Exiting Games

Interesting to see here that Broken Age breaks the normal convention of exiting computer game menus by using a more familiar convention; putting an X in the top right corner of the screen. A good and consistent approach for pointer driven interfaces.

Mass Effect 3: Bringing me up to speed

It is a good thing that Mass Effect 3 builds on what you've done in the previous instalments of the trilogy. It is also a good thing that you get a little overview when importing your previous game. However, I can't quite shake off a sneaky feeling that the main focus of this is to help people pick the right save game that they want to make use of. It did serve as a good reminder for me, but with a bit more effort it would have been even better. Here is the overview from my Mass Effect 2 game:

Sounds good right? Except.... I don't remember most of it. Apparently I sacrificed the Council. That seems a little extreme. I'm sure I must have had a good reason, but what was it?

This area of the software would have greatly benefited from more detail. Ideally little videos styled as documentaries or flashbacks, but I would have been happy with a little pop up box that filled in a few details (a few pictures would go a long way though... I did eventually recollect Wrex and Miranda, but an image would have helped me to make a quicker connection). The clue here is the last played date. Yes Bioware, your game was great, and I really enjoyed it. And of course I don't saving the galaxy every day, but y'know...I do that kind of stuff fairly often. 20 months is a long time to remember all the details of your game.  I also didn't have a clue what all my powers and stuff was when the bullets started flying.

Still, I survived a suicide mission with eight of my squadmates. We must have been pretty baddass eh? If only I could remember, or have a little video nudge to remind me of my glory...

Limbo

Limbo is a game that shows what can be done with restriction of design elements. With simple game mechanics, and only a grey-scale colour palette the developers have created a compelling game. Limbo shows that great design can come from simple elements. I particularly like the poignant pause when your avatar dies (though this can get frustrating if death occurs too often).

Minor annoyances include a complete lack of mouse support without any visual indications that mice aren't supported. If the mouse isn't going to be used in a game that's fine, but put some kind of sign or instruction on the menu, introduction, or similar. Likewise a user shouldn't have to go into the options and settings to find out what the controls are, a simple on-screen icon on the menu screen would have been sufficient. This is particularly problematic with the action button because there is no visual feedback of a successful button push unless if your avatar is in a certain set of contexts. This was caused frustration for me as I started out trying to play on the Mac using a Windows keyboard, and I wasn't sure which button actually worked as an ALT key. Strangely missing is the use of WASD for up-down-left-right movement, which is a standard gaming control scheme.


Anyway, many small niggles but a beautiful, mildly quirky game, that is a good example of a great design driven by self-constraint.


I've not finished the game yet. I'm hoping that the end seamlessly loops back to the start, to provide a never ending futile and never explained journey. Perhaps that's just me though.