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Showing posts with the label third-person

Resource Management in Code Name S.T.E.A.M.

Strategy games, whether turn-based or otherwise, are a huge time commitment. The momentum present is largely based on proficiency and awareness, and even then, players can have lengthy amounts of downtime and planning, especially in systems-rich titles. This is partially why finding the right entry point for the genre is a difficult task, and also why real-time strategy is more inviting- it is far more active and challenging, not to mention spectator friendly. But real time strategy often involves resource management on a larger scale than that of more traditional strategy games, as unit production is a major aspect of thoughtful strategy and execution. While some strategy games utilize weapon durability and unit movement as "resources" to manage, very few games are able to neatly and straightforwardly communicate the importance of this kind of gameplay, let alone implement it so that it takes a central focus. This is why Code Name S.T.E.A.M., Intelligent System's thi...

Claustrophobia in Horror Games

I'm not much of a Resident Evil fan- or at least, I wasn't, growing up. It was only the lack of titles present in the 3DS library that pushed me to pick up the technically astounding Resident Evil Revelaitons (not a typo) and begin to become somewhat enamored with the series. In truth, I was something of a skittish person in my youth, painfully aware of bumps in the night and checking behind my shoulder on many occasions. Horror games didn't really appeal to me, and even tense situations in games like Metroid Prime 2 would have me walking off nervous energy. I became a bit more familiar with the horror genre as I grew older, eventually accepting it and enjoying the thrill of my pulse pounding and discomfort rising during tense sequences. Still, it took me even more time to get into horror games, partially because I wasn't quite certain how these kinds of titles would attempt to replicate the staples of the cinematic and storytelling genre while still utilizing the uniqu...