#in general though a lot of my old art is very HEAVY for this PC to load still... for some reason. A lot of pieces I want to revisit and red

[katzirra]

Every so often I gently touch my screen when I scroll past my Eva prints PSDs and the WIPs I have...

I'm going to redo them like 70% but those backgrounds, and the units themselves were so GOOD. The kids just look like hot trash to me now LMAO... and the flowers need some TLC....

But like god my computer has a fucking SHIT FIT if I try to load them....

I WAS COOKIN'????

I THINK ABOUT THE SHADING ON UNIT 02 a LOT, BUT ALSO MY ARTISTIC FAILINGS OF ANGLES I COULD IMPROVE ON NOW. The fact I was redoing this and my PC shut down and that's why the right side isn't fixed :))

My ass had both a yellow and BLUE PLANNED FOR GIRLLY GIRL...

I COULD DO YOU ALL FASTER, BETTER, AND NICER IN CLIP STUDIO NOW... I could JUGGLE YOU BETWEEN PHOTOSHOP AND CLIP STUDIO SO WELL NOW... THE TEXTURES I COULD ACCOMPLISH, THE WORK FLOW I HAVE NOW??? OUGH.

UGH.

It's yearning hours, because my PC is currently still trying to save layer files on a commission piece, and it's lagging my mouse because it's apparently confused what USB ports are.

[felassan]

Mass Effect development insights and highlights from Bioware: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development

This is the Mass Effect version of this post.

[In case you can’t read it the subtitle in the bottom left logo above is “Guardians of the Citadel”]

Note: Drug use is mentioned.

Cut for length.

Mass Effect 1

ME began its life in a vision document in fall 2003

Codenamed “SFX”

Conceived of by Casey Hudson and a core team from KotOR. Its genesis was the intention to create an epic sci-fi RPG in an original setting that BioWare owned (so they could have full creative control), and in a setting that was conceived of first and foremost as a video game

Initially players could control any squadmate, but they wanted it to be about Shep and for players to be focused on Shep being a battlefield commander, rather than on switching bodies

By the start of 2004 its story was shaping up. Initially humans landed on Mars in 2250 and discovered evidence of an ancient alien race and a powerful substance, Black Sand, which rapidly advanced tech to the point that FTL travel was possible. (My note: obviously now the Prothean artifacts on Mars & associated mass effect force tech enabled this in the final canon, but I wonder if aspects of the ‘Black Sand’ naming-type & powerful substance stuff was rolled into red sand from final canon) Humans were suddenly capable of travel to multiple star systems and made contact with a multitude of other species. At the start of the first game, these species together with humans had a fragile peace, with focus placed on the political center of the galaxy, a hub known as Star City, later renamed the Citadel

Multiplayer was a vision for the series as far back as 2003. The plan was for ME1, an Xbox exclusive at launch, to take advantage of the platform’s online components. Early designs saw players meeting in one of the central hubs to interact and trade items in their otherwise SP adventures

By 2006 it had the name ME and the story was more specific, with the theme of conflict between organic and synthetic lifeforms. The story’s scope now stretched across 3 games and included scope for full co-op MP

They tried to do MP in every game, discussing it from the get-go, but it always just fell by the wayside. “When you’re trying to build something that is a new IP, on a new platform, with a new engine, you’ve got to really focus on the core elements of the game.” 

The conversation system prototype was made in Jade Empire, and some of ME’s earliest writing was done in an old JE build. At first there was no conversation wheel. Paragon was “Friendly” and Renegade “Hostile”. In the prototype Shep was a silent unnamed Spectre. Many conversations in the prototype about the player’s choice in smuggling a weapon through Noveria made it into the game

In said prototype a merchant referred to themselves as “this one”, though the word hanar never appeared. The PC in it also had the option to end a conversation with “I should go”. In the prototype also, Harkin was voiced by Mark Meer

An early version of the Mako got used as the krogan truck in ME2

Early concepts of the Citadel were drawn in pencil by CH. A piece of concept art of its final design was painted based on a photo of a sculpture near Aswan, Egypt

As with any new IP naming it was a struggle. They put out a call to all staff for ideas, did polls, made a name generator that combined words that they liked in random ways and made pretend logos of ones they liked in Photoshop to see if they could make themselves love the name or find visual potential in it. (Some of these names are in the pic at the top of this post.) CH liked “Unearthed” as it was a reference to Prothean ruins dug up on Mars and humanity’s ascendance going away from Earth. They knew the game would have a central space station featuring prominently so some of the ideas were based on that - “The Citadel”, “The Optigon”, “The Oculon”. “Element” was another one they had in mind due to the rare substance in the game 

CH: “I was a big fan of John Harris’ book Mass, which had epic-scaled sci-fi ideas, so that was a word that came up often. Many of the names came from the idea that the IP featured a fifth fundamental physical force (in addition to the known four of gravitational, electromagnetic, strong nuclear and weak nuclear) so the word ‘effect’ came up pretty often.” Ultimately none of the ideas really felt right. One Monday morning they were going over the names and Greg Zeschuk said he had an idea on the weekend: “Mass Effect!” CH: “I said, ‘I don’t hate it’, which in the naming process is a high compliment. And it stuck!”

CH on Shep’s Prothean vision from the beacon: “It was hard to imagine how we would do this. CG was - and is - really expensive. Instead I wanted to try doing it through photography and video editing. So I went to a local grocery store and bought a few packages of the weirdest looking meat that I could find. Then I set up a little photoshoot in my basement, complete with some electronics parts and some red wine for juicyness.” He used these props to create a video sequence where the photos were rapidly cycled and blurred, along with production paintings, to create the scary vision an organic/machine experiment on the Protheans. These mashups were also used as inspiration for concept artists and level designers who were working on these themes

Tali used to be called Talsi

On the licensing side they often joke that they’re licensing N7 not “Mass Effect” due to N7′s popularity

There was a confidential internal guide to the IP in 2007 to help devs along and summarize/synthesize the vision etc. Some excerpts from it are shown in the book and this is the first time the public have ever seen them

Early versions of Asari had hair

Asari were designed as a nod to classic TV sci-fi (with human actors wearing obvious makeup and prosthetics to play aliens)

The turian design guideline was “we want them to be birds of prey”. They also wanted a range of alien types, some close to human like Asari, while others were to be a lot further away, like turians

BioWare patented the conversation wheel, which was a first for them. CH had been frustrated with reviews of Jade Empire that said that the actioncentric game was too wordy [with its list dialogue]. “I’m like, story is words. [...] What is it about our games that is making people feel like they’re wordy?” Then he thought “In a game you kind of need to feel like you’re continuing to play it. Maybe you should continue feeling like you’re playing it actively into the dialogue.” “[The wheel] kind of gave a new experience with dialogue when you did start to react based on emotion, and that’s ultimately what we’re trying to bring out in our games”

The original krogan concept was based on a bat “with a really wide squidgy face. We just used its face on top of this weird body and it kinda worked”

Geth musculature was based on fiber-optic cables, with flexible plates of armor attached

The vision for the IP was 80s sci-fi inspired space opera

The concept art of Saren lifting Shep by the throat inspired a similar scene in-game. The staging wasn’t planned til designers saw that art

A squadmate with Shepard on the way to meet Ash in an old storyboard was called Carter. Early name of Kaidan or Jenkins?

Bono from U2 was kinda instrumental in bringing us ME lol

Finding the right cover art for ME1 was notably tricky

Matt Rhodes got his start drawing helmets for ME1, including one which would become Shep’s “second face”. He estimates he drew between 250-270 different ones

Some of the sounds in-game were people smashing watermelons with sledgehammers and sticking fists into various goos

The audio team had fun trying to slip the iconic main theme into unexpected places throughout the MET. “We were very aware of how powerful that track was for the fans and it was tempting to overuse it for any moment we wanted to make really emotional”.

The theme was creatively repurposed in ME3: slowed down and reworked as the ambient sound for the SR-2. “If you listen to it for a really long time, just stand in the Normandy and listen, you’ll actually hear the notes change slowly. It doesn’t sound like music, it sounds like a background ambiance, but it’s there.” (My note: Well no wonder the Normandy feels so much like home?? 😭 sneaky..)

Bug report: “Mako Tornado”. There wasn’t enough friction between the tires and the ground, causing testers to lose control of the vehicle and send it spinning into the air like a tornado. “As it turns, the front end comes up, and then it starts spinning and spinning and spinning and spinning faster and faster and faster until it just flies up in the sky” (My note: Sounds like a regular day in the Mako to me)

Cerberus originally had a bigger role in this game. It was cut but they had a whole explorable outpost. “I called it Misery,” says Mac Walters, “It was this planet with a little outpost that said ‘Welcome to Misery’”. Everything on the outpost was shit - dirty worn stuff, no windows, no kitchen, the vehicle bay was open to the elements etc

The Reaper sound is literal garbage. Some audio designers went on a recording trip to a national park. One of them got fixated on a garbage can, “a metal bear-proof receptacle with a heavy lid that creaked horribly when opened”. “It was like, ominous, spooky, tonal and almost musical. I decided to throw a mic into the garbage and record it moving. I didn’t know what it was going to be until later”

They were making lots of noises to record like throwing logs and rocks around. An old couple peered at them through the window of their camper van in the woods and must have called the cops because then the cops showed up, pulled them over and told them to stop. The cops towed their car (the driver’s plates were Cali plates and expired), drove them to Edmonton outskirts and then the audio producer Shauna got a call and had to go pick them up “like three little boys”. “We got a stern talking to”. Once back they were playing around with the garbage sound, editing it etc. Casey heard it and proclaimed “That’s the sound of the Reapers”

Preston Watamaniuk: “There are things I could have done to Mass 1 to make it an infinitely better game with better UIs” and some simple cuts and changes. “But when you’re living with it, it’s very hard to see those things”

BioWare Labs

As social media and smartphone games exploded, BioWare dedicated a small team dedicated to exploring opportunities here - BioWare Labs

Mass Effect: Galaxy used a unique graphic art style and static visual presentation common in visual novels. It has the distinction of being the only iOS game BW have made during their first 25 years

Scrapped ideas were a 3rd person space shooter called Mass Effect: Corsair and 2 DA titles - a strategy game and a top-down dungeon crawler starring young Wynne. (My note: Maybe the corsairs stuff was rolled into Jacob’s backstory in 2, the Alliance Corsairs)

Corsair was a very short-lived project that never got its feet under it. It was a spin-off on Nintendo DS featuring a behind-the-ship perspective and branching dialogue. At one point it had MP. The idea behind it was basically “ME: Freelancer” - fly your ship around, do missions, get credits. It had a limited branching story but was a gameplay-centered experience intended to fill the gap between ME1 and 2. That gap ended up being filled by Galaxy

Galaxy and Corsair’s smaller screen allowed concept artists to use bold colors and a simplistic character design style to help those games stand out from Shep’s story

Nick Thornborrow did some art for Corsair but was worried his art style didn’t fit ME. He moved to DA where he feels his art style fits better

Lots of BioWare VAs and even a lead writer and the VO director are drawn from Edmonton’s local community theater scene, which is vibrant. Think this is how Mark Meer got involved

Mass Effect 2

Player choices carrying over was a first for BW

Dirty Dozen-inspired plot

Its plot is a web of conditionals (see Suicide Mission)

Was more of a shooter than anything BW had made since Shattered Steel

There was 2 camps on the team, those who wanted to push combat and systems forward and redefine the ME experience and those who wanted to make a true sequel, with the same gameplay and systems but a new story. Karin Weekes: “I think it ended up being a good push-pull. It felt like a pretty healthy creative conflict”

“ME2 was a game you could hold up to someone who argues that games aren’t a serious medium and go ‘Oh yeah, then why is Martin Sheen in this?’” Sheen was their first pick for TIM

The idea for TIM came from a mash-up of concepts CH had collected over the years. The name “Illusive” originally came from his pitch for naming DAO’s Eclipse engine, a word inspired by Obi-Wan’s line “It’s not about the mission, Master. It’s something... elsewhere. Elusive”. “I thought, what if we called our next engine 'Elusive', but used an ‘I’, and then it’s like ‘Illusion’. [...] I still really like the word with an ‘I’ and what it conjures”

When ME1 DLC was in production, CH had been watching a lot of CNN, specifically Anderson Cooper. “How is one guy travelling to all these places and never looking tired and always being able to speak with clarity?” CH says it seemed almost superhuman. “What if there was someone who is the absolute maximum of the things you would aspire to be, but also the worst of humanity?” Cooper, though not evil, became an inspiration for TIM down to the gray hair and piercing blue eyes

Inspiration for TIM’s behind-the-scenes role pulling political strings came from Jack Bauer’s brother Graem in 24. Graem “can call up the president and tell him what to do and hang up, because he’s so connected and so influential”. Sheen had played a president and his performance brought gravitas and wisdom to the role. He had quit smoking, but the character smokes. He didn’t want to fake it, but he also didn’t want to smoke, “so he actually asked for a cigarette” to hold so he could stop his words to take drags with natural cadence

Writing was still pushing to write and revise lines hours before VO started. A series of problems like injury and some writers leaving for other opportunities left it so that Karin, Lukas Kristjanson and editor Cookie Everman hand to land the story safely, with PW helping where they could. Lukas: “We took over the writing bug and task list, and I can’t stress enough how much [Karin and Cookie] did to get ME2 out the door. There’s no part of that thing we didn’t touch”. Karin: “That was the most dramatic 2 weeks of my life”

Initial fan reaction when they started promo-ing ME2 was very negative because people didn’t want to know about new chars like Jack and Mordin. “[fans were like] ‘Get them out of here. We want our characters from the first game’. But then when they played them, those became some of the most popular chars [of the series]”

Concept art of Thane has an idea annotation saying “Face can shapeshift?”

At one point when designing Thane concept artists sent multiple variations of him to the team asking them to vote on which was the most attractive

Most of the Normandy crew was written by lead level designer Dusty Everman. Lukas gave him advice in the evenings between bugs

BioWare Montreal made ME2 and 3 cinematics

CC for Shep was based on tools used by char designers to create in-game chars. Under the hood similar tools existed to create aliens

Aliens were much easier to animate than humans. When something is human it’s very difficult to make it look realistic and you can see all the mistakes and everything

Over the holiday period in 2007 CH worked out a diagram on a single piece of paper that would define the entire scope and structure of the game. The diagram is included in the book

Bug report: “I shot a krogan so hard that his textures fell off”. At one point shotgun blast damage was applied to each of the pellets fired, and shot enemies ended up with just the default checkerboard Unreal texture on them after their textures got blown off

Blasto was meant to be 1 step above an Easter egg but his fan popularity prompted them to bring him back in ME3

They rewrote chunks of Jack 2 days before she went to VO. She was the only one they could change because all the other NPCs were recorded. They redesigned her mission by juggling locked NPC lines and changing Shep’s reactions by rewriting text paraphrases to change the context of the already-recorded VO

Lukas snuck obscure nods ito ME2′s distress calls. In the general distress call for the Hugo Gernsback, there’s BW’s initial’s and Edmonton’s phone number backwards. In a fault in a beacon protocol there’s the initials and backward phone number from Tommy Tutone’s “Jenny”. In 2 other general distress calls there’s initials and numbers from Glenn Miller Orchestra’s “Pennsylvania 6-5000″ and initials and numbers from Geddy Lee and Rush’s “2112″ respectively 

Mass Effect 3

“The end of an era marks the beginning of another”

ME3 “marked the end of Shep’s story”

Saying bye to Shep was as difficult for devs as it was for players

JHale’s final VO session included Anderson’s death and romanced Garrus’ goodbye. “We were in the session and we both just started crying”, Caroline says. “I couldn’t come on the line to give her notes because I was crying, and she was crying. And so there was just this minute-long pause of like, nothing, nothing, nothing - just silence through the airwaves. And then I came on and just told her that I was crying and she said ‘I’m crying!’” They talked about these anecdotes also here on the N7 Day reunion panel

The Microsoft Kinect voice support required devs to teach Kinect hundreds of commands in a variety of accents across multiple languages. The result was useful but made for some awkward moments. Numerous players accidentally said “geth” or “quarian” while making a particular decision and accidentally killed Tali

MP chars were voiced by cops and military people

The helmet on one of the MP chars was originally designed for cancelled project Revolver

The payload device at the end needed to attach to the Citadel while essentially serving as a giant trigger. “It ended up becoming quite the engineering feet just to visualize how this thing would move and connect to the Citadel”

Concept artists explored creating an anti-team, where Kai Leng was almost an anti-Shepard essentially, with an elite squad to counteract your team. This idea never went beyond concept phase

ME3 Special Edition was released on Nintendo Wii U exclusively. This exclusive version of the game includes Genesis 2 (a sequel to the original Genesis comic) and unique gameplay features that took advantage of the touchscreen GamePad. For years Sonic Chronicles: Dark Brotherhood had had the honor of being BW’s only game made for a Nintendo console

FemShep regrettably didn’t feature in major ME marketing til ME3. Later releases like DAI, MEA and Anthem have taken increasing care not to gender their protagonists in cover art

To capture combat sounds they took a trip to CFB Wainwright, a military base southeast of Edmonton. They got a big tour of it and were allowed to record anything they could find. The tour ended with them getting to drive and shoot tanks (real shells). The force of doing that sent waves through Joel Green, he felt his whole chest compress when it went off; the perfect sound for the Black Widow! After the trip the soldiers let him keep the shell he fired and it’s been passed on like a torch to various devs since

Kakliosaurs began life as a joke in the writers’ room after John Dombrow placed a Grunt figure on a t-rex toy he had on his desk. Lore was brainstormed to justify the mash-up before someone asked, “Why don’t we put this in the game?” They loved it so much Karin had custom coffee mugs made

Bug report: For a while Tali’s final romance scene would fire when she was supposed to be dead

“Balancing combat: how designers in ME3 entered an ‘arms race’” - the solution to players feeling OP vs players feeling frustrated by really strong enemies is to find a good middle ground, but for designers Corey Gaspur and Brenon Holmes, it was war. Brenon designed enemies, Corey designed guns. Corey “was obsessed with bigger, heavier guns. We had this sort of informal competition where he’d make this crazy overturned gun that would just murder all the enemies, and then I tuned some stuff up to compensate”

Brenon had to invent new ways to “stop Corey” and this led to the Phantoms. Corey had in turn designed consumable rockets that could wipe out entire waves of enemies. He must’ve figured this would make short work of Brenon’s space ninjas, but Brenon had other plans: “I had just added the ability for her to cut rockets [when Corey was playing MP and he was watching]. She cut the rocket in half... Corey just turns and looks at me and is like: ‘Really dude? I just shot a rocket at this Phantom and she’s fine? Not even damaged? Zero damage?’” 

This friendly rivalry helped elevate ME3′s gameplay. Corey had a knack for making a gun feel so good to fire it had his fellow designers scrambling to keep up. It was his version of balancing. Before Corey sadly passed away he mentored Boldwin Li in all things weapon design and the arms race continued

Corey designed the Arc Pistol. It was causing problems for enemies because it was too powerful. It seemed hell bent on staying that way, Boldwin would tune down all its stats and it was still doing 3x the damage it should have been doing. “I was like ‘What the hell?’, and then I looked closer. It secretly fired 3 bullets for every pull of the trigger! Corey, you sneaky jerk”

The day it launched there were midnight launch parties across North America including one near the BW building. Numerous devs sat at long tables greeting fans and signing autographs as the fans picked up preorders. When midnight struck the line was long enough that it took several hours for some fans to get their game. One particular fan is remembered: “It was 3am. Some guy drove up from Calgary with his friends. He was like one of the last people in line. I think he was sort of tired-drunk. He threw himself across the tables, pulled up his shirt and shouted ‘Guys, sign my abs!’ And like I did, because he waited so long. It felt impolite not to. So I hope he enjoyed his copy of ME3″

For designing Protheans concept artists had free reign to design something that read as ancient

Before the concept art team had the story of the game to work toward, they explored wild ideas of their own including an image of the crew stealing back the Normandy to go after the Reapers

Jen Cheverie was testing scenes and was initially excited to be testing Mordin scenes, til she saw she was testing the Renegade version of his death. “This is even before like all of the audio and everything was in, so you didn’t even have the sad music. I remember sitting at my desk and my hands just went to my face when I saw that the gun Shep pulls on Mordin is the gun he gives Shep in ME2. I burst into tears and was crying for the rest of the day. People are waving to me as they walk by and I’m like, ‘It’s ok, I’m just killing my best friend’” 

There’s a segment called “Shepard’s story ends”. Casey on the ending: “There’s a whole bunch of things that come together to make it incredibly tense and emotional for players. I think the biggest one was the sense of finality, that whatever it was that happened in that very last moment... was it.” 

Wrapping up the story was a massive feat. In a way all of ME3 is an ending. Its final moments were the players’ last with a char they’d been with all the way from Eden Prime

“And while the critical reception of the game was extremely positive, many fans were unsatisfied with the ending, which became one of the most controversial in the history of games.” CH: “We were, on one hand, at the end of a marathon trying to finish the game and the series. But as devs we also knew that there would be more. We knew that we would continue to tell the story. In retrospect, we didn’t fully appreciate the tremendous sense of finality that it would have for people”. He envisioned an ending that posed new questions, something in the tradition of high sci-fi that left players dreaming about what that particular galaxy’s future could hold. “Frankly, there’s a lot more that we could have and should have done to honor the work players put in, to give them a stronger sense of reward and closure”

AAA games are massive undertakings with a million moving parts. Somehow they come together but even the best-planned projects don’t turn out quite like devs hope. From start to end video game production is a series of compromises. It’s rare if not impossible for devs to ship a game they’re entirely happy with. “I think that people imagine that when you finish a game, it’s exactly the way you wanted it to be. But whether people end up loving or hating the final result, we work hard to finish it the best we can, knowing that there’s a lot we would have wanted to do better. I think that’s true of any creative work”

As the dust settled after the initial reaction to the ending and later its epilogue, meant to show the wide-reaching ripple effects of Shep’s final choice, “players emerged mostly asking for one thing”. CH: “Now, most of what we hear, after both ME3 and MEA, is ‘Hey, just go make more Mass Effect’. And that to me is the most important thing. Knowing that players want to return to the ME universe is what inspires us to press on and imagine what comes next”

Mass Effect: Andromeda

By creating a new ME in a new galaxy the team was challenged to put their own visual stamp on the game while keeping it true to the franchise

Being the first ME game on a new gen of consoles meant for more detail

“Massive transport ships called arks populated with salarians, turians, humans, asari and quarians” made the risky jump to the Cluster

MEA was the first time BW had truly codeveloped across 3 studios: Edmonton, Montreal and Austin. The bulk of the work especially early on was done in Montreal, which was composed of a handful of Edmonton expats and heaps of experienced devs who joined from elsewhere specifically to bring a new ME experience to life. Series vets in Edmonton then came on to contribute writing, cinematics, design and QA, along with leadership from creative director Mac Walters and the core Production team. Austin writers and level designers also joined the fray

“It took a new team to take ME beyond the Milky Way”

Mac: “A lot of people in Montreal joined BW as fans of the franchise, so they just had this passion, and it felt like it was more like the days of Jade Empire, where a smaller younger team gets to do something for the first time. Even though it wasn’t necessarily a new IP for me, it felt fresh and new because of that. The team was just super excited to be working on it”

Early plans had the player exploring hundreds of worlds, procedurally generated, allowing for a nearly infinite variety of experiences. But as development wore on, it became clear that the game narrative required more specific, hand-touched level design on each world to keep the story focused and the experience engaging. “The plan was to give players numerous uncharted worlds to explore. Designers worked hard to come up with procedural elements that would make such planets special. Eventually the team made the difficult decision to abandon procedural planets in favor of more memorable hand-touched alien worlds, each with a specific story to tell”

One challenge was defining what ME meant without Shep. Care was given to include many of the MET’s key species. “Ryder recruited turian, asari, krogan and salarian followers”. Like Shep Ryder represents humanity’s hope for a peaceful coexistence among aliens who had long operated without human contact

Beginning with MEA the team decided that with few exceptions vehicles in ME have 6 wheels. Early Nomad concepts were bulkier. Later ones focused on its ability to move over its ability to protect itself from hostile fire, underlining the themes of exploration

German concept designer and auto-motive futurist Daniel Simon was contracted to create the Nomad and Tempest. The Tempest’s final design took inspo from the Concorde 

Concepts for angaran fighter ships have the following notes: “Two doors swing open, wings rotate down to function as landing struts, the landing struts split open. It has a spinning turbine engine 

Despite being set a galaxy away and some 600 years after Mordin’s death, there was a time when he had a cameo. It wasn’t cut due to running out of time however, it was cut due to drug references. John Dombrow explains: “One day I had to write a small quest for Kadara. I thought it’d be amusing if these 2 guys living way out on the fringes in a shack were growing plants for uh, medicinal purposes, and needed Ryder’s help with it. It occurred to me, wouldn’t it be amusing if Ryder had the option of actually trying ‘the medicine’ to see what would happen? And I thought, what if it turned into some hallucination that somehow involved SAM - like maybe SAM would sing? But why? How could I motivate that? Then it hit me. Who else in the ME game sings unexpectedly? MORDIN. As a nod to him I wrote SAM singing Modern Major-General. It got even better when our cine designer John Ebenger wanted to take it even further. Bless him, he came in on a Saturday to do a special hallucination showing Mordin himself. It was great. Til the fateful day we were told MEA had already been submitted to the ratings board. That’s when you declare things like drug references in your game. Mordin fell under that category which meant it was a no-go. We were too late”

Ryder’s white AI armor contrasts Shep’s iconic dark armor (intentional design)

Concept art for Ryder involved experiments with cloth (cloaks, ponchos, capes - “Pull here to release cloak”) and asymmetrical design elements

For alien design, there’s a few exceptions but humanoid figures are the ME standard and this persisted into MEA

Kett and angara concepts explored striking lines and textures 

– From Bioware: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development

[xb-squaredx]

B-Squared’s Top 10 Games of 2020

I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that having something to distract me from the genuine horrors unleashed during 2020 was vital to staying alive, and for me that means a lot of video games! I played…a lot of games last year, but I spent a lot of time playing older games, so I didn’t get a chance to check out a lot of high-profile games that launched this year. Still, I do want to shine a light on the games that managed to resonate with me even a little bit, that somehow managed to launch this year. So let’s get to it!

#10 – No Straight Roads

Rarely have I been struck by a single trailer for a game like I was for No Straight Roads. Produced by industry veterans under a new studio, this is a rare game that’s not quite an indie game from a studio full of newbies, but it’s also not produced with the same kind of budget and resources of a Triple-A project. What do we call this? A Double-A game? Single-A? Regardless, I have to give the team at Metronomik some props for delivering a super stylish game in the midst of a very challenging year. No Straight Roads is a rhythm-based action game where two up-and-coming musicians fight to bring back Rock and Roll to the people of Vinyl City. I absolutely adore this game’s presentation, with each major boss being visually unique and having their own feel that compliments the music they bring to battle. There’s some real energy in these animations with character designs that ooze personality, and being a game about music the soundtrack is great! All that being said though, I have to admit I wasn’t a huge fan of the gameplay when all was said and done. It leans way more on the rhythm side of the equation than I was hoping for, and the action felt very shallow. The fixed camera made some phases of some fights a real problem, and the Switch verison, which I played, is plagued with a lot of issues that really brought the game down for me. If the game interests you at all, give it a shot on PC or PS4; I hear those versions are a lot better. Still, I liked the potential I saw in this game and in this studio, so I can only hope they did well enough to continue on. This definitely feels like the kind of passion project that deserves more recognition.

#9 – Streets of Rage 4

OK, so full disclosure: I didn’t grow up with 2D beat-em-ups. I missed out on all of the greats of the genre back in the day. No Final Fight, no River City Ransom, no Double Dragon, and definitely no Streets of Rage. In more recent years I have tried to dip my toe in the genre, as I did in 2019 with River City Girls. However, I came away from that game a bit disappointed by the overall gameplay and wondered if 2D beat-em-ups were for me. Seeing so much praise heaped onto Streets of Rage 4 had me curious, so I knew I had to try it, if only to broaden my experience in the genre. In many ways, this game is the perfect sequel to a franchise that hasn’t seen any signs of new life in years. It retains what made the series beloved with satisfying combat and challenge, but with a modern touch. The overall art style of the game and music work out pretty well, and I found the act of comboing enemies to be really satisfying. It really doesn’t overstay its welcome either, which is very appreciated in an age of endless timesinks. I also struggled a fair bit with the game, even on Normal, and well after some patches that seemed designed for more casual fans like me. Had this game not had online co-op as an option, I don’t know if I could have beaten the final levels. So my time with this game was pretty rough but despite that I can still see this was a game made with care, and if this game DOES do something for you, there’s plenty of reasons to keep playing on higher difficulties, unlocking more characters and even playing online with friends. Let me put it this way; I’m not all that sure I like the genre and I still liked this game, so I think that counts for something!

#8 – The Wonderful 101: Remastered

…this one is kind of cheating, I’ll admit! I had a lot of trouble thinking up ten games that really stood out to me this year, honestly. That said, I’ll definitely use loopholes to plug one of my favorite games from years ago. Seven years ago, PlatinumGames launched The Wonderful 101 on the ill-fated Wii U, where it bombed harder than just about anything on the system. For those that gave the game a shot, however, they were quick to discover a deep, complex, and charming action game that plays like nothing else out there. Controlling a team of 100 heroes at once, players form weapons out of the various Wonderful One’s bodies, smacking around giant robots and aliens far larger than them with the power of teamwork! How could you not love that, right?! Now, years later, PlatinumGames is aiming to become more independent and their first act was launching a Kickstarter as a way to get this game on newer platforms. While we may never know why Nintendo gave Platinum their blessing to release this game on non-Nintendo platforms (being as this is still, as far as I know, a Nintendo-owned IP), I’m just glad more people can have access to one of the most unique action games I’ve ever touched.

To sell it another way, this game combines the overall aesthetic of Viewtiful Joe with the shape-drawing action of Okami but with a bit of Bayonetta flair on the side. Basically, this is the culmination of everything director Hideki Kamiya has ever worked on. The Remastered version fixes some issues present from the game’s original release, and while I do think they could have gone a bit further with some changes, it is likely the best way to play the game for many. All those sections that made heavy use of the Wii U GamePad are a tad awkward though, but that held true even back on the Wii U anyway…d-don’t worry so much about that, though! I’d still recommend this game to anyone looking for the type of over-the-top action that only Platinum (and occasionally Capcom) can provide! So please consider joining the Wonderful Ones and Unite Up!

#7 – Paper Mario: The Origami King

Discourse around the Paper Mario series is…more than a little rough, honestly! Many fans have been quite vocal about not liking the direction the series has been heading with the last few games, but I went into The Origami King with an open mind and ended up really enjoying the game for the most part! What the game lacked in a developed storyline, it made up for with some really strong character moments and memorable setpieces. Bobby and Olivia are among my favorite partners in ANY of the Mario RPGs, easily, and the entirety of the Great Sea section of the game was a really fun adventure. I love the highly-detailed paper-crafted enemies and locales, and the soundtrack really didn’t have to go as hard as it did. While the battles against common enemies didn’t quite click with me, the boss battles throughout the game constantly surprised me with interesting twists on the ring-based combat and are a real highlight for me. I know this game is pretty divisive amongst Paper Mario fans, but I think the franchise has a pretty bright future ahead of it!

#6 – DOOM Eternal

Fair warning here, but I haven’t quite managed to beat DOOM Eternal at the time of writing this, but what I’ve played so far tells me it definitely belongs here. I think Eternal is hands-down the most intense game I’ve played in a long time. It gets my blood pumping as I dash about, shooting and slicing through demons that are extremely eager to rip and tear me to pieces. I don’t play many shooters in general, so I knew I was going to be in for a rough time, but DOOM Eternal brings it to another level right away. In some respects, I don’t quite agree with various aspects of the core game design that makes the game harder than I think it needs to be at times. The scarcity of ammo, and thus the constant need to use the Chainsaw weapon in order to gain more ammo gets tiring, though that somewhat levels off as more weapons are acquired and players learn of more efficient ways to take out the hordes of Hell. The game’s fantastic soundtrack by Mick Gordon definitely elevates the experience, so it is a huge bummer knowing that he and ID Software had a falling out and he won’t be coming back. I really dig the game’s expansive levels and more focus being put on exploring every nook and cranny for secrets, and certain old-school touches like finding extra lives or cheat codes definitely makes the game feel like it was ripped out of a bygone era and given a modern paintjob at times. Doom is eternal, and with it, so is pulse-pounding shooting action!

#5 – Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition

Compared to the other re-release of an old game on this list, I think this particular title had a lot more time and care put into it…and it also happens to enhance one of my favorite games on Wii as a bonus! Xenoblade Chronicles on Wii was a game that almost passed me by but even years later, I still adored the characters and world it introduced, and I’ve been happy to see what started as game that was almost stuck in Japan eventually grow into a full franchise. I consider the first game to the best in the series, though it was held back by a few issues later games would iron out. Chief among the problems was the visuals, particularly the character models and…wow does ten years make a world of difference. The Definitive Edition does more than just clean up everyone’s faces, it also cleaned up the game’s cluttered UI, made it easier to track quests and materials for said quests, and added some fun optional challenge missions for veterans to tackle. The bow that adorns the top of this package, however, is the epilogue story Future Connected that serves to tie up some loose ends and gives a particular character some great closure. If you love massive worlds to explore, a compelling, at times over-the-top story, and a deep, rewarding combat system, I can’t recommend THIS version of THIS game enough. If you’re going to give the Xenoblade series a try, there’s no better place to start.

#4 – Ghost of Tsushima

When Ghost of Tsushima was first unveiled years ago, I didn’t exactly have a high opinion of it. It seemed like a game that put more emphasis on visuals over gameplay, and I was almost certain it would launch as a PS5 exclusive so why bother getting excited when I probably wasn’t going to be an early adopter of the system? To my great surprise, not only was this game confirmed for PS4, it wound up being one of the prettiest games on the platform and well-optimized to boot, even on my old slim PS4. Playing as lone samurai Jin Sakai, players try to repel the Mongel invasion of Japan, but are forced to adopt less-than-honorable tactics to take on this ruthless enemy. Usually when I play stealth games, I find myself frustrated. I feel weak, or limited, and often the games feel overly harsh. If you get caught once, game over and there’s little salvaging being seen. In Ghost of Tsushima however, there’s a great deal more care put into stealth, and at times I’d argue it’s almost too fun to pass up over the sword play. Very few missions in the game force you to go completely unseen, so stealth just because yet another tool rather than a limitation imposed on you.

Swordplay felt a bit less engaging against common enemies (typically just being Simon Says, switching to the appropriate stance for a given enemy), but the one-on-one duels throughout the game were fantastic and I almost wish the game was all about them instead. I can’t overstate how gorgeous this game is either, with a world that feels like it is breathing, as the wind whips through the tall grass, the moon penetrates fog overtaking a creepy forest, or seeing the smoke from an enemy camp wafting over the distance. Hands-down one of the best-looking games on the PS4, and I’m particularly happy that developer Sucker Punch managed to land a hit with a new IP, as those generally feel more risky as times go on. While I’d argue that Ghost of Tsushima doesn’t really redefine how open-world games should be designed, it is an extremely polished experience and manages to do it well, with plenty of opportunities to grow in a potential sequel.

#3 – Animal Crossing: New Horizons

If there’s any one game that people absolutely needed in 2020, it was Animal Crossing: New Horizons. While there are other games of this type, like Stardew Valley or the Harvest Moon (and later, Story of Seasons games), Animal Crossing is one of the few games that gets mainstream attention while simultaneously running counter to most mainstream gaming trends. No conflict, no combat, no overarching story really…just a game that lets you live your live, day by day on your own terms. I tried getting into the series before with New Leaf but just didn’t stick with it, but New Horizons launched at the perfect time in an imperfect world. Being able to escape the uncertainty and dread that enveloped the world as the pandemic spread for even a little while was a necessity, and thankfully New Horizons had plenty to do to keep idle hands busy. Changes like item crafting and eventually limited terraforming of your island paradise give players so much more agency in decorating their homes and building up something they can be proud of.

We all start as nothing but a small tent on a mostly-empty island, but seeing what people were able to do even in the first few weeks or so was nothing short of amazing. We need more unflinchingly wholesome games in the world, and I’m thankful for Animal Crossing for being there when we needed it, and considering how well it sold and how much post-launch content is expected to be added with time, it remains a sanctuary to return to even now. Just…please let us craft in bulk? Pretty please, Nintendo?

#2 – Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

Last year, Nintendo released Astral Chain, a game that no one knew about before release, which was revealed and released with very little gaps between them. It was a game I didn’t know I wanted until it was presented to me, and that trend continues this year with Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. The first Hyrule Warriors was a fun, surprising spin-off of the main Legend of Zelda series, and Breath of the Wild was a fantastic game that shook up the core of the Zelda franchise, so in hindsight it really does seem like a no-brainer to combine the two into one package. Age of Calamity, for my tastes at least, cuts down on the repetition and overall stressful atmosphere of the first Hyrule Warriors and instead focused on fleshing out it’s core combat and crafting more creative main storyline missions. It helps that the game reimagines iconic locales from Breath of the Wild from before their destruction, and really makes you feel like you’re fighting through actual places rather than just a collection of random keeps that most Warriors games use.

Bringing in aspects like the Sheikiah Slate and Elemental Rods allows players to control the flow of combat more directly on top of letting them be more creative. Freeze enemies standing over water with the Cryonis rune or burn some grass with the Fire Rod to distract certain enemies, among many other things. Each playable character is also very distinct, even in cases where I could have forgiven the developers for reusing some attacks or traits. For one, Link has different movesets for his Sword and Shield, Spear, and Two-Handed weapons, but none of his attack overlap with the other Champions who use similar weapons. Some people might be put off with certain aspects of this game’s story and ultimately not everyone likes the overall structure of the Warriors spinoffs anyway, but for my part, Age of Calamity was one of the best surprises of the year, unveiled right at the end of the year in the nick of time. Of course, there was one game this year that surprised me more than any other.

#1 – Hades

I’ve known of Supergiant Games for quite a while and very recently began looking through their catalogue of games. They’re known for well-crafted narratives and satisfying combat, and yet when I first saw Hades when it was released in Early Access I was tepid on it. It didn’t look bad or anything, but it didn’t exactly blow me away and even now, I think a random screenshot or quick clip of the game might not do the game justice in explaining the appeal. I already wrote about the game at-length (as my only real non-retrospective blog post of the year, oops!), which you can read here if you want more in-depth praise, but to summarize…Hades is the total package for me.

Playing as Prince Zagreus your end-goal is to escape the puts of Hell, and more specifically get away from your overbearing father, Hades. It’s a rogue-lite, meaning you’re expected to finish the game in one shot and if you die you lose any upgrades you picked up along the way and have to start from scratch…to a point. Hades does allow you to keep a fair amount of items you pick up which can towards small, permanent upgrades or even gifts for various NPCs that can deepen your bond with them. Unlike most other games of this type too, the story constantly moves forward, even after death. The game is about dying over and over and then dusting yourself off to try again, all the while other characters remark on your progress or lack thereof. I grew to really enjoy this cast of characters, a fun spin on the Greek pantheon, paired with excellent voice acting for the entire cast. From the imposing, if somewhat sultry Megaera, to the nervous wreck that is the maid, Dusa, to the pompous ass Theseus, I looked forward to each new run just to learn more about this world and those within it. For once, death wasn’t really a punishment, but a reward, and just part of the process.

Of course, incredibly satisfying combat is ALSO part of the process and it just gets…addicting; muttering “one more run” over and over as you try out different weapons and boons, discovering what works well together and what doesn’t. While at first beating the game felt like it would never happen, I grew from my failures, adapted and eventually overcame. Multiple times. If you want the “full” Hades experience, this game can really demand a lot of time out of you but at the same time it stays fresh, so I can’t really complain. With new gameplay mechanics unlocking as time goes on, to the Pacts of Punishment players can trigger if they want a bit more challenge (or a lot more), Hades is that rare game that just keeps giving and giving. Before I knew it, I had dumped well over 50 hours into it, and I STILL need to get back to the game if I want that epilogue.

Compared to every other game that came out this year, Hades is the one game that grabbed me from moment one and would not let go until I hit credits. When I wasn’t playing this game, I was counting down the minutes until I could play it again, and let me tell you that is rare for me these days. At this point, Hades is clearly the breakthrough hit for Supergiant and I couldn’t be happier. The fact that this game got to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with industry titans at The Game Awards is kind of surreal, but I can’t think of many who deserve that recognition more. It helps that Supergiant is a studio that actually takes care of its employees, which is way rarer than it should be. I don’t mean to hype this game up like it’s the cure for COVID or anything, but I mean it with all my heart that this was the best game I played this year, and I’d recommend it in a heartbeat. I couldn’t stop talking about it for months after playing it, just ask my friends! So yeah, it’s pretty OK I guess.

CONCLUSION

I’m sure my Top 10 List looks a lot different from most out there, but that’s what’s great about games! So much variety and so much quality no matter where you look! Every year, without fail, there’s always at least a small handful of games that come out that I don’t get to, and try as I might I’ll never trim that backlog down. I want to keep playing games for as long as I can, trying out so many different experiences and seeing what this wonderful pastime can offer. For a good chunk of 2020 I was more than a little down, not just because of…you know, but a lot of games that were coming out weren’t appealing to me. That said, seeing as this was the year of shadow drops and announcing things at the last minute, I ended up loving a bunch of games I hadn’t already spend months hyping myself up for, which definitely helped to lift me up this year. Already, 2021 has a lot of titles I’m anticipating though, so it’s sure to be an exciting year.

Happy Gaming.

-B

[esotheria-sims]

50 OC QUESTIONS - Marcus Blackbird

Got tagged by @thepathofnevermore, whee! :D Thank you for the tag, dear, this was fun! ^-^

01. How old is your sim? My headcanon is that he’s 15 at the start of the BaCC.

02. When is your sim’s birthday? June 28.

03. What is your sim’s zodiac sign? Cancer.

04. What is your sim’s ethnicity? Neo Margitavillean/human with magic ancestry.

05. Does your sim have any nicknames? Mark, and his sister Annika calls him Marky sometimes when they play-fight and she wants to annoy him. He pretends to be awfully offended by the nickname, but it’s more a running gag than anything else; he actually doesn’t mind it at all.

06. Do they have a job? Not at the moment.

07. Where does your sim live? Wyvern’s Bay since recently, Neo Margitaville before that.

08. Who does your sim live with? His dad Gabriel and his little sister, the aforementioned Annika.

09. What environment did your sim grow up in? (strict, loving, cold etc.) He was brought up in what could be considered the ideal familial environment - a friendly, safe neighborhood, a snug and cozy home, parents who doted on him… But his mom passed away when he was only 6, which came as a huge shock to everyone in the family, Marcus most of all. He managed to bounce back from the loss eventually - his dad was a huge source of support for him and his baby sister proved to be a wonderful distraction - but it took him a good amount of time to process it all, and even though he’s fine now, he still misses her dearly and feels her absence.

10. What is your sim’s favourite food? Pizza… and Watcher, what he wouldn’t give for a slice right now. Did you know that Wyvern’s Bay doesn’t have any pizzerias??

11. What is your sim’s favourite drink? Water.

12. If they have one what is your sim’s favourite color? Blue.

13. Does your sim believe in any clichés? (love at first sight, etc.) He firmly believes that “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”. And before anyone asks, no, he’s not the most ambitious of sims. :P

14. What is your sim’s sexuality? Heterosexual.

15. What is your sim’s gender identity? Male.

16. Is your sim type a or type b? Uh, what the hell is type A and type B…? Next question!

17. Is your sim introverted or extroverted? Introverted.

18. What is your sim’s favourite woohoo position? The kid’s still a virgin, so who the hell knows.

19. Is your sim a pet person? If so what is their favourite animal? Yes, he loves animals! I think he’s more of a cat person than a dog person, though he likes both well enough. He’s also very partial to small birds.

20. Does your sim have a best friend? His sister Annika, and since he came to Wyvern’s Bay, Phillip Gladwyn.

21. What is/was your sim’s favourite school subject? Back when he went to “regular” school it used to be Art, Biology, and Literature, and after Dominick Irving took him and Annika in for tutoring, his favorite lessons were in Robotics and High Elvish.

22. Is/was your sim a high, mid or low achiever in school? He was an overachiever in both elementary and high school, but due to unfortunate circumstances (read: a hoodpocalypse) he was forced to cut his education short. Now that Mr.Irving has taken him under his wing, though, he continues to excel in his studies. Once a nerd, always a nerd! 😁

23. Are they planning to go or have they already been to college? If so, what would be or what was their major? 

He’d really love to be able to go to college, but the way things are now, it’s highly unlikely that’ll ever happen. :/ Wyvern’s Bay doesn’t have a university of its own, and any other universities are completely out of his reach. But if he could go to uni (dreaming is free, right?) he’d probably major in Biology or Art.

24. What are your sim’s political beliefs? He doesn’t have much of an opinion on the matter.

25. What is one thing your sim wants to do before they die? Just one thing? D: Marcus is so young, there’s so much he wants to do with life! Like find the love of his life, get married, start a family… it’s a long list!

26. Does your sim have a favourite TV show (cable) and/or movie? He doesn’t have any particular movie or show he considers his favorite, but he generally enjoys comedies, superhero films, and documentaries about ancient civilizations. Or well, used to enjoy. He doesn’t get to watch much television these days…

27. Is your sim a Netflix viewer? No.

28. Does your sim like books? Yep! He’s a complete bookworm!

29. Does your sim enjoy video games, if so what is their favourite one and do they play on PC or console? He’s not a hardcore gamer by any stretch, but he used to love playing video games as a kid and younger teen. He had a PC at home that he’d play on, and one of his friends from school (who had a console) would sometimes organize game nights. When he played on his home PC, it’d usually be single-player offline games, and when he played with his friends on console, they’d go for multiplayers.

30. What is your sim’s personal style? He’d describe it as “comfy & casual”, but these days it’s closer to “wears the same old rags every day and will continue to do so until the clothes literally fall apart”. It’s not easy to be fashionable when you live off grid, in the wilderness.

31. Does your sim have a lucky charm? Not per se, no… but he used to dry press four-leaved clovers whenever he’d come across them. He called it his “lucky collection”.

32. Is your sim religious? Nah. 

33. What kind of music does your sim listen to and who is their favourite artist? He doesn’t have a strict preference re: music genre, but he likes ballads, anything with an acoustic guitar in it, and also rock, when he’s in the right mood. His favorite bands are The Beatles (got the love for their music from his dad) and The Police.

34. Is your sim a festive person? If so what’s their favourite holiday? If asked he’d probably say that he is, but to him it’s not so much about the holiday itself as it is about having a chance to get together with friends and family.

35. What is your sim’s favourite type of weather? He doesn’t have a preference, he enjoys all sorts of weather: warm, sunny, rainy, snowy… As long as it isn’t anything extreme (e.g. rainstorms, overly hot, heavy snowfall), he’s happy.

36. Does your sim prefer to start fights or finish them? He’d like it best if there was no fight to begin with!

37. Does your sim have a dream job? A professor, researcher, or any similar vocation that is intellectual in nature and allows for acquisition of new knowledge. As a kid, he’d always say that he wanted to become an archaeologist when he grows up… and while this isn’t necessarily something he’d consider his “dream job”, he probably wouldn’t mind being a stay-at-home dad.

38. Does your sim have any siblings? I’ve probably mentioned her like, what, ten times by now? Annika, his younger sister. He loves that kid to bits.

39. Does your sim get along with their family? He does, yes. His dad and sister are all he has left and he cherishes them above everything else.  

40. What is your sim’s favourite hobby? Fishing! He started doing it out of bare necessity after his family got stranded in Wyvern’s Bay, but he really came to enjoy it as a hobby as well.

41. What does your sim look for in a romantic partner? Kindness, respect, loyalty, and above all, a lot of love and affection. Marcus’ ideal partner is someone who isn’t afraid to shower him with love and who will, in turn, allow him to love them just as much.

42. What is a secret about your sim? He cries like rain to sad movies, which is why he avoids watching them in the company of others… he may be a certified softie, but he still has his dignity. 

43. What is a wish your sim has? For his family to find a safe place to live. That’s all he asks for, really. ;_____;

44. What is a flaw your sim has? He’s very emotional and tends to let negative comments get to him a bit too easily… He also has a tendency to get overly defensive when he’s been hurt.

45. How do others generally perceive your sim? Very nice, soft-spoken, a bit shy.

46. Does your sim have a greatest achievement? Surviving the total annihilation of your hometown, surviving a shipwreck, AND surviving in a fiendish new environment is a pretty big achievement, I’d say.

47. If they have one, what is your sim’s greatest regret? Not spending more time with his mother while she was still alive. Or rather, not making the most out of the time he had with her.

48. Does your sim have a favourite emoji? Long gone are the days when he used to have a phone for texting… but back when he did, his most used emoji was a plain old smiley face.

49. Does your sim use simstagram? No electricity, no social media. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  Though he was never much of a simstagram user even when he had the necessary equipment… he only had an account because all the other kids had one.

50. What is the last text your sim sent (and who did they text)? “I’m gonna b late. Sorry” - sent to a classmate he was supposed to do a school project with. Needless to say, they never got to meet up for that project…

[ltjlily17]

The truth about vampires

Let’s start off with some basics. What’s your name? Rachel How old are you? 35 What’s your hair and eye color? Green eyes, brown to teal hair. How tall are you? 5′6″

What’s your relationship status? Married Alright, enough of that. Let’s move on to the random shit. What’s your favorite song? Mayonaise by the Smashing Pumpkins, Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton and In Your Atmosphere by John Mayer. What does that song mean? What is the message behind it? They are all pretty different theme wise, but all three really evoke a feeling. Is it your favorite because you relate to it, or do you just like the beat? They’re all more guitar heavy than having a beat, the lyrics and overall feeling the songs provide are what really get m, though. Have any pets? If so, what are they and what’s their names? I have a dog named Finn, and a cat named Mateo. Have you ever met your idol? If so, were they nice or were they kind of an ass? I don’t have an idol. What’s your favorite method of gaming? (PC, Xbox, Playstation, etc) Either the Switch or my laptop. Xbox is fine, but I guess I prefer a handheld type device.  If you’re in college, what’s your major and why did you pick it? I am not in college. My major when I attended varied between visual communications, education and IT. I didn’t choose nor graduate. How’re you doing today? Meh, theres a lot going on around me with people I care about. I was talking to a friend earlier about how most people are stressed or unhapy this time of year, which is really not my experience. I love buying gifts for others, decorating and baking, so this is generally a good time for me. What color are your bedroom walls? Ugh, like a pastel yellow. I really dislike the color. I have painted some grey paint splotches on one wall to see which one I liked most, but I’ve never gotten around to actually painting. Describe your favorite shirt. I don’t know that I have a favorite. I typically wear a shirt I got from John Mayer’s last tour the most- its got a cool fish and cat graphic on it. Use this space to tell someone off. I’ve no one to tell off. What’s your view on smart watches? Cool or a waste of money? I have one. I like it. I really like watches in general, though and I feel a little sad I don’t wear the analog ones anymore, but I’d miss the functionality of the smartwatch. What is one poster that you have hanging on your bedroom wall of? I don’t have anything hanging on the walls in my room. We have slanted ceilings, so there isn’t even enough space for a poster. My room was covered in band posters as a teenager, though. How many times have you moved in your life? I lived at home til 20, lived with my first roommate til 25, a townhouse with a friend and my now husband for a year, an apt with my now husband for 4 years and now our house for 5 years. If you moved, do you like where you are now better than where you were? I’ve stayed in pretty much the same area, but living in our house is definitely better than the one bedroom apartment we were in. What’s your favorite color and why? Grey. Darker earthy tones. Do you have a calendar? If so, what’s the theme? Nope. Just use my watch/phone. Have any famous person’s autographs? I do on some concert tickets from when I was younger. Do you draw well? Depends on your perspective, to my non-artistic friends, they think I’m amazing. The artistic friends, probably just roll their eyes lol. What type of cell phone do you have? iPhone X. Should you be doing anything else right now or are you just bored? I finally finished the wedding I had been editing and the only other project I have right now is the paint by number of our dog I got for my husband as a gift, but he’s here, so it has to wait. Finishing that wedding was a huge weight off my shoulders.

If you’re in school/college, what’s your favorite subject and why? Not in school. Maybe now that I’m done with the wedding I’ll start exploring some learning opportunities. Are you a cat or a dog person? Why? I would’ve always said cat until I got a dog. There are a lot of things about dogs I was really not into, but I love my dog so much. Personality wise, I’m more of a cat person, but in practice I like dogs. Tell me about the plot of your favorite book. I have several. One has a ghost that rings a bell around a mounted moose’s head. Do you wear glasses or contacts? Glasses. What do you think about horror movies? I like them. I’ve seen a lot of old ones. Back in the day, my mom and I would go to Blockbuster and I’d get a different horror movie every week. If you love them (I do), what’s your favorite? Nightmare on Elm Stree is a classic for me. It Follows is probably the one that fucked me up the most. Got any cool Christmas presents picked out for family or friends yet? I’ve got all my gifts purchsed except for the hub. He sent me a ridiculous wish list that included a suit of armor and a castle and then decided he didn’t want any gifts this year. I’m running out of time to figure something out. Do you do Black Friday shopping or wait for Cyber Monday? Neither. I’m definitely not going to go out on Black Friday and deal with all those people for junk I don’t need. As for Cyber Monday, I don’t really pay much attention to any of the deals and don’t really buy more on that day than I would on any other. Have any mental illnesses? Not encompassing enough to get any kinda of diagnosis. What’s your favorite word and why? No idea.  What is the most expensive thing you own, and what is it? My car? I mean, I don’t outright own it yet. Singular item, my MacBook or iMac, I guess.  Did you buy that item yourself? Yes, I bought the macbook and iMac after I left my job at Cassano’s and needed a new laptop since my previous one was owned by the company. Where do you work and what is your position? *I am currently unemployed. How often do you cuss? A fair amount. Maybe just a little bit more than whomever I’m talking to. What type of car do you drive, if any? I have a 2012 Volvo s60. Are you happy with it? If no, what’s your dream car? I prefer to drive my car than my husbands, but I’m like 50/50 on liking it. Right now, my dream vehicles are the new Land Rover Defender or an Audi Q8. Do you have a lot of social media accounts? Which ones? I have Instagram, Facebook LinkedIn and Tumblr. I very rarely post on any of them. I use snapchat a lot, though, if that counts. What is your favorite genre of music? My Spotify year end review said I listen to Pop, Rock, Indie, Folk and Emo the most. In that order. Does your family have holiday traditions? If so, what are they? Nope. My fmaily just barely cobbles themselves together for major holidays. If you’re in a relationship, are you happy with it? Sure. People are breaking up around us, and it really makes me appreciate the relationship my husband and I have, even if it doesn’t always feel like its going as well as it is. How long have you been with your significant other? Just hit the 10 year mark. Do you like psychology? (It’s my college major). Nah. Never really been something I’m too interested in. What is something your state is popularly known for? College football I guess.  Do you like to do craft projects? If so, what’s the coolest thing you made? I do. I recently drew a bunch of Dungeons and Dragons monsters to use as ornaments on a tree in my dining room where my husband and his friends play Dungeons and Dragons on Sundays. I’ve made some painting as house warming gifts or nursery art for friends children that they’ve hung up and thats nice to see. Do you watch sports or do you think they’re overrated? Nah. Not really a fan. What’s one occupation you think gets paid too much and doesn’t deserve to? Meh, I don’t know that I want to hate on any specific occupation. The extremely rich do bother me, however, with how much money they make, often at their employees detriment. Do you straigthen your hair? Not usually. I have more lately, since its getting long again. I’m more likely to do the loose waves thing, though. Ever dyed your hair a color that isn’t natural? (blue, pink, etc) Yes, it is currently teal. How’s your relationship with your parents? Relationship with my mom is okay, none with my dad. Do you still live with them or do you have your own house? I live in my own home. What’s something you are currently saving money for to buy? Hmm, nothing. The couple of items I want at the moment, I asked for on my Christmas list. Do you smoke/vape? If so, what brand do you smoke/what device do you use? Nope, I’ve never smoked. Ever done drugs? Nope. Tell me one of your worst habits. Picking at my cuticles? What’s a weird quirk you have that no one else you know does? No idea, I kind of doubt that theres something I do that no one else ever does. If you game, what type of headset do you use? I don’t ever need a headset. What type of computer do you own, and do you like it? I have a MacBook Pro. I used to have an Air and I loved it, but my husband talked me into getting the Pro instead and I regret it.  What’s the thing that annoys you the most? When my husband asks google to make his cellphone ring at max volume without even trying to look for it. Today, it was in his pocket. What brand of TV do you have? Samsung. Are you excited for Christmas? (It’s December 1st today when I made this) Kind of? I love how cozy my house feels with all the decorations.  Tell me about your favorite vacation you’ve taken. We went to New York for my birthday/anniversary/Halloween 2 years ago. Tell me something cool about yourself. I am not cool? Did/do you get good grades in school/college? Not in my middle school/high school years. What’s your ringtone on your phone? Vibrate. What’s your favorite store to shop in? The internet. If you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would buy and why? I have no idea. I’d probably sit on the money for a long time and then once I finally broke the seal, buy a bunch of stuff. How long have you had a Bzoink account? Don’t have one. Ever been to Field of Screams? If so, what’s your favorite attraction? Nope. Do you own a Polaroid camera? I have an Instax camera. Do you have hardwood floor in your room or carpet? The two bedrooms upstairs have carpet, but the rest of the house is hardwood. It’s a Saturday night, what are you typically doing? Relaxing at home, most likely. Doing a crossword puzzle, probably. Do you have a lot of friends or do you not have any at all? I have a couple. What’s your all time favorite movie and why? I don’t know, really. I watch the Iron Man movies and Thor Ragnarok the most these days. How many blankets do you sleep with at night? A sheet and comforter. What’s the last TV show you watched? Did you enjoy it? The Mandalorian. I do enjoy it.  Do you prefer cable TV or do you use Netflix? We have cable, but never really watch it. Everything we want to watch is only Netflix or Disney+. What is your dream job and why? I have no idea. Need to get to thinking on that. Do you think you would be a good therapist? I do. I think I can listen to people and help them come to their own answers pretty well. What’s your favorite brand of clothing? I don’t know that I have a favorite. Anything that fits well and has a lot of sales lol.

[operationrainfall]

Title Chasm Developer Bit Kid, Inc. Publisher Bit Kid, Inc. Release Date July 31st, 2018 Genre Metroidvania Platform PC, PS4, Vita Age Rating T for Teen – Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, Alcohol Reference Official Website

I’ve been following Chasm since I first played it at PAX back in 2015. It certainly made its mark on me then, and I’ve been not so patiently awaiting the release date ever since. The game has been delayed a few times, and it totally caught me by surprise when I learned of the release date a day or two before it came out. Thankfully, I was able to talk with developer Bit Kid and and they were kind enough to provide a review copy, which brings us to today. It’s a major challenge for a project to live up to its potential, that wealth of expectations thrust upon it by eager fans. Was Chasm able to deliver on the promise of quality I played in the demo 3 years ago?

While it’s true Chasm is a Metroidvania, I would go a bit farther to help narrow down which sort. In my opinion, it’s most styled after the Castlevania Metroidvanias which released on the Game Boy Advance, specifically it felt like a mixture of Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow. To the uninitiated, that means it has complex, seductive graphics, challenging bosses and some very linear exploration. That last point isn’t a complaint necessarily, just something fans of the genre should be aware of. To be fair though, there had to be some exploration that felt a bit blander since the layout of the dungeons are procedurally generated each time you start a new game.

That’s not the only way Chasm reminds me of some great Metroidvania titles. It also manages to capture that air of menace and mystery so crucial to those games. While it’s not very dialogue or plot heavy, you will have important revelations narrated by Professor Baden as he navigates the sprawling corridors you discover. You’ll also find journal entries that do a good job of coloring the world of Chasm and setting the stakes for failure. (This aspect of the game really reminded me of La-Mulana.) The only downside to this approach, at least for me, was that the main character you play is a blank avatar. You can name him whatever you like (I went with Hoss), but other than that he has no distinct characteristics, dramatic backstory or even any dialogue. He’s just a blank canvas you can paint whatever you want onto. While that’s not necessarily a problem, it became a niggling concern for me later in the game.

The premise of the game is that you’re sent to investigate a mining town called Karthas where a giant hole opened up and spewed forth monsters which captured most of the villagers. Your job is to investigate what’s going on and try and save the day. Though things are kept relatively open ended, and you’re mostly left to your own devices, you’re essentially exploring, fighting monsters, saving villagers, rinse and repeat. This pattern is spiced up with a handful of quite challenging boss fights, but other than that it’s pretty predictable. And while you are left to explore on your own terms, the layout is always pretty linear, and you’re unable to proceed past certain points without the proper abilities. These are acquired by finding arcane artifacts, and result in skills most fans will be familiar with – double jump, wall climb, hover etc.

One way that Chasm keeps things interesting is that whenever you rescue a villager, they’ll offer their services for you back at Karthas. (Not unlike the system in Order of Ecclesia.) Thankfully the game has a smart teleportation system, and once you find the proper nodes you’ll be able to effortlessly explore and return to safety when needed. Which is good, since every service found in the game is only accessible in Karthas. By rescuing the villagers, you’ll unlock an item shop, blacksmith and even be able to buy magical spells from an old woman. That last part was especially helpful, since every sub weapon in the game can be unlocked in whatever order you please, for the right amount of gold. (I just wish there was a way to control which sub weapons you have ready to throw, since instead you’re forced to cycle through everything to get to the one you want.) And that brings me to one complaint I had with the game – I never seemed to have enough money. You’ll find most items are relatively expensive, which often leaves you to decide between buying healing potions, new equipment or magical spells. To be fair, you will find item drops from foes on occasion, but the drop rate is quite unpredictable and thus unreliable. Even when you find the villager who will buy gems from you for a hefty price, you’ll still be cash starved most of the time. Thankfully, you’ll always be able to restore your health at save points, though your MP can only be restored back at Karthas, by shattering lamps or with the aid of a tonic.

Make sure to save frequently!

As far as controls, I was very pleased with Chasm. Everything felt tight and intuitive, other than the dash move being tied to the Y button instead of a shoulder button on the XBox 360 controller. It’s effortless to jump around, wall climb, and slash your foes to ribbons. And that’s a good thing, since the combat is fast, furious and somewhat unforgiving. The saving grace is that enemies have lots of visual tells for all their attacks, so once you learn what to expect, you can anticipate and avoid their most devastating moves. This goes double for the challenging boss battles, though don’t expect to get through any of them unscathed. I found the bosses to be the highlights of the game, though there’s plenty of memorable minor enemies, such as the recklessly charging Meatman or the explosive Mushboom.

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Visually, I was quite impressed by Chasm. This is retro done right, with gorgeous pixelated art and tons of details that make this world come to life. Enemies range from comical to homicidal, and nothing feels out of place. I also appreciated smart and efficient use of the screen to display your stats, a clear map screen and even a pop up that appears to show you your current experience when you defeat enemies. This is a game that has done its research and knows what fans of the genre demand, and they delivered. Likewise, the music is wonderful and atmospheric. Each dungeon has it’s own score, and it can range from somewhat Western to downright Medieval. The sound effects also do a great job of grounding you in the game and helping you react intelligently to combat. Put simply, this is a Metroidvania that looks and sounds like what fans have come to expect, and does so with style.

I wish I could end on that high note, but now I feel compelled to mention some areas where I feel the game dropped the ball. Yes, visually the game is beautiful and the controls work quite well. But there’s more to a Metroidvania than just those features. One issue I mentioned earlier was the main character’s lack of personality. This became a problem for me late in the game when I realized his lack of emotion made it harder for me to care about the late game plot elements. Sure, horrible monsters threaten everything, but it’s hard to care when your hero seemingly has no nuanced reason to want to save the day. That may sound a bit critical, but there are other more relevant areas the game becomes problematic as well. About halfway through my 9 hour playthrough, the game started to throw up roadblocks without any clear way how to progress. Multiple times I was forced to look online at FAQs to figure out what I was missing, and oftentimes it was something I wouldn’t have guessed on my own. An example is when you reach the Keep but need the Parachute to progress. Problem is, to find that you need to get a black feather and then return to the Catacombs, find a specific chamber, and then proceed. Unfortunately, given the rogue nature of the dungeons, I was unable to check any online maps for clarity, and had to wander around til I finally found the right room. Which would have been a breath of relief, had it not led me to a pitch black labyrinth full of buzz saws, hideous new monsters and poisonous traps. This was easily the most challenging gauntlet in the game, and unfortunately it was only a sign of things to come. Later on you’re forced to beat what I thought was an optional area just to get an artifact that allows you to proceed past watery depths. Without it, you can’t reach the final area at all. I realize a Metroidvania is partially about exploring the unknown, but getting lost in this sort of game should be a temporary trial followed by a quick eureka moment, not wandering around aimlessly without being sure if you’re even properly equipped to proceed.

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This brings me to another complaint – some things are entirely unexplained in the game. While I don’t necessarily want my hand being held through every hardship, basic mechanics should be clear. However, I was never able to figure out how to level up my magical spells, despite them apparently being capable of leveling up. I also never figured out how to move some stone gates in a couple of areas, even after spending a lot of time exploring every nook and cranny. But perhaps most frustrating for me was that Chasm didn’t live up to it’s rogue nature. Sure, dungeons are different every game, but it’s always playing through the same dungeons with the same items. After playing another Metroidvania called A Robot Named Fight, which does a good job of constantly unlocking new features for progressive runs, the procedurally generated elements in Chasm felt bland and lackluster by comparison. It left me wishing that the game hadn’t embraced rogue at all, and had just tossed in a couple more dungeons and even some alternate endings instead.

I never did figure out how to get past here…

For $19.99, you could certainly do much worse than Chasm. While I don’t feel it entirely lived up to my expectations, it does a lot of things right, and looks and plays quite well. Unfortunately, the decision to make it rogue and the lack of a developed main character prevents it from making its mark as a true Metroidvania classic. But if you enjoy Metroidvanias and are looking for a fun if flawed experience, you should give Chasm a chance. If nothing else, the highlights of this game makes me anticipate whatever project Bit Kid does next.

[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”3.5″]

Review Copy Provided by Developer

REVIEW: Chasm Title Chasm

[backstage-bucknell]

Quarantining: A Gamer’s Guide

by Dean Patterson

I like video games, a lot.  This is evidenced by the fact that I play video games probably a bit too much.  With over a thousand hours logged onto one game with many others right behind, I am no stranger to self quarantining in my room with my family asking what I’ve been up to the past week.  Rather, this isolation is rather familiar on my end, as being alone is how I grew up.

To my very first point, playing video games has been immensely formative, as it is an art form to me, a way of creating something that is as different as film is from a book, it's a whole new medium that is slowly gaining a small amount of respect, maybe…  I love gaming because it is the definition of a self-insert, where you as a person can control and manipulate a story and like books, plays, and films, some stories are better than others.

To that end, I want to share a handful of my favorite games over the past few years, the ones that shaped what I loved to do today.  Some big names here, but

Person 5 Royal.

Beautiful, and absolutely the most nerdy and self indulgent japanese RPG style game where you can relive your highschool dream of being an underground vigilante with a posse of unique friends.  Its a very good game, though the story is a bit cheesy, except for the one twist in this special edition that, HOO BOY, knocked me off my feet.  But moreover, the music is a roaring ride of funky jazz bass and one of the most powerful female vocalists that backtrack your styling moves.  It feels good, looks good, and made me cry a little, because I cry a lot.

Transistor

This is a sad love story, about a city currently undergoing an apocalypse.  Captures the beauty of everyday side stories that people you pass on the street live, and also a bomb soundtrack.  Its smokey jazz club singing, its beautiful and nice nice nice.  Again, sad, its bittersweet having to watch the world you love fall apart in front of your eyes but you end up with the people you love.  Its nice.

b

You are a B, you fly around a field.  This is peak gameplay folks and it's free.

Metal Gear Solid 4

If you ever wanted to feel bad about global war and see reasons why it's bad (ironic right?) then look at the Metal Gear series.  A dense and intricate story of espionage and tactics weaves together a unique cast of characters that all have a stake in the fate of the world.  Gritty, brutal and sad at time, MGS made me cry over an old man.  The 4th game is regarded as the less goodly of the series, but I love it.  It captures the end of a battle and how people can be redeemed and turn swords into ploughshares.

Princess Remedy In a World of Hurt

This game is Grade A cute and wholesome, also free, and ends with you feeling warm and fuzzy inside.  You are a healer and you go around fixing broken hearts and bandage up wounded friends.  It's lighthearted, a bit tongue-in-cheek, and surprisingly non-violent.  Video games don't always need to be about murder.

Doom (2016)

However, if you do want violence and all that rated M stuff, Doom revives an ancient game into one of the most entertaining FPS’ I’ve touched in a long time.  It’s about killing demons, stupidly simple and very, VERY, cathartic.  Its good to play, but less so to watch, best enjoyed alone, with nice speakers so you can blast the heavy metal soundtrack the way it was meant to be heard.

To The Moon

This one is different, because I have heard a lot about this game, but never played it because apparently it is absolutely heartbreaking and I have such a weak heart already.  I’m genuinely scared to play this game, which is fun because I don’t want to start crying about trying to fulfil a dying man's last wish.  It’s pixel graphics, relaxing soundtrack, and as soon as I grow thicker skin, I will finish the game.

Terraria

So the game I’ve put over 1,000+ hours into?  This one.  This was my early introduction into PC gaming over a decade ago, and it kept my middle school friend group together until just last year.  When I was younger, I didn’t live near my friends, but we would all go home, finish some homework and then jump online and play until mom kicked us off.  This was my window into the social world, and it captured my imagination with charming music and the feeling of exploration and discovery.  It's a good game, a very good game that generates joy like no other.

So yeah, I like games, these few capture what I think video games can do, which is inspire.  I don’t feel that they need to be all death and violence, it's a form of escapism, some more unique than others.  Moreover, its fun, and we all need fun in our lives, whether you get that from books, hobbies, or whatever, if it keeps you going, then that's pretty cool.

[ladytabletop]

Hello!! I was the one who asked about where to find a group! I have a new question now, apologies if you've answered anything similar. So my friend and I haven't had any luck finding a grouo to join, so we've decided to start our own! I'm the one most interested in DMing out of our group, but here's the problem; I'm inexperienced. This would be my first *actual* game as a DM and I played one short session as a player once. That said: Any advice/tips/resources? ♡ Thank you!!

Hi there, so sorry about taking so long to answer this!

For your first game, there’s a couple important questions to ask yourself before you start. I will give advice under the assumption that you’ve already chosen the system you want to play.

First, how long of a game do you want to run? 

This is important mainly if you’re running something you’ve written on your own. It won’t necessarily be neat and easy, like saying ‘We will play exactly ten sessions.’ But knowing whether you’re looking to run a very long running game vs. a self-contained short can help you the DM when writing plot points and the like.

Second, pre-written adventure or homebrew? 

There are tons and tons of pre-written adventures for pretty much every system out there, whether they are published by the company that made the game or by enthusiastic players and GMs who put their own adventures out there in a published format. It’s worth noting that if you like something like Rise of the Runelords for Pathfinder but want to run it in DnD5, it isn’t too tough to adapt something from one system to another.

On the other hand, a homebrew plot can be really fulfilling! It requires a bit more work on your part, but it can be worth it. Keep in mind that you can start with a published adventure and veer into homebrew territory as you get more comfortable running things.

NOTE: a homebrew setting is a whole other beast, and here’s a post about that.

Also another beast: allowing homebrew in your games. If you’re going to do this, please please please talk with your players beforehand and make sure they know that balancing during the game may happen. Nobody likes to be nerfed, but if there’s homebrew that’s just outclassing everyone else, it has to be scaled back. Use your resources online, ask people to look over things you think might be over or underpowered.

Third, what style of game will this be?

Is it going to be political intrigue and espionage? A classic dungeon delving guild style? A Lord of the Rings-esque sweeping fantasy epic? A more modern fantasy fast-paced mystery? Seafarers and ship combat? A really dark game where things are serious, or a funny goofy romp?

All of these are great options, but be sure your players know a little bit about what type of game it will be so they can get on board! No one wants to bring a hardened vigilante elf barbarian with no stealth to a game that’s primarily social challenges and shadowy murders (actually now that I’ve said it, I do. but he would be thematically appropriate and not useless).

Now that those questions are answered, here’s a few more suggestions.

As a GM, it’s important to root for your player characters. If you’re the type of group that likes to play as GM vs. players, this campaign is deadly, that’s fine as long as that’s what everybody wants. But if not, you the GM need to challenge the characters without decimating them. Find out what their goals are and root for them in achieving them, but don’t make it easy! Help them have fulfilling character arcs and try to be familiar with their characters wants, flaws, past, etc. It’ll help you make things more personal in the plot, whether that be by making them run into an old foe or by helping them eventually trust people again, etc. Being familiar with the characters and what the players want for them will help you make the most satisfying game for everyone.

Remember that you’re a storyteller, but it’s not your story you’re telling. You can have plot points you’re attached to, NPCs you love, but ultimately, the story should be about the players. Let them shape it! Try to get them as involved in the heart of things as possible. Don’t make it seem like things can happen with just the NPCs, as though your characters are the bystanders. Let them be in the thick of the plot. This isn’t to say things won’t happen without them - they have to! But when things start really cooking, the PCs should be there, they should care about what’s happening, and they should be able to affect it to some degree.

Be flexible. Improv is a key skill for DMs. Not everyone is great at it, and that’s okay. That’s what online resources and prep time are for! But regardless of how good or not you are at making things up on the spot, you need to be flexible. Your players are going to change the way you think the plot will go. They’re going to surprise you. They’re going to (hopefully) have character arcs that change, and you need to adapt with them. You need to be ready for these things to happen, which honestly means being ready to throw out your prep and throw out the things you’ve worked on sometimes.

That being said, it’s important to do at least a little prep, especially if you’re running a plot heavy game and not a smash and grab dungeon crawl. This can be as simple as using index cards with bullet point NPCs, treasure, and monsters/encounters, or it can be as involved as writing out details about the setting and plot that you can read when it comes to the appropriate time and making huge complex maps and encounters.

Be consistent in your rulings. Sometimes the rules get debated, or you want a house rule at your table, or a spell is worded vaguely and there’s multiple interpretations, etc. In these instances, you get to say, ‘Hey, GM rules this.’ (I only recommend doing this after having heard arguments for why it could be ruled multiple ways). After you say that, stick to your guns! The rule stands, and it stands for everybody. Unless you really really think you were wrong later, in which case you should talk to your players and rectify things, you need to be consistent in the way you adhere to the rules so that no one feels cheated.

My last piece of advice for you is to always have open dialogue with your players. Get feedback on how they think the game is going. Get their predictions about the plot. Touch base about how their characters are feeling, what their goals are. Make it clear that if any players aren’t having fun/are having issues, they can come to you and you’ll do what you can to help. Just be open in your communication. And remember, everybody at the table should be having fun, including you.

Now that I’ve gotten through all that, here’s some resources I like to use for my games.

Donjon RPG Tools - this is my favorite of all time. Tons of random generators, from names to encounters to maps to treasure. There’s an initiative tracker, an xp calculator if you use experience points, and a dice roller. It’s really an all in one tool.

My resource tag has everything from inspirational art to interesting dungeon builds to how to incorporate linguistics into your games to answers to the question ‘How do I start a game?’ answered by other people. It’s really just an amalgam of collected resources.

I enjoy the Obsidian Portal campaign manager, and there are tons of others out there.

A lot of folks use the Same Page Tool to make sure all players and GM understand exactly what’s happening and what’s expected at the table.

I use the DnD5e Spellbook app (which of course is system specific, but super useful).

And other than that, I mainly just have pdfs of the system I’m using, a piece of scrap paper so I can note NPCs, locations, and plot points that the PCs encounter that may be relevant in coming sessions, notecards with stat blocks for enemies, a sheet to track PC ac, initiative, goals, and flaws. You’ll figure out the setup that works for you the longer you GM.

Good luck!!

[componentplanet]

Living with a Dell Precision 5540 Mobile Workstation

Just when you think you’ve got a great mobile computing solution, something always comes along to upset the apple cart. In my case, it was mostly drones — more specifically, the 4K footage from my Mavic Pro drones. In addition to the added compute demands of rendering and encoding 4K video, consumer drone footage benefits mightily from substantial post-processing to reduce noise, correct artifacts, and perform color grading.

My two-year-old Dell XPS 15 9560 has been a great workhorse for photo and video editing but has been limited by its 4-core CPU and thermal issues (even after I hacked on it with various thermal fixes). Plus there is a whole new generation of GPUs since its 1050, for applications like Lightroom and Photoshop that take advantage of them. So I went shopping.

Shopping for a High-Powered Laptop

By default, I looked at the newest model XPS 15, the 7590, but early reviewers seemed to be having the same thermal issues as the earlier versions. I also looked closely at the HP and Lenovo mobile workstations,

but the components I wanted — latest generation i9, Turing GPU, and 4K touch display, all in one 4-pound chassis — weren’t all available at the time. They are starting to be, and I look forward to working with some of them over time. But I needed something sooner, so I took a chance and purchased one of the first Dell Precision 5540 units.

The Precision 5540 is very similar to an XPS model, with a few workstation twists, like the option for a Quadro GPU and some thermal tweaks, along with being certified for a lot of creative and engineering software. Early units even said XPS on the back flap, although now they say Precision. Physically the Precision 5540 looks nearly identical to my 9560, and in fact while I’ve had both of them in use I’ve found myself being frustrated at a missing file only to realize I’m on the wrong laptop.

Dell also provides about the same extensive set of ports it has for several years. There is a USB-C port that is now Thunderbolt 3 compatible, HDMI, 2 traditional USB ports, a mic/headphone jack, and a welcome SD card reader. Hard-wired Ethernet is long gone, but Dell does ship a USB-C Ethernet dongle along with the machine. Video callers will be thrilled that Dell has squeezed the webcam into the tiny bezel above the screen, instead of having it next to the keyboard.

If you’re looking for a fresh design, the Precision 5540 isn’t it. It’s nearly identical on the outside to my 2-year-old XPS 15, other than the new webcam placement.

You can get the Precision 5540 with Windows 10 Home, Pro, or Workstation (if you choose the 6-core Xeon). Linux is also available. RAM ranges from 8GB to 64GB, and hard drives from 256GB to 1TB. If you want either the T1000 or T2000 GPU, you’ll probably also want the large battery instead of an extra drive bay. The only screen option advertised to support 100 percent of Adobe RGB is the 4K IGZO4 Touch version. Selecting it will also require the large battery and configuring 2 RAM modules. After Dell’s online discounts, the 5540 is priced similarly to a high-end XPS 15.

The Precision 5540 Is a Performance Beast for a 4-pound Laptop

By the numbers, the Precision 5540 is a large upgrade over my last-gen XPS. The 8-core i9-9980HK has a lower base clock than the 9560’s i7 (2.4GHz versus 2.8GHz) but it boosts to a maximum of 5GHz and doesn’t throttle nearly as much. Running Cinebench R20 (CPU rendering) the 9560 crashed to a low of .8GHz, helping reduce its score to just over 1000. The 5540 never went below 2.9 GHz which, along with its 8 cores, allowed it to score over 3200. That performance ratio was more than matched in Intel’s XTU benchmark, at 2800 versus 850.

Similarly, the Quadro T2000 is a big upgrade. 3DMark’s TimeSpy jumped from 1800 to 3200, for example. The results for FireStrike were also good, jumping from 5000 to 7400. Following along with a monitor on the CPU temperature and clock speed, a small amount of thermal throttling occurred, but the CPU was always able to perform above its base clock.

Dell’s Precision 5540 4K LED display has a gamut covering 100 percent of sRGB and Adobe RGB, along with 95 percent of DCI-P3.

However, this is still a lot of processing power and heat crammed into a small package, so it isn’t immune from throttling. A combination of heavy CPU and Nvidia GPU load will cause the system power limit to come down, which in turn can reduce clock rates down to their base clock.

What? No RTX?

Having just covered Nvidia’s big push to roll out its RTX capabilities to “Creatives,” I was well aware that even though the T2000 GPU in the Precision 5540 is a beast by mobile standards, it doesn’t have any of the dedicated RTX functionality. In the end, I decided I’m okay with that. It isn’t clear how much true RTX capability is in applications Nvidia touts, so I don’t know what the performance gain would be.

In particular, while I do a lot of rendering, encoding, and image processing, I don’t game on my laptop (much) or use it for ray tracing very often. Similarly, serious AI work will still be the province of my desktop machines or the cloud, which have beefier GPUs and more GPU memory. Plus, the mobile workstations with real RTX GPUs are even heavier and more expensive. If Nvidia is successful in establishing RTX

as a permanent part of its architecture, I’m sure that will change over time.

“Kitbashing” to Save Some Bucks

A favorite term in our family comes from model railroading: Kitbashing to upgrade a pre-designed building model is one of our favorite activities. Doing your own computer upgrades can be just as rewarding, and even more profitable. Dell wanted an uplift of something like $700 to equip my machine with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. I found I could buy the equivalent or better components for about $250 (Crucial 2666 RAM and a top-rated Adata NVMe SSD) and install them myself.

I did find that the security settings in the BIOS had to be turned down a notch before it let me boot of my new drive — that I had cloned from the one that came with the Precision 5540. Then I used the excellent PC Mover utility from Laplink to get my apps, files, and settings across from my old machine. It’s not perfect, but having tried many tools that claim to do this over the years, it is the only one I’ve found that is actually worth using.

Using the Dell Precision 5540

Overall, the Precision 5540 is a joy to use. The screen is stunning and capable of being incredibly bright. Having the (optional) fingerprint reader in the power button makes returning to the machine simple and intuitive. And the machine is fast. It not only benchmarks fast, it feels fast and is responsive (which you’d certainly expect from all that power under the hood). You can order it with a spinning hard drive as the primary drive, but I find it hard to believe that would ever make sense.

Unfortunately, much like many other Windows computers, the Precision 5540 continues to struggle with sleep-related issues when running Windows 10. The first one I ran across was that the default “connected standby” or whatever the current term is for the default sleep mode is, would enable the machine to fire back up after I closed it and put it in my photo backpack. Forcing it to hibernate solved that problem, but it really shouldn’t be a problem at all in a state of the art high-end machine. The other issue I had with two different units is that after resuming from sleep the WiFi speed was crushed to less than 10% of what it had been before. Interestingly, I didn’t see this when the 5540 first shipped, but has been easily repeatable for the last couple weeks. Updating drivers (from either the Dell or Intel site) doesn’t seem to fix it, although turning WiFi off and on again does. I really hope Dell gets on top of this soon.

Conclusion

Overall, I’m satisfied with the Precision 5540. It performed perfectly on the road in Europe to process 360-degree panoramas and lots of 4K drone footage, and around the US on several different projects. While the 5540 pricing starts at $1,240, a fully-configured unit prices out at just over $3,000, so it isn’t for everyone. I’m pleased with my choice and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to those with similar needs and budgets, although both the Thinkpad X1 Extreme 2nd generation and the HP ZBook Studio G6 should be worthy competitors. I’m assuming that Dell can fix the annoying WiFi issue.

For Mac users, look for the rumored 16-inch MacBook Pro by the end of 2019. I do wonder if its screen will actually be larger than the 15.6-inch current standard for high-end 15-inch machines, or if the 16-inch moniker is just marketing. It’ll be interesting to see what Apple provides for GPU options for it, as that is one area where they have tended to lag behind Windows competitors.

Now Read:

At a Glance: Alienware M15 R2 Laptop Review

Hands On With the DJI Mavic Pro: A Serious Drone That Fits in Your Daypack

Lenovo X1 Carbon vs. Yoga: Which ThinkPad Model Is Right for You?

from ExtremeTechExtremeTech https://www.extremetech.com/computing/296737-living-with-a-dell-precision-5540-mobile-workstation from Blogger http://componentplanet.blogspot.com/2019/10/living-with-dell-precision-5540-mobile.html

[mylittlechimera-archive]

1, 3, and 10 for your Hawke? :)

Wooo! I haven't talked about Dragon Age in 50 years. Let's get this party started.1) What was the first element of your OC that you remember considering (name, appearance, backstory, etc.)? I clearly remember that I wanted to design a lady character who is very visibly 'top heavy' in her body type. Thick silhouette, broad arms, big breast that are not there just to 'sexy things up' and tummy, all that mixed with fairly slim, long legs. You almost never see women like that in art, even fan created because 'what do you mean by woman without curvy hips lmao' or some shit like that. Even though in reality it's a fairly common body type. I was frustrated is what I'm saying. 3) How did you choose their name? Dude, for this one I had to dig my memory a bit, but I remember now. My Hawke's general looks were loosely based on character portrait of my old, old NWN pc who was called Shani Xilo. At first I wanted to take her name too, but as I was developing Hawke it stopped working for her, sounded too sweet, so I looked for something else that starts with Sh and ended up with Shaelyn.10) If they have an LI, how much of their character is tailored to be compatible to that person? Not much tbh? Yeah Shaelyn is fiercely pro-mage, but I don't do anti-mage characters at all. Anders and Shaelyn have a lot of opposite traits so I was thinking of them more as "admire in other person what you don't have yourself" and "complete each other while working towards mutual goals". But I still can see them having disagreements over their differences.

[goforcechokeyourself]

Battlefront 2 Master Post

Alright so this is my master post I was wanting to make where I talk about battlefront 2, I attended the swco2017 battlefront 2 panel and was shown the “exclusive” content video after the main stream was cut to all the online audiences so I’m going to talk about that and basically everything else we current know about battlefront  

So first off the game is set to release nov. 17th 2017, the game can be played earlier by 1. purchasing the Elite trooper edition (79.99) which will allow you a 3 day early access to the game (nov. 14th) and or 2. by being apart of of ea access which is exclusive to x box one and origin on pc which will let you start playing on (nov. 9th).   

NO SEASON PASS (what could this mean?)  

    Battlefront 2 (ea) will feature a single player campaign as well as up to 40 player multiplayer. It will spread across all eras including prequel, original, and sequel trilogies. Space battles have been confirmed as well as offline co-op for console editions. Classes are making a debut in this as one of the changes from their earlier installment in their battlefront games (2015) as well as a weapon modification system and abilities customization options.  

Prequel content 

So lets get right into the mix shall we? like most of you here I assume your biggest worry was the prequel content right? Clone wars was a huge part of my enjoyment for the other battlefront games from the 2000′s and my childhood in general; so the announcement of prequels being included in this immediately spiked my interest!    

(picture below is a scene from the trailer where it shows maul and yoda about to face off)

Even after seeing this though (which is the only prequel content shown in the trailer :’/ ) I was skeptical about the appearance of the clones, ideas worked around in my head about nasty ol’ EA making a hero only mode which feature prequel characters and while that would still be a step up from not having them in the game at all it really pissed me off because I want the clones dammit and those stupid little battle droids too. So after the stream cut off at swco2017 EA’s panel for battlefront 2 they told us to turn off our phones and that they would be showing us something exclusive to us. Basically a video of the dev team and their journey making the game riddled with secrets and bits of concept art and more information about the game. They also showed a slide show before this with bits and pieces of art for the games and both of those mixed with information I’ve gathered on my own will be presented now in this post. 

So back to the clones, are they making it into the game? YES THEY WILL! 

(picture above is a piece of concept art featuring clones some sporting jetbacks fighting a battle on the water planet of Kamino) 

Yes the clones will be apart of this game thank the maker! I was a little upset that no actually footage of them is shown or any actually close up art or models for them was shown but considering the games launch is still pretty far off I understand and will be patient.   

(picture below features a battle droid from the separatists side) 

However we did get a look at a game model for a battle droid! Which I am pleased to say looks very nice indeed. 

Okay so what about planets? Well Kamino is the only one we have a visual for sadly, however in the description for the “elite” version of the game available for pre order on amazon.com it is revealed that Theed will be playable as well (will we see the gungans???). 

Phase 1 clones are the only ones shown via art so no information about if we will see phase 2 clones is available right now that I know of unfortunately. But I for one am very excited at the prospect of clones in my battlefront game once again after 12 years. 

Original and Sequel trilogy content 

Lets take a look at some of the other eras, both the original and the sequel trilogy will have maps and troopers and verticals available for play in both multiplayer and single player (it was not discussed if any prequel content would make it into the single player but we will get into that later)  

(picture above shows kylo ren leading a group of first order troopers into battle on star killer base) 

TFA & TLJ content will be available in the game little is talked about what TLJ content will be shown in game beside the pre order bonus of bonus outfits for rey and kylo and some unique abilities and skins for the falcon and a TFO fighter? 

Maybe we will see Maz’s castle as a playable map? who knows. 

As far as the original trilogy content goes for multiplayer. We have Hoth confirmed, Yavin 4, Endor, Tatooine, and the main character (iden) of the single players home world Vardos 

(pictured about the new planet Vardos) 

Also something to be excited about even tho we are in fact seeing some reappearing planets from the earlier installment (2015) is that there are new details about the planets yet unexplored by DICE. Such as being able to ride the taun tauns! this might not sound like much but I loved riding them in the old 2005 installment of battlefront so this pleases me very much. 

(pictured rebel soldier riding tauntaun into a snow trooper)  

The scout trooper and tie pilot will be available as skins (or classes?)  I assume as both of them are shown in the trailer. 

(pictured above Iden and the inferno sqaud on endor in tie fighter like apparel) 

Okay so we got the OT, PT, & ST all taken care of as far as content so what else can we expect from this game that is new? 

Whats new?

Well new ground vehicles have been confirmed yet again via amazon description   

So we have tanks, what can be expected from this some of those glorious tanks from Battlefront 2 (2005) maybe? Only the future can tell.

We have an assortment of new weapons like the A280-CFE blaster rifle (used by mr cassian andor in rogue one) 

We have the return of the class system tho not as large as the 2005′s roster. Battlefront 2 (ea) will have 4 different classes with different play styles featured in their game specialist, heavy, officer, and assault. From my assumption assault will be the regular trooper type (battle droids, clone trooper, storm trooper etc.) and specialist will be things like scout troopers, bothans, assassin droids. Heavy troopers will consist of wookiees, droidekas, tfa heavy trooper and last but not least the officer class seems pretty self explanatory. 

(pictured from left to right specialist, heavy, officer, assault)  

Abilities and Customization 

One of the other new things that will be in this new installment is abilities. This will be the answer to the power up icons found as pick ups in the last game. 

The only ability that I have heard about is reys mind trick and kylo’s “force freeze” so we will have to wait and hear more about them.

Heroes   

As far as heroes go we will definitely be seeing Rey, Kylo, Darth Maul, Yoda, and Han Solo as been confirmed as well.  

(pictured below is rey running through a jungle or forest planet shown in the trailer)

Single Player Campaign 

There will be a single player campaign featured in battlefront 2 (ea). The focus of this campaign will be about a woman named Iden who is the leader of Inferno sqaud (yes that same one). The campaign will span 30 years connecting ROTJ to TFA and will center around Idens resolve to get revenge on the rebel alliance and it’s heroes for killing her emperor an for the most part destroying her empire “this is where the real war begins”. In the trailer shows of starkiller base are shown and her and the inferno squad dispatching rebels and numerous space battles both with rebels of the OT and ST. Also a very interesting scene of her holding luke skywalker hostage? with a DH-17. So pretty exciting right? it has been announced that this story will be CANON. There is also going to be a tie in novel for the game named Battlefront 2 Inferno squad and that comes out in July. The novel will take place 4 years before the game and give some insight into Iden’s background and life pre the events of ROTJ.

Now lets get into the content that was shown after the cameras went off. 

A lot of concept art was shown for various locations via computer screens people were working on as well as actual pieces shown to us one that I would like to talk about was a scene of the rebel troopers from ROTJ in which the infamous bearded trooper is seen. I thought this was interesting because the picture seems largely focus around the bearded trooper and as it’s been made aware Dave Filoni is currently working to try to make the fan theory that, that trooper is in fact captain rex from star wars rebels. So this brings up the question will rex be playable in this game? 

another piece of interesting concept art was a sea cave map? it’s hard to tell what planet this was on if I had to guess I would say naboo? but it could very well be a new planet. this piece of art was very beautiful though so hopefully it gets turned into a good map. 

There was lots of shots of places and models very obscured because you were looking at them not directly so it’s hard to say exactly what most of them are there very well could be a video of this someone snuck so you’re welcome to look for it to try and pick through it but as for me the only 2 real things that stuck out for me I just mentioned above. I would want to bore you all with my speculations on what obscure images in concept art could mean that I barely remember so I shall not. 

To round it all up 

I am pretty excited for this game, I was not so much pleased with the last installment in 2015. I was a stalwart defender of it during the announcement stage and even during beta stage but now that it’s all said and done and all the content has been released and it’s been left to rot on the servers I find myself forever bothered by why it was even made. If you want my personal opinion I believe DICE used the game as somewhat of a tech demo not only for this game but for Battlefield 1 which irritates me because I had so much passion for it when it was coming out and the return of battlefront even in the face of adversity. At the swco2017 panel tho I saw the passion of the devs when they talked about this game and I admit even in my doubt I still hold for this game to save myself from being dissapointed I believe this game will at least right most of the wrongs that were committed in the first game. 

I hope everyone who is excited for battlefront 2 or just wanted information enjoys my post about it, May the force be with you all.

[jugs-and]

2016 through music.

I wouldn’t say that music has become less of a thing for me in 2016. Music is great, it’s how I’ve met a lot of people, but I feel I hit a lot more musical dead-ends than previous years. There was this point--multiple points--where I couldn’t really figure what music I liked. It was different from previous years, as I spent more time in search of new music, than having a lot of playlisted albums to listen to. 

Music did not necessarily feel less important to me, it merely was not quite the marker for passage of time as well as previous years. As a consequence, my music tastes were a bit all over the place: I feel I began the year listening to a lot of UK hardstyle and  grime, then I went through a period with very dark, industrial techno, gabber beats--not related to any life event, it was just what I enjoyed at the time. Beyond that, I dabbled in some folk and country towards the end of the year, with some rap/gospel-- a la Chance the Rapper, A Tribe Called Quest both releasing excellent albums. This year ended with a lot of musicals and show-tunes to finish it off.

January - Of all the celebrity deaths this year, nothing topped David Bowie for me on the 10th of January. I actually was listening to “Blackstar” on Spotify the days leading up to his death, after hearing to the title track premiere on BBC Radio in December. I make it sound like a competition, but no other death even came close in 2016. The thing about Bowie was how timeless his music was in its ability to be “pop” and just something off-the-wall completely. It was always so recognizably “Bowie” but never quite tame or relaxed, his music always seemed tense as if in some sort of dichotomy. So long, Starman.

Honestly, the only person that I would be more upset about is if Brian Eno died.

 Lazarus - David Bowie

February - From the sunny glory of January, I got into the groove of a lot of UK hardcore and classic happy hardcore. 

It was really warm this month. I remember trying to build my PC, and walking to R-’s house to borrow his battery pack. That same weekend, I was browsing the hardcore section at Real Groovy. I remember this story specifically because I told this story for Rd- at work. A 30yo.+ guy started chatting to me recommending <those> hardcore mixes--the ones with the salacious covers with cartoon fake tits with suspicious names like DJ Candylicious. I swear I didn’t know this guy.

The gateway into this genre was a RobDaBank mix I was listening to on Spotify, there was an Elf Kid track. I loved the flow and sense of genuine fun, I want to note that I liked it before it became super cool. I can literally trace it back to that one track which made me pull out old Dizzee Rascal, Wiley, Basement Jaxx, Skepta, DJ EZ albums, and ultimately into UK hardcore.

Golden Boy - Elf Kid

March - Early March when I went to see Sufjan Stevens. I went by myself because I bought my tickets incredibly late, it was amazing. The set was the material that dreams are made of, my dreams specifically.

He played through most of his new album with bombast and sincerity. There was a certain restraint to his set considering the content concerning the death of his mother. His encore set was a sparse affair with a three man band armed with mandolin, trumpet and double bass--tracks from Seven Swans, Michigan, Illinoise e.t.c.

I cried a little when Chicago played.

Fourth of July - Sufjan Stevens

April - April was uneventful, I don’t remember very much specifically about these days. I know I actually completed Fallout 4, the first video game in years that I’ve committed time to actually complete. It wasn’t even that great of a game, I generally don’t have the patience or the time to commit to something like that. I tried to replicate this with The Witcher 3--multiple times in 2016, but I have not found success so far.

The Irish flatmate had just moved in and he made it clear that I lacked a certain finesse around preparing potatoes. He set down his phone, he often walked around the flat with music blaring from his phone as if to announce his entrance.

Baz Luhrmann - Wear Sunscreen (Mau Kilauea’s Tropical Remix)

May - A lot of late nights at work. I don’t even remember what I was working on that was so important to warrant late nights. I’m trying to be a lot better with leaving work if I don’t need to do it till the next day. The late nights, I listened to a lot of mixes, and Traumprinz’s RA mix really stood out to me as well as his Giegling mix. There wa s a lot of distractedness digging through his discogs and finding his EPs.

There Will Be XTC is my favourite track that I’ve heard this year. The drum loop is so simple and emotive, the whole track is just so heavy.

Traumprinz - There Will Be XTC

June - While I did say Bowie’s death was incredibly upsetting, I feel the death of Christina Grimmie was probably the most devastating death this year. I don’t think she is quite a celebrity, outside of youtube I don’t think she was particularly well known. The nature of her death was just devastating, and so completely bizarre that it really bothered me for days. The whole fragility and unpredictability of human life still really bothers me.

I remember going to work on Monday after following the news stories, and just completely numb. I don’t really follow her music much at all, she was a relic of a time past. The month just went by quickly marking the halfway point in the year, I worked on some pretty good projects.

Just a Dream - Christina Grimmie and Sam Tsui 

July - Family holiday in New York, we were all walking on the boardwalk at Coney Island and this was playing. It’s all a bit nostalgic, though I’d never been there before in my life. I’d seen the landscapes and the pier that reaches out into the water in so many movies.

The “Cyclone” ride was all the more exhilarating because I feared for my life and safety on that rickety timber framing, than any intended thrills. It was an excellent ride though, there is a certain art to it all.  

Kent Jones - Don’t Mind

August - A close friend got married this month in Devonport.

It was an awesome wedding, it made me really hopeful. The wedding was basically crowd-sourced, and put together for nothing. The entire thing was  fueled by the generous giving of the church I attend. In fact, the wedding date was only decided two weeks before because the church hall they were interested in had an opening.

I woke up early the morning of the wedding, and caught the sunrise from the North Head. The ferry I wanted to catch, I actually missed, and I sat in McDonalds, I bought two Egg and Bacon McMuffins. My headphones had Azealia Banks playing and I remember wearing my Sunday best while clambering up the grassy bank, trying not to mess up any of my clothes.

But oh my gosh, I love this track. It’s so braggadocio and so unashamedly AB.

Azealia Banks - Big Big Beat

September - I did my second Tongariro Crossing. A lot has changed since I did it last--dare I say, it’s a lot easier now, a lot of stairs instead of clambering up half-formed tracks. It was starkly empty compared to the summertime I completed last time. We hired crampons and ice-axes and climbed up Mount Doom. It was a great time, though the weather for long periods of time made it seem unlikely.  

In the car ride down, I sat with Colin. I fell asleep in the front seat, and did that thing where you jerk awake. I also assumed someone’s name wrong because he was Spanish and another guy in our group was Spanish, and they both looked the same. There were a lot of other episodes, including driving down a country road in pitch darkness for fun, and Lady Gaga was playing on the radio inbetween Te Kuiti and the backpackers.

Lady Gaga - Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say) 

October - I ran a half-marathon this month, it was a week after my birthday. My training up to the marathon was a bit stunted with an injury two weeks before the run cutting my plans to a half. The entire run, I was listening to hardstyle, which I hastily downloaded beforehand. There was a Kutski mix from a Dublin show--I was mostly too tired to concentrate on it too much, I remember having to constantly increase the volume higher and higher to keep it having any relevance to my motivation.

Donald Trump won the US Presidential Elections as well this month. I’m probably more upset about it now, than I was on the day itself. His cabinet picks are <incredibly> establishment. It’s all rather disappointing, I just look forward to the resounding loss that the Republican are going to receive next election.

The second Presidential Candidate debate based within a town hall meeting, some writers suggested Donald Trump’s performance was akin to the single mom was summoned to the Harper Valley PTA. Donald Trump was the mirror that highlighted the imperfections of the Republican Party and I’m not sure if I agree. It’s a bit of a desperate comparison, but that Loretta Lynn album is great. 

Loretta Lynn - Harper Valley PTA

November - I went to a Nina Kraviz show. I followed a lot of artists on her Trip label and adored her sets on the BBC Radio Residencies. I actually missed out on tickets initially, I don’t keep up with local music gigs. I don’t keep up because I find Auckland, in general, to be very thin on culture per capita. I did end up snagging some at the last minute off facebook, someone was offering tickets and I messaged him within a minute.

It was great, I loooooove techno a lot. It’s dark, it’s cerebral, it’s spiritual--I just lose myself in it. I missed the set by Bjarki which I am slightly peeved about because I slept from 11pm - 1am because I’m not a weirdo who parties all night. I’m the weirdo on the dancefloor just in another world--actually, I guess there are quite a few of those but on ecstasy.

Ghetto Kraviz - Nina Kraviz (Regal Sad Remix)

The days seemed to be going by so slowly at work. Christmas felt all so close and yet so far away. Desperately slowly. I occupied my days with headphones at work, keeping a low profile and listening to Hamilton. There were days where I would listen to the soundtrack three times to mark the passage of time. When the third listen finished, it was time to go home. Wait For It really stood out on first listen, but Satisfied is the best track for sure, and there are so many good tracks in there. The whole track is just reminiscent of sitting at the office, which is an unfortunate thing. 

Wait for It - Lin Manuel Miranda

December - The last month before the new year. Contrasting the previous month, this seemed to all pass so quickly. Especially that last week, the entire office was rushing projects one after the other for three important client meetings.

At the end of year party, I think I was a bit intoxicated. I hadn’t eaten anything and drank two beer and left pretty early, forgetting my Secret Santa gift and my plane itineraries. I’m back in Wellington for Christmas, my brother is here as well. I’m kind of sick at the moment--I just started sneezing on Sunday, hay fever on Boxing Day, and it just never stopped with the running nose and sore throat.

The first day I felt maybe over 50%, we drove up to the Tararuas yesterday, and just jammed Eminem and twenty one pilots--all the greatest road trip music. I do like this twenty one pilots track a lot--though, I am extremely unlikely to watch Suicide Squad ever.

Heathens - twenty one pilots

Wow. That was long. Hi. 

tl;dr - playlist. 

[sven-kroosl]

My Top 10 Games of 2016

Man I'm glad 2016 is over but the games were good...

Some years play rough and 2016 was one of those years and I am very happy for it to be over. On the other hand in terms of video games, and only video games, this was a really great year. From a really solid resurgence in the quality of triple A shooters, to the Juggernaut that was Overwatch, and some really solid indie releases, there were actually too many good games for one person to play. Also there was a massive update to DotA 2 this year which is always welcome. So here we go, my top ten games of 2016.

 Honorable Mention - The Final Station

 Of all the games I played this year I had the most intense reaction to The Final Station. Upon completion of this game I set aside my controller, turned off my monitor, not the PC, just the monitor, then I went for a walk around the block. I was moved to this act not by any great aspect of the game’s production or by some jaw dropping set piece but instead by the oppressive weight and bleakness of The Final Station’s world. A dangerous world where even the simplest task can expose you to being torn apart by brutal attackers. A world where infrastructure is crumbling and the people normally trusted with protecting everyone have secretly betrayed the trust of the people. After the way 2016 played out, the bleak outlook of The Final Station resonates even more.

 10 - Pokemon Go

 I am not a Pokemon fan. I fully recognize the good and great qualities of the Pokemon universe, but the games and cartoons have just never done much for me. The runaway success of Pokemon Go demanded that I give the game a shot despite my usual lack of enthusiasm. What I found was a really solid AR experience filled with tons of excuses to get me up and about in the real world and a great new icebreaker to start conversations with people I would otherwise have nothing in common. Oh yeah, and some weak ass Pokemon.

 9 - Reigns

 Reigns is a truly fantastically simple game. Of the two mobile games on this list Reigns is the one that fit into my life the best. In that way Reigns was the anti Pokemon Go; Pokemon Go was the mobile game that changed my routine and Reigns was the game that fit into my routine. When you’re waiting in line for the movies or whatever you can’t go running after that stupid Zapdos. But you know what you can do? You can live the lives of half a dozen Medieval Kings, you can meet the devil in the form of you dog, you can fight skeletons in a dungeon, and even more cool stuff. Also it’s a mobile game that you just pay for up front and it never bothers you for money again, which is always nice.  

 8 - Darkest Dungeon

 Fun fact: for most of my 2015 Extra Life Marathon I was having internet service issues and about the only game I could reliably stream was the early access version of Darkest Dungeon, so I have more than a little experience with the game. The way that every part of The Darkest Dungeon works together to to create a gothic horror landscape is just fantastic. The way the cartoony artstyle contrasts with the animation and sound design is just dissonant enough to be unsettling. The way that the psychological maladies effect the gameplay and can just straight up end a dungeon run or in some cases even end a game is a risky gamble that really adds a sense of tension that works incredibly well with the tone of the game. Ultimately Darkest Dungeon is a really great, creepy, game. Be ready to grind a bit though because you'll definately need to.

 7 - The Banner Saga 2

 In a year when the second entry in the XCOM franchise was a disappointment there was a shining star in the turn based strategy genre and that star was The Banner Saga 2. Where XCOM 2 made the mistake of assuming players had maintained their skills from the first game The Banner Saga 2 eased players back into the combat system with a few easier battles before dialing up the difficulty. It also doesn’t hurt the game that it has some of the best hand drawn style art and animation of any game ever. Bottom line: The banner Saga was the best turn based strategy game released this year and I really like that type of game.

 6 - Overwatch

 I really enjoyed my time with Overwatch this year. Zarya is top tier A-plus defensive tank, and is also just the best. The way that Blizzard has built not just a great multiplayer game but also the UI framework around that game which celebrates every player’s contribution is a great accomplishment. I think that the characters in Overwatch are all really fun as is the game itself. It’s just a shame that there’s really no good single player experience in the game and that the story exists entirely outside the game, and that the community for that game is becoming toxic in spite of some masterful design efforts to combat that. Also shameful is Blizzard's decision to add the worst free to play practice, blind loot boxes with repeats, to a full price retail game. Overwatch is a really great game that is slowly getting worse over time and that’s kind of sad.

 5 - Dark Souls 3

 Dark Souls 3 is my first Souls game so I was unprepared for the absolute savagery with which this game assails players, even in the tutorial. Once I played for a while, though, patterns began to reveal themselves and a game that seemed ferocious at first became simply challenging but fair. The appeal of Souls  games was lost on me for a long time. I couldn’t understand why people were so excited to play blatantly unfair games. Now that I’ve played one I understand that these games aren’t really unfair or even onerously difficult. Souls games simply operate at a different tempo from other games and learning that tempo is the really difficult part of mastering them.

 4 - Stellaris

 Just. One. More. Turn.

Getting you to say that after 8 hours is  the ultimate goal of all games like Stellaris.  What Stellaris offers you that others like it don’t is freedom. Freedom to design your own civ, freedom to find your own way to win the game, freedom to be weird. Games like Stellaris, most notably the Civ series, tend to force players into a few basic strategies. Sure you can try a pacifist playthrough in a Civ game but good luck actually winning or even surviving very long that way. Stellaris has a way of making all playstyles viable by making them all just flawed enough that really drew me in to an extent greater than any other game I played this year. That said I tend to be fairly biased in favor of this type of game in general so it’s not a huge surprise that it affected me this way.

 3 - Doom

 Doom is a game about momentum which is important because that is the way it is different from practically every other game this year. The new hotness in games lately has been agility; letting players flit about the environment hither and thither. Doom ignores this trend, almost with disdain, forcing players to keep their feet mostly planted on the ground but letting them move at unheard of, in recent years, speed across it. What this means is that Doom isn’t a game about not getting blasted so much as it is a game about blasting things. The whole point of the game is to treat enemy encounters the way the Kool-Aid Man treats walls. This isn’t just a return to form to the series because this year’s DOOM added a new piece to the old formula; storytelling. In DOOMs of yore story was an afterthought for the most part. This DOOM, though, actually has a story with a plot and everything and actually interesting supporting cast members. This game even managed to give the “Doom guy” a little bit of a personality and for that alone it will go down as maybe one of the best shooter campaigns ever. In a year where the most popular game is often about five opposing team members finding ways to keep you from killing the sixth Doom is a breath of fresh air, letting you really cut loose against a horde of angry demons released by the worst kind of short sighted corporate greed.

 2 - Hyper Light Drifter

 I’ve said this a lot this year and I’m going to keep on saying it, because apparently it needs to be said. Everyone, play, Hyper Light Drifter. As a medium video games are often criticized, occasionally correctly, for being too over the top. With that being the case Hyper Light Drifter is possibly the exception that proves the rule. Which is to say sublimely simple and quiet but also incredibly fun and engaging. It doesn’t hurt that the game has the what is probably the best pixel art and sprite work in a game since Fez, an amazing synth heavy soundtrack and great sound design overall. The real beautiful aspect of Hyper Light Drifter, though, is the gameplay, specifically the combat. Few things this year have been more satisfying than mastering the combat in Hyper Light Drifter. The combat is just different enough from other similar games to be challenging while being familiar enough to not be off putting. But more than anything about the game it is the quiet  tone of Hyper Light Drifter that impressed me. So what are you waiting for. Go play this game!

 1 - Titanfall 2

 Titanfall 2 is a truly magnificent accomplishment in game design and execution. Every bit of the game is impeccably well done, it looks and sounds amazing, plays like a dream and most importantly is a joy to play. While a lot of games have the kinds of traversal mechanics that Titanfall 2 has, nothing feels like Titanfall 2.  That is what makes this the best game of the year, the way it feels. More than any other aspect of the medium, feel is what defines and differentiates games. In a year where great games were built to make you want to gamble on a loot box or increase accuracy of your favorite GPS app, the relative purity of Titanfall 2 makes it stand out. Instead of trapping players in a restrictive character class Titanfall 2 lets people customize almost every aspect of their multiplayer loadout. The game is even more distinctive on account of its campaign, remember those, which is a masterclass in how to pace mechanics. Titanfall 2 is constantly introducing and discarding new, interesting gameplay mechanics and consequently never gets dull or repetitive. When the mechanical brilliance of the campaign is put together with Titanfall 2’s solid “A boy and his robot” story and one of the year’s standout new characters, BT 7274, and you get, arguably, the best campaign of the year.

As parts of video game industry more and more often leave out parts of their games so they can sell them to us later or add sleazy free to play hooks to games they also expect us to pay for up front, it becomes important to celebrate games for simply being complete experiences on release. Unlike some games on this list Titanfall 2 is at that and more, the best game of the year.  

[lechevaliermalfet]

Behind the Gun: A Look at Quake

It's summer, and in summer I get nostalgic for two things, game-wise: old Playstation games, and Quake.

Back when Quake was still new-ish, we had a Pentium PC (a Compaq Presario Penium 150, to be exact).  This was just good enough to run Quake without breaking a sweat... as long as we ran it at 320x240 resolution).  A popular online argument at the time was whether Quake or Duke Nukem 3D was the superior game.  Considering this article is about Quake, I think we can all safely assume what side of that debate I would have fallen on.

As far as first-person shooters went, I'd played a lot of Wolfenstein 3D on my parents' previous computer (a Packard Bell 386 that originally came with 2 different floppy drives and no sound card, and had the CD-ROM drive and Soundblaster added in a couple years later).  And I'd sort of played the classic Doom, albeit only the shareware version, and that running like a slide-show unless we shrank the screen to postage-stamp resolution.  But Quake was the first first-person shooter that really hooked me, just got under my skin and grabbed me and kept drawing me back to it again and again.  I dreamed about playing it, I think.

For a while there, it was a habit during the summer to play it for hours on end.  I'd retreat to my parents' basement (yeah, yeah...) to avoid the summer heat, and clock in time on Quake.

It's the first game I install on a new PC these days: Download from Steam, apply source port patches, and go.  There's a lot you can do with it nowadays to make it run at ridiculous resolutions with ludicrously detailed textures on everything, but for my money, I prefer not to do more than apply the anisotropic filter and make the water transparent.  It makes it clear exactly what the game is, which is to say a ferocious and fast-paced shooter from a bygone era.  

As much as gaming publications of the day painted Quake as the wave of the future, that's because at the time, it looked that way.  Hindsight suggests that Quake was less the vanguard of the new school of FPS design and more the beginning of the end of the old school.  But the publications of the day were mostly speaking in the strictly technical sense, anyway. Unlike every other FPS then on the market, Quake was the first to be rendered completely in 3D, from the environments to the enemies to the objects in the game world.  

From a design persepctive, the one thing this really changed about the usual FPS set-up was an increased element of verticality.  Given that most FPSes prior to Quake essentially faked 3D by way of programming sorcery, level design options such as having one room or area atop another, or having platform jumping, were off the table.  Aside from these additions, though?  From the arsenal of seven or eight weapons available at all times, to the firing of weapons straight out of the ammo reserves (with no magazines or reloading), to the very game-y level design, everything in Quake was familiar to fans of older games.

Which, just to be clear, is the furthest thing in the world from a problem. It takes a measure of getting used to after coming off a Halo bender, but it's old-school design at its finest.  

Speaking of old-school design: There's an interesting difference, which you pick up on pretty quickly, between how Quake handles combat compared to other games.

Most enemies in FPS titles these days tend to have behaviors and tactics particular to their type and situation.  Sometimes, as in the case of a game like F.E.A.R., the enemy intelligence is capable of surprisingly clever tactics.

Quake isn't one of those cases.  Enemies in Quake all basically have the same behavior programmed into them, which is to move toward the player in the straightest line possible, and attack once in range.  Which was par for the course with games of this vintage, really.  What was smart about the enemies was the way they were arrayed against you, with numbers, placement, combinations, and a level of aggression that kept players on their toes.  It means combat frequently occurs against groups of enemies, and occasionally hits a white-knuckled, breathing-heavy level of intensity that gives you a powerful rush when you come out alive on the other side.

There is overall a very game-like feeling to Quake that's hard to shake.  This may require some explanation.

More modern video games tend to occur in environments that feature at least a certain degree of realism (for a given value of "realistic"). Say, for instance, your game takes place in a zombie-infested mansion, a la Resident Evil. Modern game design (and Resident Evil is modern in this much, at least) suggests that the architecture should be at least a reasonable approximation of a mansion.  The number, size, and layout of rooms and floors should fit a realistic floor plan.  Helps with the verisimilitude.  An older game, from a time when this was difficult to impossible due to various technical limitations, would have the idea of "zombie-infested mansion" as less a guide to the layout and architecture of the level and more strictly a matter of its visual theme.

Between its inexplicable death-trap levels – whole castles built enirely with only one observable purpose, that being to kill anyone who enters – and its generously placed stashes of ammo and power-ups floating and spinning in midair all video game-y, it's difficult to say that the game is even remotely realistic in either its presentation or its environments.

And yet...

Those environments, thematically speaking, make the game.

Doom (just to contrast for a moment) sold itself by leaning hard into its over-the-top imagery of capital-H Hell.  You had fire and brimstone and demons of all descriptions with weapons cybernetically grafted to their limbs; you had pentagrams and skulls and inverted crosses and hearts on altars; you had legions of possessed soldiers; you had skeletons with shoulder-mounted rocket launchers; you had giant floating horned skulls who spat fire at you, and were themselves on fire.  And then all of it was amped up to a kind of comic-book excess that ultimately made it kind of hard to take seriously.  Not that this stopped it form freaking out the squares, mind you, but said out-freaking only wound up selling more copies of the game.  That was Doom: the distillation of a heavy metal album cover.  They went for that aesthetic, and they nailed it.

Quake tossed that aside and instead looked toward the sci-fi/horror fiction of H.P. Lovecraft.  Like Doom, Quake is fast, fierce, and in your face.  But its imagery, its whole aesthetic, is night-and-day from its predecessor.  Quake was cold, dispassionate, quiet, unsettling, turgid with implied menace.  Where Doom had Soundblaster-quality riffs on hard rock and metal songs for its soundtrack to keep you pumped, Quake gave you Nine Inch Nails.  The soundtrack never quite settled into being anything recognizable as music, per se.  It's perhaps better described as an ambient soundscape meant to layer a sense of dread and unease over everything.  It succeeded at this task, because it turns out that Trent Reznor is the guy you turn to for that.

Aesthetically, this is the difference.  Hell makes sense on a certain level, to the extent that any such mythological places and constructs do.  Hell cares, after its fashion.  It is a place of punishment, filled with beings who declare themselves your enemies, and who set themselves against you.  Hell (we are typically informed) is very intimately concerned with your thoughts and deeds; the horror and suffering it inflicts is always personal.

H.P. Lovecraft's mythos suggests a possibility more horrifying: That beings may indeed exist who move the cosmos, but that they do not care.  Not only do Lovecraft's monsters not care, they don't notice us in order to care.  On the off-chance that they do, it is to casually wipe us out because we are in the way.  Lovecraft's thesis, explored in much of his fiction, is that this was the true horror of existence, and that to understand exactly how little we mattered, was to be driven stark, raving mad.  His eldritch monsters were mainly symbols designed to express this idea, incomprehensible in order to express the utter incomprehensibility of the universe.  The main safeguard of sanity, Lovecraft contended, was human ignorance.  

This is the environment in which Quake takes place.  And, sure, maybe I'm overselling it a bit.  It is, at its core, a game about shooting extradimensional chainsaw-wielding, grenade-throwing ogres with nailguns repeatedly in the face until they die.  But these are the trappings that it uses in the service of that goal, and in that sense, they succeed.

In service to this aesthetic, the game features a dark, moody color palette that serves two purposes, I think.  One, of course, is to set the mood.  The other is to subtly obscure the sharp edges of the game's world.

As the first real fully 3D first-person shooter, Quake's 3D is really rudimentary.  As impressive as it was for its day, it hasn't necessarily aged very well.  But I suspect that the level designers at Id Software knew this going in, and they did what they could to future-proof it.  

The darkness of the game's lighting and its color palette hide some of the sharp edges.  For the rest, the game actually leans into is blockiness.  The hulking piles of stone which comprise the castles and keeps, dungeons and mazes, the rough-cut caverns in which the game occurs loom and oppress with their size and solidity, their rough and heavy blockiness.  The unnatural rigidity of the art design is actually bolstered by the simple polygonal shapes that the engine is capable of producing.  It would probably have difficulty creating more naturalistic environments without visibly falling short, as was to some extent demonstrated in Hexen II, made in the same engine by Raven Software.  But Id's heavy, menacing, oppressive architecture is a natural fit for the engine's capabilities.

The story, meanwhile, is almost nonexistent, partly as a result of Quake's trouble development.

The game was originally supposed to be an RPG of some variety, with the player being an axe-wielding barbarian (hence the presence of the axe as the player's melee weapon).  Somewhere along the way, this changed.  I've never heard an explanation as to why.  Maybe Id just felt more at home making an FPS.  The story I've heard most often about Quake's development is that they didn't really have a story for a long stretch of time, after they'd scrapped the idea of it being an RPG.  They just kept creating assets and building levels, because they had to do something. This is part of why the level progression is so arbitrary with little narrative or thematic flow.

Eventually, it occurred to someone that they were getting close to the finish, and no one had really put together a story yet.  And while Id Software had never been big on stories in their games, they realized that they had to have something to explain what the player was supposed to be doing, and why.  So they wrote a story that was basically Doom all over again.  Humankind is experimenting with teleportation technology (only the tech is referred to as Slipgates this time), which draws the attention of an enemy or enemies (extradimensional horrors this time instead of demons from Hell), and said enemy (code-named Quake, hence the title) sends its minions to attack. From there, the player goes on a rampage, tearing a bloody swath through the enemy's forces on the way to capture four runes which, together, will grant access to the enemy's lair.  Each rune is hidden in a different dimension, and each dimension is its own episode of the game.

This is a plot that you could fit on one side of a napkin, and when you were done, you'd still have most of the napkin left.

It doesn't matter.  Quake is awesome.

Playing is as easy as breathing.  Winning is considerably more difficult, of course.  But the act of maneuvering through the game's challenges is perhaps the easiest it has ever been in an FPS.  For whatever reason, Id decided to remove every extraneous element.  You no longer have to press buttons or throw levers; they activate automatically when you collide with them. Doors open on their own as you approach.  Your interaction with the game world and everything in it is stripped down to the absolute essentials.

Run. Jump.  Shoot.  Destroy.

Quake is in a relatively unique category of games for me.  I can pursue it as comfort food, but at the same time, it has real substance to it. Thin as its story is, its atmosphere is thick enough to cut.  As simple as its gameplay mechanics are, its levels and enemy encounters are designed to test the player's skill.  As much as it pays mere lip service to the work and ideas of H.P. Lovecraft, it nails the aesthetic of crushing, oppressive insignificance.  

[nazih-fares]

In these modern days, 3D fighting games are a rare commodity. Born from 3D craze of the mid-1990s, with an urge for every single console in the market to enter this new dimension, the genre flourished… until it almost disappear entirely. Let’s face it, in the case of fighting games, a combat in a 3D environment can pose many gameplay worries and few titles have mastered this trend, like Soul Calibur and especially the Tekken series (both published by Bandai Namco). Known for these endless combos, the series had lost some of its punch after the release of Tekken 6, but Katsuhiro Harada wanted to bring back the saga with the might of an iron fist, worked for years with the perfectionist mind of a Japanese developer, and finally gave us Tekken 7 on consoles after a year in Arcades, and might be the series best entry so far.

Since its early days, the Tekken series suffers from many of the genre’s clichés which were too difficult to forget (I’ll refrain from mentioning the horrible Tekken 5 and Tekken 6 which did not help at all). With its lengthy combos, its endless aerial juggles and a certain amount of accessible playability, the franchise did not bother to reshape the gameplay. Now with Tekken 7, Harada’s team had the main goal to get away from the old trends, and get back to the days of being a fun but also very technical fighting game for the sake of the fighting game tournament scene. On that competitive front, Tekken always played a role in major international tournament series like EVO. For that, the franchise decided to expand that by adding native eSports features in the game, such as the possibly to organize your very own bracket online tournaments, participate and spectate matches being played, which help tremendously streamers.

To start with, when to comes to technical gameplay, Tekken 7 says goodbye to the infinite combos to return to something purer and raw, closer to the gameplay feel of my favorite entry in the series which is Tekken 3. In general fighters seem heavier on ground, but lighter in the shock of the punch and kicks, helping push back the opponent without the endless aerial juggle of the previous games. (the nuance is important) And return more quickly to the ground. In the air, the hitboxes seems more reduced than before, requiring players to time hits better to link these famous air combos. The result of all this is shorter but more violent combo threads, which above all will demand a greater mastery of the game, which is what we wanted.

The game is therefore more technical, but also more tensed, with a real work done on the defense and the possibilities to counter-attack. Tekken 7 introduces the Power Crush system, which allow the players to absorb damage from a mid to high attack and use it against your opponent (similar to Street Fighter IV Focus Attack). The Power Crush system doesn’t work on low sweeps or grabs, so don’t expect to abuse or spam these features. This is where the mindgame takes on its importance since you’ll have to be close to active that Power Crush, but at the same opens the door to get countered by a simple grab, and thus reminding you how important attack variation is in Tekken 7. Besides the Power Crush, Tekken 7 enriched the Rage system introduced in the previous opus. With RB (or R1 depending on your console), it is possible to launch a Rage Art attack, a kind of Super Attack (a bit like Mortal Kombat’s Xray Attacks), but also to use the Rage Drive, a unique attack that has the ability to break enemy guard, and initiate longer combos. Tekken 7 of course didn’t forget the cinematic angle of franchise, and added this Super Slow Motion that is activated when both of the players are at low health and are just about to hit each other.

When it comes to the story mode of Tekken 7, it tells the end to the conflict between Heihachi Mishima and his son Kazuya, known as the “Mishima Saga”. The mode will expand with a few different characters other than Heihachi and Kazuya, which could entertain fans of the series. I for one never bothered understand the storyline of the Tekken Series, and this episode is no different as it’s riddled with cliche dialogue lines and scenes. The game story takes a hell lot of time to tell the story, with too many cinematics, but also weird conversations where characters would be enacted by different lanaguage voiceovers, which is a bit weird and illogical. I mean, unless you are at an interpreter party, who would logically start a topic in English (Nina), for a Japanese (Heihachi) to answer back in his native tongue, only to be interrupted by a new Italian fighter (Claudio). Anyway, it might feel normal for people, it’s just weird to hear 3-4 different voiceover languages in the same scene.

At launch, Tekken 7 gives us a fine selection of 36 characters to play, including old ones like Nina, Kuma, Law, but also nine brand new fighters including Claudio, Luchy Chloe and our first Arabic one called Shaheen. The new fighters are necessarily more classical in terms of design styles, adding a great diversity in the roster of the game, without creating useless duplicates. Every fighter has his own personality and it will once again be difficult not to find one that clicks to your style, whether you prefer some like Lucky Chloe with very fast hits and extremely fluid movements, or go for – my favorite so far – Master Raven who’s more technical and relies on counter-attacking, as well as using teleportation and quick dodge paired with Ninjutsu style (Sort of robotic-enhanced ninja).

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As it is the case with many fighting games nowadays, including recently Injustice 2 (reviewed on our site last month) you will have the freedom to customize your favorite fighters through a dedicated editor. Clothing, hair, color schemes, and a bunch of – mostly goofy – accessories will create numerous combinations. I wish though that they focused a bit on creating real secondary identity like character specific or exclusive accessories, because most of the alternative set given are mostly just alternate color scheme sets based on the original. If you didn’t get what I mean, I’m referring to ideal secondary cosmetic skins that dramatically change the look of the fighter, maybe with a classical retro look, younger age, etc. As you would have guessed, most accessories aren’t unlocked and require you to either spend money (in-game currency) or do specific game actions and achievements. You can earn money through various existing game modes (online, singleplayer, etc) or spend time in the Treasure Fight mode. The latter, is a like a min-arcade mode, forcing you to beat a succession of enemies and will win a chest after each win that contains a customization item, and the more you chain victories, the more rare the loot.

On the side of the online mode, I’m happy to say that it’s probably the best around from this new generation of fighting games (In comparison to Injustice 2 and Street Fighter V). While it was still difficult to judge the effectiveness of matchmaking since few people had the game when I received my review code, but after the launch week, I faced no problems, with no latency issues, dropping server connection and no frame drops whatsoever.

Sadly my small issue with the game is the general visual look of Tekken 7, which is closer to an older generation game. For a game launched in 2017 – even if it was in Arcade 2016 – it visually looks like a Tekken 6, lacking a sort of finesse. Even if the game is perfectly fluid, using a brand new Unreal Engine 4 custom graphic engine, the general feel is a bit sub-par on couple of points. Menus are slick, arenas are really colorful and special effects pop, but face animations feel crude, and some clothing and other cosmetic parts of the fighters look pixelated around the edges.

But at least, on another artistic point of view, the game has some of the best audio compositions, mixing fun guitar metal shreds and heavy riffs, traditional Japanese and far east instruments and even some Arabian and Spanish influenced tunes. To be honest, that surprised me a lot, as previous games were always playing the clichés of the genre, which you can actually listen to in the PlayStation 4 exclusive Jukebox mode, which acts as a historical music library of the Tekken franchise.

Tekken 7 was reviewed using an Xbox One digital copy of the game provided by Namco Bandai as well as a PC Steam copy of the game purchased by the reviewer. The main review was done by Nazih Fares and the technical PC review was written by Mazen Abdallah after a tested on a PC running Windows 10, with an 8GB NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1070 fitted on a 4th Generation Intel i7 4790 3.6Ghz CPU and topped with 16GB of RAM. The game is also available on PlayStation 4 via retail and online stores. We don’t discuss review scores with publishers or developers prior to the review being published.

After waiting for more than 6 years for a sequel, you'd expect Tekken 7 to come back with the might of an iron fist, and Bandai Namco absolutely nailed that. In these modern days, 3D fighting games are a rare commodity. Born from 3D craze of the mid-1990s, with an urge for every single console in the market to enter this new dimension, the genre flourished...

[fordemaciaa-blog]

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That’s you can forget about obvious due to the gossips it made, but he consistently takes care of a visible, start form of contact. “it's very good to contain a programmer that's so near to his online community, knowning that in my opinion that a number of major agencies that appear like they ought to know what they're engaging in, could fully grasp a whole lot from nelson about how to run a online community combined with he is engaging in,in . he states. “a great deal of women and men seem like their hints come to be in to the quest trainer,” he states. You are able to hop in and really enjoy exactly the same go through as almost everyone in addition. “i suspect it is just an extreme magnitude of issues i do and what i really like to field it, in my opinion i’d preferably carry on with choosing it getting my leisure pursuit than obtain it end up being some corporate and business cash-delivering contributing factor,” he states. They invitation wiz khalifa experiencing battleground model and employ drake to point out fantastic reasons behind fifa. |They invitation wiz khalifa experiencing battleground model and employ drake to point out fantastic reasons behind fifa. A simple scenario is that you simply can not only reveal your classified ads about the local newspaper because so many women and men only watch television programs and do not find out classifieds, so promote your business on television as well ,. I had been seriously fascinated who he or she is, consequently i rang him up. Can you resolve my computer?’” i see him involved in the exact new influx of an web developers which i published about the other day, women and men who’ve introduced with roblox, minecraft and dayz, and noticed them getting made near them as they’ve It’s a plaything community zombie apocalypse, and more endearingly, its two normal thresholds are positioned in canada: colorful prince edward destination and snowy yukon. since the figures glance, the way a mood is, i furnished with that. Then, shortly after i used to be engaging in the store internet page for a few., i I seriously wished-for to listen for it with my So he put in a handful several weeks trying to produce a followup, and placed that roblox did not rather help support all he wished-for to realize. “if i’m thinking about the latest attribute knowning that i haven’t asked for people’s information, or demonstrated the thing it is found like, it really feels seriously crazy.” i thing if he’s only a normally self-assured woman, knowning that he is, at the least about Unturned Cheats Server. |“it was very frightening to do that. their thoughts and opinions.” but bear in mind with plenty of hosts active now, hosting server proprietors discovered choosing everyday changes really difficult traveling, so they asked him to gradual more affordable now sexton changes on fridays. They've put together hosts, take off “and there exists women and men form of within core, would you like running old go through, which is where you’re sneaking using destination and enduring the zombies as you're seeing out for folks as well as perhaps teaming up, possibly eradicating them. It’s very good to discover the function of “gamemakers” now and what he is engaging in now in unity is fairly beautiful. Thank you for posting up. Not mundane, young sincere, not loaded with over the internet online hackers and work to products and solutions new written content. Do not simply let their will look mislead you. |Even choosing out and about along with your living method you will have been afflicted to some extent, while healing independently is attainable with vaccines or medicines, like appliances are only capable of being positioned in parts zombies love to lurch. On my compact eighth or 9th living, i assist these people with an item of serious use: a sledgehammer. However, it is an opportunity to start off it. The bridge features a huge space within it. And, just when i have started to seem like it is all end up being far too rapid, i've discovered me encircled which has a deceased design staff, a moldy sailor man, and two creeping chefs. Unturned Cheats Server is variant 5..7 (revised this summer tenth) shortly after i carried out it. Good thresholds even though. *is located more affordable in lotus placement, levitates out and about* this really is so surprising in multi-player your entire trying photography realism contributing factor has displaced its elegance personally. |Ah actually, person moving to conclusions via the internet - i’ll simply let me out. Making is definitely a pain within a ass although the emergency and search was rather amusing the very first handful of celebrations near. dayz in a bunch of avenues. Now it is all to easy to at times review steam’s most effective most carried out shortlist and see an item not familiar. While in the period of posting, you will find 19,469 women and men enjoying Unturned Cheats Server at the same time with heavy steam. Undertaken a small amount of simply by using it within the last days or weeks, and figured that it really usually requires a little more things you can do when in co-op, at the same time singleplayer is definitely a preferably trash go through for a little bit. :- will look seriously dreadful. Certainly, what exactly? Is to the south park your car for youngsters? The simpsons? Heck, is terraria or maybe quest trainer quite a bit of amusing. functioning on minecraft and dayz, but it is consistently considerably amusing just in early phase. |‘kids are the toughest critics’ The child-substantial populace of Unturned Cheats Server’s hosts number one grew for being noticeable in my go through whenever i contacted Roaming on to the destination, i was contacted which has a man fitted in african american army supplies who expected i “reach for this sky”. For instance a bit more shameless tearing away, sexism, ageism, and any other prejudicial -isms are position in their purchase case of nastiness, along with mistreating repay-targeted minds (extraverts et al) with addictive products. I had been 100 meters in to the woodland until now he noticed. You undoubtedly can murder your entire hosting server populace within perspective of an helicopter. This makes it rather nearly impossible in order to locate commenced, whenever you cannot get the supplies was needed to give protection to one self within feral lord for the flies cast that live in the hosts. Why shocking? Rob bits utilizing their enterprise quest generators. But, until now we journey way too much into that rabbit opening, let us establish the larger more often than not best-known elements of |For this reason i preferred the definition of “resistance” to explain the trend. Time of quest trainer take part in the sports might appear compact, however when you participate in you'll realized that just fulfilling the primary requirements hanging near - you want to pick up content to outlive, you ought to have a firearm, apparel products or services, ingesting products or services, so you require a good health - must have man hrs of quest trainer participate in. Because you remain eradicating the zombies, you should preserve on accumulating experience details. Take a look at my hosting server f1server and tnx nelson . To stop 2.: -some appliances are gotten rid of -low declines -underpriced proficiency -ongoing changes, delivering nearly impossible experiencing not having changing everyday (this can be a drawback and also a master, master because of the fact contributes minimal 5 methods, drawback simply because they days or weeks) -sometimes volatile so yeah, farmville is underrated within a user scores, i am just sharing, the person who made a decision to I was thinking that Unturned Cheats Server would It was amazing. Summing up: you will feel a survivor within a zombie swarmed spoils of our society, and start as a group along with your close friends to keep among the many surviving. |Significant crafting technique - my own boulders and cut more affordable Outset with out cent, members lookup communities, farms, and small islands to discover companies until now they starve to perishing or end up being dehydrated. I commenced with particular-player to acquire a sensation of the planet i was visiting enter into. Very simple, i’ll just sneak up and you should think about components i want. Unturned Cheats Server has incorporated rpg features within offense, protection, and help support proficiency. A persona with at their supreme statistics may perhaps be abnormally paranoid serious about how much time called for to get your go through. Logs are only capable of being employed to provide boards so its possibly not an unhealthy choice to merely art them right away to release case space. Immediately "departed alt" will probably speech talk. Beyond the blaze axe and colt pistol you will find a magnum, mosen rifle, sniper rifles, and submachine weapons. |Though Unturned Cheats Server is for free-to-participate in, members can select to pay extra for $ 5 and improve to precious mode. needing to pay for the 5 $ doesn't similar a pay off-to-be successful method, for the reason that added advantages are separated.