Recently i have started to play the game God of War III. I bought the game a couple of months ago and i have played the first God of War but not the second. Anyways i jumped my way into the third GOW and i must say its pretty bad ass. After playing this game for some bit, and then to learn what the concept of flow is, I have decided that this game has done a good job of skill vs challenge. So in this blog i would like to tell you why i think God of War III has good flow.
GOW3 continues the storyline of Kratos a mortal who is sworn to have his revenge on the God Zeus. The game starts of with powers that have been earned from previous games(like the wings of icarus which allow you to glide), and a fully upgraded weapon, and maximum health and magic. What i love about some games and its minor but it grabs my attention are the intros that you play, but technically its not like the start of the game but just a way to get the story going and get the feel for the controls. This game does that but with more intensity. Like i said before you start the game with full capabilities and for a moment you are just kicking ass. Your put into the game with the ability of performing full combos, your magic is ready to go, and you almost feel unstoppable with a health limit as far as it can reach. Great intro, you get to fight a boss(Poseidon) and show it all off until you run into Zeus and he zaps all your powers away and sends you into hades. Now as a result you notice that your health and magic have significantly dropped, your weapon is not as strong and you can not perform as many moves as before and most important your character Kratos wants Zeus dead even more. This is were the game actually starts and motivates players to continue the game. You want to be able to perform more moves for better combos, you want to be able do a magic spell more than once, and you do not want to die from a few hits from the enemy because of your low health. You want to be the God of War and you will continue the game and unlock more powers until you have that status.
But the main key to the flow are the weapons you will recieve after defeating bosses. Hades is the first boss you will fight and after defeating you will be rewarded the Claw of Hades. This weapon has different combos and has the ability to raise souls to fight along side of you for certain time. This is awesome when you recieve this because now options are aviable and the game does not get boring. Nemean Cestus is another weapon you will recieve after beating the boss Hercules, this is a short range weapon but heavy hitter and does incredible damage. This is rare because this weapon is effective against certian eneimes and in some situations you will need to figure this out. The last weapon you will get is the Nemesis Whip. This weapon has an electrical component and is a pretty interesting weapon. Altough it is similiar to the Claw of Hades this weapon can be useful for the fact that its electrical components can activate mechanical objects.
Another main thing the game does to add flow is providing special items every so often. The bow of Apollo is first item you will recieve and you will understand it is important just like every weapon you will be getting. When using the bow of Apollo you can charge it up for a fiery arrow, this is used blowing up certain objects and most importantly secret areas that are blocked but can be burned down. The head of Helios and boots of Hermes do almost the same thing. They are items that can slightly hurt enemies but are also used for finding hidden areas(which usually provide magic,health uprgade), that if you have not thought to use at the item at that moment you would have never found the hidden area(these are for hardcore gamers who search and use they resources in a smart way).
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
first game i remeber playing regularly.
A game that i first started played on a daily basis is difficult to determine, but i chosen one series that i stuck with for a while. Mega Man, a fun and simple jumping and shooting game. At the time when i discovered Mega Megan4(in my uncles game collection) for the NES and i started to play it, my thoughts were that this is way better than Mario. As i kid it was a new game for me to play and i definitely put many game hours into their games and watched as it develop on to other platforms.
When i first started to play MM, i jumped into half way into on the Nintendo console. Although i was in the middle of the story line, it was pretty easy to pick up. You play as a half human/half robot boy and your job is to destroy evil robots who are created by an man by the name of Dr. Willy. The game was cool, you played as a boy robot who shoots some sort of canon coming from one of his hands and your objective is to destroy robots who are trying to take over to world and kill you and whatnot. Besides that the game play is creative by having a nice flow which makes it really enjoyable. You start the game by selecting the evil robot you wish to battle, which then puts in their domain or lair of the boss as most of the time the level resembles the boss. At this point you must blast your way through the level making your way passed multiple enemy's and maze like junctures which usually involved jumping and timing. These were the basic boundaries of the game: simply left to right movement, jumping, shooting and Mega Man made it awesome and i loved it. Over time the game can grow onto people and you can really learn and understand how to play a game by starting off with this game. But anyways your overall goal is to reach the end of the level were you are then to fight the boss robot you have picked. It could be a tough battle but the reward is worth it because you defeat your enemy you then gain their special power. This is an awesome feature in the game and what made MM unique. Not only does this upgrade your character and makes the next level just as interesting but advid players like me will start to notice something, and that is new weapons, a selection of bosses, equals strategy. This was a neat aspect, but while playing you will soon learn bosses have a weakness against special canons that have been earned from a previous boss. Overall this could lead to the completions of this game multiple times until an almost perfect strategy is formed on which boss to fight first, to who to battle last for sufficient game play. This is what kept me regularly playing Megan Man and although it got me to play the others before and after it for the NES, soon i would loose focus and other games would gain my attention.
It would not be until Megan Man X came out for the new Super Nintendo system, that i would be back to playing this game. While the storyline is almost the same just a little more mature and you are introduced to new characters who will be in future games, the game play is identical but with more features. The aesthetics in the game have improved and we now to more believable Mega Man. With the new graphics we have more detailed background for the level, the colors are clearer and vivid, and we now seem to have a slightly older main character. These are great new features but it is not what kept me playing this game. What i love about the this game is watching it grow and get better and i had a chance to witness this. Two major functions were added in this game and that the ability now to dash and capability of clinging on to wall ultimately leading to wall jumps. The dashing skill made players feel more like a super robot, this not only made you faster and you could evade but when perfected you could do a dash jump for maximum jumping. This was neat because you expected more from the game now, and you knew you had to learn this technique because you needed it to complete the game. Wall clinging was also a new feature in the game and affected more the level and its environment you interacted with. By this i mean wall clinging was not something you could do in the game at any time for any reason. Wall clinging in this game to me meant secrets, hidden secrets locations that lead to awesome powers up. And again i am not 100% percent i know for a fact wall clinging is made for that purpose, but hardcore gamers did it and figured it out and how it was usefully for(and that is secrets and hidden item). But these two very new functions changed a game and made it a whole lot better. Still the game involved blasting your way through enemy's and safely guiding your character passed maze like junctions which now involved dashing, dash jumping, and wall clinging. Last but not least the developer put a new element of armor into the game. I was surprised at but i very much liked the new element. Now through out the game you had the option of looking for armor that would upgrade your hero and upon completion you get a whole new secret attack but i forgot its name(but it was awesome). The MM-X was awesome game and the series continued on with a couple other Xgames. I did play them and the same storyline continued and a new character arrives(Zero) but over time i did not stick with Mega Man but spoke of this game in particular i remember it the best.
But i had some faith in the game when it game back for a different console and a twist in the game play. Now on PlayStation console Mega Man Legends was released and taking on a whole new role. RPG was the game play and you got play as MM in a 3D based environment. I got to say after taking a break from MM for a while and started to play maturer games like Metal Gear Solid and FFVII, i was wondering how this improved version of MM is going to be. Least to say it starts of alright. A completely different storyline is around and you slowly play yourself into it. You are still the same functioning Mega Man with his blast canon and what not but what i liked it this game is the added customization for your gun and armor. You do this by using money and parts(items) you find in the game. It is very cool the that is just it. The game has no direction and so you find yourself not knowing what to do most of the time. The aesthetics were lego like and it did not appeal to me for a MM game and i would think with new graphics it should of been better. To me it was not the same fun boss blasting game that i remembered. If i remember the boss were difficult and in general a hard game. The boundaries were small and you were either in one small city or another but still with no direction you were running around lost in these cities forever. It just became a cycle of nothing, that how i remembered that game.
So that is the first game that i can remember playing regularly and had me stick with the franchise for a while. These first MM games to me were creative and witty and to when you interact with the game you see this right before you eyes. Simply game-play with a good flow, clear objectives and easy rules all used cleverly to create a great game.
When i first started to play MM, i jumped into half way into on the Nintendo console. Although i was in the middle of the story line, it was pretty easy to pick up. You play as a half human/half robot boy and your job is to destroy evil robots who are created by an man by the name of Dr. Willy. The game was cool, you played as a boy robot who shoots some sort of canon coming from one of his hands and your objective is to destroy robots who are trying to take over to world and kill you and whatnot. Besides that the game play is creative by having a nice flow which makes it really enjoyable. You start the game by selecting the evil robot you wish to battle, which then puts in their domain or lair of the boss as most of the time the level resembles the boss. At this point you must blast your way through the level making your way passed multiple enemy's and maze like junctures which usually involved jumping and timing. These were the basic boundaries of the game: simply left to right movement, jumping, shooting and Mega Man made it awesome and i loved it. Over time the game can grow onto people and you can really learn and understand how to play a game by starting off with this game. But anyways your overall goal is to reach the end of the level were you are then to fight the boss robot you have picked. It could be a tough battle but the reward is worth it because you defeat your enemy you then gain their special power. This is an awesome feature in the game and what made MM unique. Not only does this upgrade your character and makes the next level just as interesting but advid players like me will start to notice something, and that is new weapons, a selection of bosses, equals strategy. This was a neat aspect, but while playing you will soon learn bosses have a weakness against special canons that have been earned from a previous boss. Overall this could lead to the completions of this game multiple times until an almost perfect strategy is formed on which boss to fight first, to who to battle last for sufficient game play. This is what kept me regularly playing Megan Man and although it got me to play the others before and after it for the NES, soon i would loose focus and other games would gain my attention.
It would not be until Megan Man X came out for the new Super Nintendo system, that i would be back to playing this game. While the storyline is almost the same just a little more mature and you are introduced to new characters who will be in future games, the game play is identical but with more features. The aesthetics in the game have improved and we now to more believable Mega Man. With the new graphics we have more detailed background for the level, the colors are clearer and vivid, and we now seem to have a slightly older main character. These are great new features but it is not what kept me playing this game. What i love about the this game is watching it grow and get better and i had a chance to witness this. Two major functions were added in this game and that the ability now to dash and capability of clinging on to wall ultimately leading to wall jumps. The dashing skill made players feel more like a super robot, this not only made you faster and you could evade but when perfected you could do a dash jump for maximum jumping. This was neat because you expected more from the game now, and you knew you had to learn this technique because you needed it to complete the game. Wall clinging was also a new feature in the game and affected more the level and its environment you interacted with. By this i mean wall clinging was not something you could do in the game at any time for any reason. Wall clinging in this game to me meant secrets, hidden secrets locations that lead to awesome powers up. And again i am not 100% percent i know for a fact wall clinging is made for that purpose, but hardcore gamers did it and figured it out and how it was usefully for(and that is secrets and hidden item). But these two very new functions changed a game and made it a whole lot better. Still the game involved blasting your way through enemy's and safely guiding your character passed maze like junctions which now involved dashing, dash jumping, and wall clinging. Last but not least the developer put a new element of armor into the game. I was surprised at but i very much liked the new element. Now through out the game you had the option of looking for armor that would upgrade your hero and upon completion you get a whole new secret attack but i forgot its name(but it was awesome). The MM-X was awesome game and the series continued on with a couple other Xgames. I did play them and the same storyline continued and a new character arrives(Zero) but over time i did not stick with Mega Man but spoke of this game in particular i remember it the best.
But i had some faith in the game when it game back for a different console and a twist in the game play. Now on PlayStation console Mega Man Legends was released and taking on a whole new role. RPG was the game play and you got play as MM in a 3D based environment. I got to say after taking a break from MM for a while and started to play maturer games like Metal Gear Solid and FFVII, i was wondering how this improved version of MM is going to be. Least to say it starts of alright. A completely different storyline is around and you slowly play yourself into it. You are still the same functioning Mega Man with his blast canon and what not but what i liked it this game is the added customization for your gun and armor. You do this by using money and parts(items) you find in the game. It is very cool the that is just it. The game has no direction and so you find yourself not knowing what to do most of the time. The aesthetics were lego like and it did not appeal to me for a MM game and i would think with new graphics it should of been better. To me it was not the same fun boss blasting game that i remembered. If i remember the boss were difficult and in general a hard game. The boundaries were small and you were either in one small city or another but still with no direction you were running around lost in these cities forever. It just became a cycle of nothing, that how i remembered that game.
So that is the first game that i can remember playing regularly and had me stick with the franchise for a while. These first MM games to me were creative and witty and to when you interact with the game you see this right before you eyes. Simply game-play with a good flow, clear objectives and easy rules all used cleverly to create a great game.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)