Daimon's Lair

Quick update: I've already used the sniper rifle more in the sequel than I did in three play-throughs of the first game!



And that, to me, is a good sign. My favorite shooters are ones that use their weapons like a tool-box. Different situations call for different tools. . . and one thing I've used twice already are staircases that allow you to get into an overwatch position and provide sniper support for the rest of your team. Already a huge tactical improvement over the original.

And while we're on the topic of sniper rifles, I saw this and thought it was funny:

My six-week old son gave me a nice long nap yesterday, which allowed me to finish the first Mass Effect. I like my character build (both being a soldier and the aesthetics of his appearance), so I wanted to re-use it in the sequel. Plus I want the whole 'personal' angle that BioWare's been selling up. It's ingenious, really, but we'll see just how deeply it affects gameplay.

On a side note, I know I reviewed the first game a while back. I of course lost that save data when my 360 was stolen last summer, so that (among other reasons) is why I've been replaying it. I'd forgotten just how much I loved the design of the Ilos ruins. What is it with me and ruins? I swear my wife is rubbing off on me. . . :P

• A cover system that might as well have not existed. Yes, by pressing Shepard up against an object, he would (occasionally) switch to cover mode. But it was glitchy and, to be honest, really didn't help much. More often than not I played the game Halo-style--strafe behind cover, occasionally crouch, and take advantage of generous shields (and powers that made those even stronger). Solution: In ME2, BioWare becomes yet another company to adopt a Gears of War style cover system, though (so far) without all of the expert moves like SWAT turns, etc.
• Weapon options that really weren't ever used. Non-soldiers were stuck with pistols (which could actually become pretty potent towards the end) and as a soldier I could use everything. But, except for an occasional (maybe five times in twenty-plus hours of gameplay) use of the sniper rifle, I stuck with the AR. Solution: So far, the addition of heavy weapons is already a huge tool. The other classes, from what I understand, also get sub-machine guns and other cool tricks. It remains to be seen if I'll ever need that sniper rifle, though.
• Optional worlds that were essentially cut-and-paste. How many times did BioWare use the same template for enemy bases? That galactic steel-building contractor must have one hell of a market share. . . . Solution: More inventive level-design. Reviews suggest that this is a lot better. So far, the Lazarus Project is decent evidence of more thought going into that--especially since it's clear that BioWare wanted to nail the shooter aspect of the sequel (the RPG elements of the original, after all, were what everyone raved about). The second environment (a human colony) also looks more inventive. I only just landed, but from the cut-scene it looks like the designers are trying to give each place a more unique architectural feel.
• Creepy subplots that were never really fleshed out. Most of the side quests in the original game involved going after two corporations-- Cerberus and ExoGeni. However, they essentially become a shooter-RPG equivalent of the classic fetch quest: land on X planet, go into cookie-cutter base, kill all enemies, and get a text message on-screen. That's it--no story, no cut-scenes, nothing. Now, cut-scenes can be over-done, but a text message isn't a great way to reveal plot. The only real reason to do side quests was to level up and get weapons that were usually a lot more powerful than those available in stores. Solution: It remains to be seen, but since you're now working for Cerberus, I have a feeling the creepy subplots are going to be well-done in the sequel.

I decided to play through on Veteran (now actually the second-hardest difficulty level). It seems challenging, but I'm still getting used to the new HUD, so I can't honestly say if I've gotten close to dying yet. One thing I wish they had done was allow you to toggle the radial menus open-closed rather than always holding down the bumpers. I just discovered when perusing the menu, though, that powers can be given hotkeys.

Two things I just have to mention:

Just read this great article on Gamasutra that rips the single-player narrative to shreds:
Single-Player/Multi-Player Conundrum

In fact, the more I think about it, the more the author nails a lot of my thoughts on MW2. I found the multi-player fun, but I'm still not sold on exp progression based play. I'd much rather have Bungie's mostly excellent social AND ranked playlists that work so well for Halo 3.

But maybe it's just me. I simply don't feel like putting a bunch of time into a multi-player game right now. Instead, Dragon Age and Mass Effect (yes, I'm finishing up my second run through ME so I can use this character build for ME2 that just arrived) have me loving RPGs. Why play with a bunch of immature teenagers when I can have fun with well-designed characters and evocative worlds?

That's why I love Bioshock so much. It was an awesome FPS with a unique and quirky design and an unbelievably good story. If I was a designer, that would be the game I'd make. I love shooters, but I'd rather have one (or two) occasional standbys when I want a death-match. The other ten-plus games in my library might as well just be single-player.

Author's aside: this is the 50th post on my blog! I think I'll make it to 100 a lot faster than I did 50. I'm having fun blending all of the things I do on here, so here's hoping. . . .

My current WIP (which is all but done) is a chapter delving into the backstory of my novel's central character, Azriah Shepard. In this scene he's a young lieutenant tasked with a mission to investigate a rebel arm's cache. Before the mission, he meets an important side character for the first time: his new executive officer, Katerina Jensen.

My wife's been helping me find better models than Anna Paquin. This one is Sarah Chalke, of Scrubs and HIMYM fame:
 She's a fun character to write, because she doesn't take crap from Azriah--and in general they have a very casual relationship for a superior-inferior in the military. Cf scenes like this:

 Azriah’s fruitless exploration brought him back to where Katerina continued her own hunt, all attention fixed on her datapad. He snuck up on her from behind, masking his footfalls, a smile on his face as he relished the idea of scaring her. He made it within two meters of her when she suddenly spoke: “tickle me and I’ll kick you in the balls.”

The suddeness of her comment took him back, but then he had to chuckle. She turned around and looked up from her pad with a slightly irritated look on her face, but his persistent laughter eventually won him a smile.

“What the hell have you been working on, brainiac?”

“Solved the maze yet, genius?”

Both Imperial soldiers, they possess numerous advantages over the rebels--save numerical superiority. Azriah observes the rebels' tactical incompetence rather acidly:

Not like he was complaining. When the Empire faced competent enemies, that resulted in the near total destruction of the Eastern seaboard—and the desecration of the District of Columbia. A cultural memory now seared in every citizen of the Empire, a fury that allowed them to annihilate inferior foes. As they now did.

The notion of an 'American' Empire is a fascinating one to me, not because I'm some sort of megalomaniac. It's the notion that a descendant America (which I believe we are already) will eventually be faced with a military crisis that will either break the country permanently or break it, but then allow it to be reborn with a new governmental structure. The root cause could be many things, and I won't go into too much detail because, well, it's my story--and a lot of the detail still needs elaborating.

The heart of the target conceals something Azriah couldn't possibly have expected, which acts as the catalyst for the next phase of his career: a military commander tasked with ascertaining to what depth alien technology has infiltrated the core of the rebellion (with the even greater fear that it has also made its way to the Empire's chief rival, the UEF).

I'm not sure exactly what role I'm going to give Atelia's Fire. I think, in fact, it calls for another backstory chapter :).

No, unlike my father-in-law, I'm not talking about 'little green men'. The possibility of intelligent life in the universe is real but I have extreme doubts as to whether we'll encounter it anytime in the remote future. As to the question of whether we have already, well, conspiracy theories are not one of my interests.

I'm talking about using aliens in fiction, something I'm having fun with in my story. And I'm increasingly realizing that the alien race which is influencing me the most are the 'Ancients' or 'Lantians' from the Stargate TV shows. Almost identical to humans, they are mysterious, hyper-technological, and essentially a fallen society. Yet their ruins abound throughout the fictional Milky Way and Pegasus Galaxies.

Those of you reading this blog may or may not be aware I'm also a fairly avid fiction writer and have been since the tail end of grade school. Nothing published (of course) but I enjoy it. Right now one of my wrists has been really bothering me--especially when it comes to typing--so I've allowed my routine to collapse.

Granted, physical limitations are one thing, but I need to get back in the swing of things. So here's the first of what will (hopefully) be a series of regular updates on the progress of my writing. Currently my main work in progress (WIP) is a backstory chapter where Azriah Shepard (the central character of my novel) meets Katerina Jensen, an important if minor character in his history. Here's kind of what she looks like:



I know, that probably doesn't sound terribly interesting. I'm never sure how much plot to reveal on a public forum like this. Don't want to screw myself over once I finally get to a point where I can submit for publication.

Do any of you find it difficult to maintain a writing schedule? Sometimes my wrist is in enough discomfort despite me resting it that I decide: "what the hell, let's write!" Then it becomes more a question of three kids distracting me :P

Would small excerpts be something worth posting? That could reveal plot and character progression without revealing too much (I'm thinking single paragraphs or something).

This is going to be a truncated update because, well, this is the only thing I've been playing all week:

That isn't to say I haven't thought about playing other games. But I really haven't. #2 on my priority list would have to be Uncharted 2, but I honestly haven't touched it since the last update.

I'm 25 hours in (so the game says--it's hard to believe I've sunk that much time into it already) and I'm enjoying it immensely. The music, combat, and storyline are all excellent. It seems that I've exhausted the backstory-related conversation options of Morrighan already, which is kind of disappointing. One of BioWare's weaknesses has been that they make these really interesting characters, but just partway through the game you run out of things to say to them. I was hoping DA would be different. And it may yet. More options may be triggered by plot progression--we'll see.

Most of the week's playtime has been spent in Orzammar, the Dwarven city. Certain things I expected, like the geomtric architecture, but most I did not. Again I have to dispute the criticism DA received for its 'unoriginal' high fantasy setting. The intricacies of Dwarven politics and, heck, the fact that they were interesting to me at all speaks volumes. Because honestly, dwarves usually bore the crap out of me.

Check out this cool pic:
Cool place and I'm not even done yet. There's a decent chunk of the main storyline left (or so I've surmised), and hopefully even more areas of the 'Deep Roads' (the underground roads and cities that the dwarves have lost to the Darkspawn over the centuries) will open up. The whole exploration of ruins takes on another level (no pun intended) when it's underground.

The only other thing that's been spinning in my drives this weeks is:

For some reason, Blogger's not letting me upload images, but I still want to post this. I recently purchased with the vast majority of my Christmas money Onkyo's HT-S3200 home theater system. This is a GREAT buy.

What it Replaces:
I had a several years-old Samsung all-in-one (which included a 5-disc carousel changer) which relied on a cooling fan--whose bearings were shot. Kinda pointless to have a surround system when any time you try to use it, whatever you're trying to listen to gets drowned out by the squealing of a bad electric motor.

Plus, the sound was decent, but not great. Not a huge advantage over my TV's own speakers.

Impressions:
One of the reasons I chose this system is that, unlike systems that also are disc players, this uses a conventional (read gloriously bulky) amp as its centerpiece. This means I have conventional 8-ohm speakers and the amp can handle additional outputs.

The various sound processing filters are nice and it's been so long since I've heard my music and games on quality speakers, I actually have to get used to how everything sounds again. Love having surround sound for my gaming. Funny how people make all this crap about THX and stuff for movies, but I've honestly watched very few movies that really take advantage of 5.1 sound. EVERY game does. Serious gamers need a sound system. And gamers who, like me, have some (but not tons) of money should take a look at this system.

I picked it up for a little over $300 on Vann's (through Amazon), but it's been worth every penny so far.

Bioware has to be one of my favorite developers. I've played a good chunk of their games, with my particular favorites being Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect. Now they've successfully sucked me into another masterpiece effort. So, what's so good about Dragon Age: Origins?

Here's my effort to capture some of the top things I'm really liking about DA so far.

1. Great Character Design

2. Plot Twists

The story is settling down now about ten or so hours in, but the first six were filled with interesting twists. (Not that the story so far isn't--far from it.) I have no desire to get into spoilers, but so far this is my favorite RPG from a story angle. KOTOR and Mass Effect were good games, but the stories were B efforts. So far DA is a solid A in my book. Even great games like Fallout 3 and ES IV: Oblivion suffered because they were too sprawling. We'll see, of course, how it all comes together, but so far DA has struck the balance between offering a compelling main storyline and offering occasional diversionary quests. One in particular, the 'Urn of Sacred Ashes', which is semi-optional, is incredibly well-designed.

3. Combat Mechanics

As usual, my first playthrough is on the default difficulty setting, and while certainly not crushing like Demon's Souls is reputed to be, there are points of the game that have been. . . challenging. The mechanics, however, are well-designed and bear close resemblance to KOTOR's system of being able to pause and switch between characters. I wish (sometimes) I could queue up commands like in that game, but the tactics menu eliminates some of the need for micromanagement. If, that is, you're patient enough to update it as characters level up to new talents and spells.

One small thing I like: the radial menu can be set to toggle on/off, rather than requiring you to always hold down the left trigger. This is AWESOME. I hate having to hold down buttons while using radial menus, especially here because of the need to frequently switch between characters.

4. Critical Disagreements

Two things had me skeptical about DA after reading reviews. One was the amount of gore in the game. Luckily, a la Gears of War, there is a setting to toggle off what Bioware calls 'persistent gore'. While some of the cut-scenes have near-adolescent male levels of gore, in-game gore is quite tasteful-realistic. It's definitely playable in front of kids.


The second was the 'unoriginality' of the world. Yes, the darkspawn are clearly inspired by Tolkein's orcs, but there are so many other aspects of the world that are richly detailed and quite original (e.g. the elves having been enslaved by humans long ago). So far, not only have the excellent characters and plot drawn me in, but also the allegedly 'unoriginal' world.

Those are my thoughts for now. Stay tuned for more impressions and the final review!

This is going to be an attempt on my part to create a recurring feature on my blog. Here will be where I put regular updates on the games I have in progress, with first impressions and such. Reviews, news, and single game specific posts will always, of course, be put under separate headings.

Playstation 3

Resistance: Fall of Man

XBOX 360

First Impressions:
I've heard so many good things about this game, I came in with high expectations. First impressions were mixed. Adventure games have left me with a bad taste before--and I really haven't tried one since the early days of the Tomb Raider franchies. Yes, I know, things have gone a long way since then. But the deeper I got into the game, the more I realized that this is truly a hybrid title. The balance between third-person shooter and puzzle-solver/platformer/adventure is well-forged.

Pacing:
There are elements of the game that strive for a cinematic, 'Indiana Jones'-esque feel, especially the opening cut-scenes. And then the game settles down into a more linear, solve a few puzzles, shoot some bad guys, and then get a cut-scene pace. I was starting to become a little disappointed with the game when it threw a HUGE twist. And, wow, is it huge. Suddenly I went from feeling like I had it all figured out (though frequently challenged by combat layouts) to stressed, on-the-run, trying to desperately survive.

I don't want to ruin anything for those who haven't played it (even though I know this is a 'back catalog' game) but the game's big twist makes the story all come together.

Game Mechanics:
There are things to love and hate here. I loved the combat system--which is no surprise, because anyone who's played Gears of War will feel right at home. In fact, the similarity is uncanny. Everything from the cover system and aiming to the way you have to bend down to pick up ammo and/or swap weapons is straight out of Epic's shooter. The fact that Uncharted came out a year later makes me wonder if it was cloned, but I don't care. The Gears system is quite simply one of the best (if not THE best) third-person shooter out there.

I also liked the climbing and movement system which at times almost felt like a parcour simulator. The platforming sequences could sometimes be frustrating, but that had more to do with the auto-save system. I have nothing against auto-saves per se, but some of the checkpoints were spaces too far apart. One particular one required successfully nailing easily 50 jumps (any of which would have you falling to your death) before it gave you another checkpoint. So, yes, the platforming was a hate--but the hate had more to do with where Naughty Dog placed the checkpoints.

Balancing:
So far I've only done one playthrough, so I can't speak to the difficulty progression, but the default level was (for me) spot-on for a first playthrough. There could have been more (and harder puzzles) but, frankly, I'm glad there wasn't. The combat presented some interesting challenges at times, especially where tactics actually came into play. I wish there were more branching paths. In fact, sometimes the puzzles were solvable strictly because I knew X path was the ONLY way to go.

Would I Do It All Again?
Hell yes! In fact, my wife just got me the sequel for Christmas. If you haven't played it and you have a Playstation 3, go buy it! I'm not sure if it's a long enough experience to be called a system-seller, but it's shaping up to be a great franchise--and a great exclusive for the PS3. 

A new year brings with it a new commitment to this blog. Let's see if that keeps up. . . . But I'm sure my wife will help me, even if she has to promise me cake: