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Diablo III: Not Quite Awesome

Posted by Kit Jones on 2012-05-28
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So, like most of you, I’ve been playing a lot of Diablo III. I’ve mostly been playing my Witch Doctor (level 52 and in Hell Act 1 now), mostly solo though some grouping as well. Some of the fights have been an interesting challenge and Hell is noticeably more challenging than Nightmare (Normal was a joke). Crafting and the Auction House have both been somewhat disappointing so far – crafting is generally more costly than justify its rewards and the Auction House has a disturbing habit of being up and down all the time as they sort out various issues with it (it’s also rather lacking in search functionality and limits users to 10 listings which is a bit disappointing though I understand it).

Blizzard posted a dev blog this morning (Game Design Update) describing some of the issues they’re seeing with balance and play-feel as well as roughly outlining some of their intended solutions. It’s well worth a read if you’re interested in Blizz’s perspective about the course of Diablo III, and of course I have a few thoughts about it.

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Beat Fez, Now What?

Posted by Kit Jones on 2012-04-22
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I beat FEZ today. I mean, I finished the game two days ago, but today I really completed it. As in, all achievements unlocked, 209.4% completion, saw the ‘all cubes collected’ ending. The game sunk its claws into my completionist side and wouldn’t let me go until I was done; it also reminded me that I really do like platformers, especially the part that involves searching for and collecting every last little piece.

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That Wistful Feeling (Mass Effect)

Posted by Kit Jones on 2012-03-29
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Note: While I do discuss my feelings about the end of the Mass Effect trilogy, this post contains no spoilers. I make no such voucher for any comments that may or may not be left.

When I walked out of the last Lord of the Rings movie, I had a feeling that I seldom got from a movie but frequently got from books – that utterly satisfied and yet nostalgic feeling of ending.

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Python Game Project

Posted by Kit Jones on 2012-03-28
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Currently working on learning some Python, both for my own interest and in hopes that it will prove useful in my career. I decided to start out working on a kind of old school text adventure game. The project is both fun and interesting and already I’ve learned quite a few things (aside from the little bit of Python that I’ve learned from it).

  • Everything that everyone tells you about learning to code is true: you learn more if you have a project you are working on. There are several reasons for this, motivation being the least of them; the biggest reason, in my opinion, is that having a project in mind will push you to stretch the limits of what you know and try new things.
  • The guys who wrote the classic text adventure games were amazingly talented writers. It is really hard to make a game interesting when you are limited to text to convey everything. I’m doing text as a placeholder, but even so, it’s hard to strike the balance between evocative and tl;dr.
  • The more details you have fleshed out about your setting & characters, even if you don’t convey 90% of it in-game, the richer your game will be. I started out with a seed idea and haven’t really done a lot of world building yet, and it shows.
I’m pleased with the amount of progress I’ve made in a short period of time and I’m looking forward to continuing to work on it. Right now my goal isn’t really to necessarily make something that I can share but mostly to explore some ideas and gain some knowledge of Python; if I do decide to share some of it I’ll post it here.
The main resources I’ve been using for this project have been reddit/gamedev and the tutorials at http://inventwithpython.com.
Originally published here.

30 Days Meme: Days 3 & 4

Posted by Kit Jones on 2012-01-05
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Oops, I missed a post. I bought a Kindle Fire and I was preoccupied with rooting it and playing with it last night and my blog (and SWTOR!) was sadly neglected. You’ll get a full Kindle Fire post later this week but for now, it’s back to the meme.

30 Days of Video Games, Day 3: My Favorite Series

This is a tough one, because there are a lot of video game series that I have loved over the years. Elder Scrolls, Baldur’s Gate, Warcraft (the RTSes as well as the MMO), Civilization, Mass Effect, Fallout… but I think for the sheer number of games in a single series that I have loved, credit has to go to Ultima. While I did not love Ultima VIII, and Ultima Online was a disappointment (I did not play Ultima IX, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it), I deeply loved IV, VI and VII especially (ignoring Serpent Isle) and enjoyed the rest quite a bit (yes, even Ultima Underworld). I think I played the third one on the NES first; I later played through the entire series when the Ultima Collection was released. I was quite sad when I upgraded my computer and couldn’t play through the collection any more – it wasn’t compatible with the DOS emulator on WinXP.

30 Days of Video Games, Day 4: Favorite Game of Your Favorite Series

Ultima VII was by far my favorite Ultima game. It was big and expansive, with player choices and consequences, crafting, rich story, etc. I probably played it all the way through 3 or 4 times.

Originally published here.

30 Days Meme: Day 2

Posted by Kit Jones on 2012-01-04
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30 Days of Video Games, Day 2: A game I’ve played through all the way twice

So, there are several games that could qualify for this one, especially if I count games that I’ve tested. But like I’ve said before, testing is not playing. Even setting that aside, there are several choices; in the end, I settled on one of my favorites, Mass Effect. Of the two so far, while ME2 had somewhat better mechanics, I think ME1 had a far better and more cohesive story. Of course I had to do at least two playthroughs (and I will probably do a third) for each game, to experience both the Paragon and Renegade storylines. I think Jennifer Hale is awesome and will forever be my Commander Linnea Shepard regardless of the role she’s playing.

 

Originally published here.

30 days meme: Day 1

Posted by Kit Jones on 2012-01-02
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As one of my resolutions this year was to blog more often, I thought I’d start the year out with something relatively simple: a meme. A variant on the popular ’30 Days of Movies’ meme, this will be 30 Days of Video Games.

30 Days of Video Games, Day 1: 
Best video game you played last year



Without a doubt, this is Skyrim. Although I’ve set it aside for a time in favor of Star Wars, it is still by far the best game I played last year. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only who thinks so, considering how much amazing fan art, music, mods and memes (arrow in the knee?) the game has inspired.


Skyrim is, in fact, kinda metal:

 

It is also pretty epic:



Be back tomorrow, with Day 2: a game that I’ve played all the way through at least twice.

 

Originally published here.