Gyromancer

I was looking around on the Xbox Live Arcade after purchasing Puzzle Quest when I saw this game called Gyromancer. It looked kind of the same as Puzzle Quest, but with a different story and look. I decided to look into to see if it was the same kind of Puzzle/RPG as Puzzle Quest, better, or worse.

After looking around on gamespot, I found that it looks like the same basic game, although with some key differences. Instead of fighting with skills, you summon creatures to fight for you. This kind of brings a card game feel to it (gamespot actually said "Puzzle Quest meets Magic: The Gathering). Also, you have to start thinking about your moves because you can't line up gems with the enemy monster or else it will help them, and some gems get locked so you can't move them after awhile of playing.

This game doesn't seem as good on the RPG side as Puzzle Quest because it only mentions leveling up. There is no customizable citadel like in Puzzle Quest, and you can't tame creatures (although you can summon them so I guess that doesn't matter as much). It is also criticized for a poor tutorial and short playthrough, although it has replay value because you can't go into some paths on you first playthrough. So this game doesn't seem quite as good as Puzzle Quest, but it does still look like a good game.

Puzzle Quest

While browsing through puzzle games, I came across another interesting looking game. This one is called Puzzle Quest. What made me interested in this one is that I saw it combined puzzle gameplay with RPG gameplay. Wondering how it managed that, I decided to learn more.

After reading a few descriptions, I found out that this game looks pretty intricate in its RPG half. The puzzle half is essentially bejeweled style in the way that you match up three of the same color tile in a row and they disappear. However, you also get things like mana, money, experience, and damage to your opponents health when you match up three or more in a row. Once you get enough mana, you can use some of your equipped skills with it. You get more skills by leveling up with experience. You can also buy things that will help you out in matches (like a sword that gives you extra damage) and tame some monsters to learn there skills and ride them as mounts. Your tamed creatures go to your citadel, which you can upgrade to make more items and spells with strategic mini games.

This looks like a fantastic mix between a puzzle and RPG, which I didn't even really know was possible. It is extremely more intricate than I thought it would be at first glance with its RPG elements, and got good ratings from many sites and magazines.

Meteos

I was browsing puzzle games for the DS and Meteos caught my eye. I don't know why my eye was attracted to the little blue outline people and blocks rocketing off into space, but it was. Anyway I decided to see what the game was all about because I saw some comments saying it was the best puzzle game ever.

What I found actually interested me. From the pictures I saw it looked just like a standard match the same color puzzle game, but when I saw videos of it, it was actually much different. You have to make rows of three of the same shape and color of objects called meteos to make them turn into rockets which then boost other shapes out of play. It seems the point is to just not let those shapes go to high off the screen.

I also found out that this game has a story, which really is surprising for a puzzle game. It turns out there's this evil planet that is trying to destroy other planets by sending these meteos to the planets it's trying to destroy. These objects put so much weight on the planet that it collapses. However, some people of the worlds find out that if you line three of the meteos up, they ignite and send the blocks back into space.

This game looks much more interesting than your standard puzzle game, and I hope one day I get to play it.

Rogue Warrior

For this journal I'm going to do a game I've heard only bad things about. The game is called Rogue Warrior and what brought it to my attention was that I noticed it got a 2 rating out of 10 on gamespot.com. I have never seen such a low rated game, and I was even more confused by the fact that it was published by Bethesda, who also published The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Fallout 3, which were great games. I wanted to find out why this game had gotten such a bad rating when it had such a great publisher.

Right when I started looking around I found out that the developer of the game was Zombie Studios, which after I looked at the games they had developed I realized why the game might be bad. All the games on their list of what they have developed were games that I hadn't even heard of and if I haven't even heard of a game the chances are it's not that good or else it has a very small fan base.

After looking further, I found out that the game Zombie Studios was making actually got scrapped because Bethesda didn't like what they saw and brought in Rebellion Development to develop it. I looked at a list of games that they developed and saw a few that I recognized but mostly never played. A lot of them were games for the PSP and PS2, and I haven't played many of them. Although the games that I did see and recognize I had never heard anything great about.

What I believe made this game get such horrible ratings is the fact that the developer made mediocre games for PSP and PS2, then jumped to the 360 and failed. One thing this research has taught me is to look into the games developers before buying. It will most likely save me many bad purchases I would otherwise make.

Halo 3: ODST

Halo 3: ODST, as most people know, is the newest Halo game that has come out. I have been curious to see since the trilogy is over if they can continue to pump out good games with this same kind of story, or if Bungie will fail because it's just trying to milk all the money it can from the Halo fanboys.

What I found is that what this game is about is you're an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper that is about to assault a Covenant ship about the city of New Mombasa. When you start to attack, one of the new members on your team changes course to miss the ship and you crash land in the city. You wake up alone and the rest of the game you spend trying to get out of the city to safety. I'm guessing you are also trying to find the new member of your team that changed the path of your vehicle while you were dropping to find out why they did it as well.

The multiplayer was praised for this game because of the new concept it had. It's called firefight and it is you and three other people trying to survive as long as possible against a horde of covenant enemies. That somewhat reminds me of nazi zombies at the end of Call of Duty: World at War (same concept except you're a WWII soldier fighting zombies...that are nazis) which it is my guess that could be where they came up with the idea.

Overall the game got great ratings (just like every halo game). I am starting to wonder, however, if these ratings are because of the space marine story that is Halo, or because they are actually good games. I suppose I will find out when I finally get to play ODST to see if the ratings are based on the gameplay or the name they slapped on it.

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is the newest addition to the Silent Hill series. From what I have heard of Silent Hill, it is supposed to be a pretty good survival horror series. What has brought this one to my attention more than the others, however, is a friend has told me he thinks it is one of the greatest stories in a video game ever. I found this hard to believe for a survival horror because usually the best stories go to the RPGs.

I found out that the story is the main character, Henry Mason, is searching for his daughter, Cheryl, in the town of Silent Hill when she disappears after a car accident that left him unconscious. Apparently the game starts in a therapist's office where Henry is talking about everything that has happened, so the therapy is after the actual game. While he's explaining what had happened during his search, you're playing through the explanation. Apparently he had amnesia and was left with few memories, and his reality keeps changing throughout the story. I tried to see what it was about without spoilers and found out that on his quest to find his daughter, Silent Hill freezes over before your eyes often and you have to go through nightmares in icy mazes.

From what I have seen the game has gotten an 8 or higher out of a scale of 10 for most game sites, all of which praised the story but did not like that it was to short. I'm guessing that since every explanation I've heard of it's pretty good, so I know that I want it. I'm sure it being the best story ever like my friend says will be debatable, though.

Holograms

Holograms have been used in many movies for quite awhile now, and I've always kind of wondered if they could one day become reality. I would love to have a world with actual holograms like in Star Wars and Star Trek. I started looking around, and found out this world might not be as far off as many people think.

I found this picture at www.laser-magic.com. It still needs a projection screen, but it looks like an actual hologram of a screen. I also read about holograms at electronicdesign.com where it talks about hologram keyboards at places that require good hygiene like hospitals. The keyboards can detect finger presses for entries, but since there's nothing there except light, there's no germs spreading from touching it. It also talks about when we're going to get actual videos in hologram form. We have actually discussed that in our N100 class, and it raises the question of are we ready for it? Would it actually be more enjoyable to watch an action movie with explosions going on in our room? There's also the fact of it would scare many people because someone might walk into a room where someone left the hologram machine on and it looks like there's actual people the person doesn't know walking around in there house. The police might see an extreme jump in the amount of burglary reports. I believe it would be nice to have a would where you can have a message like the one in R2-D2 from Princess Leia, but whether or not we have hologram movies is undecided for me.