My Most Anticipated Games of 2015: Part 2

…pation. Welcome back, here are final games I am most looking forward to getting my grubby hands on this year. I promised six more selections in last week’s post, but well, I cannot count, so here are five more. Sorry.

Pillars of Eternity

Pillars of Eternity is a Kickstarted cRPG from Obsidian Entertainment, the studio behind classic such as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, Fallout New Vegas and more recently South Park: The Stick of Truth. PoE is their effort to bring RPGs back to the golden days of Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale and Planescape: Torment. Think of it as a spiritual successor to those game. Between this and Placescape: Tides of Numenera which will mostly likely get push to 2016 (thus not on this list), old school RPGing is back in a big way. Pillars of Eternity will release on March 26, 2015 for PC, Mac and Linux.

Splatoon

So I don’t have a Wii U. That doesn't make me wish I did and crave the games coming out for it. Sure, third party support of the Wii U is nonexistent. But who cares when Nintendo is making games for it? In all honesty, when you look at the three consoles, the Wii U has the clear advantage when it comes to exclusive games. So in comes a new IP with Splatoon, a multiplayers shooter. Wait what? A multiplayer shooter from Nintendo? Kinda. In Slatoon you run around with a paint gun spraying paint all over the place. The team which has covered the flood with the most paint by the end of the round wins. And you can turn into a squid and swim through you own paint, because Nintendo. It looks like pure fun. Splatoon is due in May.

Legend of Zelda 2015

I know, I don’t even have a Wii U, how can I be excited for this game? There are just some games I’m happy exist, even if I never play them. This Legend of Zelda game for the Wii U and is still early enough in development it doesn’t have an official title, but word is it will come out in 2015. Something about Nintendo is just awesome. It’s an intangible thing. For instance, during the first game play video for this game, the developers showed Link on his horse shooting at enemies with a bow. Nothing unusually here. Then they mentioned that no matter how hard you try, you cannot steer the horse into a tree, because a real horse wouldn’t run into a tree. I had to pause for a moment. For all my gaming life, horses handled basically like cars. No gamers ever questioned it, why wouldn’t they go where you want them to? Not only does this make perfect sense, but now that your horse is cruise control for cool, you’re free to shoot your bow without worrying about running into stuff. Brilliant.

Overwatch Beta

Blizzard is making a Team Fortress 2 like FPS. I’m interested. The beta is advertised as coming early 2015 and I have had decent luck getting into Blizzard betas. Maybe they are inviting me in an attempt to reignite my old WoW addiction. Won’t happen Blizzard. Well, probably won’t happen. I mean, unless…



Below

A few years ago a game named Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery Ep was released on the iPad. I even worte about it here. It eventually made it way to Steam as well. What an amazingly atmospheric game. The music was what really did it. So when I heard that Capybara, the makers of S&S were teaming up with Jim Guthrie, the man behind the music of S&S to make Below, I was sold. Below looks to be a top down perspective adventure game with roguelike elements and a very Dark Souls feel as well. The art looks fantastic, but I’m most looking forward to the music. Below is set to release sometime this year for PC and Xbox One.

MechWarrior Online Perspectives Part 1

I have a million things to say about MechWarrior Online (MWO) and this post is only the first of many. MWO is a free to play game (get your boos out now) I have been playing since early closed beta in 2012. It is an arena mech combat simulation in the vein of the old MechWarrior games from the 1990’s. Of course MechWarrior is an offshoot of the old 1980’s Battle Tech table top miniatures game (the MechWarrior games benefit and suffer from this fact). If all of that is confusing to you, think about it like this, you are the pilot of a giant walking tank/robot shooting huge cannons, missiles and lasers at other giant walking tank/robots. Now go clean yourself up so you can finish reading.

I have watched MWO and its community grow and change and argue. It has been an interesting experience because I always felt like more of an observer than I did a participant. I play the game daily and occasionally post on the forms under Hobo Dan. But I rarely play in a group and mostly run the builds I like, not what the dreaded “meta” suggests. My KDR (Kill to Death Ratio) is probably well below the basic standards competitive groups would consider average, but I care not for their tomfoolery. Besides, once upon a time, in a world long forgotten, videogames were meant to be fun, right? I am writing a gaming blog and I must post about the game that, while maybe not my favorite, currently occupies the majority of my play time.

So first I would like to warn you, I have spent real money on this game. Yes, it is free to play. What I have found is that spending money on free to play has made me somewhat defensive of the flaws of the game. I can see then, I can attest to them, but the game is stuck on me in a way I cannot fully understand. Take that into consideration upon judging the opinions that follow.

The shear and utter lack of a new user experience in MWO was lost upon me until this holiday season. In a multiplayer mech shooter, I’ve played a large majority of my games solo. I started playing the game fresh out of the box and have adapted and changed along with it. So when my younger brother got a PC capable of playing MWO for Christmas, I was excited to have a teammate for once. Then he booted it up and I witnessed the awful truth first hand. MechWarrior Online is a monumental dick to new players.

The game has one tutorial that it asks you to play upon logging in. It covers basic movement and shooting, then the game drops you off in the MechLab with not a C-Bill (the in game currency) to your name and says “good luck figuring out 30 years of Battle Tech mech construction rules”. New players who choose the free to play route have only trial mechs as a playable option for between 10 to 15 matches. The player cannot customize trial mechs and only a limited number of trials are available at a time (usually 2 per weight class). Trials aren’t too bad to pilot, and things were much worse for noobs back when the trail mechs were all stock builds. But having this very limited variety is sad. Chances are you’ll drop into a match, see a totally kick ass mech waging a relentless battle against you, only to find you cannot get access to it via trial mechs and it costs 8 million C-Bills just to get the sucky stock chassis, let alone upgrade it.

The game does inject new player’s accounts with extra C-Bills for their first 25 matches, but having any idea what to do with these funds is near impossible. The urge to buy and customize your own mech is strong and without guidance, making a poor decision is easy. I conversed with my brother for an hour over what chassis he should get once he had the cash. At my suggestion, he got a Shadowhawk. A 55 ton medium mech that was cheap enough to have funds left over for customization. Without my guidance, he could have easily purchased a 100 ton Atlas, and been laughed off the battlefield when he ran it stock because he had no left over C-Bills for upgrades.

Players willing to put down some cash are not as hobbled since you can buy the stock mechs for MC (real money) and save your C-Bills for upgrades. But why put down cash if you’re not sure you even like the game? The whole point of free to play is that you can play for free to see if you like the basic gameplay. On top of new and more extensive tutorials for basic gameplay, MWO really needs a MechLab tutorial and Purchasing Guide. I also think a free mech just for signing up would do a lot to help new players out.

I love MechWarrior Online and I want to see it succeed. There is word on the street of a Steam launch in 2015, which would be great for player numbers. But if they don’t fix the new player experience first, I’m afraid it will be a waste.

MechWarrior Online is developed by Piranha Games Inc. (PGI) and is available free to play on their website. If you are interested in jumping into the deep dark waters of mech combat in the year 3051, hit me up, it is smashing good fun once you get your feet wet.

My Most Anticipated Games of 2015: Part 1

Here you shall find six of the twelve games slated to release in 2015 that I am looking forward to the most. They are in no particular order of importance. Have I missed your most anticipated game? Let me know in the comments and maybe I won’t mock you horribly for having terrible taste.

Massive Chalice

Fair warning, I Kickstarted Massive Chalice last year and have already been playing the beta. It is just excellent. Massive Chalice is made by Double Fine, makers of some damn fine games like Costume Quest, Trenched Iron Brigade and Psychonauts. Massive Chalice is a turn based strategy game in the vein of Final Fantasy Tactics on an epic 300 year timeline. You’re heroes won’t just die in battle, they will die of old age, all of them. Your only hope to survive is to play as a quasi-pimp/matchmaker to hook up your best heroes and hope they produce lots of children. Parents pass down genetic and personality traits to their children. In the beta so far, my best bloodline also happens to be a family of horrible drunks who suffer from a hangover debuff at the beginning of each battle. Massive Chalice is slated to release spring 2015, but can be purchased under Early Access on Steam right now. It is available for PC, Mac, Linux and Xbox One upon final release.

Hyper Light Drifter

Here is the second game on this list I Kickstarted last year. Hyper Light Drifter is an action role-playing game that was promised to be a mix of Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Diablo. So count me in. I have actually played the early beta they made available to backers in October. It was a very limited demo of one level of the game and I unfortunately didn't have a tremendous amount of time to play it. What I did play with my limited time was fluid, had great animations and excellent art pixel art. All this has me counting the days to final release. You can expect to be playing this sometime early to mid-spring on PC, Mac, Linux, PS4, PS Vita, Wii U, Xbox One and Ouya of all things.

Darkest Dungeon

I came across this game very recently. Darkest Dungeon is by Red Hook Studios and was successfully Kickstarted in March of 2014. It doesn't have a release date yet, but it’s up on Steam to add to your wish list and is being advertised as “coming soon”. It’s a roguelike dungeon crawler, which doesn't sound at all unique in this day and age, but stay with me. It is also a sidescroller with turn based combat. If you’re still yawning, look at that hand drawn art. That is what the game look like. It looks excellent and has a really great, morbid, moody style. I think I’m going to dig this. When it comes out in February, it will be for PC, Mac, Linux, PS4 and PS Vita.

Code Name: S.T.E.A.M.

Would you like to play a game where Henry Fleming of The Red Badge of Courage, the Lion from Wizard of Oz, Tiger Lilly from Peter Pan and Tom Sawyer team up with Abraham Lincoln to defeat an evil race of aliens invading England? Me too. When Nintendo announces they are making a new game with a brand new IP and gameplay that seems reminiscent of new X-COM, you play it! Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. is coming exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS and I am pretty pumped. It’s not every day that Nintendo releases a new IP. It looks crazy and weird and everything I love about Nintendo. Also, Intelligent Systems, the team behind Fire Emblem, are working on it so you know the strategy elements will be top notch. The game is scheduled for North American release on March 13 and is currently in the May release window for Europe.

Galak-Z: The Dimensional

I’m not usually into this kind of isometric shooter but this one looks fun. I guess that’s all I’ve got. Games are meant to be fun anyways, right? Galak-Z is made by 17-BIT and is scheduled for a 2015 release on PC, PS4 and PS Vita.

No Man’s Sky

This is a pretty popular pick for many anticipated games of 2015 I imagine. Truth is, I really just want to see if the developers at Hello Games can pull off what they are saying this game will do. No Man’s Sky is advertised as a procedural generated open universe, free for players to explore at will. If not familiar, procedural generation simply means the game creates the the game world in this case, using a set of rules the developer puts in place. No artist actually crafts the world or creatures, as is the case in 99% of games. Hello Games claims the system they have put in place can support 18 Quintilian possible planets…. How many zeros is a Quintilian? So it’s a first person adventure game where you pilot space ships, explore planets and we aren't really sure what else. I guess it could suffer from the “Minecraft” problem of no way to win, which some people seem to have a problem with. I do not and have happily sunk hours into a small farm along a cool mountain ridge in Minecraft, so I’ll make due here. We have seen very little other than some impressive, supposedly in game, videos. If it achieves what the developers say it will, it will be an experience unlike any I have ever experienced. Slated for release sometime this year on PS4 and PC.

So that’s all for now, but come by in a few days and I’ll fill you in on the other six games of 2015 I’m most looking forward to. I’m sure you’re filled with antici…

What I’m Watching this Weekend - Smite World Championships

Roll your eyes: eSports.

I may tune in to see some NLF payoff games this weekend, but outside that, I’ll be polishing of my Most Anticipated Games of 2015 post with background noise provided by the 2015 Smite World Championships running all weekend (9-11 January). Eight teams from around the world will face off to claim a share of the $2.6 million prize pool. Yes, $2.6 for playing a game. The team that takes home first will earn $1.3 million. That $2.6 million dollar pool is the theird largest prize pool in eSports history.

Smite, if you don’t know, is a third person MOBA where teams of five do battle in an arena to destroy one another’s base. It is similar to DOTA 2 and League of Legends in genre but the emphasis on action and skill shots is much higher.

See here for more information on the tournament. Game will be streamed live on Twitch.tv all weekend.

Prison Architect - Impressions

I grew up in a place where along all the major highways there were three things, corn fields, cow pastures and prisons. So when I booted Prison Architect up for the first time and saw the bleak, untouched field for which I was to build my glorious monument to incarceration, I knew exactly what was up.

This title has been, still is, and may always be in Early Access on Steam. That’s fine with me, I got my money’s worth. I picked it up over the Steam holiday sale for cheap. Currently on Alpha Version 28, I ended up putting close to 24 hours in over three days. If you’re not familiar, Prison Architect is a play on the Dwarf Fortress style strategy, management, builder genera. If you’re still confused, don’t worry, my knowledge of Draft Fortress is purely academic. Basically, you've been given some money and land to build and run your own prison. A very simple building interface helps you design walls and buildings and a Grant system acts as a quasi-tutorial (there is an actual tutorial, but I am man and need to instruction) giving you more money for designing basic structures like showers, canteens, kitchens and cells. You cannot directly control your workers and guards, but only assign them rudimentary things like build this wall and guard this certain area, though the latter is only available after some research.

So that’s it. The charm honestly comes from the details. On my first run, I had no idea I could stop having prisoners dropped on my front door step like abandoned, homicidal puppies. So every 24 game hours, they kept arriving. I built a holding tank for those without a cell sweet cell, but my funds couldn't keep up. Soon my holding cell was flooded with prisoners. At first they were all wearing orange jumpers. Then, as fights began breaking out, some changed into red jumpers. I had no idea what was up with this. Are they Star Trek fans with a death wish? Are they covered in the blood of their enemies? My god the humanity. This went on for about 6 hours (real world hours). A constant stream of prisoners I had no room for, who’d clog the holding cell, beat the hell out of one another and my guards, die, repeat. I had just finished expanding my morgue when the riots started.

Calm before the storm.

The fighting broke out in the canteen, but quickly spread to the cells and common room. Blood everywhere and my single janitor was woefully behind in his duties; no Christmas bonus for him. Soon my guards and doctors were dead. Then I found the “call in riot police and medics” button. Saved! This move seemed only to embolden the rioters. I put the whole place on lock-down, which apparently kept the riot police from entering the prison. My psychiatrist died here (I was kind of hoping he’d join the inmates and go all Scarecrow, but alas). Once I finally wrestled control (burned all my funds to do so) I went to the wiki page for help. At one point during this recovery, I had 25 prisoners awaiting solitary confinement. They were just waiting for solitary rooms to open up! The wiki helped so much. The red shirts weren't covered in blood, they were maximum security prisoners. Apparently I can control what prisoners come into the prison (min, normal, max) and where they sleep, eat, defecate, play and brutally murder one another. Maybe I should have played the tutorial…

No matter, my second prison runs as smooth as urine down the drain of my toilet-less solitary confinement cells that now rarely see use. I've made an execution room as well. I have no plans to use it, but I want the inmates to know it’s there, so I put it off the canteen, with no door hiding it. This is where the game shines. Mechanically, the inmates are no less happy or threatened by the electric chair sitting right next to the pudding cups, but it makes me feel better having it there. My way of telling my cruel digital jailbirds to keep their shit together! The game accomplished a personality all its own. This despite simplistic, graphics. Don’t misunderstand, the game looks good, but some may be put off by the lack of “hardcore realistic graphicz bro”. On the matter of technical crap, in 24 some odd hours of game play, this Indy dev alpha did not crash once. I cannot say the same of Dragon Age Inquisition.

I made a third prison as well that uses the game mode where money is no object, design at will. Superb.

Prison Architect is developed by Introversion Software and is available on Windows, Mac and Linux directly from the developer’s website or through Steam.

Goodbye Dump the blog, Hello Dump the blog

Here is an awesome picture, marvel at it!

So today I am saying goodbye to Dump the blog and hello to Dump the blog.

What am I on about? In 2014, I turned 30 years old and have effectively abandoned the blog of my mid and late twenties. It was a crass and terrible thing with brief and fleeting moments of glory. I believe it is still a top 10 Google hit for those who search “Hangover Part 2 dic pic”. If you’re still here, bless you. It was a lifestyles and movie blog and for posterity’s sake, it is all still there for you to dig through and read if you wish. But starting now, it will be the new Dump the blog.

So I enjoy playing video games. I enjoy writing when not at work). I’ve decided to make a concerted effort to write more words about the video games I am playing and looking forward to. This document is for you, the reader. I shall announce my intentions, and let you decide if this will be your venue of choice for wasting time.

I primarily play PC games, although I do have a PS3 and a Nintendo 3DS XL. I might even have a PS4 one day, if our PS3 stops being an effective Netflix machine and my wife demands a replacement. I was, in the past, primarily a console gamer, but have seen the glorious PC gaming light (hail Gaben). I primarily play PC games that are not AAA. On occasion I have been known to pick them up, most recently Dragon Age Inquisition, but in generally I’ll grab them on sale years after release. I mostly go for the copious amounts of “Indy” games, as they are referred to these days. I also enjoy one free to play game (MechWarrior Online) where I am admittedly somewhat of a whale (I’ll get into this often, but later). I enjoy most genres, with strategy, RPG and walking simulation being tops of the list.

I will not be reviewing games. This is an impressions, opinion and news blog only. I cannot, and will not filter myself. I will try my hardest to let you know when I have a clear and relentless bias towards something, so you don’t get too butthurt over my words. If anyone ever decides to pay me for my words, I’ll tell you that as well, because ethics.

I can also be found on Twitter @TheRealHoboDan if you wish to follow me. I have been known to take a week long hiatus from Twitter, only to tweet 15 times in 5 minutes at 7 am some random morning, just to piss you off. Fair warning is fair.

Thank you for reading. Please like, comment, follow, retweet or whatever, I can’t keep up.

The Banner Saga: Factions - First Impressions

The Banner Saga: Factions is the online multiplayer component to the upcoming Strategy RPG (SRPG): The Banner Saga. Developed by Stoic, a fairly new indie developer comprised of some former Bioware devs, The Banner Saga was Kickstarted very successfully last year and is now on track to make a full release later this year. The Factions multiplayer portion of the game was released yesterday on Steam and is free to play for PC and Mac.

First thing I did when I got home yesterday was jump on Steam and get this sucker downloading. I have been craving a good Strategy RPG for a while now. It doesn’t help that everyone and their brother seems to be enjoying the crap out of the new Fire Emblem while I sit comatose in the corner lacking a 3DS entirely. But Stoic and The Banner Saga have come to save my poor ass. The single player campaign for The Banner Saga will cost money, and that is what I’m really looking forward to, but this online component is free and will do for now.


I had a very small amount of time to play the game, but what I did play touched me in all the special places. First, the art is stunning. It looks very much like a cartoon about Vikings with horns growing out of their heads, that I can play! How can that be bad? Everything is animated in this way, even the menu screens that usually get no mention in first impressions unless they are super awful. But they are great. The fluidity in which these animations run together is astonishing. I love a good art style in games more than good graphics in games and The Banner Saga delivers big time in this regard.

Factions starts out with a short cinematic and the Tutorial. The tutorial covers all the basics of combat and character customization. It’s pretty standard fare here. You have some units and as they fight, they gain renown for you. You use renown as general currency for things like recruiting new units and powering up your units when they can be promoted. The system has its own quirks, but anyone with a little SRPG background will be right at home as soon as the tutorial is done.

Once you finish the tutorial, you are free to customize your units and engage in battle with other players online either by Match Maker, or set up a private game with a friend. You’ll gain renown from these battles to use to further upgrade your units and recruit more. I played a few random games and found the overall system for matchmaking works reasonable well. It takes very little time to be paired with an opponent and in my limited time, it seemed to match people according to the power of their units. I cannot speak to how things are for more experienced players, but I never felt at a huge disadvantage for being new (The game came out yesterday for us peasants, but the Kickstarter backers have been playing for a week). My only gripe was the servers seemed to be a little unstable with some frequent drops. This is to be expected from day one of any multiplayer game however. It also helped that a dev from Stoic was chatting with people in the games chat channels apologizing for the hiccups.

With every free to play game, there is a store. I didn’t get too into it last night, but the basic fare seems to be cosmetic items and renown boosters. I have heard some people say you can buy straight power as well. I cannot verify these claims but that does invoke the dreaded pay to win mantra. I think the match maker probably sorts those people into the appropriate areas, so it may not be too big a problem.

The Banner Saga: Factions is free people. It has a full tutorial and free online multiplayer. It looks great and plays great. There is no reason for a fan of Strategy RPGs to not take a look. The Banner Saga single player campaign is due out later this year.

Throw a comment down below if you’d like to meet up for a battle or five.

Path of Exile Open Beta

I don't often write about video games on this blog. I'd like to more often. It's a big hobby of mine. From now on when I do write about games, they will mostly be PC games that are cheap or free, because I am both cheap and free. I'm going to start with a game that enters its open beta tomorrow: Path of Exile.

Path of Exile is a free to play Action RPG (ARPG) developed by the New Zealand based Grinding Gear Games. If you're not familiar with an ARPG, think Diablo/Touchlight like isometric view, loot grinder. If you still don't know what I'm talking about, basically you run around, killing monsters to loot their smelly corpses of delicious treasure. Treasure which in turn aides you in the slaughter of more odorous monsters.

I can't write about Path of Exile without at least acknowledging the 800 pound demon in the room that is Diablo III. In fairness, I'll only hover here briefly because Path of Exile is very much its own game. Diablo III and Path of Exile are polar opposites of one another. Blizzard (DIII's developer) took total control of your character, giving very little room for unique meaningful customization. Path of Exile on the other hand basically says "Here are a bunch of options, see what you come up with!" It is very possible to cripple a character in Path by making the wrong choices, which I believe is what Blizzard was trying to prevent in Diablo III. But it is also possible to make a character that plays just how you want it too. It is extraordinary the amount of options given. Below is a screen shot of the Passive Skill Tree in Path of Exile; try not to soil yourself.

Don't look directly into it!

Saying you can cripple a character in Path of Exile is selling the game a little short. Respecing is possible to a degree. There is no option to fully wipe the Passive Skill Tree (the only time this would happen is if the Devs amend the tree). You can however, earn respec points that allow you to respec one skill per point. In this fashion, you can make subtle changes to your character over time. You keep the feel of the same character that a full wipe just doesn't give. In this way, your digital caterpillar morphs into a unique murderous, fire breathing butterfly right before your eyes. This also encourages multiple characters as part of their free to pay system (more on that below).

The amount of options available is mind blowing. The above mentioned Passive Skill Tree is just one part of it. Most armor has slots where Skill Gems can be placed. Skill Gems are the meat and potatoes of the combat system in Path of Exile. Character classes have no innate abilities beyond swinging the weapon they happen to pick up. What separates them are the stat(s) they are more proficient in and their stating location within the Passive Skill Tree. All active abilities (Fire balls, freezing strikes, and other basic fantasy fair) come as these Skill Gems that you can slot into your armor. They then become usable via your hot bar. These Skills can be further modified by Support Gems to crazy levels of awesome. I won’t get too into it here, but what if you could turn one fire ball into a three fire ball attack where each ball splits into two more fire balls on enemy contact? Fantastic? Yeah, I think so too.

Beta is still beta however; so expect changes. As with any PC game these days, beta can mean many different things, but Grinding Gear Games has expressed that this beta is a real beta and major changes can be expected. I’d like to see the basic attack animations get some work myself. In a game about attacking, some variation in the way my small pixel character swings his/her tiny axe can make all the difference after eight hours. I also had some trouble clicking on smaller enemy monsters; nothing game breaking by any stretch of the imagination.

Path of Exile is free to play and as of right now they mean to only sell cosmetic items. I had to calm my wife down just now; explaining to her cosmetic does not mean blush and eye shadow. Pets, character slots, stash tabs and adding a glow to your weapons and armor is what they have mentioned they will sell so far. No Pay to Win in that list at all. And while I commend the attempt to sell only cosmetic, I hope they can make it on those sales alone. I guess it is up to us, the gamer, to show how much we appreciate that model by supporting it.

Path of Exile is free to play starting tomorrow (January 23)! You can create an account and pre-download it here. Come join me in the furious clicking on monsters until their necessary demise.

Been playing Path of Exile? What do you think? Have a game in mind I should take a look at? Drop all these and what ever else your deranged mind has on it in the comments.

Games As Art and Stuff

It’s been a long time since a video game gave me chills. But then again games are not art right? How could they have possibly spark some emotional reaction? I mean how could a game be art in the first place? It’s not like you have to have any special skill set to make them. All you do to make a game is sit down and endlessly code numbers until your eyes bleed. Well, accept for the people who write the story and the music. Oh, and the people who design the graphic art and sound effects. Plus you have the people who put all those elements together into something coherent. Other than that there is no room for artists in the gaming world. Right?

I hope you sensed my sarcasm there. I hate pointing it out, but I really want to hammer home a point here. Games can be art. Just because they don’t fit into the preconceived notions of art doesn’t mean anything. I seem to remember reading about a time when movies were looking down upon in a similar fashion. I don’t think anyone now days would argue against film being a forum of art. Video games are still a very new medium. They are still evolving and finding audiences. We are still defining what games really are in the first place and how to play them. If you want example look now further than the indie game movement. Some of you will roll your eyes when I mention Minecraft. I know I talk about it way too much; it’s getting to an unhealthy level, but it proves my point. Minecraft has taken an incredibly simple idea and made it a huge success. The idea? Let the player do what ever they want. Want to build a castle? Okay. How about a space ship, or a dark tower or the Coliseum or the cathedral of Notre Dame or a giant penis or the world? Sure. That simple idea has stolen away many hours of my life, but I don’t see them wasted because what is art if not the expansion of one mind. I would not be surprised in twenty years if a whole generation of architects is asked what got them interested in the field and they answer: Minecraft.

But back to my original point; it has been a long time since a game gave me chills, until last week. I downloaded a little iPad game called Sword & Sworcery EP. It’s more of a point and go adventure than what we think of as a traditional game these days. I hate to use the word “casual” because it tends to turn off people who consider themselves “hardcore” but the game is very suited to all players. You don’t have to memorize button combinations, nor have pin point head shot accuracy to complete and enjoy this one. The game play is simple and enjoyable. The graphic art is pixilated perfection and helps some truly epic environments come to life. The writing is funny and entertaining. The music is some of the best game music I’ve ever heard. There are a few down sides, however. There is a small combat mode that feels awkward, but you barely use it, so that’s a minor problem. The major problem is it’s an iPad only game. This fact will limit availability greatly. Even though iPad is the best format for this game, I think to grow an audience the developer should consider other platforms. But, if you have an iPad (and I know some of you do) get Sword & Sworcery EP, plug in your head phones and enjoy the hell out of an artfully executed experience.

Apple Gaming?

Anyone who reads a lot about video games probably knows who Matt Casamassina is. For those of you who don't he has been the face of Nintendo reporting over at IGN since, well they started up. Later he started reporting on Apple and iPhone/iPod Touch games as well. Today I read via his blog that he is leaving IGN to work for Apple as global editorial games manager, App Store. As he puts it he will be; "Leading the charge for games on the App Store, so whether you browse through iTunes, iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, the games content you see will be handpicked and organized by me and my team."

If you own any of those devices you should be very excited. Matt knows what he is talking about when it comes to games and more importantly what makes games fun to play. Apple has always lagged behind in gaming and this is a very positive step toward them competing in the games market. Apple recently released info on it iPhone OS 4.0 and one major addition to it is the Game Center. It will be a very Xbox Live like service that will act as a social network, matchmaker for online gaming and will offer achievements. We don't know much more about it right now.

What does this mean for mobile gaming? A major company like Apple getting into a new market is always a big deal. You have always been able to play games on Apple computers and the iDevices, but this new Game Center is the first real maneuver directly into the territory of the Nintendo's and Sony's of the hand-held gaming world. Sony is already struggling with its PSP, while Nintendo is the current giant of the landscape. Nintendo has stated that they are not concerned with any competition the iPhone may present. I think Nintendo should get concerned. As a consumer looking for the most for my money, a device like the iPhone or even just the iPod Touch does so much more than just play games. Nintendo is currently working on its successor to the DS. For Nintendo's sake I hope it's more than a sleeker DS with 3D capabilities.

Too bad I don't own any of these devices; my birthday is November 28 if any of you were wondering :)

Untitled Entry

My scattered brain has left me with several different topics of discussion for you this evening which you may or may not care about...

Iron Man 2 is coming out soon. I'm somewhat excited. I know it will be awesome. I also know it will feature Nick Fury with more than just a quick after credits nod. I know that after this movie they are going to put real work into The Avengers. I really am not a fan of these combined universes in comic books. I think I will hate the Justice League much more than The Avengers, but that's probably just because I don't like Superman. I feel like putting all these characters together will somehow cheapen them and the films will be devoid of deeper meaning; replacing that meaning will be mindless action (not that some of them weren't already mindless action). As I age, I am becoming more and more tired of the mindless action. Is it just me? Does anyone else feel these characters should just stay in their own little universes and be happy? Marvel and DC don't.

I spent most of yesterday playing Too Human on ye'olde xbox. That's right, I love that game despite what most media hooked gamers may think. It's the kind of game you have to give some time to, to get to know it, like me; maybe that's why I love it. I hadn't played it in awhile so I enjoyed getting back to the hacking and shooting and looting. It is a real shame this game was never given a chance by gamers because of some bad press. I can name several games that have sold better which I consider inferior to Too Human. It hurts my heart to think that all that crap will probably mean I will not get to play a sequel. It's not just the great action and looting I will miss. The game's story used Norse Mythology as its back drop. Greek and Roman myths are fine, but Norse myths are my favorites for several reasons, first of which being the Gods can die and know they will die. If you don't know much about Norse Mythology, I highly suggest it. Not to mention a major movie from Marvel Comics will be coming out next year called Thor; I'm sure after it hits there will suddenly be tons of Norse Mythology know-it-alls about. Well Thor is awesome and so is Too Human; if you didn't like Too Human you didn't play it long enough or you just don't like a quality loot grinder in the tradition of the Diablo franchise.

A long Week

It was a long week, here's a video...

Here's another and it's really awesome!

Swords and Soldiers

So let this blow your mind. Swords and Soldiers is a 2d side-scrolling real time strategy game; whew! There aren't too many entries in the 2d Side-scrolling RTS world, okay this is the only game I can think of. The game is developed by the Dutch game maker Ronimo Games. It was released in Europe in May and finally came to the US on Monday. The game is exclusively for download via WiiWare.

So how do you play a 2d RTS? Well just like a normal RTS you mine resources, create armies and march them toward your foe. This game is a very simplified version of that mechanic. When you create a gold miner, it goes and mines gold, you don't have to micro manage it. When you create a soldier it marches toward the other side and tries to kill anything in its way. If you're looking for the complexity of Star Craft, this is not your RTS. That said, if you love RTS's you have to try this game, and for 10$ how can you not? If you haven't played an RTS before, this is a great way to try out the genre and see what it's all about.

The art style in the game is cartoony and hilarious; not to mention beautiful. The main camping has a story, but it doesn't really matter. I will say the text between the characters is worth reading for it's odd innuendoes about meat, among other things. The sound is solid and really brings the audio visual package together. Add in a Challenge mode after you finish the campaign and a simple yet fun split screen multiplayer mode and you have a very deep, lasting game for only 10$ and what ever the extra cost of batteries is, because the Wiimote eats them like crazy.

E3

Despite rumors of its demise, E3 lives. I'm leaving tomorrow for some camping, but I thought I'd share some feelings on E3 so far, good and bad.

The Good

Red Steel 2, yeah can you believe it? I got Red Steel when Wii first came out, and I must of had three or 4 epileptic seizures before I gave up and sold it back to Game Stop for Zelda. I cannot believe this is even the same game. They have taken everything learned about Wii First person shooter in the last few years and applied it. Add the Wii MotionPlus sword fighting and call me pleasantly surprised. Oh, by the way it's graphics look great too!

The Bad

If you know me, then you will be shocked by this. I am putting Metroid: Other M in the bad, here's why. When news broke about it, I was at work watching updates on my cell phone. I about piss my pants when they said new Metroid. Then I got home and saw this trailer:

Don't get me wrong, this trailer looks great. But I have one question; where is the Metroid in this Metroid game? Team Ninja is great for action games and general badassery, but have they tossed out everything that makes Metroid, Metroid? I want to wander endlessly thru halls and caverns, find powerups for hours and explore awesome vistas. Not that I don't enjoy killing stuff too.

The Ugly

So, if you notice, I've only really talked about Nintendo so far. Well first off I'm  huge (but waning) Nintendo fanboy. So that's one reason. But really to talk about the other consoles is easy. Microsoft = Halo games. Sony = God of War III and Metal Gear.  Not that these aren't great games, but can get get anything actually new from these people. Yes I am aware Nintendo hasn't had any new IP's in years, but they did bring Wii so I've given them a pass for a few years, well, they have one year left and then I'll be calling them on it too.

The Fantastic

Perfect Dark on Xbox Live!

Turtles in Time remake for Xbox Live (not really E3 but close enough)

The Grinder

Okay, I'm going camping. 

Game Night

My wife and I rented Guitar Hero: Metallica tonight for our 360. Generally when we rent GH games I just sit back and enjoy the music while she plays. I prefer it this way because I really suck at the game and its more fun to watch and just listen to the music. I have to say I'm pretty lucky to have a wife that rocks out to Metallica. It's even cooler when Enter Sandman opens up and she freaks out, plays it and sings along. The game has a great play list, probably my favorite track list of any GH game. We probably got through most of the game before she got tired and we switched to the movie we also rented.

Unfortunately we rented Paul Blart: Mall Cop. How far Kevin James has fallen. This movie is so disjointed and absurd I can't even find a redeeming quality in it, and I can always find something about a movie I like. To quote my wife "This movie's stupid; not funny stupid, just stupid." I agree dear, I agree. Now I see why it came to DVD so soon.

Anyways, as we all get into the long weekend, I do think everyone should remember it is Memorial Day weekend. Whether you visit the grave of a relative who served or simply watch a great war movie, Saving Private Ryan for me, do something to remember those who have served. They made it possible for us to play great games  and watch terrible movies if we choose.