MIDI Week Singles: "Where Are You" - thomas was alone (PC)

For my last post of 2014, I wanted to cover a song that was the first song I thought of as far as gaming in 2014.  "Where Are You" by David Housden from thomas was alone was that one song.

"Where Are You" from Thomas Was Alone on PC (2012)

thomas was alone Original Soundtrack

Record Label: Digital Self Release

Composer: David Housden

Game Developer: Mike Bithell

I'm afraid of calling "Where Are You" a beautifully simplistic piano and ambient piece of video game music, but that's the easiest explanation of the song.  For me, not only is the music itself beautiful, but it also is about as nostalgic as something can be with less than a year gone by.

So goodbye 2014, and we'll see you in all your glory tomorrow in 2015.



JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
The Sounds of the World Driving By.

End of The Year - Monthly Update January

http://memoski.deviantart.com/art/Indie-Collision-447101402

I'm noticing that I'm less and less inclined toward playing video games lately.  And as this has become the case, I notice I tend to narrow my focus when gaming.  I really only play one or two games at a time.  And I really want to finish them out and put them to bed.  The latest has been starseed pilgrim.  I've played this game off and on for a year, and I've gotten close to beating it but dammit if I can't seem to beat the thing!  Even now, as I'm typing, I'm wondering if I should give it another shot.

... and yes, I tried, and no, I didn't finish it.  So close!  arrrgh!  I do love that Starseed Pilgrim, though.  This game is so challenging and rewarding.  I find it can really absorb my attention, and that concentration can be good for me.  Just so long as I can put the thing down before I'm pulling too much of my hair out.

I also started playing Chrono Trigger the other day, just to see what it would be like.  I was being very good too, playing about 30-60 minutes a night, occasionally skipping some.  But the holidays threw that out of whack.  A skipped day flows into a couple days visiting family and friends and then suddenly I'm out of the habit.   Incidentally, that's exactly how it always goes for me when flossing, exercising and other good habits I want to get into.

Frog Fractions, seems innocuous enough, but is it really?

I suppose I should take some time to actually review the year, for this year in review.  Wow, a lot can happen in a year.  My year in gaming started out strong, with the unique and often hilarious game, The Stanley Parable.   Jaconian and I both played this game, and had a blast.  I would recommend this game to anyone who has played a lot of video games.  I actually had a similar experience playing the flash game Frog Fractions.  Though the two games have much different game play, there is a similar sense of parody and tribute to games past.  All in all, Frog Fractions was a great time hidden in the guise of a math game.

I should mention that I entered 2014 as a member of our nations unemployed, and it was in this unemployed state that I discovered Zelda Classic, the Legend of Zelda quest editor.  Zelda Classic occupied all my attention for a solid month.  I had very high hopes.  Unfortunately, when I finally got a job, I tapered off on Zelda Classic before being able to produce anything I was really proud of.   
My new job was at a garden nursery, so for a while, all I could think about was plants.  I stopped gaming almost entirely.  Unless you count doggie soccer.  I start doing a lot more book reviews, reviewing old games and rambling on about gardening.

Toward the end of the year, I started playing and buying magic cards again, after a many-year hiatus.  I still regularly get together with my friends Ghost and Ramsden.  It's still really fun, though I sometimes wonder for how much longer.

I think I'll have to call Starseed Pilgrim my game of the year.  Even if it didn't come out this year.  The point is that this game captured my attention more than any other game I played.  I may even have to write another post after I finally beat the thing.  Zelda classic comes in second, and would have won if I could have played it more consistently throughout the year.  Unfortunately, Zelda classic is a much heavier commitment.  The Stanley Parable gets special recognition, and always will.  

Looking forward to the new year,  I'm mostly thinking about my job and my housing. I don't have any goals related to gaming.  And that's just fine.  Maybe I'll check a new indie title, or get involved in some multiplayer games.  I'll probably do some exploration of the past, probably playstation 1 era.  Whatever the case, video games are here for me if I need them, and I wouldn't have it any other way.  

-D

P.S.  I also want to take a second to say how much I love the MIDI Week Singles column that Jaconian introduced this year.  It's such a fun series to follow and to write for, and the possibilities are limitless. There is always something to say on the subject.  Jaconian has long been 'tending the fires' of video game music, and his appreciation for the medium cannot be overstated.   

Emulator Hour: Mega Man 3 (NES/3DS)

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, I am finishing up today's post from the Aéroport de Bürbànk and sitting less than a foot away from a bin de trash.  But onto more important matters.

I recall first playing Mega Man 3 (III) way back in or around 1991 or '92 (seeing as how I was rarely one to play the newest video games, let alone games in the Mega Man series of which I was never able to beat until June of last year).

But I did it, I beat Mega Man 3 and I think I've come to, at least for now, a bit of realization that I like this game as a whole more than the frequently touted Mega Man 2 as the best in the series {{Citation Needed}}.  Thinking about the first three games in the series up to the year of our lord, Nineteen Hundred and Ninety, I found that I enjoyed the level design of Mega Man 3 the most whereas I like the music from Mega Man 2 just a smidgen more than MM3.  Plus there's the additions of the newly created slide ability and the robot pet dog Rush with his various, if somewhat limited use abilities (Marine Rush!?).

First off, everything that I loved about MM2 was refined for this installment.  The level design gave me enough of an idea to the robot boss type and I didn't notice too much of the level art being reused for subsequent levels.  But it's the level design is what makes me enjoy this game just a little bit more than MM2.  After defeating the first eight bosses, you have to go through four of the levels again, but they are in a ravaged state.  chunks of the world are now missing, as if the absence of the boss or the havoc brought on by Mega Man has left portions of the world/level in a state of disrepair.  In Gemini Man's stage part two, there are Jamacys that fall through cracks and holes in the blocks that create the borders to the stage.  In every stage that you run into Proto Man, his escape routes are still there.  Then when you get to the boss area, you now have to fight one of the bosses from Mega Man 2, which is a nice throwback until you realize that your weapons are all different than the ones used in that game so your weapon choices have to be decided upon rather quickly (or you can use the aforementioned chart like I did).

Similar to how I played Mega Man 2, I used a chart to figure out which bosses I should play and it what order.  And how I defended my decision as I previously did, I don't find this to be cheating.  I find it no different than talking to Dr. Potts or Delaños about the order they used and which weapon they found to be more effective against which boss.  Again, I still had to go through the level and defeat the bosses on my own in the end, I just did it with an additional bit of information.

But here is the order that I took the bosses in:

1) Snake Man

2) Gemini Man

3) Magnet Man

4) Top Man

5) Shadow Man

6) Hard Man

7) Needle Man

8) Spark Man

I decided to start with Snake Man, because that's what I remember from playing 23 years ago.  Also, Snake Man's theme is pretty damn catchy and there isn't much more to get me interested and stay playing a game that hearing awesome music while being destroyed by a giant undulating robotic snake hellbent on destroying a modified service and homemaking robot.  

Now, I know that based on the aforementioned chart, that this list doesn't take into account "the best" way to go through the game and choosing the bosses based on their weaknesses.  Sometimes, as in the case with taking on Magnet Man before Shadow Man, that I needed to take a break from constantly dying in Shadow Man's stage and I found I was able to get through Magnet Man's stage and take him out.

Going back to the music, I find it interesting that Capcom brought on newcomers to the Mega Man franchise, introducing Yasuaki Fujita (credited as "Bun Bun" during the credits) who wrote all but two of the songs (Gemini Man and Needle Man) and Harumi Fujita. What I find interesting though, is that the music from this game blends fairly seamlessly with that from Mega Man 2, while still sounding different enough to not be repetitive as to be disinteresting to long time players of the series.

In the end, Mega Man 3 took me 6h21m to complete with an average play time of 25 minutes.  In MM3, I found that the regular stages were a lot more difficult than MM2, but that the Dr. Wily stages were a lot easier to traverse.

I guess I should in closing say that if you haven't played any of the games in the Mega Man series, that Mega Man 3 wouldn't be a bad place to start as it is a great continuation of a great series that, so far anyway, is a bit easier than the previous two games but is still a challenging experience that should not be missed out on if you are at all into older NES games from a great era of gaming.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
If It Ain't Broke. . .

Pak Watch: Legacy of the Kori Odan (PC)

Aurion: Legacy of Kori Odan

Prior to discovering this game, I knew of only one game produced in Africa: PHL's air flying game, which came out of Cameroon, and had decidedly low production and non-traditional effects. That is definitely not the case with Aurion: Legacy of the Kori Odan. This game looks fantastic. Also from Camaroon, Africa, Aurion is an RPG, with 2D hand drawn style animation.

In general, I haven't seen much media from Africa or about Africa (The Lion King doesn't count. That took place in Africa, but wasn't actually about Africa in any way). So this is refreshing. It looks like they didn't get much for their kickstarter. That's too bad.

Anyway, have a look at these images, It looks like a fighting game mixed with an RPG. And the art is top knotch. And here are a couple of articles about games in Africa, for the curious.

Board Game Review: Pandemic & Pandemic Expansion: On The Brink

First off, I will not be discussing how to play the game as that would take too much time and I would be rehashing most/all of the printed rules and that would be no fun for anyone.  Plus Wil Wheaton has already covered Pandemic on the first season of TableTop, so I would recommend watching over on his channel if you have A) never played Pandemic, or B) came here to find out how to play Pandemic.

So the edition that Conklederp and I received for our wedding was the second edition and as far as I can tell, the biggest difference between the two editions is that in the second edition, the pieces are made from plastic whereas in the first edition, they are made from wood.  Now, I will agree that in most cases, I like the feel of wood pieces (hur hur) over plastic, but for this game, I like the look of the clear plastic blocks that represent the various infections.  There is something just more "sterile" about their appearance.  The other difference between the two editions is that the board, again from what I can tell, is more techy looking.  The pieces are now plastic instead of wood and the infection cubes are colored and clear, which I personally like the look of a lot better than the wood; more sterile perhaps.  The principal game has remained the same, so everything I talk about should translate between the two editions.

Now, Conklederp and I have had a chance to play this awesomely fun game now on five separate occasions (as of this writing) and I will do my best to chronicle each of those first four experiences as they were each played under slightly different circumstances.

Game 1

Conklederp and I played first as the game suggested, with only four Epidemic cards in the players deck, just so we could get a feel for how the game was to be played.  After saving the world, we both came to the conclusion that the game with only four Epidemic cards was too easy.  It was then that I also realized that I did not shuffle the players deck correctly so there was one Epidemic card near the top and the rest were close to the bottom, which we did not get to before saving the world.

Game 2

The next two player game that Conklederp and I played, we put five Epidemic cards in the players deck and this time I separated that deck into five even piles, each with its own Epidemic card before shuffling the five decks separately before putting them into their single massive deck.  We then got ready to save the world again!

"That did not pan out."  This game probably would have gone a lot better had we known how to handle outbreaks correctly.  Let me see if I can describe what we did wrong.

There were two neighboring cities, each with three infection cubes.  One of those cities became infected (again), which caused an outbreak.  That outbreak spread to the neighboring city that already had three cubes, which caused an outbreak.  This is where we went wrong.  We thought at this point, the original neighboring city would then have yet another outbreak which would lead the second neighboring city to have another outbreak. . .and so on and so forth.  I am 99% sure this is not how the game is supposed to be played as we managed to lose in under five turns.

So we started Game 3.

Game 3

After realizing our error, we restarted everything, but this time I had the idea of changing the starting location and Disease Research Hospital that normally starts in Atlanta.  So we picked a city card at random and this time we started somewhere in the Middle East.  This time around there was a lot more evenly spaced-out mayhem (compared to Game 1), but it was manageable and we were again able to save the world.

Now, enter the first expansion to Pandemic, Pandemic: On the Brink.

Game 4

Prior to playing Game 4, I bought the On the Brink expansion which allows for five players to play at once instead of just four.  It also adds a fifth virulent disease strain as well as additional player and infection cards.  I knew that for this game we would be playing with five people, plus I wanted to expand how the game was played.  For this game we stayed using the regular Epidemic cards and not the Virulent Strain Epidemic cards that came with the expansion as it was The Man and [Insert Name]'s first time playing.

After we started, we quickly realized that playing with two people is different as far as tactics go when compared to playing with four other players.  Half of the game was spent coordinating between players trying to figure out where each person was going to be in order to trade city cards so that we could create a cure.

This game literally came down to the wire.  Because On the Brink added a number of cards to the players deck, this allowed the game to go on for an extra turn or two for the players which in turn allowed The Man to finish his turn after the last two cards had been taken.  The Man, however, was able to make it to a research station and create the final cure before he was supposed to pick up the two player cards (which did not exist).  I do not think this was cheating, but if it was. . .oops.

Oh, and nobody played as the bioterrorist since we were still getting a feel for the game with a full crew.

So every time Conklederp and I have played the game, either with friends or by ourselves, we have all had a good time either saving the world or coming very close and watching as the world falls into a cesspool of death and disease.  But in the end, the table was not flipped, words were not passed between people who were unable to be as effective as they wanted to be (yes, me) and negotiations began for the next time we would all be able to attempt to save the world.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

It's The Next Disaster

MIDI Week Singles: "Ceremony" - Secret of Mana (SNES)

"Ceremony" from Secret of Mana on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (1993)

Record Label: Square

Composer: Hiroki Kikuta

Developer: Square

The first time I heard this song, it was between midnight and two in the morning way back in 1994 or '95.  It was the first major temple/dungeon in the Secret of Mana and it creeped me the fuck out.  I recall feeling very uncomfortable, but not in the sense that something big and evil was about to jump out at me, just that I was in a place I wasn't supposed to be; that something was happening that I was not supposed to be bearing witness to.

This is what good music does.  Sure there are music cues that make you feel excited or afraid, but the really good ones, make you feel something specific within those wide ranges of emotion.  And this is what "Ceremony" did to me.  There's even those two seconds of the initial gong before the chimes/bells come in that you're pretty sure something is just a bit off and you're not quite sure what.  That's when the bells kick in and you just know that you're not in a good place.  It's at about the same time too that the tenor flute starts playing, but it seems like it's playing at a different time signature than the people playing the bells.  Maybe someone told them the notes to play, but didn't give them the sheet music?  It's all very unsettling.

Whenever I think of music that is supposed to make me feel uncomfortable as I approach a temple of somekind, this is the music that I want playing.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

This Landscape Is Not Without A Sense of Epic Wonder

Book Review: The Hero and The Crown

My choice to read The Hero and The Crown was motivated in part by my need to have something to read, and also by nostalgia.  A young adult novel, I first read this book over twenty years ago.  I really liked it.  I remember I picked it out because of the big black dragon on the cover.  Yet another success story of picking up a book based on its cover (but not judging said book). I was treated to a much deeper story than I had expected.  .

Like many great stories, Hero and the Crown has a solid plot, with a compelling sequence of events with gathering tension and scope.  However, like any great story, spoiling the events of the plot will not completely spoil the story, as the reading of the events carries a pleasure all its own.  I can attest to this, having now read it for a second time.  Nonetheless, I will now issue a *spoiler alert* as I intend to discuss specific plot details.  

In brief, the story follows the development of a young woman named Aerin.  The daughter of the King of Damar, her aristocratic title is First Sol- a rank she shares with her cousin Tor. Despite her rank, she is not widely respected, as she is the product of the king's second marriage, and her mother (now passed) did not have good reputation.  On top of this, she does not take well to her position as royalty, and does not perform well in court. The story begins when Aerin is fifteen, and progresses through her twentieth year.  

More than a two-dimensional tom-boy, Aerin Sol demonstrates a scientific rigour and fastidiousness in her pursuit of the formula for Kenet, the fire-proof balm that opens the world of dragon hunting.  She also shows a certain bullheadedness in the way she pursues her new occupation, both in her initial dragon hunt, and then when she fights the great dragon Maur.  However, over the course of the story, that bullheadedness transforms into a sense of duty, dedication and bravery.

I would definitely recommend this book. It's quite rich in detail and character motivation.  The beginning is slow, but it allowed me to get really familiar with the protagonist. She spends time as a healer and as one needing healing. She grows and changes even before becoming a dragon hunter.  This makes the payoff even better when the action ramps up.  And I have to applaud McKinley on her handling of the great Dragon fight.  It is truly memorable.

The Hero and the Crown is rich and imaginative, escapist fantasy and a coming of age story.  It may seem cliche, but I would compare this book to the work of Tolkein, in that I get the impression that it was written with a lot of love and care.  


-D

Ramblings Near the End of the Year

I have a couple of things that I want to talk about.

The first being that Conklederp and I just moved from the abode that we have resided in for the past three plus years and life's been kind of hectic, hence the lack of post by me this last Monday and Dr. Potts chiming in for MIDI Week Singles on Wednesday.  One thing we've discovered though is that 1) companies can be asshats when you say that you want to cancel a service you've previously held for three years.  Say, for instance, you want to transfer services from one residence to a new once, everyone is as helpful as Satan with an handful of sinners, but say that you want to cancel your phone line because you won't need it anymore and all of a sudden you'll be put on hold and disconnected after 10 minutes of said hold (two separate times) like you've contracted the plague from the Montagues or some such rot.  UTTER ROT, and I know my plagues, so it is in fact, a thing.  So we will have interweb services again in 10 days, which, luckily enough will be after we come back from a trip down to the seasonless SoCal (where we will have access to the rest of the global-sphere, so we got that going for us, which is nice).

Next, I purchased my first Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition product and beware, some of you might be shocked and offended (Delaños).  It was the Starter Set that Amazon is currently hawking for a measly price right now.  Gabe over at Penny Arcade talked a bit about it and I have a few friends that have been wanting to get into D&D for a while and I was a bit leary about starting in on 4th Edition, but now that 5th Edition is out and getting, from what my limited ears have heard, pretty good reviews, I thought I would spring for this boxed set to see if Salty Liver and her husband WhoBear were still interested after the short four part quest.  If all goes well, and suspect that it will, the DM and Players guide will soon be on the horizon.  And maybe the monster manual too, but I just might modify the 4th Edition MM for 5th Edition rules, which shouldn't be too hard and honestly, I would find it to be a hoot and-a-half.

The Starter Set is pretty basic as far as D&D packaging goes.  The box includes a whittled down players/rules guide, a DM and story guide, five pre-generated character sheets as well as a blank one for copying and a set of six dice (standard d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 and d20).  One thing brought up in the rules that I really loved was the emphasis that ". . .the rules are a tool to help you have a good time.  The rules aren't in charge. . .If you decide that a rule works a certain way in one session, make sure it works that way the next time it comes into play."  I don't know why, but I found this very refreshing.  I know there are people who are stickler for rules, that they will find a specific rule in the Player's Guide and refuse the game to be played in any other way; not that I have personally played with these people, but I know they're out there.  Not being bound 100% to the rules is nice.

This lead me to another minor epiphany of sorts.  I like being the storyteller in these types of games and I will be the first to admit that I am not the best DM out there; to date SidMesh and PlacerMan are who I tend to look up to.  When playing games like Mansions of Madness, I like playing as The Keeper (equivalent to the DM) and I love playing as the DM.  I like all of the research needed before starting a campaign and being in charge of the story, which is something that goes contrary to my general approach to the rest of the world.  I'm sure someone out there can diagnose this as something-or-other.  There's probably a word for it in Latin.

So that is where I am going to leave you for the weekend.  I'll try to have something up on Monday before hoping on that literal aeroplane but I should also warn you that posts for the next week might be a bit spotty.

Oh, and if you don't know yet, Steam's Winter Sale is happening to lighten the load, as if your wallet/purse hasn't been feeling already.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Instrumental

MIDI Week Singles - "Dance of Thorns" - Homestuck (webcomic)

"Battle 2" from Homestuck, Webcomic (2011)
Publisher: MS Paint Adventures
Composer: Joren "Tensei" de Bruin

Continuing the "Fight Theme" kick I've been on lately, here's one from Homestuck's 'Strife' collection. As I've mentioned before , Homestuck isn't actually a video game, but it contains many video game influences, one of which is battle music!  Five tracks of such are in the 'Strife!' collection, my favorite of which is the above theme.  

While this theme perhaps runs a little long, and maybe tries to do too much, I'm a real sucker for synth violin in a heavy rock/metal setting (with a guest appearance by a harpsichord).  I'm accustomed to this sort of genre blending from video game music, and I think Joren 'Tensei' de Bruin does a good job.  

-D

Webcomic Post: Homestuck

I tried to post about Homestuck over a year ago, but I couldn't narrow down my thoughts.  This bulleted list helps. 

Oh, it starts innocently enough...

Things you should know about Homestuck:

• Homestuck is not a video game, it is a webcomic, but it will be a video game soon!  
• Homestuck is hilarious and features a great number of jokes about data structures in the first Act
• It also makes lots of jokes about video games.
• The story is very long and vast and absurdly complex.  More so than any rpg I've played except maybe Xenogears
• Homestuck has really great cinema scenes
• It also has a really good soundtrack
• Homestuck is free to read and all the music is free to listen to.  
• Homestuck is mega-popular with the next generation* 
• Homestuck has a devoted and loyal fanbase and huge catalog of fan art. 
• Homestuck might just be the Ulysses of the Internet
• My favorite characters are Jade, Dave and Karkat and Terezi
• I took my font choice from Homestuck
• Prior to Homestuck, MS Paint Adventures produced Problem Sleuth, which is also hilarious, imaginative and epic.  But less overblown and more lighthearted. (and not nearly as long) 
• Homestuck has recently begun updating again after a year-long pause.  It should be finished by the end of next year.  

Basically, Homestuck is everything the best jRPGs are, but it's not actually a video game.  I recommend it to everyone who likes jRPGs and has a few dozen hours to waste reading it.  Once you get in, it's really tough to put down, even though it will make you sick sometimes when it meanders around for aeons.  Have fun!

-D

*there are some who would call them... Tim?  or 'millenials,' --actually, I prefer Tim, I'm going to call that generation Tim from now on

Pak Watch: Tribute

Curses n Chaos - 
Bellwood and the forest of lost souls

I got these really great looking screenshots from my old friend JPBruneau on his tumbler.  This is a game from developer Tribute Games that I can't find any information of apart from the screenshots.  I'd think it was just pixel art if the caption didn't say that they were spending time 'coding this game.'  

I really like the backgrounds, lots of cool layering.  And if you follow the link to more screenshots, take note of the spider repelling down a web, ala Zelda II.  The company website has more info.  This is the company that produced Wizorb, and another game called mercenary kings that I haven't played. 

-------------------------------

Crossing Souls

This is another compelling game I found in an article from the Verge.    This game has animated cinemas in a cartoon style, kids on bikes, 1980s California.  Someone called this game:  'stand by me meets far cry 4.'   I'm not sure about the second half of that statement, but love the first!   I wonder if the Goonies wouldn't have been a more apt comparison.

I definitely have a sweet spot for the 'merry band of adventurer kids' genre.  In video games, Chrono Trigger is a great example, and of course Earthbound.  Strangely enough, this game is being produced by a Spanish Developer called Fourattic (because it is four guys in an attic)  And yet it is a nostalgia game about California in the 1980s.  I don't know how this game will play, but I really like the art and the concept. 

There are only 3 days left on their kickstarter, though they have reached their initial goal. I'm certainly intrigued by this game, and I encourage everyone to give these kids money for that time machine they're building.   

Origin Stories Part III: The Elder Scrolls: Arena

I just finished The Elder Scrolls: Chapter I: Arena earlier in the week after I don't know how many hours.  The point of the game is to traverse across the continent of Tamriel to find eight pieces of a staff that was broken in order to defeat a battlemage masquerading as the current Emperor, Uriel Septim VII.  Think the first The Legend of Zelda set in Tolkien's Middle Earth.  There you go.

As previously stated, fast traveling between towns is a must since walking 1 km in-game will take about two hours in real time.  A lot of cities are 100+km apart (or at least the ones that you need to get to) and that's just in the same province.  I had previously gone into my method of playing the game, but that was before I seriously began collecting the pieces of the Staff of Chaos.  By about the fourth piece, I changed my tactic quite a bit as ransacking random dungeons became tedious and there was no long a point to collecting gold as I already had upwards of 200,000 at any given time.

But that's not the point of today's post.  Today, I wanted to nerd-out about the story and the lore behind the games in the Elder Scrolls series and anyone who has been reading knows that I like (have to) create origin and backstories for characters and why they're doing what it is that they're doing.  So I'm going to be doing that again.

The Elder Scrolls: Chapter I: Arena begins with your character being thrown into the dungeons underneath the Imperial Palace in Cyrodiil (then unnamed beyond "Imperial Province) and the year is 3E 389.  I figured that my female Bosmer (Wood Elf) Silandra was some kind of assistant/handmaiden to whomever the delegant from whichever city state she hailed from in Valenwood at the Imperial Court was before Jagar Tharn impersonated Uriel Septim VII and imprisoned everyone else.  That's when the game of TES: Arena takes over.  It was a simple backstory that didn't require too much thought or planning.  

I didn't have anything else for Silandra before she became a handmaiden to the court delegate.  It wasn't important, at least to me, so I went with it without any further additions.

Then the gears started moving again once I began my search for the final piece of the Staff of Chaos which turned out was located in [SPOILER] Red Mountain in Vvardenfell, Morrowind, or also known as Dagoth-Ur.  Yes, the same as that Dagoth Ur, but without the hyphen.  So here is what happened, at least in my Elder Scrolls universe:

Dagoth Ur's body/spirit was resting/building strength in the heart of Red Mountain, but still not at his full strength.  When the person later to be known as the Eternal Champion entered Red Mountain (passing under the Ghostfence and avoiding Vivec's Ordinators) and claimed the last piece of the Staff of Chaos, it emitted a surge of power that gave Dagoth Ur a renewed source of energy that allowed him to spread the blight disease beyond the Ghostfence surrounding the base of Red Mountain. 

In my game time, this happened around 3E 394 Rains Hand, (Lore time span in 389-399) and it would still be another 33 years before the events in Morrowind would take place.  It would be interesting to note that in 3E 400, members of the Sixth House would use the tunnel found/created by the Eternal Champion to re-establish themselves outside of Red Mountain in their former stronghold of Kogorhun, north of Red Mountain.   Additionally, the power from the reformed staff allowed would Dagoth Ur to reclaim Sunder and Keening (two Dwemer artifacts) when Almalexia and Sotha Sil re-entered Red Mountain to strengthen the Ghostfence in 3E 417.  This ultimately leads to Almalexia and Sotha Sil withdrawing from "public life," leading to the "downfall" of the Tribunal. [/SPOILER]

I'm sure there is more that I could integrate from the official lore of the series, but I am not entirely that knowledgable and I haven't completed all of the expansions for Morrowind (Tribunal & Bloodmoon).  And thinking about this now, once I finish with Oblivion, I'll probably go through Skyrim again with all of this completed backstory in mind but at the moment, I'm not sure how I will work in my character and the events in Daggerfall, but that might just have to be something that develops as I play the game.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Caught By Your Divine Spell

MIDI Week Singles: "Boss Fight Theme" - Final Fantasy II (IV) - (SNES)

"Battle 2" from Final Fantasy II (IV)  - Super Nintendo Entertainment System (1991)
Publisher: Square Co/NTT Publishing
Composer: Nobuo Uematsu

This song popped into my head while at work, and remained stuck in my head for the rest of the day, and pleasant memories abound.  My reactions to hearing this theme are heavily colored by my experience playing it (twenty plus years ago).  As I play the song in my head, I have the sensation of tensing up, holding on, knowing that the killing blow and that satisfying pop of the boss monster death rattle is just around the corner. Yes, I could die any moment, but just hang on!  Cure, Bersk, Ice 2, Attack!  What I love about this theme is that it really contributes to the sense that the enemy is a 'villain' not just an obstacle.  The grand, sweeping movements of the music also speak well to the length of time spent fighting bosses in this game.  

Usually this theme came after some sort of brief story portion, fit with its own music, following a longer exploration portion, with it's own unique song and full of battles containing a different fight theme.  So when this fight theme came on, the increased intensity was palpable.  Good memories.

-D

Game Idea: Star Trek

Watching reruns of DS9, it has occurred to me that it is time for a new Star Trek game.  Of course, I say this having not played most of the star trek games released.  So I guess what I really mean is:  It’s time for me to play a star trek game.  Or, more specifically, it’s time for me to play the star trek game I’m imagining.  Does it exist, I wonder?

What I’m imagining is basically a Maniac Mansion style adventure game.  I have some vague memories that a Star Trek game has done this in the past.  The idea being to solve puzzles using a crew or away team and a set of equipment and specializations.  Tricorders, med packs, phasers, engineering skills.   All that good stuff. 

I think the potential for level and puzzle design might be very high when you consider all the different possible things a Tricorder might detect.   Invisible Gasses, energy waves, life signs.  It’s the basic structure of any Star Trek episode.  The captain says ‘give me a reading’  and someone says ‘I’m detecting high levels of _____ radiation.  That could be causing the ______ to ______”  now ship it off to Michael Okuda to fill in the blanks.

I suppose what I’m interested in is capturing and augmenting the experience of watching the show.  I don’t necessarily want to dream up a fully functioning, open-world star trek universe (though that is obviously a cool thing to exist).  My thought is of rich scenarios,  clever puzzles, interesting characters and engrossing drama.  I’m imagining something akin to Mass Effect, but with less fighting and more puzzles.  

One game design question would be how you control your party.  Is it five independent people, all controlled by the player, or does the player just control the commanding officer, and issue orders to the others?   The second option seems the simplest.  Your commands can include ‘scanning’ or ‘advisement’ or ‘batten down the hatches.’  Well, some star trek equivalent anyway. 

Also, it seems obvious that getting actors from actual star trek series to do voice overs is a good thing.  On the other hand, the Star Trek universe is rich, and with good writing, I know I would happily embrace a new cast and crew and a new setting.  I've done it four times already.  

I don’t think these ideas are original by any means.  But in the past, Star Trek, like any licensed product, has had a series of rather mediocre games.  I’m just hoping there is a higher production value game that shows a true understanding of the beloved show and universe.  Of course, by now it’s likely that any new game would be set in the re-imagined Original Series universe, which is full of non-stop action.  Yawn.  I left my heart with TNG.  

-D

P.S.  http://www.pixeltrek.com/  for a digital tour of the Enterprise D

Sims, Or Something Like It.

Welcome back to the beginning of a new week and I'm here to talk to you all about sims.  No, I am not referring to The Sims, but to certain aspects and qualities of simulators and hoo-boy are there a lot of them (on Steam); I specifically refer to Steam as it's my gateway to AAA and indie PC gaming although I know (I'm sure there are; there have to be) other outlets for video gaming out there.  Right?

Last week when I was listening to The Patch (#75 I think), Gus Sorola brought up indie game developer Lucas Pope (Papers, Please) and how he frequently gets requests to make other "Gate-Sims" like Papers, Please but in different departments and how he has absolutely no desire to do another gate-simulator.  This led the cast to come up with other ridiculous gate-sims with Mr. Sorola finalizing that a Drive Through Sim would be great because of how complicated and specific an order could get, which then lead to Ms. Turney stating that there are people who are paid (horribly) for actually taking orders at a drive through.  Would they feel that the game trivializes the kinds of shit they have to put up with from customers?

Which brings me to video game simulators, or at least some games that are sims and one other in particular.

Now, I have a couple of sim-type-style games at my disposal: Papers, Please; The Sims 2 & 3; Civ. 5; Ace Combat X, Joint Assault, Assault Horizon Legacy and Assault Horizon Enhanced Edition; Day-Z; Reus; Goat Simulator. . . you get the idea.  Then there are a slough of games with "Simulator" in the title that I do not own nor have I played: Farming Simulator, Euro Truck Simulator, Ship Simulator Extremes, Digital Combat Simulator World (DCS World), Construction Truck Simulator, Surgeon Simulator. . . more ideas you are getting behind, yes?

Which then brings me to This War of Mine.  It's a game that came out last month (November 14th) that I first thought that I would really like to play.  To put this game into context, in This War of Mine, you play as normal everyday citizens in a war torn fictional country.  You are not playing as a super soldier armed with 184 lbs of guns, equipment and additional rounds of ammunition, but as people attempting to survive everything else around them.

Then I thought of the real life This War of Mine.  In Palestine. In Sarajevo.  In Baghdad.  In every city, town and country that has had some form of major military conflict take place within its borders.  People live their lives surrounded by what this game is apparently trying to represent.

A part of me thinks that I would and should feel guilty about playing a game about people who are living a life where they are afraid to go out at anytime, for any reason, because they could be attacked by either military force or by fellow citizens.  The simplist things in life become a hardship such as finding sufficient food to feed your family or find clean drinking water.  But the real question is why did 11 bit studios create this game?  Was it to glamorize the suffering of people who regularly live in such war-torn communities?  Somehow I doubt that those were their intentions.  

In an interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun, senior writer for 11 bit studios Pawel Miechowski said that This War of Mine "is not a simulator of atrocities, it’s a take on how people struggle and what are their emotional challenges" and that "We want to raise awareness about how civilians suffer when war is breaking out. We want to show the other side."  If this game had come from, say, Sledgehammer Games (Call of Duty) or EA Digital Illusions (Battlefield), I might question their motives.

When I started this short article (seven paragraphs ago), I was on the fence about buying/playing this game.  Now, I feel that I need to not only play this game, but to experience.  This War of Mine was obviously created with a lot of thought and care to convey the right imagery, tone and sense of weight as opposed to another war simulator.  It's quite a powerful trailer too that 11 bit studios released a while back.

It's settled then.  I talked myself back into it.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
And When Jesus Comes He'll March On With The Winning Side

First Impressions: Dark Souls - Prepare to Die Edition (PC)

So there is this game that I have heard a lot of talk about for the past year or two and last year when I saw it on sale through one Steam sale or another, I thought I would pick it up.  The idea of playing in a fantasy world with massive bosses that would be pretty difficult seemed appealing.  There was also something about a dark atmosphere and/or setting that peaked my interest as well.  Dark Souls is this game.  Dark Souls II was also brought up in a recent episode of Extra Credits, which I think the real inspiration to give this game a go came from.

Sometime last week after Conklederp had finished playing Skyrim for the night, I thought I'd start up Dark Souls as my mouse was on the other side of the room and when I first booted up the game a few months back, I knew that it would be a game that I would have to play with a controller; just take a look at the keyboard configurations required:

and

and

I felt like I was looking at keyboard set up for a flight simulator (I'm looking at you DCS World).  Just the fact that there were separate keyboard commands for the camera movement was one of the key factors for me playing the game with the controller.  Because of Goldeneye 007, I knew that I could not personally move around a camera/field of vision with buttons, the controls had to either be a mouse or a joystick.  I am simply not that coordinated.

Once I got to this stage, it was time to create a character.  Jump to me now playing my fourth character (female knight for those who want to know), and I now feel like I did something wrong in the item picking stage.  I chose the "Tiny Being's Ring" as the description said that it would increase HP slowly over time, which I read to be that your HP regenerates.  As it turns out, "Tiny Being's Ring" only increases your existing HP by 5%.  Maybe I should have chosen an item that better suited towards being a knight?  The Internets are apparently telling me that the Master Key is the item to go with for almost every class (except the Thief, which it comes equipped with).  Blarg.

Presently I am about three and-a-half hours into the game and I could not really tell you the storyline.  There is an intro cinematic that went into the an origin story of some god-like figures and their war against the dragons (who are made of rock/stone) with the help of one scaleless dragon.  The game starts with your character waking up/coming to after being tossed in a dungeon cell.  And you are already dead.  Apparently being dead is something that remains constant during the game and I do not just mean that you die a lot, which also does happen quite frequently.  You do have the ability to make yourself whole or human (ie: not dead, I think), but the reason to do that is to be "taken over" by other people playing online, or so that you can team up with other people who are also playing online, I am not really sure on either point as nothing was mentioned in-game about this.

What this all boils down to, is that I do not get this game.  Yes, it is a beautifully created game with some wonderful vistas and the architecture of the structures is massive and imposing.  If it was not that I was dying/being killed every 20 minutes, I would probably be having more fun.  Additionally, dying would not be that big of an issue if all the souls collected from killing hollows (aka: enemies) were not "lost" after you are killed, but that seems to be a core aspect of the game.  Granted, those souls could be picked back up if you make it back to the spot where you died to retrieve them, but all the enemies have also respawned.  The enemies always respawn any time you rest/heal at a bonfire (which also acts as a checkpoint).  

Screen cap during my third character who was a male warrior; not the female knight I keep referring to.

At this point, I want to progress with the game, but I feel that I am just too weak to venture out far enough so that I am not killing the same 10 enemies over and over.  Grinding required?  Three hours with this one character, seven hours overall and again, I do not understand this game.  I find it very frustrating venturing out into this demonized world only far enough to kill a handful of enemies before having to trudge all the way back to the closest bonfire, save and then deal with the exact same enemies all over again.

I also apparently do not understand ranged combat in this game.  From what I have experienced, in order to fire your ranged weapon (knives, crossbow, long bow), you have to lock on to your target, but you are unable to lock onto enemies who the game considers to be too far away.  Which defeats the purpose of having a bow, at least in my opinion.  Enemies on the other hand will chuck firebombs (clay jars filled with oil that are set on fire) indefinitely at you because of course they do.

Hand-to-hand combat is also something that I have an issue with.  Each character has a standard and powerful attack.  Each class (at least between the warrior and the knight) has different animations for their attacks, but it is the same every time.  I found this out while doing a strong attack with the knight.  The knight's strong attack is a lunge forward while swinging the sword across the horizon from back to front.  Every time.  Whereas the warrior lunges with his sword in a lunging motion.  I found this very worrisome considering that a fair portion of the combat takes place around cliffs, precipices and rooftops.  And you can very easily fall off while being surrounded in a cloud of flame thrown from a pyromancer and being attacked by some measly grunt and all you are trying to do is kill said pyromancer and in the course of the game catching up with the last time you pressed the attack button, the young knight plummets off the rooftop to die some hundred feet below.

You can also fall/die in large pools of water where your bloodstain will not show up, because fucking Dark Souls.  Also it makes sense that a bloodstain would not be floating on a body of water.

If you could not tell, I am not sure if I will continue with this game.  I know there will be (are) people who will say that the game is not about story, that it is a hack-and-slash that is supposed to be difficult and that you have to play at least 10 hours before the game starts getting good.  Maybe I am just getting old when feel that I do not have 10 hours to spend on a game to figure out if I like it or not.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

To Save Us All From Satan's Power

P.S.  And in the point between writing this article and its posting, I have created two additional characters, a male pyromancer and a female sorcerer to get a feel for the magick based characters and see if I enjoy the game even more.  Týr knows why I keep giving this game a chance.  Maybe it does have it hooks in me and I just don't know it yet.