White Kunckle Ride: RollerCoaster Tycoon

Like F-Zero last week, RollerCoaster Tycoon (RCT) is a game series I have spent many, many hours playing; and a new RCT game is on the horizon for the 3DS. If it ever gets released that is. It has already had its release date slip, but that seems to be the fashion for most games these days. Details on the game are still a bit scarce and this got me thinking. If I could design the new game, what would I include from the previous titles?

The first and second games were incredibly similar in design; both also had expansions adding more content. The main gameplay is creating a park full of rides and attractions with a set objective. This could be attracting a certain number of guests, or selling a certain amount ride tickets and merchandise.

The aesthetic of the game is a more realistic world in comparison to Theme Park, although all the park guests are clones in different clothes, which is a little silly. The user interface is clean and simple making it very easy to modify, build and manage everything in your park.

Designing rollercoasters is good fun. Sometimes I would challenge myself to build a twisting monstrosity, snaking its way around the park on whatever budget I had. The first 2 games had the UI perfect in comparison to the third game, which tried a more minimised look, but had the effect of over complicating the menus.

RCT3 moved the series forward graphically. Adding the feature that fans of the series had been asking for since the first game; the ability to ride the rides. This was a brilliantly implemented feature allowing you to pick a seat on a ride in your park, and see the world through the eyes of your guests. Riding your own rollercoasters is great and the most gratifying part of RCT.

It also made improvements to the objectives that you had to achieve, by providing a bit more variety. This gave the player several objectives to achieve, so that the scenario evolved over time. The designers also implemented a fast forward button, which would help you speed past dull moments where you are waiting for your park's economy to get going.

Unfortunately they also took some steps backwards in design. The environments are comprised of lovely smooth rolling hills, as opposed to the simple block terrain of the previous games. However it can be a real pain to build on. It's difficult to tell if the land is perfectly flat, and you often find the cost of you ride increasing because you didn't spot the bumpy ground. When building paths with stairs and ramps, the game tries to help by auto-adjusting the land as you build. But this can often go wrong and make it impossible to build the next segment, which then requires tedious manual adjustment.

Staff management is over complicated with the introduction of happiness and efficiency statistics. I often find my staff lazily strolling around my parks, barely doing their jobs. Jumping into the staff tab, I find that I have to discipline and train them all, so that they do their jobs properly; draining my precious rollercoaster building funds. Theme Park had the great idea of turning staff management into a mini-game. At certain points you would find yourself haggling with staff over a pay rise, trying to agree on a price before you ran out of biscuits to dunk in your tea!

Hopefully the developers of the next game can fuse the best bits of the series so far, and create a great RCT game.

If Only They Would Make a New...

... F-Zero! Allow me to deviate from current gaming to put on my rose tinted glasses and lament the lack of a current gen F-Zero. The home console titles in the series are easily the fastest racing games I've ever played, providing a satisfying sense of extreme speed missing from other arcade racers.

My first experience with F-Zero was with the N64 title. It's soundtrack is one of things that I always remember about this game. The second you flip the power switch, a kick-ass guitar riff blasts out your TV speakers and the metal starts playing.

In case you have missed out on the series. The main gameplay is racing against 29 other competitors on incredible twisting tracks that can include half-pipes as well as the inside or outside of pipes! Each race is 3 laps long, on the 2nd lap you are given the ability to boost, trading your health for a speed increase. At the end of the lap there is usually a healing zone allowing you top up your machine's health. Of course the first across the line is the winner, but you have to survive battling with your opponents to get to there.

The N64 multiplayer has an interesting slot machine mechanic, which I've never seen in a game since; probably because it was simultaneously incredibly unfair and hilarious. Dead players get to constantly play a slot machine were the results will reduce the health of the remaining players, often creating sudden death scenarios and desperate players trying to make it to the next health recharge zone.

Sadly the multiplayer was never popular with friends, because it wasn't as easy to pick up as Mario Kart and it lacked weapons; for me they were both features that added to the game. Mastering how the machines handled and attacking your opponents by barging them off the track or crushing them into the barriers. Unfortunately the 64DD expansion never made it too the EU. I always hoped I would get my hands on the track editor it added and create absolute madness to race around, but it was not to be.

GX took the series and turned everything up to 11, except for the music which was turned down a few notches (also the Captain Falcon song should be buried in the sands of time). The game was graphically stunning at the time, really showing off what the GameCube was capable of.

A story mode was included in the game, adding 9 difficult racing challenges and unlockable machine parts that would allow you to create your own racer. I spent hours unlocking everything in this game only to get caught out by a horrible save game bug that would corrupt everything on your memory card; that was a dark day.

The Wii's life cycle is coming to an end, so it's unlikely there will be a sudden shock announcement of a title, but hopefully the Wii U will see a return of the series.

ARPGs Hoooooooooooooooooo!

For a long time it seemed that Diablo like ARPGs had been forgotten by the game industry, with only Titan Quest and Torchlight wading into the mainstream. Now with the imminent release of Diablo 3, which is about to consume a vast majority of the market and make Blizzard a fresh truckload of cash, I thought I'd take the opportunity to give a shout out to other ARPGs that are in production.


The first contender into the ring is Grim Dawn.

Currently being developed by Create Entertainment, they are marketing the game as the spiritual successor to Titan Quest, citing both technology and staff from it's creator Iron Lore. This is very visible in the videos of the game in action, the satisfying physics engine that sends your opponents flying with every heavy attack. The feature list reads like the game is the next iteration of Titan Quest which was a solid game with interesting dual class possibilities.

The developers are targeting a 2012 alpha release, and it looks like a game that is worth keeping an eye on. The game has a Kickstarter page and has already successfully passed it's funding target, but if you fancy donating in the next few days you can click this link.


Next up is Path of Exile.

Path of Exile is currently in a beta which you can sign up for on the game's website. It is being developed by New Zealand based Grinding Gear Games as a free to play online ARPG, supported by microtransactions which the devs are keen to point out will be aesthetic bonuses only; the best microtransaction policy from the point of view of a gamer.

The most notable feature of the game that sets it apart from the rest of the crowd is it's Final Fantasy X inspired passive skill tree which is gargantuan. It also has some interesting potion mechanics. Your character has various health and mana potions that provide a variety of bonus effects and will recharge over time when consumed. Hopefully it will see a release soon as it has been in development since 2006.


Mixing things up with a portable title, Heroes of Ruin.

Heroes of Ruin is being developed for the 3DS and as far as I know, will be the first Diablo like ARPG to reach a gaming console since Diablo on the PS1 (although the rumours for a console port of Diablo 3 are still doing the rounds). The game is being made by n-Space and is being published by Square Enix.

To stand out from the crowd the game will make use of the 3DS' SpotPass system to download new challenges on a daily basis and StreetPass to provide players with an item trading system. It also touts seamless drop in / drop out 4 person multiplayer. Available for pre-order, it currently looks like it will see a late June release.


Last, but not least, Torchlight 2.

It almost doesn't deserve a place on this list as it is mentioned in almost every discussion about Diablo 3. So I'll keep this super brief! If you haven't played the original it can often be found on discount and is great value for the money. Torchlight 2 is available for pre-order and on Steam you get the original as a bonus that can be gifted if you already own it.

Large Drop in Star Wars Subs

For the past couple of months many players have been predicting a large drop in subscriptions for SW:TOR. EA revealed in their fiscal earnings call that the game has lost 400,000 subscriptions since March and is now down to a total of 1.3 million subs, despite recent press releases claiming otherwise.

Of course this is of no surprise to anyone, releasing a very traditional MMO experience with a subscription model was always going to be a tough sell, even with the Star Wars intellectual property. The real question now is whether the game will be able to hold onto its player base or if a switch to free-to-play will occur in the future.

At the moment, by the goals EA set themselves the game is still very profitable, however they are not far from the 500,000 subscription mark that they claimed they would require to keep the game running profitably. The game is good fun to play, but it seems many gamers are beginning to question the value for money of a subscription based game.

Exploration in Guild Wars 2

To kick off the blog, I decided to start by taking a look at how Guild Wars 2 is adding new game mechanics to improve exploration in MMOs, based on what is available so far in the beta. The biggest change from previous MMOs I've played is the game map and area loading screens. They are filled with progress information clearly showing you how many points of interest you have discovered in that area.

Gotta find it all!

The various dynamic events, skill point challenges, waypoints and points of interest are well spread out across each zone, encouraging the player to go exploring across the map. The rewards for exploring are quite significant and, while questing in the starting area, it is quite important to complete all the dynamic events to keep up with the levelling curve.

To begin with your character has no map information, but a quick chat with scout npcs dotted around the map will helpfully add markers to your map. They also reveal the location of further scouts so you can keep expanding your map marker information. Importantly the they don't reveal the map terrain so that you sense of exploration isn't taken away from you.

This system does have a downside. The dynamic events marked on the map aren't that thrilling. They are usually made up of the sort of quest that you will have done a million times already. The game incentivises completing them with good experience rewards and further experience from the various achievements.

It doesn't inform you of dynamic events that I had the most fun with, which were the ones that would spontaneously happen; such as being asked to defend a caravan or aiding friendly npcs to take down a boss enemy. I only came across these because they appear on you UI if you are close enough to the event. There are also secret areas to discover beyond the marked areas which is great, but you could easily go through the game without knowing they exist.

The world designers have realised the most important part of creating a world to explore, is to create interesting terrain and scenery for the player to discover. Most MMOs since World of Warcraft seemed to have missed this point to some degree or another. As an example, Star Wars The Old Republic had a lot of mediocre and poor planets to explore which were a real disappointment. They suffered from a lack of change in scenery, terrain (such as cliffs, valleys, water in general) and textures. What WoW did right was having clearly distinct areas within each zone so that you something fresh at regular intervals (although the original Barrens is an large exception to that statement).

Divinty's Reach is massive and you can explore it all! But will you want to?

Capital cities are good fun to explore and actually feel alive, without requiring players to fill them. Plenty of npcs fill up the various city districts with the ambient noise of their everyday hustle and bustle. The flip side is that like MMOs that have come before, a player probably won't have any reason to visit many areas beyond their storyline quests and crating / banking areas. This isn't a major problem (in GW2 or other MMOs) and the designers have certainly prioritised player convenience over trying to get players to fill out the cities; but it makes you wonder why they would put they effort they have into creating such grand areas.

Long journeys are thankfully no longer a 5 minute scenic tour of landscapes you have already spent hours questing in. The waypoint system allows you to quickly travel from where you are to any waypoint you have discovered for a small fee, or for free if you are travelling within city walls. This is absolutely brilliant! You can go off exploring to your hearts content and when you bags are full of random junk and crafting materials, you can jump to the nearest city and empty them on the nearest vendor who's a sucker for all the useless items you've found.

To sum up, GW2 has some excellent world design and opportunities for great exploring which are reasonably well incentivised.