Game Review - Batman Arkham City

During the course of the break I recently played Batman Arkham City for the Playstation 3. It was an amazing experience as it had a good variety of things a player could do during gameplay. It takes place 18 months after the first game Batman: Arkham Asylum and it is set within the walls of Arkham City, a prison that holds the most dangerous people in Gotham.

Batman Arkham City

The gameplay was very smooth and easy to grasp. Since the game is in an open world environment the player controls Batman’s every move. I found this very interesting since I love super heroes and controlling Batman’s gadgets and being able to fly around allows me to be one with Batman, the Dark Knight.

Batman Arkham City: Batman gliding through the sky

The presentation of the game was flawless. It had a dark atmosphere, the colour scheme of the game fit it very well and the sound was appropriate with everything that was happening. Something I really enjoyed is when defeating an enemy a loud smash sound plays, it distinguishes when the player defeats someone compared to a regular hit, and this helps the player build their combo bar.

The balancing of the game between Batman’s strength compared to the enemy’s difficulty is well proportioned. The player can level up his or her defense, gadgets and other specialty moves but the strength of Batman never changes and as the game progresses the enemies become more difficult, adding guns and night vision. This forces the player to become better at the game and use the gadgets to their advantage.

Batman Arkham City: Batman taking on a bunch of street thugs

 
Since the game is a sequel the game developers had a chance to fix most of the bugs and problems players had from the first one. I believe they successfully accomplished this and because they learned from their mistakes this game was worth every penny. Overall I recommend this game to anyone that enjoys a good superhero game.

Overall the appeal of the game was great, it was very aesthetically pleasing, with great sounds and voice acting. The gameplay was amazing, I felt like I was walking in Batman’s shoes. The game has a lot of things to do, from side missions, to missions that allow the player to progress in the game, to beating the hell out of bad guys for no reason. A person could play this game for a very long time.    

PS Vita

Recently I purchased the Playstation Vita and have played it for couple hours. I believe the vita is ahead of all other handheld devices out there. The features the Vita has are insane! It can connect to your Playstation account to allow you to send messages, check trophies and even play games from your Playstation 3. It has a touch screen and a touch pad (located on the back), two joysticks, 3G or Wifi, front and back camera and six axis motion sensors. This hand held console is far superior to its predecessor the PSP.

I believe from a game design point of view, they created a system that would blow users away. The PSP Go that was release before the PSV did not earn many sales and let down a lot of the fans and users of Sony (including myself) so with this new and innovative product releasing, they had a lot of prove. Its vibrant OLED screen allows for beautiful images as well as crisp quality from games and videos. They created a device that would stand out from previous creations by Sony and also stand out from its competitors.

The creators of the Vita sat down and brainstormed ideas on how to create a product that people would enjoy, they expanded their target market to lure in more consumers so that sales would increase and costumers would be happy. The look and feel of the Vita needed to be balanced as well, it could not be too bulky or have too many features on it or it could become overwhelming and confusing. The style of the PSV is very sleek and easy to understand from the moment a player picks it up.

As of right now the only bad thing about the Playstation Vita is that there are not enough titles for the gaming device. However, this is to be expected as it was just released. Exciting game titles will be released in the future and I believe the Vita will be prosperous.

Magic the Gathering - Card Creation

I have created three cards for Magic the Gather and I believe they are balanced using the system we have created in class. Shelled Gator is a blue card that needs two blue and one colourless mana in order to summon it. Therefore the cost of the card would be seven (one cost point is added because the total amount of mana is five or more) this means that it would need seven benefit points to be balanced. I gave it three power points and three toughness points, because this card is a blue card it also gets one extra benefit point. The next card is Ninja of the Hidden Mask, his point system is four cost points and four benefit points. Shadow Assassin’s point system is seven cost points and seven benefit points. These cards are considered balance because both cost and benefit is equal for the player. 

Magic the Gathering - Created Card #1

Magic the Gathering - Created Card #2

Magic the Gathering - Created Card #3

Point System

Costs:

             Baseline                                          +1

             Each colourless mana                     +1

 Each colour mana                           +2

 Total mana cost of 5 or more          +1 (+2 for Green)

Benefits:

            Each 1 Power                                  +1

            Each 1 Toughness                           +1

Being a Red Creature                     +1

Being a Blue Creature                    +1

Recources In Games

Game Resource – Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out

When Does the Game Become Unbalanced?

I believe the game becomes unbalanced after the fifth match as the character is extremely hard. There are ways to defeating him however it becomes extremely challenging very fast. The opponents the player encounters before this are fairly easy but once you get to that round it becomes brutally frustrating.

Resource Graph

After looking at the resource graph it is evident that the game can be balanced more. Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out is a very challenging game where a player must go up the ranks to become a legendary boxer, beating the best boxers all around the world. There was one thing that the game was clearly missing and this was levelling up the player’s character. The enemies increase in speed and power however the player does not, he or she must increase their skill in the game in order to defeat the challenging boxers. The game becomes unfair when a boxer can knock you out in couple punches, if there was a levelling up system implemented so that after a certain amount of matches the character could increase in speed or power it would add another dimension to the game. It would allow the player to be more involved and also it allows them to choose whether they want their boxer to be either powerful or agile.

Mike Tyson's Punch-Out

There is something implemented in the game that allows it to be somewhat fair and that is after completing a certain amount of levels the player is given a password that allows them to start in the middle of the game. This permits the player to skip the beginning matches and go straight into the more difficult ones. This allows the player to be less aggravated because he or she would not have to keep replaying the same levels again and again.

Even though there is a way to skip the first matches the game can still be more balanced by introducing a leveling system. The player can increase their character and also become a better gamer from continuing to play the game. The battles will be less unfair and players would be less inclined to destroy their controller in frustration.  

Zombie Fluxx Discussion

Zombie Fluxx the Card Game

Zombie Fluxx the Card Game

 

Rules of the Game

The game is an adaptation to Fluxx. The player is dealt three cards and every turn he or she must draw one card and play one card. There are cards called keepers which a player must play in front of them to meet goals. Goals are cards that are played by the player and can be changed at any time. Once a player fulfills the existing goal he or she wins the game. There are also actions cards that allow the player to do something depending on what it says for example switch keepers with a player. As mentioned before there are basic rules which are draw one, play one however, players can also add rules on top of those which allow them to do something differently. For example instead of draw one, play one you can switch it to draw five and someone else could change play one to play four, so now the existing rule becomes draw five play four. There are other rules that could be played such as limit hand three, this means at the end of the turn the player must only have three cards or less if they do not, they must discard cards until their total cards in hand meets the existing rule. The zombie cards are incorporated in the deck as well. If a player picks up a creeper card they must play it immediately and draw again. There are some rules and actions that make the creeper cards either effect a player in a negative or positive way, for example if each player has a zombie card on their side of the field and the un-goal card is played it can stop the game and no one wins. 

Cards incorporated in game

a.      5 things you really liked about the game

Interesting, easy to pick up

The game is very interesting. There is a basic rule when starting the game however, depending on the players the rules of the game can change quickly. This allows Zombie Fluxx to stand out from many other cards games I have played since most games have standard rules.

Different with zombie cards (adds a twist)           

                               Playing Fluxx is very interesting but adding the Zombie cards adds a twist to the game. Players can feel like they are in the lead but during their draw they pick up a zombie card and must immediately play it. This can become either a good or bad thing. There is zombie cards that can stop the whole game and no one wins while others can make a player win if they have a certain amount of zombies.

Create your own rules

                This game is very unique in the sense that there are no set rules during the game. The player makes the rules depending on what he or she draws and plays, and players must quickly adapt to the new changes in order to win the game.

Idea of winning can switch at any time

                As mentioned before because the rules are always changing the goal (how to win) is always changing too. This keeps the game interesting and a player must always try to keep his or her strategy open to change.  

Strategic gameplay

                The game can be very strategic; one must think of what is in their hand, what their opponent has and what are the rules and goals during their turn. Another strategy a person would use is what might be played later so that he or she can be couple steps ahead of other players to get an advantage.

b.      5 things you really did not like about the game

A lot of luck

                As much as a player would want to strategize if other players draw the card they need they will win. There is no control during other player turns; if he or she obtains a card from the luck of the draw unfortunately there is not much one can do.

Loops – one player can continually keep playing

                During a game I played the deck was very low and there was no cards in the discard pile to reshuffle into the deck, because of this one player drew the play again card and there was a draw three rule in effect. Therefore every time he played it, it would get discarded and he would draw it again. This continued until he won the game.

During one person’s turn no one else can do anything

                 During a player’s turn he or she can do anything they choose once they follow the rules that are in play. No other player can interfere and that makes the game less interesting. I believe if they incorporated a quick play card that players could play during anyone’s turn it would give the game another dimension of fun. 

Only one of each card

Zombie Fluxx has a limited amount of cards. There are cards that should be duplicated in the deck to make players have a higher chance of obtaining what they need. If someone else has your card and you do not have an action card to switch your hand you are out of luck.

Player turns can last very long while others only take a few seconds, the game becomes very slow and people tend to get bored

                Zombie Fluxx’s game pace can move very slow depending on how many players you have and what they are playing during their turn. If one player only has keepers in their hand it will take them a few seconds for them to finish their turn however, if another player has multiple cards and many choices it will take them a long time to make a decision. If you are playing with six players it tends to get boring if you play in a few seconds and everyone else takes a couple of minutes. It will take a long time to get back to your turn and you become uninterested. 

How game looks during a play through

Pick at least one game design element in the game that you would have designed differently

Zombie Fluxx is a very interesting game; however there is one thing I would change in its game design. I believe the amount of cards in the deck is very small when playing with six players. If the game was played with four players or lower, the size of the deck would be ideal. In order to change this I would implement more cards into the game, some of the crucial cards would be doubled up and new cards could be added that players cannot control. They will be action cards that will be played like creepers whereas the player is forced to play it as soon as they draw it but these cards will affect the game immediately whether it is good or bad. As stated earlier the game is very well done, it has a different look on regular card games with set rules but if the deck was increased in size for six players and if it had action cards that players could not control it would add a more engaging and exciting experience.

And It Begins Again!!

After a well-deserved two week break I'm back into it and getting into things where I have to break down games and look at their core. This first week has been very good in the sense that I am getting settled into my classes and have met up with Team Smash.

This week I sat down with my group and played a card game called Zombie Fluxx. It was very interesting because it was very unconventional. I'm used to playing crazy eights, a game with set rules and only one way of winning. In this game I found that I had to be very strategic and plan out my moves because rules and goals kept changing. Rules and goals were played by players so at one point in the game I was drawing one card and playing one card and the goal was to have a gasoline and a car keeper. As I kept thinking of ideas to win using those specifications I realize the rules have changed, now I must draw 3 cards, play 2 cards and to win I needed a friend and a sandwich keeper. It kept the game interesting and I found if I were to make a game from scratch I would want it to be everlasting, in the sense that every time someone played it, it would be a new experience.

Zombie Fluxx Card Game

As of right now I have started reading "The Art of Game Design" by Jesse Schelle and I have to say it is very interesting. I have only gotten through the first couple pages but it has already gotten me to talk to myself and think about where I am right now and how I do things as a person wanting to be a game designer.

The Art of Game Design, By Jesse Schell

Reading this book is helping me understand how to be a successful game designer using all the skills I have plus becoming fearless enough to do things I am unsure about. Failing is something I must go through in order to create the game of my dreams and I believe I can achieve this goal if I reach out and try new and terrifying things.