Thomas is alone is a puzzle platformer which looks so simple, i mean quadrilaterals moving and jumping. Its however the outer simplicity which is visible. Deep inside it is pretty complex. The first thing that struck me was this game sounded awesome . The music was enchanting and was simply beautiful. There was very little ambient sound which interfered with the music. Thus cementing my view that music/sound is one of the (maybe the most important) important factor which provides the feel for the game.
The other complex part about this is the level design. To make it fun the puzzles must be challenging and fun. Level design is pretty strong and varied. Most of the time it pushed me to check out the higher levels.
Story wise i am not really sure right now where i am. I know its something about some malfunctioning code in some AI network. These quadrilaterals are supposed to represent some kind of abnormality in the network.
I am right now around 4 levels into game, I will post more once i complete the game. So my thoughts till now "A worthy game to check out, something new i guess"
Hey guys, I am back...... So i was feeling bored and decided on reviving this blog, maybe something useful will come out of it or maybe not, only time will tell. So Skyrim, I got this off the steam summer sale for around $29 and yeah this was an awesome deal. I started playing it on a Friday evening, played it through the weekend and by Tuesday i had clocked an impressive 25 HOURS!!. That's how impressive this game is. It starts out kinda slow but then catches up like crazy. You will find yourself just roaming around the gorgeous landscape , looking for quests which are not even remotely linked to your main quest and yet feel satisfied. It is virtually impossible for a thorough review of such an extensive game but yeah i can probably pull out the core points and put it out there. This game is not perfect though, it has a lot of stuff which if fixed would have made the gameplay even better. LET THE REVIEW BEGIN!!!!!
Story As before no spoilers here, so i am not gonna say anything but the fact that the main storyline at least for me did not feel thaaaat important. What i mean to say is that the side quests are so well done that there is hardly much of a distinction between the main ones and the side ones. There was a definite lack of urgency to finish the main quest. It felt like i did not even need to do the main quest, there was basically a lack of motivation behind doing the main quest.
All that said, the story line is quite epic, ( slaying Dragons). It would have been awesome if there was more importance was given to the main quest , this would have also made the storyline quite strong.
Graphics:
The graphics are (One Word) GORGEOUS. Beautiful varied landscapes, brilliant lighting indoors and painstakingly meticulously detailed game objects.
I ran it on my laptop which has a gtx560m and it ran so beautifully that a tear drop rolled down my eye!!!. I would definitely consider this as one of the best looking games out there. Animations are pretty good but they seem kinda stiff sometimes (Facial animations ) and the run cycles of certain animals in the game seem kinda weird
Gameplay:
Skyrim offers the player such a wide array of choices that its baffling. There are so many things a player can do in Skyrim apart from the normal exploration stuff. Some examples include
Smithing : Craft awesome armor and use that armor to look cool !!!
Alchemy : Make awesome potions which will aid you when the going gets tough.
Enchanting : Make your weapons ultra strong, scorching shocking sword anyone??
There are more smaller stuff you can actually do.
The number of side-quests is mind blowing. I have personally clocked over 15hrs (and continuing) on side quests. They are varied and some of them (actually most of them are intricate in nature).
Combat in first person is definitely an improvement when compared to oblivion. The third person sometimes feels glitchy, but who uses third person anyway :).
Sound:
Sound is one aspect often neglected in games, but nowadays its changing. The Skyrim score (by Jeremy soule) is pretty awesome. Sound effects are clear and voice acting is top notch. Wow it is tough to find any faults with this game.....:P
Immersion Rating:
Well this is a personal rating of mine which i have thought about myself.
This is basically the factor by which the player feels hes an integral part of the story, gameplay in other words feels immersed.
The given game might have
Awesome Graphics
Great gameplay
etc etc
But it doesnt mean that it has to be immersive......It should have a combination of all the good characteristics.
I have kept this rating out of 5 and the following points give the idea:
rating 1/5 :
Poor immersion rating,you dont feel like playing the game at all.
rating 2/5:
Some aspect is good but other aspects drag it down and you feel bored of playing after a short time.
rating 3/5:
Feels awesome when you play it the first time and then the
gameplay gets to you (like repetitive gamelay) and you feel like
feel like just finishing off the game in a hurry.
rating 4/5:
Feels awesome throughout the game with a lot of OMG(oh my
God moments) in between.Some very slight bugs may bring you
back to reality.
rating 5/5:
This score denotes "Gaming Nirvana", The game just drags you in.You forget where you are and get completely lost in the game,
very few games get this rating.
So for Skyrim it would definitely be 5/5.
It is a crazy game which is a must play!!! Well made Bethesda. \m/
No spoilers here,don't worry.You play as Alex Mason throughout the game unlike the normal Call of duty tradition of having multiple characters.Now Mason here is a special operations soldier who is being interrogated by some people whom you will find out when you play the game.
The games story unfolds as a set of memories which connect to each other rather well and yes ends quite well too.
The best part of the story is that it pulls you in.Highly Immersive.
Graphics:
Well the graphics are good.But poorly optimized at least for the pc version.I had so many instances of "Dirty lag" and that used to persist regardless of whatever graphics settings changes i made.
Then they released 4 patches in succession and most (i say most ) of the lag is gone although it could have been optimized. It seriously destroys the experience when there is lag.
Now that we have the "lag" out of the picture.Lets look at the aspects of the graphics.Well the character models have improved.The Environment looks better (More glowy).Lighting has been improved and is awesome. But nowhere close to Crysis realism.
The fire and smoke effects all seem to be the same as that in Modern Warfare 2.
Gameplay:
Ok so this is the part where Black Ops shows its mettle.Single-Player is filled with highly intense action.Gunfire,explosions,enemy shouts all blended in.
I felt like an integral part of the story and ya there are certain missions that seriously leave you adrenaline pumped.
I got to mention one more thing the Explosive tipped crossbows are sweet.
Sound:
Sound is something which could have been improved,nowhere as compared to that of Dice Entertainment ( Bad Company 2 ,Medal of Honor)
But it does its work properly
Immersion Rating:
Well this is a personal rating of mine which i have thought about myself.
This is basically the factor by which the player feels hes an integral part of the story,in other words feels immersed.
The given game might have
Awesome Graphics
Great gameplay
etc etc
But it doesnt mean that it has to be immersive......It should have a combination of all the good characteristics.
I have kept this rating out of 5 and the following points give the idea:
rating 1/5 :
Poor immersion rating,you dont feel like playing the game at all.
rating 2/5:
Some aspect is good but other aspects drag it down and you feel bored of playing after a short time.
rating 3/5:
Feels awesome when you play it the first time and then the
gameplay gets to you (like repetitive gamelay) and you feel like
feel like just finishing off the game in a hurry.
rating 4/5:
Feels awesome throughout the game with a lot of OMG(oh my
God moments) in between.Some very slight bugs may bring you
back to reality.
rating 5/5:
This score denotes "Gaming Nirvana", The game just drags you in.You forget where you are and get completely lost in the game,
very few games get this rating.
So for Black Ops it would definitely be 4/5.
Note it would have easily achieved 5/5 if that lag wasn't present.
So i have been caught up with a lot of stuff lately....and i did find blogging boring at first....but i decided that blogging in fact is pretty awesome so here i am back....
P.S: I dunno what caused this revelation to come up..
So from now on every game i play.....I will REVIEW..........:D
So this time i got a game from the Wild wild West.I have played the previous version and yes the 2nd version is actually better.So lets look at the various aspects of the game.
Story:
Bound in Blood is a prequel to that of the previous Call of Juarez game and is infact the story of Ray before he became a Priest.Im not going to spoil the story but it is in fact very immersing and touching.
Graphics:
Uses the Chrome 4 engine which is heavily optimised and hence it can run on low end rigs also.
The environments are beautiful from the lush jungles to the rocky canyons.Everything gives you a feeling that you are in the West.
Although i must point out that the facial animations of the characters are pretty stiff and not realistic.
Gameplay:
Bound in blood excels in this area.Gameplay is immersive and the guns all sound realistic.The AI does a pretty decent job and the foes get tougher as you go further into the game.
Immersion Rating:
Well this is a personal rating of mine which i have thought about myself.
This is basically the factor by which the player feels hes an integral part of the story,in other words feels immersed.
The given game might have
Awesome Graphics
Great gameplay
etc etc
But it doesnt mean that it has to be immersive......It should have a combination of all the good characteristics.
I have kept this rating out of 5 and the following points give the idea:
rating 1/5 :
Poor immersion rating,you dont feel like playing the game at all.
rating 2/5:
Some aspect is good but other aspects drag it down and you feel bored of playing after a short time.
rating 3/5:
Feels awesome when you play it the first time and then the
gameplay gets to you (like repetitive gamelay) and you feel like
feel like just finishing off the game in a hurry.
rating 4/5:
Feels awesome throughout the game with a lot of OMG(oh my
God moments) in between.Some very slight bugs may bring you
back to reality.
rating 5/5:
This score denotes "Gaming Nirvana", The game just drags you in.You forget where you are and get completely lost in the game,
very few games get this rating.
So for COJ :Bound in Blood the appropriate rating would be 3/5 (Note : this is just my opinion and hence you can have yours too ,the immersion rating generally takes your personal likes and dislike into account too)
Conclusion:
In Conclusion an awesome game which is highly optimised, though the gameplay might get repetitive it is defnitely enjoyable and is definitely one of the better games that have been released till now in 2009)
