First Impressions: Settlers of Cataan

Last night I had my first real session of Settlers of Cattan.  Stayed up until 1 am playing it.  Haven't done that in ages.  Best game since Munchkin.  Similar strategy, actually - as the game progresses you build toward getting 10 levels.  And alliances are broken and reformed, everyone trying to prevent the inevitable winner from winning.  But sometimes like 3 people look like the impending winner.

But the game isn't quite as aggressive as Munchkin.  Less events occur over the course of one turn.  A lot of the game is spent waiting, and hoping and building up resources.  Stupidly fun, I highly recommend it.  Expensive though.  Expect to pay $45 for a set.  If you'd like to test drive this game, just come over to my place with at least one other friend and an evening to spend, and we can play a couple of times.

I'd like to get into the details of how the game is played, but I think it would be easier for all parties if I just let Will Wheaton do it.  Tabletop is the best source for board game reviews that I've seen.  

I will say that the setup phase of the game, which comes at the very beginning, is essential to the overall strategy.  Most people will lament the poor decisions they make during the setup, which will further drive their desire to play another game, and get a chance to have a better setup.  It's a lot of fun; I want to play, just writing about it.  -D

One Thing Leading To Another

I had an interesting experience the last two of the three nights and no, it doesn't end like that, whatever that is.  On Friday night, because I sooo extroverted, I started playing Dead Space, a game that I've wanted to play for quite some time, only recently purchased and having finished Penumbra: Overture, I wanted another horroresque game to start up, which is what I did.  I've only played the first 35 minutes, which means that shit just went downhill and Isaac is separated from his superiors.  So only 35 minutes into the game (really only 30 minutes as I spent about five tweaking the the video and control settings: always have to invert the y-axis!!) I began thinking about Doom 3, Alien and Event Horizon.  

This thought wandering had nothing to do with the quality of the game and I wasn't losing interest, I was having a lot of fun, at least as much fun as one can have defending oneself with a space-nailgun against horrific looking creatures then stomping their limbs off.  I was thinking about other space horrors where I had experienced "fun" because I was having fun stomping the limbs off of (hopefully) dead creatures.  I also quickly thought that if I was ever offered a job on a interstellar mining vessel, I would turn that job down in a heartbeat!  Okay, I probably wouldn't.  It's space after all.  But yes, Event Horizon won out in the thinking process, so I turned off Dead Space and watched what I still feel is one of the best science fiction, space, horror movies around.  Yes, I know that Paul Anderson directed it, but I don't care.  It's an awesome movie that still gives me chills.  And it has Sam Fucking Neil in it.

The next night I decided to watch Mad Max: Beyond the Thunderdome because I'd never seen it (!?!?! I know right, considering my penchant for post-apocalyptic anything) and I wanted to get the disc back to Netflix, which I obviously have yet to do.  So within the first 20 minutes of Thunderdome, I began to feel that I wanted to play Fallout.  One of the characters even says "What's a little fallout, huh?"  The rest of the movie I was comparing what was going on in Thunderdome to the design and feel of the first Fallout game, which is the only one in that series that I've so far played.  I did not however start playing Fallout again after finishing the movie as it was around 3:30am.  

Instead I ended up putting on Skyrim as a conversation I'd had with Conklederp earlier provoked me to create a new character.  The character is a Khajiit, the feline (furry inspired??) race.  And yes, I created this Khajiit to be somewhat, visually based off of our cat, whose name in life as in game, is Joey Mjölnir Explosion.  So now, on this, the eve of Chirstmas, I present to you, the Internet, Joey Mjölnir Explosion in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Not Really a Crazy Cat Man

P.S.  Merry Christmas!

First Impressions: Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP

Another Humble Bundle game!  The Humble Bundles are the best thing ever.  By the way, there's one going on right now.  11 more days. Upon reviewing my files, I recently discovered that I've bought five Humble Bundles.  Which probably accounts for about 35 of the 50 or so games in my steam account.  I'll probably never play them all, but I'm glad I gave Sword and Sorcery EP a look.  So far, at 2 hours in, I am having a great time.

The game is beautiful in a neat 'retro' way that captures my heart.  I can't explain it, but the graphics and design really mesmerize me.  The visuals are great, the sounds and the animation are also great.  Everything seems to fit in the world, and no element clashes to pull me out of my absorption in the game.  I've enjoyed the sound so much that I decided to download the soundtrack (another perk of the humble bundles).

The story follows a character known as the Scythian.  She is wandering around looking for something called the Trigon, which appears to simply be a triangle.  Except using the 'gon' suffix like a pentagon or septagon.  She encounters some people along the way to help her and some others who are trying to hinder her.  And the whole time the graphics and sound are just great.  

The controls took a little getting used to.  My only real problem was that I didn't realize that I could double-click to direct  the Scythian to walk or interact with items.  I thougth I had to hold the button down, which does work, but it also is the same action that I use to look around the screen.  Mixing the two of these up was frustrating, but since I figured it out, the controls have given me no trouble at all. 

The name is kind of stupid, and so far the writing is pretty stupid as well.   For example, the lumberjack that the Scythian meets early on is named "logfella."  And then the dog she encounters is named "dogfella."  The thing about the dialogue is that it seems to be speaking directly to the player, and not to the Scythian.  The other characters in the story will speak of the Scythian and not to her, and the Scythian herself uses the royal 'we' whenever expressing herself verbally.  After playing the game for a couple of hours, the dialogue has started to become charming, instead of annoying.  I think this comes from the consistency of the silliness.  The game seems to break the fourth wall as a rule, instead of an exception, and this somehow works.  

There are some themes that I don't really understand.  One is the 'EP' theme.  I am guessing that the inclusion of EP in the title is to indicate that the game won't be very long (I have been playing 2 hours and have 47% completion) and that maybe it indicates that the soundtrack won't be very long, as an vinyl record EP runs a standard of about 25 minutes.  The menu screen for the game prominently features an image of an EP vinyl record.  The record reacts to the players menu choices.  Another theme is the triangle, or 'trigon' theme.  Triangles feature in all of the menus, and also as the main source of conflict for the Scythian.    

I want to throw in that the lead character, the Scythian,  appears to be female, based on the sound of her grunts as she swings her sword. However, she is not portrayed as 'super-feminine' - a nice departure from so many of our video game heroines.

The game is available for eight bucks on steam, but I got it for much less, given it was a Humble Bundle.  I probably dropped $20 bucks on Humble Bundle V, and still the games were about $3 apiece.  hells yeah.

-D

I want to also make a quick mention that there was a reference to Al Jaffee in this game.  Yes, that Al Jaffee.  I think that was the precise moment that the silly dialogue began to win me over.  

Also, I want to mention again that the Humble Bundle 7 is out right now and has 11 days to go.  Pay what you want, can't beat that price!

Trilby's Notes

This image is fan-art, but I think it gets the point across

Trilby's Notes is the third volume in the game series: the Chzo Mythos by Yahtzee Croshaw.  These games are indie in the truest sense of the term, in that they were all put together by teams of one or even two people. As a result, the production can be somewhat lackluster if a player is accustomed to playing much larger productions.  I have been trying to keep an open mind and subdue my biases when playing these games, and I've had a good time with the Chzo Mythos.  I think they are worth the time investment.  This review may be best read in context of the other two games:  Five Days a Stranger and Six Days a Sacrifice.

Trilby's Notes featured a significant increase in production value than the previous games, and was more generously gory throughout.  This resulted in a much higher 'creepy' factor.   However, unlike the first two games, Trilby's Notes was not a point-and-click adventure.  Rather, movement was controlled with the keyboard, and actions were input using the keyboard, such as "touch painting" or "talk to man about book" or  "wipe butt with lampshade".  

I think that this mode of gameplay has it's merits- it is certainly interesting coming up with commands on my own. And I appreciate the willingness to try something new.  When it comes to solving mysteries, I found it more frustrating to come up with the proper typed phrasings,  on top of my guesses.  I couldn't tell if my solution was wrong or the syntax was wrong. Alternatively, in a point and click adventure, I can just click on everything I come across.   Perhaps I am tiring of the series in general, as this one took the longest, and I used a walkthrough most extensively.

That said, the writing is still pretty darn good, even if I didn't care for the gameplay.  Yahztee seems to have a good grasp for dialogue, and also creepy mythological nonsense.  In addition, the cinematic elements in this game are stronger, with interactive flashbacks and cutscenes used to good effect.  The overall concept for the Chzo Mythos comes together in this game, as the story is expanded beyond the limited plots of the first two.  

All in all, I think this game is more potent than the others, in terms of my player-response throughout.  But it wasn't as much fun to play.  Still, I notice that there is a fundamental difference in playing a game and having a story unfold, as opposed to simply reading a book or watching a movie.  

Only one game remaining in the series:  Six Days a Sacrifice.  I'm happy to report that Six Days returns to point-and-click form.  I'll certainly be playing that one and reviewing it here.  


-D

Currently Playing:
Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP
Sim City IV

Full Review: Penumbra: Overture (PC)

I just finished Penumbra: Overture and I really want to tell you the last scene/event and post a picture of it, but that would be giving away part of the story and I don't want to be that guy.  I will say that some may find the ending a little anti-climactic and unfulfilled, as in there is not a "true" ending, but the game pseudo-segue's into the next game in the series, Penumbra: Black Plague.  The game even says "Part I" when you load, so there shouldn't be too much of a surprise by the lack of closure.

STORY

The story is somewhat of a mystery and I mean that in both the sense that the game falls under the genre of Survival Horror Mystery, but also that you find out more about the story while you're playing it.  You start off the game with a prologue saying that you received a letter from your father, whom you thought was dead and you end up heading to Northern Greenland, taking a plain then freighter.  You get dropped off in the middle of nowhere, which apparently is where you want to go and after solving the problem of the frozen hatch, your first person dungeon crawl begins.

The game's story is fairly well hidden throughout the entirety of the game.  You find out bits of information as you run from dimly lit room through darkened hallway to well lit room.  Most of the information you find through bits of journals left behind and the occasional newspaper clipping.  I have absolutely no qualms with this method of story telling although I could see how someone else may not find all too fun.

GAMEPLAY

As previously mentioned, the game runs like an FPS without any emphasis on the Shooter part.  You do have some weapons such as a hammer and pickaxe, but it's incredibly hard to kill a starving feral wolf who's darting around you, taking bites out of your ankle, shin, calf, thigh, butt, arm, back and only after three bites do you "die."  

Being the case with most/all FPS's, I had to switch the mouse's y-axis to be inverted, which only became confusing on a couple of occasions.  While playing, if you want to manipulate anything, a hand icon appears over your normal simple looking cross hairs.  This hand uses the same controls as the camera.  However, if you take something out of your inventory and want to say, try and use your screwdriver on a screw, the y-axis reverts to standard, non-inverted.  This can be a bit disorienting if you were to have a giant spider coming at you.  (Thankfully there are no giant spiders, only jumping spiders the size of a Nerf football).

The game itself though is broken up into getting from Point A to Point B to Point C.  Wherein Point B and C you'll have to solve some type of puzzle.  Getting to Point B though can be difficult if you don't have a map drawn.  Luckily, as the area you're in was once a functioning mine, there are handy "You Are Here" maps every so-many yards.  I decided that I would camp out in front of a map with my flashlight illuminating the map and just draw it down in my handy-dandy notebook.  (I highly recommend keeping a notebook to write down maps and the occasional note).  I will say that I was probably a lot more conservative about using my flashlight than I would have been if I hadn't first played Amnesia.  As there were no sanity effects and constant fear of running out of fuel/power, I only had my flashlight on sparingly.  I also didn't use any of the flares and only in the final area did I break out my glow stick.  It's not that I liked seeing in the dark, I just kept thinking that I'd reach an area where I was blocked in and I would have no battery power left to spot potential danger or solve a puzzle

Some of the puzzles though were quite difficult and I had to revert to using either gamefaqs or youtube to find out what to do next.  Other sections were flat out difficult.  As in an area where I was crouched (so no sprinting) in a tunnel and had to make it past some spider eggs, knock some boulders out of the way with a pickaxe, enter a room then shove a boulder to cover up the hole leading back into the tunnel.  Do all of this before you were bitten 3-4 times by the spiders.  I don't know how many times I replayed trying to find my way through the tunnel without dying, and then trying to figure out how to close up the hole without dying (turns out piling up chairs and rocks isn't a good enough barricade against spiders).

I'll also briefly cover dying.  Dying was something that happened to me a lot while playing.  Granted I didn't do it intentionally, but I wasn't overly frightened by death either.  Definitely by the end of the game, it was more of an annoyance than anything else.  I would run down a hallway to try and avoid Wolf #1, only to run into Wolf #2 and in the process of avoiding that wolf, Wolf #1 would catch up and kill me.  Upon restarting, I would maybe wait another 10 seconds before running down the hall, just to see if the different location of the wolf would change my outcome.   The point is, I rarely used any of my healing pills and just went for death.  I could possibly see this as a failure, but I can't initially think of how to fix it.

MUSIC & SOUND

The music I enjoyed very much although most of it was ambient background sounds designed to unnerve you, which it did very well.  When there was impending doom though, the score really kicked up and got interesting, at least long enough to know that you were about to die.  The sound effects were also really well done.  There were multiple times where I could just faintly hear the growling of a wolf and knew that I'd either have to hide quickly or make a break for it and sprint to the next door down the hall and around the corner.

FINAL THOUGHTS

In short, I really liked this game and I feel like I've become a fan of Frictional Games.  There were some aspects that I didn't like, such as not caring about dying and some of the puzzles which had to be solved on the fly while being chased by something that could kill you was a bit frustrating.  It definitely had the feel of wanting to ask a friend how they made it past the noxious gas pits.  As a whole though, Penumbra: Overture had a solid 10 hours of gameplay with about an hour or so of frustrating gameplay.  So now I'm looking forward to delving into part II, Penumbra: Black Plague.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
We'll All Sleep Well Tonight

Winnitron 1000: Impressions from Gaming Co-op #5

Alright folks, it's time for the overdue, final posting about the Cooperative Gaming Co-op Arcade Installation that I attended in October in San Jose.  Hosted by my friend John Bruneau and James Morgan, the Arcade was a free event, and a chance to play a bunch of different independently released games in Arcade cabinets built and curated by the hosts and a variety of guest curators.  I had a great time at this event, and if I were a bit closer to San Jose, I would have returned over and again to try the games I didn't have time for.  While many of the games are available to play, download and purchase online, the chance to play them in an Arcade cabinet was truly special, and not something I'll likely have a chance to repeat.   With the exception of the Winnitron 1000.

The Winnitron 1000 was designed specifically to be a sort of Franchise Arcade Cabinet.  The idea for the Winnitron, and the games are available through their website.  Winnitron 1000 was designed in Winnipeg, Canada, where-from it gets the name, and it has been duplicated at several different locations.  The one I played was designed for the Cooperative Gaming Co-op and is called the Winnitron SJ.  

There can be a Winnitron in your town,   all it takes is people with the gumption to contact the Winnitron people, then build a cabinet and put the Winnitron software in it.  And presto!  You can have your town's own Winnitron, which will live there to be enjoyed by all.  

Look at all these games available for the Winnitron!  I only got the chance to play four of them with the time I had.  I'd love a chance to play some of these again, and many for the first time.  

• Nidhogg by MESSHOF/Mark Essen

Nidhogg is simultaneously an ideal indie game and an ideal arcade game.  Just overall a fantastic game.  It's awesome and indie because of its relatively low production value but high overall effect.  And it's awesome as an arcade game because it is two player, and it is just instantly tons of fun.

Within seconds, like, under 60 seconds, my opponent and I were laughing with glee.  This game was that much fun.  I feel very privleged to have gotten to play it on an arcade machine.  That's the way it should be played.  It plays like the long lost cousin of a game like Joust.  A game that should have been a classic for 30 years, but instead wasn't invented until 2009. It plays like a game from that era has been allowed to age in a barrel and is now a fine vintage. 

I really want to play it again;  I feel about this game the way I do about Crossed Swords.   Highly recommend.  

• Shoot Bastard by Matt Thorston, Chevy Ray Johnson, Beau Blyth

Shoot Bastard is ridiculous and silly.  And fun.  It plays like the original game idea went horribly wrong - or did it go horribly right?  You have to play to be able to tell.  It's a vs battle game with missile launchers and great hand-drawn graphics.  Good for a lark.

• Super Crate Box Versus by Vlambeer

Have you played Super Crate Box?  Well, Versus is an adaptation of that game that crams a second player into the mix, and creates a competition to see who can get the most boxes.  It never lasts long though, because the crazy mad-capped action is even crazier and more mad-capped.  Fun, but frustratingly hard.  Play the original.  It's harder than that.   

• Verge By Kyle Pulmer

Verge is a cool puzzle-platformer.  The graphics are nice, cartoony and soft.  The puzzles involve traveling back and forth between an underworld in order to move forward. Visually, it reminds me of Cave Story+.  Game play-wise it reminds me of several games:  Braid, Cave Story, Limbo, Eversion.  I recommend checking any and all of them out when you get a chance.  Two of which were featured in a previous post.



Winnitron 1000 may very well be the way of the future, or so I'd like to think.  The arcade is a great forum for gaming, and perhaps also for independent gaming.  Now that PC gaming competes heavily with console gaming, and with applications like Steam, it isn't necessary to have a physical product.  Perhaps arcade cabinets can re-enter vogue, like vinyl records.  

The Winnitron is something you can have in your town, and I advocate for them getting one.


-D

Previous Gaming Co-op postings:
First
Second
Third
Fourth

Weird Post at a Weird Hour

It's weird.  This blog, I mean.  But "weird" in the best sense of the word.  And on a quick side note, I can remember the instance when I learned how to spell the word "weird."  I was making a drawing that contained the planet Mars and I was painting it green (because we all know Martians are green), and I wanted to write "weird" next to the planet, although I don't remember why.  I was then told by my teacher that the planet Mars is really red and that weird wasn't spelled "W-I-E-R-D."

I mean it's weird in that it's taken on this entity form that I've told myself, needs to be fed every Monday and Friday.  There've been times when I've been late with my feedings, but this is a purely self imposed feeding schedule.  There's no one behind the curtain pulling strings or threatening to fail me in life if I don't write up a post on time.  This is the real world.

Yet, all the same, every Sunday and Thursday or Monday and Friday, I'll think, "Hey, I need to put up a post!"  Please don't miss-understand me, I don't feel like this blog has become a chore or something that I have to do.  I love doing it.  I love checking the stats and seeing who and how many people (or bots) have checked out something that either Dave or I have written.  It's a bit of a rush when I see that a person/bot from South Korea or Ireland has found our little corner or the internet; or that someone googled "Amnesia Logo" or "Nintendo Power Cover" and found us.

But the other day at work, I picked up a copy of the Oregonian and began reading an article about the recent happenings in Newtown, CT.  By the second paragraph, the writer was suggesting that violet video games were one of many catalysts for the recent wave of shootings.  I was enraged that this suggestion so easily came up.  While at work today, I decided that I was not going to write an article about how this made me feel followed by me being annoyed.  This isn't the time for that.

With that self declaration, I couldn't think of what to post about for Monday's article.  My video game playing has been pretty one sided recently.  That one side being The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and a bit of The World Ends With You.  I also logged onto Penny-Arcade because I know they post on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and realized that I hadn't read anything from them in over a week.  I also have six and-a-half Rooster Teeth podcasts that I haven't listened to yet.  Also, I have a couple of friends, along with Conklederp, who've shown some legit interest in D&D, not just DD&D (Drunk Dungeons & Dragons), but I don't want to reveal anything there yet either, although I probably just did.

So the weird thing is, is that I don't have a legit gaming topic to cover today/tonight except to talk about how I don't have a topic, which I just did, so I decided to take the time to write about it, and assuming that you've made it this far, thank you for reading along with what Dr. Potts and I have to say.  And yes, I'm going to post this without proofing it (which I will normally do), because Jargaritas are awesome.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconain

A Fresh Aire Christmas: Best_Christmas_Album_Ever!

First Impressions: Cogs & And Yet It Moves (PC)

I've had Cogs for sometime, although I do not remember which Humble Bundle it was bundled with, but I have always liked the look of the logo (mission accomplished).  Sadly though, last Friday (as in 12/7) was the first time I played Cogs, and that was only because Coolman asked about it.  So it was that I discovered that Cogs is a game that I will not be playing a great deal.

First off, the game could be described as a "casual puzzle game," but for me, it's a frustratingly beautiful puzzle game.  The puzzles are all variations on the sliding block puzzle.  That might be a decent description, but here's a screen cap:

In this puzzle, you have to move the three gear pieces so that the gear on the left is touching a gear piece, which in turn is touching another gear piece and finally, has another gear piece above that one so that it's touching the gear attached to the propeller.  This particular puzzle is multi-sided, which at first is intimidating, but once you quickly realize that you only have to solve one side at a time, it's pretty simple.  Sort of anyway.

The thing for me though, is that I've never had an aptitude for these kinds of puzzles.  I just get really frustrated when I have one or two pieces of the puzzle figured out, but then realize that I need to move everything around in order to get a much needed piece three to it's ending place, but that ruins where piece one and two are supposed to go.  

As I mentioned, all the puzzles are variations on the sliding block puzzle and not all of them involve gears.  There are puzzles that use steam or colored steam to fill up the appropriate ballons; two sided puzzle where a piece has two sides and each side of the puzzle has to be turned to look at the back to make sure the corresponding piece isn't messing up the solution on the other side.  And I forgot to mention (or you could just look at the left hand side of the above picture), there's a timer and a move counter, so you're encouraged to complete the puzzle in as few moves and as fast as possible.  It's a pretty brilliant take on an early kids game.  Lazy 8 Studios has made a really beautiful game that was, admittingly, somewhat fun to play with other people.  So, when I got frustrated and couldn't figure out a solution, I could pass off the mouse/keyboard and let either Coolman or Conklederp have a go, I just may not be playing this game solo.

And Yet It Moves is yet another puzzle game from Broken Rules, although it's in the form of a platformer, but there's twist; pun only slightly intended.  Like any platformer, you have your character and move them from point A to point B.  There are some baddies that are reminiscent of the kind you'd find in Little Big Planet, i.e.: passive and there to be in your way.  The twist with And Yet It Moves, is that you're able to rotate the world 90 degrees in either direction.

The world in this game is beautifully created to look like pieces of colored paper products have been torn and crumbled to create environments.  The effect is not as distracting as it sounds and it is very easy to learn where you can stand and where you fall.  Black non-paper = bad and you will fall.  Which is where rotating the screen comes in.  For example:

That black area will swallow you like it owns your soul.

But, upon rotating the camera 90 degrees, you can safely land on a new surface/ground.

That's the basic gist of the game.  However, you do have to be careful with how far you fall, either by jumping or by constantly rotating the world as you will constantly gain momentum and you're little paper person is not indestructible.  There is a skill (one they teach you in game) about hitting the ground at an angle so you can land from any height/speed safely, I just haven't been able to master it.  And thankfully, when you die (which you will, and possibly very frequently), you don't have to start over, but from one of the many check point paper people who populate each map.  Additionally, they will point you in the right direction you need to go, literally.  They will point you in the direction (with their little paper fingers) you need to go in order to find the next check point, and each one you come across is like it's own little victory.

So there you go, two readily available games.  Both are fun in their own rights but I think I'll be playing And Yet It Moves more often than I will with Cogs.  But again, that's just because sliding block puzzles aren't really my cup of tea.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

27 Down, 46 To Go

Crossed Swords

So, I was just doing some catchup on the blog.  I've been busy and stressed out, and haven't been reading or posting much.  I just got to the post about Skyrim, and Jac made a reference to a first-person hack and slash game for arcade that maybe was on NeoGeo, but he can't seem to find it anywhere...

Was this the game you were talking about?

Crossed Swords.  Fucking Badass.  Oh man, this game was so damned cool!  At a time when it was really tough to find awesome high-fantasy action, even in video games, this game came in an slashed and hacked it's way to glory and into my heart.  It was tough, but if you mashed the buttons, you could do some great repeating slashes that would  mess up the opponent good.  You could also block with your shield, which for some reason seemed really novel at the time.  Oh, and did I mention that it is two-player co-op?

This game falls firmly into one of my favorite games that I never really got to play that much, and always wished I could have spent more time with.  A fleeting love affair.  Crossed Swords was one of those elusive arcade games.  The kind that was in a local pizza place (I believe Round Table pizza in Woodland- is that place still there?)  For about two months.  Then you might find it on an out-of-town trip to Scandia or something.  Or like, on vacation with your family and you stop at a diner and there's like two arcade games and one of them is this crazy game that you so rarely come across!  

That was crossed swords.  The video game equivalent of a summer love, like an episode of the Wonder Years.  We both had great passion, but our lives were just out-of-sync.  Perhaps it was never meant to be.  But I have this nostalgia for something that never was,  that I would be 13, and have twenty dollars worth in quarters to dump into Crossed Swords, and I'd really find out what this game was all about.  


-D

When Worlds Collide II: Awesome Collaborations for 2013

I'm one of those kinds of people that likes it when two things that I like, happen to separately like each other back.  And through that liking, have their own child instead of my imaginary brain child.  This has been happening since I first found out that J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis were friends and were part of/founded a literary group at Oxford called The Inklings.  This continued when I was about 11 and discovered that George Lucas and Steven Speilberg were friends, hence why I was seeing George Lucas on set while watching a documentary about Raiders of the Lost Ark.  It's these kinds of collaborations that make me happy.

One of the first games that I bought via Steam that wasn't part of a Humble Indie Bundle was Dear Esther.  I bought it because it looked beautiful.  Yes, I was judging a book by it's cover and let me tell you, it was god-damn-beautiful.  So Dear Esther was developed by a small company called thechineseroom, which is amusing as they're a British company.  So they made this game, which I didn't fully understand until about the time I finished it, which was after about two hours of playing, but that's beside the point.  The point is, is that it was beautiful and fun.

Moving onto Frictional Games (but not forgetting thechineseroom), they're the company that made both the Penumbra series and Amnesia ~The Dark Descent~.  I've already talked about both games previously here and here, so I won't need to go into either of those again.

NOW, Frictional Games is teaming up with thechineseroom to develop the indirect sequel to Amnesia called Amnesia ~A Machine for Pigs~.  Yes, the title is a bit obscure, other than being slightly obvious with the quote/reference during the beginning of the trailer but other than that, there are both living and dead pigs featured in both trailers for the game.  The point is, is that I've really liked both Amnesia and Dear Esther and this collaboration looks to be pretty amazing.

Okay, now jumping back to thechineseroom, they are in development of another game dealing with a genre that I've been a fan of for a very large portion of my life.  I don't really know when it was that I realized I liked the apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic genre, but it was definitely sometime in the early to mid 1990s, so in my early teenage years.  So thechineseroom's new game will be titled Everybody's Gone to the Rapture.  According to thechineseroom, the game will be in a similar vain to Dear Esther, in that it will be an open world exploration POV game.  

This is almost too much for my brain to handle

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Be Careful Not To Slip On The Puddle

Dear Esther (and the value of patience and follow-through)

Today, I am posting a stream-of consciousness.  

Today, I finally played Dear Esther

Today, I beat Dear Esther (2.4 hrs)

Today, I learned a valuable lesson about patience and follow-through.

Today, when I was playing Dear Esther, I spent the first hour or so struggling with the collision detection.  I wanted to walk to places that the game seemed to not want to let me.  But it wasn't clear.  "This rock seems no larger or more difficult to scale than any other rock. And yet, I cannot pass over it." Alright, fine, I'll swim around.  "Which button is to swim?  Okay seems to be working, but hey, why am I drowning?  Which button was it?  I'm pressing that button.  What the fuck?!  Stop drowning!"

Today, I said, to myself, things such as this:  "fuck this game.  This game is stupid, I hate this game.  I am so pissed off!  Raahhhh!"  

Today, I asked: why was there no sound?  This game is so nice visually, why isn't there any sound?!  This is so dumb.  

Today, I broke with the writing convention I have been employing.  

Okay... I guess I've got it.  I'll just keep going on the sort of path-like spaces.  Path of least resistance.  Just keep moving forward, don't worry about what I'm missing...  Well, shit.  It looks like I'm actually getting somewhere.  That's nice.  Lala la, I think I want to explore over here.  Dammit... fucking rocks.  Oh, hey, maybe I should go over there.  Yeah, that's it.  Okay... la la la.

Oh wow.  That's really pretty.  This is pretty damned cool.  Finally!  This is really working for me.  Okay, I see, it makes sense that I can't run or do anything, really.  If I moved to fast, I'd miss out on this stuff.  Dang, I think this game is kind of like, pretty cool!  Still no sound though, what's the deal?

...oh.  My headphones were plugged in.  ... oops...
...
...
...


Okay, this game is beautiful, I love this game.  I have to play it again now, because I missed out on the sound, so like, half the immersion.  Oh well, I don't think it's long.

What a great game, I'm going to recommend this to everybody.

...
...
...
So, yeah, I pushed through a lot of frustration to get through Dear Esther.  If I had given in to the frustration I felt for the first 30-45 minutes or so, I would have missed out on what turned out to be a great game.  Really great game, truly!   I can only recommend to people that, during the early part of the game-  Don't bother trying to swim.  It will only lead to heartache.  Also: check to see if your headphones are plugged in.

Wall of Shame: Unfinished Games

I like to think that I'm fairly good at a number of varying video game genres, or generally speaking, I like to think that I'm generally good at video games.  I've been playing them for about 25 years pretty consistently.  The point being, that in most cases, I'm able to start and finish a video game.  However, there always seems to be a handful of games that I'm unable to finish for any particular reason.  Despite being able to go through the game, learning the necessary moves and techniques in order to reach the final stage/boss/encounter, I cannot, for the life of me, seem to finish the game.  This has happened on more than one occasion which has lead me to create a list.  This list, albeit an incomplete one, we will now refer to, as my WALL OF SHAME!

Diddy Kong Racing  (N64)
Now I know a lot of people reading this are most likely scoffing at both the game itself, as well as the fact that I can't beat it.  I will also surmise that everyone who is scoffing, has never played Diddy Kong Racing.  Yes it is a "kids" game in the same vain as Mario Kart, but I assure you, the game itself is pretty difficult.  In DKR, you not only have to get 1st place in each race in order to advance, but then do the same courses in reverse and collect hidden coins in the level (which are usually off the main path) and still get first.  I did all this.  The Kid can attest to this.  I cannot however, pass the final stage/boss, WizPig.

In the final stage, you have to race a giant WizPig who is running/flying along the course and can easily stomp on you, which will flatten your car, ensuring that you will not beat WizPig.  You also have to hit every single boost/zippers and not land in any of the water on the course or you will fail.  This person actually makes it look easy:

God of War: Chains of Olympus  (PSP)
Now I'm not going to give away who the final boss of this game is, as finding out is part of the storyline and I thought, "Huh, I'd never thought of that.  That's pretty cool," so I'd rather not ruin it for someone who's never played the game before and is looking to; yes, even for a game that's four years old.

The game itself isn't overly difficult having played through on the "normal" difficulty level.  There were some areas and bosses that took a couple of run throughs in order to figure out the right/best way to complete something.  Then comes the final boss.  Like in Disney's Mulan, you use tactics and tricks from previously in the story to overthrow the villain.  However, that did not seem to be the case with me.

After numerous battles, I broke and looked up on Gamefaqs how to defeat the final boss.  Apparently, you need to use the Gauntlets of Zeus.  Funny, I sparsely used them in the game, instead favoring the traditional Blades of Chaos.  I got that I needed to use the Sun Shield, but not using the Blades of Chaos seemed, a bit odd.  So then I went back, and still failed to defeat the boss.  I've tried on even more attempts and have been unable to finish the game.  I've been tempted to play the game on "Easy" just so I can see how the game ends, but the thought of going through the entire game again was a bit daunting.  Maybe that says something against the replay value.

Two games that I'm going to give special mention to are Mike Tyson's Punch-Out! for the boxer Soda Popinski, whom I cannot beat on a regular basis although I can consistently get to him.  Yes, I know the trick about blocking when he goes to upper cut, which confuses him, then you punch him in the stomach to get a star; then you do the same thing, but then super punch him and it knocks him out.  Yes, I know about that.  I just apparently suck at executing that maneuver.  And don't get me started on fighting Mike Tyson/Mr. Dream (obviously using the code to get to him/them/it).  The second goes to Kefka from Dissidia: Final Fantasy, specifically when doing Terra's storyline.  I don't know what it is about fighting Kefka with Terra (both are heavy magic users compared to say, the Light Warrior from Final Fantasy I, who is based more around physical attacks).

So there.  Now along with a slough of NES games, I feel like I've given plenty of fodder for people/villains/arch-enemies who want to challenge me to some sort of saving the world video game play off.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
We Are All Doomed.

The Legend of Zelda Becoming Legend

I've been a fan of the Legend of Zelda games since after we first got our Nintendo, which I talked about in one of my first posts.  Something about the simplicity of the game play and the memorableness of the music made for such an amazing gaming experience for a 10 year old.  Over the years I've played through many of the games that make up The Legend of Zelda franchise, with the exceptions of Oracle of Seasons, Oracile of Ages, Four Swords Adventure, Minish Cap and Skyward Sword.  Just for whatever reason, I never got around to playing the LoZ games that came out on the GBC and GBA; Skyward Sword I haven't played because I don't own a Wii.  However, with the two aforementioned games in the series that I haven't finished, because I had stopped playing them, because I began to lose interest, I've felt in recent years, a fading of The Legend of Zelda series.

Some of my views about the games in the series, while not necessarily controversial, I don't feel are common with the rest of the LoZ fan base.  For example, I feel that Majora's Mask is a stronger game and a lot more fun than Ocarina of Time.  I also feel that music MM is more of music that I can listen to by itself and less atmospheric than in OoT.  I also think that Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is a great (albeit pain in the ass) game.  So much so that I can't imagine any of the polygonal Zelda games happening if it weren't for the side scrolling, expansive vision of Hyrule that Zelda II introduced.  I also love the animation and art style in Wind Waker.  No, I didn't mind all the sailing as the end of the game gave a fantastic explanation/reasoning behind the world existing.

And then it was great to see the same style of art/animation again in the two games on the DS, Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks.  Sadly though, this is where our tale ends.  After I finished Phantom Hourglass, I started Spirit Tracks, expecting a somewhat similar experience.  I played ST for a couple of hours before the Left Trigger button on my DS decided to stop, but by that point I had already felt like stopping.  I wasn't feeling engaged with the story and I felt like I had somewhat figured out the basis and arc of the game only after watching the opening cinematic.

I received a similar feeling while playing Twilight Princess.  I had reached a part in the game where I felt I needed more heart containers, which meant I had to forego the main storyline and wander around the beautifully created re-re-re-re-re-re-imagining of Hyrule looking for, what is it now? Five pieces of a heart container to give an extra heart?  I remember being annoyed in A Link to the Past when you had to find four pieces to create a heart container.  I however came to terms with this being another alteration in the series, so I accepted it and got over myself.

True, the LoZ series hasn't had a great deal of original-ness, with the main storylines being that you have to rescue Zelda from Ganon, or some itteration on the save the princess theme, but they've still been fun to play.  Just like the Super Mario Bros., Metroid and Castlevania games, there is not a lot of originality, but still loads of fun to play (except I haven't played through a Super Mario Bros. game since Super Mario World and Super Mario RPG, so maybe that's not the greatest of arguments).

On a similar, but slightly different note, a few months back I came across on Last.fm called ZReO or Zelda: ReOrchestrated, which initally billed themselves as symphonic orchestrations of the music from the Legend of Zelda games.  I was really excited.  I'd heard a number of symphoic orchestrations of music from this series, but the music from all the games not only sounded epic in it's attempt, but amazing in that it came from ALL OF THE GAMES!!  I began typing out an article about this ground a number of months ago but in the information gathering process, I discovered than the "group" only uses audio samples for the instruments that make up this "orchestra."  Don't get me wrong, the music sounds good and I would love to hear it performed by an actual symphony, but needless to say (which is why I'm saying it), I was a little let down.  But that shouldn't stop anyone from giving what they've done a listen as all their music is free to download.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
And They Will Play On Forever More

Last issue of Nintendo Power

Hey there everyone.  We've both written here of our relationship with Nintendo Power.  And I just saw that it finally happened:  the cover art for the final issue of Nintendo Power has been released.  I felt that it was appropriate to mark the occasion here with a little post.  We should all go out and buy this issue when it comes out next month. 

-D

Skyrim = Sinkhole of Time

My experience with The Elder Scrolls games has been very limited, so much so that I've only witnessed a former roommate playing The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.  All I could say about the game was that the guy's character jumped everywhere, occasionally killed a city guard and that it was an FPS-type game.  I wasn't overly impressed.  My own personal experience with first person (POV) hack-and-slash swording fantasy games was limited to an old arcade game that I thought was in a Neo-Geo cabinate, but I can't find anything about it anywhere.  So there's that.

During Steam's most recent Fall/Autumn/Thanksgiving sale, I purchased The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.  I did this for a couple of reasons.  First and foremost, the game was 50% off, which still meant that it was $30.  The second reason comes in three parts, but is part of the larger whole, which is that I'm lacking in fantasy realms to be in.  I'm not a subscriber to HBO so I don't/can't watch Game of Thrones until it's released on DVD and Amazon just gave a release date for season 2 as February 13th, 2013 (assuming the world doesn't end in a few weeks).  I'm also reading Shadow Moon, which to pretty much everyone, is the first book in a trilogy that takes place in the same world as the film Willow.  The third part of the second reason is that I'm eagerly awaiting the release of The Hobbit.  So as you can see, I needed a medieval high-fantasy world to play in.

So yes, Skyrim was purchased.  But that is not the point.  The point is, is that I've only played the game for two days, which were my two days off this week, and I managed to clock in about 13 1/2 hours.  Jump ahead two more days and I've now clocked in just over 19 hours.  Granted probably about 30 minutes of that was just creating my character.  I can also figure out how/why I've been playing for this long.  

I don't know if it's something in current large world RPG's and I know I've seen it in a few other games, but Skyrim allows you to in a sense, warp between locations you've already been to.  The required amount of time will pass during your split second journey as if you actually walked it, but you'll be as fast as it takes for the loading screen to finish loading.  I'm not a fan of this "fast travelling" nonsense, something that I felt plagued Final Fantasy XII, but I'm not getting into FFXII right now.  If I'm going from one village to a cave on the other side of the mountains, by golly, I'm going to have my character run the whole god damn way!

A big (as in fucking huge) part of this game for me, is looking at the environment (pun sort of intended).  Anytime I'm travelling, I'll back the camera out to a 3rd person view so that I can rotate the camera and just watch the gorgeous scenery:

Keep in mind that I'm running this game at about mid-level so there aren't all the textures and layers that could be there if I were running on Alienware or something equivalent.  There are mods available designed to make the game look even better, but I'm not going to touch those, again because I don't have the set up for it.  There is this guy though who apparently has 100+ mods running at any given time for some amazing visuals.

The gist is that I like walking.  I like exploring.  So what if I get sidetracked from the main story line and want to find out what's on the other side of that mountain and end up swimming in a lake.  I love being able to look at a mountain range way off in the distance, run towards it and seeing it get larger and larger until there I am, running up the side of it.  I will admit thought that I have on a couple of occasions "Fast Traveled" to a location, but that was because I was strapped for time and knew I wouldn't be able to make the trek to the city to disenchant my non-usable gear before I had to leave for work.  Because in this world, work comes first.

At the moment, I don't see this game taking as much time as say, Goldeneye 007 took, as that was the only game I played on the N64 for just over six months after I bought it.  Some people will scoff at that satement, but I do plan on playing other games, both on my computer and either on the 3DS or PSP if I'm not playing Skyrim.  And besides, I've still got to get through Penumbra Overture.  You hear that Skyrim, you're  not the only game in the box!

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Now If Only They Would Listen

P.S.  And in case you're wondering, I created a female Wood Elf named Allinesea.  She's based off a character I created for a D&D campaign that I have never run.  I also thought it would be more interesting having the lead character as a woman rather than the stereotypical male fighter character.  Although I've also thought about doing a male character and having him be a mage...... I'm sure I'll come up with something later.

And just because, here's a picture of Barbas the wolf hound photo bombing one of my pictures:

The Eternal Dilemma: To Buy Used or New?

This is a topic that will get people fired up on both sides.  Side A hates the idea of buying used games because it takes money away from the developers and puts it into the hands of Middleman Stores.  Side B loves buying used games because of their reduced price.  I like to consider myself as part of Side D.  We'll skip Side C for the moment, as they're probably on their lunch break.

Side D.  I want to purchase games as new products.  I like having a way of telling a game company that I like the products they're putting out and the stories they're telling.  Sadly, this isn't always feasible as games cost money.  And not just any money, typically $30-$40, at least for DS and PSP games.  PC games can average $40-$50 for a new game.  Being an adult with financial responsibilities (gas, car insurance, rent, food, phone, electricity, car maintenance), there always isn't a lot left from my paycheck to go out and buy a $40 game.  For this reason, I wait.  I'll wait for the game to drop in price or to think, "You know what self, I will go buy that game!"

Here's the second problem, after the whole spending money part.  Waiting.  I like to wait at least six months before buying a game, although, honestly, it usually ends up being at least a year.  For some games, the wait is even longer for any number of reasons.  Such was the case with SEGA's Infinite Space.  I first read about this game in issue #248 of Nintendo Power and thought it looked and sounded pretty awesome.  One of my roommates, Vortlynx, had very much been into EVE Online and a space building/exploration game for the DS sounded pretty awesome.  Even with the comment about the game having a "steep learning curve" wasn't a deterrent.  With Infinite Space, though, I apparently waited too long.  The games sales didn't do very well, but was received well by critics.  It then became hard to find at Gamestops and I never saw it at a Target.   Eventually, I checked Amazon and have had prices set pretty consistently at $74 for new and $23 for a used copy.  Buying from eBay is the same as buying used and at that point I was still somewhat hoping to find a place that had a new copy for under $30.  Gamestop's website has a new game for $34, but it's not available online and their "Pick up @ store" function is unavailable.  Which is why, last month, I settled for a used copy from Gamestop, as I was able to find one that was within 100 miles.

Another example, is that I currently want to purchase Castlevania 64: Legacy of Darkness.  Now, there's not going to be any new copy of that game that Konami's going to see any profits from.  Any new (shrink wrapped) game is going to be priced out the ass by some collector who's more interested in making money than actually caring about games being played.

It basically breaks down to, I'll buy new if I can at the time I want to buy the game.  If a new copy of the game is unavailable, I'll try to hunt it down in a way that the company still sees that I like their products.  If I still cannot locate a new copy, I'll try to find a used copy.  So, until the day that game companies start sending Dr. Potts and/or myself games to review, we'll both have to settle for purchasing games from any one of multiple stores (online/physical).

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Go Ahead And Toss My Name Around

P.S.  Side C got back from their lunch and their response to this topic is, "Meh."