Triple town

Triple town is simple puzzle game designed for single player.

Own plot of land to build a settlement

The game play is very straight forward. Player have to earn money to build a settlement by playing a puzzle game. In this puzzle, Player combines a minimum of three objects to make it into one different product.

This is how the game works. Three grass patches makes one bush. Three sets of bushes makes a tree Three trees makes a hut. Three huts combined together gives a house and three houses gives a developed house. This is how the list usually goes. When all these are combined, it provides the player coins to spend on their own plot of land.

Start of the puzzle level

There are three special objects. They are bears, imperial bot and crystal stone. Imperial bot helps to destroy the bears, remove tombstone and rocks, and also the main objects. However, removing the main objects (Grass, bushes, huts and others) causes lost in points. It depends on how 

you want to use the imperial bots.  

There are two types of enemies.  Bear and Ninja bears. Bear simply moves from tile to tile whereas Ninja bear randomly jumps on different tiles of the land.  Ninja bear can be only be destroyed (Which then a tombstone will be placed on the specific plot of land) by using imperial bots.

Crystal stones can be used to combine two more same objects together to a bigger object. For an example two trees with a crystal stones make a house.  Crystal is useful. If click on a tile with a crystal stone, a rock will be formed which causes a player not to plant anything on that tile anymore.

Lastly, there is a slot where players can store the item that they feel that can be used later part of the game. This slot only accepts one item. If you want to store any other items, you have to swap with the currently stored item.

Progression bar. Tombstone. Housing. 

I like this game because the puzzle concept is simple. It isn’t overly concept, and I felt that the game was different approach of chaining items together in a specific way.  The game may look simple, but as you play it, you will realise the better you plan your moves, the longer you last in the game.

The only problem is the puzzle levels remains the same. The puzzle doesn’t changes. We are given a 6 by 6 grid to complete the level. However, as you play, it remains the same. The plot of land doesn’t change, no new introduction of enemies.

They could have multiplayer level, where players can play a level against each other. They can be two types. The first type would be whoever earns the most coins or has the most percentage of development wins. Another type of game would be player 1 plays the puzzle and player 2 selects the bears movement and what other obstacles to put.

Maybe by adding the elements, it might help to make the game less repetitive.  The game is already addictive, but it won’t after a player gets used to the mechanics of the level. Overall, it’s a excellent game that is suitable for puzzle lovers and casual gamers.

Facebook game - Candy crush

Candy crush was extremely popular a year or two ago. Everyone who had Facebook account was crazy about it. People around me played the game, even strangers in public transport played the game too. After receiving game notifications on Facebook, I was tempted to play it too.

Candy crush game basic rule is to clear the candies in the level by matching the 3 same coloured and shape candies. This is how the basic level begins. As level progresses, challenges are started to be added on to it. Different levels have different goals.

Most of the objectives and goals in the game is to complete the level in specific number of move. Initially, the number of moves seems generous till the player hits the more challenging level. From then on, the amount of moves provided would seem equivalent to the number of moves it requires to complete the game. If you make few wrong moves because you thought that would help, you end up losing the game.

“Wait player could restart the game and be careful next time?” Sure. It’s called live in candy crush. Once you run out of it, you can either wait till your lives fills up (there is a timer that last more than 30 minutes) or you could simply whip out your card and purchase a live so you could play the game.  Another way to get live is to send notifications to your friends on Facebook to get help.

Is Candy Crush is a good game? Well, in my point of view, I feel Candy crush is not a good game. Yes, it is addictive. Players are guided slowly throughout the first few levels. It makes the game seem easy, it gives a sense of achievement to a player.  Players feel confident about the game, the fact that they could go pass the levels with ease and it is highly addictive. The challenges are progressive too. When a new element is added in to the level, the players are guided through on how to get pass the level.

After that, players learn how to play it. So, here is the problem. Learning how to play a new element, versus unable to complete the new element due to the game is a different sector. Basically, candy crush has the ability to put you in a situation, where you are expected to spend some money. If you don’t want to spend, you have to go through the hard way. If you want to spend, there will be boosters and other useful “cheats” that helps you get pass the level.

I always believe that a player should only fail a level due to their own abilities and not because of a game.  To put it in a clearer term, a player should only lose because they are unable to compete with the challenge, and not because they need to pay in order to go pass next level.

It’s a good game because of how it guides the player that allows the game to be easy and encourages the players. However, this whole pay to go on with the game concept just makes me feel negative towards the game.

The graphics, the colours, the animation, the sound effects are fantastic. Even the amount of levels available can be shocking, but all that does not exactly makes it up to a good game.  Once the players are “cornered” to buy power ups or boosts due to the increased level of difficulties, it just makes it a bad game.

Overall,  I can conclude that candy crush is a fantastic game adaptation (which is extremely similar to bejeweled), with a huge flaw. 

Serious Sam HD

I have to talk about this game called Serious Sam. Before, I rant on about this game, I just want to clearly state that my gaming background isn’t very great. It started off with board games, followed by free online games. All these type gaming only started just when I enrolled myself in polytechnic.

I remember cringing when one of my course mate asked out loud. “You mean you never played Super Mario before?” Yes. Sadly, I am from the small pool of group that wasn’t allowed to play video games. So with that being said, we can now jump into serious sam.

I bought Serious Sam on impulse. Just like my other purchases. It was on sale, the game trailer was acceptable and I was like why not? So, I bought it and didn’t play for few weeks until one day I decided to just give it a try.

Initially, when I started the game, I didn’t really had much impression of it. My impression changed only after experiencing my first legit fight in the game. At that second, I knew this game isn’t so bad afterall.

If you play it in tourist or easy mode, your health bar constantly replenishes for every injury you receive. If you play it in normal or hard, your health bar deters in every attack you receive. Levels were getting progressive challenging. The amount of enemies, the types of enemies, the amount of ammos are given increases as level progress.

To me it was a game that made me panic everything I see ammos and health pack nearby. I am not much of a shooter gamer, but whenever I see plenty of resources, I know that I have to face another row of enemies that shows no mercy.

It may not be so magical or complex as the current demo version games before. Spec ops, Kayne & Lynch: Dog days, Call of Juraez  and even call of duty are games I had to strategically think on how to survive or to be move around smartly.

In this game, I just shoot at whatever I see. The enemy is too strong? Use the strongest weapon without hesitation. Are plenty of enemies chasing you on land and few giant airplanes shooting lasers at you? Run for your life. Shoot enemies and throw parrot designed bombs on airplanes.

To me, I felt as though it gave me the” living in the moment feeling.” I am given this set of weapons with certain level of ammos. Things are attacking me at the same timing. I just use whatever I have to kill them as much as possible. I didn’t feel the need to strategically think like maybe shoot the airplane so that it crashes on the enemies or set up traps.

I just do my best not to lose life and just attack whichever is closer to me. I am not sure the exact reason why I appreciate this game so much, but all I know is that games have changed so much. I am quite sure Serious Sam should have been quite a bad*ss game during that season.

I wouldn’t mind finishing the game if only my save files were not corrupted.  I have restarted from level 1 and who knows? It might be one of the few games that I will officially complete thanks to its simplicity of the game.

10/10 would recommend to those who are bored and wants to take a break from high quality graphical games hint hint *GTA*  hint hint *Skyrim* can actually give serious sam a go!

Screenshots of Serious Sam Game: 

Causal game

Casual game

I am actually a causal gamer and I don’t commit myself to complete every single game I play. Anyway, few months ago I decided to buy One Finger Death Punch. A game created by Silver Dollar games. 

Honestly, this game is not extremely popular, thus not much people are familiar with this game. So a very quick intro..One Finger Death Punch is falls under the category of Action game and guess what? The mechanic of the game only consists of two buttons. Basically, when your enemies appear on left or right side, you just need to hit the button accordingly. If you try to button smash or spam by clicking randomly, you end up getting injured. 

For the challenges, there are different types of enemies as you go pass to higher levels. Different enemies require different number of times you are required to attack. The best part of attacking enemies is that it comes along with a coloured indication on how many attacks It requires for you to hit the button.

There also challenges in other forms. Enemies throw weapons at you and you have to click on time to throw back the weapon to them, there is “One life” round, where you have to attack the listed number of enemies to win the round.  All these challenges make the game interesting.

The artworks are quite decent, but players play as a stick-man attacking a whole bunch of stick-man. Animation is pretty good enough for me. One top of all these, players are given skills to unlock. Players are only allowed to choose three skills which allows you to be powerful than the previous state.

To think about it, I like this game a lot because I feel that they have really made good use of the two button mechanic. I mean if I stopped playing this game and wanted to play it again, I wouldn't need to worry about the game controls because it is so straightforward.  I just feel the games should be like this.  The easy mechanics in the game allows players to pick it up and start playing it. One Button Death punch would definitely be a game that I would love to complete.

Typing of the dead

Typing of the Dead 

Typing of the dead is actually an old arcade game. According to Wikipedia, it was realised in Japanese arcades in 1999 and it was available in Dreamcast. I owe the Windows Version of Typing of the dead. There is also a play station version of this game but you get to shoot the zombie.

In the Windows version of this game, you type to kill the zombies. Yes you literally type to kill the zombies. The words will appear on the screen and you have to type as quickly as possible to kill them. It’s like a mixture of an educational game and entertainment.

In this game there are two modes. One is a story arcade mode where you follow a storyline but in the arcade style type of game. Which means there are few short cut scenes, followed by typing(Just like the Silent hill arcade game).  There is also mini games mode where player can select three different mini games.

Even though this game maybe sounds a little weird, I think it’s not that bad after all. Initially the typing seems easy. As you progress through a level, you end up noticing that the words are complex or the sentences are longer.

Sentences

 All player is required to do is to type out the word that appears on the screen. Each zombie has its own set of word or sentences to type out. Once the whole sentence or word is typed out, the zombie dies. The speed and reflexes are being tested in this game.

This game isn't extremely fun as it is all about typing. If you are very good with typing, then you might enjoy it but there will be a point of time where you will get a little bored of typing.  I found it fun only when I played it with my friend.We competed with each other to see who is a better player in this game.

I won’ exactly say it’s an ideal game for people to play, but it’s a game that you wouldn't to play all the time. It’s fun occasionally. I think this is due to the current shoot-out games out there in the market.

If this game stands alone by itself without being compared, it’s not that bad. But thanks to the ever growing game industry, this game seems like more of an boring game then a game that attempt to take a different route for PC game.

This game is definitely worth a shot to play. Even if you are not keen of typing or educational and entertainment game, you can still try it for fun.  This is a game for keyboard warriors and typist. 

Shopkeeper

The shopkeeper is a point and click narrative game. It’s has a very simple story telling style like finding teddy type of game where you click on items that leads to next half of story. I usually do not blog about games that I do not like, but this game was extremely disappointing to a point that I have to blog about it.

The art style looked unique and designed looked great. The screenshots in the game store looked good too. On top of that, it was a story based game. So, I told myself, Why not?  Let me get to the point.

Main Character is wearing a suit

When I first started playing, I had completely no idea on what’s going on. It’s perfectly normal to feel that way because some games begin like that. However, after I made few decisions (which led me to the wrong pathway), I still had no idea on what’s going on.

Then, I decided to google about the game. Basically it’s about a young businessman who was looking for an Antique to impress is mother in law. The types of gift you choose leads to the right ending. If you choose the wrong one, you will lose the game and thus the game repeats (You wouldn’t know it until you realise the scenes repeats). 

I have yet to choose the right decision but I believe that’s the end to the game. I really have a strong dislike for this game because you have no idea what was your mistake. Ok you chose an antique, then it was the wrong gift. But why was it a wrong gift? Or why was it a successful gift?

I don’t see any clues or maybe I am not observant enough to pick up clues. The worse part of this whole game is that you just feel clueless and when it repeats, it makes me unhappy. Like why am I repeating? Am I going back again? What’s going on?

Usually my patience level is quite high but this game knows what strings to pull to annoy me. The art is unique and beautiful but the story is not being delivered well. To me, a game that fails to enure that the audience gets hold of the concept at least the middle of a single gameplay has failed to capture the art of game design.

To be honest, I would not recommend people to buy this game unless they want to suggest on a game they would like to improve on. I feel that this game has a lot of potential but they really need to pull themselves together and make a game that is straight forward at least. 

Notes that I am trying to see on how it can be used to win this game

Conversation between the Main character and Mother In law

Phone app - Lane splitter

Lane Splitter game 

Lane splitter was my favourite action racing game app I ever had. Lane Splitter depends on your quick reflexes as it requires you to dodge cars and manage the traffic jam. This game can be highly addictive.

Lane Splitter has a simple mechanics. All you have to do is to press the screen to make the bike go faster. Player can collect coins and near miss (almost got hit but dodged) provides you points. Player plays as the Main Character known as Jake Melton. He is racing through the traffic as he is late for his wedding.

Jack drives a sports bike, thus player has to drive around in the bike. It’s an endless game where you have to go on and on till one point of time you will crash your bike and lose. However, if manage to speed for a certain period of time, the bike itself will increase in speed.

This game is very easy to learn but it can be very hard to master it. There are challenges on the road. There are careless drivers and you have to avoid blind spots. Sometimes while you are on a left lane, suddenly a car decides to go on your lane too and starts switching to your lane.

It’s either you speed up (a vehicle in front of you) then switch lane, or slow down (upcoming vehicle). This kind of surprising challenges appears and you have to think fast before you crash. If you do not crash, you earn points. If you go pass vehicles also gives you points.

Coins are useful to unlock pickups and characters. There are pickups in this game that could be used in the game. There are also few other characters with different storylines. Players can unlock them by collecting coins.

I personally feel that this game is addictive due to the score system and the simplicity of the mechanics. The game is very easy to understand and it does not require commitment to the game. Player can play the game and abandon it for a while without worrying about the game progress.

Besides that, the score system plays a huge part as the players are trying to beat their own high score.  I used to compete with my friends by comparing score system. The higher the score, the more pro you are at lane splitter.

There are tons of endless games are out there in the market now. I feel that endless games are good because it caters to players who prefer not be committed to play the game in order to progress. They just want to play it to fill up their time.

I personally feel lane splitter is not that bad of a game after all. It’s simple, easy and challenging to play. It’s fun enough to be downloaded and it has sufficient level of challenges to keep you going on to play it. It just depends whether it suits your gaming style. I would definitely recommend this game to others.