Curmudgeon Gamer
30 September 2007
About Super Stardust HD
A few months back I characterized Super Stardust HD as a copy-cat game with a thick layer of eye-candy. While what I said is true -- the game does borrow heavily from earlier games and a lot of effort was spent on flashy graphics -- it does miss that the game really is quite fun. I've dropped a ton of time into it this weekend, and I'd go so far as to say that this game could help me put off my need to own a Robotron: 2084 stand-up machine for another couple of years.
My hats off to the developer, Housemarque. Fine job. These folks understand how to keep the player engaged in a frantic action game: don't stop me from quickly jumping right back into another game. I believe from game over to blasting asteroids in a new game is close to 10 seconds, which is far better than you can say for a lot of games. Instantaneous would have been nice, but that's nitpicking.
And Sony, keep dropping money on these kinds of exclusive games. I've watched the trailer for Everyday Shooter a couple of times already, and I hope you make good on your promise to bring it out before the end of the year. That plus LittleBigPlanet and I should be plenty happy.
My hats off to the developer, Housemarque. Fine job. These folks understand how to keep the player engaged in a frantic action game: don't stop me from quickly jumping right back into another game. I believe from game over to blasting asteroids in a new game is close to 10 seconds, which is far better than you can say for a lot of games. Instantaneous would have been nice, but that's nitpicking.
And Sony, keep dropping money on these kinds of exclusive games. I've watched the trailer for Everyday Shooter a couple of times already, and I hope you make good on your promise to bring it out before the end of the year. That plus LittleBigPlanet and I should be plenty happy.
Labels: fun, online distribution, ps3, psn, sony
--jvm at 21:30
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05 January 2007
I'm sorry, I wasn't having fun?
Gamasutra is running a story called - Researchers: Deeper Emotions Keep Gamers Playing. The study from U of Rochester apparently is picking a fight with fun.
The research found that games can provide opportunities for achievement, freedom, and even a connection to other players. Those benefits trumped a shallow sense of fun, which doesn't keep players as interested.
Obviously I need to read the original, but what is "fun" again? If I change the first line to "games that provide shallow senses of achievement, freedom, and even a shallow connection to other gamers cannot trump a deep sense of fun," can we be fun-lovers again?
It would seem we're simply calling a rose (and a weed) by other names.
But to be a bit more productive, I suppose Tetris is the archetypal "fun" game. It's not particularly freedom-imbibing, and rarely, Matt and my adventures in "cooperative" Tetris aside, gives much of a connection to other gamers, yet seems to remain quite popular and "fun," even perhaps "shallowly fun," to play.
There's a girl at the local coffee shop who comes in several times a week for hours at a time. I figured she was an author. Finally, after some careful surveillance, it appears she's simply playing Solitaire on her laptop 95% of the time. Bizarre. And I was wasting $15 a month on WoW.
Take that, University of Ra-cha-cha. Wait until she finds out fun is not enough to keep her interested.
The research found that games can provide opportunities for achievement, freedom, and even a connection to other players. Those benefits trumped a shallow sense of fun, which doesn't keep players as interested.
Obviously I need to read the original, but what is "fun" again? If I change the first line to "games that provide shallow senses of achievement, freedom, and even a shallow connection to other gamers cannot trump a deep sense of fun," can we be fun-lovers again?
It would seem we're simply calling a rose (and a weed) by other names.
But to be a bit more productive, I suppose Tetris is the archetypal "fun" game. It's not particularly freedom-imbibing, and rarely, Matt and my adventures in "cooperative" Tetris aside, gives much of a connection to other gamers, yet seems to remain quite popular and "fun," even perhaps "shallowly fun," to play.
There's a girl at the local coffee shop who comes in several times a week for hours at a time. I figured she was an author. Finally, after some careful surveillance, it appears she's simply playing Solitaire on her laptop 95% of the time. Bizarre. And I was wasting $15 a month on WoW.
Take that, University of Ra-cha-cha. Wait until she finds out fun is not enough to keep her interested.
--ruffin at 09:03
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