So for this topic of interface, I feel I must do this report-like thing on Guild Wars, as it is an incredible, in-depth interface that can put anything to shame. And what the hey, I’ll even include Killzone with this as well.
Guild Wars-
The keyboard and mouse are the manual interfaces for this Game, as with the majority of PC games.
There is also a rich visual interface controlled by the manual interface. All of the things in this list below have some form of representation on the screen, from small to large boxes of menus and lists to animations and displays of text.
The buttons… default settings:
1-8, use skills (can also click the icons)
C, target closest
T, target called target
Space bar, perform action
Enter, open chat-send message
Tab- tab through targets
K, open skills panel
L, open quest log
H, open your hero panel-3tabs
I, open/close inventory
B, observe PvP matches
N, open friends list
M, open world map
P, open/close party box
U, open/close mini map
R, auto-run
J, open PvP armor creation box
G, open guild box
F, target self
; , target closest item
O, open score chart (last PvP match you were in’s statistics.)
Backspace, reply to personal message (pm, whisper)
Q, W, A, S, D – movement controls
Arrow buttons- movement controls
Z, reverse camera
X, turn around
Left mouse click, move to position/target foe/ally/item
Right mouse, control camera
Chat options: (all have different colors) Controlled in one box, generally at the bottom of the screen. You can only use one chat at once, and the one you are in is clearly represented by the system of tabs. You can also tell the box to go away- it becomes opaque and only the most recent of chat will be seen (around the last 10 seconds)
This area is also where ANet sends in game news/announcements to players, such as there being a new build and everyone should log off and restart the game client to get the latest nerf, er I mean patch, to get the latest patch. At any rate, these are the chat options:
All – public to everyone in the district or explorable instance
Guild- viewable to all guild members
Party- visible to party members
Trade- like all chat, but for trading purposes
Alliance- alliance wide chat channel
Whisper- personal 1 on 1 chat that can not be seen by others. A noise notifies you of a new pm.
In the inventory box is a small part labeled weapon sets, this lets you have 0 to 4 weapon sets show up on your screen for easy changing of weapons, either by clicking on them, or hitting F1 to F4.
Pressing the control button while hitting another key sends a message to party chat letting all know what you are doing / who you are calling.
Crtl + shift + h turns off the interface entirely
Crtl + shift + print screen takes a screen shot without the interface/HUD
F11 – options, for – General, Graphics, Sound, Interface
From the interface tab you can change almost everything. Move any HUD item to any spot on the screen, change the size, or get rid of it.
Default keys can be changed to do any other of something around 100 or so actions. Create hot buttons for more complex/ longer taking things.
The basic HUD:
Compass
Experience bar
Skill bar
Health and energy bars
Chat box
Mini map (optional)
Party box (optional)
Weapon sets (optional)
Selected object (foe, ally, item)(temporary)
Your skill warm up (temporary)
Target skill warm up (temporary)
Recent skills used against you. (temporary)
Effects on you (stances, signets, enchantments, hexes, morale boost/ death penalty)
Health gain appears in blue text
Health loss you take appears in red text
Damage you do appears in yellow text
Experience you gain appears in green text
Energy gain and energy lost appears in purple text, with a + or – symbol to differentiate
Enchantments appear as a yellow up arrow/triangle on your health bar
Hexes appear as a downwards purple arrow/triangle
Conditions generally appear as downwards gray arrow/triangles, with a few exceptions:
Deep wound causes ¼ your health bar to be grayed out, bleeding causes your health bar to turn a light red, and poison and disease cause the life bar to turn green.
Additionally, hexes that cause health degeneration will cause the life bar to turn purple/pink
All of these are crucial to know/understand when playing the game.
On the compass, enemies appear as red dots, you, and your allies appear as green dots, with your green dot a darker color than the others, and other peoples’ dots slightly darker than friendly NPC dots. There is a semi-transparent, semi-white circle that surrounds your green dot; this is your agro bubble. If a red dot gets in range of this (borders collide, or red dot(s) in the circle) they will attack you.
Foes that you target and/or damage will have their health bar appear over there head to show you where your target is and how much health it has left.
It takes a little while to get used to the interface, and some will acclimate to it much, much faster than others, but once you are at … I suppose, a near-intimate relationship with it, playing the game becomes seamless. You don’t have to think, you just do. Your mind is free to go about other things, and if you know how to position hand(s), how to watch and manage agro, and other aspects, you can play in some of the harder ~leet~ areas while watching a movie, playing with one hand, while the other grasps a sandwich recently acquired from Sub Connection. I have caught myself countless times not paying attention to the game but still owning it up. The game and I have become one, and this is because of the interface. In HCI, they say the less interface, the better, and I have played this game with the interface turned off – its slightly harder but still doable (harder because you don’t know where your health and energy are at, nor do you know where foes are in relation to your agro bubble.
The HUD was brilliantly designed, taking up little space, and the space it does off in the far corners of the screen (by default, and if that does not please you, move it wherever the hell you want or remove it completely, or just certain parts. It really is interactive and marvelous.
At the top most right most part is the standard windows program buttons – minimize, restore and close. GW can be played in a window, at whatever size, though obviously, if it gets too small, you won’t be able to see what is going on but, hey, if that’s how you want to play, you can.
Killzone:
It uses the PS2 controller as its manual interface.
The left analog stick controls movement
Clicking in the left analog stick will cause you to run faster, temporarily
Clicking the right analog stick causes your weapon to zoom (if it has the feature)
The up and down arrow keys will control the zoom of the sniper rifle (the other weapons with a zoom feature simply have one ..or two options- to zoom or not to zoom.
R1 and R2 control weapon fire
L1 will cause you to activate and then throw a grenade
L2 is the crouch key
Triangle will cause you to reload your weapon
X is the action button, used for such things as climbing ladders.
Left and right arrow keys are used to go through your weapons
O selects the weapon
One thing I do not like is that, when you pause the game, the screen just freezes. After a little bit a menu screen comes up… it should come up faster as, well, I’m not sure how to describe it, but the frozen screen thing kinda bugs me.. its like.. for a split second you don’t know if you paused it or not, and I’m a very intense game player, when something disturbs me enough to have to pause the game, I want to know its paused right then and there so I can leave. When you unpause the game, it takes a little longer than most games to get back to resumed play, so this combo can be deadly when you accidently hit the pause button and then try to unapause it instantly.
There are several options to go through and can be changed, but those seem to be more suitable for another topic, such as Gameplay, or maybe even a few other things.
Its HUD consists of your hand with the weapon you are using and stats related to that (ammo remaining, heat level, weapon crosshairs)
Grenades remaining
Health bar
Stamina bar (related to sprinting)
Both of these games have very usable interfaces, they are not cluttered and very efficient. Though, you could clutter GW’s interface up if you wanted to / needed to for some particular reason. They are consistent, in function as well as style (that also fits the game/game genre/setting, and for Guild Wars, you can make all sorts of shortcuts for many many things, while in Killzone, shortcuts aren’t entirely necessary, but you can change the controls if you so desire.
Guild Wars also has some nice features with tips, relating to things such as skills and other aspects of the game (I’m not entirely sure which aspects as I don’t use them, me being a Grand Master Guild Wars Player that I am.) You can also choose between full and concise descriptions for skills, and toggle them off/on as wanted. Concise descriptions make them a shorter read for people who know what the skills do, but just need a tiny reminder. At first I thought this feature (which was recently implemented, relative to how long I’ve had the game) was rather useless, but it means having less text on the screen and that is better.
There is no saving in Guild Wars, it is an MMORPG with servers on around the clock, if something happens, it’s happened, and the only way to undo that is for the developers to go in and change it manually, which rarely happens, but does, when jackasses decide to duplicate expensive items over and over again and get themselves banned.
In Killzone, you can pretty much save whenever your little heart desires. It also makes use of the regenerative health feature (as does GW), but unlike some of the games that have started using this, the health bar in Killzone has levels, about 3 – Your health will be silver at max health – a lot. When you take some damage, the health bar goes down, eventually turning green. More damage causes it to become yellow, and after a lot of damage it becomes red. When you’ve taken too much damage, its not there- you’re dead. The regening health tends to only work in one level, that is, if you take, lets say 20 damage, and that gets you to be at the border of the silver/green health bar, but still silver, you will get back to max health if you wait long enough. If you were to take 30 damage (the numbers are made up), that would put you in the middle of the green zone, and your health can only regen back up to the top of the green level. The same goes for each level of health. To add to this, there are health pickups on pretty much every level of the game, though they are rarer than in games with no health regen- I guess they tried to find a nice balance in Killzone, and I am happy with it.
For the most part, game play is fast and seamless with these two games, because the interface stays the **** out of your business.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Killzone Rules. Not really, but its pretty good.
As with any FPS, one of the major rules of Killzone is that -if you die, game over, you must restart the level and try to fail less. At least, this is the case for the story mode. There are several non-story modes where, if you die, you respawn in just a few seconds and are ready to go at it again.
In the non-story modes, such as Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch, the player has a lot of control over some of the in-game rules and properties for the upcoming battle. You can:
Select the amount of NPCs on your side
Select the amount of NPCs on the enemy's side
Determine the AI difficulty (easy, normal, hard)
Select if you want friendly fire on or off
Select which of several maps you'll be playing in
Determine how a match ends (either a time limit, first to 100, 200 kills...)
Choose whether or not NPC names will be under them when in a certain range.
In Killzone, as in many an FPS, the character(s) have health and armor. When you or anyone is hit, their armor decreases, if they have no armor, their health decreases, when they have no health, they are dead. Some weapons, or hits are enough to kill someone with one blow even when they have max armor and health, say from a rocket from a rocket launcher. An important to know feature in Killzone is that you can kill yourself if you aren't careful (or any number of reasons) and do something such as shooting a rocket into a wall 4 feet away from you. You will die, and if in the story mode, must restart the level from start, or if in the Battlegrounds missions, will respawn, but your awesome rocket launcher will be gone.
When the PS2 and XBox came out, there was an altering in interaction. At least in FPS's, and maybe not all, but certainly the ones I play. They make use of the shoulder buttons -- L1, L2, R1, R2. In Killzone, R1 and R2 are your weapon fire/use buttons, and most weapons have 2 fire modes, a primary and a secondary. Some examples:
ISA standard assault rifle- Primary:machine gun-ish. Secondary:Grendae laucher(holds 1 until used)
Helghast assault rifle- Primary:machine gun. Secondary:shot gun shell (holds 1 until used)
Shotgun- Primary:shoot one shell. Secondary:shoot two shells. The shotgun is interesting, as the player can hit R1 and R2 at the same time and manage to shoot 3 shells from the gun at once when theres only two barrel holes. Shooting 3 shells at once is essentially guaranteed to kill you target if they all hit, but the shotgun only holds 8 shells before needing to be reloaded, so thats nearly half your ammo used. (You can store more ammo on you though, this is the case with all the weapons, save a select few, such as the knives.)
ISA rocket launcher- Primary: Shoot a rocket. Secondary: Shoot a laser guided rocket.
Helghast rocket launcher- Primary:Shoot a rocet. Secondary: Shoot ALL THREE rockets!!!
There is an interesting mechanic in the game... In the story mode, you can play as one of four characters, three being humans and one being half-human, half-helghast. The humans can use their weapons just fine, but when they pick up a Helghast assault weapon from a fallen foe and start using it, they will experience significat recoil. When Hakha (the half n' half guy) uses this weapon, he gets very little recoil, but when using the other weapons, experiences more recoil than the others. Missions can be rather long, so you are bound to run out of ammo.. you would be forced to pick up the dead enemies' weapons and use them, but there tends to be a few deposits of ISA weaponry and ammo on the various maps/missions, often next to dead comrades. So, for the most part, the player can choose which weapon will be their primary weapon- the ISA or the Helghast machine guns, or the chaingun or semi-silent half-sniper rifle gun... until those two run out of ammo, and they have significantly less pickups than the assault rifles.
The characters each have their own strengths and weaknesses creating a good game balance.
Jan- the every-guy. He can run a decent amount of time, climb ladders, crawl through vents and some other tight spots.
Luger- the small, flexible assassin- can run the longest, climb ladders and rope (while holding a gun..), fit into the smallest spots.
Rico- he is the slowest of them all. he can not climb ladders, and certainly not rope or wires. He can not even crouch down and go through some vents or any small openings. But he can hold a lot more ammo than the others and is the best at using the heavy artillery, such as his chain/rocket gun.
Hahka- also a middle road kinda guy. He's the best at using Helghast weaponry but is slightly worse with human weapons. He can also bypass Helghast security thingies, such as trip-lasers rigged to bombs that will kill anyone who sets them off. He also regenerates his health faster than the others, while in down-time (not running around shooting up the place)
The story is a 1player mode. The battlegrounds is 1-2players, locally. If you have your PS2 connected to the interwebs, you can play with / against other people online, something I have never done with this game. 2 Player mode splits the screen, making it semi-harder to tell what is going on in your section, as is the way with nearly all FPSs.
One of my favorite things to do in the Battles mode is to grab me up the Sniper rifle and head up several stories of the biggest building on a particular map- I come out on a little balcony like area and can see something like 60-70% of the entire map from one position. Zoom in with the sniper rifle and you can see very, very far, with great detail. Sniping is fun.. foes have no idea where you are (if they are NPCs) and die with a single hit. Now, since this would be too easy, they made the sniper rifle one of the hardest guns to use. Its actually a Helghan weapon in this game, and therefore has an orange tint on the scope that matches their little goggles. Aiming is very difficult to do, especially at first, and I'm not even sure how to describe it. ...The crosshairs lag.. and you won't move them for a little bit, and then all of a sudden you've overshot your target, aiming at one side of them to the other. It takes a bit getting used to, but once you are, is oh so lethal. You can shoot 6 bullets before needing to reload and can only hold about 18 on you, so it can go rather fast, luckily, there is a sniper rifle bullet pickup mere feet from the location I like to use.
In the non-story modes, such as Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch, the player has a lot of control over some of the in-game rules and properties for the upcoming battle. You can:
Select the amount of NPCs on your side
Select the amount of NPCs on the enemy's side
Determine the AI difficulty (easy, normal, hard)
Select if you want friendly fire on or off
Select which of several maps you'll be playing in
Determine how a match ends (either a time limit, first to 100, 200 kills...)
Choose whether or not NPC names will be under them when in a certain range.
In Killzone, as in many an FPS, the character(s) have health and armor. When you or anyone is hit, their armor decreases, if they have no armor, their health decreases, when they have no health, they are dead. Some weapons, or hits are enough to kill someone with one blow even when they have max armor and health, say from a rocket from a rocket launcher. An important to know feature in Killzone is that you can kill yourself if you aren't careful (or any number of reasons) and do something such as shooting a rocket into a wall 4 feet away from you. You will die, and if in the story mode, must restart the level from start, or if in the Battlegrounds missions, will respawn, but your awesome rocket launcher will be gone.
When the PS2 and XBox came out, there was an altering in interaction. At least in FPS's, and maybe not all, but certainly the ones I play. They make use of the shoulder buttons -- L1, L2, R1, R2. In Killzone, R1 and R2 are your weapon fire/use buttons, and most weapons have 2 fire modes, a primary and a secondary. Some examples:
ISA standard assault rifle- Primary:machine gun-ish. Secondary:Grendae laucher(holds 1 until used)
Helghast assault rifle- Primary:machine gun. Secondary:shot gun shell (holds 1 until used)
Shotgun- Primary:shoot one shell. Secondary:shoot two shells. The shotgun is interesting, as the player can hit R1 and R2 at the same time and manage to shoot 3 shells from the gun at once when theres only two barrel holes. Shooting 3 shells at once is essentially guaranteed to kill you target if they all hit, but the shotgun only holds 8 shells before needing to be reloaded, so thats nearly half your ammo used. (You can store more ammo on you though, this is the case with all the weapons, save a select few, such as the knives.)
ISA rocket launcher- Primary: Shoot a rocket. Secondary: Shoot a laser guided rocket.
Helghast rocket launcher- Primary:Shoot a rocet. Secondary: Shoot ALL THREE rockets!!!
There is an interesting mechanic in the game... In the story mode, you can play as one of four characters, three being humans and one being half-human, half-helghast. The humans can use their weapons just fine, but when they pick up a Helghast assault weapon from a fallen foe and start using it, they will experience significat recoil. When Hakha (the half n' half guy) uses this weapon, he gets very little recoil, but when using the other weapons, experiences more recoil than the others. Missions can be rather long, so you are bound to run out of ammo.. you would be forced to pick up the dead enemies' weapons and use them, but there tends to be a few deposits of ISA weaponry and ammo on the various maps/missions, often next to dead comrades. So, for the most part, the player can choose which weapon will be their primary weapon- the ISA or the Helghast machine guns, or the chaingun or semi-silent half-sniper rifle gun... until those two run out of ammo, and they have significantly less pickups than the assault rifles.
The characters each have their own strengths and weaknesses creating a good game balance.
Jan- the every-guy. He can run a decent amount of time, climb ladders, crawl through vents and some other tight spots.
Luger- the small, flexible assassin- can run the longest, climb ladders and rope (while holding a gun..), fit into the smallest spots.
Rico- he is the slowest of them all. he can not climb ladders, and certainly not rope or wires. He can not even crouch down and go through some vents or any small openings. But he can hold a lot more ammo than the others and is the best at using the heavy artillery, such as his chain/rocket gun.
Hahka- also a middle road kinda guy. He's the best at using Helghast weaponry but is slightly worse with human weapons. He can also bypass Helghast security thingies, such as trip-lasers rigged to bombs that will kill anyone who sets them off. He also regenerates his health faster than the others, while in down-time (not running around shooting up the place)
The story is a 1player mode. The battlegrounds is 1-2players, locally. If you have your PS2 connected to the interwebs, you can play with / against other people online, something I have never done with this game. 2 Player mode splits the screen, making it semi-harder to tell what is going on in your section, as is the way with nearly all FPSs.
One of my favorite things to do in the Battles mode is to grab me up the Sniper rifle and head up several stories of the biggest building on a particular map- I come out on a little balcony like area and can see something like 60-70% of the entire map from one position. Zoom in with the sniper rifle and you can see very, very far, with great detail. Sniping is fun.. foes have no idea where you are (if they are NPCs) and die with a single hit. Now, since this would be too easy, they made the sniper rifle one of the hardest guns to use. Its actually a Helghan weapon in this game, and therefore has an orange tint on the scope that matches their little goggles. Aiming is very difficult to do, especially at first, and I'm not even sure how to describe it. ...The crosshairs lag.. and you won't move them for a little bit, and then all of a sudden you've overshot your target, aiming at one side of them to the other. It takes a bit getting used to, but once you are, is oh so lethal. You can shoot 6 bullets before needing to reload and can only hold about 18 on you, so it can go rather fast, luckily, there is a sniper rifle bullet pickup mere feet from the location I like to use.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Killzone: Characters. That's the best I could come up with.
There are 4 main characters in the story and 3 lesser main ones.. and they all make their contributions.
Playables (main) -- (Jan's Crew)
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Captain Jan Templar - the leader of the pack. He is essentially asked to save the world and along his trip runs into an old friend and they continue on the mission (the friend is Luger who is now playable) Jan is given orders to rescue a spy with Luger and while on their way to the captive's location run across a tank and several soldiers, the two hide realizng their weapons are useless against tanks and all of a sudden some guy starts yelling and shooting at the Helghans. He blows up the tank, and shortly thereafter joins Jan and Luger, Rico is now a playable character. The three go on to rescue the spy who turns out to be the half-human, half-helghast Hakha much to their surprise and displeasure. Jan tries to keep things smooth between Rico and Hakha (he doesn't hate Hakha and knows that this group is going to have to work together if they are to succeed.) When it is revealed that one of the human generals is a traitor, Jan fears for his friend, the general who sent him on his mission as well as a good friend.) Jan decides what his crew is going to do and how, for the most part, and after realizing his friend is dead, heads up into space to stop the traitor.
Shadow Marshal Luger - a cold and calculating female assassin / spy. It is revealed that Jan and her once had a semi-romantic relationship, but that ended awhile ago when she went for her training and lost many of the more human emotions. Rico notices tension between Luger and Jan, and Hakha explains what most likely happened - she was "trained to act, not feel." There does not seem to be much chance of rekindling a relationship between her and Janm but they do work well together on the battlefield.
Sergeant Rico Velasquez - the big "tough" one, he carries a large chain gun capable of destroying tanks.. He hates the Helghast more than anyone (on the crew at least). For this reason, he dislikes and distrusts Hakha, often threatening to kill or maim him, and the two constantly exchange insults throughout the game. However, as the game continues, the hatred/distrust between the two fades a little, but not entirely- they are both valuable and essential components in the team, it is only 4 people after all.
Colonel Hakha - Half human and half Helghast and a spy; for these reasons, but mainly the first, the rest of the team does not entirely trust or like him, especially Rico. Over the course of the game he proves his loyalty, from shooting a Helghast soldier when the other 3 playables find him, to figureing out who the traitor in the Human military is, and eventually killing a major Helghan general after he (the general) reveals that he personally killedHakha's brother for his pro-human ideals.
Non-playables
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General Bradley Vaughton - A human and friend of Jan Templar. Vaughton orders Templar and Luger to find and rescue an important person(who turns out to be Hakha.) He is betrayed by General Adams and then executed.
General Stuart Adams - Another human general, he turns out to be a traitor and hands the human's space-based weapons platform over to Helghast control and gives the order to execute General Vaughton. This of course causes some tension and overall hatred between Jan and his crew, but especially Jan.
At the end of the game, whichever of the characters you are playing will be the one to have a part in his death(although, the player doesn't kill Adams, falling debris does.)
General Joseph Lente - A general and Commander-in-chief of the Helghan army under direct command of the Helghast leader. He loathes humans and Earth and leads many of the major assaults on Vetka. After he is defeated by Jan's crew, he reveals to them (mostly Hakha) how he killed Hakha's brother. When Hakha puts a bullet in his head, his loyalties seem pretty clear to the others.
Shapes
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There is no character triangle for romantic relationships, just a line that is faded between Jan and Luger. As there are 4 main characters, there would be mostly character squares.
One triangle would/could be Hakha-Hakha's brother(we never see)-Lente.
Hakha is a half-human half-Helghast individual, so he could belong to either side.
His brother was a pro-human idealist.
Lente, a Helghan with major human-hating qualities personally kills Hakha's brother.
Hakha now (even more so) hates Lente and the Helghast, sides with the humans, and eventually kills his brother's killer.
Jan-Vaughton-Adams
Jan and General Vaughton were friends
General Vaughton and General Adams were friends
General Adams betrays the humans and has Vaugthon murdered
Jan does not like General Adams, and goes on a mission to stop / kill the traitor.
Some of the major character developments included Hakha proving his loyalty and value to the pure humans as the game went on and Rico's hatred for Hakha lessening as Hakha proved himself, and Hakha's dislike of Rico lessening as Rico's dislike for him lessened.
The relationship between Jan and Luger is revealed a bit more as the story moves foward, as is how/why it eneded and how the two changed since then (particularly Luger).
Each of the playable characters has their own distinct weapon(s).
Jan uses a standard ISA machine gun
Luger uses a silent semi-automatic-ish semi-sniper rifle.. it is very quiet, has a good scope, shoots single rounds or can shoot several (becoming louder). She also wields a knife.
Rico uses a chain gun that holds something like 8,000 bullets as well as rockets. It is loud and big and can overheat after too much use (stopping the player from just shooting all 8,000 bullets in a minute)
Hahka uses the standard Helghast machine gun, its a little slower than Jan's gun but hits harder and holds more bullets. Like Luger, he also has a knife, though his looks more Helghany.
Playables (main) -- (Jan's Crew)
-----
Captain Jan Templar - the leader of the pack. He is essentially asked to save the world and along his trip runs into an old friend and they continue on the mission (the friend is Luger who is now playable) Jan is given orders to rescue a spy with Luger and while on their way to the captive's location run across a tank and several soldiers, the two hide realizng their weapons are useless against tanks and all of a sudden some guy starts yelling and shooting at the Helghans. He blows up the tank, and shortly thereafter joins Jan and Luger, Rico is now a playable character. The three go on to rescue the spy who turns out to be the half-human, half-helghast Hakha much to their surprise and displeasure. Jan tries to keep things smooth between Rico and Hakha (he doesn't hate Hakha and knows that this group is going to have to work together if they are to succeed.) When it is revealed that one of the human generals is a traitor, Jan fears for his friend, the general who sent him on his mission as well as a good friend.) Jan decides what his crew is going to do and how, for the most part, and after realizing his friend is dead, heads up into space to stop the traitor.
Shadow Marshal Luger - a cold and calculating female assassin / spy. It is revealed that Jan and her once had a semi-romantic relationship, but that ended awhile ago when she went for her training and lost many of the more human emotions. Rico notices tension between Luger and Jan, and Hakha explains what most likely happened - she was "trained to act, not feel." There does not seem to be much chance of rekindling a relationship between her and Janm but they do work well together on the battlefield.
Sergeant Rico Velasquez - the big "tough" one, he carries a large chain gun capable of destroying tanks.. He hates the Helghast more than anyone (on the crew at least). For this reason, he dislikes and distrusts Hakha, often threatening to kill or maim him, and the two constantly exchange insults throughout the game. However, as the game continues, the hatred/distrust between the two fades a little, but not entirely- they are both valuable and essential components in the team, it is only 4 people after all.
Colonel Hakha - Half human and half Helghast and a spy; for these reasons, but mainly the first, the rest of the team does not entirely trust or like him, especially Rico. Over the course of the game he proves his loyalty, from shooting a Helghast soldier when the other 3 playables find him, to figureing out who the traitor in the Human military is, and eventually killing a major Helghan general after he (the general) reveals that he personally killedHakha's brother for his pro-human ideals.
Non-playables
-----
General Bradley Vaughton - A human and friend of Jan Templar. Vaughton orders Templar and Luger to find and rescue an important person(who turns out to be Hakha.) He is betrayed by General Adams and then executed.
General Stuart Adams - Another human general, he turns out to be a traitor and hands the human's space-based weapons platform over to Helghast control and gives the order to execute General Vaughton. This of course causes some tension and overall hatred between Jan and his crew, but especially Jan.
At the end of the game, whichever of the characters you are playing will be the one to have a part in his death(although, the player doesn't kill Adams, falling debris does.)
General Joseph Lente - A general and Commander-in-chief of the Helghan army under direct command of the Helghast leader. He loathes humans and Earth and leads many of the major assaults on Vetka. After he is defeated by Jan's crew, he reveals to them (mostly Hakha) how he killed Hakha's brother. When Hakha puts a bullet in his head, his loyalties seem pretty clear to the others.
Shapes
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There is no character triangle for romantic relationships, just a line that is faded between Jan and Luger. As there are 4 main characters, there would be mostly character squares.
One triangle would/could be Hakha-Hakha's brother(we never see)-Lente.
Hakha is a half-human half-Helghast individual, so he could belong to either side.
His brother was a pro-human idealist.
Lente, a Helghan with major human-hating qualities personally kills Hakha's brother.
Hakha now (even more so) hates Lente and the Helghast, sides with the humans, and eventually kills his brother's killer.
Jan-Vaughton-Adams
Jan and General Vaughton were friends
General Vaughton and General Adams were friends
General Adams betrays the humans and has Vaugthon murdered
Jan does not like General Adams, and goes on a mission to stop / kill the traitor.
Some of the major character developments included Hakha proving his loyalty and value to the pure humans as the game went on and Rico's hatred for Hakha lessening as Hakha proved himself, and Hakha's dislike of Rico lessening as Rico's dislike for him lessened.
The relationship between Jan and Luger is revealed a bit more as the story moves foward, as is how/why it eneded and how the two changed since then (particularly Luger).
Each of the playable characters has their own distinct weapon(s).
Jan uses a standard ISA machine gun
Luger uses a silent semi-automatic-ish semi-sniper rifle.. it is very quiet, has a good scope, shoots single rounds or can shoot several (becoming louder). She also wields a knife.
Rico uses a chain gun that holds something like 8,000 bullets as well as rockets. It is loud and big and can overheat after too much use (stopping the player from just shooting all 8,000 bullets in a minute)
Hahka uses the standard Helghast machine gun, its a little slower than Jan's gun but hits harder and holds more bullets. Like Luger, he also has a knife, though his looks more Helghany.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Killzone: A Story of Shooting Everything in Sight.
As it's been requested I ~not~ do everything about Guild Wars, I shall go back in time, for now, until I can achieve more time on other such things as new games on the new consoles... Though I continue to wait for the release of the PS4...
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Killzone is a first person shooter that takes place pretty far in the future, the year not exactly known, but humans have begun space colonization. And that little bit of info is what feeds the game. Humans had colonized the planet Helghan, which features very harsh conditions, and the people living there had to adapt and evolve in order to survive on such a planet. They eventually became the Helghast, a human-like race with better stats and abilities. This is all well and good, except for their deep hatred towards humanity...
The humans and the Helghast are at war, and after recovering from their defeat in the First Helghan War, the Helghast launch an attack on Vetka, a human colony-planet. Jan Templar is a captain in the ISA, a human military organization and it is his task to stop this invasion and prevent the Helghast from taking over Vetka and eventually Earth. This is a pretty big job for one man, so help is working in along the way. Jan meets a former lover, Luger, now turned deadly Shadow-Marshal assassin and Rico Velasquez, a big, heavy-gun toating soldier whose entire platoon was killed. Together they kill off many a Helghast in the quest to rescue a spy, who turns out to be a half-human, half-helghast colonel with no love of the Helghast. Rico harbors a deep hatred off the Helghast, only made worse by the fact that they had just recently killed his company, so this leads to a lot of tension between the two.
Almost every game has a plot-twist or a whatchacallit, and this one is no different. To defend the Earth colonies, the military makes use of a spaced-based weapons platform. This platform requires that two human generals work together to activate it (think Goldeneye in the movie, Goldeneye). Turns out, one of the generals is a traitor, who, as soon as the controls for the weapoons platform become operational, kills the other general, a good friend of Jan Templar, and turns the weapons towards Vetka and the fleet of Earth spaceships. It is then up to Jan and his crew to get onboard the platform and put an end to General Adams (the murderous traitor) and destroy the weapons platform (or at least get it to stop killing the humans).
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Killzone is a first person shooter that takes place pretty far in the future, the year not exactly known, but humans have begun space colonization. And that little bit of info is what feeds the game. Humans had colonized the planet Helghan, which features very harsh conditions, and the people living there had to adapt and evolve in order to survive on such a planet. They eventually became the Helghast, a human-like race with better stats and abilities. This is all well and good, except for their deep hatred towards humanity...
The humans and the Helghast are at war, and after recovering from their defeat in the First Helghan War, the Helghast launch an attack on Vetka, a human colony-planet. Jan Templar is a captain in the ISA, a human military organization and it is his task to stop this invasion and prevent the Helghast from taking over Vetka and eventually Earth. This is a pretty big job for one man, so help is working in along the way. Jan meets a former lover, Luger, now turned deadly Shadow-Marshal assassin and Rico Velasquez, a big, heavy-gun toating soldier whose entire platoon was killed. Together they kill off many a Helghast in the quest to rescue a spy, who turns out to be a half-human, half-helghast colonel with no love of the Helghast. Rico harbors a deep hatred off the Helghast, only made worse by the fact that they had just recently killed his company, so this leads to a lot of tension between the two.
Almost every game has a plot-twist or a whatchacallit, and this one is no different. To defend the Earth colonies, the military makes use of a spaced-based weapons platform. This platform requires that two human generals work together to activate it (think Goldeneye in the movie, Goldeneye). Turns out, one of the generals is a traitor, who, as soon as the controls for the weapoons platform become operational, kills the other general, a good friend of Jan Templar, and turns the weapons towards Vetka and the fleet of Earth spaceships. It is then up to Jan and his crew to get onboard the platform and put an end to General Adams (the murderous traitor) and destroy the weapons platform (or at least get it to stop killing the humans).
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Ninjas and Pirates
Wait, was it pirates or warriors?
1. Ninjas. They are good at two things. Killing and stealth. Well, killing generally implies fighting, so it will have to be stealth that we focus on.
Use your incredible shadow arts to go from place to place stealing whatever pleases you and causing mayhem. You can accept missions to steal certain things for someone or try your hand at freelance, selling things on the blackmarket.
2. You're a scout in the King's Army. Forces are invading from the South, or any direction... It has been raining heavily for the last week, so your pyre is soaked. There is no lighting the beacons tonight. But they must be warned! Get moving. -In this action/adventure game, you have no weapons (got drunk and lost a bet) so you are forced to retreat back into your territory unarmed, avoiding the enemy and getting to the King's Palace safely and hastily. Try to mount an attack or defensive by yourself and you will surely be slaughtered.
3. You are the captain of The Arr. You and your bang of scally-wags are some of the last remaining pirates. True pirates - not those modern day wankers. However, seeing as how military powers and overall authority has grown greatly, assaulting other vessels and making off with their loot isn't the greatest idea. (They will send jets to bomb you.) Instead, you and the crew have contented yourselves with merely looking for treasure. So now you sail the seas, searching for tiny deserted islands and shoveling it over a few feet. You'd be amazed at just how much treasure is hidden on these deserted islands. It's probably all from other pirates who buried it there, forgot about it and then died. If you score enough swag, you can retire from your life of piracy and move to a tropical island with a tiny hut. ..hmm.. maybe you'll move to a congested city with too much to do.
4. Napstar. Combining the qualities of Napster and Rock Band, players will make and share music illegally. -The newer version of modern day pirates. P2P piracy.. Get caught by the feds and pay a fine. Fighting them may result in getting shot.
5. A young man has spent years searching for the fabled temple. He wants to crush his enemies with the way of the assassin - leet ninja skills. He has found the ancient temple! Oh, but it took too long. The ninjas have gotten old. Fighting is no longer their hobby. At least, not what the young man was looking for. Board games. They spend their days playing board games. And they have offered you a spot in their monthly tournament! Will you accept? -See if you can defeat the old, wise ninjas in a variety of board games. Watch them closely though... you never know when one will make a chess piece shadow step across the board. If you manage to defeat them, they will reward you with an outfit and a katana. You may not have the incredibly uber skills, but you have their items. And isn't that really what you wanted anyways?
1. Ninjas. They are good at two things. Killing and stealth. Well, killing generally implies fighting, so it will have to be stealth that we focus on.
Use your incredible shadow arts to go from place to place stealing whatever pleases you and causing mayhem. You can accept missions to steal certain things for someone or try your hand at freelance, selling things on the blackmarket.
2. You're a scout in the King's Army. Forces are invading from the South, or any direction... It has been raining heavily for the last week, so your pyre is soaked. There is no lighting the beacons tonight. But they must be warned! Get moving. -In this action/adventure game, you have no weapons (got drunk and lost a bet) so you are forced to retreat back into your territory unarmed, avoiding the enemy and getting to the King's Palace safely and hastily. Try to mount an attack or defensive by yourself and you will surely be slaughtered.
3. You are the captain of The Arr. You and your bang of scally-wags are some of the last remaining pirates. True pirates - not those modern day wankers. However, seeing as how military powers and overall authority has grown greatly, assaulting other vessels and making off with their loot isn't the greatest idea. (They will send jets to bomb you.) Instead, you and the crew have contented yourselves with merely looking for treasure. So now you sail the seas, searching for tiny deserted islands and shoveling it over a few feet. You'd be amazed at just how much treasure is hidden on these deserted islands. It's probably all from other pirates who buried it there, forgot about it and then died. If you score enough swag, you can retire from your life of piracy and move to a tropical island with a tiny hut. ..hmm.. maybe you'll move to a congested city with too much to do.
4. Napstar. Combining the qualities of Napster and Rock Band, players will make and share music illegally. -The newer version of modern day pirates. P2P piracy.. Get caught by the feds and pay a fine. Fighting them may result in getting shot.
5. A young man has spent years searching for the fabled temple. He wants to crush his enemies with the way of the assassin - leet ninja skills. He has found the ancient temple! Oh, but it took too long. The ninjas have gotten old. Fighting is no longer their hobby. At least, not what the young man was looking for. Board games. They spend their days playing board games. And they have offered you a spot in their monthly tournament! Will you accept? -See if you can defeat the old, wise ninjas in a variety of board games. Watch them closely though... you never know when one will make a chess piece shadow step across the board. If you manage to defeat them, they will reward you with an outfit and a katana. You may not have the incredibly uber skills, but you have their items. And isn't that really what you wanted anyways?
Guild Wars turns Three!
This week / weekend marks the 3rd anniversary of the release of Guild Wars: Prophecies; the 2nd of Factions, and 1.5th of Nightfall.
To celebrate, ANet did one of their typical event weekends, with extras and what not.
For awhile now, there have been "mini-pets" in the game. They helped ruin the economy. Oh but also, they make a small version of some type of creature to follow your character around. (It is completely useless; but some are very very rare --people like to show off their "l33tn3ss" in online games, so they pay ungodly amounts of money for the rarest ones - see: ruined the economy.
There are a few ways to obtain a mini pet. On a character's birthday (works just like human ones) a little blue box will appear in its inventory. Double-clicking this box will open it up and a small icon of one of the game's creatures will appear in its place. Double-clicking on this icon will summon that thing at your feet, at a scale of oh 1/4 to 1/20 the size of the actual thing it is a mini of. (think Minime or is it Mini-me?)
There are other ways to get one.. such as buying a certain issue of a magazine, or defeating many many others in a GvG or what have you. (Guild vs. Guild)
Each year has its own set, (that might not make sense, or maybe what I next say won't) A green, 2 golds, 3 purples, and then 8 whites. The color determines the rarity and how much you can sell one for if you opt to do that.
Some mini pets cost about 500g to buy. That is .5 k. Then there are a few that go around oh, 8 mil. which is 8,000 k. Thanks for destroying the economy ANet. They also want ectos.
After seeing this year's list of mini-pets, I can't say I am all that pleased. Some are just basic re-skins of already existent ones. Others are just lame things to begin with, but ANet seems to find it so incredibly hilarious.
Seriously, get the damn Ooze out of LA, Kamadan, and KC. That thing is bloody annoying.
-They decided to make a mini Ooze. And its not even one of the whites- its a fricken purple! Omg, why!?
The Black Beast of Arrgh, is basically the rollerbeetle mini, with just the slightest change to the skin. Eh, c'mon guys. really? And its gold.
Now the nornbear, that one is pretty cool, its a purple and I'm bound to buy one if one of my characters doesn't get lucky enough for that.
-More to come. I think.
To celebrate, ANet did one of their typical event weekends, with extras and what not.
For awhile now, there have been "mini-pets" in the game. They helped ruin the economy. Oh but also, they make a small version of some type of creature to follow your character around. (It is completely useless; but some are very very rare --people like to show off their "l33tn3ss" in online games, so they pay ungodly amounts of money for the rarest ones - see: ruined the economy.
There are a few ways to obtain a mini pet. On a character's birthday (works just like human ones) a little blue box will appear in its inventory. Double-clicking this box will open it up and a small icon of one of the game's creatures will appear in its place. Double-clicking on this icon will summon that thing at your feet, at a scale of oh 1/4 to 1/20 the size of the actual thing it is a mini of. (think Minime or is it Mini-me?)
There are other ways to get one.. such as buying a certain issue of a magazine, or defeating many many others in a GvG or what have you. (Guild vs. Guild)
Each year has its own set, (that might not make sense, or maybe what I next say won't) A green, 2 golds, 3 purples, and then 8 whites. The color determines the rarity and how much you can sell one for if you opt to do that.
Some mini pets cost about 500g to buy. That is .5 k. Then there are a few that go around oh, 8 mil. which is 8,000 k. Thanks for destroying the economy ANet. They also want ectos.
After seeing this year's list of mini-pets, I can't say I am all that pleased. Some are just basic re-skins of already existent ones. Others are just lame things to begin with, but ANet seems to find it so incredibly hilarious.
Seriously, get the damn Ooze out of LA, Kamadan, and KC. That thing is bloody annoying.
-They decided to make a mini Ooze. And its not even one of the whites- its a fricken purple! Omg, why!?
The Black Beast of Arrgh, is basically the rollerbeetle mini, with just the slightest change to the skin. Eh, c'mon guys. really? And its gold.
Now the nornbear, that one is pretty cool, its a purple and I'm bound to buy one if one of my characters doesn't get lucky enough for that.
-More to come. I think.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Hedge playing
They will be posted in the next few hours as they are finalized and the last ones materialize in my mind.
The problem is that, materializing things in one's mind as I do, tends to fill it up pretty fast. My head is only 18 inches around, so all these ideas are just kind of trying to blow my head up. Mischievous little things.
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1. Hedge-sim. Using your Wii controllers, players will act out the motions of laying hedges. It would be as realistic as possible, with the game being very critical. The game is meant as an exercise for people who want to get into the business of laying hedges. They've done the same for flying-planes. When you perform well enough, the game's on-line store will open up, where you can then purchase the items to really lay hedges in the dreaded outside.
2. You are a renowned hedge-layer. The annual Hedgefest is approaching. Lay your hedges in a most beautiful and practical way. And watch out for those neighbors... They leave miles away and you have no idea what they're scheming. All you know is that for the last 10 years, you have bested them in the hedge competition and their furor continues to grow. You have heard someone plans to ruin your hedges sometime in the week before the festival. Now you must defend your hedges from those pesky, un-skilled scamps. By any means necessary. If someone manages to destroy your hedges, you will have to quickly get a new hedge up and growing. Only once it is done and you have won Hedgefest can you exact revenge on the fools who messed with your hedge.
3. The government-council of New Orleans has hired you to protect their city from future floods due to hurricanes and the like. You don't think its the best idea in the world, but you're going to do your best anyways!
4. A simple game meant for young children whose parents want them to grow up to be hedgelayers. The game will display an image on the screen, and the player will have a certain amount of time to select which style it is. The game will get harder by taking the images off the screen sooner and reducing the time you have to make your choice.
The game will feature an encyclopedia-type area with information on all the various styles and general information on the topic of hedge-laying. (It worked in Dynasty Warriors).
5. You are a sheep. And you really really like your white locks of hair or whatever it is sheep have. Your cruel masters are barricading the entire area with hedges. You know that they're planning on shearing you soon... and also, you're a bit of a curious sheep who wants to see more than just this endless green field. Find a way out, or create one, and make it to the ocean before the masters realize 1/1000 of their herd is missing. Or, you could try to lead a massive revolt and convince the other sheep to do what you are going to do. They are sheep, after all.
Players will have to navigate their way through the field and then the treacherous hedges. You will have to be quick about it or someone will spot you.
The problem is that, materializing things in one's mind as I do, tends to fill it up pretty fast. My head is only 18 inches around, so all these ideas are just kind of trying to blow my head up. Mischievous little things.
----
1. Hedge-sim. Using your Wii controllers, players will act out the motions of laying hedges. It would be as realistic as possible, with the game being very critical. The game is meant as an exercise for people who want to get into the business of laying hedges. They've done the same for flying-planes. When you perform well enough, the game's on-line store will open up, where you can then purchase the items to really lay hedges in the dreaded outside.
2. You are a renowned hedge-layer. The annual Hedgefest is approaching. Lay your hedges in a most beautiful and practical way. And watch out for those neighbors... They leave miles away and you have no idea what they're scheming. All you know is that for the last 10 years, you have bested them in the hedge competition and their furor continues to grow. You have heard someone plans to ruin your hedges sometime in the week before the festival. Now you must defend your hedges from those pesky, un-skilled scamps. By any means necessary. If someone manages to destroy your hedges, you will have to quickly get a new hedge up and growing. Only once it is done and you have won Hedgefest can you exact revenge on the fools who messed with your hedge.
3. The government-council of New Orleans has hired you to protect their city from future floods due to hurricanes and the like. You don't think its the best idea in the world, but you're going to do your best anyways!
4. A simple game meant for young children whose parents want them to grow up to be hedgelayers. The game will display an image on the screen, and the player will have a certain amount of time to select which style it is. The game will get harder by taking the images off the screen sooner and reducing the time you have to make your choice.
The game will feature an encyclopedia-type area with information on all the various styles and general information on the topic of hedge-laying. (It worked in Dynasty Warriors).
5. You are a sheep. And you really really like your white locks of hair or whatever it is sheep have. Your cruel masters are barricading the entire area with hedges. You know that they're planning on shearing you soon... and also, you're a bit of a curious sheep who wants to see more than just this endless green field. Find a way out, or create one, and make it to the ocean before the masters realize 1/1000 of their herd is missing. Or, you could try to lead a massive revolt and convince the other sheep to do what you are going to do. They are sheep, after all.
Players will have to navigate their way through the field and then the treacherous hedges. You will have to be quick about it or someone will spot you.
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