Being some of the smaller games that I don’t feel like writing 2800 word essays on.
The Scientific Gamer
Science, gaming, and all things in between.
Tag Archives: thoughts
Thoughts: Fall Of The Samurai.
Early spring, 1865: First battle of Buzen.
General Takamori’s army is pushing up the eastern coastline of Kyushu. He’s taken Hyuga and Bungo in a lightning campaign, and after weathering a harsh winter in Bungo his army has marched further northwards to take Buzen. Continue reading
Thoughts: Football Manager 2012.
There’s one question I’ve been asking myself over and over during my time with Football Manager; one overwhelming conundrum that I’ve been kicking back and forth over the twelve hours I’ve spent with it now: is Football Manager a game?
Thoughts: Republic Commando.
I’ve come away from Republic Commando with mixed feelings. It’s getting on for seven years old at this point, and while it was overlooked at release it’s since garnered a reputation as something of an underrated classic. I can certainly see why. Republic Commando isn’t quite unique, but I’m only aware of a single other game that even tries to do the simplified dynamic squad command that RC pulls off so well (Brothers in Arms). At the same time this is practically the only thing Republic Commando has going for it, as otherwise it’s a remarkably by-the-numbers FPS shooter.
Thoughts: Mass Effect 3, Part Two.
This part of the review has more spoilers. I’m not going to reveal important plot specifics, but I am going to talk about the story structure and how some of the more promising mechanics actually panned out at the end of the game.
Thoughts: Mass Effect 3, Part One.
This is going to be split into two parts: non-spoiler where I talk about the mechanics of the game and how I feel it pulls them off in as vague a way as possible, and then another part where I go into slightly more spoily plot details. This is the non-spoiler half of the review, but please bear in mind I have to talk about some really, really general plot points like the basic premise of the game in order to explain how certain bits and pieces work. It’s only stuff that’s revealed in basically all the marketing material for the game, but if you’ve somehow managed to avoid that and want to remain unspoiled I’d stop reading now.
Thoughts: Shank.
Back in the day, when Penny Arcade were still relevant and somewhat funny, they made what has now become a rather well-known comic about Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. This comic mocked the game for switching tone from the lovely Arabian fantasy of Sands of Time to a dark, grim, XXXTREME style designed to appeal to the fourteen-year old idiot demographic. I chuckled at the comic at the time. It was a decent bit of humour, and the line “I smoulder with generic rage” was good enough to pass into the general vocabulary of the internet. Little did I know that somewhere out there there was somebody else looking at this comic, and thinking “Wow, that looks like an awesome idea for a game!” This is a review of Shank, and so you’re not going to be at all surprised to learn that Shank is the game this person eventually made.