Things that Kind of Went on at E3: 2015 Re-Edition

I've had this banner-thing lying around since 2013 and I figured that either I used it or throw it in the local incinerator.  If you didn't know, we're all about recycling here up here in the PNW.  I'm not going to bore you with a breakdown of the most interesting games for each system or show you a scientific ranking based on the amount of endothermic radiation tabulated during each presentation.  I will bore you with a generic list of games that caught my attention (based on my own pre-existing personal tastes) while looking over what happened during the last four days from this three day convention of this Electronic Entertainment Exposition for consumers.

ADR1FT: Sounds like Amnesia: The Dark Descent, but in space.  Which I am perfectly okay with.

Attractio: An FPS puzzle platformer that, by description alone, sounds similar to Portal.

Bravely Second: End Layer: The sequel to Bravely: Default, of which I still have yet to play, but the demo kept me entertained.

Catadoomed: An interesting game for Android devices that is available now (I just downloaded it) and it's free, so why not at least try it out.

Dark Souls III: Thanks to Extra Credits' "Side Quest" series, Dark Souls has its proverbial hooks in me once again.

Doom: What made me sad about seeing the gameplay footage, was that I felt that some of the animations would now no longer be a surprise.  For example, I saw the same chainsaw cutting-in-half animation at least twice and thought, "Oh, it's this one again then?"

Dragon Quest Heroes: Apparently there's going to be another Dragon Quest game, although this one's a PS4 exclusive and by the description at box art, looks like Dissidia: Final Fantasy, but with characters, or shall I say, heroes from the various Dragon Quest games.

Dreams: A PS4 exclusive and an interesting concept if done the way I think it should be done.

Earthbound: Beginnings: A Wii U virtual console exclusive of Mother (1989, Famicom), which boggles me a bit as to why it's not coming out for 3DS virtual console either.  Although I never did play Earthbound on the SNES.

The Elder Scrolls: Legends: A free to play TGC from Dire Wolf Studios and published by Bethesda.  I will reserve judgement until after I play, but I probably will play it on PC as the only other mentioned platform will be iOS.

Everybody's Gone to the Rapture: I am still sad that I may never get to play this game (PS4 only), but I've loved what the people at The Chinese Room have done with Dear Esther and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs.  And EGtoR now has a release date of August 11, 2015.

Fallout 4: I feel caught up in the excitement machine with this game seeing as how I've played on the first Fallout, and not ever to completion.

Fallout Shelter: An iOS game that I may have to have Conklederp download to her iPad.  I like the idea of a micro SimCity-type post-apocalyptic simulator.

Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water: Kind of surprised that this is a Nintendo Wii U title with a very Japanese theme.  You use the Wii U pad while exploring/detectivizing a forest where people have been committing suicide.

Final Fantasy VII Remake: Yeah, yeah I know, it's on every other E3 list out there, why shouldn't it be on ours?  What interested me was the mention of changes/additions to the plot.  And even though the trailer says "Play it first on Playstation 4," I feel that that hints to a PC release as well.

Guided Meditation VR: An interesting concept with Oculus Rift support that is ready to play now via the game's website.  

Horizon Zero Dawn: I liked the setting and the idea based on the trailer (post-apocalypse meets The World Without Us meets the Monster Hunter franchise).  The "in-game" sequence got me a little concerned that the unnamed protagonist would actually talk to herself throughout the course of the game; an attempt at co-op play (as in announcer commentary?) in a single player game?  I'm not sure.

King's Quest: Yet another classic game that I have never played any iteration of, but this remake/reboot/update might be either the first I play or I'll go back and dabble in the old ways.

The Last Guardian:  I recall seeing something about this game around the time of PS4 being launched (I lied, it was back in 2011) and it looks like this PS4 exclusive has finally reached a point where it might actually get to be released.  This trailer almost makes me consider buying/acquiring a PS4.

The Legend of Legacy:  Yeah, I'm a sucker for JRPGs.  That's pretty much all I have to say here.

Mad Max: Post-Apocalyptic open world game in the Mad Max universe?  Yeah, I'll play that.

The Manus: A sleeker, sexier (but who are we kidding!?) version of the Power Glove.  Spiffy idea, but I get the feeling that it's a limited market.

Mirror's Edge Catalyst: As long as I don't dread the run-and-gun gauntlet stages and the fighting mechanic has improved (ie: I don't suck using the fighting mechanics designed for the game), I will be very happy.

NieR New Project: Apparently this is a sequel (not officially named) to NieR, and the game looks. . .nice?  I don't know really how else to describe anything about this.  The design and look of the game are pretty much all that is presented in the trailer, and not having played the first game (which will be unconnected to this one), I would have no qualms about starting here, if it is released on PC.

Overkill's The Walking Dead:  The trailer was pretty god damn intense and I'm assuming it was only there to set the mood, considering that this is supposed to be an FPS co-op game (Left 4 Dead in The Walking Dead universe I presume).  Hopefully it's better than the Dixon Brothers Walking Dead game that I never played.

RareReplay: I really love this idea of bundling a bunch (here it's upwards of 30) games from a studio's library, but I will be sad about this because it's an Xbox One exclusive.  Which, probably also means that there will be no Donkey Kong Country included here, but that's only a guess.  And it looks like Goldeneye 007 isn't included either, otherwise, one would assume, that it would have made it into the trailer.

ReCore: About time for another Xbox One exclusive that peaked my interest.

Star Fox Zero:  It's Star Fox and I would probably want to play it if we owned (someone gave us) a Wii U.

Super Mario Maker:  I love the idea of creating your own levels in a Super Mario game, until I immediately remember that general skulldickery will be responsible for the majority of the levels being made.  I can only hope that in order to either submit, publish, or complete making a level, the designer has to be able to make it through their monstrous demonseed creation.  And since it's a Wii U exclusive, I probably won't have to experience said skulldickery.

Tearaway Unfolded: A PS4 only title here that looks like Little Big Planet (same studio) and the trailer did what it was supposed to do.

The Uncertain:  There's a robot wandering around a house in what is described as a post-apocalyptic setting.  Yeah, I'm kind of a sucker.

Unravel: Little Big Planet meets LIMBO meets Yoshi's Wooly World.

Until Dawn: Another PS4 exclusive (bloody 'ell) that looks like Cabin in the Woods with some Tell Tale Games illusion of choice decision making; surveillance monitors and all.

What Remains of Edith Finch:  Yup, you guessed it, PS4 only.  I like the idea of playing as different members of the same family over generations (Eternal Darkness).

Whew!  That was a lot longer than I had initially intended, but there it is.  There were many more games presented in their varying states of completeness, so you're welcome to check out the full list of games at E3 this year.  There were also a handful of games that I was initially interested in until I looked at them beyond their title (World of Final Fantasy, Sea of Thieves, Metroid Prime: Federation Force, The Legend of Zelda: Triforce Heroes, Hyrule Warriors Legends) and then I decided that I wasn't as interested as I was hoping to be, all due to one reason or another (maybe a later post). I'm going to go drink a pot of coffee now.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

 Instrumental

Monthly Update: June, 2015

Happy June everyone!  Unless June is an unhappy month for you, so in that case, "HAPPY JUNE EVERYONE ELSE!  And you too."

So updates from our gaming worlds it is now that we're on to talking about.

Within the realm of Dungeons & Dragons, I've come to the realization that I need to work on describing environments that the PCs are in when there are no descriptions prewritten from the module.  Sure I've got maps and whatnot, but for when the PCs are traversing along a well traveled road from morning to night through the grasslands of Faerûn, I need to do more than say "After you wake up, you continue traveling south along the road.  (Sound of a die rolling). . .The weather throughout the day is fairly windy and (die rolling). . . is uneventful.  You make it to about. . .here on the map by nightfall."  I also need to do a better job at describing enemies rather than by their name.  "A twig blight scuttles out of the bushes and goes after Dagnar."  I also feel that I should have a random name generator up because the few people that I've given names too have been "Joe" and "Bobby."

But Conklederp reminds me that people keep coming back so I must not be doing that bad of a job DMing descriptions.

I managed to finish Silent Hill on the PSP late last month.  It was about as stressful as I was expecting and after just over nine hours, I was able to see the fruits of my fingering labors.  There will be an article later in the week or the beginning of next week, somewhat akin to the Dead Space articles about my experience with the game rather than directly about the game.  It did come out 16 years ago after all.

I've also managed to progress a bit in Radiant Historia on the 3DS although I still find that I'm overthinking things as far as time travel and parallel universes.

In the PC gaming arena, Conklederp and I have been playing the proverbial fecal matter out of The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited.  Last week alone we clocked in around 17+ hours traversing the vast swaths of High Rock and portions of Hammerfell.  I don't know if we will keep pace this week as I have a lot of real world work I have to finish.

Lastly, there are going to be some changes coming up this month that DRoBOTTS and I have been working on for just about the last month.  We're both happy to see this happen (no we're not monetizing and no we were not bought out for 4.7 million after a tense bidding war between PC Gamer and Gamespot), so stay tuned for more vague updates.  I'm sure you'll enjoy our cryptic ramblings as much as we've had creating them.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
I Oughta Get Going

Monthly Update: May 2015

Happy May, or I guess "May the 4th be with you."  I'm sure y'all've already checked out the Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer #2 by now and even if you have, it wouldn't hurt to watch it again. . .for the 47th time. . .this week.  There're also apparently some new pictures up from the movie which may or may not contain spoilers.  Ye've been warned. . .arrrr. 

Reaction to Konami cancelling
Silent Hills.  Decency people!
(Public posts means I don't have to
black out names).

Aside from that, it's been an interesting month in the Land of Gaming where apparently a fair amount of people were pissed off at one person or another for any reason or another.  There's been the Silent Hills cancellation, and Valve allowing modders to charge for use of their mods in Skyrim (but only if they want to charge) then nixing that idea after less than a week. On Friday however, and on a happier note, (so technically May) the splinters from Rare who created Playtonic have started a Kickstarter for their game Yooka-Laylee (which is, as of this writing, 412% over their target goal of $270,041 and it's been less than 12 hours since their email announcement).  And there's Rare's announcement that they've been working on something that's been a lot of fun for them that will be announced at E3 next month.

But that's all well and good for the rest of the world, but what about little ol' me?  I've been keeping pace with course work which has left some time for putzing around with a couple of video games, this time across multiple platforms.

I've gotten back into playing the Atlus time travelling multiverse fantasy game Radiant Historia, which originally came out on the DS back in 2011.  The game can be a bit overwhelming with multiple timelines and people/items/skills that you might need to learn in an alternate timeline before continuing with your current timeline.  At the moment I'm only transitioning between two separate outcomes, but I have  feeling that things will begin to branch off in the next chapter or two.  Thankfully you have the ability to speed through conversations that you've had umpteen times before and the music is good as far as JRPG soundtracks go.  I'll stick this one out until the end, barring any 4 Heroes of Light graves that I manage to dig myself into.

On the PC gaming front, I'm finishing up Borderlands (the first game) and I recently started Mass Effect 2.  My first off is that Borderlands is a great FPS with a crappily weak story.  Mass Effect 2 is a great story with too much online emphasis about who Shepard is going to doink.  Who Shepard (male or female) ends up with relationship-wise and what is unlocked in Mass Effect 3 based on your relationship choices from the previous two games seems a bit overwhelming on top of trying to save the galaxy.  It's almost like in order to experience the "full" game, you have to have a separate save file for each decision regardless if you have the option of using a paragon/renegade response; basically like in Radiant Historia.  And then there's Miranda, who apparently is nude with painted on clothing that is frequently emphasized by the camera panning or holding over her gluteal maximal region.  I know body paint's a thing, I saw a video about it once.

Lastly, and back to handheld, is Silent Hill (1999) which I'm playing on the PSP, influenced from all of the Dead Space posts last month.  Presently my biggest complaint is that the game screen doesn't take up all of the PSP screen that it should be able to.   There is an empty black space around the entire gaming-viewing window when it looks like the viewable window could have been stretched out diagonally in both directions by a couple of more pixels.  I've actually been conversing with Dr. Potts textually while playing and it's very reminiscent of 1999 when we were living in the same abode and would frequently talk to each other about where we were at in our respective games.  It was nice.  I should probably also check to make sure he has an unlimited texting plan, or I'll just revert to Google's Hangout app which Chreekat inadvertently introduced me to last week.

Leading up to the December release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, my unofficial plan is to finish Star Wars: Dark Forces and start another of the Star Wars games that Humble Bundle bundled together a few months back.  There might even be a "Why A Star Wars Game?" post somewhere in there as well.

Oh, and D&D has now reached a "regular basis" status for which I am very grateful.  Maybe a post in there about this as well later in the month.  Although I should probably get everyone to sign a release form, but being the DM, I can always make up some threats.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

A Feast of Friends

First Impressions: Dead Space 2 (PC)

I've started Dead Space 2 twice.  The first time, I made it 1h48m in then discovered that the Dead Space 2 game sold through Steam comes with three DLC packs pre-installed, which I did not know about, although it does not contain the Severed DLC which is a standalone prequel to Dead Space 2; Severed was apparently only released on PS3 and XBox 360 with no word as to a PC release.  The reason I restarted was because I had thought that all of the free items in the store (as a result of the DLC weapon/armor packs) were supposed to be there and I equipped myself to the teeth right before a mini-boss fight.  I would rather not play the game that way, so I started over with the intent of only buying items from the store as they become available in-game.

Always be wary when the best items for sale are free.

Dead Space 2 is fun at the present.  There are a number of jump scares with necromorphs bursting through walls or environmental elements springing to life as you walk by, minding your own business.  There are a number of modifications from the original Dead Space that I feel like I have to come to terms with in order to fully like this game.  

The first major change is that the game is no longer told in separate chapters.  In the first game, each time you boarded a tram to a different part of the USG Ishimura, you began a new chapter and you knew what your objective was.  In DS2, at least up to chapter 4, you are following the guidance of a voice on the other end of your radio as you make your way through Titan Station (built around the remnants of Saturn's moon Titan) with no clear break between chapters.  I recall seeing a "Chapter 2" pop up at one point, but I have not seen anything to denote that I had entered a chapter 3 or 4.  I personally liked the individual chapters as part of a larger whole that made up the first game as well as the mobile game.  The current less structured narrative makes me feel like I am just going from one area to another and killing hordes of necromorphs along the way, because that is what you are supposed to be doing in a video game.

"Oh hai dere!"

I do like the present variety in necromorphs compared to those in DS1.  It would make sense too (does it really!?) that not all off the mutated/transfigured humans would look like the same sprinting blood thirsty brute.  You are on a space station that is full of residential living areas as well as industrial, religious and private sectors so the population is going to be different, which is something that I appreciate.

Maybe it's just me, but so far, I am getting a very Bioshock feeling from wandering around the Titan Station residential and commercial areas.  It could be due to wandering through living quarters and that a space station with super-security-gorilla-glass would be somewhat akin to the glass used in an underwater city and the necromorphs are more perverted than the splicers, but they are still often sprinting monsters that jump out and want to annihilate you just because you have a prettier face.  The point is, I don't want to be playing Bioshock, I want to play the sequel to Dead Space and I am not getting that feeling with only four hours in.

A physical representation of a Marker that size is never a good thing to come across in this universe.

I was talking to Conklederp the other day about this and I decided that I am going to reserve my final judgement of the game until after I reach the end.  I am still enjoying the game, despite how I have sounded through half of this article and I am also interested to find out if I have been intentionally mislead and that my impressions of the game will change later on.  I am also interested to see how the previous stories from Dead Space: Aftermath, Ignition and Mobile all fit together and how they are presented, if at all, in this game that is a cumulation of all of those individual parts.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
I Awake From Madness

MIDI Week Singles: "John's Theme (A Sharp Miner)" - Rochard (PC)

"John's Theme (A Sharp Miner)" from Rochard on the PC (2011)

Digitally Released Album

Composer: Marcus Kaarlonen

Game Developer: Recoil Games

I'm sure I've talked a bit about this, not specifically about Marcus Kaarlonen's Rochard soundtrack, but about realizing that you find a song to be amazing the first time you listen to it.  It's something special when it happens with music from video games.

For me, a fair amount of video game music is about nostalgia, that I can remember times playing those specific games based on the music.  You play a game and the songs, while they may not be the best song outside of the context of the video game, hold a special place in your heart.  With that in mind, I love that feeling I get when listening to video game music for the first time and all I can do is sit back and take in the beautifulness that is assaulting my brain.

"John's Theme (A Sharp Miner)" did that very thing to me the first time I heard the song.  I haven't even played Rochard, which says, to me at least, that the music is able to stand alone from the video game.  This piece has epic space saga written all over it.  It's a love child that John Williams and Alan Silvestri would have had in the late 80s early 90s, and what a child it is too.

The point is, "John's Theme (A Sharp Miner)" is a great song which also happens to be from a video game.  So poo-poo on all the nay-sayers of the quality of video game music.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Dig This Sound

First Impressions: Dead Island Riptide (PC)

This has been a combination of my experiences playing the game so far.

Images like these:

Coupled with frequent noises like this:

The noise that I recorded is only at 80 dB whereas it can jump at random (as if this isn't random enough) to 120 dB.  This is what I have read from various sources online as I do not actually own a decibel meter. No I do not have one on my phone.

My last session lasted an hour so that I could get an idea how often the screeching static noise would last and how frequently it would grace me with its presence, so in an unscientific manner, here is what I recorded:

7:07 minutes of no noise

0:43 seconds of noise

3:12 no noise

2:29 minutes of noise

0:26 no noise

3:38 minutes of noise

1:44 no noise

6:29 minutes of noise

1:13 no noise

5:21 minutes of noise

0:35 no noise

2:27 minutes of noise

0:02 no noise

0:03 seconds of noise

12:59 (unknown as the volume was turned off).

Týr knows why, but I've presently put five hours into this game even with the sound effects volume in-game turned down to practically nil and even then, the sound (120 dB) will still poke it's ugly head out of my speakers.

Last week (as 0f when I wrote this back in December) I contacted tech support at Deep Silver relating my problem to them to see if they knew what was going on.  I was then prompted to run a diagnostic tool and email them the results so they could have a better idea as to the specs of my computer and what I was dealing with.  I felt perfectly fine doing this as I did something very similar when I applied for the Elder Scrolls Online Beta request.  Within 24 hours I received a straightforward reply which suggested that I update my drivers, which I hadn't realized that I hadn't updated in a while.  So I followed the supplied links and was able to download three of the five drivers.  The two sound card drivers I was not able to download/install  as they are integrated drivers and even knowing the manufacturer and name, I could not locate the correct driver to download.

So I went back to the game with bright polished up video drivers hoping against hope that my problems were fixed.  The game played fine for about eight minutes before the screeching wail of dying souls and banished ear drums returned to mock my computer and mine own ears.  I played for maybe another 15 minutes before ultimately giving up.

I do not know if I will be going back to Dead Island: Riptide anytime soon as it is the only game that seems to have a problem with my apparently lackluster sound card.  Even games that have come out more recently than April 2013 have operated fine without any sound issues.  Maybe after I acquire my next computer (do not know what that will be) I will come back and see if my experience improves.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Instrumental

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.

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.

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

Whatever Impressions: Fallout (PC)

I say "Whatever" not because this game came out 17 years ago or because its graphics are dated, but because I have started various characters in Fallout, the first being about four years ago after Vorlynx bought the game for me while we were browsing around Best Buy (I have since forgotten our reason for being in Best Buy in the fist place though).  

Anyway, my first run through, I thought I had beaten the game when I acquired the computer chip required to fix the water filtration system and brought it back to Vault 13 before the 150 day time limit expired.  People who have played before know that this is not the way to win the game.  I then did something very stupid.  I found a gun that I did not really care for, only later realizing that said gun happened to be one of the rarest guns in the game and can only be found by a random encounter with an alien saucer.  That gun, I sold for a paltry sum, so I created a new character, intent on finding that gun again.

That was when I found out that the gun could only be found by random chance and was not a static item in the world.  Needless to say I became a bit discouraged having scrapped my first character and now finding out that the super awesomely powerful alien gun was simply random.  So I continued playing until I reached an underground military-type facility full of things that wanted to kill me that I could not escape.  I think it had to do with the Brotherhood of Steel.  So I had to start over.

My third character, I did a lot of similar actions and stories that I did with my first two characters, but this time I found a dog as a companion that fought along side me.  I went on a mission to oust a bandit that was raiding in the nearby area.  At some point during the umteenth time I tried taking out all the bandits, the dog was killed.  I of course did not realize this until after I had been successful in taking out all of the bandits.  I was seriously at a crossroads as to whether or not I should restart for the sake of my digital dog.  After some time to grieve, I decided that the death of the dog was a character building moment and went on with my life.  The last I saw of this character, I was in town that had some kind of rad-creature infestation in a warehouse area that I was trying to clear out so that I could potentially have better gear/weapons/money.

Then Conklederp and I moved up to Portland and I rediscovered Diablo II.  A few months later I poured a pint of Guinness on my computer.  I have not played or attempted to play Fallout since that dark time.  Until today (today being October 23rd as opposed to the 27th).

What I have noticed so far, and it is something that is leftover from the previous times I have played, is that I am constantly afraid that I am going to do something that will fuck up the story.  I am not referring to the 150 days I have to fix the water filter in the vault or the extension you can buy from the water supplier, although those deadlines do not help.  I am referring to the many stories and side quests that exist within this game.  I want to be successful.  I want to save the people in Vault 13.  I want to not have my dog (wherever it may be) die.  I want to explore the world and I want to build the best character I can without the help of a "Build the Best Fallout Character to Have the Most Fun or You Suck at Gaming" guide.  

Wasting time in Junktown, or finding a way to save the people back in Vault 13?

I just feel that I am doomed from the outset.  It probably has a lot to do with the time limit established at the beginning of the game, and even knowing that I can extend that time limit by an extra 100 days.  I honestly do not know what happens when Vault 13 runs out of water.  Does the game end the same way as if you were killed?  Do you just go on exploring the world knowing that everyone you grew up with has died from dehydration?  But I love this world.  I want to know what happens to the people in Vault 13 and all the other Vaults that I have yet to come across.  However, there is this constant nagging feeling that I am wasting time and that I have not done something correctly.  That is probably not the best feeling to have going into a game for the fourth time.

Yet on I play.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Like Pawns On A Distant Shore