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

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Events: Just this past weekend I made the trip down to Oregon for the Portland Retro Gaming Expo.

If you've never been, it takes place in the Oregon Convention Center, and the floor is roughly divided into two sections. The first is the sales floor when there are all sorts of game-oriented arts and crafts, in addition to all of the vintage stuff that you might be after -- everything including consoles, games, arcade parts, toys and so on. The other half of the hall is the free play area, where there are dozens of home consoles set up for anyone to play, in addition to arcade machines and pinball as well.

It's wonderful to see these classics in action, and it was especially nice to go this year because my youngest (page 4) finally understands pinball and was able to play with a purpose, so seeing him get lost in the flashing lights and clacking flippers was a true high point as a parent.

The event runs well into the night both days, and there are also panels and other events happening at the same time. If you're ever in the area when the PRGE is happening, I definitely recommend it… It's great to get such an intense blast from the past, and it's one of the things I look forward to all year.

In case you weren't watching it live, will definitely be doing it again and will be open for questions and comments while we record.

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Games: Although I've been dabbling with a few things here and there, what I had planned to focus on was The Last of Us from Naughty Dog.

I'm sure that it’s old news by now to many of you reading this, but I didn't have a chance to play it earlier due to other review obligations, and since I'm sure it's going to be brought up in discussions as we get ready to close out 2013, I figured I should probably get around to it.

That was the plan, anyway.

I got about four hours into it, and although I’m not much of an Uncharted fan, I found myself really enjoying the game.  The story and characters were interesting, the opening scene was amazing, and apart from a few issues here and there, I was glad to go along for the ride.

Then, I got to Bill’s area.

There’s one particular scene where the main characters are being chased, and they need to go inside a room to take cover from enemies.  Every time I got to this point, the game hard-locked my PS3 and I could not continue.  At first I thought it was just a random freeze, so I re-loaded and tried again with the same result.  I tried again, and again, the console locked up.

At this point I went online to see if anyone else had had a similar problem, and I immediately found several messages on different forums from people complaining about the same issue.  (I hadn’t heard much about this, but apparently plenty of people are having issues with TLOU.) There were some suggestions on how to get the game back on track, and I tried them all – I turned off cloud saving, I tried to make sure that Ellie went into the room first, I started the entire chapter over and made my way back to the same point…  Nothing helped.

I would genuinely like to continue playing the game but it’s just not possible, and I’m not going to start over from the beginning with no guarantee that I won’t get stuck in the exact same place, or in some other place afterward.  I’m calling it quits for now, and I’ll probably started again when it becomes a free game for PS Plus members on the PS4…

I remember seeing this film at my local video store (in VHS, no less) when it first came out back in 1993 or so, but although I picked it up off of the shelf several times, I never rented it. Now that I'm a fan of his, I only recently remembered that I had never seen it, and quickly made up some popcorn before downloading it from iTunes.

The gist is that an old man finds a device which is capable of providing everlasting life, but course there’s a downside.  Of course there’s more to it than that but I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, although I will say that it ended up being something entirely different from what I was expecting.  Still excellent, but very different.

Recommended!

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BetaDwarf Entertainment, an award-winning independent game studio, today announced it will hold a tournament for its debut title, the co-op action RPG Forced, from October 11 to October 13, 2013. The tournament, co-sponsored by a number of high-profile partners, provides gamers with the early opportunity to win gear and experience the fast-paced multiplayer gameplay that made Forced a hit at this year’s PAX Prime and Gamescom. The game will officially launch on Steam and other popular digital distribution platforms for PC, Mac, and Linux on October 24, 2013. Forced will also see Wii U and next-gen releases in 2014, with PlayStation 4 and Xbox One launches planned.

To participate in the tournament, simply download the Forced demo from Steam and follow the info here: forcedthegame.com/tournament. Here you will also find more information about the tournament, including exact timing and prizes.

View the tournament trailer here: http://youtu.be/foX4NJQQ3Xc

Learn more about Forced’s unique multiplayer mechanics in the newly released “Spirit Orb” trailer: http://youtu.be/p-C3efKGjJs

Visit: www.forcedthegame.com

Like the game on Facebook: www.facebook.com/forcedthegame

Follow BetaDwarf on Twitter: www.twitter.com/BetaDwarf

Watch on YouTube: www.youtube.com/betadwarf

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The 2013 IndieCade named this year’s award winners, including the Grand Jury Award going to Quadrilateral Cowboy, created by Blendo Games. IndieCade recognizes superior examples of story development, visual, technological, audio and all-around independent game titles as well as creators who have greatly contributed to the independent gaming field.

Ten of the winners, including the Grand Jury Award, were announced at the Red Carpet awards show on Thursday, Oct. 3. The Grand Jury Award allows IndieCade’s Distinguished Award Jurors to select a game that they feel deserves a special citation for overall excellence. This could be a game that couldn’t fit into any other category, but the jury each year determines the criteria for assignment of this award. Past recipients could have included Gravitation (2008), Moon Stories (2009), Groping in the Dark (2010), Fez (2011) and Unmanned (2012). This year the jury chose from more than 850 games from six different continents.  On Sunday, Oct. 5 the Game Changer, Audience, Developer and Media Choice Awards were announced at the closing party.

This year’s IndieCade included the debut of two new awards: The Media Choice award, given to the game the most media members selected as their favorite, as well as The Trailblazer Award, given to a relative newcomer who has shaken things up and used games in original as well as innovative ways. 

“Every year IndieCade’s awards recognize a diverse array of titles and some of the brightest developers in indie gaming, increasing awareness for this exceptional craft,” said Stephanie Barish, CEO, IndieCade. “It is an honor to identify these amazing projects and we are proud to provide a platform which helps distinguish these games and their creators.”

The game and developer winners this year are:

         Grand Jury Award: Quadrilateral Cowboy – Blendo Games

         Visuals: Kentucky Route Zero – Cardboard Computer

         Audio: Gone Home – The Fullbright Company

         Impact: Dog Eat Dog – Liwanag Press

         Interaction: Spaceteam – Henry Smith

         Game Design: NIDHOGG – MESSHOF

         Technology: Spin the Bottle: Bumpie’s Party – KnapNok Games & Redgrim

         Story/ World Design: Kentucky Route Zero – Cardboard Computer

         Special Recognition: Porpentine’s Twine Compilation – Porpentine

         The Trailblazers Award: Tracy Fullerton

         Game Changer Award: Anna Anthropy

         Developers Choice Award: Killer Queen Arcade –  Joshua DeBonis & Nikita Mikros

         Audience Choice Award:  Slash Dash –  Nevernaut

         Media Choice Award: TowerFall – Matt Makes Games

For more information, visit http://www.indiecade.com/

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In 1993, a rash of ritual voodoo murders took place in the swamps and back alleys of New Orleans. With local police baffled, only one man was equipped to solve the case: Gabriel Knight, owner of a French Quarter bookstore, struggling novelist, and an unwitting descendent in a long line of shadow-hunting Schattenjägers. Armed with little more than a sacred dagger and talisman, his N'awlins drawl, and his own irresistible brand of charm, Gabriel Knightquickly became a gaming sensation when Sierra On-Line released his first adventure, Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers®, in December 1993.

Twenty years later, the charismatic Schattenjäger is making a welcome comeback thanks to the work of Gabriel Knight® creator Jane Jensen's indie development studio, Pinkerton Road LLC, which licensed the Gabriel Knight IP from Activision Publishing, Inc.. The Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers 20th anniversary edition is planned for a mid-2014 release as a digital download for PC, Mac®, iPad®, and Android™. The game is being reconstructed from scratch with all new retina display quality visuals and voice recording, in a development process overseen by Jensen.

The revamped Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers will feature the same mature storyline and puzzle solving as the 1993 version, with research assistant Grace Nakimura, the inept Detective Mosely, and the local color of New Orleans supporting Gabriel's paranormal investigation. Stunning high-res (2048x1536) 3D graphics will replace the original 640x480 resolution pixel art, presenting the authentic New Orleans environments with more detail than ever before. The remake will also have a remastered soundtrack by Robert Holmes, the game's original composer, and will include special edition content.

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Today CCP released the latest of its promised updates to DUST 514, titled Uprising 1.5. As always, CCP remains committed to improving and tweaking the core game experience of DUST 514 as well as incorporating community feedback.  Uprising 1.5 is the latest installment in the series of these rapid-fire updates.

Uprising 1.5 focuses on new and expanded Corporation Roles as well as a revised New Player Experience and the all-new Squad Finder.  Some of the updates include:

Revised New Player Experience: Initial tutorials have been completely revised, now following a task-driven structure that rewards players for demonstrating proficiency in joining battles, creating fittings and training skills. Rewards are granted in the form of militia dropsuits, vehicles, weapons and modules.

Squad Finder: Squads are designed to help get players grouped up and battling together in DUST 514. The new Squad Finder will list all available squads that are not yet deployed into battle and are waiting on new players to join them.

New Corporation Roles: Corporation CEOs and directors can now distribute specific roles to other members within the corporation. The roles that can be assigned are: Accountant, Personnel Director, Terrestrial Combat Officer and Terrestrial Logistics Officer.

More details can be found in CCP’s Uprising 1.5 dev blogs on the Squad Finder feature, Corporation Roles and the New Player Experience. Full patch notes available here. 

DUST 514 brings intense infantry combat, large-scale warfare and deep character advancement to the PlayStation 3 in an exclusive free-to-play massively multiplayer shooter. Set in, and integrated with, the massive universe of EVE Online™, players wage war in the next generation of first-person shooters, where a single victory could prove the crushing blow to a galactic empire of thousands of online gamers. For more information, visit www.dust514.com

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Dark Matter Arkfalls, launched alongside the Castithan Charge Pack DLC are an entirely new breed of Minor and Major arkfalls in Defiance that are raining down across the Bay Area. Each event puts the player in an incredibly tense and exciting situation where players must race against time to defeat increasingly difficult waves of Dark Matter soldiers, destroy arkfall cores, and in the Major "Extraction Force" battle - take revenge on The Monolith itself.

The Defiance team has included a detailed spotlight on Dark Matter arkfalls here - http://community.defiance.com/en/2013/10/09/feature-spotlight-dark-matter-arkfalls/. The blog highlights the objectives and provides useful tips, tricks and strategies to surviving and gaining valuable rewards.

Trailer: http://youtu.be/-Wyk-hQl_Xw

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This weekend is the Portland Retro Gaming Expo. I had a great time last year, and in case you missed it, here's my coverage. I’ll be swinging by sometime this weekend to check out the scene again… If you're in the area, it's worth the drive. 

The action-based gameplay really drew me in, and the fact that you can complete the entire campaign on your own was a huge, huge plus. I definitely saw advantages to being able to meet people in the world and do things cooperatively, but I don't ever want to be tied to that because my game schedule is so erratic. To me, Defiance is the perfect blend of online and off, and I fully expect to see this model continue in future online games. In fact, it's already happening. Based on what I saw with Destiny, it seems to follow the exact same template, albeit with a budget that's probably 10,000 times greater than what Defiance had.

In any event, I absolutely recommend it (especially at the low price it's at now) but there are a few caveats.

The first thing is that it's not a graphical powerhouse. If you're someone who gets hung up on having the best graphics, then this game isn't for you. The user interface is also supremely crappy, and the menus are entirely too complicated and difficult to navigate. Honestly, the whole user interface could use a major overhaul.

Also, although MMO players used to long-long-term grinding may disagree with me, I felt like I was finding way too many common weapons, and very rarely did I find a weapon that was worth using, especially once I had passed the halfway point in the campaign. Some of the rewards given by the story quests were pretty good, but most of the loot that was dropped was worthless after a while, and I would've appreciated finding a better variety of useful stuff. Finding a gun that’s just like what I already have except for two extra bullets in the clip isn’t a great find.

The last criticism I’ll make is on the last boss. The final encounter was incredibly difficult, and I almost quit without finishing before getting lucky after 40 minutes of repeated failure. It's strange that for an MMO, the game makes you play the last fight by yourself, so there are certain builds and equipment types that will be essentially worthless against the brutal final encounter.

For example, I spent most of the game using a stealth/sniper build, and that is absolutely ineffective against a boss who rushes you and can see you even when you’re invisible. Luckily, I was able to respec and had a couple of high-powered submachineguns in my inventory… If not for those, it would've been impossible for me to win, and that would've been a bitter way to end the game which I have otherwise greatly enjoyed.

Overall, I'm glad I put the time into it, I appreciated what it had to offer. My complaints aside, I do recommend people who are generally averse to MMOs (like me) to go check it out… Just make sure you keep enough money to respec and a couple of rapid-fire combat shotguns in your inventory for the final encounter.

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What else have I been playing?

I finally got around to checking out Mighty Switch Force on 3DS. It's made by WayForward, who are both brilliant designers and incredibly flawed designers, so picking up one of their games is always a bit of a risk.

I didn't know a lot about this one beforehand, but it boils down to being an action-platformer with a heavy dose of puzzle elements thrown into it. The main character is some sort of Sci-Fi police agent, and she can shift blocks in the environment back-and-forth between being solid and insubstantial. General gameplay feels solid, with the environments being cleverly spiked with objects that need to be phased in and out in order to progress.

The downside is that little “cannon” blocks which shoot the character across the level are introduced, and the game does not allow the player to freely move the camera around in order to plan a path ahead. When the levels started getting less platformey and more puzzley, I found myself getting massively irritated because sending the character through the cannons requires good timing to connect a string of them in a row. I would often catch the wrong one, or just miss a crucial one entirely, requiring a restart. 

There were also choices about which way to go in the cannons that were difficult to make with the speed at which they need to be made. Being able to pan the camera around and get a good look would have alleviated this problem entirely, and a few of levels were incredibly rage-inducing because of this.

I fully admit I needed to go to YouTube to look up a solution for one particular level that was a huge pain in the ass (level 15) but in general I liked it when it wasn’t pissing me off. I wasn't sure about whether or not I would be up for the sequel (already on the eShop), but I think I'm going to go for it.

The player takes on the role of a young samurai who must rescue the cherry blossom princess. This is done by moving him around the map, and in each location there are a collection of bad guys made up of different warrior classes. Swordsmen, halberdiers, archers, and so on.

Gameplay is mostly dependent on having good timing in order to avoid the incoming arrows and sword attacks. Nothing complicated about it, but it can be a little tricky to get the timing down. Once you get a handle on it, the game starts flowing right along and it's just so cute and focused on doing what it does that it's hard not to like.

I'm hoping that the game is short enough to prevent it from going stale before it ends, because I'm guessing that the mechanics don't get much deeper than what I've already seen, but I do like it and it feels like a good fit for portable hardware.

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Links: For tonight’s update, I wanted to start off with a few tidbits you might be interested in…

Although it’s been out for a little while, you may have missed my review of Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl.  It’s a remake of the original title that barely anyone played, and it’s been nicely redone for the 3DS.

Next up, Christopher Floyd (@CFloydTweets) takes a quick look at Nathan Meunier’s (@NMeunier) book on how to become a games journalist.

Darren Forman (@KayinAmoh) checks out the recent horror game Outlast, and it’s worth a read if for no other reason than to see someone talk about nutsacks stapled to foreheads.

For Monster Hunter fans, Roy Blakely (@Kotowari) has released another of his beginner’s guides, this time on the intricacies of using the ranged weapons.  I haven’t had any time to look into it yet, but he did a fantastic job with the last guide, and I have no doubt he did the same again here.  Expect to hear more about this once I get a chance to read through it, but if you want to take a look for yourself, it can be found right here.

Finally, my friend Tayo Stalnaker (@TayoDK) and I just launched a brand new website called IndieReleaseList.com. 

Our goal is to try and keep track of all the noteworthy indie games being released these days, in addition to the ones that are still coming.  Awareness is a huge hurdle for small studios to get over, and from the reviewer side, there’s just so much to try and sift through.  This is our attempt to create one central place for both sides to see and be seen, so if you’re a fan of indie games or a writer, we hope you’ll stop by and learn about some titles you might not have known existed.  If you’re an indie studio, we will be happy to post your information for absolutely no cost.  

Either way, come on by!

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Games: What have I been playing?  I just completed The Bureau: XCOM Declassified, and much like Lost Planet 3, it’s another great game which started off with a few strikes against it, and as far as I can tell, apparently everyone on earth has now forgotten that it exists.

Basically, it’s a third-person squad shooter that feels a lot like the combat in Mass Effect 3, except that your two teammates are designed to be micromanaged in terms of where they should take cover, who they should target, and what special abilities they should use.  It feels strange at first, but once you get the hang of it, it’s got a good flow.

The art side is fantastic, and the developers have totally nailed the Mad Men-ish vibe of the early 60s.  There are tons of little details that sell the experience, and everything about the game looks exactly like the period that it’s going for.  The story is also worth mentioning…  It starts out with the good guys trying to rout the aliens from America, but there are some huge twists and turns later on that I did not see coming, and the endgame was just nuts, in a good way.

There are definitely some rough patches to it and the difficulty can be quite brutal, but I had a fantastic time overall and was happy to discover that it wasn’t the train wreck that XCOM fans have been expecting.  To be fair, it’s nothing at all like XCOM proper and I think it makes more sense if you consider it as its own thing rather than the “origin” story that it’s apparently trying to be, but either way, it’s one of my favorite games this year.

Otherwise, I spent a few minutes with Dark to see if it was as bad as I had heard, and…  Well, I only spent a few minutes with it.  

When the main character wakes up from being converted into a vampire and finds out in one of the very first cutscenes that he's not only a vampire, but that he must seek out the blood of an ancient vampire (to which he basically says “okay!”) I knew that there wasn’t going to be much reason to stick around.  It’s a shame because it seems like there’s a lot of potential for someone to do a really good vampire game with today’s technology, but despite my hopes, Dark isn’t it.

Continuing the string of disappointments, I got about halfway through Lone Survivor on the Vita before calling it quits.  I’d been looking forward to this one for quite a while and had heard nothing but good things from people who had played it, but it just didn’t click with me at all.  I mean, it’s pretty amazing that the game was put together by one guy and I want to give respect to that, but actually playing it just wasn’t fun. 

It felt a lot like a Silent Hill demake, and since I’ve played too many SH games already, I’m not really in the market for another one.  Besides feeling too similar, I have an allergic reaction to games which are all about getting past locked doors, and that’s what this one seems to be based on.  I find very little value in searching for keys and then backtracking to progress, and the story bits weren’t grabbing me enough to make me want to push onwards.  The way the game is presented is also visually confusing, and I found myself looking at my map every 5 seconds.  It’s great for immersion, as you can imagine.

It was also completely irritating to have the character tell me that he was tired or hungry every few minutes.  In a game where taking care of your basic needs is apparently important, I don’t have the patience for the kind nonsense that it pulls.  For example, I had a bunch of powdered coffee, a stove, a pot and water.  In the real world, I’d be in business. In Lone Survivor, you can’t make coffee without a kettle. A KETTLE.  And don’t get me started on the ham…  My character is literally starving to death and I have a massive ham in my inventory, but I can’t cook it because I don’t have “a pot”.  Who the hell needs a pot to cook a ham? I mean, let’s get real here…  If the character is dying for a lack of food, I think it should be OK to carve off a slice and brown it in a saucepan. Beggars can't be choosers! 

Lone Survivor was just way too irritating for me to get through, and in a horror game, annoyance shouldn’t be the primary response. Pass.

Finally, I found myself in one of those rare moments when I wasn’t obliged to review anything, so I found myself coming back to Defiance on the 360.  

I spent a good chunk of time playing it a while ago, but had to put it aside.  I held onto it, and after jumping back in, I’m still impressed with how smooth it feels to play and how fun it is to randomly come across other people in the world. 

On the other hand, it really does have some of the worst UI and menus I’ve ever seen, and would benefit from an aggressive amount of streamlining in that regard.  Even still, it’s pretty easy to ignore that stuff once you know what to do in the game, and I’m so close to the end that I’d feel bad for not finishing it considering how much fun I had with it.  

I have no doubt that the players currently populating its world will jump ship the moment Destiny or one of the other ambient multiplayer games comes out, so I’m hoping to get it done before the servers are deserted…

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Book: I tweeted about this last week, but this is the first time I’m posting this news here at the blog, and it seems a little more real as I’m doing so…

 

After many ups and downs and a ridiculously extended delay (which was totally my own fault) I’m happy to announce that my upcoming Urban Fantasy book, Speaking In Forked Tongues¸ will be available for purchase on March 25, 2014.

I know many of you have been asking about how or when you can buy it, and I’m sure that at least a couple of you were starting to think that it was never going to happen, but the final draft has been sent in to the publisher. Although the cover art still needs to happen, everything else is locked into place and it feels good to know that a hard date is in sight.

More info to come!

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Podcast: The latest @Gamecritics Podcast is now up!  In this episode, the topic is… sex!  Guest panelist Samantha Allen (@CousinDangereux) joins us to talk about the games that got it right, the games that got it wrong, and how we want to see games handle it in the future.  The answer: with both hands.

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Games: Just wrapped up my review for Sony’s Puppeteer a couple of days ago…  It hadn’t received much coverage before release and I honestly didn’t know what it was even about.  I thought it was some sort of Move game (and I guess it is, although you can actually just use controllers) but it’s basically a platformer starring a puppet-boy who lost his head. 

Look for the complete coverage soon, but as of right now I wouldn’t really recommend it.

On the other side of the spectrum, something that I would recommend is Lost Planet 3.  My review for that is also in the can, although it hasn’t gone live yet.

I have to say, LP3 has been one of the biggest surprises for me this year.  Not only is the true nature of the game radically different than anything that has been in the previous two, the story-heavy, character-heavy qualities that I think this are so great are essentially impossible to communicate through a demo or with quick impressions. 

I’ve seen a lot of reviews out there that really don’t get what’s happening in it, and that’s a true shame.  With all of the titles out there offering fast, twitchy action, it’s really disappointing to see so many writers knock it for not being another shooter when it’s obviously going for something really different. 

It’s easily one of my favorites this year, and I would definitely recommend it to those looking for something very grounded and human, and also to those who don’t mind game structures which don’t follow the “I need an explosion every 12 seconds” school of design.

 

Otherwise, I’ve been putting time into Etrian Odyssey Untold: Millennium Girl on 3DS, and I’m hoping to have that review ready to go when the embargo drops on the 23^rd.

People who read this blog will know that I’m a huge fan of the Etrian series, and although they do skew pretty hardcore, the developers have made many concessions in the last couple of entries to make sure that there are easy points of entry for those interested in the structure but not the difficulty.

Although at this point I still feel like Etrian Odyssey 4 is the absolute high point overall, Millennium Girl has been a great experience.  Essentially, it’s a remake of the first EO, although it’s far from a standard touch-up.  In addition to redesigned dungeons, redrawn graphics, a new class, a new element to the combat system and a few other tweaks, it’s the first Etrian to offer a full-blown story mode.

In this mode, the game has hand-drawn animated cutscenes, more dialogue than has ever been previously included, and five distinct characters for the player to use.  Each one has their own preset name, skill set and personality, and the party is loaded with skills that make surviving the dungeons a lot easier than it might be for someone unfamiliar with EO.  While it definitely feels weird to have a pre-made party, Millennium Girl is still delivering the goods that I love so much.   

It’s going to be available on the eShop and there's a demo up right now (the save data even carries over into the full game!) but collectors will want to make sure and pick up a physical copy since it comes loaded with a design book and a seven-song soundtrack. Y'know... Atlus.

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Capcom is very pleased to be able to confirm that Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies will be available in North America and Europe as a digital download for the Nintendo 3DS system in the Nintendo eShop on October 24^th priced at $29.99 / €24.99.

Courtroom hero Phoenix Wright returns. The much loved gameplay and features from previous titles in the series are for the first time in stunning 3D, bringing the trials to life and putting players directly in the heart of the action. Players will need to investigate crime scenes to uncover clues before heading to court and presenting evidence, challenge witnesses and unravel the truth behind each of the cases.  Joining Phoenix is young Attorney Apollo Justice and new Associate Attorney Athena Cykes, whose unique ability to psychoanalyse witnesses’ emotions introduces a brand new element to proceedings.

The Western release of the title will also receive the costume pack and additional episode, Turnabout Return, currently available for the Japanese release. We’ll have more details to share on this DLC soon.

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Portland, Ore. - Families and video game fans from around the Northwest can look forward to the eighth-annual Portland Retro Gaming Expo (PRGE) on October 5-6, 2013. It will be the event's second year in the 60,000 square foot 'Hall C' of the Oregon Convention Center. PRGE will feature a massive arcade section which has been coined the 'Supercade.' Nearly 20,000 square feet of floor space will be set aside for attendees to play hundreds of classic arcade, console, and pinball games. The arcade is being presented in partnership with Portland's landmark arcade, Ground Kontrol.

PRGE is a family friendly, all-ages event made up of three areas: the Supercade video game arcade, speakers and programming, and the exhibitor marketplace. The pop culture convention draws a wide cross section of fans eager to hear PRGE's panel programming, meet other gaming fans and, of course, play video games.

The exhibitor marketplace is the largest and most popular part of the convention with more than 60 vendors selling classic games, consoles, memorabilia and art from over 30 years of video game history.

One of the highlights of the show will be a customized Donkey Kong arcade machine in which Mario is kidnapped by Donkey Kong and it's his girlfriend Pauline who does the rescuing. Other highlights include  ppearances by video gaming celebrities, a live video game collectibles auction and several video game tournaments - including the Tetris World Championships - that are open to the public. More information about guest activities at the convention will be announced in the future.

Passes can be purchased online or at the door. Pre-sale tickets allow attendees to get into the event one hour early on Saturday, October 5. Vendor space is still available and PRGE continues to solicit arcade and pinball game owners to volunteer their games for the event. Visit RetroGamingExpo.com for more

information. For tickets or information on the Portland Retro Gaming Expo, visit RetroGamingExpo.com.

Website: http://www.retrogamingexpo.com/

MB: Like Count Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster has become one of horror’s most iconic monsters. Mary Shelley’s creature has starred in a massive number of films over the years (although for the past few decades, he’s taken a back seat to zombies and more modern slashers) but it’s hard to imagine Shelley ever conceiving how Richard Raaphorst would take her greatest literary creation and re-envision it in Frankenstein’s Army.

Frankenstein’s Army is a bit of a hybrid; a found-footage alternate history period piece that joins films like Outpost in the burgeoning World War II horror subgenre. Making horror films during the greatest war the world has ever known makes a lot of sense – war is Hell, after all, and the Nazis were into enough crazy shit in reality that almost anything a screenwriter comes up with seems plausible on its face. So, when Raaphorst opens with a small contingent of Russian soldiers encountering mechanically-altered re-animated corpses while traveling across the German countryside in search of a battalion in distress, I find myself thinking “yeah, well, that’s not as crazy as the whole Nazi Bell thing…”

Anyway, soon our ragtag assortment of war film cliches (the gruff commanding officer, the scared greenhorns, the psycho who wants to commit every war atrocity in the history of humankind against the enemies – and maybe his allies if they’re not down with it) find themselves locked in a life or death struggle against an army of reanimated soldiers who’ve been modified with all sorts of crazy mechanized attachments in order to make them even more efficient killing machines. This is the entire reason why Frankenstein’s Army exists.

Raaphorst’s film uses the found-footage angle (the group of soldiers has a filmmaker amongst their number) to help conceal its tiny budget. The indie nature of the feature is both a positive and a negative – positive in that it called for a lot of ingenuity on the crew’s part, and necessitated making the monsters with real practical FX work instead of relying on the crutch of CG. Of course, the downside is that the small budget also means the film skimps a bit on the kind of spectacle viewers anticipate when hearing a title like Frankenstein’s Army. It’s not really an army – it’s more like a small unit.

The found-footage angle actually works to the film’s benefit most of the time. The quick cuts and grainy visuals (which are in color – unlikely historically, but a necessary concession for modern viewers) help create a documentary feel. The way many sequences are composed allows the audience to spot the dangerous things lurking in the background before the potential victims do, increasing the tension of the experience significantly.

The downside is that the handheld camera work is very frenetic during the action scenes, making it easy for the audience to get lost in the space of a sequence. This allows for some great jump scares as our intrepid cameraman will whirl his device right into the slavering mechanical jaws of some undead monstrosity pretty regularly, but the price is that the logistics of the action often become hard to decipher.

If this new Frankenstein’s creations are the true stars of the film, then the blood and guts in the special effects are probably a close second. Most viewers won’t care about any of these characters, but there is a certain amount glee to be found in watching these monsters shred through the crew. Heads are crushed, brains removed, skulls pried open, and intestines removed from still-living bodies with frightening regularity. Again, budget constraints required good old fashioned practical FX work here – which is always welcome with this gorehound.

Ultimately, Frankenstein’s Army appears destined for cult status – not a bonafide cult classic, but a film that will certainly find fans and admirers. Raaphorst and his team milk maximum effect out of a miniscule budget, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that Frankenstein’s Army is really just a high concept pitch that got turned into a feature because the idea was so awesome that they couldn’t pass it up even if they weren’t sure how to make it work. And the idea is awesome – Frankenstein’s creatures are fantastic in their execution, a sort of WWII riff on Giger’s bio-mechanics that will definitely please monster freaks. The problem is that nothing else in the film is nearly as cool as the beasts – which is unfortunate. 

In some ways, Frankenstein’s Army feels perfectly suited for a videogame adaptation – a realm where the relatively threadbare story and cardboard characters wouldn’t be such a detriment. There’s fun to be had here, for sure – but it’s hard to look at Frankenstein’s Army on the screen and not marvel at what might have been. 

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Mega thanks to the @Horrorgeek for the review, and look for Coffeecola to return to its usual game-oriented programming next time!

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PAX: So, PAX Prime 2013 is now over – and man, what a terrible, shit-tastic way to end it.

Although it wasn’t my favorite PAX, there were definitely some high points like seeing people whom I would otherwise never run into, and getting the chance to play games that I had been looking forward to.  Some good times there, for sure.

However, things really ended on a sour note once I got home. 

I wasn’t aware of it while I was at the show, but as soon as I walked in the door and got on my computer, I found out that Mike Krahulik (the artist for the PA strip) had made some intensely distasteful comments in regard to the ‘dickwolves’ situation which occurred a few years ago.  A lot of people are understandably pissed off about it, and many have been calling for a boycott of PAX and Penny Arcade altogether.

I’ve been asked what my opinion on the whole situation is, and it wasn’t something that I could easily get across on Twitter. So, here it is...

To start with, I’m not a fan of rape jokes in general and I don’t think rape is something to be made light of.  In no way do I condone anything having to do with rape, jokes or otherwise.  

Aside from that, I think most would agree the dickwolves incident (and how PA handled it) was probably one of the lowest points in Penny Arcade history. 

It was supremely disappointing to hear that Krahulik had not only brought the issue up again, but was actually regretful about having the related merchandise removed from the store.  I have a hard time understanding how he doesn’t ‘get’ what a big deal this whole thing is (and maybe he does now? He just issued an explanation on his comments earlier today) but it’s not the issue I wanted to address in this post. Bottom line, he came off like a world-class, thoughtless asshole. That’s pretty simple.

What’s not simple is the issue of whether or not people should boycott the PAX event itself.  At first blush, it seems like the obvious answer should be “of course we should boycott it!” but I don’t think it’s as clear-cut as it seems.

The way I see it, PAX is far more than something that’s directly connected to Mike and Jerry.  I mean, when you walk in the door, it’s not as though the two of them are right there, exchanging a secret handshake with you and welcoming you to their personal club.  In fact, I would imagine that quite a few people who attend the show have absolutely no idea who they are.  I’m sure many haven’t ever read the strip, and may not even know it exists.

Rather than something that’s a celebration of Mike, Jerry, or of the Penny Arcade strip itself, I think many people see PAX as an amazing gathering where gamers don’t need a press badge to get in, and they can spend a weekend meeting people just like them.  

For at least three whole days (four, this year!) gamers of all stripes can walk, talk, eat, breathe, sleep and play games in a place where they’ve got more in common with the person right next to them than they probably do for the vast majority of their daily existence.  This social opportunity for game-oriented people is incredibly valuable to many of those who attend, and has nothing at all to do with condoning dickwolves. My guess is that the a large number of attendees don’t even know what one is, or what happened. Hell, if not for Twitter, I wouldn't have known it had happened.

PAX is also a place where education occurs, thanks to some amazing panels and presenters who come to share their viewpoints.  Just this year, people could have sat in on: achieving gender diversity in gaming, the top women game characters of all time, community organizing, gays in love (with their RPGs), military servicewomen in video games, and more.  I don’t know of any other place where so many important panels are accessible to so many average gamers.  Again, this content has nothing to do with Mike’s pre-clarification comments – in fact, much of it flies in the face of them.

Also of value is that PAX is a great place for struggling indie developers to show off their work and be seen by a huge number of people, both press and public.  Although it’s nice to have the big companies show up, getting up close and personal with the indie devs is by far my favorite part of the show.  I get to meet so many incredible creators in one place, and so many connections are made!  It’s fantastic, and again, these fabulous people aren’t there in support of Mike’s personal views, whatever they may be.

I’m definitely not defending Mike or how any part of the dickwolf situation was handled, and I can totally understand how some people would not want to support the show in any way, shape, or form. I can respect that, and for those that choose to avoid the show in the future, I support you. On the other hand, I see PAX itself as something that is now far more than what it started out as, and giving all that up over one guy who has no discernible effect on the positivity the show brings feels a bit like using dynamite to kill a roach. 

You might get him, but what else are you losing in the process?

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PAX: Today was day three of PAX 2013, and although I did see some good things, my sense of the show overall is that the industry is holding its breath a bit. 

That’s not to take away from the good things that I did see, however.  Here’s what I saw today…

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies

After an extended absence and a couple of games with different characters in the lead role, the Ace Attorney franchise finally gets its true star back.  I couldn’t be happier to see Phoenix return, and I’m hopeful that the writing will be as entertaining as it has been in the past.  This time around, he’s accompanied by a new rookie attorney named Athena Cykes. Apollo Justice also makes an appearance, along with a few other faces that will certainly be familiar to fans.  It’s hard to get a good grasp of such a story-heavy game when doing a quick demo on the floor, but all the pieces seem to be in place and the new rendered-in-3D graphics look sharp, while retaining the same charm they had in 2D.

Armillo

I first saw this game back in 2011, and I thought it looked good even then.  However, the team had some issues, and it fell off the radar for a while. Now they’re back up to speed and I was quite glad to see this cute little armadillo reappear.  Gameplay can be described as a mix between Super Mario Galaxy and a Sonic the Hedgehog that doesn’t suck, and its colorful graphics and immediate appeal will be a perfect fit for the WiiU eShop sometime in the first quarter of 2014.

Windforge

Out of all the games I saw at PAX, this was one of the few that was genuinely dripping with awesome.  Although the game is quite early and it was running in a very, very rough state, the overall concept captured my attention immediately.  

Essentially, the game’s world is sort of an airborne place that’s populated with flying house-ships and skywhales.  Players can pilot the houses around and when encountering another one, combat can happen between them as if they were pirate vessels side by side on the open sea.  The people inside can move around the house and jump from one structure to the next, so there was a great interplay between the larger houses and the smaller people.  The houses can also land on islands, and the inhabitants can get out and start exploring, fighting, or mining whatever’s there. Oh, and those skywhales?  They can be killed and their oil can be used as a resource.

Although Windforge has a long way to go before it’s ready for prime time, the aerial 2D Contra-like combat mixed with exploration and a steampunk aesthetic was pure money.  I absolutely cannot wait to see this after it’s been polished up and massaged for a while.

Owlboy

I’ve seen this game at PAX at least a couple of times, and it still hasn’t hit release yet.  Hopefully, that will change soon.  The art is absolutely adorable, and the action featuring an owl-like character who can fly around and explore various environments is the sort of thing that makes you want to sit right down and start digging into it.  If the devs had a 3DS cartridge for sale at their booth, I would have bought it on the spot.  Owlboy is yet another indie title that lost its way for a while, but the developers say that they will have a big announcement coming soon.  My fingers are crossed, and I’m really hoping for the best on this one.

Phantasy Star Online 2

I grilled the PR rep at the Sega booth, and the only answer I could get out of her was that it was “officially delayed”.  I ask if that meant it was definitely coming, or if they had any idea as to how long the delay would be, and all she would say was that it was “officially delayed”.  Nothing else to report on this one.  Sorry!

Escape Goat 2

If you’ve been following this blog for any length of time, you probably know that I’m a huge Escape Goat fan.  It was one of my top 10 games in 2011, I have a poster, and I wear the shirt.  If someone would create a plushie, it would be on my desk.  I am a hardcore Escape Goat fan, so I was quite pleased to see that the sequel was one of the games featured in the PAX 10 this year, and it’s looking quite sharp with redone artwork and a richer color palette.  The world map has also been revamped, and I’ve been told that people (like me) who were fascinated with the enigmatic storyline can look forward to certain themes being revealed, and a surprise visual callback.

Midnight City

This one’s not really a game, but a new publishing house focusing on indies.  I think it’s great that more and more avenues for exposure like this one are opening up, and Midnight City’s initial lineup of ten games looks quite strong.  If they can continue to cherry pick things as good as what we were shown in this trailer, then they are certainly going to be an organization to keep an eye on.

Bionic Dues

This is another early/rough one to watch, this time from Arcen games.  Players have a squad of mechs which can be outfitted with various pieces of equipment and then let loose in a turn-based environment.  I can’t remember any other titles that feature quasi-roguelike play starring a squad of assault bots, so the fact that this one seemed interesting is kind of a no-brainer.  It’s got a long way to go, but there’s potential there.

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing 2 & T.I.A.O.V.H. Deathtrap

Somewhat related to my comment earlier about the industry holding its breath, I find it fascinating that the first Van Helsing ame has yet to make it to XBLA, but the sequel is just about to hit PC. It’s essentially a Diablo-esque top-down thing, but I’ve heard the writing is really what sells it.  

However, what caught my attention here is that when @Gamecritics staffer Brandon Bales reviewed the original game for us, he said that his favorite parts were the Tower Defense side missions.  The PR rep said that she had received that same feedback several times, so the developers took those side missions and made them their own game, now called Deathtrap.

Although Van Helsing 2 looks like a good, solid game, Deathtrap looks like a hell of a lot of fun.  Best described as ‘active Tower Defense’ of the sort where you set your towers up and then control a combat-ready character to mop up enemies that slip through your lines, players will be able to set up the usual sorts of towers, in addition to other things like summoning monsters or building cages full of werewolves.

Secret Ponchos

Although there were a number of trends that could be spotted at PAX this year, one that I’m not really a fan of is the trend of developing a game that does not have a true single player campaign, and which also classifies itself as a constantly-evolving piece of work.  I don’t play games in the MOBA genre, but there’s no question that it’s had a big effect on the industry. One example is Warframe (covered on Day One) and also this one, Secret Ponchos.  These (and many more) have obviously been influenced by MOBA success.

In Ponchos, players choose from one of several Western-themed characters and duke it out in an arena made to look like a homestead that might be found out on the range, somewhere.  Each character has a selection of different abilities (one has a shotgun, one has a whip, etc.) and when an enemy is taken out, they quickly respawn and come back for more.  

 The art direction is quite strong and I found myself drawn to the clean, exaggerated style.  The animation was just as detailed, and I admire the work that’s been done here.  I’m still interested in it to be sure, but I think a lot will depend on how much content is available for people who spend most of their time in a 1P mode.  I’m not opposed to jumping online and throwing down with some other people once in awhile, but just knowing my preferences, that sort of game play doesn’t sustain me for long.  Still, my eye’s on it.

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Although there’s still one more full day of PAX, this will be my final report and @Gamecritics will officially wrap the show with a podcast recorded from the floor tomorrow afternoon.  

I know for a fact there were several games I didn’t get to that were worth investigating and I apologize to any developers whose work was not featured over the last three days, but between the crush of people in the Indie Megabooth and the overcrowded floors everywhere else, it was quite difficult to see everything that I wanted to see. 

I’m not sure what can be done about it, but I hope that the Penny Arcade staff will consider the conditions this year and do things a little differently next time.  I still love the show and I especially love that it’s right in my backyard, but I have to be honest -- this was one of the expos I’ve enjoyed the least in the history of attending PAX due to the large number of people and the general logistics.

I’m hopeful that next year will be better.

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