A Minecraft Review

Minecraft has finally gone gold, and with that the ever approaching release of version 1.0 rushes ever closer. Notch and the crew at Mojang recently released Release Candidate 2, and asked the gaming community to start reviewing the final build of the game and I am doing just that. But I want to try and take a step back, and try to imagine myself as someone who has never even heard of Minecraft let alone play it. I am trying to imagine myself as someone who is not going to hop onto the Minecraft wiki to figure out how to play the game after dying during their first night from a creeper’s suicidal explosion or a skeleton’s arrow; someone who has not been following the fascinating history of the game and its makers. Now I assume that the average gamer out there expects the game to teach them how to play using some kind of in game tutorial. Even if it is as rudimentary as a few texts boxes, they are still going to expect to be taught how to play. Sadly to say, this is not the case with Minecraft, and it is something I feel needs to be addressed.

Now before I go on, let me explain something. I realize Minecraft and its community is a sort of anomaly in the world of gaming. The types of gamers playing Minecraft (especially those like myself who have been playing the game for well over a year now) are the kinds of gamers who are going to jump on the net, and learn all the ins and outs of a game; we have a drive to figure out how it works. On the other hand, the gamer who is content with their Zelda, Final Fantasy, and Madden is not going to be content with a game that does nothing but the bare minimum (the achievement tab) to explain its mechanics. It is this glaring omission (a problem most of us ignored under the impression of the game was still being alpha and beta tested) that will limit the game from reaching an even wider audience than it already has. Also, with Minecraft coming to the Xbox 360 in the near future, this is a problem that has to be dealt with sooner rather than later. There is still a huge dichotomy between the types of gamers who are solely playing console gamers and the rest of us, and I think the people who download this over XBLA are going to demand more than online wikis.

Terraria fixed this problem with the inclusion of an NPC that you could talk to near your spawn point. This character would teach you the basics of the game, and help you situate yourself in the world of Terraria. With towns now spawning in the many worlds of Minecraft, and with the Adventure Mode getting the most attention, I think Notch and crew should just spawn you in a town. Have the NPCs talk to you, and have them teach you how to play. As of right now, this information vacuum is something that needs to be addressed in Minecraft. Mojang cannot rely on the community any longer to explain their game for them; they need to do it from within Minecraft. This massive barrier to entry is going to prevent people from feeling the thrill of getting lost underground only to find that diamond deposit; they will never be able to experience the terror of exploring the nether, always afraid of losing their items in that fiery waste; and they will never be able to battle the ender dragon, and get the dragon’s egg.

I think Minecraft is a fantastic game. Getting together with friends and exploring the endless world has been one of the highlights of my gaming life, yet the games lack of even a rudimentary tutorial is something that Notch and the team at Mojang have to address. While I had a fantastic time figuring the game out (and still do every time an update is released) I feel the average person who thinks Modern Warfare is the epitome of gaming will not feel the same way. Until this is solved, it is almost impossible to review this game. Even with the release of 1.0 only days away, Minecraft still feels very much like a game without direction, and I think myself and too many of us are giving them a free pass. But I’m not worried; the team at Mojang are talented guys, and I know they are going to continue improving Minecraft and continue change the face of what video games are and can be. It would just be a shame if this lack of information prevented people from experiencing one of gaming’s most rewarding experiences.

The Consistency of Change.

Why am I playing World of Warcraft again? After months of trying to convince myself that I had no love for the game, I am back with a vengeance. But why now and why does it matter that I am going back?

Mist of Pandaria is a large reason why I am going back to WoW after my short absence. The inclusion of a new race, new class, payload style PvP battles (a game mode I absolutely love in Team Fortress 2), and Pokémon style pet battles tickles my WoW brain in a way I love. A new class to level, new dungeons and raids to conquer, a brand new landmass to explore, and new ways to interact within the World of Warcraft was the perfect catalyst to get me playing again in the short term. But instead of going back to the guild I was raiding with, my good friend and I are starting fresh on a new server (Korgath) and starting a new guild akin to what we did before the release of The Burning Crusade years ago. But why am I really going back to this game, and is there a deeper reason other than the new loot that is to be had?

I am going back because WoW is a symbol of consistency for me. Despite the fact that the game is always growing, always expanding, and always evolving, that process itself is consistent. My post-secondary career is soon coming to an end, and with real life is racing towards me at breakneck speeds World of Warcraft is something I can hold onto. The guild is going to be a way of staying in touch with my friends when we all move away into life. If we’re raiding or doing rated battlegrounds, we now have a weekly time when we will get to catch up and still be a part of each other’s lives. It is this consistency that the game provides for the player that is bringing me and my friends back to the world of Azeroth. It is the socialization that is paramount to the game that is bringing me back. It is time with friends that is really bringing me back.

Will WoW really help to keep us together, or is this another way that I am trying to stay static in a world that is constantly changing? Only time, in its never ending march forward, will tell.

Thoughts on RAGE.

Was Rage, the new IP from id, worth the wait? On one hand, id has delivered what looks to be a fairly solid engine to the game industry. Yet on the other, Rage already feels very dated; but never mind that now, instead of talking about the quality of Rage as a whole I want to talk about an idea that occurred to me over and over again as I blasted my way through the wastelands: just because a game may look amazing does not automatically mean it is a good game.

I do not want to imply that the people at id wanted to, or even thought about making a game that can be seen as a critique of current state of the gaming industry, but it does seem pretty in your face about it. Everything from the gun play, to the racing, to even the way you do quests feels very dated. The enemies you face take round after round and shell after shell, and shrug off head shots as if they’re nothing at all; the racing is more akin to Mario Kart than anything else; quests are buried away behind peoples none changing (yet well written) dialog; and everything is so nicely separated from each other by long loading corridors and loading screens that you never have to worry about getting lost. It is such a striking juxtaposition between the gorgeous visuals and dated game play that I cannot help but wonder if it is all intentional. If it is not intentional, then Rage is an example of an old school developer failing to move into the modern world. Also, all the damage control Carmack is doing is not helping their cause. Talking about how much better PC technology vs. Console tech still does not explain why the very mechanics of your game feel old as shit.

Rage exists as more of a show piece for the engine rather than a game in its own right. While I am glad to have played it, it feels more like a living relic (much like the ancient coelacanth) than anything else; if nothing else, I am excited to see what other developers can do with an engine like IdTech5. Maybe this is the future for some companies: instead of making an engine for their game, they make engines for the industry. And you know what? I am okay with that.

For the Dull, the Dumb and the Pointless.

At first I felt bad about not knowing that Big D and the Kids Table put out a new record. After loving Fluent in Stroll and Strictly Rude, I walked For the Damned, the Dumb and the Delirious expecting another step in Big D’s audio evolution as a modern ska band. I was expecting more experimentation with sound of their music, but what I got was a record my fifteen year old self would have loved. Gone is the progress I heard on the previous two albums replaced with by the numbers skapunk that is fairly forgettable. There is also an overt glorification of drinking that I find out of place on this record, and this coming from a band that used to sing so tongue in cheek about going on Benders and drinking copious Pabst Blue Ribbon just does not make any sense to me.

I know I should give the record a few more listens before I really pick a stance, but my initial listening was so underwhelming that I have no huge urge to listen to it again. If it had been a well done and modern take on the skapunk sound, then I would have been more excited to listen to the album over and over, but it’s really not. It sounds so interchangeable with early 2000s “ska” (the shit that Suburban Legends and the like where trying to masquerade around as ska), that it feels like Big D have taken three steps back. And by extension I have no urge to hear this album live, which means that I have almost no urge to see Big D (a band I loved seeing) in concert anytime soon. I hope that this album is the equivalent of The Suicide Machines self-titled release (if you don’t know what I am talking about, go and listen to Destruction by Definition and Battle Hymns, and then their self-titled release), and is nothing more than a temporary stumble.

Thoughts on Monster Hunter

My recent obsession with Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, easily one of the best games on the PSP, has got me to thinking about why this series –a series that is wildly successful in Japan, and is often credited with saving the PSP from oblivion– has not been as fondly received this side of the great pacific. One would think that a game centre around the idea of slaying massive monsters, collecting countless pieces of armour, and amassing a personal arsenal of handcrafted weapons would be universally accepted as something amazing! But that is really not the case when it comes to Monster Hunter in North America, and why is that? Maybe it has to do with the series initial showing on the PS2, in all of its clunky glory, or perhaps it has to do with the steep learning curve the game forces on the player from the word go? How can a game where loot is the main motivation be so widely ignored by the North American gamer, when we all loved Diablo and all of its loot-whore spin-offs? I am not going to claim that I have the answer to this question, but I do have a few ideas as to why this series has stagnated for so long with the Canadian and American gamer.

Monster Hunter is not a series that caters to the “power fantasy” so many gamers are looking for. You are not the unstoppable force of nature you are in most other games; instead of being the penultimate hunter (who eventually hunts the God of the monsters or some other such nonsense), you are simply a person whose vocation it is to hunter down and slay the various monsters at the request of your village elders. The world of Monster Hunter does not exist for the purpose of housing the player, and if it did, Capcom would have had no reason to devise the complex social and hunting habits of the creatures that roam the wilds. This is a very different approach to games –the player simply existing as a part of a world– than what we see here in North America. Over here we need to be the space marine, soldier, knight, or whoever has the fate of the world in their digital hands. We enjoy, and I am just as guilty as the rest, that sense of power and of importance that the game bestows upon us. The point of Monster Hunter however, is not about feeding your gamer ego but about your own continual self-improvement in the quest to hunt harder and more ferocious beasts.

Monster Hunter is also not an easy game, in fact it can be quite hard. Now let me be clear, I mean Demon’s Souls/Dark Souls hard (the deference being that where as Demon’s Souls is unforgiving and severely punishes you for dying, Monster Hunter assumes that you will be defeated over and over, and thus does not punish your death nearly as harshly). In a day and age where companies are giving us achievement points and trophies for doing nothing more than playing the tutorial levels, challenge has almost become a negative qualifier when we talk about games. The challenge of the series harkens back to an age where memorizing boss patterns was the recipe for survival, and when games were not made to be easily beaten.

We should also look at the demographics of who bought a PSP in Japan and here in North America, and what the systems primary function was for the consumers of both markets (was it a game system, or a device used primarily to surf the net and listen to music on?) when we consider the idea of difficulty. While I cannot talk about the Japanese demographics, all one has to do is look at the recent add-campaign with the little kid (Marcus or whatever his name is) to see how a game designed around difficulty and old school 90s game traditions would fail to have an impact over here. With Sony targeting the early teen and pre-teen market, it stands to reason that a game based around classic mechanics would not have the same impact on them as it does on someone, like me, who has been playing games since the days of the NES.

One thing I would like to know for sure is how well Monster Hunter Tri for the Wii sold over here, and if there are any firm plans on bringing the 3DS sequel, Monster Hunter Tri G, to North American markets (I also hope we get the PS3 HD remake of Monster Hunter Portable 3rd). I want to know why Capcom is bringing Monster Hunter 4 to the 3DS after having such a long history with Sony’s handheld, and will the series have a large impact on the future of the 3DS much as it did on the PSP? I also want to know why Capcom has kept the Xbox 360/PC MMO Monster Hunter Frontier in Japan when the 360 has such a large (quite a bit larger than in Japan) market share over here; and why is it only on handhelds that this series has thrived? If nothing else, Monster Hunter seems like a natural fit for the big screen of TV (and it is when you play it on the Wii or even the PS2).

I don’t pretend to have the answers as to why this series has stagnated in North America, and I know that the reasons are much more complex than just high difficulty and different demographics. Monster Hunter is a series that has fascinated me ever since its debut on the PS2, and I hope Capcom brings the upcoming 3DS games here so I can satisfy this loot hunger. Then again, it’s not like I am going to be done Monster Hunter Freedom Unite anytime soon.

My Minecraft World

I am done with this map. Maybe it is because I have not played much Minecraft lately, or maybe I simply need a change of scenery. It’s not like I don’t like what I have made, oh far from it, but I think I am ready to start something brand new. So in honour of my first venture into the random world of Minecraft, here is a download for my map. It’s simply called world2, not because I was trying to be creative or anything, but because I started it well before we had the ability to name the maps.

Have fun exploring all I have done and I apologize for the random clutter in the inventory and in most of the chests around the world. Feel free to e-mail me with your thoughts on what I’ve done, and even ideas that you would like to see me add to this map.

DOWNLOAD

THE DOWNLOAD IS DOWN. IF YOU WANT MY MAP, EMAIL ME AND I WILL SEND YOU A COPY.

An Analogy

When I was younger, I never understood how people could sit there and tell me how they liked the sound of vinyl over that of a CD. I knew that the audio quality of the CD (Digital vs. Analog) was far better than the quality of a vinyl record; a record that would slowly degrade with each listen. I finally did understand it with the help of my own analogy: I still really like the chunky dated graphics of the Playstation and Nintendo 64 era of games.

Now I do not think that the graphic quality of games such as Parasite Eve, Super Mario 64, and Metal Gear Solid is better than that of the current gen, HD mega games. I understand how much the technology has moved on and how dated the Playstation and Nintendo 64 games look when compared to games such as The Last Guardian and L.A. Noire. Yet it is that very dated look that makes me love them. I grew up in this world of blocks and polygon counts, and I gazed out over the pixelated skylines of the 16 bit. It was this that helped rocket my growing love of video games into my consciousness forever. The look of these games is tied to my memories of being a kid, of growing up and living out those carefree days of youth; those same days that I hope to give to my own kids, some day.

I hope that one day my own kids will look back at the games their dad loves, the archaic discs and hunks of plastic to them, and learn to appreciate them. Will the games be so outdated as to be unplayable to them, or will they be like my generation and its love of vinyl? Will the Playstation and Nintendo 64 become the hip things to play, much as the Nintendo and the Super Nintendo is for gamers of my generation? I hope that one day, I get sit down to play through these games and create new memories, with my own family.

Sorrow and the Old West

I wanted to finish Red Dead Redemption sooner rather than later. So a couple of days ago while I was hanging out with my good friend, I decided it was high time I sat down and started my final push to the end. I loaded the game onto my 360 hard drive, and started the old girl up.

Something wasn’t right.

The load screen said something akin to a welcome, almost as if I was starting the game from the beginning. ‘But I was in Mexico’, raced through my mind again and again as the little revolver chamber loaded the game. ‘I just forgot the name of the last mission is all, everything is going to be fine,’ I reassured myself when the screen faded to black. ‘Everything is going to be fine.’

I was wrong. I wasn’t in Mexico; I was walking off the boat in Blackwater. I was at the very start of the game. Everything was not fine.

‘Okay, calm down. Just load your game from the load window, it probably loaded someone else’s file is all. Everything is fine, don’t worry about it.’ So I pause the game, and load up file 2 (the same save slot I have used since I was a kid playing A Link to the Past on my SNES. Always slot 2). Same name, same mission, same disappointment.

It is not like Red Dead is a bad game, far from it. The story is amazing, and the dialog is easily the best I have ever heard in a video game: it’s well written, and superbly executed. The world of Red Dead is interesting, and riding around the country side in search of adventure was/is always a joy. Yet with such a large game, I feel so daunted to have to replay the hours, and hours, and hours I had logged before just to get back to where I left off. Hours and hours to get back to the point where I still have hours and hours to go until the end does not sound like something I feel like doing at the moment; I already have my grind with the recent release of The Firelands, WoW’s new content patch, and my ever growing collection of games.

This is the reason why I do not like people playing my stuff when I am not there. I know it sounds rude, but this is not the first time something like this has happened. Saving over someone’s file is sacrilege, and one would think that Rockstar would have finally (after years) fixed their terrible save system; no one liked it in Grand Theft Auto 3, why does it keep being reused?

One day I will return to the west. And one day, I will finish what I started. Not today, and sure as hell not tomorrow, but one day.

War for Cybertron

War for Cybertron was really not a bad game. While it is not anything ground breaking or amazing, that does not mean that it is not worth your time. If you are a fan of the giant 80s robots and overly dramatic plotlines then transform, roll out, and keep on reading.

At its core, War for Cybertron is your basic third person action/shooter. How it deviates from this framework is the ability to transform at will; instead of being stuck as either a robot or vehicle, you can switch seamlessly between the two with the push of a button. Now your average third person fire fight is interspersed with zipping around the battle field as a car, or soaring through the skies as a jet in attempts to get the drop on your enemies. The transformers themselves are separated into class types (scout, leader, etc.) which affect what type o weapons you start with, and what special moves you can perform when you have collected enough energon.

The story is a cannon entry into the Transformers lore, which is either going to mean something to you or mean absolutely nothing. The game is the story of the original reasons why the Autobots and Decepticons are caught-up in civil war with each other. You get to experience events like the first meeting between Megatron and Starscream, and the rise of Optimus to his position as leader of the autobots. Like I said, you will either love or you have no feelings towards it. That being said, it is geared towards Transformer fans; just saying. You also get to play as fan favourites such as Soundwave, Silverbolt, Optimus Prime, and many more.

The game also has multiplayer, but with no one playing it anymore, I cannot say what it is like. I did play a game of the escalation/horde mode, and it was what you expect that mode to be; fight waves and waves of progressively stronger foes, restock in-between, and see how long you can last.

My one problem with the game is that you can either choose to play as either side whenever, even though there is a clear cut storyline that can easily be followed. This design choice shows its flaws after you finish the Decepticon campaign (the first one when going in order), and then end up fighting the same enemies, yet a different colour, in the Autobot campaign. They even go as far as to introduce the different types of enemies the same way in both campaigns. I just feel that we could have seen more variety in everything from enemies, to encounters if you had no choice but to play the story as it should be told.

That one thing aside, I did really enjoy War for Cybertron. I know that a lot of it has to do with my lifelong love of the Transformers, but it is not a bad game by any stretch of the imagination.

A Killer Robot from the Future is Concerned about Violent Video Games.

If you have not been following the Schwarzenegger v. EMA/Brown v. EMA case that is about to get a ruling this Monday in the United States, then you should turn your attention to Patrick Klepek’s coverage of it over on Giant Bomb. The general gist of the case is this: people are upset about kids playing violent games (understandable), and the Californian state government feels that they can raise your kids better than you can (not so understandable). I am not going to get into any moral debates about this, those have already been had by people who know what they are talking about, but I do want to bring to the forefront something interesting that I noticed about this whole long road.

This whole idea about protecting kids from the evils of video games is very similar, and I mean VERY similar, to the same debate that rage on about music (heavy metal, punk rock, and the like) in the 1980s. While I do agree that an eight year old should not be playing Grand Theft Auto if they cannot handle it, I also think that if your child understands the basic concept of reality vs. fantasy (like my sister did as a child. She would sit in front of the TV when she was about three or so, and would watch Terminator 2 from start to finish), then there should be no problem in what games your child plays. The video game industry has the ESRB and other ratings boards to rate the content of games, and there are already laws in place about selling mature rated games to minors, so what is all the fuss about? If Hollywood is able to rate their films, and enforce their own set of rules, why can policy makers not let the games industry do the same? It is just like art, movies, and music before it; video games are the new evil that the older generations do not, and will never try to understand.

It also bothers me that some people are content to let those in power (be it provincial, state, or federal levels of government) tell them how to deal with their own children. Sure we have to make sure that the media are kids are taking in is appropriate for them (since each child being a unique individual), but that should be the responsibility of parents and not of policy makers.

Let us hope that level heads prevail here, and the governments of the world stop trying to raise everyone’s kids for them.

Portal 2 is Great.

My god, I feel bad for taking this long to finish Portal 2. I do not see how or why people were complaining about the length of this game when it came out; after all was said and done, I was at around 12 hours of play. 12 hours to complete the single player and the co-op multiplayer. How is that a short game?

First and foremost, the story and the writing in this game are of a calibre not seen very often in the world of video games; the only other game that I feel comes close is Red Dead Redemption. I was very impressed by the amount of emotion the animators and the designers were able to get out of the faceless robots. It reminded me of Pixar’s WALL-e in a way, and that to me is the real testament to the design of the robots. The sharp writing, and top notch voice work bring this game to another level of detail rarely seen in the games of today. I would gladly sit back and watch someone play this game so I could really let the storytelling sink in. That is not to say that I did not like playing this game, in fact I quite enjoyed it.

Portal is a puzzle game first and foremost, so it is a rather good thing then that puzzles are great in both the single player and the co-op portions of the game. The single player tests are as good, or even a little better than Portal’s tests and the game forces you to do some abstract puzzle work on most of the late game chambers. I cannot pass judgement on how hard some of the co-op puzzles could be without proper verbal communication as my good friend and I played co-op in the same room. Even then, with the two of us being in the same room we both heavily relied on the ability to paint targets in game to help solve many of the tests. Aside from that, the co-op tests are fun, challenging, and always rewarding.

This game shows how, once again, Valve is at the top of the pack when it comes to storytelling. Whether it is the direct stories of the Portal and Half-Life series, or the indirect stories of Left 4 Dead 1 and 2, Valve is able to create unique and interesting worlds. Let’s hope that this trend continues, and is improved upon in Half-Life 2: Episode 3.

Anzu, The Raven Lord

After I don’t know how long, I finally got my hands on the Raven Lord mount! This mount has been the one thing I have lusted after in the World of Warcraft ever since the Burning Crusade marched across Outlands. Now with it firmly in my mount collection, I need to find something else to go after, something else to farm day in and day out; it is either going to be the Huntsman mount from Kara, or the blue proto-drake from Up. Both of those mounts are rarely seen (especially the blue drake), and collecting mounts is what I do.

Not a huge post, I know, but this is something I have been trying for for so long. So let me have this moment to bask in the glory of finally getting this damn mount. I now ride a god into battle, and show off a new mount in the streets of Orgrimmar.

Why I loved Dead Space 2

Dead Space 2 is to Aliens as Dead Space is to Alien. Both games feature the same creatures, and both are stories of desperate struggles against seemingly impossible odds. The first one built on the fear of being alone (in space, no one can hear you scream) while the second built upon the fear of numbers (this time, it’s war).

Dead Space 2 trades in the solitary ship for the chance to battle the necromorphs on the Sprawl (a space station/city that is built upon the ruins of Saturn’s moon, Titan). Isaac Clark is also no longer the silent hero like Link or Gordon Freeman, instead he is a fully realized character who has to not only battle the crawling chaos aboard the station, but his own inner demons. It was this change in focus from the monsters to the main character, which I never knew Dead Space needed.

Yes the combat is as visceral as the first game, and Isaac’s overall movement through the world has been sped up and made much more fluid, but these are the types of things we have come to expect from sequels; the story is what truly shines in Dead Space 2. I am really happy that Visceral Games, the studio behind the game, knows that there is more to Dead Space than the mindless violence and shooting monsters. The story starts with a bang and does not ever let up; the mental demons Isaac has to face chase him just as much as the re-animated necromorphs do, and his reliance on a mental ill patient (Nolan Strass) paints a grim picture of what Isaac might become. By the end, I did not know if Isaac had lost his mind or not, as reality and his subconscious started to meld together in some very interesting, and quite terrifying, ways. It is this attention given to the world as a whole that raises it above the rest of the horror/action genera (I’m looking at you Resident Evil and Silent Hill).

The cast of characters that you meet along the way are great in moving the story along. I wish that the “main villain” (air quotes), Hans Tiedemann, would have had more of a presence in the game, instead of being a face on a screen or a voice over the radio. The one character that I liked the most, aside from Isaac himself, is Ellie. Without giving too much away, she is another blue-collar worker like Isaac, and she is trying to survive just like everyone else. I loved the fact that she wasn’t a damsel in distress, and that she helps you just as much as you help her. And Isaac himself is a great character, which was something I was quite worried about; it would be hard to develop a character from one who did not speak to a point where he has to now not only speak, but have his own emotions other than the players. I am glad that they choose to give him something to say, because the game’s story greatly benefits from it.

It’s this effort that went into the storytelling that I admire most about Dead Space 2. Everything from the environment, to the way characters look at each other, to the random debris littering the world is used to tell this horror story. It goes to show you can have great, visceral feeling combat and amazingly interactive game play without having to sacrifice the story or the artistic direction. I hope that the inevitable Dead Space 3 continues on this tradition of storytelling, and I hope that the brass over at EA do not force it out the door before it is ready.

OverStrike

This new game from Insomniac, the makers of the PS3 FPS series Resistance, looks to be something new that is desperately needed in this generation of military shooters.

OverStrike looks to be a 4 player co-op experience, all presented in a lovely 50s spy sheik shell. It really reminds me of Team Fortress 2 if only on a visual level. The characters are looking to be likeable, and I hope the game is just as much fun to play as this trailer is leading us to believe. I hope we will soon learn whether or not it is an FPS or some sort of third-person action game. With the lack of any game play trailers as of right now it is hard for me to really express any more than a sense of wonder.

Wii 2? No, Wii U

While I may not be a fan of the name Wii U, the idea behind it and its controller are almost too good to pass up. It looks like we are finally getting that interaction Nintendo has been trying for since the days when you could plug your GBAs into the Game Cube. It is also awesome to see a bigger focus on the hardcore gamer, and that we are going to see things that we want to see on this new console. With a strong list of third party support already, and having John Riccitiello come on stage and state EAs commitment to the system, it is looking like Nintendo is going after everyone with this new console.

I hope in the coming few days of E3, some firsthand experience with this new console and its new controller pop onto the web.

Microsoft E3 Impressions

I’m glad that I did not get up today to watch the Microsoft E3 press conference. Aside from announcements for a new Halo trilogy (always fun), and the upcoming remake of Halo: Combat Evolved, the Kinect heavy show did little for me.

I don’t want to talk to my TV as I play through Mass Effect 3, and I think I share that sentiment with everyone who is playing Mass Effect. It sounds like an addition to the game more so for Microsoft to push the Kinect to the core gamer rather than Bioware trying something new.

An on rails Fable game, really? Where I slash my hand across the screen as a sword? No thanks.

What really gets me about all these Kinect games, from Fable to Star Wars, is how they all seem like first generation Wii games. Instead of being fully fledged games, they are mini game collections, and if Nintendo moved away from that so should Microsoft.

I guess Microsoft must had made some money on the Kinect if they want us all to be wave our arms around like idiots as we play our games. At least we heard that Minecraft is coming to the 360, so I am looking forward at seeing some footage of that hopefully over the week.

Happy E3 week everyone, and I will be constantly updating my blog with all the games and announcements I can over this week.

From the Journal of Halia Woodrow, Woman at arms of the Kingdom of Gilneas.

We were to be evacuated from the city, but the damn monsters attacked again; this time worse than before. I do not know what is better at this point: the undead who amass behind the wall, or these beasts that haunt everything from our dreams to our fears.

The Prince has ordered any able bodied man or woman to help fight back the beasts, and to help evacuate the city. I have waited a long time to bring my sword to the flesh of these vile monsters, and these orders have filled me with a harsh glee. I will kill them for what they have done not my country, and to my sister. Yet despite our efforts, the Merchant Square is lost to the worgen. I, along with the civilians, move onward.

...

The king has come to meet us, the few survivors to escape the merchant district. He charges me and my other men at arms to rescue the traitor, Crowley, from his cell. Why the king wants a man who fought against him, I do not know; it is not my place to ask questions of my king.

We find Crowley on the top of the jail, he warns us of their coming. He warns us how dangerous these beasts are; they care not for our politics, nor our ways, they are simply beasts.
By the Light, they run across the roof tops as you and I would run across a street. Crowley is right, they care not of our politics, and now is the time that we should put away ours. The beasts will over run us before the undead even breach the gates if we do not.

...

Damn, damn, damn. One of them bit me. Yet this one was a man at first glance. As I approached him, he screamed at me to get away, to leave him in peace. I tried to reason with the man, slowly making my way to him when he snarled at me like a dog. His body then lurched and moved wildly, and the sound of ripping fabric filled the room. He was turning into the beast, and I was witness to this unholy act. In my shock I let my guard down, and the beast who was once man rushed at me and sunk its teeth into my leg. He would have killed me for sure if the gun shot had not broken my cries of terror, and his cries of madness. Lorna Crowley had shot the beast, a look of revulsion on her face.

“How are we to fight an enemy who can hide among us?” She asked aloud, as she helped me to my shaking feet. Two large mastiffs flanked her; both trained to smell out the worgen. Both of them growl a deep, low growl as I move past them up the stairs.

...

The arms Crowley was hiding for his revolution have now be loosed on the worgen! Yet the streets are still full of them, but these ones are different. They are not naked like the beasts that attacked us before, no, they are dressed in the tattered remains of what must have been normal clothing. Now our own people turn against us in this city, and I feel as if this night will be my last. The wound in my leg is still dripping blood, and I am sure that is what is drawing them to me where ever I go, and down whatever street I turn.

...

I have chosen to stay behind and help draw the worgen to the cathedral. The civilians need time to escape to the mountains, and we need to give them as much time as we can. The cannons set on the steps of the cathedral rip through the worgen, man, woman, and child; we cannot spare any of them, they must all die!

...

They have taken the city...all is now lost.

Find Mii

So I’m weak and was unable to wait for Nintendo`s inevitable redesign of the 3DS. After playing a demo unit for a couple of minutes the other week while I was out with a friend, I picked one up. I have to say that I am really impressed so far with the little 3D machine, and with Pilotwings Resort; the 3D is a cool addition to handheld gaming, and I hope developers make good use of the feature. I am also impressed with the number of free games that came already on the system. Face Raiders is a ton of fun; using the room you`re in as the stage for the game is awesome, and the idea of collecting your friends and families faces to use in the game is something new. The AR Games are cool, if only for the novelty of shooting a dragon that has grown out of your desk; I hope that in future firmware updates, Nintendo will update the AR Games and release more cards. But what is really surprising are the games found in the Mii Plaza.

The Mii Plaza is an application where you can see all the Miis you have collected with the spot pass feature of the 3DS. Spot pass lets your system connects to others how might have their 3DS with them, and download things such as Miis to your own machine. The Miis you have collected on your travels can help you collect puzzle pieces that form 3D pictures, or you can use them in the little RPG included in the Mii Plaza called Find Mii.

In Find Mii, you take the Miis that you have collected through your travels, and use them to rescue the Mii that you first created on the system. This first Mii, the one you use as your system profile, was the king of the land and has now been captured. It is up to your army of little people to save the king, and collect a bunch of hats along the way. While I have not been able to try this out yet (I not collected any Miis yet), it seems like a fun little game. It is nice that Nintendo included it with the system; this could have easily been a title for the yet released e-shop for a couple of bucks.

I am excited by what I have seen of the systems capability, and I hope that Nintendo fosters an environment of experimentation with this new 3D technology. The addition of visual depth to the screen opens a whole new world for companies to explore, and I hope people use it in interesting and exciting ways.

A Rainy Night

It’s not very often in this city, the city of Calgary that you can leave your window open at night and let the rain lull you to sleep. I can tell you about the many times I have watched the snow fall from the nights cloud cover, the streetlights painting the clouds a dark orange, for hours at a time. I can tell you about the layers of dust that loiter on your car (and everything else) during the dusty days of summers, but listening to the rain is a rare activity in this town.

The weather folks down east are calling for a system of rain to wash over the city for the next couple of days, and I am happy to see the city finally get clean; a fine layer of dust and grime from the long winter still clings to everything, and despite how much we think we can clean this place on our own, mother nature still does a far better job. I for one am ready to see the last remnants of winter to be washed away, and for our short spring to do its thing to pave the way for a hot and long summer. I just hope that what I heard on the radio the other week, the fact that the weather network is calling for a hot summer, is coming to come to pass; it was a long and cold winter, and I think I am speaking for a lot of us by saying that a nice summer would be greatly appreciated. Hell, I will start making sacrifices to random and nondescript gods/monsters if we can only have a hot summer!

Turn A Blind Eye

I never thought I would ever have a problem with killing one of the massive raid bosses in The World of Warcraft. It was no problem storming Arthas and his undead minions in Ice Crown Citadel, and the bosses that inhabit the halls of the various five man instances all usually deserve to die for some reason or another. I thought that this would be the same song and dance when Adult Content descended into the halls of Blackwing Descent on a mission to stop Nefarian and his followers: Magma, a failed experimental monstrosity who spews deadly parasitic worms fell to us; the artificial construct, The Omnotron Defence System, build to guard the lower halls was destroyed; Maloriak, the mad scientist who created the monsters that roam the halls of Blackwing was laid to rest; and Chimaeron, the horrid Frankenstein-esque monster was killed for the good of all. Then there is the blind dragon, Experiment 25463-D, Atramedes.

After you deal with the trash in his room, the raid is treated to a little bit of back story on the upcoming boss. It seems that Maloriak was trying to grant a black whelp “sight beyond sight” but blinded the young dragon in the process. Nefarian, being the creature that he is, tells his scientist to dispose of the young dragon. Despite the order, Maloriak keeps the young dragon, and you eventually have to defeat the full grown Experiment 25463-D. I find it to be a sad story, and if I did not want a pair of bracers from him, I would feel kind of bad for killing him week after week.

The battle against Atramedes is centred on the idea of sound, and how the raid has to manage its sound levels to avoid being destroyed by the raging blind dragon. You have to smash gongs, and avoid sound pulses in an attempt to bring him down, and get the much wanted loot. It`s funny how any feelings of remorse I might have had, or any feelings of pity Blizzard may have been trying to cultivate in the player is thrown out the window when the promise of new gear is given. I hope they try more stuff like this in coming content patches.

Game Plan, April 28, 2011

I feel bad about the lack of updates to this blog of mine. I want to blame it on the final weeks of school, and all the stress associated with that. I wanted to avoid finding any fault in myself. Yet I am the only one to blame, so this is me trying to make amends. Plus, with another semester of school over and summer looming on the horizon, I should have much more time to write and play.

The plan for the next couple of weeks is as follows:
1) Finish Dead Space 2, and write my response to it.
2) Finish Portal 2, and write how I felt about Valves newest game.
3) Finally start Mario Galaxy 2, and lose myself in the cosmos.
Let’s hope I am able to keep to this plan, and even throw out some other ideas I have bubbling up in my mind.

So here is a game plan, and it should help me stay on top of this.

Back to the Future: The Game Doesn't Suck

Let me be the first to admit how terrible I am at point and click adventure games. I never had a computer growing up, so I missed out on a whole slew of games, most of them being the Lucas Arts adventure games and masterpieces such as Myst and Riven that PC gamers love to this day. So when it comes to Telltales Back to the Future adventure game I will admit that I am not all that good at it, yet that has not stopped me from thoroughly enjoying the first episode of the games five episode arc.

Back to the Future: The Game is your basic point and click adventure title. As Marty McFly, you embark in the time traveling Delorean on another adventure through time, trying to avoid doing anything that could destroy the future! The story is top notch so far, and easily the best thing this game has to offer. The cliff hanger ending they leave you will have you wanting to jump into episode two as soon as you can (damn you final projects keeping me away!). I was worried that this game was going to suffer from the so common plight of movie licence games, but it is safe to say that even after one episode, the creators at Telltale really care about the source material. The voice acting of all the characters is also another standout of the package; AJ LoCascio as Marty sounds almost identical to Michael J. Foxx, and Doc Brown is voiced by none other than Christopher Llyod himself. Even the minor characters sound great.

Based on other reviews I have read of the game, people who have played their fair share of adventure games should be able to fly through this first episode. The game took me a little more than three hours, and that was after getting stuck multiple times on multiple puzzles. It’s not as if the puzzles are poorly designed, because once I did figure things out they seem logical enough, I think it more has to do with my limited experience with the adventure game genera. My one major problem with the game is the lip syncing. It is noticeably clunky when the characters talk, yet it’s hard to describe. They just don’t look right when they talk. Some of this is forgiven by the more cartoony style of the game, but one would think that a game based so heavily on talking and story would have a more impressive facial animation system. Aside from that, the graphics are charming, and the voice acting and story more than make up for the weird robot faces.

Episode one of Back to the Future: The Game has hooked me, and I cannot wait to have more time to be able to continue on this wild, time bending adventure. This game has also given me high hopes for Telltale’s up-coming Jurassic Park game, and high hopes for anything else these former Lucas Arts guys make in the future. Here is to hoping that the robot faces soon become a thing of the past.

Lords of Shadow

Castlevania is a series that has had a lot of trouble transitioning into 3D. Unlike Mario, Sonic, and Link, the Belmonts have not had the type of success in the field of 3D as they had in 2D. Castlevania on the N64 was nothing to write home about, and the recent outings on the PS2, while better than the N64 game, where also nothing special. For a while it looked as if Castlevania was destined to stay within the realm of handhelds, downloadable games, and all of them 2D. So it was about time that Konami brought one of the oldest series roaring into the modern era with Castlevania: Lords of Shadow.

You are Gabriel Belmont, a holy knight on a quest to revive his lost love. You are armed with the Combat Cross, a weapon that reminds me a lot of the whip Belmonts of the past have used in their eternal war against Dracula and his minions of the night. As your journey unfolds you upgrade your weapon to help you progress through the maze like levels, and the upgrades also enable you go back to previous levels to find health and magic upgrades that alluded you before. The cross is also your primary weapon and what lets you partake in one of the game’s best features: combat.

Combat in Lords of Shadow demands a lot from the player. At first it may seem that you can mindlessly spam your two attacks, but you will soon come to learn that you have to use everything Gabriel has at his disposal to succeed. You have to pull off combos, dodge enemies, block and counter demons, and know when is the right time to use your light magic (heals you whenever you land a hit) or use your black magic (your attacks to more damage). Your two magic’s are powered by the souls that your enemies drop, and you have to choose which one you refill: push the left stick in, and the souls you absorb go to your light magic, push the right stick in and your black magic is refilled. You can also get more of these souls by performing combos without getting hit; this fills your combo meter, and once full, every hit you hit an enemy they drop souls. If you are going to get anywhere in this game, you have to master this combat system.

The game feels like a mashing of a ton of different games. A few bosses play almost exactly like Shadow of the Colossus, and climbing (which feels much like a combination of Sands of Time and Shadow of the Colossus) also plays an important part in traversing the world. But do not take this as a mark against the game, if you are going to take ideas from games, why not take them from games regarded as amazing? Lords of Shadow is amazing to look at, it’s a shame then that this is such a double edged sword when it comes to the 360; while the game does look great, it slows down quite a bit. From what I have heard this is not the case when it comes to the PS3, and if that’s true then you can really start to see the age of the 360. The slow down doesn’t affect the game too much, but it does take away from a bit of the amazing places you travel to on your journey.

The story is pretty good so far, and provides a nice framework for the series reboot that Konami has said this game is. Patrick Stewart provides a great performance as your fellow knight Zobek, and as the narrator, while Robert Carlyle as Gabriel also does a pretty good job. The supporting cast also shine, and help to provide a sense that this is a real (albeit very different) place in 11th Europe.

My biggest problem with the game is the camera. While it is nice to not have to babysit it since each area is individual shot much, like the original Resident Evil, it also comes with the same problems that Resident Evil had. More times than not I could not see the enemies who are attacking me, and with camera changing constantly, it can be trying to move Gabriel around the environments. Once you do get use to the camera, things do get easier but it never really feels right.

It has taken Konami forever to bring Castlevania to the world of 3D, but MercurySteam and Kojima Productions finally did it, and they were able to make a pretty good game in the process. Sure it does fall in a few places (camera and frame rate), the story and combat more than make up for it. Also be prepared to rage quit...a lot.

Running on Music

Bit.Trip Runner is rhythm gaming at its finest. Instead of playing notes on your novelty plastic instruments (you know, the ones collecting dust in your closet), you are on an adventure! In the Bit.Trip Runner you are in control of the black rectangle known as Commander Video

In Runner, Commander Video runs on his own through the levels and it is up to you to jump him over obstacles, duck him under hazards, kick away the rubble in his path, and launch him high into the air on springboards. The key to success in this game is to listen to the music, and realize that everything you are making Commander Video do is all in time to the chiptune beats. If you miss a jump, or hit a flying saucer, not only does it stop the music, it also throws Commander Video back to the beginning of the level where you start all over again.

The visuals recall the 8-bit days of the NES, aside from the fact that everything is in 3D. Everything has a clean, crisp, and colourful look to it which makes it’s a shame that you won’t have much time to enjoy the visuals; you’ll be far too focused on navigating Commander Video through these levels to stop and smell the proverbial roses. Yet it is because of this clean visual style that makes it easier to focus on what you have to do to get through each level.

The music is easily my favourite part of this game. A healthy combo of electronica and chiptunes keep your toes tapping, and your fingers pushing buttons to the beat. As you run through the levels, you can also collect items that look suspiciously like D-pads (this game is full of game culture references), which adds more complexity to the music making it easier to get into the beat of things. You can also collect gold bricks throughout the levels, letting you play a bonus stage if you collect them all. Collecting these gold bricks adds a little more flavour to the already fantastic music, so they are worth the effort to collect them.

While originally released for the Wii as title for the systems downloadable WiiWare games, this fantastic game is also available on the PC through Steam. Having only played it on the PC I cannot say one way or another if either version is better than the other, but if you do play this game, get yourself a nice pair of headphones and turn it up...loud.

Black and White and Awesome

I was in the seventh grade when Pokémon Blue and Red came out in North America. I remember reading an issue of Nintendo Power where they had an article on the rampant success and popularity of a game called Pocket Monsters over in Japan. An old friend of mine had a copy of Pokémon Green that he had got when he was over in Japan visiting family, and after playing it briefly one day I hopped that this game would eventually come over here. It was not until 1998 when Nintendo released Red and Blue over here. My good friend and I got them day one, at that started a love of those little creatures that has survived to this day.

It’s now been 13 years since the release of Red and Blue (15 since the original Red and Green), and Nintendo has recently released Pokémon Black and White upon the masses. It seems that Nintendo and Game Freak are starting to realize that the series has to start evolving, and they have taken a few steps with this new release, but is it enough?

The storyline in Black and White seems have received more attention than previous outings. While you still go around and collect all the badges, thwart the evil plans of some team or another, and eventually become the Pokémon master, Nintendo has made you more involved in it all. This time, you meet most of the gym leaders before ever fighting them and help them stop the plans of Team Plasma and learn a bit about them as people. Instead of playing out like a “my first RPG story,” the game seems a bit more focused on telling a half-decent narrative. I am really enjoying how this journey is the story of you and your friends growing up. The story focuses on the fact that everyone has to grow up, and that there are going to be trials and tribulations along the way. While this is set against a back drop of battling monsters and saving the world the message is still there, and Nintendo and Game Freak have found (or at least finally realized) one of the series biggest strengths; this is game that kids grow up with, so why not tell a story to go along with that?

Along with this improved narrative, everything from the graphics to the music has been done with a level of polish not seen in the series since Silver and Gold on the Game Boy. One of the biggest additions for me is that the monsters actually move around on the battlefields and are no longer static sprites. This adds so much more personality to this huge collection of creatures, and provides something to watch while the battles are going on. It is hard to imagine that Nintendo and Game Freak took this long to throw this into the game, but I am glad that they finally did; this change was something I never knew was lacking in the series until now.

While Black and White does offer some significant steps forward for the series, they still feel like the same old game with that new layer of polish with what we have come to expect from each new entry: new map, new cities, new gyms, it’s all here, but it’s also the same things we have seen for the last 13 years. It seems strange that a game with such robust online features (features I have yet to use thanks to the DS Lite’s archaic Wi-Fi capabilities) still feels so much like the games that have come before it. What do Nintendo and Game Freak have to change about the series at this point? I really don’t know, and at the same time I wonder if they feel that they have to change anything at all. With Black and White selling over a million copies day one in North America, and also topping sales charts in the U.K., I don’t think we will be seeing Nintendo or Game Freak making too many changes to the Pokémon formula for some time.

The List: NES

Here is the start of my list of games that any non-gamer should play. This idea came to my friend, Alastair, and me while we were out for some beer and nachos the other day. We had just spent the afternoon at the used game store (where I made off with a Super Game Boy and a copy of Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins), and then we relaxed the reminder of the afternoon playing old Game Boy games. This got us to thinking about the games of our past, and was the focal point of our discussion over our beer and nachos that evening.

It started with talk about what it would be like to meet someone who was never been allowed to play games, and now they want to know what all the fuss is about. What started out as thinking out loud turned into a debate about which games (in our opinion) everyone should play, and here is where our list began. I’m going to start with the Nintendo Entertainment System, and then work my way through to today. I could have started earlier, but my experience with Atari, Intellivision and the like is almost nonexistent, and I don’t feel like I would be able to do them justice. Also keep in mind that this is all based on my own experiences, and since I did not have some consoles growing up (a Sega Genesis, Saturn or Dreamcast, nor the Sony Playstation) I will focus on the games I have played. If I miss anything vital, let me know in the comments section or fire off an email; I would love to know what other games people feel are must plays. Anyway enough babbling, on to the games!

Nintendo Entertainment System
The System that Saved the Industry

1. Super Mario Bros. 3:
I cannot think of any better game to start with than this. Not only is it considered by many to be the best Mario game ever, it is also considered to be one of the best games ever made.

By today’s standards, the lack of a save feature is sure to bother a lot of people who never had books full of pass words, yet aside from that, I cannot think of anything that really hinders the game play experience offered by Mario 3. Sure some of the levels can be devilishly hard, but that was the nature of game design back in the 80s; a lot of developers still had that arcade mindset where difficulty was directly tied to profits. The more times you die, the more quarters you pumped into the machine. Does Mario 3 suffer from this? I really don’t think so, and I am guessing a lot of people tend to feel the same way.

The power-ups in this game are one of its strongest points. Not only does the fire flower return, turning Mario into a fireball firing machine, but you also get things like the frog suit (making the inevitable water level bearable), a Kuribo’s Shore, and the racoon suit that lets you fly. They all help to diversify the game play, and help you to find the many secret warp-pipes and other secrets hidden throughout the levels. All in all, it’s still an amazing game by today’s standards, and I think anyone new to games should play this.

2. The Legend of Zelda:
It would be blasphemous to not introduce someone new to games to the game that started one of the most beloved of Nintendo franchises; hell, one of the most beloved game franchise ever. Is it the best in the series? Not really, but it is nice to be able to play this and see how Nintendo is constantly improving on the Zelda formula. I also think playing this will help to show how little some games have changed (aside from the move to 3D) over the years; why mess with a good thing?

3. Metroid:
I am including Metroid simply because it is the start of one of my favourite series, and it sets the stage for the magnificent Super Metroid (a game we will come to when I get to the Super Nintendo), and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

I am not saying that this is an excellent game by any means. While I do enjoy playing it from time to time, things such as the password system that only records how deep you made it into Zebes, not your current energy and missile count and only starts you off with minimal supplies is an exercise in frustration. Like most games on the NES, this is a game I feel people should play so they learn to appreciate the little things (such as full saves, and battery saves) that are so common in the industry today. Also, after giving this game a go, I would suggest playing the Game Boy Advance remake, Metroid: Zero Mission.

4. Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt:
This game bundle was sold with the NES across North America in 1986; not only did this introduce players new to the world of Nintendo to Mario (a character who then went on to became a cultural icon), it also gave us the NES Zapper light gun peripheral and a dog that would openly laugh at the player.

Super Mario Bros is still a great platformer, and its iconic first level is like playing a part of history, and Dunk Hunt is still one of the best uses of any light gun, and that dog that laughs at you when you miss a duck is hilarious.

I wish I could say more about the games of the NES era, but I never had one and by the time I started to realize that I loved games, the 16bit console war was just starting. I also thought of adding games such as Battle Toads and Ghouls and Ghosts, but then I remembered how soul crushingly hard those games are and how little fun someone new to games would have dying over and over.

The Console War

Hyperdimension Neptunia is easily the craziest (if not the craziest) game I have ever played, and this is coming from a guy who owns Cubivore. It’s Japanese in almost every sense of the term; this is a game made by an industry where pushing out the latest girl filled JRPG is the word of the day. I was surprised to see Neptunia released over here, let alone released with a solid translation/English script. Before we jump into the mechanics and such know this: the story is about a bunch of goddesses fighting each other over something or another in the world of Gamindustri (no, I did not make that up), and they’re all modeled after game consoles. That’s right; this is a game about the ever popular console war that nerds have fought over for years on messageboards, and on playgrounds the world over.

At its core, Neptunia is your basic dungeon crawler. You wander around theme based corridors and rooms, battling monsters, and finding treasure. This is all interspersed with digital novel style character interactions of the girls babbling to each other; sometimes about the story, other times about random nonsense. Think of it like those dating simulation games that most of us have heard about, or at least seen on the internet from time to time. Most of the dialog between the characters is pretty good (some of it is a little cringe worthy, especially from Compa), and the fact that at times they seem to be aware they are in a game (a game that is the personification of the console war) makes it all that much better. Also, the constant references to other games are well done; everything from street pugilists, to “Detris!” to “attack its weak point for massive damage!” just makes my day.

Combat is turned based, with an emphasis on chaining attacks into hard hitting combos. It reminds me a lot of Valkyrie Profile, with each button corresponding to different attacks, and the player having to chain those attacks together. Each and every button can be switched out in the menus, allowing for a lot of flexibility when it comes to the battle system. The way you use items in this game is a strange design choice: you never actively use them instead you set percentage rates to use rate of the items on a per character basis. This means that they will only use them at certain times, or when certain battle conditions are met. It’s a different approach, but not one I think works all that well; I have died a few times from my characters not healing themselves when they should have.

In the end, Hyperdimension Neptunia is not a bad game. Is it for everyone? Hell no; you’re average western gamer is going to wonder where the refilling life bar is, and why they’re not trying to stop the evil Russians/Terrorists/Aliens from taking over the world. This is a game for fans of the JRPG, fans of anime, or people who just want to see everything the gaming world has to offer. Or if you’re a closet Sailor Moon fan, this game is going to make your day (you know who you are!).

The Joys of Digging

Minecraft is one of the best games I have ever played. I am not joking. This is saying something due to a couple of facts. First is the simple truth that it was originally made by one man-god, Markus Persson (or Notch as he is also known) and the second is that I have played my fair share of games over the twenty four (soon to be twenty five) years I have been on this huge ball of rock. So I think it is a big thing for me to say that Minecraft is up there with games such as Super Metroid and Half-Life 2 when it comes to my favourite games. For those few who do not know what Minecraft is I will give you a quick rundown of the game, and then follow that with some screens of my own world to give you a sense of just how open this game is.

In the most basic of terms, Minecraft is a game about placing blocks. The games graphic style also reflects its basic concepts: you’re a little cube person, living in a world made up of countless cubes representing everything from water, to grass, to trees, to lava, and everything in-between whose job it is to do whatever you want. Yet this is not going to get you very far, as there is no tutorial what-so-ever and without some sort of guidance your first night is going to be harrowing experience. You are either going to be eaten by a zombie, shot by a skeletal archer, chased by a giant spider, or blown into a million pieces by a nasty little creature called The Creeper (most likely, you’re going to die from all of them all of the time). Once you learn how to start constructing basic tools (such as pickaxes, shovels, and swords), you can then start to mine various materials that then let you construct other things. A quick example is making a wood pickaxe to mine rock faster, then constructing a stone pickaxe (using the stone you just mined) so you can mine coal, combining the coal with wood sticks (which you got from either chopping down a tree with an axe, or by punching it down with your fists) to make torches so you can light up an area, and prevent monsters from spawning near you (they only spawn in the dark, which is what makes the night so terrifying). It seems like a lot, but once you get the hang of things you’ll be spelunking like the rest of us looking for diamonds and other rare materials, all in the name of fun.

One thing that draws a lot of people to this game is how open it is. There are no missions and there are no goals; you’re just a person in this world, and you get to do whatever you want. You want to explore the world, and find amazing vistas and caves spawned by the procedural generation of the world? Go right ahead. Or say you would like to build a castle, or recreate a scale replica of the Enterprise? Well, you can do that too. Whatever you want to do, you can do it. The game is like a box of Lego that has been dumped into a sandbox, and your imagination has been kicked into high gear.

In my single player game, I have spent the last couple of months (on and off) adding more and more to my world. I started off building a couple of towns, following them up with a personal mansion, a pyramid (The Temple of the Sun), an inn with a working fire place and jukebox (The Forest Edge Inn), and a long and winding road that connects them all. I am also working on a town in a frosty tundra region, and I have plans for a couple more large monuments (The Temple of the Moon being the next big one). For me, the style of the game makes me think of the old school RPGs of NES and SNES, and those games are what are inspiring me to build this cohesive little world. I will get some pictures from the multiplayer server soon; I want to get one when all of us are on and I can get some shots of everyone just doing their thing.

Every so often I also get a wanderlust that is only cured with hours of mindless wandering around the world, watching it form around me, and exploring what it has to offer. So with that in mind, I will leave this post with a couple of random screens of what I found the other during my wanderings; wanderings that should have been me working on another pointless paper. And what the hell, here are also some screens of the buildings I have made.

This is the "Temple of the Sun"

A huge stone Monolith I found while exploring the other day

My mansion on the lake

A sunrise over a frozen lake

Back At It.

After far too long of wallowing in self-doubt and pointless self-loathing, I am back and ready to talk about games, music, and books again. I have come to the conclusion that I don’t care if anyone reads this blog, or if anyone cares about this blog; I am doing this for myself and no one else. If other folks come along, and find something they like in the way I write then that’s awesome, and I welcome you with open arms. And on the other hand, if people come here and hate what they read then more power to them; I cannot please everyone all of the time, and I’m not about to try either.

I think this post is simply going to be an introduction of sorts. This post is going to be a tester to see how it feels to write something for the public again, and I must say that it feels pretty good. So over this weekend expect to see something regarding the Minecraft server my friends and I played on during our mid-reading week bender, and I also hope to get some time in with Hyperdimension Neptunia (a crazy looking JRPG for the PS3 that I just had to get). Also expect to have a lot of talk about retro gaming take place here; Harvest Moon for the SNES is on its way after a successful eBay auction, and I might start a let’s play of Illusion of Gaia (get a video going and everything).

Oh yeah, and we cannot forget about World of Warcraft. You can never forget about World of Warcraft.

PS. This is also going to be a place for me to get more of my writing out to the public. Not that I am going to post stories and such, but just a place for me to practice this crazy thing that I love to do.