Intermittent scar3crow

A Format Change

I've been sitting on a partial review for Duke Nukem Forever for a few weeks now, and it occurred to me that this just wasn't productive. I take forever to get my thoughts out because I insist on using a similar style to game reviews the product, rather than game reviews the service.

So I am shifting things up, from now on I'm going to keep it direct and simple. Possibly even sorted bulleted lists. What is good. What is bad. Ideas on how to fix the bad (without just redoing whole chunks or remaking it in some other grand vision).

Coming soon in this format: Duke Nukem Forever, Ghostbusters - possibly revisitations to previously covered titles!

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning demo

Kingdoms of Amalur sounds like the ultimate mash-up dream for geeks and gamers. A story by R.A. Salvatore, concept artwork by Todd McFarlane, and talent from across the industry in a game that is both free world and story driven, with heavy RPG elements such as loot, leveling, skill trees, dialogue trees, and yet free flowing combat for those who like their activity to be punctuated with action.

First off as a PC player, you may need to disable Post Processing in the menus. For some this means the minimap will render - for me it meant only the minimap would render. Supposedly these things are fixed in the final version, but it leaves me unable to see how the game would look on my machine with Post Processing effects on.

That mishap and disinterest in insuring that the demo fully demonstrates their product isn't exactly the best foot forward, but the missteps continued for me. The controls follow the WASD standard with mouselook using a third person camera. W pushes you forward, so you would expect S to have your character step backward, right? No. Instead he turns 180 degrees, facing your camera, and runs forward toward the camera which continually pulls back to keep him in the frame. You cannot see what is in front of him during this state, and the entire controls system flows like they written for a top-down arcade game, that was forced to be a third person title instead without any adjustment. That aside, the chase camera seems to be asleep at the wheel, sometimes lagging so far back that my character becomes a distant shape before catching up, and wedging itself behind an object directly blocking my view, no matter what my action. Combine that with the interest in "cinematic" action which means I get to look at my character flailing about and I end up wondering why they bothered with a renderer at all considering their strong desire to have me only looking at the least useful activities. "You stun locked a troll and went to fight two guards, lets take a closer look at that troll now, and not the guards." "You are being shot with arrows, how does the door frame's left wedge support feel about this?" Perhaps in a previous life one of the programmers was a human interest story news reporter?

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A Response to George Weidman of TruePCGaming on Modern Warfare 3 Second Look

Allow me to open with one credit here to TruePCGaming - I love the notion of the Second Look articles, it runs counter to the quickly consumed and excreted game that the typical review formula does. Now on to my response. This isn't going to be a long form eloquent article, but rather a sampling of quotes and comments. Think of it as a long comment that if condensed would just be posted on the article itself.

I am focusing on the multiplayer aspect of George Weidman's article as that is what I take issue with. It opens with an anecdote regarding a rather poor attempt at trash talking that George experienced in a public match, which seems to indicate that it is the foundation of the MW3 multiplayer experience. There are two problems with this, the first of which is how easy it is to mute other players so it isn't a factor. The second is the implication that this is somehow distinct to MW3, CoD, military games, or even first person shooters. The fact of the matter is any activity with a quantifiable goal and thus ranking is competitive, and jerks will be jerks.

That’s the thing about these Call of Duty games, someone’s always more important than you. Online, a more experienced player is generally out-scoring you. Offline, you’re generally looking at some other soldier’s backside. Either way, you’re being forcefully arranged into some kind of pecking order of superiority.

That's the thing about any simulation of a military order which is managed through a hierarchy with power being derived through obedience to superiors. That's the thing about competitive play - why is it competitive? Because there are other players in a shooter, and someone will be shot. Why are there other players? Because of the more interesting and involved scenarios that happen when more than one human mind is engaged.

Online, the game turns into an absolutely brutal arena of fast reflexes and snap aiming. Split-second reaction times and an almost instinctive knowledge of game mechanics are required to play with these folks.

For other titles, this would be referred to as a "high skill ceiling", that which allows the multiplayer to last for more than a few months because the players can grow by honing their reflexes and accuracy, acquiring finer map knowledge (and the maps do have a substantial amount of nuance to them, I regularly pick up on a detail I hadn't noticed before that provides a different line of sight, flanking route, escape route, or bank shot). However this description is still simplistic, fast reflexes and snap aiming are important but they will not save you against an opponent of more average reflexes and aiming who approaches engagements better and chooses the more appropriate weapon to the environment - and sticks to that environment.

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Modern Warfare 3

In some ways it is difficult to write a review of Modern Warfare 3 simply because due to the franchise's success and fame, it is a title many had already decided what they thought of it before playing it. It marks for me the first Call of Duty game I have purchased with my own money (having won a copy of World at War previously) because as someone interested in games, the industry, and general design principles I felt I should be aware at an early date as to the condition of the 8th entry of a franchise and one that was managed by a third party company rather than the creators.

I have played the title on a nearly daily basis since 7:12AM local time on the date of release and have completed the campaign and reached level 37 in the multiplayer. That statement alone should tell you it did not immediately repulse me or cause me to look elsewhere for my gaming time. In fact, I even tried to look elsewhere. I downloaded STALKER: Call of Pripyat Complete, being a huge STALKER fan, and that didn't even last long. I was drawn back to Modern Warfare 3.

The title is a true sequel. It does not reinvent the wheel, nor the T-square. It takes place in the exact same universe and resumes minutes after the second title ended. It is in vogue to criticize the game for having the same technology and same assets, something which would frustrate me if the naming was just a continued branding, but what it creates is a sensation of unity and coherence. It also is nice to know that the developers did not invest their time remodeling an M4A1 since it has been the same weapon for all three games in the franchise.

What is new to the game are things casual players will not mind, hardcore players will appreciate, and the in between players who have committed to disliking it will not notice. The changes are simple but they resonate deeper the longer you play. I am going to break this into two sections below the cut for single player and multiplayer.

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RAGE, Additional Impressions

I continue to play RAGE, though slightly adjusted with the following command line options:

+vt_maxPPF 16 +vt_pageImageSizeUnique 8192 +vt_pageImageSizeUniqueDiffuseOnly 8192  +vt_pageImageSizeUniqueDiffuseOnly2 8192 +set com_allowconsole 1 +cvaradd g_fov 15 +set com_skipIntroVideo 1

The loss of the (not so bothering to me) texture reloading was nice, as was the increased FOV, and the removal of the intro videos (I know who made it, thanks) brought it closer to feeling like a PC title. The console is there, because it should be.

I have found myself not compulsively saving during combat. Why? Because if I die, I get to replay the combat segment again. RAGE actually feels that nice to me to run and gun in, I actually enjoy replaying segments and trying other methods. Guns blazing is a grand 'ol time in the land of RAGE, but stealth and ambush are also feasible, as you can crouch-walk in and go for Crossbow and Wingstick kills. However enemies are usually in groups where they can see one another, so it only goes so far, in a satisfyingly limited aspect. (As an aside, it is a fun challenge to see how many I can pick off from a group before they notice, using crossbow headshots on bandits not in line-of-sight of one another, or with their backs to the other).

The vehicle aspects are alright, not great, but not Borderlands bad either and more engendering of a respectful approach as the vehicles do not regenerate, nor do they have infinite ammo. They really are vehicles - methods of travel.

Quests feel fairly natural as part of the game world, you really do follow the role of Have Gun, Will Travel. Most everyone else (wisely) stays put inside the confines of their shelters so you logically become the go to person to resolve any issues beyond the walls of the towns. This simple trait of having strong walls or significant distances turns what feels like in other games an errand boy situation into the sensation of being a unique provider to the people. They also feel less ham-fisted in lieu of any leveling system, skills or experience. Payment is in cash of some sort, a tool, schematic or weapon - usually correlating with your work. I once completed a guarding quest, where I acted as a sniper protecting an engineer outside of the city walls. In order to make me a better defender of the engineer, my sniper rifle was modded to be semi-automatic, and part of my compensation was keeping the rather nice modification.

So of course an id game has great gunplay, but what surprise me was how one session involved almost no gunplay at all. It involved a lot of town walking and NPC talking, with a dash of racing. When I saved and quit the game, I reflected on how much fun I was having, and then I realized I had managed to have a very good time in an id first person shooter, without firing a shot. This in a game where I am happy to replay combat segments because of how satisfying the fighting is, trying different configurations of the weapons because of how significantly different their impacts are - and its an id software title. This fact alone tells me the release of RAGE is ultimately a victory for the studio, and though I am not going to say "id is back" simply because they are such a different studio than they once were in scope, size and people, it is nice to point to a contemporary title that show cases their quality.

RAGE, First Impressions

As one of the privileged few who was able to play RAGE apparently, I've been able to get in a few hours of gameplay among daily life obligations. No, I didn't experience terrible sound, abysmal frame rates or weird artifacts (the screenshots in this post were taken in my first half hour of gameplay on my machine). I did experience "texture popping" as people keep calling it, where the textures are re-loaded on a screenspace change and fade into their proper quality - but its not eye catching outdoors, or while driving, nor do I notice it when in the thralls of combat, which leaves indoor settings when no combat is occurring, a very rare scenario thus far.

Comparisons of genre, setting and quality always crop up with the drop of a new game. Having just come off a long stint of Borderlands (as in, last serious session of it was yesterday morning 14 hours before I first played RAGE) and also just watching The King's Speech, I am moderately confident in my ability to gauge the title on issues of over similarity, as well as eloquence of story.

RAGE is not groundbreaking in any major way. This isn't an indictment of it, other than perhaps Minecraft we haven't had a groundbreaking game in 15 years and none look to be on the horizon. RAGE is however thus far a good game for driving around a wasteland, shooting bandits and mutants, and being the go to Paladin for the people living in this world, to whom you are indebted as one of their own rescued you when you were defenseless, and took you in at great personal risk.

It feels good to shoot in, the pistol is fair for fighting, and great if you get a headshot. The shotgun is decimating at close range with great satisfaction and acts as a good suppressor beyond that. Just as importantly, the enemies are fun to fight in AI, personality and animation. Jonathan "Nelno" Wright first introduced me to real personality and diversity in AI with his Zeus Bot for Quake, and that same quality shows up in RAGE, but far more professionally honed. Replaying early areas, I've been flanked differently and surprisingly caught off guard by brutal charges. The bandits move around the environment akin to their group and the animations do not feel canned as they work so well with gameplay mechanics. I was pleased to see little details such as a bandit laying in wait, would peek his head around a corner for you first, and then may expose his upper torso to properly shoot. This feels very natural, but also telegraphs in a non-jarring way to the player what is taking place. During a gun fight I witnessed this and in a twitch shot caught the bandit with a shot, he grabbed the wound and fell over still. Moments later I saw him use his free hand to drag himself back into cover, and then lean back out to shoot again, this time lower as he was cradling the wound.

Its an id game. If you like shooting and being shot at (virtually of course), it does its job, and unlike Doom3, it seems to realize this strength early on. But it does a good job of transcribing what are typically just video game mechanics as we accept them in to part of the game world. The fact that you are an Ark survivor is why you are so special, you are from the time before the asteroid. You are visually distinct from all around you due to your Ark suit, which holds financial value giving reason for bandits and the Authority to want to get their hands on you, but also makes you very easily identifiable as being so valuable. The suit's technology involves healing the wearer, explaining regenerating health and why others do not have it. The gameplay mechanics are more integrated in to the game world, rather than being an abstraction layer for the player that they just have to accept.

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Medal of Honor (2010)

DISCLAIMER: This review only concerns the single player campaign created by Danger Close.

Medal of Honor is a title most in gaming know well by name alone, being the spin off point for much of the gritty but still arcade feeling military shooters such as Call of Duty and Battlefield. Nonetheless, the most recent installment in the franchise, which takes place in modern times rather than a romanticized World War 2 seems to get reactions among gamers of idle disinterest, a shrug. Among some others the modern setting and reboot under Danger Close has the air of aping Call of Duty and Battlefield. Being not a significant fan of other people's opinions, and being a fan of Steam sales, I picked up a copy of the 2010 Medal of Honor a few months prior and recently sat down to play it.

What Medal of Honor did right was give me, the eponymous soldier, a real enemy. I was not inexplicably yet again fighting the Russians for some bizarre reason, or faceless random South Americans. I was in direct warfare in specific regions with Taliban and Al Qaeda combatants. This alone brought me very well into the fold of it being a contemporary military exchange, an enemy that is so probable, it is actual. This actual enemy greatly assists making the rest of the game world feel believable.

Medal of Honor is very linear, though in no way that its competitors are not but it still can pain a player more used to some autonomy. You are often the man of action in situations, kicking in the doors and designating targets for air strikes, but unlike its competitors, you do not seem to be the only competent member of your squad - I found myself pleasantly surprised many times to see that my task was one of support, for something other titles would make a major high-five objective scenario. You do not always kick in the door, sometimes you actually hang back and lay down the covering fire (which matters) while your teammates push forward and you are not the only person around capable of throwing a grenade or taking down a target, in fact your accomplices can aim decently as well.

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There And Back Again, a scar3crow's Tale

Nearly a year has passed, and what has passed? A bout of unemployment, a multi-thousand mile road trip and job hunt, settling down into a new job, home and another spot in the country - and right as I got comfortable, my vehicle and my desktop PC died within a few days of the other. However I am now back up and running, or at least skipping a little bit. I hope to resume reviews, as well as general articles and commentary.

A few games I am looking forward to, hope to comment on, am currently enjoying, or just have strong feelings about:

• Medal of Honor (2010)
• Torchlight 2
• Grim Dawn
• Path of Exile
• Diablo 3
• Serious Sam 3
• Rage
• Skyrim
• Limbo

I am also looking to talk more about the mechanics of gaming, and the meta level beyond that. I hope to generally provide a more critical eye than what I myself have been able to locate in modern game coverage.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Amnesia: The Dark Descent is the latest title by indie developer Frictional games. It is a horror oriented puzzle/adventure game in the first person with lots of physics and lighting, and for a change of pace is properly cross platform on Windows, Mac and Linux, as it uses OpenGL instead of DirectX. I am a few hours into the game now, to where first impressions are no longer only impressions and I feel I have a bit of a hold on it, and what a greasy hold it is.

Greasy, or perhaps inky? The game is dripping and oozing in the figurative and literal senses, from the lantern fuel and fleshy growths taking over the environment to the nigh labyrinthine darkness and threat of shadow, held at bay by defiant candelabras. You move smoothly and slowly through this environment, very aware of every shadow and every sound, turning as quickly as you can in reaction to a hint of a whisper, or the movement that turned out to just be settling dust in front of a window. The contrast of light and shadow matter in the core of the game's mechanics. Your body may fear monsters, but your mind fears the dark, and consequently you must tend to both, avoiding harm but also staying in the light as prolonged exposure to the dark slowly bleeds away your grasp on things, as depicted through various visual effects, and the only way to heal it is through puzzle solving.

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Oblivion

Oblivion is an open world role playing game of the closer to actual role playing variety rather than role receiving. For full disclosure I ran this modded to add additional NPCs in the various cities, as well as a more realistic economy, and a banking system as those elements felt a bit hollow before hand. I focused on the Dark Brotherhood guild line, as it seemed the most interesting and involved.

If Oblivion is anything, it is a visual and audible experience, traveling through its locales on foot or horseback. The foliage, though not perfect, often looks amazing and convinces you that you are within a magical yet still natural realm. A good shader on the water front and a usually very appropriate soundtrack creates a grand feeling of potential for your heroics, or misdeeds. Such elements make you want to burst forth through the game world living up to what you feel is your character, something which is left somewhat up to yourself, so long as you keep away from the main storyline (which made me feel a bit pressured, and seemed very staged). This urge to spring forth is a good one, as the game is excellent for exploring and discovering, as so little of the game content is marked on the map, and it is very rewarding unto itself to see that map get populated. This can also lead you to the minor quests from what appear to be random NPCs that give you reason to continue in a particular direction. These directions help you to uncover some of the stunning landscapes and features of the world.

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