Malik
(1/28/13)
Another week went by
without a post. I'm not trying to be lazy on posting as much as I'm
just not finding the mental sharpness needed to write anything
coherent. However, unlike many other times without posting, I have
been doing things worthy of being posted about.
First off, as a fan of
both RPGs and puzzle games, I downloaded 10,000,000 off of Steam. In
simple terms, 10,000,000 is a game that combines the basics of a
simple indy RPG with the match three style of a Bejeweled, with a
touch of an endless run game. You have battles against time as you
run through a dungeon. Along the way, you face enemies which require
enough damage dealt to get past, and locked doors and treasures,
which require keys to open. To deal damage, you match three or more
sword or wands to deal physical and magical damage. To get past a
lock, you match three or more keys on your puzzle board. Along the
way, you also collect wood and ore from wood and ore tiles, shields
to up your defense with shield tiles, and increase your rewards by
matching backpack tiles. Unlike Bejeweled, this game uses a piece
movement style that has you shift entire rows and columns at a time
and as many spaces as you want to make your match. The endless run
part comes in by how you lose in a run through the dungeon; by
enemies or locks preventing your progress until you're pushed off
the edge of the screen.
The game also allows for
base building between runs. You can create shops to upgrade physical
and magical attacks, as well as your shield defense and your total
armor defense. There's also a shop to spend XP (earned from killing
enemies) and a shop to activate potions to add a small change to the
game play (such as gaining 20% of your wood and ore as gold, but
getting no wood and ore). You use your money to upgrade equipment,
wood and ore to upgrade and build out the shops, and experience to
get new abilities (bonus damage against dragons, for example). All
of these come together as you beat achievements in the dungeon to
open higher difficulty levels in the name of getting 10,000,000 or
more points, which equals beating the game.
I'd call 10,000,000 an
ideal game for puzzle fans and endless run fans. The only issue I
had, at all, was that the mouse controls can get a little too loose
at times. Still, for being a $5 game, you can't go wrong with this.
It took me about 10 hours to get to 10,000,000 points, and I could
easily go back to get a few more achievements, if that's a good
enough motivator.
I've also been playing
through some Far Cry 3. I don't have much to really say beyond the
basic summary of the game; it's an amazing open world FPS with a lot
of great game mechanics and flat out awesome graphics, and an
absolutely throw-away story.
I got the chance to play
the Wii U this weekend. I cannot say too much about it, since I only
played a little New Super Mario U and a little of The Cave (also
available on Steam, and another game I bought and finished with a
lot of reasons to go back to for more). I can say the Wii U game pad
is a pretty awesome bit of tech. The display on it makes me think a
lot of a medium level tablet. It's sharp, bright, and has a good
resolution. I also works wonderfully for the intended purpose of not
tying a person to their TV. If you want single player New Super
Mario U, you can play the entire game on the tablet. However, on the
downside, you cannot play multiplayer with the tablet controlling a
regular character. Still, after only playing about thirty minutes of
New Super Mario U, I really don't feel like I can give a good
opinion of the game...except that it at least feels less stale than
the other recent New Super Mario games.
The one thing I can say,
without a doubt, is that the Wii U, much like the Wii, makes a
strong and good first impression. I mean I would say I really want a
Wii U after my time with it. However, when I stop and think about
things, I can then say I'm not getting one. At least not yet. I need
to see the games, and see games that are exclusive. Otherwise, I'm
fine with Steam, and possibly whatever comes from Sony or Microsoft,
if they show that their next consoles are worth it.
Malik |