First Impressions: Mansions of Madness (Board Game)

Conklederp and I received Mansions of Madness from Salty Liver and her newly acquired hubby for our own wedding, which will be taking place in less than two weeks.  Last night, we finally broke into this monster of a game.

One of the main reasons why I wanted to play this game in particular was because despite its size as a board game, it can be played with only two players without losing any of the attempts to create fear and dread.  The other reason I wanted to play Mansions of Madness was because it is based on various stories by H.P. Lovecraft and I have already covered my issues with playing games based on Lovecraft with groups of people unfamiliar Lovecraftian mythos.  So far, knowledge of Lovecrafts stories do not seem to be dependent on having fun with this game.

That being said, Mansions of Madness is an overwhelming game.  Just look at everything that is included with this beast as mere word could not do it justice:

Picture courtesy of: http://www.beastsofwar.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Mansions-of-Madness-1.jpg

The board is made up of double sided heavy-duty cardboard with wonderfully detailed rooms with hallway sized rectangular pieces, large room square pieces (hallway x 2) and one large main hall/front yard piece (hallway x 3).  There are I don't know how many permutations that could be created with these pieces.

Anyway, we are here to briefly talk about the hour long play session that Conklederp had last night.  We did not finish either, but came very close.

I played as The Keeper (the DM in D&D terms) while Conklederp played as the one Investigator (PC in D&D).  Being out first time playing, there were quite a few moments when I had to look at the rules to know what to do with certain cards (if an artifact could be kept after being used or had to be discarded), if the Investigator could search a room when a monster was either in the same room or space or if unlocking a puzzle/lock counts as an action the same way searching a room counts as an action (it does not if the Investigator succeeds in unlocking the puzzle/lock).  

Again, "overwhelming" comes to mind.  It would be like starting a game of Dungeons & Dragons for the first time and anyone who knows what that is like can understand the feeling of performance anxiety, even if it is with someone who is patient and understanding.  Conklederp and I were patient with each other as we asked questions about what to do or clarifying information on cards.  Still, I felt we both had a lot of fun.

Playing as The Keeper, I have to have bits of information kept secret from the Investigators, know which cards I have and when I can play them (cards kept secret) all the while holding down a poker face so I do not give away the fact that I could cripple an Investigator with the drop of a card.  I didn't.  Some cards are event specific while others are dependent on the Investigator being in a specific room or a room with a specific feature (An altar, ventilation grate, hiding spot).  It is a lot of information to take in and keep track of all the while maintaining a sense of fear for the player and role playing the story and keeping the events interesting for the player.

I love it!

Like I said, Conklederp and I played for about an hour, maybe an hour and-a-half with rule clarification happening, but not including the time it took to set up the board, place the room cards in their specific locations, and gather which specific cards I needed for the story that I was telling.  Set-up took about 30 minutes.  Overall, the game is supposed to take about two to three hours from start to finish and I can confirm that with at least two people, this prediction is pretty accurate, although I can understand this being a turnoff for a good segment of the board game playing population.

An hour in, and I have control of only four monsters.  Plenty to drive Conklederp's character insane!

Before we started playing, I also quickly created a playlist of instrumental background music that I set to shuffle.  This list included music from Bram Stoker's Dracula by Wojceich Kilar, Castlevania 64 by Masahiko Kimura, Motoaki Furukawa and Mariko Egawa, Amnesia: The Dark Descent by Mikko Tarmia and Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem by Steve Henifin.  At times the music seemed to mirror the actions in the game, but I never noticed that the music was out of place, but then I was also paying attention to the music when it changed while I cannot say the same for Conklederp.

There is a lot that I have yet to cover such as horror checks, trauma cards, combat, how the choices The Keeper makes during setup affects and changes the story and how events unfold during play, and how the game is won.  I will say that while it is The Keeper's objective to prevent the Investigators from achieving their objective (which is revealed to them through the course of the game/story), if an Investigator dies, that is not the end of the game, but the player can bring in a new character (one that has not yet been killed) up until the final act in the game.  I love that this is a game designed around everyone having fun but still knowing that in the end, someone will have to come out victorious.

I am looking forward to concluding this one (of many) possible storylines with Conklederp and more so to playing with our friends next weekend.  The one downside is that the game is designed for 2-5 players and apparently can be very cluttered and may not be playable if more than four Investigators are playing as the Investigators end up just stacking up in rooms without being able to either do much "investigating" or they spread out too much, uncovering information that would have been uncovered a turn or two later, progressing the story at a slower, more manageable pace.

The point is, there is a lot to this game and I cannot wait to delve deeper into its tentically depths.  Perhaps after we are finished, Conklederp will do a write up about her experience as an Investigator playing Mansions of Madness for the first time.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Something It Appears Has Changed

At long last a Link Dump!

I've had all these links just piling up, I thought maybe it was time for another LINK DUMP!

For starters, check out this totally sweet 8-bit style Smash Bros, put together by CJartan at Deviant Art.


I think that was pretty neat.  Next up, Bennet Foddy's Speed Chess.  You may remember Bennet Foddy from such hits as 'QWOP' or the sequel 'Clop.'  If you don't remember him, that is fine, but you should probably check those games out, preferably with someone around to laugh with you.  

The story with Speed Chess is that Bennet Foddy thinks Chess is too slow, and thus he created a new version of chess that plays in real-time.  Also, there are 16 players.  Interested yet?  It's certainly worth a look.
Well, here's the thing: It's actually designed for 16 players, all plugged into the same console.  16 controllers, can you believe that?  How silly.  I hope he decides to make an online version.  

Alright, we can't play Speed Chess.  Even though it sounds like fun.  Maybe in the meantime we can just read this Cracked article about mini-games that people developed within other video games.  Avoiding the Kamikaze mushroom in Mario 64 sounds like fun!  Cracked really has come a long way from being a poor man's MAD magazine.

Speaking of mini-games.  One time there was a site dedicated to Underdog games at Kongregate.  I always like to see people sticking up for the little guy.  It's too bad the site stopped updating in 2008.  I remember those innocent years.  Before Indie Gaming was a huge industry, and Steam was still an upstart.  Just sifting through Kongregate, looking for something worth playing.  Finding plenty of five to ten minute interesting plays.

Oh, the old days.  So,  I'm no Sonic the Hedgehog fan, but I can respect the content of this next article.  It's written by a die hard Sonic fan about a hidden level in a Sonic game.  This level was featured in a preview story about the game, but was not actually included in the published release.  But that didn't stop die-hards from searching and spreading rumors and writing in.  It's a cool story, for which I can put aside a deep grudge against Sega.  Sonic did have cool art, afterall.  

  

A Quest for the Secret Origins of Lost Video-Game Levels.

Finally, I'll leave you with this sweet little comic.  Go ahead and click the picture to read the whole thing.  Brought to you by JPBruneau and OwlTurdComics.

We Go Forward

-D

    

Finding Time With Mobile Games

Just to warn you ahead of time, I will not be making any sweeping declarations or forcing our reader to have an epiphany of Torahic proportions.  It is just an observation.

There are a few games that I play on my phone and of those few, even fewer that I play on a regular basis.  Actually, since both lists are relatively small, let us just do some listing of the games in alphabetical order, because that is how they are organized in my phone.  Yes, I am that way.

• Angry Birds
• Blitz (Bejeweled)
• Bloons TD 5
• Clash of Clans
• Dead Space
• Desert Bus
• God of Blades
• Humble Bundle (Not a game, I know, but it is an application for games)
• Munchkin Counter (See above)
• PvZ2 (Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time)

That is it.  So of the ten listed, two of the applications are not games, so it is really eight.  Of those eight, I play two on a daily basis.  Of the remaining six, I have played, maybe two in the last month.  From those four, I still have them on my phone because I have not beaten them yet.

So as you might be able to tell, I do not spend a lot of time on my phone playing games.  Plants vs. Zombies 2 I will play once a day, usually for no more than five minutes and then it goes back into the vault.  This is because, as somewhat stated in my update from January, the game has become less fun and all I really look forward to are the Piñata parties, which now happen once every 24 hours.  I go through the single stage and if I am able to complete it, great!  If I fail the first time through, I put the game away rather than spend 1000 gold to purchase a replay.  Recently, EA/PopCap updated the game to include a variation on the Vase Breaker mini-game from the original Plants vs. Zombies, but I might go through a single stage then put the game away.  There is maybe 10 minutes tops.

In Clash of Clans, I will go into the game, collect gold and elixir from my mining sources, check to see if I have enough gold/elixir to upgrade any existing buildings, check the time remaining on any buildings which are being upgraded then exit the game.  If I had recently been attacked, I will watch the replay of the raid.  This takes all of, at most, 7-10 minutes.  Do not get me wrong though, I am fairly addicted to this game but I know there will be a point when I stop playing rather than saving up a weeks worth of gold to upgrade a single piece of the wall.

Dead Space, of which I will write an article about in the nearish future, while a fun game, has one major flaw.  The game cannot be manually saved, but instead is auto-saved when you reach a checkpoint, which happens at the end of a "chapter."  Chapters in this game last anywhere from 15-20 minutes.  This is the flaw and where the nugget for this article sprang from.  If I could manually save, as in the main games, I would not feel that I had to find and dedicate 20 minutes to playing a game on my phone.  But why would playing a game on the cellphone versus on the 3DS feel so different if they are both video games played on a 3-3 3/4" screen?

Maybe it is the already short battery life of my cellphone or the fact that it is a cellphone that I do not feel as inclined to play games on it as much as I would with my 3DS.  The primary reason for my phone existing is so that I can make/receive phone calls (when not obstructed by my apartment) and text messages; those who know me can already attest how much I already do not talk on the phone.  Playing games on my phone is only secondary and something that I do when I am out-and-about and I do not have my 3DS on me.  Although feeling publicly chastised for playing games on the 3DS vs. the cellphone is a whole other nest of flesh eating elder horrors that I might cover at a later date.

Maybe it is the fact that a lot of cellphone games are free-to-play and are designed around microtransactions in order to keep the games action flowing.  But, when someone like myself who does not spend real world money to buy gems/gold/energy to continue playing or reduce the week it takes to upgrade a mortar canon, play time is greatly reduced.  Reduced playtime on cellphone games has possibly wired my brain to not want to spend more than a couple of minutes playing games on my cellphone, which is possibly why is has taken me three months to go through the Dead Space mobile game which should have only taken me only four hours.   I am intrigued by the story told in the game and how it will connect to Dead Space 2, but it just seems that the platform is what is holding me back.

Just something to think about (or not, that is cool too) this weekend.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Never Ending Soul Ripping

Blue Wizard : Second Impressions

http://sethflynnbarkan.com

Blue Wizard is about to Die is a book of poems about Video Games by Seth 'Fingers Flynn Barkan.  One thing i didn't say in my first impressions of this book is that these poems are pretty much EXACTLY what I'm going for with this blog.  Or, at least, with a lot of what I've written.  Particularly the memory posts.  The visceral, the nostalgia, the sense of memory, of childhood daydreams.  Teen Angst and vulgarity.   It's all in this book.  Really quite remarkable.

Video games are a refuge, but they were also a calling.  When I was young, many days there wasn't anything I'd rather be doing than playing an awesome video game.  And then other times, they were a way to escape when the rest of the world seemed shitty.

It should be noted that, while much of the spirit of this book is right on the marker, by now, I've really noticed a divergence from my own experience. First off, Flynn Barkan has a much deeper connection to arcade games than I do.  While I played plenty of arcades at the bowling alley, pizza places or TILT, our former Mall Hangout, I never got particularly good at any arcade games.  I just didn't have the time, the funds, or the skill.  

I've never considered myself to be a particularly skilled video game player.  I enjoy competing at games like Goldeneye, Mario Kart or even Street Fighter II, but I regularly have my ass handed to me by friends like Cortez, and later ZorTheRed or Ghost.   I'm not the worst, but I'm certainly not the best.  This, I learned early on.  The author of Blue Wizard, on the other hand, spends some time illustrating his expertise at various arcade games.  Additionally, he gets pretty lifestyle-gritty.  Smoking, doing drugs, that kind of thing.  Things that I don't associate with nostalgiac video game good times.

Finally, in this entire book (complete with citations and a list of the best games ever - nice to read)  He mentions an RPG all of once.  Well there you go.  That's the difference.  While I enjoy action games as much as the next guy, I also have spent equal amounts of time just playing RPG games.  RPGs made up a significant piece of the game-times pie that I baked for myself.  This is a portion of gaming not at all represented in Blue Wizard is about to Die. 

So, after the novelty wears off, I see that this author and myself are really quite different.  However, I don't think this is a bad thing.  Actually, it's a good thing!  A testimate to the variety of gamer identities out there.  And I don't have to like everything he does to appreciate his work. Which I do!  And I think you will too.   

-D

MIDI Week Singles: Song A - Gauntlet (NES)

"Song A" from Gauntlet on the Nintendo Entertainment System (1987).

No official soundtrack released.

Composer: Hal Canon

Game Developer: Tengen

Song A.  Unless you played Gauntlet either in the arcade or on the original NES back in and around 1987, your probably don't know which song I'm talking about.  Although what little music there was in Gauntlet II, it was, more-or-less, the only song included and a motif of the theme was briefly used in Gauntlet Legends during the character select, but as for other releases in the series (Gauntlet III, Gauntlet Dark Legacy, Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows) , I have not heard this theme, although it may have been used as a motif unnoticed by myself.

One thing that really impresses me about this song lasts about 1 minute 3 seconds before it starts to repeat.  Now, this is by no means a record for video game music of this era (Ultima: Exodus has some pretty long tracks), but even the "Above Ground BGM" from Super Mario Bros. (1985) clocks in at 40 seconds and the theme from stage 1 ("1st & 2nd BGM")in Ghosts 'n Goblins (1985) lasts 32 seconds.

The composer, Hal Canon is a mystery in itself.  The current? word is that the whereabouts of Mr. Canon are unknown so talking about his influences for "Song A" would be a bit difficult, although we are freely able to speculate since this is the Internet.  To me, I hear Baroque influences and could easily hear this song performed on a harpsichord, or the next best thing, the guitar (and the piano too I guess), which makes it sound a lot like the theme from Mystery! (composed by Norman Roger).  J.S. Bach would probably have other things to say about this comparison, but again, that's for the Internet to speculate on.

Alrighty, that's enough linkiness for one Wednesday.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

All You Search For

Rambling In The Name Of

I had an interesting week last week, and by interesting, I mean that it will be not at all interesting for you, the reader.  So needless to say, which is why it is needed to be said, I will not be winning any Pulitzers for this one particular article.

First off, this happened to my computer screen last Thursday.  This is not only why steak knives and computer screens should not be friends, but also a lesson in the activities of stretch/yawning while moving toward a spinning ceiling fan.  As is the slogan of Nike in one of many alternate universes goes:

The other non-interesting aspect for you of my last week was that I was indoctrinated into Path of Exile.  I've known about this game for some time, in that it was a Diablo-type clone that was a lot of fun to play and that it was free-to-play.  For whatever reason, those two descriptors together made me wary about trying the game.  Then I noticed Chreekat playing it a lot while I was learning the ropes of DOTA2 and thought I would give it a try.  17 hours later (after figuring out why it wouldn't initially download the first five times I had tried), I've fallen in love with this game.  The character choice is plentiful, the artwork and world design is beautiful, the music is semi-atmospheric-eh, and the skill tree, holy damn the skill tree!

This is maybe just a quarter of the skill tree too.  All these tiny lines and dots were a little overwhelming when I first started, but now I feel that this tree will be manageable.  Did I mention the game is free?  I gladly would have paid money to play this (having played the game now) and the moment I have a steady income again, these fine folks will be receiving a bit of mine.  Oh, and presently, I have not experienced anything that leads me to believe that I have to pay money in order to progress through the game and I am not inundated with adds or special offers for glowing glitter eyes.

I've also just finished Flashforward by Robert J. Sawyer, the book in the Summer Reading BINGO, and so now it is onto a book "With a number in the title."  Time to go look through the book case or peruse what free titles I already have on the ol' Kindle.  That is, unless I plan on reading something by Janet Evanovich, but that'd be an easy out and I have no real interest in Evanovich.  The search begins.

Returning to the world of games, Salty Liver and her newly acquired husband gave Conklederp and myself, for our own nigh-approaching wedding, the Mansions of Madness board game.  I am excited to play this game, which I will get into in a later post, but for now, looking through all the materials will have to make do.

Apologies for this less than stellar submission to the Nobel Prize for Literature, but then again, we all can't be Steinbecks.  Or Kings.  Or Revertes.  Or Tolkeins.  Or Pratchetts.  Or Lovecrafts.  Or Crichtons.  Or Adams'.  Or Machens.  Or Poes.  Or Dumas'.  Now Shakespeares, those're one a dozen.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Converting All Your Sounds Of Woe

Emulator Hour: Xenogears (PS1)

Seems like a sufficiently villainous goal

You know, in my endless pursuit of nostalgia, I've come to the conclusion that the Playstation 1 actually had a lot of really great games.  Back in the great CD Burn-off of '01, I acquired quite a few excellent RPGs from Square.  In fact, I think the rate of US release for Square really increased around that time.  'Only in Japan' was no longer a phrase to frustrate the RPGphile.

Xenogears - it's been twelve years since I played through the first disc, but I still remember it like yesterday.  Would I do it again?  Maybe.  I think I'll just read a plot summary instead.   This is a very good plot summary, full of love and criticism.   You know, I played this game yesterday for barely an hour, and I've had its image in the back of my mind all day today.  I think this may be due to the sheer number of hours I put into it twelve years ago.  This  game is long-  50 hours on one disc!  (of two)

Playing Xenogears is like watching 300 episodes of some Shonen Anime.  You know - the kind whose story just keeps getting bigger and bigger, new twists, bigger bad guys, greater powers.  Xenogears is epic, sweeping, daring and strange.  The music is good, the environments have character, the battle system is fun.  All in all, a great jRPG from 1998.  

 But, there's no getting around it:   Xenogears starts to drag after while.  Then it proceeds to drag on for a very long time.  After a point, it's hard to say what is dragging the most, the story or the gameplay.  You start to notice the encounter rate is maybe a bit too high.  Or that the story simply takes too long to reveal things that it has been hinting at for a long time.  On the one hand, I like that the game takes its time with the story.  On the other hand, when two things are dragging at once, it really takes its toll.  This game is in dire need of an editor.

And yet... I would still consider playing it through again.  Or at least trying.  Boy it would be nice if I shorten some of the gameplay though.  It feels weird to say so, like some kind of betrayal of my young self, who loved long games.  But it's true, and I don't think it's just me being old. I think that Zeboyd games were onto something when they made monster encounters manual.  Or Chrono Trigger with the encounters being featured on the screen, sometimes avoidable, sometimes predictable, but not hyper-persistent and random.   There are so many times when I'd like to explore a little-- hell, even hear some more of the music play out, but I know I'm going to hit a random encounter every five seconds.  In an already long game, this is just too much. 

So, ultimately I'd say Xenogears:  play at your own risk.  If you like jRPGs, particularly 90s era RPGs, Xenogears is a great game.  Compelling, unique and mysterious.  But it takes like 50 hours to get through the first disc, and it can really drag.

It's really tough to encapsulate Xenogears in just a pic or two.  But here's a cast shot.

 
P.S.  I decided to read through the Let's Play Xenogears article rather than play through the second disc.  It was enjoyable and entertaining, with music links for each scene, and a pretty funny sense of humor.  I can only recommend it as a cop-out for those of us unwilling to dump another 20 hours into this game.  

P.P.S.  Xenogears gets a lot of criticism - the same criticism I also levied against it.  So here's an article from Joystiq coming to its defense.  It really is a great game!   Mostly.

Return to Morrowind: The Fall of the Nerevarine

I finished Morrowind quite a while ago although I never wrote a followup to my First Impressions article, mainly because I couldn't think of something insightful to say that hadn't already been said my the people who already love that game over all other games in The Elder Scrolls series.  I will simply say that I love Morrowind too for what it was back in 2002 and for what it is here in 2014.  

Just as a warning, there will be SPOILERS in the following section that cannot be avoided as they pertain to events that happen to the main character in the game relating to the main storyline.  You have been warned.

What I'm here to talk about is the evolution of my character, Valgrin of Markarth, whom I briefly covered in my first post about Morrowind.  In that post, I said that Valgrin was born somewhere in the province of Skyrim, probably sometime around 3E-400 (27 years before the beginning of Morrowind).  Stuff happens around the city of Markarth that lands him in prison, possibly Cidhna Mines and as there is little known history as to how long Cidhna Mines have been in operation as a prison, we'll still go with that story.  Eventually he is shipped off to Morrowind by decree of Emperor Uriel Septim VII as is told at the beginning of the game.

The story events happen in Morrowind including Valgrin contracting Corpus Disease although the symptoms are nullified through events in the game.  Additionally, Valgrin receives the Wraithguard gauntlet from Vivec in the later stages of the game.  I decided that Wraithguard, upon equipping it, has fused to Valgrin's arm.  I haven't decided if this has to do with the Corpus Disease or if it is simply something that just made sense in my head.  I also based the following events on what is known to have happened to the Nerevarine from various sources of information.

So Valgrin of Markarth, now known as the Nerevarine has a disease that affects the mind and body as well as a gauntlet that has fused to his arm.  

The main reason for all of this is that I wanted to increase the stats of the skills that I did not focus on during the main campaign and do side quests in both the main game and expansions that I did not have a chance to do the first time around.  My Light and Medium Armor skills were very low, so I began equipping bits of armor I found, replacing the Nordic Mail I had been wearing since starting the Bloodmoon expansion.  So I have decided that Valgrin was becoming slowly crazy, as an explanation for wearing non-matching pieces of armor.  It made sense in my head.

If you recall from my initial post, when I started the main storyline in Morrowind, Valgrin looked like this:

By the end of the game, roughly 120 hours later, he had developed into an ass kicking Nordic tank sporting primarily Ebony and Daedric armor; I apparently did not care about wearing the heaviest armor in the game.

Although his outward appearance has started to become erratic, I have not changed his overall behavior towards the other NPCs and I am continuing to complete quests as they come in.  He still acts the same as he did before the effects of the Corpus Disease and Wraithguard, but he is not outwardly carrying himself as he did before.  During one of the quests in the Bloodmoon expansion, I came across a creature that used a severed Nord leg as a club that I have held onto.  I figure that along with Valgrin's conglomeration of armor from various sources, that he will end up only equipped with this semi grotesque clubbed weapon (not depicted here however).

Yes, a bug helmet.

I think my endgame is that eventually he will act erratically enough that he might start killing people just because (although that might be pretty extreme), although I am sure that most of us have gone on killing sprees right after saving knowing that we would not be saving after.  After I have decided that I am done playing Valrin, he will be lost from Vvardenfell, possibly becoming a hermit, with history only remembering that an Outlander was found to be the Nerevarine and was never heard from again after a certain amount of time.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
And Everything Needs A Reason To Be

MIDI Week Singles: Vampire Killer - Castlevania (NES)

This.

"Vampire Killer" from Castlevania on the Nintendo Entertainment System (1986).

Demon Castle Dracula Best

Record Label: Konami

Composer: Satoe Terashima (James Banana)

Game Developer: Konami

If any song is going to put me in the mood to kill vampires and other associated forms of undead or supernatural abominations, this song does it for me every time.  Sure there are a lot of other songs from the Castlevania series that I could have chosen today, but I had to go with what I feel is a quintessential song from such a long running series.

Satoe Terashima has done a phenomenal job with three tones creating a song 28 years old that still resonates with modern audiences.  I do not know if I would put this song up with with the "BackGround Music" from Super Mario Bros. or the "Overworld" theme from The Legend of Zelda, but for me it is equally recognizable and just as important.

I know that in later Castlevania games, especially on the DS, the "Vampire Killer" theme is used sparingly, typically near the end of the game and I am perfectly fine with that.  I take it as a reminder of where the game originated and is congratulating/thanking the player for playing through the new installment.  I have yet to finish any of the newer reboot games so I cannot comment if "Vampire Killer" is used by Óscar Araujo (the composer for the reboot series), but I would not be surprised to hear its motif used later in the game.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Second Impressions: The Elder Scrolls: Chapter I: Arena (PC)

The following will be my second impressions of The Elder Scrolls: Chapter I: Arena, seeing as how I already had a first impression, but I felt that that article was written a while ago (January 2013) and since then, I have changed my approach to the game and therefore, my impressions of the game have changed dramatically.

About a month ago, I was rereading the article I wrote about failing at being able to successfully load and play Daggerfall (TES: Chapter II) and was going over the comments that had been left.  I followed the link that one Roger left which took me to a wiki page for setting up Daggerfall, that by default is in French or German (if the page does not have the "_EN" suffix), but thanks to the miracles of modern technology, Chrome does a wonderful job at translating the pages into something readable by my uneducated mind.  For both the Daggerfall and Arena pages, I was able to download versions of the game where all of the previous DOSBox commands came "pre-installed."  This was not a problem for Arena, but the chance at having to play Daggerfall without the risk of having the game tell me the previous problems I had were again present, was much welcome.  So the downloads commenced followed by the playing.

The first mission I received after emerging from the spectral gate in the Imperial prisons (surprise, surprise) was to escort a woman from the town of Vullain Haven to Wasten Brukbrook in the east.  Now, I figured that that meant that Wasten Brukbrook would be the next town over, so I began traveling on foot.  It was not until I had exited the game to look up the control setup that I discovered "Shift+M."  

This brought up a map of Tamriel (the explorable world), which then brought up a map of the province I was in when I clicked on that.  I was told that it would take me 17 days to travel from Vullain Haven to Wasten Brukbrook, on the southeastern part of Valenwood.

First off, I learned that by pressing "Shift+M" I was able to bring up the world map, and by clicking on a particular province, I am able to travel to any of the city states or towns in that province.  Finding this out was the very definition of a "game changer."

This was when I decided that I would greatly alter my approach to how I play Arena.  When out traveling in a world without topography, getting lost is beyond easy.

That mountain is really just a matte painting and does not count as topography.

My approach to the game goes now as follows.  If I am on a time sensitive mission (escort/rescue/kill the beast), I will fast travel from wherever I am.  Often times these missions give enough time to fast travel to the desired location, complete the goal and return if need be.  I have yet to come across a quest that would need me to speedrun through a dungeon.

If I am on my way from one town to another, I will exit the town by normal means (the city gate) and head in the direction of the town looking for dungeons along the way.  I will explore said dungeon, often collecting gear and other items and once I am either carrying at my weight or inventory capacity, I finish going through the dungeon (because having a completed map is OCD important), killing as many enemies as I can in order to gain experience then once I exit the dungeon, I fast travel to the next town to sell my collected booty.  I could just as easily fast travel between cities, but where is the fun in that?  Plus I would not be at level 15 having not collected even one piece of the Staff of Chaos.

Currently in the game, traveling between cities takes an average of three days, at least in Valenwood.  So 72 hours of straight walking towards the destination.  I then figured out that 1 minute in real time translates to roughly 12 minutes of in-game time.  So if I wanted to be "hard-core," I would have to spend six hours in real time in order to reach a city 72 hours away.  I do not think that Bethesda believed that players would not use fast travel.  Keep in mind that the town I had to travel to was 17 days away plus the return trip would total 34 days.  I personally would not want to spend 68 hours of real time completing that one quest.  On the other hand, I would be very interested to find out if travelling from one site to another is actually possible without fast travel, but that might have to wait for another time.

In other aspects of the game, I am able to appreciate what Bethesda was trying to do with Arena back when it was released in 1994.  In the instruction manual, the creators often reference pen-and-paper RPGs (Dungeons & Dragons) and even with the character creation and how the stats are affected such as Strength, Wisdom, Endurance, Personality (Constitution and Charisma respectively in D&D), Intelligence, et cetera are all direct references to D&D.  Even the armor rating is taken from THAC0 where a lower number is preferable to a more intuitive higher number.  Bethesda had also expanded upon the standard classes of Fighter, Mage, Cleric and Thief and developed the following subclasses, each with their own bonuses and drawbacks.  For example Thief, Burglar, Assassin, Rogue, Acrobat and Bard are all subclasses to the Thief header.  I blindly chose a thief because unlocking ALL THE THINGS!! is better than say, being able to wear enchanted armor.

There are a few annoyances though, as is to be expected with playing a game that was created 20 years ago on a semi-modern computing device that was built within the last five years.  Now I do not know how often Arena was buggy or to what extent those bugs occurred, but at least once a day I am graced by a crashed game in one form or another.  While the crashes are not all too frequent, they are very annoying, especially when I am about to be picking up some sweet fwag!

But at least the Male is bigger than the Happy4 turning right to the zero eighth notes.  Amiright!?

Having the game randomly crash has also gotten me to save my game after almost every enemy encounter as I have run into monsters that have killed me in two hits while I have full life.  But my main advice for this game: save often, even after doing inane things like selling swag or before leaving a town.

With this renewed interest in Arena, I feel that I am able to enjoy the game a lot more than my first runthrough, although in the article I did sound quite optimistic despite when I last talked to Dr. Potts, before restarting the game again, I mentioned that my biggest issue was finding my way around the world on a 2D surface.  I will probably put out a post on Friday regarding my choice in character and picking a Bosmer (Wood Elf) female and naming her Silandra, so stay tuned if that happens to be your bag of chips.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

I'm Onto The Next One

First Impressions: The Blue Wizard is about the Die (Book Review)

Blue Wizard is About to Die is a book of poems about video games, by Seth 'Fingers' Flynn Barkan.  I picked this up nearly a year ago in the Humble Story Bundle - Video games collection #2.  

I hadn't cracked said bundle of ebooks in all this time, and I wasn't sure when I would get around to it.  However, I just finished 'A Dance of Dragons,' reading about half of it on my cell phone.  I had such a good experience, I knew I wanted more books available on my little portable display and telecommunications device.  

Then I remember the Story Bundle I had purchased on an impulse, and after a skirmish with my cell phone over the subject of storage space (there's space, my phone just doesn't know how to use it) - I was able to download one of the books:  The Blue Wizard is about to Die.  So far, so good.  

I'm writing my first impressions, because after a delightful series of poems, I've discovered I'm about a third of the way through this book.  And, honestly, I'm scared to read the rest, because the enjoyment curve has been so delightful up to this point.  Can he keep it up?

Seriously though, this guy gets it.  I mean, he gets it!  He is approximately my age, and he has played a number of games, been moved by the experience and committed it to poetry.  After reading several of his poems, I can't believe this is the first instance of video game poetry I've seen.  Certainly the first collection of said theme.  And they're great!

I have my favorites so far.  Half Life (2?) is definitely a big plus, but his musings on Lag and his silly Mario scenarious are a great time as well.  All in all, I'm really glad I started reading this, and I recommend it to people who were playing video games in the 80s, 90s and 2000s.  Like me!  

-D

MIDI Week Singles: Pushing Onwards - VVVVVV (PC)

From what I remember, "Pushing onwards" is one of the first songs you hear in VVVVVV and it is what drove me to continue playing the game, albeit for only a total of 25 minutes; I know Dr. Potts, I know, I should be playing more, but that will have to come later.  But the point is, this song is golden.

"Pushing Onwards" from VVVVVV on PC, Nintendo 3DS, Playstation Vita, iOS & Android (2010)

PPPPPP

Game Developer: Terry Cavanagh

Music Composed by: Souleye (aka: Magnus Pålsson)

"Pushing Onwards" is the perfect name for this song.  Whenever I'm running (which isn't too often if we're being honest) and this song comes up, I get into this unabashedly feelgood vibe where I don't care about anything else.  When the song reaches the main theme climax at 1:46 and 3:08, every time I have to jump in the air, mid run punching my fist up to the sky.  Give it a try after listening to the song a first time, try running with this song playing and try not to have smile on your face.

While the rest of the songs on PPPPPP are all very good in their own rights, "Pushing Onwards" is really the highlight of the entire album.  That is really all I have to say about the rest of the album, but we're here to focus on a single song anyways.

"Pushing Onwards" also reminds me a lot of the magnificent score from Mega Man II which then creates whatever chemical reaction happens in the brain whenever we experience positive nostalgia from our past.  That is a feeling that I hope that I will never grow out of and I am thankful that this song is able to do that for me.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Fighting With The Legends of Yore

Gamer Identity 104a

#Gamergate.  Fighting amongst Gamers and Game Critics.  I guess this is a thing that is happening now.  It's leading people to question the idea of what a 'gamer' is, and leading to multiple declarations that the 'gamer' is dead.  I'm cool with that.  Gamer was a term coined when I wasn't paying attention.  I looked up, and that's what people were calling you if you played video games, valued video games and wanted to talk about them.  Fine.   I'm happy to let it go.  I never really had it.

Props to Wil Wheaton and Joss Whedon, whose last names are similar in a way I never noticed until just now.  They're making statements against Misogyny in gamer culture, and I'm all for it.  When I was a kid, there weren't a lot of girls playing video games.  Not just in my neighborhood, but all around, say the statistics.  Now almost half of gamers are girls.  It sounds like a freakin' rennaisance!  I'm envious of the 'kids these days' !   Except... wait -  why are you treating these girls like shit?  Don't turn them away!  What are you DOING?!  WHY?!!

Gamers aren't real.  We're just people.  If the loudest voice in the room is yelling at a little girl, browbeating and threatening her, then we should kick his ass and leave the room.  Done.

"These obtuse shitslingers, these wailing hyper-consumers, these childish internet-arguers -- they are not my audience.  They don't have to be yours.  There is no 'side' to be on, there is no 'debate' to be had. "

Great quote.  I don't even care who said it.  Put more simply: you guys are ruining the fun!


-D

P.S. If you are interested in this subject at all, you really should follow John Bruneau's Tumblr, as he updates frequently will all sorts of tasty stuff.