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30 Days: Game Character You’re Like (Or Wish You Were)

This is one of a series called “30 Days of Video Games“, an exercise on daily writing.
Follow the link for the full list.

Can I say Samus Aran?  I’m going with Samus from the first Metroid.  Here you have a dauntless warrior, a person with a job and the will (and the toys) to get the job done.  Take out the pirates.  Bring down their bosses.  Destroy the Mother Brain and the stolen Metroid organisms.  Nothing else matters – get the tools to solve the next step in Planet Zebes’ labyrinth of challenges, upgrade the hardware needed to take down Kraid & Ridley, set the charges, get out of town.  Samus’ first adventure is a straight-up smash-in-the-door adventure and she is clearly the right person for the job.

Metroid’s ending was both amazing and problematic.  The reveal of Samus’ gender as the toughest woman this side of Ellen Ripley blew the minds of geeks everywhere, and the game outside of the ending is a wonderful gender-neutral puzzle/action game with the stoic and silent Samus silently taking her licks without moans, groans or feminine whimpers, just a sour and muted ‘whoomp’ sound.  Samus’ actions were without hesitation, just a smooth and relentless progress towards her goals.  It was problematic to me that the ending reveal showing just who Samus was featured her trading in the battlesuit for a bikini (in space, none the less.)  That seems fairly gratuitous to me – but seeing at how jaw-dropping it was to have a female action hero (this was way before Lara Craft and Chun-Li), I suppose that’s what was needed to get the point across.

Samus’ other adventures have largely held up the characterization of her as a stoic, silent, ass-kicking bounty hunter, an Eliot Spencer of space, if you will.  I’ve heard about the very problematic interaction between her and her male boss in Other M, but I haven’t played the game (not preferring the first-person aspect of the newer games) so I can’t really comment on that.

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30 Days: Your Guilty Pleasure Game

This is one of a series called “30 Days of Video Games“, an exercise on daily writing.
Follow the link for the full list.

My guilty pleasure game involves lots of destruction.  It involves very little challenge, just the patience needed to get to the point where I am gleefully annihilating enemies left and right.  It requires no thought, no grand strategy other than the basics; overwhelming force.  It has many different names, though;

At first it was Total Annihilation – I would find some defensible terrain, set up some automated turrets while building up tech and the resources needed to unleash the “Buzzsaw” – a repeating siege weapon that would literally pepper my enemies with cannon fire as I chortled towards building bigger weapons of mass destruction.

It became Starcraft, as I would set up choke points with siege tanks just to watch endless waves of Zerg and Protoss  AI melt against bunkers, towers and tanks.

It was Gauntlet, and Diablo II, it was Civilization IV on the Earth 18 map.

Hrm, maybe I should search for a new guilty pleasure game.

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30 Days: Favorite Genre

This is one of a series called “30 Days of Video Games“, an exercise on daily writing.
Follow the link for the full list.

Okay kids, let’s jump into it, Dr. Jack style, and sort this one out.

There are two obvious contenders here for me, both involve many of the same aspects of entertainment and video games, so we’re going to break this down and see which genre comes out on top.  Our two contenders?  Role-Playing Games and Strategy/Simulation Games.  Both involve long-term strategy in terms of building up to a final state which you are going to see through to the end with, both (when done right) have a high-replay value, and both are slower and involve countless hours planning out ridiculous builds.

Yeah, dead in the water there.  Let’s jump in, shall we?

Builder Mentality

WOW's original talent system
WOW’s original talent system

One of the major hallmarks of role-playing and strategy/simulation games is that for most of those games you need to have a more long term vision of your gameplay when you start.  Role-playing games mechanically revolve around the concept of building your character up from your humble beginnings as a farmboy/peasant/novice/pissant/whatever to ultimate badass – part of being the ultimate badass usually involves building your effectiveness at some aspect of combat, stacking force multipliers and attempting to minimize any weaknesses in your style.  This was never better exemplified (and vilified) within World of Warcraft’s original talent system – each character had three avenues of specialization, some were more subtle differences within the same basic playstyle (see: dual-wielding melee DPS, Rogue), others were massive role changes (see: hybrid, Druid.)

Usually in most RPGs, you have a basic idea of the type of character you want to play when you start a new character, though for persistent world MMORPGs, there are often options to have multiple builds allowing you tailor your build to the situation or just take a night off from healing raids to blow shit up.

In simulation games, it’s a bit more nuanced, since that builder mentality is at the heart of the game.  Again, the name of the game is usually start small and build up to something worthy of winning of the game, but the act of building is more of the focus in many games in the genre.  While there are exceptions (Paradox’s line of historical simulations come to mind, starting as France, England or Spain in Europa Universalis is not ‘starting small’), the game play is usually similar (see: SimCity, Civilization, Roller Coaster Tycoon.)  In these games, you’re usually tasked with a problem and your opening moves are to establish a baseline strategy to build towards a solution.  The challenge comes in with random elements which will test or force you to change your strategy.  The advantage to a well-thought out strategy is that you can of course weather those challenges without having to change your “build”, allowing for your city/empire/theme park/whatever to continue to grow while overcoming challenges.

That being said, it’s far easier to play with the WOW talent builder during work.

Advantage: Strategy/Simulation

Replay Value

sim-city-start
SimCity 3K start, all random and no ability to customize your terrain plot by plot

This is a tough one for RPGs – replay for many role playing games simply means redoing the same content with a different character.  MMOs have a tougher challenge as their business model is one of repetition to keep subscribers coming back (or, now with the Free-to-Play model, to entice users to spend real currency on additions/additional modes.)   However, this works as the experience can be incredibly different with another archetype of character or, in the cases of games like Mass Effect, that have aspects of the “choose-your-own-adventure” style of storytelling, where your choices can unlock or lock certain gameplay elements.  This is a constant challenge for the genre, and one that’s been addressed often, which is always a good thing.

Strategy/simulation games have an easier go here, the random nature of the challenges lends itself naturally to a high replay value, but the reverse is true, there’s not often a lot of incentive for a game designer to spend time considering replay value.  And, an unfavorable set of circumstances can be a very frustrating experience (see: Shaka, as your walls fall under unrelenting waves of impi.)

Advantage: Role Playing Games, for chasing innovation.

Gameplay/Fun

So uh, that’s the whole point, isn’t it?  While none of what I’ve said is hard science, this last category is no doubt the most subjective.  Fun is absolutely relative to the person playing the game so it’s hard to break this down without just stating my preference.  Which, is, uh, well, the whole thrust of this post.

So which is it?  There’s not a clear answer.  Sometimes you want to build Rome in a day, sometimes you just want to want to kill rats over and over and over and over and over and… you get the point. However, I think choosing requires me to say RPG solely again to the genre’s intersection with action & adventure games and a looser convention that allows for differing playstyles – one only needs to look at games like Skyrim, or the intersection of action in games like Guild Wars 2 or Wildstar.

So, final advantage: Role Playing Games.

 

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30 Days: Favorite Game Franchise

This is one of a series called “30 Days of Video Games“, an exercise on daily writing.
Follow the link for the full list.

ZELDA!

Yeah there’s really not a lot of doubt here, is there?  I have professed my love for the Zelda series time and time again on this site so we don’t really need to go too in depth here, do we?  Instead, with that out of the way, I can spend a bit of time on other franchises that I’ve loved throughout the years.

The first that comes to mind, and really, has made a strong running to displace Zelda is Civilization in all its glorious incarnations.  Civ games always have a high replay value and some of my best memories in gaming are finally pulling off that grind of domination game, or the abject terror of a Zulu army hell bent on my destruction.  It’s hardly surprising that given my love of history and geography that Civ would rank so high, and the latest few releases’ habit of hiring great voice actors to deliver the quotes attached to each technology (and, in Brave New World, to read the Great Works of Writing) have really brought an incredible touch to the series, a real connection to the history that the series is built upon.

There are many other franchises that have come and gone over the years, Mass Effect was an amazing drop into world building, Dragon Age to a lesser degree as well.  Mario of course is perhaps the best loved and longest tenured franchise out there, but its appeal has waned for me for a while now.  Prince of Persia was a series that drew me in early but lost me with the more recent releases.  Knights of the Old Republic and its various spin offs were enjoyable, but nothing ever grabbed me as much as the first did.  Warcraft was almost the opposite path – it took me a while to get into the series but by Warcraft III, and of course, World of Warcraft, I was hooked for a long time.

It does dawn on me, that while the Zelda series will always hold that special place in my heart, that maybe, just maybe, Sid Meier stole it out from under me.

 

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30 Days: Very First Video Game

This is one of a series called “30 Days of Video Games“, an exercise on daily writing.
Follow the link for the full list.

Wow we’re stretching back on this one.  My very first video game would have to have been played on either the Atari 2600 we had picked up when I was in fourth grade (I honestly remember my dad picking it up for $10 plus a ton of games at a flea market in Sebastopol,) or on one of the Apple II computers we had in school, upon which I also learned how to write my first programs in Basic and Logo.  (What a great feeling it was to create something for your own unbridled joy before learning about deadlines, mis-management and maintenance cycles.)

With the Atari 2600 came some amazing games, especially considering the limitations of the platform.  While that system was ultimately discarded once the Nintendo Entertainment System came out (we were floored by Duck Hunt, one of the few times my family has ever gathered to play a video game together – it wouldn’t happen again until Wii Sports,) my memories of those games are still vivid and exciting.  Space Invaders, Combat, Adventure (and all it’s bat-hating glory), Pitfall, and one of my all-time favorite arcade games, Dig Dug, kept me riveted on that small goofy looking box and our hideous 19″ CRT television.

However, I don’t think any of them were my first.  While we had an Atari 2600 in our house well before any personal computer, my uncle had an Apple II, and with it, his brother-in-law’s company’s games.  That company?  Brøderbund Software.  Those games?  I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to remember which I played first… Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? or Lode Runner.

If I think about it, it’s amazing how much those two games would shape my way of thinking and enjoyment.  With Lode Runner, I could toil endlessly building elaborate levels, death traps, perhaps, for the brave to run and discover.  And in Carmen Sandiego, I found my love of geography and history as I hunted the world’s most famous thief through locales I could only visit in my mind at the time.

Oh man, good times.

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30 Days of Video Games

So this is a rehash, but it should serve as a way to get back into writing every day.  Last year, I followed along with my good friend TFG on a “30 Days of Video Games” blog-post-a-day thing, which really was the “Next 30 Days”.  Being eternally backward and having absolutely no imagination whatsoever, I’m reaching even further back for the original 30 days. Because I have follow up a post like the last one with drivel, right? Without further ado, here are our topics:

Day 1 – Very First Video Game
Day 2 – Favorite Game Franchise
Day 3 – Favorite Genre
Day 4 – Your Guilty Pleasure Game
Day 5 – Game Character You’re Like (or Wish You Were)
Day 6 – Most Annoying Character
Day 7 – Favorite Couple
Day 8 – Best Soundtrack
Day 9 – Favorite Hand Held Game Sound Effect
Day 10 – Favorite Gameplay Mechanic
Day 11 – Gaming System of Choice
Day 12 – Personally Significant Game
Day 13 – Game Played Over 100 Hours
Day 14 – Favorite Character Class
Day 15 – Screenshots
Day 16 – Best Cut Scenes
Day 17 – Favorite Antagonist
Day 18 – Favorite Protagonist
Day 19 – Least Favorite Gameplay Mechanic
Day 20 – PvP or PvE
Day 21 – Best Story
Day 22 – Disappointing Sequel
Day 23 – Best Art Style Surprising Sequel
Day 24 – Turn Based or Real Time
Day 25 – To Be Played
Day 26 – Best Voice Acting
Day 27 – Favorite Gaming Moment
Day 28 – Favorite Game Designer
Day 29 – Game You Thought You’d Hate
Day 30 – Favorite Game

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30 More Days: 10 Recommended Games

This is part of a series in which I try to write a post every day on silly video game topics.  For the list of topics, click here.

Let’s get old-school.  TFG provided no stipulations on time frame but given the word “past”, but I’d like to highlight 10 games that aren’t only significant in my gaming past, but also games that you could go out and play right now and actually enjoy.

This is a tricky thing, of course.  Graphically speaking, for instance, older games often feel dated in a way that can detract from the experience. Let’s discuss one of these right now: Myst.  Myst is an amazing game, really more of an “Event” within the gaming world.  Personally, though, I always felt its thrill came from the incredible leap forward that game took graphically, drawing you into the world like no other game had done. Now, I tend to judge it a bit harshly, turned off by the too-clean lines and too-shiny reflections.  You’re going to read later though that I am going to break this very rule which goes to show: I really have no fucking clue what I am talking about.

Also not on this list; MMOs.  There is without a doubt that EverQuest was one of the most significant games in that genre’s history, and (for better or worse) a part of my own gaming past, but let’s be honest here; all MMOs are more or less the same game with new features added on and old features further refined and improved.  Thus, the best MMOs are going to be the most recent ones, and I don’t think you gain any real appreciation for them by playing the older, less graphically engaging, and less user friendly games.  I’m not a fan of telling someone to slog through endless hours of EverQuest just you can enjoy The Secret World for what it is not.

So let’s get to the list:

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003) -Yes, the graphics are a bit dated, but being in the middle of a replay now (as shown yesterday), they still hold up.  What holds up even better is the story (still great after all of these years!) the voice acting, the play itself (even if you have to look up some of the old D&D 3rd edition rules) and of course the lightsabers.  KotOR really set the bar for Bioware and one only needs to look to this game to really appreciate their amazing run in the last decade.

Age of Empires II (1999) – Microsoft has always carved out a tiny niche for video games, but Age of Empires and its even better sequel might have been their greatest effort, and a step out of their then usual place of flight simulators.  Still it offers a very simple yet richly detailed tech tree, solid graphics that hold up even today, and a fun, repeatable game play.  The original is one of the games that introduced me to PC gaming, but the sequel was always better.

Total Annihilation (1997) – We’ve got a little genre group here with this and its bookends, but TA stood out on its own as a dark horse game with unlimited potential.  Starcraft & AoE were a bit more polished, a bit more thought through, but TA brought amazing graphics, beautiful explosions, coordinated chaos on the battlefield and a true feeling of unleashing the title’s fervor.

Starcraft: Brood War (1998) – The gold medal and pinnacle of all real-time strategy games.  Much like AoEII, the original was a fine game, but Brood War added on to it without upsetting the nearly perfect balance of the game.  So much so, it’s hard to even imagine StarCraft without Brood War.

Civilization III (2001) – Yes, Civ 4 is better.  Yes, there are ways to cheese the ever loving hell out of it.  But much like KotOR raised the bar for Bioware, Civ 3 raised the bar for Firaxis.  The only issue about going back to this version?  Much like going back to 4 after playing 5, you might not be used to rule changes!

Gauntlet (1985) – Despite my love for the remakes, the original is still the best.  Even better? Finding a way to play it on your PC where you don’t have to put in $5 in quarters just to play.

The Secret of Monkey Island (1990) – Sierra might have paved the way, but LucasArts nailed the adventure genre with the absolutely hilarious Monkey Island series.  The graphics here might be quite dated, though.  But I had to include it.

SimCity 3000 (1999) – For me, the most beloved of the franchise.  SC3K brought fantastic graphic and game-play improvements but even on today’s computers can run a bit slow and sluggish when it comes to re-drawing buildings.  There are some problems with the model as well, freeways are ugly and unsightly, non-standard zones don’t always get developed, and there was no scenario editor like there was in SC2K, but still, by far my favorite SimCity.

Dragon Warrior (1986) – Going way back here, but of all the early RPGs I ever played, Dragon Warrior was easily my favorite.  The graphics still hold up even today, despite the 8-bit platform, thanks to a very simple and colorful art style.  Being able to play it might require a bit of inventiveness if you don’t have your old NES, though.

Shadow of the Colossus (2005) – The youngest entry on my list, Shadow is a truly remarkable and breathtaking game.  I do fear that it may ultimately suffer the same fate that I decreed upon Myst, and perhaps that makes me a bit of hypocrite.  The difference for me here is the art style.  Myst broke a lot of barriers in graphic presentations, showing off not only what video games could do, but what computers could do: I would be shocked to hear that few animators my age or younger do not list Myst as an influence on their craft.  SotC simply took an amazing simplistic concept artistically and executed it beautifully.  For that, I’ve included it on this list over Myst.

And that, as they say, gentle reader is that.  30 days of video games (with a bit of a break for the holiday in between, yes) and 30 posts.  What’s next?  Probably nothing to do with video games, I think I am gamed out!

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30 More Days: Post Your Game Setup

This is part of a series in which I try to write a post every day on silly video game topics.  For the list of topics, click here.

It’s not much, and it’s a bit cluttered with some of my running gear (ipod, gloves – cold in Oregon don’t you know), but I had to show off my headline of the Giants’ World Series win from 2010.

My Desk

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30 More Days: Minor Character

This is part of a series in which I try to write a post every day on silly video game topics.  For the list of topics, click here.

I can’t pick HK-47 twice?

Well, he’s not minor nor random, and maybe qualifies as a companion, but since I didn’t get the grumpy guy his due then, I’ll give him his now.  Let’s talk about Garrus Vakarian.

ME3_Garrus_Normandy

Garrus is perhaps one of the best homages to the buddy cop ever.  A charismatic guy with a dark past, a tendency to operate a bit outside the law (perfect for the Renegade Shep who is going to save this goddamned universe, goddamnit) – he’s Male Shep’s best buddy, a compatriot with a thousand war stories.

But to FemShep (canon, imo), he’s more.  Much, much more.  Sure, he’s willing to sit around all day and “calibrate the guns” but once you crack that hard plated skin of his, he’s a big gooey mess of a lover, so very, very awkward.  But beware of chafing.

So here’s to the best friend a lonely Shep could ever have (outside of Liara, or Tali, or… Jack, I guess, if you’re insane?)