Tag Archives: 3DS

Games I Played This Week

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I really should have considered prior to deciding that I wanted to do a weekly post about games I played that it does happen I get stuck in playing several games that are very enjoyable.

I am still cracking away on DQ9. I now have multiple grottos available and am clearing out at least 2 every day. Sadly, my characters don’t seem to be leveling very fast. In other DQ9 news, I convinced my mother to purchase the game and she is *quite* addicted at this point. She keeps calling me and asking me questions so I am able to track her progress quite well. This game is definitely going on my list of games to suggest for people who have parents that play DS.

I will likely be grinding on the multiplayer while at home with her in May.

I am also still playing a game or two of the Pokemon TCG trainer every day. I finished with the Fire Deck and I am now halfway through with the Water Deck. I am also noticing that they keep having “overloaded” messages, so clearly I am not the only one who is loving it.

I have been playing quite a bit with my 3DS, mostly showing stuff off at work. Also I am loving the Street Pass, though it makes me long for PAX where there are more people to encounter.

In WoW both my Priest and Shaman are now getting in on Alt runs for Tol Barad. My server has reached critical mass for being able to field successful pugs for TB which is a huge help for my alts. Our guild has also started some TB alt runs. I managed to down Atramedes on two different toons this week, thanks to needing a healer for our 10 man run on Saturday and then needing a DPS for our OTHER 10 man run on Sunday. My guild is actively recruiting.

Joyia finally got bracers from BoT trash and exceptionally luckily managed to get the +spirit wand off Chimareon. Two upgrades in one week! We made some fairly serious attempts on 25 man Elemental Monstrosity, the RNG fight of doom. (Not from Hell, that’s Al’Akir.)

I also volunteered to get a new guild website set up for OLN. I decided to use WoWStead and it took me all of 45 minutes to get everything up and running. Bonus points for WoWStead’s usability.

Finally, I have taken some time this week to start re-reading some Julia Quinn, to inspire me to work on some of my writing. I had a fairly dramatic plot break through on Wasteland, which I hope wraps up the inconsistencies and allows the story to have a conclusion that isn’t completely depressing.

Lego Star Wars III

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I have a love hate relationship with all Lego games. They all have the same wonderful possibility and they all so far have managed to create in me a frustration that rarely crops up in other games.

The cutscenes and story edits are nothing short of inspired. Watching Leia lift up R2’s dome and chuck the disc in like she was tossing it in a garbage can was hilarious in the extreme. LSW3 focuses on the Clone Wars, a story I have never particularly cared about, but once more, has managed to make the story hilarious and adorable all at the same time.

The game leverages collecting and completionists to great effect. There are studs, characters, bricks, and mini-figs to collect every where, with a single simple percentage showing how much has been completed. The fact that the game is designed to be played through twice, just to collect everything from each mission.

The gameplay is basically solid. Combat feels nice, watching enemies explode in a spray of studs is rewarding, and even the jumping feels substantial.

Now, having said that… COULD THEY FRAKING FIX THE GLARING BUGS ALREADY?!?! Three Star Wars games (4 depending on how you count), two Indiana Jones games, a Batman, a Harry Potter, with a Pirates of the Caribbean and likely a Harry Potter 2 on the way, and they STILL haven’t fixed the damn enemies can stand behind something and shoot through it, but I can’t shoot through the thing to hit the enemy? Don’t even get me started on the targeting system that just LOVES targeting the pile of destructibles instead of the 5 droids slaughtering me.

Then there are things like, in the very first level of LSW3, the player is moving up the screen (which is a GREAT way to show off the 3d) and encounters a cannon and has to jump on it to shoot down a droid tank. Instead of having the cannon activated, or jumped in like a vehicle, it is a context sensitive “run” against it until you pop into it. Yes. Great idea. No one would EVER have problems trying to do that while being SHOT and KNOCKED BACK from the tank shooting at them. Not to mention the trigger for activating the cannon is so dang small I spent 3 minutes sliding back and forth across the back of it trying to get it to trigger. Yeah, this is fun. /sarcasm. Add this to the fact that they have this EXACT same setup FOUR times in a row… yeah, not a great design.

Rounded edges of cliffs that make falling off or getting stuck on a slope are everywhere, as always. Multiple force activated objects right next to each other so the game never picks the one you are trying to activate? Present. Endlessly spawning enemies who interrupt the building of some wildly complex and long Lego item? Accounted for. There just always seems to be so much shoddy design. I can’t tell if it is bad designers, over worked designers, or just apathetic designers.

I always want the games to be good. They usually are, until you hit the mind bogglingly frustrating parts that I just have to ask “Did NO ONE see this during testing?” If not, then they need to get better testers.

Games I played this week

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The 3ds came out this week, so there has been quite a bit of goofing around on it.

Pilotwings is pretty stellar. Much better than one would expect with the resort title.

Lego Star Wars 3 is simple great fun, just like all it’s predecessors.

The AR stuff on the 3DS is nothing short of magical. I hope they full support this and do tons of cards and games.

Of course I am still rocking the Dragon Quest IX. I got to the point where I am digging through grottos as quickly as possible. I can’t wait to hit one that is more my level.

In WoW, I was a part of a guild 10 man that downed Atramedes, a boss in Blackwing Descent that has some odd sound mechanics. It was quite the challenge as I was the gong ringer to interrupt the Searing Flame. We are still hitting the 25 man content pretty heavily. I am a bit depressed at the state of Affliction dps and considering trying some Destruction so I can blame my poor placement on that. My shaman may have finally reached the gear “tipping” point. One hopes. My priest is still rolling right along, and I have started doing Tol Barad dailies on both of them when possible.

My friends at Electrified Games went into Open Beta with their game, Pokemon Trading Card Game Online. It is quite fun for me, as I enjoyed the Pokemon TCG but haven’t had time or people to play with in a long time.

I picked up several games, multiple Dragon Quests, Nintendogs +cats, and some other older DS games.

 

I hold something magical, in the palm of my hand.

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I hate gimmicks. 3D is a gimmick 90% of the time it is used. I am also one of those people who insists on wearing glasses. I can wear contacts, but due to the fact I spend 18 hours a day looking at computer screens, I don’t blink nearly enough so contacts make my eyes dryer than the Sahara after about 15 minutes. This explains why I dislike 3D movies so much. I already wear glasses. Adding a second set of plastic, poorly fitted glasses on top is just a fast way to make my ears, temples, and nose hurt. In addition to having to adjust them every few minutes, it just makes watching 3D a pain.

I am used to the belief that if you are adding something to your creative work, it needs to make it better. Adding something to a game? It should make the game better. Adding a brush stroke to your painting? It should make the entire composition better by it’s inclusion. 3D rarely makes something truly better in a movie. The immersion is rarely better than a well done soundtrack or compelling dialog.

That being said… Nintendo has proven they are the masters of making gimmicks exceptional. A caveat – the inclusion of the gimmick will not make a bad game good, but rather that the inclusion of a gimmick can make a good game better.

I am one of those people who desires the newest gadget. I have a netbook, iPad, MacBook, iPhone, and iPod all sitting on my desk at home. I own all three current generation consoles and most of the older generation consoles. I own a DS Lite, a DSi XL, and now, a 3DS.

Despite a rather weak launch lineup, I decided I wanted a 3DS. (As an aside, who ever heard of a new Nintendo console without a Mario game?!?)  Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time is coming out for it in June. There will be a new Mario Kart. There will be a Kid Icarus game. There will be new Professor Laytons. And at the very least there was Nintendogs +cats, a game I was excited about because I wanted cats for the first one. So I put my pre-order in.

The first thing was a test of the 3D in Pilotwings Resort. I am terrible at these kinds of games. Star Fox, Nights, and I am sure if I tried it, the original Pilotwings. I can never get the controls down well enough, I always have trouble telling the distances, etc etc. It took me about 10 minutes to find the “sweet” spot for the slider. Mine is about 2/3rds of the way up, the 3D was good, but not so overpowering that I had trouble focusing. Then I ran a course.

It was great. I felt like I was moving through a space. I felt like I could gauge the time I had to adjust for the next ball or hoop. For the first time ever I got every hoop on the whole course. For the first time ever, I felt like I had all the information needed to play these kinds of games.

I played several of the other games and my only conclusion is, this is the way 3d game were meant to be played. Sure, it’s not going to help Metroidvanias or Super Mario Brothers, but Super Mario Galaxy? Oh yeah.  Now I can’t wait to see how OoT runs on this. Lego Star Wars showed me how the simple depth made gauging distances and double jumps so much easier. Enemies leapt from ledges and I felt like they were moving through the world towards me in a way they never quite have before. I can’t wait to see what new games do with the mechanic. We have been limited by our ability to give depth perception using art, but now we can do it with tech.

The only complaint I have with the console is the size of the screens. After falling deeply in love with my DS XL, playing on the tiny screens is just annoying to me. May I have a 3DS XL please? Thanks.

It does make a difference, that it is glasses free, but I am sure that over time the tech will get better, and lessen the eye strain (I can still only play for 30-45 minutes, after which I need to take a break). Regardless, my mind can’t help but boggling in wonderment. What I am seeing, what I am playing is MAGIC. It is pure MAGIC and there is nothing anyone can say that will convince me otherwise. We have taken code and rendering blended it with display technology, and created wizardry. How far away from the holodeck are we really? When we can create 3D images without the need of glasses and hold them in the palm of our hand! To feel like I should be able to reach in and grab the mini-fig. To feel like I should be able to pet that Pikmin standing on that card and feel his smooth skin.

I spend my days doing cool stuff, and here, I just sit, marveling at the wonder of the virtual taking spacial shape.