Dylan LawrenceThe Return of the Blogger and New Games to Come
July 7th 2010 17:52
Well, I've been gone for a while (420 days if anyone was counting). However, I'd like to pick this blog back up and get new articles coming up. My goal is one good news post a week.
Coming off of E3 there's a lot of new gaming news to discuss. I'll be starting with the new Xbox Kinect. Taking a note from the success Nintendo's Wii had with motion control, Microsoft is bringing out their own motion control system. Unlike the Wii however, there is no physical peripheral to use while playing. Instead, a camera mounted in the device reads your movements and uses those are game inputs.
My favorite display of the Kinect was for racing games. I'm not a huge fan of this genre of games, but the presentation was intriguing. Driving the cars is like holding an imaginary steering wheel. My problem was they never explained the acceleration system. It left me with the question of, does it just accelerate to top speed and I have to deal with it, or is there some way to break? Other than that, the gamer experience looked fun, though I think having a physical wheel to hold, like the Wii has is a little more realistic.
The reason I like the presentation however was not for the main portion of the game. The real gem, at least in my opinion, was the car gallery mode. In this mode you can select a car and examine every part of it. It's like being at an expensive car show, but much more real. You can zoom in and hear details on every piece of the car, and look at it from every angle. But, the most exciting part of gallery mode is being able to sit in the cars. Not only can you examine every interior control and look from the driver seat, you can start the engine and drive the car.
Kinect has a lot of games coming out, a few kid friendly ones where you can take care of pets, pet them, feed them, etc. And then, what everyone who hears about motion control hopes for, a lightsaber game. Now, you get force powers, and you can deflect lasers, but the whole game is on rails. You get no forward or backward controls, and as in all Star Wars games, the people with guns walk up to you. Realistically, no one would do that. The limits Kinect has in those respects seems to ruin the realism motion control brings.
I am a computer gamer myself though. Motion control has never really been brought to the computer, though many programmers have hacked Wii-motes to work as mice. I'd like to give a taste of the game I've been spending most of my time in lately, Mount and Blade: Warband. I play a few medieval fighting games. Mount and Blade is currently approaching my favorite though. The story mode is fun, time consuming, and challenging, but the feeling of leading your army against one hundred enemies is very compelling.
This games real appeal is the multiplayer. Each player join an empire (from the story mode) and begins fighting in one of many game modes. Each empire gets specific weapon and armor. These are bought before you spawn. Servers set their own gold limit, but you generally start off with about 1500 gold. Using this you can customize your loadout for how you want to play. Each faction gets different styles of troops as well. For example the Kherghite Kharnate (based off of Mongols) have two classes, Horse Archer and Lancer. Both classes can ride horses, though they don't have to.
The hardest part of multiplayer however is the melee fighting. One handed weapons and shields are good, but they have low reach and damage. Two-handers have further reach and damage, but require manual block. What does this mean? All melee weapons get at least two attack varieties, most have four. These are overhand, stab, and horizontal slash to the left or right. Blocks come in four styles as well, up, down, and left or right side. These block all the attack varieties. Shields will block most hits from the front, but can be circled around or broken overtime.
The combat system is Mount and Blade is very intricate and requires a lot of time to perfect. I've been playing for about a week now and still am not very good with manual blocking. If you happen to have the game, try to find me. I usually play on USA_CENTRAL_POM or USA_WEST_POM, these are the best populated American servers. I play under the name Cat_Snake.
Hope you enjoy the read and check back next week for a new article.
Coming off of E3 there's a lot of new gaming news to discuss. I'll be starting with the new Xbox Kinect. Taking a note from the success Nintendo's Wii had with motion control, Microsoft is bringing out their own motion control system. Unlike the Wii however, there is no physical peripheral to use while playing. Instead, a camera mounted in the device reads your movements and uses those are game inputs.
My favorite display of the Kinect was for racing games. I'm not a huge fan of this genre of games, but the presentation was intriguing. Driving the cars is like holding an imaginary steering wheel. My problem was they never explained the acceleration system. It left me with the question of, does it just accelerate to top speed and I have to deal with it, or is there some way to break? Other than that, the gamer experience looked fun, though I think having a physical wheel to hold, like the Wii has is a little more realistic.
The reason I like the presentation however was not for the main portion of the game. The real gem, at least in my opinion, was the car gallery mode. In this mode you can select a car and examine every part of it. It's like being at an expensive car show, but much more real. You can zoom in and hear details on every piece of the car, and look at it from every angle. But, the most exciting part of gallery mode is being able to sit in the cars. Not only can you examine every interior control and look from the driver seat, you can start the engine and drive the car.
Kinect has a lot of games coming out, a few kid friendly ones where you can take care of pets, pet them, feed them, etc. And then, what everyone who hears about motion control hopes for, a lightsaber game. Now, you get force powers, and you can deflect lasers, but the whole game is on rails. You get no forward or backward controls, and as in all Star Wars games, the people with guns walk up to you. Realistically, no one would do that. The limits Kinect has in those respects seems to ruin the realism motion control brings.
I am a computer gamer myself though. Motion control has never really been brought to the computer, though many programmers have hacked Wii-motes to work as mice. I'd like to give a taste of the game I've been spending most of my time in lately, Mount and Blade: Warband. I play a few medieval fighting games. Mount and Blade is currently approaching my favorite though. The story mode is fun, time consuming, and challenging, but the feeling of leading your army against one hundred enemies is very compelling.
This games real appeal is the multiplayer. Each player join an empire (from the story mode) and begins fighting in one of many game modes. Each empire gets specific weapon and armor. These are bought before you spawn. Servers set their own gold limit, but you generally start off with about 1500 gold. Using this you can customize your loadout for how you want to play. Each faction gets different styles of troops as well. For example the Kherghite Kharnate (based off of Mongols) have two classes, Horse Archer and Lancer. Both classes can ride horses, though they don't have to.
The hardest part of multiplayer however is the melee fighting. One handed weapons and shields are good, but they have low reach and damage. Two-handers have further reach and damage, but require manual block. What does this mean? All melee weapons get at least two attack varieties, most have four. These are overhand, stab, and horizontal slash to the left or right. Blocks come in four styles as well, up, down, and left or right side. These block all the attack varieties. Shields will block most hits from the front, but can be circled around or broken overtime.
The combat system is Mount and Blade is very intricate and requires a lot of time to perfect. I've been playing for about a week now and still am not very good with manual blocking. If you happen to have the game, try to find me. I usually play on USA_CENTRAL_POM or USA_WEST_POM, these are the best populated American servers. I play under the name Cat_Snake.
Hope you enjoy the read and check back next week for a new article.
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