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

Year In Review: 2014

Ahhhh, 2014 is over and another year of the non-leap variety has begun, this time ending in the newly minted 2015 style.  But seriously, who talks that way!?

2014 was a good year for us here.  I felt our writing has increased quite a bit since we started over two years ago and we continue to be more and more coherent and consistent.  Dr. Potts with his newly NP inspired title Pak Watch which will be seeing further development in the coming year and the creation of Wednesdays' MIDI Week Singles of which both of us are always excited about writing for.

Looking back, I feel that I re-submerged myself in the board game playing industry, mainly towards the end of the year and partly because Conklederp and I got married which brought in some gifts in the board gaming department.  Although, I feel that this re-germinated seed began earlier in the year when Chreekat's mom moved up to Portlandia and we played Settlers of Catan.  Since then, we've played a fair amount of Mansions of Madness, Pandemic, as well as a handful of other games (7 Wonders, Camel Up!, Blokus, DiXit) with some other friends.  Our current year looks to be even more expansive with Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition that I am planning to get started in the coming weeks/months.

I also noticed that I started watching a lot more episodes from both Extra Credits and LoadingReadyRun as well as listening to podcasts of Roosterteeth's The Patch.  Coupled with my reading of Penny-Arcade and the occasional article from PC Gamer and Kotaku, these are my primary sources for gaming news and information (and I guess occasional hilarity) from the past year and 2015 doesn't look to be any different.

Gaming-wise, there's a lot more to cover and after creating a list of the games I had played, finished and stopped playing, I decided not to subjugate our reader to that kind of monotony.  But now that Steam's Winter Sale is over (as of roughly four and-a-half hours ago) and that my 3DS has filled up with games from Nintendo's eShop sale (oddly a lot for Nintendo), I am perfectly content to wallow about in this (I guess technically it's last) years haul which includes old (and a couple newer) titles such as Castle Crashers, Trine 2, Wasteland, Child of Light, VVVVVV, Crimson Shard and Weapon Shop de Omasse [which I am definitely going to write about in the coming week(s)].

With the move that Conklederp and I just completed a few weeks back, we'll be putting in a retro gaming room (SNES, N64 and GameCube) so look for more articles about games that Dr. Potts, Conklederp and I all grew up with.  With any luck, I might be able to acquire the NES from my parents house (once my older sister and I determine custody).  I've also re-installed my magnifying light which means that I will be getting back into painting miniatures, which I am very excited to do again after a three plus year dry spell.

Oh, and I had nearly forgotten that 2014 marked my official foray into the world of online gaming with The Elder Scrolls Online, of which I played for about four months before having to stop due to a lack of incoming income, and Path of Exile, which I am still playing, but appear to be unable to find the time to make my way up and through the Pyramid in a single sitting.  Ah, first world problems.  Amiright!?

So when I am not being all accountable (eh, EH!?) this upcoming school year, I'll be keeping busy with one of many forms of gaming, which I will keep y'all updated on, because that's why we exist here.

Happy 2015.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Instrumental

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

Monthly Update: November 2014

Happy November!  It's both Movember and NaNoWriMo, both activities that I think would be interesting, but I never remember until a few days into November and then I tell myself, "Ah, maybe next year."

So Evolve's Big Alpha weekend happened this last weekend, and all the excitement about that experience I will post about on Friday as there's simply too much to post in a monthly update article.  So onto other things!

Conklederp and I received the board game Pandemic from Coolman and his coollady because we got married (how cool is that!), but I already talked about that part.  Recently though, Conklederp and I got a chance to play that game and ho-boy was it fun.  Well, about as fun as potentially letting the world fall into a cesspool of disease and dead bodies can be.  

After watching the Table Top episode from Season 1 that covered Pandemic, we gave the game a try, although later realizing that I didn't shuffle the Player deck correctly, but that's what first playthroughs are for anyway.  What both Conklederp and I love about this game is that all the players are working together against the board.  If one person wins, everyone wins, but there is only one way for the players to win: finding cures to all four diseases.  There are, however, three ways for the board to win: running out of Infection Tokens, maxing out the Outbreak meter and/or running out of Player Cards.  In our most recent playthrough, while we did find cures to all four diseases, the world was pretty ravaged by disease, but at least they're curable now.  To date, we have a 66% success rate with this game, but even losing is "fun."

I also opened a shop on Etsy.com to sell/showcase cross stitch patterns I've designed over the years.  It's called ExorStitch.  You know, like The Exorcist and cross stitch.  It was Conklederps idea and I love it.  So head on over if you or someone you know is into cross stitching and likes to make semi-unconventional patterns for people you like/don't like.  It'll be a hoot.

In the video game department, I finally got around to finishing the Dead Space mobile game, which will earn it's own article later in the month.  But in short, it was a fun game that did things to the player that I haven't seen since Eternal Darkness, and I was happy.

The rest of the month is looking to be not too different from October, except instead of witches and zombies there will be pilgrims and poultry corpses along with native peoples that end up slaughtered by the millions.  You know, maybe I'll finally give Sid Meier's Civilization V a go.  I did give the game a start earlier in the year (or was it late last year?), but I think I started a set scenario as opposed to a new game so I left panicking that I would leave the world decimated and without hope.  You know, like losing a game in Pandemic.

In the newer games department, I haven't played Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth although I love the concept.  I haven't played Shadow of Mordor although I have only been hearing good things about this Skyrim meets Assassin's Creed creation.  I haven't played Destiny as I don't have the appropriate console.  I haven't played The Evil Within because it's new and expensive, but I do have the demo and I'm looking forward to playing that on a dark and stormy night.  So you know, Portland.  I also haven't played Borderlands, the Pre-Sequel since I haven't played any of the games in that series and I feel that I should at least have played the first Borderlands.  I could probably now start in on Bioshock: Infinite now that I've finished the first two games in the series.

You know, some people out there in the gaming community might call my lack of playing anything released within the last year as being lame (if that insult is even used in the gaming community), but I won't be listening to them anyway, because I like cheese.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

I Like Big Shiny Things

Finding Time With Mobile Games

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Never Ending Soul Ripping

Monthly Update: August 2014

Damn, is time flying by or what? 

During the month of July, I had blew through games at a rate that is not overly normal for me.  Being unemployed probably has something to do with it (although taking an accounting class probably counteracted some of the unemployment-ness), but I also happen to have been playing games that didn't take 50+ hours to complete (looking at your Elder Scrolls series).  During July I managed to finish Bioshock 2, Mirror's Edge, Dead Space (again), Thomas Was Alone, Outlast, Among the Sleep and Alone in the Dark.  With the exception of Bioshock 2 which took me 22 hours to complete, all the other listed games took less than 10, with  Among the Sleep and Alone in the Dark taking just under four hours each.  I like this.

Next on the list and continuing with the theme of older, now antiquated PC games will be I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream, but I want to finish reading the story first just because I'm about half way through and because it came free with the game when I bought it from gog.com.  I also want to find a playable version of a game from 1983 called Archon, so I'll be looking into that too.

There are also a couple of expansion/DLCs that are on my list to play as well.  First off there is the "Minerva's Den" for Bioshock 2, "Benjamin's Flight" for Thomas was Alone and "Whistleblower" for Outlast.  I don't know if I will get to all of these this month, but they are definitely on the "To Play" list of games that always seems to somehow be growing.

In the hand held gaming front, I'm still trudging through Donkey Kong Country Returns now being stuck (again) with one of those blasted (hehe) rocket levels that I had such a fun time (I didn't) with in the previous stage.  I'm also close to the end of Kirby's Adventure and I recently started a puzzle game from Fallen Tree Games and FK Digital in Nintendo's eShop called quell: reflect that is fun logic-type game about moving objects to a goal in a limited space; there might be an article in this.

Then there's the sadly neglected PSP that is sitting atop the bookshelf perpetually charged.  I have Vagrant Story and the first Silent Hill that I recently downloaded that I would really like to have a go at, as well as a couple other titles that I purchased oh so long ago that I have yet to start up; I'm looking at you Shin Megami Persona 1 & 2, Silent Hill Origins and God of War: Ghost of Sparta.

It looks like August is shaping up a bit, plus I still have a massive amount of books to read as the next on the list is the audio book edition of Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, because why not?

See you all next week.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
They Run Amuck In My Terrain

SteamBoy: Steam Gaming on the Go.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It is now only a waiting game.

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

E3 2014: Post Game Show Recap

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

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

Back to the games.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
But Just The Good Days


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

E3 2014: New & Improved 2014 Edition!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Instrumental

Monthly Update: April 2014

March 2014 was a fun and interesting month.  First off, I turned 34, which feels an awful lot like 33, which doesn't feel much different than when I turned 31.  Turning 30 only felt a little different than it did when I turned 29, but that's only because I got to use a new number even though it was technically part of the same decade, depending on how you count.  

For this birthday, my weekend was spent with Conklederp's clan up in Whistler, BC, which apparently is a thing that I apparently haven't been paying attention to for the past 34 years.  I watched the 2010 Winter Olympics when they were in Vancouver, BC, but I didn't realize that a lot of the downhill events were actually at this massive site of Earth acne called Whistler and Blackcomb.

Another birthday event occurred this last weekend as well (March 26 - 31), Dr. Potts took the ol' Amtrak up to Portland from Nor*Cal.  For most of March, Conklederp had been telling me not to plan anything for that weekend and said nothing else about what to expect.  Lo and behold, when I came home from work I found the good Dr. and Conklederp casually conversing on the couch.  That day I had been receiving texts from the both of them that hinted about something going on, so it wasn't a complete surprise, but I was still surprised none-the-less.  In traditional Portland fashion, we had nearly 24 hours of rain almost every day Dr. Potts was up.

His last night here, Conklederp and I took Dr. Potts out to Ground Kontrol, an arcade bar in downtown Portland that does pretty much everything right.  They have a full liquor bar, but also four or five beers on tap or you can buy a tall boy of PBR, Tecate or whatever other kind of cheapish beer (although in the past they did serve Abominable Winter Ale from the HUB brewery from here in Portland and a radler).  They have a great selection of games ranging from Qbert and Gradius to more modern cabinets such as Battle Royale Pac-Man and Mario Kart GP2 (I'll come back to Mario Kart in a bit).  A nice touch is that there are bottle/glass/can holders on all of the cabinets so you never have to worry about precariously placing your beverage any where near a furiously moving joystick or a hand vigorously mashing a number of buttons.  As it turned out, Sunday night there was a $2/person cover charge, but it was free game night and we easily spent over $2/person on arcade and pinball games.

The only disappointment of the night had to do with the Mario Kart GP2 game.  There were two chairs for what appeared to be a chance to race against both computer characters and the person sitting next to you.  Both Dr. Potts and I tried to coordinate a Vs game/match, but each time we ended up playing our own game and only against computer controlled characters.  Even though we both picked the same track on the 150cc difficulty setting, there was no on screen prompt to set up a race with the other player.  The items picked up from the "?" Blocks were also not very creative or intuitive, meaning they did not seem to come from the canonical Mario Kart universe.  Items that we have come to recognize as being inherently Mario Kart.  I never saw banana peels, mushrooms, green/red turtle shells or invincibility stars.  There was a trashcan lid, a spiny-looking thing that may have been a Spiny and an item that used your picture that the game took shortly after you start the game.  All items acted like either green or red shells.

Despite being a little disappointed by a video game that cost us less than 10¢ to play, it was great hanging out with Dr. Potts.  He introduced me to Nidhogg, which was a lot of fun to play as we were able to hook up two controllers to my laptop (IT CAN BE DONE!!).  In turn I introduced him the History Channel show Vikings, which we came within two episodes shy of finishing the first season.

April is looking to be a busy month for my gaming habits.  I recently started Bioshock 2, Braid and Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, but I am still playing through Assassin's Creed, Oblivion, Final Fantasy VII, FEZ, Torchlight II, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Anodyne, Slender: The Arrival, Witch & Hero. . . you get the idea.  Oh, and then this Elder Scrolls Online was officially released today and that's already eaten up some of my time, so expect at least one article from me on this later this month on that score.

So happy April everyone.


~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Today, I Lost My Way

Is Anxiety Over Video Games A Real Thing?

DISCLAIMER: With this post, I am in no way attempting to make light of anxiety disorders such as post traumatic stress disorder, as I know that these are very real for the people who suffer from their effects.  I only bring up PTSD as a question, a way of springboarding into what it is that I want to talk about.

I am currently at a crossroads in a couple of games that I am playing.  These crossroads have occurred in the form of anxiety when I think about the situation that I will have to put myself in if I want to continue on with the game, a video game form of PTSD if you will (see above disclaimer).

The first game is Slender: The Arrival, which I covered in a previous post.  I have reached a point in the game that is an homage to the free to play Slender: The Eight Pages, where you wander around an enclosed area trying to collect eight pages that are randomly placed on any one of 10 landmarks all before you are chased down by The Slender Man.  I have played The Eight Pages quite a few times and have never been able to collect all eight pages.  TEP is odd in that it is pretty terrifying in a minimalistic way, but I still end up jittery with a racing heart-rate each time I play/fail.  This is where The Arrival comes in, the level that is an homage to TEP.  When I first reached the area I recognized what was going on and I felt my heart-rate begin to quicken.  All of the times that I had failed in the past came back and began to nag at the back of my mind.  I told myself that this stage in TA would not be as difficult as in TEP because it wasn't the entire game, just a stage.  However, as was the case with TEP, I was caught by The Slender Man after only finding a couple of pages (my record in TEP was five).  I have not played the game since because of the nagging feeling/fear of all the times I had failed in the past and the tension I went through just to fail.

The second game is Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together.  I have reached a story battle that is very reminiscent of a battle from Final Fantasy Tactics that I found to be very difficult.  Anyone reading this who has played the FFT will most likely remember the final battle against Wiegraf when he turns himself into the Lucavi Belias.  It has been stated (by the linked website as well) that this battle is one of the more difficult battles in the game and that is very much not a lie.  Currently I have changed the main character's profession from a Warrior to a Ninja and I am grinding to build up the Ninja level and skills in an attempt to better equip myself for the battle.  All the while I have previous experiences of going up against a very strong (and annoying) enemy in the back of my mind, reminding me of all the self imposed mental anguish I put myself through at the proverbial hands of this religious demon.  However, if I want to continue with the Let Us Cling Together and the story, I have no other option but to defeat this boss after an initial battle with only the main character.  I have not resorted to gamefaqs, but that might just be a very real option to save my sanity, if only a little.

It might seem/sound odd to a lot of people, but I genuinely get anxious when I think about going back to either of these games to play them, knowing that I have these challenges ahead of me.  One might say that there is no reason to worry so much because "it's just a game."  I do not have a response to someone with this point of view as it is their own and have already made up their minds and that the way I feel is not legitimate according to the way they live their own lives.  I guess it could be like telling someone who cries (for any reason) during a movie that "it's just a movie."  To me though, that anxiety associated with these two walls I have come up to is very real, in both a mental and physical sense.  In Slender: The Arrival, I know that if I fail the first time, I will most likely try again at least one or two more times, depending on how many pages I am able to achieve, all the while knowing that after being caught twice, I will become more annoyed than afraid.  Ogre Battle: Let Us Cling Together is a bit different in that I can always just forego the battle and just raise levels with my current party, although that could be dangerous in and of itself as the random enemies level along with the average level of your party as they do with Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy: 4 Heroes of Light, and I do not want a repeat of that debacle.

So in answer to my question: Yes, for me, I believe that fear is a real thing to be afraid of.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian (In Canada)

See Him Surface In Every Shadow

Image credits for Slender Man

Image credits for Wiegraf