It's like running a marathon and just as you're about to cross the finish line you fly off into space.

This is it. All week I’ve been trying to prepare you for this. The end of Mass Effect 3 after the jump.

Do I even need to say that there are spoilers incoming?

Orange and Blue - Opposites Attract

Style. That organic, enigmatic thing. Style is easy to see, easy to feel, but difficult to describe. Anyone can tell you that the last two Harry Potter movies are much darker than the rest, but when you press for specifics, it becomes difficult to describe. Certainly more characters die. More bad things happen. The film certainly has less colorfulness, that is to say there is less difference between each color and grey (not a bad thing when used well, as in this case). The music contains more minor keys and tones. However it comes about, it is a darker set of films than the rest.

What do the Harry Potter movies have to do with Mass Effect? Find out after the break.

Warning! Spoilers ahead! Read at your own risk!

Left Hook or Right?

Decisions. Choices. Options. Staple of the Western RPG, the ability to make decisions for your main character has been both praised and criticized. Some see it as the ultimate destination of video game narrative; the ability for a player to tell the story they want, to interact with it. Others see it as a weakness. An obstacle towards crafting a cohesive story. Personally I think both styles have their advantages, and it really depends on what kind of game is being made, and how good the writers involved are.

For better or worse, the Mass Effect series, and Bioware games in general, utilize a decision based dialogue system. The story is told through character interactions and the player is allowed to choose what their avatar says or does from a set of given options. Personally, I think it’s a great fit for the series, but it’s also a major contributing factor to the disappointment I, and others, have for the ending.

Why is decision making important to Mass Effect’s story? How does it enhance the game’s narrative? Let’s discuss, after the jump.

Warning! Once again, the rest of the article is filled with major spoilers! You have been warned!

I Am The Very Model...

 Edit: Having problems with Blogger, should be fixed shortly.
Edit2: Fixed, kinda...

Continuing our discussion on Mass Effect 3, I would like to transition from talking about the active game elements (i.e. combat), to the passive. In this case I would like to talk about the characters. This is not going to be a detailed list of all the characters, and what was done well or poorly with them (though if there is interest I wouldn’t mind a project like that in the future), instead I just want to give something more akin to an appetizer, a taste of how the characterization and character interactions have changed over the course of the Mass Effect series.

Warning! Massive Spoilers ahead, including one of the best scenes in Mass Effect 3. Continue at your own risk!

The Lazarus Project: Spoilers Edition

Wow. I can't believe it's been over a year since I last made a post. It really does take something monumental for me to make my opinions known it seems. Well that, or I took a year off for personal reasons, but there's no way that's true. Right? If you follow anything even remotely video game related, you've no doubt heard something about the controversy over Mass Effect 3's ending. Going into the game, I expected all of the internet rage to be hyperbolic, as the internet does favor extremely strong opinions. In the end, however, I found I agreed with what I'd heard online, even if I didn't share their reaction.

While much of internet appears angry, even furious over the ending, I find myself more confused and disappointed than anything else. I sincerely doubt that I'll be treading new ground here, as by now the internet has probably discussed this issue to death (I did my best to avoid spoilers until I had finished Mass Effect 3 myself). Still, I would like to explain my feelings, if only to get them out of my system. I will not, however, be jumping right into discussion on the ending, as I know I have some followers who have not, or will not play the game, and I think it's important to understand the rest of the game in order to truly 'get' how disappointing the ending is. Thus, I declare this week to be Mass Effect week for A Curious Tale. Here's a rough schedule of what I have planned for this week's discussion:

Monday: Combat

Tuesday: Characters

Wednesday: Decisions

Thursday: Style

Friday: The End

I will attempt to limit spoilers, but I am going to be discussing the end of the game, as well as some of the best scenes in detail, so take heed. In addition to this influx of content, I shall be making my (hopefully) glorious return to twitter, where I can be found at Corynrags. Let's start things off then, shall we?

Combat is, hands-down, the best part of Mass Effect 3. I loved the combat in Mass Effect 2, and the 3rd has made nothing but improvements since then. Leveling has been extended, as have the number of powers each class has, greatly increasing the player's options in combat, while not sacrificing the balance that Mass Effect 2 added (global cooldowns and limited ammo in particular). The enemy forces, while fewer in factions, have much more diversity; to the point of forcing the player to change their tactics based not only on which faction they're fighting, but also based on what enemies happen to be around at that exact moment. The enemy A.I. is much more aggressive, and will attempt to flank your position, even on the easier difficulties, which, combined with some of the new enemy types, results in a much better flow to the combat. You are forced to find new cover periodically, rather than just hang out at an entryway and poke the bad guys to death (unless you choose to play as a vanguard, in which case, CHAAARGE!). All of these things contribute to make combat more fun, but it's the restoration of Shepard being able to use all weapon types, regardless of class, from ME1, and the associated weight system that really gels the combat together.

In ME3, you are given a weight limit, and each weapon has an associated weight, as your weight goes above the limit, so do the cooldowns on your abilities, and vice-versa. This creates a situation where an adept, who was forced to use only pistols and smg's in Mass Effect 2, will likely choose to do so in 3, as the lowered cooldowns are more powerful for that class than the benefit of the heavier guns. Yet, an adept is not forced to such a situation, and if someone wants to be a sniper rifle wielding adept, or sentinel, they are free to do so. Power gamers have more fun, as they can game the system for maximum combat potential, Role-player's can have fun, using the weapons they feel their Shepard would, even casual gamers find themselves rewarded, no longer having the confusion over why they can't use that awesome assault rifle they just picked up. This change is a wonderful one, and works beautifully in conjunction with the weapons themselves.

Mass Effect 1 had boring weapons. All the shotguns were shotguns, all the assault rifles were assault rifles, etc… The only difference between weapons were damage, accuracy, firing rate, and how many shots you could fire before they would overheat, and almost all categories increased as you bought the higher level weapons. The weapon mod system helped alleviate some of the boredom, but most of the choices came down to more damage. Mass Effect 2 mixed things up, guns were now much more individualized, having special properties, and really felt like different guns, but there were still usually optimal choices, and without the weapon mod system, most people ended up using the same weapons. Mass Effect 3 brought back the weapon mod system, but modified it to make it more engaging. Now I can choose to have a shotgun with an extended barrel that does more damage, or a blade on the end for more melee damage, or a larger clip, or a scope, or more accuracy. All meaningful, visual changes, as opposed to ME1's. Personally, I'd rather choose between a scope and being able to shoot targets through cover, rather than between extra poison or fire damage.

The Best Pistol

 And then there's the new guns. ME2 may have introduced guns that felt different, but ME3 really makes each gun unique. From pistols that fire miniature sticky bombs that explode into miniature biotic black holes, to sniper rifles that fire laser beams after charging for a second or two. The guns really feel unique, each having its own distinct 'personality', bringing back fond memories of Goldeneye and Perfect Dark. Even melee attacks have been buffed. Not only are there gun mods and skill trees that help improve melee damage, but there's also a new three-hit combo for standard melee attacks, a new heavy melee attack, and a new storm-melee attack, some of these even change depending on your class. As a player, you have a vast array of techniques and weapons for taking out your opponents, which leads to more fun.

ME3's combat is such an improvement over it's predecessor's, that its multiplayer mode, which is reminiscent of a slightly (and only slightly) toned down single-player, is as fun and addicting as some of the more recent Call of Duty games. I find myself receiving the same endorphin rush for killing an opponent in multiplayer as I do in Call of Duty: Black Ops, a game well noted for tapping into that sensation. They did a great job with the visual and audio rewards. It's incredibly satisfying charging at a Guardian and as he flails about trying to regain his balance making his head explode with a blast from my tricked out shotgun.

To be honest, I never understood the relatively large mass-market appeal of the Mass Effect series. A sci-fi RPG seems precisely like the kind of game that would be relegated to the niche market of hardcore gamers and nerds (which while large, and larger than it used to be, is still niche in the grand scheme of things). Instead, it seems to have found a home in the same crowd that sits down with some beers for a night of Halo or Call of Duty. Certainly, the first game's combat was clunky enough for me to have this disconnect. With ME3, there's no disconnect. Halo had fun combat. Call of Duty had fun combat. Mass Effect 3 has fun combat.

At the end of the day, I have only three real complaints about Mass Effect 3's combat, and they really are minor. First, all of the enemies that can instant kill you are annoying. It's not fun in multiplayer, and it's pure bullshit in single player. At least give player's some kind of animation to look out for, or some way to know how to avoid the attack besides 'don't close to melee distance with certain enemies'. This is especially annoying for vanguards, as for them, the strategy with anything problematic is to charge right at it. Second, I really hope they release all the extra weapons that the collector's edition, or certain pre-orders received as DLC. I wouldn't mind paying a few dollars for a gun I didn't get because I decided not to preorder with Gamestop. That's fine. Just give me the option (though I do understand that this is unlikely due to contracts and all that jazz). Really, I just like playing with all the guns, and wouldn't mind some more. Third, new game+ lets you keep all of your guns and weapon mods. This is great, as some guns are unavailable until the last few missions of the game, and you barely get to play with them. So why am I complaining? The ending. The bad part of the end is short, maybe five or ten minutes, but it's completely unfun. It actually detracts from my experience, from my enjoyment. I just don't want to force myself through it just to get to the new game+.

My final consensus? Mass Effect 3's combat is a hell of a lot of fun. I could honestly play it for hours, and while I was surprised by it's inclusion, I am grateful for the developers spending the time to make the multiplayer mode as solid as it is so that I can enjoy it whenever I want.

I cannot stress this enough, but if you have anything to say, positive or negative, please do so. You can leave a comment here, contact me through Twitter (@Corynrags), or even my e-mail. I like discussing much more than I like preaching, and I would love to hear some other people's thoughts.

Edit: I apologize for the formatting, blogger is... problematic at times.

Dragon Age 2 - There Be Spoilers Below

I hadn’t really planned on picking up Dragon Age 2, but curiosity got the better of me and I decided to try out the demo. I was pleasantly surprised by what I found. I had heard about the changes in the dialogue system (a good choice I feel, considering Bioware’s writing strengths), but I had no idea that they had changed combat as much as they did. Rather than gritting my teeth in frustration every time a new group of enemies would spawn, I grinned in anticipation. The combat in Dragon Age 2 wasn’t the boring slog of it’s predecessor; it was actually fun! So fun in fact, that I was a little disappointed when there were no more enemies to kill and I actually had to listen to some of the story.

At this point I was thinking that I would wait for a price drop and  pick up the game then (combat was fun, but the characters and writing weren’t really catching my interest). Then Flemeth showed up. You see, one of my major complaints about Dragon Age: Origins was how forgettable the character designs were. They were serviceable to be sure, and outside of the funny hats, Morrigan’s outfit, and all of the heavy armor, they were pretty realistic, but it wasn’t good design. I couldn’t pick any of the characters in DA:O out from their silhouette. Don’t quite get what I’m saying? Then how about an example. Here’s Flemeth in Dragon Age: Origins:

And here she is in Dragon Age 2:

The design is wacky, even hilarious (older gal’s got quite the body), but it’s strong, has presence, and most important of all, it’s memorable. Seeing her character design sold me on Dragon Age 2, and that very night I pre-ordered it. I should have listened to my first thoughts.

Dragon Age 2 is not a bad game. It’s quite fun, and there’s a lot of good things to be found in it. I might even be tempted to call it a good game in certain situations. That said, it’s a broken, buggy, unfinished mess.

Quests fail to trigger, trigger early, and become uncompletable. There are multiple game breaking-bugs (there’s a way to permanently lower the main character’s attack speed everytime a party member leaves your party). Almost all of the quests in the game use one of five maps, with only which doors are locked to differentiate them. I hated this in Mass Effect, and I hate it still (though Mass Effect at least had a fluff reason for the buildings to all be identical). All of these I can deal with, assuming some of the bigger bugs get patched later on. What I cannot handle is how unfinished the game is.

It’s hard to describe exactly what I mean by unfinished. It’s like, the second half of everything that’s in the game is missing. Quests end before a full resolution can be made, or you don’t get to see the most important parts (Hawke’s return from the Deep Roads, Hawke getting the estate, Aveline confronting the corrupt captain of the city guard, Aveline’s marriage, etc...). Fights never progress in design beyond, enemy appears, you kill them, second group of enemies appear, you kill them, third group of enemies may or may not appear. Even bosses follow the same exact routine. The entire game is a dark build-up. Hawke (the main character) grows more and more important, but he loses more and more each time. The entire game is filled with points where no matter what Hawke does, he can’t succeed. All of this culminates in the final hour or so of the game, becoming one complete and utter failure for Hawke as a hero. And then, when things are at their darkest, the game ends.

I’m a fan of many different kinds of endings. Dark endings, sad endings, happy endings, crazy endings, even wtf endings. The one thing all of these things have in common is that they are endings. Dragon Age 2 doesn’t end. Everything goes to shit, and that moment when Hawke actually has the chance to do something, to make up for all the things they couldn’t change throughout the entire game, and Bioware doesn’t give it to us. This is not The Empire Strikes Back folks. Things got dark in that movie, but it had a true and proper ending. There was a final fight and the heroes lost. That doesn’t happen here. Sure, there’s a final fight, and you even win, but then the story basically acts like you lost. You can’t have it both ways and call it an end.

The fact is that we’re either going to get a proper ending in Dragon Age 3, or more likely since Flemeth is almost assuredly going to be the big-bad in that game, it’s going to come as DLC or an expansion pack. Before you try to explain to me how expensive video games are to make and how dirt cheap they are for entertainment, I’ll just say that I know, and I’m not like that. I’m fine with selling extra bits of content, things that couldn’t be finished in time, or anything like that. Even paying for content already on the disk doesn’t bother me that much. But the goddamn ending to your story better be in the fucking game when it ships, especially when the game is as buggy and needing of some playtesting as this one. Fallout 3 had more of an ending than this game, and I hated that game’s ending.

One thing I’ve avoided discussing is the game’s writing. I wanted to save this for last, being the area where I have to most knowledge, and thus the most to complain about. I’ve always enjoyed Bioware stories. They may not have the best writing, or the most complex ideas, but they’re fun It’s like playing an action movie.  For the past few games, Bioware seems to have understood what they’re good at, making games where the main character is increasingly badass and well... action hero-like. They didn’t do that this time. Bioware decided to take a page out of Obsidian’s book, and tried to make a darker story, with more difficult choices and less clear-cut good guys. Bioware tried to make DA2 a game that’s less about black and white, and more about shades of grey... and occasionally the succeeded at it. There is a long chain of quests regarding someone killing women in the town, and it gets quite dark and tense towards the end. When it hits the end of the quest though, Bioware cops out. They make the murderer a complete stereotype (and completely unrelated to everything else in the quest), and they completely deny his impact.  I’m impressed that they tried something so difficult, but the fact is that you really should stick with what you’re best at, especially in writing. Obsidian gets away with making morally complex stories, because they have very talented writers that understand morally complex situations. Bioware has decent writers, but they’re about as morally complex as white bread. They just don’t understand the different scales of evil enough to write those kinds of stories. On the other hand, I have no doubt that Obsidian writers would fail flat on their faces if they tried to write a story as black and white as the original Knights of the Old Republic.

The companions in this game are, much like the writing a very mixed bag. Aveline manages to strike the perfect balance between being a stuck-up bitch, and an actually likable person (she’s probably one of the most complex characters in a video game, not to mention a strong female character). Meanwhile, Anders is whiny, annoying, and generally just a terrible person. They had something interesting going on with Merrill being nerd-bait/girl-next-door but having horrible dark things happen to her, but in never goes anywhere (her character is exactly the same the entire game). Fenris could have been a great joke about emo-characters if he wasn’t taken so seriously within the game. I didn’t use Isabella enough in my play-through to see what her writing was like. Hilariously, their best character turns out to be Varric. Upon first meeting Varric you would assume that he’s a typical con-artist. Nice and friendly, then he takes your money and runs-off. Instead you get a decent person with a good sense of humor. He’s basically the best friend I’ve seen in a video game. He’s a wonderfully fresh take on the charming rogue. I mean, he even calls Fenris “broody” (note Varric has a nickname for every character except for Aveline, seeing as how she’s the only character developed enough to avoid being a stereotype I find this hilarious).

Speaking of Aveline and Varric, they both happen to be the only companions in the game (ignoring DLC characters and siblings) that can’t be romanced. Considering two of the best characters in Mass Effect, Wrex and Mordin, are also unromanceable, I find this to be quite telling about Bioware’s writers. Personally, I subscribe to the belief that every good story is at its core a romance story. Sadly, romances in video games have rarely helped prove my point (although it may help explain why so many video game stories are so bad). Bioware in particular has always had very awkward romances. They didn’t break that tradition in this game, and I believe that I may have found part of the reason why:

"I don't believe in happy endings when it comes to love." - D. Gaider (Lead Writer for DA2)

I’m not sure of the veracity of this quote; I found it on a forum online. Regardless, of whether it is true or not, it accurately depicts my feelings on Bioware’s writers when it comes to romance. have you ever read anything written by somebody who was just dumped? I have, and they get written just like in DA2. Bioware romances tend to come in three types. Purely physical, where it’s all about sex and power (Miranda in Mass Effect 2). Painful, where the character doesn’t want to be in love (Morrigan in DA:O). Or last, but probably creepiest, true love, where the character admits love immediately and becomes super-attached and creepy (Liara in Mass Effect). I honestly can’t think of a Bioware romance that seems actually healthy, but considering how few relationships actually are in the real world, I could deal with that. What bothers me is how incidental romances are in these games. In an action movie the guy getting the girl is just as important as saving the day, and often being forced to choose between the two is the antagonist’s final weapon.

I know I’ve listed a lot of faults, and it may seem that I hate this game. In the end,  I found Dragon Age 2 to be a fun, albeit unfinished game. If I had paid $40 or less I would have been perfectly satisfied with what I get, as it is I am only mildly disappointed. So long as you don’t go into this game expecting GOTY 2011 and you assume that your choices will only effect dialogue rather than the story itself, you should have a fun time.

Comments? Criticism?

Edit: Found the actual quote, "I suppose my problem is I don't believe in happy endings when it comes to love. Anyone who's played in one of my tabletop campaigns would probably wholeheartedly agree with that."

Not Gonna Happen

I got a bit sick or something and it's turned my brain into absolute mush. Due to this, and the fact that I need more time to come to terms with my own feelings about the game, I won't be giving my thoughts on Dragon Age 2 tonight. However, I will have it up by the end of tomorrow, so long as I don't start throwing up.

I really wish I could figure out what it is about this house that makes me foggy-brained so often...

Playing A Story

Every day movies rely more and more on digital animation and effects, meanwhile video games gain access to higher quality voice-actors and get ever closer to building a bridge over the uncanny valley. As this gap between video games and movies closes, interactivity grows more and more important as a dividing line between the two media. Perhaps my favorite methods of interaction is the player’s ability to alter the story.

As far as I’m aware, player interaction within a game’s story first appeared in PC games, specifically RPG’s. Most notable of these were the D&D based games, such as Baldur’s Gate or Planescape: Torment. These games allowed the player to decide exactly what it was that the main character said. The vast majority of these “dialogue choices” were nothing more than fluff, meaning that they had no impact on quest lines, romances, or the overall game story. However, some choices were meaningful, and capable of changing even the ending a player received. A good example can be found in the Blade Runner video game. As the movie had different endings depending on which cut you saw; the game had multiple endings based upon the choices the player made during the game. These choices never altered the final scene of the game, but they did change whether the main character was actually a robot, or if they even knew what they were.

As the years have passed, developers and writers have honed their craft. Where it was once blindingly obvious what choices would change the story, it has become much more difficult to tell with recent titles (at least on the first time through). Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, and Dragon Age 2 have taken an interesting turn with letting the player choose the main character’s dialogue (especially for such a formula based developer). Rather than showing you exactly what the character will say, and leaving him unvoiced, in these games the main character has voiced lines, and the player can choose from not only vastly reduced lines (down to 3 on average from 6 or so), but what the player is shown on screen is only an approximation of what the character will actually say. These semi-hidden options work with the voiced dialogue to move the player from being the main character, to being the main character’s director. You can’t choose what your actor will say exactly, but you can guide him along the path you want in order to tell the story you want to tell. In this position the game becomes less about a specific story, and more about the player telling the kind of story they want (which is why I find it so enjoyable with Bioware’s action-hero narratives). It’s a very neat effect, and is something I’ve personally wanted to see happen ever since I was a little kid at the movie theater.

Not all games that offer story interactivity allow control over a character’s dialogue. It is, in fact, more common (among games that let the player change the story) for the player to have only a few chances for this interaction. Nier is one of these games. You can never choose what the main character will say, and for most of the game you have no control over the story. A few times the game gives you a choice as to do something or not, but these are tricks. Known as “but thou must”, these options only allow you to pick one choice. Choosing anything else results in someone saying something similar to, “but though must!” and placing you back at the initial choice. Well hated among video game players, because of the false depth they provide, in certain, very emotional places (the end of Metal Gear Solid 3 comes to mind), they can help enhance a player’s emotional state. Sadly this, proper use, of these false choices is very rare. The power of Nier’s story comes mostly from extremely strong writing, but the few choices it allows within the story, even its “but though must”’s add just the proper amount of player involvement to take complete control of your emotions. By letting you, the player, make these extremely important decisions, it makes their results entirely your own.

These two examples are very different in the amount of control you have in the story, but they are both success stories. Where a video game’s story fails, is when they don’t allow player involvement. The worst thing a game can do is have the player think, “Why can’t I do that?” A good, well-designed game never breaks a player’s sense of freedom and immersion. This is not to say that players should be able to do everything, not even Rockstar (developers of the Grand Theft Auto games) has been able to do that. But if you’re going to block a player’s path, or kill off a character, you have to make it seem like there is no way that they could save them (or get through that path). In the end, video games have less in common with movies and books than you’d think, and more in common with storytelling. A good storyteller adapts their tale to the audience at hand, and a good game conforms to its audience’s expectations.

I always appreciate comments, and criticism. Especially criticism. So please, let me know if there's anything I can do better, or that you want to hear about. Leave a comment here, contact me by e-mail, or send a tweet @Corynrags.

Preview

Hmm. It looks like I’m going to need a little more time/coffee before I can condense my thoughts into something readable. I’ll give you guys a little preview of why I started thinking about this subject to help tide you over.

Like many gamers, I’ve been playing Dragon Age 2 recently, and I’ve been enjoying it quite a bit (in spite of its flaws). Of course, while playing I couldn’t help but compare DA2 to its predecessor, Dragon Age: Origins (never played Awakenings personally), and its in-company rival, Mass Effect 2. To me, DA2 seemed to bridge the gap between the other two games; offering the voiced main-character and semi-hidden dialogue wheel from Mass Effect, while retaining some of the more grindy, free-flowing aspects of DA:O.

Another game that I’ve been playing recently, and have recently completed, is Nier. I could go on for days about how astoundingly, and surprisingly good that game is, and I likely will in the future, but for now just take my word that it is a decent game that tells a phenomonal story. Part of the power of this story, is the player’s interaction with it. The points where the player can affect the story are rare, and very limited in the options available, but they hold enormous power. It is the comparison between these limited interactions, and the plentiful choices offered in DA2 that I hope to discuss tomorrow. Until then, have a good night!

Once Again

It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted on this site hasn’t it? It feels a little weird to be doing this again, but I’m just not getting the motivation to write like I need. Awkwardly enough, the one thing that really helps motivate me to write, is... writing. Well, that and deadlines. So here we go again. I will be writing, something, for this site every day. Things are going to be a bit less formal this time around (expect a lot less pictures), but I hope to have an overall increase in quality, mostly by actually proofreading this time around.

I’ll be posting something else later tonight, but I’m not sure what. My current ideas seem to be revolving around how player interaction in a games story affects the game. If anybody wants to hear about something else, feel free to send a tweet to Corynrags, or leave a comment here.

An Excercise

Among entertainment media video games are unique in that they have a barrier of entry. Anyone who is literate can read a book, and pretty much anyone can watch a movie (sometimes you don’t even need to know the language), but a video game requires a certain level of hand-eye coordination and a set of specialized knowledge. This barrier of entry is both a curse and a blessing. On the one hand this keeps gamers from sharing their hobby with non-gamers. It’s no secret that not too long ago a “gamer-girl” was considered a mystical creature, as rare and sought after as the mythical unicorn. However, on the other hand this barrier makes it so that all gamers share a common set of skills and knowledge.

A gamer can watch someone else playing a game and infer a good deal more information about how the game is played and how fun they may find it than a non-gamer could infer  from the teaser on the back of a book or from a movie trailer. Interestingly enough, this knowledge is compounding. Someone who has played three games can infer more about how a fourth game works without playing it and can learn how to play it quicker than someone who has only played two games.

To demonstrate this ability I am going to link to a teaser-video for an upcoming game and tell you everything I can about it. I have read very little about this game and its mechanics, though I do know a bit about the developers involved and the series the game is from. When I am using outside information like this I will make a note of it. Shall we begin?

Video Games | Metroid: Other M | Exclusive Action Trailer HD

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

0 seconds - ***Information I already know about this game: This is the latest Metroid game for the Nintendo Wii. The game is being developed by the same studio that made the latest ninja gaiden series on the Xbox and I believe Xbox360 (and the PS3 ports). The Metroid series has the player taking the role of Samus Aran, a female bounty hunter in space that has a number of unusual abilities gained from both her suit of armor and her childhood being raised by the Chozo (mystical bird people). The games have been both 2-D sidescrolling games and 1-st person shooters (technically). In both cases the Metroid games have put an emphasis on exploration and a distinct sense of loneliness. Story has never been a particular concern of the Metroid series, and the enemies usually consist of indigenous life-forms and space pirates. This latest Metroid game is supposedly going to have a focus on the story. That’s about what I know so far.***

0:20 - Everything so far has been in-game cutscenes. No actual gameplay footage. ***Upgraded suit suggests that this is early in the game before the player loses their upgrades (a Metroid staple).***

0:20-0:23 - Some kind of throw technique. Player likely has to run up and press a button combination and then the game goes into a canned animation (player input does nothing). Probably breaks through enemy guard, if enemies can guard. May also be only useable on enemies who have been “stunned” in some way. Upper left corner shows in-game HUD (heads-up display). First bar and the 84 refer to current health. ***Small dot below 84 represents extra bar of life from an e-tank.*** 9/12 with the small missile icon is current missile ammo (previous Metroid game knowledge helped recognize that there were missiles and what the icon was, but I could have discerned it from the missile icon without having played a Metroid game before). ***Blue bar that turns gold during the attack represents how charged the gun is. Throw may not be as uninteractive as previously believed. The player may be able to charge the shot while the animation is playing.***

0:23-0:24 - Mini-map in upper right shows current location and a zoomed in version of the map. Most likely you can access the full map in the pause menu. Assuming standard Wii controls, nunchuck and remote, the remote controls movement while the remote is used to target and fire at enemies. Samus is performing a dodge-roll here to avoid being hit, the dodge roll is almost-assuredly performed by moving the analog stick on the remote in a direction and pressing a button, most likely on the nunchuck as well. Samus may or may not be impervious to damage while in the dodge roll animation. Fire enemies killed by some sort of ice weapon (***most likely the ice beam or some move involving it***).

0:26 - First person mode activated to fire at an enemy. Most likely you can activate first person mode at any time by pressing a button. ***first person mode will undoubtedly control like Metroid Prime 3 on the Wii (I have never played Metroid Prime 3).***

0:27-0:30 Same throw as before, but with a slightly different animation I believe. Confirms that it’s some kind of move you can use regularly, most likely a dash attack you can use while running. Enemy death leaves much to be desired, they simply disappear. Fast-paced combat with enemies that fade away quickly suggests that you’ll be facing lots and lots of enemies throughout the game. Lack of mini-map and circular room structure suggests you will fight a lot of enemies or a strong enemy in that room. Too indistinct to be a boss room though.

0:32 - Pause menu to select a new weapon.

0:38-0:39 Sudden cutscene. Slight jerkiness in movement and the slowdown suggest that the player has to manually move Samus out of the way. Failure will either result in damage or instant death. Switch to normal camera and fighting suggests damage.

0:48-0:54 - Grapple beam demonstration. Player will use grapple beam to attach to specific places and swing across gaps. Back and forth motion suggests no real penalty for failure to release properly during the first swing. Weird momentum when releasing suggests that it will be very difficult to screw up, but the disconnect will also make it annoying rather than fun.

0:54-1:00 - Unique looking enemy combined with dramatic entrance and a turn to face it at the end all suggest a boss or mini-boss fight.

1:07 - Weird graphics around are that gets bombed to reveal tunnel is most likely how secret areas are denoted. Further reinforced by mini-map showing it as a dead-end.

1:14 - ***Bombs in morph ball mode are used to activate switches and blow up structurally weak areas exactly like Metroid Prime 1-3.***

1:17-1:23 - Speed booster acts like a rocket pack, letting Samus run very fast in a straight line and crash through obstacles like walls. Straight paths suggest you can’t alter course much if at all while using the speed booster. ***Jump at the end is much like the super jump used after a super dash in Super Metroid. Speed Booster allows the jump, letting you jump very high and most likely through obstacles like weak ceilings.***

1:23-1:27 - Another circular area filled with enemies. Fight rooms will likely be a regular occurrence. Also another throw, probably activated the same way.

1:27-1:38 - All in-game cutscene.

1:38 - Song here couple with the music elsewhere suggests a wholly forgettable soundtrack and certainly much weaker than Metroid Prime 1, though I very well could be wrong.

Final Impressions: Looks like a decently fun action game, lots of fight and killing. Exploration and loneliness is most likely going to receive the most gutting in favor of more combat and a mediocre story. The way the enemies die and their rather generic design makes me think that the combat while fun, will quickly turn repetitive and lack any of the visceral “oomph” needed to make it have any staying power. Recommendations from this trailer alone, avoid it unless you see in on sale for like $20-30 unless you’re a hardcore Metroid fan, in which case you will buy it day 1 and be disappointed.

Now you can see why gamers get excited at events like E3 where you get to see video-game trailers. Even from less than two minutes of footage we can learn an enormous amount about a game. About the only thing that excites us more are hands-on demos, which can just straight-up let you know how you'll like a game (with a few exceptions). Now I'm curious what a non-gamer could learn from this clip. Anyone care to share?

Fear Is The Mind Killer

Today I would like to talk about a subject very close to my heart, fear. Since the beginning, fear and death have been mankind’s two most loyal companions. Whoever you are, wherever you go, whatever you do, you will one day die, and you will always be afraid of something. Whether you’re afraid of clowns, cucumbers, or global destabilization, you are absolutely terrified of something.

Fear is natural part of our lives, and I believe an essentially piece of what it means to be human. Fear makes us cautious, careful; fear bands us together. Without fear, true courage would be impossible, and there could never be something as noble as a “hero”. For all the boons it may grant us, however, fear is also the one and only true enemy of mankind. Fear paralyzes us, robs us of our reason, our intelligence, our will to fight, even our compassion. Fear can, and has all too often, driven humanity into meaningless destruction of itself. Everything that makes humans better than other animals, fear can remove.

For years, I have watched as fear has spread out across the land. I have sat by and witnessed silently as it has claimed the minds and the hearts of countless men and women. Fear of global warming. Fear of autism. Fear of H1N1. Fear of dangerous playgrounds. Fear of muslims. Fear of christians. Fear of homosexuality. Fear of fitness and musculature. Fear of fat. Fear of everything under the goddamn sun.

Fear has become the Ever-Tyrant, God-King of the human race.

And I stood by saying nothing, because I was one of his most loyal supporters.

I am one of the harbingers of a new generation. A generation of children who grew up in a society that allowed fear to rule them completely. Our world is not one of sticks and stones, but plastic and foam. Once upon a time there were children who were told to suck it up if they broke their arm; my generation gets the day off from school if we so much as scratch our leg. I remember in middle school it was snowing and so the administration placed guards at all the doors to keep us from going outside during lunch. Why? Because we might slip and hurt ourselves. I’ve seen parents force their kids to only ride their bike in the driveway for fear of them getting run over. Hell, Halloween is on its way out as a holiday because of fear. Parents now drive their kids around during the day to pick up candy, and even then they don’t let them eat it, lest the candy turn out to be razor blades or drugs (which has happened less than a dozen times and in each case it was the family themselves who did it). Two years ago I got a huge bowl of candy set up for Halloween at my apartment, hoping that kids would come by so I could be one of those awesome people who gave out too much candy at Halloween like when I was kid. Not one person knocked on our door that night, and that was with a family with no less than four kids right next door to me.

The real world is filled with violence, disease, and so many unknowns that our knowledge may as well be a single candle trying to light all of the universe. So how do we prepare our children for this world? Do we show them the dangers and how to deal with them? Do we teach them how to defend themselves from violence? Do we bolster their immune systems to fight diseases? Do we teach them how to walk into the darkness and not be crippled by fear?

No.

We hide the nature of the world. We teach them that violence is never the answer and can always be avoided, and only after we can no longer hide it from them. We wrap them in bubbles so that they never get sick, only to have them killed by the colds and flus. We teach them to fear the darkness and to always avoid the unknown. And so our children hide from the world.

By allowing fear to rule us, we have doomed our children to an even deeper slavery than our own. How much longer until we no longer leave our home states? How many generations until we stay in the city of our births? How many centuries until we never leave the borders of our neighborhood like our medieval ancestors?

We cannot fight fear; it is a part of us. We will always be afraid, but there is nothing wrong with that. Let that fear enter your body. Let it pass through you. Once you accept your fear, it can no longer cripple you. Your heart may race, your body may shake and sweat, but you can move. You may not be able to fight fear, but you can press on in spite of it, and that is what courage is.

Courage is not a trait, but a skill. The ability to muster one’s will and press forward through fear’s debilitating poison. All humans have the ability to do this, everyone has courage, you just have to practice it.

Roughly one year ago I couldn't even work-out because of fear of others and my own body. For nearly twenty-three years I couldn’t go somewhere I’d never been before or meet new people without someone else with me. My heart may still beat faster, and I may still sweat, but today I can go somewhere I’ve never been before, on my own, and talk to someone I’ve never even seen before without my shirt on. It’s not because my body started looking better, it’s not because I became more charismatic, and it’s certainly not because I became more adventurous. I can do these things now because I stopped letting fear rule my life. I was afraid, so I went out and challenged that fear.

Fear and Death are our two companions. They are mankind's two greatest enemies, but when you accept them, they become our two greatest allies.

Why So Serious? (I'm Sorry)

More interesting than the actual game.

Recently, after beating Saint’s Row 2 I decided to go back and play Grand Theft Auto IV just so I could compare the two with less of a memory based bias. After spending roughly an hour in GTAIV driving around, I realized that I wasn’t having any fun and promptly quit playing. This is a very unusual occurrence for me, so I decided to compare Saint’s Row 2 and GTAIV. This way I hoped to discover why exactly I wasn’t having any fun with GTAIV. In the end I came to a rather surprising conclusion: GTAIV is a mediocre game, and a thoroughly terrible sequel. As there are quite a few of you out there who may disagree with me, I am going to go over why GTAIV is a mediocre game and why Saint’s Row 2 is better in almost every way point by point.

Art Direction

I chose art direction for this category rather than graphics because the fact is that despite what most video game developers may try to tell you, good graphics are not the end-all be-all of video games. Super Mario 64 as an Nintendo 64 title is inherently ugly video game (graphics-wise), but it is one of the most fun video games of all time, and its worlds are pleasant to look at and memorable. Regardless, GTAIV does have some decent art direction going for it. Liberty City looks and feels like a living, breathing city, and all of the characters look appropriate. What they are not, however, is memorable. Outside of Niko Bellic, the main character and poster child for the game, I would challenge you to remember what any character in the game looks like. The fact is that Rockstar designed the characters in GTAIV as an odd mix of a real-person and a cartoon caricature (if you don’t believe me take a look at the picture of Vladimir Glebov, one of the first villains in GTAIV, shown below). Realism in itself is not a bad thing to try for in a video game, but you cannot allow yourself to forgo making your art interesting and memorable for its sake.

Believe it or not, this is one of his more realistic expressions.

Music

I have nothing to complain about when it comes to the quality of the music in Grand Theft Auto IV, it is a nice mix of various genres and artists,  what I can deride is the method in which this music is delivered. As with all Grand Theft Auto games, music is only played from the radios in cars. This in itself is not a bad thing as it adds an element of realism to the game, and it certainly made sense in the previous titles. However, with the addition of the mostly-useless cell-phone mechanic in Grand Theft Auto IV they completely neglected a chance for the player to be allowed to play music anytime they’re on foot. Cell-phones today can act as media players (iPhone anyone?), so there is no loss of realism, and I sincerely doubt that there is any mechanical reason within the game’s code that would keep such a thing from being possible. Furthermore, there is no way to customize the radio stations within GTAIV. If there’s a song you don’t like on a radio station, then you better pray it never comes up, because there’s no way to skip it.

Saint’s Row 2 let’s you make your own playlist from the songs in the game, hell, even Perfect Dark for the N64 let you customize your playlist for multiplayer. Adding insult to injury, the GTAIII games (GTAIII, Vice City, and San Andreas) all had a separate station for PC players that they could add custom music to. There are games on both PS3 and XBox360 that allow players to utilize the music they have saved to their hard-drive within the game, but GTAIV ignored this capability. Even better, the PC version doesn’t even have custom soundtrack capability.

Story

Ah GTAIV’s much vaunted story. I don’t know how much they spent writing the story for GTAIV, but judging by the number of voice actors alone, it must have been quite the pretty penny. They should have spent a bit more. You want to know the story for GTAIV, here we go. Serbian gets into trouble and flees to America. Trouble follows Serbian to America and he deals with it. There you go. Any new characters that would force some sort of growth in the main character or change the situation at all are conveniently killed off. Rockstar touted regularly how you would be given choice in the game, and the actions you chose would alter the story. Guess what, that’s a lie. You decide not to kill a guy, 9/10 times he’s gonna come back and attack you and you have to kill him. In the end, no matter what you do, the people who are going to die, are going to die, and where Niko ends up is going to be the exact same.

Let’s talk about Niko actually. Niko Bellic, the main character, a Serbian who has fled to America illegally to escape some bad men he pissed off. Niko is “supposedly” a nice guy who doesn’t want to live a life of crime and violence, yet constantly gets sucked in. Already we have two problems. One, Niko BellicVercetti, is a sociopath and perhaps even a psychopath. When you go one a killing spree in Vice City, it is completely in character. Saint’s Row 2 offers you a full character creator, and the choice of six (or more if I remember right) voice actors, and yet even without the ability to make any kind of decisions I never felt any of my actions were out of character.

In the end, Grand Theft Auto IV has the same exact story as Grand Theft Auto III (whose main character is completely mute) except without the interesting, “my ex-girlfriend betrayed me and I want revenge” angle. Hilariously, the first girlfriend you can get in Grand Theft Auto IV, does in-fact betray you, but I’ll refrain from talking about that for now, since she’s the most interesting character in Grand Theft Auto IV, and I could write an article as long as this one, just about her. In the end Grand Theft Auto IV’s story is like watching a season of The Soprano’s except all the parts that aren’t criminal activities are cut-out (i.e. Tony’s family, the therapist, talking with his friends, etc...).

One of these two characters will actually grow as a person in Grand Theft Auto IV. Hint: It's not the protagonist.

Gameplay

Gameplay, the most important part of a video game. Some players, like me, can slog through boring gameplay for a good story, but we are a rare breed. However, all players will slog through a terrible story for good gameplay. Where to start, the fact that Grand Theft Auto III had some of the best driving mechanics ever made and they should never have deviated from them? The idea that having multiple checkpoints in difficult missions has been a video game standard since the middle years of the PS2? How about the fact that nobody has ever enjoyed having a limited distance they can sprint for, especially without an on-screen indicator for how long they can sprint? How about all those enjoyable, well-made mini-games that were in the Grand Theft Auto III games? What’s that, you replaced them with the shittiest bowling and dart-throwing minigames I have ever played in my life?

I could go on for quite a while, but I’d rather move on quicker, so let’s just go over what GTAIV did right. Regional damage, cover mechanics, and a hilarious physics engine. Three things they did right. Three. Ooh I almost forgot about the dating and friend mechanics. Why yes, I would love to go play that horrible bowling game with you every ten minutes girl who lets me keep my guns when I get sent to the hospital. Oh cousin, you want to go see some big, American titties? Of course I’ll go with you to the strip club that feels awkward and creepy enough to go to when I’m playing alone, much less when there are other people in the house.

In the end GTAIV did a lot of things wrong, but where they made their biggest mistake is in a category that I only bring up because of Grand Theft Auto 2, III, Vice City, San Andreas, Saint’s Row, and Saint’s Row 2 all have it in spades.

Humor

The Grand Theft Auto series was once a paragon of tongue-in-cheek humor. As irreverent as South Park, and as satirical as The Daily Show, the Grand Theft Auto series snuck humor everywhere. From ads on the radio that made you burst out laughing, down to the billboards you would see while driving, the games were absolutely filled with satirical and raunchy humor. However with Grand Theft Auto IV Rockstar decided to make a more realistic game. Rather than modelling Liberty City on New York, they literally copied it. Then they took out all of the color, traded the vibrancy and almost cartoonish palette of Vice City and San Andreas for grays and browns. Where once a mission might have you stealing an ice-cream truck so you could load it with explosives and crash it into your rival’s headquarters, you now have gravitas and people getting killed left and right. 

This is not to say that GTAIV completely forgot the humor; there are some genuinely funny fake radio advertisements, and almost the entirety of the in-game internet is filled with the same humor they had in previous GTA’s, but that’s it. All of the good humor is left to advertisements that play when you want music instead or in a single area that you essentially have to stop playing the game to visit. It seems humor has been replaced with people saying fuck, shit, and titties a whole lot. GTAIV tries to improve itself by ditching the humor and replacing it with swearing and mildly disturbing sexuality. The tanks, attack helicopters, and grenades have been replaced with a darker world and seriousness. Meanwhile Saint’s Row 2 added more humor, more attack helicopters, more rocket launchers, and it has not only more, but heavier hitting moments precisely because it did just that. When everything is rainbows and explosions, when someone dies, it’s a hell of a lot more of a downer than when your streets are rainy and filled with crack-whores.

Does this look more fun...

...than this?

The fact is that when you give someone a living city to play with, filled with civilians that have ragdoll physics, nearly every single person that plays in your world is going to prefer a rocket launcher to the ability to call 911 on some guy who started hitting you. GTAIV should have brought the series to a brand new level in absurdity and exaggeration, instead I had to go play Saint’s Row 2 to get my next-generation Grand Theft Auto. Even in a world where there is no Saint’s Row series, I would rather play any of the previous Grand Theft Auto games, even number 1, than play Grand Theft Auto IV, and that is why I say Grand Theft Auto IV is a terrible game.

Edit: I'm sorry about the formatting, but Blogger was being really annoying and not letting me change it at all.