Mass Effect 3

Last week, the release of Mass Effect 3 has gotten my attention. I played the first two titles and found them to be one of the best games I have ever played. So, I´m counting the minutes until I can get my hands on it. Unfortunately it will only be available in the beginning of 2011.

This game is a RPG (Role Playing Game), in which you control a character named Commander John Shepard, a hero involved in galactic politics and wars in favor of mankind and versus alien interests.

Each title is a continuation of the storyline with many variables that depend upon player´s decisions. Bad decisions usually come to haunt us in later stages of the game. 

It has complex dialogues. Many quests can only be accessed with clever answers to other characters. The soundtrack is awesome and hypnotic as if floating in outer space. The graphics are top notch, transmitting a believable reality of different planets and extraterrestrial cultures.

The new title will have 1000 variables in the plot, making it the most complex game ever made. According to Casey Hudson, executive producer of the series, this will make it very hard to develop. Especially because Mass Effect 3 will have the options of either playing it as a standalone game or resuming from the point we left our character in Mass Effect 2 with all the consequences that derive from previous choices. Amazingly, it will also take into account decisions made in Mass Effect 1.

You can easily guess it has an extremely dense and non-linear story. It changes with our actions becoming a potentially unique experience for every single player. For me this is a great achievement for the science of Storytelling, in a rather unusual way, as it makes the reader partly author and responsible for the final version of the plot.  
Trailer 
 

Poker

The game had its origins in France and was brought to the U.S.A. many years later. It´s not an American creation, but a French one. The American version of the game was the one that became the standard: “Texas Hold´em”.

This game has a new found growing popularity. It is probably the most played online game. I’m one of these recent Web players. But I started playing a long time ago although not as often as I do now.  Nowadays it´s easier to find people to play with even in real life.

The game has simple rules and it is very easy to learn but hard to master. It deals with mathematical probabilities and emotions at the same time. This also means that in general very few players will be able to distance themselves from the pressure of a given hand in order to make the right call. It has a powerful psychological component that adds to the game and of course demands good risk-management skills. 

In real practice you will seldom have absolute certainty that you possess the winning hand. This makes the game unpredictable and exciting to players of all levels.

Phantasy star portable 2 "part 2"

Yesterday at night a finally finish the main story of game. After more 52 hours of playing and i didn´t reach  more that level 93 of 200. I realize i need to play on line with other people for the game to be as fun as it can get, so, i became tired of being explore the places in the game alone.
In my opinion, i give a tip, if you want to play the game, buy the original to play on line, if not you will became tired of the game quickly.

Phantasy star portable 2

I just started to play this game because I played the first edition. And I forgot how big the game is so that´s why I´m a little late in this post. I was hoping that I finish it so to do a revised of the game in here.

I being playing the game for hover 26 hours and I didn´t reach half way, maybe one/third of it.

 In a side quest I found some character from the first edition and I remember that it needed more than 100 hours to reach the end.

In regards to the game, is a copy of the first, only a new hand of NPC. As the same place, “The Gural system”, only the time line as moved for 3 years in to the future.

The best of playing this game is for the ones who as played the first, to had a finish, or not, (that´s the reason I wanted to finish before I post), to the story.

“Phantasy star” has innumerate versions on Master System, Mega Drive, Game Gear, Sega Saturn, Dreamcast, GBA, PlayStation 2, GameCube, XBOX, PC, Nintendo DS e Playstation Portable. And they are:

• Phantasy Star (Sega Master System, 1988)
• Phantasy Star II (Sega Mega Drive, Sega Genesis, 1989)
• Phantasy Star: Anne's Adventure (Sega Meganet modem, 1991)
• Phantasy Star: Huey's Adventure (Sega Meganet modem, 1991)
• Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom (Sega Mega Drive, Sega Genesis, 1991)
• Phantasy Star Adventure (Game Gear Japonês, 1992)
• Phantasy Star Gaiden (Game Gear Japonês, 1992)
• Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium (Sega Mega Drive, Sega Genesis, 1994)
• Phantasy Star Collection (Sega Saturn Japonês, 1998)
• Phantasy Star Online (Dreamcast, PC, 2001)
• Phantasy Star Collection (Game Boy Advance, 2002)
• Phantasy Star Online: Episode I & II (GameCube, XBOX, 2002)
• Phantasy Star generation:1 (PlayStation 2, 2003, no Japão apenas)
• Phantasy Star Online: Episode III: C.A.R.D. Revolution (Nintendo GameCube (apenas), 2004)
• Phantasy Star generation:2 (PlayStation 2, 2005, no Japão apenas)
• Phantasy Star Universe (PlayStation 2, XBOX 360 e PC, 2006)
• Phantasy Star Universe: Ambition of the Illuminus (PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, 2007)
• Phantasy Star Portable (Playstation Portable 2008)
• Phantasy Star Zero(Nintendo DS 2008)
• Phantasy Star Portable 2 (Playstation Portable 2010)

As you seen the list is a popular game.

I only play a hand of them, as the “Phantasy Star 1 and 2”in 1988/1989,“Phantasy star online” on Dreamcast in 2001 and now the “Phantasy star portable 1 and 2”.

I will write more about it when I end it.

Dragon Age

After 6 months from the release of the first title, Dragon Age: Origins, EA Games release the expansion to the fans of the title, named Dragon Age: The awakening . Basically it´s more then a add-on to the title. Some new functions, like rune crafting and a complete set of new npc, non-played characters.

I was thinking that it as more like the first and waiting for more. The problem is that the Origins is a gigantic title in every thing that is difficult to achieve in a couple of months.

The story is easy to comprehend. They, EA Games, had a new interesting thing in this game, they put along the game, conversation between the party members, making them more humane. I remember stopping playing just to listening to them talking.

To resume, it´s a saga that i recommend anyone to play.

the plot taken from www.imdb.com :


"After 400 years since the last Blight, a new Archdemon seeks to destroy the land of Ferelden. It is up to the player - as one remaining legendary Grey Wardens - to unite the divided armies of Ferelden and save humanity."

View cast of the game
Trailer

PC-games aren´t very addicted for me anymore

              After thinking about I was going to write here, I decided to choose one of my personal hobbies: video-games, more precisely, computer games.
                Actually, computer games aren´t that appealing or addictive to play. I think is because programmers and video-games companies only focus on graphics and trying to make them as beautiful as it is technically possible.
               Only a few recent titles show some new features that can make it appealing to play. But most of them lack the essence of a computer game is… playing for game.
               My favorite type of game is RPG (Role-Playing-Games) which means that may differ completely from one to another.

               The last RPG I installed on my PC, took me a half hour to install and about fifteen minutes to adapt and configure visual/graphics, sound, key settings. Finally, I was for more than an hour to fully understand and memorize every key used in the game. In short, approximately two hours just to start playing. After all that I realized that I didn’t like the game.
                 So, I ask for a rather simple thing from game developers:

create games in which we can truly play just for fun.