ChickenBrick Studios Forum

[DangerMan]

Here is my opinion of the new game so far. I won't get into the enhancements, I'll focus on game play.

BLACK HOLE: Most control of skills involved of all games still. Nice to play 3 player, cool addition. Ball speed - not the same as Cestos which will take getting used to. Not so hot if you intend to keep Cestos around as players have adapted our perception of ball speed and physics bounces to the realty of Cestos. Understanding and playing both games can be a PIA to put it mildly. For instance having balls just stop in Cestos TWO where as in Cestos they slow down in a more expected natural manner is something I currently prefer. Nuances of bomb play are somewhat the same, but new physics again mean relearning tactics.

MINEFIELD: OK, skill involved. Interplay of multi-player limits skill and tactics but solid game play. Much of the differences above apply here.

STAR COLLECTOR: Seriously? This game should be punted. There is NO skill involved what-so-ever. Players start next to a gold star, they collect it because they are closer than another player. Then after your move a gold star may randomly pop-up next to ANY player giving them points they did not earn but were essentially awarded not out of skill but good fortune. I tried to understand a strategy to this but even if you decide your move should place you towards the middle of the board to have the maximum of choices, stars may still pop-up to the opposing side of an opponent in a corner. There is no logic to this game at all in my opinion.

PINBALL: Random. Another idea that needs to be abandoned. Ball placement at start is lame. Depending on your location (random) you can win or lose.

TARGET PRACTICE: Perhaps the most skill involved for in the random location games. Still, when you have bumpers around you and far from other players, how does this translate into a skilled win? I applaud the developers for trying to come up with new game times, but here again is one that offers players little in the area of skill.

My last point is the randomizer. When we can't pick our games, that sucks. Especially for players like myself that do rationalize that if I can't play a game based on skill, I want to play the ones that are based on skill. I've played BH for a long time because in it I'm able to have complete CONTROL over my game. If I lose, I have no excuses. Sure I can rationalize being tired, not wearing my glasses, being rushed etc... but the reality is BH is all about skill. Less can be said of other maps but in Cestos ONE skill is the theme in all the games.

In one night of playing Cestos TWO, I found myself thinking I'd rather play the original game instead when it comes to skill. That is despite the many cool additional things you added to the game concept. From upgrades to resetting and personalizing your avatar. Oh... and multi-player is great. But in playing it, I found it became boring quickly because of the RANDOM factor.

[XD XD XD]

I gotta believe that there's A LOT more the ChickenBrick guys intend to do to Cestos 2 before they call it good. It's so wayyy different, and I'm sure they don't mean to completely alienate the existing player base they have that enjoy strategic play.

Blackhole is weird, again I can only conclude that a lot of work is left to be done there. Physics are way off. Try staying on the sides of the board, it's really easy to do. It's so easy that the marbles tend to kinda latch on there, you can even aim towards the wall a little and still not come off.

The randomness and luck involved is pretty significant with those new games, not a big fan. I like the pinball idea but the random placing of the bumpers kinda ruins it I'd say. I feel like stationary bumpers in the same patterns that give each player a fair shake would work out better. Same thing with the targets.

Quit functionality is an important feature to me. One crappy thing about this fancy new smartphone is that I can have a lot of applications left running in the background that certainly seem to drain my battery super quick. I'd rather not have to "kill" Cestos 2 with a task killer app every time I'm done playing...I'd prefer for the game to cease on it's own.

It's certainly is much brighter and more colorful...maybe too much so. It kinda feels like a carnival with all the bright happy colors and randomness.

[-TEC_blackbird]

I agree with DangerMan. Not to be rude or anything, I know you guys have devoted much of your time to make this game and i can't thank you enough for that but the maps and design of the game have to be improved. Like DangerMan, i also thought of the game as being all luck based. I think I am speaking for everyone when I say that the maps are not very good. Please add the same maps that are on the original cestos on cestos 2 and make some of them 3 and 4 player. The customizations are great but the futuristic design of cestos 1 far surpasses that of cestos 2. While i was playing, i noticed that you guys incorporated the iphone cestos design. I could see it in the title, when you make the arrow, and the background design. Although these designs look "pretty" they are not of much use. For example, the arrow you make to determine your direction and velocity are too small and hard to aim with. I am glad that you let us use dpad/trackball to adjust the arrow but it still doesn't help. I know you guys are volunteering your time to make this game but please do make it a little better. I hope you will take into account my suggestions but i am not going to freak out if you keep it this way. I will just play the original one because i am not bored of that one yet. I hope cestos 2 full will be better because it would be a shame to let that game "rot in the corner".

[MustBeTheGanja]

and i'm forced to suffer on an andriod 1.5 device.. and it only supports 1.6+

[AlexizBOMB]

Play PROJECT INF.

[XD XD XD]

The more I play the target practice, pinball, and star collector boards, the more the randomly generating objectives really stand out as a negative to me. These games play more like a slot machine than a game involving any strategy.

I like the ideas, but the random nature of it all takes away from the experience significantly, for me anyways.

[TEC_iRobot_AC]

i agree with all of u. bh and minefield are fine,but star collecter pinball, and target practice are all luck based on the position u are in. i like the idea but it needs improvements. i will switch of every now and then but i think im going to stay more with cestos 1

[res]

I think Minefield got slaughtered. They stripped it of its strategy. The mines are freaking huge. Being able to stay in place one move created a surprising amount of extra depth. Now it just feels like an endurance race of who can avoid the mines the longest. I hope Cestos 1 does not go anywhere. I think Blackhole fared much better.

[Cynick]

From my post in another thread (the sticky one):

So, what does everyone think of the beta?
I got my invite today morning and have tried it out throughout the day, and I'm really disappointed.

the entire gameplay feel has changed, the new maps (cant even call them maps really)/game modes look like they have been designed for teenage girls...and wtf is up with crap like star collector and bullseye??? The new avatar customizations are cool, and so is the ability to have 3-player and 4-player matches, but damnit, the rest just sucks!

Original cestos maps + the new avatar customizations + 3-4 player matches, that is all what was needed.

I just have 1 main question remaining:
Is the original Cestos still going to be available for playing once this Cestos2 is officially out? If not, it looks like goodbye to CBS from me.

I guess most of the seasoned players are going to be pretty peeved off about the dumbing-down of the game, and rightly so. On the other hand, something which I missed out in my first rant: disappointment apart, I am still grateful to CBS and all people involved with this game for creating such an addictive way to kill time. Please please please dont change the good parts of the game

[Pilot_51]

All I really wanted in Cestos 1 was the ability to choose the number of players and to use my account on multiple phones. Those are probably the only two things that Cestos 2 clearly did better than C1. I was expecting C2 would pretty much be C1 but with the mentioned features, updated graphics, and some additional maps; I didn't see any reason to start from scratch as C2 appears to be.

I agree with the other posts about a huge lack of skill compared to C1 and screwed up physics. I've been playing it a bit, but in the current condition of C2 I think I'd much prefer to stick with C1, I just wish I didn't lose my C1 account when switching between 1.6 and 2.2 roms on my G1.

What really made my head asplode was the extremely early release with all these problems. 28-hours between opening of beta and main release is unheard of for titles as popular as Cestos, it's like they planned to release regardless of the reported problems. In the few hours I had to test the beta before release, I reported a crash (with stacktrace) and a cheat or two. I haven't seen the crash since, probably because I haven't been doing what I was doing when I crashed it, but at least one of the cheats are still running rampant.

I have a lot of respect for CBS and what they've given the Android community, but in regards to the C2 beta and release much of what I've seen has been bad decisions.