I bought this the other day for DS. It's pretty cool as far as that whole "brain training" genre goes. This one is focused on building your vocabulary and to some extent, it works. I'm learning new words everyday.
The game runs very much like Brain Training. The idea is that you play a few games every day and it measures your competance at the games in some sort of scale where you can try and reach the top. It fails on a few levels.
Firstly, there way of helping you to learn these new words is by telling you what their definition is. The problem is that Dictionary definitions are often hard to grasp. What they need to do is put the words in some sort of context too. This would certainly help get the gist of how to use the word rather than just knowing what it means. When I was growing up, hell, even now, I use words in the wrong way or the wrong context because I "kind-of" know what it means but don't quite get it right or say it in the wrong way. This is a process of learning. It's only after someone picks you up on this, corrects you, that you learn what's really going on.
Another problem is that the character recognition is a bit off. The way I do an E is apparently not accepted. There were similar, but not as frequent, problems on Brain Training. The good thing is that it gives you ample time to correct it if it gets it wrong. Some of the games aren't as smooth or as well designed as Brain Training and this is something that is quite important to get right. The games in Brain Training were not the best of fun but they suited a purpose whereas there are times with the Word Coach that you wonder why you are doing this. There are no games that require much speed as they all involve reading definitions of words; this is not necessarily a bad thing but I often feel like I should be doing the games at speed when that sometimes works against me.
All in all, it's not a bad game and I hope it fits the purpose of teaching me new words and improving my speaking and writing but I feel like if this game were actually made by the same developers as Brain Training, it would be better.
75%
Showing posts with label Review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Review. Show all posts
Sunday, 27 January 2008
Saturday, 26 January 2008
Half Life 2 Episode 2 Review
So, I got round to playing it finally and I have to say, I was very impressed. I think the problem with Episode 1 was that, being the first of these episodic releases, you never knew how long it was going to be. There had been plenty of hype around this which was almost over-shadowed by the release of the Orange Box, which also contained, new releases, Portal and Team Fortress 2. Did it add up to the hype?
The first thing that is remarkable about this game is the setting and that was obviously going to change due to the end of the last episode. You do not start in a forest straight away however, as the ending of Episode 1 may have led you to believe. This game starts, more or less, in an Antlion nest, a cavey sort of place but being armed with nothing but the gravity gun at first is not easy. There are a different type of antlion too, these prefer to attack you with some sort of spray from afar. Then you make your way to the forests where you are given a car, different from the buggy, which helps you cruise the landscape with ease. You end up at a missile silo which delivers much of the familiar urban combat we're used to.
Another great thing about this game is all the new stuff they've added in this game. The creatures you come across are mostly the same, especially the soldiers as there is no change here but the best new enemy is the Hunter. These are a bit like Striders only a bit smaller. They are just bigger than a man and this makes them quite dangerous because they can enter buildings. They are difficult to kill, will take up a lot of ammo and have two attacks; one being rapid-fired, it hits you and then explodes and the other is a charging tackle which sends flying into the air. You are able to run them over which is a relief to find out when you get the car. In terms of new weapons, there is the Magnusson Device. Not technically a weapon because you cannot select it in your inventory, the Magnusson Device is fired using the gravity gun to the underbelly of the Striders which it sticks to. These explode and blow the Strider up. These are dotted all around one particular part of the map where you are under attack from Striders and Hunters.
The gameplay parts are fantastic, it seems amazing how many new ideas keep coming from the same world and the same series. What Valve are best at is making sure the player knows where to go and what to look at without thinking that they are being guided through. This is done by using set-pieces in a fantastic way and by prompting players rather than forcing them. If a player wanted to give something else a go, they could but they'd probably fail and enjoy the game a little less because of it. The set battles are always fresh because the scenery differs enough for each battle to be different. Puzzles are always fun to accomplish because they are always different but always still conform to the logic of the universe you are in.It goes the same for character building. The characters are well established with great voice acting on every part. Particularly compelling in this episode was the voice of the Vortigaunt who leads you underground to save Alyx.
When it comes down to it, some people may say that this game is a little short (I completed it in one sitting) but the fun and excitement you get out of it is the kind that makes you go back and do it again. These episodes are designed to be short and contain more story. If they weren't so short then they'd take a lot longer for Valve to churn out and that is certainly something I don't want!
All in all, a great episode and I now cannot wait for Episode 3.
95%
The first thing that is remarkable about this game is the setting and that was obviously going to change due to the end of the last episode. You do not start in a forest straight away however, as the ending of Episode 1 may have led you to believe. This game starts, more or less, in an Antlion nest, a cavey sort of place but being armed with nothing but the gravity gun at first is not easy. There are a different type of antlion too, these prefer to attack you with some sort of spray from afar. Then you make your way to the forests where you are given a car, different from the buggy, which helps you cruise the landscape with ease. You end up at a missile silo which delivers much of the familiar urban combat we're used to.
Another great thing about this game is all the new stuff they've added in this game. The creatures you come across are mostly the same, especially the soldiers as there is no change here but the best new enemy is the Hunter. These are a bit like Striders only a bit smaller. They are just bigger than a man and this makes them quite dangerous because they can enter buildings. They are difficult to kill, will take up a lot of ammo and have two attacks; one being rapid-fired, it hits you and then explodes and the other is a charging tackle which sends flying into the air. You are able to run them over which is a relief to find out when you get the car. In terms of new weapons, there is the Magnusson Device. Not technically a weapon because you cannot select it in your inventory, the Magnusson Device is fired using the gravity gun to the underbelly of the Striders which it sticks to. These explode and blow the Strider up. These are dotted all around one particular part of the map where you are under attack from Striders and Hunters.
The gameplay parts are fantastic, it seems amazing how many new ideas keep coming from the same world and the same series. What Valve are best at is making sure the player knows where to go and what to look at without thinking that they are being guided through. This is done by using set-pieces in a fantastic way and by prompting players rather than forcing them. If a player wanted to give something else a go, they could but they'd probably fail and enjoy the game a little less because of it. The set battles are always fresh because the scenery differs enough for each battle to be different. Puzzles are always fun to accomplish because they are always different but always still conform to the logic of the universe you are in.It goes the same for character building. The characters are well established with great voice acting on every part. Particularly compelling in this episode was the voice of the Vortigaunt who leads you underground to save Alyx.
When it comes down to it, some people may say that this game is a little short (I completed it in one sitting) but the fun and excitement you get out of it is the kind that makes you go back and do it again. These episodes are designed to be short and contain more story. If they weren't so short then they'd take a lot longer for Valve to churn out and that is certainly something I don't want!
All in all, a great episode and I now cannot wait for Episode 3.
95%
Friday, 7 December 2007
Assassin's Creed Review
With so many popular franchises dominating the Xbox 360's release lists this Christmas, it was a wonder that such an unheard of, new title was getting so much hype. They had all of the right criteria for the game; an distinguishably cool lead character, an extremely original setting, beautiful looking visuals and a great concept. What could go wrong?
Throughout the game you play as a man who has been caught by police and who is being run through a machine, called the Animus, that allows him to act out his ancestors life story. This, in turn, is supposed to implicate him to some crime or other that he has commit. His ancestor is a man named Altair, a member of the assassins creed in the time of the third crusade. He has gone on a mission and broken the rules and as such has lost all of his privileges as an assassin and has to start from the bottom again. To repay his sins he is asked to assassinate 9 evil men. This is where the game begins.
The control system relies on two levels of control. The first being low-profile; it involves things like blending into a crowd, moving through a crowd inconspicuously and basically moving around in a manner that does not arise suspicion. The second is high-profile and this is activated by holding down the left trigger. This changes the actions of all of the face buttons. It also makes you run instead of walking. This is where the fun stuff comes in. Here you can attack guards and you can run through crowds and knock people out of the way. It also opens up the climbing and free running that makes this game special. Altair's greatest ability is his manoeuvrability. This allows him to escape the chase of the city guards. The way this works is that everything is scalable. The architecture of buildings has been designed in such a way that they are perfect for climbing, given the agility of Altair. Creases, cracks and other features allows him to climb pretty much any wall and when atop the buildings it allows him to leap from building to building. It is a very easy control system, worked by holding two buttons and guiding a direction. Altair does all the hard work of actually climbing and jumping himself but this allows you to look further into the distance to see where you need to be going. It's a fantastic system and it really makes for exciting play.
For about ten minutes...
The problem with this game lies in its layout. For each of the 9 men you have been asked to kill, you have to complete three tasks before you know where and how to kill him. These involve four different missions; Eavesdropping (sitting on a bench and listening), Pickpocketing (walking up behind a designated person and holding B), Interrogation (beating someone up) and performing tasks for an informant (either killing someone or collecting flags). These mini-games, if you can even call them mini-games, are the thing that really destroys these games. These become more of a tedious chore than anything merely because they are easy and pointless. They provide you with information but it never feels like this information is important enough to listen to because you know you are going to be told where to go afterwards anyway.
After performing these tasks, you are to go and assassinate the man, which is another disappointing moment. Some are extremely easy but quite satisfying; you stalk your man until his back is turned and then deliver one swift blow, or they involve a basic sword fight. Which is difficult and boring. After this, you have to run from the scene and escape the guards which somehow is turned from a fun and exciting prospect into extreme frustration. The tactic I would have most often adopted would be to fight a few of them off and then turn and run when there are less to run from. This is nigh on impossible as the targeting system won't let you stop fighting half the time, meanwhile you are getting hacked to pieces. It does not allow for the free flowing game that I thought this was going to be. The game goes on like this all the way through and it gets very repetitive.
Because of the stories set-up, you are trying to follow two stories and because of this, I found that I couldn't care less about either. I stopped listening to the dialogue and lost track but I still didn't really care much. The whole idea of having a secondary universe in the modern day feels like a stupid and pointless idea which only slows the game down. In this mode, you can't run or perform any action, you can only do things when told to. It makes the entire game feel fake when they could have just set it in Altair's time and be done with it.
The good thing about this game is that the visuals are stunning. You spend your time in one of three cities; Acre, Jerusalem and Damascus, all of which have great architectural presence and look great. People walking through the streets make for a busy atmosphere and this adds to the mentality of the city and the general feel of the game. Outside the cities, the scenery is beautiful, it looks realistic but at the same time dreamlike. The costumes of the characters adds to the drama and when you're sitting atop one of the many tall towers that help you get your bearings, the detail in the scenery is amazing.
Assassin's Creed is not a bad game by any means. It lacks depth. How the designers could comprehend that people wouldn't get bored, though, is beyond me. For a game with such promise and originality, its a shame to see it go this way. Some varied missions and a bit more work on the fighting would have gone a very long way.
68%
Throughout the game you play as a man who has been caught by police and who is being run through a machine, called the Animus, that allows him to act out his ancestors life story. This, in turn, is supposed to implicate him to some crime or other that he has commit. His ancestor is a man named Altair, a member of the assassins creed in the time of the third crusade. He has gone on a mission and broken the rules and as such has lost all of his privileges as an assassin and has to start from the bottom again. To repay his sins he is asked to assassinate 9 evil men. This is where the game begins.
The control system relies on two levels of control. The first being low-profile; it involves things like blending into a crowd, moving through a crowd inconspicuously and basically moving around in a manner that does not arise suspicion. The second is high-profile and this is activated by holding down the left trigger. This changes the actions of all of the face buttons. It also makes you run instead of walking. This is where the fun stuff comes in. Here you can attack guards and you can run through crowds and knock people out of the way. It also opens up the climbing and free running that makes this game special. Altair's greatest ability is his manoeuvrability. This allows him to escape the chase of the city guards. The way this works is that everything is scalable. The architecture of buildings has been designed in such a way that they are perfect for climbing, given the agility of Altair. Creases, cracks and other features allows him to climb pretty much any wall and when atop the buildings it allows him to leap from building to building. It is a very easy control system, worked by holding two buttons and guiding a direction. Altair does all the hard work of actually climbing and jumping himself but this allows you to look further into the distance to see where you need to be going. It's a fantastic system and it really makes for exciting play.
For about ten minutes...
The problem with this game lies in its layout. For each of the 9 men you have been asked to kill, you have to complete three tasks before you know where and how to kill him. These involve four different missions; Eavesdropping (sitting on a bench and listening), Pickpocketing (walking up behind a designated person and holding B), Interrogation (beating someone up) and performing tasks for an informant (either killing someone or collecting flags). These mini-games, if you can even call them mini-games, are the thing that really destroys these games. These become more of a tedious chore than anything merely because they are easy and pointless. They provide you with information but it never feels like this information is important enough to listen to because you know you are going to be told where to go afterwards anyway.
After performing these tasks, you are to go and assassinate the man, which is another disappointing moment. Some are extremely easy but quite satisfying; you stalk your man until his back is turned and then deliver one swift blow, or they involve a basic sword fight. Which is difficult and boring. After this, you have to run from the scene and escape the guards which somehow is turned from a fun and exciting prospect into extreme frustration. The tactic I would have most often adopted would be to fight a few of them off and then turn and run when there are less to run from. This is nigh on impossible as the targeting system won't let you stop fighting half the time, meanwhile you are getting hacked to pieces. It does not allow for the free flowing game that I thought this was going to be. The game goes on like this all the way through and it gets very repetitive.
Because of the stories set-up, you are trying to follow two stories and because of this, I found that I couldn't care less about either. I stopped listening to the dialogue and lost track but I still didn't really care much. The whole idea of having a secondary universe in the modern day feels like a stupid and pointless idea which only slows the game down. In this mode, you can't run or perform any action, you can only do things when told to. It makes the entire game feel fake when they could have just set it in Altair's time and be done with it.
The good thing about this game is that the visuals are stunning. You spend your time in one of three cities; Acre, Jerusalem and Damascus, all of which have great architectural presence and look great. People walking through the streets make for a busy atmosphere and this adds to the mentality of the city and the general feel of the game. Outside the cities, the scenery is beautiful, it looks realistic but at the same time dreamlike. The costumes of the characters adds to the drama and when you're sitting atop one of the many tall towers that help you get your bearings, the detail in the scenery is amazing.
Assassin's Creed is not a bad game by any means. It lacks depth. How the designers could comprehend that people wouldn't get bored, though, is beyond me. For a game with such promise and originality, its a shame to see it go this way. Some varied missions and a bit more work on the fighting would have gone a very long way.
68%
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