Final Blog

The United States has not had a military draft since the Vietnam War era. For merely 50 years, it had not been peaceful either. From the heat of desert combat comes Operation Desert Shield, Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom to the humid jungles of foreign territories serving Operation Western Accord and Operation African Lion, just to name a few. Battles had not always been overseas, as safeguarding our freedom is the duty of the United States military. Missions stateside span all over the United States as well, such as Operation Arrow, Operation Summit, and Operation Javalin's Thrust. 

Freedom like many things in the world, is not free. The challenge I propose here is to answer an extremely hard to answer question. How might game-styles mechanics improve or alter the way that future soldiers, units, and entire forces function? In short, did gaming put forth some type of help in recruiting, sustainability in military forces and advancement in today's world? Could that be the reason why we lack drafts?

Per recruiter say, Enlistment is at a all time high this past decade, of which I had sworn in on my oaths during the past decade as well.

I remember when I was a kid, there were video games like SWAT4, Call of Duty, Counter Strike, America's Army, Battlefield. All of which takes a different approach in intellectually stimulating the brain, creating a certain kind of interest in combat and adrenaline. But none of these games could even vaguely relate to what real experiences are. In part, maybe Battlefield 3 in the recent year could vaguely relate. I could make a list and point out the wrong in the different games. Call of Duty: Warfare is not run and gun, ranks are wrong, some weapons are not in service or even real in modern warfare (no pun intended). Counter Strike: Weapons animated and accuracy are wrong. America's Army: Soldiers simply don't do what they do in the game. The list can go on, but what's the point.

I do however want to cover the M4A1 service rifle, since I am a weapon enthusiast. We all remember Counter Strike right? Well the latest Counter Strike is built in Source engine coding. Renders a little more beautifully. (pic 1)


This is a photo shows the weapon M4A1 which is one of the service rifles of the United States Marine Corps, along with its sister rifle M16A4. Both are very similar, only difference really is the butt stock. Which the M4A1 is six stock collapsable while the sister rifle is a fixed butt stock affixed onto the lower receiver part of the weapon. When you first play this game, it's fun, it's exciting, it's intense, and it's realistic. But that realism quickly takes a turn after you play with any of the Colt series rifles.


Of course, besides the awesome $1800 price tag of an optics, if handled correctly, capable of ranging up to 800 yards point target. Well besides that, could you see a very big difference? (pic 2)

I was betting money that you couldn't find the difference, how about with this added photo. It should be more clear. This is a survivability difference. (pic 3)

The difference is in the ejection port and forward assist. The ejection port is the "hole" in which the spent round, the brass gets pulled out by the ejector in the bolt. While you load a new magazine regardless of size, the forward assist sits the round correctly into the chamber preventing a failure to fire when the trigger is squeezed. In short, it is built on the wrong side in the game, hence, the the reason why you have died, each and every round. Well what about left handed shooters, the weapon is built the same way. Colt Defense manufactures all of the M4A1. M16A2, and M16A4 that are still in operation in the United States Marine Corps. The reason for the ejection port to be on the right side is simply logical as the brass fly away versus across your face or worst, into your face.

Counter Strike Global Offense (CS:GO) is schedule to launch in the next few days. Consider the image, the problems had been fixed, and a fold up tactical sight is on this model of the M4. However, with a shorter barrel, and still inaccurate information regarding the weapon itself (along with all the other weapons). 

"If you make a game so realistic, you should finish the damn job."

Ejection port on the right side of the weapon for the reason that it won't hit yourself. I couldn't help but laugh at this guy for various reasons. His shooting posture is wrong, and being so fearful of being hit by brass and flinching. (video)

Assuming your combat buddies are not afraid of brass, the M4A1 is highly marketed in video games, and other recruiting usage, even recreational use. You would hardly find a gun range that won't rent you a M4A1.

If a video game is to be made with realistic intentions, perhaps it should follow through, especially in games that are all time classics like Counter Strike.

It makes me feel to this day I have yet to find a game that resembles truth in shooting a weapon. I know the day will come that a game will resemble so much reality that it would literally scare the #$@% out of me. Of course, I could say more about planting explosives in Counter Strike as well ;)

Entering Bomb Site A in DE_DUST using a M4A1. Counter Strike: Source, 2008. Source

Bottom: Colt M4 with Reflex Scope (22LR Caliber)Top: Colt M4 with Trijicon TA31-RCO ACOG Optics (5.56 NATO Caliber & 22LR Bolt Carrier Group Conversion)
2012 Personal Collection

Split second after firing a M4A1 with Trijicon TA31-RCO ACOG Optics (5.56 NATO Caliber)
2012 Personal Collection

Exiting CT Spawn Site in DE_DUST using a M4A1, Counter Strike Global Offense, 2012. Source

Project 3 Post

Group:
Micah
James
Thyrza
Cameron

Base Location:
Outside Paccar Hall, South entrance.

Concept:

The design of our project ushered an anonymous user into taking action (moving our object) by creating a familiar scenario of partaking in a "Quest"!

By this time, most everyone knows what it means to "go on a quest" or "go off on an adventure". The designated object would be the weapon carried by our player who uses it along the way to destroy enemies along his/her path.

Here is our written story seen by our possible participants:

"Come hither brave warrior, we seek your assistance against the forces of evil! We have been silenced by a magical wizard who has also captured our princess, lady Thyrza. Take arm of the holy weapon and follow us!"

The Hero's Weapon

 We have decided to set up targets along the path towards the other base in which our participant can either shoot the weapon or throw a water balloon. Drawn on each target is a commonly-encountered game creature in RPG or Adventure style games. Each target was hung within eyesight of each other so that the pathway was clear.

A fireball-casting Wizard that our warrior must defeat!

With our bread-crumb design and straightforward item all we needed was the ability to communicate to people what needed to be done. For risk assessment we also needed to think about what happens if a person leaves midway through the quest? What happens if we run out of water? How will the signs be placed in response to different surfaces (trees, walls, posts, etc.)?

To make sure we can continue to roll the project forward if our participant leaves in the middle, we decided to propose ourselves using a sign containing our story, which we can relocate at any given moment.

We carried an extra bottle of water for worst-case-scenario purposes of running out of ammunition (multiple squirt guns were even bought if one broke).

In order counteract the problem of putting paper targets all around campus, we used a combination of string, wood, and tape to mount each creature securely and noticeably.

To add extra effect, some of us decided to dress up in medieval-fantasy clothing to evoke the experience of a quest - as well as cement our concept into the minds of our spectators.

Thyrza, the to-be-rescued princess in our story. Bottles of water (Mana) for extra ammunition.

Micah and James getting ready at our starting location.

 On the day of execution we have encountered a number of obstacles in our design. It became very difficult to draw people into our endeavor for it didn't have public shock value except for the costumes (basically it didn't demand attention, it just simply asked for it). Our ability to attract people solely rested on the shoulders of our large whiteboard and the story (above) that was written on it. Our item was also very small and indistinct to being picked up, other than being referred to as the object our hero must wield in our adventure, it was your run-of-the-mill squirt gun.

Despite these setbacks and the very hot day, we were encountered by a person who read our entire story and motioned to complete his objectives! With his trusty crossbow in one hand and a supply of holy hand grenades being put in the other we ran through our destined quest in the matter of 10 minutes from start-to-finish. Destroying each target along the way, we finally reached the fountain (last area), rescued our princess and placed the weapon in the ending zone.

Princess Thyrza and the Hero of our story.

This concludes our third project, below are extra pictures.

Our sign. Correction: name typo.

An enemy our hero must defeat!

Another target closer to our final destination.

A defeated-looking flame creature after being water ballooned to death.

- Cam

The memories project

Here is the Memories project website

http://memoriesproject.blogspot.com/

This is a lame post but lets face it, the website says it all and I have a memorial to go to tomorrow.

Tic Tac Toe

Tic Tac Toe post

I really wanted to keep the spirit of the game in tact. I set out rules at the beginning of the assignment; I needed to keep it a pen and paper game and the rules needed to be easy to learn.

That was actually harder than I thought and for a while the game I was designing became very extravagant. I love games where the players work together and so it became a bridge building game, then a railway building game down a long gridded board where the game would randomly throw roadblocks at you.

I really wanted to stick to my original rules so I began to talk to Dad about it. He told me he and his brothers had come up with a game where the grid was larger and you only needed five in a row. It was I who came up with the idea that the edges were portals that lead to the opposite grid point on the other side of the board.

Other than the changes we made (8 by 8 grid) the game remained the same, and it became a strategy game where you could have fun but also kill a great deal of time.

Tic Tac Toe - The Resurrection

First thoughts on what to change

      Originally when I started out I thought I wanted to change the game space (aka the 3 x 3 board) because of how it limits strategy to get to the win state.  I also thought I would change from drawing 'x's and 'o's to something else.  I considered keeping being able to play with a mere pen and paper but I ended up going with a deviation from that as well.

Testing first game

This first game I developed deviated from Tic Tac Toe in the following ways:  different board, change from 'x's and 'o's, different win state.

    I ended up testing out a game that started with a board like this

Basically, the board starts out as pictured above and then a player has to either:

put a piece on an open circle

or move a piece on a circle to a circle (within a one circle radius).

Team DR - Post Game Post

DANCING ROBOT!!!                By Team DR (Ross, Jarrett, Kate)

Although we had no "pufflets" to aid our strategy we did have a fancy robot suit that attracted quite a crowd...

The Case of the Missing Case part 2

So have added several more images to the completed list, here are a few, but the rest have spoilers so they will have to be found.

    

The initial page creates a tracking cookie and then redirtects. This page shows nothign to the player,but does let them enter a name on hte first visit only. The idea is to prevent people from trying to complete the game without using the QR scan to find the clues.

This link takes you to the first page:

http://craibwoud.com/Craibwoud/files/phone/files.html

winning photo timestamp from team the other team!

Blog Post 1- What Makes Games Fun

Notes on what makes games fun and comments on first couple rounds of games we played in class...


Little Big Planet-

     In addition to being aesthetically appealing (those characters are so darn cute!) I think a strong feature that makes this game "fun"damentally (ho ho) appealing is the collaborative effort needed between players to complete certain challenges.  I think the fact that there are competitive challenges as well as collaborative ones makes the game more interesting than if there was only one kind of challenge.  Some games that I have played and also found fun that incorporated this aspect well are: Super Smash Brothers and Mario Party IV.
     I think that collaboration-type parts of games make the players get to engage with each other in a different way than strictly competitive/strategy games (maybe in a more social way?).  They also make games continue to be engaging even if you are losing.
    This game was also successful in that it was relatively easy to pick up- the controls are more or less intuitive.  I think games that don't require an excess of explanation or tutorials in the beginning are fun.


Apples to Apples-
 
   I think the fun in this game is based around the social interaction it creates.  Who you play with is a big factor in whether or not you will have fun playing it.  For me, the fun is in making the most absurd combination of adjective and subject possible.  Another thing that is fun about this game is that you get to know the other people playing with you better than you might with another type of game.  Lastly, it is also fun that at the end of the game everyone gets to have some cards that you won (if you won any) that "describe you" and everyone gets to feel special and unique.

Top Secret

Shhhhh!

Bases

The group of James, Cameron, Thyrza and myself would prefer to take the north area as base. I suppose deliberations may now commence.

The case of the missing Mystery...

Idea:
Short and sweet, using QR codes make an interactive mystery scavenger game where the player stables across a calling card that will intrigue the player enough to undergo a search to find out what the point of the cards is and how they play out.


The player scans the first card they find that looks like this...

When they scan it they will get the image of a phone ad a short intro telling them they get a phone call and where to go...

As it goes forward the players will try to apprehend the killer in the crime before the time runs out.

There is some slight issues with the java code implementing across platforms to allow cookies to track and time the player. While php code would work best for this I am too new at it to write such a code. Using a drop down html list to choose the game's direction may have to be the current end result, but it would allow a way to cheat that is far too simple, while making a flash version is out because of lack of app support.
     Plot-wise I am on the edge between serious mystery keeping in a noir fashion and a comical version. A serious version would be easier to create with the images thus far, but a comical version may keep more people interested. The current version is noir.

The Calling Card:

I had originally thought about creating the Pandora Project, but she is just gonna had to wait. Right now i am gonna make myself a mystery...what is it?...

Thoughts on capturing the soul.

               I was thinking about my approach to this assignment, and I now feel that it is necessary to tie together a story with a compelling piece of craftsmanship. Humans are naturally drawn to stories, and therefore a story is not so different than an adventure. Just as the experience of reading a story is its own reward, an adventure is its own reward. My current prototype is a cube, I am just waiting on some special UV paint to mock it up as a alien artifact, promising treasure. TLDR: Less puzzle, more story.

                                                                                                                         -James out

Ticks Tacs and Toes

This game was designed with the intention in mind of having luck rather than skills in strategic thinking.


The board consists of 5 by 5 grid. A deck of cards that has X, O, Move a Card, Remove a Card, Lose a Turn and Switch Sides.


Specs:
24 X Cards
   Traditional X
24 O Cards
   Traditional O
8 Move a Card
   Allows you to move any 1 (one) card on the grid to another place on the grid
8 Remove a Card
   Allows you to remove any 1 (one) card on the grid
8 Lose a Turn
   Lose a turn (opponent draws two cards)
1 Switch Sides
   You switch sides (if you were X, you are now O, vice versa)
1 Coin


First you flip the coin, claiming heads or tails, and with that, all cards are shuffled and placed into one deck. Player pulls the top card and must place it whether it is a X or O. Each card must be played. The luck is within the draw as the player will not know whether it is their card or opponent's card. If the opponent's card is drawn, you can "strategically" place it anywhere on the grid, but it is also vice versa on the next turn. There is no possible way yet that you will run out of cards before the game ends. 


The game will end when any player reaches 4 (four) of their own cards, whether horizontal, vertical or diagonal in either direction.


The game should last anywhere between 20 seconds to 3 minutes. This is a relatively short game, which follows the basics of the traditional tic tac toe game, however, the fun comes in where the mystery of the card is unknown yet to be drawn as humans are naturally interested in mysteries and the unknown surprise.






WARNING: FOR AGES 18 AND OLDER AS FIST FIGHTS MAY OCCUR. 


CAUTION: DRINKING IS ALLOWED DURING GAME PLAYED, BUT PLEASE DRINK RESPONSIBLY. I'M NOT SAYING SUPPLY MINORS ALCOHOL, BUT BE CONSIDERATE. DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE, IF YOU GET SLEEPY, PULL OVER AND SLEEP AND OBEY ALL SPEED LIMITS.


This game has been tested and have passed all FDA regulations, patent pending, maybe.








Have fun,
Tyler


P.S. Do not reduplicate this game for public sales. If you do, I'll come find you.

Don't Panic

I have uploaded Don't Panic to my personal web space. Game files have been uploaded in both zip and 7z archive formats. Download your preferred archive. The archive contains files for the numbers, operators and action cards. It also contains 3 different options for card backs. I have also included a link to the rules, which I plan to edit and improve to make a little more sense. Link to game files

The Tic Tac Toe Trilogy

So here are the three games as they seem at this point.

6°s

This is a board game that uses a pentagon design to link the player from the outer board to the center. As of this moment you can only play cards with the degrees from that level radiating inward to the center tile that is the 6th degree. The sixth degree is drawn at random from the 6 pile and placed in the center of the board. Each player can play a card based on the degree they are at until they get to the center connection. They can also block other players with cards labeled "R" (recluse) that have a less likely chance of having a degree link. In the works is a -6° card (someone like Hitler or the Sham Wow guy) that you can link other players to to make them lose. You can also play the "R" card to block players from knocking you out of the game.

Paper Comb

This is a card game that plays off a center card placed down at the start of the game. Players can only play off the pieces on the board that will make up a card hand, like two of a kind, full house, and such. The first player to get a 5 card in a row hand. The picture below shows a game that can be won if a person plays an ace in the bottom left corner or a 6 in the lower right corner. The players can drop cards and redraw to replace the turn if you have no moves.

 The Cat's Game

This is a demo video of the Cat's Game. The graph to the right denotes the cat's move based on your move. The cat's move will alter each turn and the player must avoid allowing the cat to win because of his move.

The Four Letter Word

This game rotates turns between two players. vowels can be used more than once, consonants can only be used once per player. You rotate between consonant and vowels each of your turns. One move per player. The person who wins has to let the second player one turn to add a letter to his / her word to trump the win. You can win with 3-4 letter words. More will be added on this game at a later time. It has not changed much since last class meeting, but due to time issues none of these games were really tested as such.

(not pictured)

Prism

Worked more on older game which employed the RGB/CMY to freate white light and charge a grid. Second player can be zapped by first player for fun, but not important to the game. Issues with cursor freezing until you hit x for a new block have been touched up, but still running into something.

Untitled Game

The TicTacToe-inspired game I have created (Untitled at the moment) follows some of the basic rules and principles of it's predecessor, but substitutes it's rather predictable gameplay for something more controlled and a little creative.

Since we were limited in how many rules we could change I decided to keep the grid-obtaining objectives and aesthetics the same.

The rules of the game are:

- Requires two players
- Each player draws a 6x6 grid for themselves. Each player plots three words on their personal grid in vertical, horizontal, or diagonal orientation. One word must be three letters, one must be four letters, and the last must be five letters (The words are not allowed to share letters).
- A shared 6x6 grid is drawn between the two players.
- After deciding who goes first the players take turns marking territory (X's or O's) on the boxes of the shared grid as they choose. Play two rounds, switching who goes first the second round.

The objective of the game is to place your marker on the locations of the letters you wrote on your own concealed 6x6 grid onto the shared 6x6 grid. Each player receives 1 point for a successful letter obtained on the grid, and 3 points extra for each word completed. No points awarded for denying the other player a spot.

This is the 6x6 playing grid. Each player will have their own concealed versions of this grid with the words they place on them. A third grid will be shared for play.

Below is an example of a game between two players ready to play. They have each plotted their three words on their own grids. The middle grid shows the board and how it will be contested in this current setup. The red or blue markings show the locations-of-interest to each respective player, while the green markings show the locations that will be contested over. Only one person can occupy the space, so one of the players will definitely be denied spot(s) to their boxes.

Keeping the locations of your words in secrecy is the foremost strategy. Placing your letters in a string might let your opponent predict what direction it is heading in and effectively deny you spots. At the same time you must be able to predict your opponent's words as well, and what orientation they are placed on the board. For this reason I personally recommend at least one word be placed diagonally.

There are some other changes that might be considered for this game, such as multiplayer or how the point system is derived, but this is how the game stands presently! I enjoyed keeping some of the same flavors of TicTacToe while allowing players to create their own words and play a pseudo-Battleship experience. I wanted to keep the novelty of a Paper+Pencil game solely for it's playability in nearly any environment.

- Cam

TIC TAC TRIANGLE

-A strategic, fast paced tile placement game for 2 players.

Goal: to own the three points of a (preferably larger) triangle that includes the starting tile, in the best of three games.

Initial setup: Divide the pieces into colors, and place the red starting tile down.

Turns: Players take turns placing tiles so that their sides touch fully to any other triangle already on the board. If by placing this tile the player now owns the tiles that make up an imaginary triangle that includes the center tile (The red starting tile counts as a piece for both players, and therefore can be one of the points) move on to scoring. If all the 42 pieces are now gone, you settle the tie with Australian rules arm wrestling.


Scoring: Upon attaining the three points of a starting tile including triangle, a player adds a number of points to his score equal to the amount of tiles in his/her imaginary triangle. At the end of three games, the winner is the one with the highest points, and is considered to be 20% cooler than he/she was before he/she defeated his/her adversary in high stakes triangle combat.

Pictures:
First= A winning move and board example
Second= a layout of the full game, with all its components

Hive

     So  I completed the second design of the tic tac toe game, this one was the "Cat's Game" using LBP2 as the game engine so to speak.
http://lbp.me/v/cqn39e
 It could use a few more things to help the player to figure out how the moves work, but not sure how many people will want to play a "tic tac toe" game even with the updates since it still uses the X and O. Next I will construct the card version of the game to see how that will play out. I may go back to add more rules to the "4" letter word game, but that is only after I complete the other one.

A Labor of Triangles and Love

   Hey guys, James here. Just thought I would share with you guys the process I have been going through to finalize Tic Tac Triangle. First, pieces were cut with a chop saw. Then, I attacked the edges with sand paper all (48pieces * 6 edges each) 288 of them. Then I stained, many many times, exaustingly, each piece, with extra coats needed for the black pieces. Luckily, while doing all this I was idleing in Team Fortress 2, and found a hat! (good) Here are some pictures, which poorly try to evoke the sheer quantity of labor that went into these beautifull little triangles:
 Notice how dark it is in that photo? IT TOOK ALL DAY! I will dream of triangles tonight.

Don't Panic

I have the workings of a game in mind called "Don't Panic" and it seems to work in my head, but will need to get some play testing in to make sure it works. Update: Changed the name to "Don't Panic".

The 4 Letter Word

     This week we had to redevelop "Tic Tac Toe" for the class.Mulled over three ideas, the "Cat Game", the "4 Letter Word", and the "Cards Down". In the end I decided on "4 Letter" one, but I will go over all three ideas because I still may develop the other ones.

1. The Cat Game
The idea is based of how every TTT game ends the same way with the cat winning, this game would use a 3rd NPC player the "cat" that would mimic the players move and create a possible "lose" state for the player. If the player's reflected move resulted in a 3 in a row for the cat then the other player would get a Cat Win. You could also use the reflected move to block the other player.

2. Cards Down
This idea is based off off a board like game using a play off a center piece. All the pieces are cards and in the start each player is dealt 7 and then one is drawn and placed in the center of the 5x5 board. The players have to build off the center piece to try and get the biggest had...2-pair, 3 of a kind, 21, full house, flush...etc

3.The Four Letter Word
Basically this is the game I went with. The skinny is take turns placing letter on the board until one person spells a 3-4 letter word.  If the player spells a 3 letter word then the next player has a shot to turn it in to a 4 letter word. Players have to alternate between vowel and consonant, and they cannot use a letter more than once. The letter Y can be used as either vowl or consonant.

There you have it, hopefully I will have some test runs done to see if the other two may be worth trying out.

TTT

Although I won't be able to provide concrete examples of this version of TTT the gameplay remains a grid format between two players placing X's and O's. The goal has been changed from capturing open territory to capturing zones of interest that players pick (in secret) before the game starts.

This sounds confusing, but basically the game is trying to figure out how to conceal the spots you want from your opponent while at the same time trying to decipher the spots they want themselves. The play becomes somewhat of a very simplified mind-game, while still being rather up to luck and chance for tension.

I look forward to explaining the rules and seeing what feedback it receives.

- Cam

Been working on a prototype for monday...

      My TicTacToe variant is in the works, and ive decided to go with a triangle theme. The game is played by placeing triangular tiles every turn on a "free forming" board, off of a starting piece. the win condition is to make a triangle that either includes or contains the starting piece, before your opponent does the same. The full rules (with all the small tweaks to ease bumpyness) should be playable (and fun, I hope) for mondays class. Here are some of the pictures from the early stages of the game, which I have preliminaraly named, TicTacTriangle.
                                                                                                                                       Best of Luck,
                                                                                                                                             James Hutt

Games: Fun & Interest

After last monday's lecture we now have shared collective of ideas on what makes games fun and interesting (or not fun and interesting). This is taking into consideration the successes of games that implement the aforementioned ideas and noticing trends between them.

With the four games we examined together the element of "player-made content" is a huge cornerstone that allows Apples To Apples, Cards Against Humanity, LittleBigPlanet2, and Once Upon A Time to function effectively. We cannot deny that user-input systems in games have become a trend more than ever in modern gaming and that user-input to change the game elements draws attention. You'll even find on the back of some boxes phrases such as "Over 100 new player skins!" or "Customize your weapons and equipment to fit your combat style!"  This same element can span between the character you make in an RPG to what kind of metal piece you want representing your token in Monopoly.

Psychology mentions that one of the best ways to get people to do something is to make it seem like the idea belongs to them. Once the idea is inherently believed to be their own it's rather more fulfilling and exciting for them to pursue such a goal knowing they have great part in how it's done and that their ideas are being  recognized - this is sort of playing with the feel-goods of human behavior. 

I do not play this game, but I'll end with this video articulating this idea from the designers themselves:

- Cam

Talking about the games we played the first day? Well there wasn't a whole lot of gaming, but between "Once Upon a Time" card game and "Little Big Planet 2" on the PlayStation 3. That was a completely different range of gaming. Although I had always been a fan of playing video games, it was a quite different change to play card games for once.

I wrote reviews for the four games that we got to play by the second week of class. Although my all time favorite, must absolutely have to be the deeply anticipated Guild Wars 2.

Mah Blog Posting


     As a fan of games that allow for player freedom to explore an created universe in unique ways or to achieve goals in a variety of choices I was hoping for something nice from the game Starhawk. It is from some of the crew that made Warhawk several years back. The game focused on single player only but consisted of large maps with several well balanced vehicles. While Warhawk never included the massive airships featured in early build videos that they had later thrown out due to time constraints

they did add the APC and dropships that had existed in earlier builds back in via DLC packs.

     The game suffered from several issues such as lack of support on the servers, failure to address one-sided matches, and a large failure to integrate   the DLC into the game's main base. The support from the developers completely dried out after the third DLC, but all in all it was a great game that supported 4-player split screen allowing you to play the game at social events with several of your friends or family. Not to mention that its servers are still in use 5 years after release.


     Enough about Warhawk this is about Starhawk. Starhawk borrowed many aspects from its predecessor like 3rd person, UI, and vehicles, but it added a build and battle aspect. The idea was that the player creates the map from a blank slate and it is why it earned high praise in early reviews. The problems are that it lacked the 4-player turning it from a direct social game to a virtual social game for many players, it had not actuals servers (player hosted only), lacks most vehicles from Warhawk, lacks buildings or structures of any type (relying on the B&B), and suffered from massive imbalances. The studio loved the sandbox of building and destroying, but failed to realize that once you destroyed on side's "built" the battle was pretty much over. A player that would spawn in would be met with death from the other team that had set up camp in their base. The studio had created a spawn in "drop-pod" option that was very well thought out, it allowed the player to spawn in his/her zone and if a enemy was below them they could kill them...but since it shows a large red circle below it pretty much any person spawn killing players in the zone would get a early warning, back up and then shoot the player once they exited the drop-pod. Most of the game reviews played the game on private servers and lacked the fore site to see any of the imbalance or player hosted server issues resulting in one sided reviews. On the opposite side many fans of the first game felt betrayed by the lack of studio response to major game issues and the fact they ignored and dropped many aspects that made Warhawk very popular. The final result is a game that has dropped in price 20 dollars a month in and sales that have fallen below its predecessor's at the same point of its release life.
     It is hard divorcing the game's successful predecessor from it, like a struggling actor from his/her parent that was successful actor. It seems that Starhawk's producers are suffering from the same issues, pushing away many things that made Warhawk great just because they did not want to be like their parents. I hope they can fix the game issues sometime in the near future before the game dies off, but most of all I was just hoping that they were going to release those massive airships they had designed for the prior game. In truth I could care less about many of these issues, I just want a game with large airships for some fun gameplay...so much so I even spent time making a video for a smaller airship (incase processor power was an issue in a game) to fill that void in my gaming experience.