game – Page 16 – broom's blog

Mass Effect 3

Finished it just now. Normal difficulty, Sentinel class, 31 hours.

The ending was not as bad as I expected, maybe because there had been too many bad words about the ending of this game so my expectation couldn’t be lower. I don’t think its ending is especially bad, compared to other parts of this game. In my opinion, the whole game is quite boring.

The battle system is too similar as ME2: barrier/shield/armor, fast weapons, slow weapons, skill system almost stays the same too. I can hardly find any new interesting places in ME3 battles, after playing through ME2 for 3 times. Actually, I think it’s even worse because of a few glitches. For example if you want to stay behind a cover of “L” shape, you’ll notice Shepard turn to some directions you don’t want. It turned out to be a very annoying problem because this is not a game encouraging you to rush and melee. So at most times you have to stay in cover and deal with glitches. And those cool melee skills don’t seem very useful to me.

In the ME3 story I feel almost everyone died. I got 4 companions at a very early stage, and ended up with these 4 comrades.. Tali joined a while then killed herself. I guess there is some way to get more companions alive, but I want to experience the “original” gameplay in the 1st pass. And my feeling is the story is very simple: need to gather power => [get a mission => mission accomplished, someone died] x n => final mission. The structure is so simple that I don’t see any suspense. Again, boring.

An obvious improvement in ME3 is there are much more weapons. And grenades become more useful. I can see they built a pretty big gun system, maybe for online play, maybe for catering shooting game lovers. But I don’t really like this. If I want to use 100 different guns and throw grenades, why not I play CoD?

Anyway ME3 gave this trilogy an ending. Maybe I’ll try another pass or online play. But now, after finishing the 1st pass, I’m not in the mood.

Diablo 3 Open Beta

D3的公测已经结束了。作为一个第一时间预定了正式版但是到处都没搞到beta key的人，我终于也有机会见识了一下D3的庐山真面目。

总的来说感觉很不错，达到了我的期望。这已经很难得了。。Beta版一共大概是两小时左右的流程，我通了野蛮人，武僧和法师三个职业，xw通了巫医和恶魔猎人。我个人觉的野蛮人早期最强，2人游戏难度可以轻松solo；武僧攻速很快，等级高了会有光环和辅助技能，基本是Paladin的对应版；法师瞬间DPS很高，但限于魔法量，打boss没有野蛮人快；恶魔猎人就是amazon的对应版，加上点陷阱技能；巫医看起来最猥琐，某主力技能是扔坛子，联机的时候噼里啪啦的声音不绝于耳感觉好像在扔尿盆。

图像不用说是进化了很多，画面有些昏暗，还算符合Diablo一贯的风格吧。配置要求很厚道，我这个3年前的MBP也能勉强跑跑低配置，不过要在windows下面跑。一年前的台式机就跑高配置毫无压力了。操作手感一流，毕竟这游戏卖的就是手感，就是让你一直砍砍杀杀几十个小时的。

最大的变化可能就是不需要自己加点和选技能了。每个职业的属性点增长是确定的，技能也全是到等级就解锁。也就是说不需要为了不同的build来练新角色了，只要等级到了，就可以任意尝试新的技能组合。我非常赞成这个设定。以Diablo系列level up一个角色的时间投入来看，如果只能尝试一个战术，那结果就是每个职业很快就会出现几类最优的build方法，甚至连最优装备也固定下来，战网上也千篇一律的都是这些面孔，或者他们的轻微变型。这样的话那么多技能的设计说实话就浪费了许多。还记得我最早玩D2的时候用amazon加了好多点的爆破箭，觉得很好玩。后来上战网看到大家build的就那么几种，根本没人鸟爆破箭这技能……强是强了，但没什么意思。

D3的技能系统变化非常大。不再像D2那样只用鼠标左右键来发动技能，同时也不再允许随时使用所有技能。鼠标左右键和数字键1~4是六个技能栏位，每个栏位可以放置3～5个技能中的一个。也就是说每个键上的各个技能是互斥的，一场战斗中只能选一个来用，切换的话要开菜单而且有很长的cooldown。左右键的技能通常没有cooldown，1~4的技能通常有cooldown。另外还有三个被动技能的栏位可以在十几个被动技能中选择。真正让这个技能系统变化多起来的是符文系统（虽然也叫rune但是和D2的rune没什么关系）：每个技能有五种(?)符文变化，随着升级会解锁各种符文，每种符文都是这个技能的一种不同的强化。这玩意儿要说清楚很费劲。。可以看官方的技能计算器。总的来说我觉得是很漂亮的设计。玩家可以一边升级一边尝试各种不同的技能组合，乐趣应该比只用一个特定打法要多很多。

D3取消了蓝瓶和紫瓶，红瓶有了很长的cooldown，怪物会掉血球可以直接吃来补血，应该都是为了增加流畅度和减少对瓶的依赖。我现在还记得曾经看到我表弟玩过一个叫“破天一剑”的国产网游，打怪的过程就是带上几千个血瓶，然后不停的按攻击键和血瓶键，弱智到可笑……

装备系统感觉上没什么大变化，还是前缀后缀的属性组合，beta版里看到了蓝色和金色装备。比较不同的一点是装备直接显示DPS了……于是比较起来十分直观，懒得细算的话damage攻速啥的也不用考虑了直接看DPS就好。村里的铁匠可以给钱来训练升级，然后就能造比较好的蓝色装备。在beta版里看铁匠升级之后能造的装备还挺牛，比我捡到的强。蓝色装备捡回村可以卖也可以拆解成铁匠造装备的素材。箱子的容量貌似很大。一个帐号所有角色的金钱是互通的。

尝试了一下拍卖所。测试版似乎只有金币拍卖所，拿个装备设定一下起拍价和直接买走的价格就可以挂上去卖了，我挂了几个标了几百金币都很快就卖掉了。支持很多搜索方式，还有自动推荐……看了一下美元拍卖所，默认起拍价是1.25$，嗯。。不知道真开始了之后会是什么状况。

写在D3公测之际的D2怀旧贴

上周末终于玩到了D3的公测。进游戏的那一刻真的挺激动的。从D2开始算的话那是12年的等待。离D3公布都已经四年了，时间过得好快。

刚玩D2的时候在西单那儿没窗户的小游戏房从一个角色的beta版开始玩，一个小时一个小时的续，一玩一下午。后来在那儿一个人打任务，游戏房老板还过来看，跟别人说这小孩打的任务多，估计是因为他们看不懂英文不知道去哪儿做任务……后来高中几个同学一起去联机玩得热火朝天，成天讨论技能搭配角色强弱什么的。上网的时候还经常上游戏论坛看别人讨论战网的事儿，看着各种pvp的战术贴，牛逼装备意淫，虽然那会儿连个能自己玩的电脑都没有。感觉那会儿最大的梦想就是能上上战网了。

后来大一的时候发现学校里面还很流行这个，有zixia和pku的战网。但那会儿没电脑也没什么机会玩，直到第一个寒假跑去北大机房跟同学通宵玩了几次，发现这战网上玩好像就不是一个味儿了，一小会儿就升到六七十级，然后就来来回回的k那几个boss。同学都在上面做着倒买倒卖的生意，言谈之间都是谁谁有多少“财产”，各种装备的行情价。我在run了一晚上m之后就突然失去兴趣，寒假回来买了电脑也懒得玩了。

本科上到中间好像有一个假期在家很无聊的又捡起这个来玩，因为出了毁灭之王的资料片，于是拿了个刺客自己单机打到六十多级，hell打到一多半，变得难打起来就放下了。

到了大四下学期，宿舍几个人保研出国都定了，于是还联机玩了一阵，大概玩到个三四十级吧。就记得上自习的时候riki在QQ群里喊什么“暗黑是我家，练级靠大家”，然后就纷纷回宿舍开始玩……

再后来就是认识xw之后惊闻她没玩过这游戏，于是就一人开了一个号从normal一直玩穿hell。那还真是我打得最完整的一次了，我用德鲁伊她用女巫，就老老实实一路打到最后，没刷boss没卡关没修改，感觉这就是Diablo应该有的体验吧。

我觉得D2对我的游戏观影响还是挺大的。这个游戏让我确立了很多游戏方面的态度：比如修改是破坏游戏乐趣；比如我enjoy的是开荒的时候捡到个蓝色装备也要鉴定一下的感觉，而不是在战网上trade一身极品装备来搭配的感觉；又比如我非常反感重复劳动来积累财富的游戏玩法，以至于以后只要遇上需要重复练级的游戏我基本就敬而远之；最后就是我对和很多陌生人玩网游有了抵制的态度，最多只会和认识的几个人联机玩。

My Experiences of GameFly

After moving to US I bought a new XBox 360. Then I became a “legal” gamer from a pirate. Basically there are 3 reasons:
1. It’s not easy to crack a console in US. I don’t want to buy devices for cracking console. And such service providers are in the dark and may be caught by cops.
2. Games are relatively cheaper here, 60$ is 3~4 lunches in US and over 10 lunches in China.
3. XBox live connection speed is much more faster. By my experience, it was a torture to use XBox/PS3 network in China.

I bought a few XBox games in last Thanksgiving season. Then Skyrim occupied my game time for over a month. I traded it in to Amazon after getting all achievements. I got that game for 60$ and traded it in for 20~30 bucks. Skyrim was a really long game. But some games are really short, like CoD if you don’t play online. And some games may turn out not to be my dish after trying it out. Dark Souls is a good example… So I decided to give game rental services a try. There are not many choices so I picked GameFly easily.

I started with a one-game plan, which means I can keep one game in my hands. Then upgraded to 2-game plan for a month. When the 2-game plan was about to end I tried to cancel, but GameFly website said they could give me one extra free month. OK, why not? So I enjoyed one more month 2-game plan then cancelled it…

So here are Pros and Cons of GameFly, by my personal experiences.

Pros:

As I said above, it’s a very nice service to try “short games” and “potentially bad games”.
The system is pretty transparent. You can view game availabilities. New titles are available on time, though you need to be very lucky to get it at the first time.
Lots of promotions: the introductory price and the extra month before you cancel made me feel guilty..
Good if your gaming style is one by one. Not good if you like to play a few different games in parallel.

Cons:

Shipping time is long for NYC. It’s surprising that they don’t have a shipping center in NYC. Most of my games were from Pittsburg. Usually it took 3~5 days to arrive, and 3 to 5 days to return. Well if you’re on a 1-game plan, that means 1/3 of your money may be wasted.
The “GameQ” is tricky. If you put lots of games in it, you may never get the game you really want. But if you only put several your really desiring games in it, you may need to wait for a few days if they’re hot.
Usual prices are still expensive. 15.95 for the 1-game plan and 22.95 for 2-game. It would make more sense if the shipping is as fast as Amazon Prime.
It somehow makes you want to rush because you’re “renting” the game. At least I don’t want to spend a month to get all achievements of a game I rent.

Anyway I have to say console games are fading out. There are a few super titles and some great titles which still have lots of fans. But the whole market has been sliding down so much in the past 10 years. Mid-tier and independent productions are totally moving to mobiles. This market is now much less prosperous and lack of creativity compared to the golden era of console games. Coming back to game rental services, I found there are actually very few games I wanted to rent. My queue was never more than 5 games and only 2 or 3 when I cancelled the service. I may consider to restart the service when the summer or Christmas game season comes, but not now.

FFXIII-2

Beat FFXIII-2 last night. About 50 hours game time. It was a nice journey with old friends from FFXIII.

FFXIII-2 to FFXIII is kinda like FFX-2 to FFX, a mission oriented continuation of a story oriented origin. I gave up FFX-2 after 1 hour because I didn’t like Yuna’s costume in that game. On the contrary, Sarah in FFXIII-2 is very lovely, even better than Lightning , who is a little bit “neutral”. And the bikini DLC pushed the joy to a new level…

FFXIII-2 is a typical time travel story. Heroes jump among different eras, save people, prevent disasters. Not very interesting, you may even say it’s stale. So the whole attraction of this story is what happened to Lightning/Snow/Fang. Therefor, it’s VERY annoying to see “To Be Continued” at the end of this game! I know there are some more plots scattered here and there, after finishing the main story. But the main story still feels way too incomplete. Or let’s put it more directly: the ending CG is too SHORT! Come on Final Fantasy, where is your 5 minute ending CG??!

The fighting system is quite close to FFXIII. It’s fun to collect and grow monsters. However most fighting fun is probably left to the after－ending play, because when I beat the game, most monsters I used are “Early Peaker” style. It requires some farming to feed those cool “Late Bloomer”s. I don’t really like a Japanese RPG that requires you to farm. Well, maybe I’ll get back to it some day.

Music of this game is definitely a wonderful part. Lots of woman voices are well used. My favorite track is the Dying World theme.

In sum, I would recommend any FFXIII player to play this successor, any Japanese RPG fan too since there are very few good Japanese RPG games today. It’s not a good choice if you’re neither of the 2 types above.