So let's talk about LA Noire, better yet, lets not. I have never been so turned off by a game in the first five minutes in my entire gaming life. I understand that most games give you a bit of game play to figure out how the world works but at a certain point I expect them to cut the strings and let me go. It was like GTA with railroad tracks going through the middle. It hurt to play.
Maybe I need to explain. I love the Grand Theft Auto series because when they put me behind the wheel of a vehicle they aren't going to auto fail whatever I am doing because I happened to strike a few jay walking pedestrians. In L.A Noire one of the first things they teach me to do is drive the car that has all the maneuverability of the Titanic. Well whatever says I. How much driving could there be? Apparently a lot. I either have to run to where I am going or drive the car. If I hit to many people I fail whatever it is I am doing and yet even with the siren on no one really seems motivated to get out of may way. I had fun testing this when driving at the speed of a steamroller toward a pedestrian in the road. I have to say the most fun I've had with the car is jumping in and letting my partner chase me around the city.
So fine whatever, driving sucks, nothing new here. So I am going along doing my police officer thing when I fail my first interrogation. Oh no! I leave the room my boss chews me out and then I get to start over. Again, again, and again. At no point are there any consequences for failing other than I'm not allowed to skip the cut scenes. I thought this was a fluke so later on I get it right and move on about my life. I decide to catch a random criminal whose decided to run off in the same direction I am going anyway. Oops the guy gets away, whatever. No wait. Now I'm back in the car having to decide if I really wanted to go get him. I once again don't have the option to fail. Lucky me this time I have the option to ignore.
It seems like everything I do in this game turns into some tedious task. I'm playing a game to have fun not do it til I get it right. There are times when I want to fail because I don't want to do things a certain way. Don't imply there will be consequences then say I can't actually chose to take them. It's irritating.
Moving on. As far as looks, the game is pretty. I found Heavy Rain to be prettier but L.A Noire is more cute. They have old fashioned music that really tries to bring you into the world (before game play makes you hate it) and some cut scenes about the guys past that make you feel for the character. Even logging in you get to choose your menu option and it flashes on the wall like a shadow. One thing I found hysterical was that when you get close to a clue you get special music and the remote starts to vibrate but it also gave me the vibe of skill not required. I don't like having my hand held in games. Don't give me a mystery then solve it for me. Once again, it's aggravating.
Now I'm not saying there are no redeeming values in the game I'm just having trouble finding enough of them for me to keep playing. I found the driving to distracting from the game play for me to get very involved. It seems every other moment I'm back in the car or running after someone. Long story short this game doesn't float my boat and will probably be going back to the store as a down payment on one of the games coming out in the near future. We'll see.
Corset moving back to fantasy games,
Signing off.
Showing posts with label gaming. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gaming. Show all posts
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Don't Rest Your Head
Well guys, it has been a bit since I have done a RPG so today I will do a quick run down of one I just finished reading. Now if you want a twenty page break down of every little detail, I'll save you the effort, I write these game blurbs so people can say 'huh I'll look into that' or 'no thanks' not to nit pick.
So Don't Rest Your Head is a RPG based around insomnia and the first thing they brought to my attention was d6 dice pools. Every PC has three dice pools labeled Discipline, Madness, and Exhaustion. You always roll your discipline, madness is optional, exhaustion is GM discretion. The GM rolls dice from a pool labeled Pain. Doesn't that sound promising? Now the reason for dice pools is because there is consequences depending on which catagory 'dominates' when you roll. So say you roll your discipline and choose to roll madness as well. Oh no! All your high dice was in Madness. Well that's not a bad thing per say. It just means that things will go your way, but now one of those madness dice is permanent.
I bet your asking why is that a bad thing. Well on your character you get x amount of exhaustion and x amount of reactions. Depending on the dominating pool, depends on what box you check off. If you collect to much madness, you go insane and become a nightmare. If you collect to much exhaustion, well you collapse into a coma and are probably going to get eatin/left for dead, unless your party really loves you.
However that's not the only thing you have to worry about. The GM rolls dice too. If Pain dominates, first of all things don't go your way, your plan probably just got ruined, and the GM can force you to check off one of your boxes for either madness or exhaustion and if you haven't been careful this can destroy your character.
It's ok though. It's not all hopeless. There are also two bowls in the middle of the table. One labeled Despair, on labeled Hope. The characters can spend hope to reduce the amount of dice the GM roles and they can also spend Hope to unmark the boxes that will end up destroying the character. However the only way to really get Hope is by the GM doing aweful things to you. the players get Hope when the GM spends Despair to make your lives hell.
This game seems to be very much about consequence. Nothing happens without a consequence. Even winning a situation has effects on your character that may not necessarily be positive. If you want to sit down and read the rules, its less than a hundred pages and about half way though it will just start talking about the world they have roughed out for you. So really, you are looking at 20 pages of rules. It is classified as being technically horror. Some call it adventure. I call it a game. The world is sketched out with some major players and enough fluff to hopefully spark some creativity or plot. The character sheet is half questionnaire so if that doesn't float your boat, I'd steer clear.
If you really really want to hear about some of the fluff, it gives me Neverwhere vibes mixed with the Sci Fi Alice Mini Series.
Beware the Wax King!!
Have I raised some questions? I hope so.
Corset signing off.
So Don't Rest Your Head is a RPG based around insomnia and the first thing they brought to my attention was d6 dice pools. Every PC has three dice pools labeled Discipline, Madness, and Exhaustion. You always roll your discipline, madness is optional, exhaustion is GM discretion. The GM rolls dice from a pool labeled Pain. Doesn't that sound promising? Now the reason for dice pools is because there is consequences depending on which catagory 'dominates' when you roll. So say you roll your discipline and choose to roll madness as well. Oh no! All your high dice was in Madness. Well that's not a bad thing per say. It just means that things will go your way, but now one of those madness dice is permanent.
I bet your asking why is that a bad thing. Well on your character you get x amount of exhaustion and x amount of reactions. Depending on the dominating pool, depends on what box you check off. If you collect to much madness, you go insane and become a nightmare. If you collect to much exhaustion, well you collapse into a coma and are probably going to get eatin/left for dead, unless your party really loves you.
However that's not the only thing you have to worry about. The GM rolls dice too. If Pain dominates, first of all things don't go your way, your plan probably just got ruined, and the GM can force you to check off one of your boxes for either madness or exhaustion and if you haven't been careful this can destroy your character.
It's ok though. It's not all hopeless. There are also two bowls in the middle of the table. One labeled Despair, on labeled Hope. The characters can spend hope to reduce the amount of dice the GM roles and they can also spend Hope to unmark the boxes that will end up destroying the character. However the only way to really get Hope is by the GM doing aweful things to you. the players get Hope when the GM spends Despair to make your lives hell.
This game seems to be very much about consequence. Nothing happens without a consequence. Even winning a situation has effects on your character that may not necessarily be positive. If you want to sit down and read the rules, its less than a hundred pages and about half way though it will just start talking about the world they have roughed out for you. So really, you are looking at 20 pages of rules. It is classified as being technically horror. Some call it adventure. I call it a game. The world is sketched out with some major players and enough fluff to hopefully spark some creativity or plot. The character sheet is half questionnaire so if that doesn't float your boat, I'd steer clear.
If you really really want to hear about some of the fluff, it gives me Neverwhere vibes mixed with the Sci Fi Alice Mini Series.
Beware the Wax King!!
Have I raised some questions? I hope so.
Corset signing off.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Literature Review: The Gendering of Computer gaming
The Gendering of Computer Gaming Literature Review
This article argues that the lack of female gamers in the public is the because of two main factors: men and leisure constraints. The latter plays a much more minor role as it states the most common leisure constraints are gender, race, income, class, and health status. However if you are a female then they are expanded to include time, marital status, and parental status. They use this point to transition into the belief that men are primarily to blame. Within the gaming community, men and women are proven to enjoy different genre of games. However, the majority of games are designed by men for men making this author argue that they are deliberate in making an uninteresting themes for women. They claim that men gender games in a way to make them uninterested or outright offensive to women in several ways. They tend to be looked down upon by women because in many actions games, you are rewarded for gratuitous violence and this reward is either in points or in the case of many games, by looking at stereotypical woman. This brings us to the second point. In many games there is an outright lack of females characters for them to relate to or the females present are stereotypical and hyper sexualized. This is the reason he argues that there are more women who participate in MMORPG's because there tends to be less gender discrimination since who is on the other side of the character is never known. He explains that this is the reason that female gamers tend to be more private and casual about how they game instead of competitive and outspoken
This article argues that the lack of female gamers in the public is the because of two main factors: men and leisure constraints. The latter plays a much more minor role as it states the most common leisure constraints are gender, race, income, class, and health status. However if you are a female then they are expanded to include time, marital status, and parental status. They use this point to transition into the belief that men are primarily to blame. Within the gaming community, men and women are proven to enjoy different genre of games. However, the majority of games are designed by men for men making this author argue that they are deliberate in making an uninteresting themes for women. They claim that men gender games in a way to make them uninterested or outright offensive to women in several ways. They tend to be looked down upon by women because in many actions games, you are rewarded for gratuitous violence and this reward is either in points or in the case of many games, by looking at stereotypical woman. This brings us to the second point. In many games there is an outright lack of females characters for them to relate to or the females present are stereotypical and hyper sexualized. This is the reason he argues that there are more women who participate in MMORPG's because there tends to be less gender discrimination since who is on the other side of the character is never known. He explains that this is the reason that female gamers tend to be more private and casual about how they game instead of competitive and outspoken
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