Video Games

This is an appreciation post for The Wolf Among Us Episode 1

Opinion, Video Games

By William Chandler

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I am definitely way behind on this one. But c’mon friend, this is an enthusiast site. If you want some fucking by the minute video game coverage of just about every single shit property that hits the market then perhaps you should head on over to Giant Spot or Rock, Paper, Informer or whatever sites people like these days. Anyway, I really like what Telltale games have been doing with their properties as of late. They are a studio that shows great improvement with just about every single release and I respect the fuck out of that. Now they’ve polished their formula to a mirror shine and even though The Walking Dead was decidedly not my jive, that fact had absolutely nothing to do with the game itself. I really just don’t care at all about The Walking Dead universe. That said, I was still able to complete the first two episodes of that series just out of pure appreciation for the mechanics and solid character writing.

I am so indescribably flaky when it comes to schedules that there is absolutely no way I can stick to a set viewing time and remember to tune in every week or month or whatever. This creates a problem when it comes to me and Telltale because they really dig their episodic release formats for their games. Fortunately, the entire first season of The Wolf Among Us is now out and, being a huge fan of both noir and fables, I decided to start playing.

I’m not here to spoil the whole damn thing for you because the chain of events that occurs in the roughly two hour series premiere is absolutely fascinating, but suffice to say that the plot thus far appears to be extremely well done. Who knows if the whole thing can keep up with this level of quality but I definitely have my fingers crossed. Even the dialogue is really solid across the board, but I was particularly impressed with the depth of character from many of the seemingly shallow side characters you meet. Both the Huntsman and Toad show a great deal of depth by the end of the first episode even though they seemed like some seriously basic ass bitches at the beginning. I certainly hope this trend continues as well. Bigsby, the leading man, is decidedly generic as far as protagonists go because he struggles heavily with not giving a fuck and being extremely disliked, but I like him anyway because I identify with both of those traits.

This game, like others in the Telltale library, is extremely reliant on quicktime events to move things along, and while they are never really going to be an ideal game mechanic, they are about as well implemented here as they are ever going to be. So, unless you absolutely despise their entire existence, you won’t find any problems to speak of. Other game mechanics include standard adventure game tropes of interacting with flashing objects in the environment and talking to various people about various subjects to various results. Both of these aspects are similarly well done and I particularly like the fact that your dialogue responses are timed, meaning you often have very little time to decide what to say. This ensures that the conversations flow well and feel very natural, lending even more credit to the writing quality. The Wolf Among Us also advertises that you, as the player, will be making many difficult choices throughout the game that will drastically alter the progression of events, and while I have not played enough to truly see whether or not this is the case, it certainly feels like your choices matter at the time.

Honestly, unless you absolutely hate story driven adventure games, you should probably just play The Wolf Among Us.

The Verdict: I give it a “Dope as fuck” out of 170.

Yo, guys, Neversoft and I are the same age

News, Video Games

By William Chandler

Neversoft, creators of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and later the destroyers of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, were officially made defunct today following the full absorption of their staff into Infinity Ward, creators of Call of Duty and later the destroyers of Call of Duty. Huh. Weird.

Anyway, Neversoft have sadly been largely irrelevant for several years now so this is probably only news if you’re surprised that they actually still exist. I’m really only writing this article because I thought it was cool that Neversoft and I are both twenty this year. The difference being, you know, that they’re dead now and I am still living on as an amazing torrent of beauty and passion that simply cannot be stopped.

According to the image above, they died as they lived. Slowly burning out until only the charred husk of their former glory remains. Holy hell, I am being extra sassy today. Perhaps I’m still upset that Tony Hawk’s Underground was like the dopest shit ever and then they just left me hurting when every game afterwards represented a slow decline in quality. Even thirteen year old me knew that Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground was lame.

Crawl delayed from planned July 17th release, puns about time crawling until the game actually releases declared “inevitable”

News, Video Games

By William Chandler

Looks like you’ll have to wait a while longer to piss off and subsequently lose all of your friends. Crawl, the cleverly named cooperatively competitive dungeon crawler with an extreme focus on fucking over everyone who ever cared about you, has been delayed from its planned release next week due to “tax issues”, according to a post on the game’s official site. No new release date has been set. Hopefully the massively entertaining GIF (see above) that the developers made will serve as some sort of consolation prize.

For those that don’t know, Crawl is a unique multiplayer dungeon crawler supporting up to four players. The trick is that one player attempts to successfully navigate the hazards and defeat the enemies of the dungeon floor by floor as a human while the other three inhabit those very same obstacles in an attempt to kill the human player. Whichever player lands the killing blow on the human then takes his place and the cycle begins again. Frankly, if that doesn’t sound like some dope as fuck cathartic fun then I don’t know what to tell you. Perhaps you should consider reevaluating exactly who you are.

Rapid Fire Reviews: 07-09-2014

Opinion, Video Games

By William Chandler

Well, fam, I decided to make this a regular segment due to the fact that I play a metric shit ton of games, many of which I either don’t have the time, or simply do not care to write about in full. So here are some critical summations of various games that I’ve been playing lately.

The Banner Saga: 5 – 6 hours in, purchased on Steam, played on PC

Admittedly I’ve been sleeping super hard on this game because it came out way back in January and I’m just now taking the time to play it. I was looking forward to it prior to release because it is essentially a Norse themed Fire Emblem game developed by a few ex Bioware employees and I fucked heavily with Bioware games. Even the later ones that eschewed many of the core components that made their early RPGs great like actually having complex skill trees. The gameplay is solid with just enough depth and difficulty to keep one interested as well as reasonably challenged, which I certainly appreciate. The battles are played out in a fashion similar enough to a Fire Emblem or Final Fantasy Tactics game that you’ll likely feel relatively at home with the mechanics if you’ve played one of those titles, however, there are enough small differences to ensure that you won’t have a complete mastery over them upon first booting up the game. For instance, the stamina system not only limits how much you can use a character’s special abilities, but it also allows for spare stamina points to be added to regular attacks for additional damage, or they can even be used to move slightly outside of a character’s standard movement range. These mechanics, combined with the fact that most characters only have a handful of hitpoints which make them realistically squishy, ensures that moves must be thoughtfully considered during some of the more difficult battles.

The story is obviously also a major component in The Banner Saga and it is as solid as one would expect from a Bioware pedigree. Very few of the characters are particularly likable at my current point in the game but I expect that to change over time. Honestly though, the main draw is the lore in my opinion. The world is decidedly unique and interesting enough to keep me going just to learn more about the way things work.

If you like slow burn RPGs with a heavy focus on character interaction and decision making then I imagine that it is difficult to go wrong with The Banner Saga. Shout out to the dope as fuck atmospheric sound design as well.

Shovel Knight: 4 hours in, bought on the Nintendo eShop, played on a 3DS XL

Yo, this game is wicked charming. From the true 8 bit graphical stylings and soundtrack to the legitimately funny NPCs, you’d be hard pressed to not be grinning from ear to ear while playing this game. Well, that is until you get to some of the more bullshit platforming sections later on. Perhaps the 3DS d-pad just isn’t as accurate as is apparently necessary for this game, but I’ve found that many of my trips to the void are due to the slightest and most frustrating of miscalculations. That said, the difficulty is never overwhelming and it ensures that even the most annoying of areas do not overstay their welcome. Aside from that small complaint, the game feels extremely tight and responsive which lends itself well to the type of game that Shovel Knight is. That is, a 2d side scroller in a similar vein to that of the Metroid or Mega Man games of yore, but you probably already knew that considering the absurd amount of praise the game is getting from the press.

Just fucking buy it if you haven’t already. It certainly isn’t perfect, nor do I find it to be as great as many reviews suggest, but it is damn fun and just the type of thing you probably need if you’re sick of a lot of the tropes present in modern games.

The Forest: 5 – 6 hours in, bought on Steam, played on PC

Let me just say that this shit is decidedly early access. It’s still quite rough around the edges in many spots and a great deal of the content hasn’t even been implemented yet, so my evaluation of the game will likely change over time.

The Forest is an extremely thorough survival horror game with an almost obsessive focus on the survival portion of that description. Let me just say that this game is not afraid to mercilessly and completely fuck you over in an instant, and indeed that will likely be the case the first few times you play it. It certainly is never frustrating though, as the game really insists on the player learning from their mistakes of their last playthrough. And the randomly generated island layout as well as the various possible starting locations ensured that my few attempts never really felt too similar. That said, I did find myself growing bored a couple of hours into my most successful playthrough, so perhaps the advertised longevity of the game is not nearly realized in the current build.

You must gather food to avoid starvation, build a fire for warmth so you don’t freeze to death, and construct a shelter in order to avoid exhaustion, and those are just the basics of survival. It seems as though the developers plan to expand upon all of the survival aspects as game development progresses but the systems are pretty bare bones in their current form. There are only a few types of shelters and very little in terms of flora and fauna diversity, which means that hunting and gathering can often feel like a grind, but I imagine that won’t be the case in later versions.

While being stranded on an island sounds horrible enough on its own, the fact that there are mutated cannibals stalking you at every turn is really just the icing on the cake. The combat system leaves much to be desired in its current state, and it often feels like you have to dish out far too much damage to dispatch any adversaries, but the fact that it is a horror game makes that par for the course. And if the fact that it can often be a pain in the ass to find food doesn’t kill you then it is highly likely that these boyos will.

The Forest is certainly an interesting concept with some great ideas and even the fact that it is extremely early in development doesn’t stop it from being one of the most in depth survival focused games on the market currently. It’s some good fun but likely not worth the fifteen dollar price tag for the current version.

Make God watch you play Gods Will Be Watching

News, Trailers, Video Games

By William Chandler

Mad props to the folks over at Deconstructeam for this decidedly dope and stylish trailer for their new game Gods Will Be Watching. I like it because it does a great job of setting the tone and whatnot without revealing too much. But, in case you wanted to know exactly what this game is, I’ll allow the video description to do my job for me:

Gods Will Be Watching is a point and click thriller about hard decisions and moral dilemmas in order to survive. A series of dramatic puzzles where both the narrative outcome and the ethical approach to the problem matter as you progress through your adventure. There’s no good or evil, just decisions, with only you as the judge of your actions. Is eating your friends the best way to stay alive, or just the easier?

The game drops on July 24th on Steam.

Adventures in Democracy

Opinion, Video Games

By William Chandler

Having grown up in the United States I naturally know very little about Democracy. Like, what exactly is the deal with the Electoral College and why did I have to pretend it was a joke when I listed it as my safety school? And what better way to learn about a complexly woven set of political ideals than through the video game equivalent of Microsoft Excel? Enter the political pissing contest simulator: Democracy 3.

After choosing the Lord’s favorite nation, the United States of America, I was treated to a tutorial that gave me the basics of what I could expect from running an entire country. This was truly the elevator pitch in action because just like that, the tutorial I sort of skimmed was over and I was left to my own devices. Essentially, everything the President really needs to read or work on is in one giant user interface made up of various bubbles which can be clicked on to reveal information. These bubbles are divided into categories like the Economy, Military, or Crime, which reflect the basics of the information that you can expect them to contain. Some of these bubbles may contain informational graphs and charts about particular topics, like crime rates, that can be willfully ignored in order to better pursue your own political agenda. The real crux of the game comes in the form of the bubbles that contain sliders in addition to the aforementioned charts, which can then be manipulated in order to shake some shit up and see how everyone will react. This is where the real action is.

You also have a cabinet full of humans who will slowly dislike you over time as you make changes to the country, as well as the ability to enact policies, but that shit is for the experts like Ronald Reagan. My America is purely operated by various sliders and irrational one click decision making.

As a mostly middle of the road, slightly left leaning person I decided to tackle primarily social policies first, as that is where I will be able to connect with my people in the most impactful ways. I discovered, however, that you have a form of political currency that allows you to make only a certain number of decisions per turn. The more meaningful decisions naturally cost larger sums of this currency, but you do regain a set amount after ending your turn. Not wanting to waste mine on futile things like taxes or military spending I opted to take the whole year off to accrue as many points as I possibly could.

I wasted no time jumping straight into action upon my eagerly awaited return. My country was hemorrhaging money and crime rates were at an all time high, so naturally I abolished the police force. The cost was clearly too high and the only reason people really commit crimes is to spit in the face of authority anyway, so removing cops from the streets would ensure that no one would feel the need to rebel against the man by robbing a pedestrian or murdering their spouse. Next, I needed to raise national morale and what better way to do that than to get drunk or smoke some of that dank fire kush, you know? I legalized the marijuana because I was tired of having to hide the Presidential stash and then made the legal drinking age like 10 because we all know that being ten years old is like the worst part of your life and those kids really fucking need it.

Then my economic advisor was like “Yo, we need more of that paper” so I decided to pass a bill that would increase oil drilling on our home turf and raised taxes on cigarettes ten fold because people pay anything for that shit. At which point someone must have decided I was doing too great a job because I was assassinated at the hands of some straight up haters.

Democracy is weird, man.

Rapid fire reviews of various steam sale games I bought and subsequently played briefly

Opinion, Video Games

By William Chandler

This piece is pretty self explanatory thanks to my extreme talent for making stupidly long and elaborate titles for my articles because I have a shit sense of humor, so let’s just jump right in.

Please note that I only played these for about two hours each so far.

Child of Light: Yo, this game is mad pretty, so props to the Ubi Art engine for making an attractive Ubisoft game that is actually well optimized on PC. Like, the art style is so beautiful and the music is so absurdly calming and emotionally charged that I immediately found myself falling under its charm. So, in order to maintain my facade of critical professionalism I had to immediately find something wrong with it. The story is under the guise of a children’s tale which apparently means all of the dialogue has to rhyme and that is whack as fuck. It just makes every character cringe worthy instead of charming. Also, there are only two difficulty settings and the Casual one is so easy that i may as well be watching someone else stream the game on Twitch with the amount of interaction that I have with it, but the Expert one is a little harder than I wanted because it means I actually have to try and that is just unacceptable.

Murdered: Soul Suspect: The fact that the title of this game is a pun straight up rocked my world. Like, the protagonist was murdered and is investigating his own shit as a ghost, so he’s like a Soul with suspects but it also means like Sole Suspect like you only have a single suspect in your case and that’s fucking hilarious. The game is decidedly alright.

Risk of Rain: The constantly changing difficulty of this game really hurt my feelings. I did pretty well on the first level and really enjoyed how the game forces you to adapt extremely quickly to its mechanics lest you get your shit stomped in. So, I beat the first level of the game in a single thirty minute session that involved me wildly running around and flailing my arms in an attempt to not be railed by flying jellyfish and clapping robots. I was actually having a pretty good time learning the mechanics and my character’s capabilities on the fly. However, near the end of the level I noticed that the difficulty meter at the top of the screen had shifted to “very hard” and when I transitioned to the next level it stayed that way. The absurd desecration of my body that occurred at the hands of these much stronger adversaries forced me to quit the game and stare at my wall for several moments in a futile attempt to stop the tears from flowing.

Maybe I’ll do a Part 2 of this at some point.

Enjoy the benefits of a capitalistic monopoly with the Steam sale

News, Video Games

By William Chandler

The annual Steam summer sale began today at noon and will purportedly continue through the 28th, with an encore event of the best deals lasting until the 30th. It’s extremely hard not to be excited by the prospect of buying stupidly large quantities of games at actually reasonable prices and then subsequently never playing them, but I pride myself on being a debbie downer. I mean, there is quite a large number of Early Access games in the top sellers page of Steam right now that, due to being in Alpha and already making boatloads of money, will probably not be discounted. Which is fine and dandy, but it just rubs me the wrong way that many of these games can be publicized as nearly complete on the front page while actually being hardly even playable, yet will likely avoid going on sale due to their incomplete nature. It’s just a weird situation, ya know?

Whatever. I gotta go buy Democracy 3 on sale right now.

Bad blood at the Bungie offices

News, Video Games

By William Chandler

Award winning composer Marty O’Donnell, best known for his exquisite work with Bungie on the Halo franchise from its initial inception all the way through Reach, is now suing his former employer after his shockingly sudden departure from Bungie in April. Apparently, the termination was even said to be without notable cause. The lawsuit also claims that O’Donnell has yet to receive the promised post-termination benefits that were outlined by Bungie.

Yo, team Marty all the way. Not only because the Halo soundtracks are of some of the best quality of any big budget game to date, but also because it definitely seems that Bungie are being super lames as of late. Like, Destiny looks totally uninspired and Bungie appears to have lost its former down to Earth cool mentality in favor of a much more corporate demeanor, which is always a bummer.

That said, we’ll see how this plays out.

Do you like mixing your console peasantry with PC gaming glory? Do I have great news for you

News, Video Games

By William Chandler

If you lack the sophistication or hand eye coordination to use mouse and keyboard properly then perhaps you’ll be happy to know that Microsoft have come through with a solution to ease your pain. The fabulously constructed Xbox One controllers may now be connected via USB to your PC and will work as long as these drivers are installed.

As someone who occasionally enjoys seeing how the other half lives, this is great news.