Game of Thrones (The RPG) Thoughts.

I've been playing the Game of Thrones RPG for the last few days. I was hesitant to get it because of the horrible reviews it had received. More and more often I find myself realizing that critics are not to be trusted, and this may be the most glaring example in recent memory. Game of Thrones is without a doubt one of the best RPG's I have ever played. It is right there with Dragon Age: Origins and The Witcher 2. I have not quite finished it, I'm coming up on the grand finale now and I'm in a spot where I might not have a chance to finish it for a little while, so I wanted to give my thoughts on it so far.

Now that I've had a chance to play the game that was so maligned, I've gone back and re-read some of the more scathing critiques of it. And honestly in a lot of cases it's pretty clear that they didn't even play the damn game. For example in this Forbes article, the author states plainly that the games combat is turn based. Having spent somewhere near 10 hours now, I can say with some level of confidence, that the combat isn't even vaguely turn based. It functions similar to Dragon Age, or even MMO combat, in which you target an enemy, and your character just swings away with normal attacks while you queue up more powerful special attacks and abilities. There are no turn based elements in this game. I even double checked, thinking, maybe due to the restricted controller of the consoles as opposed to a keyboard and mouse, that the combat would have to work differently on console (as I have been playing on PC). But nope. It works exactly the same on consoles. Get your shit together, or stop writing articles when you're blind drunk.

Anyways, beyond my gripes about utterly incompetent "authors" who do their job with markedly less skill than an untrained chimp would in the same field, I'll get back to the game and why I absolutely love it.

A lot of it I think goes back to my love for Dragon Age: Origins. The combat mechanics are similar, and just as with DA:O, Game of Thrones places story on a pedestal. Don't get me wrong, there are no actually bad aspects of the game, combat may not be anything particularly special, but it's far from a hindrance. Combat actually has been pretty well crafted, if not so much in animation and such, in the tactics required. You really do need to think to survive more difficult fights. You can exploit the system in some ways. Like when playing the role of Alester (one of the two protagonists). He has an ability which knocks his enemies down, stack this with a passive ability that gives automatic critical hits against fallen enemies, and the fact that you can almost always regenerate enough energy to do it again by the time they stand up, and you get a sort of broken combo. This only works in very small conflicts though, if it's just you and 1 or 2 other guys it'll win every time. If they have a whole squad, you're going to need to think on your feet. And the "active pause" system doesn't actually stop time, it just slows it down. It gives you time to breathe, but you cant just hit pause and consider your options for hours.

The graphics as well aren't stellar. But graphics aren't a requirement for a great game. As I have said before, fantastic graphics can help draw you into a world, but it's the mark of great writing when you can be fully immersed in this fictional universe when the graphics are less impressive. That said, the graphics really aren't all that bad. Environments for the most part are well rendered, and major characters do look pretty great most of the time. The game only suffers when it comes to the random wandering NPC's and enemy combatants. They tend to be one of a very small number of recycled character models. One of the main characters, Mors, also has a dog, and the dog, well, it looks bad, it looks real bad. You wouldn't really notice, if not for the fact that you frequently get close up views of it every time you take control of it.

The voice acting ends up in the same department as the graphics. All of the major players are really spectacularly voiced, they sound real and believable, and listening to Mors gravely growl as he chastises and threatens those that get in his way really never gets old. Some side characters though are pretty bad admittedly. But again I haven't found any of them to be bad enough to take me out of the plot. Which is absolutely fantastically crafted. I know next to nothing about the Game of Thrones universe, (AKA A Song of Ice and Fire) and the game is crafted such that you don't have to. The two main characters are original to this game, so it's a stand alone title. But for fans of the series, the script went through the author of the books himself, so I'm told that it fits in perfectly with the canon.

Anyways I don't want to say much more at the moment, but I will try to update this once I've finished the game. I also have some word eating to do in regards to my comments on Bioware and Mass Effect 3, I take it back, I take it all back. Well, most of it anyways.

Dark Souls: Initial Thoughts

I picked this gem (so far) at gamestop just 2 days ago. So I admittedly haven't made much progress, being that I'm on a full time work schedule and have limited gaming time, especially when that game is as punishing as Dark Souls. But what I have seen so far really is amazingly impressive. Yes, you do die a lot. A lot a lot. But to be honest, it isn't over the top hard. Devil May Cry 3 was a lot harder, or at least it was back in the day when I first played it. But it's all extremely fine tuned, you have to plan things in advance and calculate all of your movements down to each individual swing of your sword. And in that regard it's in a totally different class from DMC3. Almost every enemy you face can kill you within seconds if you let your guard down. You need to move constantly, rolling, dodging, parrying. A single misstep can spell your end, and the loss of all of your souls (read: Experience Points) if you were reckless enough to get killed before reclaiming your power from your previous death.

Everything between boss fights is tailored for one thing and one thing only. To soften you up for whatever towering monstrosity is waiting through the next white light. I've only killed 2 bosses so far. The first was admittedly quite easy, I killed it on my first try, and I was honestly a little disappointed. I came to this game to get my ass kicked after all, I didn't want to beat BOSSES on my first attempt. That changed quickly though when I reached the second boss, the Taurus Demon. That one took me perhaps 15 tries. And each time you die you return to the last bonfire you rested at (bonfires are where you level up and restore estus flasks (read: healing potions) but each time you do this, all enemies respawn, so you can't just fight your way to the room before the boss, run back and heal, then go back at the boss. This might all sound really frustrating, and I can see where it would be if you go in expecting a usual modern game, which is typically an almost effortless romp more intended to present a story than anything else (which is fine don't get me wrong, but a good challenge doesn't hurt). But the thing is, when you finally kill that boss, or get passed that group that's been hounding you for countless deaths, it's one of the most gratifying moments you can possibly find in a video game. When you finally watch the giant minotaur demon disappear in a blinding flash of light and breathe that sigh of relief, you'll understand what I mean, and all the frustration will have been well worth it.

Less important factors here include the graphics and sound design. The graphics are ok, the textures aren't so great (mostly in the environment, character models, sans faces, actually look great and giant monsters are suitably intimidating.) but the animations are second to none. Everything moves, and controls, just about as smooth as silk. The sound design as well is really well done, everything sounds pretty much like you'd think it should, the thundering crash of a demons hammer smashing into the ground behind you will make your heart jump every time.

Anyways, once I beat it I'll be releasing a full review (it might be a while as my time is limited and the game is rumored to be about 100 hours long.). I'm also going to work on getting up my backlog of reviews including; Gears of War 3, F.E.A.R. 3, Dungeon Siege 3, (there are an awful lot of 3's in here...), Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, Terraria, Skyrim (unless I did that already, I can't remember) Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and I think a couple more. Don't expect regular updates or anything but I'm hoping to get some writing done, maybe even this weekend. As always thanks for reading.

Cheap Deaths are not the same as Challenging Combat.

So lately I've started playing Doom 3. Because it was one of those games that came out when my parents didn't like gore and I was still young, and once I was "old enough" I just never got around to it. You'd think I would have been all over it being such a horror fanboy but eh, it looked like 10 hours of jump scares to me. Which in a way it is, but it's actually atmospheric enough to be creepy, and keep you jumping. But that isn't what this post is about, I'll prolly post a flash-back review in a few days or so when I beat it. This post is about the combat. I've got it on the easy setting because I've been playing very casually and have been playing for the creepy factor, not because I want a challenge, and for the most part that's what I'm getting. Combat isn't a cakewalk but it's hardly difficult. Then you happen to be standing next to an explosive barrel, a demon throws a fireball at you, and you die, instantly. It's so god damned frustrating I can't even explain it. Especially when the auto-save system only saves at the beginning of each stage, which can be fairly long. Or another example. I'm waiting for a lift to come down from above, a tiny enemy, like the size of a crab, comes up behind me and hits me, knocks me under the lift, and it crushes me. Fun right? Or how about when you get cornered by 2 of the charging enemies. Every time they hit you the camera flies around uncontrollably, it distorts, and you lose control of your character. 1 on 1 this isn't a big deal. When there are 2 of them, if one of them hits you, it's over. You won't be able to recover in time, the next one will hit you, then the first one comes in again, repeat until dead and screaming at computer. This can happen with large enough swarms of small enemies too. Where you don't get killed for lack of skill or effort, you get killed because the game is kind of broken in these encounters. It's frustrating and I wanted to rant about it. But, it's worth saying that this isn't enough to ruin the game for me. I just have to be as anal as they are backstage at The Birdcage about saving my game.

Bioware and Dragon Age 3 Updates.

So. No secret I've got my own personal beef with choices being made by Bioware as of late. But this isn't actually another rant. First off. And this is something I won't spend too much time talking about, they did announce an "Extended Cut" of ME3 coming as a free add-on this summer. So that's reassuring and may prompt me to pick up the game, we'll see. But as I grew up with games like Baldurs Gate, the Dragon Age series is more important to me, I feel like it's a more mature series, and I feel that, while DA2 had severe limitations (see my review here http://level2reviews.blogspot.com/2011/04/dragon-age-ii.html ) I still really loved it. And I think I'm one of the few that kind of enjoyed the ambiguity of and smaller scope of, the story. But things like the removal of party customization, the recycled levels, spawning waves of enemies really drug it down. And after the whole debacle of ME3, I've been pretty nervous about a potential DA 3, which has been all but announced at this point, only an idiot, or a COD player would think it wasn't gonna happen.

Anyways, today I was looking around the internet and I came across this Bioware-Dragon-Age-PAX which had some incredibly reassuring information. First off they are increasing the scope of the game since DA2, honestly I liked the core story of both games, but I really like that they are probably taking a less linear approach for 3. 2nd, they are going to let you give your party equipment. And potentially even have separate equipment slots. Meaning that you won't just find "Silver Plate Armor" on the ground. You might find boots, gloves, shoulder pads, a breastplate, (yes I know they did this previously but it looks more in depth now), and this equipment will have a visible effect on the equipped characters appearance without sacrificing their pre-set unique appearance and that in all honestly is awesome. I loved that you could equip characters in DA:O but I do have to admit, I didn't like how they lost their identity when you did so.

There was also a good deal of talk about not only decisions that matter in the long run, (which is always great) but also about unique character experiences. While they are still sticking with a voiced character (which is ok with me, both approaches for that have their merits) they are going to be working to make that character feel more like your own. Your class will change your experience with the world, your specialization will have an impact as well. Honestly almost all that was said was really reassuring to me. I certainly hope it all pans out as well as it seems. I still have a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, but if Bioware knocks DA3 out of the park, like it sounds like they might, I think I could give them a second chance.

Alex Jenkins 2012

Saints Row: The Third

So, I recently got, beat, and then started playing to death, Saints Row: The Third. Now typically this is the kind of game I would overlook. Then almost every single guy over at Giantbomb.com named it as their number 1 game of 2011. Then my brother got it, who also isn't the type to go for these kinds of games, and he absolutely loved it. So there I was, playing Saints Row: The Third. And before I get into it I just want to point out, all the critics who gave it a hard time for its graphics, are either drunk, or honestly being bribed by other companies to dis it. It's probably the best looking open world game of this type that I've ever seen. It puts GTA IV to shame and leaves it crying to itself in the corner. And really it keeps up just fine with most recent titles, including linear games that can afford to pile on the graphics.

You can fully customize your character, including face, tattoos, build, hair, voice, and clothing.

So for those of you who don't know already, the premise of SR3 is this. You are the leader of the Third Street Saints, you're moving into a city called Steelport to spread your gang having recently achieved a level of celebrity (The Saints have a movie deal in the works, their own clothing shops, and a licensed energy drink called "Saints Flow"). But things quickly go south for the saints as they realize they aren't the only gang in town and after losing all of their funding they are forced to build up from scratch and force the other gang(s) out. It's a fairly simple premise, and it doesn't need to be anything else to be perfectly honest. The back story really just exists to provide a vehicle for the most over the top violence and general insanity I've ever seen in any video game. This makes Just Cause 2 look like Mario people.

Yep, that's a toilet with a megaman cannon. in cyberspace.

The opening level for example, (well the opening 2 anyways) features you first robbing a bank by literally pulling the vault out of the building with a helicopter and fighting off S.W.A.T. while standing on top of the vault dangling below the chopper, all while another helicopter tries to shoot you off. The mission immediately following this has you escaping from a helicopter. You free fall out the back, dodging debris and falling cars to catch a gang mate, then another helicopter tries to ram you, you kick through the windshield, dropping your gang mate, kill everyone in the helicopter while still falling, then come out the back and catch her again. (Oh and the whole time you're falling you're having a firefight with the enemy gang who dove out after you).

Guardian Angel missions are a lot of fun. Especially when you have a coop partner.

Admittedly the pace slows up quite a bit after these opening segments, but with a campaign as lengthy and varied as SR3 you won't be bothered by it. There's plenty more good stuff to come, like a luchador wrestling match with chainsaws, an insane Japanese man dressed as a cat who runs a gladiatorial arena called Professor Genki's Super Ethical Reality Climax, and open combat with a massive anti gang military operation featuring tanks and fighter jets. What I'm getting at is this. SR3 IS NOTHING LIKE GTA. The only similarity is that they both take place in cities, are open world, and have cars. That is where it ends. SR3 has no pretense of a mature emotional storyline, it isn't trying to say anything about poverty or immigration. It just wants you to blow shit up and look good doing it. That said however, the story is actually fairly good, a bit predictable at times sure, but it's pretty well developed and has enough turns to keep you invested.

Well acted and animated cutscenes punctuate most major missions.

Important missions are often accompanied by music outside of your car radio (which has several great stations, including one based on Adult Swim, and one which allows you to compile your favorites from each station). This makes things a lot of fun and the music always fits almost a little too well. Early on when you're barreling into an enemy gang's "crib" Power, by Kanye West starts playing. I hate Kanye as I'm sure most of you do, but it fits so damn well here, and it makes you feel that much more involved in the game.

As far as combat goes, it's fairly rare that you're going to feel particularly challenged, because that isn't really the point of SR3, it just wants you to feel like a badass, and it succeeds, it really does. There will be moments, especially towards the end of the regular campaign where you might get killed a few times, but typically it's because you got surrounded by over 20 soldiers or gangsters and got shot to shit, if you keep moving and shooting you really won't die often. And that's not to mention the high level upgrades which make you IMMUNE TO BULLETS AND EXPLOSIONS. Once you get those you can hold out all day against endless hordes of quite literally anything the game throws at you.

I mentioned Luchadores right?

I also want to mention the extent that these guys went to with voice work. There are 7 voices total for the main character, 3 male, 3 female, and... 1 zombie... They recorded all the dialogue with each and every voice (just don't tell bioware, they'd be awful upset if they found out someone called them out on their fucking laziness) and as far as I've heard, all the voice acting is great. The characters you meet in the game all sound believable, and the citizens screams of terror as they flee from the man with infinite rocket launcher ammo sound suitably convincing.

You can even kill furries. That was probably my favorite part.

All in all if you rip straight through the main campaign without much fussing around with activities and side missions, you'll probably clock in at somewhere around 13-15 hours. Which on its own is a lengthy campaign. But after you beat it you're free to roam around the city as you please completing any side missions you may not have done. Unfortunately there is no New Game+ feature, and no replayable missions (with the exception of the final mission so you can experience both endings) but I wasn't too bothered by it, there are so many activities and side missions scattered around the map that you won't really notice. But anyways it would take anyone probably close to 30 hours to complete everything this game has to offer. And even after that it's still just as fun to run around and cause general mayhem, did you know you can use explosive pistol rounds to keep a body suspended in the air and even land him on top of a building?

10/10 from me, this is a hell of a game.
Saints Row: The Third is property of THQ
All else is ©Alex Jenkins 2012

SO YOU CAUGHT ME. I'M A LIAR. But there is news. Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition.

So, just a quick update. Looks like there's an updated version of Baldur's Gate being thrown together by a few of the blokes responsible for the original game. Now, those of you who associate Baldur's Gate with Bioware. Don't fret, Bioware is completely uninvolved so Baldur's Gate isn't going to be turned into a first person shooter or a button masher. It's nothing too substantial over the core game mind you, just very VERY slight graphical cleanup, and some improvements to the interface. They also made mention of adding a bit more recorded dialogue to the game, those of you who played the original might remember it being fairly text heavy, this is probably going to still be the case, but there will at least be a little more than before. Oh also, inexplicably, they're making it compatible with the iPad? I dunno what that's all about. But fingers crossed for an early release, (and enough updates to make it worth it)

Salvage (the thing no one could possibly do for this movie)

So I'm reviewing a movie. And I'll have you know I'm starting the writing process about half way through. It's a British horror film, about 2 of the least likeable people on the planet. And their attempt to survive the attacks of some kind of creature which (42 minutes in) I have yet to see. As such it's going to turn into a bit of a running commentary after a point, but regardless. Things started off honestly quite strong, there was this bit between a father and his daughter as they ride in a car, the father is divorced, and is driving his daughter to spend a weekend with her mother. The chemistry between the two characters is solid and you'll find yourself caring about what happens to these two. So then, moments later, we discard them. For two pieces of filth clinging to the un-wiped ass of the world. We're with the fathers wife, she clearly cheated on him, and we meet her sleeping with a man she doesn't know, rather than seeing her daughter. Her daughter, after discovering that her mother is still a whore, takes off. So we get, cheating slut of a mother, and the guy she was getting porked by. Turns out the guy is just as huge of a piece of crap, having a wife and two children of his own back home.
           YOU MAY NOW ASK YOURSELF. "self, why should i care about these two? These are the type of people whose death I normally applaud in these films?" of course you might not use those specific words but hey. And you know what your self is gonna say? "shit abstract concept of consciousness, I have no idea! I don't like them either!". Anyways, before I diverge too far, I'd like to note my deepest condolences to the special effects team whose budget for blood effects allowed only for a couple bags of cheetos. I'm not kidding, the blood is bright vibrant orange. It's bizarre. When it's actually escaping from a wound it's red. Then when it's on someones face, it's like a melted down traffic cone. 50 minutes now by the way guys, the last 8 minutes have been nothing but the two cheating fucktards talking about how everything is everyone elses fault. I'd just like to say to the writers. When you want to write characters that people are going to care about? And be sympathetic towards? Maybe try and... I dunno, make them even register as human beings?
          I think at this point, what's going on, is the director using the whole monster attack as a way to provide a backdrop for human drama. This is a great idea in most cases, The Walking Dead, for example, is all about the people, not the zombies, 28 Days Later was the same deal. But the reason it works for those examples, is that the characters have sensible motivations, you can sympathize with them, understand them, you even like them. But it doesn't work here. By the way. I finally saw the creature. I've never been more dumbfounded in my life. I'd also like to point out the amazing racket the fucking thing is making, it's bellowing like some sort of farm animal having it's back door violated, meanwhile it killed at least 3 people earlier without making even the slightest sound. Not a footstep, not a breath, nothing. And beyond this it doesn't appear to have any particular motivation, there's no rhyme or reason to who it's killing or how it's doing it. It's not killing to eat. It's not killing to survive, it's just killing people. I, this.... this movie is really stupid you guys.
          Oh, while we're talking about massive and glaring inconsistencies, a character who was just killed, horribly, and bloody, wet tearing sound effects and all. Just ran up on the street, with nothing more than a small puncture wound in his side. One second he'll find it impossible to even stand on his own feet, then he'll be running. Now he's dead and the girl is flailing her arms around screaming. Fucking christ I don't even know if I can finish this. I don't normally get too bothered by things like monster motivations or plot holes, or liberal use of the whole deus ex machina thing. But this is getting absurd, it has the feel of a story a young child tells, when he's making the whole thing up on the spot. "Oh then! then the monster gets the man! Then the military gets the lady! But! But it turns out the man wasnt dead! he saves the girl!". I am so glad this pile of shit is only 75 minutes long, and we're at the 64 minute mark now. And the military is even inconsistent now! Previously they didn't hurt a soul unless they left their homes, now they just capped a little girl, who was hiding, in her home, for no reason. Get your shit together guys. I feel like you were tripping balls when you put this on paper. Mother is now talking to her daughter through the door of her home, and the camera angle makes it painfully obvious she is going to get dropped, and no one is going to feel bad about it. At all. Well, she didn't die, not yet at least. It was far dumber. She backed slowly into the dark trying to look scary then somehow, in one run, broke through the front door, which was solid wood by the way, she weighs prolly 140? Prolly would have been too smart to toss a lawn chair through the flimsy glass doors around back.
          Oh by the way, the monster, now apparently wields a fire poker, and can be almost overpowered by a couple of pencil thin women. And it... has a flannel shirt... oh man. Alright. So what I just saw. Well there was one redeeming factor, which I'll get to in a minute. Let me just paint this scene for you. And PLEASE in the meantime, keep in mind, dozens of highly trained Black ops operatives were sent in to kill this thing, they have been torn to shreds, effortlessly, and thrown aside, bullets do not harm the beast, unless the highly trained operatives just can't aim for a shit and through hundreds of rounds haven't hit it once. So anyways. Mother gets grabbed by the beast through a door and pinned to it, it holds out the fire poker through the door so they can grab it. Daughter runs away, opens the front door, but almost immediately the creature is on her and has her pinned. Mother walks up behind it, and stabs it through the neck with a blunt fire poker. It's dead. I don't even. So anyways she pulls the poker out, turns her hands towards the sky and starts screaming, for no reason, again. And then the best part of the whole movie, Black ops comes out of the bushes, and blam. Mother. Drops. Dead. Anyways the pain is over. I think I'm going to go drink through the suffering.