Monthly Update: July 2014

I know I usually put these out on the first Monday or Friday of the new month, but I decided to make an executive decision to post this today, the last day of June and looking forward to the first and last July of 2014.  

Woooooooo!  I just finished Bioshock 2 and by "finished," I mean that I saw the end cinematic after going through the game.  I just started the Minerva's Den DLC so I have not finished-finished, but you get the picture.  I may or may not write up an article about the game as it is five years old and there are literally dozens of reviews for the game out there in Internetland.  So in the meantime, I will simply say that I thoroughly enjoyed my time back in Rapture and I look forward to seeing what new places will be explored in the DLC.

I think I am also very close to finishing Mirror's Edge as well but there might end up being ten more hours of running my ass off (figuratively speaking since running is achieved by pushing down the W key) followed by confusingly looking around a rooftop wondering where to go next.  While being shot at by the Blues.

In the wake of finishing Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, I decided to plunk Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy back into my 3DS, having been probably a year or so since I last played the game.  I did this partly because, again, I had not played it in a while, but also to decide how I would feel about the sequel that is coming out on September 16, 2014.  All of my same potential fears for the release of the game and the announced 221 songs from the existing series and now including music from Final Fantasy Tactics (no word if the FFT Advance games will be included), Advent Children: Final Fantasy VII et cetera.  I am really just hoping that the game is similar yet different enough from the first game that I will not feel ripped off by already having access to half of the songs in the sequel; obviously I expect some repetition, but variation would be gladly accepted.  In other news, I should probably play/finish one of those other 3/DS games that I have/have not finished/played yet.       /

Steam's Summer 2014 Sale ended yesterday and I am proud to say that I was able to restrain myself.  I did purchase a couple of games but in total, I spent less than $15, which could mean that I now have 15 more games, but in truth the count only went up by four, one of which was the absurdly yet accurately titled Goat Simulator.  I am not entirely sure what I am expecting this game to be, either from what I have already heard about the game and from what the trailer told me, but I anticipate to be entertained.  At least it will still be a better love story than Twilight.  Yes, I just jumped on that train.

In the book front, because last week I talked a bit about books and my reading plans for the rest of the year, I began The Poetic Edda, translated by Lee M. Hollander to cover the "Poetry Collection" tile for BINGO.  Sure, it's not your normal collection of poetry to Tennyson, Plath or Wordsworth, but it is still poetry and it is a book that I have had on the shelf and have been meaning to read for a while.  Additionally, last week I also started reading Shadow Star by Chris Claremont and George Lucas, which is the third part in trilogy of books that takes place after the events in the film Willow.  Without going into a review of the entire series right now, I will post something later in the month (?), but I will say that the world from Willow has been greatly expanded, but at a cost.

Lastly, I finally got around to playing Settlers of Catan last week with Conklederp, Chreekat, Chreekat's Mom and her friend.  I know what you are thinking and believe you me, I thought the exact same thing.  And no, I did not win.  I had too much wheat and not enough wood.  Never enough wood.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
The Day Is Much Too Late

[Insert Appropriate Season] Reading BINGO

I love reading.

I've realized that it's something that I don't talk a lot about here considering how much I think that I read.

First off, I'm not a speed reader.  Since my early years in college, I realized that I read, on average, about one page every two minutes with a mass market paperback sized book.  With some books (A Storm of Swords, The Stand, Mort) I can manage about one and-a-half minute per page.  And often enough, every time I finish a book I have somewhat of a hard time deciding what next to read.  Granted I have no shortage of books that I haven't read, but it's like when you (used to) walk into a movie rental store with a general idea, but once you see the stacks of movies lined up, your mind goes blank and you all of a sudden don't know what kind of film you want to watch.

This summer (and probably longer) I found something that will help with my dilemma (which is a word that I cannot spell without help).  My friend Megan over at TheWhynottBlog, via the Books on the Nightstand podcast started doing a Summer Reading Bingo project that started back on June 1st.

Now I don't plan on approaching this the same way that Megan is, but instead I'll be running my own BINGO game.  I went to the BotN page for my own BINGO card and after hitting the refresh link twice I had a card that I was happy with that included the following 24 (out of a possible 48) categories:

• B
• Reread something
• With a number in the title
• Nonfiction
• That you saw someone else reading
• An audiobook
• I
• Has been on your TBR for longer than two years
• Science Fiction
• Recommended by a family member
• Published in 2014
• Set in another country
• N
• Fantasy
• That you think you will dislike
• FREE SQUARE
• Poetry Collection
• Six words or more in the title
• G
• That you chose because of the cover
• Part of a series
• Longer than 500 pages
• Graphic novel
• With a child on the cover
• O
• By an author who shares your first name
• Found in a used bookstore
• With a red cover
• Thriller/Suspense
• With a one-word title

Megans plan is to act as BINGO Master (if that's actually a name) and she'll pull a category from the master list every week although being able to read a book a week is not a requirement (it was a requirement for the "Film as Narrative" class I took during summer school in college).  The goal is to acquire a BINGO by August 31st, allowing enough time to read at least 4-5 books.

 After the BINGO occurs though, I'll probably just go for blackout at that point as I'm looking forward to deciding which books will fill that particular category.  I'm trying really hard not to pick out which book will fill which category before I pick but it's hard not looking at a category like "Fantasy" and not immediately thinking of something by C.S. Lewis, Terry Pratchett or J.R.R. Tolkien.  Oh, and I should also say that with the exception of the "Reread something" tile, everything that I read with be something that I have not read before, hence one of the whole reasons for doing this.

When I first started as in a week ago, I was reading Jam by Yahtzee Croshaw (post coming soon) and The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. So I just picked The World Without Us to fill the FREE SQUARE space.  The tiles that Megan has chosen (as of 6/27/2014) have been "Poetry Collection," "Audio Book," "Recommend by BotNS" and "Science Fiction."  So it looks like I am going to have to find a collection of poetry, although I do have a collection of H.P. Lovecraft's poetry contained within a larger volume of his collected works.  That will suit just fine.

As is the case with standard BINGO, since my card does not contain the "Recommended by BotNS," once I reach that category, I'll skip it and go to "Audio Book," of which I have a pretty nice selection from a past Humble Audio Book Bundle a while back.  "Science Fiction" will also be an interesting choice since I have some modern SciFi that I haven't read as well as some that were considered SciFi when they were written back in the early 20th century.  It will be interesting to see when I know I will get BINGO and how long it will take me to read all the necessary books to do so.

So go and visit The Whynott Blog for Summer Book BINGO and for other book related bloggings as you're more likely to find a greater variety of books than what I would be able to give you.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

I Feel Our Need To Feed Goes On

Left 4 Dead 2 Mod: Day Break (PC)

Earlier in the year, I began looking through the available campaign mods for Left 4 Dead 2 on Steam and after finding out and playing the awesomeness that was the "Journey to Splash Mountain" mod by Dives and SM Sith Lord, I was excited to find "Day Break" by DannBo.

Now, before I start ripping DannBo a new one, let me first make this clear.  What DannBo has done with various areas of the city of San Francisco is pretty amazing and seeing as how creating the two part, five chapter mod took him five years, I am not one about to bash the ever living snot out of Mr. DannBo.

You know, instead of critiquing everything about the game, let me just go through parts of the stages and bring up things that I happened to find note worthy.

This first stage takes place somewhere in downtown San Francisco.  My biggest critique of this first stage is that until you reach the Palace of Fine Arts, I did not feel that I was in San Francisco.  The city design felt that it could have been any generic city that I had already played in any of the L4D campaigns.  Now, this is not to say that the level design was bad or broken, just that I did not get the feeling that I was in San Francisco.  I should also say that I have been to San Francisco a great many times so I am not basing my experience from The Rock or The Princess Diaries.

During my first playthrough, I was mobbed during my approach to the Safe Room which I found greatly annoying.  Yes, I would expect there to be a tank, but we (myself and three bots) were attacked by one tank leading up to the Safe Room then another tank spawned a short distance from the Safe Room door.  Yeah, we did not make it.  The second time though we did not run into any tanks.  I am not sure what happened, but I was thoroughly happy that we all made it to the room.

The next couple of levels I really enjoyed.  Without going into too much detail, they included an approach along the Crissy Field towards the Golden Gate Bridge.  Seeing the bridge was a pretty epic site followed by a feeling of dread as I knew that we were going to have to cross the bitch.

The Golden Gate Bridge sequence, I found to be one of the most terrifying sequences in this mod and not because we were being swarmed by hordes of infected (although that was equally terrifying), but because of having to cross on I-beams 245 feet above the San Francisco Bay.

The last highlight in the Day Break mod was being able to "visit" Alcatraz Island.  How the players get to Alcatraz is pseudo-well explained so I will take no additional time on that front.  Ultimately, I was a little disappointed with the Alcatraz portion of the mod.  It consisted of the end of stage four and the final grab all the gas cans stage five.  In the end, I think I would have liked to have played most of a campaign on Alcatraz and not just running through a portion of the outside grounds and a cell block or two.

Day Break ended up taking me an hour and thirty one minutes to complete and I only died one time (incapacitated three times).  I can say that while I did have a lot of fun with what DannBo created here, I felt that the campaigned was bookended by stages that I was less enthused by when compared to the rest of the campaign.  Is Day Break worth playing?  Definitely and I would love to see more real world settings from the community.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Disinterested in the Writhe of the Lone Survivor


P.S.  I would like to share a couple of pictures that could be seen as spoilers when in or out of context, but I liked their concepts so much, hence the showing of them here.

I do not know why I had never seen this before in any of Valve's campaign levels.  Seeing the Safe Room arrows is always a relief, but when I came upon this no-longer-safe room, my stomach dropped, mainly because as you can see I was running desperately low on ammunition although I was far from being close to death.  Just not a scene you want to come across.

Just your average swimming pool filled with corpses.  It will probably need more than chlorine.

The depths of the Alcatraz Island cell blocks, now with improved roof access.

Chess Variants

The more I play, the more I think that Chess may very well be the greatest board game of all time.  As I play, I notice the incredible amount of narrative possibility in a game of chess.  If you stop to analyze and converse about every move in a game, then you can make a story around it.  

You can also use multiple games to make multiple scenarios.  Imagine one board represents two warring countries, while another board represents a single battle.  This is, of course, the obvious example of war and battle.  However, you could say one game represents the actions within a place, such as a high school, and the other board is a given classroom.  And while the pieces are placed in a way where they are opposing one another, the individual pieces may not understand why they are making the moves they are making.  Their awareness might be very limited.

Lately I've noticed a tendency in my play:  I like to move my pawns, and I like to protect my pieces.  Frequently I end up with very complicated boards with lots of pieces in random locations.  This makes it tough to keep track of everything, which can be an advantage or disadvantage depending on the relative skill at spacial management of the players.  I don't claim to have a lot of this skill, but I do like to test it regularly, and I think I may be getting better.

I noticed this because a different game I played involved a lot of trading of pieces, and now the board is nearly bare, but the game seems to be pretty balanced.  It's like we're starting the game with fewer pieces.

On that note, here are some Chess Variants.  The Wikipedia article on chess variants archives hundreds of different versions of chess.  I want to play them all and invent my own!  Just to see how they turn out.  

Actually, I have participated in the invention of a couple different chess games.  When I was a teenager, my friend Cortez and I made 'super chess' one day, using my giant (32" x 32") chess set. Just for fun, we changed the rules of chess, inflating the abilities of each piece.  Pawns can move like kings, still kill diagonally.  Bishops gained the ability to move to one adjacent space, thus changing which color tile they are on.  The knight can now skip over any number of pieces during the 'L' shape, thus allowing it to make really long moves if there are enough pieces in the way.  And the rooks could explode, killing themselves and all pieces adjacent to them.  We only played 'super chess' a couple of times, and it was fun, and strategy was completely out the window.  

Another time, my friend Ghost and I worked out a game that we ended up calling 'Samurai Showdown' in which we used a chess board and index cards to create a combat game involving fantasy classes.  This game was more akin to Final Fantasy Tactics, as each player had two actions: movement and attack. Free movement within a number of steps, attack and defense power.  Unfortunately, we balanced the game such that the Samurai was the only character with greater attack than defense, resulting in every game coming down to a battle of Samurai.  

A final Chess Variant came from a roommate of mine, who invented Beer Chess.  The rooks were replaced with beers, and the owner must drink the rooks when they are captured.  The deviousness of this game is that my roommate would be really really drunk when we started, and I would feel very guilty making him drink more, and this affected my strategy.  

As a past time, Chess Variants are a lot of fun, and I am happy to be reminded of the possibilities.  I think I will buy my chess sets in pairs from now on.  The game of chess has enough depth in it to survive and thrive on a world-scale for hundreds of years.  People know this game so well, that there is a book containing every move ever made in professional play.  That's a lot of play testing and also a lot of narrative possibility.  But with dozens of available Chess Variants, and hundreds more possible, there are that many more narratives to explore.  Perhaps most will self-destruct, as our Samurai Showdown version did.  But the search has its own rewards of joy and entertainment.  

-D

SteamBoy: Steam Gaming on the Go.

Now why did I not hear anything about this until the Sunday after E3 was over?  Granted I was not huddled over my computer during the three days of the Electronics & Entertainment Expo but I am a little surprised that this one slipped by me until yesterday.  Although after doing a cursory search, it now looks like everyone, ourselves included is bringing up and talking about the SteamBoy.

The SteamBoy Machine, a split off of the whenever to be released Steam Machines looks to be mix of the Steam Controller and Sony's PS Vita.  While the "Steamboy Project" is not affiliated with Valve or Steam, this product makes me more excited than any of the other Steam Machine/Box projects that I have been hearing about in recent months.  

My biggest critique and maybe that is just because I do not understand the "concept" behind Steam Machines/Boxes, is that I already have a PC that I game on that I frequently connect to my TV via HDMI cable.  I also have a controller that works perfectly well with the games that I want to play that require a controller.

Which then brings us to the SteamBoy.  There are a lot of games that I not only play with a controller on Steam, but games that would translate perfectly well to a handheld device (Super Meat Boy, The Binding of Isaac, BIT.TRIP Runner, Braid, Limbo).  I can understand some people, primarily people who mainly game on a PC not liking the idea of the SteamBoy because of the size of the screen compared to the size of their current monitor/TV, but coming from a background of handheld gaming, I have come to accept that on a hand held device, gaming is going to be small.

The smallness of the screen would then lead to the obvious question about how powerful the SteamBoy will be in comparison to other Steam Machines and whether it will be able to play every game in your Steam library.  In an interview with the Escapist, the SBP stated that "SteamBoy won't be as powerful as other announced Steam Machines in the same way [the] Nintendo 3DS or PS Vita performance is not comparable to Wii U or PlayStation 4.  However, it will be possible to play the majority of current games in Steam."

To note, the current specs released for the SteamBoy "could be" as follows:

• Quad-Core CPU
• 4 GB RAM
• 32GB built in memory
• 5" 16:9 touchscreen (no word as to screen resolution; 720 or 1080p).
• Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity
• 2 directional touch pads
• 4 Directional pad/buttons
• ABXY buttons with L/R shoulder-type bumpers, two trigger buttons and two additional buttons on the back.

Right now the biggest questions I am seeing are about the distance of the connectivity of the device, as in will you have to be connected to an internet signal in order to play if your game is not directly downloaded to the devices 32GB of internal storage?  Will you simply be streaming from a separate Steam account; although that does not sound too likely.  I would also like to know if there would be a separate memory card slot.  But, now that I am thinking about it, I do not think that I would want my entire Steam library on a portable device and not only because there are games that I only play with the keyboard and mouse.  I do not think that all games would transfer well to a portable device, but that is to be expected with any game that moves to a smaller screen and/or a differing control scheme.

Actually, the idea of downloading a couple of games to the SteamBoy then syncing them up to my main Steam account in order to maintain game progress, time and achievements is a very inviting notion.  If this is a possibility, then the SteamBoy would immediately become a much more attractive hand held gaming system than the PS Vita and, dare I say it, the 3DS.  I know that it will not replace my 3DS, but as far as buying a new hand held system, the SteamBoy may jump to the top of the list (are we tired of clichés yet)?

There has also been no mention of the estimated battery life, which would be one of my biggest concerns.  Right now, my 3DS can last about 5 hours if I do not have the 3D slider turned on and I feel that anything less than five hours would be very detrimental to the life of the system, both in terms of battery life and how well it sells.

At the moment, the word is that SteamBoy will be released sometime in 2015, which the beginning of is less than six months away, so if the stars are properly aligned, this will be a product that will see the light of day before the end of next year.  We will just have to wait and see in the coming months as new information is released regarding system specifications and almost as importantly, a price tag although the company's word is that "the device will balance performance and cost. . ."

It is now only a waiting game.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
You Might Get What You're After

E3 2014: Post Game Show Recap

Welcome to the day after E3 2014.  The Electronics & Entertainment Exposition has come to a close.  Following last years reveal of the Big Three's consoles, this year looked to be primarily focused on games and which systems you could  not play those games on.  I do not have an exact count (because I'm lazy) of the number of exclusives released for each system (PS4, Vita, XBone, Wii U, 3DS, PC), but as to be expected there were a handful (PS4: The Order: 1886; Vita: Persona 4: Dancing All Night; XBone: Sunset Overdrive; Wii U: Baynetta 2; 3DS: Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney; PC: Civilization: Beyond Earth).  Additionally there are games being released/announced this year that only last year were exclusives (Dead Rising 3).

And what about gaming products and peripherals (I cannot spell "peripherals" without help)?  I was surprised that I did not hear anything about the Oculus Rift or Sony's Project Morpheus.  And only a couple of days ago and not related to E3 did I hear about Valve's VR headset so I expected to at least hear something from/about one of these products looking to springboard us into the VR "future" of gaming.  I actually had to read an article from RollingStone about a comparison between the Oculus and Morpheus.  Even on Gizmodo I was unable to find anything E3 related, which I found a touch odd, but maybe they are boycotting this year??

Back to the games.

In my previous post, I mentioned a few games that interested me from my perspective of PC/3DS gaming along with a couple extras that I will not be able to get my hands on unless I acquire a PS4, Vita, XBone or Wii U, which does not look like it is going to happen anytime soon.  You know what, let us explore this idea a little bit.  Of the games that were revealed as exclusives, what game would convince me to buy that particular system.

Playstation 4: Everybody's Gone to the Rapture.  I love The Chinese Room from their work on Dear Esther and how they helped out with Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs.  I imagine that EGtoP will be a lot like both of those games.  A story that is told in FP view that probably will not include any combat, but may have enemies of some sort that you have to avoid.  And it looks absolutely gorgeous.

Vita:  Axiom Verge.  Although Axiom Verge is not a Vita exclusive, it is a Playstation exclusive and there only seemed to be a couple that were exclusive to the Vita.  I only found out about this game a few minutes before typing the paragraph two above this one.  The game looks like a mix between Contra (NES) and Super Metroid (SNES), which is a great combination to have.

XBone: D4 (Dark Dreams Don't Die).  I know that being a male video game player between the ages of 18-35, I should be balls out for Halo 5, Halo: The Masterchief Collection or Sunset Overdrive, but those are just not my bag of tea baby.  I did not like Halo the one time I played it and while Sunset Overdrive looks quirky, I like the idea behind D4 a lot more.  An episodic supernatural murder mystery.  That is just more up my proverbial light rail track (streets are so last year bro).

Wii U: The Legend of Zelda.  While I've stated before my growing disinterest in the Legend of Zelda franchise, but damn is this game pretty!  It will be interesting in the coming months to see what the storyline will be and while I can optimistically that it will not involve Princess Zelda being held captive by Ganon/Ganondorf, I will not be surprised if this is the case.  UNLESS!, this will be a Wii U remake of the original that came out back in 1986, then I might actually have to break down and buy a Wii U on the spot.

3DS:  Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call.  Okay, yes, I already own a 3DS, but if I did not, then this game would probably make me go out and buy the system.  My excitement over this game does have a bit of a hiccup though.  In the first Theatrhythm, there are roughly 60 additional songs that you can buy (at $0.99 a piece) to play in the game.  TFFCC touts a total of 200 playable songs and I really hope that that does not include the songs that Square Enix will be trying to sell me.  I also hope that there is a significant enough difference between the songs from the first game and this sequel, even with the inclusion of Final Fantasy Tactics, Advent Children, FF XIII-2, Lightning Returns and FF XIV: A Realm Reborn.

Lastly, a game that I am extremely excited to see released is Gunman Clive 2, the sequel to the awesome 2d side scrolling western platformer from Hörberg Productions.  Is it bad that being surprised by this games announcement was the most excited I became during all three days of E3 coverage?  I do not say this as a critique of the video game industry, or maybe I am and I just do not know how to articulate myself as well as I would like.  Either way, Steam starts their Summer Sale next Thursday (June 19th), so there is plenty of time to build up my self control and hide my credit card where I know it will not be found.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
But Just The Good Days


P.S.  Three additional games, coincidentially all Final Fantasy related that I did not have place for are a 3DS action adventure game akin to the  Monster Hunter series, a mobile game based on the FF VII motorcycle sequence and a f2p mobile game based off of the Japanese released PSP game, Final Fantasy Type-0.

Hyrule Warriors

Update:  Nintendo really is paying attention, check it out:

From the "Hyrule Warriors" trailer at E3.   Looks a bit like this fan art, donut?  

Legend of Zelda Clockwork Empire

I understand that there has been a buzz for a Wii U Zelda game, especially since E3.  But what interests me just as much is this proposal for a new Zelda game, put together a year ago by the webcomic artist Aaron Diaz of Dresden Codak.  As a proof of concept, this game design looks pretty good, in my opinion.  Diaz' art style lends itself to the Legend of Zelda, and his idea of swapping Link and Zelda's roles is a good one.  

As a matter of fact, it looks like the Zelda-is-the-hero idea may come into effect in the upcoming Wii-U Zelda game.  At least, that's part of the buzz, and I welcome it.  There have been a bunch of Zelda games, and the series is long overdue to be reworked.  The gameplay trailer looks fantastic, so I am pretty excited to see more.  

-D

Further Links:  (Or Zeldas)

• Also, the guy (Aaron Diaz) who put together the game proposal also is planning to do an illustrated Silmarillion.
• Zelda starring Zelda is a continual theme among Legend of Zelda fans.  Examples of sweet Zelda Hero art abound.
• The Brainy Gamer is a thoughtful video game professor, blogger and podcaster who loves Zelda, and has spent a great effort thinking about the future of Zelda (back in 2008).

E3 2014: New & Improved 2014 Edition!

Not to be all self deprecating, but if you're looking for up-to-date information about the 2014 Electronics & Entertainment Expo, you're probably in the wrong place.  Dr. Potts and I, while very avid fans of video games and other geek/nerdy/fun related activities, I would be hard pressed to say that either of us have our finger on the pulse of the video game and related industry.

Presently, if you want to find out about all things E3, you could head over to the official homepage or to Gamespot's, I'm assuming, up to date listings of things going on.  Even the Humble Bundle people are getting in on the action and for the three days that the convention graces the southern region of California.

Wait a damn minute!  E3 doesn't start until tomorrow (Tuesday June 10th), "officially," yet EA Games is doing a "special" conference right now.  Microsoft, Ubisoft, Sony and EA are hosting conferences throughout the rest of the convention (Thursday June 12th) while Nintendo will not be present, but instead have a live digital presentation, similar to their presentation last year.

The Wikipedia page for E3 has a current list of games that will be presented, but on E3's page for live video feeds starting tomorrow, there are, presently, three "Unannounced Game," so there "might?" be additional games added to this list later on in the week.  So, similar to what I did with last years article post-E3, these are the games that, on first glance, I am pseudo-excited to find out (more?) about from this years convention.

• Alien: Isolation (PC) - The Creative Assembly
• Assassin's Creed: Unity (PC) - Ubisoft Montreal
• Batman: Arkham Knight (PC) - Rocksteady Studios
• The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth (PC/ 3DS?) - Nicalis
• The Evil Within (PC) - Tango Gameworks
• Game of Thrones (PC) - Tell Tale Games
• Lords of the Fallen (PC) - Deck13 Interactive / CI Games
• Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor (PC) - Monolith Productions
• Mirror's Edge 2 (PC) - EA Digital
• The Order: 1886 (PS4) - Ready At Dawn / SCE Santa Monica Studio
• Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call (3DS) - Square Enix

Yes, an iteration of  Super Smash Bros. is going to be presented by Nintendo, but the couple of times that I've played SSB, I wasn't impressed and I didn't have a lot of fun, so I will join the very small minority of Nintendo fans and not be interested with this game.

There are probably more games that I will have an interest in, but this was only after a cursory glance and run through.

That's really all I have for you all today.  I might do a pseudo-half-assed recap on Friday, or I might so something else completely expected.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Instrumental

Feminist Comic Primer

This is what a feminist comic looks like. Pretty cool, huh? 

Howdy folks,  I've decided to post here today entirely to refer you do a different post that I've been enjoying thoroughly.  Over at Comic Book Resources, writer Casey Gilly has compiled fifteen examples of feminist comics and there's a lot of intriguing stuff on this list.  Feminism is increasingly moving into the conversation about video games and other media, and it's not going away any time soon.  I've always loved a good, strong female character, so I welcome it.  

For those of you who get a headache whenever you hear the word 'feminism,'  I think you will be fine with this article.  She doesn't spend time on complex critical breakdown or apply the Bechdel Test to each item on the list.  Instead the writer includes a paragraph or two about the content of each comic book series,  many of which were written by men.   The titles span a range of styles, including coming of age stories, goofy summer camp stories to high fantasy action series and other mixtures and blends.  Gilly pays attention to strong female characters, and rich story content but doesn't hit you over the head with it.  

You can skip right to the list, or you can read Gilly's first page of writing where she summarizes her own relationship to feminism.  She isn't preachy or judgmental, but instead very personal.  She clearly loves comics, but can't ignore that most comics are aimed toward males, adolescent and adult, and a lot of the girl-oriented fare has been lackluster at best.  

I'm happy to say I'm familiar with a few titles from this list, including the Maxx, Death, Locas: The Maggie and Hopey Stories and Hark! A Vagrant.  Of the new (to me) titles, I'm very interested in checking out I Kill Giants, Anyas Ghost, Princeless, Rat Queens and Red Sonja.  And special points to Saga for having an image of a woman breast feeding with one hand and holding a gun in the other.  I've never seen that one before!  

I'll leave you with a few of the more intriguing covers- from which it is easier to judge a book, in the comic world.  

Lumberjanes

-D

Many thanks to Casey Gilly at Comic Resources for this great article.  And for JP Bruneau for referring me to it.    

DayZ and the Unfinished Survival Genre

The survivalist horror genre, if it is indeed a genre, seems to be a big thing right now, either that or I just happen to like the genre enough to notice games cropping up here and there to think that it is becoming "a thing" in the video game industry.  And just to clarify, I am referring to "open world survival" games that center around your character surviving out in the big bad scary post-apocalyptic world where you have to scavenge supplies in order to survive from either zombies or the more deadly, other humans.  I do not plan on touching on the forebears of the survival horror genre (Sweet Home, Alone in the Dark, Resident Evil, Silent Hill), so aside from their obvious name dropping, I will not cover those games here.

The games that I do want to cover are, coincidentally enough, are all "Early Access Games" through Steam.  Before I get down to it all, I want to mention that the only game that I will be bringing up here that I have played is DayZ as it was the first game I heard about in this genre back when it was still a mod for Arma II; yes, I intentionally made a hipsteresque comment.

To date, I have only managed to put in about two hours into DayZ, thirty of those minutes I put into the game just before writing this article.  The fact that I have not put as many hours into this game has made me a little sad.  Ultimately, the game that is available to play, albeit an early alpha build of the game, is not very fun.

I understand that the game is based heavily off of a mod for another game and that the game is played on one of dozens of servers with anywhere between zero and 30-50 other people.  In a game where the goal is to survive both zombies and humans, people are going to be very competitive.  In a recent podcast of The Patch, it was "reported" that there were certain aspects that were broken, such as people server hopping after looting an area and becoming overly powerful with respect to people, like me, just signing on.  

Somehow, not normal behavior for a zombie.

To date though, I have not run across any other survivors.  In my last playthrough, I ran across a total of four zombies.  No, make that five.  The first one beat/ate the crap out of me while I tried to climb a ladder up to a roof.  I later threw myself off the roof rather than go about a slow death bleeding out.  One zombie ran through the wall of a house and became stuck in the floor.  The other three mobbed me one after the other after I came out of a house.  The first I clubbed to "death" within a couple of hits with a massive wrench I recently found; the second took way too many hits and I then thought that I had to "target" the head, but that was not the case; the third kept chasing me into the house I had recently vacated before I could manage to close the door behind me.

I must admit though that the player is warned before each playthrough that the game is not complete.  The disclaimer states that "This game is in Alpha and will be for some time.  This means you will experience bugs, unfinished features, problematic design decision, and many more things that disrupt your game experience.  We will be working with the community to fix these. . . Above all, please remember that this game is not finished, and is a work in progress."  I think I may just give DayZ some time to work things out and check back every few months to see how the development is going.  Steam even recently updated their FAQs for Early Access games (possibly due to the Earth: Year 2066 debacle) to state that "You should be aware that some teams will be unable to 'finish' their game. So you should only buy an Early Access game if you are excited about playing it in its current state."

This now brings me to the other games that I did not mention, but as I did mention, there seems to be a fair amount that fit within the DayZ model of open world survival and most importantly "not finished."

• 7 Days to Die
• Beasts of Prey
• Dead State
• The Dead Linger
• The Forest
• The Nether
• Planet Explorers
• Project Zomboid
• Rust
• Starbound
• Starforge
• The Stomping Land

A lot of these games tout their "procedural worlds," which makes me wonder if that means that the world is being constantly created while the game is being played and can be different on each playthrough or for different people, which is kind of what it is, in laymans terms.  Crafting is also a very big aspect in almost all of these games.  Be it crafting weapons, shelter, bandages or cooking food, "creating" is a big aspect here.  I cannot tell from the trailers of the above games if eating/drinking is or will be as important as it is in DayZ, where you can actually die from starvation and dehydration, but I would not be surprised if maintaining your health is another part of these games.

This looks to apparently be "a thing," an idea I thought about in the last couple of days due to Extra Credits' posting about the effects of future games from a generation who have grown up on Minecraft.  These series of games just might be the link between massive worlds where you build stuff to survive and the Left 4 Dead zombie action game.

But, they do not pay me to make assumptions.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

And I Believe In The Promised Land

Game Idea: Doggie Soccer/Keep Away

Lately I've been playing with the puppy dog at my house.  His name is Bubba and he is a Great Dane/Pitt Bull Mix, is about 6 months old and very rambunctious.  Recently his Momma got him a basketball, and we have been having a blast playing with it.  The thing is deflated enough so that he can get a pretty good grip on it, and my job is to try and knock it out of his mouth.

As I play, I start to think of a scoring system.  For Bubba, his basic way of scoring points is time of possession.  I imagine a shot clock ticking up as he holds onto the ball.  For me, my points come from getting the ball away from him.  Of course, he is faster than me, and has more energy, so if he really wants to, he can just play keep away all day.  But that's not fun, and I will quickly throw down the controller (metaphorically) and leave.  So I imagine that the possession clock isn't worth all that many points, and it either tapers off or cuts off after a certain number of seconds.

He is very good at snatching the ball back up when I've kicked it or knocked it away from him.  95% of the time, he is the one to regain possession, not me.  This leads me to another scoring-system feature.  I think that I should get points based on the distance I am able to knock the ball, and he gets points based on the speed of his recovery.  Like a little bonus get of a sort.  Occasionally, I am able to recover the ball, and gain complete possession.  I think there are bonus points there as well, though the fact that I can launch the ball across the yard may be enough compensation for me.

So, using this scoring system, I think he and I are pretty evenly matched.  I haven't tweaked the actual points rates, and of course I don't have the facilities to measure out time of possession, but that's because this is really just me playing with a dog, and not a video game.  Might be a reasonably fun  video game though.

-D


P.S.  When I was coming up with this idea, I also thought of a game called "Hokra" that i played at the cooperative gaming coop.  This was a four-player sports game, for an invented sport.  Two teams of two try to hold a ball in one of four goal zones.  Points rack up while in possession in a goal zone.  The other team tries to knock the ball away and gain possession.  What I love about Hokra is the fun, but also its simplicity.  Both in rules and fully embraced, minimalist graphics.  It was really fun to play, but I only got half the idea as there were just two of us playing.  I'd love another shot at it.  I wonder what ever happened to ol' Hokra anyhow?  Not to mention the Cooperative Gaming coop.

Hokra

P.P.S.  I've also come up with stages for Doggie Soccer.  One is a backyard, fairly typical, with a fence and maybe some patio furniture or something.  Then there is the Soccer Field, which has no obstacles and a perfectly smooth surface, and even goals, which could be optioned for points.  And the third is the 'doggie dominated yard' which is a yard that is littered with holes, chewed up pieces of garbage, ripped apart toys, and everybody's favorite:  dog poop.  This stage is skewed to the advantage of the dog, as points are lost for stepping in dog crap or tripping in a hole and twisting your ankle.  I'd like to add that this is the stage I typically play Doggie Soccer in  >;)  

Monthly Update: June 2014

Happy June everyone.  I come to you from the past, specifically Saturday May 31st, 2014, but as you will be reading this on or after June 2nd, 2014, it will all be kosher.  I am join you with Joey Mjölnir Explosion (the cat) patrolling around my feet and a bourbon with Pepsi in my hand.  Well, it was in my hand before I started typing.  And now JME is attempting to eat my pizza on a plate across the room.  

May has been a pretty standard month, except that it hasn't.  Unemployment aside, I have had some time to spend on reading, playing video games and contacting lawyers (more on that after everything has been settled).

I have been playing quite a lot of Elder Scrolls Online and as previously mentioned, I am doing a very good job of playing an MMO like a good introvert: solo.  I might have around 40 hours clocked in the game (just an estimate) and I still have yet to figure out how to use the chat window to talk to other players.  It is not very high on my priority list of things to do in the game.  I frequently have my ass handed to me when I try to take on groups (read 3-4) of enemies whose level is on par with my own.  I have been invited to join three groups and have turned them all down as politely as pressing "X" can be.

One interesting thing I noticed about the ESO is that your character never sleeps.  Time passes in the game, about the same rate as it does in Skyrim, but sleeping and Inns are not a thing.  This first struck me as very odd, but then I quickly realized that that sleeping in an MMO game would be hard to do as everyone, at least in North  America , is on the same server to time jumping in-game would be a bit difficult to manage, quantum physics aside.  So I just imagine that my character hates me while I have him adventuring for five in-game-days straight then sleeps for a couple of weeks when I am not playing.

There is another MMO that I just started a couple of days ago although this one is a MOBA (Massive Online Battle Arena) in the form of the Dead Island: Epidemic closed beta.  I thought it an interesting idea coming from only having played the first Dead Island which is an FPSRPG.  The drastic transition of formats is like the difference between The Legend of Zeldas top down versus The Adventure of Links top down and side scrolling with levelling RPG elements.  The game actually reminds me a lot of Torchlight, although I have not played Torchlight co-op, so maybe it is nothing like that.  But  in  DI:E, you pick one of four characters with their own set of abilities and go from point A to point B and kill a shit ton of zombies/walkers along the way, usually culmination with a boss battle.  The 40 minutes that I have put in it, I did enjoy.  Maybe more on that later this month.

I am also in process of internally debating how much more aggravation I want to put into Assassin's Creed as I have hit a wall that I do not feel prepared enough to break through.  It seems to be one of those points in the game that you should feel comfortable completing but I think I may have missed a training session or skill set along the way.  I have no Yoda to help me this time.

Lastly, I broke down a couple of days ago and paid (albeit not as much as would have liked, but I am unemployed) for the Humble Weekly Bundle featuring RPG Maker VX Ace and a whole lotta DLC (6 DLC just for VX Ace alone).  As Dr. Potts recently postulated, I too have stories to tell, both in written and video game form; and in D&D module form for that matter!  I also have music to write and creating my own "game" just might be the kick in the tuchas that I need.  With the help/advice from a good many episodes of Extra Credits, I am in the process of writing a story before I get down to the creating part although I plan on tinkering around a bit before the story is finished so that I am aware of the limitations of the program.  A nightmare would be to find out that the program is incapable of doing storywise what I want it to do and I have been down that road before the the authoring tools in Neverwinter Nights.  I am also very tempted to take existing Ravenloft modules and turn those into games, but that might be in the future. 

So in the meantime, I am doing research for my story and hopefully the NSA reads this before looking over my cache and browser history and decides that I am a person of interest.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Whispering the Words You Never Should Have Learned