Thursday, October 13, 2011

Balancing Game Design: A Case Analysis of Gears 3's Sawed-off Shotgun

Gears of War 3's multiplayer is fantastic. There, I said it. In fact, I sit here almost a month after the game's been out and I have yet to complete the main story campaign because the multiplayer is that good; perhaps a first in my entire gaming career. The modes are varied and well-balanced, flaws with the previous iterations have been fixed (ranged weapons are viable, less latency issues, etc), and it's obvious that they actually took the feedback from the beta and implemented intelligent changes. One of the most obvious examples is the Retro Lancer, which before seemed remarkably overpowered but now serves as a solid choice among 2 other solid choices in the ranged primary category. There is, however, one lingering issue that anybody who's been around me while playing is intimitely familiar with that has yet to be truly addressed, and I feel like I now have enough experience to truly comment on it.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

The Human Condition: My Experience with Humans Vs. Zombies



Anyone following my status updates on Facebook are probably aware that I finally partook in the Claremont Humans vs Zombies game. This post is somewhat a combination of my review of my experience of the game, and some commentary of things I observed whilst playing the game.