Closing Up Shop

It is with a heavy heart that I have to post a cease to Trumpcard’s Two Cents, at least for now. Each week I kept hoping to find time to get back to posting, but unfortunately I just haven’t been able to. The rest of life has gotten in the way. Hopefully in a little while things will calm down, but for now there is an indefinite pause to posts.

Ruby Tuesday?

WET from Bethesda Softworks came out last week. I liked the look of what I saw from E3, but I wasn’t ready to purchase it without playing the demo. I played the demo last week, and I have to admit I’m still undecided on this one.

The part I am sold on is the style. I really approve of the grindhouse design of this game. The cutscenes are great to look at, I love Dushku as the voice of Ruby, and you can tell it’s a world that the designers really wanted to explore. The graphics are solid and the audio is pretty good. I wasn’t a huge fan of the “rage vision”. I find the surroundings almost too sparse, and the blood splatter makes it hard to see the action going on. The rest of the game was pretty good though.

The part I’m still not sold on is the mechanics. I like the shooting, and the slow-mo is great, but the sliding, jumping, and wall-running is a bit too much. The wall-running in particular was just painful for me. I got it to work properly once. The sword is interesting, but feels out of place. I thought so from the early images, and the gameplay confirms it. I would think it much cooler if Ruby just had some cool up-close melee sequences similar to those used in The Darkness. On the whole, I felt that if they had just stuck to making a third-person shooter with lots of jumping and bullet time the game would be really cool. Instead it feels a bit bloated.

One other portion that bears mention is the car sequence. I thought this was really well done. Ironically, it’s constructed with a simplicity I wish the rest of the game had. All you have to do is focus on shooting and the occasional quick-time event which will jump you around the cars and implement sword attacks. I saw an interview a while ago with one of the developers and they explained that they originally had the player moving Ruby around, but found that it made things too difficult to keep track of and detracted from the cool vehicle sequences. It’s this sequence which has got me back on the fence about this one.

Pricepoint is going to be a big factor for this game. The buzz is pretty limited, and I think that many gamers are unwilling to shell out $70 for an unknown when Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 and Halo3: ODST are going to be on the shelf. For me, this game could be something I pick up on a whim when it drops to $20, but until then I just don’t see it joining my collection.

Tossing Batarangs Around

Nothing deep and/or theoretical today. Just a few notes about Batman: Arkham Asylum. Believe it or not, I didn’t like the game that much when I first started, but I also didn’t realize how little of the actual game I was playing. Now I’m loving it. They do a real good job making the player feel like Batman. I really appreciate the fact that you can’t really take many bullets before you die, and your health doesn’t magically grow back in a few seconds. The combat system is damn fine, and I hope to see it in more games.

I am not without complaints though. For starters, I spend most of my time in “detective mode”. For the uninitiated, detective mode allows you to see skeletons of enemies through walls, as well as whether or not they’re carrying guns, secrets, interactive elements, and such. It’s really useful, and such technology makes sense for Batman. There’s no incentive to ever leave it though. I mean, I like the environments, and it’s cool to see the different varieties of enemies, but you can proceed through most of the game without ever turning this off. My solution: you should have to turn off detective mode for combat. I’m not talking about little actions like the silent takedown methods, but if you want to score combos, or know when an opponent is about to strike, you should have to be in normal mode. It would make sense that Batman might find the interface disorienting when fighting four enemies simultaneously.

The other HUGE problem is the save system. The game operates on a checkpoint system, which makes sense with the short objective driven scenarios. The whole game takes place over a single night, and as such I can see the obvious narrative reasons for avoiding the distraction of the player being taken out of the action to a save screen. On paper it makes perfect sense. The only problem is that it’s too discreet. I have no clue when the game has saved. As such, I end up playing longer than I want to, not just longer than I intended. I don’t have a perfect solution for this, but maybe even just making the icon for saving a little larger in the bottom corner, so you can see it more easily if you’re looking for it. I have to admit that this is actually part of the reason I haven’t played more of the game yet. My gaming time is sporadic at best these days, and I’ve avoided gaming since I never know if I’ll be able to save before I need to set down the controller.

But on the whole I must say the game is pretty solid. I mean, the world is a good size, the gameplay evolves enough to keep throwing new problems and solutions your way. The equipment builds over time, which frustrated me at first, but since you’re brought back to many areas more than once it works fine. Don’t expect to get bored going through the same areas either. Things are always a little bit different. I can’t wait to get through the whole game and to see what other heroes get a similar treatment.

P.S. I love the way all the characters have been re-imagined, especially Harley.

Spinning our Wheels?

Over at Kotaku Leigh Alexander (also of Sexyvideogameland and Gamasutra) wrote an interesting article looking at stagnation in the videogame industry. My initial reaction is to oppose the idea that there is a lack of innovation in game design, but I have to admit that she has a point when it comes to “male power fantasies”. After reading the article I was checking out the previews in an issue of Official Xbox Magazine, and I found everything surprisingly familiar.

Is creativity really dead when it comes to videogames? Are we failing to grow like other mediums such as film and television? From a mechanical standpoint I would have to say that creativity is thriving. You can look at the pre- and post-Gears of War state of things to see creativity and innovation at work. I also think it’s important to learn from Epic’s example that innovation needs to be implemented at a gradual rate. If you don’t, you risk the Wii. There’s no denying the Wii’s commercial success, but the proverbial jury is still out as to whether or not motion control is a fad. The few games which are gaining momentum in the motion-controlled medium are those which inculcate this new mechanic into traditional game design. Mariokart hasn’t really changed, save the use of the wheel.

However, I would say that Leigh’s article looks at games from more of a thematic perspective. Has game narrative maintained its creative edge? Not really. Then again, there are theorists who argue that almost all narratives are a rehashing of archetypes, as per Joseph Campbell. I would liken game narrative to my falling out of love with the TV show 24: I don’t know what the cliffhanger is, but I know it’s coming, and the suspense suffers as a result. I’m not going to say I’m never surprised by games anymore, but I’m starting to get pretty used to the twists they employ. Characters often fit snugly into archetypes and the quest is usually pretty linear.

But I ask the question, is this a problem? I spent a great deal of my afternoon today shooting enemies in Far Cry 2. Ultimately this isn’t very different from shooting covenant in Halo 3, headcrab zombies in Half-Life 2, or mobsters and zombies in The Darkness. I still enjoyed all of those, and I’ll enjoy many others too. Just as much as the innovation in these games makes them great, so too do their similarities with the other games I enjoy. Of course I want a new game when I lay down my hard-earned dollar, but I also want something that will be fun and easy to enjoy.

I like innovative games as much as the next person (Mirror’s Edge and Dead Space were awesome), but I don’t much like struggling to eke out fun from a game that’s trying to be different. I’m weary of games which get stuck on trying to be different and fail to create a well-rounded experience. Many games which pride themselves on innovation end up being flat experiences which resemble proof of concept tech demos more than games. The result: those “creative” games ultimately fail to engage the user and are abandoned, leaving us with the same old game design once again.

There are exceptions which deliver hope for the future. Look at games like Braid and Portal. Games like these provide us with substantial innovation and help pave the way for the next generation. These games herald developers with inspiration and creativity, who we can count on to provide us with more innovation in the future, and until they do I’m willing to keep shooting things, be they alien, robot, or zombie.

What We Sometimes Miss

While I was playing Far Cry 2 last week I had to turn aside for a moment to check some e-mail. My respite was brief, so I didn’t even pause the game. When I turned back I found that my character had raised his gun close to give it a good once over, allowing me to see a perspective of the weapon I hadn’t seen before, and haven’t seen since. It hit me that someone had to program that into the game, and had I not been looking for an e-mail I wouldn’t have seen it. I started wondering about other parts of games I might have overlooked.

I remember years ago, during my PC gaming phase, when “easter eggs” meant something you really had to earn. What I mean by this is that easter eggs were discussed only in the most hardcore forums, and seldom did “popular” media give away the secrets to discover these little things. As a result, I realize that there was a lot of interesting stuff in games I just never saw. Things are different now. Easter eggs are far more common and are often presented in plain sight. A good example is the cake in Wolverine. While slightly off the beaten path, you don’t have to go outside the rules of play to find it. I suppose that’s what I’m really getting at here: the idea that the player has to play beyond the norm to discover something special.

Easter eggs aren’t really what I was discussing at the outset though. What I was discussing was the depth that many games have these days without us ever noticing. Perhaps the energy which goes into that depth is why things like easter eggs are easier to find. I remember watching episodes of Reviews on the Run years ago and Tommy Tallarico would complain about the sounds for footsteps. If the game included the sound of a character’s steps, they would often have only one or two sounds which would be repeated almost indefinitely. Tommy would mention this every time it was obvious, so when I started playing games which had more than one sound I began to appreciate it. It seems like a very small part of a game, but when you think about it you listen to that sound for almost your entire play through. 12 hours of one sound would definitely get a little tired.

Jumping back to contemporary games, we now have games with catalogues of sounds we don’t even hear. I think about the bird songs in Far Cry 2 and I wonder how long some guy ran around with a boom mic to get enough noises to give the player an “authentic” experience. Think about third-person games and how frequently they have the avatar act board when left still for too long. How many hours have animators spent based on the idea that a gamer will sit perfectly still staring at the screen? What about hidden corners of maps? I’m not talking about the one mission set ridiculously on the periphery. I’m talking about the part of the map just beyond that, constructed just in case you decide to see what the boundary looks like. I have more sympathy for collectables which developers put in to encourage such exploration. Let’s not forget about some of that extra content too. What about character bios or comic covers? What’s the percentage of players who actually go through all of that? Yes, I am one of them, but that doesn’t mean I feel that the effort is always justified.

Looking at the games on my shelf I now find myself wondering if I really experienced they all had to offer. Is there maybe some easter egg I missed, or some cool collectable I never quite got. A part of me feels like I owe it to those developers to take that time and see all the awesome they packed on the disc. Then again, I do have a copy of Batman Arkham Asylum waiting to be played…

Week Off

I’m afraid there’s no new post this week. Taking this one off. Will return next week with something new.

Tales of a Mercenary Life

Bullets whiz past me as the truck lurches out of the water and back onto the dirt road. Being familiar with this area, I knew I could escape cleanly from that checkpoint, and only one shot managed to graze my arm. Little more than an insect bite really. As I round the bend I begin to think about the next checkpoint. With any luck there should be a boat which can take my upriver to my destination.

All of a sudden a car appears and rams head long into my truck. I hop into the turret in back and fire through the cars windshield, killing the driver in a few seconds. Just as I think I’m in the clear I’m blindsided by a bout of malaria. My vision blurs as I stumble out the back of the truck and fumble for my pills. I hear more shots ringing out to my left, but I can only hope that my surprise attacker has lousy enough aim to leave me alive until the malaria passes. This time I’m lucky. I manage to drop behind the truck and regroup. It doesn’t take long for me to eliminate that threat.

I get the drop on the next checkpoint, taking out all the mercs quickly and cleanly. Disappointment sets in as I look over the edge of the bridge: no boat. It’s too far for me to swim, so I guess I’ll be driving the long way around. I hop in a fresh truck and start gunning towards the next, and last, checkpoint between me and my destination.

I know I’ll have to stop and fight my way through, so when I arrive at the outpost it takes only a few seconds to get to the rear turret and shoot all three of the mercenaries before they even get their guns out. I jump out of the truck and start rummaging around, looking for medical supplies. All of a sudden I’m surprised to see that one of the mercenaries is almost back to his feet. I empty a whole clip from my silenced MP-5 into him just to make sure he’s done. Once I’ve gathered some ammo and meds I head back to the truck. I notice another mercenary struggling to regain his footing. This time I take my Markov 6P9 silenced pistol out and put one in the back of his head.

It’s a short trip from there to Mike’s Bar. I report to Michele that I’ve succeeded in taking out the two drug dealers she told me about. She tells me I got myself my first key to heaven, and I take a small solace in having done some good with all my killing for once. I stop off to say hi to Marty on my way out the door. In the night air, I decide it’s time to get some rest. Tomorrow’s another day with lots more people to kill.

A Killbox without Walls

I started playing Far Cry 2 last week, and I have to say that it’s quite different than most FPS games I’ve played. While many mechanics remain the same, the particulars of your encounters are very different from most games.

Every enemy encounter you face in Far Cry 2 is shaped by the open-world nature of the game’s design. Encounters still occur at specific locals and you don’t have to worry about making your way through a crowded world, but a lot of the rules which apply to the standard “killbox” FPS model don’t apply here.

What I mean by a killbox is an area, usually with clearly defined boundaries (though sometimes invisible walls are implemented), which the player enters and does not exit until they eliminate all the threats. Once threats are eliminated players often have the opportunity to move about in the area, exploring the environment, without worry of new threats entering and attacking. Many FPS games can be broken down to a series of these arenas, some fluidly connected and others clearly separated (I’m thinking Wolfenstein 3D here). Halo 3 uses this layout. I use it as an example because Bungie does a great job leading you from one killbox to another without you noticing the boundaries as anything other than natural obstacles in the game world which Master Chief cannot surpass.

As I stated before, Far Cry 2 is an open-world game, and that very nature breaks down the killbox design. There simply aren’t boundaries like you find in a standard FPS since you’re supposed to be able to easily traverse the world by foot and vehicle. Of course there are exceptions to this mandate. You will frequently find yourself working your way around an outcropping of rock. These barriers, however, seldom, if ever, close off an entire area. When you do find yourself fighting in between the walls of a canyon, you will usually find a lot of distance from one wall to another.

If Far Cry 2 lacks the boundaries of killbox design, it must lack killboxes, yes? Not really. The game is developed in such a way that your opponents do limit themselves to their own little encampments, and they only respawn after you’ve traversed a certain distance. When you do clear out a guard post or villainous shanty town no new villains arrive to take the next shift. The exception which proves this rule is the occasional vehicle which will arrive, as if magically called forth, and are just as unreplacedly dead as their pedestrian counterparts. Once you kill all these enemies you are encouraged to poke through their belongings for ammunition and medical supplies to get your mercenary self back to the status quo. For all intensive purposes, these areas act as killboxes without the walls to keep you penned in.

So what does this mean for Far Cry 2. For starters, I found as I started to sink my teeth into the second or third round of missions I was dying. A lot. When this happened to me in Halo 3 I usually knew I was just missing the enemy/enemies who were catching my exposed back with a late spawn, or some such nonsense. In essence, I had to run and gun harder to get through other FPS’s. In Far Cry 2, however, I discovered I had to run and gun smarter not harder. If I died when approaching through the opening in the south fence, perhaps I should try the waterfront. If my RPG won’t cover distance fast enough to catch the bad guys perhaps I have to try and catch them off guard next to an exploding barrel, or use molotov cocktails to hedge them in.

For bigger confrontations I quickly discovered that I had to swallow my proverbial pride and leave a few bad guys standing. Running in, meeting my objective, and running out doesn’t seem like nearly as bad an idea after the fifth time I get pinned down by automatic gunfire. These larger nests of enemies are also places where I will find myself driving off the road just to put a little more distance between my character and gun emplacements while just passing through.

I’m not ready to post an outright review of Far Cry 2 yet, but I have to say that it really is a unique game. It definitely takes the FPS formula and makes it something new, which is exactly what Ubisoft talked about last year at E3. Here’s hoping I’m as impressed with the later parts of the game.

Prince of Persia Review

I’ve wanted to play Prince of Persia since it dropped last December, but what with great games like Fallout 3 and Dead Space on my plate first, I didn’t get a chance to play it until just recently. This post is a little late in the day because I wanted to finish the DLC Epilogue to include it in my review. I’ll add my thoughts on it at the end.

I regret to say that I missed Sands of Time due to too many other games and not enough time when it was released. This venture into the PoP universe is actually my first since trying the original back on my 286 PC. I found the original a painful experience beyond my ability. This new iteration not so much. There has been some discussion about whether or not this game was too easy, especially given that Elika, your feminine companion character, recovers you when you make a misstep. I think that Yahtzee had the right perspective on this mechanic. The parkour movement of the Prince only works if you can move freely without worrying about reloading the last save. Yahtzee compares it to Mirror’s Edge, and I would like to echo his sentiments. I definitely found myself taking more risks because I knew it would only cost me a few seconds. I also believe that the challenge was still there, since after a few drops you get tired of seeing Elika’s hand reach for yours. The parkour action is fluid and quick. It took me a few levels before I got used to exactly how comfortable the timing could be. Once you get used to how little you need to nudge the Prince along, it becomes a lot easier to get him moving at a fluid pace.

The combat is tricky. At first I mistakenly thought that it was simple. Little did I know how much I would have to learn to time my attacks and link together more powerful combinations. Since Elika will revive you if you fail, you get lots of chances to experiment with different moves. There are also some quicktime events which can become frustrating and repetitive. If you fail the QTE’s the enemy regains health, so I understand why they need to be there to augment the challenge. I just wish there were a few less.

I love the visual style of the game. No video I had seen on the web previously did the game justice. The watercolour style is vivid and I hope it catches on with other games. There are a ton of visual cues and beautiful effects in the levels. The only problem I had actually occurred with the clothing of the characters. It was nice to see the Prince’s long scarf blow in the wind, but when if flowed through Elika while she was on his back I was disappointed. It just seemed to me that Ubisoft would take more care to clean up those rough edges.

There were a few things I had trouble with in the game. The 1001 light seeds that you can collect could have been fewer. There were a few places were multiple seeds were stacked together just to round out the numbers. I hate that. The story isn’t bad, and I like the character of the Prince. Unlike many irrational people, I don’t have any problem with the characters speaking like Americans. It makes as much sense for the Persians to speak in American accents as for them to speak in English with Persian accents. What I did have trouble with was Elika’s character. Yahtzee has this one right too. It just seems that the developers couldn’t decide whether or not Elika should be flirtatious, fierce, or demure. As a result her character is fragmented and uninteresting, which is unfortunate because I really wanted to care about her. I just couldn’t.

Now for the DLC. A lot of people commented, before the DLC was released, that it seemed contrived that the game ended on a cliffhanger and then the epilogue cost more money. I disagree. It’s clear to me that a few things are in the DLC which very well might have been in original concept work and not made it into the full game. The plot advances very little. I won’t spoil anything, but let’s just say that I can see where a sequel can pick up and make sense from either ending, but if you’ve played the epilogue you’ll get more out of the world. Achievement whores beware, the DLC does not make building Gamerscore easy. The parkour and the combat are both significantly more difficult that the main game. This increase in difficulty may be in response to the early criticism about the ease of play, but I found it down right frustrating. I really enjoyed the main campaign of the game, but I found myself frustrated to the point of controller throwing with the DLC. The design of the levels aren’t that much harder, but instead you’re just not given as many (if any) cues as to what action you’re going to have to hit next. That means many falls, many grabs by Elika, and many repetitions. It’s unfortunate that Ubisoft chose to go in this direction, because since it’s an epilogue it leaves a bit of a bad flavour after the whole game is said and done.

All right, time to bottom line it.
Buy if: You like third-person action/platforming games that celebrate timing precision.
Rent if: You’re willing to try something different from all the shooters out there.
Pass if: You’re only into guns and explosions and/or the same old thing

Why I Don’t Fit into the New World of PC Gaming

After the Super Nintendo, I took a break from console gaming. I didn’t return until the Game Cube, and even then it wasn’t until Wind Waker. During this time (arguably my most active gaming period other than right now) I was a PC gamer. I played many games in many genres, from shooters to RPG’s. But after a while that changed. Now I don’t play anything on my computer. Not even Minesweeper. What happened?

The first point, and most difficult to overcome, is the financial investment. I don’t want to dwell on this point, since many have already explained the shortcomings of constant PC upgrades, but this was a very significant factor in my abandonment of PC gaming. My disposable income simply couldn’t bear the burden of new graphics cards. It still can’t.

As a tangent from the same source, I also found it frustrating to try and keep my knowledge up to snuff when it came to hardware. I’m no luddite, nor am I a technician. I reside somewhere in the middle ground. However, I found my brow furrowing whenever I looked at the tech specs for a particular game. I came from the generation of shareware and freeware, when your computer could play it if you had a drive that could fit the disc. I didn’t want to work to get my game going, I just wanted to play.

These factors are by no means absent in today’s marketplace, and they both influence my decision to avoid PC gaming. That being said, I’ve also upgraded to a 120GB hard drive for my 360. It’s still simpler to make sure your console is ready to go than your computer. But there are games that don’t have steep requirements. Why not play some of those games.

It seems to me that there are four markets for PC games. They are most definitely not dead, but they are far more specialized than they used to be. First is MMORPG’s. This segment is dominated by World of Warcraft, but the one that was most likely to catch me was Age of Conan. These games are distinct and attract a player-type unlike me. I really don’t get that much enjoyment from multiplayer games, and when you don’t like the first three letters in a six-letter acronym you don’t have much of a chance.

MMORPG’s transition nicely into the free-to-play or casual market. These areas look like fun, but for a “hardcore” player like me they don’t hold enough appeal. This reason coincides with why I don’t play many XBLA games. I hear all the great buzz around Peggle and I had a great time with the demo, but when push comes to shove I still have full retail games I’m not spending time with and which I consider more expansive experiences. I even thought about testing out Free Realms to see if perhaps I could enjoy a casual MMO, but I just can’t get myself involved in that when I still have Lost Odyssey in shrinkwrap on my shelf.

A third category, which isn’t as large as it used to be, is hardcore PC gaming. This portion is a bit of a copout catchall for anything that experiences some heavy development and you might find for $60 or $70 at retail. Many of these games (I’m looking at you Crisis) lead back to my original problem with the niche, but I also find that there just aren’t the games here that there used to be. I spent a lot of time playing Diablo II, but after I had dried out from my addiction I didn’t find a suitable replacement waiting for me. That’s when I turned my gaze towards consoles once again.

The last segment of PC gaming I see today is indie games. This one has the most potential for sucking me in. There are a lot of games out there with fantastic potential and many can be played on my computer. I’m thinking of games like The Path, Trine, and Zeno Clash. These games look really good, but since I’m not already a PC gamer I feel that in order to set up account(s) and/or acquire and install the games on my system, the work to play ratio is still a little off. I’m reminded of the early days of PC gaming, when the audience was fairly niche and you had to work your way in there. The difference now is that I don’t have to do all that work since consoles allow me to take the easy rout.

That final point is really what it all comes down to: ease of use. While I may not be immediately attracted to the bulk of games I see on PC, I’m also just not as motivated to invest time peripheraly to actually gaming. I have only so many minutes in the day to game, and I want to use that to actually game. This factor is another reason I’m not attracted to the PS3. I’ve heard people complain about installation times and such, which don’t entice me at all. I only install games to my 360 while I’m doing something else in the same room, and even that small commitment seems inconvenient. I just want to sit down and have some fun, and for that reason I just don’t seem to want to boot up my PC.