OVERVIEW
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I write every single episode of Right Brain Rants, focusing on condensing information and content in away that is entertaining to the viewers. I also do the voice-over for each of the episodes and editing all of the audio in Adobe Audition.
I was recently recognized on Maven & Storygami, a start-up backed by Richard Branson, as being an exemplary content creator. I was also recognized by BulbUp, a start-up created by famous entrepreneurs Marc Cohen and Alain Cohen. |
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ANALYSIS WALKTHROUGH
In this video, I do a deep dive into the design aspects of Gears of War 3 and why it's so critically acclaimed. I determined that Gears of War has been hailed as fantastic because of it's deep core gameplay mechanics, assorted weapons, varied enemies, and fresh palate cleansers.
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Gameplay
The gameplay is essentially a cover-based third person shooter. However, to add to that simple foundation, every aspect of the core mechanics has layers to it. For the gunplay, there is the active reload, which changes up the pacing of the second-to-second action. The cover that the player hops into can also be destroyed, making it so that the player can't just camp in a single spot to snipe. |
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Weapons
I broke down the weapons in the game into a graph of damage and range by hitscans and projectiles. It shows that all of the weapons in the game have some sort of different purpose. Every gun acts incredibly differently to the next. This is so that the player has a different experience and can plan their strategy for each situation per the weapons that they choose to pick up. |
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Enemies
For the enemies, these also facilitate the core mechanics. There are three types of enemies: mirrors, flushers, and pinners. Mirrors are very similar to the player. They can take cover, flank, etc. This is so the player has a "mirror" to battle, constantly having to out-wit and out-gun these guys. The flushers are fast moving and force the player to come out of cover. When this happens, the mirrors can take shots at the player as they're trying to find new cover to hide behind. This takes advantage of the cover based shooting. The pinners are enemies with huge amounts of damage, forcing the player to stay in cover to hide from the intense damage. When the pinners are combined with flushers and mirrors, the player can be punished if they don't have a good strategy to take everyone down. The pinners could rain down hell while the flushers force them to get out. The mirrors could flank and try to take shots at the player too. All of these enemies take advantage of the fact that this is a cover-based shooter. |
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Palate Cleansers
Finally, Gears of War 3 has palate cleansers in every aspect. Every part of the game is changed up for more variety from the weapons and enemies. This is to push the player out of their comfort zone to keep the experience interesting. The weapons have a section called the specials, which are very unique and weird to use. However, if the player uses it right, then it can be super effective. The enemies have mini-bosses and bosses that show up, changing the pacing of the gameplay from just dealing with the mirrors, pinners, and flushers. These enemies force you to tackle them with a different strategy. They can even be combined with existing base enemies to make the experience even more refereshing. Finally, there's the setpieces that play with every aspect of the gameplay from traversal (you don't have to walk, you can go into a submarine or a car!), shooting (you can play thrashball!), and characters (you can play as the COLE TRAIN). All of these combined make for a really varied and interesting gameplay experience. |
