A Molydeux Inspired Wardrobe

After watching Patrick Klepek of Giantbomb.com and his cavalcade of friends produce a ridiculous number of tiny games based on the insane tweets of Peter Molyneux-spoofing twitter account @petermolydeux, I found myself trying to come up with just such an outside-the-box idea. I don't think I'm nearly insane/genius enough to get there, but here's what I came up with.

What about a game based around your wardrobe?

Specifically, I was thinking medieval attire, general fantasy trope business. War armor? Travel garb? Court attire? How would that affect what your character is doing at the time?

I load up my game, customize my character's look etc, then head to the palace in the middle of the Capital. I wear least mud-stained togs, and try to get a job- clerk, huntsman, guard. I choose whichever aspect of the game appeals to me most, say hunting, and get some good leather jerkins and pants. I'm given a small room, with limited customization options, and one set of decent clothes for when I'm in the presence of royalty.

Now the assignments come in. There are skirmishes, but I have no good armor- I act as scout/messenger/archer. There are riding missions, with a goal of foraging, hunting, or delivering a message, and for those my thick travelwear is perfect. But perhaps I'm ambushed. That iron sure would be nice about now. Other assigments take place on the streets of the city, and who knows what outfit is best for that- embroidery, leather, armor, it depends on who you're going to meet with, what part of town, etc. Some armor covers two roles, like fancy ceremonial armor being good for anything except running through a forest.

I've got more to this that I'll get back to later.

Gamefly Event & PC Client

So, I was invited to a Gamefly gaming preview event at the House of Blues in LA. Primarily, it was to announce their upcoming PC client, but I'll get to that in a minute. The event itself was pretty alright, with some pretty good music going, and not too much of a crowd to walk around freely. They had several games available to play: Saint's Row the 3rd, Dark Souls, Starhawk, Dead Island, Resistance 3, and an upcoming basketball and wrestling game (not my thing). There was also plenty of free NOS energy drink to be had, and I drank 4. I'm still not sure if that was a good or bad decision. Correction- still not sure HOW bad of a decision.

There's was a brief set by White Boy Wasted, not someone I'd heard of or plan on hearing again, and then some presentations of Gamefly stuff and a raffle. The raffle was mostly Del Taco bucks, Gamefly subscriptions, and some neat video game paraphernalia like sound systems and carrying cases. And then there was the PC stuff.

So, Gamefly up until now has been exclusively console-oriented, since they rent out discs basically. Now they have this PC client, which is similar to Steam, in a way. It allows you to friend people, manage your Gamefly queue, and preorder or purchase PC games. It also comes with an "unlimited PC play" list, which sounded waaaay too good to be true. You can download and play any game on that list whenever you want, for as long as you want. I was stoked. I got a total of 6 codes to the beta for the client. And then I got home and booted it up.

Here's the list of games you can play for free:

Velvet Assassin

Splinter Cell (1)

Saints Row 2

Konung 3: Ties of the Dynsasty (what?)

Hearts of Iron

CSI: Hard Evidence

Atari Arcade Hits

Flock!

Wallace & Grommit in Fright of the Bumblebees

Sam & Max Episode 1: Culture Shock

Red Faction (1)

Red Faction 2

Telltale Texas Hold 'Em (not the poker game with Strong Bad in it)

D.W.A.R.F.S.

Luxor

Treasure Island 2

Jewel Quest Mysteries

Jewel Quest Solitare 2

Desperados 2 Cooper's Revenge

Inca Ball

Luxor: Mahjong

Elements (Bejeweled knockoff)

Little Farm

Mysteryville 2

Prison Tycoon 4: Supermax

Reign: Conflict of Nations

The Penal Zone

Hunting Unlimited 2010

Hector: Badge of Carnage!

Death to Spies: Moment of Truth

Garden Defense

Magic Academy

Magic Academy II

Elizabeth Find, M.D.: Diagnosis Mystery

Imperium Romanum: Gold Edition

Reaxxion

Fishdom

Elements 4

Eco-match

Farm Craft



So, if you actually read the WHOLE list, how many of those have you heard of, actually are interested by, and didn't play 5 years ago? I'm not exactly sure why I let myself get excited by news of this client, but now that I've seen it with my own eyes- there's absolutely nothing good about this.

Let's desperately hope (for Gamefly's sake) that they can actually land some interesting titles before the PC client goes live this holiday season.

-Duncan

False Oracles

So, after having longed to play the twin Zelda titles Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages, I have finally gotten around to getting them into my grubby little paws. I trawled along amazon for a while, found everything in fairly decent price (for lost classics like that) and bought myself a GBA SP so that I would forevermore be able to play any and all game boy carts I could possibly want. Then I promptly found emulators and ROMs for all of this, so I didn't actually bother buying the games. No good rationale exists for this, but hell I'm not a perfect human being, and it's not like the sale of these games would go to the publishers anymore anyway.

These two games were Capcom's first entry into the Zelda franchise. It certainly seemed like an ambitious idea, producing two very different adventures (time willing it would have been three!), and I always really wanted to play them. They're each sort of like Link's Awakening, in that Link is thrown into a distant, foreign land, and must overcome 8 dungeons to reach the final tower and fix whatever is wrong. Seasons slowly gives Link the power to force an area to adopt one of the four seasons, and Ages features a harp than shifts Link from the present to the past and back.

I started with Oracle of Seasons, and so far I've found the game really compelling. I really haven't spent so much consecutive time absorbed in any game like this in a while. So that's a plus. The new items are well thought out and truly interesting, and even the dungeon naming and themes are inventive and new, certainly for a Zelda title. The color, however, is very bizarre and uninspiring. A separate palette is used for each season, to help differentiate, but this restricts any given screen from truly living up to it's potential. Summer is lively enough and winter I accept as being almost completely white and light blue, but spring just doesn't feel as vibrant as I think it should be. Autumn is particularly egregious, using almost exclusively light brown. I'm sure other cues could have been used to distinguish everything, allowing a little more variety of color. As it is, it feels like an original GB game that's simply being upconverted procedurally into color.

Now as far as the actual mechanic of season-changing goes, I find it quite clever and fun. Snow drifts block access or provide ramps, various way-blocking plants are only active during certain seasons, water levels and currents change, and even the type of enemies change. Areas are tied together by season, and you can only change seasons while standing on a tree stump, so the designers kept a good deal of control with the mechanic and it really can't be exploited. Well played, Capcom.

Anyway, I'm about halfway through the game at the moment, and I will check in later after I've completed it and probably a little ways into Oracle of Ages.

Cover Letters and Stuff

Writing is a simple thing, on the surface. Come up with a topic and just let the words flow. Have a conversation with yourself, or pretend to be explaining something to someone else.

Writing with a purpose, that's something else entirely.

I'm drafting a cover letter for a QA position at a large games company, and I'm having difficulty even starting. I want to make it clear that I'm familiar with their work, and a fan, but I don't want to seem like every other fan that would just LOVE to work for you guys PLEASE? Being professional is certainly of utmost importance, but there must be just the right dash of personality and wit to grab the interviewer's attention. It's striking this balance that's really giving me issues.

At first I thought of remembering my first experience with their games. "Nah, too fan-letter," I said to myself. I wasn't even going to try all-out professionalism, that's certain to bore anyone. There has to be a quick hook. So now I'm struggling with just how exactly I can be strong yet clever in my opening two sentences.

I already have my game plan down for subtly indicating that I'm familiar with their work, which is to work in several oblique references to their next title. So long as that's in there, I believe my fan status will be recognized, but not so forcefully as to sound like a stalker. And by working the references in more like clues, I hope to win points as an intelligent writer. I mean, my ego thinks I can be, so why not?

Ultimately, I probably shouldn't stress about it too much. I'm pretty sure I can at least make it to the interview step. Getting through that, on the other hand, has always been, and will forever be, my weakness.

Where is that old inspiration?

Among boxes and boxes of childhood memories, there is a sketchpad full of crappy knock-off Mega Man villains. Pages and pages of these things. I'm not really sure how I came up with all of them, because I haven't had that strong of a creative impetus for years.

There was a time when I wanted to make video games. Not to design, write, code or create art for video games, just to 'make' them. Clearly I had no idea what went into making a video game, the kind of focus needed, and I came up with all sorts of game jigsaw pieces that didn't quite fit together. There were tiny level designs, multitudes of characters, an attempted novel, even a brief attempt at teaching myself C++. I was all over the place.

Now that I've settled on writing as my gaming 'major', I've looked back at what I've made, what my imagination has spit out in the last several years. Not a whole lot. I still play games just as often, if not more. I still thrown myself into myriad innovative worlds. But none of it has really reignited my creative spark.

Granted, I don't become as wholly absorbed by a game these days as I used to. As a child, I couldn't imagine the idea of playing even two games at once: why would anyone pick up another game before the previous one was done (complete or otherwise)? Now I'm juggling two books and probably six games, and it all makes sense. But perhaps this has spread my imagination too thin, like butter scraped across too much bread. Perhaps it's my own fault for not dedicating myself to one wom- um... game.

Maybe some of the creativity of youth has simply left me. Maybe it's something more personal, pointing at a deeper problem in my life. Or maybe... maybe games have truly lost some of their magic? It has been a generation of consoles since I truly fell in love with a game, and that was a rare thing even then- it used to be a common thing.

My final speculation is this- I am now more tapped in to gaming news and culture than I ever was, and multi-game ADD is getting worse than ever. So many games are coming out, and I hear about almost all of them. From every console, from every genre, there are new announcements every week, new recommendations from my favorite journalists. And it's all so beautiful.

Quite the dilemma.

Hibernation

I am back in it, back the the mindset, working towards an actual writing career. This is the first time in many years that I've felt this amount of direction. Let's see how far it takes me.

So, yet again I mention that I must write here daily, and perhaps transcribe this all to both 1up.com and giantbomb.com. Active writers are the only real writers. Artists ship, to paraphrase Steve Jobs. Engage the mind, activate the brain, just as I try to activate my muscles. Sloth is anathema. Do, work, create, be active, swim, explore, read, actually strive for something. Self motivational drivel, but everyone has to start somewhere, neh?

I have finished my application review of Dragon Age 2 for Blizzard. Now I just need to rewrite my old cover letter, submit that, and wait. My GM friend from inside the frozen walls will put a small tag on my submission, indicating me as a friend of an employee, which skips me forward in line a good bit. Fingers crossed and such.

Stonetalon Pique

I am among the throngs of World of Warcraft players, and one of the major reasons I'm playing right now is to see how the world and leveling experience has changed since the Cataclysm.

Excuse me for a second while a make a fresh pot of coffee.

While that's brewing, I'd like to get deeper into a very specific zone that I've heard a lot about- the Stonetalon Mountains. Previously, it was a frontier zone, with only a few settlements among the nature, except for a slash and burn logging operation in one corner. Now, the entire area has become a cutthroat warzone between the Horde and Alliance.

I'm alright with changing the tenor of the place, and because it was originally designed as wilderness, it retains a much more natural landscape and topography than many other wartorn zones. However, they don't really use the space well, as one or two quests are given for each section of the landscape, and then you're hurried on to another forward camp in the battle. I realize this is a result of the WoW updates, the slower leveling of original WoW versus the fast paced leveling of new WoW means you blow through each place much faster. Still feels a bit underused though.

One major point that Stonetalon is lauded for is it's representation of Garrosh Hellscream, new Warchief of the Horde. Garrosh started with a terrible reputation as too brutal and insensitive, making many players feel alienated in a Horde that began with wise and contemplative Thrall. I was told that Garrosh shows a better, more honorable side to himself in Stonetalon, and was very much looking forward to seeing it.

The quest chain involves Overlord Krom'gar, who has such a frustratingly obvious 'evil snake' voice that you know from the outset that he is heartless and devious, someone who would stoop to very low levels to accomplish his goals. Perhaps I'm expecting too much from the character writing, but shouldn't we simply be able to hate him for whatever tragedy we expect him to commit? Anyway- Krom'gar sends you off to General Grebo, an orc in charge of a small region of Stonetalon.

Long story short- General Grebo creates false reports that a small druid school, filled with younglings, has a great Alliance weapon inside it, and informs Krom'gar so that a giant bomb will be deployed towards it. Some tauren from the school confront Grebo with proof of his falsehood, they fight, Grebo dies. You are then tasked with telling Krom'gar what just happened. When you reach Krom'gar, the game doesn't explicitly say what your character relates to him, but Krom'gar's response is,

"You have done well to report this crime. The perpetrators of this heinous act will be punished. There will be blood."

Am I to believe that I just ratted out the tauren, and made them out to be the bad guys? Krom'gar doesn't sound like he's trying to twist the story, he sounds like he's just affirming what he's just been told. He also promotes you to general in Grebo's place, confirming that he trusts you to some extent. So, great. I'm now party to conspiracy and murder.

You catch up with Krom'gar again, after he kills one of the 'perpetrators' and subdues the other. He then sends the bomb off to destroy the peaceful druid school. Garrosh teleports in suddenly, full of indignant rage, to punish Krom'gar for killing civilians. He gives a noble speach about learning the meaning of honor, and throws Krom'gar off a ledge to his death. This is obviously meant to get the player on Garrosh's side, as an honorable leader eager to root out corruption. Does it work for me? Not at all.

Krom'gar was innocent. Krom'gar was told there was a weapon in the school by Grebo, so he dropped a bomb on it. Krom'gar was told that some tauren killed his general, so he took care of them. Krom'gar's actually a pretty good leader. Grebo and the player's character are the real villains in this questline. Grebo tells Krom'gar about the weapon and makes sure the bombing goes forward. I myself told Krom'gar that Grebo had been murdered. Honestly, I should have been the one thrown to my death by Garrosh, (which actually would've been pretty amazing) and Krom'gar gotten maybe a demotion or something for being duped.

And maybe Garrosh could've popped in 10 seconds earlier and prevented the destruction of the school. He's still worthless in my book.