Comrade Rocket
Apr 16th, 2004, 01:22 AM
Okay, ive been playing a lot of games lately, and while they are supar fun there are some reocuring problems i have noticed with them.
1. Puzzles are fun and all, but make sure we can solve them without having to look it up.
I can not count how many times i have been in a game and come across a puzzle that doesnt make any sense what so ever. Okay, there are three symbols on the wall and the same three symbols on the floor. When i walk on the symbol nothing happens to the ones on the walls. The doors are shut and there is no way out. An hour and a half later im still stuck here, and i have even started the level over so i can make sure i didnt miss anything. Finally i give up and call up my friend or go online. It turns out i have to light myself on fire and walk across the symbols on the floor. This will light the symbols on the floor on fire. i have to make sure that all of them are lit at the same time... wait, what? (very similar to an actual puzzle found in a game)
2. Sure it looks pretty, but thats about it.
Look were glad you can make the characters look near real. Wow, those water effect look amazing. I dont think i have ever seen real-time weather that effects the landscape like that, did that enemy just flinch when i killed that other guy. Wow this game looks great, too bad it plays like shit. Car games, beat-em-ups even RPG's are starting to do this lately. The games graphics are crisp and clean, but it doesnt mean shit if i can't see anything because the camera got stuck behind or in a wall. Gameplay first, grahpics later.
3. Slowdown doesn't count as Bullet time.
No way, your characters are so detailed, and you have so many on screen at once, and i can see them so well because the game is lagging at about 11 FPS.
4. Controllers are not good keyboards
I've seen this in a lot of computer ports. When making a game you need to find out how to fit 20 actions or so on a 12 button controller. In orfer to do this move i have to hold A+C+right and left trigger and then move the joystick backwards and the make a quarter turn and fuck it, its not that an important move.
5. Multiple Plaforms means everyone can play it, and we will get 5 times the money.
Yeah, but it means that the PC people are going to have a great game, the Console people are going to have a version of the game that stripes away everything good about that great game, and the people with the GBA are going to get a side scrolling version of a great game.
6. Hmm, that was a fun game, too bad it only lasts about an hour (or) Hmm, that was a fun game, too bad i had to sit though a crappy story for 80+ hours.
Gametime is a touchy subject. On the one hand a game that has lots of cool features but only lasts about an hour can be fun but having to play the same few levels gets tired real fast. But on the other hand take the same game and make it too long the games story starts to deterate and get confusing, sometimes having to rely on old cliches in order to continue an already tired story.
7. Don't inclue a super cool move that you only use once.
A good example of this is Splinter Cell. In this game you get to do cool wall splits. They tell you how to do it in training, he does it in a cut scene, they even show him doing it in the commercial. How come i only found one place in the entire game were i get to use this? It was a nearly pointless move that was included for some reason i can only assume to make more people buy the game. Now i'm not saying the game wasn't fun, but it seemed like they could have done something else rather than include a pointless move.
8. Bikni's, Boobs, dirty jokes, sex scenes, tons of gore and violence does not a good game make.
Yeah, they can be fun when used in small doses. And sure, it sells movies, but base a game on one or more of these "themes" and its going to fail. The only people its going to appel to are middle school kids and there overly protective parents who will use it as good fodder to make games look bad.
Please note that all the above statements are in my own opinion. I think there is not one game that doesnt do atleast one of the things i listed. I still have yet to see a game that is flawless. I mighrt just be picky, but when i play a game i try to think of ways to improve it.
If you have any you would like to add to the list feel more that free too. Maybe some company will come across this and take it to mind when they make there next game.
1. Puzzles are fun and all, but make sure we can solve them without having to look it up.
I can not count how many times i have been in a game and come across a puzzle that doesnt make any sense what so ever. Okay, there are three symbols on the wall and the same three symbols on the floor. When i walk on the symbol nothing happens to the ones on the walls. The doors are shut and there is no way out. An hour and a half later im still stuck here, and i have even started the level over so i can make sure i didnt miss anything. Finally i give up and call up my friend or go online. It turns out i have to light myself on fire and walk across the symbols on the floor. This will light the symbols on the floor on fire. i have to make sure that all of them are lit at the same time... wait, what? (very similar to an actual puzzle found in a game)
2. Sure it looks pretty, but thats about it.
Look were glad you can make the characters look near real. Wow, those water effect look amazing. I dont think i have ever seen real-time weather that effects the landscape like that, did that enemy just flinch when i killed that other guy. Wow this game looks great, too bad it plays like shit. Car games, beat-em-ups even RPG's are starting to do this lately. The games graphics are crisp and clean, but it doesnt mean shit if i can't see anything because the camera got stuck behind or in a wall. Gameplay first, grahpics later.
3. Slowdown doesn't count as Bullet time.
No way, your characters are so detailed, and you have so many on screen at once, and i can see them so well because the game is lagging at about 11 FPS.
4. Controllers are not good keyboards
I've seen this in a lot of computer ports. When making a game you need to find out how to fit 20 actions or so on a 12 button controller. In orfer to do this move i have to hold A+C+right and left trigger and then move the joystick backwards and the make a quarter turn and fuck it, its not that an important move.
5. Multiple Plaforms means everyone can play it, and we will get 5 times the money.
Yeah, but it means that the PC people are going to have a great game, the Console people are going to have a version of the game that stripes away everything good about that great game, and the people with the GBA are going to get a side scrolling version of a great game.
6. Hmm, that was a fun game, too bad it only lasts about an hour (or) Hmm, that was a fun game, too bad i had to sit though a crappy story for 80+ hours.
Gametime is a touchy subject. On the one hand a game that has lots of cool features but only lasts about an hour can be fun but having to play the same few levels gets tired real fast. But on the other hand take the same game and make it too long the games story starts to deterate and get confusing, sometimes having to rely on old cliches in order to continue an already tired story.
7. Don't inclue a super cool move that you only use once.
A good example of this is Splinter Cell. In this game you get to do cool wall splits. They tell you how to do it in training, he does it in a cut scene, they even show him doing it in the commercial. How come i only found one place in the entire game were i get to use this? It was a nearly pointless move that was included for some reason i can only assume to make more people buy the game. Now i'm not saying the game wasn't fun, but it seemed like they could have done something else rather than include a pointless move.
8. Bikni's, Boobs, dirty jokes, sex scenes, tons of gore and violence does not a good game make.
Yeah, they can be fun when used in small doses. And sure, it sells movies, but base a game on one or more of these "themes" and its going to fail. The only people its going to appel to are middle school kids and there overly protective parents who will use it as good fodder to make games look bad.
Please note that all the above statements are in my own opinion. I think there is not one game that doesnt do atleast one of the things i listed. I still have yet to see a game that is flawless. I mighrt just be picky, but when i play a game i try to think of ways to improve it.
If you have any you would like to add to the list feel more that free too. Maybe some company will come across this and take it to mind when they make there next game.