I’m not gonna lie to you. My reasons for posting this level for today are wholly superficial. First off, I love the title, which is Animal Kingdom. I love this title for reasons which have nothing to do with LPB2, but I couldn’t help jumping in just for title recognition. So I’m confessing that. Next, I got to ride Tyrannosaurus rex (pictured) and shoot a paint gun at Spinosaurus. Having a little boy has reacquainted me with dinosaurs to the point that I know far more about them than I ever knew when I was growing up, so getting to ride one in this game was pretty special. Add to that the fact that a platypus makes an appearance, and you have to avoid crocodiles and feed elephants…well, there’s a lot here.
Unfortunately the “a lot here” is in the service of basically nonexistent gameplay. The level designer tries to bribe you with a mess of community keys at the end–like I know what the hell to do with those–but by then it’s too late.
Still, I like the concept and that the designer is reaching for this epic theme park idea. Like a safari across time. Because one of the coolest things about LPB2 is that it creates a place for designers to swing for the fences. I really appreciate that.
Next time, please just give me more to do. You’ve given me the opportunity to ride my beloved Triceratops. Now…let me rock.
I’m sitting at the far end of a long table with four dudes who make strategy games, waiting to moderate a panel in front of about a thousand or so people at this year’s Game Developers Conference. Folks are milling around finding seats.
“You gave us a 75,” says Dustin Browder, sitting directly to my right. He’s the lead designer of Starcraft II.
After the jump, I try to think of something to say. Continue reading →
My favorite talks at this year’s GDC were from the creators of two games I didn’t like. David Cage gave a talk on Heavy Rain. Hidetaka Suehiro (known as “Swery”) gave a talk on Deadly Premonition. I didn’t care for either game.
But I can’t stress enough how important it is to listen to people with whom you disagree. Too often those of us who write about games — and that includes people just posting on a forum or in a comments section — base the value of an opinion on whether or not they agree with it. And there’s no faster path to stupidity and deafness than the inside an echo chamber.
After the jump, games without Colin Firth Continue reading →
Sometimes at GDC, I end up going places where I shouldn’t be. It’s like the intellectual equivalent of an MMO where I decide to see what’s over that hill and OMG EVERYTHING IS 20 LEVELS HIGHER THAN ME AND I AM GETTING TEH ONE-SHOTTED!
After the jump, talks that con red Continue reading →
Most of the games out this week are RPGs that require significant commitments. Dragon Age II (pictured above, sporting the two Bs that are apparently crucial to a Dragon Age game) focuses the action on a smaller geographic space, but over a wider timeline. Expect to spend a lot of time in a city called Kirkwall. A lot of time.
Pokemon Black and Pokemon White for the Nintendo DS and a PSP port of Phantom Brave are no trifling matters either. Phantom Brave is now saddled with the subtitle “The Hermuda Triangle”. Get it?* It’s a good SRPG grindfest, but it’s no Z.H.P. or even Disgaea. The twist in Phantom Brave is that your characters are phantoms temporarily summoned into inanimate objects during battles. After a number of turns, the summoning wears off, leaving you with an inanimate object again. I always thought it was an odd design decision to restrict how long each of your characters can stay in a battle. Whee, my awesome mage is kicking ass and taking names and — oh, now she has to leave. It’s downright rude, like walking out of a movie or leaving dinner before dessert is served.
Also, now that baseball season is starting up, you can hit the courts in 2K’s Major League Baseball 2K11 and Sony’s MLB 11: The Show. If Sony and 2K can do it, I don’t understand why other sports videogames can’t share a franchise. It’s downright rude, like not sharing your toys.
* Me either.
Our podcast adjusts The Adjustment Bureau, in which Matt Damon and Emily Blunt deal with a bunch of stuff and some of us aren’t amused, but one of us is. Is that shadowy enough for you? This week’s 3×3 — commentary tracks we’d like to hear — starts at the 58-minute mark.
Podcast (movies): Play in new window | Download
Subscribe:
