Brendan Doms

Amidst the ridiculing of Nintendo for its name change and the whirl of excitement as E3 brings many surprises, my friends at Olin found a good way to pass the time: DOA3. It's been our main multiplayer game since spring break, and we've converted several new fans over to the glories of Team Ninja. However, when you're playing as Hayabusa and you can't use the trigger, things seem desperately unfair.

So, at the prodding of one of my friends, we did the only thing we could: repair the broken right trigger on an old fatty Duke XBox controller. In hindsight, I really should've taken pictures, but I hope just the news that it can be done will be news enough for anyone interested. If you do care how to do it, it's quite simply really: the failure in our case (and most cases, presumably) was mechanical. The ABS trigger itself fractured (no surprise there, material scientists know that ABS is pretty brittle as plastics go - and as for extended hammering of the part over a period of years...yeah, you'd expect this thing to happen pretty often). The repair consisted of us trying to take out all the parts and epoxy them together - which would've worked, except you can't fit a whole, unbroken trigger back into its place once its out. So, we did something tricky - we purposefully refractured the piece and glued it back together when it was already in place. After a few minutes of drying, the trigger and the controller were back in use, good as new.

As for this blog, my last school commitment is wrapping up tomorrow, so things should be speeding up. There'll be talks about all the E3 news (expect lots of Halo 3 and FFXIII discussion), along with half a dozen reviews I'm in the middle of writing, and a roundup of demos out right now for your try-before-you-buy enjoyment. Additionally, there'll be some layout changes to reflect the additional authors and make commenting more intuitive and more compatible (especially in IE).

Hi. It's been a while. I've been busy with starting a business and working part time on web development. I've also been playing a ton of games over the past week. I really just forgot about the internet and blogging for a while. (I only sign onto facebook about once a month now.) But, I do have something like 7 posts in draft, and I'm planning on making some usability and IE updates to the site when I get the chance (for design upgrades, read: summer). So onto the first of the games I've beaten since writing in this space.

Here's the breakdown: Devil May Cry >> Devil May Cry 3 >> Devil May Cry 2.

Yeah, it fits somewhere in between. Devil May Cry 3 was certainly a fun game, and I guess that's what matters. The story, which as a prequel to the first game in the series focuses on Dante's relationship with his brother Virgil, is somewhat lackluster and uninspiring. The voice acting and script are also below par.

The redeeming factors are the visual style and gameplay. Visually, it's a return to the first game, and it really couldn't be better. Good effects taking place in dark, cramped gothic corridors are just what the doctor ordered. As for gameplay, there's the usual guns and swords (and Dante's inability to block) that are the signature marks of the series. The game is also sufficiently difficult - even on normal - which, like the graphics, is a huge improvement over the second game.

Sadly, the first Devil May Cry still stands alone as a dark and unique action game. If you want to pick up a Devil May Cry game, I'd still recommend that one. But, if you already have and you're a fan of it or action games in general, Devil May Cry 3 is certainly worth picking up for a play through or two. Personally, upon completing it, I was just put in the mood to be playing Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams.

Things are starting to ramp up again. I've invited several guest bloggers to join me, and Justin - formerly of Open Dissent fame - will be joining me as a full time member. There'll be some looks at the 360, specifically centering around Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. And, if you haven't seen it yet, you should check out the demo movie for the Ageia's PhysX chipset on the 360, called Cell Factor - the physics and graphics are simply amazing (I wouldn't be surprised if this gets turned into an actual game a la Unreal Tournament).

And, while I'm talking about the new XBox, the game I most want to try out on it is Capcom's Lost Planet (shown above), which is slated for release in time for the holidays.

The first of these past two weeks that I haven't posted anything (here or on alwaysBETA) can be explained simply by my midterms. I had tons of work to do for class and was also working on a lot of other personal projects. The not so great thing is that I'll have a repeat of that week this next week, when a ton of stuff is due again. But, for now, I'm on spring break, and I'm in Canada. That's right, Canada.

We stopped at Niagara Falls on our way to Toronto, and since then have been exploring the city. We've become vampires by exploring the underground city, learned the science of making beer by touring a micro brewery, and listened to some of Toronto's unsigned local musicians without having to pay anything. It's been a fun break from Massachusetts, school, and all of those electronics I've been so used to. You can look for all the cool locations we've found by checking out my flags on flagr (once I've had the chance to add them).

As for this blog, don't be expecting anything terribly soon. I have a bunch of posts planned, including my review for Devil May Cry 3, but I have to find the time to write them, which probably won't be for at least another week. Until then, eh?

Finally. This game was mostly awful, and just plain retarded at points.

I was thinking about putting it down at around 30 hours, but I decided there couldn't be much left, so I stuck with it. Little did I know that it would not be until another 30 hours later that I would be wrapping up the game. Usually, my biggest complaint is that RPGs nowadays are too short, but this one was way too long. It really just felt like a huge waste of time. I would not recommend this game to anyone.

First, the story doesn't pick up until about 80% of the way through the game, and even when it does, it's still really stupid, predictable, and cliche. The voice acting and cut scene presentation are also the worst I have ever seen in a modern RPG. Characters (who look like they belong on the PSX) take very long pauses between sentences, and often have no mouth movement to go along with their terrible delivery of the dialogue. There's no music in the background during most of these voice scenes, upping the boring level from yawning to napping. You also can't skip the cut scenes by default. The first random one that you come across in the game lasts for about 15 minutes and it has nothing to do with anything. I play RPGs for rich stories that I can't wait to get more of. But Star Ocean was just tedious. I am so glad that it's over.

The gameplay does get more interesting in the later part of the game, but it's really not worth the 45 hours it'll take to get there. There's also this bad mechanic where you can simply walk past normal enemies in any dungeon, which seems convenient, until 5 dungeons later you get to a boss that utterly destroys you because you're 10 levels below where you should be. Then, you'll be purposefully bumping into those enemies you avoided just to get high enough to beat the boss. It's an awkward, lurching way to set up an RPG.

I picked up Star Ocean: Till the End of Time (which is the third installment of the series) because I loved Star Ocean: The Second Story so much. It was one of my favorite PSX RPGs. It had a really cool visual style, engaging story, good characters, and a great leveling/combat system. Till the End of Time retained none of that. Like I said before, I'm just happy that I'm done with it. Finally.

After watching all 35 minutes of the Spore video demo and reading Brian's post about it today, I was reminded why I think that all the recent games Maxis has made (and other Sim games) have just been no good.

Let me start by saying what I like about early Maxis games. The first Sim City, Sim Tower, Sim Ant, they all had this end goal that you were reaching for, at which point you could say that you had "beaten" the game (be it that Megagopolis, Five Star Tower, or the entire backyard and house, respectively). And, while there was this lack of narrative inherent in all Sim games, the aforementioned titles were short and simple enough that you didn't have to put much time or effort in to get a lot out of them. They were fun and entertaining, and that's all a video game has to be.

But when things started getting more complex, the fun and entertainment slowed way down, and the feeling of working ramped up. As early as Sim City 2000 I stopped playing the Maxis Sim games, because it was just too complex. I thought that managing power lines was enough for utility oversight, I didn't want to worry about water pipes as well. When games start to approach real life too much for all the management and overhead that goes into playing them, I back off and stop playing.

The end game also became less clear. To get to wherever I was going (and I often had no clue as to what my final goal was) I had to put in more time and effort into a system that was increasingly complex, and eventually just downright boring.

The Sims is really the peak of this trend. The game is probably the best selling game of all time (if you include the expansion packs), but I absolutely can't stand it. I may be a hardcore gamer, with tolerance for extremely challenging and tedious gameplay, but I have never been able to get through more than 5 minutes of continuous playing with The Sims. I kept asking friends who were playing, "What's the point of this game?" And the answers only ranged from "There really isn't one" to "Just to play and be your person!" Well, to me that's dumb circular thinking. In modern Sim games, like The Sims, and what Spore will be, the point of playing is just to further your existence and make your character or society better. There's no point where you can feel satisfied, where you'll ever be satiated, and worst of all, the complexity of the systems makes playing feel like working.

Lastly, there's still no narrative. If there was ever a game experience killer for me, it's that one. I can see the value of something like RPG Maker as a tool, but it's not really a game, per se. In that same way, The Sims, Spore, Black & White, and most MMORPGs fail to make me want to play them. In fact, I've tried a lot of games like that and never once got hooked.

The point of a good game is that the creators have done the work of the story telling for you, and even if you customize your character and grow along the way, the idea is that you do that to get somewhere. If the point of life was just to be alive and continue living, then why would any of us be here? That'd be so boring, and it'd feel pointless. Besides, I have to work at my life, because I'm trying to grow and tell my own story here in the real world. When I relax with a game, I certainly don't want to have to work at telling the story there too.

The second time through this game impressed me even more. Having completed it again, I find myself constantly comparing it to the Halo 2 single player experience, and finding it much better in most ways.

For starters, the game is gritty, mature, and difficult. Rifles have kick and a single headshot won't penetrate a helmet. This level of difficulty (on the game's highest setting: hard) was what I was looking for in Halo 2 and never found. Of course, Halo 2 lets you drive tanks and flying machines, while Killzone only lets you shoot them down. That and the lack of enemy variety make up my biggest complaints about the game.

The weapons are fun to use, and you have a decent selection to choose from. Killzone also managed to incorporate being able to play as 4 different characters in a way that made sense and was fun (unlike Brute Force). Though, a lack of co-op is another big negative.

Level design late in the game is really where this title shines. The last two or three levels are not only gorgeous (Killzone does snow and mountains absurdly well), but also have the perfect blend between challenge, fun, and pacing for the ending part of the game. It may not be The Maw, but anyone who looks at the final pre-rendered explosion will tell you that it's way more convincing than Halo's in game cut scene ending.

Together, Killzone's pieces form the best PS2 FPS out there, and fairly good FPS for a console. It's not Halo, but it's definitely a step up over Halo 2. I am eagerly anticipating seeing how its sequel holds up (if it ever appears).

Earlier I mentioned Crystal Space, the cool 3D game engine that's open source, OpenGL, and written in C++. I even wrote about it recently on alwaysBeta. The demo for one of the first games made with Crystal Space to be picked up by a publisher, Keepsake, was released recently (you can get it here). I had the chance to play through it today. My impressions follow.

I was expecting big things from this game all around. I guess I want cheap new developers - like the people at Wicked Studios - to put a lot of thought into a game's mechanics and presentation if they don't have a multi-million dollar budget to spend on killer graphics. It just makes sense, like independent films, you would do the things well that you can afford to do well. The sad part is that Keepsake failed to do anything well, be it looks, sounds, gameplay or otherwise.

Graphics

They prerendered almost everything. The backgrounds, any lighting or water, any non-character animations at all were entirely prerendered with a really awful compression. I felt like I was playing Myst again with all its prerendered movies shoved in because computers couldn't handle a live engine. Computers have evolved, but the way Wicked used Crystal Space with this game is just sad. And, as a side effect of all this prerendering, you have no control over any graphics options (even resolution or textures) except for brightness.

Interface/Gameplay

The interface is all symbols and buttons - no words. It does reflect the King's Quest style adventure game feel well, but it's terribly unintuitive. That style also means that the interface to the game is essentially all of the gameplay as well. I wanted to do so many things that I couldn't. They mostly revolved around either waiting for a tool tip popup that never came or trying to use keyboard shortcuts (of which, of course, there are none). The complete abandonment of the keyboard for this mouse only game feels just like the graphics - a step backwards.

Presentation/Acting

The voice acting and character animations are just terrible. I could've put up with the bad graphics and rough interface if the script, story, voice acting, or presentation of the game would've been any good, but none of them were. Maybe Xenosaga has set the bar too high in this catagory, but when I'm being led through a mandatory tutorial by a fat man in a high pitched phony lisping accent, I can't ignore it.

So, I was sorely disappointed by Keepsake. If somebody tells me that its target audience is 4 year olds I'll probably say, "Okay...they may appreciate the asthetic aspects of the game more than me, but I guarantee you that they won't like the story or presentation any better." And that's the sad, cold, hard truth of it all.

An...interesting day. Primary hard drive on my computer fails (it's a 2 and 1/2 year old Western Digital, for those who care). Doom Triangle turns 7. And in the midst of all of it, I find screenshots for two games that I thought I had lost forever.

Starship Troopers:

And the Timeshift Demo (which was approximately 3 minutes long - I kid you not):

I'm just a tad busy, but there'll be more soon. In the meantime, check out how my personal portfolio site is coming along at brendandoms.com and head over to alwaysBETA for the latest in awesome blog craziness.

This is one of the reasons I started this blog: today, slashdot covered a story about a game being banned in Australia because it had painting graffiti as one of its main features, so obviously the Australian government thought it would encourage people to go around the city with spray paint and deface everything.

So, my question to them is, "Why didn't you ban Gone in 60 Seconds or Need For Speed: Underground for encouraging street racing? Or Call of Duty or Saving Private Ryan for encouraging FRIGGIN' WAR? Why? Hmmm?" You know just as well as I do, they won't have a good response.

My theory: books, movies, music, and most other media have gone through the gauntlet. The generations that thought they were evil are either out of power or dead. Video games being new and now very profitable throw them into the public eye quite prominently. So, when family values fundamentalists or something-to-prove politicians see a game that they can silence without much backlash, they do it. This game happened to be just that. They wouldn't silence games like Call of Duty for its violence and war or Need For Speed: Underground for its streetracing because they're backed by publishers with tons of capital (Activision and EA, respectively). And I'm sure some of that money is exchanging hands through lobbyist groups and campaign funding.

Do you honestly think that they actually believe that a game would promote people to do something they weren't already doing in real life? In San Andreas I've sky dived out of helicopter over LA and purposefully not opened the parachute just to see how the physics engine would handle my body hitting the pavement from a high altitude. Am I about to go do that in real life? Or, for that matter, if I'm rewarded for putting graffiti around the streets in a game, am I going to start tearing up the neighborhood with my block letters?

The lesson: censorship is evil. It doesn't matter what form it takes or who's censoring what. Video games will not make anyone do anything they wouldn't already do any more than a book or movie or song would. I bet the leaders who banned this game have watched at least one movie about someone having an affair. Shouldn't they be concerned that it will be the reason for some Australian's infidelities, or even their own?