator I game by Rebellion. Since it enabled playing as 3 different species, the designers hat to save precious Bytes and thus featured fewer weapons in the game. The Alien had only claws, teeth and tail which didn't even need switching between 'em. Predator had about 4 guns including the famous Spearun and Shoulder Cannon (aka. Plasmacaster) and obligatory Wristblade. Cannot forget the Disc of course. Human marine had no emergency weapon (neiher handgun or knife) but had 3 "dakka" guns, one of which had an altfire grenade launcher, 2nd aimed automatically and the third was just helluva powerful. There was also flametrower and 2 different rocket launchers. That makes it 6 guns but which made the "dakka" guns kind of overabundant. It wouldn't hurt swapping just one of them for conventional shotgun.
Half-Life, my third holy trinity game, was probably the first shooter which featured more than 10 weapons in the standard release, i.e. not datadisks or add-ons. This required reworking the loadout completely - now each number could access/cycle a category consisting of multiple slots. There were 5 categories: melee, handguns, combat guns, heavy guns and throwables/traps. In some way it made it easier to access them. Also it ditched the conventional sorting algorhitm since now the gun power/effectiveness did not completely match their order in inventory.
Oppossing Force - the first official HL1 addon took it even further and expanded the loadout by another 2 categories. I'd call them extra(6) and weird(7). The extra category contained another 3 pieces of high-damage firepower (FN m249 machinegun, m40 sniper rifle and experimental teleporter weapon). The "weird" one housed 2 extraterestrial living weapons. It doesn't really mater what exactly those guns actually were. There might as well been a flamethrower or some other mess-making stuff. It's the overall thought that counts. Actually this is probably my most favorite storage layout.
Return to Castle Wolfenstein employed similar system. No, there weren't any living guns but the storage order was like this: 1-knife 2-handguns 3-SMGs 4 and 5- scoped rifles 6-hand explosives 7-launcher 8-minigun 9-flamethrower and 0-tesla. While there was no outright "heavy" or "extra" category, it followed similar pattern: emergency > combat > precise > throwable > heavy > weird/exotic. It meant the most powerful guns were stored in the middle or at 2/3 of your inventory while at the end were the most exotic but probably not the most damaging. The most useful/universal guns are always stored in the 2nd quarter of player's arsenal which makes it easy to quickly switch them to some heavier guns and back.
Max Payne was another shooter (albeit 3rd persone one) that employed similar layout. Again it doesn't really matter that there was a sniper rifle in your last slot. What matter is that the most used stuff was approximately in the 2/4 of your inventory or maybe a bit in the middle. Again that makes it easier to switch to some heavier firepower in the latter half.
Medal of Honor Allied Assault on the other hand did it a bit different. Not only it allowed you to carry only 6 weapons at a time. It put sniper rifle into 2nd slot right after the handgun (there was no standalone melee weapon) and the smg and assault rifle occupied the 3rd and 4th slot respectively. 5th slot contained the grenades while in the 6th there could either be an anti armor weapon or shotgun. What the heck? Well the sniper part makes a bit sense since there was loads of sniping in MoHAA along with conventional combat so it was only convenient that you could quickly switch between SMG and a sniper rifle. But comparing a shotgun to a friggin' bazooka is rather weird.
There were still games that stuck to the classic 10-piece or even less but became more and more rare. Honorable mention goes to Will Rock as well as newer ID games Quake IV and reboots of Doom.
For me the best layout would be the compromise between Opposing Force/RtCW and (strangely)MoHAA system. There is a reason to place the sniper rifles between handguns and general combat guns. I'd merge the melee and throwables since there is mostly always only one melee weapon. The latter half would be composed of heavier firepower and ended by devious stuff like flamethrowers or chemical/biological weaponry. The final thing would probably look something like this:
1. melee+throwables
2. handguns
3. sniper rifles
4. combat guns (SMGs, shotguns, assault rifles)
5. heavy guns (launchers and other cumbersome weapons)
6. extra guns (scarce BFGs capable of incredible overkill)
7. "swine" guns (flamethrowers, chemical weapons and other dirty stuff)
...
There were also attempts to make the loadout more realistic with varying success. Some games tried to limit your arsenal by only enabling you to carry 2-4 weapons or by trying to incorporate weight (Devastation). The most succesful though was Counter Strike which simply let you carry one full-fledged weapon (which you could swap for any other), one handgun, knife and a maximum of 4 hand grenades. And a bomb for the terrorists. And it worked out awesomely and nobody did mind that. Well almost nobody
Sadly most nowadays shooters feature immense arsenal which makes some kind of weapon sorting practically impossible. The inventory slots are also accessed in a different way, mostly because these shooters are first made for consoles.
Phew I guess thats enough videogame goofs for this entry but I'm fairly certain there will be more to mention in some of the following entries.
NEXT ENTRY
PREVIOUS ENTRY
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