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

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Games: So, I've been putting in a lot of hours with Divinity II, but tonight I sincerely contemplated quitting the game in a blind rage and walking away from it, despite making it all the way to the last boss.
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It's a shame, since I’ve sincerely enjoyed the vast majority of it. A lot of it is just flat-out brilliant, really. Most of what takes place on the ground is interesting, intricate, detailed and fresh enough to keep my attention despite having recently played through three other RPGs in the last couple of months. However, not everything takes place on the ground.
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Put simply, the dragon parts of the game just suck. At no point do you ever have the advantage of being an airborne blowtorch, raining death from above. Instead, the developers chose to stuff each area full of all kinds of bogus anti-dragon weaponry that basically makes every second a desperate struggle for life. I had been greatly looking forward to ‘earning my wings’ in this title, and once I had them, I wanted to hand them right back. I never would've predicted how completely non-fun this aspect of the game is, but it's basically the opposite of enjoyment. Slogging through these dragon parts has been painful.
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Having gritted my teeth and powered through, I thought the worst was behind me, and I was looking forward to watching some credits roll this evening, but wow... was I mistaken.
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One aspect of Divinity II that I have not seen discussed in any of the reviews I've read is that the game takes a very stark approach towards the level of the player's character. If you are below the level the developers think you should be, you take excessive amounts of absurd damage and die in a heartbeat. However, if you enter the same area above this ‘correct’ level to be at, then you're effectively invincible. It's not a matter of being tough enough to survive, it's more like a difference of night/day or black/white. You can either do it or you can't, and it's extremely rare that you can be under-leveled and push through.
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The system has been on display for the entire game and for the most part, it hasn't been too bothersome. With plenty of places to explore, it was always very easy to pick a different location that was at a more appropriate level rather than die and reload dozens of times in a spot that was too tough. However, during tonight's session I was able to make it all the way to the last boss only to find that he was able to one-shot me in (literally) less than one second.
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Obviously, my level was too low.
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This was incredibly frustrating for a number of reasons, first and foremost that I feel that if I was able to make it to the boss in the first place, that he should have been manageable-- especially since the area that he's in is impossible to leave once entered. I very nearly erased my only salvageable game save, and if I actually had, then I would've been completely unable to finish the game and been left with no way to continue. The fact that that was even a possibility is terrible game design, and incredibly disrespectful of the player.
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It was also frustrating because I feel like I'm ready to be done with the game, and I have the developers holding me back for what amounts to 'just because'. There is no real rationale for forcing me to keep leveling even though I've completed the critical path. If they were so desperate to have me see all the extra content they created, then it should've been part of the required play and not categorized as optional. This kind of heavy-handedness was not nearly as apparent earlier in the game, since I was wrapped up in exploring the world. I naturally worked with the system since I played in a semi-completist fashion, but now that my path is clear and I've done everything I felt like I needed to do, it's just an obstruction that's rapidly degrading the amount of respect I have for the title.
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After venting on Twitter and taking a few hours away, I decided to give it one more try and see if I could earn another level or two over the next few days. I'd hate to walk away from the game at this point, after having worked so hard and done so much, but it's as though the developers are working overtime to try and make me as irritated and unhappy as possible.
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When creating challenges, it shouldn't be the developer versus the player… it's unfortunate that Divinity II’s developers don't seem to understand this particular lesson. Take away the game’s overly-aggressive death-dealing and what remains could have been a masterpiece, of sorts. As it stands, it's a severely flawed title that could've been so much more.
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Welcome back to Drinking Coffeecola, and my apologies to everyone who's been disappointed by the lack of updates lately. I honestly can't believe it's been so long since I last posted, but it's been one thing after another and if the truth be told, Mr. Sandman’s been sneaking up on me lately while I haven't been looking.
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Bastard.
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Anyway, on with the show…
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Games: Finished up Terry Cavanagh’s VVVVVV the other day, and the review is in the can.
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Overall, I thought it was pretty brilliant, but I do have to say that it pushed my aggravation button a few times too many towards the end. Nothing terrible, but it took me a little longer to finish than expected because I had to take a few de-stress breaks. YMMV.
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I don't think I've mentioned it previously, but I also just played through The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces on the Wii. I don't know what's going on over at XSeed, but those guys are on a roll lately. First, Half-Minute Hero rocked my world, and now they've come up with a Wii game that I actually had a pretty good time with.
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Evidently, it's based on an anime that I've never heard of, but now that I've played the game, I'm interested in tracking it down. About a group of fighter pilots who are also cloned/immortal children, the story was interesting enough to keep my attention between missions and the gameplay is classic Ace Combat flight stuff… which makes sense, since it's produced by the same team. In fact, I liked Sky Crawlers better than the last two actual Ace Combat games, to be perfectly honest. Look for the review at GameCritics shortly.
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If you click this link, it will take you to my review of Dragon Age: Origins – Return to Ostagar. This much-awaited (and delayed) DLC was available for something like twenty-four hours before it got yanked off of Microsoft’s servers.
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Evidently, there was some sort of issue with specialty-class abilities not working properly, although I played through the entire mission and didn't encounter any problems. Hopefully it will be back up soon for those of you looking forward to it, although I will caution you to not get your hopes up too much... it's fairly unimpressive.
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All that stuff aside, I'm still cruising through Divinity II, although I guess ‘cruising’ is probably not the right word. The game has been fantastic for the bulk of play, but now that I’ve finally gained access to the much-hyped dragon transformation that is one of the game's biggest selling points, things have gone off the rails a bit.
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It's still fun and I’m still enjoying it (sort of) but the developers have made some really bizarre choices with regard to how they implemented the dragon and how it interacts with the world... really unexpected, and not in a good way. The review is half written now, but I still have a ways to go before seeing credits roll.
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Video: Only partially games-related, this YouTube link shows a video of a guy on a dirt bike and doing totally impossible Trials HD stuff… IN REAL LIFE. If you played Trials, then this will absolutely blow your mind. Even if you haven't, it's still pretty damned impressive. Many thanks to Doug Walsh for sending in the link.
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Food: Just one last quick thing-- last weekend, the wife and I decided to pick up some sunchokes (also called Jerusalem artichokes) and give them a whirl. I had never cooked or eaten them before in my life, but the guy at the vegetable stand made them sound pretty good so we went for it.
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The method of cooking he suggested was that we boil them like potatoes and then make a mash of them with a little cream and butter added. That's exactly what we did, but the end result was shockingly sweet and quite creamy, and not in a pleasant way. The flesh of the root was too rich and cloying; if I had put a little sugar and some cinnamon on top, I honestly believe I could have passed it off as a dessert.
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If any readers have some suggestions or favorite recipes to use with the sunchoke, I'd love to hear them… this “mashed potatoes” preparation totally did not work for me, but I'd like to give them another try made a different way.
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Games: Although my official review hasn't gone live at GameCritics yet, Terry Cavanagh’s VVVVVV is now available for sale, and after spending a few hours with it, I've got nothing but good things to say about it.
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I talked a little bit about it in the last post (scroll down if you missed it) but basically, VVVVVV is a mindbending platformer where the hook is that the player’s character has the ability to reverse gravity instead of jumping.
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The graphics are simple, yet they serve the simplicity of the gameplay perfectly. The music is to 8-bit heaven, and there are a number of interesting twists and concepts on display in the game that make this much more than it initially appears.
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If you go to the sale website, you can purchase the full version for $15, or try a demo for free. Such a guy. For those who haven't experienced any of Terry's other games, you can check out his past works at his site, Distractionware. Try 'em.
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If you like indie titles the way I like indie titles, do yourself a favor and check it out. If you like what you see, do Terry a favor and slide a couple bucks his way.
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In other news, last weekend turned out to be a little busier than I expected, so I didn't get nearly as much done as I'd planned. However, I did find some time to squeeze in a little more Divinity II: Ego Draconis in between the baby’s naps, and it's only been getting better and better.
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I'm half asleep at the moment so I'll save most of my endless gushing for a later post, but let me just say that this title has turned out to be far, far, far better than I had ever expected. The variety and types of quests are superb, there's a very dark sense of humor on display in the writing, the voice acting and music is great, and the complexity of the game's design overall is just stunning.
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Although it doesn't have the in-depth dialogue trees and amount of influence over the plot the way BioWare’s games do, it's certainly strong enough to hold up by comparison. It’s a bit of a slow burn in the beginning and takes a few hours to really unfold, but if you give it half a chance, it's easy to see that it really is that good. Even better in some ways, and that statement is coming from a true dyed-in-the wool BioWare fan.
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If you count yourself as someone who appreciates deep, complex and challenging Western-style RPGs, this is one you absolutely can't afford to miss.
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Games: If you read this blog even occasionally, then you probably know that I'm not much of a PC gamer. However, I do make the occasional exception for certain titles. This evening, one of those special cases found its way into my hardware: VVVVVV by Terry Cavanagh.
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Although I had planned on doing more in-depth coverage of the game tonight, after some consideration I decided to hold off until I'm completely done. However, I will say that it's a pretty superb little title, and I'm enjoying the heck out of it.
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In a nutshell, it's basically a platformer done in shades of Metroidvania, just without all of the item-collecting and combat. In VVVVVV, the player controls a small character that can move either left or right. The twist is that instead of jumping, this character can reverse gravity… It's a concept simple enough to grasp immediately, yet so far (nearly done, but not quite) Terry has done some amazing things with it. I'll save further comment on the game for the moment, but I will say that it's a credit to Terry that something with such basic graphics and simple controls can be so utterly engrossing.
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If you need to know more right now, you can read my original interview with the man himself on one of his other works HERE, or you can go check out Terry’s site, Distractionware.
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Definitely more to come on this.
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In other games news, I've started a nearly-unknown title on the 360 called Divinity II: Ego Draconis. Very few people (to my knowledge, anyway) have heard of it, and of those that have, most seemed to have dismissed it out of hand. For Western-style RPG fans, doing so would be a mistake.
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To be totally fair, the demo currently available on Xbox Live cannot possibly do justice to the depth and exploration that the full version contains-- you don't even begin to scratch the surface of the experience for at least the first couple of hours. Also, it’s a sad fact that the game's technical side has a number of issues that will probably discourage most people giving it a quick peek. The framerate isn't the best, there are some weird graphical hiccups and screen tearing, and in general, the visuals are a few notches behind what most people probably expect these days. However, Divinity II is a perfect example of not judging a book by its cover. If you can get past the graphics, there’s an immensely enjoyable adventure to be had.
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The gist of the game is that the player is an apprentice dragonslayer out to earn their stripes. There’s only one dragon left in the entire kingdom, and you’re part of the group after it.
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After a brief training/tutorial, the player's character is set loose in a huge expanse of terrain to explore at will. The first small village to be discovered contains a surprising number of quests, but there's nothing to stop you from simply picking a direction and seeing what lay ahead.
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Those that have seen or read up on the game probably know that its big hook is the ability to transform into a dragon and fly throughout the world with very little restriction. At the moment, I'm probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 6 to 8 hours in and haven't yet earned the ability to transform, but I'm not complaining. Outside of the plentiful quests, there have been quite a few dungeons to explore and simply trekking through the terrain Oblivion-style yields a great number of interesting things and surprises.
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Probably the most important thing to be said about Divinity II is that the style of play is kind of old-school in the sense that there's essentially no handholding whatsoever. Although you have a map, most icons on it don't appear until you've already discovered them firsthand. In the dungeons there are no glowing outlines or sparkly halos around key items, and it's entirely possible to stumble into a goblin camp and get overwhelmed just a few steps away from the relative safety of the beginning location. Oh, and be sure not to start fights with anyone unless you're really, really positive you can kick their ass.
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I don't mean any of this to sound negative because it's not-- the amount of freedom and sense of achievement that comes along with this kind of adventure is significant. However, gamers raised on more recent titles will find all this to be a shock to the system. The openness, the lack of specific direction, the responsibility on the player's part to not only wield sword and shield, but also to suss out clues and put things together detective-style… these are not things that you see on consoles very much these days, and in my estimation, it's pretty damned refreshing to see someone attempt it while putting in as much effort as the developers obviously have.
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Graphic problems aside, this is an absolute quality title. Any fans of BioWare’s work would be wise to check it out and give it a chance to unfold.
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Although it's been a tough job lately between the rush of fourth quarter and the sheer number of Indie games released every week, keeping up with one of the lesser-known segments of Microsoft’s downloadable content certainly pays off. My most recent Indie addiction? Armor Valley, from Protégé Production.
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Available now, Armor Valley immediately stands out from most of the Indie crowd for a few reasons -- Primarily, it's easy to see that the game is much more sophisticated than most of the competition. Rather than a simple puzzler, Avatar app or clunky platformer, it's a military-themed hybrid of Action and Real-Time Strategy genres. Combining traditional ‘build up and swarm’ themes with real-time control of a commanding aircraft, the formula is a winning one. Toss in multiplayer options in addition to the campaign mode, and you’ve got something that is on a higher level than most of the other offerings alongside it.
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Creative and Technical Director Robin Tan (of Envisage Reality, in association with Protégé Production) was gracious enough to spend a few minutes talking to me about this impressive 2009 IGF China festival winner.
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Hi Robin, thanks for talking to me. Is Armor Valley Protégé's first game?
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Armor Valley is Protege's first official title, but certainly not the first time we've worked on a game. We have worked on other people's titles under contract (I can't name them because we aren’t allowed to disclose them) and even a 3D training simulation/visualization for the army.
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How many people were on the team, and how long did it take to put together?
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The project took about 5 months, with some bug fixing here and there. We had nine people in the team. The project was funded by Media Development Authority (MDA) Singapore and Microsoft, so we had to finish the game in that timeframe.
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What can you tell us about the people who are on the team? What are their backgrounds and previous experience?
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The team is comprised mostly of industry veterans with over 10 years of experience. The team was made up of five coders and four artists. Most of our team is from Singapore, though we have team members from all over the world.
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Was the game difficult to create? How did the final version differ from the original plan, if at all?
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Not difficult at all. Firstly, it was not a complicated game-- we improved a design from an old 2D game we used to play. (Hint: we even named it similarly.) The XNA framework (needed to develop for Xbox360 Indie Live Community) was pretty easy to use because it was based on DirectX, and also there is a huge community with a lot of educational materials. The main difficulty was making it run on the Xbox 360 properly because the XNA framework behaved differently from the PC development version due to memory management.
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In terms of differences, initially we wanted to add the ability to deploy air units so you could buy air support. However, it was difficult for the air unit AI to behave to expectation when there were multiple air units. It became a dogfight with too many air units, so given our deadline, we didn’t resolve it properly and it got dropped.
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Playing the game myself, there have been several times when I've been within inches of victory only to feel as though I'm at a standstill; I sometimes just can't advance that last little bit to capture the enemy base. Is that difficulty an intentional decision on the part of the design team?
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Yes, this was part of the design. Even though you may get forced back to your base, you still have a chance to fight back. Capturing buildings and deploying balanced squads are the key to push forward to victory. But, the tactics against a human player are different when playing against the computer. A human player has limited lives, so he won't spawn indefinitely. Also, other units except Destroyers are ineffective against bases, so a human player can choose to ignore them approaching. For the AI, it tends to go after the closet tanks first, so you will need provide air support from missile launcher escorts.
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Any other advice for people playing Armor Valley?
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One of the key strategies is picking up troopers and parachuting them. This allows them to capture key strategic buildings quickly, and also to steal credits. Some of the buildings like Dragon Turrets are indestructible by ground unit attack, so you can see the value in capturing something like that quickly. Stealing credits is a big gamble, but is an essential strategy to win in higher levels against the AI, who has unlimited lives.
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Are there any plans to possibly polish the game a little more and release it as a full Arcade title?
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Yes, we are actually waiting to speak to Microsoft about promoting the game to full Arcade title status. There are quite a few areas to polish that we dropped due to time constraints, though.
We just uploaded a new version with improvements to the sound system, and also some bug fixes. For example, the tanks weren’t flying after being blown up, and we didn't notice that in the old build. The fixes should be available 2 weeks after going through the peer review.
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Finally, when not working on games, what titles do people at Protégé like to play? Any current favorites? Classics?
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We don't really play a lot of games these days because making games gives the same enjoyment as playing them! One of our all time favorite is Geometry Wars, though. It’s a quick game, and provides a lot of kicks.
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Thanks very much to Robin Tan and the entire Armor Valley team. Best of luck in their endeavors, and when Armor Valley makes it to XBLA proper, I’ll be there on day one – you should be, too.
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I've got five or six interviews in the works in addition to my usual bloggery, but other duties called tonight. Check back tomorrow for the goods.

EDIT: Still not ready. Tomorrow for sure.

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Games: Here’s a link to my latest review, the Big Pack DLC for Trials HD. Can't get enough of what is probably the hardest game to come down the pike in who knows how long? Me neither. It's definitely worth the five dollars.
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In other game news, I have to say that in spite of all the different blunders Sony has committed since launching the PS3, one thing that they've actually done well is the connectivity between the PS3 and the PSP. I expected all kinds of hassle, but it was totally simple and painless. They get points for that, if nothing else. Speaking of which, I downloaded Crimson Room Reverse last night and was messing around with it for a few minutes.
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I had never heard of it before but, from what I understand, the entire premise is that the player is trapped inside a room, and must search around for different items in order to solve puzzles and earn their escape. My interest was piqued immediately, though I must admit that after actually starting the game, I had no friggin’ clue what was going on. I didn't even make it through the tutorial. Granted, I was half asleep when I tried, so I will definitely down a few cups of coffee before my next attempt.
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FFXII: Getting pretty close to the 30-hour mark and I'm still enjoying the game quite a bit. It's probably the most pleasant FF experience I've had since FFX, but as the game goes on, more and more of its warts are starting to show.
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For example, when story events that move the plot forward are happening with a reasonable amount of frequency, the game really picks up a lot of energy and starts popping nicely. However, there have certainly been a few twists and turns that feel like they are included for no reason other than making the game longer. Foremost in my mind, taking a side trip to the village of the Viera (as visually pleasant as it may have been) and the resulting trip to the mine immediately afterward. Neither added anything to the experience or the story, and my interest started to flag a bit during those sections. The story itself is good enough that I don’t really feel the need (or desire, really) for extra doglegs slowing things down.
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Another downer, I finally hit the first section of the adventure where I felt like I sincerely needed to grind in order to progress. Bosses that inflict multiple status ailments at once or who have some other sort of ‘gimmicky’ attack really grate on my nerves. Considering that money for gear is generally pretty tight and that players have to ‘buy’ Licenses with earned points in order to equip certain weapons/armor/skills, that makes cheesy boss encounters extra annoying in XII.
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Upon getting to a certain area, the boss on duty had an automatic ‘Slow’ effect on any players wearing metal armor. I had no way of knowing this of course, and naturally, my entire team was kitted out in metal. The answer? Grind out some dollars and buy different armor. The boss immediately afterwards was an Ice-themed 5-on-3 battle that was a struggle until I took the time to earn some more License points and activated a few skills that I hadn't previously unlocked. It wasn't a terrible ordeal, but the game basically ground to a halt while I took care of this busy work.
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I get that the adventure wouldn't be nearly as entertaining if every boss was a cakewalk, but it's a little more work than usual to deal with these kind of wrenches in the gears. Tough fights are one thing-- fights that make you completely rearrange your team and your tactics with this kind of leveling system are something else. Fingers crossed that these kinds of situations don't pop up too often from here on out… Mass Effect 2 comes out in about three weeks or so, and if I haven't freed Ivalice by then, FFXII is going to find itself on the ‘I’ll get back to ya’ shelf.
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Music: American Idol fans like myself may be interested to know that last season's Allison Iraheta finally put out a CD of her own. The wife got it for Christmas, and she's been spinning it for the last few days… in my opinion, it's pretty damn good.
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If you remember her from the show, then the kind of songs that she performed onstage with Simon and the gang are the same kind she’s recorded here-- strongly upbeat, rock-tinged and fronted with a throaty, slightly smoky voice. She's still quite young (hasn't even hit twenty, if memory serves) so the songs are quite appropriate for her age, and I have to say that I find that to be quite refreshing. Even more refreshing is that unlike other former Idol contestants, her release sounds like a natural extension of what we saw on the show. The songs have energy, but they're not over-produced, and her vocals come through on each track loud and clear -- quite the opposite of former favorites Jordin Sparks and David Cook.
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In both of those cases, the wife and I counted ourselves as fans, yet were very disappointed with the results when they finally hit retail shelves. Cook’s voice could hardly be heard over the wall of sound that drowns out his vocals (not to mention his so-called ‘dream team’ of writers gifted him with some painfully boilerplate songs) while Sparks quickly became a cookie-cutter, generic R&B ‘diva’ who’s virtually indistinguishable from any other.
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I'm glad to see that Allison managed to hang onto what made her so enjoyably memorable in the first place, and I'll be quite interested to see what she comes up with on her sophomore effort.
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