Monthly Update: October 2013

Does anyone else question this?  This is the third month that we've done a regular "Monthly Update" with the current month in the title, although most of what I've said in these articles has to do with the previous month.  And I have now just answered my own question.  What I've just said would most likely then be titled "Month in Review."  That is now out of the way.

So during the month of September, I really got into Dead Island.  After playing L4D2 quite a bit, I remembered that I had purchased Dead Island in one of the Humble Bundles and wanted to play something else with zombies.  At first I wasn't sure about the game, which needed some tweaking in the keyboard input department, but after that first questionable hour, I've managed to put in 21 hours and I only recently started Act II (~33% complete).  You can expect a First Impressions article to pop up within the next week.  I've put some time in on Torchlight II and Symphony, which will also get their own First Impressions, hopefully soon.

I also just entered the world of smartphones which I last talked about.  I also picked up the Humble Android Bundle 2, because now I have another outlet for my gaming needs/desires.  As I may've stated in my previous article, I don't see the new phone becoming my go-to for portable gaming, that will continue to be my 3DS.  But, that doesn't mean I won't use if for such purposes.

For those of you interested in miniatures, Reaper is doing a second Kickstarter to promote their Bones line of miniatures.  I got in on their first Kickstarter and came away with well over a hundred high quality plastic-ish minis.  This time around, instead of having multiple tiers, there's the "Thanks $1" tier and then a $100 tier and the earlier you support, the earlier you will get your shipment of (currently) 140 miniatures of varying sizes.  With only a week in, they are already over $1,000,000.  If I didn't already have a backlog of minis that I needed to paint then I would definitely get in on this Kickstarter again.  I just don't know if I would be able to swing it this time around.  With hope, there will always be Bones III next year.

Lastly, Conklederp got me Antichamber because she's awesome/amazing and because we've been together now for over half a decade.  I played the game for about half-an-hour before accidentally deleting my saved progress as I didn't initially know how to exit out of the game.  I know now.  I'll delving in that strange world again soon, probably with Conklederp watching or watching her play.

And I need to get back to playing Papo y Yo and Penumbra: Requiem, although those games are pretty similar in their execution of puzzle-platformers, so I may have to put one on the back burner (speaking of which, I need to go drink some coffee) until one is finished so I don't make myself completely puzzled out. 

So that's where I am, here at the beginning of October 2013.  Nothing too new or out of the ordinary, just plodding along when I'm not at work.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Instrumental

Monthly Update for October

Lately I've been watching sci fi and horror.  Playing lots of games.  And installing all of those steam games I hadn't gotten round too.  I bought a new laptop on ebay.  A Sony Vaio.  It is working pretty well so far.  Only game that won't play is worms: armaggeddon.  poo.

So, since I'm going to Austin, Tx for a month, I figured I should listen to the Rooster Teeth podcast.  Unfortunately, I found it kind of hard to get into.  It was just so chaotic and random.  It seemed like nice background noise, but not something to pay attention to.  Granted, Gus wasn't on the episode I listened to, and that guy's awesome.  Oh, crap, it looks like Geoff probably wasn't there either.

I've been watching random sci fi and horror movies lately.  I watched Troll, because I had to clarify some memories of it.  It was not as scary as I remember.  And the overall quality is... well, lacking.  However, it was strange; there is a very gruesome scene at the beginning involving someone violently turning into a plant-food-pod-thing.  But the rest of the movie was easily a PG rated kids movie.  More trivia about this movie:  There are characters named Harry Potter Jr. and Sr.  Julia Louis Dreyfus is in it.  And the little guy who played the lead troll also plays a human character, and he is treated well by the script and acts very well.

Just watched 'Night of the Creeps' last night.  Another 80s horror.  Pretty great.  I guess a recent movie:  Slither was based on it . I haven't seen that one, but it has Nathan Fillion in it and comes recommended.  But I'm going to talk about Night of the Creeps, 'cause that's the one I watched.

I tell you, I'm experiencing an 80s renaissance.  Clearly, they're not all good movies, as demonstrated by Troll.  But there are some great things.  The pacing in 80s movies is always slower.  And it seems like there's less shock value items.  Not that there isn't shock moments, there's just a lot of time between them.  Generally the characters seem to be strong in 80s movies.  While the main character in Night of the Creeps is really wimpy, his counterpart is really sassy and a lot of fun.  The detective is way over the top, and fun.  In general, it's a fun horror movie.

I'm tempted to check out others I haven't seen, like Hellraiser II, Candyman, the Phantasm and many many others.  But my sister in Austin really isn't into horror movies, so it will likely not be a horror movie October.  Unless I watch them in my room after hours with headphones, which I still may do.  I'm also thinking I may play:  Deadspace, Silent Hill and Slender.  Maybe finish that last episode of the Chzo mythos.  We'll see, I don't know what it will be like in Austin, but I will be taking this little laptop with me.

End random update.

-D

Meanwhile: Portal

I love Portal so much.  I started playing again on my janky mac laptop, and so far things are going pretty well.  I've really been meaning to play through Portal since I played through Portal 2 just over a year ago.    The trouble is that the thing seems to like to overheat while playing portal.  So the going is slow.  maybe 30 mins at a time, if that.  But I managed to make it through the game, and it still holds up.

I notice that the level design is interesting.  The first ten or so levels are pure tutorial.  The next five aren't really much more than that.  But at about level 15, tutorial is left completely behind and the levels start to get longer.  Each level is broken up into several sub-stages which are as long as any of the tutorials from the first half of the game.  Really, they are very tough, but the rewards are much harder to come by.  After every room is another difficult room. Being that this is my second time through Portal, and I've been through Portal II - I was ready for the challenge.  Still, it can be pretty tough.

Simultaneously, as the game transitions from tutorial to actual challenging levels, hints of a more insidious story begin to become more pronounced.  GlaDOS' deadpan voice starts to say increasingly morbid things.  Another thing I've noticed is  that the ambient music, coupled with the isolation of the player and the starkness of the graphic design, lends an eerie sense to the game.  This eerie tone combines with a growing sense of danger, as GlaDOS' sterile voice begins to say stranger and more threatening things.  The overall theme of misanthropic scientific testing is strengthened by the sounds and images and the isolation of the player.

GlaDOS is a pretty awesome villain.  I love the storytelling as her character develops over the course of the game, leading to the excellent climax.  And in the final battle, there is an excellent example of showing, not telling, in the personalities of the three eyeball-things that fall from her machinery.  The first being innocent and curious, the second calculating and cold, and the third savage and aggressive.  GlaDOS' character is perfectly summed up by those three elements. It is implied but never directly stated in-game that these objects represent her personality.  All the while, she is talking to the player, still trying to convince you of her position, and not really acknowledging herself, even as you discover her.  Fantastic, really. Amazing.  I think it is worth pointing out, also, that, despite her attempts to kill you, she is the players constant, and only companion through the course of the game.  This adds a layer, thin, though it may be, of sympathy that you must overcome in order to defeat her and with the game.

I beat the game in 4.8 hours.  I think it went pretty quickly, because I'm an experienced Portal player.  I think it may have taken closer to 10 hours the first time through.  I still really really love that last level.  The twist is so cool.  It really comes across like a final test.  The whole game could just have been sterile lab settings, and I think it would still have been a fun game.  But that last level really made me feel great.  I feel like Valve really took care of me as a player, and I get to show off all my portaling skills Ive been building.

I'm going to try the extra levels just for shits and giggles.  And then I'm going to install Portal 2 and try to get some multiplayer happening.  I have no idea how that works.

-D

The Place Where A Crossbow Can Turn Into A Smartphone

I thought about talking. . . about how out of touch I am in some markets.  Specifically how much I am lacking in the crossbow department.  Why crossbows when I have a perfectly good compound bow sitting not 10 feet behind me?  Because I happen to have left eye dominance and right everything else.  And, I've come to the realization that even with a lot of practice, my aim when pulling back with my right hand wasn't great.  I could still hit the groinal region of Bob (6 1/2 foot bipedal target) from maybe 30 feet, I never measured the actual distance.  I would then proceed to miss the head shot and hit the fence the point being, this is not what I was originally going to talk about.

The market that I was initially going to "briefly" mention was that I am now entering the world of smartphones.  As is the case with some aspects of the technological realm, I'm late to the party.  I acquired my first cellphone in 2005 and that was a flip phone because I liked the idea of my phone not accidentally making calls on my ass'/thigh's behalf.  Two years later I got another flip phone for the same reason.  I wasn't looking into smart phones because I didn't want to have the obligatory +$20 for message/data plan tacked onto my already $45/month phone bill.  Two years later, another phone, this one a slider, which I found out are not washing machine proof.  I was then given an old Razor/er/ar? by Conklederps Dad which I used until I thought I lost in San Francisco.  Roughly a year and-a-half later, it was then replaced by the same slider phone that is 15 feet away charging.  

I only decided to look into smart phones because my current phone's ear piece speaker is starting to get all warbly.  After a bit of research, I discovered that I would be paying about the same amount that I'm currently paying, even with the data plan.  So now, or at least by tomorrow, I'll be the newest member of the smart phone universe.

All that context has brought me to wonder if I'm going to start reviewing cellphone games.  I might, but I don't see myself turning into a cellphone gamer.  I of course say that now, but then I also gave the Game Boy Players Guide to my neighbor (we'll call him PvW) because I didn't own a Game Boy and never saw myself owning one.  Look how well that one's turned out.

That's pretty much all I've got at the moment.  If I don't post anything on Monday (9/30), then send a search party for Conklederp and myself as we'll be around Crater Lake this weekend.  And someone should also tell my work that I won't be coming in.  Now to make sure our tent is still functional and my 3DS is charged.

And Steam's got new stuff too.

Have a good weekend.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

That Thing Hadn't Come Out Yet

First Impressions: Me vs Mirror's Edge

I got this game in some Humble Bundle or another

I tried playing Mirror's Edge last night.  It's not good.  Sorry.  I want to like this game.  I really like the concept:  first person running, leaping, climbing!  It looks really cool when the computer is controlling the action.  But it's tough, and I don't think it's tough for the right reasons.  It's tough to do much of anything.

The first level is a training level.  Well, thats' good, because this game is tough, and the controls aren't terribly intuitive. They even acknowledge in-game that is a training course. But the training level, itself, is really tough.  Also, for some reason the training course is at the top of a series of tall buildings, rather than in a sand-pit obstacle course somewhere. Every time I fuck up, I get to watch myself fall thirty flights of stairs.  Doesn't do much for my immersion into whatever world they're trying to create for me.  Or sometimes, if I stray off course, I am forcibly teleported back to my starting position, where I get to watch the computer example again.  This is annoying and happens a lot, because as I mentioned, the controls aren't really very intuitive.

I tried using a joypad and I tried using the keyboard an mouse.  The keyboard and mouse was slightly easier.  Mostly, I think, because the ability to customize the controls on the joypad is severely limited.  I just want to use the control pad and not the control stick.  Can I?  please?  And, maybe, just maybe I want to use the shoulder buttons for doing quick turns.  No?  Boy this game is tough, and not in a good way.

I got sick of the training level, and moved right on to the first actual stage.  I managed to muddle my way through it, though not without annoying my in-game companion, who started berating me sarcastically for not moving fast enough.  I guess this delightfully one-sided banter is supposed to increase immersion, but instead it just makes the experience suck more.  And I can tell I'm muddling by the sheer number of times I fall thirty feet to my doom, and then bounce right back.  A big part of why this isn't fun is that it seems clear that the point of the game is to perform sequences of moves, not just to spam the high jump over and over until it stops working, and then spam the duck button, or whatever.

And here is where I want to draw a comparison to a great game.  Also a first person game that is not a shooter, not exactly:  Portal.  Portal is a fantastic game.  And, wouldn't you know it, it does a great job teaching the player how to play.  The first ten stages or so are baby steps to how to use the portals and switches and general solve small puzzles.  Then, after getting your sea legs, as it were, the game throws some very complicated puzzles using every technique you've learned up to that point.  It works marvelously.

All I've gotten from Mirrors Edge is that I can go back to the training stage again, and practice each move, one by one, in sequence.  I can't just jump to that one move that's giving me trouble, I've got to work my way to it.  And when I pass that sequence (by sheer luck) I'm on to the next move, even though I really don't have the previous method down.  I going to keep muddling through the levels for a bit longer to see if I can get the hang of it.  

Bottom line:  The makers of Mirrors Edge should have played through Portal and taken notes.  Then maybe I would enjoy playing the game, which has an interesting concept at its core.  

-D

First Impressions: Donkey Kong Country Returns (3DS)

I was kind of on the ropes about this game when I heard about it coming out (first on the Wii then ported to the 3DS).  I was honestly a little worried as I hadn't played a new Donkey Kong Country game since Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest back in 1995.  I didn't play DKC3 as I didn't like the constant introduction of new characters and elimination of the new character from the previous game.  I understood the desire to expand the Kong family, but they lost me.  I did play Diddy Kong Racing, but that was like a Mario Kart clone; a clone that refuses to be beaten and laughs in my face as if it's the Duck Hunt dog, we'll call him Clyde.  Fuck you Clyde.  Fuck you.

Right, Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D.  On the Nintendo 3DS.  This is the version of the game that I will be talking about, not the game that came out on the Wii.  I still don't have one.

So now the things that everyone will be asking, because I too was asking the same questions before and after I bought the game.

1)  No, Rare had no part in making DKCR3D.  That is a potential selling point, or not because Rare didn't have anything to do with this game despite the fact that they designed what popular culture now thinks of when they think of Donkey Kong.  I am personally okay with it, I've moved on.  This game was developed by Monster Games, a US company out of Minnesota. I will just say that from what I've played so far, they've done a good job with an existing franchise that they have never had a hand in making/developing.  (They also did the 3DS Pilotwings: Resort game, so kudos to them for making two 3DS games of existing Nintendo franchises and doing a great job with both).

2)  No, David Wise had no hand in composing the music for DKCR3D.  This made me sad when I found out about 10 minutes before I started writing.  However, 90% of the perceived music seems to be from the original DKC so there's a good amount of musical nostalgia which in one way is funny/amusing because unless you were born as late as the late 1980s (The Kid, Conklederp), you probably won't have the same kind of reaction towards the music.  There was a level where Donkey Kong III is running/jumping over/across docks as cannons from a ship are destroying sections of the dock while a whale is carrying you between large gaps, and the underwater music cue (Aquatic Ambiance) played for about 3-4 seconds and I immediately thought that the level was going to go underwater so I didn't make a long jump for the next dock. . . and I died.  Yes, I was distracted by a music cue and didn't "believe" what the gameplay was telling me.

I've strayed a bit.  The music in DKCR3D was "composed/arranged" by multiple people and since I haven't finished the game yet, I can't say which of the aforementioned composers worked on the 3DS port and which were exclusively on the Wii, I won't list them all here.

3) Diddy Kong.  It's not that I have an issue with Diddy Kong being included in this game, I love that Diddy Kong is included and (so far) is the only side kick.  I do not, however, like how Diddy Kong is used. *Spoiler*  When you acquire Diddy Kong, in traditional Kong style (he's enclosed in a DK barrel), he hops on your back and acts as a jet pack for hovering.  So basically, you become Dixie Kong but with Donkey's girth.  I feel it's a cheap way to use Diddy.  I loved Diddy in both DKC and DKC2 and am sad to see him used in this way.

4)  Who the fuck is that god damn pig!?  Wizpig's good natured little brother?  Not that I have a genuine problem with the checkpoint pig, but at least in BIT.TRIP RUNNER2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien you meet up and team up with the checkpoint characters.  This pig?  What the hell!?  Actually, it doesn't bother me that much/at all, it was just a question that I thought of while perusing the official site.

5) Donkey Kong.  As in the one that stared in the original 1981 arcade game.  He is as funny as I remember him from the first DKC.  I felt that his humor in the first DKC game was very sarcastic and demeaning towards Donkey Kong III, about how gaming has been made more user friendly since the early 80s.  I've actually found myself leaving Cranky Kong's store and re-entering just to see what he says.

Alright.  Presently, I've put in nearly five hours on/in the game and I am enjoying what I've been playing.  It reminds me enough of the original DKC, but still different enough to feel somewhat original.  As is the case with any game that has a sequel, I'm not 100% sure that I like everything in the game, but that's not the way games should be because there is no way to please absolutely everyone.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

I Love My Mom.  And So Can You For $12 an Hour.

Emulator Hour preview: Resident Evil 2

Okay, so, I decided I had to play Resident Evil 2 again.  I guess it was when I was midway through watching 'night of the creeps' that I came to this conclusion.  Well, my playstation is only a memory now, drifting somewhere out in the world, so I decided to turn to the world of emulation.  With a bit of work, I've gotten it working, and I'm going to play Resident Evil 2.

But I haven't actually started yet.  I think I'm going to play as Claire, since the other time I played RE 2 I played as Leon.  I got to the end of the game, too, but I had six handgun bullets and a knife.  Suffice it to say, I didn't win.

The game is super-sweet though.  RE 2 was the first game in the series I played.  I missed RE 1, but I did play the game cube revision.  Because it was the first, I'll always have special affection for RE 2.  Something about a zombie infested police station that is a nice spin on the zombie infested theme.  Sort of like how Dawn of the Dead takes place in a shopping mall.  Actually, come to think of it, Dawn of the Dead might be my favorite Zombie movie.  Either one, take your pick.

In terms of it being a sequel, I'm not sure that RE2 really upgrades the game play in any significant way.  But in this case I don't really mind, again, because it was the first one I played.  Also, the gameplay of Resident Evil was so unprecedented, I was thrilled to have more than one.  It wasn't until RE3 that i started to think things were waning a bit.  Really those first three games are like clones of one another.  Awesome, terrifying clones.

I'll spare everyone and not talk about RE4 and beyond.  Even if it was the triumphant return of Leon.  Alright, well, this is sort of a non-post, but I'm excited to play Resident Evil 2!  Woot!

-D

This is just some examples of the dramatic camera angles from this game.  10 to 1 some fucking crows appeared on the way out of this room, and scared the bejeezus out of me even though I knew they were coming

Left 4 Dead 2 Mod: Journey to Splash Mountain

This is exactly what it looks and sounds like.  Journey to Splash Mountain is a five level campaign mod lovingly created by Steam users Dives and SM Sith Lord created for Left 4 Dead 2 using Valve's Source Engine.  The campaign was posted to Steam's L4D2 Workshop on September 5th of this year.

For those of you not familiar with Splash Mountain, it's a water log ride in Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, CA.  You can tell from the amount and attention to detail that Dives really likes Disneyland.  There's a level of respect for the  park that you would only be able to find from someone who actually enjoys going.  It's not a campaign where you get to destroy Disneyland or defile it any more than the zombies have.  You can't shoot up standees of Mickey and friends and aside from the floral Mickey at the front gates, I don't recall seeing Mickey's head/face/silhouette anywhere else.  This must have been what the survivors in L4D2 felt when they arrived at Whispering Oaks.  

So let's get to the stats and details first.

Journey to Splash Mountain consists of five levels with the final level being similar to the last level of a lot of the main campaigns (Dead Center & The Passing).  On my first playthrough, I went through on Normal difficulty and it took me 1 hour 33 minutes with only dying once when I tried to see if I could swim across the river to Tom Sawyer's Island (you can't).  I was incapacitated twice and in the end we lost Francis as he was pulled up an inaccessible hill by a Smoker and we couldn't get to him to help him up.  And, it took a long time to figure out where the helicopter had landed.  

The levels themselves were very well paced and in classic L4D2 fashion, being pretty linear while never telling you where you had to go until you saw markings for the safe room.  When creating the campaign, Dives and SM Sith Lord don't come across as people who are trying to kill the players and inundate them with Tank after Tank after Witch.  There was one area that contained two witches who were pretty close together, but as that only happened once, it didn't bother me.  At least they weren't at Hard Rain frequency.  

Again, the entire campaign was a lot of fun.  I recognized most of the park that was accessible even though I haven't been to Disneyland since sometime around 2005 (I think).  There was enough detail that I didn't really question whether something should have been there or not.  Dives even uses music from the theme park in specific areas which helps create the perfect level of immersion.

Finally, for the person who has never been to Disneyland, the level should be just as fun as Dark Carnival, but without the clowns.

In closing, I just wanted to share some pictures I was able to take while avoiding horde after horde of infected.  I tried to not give away (too much) where the various levels go and what rides/attractions are featured although I had to include just one just because.  So be aware, pseudo-spoilers ahead.

Smart context for why you're even going to Disneyland.

Looking down Main Street.

Looking into the Penny Arcade.

The Congo Queen is the name of a real boat in the Jungle River Cruise.

The Bengal Barbecue is a mental staple for me when I think of Disneyland, although I've never eaten there.

The Cafe Orleans is my favorite place to eat in Disneyland.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Winter is Coming