Gameplay/Storyline: This is one of those games where killing the crap out of your enemy tends to be the main plot. The main point is: Kill the locust, they’re bad, they’re taking over our world and we need to crush them into submission. There’s not a whole lot of emotional baggage in this game. It’s mostly point and shoot and laugh along side your witty-companions. There are practically no puzzles in this game aside from strategy of taking down your enemy. The best part of this game is it is co-op to up to 3 other players. I always played with a friend, and especially on Insanity he was essential to my survival.
There are some attempts for drama and emotional whatnot within the game. The only time I really felt any sort of tear-jerking moment was the ending. To avoid spoilers, I’ll simply leave it at that. Otherwise, the events leading up to the end game were… filled mostly with anger (this was insanity, one shot and you’re basically dead), frustration (bot teammates can be very stupid) and laughter (at least the characters have some colorful personalities).
7.5/10 Graphics/Environment: The graphics are definitely up to date. The gore of this game is almost indescribable. Receiving a main weapon with a chainsaw at the end makes this for a very mature game. The gore seems to be the main focus of this game, and if you’re into that, you’ll appreciate the level of it. One of the strangest things abot this game, I think, is the actual physique of the men. They are all body-building steroid-popping weird-looking guys, but for some reason it just fits. This game is very “macho” and not for anyone looking to find some deep emotional bond.
There were very little glitches I ran into–except maybe being able to chainsaw one guy at the same time as someone else. It’s not really a glitch, but it does tie up your hands for a few seconds while you both chainsaw the crap out of the game guy.
8/10
Sound/Voice Acting: The voice acting is surprisingly decent in this game. They all have very unique voices and personalities and it really shines through with the voice acting. They took some considerable time making sure that the characters felt real. I greatly appreciate their use of dialogue in battle–half the time I was laughing at the jokes and jabs exchanged between the characters.
Other musical moments in the game were admirable. They tried to rile up some emotion with some soft-piano here and there that tugs at the heart, but I was not one to fall into the trap. It made the emotional cutscenes more cheesy, to me.
8/10
Character Development: Character development? I’m not so sure if there really is a whole lot. You spend a majority of the time as Marcus Fenix–a military man that is just trying to find his father and destroy the locust at the same time. He’s a cold, sharp grumpy man, but he still somehow manages to be quite likable. It’s obvious that he and the other main characters–Cole Train, Baird and Dom have a huge history with each other. They really have no room to develop any stronger bonds than they already have. The characters comment every so often that they have been fighting together for over ten years. That doesn’t leave a whole lot of new emotions and brotherhood to spring up.
I will say that Dom gets increasingly more annoying in Gears of War 3. He’s been searching for his wife since Gears of War 1, and he just won’t shut up about in by Gears of War 3. It actually gets to the point where I just wanted to drop kick him in the face and tell him to get over it.
7/10 Multiplayer: (If available ) Multiplayer, like many online games, can be either some of the most fun you’ve ever had, or the most frustrating. I personally enjoy playing horde the most because it limits the shot-gun abuse by other players. In any team on team game you’re always left with a handful of d-bags that turn corners blindly firing off their shotguns that manage instant kills each time. It really defeats the purpose of the game, but whatever helps them sleep at night. Horde, however, can be quite fun when you have a good team. It’s also not so bad to play locust vs human players. It’s harder to cheat when you can’t instant kill your opponents.
8/10
Me, the Player: This game was mostly just a good way to pass the time. Insanity was definitely the most challenging game I’ve ever played. It gave me some good laughs and wanting to know a little bit more about the world. I am disappointed that they never explain more about the wars previous to the one you are currently fighting in. It would have been a good addition and seems a missed opportunity to me (unless they’re making another game).
Overall I would give this game a 8.5/10. The Good: It has some incredibly fun gameplay with a lot of killing. The Bad: The plot is iffy and missing a lot. The Ugly: Dom is probably the most whiney annoying man I have ever had the misfortune to see.
Gameplay/Storyline: As much as I love the Assassin’s Creed series, 9/10 times I have absolutely no idea what is going on in the main plotline. Each game always ends with more questions than answers. Although it’s enough to leave you scratching your head, it’s still enough to keep you coming back to find out more. The story of the beloved Ezio (who we have grown to love with the last two games) is enough to satisfy most. In Revelations, Ezio is considerably older than he was in Brotherhood, but this assassin is still a force to be reckoned with. You spend the game having a personal journey with Ezio as he struggles to uphold the Assassin’s Creed and Brotherhood.
The main story line, as I have expressed, is mostly confusing. Rumor has it that the original game was made as a half-dare, half-joke. The developers never really thought it was going anywhere and so the plot was iffy and a little out-there. Popularity spurred the developers to continue the series–and the direction it has gone is questionable. However, the amount of puzzles, unique gameplay and gorgeous graphics is enough to distract most from the confusing story.
The gameplay in this game is often hard to get use to. You have an assortment of weapons that help with close-combat or distance-combat, but more than once I found myself stumbling over controls, having a hard time countering attacks, or simply getting so frustrated with my target that I would give up all need for stealth and simply sprint through a crowd to level the victim with a broadsword–and then be forced to fight my way out and into hiding. Climbing is essential in this game. Sometimes Ezio seems to have a taste for death because he will–seemingly out of no where–ignore a command and jump to his death from 100+ feet in the air. If you’re lucky, you have a parachute to guide him down. If not, you turn to a bloody rag doll and you leave citizens screaming their heads off in horror. Either way, it’s frustrating.
8/10
Graphics/Environment: The graphics in this game are about as gorgeous as you can get. The game is set in Istanbul in the year 1511. You can only imagine the buildings and people of this time and Ubisoft doesn’t fall short in capturing the beauty of this ancient city. The buildings alone are enough to leave you staring out at the horizon, totally forgetting you’re in the middle of an assassination or on your way across town. The sunsetting on the ocean is about as real as it can get.
The game does have some glitches here and there. Mostly with invincibility of enemies. They tend to just stand there as though they can’t see you, but you can “kill” them over and over, but they just get back up, ready to take more abuse.
10/10
Sound/Voice Acting: The background music is good and has a way with heightening anxiety–but for the most part it is a quiet game. The voice acting tends to be a hit or a miss for me. Ezio, our main character, is excellent, but there are many characters that just get so generic sounding that it loses the whole appeal. I also find it irritating at times when characters switch to their native tongues for a few words here and there. If you do not have subtitles on, you do not get the translation even though Ezio seems to understand pretty much every language he encounters. He is also one to blurt out a line or two in Italian that can be sometimes essential to the plot, but you will miss it unless you know Italian or don’t have the subtitles on.
7/10
Character Development: The character development between the first game with Ezio to Revelations is very apparent. You began the game with a very brash, boisterous young man that was hell-bent on avenging his murdered family. Slowly, Ezio matures into a surprisingly warm-hearted man, despite his occupation as an assassin. He tends to be more laid back and thoughtful as the games progress, seeking more for truth than for revenge. I felt a fondness for Ezio and his desire to do right, but my emotional attachment to his character isn’t very strong when compared to other characters I have met in other games. Ezio also tends to find a new lover every game–and I find most of them to be annoying.
8/10
Multiplayer: (If available ) Multiplayer is a hit or a miss for me. You can enter games that are absolutely enthralling, challenging and fun. You can also enter games that are so laggy that it is impossible to defend yourself or kill targets. There are so many glitches in this game that once exploited in a match, it will probably never stop until you rage quit or find a new server. The game also has a bad habit of throwing a level 50 in with a level 1. It makes the game unfair and weighted heavily to the side with higher-leveled players. They tend to get better equipment and ways to kill/defend that are unavailable to lower-levels.
I will hand it to multiplayer–it does have quite a few maps and levels and types of matches one can play. If you get sick of a certain type of match–capture the flag, for example, you can switch to solo-assassination and take your chance against individuals, or you can take up a team of assassins and take turns between being the target and killing the target. It’s easy to get frustrated with the game, but with some searching you may find a little niche of players that are comfortably challenging and do not exploit every glitch you can possibly fine.
It also has a huge assortment of playable characters (see below).
7/10
Me, the Player: When I walked away from this game, I was just left with more questions, as usual. I don’t pretend I know the main plot, and I honestly don’t care to. I simply enjoy the gorgeous architect and unique game-play of this series.
Overall, I would give this game a 8/10.
The Good: Beautiful game. The Bad: Multiplayer can be frustrating, but it’s at least avoidable. The Ugly: I still have no idea what’s going on in this game.
Gameplay/Storyline: The story for this game is what you make of it. You have four Survivors in the middle of a zombie apocalypse–Nick, Ellis, Coach and Rochelle that are all playable. You may choose to whichever character you wish to be (I personally am inclined to playing as Nick, the sarcastic and bitter conman that wears a comically white suit so very inappropriate for a bloody adventure).
In single-player you can have up to 3 friends play with you. If you like to play alone, single-player will replace real teammate intelligence with “bots”. These bots are AI controlled players that will follow you, heal you, protect you and fight with you despite not being controlled by a real player. There are quite a few maps for this game. Each map is considered its own “campaign”. For each new map you pick in progressing order, the location of your fight to rescue continues. The group of Survivors are making their way from Atlanta, Georgia (where you begin on the map “Dead Center”) and end in New Orleans, Louisiana (on the map “The Parish”).
In this game you fight hordes of common infected (just regular ol’ zombies) and other “special infected”. These special infected are what will bring a team down if the Survivors do not work together. Although the “common” infected are able to down and kill a team-member, the Special Infected almost always have to be killed by another player to free the Survivor that they have grabbed. Left 4 Dead 2 is an unrelated sequel to Left 4 Dead, but the special infected from the first game migrated to the second game along with some additions.
The old familiar special infected are:
The Smoker, it grabs you with its mutated tongue and squeezes the life from you until a teammate rescues you.
The Hunter, this Infected that has the ability to jump dozens of feet, off walls and land on survivors and pin them down, tearing them apart until killed by another Survivor.
The Boomer, an obese zombie will throw up all over Survivors, often times all four, blinding them with vomit and attracting the “common” zombies to come and tear at them mercilessly until the vomit disappears or until the Survivors die. Whichever comes first.
The Witch, a sobbing female zombie that previously would sit in one spot (she nows “wanders” around and is more easy to bump into in Left 4 Dead 2). Sometimes she is avoidable (and most people would avoid her). Upon “disturbing” her she will chase down the one that had the misfortune of alerting her and she will instantly down them. In some difficulties she will kill instantly. In all difficulties she will down you in one hit. She can kill a team-member in a handful of seconds, so it is best that all teammates shoot her at the same time if she is startled.
The Tank, this monstrous Infected gets its name from its huge muscular body. It can down or kill Survivors by knocking cars on top of them, punching them off rooftops, or simply crushing them to death with its huge fists. It takes an entire team to quickly bring down this Infected–and a lot of dodging if Survivors want to keep their health.
New Infected introduced in Left 4 Dead 2:
The Charger, a zombie that can “charge” Survivors. He can grab one member with its one overgrown arm and slam them repeatedly into the ground until the Survivor dies, or until this Infected is killed. He can knock over an entire team with one well placed hit, forcing precious seconds to be wasted as he beats the grabbed Survivor into the ground. He can also take Survivors over ledges into walls or off buildings to kill them instantly and have them unrecoverable.
The Spitter, this female zombie spits a pool of hot green acid onto Survivors. The acid burns away health and can down and kill Survivors that are unable to get out of it. A well-placed spit can down an entire team that is stuggling in a horde of commons or have been unlucky enough to corner themselves in a small room.
The Jockey, this odd new addition jumps on top of a Survivors back, shoves his fingers into their eyes and mouth and “leads” them away from the group. Sometimes Survivors can “resist” a Jockey’s guiding, but it is very difficult to succeed. The Survivor is still able to call out for help, but he or she is unable to free themselves without help and will be incapacitated unless helped.
This is a team-game for sure. Whether you’re playing single-player with bots or with actual players. If you attempt to run off on your own and you are incapacitated, you will stay down and bleed to death unless another teammates takes the time to help you back onto your feet. The Special Infected will kill you unless a teammate frees you and sometimes hordes can become too much for one Survivor to handle alone.
Besides the usual guns you had to fight with, this game also offers a handful of melee weapons to kill zombies with. Chainsaws, fire-axes, katana’s, frying pans, baseball bats, etc. You can also find throwable items such as molotovs and pipe-bombs that kill dozens of Infected with a well-placed throw. There is also jars of “boomer bile” which can be thrown and produce a cloud of bile that attracts zombies away from struggling Survivors. Health items include health-packs which can be used to heal yourself or other teammates and should be used wisely because more often than not, Survivors only begin each level with one each. A defibrillator has been introduced in Left 4 Dead 2 and can revive a dead teammate back to half-health. There are also pain killers and adrenaline shots that provide a health boost. Those items can be passed around between Survivors to help those that need it the most.
The gameplay has very easy controls–but I may also be biased because I have played the game for over a thousand hours and so now the controls seem very easy to me. Switching between weapons, health items and throwables is very easy–takes one simple click. Depending on the preference of the player, the type of weapon can make the game feel more smooth. For example, I always carry a shotgun and a melee weapon. When I’m forced to hold a shotgun and a pistol, I struggle. Other players may prefer to carry an assault rifle and two pistols, or a sniper rifle and melee, ect. The game gives you the chance to explore your type of gameplay.
There are some “puzzles” in the game, but they are mostly just alerting some sort of crescendo moment. For example, on the map Dead Center, at one point the team is forced to break a plate of glass that sets off an alarm in the mall. Players must work together up two floors to turn off the alarm and stop the hordes from coming. All the while they are being attacked by common Infected and Special Infected. There is also the “Finale” on each campagin that forces teammates to work together to proceed. On Dead Center players must collect 8+ cans of fuel scattered around 3 levels of a mall and pour them into the escape vehicle. The game cannot proceed until the car is completely filled. This is where teamwork comes into play.
10/10
Graphics/Environment: The graphics are about as realistic as you can get for a zombie-game. The environment in this game has been improved significantly from the first Left 4 Dead. Now you can find yourself in sunshine, darkness, rain and hail on many levels. In one particular campaign (Swamp Fever) you find yourself having to muck through the swamps that slow down your progress and knick away at your health even more.
There are still quite a few glitches in this game. Bots teleport on occasion across maps or can’t decide which Survivor to help and will walk back and forth continuously (and uselessly) until one of the in-trouble Survivors dies. Most glitches have to do with the AI, but there are some level glitches occasionally where players are able to skip huge pieces of the map by exploiting invisible walls and/or walking over parts of the level. There is a particular glitch, for example, on Swamp Fever where players can jump on pieces of a downed airplane, climb on top of the airplane and slide down the other side without triggering the “crescendo moment” from opening the airplane’s emergency door and alerting the horde. Crescendo moments are typically on every map where players must do something very loud that will attract a huge amount of zombies for a period of time or until the trigger noise is turned off.
9/10
Sound/Voice Acting: The voice acting for the Infected and the Survivors are some of the best. The actors really took the time and effort to make sure that their characters felt like real, tangible characters. Ellis, for example, often breaks out into long-winded, ridiculous stories about his “buddy Keith” that will often be cut short by another Survivor telling him to shut up. The Survivors all have different personalities and will complain or encourage depending on how well the team is working together or by their own health.
Although I personally find Rochelle’s voice actress to be incredibly annoying. She is the only Survivor I do not like between the two games.
9/10
Character Development: Although the character development may not be very noticeable in this game, I personally can see it after playing so much. In Dead Center, the first campaign, the four Survivors have just met each other and are understandably nervous and mistrustful of each other. Their dialogue consists of a nervous chatter, getting-to-know-each-other small talk and their reactions to first coming in contact with zombies. One particular character, Nick, finds no problem insulting the other three Survivors and reminding them that they are all going to die. As the game continues through each campaign, Nick’s dialogue begins to grow lighter and friendlier and sometimes he will admit that these three are the first “real friends” he’s ever had. With each new campaign, the “bonds” between the Survivors grows and their in-game dialogue changes.
9/10
Multiplayer: (If available ) In Multiplayer you are divided into two teams, 4 on 4. One team will first play as the Survivors as the other team players as Infected (they will be the Special Infected mentioned above, and respawn every 8-12 seconds). The teams will switch between being Survivors and Infected on each map and points are gathered. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins. Points are generated by how far team’s collectively make it as Survivors on the maps.
Multiplayer is definitely a great part of Left 4 Dead 2, but lag, cheating and exploiting glitches can make it a nightmare. Lag is one of the worst enemies of this game. It can make it impossible to grab Survivors as a Special Infected, or impossible for a Survivor to kill a Special Infected. It can cause players to lag across maps, go completely still as they attempt to reconnect to the server and become vulnerable or simply cause players to lag completely out of the server and game.
This isn’t really a “glitch” but an unfortunate side-affect to multiplayer. This game does have friendly-fire in it. Which means, you can down and kill your own teammates if you are not careful. Some immature players get off by joining games and trying to kill other players for no reason. It can get extremely annoying, but you are able to “kick” stupid players with a team vote.
9.5/10
Me, the Player: I think this is one of the best multiplayer games out there, personally. Each game can be different depending on who you play with and how good your team and the other team is. I always enjoy the dialogue between the Survivors, and nothing feels better than some good team-work that makes you cream the opposing team’s score.
The Good: Replay value is extremely high. The Bad: Lagging can cause some severe hatred. The Ugly: DLC’s (downloadable content). On the PC version everything is completely free (and you can download tons of fan-made maps, etc). On the xbox, Microsoft bleeds players out of $10 for a new map.
Gameplay/Storyline: Dead Space 2 is the sequel to Dead Space 1. The original game took place on the USG Ishimura, a ship that had taken on a mysterious “marker” that turned humans into horrifying creatures. After lost communications with the ship, Isaac volunteered to find out what had gone wrong. You learn quickly that he volunteers in hopes of finding his girlfriend who was stationed on the vessel. Within the events of the first game you learn of the marker, what it does and how it turns people into these awful creatures. You spend the game surviving and adapting to the ever-changing crew and environment. Eventually Isaac escapes the infested vessel and detonates it–supposably destroying the “maker” and the human-turned creatures called “necromorphs”.
By Dead Space 2 we have learned that Isaac has been “recovered” and held in stasis for three years. He is awakened in a moment of sheer panic and confusion, strapped up in a strait-jacket and released into hordes of necromorphs. Again you must learn to adapt to the environment and fight your way strategically throughout this new environment to, once again, destroy a replicated marker.
The storyline is definitely a griping one. It is constantly throwing curveballs and forcing the player to adapt to new information.
The gameplay is mostly good. There are few moments when you find yourself stumbling over controls or confused on where to go. You have a trusty way point that gives a clear line in the floor where to go. Weapon changing is easy and smooth, but there can be some confusion between the “RB” option of shooting a secondary fire with each gun. If you are not careful you can unload an entire clip of precious ammo with one brash button. This game will definitely punish you for wasting ammo.
The over the shoulder third-person view is excellent. Instead of being forced into a first-person entirely you are able to distance yourself and get a better view of your surroundings which is key when solving many of the puzzles. Puzzles can range from extremely easy (just taking a moment to observe your surroundings is enough to give you the answers you need) to exceedingly frustrating and in dire need of patience and timing. Some bosses and “common” necromorphs need more strategy than others. No strategy at all will more often than not lead to a gruesome death. The player must use caution when using bullets because they can come far and inbetween. Using them to kill one-shot creatures is often a mistake that will cost you dearly in the long run. Players must manipulate their environments to help kill the necromorphs. This can be anywhere from bashing one with a trashcan, using their own severed limbs to knock them back, throwing oxygen tanks or even using a good ol’ foot stomping or fist bashing method.
This game is definitely not for the faint of heart. If you love horror games and being terrified constantly, this game is definitely for you. I wept pathetically more than once in sheer terror, trying to convince myself to turn corners. Little cutscenes you come across with “survivors” are enough to stop you dead in your tracks and have you feeling your heartbeat in your throat.
What I adore about this game is the sudden panic-filled moments you have only seconds to react to. The Dead Space series has an “a” bashing experience. The “a” prompt button pops up on many startling occasions where you find yourself given only seconds to bash that button to save your life. If you do not react fast enough, you may find yourself decapitated, eaten, electrocuted, on fire, smashed, etc. It allows some wonderfully heart-stopping moments.
9/10
Graphics/Environment: The graphics in this game are amazing. Amazing and horrifying. They use the environment to scare you quite often. Many times shadows of necromorphs are cast on the wall in front of you, causing you to panic. Lights flicker and light up what look to be enemies and you waste ammo on a lampshade. The walls are often painted with bloody messages from victims that are warnings or last words. Ceilings can fall on you at any time, glass can be shattered and force you to be vented into space if you do not act fast enough.
9/10 Sound/Voice Acting: The sound can be incredibly terrifying. Anywhere from hearing sobs in the background of survivors, babies crying, something moving, a piece of metal scrapping across the ground. Every little noise in this game is enough to make you jump out of your skin. The necromorphs have excellently creepy noises. The main characters are all very convincingly terrified out of their minds.
9/10
Character Development: Isaac Clarke has got to be one of the most bravest and battle-worn heroes in all of gaming. This poor man has gone through what most would not want to survive. Although I do not feel so much emotionally for Isaac, I did respect the poor guy. I was too busy being scared out of my mind to really care much more about Isaac’s love for his now deceased girlfriend (who you spend the entire other game trying to find out what happened to). I suppose I was “over” his emotional state and was focused more on saving his life. I did, however, feel betrayed when I was betrayed. I felt angry when Isaac was. I believed in his character and what he stood for.
8/10
Multiplayer: (If available ) Multiplayer is decent. There are a few game control differences between single-player and multiplayer, but they are subtle enough that after a few minutes you get use to them. The most annoying thing about this multiplayer is the fatal flaw of allowing, for example, a level 50 to be in the same game and opposite team of a level 1. As you level up you get higher damaging weapons, unlock more health, better armor… and it can become frustratingly unfair to have a gang of level 50′s mowing down a bunch of players in the teens. If the games are evenly matched, the multiplayer can be extremely fun.
7/10
Me, the Player: I loved this game. I loved having the crap scared out of me at every corner. I loved the journey and the terror I experienced while playing. I love Isaac Clarke and I love the design and horror of this game.
Overall, I would give it a 9/10.
The Good: Smooth and heart-stopping game play that is enough to reduce a grown man to tears.
The Bad: Multiplayer could use some fixing–for example, not letting hugely different leveled players to be in the same game. The Ugly: There is an anime based off the game–sort of. Although fairly decent, it is mostly ridiculous. (see below)
Gameplay/Storyline: Team Fortress 2 manages to be amazing. This game has absolutely not plot aside from “capture the flag” and “steal the other teams control points.” What is truly amazing about this game is you can play for over 200 hours and still not be bored to death of it. Even though on the xbox 360 there are only 5 levels, each game can be completely unique. This mostly has to do with the lobby leader who is able to choose the amount of available classes you can play as and how many people will be in the game. This also depends greatly on how well your team does or does not work together—making it either incredibly enjoyable or ungodly frustrating.
The story may be non-existent in the game, but the creators, Valve, have taken a lot of effort to make their classes loveable. Valve has released many videos featuring each class in a parody to “get to know” the character outside the game.
This game has 9 “classes”, all unique in design, voice, origins and weaponry and speed.
They are:
Defense
Engineer: He is able to build up sentry guns to protect control points and intelligence from the other team. He is able to put down a “dispenser” that provides ammo and health to his teammates. If he is good, he can be the foundation for the team and make or break the team. This character is unique in the way that it is the only class that is able to actively help someone of the same class. For example, two engineers can work together to build each others sentry guns—doubling the speed of construction. They can also repair each others equipment. Two engineers can be nearly unstoppable if they are able to work together properly.
Demoman: This character is blessed with a whole lot of explosives. His character is meant for defense (he’s able to leave sticky bombs that he can trigger at any time even when no where near), but with proper skills a player can utilize him for offense and help take down turrets on opposing teams. If used incorrectly, the player can find themselves falling prey to their own explosives.
Heavy: Affectionately known as “heavy weapons guy”, this bulky Russian carries a minigun as his main weapon. Coupled with the Medic (see below) he can pave the way to the opposing team’s side or make up an incredible defense. He is slow and lumbering and can often fall victim to the Spy (see below) if no one is watching his back. His character, although coming across as simple-minded, takes a lot of strategy to wield successfully.
Support
Medic: As expected, the Medic is able to heal his teammates. He becomes incredibly affective when storming opposing teams. He is relatively weak but able to regenerate health slowly. If he is well protected by his teammates he can load his “ubercharge” up to 100%. He gains percentage from healing his wounded teammates. When he has hit 100% the Medic can Ubercharge himself and a teammates and become, literally, unstoppable for about ten seconds. While Ubercharged the Medic and whoever he is healing cannot take damage or be killed. This can be essential in breaking down defenses and so an observant player is most successful.
Spy: The Spy is my personal favorite class. This sharp-tongued frenchmen is able to disguise himself as other players. He can infiltrate the opposing teams base and “sap” an Engineers sentry guns, rendering them useless until (or if) an Engineer is able to knock it off in time. If done properly the Spy can sap the opposing teams defense while his teammates rush in to destroy everything. The Spy is also unique in that he is the only character that consistently has an instant kill. His “backstab” will kill a player of full-health instantly if he manages a true stab to a players back. He is arguably the hardest class to play as and not for the easily frustrated or impatient.
Sniper: The Sniper is another one of my favorites. As expected, his main weapon is a sniper rifle. If the player is patient and consistent, he can snipe off the most powerful assets from the opposing team. The Sniper can kill instantly with (most) headshots and if he has been in scope long enough to “uber” his bullet. However, he is incredibly weak and can be killed almost instantly from any other class, including the Medic.
Offense
Soldier: The soldier is the most rounded of all the characters. He uses a bazooka as his main weapon and he is easy to handle. Most new players begin with the soldier to get use to the controls. He can provide a great offense by clearing the way with his rockets—forcing most (smart) enemies to retreat and scatter to avoid his rockets.
Pyro: The Pyro is a difficult class for the simple fact that his(her?) main weapon is a flame-thrower. This means his most devastating range is close-quarters. Most other classes are able to kill from afar, so a Pyro has to be strong-willed when entering the enemy territory. Their goal is often to weaken the enemy by lighting them on fire and sacrificing themselves for the rest of the team. However, the Pyro does have relatively high health and if the player is quick and thorough enough they can destroy an entire team in a few seconds with some well-placed fire.
Scout: The scout is an incredibly fast and hyperactive class. His main weapon is a shotgun, but for the most part his goal is to distract and/or steal intelligence. He is by far the fastest class there is (running 2-3 times faster than any other class). His health is incredibly low, but his melee weapon (a baseball bat) can be swung twice as fast as any other melee—giving him a good advantage when sneaking up on others or in close-combat. He is unique because he is able to “double jump”. This means that when he jumps once in the air, if the player times it correctly, he can jump in mid-air again. This can become essential when escaping with intelligence or attempting to infiltrate bases from unique, otherwise unreachable, ways.
10/10
Graphics/Environment: The game looks old, no doubt. It is incredibly simple in design and controls but that is what makes the game most endearing. The characters are cell-shaded and the backgrounds are a combination of cell-shading and simple graphics that somehow manage to not detour from the game at all. Most players admit that the simplicity of this game is what makes it so incredibly fun.
There are a few glitches still in the game. Sometimes players that like to cheat can walk on invisible walls above the level—known as “skywalking” in the community. This can be frustrating for players when turrets are built here in these often indestructible places. It forces the game to become stagnant until time runs out.
There are also some glitches that are taken advantage of. Building in walls, launching on top of unreachable parts of the levels and shooting through walls that appear completely concrete. It is unfortunate that the game has been out for so long and no patches have been released.
8/10
Sound/Voice Acting: Somehow this game manages to have epic music and the voice acting for each character is unique and often hilarious. The characters are (as their accents indicated) from all over the world—America, Germany, Australia, France, Ireland and Russia. Each character has unique dialogue, insults, taunts and responses to stress and victory.
10/10
Character Development: N/A
Multiplayer: This game is STRICTLY multiplayer. On the 360 you can have games up to 8 on 8, but on the PC I have seen games as large as 16 on 16. Unfortunately there can be a lot of lag and cheating and glitch exploiting that can ruin a players experience. There are people who take the time and effort to connect the PC version with the 360 version—allowing them to enter cheat codes. These cheat codes can be anywhere from lag switching, God-mode (being invincible) and getting instant kills. Fortunately this doesn’t happen all the time, but Team Fortress 2 has become notorious for some of the most consistent and active reports of cheating.
Me, the Player: I adore this game. I can pick it up and play for hours at a time and not be sick of it. It is refreshing and often makes me think and work hard as a team. It can be enjoyable when teammates work together and an absolute bust if teammates don’t work together.
My score: 9/10
The Good: Crazy amounts of classes make it nearly impossible to get bored of, and the fanbase is HUGE and offers hilarious parodies.
The Bad: Getting stuck with bad-teammates.
The Ugly: Cheating, cheating and more cheating.
BONUS: The game is now “free to play” on the PC. Yes, that’s right. You can download the game and play it completely free.
Note: To fully appreciate the depth and wonder of this series, it is best recommended to begin this game on Mass Effect 1, import your character and their decisions to 2 and then finally three.
I imported my character, John Shepard, Infiltrator, Paragon, Romance-Tali (but romanced Kaidan by happy accident)
Gameplay/Storyline: The Mass Effect series has to have one of the most griping and enthralling story-lines ever. The momentum of the series never stops through each game. You always find yourself pushing forward, trying to find more ways to succeed, drowning (pleasantly) in a sea information and meeting new characters that you fall in love with or grow to hate.
Mass Effect succeeds in drawing in its players. You may interact with your crew and environment as much or as little as you wish—and that is the most appealing part of the game. You may cut a path as a head-strong renegade, killing anyone in your way and caring nothing for future alliances or who you made angry. Or you can be a wo/man of heart—your footsteps strong and that of a leader, bringing all you can to stand united. You may even choose to be a little of both and leave the world staring back at you with neutral eyes.
With the story you find yourself beginning in Mass Effect 1 with the threat of a rogue Spectre indoctrinated by a mysterious race of synthetics called “Reapers”. These Reapers have an army of another synthetic race, Geth, at their disposal. It is your job to stop this brainwashed Spectre from helping the Reapers find their way back to organic-life. The Reapers destroy all intelligent organic life every 50,000 years or so and leave undeveloped organic life to rise up in the ashes. In Mass Effect 1 it takes your entire being, charisma or intimidation skills, your good shot and steady sense to bring a stop to the threat. By the end of Mass Effect 1 you have stopped the single scout Reaper that has made it to the universe—but you have only delayed the inevitable.
In Mass Effect 2 the epic opening ends with your inevitable death as a new threat, the Collectors, destroy your ship. You sacrifice your life to save your pilot, Joker, who refused to abandon ship. Although technically dead, you are not out. A rogue organization called Cerberus finds your body and resurrects you to your former self after two years of intense reconstruction. The organization has a habit of coming across as a terrorist group (anti-anything that is not human) and they stop at nothing to secure Human’s place in the galaxy. You have no choice but to work with them—your military, the Human Alliance—is dragging their feet on the threat of the Reapers and the only one’s listening to you and helping you prepare for the Reapers is Cerberus. You spend the second game stopping the threat of Collectors—another indoctrinated race of people that are abducting human colonies and murdering millions of innocents. Eventually you work your way to the Collector’s homeworld and plan on a suicide mission. It’s them or you. If you’ve prepared well enough, gained the loyalty of your squad and raised your paragon or renegade you and your crew will survive the suicide mission and destroy the Collector’s. But the threat of the Reapers still looms.
Mass Effect 3 begins with Shepard having been stripped of his(or her) Commander position and being held trial for his “crimes” against the universe. You have sacrificed many lives in order to delay the Reaper’s and consequently you are being forced to defend yourself. However, before any judgement can be inflicted the Reapers have arrived on Earth—and they are destroying it. You manage to escape and are left with the emotional task of uniting all the races in to help defeat the Reapers and to save Earth.
I played this game for nearly 3 days straight—10-15 hours a day. I was definitely unable to put it down. I went on a rollercoaster of emotions—laughing hysterically at the colorful personalities of my crew and those I met, feeling extreme guilt at being unable to save so many I encounter as I watched the Reaper’s destroy entire civilization, anger at the inability of the races to work together to stop the Reaper’s, and sadness over the sacrifice of those I had come to love and care about.
The puzzles were not many and far in between. This game is more about strategy in fighting, commanding your teammates and finding weaknesses in your enemies. I find the ability of the kinect to verbally call out commands satisfying and helped the flow of the game. In the previous two games you had to halt the gameplay by opening a power wheel and choosing an ability for you or your teammates to use.
However, there were many issues with the kinect not understanding me and delayed actions or inevitably led to my death because “cover me”, “first aid” and “fall back” did not register. Some battles were easier than others, but the final battle was enough to tear out my hair and scream obscenities at the amount of times I died. However, I realized I wasn’t adapting and using my environment wisely and that was why I was dying. The game forces you to pay attention and I greatly respect and appreciate that aspect.
Another prop I give to Bioware is the ability to “romance” a few of your crew-mates. In Mass Effect 1 I turned away my potential romances (Ashley and Liara) and pursued a relationship with Tali in Mass Effect 2. I was disappointed that I was unable to romance Kaidan (the male biotic) as male!Shepard in Mass Effect 1. At one point it was possible in the preparations but Bioware backed out of it at last minute. And so I “settled” with Tali who was the only sane (minus Liara who is awesome, but I only romance as female!shep) of the five women I could romance as male!Shep. However, Bioware opened their hearts and their mind for Mass Effect 3 and Kaidan came around to confessing his love for my male!Shep. I was too stunned by his confession and guilt-ridden at the thought of leaving Tali so blatantly, but I had wanted to romance Kaidan since Mass Effect 1. Finally I put my face in my hands and cried “Oh my God, I don’t know!” My kinect misheard me and chose to accept Kaidan’s proposal and just like that I became gay!Shepard. My only regret is leading Tali on, but she seemed to get over it pretty quickly. So props to Bioware for allowing gay and lesbian relationships and including us in your amazing world.
Overall, Mass Effect 3 is the most emotional and griping of the three games.
10/10
HOWEVER
Spoilers for End
My only gripe is the ending, and this is why. I sacrificed so much between Mass Effect 1 and the ending. I took jabs and punches from every corner, bowing my head when I wanted nothing more than to drop kick cowardly politicians, sacrificed thousands of lives for the better good, watched crewmates die to save me and became a hero to the universes. I spent 36 hours building my forces in Mass Effect 3, finding every asset I possibly could to fight and readying myself for the final battle. But thanks to Bioware’s extremely short-sightedness I was only able to get the universe “readiness for the Reapers” up to 50% in each zone. Multiplayer allows you to bring up the readiness and consequently give you a “better” ending.
And because I have been unable to play online multiplayer because of xbox LIVE issues my Shepard spent his last few minutes bleeding to death, dragging himself across the ground in effort to continue his mission. I was unable to save Anderson, the one man who had believed in me since day one. I watched my Shepard struggle to his feet in a sea of blood and pulsating organs, limp his way forward and shoot the shit out of some stupid device that exploded in his face instantly killing him so that he could destroy all synthetic life and give organic’s x amount of more years to live in peace before they inevitably created synthetics again and destroyed the universe. I only had three choices, all ending in Shepard’s inevitable death.
I found the ending unsatisfying. And it was not because I was forced to give up the most altruistic and heroic character I had ever known to save the galaxy. It was because in six minutes my 150+ hours of gameplay had boiled down to watching a cinematic video of a mysterious orange light jump galaxy to galaxy destroying all synthetic life as well as the mass relays which allowed traveling between the galaxies—and thus destroying the world of Mass Effect as we known it. Not only that, but in that six minutes I see (for some reason) my pilot and crew running from this orange light in our ship because they were in the middle of using a mass relay—which means that they abandoned me in the fight and that makes no sense to me at all. Then they crash land onto some planet implying that they make a new world and civilization. I did not understand it. I did not know how the millions of people I had recruited to help fight earth were going to settle on the one liveable planet (Earth) and have enough resources. I did not understand who the old man was telling the story about me, Shepard, to some small child who I can only imagine was a child from earth or the crash-landing sight where my crew “rebuilt”. I did not understand why there were no tears or reactions from my best friend, Garrus, or my lover Kaidan. Or any of my crew for that matter. I did not know who lived and who died from my crew. It felt cheap. Like everything I had done for the last 150+ hours had meant nothing. And it was wrapped up in some crappy six-minute video that made no sense.
The ending gets a 1/10.
Currently there is a petition online from angry gamers demanding that bioware give a patch or a downloadable content (dlc) to fix the atrocity of the end. Polls show that 89% of those who completed the game felt the end was unsatisfactory and ruined the series. But that isn’t all. There are groups on facebook and #RetakeMassEffect on twitter. We have also organized to donate to Child’s Play in a positive protest towards the end. As of March 15th (two days into the month long time of collecting donations) we are currently at just over $50,000.
Graphics/Environment: The in-game graphics are beautiful. Although there are some annoying glitches here and there—I often found my game loading on a black screen for up to 3 minutes until proceeding, sometimes when I used powers Shepard would face the completely wrong way and unleash a valuable power that took time to come back. A few scenes a teammate was not registering and invisible but speaking and everyone was staring at a blank space.
The cutscene graphics are breath-taking—enough to make you want to reach out and touch the environment as though it really is there.
The environments only added to the game-play. Many are similar but all are different in their own aspect. The environments are definitely different from modern-day and took some great thought and imagination that is greatly appreciated.
10/10
Sound/Voice Acting: The sound is epic and the music always plays to the emotion being portrayed. It heightens every emotion and plays a key role in your perception of the scenes playing out.
Voice acting is superb. The characters help tell a story and they do it in a real way that makes them feel real and tangible and helps you relate to them. The only character I had a gripe with was Diana Allers who managed to be the only character in Mass Effect history that I absolutely loathed. Her voice acting was atrocious and her character was annoying.
10/10
Character Development: Since this game is part of a trilogy, the development of the character is very prompt. I felt the struggle with my Shepard as he tried to convince the Citadel Council that a very huge threat was coming. Every time they brushed off my concerns I felt anger and a sense of urgency along with Shepard. His decisions as a paragon were those I felt I would make and I appreciated that I didn’t have to choose only one path.
Each character you come across—protagonist or antagonist—you learn to love or love to hate. They convince me that this world of Mass Effect is real and in dire need of saving and worth protecting.
10/10
Multiplayer: Multiplayer is lackluster. It is boring and repetitive but is essential to the “good” end of Mass Effect 3. The only good thing is you are able to play as more than just a human. You are able to be a drell, asari, krogan, turian, salarian or human. Unfortunately you have to “buy” packets that will unlock these characters—possibly not even in the class you want. I found this to be frustrating and annoying. There are only 6(?) level’s on the multiplayer available and they get old fast considering the only variety is the type of enemy you fight—all exceedingly boring. Unfortunately once you get your “galactic awareness” up (again, essential for the “good” ending of Mass Effect 3) it drops every time you connect to the internet—forcing you to continue to play. I am bored to tears of it, but still forced to go back.
5/10
Me, the Player: When I walked away from this game with it’s current ending, I was beyond angry. I felt cheated and blind-sided. I had been promised by Bioware that my decisions mattered. But unfortunately there were only “3” endings that all ended exactly the same way. Shepard “dies”, you see the Normandy retreating from the battle for some reason and crash-landing on some random planet where they will more than likely die a horrible death. You don’t know who lived and who died. You have no idea if those you brought with you to fight (the huge army you raised) made a difference or not. There is nothing.
Without the ending (minus the last 20 minutes of the game) 10/10
With the current ending 6/10.
The Good: One of the best series out there. The diversity you encounter and the path you pave is your own.
The Bad: The kinect had a horrible time understanding me say “first aid” and “sniper rifle”. Consequently I died about 30 different times because the kinect refused to administer first aid.
The Ugly: The ending was unsatisfactory and left me feeling hollow knowing that no matter what decisions I made—paragon or renegade—how many people I got to help me, how much funding I put into my fleet, how long I spent preparing—I will always get the same hollow ending that proved that all the sacrifices I made were not necessary.
Lev reminds me exactly why we aren’t allowed to cite wikipedia as a source. He also reinforces my habit of taking everything I read on wikipedia with a grain of salt. I find wikipedia to be unreliable, but not useless. I do not hold anything on those pages as truth but I do consider their possibility that they are indeed truthful and informative. Wikipedia has an annoying habit of having writers put personal opinions in with their information.
You don’t merely just read the background of a video game (for example) but you’re stuck with little jabs and uppercuts (that you may totally disagree with) that soil the very good name and nature of whatever you’re reading. At some point someone is always going to come along a well-written wiki and destroy it maliciously. Whether that be from changing pericles to pickles or insert ‘they’re gay gay gay gay gay gay gay gay’ randomly into the text. Sometimes misleading information is not always found immediately and it’s left sitting there in cyberspace while people take it as is and think nothing of it.
He also points out that wiki’s can be biased. If I were to write a wiki on the storyline for Mass Effect I would have (nearly) nothing bad to say. I would attempt to render the story-line as is. But every so often you come to a link where the writer has inserted their opinion, whether they hated or loved a certain part, if they thought a character was too nosey or too sexy and it ends up being more a blog than a factual piece of writing.
In any case, Wikipedia does not render libraries or lectures or experts useless. It is true that when listening to an expert talk you will undoubtedly get some personal opinion in, but you also have to take in hand that this is also an expert. Anyone can edit wikipedia. If someone decides to start a rumor (that someone dies, for example) it can explode across the internet like wildfire and it could take the intervention of even television to still these rumors. Libraries hold the truth more often than fiction (depending on what section you’re in, I guess). Wiki’s have a high risk of holding opinions, half-truths and full out lies. (I mean, seriously, how many times have people said they “heard” a rumor when mass effect 3 was coming out only to have to edit it when the release date came and went to “TBA”)
On my wiki for myself I didn’t add much mostly because I couldn’t (/didn’t have the time to) find where all the editing keys are. I’ve done dozens and dozens of wiki’s at Elftown where I have been a member for over eight years writing anything from stories, to groups and displaying artwork. It uses a different sort of editing than this wiki (we use <sup> and </sup> and entering an image is something like <IMG:theimagehere> and so forth. Granted, it’s been awhile since I’ve worked hard on making a pretty wiki, but I know I have a few basic skills. I just need to get around to showing them.
I don’t get it. When it comes to online gaming there seems to be only one of two experiences: THIS IS AWESOME!! and *** THIS **** YOU MOTHER********* *** ****** YOU CHEATING **** SUCKING (you get the point).
Today. I had the latter. “Experience.” I played Assassin’s Creed Revelations multiplayer. Granted, it is a flawed flawed flawed gameplay but sometimes it’s so consistently flawed that you can’t think “oh that guy just got a glitch” or “it was a little lag”. It comes down to: This ****er is cheating.
It went something like this:
My adorable Courtesan sidles up behind my victim, whips out her razor-blade fan, shoves his shoulder to face her and inbeds the razors into his stomach.
But wait! What’s this? Sir Deacon has a smoke bomb! Go on.
Inhaling smoke, my beloved Courtesan stops getting her murder on to do some dainty coughs. I was fine with it until Sir Deacon, miraculously unharmed by a FAN OF BLADES slicing his stomach open slaps my Courtesan across the face (stunning her) and skips off into the streets, forcing me to lose my contract.
I’m sure the conversation went something like this.
Courtesan: Time for you to die, good sir! -stabeth-
Deacon: Ohoho, on the contrary! I have this delightful smoke bomb. -cue smoke bomb-
Courtesan: Oh, kindly sir! You speak such truths. Let me kindly remove this here blade from your entrails. Pardon me as I cough, I have a wee bit of asthma. Smoking is quite a tickle to my throat!
Deacon: There, there, dear lady. But I must be off!
Courtesean: I ask but one thing, good sir. Slap me across the face, to remind me of this epic and cruel failure of fates.
Fin.
Thank you, thank you.
It did not end there. I continued to experience moments of literally stopping mid-kill only to be backhanded like a real whore. Even though the chances of stunning are slim. Even when sneaking up on someone with a contract to kill you, if at any time they press x during your attempted stun they will overpower you and you will get an honorable death. No such thing this night. I continued to have stun after stun after stun after stun against me.
Overall, ACR is an amazing game. And Assassin’s Creed is an amazing series. But GOOD LORD THE AMOUNT OF LAG AND CHEATING MAKES ME WANT TO THROW MY CONTROLLER THROUGH MY TV.
But I’m better than that. So I compose a rant on a blog.
First, let me comment that change is very annoying and scary. But with time, I will learn to accept the new WordPress layout. It was changed before I was use to it, but hopefully it’s good change.It’s a POS.
Lev starts out telling us that people tend to fall in love with something at first site. See above. It would make sense why he finds he prefers facebook over myspace but grew to like myspace over time. I however, find him to be a bit of an arrogant d-bag. He brags that he he now has 6,000 “friends” on myspace, despite having not met 99% of them face-to-face. He feels as though he is part of a community. I disagree completely. Just because you exchange a “happy thanksgiving” or a sentence once followed by a friends request does not make you a community. He probably has less than 50 active readers (he even admits only 40-50 of his 6,000 friends have even read his book). This is not a community. This is a popularity contest.
On facebook, Lev states he has 2,000 friends but only knows about a quarter of them in real life. Facebook can also be a popularity contest for users. It really depends on the user. If they fill some deep black hole in their heart by adding random users they’ve never met that also like My Little Pony, then you will see people with 500, 1,000, 2,000+ friends. How many of them do they actually talk to? Probably somewhere between 20-60. How many do they hang out with daily? Probably 3-10. I personally have 58 friends on facebook. These are people that I actually care about and talk to on a regular basis. I did the “add everyone I ever went to high school and middle school with” but realized very quickly that I could care less about Daisy Sue’s drunken night at BFF Jane Doe’s house. I went from 300 to 70 friends and slowly have been deleting people here and there. Facebook isn’t a popularity contest site for me. It’s a place to talk to people I actually care to talk to. I remember back when my brother had 1,000+ friends. After calling him out on he, he tried to convince me he knew “at least 75%” of them. And by “knew” he meant exchanged facebook’s drunkenly at parties only to never talk to them again. Since then, his friends list has dwindled to a quarter of that. As he grew out of the facebook phase he learned quickly you’re not any more cool and popular by adding every John Smith you meet on the streets to your facebook.
Myspace on the other hand… I had it for about three days when I was around fourteen. It was the first real big social network I joined. I was assaulted with a barrage of friends requests from people I didn’t know and were mighty creepy, pathetically “emo” and “goth” and all around idiotic. I deleted my myspace immediately despite my school friends disappointment. It was a popularity contest that I could have cared less about.
Bringing it back to Rettberg.
Facebook and myspace provide weak ties. It allows you to expand your “social” network to people with common or different interests (chap 3). If you use facebook correctly you can connect to people with similar political views or even debate with people with different. You can even join groups to try and make yourself feel a little more well integrated. It can also provide strong ties by strengthening relationships with friends or family. Not everyone wants to pick up the phone and call grandma, but sometimes grandma will be perfectly happy sending a creepy message about how cute you look in that cap and gown and how much she misses you and wishes you’d stop by. Not the best tie, but at least it’s more than a christmas or birthday card.
Facebook (and myspace) also allows you to be interactive (chap2). Rettburg reminds us that blogs allows our readers to give us feedback and for us to give them insight on why we believe the things we believe. Facebook also allows us to do similar things. You can share and comment on friends activity and they can do the same for you. This sparks up conversation and keeps the ball rolling. However, “liking” the last comment is always an effective way to end a conversation. That way, no ones feelings get hurt!
A good thing about blogs are the fact that you are indeed writing to someone and expecting some sort of response. When you write privately to a journal you may do some inner reflecting but you cannot receive any outward insight. However, when you post in a blog you know that at least one person out there in the world is going to be reading your work and replying. This allows for communities within the internet to build. You can surround yourself with people that believe what you believe, or you can venture out into the big world and expand your knowledge and interests.
One of my favorite things about online communities is the fact that you have an audience. This audience helps wrangle you back down from seething rage to reason, or help you organize your thoughts by giving feedback. As a writer of fiction this is especially helpful when you have readers that comment, point out errors and give constructive criticism as you write. It allows you to change that chapter (or add to it) within hours of posting and receiving immediate feedback. Readers also compel a writer to write–when you have someone that wants to read your writing, you’re more inclined to actually write.
Social Network Theory
Weak and Strong ties makes sense to me. Especially with the idea that a weak tie will actually get you further than a strong tie. The fact that your acquaintance that may not be into all the same things as you can help you out better than your twin brother/sister seems logical. Your acquaintance is surrounded by different sorts of people while your strong tie is surrounded by people that are similar to those you know.
According to the Six Degrees of Connection everyone is only six people away from knowing everyone in the world. So why on earth would you go from the sixth person immediately when you can share with the five people in between those?
In General
Depending on what website you’re a part of you’ll get different sorts of connections, different vibes and tones and different sorts of subjects that are discussed and examined by yourself and your readers and fellow writers. Websites like Facebook have its pros and cons. As one research stated, in 2005 85% of college students had a facebook–without one you were the odd man out. Knocking on peoples doors and calling them on the phone instead of sending facebook texts only appeared to make you one screwed up individual. As time has progressed it appears it’s becoming more socially acceptable to facebook friends about coming events instead of planning face-to-face. Facebook is about as open as you can get when it comes to social networking. You can (choose) to put your birthdate, birthplace, graduation date, every job you’ve ever had, who exactly you’re dating and when your anniversary is, every single person you’re related to, your favorite tv show and musicians and so on and so forth. Facebook is probably about as informal as you can get on the social network.
With Youtube you have people able to share opinions and interests via videos. They may tinker around with some pretty hilarious stuff that for some reason catches on and gets over a million views but still manages to be funny despite being under 10 seconds. Or you get real people giving real emotions on real things. Youtube can be as personal or impersonal as you want to make it.
Websites like DeviantART allow you to blog (journal), write, draw and upload photography. This allows readers/viewers to instantly give feedback on artwork. As an artist you can even update journals unrelated to art and receive comments on every day issues or politics. DeviantART is social network that builds on creativity and opinions. It’s formal in the fact that you do not need to give any more information beyond your age and gender (which has actually been a huge issue in the community from only a male and female selection). You can, otherwise, keep your real name, location and everything else secret while still being able to safely and creatively express yourself.
There are plenty of other websites out there that are excessively for blogging. But, in general once things catch on everyone jumps on the bandwagon. Myspace began to climb in popularity but just as it was peaking Facebook debuted. Quickly Myspace fell out of grace and Facebook became the place for social networking. As times progress the world will begin to switch its focus. Blogs are currently on the rise and in the future it is possible that our social networking will shift from Facebook to something equivalent to WordPress. Only time will tell.
lexsterling
