Up late talking games & writing? You're...

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Games: Just a couple of quick bits here… I'm still trying to get all of my must-reviews wrapped up before Dragon Age hits. I have a feeling that unless it's some kind of catastrophic misfire, the next few weeks are going to be pretty involved with that title.
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Modern Warfare 2: So the word is basically out, and the level that has been causing all the commotion has been revealed to be used as a scene-setting device-- basically establishing some context for the player's actions in the rest of the game. That was pretty much what I expected, BUT… it was also relayed that wherever this scene appears in the final retail version, it will be preceded by a warning about ‘graphic content’ and the option to simply skip it and jump right into the part where the player goes back to being a ‘good guy’.
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I don't want to shoot my mouth off since the game isn't out and no one really has the full story nor proper context where this controversial segment appears. However, if the content is preceded by a warning and can simply be bypassed with the press of a button, I wonder what value is in including it at all? Although I don't object to the content if it's used in an intelligent way that might spur discussion or cause a player to ask questions on a meta-level, it seems as though any potential benefit is immediately negated by the developer (Infinity Ward) being willing to have players ignore it.
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Is it really worth making some kind of bold political or artistic statement if the person making the statement gives the intended audience a warning that it's coming, and the choice to simply not partake of it? At this particular point and in this particular situation, I don't profess to know the answer, though I do admit that it makes me wonder…
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… and while that particular question is being pondered, Infinity Ward has put out a brand-new advertisement for Modern Warfare 2 which completely obliterates any confidence I may have had in them to raise the bar. You can see it here, and the juvenile, immature slant of the piece pretty much speaks for itself. (… and what it says isn't good.)
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Demon’s Souls: Uber-publisher Atlus has just announced that there will be a special Halloween event for players who have their PS3s connected to the Internet. Based on the premise that the ‘Old One grows stronger’ on this particular day, it's been suggested that the game will take on a Pure Black Tendency, weakening players’ strength and increasing the attack power of enemies. Also, certain hidden events can only be seen during Pure Black.
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Although there has been no specific information other than informing players that they should be online during Halloween, be on the lookout for these things if your world turns Black:
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Primeval Demons dropping valuable Colorless Souls appear, Black Phantoms Miralda, Scirvir, Rydell, Satsuki, and Selen appear (all holding rare items to be won) and the gate to the Execution Grounds in the Boletarian palace opens (World 1-1). The likelihood of certain items being dropped by enemies increases as well.
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If nothing else, it might be worth it to jump on and pick up some of those Colorless Souls… they’re necessary to upgrade the enchanted weapons, and who doesn't need an upgraded enchanted weapon?
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Half-Minute Hero: I should be putting the finishing touches up on the review for this little-known PSP title tomorrow. Look for it soon, but at the risk of repeating myself, I will say that I totally love it and anyone who calls themselves a fan of JRPGs or satirically irreverent, intelligent design needs to pick up.
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(Incidentally, the latest copy of GamePro arrived as I was writing this, and I was thrilled to see that the staff picked Half-Minute Hero as game of the month over such heavy hitters as ODST, Forza and M&L: Inside Story. Fantastic pick, fellows. Kudos.)
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Comics: Although I don’t write about them as often as I should, I still call myself a comics fan. I can't say that I've been as deep in them lately as I used to be, but I still enjoy going down to my local comic shop and picking up a stack of stuff to curl up with. I'm going to try to make a habit of posting comic-related items more often, and if any readers have suggestions or favorite books you'd like to recommend, I definitely welcome them.
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At the moment, I don't have a lot to say except that I was very sorry to hear find that Richard Moore’s Boneyard has now officially ended. To be perfectly honest, I never followed it as regularly as I should have, but I enjoyed it when I did pick it up.
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More than anything, I liked the attention Moore gave to the writing. It was cute, sassy, and a nice break from some of the more serious books I usually frequent. I will definitely be sad to see it go, but I wish Mr. Moore the best of luck in his future endeavors and I will be keeping an eye on his next project, titled The Pound.
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Games: MEGA SPOILER ALERT FOR MODERN WARFARE 2!!! DO NOT READ THIS POST UNLESS YOU DON’T MIND BEING… okay, I'm going to stop shouting now.
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So, I'm not really a Modern Warfare fan. Military shooters don't do much for me, and despite all the accolades it racked up, I really wasn't impressed with the first installment. This may seem like heresy of the basest sort to some, but the method of storytelling didn't work for me, and the action didn't, either. Going further, the "big event” regarding the detonation of a nuclear weapon didn't have a fraction of the impact on me that it seemed to generate with basically everyone I talked to. The entire thing left me untouched. Couldn't have cared less.
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This morning on Twitter, I saw a link come in mentioning Modern Warfare 2. I don't really give a rip about it and I've been skipping over most of the masturbatory OMG-look-at-this-new-feature news on it, but this particular tweet was from one of my recent follows who I perceive as being a pretty sharp dude, and his basic reaction to this piece of news was essentially “holy shit.” That in itself isn't usually enough to get me to click a link, but like I said, this guy has had some interesting things to say, so I checked it out.
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My impression? Holy shit.
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Before saying anything else, here's the link. Go ahead and watch it now.
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It's about eight minutes long, but once you get past the first opening segment, I doubt you'll have a problem staying with it. (Hopefully it will still be working by the time you click on it. Allegedly, Activision has been going around the Internet trying to remove the video where possible.)
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So, what's this all about? As this post is being written, details are still extremely sketchy. Some people say that it's an extra mode in the game, whereas some (like myself) are betting that it's a game-opening scenario designed to set the stage for the rest of the campaign, thus providing an extremely graphic form of justification for the military action about to follow. Either way, it's provocative to say the least, and that's putting it extremely mildly. Doubly so, since the player is placed in the role of the perpetrator-- that choice in itself being worthy of an entirely separate blog post.
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To be perfectly honest, I have to admit that I was quite taken aback. I think it's fair to say that I was actually shocked, even. That's some trick considering how jaded I freely admit to being, and how desensitized I think I am, being raised in the American culture of constant violence-and-sex-enriched media. There may even have been initial traces of disgust... possibly outrage. Over the course of my video game career, I think it's safe to say that I've ended millions upon millions of virtual life spans, but there was something different about this video. The realistic nature of the depiction certainly had something to do with it, but more than that, I think it absolutely taps into what has now become a very common underlying fear for many people- and, unlike certain phobias, fear of terrorism and large-scale violence certainly does have a basis in reality.
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However, I'm not here to rail against the game or to make any sorts of accusations against the ethics or intent of the developers. Far from it.
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Once past my initial response, my only thought was that I sincerely hope the game uses such powerful imagery for something other than fuel driving another testosterone-fueled, flag-waving us-against-the-inhumans FPS. What kind of message could be relayed or posed to a player after making such a powerful first impression? What kind of thoughts could be introduced, or what kinds of issues could be examined from such an unorthodox, uncomfortable viewpoint? As shocking as this segment may be (and I shudder to imagine the media's reaction once they get wind of it) as a critic who is absolutely in support of the medium’s maturation, I definitely see this as a huge opportunity.
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Will Infinity Ward take a difficult high road and make the most of it, or will this sure-to-become-infamous segment of gameplay be seen as some sort of misguided sensationalism? No one really knows what its true function is, and the people already in the loop certainly aren't talking…
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Games: On Twitter, a friend mentioned a new website called Switchgames.com. After clicking over and checking it out, it's basically a place where you list what games you have available for trade in addition to what you're looking for. Other people do the same, and the site does automatic matching between people to find the perfect trade.
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Really, I think this idea is pretty genius. I'd much rather do a 1-for-1 trade than take a game into GameStop and get a fraction of what it’s worth in trade credit. I signed up to give it a shot and the process was pretty painless. After entering the pertinent information, the site proposed three different people who had what I wanted and wanted what I had.
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At that point, my options were to contact these people directly for free, or pay a small fee to the site for “guaranteeing” the trade in case my game got lost in the mail or stolen by a dishonest person. Always wanting to be on the safe side, I decided to go ahead and pay the fee. This is where the problems started.
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After entering my credit card data (a card I've used for online purchases a million times with no issues) the site kept giving me an error message saying that it could not reconcile my address with the card. I called my bank to doublecheck my information and there was no problem. Then, I doublechecked the information I entered to make sure there were no typos-- everything checked out. Afterwards, still trying to figure out what the issue was, I checked my online bank account and noticed that Switchgames had charged me fifteen times for a transaction that hadn't even happened yet.
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To their credit, they e-mailed back after I had alerted them to the issue and refunded the money, but they immediately closed the trouble ticket and never resolved the issue of why I was unable to complete my desired trade. I sent another e-mail to follow-up on this question, but I have to say that my confidence level in this website is not good at the moment.
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Definitely a great idea, but my experience so far is making me seriously question the execution here.
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Games: Wrapped up a couple of reviews this weekend, one for Critter Crunch and the other for Borderlands, both on PS3.
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Critter Crunch is a disgustingly cute puzzle game, and happens to be one of those unfortunate instances where initial impressions are excellent, but the game kind of falls apart towards the end.
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I won't go into too much detail at the moment, but it seems pretty clear that the developers lost focus towards the final stages of the game and started throwing in everything but the kitchen sink in an effort to create challenge. It's definitely a good example of where less is more, although I will say that the game is still quite enjoyable up until the end phase.
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Borderlands is the game everyone's talking about at the moment, although I have to admit that I'm a little bit (well, okay, a lot) puzzled at all of the positive buzz is getting. It's currently rocking an 84 at MetaCritic and no one has a bad word to say about it on Twitter. However, my experience was basically the opposite… it started poorly and failed to come together for me, leaving me bored and disaffected.
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A FPS with minimal RPG elements, it's empty and unconvincing, and basically one huge grind the entire time. Everyone says that multiplayer makes the experience, but I have to disagree.. a dull game is dull, multiplayer or no.
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Food: I caught a few episodes of a new show on the Food Network called ‘Alex’s Day Off’.
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Starring Alex Guarnaschelli, a frequent guest judge on Iron Chef America and Chopped, she takes center stage here… although I'm not quite sure why anyone would give her a show of her own.
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Every time I've seen her, she seems slightly bitter and cold, and certainly not someone who exudes a lot of pleasant energy or inviting openness. The makeup artists do a lot of work to soften her edges and she seems to be trying really hard to defrost herself, but I don't think it's working very well. Her commentary feels forced and kind of alien coming out of her mouth, and it's hard to take her as genuine.
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Personality aside, I have to say that I'm not at all impressed with her recipes. Everything I saw her cook was ludicrously high in fat and not anything I would ever serve to my family. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love pork but I would never want an undercooked roast with an inch of fat on one side drenched in more fat. I also don't think it's a very tasty or healthy idea to fry up some potatoes and melt an entire wheel of cheese over them.
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I don't think I will be going out of my way to catch her next episode, and I'd be surprised if anybody else did, either.
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Games: On this weekend's podcast (to be recorded) we're tackling the role of reviews and the reviewer. I won't say much more at the moment, but below are the eight items we'll be addressing. Take a look, and if you've got some thoughts, opinions, feedback or comments, email me or leave a message here and we'll use them on the show. (And thank you for the effort!)
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1) Critics should be required to finish games before writing a review.
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2) The goal of a "proper" game review should be to inform the reader as to whether they should or should not buy a game.
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3) Those who write about games are not journalists, rather, should be considered "enthusiast press" or simply "games writer."
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4) There is no difference between a "review" and a "critique".
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5) The explosion of blogs, podcasts, and Twitter has rendered formal game reviews obsolete.
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6) Individual game critics and review sites are under constant, unrelenting pressure from aggregate sites to change scores.
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7) Game scores are often purposefully tweaked to either generate controversy or avoid it.
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8) A reader should not need to be familiar with the author of a review in order to derive value from it.
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Writing: Although my process was disrupted for a while as we moved into our new place, I'm happy to report that I've got a fairly workable office set up and work on the new book has resumed. My co-author turned in a few chapters that were pretty kick-ass, and the final third (or so) of the book has fallen nicely into place. The original goal (in my own mind, at least) was to have the whole project wrapped up by December. I think that's definitely do-able for a first draft if we squash our collective noses to the grindstone, but considering that there's going to have to be clean-up, revisions, and all the other lovely things associated with calling something ‘done’, probably a couple months after that will be necessary. Still, not too shabby and it's coming along a hell of a lot faster than my first book. Still need a title, though.
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Games: The UPS man arrived at my place today bearing my now-repaired 360. Of course, no one was home as he was knocking on the door, so all that was here was one of those brown and yellow notices taunting me. With any luck, someone will be here to receive it tomorrow.
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I have to admit that the Microsoft service Center has definitely sped up their turnaround time and I'm grateful for that, but I’d still rather that the console hadn’t broken in the first place.
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My friend Chris Vandergaag over at Sidemission has posted a video review of NFS: Shift, and although I generally don't give a rip about racing games, I found it to be well-produced and entertaining. It's sort of NSFW but give it a look-see if you're in the mood for a chuckle or two at the expense of racing game fans.
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Play-wise, I spent a good hour or two with Critter Crunch on the PS3. An animal-themed puzzler, it's got beautiful graphics and really solid design. Having a great time with it so far, and I'm also working on a review for GameCritics as we speak.
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My piece won't go live for a while, but I feel very confident in saying that it's one of the better games available on PSN. You really can't go wrong with this one, unless you're some kind of insane puzzle hater.
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Had plans to get an hour or two in with Half-Minute Hero today, but was totally defeated by some expected circumstances. Ended up carrying the PSP around with me all day, and didn't turn it on for even a minute.
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That said, I did play it for a brief snatch last night in bed and I was absolutely loving what I saw. (Beat it twice!) I'll definitely have more impressions and a formal review of this title later on, but I was quite pleased with the few minutes I got in.
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One last note: I'm almost done with my start-over-from-scratch replay of Demon’s Souls, and after taking a very close look at the Tendency system, I’m basically convinced that it's pretty much the only false step that From made.
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The first time I played the game, I went through it without consulting any FAQs and just immersed myself in the overall experience. It was extremely rewarding and I'm glad I did it that way, but I was a little put off after credits rolled to find that I had missed several things because my gameplay style kept me “in the middle”.
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Without getting into too much detail, certain characters and events only become available after a world goes either “Pure White” or “Pure Black”. The only problem is that the system as it stands basically keeps all of these extra elements hidden unless a player knows exactly what they're doing and kind of ‘works’ the system to gain access.
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In my opinion, this mechanic totally destroys the level of immersion that is so attractive about the game and reduces the atmospheric adventure to a series of jump-through-hoops exercises for players who want to see the extra content. Of course, it has to be said that this content is just that-- extra, but it still feels like a missed opportunity to me.
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Writing my review, I was really debating whether or not to give the game a perfect score, and I ended up holding back a half-point based on what I knew of Tendency at the time as well as a few other niggling little things. Now that all secrets have been revealed, I'm glad that I did. Don't get me wrong, Demon’s Souls is still my front-runner for Game of Year… it's just a little disappointing that some pretty cool things that would have enhanced the adventure were hidden away behind what I see as a fairly unintuitive and unnatural system.
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Misc: It was a hard week with some odd situations and odd hours, with the entire thing ending in a pretty painful assignment on Saturday. Since the baby’s come, I’ve been trying to work more “regular” hours as opposed to the usual anytime/anywhere, and having to put time in on the weekend after doing an M-to-F’er really axed my whole groove.
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Instead of being on top of things, I was so exhausted that all I did was hang out with the wife and son (which was awesome and appropriate, actually) and zoned out in front of Demon’s Souls the rest of the day pursuing some OCD White Tendency stuff I didn’t see on my first time through.
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At the time I’m posting this, I’m looking at my to-do list and not having any idea where to start.
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Bleagh.
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Games: The 360’s still in the shop.
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Meanwhile, (as I mentioned above) I’m almost done with my second playthrough of Demon’s Souls. The last time I immediately started a second play after finishing something was probably Super Mario Bros, or maybe Mega Man. Can’t believe I’m doing it, but here I am… and enjoying it.
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(BTW, the first time through was something like 38 hours. This one’s about 12 so far. When you know what you’re doing, it makes a HUGE difference.)
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Also started Docomodake Boing! on the DS. Pretty early into it, but it’s been surprisingly enjoyable. Basically a coin-collecting platformer, the hook is that the main character’s a mushroom that can split himself off into smaller versions of himself to use as building blocks, stepping stones, weapons, and so on.
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Simple and straightforward, but the twist is a nice one and it’s well-done. Very clean. Liking it.
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More to come.
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Writing: Please forgive the lack of a regular update. I got home from work a bit early, was miraculously still awake, and tonight has become a catch-up-with-writing-the-book night.
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Update tomorrow.
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