Game Blogs :)

Not a lot of people remember that Lego Star Wars 3 was something that existed back in the day. For me, it was one of the first games I ever bought with my own money. I handed over a jar full of coins to the poor guy working at EB Games and he had to sort it out. Lego Star Wars 3 was based on the TV show The Clone Wars, which depicted all of the battles that took place between Star wars Episodes Two and Three. The Lego game was much like any other Star Wars Lego game. It had the same controls and gameplay but there were a few adjustments I appreciated as a kid.

To start off with, the story played through with a controlled choose your own adventure template. Once you completed the first mission, you had the ability to choose between three missions, each played like any other level, beat up some bad guys and beat the boss at the end. It was the choice of which level to complete first that was a real first for me. Having to choose a path or complete all three paths one bit at a time was completely up to me. I’d never had that freedom before and it was exciting.

Another thing that was exciting for me at that time was the upgraded graphics from their previous games. The details at the time were so flashy and brought more life to the little Lego characters. The Clone Wars designed characters were much more expressive than ever both in movement and in facial expressions. Even the gameplay had felt upgraded. Some characters could to a double backflip and wipe out a whole bunch of enemies, there were new vehicles to explore that at the time felt so real.

The best part of the game was the addition of a new game mode, which I have never seen since in a Lego game. An all out war mode. You could set a certain amount of credits per team and you could wage war as the Separatists or the Jedi against a friend. Each side had the same abilities but the designs were so different. The further you pushed your way down the map, the better the equipment you could get to win the battle against your opponent. I will never forget how amazing it was for me to experience that for the first time. I’d never felt so powerful while playing a game.

Lego Star Wars 3 is sadly one of the most underrated Lego games to ever exist. It was so innovative and fresh in its heyday but it seems to have been forgotten. It was a lovely game that I will cherish the memory of forever.

In the hype for Mortal Kombat 11, I’ve decided to take a look at NetherRealm’s previous installment of the Mortal Kombat franchise. I personally love NetherRealm and the games that they create. They are masters of the fighting game genre and will always be number 1 in that category for me. I’ve tried some great games like Tekken and Marvel Vs Capcom over the years but never have truly been as fun or engaging for me as the Mortal Kombat or Injustice games.

Mortal Kombat X was a real upgrade from their previous success of Injustice: Gods Among Us. They upgraded their graphics engine to the extent that all the gory details were visible in all their jaw-shattering, spine-crushing glory. This game is for sure not for the feint of heart. One of the many issues people have with this game is its violence and they’re not entirely wrong for having said issues. Fatalities that have players’ organs ripped from their throats to having characters tear them to literal shreds took the gore to an unnecessarily hilarious level. I believe their intentions were to make those fatalities so far fetched that it was just simply funny at times. Aside from the gory details (mind the pun), the game looks astonishing and I’m sure that they will continue to hold up over the years.

The gameplay for MKX was really grounded and brutal in nature. Somehow they managed to make lizard creatures and thunder gods seem grounded and normal. The ‘Kombat’ felt strong and hard-hitting. It felt real at times with the sheer force that the motion blur and animations of the characters both dealing and taking hits made it seem. Doing a simple light attack felt just as purposeful as launching a fireball at one of your enemies. That’s the way a fighter should feel. The addition of interactive environments made the game even more immersive in that if I wanted to tear a tree branch off and smack my opponent with it, I could.

The character design in this game really added some flair to the characters and their storylines. Scorpion was on the path of redemption after essentially being the cause of the apocalypse. His dark hood and leather-bound body armour seemed to show his darkness as a character and his outfit changes to a lighter one throughout the story. Sub Zero’s design is also very reflective of his character arc. His story is one of cleansing. He attempts to rebuild the clan he once belonged to and becomes the grandmaster of this clan. His outfit is regal in nature. Although he is bearded, showing wisdom, he is very clean-cut, showing discipline; the makings of a grandmaster of an ancient ninja clan.

It is clear to me that the developers put a lot of love and effort into this game. They wanted to make something special and I think they did. Although I am excited for Mortal Kombat 11, I hope that they don’t fall prey to copying and pasting everything from their last game into their new one, much like many companies do to their games in this day and age.

I recently visited a place called Trapt Bar. They specialise in escape rooms. I personally love the idea of a few friends and I putting our heads together to solve multiple puzzles to ear our escape. The service and staff of Trapt were lovely. Once we were there, we were immediately greeted and given tablets to watch and learn about the rules and restrictions of being in an escape room. We were taught about safety in the room and also about our ability to ask for clues, which would pop up in the form of a riddle. Once we were set to go, we were given the scenario. We were gang members during the time of prohibition. One of our fellow gang members has ratted us out and we need to escape before the police arrive.

In our first room we were met with a prison. Two holding cells and a locked door. We found two notes and a key. One note showed a symbol and some directions. The other told us to knock to the numbers located in the cell. We used the key to unlock the cell and found a deep jar with a note inside, the name Jimmy with numbers scribbled underneath and a bunch of letters on the wall corresponding with strange shapes. As it turns out, they were a part of a different puzzle. Embarrassingly, we got caught on this for quite some time. We were supposed to find a magnet hidden inside a jar, which we used to pull the note out. There, our code could be found. Knock twice, then thrice, then twice again. We did this a few times, it seems hat the staff didn’t realize we were doing it for a while until they unlocked the door. Unfortunately, it broke the fourth wall a little.

Soon, we were back in the game with a handful of new puzzles to solve. This time we were given two locked drawers, playing cards on the wall with strange shapes on them, another note and a rotary phone. The note had another symbol and directions. We used the rotary phone to call Jimmy whose number was left in the previous room. He told us the code to the drawer beside the phone. We opened it and found one note with a symbol and directions and another with a specific order of playing cards. We soon discovered that the order of playing cards would spell a word using the shapes ion the first room. It spelled out ‘Lenny’, which we used on the padlock to unlock the last drawer. In it, we were told that Lenny was the snitch who ratted us out. We were also given a fourth note with a symbol and directions on it and a key. We used this key on a keyhole in the wall, which opened up the final room.

In this room, we had to solve what seemed like a simple puzzle. We had a large map on the wall with a symbol in each corner representing north, south, east and west. The map came with legend to tell us that a single line meant a road, two thin lines meant an underground road and a dotted line meant a secret road. Each road had a letter along it. It was evident we had to use all four notes to spell out the words using the directions written on them. We had just discovered the words, however they were anagrams and we needed to spell them out properly. Each spelled out a number. First, Second, Third, Fourth. We then saw the padlock on the door leading to our exit with four letters on it. We needed to put north, south, east and west in order. South was first, east was second, north was third and west was last. The code being SENW. These led us to the exit and we were victorious.

I would highly recommend doing an escape room with some friends to test your skills or with some newer friends to bond with them. I find escape rooms to be a great test of knowledge and problem solving, making this a great experience in my book. Trapt Bar was a great place to start my addiction of escape rooms.

Crash Bandicoot has worked his way into the hearts of many millennials like myself. I remember fondly playing on my Playstaion, learning all of the cheat codes to send me as far deep into the game as possible since my memory card never worked. This nostalgia is part of the reason why I bought a PS4 when I found out Naughty Dog were remaking the original Crash Bandicoot games. I decided to review Naughty Dog’s ‘Crash Bandicoot The N-Sane Trilogy’ as playing it has recently taken over all of my spare time.

Starting things off with the original ‘Crash Bandicoot’ really got the nostalgia going. My memories of playing this game with my step siblings when we were kids are clear as day. They are some of my happiest memories. It was really exciting to see those memories come to life when PS1 Crash came to meet today’s graphic standards on Sony’s newest console. The ability to change into Coco Bandicoot – Crash’s little sister was a nice addition that I was not expecting. It’s little additions like this that makes me realize the love that Naughty Dog has for the games they make. In the excitement, I completely forgot how frustrating the game could be. It was completely unforgiving in gameplay especially the further you get into the game. As it turns out, they managed to make the game even more difficult by allowing crash to slide over the edge of cliffs and obstacles instead of simply stopping like he used to. It only made that much more exciting to win and beat Cortex at the end of the game.

While getting into Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, I noticed something I never notice when I played this as a child. The game got easier and more forgiving. There were more frequent masks to collect (which allowed you to be attacked by an enemy and still live) and the slide ability made making those pesky jumps so much easier. I found the gems to get were also easier to find or figure out how to get. You could tell that Naughty Dog wanted the more casual players to actually make it to the end of the story instead of quitting and never finishing it.

While playing Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, I found the game got even easier. The collection of gems and masks were much easier and I found that the gameplay was even more forgiving. The game continued to get easier as you could collect abilities as you defeat each boss. One ability allowed a double jump, making the game too easy in my opinion especially when mixed with the continuous spin ability. Some levels remained frustratingly difficult, but mainly as I attempted to collect the gems for the secret ending because I tend to be a bit of a completionist at times. As a casual player, I would love this game, but somebody who probably has far too much time to spare; I expected more of a challenge.

I believe Naughty Dog became too forgiving of their casual audience instead of those looking for a challenge. Their first game was difficult and made completing a level or beating a boss that much more thrilling. I understood that the sequel needed to be a little more forgiving to allow those casual players an easier experience rather than a too frustrating one. I think their third game was too easy. The addition of extra abilities like the double jump and continuous spin made completing a level no challenge at all. I found myself getting bored. As a child I never realized this but as an adult looking to be a part of the video game industry, I couldn’t help but notice that making a game too easy just simply does not make it fun. I missed Crash and I’m so glad to have the opportunity to return to the original games after my Playstation died. Nitpicks aside, I loved these games.

This week I visited the ACMI exhibit Game Masters. Game Masters is a highly interactive showcase that features some of the most influential game designers and games. The games on show move from arcade games (like Pac Man), to PC games (like World of Warcraft), to smartphone and tablet games – essentially the evolutionary scale of gaming. The goal of the exhibition is to show how games are made and the talent of their creators.

One of the many benefits of this exhibition is how engaging it is with over 100 interactive exhibits, which can get visitors of all ages interested in what’s on show at the museum. I’m personally more interested in what it takes to build a game from concept. This is what made the exhibition more engaging for me. Looking at concept art to building the characters and worlds to adding music and SFX to add more detail to the environments in game.

Blizzard Entertainment is one of the biggest names in the video game industry due to their hit success ‘World of Warcraft’ back in 2004 and now with ‘Overwatch’ which was released in 2016. Rare concept art and interviews from those at Blizzard can be seen in the exhibition. It is amazing to see that such a large company is happy to donate works of art and games to be played for this exhibition so that many like myself can learn and have fun while doing so.

Another good thing about this exhibition is that it allows local designers and developers opportunities to add their content to the exhibition. This could open entirely new doors for those struggling especially on the indie scene to make a name for themselves.

I would recommend visiting this exhibition before its end in 2020. It allows for a real peek into the industry for those like myself who wish to be a part of it. It also offers up a chance to join said industry by adding your own work.

I had trouble coming up with a good way to start my blog and I decided to begin with what is widely considered to be the best game in the ‘Arkham Trilogy’ (excluding Arkham Origins which was developed by WB Games Montreal instead of Rocksteady Studios). Batman: Arkham City managed to expand on the scale of Arkham Asylum in terms of the open world, story, sound and gameplay.

I understand why you may ask “why list gameplay last?” – let me explain. Rocksteady didn’t need to expand on the gameplay too much for the very highly received sequel. When developing ‘Arkham Asylum’, Rocksteady struck gold with a colour-based combat system that uses bright and flashing colours to tell you when an enemy will attack blended with a variety of combinations of mixing hand-to-hand with gadgets in combat. It really gave you the experience that you truly are The Batman. For Arkham City, they added a small list of shortcuts to quickly use gadgets in combat for a smoother flow in movement and gameplay. Some extra gadgets were added, like the freeze grenade, which gave a better experience with an even wider arsenal of weaponry.

I could have played happily without all of that solely based on the amazing story and soundtrack. The story begins with Bruce Wayne being captured by the sinister Dr Hugo Strange who runs Arkham City, built after the events of ‘Arkham Asylum’ to contain the criminals that the asylum could not. Strange announces he knows how Bruce spends his nights and sends him into the prison gift-wrapped for the inmates. Once you begin playing as The Batman, you already have several mysteries to unravel like “who is Hugo Strange?” “How does he know Batman’s Identity?” “What is Protocol 10?”. The story provides us with a dark trek into Batman’s psyche as he attempts to deal with his own mortality and cheat death to save Gotham and put an end to Hugo Strange’s plans. This rollercoaster of a story is backed up with an amazing soundtrack that sets the scene in a way a script never could. The main theme alone is enough to get the blood flowing and the Goosebumps risen.

Finally, the increase in size of the open world only added more depth to the story and world building. The idea of Arkham City is that it’s an old decrepit section of Gotham city that was turned into a giant prison for the inmates that could not be imprisoned in the asylum from the previous game. Gigantic walls that surround the city close in the map in a way that feels real for this world. A giant and vast looking Gotham surrounds the city outside the prison walls, all of it overlooked by Wonder Tower with it’s own self-sustaining city below it. By making the map larger, the developers could add more optional stories to be discovered the more you explore. You could save political prisoners from harm, find corpses left by a serial killer, track the assassin Deadshot and so much more. The city is also filled with multiple lower grade criminals all surveilling their respective land controlled by major criminals like The Penguin and Two-Face. You constantly hear these criminals speak about things like their thoughts on what’s happening so far in the story, their lives outside of prison, what other stories can be found in the city, etc. All of this adds to the atmosphere, making the world feel that much more real.

The Arkham Trilogy is one of the greatest and biggest achievements in game development. The colour based combat system alone has since been used in countless games due its simplicity and smooth gameplay. The most recent use of this system would be in Insomniac’s Spider-Man. Since it’s inception, that combat system has become slightly tiresome. However, Developers like Insomniac were able to keep it fresh with slight changes in gameplay and changes in the movement of the character. In comparison, Batman is a quick but bulky fighter whilst Spider-Man is a more agile and aerodynamic fighter. The point is, The Arkham Trilogy paved the way for third-person RPG games like Mad Max and Spider-Man both in gameplay and world building. Rocksteady with Arkham City set the standard for what makes these games great.