Lately I’ve been consuming two works of media dealing with religion, conspiracies, and semiotics in Renaissance-era Italy. One of them is the great novel The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, and the other is the best and most interesting game of the year, Assassin’s Creed 2 (AC2) by Ubisoft Montreal. It’s the best game this year because it superbly mixes excellent combat and climbing base mechanics with the brilliantly realized open world environment of 15th century Italy, an compelling advancement structure, and a huge variety of memorable moments. If the concept of Assassin’s Creed 1 appealed to you (regardless of rather you enjoyed the mediocre actual game) you will love AC2.

You can read the various rave reviews if you want to know more about the specifics of gameplay, but AC2 is the most interesting game of the year because it brings all of those elements together to create a form of Art that is uniquely suited to the medium of Interactive Games. Before I continue I’ll warn that I’m going to spoil the plot of Assassin’s Creed 1 and the first hour or so of AC2, so you should flee in terror if that’s your thing. You may wish to read the plot summary of AC1 if you never played that game, it has enough flaws that I would not recommend everyone play the first game in the series.

I’ve personally always been enthralled by conspiracy fiction, dating back to growing up on The X Files and Deus Ex (10 years ago already). Today’s world is an interconnected web of complicated events that stretches beyond the means of any one person to truly explain or understand. But, this doesn’t stop us from trying. Dating back to the earliest myths and fables, the human brain has an insatiable desire to form a narrative out of the unfathomable. Regardless of the quality of its writing, The Da Vinci Code and friends are as successful because they directly tap into this deep-seated impulse of the psyche.

Of course not all works in the genre are quite as literal and simple-minded as The Da Vinci Code, and luckily AC2 takes some of it’s influence from more metafictional works such as The Illuminatus! Trilogy. Illuminatus! is a classic of the genre and works because it simultaneously treats conspiracies as deadly serious and a ridiculous joke. It constantly jumps around in perspective, tone, and setting in a way that directly mirrors the complicated and conflicted possible truths that are present in real life conspiracy theories. The 4th wall gets shattered a few times. AC2 has the same goal in mind of mirroring the layered structure of real conspiracies, but manages to do so while maintaining an internally consistent and self contained universe.

In Assassin’s Creed 2 you are simultaneously playing two extremely distinct characters. From his birth you relive the life of Ezio Auditore, a spoiled young noble from Renaissance Florence. Your first few tasks are to instigate some Romeo and Juliet-style gang warfare, flee the wrath of your lover’s parents, and then go for a leisurely walk with your mother. These interactions quickly establish Ezio as a charming but selfish rogue who deeply cares for his family, and cleanly sets up his motivation once things start to inevitably go wrong. Ezio is directly impacted by the events of the real-life Pazzi Conspiracy, which was just ridiculous enough that I assumed it had been invented by the developers. The sensation of climbing the interior of the Duomo in Florence is without peer in the history of gaming.

Despite being the focus of the gameplay, Ezio (and Altair before him) is not a proxy for the player of the game. Instead, Ezio is the proxy for the other character you are simultaneously playing, Desmond Miles. For most of the game Desmond shares an identical perspective to the player. Ezio’s life is playing out in Desmond’s mind through the technology of the Animus, which is a proxy for the very console the game is played on. The HUD, partially dubbed Italian dialogue, and various visual artifacts are explained via this conceit, and bring the necessary artificiality of a game within the context of the world’s fiction. As an example there is a detailed database of relevant real world information available in-game, but it is all written from the biased viewpoint of an extremely cynical British researcher who is a member of your support team.

During the rare sections where you see Desmond from a 3rd person perspective the UI is stripped away, the lighting and visual style is altered, and the movement and controls are simplified. I almost wish these segments were presented from a 1st person perspective, but practical development and control constraints won out in this case. Throughout the game you are playing the role Ezio, but the game tries as hard as possible to make you feel like you ARE Desmond. Even at the expense of making things less fun (Desmond moves irritatingly slowly), by the end of Assassin’s Creed 1 Ubisoft has built a fortified wall between the two characters.

Things get really interesting in AC2 when the wall between Ezio and Desmond (ie, You) slowly disintegrates, via what is named the “Bleeding Effect”.  This starts at the end of AC1 when Desmond uses “Eagle Vision” (ability to visualize hidden information) to notice the cryptic glyphs on the wall of his cell, left by a previous inmate. In AC2 these same glyphs are hidden throughout the world of Ezio and are locked doors to background information on the world. They need to be unlocked by the player/Desmond, and the combination of well-crafted puzzles, non-linear information delivery, and pseudofictional events works wonders. You are actually tracing a conspiracy through history, and I’ve never felt so motivated to continue playing a game. The glyphs are just the start, and the blurring of boundaries is put to great dramatic effect later in the game.

Another unique element of the game is its approach to moral philosophy. The literal Assassin’s Creed of the game is a phrase attributed (likely incorrectly) to Hassan-i Sabbah, the founder of the historical Hashshashins: Nothing is true, Everything is permitted. Both Altair and Ezio are the embodiment of Deconstruction as they fight against the autocratic constructions of the Templars, who are attempting to build a peaceful and orderly world at all costs. Both have to go “beyond morals”, which is a concept I find very interesting. Morals are great abstract rules to live your life by, but the game makes the argument that if it can be empirically proven that someone must die for the greater good, then it is right to do the killing. This same utilitarian approach shows in the game’s general disdain for organized religions of all types, which is more explicit then I can remember seeing in any Western game (Japanese culture has a long history of distrusting organized religion). The game doesn’t dwell on this for an extended time period, but the Codex pages and circumstances of the ending make the viewpoint obvious.

The peaceful feeling of walking through a town square in 15th century Italy, the thrilling and ambiguous act of ending the life of a despot, the uncovering of the threads of conspiracy that explain EVERYTHING, and the disquiet of embodying two characters at the same time. These are sensations that can only be delivered by a video game, and realistically could never have been delivered before this generation. While other games like Uncharted 2 are striving to be beautiful collections of vaguely interactive cut scenes, Assassin’s Creed 2 is taking games, and Art as a whole, to where it has never been before. Many in the industry worry about the failure of commercial publishers to produce games that have Meaning, but it is games like Assassin’s Creed 2 that give me hope for the future of the medium. Everyone who cares about games as an art form, or just really enjoys a well designed game, absolutely needs to play Assassin’s Creed 2.

Deus Ex remains to this day one of the most satisfying games I have ever played. I have fond memories of it from well over eight years ago, when it was first released. The developers back then released a toolset, allowing modders to create their own worlds. However, after about 2-3 years, most mods died out or simply faded into oblivion.

One project, The Nameless Mod, trudged on steadily, and on November 22, 2009, finally reached the finish line.

It has been seven years since the modding team, Off Topic Productions, had started work on the mod.

I found out about the mod’s release very recently, courtesy of RPS. They also conducted an interview with the Chief Creative Officer (mod leader) of Off Topic Productions, Jonas Wæver. It’s an interesting read, and gives some valuable insight into what it takes to keep a mod alive for so long.

Eight years later, I can’t even recall where my Deus Ex CDs are, not that I would have time at the moment to check it out. But if you were ever a fan, you can check it out here.

Dragon Age: Origins is a glorious amalgamation of every RPG I’ve ever played. I mean, really — all of them.

Of course it’s taking things right back to Baldur’s Gate with the party control and the pausing, and then putting the Neverwinter Nights direct movement control and pulling the camera around with the mouse, just like Drakensang. Also like Drakensang is the infinite plot-items inventory, that is apart from the main inventory. A part of me really likes this; it means you don’t have to worry about dropping loot for quest items, you don’t have to worry about them being too heavy, you don’t have to worry about them generally cluttering the place up. But another part of me is railing against having an infinite inventory, which goes completely against my realism sense. Yes, yes, it’s not meant to be real, but… It’s a tough one. I think the majority of players will call me nuts for saying that.

The plot is laid out just like Mass Effect. You do a little bit of starting quest (your chosen “origin”, and then some other stuff), then you get given four missions to complete in an order of your choosing. Once those are done, you lock back into one big mission to catch up with and kill Sovereign– Hurrrrrr.

The origin stuff is relatively slick, but by the time I’d chosen “Human” and “Warrior” I only had one option to pick from. Robe Cousland was born — looking absolutely nothing at all like his parents or his sibling(s?), indeed, hardly even dressed for his station. He’s bald and has a small beard (delightfully similar to my real beard, no less), but I’d have thought even worse for a noble,  a huge face-tattoo. To quote Paul Denton of Deus Ex, “I’m pretty certain we don’t have a stitch of DNA in common with either of our supposed parents.” Couldn’t they at least have modified their facial features to match me just a little bit? I’m quite sure such dynamism is possible.

Isn't he sexy?

The conversation system is pretty much Mass Effect too; people pace about occasionally, lips are synched (but nobody has yet solved the shouting issue — there are plenty of shouting moments where the serene face is warped into a grimace but the mouth remains moving calmly), responses can be chosen (though the radial menu is exchanged for a classic list of responses). Very Deus Ex, really. All dialogue is voice-acted except your character’s lines, which I find somewhat annoying — you go through the entire game never once being addressed by name, by anyone. My noble father called me “pup”, Shale from the DLC (we’ll get to that later) called me “it”, but that’s the best you get. Even after sleeping with Leliana (we’ll get to that later), she never called me by name. Yes, yes, voice acting increases immersion and whatever, but they could at least have given me a fixed nickname to go by. Insert rant about the need for quality speech synthesis in games to replace real actors.

The world map reminded me a lot of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, with the little “clay” tiles to represent places. One thing that really got me about the map, though, was the presence of large sub-world-maps; upon entering Denerim, for example, you get another world map with more little tiles floating about on it. Slick.

There are more little things, that have jumped out at me along the way as being from other RPGs, but those are the main ones.

I should remark that it took me a good thirty hours to complete the game. Dragon Age is fucking massive. To compare, a super-completist run of Mass Effect at a reasonable difficulty level takes about 20 hours (including Bring Down the Sky and Pinnacle Station). The game claims that Robe has only experienced under 50% of the game’s content. Since I’m an achievement-whore (and I’ve been told that achievement-points can be turned into DLC-buying points), there will be repeated playthroughs. Value-for-money ho!

Yes, downloadable content. Chicks seem to dig that shit these days; right out of the box (yes, apparently DA was delayed so much that two DLC packs were ready to go at release time rather than afterwards), I got The Stone Prisoner and the Blood Dragon Plate (which will come with me to Mass Effect 2 when that rears its beautiful head). The Stone Prisoner introduces a bonus party member, Shale, who is a golem that is generally quite fun to have around. Complete with weapon and armour crystals that only he can use, plus gifts and banter. The second DLC, Warden’s Keep, is hard-wired into the game but not present — it, and The Stone Prisoner, add achievements. But the worst thing is that after a while a little bastard quest-given for the Warden’s Keep story crops up in your party camp with a glaring exclamation “take my quest” mark over his head, and of course, I can’t take the quest without buying the DLC. As I mentioned earlier, achievement points can apparently be exchanged for DLC, so this mitigates the annoyance somewhat — but it’s still just a little bit underhanded. I wonder if people that didn’t get The Stone Prisoner out of the box have a similarly niggling prop slotted in?

The Blood Dragon plate is pretty useless. I spent the first ten hours frantically trying to get the 38 strength required to equip the breastplate, by which point the rest of the armour (which can be bought from your portable merchant) had been completely superseded. The breastplate was pretty bitchin’, though, and remained better than most stuff until level 17 or 18.

I want to complain about variety. There’s basically only one set of ruins props; green lighting and some tree roots, and you have the elven ruins in the forest. Blue lighting and some snow-drifts, and you have the Andrastean ruins in the mountain. There aren’t particularly many types of enemy either (I remember how Drakensang boasted that it had 70 enemies… I pulled more than that out of my buttocks for This Wreckage; maybe I’m just spoiled by Warcraft III, or is it a symptom of increased detail meaning there just isn’t development time to produce a lot of models?) — you get darkspawn, a few demons and undead, some spiders… Though I did thoroughly enjoy the little velociraptor-like dragon kiddies.

I said “want” to complain because I actually can’t — they’ve followed my value-for-money-squeeze-every-drop-out-of-every-resource philosophy to the letter. The behemoth that they have achieved is truly immense — I haven’t played a game this big since Morrowind. I am extremely satisfied with what I’ve been given for my hard-earned (heu heu) cash. I’ve paid £34.99 for far worse games.

Uni might not be so satisfied, since I basically spent my every waking moment playing Dragon Age since I bought it last thursday. I’m also proud that it’s an 18 and I didn’t get ID’d — remember how I got ID’d when I bought Loki, Tomb Raider: the Angel of Darkness and Sonic Heroes (a 16, a 12 and a 3 respectively)? The shop assistant tried to sell me a strategy guide, which I scoffed at, then a games controller. I told him I was a mouse-and-keyboard man.

Yeah, we need to talk about DA being an 18. The game is covered in blood. I mean, it’s everywhere. It’s on the loading screens, spreading everywhere while you wait. It’s on the map, dribbles of it marking your path as you travel (to be waylaid by quests, Baldur’s Gate II style). And, if you’ve even looked like you might have entered combat, it’s all over your party too. Persistent blood splatters on characters are hilarious, yes, but when it’s a uniform speckle all around (shouldn’t my front be dripping and the rest be relatively clean? Do rats even have that much blood in them? Shouldn’t spider blood green or something?) it’s a little bit silly. Not to mention nobody remarks on it when you walk up to them absolutely sopping wet with the stuff.

So it has bad (but really, what doesn’t?), and it has good. But the good massively out-weighs any niggling little complaints. This is what the PC gaming industry needed so badly — a massive shot in the arm that just couldn’t work on a console (apparently the XBox version is absolutely dreadful. I’ve got a full mouse and keyboard and I don’t know what’s going on half the time, though playing with a rumble-pack would be cool). It’s Baldur’s Gate, it’s Mass Effect, it’s Morrowind and Oblivion. It’s Deus Ex and it’s Drakensang and it’s Neverwinter Nights. It is a masterwork.

I think I’ve said everything I want to say.

The verdict: Dragon Age: Origins is fucking awesome. Buy it now… Unless you’ve got a lot of work to do.

The real test comes next: the editor.

I’m ready, sir.

Yes. Yes, you are.

Habe ich ein neues Liedchen gemacht.Es wurde doch einmal wieder Zeit etwas neues Musikalisches zu Entwickeln

Deus Ex – The wings no longer beat.

Another pair of fortnights, another new column!  Futurismic have my 21st Blasphemous Geometries column entitled “The Mechanics of Morality : Why Moral Choices In Video Games Are No Longer Fun”.

It is a little bit longer than my usual BG columns but I felt that I had quite a bit to say about this issue.  I am particularly proud of what I am calling The Clarkson Effect :

In order to be fun, transgressive behaviour requires the existence of a strong moral code to transgress against. However, when the transgressive opinions and behaviour become an accepted and recognised way of being, the behaviour ceases to be transgressive and thereby ceases to be fun.

You’re G’d Damn Right!

The Problem with Africa
Got a soapbox I want to stand on today. Just about everyone and their dog has been saturated with messages that there is countless suffering in Africa. We see Internet campaign ads telling us about the plight of the everyday people. Commercials on TV try to guilt us into supporting a child for just a few cents a day. There are movies that depict in sometimes graphic detail the major problems that have arisen out of Africa (i.e., Blood Diamond, Tears of the Sun, Hotel Rwanda, to name a few). Bono, the lead singer of U2, has made it his personal mission in life to make sure everyone in the world does something to help Africa via his ONE campaign and encouraging retailers to use the (Red) campaign.

So, there’s all this awareness going around which means people throwing in their money in what they feel is a good cause. While I don’t doubt the sincerity and intentions of people who contribute in this way, I do feel that the vast majority have missed the mark when it comes to what should be done about Africa. They pay their few cents a day or buy products that will in turn result in funds going to poor African countries, and walk away with a sense of self-serving satisfaction that they’ve done a wonderful thing. Just like every other societal problem, the answer is not to simply throw money at it. Nor is it for us to simply waltz in and tell everyone “this is how you will help yourselves and you will like it.” We criticize colonial Britain for their efforts to “re-educate” the African populace, but aren’t trying to do the same thing here by telling them how to fix their problems?

The quality of life and standard of success within any family, company, church, sports team, and country is a direct correlation to its leadership. If the majority of the countries in Africa are poor, then it can be reasoned that they suffer from poor leadership. So, then why do we rely on the governments to fix the problems of their nation?

There is the famous line that says, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” It’s been rehashed over and over in history, but it carries a powerful message. How is it that we learn certain things? We know fire is a bad thing to touch because at some point we got burned. We know knives are sharp because we’ve cut ourselves before. On the positive end, we learn that politeness and good manners shows people respect and they return the respect. Doing a good job at work or school usually results in greater reward (there are exceptions, but that’s primarily because of the poor leadership). Now, if we were not allowed to experience these things as children, not allowed to get hurt or to feel true accomplishment from our own endeavours, how much of an honest sense of good and bad would we have?

The same goes for governments. If we keep trying to reason with the same corrupt government officials who perpetuate the dilapidated state of their nation and we give these officials money in the hopes that it will magically make it to the people, all we are doing is simply deluding ourselves into a false sense of the warm fuzzies. The end result will be the same every time: The government gets richer, we feel better about ourselves, but the people still suffer.

Please don’t misunderstand. I’m not advocating that we do nothing nor am I bashing charity as a whole, but I do believe that all the energy and money the wealthier nations put in to these African governments could instead be focused on encouraging development at the ground level. Rather than relying on the governments to sort out where the money and resources should go, true grassroots movements (a term oft misused) involving ordinary people of developed countries like you and I are what will provide the greatest benefit to the nations of Africa. When everyday citizens from wealthier nations are allowed to help other everyday citizens of underdeveloped nations because we want to, not because we were guilt-tripped by some celebrity on TV championing the pet-cause-du-jour, everyone benefits, even the government officials who would rather have the money come directly to them. When people are allowed to give their best, to help their fellow man stand on his two feet, that’s when prosperity thrives and poverty dies for the individual, their families, and their country. When individuals who have much are given freedom to help others and those who have little are willing to learn to stand on their own, that’s when humanity truly shines. Obviously, there should be a manner of wisdom applied. Not everyone wants to be saved nor does every single cause out there deserve to be championed.

I believe that the awareness campaigns are good and important, but it shouldn’t just stop there. The Blood:Water Mission started by the band Jars of Clay works with villages to dig wells for good, clean drinking water and provide them with clean blood. This is an excellent example of a the kind of revitalization that is needed. TOMS Shoes takes a unique approach to tying retail to charity through the simple idea of “one for one.” Someone buys a pair of TOMS shoes and they give a pair to a child in need. Kenya Build is a small group dedicated to building homes, schools, and orphanages for the poor people of Kenya. There are literally hundreds of groups out there and they are always in need of help of some form. These are the people who are going to make the difference and it’s easy to see where the money that you give them goes. Heck, you can volunteer to go on a trip with them and see the impact firsthand. I’ve gone to Juarez, Mexico with Casas por Cristo five times to build houses for poor families and you see the benefits from your effort in action right before your eyes.

I’ll grant that my reasoning relies on the people of those countries deciding to take the responsibility into their own hands. So what to do when they refuse to? Let ‘em drop. If all they want is a handout and have no desire to do any work whatsoever, then they do not care enough about their families or country and, therefore, why should we. That may sound harsh, but the fact remains that some simply do not want to make things better. To see the point of view of someone who lived in Africa for over 30 years, check out Kim du Toit’s essay, Let Africa Sink. He advocates simply letting the whole continent collapse on itself and while I tend to agree in some respect, I still believe there are those that truly want a better life and should be helped, but only in such a way that encourages self-reliance. The ultimate lesson here is that dependence on government to solve the problems of a country is misguided. It’s when government is removed from the equation and people take responsibility for their own issues that the problems get resolved. Sometimes, they need help, but it should come in the form of a helping hand that enables them to take their destiny into their own hands. Heck, that’s a lesson many people in the U.S. could learn *cough cough* welfare *cough*. But, that’s a topic for another soapbox…

5 Things from Sam’s Desk of Awesomeness: Video Games
Alright, now that I’ve got that off my chest on with this weeks “5 Things.” I know I’ve discussed video games in the past, but this batch has a few of my favorites from my childhood and some that I play even today.

1. King’s Quest series
This was a series of games that I essentially grew up with. I’ve always bragged to various friends of mine that my mom actually advocated playing video games (for the right reasons and in the right manner, of course) and she was herself a big fan of Adventure games, a genre that has since been sorely lacking in good titles. Above all the othrrs, King’s Quest, developed by Sierra, was her favorite. The series followed the story of the royal family in the kingdom of Daventry, combining puzzle-solving and riddles with a fun storyline that drew from (and sometimes parodied) fairy tales. The first game starred Graham in his quest to become king. From there, the games change to different members of the family with the exception of the last game (which veered off in a convoluted Tomb Raider-esque direction). For me, the charm and fun was the time we spent with mom, helping her solve the puzzles and drawing maps so she could track where everything was. If you’re able to find a complete collection of the games, it’s definitely worth it.

2. Deus Ex
Deus Ex has always been right up there as one of my all-time favorites. It was the first game I played that gave the player the ability to choose how you wanted to play. Combining role-playing games and first-person shooters into one glorious experience, it allowed you to play as either a rough and tumble soldier, a stealthy hacker, a precise sniper, or any mix in between, and, with multiple endings, it was the first game that made me feel like my actions truly determined the outcome. The games I played up to that point had a linear, predetermined path and one ending while this made the world-wide open. With a cyberpunk setting, and a conspiracy theory plot line that made for an intriguing story, Deus Ex is a definite must for any fan of good video games. The follow-up, Deus Ex: Invisible War, was fun and added a new dimension of physics to it, but it was way too short and the open-ended feel of the first one just wasn’t there. I’ve heard rumor that a third game, a prequel to the first one, is in work.

3. Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
Another adventure game title from Sierra, but this one was the first one that I played through myself and beat. Sins of the Father follows the story of Gabriel Knight, a New Orleans rare bookstore owner writing a book of his own, a murder mystery involving voodoo. Then, mysterious murders begin to happen, all of them with some connection to voodoo. As Gabriel researches the murders to gather writing material, he is drawn in to a dark underworld within New Orleans. And, as it turns out, these murders have ties that go to Gabriel’s ancestry. The journey takes it from New Orleans to Germany, then to Africa before returning to New Orleans to take on a supernatural evil. All in all, a fantastic story and great gameplay mechanics for its time. It was also kind of violent. a fact which I don’t think my folks knew about at the time, but oh well. So, be wary if you decide to check it out.

4. Mass Effect
You already know about my love of epic science fiction. So, what happens when a game comes along that has the open-endedness of Deus Ex (see above) and an epic sci-fi universe that gives you your own ship, bad guys to fight, and a galaxy to save? Well, my nearly exploded, but luckily I kept it all in. I have never anticipated the release of a game more than Mass Effect. With the promise of customization, a morality system where people reacted to how good or bad you were, and a grand story on a massive scale, of course I was excited. To my great joy, Mass Effect delivered. The team at BioWare created a masterpiece in gaming with this one. Whole new worlds with cultures, languages, traits, and abilities. Tons of weapons and armor with more mods than you can shake a stick at. Countless ways to assemble your team and complete missions. I could go on and on about this game, but I’ll stop there because it’s one of those game that simply must be experienced rather than told about. Mass Effect 2 comes out in early 2010 and your decisions and actions from the first game will impact what happens in the second, so I’m pretty jacked about seeing what they’ve got in store.

5. Halo franchise
Alright, I know everyone’s probably sick of all the hype about this series what with Master Chief’s, um, “face” plastered on posters, TV commercials, internet ads, and junk food products. I normally would not cover something that is essentially one gigantic bandwagon. However, I will have to give Bungie, the creators of Halo, props. They created a unique universe with awesome gameplay, beautifully polished visuals, and a fairly interesting story (albeit a cheesy one). For the sequels, they essentially made the exact same game with a few tweaks, new enemies, new weapons, and new levels, each of them with an even higher level of polish than the last. Not much originality, but they stuck with a formula that worked and it made them rich. And yet, the reason I include it here has more to do with how I’ve played it. You see, Halo was the first video game my brother and I played well cooperatively. We had played several others together such as Diablo II, but with Halo we did something different. Our first time through took forever and we didn’t work too well together at first, but after a bit, we started to get into sync and by the end of it, the aliens never stood a chance against Team Mayo. That first play through spawned a tradition (with a somewhat irregular schedule) wherein we beat Halo in cooperative mode on Legendary, the hardest difficulty setting and we smoke it every time. Since then, we’ve gone on to play other games cooperatively, such as Gears of War, Crackdown, and Army of Two. But, Halo will always be remembered fondly as the one that started it and the Covenant have been running scared ever since (ok, that was cheesy, sorry).

Alrighty, that was a long one. Thanks for sticking with me the whole thing. I’ll try to keep the rest a little shorter in the future, I promise.

El Capitan

I’m planning two essays in the coming couple of weeks, one on Machinarium and the place of adventure games in today’s gaming community, and one “When the pixels hit the fan” about the direction of game design and hardware innovation when games reach their maximum graphical potential… scary stuff right? Anyway, the reason is that I’ve still got a hell of a lot of other work to do which… hold on, I just realised that the ultimate demise of the blog is when the author apologises for lack of updates, I swear I won’t do it again!

Anyway, for something to read right now: Mods, yep, I’ve recently indulged in the sport of modding, consuming and building alike, for instance, today I downloaded the Battlefield 2 Map Editor, played around for a while and then realised it was two hours later and I really should have gotten to bed, then I started writing this blog. This recent modding, mostly involving STALKER and Fallout 3 has really exposed me to a side of gaming that I hadn’t really explored before, and it is quite life affirming. Ok, maybe that was a little dramatic, but it really is a genuinely pleasing experience to see huge communities of people who share your passion for games, sure a lot of it’s crap, but there are still people out there who devote a lot of time to making fabulous mods and maps that don’t get enough exposure, so I thought I’d do a shameless plug for a few different mods that have tickled my fancy over this experience. This is a bit of a random assortment, but they’re cool none the less.

The Nameless Mod – Deus Ex
This one really shows the passion of a small gaming community who banded together, united… ok enough heroics, basically a bunch of Deus Ex fans got together and collaborated on a project called the Nameless Mod, a standalone campaign for Deus ex that has been granted a lot of critical acclaim and proves that fans can create something trully fantastic.

STALKER Complete 2009
I nearly fell off my chair when I first stumbled upon this mod, finally, my love for STALKER could be rekindled with this fantastic compilation of the finest mods created by the dedicated STALKER community. I really do recommend this one, it has brought the game to a standard of perfection, incorporating amazing graphical overhauls with fantastic gameplay improvements that fixed up all the issues we had with the original including combat balancing, but I’m sure a full list can be found on this site. One gripe I did have however was the fact that they replaced the controllers chilling howls with the zombie sound effects from Half Life 2, if anyone has played Half Life 2 you automatically train yourself to not be frightened by the zombies lurking around the corner, and the sound effects are hilarious and completely inappropriate.

FOOK – Fallout 3
This is the Fallout Overhaul Kit for for Fallout 3, jam packed with content tailored to the RPG fan who was looking for a more complex experience from Fallout 3. Now this is one of these mods that you should really player AFTER you finished Fallout 3, preferably with Broken Steel since I believe it kind of draws away from the subtle intricacies that Bethesda worked into the game, but it is good none the less. Don’t get me wrong, this is a fantastic mod full of new weapons, gameplay options and extras, but I think that vanilla Fallout 3 must be experienced before you play this. Enough Bureaucracy. FOOK is a mod that has retained the essentials from fallout and literally added and added, this mod is packed full of cool new weapons and gameplay modifications that make it more realistic, tactical experience, allowing the player to experience the enchanting world of Fallout 3 in an environment that would probably reflect FO3 if someone turned the realism knob up a bit. Weapons do more damage, both to your enemies and yourself making everybody considerably more dangerous, forcing the player into interesting combat situations. Weapons are now incredibly varied to the extent that even a history is provided with the weapon, alongside unique ammunition types and variations. I have yet to explore a look of FOOK, but from what I’ve seen it’s an expertly made mod, crafted by genuinely talented fans of the game. FOOK has just come out of beta and is available on the Fookunity website for download as a single .exe.

Well that’s enough from me; my eyelids are threatening to tear themselves off if I stay up any longer. If anyone knows any particularly great mods that just must be shared, feel free to comment.

Until next time, I honestly didn’t expect that I’d write a complete entry

Miles – The Machination, Creative Director

This are some of the coolest gaming related stuff i’ve seen.

See if you can name all of them. No cheating. It’s not that hard.

Thanks to Kotaku.

Warren Spector, o cara por trás do FPS/RPG Deus EX, está por trás do novo projeto secreto da Disney, Epic Mickey. O jogo tem todo um ar steampunk, ou seja, misturando o ar tecnológico do século XIX com magia e tals. Olhando as imagens eu já me empolguei como não me empolgava desde Kingdom Hearts.

O problema: Pelos rumores o jogo será exclusivo para Wii. Mesmo o Kotaku falando com todas as letras que o jogo é exclusivo pra ele, eu não acredito. Porque? Baseado nas imagens-conceito o Wii não vai suportar. Por outro lado, pensando nos controles, Warren Spector pode fazer o demônio com as possibilidades que o console da Nintendo oferece.

Mas na verdade o que me preocupa mesmo é esse pincel na mão do Mickey nessa imagem (fiz um pequeno círculo para melhor identificação XD). Me deu medo. Sérião.

Veja as imagens na galeria. Só não tem do Donald. O Donald super combina com o universo criado para este jogo. Curiosidade aqui =)

Fan of the original Deus Ex? Here’s a short round-up of articles detailing the development of the game:

- Warren Spector writes a Deus Ex post-mortem for Gamasutra (this is ancient, back from 2000)

- a community interview with various members of the Deus Ex team

- EDGE writes about the making of Deus Ex, with insights from Warren Spector

Have a good read!

Mickey getting dark and gritty

Although the November issue of Game Informer led many to believe that a Kingdom Hearts console sequel was finally on it’s way, it’s been revealed that this is not the case. This is not necessarily a bad thing though. It seems that the game being flaunted about in the magazines pages (and many pages of the internet as well) is a fresh IP from Disney called Epic Mickey.

So who is behind the promising new project? Warren Spector, the developer and mind behind many acclaimed games, such as Deus Ex (and it’s sequel), Thief, and Wing Commander. Teamed up with Disney and Nintendo, Spector is looking to take the franchise in a bold new direction, in Epic Mickey exclusively for the Wii. The game is said to take the bright and cheery demeanor of the world of Disney we know and love and contrast it with surreal and gritty reimaginations of many forgotten Disney characters. Equipped with a paintbrush, and the ability to paint and erase levels, Mickey will be facing up against hordes of obscure characters. So far o names have been confirmed except Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and the Phantom Blot. Check some designs and the plot (thanks from Wikipedia) below.

PLOT

“The antagonists of Epic Mickey are the largely old and obscure Disney elements, including theme park rides and older cartoons. Having been forgotten, they are now trapped in a “forgotten world of broken machines and bitter personalities.” Running this world is Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, one of Walt Disney’s first creations, who has become jealous of Mickey Mouse and is seeking revenge. Oswald sends the Phantom Blot to the Disney universe, and it soon covers the world with black ink, causing the colors to run. Using a variety of artist tools, Mickey must return the Disney world to its former glory.^[10] It is hinted by an article from GameInformer that the Disney character The Mad Doctor might appear in the game.”

Some concept art

I Love the use of EPCOT here

Så var det dags för något som jag borde ha försökt mig på för länge sedan. Av en händelse så har nu Xboxflickan gjort en lista på vad hon anser vara världens tio bästa spel och ber då lite snällt om att få se hur andras listor skulle se ut.

Då jag tittade runt på olika personers listor så insåg jag snart att det är allt för många som helt enkelt har spelat alldeles för lite för att kunna göra en lista med tillräckligt mycket sanning för att vara relevant. Då jag känner att det är min plikt att utbilda mina få läsare så gott jag kan så utan vidare dröjsmål så kommer här nu… en ordentlig “tio i topp”-lista på världens bästa spel.

10. Killer Instinct Gold
Jag kan redan nu säga att jag inte har med SF3TS någonstans på listan vilket skulle kunna få en del att reagera, men då ska ni komma ihåg att Killer Instinct är det spel som uppfann Combo Breakern och var ett av de få där en ninja, en  varulv,  en cyborg och ett skelett kunde mötas och spöa skiten ur varandra. Att man dessutom kunde göra hur långa combos som helst om man var lite flink i fingrarna gjorde inte saken sämre. Det absolut bästa är dock det faktum att man inte spelade med ronder utan varje spelare hade två livmätare och inget mer vilket gjorde att varje slag gav större påverkan än i något annat Beat ém up.

9. Perfect Dark
Efter Goldeneye så var det många som trodde att det aldrig skulle komma ett bättre fps till konsol. De hade jävligt fel. Perfect Dark gjorde allt som Goldeneye hade gjort innan, men både bättre och sjukt mycket mer. Förutom en hyffsat lång singleplayer kampanj så fick vi en hel del multiplayergodis i form av ett stort antal banor, möjligheten att välja precis alla vapen som skulle finnas på banorna och bottar med olika personligheter och svårighetsgrader. Att varje vapen dessutom hade minst två olika skjutsätt var en mindre revolution. Laptop gun, jag älskar dig fortfarande <3

8. TMNT: Turtles in Time
 När jag växte upp så var det inte en enda unge som inte älskade dessa ninjasköldpaddor. Att de skulle få världens bästa sidoscrollande Beat ém up var inget någon förväntade sig, men det gör oss inte mindre glada att det blev så. Att spöa fotsoldater på löpande band tillsammans med en polare var bland det bästa man kunde göra på helgerna och det fungerar lika väl idag. Det fungerar så pass bra att det nyss fick en remake vid namn TMNT: Re-shelled som tyvärr är gjord efter arkadversionen och inte är alls lika bra som SNES-versionen. Men att det öht har kommit en remake visar dock hur pass  mycket spelare världen över har älskat att spöa fotsoldater och äta pizza.

7. Super Probotector
 Några kommer klaga på att jag väljer att nämna Probotector när originalversionen är Contra III, men det skiter jag i då robotar alltid kommer vara coolare än machokillar. Precis som föregående nominerade så är detta perfekt för att spelas med en polare. Den stora skillnaden är att din polare troligtvis inte kommer att vara till särskilt stor hjälp då han troligtvis inte ägde spelet och därmed var jävligt kass. Den här serien är inte känd för att vara snäll mot nybörjare och detta är inget undantag. Ett skott och du är död… och dö, ja det gör man troligtvis ett par gånger under sin actionfyllda resa. Ett spel för hardcore-publiken som inte är rädd för lite utmaning.

6. StarCraft
Borde inte behöva argumentera särskilt mycket mer än med ett ord… Korea. Att ett spel om tre olika arter som slåss i en sci-fi miljö kunde gå från grymt RTS till en nationalsport beskriver ganska bra hur pass välpolerad den här klassikern är. Själv så får jag medge att jag inte är så fruktansvärt bra på det, men det betyder inte att jag känner ett fint välbehag när mina Zerg intar mina fienders baser och sprider skräck och förstörelse tills inget längre är vid liv.

5. Deus Ex
Kan rollspel och FPS  blandas? Absolut och på plats nummer fem så har vi ett ypperligt bevis för det.  Deus Ex är ett av de få rollspel som spelas från första person men trots det så är inte spelmekaniken så uppmanande till att skjuta allt som rör sig som man är van vid när det gäller FPS. En stor del av spelet går även ut på att prata med folk, smyga förbi vakter och det viktigaste. Att avslöja en jäkligt stor konspiration som har mer än ett slut.

4. PlaneScape: Torment
Det finns ett flertal spel idag där spelaren inte kan förlora pga olika anledningar, men det är inget spel där det har varit lika vettigt som här. I rollen som “the nameless one” så vaknar du upp på ett bårhus samtidigt som en varelse  håller på och utför en obduktion på dig. Spelarens stora mål igenom spelet blir snart att ta reda på varför man inte kan dö, och hur man kan  få ta del av den eviga vilan. Med ett brett persongalleri och en värld som aldrig slutar att fascinera så är PlaneScape: Torment ett spel man gärna återvänder till ett flertal gånger. Jag skulle vilja påstå att med sitt storydrivna gameplay samtidigt som spelarens karaktärsutveckling går att påverka i hög grad gör detta till den perfekta blandningen av V-rpg och J-rpg.

3. Devil May Cry 3
Spelserien som återupplivade actiongenren gjorde en fullträff med sin tredje del. Förutom förbättrad grafik och kontroll så får vi fler vapen, fler attackstilar och stora utmanande bossar. Att spelet dessutom är svårt nog för att bara de skickligaste ska lyckas ta sig till slutet gör att varje bana man tar sig förbi ger en tillfredställelse som de flesta spel bara kan drömma om. Att Dante och Vergil råkar vara de absolut coolaste bröderna i ett spel någonsin är knappast en nackdel i en genre där karaktärerna brukar vara lika djupa som ett flingpaket. Det är många där ute som påstår att Ninja Gaiden eller God of War är den absolut bästa actionserien just nu, men de svaren grundas bara på ren okunnighet. Devil May Cry med sin enkla kontroll som erbjuder många möjligheter till comboattacker samtidigt som rörligheten för att kunna undvika motståndarens attacker är så perfekt balanserad och välutvecklad att de andra serierna bara kan se på och beundra Devil May Cry på avstånd, och Devil May Cry 3 är det absolut bästa beviset för detta.

2. Fallout 2
Har sett ett flertal listor nu som listar Fallout 3 som ett av världens bästa spel, men tar man bort skygglapparna så ser man att Bethesda inte har kommit i närheten av Black Isles mästerverk. Att kunna skapa exakt den typen av karaktär man vill, vare sig det gäller en elitsoldat eller en affärsman med silvertunga så finns möjligheterna där och det är få problem som måste lösas med våld. Fallout 2 innehåller dessutom en stor dos svart humor där man som exempel kan få sitt öra avbitet i en boxningsmatch. Fallout 2 är så pass stort att de flesta inte ens ser hälften som spelet har att erbjuda på sin första genomspelning vilket ger ett extremt högt återspelningsvärde. Om man som spelare tycker om Fallout 3 så gör man sig själv en ordentligt stor otjänst om man inte spelar de två föregångarna då båda dessa klår Bethesdas alster, även om det också är ett bra spel.

1. Super Metroid
Jag trodde att förstaplatsen skulle vara svårare att bestämma, men det tog inte mer än fem sekunder att komma fram till att världens bästa spel helt enkelt är den tredje delen i Metroidsagan. Med en stämning som många spel idag har svårt att nå upp till och en värld som lockar upptäckarglädjen till sitt yttersta. Att bara titelskärmen räcker för att många av oss ska få en skön illning längs ryggraden räcker inte för att beskriva alla de saker som händer på Zebes som är både spännande, otäcka och episka utan att ett enda ord yttras under spelets gång förutom i introt. Den berättelse som spelaren får berättad för sig formas mest inuti spelarens huvud, samtidigt som spelaren springer fram och tillbaka i olika grottor och letar power-ups och besegrar fiender för att slutligen kunna möta moderhjärnan och besegra henne för gott.  För er som inte har spelat Super Metroid men äger en Wii så ber jag er att direkt gå in på Virtual Console och ladda hem Super Metroid. Ni kommer inte bli missnöjda.

Så det var min lista. Den kan förvisso komma att ändras om någon fräschar upp ens minne men för stunden så är det så här det ser ut och det står jag för. Sorry guys men spel som Mafia, Ocarina of Time och Bingolotto var helt enkelt inte tillräckligt bra för att komma in på denna lista. För andra åsikter… varsågod. Inte som att den här listan kommer vara definitiv för all framtid >:3

Once every decade, a game saunters by your desk, grabs you by the scruff of the neck, and slaps you around like an unwanted stepchild. Deus Ex was, and still is, that game. Serious and compelling from the start, it forces you to make crucial moral and political choices that impact your relationship with other characters and ultimately the eventual outcome.

The series has one more sequel (Deus Ex: IW) that somehow manages to be a faint shadow of the first iteration. I highly discourage anyone from wasting their time with the second one; stick to the original.

Deus Ex was never known for its graphics even on release, and it definitely shows its age. Rather, it continues to stand out for its immersive gameplay and superb writing. An interesting behind the scenes look can be found here.

Ok first off let me say i’m sorry for how long it’s been since my last post. I’m still trying my hardest to get into this seriously.

As of my last update I was playing KOTOR and loving the dialog of the game.  Good conversation means so much to a game. You can have the perfect game in all aspects but if you get some half-baked voice acting and poor writing your game will suck. Deus Ex, which I actually enjoyed playing, had some bad voice acting:

As a quick side note i’ll add the i’ve continued to play the newest Prince of Persia game, despite it’s lame gameplay, because of the good dialog and voice acting.

Now i’m playing Mass Effect and the voices are stellar. A solid line of dialog delivered by a good actor pulls you into a game like nothing else. To make things better once you’ve heard a character tell you something in a convincing way you can respond in an equally convincing way. The dialog choices in this game are super.

Now if Edward James Olmos had narrated the Terminator Salvation game would it have sold more copies?

Keep on gaming people!

Morpheus: You are a planned organism. The offspring of knowledge and imagination, rather than individuals.

J.C.: I’m engineered. So what? My brother and I suspected as much while we were growing up.

Morpheus: You are carefully watched by many people. The unplanned organism is a question, asked by Nature, and answered by death. You are another kind of question, with another kind of answer.

This game continues to be engaging, literate, and thought provoking.

Deus Ex premier du nom a été encensé par la critique lors de sa sortie. J’avoue n’avoir pas été accroché par un jeu que je trouvais assez laid et au gameplay par trop lourdaud. Mais je devais être un jeune idiot et je suis surement passé à côté d’un chef d’œuvre vidéoludique. C’est surement le bon moment de tester ce jeu et sa comptabilité avec Vista. Sachez tout d’abord, qu’avec une installation par défaut, le jeu se lancera mais sera injouable. Il est donc temps de tester un traitement efficace.

Avant de débuter, voici une adresse utile

1 -Installer le jeu.

2 – Télécharger le patch de mise à jour ici et l’installer.

3 – Télécharger les fichiers pour que Deus Ex reconnaisse les graphismes DirectX 10. Installer les fichiers dans le dossier “system” de Deus Ex.

4 – Télécharger et dézipper le lanceur de Deus Ex. Lancer le fichier exe qui va permettre de paramétrer les graphismes. Choisir Direct3D comme renderer. Régler la résolution, la qualité des textures et éventuellement le fix pour les multi-processeur. Faire OK

5 – Lancer le jeu qui doit maintenant fonctionner parfaitement. Il est possible d’affiner les détails en appuyant sur “t” pendant l’écran de lancement du jeu. Effacer “say” et taper “préférences” pour avoir accès à la configuration détaillée.

6 – Il ne vous reste plus qu’à jouer… mais je vous préviens, malgré tout ces bidouillages, le jeu reste assez laid, voire carrément moche. Il est en outre parfaitement jouable. Quand le fond passe avant la forme…

Note : je ne suis pas sûr que le mode directx10 soit pris en compte, car même si l’option apparaît dans le menu des choix des renderers, elle n’apparaît pas dans les paramètres avancés du jeu… A voir plus tard…