LevelFortyTwo.com » Joel Cornell

Dementium II

Joel Cornell — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 13:54:53 +0000

It's a shame that games like this must be so hampered by their platform. Dementium II has a contemplative, unnerving narrative with an unoriginal yet effective look that truly belongs on a console. It's difficult to create or embrace a proper horror atmosphere on a 3 inch screen with a MIDI-esque soundtrack, and it certainly doesn't do the combat any favors. The end result is unfortunate but promising.

The whole plot of Dementium II is quite intriguing, but lacks substance. You are William Redmoor (I think) and you're in an insane asylum (or is it?) for killing your wife (or did you?). Now, the eponymous Doctor did something to your (brain surgery… maybe) and accidentally (…) unleashed evil creatures from your mind. It wants you to entertain the notion of a big twist ending somewhere inside, but it can't really decide on one reality or the other. The characters are terribly one dimensional and the enemies feel more like obstacles than the demons trapped in your psyche, but since when did simple spoil a good horror flick?

What I can gather from reading over the first game (subtitled The Ward) really doesn’t help to explain anything at all, about itself or its sequel, both of which seem redundant. I found myself trying to delve further into the story and pondering its finer moments (there were indeed a few) as an afterthought, but the atmosphere that the game strives for is still barely out of reach. The unfortunate part comes when I imagine how well this eerie story could be told if it were fleshed out with cut scenes that do more than introduce you to your newest baddie. Give William Redmoor a proper retelling and two joysticks and he’ll be the next Alan Wake.

The first person shooting is handled incredibly well, feeling effective, agile and immersive. Your weapons and enemies are diverse, but none of it really connects. The boss fights are epic and challenging, but grow boring after the first 1/4 of the fight as you uncover the enemies weak spot and proceed to hit it at the right moment ten times over. It's usually easier to just avoid combat altogether to save your ammo, health and progress than to engage in battles that usually feel pointless and methodical.

Outside of combat, there are puzzles that range from challenging cyphers and lock mechanisms, to locked doors requiring a password hiding in the one room you forgot to search a mile back. The lighting effects do wonders for the all-important horror ambiance, particularly the flashlight mechanic, but all the action is deflated by predictable AI and feckless presentation.

I can’t not say it: Dementium II is pretty good for a DS game. What I can say is that I am excited about the rumor of a console remake that I’m starting here, because it’d be damn great if it came true.

Likes:

Get around the flat characters and the narrative can be quite enthralling
Long enough to keep you busy, but short enough to keep your interest
Controls get the job done

Dislikes:

Exemplifies how platform can hinder an otherwise quality game
Too many small annoyances overshadow the whole experience
Deserves the full treatment on a console

Review Score

The review scale at LevelFortyTwo is between 1 and 5. A score of 5 is considered an amazing game, 4 is a well-done game with only minor issues, 3 is in the middle; not great, but not bad, 2 is a very problematic game, and 1 is absolutely terrible.

Alan Wake

Joel Cornell — Tue, 25 May 2010 19:45:43 +0000

Imagine, if you will, a game of suspense and action, that threatens your expectations. A game where the characters are stock, but interesting; where the combat is solid; and where the inspiration is clear. You're are now playing: Alan Wake.

The first instinct to avoid with Alan Wake is expecting a horror game. As such, Alan Wake doesn't contribute any technical innovation to the genre, nor does it foster any sense that your assumed expectations will be met. Rather, keep in mind that Alan Wake is a quality thriller novel built on the classic foundations of suspense gaming, to the point that the story becomes a mechanic. The game makes quite sure you're aware of this intent, consistently providing characters, events and thinly veiled references to present the sum of all suspense. Yes, this is "H.P. King presents, Resident Evil 4: The Eternal Darkness Zone in LOST, a Danielewski production", but that's the point. It's not entirely frightening, but plays off of your expectations of horror and suspense to a stunning degree. The final product is a compelling and encompassing ride delivered as a successful attempt to transcend a gaming narrative.

In Small Pacific Northwest Mining Town A (aka, "Bright Falls"), you are a crime/suspense writer well versed in the horror inhabiting the town you and your wife are unknowingly vacationing in. Throughout, the characters of Alan Wake are fairly stock, but again, small clichés like this seem to be intentional, if not fitting. The plot is original enough and certainly engrossing, but its construction and use are of the highest caliber. Of the many vague and tampered memories Alan still has, one lost memory is of the pages of the transcript he finds scattered throughout the town. These appear to be written by him, but they are telling his story. They tell the future. While vague enough to avoid any spoilers, these pages taken from random points in the past, present and future of the story Alan is in serve to brilliantly enhance the plot and bend the players perception of the specific events and the overarching narrative. There are rather obvious plot occurrences, but it is all part of one of the most ingeniously constructed narrative experiences this generation.

The gameplay in Alan Wake is simply solid. It serves as a evenly memorable vehicle for the story and nothing more or less. Darkness is the enemy. It is not the absence of light, but rather something knowing, plotting, hungry, corrupting. Your enemies are darkness become human, and axe-wielding too. On your side, then, is light. It is your gun, your save point and your infantry. Concentrate your flashlight on your enemies to break the darkness keeping them untouchable, then put a few shots from your pistol or shotgun to good use. The shadowy presence you are fighting possesses various axe murderers, some fast, some strong, some big, but also inhabits tractors, gates, allies, trees and houses. Unsure of your state of mind and the proper reality, the dark presence is a deeply threatening and disturbingly real foe.

I hesitate to call this a game while realizing that only a game can produce such an experience. It is built like a first class novel; it unfolds like classic cinema; it is enthralling and captures a sincerely unique experience. Somehow, even the negatives such as stock characters and clearly predictable plot points are still used to great effect. The narrative breaks up severely into chapters, going so far as to feature "Previously On…" segments, which will work flawlessly with any future DLC. Despite a small excess of tedium, I am surprisingly called back to replay.

I truly hope that Alan Wake is a sign of things to come. As various forms of media have blended together for years elsewhere, this kind of engrossing and nearly meta product exceptionally defines the transition of "game" to "experience".

Likes

One of the most exceptionally crafted suspense narratives in gaming
Solid combat and mechanics are more a subtle vehicle than a distracting focus
Episodic format is perfectly used for the genre

Dislikes

Occasionally cliché or expected
Tedious, but rarely

Post-script: If the reference above missed its mark, and if this game holds an interest for you, please check out Mark Danielewski's novel House of Leaves. It is a brilliantly constructed book, and transcends "novel" in the same manner that Alan Wake transcends "game". It is also necessary that you buy the record Haunted, by Poe (aka Anne Danielewski). The two are parallax, and the sum of the two is much greater than the already exceptional parts.

Review Score

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Making History II

Joel Cornell — Thu, 06 May 2010 15:17:27 +0000

Who says games can't teach you stuff?! I think it's safe to say your average strategy gamer can tell you more about world history, economics and military tactics than your average college student. Making History II is one of those brilliant examples of an experience that's a blast to play at whatever level of "core" you like, while leaving you quite eager to chat with friends about the finer points of the political stage in Brazil in the 1930s or the economic subtleties of Monaco in the 1940s.

Though the time span of MH2 is relatively short (early 1930s through late 1940s), the scope is monumental. You choose just one specific country to represent, but if the country existed during this time period, you can play it. From South Africa to Monaco to Thailand, you're not restricted to the popular countries like Japan or the US. Thus, the goal of the game is quite different than the majority of strategy games. Don't just try to turn the map your color, 'cause playing as Luxembourg, you're quite unlikely to wind up invading Russia. Rather, consider your options while playing as Egypt and run with what you've got. Each turn is a week, so the pace at which you make your decisions is somewhat more delicate. As your end goal will differ greatly with your choice of country and how history plays out (e.g., you can't rely on Japan to bomb Pearl Harbor on December 7th, though their economic and military status certainly makes them prone to that decision), so will the myriad "winning" conditions. The game sets each of the 100+ countries as they were in the early 1930s, simulating their actual economic, military and cultural settings. So when you pick Germany, you'll be set to begin your rampage through Europe, but perhaps this time they'll do things through diplomacy instead.

During your turn, your options extend far further than "attack, defend or build". As the screen above shows, the depth to which you can barter, trade, infiltrate, exercise diplomacy or invade means you can play the game at many levels. If you want to expand the American empire to all reaches of the globe in a few hours, you can just build up your army, sacrificing your people, culture and economy, and go to war. At the same time, you can spend hours deploying troops to destroy an enemy territory's arms factories, planning your diplomatic future with an ally, or creating puppet states or colonies out of recently captured countries, all in just a single turn. To deepen things even further, countries are divided into smaller territories or regions, meaning you can't invade New York City and capture that along with the entire Midwest. Similarly, cities are also separated into districts, so you can choose to infiltrate specific production or culture centers of each city, for the intended effect..

A big problem with strategy games this deep is the fact that most people can't set aside 18 hours straight to finish a game. Thus, the turn timer. Player turns all take place simultaneously, meaning you all make your plans, end the turn, and watch history unfold. To ease everyone's time constraints, simply set the turn timer to any increment (i.e. 24 hours). Make sure you log in and take your turn before the timer expires, and you can all keep up with history without having to hang out at your friend's house all weekend. This means one game can last for months, perhaps sped up a bit when you all can sit down for a few hours, then returning to a longer turn timer. The fact that you will be able to take your turn playing the full game in a browser allows even more accessibility and ease of play.

The origin of the first Making History was an educational tool. Eventually, so much progress was made that a fully fledged strategy game emerged. The sequel is even more refined; this is a deep as strategy gets. Fortunately, you don't need to be a history professor to make proper decisions regarding the future of your nation. Although, keeping Wikipedia handy wouldn't be a bad idea. For an in-depth look at the game with Muzzy Lane's product manager Chris Parsons, check out his guest appearance on our podcast from 4/26/2010! You can pre-order the game here or check the trailer here. Launch day is May 25th, 2010 with a price point of $39.99.

Splinter Cell: Conviction

Joel Cornell — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 15:28:29 +0000

It’s been four years since our last excursion with Mr. Fisher, and Ubisoft has certainly been spending their time wisely. The sixth installment in the series takes some great steps forward in stealth gameplay and narrative presentation, while keeping the core elements of the series intact.

Part of being a super stealthy spy is having the superior training that lets you act quickly and with deadly efficiency. Too many espionage games fail at providing this because of troublesome cameras, unpredictable AI, poorly built aiming mechanisms, etc. Luckily, Conviction avoids most of these issues with ease. “Mark and Execute” technique allows you to pick a number of targets (based on your currently equipped firearm) within line of sight and swiftly and silently pwn them with the push of a button. Earn this ability by performing a hand-to-hand takedown, and use it as you see fit. The other big mechanic is “Last Known Position”, a basic marker for the player showing where the enemies assume you are, allowing for you to flank with ease. These two additions plus the otherwise solid mechanics make for some brilliant espionage executions. Despite Sam’s occasional inability to jump onto a ledge or hide behind the proper cover, the controls are quite fluid. Also, the “interactive” interrogation scenes are handsome enough, but are a step down from the likes of 2005′s The Punisher.

Although the combat techniques at your disposal have deepened considerably, your arsenal isn’t quite what it was. You’re given a wide array of pistols, assault rifles, shotguns and equipment (EMPs, flash bangs, cameras, etc), but as you spend most of your time creeping through the shadows trying to be quiet, you tend to avoid any non-silenced weapons (75% of your weapons). Additionally, your various kinds of vision and ammo have been removed. This seems more like a decision to concentrate on the narrative and combat, instead of hinder the player’s capacity, and it works well.

The story unfolds like the best of classic espionage fiction. Anyone with a knowledge of the Splinter Cell saga will be instantly rapt, while a newcomer will find simply another great spy experience. However, the experience is not a long one, clocking in at just over six hours, but that’s okay. It’s quite rare to be able to sit down with a game and a high quality narrative and finish it in a sitting or two. Sure, it may leave you wanting more after a few hours, but that’s what the multiplayer is for. The multiplayer Co-op modes are quite excellent, but make sure you’re playing with a friend. A fairly high level of coordination is required to get into the latter difficulties, and trying to pull it off by yourself or with someone you just met can be spotty at best. Co-op doesn’t feature the leveling systems we’re now used to in our multiplayer, but that doesn’t keep it from being seriously addictive.

Splinter Cell has progressed by leaps and bounds. Like past games in the series, each encounter is something like a puzzle. Read the situation, detect the patterns, account for unforeseen liabilities, and execute with ease. What has changed is how much more fast paced and fluid the combat is. Expect the best Jack Bauer James Bond Sam Fisher game so far, and plenty of quality multiplayer to keep you playing.

Likes:

Top tier espionage gaming.
Well paced, not overdrawn and engrossing (enough) narrative.
Fluid controls and combat.

Dislikes:

No versus mode
Occasional inability to perform a simple physical task can be frustrating

Review Score

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Questions on the Ethics of Internet Piracy

Joel Cornell — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 15:22:40 +0000

As long as something has existed, so have a group of people existed eager to plunder the goods. Given a basic knowledge of proper tactics, locations and means, any internet user can easily steal (or save, depending on your views) millions of dollars worth of software and media over night. The increasing availability of free yet illegal media means that the new *insert artist here* album could very well garner millions of listeners and not make a cent. However, this incorrectly assumes that all concerned humans entirely lack a basic grasp of economics and business ethics. As the media conglomerates feared, the day of the web pirate has come. Now, we must come to terms with the moral and economic implications of… INTERNET PIRACY! (dum dum dummm)

In the last two months of 2009, over 5 million copies of Modern Warfare 2 were pirated for the PC and 360. At $60 a copy, that’s 300 million smackeroos. That said, the game sold 4.7 million copies (for $282 million) in 24 hours upon release and has since earned over a billion dollars (for reference, MW2 cost just under $50 million to make). Assuming all 5 million pirates would have purchased a copy instead, how big of a deal is that loss? Well, when many of those copies are ripped from physically stolen copies, these numbers are quite quantifiable, as well as the capital lost by the publisher and retailer in producing and distributing those products.

While who loses when games are stolen (physically or digitally) is usually the aspect most highlighted by the media, who benefits is the just as important. It’s easy for a kid making $6/hour to justify downloading a new game from a multi-million dollar company. Those selling the game don’t lose any physical product, and maybe when he gets a raise he’ll buy the sequel. How “free” digital commodities are and whether they constitute a physical product is an entirely subjective and personal standpoint that will certainly not be settled any time soon (much less in the resulting comment threads, but feel free to try). However, when pirated games are then sold before the release date or at half price, here is where a very factual form of criminality begins. Whether digital or physical, this kind of profiting from the work of others is very tempting, very easy, very profitable, but very unethical. But, does this become okay when the seller of pirated goods does not seek monetary reimbursement for his efforts or product?

The RIAA would have us believe that pirates are no better than carjackers or shoplifters. Though pirating is by definition theft, the gap in their logic here is the lack of physical product involved for the majority of pirating consumers. When a game is stolen from a retailer, there is a clear and easily defined loss. When a digital copy is stolen, it is a product that can be reproduced and redistributed infinitely at no cost. Thus, the loss is only theoretical; profit that could have been made. Of the 5 million copies of MW2 pirated, how many of those consumers would have purchased the game at full price had the pirated copies not been available? Perhaps all? Perhaps none.

It’s obvious that a large amount of revenue is lost through the practices of millions of international pirates. If something exists, people will steal it. Yet musicians, game developers and filmmakers aren’t out of business quite yet. In fact, it’s been suggested that spreading media through P2P networks and torrent sites spreads interest and name recognition in consumers who will in turn provide revenue that never would have existed before. Will this new frontier of digital distribution kill profit in media? I quote Radiohead’s fan base in saying, “hell no!” The band met the inevitable event of their 2007 album In Rainbows leaking and being pirated worldwide by simply leaking it themselves. A physical album (DRM-free) was available for purchase through their website at a standard price point, but it was also put up on their website for download. Fans were allowed to download it for whatever price they desired. Despite many purchasers opting to pay the minimum fee of 45 pence, the album would up earning more than their previous record Hail to the Thief. It also must be considered that releasing an album in this manner (directing all revenue to the band, not to any label or publisher) is a serious threat to the music industry that relies entirely on consumers buying the albums of the musicians the labels sign and own the rights to.

Business ethics and economics aside, the argument boils down to the detrimental effects piracy has on the quality and availability of the product. Your favorite band can’t keep making all that great music if they have to take day jobs in order to support themselves. It’s clear in the mind of the majority of responsible consumers that not paying for a product will cause it to go away or greatly diminish. This guy I know has a friend who knows a girl who has pirated copies of the excellent new animated show on FX, Archer. She downloads these because he can’t afford cable, but laughed at the commercial she saw online and wants to watch more, as the DVDs are not yet available. She knows full well that should the DVDs not sell upon release, that could mean the show gets cancelled because it doesn’t make enough money to keep a roof over the head of those involved. Thus, she has the opportunity to be an intelligent consumer and to go buy the DVDs as soon as she can in order to vote with her wallet. She gives the show her support, and if enough people do the same, another season may get made based solely on the sales figures. Had this girl never pirated the show in the first place, her support (and the support of millions of others who watched, legally or otherwise) could have evaporated along with the show.

When a tailor makes a dress, it belongs to him (or his employer, etc). When an artist makes a song, is that also his property? Stealing someone’s property is wrong. But to what extent is art property? Stealing a painting is wrong, but is downloading a picture of that painting wrong? Stealing a person or company’s property is wrong, but unlike a dress, I can copy a song, movie or game with a few keystrokes. Does that ease of reproduction make giving it to someone who didn’t pay for it okay? What if he only keeps it for personal use and not for profit? Like marijuana in many American cities, should it be okay to possess pirated music, but not to sell it? These are just a few of the questions in the minds of media conglomerates and digital consumers the world over. Now, who would care to answer them?

Monday Night Combat

Joel Cornell — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 21:14:04 +0000

Uh-oh. It seems like developers have really begun to exploit the secret to addictive gaming: a cool aesthetic, customizable classes and a deep leveling system all built on solid multiplayer gameplay. This time around, expect your life and soul to be eaten not by the next $60 AAA-budget title, but by Monday Night Combat, courtesy of Uber Entertainment, coming this year to XBLA (with an XBLA price tag to boot, around $15-$20).

Smash TV, Baseketball and Idiocracy all come to mind as some artistic inspiration here. MNC’s dystopian future has one purpose: to watch you shoot people and robots in sport for money. In the vein of Defense of the Ancients or League of Legends, two teams of 5, both accompanied by AI-controlled robot minions, start on opposite sides on a circular map (more map variants rumored to be included in the final release). Make your way around (or through or under or over) the circle, complete with hackable turrets and healing stations, to lead your robots to the enemy base, all while killing the enemy as hard as possible. Successfully defend your base’s shields and get your robots to take down their shields, then just rape, pillage, loot, repeat.

As the battle progresses, kill enemies and minions to earn money, which you can then spend to upgrade your character over the course of the game. Although those upgrades dissolve once the game ends, your account will level perpetually, giving you an increasing edge the more you play. All upgrades apply to one of six classes: Assault, sports an assault rifle and grenade launcher; Tank, the “meat shield” equipped with a Jet Engine (aka chain) gun and laser rail gun; Sniper uses the assumed and an SMG; Support, complete with Healgun and shotty; Gunner has a minigun and mortars; and Assassin backstabs with a dagger and shurikens. Additionally, each class has three unique (also upgradeable) abilities that deepen the combat and strategy considerably.

Included along with the core multiplayer are single-player and co-op modes, both pitting you against AI rather than humans. This doesn’t seem to really be the focus o f the game, but can provide tons of fun for fans of Firefight modes, those just not into competition or noobs looking to sharpen their skills. Though there’s no real plot to speak of, Uber Entertainment has done a great job of fleshing out the finer points of their world and their characters. Check out their site for more details and future updates on a release date and price tag. PC and PS3 versions are in the works, but nothing solid on that just yet.

Two Worlds II

Joel Cornell — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 14:14:47 +0000

Too many times we’ve seen greatness go sour in a sequel. Sometimes, the growing pains of the original can instead teach some important lessons for the sequel. In the case of South Peak Games’ Two World II, we’re fortunate it’s the latter. The open world, high fantasy RPG is new and improved, perfectly suited for those who find a thirty hour game, “a brief aside”.

The 2007 release of the original Two Worlds yielded a fairly buggy and unpolished game, though most issues were eventually patched up. The sequel seems to have overcome these hurdles and more. Originally planned as an expansion for the first game, the direction and scope desired by the developers began to grow past the limits of an expansion and became its own game, new engine and all. Each console (360, PS3 and PC) will each see a slightly different engine, specifically tailored to the specific strengths of each. The graphics and effects have certainly stepped up a bit as expected, with a special attention to expanding the particle, water and light effects.

The character customization exhibits the usual depth expected of the genre, with 26 different parameters to alter. However, the classless system provides a unique amount of depth and experimentation available to the player. Allot the points you earn as you level to concentrate on several types of hand-to-hand or ranged combat, as well as spell casting. The combat is allows for quick changes to adapt to each instance, along with changing between melee, ranged and spellcasting, producing a fast paced, yet strategic result. The spell system is particularly unique: throughout your quests, you’ll discover or purchase spell enhancement cards; pick a simple spell like Energy Bolt, and apply some of these cards (i.e., cold effects, double the number of bolts, heat seeking, ricochet effects, etc). With this system of customization, the total number of possible spells ends up around 10²⁶.

The world is your fairly standard high fantasy (orcs, elves, goblins, etc), though the characteristics for each race are somewhat unique (orcs aren’t ALWAYS evil). Within the game, the scope of the world speaks for itself at a whopping 60 km². The artists have taken inspiration from many real world cultures, reproducing the culture of feudal Gaul and Britain, ancient Japan and the savannahs of Africa, among others.

Two Worlds II provides an ease of access and a linear plot than will easily grab any casual player, but the vivid and massive world will most likely draw a crowd of hardcore RPGers who have no plans for the next 60-80 hours. No release specific date has yet been set, but expect it later this year.

God of War III

Joel Cornell — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:07:09 +0000

I think it’s safe to say that most gamers have already made up their minds about God of War III. Either they’ve already spent their money wisely, or they’ve resigned themselves to missing out on one of the year’s best action games. While the game doesn’t present anything new to attract those who weren’t reeled in by previous installments in the series, the fluid narrative, intense gameplay and epic boss fights reaffirm God of War as the current standard in action gaming.

The biggest quandary that plagues this particular installment of the stunning action series is its inability to keep up with itself. The plot picks up right off the end of GoW2; Kratos has freed the Titans and they are scaling Mt. Olympus to seek collective revenge and dethrone the gods. This means your first “training” stage (for those new to the series/genre only) pits you against a god while riding a Titan in a battle that easily outdoes the biggest and grandest of final bosses. When the pace is set like this, it deflates the normal enjoyment of the puzzles and minions, leaving me plowing through the menial (although still exciting) in-between points as fast as I can to get to more of the good stuff. It’s fortunate, then, that my biggest “complaint” is that the boss battles are too awesome.

The camera issues that plagued previous GoW games are certainly as minimized as possible, but still present. At the same time, the way the camera smoothly pans away from the action to show off just how big the battles are is the best utilization of this technique to date. Only a handful of times was I left wondering where Kratos was mid-battle, as most of those circumstances were thought of beforehand, and your actions are tastefully highlighted via Kratos’ blades streaking through the air while at a distance. For a game of this size (35 gigs on the disc; the titan Gaia’s nose is 1 gig of texture alone), the transitions between the cinematics and gameplay are insanely smooth as everything, cinematic or otherwise, is real-time. The plot does well enough to support the gameplay, but don’t expect a novelization longer than 10 pages any time soon. Kratos is angry and set on revenge, the gods are defiant and powerful, the titans are huge, dead family members blah blah blah, can I kill stuff now?

As far as the mechanics go, don’t expect anything new. The team at Sony Santa Monica seems to believe in not fixing what isn’t broken, and thus GoW vets can pick up literally right where they left off. You do go through the mandatory stripping of powers/items after you seeing how badass you can be, but the weapons you do retrieve as you progress do very little to spice up the gameplay. Some weapons are longer and weaker, some shorter and can break shields, etc, but nothing that will present noticeable change in the way you play. The Quick Time Events are in full force yet again, but it’s usually a sign that a Grecian urn brimming with grade-A whoop ass is about to be poured… hard. Not necessarily unfortunate, but I found myself unable to concentrate on the action, being too busy watching for what button to push next.

After all is said and done, the experience oozes M-rated goodness, but the depth found in other RPG-centric hack-n-slash games leaves GoW’s replayability lacking. Thank god for DLC. I’m personally grabbing at straws to find flaws in my own experience, but I’ll avoid the cliché “fans of the genre will enjoy” business. The franchise really doesn’t seek to expand its target audience, but it’s not like it’s hurting for a fan base. God of War III isn’t quite a new standard for the action genre, but puts forth the game as Atlas, holding the bar high and finding those who would replace it wanting.

Likes:

Epic-est. Boss battles. Ever.
Seamless, smooth, HD brutality throughout.
Sensible and easy-to-learn control scheme.

Dislikes:

Tiresias could avoid a cliché with more ease (seriously, is Kratos an ancestor of Frank Castle or what?!).
The camera can be a bit sticky at points.
Too awesome for its own good?

Review Score

Final Fantasy XIII

Joel Cornell — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:16:26 +0000

The Final Fantasy series has always benefited from extreme consumer confidence. The franchise rarely fails or disappoints, and I don’t need to tell you what you already know: Final Fantasy 13 is no exception in its excellence. However, it does begin to reveal the dilemma of not fixing what isn’t broken versus innovating or reinvigorating the 23 year old series. While series veterans won’t find much if anything in terms of originality, the quality of FF13 is as high as always.

The biggest components of the game that haven’t seen much change (well, the names are different) are the characters and the plot. Square-Enix offers up the usual cast of stock characters: you’ve got your mysterious, former-military-gone-rogue guardian type; there’s the peppy, young mini-skirt; the black dude as comic relief; the bad-ass lover boy, complete with optimistically doomed love interest; the tortured youngster out to prove himself; and finally the dark, sultry bad girl with a forgotten soft spot of humanity. The characters do have some degree of depth, even pulling on the ol’ heart strings here and there as the story progresses, but the lack of originality on the part of the characters isn’t helped at all by the staleness of the plot.

Once again, our heroes are tired of the Orwellian theocracy, and are captured/exiled by the Byronic supremacist villain who believes he is just in his *insert crime against humanity here*. Facing impossible odds, they bop around the world until they discover a pure source of power our villain could not, and win the day to the tune of a bittersweet pop song and a plethora of cringe-worthy dialogue. Although the voice acting is just good enough to be believable, not much ofFF13’s story is new. What is new is that the minor background characters have much more depth, granting a great amount of realism to the worlds of Cocoon and Pulse. Nonetheless, the fact that we’ve seen all this before doesn’t keep the from being just as high in quality as any other FF.

The Active Time Battle (ATB) system has always been about sacrificing strategy for dynamic gameplay. This edition of the system, however, provides a surprising amount of strategy in light of how fast paced the battles are. The action hits hard and quick, and the way the combatants move about the battlefield arbitrarily staves off the stale presentation that most RPGs suffer from. Each character is able to fulfill six different roles within the party, and Paradigm Shift system gives you the ability to switch their roles via pre-planned sets in the heat of battle without sacrificing momentum. You can only control the party leader, but the AI that manages the other 2 party members is quite trustworthy. The end result is one of the best ATB systems to date.

This being the first numbered FF not scored by Nobuo Uematsu, the score composed by Masashi Hamauzu is just as good, if not more varied. Several jazz and blues pieces mix up the traditional orchestral/rock soundtrack, lending some much needed originality to the world. As should be assumed, this is certainly the most gorgeous world in an FF, despite still being more of the same aesthetic we’ve seen in past FF games.

Unfortunately, the environments aren’t any more lively or fleshed out than in previous titles. The abilities and items in the game will be familiar to any FF veteran, employing Phoenix Downs, Firagas and Eidolons (summons) as usual, with some new abilities (Ruinaga) and the revelation that Eidolons are apparently Transformers (you can now ride Shiva like a motorcycle). The leveling system is straight out of FFX, leaving you the choice on which role each character should develop via a grid of new abilities and stat improvements you can purchase using Crystal Points you earn in battle.

On each gamer’s Top 10 list, you’ll find a Final Fantasy game somewhere in there. Their formula has consistently exemplified the pinnacle of RPGs, and it still is. The fact that it’s still the same formula year after year is a bit disconcerting, but when that formula never fails to captivate the player for hundreds of hours on end (not to mention selling millions of copies), it’s hard to disagree.

Likes

The same Final Fantasy characters, world and style as usual.
Best. ATB system. Ever.
A massive, wildly vivid and incredibly enjoyable time sink.

Dislikes

The same Final Fantasy characters, world and style as usual.
Less linear gameplay would have been nice.
Not enough moogles!

Review Score

The review scale at LevelFortyT is between 1 and 5. A score of 5 is considered an amazing game, 4 is a well-done game with only minor issues, 3 is in the middle; not great, but not bad, 2 is a very problematic game, and 1 is absolutely terrible.

A Monitorside Chat With Scott Johnson

Joel Cornell — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 21:01:00 +0000

Recently, I had a chance to sit down (Internet-style) with award-winning artist and podcaster extraordinaire Scott Johnson. Having been a web comic artist since before the industry took off in 2001, Scott’s built a colossal following and community around his comics and podcasts, culminating in the annual Utah-based Nerdtacular event. More of a party than a convention, geeks from around the world gather to revel in good company, good food and good times all based around watching the geekiest summer blockbuster in a massive rented-out theatre (this year’s film will be Iron Man 2).

His comics include the general geekery of Extra Life and the MMO-centric strip Experience Points. A few of his myriad podcasts are the wide-ranging nerdiocity in Extra Life Radio; The Instance, featuring the latest news, tips and happenings around Blizzard’s World of Warcraft (Scott’s guild, Alea Iacta Est on the Earthen Ring server is the largest WoW guild in the world); Film Sack, where Scott and crew review old, forgotten movies, good and bad; App Slappy, reviewing news and apps for Apple’s iPhone; Current Geek, discussing weekly the geekiest stories on the web along with CNET’s Tom Merrit; and many more.

You can find all of Scott’s work at his umbrella company, Frog Pants Studios and on Twitter @extralife. Check out the abridged interview below or check it out on our podcast feed on iTunes for the full audio interview. You can also listen to the full interview here.

So what’s your origin story?

Well, I could go way, way back into my childhood, but suffice it to say it was my goal from a very young age to do two things: draw for a living and do something in radio. As time went on and I started to enter the real world, if I wanted a comic strip in newspapers, it was gonna be a huge pain in the butt. You had to go through all kinds of hoops, and that’s still true. There’s one gatekeeper and a million people trying to get in through the gate, and unless you know the gatekeeper it’s very unlikely that you’ll ever get your work published. It was a time of disillusionment for me as an artist and a creator. I always longed for a different way to do things, and along comes the web and suddenly there’s a way for not just me, but everyone and their dog to do these sorts of things. For me, web comicry started as early as 1998 when I created my first strip called Real Toons, which no one’s heard of, and probably never will, but it was a comic based on first person shooter games. That went okay for a while, got me noticed. I started Extra Life in June 2001 and here we are 8 years later still cranking ‘em out.

Like most web comic artists, you didn’t necessarily start as a “professional” artist or podcaster, when would you say this first kicked off for you as a career?

It’s hard to say. From a technical standpoint, I just made the jump this summer to doing all this full time. It partially took me these 9 years to make it. In 2005 or 2006 I could have but I was just too chicken to do that. I think it was gonna take a little more under my belt for me to have the confidence to do it full time. The main goal was always to do the things I have the most passion for, and these are the two things I love and could do them all day, and I essentially get to do them all day, in one form or another. It’s really paid off, it’s created a new business for me that’s done super well out of the gate. Who knows what the future holds, but I’m not looking back, I’m looking forward to keep pushing new content. As long as people want to keep reading and listening, I’m good.

Did you have anything in mind like Frog Pants Studios when you started Extra Life back in ’01?

No, when I started it, I didn’t have any idea that I could churn this into something that would be a revenue generator. I knew very little about how that revenue would be generated. Turns out it’s a wild combination of sponsorships, site advertising, individual contributions, special arrangements with companies, commissioned art projects, all that mashed together to create enough of a living that I could do it. Jumping in, all I knew was, “I’m gonna put comics on the web and it’s gonna be fun!” I thought I’d just throw it out there and see if anyone liked it, and it turns out a few people did.

2001 was when web comics really started to take off as an industry. Having been there since the start, what can you say about the current and future state of web comics?

I think the overall picture is very positive. It’s more of a shared picture with all sorts of media, not just comics or art in general as the web being its vehicle for distribution. There are all sorts of things happening with video, audio, text and books. We used to get them in very traditional ways and it’s all making this major shift. The question is how will the creators make money or carve out a space for themselves. Those kinds of questions have yet to be answered, but there are of few of us who are succeeding at that. I would point at myself, Penny Arcade, I’d point a big, fat finger at those guys. They’ve really blazed a trail, they’ve got some really smart business people over there helping make that happen without hurting the creative side that Gabe and Tycho are famous for. Moreover, it’s an example of what communities and readers can do to help build your brand, because really that’s who does this. PvP, Scott Kurtz and those guys are trying new markets to get themselves out there in new and different ways. My big hook is the connection with podcasting, more community driven shows that connect to the art and the common culture of comics and games.

Have you ever considered going into print comics?

Oh, yeah. That was my goal and dream for as long as I can remember, and I won’t lie, it’s still very attractive. There’s something about having your stuff printed in books people can pick up, buy, put on their table, have out for people to see, treasure, pass down to their kids; those kinds of things are awesome. As easy as it is for me to go find every Calvin & Hobbes comic online somewhere, and you can, they’re all out there, I treasure these three big compilation books I have, I have my Farside collection and ancient Peanuts books. This idea that the web is killing print isn’t exactly true, there’s a lot of interest in having my Experience Points comic put into print, which is underway right now, should be out around spring or summer. What that says to me is that people still like having that physical artifact to prove that this was all here, and the web feels a little artificial without that. Anytime I get the chance to get something printed, I’m super psyched about it. I just had an ad appear in PC Gamer that I’m really proud of, I did some art for the World of Warcraft mod programming guide. I’m really proud of those to a great degree because they’re in print.

Several of your podcasts, Extra Life Radio and The Instance in particular, tend to hang around the Top 25 in the iTunes store, your WoW guild is the biggest WoW guild in the world, and Nerdtacular is something that started as a small local gathering that’s built up to something that thousands of people are coming from around the world to attend. What are the challenges and the perks of helming a community like that?

Well, the Nerdtacular is an interesting case, where every year more and more people come from out of state or country even, but it’s still at its core designed to say, “Hey, thanks for being the great community that you are, here are some cool prizes, here’s a fun day at a movie theatre we rent out, here’s a bunch of food, here’s a chance to hang out with like minded people, whether they’re gamers or comic book nerds or whatever. It not quite the style of a convention, though there have been people pushing me towards that. It’s all a lot more about them than it is about me. I may have provided a catalyst to get them all in one place, but ultimately they really run themselves. Thankfully we tend to attract some really nice mature folks, not a lot of trolls or weirdos, just people who wanna get together who aren’t your stereotypical fat pale white guy trapped in the basement, it’s a diverse group coming from many different cultures, races, likes and dislikes. What brings them together are those common threads, whether it’s gaming or whatever it may be. I make this joke with the guild that I’m sort of the queen, so when they want me to do something of actual authority, “Eh, I’m just the queen,” which means I show up, people are happy to see me, it’s an institution they really enjoy. But in reality, I have no political power, it’s all in the hands of the guild officers, the message board moderators, people I trust and who’ve been around for a long time. It’s really not that much work. To run a good community you just have to be yourself and provide the place for them to be together and to use the web to bring ‘em together.

There are lot of podcast and comics out there, and it’s easy for those markets to start overflowing with 100 people with the same idea and one person who really got lucky with it. What can you say about how these markets get inundated like that and how people can come to really stand out?

It’s never really black and white, but I believe the key to succeeding in any creative endeavor, no matter what the market, is consistency and passion. What I’ve seen happen a lot of the time is someone will come into that world and say, “I can do a podcast like that about blah” and then 20 episodes into they’ll say, “man, this is hard work, I really gotta keep this going” and then they fade away and drop out, especially if they’re younger when you’re not sure what you really wanna do. Typically, it’s never really a viable outlet for that person’s career goals, but even if you’re really having fun, you gotta have a real passion for it and be consistent. But if you are consistently putting out your best effort and you have that passion, people will not only sense that, but your show will grow, sometimes slower than others, but it will grow, some of it’s luck. When we started The Instance, I was looking around for Warcraft podcasts and they all sucked. This was back in ’06 and lots of quality shows have come out since, but at the time it was a pretty arid wasteland of nothing, and I thought, “Well, I can do this, ELR’s already good, so I’ll do it, I have passion for the game.” I didn’t know how quickly it would grow, we went from zero listeners to about 80,000 unique listeners a week now plus archives, Apple featured us and that really helped. Just a right time, right place kind of thing. If someone looked at the WoW podcast arena today, there are hundreds of others that deserve people’s ear time. It may seem daunting, but if you’ve got a unique idea, a unique delivery system and a bit of talent to make it come together, I guarantee you have a chance. The good stuff rises to the top.

On the Instance, you and co-host Randy Jordan manage to keep a good balance of not forgiving every mistake that Blizzard makes, while still clearly being big fans of their work. Have you ever thought you might wake up one day and find your interest in the game diminished?

Honestly, The Instance has become the reason I still play, and not just because we have a show that we have to maintain. I mean, it’s a 5 year old game, and there are tons of others I’m into right now, but having the show spawned the guild which created this huge ecosystem of people and relationships that connected with our other shows, fans of ELR become WoW fans and then come to Nerdtacular, etc. The greatest power for me with WoW has been the community playing it with me. Without all that, I don’t think my interest would still be there, and I know that’s what Blizzard wants for the game.

Do you see The Instance hanging around as long as WoW does?

We ask that all the time. If a time came where we didn’t have any more passion for the game or the community, that would be the time to call it quits. Most TV shows have the standard of going until it gets stale or they try and go out on top, and that’s the thing about WoW is its longevity, and Blizzard has a milieu that’s easy to wrap a show around. All that said, we’ll just keep going as long as we love it.

With other Blizzard IPs like Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, etc, do you see the show expanding its focus to cover all things Blizzard?

Well, we kind of do that now. We do really heavy BlizzCon coverage every year, anytime big news breaks, we still definitely cover the hell out of that. But as WoW’s star starts to fade, it’s an old game getting older, and new other MMOs coming, so as that happens, we may see the show fade and start up Battle.net Freak Show Happy Time Family Hour.com or whatever the hell we end up calling it. Our show is less about WoW and more about the world around the World of Warcraft and the political and financial and communal sides of it.

In 2007, the infamous Mr. Jack Thompson sent you a Cease and Desist concerning a Photoshop contest you had about him. Considering that he has since been disbarred and has become one of the biggest internet jokes out there, has anything come of that encounter?

Not really, other than I emailed him after his disbarment, saying, “Sorry to hear about your disbarment, I wish you could have built more good will around the video game space so you wouldn’t have so many people ready to jump on your case.” I never heard back. I kind of wanted to so I could make a big deal out of it, but Jack Thompson has brought about some amazing things. He gave me a huge traffic boost from that incident, and the Cease and Desist I completely ignore because it wasn’t even a legal one, just a stupid email saying, “this is a Cease and Desist”. The real benefit from Jack Thompson that people will remember forever is that he’s the one that prompted Gabe and Tycho to start Child’s Play. From his stupidness and their angry nerd reaction, they really challenged him and started Child’s Play, and now that thing’s a multi-million dollar juggernaut of charity for sick kids in hospitals, it’s an amazing charity that does wonderful work for people. Without Jack Thompson’s inspiration, who knows if that would have happened.

Both Extra Life and Experience Points have even referenced their own lack of an overall narrative. Have you ever considered expanding those or creating a new one that focuses more on a structured story?

I couldn’t tell you how many ideas I have for new stories or new characters or titles that I’ve shelved for one reason or another. I’ve tried on several occasions to wedge in new characters or story lines into EL or EP, but I usually end up pulling away from it eventually the 3 or 4 times I’ve done it over the last 8 years, and I can’t really tell you why except that there’s just something fundamentally random about EL, and it needs to be that way. That’s definitely more what it’s about than the characters or stories, despite a few attempts here and there, and I’m okay with that to let it be what it is, that random voice of whatever comes out of my head. But then comes along EP where I tried to build the characters and stories around them and create familiar faces out of that, and I can’t see that comic any other way. With these comics, whatever you come into them with is what you stay with, even for the lifetime of the thing.

What can we expect to see from Frog Pants in the future?

Well, very soon here I’ll have completed the 56 Zombies as a follow up to 2007’s 56 Geeks project, which still sells prints and does crazy business, which surprises me to this day. Despite the guys who were paying me for EP closing up shop, we’re finding a new home for that real soon. As far as shows go, those will keep growing hopefully. My goal this year is to add 2 more shows to the network, one will be a throwback to something I haven’t done in a while, one will be something totally new.

The State and Effect of Multiplayer

Joel Cornell — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:06:47 +0000

MMOs need it, RPGs ignore it, shooters always attempt it and Major League Gaming broadcasts it. Multiplayer won’t make or break a game outright, but it can define the experience so completely that it obscures other important factors. This can be a saving grace for some games as players are still able to get a good experience out of a bad game (I’m looking at you, Tony Hawk: Ride). Though the execution of multiplayer has certainly changed with the rise of the internet, the dynamics have only changed with the number of people that can fit on the internet, rather than how many can fit in your living room.

We haven’t really seen much innovation in multiplayer gaming beyond the two general types, cooperative or competitive, but there’s no real need for improvement on what already works. However, we have seen the lines between the two blurred quite a bit. Most online games have us working together against other players while still competing for higher scores or better gear, while games like New Super Mario Bros Wii are cooperative and competitive all at once. MMOs provide a sort of combined experience, where we can play alone in a persistent world with the constant option of grouping up with other players also in our world. The delivery and combination of multiplayer game types has evolved over the years to include class options (i.e. Team Fortress 2, Baldur’s Gate, Diablo), the emergence of clans/guilds and the necessity of quality matchmaking systems to improve the player’s experience, but where do we go from there?

Story seems to be the mechanic most difficult to implement in a multiplayer setting. Most narrative-centric or open world games have their multiplayer modes exist as simple capture-the-flag or deathmatch games sharing only the characters and controls of the single player game. Linear titles like Resident Evil 5 or Gears of War have seen full coop integration, but what about a game like Final Fantasy or Mass Effect?

Baldur’s Gate was a good game made great by the ability to play through the campaign with a friend. When its purported offspring Dragon Age: Origins was announced as single player only, there was concern to say the least. We know now that Dragon Age is one of the best RPGs of the decade, but what if? Multiplayer tends to exponentially increase the replay value of a game, which could do wonders for a 60 hour experience like Dragon Age, but sometimes it’s just not necessary. Likewise, the inclusion of multiplayer in Bioshock 2 caused a bit of a stir. Though shooters are ripe for multiplayer modes, it was the narrative and the aesthetics of the game that made it great, not its mechanics. However, it looks like the multiplayer will have its own unique storyline separate from the single player, giving us more of the good stuff, supposedly.

The variable that is the player can break or glitch a single player campaign easily enough, but adding a second person to that mix can complicate things that much more. Adding multiplayer elements can lessen a great single player experience, primarily because of the need for balanced gameplay and a cohesive narrative. Attempting to give two players an equally engaging experience can restrict the pace, the narrative and the characters. The more freedom a game gives the player in both gameplay and narrative, the less accommodating the game will be for two players. Narrowly focused (albeit complex) games like Street Fighter or New Super Mario Bros Wii use the player as variable to great effect, but a game that relies more on character and progression wouldn’t benefit in the same way. Bioware’s upcoming MMO (hopefully arriving Spring 2011) Star Wars: The Old Republic hopes to take steps to bridge this gap.

We already know that the teams at Bioware are master storytellers, and they hope to transfer that same genius over to an MMO setting. This would apparently mean that we will have the same control over our character and its decisions and morality as we do in other Bioware titles, while requiring all that information to interact properly and noticeably with the unique characters of hundreds of other players.

No matter how big the subscription base of an MMO, the Wii clearly dominates the mass market of multiplayer gaming. Though not necessarily a gamer’s platform, there are way more of them than there are of us. Majority rules, and so does the Wii. Fortunately, the Wii serves as a sort of gateway drug for those new to gaming, and has really taken multiplayer further than any platform or game. Grandpas, hippies, sorority girls, politicians; everyone is playing the Wii. Even Microsoft and Sony are getting into motion controls. The standard controller certainly isn’t going anywhere, but the alternative is growing with no signs of stopping.

The addition of shoddy multiplayer never broke a perfectly good game (i.e. Uncharted 2), but it certainly has its own time and place. Final Fantasy X where you play Tidus and your friend plays Yuna? Terrible idea. No versus mode in Soul Caliber? Even worse. What the masses want from their single player or multiplayer experience is expanding rapidly. Let’s hope the games can continue to expand with them.

A Geek’s Guide to Brainwashing: Comics Edition

Joel Cornell — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 21:15:16 +0000

Despite the maturity that comics have reached over the ages, and the growing popularity of the characters due to blockbuster Hollywood movies, comic books haven’t infiltrated mass markets in the way video games have in their current generation. Only the biggest Marvel and DC books see sales above 100,000 copies sold and the main audience remains a rabidly loyal fan base of males age 13-40. The content of the bigger titles certainly caters to the long time reader, relying on their knowledge of the history of the comic universe. At the same time, this is the biggest hindrance for new readers, as big 2009 events like Marvel’s Captain America Reborn and DC’s Blackest Night, almost seem lost on a person who only heard about Cap’s death in the newspaper. Some people can’t make that initial investment, but we’re here with suggestions on how to get that investment for them or for yourself.

Any major satisfaction a reader will get from Batman #694 is going to stem from having read #693, #692, and so on. Certain current limited runs like Blackest Night or Siege involve just about every DC/Marvel character out there, which require the reader to have quite a bit of knowledge of the history of the universe to really get any satisfaction out of the book. Fortunately, both Marvel and DC have no lack of self contained story arcs limited to one-shots or just a small number of issues.

Batman: The Widening Gyre (6 issues long)

Kevin Smith rediscovers Batman’s romantic side as the Dark Knight comes to terms with a life of vigilantism that trumps his own desires. Batman is one of the most popular and steadfast characters in the world of comics, and rightfully so. While generally remaining complex, dark and mysterious, any Batman run presents a proud soul torn between the mask of Batman and the facade of Bruce Wayne. Altogether a character built to grip any new reader and draw him/her in.

Deadpool #900 (serial one-shots)

Actually the first issue in a monthly series counting down, this extra large issue offers 7 independent short stories by Marvel’s top talent exploring the witty madness of Wade Wilson aka Deadpool (seen in the most recent X-men movie) and then following the Merc with a Mouth as he teams up with various characters ranging from the Ghost Riders to Hercules in subsequent independent issues. Fourth wall not included.

Superman: Secret Origin (6 issues long)

Origin stories tend to make the best place for new readers to begin their journey into comics, letting the reader grow into the universe as the character does. While originally Superman seemed too aloof for readers to truly connect with him, his modern counter part presents an alien insight that can give the reader a unique perspective into all sides of our humanity. DC darling Geoff Johns explores the origin story of the Man of Steel, offering up an exciting reinterpretation of the character for the 21^st century.

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Though there is certainly something to be said about anticipating one’s weekly visit to the comic shop and devouring the next issue before you make it back to the car, trade paperbacks and graphic novels offer a much more traditional reading experience that can better suit a new reader. Trades accumulate both limited series similar to those covered above, as well as past serial comics that would otherwise be difficult to get into because of their extensive history. They present the material as self contained as any serial novel would. Should you or your target find a series to your liking, most comic shops will have all the trades in order up until the newest regular monthly release.

Punisher MAX

Taking a turn from the superhero-centric exploits of earlier Punisher runs, Garth Ennis critically examines the ruthless vigilante as he grapples with modern global events and Frank Castle’s own existence as a lawless force of absolute justice. The Punisher provides a unique perspective on a world brimming with superpowers as just a regular human being armed only with a sharply honed tactical mind, and lots and lots and lots of gun. Marvel’s MAX brand indicates content for mature audiences only.

Green Lantern: Rebirth

The return of Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) in the series reboot spans epic galactic conflicts and sets the stage for the current DC mega-event, Blackest Night. The world of the Green Lantern is perfect for any fan of science fiction, teeming with exotic alien planets and outer space adventure. Geoff Johns’ Green Lantern is currently DC’s biggest seller, especially with the HollywoodGreen Lanternfilm currently in the works.

Civil War

As a new legislation forces superheroes to either reveal their identity and start working for the government or become criminals, sides are taken and war breaks out. With Captain America championing the rights of the masked community and Iron Man choosing to work with the government instead of fighting against it, Civil War forces characters and readers alike to come to terms with what it means and what it costs to be a superhero. Though the myriad characters involved can prove a bit daunting to a new reader, the focus remains more on the tolls war can take, especially when it turns friend against friend.

Invincible

While on the surface it might just look another superhero comic, Invincible completely avoids the classic superhero cliché and fully embraces it as a parody. Originally created in 2003, teenager Mark Grayson (Invincible) is one of the only modern-day superhero, providing a character incredibly easy to relate to. Although the universe of Image Comics isn't a well known as DC or Marvel, Invincible shows that the quality there is easily on par with any other publisher.

Watchmen

It’s a widely believed fact that if you read one graphic novel, it should Watchmen. Alan Moore’s masterpiece portrays a dystopian future where superheroes are outlawed and Nixon is reelected to a third term for winning the war in Vietnam. The harsh tone and extremely deep plots might deter a casual reader, but still Watchmen remains one of the most revered comics of all time.

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While superheroes certainly dominate the Western comics market, there is still plenty of variety to please just about everyone. Although it’s difficult to quantify, it’s safe to say that non-superhero and indie comics greatly outnumber the monthly DC/Marvel books despite falling short of outselling them. From Pixar to President Obama defeating the zombies (you heard me), the scope of the comic book form is limitless. It can, and does tell a tale of every variety.

The Unwritten

Imagine your late father wrote the equivalent of the Harry Potter series, basing the character on you. Life’s not too bad with the fame and rabid fans until fans put your life in danger, believing that they are characters from the books. If only they were wrong.

World of Warcraft

Everyone knows someone who plays WoW. Delve deeper into the universe of this gaming phenomenon and follow an amnesiatic human warrior captured by orc slave traders in the course of searching for his identity. Though still quite the fantastic universe, World of Warcraft is a great start for any fan of the game or of the fantasy genre in general.

Persepolis

An autobiographical graphic novel of a young girl caught up in the Iranian Revolution of the 1970s. Author and artist Marjane Satrapi provides a unique perspective into the revolution and culture of Iran encapsulated in a stirring and somber tale. This is a great place to introduce the new reader into the narrative form of comics while offering an insightful and gripping read.

The Dark Tower

Expanding the universe of Stephen King’s magnum opus, The Dark Tower comics will please any fan, but stand perfectly on their own for those who haven’t read the novels. In a brilliant blend of Arthurian legend and spaghetti Western, Roland Deschain is a young gunslinger unknowingly set on an eternal quest to mend the rotting threads that hold the world together. As something like a story of stories, The Dark Tower is a necessary read for lovers of comics and epic tales alike, all in one of the most original settings in modern fiction.

The Sandman

Neil Gaiman’s now-classic tale is the surreal story of Morpheus the Lord of Dreams, an Endless, who are a race of beings older and vastly more powerful than any god. As described by Gaiman himself, “the Lord of Dreams learns that one must change or die, and [he] makes his decision." This is certainly not just a casual read, but is something more of an all-consuming narrative that won't quit until it's done.

Preacher

The offspring of an angel and a demon is a mix of pure good and evil, and thus can rival God is His power. The supernatural infant possesses and empowers Texas Preacher Jesse Custer, setting him on a road to quite literally find God. As our own Erika Zsabo has said many times, "Preacher is a comic that perfectly captures the 90s". Entirely unapologetic in its presentation of religion, the nine-part series is quite graphic and certainly requires a mature reader.

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Everyone loves a good story. Comics are entirely unique in their content and style, which can present readers with stories, characters and universes that could not exist in another format. Beyond the grossly incorrect stigma that comic books are only entertaining to young boys, lies an alternate narrative form that matches film and text in the ability to evoke the strongest emotions in the reader and inspire memories that will last a lifetime.

Talking Pathfinder RPG with Lead Developer Jason Bulmahn

Joel Cornell — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:24:50 +0000

No matter how well designed a tabletop game is, when it grows to be as large and expansive as Dungeons & Dragons’ 3^rd edition, certain complexities are bound to arise. The 4^th edition changed D&D greatly, streamlining the game to be more accessible to a growing audience, just as video games have opened up to millions of non-gamers. But as 3e & 3.5e came to a close, what happened to those still in love with that edition who were reluctant to just drop 3.5e entirely? Well, Jason Bulmahn happened. As lead developer heading up a team with centuries of combined experience with d20 systems, and one of the largest playtesting groups to get behind a single game, Paizo’s newest creation is an intuitive, refined, all-encompassing successor to 3.5e, with some of the best art I’ve seen in any rulebook. Enter the Pathfinder Role Playing Game.

In a very successful attempt to keep 3.5e alive, but also completely revamped, one major point for Pathfinder is that it exists as a separate game from D&D, yet all 3.5e materials are completely compatible. Thus, that bookshelf full of Monster Manuals, Quintessential Guides and Spell Compendiums can see a lot of use alongside all forthcoming Pathfinder material. However, you may find yourself letting them collect dust anyway. The Bestiary for Pathfinder has recently been released, along with several campaign guides, and an Advanced Player’s Manual out sometime in 2010, featuring 6 new core classes, a plethora of new spells, Prestige classes and much more. Check out our interview with Jason for details and the Paizo website to get early access to playtest materials for these new classes!

Along with providing ease in playability, Pathfinder also provides ease of access: the massive tome of a Core Rulebook contains both your Player’s Handbook and Dungeon Master’s Guide, giving you everything you’ll need to run or play a game in one sourcebook. While hard copies are widely available, you won’t have to dole out a ton of cash for the book: PDF copies are available online for $10. While it’s hard to match having the book in hand to thumb through at your leisure, the PDF is entirely linked (any underlined word is a link to specific rules about that subject). No more browsing the index here, when you see that a weapon does piercing damage and want details on that, just click “piercing” and it’ll take you right to that section.

The core mechanics of 3.5e are all intact as to ensure complete compatibility, yet several key changes stand out. According to lead developer Jason Bulmahn, “if we have to open up the rule book every time on a rules mechanic, it’s probably got a problem”. One of the biggest of these changes is the new concept of combat maneuvers. Rather than separately calculating your grapples, disarms, trips, etc, you simply roll your CMB (combat maneuver bonus) against your opponents CMD (combat maneuver defense) and you’ve got your result. This is a perfect example of how the entire feel of playing 3.5e is left perfectly intact, yet has been refined to make play straightforward while still not overly simplified. Additionally, each of the core classes have been buffed up a bit, giving your character more depth and options while still remaining balanced and not too overpowered.

With complete compatibility, tons of 3^rd party support and its own array of miniatures whose quality matches the stunning art in the books, Pathfinder has a bright future ahead of it. So rest assured, yon 3.5e fans, our beloved game system lives on, and it’s safely in the best hands possible.

You can directly download the interview with Jason Buhlman here. Alternatively, you can listen to the interview via our regular podcast feed for Talk Is Cheap.

Boss Rush

Joel Cornell — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:45:00 +0000

Every single time a decent, hard working boss tries to build a monsterous spaceship of superdoom, some hero comes along and ruins everything. I mean, you conquer planets, brainwash your subordinates and build an army (those things aren't cheap, you know) and some cocky little pilot is feeling lucky and wants to take you down because he's gone all crybaby about his planet exploding. Well, let's see how you like it (you will)! Boss Rush turns the shoot 'em up genre around, giving you control of 5 different bosses and 11-13 stages per boss to keep those pesky little ships at bay.

Although the levels aren't very long, the 3 levels of difficulty and the surprising amount of strategy required to survive them give the game quite a bit of replayability, with enemy AI that is hard enough to challenge, but not broken as to infuriate. The levels all take place on an open white background (outer space is white in the future, apparently) with no other obstacles besides you and your enemies. This doesn't give the actual gameplay much variety, but the different bosses vary greatly, from classics like massive motherships or synced battle drones to original creations like a smiling rain cloud of death. The control scheme is just like every other shoot 'em up, but instead of catching your power ups, you start with 5 weapons, one main and 4 special abilities that require amounts of time spent charging that correlates to the power of the attack. There's no real innovation when it comes to the actual mechanics, but that's really the point of it. It all boils down to the same formula we're all used to in these games, but on opposite sides.

The game doesn't go very far past this, but it doesn't really need to. Although seeing this play with some quality HD rendering would be nice, the simple aesthetics compliment the basic yet challenging gameplay perfectly. With plenty of bonuses, unlockables, cheats and a Survival mode, there is plenty to be had for one player. Thankfully, the inclusion of a multiplayer mode seals the deal, allowing a friend control of the small ship in timed deathmatches played on a single PC. Designed from the ground up by Chris Cornell with music by Justin Mullens, Boss Rush provides a great twitch shmup on par with the greatest in that genre, with an innovative perspective and addictive play. Not so easy being the boss for once, is it?!

Though completed, a price has yet to be officially announced, although the price is expected to be around $10 with a release date this January.

Likes:

It's nice to find out playing as the boss can require the same amount of skill and strategy
Satisfyingly simple aesthetic
Addictive single player and frantic multiplayer

Dislikes:

Lack of map variants

Review Score

Tony Hawk: Ride

Joel Cornell — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:40:03 +0000

Gaming peripherals have always held an odd place in gaming. Ranging from success stories like Guitar Hero and Dance Dance Revolution to unfortunate disappointments such as the Virtual Boy or the DK Bongos, they are always met with a mix of suspicion and hope. Despite the insistence of the godfather of skateboarding himself, the lack of response and input recognition of Tony Hawk: Ride’s skateboard peripheral places it under unfortunate disappointment.

The supposed aim of the newest installment in the vetted yet cyclical Tony Hawk franchise is to let everyone experience the thrill of skating like the pros in a similar, fun and safe environment. However, the manner in which this occurs is well conceived, yet quite poorly executed. The idea is to provide as close a simulation as possible to actually skateboarding: sensors on the side can tell when your foot passes by to propel yourself along the courses, pop the front or back of the board up to ollie or nollie (jump), and tilt, grab or rotate the board upon jumping to perform tricks. Again, this sounds great, but upon playing the game, when anyone not deft enough to be an actual skateboarder tries to pull off a specific trick, the intended result rarely occurs.

Within the game itself, the three difficulty modes are quite lacking: “Casual” does all the steering — you just handle the tricks; “Confident” lets you steer, but will generally guide you onto rails and ramps; finally “Hardcore” leaves all the control in your hands (or feet, rather). The “Casual” gameplay ends up being a boring affair of simply timing the jumps, while anyone able to enjoy the wild and needless difficulty of the latter two modes should take their skills into consideration and instead invest their $120 in an actual skateboard. In general, you are assumed to already have your arms, legs, knees, back and feet in tip-top shape; any lack thereof and your experience will suffer greatly.

The peripheral relies on such minute technical differences in the player’s input that you can make the same motion five times and get five different results. The character customization and level design are quite uninspired, and the characters, environments, and Story Mode, though graphically sound, are nothing we haven’t seen before in the genre. Free Skate mode is available as usual, but the Story Mode simply consists of various professional skaters assigning you the same challenges we’ve had before in every other skating game. The biggest highlight is the soundtrack, featuring a surprisingly wide offering from Bill Withers to NOFX.

The beauty of earlier Tony Hawk titles was in the intricate combos, reminiscent of most technical fighters. Screwing up a combo then meant you hit the wrong button or got the timing wrong. Here, the most arbitrary difference in how you balance or tilt the board can ruin that million point combo. The game does provide some good casual fun in a party setting and will engage the perfectionist who is willing to practice for hours on end in order to grasp the finer mechanics; but the game’s inability to properly represent your intended actions in game will leave the majority of players wishing they could instead use a traditional controller to skate through a genre desperately in need of successful reinvention.

Likes:

Makes for some good party fun
A wide selection of music for the soundtrack
Provides a vaguely similar skating experience for those who otherwise could not

Dislikes:

Casual mode is far too simple, while anything besides requires great dexterity and athletecism
Peripheral fails miserably at translating your intentioned moves in game
The same stale locations, characters, unlockables and challenges all over again

Review Score

A Geek’s Guide to Brainwashing Your Friends & Family: Video Games Edition

Joel Cornell — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 20:39:18 +0000

Geeks are passionate by definition. Whether it’s regarding a sweet kill/death ratio, the most OP deck possible, getting that super leet gear, or a detailed knowledge of every word Tolkien ever wrote, we take our interests to a level bordering on zealous obsession. All this comes with the natural desire to share our interests with friends and family. Unfortunately, we tend to find that your wife doesn't necessarily want to spend Friday night inside raiding dungeons ‘til the sun comes up, or your boyfriend would rather watch the game than hit up that 12-hour Magic tournament, or your kids or parents don’t really want to spend school nights reading 400 page books full of nothing but rules regarding spells and Prestige classes. Alas, we’re here to lay those problems to rest. Here’s a guide to bring out the geek in that special someone (hereafter: the target), so you can finally have someone nearby (the interweb doesn't count) to talk to about the craziness that just went down in the last issue of Green Lantern.

Them There Vidja Games… In this current console generation, many areas of gaming are losing the stigma of being exclusive to the elite underground geeks. Advances in motion technology have generally taken away the need for skill to really enjoy such games; thus, the number of people who would enjoy gaming in general increases exponentially. Up until the past few console generations, the large majority of video games prevented all but the few and the leet from enjoying them because of their general difficulty. Even today, many games assume from the player quite a bit of previous knowledge about how video games work and play. However, there are many ways to break these misconceptions and give any family member or friend the gift of geek.

Geeks have certain tastes in gaming, and as it turns out, these targets or “normal people” do too. The most important factor in brainwashing the target is to make sure they are having fun at all times. Show mom how glorious this bloody, slo-mo headshot looks in Fallout 3 and it can be a quick turn off. Instead, take the target’s tastes into consideration. Any collector (a nerdy endeavor as it is) would fit perfectly into a Pokémon, Harvest Moon, Eye of Judgement, or any MMO, while a car or gun nut would not have as much interest there. A simple way to go is in the very universal genre of Wii gaming. The learning curve there is as low as it gets, and getting to make your Mii and watch it play tennis or go bowling is a good way to show the target that truly anyone can play video games. Once they realize it doesn't take years of training to play a video game, they’re bound to be open to a plethora of new gaming experiences. If your boyfriend or brother can't see an interest in spending hours on end catching all those Pokémon or Piñatas, consider what their other hobbies are. With dozens of new games out every month, there's bound to be a game that relates to their interests. Check out our Holiday Gift Guide for more tips on what games can best fit what kind of person!

Choose their first game wisely. If the target’s never played a shooter before and you want to have them enjoy that genre with you, do not ask that person if they want to play Counter Strike together. You can expect a short and infuriating session, and that person will be much more reluctant to pick up a controller in the future. Instead, play one-on-one or with a few friends in a simple, fun or (relatively) light-hearted shooter like Team Fortress 2, Halo, Quake or Timesplitters. Older shooters tend to have simpler mechanics, so play something classic like Jet Force Gemini, Goldeneye or even Faceball 2000. Break that misconception in their minds that all video games require a huge time investment and unique skills akin to playing a musical instrument. Take your time with them so they can learn the mechanics and how the game works, but don't overdo it, as most people don't enjoy it when you "go easy on them". If you want them to play an RPG, understand that experience points, critical hits, HP, mana, and spell and inventory management are an entirely different language, so start simple with a game like Paper Mario, Pokémon or Sonic Chronicles. Then, over time, the target may find themselves having a good time and looking for more similar experiences with more frequency.

Like cooking a cold blooded animal; turn up the heat in these digital depths slowly. Wanna make her a fan of WoW? Don't ask your girlfriend if she wants to use your level 80 shadow priest to run Ulduar with your raiding guild 'til 3am. Do ask her if she wants to design her own character who can brew potions, engineer mechanical chickens, collect a wide range of pets and rid the world of those slimy Murlocs. Over time, the target will develop an attachment or investment in the game that will get them to play more frequently for themselves. While things like Wii Sports have taken steps to make gaming accessible to everyone, the majority of it still requires a fairly large investment and varying amounts of skill. A key is allowing yourself the right amount of participation in the game being played. Despite what the game may be, don’t play for them. But at the same time don’t make them figure out everything themselves, as you’re privy to years of experience with gaming that will make things far easier for you. This probably won't work in most multiplayer environments where the other team is out for blood, but easily can be found in a slower paced game on an easy setting so they can take their time and screw around if they want. As their skill and knowledge increases, so will their ability to enjoy the finer points of the game's intricacies. Should they still seem unwilling to take that leap, take yourself to their level of gaming. Whether people realize it or not, everyone plays games. Facebook has plenty of games with varying depth that can be the perfect place to start. Anyone who plays Farmville can easily find a comfortable experience in a Harvest Moon, Viva Piñata or Animal Crossing. Eventually, once they find themselves invested in a game, whatever the genre, you’ll wake up to find that they’ve surpassed you and have caught every single Pokémon twice over.

Your target is always going to be unique, so take into consideration that while everybody loves to have fun, the definition of fun will mean a million different things to a million different people. With the gaming market doing their best to turn everyone from grandpas to sorority girls into gamers, your job is made that much easier. Show them that there are developers out there making games specifically for their interests, whatever they may be, and that hardcore gamers are people too… just people with way better gear than you. Keep an eye out next week for our second Brainwashing Guide: Comics Edition!

Assassin’s Creed II

Joel Cornell — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:23:42 +0000

The first chapter of the Assassin’s Creed trilogy was quite the polarizing experience of the “love it or hate it” type. Many rightly complained about the total lack of variety in the missions, gameplay and in Altaïr’s arsenal. Fortunately for everyone, developer Ubisoft Montreal heard their detractors loud and clear (water ≠ death!). With much more diversity in all aspects and improved AI and combat, Assassin’s Creed II surpasses its predecessor in all aspects providing a more engrossing and much smoother action-adventure experience.

The environments of Renaissance Italia have seen a lot of attention. The streets are littered not just with useless NPCs, but many citizens that can aid your protagonist Ezio Auditore, greatly expanding your options. Rather than just setting out with a sword and wrist blade, you can visit blacksmiths or tailors to purchase new upgradeable weapons and armor that feature differing stats. Your inventory doesn’t quite have the depth of an RPG, but being able to choose between a light and quick cutlass or a slow and strong mace is a nice addition. Leonardo da Vinci is to Ezio as Q is to Bond, doling out plenty of advice and analytical translations of any codices you find, as well as providing you with gadgets ranging from poisoned blades to a flying machine. Also, you can disguise yourself well in all crowds, in addition to throwing money or hiring courtesans to distract guards. This certainly deepens your strategic opportunities, although the ol’ stab-and-run still tends to be the easiest, albeit least dramatic route.

Probably the biggest improvement is made in the narrative. Your character is no longer just “Badass Ancestor #42”, but instead has been greatly fleshed out to contain more than just one emotional state. A severely stereotyped cast of characters provides a much more powerful experience, including Ezio’s family which resides in an estate in the country that you can upgrade and invest in to eventually generate income. Also, seeing the city change from day to night is a great touch, as well as the ability to affect your notoriety. It’s all still quite linear, but far deeper and much more open and alive than before.

Fortunately, we see much more of the 21^st century character Desmond Miles’ story progress, as well as seeing the story of the Assassin’s Creed universe significantly expand and move forward. Though much has been expanded since the first game, the controls remain the same, varying between incredibly smooth and amazingly frustrating. Fans will find their pleasures greatly expanded upon, while critics should give the series another chance to shine.

Likes

Greatly improved gameplay and combat mechanics
Much deeper narrative environment
Repetition is at minimum

Dislikes

Free running and climbing mechanics still need attention
Narrative progresses slowly
Fairly steep learning curve on the controls

Level 42 Review Score

The review scale at LevelFortyTwo is between 1 and 5. A score of 5 is considered an amazing game, 4 is a well-done game with only a few issues, 3 is in the middle; not great, but not bad, 2 is a very problematic game, and 1 is absolutely terrible.

League of Legends

Joel Cornell — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 17:19:48 +0000

Mod communities can be beautiful and long-lasting things, and in the case of the self-published League of Legends, eventually profitable as well. Based on the “Defense of the Ancients” mod for Warcraft III, League of Legends remains very close to its roots. The PvP-centric (Player-versus-Player) game is a perfect brew of simplicity and depth that provides an engrossing, addictive experience that perfectly exemplifies that old axiom of “simple to play, difficult to master”. LoL runs on its own engine and has forthcoming content fully supported by the team at Riot Games.

Best of all, LoL is completely free to play. The free version available online does not feature gimped play nor is it bogged down with ads like one might expect. There is a microtransactions store that allows players to purchase small upgrades for you (the Summoner) or the character you control (the Champion). Also, most of the champions require unlocking. However, a $30 version of the game is available that features exclusive skins and upgrades, $10 worth of Riot Points to buy some additional upgrades, and every Champion comes unlocked, which is easily worth it if you expect to be putting any serious time into the game.

Fans of Warcraft III will certainly see some familiar territory here. The aesthetics of the world are very similar, from the character and world design to the witty pop culture lines delivered by your Champions. However, though clearly in the real-time strategy genre, there is absolutely no focus on resource management or army building; you only control your Champion.

The gameplay is impressively simple for such a deeply strategic experience: two teams of five traverse the map to destroy the enemy’s base. Bases are on opposites sides of the map, which are divided into three paths or lanes: top, middle and bottom, all leading directly from base to base. Each lane is exactly the same, with friendly and enemy turrets to aid or impede. Aiding each team are minions or “creeps”. At timed intervals, each base spawns three teams of ten uncontrollable creeps, each team following a lane towards the enemy base. Destroy enemy turrets and creep spawn points and your creeps will become stronger. Over the course of the battle, usually a 30-90 minute affair, your Champion gains experience and gold that can be used to level up certain abilities and buy gear or potions. All experience and gear are lost after the battle, but your Summoner levels up perpetually, providing you with better spells and talent points to be allotted to defensive, offensive, or support skill trees a la World of Warcraft.

After your first single-player practice game, you’ll know all the mechanics the game has to offer. However, prepare to spend days on end unlocking new Champions with different stats and abilities, leveling up your Summoner and working out new strategies with your friends. The controls are simple, nothing new for any RTS player, and compliment the simplicity of the gameplay well. Riot Games will be providing timely updates, complete with new content available to all players, whether they paid for the game or not. Most games of such high quality as League of Legends don’t have the player base they deserve because of high price points or lack of marketing or availability. Though it does look like LoL might suffer from an unfortunate lack of marketing, the availability and price make up for it in spades. It doesn’t have the hi-res flash or budget of today’s triple-A titles, but its simplicity and strategic depth make sure to be the multiplayer/RTS sleeper hit of the year.

Likes:

Simple gameplay, very low learning curve
Great depth and endless strategic value
It’s free

Dislikes:

Lack of map variants
No in-game voice chat

Review Score

Bayonetta

Joel Cornell — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:30:31 +0000

In the demo titled “First Climax," one of Bayonetta’s combos ends with a giant high heel appearing above her and crushing her target. Moves like these build up a “Torture” combo where she throws an enemy into an iron maiden made of her hair, then she turns into a panther. This pretty much explains what to expect from the rest of the game. Designed by Hideki Kamiya, creator of Devil May Cry and Viewtiful Joe, the nearly laughable and supremely entertaining ultra-stylization of what appears to be the offspring of Soul Calibur’s Ivy and Sarah Palin places an extreme aesthetic on top of a very technical combo-based action game.

Fans of the Devil May Cry series will find a lot of familiar ground here. The environments, enemies, items, and upgrades have that same Gothic European/Catholic appeal of the DMC series, and the controls and combo mechanics are nearly identical. The music is just about what you would expect, alternating between church choirs and organs for the cinematics, and trance-techno for the rest.

Apparently the plot is none of our business, but that should be your smallest, if not only, concern. The combat can be a bit frantic (only once did I find myself wondering where my character was in the horde of evil angels), but the technicality of the combos and the rating system that we’ve seen in Kamiya’s previous games can provide many hours of replayability for fans of the series and action perfectionists.

A very nice addition to alter the rapid pace of combat is “Witch Mode," which slows down everything except you if you time a dodge just right, allowing you go regain your bearings and launch a powerful counter attack. As usual, the camera can prove to be problematic on occasion, but overall tends to be quite cinematic. While the harder modes are less forgiving on combos (a skilled button masher might just make it on Normal mode), and affect your health and the strength of enemies, the easiest of the five modes of difficulty goes so far as to even move for you. Just press Y/Triangle. That’s it. Sometimes the combos can be a bit frustrating, but…really?

Sega is working to have the game play just as well on both consoles (in Japan the PS3 version has had some framerate issues), and is expected to take 10-12 hours to make a single run through the story. The action is smooth, challenging, and very satisfying, and is certainly a pleasure to look at (meaning the graphics, of course). All in all, action fans might just find their game of the year here, and is certainly one to look forward to. Though certainly a general improvement on the DMC series, those who can’t wait 'til January 5th, 2010 (or January 8th in the European market) can easily just pick up DMC4 and imagine Dante with cleavage and heels.

The Soundtracks of Our Games

Joel Cornell — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:40:31 +0000

Try and see if you can find a gamer who can’t whistle one tune Link has played on his Ocarina. Most gamers can hum at least one theme from Final Fantasy, perhaps the one of the battle or the victory themes. Several tracks from any of the Mario Bros. games are known to gamers and otherwise all around the world. But what about the themes of today's games? The most notable ones of the past decade are very few in number. Halo? Perhaps Mass Effect? Although today's video game soundtracks don't seem to have the mnemonic appeal of previous generations, they have become increasingly subtle, and have been found to be of much more versatile and technical use.

The differences in what you can expect to listen to correspond with the genre. You can pretty easily guess what you’ll be hearing in the next Elder Scrolls, Mass Effect orMadden. Sports and racing games seem to subsist entirely on licensed music, most of the songs being fairly popular singles released within the past decade. There is not much need for dramatic tension via music; most of this is provided by the competitive game play, while also tending to use quality sound effects and some sort of commentary. Any kind of formal score would seem very out of place anyway. Thus, the soundtrack for your Maddens or Need for Speeds serve as a sort of elevator music, keeping the silences at bay with recent modern-rock and hip-hop hits that get you pumped for that next game or race.

However, licensed music is not only used in this manner. In most narrative games, as in film, the music creates the setting and environment. This occurs through original scores as often and as effectively as it does as licensed soundtracks. Again, environment dictates this entirely. In Grand Theft Auto 4, licensed tracks create setting naturally, playing through standard, real-world devices such as car radios, stereos at your house, or the music in a store or mall. Previous installments of this series have effectively set the timeframe of a game in the 80s or 90s, simply by playing in the expected environment the songs you recognize as from that time period, without having to state that you are playing in the time. Bioshock or Fallout 3 accomplishes the same by using tracks with a distinct 1930s sounds.

Trends like this can increase the realism and the depth of virtual environments. It's true that the soundtracks of previous generations are more memorable, but perhaps that is because they were more catchy jingles, and not orchestral scores. The music did indicate tone, but in more of a pragmatic sense, and not in the subtle or emotional way it does today.

We might not really remember the music that played at the end of Mass Effect note for note, but we certainly remember what we did and what we felt during the climax.

Modern Warfare 2

Joel Cornell — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:14:53 +0000

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 broke pre-order and sales records for retailers across the board. Hype and advertising suggested one of the best shooters ever, but did Infinity Ward deliver?

Short answer? Hell, yes.

Call of Duty has always been the standard in the realistic shooter genre. This game brings a level of cinematic beauty that we don't see often enough. The single-player campaign is a bit shorter than desired (clocking in at about 8 hours) but the story and level design make up for it tremendously. The realism is top notch, and the game play that takes place in American locations are amazingly convincing, almost to the point of being eerie.

Beyond the campaign, a plethora of replayability exists within the Spec Ops mode. It can be played either single player or co-op, Spec Ops offers a great variety of unlockable, shorter missions with varying degrees of difficulty to provide good competition and completion value, but not much else.

As great as the campaign and Spec Ops modes are, stats on the first Modern Warfare suggested that less than 70% of players actually played the Campaign, and even fewer completed it. That being said, the multiplayer in MW2 is unrivaled. A curious lack of dedicated servers and some latency issues plague the PC release (to the tune of a 200,000 person online petition directed towards IW), but the console versions have no noticeable issues. MW2 attempts to level the playing field for casual players with 4 different "Death Streaks" (4 deaths in a row without any kills yields improved health or the ability to copy your killers perks and weapons), but it doesn't provide the equalizer it claims to be.

The host migration feature does eliminate premature ends to some games, but occasional network issues and lag are still present, although minimalized. The mechanics have only been altered slightly, but there was never any need to change much in the first place. Still, the replay value throughout the multiplayer is the highest in the FPS genre. The additional guns, attachments, upgradeable perks, custom kill streaks and even custom name tags provide a leveling experience that is an example for developers to consider, even outside of an FPS.

Beautifully rendered, consistently smooth, and entirely engrossing, Modern Warfare 2 is the best in the genre by a long shot. Since launch day, I've checked the stats and friends lists of all of my Xbox Live friends and without hyperbole, everyone is playing this game. You should be too.

Likes:

Multiplayer leveling system is customizable and addictive like no other.
Campaign is powerful, complex and gorgeous.
Controls are smooth and make for fast paced game play.

Dislikes:

Campaign is too short.
New players may find the multiplayer daunting
Too few multiplayer maps

Level Forty Two Review Score

We Believe in Games

Joel Cornell — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:01:37 +0000

In humanity’s realm of beliefs, we have a common set of choices that exist as variables in society. Every decision we make incorporates individual beliefs, morals, or whatever one would call a stance on capital punishment, for instance, homosexuality or the limited power of government. These are always compounded by inconsistent factors. What would my father say? Will this affect my job? Will I still be able to shop at the same video store? How will my decisions affect my children? All of these are questions which will eternally lack a standardized answer, but have been challenged by various mediums. Media such as film, literature, music and now, video games, can make us reexamine our life choices and ideals through a cathartic simulation. But can the deepening interactivity that gaming allows challenge what we believe in a way we’ve never seen before?

There are answers to these eternal questions – moral, religious, or otherwise – but they are all dependent on how we identify ourselves within the society we live in – whether a strict Muslim community, the inner city of Dublin, or rural China. Part of being human is coming to terms with these questions, and living with those decisions. While gaming is moving towards a more socially accessible medium, much of the depth and introspection of games does not exist in that more casual niche of the industry. However, the exponential rate at which video games are changing provides alternative realities that can compare in their narrative scope with that of classic film and literature. These realities can make available to us worlds where the relative choices of beliefs we have made in life can be radically altered and lived out, consequences included. Whether this alternate world is fantastic, modern, realistic, or futuristic, the possibilities for humans to challenge their set beliefs are becoming more applicable as a mechanism of entertainment as daily progress is made in the industry.

We are allowed to invest ourselves in a world where we can alter and reexamine the decisions we, as real people, would not necessarily make. In games as (relatively) recent as Fable 2, Mass Effect, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and Fallout 3, game designers are able to let players become someone great, not because the game would take us there on a strict linear path no matter what, but because we made the decisions and took the actions to get there. As gaming trends would show, our former choice of "Save the Princess" or "Game Over" will expand, allowing us to "Fall into a Loving Homosexual Relationship with the Princess,” "Rape and Kill the Princess,” "Sell the Princess as a Slave,” or "Install the Princess as Queen and Become Her Advisor, Ushering In a New Era of Peace and Prosperity for Your People.”

As game narratives progress and deepen, it's not hard to imagine a situation within a game where one's best friend has murdered someone innocent. Do we turn him in or do we instead hide his guilt because of our relationship? Do we hold true to our beliefs in justice, and let the system process his crime or do we take matters into our own hands? Even within that, do we approach vigilantism a la the Punisher with capital consequences or as Batman would, believing in society’s justice over man’s corruption? As such an immersive experience would show us the debatably realistic consequences of our decisions in a virtual world, we can take those choices that we made in-game and later contemplate our own beliefs on such things based on our overall experience.

As the expanding communities of online games provide incredible anonymity, we can see decisions and beliefs play out in a much more realistic setting, where the other characters are played by people and not AI. While the in-game offerings may differ, one's online persona can be a veritable testing ground for difficult life choices. Coming out as a homosexual can be among these difficult decisions. Coming out to family or friends can be daunting and provide a wide array of virtually permanent outcomes. If coming out to your guild or clan yields intolerance, find another guild; an annoying experience, garnering harsh words and insults at the very worst. However, this can provide a valuable experience that can be applied to real world concerns and issues later on. No matter what the gaming mechanism, such proximity to other people will always give us such challenges.

Perhaps among the biggest creative problems gaming faces today is censorship. A recent calamity involving Mass Effect's sexual content caused somewhat of a media uproar at how games are coming to grips with more mature and often difficult subject matter. The game allowed for many varied experiences therein, from ignoring romance and focusing on one's duty, to entering into a homosexual inter-species relationship. The media here mistook open-ended possibility based solely on the player’s choice for insistence and indoctrination. Presenting these situations in an M-rated game is no different than similar experiences in our everyday lives, save for the fact that all intended consequences are clearly imagined and can be reset or reenacted at any time. That, and the whole interspecies gay space marine sexy time thing.

A medium that was once concerned only with scoring points and reaching the end of the level now finds itself facing a demand for realism that involves complex moral decisions, and living in the aftermath of them. Gaming is certainly heading towards morally open terrain in these more open ended games. How far will we see it go? What might happen if Yoshi refused to let Mario ride him because he tends to always be sacrificed to make that nearly fatal jump? Within a fictional setting, we can choose to do things that, in reality, we find appalling and horrific. No game will ever persuade anyone that speeding a tow truck down a crowded sidewalk could be fun, or that hacking up kids and hookers isn’t a bad a thing to do on a Saturday night. Evidence abounds that games do not have such a perverting affect on people. Still, can games ever delve deep into the conscience as to force players to challenge or at least reexamine their own sets of beliefs as they enact the persona of another character? Will censors see choice and exploration as coercion and suggestion, and impede such progressive measures?