Cosmic Super Boss

My Achy-Breaky Heart

2010-03-23T06:09:00.000-07:00

Maybe I just have terrible taste. Maybe I just expect too much out of games. Perhaps my failing is naivety and optimism, but I'd really like not to think that's true.

I don't play many new games and when I buy/recieve a new one I want it to be worth my while. I usually don't look for something that's got an epic story. I usually just try to look for something that mixes it up a bit. Not dramatically, but just enough to feel fresh (baby steps you know).

Sadly enough, it appears lately I've been a little off the mark.

Hours spent not studying leave me trawling through the major gaming news and blog sites, and I often find games catching my eye right from the beginning, from when they're first announced. I guess this is the stage where its more about the potential of their idea, where the concept can be met with 'Oh that looks interesting' as opposed to 'Well I really wish they'd done this instead' or 'Why'd they stick that in there'.

Being a big fan of the series since I first played Prince of Persia: Sands of Time on my neighbours PS2 (I wasn't allowed such violent games in my house), I felt an obligation to pick up the 2008 series reboot, the aptly named Prince of Persia. Stripped of all embellishments and associations, I was tentative the movement away from the crux of the series would weaken the gameplay.

Boy, have I ever been so right?

The game not only ran like a hobbled elephant drudging through mud-flats, it failed to deliver what the series had been about for me; the golden combination of rudimentary puzzle solving and spectacular, technical platforming. Well, this reboot was a little too rudimentary and had very little platforming to back up the spectacle. It was formulaic and the advancement of the narrative was much too metroidvania for me. Not only did I have to retrek finished areas to collect the light seeds necessary to unlock the 4 various powers, these 4 powers were simply graphical changes on 2 individual powers, which could easily have been variation on the same concept.

Jump from pad to pad, merely hitting the magic (Elika) button to soar to your next location. Either done with a leaping backflip or a grappling-hook-esque animation.

Move from pad to pad, hitting the Elika button to begin an on-rails sequence that leads you to your destination. Comes in flying or wallrunning varieties.

The combat was ambitious but hardly noteworthy, another idea relegated as great concept, poor execution.

With my hopes crushed and my HDD packing 8 gigabytes of fat I couldn't bring myself to trim, I found myself looking to another Ubisoft freerunning epic, sandy and picturesque like the games I'd fallen in love with.

This game was Assassin's Creed, one which I've recently picked up despite the criticisms. I'd played it before infrequently at a mate's place (if you'll pardon the vernacular) and thought it was entertaining enough. So when hitting up the local GAME, I thought I was onto a winner (“$20 Director's Cut edition, how can I go wrong?”).

Apparentally, I wasn't, and I strayed awry just by starting the game.

The problems with Assassin's Creed's design are most evident when you first start the game. After a graphics card crunching opening sequence that throws 'helpful hints' your way in the form of controls; hints that are scarcely useful in a situation where the camera and framerate is more troublesome than the random beggar they throw at you with all fists a pumping.

Immediately after this...disorientation they find it helpful to push you into one of the most mindnumbingly dull tutorials known to man. Add lengthy periods of expository dialogue either side of this introduction (“So you're saying you're going to pull him out of the Animus, our gene-memory-based time-travel device, so we can safely retrieve the memory of his Assassin ancestor before the deadline set to us by our company bosses?”) and you have one bored player. I'm not even going to touch on the monotony of the missions themselves, as that is ground covered by many before me, and I'm sure we're all well aware of it's failings in that field.

But these are only the games I have managed to pick up and play. There are several games out there that I'd followed with anticipation and hope only to be crushed by news of the dreaded...60 – 80 aggregate score. An emulator jockey since my boyhood days (to be separated from my lurching teen days), I was anxious to hear the news about the 3D Bionic Commando reboot. After all, DICE is hardly a lacklustre untried developer. Yet somehow, upon release, all I could hear was tale after tale of a game that just missed the mark.

This list goes on. Dark Void looked like a stop and pop shooter with a nice flow and reserved twist to the mechanics founded by husky men wearing breastplated future-suits. All I've heard is news of the worlds most mediocre shooter. It does nothing spectacularly wrong, but supposedly it never excels.

And just in the past few days, Metro 2033, one which had flown under my radar for so long only to come to my attention in the past 2 months, has been explained to me as very average. It is neither survival horror nor a polished pure shooter. Yet another game that could have excelled racked by a failing somewhere along the design chain.

So riddle me this readers: Why is it that so many games fail to reach the lofty heights their concept deserves, and which games have broken your heart with disappointment?

P.S. To end a note that isn't so negative and wallowing, I'd like to say I picked up the Just Cause 2 Demo recently and had an absolute blast. A cheesy presentation and story to say the least, but for unrestrained and truly open sandbox gameplay, I can't say I've played a more enjoyable romp. Definitely picking this up as soon as I can.

Alienware M11x

2010-03-11T00:09:00.000-08:00

I got one. Do like.

Now have time and ability to write articles everywhere. I'll be breathing new life into this blog.

Meh, Sonnets

2010-02-17T04:43:00.000-08:00

I can do not gam articles. So uh, whatever, I was happy with these.

Gleam and Grit

At street level there’s nought but gleam and grit,
From the gutter you feel the shadows flit
across your shoulders with a cold shiver,
lying across the drain under the sliver
of sunlight that dribbles off buildingtops,
pooling in the greasy runoff that stops
against the soaked cardboard and masking tape,
crumples the bruised bum bent all outta shape,
his face is swollen, tender and battered,
a man just like ‘them’ just further through life,
just back in town when he’d lost his wife
job house and kids, brutalised nightly by
the mob sharks and brokers, nothing hurts more
than to wake knowing he must face another.

Chairman of the Board

Quarters and dimes pool; filling the can,
Ego primping pity that befits a man
Of status power and suit, with a
6 figure salary and a 30th story house,
who’s toiled through meetings with seething spite,
in this city you hate your better man,
can’t be happy to sit on your hands,
can’t wait around and wait for relief
you work according to a central belief,
live fast, move fast, and never rest on your laurels,
raise your kids somewhere outta town,
dancing from city to house like a clown,
knowing deep down that you’re still just a joke,
for you’ve been trying to rest for as long as you’ve smoked.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Sonnet 1 was done in about 40 minutes. Sonnet 2 in 10. They both have their appeal, but 1 is betterly made.

Because jw accosted me, I'ma post a proper article tomorrow. And I promise to only pull out my poems in a pinch, if I've really got guilt/no time to write at the mo'.

Shit Son

2010-02-09T02:30:00.001-08:00

An article I wrote a while ago just got featured in the blog of one of Australia's biggest newspapers. Link for all y'all:

The Article

It comes as a surprise to me as this was an article I was retrospectively unhappy with. Also comes as a much needed pickmeup.

Poetry yo

2010-02-03T04:21:00.000-08:00

Ok, I haven't done anything in a while so here's what I've been doing instead of this. Or rather, here's me posting schoolwork because I'm lazy and don't wanna write something new

Red and Black.

Red and black are the only colours I see most days. The only tracks out here are mine; nobody ever ventures further into the outback, even fewer come back.

The Red.

It is the dust in the air that blows over me like sandpaper against the skin. It coats me until I don’t know whether what I’m staring at is a open wound or the dirt that fills it: red.

The Black.

It is the tread of my tire that I stare down for hours at a time. It cuts through the red that covers the ground and leaves in its wake endless trails of exposed tar: black.

The Red.

It is the needle that drops lower and lower throughout the day. It reminds me that my time out here is running short, and once again I must return to the nearest outpost: red.

The Black.

It is the worn leather that covers my hands, back and feet. It protects me from the red, reinforcing that the black is at home in the red and I am not: black.

The Red.

It is the earth that lies beneath me and stretches to all corners of this land. It is the life that remains out here and courses through my veins: red.

The Black.

It is the darkening sky that settles over me like a heavy blanket. It is the herald to the end of every day and what lies beyond every life: black.

The Yellow.

It is the golden orb that nestles itself between the red and the black. It separates the beginning and the end with a higher, constant presence.

The White.

It is the tightening grip of my knuckles upon the throttle as they flare backwards. It is the only thing I still believe in and yet remains foreign.

If you want a spoiler about what its about, and most of you will need it because you're not australian, uh, here's this: Spoiler

New things are happening

2010-01-29T22:24:00.000-08:00

Pretty soon I should be getting me an EeePC. Specifically the one called the 1005HA-H. So thats exciting enough. Netbooks for the win.

Also, work on the game is continuing. I'm continuing to try and lower the poly counts where possible, as well as to get all the assets done so we can begin working alongside eachother more productively.

I'd like to take this moment to note that some of the turrts are getting a redesign, and a lot of them are getting tweaked.

I am now realising one of the most annoying things about turrt shooters/tower defenses. They tend to fall into the trap of having the same feeling turrts filling the same roles. Its hard to come up with something fresh, at least for me. So thats a challenge I'm going to have to work through.

I'm also dealing with the side effects of my own shortsightedness/ignorance. I downloaded a plugin that triangulates the models, but I managed to save over all my untriangulated models. I'm a smart guy.

What this means is I basically have to redo all the models, a time consuming process. Lesson learnt, don't CTRL+S absentmindedly.

Sorry about this nothing post. I'll post something worth reading later. Gotta read Catch 22 and buy my computer. Its all happening.

The Trap of Game Logic

2010-01-27T11:21:00.000-08:00

We all understand game logic. It just happens.

It is a strange barrier for people to start getting into games. We know that if there is a switch it must be pushed, that simply how the game works. And if the switch doesn't work, we have to do something else first. And if the switch works but we have to stay standing on it, then we need to push a box onto the switch.

Why is it that this makes so much sense?

Why is flicking a switch an integral part of gameplay? When I want to turn on a light, I do not have to place the 'strange crystal' I found in the previous room, nay, Dungeon! in the pedestal. I do not have to shuffle mirrors along their tracks so the light from the skylights overhead trips the switch in the other end of the hallway. I just flick the bloody switch.

It doesn't seem like much at first, it just seems like puzzle making. But, why are the puzzles all about the same common aspects? Switches, doors opening, use your item, and you're through. I mean, my mate's girlfriend wanted to play through Portal, and at first it was jarring for her. She is not a thickie, or fickie for the more British readers. It just isn't inherently intuitive if there's a box and a switch we have to combine the two.

Same thing with enemies. I was playing strangers, which I referred to before, and without thinking, just on the basis that I was on a new world and I had a gun, the creatures advancing towards me must be killed. No. That isn't intuitive. That doesn't make sense. Its game logic.

How must we eradicate the game logic? How must we change our preconceptions walking into a game?

We have to think outside the switches boxes and guns. We have to do something different.

On a sidenote, Old Man Murray's Crate Review System (OMMCRS) is a great example of the foibles of game logic. Get it in you.

Sadly...

2010-01-27T10:53:00.000-08:00

Past 2 days i've been in the back to school groove, finishing all the work I should have finished roughly 6 weeks ago. But tomorrow regular service will resume, and I will make a couple of posts for a couple of new things.

School

2010-01-26T09:10:00.001-08:00

School is a fine example of poor game design.

More on this in my next post.

EDIT: Next post mean later post, it will come in the next week.

'Vignette' Gaming

2010-01-25T11:05:00.000-08:00

For those who don't know, a 'vignette' is a 'short, impressionistic scene that focus on one moment or give a particular insight into a character, idea, or setting.' For those of you who do, well, aren't you a bigshot?

Basically, I'm using the term Vignette Gaming to refer to a style of game most often called 'Art Game.' Games such as The Graveyard, This is How Bees Work and strangers. You know, the ones that when mentioned will cause several pages of insults and well structured yet inherently flawed retorts.

Of the three games I mentioned above, only one really actively strives for artistic pretence. The other two are simply cheery games that give you a smile and a cheeky little message for under a 5 megabyte download.

Lets just get this straight; none of these are high art (though nothing really is). If you weren't aware of this, then sorry Tale of Tales, sorry Jasper and bento, sorry jwaap. However, they do present an interesting challenge to the general ideology of the gaming world. Rather than go large they've peeled back their message to its bare bones, something which other art forms have accepted for years. It comes to us as gamers to realise that not everything we do is for fun. Not every book on the shelf is a Tom Clancy thriller or poorly written Ian Fleming schlock. In fact, books tend to try and avoid the brutish expression of such novels. They are a minority. Why then are the vast majority of games so mundane?

On Turrts and Gams:

2010-01-24T14:31:00.000-08:00

I guess it's time for a little shameless self promotion.

Just a few days ago I began work on a little something of my own, a process I have started before. Though, as opposed to all the other times I've worked on a little something of my own, I'm still working on it 3 days after I started.

But I'm not in this alone. I'm churning out some 3D work whilst my man, who for the purposes of today we'll call msqrt, is programming away like a champion. Yet, as opposed to all the other times I've done graphics whilst another person programs, we're actually getting things done.

But thats all retrospective, I just want to give you a brief little introduction to what we're doing.

You know those games where you set up your towers and wait while they destroy all the little enemies that come at you wave after wave until you either finish the level or enough of them run off beyond your screen (which is apparentally a bad thing, I would have thought you'd wanna get rid of them). I think they're called like, turret...shooters or something. Well, our game is kind of like that; Its a turret shooter. So the barebones of what we're doing should be familiar to some of you, and I've pretty much explained the basics for those of you who didnt.

Now, what we're doing with it.

Well, lets just say that you're defending something. Not just the valuable piece of real estate below your screen, but something tangible. I'm going to treat you all to a little something here. I have a hot screenshot, current as of 7:30 AM GMT+10.

Now just let your imaginations run wild as to what could possibly go there. I me-hold on a second.

No, don't be vulgar.

Now that's just stupid.

Look okay, just stop imagining, I'll tell you later. Just be patient.

Now, while you were intently scanning that screenshot for clues, you may have noticed a little something in the back there. Well, I have another little treat for you. A spoiler if you will.

Now, I've said too much already, so hopefully these morsels will tide you over until we next meet.

Also, while I'm here, I'd like to point out one last thing. That turret model is no longer current as of 9:27AM GMT+10. I've decided I want to cut some delicious polygons off it so more people can enjoy the game baby me and msqrt are making. So, here, just for you, the reader, most precious person in the world RIGHT NOW, I have a screenshot of the new lopoly turrt.

So, for now what I'd like to hear from you below is quite frankly, gushing admiration and fanboyish anticipation.

That or your real opinions, you decide.

8 kb/s worth of fun #1

2010-01-24T11:07:00.000-08:00

I don't really know how to introduce the blog, so uh, I'm just gonna jump straight into it.

I live in Australia, and that means 2 things primarily; I'm lazy and no matter where I live, American ghettoes usually have better internet than I do.

This makes it incredibly hard to play new games and when inevitably I do hit the bandwidth cap halfway through the month, It'd be easy for me bored. Luckily, there are games out there for the man with dial-up speed net and I find its my duty to share this joy that's accessible at 8 kb/s with the world.

Epicmafia is a nifty little game that streamlines and refines the popular forum game into something quite wonderful. If I were to market it to the fratboy, I would call it an online multiplayer class-based thriller in a mafia setting. For everyone else, Its a game of wits and psychology as all sides of the match attempt to root out the other.

The multiplayer suite itself is quite robust for a browser based game. Once you register (a free, quick and easy process) its easy to jump into a match from the lobby or create your own match once you've learnt the ropes. Quite quickly you'll begin to understand both the game specific slang and the easiest methods of beguiling your opponents.

The community is vibrant and very much alive and you'll soon begin to recognise 'famous' faces around the community. Players are encouraged to both play by the rules and to not throw away matches carelessly due to an online high score board and a surprisingly unobtrusive karma system.

In short this game manages to create interesting and incredibly entertaining gameplay in a lightweight and easy to understand package. Quite quickly you'll find yourself embroiled in battles of logic and office chair psychology that will not only entertain but infuriate you in the most strangely compelling way.

I wouldn't have started playing this game were it not for my crappy net, but I know its a game I can't see myself ever giving up. Its great for filling in a few minutes and also good for a laugh. It'll take you less than 3 minutes to get started, so why not give it a shot?