First Impressions: Star Wars: Episode VII: The Force Awakens Teaser Trailer

I guess this would be an odd first impressions article since it's based off of a minute and twenty-eight second teaser trailer, but that was the best way I could figure to describe today's article.  Sure I might be jumping on a bandwagon if I already wasn't excited about next years installment in the Star Wars franchise.  So, for today's post, I wanted to break down the short 1m28s teaser trailer for Star Wars: Episode VII: The Force Awakens because it came out a number of hours ago, but less than 24.  

Now, I'm not going to give you a frame-by-frame analysis and tell you that the real Millennium Falcon didn't have that buffer panel next to the radar dish in the original trilogy because I don't tend to notice things like that.  I'm also not going to be making sweeping declarations about how each scene figures into the plot as I really don't know.  I'm not up to date with my Star Wars lore.  I just want to talk about something that has captured my imagination (sigh, clichés) since I first saw Return of the Jedi back in 1983 (at the State Theatre in Woodland, CA).

But first off, watch the trailer (again), this being the real one from the Star Wars people and not one of umteen thousands that were fake and propagated the pages of every social networking site for the past month:

Now, I'm not going to be making assumptions as to who specific characters are, how they relate to each other and the returning cast from the original trilogy.  To note, I've never read any of the books in the Star Wars universe.  The last Star Wars video game I played was Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron 2.  I'm just going to talk about what I noticed in an almost purely non-contextual way.

Oh, and all of the sights and sounds contained herein are the property of Disney, Lucas Film and those types.

So there's this desert here right.  Probably Tatooine since that's the main (only) desert planet that the audience is associated with.  And there's a dark gruff British voice over that at first (as well as second, third, forth, fifth, etc) listen sounds a lot like Benedict Cumberbatch.  He's not in the cast listing over at IMDb.  Maybe J.J. Abrams just had him record some script lines for trailers and such?

Then there's this guy.  Who is this guy?  I don't know.  Am I supposed to know who he is since he's the first face in this trailer?  Again, no idea.  But he's in a stormtrooper outfit, apparently very frightened and on the run.  Very briefly you can hear the Imperial probe droid noise before the scene cuts to:

what looks to be an R2 unit head on top of a soccer ball.  I would like to think that it's all a single unit, kind of like a mix between the Dyson Ball, a Roomba and an R2 unit.  But where's this little feller off to?  I don't know.  What are those machines in the background?  One looks like a ship.  Was that a ship that was used/mentioned in that one book "Crosscurrent" that had something to do with a Jedi?  Maybe, I just made that reference up.

Then there's an obligatory multi-shot of stormtroopers that look like they're about to jump out of a plane.  Kind of like the beginning of that Godzilla trailer, but you know, at night time.  I think the helmets look a little bit different than they do in the original trilogy.  That's fine.  Things change over time, especially when your second space station gets blown up by a rag-tag group of rebels.

And here's this woman on a hoverbike transportation device thing.  It might be Tatooine again since there's sand, but that's all I can tell you.  I don't even know her connection to the story, just that she makes an appearance here and rides off towards a settlement.  I will say that it didn't look like she put down her goggles before speeding off and that thing probably kicks up a bit of dirt.  Remember, safety first.

This shot is when I got goosebumps.  I'm sure I did anyway.  But it just looks awesome.  I'm sure this shot is 60%+ CG and I'm fine with that.  I don't expect us to have functioning X-Wings for at least another 11 years.  It looks good though.  I'm also fine with X-Wings flying this low as I would do similar "maneuvers" while playing any one of the Rogue Squadron games.

And as much as people make fun of J.J. Abrams for using lens flares, this is probably the closet the trailer gets to a real life genuine lens flare, out here in the wild.

And then there's a Sith guy, trudging through the snow in a black cloak (which isn't great if you're trying to stay hidden in the snow) with a lightsaber.  A lightsaber that apparently has a little lightsaber crossguard.  Part of me thinks that this shot was included to be like the Darth Maul shot from The Phantom Menace, but less dramatic.  I've read over on reddit that crossguards are mentioned in the books so it's not 100% new or out of place.  I just think it looks a lot like a claymore.

Other people have also commented on the weird looking saber-ness of the lightsabers.  I personally just chalk it up to either being a jerry rigged lightsaber or maybe the force isn't strong enough with this one to maintain a strong beam.  Is that a thing?  Is lightsaber strength based on ones power with the force?

The voice also makes a return here and now I am less convinced that it is Benedict Cumberbatch.  Less British somehow.

And finally we have a sequence that kicks off the Star Wars fanfare with a sequence centered on the Millennium Falcon that does a flip/loop-the-loop! over sand dunes (Tatooine again?) while making a charge towards a pair of Tie Fighters.  There is now spoken dialogue from either Han or Chewie (growl or otherwise) so who knows who is piloting the Falcon.  It's a pretty awesome sequence to watch as I get a little dizzy.

I would say this is probably the most exciting part of the teaser for me since, with the exception of the desert opening, is the longest uncut section, lasting a whole 7.71 seconds.  Plus there's the fanfare by John Williams.

Lastly, there's the cut to the Star Wars titles along with the subtitle of "The Force Awakens."  I'm not about to analyze what the title means in relation to the Star Wars universe and all that I care about right now is that I like it.  It's a catchy title that has caught my attention, unlike "The Clone Wars," which just didn't sit right with me.

As the screen goes dark, there's a quick sound effect of a lightsaber being drawn.  I couldn't tell you which faction of lightsaber it belonged to, Sith or Jedi and I'm sure there's someone out there who knows if there is indeed a difference in the sounds that the lightsabers make.  Again, I'm just guessing and not making fun of the people who do notice/know if these little details exist.

So after a lot of speculation, we now have 56 seconds of visuals from the new Star Wars movie that is slated to be released in December 2015.  I can wait.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Behold Me Now

MIDI Week Singles: "Crayon Dreams" - Crayon Physics Deluxe (PC)

If you're looking for a little piece of ambient piano music with a ever-so-slightly wispy vocal/oboe-esque part going on in the background.  This is that piece.

"Crayon Dreams" from Crayon Physics Deluxe on PC.

Independently Released Online

Composed by: Stian Stark

Game Developer: Kloonigames

What I love about this track, is how peaceful everything in the song is, yet I still feel compelled to do something with that peacefulness.  "Why am I just lying here?  I should be doing something!  I know!  I'll get that ball over to the exit by drawing lines with different colored crayons!!"  But, then the negative part of my brain kicks in and begins to tell me that this music is too peaceful and that some bad is about to happen.  That is how I feel about Stian Stark's "Crayon Dreams."

Try to think of this as a nice quiet, lull before the storm tomorrow known as "Thanksgiving," or if you prefer, "Slapsgiving" before you all go and murder each other tomorrow morning trying to get that TV for an extra 7 1/2 % off from the regular sale prices.

But that would be too negative of a way to end this MWS post. So, if you happened to like this composition by Stian Stark, go ahead and check out some of his other compositions on his own page.  

See you a few days later and a few pounds (or x 0.45359 kilograms for all you crazy Canucks or Habs) later.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Everything Is Right

What I mean when I talk about Graphics

The body of this post was originally composed about two years ago when this blog was brand new.  Because of my difficulty in articulating my thoughts, opinions and convictions, this post sort of floated around in draft form for those two years.  I recently read an essay over at Gamasutra on the same subject and decided to dredge this old post up, dust it off and finally publish it.  I think the subject of graphics has long been an important one in Video Games, though it does seem to be pretty much the same story as when I was a teenager.  Bigger, better, higher, faster.  If this subject interests you at all, have a look at the Gamasutra article I've linked here, and share any thoughts or resources you have on the subject.  Thanks. -D   

no denying this is purty, but is it enough?

When it comes to Graphics, I have always been and will always be, something of a hypocrite.   At least, it will seem that way to everyone who isn't inside my head, or doesn't understand me in that special "nerd" way.  I will, on the one hand, whine endlessly about graphics.  About too much focus on good graphics.  Too many bells and whistles, and not enough depth.  And then, on the other hand, I will dance a jig and praise halleluja to the graphics of games I like.  This is a pattern I plan to never break.

For example: in the case of Minecraft: it’s hard to call the graphics ‘good’ per se, on some sort of linear scale of supposed ‘quality’  - however, it’s easy for me to call the graphics ‘awesome’ because they are.  It’s more a design thing than a photo-realistic thing.  Photorealism is a keyword here.  There is a belief somewhere that this is the pinnicale of graphic representation, and I have to disagree with that. 

When I was younger, I believed in photorealism.  I believed that was the sort of art that required skill, and that abstract art was just nonsense.  Funny thing though:  I have no memory of cartoons as art, or my opinion of cartoon art.  Cartoons were simply alive, and I loved them.  It never occurred to me that they might be art.  Maybe this is one of the best measures of art. 

Bridging the gap from cartoons to realism is comic book art.  I thought Jim Lee and Mark Bagley were the best comic artists of the 90s.  This was in part because of their ability to convey realism, but, growing older, I see that their version of realism was highly stylized and not really photo realistic at all.  But even that level level of realism isn't necessary for enjoyment.  

Quintessential Jim Lee artwork from my childhood

It would be nice to have a better vocabulary for these things.  To better be able to explain what I mean.  I'm going to work on that in this post.  Jac, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.  Little help?

Jaconian's Interjection: I totally get/agree with what you're saying.  I'll argue that with some Final Fantasy games, that they've moved away from story and focused too much on the look and graphics of the game.  "It's not all about graphics!"  But then, when I play say, Wave Race, I'll be like, "It's a pretty standard racing game, nothing overly special.  But dear god man, look at the water!  It looks fucking real!"  That might not be a great example, but I understand where you're coming from.  Another one is the "updated" graphics in Dragon Warrior in the US from Dragon Quest in Japan. 

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_Quest_(video_game)#North_American_localization)  

In the image you can see the difference in sprites and in the article is says that the character always faced that direction, regardless of the direction.  I tell myself now that that would bother me and the "better" graphics are better for game play, even though graphics aren't a big part of why I find that game/series to be so awesome.

Another thing that I've found myself being a hypocrite about, in a similar manner to graphics, is the quality of music in games.  I can listen to the Legend of Zelda overworld theme for hours on end, with it's simple three tone musical awesomeness.  But then with the music from Ocarina of Time, I'll go on for hours about how the music sounds like not-so-great MIDI.  Additionally, the sound quality between the two is different and while there are sound quality improvements over the original soundtrack, ultimately I feel that there was a shift away from melody to atmosphere

OR, staying with Zelda, the graphics and design of the game (like what you said in your previous post) are perfect for  he game.  BUT, if there was an updated remake with either the Wind Waker or Majora's Mask engine, I would be singing its praises even before I got a chance to play it.  Maybe that's because it's something we've been talking about since Ocarina of Time came out.

Yes, graphics sure do represent a mixed bag of experiences.  And it seems like that is the key to the whole thing- how do the graphics affect your experience of the game?  Arguably, with the Dragon Warrior example, your play experience probably wouldn't have been affected much by the graphical updates.  If nothing else, the fact that the character always faces the same direction may have been slightly distracting.  But, then again, it may have been more distracting than I imagine.  I always accepted that the 'open world' style design of Dragon Warrior is a place with four cardinal directions, and that the characters within have a front, sides and a back.  The idea of every character sort of 'strafing' along is kind of distasteful.  But I'm probably over thinking it, which is okay; I like doing that.

I guess when thinking about graphics, it is good to think about how they are used.  In the case of Wave Race, it may be good to note that the game took place in many different settings.  The first that come to my mind is 'Drake Lake,'  which has the most dynamic graphics in that game.  Here, the fog-lifting action on the third lap sort of 'shows you what you've been missing' to great effect.

However, even without the fog-trick from Drake lake, the water effects on Wave Race are awesome.  More than any other racing game, Wave Race gave me the desire to drive off of the course and just go exploring.  I think the water effect had a lot to do with that.  A water environment is so much more interesting than a racetrack environment.  I only wish they had actually supplied an open world track.  Or, hey - you know what would be awesome?  A Jetski option in Pilotwings!  For close examination and exploration of the coastlines and islands. 

Alright, I'm getting distracted here with another one of my random 'you know what would be cool?' game ideas.  Ultimately, I'm not sure what my point is here.  Except maybe that 'my opinion is my opinion and that is that.'  Which is kind of... a moot point to begin with.  Anyhow, when I look at the industry, I see a lot of hyper-realistic big AAA games, but then I also see some really cool artful and abstract indie games.  So, I keep my attention on the indie games, but I do wish that the masses being catered to by the big-industry could see and appreciate the games I love.  And that's normal, isn't it?  

-D

P.S.  Since I originally wrote the bulk of this post, I had the great pleasure of reading Scott McCloud's fantastic 'Understanding Comics' series.  I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in comics, art and design. I found the contents relevant to subjects outside comics; including video games. He puts forth this idea of Realist vs Iconic graphics, and puts them in this nifty Triangle (below), which he cleverly calls the 'Big Triangle.'  He has a breakdown of the Big Triangle on his website.  Go check it out, why not?

A Review: Assassin's Creed (PC)

Similar to what I wrote for my review of sorts for Dead Space, I do not see the point in writing a full review for a seven year old game (as of 2014) that has over 134,000 hits when looking for a review of Assassin's Creed.  Granted the first game search will include the reviews for every game in the Assassin's Creed library due to it's lack of a subtitle or number, but I plod on . . .  Unlike some reviews (on Steam), I never had any issues booting up or playing Assassin's Creed.  The game never crashed spontaneously, the sound never cut out randomly and there was no visible skipping either by the game or by Altaïr.

So Assassin's Creed, the first game in the series of the same name, was released by Ubisoft back in 2007.  Before playing this game, I had played Assassin's Creed: Altaïr's Chronicles back in February and that was it.  All I knew about the series was that you played as an assassin at various points throughout history. . . assassinating people.  I had no idea about any of the "present" day activities as Desmond or anything about the Animus accessing ancestors memories coded within the DNA of said Desmond.  That was a bit of a shock, although it did not bother me by way of a story telling mechanism.

I was a little surprised at the beginning of the game by the typical use of the Metroid-effect of starting out as Samus does in a fully powered suit only to have something happen that brings you back down to n00b status.  So that happened.  By the time I neared the end of the game, despite having gained all of my equipment back (better sword, throwing daggers, short sword, grasping abilities while falling), I never felt that I was the master assassin that I was supposed to be by that point in the game/story.  I felt that I was a guy who was great at freerunning/parkour and who was decent in a fight against anywhere from three to 15 enemies.

There's only eight here, but you can't see the other umpteen that showed up shortly after plus the couple that I had killed before the picture was taken.  And it's blurry because I done just killed a guard.

Being ganged up on was actually one of the most frustrating aspects of the game for me.  There would be times when I would be shoved by a homeless citizen (who has some sort of mental illness as they are always walking around, gibbering and will seek you out if they spotted you) into a guard and then you are wanted by every visible guard.  There were plenty of times when I would be fighting two or three guards, then a small contingent of four to six would reinforce the main unit and I would just give up as by the time they were all done swinging at me, my life would be down by a good eight to ten hit points.  Especially in the later levels, guards seemed to have gained in their sword fighting ability, multiplied in numbers and their proverbial trigger fingers were whatever is the next step after itching.  

There was one battle in particular that occurred near the end of the game that caused me to stop playing altogether.  Granted each time I would watch a "how-to" video my confidence would again perk up a bit, but then after two-to-three more tries and failing, I would give up.  <Pity>It would seem that each time I would reach a rooftop, I would be pursued by a never ending supply of guards and Templars and rarely would each enemy soldier patiently wait their turn to attack me.</Pity>

The information gathering missions were a lot of fun at first, but that was before the guards became increasingly aware and al lot easier to trigger into their blood frenzy.  The problem being that once the guards become aggressive towards you, any side mission you happened to be on (assassination, pickpocketing, physical interrogation, eavesdropping, racing another assassin or picking up flags on a short route throughout the area), your mission would end then you would have to evade the guards until your "Social Stealth Meter" which lets you know how noticeable you are to the guards goes to yellow which means that you can then hide which will then reset your "SSM" and then you can return to the person who gave you the task in the first place to start it all over again.  Whew.  By the end of the game (the last two stages I played through), I gave up trying to complete every single task and only completed the ones that I had to in order to proceed with the main assassination target for that portion of the storyline.

The one side mission that I always completed was also the one that I had the most fun doing.  Climbing to the top of designated buildings would de-fog a portion of your map in the given district the stage was taking place in.

These portions of the stages were fun because you often had to parkour up to a building then jump to an adjacent building  leading to the tower/building that you had to climb.  There were a couple of specific leap/upper-body-pulls that always made me nervous even though being able to "make it" was guaranteed.  Guaranteed, unless you were already spotted by guards who would then shoot arrows at you (rate of fire was reasonable) or throw rocks if you were not too high already.

Another thing that bothered me about the game was the amount of time it took to exit out.  I understand that the process to quit the game was probably designed to create a sense of immersion for the game, being that because you are playing as Desmond who is viewing an ancestors memories through a machine, and in order to exit the game, you would have to exit the machine first.  That is all well and good in theory, but in practice it creates a series of unnecessary steps that only caused me annoyance.  To give you some idea, in order to exit out of the game, every time, you would have to go through the following steps:

• Pause the game to bring up the menu.
• Select "Exit Animus."
• This exits you out of your memory and back into the present, now controlling Desmond inside the Animus laboratory.
• Pause the game to bring up the menu.
• Select "Exit Game."
• This brings you back to the profile select
• Select existing profile, which for whatever reason only works with the mouse and not the controller.
• Select "Quit Game."
• You are asked if you are sure that you want to exit the game.
• Yes I am sure I want to exit the game.
• Exit game.

In my personal opinion, quitting a game should not take that long.  Maybe going from the pause screen to the quit button and if I'm asked if I want to "Save & Quit" or simply just "Quit," I am perfectly okay with those options.  Then I should be out of the game.  If there was something to do when you are outside of the Animus at times that are not designated by the game, then maybe I could see exiting the machine you are hooked up to, but from what I have seen, there is nothing.  You can walk around the lab and one of two people there continuously ask you to return to the machine so that they can continue with whatever it is that they are having you do.  Maybe this was something that was passed over in beta testing?

While this experience has nearly tainted the Assassin's Creed series for me, I do have the second game on Steam and I feel that after a few months, I will probably give that game a try.  I feel that some redemption might be in order.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Flowing Through the Loins of My Pain

Path of Exile: FOR THE LOVE OF ODIN PLAY THIS!

You know, do not even ask me about the "Forsaken Masters" part as I do not really know.  But Path of Exile, I do not think I have ever sunk this much time into a free-to-play game.  Even the previously mentioned Clash of Clans or Plants vs. Zombies 2.  No, not even Mafia Wars, which was way back in the day, as far as I am concerned.

At the moment I have put 35 hours into this game, although that number seems to be growing week-by-week.  But let us talk about the game.

Bloody hell this game is beautiful, just take a look at this dank and infested dungeon!

and a spectral-esque-type forrest.

Now if I only played good looking games, there would be room for an argument here, but I am also playing a lot of The Elder Scrolls: The Arena which looks a lot like Doom with a sword and heal potions.  PoE plays remarkably well too.  Think Diablo, with bits of Torchlight II thrown in (stationary waypoints) as well as MMORPG action hot key type actions as well.   There are even some improvements such as removable gem socketing in weapons and armor without damaging either the equipment or the gems.  I think that is one of the things that helped to sell the game.  

There are even little individual animations that the enemies do.  For instance, an enemy archer will run towards you, stop, pull an arrow from their quiver, lick the fletching, knock the arrow then fire towards you.  That is, if you haven't already shot them yet.  If you zoom in as close as you can, you can see the corpses of fallen enemies twitching a couple of times before they lie permanently prone.  At first I thought it was either a glitch or my eyes playing tricks, but no, you can see hands and feet twitching a few times.  Sometimes monsters will also roar at you before or during attacks, you know, because their wild animals that just happen to want you very dead.

Oddly enough, one of the best things about this games is all the ways Grinding Gear Games does not charge you to play and there are a lot of aspects to this game that I feel that could have been used to create options to pay real world money.  You want to enchant that sword to a +1 to damage, pay 50 gold (translates to $0.50).  You want to recover that life sapping gem from your armor that you no longer want, that will be 200 gold.  You want to create more than one character, pay us 500 gold to create extra character slots beyond your first character.  Of everything that I have seen that the game charges money for, everything appears to be cosmetic.  Sure you have your swag stashed in a chest that has four pages of a 12x12 grid and you can pay for a fifth page, but I do not foresee needing that much space considering I am currently only playing one character.

Basically, there was one time when I left the game for the sole purpose of finding out how I could give Grinding Gear Games money using real money.  Maybe buy a package thing via Steam using my Steam Wallet.  I could not.  There was nothing I could do but use their in-game market.  That was not was I was looking for, so I have yet to give them currency validation towards their great game.

Similar to Diablo and Torchlight, I do have a problem with hoarding.  When I found gems, I saved them until I could create the next higher quality gem, then I saved that gem until I could create the next. . .so on and so on.  I was always paranoid that I would find a better weapon or suit of armor and that gem that I had soldered into my equipment would then be lost forever.  Thankfully in PoE, this is not the case as I can take out and remove gems as frequently as I want (unless otherwise noted in the description of the gem).  Grinding Gear is making this game too easy to like and doing things that I had wanted earlier Diablo-esque games to do.

There are a handful of other features from the game that surprised me.  At first, I was annoyed that the maps were a lot smaller than what I was used to on Torchlight II, but I quickly realized that they were more like the Diablo maps and one of the sidequest goals is to kill every monster on the map.  That would be quite the feat in Torchlight II.  Another is that your health and mana potions autofill as you kill enemies and whenever you return to town, which makes healing spells almost obsolete.  It can become difficult however when you have to go up against a boss that does not want to summon creatures to help fight against you, which would then refill your potion bottles.

To date, I have only played cooperatively once with Chreekat a month or two back.  And while the game could be played with friends, you don't have to and I feel that playing locally would be a lot more fun than playing across the country.  That being said, I am usually up for playing cooperatively if people are interested.  That then brings me to the online-ness of the game.  Unless you are intentionally playing with anyones else, all the areas, with the exception of the towns/villages are instanced.  You do not have to worry about other people running around in the same area stealing your kills and loot.

The only negative statement I have to make about this game is that it takes a while to load.  The first couple of times I tried playing, I gave up because I thought the game was stuck on the loading screen.  It turned out that I just had to wait a minute or two, then everything was as I expected it to be.  There was no noticeable lag in the game and the only times the game had to load was moving between areas.

I am going to stop now so I can get this out there.  Path of Exile has been out there in the world for 13 months now and honestly, it is never too late to pick up this game and start playing.  So, you should go and start playing as it is just too much fun to not play.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
The Great Warriors of Doom and Wind

Emulator Hour: Snake Rattle n Roll (NES)

You know,  I generally consider my favorite video game console to be the Super Nintendo. But lately I'm noticing more and more that a lot of my very favorite video game memories and nostalgia come from the NES.  I think this can be very simply explained by the fact that I was younger when I was playing NES, the memories are fuzzier, and somehow warmer.  My sense of wonder was strongest at that time of my life, and perhaps my sense of security as well.  

Snake Rattle n Roll is a strange and silly game.  It is also a good example of an NES game that was special to me.  I saw this game in Nintendo Power and I was mesmerized.  I really don't know why, but  I had.to.have.it.  I think it was the isometric view, with the checkerboard patterns on the ground--  It just looked like fun!  Before I got a hold of it (took a while), I used to pore over the pictures in Nintendo Power and imagine what it was going to play like.

It ended up being a pretty fun game.  And strange.  You eat colorful balls called 'Nibblie Pibblies" and your enemies included moving toilet seats and a big disembodied foot.  And one more thing:  You destroy your enemies by licking them.  A toilet seat and a foot.  By licking them.  This is just the sort of potty humor that kids love.  (of course the pun was intended)

There was something about the level design that, to me,  indicated secrets.  I always thought: how can I get up to that platform?  What's up there?  Is there a secret area?  Isometric platforming can take a bit of getting used to, but there were some cool jumps and heights  I could manage.  And some limitations as well; you could fall to your doom without actually falling, if you tried to jump to a lower platform, and fell a certain distance before reaching it.   Occasionally I did get to a hard to reach platform, and was rewarded only with my own satisfaction at having accomplished my goal.  Which is still pretty cool. Like climbing a fence or getting onto the roof of my house.  Just glad to have done it.

I got a similar sensation when I first played Mario 64.  Especially outside the castle, I just wanted to climb and go and discover what was hiding behind the mountains, around the castle.  It was Yoshi.  And you needed a canon to get there, and then you didn't even get to ride Yoshi.  Not so much fun.

I've seen modern versions of this exploration for exploration's sake, like ulillillia getting really high in Bubsy 3d levels.  Also people scaling mountains in Skyrim.  It occurs to me that that is somethign I want in a game like Proteus:  climbing.  There really isn't that in Proteus.

Discovery, where is that sense of discovery in games?

That will have to be a topic I return to at a future date.  I was talking about Snake Rattle and Roll.  A co-op game, I remember playing a lot with my younger sister.  I got pretty good at the game, but it was TOUGH.  I don't think I ever beat it.  I may have gotten to the final level once or twice, but I'm not sure if I cheated to do so.  I do know that the levels got progressively harder, and the last couple levels were skin-of-your teeth, hanging by your fingernails- TOUGH.  Like a good NES game should be.

-D

P.S. Plumbing the internet for happy nostalgia is usually a productive enterprise.  It's led me to cool stuff like a monster map of the original Dragon Warrior.  With Snake Rattle n Roll a particularly awesome bit of fan art came up:  A sewing together of the different level maps (see below) and a speed run overlaid on said map!  I really couldn't ask for a better tribute.  Bravo!

And then it turns out that the game was actually designed as a giant mountain which you scale until you get to the top and then launch to the moon and fight an ice-foot.  Of course!  Check out the image below.

http://lurkmore.to/Snake_Rattle_'n'_Roll

here is the source page for the above image

MIDI Week Singles: "Fight Theme" - Dragon Warrior - (NES)

Title: Fight

Game: Dragon Warrior

Developer: Enix

Release: 1986

Platform: NES/Famicom

Composer: Koichi Sugiyama

Arrangement: Takenori Yamamori

I've really been on a Dragon Warrior kick lately, so why not share this singular musical track from the first Dragon Warrior?

To the unbiased ear, the early NES sounds from DW may be somewhat grating, really not the best MIDI, and the compositions, in general, may not seem like anything to write home about.  However, each song has a special place in my heart, and none more so than the battle theme.  I love it because it leads me to ask:  "What the heck is going on with this theme?"  It's so odd!  So delightfully strange.  It's only the bridge at the end that sort of ties the thing together.   

Instead of using speed and heavy rhythm to generate excitement and create a sense of danger, the composer chooses to use a bizarre melody.  And it works, the much calmer sounds of the overworld map are very relaxing by comparison.  So yeah, big kudos to Koichi Sugiyama and Takenori Yamamori for this unequaled track among video game battle music.  

-D

Why I'll Never Be Able To Write A Full Review About "Among the Sleep."

Among the Sleep by Krillbite Studio is a game and a concept that I love.  I even fell for their pitch on their Kickstarter back in May of last year and I'm glad that I did because the game that I played was fun and beautiful yet haunting and fairly dark in its tone.

After I finished going through the game, which took me just over two hours, I was at a loss as to how to write a Full Review article.  I started, stopped and had to step away.  I came back a couple of days later, wrote more about the story in the game while trying to be ambiguous enough so as to not give away key plot points that I would not want to spoil for anyone else reading who had yet to play.  Then I scrapped the whole thing.  Again.  About a month later, I came back to writing a new article taking the approach I took with Dead Space and Assassin's Creed (of which I still haven't published yet) where I just talked about how I personally played the game while still giving my impressions.  This post did not even make it past a first draft.

I know exactly what it is with this game that prevents me from writing a full-on article too.  It is that I keep mentally comparing it to another games approach to a similar topic but by even mentioning which game that is will spoil the storyline.  Now, I am one of those people that does not want anything spoiled for me when I go to watch a movie, a TV show or read a book.  I do not even like it when people verbally speculate about "who did it" during anything involving a mystery/whodunnit.  I can even point out the exact day and time (after doing some research into Doogie Howser M.D. broadcast dates) that I noticed this first bothering me.  It was between 8:15 and 8:45pm on Wednesday October 31st, 1990.  I might be a little neurotic.

Perhaps this was an underlying cause for not being able to write about a game that I would love to see everyone who has ever played a video game play; unless you cannot play in the first person perspective due to motion sickness issues, which I at times experience and cannot fault anyone for.  I cannot play Doom 2 for more than 15 minutes at a time because of this issue.  The point is, I do not want to spoil anything storywise about this game.  Sure, you play the game from the perspective of a two year old, which is what first got me interested in the game.  At the time I had some money and was more than willing to throw it at Krillbite Studio to see their game come into fruition.

I cannot even say how the game affected me other than it did effect me.  I will not say how it affected me as that too would give something away that I want other people to experience first hand without outside influence.  This game should be played in a silent room.  The point is, Among the Sleep is a beautiful game (which I've already said).

Almost two weeks ago, (November 6th) Krillbite released a one chapter free DLC expansion to everyone already owning the game; and if you purchase the game after todays date, that the DLC will already be included.  There is this great independent studio way up there just north of the northern 58th parallel called Krillbite Studio and they have made this great game with some financial help from the rest of the world.  It is a beautiful thing.  All of it.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
We've Been Heading North


P.S.  If anyone needed evidence as to my claim about the beauty of this game, you have it now:

Desert Bus for Hope 8

If you're not familiar with Desert Bus for Hope, I should probably explain what Desert Bus even is before going any farther.  Looking back, I've talked a bit about Desert Bus for Hope since we started back in 2012, but not a whole lot about the game.  

Desert Bus was a mini-game created as a satire of video game violence accused of being perceived as too realistic for audiences, especially younger audience who apparently cannot tell the difference between 1995 CD games and real life.  Thus comedian magicians Penn and Teller created the concept for Desert Bus which would travel the six hours between Tuscon, Arizona and Las Vegas, Nevada in real time.  However, the overall game, Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors was never released because the publisher went out of business before the game could be published.

There is a Desert Bus port available on the Google Play Store and the Apple Store with all proceeds form the sale of the game going to Desert Bus for Hope and in turn, the Child's Play charity.  Which brings us back to Desert Bus for Hope 8, which starts today, November 14th at 10am Pacific and will run for (at least) 86+ hours.  It all depends on how much money is brought in during the "drive."

Confession Time:  I've personally never donated to Desert Bus for Hope.  The years that I have been able to donate money, I have done it directly through the Child's Play website where I can either specify a specific hospital that I want to donate to, browse an Amazon gift registry to donate a specific item for a hospital, or just give the charity money.  Don't worry though, I'm not going to try and guilt trip anyone into donating money to any cause, I'm just letting people know about an option if they already were looking to donate.

I'll be tuning in a few times a day during the (at least) three and-a-half days the bus will be driving back and forth from Tuscon to Las Vegas, if anything just to watch the exhaustion in the eyes of the people from LoadingReadyRun.  Oh those Canadians.  They're beautiful people.

How does this game NOT look fun!?

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

They Make Me Feel So Good

P.S.  And Folks, this starts in 8 minutes!