Spread the Love: Sequelitis

Sequelitis is an animated video series that compares and analyzes game sequels from Egoraptor, the brilliant mind that brought you The Awesome Series. There are only a handful of episodes, but they are all extremely well thought out, insightful and absolutely hilarious. Being an animator and voice actor by trade, he really imparts his hilarious and ‘awesome’ style into these videos, but does so without sacrificing an intelligent conversation about game design.

They are lengthy as far as YouTube game reviews go, and for future reference VERY NSFW, but with only a few episodes and such fantastic content they are all worth watching; Worth watching many, many, many and many more times. They are so much more than game reviews, and so much more than just funny videos about games. I still to this day have yet to find another video series that balances insight and entertainment as perfectly as Sequelitis.

This episode features one of my personal all-time favorite games: Mega Man X, the first reimagining of the aging Mega Man series for the NES. It’s a great game, that’s a reimagining of a great series that created another great series that still holds a special place in my heart. Just watch it, watch the other one, bust out the SNES and destroy some Maser Robots!

Game of the Month Review: Dark Souls

For the first time in my 23 years, July has come to has come to a close without my brain being plagued with the dreadful thoughts of summer’s end. With no more distinct school start date, and the onset of a new job it’s a bittersweet feeling. But, as is my way, with the ever-changing stream of life, I take solace in the constant that is video games. Today, I bring you the first of many ‘game of the month’ reviews.

This past month, I have had the distinct pleasure of playing Dark Souls for the Xbox 360. To say the least, this game is a complete breath of fresh air in the rotting sea of cookie-cutter third-person action titles and desaturated shooters. Everything about this game is extremely well thought out and it shows. It’s beautifully dark visuals and somber dramatic tone actually suits the subject matter very well. In a universe of Nazi Zombies, Lollipop Chainsaw and Dead Rising, it is a really nice change to see a game about the undead actually feels like a game about the undead. The levels are mostly linear, with some optional side paths that always manage to reward the player, and still eventually lead them back to a familiar location. Often times these side areas are so cleverly designed that as soon as you get the worrisome feeling that you should turn back, you end up right back on track. Now you might not be the kind of person that worries too much about what’s just ahead, but I promise you in this game you will.

Simply put, this game is Hard.  Not broken hard, or poorly designed hard or even bad hard, it’s just hard. 100% Pure Well-Designed Punishing Challenge from Concentrate. This game does not hold your hand. This game does not have a long-ass tutorial. This game throws you in the mix with little more information than “you’re a dead dude who needs to get out of prison, figure the rest out for yourself.” And contrary to what many games would have you believe with their hand-holding worthy of a Beatles anthem, it is actually a considerably better game for it.  The challenge is both fair, with many deaths being completely the fault of your lack of observation or patience, and extremely rewarding.  There are checkpoints to your progress that allow you to heal to full health, save, restore health recovery items but they are few and far between.  These also have the happy-fun-time mechanic of respawning ALL OF THE ENEMIES in the area. A mechanic like this is not unique to this game, but because of just how challenging combating some of even the most basic of enemies can be, this creates a happy medium between a grind and interesting new combat situations that I have never seen done as well in the past. These elements of challenge really incite the feeling of games of generations past. The rewarding and at times repetitive levels of extreme challenge brought my mind back to the bygone days of the Nintendo. The feeling of the game really shares almost as much with the classic Ninja Gaiden and Castlevania games as it does with modern third-person ‘hack and slash’ titles.

The combat itself is extremely well done in almost all regards. Its pace is quite slow in comparison to other games of the third person action genre, and yet it still just feels right.  When your character is armed to the teeth and covered head to toe in heavy metal plate mail, you really shouldn’t be able to run indefinitely, jump around enemies and summersault your way to victory. Subsequently, in Dark Souls you can’t. Upon my first play, I picked the Knight class thinking that it would be beneficial to choose a heavily armored class due to the game reputation of punishing difficulty. Little did I know at the time, that this would essentially gimp my mobility for the abundance of the game, leading to having unwanted access to the ability cleverly titled by the players as “The Fat Roll”. The sword swinging and blocking that the combat is based around is just the right level of challenge, and patience is often rewarded.  The part that makes it so unique is that you can fight the same enemies many times and it can still be challenging, interesting and you can still fail. If you stopped and repeated an area several times to grind out some souls (the currency for purchasing items, but also for gaining character levels), it would not be a big surprise to fight the same group of enemies and have them act completely different. Sometimes you get rushed, sometimes they jump at you, sometimes they put up their shields and strafe around trying to flank or double team you. I realize that what I'm about to say sounds terrible, but I had actually died to a single basic zombie with a sword that I had killed 100 times before just because I got cocky and tried to impatiently fight through a part and not concentrate. There is a reason why the upcoming PC release is called the “Prepare to Die Edition.”

The pinnacle of the combat system is shown in the unique challenges that are the boss battles.  While the basic target, block and attack equation that is the core of the combat system is still there, boss fights still find a way to keep it interesting. The boss battles themselves often come off as impossibly challenging, but that is often just due to the hectic nature of the situations themselves. Oftentimes you stumble upon a boss completely unprepared creating a fear for your wellbeing, both in and out of the game. It creates a perfect storm of tension and chaos, when your feelings of fear and uncertainty are met with the brilliantly tense boss music. There was never a time I came to a boss fight and immediately knew exactly what to do and just beat it, and I think that is a positive. Games are famous for having the big glowing eye, the crack in the armor or the weak spot on their back that is pretty much just a big sign that says “Insert new item here.” And I liked that I had to spend a couple tries just figuring out all of the bosses attacks and patterns. This allowed me to actually think, strategize and try new ideas of my own design (a novel concept in modern games I know!). While my praise for the Dark Souls experience is almost unending, there were just a handful of things about this game worthy of criticism. 

The story in this game is mediocre at best. I really enjoy story-driven games with good gameplay, but this game was not one of them. This is the only way in which I feel the lack of handholding worked against the game. You are given very little information, most of what you learn as you go is given to you from NPCs that only speak a few lines, and it really gives the game a lack of direction and characterization that would completely kill a title with less exquisite gameplay.   Around the 30 hour mark when I headed out to gamefaqs by my own will, I really had no reference point as to where I was in the story progression of the game, because as far as I could tell there really wasn’t one. The entire extent of the game I felt compelled to keep playing because I loved everything I had played so far, and I wanted to play more.  This really gave the game a feeling of exploration more so than actual progression. Exploration as a mechanic is great in its own right, but the complete lack of direction and near lack of any means of a story really did turn me off from this game a bit.

My only other complaint is really much more personal. The game is pretty dark throughout the whole experience, and rightly so, but when combined with some of the game’s other level design habits, it can lead to some very frustrating ends. This game is riddled with cliffs, platforms and other arenas surrounded by bottomless pits and no walls. One of most frustrating parts of this game is missing an attack or roll just to fall to your death at a completely safe location and have to fight your way back. This is especially so in the “Darkroot Garden” area of the game, or as I liked to call it “Prison for the Visually Impaired.” This area is a dark green wooded area that is permanently night time. Saying it was dark and hard to see is the understatement of the century. This part of the game is like playing Silent Hill on a plasma TV with a burnt out backlight, with the lights off, in a basement, at night, in a coal mine, in a black hole kind of dark, made especially worse by the choice of dark earth tones that made the game nearly unplayable for someone as colorblind as myself. I nearly quit the game at this particular part, after getting my ass whooped by dark green tree monsters that pop out of the dark green ground in the darkness and then after barely surviving, just nonchalantly fell to my death.  I would often be causally walking and just fall right off a cliff because I couldn’t tell the difference in colors. I am so happy I was playing this part of the game without an audience, because I died an embarrassing amount of times to walking off what I would imagine are rather blatant moss-covered cliff edges to anyone with a normal level of cones in their eyes. Ultimately I got through it, but not without the assistance of the internet and turning the brightness of the game to almost the max, but man did it suck.

Ultimately, I feel like I shouldn’t say anything more other than this game is amazing, and you should make a point to play it. If you don’t have the patience for the slower combat style, this game can be frustrating, but think of the combat being as much about strategy as it is about action. While it may not be perfect, and it may not be for everyone, I think that Dark Souls is a must-play for the true game lover.

I'm Done with Diablo III, and I'm Not Mad About It.

That’s right, I said it. Diablo 3 really is a great game, I've put over 100 hours into it, and now I’m done with it, and I’m not mad about it. The first 72 hours of this game after launch, playing co-op with my friends almost non-stop, having new experiences and getting extremely nostalgic was, to this day one of the best experiences I've had with ANY video game. But, when a game is the follow-up to such a fan favorite, and comes from such a prestigious company, a lot is expected. And in a lot of ways Diablo 3 lived up to the hype. Diablo 3 is an absolutely fantastic game. It’s graphically beautiful, literally years were poured into this game’s aesthetic and it shows. Every room you enter is like walking into a painting. I spent hours of extra time in this game just walking around experiencing what the game had to offer. In every room I explored off the beaten path, I discovered not only the typical monsters and loot, but also a new piece of artwork to spray zombified guts all over! An on the topic of said guts-spraying, the combat and gameplay itself is the spell spamming, undead undoing, creature crushing action that you fell in love with in titles past. The basic concept of click ability A onto monster B, rinse and repeat until all the monsters are dead is still the core of the game. If anything the changes to the skill system and loot drops only improved that. Gone are the days of tiered skill trees, and per-level skill points. Replacing it are skills, modifiable via another similar in game system, that you gain access to over time as you level up. Similarly, the per-level attribute points were removed in this iteration, making the lives of casuals and Min/Maxers alike a little simpler.  Not having to worry about math equations and what is the ‘right decision’ every few minutes felt good, and changed the game overall for the better.

That being said, this game is not flawless, far from it in fact. When a game has had so much hype behind it, and so many people expecting so much there was no way they could have made a game that truly lived up to all of the hype.  No matter what was changed or kept the same from the past titles, someone was upset. If you change it too much, people will complain that it “isn’t Diablo.” If you only make a few changes and update the graphics, the fans will leave their gaming experiences wanting more, and wanting to know why they just paid $60 to play the same game they’ve been playing for 10 years already. So, if it’s such a great game, and I played Diablo II for so many hours over so many years, why did I stop?  I think I’ve narrowed it down to three main reasons: Inferno Difficulty Implementation, The Auction House Mechanic, and the lack of a Ladder system.

Inferno Difficulty
When it was announced that there was an extra difficulty to be added after Hell in D3, I was nothing but excited.  I often find games that are too easy, or completely the opposite, so challenging that the time to reward ratio is completely unfavorable.  My faith in Blizzard led me to believe that it would be what equates to a proper hard-mode that only the most skilled of players would be able to navigate.  Then I got there, and much to my chagrin it was not that way at all.  It was implemented it a way where the difficulty was all over the place, which really threw off the pace of the game. I came into inferno and everything was just as I expected it, and it was good. It was a lot like hell but I enemies were more challenging and I had to change my strategy accordingly.  And then I got to a champion pack with 4 affixes, I remember the first group I found: Mortar, Waller, Vampuric, Fast.  And this is where the difficulty curve hit a brick wall. Even with the ability to change up my abilities, runes and equipment to suit the battle on the fly (which is very much discouraged by the nephelem valor buff mechanic), there was literally NOTHING I could have done to make this a fair fight. So, I was left with essentially three options, none of which creating anything that resembles compelling gameplay.  I could run past them, further into the area and hope that they stop pursuing me and just hope that I don’t die and have to run past them again. I could chip away at their life bars slowly by kiting them in circles until I died, and then doing it again and again until they died. This would of course, also take lots of time and money in repair costs. Or I could go back to hell difficulty and grind act 4 repeatedly to get better equipment; an act of the game that is the perfect combination of being too short, feeling too long, and ending with an extremely uninspired and anti-climactic boss fight ripped directly from World of Warcraft.  I eventually went and did exactly what blizzard told us we didn’t have to do: I looked up a build. I found a build that I never would have thought of and it made life in inferno a bit easier, but it still suffered from what I like to call Deus Ex: Human Revolution syndrome when it came to elite mobs and boss fights. I am not a game designer; I don’t have the answer as to how to fix Inferno. But, I will tell you one thing, there is nothing compelling about inferno difficulty. Either you grind and grind until you make progress, or you fork up many of your very real dollars to buy what you need to progress: a fundamental change to the Diablo equation that really subtracts from the game feel.

The Auction House
When the Real Money Auction House was announced, it was literally all anyone in the video games industry could talk about for a solid two weeks. Every blogger, every podcaster, every news site, even non-game related media covered it pretty extensively, and for good reason. It was new and crazy. The idea of paying real money for in game items was not a new one, it had been done by high school kids and Chinese gold farmers alike for many years. But for the first time ever, the company had taken control of the market and allowed the transaction’s through legal and regulated channels, that of course made them money. There were many good points made on both sides of the argument. Being able to buy power in game with real money was scary and offensive to many, allowing players with more real money to get a distinct in-game advantage that would normally only be earned through many hours of devoted farming. But on the other side, Blizzard wasn’t doing anything new, the same services existed in the backwater of the internet, and often ended in stolen identities and lost money, so why not regulate it? Well, as it turns out neither of those aforementioned ‘problems’ really are what happened.  I didn’t feel jealous of other players buying with cash, and I didn’t feel like Blizzard were money-grubbing either. The auction house just changed how people played. Trading items, a foundation of the economy of the other games, was essentially completely eliminated. The crafting systems, which many of us who played right at launch dumped all of our gold into, wound up being completely useless due to always being able to get better items at auction. It’s an addition that’s supposed to make it easier to gear your character, but all it did for me was turn a fun game into a gold grind. There exists means of combating this within Blizzard’s vast history: implementing a ladder season system.

Where’s my ladder?
It is my very unprofessional opinion that a lack of a ladder system will severely affect the long-term life of the game.  I am going to log back in on a whim six months from now, and all my characters and gear is going to still be relevant, no new content will be added, and I’m going to be just as bored as I was three weeks after launch.  The elimination of non-played characters and the regular reset of the ladder seasons kept me coming back at least once a year for the entire lifespan of Diablo 2. I know that idea borders on arbitrary game-lengthening mechanics, but if you are coming back, having fun and not regretting that you did, I cannot in my right mind say that that’s a bad thing. This could solve a few problems with the game: Items going back to non-ladder status would keep prices fluctuating, players would feel incentivized to come back regularly to start over with their friends when the ladder resets, and you could increase the item drop rate because there would be a set end date to the relevance of the items. For my money, adding a ladder system would be a win-win-win-win situation.

I really really want to absolutely adore this game, and in a lot of ways I do. I’m not looking forward to PvP patch that was promised. And the endgame content they promised is likely more than 8 months away, with Pandas coming in September and the next installment of Starcraft 2 long  after. There doesn’t look like there is much on the horizon that will keep me playing, but despite all that I said that seemed contrary, I am not really mad about it. If you are on the fence about getting the game still you should get it, you will not be disappointed.  If you still play it and you can look past the flaws and love the grind, keep on keepin’ on! But if you’re anything like me, you’ve loved what you had, and you’ve moved on until the next Chris Metzen redemption story, or in other words, the first x-pack!

Mobile Monday: Pizza vs. Skeletons

What can I say about Pizza vs. Skeletons that hasn’t been already said? Maybe “Pizza vs. Skeletons is an allegory for the destruction of the American middle class” or “Pizza vs. Skeletons leaves me feeling as if I just cosumed the afterbirth of a 14lb baby.” While these things have likely never been in print, they honestly have nothing to do with the simple, polished and fun romp of a game that is Pizza vs. Skeletons. Pizza vs. Skeletons is not some sort of clever title to incite symbolic meaning; it’s literally just a game where you play a giant pizza with the goal of raining down saucy and cheesy justice on the living dead.

The game is set up in a way most iOS gamers are comfortable with: short levels grouped together in worlds, normally themed around a handful of mechanics and aesthetics. The game looks great, it has a cartoony but smooth look to it that suits the handheld platform and the game’s tone quite well. The entire tone itself is very interesting. It has a visual theme that combines the dark but goofy tones of Scooby Doo and the cheesiness of 1950’s monster movies to great end. Despite all this visual goodness, it’s the gameplay itself that really causes Pizza vs. Skeletons to shine though as a mobile gem.

The game offers a wide variety of goals, mechanics and level design. The levels themselves do an excellent job of introducing you to the new mechanics as you play without bogging you down with a million things to remember. The mechanics themselves are not particularly complicated. The level goals are simple to achieve but rewarding of perfection through a star system similar to that of Angry Birds or Cut the Rope. The interesting part about the mechanics is how many of them there are. The aforementioned games may have different objects that act differently, but the ultimate goal of each level is the same. Pizza vs. Skeletons changes it up regularly with a multitude of level types. Some levels pit you against wave upon wave of spear-armed skeletons until there are no more, while some levels you have to ride a spinning skull over spikes, ski down a snowy hill or grow big and strong by eating more and more skeleton fish (along the lines of Fishy). I can see how the lack of mechanical specificity could be consider a negative to some, but with the consistency of the controls and aesthetic, the changes in gameplay mechanics are a breath of fresh air compared to the doldrums of repetitive level design.

Everything about this game is bursting with fast-paced and silly fun! It is the perfect game if you just want to play a few levels on some downtime, but has the variety of level design that still allows you to play for an hour or two without getting bored. Pizza vs. Skeletons is available here in the iOS app store for $2.99 and has both an iPad and iPhone version. If it sounds interesting, but you aren’t quite willing to ‘break the bank’ and spend your last three bucks, there is a free demo version of the game that doesn’t include all of the levels so you can get a better idea of the game before you choose to buy it. But really, I cannot remember the last time I had this much fun on a mobile device. If you have an iOS device, I highly suggest getting this game right now! You will not regret it!

Spread the Love: Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin'?

The first of what I would like to make a weekly friday plug column for other stuff I love!  First round: HAWP!

Hey Ash Whatcha Playin'? is a video series done by a brother and sister team that love games, comedy and having a blast on camera.  They release videos on a regular basis, based around seasons, and the typical format entails picking one game or topic for every video.  The videos are all full of hilarious antics revolving around the family of Ashley, Anthony and their Dad. Don't be surprised to see costumes, cross dressing, comic violence and intentionally offensive jokes, mostly at Anthony's expense.  But, its not all for the funny hear, many of the videos also make very interesting points about games, mechanics, industry trends and stories.  EVERY SINGLE ONE of these videos merits a watch, from both an informational and a comedic standpoint.

Check them out on their gametrailers site here

This video in particular is especially relevant because Anthony, now an employee of Gearbox Software is a very outspoken member of the gaming community.  A very outspoken member of the gaming community that just so happens to be color blind.  He actually wrote an article for Destructoid many moons ago wherein he talked about being a color blind gamer, its very interesting and you can check it out here.

Ramblings of a Color Blind Gamer (Destructoid) 

Thanks for reading, I am working on my first of many regular "Mobile Monday" posts this weekend and you should see it that afternoon!