Monday, February 25, 2008

Managed to tear myself away

I have finally managed to tear myself away from Age of Empires for long enough to blog. The game is fun. So far it seems that every time I start to get a little bored with it, I make a new discovery. Definitely fits Gee's discussion of maintaining interest by slowly revealing features. So far I have only been playing against the computer. Each game lasts about 4 hours or so and allows the player to earn points towards building up their home city. These points allow you to unlock new "cards," which provide for different shipments from the home city. So far I think my home city is up to a level 7 (out of 10?). When I get to 10 I think I'll begin trying out the other modes of play. I'm particularly interested in trying out the story mode.

I should also probably mention that I've been playing the beginner level of difficulty. Criticisms have pointed out that the computer opponent is predictable on the beginner level. I guess this is true, but really what I've noticed is that if you spend your time building up a ridiculously large army, you can defeat pretty much anyone. I'm wondering if this changes as you go up in difficulty level. I think I'll go check it out now . . .

Friday, February 15, 2008

Choosing a game

So, I know it's a tough assignment, but I have to play video games for class. The hardest part for me was choosing a game.

First I settled on The Movies, but decided it wouldn't hold my interest for the whole semester. Also, I watched a youtube review of it. I've played the demo and didn't notice any major issues, but now that I know what other people don't like . . . well, those things will probably bug me too.

Then there was this cool pirate game. Swashbucklers, ahoy! I was sold! Alas, it is PC only. My sad mac just won't let me choose that one.

Aha! Civilization IV! Sadly, not only is my mac NOT a PC, but it's also a little too old for the makers of Civ. It won't run on my machine either.

Finally, I landed on Age of Empires III. I think I'll have fun with it. Sure, it's not quite Civilization, but a close second. I haven't started playing yet (slow Mac took an hour to load the thing), but definitely some time this weekend.

Let the games begin!