Blog Posts from "Blogryn"

Dragon Age: Awakening's Dead Wardens Society

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 10:44:59 -0500

In general, character death has always been a contentious issue with developers. There is an attitude of fear towards the concept of a 'disposable' character; the idea that you can have your character die and then make a new one to continue from where you left off, inside the canon of a game. And character death - even not of your own character - is often a big deal; Aeris of Final Fantasy 7 died, causing a lot of fans grief. And yet, FF7 is still considered by the majority to be the best Final Fantasy (even if I disagree).

The fear is that if a character can die and the player make a new one, they won't have any attachment to the character and the experience will suffer. Let me bring up a couple of counter-points. Firstly, I and many others have gained attachment to mortal characters in a number of other games. For example, the X-COM games. You are given a team of named X-COM agents who you control throughout these old school games, and gradually, people grew attached to individual squad members, even though they often died (especially in the first two games). Most people I've talked to who have played the X-COM games can remember a few situations where one squad member performed some heroics; holding down a doorway against inumerable Snakemen in UFO: Enemy Unknown or braving two Megaspawn solo in X-COM: Apocalypse, at the expense of their own lives often. I suggest that it's entirely possible to attach yourself to mortal characters, even when they die.

Secondly, the choices we make in-game have been brought to the forefront of RPGs (especially with games like the Witcher). With ending cutscenes customised to your character's decisions, a lot of RPG players think hard before making a decision, and are comfortable with the one they make. They are, in fact, attached to their decisions, just as much as they're attached to their character. In Awakening's case, we are being forced to choose between our decisions and our character, without any good reason.

Finally, let me just add that I am not seeing a technical reason for not including the decisions of a previous save-game onto a new character. Awakening obviously can read a save-game to find a specific decision, and it doesn't seem like it would have been hard to design a Sacrificed Warden's save as a 'background' field when creating a new Orlesian Warden. However, since the game has apparently been designed without this in mind now, it would be more difficult to go back and and edit many of these changes in. But as much as a hurdle as that might be to the Bioware team, that is really the only way I can see them making this right for me and other displeased fans (unless there is an actual plot point explaining how your dead, eulogised Warden came back to life in Awakening, which seems unlikely given the FAQ's statement that "if a player doesn't have a problem hand-waiving (sic) the story in this regard - neither do we").

Sorry, Bioware guys; as much as I loved the story of Origins, you've done me and a number of other fans a great disservice with the way you've handled it for Awakening.

Erectin' Engineer Update Suggestions

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 01:23:12 -0500

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Team Fortress 2's first round of class updates is nearly at an end, with the Soldier and Demoman having received their new toys in the WAR! update. The last man standing without new tech is the Engineer, as it happens my most played class. Although not a 6v6 man, the Engineer is still one of the most important classes on A/D, PL and CTF maps, not to mention probably the most relaxing classes to play as. In the time-honoured tradition of Tuftwo-ers, I have a few of my own ideas as to how Valve could improve the class, as well as a lot of totally unbalanced ridiculous suggestions, which I shall now offer up for your consumption.

Obviously, with eight different possible things to change for the Engineer, there's a lot Valve could do with the update, moreso than any other class, and a lot of possible ideas out there. To those not interested in TF2 I apologise and invite you to man the hell up, and buy and play this Real Man's Game. To those already being Red Blooded Alpha Males, I expect your own suggestions for the Engineer in my comments section by 4am yesterday morning, as well as any commentary or feedback you may have regarding my infinitely superior ideas. Dismissed (and thanks for reading)!

Left 4 Dead 2 Trailer Leaked!

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:15:58 -0400

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The L4D2 demo is coming October 27th, only five days away and now we have a leaked cinematic trailer for the game to salivate over. Valve continues to amaze with the quality of both animation and writing for their shorts, and this one is no exception.

I'm growing fond of the guys already, although Rochelle doesn't get much of a chance to shine. It'll be sad to (possibly) say goodbye to the funny sexy brunette zombie killer and the three helpless men she's leading to safety, but the new crew of L4D2 looks like they'll fill the old's boots and then some.

Launch of the Screaming Narwhal

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 09:24:59 -0400

Saturday was Talk Like a Pirate Day, and in the spirit of the occasion, Telltale Games made the first episode of Tales of Monkey Island free to download for the duration, arrr. Tales of Monkey Island is not the remake of the original, but five chapters, released independently, chronicling the further adventures of Guybrush Threepwood, Mighty Pirate. Professionally developed adventure games on the PC are almost a thing of the past and I tend to get my fix solely through free Flash games websites, so such an offering was not a thing to pass up.

Despite the misgivings some might have regarding the artistic style differing from that of the original, the gameplay stays true. Piratical witticisms are exchanged, the small cast has its variety of humourous quirks and of course, there is a fair share of puzzle-solving to be done. By several curious twists of circumstances, Guybrush finds himself trapped on an island where all winds blow inwards, and must find some way of getting away to save Elaine once more.

Included is also a treasure hunting mode, allowing you to search the jungle for hidden treasure to receive a variety of out-of-game rewards, including community downloads such as avatars and production notes, as well as special offers for purchasing other games or full sets of games, so there's a good incentive to be playing this mini-game besides its own amusement.

Between this and the Penny Arcade game, I've grown quite fond of these smaller offerings. While they may lack the playtime or depth of many other games, they have the dry humour of 90s games that many ever-so-serious PC game designers of today seem to have lost. One of the sadder truths of the chasm between the PC and various console markets is that many of the more light-hearted designers have abandoned the PC ship in favour of boarding that of the consoles, leaving us with a lot of perfectly good serious games, but very little to take the edge off. I for one would certainly like to see more of these style of games released for the PC, but with piracy of a less witty sort still plaguing it, it's not that hard to see why smaller developers are wary of the platform.

The Power of the Internet: Gabe Newell possibly headed to Australia

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 17:16:59 -0400

Recently, Valve invited the ringleaders of the L4D2 Boycott group to their HQ to check out the product (you can read more in Slapnut's blog). A fair few must have been wondering to themselves, "why those guys? They've vocally opposed L4D2 since its announcement and so they get to play it early?" Well, one particular user - LaCabra - asked Gabe Newell why he wasn't invited to Valve HQ, on the premise of needing them to check out his campaign. When Gabe playfully responded that they were boycotting his campaign... he offered to fly Gabe (and Erik) out to Australia to preview it.

The story could easily have ended there as another amusing example of Valve's enjoyable take on PR. Instead, LaCabra started a collection for money to fly Gabe and Erik to Australia, and the internet has delivered. As of this morning, the fund now exceeds $2,500, more than the $2,400 cost of a round trip flight for the two of them from Seattle to Brisbane.

Gabe's latest response? "Uh oh."

Whether this will go ahead is yet to be seen (but if not, it's $2,500 towards Child's Play), but you can keep yourself updated at LaCabra's blog here.

Overdue Review: Mirror's Edge

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 13:54:07 -0400

I have a bad habit of picking up single player games several months after their release. The experience tends not to be dulled, and they're more value for the price paid, but I miss out on all the hot discussion and general banter that came before. I'm developing a slight love of 3d platformers, like Prince of Persia, Assassin's Creed and the latest Tomb Raider games, and Mirror's Edge falls broadly into this category, so it wasn't one I was going to pass by. Indeed, I actually feel that its platforming performs much better than last year's Prince of Persia. But if I had to describe the single player experience, I would lean slightly more towards 'proof of concept' rather than a polished game without flaws.

Although it clocks in at somewhere between seven and twelve hours' play for a single go, the Mirror's Edge story is, I feel, quite replayable (there is a harder difficulty setting without Runner Vision and Faith is even more vulnerable to the - rubber? - bullets). I'm not the sort of person to do Time Trials, but learning most of the different routes is enjoyable (and there are a few hidden items to find in each level if you're interested in that sort of thing). I expect a sequel, and if DICE keep the platforming as it is, but introduce the combat more sensibly, as well as perhaps adding a bit more enemy variety, a few more challenging ways to circumvent obstacles for time gains, and give us a stronger story, it'll really put Mirror's Edge on top of its genre. And even though I take it to task over the issues above, they don't ruin the game; if you haven't played Mirror's Edge yet, do so. It's cheap, enjoyable and a good indication of the road 3d platformers should be looking at going down in the future.

Bandwagon Blog: Idle Fortress 2; Now With Valve Update!

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 14:47:23 -0400

When Valve released their Sniper vs. Spy update for TF2, it came with a new system for getting in-game items - upgraded weapons and aesthetic hats - to try and fix some of the problems of the previous achievement-based weapon unlocking system. In the end, Valve had to run both systems at the same time due to user complaint about the randomness of item drops. Fairly quickly, most players got ahold of their new weapons and all that remained were the hats. Hats are purely for looks; they change no aspect of the game (not even hitboxes for headshots). Nevertheless, TF2 has a very personal charm to it, and looking like a dapper swain as you backstab some foolish Brooklyn batter is every child's fantasy. However, hats are also very rare; community estimates on hat drops come to something like a 1% chance every 4 hours played. And that's a chance, not a rate; 1% item drops can take a lot more than 100 chances to arrive.

Fairly soon after, one player - Drunken F00L - who had programmed a few other applications for TF2, including SourceOP, a very popular admin plug-in, released an 'idling' programme. Since hats are dropped purely based upon time played, and not on any in-game event, such as achievements, dominations, or even points, the programme allowed players to log into a server without loading the TF2 client, allowing them to be considered as playing TF2 without doing so. Thus, the number of players 'idling' has steadily been creeping upwards, peaking over 11,000 people 'playing' TF2.

And thus the community has been split in two; those who idle for their hats, and those who play the game as Valve intended. The expected viewpoints have cropped up: those who idle and think it's fine (and indeed would even chastise any attempt by Valve to limit their ability to idle); those who accept it's wrong but do it anyway because they feel Valve is at fault for designing the system; those who don't idle and think idling is despicable and wrong; those who don't idle because they're worried about being punished by Valve, and so on. As with any polarising issue, this is a troll's wet dream and the official TF2 forum is riddled with the buggers.

There are a few particular opinions that have been expressed that I'd like to share thoughts on.

It's true, there will always be an optimal solution to these systems. If it's time-based chance, invest the most time. If it's point-based, find a server of newbies and do exceptionally well or play on instant respawn servers where kill rates are higher. This doesn't necessarily mean that all systems are equally farmable, or more importantly, that the deviation in reward between those farming optimally and those playing normally will be that great. With the current system, someone who idles 24 hours a day has six times the chance of getting a hat of someone who just plays TF2 for 4 hours; the deviation here can be very high.

Recently, on August 31st, Valve released a minor update to the game with a couple of undocumented slightly more major changes. The first was that if you were found to have items that were 'illegally gained' you would have them removed the first time you did it, have all your items removed the second time, and be banned the third time. Whether this applies to the idler, or possibly to a programme that granted weapons using the old achievement system is still up in the air. Nevertheless, the usage of the idler dropped from around 11k down to 6k fairly quickly after this.

Valve forum moderators have gone on record stating that the idler is viewed as an exploit. It seems fairly likely that Valve, at very least, view the idler as an undesired consequence. However, despite all the problem thus far, they haven't done much to soothe the spiteful masses of any of the issue's sides. Most forum posters agree that the problem is really the present system, and it either needs minor tweaks or a complete overhaul. At the same time, e-mails to Robin Walker, amongst other Valve employees, have received replies indicating that Valve designers think the system is acceptable fair.

Personally, I would like to see it changed to a point based system, with chance still included as the determining factor. Valve keeps game statistics so it shouldn't be too hard to work out what the average points per hour is (by my reckoning, roughly 90) and then use that number to work out the equivalent (roughly 400) to the present time requirement for a drop chance. Obviously there are faster ways of gaining points, and competent players will get their chances faster than players who are on a server that's out of their depth, but at very least, it should be hard to exploit; it should require people to take part in the raffle as intended for the most part. And obviously again, there would still be some ways to exploit it, but nothing so simple as a background process on your computer that gives you items. I won't even say such a system is the best solution; merely that it's fairer than what we have.

Really though, what is really needed is some more communication about the issue on Valve's part. Valve employees have always been good about responding to personal e-mails, and these often get copied and pasted to the forum, but even then their exposure isn't as great as, for example, the TF2 blog. And I don't mean just putting out their stance on the idler programme up there; we could all do with some information about how Valve views the present drop system, and whether they have plans to improve on it or even swap it out for something entirely new. Silence is worrisome; if we perceive something as broken but hear nothing about a fix, the assumption is often that the creator has no plans to fix it, but doesn't wish to say so for fear of a backlash.

So Valve, if you read this, honestly, give us something concrete. You're always going to get players saying you're doing the wrong thing, but wild speculations and behind your back rumour mongering are much more vitriolic and unpleasant, and less useful, than actual feedback on where you stand on how the game is now.

Do You Wanna Date My Avatar?

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 22:29:05 -0400

The Guild's new, awesome song on a harsh reality of MMO dating is well worth the watch. So watch it! Look, I even embedded here to cover up for the fact that's it too awesome for words and there's not much else for me to say, really!

Disclaimer: I'm fine with internet dating; don't be hating.

Shock, Shock, Horror, Horror

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 18:17:32 -0400

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Do you want a game to scare you? I mean, not just give you a jolt now and again, but actually keep you in a perpetual state of fear, perhaps so much so that you can't play the game for anything more than an hour or half hour session, out of raw tension and apprehension. I have to ask, firstly, because it does bear questioning whether that is a goal worth striving for? Do designers want their game to be so good at what it does that their players can't bear to play it through in long sittings? And secondly, well, few 'horror' games truly scared me. I feel as though I should want, nay, deserve to be scared, but then again, I do enjoy the horror games I've played as they are.

Let me get the way I see most modern horror games out in the open; they're shooting games in a horror setting. That may seem like stating the obvious, but that distinction is actually one part of what stops these games from sending the shivers up my spine. They're shooting games, and shooting games are so often not about fear, but instead about overcoming challenges, in a single, simple fashion. Especially towards the end of horror games, when you have an armament of the scale that might warrant a terrorism investigation in the real world, your enemies cease to scare and just become what they are in every other shooting game: targets. There are more issues here than just that, but let's start with that.

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"Booth Babes" in for Acts of Lust at ComicCon; Thanks EA!

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 09:53:12 -0400

Everyone and their dog recognises that all gamers are sexually repressed young male adolescents. And so of course, at any given convention where video games companies may make an appearance, you're going to see a number of women who are up for being paid to stand around, chilling so to speak, in whatever chainmail bikini the game's artists came up with. And because there is some truth to the stereotype, they do indeed get harassed by the unwashed masses.

Enter EA, the three-headed, ice-caged leviathan of Judecca, grotesque and deformed, spewing forth obscenities and gnashing on the treacherous fools who chose to side with it. And for every Tiger Woods Jesus Shot marketer in the claws of this devil, there are those who think that a contest called Sin 2 Win is a good idea.

So, not just EA's booth babes, but any of those at ComicCon are available for harassment and 'acts of lust'. Oh, and because the devil is in the details, there is a disclaimer, which states that acts of lust involving actual sexual reference (etc.) are not eligible to win. Great, but how many people read fine print, and how will it stop harassment rather than simply not reward it?

So, the only saving grace for any booth babe at ComicCon is, well, the hope that gamers are indeed the sexually repressed mass of teenage boys who need to have a cold shower and a lie down in their bunk at the thought of women in any state of undress. The possibility of actual contact with such a vision will hopefully render them unconscious.

But for irony's sake, if this contest is really going to happen, I propose any and all girl gamers attending ComicCon to take part in this. Face it; the sexually repressed nerds who work in EA marketing will simply not be prepared for the possibility of girls entering (don't believe me? look at the graphic again). You get to show EA that gamers aren't just guys, dinner, a limo and paparazzi, some Dante's Inferno gear (well, at least I hope that's what's in the chest) and you get to save two hot girls from, well, Hell.

NeoTokyo: Is There Such a Thing as a JFPS?

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:50:36 -0400

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Alright then, so what's a NeoTokyo? It is, apparently, a mod for UT2k4, but very recently was released for the Source Engine, and is designed by Studio Radi-8. Thematically, it's set around the advent of Japanese transhumanism, so lovers of anime such as Ghost in the Shell, Akira and the like will be right at home with the visual aesthetic. Indeed, there are certain in-game machines and gynoid pieces that may set little bells of recognition ringing in your head.

In terms of gameplay, players of games like Counter-strike, Alien Versus Predator and Dystopia (another cyberpunk mod) should feel quite at home with most aspects of NeoTokyo. First and foremost, all presently available maps are based around a neutral CTF mode. The 'ghost', the torso of a gynoid, serves as the flag with a twist: the player taking the ghost must drop their primary weapon to do so, and can no longer sprint. However, in return, they gain the ability to see the locations of nearby enemy players (who aren't in camo mode) when they have the ghost selected (they keep their secondary weapons). The result is that communication and teamwork from a team with the ghost is something to be feared indeed, and teams that don't work together will often suffer the consequences. Capturing the ghost usually requires pushing your way through your enemies to their starting area.

Regardless of which of the two teams you choose, there are three class options available to you: Recon, Assault and Support. The Recon is a lightly armoured fast mover, with access to submachine guns, sniper rifles, remote det packs and, if they do particularly well, a shotgun and a rifle. They have lowlight vision and a camo mode which will make them translucent, but not perfectly invisible (especially in bright light). They can sprint without tiring and jump farther than other classes. Several maps also feature areas which only Recons can access, often allowing them to flank and attack from unexpected angles. The Recon is a light hit'n'run class who excel at getting into and out of engagements without being noticed, but won't last long in a straight firefight; with their long camo time, they're the best available counter - besides brute force - to an organised ghost-bearing team.

The Assault is wears more armour than the Recon and has greater access to weapons, as well as frag grenades. They can stay in camo - but for a shorter duration - and also sprint, but not forever. They have access to a motion-sensing vision mode, which highlights movement of any sort (even in camo) but limits your ability to differentiate between friend and foe. Lastly, the Support is a heavily armoured slow-moving class with access to the heavier weapons, including a machine gun at its highest rank and smoke grenades. They also have heat vision, which synergises particularly well with their smoke grenades, as they can effectively blind others while still being able to see well themselves, although again, friend/foe determination can be difficult.
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I've mentioned that access to weapons comes slowly, and this is because the game operates a gunlock system somewhere between Counter-Strikes and CoD4's. As in CoD4, killing, surviving and completing objectives unlocks better weaponry, but as in CS, these benefits only last the duration of your current map. Ranking up (and hopefully not down, by killing your teammates) over the course of a game is an important way of tipping the balance in your team's favour.

With the mechanics aside, my impressions of the game are almost all-around good. It feels a lot like Counter-Strike, with fast kills on those who present themselves as a target foolishly. Leaning around doorways presents a smaller silhouette and is often necessary to survive, and learning to use camo and the nooks and crannies of a map is essential. Public servers are okay but you really want a community server; somewhere where people know each other, can work together and - importantly - have microphones (beware when someone picks up the ghost but has no microphone to relay enemy information with).

At first I felt that the game suffered because it was hard to see where you're being shot from, lacking the directional indicators of other games, but you get used to this after a few games, and it also adds an element of usefulness to using upgraded guns with suppressors attached, and similarly camo.

Because NeoTokyo uses the round system of Counter-Strike, where you sit out until the next round when dead, there is some downtime and the spectator mode isn't quite up to scratch at the moment, so there is still some work to be done there. However, gameplay is tense and, even as a Support, you're always cautious of corners and ridges; learning your engagement zones is a must. All of the maps are of very high detail, and although one or two lack recon routes (can you guess my favoured class yet?), they're enjoyable to play on, once you've learnt their ins and outs.

Now, even if none of that sounds like your cup of tea, there is still one last thing to mention! While this doesn't yet feature much in-game, as the developers are still fiddling with their mp3 player, the music for this game is excellent. Made by independent Australian composer Ed Harrison (who also did the music for the UT2k4 mod), several tracks have been uploaded to YouTube, two I link here for you. This guy can obviously go far when it comes electronica, and has released the NeoTokyo soundtrack for purchase on iTunes and also some CDs are floating around on CDBaby. If you like what you're hearing and want to get ahold of it, please do purchase it rather than pirate, as this guy's independent and your money isn't going to get eaten by some great big record company or anything!

NeoTokyo is free to download and download servers can be found behind the first link of the article.

The Last Sign of the Apocalypse

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 22:01:31 -0400

Ladies and gentlemen of the RPG playing population, now is the time to head out and apply to Vault Tec, because we're really in the crap now. Earlier today, it was announced that Mythic Entertainment, behind Warhammer Online, and BioWare, behind RPGs that are legion, have taking these companies under its wing (and the Bethesda/id merger), do we have a leg left to stand on when it comes to large western RPG studios with both freedom of vision and freedom of creation?

More Sounds of Gaming: Voice Actors & Actresses

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:29:51 -0400

The last time I talked about the sounds of gaming, it was about the soundtracks (here's a little bonus for those of you who read it: Jeremy Soule remixing Nobuo Uematsu's Terra theme from FFVI). I would've liked to do this in much the same style as before, highlighting individual actors and actresses in all their games, but sadly the games industry doesn't seem much for keeping its talent enticed, so instead I'll highlight games or characters in particular.

Starting back in the glory days, we have , your friend through the events of the next few nights. There's also the Deb of Night radio programme which is just perfect; the guys at Rockstar should really look into getting this station into GTA V (the Republican attack ads starting at 3:04 in particular)!

Well, that's all from me on my favourites. As before, I'm very open to your personal favourites, especially when accompanied with YouTube or other media site links to their works. Alas, I haven't yet played every voiced game in existence, so I'm sure there are some that you're furious I missed out!

Fantasy Elves in a Futuristic Setting

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 13:50:29 -0400

A few days ago, Hi Rez Studios, who are working on an MMO Shooter called Rogue Agenda, put out an animated short showing their take on how the elves of fantasy lore would survive in a techonologically advanced world.

This being entitled Battle #1, I would imagine and hope there are a few more inside jokes of this sort to come from Hi Rez!

Global Agenda incidentally, looks like a blend of FPS/action gameplay coupled with a class system and a player-held progressive world (in the style of EvE corporation/sector ownership). They have a short production gameplay video available to view, and you can find additional details on their website, where incidentally you can pre-register for their beta.

The Secret of Monkey Island Returns!

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:37:57 -0400

Ron Gilbert, the creative force behind the Monkey Island games, has let slip that the classic swashbuckling adventure's time has come again... twice! LucasArts is doing the re-release and TellTale Games is releasing episodic Monkey Island. For those not aware, The Secret of Monkey Island was one of the earliest Adventure Games released, back when LucasArts was behind almost the entire genre. Among other things, it introduced the timeless insult swordfighting, the best and most balanced combat system ever!

As you can see in the screenshot above, TellTale games have... wait a second.

As you can see in the screenshot above, TellTale games have taken the game fully 3d. The LucasArts link above meanwhile shows their choice to keep to 2d but heavily stylised graphics.

The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition is to be released sometime this Summer for XBox360 and PC, and Tales of Monkey Island's first of five episodes will be released July 7th for the PC.

MMO Players Are Illiterate Philistines

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 11:28:40 -0400

[page]What the hell, I'll jump on the bandwagon. Storytelling in MMOs is the new black for bloggers, and a fair few blogs that I keep up with have had something interesting to say about it. I guess it was all foreshadowed by Jeff 'Tigole' Kaplan talking about quests in WoW. And recently, Sanya Weathers wrote an excellent piece for MMORPG.com about what you can expect as a quest writer, which bears a great deal of relevance to the issue.

With all these topics glanced over, I have to admit the hypocrisy of this blog. So much of this is told, not shown. And there is way too much text, as is the case with all my armchair game design blogs. Still, it's always nice to get things down in text. And the fact is that MMO designers are going to put some text and rationale in anyway, so they might as well try and do it well. Opinions, dissent, your own examples and jars of piss are all welcome, except the last.

Eversion

Sun, 31 May 2009 20:46:34 -0400

While perusing TVTropes, one of the comments there directed me to a game called Eversion. It's an absolute gem of an indie game and I highly recommend playing it. It can be downloaded here, and is a fairly simple platformer game that will take maybe 20 minutes of play to complete a no-collection playthrough. It's time well spent. Here's a screenie.

Now, what the hell am I doing recommending what, by all appearances, is a kids 1980s platformer to you? Well, if you're adventurous, you'll play the game and see for yourself. If not, I can only direct you to a Let's Play of it, conducted by a chap with an excellent accent and a slowly eroding mental state. Parts one, two, three, four, twelve and fourteen are the ones you'll need to watch to grasp the game, although a lot of skipping is necessary for deaths and the like (as he notes, it's a 'blind run' meaning deaths and retries are included in the Let's Play).

Someone should give the maker of this game a medal, because this is just such an excellent concept, even if parts of the execution could use a little work (difficulty curve like woah for collecting everything).

WTT Cloak and Dagger LF Dead Ringer

Sun, 24 May 2009 10:21:54 -0400

[page] So, as anyone who keeps up with Valve releases is aware, the Spy vs Sniper update is live and contains a controversial new feature: item drops. This is to lead onto the as-yet-unimplemented item trading and in predictable fashion, I feel obliged to engage in the time-honoured ritual of naysaying, along with the rest of the TF2 forum! But before we get into all that, a warmer review of what was actually released is in order.

One caveat here is that the criticism below is levelled based on the understanding that Valve might simply add trading functionality to the system as it stands. I am optimistic they have better reasoning skills than that, but nevertheless, doomsaying ensues!

Virtual economies are not so simple. A fair few big virtual names - CCP Games and Gaia Online to name a couple - have had to hire economists to deal with their complex economies. Of course, Valve isn't creating an economy of quite that nature, but they're presenting players with a market. So, surely they must understand supply and demand? At the moment, with the duplicates being released before the item trading, we're looking at a massive supply of most of the items present for when trading comes into effect and - unless they're looking at getting a very large number of new players after the update, which I feel would be a little too hopeful of them - almost no demand for those items. This doesn't seem like such a good idea to me.

Another problem is that once you have an item, you don't gain any benefit from having another of that item, so much of the supply is essentially worthless, particularly when trying to trade upwards. If you want a hat, the only person you're likely to get to trade it for weapons - an arms dealer's stash worth of weapons at that - is someone who is totally new to the game and just lucked out. Given their rarity, most players will pick them up after they already have most of the available arsenal. It's not like five flare identical guns are worth an afro, now is it? What's the use in having five flare guns? So, I expect that most players will trade sideways - I have this hat (spare, maybe!) and want another - rather than downwards.

One other issue I'm confused on is the where and when of trading. I'd rather not have people stop playing mid-game to trade their collectibles. I guess we'll see what Valve comes up with in that department.

I don't mind item trading itself. There's nothing to be feared from being able to give new friends who've just started playing the game all the new weapons, since I suspect I'll have at least six of each within a few months. But outside of that, I'm not really sure how Valve thinks it's going to work. Still, this is all speculation at this point, so we'll just have to wait, hope really hard, and see.

And as always, comments, feedback and your experiences of the recent update are welcome!

Rigour Exploits

Sun, 24 May 2009 08:10:09 -0400

I've been hearing a variety of things about Darkfall. Apparently, maxing your stats, which the developers rather expected to be a passive thing that you just 'let happen' as you played the game has - to no one else's surprise - become a requirement if you want to crush the carebear scrubs beneath your feet and hear the lamentations of their women and so forth. And of course, if a quick fix exploit is found, it shall be used with great abandon. And so I present what I would describe as a deeply visually disturbing 'pile' of - mostly male - players using what I'm told is/was the Earthquake route to 100 Rigour.

Aside from how silly the entire thing looks, it's always good to hear that the GMs couldn't actually even control this. So from accusations of GM corruption to accusations of GMs being stuck with inadequate tools for their jobs. Deja vu, anyone?

Character Stats And The Developers Who Just Don't Get Them

Tue, 19 May 2009 16:18:05 -0400

[page] A word of warning, this is more a (very longwinded) rant than an informed study or an unbiased blog. But I think I've got a point worth making, because what I'm going to talk about is a mistake that developers are still making, "but in an ad hoc manner, and without the benefit of past experience." You're probably all familiar with character statistic systems in a variety of RPGs, both of the action RPG variety and the more classic roleplaying variety. JRPGs are mostly excused from this rant, by virtue of my not having played enough to really write about them in any detail, and their tendency from what I've seen, to have systems that are too simplistic (no offence!) to make these mistakes.

If you don't recognise what I mean by stats instantly, I'm talking about things like, "Strength," or, "Luck," and so on. Those arcane mathematical systems that have some effect on your character's strengths and weaknesses in-game, and that, in the process of playing the game, you usually make some attempt to improve. They vary in depth, sometimes painting your character in broad strokes with just values for your strength, toughness and intellect, and sometimes going all the way down to how far you can jump and how much you know about animal tracks. And the thing that really amazes me is that the developers who have designed these systems, working on them for usually two to four years, so often don't seem to understand them.

I guess I'm really all out of steam on specific games' stat flaws to rag on about. You should now see what I mean about the way developers just don't see to get the systems that they have made. My advice to them? Once you've built a system, try and maximise it from your player's perspective and, if possible, break it. Don't simply give the players lots of possibilities and hope they'll find the diamond in your rough, because if you're not thinking it through, there will be more chaff than grain. Spotting a system that makes itself redundant isn't that hard either once its been made, although I accept it's much harder when you're doing the concept design. But that's what design iterations are for! Once you've learnt how to maximise your efficiency from your own system, then you should understand whether it needs tweaking (for casters usually it does), and how to design items or Feats/Perks/whatever that give players an actual benefit to getting them.

So, as always, comments with your own examples of systems where game designers didn't really think things through, or bits you disagree with me on are greatly appreciated!

Music To My Ears: Epic Game Soundtracks

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 12:51:06 -0400

If there's one thing that really reminds me of a game I've enjoyed, it's the music. The composition will often either make or break the climaxes of a game, almost regardless of the actual gameplay. I can think offhand of a couple of otherwise average parts of games made memorable and enjoyable by the music set alongside them. Sadly, MMOs in particular seem to have entirely foregone good music, perhaps because of the repetitive nature their 'climaxes' take: that's both their loss and, more importantly, ours. Rather than trying to rationalise what makes these musical moments so great - a fool's errand anyway - this is merely a celebration of my particular musical favourites: great orchestral (and other) sounds that take me right back to the experience I had playing the game.

Left 4 Dead Update Released! Ready, Steady, Survive!

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 23:38:59 -0400

The much anticipated Survival Pack update for Left 4 Dead is finally out in the wild, and the new Survival mode will definitely keep you on your toes. In addition to making Dead Air and Death Toll finally available to the majority as Versus maps, the new mode includes most all of the crescendo events from the normal campaigns, as well as one new map, The Last Stand.

The Last Stand features a small lighthouse with four confined rooms and a tower of sorts (complete with destructable railings, no less). Holding any one area for a long duration is a feat in itself, because there's no such thing as a choke point on this map, or any of the others for that matter. Previous hidey holes have their walls thinned for the horde and other nasties to break through to prevent the more cowardly survivors from taking refuge within.

Survival Mode requires much more attention and - dare I say it - twitch than Campaign and perhaps even Versus. Downtime is rare, and must be earned through bloodshed or bought with Pipe Bombs. Area denial with Molotovs and Fuel Tanks is an absolute necessity if you want to see past the four minute mark, and burning through your stockpile too quickly will leave you without the resources to see you and your teammates through the later minutes.

All Survival rounds start with a set-up time, allowing you to spend as much time as you want placing your tanks and canisters with care and probably setting up a cache and a second area. At first you might consider the number of supplies available excessive, but believe me, after a few games you'll know that not only are they barely adequate, but even breaking out of your nook or cranny to restock is a dangerous exercise, one best done under the cover of a Pipe Bomb and a watchful teammate.

Survival rounds have the benefit of being short and fast-paced. Whereas with Campaign and Versus you're often looking at setting aside the better part of an hour or more for a gaming session, Survival is great for hopping in and playing a few short rounds in between other activities. Surviving for 4 minutes earns you a bronze, 7 a silver and 10 - much more difficult than might appear - a gold.

Happily, Hunters won't be disappointed with either of the Versus maps. No more will they be constrained by No Mercy's tight corridors and hospital hallways, Dead Air and Death Toll have plenty of wide open spaces and climbable surfaces to achieve the best looking - and damaging - pounces.

So, what are you waiting for? Get out there and get swamped by zombie after shrieking zombie!

My Shotgun Love Affair

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 13:26:45 -0400

With the GDC revving up topics for armchair and indie game designers and players everywhere to waffle on about, I had locked onto the luncheon panel involving a fair few representatives of industry giants where they skimmed over a variety of topics. In particular, one quotation stands out, by a certain Rob Pardo of Blizzard:

Now, in terms of the whole games industry, I disagree (very strongly; we need innovation, not just iteration and execution), but for a lot of individual games, I think he's spot on. But rather than try and justify this entire statement through investigation (because, quite frankly, it is such a broad statement that trying to break it down into its constituent parts and analyse them is a Sisyphean task), I thought I'd just take an example that's cropped up a few times recently for me, and that is guns, or more specifically, guns in FPSes.

When Call of Duty 4 came out, I wasn't at all impressed on seeing gameplay videos of it because it did practically nothing new for the genre. When I played it though, I loved it, because it did almost everything that it did better than other games before it. Aside from the great visuals (which add greatly to the immersion), and the SAS squadmates (actual likeable teammates in an FPS? Inconceivable!), the guns were simply a pleasure to use. There are three qualities in particular that make them so.

The modelling of all the guns is wonderful, ranging from the way the animations convey recoil (something that I'd say has previously only been done really well by Counterstrike) to how heavy the gun appears (the slower animations for picking up and/or setting up heavier guns) to the actual model detail itself (I'm more a swords person though, don't mistake me for someone who calls guns 'beautiful' and showcases their collection: if I wanted a pretty pistol, I'd tie a pink ribbon to it).

The sound effects in particular are stellar; all the rifles sound like they're firing actual bullets and not the ratatatat of toy guns (hello Fallout 3 Assault Rifles) or the horribly tinny ping-ping-ping you get from many of the older games (I'm looking at you, Quake and GoldenEye). The environmental noises made by the collisions of the bullets, particularly with an enemy, are very pleasant on the ear, a much better reward than games that don't give you any audible recognition or give too much (Quake's plastic plunks indicating a successful shot still annoy me, even if they are good game design for a twitch shooter).

The modelling of enemies getting shot seals the deal, with hit detection being put to full use to cause enemies to stagger, slip, fall and generally take the full brunt of force that our imaginations desire. It's hard to suspend disbelief and stay as immersed in a game when someone - decked out in the finest power armour or not - takes a rocket or a handful of buckshot in the chest and doesn't flinch, or is hit mid-air without effect.

Death animations are also well done, not falling prey to the problem of too-light rag dolls that plagued certain other games (Doom 3's apparently featherweight Mancubus being the very worst offender of this, with Left 4 Dead's Hunter following close behind in endless amusing cartwheels) and do seem to take some hit detection into account.

With fan-mode not yet firmly off, the last part of this blog is devoted to my three favourite weapons, for making enough of an impression that they stay've with me despite being done with the game or simply being almost always enjoyable, starting with, as the title of the blog might hint, the shotgun.

The shotgun - specifically the pump action shotgun for me - remains one of the most enjoyable weapons across all games. It is rarely done badly, mostly done well and sometimes is exceptionally enjoyable to use beyond all other guns available. In particular, Left 4 Dead's shotgun, coupled with some truly cinematic zombie deaths, flying back as their torso starts moving faster than their limbs can keep up, courtesy one cartridge of buckshot, is a five star experience.

Fallout 3's Fat Man, aside from being the most powerful weapon in the game (Experimental MIRV excluded), sends its payload flying in an almost graceful arc, before resulting in one of the most satisfying gaming explosions I've seen, far beyond that of other more run-of-the-mill ordnance in both this game and others. Though its model may seem more like something you'd find in a scrapyard challenge punting footballs into nets, there is no denying that it fits Fallout's post-apocalyptic scavenger theme perfectly.

Painkiller's Stake gun, interacting in a truly visceral manner with the physics engine and ragdolls, is more a weapon of art than of destruction, allowing players to leave their very own macabre museum of corpses attached to levels. Pinning your victims to walls was one of Painkiller's many guilty pleasures (alongside many other innovative weapons, not to mention the mini-gun/rocket launcher combo). And that's all before you get your hands on the alternative firing mode.

With my three favourite weapons done, I do feel the need to add one dishonourable mention: Fallout 3's laser weaponry. This is not the first time I've seen curious cases of recoil on futuristic weaponry (while modern military science works hard to reduce recoil), but recoil on laser rifles in particular really does feel like a bit of a buzzkill for me, especially since I have great nostalgia for the 1990s dogma of plasma > laser > slug/bullet. With all that said, this is my invitation for you all to share your preferred tools to victory, as well as any comments you have on the topics before.

What's In The Box?

Sat, 21 Mar 2009 16:01:39 -0400

A while back Sol Invictus linked Escape From City 17, the first part of a pretty sweet live action Half Life short film. If you haven't seen it yet, here it is:

A little over a week ago, another live action film, certainly using Half Life sound effects and taking the whole post-apocalyptic theme, popped up on YouTube, this time called What's In The Box (with its own equally mysterious website). Credit goes to Opet for linking me this, and I thought I'd share it with you all, especially if any of you know any other good live action fan-films regarding Half Life or other popular series (I think there are a fair few Legend of Zelda ones out there!). Whether What's In The Box is actually about Half Life is hard to say at the moment, but it's certainly worth the watch!

In general, I'd love to see more of these short fan films, as they certainly put the likes of Uwe Boll's game-to-movie efforts to shame, even if they're using other sound tracks. It's great to see games and talented indie moviemakers and actors mesh so well.

A Trip Back Through Levelling Up

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:19:40 -0400

So, last month, I stumbled across the blog of Brian Green, who worked on one of the earliest - indeed credited as the earliest - graphical MMOs, Meridian 59. He has written a short series of blogposts on replacing levels (linked here, here and here) in 'progression' games, something I actually would really like to happen (but do not expect to).

I think it was around the time I played Guild Wars that I realised that what I really liked about leveling up was the new abilities and possibilities it opened, not the actual 'buzz' of getting a new level.

Rather than put up immediate discussion on leveling (and possible replacement systems), I thought it'd be fun to actually go through a bunch of (RPG) games that I played, explain their leveling systems and what I liked and disliked about them; I invite you to do the same in comments! In order of memory:

Although I've left out a lot of the games I've played - and I welcome examples of games you've played that I've not which demonstrate different benefits and drawbacks to their leveling systems - I feel it's obvious that progression is so often not about the levels themselves but rather the access to abilities - and thus new ways to play the game - that they provide.

One of the reasons I am now so tired of the MMO design is that they so often miss (intentionally or not: it isn't at all beyond certain MMO designers to design their progression purely as an illusion to keep players going) this fact, and give levels with nothing but a simple statistical increase. In general, these statistical increases are an awful idea. They segregate players, and often do little to affect the style of gameplay.

An example level 1 character may have 50 hit points and do 10 damage; at level 2, 100 and 20. But this doubling that seems like progression often means little to nothing as the opponents will double in power too; your power is relatively identical when you're looking at opponents of your own level; you've done nothing but improved against enemies lower level than you, who represent decreased reward on defeat (both statistically and enjoyably) and thus an unlikely target for you to fight. Consider, if you will, how many monsters there are in MMOs that players face once or twice but never again. It seems rather wasteful to me in one way, although there are obviously some benefits to having areas that you can travel through free of danger.

The illusion presented by access to new levels of enemies that you gain by leveling hides the fact that your statistical 'rewards' for leveling are relatively pointless, as they so often just give you access to a new enemy but not advantage over them or a new method of interaction with them. If there weren't levels however, all enemies could be balanced around your basic stats meaning... you would have access to all enemies, but might need different abilities to defeat some of them.

There is, in these cases, a deception of progression: higher level abilities doing the same percentage of damage to higher level opponents that your lower level abilities did to the lower level opponents. Does it really represent an interesting change in gameplay? Systems like Bloodlines', Guild Wars or TitanQuest's, where the variety of abilities allow you to face opponents in a different fashion, rather than in the same fashion but doing more damage (but the same percentage of damage when put alongside their hit points) provide a much wider experience of gameplay and as such are often much more enjoyable and replayable.

I have to say that in the world of leveling, there is a lot to be learnt once you draw away the revealing curtain of statistical increases to reveal the abilities that actually make the progressions of better games as fun as they are.

Gaming Shirts: Yay or Nay?

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 07:14:27 -0500

Inspired by the picture in Snail's What's To Love in a Gamer? Just About Everything, I thought I'd ask how you guys view gaming shirts. Ranging from tees to hoodies, these have been gaining in popularity - if their ever-growing online advertising is anything to go by - over the last few years, but I've yet to see more than one other person wearing them. I own one, and I can't say I'd wear it alone, even at a LAN party (partly because I refuse to do LANs as yet another black-tee-and-jeans guy; seriously guys, shirts: look into them).

Firefox, as worn by the... average gamer?

So what's the deal? Is there a hidden crowd meeting in basements to display their gaming gear, or is it strictly a 'wear-at-home (and change quickly when friends come around)' purchase? One of the issues I have is that, while I view gamers mostly in the same way as you guys do - normal people who also game - I don't like the idea of trying to prove we're normal by displaying our personalities in an exceptional manner as a lot of 'minority scenes' do. That isn't to say that that is what gaming shirts do, but rather that they do tend to make people a bit self-conscious.

Should it be any different than a shirt with your favourite band's logo on it, or your favourite TV show? Just how obscure would you go if you did buy (or have bought) a gaming t-shirt? Would you get one for your favourite MMO, or limit yourselves to popularly known games like Guitar Hero or Mario where your attire wouldn't be recognised only by the most hardcore of gamers, and you would never face the awkward comment of, "what does n00b mean?" Where's the line drawn between ubergeek and trendy retro chic?

The Advent of Downloadable Content

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:14:22 -0500

I've been seeing a fair few gripes about DLC recently, what with DoWII's impending release and L4D's Survival Pack. Even on TF2 I'll meet the occasional visionary who believes that TF2 is an 'unfinished' game until all the class packs are released and that it was unethical business practice of Valve to release it without them.

DLC, or simply 'the internet' if you prefer, allows designers to patch in features that may have been permanently cut if the 'release perfection' idealists had their way. It doesn't put this silly time limit on gameplay upgrades that expansions do, instead allowing them to refresh the game much more rapidly. It also allows them to charge for trivial gameplay upgrades (horse armour!), which many of us, myself included, don't always approve of.

And before we overlook another important factor here, companies that want to charge you through the nose for updates will do so, DLC or not. The Sims had expansion packs on CDs amounting to a total of something like $260 for all of them if you bought them on release day for each one. They were intensely successful. DLC is a distribution medium that allows smaller packages of content releases, and not a direct competitor to CD/DVD releases. Smaller packages tends to mean smaller changes that some feel may not be worth paying for. I often feel DLC opponents compare expansions with DLC unfairly, often putting a single £5 bit of DLC up against a £25 expansion.

If you were to compare 5 £5 DLCs released over the course of six months against a £25 expansion released six months later, even if the DLCs don't measure up that's not to say the comparison doesn't have other indirect factors. I've found that small releases reinvigorate a game growing stale quite well, better perhaps than expansions. This is especially true when the DLC focuses on multiplayer, because expansions for most games tend to focus on singleplayer, which has a usually limited playtime attached. Free DLC is far more effective for balancing a game than expansions, for example: making large changes all at once is terrible when you have to try and gain feedback from it all. Small manageable changes allow for good feedback gathering which allows for finer tuning and this is something DLC is very good for. If you ever have the misfortune to attend Software Engineering classes or read up on it on the internet, you'll learn more than you ever wanted to know about why iterative and incremental design and release structure is superior to classic alternatives.

I'll leave it there for now, having written quite enough already. Trying to sum up what has been a rambling blog, I'd just like to say that mostly, I see DLC often stereotyped as the worst examples of itself, and extra features that required extra development time listed as 'should have been there on launch' as if developers had free money and time. It seems that so many criticisms of DLC are actually criticisms of stupid management and idiocy in general that are for some reason levelled at DLC just for being involved in the farce.

Dawn of War II Multiplayer Beta

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 12:09:25 -0500

In about 8 hours (in Steam Time) the Dawn of War II multiplayer beta should be available for anyone to download on Steam. Being an owner of the previous DoW expansions I got in last week and so I thought I'd write a taster on the highly unlikely chance you're totally bored of farming easy PvE content or getting blown up by arcane mages again and are looking for something slightly different to pass the time. It is, after all, a free beta.

If you like what you've read above, there are a few caveats about the beta. Relic has said that they'll be providing much better support for the game than the previous two (which were limited by badly designed patching systems and requirements: never release your game in so many languages that you can't release a patch until it's been written in each one), and Relic posters are aware of these issues so we can have faith it'll get a look at from the downloadable content/patching after release (they have announced there will be Day 0 DLC).

Firstly, the AI has a Freudian love affair with walker units, and will ignore every other unit in favour of these once it has enough of the power resource. If you want to learn your units abilities, playing against the computer is a good way to do so without embarassing yourself playing against humans, but don't expect a good game from the AI as yet. Of course, being pro pvpers who want to wave your e-peens about (yes, there is a player statistic page to rub scrubs' noses in how good your win:loss ratio is), you'll only be playing competitively anyway, right?

Unit balance, as is to be expected, is still being sorted out, which is part of the purpose of this beta. Fan reactions still haven't quite settled here: on the first day it was the equivalent to HMG teams of CoH (infantry units that take a little time to set up and then suppresses infantry in their arc of fire, making it hard for them to attack and move slower). On the second day, it was the entire Eldar faction. At the moment it has settled on the suicide bombing Tyranid spore mines (cheap and effective against infantry, if they don't blow themselves up!) and two particular melee units (Assault Space Marines, jetpacking infantry troops in power armour that weighs more than a car and Howling Banshees, whirling dervishes of bloody murder who, when upgraded, send enemy vehicle units to the junkyard and give every other infantry unit a nasty spanking if not suppressed quickly enough).

If you want to save a replay you have to go through a slightly unhelpful process to do so (GameReplays, who have several good matches up already have an explanation of how to save and view them here), although this is partly because it's a workaround.

There are only a few (5) maps to play on, 3 3v3s and 2 1v1s. Relic have stated they'll be releasing at very least 2 more on release day, and quite frankly, a small number of well-designed (if visually boring compared to CoH's vast, realistic scenery and themes) maps is probably better for balance testing.

Anyway, if you've got time to kill while not haemorrhaging arena rating to your hidden ratings, and want a bit of time in a community where CC stands for close combat and FOTM is firing on the move, why not give the DoW2 beta a download later this evening and put the dakka into the 'nid. If nothing else, the Orks got their usual great voice acting treatment and are a pleasure to play for that alone.

So cheers if you read all of that, and do give a comment if you've already played or after you've played saying what you think of it. I know a few other 'rioters are playing and enjoying it at very least.

Balancing around PvE, Resilience and Moving Goalposts

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 11:46:24 -0500

Resilience is the solution to a problem. The problem started a long time ago, Pre-TBC. Raid gear outclassed PvP gear, and so if you really wanted to PvP at a 'high level' (insofar as there was one), you had to raid. This annoyed people for (at least) three reasons. Firstly, you weren't rewarded for PvP progression properly. GM/HWL gear paled in comparison to t2.5 and t3, as well as offset pieces. Secondly, it was a lot easier to get these items than it was to get the highest tier of PvP items. Thirdly, the dps done by raid-geared characters was way overboard, even when compared against GM gear, and people often died in seconds (deja vu, anyone?).

But let's get back to this balancing issue. Why balance around PvE rather than PvP? If you design around PvP, you can be assured your statistics will work great for it. Then, once you know what statistics make PvP meaningful and take a suitable amount of time, you stat in PvE encounters according to the dps you know people will have, rather than scaling their dps up to meet the encounter, and then having to scale it back down again for PvP. It's just stupid.

Instead, design around PvP, scaling PvE encounters which, as noted above, are simply timed events, to time themselves according to the dps used in PvP. It's very easy to change a monster's damage as they tend to have very few abilities compared to players (most mobs have maybe 2-3, end bosses maybe 7-8 at most). Changing each of a player's stats takes much more time and consideration, and while resilience is a better way of changing them all at once it doesn't fix the problem of any PvP that takes place without resilience.

If you completely removed resilience, but balanced the basic stats to a point where you had enjoyable PvP, and then designed encounters around this, you would be balancing a significantly larger proportion of PvP in your game than if you add in resilience. This should be blindingly obvious now, what with the examples of the past few weeks' PvP. Resilience only balances resilience-based PvP; it doesn't help with the dramatically unbalanced PvP that could have been fixed simply by balancing around PvP first, and PvE second.

Comments and dispute are as always welcome. Of course, whether I'll get dispute when writing a PvP-positive blog in a PvPer heavy community... who knows?

Game Review: (Diet) Prince of Persia

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 18:28:59 -0500

The recipe for a good Prince of Persia game is fairly simple: take simple platforming, enjoyable combat and mix thoroughly with a vibrant game world and a suitably orchestral sound track.Â Add a dash of plot and a pinch of main character angst and let it simmer.Â The good folk at Ubisoft decided they'd spice things up a little in the latest installation, not least by removing the titular Prince and replacing him with a vagabond and a magical girl princess, who in theory perform the adventure in tandem, although Princess Elika remains behind the NPC line.

It's not hard to see that I'm disappointed in the new Prince of Persia.Â That being said, I'd still say it was a good game and worth a buy for platforming fans.Â Assuming for a moment that I rate games on the arbitrary 1 to 10, I'd honestly put the game at a 7 or 7.5.Â But after I'd done that, I'd think, "hang on a second, this is a game following on from a great trilogy, and they've made genuinely bad changes."Â And I'd change it to a 6 or lower for me, because letting go of good and enjoyably complex gameplay (that rewarded you for mastering it without being so thumb-numbingly difficult as to drive you to suicide trying to learn it: I raise a glass to all of you who somehow manage to like Ninja Gaiden, you masochistic junk puppies) and replacing it with a simpler, more intuitive button-mashing design isn't really a good thing for anything except maybe sales.

Of course, this review suffers heavily from 'vengeful fan syndrome' but when the actual changes to gameplay have destroyed what people consider integral parts of the experience and caused them to become fans in the first place, there is some legitimacy to the 'knee jerk reaction'.Â It's not just that, "oh noes it's different," it's that it's different in a way that is almost objectively worse.Â I'm not going to go so far as to overlook the improvements made to the storytelling and the platform design architecture at all and I feel they are worth due praise.Â However, if Ubisoft plans to make good on the rumour that this is the start of another PoP trilogy, I honestly hope that before they release the second installment, they take a good long look at what made the last three so great.Â Prince of Persia should be a leading force among platformers, showing others the way to better combat and platforming; it shouldn't be falling back to the simplistic under-12 level of so many other console games.

So that's the review and my explanation of why I consider this Diet Prince of Persia.Â If you're a fan of the series and haven't gotten it already, I'd still say go ahead.Â The core game is a good twenty hours and completing it with all light seeds is another ten; Ubisoft also saw fit to not include DRM software (after the amusing PR fiasco of their Beyond Good and Evil 'fix' turning out to be a third-party no-cd crack), so you're not feeding that particular corporate evil by buying.Â And if you've never played a PoP game before, this is a good taste of the basics, even if it is only the basics.