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The above title is all Bunting's fault.
Got up before 8am on a Sunday morning again, went to work, realized they'd taken down the fscking wireless again so I'd have to work in the computer room (since they're _also_ working on the network wiring in my room)... Decided to get in and out as quickly as possible.
Thus, I'm home two hours before I expected to be, having done the bare minimum necessary. When log files start reaching two gigabytes, it's time to rotate them out. wheefun.
Been playing Crystal Chronicles. As I expected, reactions to it have been mixed. It has a sweet, simple system, it's pretty, and the multiplayer-on-GBA thing is, in fact, damn cool. The upsides and downsides of this game pretty much coincide, strangely. The game encourages cooperation. The game uses the GBAs as a secondary screen with maps, the shopping screens (everyone can shop at once!) and so on.
The problem is that cooperation is difficult to manage. I'm going to try experimenting with a two-player game, see whether we can sort tandem work there, and _then_ try to see whether it can be done easily in four-player, but it's definitely a challenge.
The secondary screen thing is cool, but changing focus often just doesn't work for some people - eyestrain city for people who don't focus well, like all those computer geeks who spend all day staring at monitors.
The combat system is delightfully simple, and I never had any problems with it, but I saw some problems with accidentally using items and whatnot.
All in all, Crystal Chronicles is a beautiful execution of a concept which I enjoy playing, but it's not for everyone. It's somewhat quirky, and you have to be willing to play within a set of rules which is, to some extent, illogical, if consistent.
Got up before 8am on a Sunday morning again, went to work, realized they'd taken down the fscking wireless again so I'd have to work in the computer room (since they're _also_ working on the network wiring in my room)... Decided to get in and out as quickly as possible.
Thus, I'm home two hours before I expected to be, having done the bare minimum necessary. When log files start reaching two gigabytes, it's time to rotate them out. wheefun.
Been playing Crystal Chronicles. As I expected, reactions to it have been mixed. It has a sweet, simple system, it's pretty, and the multiplayer-on-GBA thing is, in fact, damn cool. The upsides and downsides of this game pretty much coincide, strangely. The game encourages cooperation. The game uses the GBAs as a secondary screen with maps, the shopping screens (everyone can shop at once!) and so on.
The problem is that cooperation is difficult to manage. I'm going to try experimenting with a two-player game, see whether we can sort tandem work there, and _then_ try to see whether it can be done easily in four-player, but it's definitely a challenge.
The secondary screen thing is cool, but changing focus often just doesn't work for some people - eyestrain city for people who don't focus well, like all those computer geeks who spend all day staring at monitors.
The combat system is delightfully simple, and I never had any problems with it, but I saw some problems with accidentally using items and whatnot.
All in all, Crystal Chronicles is a beautiful execution of a concept which I enjoy playing, but it's not for everyone. It's somewhat quirky, and you have to be willing to play within a set of rules which is, to some extent, illogical, if consistent.
