CRYSIS 3

Crytek was kind enough to give us a free copy of Crysis 3, and last Saturday I finished it (sorry for the delay). I chose the PS3 version.

My overall feeling is quite good. It´s a solid work in most of the levels, with a higher focus on the story compared with the previous titles. Visually speaking is impressive even for PS3 (apparently in PC is superb) and the multiplayer is enjoyable, very similar to the CoD model.

Right now I´m still playing it to get some trophies (yep, I´m an achievement whore). There is a certain discontent in the company due to some low reviews (the game is ranking around 76-79 in metacritics) I can agree upon it: I don´t think the game should be below 80, or at the very least other games commonly rated over 90 should be lower.

But ok, the reviews are there and you have to live with them. In any sense is a good game, and it gets better by the end (some unique gameplay and bosses!). You may say it´s because I´m a Crytek employee, but I sincerely recommend to give it a try.

LIMBO

I bought Limbo on sale, attracted by its visual proposal and the good reviews. However I fully suspected it was one of those poetic games that I´m generally not too much attracted (i.e. Ico).

Truth is I enjoyed it. It´s mainly a puzzle game with some platforming, but the difficulty is limited for the most part of it, and I managed to go through 90% of the game without looking for solutions on the internet. The storytelling element was too subtle or obscure to me. I only found out you´re supposed to be looking for your sister reading walkthroughs after finishing it.

All in all I recommend it, particularly for those who look for inspirational elements in games and are willing to complete missing parts (in this case, intentionals). It´s short, it´s beautiful and if you like puzzles it´s fun.

ASSASSIN´S CREED BROTHERHOOD

It´s been a while, but I finished another game. This time it was Assassin´s Creed Brotherhood (actually the third AC game).

I played a couple of hours the first one and I found it interesting both for the setting and the free-running concept, but that´s all. But since the AC franchise has some points in common with my current project, and thanks to Lolo who gave it to me as a present a year ago (he used to work in Ubisoft, and got it at a reduced price) I pushed myself to play it.

I´ve enjoyed it quite a lot. Not only for again an interesting location (this time Rome in the Renaissance) but also for the multiple mechanics and an internal difficulty level which allows players to enjoy the game easily or going for internal challenges (on each mission you have an additional objective, which allows to get the 100% sync).

Aside from that I´m the explorer type, and the game has multiple treasures and secrets to find. Probably the game with more of these I´ve played.

I´m chasing the 100% now, and I´ll probably give a try to the MP and some more trophees. It´s actually the game I´ve unlocked more achievements so far!

WORST GAME DESIGN CRIMES

Here´s a list made by PC Gamer of the 13 worst game design crimes. I could add some more, I think :D

MCPIXEL

Well, it has been some time since I finished a game, but another one bites the dust! This time it was McPixel, an indie game I recently purchased on Steam.

The basic premise is simple: You control McPixel (a McGiver look-alike) and you have 20 secs to find a bomb in the scenario and defuse it somehow. The method is simply clicking on the different elements you can see, and sometimes combining them.

On the bright side the starting point is fresh, the design is simple but effective and there are plenty of pop references (which I generally enjoy a lot). Comedy is everywhere, and non-politically correct, my favourite one! Also there are some good design twists and game modes reusing the limited production capabilities I´m sure developers had.

On the minus side there are no interface elements highlighting interactive objects, which force you to a non-enjoyable pixel search. Also pixel art is difficult to understand sometimes due to low resolution, and most of the time you just try stuff and see what happens, you rarely feel in control.

All in all if you like indie games I recommend it. I also recommend it if you like designs which try something different. I won´t say it´s a perfect game, but at the very least is refreshing, something you won´t find in Call of Duty 37, or any number the franchise is on.

HOW TO BE A GAME DESIGNER

Here´s an interesting article from Penny Arcade about how to become a game designer:

I agree upon most of the points except for the order: I´d say making games is by far the most important thing you can do to become a decent game designer. Nothing compares to the direct experience of doing that, fail and succeed.

ECOFISH

This looks like a good moment to mention Ecofish, a small indie game created by just 4 guys 10 months ago: Eduardo 'Barkley' Jimenez (coder and project lead), Toni Ros & Manuel Usero (graphic artists) and me. We released it originally on iOS (Apple store), XLIG and recently on PSM, the store for Sony mobile devices and PSP Vita.

My part on that project was game designer (along with Barkley, the coder), level designer and kind of scrum master / tester / producer. It was a pleasure tele-working with them, and was also very helpful to ease the pain of working at my employer back at that moment. A pity I couldn´t invest more time, since I could barely spend a couple of hours on working days, so I had to book most of my weekends almost exclusively for this project.

Anyway, I feel proud of my participation on that project, I think it´s among the best pieces of work I´ve done in my career and (particularly the level designs) I can say I was practically the sole owner of them (so if you don´t like them you can certainly blame me for it :D). I recommend anyone interested on indie games to give it a try. More info here.