One of the gifts I received for Christmas was the latest installment of one of my favorite video game franchises: Koei‘s Dynasty Warriors 6.
I own Dynasty Warriors for the Playstation, Dynasty Warriors 2 of the PS2, and I’ve played 3, 3 Extreme Legends, and 4.
I’ve had a PS3 for a while, but never really picked up any games for it. I just don’t have much time for video games any more, even though they are intensly relaxing and entertaining for me. (I must admit, though, that I fell for the marketing hype and bought The Force Somewhat Restrained By Poor Game Mechanics as soon as it was released.) The demos were always enough to keep me entertained for the 45 minutes or so I had to spend on games in any given week.
So anyway, I was pretty happy when I loaded up Dynasty Warriors 6 last week.
You have to have something kind of special to be able to get people to buy it six times (although, admittedly, the original Dynasty Warriors was not a battlefield game; it was really a one-on-one fighting game with gorgeous–by original Playstation standards–graphics). Still, there’s enough new here to keep me interested, and as always, I feel like I mist defeat the computer and unlock as many additional characters as I can.
One major new addition that I must make mention of (primarily because it caught me by surprise) is the idea that tactics–that is , where you go, the officers you do battle with, and the order in which you accomplish your goals–actually matter this time around. In previous games it was a simple matter to win each engagement: you simply had to beat down as many opponents as possible as fast as possible. Now, while planning isn’t really necessary, you need to at least think about your actions and suit them to the overall strategy the battle is set to accomplish. This throws a bit of enjoyable strategy into what is otherwise a fun-fun button masher.
I do have a suggestion for Koei: You obviously already check the screen resolution of HDMI connections. When the PS3 connected to a widescreen would it be too much to ask for the 2-player screens to be side-by-side instead of above and below? You know, split the screen in half vertically instead of horizontally? That would be sweet.
Next up in video game land? Lego Indiana Jones! And maybe Mass Effect if I borrow my friend’s Xbox 360 before I get around to buying Mirror’s Edge (whose music I hailed a few days ago).
