Blog Posts For The Post-Posting Challenged: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Pictured Above: Link feels a tad threatened, while the emaciated shopkeep shows off his wares.

     Its like, “that’s not what’s happening in that picture…” Anyway, for those of you who have taken to a lifestyle of monasticism, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is welcoming itself to stores in North America on Nov. 20. Yes, that is tomorrow. Yes, I will probably get no sleep tonight. Let’s not make my sleep habits our focus, however. Let me tell you what I know about this game, and why any person with an inkling of a tendency to play video games should dive into this adventure. *takes a deep breath*

     Hmmm, perhaps I inhaled too deeply.

Skyward Sword(abbreviated hereon as SS) was initially announced at E3 2010. What wasn’t announced was that Nintendo had been working on SS since the months directly preceding the release of Twilight Princess back in 2006. Now, in 2011, Nintendo has put 5 years of effort into this game. By their own telling, SS is the “biggest Zelda to date”, with a team of over 100 (count ‘em) people working on the title. Nintendo has put an effort into refining what makes their flagship franchise special- but they’ve come back from that effort with a shocking  new control scheme that has left most (*coughcoughTOMMCSHEAcough*") reviewers dazzled. However, as one would expect, the team at Nintendo overhauled much more than the control scheme- the entire process of playing Zelda has been streamlined, and, more importantly, rethought. Gone is the progression that you could follow in your sleep. The puzzles, typically reserved for dungeons, have bled into the overworld- thought it should be said that the line between overworld and dungeon has been blurred.

     Let’s pay a tad of attention to the control scheme. I’ve embedded a video that should lay bare the ease of the motion control here. There is a duality to the controls- it has a sense of depth, but yet remains fairly simple- you simply choose the direction to swing your sword. Of course, there are a few special moves, but most of the combat revolves around finding the weakness in your enemies defenses, and exploiting it. Well, that and trying to stay alive. The rest of the controls exhibit this same level of pleasure and simplicity.

     I could go on. I’ve been following this title closely for months now, and I’m more than excited to finally get my hands on it tomorrow. I could talk about the music, the art direction, the story that has apparently moved players to tears- but I think I’ll just let the game speak for itself tomorrow. If you have a Wii, you owe it to your neglected system to buy yourself a copy of Skyward Sword, and find out why Nintendo pushed for motion control all those years ago.

Also: This morning I stumbled across a talented musical artist, who I will likely do a bigger post relating to soon. This link will take you to his most recent work. Impressive.

Have a great day!

How to Make Duke Nukem relevant to the Human Condition

There is an Alien Life Form inside Me

I like to think of myself has having a basic grasp on human emotion and empathy. Part of what I love and keeps me going back to books and videogames is the major empathy trips that come with completely seeing the world, or a world, through another person's eyes. Books and to a greater extent videogames not only entertain us but teach us about ourselves. Despite events taking place through the eyes of Gordon Freeman, Link, or John/Jane Shepherd, very rarely will events be recalled other then: "I defeated Gannon and saved Highrule," "I defeated the combine and freed mankind from the alien dominion," "I found the reaper conspiracy and saved the galaxy." Interactivity makes videogames profoundly more about discovering things about ourselves. As opposed to books where we can feel the emotional tension along with the characters but rarely do we personalize them because the actions in books are not our actions. Nothing confused me more than the radical switch in tone that I was subjected to in Duke Nukem forever, despite the fact that I was expecting it.

There are two bimbos on the cover and advertising for DNF (you are supposed to yell all caps letters ALWAYS IN YOUR HEAD) I'm sure they're smart girls they were just in a bobbly mood WHEN THE ALIENS INVADED. But I still formed a certain kind of like for them. It seems they are doing community service or volunteer work humoring a brain damaged war vet. Before playing the game I was reading a review of DNF and in it explained that these two selfless girls die in the game to no concern of Duke at all! Though to the credit of Dukey, the article claimed that not only are the two woman kidnapped, imprisoned, and are infested with alien larva, but on top of all that actually frightening stuff that they blocked a doorway and the only way for you to proceed is to shoot them. Which, on a purely will of the player/will of the character/story expressed in gameplay reasoning REALLY PISSED ME OFF. I don't want to shoot woman that for all intenseive purposes have been raped. This made me so angry that I did not honor my preorder and did not buy the game.

To the games credit, and my disappointment in the article I read, Duke cannot shoot the girls. It is actually impossible to shoot them, instead you have to wait listening to their unanswered questions to reach the point where there words are stifled in their throats and the diminutive aliens attack you from their minced corpses. Alternatively, you can dick around the room because you found a trampoline and not notice the doorway twins popped. How’s that for will of the player shining through? The best things to come out of the whole experience, that is to say better then whatever DNF set out to do, my thoughts where dawn to a deeper understanding of aliens as a metaphor and rape.

Conceptually, I think that aliens are a very adept metaphor for rape. Rhetorical question, what accounts from real people usually say? They are in a familiar but secluded place. Strange lights appear in the sky, but what threat could lights in the sky be? Then lights surround the abductee. Then float. Gravity our constant anchor is gone leaving them powerless. The person is stunned and confused. They find themselves naked and vulnerable as if powerless was not enough. And all they can do is watch as they are embarrassed, used, and probed.

The aliens come to earth unopposed. Humanity doubts their threat. Then they make their attack and all resistance is quelled almost immediately. Any able bodied males where killed with little effort. Women are teleported away in literal blinks of light. The woman are stripped and restrained in an unfamiliar place they are powerless to stop the aliens from defiling their bodies with alien life forms.

This is the point where the game drops the ball where I am concerned. All the women, that the aliens take, die. Duke Nukem saves no one. Think of how powerful a motivator it would be if one of the twins survives, with the loss of a leg or the use of her legs, the loss of her career being a singer/dancer, loss of a chance of desire and ability for physical intimacy and the loss of her twin sister. The emotional force of a character like that would be incredible. Not only for Dukes motivation for revenge but coupled with hope. I would argue that DNF does not have a story because there is no character growth. Every character is unrepentantly stuck in their single trait. Being stuck in one trait means no change. NO change means; no growth.

As much I hate rape I see no reason why it cannot be a serious theme in a game. There are rape simulators, why not being raped? It is foreign? It won’t happen to anyone you know or meet? How about because it wouldn't be fun? Honestly at this point of reading you have metal and I should cut you more credit. The purpose of such a game would be empathy. Rape is serious and horrible. It is terrible and not a fantasy or a joke.

Bringing it back to Duke Nukem. Imagine how powerfully a sequel would be devoid of duke Nukem. Instead we are put in the perspective of a woman whom was taken by the aliens in the previous invasion. As a cruel twist the aliens’ insemination not only strains the host near death but also triggers a huge influx of hormones to feed the parasites. Hormones trigger complete consciousness of the host, adrenaline keeping their minds racing that they dwell on every detail and remember it. She survives only by mutilating herself to purge the glowing parasites from her body. Years later, when the aliens return, she has renewed pain in her scars and continues to deal with postpartum depression. She arms herself as she feels completely alone. Men and the army failed to protect her the first time. She must fight her ghosts, flashbacks, physical pain, and selfishness to help others and find hope for the future.

Duke Nukem was a huge disappointment for everyone. It was not 12 years of game. It was fun at times but over all distasteful and stupid. If we are going to make brash games lets make games that make learn about ourselves under the worst situations and give us hope in our everyday problems. If Duke cannot change let's have the emotion for the story be carried by a companion. If there is going to be terrible subject matter of force impregnation and hopelessness, let us not skirt over it. Let us let duke shut is mouth and let the player reactions do the talking. If we are stuck viewing the world through our own eyes, lets find a way learn to empathize through the mediums given us. Lets skip the rape and abortion jokes and make us feel the repercussions and tragedies of those actions.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim- Real Fantasy: Not An Oxymoron, After All!

 

     “Is anyone else as absurdly excited as I am about this game?” Seems a difficult question to answer these days. Gamestats.com’s Top 10 Most Popular list puts Skyrim at #8. Their Xbox 360 list ranks it at #3, as does their list for the PC, but the PS3 lags far behind at #24. How odd. Skyrim doesn’t even rank in Gamespot’s Most Popular list.

     What on earth is going on? Has anyone even watched this?

Remember Oblivion? After this, you won’t.

 

     It hasn’t been the topic of much discussion, but I’ve noticed the most in these videos is the striking difference in animation quality. Characters move across the ground with real, convincing weight and strides, the action has finally surpassed the robotic rhythm of Morrowind and Oblivion, and even more telling, the fighting is much more interactive and dynamic. I’m thrilled to see that damage looks less like an algebraic equation and more like physics. Everything feels so organic! Heck, I’ll even embed a video of Oblivion for a comparison:

Gotcha! Okay, but really, this spoof is spot on.

     Physics-bashing aside, it is great to see the Elder Scrolls series continuing the standard of excellence it has achieved. Some new elements to note:

• The inclusion of dragons, in case you hadn’t noticed.
• Dragon Shouts! Watch the gameplay video carefully- when the Dragonborn shouts, there’s an actual aura. Apparently it inflicts damage. KEWL
• Real sneak attacks. We’re not talking robotically stabbing an enemy in the back and watching him groan and fall over like a felled tree- throat slices!  

      Well, that’s all I have to gush about at the moment. Let’s all look forward to killing the Adoring Fan over and over! …Oh, and some dragons.

Thoughts on Narratives

Ever since games moved past the pure skill and guts stage of Contra and the story in games has become increasingly more important. Many times games are even graded down for having a shallow storyline. Some critics may be too hard for expectantly more than two dimensional characters out of every game. Typical stories in video games only serve as an excuse to kill things, jump around on platforms, and solve puzzles. Tetris Plus' story was a professor and his hot anime assistant are trapped in crypt and need to solve puzzles to survive and that’s all it needs, actually, it might have been a little too much story. Not every game is going to have witty dialog and real feeling characters like clerks or anything written by Woody Allen.

This being said, games that focus on story better blood well have good ones. Stories do have rules that need to be fallowed in order to qualify. Plot usually accompanied by a theme or several overtone themes. The plot is what happens. The Animaniacs, as the theme song announces, is about crazy siblings escaping from a water tower. Themes sublet and not so subtle are messages and ideas in the plot that are related to the genre of the story. Genre is the job class of movies and can be predictable because they fit the genre archetype. It isn't a horrible thing, being predictable. In Shakespeare's plays he gave away they end in the opening lines and if that wasn't enough constantly foreshadowed the ending. Tragedy, the protagonist dies-sad. Comedy, everyone gets married- happy mood, any sadness or discomfort from of a character is funny. Drama, about personal character conflict heavy handed with emotion- the mood is usually messy. Good stories have complex characters; they are not completely good, evil, smart, stupid, or any extreme. Like in DnD stats the idea is balance. A story can get away with a larger-than-life character if there is a huge glaring weakness. Superman is not a balanced and could only become balanced if his weakness was something more than magical items and kryptonite. The phrases cookie cutter or two dimensional (that I've used) mean that the character balance is stereotypical or there is no balance like the big strong character that is stupid. The protagonist, often referred to as the hero,

Enough of my expectations, to the point of Grand Theft Auto, The first game was focused on the sandbox. Do what you want and the character won't object because he is a mute pipit to your desires. This worked because in order have an character do the crap that we do in GTA they would have to have almost no character like cloud from GTA3, be a egotistical maniac like in Tommy Verceti, be deprived and conditioned like CJ, or be really Fscked up like Niko.

Sparkly Retro Magic: Part 2

 

Touching back on my previous post, I'd like to summarize what made Mega Man 2 so great. Just like any good story, a video game requires pacing to keep the player interested. Given the limitations of that era's technology, the Mega Man franchise on the NES excelled in continuously interesting the player with new abilities and not revealing too much at any given time. Generally the player was given a single new ability after defeating each level. Of course, there were other ways of pacing the game to reveal just enough at any given point in time, but for a game like Mega Man that had separate levels within a menu structure, a new ability per level was a natural way to maintain player interest.

     Mega Man 2 was also one of the earlier games to exhibit non-linear game progression. As mentioned before, the player was given a variety of levels to choose from in any order they wished. However, defeating a certain boss was usually easier using a certain weapon they were weak against. Navigating levels in Mega Man was not unlike a puzzle- trying different combinations to find the path of least resistance. There is a surprising amount of dpeth to be found in this simplistic structure.

    

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is one of the finest classic examples of fantastic pacing. However the structure is far removed from games like Mega Man. Whereas Mega Man gave you a level menu to choose and rewards you based upon your completion of that level, Zelda gave you an open world- you rely totally on your own exploration skills to find new items and progress. I suppose, in that sense, it is not best to refer to the game's progression as "pacing"- because in reality, the game waits for you to make the decision to progress. A Link to the Past is in my opinion, one of the best Zelda games- because it is a full world, so to speak. At every turn there is new content to interest and engage the player, each new item or event complimenting his overall quest. It never feels broken or disjointed. Rather, the game is an uninterrupted whole from beginning to end in a single, expertly interwoven story. Unless, of course, you can't complete a quest- then you'll run around frantically like a bee with no hive and eventually regress into controller-flinging rage. The temper tantrums are your OCD's fault, though, not Zelda's.

On a related note, is it kosher for me to insult my reader? Oh well, too late.

     If you're interested in purchasing a copy of either of these games, you can find both Mega Man 2 and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past on the Wii's Virtual Console. If you're cool, you can also find them on their original consoles.

Favorite Things of the Week!

     Since I’ve responded to most of my entertainment in a negative fashion this week, I’ve decided to spend a little time dabbling in the lighter side of affairs. What did I waste my time on this week that made me smile or giggle with glee? Against your will, you’re about to find out.

Let’s approach this topically, shall we?

1. Music


     You know what I love? The Metal. You know what I love even more? Metal that makes you light-hearted and giddy. Not possible, you say? Never heard of such a thing, you say? Well, that would be because you have never listened to video game metal. That’s right. Here are my picks for this week. playlist.com should assist you if you desire to listen to these tracks, just enter the name of the track into the playlist search bar, and you can sample the crunchiness.

Mario/Zelda Medley by Super Mario Bros./Legend of Zelda

      Unfortunately, I couldn’t find where this track originated from. Oh well, I’m not worrying about it, so you don’t have to. Just enjoy the thick, heavy guitar with the mario sound effects. If that doesn’t make you chuckle/rock out, then there’s no way we can ever be friends. I wasn’t as impressed with the LoZ guitar melody, but trust me, if you peruse rock renditions online, by comparison this track still has top-tier guitar work.

Storm Eagle X Mix by wiltedroses


     If you haven’t played Megaman X for SNES, shame on you. Assuming you’re not home, go home, repent in sackcloth and ashes, fast for three days and three nights. After that, don’t return to your house until you are clutching a SNES and a copy of Megaman X in your clammy grasp. This is solid platforming action. Megaman has never been better/harder. Likewise, the music is fresh, a thicker, fuller approach to the squealy speed of Rockman’s NES incarnations. Yes, it’s still fast, but now with more soul. Wiltedrose’s mix exemplifies this fact, giving new life to 16-bit sound. I like how wiltedroses sticks to the source material except where it is warranted. A little guitar solo interpretation never hurt anyone. Okay, it hurt a little, but I made sure my face didn’t melt on the carpet.

I Thought the Seventies Were For Spacey Rock?


     The bands Styx and Journey had a child. Once that child hit his angry adolescent years, he listened to Nu-Metal. His name is Fair To Midland. This band steals my heart every time with it’s unique and varied sound. I can’t tell whether I’m listening to Johanne Sebastian Bach, Muse, or Incubus. Seriously. It’s that good. What? You don’t think that sounds good?

Go listen to these three tracks, and see if you can’t appreciate some of their pleasing keyboard lines, riskily high vocals, and full but clean guitar riffs. Also, note the variance in the track intros and track progression.

Kyra Cries Cologne
Tall Tales Taste Like Sour Grapes
Walls of Jericho


    My work is done here.

2. Video Games


     Battlefield: Bad Company 2



     Rewarding unlocks. Sharp graphics. Chaotic but tight gameplay. A destruction system that is both convincing and dangerous, in terms of gameplay. What are these descriptions referring to? No, not Hello Kitty Roller Rescue for Gamecube. I’ll give you a hint: it might be in the paragraph title. BFBC2 is the most fun I’ve had in an online multiplayer FPS since… well, Halo 3, but that’s because I’m a Halo nerd. Best moment of my BFBC2 career: booby-trapping our team’s bomb with C4 and hiding nearby, then detonating it when the enemy team comes rushing into the building. A suicide by building destruction, a double kill and a defensive kill later, I had a smile on my face that could only convey thing: I just killed myself and walked away with several hundred points and an exploded building. I- am a man.
     *sips coffee*

3. Movies


     No movies were my favorite this week. You fail, Hollywood. Iron Man 2 does look promising, though… here’s looking to the future.
   Look! The future! … Always sneaking up on me…

Rock, Hell, and Video Games: Part 2

And you thought this was going to be social ethics.

     Oh well, talking about a game featuring iconic sci-fi characters is more fun, anyway. I gotta say, the concept of this game is an exciting one. Who could pass up the chance to play as an alien or a predator? Apparently, not as many people as reviewers would’ve liked. While big name video game sites like Gamespot or 1up gave AvP fair to middlin’ scores or worse, VGChartz shows that Rebellion’s Alien Vs. Predator for Xbox 360 is #5 in the Worldwide Top 10, while the PS3 version clocked in at #8. Not too shabby for an average game. While I haven’t had the luck to play the full version of the game, I did spend some quality time with the multiplayer demo, which I will be reviewing.

It’s All a Matter Of Patience.


     It’s funny, if I would’ve played the multiplayer demo for five minutes, I probably would’ve agreed with the majority of professional reviewers. The game seemed unbalanced. While I dominated playing as an Alien, playing as the Marine was an exercise in self-control. I died so often and such a lack of warning that I couldn’t decide between uncontrollably sobbing (see below image)

or banging my head against a nearby keyboard until I expired (see below image)

Ooh, that was violent. *giggles*
The Predator reduced me to cheap tactics, since all I had available to me at spawn was his melee blades. I’m not pleased to admit that I camped with the cloak in order to secure kills the first few rounds. Oh, the shame…

The Good


     However, after a couple awkward matches of learning control basics, I observed a few details that made me feel less concerned about the balancing of the classes. The Marine, which many would refer to as the fodder of the game, is actually a great class. I won two rounds after mastering how to shoot, since the default assault rifle and the shotgun are both absurdly powerful. While starting with melee only as the Predator, I soon discovered that the reason for this was that his powerups were killtacular. Helmet mounted tri-laser is the best thing since the spartan laser. Yeah, I’m into lasers. Surprisingly enough, I didn’t encounter any issues with the wall-climbing for the Alien. It was smooth and fluid- but then, I didn’t go searching out odd angles that looked like they would confuse the game’s mechanics. Perhaps I should be more thorough.

The Bad


Remember when I talked about my concerns about Halo Reach’s Assassinations? A prime example of why those aren’t going to work well is AvP’s multiplayer. The Predator and the Alien both have instant kill buttons that initiate an automated sequence where you gut your enemy in a variety of delightful ways. As fun as it is to watch, it’s deadly for you if an enemy is nearby. “ What’s that, Mr. Predator? Oh, you want me to shoot you with 4 shotgun shells in the back while you decapitate some other Marine? Why thank you, I do believe I shall take you up on your offer.” There is no crouch option for any of the classes in the demo. Hiding behind cover is now nearly impossible. Many thanks for all the wasted respawns, Rebellion.

To Conclude


Multiplayer is pretty good fun. There’s more balance to the game than you think. There are certainly design flaws for every class, and many of the mechanics are experimental. Give Halo a break, and try a few rounds of AvP to break the monotony. With a little patience, it’s a rewarding alternative. The worst thing that will happen is that you’ll watch yourself be impaled by a Xenomorph repeatedly, and, let’s face it, that’s what made watching the movies fun.

Halo Reach Multiplayer: Wow! AwesomeCrap I'm Dead.

You want shiny video, yes? Click here.

So how about that Halo Reach Beta trailer up on Xbox Live? It looks shiny, it looks fast and fluid in terms of animation, and the lighting is more on par with ODST, as one could surmise. But what I took away from the trailer is that Bungie is focusing heavily on making this game cool. There were a lot of wow moments. Not like, "Oh, wow, that was a good sticky onto that guy's bum" kind of good, but more related to some key mechanics.

#1. Assassinations.

At first, I was impressed. I mean, it looks cool, right? punching an opponent in the gut to incapacitate him looks a little more visceral than the standard melee attack which, to be honest, doesn't always even connect. Here's an attack that's a surefire way to PWN your enemy when you've got the drop on him.

Here's the problem (cue Toccata and Fugue in D Minor).

>_>

Why the Sangheili would I want to take 5 seconds to dispatch an enemy with an animation that renders me defenseless? Once you put use it in the heat of a frenzied struggle, I doubt it would retain it's wow factor. There might be a "FRGNSNXNFAGN" factor, maybe, as you throw your 45$ limited edition red 360 controller across the room, but not wow. Picture this- You run into a room that's filled with a mass of opposing team (shut up grammar police). They're facing the opposite door. If there's one within reach, you'll want to assassinate his face. So you hit B and proceed to thrash him from behind with a series of punches in his soft, tender, vital parts. This makes you very self-satisfied, until his teammate's team damage indicator goes off like a roman candle. So while you're happily pummeling him into submission, they leisurely stroll over and say "Oy, What's all this then?" To which you reply "FRGNSNXNFAGN" and then you die rather inglouriously and are most likely teabagged or stuck after you have already perished. So, moral of the story is, let's hope and pray that the assassination is optional (which would then make it superfluous and no one would end up using it, because melee assassinations would be faster and more efficient) or, better yet, include SOME sort of mechanic within that attack that allows you to keep your head while performing it. Maybe speed up the animation a bit? I don't know. I don't claim to know, I just know what's crap about the idea.

#2. Rolling

"Liek, ohmahgawd! They should, like, totally have a roll move where you can get of the way of bullets and stuff." Somewhere in Bungie, a developer fell prey to either the drunk chick at the company party or his wife. Why? It's not because the roll isn't an improvement to a lackluster movement set, because it is, and you'll probably see me rolling Link-style though all the maps to save my skin and annoy the crap out of all the other players. No, it's because no one has even included sprint in a Halo title yet. You're stacking your Legos wrong, Bungie. You're baking your biscuits wrong (I've got more metaphors, really, I do). First sprint, then roll. Unless they plan to ignore all physics, a roll will disable your ability to shoot briefly, as well as your equilibrium. Again, it looks cool! I know it does, and you're going to feel satisfied when you dodge a shot and kill your opponent who is flailing madly in front of his LCD trying to waste you. The bad news is, that'll likely happen 1 out of 10 times. The other nine, you'll be punching whoever is nearby and hoping they're Bungie's voodoo doll. If you include a sprint, that would almost eliminate the need for a roll, and it wouldn't be as disorienting.

#3. Jetpacks

I can't think of any reason to gripe about the jetpack idea- maybe I'm just not original enough. Really, that's cool- Adding a vertical aspect your standard running-around-shooting-guys-on-teh-grounds-or-in-teh-vehiculars will be entertaining, to say the least. It'll take some re-learning, but I'm sure I won't find once I'm up on high felling my enemies. I haven't seen a ton of the mechanics, though- hopefully the disadvantage to being in a jetpack is well balanced.

#3. TANK TURRET

W00t! I gotta say, props to Bungie for making the tank a tad more vulnerable. Now I can actually feel like I'm accomplishing something when I start emptying my BR on the tank because that's all I have. If you don't know what I'm talking about, watch the vid. The turret machine gun operator is now totally visible. That means you'll at least be able to take out one source of endless irritation for your team without extra trouble. Less invincibilty for the tank=less vehicle whorage. I'm all for that.

#4-

Well, that's about it. To be honest, the issues I could spot are easily fixable, and not game killing to begin with. What was good was very, VERY good. Now, I have some Constant Comment Orange Tea to vanquish, and then, after that, I'll proceed to vanquish my paycheck with my out-of-control spending. I love my life.