As I’ve stated before, I work two jobs and don’t have as much time to play videogames as I would like, making me choosy about what I do play. I have a laundry list of factors I look at before deciding on what to rent and/or buy: how long is the game, did I like its predecessors, how is its buzz online, etc. I used to choose games that were short and sweet, and that I knew I could knock out in a weekend if I had to, but lately I’ve becoming more attracted to games that I’ve heard tell a great story, sometimes planning out which games to buy months in advance in order to find out what happens. In the words of Homer Simpson, I like stories.
I’ve always like stories. I like context for my gameplay decisions, and since I play videogames for escapism purposes, I want a worthy place to escape to. I’ve been having difficulty getting into non-narrative games like FIFA and Shantae, while mobile games with the most barebones stories draw me in helplessly (Tiny Wings is a perfect example of this, offering two or three paragraphs about how the birds dream about flying and how they practice gliding until nightfall when their mother comes and takes them home, a story that makes me MELT the more I think about it).
A good story in a game isn’t necessarily the same as a “good” story in a film; go event-by-event in some of your favorite game stories (“Niko jacked a car and shot a whole bunch of dudes and now looks miffed at something another character said”) and you may have to end up grading on a curve. “Good” stories in videogames often plays second trumpet (there were no fiddles in Belgrade High School’s symphonic band) to good storytelling, which are two completely different things—if a game’s story is the Wikipedia plot summary of what happens in the game, storytelling is how it happens. That is, good dialog and character interaction and moment-to-moment events will win out over, say, “Kratos stays angry for three full games, plus side stories.”
A degree of this has to do with the interactivity in games. Precise storytelling isn’t often possible on gaming, even with the degree of scripting and narrative options available. Even story heavy-hitters like Spec Ops: The Line don’t quite stack up compared to the best in film and story. With game stories, though, gamers can fill in the blanks of their play experience and use the you-are-there sense of place in games to own their stories. Game stories are often written in a broad, simplistic manner to accommodate for killer gameplay, which is a fair tradeoff to me.
Besides, even if gaming stories aren’t very tight, I find myself filling in all of the gaps between story “events” and mentally turn what is often a basic A-to-B journey and turn it into an epic Homerian tale. Take one of my favorite game stories, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The Wikipedia plot summary is ridiculous: A bad dude uses unspecified magic to make everything awful for people unless a mute fairy kid collects several different-colored coasters. What it feels like, the actual storytelling, is an unlikely hero journeying through a strange land and positively impacting the lives of everyone he meets, culminating in the savior of that same land. Link, the hero, is deliberately made a blank slate, the better to encourage players to project themselves into Link’s persona, and the entire quest arc feels rooted in rewarding the player with their discovery, rather than telling a “great story.” A novelization of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time would be dreadfully dull.
Apart from interactivity, I feel like games accommodate for backstory better than nearly every other piece of media out there. Two of my favorite game stories make extensive use of backstory: 1998’s StarCraft and Brood War expansion, and 2001’s Halo. Both are sci-fi potboilers, and likely not noteworthy to genre fans more knowledgeable than myself, but they both have extensive universe-building that isn’t shown in-game, making their stories feel deeper, or at least more expansive than their Wikipedia plot summary would suggest.
Recently, I’ve even started playing games specifically for their stories, rather than gameplay. I’m playing through Mass Effect 2 on my Xbox 360 right now after hearing so much about what Bioware has done with the series’ emphasis on storytelling, and I just started Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos yesterday because of how much I enjoyed StarCraft’s single-player. I’m currently considering trying out Dragon Age: Origins for its fantasy narrative, though this is a half-formed thought at best.
Gaming and storytelling will only continue to grow closer and closer, just like movies did as storytelling techniques and technology progressed. Some, like David Jaffe, say that story-driven games are a waste of time, but as a gent who fancies escapism, I look forward to living out new stories in my games, and new ways for videogames to tell their stories. Simple or complex, storytelling is one of my favorite aspects of game design; I love being told a story, and I like telling my own story even more.
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Friday, September 28, 2012
Wii U launch games
The Wii U has an official list of launch games. Launch titles? Kyle Orland and Jason Schreier nixed the use of the word "titles" as sounding too close to marketing copy, though I've never had a problem using the phrase "launch titles" before. Whatever. Here's some stuff to play come November 18.
The list of games, which you can read on Game Informer.com, is twenty-three strong, and is a healthy mix of first-party Nintendo games, third-party exclusives, and advanced ports of games already available on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Also, a game based on ABC's Wipeout, so there's that.
Looking down the list, I see only a few games that strike me as Must Haves, but there's a lot to like. Ubisoft's ZombiU had a huge presence at Nintendo's E3 press conference, and is one of the Wii U's more high-profile exclusives. I wasn't wowed by what I played of it at PAX Prime, though I think that has more to do with my general aversion of zombie shooters/anything than ZombiU's quality. I liked what I played of Rayman Legends, though I think I'll wait for the reviews to come back before I take the plunge; I liked Rayman Origins enough to buy it for $20, but I want to see how the second Rayman game in so many years holds up in its journey to a new console.
Besides, there's Mario! Having held off from playing New Super Mario Bros. Wii or the new 3DS game, I am absolutely ready for more console 2D sidescrolling, especially having tried it at PAX Prime. After playing so many dirt-colored shooters built in Unreal 3, Mario's bright HD colors are like mana in the Kalahari, where "mana" is "several thick cuts of prime rib." I will freely admit that the Mario sidescrolling formula looks more or less unaltered from 2006's New Super Mario Bros. on the DS, but I'd be a great prune if I chided Nintendo for giving me for super satisfying platforming action from Mario, and as a launch title, no less. Game. Whatever.
What excites me the most about the Wii U's launch lineup and what players can hopefully expect from it going forward, is the number of big third-party games, even if they are ports. Darksiders II, Assassin's Creed III, Call of Duty: Black Ops II--all huge games that either made a big splash (Darksiders II) or will make one when they release (Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty), and they won't be bastardized, paired-down editions like on the Wii. That Nintendo successfully convinced companies like THQ and Activision to make versions of their top properties gives me hope that the Wii U will reverse its biggest weakness since the N64: proper, widespread third-party support.
Yeah, we probably won't get Bayonetta 2, Lego City: Undercover, or even Wii Fit U any time during 2012 (I'm totally serious about that last one). Despite their absence, the lineup still looks good, or at least good enough to get me through the interim time until I can slaughter fools with high-heel pumps made of my hair/trim a few pounds here and there. \
Truthfully, the Wii U launch line-up looks about as good as any set of day-one games I've seen so far. I mean, what are we comparing it to, the GameCube? Luigi's Mansion and Wave Race: Blue Storm. The Xbox 360? A bunch of Xbox ports--stuff you'd already own if you were already a fan of Microsoft's first console effort. You'd have to go as far back as the Dreamcast to find as quality a stable of launch games, and I'm not sure if you'd find any beyond that; Lord knows I could have used more than Super Dodgeball and Castlevania: Circle of Can't See Anything Because Of This Damn Screen when I scored my Game Boy Advance.
On November 18 (give or take, depending on Toys 'R' Us shipping), I'm planning on getting two games, along with Nintendo Land which comes boxed with the console: New Super Mario Bros. U and Darksiders II. One to affirm my love of Nintendo's home grown games, and one to prove that publishers can release high-profile third-party games on the Wii U and people will buy them. Also, catharsis; after watching all of the huge third-party games miss my GameCube in favor of the PS2 and Xbox, I will take great pleasure in buying a multi-console release on a Nintendo system.
The list of games, which you can read on Game Informer.com, is twenty-three strong, and is a healthy mix of first-party Nintendo games, third-party exclusives, and advanced ports of games already available on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Also, a game based on ABC's Wipeout, so there's that.
Looking down the list, I see only a few games that strike me as Must Haves, but there's a lot to like. Ubisoft's ZombiU had a huge presence at Nintendo's E3 press conference, and is one of the Wii U's more high-profile exclusives. I wasn't wowed by what I played of it at PAX Prime, though I think that has more to do with my general aversion of zombie shooters/anything than ZombiU's quality. I liked what I played of Rayman Legends, though I think I'll wait for the reviews to come back before I take the plunge; I liked Rayman Origins enough to buy it for $20, but I want to see how the second Rayman game in so many years holds up in its journey to a new console.
Besides, there's Mario! Having held off from playing New Super Mario Bros. Wii or the new 3DS game, I am absolutely ready for more console 2D sidescrolling, especially having tried it at PAX Prime. After playing so many dirt-colored shooters built in Unreal 3, Mario's bright HD colors are like mana in the Kalahari, where "mana" is "several thick cuts of prime rib." I will freely admit that the Mario sidescrolling formula looks more or less unaltered from 2006's New Super Mario Bros. on the DS, but I'd be a great prune if I chided Nintendo for giving me for super satisfying platforming action from Mario, and as a launch title, no less. Game. Whatever.
What excites me the most about the Wii U's launch lineup and what players can hopefully expect from it going forward, is the number of big third-party games, even if they are ports. Darksiders II, Assassin's Creed III, Call of Duty: Black Ops II--all huge games that either made a big splash (Darksiders II) or will make one when they release (Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty), and they won't be bastardized, paired-down editions like on the Wii. That Nintendo successfully convinced companies like THQ and Activision to make versions of their top properties gives me hope that the Wii U will reverse its biggest weakness since the N64: proper, widespread third-party support.
Yeah, we probably won't get Bayonetta 2, Lego City: Undercover, or even Wii Fit U any time during 2012 (I'm totally serious about that last one). Despite their absence, the lineup still looks good, or at least good enough to get me through the interim time until I can slaughter fools with high-heel pumps made of my hair/trim a few pounds here and there. \
Truthfully, the Wii U launch line-up looks about as good as any set of day-one games I've seen so far. I mean, what are we comparing it to, the GameCube? Luigi's Mansion and Wave Race: Blue Storm. The Xbox 360? A bunch of Xbox ports--stuff you'd already own if you were already a fan of Microsoft's first console effort. You'd have to go as far back as the Dreamcast to find as quality a stable of launch games, and I'm not sure if you'd find any beyond that; Lord knows I could have used more than Super Dodgeball and Castlevania: Circle of Can't See Anything Because Of This Damn Screen when I scored my Game Boy Advance.
On November 18 (give or take, depending on Toys 'R' Us shipping), I'm planning on getting two games, along with Nintendo Land which comes boxed with the console: New Super Mario Bros. U and Darksiders II. One to affirm my love of Nintendo's home grown games, and one to prove that publishers can release high-profile third-party games on the Wii U and people will buy them. Also, catharsis; after watching all of the huge third-party games miss my GameCube in favor of the PS2 and Xbox, I will take great pleasure in buying a multi-console release on a Nintendo system.
Iconoclast game bloggers say “What”
Lock down your PC and hide your Cheetos, because World of Warcraft’s new expansion, Mists of Pandaria, finally released on Tuesday. Following not-at-all-hot on the heels of its previous expansion, Cataclysm, Mists of Pandaria enters a slightly more crowded MMO market of free-to-play games and viable alternatives like Guild Wars 2 and The Secret World, though I would be shocked if it moved less than seven figures during launch week. The ads and excitement have reached even me, console gamer extraordinaire, and I’m finally going to take the plunge into the exciting world of MMOs.
That’s right, I’m rolling a character in Rift.
Okay, I’m not totally trolling the Mists of Pandaria launch date—that’s only part of the equation. In truth, I’ve wanted to try Rift since I first heard about it last year. I like the idea of a competing franchise trying to beat WoW at its own Everquest-influenced game, and I’m pleased that Trion Worlds still has a successful following even a year later; not an easy feat with a subscription fee—just look at Star Wars: The Old Republic! Beyond Rift’s apparent level of polish, I think my inner rebellious ten-year-old likes playing games that are popular, but not necessarily the most popular; this is the same side that loves games-that-reviewed-well-but-still-are-still-obscure games you find at pawn shops. Rift reviewed well, but hasn’t hit the tipping point, and I’m attracted to that.
Here’s where you come in, dear readers. I’m profoundly inexperienced with MMOs; I’ve spent maybe an hour and a half raising a night elf back in 2008, but that’s about it. MMOs are vaunted for their deep worlds and open gameplay, and for the stories they inspire between friends around the watercooler. It’s this third one that I’m going to leverage during my time with Rift: I want to try to keep a diary of my experiences in Rift, following my learning about MMO conventions and providing me with a platform to look like a complete ass (we’ll see how long it takes me to learn my macros. Also, learn what “macro” means).
My desktop absolutely runs Rift, and I think my netbook might with some coaxing. Hopefully I won’t spend as much time on Rift per day as I did Kingdoms of Amalur, because that would be intensely counter-productive to my writing, chores, and basically everything that didn’t involve Rift. Time will tell, but I’m excited. See you in Telara!
That’s right, I’m rolling a character in Rift.
Okay, I’m not totally trolling the Mists of Pandaria launch date—that’s only part of the equation. In truth, I’ve wanted to try Rift since I first heard about it last year. I like the idea of a competing franchise trying to beat WoW at its own Everquest-influenced game, and I’m pleased that Trion Worlds still has a successful following even a year later; not an easy feat with a subscription fee—just look at Star Wars: The Old Republic! Beyond Rift’s apparent level of polish, I think my inner rebellious ten-year-old likes playing games that are popular, but not necessarily the most popular; this is the same side that loves games-that-reviewed-well-but-still-are-still-obscure games you find at pawn shops. Rift reviewed well, but hasn’t hit the tipping point, and I’m attracted to that.
Here’s where you come in, dear readers. I’m profoundly inexperienced with MMOs; I’ve spent maybe an hour and a half raising a night elf back in 2008, but that’s about it. MMOs are vaunted for their deep worlds and open gameplay, and for the stories they inspire between friends around the watercooler. It’s this third one that I’m going to leverage during my time with Rift: I want to try to keep a diary of my experiences in Rift, following my learning about MMO conventions and providing me with a platform to look like a complete ass (we’ll see how long it takes me to learn my macros. Also, learn what “macro” means).
My desktop absolutely runs Rift, and I think my netbook might with some coaxing. Hopefully I won’t spend as much time on Rift per day as I did Kingdoms of Amalur, because that would be intensely counter-productive to my writing, chores, and basically everything that didn’t involve Rift. Time will tell, but I’m excited. See you in Telara!
Thursday, September 27, 2012
In defense of physical media
One of the biggest rallying cries around my Twitter feed—made primarily up of gamers and game journalists, with the occasional Ellen Paige tweet thrown in to spice things up—is for the death of physical media. Movies, music, videogames, many on my feed are looking forward to the day when they can shuck off the need for collecting discs and can instead pipe everything in from the cloud. Perhaps listening to folks like the ones I follow on Twitter, Sony recently announced plans to release several big-name games digitally on the same day they hit store shelves, a bold move considering how much retailers like to keep their shelf space uncontested by the likes of digital media.
I'm pleased that Sony has decided to make digitally downloads an option for consumers who want it; more options are always better than less options. Still, I'm not sure if I'm ready to throw away my discs and go download-only.
For one thing, my internet connection simply couldn't support an all-digital future. I'm not sure if I should blame my router or my service provider, but I still need to buffer my YouTube videos on occasion. I'm going to repeat it again for emphasis: my YouTube videos. If I can't even pull up a cat video without my connection huffing and puffing to catch up, I'm certainly not going to be able to simply *get* an HD movie on a whim. In fact, I tried to rent an HD movie on my Apple TV one time: the service told me to come back in six hours. Not quite what I'd call convenient. That's not even bringing up bandwidth caps, a hassle I thankfully don't have to worry about, but can be an issue for folks in bigger cities where this sort of thing exists.
As convenient as it is to click and download a game or movie from the cloud, I prefer having actual discs, if for no other reason than they help me keep track of my collection. I'm an absent-minded guy, and if i don't have a physical reminder of what's in my collection, I tend to forget. I bought the first Mass Effect digitally on my Xbox 360, but I rarely played it because I seldom remembered that I actually owned it on my Xbox. This problem doesn't extend to games I download from Xbox Live Arcade (well, not always), and I'm sure it's a mental thing. Xbox Live Arcade games are generally smaller, less intense experiences, and feel fine staying in the My Games portion of the Dashboard. In fact, maybe that's why I balk at the idea of downloading full games to my Xbox: my expectations for retail and downloadable games are different, and bringing them together under the same umbrella feels weird. Maybe I'll get over it.
Aside from my peculiar memory issues and game expectations, I simply like having physical things. Packaging often factors in to my purchase decisions (like yesterday when I have a small emotional crisis because the disc of The Avengers I bought was a bright shade of gold instead of its regular blue), and I like the way my catalog of games and movies look on my shelves. I like collecting things, and being able to marvel at my spoils is its own reward.
There's also the matter of how I share my content. I like taking my movies with me when I go on trips; I even took a Blu-ray player to PAX so I could watch The Rescuers Down Under in my hotel room. I like loaning out games to my friends or borrowing them for a spell. Digital downloads make both of these impractical. It isn't like music downloads—the most obvious analog for what movies and games are trying to accomplish—where I have plenty of options to play my new Green Day album outside of a CD player (car adapters, portable speakers, etc.). If I digitally purchase Darksiders II for my Xbox 360, it's staying there, and if I want my friends want to borrow it, they're gonna have to take the whole damn console.
Not to say that digital downloads are always a bummer. I like being able to download PC games and play them without a disc, though this has to do with my expectations of using a PC; I don't have to insert a disc every time I want to use Microsoft Word or Skype, so requiring additional steps to play videogames feels weird. I've also been eying a download version of Rock Band 3 for my Xbox 360, which also has to deal with my expectations: Rock Band has always been more of a platform than an individual game, and I never feel like I "need" the disc since I've bought so many songs as DLC. Besides, plastic instruments are huge, and there's no way I'll forget I have those.
I hope more publishers will follow Sony's lead in releasing my games day-and-date with their retail counterparts. That said, I'm not about to cast my lot in a digital-only future just yet. Instead, I'd rather see a future where both digital and physical co-exist, giving consumers the best of both worlds.
I'm pleased that Sony has decided to make digitally downloads an option for consumers who want it; more options are always better than less options. Still, I'm not sure if I'm ready to throw away my discs and go download-only.
For one thing, my internet connection simply couldn't support an all-digital future. I'm not sure if I should blame my router or my service provider, but I still need to buffer my YouTube videos on occasion. I'm going to repeat it again for emphasis: my YouTube videos. If I can't even pull up a cat video without my connection huffing and puffing to catch up, I'm certainly not going to be able to simply *get* an HD movie on a whim. In fact, I tried to rent an HD movie on my Apple TV one time: the service told me to come back in six hours. Not quite what I'd call convenient. That's not even bringing up bandwidth caps, a hassle I thankfully don't have to worry about, but can be an issue for folks in bigger cities where this sort of thing exists.
As convenient as it is to click and download a game or movie from the cloud, I prefer having actual discs, if for no other reason than they help me keep track of my collection. I'm an absent-minded guy, and if i don't have a physical reminder of what's in my collection, I tend to forget. I bought the first Mass Effect digitally on my Xbox 360, but I rarely played it because I seldom remembered that I actually owned it on my Xbox. This problem doesn't extend to games I download from Xbox Live Arcade (well, not always), and I'm sure it's a mental thing. Xbox Live Arcade games are generally smaller, less intense experiences, and feel fine staying in the My Games portion of the Dashboard. In fact, maybe that's why I balk at the idea of downloading full games to my Xbox: my expectations for retail and downloadable games are different, and bringing them together under the same umbrella feels weird. Maybe I'll get over it.
Aside from my peculiar memory issues and game expectations, I simply like having physical things. Packaging often factors in to my purchase decisions (like yesterday when I have a small emotional crisis because the disc of The Avengers I bought was a bright shade of gold instead of its regular blue), and I like the way my catalog of games and movies look on my shelves. I like collecting things, and being able to marvel at my spoils is its own reward.
There's also the matter of how I share my content. I like taking my movies with me when I go on trips; I even took a Blu-ray player to PAX so I could watch The Rescuers Down Under in my hotel room. I like loaning out games to my friends or borrowing them for a spell. Digital downloads make both of these impractical. It isn't like music downloads—the most obvious analog for what movies and games are trying to accomplish—where I have plenty of options to play my new Green Day album outside of a CD player (car adapters, portable speakers, etc.). If I digitally purchase Darksiders II for my Xbox 360, it's staying there, and if I want my friends want to borrow it, they're gonna have to take the whole damn console.
Not to say that digital downloads are always a bummer. I like being able to download PC games and play them without a disc, though this has to do with my expectations of using a PC; I don't have to insert a disc every time I want to use Microsoft Word or Skype, so requiring additional steps to play videogames feels weird. I've also been eying a download version of Rock Band 3 for my Xbox 360, which also has to deal with my expectations: Rock Band has always been more of a platform than an individual game, and I never feel like I "need" the disc since I've bought so many songs as DLC. Besides, plastic instruments are huge, and there's no way I'll forget I have those.
I hope more publishers will follow Sony's lead in releasing my games day-and-date with their retail counterparts. That said, I'm not about to cast my lot in a digital-only future just yet. Instead, I'd rather see a future where both digital and physical co-exist, giving consumers the best of both worlds.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
PC gaming: Are we cool?
I am a console gamer, through and through. Gaming for me has always involved holding a minute piece of plastic in my hot little mitts and controlling the action on a television set. Rarely, if ever, do I spend time playing games on my PC, to the point where a keyboard not only frustrates me, but intimidates and scares me. Like one of those “Let’s see if he notices!” tests, where the host swaps the victim’s controller with one that has 47 buttons and requires a separate implement to work.
Which isn’t to say that I’ve never played any games on PC. Disregarding frivolous stuff like The Magic Schoolbus Activity Center, I’ve actually spent significant time with a few games for my desktop. My family never owned a computer I felt comfortable with running current games, but I managed to sneak in a few past their initial shelf life.
My first major PC game was Mech Warrior 2, which game with my mom’s Gateway that we bought in 1998. At the time, I kindled a love for a crappy Fox cartoon based on the Battletech franchise (called “Battletech,” because why the hell not), and I was amped up for some fast-paced action against Clan Jade Falcon. Fast. Right. As anyone who spent time with the Mech Warrior franchise can tell you, operating a mech often feels like driving a tank, or at least a fire engine, with nearly every button on the keyboard affecting the machine’s performance. Still, I played deliberately easy scenarios against the AI and had a fun time doing so.
I also picked up the StarCraft Battlechest for twenty dollars at some point, not realizing that I wasn’t too crazy about RTS games but figuring everyone had gone to bat for the game, so I might as well play it—the videogame equivalent of buying Green Day’s “American Idiot.” I am, and continue to be, absolutely awful at RTS games, but I was enamored by StarCraft’s lore and storyline; praise be to the guy who included such detailed backstory in the Prima strategy guides that came with the Chest. Wanted to see how the game progressed but without the need to fiddle-faddle with actually playing the game, I simply broke out an array of cheatcodes and facerolled through every encounter with at least 30 Siege Tanks. Bless those cheatcodes.
The final, and only, game I ever truly cut my teeth on was 2001’s Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. Prompted by Game Informer’s 9.75 review and knowing that Goldeneye taught me that I liked first-person shooters, I purchased MoHAA brand new, expecting a fun, exciting way to exterminate Nazis. I grossly underestimated it, and it’s right now that I’d like to remind readers that before Call of Duty, Jason West and Vince Zampella worked at 2015 for EA, and it’s in this game where we can see the Call of Duty penchant for tense scripted encounters and overwhelming the player. MoHAA is still one of the best shooters I’ve ever played, and I think it positively affected me as a gamer; it showed me how interactive game worlds could be, and their potential to harbor moments as intense as any movie.
Nowadays, though, I don’t feel the urge to fire up my PC for my gaming needs. I bought the previous Humble Indie Bundle, along with a few Steam curios, but I never quite feel comfortable with hopping in front of my computer to play videogames; it’s not the TV, dagnabbit! Call it bias or unfamiliarity, but I don’t identify myself as a PC gamer, and this likely has just as much to do with why I don’t touch PC games as it does my unfit-for-modern-gaming computer system.
There’s also the matter of the keyboard, and how it is resolutely not a controller. It’s not just unlearning where buttons are: it’s a whole different play mentality that happens when using a mouse and keyboard, one I am unused to. There is a wired Xbox 360 controller available on Amazon (and it will make Super Meat Boy waaayyyyy easier), but not all games support controllers, and I have a feeling it will be a while before I shuck my console-gaming sensibilities and take the platform for what it is.
There are a few PC games on the horizon that I do want to play, though. The PC-gaming world is going bananas over World of Warcraft’s new expansion, Mists of Pandaria, which drops today. Being the iconoclastic bugger that I am, I’m planning to try to play Rift during Pandaria’s first week, and I’m doing so for two reasons: 1) I have heard good things about Rift and I want to try to finally experience what it has to offer as a game, and 2) I am an ironic twit. I would also like to experiment with Torchlight II’s demo after hearing the praise heaped on Ruinic’s latest effort in the dungeon-runner genre. I’ve never had much interest in games that rely on pathfinding AI to handle my character (fifteen minutes of LoL solidified these impressions), but I’m willing to try again for the sake of a polished experience. Besides, I purchased and enjoyed the original Torchlight several years ago, and this new one runs on my netbook. Also, there’s that whole Diablo III thing that happened, and I want to play that other big, lauded dungeon-running game because 2).
If I want to review games, I need to at least be reasonably informed about trends across all of gaming, PC included. That doesn’t mean I have to spend all of my time there, but if I know what’s good for me, I’ll make more time for my computer in the near future. Now, let’s install some of these here drivers…
Which isn’t to say that I’ve never played any games on PC. Disregarding frivolous stuff like The Magic Schoolbus Activity Center, I’ve actually spent significant time with a few games for my desktop. My family never owned a computer I felt comfortable with running current games, but I managed to sneak in a few past their initial shelf life.
My first major PC game was Mech Warrior 2, which game with my mom’s Gateway that we bought in 1998. At the time, I kindled a love for a crappy Fox cartoon based on the Battletech franchise (called “Battletech,” because why the hell not), and I was amped up for some fast-paced action against Clan Jade Falcon. Fast. Right. As anyone who spent time with the Mech Warrior franchise can tell you, operating a mech often feels like driving a tank, or at least a fire engine, with nearly every button on the keyboard affecting the machine’s performance. Still, I played deliberately easy scenarios against the AI and had a fun time doing so.
I also picked up the StarCraft Battlechest for twenty dollars at some point, not realizing that I wasn’t too crazy about RTS games but figuring everyone had gone to bat for the game, so I might as well play it—the videogame equivalent of buying Green Day’s “American Idiot.” I am, and continue to be, absolutely awful at RTS games, but I was enamored by StarCraft’s lore and storyline; praise be to the guy who included such detailed backstory in the Prima strategy guides that came with the Chest. Wanted to see how the game progressed but without the need to fiddle-faddle with actually playing the game, I simply broke out an array of cheatcodes and facerolled through every encounter with at least 30 Siege Tanks. Bless those cheatcodes.
The final, and only, game I ever truly cut my teeth on was 2001’s Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. Prompted by Game Informer’s 9.75 review and knowing that Goldeneye taught me that I liked first-person shooters, I purchased MoHAA brand new, expecting a fun, exciting way to exterminate Nazis. I grossly underestimated it, and it’s right now that I’d like to remind readers that before Call of Duty, Jason West and Vince Zampella worked at 2015 for EA, and it’s in this game where we can see the Call of Duty penchant for tense scripted encounters and overwhelming the player. MoHAA is still one of the best shooters I’ve ever played, and I think it positively affected me as a gamer; it showed me how interactive game worlds could be, and their potential to harbor moments as intense as any movie.
Nowadays, though, I don’t feel the urge to fire up my PC for my gaming needs. I bought the previous Humble Indie Bundle, along with a few Steam curios, but I never quite feel comfortable with hopping in front of my computer to play videogames; it’s not the TV, dagnabbit! Call it bias or unfamiliarity, but I don’t identify myself as a PC gamer, and this likely has just as much to do with why I don’t touch PC games as it does my unfit-for-modern-gaming computer system.
There’s also the matter of the keyboard, and how it is resolutely not a controller. It’s not just unlearning where buttons are: it’s a whole different play mentality that happens when using a mouse and keyboard, one I am unused to. There is a wired Xbox 360 controller available on Amazon (and it will make Super Meat Boy waaayyyyy easier), but not all games support controllers, and I have a feeling it will be a while before I shuck my console-gaming sensibilities and take the platform for what it is.
There are a few PC games on the horizon that I do want to play, though. The PC-gaming world is going bananas over World of Warcraft’s new expansion, Mists of Pandaria, which drops today. Being the iconoclastic bugger that I am, I’m planning to try to play Rift during Pandaria’s first week, and I’m doing so for two reasons: 1) I have heard good things about Rift and I want to try to finally experience what it has to offer as a game, and 2) I am an ironic twit. I would also like to experiment with Torchlight II’s demo after hearing the praise heaped on Ruinic’s latest effort in the dungeon-runner genre. I’ve never had much interest in games that rely on pathfinding AI to handle my character (fifteen minutes of LoL solidified these impressions), but I’m willing to try again for the sake of a polished experience. Besides, I purchased and enjoyed the original Torchlight several years ago, and this new one runs on my netbook. Also, there’s that whole Diablo III thing that happened, and I want to play that other big, lauded dungeon-running game because 2).
If I want to review games, I need to at least be reasonably informed about trends across all of gaming, PC included. That doesn’t mean I have to spend all of my time there, but if I know what’s good for me, I’ll make more time for my computer in the near future. Now, let’s install some of these here drivers…
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Get hype: The Wii U is coming
The Wii U launches in less than two months, and I’m already getting hyped.
The gaming industry looks forward to console launches the way Saturday Night Live does election season. There’s always something big and brash coming from console-makers and fans alike, and everyone starts looking on with speculation about how this game might play.
The speculation! It’s magnificent; I’m of the opinion that it’s more fun to cover console-launch speculation than it is the actual console launch. So many what-if scenarios and so much imagination and bowled-over romanticism about what the future might bring! Console launches are the one time when gamers let their imaginations run wild with the possibilities of what the hardware can do. Granted, not many of these hypotheses or allegedly-plausible-ideas actually come to fruition—still, like Hemingway once wrote, isn’t it pretty to think so?
I’m particularly looking forward to the Wii U. As the first new home console launch since, well, the original Wii back on November 19, 2006, the Wii U puts me right back in the salad days of guesswork and sky-high expectations. It’s more than just the thrill of unknown hardware, though; this is Nintendo we’re talking about. There’s something about the launch of a new Nintendo console that fills 8-year-old Andrew with glee. New Mario! New Zelda! Maybe a new Metroid that doesn’t screw it up! It’s a bit partisan to think so, but I get the feeling that a new Nintendo console brings the promise of more, well, joy than a Microsoft or Sony console. With those companies, gaming is merely one branch in their corporate strategy. With Nintendo, it’s the whole damn tree, and that still feels special, even if it means they stiill do stuff that’s bat-guano loco.
Plus, the Wii U isn’t just a new Nintendo console. It’s a new Nintendo console that actually has games I want to play on it. I already passed on getting a Wii until, no joke, last month, and I’m not planning on getting the Wii U simply because Shigeru Miyamoto and Reggie Fils-Aime say that I should. The Wii U looks like something I would play regularly. I opted out of getting the Wii because I wanted to play videogames, something the front-loaded motion controls didn’t let me do in any way approaching what I was comfortable. Third parties didn’t want to make games for it, either, and the Wii’s under-powered hardware wouldn’t let devs translate their hot-ticket properties to the Wiimote and Nunchuk. The Wii U has Darksiders II, Batman: Arkham City, and Call of Duty: Black Ops II—that right there is more third-party love than Nintendo ever got last generation. Jason Schreier summed it up beautifully last Friday: “[Nintendo’s] not making the same mistakes with Wii U, and the system's launch lineup is proof of that.”
Yeah, yeah, touchscreen controller whatever. You know the part about the Wii U controller that has me the most excited? It has two analog sticks, four face buttons, and four shoulder buttons. Port city, chick, port- port city, chick.
The Wii U is a new console from Nintendo that actually feels worthy of the Nintendo legacy—the legacy of being the gold standard of living room entertainment. Nintendo has a few months to iron out the remaining uncertainties, like its online plans and what the hell a non-cable dude like me is going to do with TVii, but the baseline messages are clear: Nintendo is back, and it’s here to play videogames. Oh hell yes.
The gaming industry looks forward to console launches the way Saturday Night Live does election season. There’s always something big and brash coming from console-makers and fans alike, and everyone starts looking on with speculation about how this game might play.
The speculation! It’s magnificent; I’m of the opinion that it’s more fun to cover console-launch speculation than it is the actual console launch. So many what-if scenarios and so much imagination and bowled-over romanticism about what the future might bring! Console launches are the one time when gamers let their imaginations run wild with the possibilities of what the hardware can do. Granted, not many of these hypotheses or allegedly-plausible-ideas actually come to fruition—still, like Hemingway once wrote, isn’t it pretty to think so?
I’m particularly looking forward to the Wii U. As the first new home console launch since, well, the original Wii back on November 19, 2006, the Wii U puts me right back in the salad days of guesswork and sky-high expectations. It’s more than just the thrill of unknown hardware, though; this is Nintendo we’re talking about. There’s something about the launch of a new Nintendo console that fills 8-year-old Andrew with glee. New Mario! New Zelda! Maybe a new Metroid that doesn’t screw it up! It’s a bit partisan to think so, but I get the feeling that a new Nintendo console brings the promise of more, well, joy than a Microsoft or Sony console. With those companies, gaming is merely one branch in their corporate strategy. With Nintendo, it’s the whole damn tree, and that still feels special, even if it means they stiill do stuff that’s bat-guano loco.
Plus, the Wii U isn’t just a new Nintendo console. It’s a new Nintendo console that actually has games I want to play on it. I already passed on getting a Wii until, no joke, last month, and I’m not planning on getting the Wii U simply because Shigeru Miyamoto and Reggie Fils-Aime say that I should. The Wii U looks like something I would play regularly. I opted out of getting the Wii because I wanted to play videogames, something the front-loaded motion controls didn’t let me do in any way approaching what I was comfortable. Third parties didn’t want to make games for it, either, and the Wii’s under-powered hardware wouldn’t let devs translate their hot-ticket properties to the Wiimote and Nunchuk. The Wii U has Darksiders II, Batman: Arkham City, and Call of Duty: Black Ops II—that right there is more third-party love than Nintendo ever got last generation. Jason Schreier summed it up beautifully last Friday: “[Nintendo’s] not making the same mistakes with Wii U, and the system's launch lineup is proof of that.”
Yeah, yeah, touchscreen controller whatever. You know the part about the Wii U controller that has me the most excited? It has two analog sticks, four face buttons, and four shoulder buttons. Port city, chick, port- port city, chick.
The Wii U is a new console from Nintendo that actually feels worthy of the Nintendo legacy—the legacy of being the gold standard of living room entertainment. Nintendo has a few months to iron out the remaining uncertainties, like its online plans and what the hell a non-cable dude like me is going to do with TVii, but the baseline messages are clear: Nintendo is back, and it’s here to play videogames. Oh hell yes.
Title Screen post
Last year, I started a gaming blog on Wordpress using my own name as the URL; if I’m going to work toward being a gaming journalist, after all, I need to be comfortable presenting my work, and having my clips attached to a site named after myself looks way better than having them interspersed between musings about Lady and the Tramp and how much I like Ke$ha. So was born I Am A Parade, the game-writing site for Andrew Testerman’s important clips with which he would use to woo headhunters and, frankly, anyone who has his business card forced amiably into their hot hands.
Because of my well-known neuroses about doing things successfully—neuroses that prevent me from playing any Grand Theft Auto or Bethesda game to completion—I don’t feel comfortable with posting to that site unless I’m absotively posilute that it’s the best thing ever published on the internet ever. That sort of expectation doesn’t lend itself to timely posts or even writing at all, so like copy making another copy, I’m branching off with another blog.
This time, I intend to take it back to my roots, by which I mean I’ll write under the assumption that no one will read it. This site exists strictly so that I can get in the habit of writing and publishing every day. I want to use it as a repository for jotting thoughts about games down as quickly as possible before I push it out into the scary, unforgiving world of the internet. Fortunately, no one can mock you if no one’s around, hence the lack of advertisement, links, or any of that junk. I’ll probably add it to my blogroll on Diversion 2.0 proper, but considering how often I actually post to that blog, I think I’ll be alright.
I’m hammering on this blog’s content a bit, so let me back up. In addition to working an awful lot (one full-time and one part-time, if I must brag), I also try to play games and write about other stuff, so I don’t have very many windows to sit down and churn out a fully-formed post about the day’s news or my thoughts on why the Game Boy Advance is one of my most important consoles or any of that nonsense—no time for editing, at least to the extent that I would wish (i.e. it could go up on Polygon right now). Therefore, I’m planning for this blog’s content to be mostly shot from the hip, writing the words that occur to me as they occur to me with as few pauses for self-defeating deliberation as possible. Not that all self-defeating deliberation is problematic—I will try to quickly proofread entries before they go out—but I’m trying not to let my perfectionistic tendencies get in the way of acting in a way that will help my career, by which I mean writing any GD thing at all.
Incidentally, this means I’m probably not going to put many pictures outside of a header post, if that at all. I know how to code. I graduated with a degree in Computer Information Systems. I’ll need to learn how to lay out complex images and formats and who knows what else, but I have the skillset to do that when the time comes. Right now, I need to build my writing skillset. Allocate them attribute points. Et cetera.
Careful planning is tantamount to success as a writer, especially since now is a more rewarding time than ever to write long form pieces, and perhaps my views will change going forward, but I need to get in the habit of churning out fully-formed thoughts on the fly. This urge comes from having no idea at all about how actual game journalists do their job; having never worked with any, I erroneously assume that they sit down and bang it all out in one sitting before another editor helps them correct some of the little bits that fell out of place. I have no editors to work with. I need to learn how to form thoughts in a quick, timely manner and make them publish-worthy in the same span of time. Writing in this rapid-fire manner will, hopefully, build good writing habits: formulating my opinion expediently, learning which thoughts to pursue, and slowly recognizing the strong/weak bits in my writing without having to spend time pouring over my piece looking for them.
These pieces won’t be perfect, and I’m sure my initial few months will be kinda rough. As I continue to write, though, I’m confident that my off-the-cuff pieces will improve in quality. Think of it like grinding for experience. My writing level is pretty low right now, but cranking out these small pieces will eventually raise my level and make my work stronger. That’s what I’m telling myself, anyway, and it sound pretty good right now.
And anyway, no one’s reading, remember?! I can train and work in piece without being subject to public scrutiny, or at least not very much. If you did happen to stumble across this blog and would like to stay on in spite of my unpolished pieces, you have my gratitude. I’m pretty sure this will be better sometime next April when I have a swing going, but you’re welcome to stick around, though I have a feeling you’ll appreciate everything here more as a piece of performance-art rather than actual writing.
Anyway, Diversion 2.0 Games, or Andrew Wants To Write At The Level Of Tim Brayton Training Grounds. Expect little bits trickling out every day. Wish me luck. Love you all.
Because of my well-known neuroses about doing things successfully—neuroses that prevent me from playing any Grand Theft Auto or Bethesda game to completion—I don’t feel comfortable with posting to that site unless I’m absotively posilute that it’s the best thing ever published on the internet ever. That sort of expectation doesn’t lend itself to timely posts or even writing at all, so like copy making another copy, I’m branching off with another blog.
This time, I intend to take it back to my roots, by which I mean I’ll write under the assumption that no one will read it. This site exists strictly so that I can get in the habit of writing and publishing every day. I want to use it as a repository for jotting thoughts about games down as quickly as possible before I push it out into the scary, unforgiving world of the internet. Fortunately, no one can mock you if no one’s around, hence the lack of advertisement, links, or any of that junk. I’ll probably add it to my blogroll on Diversion 2.0 proper, but considering how often I actually post to that blog, I think I’ll be alright.
I’m hammering on this blog’s content a bit, so let me back up. In addition to working an awful lot (one full-time and one part-time, if I must brag), I also try to play games and write about other stuff, so I don’t have very many windows to sit down and churn out a fully-formed post about the day’s news or my thoughts on why the Game Boy Advance is one of my most important consoles or any of that nonsense—no time for editing, at least to the extent that I would wish (i.e. it could go up on Polygon right now). Therefore, I’m planning for this blog’s content to be mostly shot from the hip, writing the words that occur to me as they occur to me with as few pauses for self-defeating deliberation as possible. Not that all self-defeating deliberation is problematic—I will try to quickly proofread entries before they go out—but I’m trying not to let my perfectionistic tendencies get in the way of acting in a way that will help my career, by which I mean writing any GD thing at all.
Incidentally, this means I’m probably not going to put many pictures outside of a header post, if that at all. I know how to code. I graduated with a degree in Computer Information Systems. I’ll need to learn how to lay out complex images and formats and who knows what else, but I have the skillset to do that when the time comes. Right now, I need to build my writing skillset. Allocate them attribute points. Et cetera.
Careful planning is tantamount to success as a writer, especially since now is a more rewarding time than ever to write long form pieces, and perhaps my views will change going forward, but I need to get in the habit of churning out fully-formed thoughts on the fly. This urge comes from having no idea at all about how actual game journalists do their job; having never worked with any, I erroneously assume that they sit down and bang it all out in one sitting before another editor helps them correct some of the little bits that fell out of place. I have no editors to work with. I need to learn how to form thoughts in a quick, timely manner and make them publish-worthy in the same span of time. Writing in this rapid-fire manner will, hopefully, build good writing habits: formulating my opinion expediently, learning which thoughts to pursue, and slowly recognizing the strong/weak bits in my writing without having to spend time pouring over my piece looking for them.
These pieces won’t be perfect, and I’m sure my initial few months will be kinda rough. As I continue to write, though, I’m confident that my off-the-cuff pieces will improve in quality. Think of it like grinding for experience. My writing level is pretty low right now, but cranking out these small pieces will eventually raise my level and make my work stronger. That’s what I’m telling myself, anyway, and it sound pretty good right now.
And anyway, no one’s reading, remember?! I can train and work in piece without being subject to public scrutiny, or at least not very much. If you did happen to stumble across this blog and would like to stay on in spite of my unpolished pieces, you have my gratitude. I’m pretty sure this will be better sometime next April when I have a swing going, but you’re welcome to stick around, though I have a feeling you’ll appreciate everything here more as a piece of performance-art rather than actual writing.
Anyway, Diversion 2.0 Games, or Andrew Wants To Write At The Level Of Tim Brayton Training Grounds. Expect little bits trickling out every day. Wish me luck. Love you all.
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