Catching up to 2006...more 1up backup (part 1 of 2)
God of War can "suck my tiny yellow balls"
I haven't finished my review of the game as promised before. But let me sum up real quick in my current state of pissed-off-ness.
I would be willing to give GoW a 10, but I'm afraid I have to dock it a whole point, and give it no more than a 9.
Why, might one ask, would I charge such a wonderful game with the "day late - minus one letter grade" penalty? Because it has a few very nasty mucking instabilities!
The first time I played the game I played through on Spartan (Hard) difficulty. I wanted a challenge and I'd heard normal was a bit more "accessible." I got to the end fight, and I don't want to give any spoilers, but the last fight is broken into three parts, the middle of which is nigh impossible - very cheap - unless luck is on your side. You cannot save between parts, so if you turn off the game you have to start the final fight from the beginning. Well, when the third segment begins, there are some changes, and I wanted to look at my move list to see exactly what they were. I never got that far. After I pressed start, the game froze. I had to do the whole damn thing over again. Reminded me of the Stadium Bug in Jak II. Stupid freaking play-testers...
Fast forward to today. I'm on my second play-through, this time on God mode. I finally make it to the last segment of the final fight and I'm feeling good. I fight and die a few times and and think it might be good to check my moves. I remember the last time, but the game only froze once, and I'd been able to view the pause menu on subsequent attempts. So I press the button.
The fucking thing froze.
I'm so pissed. If I can't beat the second stage in the next twenty minutes I may have to go to Wal-Mart, buy a shotgun, and use the disk to practice some skeet shooting.
So, moral of the story, DO NOT PRESS START DURING THE FINAL PART OF THE FINAL FIGHT OF GOD OF WAR!!!!
Posted at Sun, 05 Jun 2005 19:29:04 EDT
"If I kill you, I will get health orbs."
Well said, Kratos. And while that's how I felt yesterday evening after the game froze on me, I was able to collect myself enough to slog through the final fight again, taking advantage of a feature I had not before noticed, and rip Ares a new one. The two bonus features almost make up for the frustration I had endured. Quite entertaining. I do hope they test a wee bit more thoroughly for the next God of War game. That's all for today.
Posted at Mon, 06 Jun 2005 12:51:14 EDT
Beds, boredom, and lots of chores...
Well, I haven't been blogging much of late because I keep getting to work late for vrious reasons and then have to work through my lunch. Someday I will get my GoW review finished and posted, draw attention to the upcoming game Indigo Prophecy, and finally get around to blogging about rpgs and the evolution of games and how we play them.
For for the time being, it looks like I have to start playing the role of the responsible parent-type. No, Meatwad hasn't decided to come out yet, but the doctor decided to put my wife on bed rest due to high blood pressure. Which means she's incredibly bored (and it hasn't even been 24-hours yet) and I get to do all of the work around the house. *sigh* Too bad the fathers don't go through a nesting phase, I could use one this weekend, I think...
Posted at Fri, 10 Jun 2005 13:37:09 EDT
Looking for Nintendo games... *crickets chirping*
I've asked several of the faithful few who read my drivel about recommendations for good GameCube games and GameBoy puzzle games before. But I'm going to ask everyone one more time. Your input is greatly appreciated.
My wife and I were looking for a good puzzle-type GBA game this weekend, as she really doesn't have a game she can just switch on and play for a random period of time and switch off for a random period of time and be able to successfully pick up where she left off the next time she switches on, especially if that next time is a couple of months later (something that can't be done with a Zelda game.) Sure, there's always Mario Kart, but that's only one game. But all we found in the stores were various Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh type games, and countless crappy licensed games. For a platform with so many games available - where are the good ones? I think the only puzzle games we saw were Tetris World and Dr. Mario. Oh yeah, I found Puyo Pop at one store, too... *help?*
Hm. I guess that's all I feel like writing. Saw Episode III again last night. I think we're going to watch Pitch Black tonight - neither of us have seen it yet. Uh...still waiting for Meatwad, which is fine, because I didn't get as much done this weekend as I'd planned. Um...yeah, guess I'll get back to work.
Posted at Mon, 13 Jun 2005 15:59:18 EDT
Past Due
For those who are waiting on tenterhooks for Meatwad's emergence, well...we're still waiting. The going theory is that we've properly influenced the development of our child, such that it too wants to go the new Batman movie. It's been to Star Wars Ep. III twice, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, we've watched Star Wars Eps. IV and V, and also some Firefly, Cowboy Bebop, and Battlestar Galactica for good measure. So, knowing that if Meatwad were to be born prior to our screening of Batman, Meatwad will have to wait to experience it until the ripe age of thirteen, we're pretty sure that Meatwad wants to hang out for a wee bit longer. Saturday, after the movie would work well, I think. My mother-in-law will be here to take care of the animals, and I'm a bit partial to the 18th, myself. Sunday would be pretty cool too. Having your first child born on Father's Day is definitely neat (assuming you are the dad - not as exciting if you're the mom.) My brother is a bit partial to the 19th, I would think. I'm sure somewhere there's a pool going...
So, this weekend I will be busy, either getting battered and bruised as I "help" my wife through labor, or trying to finish up all of the stuff I haven't had time to do yet to get the house ready for its new arrival. Don't get too excited though if I don't update over the weekend, as I usually don't. A little extra suspense! Of course, Meatwad being the first born, it's quite possible that next weekend will get here and Meatwad will still be hanging out...er, in...
[EDIT]
I finally updated the current Giant Microbe. Now I'm featuring Orthomyoxvirus (the flu).
posted at 06/17/2005 12:01 PM EDT
Still, we wait...
Well, the weekend has come and gone and I'm back at work. The excitement of anticipation has changed to a more palpable, emphatic tugging that is constantly pulling my consciousness to distraction. The baby better come soon, lest my lack of productivity start to bother my boss.
But, we did get to see Batman Begins Friday night. I think there were only ten people in the theatre, which I thought was very confusing. I expected the movie to do so much better this weekend than it did. Perhaps Star Wars drew in a fair number of potential viewers. Perhaps the PG-13 rating kept some families from attending. Perhaps people were just uneasy about Christian Bale as Batman (people were equally uneasy about Michael Keaton playing Batman, and he was great). Whatever your reason, if you harbor trepidation about seeing this movie, let it go. The movie is excellent. Not just as a Batman movie, but as a theatrical presentation. The cast was wonderful, with perhaps the exception of Tom Cruise's ever-nipping fiancee, who just wasn't as good as everyone else. The artistic style was great, the action sequences were done very well, the gadgets all made sense, the cinematography was awesome, and I thought the order that the story was told was very effective. It even successfully sets up a sequel, though I think it will be hard for a sequel to live up to this movie. I think Batman Begins is at least as good as the first Spider-Man movie, though darker, of course. And that is an important point to make, this origin story of Batman (and there have been several different tellings in the comics throughout the years) is that of the Dark Knight. I didn't follow DC comics too closely back when I was actively collecting, so I cannot comment on how true the movie is to the source material, but as a casual reader I thought it did a very good job. Avid fans probably will be able to find many points of contention (of course there were plenty of liberties taken with the X-Men movies, a title I did collect and read, but the movies still maintained the essence of the comic, and I think Batman Begins also preserves the essence of its comic).
Bottom line, if you haven't yet seen it, do so. It is definitely worth the price of admission. Meatwad liked it a lot too. Meatwad apparently got all squirmy during the action sequences. My wife wound up have a mild contraction at the climax of the final scene, which almost sent her into a fit of laughter. I'm just worried the kid wants to "see" it again and is going to stay in until we do. I certainly have no objections to seeing it again...
Posted at Mon, 20 Jun 2005 11:19:01 EDT
Contractions
So... Meatwad is officially a week late. I'd say it's taking after its mother (I am so tired of having to use gender neutral pronouns to refer to my baby!) except that my wife was actually born on her due date (on time at least once in your life, eh?) whereas I was thirteen days late. However, progress appears to be being made - headway, if you will. (Oh, I'm just chuck-full of bad attempts at humor this morning, perhaps if I'd had a decent night's sleep in the past week or two my inhibitions wouldn't be so subdued. I'm willing to put money on sleeping better after the baby is born than I do now in the same bed as a nine-month pregnant woman.) Anyway, my wife started having contractions last night that actually hurt. Very cool. Unfortunately, they are still very far apart and erratic. But they seem to at least be the right type of contractions. Maybe by this time tomorrow I will know what pronoun I can use in reference to Meatwad. Of course, it could be another week yet, but we really hope it won't come to that.
Posted at Thu, 23 Jun 2005 10:44:44 EDT
Moral Ambiguity
Politics has been flaring its nostrils at gaming again recently. GravityFails has a nice little entry about my favorite senator, Chuckie Schumer. Of more recent press is the current issue of a constitutional amendment regarding flag burning. Obviously, flag burning has no direct relevance on gaming. With the exception of depicting flag burning in a video game, the gaming world would have to be pretty conceited to feel otherwise. Naturally, however, the topic does stir up healthy discussion of free speech, which brings us back to video games and other mediums of expression. But all of that has been soapboxed to death, I think, so I will keep that $.02 to myself. There is, however, a point that I would like to try to make, as I think it applies to many things in our society and how we live our lives.
Using flag burning as an example, I think burning the American flag is wrong. (Unless, of course, it is being properly retired.) It just isn't something that should be done. If many people feel that it is wrong and shouldn't be done, it therefore makes sense that there should exist a law stating that fact.
Or maybe not...
Perhaps the fact that it is something that shouldn't be done is enough. Burning the flag, while an act of defiance against our government, is more an insult to those under it, especially those who have fought and died to protect it. While one who thinks the flag should be revered to honor those people might want to protect the flag from such a grievous assault as burning, wouldn't making such a law actually go against that for which it stands? "While I may not like what you have to say, I will fight to the death to protect your right to say it." I think the anonymous quote goes something like that. Basically, the flag stands for ones right to be able to burn it. Granted, you might be an ass if you did.
There are things that may be wrong, things that shouldn't be done, that don't need to be made illegal. If those things don't infringe on the rights of others, or break other laws, then people simply must take personal responsibility in how they wish to act. You may be pissed at our government and want to burn its flag in effigy, but maybe that would be the wrong way to handle the situation. You may want to go party and leave a bar by yourself with a bunch of strangers, but maybe that's something you shouldn't do. Perhaps you want to take a bath and blow-dry your hair at the same time, but that might not be a good idea. Maybe you can clone dinosaurs from fossils and think it would be fun to have a theme park with them running around, buy maybe that's just a real bad idea unless your name is Michael Crichton. Perhaps you think you can make a ton of money by taking a generic fighting engine, slap some pretty graphics on it, ghetto-fy it, add lots of gratuitous graphic violence and bad social stereotypes, and market it as a must-have video game, but maybe you shouldn't defile the medium with such gosa.
I could make all kinds of literary and philosophical references about truly living life, and learning life experiences, and things about falling down wells and getting back up, but the point is, we all make mistakes, and part of the process of making mistakes is learning from them so we don't make them again. The key point then, in not repeating ones mistakes, is self-restraint - knowing, that while you may be able to do something, you shouldn't, and then not doing it. When Namco edited the North American release of Xenosaga, fans cried in outrage against the evil "censorship". Many people couldn't grasp that what Namco did was responsible, that it was self-restraint not censorship. And that seems to be the real problem. People are forgetting how to think for themselves, forgetting about consequences, forgetting about responsibility. More laws aren't going to stem the wrongs that ooze from such an infection. But neither will burning flags...
Posted at Thu, 23 Jun 2005 11:24:04 EDT
Early labor
Well, my wife has been having regular contractions for about 20 hours now. Right now, they seem to be around 8 minutes apart. Things appear to be progressing very gradually, but hopefully soon, the pace will pick up. So, keep us in your prayers, and hopefully the next time I am compelled to post, it will be about our new baby. =)
Posted at Fri, 24 Jun 2005 11:48:43 EDT
The baby formerly known as Meatwad:
Introducing, my lovely daughter Linnaea!!
Lots of cute pictures and all of the vital info. I'll post more later, but now...I really need some sleep.
=)
Posted at Tue, 28 Jun 2005 15:57:22 EDT
I work with a Nazi!!!
Actually, I don't. He doesn't actually work here - he maintains an autonomous relationship with our company, but we do collaborate on projects occasionally, I just haven't been involved with any yet. Oh, and he isn't a nazi - though he was 17 and living in Germany during WWII and therefore was in the army. But since then he's become a US citizen and is no longer a nazi.
Why, you may ask, do I even bring that up? What relationship does it have on video games? None, to the latter, and as for the former, well...some people are apparently idiots with too much time on their hands...
Maybe I'll play a little Wolfenstein this weekend...
Posted at Fri, 15 Jul 2005 14:51:51 EDT
Bit o' Construction Trivia
The approximate weight of a 31-story concrete apartment building in NYC, with a typical floor size of approximately 165' x 75' (12,375 sqft) is:
85,040,000 lbs (42,500 tons)
It is designed to hold 21,075,000 lbs (10,500 tons) of non-permanent stuff (people, etc.).
It is designed to withstand the induced forces from an earthquake of 1,285,000 lbs (642.5 tons)
Now you know. And knowing is half the battle.
Posted at Mon, 08 Aug 2005 17:10:04 EDT
Things that will make your head explode:
More engineering stuff...
If you haven't heard about this yet, start packing your bags, because the Persian Gulf is where it's at.
The World Islands
I'll post more info later, but do check it out, and The Palm Islands.
Posted at Mon, 15 Aug 2005 14:09:58 EDT
My daughter's blog
So my wife started a blog for my daughter last night. It's mostly just an easier vehicle for us to post pictures and info to family and friends. There's certainly nothing wrong with coding your own website, and I will still use her previous page to archive pictures and info, but blogspot makes it so easy, and Julia likes that. Anyway, some incredibly cute and pretty recent pictures there with more coming soon...
=)~~~X
Posted at Tue, 23 Aug 2005 10:10:47 EDT
Progress Report
[Edit - New review of Indigo Prophecy. See link below]
I finally made it work on time this morning. It's been months, probably, since that last happened. Unfortunately (?) I spent most of my full, unabridged, lunch hour getting caught up on reading other people's blogs and stuff and have run out of time to make a more worthy contribution to my own than this drivel. Oh well... Onward!
The week before labor day we went on vacation to Minnesota and hung out on Kabekona lake at the family cottage. If you want to see some really cute pictures of my daughter at the lake, visit her blog, linked above. The rest was good and needed.
Unfortunately, a week away from work leads to a very busy week upon return. So, I've been pretty swamped dealing with the typical problems that arise during design and construction when people don't think things through and try to save a buck (at the inevitable expenditure of ten bucks to remediate whatever problem their "economy solution" created). Have I ever mentioned how it amazes me that buildings stay up? Comforting words, coming from a structural engineer, n'est-ce pas?
I've linked to it before, but keep an eye on Indigo Prophecy. It has the potential to be an incredible game. I'll post more on that later, but until then, you can download and play the PC demo. [edit - here's a new review of the game. Still sounds good...]
At the end of this month Serenity comes out. If you aren't familiar yet with Firefly, get the dvds ($30 for the box set) or watch it on Sci-Fi (7pm Friday, I think). You will want to see Serenity. We've already lined up a babysitter...
My brother-in-law visited a couple weeks prior to our vacation to paint our house. While he was here he spent some time playing a few video games. My observations of him have inspired an upcoming entry comparing the casual and hardcore gamer. Look for it...soon???
Oh, and Sony has updated their Gamer Advisory Panel (GAP) website. If anyone is a member and hasn't participated because the former website format/design blew chunks, well, it appears to be better. Maybe...
Posted at Mon, 12 Sep 2005 14:07:45 EDT
Great Expectations
Let me begin by saying that in my personal, humble opinion, Dickens blows.
Despite being insanely busy at work, burdened by obligations at church, physically fatigued and beleaguered trying to finish painting our house before winter, and very pleasantly distracted by my wonderfully developing daughter, my wife persuaded me to acquire a couple of new games this weekend. (Please note that no part of the above is an exaggeration, some may even be understated. Especially the part about Dickens...) I still had some credit left on the Best Buy gift card I received for my birthday, and there are a few new goodies on the market, I just had to figure out what to get. We <3 Katamari was an obvious choice, mostly bargain priced at $30. If it had been $20, like the original sold for, I would also have been able to pick up Evil Dead: Regeneration, which sells for $20. Unfortunately, that will have to wait, because there wasn't quite enough left for it after I picked up a copy of Indigo Prophecy, which sells for $40. I'll try to post my initial reactions to Indigo Prophecy tomorrow, but let it be known now, that so far, I am pleased.
These recent acquisitions coincide coincidentally (which is how all things should coincide, coincidentally) with my completion of Front Mission 4 (FM4). I've been playing FM4 for awhile now. My final save had 150 hours logged to it, but that is deceptive. I think it is probably safe to say that at least half of that time is from the game being on with nobody at the helm. Not something I usually do - I tend to reload games when I've put them down for a spell to keep the game time accurate. But it doesn't really matter with FM4, since it is a turn-based strategy game - an ideal type of game to play when you have a new baby: it can be played with one hand, it's turn-based so you can stop anytime to tend to more important matters such as dirty diapers, it has a quicksave feature that allows you to save in the middle of the battles so you can quit playing when necessary, and - most importantly - it has lots of neat mechs making lots of neat explosions - and babies like that!
(I suppose it should be noted that FM4 has an extremely repetitive soundtrack (2/3 of the game are simulator missions, and every mission in the simulator has the same crappy march theme - though it does make good music to which to bounce a baby.) which can make it a very tedious game from a spectator's point of view. Some might even say that hours of watching mechs shoot at each other over and over gets boring too... Let me just leave that by saying that at least one member of my household did a little happy-dance when I completed the game. Of course, I then proceeded to start a New Game+... (maybe that's why she was so encouraging about getting new games...))
[Caution: monkey about to have a flashback]
I used to collect G.I.Joes. I was in about 3rd grade when they started making them again - the small action figures that we are most familiar with these days. At the time, there were only a dozen or so action figures in the collection, and about half that number of vehicles. And COBRA, for being the international terrorist masterminds that they were, only consisted of two action figures: Cobra, and Cobra Officer. Go Joe. Anyway, the vehicles came packaged with neat, fold-out color catalogues of the toys in the current series. I still have the catalogues from the first four, maybe even five, series. My friends and I spent many a recess period pouring over each new catalogue, deciding which characters or vehicles we wanted first, and imagining the stories that would play out upon said expected acquisitions. The observation can be made here quite easily that instant gratification is not necessary for a child to be entertained. No soap boxes today, so I'll move along...
I could be wrong, if I remember I'll check tonight to confirm, but I believe in the third series a character named Zartan was introduced. Zartan was a mercenary employed by COBRA who was a master of disguise. In the cartoons and comic books he's able to change his skin color in a chameleon fashion to blend in with his surroundings, in addition to being able to don convincing disguises a la Mission Impossible. He also lived in a swamp and had a cool swamp skier thing upon which to ride around. The toy, from the eyes of a grade school boy, incorporated all of these character devices wonderfully! Zartan wore a cowl over his head because it fit his mysterious idiom. But, the toy came with a face "mask" that could be slipped into the edges of the cowl so Zartan could assume another identity. When not in use, the mask was stored in a specially fitted depression in his backpack. When using the mask, Zartan's handgun could be stored in the backpack. Such purpose and engineering! And the swamp skier could be disassembled and stored in this crate that Zartan could pull around, pretending to be some destitute homeless person dragging around a bunch of junk. But, the really, really cool part, was that Zartan was color-changy! He wore a breastplate that had a temperature-sensitive sticker under it. When it got hot, or was in the sun, it changed color. But better than that, if stuck in the freezer or left in the sun for awhile, Zartan's plastic skin would change color to a dark, bluish-green! Ohboyohboyohboy!!! I yearned to add this wonderful specimen of toy engineering to my collection. I saved my money, and finally, the day came when my mom took me to Target and I was able to purchase my very own Zartan! I was so excited I could barely contain myself. I wanted to run to the toy department, I wanted to tear into the box as soon as it was in my hands, I didn't want to wait while we drove home lest I lose a piece in the car...
This winter, braving a blizzard with my pregnant wife, I went on a shopping spree and purchased a clutch of games. FM4 was a bargain for about $10. I don't think there's a whole lot of love for turn-based strategy games in the US. Maybe that is because there just aren't that many to play. Admittedly, the only ones I've played are Ogre Battle (which isn't really turn based), Final Fantasy Tactics (which is a wonderful and beautiful game), and Front Mission 3. FM4 had only been out for about six months at that point, but most of the people who were going to buy it, loyal fans to the series and genre, had already acquired it. Being a Squenix game, I'm sure stock was a bit disproportionate. Anyway, great deal. But, it wasn't high on my play list, not against titles like Resident Evil 4 (RE4) and Shadow Hearts: Covenant (SH:C). Actually, it was dead last.
I don't remember exactly when I started thinking about FM4 again. But after finishing SH:C, and conquering god mode on God of War, I went back to play through RE4 on professional. That was around Linnaea's due date. FM4 was the last new game on my stack, perhaps the last new game I'd be getting to play for a long time, so probably then did my thoughts bend to its subtle gravity.
For those not familiar with the FM series, and that is probably most of you, assuming anyone is still reading at this point, it is (as already mentioned) a strategy game that features mechs (called wanzers in the FM universe - walking tanks). The series has bounced around temporally, but it takes place a century or two in the future, in a time where such technology exists to make giant, walking, humanoid, armored robots a viable - preferable even - component of the world's military. What fans of the series cling to, is that the series depicts mechs in a realistic fashion, with articulations, details, and armaments that make sense (even if power sources and control mechanisms are nebulous and greatly debated), instead of the fanciful anime mechs of Gundam, Zone of Enders, and Armored Core. Players control a small squad (in FM4, a six-unit team) of different mechs. Each pilot has an initial weapon preference, but the player can outfit their units however they wish. Different manufactures have different models of wanzers, each tailored to specific tasks or budgets: gunners are more mobile, have less armor, and heavier arms for accuracy; missilers have heavy powertrains, low mobility, but high armor; etc. Players can buy stock mechs or customize by swapping arms, legs, and bodies to create a finely tuned machine of mecha-death. And that's what I started thinking about...
FM3 had a slightly different approach to upgrading wanzer parts. While some new (supposedly better) parts were made available throughout the game, the primary way to improve your units was to upgrade the stats of the equipment you owned. Enemy wanzers could also be captured, meaning that you could sell them for money, or scavenge them for better parts. Since you had a relatively finite number of stock parts with which to assemble your mechs at any given time, and since due to the upgrade feature it was possible for parts that were crappy early in the game to become the best parts later in the game with maximum upgrades, I thought it would be a good idea to make a spreadsheet to help design my wanzer configurations. Luckily, someone had already gone through the trouble of recording all of the parts and their stats in a faq. I just had to figure out how to write macros that would let me sort and store the information in a useful manner. I think I was pretty successful, as using my spreadsheet on my laptop as I played worked out very well for me.
I decided to revise my spreadsheet for FM4. Instead of upgrades to individual parts, FM4 has lots of different parts. I thought that would make my task easier. What I found, was that there were other pieces of information that would be useful when looking at prospective builds, and things quickly got tricky. But I prevailed - mostly - and was able to setup a new spreadsheet that manipulated a database of parts and stats such that one could easily setup efficient wanzer configurations - something that is not done (easily with clarity) in-game.
Now I was excited to play FM4, a game that previously was just a $10 gimmee that I'd get to when I got to it. Now I had spent many hours studying the game mechanics and wanzer equipment. I wanted to see what the mechs and weapons looked like. I wanted to test my spreadsheet. I wanted to play the game! I was excited, and I couldn't wait for the opportunity to finally load the game who's demo hadn't really left me too impressed. And when I finally got home, and was able to play, I had a good time.
FM4 is a solid strategy game. It isn't incredibly difficult, but does have a few hidden challenges that unlock more maps and potential prizes. I really enjoyed the game mechanic changes from the previous game, particularly linking and skill acquisition. The story wasn't as good as FM3, and while it starts with some intrigue and interesting characters, it fizzles out to be mediocre at best when finally told. But the story serves only to tie the missions together, and that isn't even necessary, considering that, as mentioned before, 2/3 of the missions are simulator battles that aren't part of the story. Turn-based combat with giant robots - that's what the Front Mission series is about, and that's what you'll get if you play FM4. And if you do, I'll even let you use my spreadsheet...
Posted at Mon, 26 Sep 2005 13:51:42 EDT
Indigo Prophecy - First Impressions
Three things:
1) [quoting from page 4 of the instruction manual]
INTRODUCTION
My desire to create video games dates back to the arrival of 3D real time. I remember how many possibilities suddenly opened up because of this new technology. I saw it as a new means of expression where the world could be pushed to its limits. It was my way of exploring new horizons. I felt like a pioneer filmmaker at the start of the 20th century: grappling with basic technology, but also being aware that there is everything left to invent - in particular a new language that is both narrative and visual.
To be honest, the ten years that followed didn't satisfy my hunger. I was under the impression that video games were only exploiting a tiny part of their amazing creative potential, because they concentrated on "Action" and totally neglected a fundamental element of all human experience - emotion. The technology, meanwhile, was moving much faster.
Indigo Prophecy is my contribution to the transformation of video games into a true form of expression that coveys emotion. The solutions I offer are not the only ones, but Indigo Prophecy's huge merit is that it asks real questions and offers concrete answers. It shows how it's possible to create an interactive experience that is more than just killing monsters in corridors and shooting crates to find ammunition. It shows that it's possible to create experiences that are richer and deeper. It shows that it's also possible to tell a story and play a game without sacrificing either the interactivity or the narrative. I hope you, as skilled or occasional players, will enjoy the experience that we have tried to create here. If you hold prejudices against video games, I hope that Indigo Prophecy will help you reconsider your judgment. I also hope that more people will be tempted to explore this new creative path, injecting their own inspiration, talent, and ambitions. Interactivity is still in its infancy. There is still everything left to invent.
Indigo Prophecy has been a huge part of our lives these last two years and has proved to be a vast human and intellectual adventure for the whole Quantic Dream team, one that has forced us to question many of the principles that we previously took as read. I will consider myself fortunate if, like the books, films, and songs that have made lasting impressions on you, Indigo Prophecy could leave some small trace too.
David Cage
[Director]
2) The Tutorial: Prior to starting a new game, you can choose to play through the tutorial. The tutorial is hosted by David Cage. He doesn't just narrate, but is mapped to a 3D character model using the in-game graphics engine. The tutorial takes place on a movie set, complete with random props, a blue screen, and the crash-test dummy that you control to learn the basics of how you will be interacting with the game environment. What Mr. Cage has to say in the tutorial augments his statement in the instruction manual, which earns him much respect from this gamer. Good vibes.
3) I didn't look to see what percentage of the story I had completed last night when I went to bed, but so far, the game is a great play, and from what I can gather from my wife, quite good to watch. Indigo Prophecy truly is a choose-your-own adventure movie. It isn't an action game, it's more like Out of This World or Deja Vu. You control the characters as they play out their roles in "life". You are constrained by certain devices - the game won't let you leave an area without accomplishing some key element, if there is one - and not everything can be interacted with by everyone at all times. But the freedom you do have is excellent, and allows you to learn more about the characters as well as shape who they are yourself. So far I've used the toilet lots of times, I've had milk, hard alcohol, coffee, and water to drink, played blues guitar, done some kick-boxing, shot hoops, ran around in my underwear, fed birds, listened to music on a juke box, surfed the web, taken naps... killed a guy, died a few times, been arrested a few times, and have become delightfully embroiled in an intriguing murder mystery. The action elements aren't incredibly challenging - most of the time, but they do seem to be ingeniously paced to illicit the appropriate emotion for the task. I just played a chapter that requires a very slow, and even, repetition of analogue stick movements. On the surface, it's a very simple task. But it's long. And combined with the events that are unfolding as you watch, and sudden subtle changes in tempo or complexity of the pattern, it makes itself more difficult because you get tense and expectant yourself. It really does seem to pull you into the experience of the character on screen. And that's a key thing to remember, you are playing the lives of these people as they are trying to figure out the events unfolding before them. You aren't going to see everything and do everything perfectly the first time. It's okay to mess up sometimes as it keeps the game real, and the game is scripted very well (so far) to handle deviations in the way you play. I am looking forward to the rest of the game, and am already trying to decide how I want to play it my second time through.
Definitely, this is the type of game I would make.
Posted at Tue, 27 Sep 2005 13:28:23 EDT
September 30
Go see Serenity this Weekend.
Indigo Prophecy
I finished the game the other night. Pretty cool. I don't want to give anything away, but if you are a fan of DBZ, there are some elements that you will greatly appreciate.
I'm very curious to see what major branches/deviations there are to the story depending on how the game is played. It seems like the chapters that have the most room for deviation are at the beginning, which makes sense, as the story is open at that point. Towards the end, the story is focusing in on an outcome and there isn't much wiggle room left. Which, I think, is the source for comments in reviews about how the end of the game feels more rushed relative to the beginning. Part of that too, is that events are more succinct, with a more rapid progression through chapters, to raise the tension and drama. It isn't quite as successful as it could be, however, due to the loading times between segments. Not horrific, but enough to return you to your warm, cozy living room.
It should be noted that the game is not perfect. It does a pretty successful job of creating an interactive experience that pulls the player into the game emotionally. It is a fun ride that wants to be experienced again and again in different ways. How different those ways actually are may affect the extent of the replay value, but for now I'm hooked. But there are some control issues. The old problem of 3D movement control when switching camera angles pops up a lot in this game. Not really a problem when just walking around, but seems to be compounded when running, which is not when you want to get hung up on some random piece of furniture because you can't make the character go where you want. The camera is a little frustrating at times. While you have a lot of control over it, it moves slowly, and is temperamental as to whether or not it will actually reset to behind the character when instructed. There are a few times when the camera interferes with play, but it is usually minor and can be surmounted by switching to 1st-person momentarily.
I will keep sharing my thoughts as I play through it different ways. An excellent renter, as the game doesn't take very long to play through, but probably worth buying if you find it for $40 or less. Support this emerging genre! I hear so many complaints about linear gameplay. Here is a worthy opportunity to show that you mean it.
Posted at Fri, 30 Sep 2005 13:30:19 EDT
Indigo Prophecy - Final Thoughts
1up has a diary feature written by Director David Cage. It's long, detailed, and worthwhile to read, if you haven't done so already. My favorite quote from it:
Storytelling in videogames is usually very simple. We use stories in basically the same way as porn movies: a bit of story to set up the context and introduce the characters, then the big action scene. Another bit of story to set up the context for the next scene, then another big action scene. No one cares for the quality of the story, because no one is really there for that. The story is just a minor device wrapping action scenes.
I took, what my wife has graciously described as a well-deserved break this weekend and spent some quality time with Indigo Prophecy. Basically, I played the crap out of it Saturday. I played through as close to opposite of the way I played through the first time, figured out how to get all three of the endings, and fiddled around with variants on a few choice chapters. Here's what I found out:
Sadly, contrary to impressions that I conveyed in my last entry, Indigo Prophecy is a very linear game. Of course, that statement needs some clarification. The general story arc is fixed. There are no significant story branches that change the way the game is played out. You will always play the same chapters, in the same order, with the same basic outcome. (I should point out that you are always given the opportunity to decide what order to play chapters that occur simultaneously.) As a matter of fact, while there is a slight branch that occurs in one of the latter chapters, which only affects the setup for the final chapter, the only substantive branching occurs in the final chapter and those choices alone determine which ending you will get. There had been much debate on this topic before the release of the game - just how much control will you have over the story - and I'm sad to report that popular and cynical expectation that your choices would only have minor impact on the details of a fixed story was correct.
It's not a bad thing, however. Indigo Prophecy has always billed itself as an interactive movie, and that is exactly what it is. While there are a some chapters (mostly later in the game) that only have one possible outcome, there are plenty of other chapters that give you a lot of freedom as to how they play out. But, unfortunately in my mind, none of those choices you make have any real affect on the game. So, if you let someone die, while it affects the mental health of your character, it has no real repercussions on the game. In essence, all of the choices you make, instead of affecting the story itself, only alter the telling of the story.
The main "health bar" in the game is the character's mental health, which is indicated as a percentage, with 100% being labeled "Neutral". As negative things affect your character, their mental health will deteriorate, slipping through states labeled "Stressed", "Depressed", "Wrecked", etc. It turns out, that besides the story-telling aspects, the only real effect of the choices you make in playing the game is how they impact the mental health of the character. If you are "Wrecked" you may have to work hard in the next chapter to figure out a way not to fail the main task, lest you become mentally unhinged and terminate the game. And sometimes, the only way to do that, is to fail. Which is very cool.
From early reviews, I was under the impression that failing some of the action sequences would create branches in the story. In a chase scene, you control the escaping murderer. If you succeed, he gets away in a rather dramatic fashion. My understanding, with similar situations, was that if you failed part of the tasks the outcome would be different and you would have to do something else to get away - a story branch. But no, the scene rewinds and you start again from where you erred - in mot cases.
Everyone has always said that the main reason more games aren't made with branching story lines is because you have to basically make a separate game for each significant branch. For the same amount of cost, you effectively divide the length of gameplay by every major branch. And gamers seem to think that an eight-hour game isn't worth it (unless it is about gears of a solid, metallic nature). But what Indigo Prophecy attempted, and I think successfully, required a lot of internal branching. The chapters may all be the same and in the same order, but your freedom within the branches is sometimes incredibly open. The developers had to surmount the challenge of scripting all of these possibilities so that the player couldn't fail the ultimate goals, yet retain a realistic feel of control. One chapter where you play as Lucas in his apartment, probably plays out one way by most people who play it. But, if you are clever, you can extend the scene with some major benefits for the poor protagonist. Later, you can even skip the final sequence by deciding to go back to bed. Do these choices change the story? No, but they do alter what information may be made available to the player, and they affect the precarious mental health of the characters.
The developers also had to artfully figure out ways to keep the story moving without handing you things you may have missed. It is possible, by either playing a really smart criminal, really bad investigators, or some combination thereof, to wind up without enough evidence to link the suspect to the crime. But the developers give you an out, you just have to figure out what that is.
I suppose in conclusion I must say that the replay value isn't as high for this game as I had hoped. It is still a wonderful ride, and you can replay chapters as many times as you want to see what can and can't be done. But with only the same story available, it does grow weary after awhile. Indigo Prophecy remains a solid game, and is quite addictive the first time through. But knowing that the story itself doesn't really change takes some of the excitement out of playing the whole thing again. But as David Cage said, the genre is uninvented, and this is just a first step, a setting of the bar. For what it is, it is quite good. The expectations that it didn't attain, well, those are things that can be addressed by the next ambitious game in the genre...
Posted at Mon, 03 Oct 2005 14:27:01 EDT
Hockey Night
Detroit, Michigan - Hockeytown USA. Tonight, on the ice of Joe Louis Arena, two teams of armored warriors will once again lace up their skates, don their emblazoned sweaters, and face off against one another. Once again, the puck will drop between two bitter rivals, and the contest of skill, endurance, and strategy will commence. Hardened veterans and untempered youth alike, will take up arms to protect the honor of their compatriots, their homeland, and their people. Once again, the air will be filled with the smooth, scratchy sounds of the ice being mauled by steel blades, the sharp, lightning crack of sticks firing their frozen ammunition towards the nets, and the passionate din of the crowd. Bodies will crash against bodies and boards. Sticks will break and laces will be torn asunder. Emotions will rage and the enforcers will duel. The ice will be christened with sweat and blood. And the octopi will fly! Hockey has returned.
At 7:30 eastern, the Detroit Red Wings host their rival and, for all intent and purposes, training team, the St. Louis Blues. (Seriously, other than Yzerman, who on the Red Wings hasn't played or coached for the Blues?) After a year long lock-out, a period that threatened to destroy professional hockey on this continent, these two teams once again reunite to begin anew, the struggle for Lord Stanley's Cup. This season brings many changes to the lineups. Many players, once thought to be part of the soul of the teams, have retired or been cast to other teams due to salary restrictions. New blood has been mingled with the old, and former rivalries have become alliances, and brothers been made enemies. What lies ahead for hockey this year? Only one thing is certain: these two teams, and all the rest in the league, will do whatever they can to be the ones to skate with the Cup next spring. Let the games begin!
I have to thank my wife for introducing me to hockey five years ago. I am a new fan of the sport, but I have taken to it quite well, I think. My wife was raised a Red Wings fan by her father, who grew up in Michigan. I, a native of St. Louis, and resident thereof at the time of my indoctrination, have taken allegiance to the Blues. These matchups are always lots of fun. The question now, of course, is with what team will our daughter side? Or perhaps, how can I keep my wife from poisoning the tender innocence of my untainted daughter? Tonight should be an interesting game. While the core of the St. Louis defense is no longer - "Pretty Boy" Pronger having been traded, and MacInnis having retired - the Blues have managed to acquire Lalime to tend goal, and that, I find, is reassuring. But Detroit is daunting, especially at the Joe. Tomorrow, however, the Blues will host Detroit in St. Louis, so this battle will rage on for three more periods, regardless of tonight's outcome. Go Blues!
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On a more personal and depressing note, my dog appears to be ill. There do not appear to be any outward physical manifestations, but her behavior has changed drastically overnight. To be brutally honest, this morning, she was acting like a dog readying herself for death. Aki is only three years old. I'm taking her to the vet this afternoon, so hopefully all will be well.
Posted at Wed, 05 Oct 2005 11:17:33 EDT