Category: Video Game

Dragon Age 2 – Linear Plot 101

Published October 7, 2011 by Leprekawn

This commentary is full of spoilers. Play the game first, or keep reading – you’ve been warned.

As a chapter in the grand saga that is Dragon Age, part 2 is a solid game and a fine example of linear plot design. They all but telegraph the problems in this city in the first 10 minutes. Mages vs Templars.

Now, don’t get me wrong.. the Mages are dangerous. They can easily be corrupted by creatures from the Fade (this worlds version of an astral plane). And when corrupted, they’re not some cloth wearing sissy with fireball. No, now they’re daemonic badasses who take a fair effort to kill.

Don’t worry though, they don’t change at whim, it’s purely by plot which of the mages turn ugly and which of them continue to hurl fiery doom.

And then of course there’s Knight-Commander Meredith who you’re told is running her operation of rooting out renegade mages like a military campaign. So you don’t actually reach this conclusion until Act 3 and sadly, there’s no way out. No matter how much you want to deviate from the main plot. I tried.

It’s sorta sad really, how many excellent story bits they weave into the side quests and the companion elements and yet you have two choices when it comes to the final act. I’d really have liked to see you and your romantic interest walk off into the sunset. “Good luck suckers, enjoy your power struggle.”

Worth noting that few choices you make in the early game impact your late game exploits. I neglected to pursue Fenris’ Companion Quests and so I do his Act 3 quests.

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Rage – The Game I’ll Never Play

Published October 5, 2011 by Leprekawn

I will never play Rage. I do not want to. I have no desire, not even a modicum of interest. My exposure ends at 20 minutes of playthrough from Youtube. TheRadBrad provides an amusing experience, but sadly I must pass on this venture.

I will never buy this game. Not from discount bin, nor from Greatest Hits Collection.

Thank you ID. It was fun while it lasted. But thank you for providing Gearbox some excellent pointers on what not to do.

We shall all learn from your mistake.

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The Roaring Thunder – A Space Marine perspective

Published September 8, 2011 by Leprekawn

I’m a fan of the genre. First Person Shooters, that is. I don’t play them all of course, that would be crazy. But like fans of cars, they don’t drive them all but they appreciate the technology and labor of love in each one.

So it is with FPS games I feel. Since launch I’ve been devouring the thunderous glee in it’s elegantly decorated spaces. Everything I read about the world, all the lore and information and characters I’d come to know from study painted me a picture I can now see in this game.

You play as a named marine, one man of three leading your Brothers across a ruined and wartorn Forgeworld. That is, a planet that builds things. Large things, small things. All it does is build, it’s population the builders. Among these ruins you shoot orks, greenskins, Xenos. And you shoot a lot of them. Unless… yes, unless you prefer the weapon always and easily at your disposal. I right-click and it swings, I keep clicking and a path of blood is painted before me, my enemy cut down.

I lost myself in the first chapter. I cut nearly everything. It was the obligatory map segments where snipers took shots that I deviated and pulled out my own powerful gun. And it boomed. Bolter-fire is a glorious thing. The characters are modeled well, the animations are superb. The colours are as I would imagine them to be. Nothing about this makes me utter a negative word.

Though.. at one point I did look up. I’m -sorry- it was quiet and I got distracted. The sky was a simple matte painting of some swashed colours. I could have asked for a bit more, but with so much of your action happening within tall walls and narrow passages, i’m not surprised they cut that corner. I think I would have too.

The story campaign is brief, as is expected. It’s a brutal violent game that rewards violence with more violence. When all is said and done the campaign takes something in the order of 8 hours to complete. I’m comfortable with that, most FPS games deliver a solid multiplayer to balance a light single-player and Space Marine delivers.

Supposedly in October there’ll be a co-op “You against the horde” option. I’m eagerly awaiting it, nothing makes a game more fun than a few good friends. For now, it’s me, this bolter and an excellently engineered multiplayer.

http://www.spacemarine.com/

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Into the Darkness: A Minecraft commentary

Published September 6, 2011 by Leprekawn

I’m an adventurer at heart. A seeker of hidden glories, of lost temples. And so I plundered the depths not once, not twice but seven or eight times since picking up Minecraft a year ago. I’m not a builder, but I respect their ilk. I’m not a designer, but I salute them. I’m a searcher, a finder and explorer. When what’s beneath the surface loses my interest, I rove the lands seeking new inlets to the subterranean wonders.

Minecraft is a simple game of block’s, crafting and mining. A game made more enjoyable when you play with others.

And so it happened, on Thursday evening as I fired up MC for a little dig and build. My gf’s brother asked about it and seemed interested and so I let him have it. Guiding his hand and instructing him on the tenets of Minecraft.

1) Never dig straight up

2) Never dig straight down

While this is happening something changed in my gf. Once of the “Trees don’t fall, that’s stupid, I’ll never play” faction, she defected to “I wanna play too” team and soon joined us as we all three sat around playing MC for several hours. It didn’t take long for me to find the server code and start a multiplayer game.

And so our first night was spent running from monsters and waiting for the morning. The second night was much more productive.

In this experience I learned two important rules.

1) All things are more fun with people.

2) Creepers still suck.

And with that I leave you to ponder my words and perhaps explore a little mining of your own.

www.minecraft.net

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Time

Published July 6, 2011 by Leprekawn

It is our enemy, our foe. It confounds us and challenges us at every turn. We have too much, too little and that’s usually too often.

Time features in a number of games as a key element. But less in a traditional “30 seconds to complete your turn speed-chess” style and more in a serious Story Key Element. To this end, I present three contenders for Time notation.

Braid

Half-Minute Hero

No Time to Explain

Our first contender, Braid, I haven’t played. But I’ve spoken at length with a friend who has, a man whom I’m recruiting to bring his perspective and understanding of television and movie to our walls. More on that later.

Braid uses time as a storytelling piece, suggesting a layout of linear ideas that may not be exactly what you just witnessed and. It lets you save and reload sequences of time while actions occur around you, timing exactly when you fall through those clouds for instance. I’ve heard numerous good things about this game from various sources.

http://www.braid-game.com/

Half-Minute Hero is a twist in a different direction. Taking the style of many 16-bit adventure games from days of yore, we see time not as a storytelling tool but as a villainous foe we can only hope to negotiate with. You have to quest about the land, earn exp and items on your quest. You can reset this 30-second clock at shrines, but this will cost you precious gold which you’ll need to better gear yourself. There’s various flavors of this style, in one you’re the princess with her cadre of guards, another the Evil Mage setting yourself for victory. Of this, I have heard very little, but i’m keenly interested to try.

http://www.halfminutehero.com/

No Time to Explain is a tongue-in-cheak dash at flash gaming. A venue i’m loathe to enter, but one that i do enjoy on occasion. The game starts itself as your future self shows up, jumpsuit and blaster equipped “There’s no Time to Explain!” before being grabbed by a space-alien sized Crab which then parades across a difficult map that challenges your timing and skill. And then, it happens all over again, but better. A funny game, I recommend at least 10 or 20 minutes of your time to see it in action.

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/558562

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Gratuitous Space Battles

Published July 4, 2011 by Leprekawn

Now, if you read my post on Solar 2 you might suspect I like space games. GSB is something of a game. But think of it as a higher-level strategy game. You assemble fleets, set their orders and details and then let ’em go. See how the die rolls in a manner of speaking.

It neatly snips out the boring infrastructural development and design, none of the warm-up til you can build your colonizers or those next best lasers. Each mission grades you on success and how much you cleared it by. Manage to minimize your cost and claim victory – More points! Those points translate into additional ship hulls to outfit, different laser types or stronger shields.

Don’t buy through steam unless they’re offering a sweet deal. This is a game that gives you all but one DLC for $25.

Something I’m appreciating in small-budget games and independent developments is load speed. And this is one of those games that comes up and goes down quickly, none of this 10 min setup you see in games like Civilization or <shudder> ModNation Racers.

http://www.positech.co.uk/gratuitousspacebattles/

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Solar 2

Published July 3, 2011 by Leprekawn

Damn. I hurtle through space, colliding with rocks twisting in the darkness, my size expands I grow to become an orb holding people. Civilizations develop and defend me as I gather momentum. I explode into a fiery orbital power as my previous brothers and sisters fall into my grasp. Alliances develop and organize, my defense is their only concern as they construct vessels and attack those who fall beyond my gravitational grasp. As time passes, I swallow those around me and collapse into the Great Darkness and begin swallowing the Universe.

Solar 2 is a game where you start small as a boring rock and hurtle through space until you become a planet. There are missions, slightly different at each level, Asteroid > Planet > Star. As a Black Hole you have no great options other than avoid stronger Singularities. This is a Sand Box game, where you don’t have to do the missions, the achievements are spread around the missions themselves and how you move around. For instance, there’s one for gathering 15 asteroids as a planet. Harder than you’ think.

I like Sand Box games as they allow a pursuit of ideas and structures without forcing me into a linear quest and story. Thanks, but what if I dislike the King and hate the Kingdom? It’s rather beautiful in it’s simplicity.

http://murudai.com/solar/

PS – Free Wallpapers and Soundtracks

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The Search for Squire, Part 4 – A goblin interlude

Published April 11, 2011 by Leprekawn

I hired help. I had grown weary of my search, the far corners of Creation held no clue as to his whereabouts. Only through a tenuous link to his being was I certain he remained living.

In Orgrimmar I crossed paths with a goblin keen to offer me any number of questionable services. I declined all of them save one. I parted ways with fifty gold and magically imparted a description of Squire to my hireling.

While the goblin, Soosh or Sush I cannot recall, left on my imparted Quest, I retired to one of the newer drinking establishments.

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The Search for Squire, Part 3

Published March 24, 2011 by Leprekawn

Feralas, while pretty, was a bust. I moved onward. North into Desolace. I didn’t stop there, a cursory glance from the air told me everything I needed to know. Squire wouldn’t have come here, the grey sandy plain hid no secrets and certainly offered no adventure to a small orc boy such as Squire.

North of Desolace lay Night Elf territory. Alliance dogs prowled the forests and mountains ever vigilant. A territory I didn’t care to visit. I invoked the magicks necessary and removed myself to the Swamp of Sorrows. Days passed as I drank myself into a stupor while I considered the options.

A passing goblin merchant mentioned seeing an orc boy wandering north, beyond the Badlands. So I took to carpet and rode north. Over the swamp’s thick miasma and creeping foliage. On the coastline, at the edge of the swamp I passed Bogpaddle. A goblin ‘village’ teeming with business and activity. On the shoreline just outside town I spied a party. Mental note was made to visit this venue once i’d found Squire. He always was one for a good party.

North into Badlands, along the mountainous cliffs that faced the sea, I rode. Wind whipped my face and lashed my body, chastising me for my search. My thoughts darkened with the weather and I fought to remain focused before the oncoming melancholy I was feeling.

I rode north along the coastline. I didn’t need to venture inland to the Badlands. If I thought Squire wasn’t in Desolance for it’s barrenness, then I could be assured he wasn’t in the Badlands. A dry bowl-shaped valley teeming with hostile wildlife and ogres. Kargath was the only refuge to one such as myself and Squire was smart enough to know better than venturing someplace so dangerous.

So I rode North, into the Hinterlands..

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The Search for Squire, Part 2

Published March 24, 2011 by Leprekawn

I wandered amongst Feralas for some time. I was quite drunk on Cherry Grog so it’s difficult to say just how long. Days.. hours. Time itself blurred in front of me as though I were moving abnormally quickly through a painfully slowed world.

In that time I searched high and low. I’d given up my search, but not until after visiting the Ogre’s who call Dire Maul their home. Their leader, an understanding gentleman, suggested that he had seen no mention of a ‘small orc boy named Squire’. I made sure to describe his delicate hands and his immaculate appearance, the manner in which he bravely takes down my dictation.

“Nope. No see orc boy. Plenty orc. Kill few.”

I thanked the Ogre King, shared some of my Cherry Grog. We commented on it’s rich flavor for some time before I succumbed to the booze.

Hours or days.. I cannot tell. I awoke and resumed my search. It was apparent Squire wasn’t in Feralas. I know for a fact that Squire is terrified of Ogres and most things bigger than him and he has hay-fever. Feralas was teeming with plants and animals far bigger than even myself and not one of them being hypo-allergenic.

No, Feralas was a bust. I moved on.

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