Archive: 2 posts

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I happen to be an especially big fan of new/underused ideas. Things that have some novelty to them on account of rarity present themselves well in the LBP universe. In a place where hundreds of levels are made and submitted every day, it's good to produce pieces that distinguish themselves from the masses. Leaps of Faith by the quite imaginative CRIFFER was made with the intention of being very distinguished and fills that role quite sublimely. He only falls short by doing it in such a way that makes the overall experience less than stellar. Let's take a look at what we've got. LoF is a level designed around the notion of sporadic progress. At no time are you truly able to plot out the moves in front of you because the level never really gives you a chance to do that. The formula behind LoF is that whenever you jump onto a platform, a new platform or grabbing piece will spawn, and so you just need to go from platform to platform one at a time never knowing anything past one step ahead. The idea seems neat, and admittedly I was very surprised by it and found the experience at first to be really neat. Unfortunately, after further play and thought, I came to realize that the idea might just be bad from the start. I'm not particularly saying CRIFFER's level here is bad (it's decent, certainly), but I am saying that the idea is not a working one conceptually. You can definitely build a level around this mechanic, and it even has the ability to be a really good level, but the pure idea is one that seems designed to prevent the player from having as much fun. Part of the presence of platformers resides in knowing what's around you; you can actively plan for the future by seeing where you can jump not just one step ahead but maybe two or three. Your brain sets a pace that carries you through the rest of the stage allowing you to plan further than just the next object or just the next platform. When you limit knowledge to one piece at a time, the normally fluid process feels very clunky. My experience playing LoF was something like this: Jump on a platform, stop what I'm doing. Wait to see what's available next, move on, stop again. This was the main experience or most of the level, it wasn't until closer to the end that the level changed its base execution to something more swift. I still really like the sporadic nature of the level, but I also feel that the sporadic nature of the level hampers the flow very negatively. I'm very torn on this issue, I don't know whether to pat your back or kick your shins. Let's step outside the topic of level mechanics to just explore the rest of the stage. First off, I think LoF is excellently well built, well designed, and themed accordingly. The overall mood of the level was fairly effective, even thought the actual visual representation was a tad weak. I am very impressed and fully support the artist's use of shifting scenes and material assortments at certain checkpoints, and found the switching between them to be very clean and well paced. Second, I have to say the level is fairly challenging. Because of the level's nature, you can't be too hasty and you might have to die a couple times before you can get really experimental with your jumps. I definitely have to question the checkpoints a little bit: why is there a single infinite spawn checkpoint near the end when the rest of the level is full of double life checkpoints? Why not just make all of them infinite, or all double? More specifically the placement of these objects threw me off. The infinite life checkpoint is placed just before a really tough electric section, yet I feel the section before it is almost equally as hard and gives you a double life checkpoint, making screwing up much more likely. That's basically the difference between giving one kid an infinite supply of water balloons while giving the other about 10, and expecting a fair fight. Seems odd. Finally, I want to explore this level as if the gimmick were non-present. In other words, how does LoF hold up as just a level assuming there was no blinking platforms? Under that assumption, while the level is certainly functional, I think it might also be a little too regular. That only really disappoints me because it means that without this ridiculous mechanic, the level doesn't really have any substance. There's nothing really unique here outside of a parlor trick, the level is effectively a one-trick pony. Despite how much I rave about loving levels that do what they can to distinguish themselves, I'm more so an advocate of fundamentals above gimmicks (I've made that point abundantly clear in several other reviews too). Final Score: 6.0 / 10 Even though LoF runs with a really unique idea and performs it fairly well, the level still needs work on a basic level. The rest of the level's attributes, mood and settings, are all pretty well devised. It's definitely worth a try, though the replay value is minimal at best. On a side note, I still have a lot of Christmas shopping to do.

2010-12-18 19:21:00 Author: Shining Aquas Posts: 353

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At the recently concluded Cinemarehiyon 2010 is projected Erik Mattis latest film The Arrival, which is perhaps his best work at the latest. When you make a string of commercial films and television commercials, a successful leader back to his roots Ilonggo to write, direct and produce deeply personal and intimate film about a man who is stuck in a rut, but dreams of love and a happier life. I think this is what we all want: to escape and lose our lives to find a place where all your dreams and meet the only person who greets us at the door with a kiss. Leo is an accountant in a small business. We all take for granted, his head in a medium-maintenance management, self-centered sister, although drinking buddies, who blithely ignore its sisig and uses her folding table at night for the session of inhumanity.

2010-12-31 19:40:00 Author: Unknown User

Posts: 1077139    Threads: 69970    Members: 9661    Archive-Date: 2019-01-19

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