Life on Mars

Points - Dark Void

Sun, 25 Apr 2010 15:29:26 -0700

I heard about Dark Void when it was still in development and thought the Gears of War meets Rocketeer concept sounded awesome. The lackluster reviews made me worry that the game didn’t live up to this great idea. Here are some noteworthy points from my playthrough:

The core of the game was a fairly basic third person shooter. They didn’t try to innovate here, which provided a solid and approachable foundation for the game.
The jetpack completely changed the feel of the standard TPS gameplay. Most importantly, it never felt like a gimmick. They went strong on the jetpack as their one unique feature and really fleshed it out. Vertical cover, hover flanking, and aerial combat were all fun and satisfying to play.
Dark Void was really at its best when it forced you to wield all of its varied gameplay in one level. Smooth transitions from aerial to hover to ground combat and back was incredibly powerful. They used this to craft unique experiences that played to the strength of the game’s jetpack.

At this point, we see a solid core with mechanics that are fun and work well together. It seems like there’s a great game in the works. Unfortunately, the devil is in the details:

The pacing was truly awful. Action ranged from plodding to hectic, while difficulty ranged from laughably dull (anti-air shooting galleries) to obnoxiously difficult (three archons at once). Too often I felt like I was just waiting for something to happen.
It was very clear that Dark Void had a cool world with a potentially interesting story to tell. Unfortunately, they just couldn’t deliver on the narrative. Plot progression came in awkward chunks, and the game itself was too short to ever feel truly epic. The last chapters felt more like a beeline to the end rather than a journey to a climactic finale.
Overall, the polish level felt low, like the game was a bit rushed to release. While I’m not usually one to complain about a game being too short, this was definitely a game that deserved more content to feel truly great.

While Dark Void was far from great, I don’t think it deserved the critical thrashing it seemed to receive. I hope this style of gameplay gets another chance at life, be it in the Dark Void franchise or elsewhere.

Restart Required

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 23:43:00 -0700

It’s that time again. It comes around once every year or so, and today it has arrived. This is yet another, probably futile, attempt to reboot my blog.

Why bother? Well, mostly because I feel like it. But, the why is less interesting than the how. How is this time going to be any different?

Focus. On what? Games. Shocking! I already work on them all week, talk about them every day, and play them constantly. Currently, I jot down my thoughts in a completely haphazard way. In essence, this is an attempt to bring order to chaos.

So, what are the rules to this little game of mine? To keep it simple, I’m only starting with two:

One post per game - nothing profound, not a review, just my normal notes.
One post per week - at least a WRUP for the week, but could be any topic.

Why should you care? Beats me, but you’re welcome to stick around for the show.

now that I’ve finished mass effect, I’m having a hard time convincing myself to do...

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 23:32:53 -0800

now that I’ve finished mass effect, I’m having a hard time convincing myself to do something other than playing it straight through again.

finally, irrefutable evidence that I am the best TF2 player at Maxis. sadly, that doesn’t mean...

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:10:21 -0800

finally, irrefutable evidence that I am the best TF2 player at Maxis. sadly, that doesn’t mean much. http://bit.ly/bn8FgP

weekend damage report: 21 hours of mass effect, 10 hours of star trek online. there is no way to...

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:30:07 -0800

weekend damage report: 21 hours of mass effect, 10 hours of star trek online. there is no way to make that seem less lame in 140 characters.

star trek online completely distracted me from mass effect tonight. holy crap i’m a nerd.

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 20:53:58 -0800

star trek online completely distracted me from mass effect tonight. holy crap i’m a nerd.

District 9 was A+++ would watch again.

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 04:05:32 -0700

District 9 was A+++ would watch again.

red ring’d! sigh…

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 00:04:06 -0700

red ring’d! sigh…

crazy meta web game. because we needed more ways to waste time on the internet....

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:44:42 -0700

crazy meta web game. because we needed more ways to waste time on the internet. http://icio.us/5bkslb

Simply the Test http://post.ly/2u6Q

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:12:17 -0700

Simply the Test http://post.ly/2u6Q

someone at home depot was geeky and/or bored. http://twitpic.com/f1iys

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 19:05:33 -0700

someone at home depot was geeky and/or bored. http://twitpic.com/f1iys

i’m going to go rent like 14 cars today.

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 19:18:37 -0700

i’m going to go rent like 14 cars today.

so, Ithaca, we meet again.

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 09:59:21 -0700

so, Ithaca, we meet again.

http://twitpic.com/d32as - Team photo… FEAR THE WOLF PACK (via @gibgib)

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 20:46:36 -0700

http://twitpic.com/d32as - Team photo… FEAR THE WOLF PACK (via @gibgib)

full screen installers are so old school. I don’t want to look at screenshots. I want to...

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 15:55:23 -0700

full screen installers are so old school. I don’t want to look at screenshots. I want to complain about your slow install on the internet.

fat princess is surprisingly fun. it’s good to have more reasons to turn on that ps3.

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 05:29:34 -0700

fat princess is surprisingly fun. it’s good to have more reasons to turn on that ps3.

caught some sort of nerd plague at comic-con. ugh.

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 09:49:25 -0700

caught some sort of nerd plague at comic-con. ugh.

comic-con done! well, for me anyway. really tired, but totally worth it. hopefully, i can do this...

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 09:01:42 -0700

comic-con done! well, for me anyway. really tired, but totally worth it. hopefully, i can do this again sometime.

met the rifftrax guys and the castle crashers guys. insert fanboy squee.

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 07:55:00 -0700

met the rifftrax guys and the castle crashers guys. insert fanboy squee.

apparently today’s theme at comic-con is “things you can’t un-see”. also,...

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 07:55:00 -0700

apparently today’s theme at comic-con is “things you can’t un-see”. also, stormtroopers.