So I downloaded Fat Princess tonight and gave it a whirl, and it had its pros and cons.

Overall I’d say it was enjoyable to play, especially since Josh and I worked out a system for playing through the single player story. I really enjoyed resource collecting as a worker, and he enjoyed fightin, so I’d resource it up in the beginning of the battle and upgrade the units, and he’d do the fighting necessary to finish it off. It worked out splendidly and was quite fun!

There are some things about the game that are very hard, as though they didn’t get enough noob-testing in. We gave up on the lava level after trying again and again to make some headway and failing each time. I feel like it’s the kind of game which, especially in online play, can end up being like old school Alterac Valley, in an endless stalemate. Though, even in the long games where little was made towards the end goal, I still noticed a lot of little gains and advances and retreats going on throughout, so that was pretty cool.

I was actually surprised at how little the Fat Princess gag actually comes into play, as most of the time is spent as different units – gathering resources, capturing holds, killin dudes and whatnot. The time for actually capturing the princess seems very short and swift, regardless of how many people it takes to carry her. It didn’t feel like the focus of the game, but I guess the gimmick helped sell it a lot more than a generic capture the flag theme.

Anyway, I loved the ease with which you could change units, and the theme of putting on a new hat makes you a new unit was delightful. I also loved that each unit is rewarded with points for doing its job, so the worker is rewarded for cutting down trees and mining ore. It helps make those players feel valuable and rewarded.

In the end, I feel like I would like to finish the story mode for this, and like it’s the sort of game I may drop into online play for now and again. Once you understand all the units, it’s easy to pick up and get going, in a very “Castle Crashers” sort of way. I’d say it’s worth a try for sure.

Twilight Princess checked off my video game list! I finished tonight, and was extremely pleased with the game. I enjoyed it through and through, especially a lot of the items and mechanics that I wasn’t used to, and the storylines were all great. I really loved the relationship between Midna and Link that grew throughout the entire game – it was beautifully nourished (and I even shed a few tears at the very end!)

Creating believable relationships in games, and making you really care about characters, is hard as all get-out, as we all know. Many times if a game tries very hard to make you feel a connection to a character, it feels forced, contrived, and induces eye rolling and scoffing (*coughcough*GearsOfWar*cough*). The Midna relationship, however, grew and changed and was believable, and I latched right onto it. I feel like just about everything in that game (from the story, to the animations, to the audio) served that character relationship, and it worked!

Also, Twilight Princess has some of the best end credits ever. When I finish a game, I want the end credits to wind down the experience – a nice ease out of the interest curve. Credits that give nods back to the story and show “what happened after” are wonderful and gratifying. I’m pretty sure these end credits were the most pleasing I’d experienced since Final Fantasy VI.

Well…7 games left! I’d better pick up the pace! 🙂 I doubt I’ll make it by the end of the summer, but I’ll keep working at it.

A week into work and already things are in full swing! I am extremely happy 🙂

Now that I am a Dr. Professional Game Designer, and now that I have some threads of consistency to schedule around, it’s time to start training! That is, it’s time to start catching up on games that I have been intending to play. As I started making a list and a plan, I realized that this is rather like having a workout schedule or an exercise program.

Dividing daily workouts between cardio, upper body strength, lower body strength…dividing daily game playing between the Wii, the PS3, the PS2, the PC…it’s amusingly similar.

An issue to contend with is my budget: I’m in no place to start buying games, even used ones, so I’m starting with what I already have or what I can scrounge up for free or very cheap, via Insomniac’s game library or Gamefly or whatever. Jake at work suggested that I could scrap by pretty well on demos and betas, and gave me a multiplayer beta voucher for Uncharted to get started (it rhymes, tee hee!).

So, here’s my starting list of games to either beat or sample.

Wii
1) Twilight Princess – which, I realized the copy I have doesn’t even belong to me, it’s DC’s! I borrowed it and never gave it back because I’m a TERRIBLE FRIEND

PS3
2) Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty – hooray for Insomniac freebies!
3) Assassin’s Creed – I feel like I practically played through most of this when watching Joe last spring, and I would like to play the sequel when it comes out, so I need to catch up
4) Far Cry 2 – I saw so many talks about this game at GDC this year that I want to check it out and see what’s what
4) Flower – I only got to play a tiny bit when we were playing it at Schell, so I went ahead and bought it

PS2
5) Fatal Frame – oh how you taunt me! This game is effing hard, but not in a discouraging way, in an “omg I must conquer you!” way. I’m gonna get myself a guide and play through and have enough film for the last two nights. SO THERE!
6) Ico – this gets referenced and brought up in game design discussion so much that I simply must play it for research.

PC
7) Half-Life 2 – I had a pretty good run playing through this game until I got myself stuck under a pipe because I wanted to see if I could fit under there. It happens. Anyway, research!

DS
8) Rhythm Heaven – because i almost beat it when I borrowed it from Carlos, and had a super fun time with it!

8 Games in one summer, can I do it?