Call of Duty 3 (Wii)

Time playing = 30 minutes - 1 hour.

First Impressions -
So, I loved Call of Duty 1.
I played Call of Duty 2 next, which was pretty awesome, but it felt like it was getting repetitive, and didn't add too much new stuff to the formula.
I played Call of Duty 1: United Offensive after that. It was boring.

I loaded up Call of Duty 3 (Wii version) and I did not expect much.

From the first hour of gameplay, it plays just like the other call of duties. It has a short tutorial, then throws you straight into an intense battle. And of course, every soldier has his little commentary about random stuff. (And seriously, that whole incident with the "Let's retreat dudes/I'm gonna shoot you soldier!/Hey Look, I found a hatch! was just dumb.)
Then you have to go into battle again.

The interface in this game is really, really clunky.
I don't see how a Nunchuck + Wii Remote makes this game any more interactive than a potential PC counterpart.
THE INTERFACE:
To shoot you have to hold B (The trigger underneath - Right index), which is sensible.
To use the SIGHTS you have to hold A (Top round button - Right thumb), which is understandable, but doesn't make any more sense than pressing Z on your keyboard.
To change stances you have to tap or hold down Z (Nunchuck - Left index/middle finger), which is okay in theory, but takes some getting used to.
Jumping requires the pressing of C (Nunchuck) with your left index finger, which again, is not any more innovative than using the Space Bar.
And then it gets really awkward by having you use "<--" to throw grenades and "2" to use binoculars.
Just to clarify: The top of the Wii Remote contains the 4 directional buttons on a "plus." The bottom contains the (1) and (2) buttons. Both sets of buttons require extra effort to get to, and are not accesible without looking down at your remote and/or letting go of B or A.

Pressing "<--" is not very fun at all. I'm gripping the WiiMote with my right hand, index finger on the B trigger, thumb on A, and the rest of my fingers underneath. My other fingers are NOWHERE near the 4-Directional cross, or (1) and (2). Just to press either of those requires me to stretch my thumb to an uncomfortable position, which also makes me lose my aim, which then makes me throw the grenade really high up instead of straight, thus effectively killing myself or my fellow soldier.

Using the Wiimote to aim is more realistic I guess then a mouse, but it's very shakey and hard to keep your shot steady. This is probably more life-like, but it is annoying when you're used to perfect aim for so long.
Finally, turning is a nuisance. If I try to get my character to turn a little bit, I aim the remote to the left a tad, and he doesn't turn at all. If I try to make him turn 90 degrees, I gleefully slide the remote to the edge of the screen and he makes a quick 180. So when I'm in a CQB situation, I'm lucky if I'm even facing the enemy.
If I played the game longer, I'm sure I'll get used to it.

I only played the first mission, and those are my current views. If I play the game longer, I'll probably get used to the controls setup, but for now, it seems really foreign to me, and uninnovative. And I don't even know if I want to play the game longer, because it contains essentially the same combat and gameplay that I've played through in the first 2 Call of Duties, which I thought was even getting repetitive. So for now, I don't want to play the 3rd one.

Evolution of Adventure Game Interfaces

Since the adventure games have developed as a medium, one aspect has always been in debate--the interface. The interface has the power to make puzzles fun, interesting, or just simplistic and boring.

Traditional text adventures had the "do-anything" interface. To solve puzzles, you just type in whatever is needed. This could be from "Block door with chair," "Eat roast," "Turn on Speakers," or "Close drawer." These are all unique commands which were unfortunately terminated when adventure games "upgraded" to the point and click interface.

In the Sierra interface of the 90s, there were four actions: Hand, Eye, and Mouth, and walk. With this interface there are only four things you can do to your game world, which over-simplifies the game, making puzzles simplistic and boring in most cases.

Lucas Arts had an upgraded version of this by having a total of 9 verbs: Give, Push, Pull, Talk to, Walk to, Pick up, Use, Open, and Close. It's better than the Sierra counterpart, but it still groups all actions to a total of 9 verbs. You could say this is three times better than the Sierra interface, but it still limits interaction with the game world.

And then for some reason in the mid 90s, a large majority of games decided to adapt the "Two-Action" interface. This means, you can either look at the object, or "do-whatever" with the object. It's ultra-simplistic, and removes alot of thought from puzzles. With this interface, you have the greatest chance of a player solving puzzles by accident, or resulting to just trying to click on everything.

Adventure games need to change. For too long they've been stuck in the 2D realm where the player does not think and the actions are too specific and simplistic, and the game is a mesh of recycled cliches.


2 Adventure games have stood out to me as being the next big things in adventure games:
Penumbra: http://frictionalgames.com/penumbramedia/
Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy): http://www.gamespot.com/pc/adventure/fahrenheit/index.html?q=fahrenheit

Penumbra is a first person adventure game that uses physics and the mouse cursor for you to preform a variety of actions, from pushing objects, moving barrels, opening doors, and various other things. The actions feel natural because of the way you have to move the mouse to actually open the door, i.e. you have to pull the mouse towards you to open a locker door, as you would in real life.

Fahrenheit also has you moving your mouse in a pattern to preform actions, each action specifically having its own special pattern for the mouse.


And now we come to the Wii.
With the Wii, you can eliminate all "verb-bars" and interfaces thanks to the power of the motion-sensor. With the nun-chuck the player can control the movement of the main character. With the Wii-remote, the player can do virtually anything to an object (Pushing it, pulling it, opening it) all by simple gestures. You don't have to have any more push, pull, open, or hit, commands. You can just let the player swing the remote with hard enough force, or hold down the B button to drag an object, or open it. Then the player can use his brain and his movements to solve puzzles instead of randomly clicking on everything and hoping something will happen.

Most adventure games have sadly become just a click-fest without too much thought, but hopefully new technolgical advances like the Wii can give the players a "thinking" chance.

Gamespot vs. Zelda Fans

WARNING: The following is a geeky rant about an over-dramatic event that occured on the internet, which no normal human being will care about.

When Zelda for the Wii came out, gamespot pushed out its review of the game, giving it a total score of 8.8*. 8.8 means "great" but just short of the 9.0 rating of "astounding**." After this review was released, a huge number of Zelda fans backlashed gamespot and the gamespot reviewer for giving the game such a "bad" score. Those fans state the game is near-perfect in every way, that it's astounding and simply incredible, and are now exploding because of this "bad" review.

This whole episode can be described as ridiculous, overreactive, and not worth talking about in any way because of how straight-forward it is.

Why Twilight Princess is overrated:
1 - Regarding Originality (addressed for the 5th time, I know)
Zelda Twilight Princess is about the 10-12th*** game in the Zelda series. That being said, you can relate this as about the 10th sequel in the series. With this in context you can compare Twilight Princess with the other games in the series.
Twilight Princess is the exact same Zelda game that came out 10 years ago, and 5 years ago before that. It only makes sense that they should update the series with more original content. Every Zelda game has you literally doing the same "save hyrule, go to dungeons, get items, kill ganon, and rescue Zelda."
But in defense of Zelda, they have changed various things and introduced new elements in each new installment. But aside from the various new gameplay features in every game, they continue to use the same formula, the same core gameplay, the same items, the same gameplay mechanics, the same story, the same characters, the same ending, and the same ol' kingdom of hyrule. This didn't bother me at first-I enjoyed Zelda games, but after the 5th time, it really gets on your nerves.
Zelda has not changed much over 15 years, and it really shows in Twilight Princess.
If you have played all the other games in the Zelda series, you will see that this is the exact same game, over and over and over. They throw out the Generic Zelda Storyline Script, have a few different fill-in-the-blank sections for the gameplay and a couple of characters, and then leave everything else alone.

2 - The Difficulty
Zelda Twilight Princess is too easy, and not very challenging. If they made the game a little harder it would've added more tension and fun to the areas. Instead, all the sword battles are a piece of cake, and every boss fight can be nailed on the first try.

Regarding the score:
3 - 8.8 is a good score
8.8 does not mean 4.4. 8.8 means GREAT, as in, "this game was almost in the category of best games ever, but some features just made it drop." And that statement is just so true.
If a Zelda game drops below 9.0 that does NOT MEAN it is a BAD game. It just means it was good, and it could've been better.
In my opinion Twilight Princess does not deserve anything higher than a 9.5 and the lowest it should go is probably 8.5.

Final Thoughts:
4 - Giving the fans what they wanted?
After Zelda: Wind Waker came out for the gamecube, many fans wanted Nintendo to go back to the more realistic, adult-looking Link, that was sported in Ocarina of Time. Nintendo did that with Twilight Princess and it also seems that they stripped the game of all extra necessities that would challenge the Zelda formula, thus making the game sticking as close to the basic Zelda formula as possible. This, in my opinion, just makes the game, boring, predictable, and not as much fun to play.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess in no way is a perfect game and worthy of a 10/10, which many gaming sites have so excitedly given it****. The game has its flaws, and should be demoted for its lack of concept.
You could almost say that every Zelda game is a remake of the previous one, just adding new features, or changing certain elements. But it all stays the same at the core.

On a final positive note:
Zelda is still a great game, and its level of detail and design is excellent, but Twilight Princess is in no way a 10.00.

Sources:
* Gamespot Review of Twilight Princess
** Gamespot Review Guidelines
*** The Legend of Zelda Series (wikipedia)
**** Game Rankings for Twilight Princess

Wii Tennis

5 Easy Steps to Become Good at Wii Tennis

# 1 - Power Serving
Serving is your first and foremost thing that you use against the opponent in a match. You MUST master the power serve if you want to become successful against your opponent.
The power serve is easy once you know the trick. All you have to do is hit the ball when it reaches zero velocity, or the point where it reaches its highest altitude. This will usually ensure you a 90 mph serve against your opponent.
# 2 - Timing
Timing is everything, literally. It doesn't matter how hard you hit the ball, but it matters when. Learn when your Mii will hit the ball straight, to the left, or to the right whenever he swings, and how fast he can do it. Once you know how to time your swings, you will know how to aim, and this is essential to victory.
# 3 - Forehands and Backhands
There are two types of swings: forehands and backhands. You should be able to preform both interchangeably and comfortably at anytime. Practice makes perfect.
# 4 - Use your front (wo)man
The more you use your front man, the more pressure you put on your oppenent by giving him less time to react to the incoming shots. The front man also gets an unfair advantage in the ability to place deadly drop shots and reversals. The front man will be the difference between winning and losing 90% of the time.
# 5 - Anticipating your opponent (Speed Reflexes)
This can really only come with experience. Always expect a power serve to come at you, and when it doesn't consider yourself lucky. In playing the front game, don't let down if you're caught in a CloseQuartersReturning battle, and remember not to hit it out the side. Know where your opponent hits the ball, and how to counter-hit it back.

The important thing is to practice and know what works, and be comfortable in your movements and swings.

Rule # Infinity
Have fun. Ex. Dee. xD

Trauma Center: Second Opinion

There is not much to say about this game, but it was not bad.

In the ways of Gamespot http://www.gamespot.com/misc/reviewguidelines.html:
Gameplay: 9/10
Graphics: 7/10
Sound: 7/10
Value: 7/10
Tilt: 8/10

The Worst Parts in Trauma Center:
- The story doesn't fully wrap itself up; questions were unanswered. (Yes, I beat the game. No, I did not play the X-# levels that are on the ExTrEME difficulty which may reveal more plot details.)
- It's corny... sometimes.
- It only has 5-6 hours of gameplay, minus the replay value.

The Best Parts in Trauma Center:
- Defusing the bomb
- Operating in the dark
- Rushing back to the ER and using the defibrilators for the first time.
- Solving molecule puzzles

If I had to give it a score, which I do have to do:

Final Score:
8.0

Fun, challenging gameplay, good use of the wii-remote, simple, and short.

Twilight Princess - Revisited

Complaining about:
Gameplay:
All right, I'm going to compare this game to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. First of all, Twilight Princess is easy. Second of all, the side-quests have no point.
Okay, about the difficulty: I really never had to use any HEALTH POTIONS anywhere... at all. Every dungeon was fairly easy, and I usually nailed the boss on the first try. The only difficult section in the game was the Cave of Ordeals. When I went through this (optional) section, it was the hardest thing in the game, probably 2x or 3x harder than the final boss fight. And it was FUN. Because I almost died, and I had to carefully decide when to use my arrows, bombs, Ball on a chain, and my assortment of moves. No other place in the game did I even have to worry about that stuff, because I just do the basic slash and spin, and I got through everthing.
Regarding Side-quests having no point:
Think about it this way. What's the point of doing the side-quests? Getting rupees (except those side-quests where you upgrade your items, those are good, yet they take 2 minutes and are easy). What are rupees good for? Well, the only thing is magic armor and buying potions really, both of which you DO NOT NEED because this game is too easy. So you can basically skip the side-quests. Done.
Now to get to Link to the Past. That game (as far as my memory goes) was awesome, and had tons of optional things to do. Among these include a magic cape, 3 special coins of awesome power, upgrading your magic ability, upgrading your hearts?, upgrading your sword to awesome, and some other things I can't remember. The point is: these side-quests actually did have an effect on the gameplay, which was ultra-hard. You needed the help from BOMBOS magic, you needed to upgrade your sword, because the game pushes you to your limits.
...
Story:
Now I'm going to compare Zelda stories to every season of 24. Both have their own formula stories that require certain things to happen in a certain sequence, all ending a certain way. Becaues of this formula, once you identify it, it kills the story.
Goodbye Zelda, and your Introductory Gameplay up to dungeon 1, then travel and go to 3 other dungeons, then the final 5 dungeons, then fight Ganon... with side-quests in between.
...Bye.

The best things about Twilight Princess:
Riding around Hyrule kingdom at night, with the eerie music playing in the background.
Riding around and attack enemy boars.
The amazing lighting and graphical feel of the game.
The awesome, epic, adrenaline-filled boss fights.
Trying to complete a side-quest and finally doing it.
Finding secret areas.
Being Link.

The worst things about Twilight Princess:
No use for rupees.
No originality.
Difficulty is too easy.
Side-quests are pointless.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

The following game will be judged in the respective categories:
Gameplay
Graphics
Story/Characters
Sound/Music
Atmosphere
Originality
FINAL SCORE

Gameplay - 8.5/10.00
The Zelda formula: progress through a series of dungeons, solving puzzles, hacking and slashing, and killing bosses. Side-Quests include upgrading your items, getting pieces of heart, (in this game : getting golden bugs, killing poes[ghosts], and trying to get magic armor). The formula is fun, sometimes tedious, and also a bit on the easy side. I guess you could say I'm an "experienced Zelda player," but seriously, I found thousands and thousands of rupees, and I seriously wanted to buy some kind of super sword, armor, or shield to help me out, but all I got was some kind of magic armor that takes away EVEN MORE RUPEES, that I never really use because I value my money... SO that means I wasted all those hours looking for rupees... just to buy an armor that I will never use.
Graphics - 9.5
They may not have a high polygon count, but the graphics are simply amazing. The animation is fluid, life-like and realistic. The lighting, day/night cycle, and the enviroments are just a joy to be in. Excellent work.
Story/Characters - 8.8
I have to say that Midna is one of the more interesting characters in a Zelda game. The story is somewhat interesting, but you know how it's gonna go down, so it's literally boring. (Yes, the story is always Link in the little town goes through dungeons to destroy evil, then fights Ganon and saves Zelda). I've played this story before, but it's switched up a little bit, and there were some interesting parts. The characters are pretty good too.
Sound/Music - 8.9
Nothing TOO spectacular, but it was a good listen all around. The sound did it's job, as did the music, but it wasn't ... too awe-inspiring... compared to games such as Final Fantasy.
Atmosphere - 9.8
The sheer size, scope, music, and graphics come together to create an amazing experience of Hyrule. The boss fights are some of the most epic sequences in a game, and riding around the kingdom at night, or during a thunderstorm is just amazing.
Originality - 3.8/10.00
This is the one thing that probably hurt this game for me. The gameplay/screenplay did not change at all in the last several Zelda games. You know what's going to happen, you know what items you're going to get, you know how the boss fights are going down, you know that the only gameplay will be Slash/Shoot arrow/Bomb/Puzzle.
This makes me think about a game called Zelda: Majora's Mask. That game had one of the most unique, amazing concepts, for any game that I had ever played, and it executed it brilliantly (The whole game takes place over 3 days, and you must go back in time over and over to save the world). But I heard somewhere that Zelda fans hated its "deviation from the Zelda formula." :

Anyway...

FINAL SCORE:

8.9

Excellent Graphics, design, but if you've already played Zelda, it might be a little too familiar...