Video Game Physics

So I've been playing a bit of Angry Birds on the smartphone recently. Very cute little game of course, but the physics engine is really what has me interested right now. I cleared a few levels last night and it got fascinating because so many of the levels are designed around this. I spent a week or two on and off trying to clear an earlier level where you have to knock down a pair of heavy "cages" the pigs are in and I finally discovered through trial and error that hitting them in just the right spot will set up enough vibration to rock the cage and make it tumble down on the pigs.

So it's definitely a question of finesse - brute forcing it doesn't work since the birds I had on that level are too small to break the cages easily otherwise and you don't have enough of them. That level and some of the others really impressed me - there's definitely a lot of thought put into the physics engine (I like how you can see the trajectory of the last bird you fired, too) that really makes the game tricky since you can sometimes rely on dumb luck and other times you just have to arc your shots just right to hit a sweet spot that sets off a chain reaction of things tumbling every which way. Surprising depth for a game you play on the smartphone.

At the same time, I've also been playing a bit of Just Cause 2 on XBox (basically Grand Theft Auto on a jungle island) and one of the entertaining aspects of the game is the movie-style stunt physics for vehicles. This gets amusing when you get chased by the police, lead them up a hill and end up flipping your car over the other side, roll it about 5 times then land upright and can still drive away. Absolutely ridiculous but at the same time, it's cool to see how much thought they put into it - much like Angry Birds, there's definitely a focus on making the physics work in that particular setting.

How To Write An Effective Video Game Review?

Basically, writing a review on anything is subjective because you are appealing to your own ideas, appreciation or impression. While it is given a review writer should base what he writes about something he had first-hand experience with, he should be able to give objective facts and not depend on his own thoughts.

Again, writing a review is subjective but a reviewer should base his subjective perception on the objective facts and confirm or deny them based on his experience.

The best example of this is when you are reviewing a car in which the engineers who designed it say it can reach up to 200 miles per hour. The reviewer should, if allowed to do the test drive, see if it can indeed reach up to that top speed. If so, only then a reviewer could confirm that the car lives up to the expectations.

So, how will you review a video game?

You Should Play - there is no way you can produce a good and honest review of a video game if you haven't played it. Therefore, you should spend some time to play it and discover about the things you heard about the game and compare them to your own gaming experience.

Evaluate the Graphics - for modern video games, the graphical representation is very important because they give life to a game; hence, the name "video" game. Evaluating the graphics would require you to switch to different resolution and screen size and see if the performance is affected by every setting. You should also see if the game provides what the developers promised regarding the video.

Listen and Criticize the Audio - listening is definitely different from criticizing. You should first listen so that you will know how the audio is being recorded and put into the game. If you have heard enough, criticize it and extract some facts from your experience.

Learn the Controls - playing a video game well means you should also learn how to effectively use the controls then be mindful of the sensitivity of every button or keys. Some games are just not so responsive than others. If you need to differentiate the control sensitivity with other games, then do so but don't overdo it.

Learn the Gist of the Story - learning the story of the video game is easier than you thought but evaluating whether it is competitive is difficult. However, you have to be honest about this because most of the gamers base their interest on the storyline of the game. If you're playing a sequel, for example Mass Effect 3, you should research about the storyline of the first two iterations and see if there is continuity.