Cult of the Malformed Fork Posts

I’m pre-ordering the much anticipated Guild Wars 2 in the next month or two.

Everything I’ve seen I like.  From not having to hone my mastery of the Sharpened Stick to a general lack of gear-based progression.

I’m fond of Guild Wars (the first), as I am most games with a unique class system.  In a nutshell, you got a primary class with a function or power that was on all the time.  For a elementally based caster, it was an increased mana pool from which to draw.  This, plus the 3 or 4 other skill paths gives you room for diversification based on your needs or wants from the common toad.  Now, you also got a second class.  In this choice you received access to skills and powers but not the primary identifying special skill of the primary class.

Case in point, mixing Elementalist with Mesmer.  Ranged blasting with debuff and debilitating effects.  Depending on how you twist that it’s either a deep pocket of mana to shell your opponents with maddening slowness and meteor swarms – or – reduced cooldown on your various skills.

There’s an intriguing build in one of the wiki’s devoted to the game on how to lay your points to maximize your ability to drop Meteor’s upon your opponent rapidly.  And the general inspiration for my Mesmer/Elementalist character.

– Guild Wars 2 –

We’re dropping the second class choices, dropping the perpetual gear grind and keeping a host of delightful other options.

I’m pleased as punch they kept Mesmer.  I like how the button bar is setup, use a sword? A line of sword abilities.  Ooh, what’s that, a Mace you say? Well then <puts on Mace> oh snap, the buttons for my sword changed to Mace Powers.

I haven’t played the beta or any special pre-release.  But I’ve watched a few videos, I’ve read the site about sixteen times front to back.  I’m hyped.  But I can’t say much that isn’t already on the site.  I encourage you to check it out.

http://www.guildwars2.com/en/

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I’m in my second serious playthrough of Skyrim having at first made a stab at Lightly Armored Spellsword’ing my way through the game.  It was doable and at level 30 I was having a routine time of exploring tombs, stealing treasure from the inhabitants and mauling dragons.  But it seemed amiss.  And frankly, Magic was just too damned tempting to ignore any longer.

So the second playthrough is pure magic.  I owned a dagger for all of an hour.  I used it once, the frantic swinging and stabbing motions backed by my panicked backpedaling as i watched my mana bar recover enough to put the insistent witch down.  Since then, I sold the dagger and focused on purely magical pursuits.  That being said, i’m a danger to anyone in the room with my paired Chain Lightning whose forks know no selection ability and strike anyone or thing within reach.  Zap, down go the bandits.

I’m amused as the lightning spells carry a little thunder with them.  I swear, it’s a dark day, the sky is clouded and the slight thundering from my powers can suggest a near-time raining.

I spent 20 or 30 minutes on Sunday practicing Illusion via Courage.  Courage is a solid spell which helps one of the NPC’s stand up to whatever issue their running into.  In this case, Heimskr is a political voice against the government that rules Skyrim.  He’s generally alone, standing before the Talos Shrine in Whiterun, your first serious city in the lands you explore.

In general, you can practice skills via usage.  But it takes an event that would needs said skills.  You can’t, say, swing your sword in the air or against a barrel and get better.  No, it’s takes battle.  Destruction spells? Sure, take some shots at a dragon and up you go.

And so it was that I learned that Heimskr needs your help.  He’s alone, rarely he has some of the bored or unemployed people standing before him one or two at a time.  He speaks right, as his issues are our issues.  So it was with great ideals that I gave him the courage to stand there and keep speaking.  For 30 minutes.  Until my magicka would run out and I’d have to let it build up some more.

Not that he needed it, he’s always there and his routine takes about five or so minutes to reset.  But for those 30 minutes, I was supporting a revolution.

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Why didn’t I play this game earlier? What was I thinking?

Someone in my house recently bought SR2 over the weekend and damn.  I enjoyed Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas but I didn’t feel compelled to buy the sequel, GTA IV.  So when it came down to playing a few minutes of Saints Row 2, I was hooked.  Something about it’s open-world “do as you please” design caught my attention.

Saints Row 2 holds your hand for all of ten minutes to get you out of prison where you were in a Coma for years before ‘waking up’.  From here, you’re left with a loose suggestion on what to do next.  But it rewards you for progress.  Do the first mission and rescue your comrade-in-arms and you’ll be rewarded with a Crib where you can stockpile clothes, weapons and cars.  Do the second mission, you have a hangout where your gang lives – homie’s you can recruit to follow you around and provide additional firepower.

Should you feel more mayhem inclined there are many mission points scattered around the map you can visit for objectives like smearing the police or causing massive property damage.  I spent 20 minutes last night standing in an intersection shooting rockets at passing cars all in pursuit of an elusive $500k property damage value.  As if that wasn’t enough you’re also left the option of the Classics: Armed Robbery, Mugging and Carjacking.

Senseless violence and a loose plot makes this a keeper in my library and I eagerly await Saints Row the Third so I can continue the fun.

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This commentary is full of spoilers.  Play the game first, or keep reading – you’ve been warned.

As a chapter in the grand saga that is Dragon Age, part 2 is a solid game and a fine example of linear plot design.  They all but telegraph the problems in this city in the first 10 minutes.  Mages vs Templars.

Now, don’t get me wrong.. the Mages are dangerous.  They can easily be corrupted by creatures from the Fade (this worlds version of an astral plane).  And when corrupted, they’re not some cloth wearing sissy with fireball.  No, now they’re daemonic badasses who take a fair effort to kill.

Don’t worry though, they don’t change at whim, it’s purely by plot which of the mages turn ugly and which of them continue to hurl fiery doom.

And then of course there’s Knight-Commander Meredith who you’re told is running her operation of rooting out renegade mages like a military campaign.  So you don’t actually reach this conclusion until Act 3 and sadly, there’s no way out.  No matter how much you want to deviate from the main plot.  I tried.

It’s sorta sad really, how many excellent story bits they weave into the side quests and the companion elements and yet you have two choices when it comes to the final act.  I’d really have liked to see you and your romantic interest walk off into the sunset.  “Good luck suckers, enjoy your power struggle.”

Worth noting that few choices you make in the early game impact your late game exploits.  I neglected to pursue Fenris’ Companion Quests and so I do his Act 3 quests.

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I will never play Rage.  I do not want to.  I have no desire, not even a modicum of interest.  My exposure ends at 20 minutes of playthrough from Youtube.  TheRadBrad provides an amusing experience, but sadly I must pass on this venture.

I will never buy this game.  Not from discount bin, nor from Greatest Hits Collection.

Thank you ID.  It was fun while it lasted.  But thank you for providing Gearbox some excellent pointers on what not to do.

We shall all learn from your mistake.

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I’m a fan of the genre.  First Person Shooters, that is.  I don’t play them all of course, that would be crazy.  But like fans of cars, they don’t drive them all but they appreciate the technology and labor of love in each one.

So it is with FPS games I feel.  Since launch I’ve been devouring the thunderous glee in it’s elegantly decorated spaces.  Everything I read about the world, all the lore and information and characters I’d come to know from study painted me a picture I can now see in this game.

You play as a named marine, one man of three leading your Brothers across a ruined and wartorn Forgeworld.  That is, a planet that builds things.  Large things, small things.  All it does is build, it’s population the builders.  Among these ruins you shoot orks, greenskins, Xenos.  And you shoot a lot of them.  Unless… yes, unless you prefer the weapon always and easily at your disposal.  I right-click and it swings, I keep clicking and a path of blood is painted before me, my enemy cut down.

I lost myself in the first chapter.  I cut nearly everything.  It was the obligatory map segments where snipers took shots that I deviated and pulled out my own powerful gun.  And it boomed.  Bolter-fire is a glorious thing.  The characters are modeled well, the animations are superb.  The colours are as I would imagine them to be.  Nothing about this makes me utter a negative word.

Though.. at one point I did look up.  I’m -sorry- it was quiet and I got distracted.   The sky was a simple matte painting of some swashed colours.  I could have asked for a bit more, but with so much of your action happening within tall walls and narrow passages, i’m not surprised they cut that corner.  I think I would have too.

The story campaign is brief, as is expected.  It’s a brutal violent game that rewards violence with more violence.  When all is said and done the campaign takes something in the order of 8 hours to complete.  I’m comfortable with that, most FPS games deliver a solid multiplayer to balance a light single-player and Space Marine delivers.

Supposedly in October there’ll be a co-op “You against the horde” option.  I’m eagerly awaiting it, nothing makes a game more fun than a few good friends.  For now, it’s me, this bolter and an excellently engineered multiplayer.

http://www.spacemarine.com/

 

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I’m an adventurer at heart.  A seeker of hidden glories, of lost temples.  And so I plundered the depths not once, not twice but seven or eight times since picking up Minecraft a year ago.  I’m not a builder, but I respect their ilk.  I’m not a designer, but I salute them.  I’m a searcher, a finder and explorer.  When what’s beneath the surface loses my interest, I rove the lands seeking new inlets to the subterranean wonders.

Minecraft is a simple game of block’s, crafting and mining.  A game made more enjoyable when you play with others.

And so it happened, on Thursday evening as I fired up MC for a little dig and build.  My gf’s brother asked about it and seemed interested and so I let him have it.  Guiding his hand and instructing him on the tenets of Minecraft.

1) Never dig straight up

2) Never dig straight down

While this is happening something changed in my gf.  Once of the “Trees don’t fall, that’s stupid, I’ll never play” faction, she defected to “I wanna play too” team and soon joined us as we all three sat around playing MC for several hours.  It didn’t take long for me to find the server code and start a multiplayer game.

And so our first night was spent running from monsters and waiting for the morning.  The second night was much more productive.

In this experience I learned two important rules.

1) All things are more fun with people.

2) Creepers still suck.

And with that I leave you to ponder my words and perhaps explore a little mining of your own.

www.minecraft.net

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It is our enemy, our foe.  It confounds us and challenges us at every turn.  We have too much, too little and that’s usually too often.

Time features in a number of games as a key element.  But less in a traditional “30 seconds to complete your turn speed-chess” style and more in a serious Story Key Element.  To this end, I present three contenders for Time notation.

Braid

Half-Minute Hero

No Time to Explain

Our first contender, Braid, I haven’t played.  But I’ve spoken at length with a friend who has, a man whom I’m recruiting to bring his perspective and understanding of television and movie to our walls.  More on that later.

Braid uses time as a storytelling piece, suggesting a layout of linear ideas that may not be exactly what you just witnessed and.  It lets you save and reload sequences of time while actions occur around you, timing exactly when you fall through those clouds for instance.  I’ve heard numerous good things about this game from various sources.

http://www.braid-game.com/

Half-Minute Hero is a twist in a different direction.  Taking the style of many 16-bit adventure games from days of yore, we see time not as a storytelling tool but as a villainous foe we can only hope to negotiate with.  You have to quest about the land, earn exp and items on your quest.  You can reset this 30-second clock at shrines, but this will cost you precious gold which you’ll need to better gear yourself.  There’s various flavors of this style, in one you’re the princess with her cadre of guards, another the Evil Mage setting yourself for victory.  Of this, I have heard very little, but i’m keenly interested to try.

http://www.halfminutehero.com/

No Time to Explain is a tongue-in-cheak dash at flash gaming.  A venue i’m loathe to enter, but one that i do enjoy on occasion.  The game starts itself as your future self shows up, jumpsuit and blaster equipped “There’s no Time to Explain!” before being grabbed by a space-alien sized Crab which then parades across a difficult map that challenges your timing and skill.  And then, it happens all over again, but better.  A funny game, I recommend at least 10 or 20 minutes of your time to see it in action.

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/558562

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