I said we were going to try to reduce the length of the podcast this week.


I did not say we were going to succeed.

The MP3 version of the podcast can be found here.

0:00:00 Introductions
And Garrett really hates Windows 8. He is correct in that hatred.

0:01:30 Viewer Questions
“Do you think Romero actually has it in his to make a game good? For that matter, what would you guys like to see in a John Romera shooter?”
The Warren Specter quote is one of my personal favorite quotes, because it does highlight a very real disconnect between the fact that game development houses are composed of many people and the fact that people love to associate only a few faces with games, ignoring the rest of the talent involved. John Romero, while definitely a gaming celebrity, is only a part of what this new project will be. It is very much a team effort, but people tend to forget that.
I am not someone who describes to auteur theory. I think even the best leader needs at least one person who is capable of checking their ego and calling them out. Not having that person basically explains every crappy plot every written by David Cage. Leaders are important for keeping the overall vision in focus, but they also need to both people to edit them and the ability to be malleable in that vision.

“Do you guys prefer comic book art that is more stylize or more realistic?”
I think Garrett hit the nail on the head here, it depends entirely upon the tone of the work in question. The art-style needs to match the tone, or else you get an uncomfortable dissonance between the two of them.
Also, I know $3 for a single comic is really cheap, but for someone who binges on media, that doesn’t sound like a good value proposition, especially since games tend to last longer and can go on sale for super cheap. After all, I spend $8.40 on Batman: Arkham Origins.

“Does Chris ever get tired of being the only old man in the group?”
Yes, he does. And that’s why I keep calling him that. XD
What can I say, it amuses me. He’s only 32, but it’s awesome to see him react to that.

0:26:20 We talk about Robin Williams’s passing.
In all seriousness, this is still shocking to me even so long after the fact. I respect Robin Williams and hope that his family recovers soon in wake of recent events.
One of the things I’ve found most fascinating is that Robin Williams’s characters have almost always succeeded by embracing their inner child. Given what is known about the man, I cannot believe that is a coincidence. His success can be directly traced to being a sweet and innocent man in an industry known for crushing the souls of the careless. I do not have a point to make with that. It is just an observation to make note of.
For the record, Jamanji is awesome and anyone who disagrees can stuff it!

0:39:30 Chris and Sam have played Resident Evil 6
One thing that you need to be aware of regarding Sam is that he is a gaming masochist. He will intentionally purchase a game he knows to be bad and play it for some sick, twisted form of amusement. I routinely cite this as a reason to question his judgement.
Chris has this as well, but to a much less significant extent and he would never admit to it. Also, he won’t buy a bad game unless someone else will play it with him. That is the only way I can explain him playing both Resident Evil 6 and Aliens: Colonial Marines. You hear him complain about doing 4 campaigns in RE6, but you’ll never hear him say he won’t do it!
On the other hand, it gives us a reason to discuss the many, many ways game designers can piss us off.

0:46:39 Chris (and I) played more Dead Space 3 (with different people)
Chris and I have spoken one-on-one regarding this game, and we cannot agree on this game. He is willing to forgive Dead Space 3’s problems. I refuse to give this game any mercy!
I do not wish to go into much detail hear, because I have a few articles coming out on the subject in time. Yes, “articles”, as in plural. In a Press Start to Discuss FIRST, I have to breakdown my dislike of a game into TWO ARTICLES in order to keep them from being too long. I have been maintaining this little section of cyberspace for three years now, and this has never happened before.
What I will say, since I did not mention it in my article, is that it’s BULLSHIT that Carver three sentences’s worth of character are hidden behind co-op. He already does not have anything more than a typical macho-man soldier character arc, and even that is hidden away from the average player.
The story itself is also a completely convoluted, vapid mess. Nothing with any sort of meaning ever happens and every single person in this cast is stupid. I WISH every single one of them died.
I hate this game. I’m glad I got it free on PlayStation Plus, because I would have NEVER paid money for it.
I hate this game so much that I do not want to play the first two JUST TO SPITE THIS GAME. When Chris says he likes it, I just do not understand.

1:20:15 I finished Batman: Arkham Origins.
I feel so bad for the developers of this game. Released in a vacuum, this would be seen as both an excellent game and an amazing Batman game. In light of Arkham Asylum/City, it is inferior to both. Still, even inferior Arkham is great Arkham, and they should be proud of their accomplishment. I look forward to further games from this studio.
Having said that, those are two very tough acts to follow, and the developers hands are tied. They couldn’t top the twist of Arkham City. Like I said last time, Shamus Young wrote a detailed, multi-part post explaining how their hands were tied.
The gameplay is still on the level of previous Arkham games, which is ultimately all it needed to do.
The new voice actors for Batman and the Joker should also feel proud of their performances. They did great jobs and captured their respective characters well.

1:33:00 I played a bit of Dragon’s Crown
Having played a lot of it, I still haven’t fully gotten over how ridiculously exaggerated all of the characters in the game are. It’s actually very distracting. Fair, but distracting and not really necessary to the game.
But the actual game is pretty fun on it’s own. It’s a really great callback both to classic RPGs (in its storytelling style) and old-school beat’em ups (in its gameplay). I look forward to getting to the point where I can play online.

1:36:55 I purchased a 3DS XL.
I also purchased three games with it: Project X Zone, Shin Megami Tensei IV, and Bravely Default.
I’ve been playing a lot of Project X Zone. I still don’t have many strong opinions on it aside from that it’s cool to see all these characters put together in one project.

1:38:30 I started coding something.
There’s no way to build skill at designing games than to actually start doing it. Since I’m better at coding myself than using a program to do it, this will be my best bet. Again, I have not made much progress, but I need to start somewhere.

1:40:10 Garrett is getting ready to start Game Development in college
And it’s exciting!

1:40:40 Garrett dyed his hair (and we all see each other’s faces in motion for the first time)
And, to be clear, this is the very first time we have ever seen each other “in person”. We usually just stick to our respective avatars. After this cast, we all went on webcam and kept talking a bit, sharing our gaming swag with each other. It’s a strange feeling, to be sure. We might even consider doing it again.
I’m just glad that we don’t do video podcasts. Nobody needs to see my face that much. My voice is already grating enough.

1:47:20 Garrett played Thomas Was Alone and Metro: Last Light
And we don’t talk much about either one. Which is a shame, because they are both great games to talk about.

1:49:00 Garrett found Grim Grimoire.
And I urge him to keep playing, because that is an amazing game.
Then, we take a detour to discuss Okage: Shadow King. This is both one of the most hilarious, and most difficult RPGs I have ever played. Any hardcore RPG fans who have not played Okage are missing out. I take this time to fanboy over it because I rarely ever get the chance to.
Sam would love it, because it’s just weird enough to appeal to his inner anime-fan.

1:56:25 Sam played Counter Strike… again
Not much to say there.

1:56:55 Sam played Diablo 3.
It’s a great podcast game, no pun…. oh who am I kidding. OF COURSE that pun was intended.
In all seriousness, it’s a nice game to do mindlessly while something else is happening. I played the demo on PS3 and thought that was enough for me, but I do see the appeal.

2:00:40 Sam played Mount Your Friends.
That game has been getting around. To be fair, it looks incredibly fun.

2:01:20 Garrett talks about Five Nights at Freddy’s.
This is another one of those game’s that have been floating around. Then again, out of all the “PewDieBait” games out there, this is probably the best one after Amnesia.
The conversation here devolved into a conversation about horror games as a whole, and how stagnant they became before this game’s release.

2:10:20 Conclusion
This podcast was way too long.

Before we start, I would like to begin by noting a very interesting trend. One of the more fascinating things I have noticed is that while the annotations for the podcast get tons of views, the podcasts themselves do not. There are several possible reasons for this.

1.) The 2-hour+ length of the podcast is off-putting.
2.) The lack of an MP3 format is a hindrance to our audience.
3.) My particular viewership would rather read the annotations than listen to the podcast.

We’ll be experimenting with way to address some of these potential issues over the next few episodes. Today, this starts by giving out an MP3 version of the podcast on top of the YouTube version. Out of the people I’ve talked with, this has been a major issue for several people. It’s totally understandable, as most people probably just download these onto their iPods and listen to them in the car.

Though we did not do so in this episode, we will also try to reduce the length of these podcasts as well. Ideally, we’d like these to be less than 1 hour and 30 minutes. The actual content of the cast won’t change, but we’re trying to find ways to let us have our usual discussions in a more reasonable time.

Having said all of that, the podcast is available below:

And the MP3 version can be downloaded from this site. The link should also be on the YouTube page.

0:01:30 Viewer Questions!
“Did you ever play a game that was bad, but still seemed to have a good game deep down trying to get out?”
This is an interesting question, because it’s there are a lot of games that are bad because of a few key decisions.
Alpha Protocol is a special game for me, and people who know me already know that. The actual playing of Alpha Protocol is mediocre on Easy and terrible on either Medium or Hard. At the same time, the fact that character decisions have measurable impacts on the story. Everything you do in Alpha Protocol has some effect on something.
Thief (2014) is also another interesting game. All the mechanics are there. However, the game is let down by both the level design and the nonsense story. It’s a shame that Square-Enix probably learned the wrong lessons from it. Since nobody is talking about it anymore, there’s no one to correct them on it either.

“Have you guys played Brutal Doom yet?”
This brings up the topic of old school shooters and their recent reemergence in things like Wolfenstein: The New Order. Everything I have heard about the new Wolfenstein has me intrigued. I’m honestly not sure why I haven’t played it yet.
I will say that it’s amazing how just adding modern FPS controls to an old game can really breath new life into it. I might not have played Brutal Doom yet, but there is always a chance I will in the future.

0:19:43 Sam and Chris played Firefall (and hate it)
Hearing all of there stories about how terrible the game is to play with friends, I’m almost in shock. These are all really, really basic things an MMO HAS to get right in order to do well.
There is no reason to have quest-important objectives not instanced to each individual player.
There is no reason to make it difficult for friends in the SAME PARTY to be on the same instance.
There is no reason for each player in the same party to have to instantiate the same quest individually.
There is no reason for a game on Steam to not work when selected through Steam.
There is no reason to only allow for one quest to be activated at the same time.
And this game doesn’t even have the shield of Early Access to defend it. It is just a bad game. I mean, I’ve never played it, but I don’t want to after hearing these guys talk about. This kind of crap is inexcusable.
Were it an Early Access game, and if they provided some indicator explaining that this was necessary, there MIGHT be a valid excuse here. But this is literally as bad as it could get beyond that game just not working properly.

The discussion here also led to us talking about other MMO flops of recent history like The Elder Scrolls Online and The Old Republic. It’s actually sad how far that particular genre seems to have fallen. Even WoW isn’t doing as good as it used to.

0:38:32 Chris beat Shovel Knight
And didn’t say much about it.

0:39:45 Chris and I played each other in Injustice: Gods Among Us
As of the time of writing, my Impressions article on Injustice just went up yesterday, which is the day AFTER we recorded the podcast.
For those of you unaware, Chris has a tendency to lose to me in games we play together. This was basically his chance at revenge for my beating him in X-Com and Persona 4 Arena.
It seems to me that both Deathstroke and Batgirl are really top tier characters. Deathstroke’s guns come out really fast and Batgirl has a really good attack throw that rarely ever misses.
Speaking of Batgirl, we talk about Batgirls for a bit.

0:43:06 Chris played Dead Space 3, and so did I.
And I hijack his turn to rant about all the things that suck about this game.
The more I played the game, the more boring it gets. It’s even worse because playing co-op with a friend is terrible and feels completely tacked on.
On top of that, I am never scared because my weapon is completely overpowered and has been since I could start customizing my weapons. The enemies jump out and I just blow them away with my shotgun whose damage is maxed out. Going up against cannon fodder isn’t scary. In fact, when I get into an encounter in DS3, I don’t get scared, I get annoyed.
The set-pieces are also insufferable, because they feel stupid and are the result of many cheap deaths. Every single set-piece in this game, without fail, has something wrong with it.
As for the story, I have absolutely no idea what is going on or what exactly are the relationships between the cast of characters are.
It’s not a bad game, but it’s not a good game. It’s exactly in the middle: Completely mediocre.

0:56:00 Chris and Sam watched the Rocket Raccoon movie.
And I still need to see it. Don’t worry. I will in time. It took me quite a long time to watch the Avengers as well.

0:57:15 I use the fact that the N7 Armor is in Dead Space 3 to relentlessly mock Issac Clarke and make Mass Effect references.
Which is how this episode got its title.

0:58:37 I played the story mode of Injustice: Gods Among Us
The way NetherRealms has begun to present the story of its fighting games is something I want to diffuse to other fighting games. Too many fighters use walls of texts to explain their stories. It works, especially for a comic book-based plot.
Another fun fact, Chris is a very old school comic book reader. Where Sam and I are okay with a more grey-on-grey morality, Chris would much rather it be black-and-white, like they used to be. Personally, I dislike when complex moral conundrums are made too simple, but there is merit to the old school “truth and justice” approach to comic book writing as well.
Overall, Injustice is a really well done story, and was pretty faithful to the source material.

We use this as a springboard to discuss DC Comics in a more general sense several times as well.
Chris also does a great job of filling me in with details from the tie-in comics published by DC.

As for Injustice’s combat. I talked about it briefly in my impressions piece, but it feels a lot more rigid than I’d like it to be. I’d rather more fluidity personally, but that’s just me.

1:13:02 I played Batman: Arkham Origins.
Arkham Origins occupies an interesting position. I do not envy the developers in making Arkham Origins. Living up to Rocksteady’s Arkham games is HARD.
Shamus Young did a fascinating five-part analysis on Arkham Origins that discussed this very issue. Considering the expectations that were on this new developer, and the fact that they were going into this without much experience in creating Batman: Arkham games, it’s actually really impressive how well they did. They really should be proud of the product they released. This is more the fault of the publisher than the developer in this case.
This game is good. In fact, it’s awesome. It’s just that it feels like an off-brand Arkham game. At the same time, seeing Batman in his early days is really interesting. He’s still an expert in his chosen fields, but he lacks the experience and refinement of his older counterpart. It gives this one a bit more of an edge.
I do feel like the new Arkham Knight game would feel a lot stronger in the absence of Arkham Origins coming out last year.

1:20:16 I bought the Transistor Soundtrack.
And I spend a few minutes gushing over it.

1:21:17 I don’t play Marvel Puzzle Quest anymore.
I had some fun times with that game, but with recent updates making it harder to keep up without spending several hours per day playing it, and the recent drama that was dominating my “alliance”, it was no longer worth it. Free-to-play games really attract the oddest sorts of people.
And no, I am no longer in the market for any F2P games. I’ll just stick to Solitaire and Threes.

1:24:05 We talk about Twitch’s new content ID system, and Google in a more general sense.
If our explanation isn’t sufficient, here’s Twitch’s official blog update on the matter. After the failure of their new system, they released an update the next day.
I find it funny because when it was announced that YouTube/Google bought Twitch, something like this would happen. It’s honestly extremely shameful.
I also do not like how Google basically dominates the internet space. Most internet-related things are controlled by Google to a certain degree. It’s probably okay for now, but history says that monopolies aren’t good for consumers, if not now then somewhere down the line. After all, I’m sure you remember the whole issue with Google+ on YouTube.

I also take this time to personally apologize for my thoughts and behavior when Anita Sarkeesian first locked down her YouTube comments. I admit, I don’t know WHAT I was thinking back then. Nowadays, I’m of the attitude that if a channel owner locks down their YouTube comments, you should say “Thank You”.
So please like, comment, and subscribe to our YouTube channel! XD

Speaking of Twitch, I should also give a shout-out to the Diecast. In the latest episode, Shamus Young and Chris “Campster/Errant Signal” Franklin made the point that any one of those videos in the Twitch archives isn’t valuable. However, they BECOME valuable in aggregate. As an example, any one of my articles on this blog isn’t that valuable by itself. Together, the form a very rich repository of video game editorials.

This became weirdly political, but I think it’s a conversation that should be going on. Just be sure any discourse of such a nature is civil.

1:41:41 Sam plays Trials: Fusion (and hates it)
Sam brings up an interesting point in that it took 2-3 hours to beat, and its cost was $20. Now, I have repeatedly said that length in games should not be the “end all be all”, but that might be a bit ridiculous, especially since a lot of that game is grinding the same tracks over and over. For that kind of game, the price likely is a bit too high.
I also am somewhat amused by Sam hating the difficult tracks, because he’s a huge Dark Souls fan.

1:45:20 I ask Sam a question about replaying old games.
Honestly, I sympathize with people who feel like they NEED to tackle that backlog, if only to justify buying the games. However, gaming is supposed to be fun. Props to my friends Alan DeHaan (@Aulayan) for reminding me that games are supposed to be fun. Playing a game because you feel you have to is work. Don’t turn your entertainment into work because you feel like you have to. This message isn’t just for Sam, it’s for everyone who is reading this right now and/or listening to the podcast.

1:49:25 Sam played the Nosgoth beta.
I wonder how people will react to the game when it comes out. It looks cool, and it’s an interesting way to resurrect the Legacy of Kain franchise.

1:51:30 Sam rapid-fire lists of all the games that he played.

1:51:55 Chris and Sam played DOTA 2 together.
And this takes us back to our tutorial discussion from before. DOTA 2 seems to take advantage of the player made guides in its game. That is very smart on Valve’s part and helps guide players without holding their hand. MOBAs in particular have a tough time of it because they have a lot of working parts, but every game has this problem to a degree. It’s interesting to see how they try to solve it.

1:57:40 We close the podcast.
And you can see my Injustice article here.
I’ll also promote the Vlog Brothers, PBS Idea Channel, and PBS Game/Show here, since we mentioned them.
The Wimbly Womblies joke is a reference to HankGames (without Hank) where John Green plays FIFA.

This may come as a surprised to people who only follow me here, though that appears to be a distinct minority, but I sometimes play fighting games when the mood strikes me. Not that I am any good at them, but I do have a certain fascination with the genre. At the same time, I also adore superheroes like the ones from Marvel and DC. How do those two facts come together? Well, Injustice: Gods Among Us: Ultimate Edition was $8.40 on PSN a while back. For such a low price, I had to purchase it. Though I have yet to play it with a friend at the time of writing, I have played through the entire story mode. And I feel that I have sunk enough time into the game that I can make an adequate judgment call on.
When it comes to presentation, most fighting games are stuck in this rut where either the whole plot is explained by crawling text, or each character only has one “plot” scene when beating their Arcade mode. Injustice works differently. Rather than use the standard text blocks to explain the story in between battles, Injustice uses cinematics to great effect. The biggest draw is that there are no loading times between cutscenes and fights. When a fight begins, the characters take their combat stance, the black bars on the top and bottom of the screen vanish, then the HUD appears.
The transition is not always completely seamless, as there are some instances where the pre-rendered cutscene graphics and the in-game graphics do not completely match up in terms of quality. The transition from fighting back to cutscenes also suffers a similar problem, but is otherwise of as high quality. Fans of the most recent Mortal Kombat game should recognize this, as it is the same style used in that game. I personally thought that this presentation improved the overall flow of the story, and I would encourage more fighting game developers to use this style. It is much more entertaining than simply having to read tons of text to understand what is going on. Because of this, the player is much more and the fact that a fight could break out at any time, players are much more engaged and attentive than they might otherwise be.
That being said, the most important thing in a fighting game is the actual combat. To that end, the combat is Injustice: Gods Among Us is solid. Most players of Mortal Kombat and other fighting games will be familiar with the basic elements. Each fighter has their own moves, both basic and special. The key is for the player to look for openings in the enemy’s movement and attacks in order to capitalize with their own combos. Generally, it requires some time to practice with and against all sorts of characters to learn their unique command lists and the properties of each command. None of this is new to anyone who has ever played a fighter before, so it is not worth going into much detail.
One of the features that does separate Injustice from its contemporaries is the way the game handles hit points. Most fighting games separate fights by rounds, and the player who wins the most rounds in a best of 3 (or 5) wins. In between rounds, health is completely refilled and fighters reset to a “neutral” position so that the playing field is leveled. In this game, the situation is different. Instead, both combatants have two health meters on the outset of a fight, a white bar on top of a red bar. A round of combat ends when one of the health bars is depleted. Further, damage and player position are carried over between rounds. As a result, while it may be easier for a defeated player in the first round to win the second round of combat, they are left at an overall disadvantage because their opponent will still have an entire health bar in the final round. This system makes the fights more interesting to watch, as comebacks are much more impressive. Having said that, the game, for better or worse, becomes much more tense for the loser of the first round, while the winner has a less stressful time. This one change does affect the overall flow by giving an even greater incentive to play carefully and manage the risk/reward of making bold moves.
Injustice also separates itself from the rest of the crowd with its Clash system. Like other games in the genre, fighters in this game can build up super meter by both giving and receiving attacks. This can be used to fuel special variations of moves and each characters super move. More importantly, this meter can be wagered in a Clash. When one combatant is on their red meter (meaning they have lost a round already) and they have super, they can counter an enemy attack by instantiating a Clash. During this event, both players wager a portion of their super meter discreetly. The one who bet the most wins the Clash. If the one who initiated it wins, the enemy’s move is nullified and the victor recovers lost health in proportion to the difference between gambled super meter. Should the attacker come out on top, the defender will take damage dependent of the same difference. What this system does is force players to better judge how they use their super. Players might not necessarily want to use up all of their super to perform powerful moves because the enemy might capitalize on their lack of super to outmatch them in a Clash. Having some saved up for such an occasion is a much more understandable concept. I do not know if it is enough to really affect the overall flow anyway, as often the damage from pulling off a super is greater than the recovery from a Clash, but it is an interesting attempt at doing so.
One of the biggest things I felt when playing Injustice, and I do not know if this just a personal complaint, is that the fighting felt a bit stiff. It could be because I am used to games like Soul Calibur or Persona 4 Arena, where animations seem very fluid and flow into each other, Injustice feels a lot more rigid. While combos can be developed on the fly in a Soul Calibur game (based on their properties), the combos in this cannot. Any combos were ones completely designed and intended by the designers. Combinations that feel like they otherwise should connect will whiff if they were not one of the predetermined combinations. Whether that is a good or bad thing is dependent on the person playing the game. Some people will adore it, while others like myself dislike it. I do not know if I can call it bad, but I do think that some fluidity would have been nice.

Overall, Injustice: Gods Among Us is a solid game. The DC characters are represented well and the fighting mechanics are solid. Though I did not talk about the story, it is interesting and holds up over its entirety. Bringing in new health and Clash systems helps separate Injustice from other products in the genre. Lastly, the presentation of the game’s single-player campaign gives it a sense of cohesion and spectacle that other fighting games generally do not equal. For fans of Mortal Kombat and/or the DC universe, this is an easy recommendation. Otherwise, you would be okay in skipping it.

Another week, another podcast. Sam, Chris, Garrett, and myself get together to talk about pretty much whatever we want to. I also didn’t realize that I sounded so weird until I listened to it myself. Some people just love their voice, but I hate mine sometimes.
For the record, whenever Chris says he needs to shut his windows, there is a reason for that. He lives really close to train tracks. He hears them quite clearly, and assumes we do as well. Luckily, his microphone is good at ignoring those sounds.

0:00:00 Introductions.
Every single time we do an intro, it ends up like this. It’s just something we do, we can’t help it.

0:01:40 Chris immediately goes into the Deadpool footage leak.
Although I didn’t see it, all the descriptions of the footage sound really awesome. It’s a shame that I don’t really have faith that Fox will be able to pull it off, or even want to.Even still, it’s nice to know that some people are getting Deadpool right.
This conversation quickly turns into a discussion of Deadpool and how he is in the comics. I do wonder how they’ll keep his tone while keeping the movie PG-13.
Then, we discuss Call of Duty for reasons that escape me.
Garrett’s review of the Deadpool game can be found here.

0:10:10 We have viewer questions.
For the unaware, the four of us used to do another podcast before we formed The Texture Pop (and we stopped it for various reasons). Adonisus is an old friend of ours who regularly sent us listener questions. I’m glad he decided to follow us to this new podcast as well. 🙂
When it comes to remembering old games, I’m not all that great because of my youthful vigor. On top of that, I didn’t own an N64, my cousins did. I’d just play it over there.
I’ve also not read many Image comics. Although I have always wanted to get into comics, it always seems intimidating to get into them. There is so much lore and backstory that they expect you to know that it’s a little overwhelming. On top of that, my time is more and more limited as I get older.
Yes, I am named after Brandon Lee. That’s not a joke at all.
It is actually a bit interesting how Destiny can use some of the same tropes of Shadowrun Returns, and just move them into space, and it’s just so boring.

0:24:15 Garrett bought Guild Wars 2
I don’t really know enough about Guild Wars 2 to add anything here. Part of why I don’t play MMOs was because WoW was the first, and WoW’s subscription model always turned me off. After that, I got so into single-player games that I never really looked back.

0:27:28 Garrett has been reading Sandman: Overture.
As we’ve already established, I don’t know much about comics, so I’m useless in this conversation.
We also go into a conversation about Joseph Gordon Levitt and Looper. It’s amazing how often we change topics like that. I’ve also noticed that both Chris and I tend to do most of the derailing.

0:33:00 We talk about all the game’s we NEED to play together.
For those not in the know, Chris and I have a gaming history. As in, I tend to kick his ass in most of the games we play against each other. So far, we’ve both played X-Com: Enemy Unknown and Persona 4 Arena together, and I’ve been the victor. He’s better at Injustice, so he’s itching to turn the tides.

0:35:00 Chris finishes his college and internship.
Another bit of context, Chris was working a white-collar job until it closed down. In order to keep working in that field, he went back to college in order to finish his degree. Now that’s he’s down with his Summer semester, he should go from no free time to 0.01 hours of free time.

0:36:01 Chris has been playing Firefall.
It seems like an interesting game, but I’ve become less and less enamored with Free-To-Play. They usually try too hard to get me to spend money to hold my interest. The only exception so far has been Marvel Puzzle Quest, and even that game has its own problems.
I’m also getting sick of the same tired quest design in these MMO games. Not everything needs to be a fetch quest or a collection quest.

0:47:20 Chris has played more Shovel Knight.
I will get this game at some point, but not right now. Everything I’ve heard about Shovel Knight is really, really interesting. After playing Ducktails awhile back, I’m more than okay with old school 2D platformers.

0:49:55 Chris has been training in Injustice: Gods Among Us.
And I demonstrate my ineptitude regarding fighting games. We then use this as a springboard to talk about Tekken and fighting games in general. The fighting games I tend to play are much more casual in nature, like the Naruto games, Soul Calibur, and Persona 4 Arena.

0:53:30 Chris and Sam talk about Titanfall DLC.
Titanfall is an interesting subject. Previously, I thought that the main appeal of shooters was their multiplayer modes. While I still believe that, Titanfall also serves to demonstrate why it is important to have a single-player mode, especially if the game is being sold for $60. The mental math going on in people’s heads makes the game seem less valuable in comparison to something like a Call of Duty.

0:55:15 I played Kingdom Hearts 1.5: Final Mix.
And Sam happily brings up the trophy issue. I still can’t believe I only have the trophy for finishing the game on Proud. Considering how long a typical Kingdom Hearts 1 is, that’s still a huge slap in the face. I’m probably not going to play through it again for those trophies because I don’t have that kind of time.
Overall though, the game is really, really good. Even though it was a PS2 game, 1.5 ReMIX makes it feel like a current gen game, if not in looks, then in play.
My impressions of Kingdom Hearts are recorded here. I also reiterate a few points from this article I wrote on Kingdom Hearts.

1:03:55 I played Dead Space 3 (and hate it)
That game… sucks so badly.
The story makes no friggin’ sense. The combat is dull and tedious against Space Al-Queda and Space Lobsters alike. The textures on the faces look bad. It’s just a mess. A dull, tedious, repetitious mess that feels like EA rushed it out the door to make a quick buck. And I haven’t even gotten to the crafting system yet.
I don’t want to finish this game, but I almost feel like I have to at this point.
The fact that this game happened in a similar timeframe to Mass Effect 3’s abysmal ending is probably a large portion of the reason why EA is so hated.

1:15:23 I watched a bit of an LP of The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning
I remember playing those games back in the PS2-era. The games aren’t bad per se. The problem is that they do nothing notable. Both A New Beginning and The Eternal Night are just long corridors of endless enemies to kill. They do nothing to inject variety into the gameplay, which is a shame.
I am generally okay with reboots. However, if you’re going to reboot something, you need to consider why it is being rebooted, and what fans like about. The Legend of Spyro is a decent story, but I do not get the impression that it needed to involve Spyro at all. It doesn’t feel like Spyro in gameplay, story, or even the personalities of the cast. Everything feels off.
We briefly detour to talk about Remember Me. Sam’s review of it can be found here.

1:21:00 I finished Season 1 of The X-Files.
I am eager to dive into Season 2 after watching Season 1. It’s a very solid series and I understand why so many people love it. This show appeals to me in many ways. It combines crime dramas like Castle and The Mentalist with the crazy supernatural shit I can get in a show like Once Upon a Time or those insufferable History Channel alien shows, except good.

1:22:50 Sam finished Yu Yu Hakusho.
I remember watching that show all the time as a teenager, back when Toonami was still a thing. I loved that show, but not enough to go hunting for it. It sucks that the last arc sucks, but truth be told, I excepted that.

1:25:12 Sam plays Counter Strike: GO
The way Sam talks about CS makes me want to stay away from it. I suck at multiplayer shooters, so I’d probably never do anywhere near competent in that game.

1:27:20 Sam plays Velvet Sundown
And challenges us to play it with him. Hopefully, we get to it, but it’s always hard to tell with this group.
From the Giant Bomb Quick Look, the game looks interesting enough to take a look at. Just watch it, it’s worth it.

1:31:15 Sam played some of Gods Will Be Watching.
And he is doing pretty bad at it. Don’t feel bad, it’s not his fault he’s a noob. XD
In all seriousness, I should probably play that game so that I understand his plight.

1:32:55 Sam plays MOBAs. Lots of MOBAs.
We use this as a springboard to talk about implied pedophilia, actual pedophilia, tutorials, and many other issues.
Taking this chance to talk about horrible gaming communities, it’s appalling to me that people can be so hostile to new players coming in and learning the game. Gaming, to me, is supposed to be a very inclusive hobby. I don’t want people to be excluded, I want to invite them in. I mean, we were all new to games at one point. Why can’t we sympathize with people who want in on the fun, but aren’t as skilled.
And as for tutorials, I think the kind of tutorials one responds best to are reliant on what kind of learning one responds best to. Garrett and Sam seem to exhibit really different schools of thought. Garrett appears to learn better by having it explained to him, where Sam seems to learn by experimentation. Neither approach is invalid, but it is important to note that different people learn differently. Personally, I’m with Sam in that I am an experimental-type of learner. Since so many people learn so differently, tutorials are really hard to do properly. This also gets into the complexity of some video games. MOBAs are more complex than they probably need to be. Some people like Garrett are fine with just reading a lot in tutorials and secondary reference materials. Others like Sam and myself, would rather just play and learn as we go. There’s no right answer. It’s completely up to preference.

2:03:50: We finally wrap up the cast.
See you guys next week! 🙂

The fact the I am a fan of the Kingdom Hearts franchise is not much of a secret. Even after my critiques of the series, I still find myself coming back to it over and over again. When I found a copy of Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5: ReMIX for $19.99, I just had to make the purchase. Having spent much of my free time with Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix in particular, thoughts on the game are gathering in the back of my mind. Before I start, I would like to warn readers that I write this assuming you are already familiar with Kingdom Hearts, and have at least played the original release of the game. With that said….
When I started my latest playthrough of the game, I noticed that the Final Mix version of the original Kingdom Hearts changed the initial choices of difficulty. While the first version had only two choices: Normal and Expert, the Final Mix had three options. They were Final Mix: Beginner, Normal, and Final Mix: Proud. Having played Kingdom Hearts many times in the past, I decided to bring in some challenge by tackling the Proud difficulty. This became a choice I would regret at first, because the initial levels in the game are fairly brutal without Guard or Dodge Roll. Once the game opened up a bit, unlocking some magic and abilities, I changed my mind. On Final Mix: Proud, the game becomes much more about timing and positioning. If the player leaves an opening, the enemy will capitalize on it. On Normal mode, attacks do not inflict enough damage to be very worrying. Proud Mode is a different story. Foes can easily take out half of Sora’s health with a single blow. As a result, I found myself utilizing magic and items a lot more than previous playthroughs of Kingdom Hearts, where I would mostly just attack, using Cure for healing. It added to the game in a way that I would have never anticipated.
Another thing I should mention are the scenes they added to the game’s main story. Most of them detail Riku’s involvement with the plot. None of the added scenes are absolutely essential to understanding the story. However, they do add a nice context to Riku’s character and how it evolves over the course of the game. With these scenes, it is much easier to understand exactly why Riku joined up with Maleficent, and how she convinced him to work with her. Also, when Ansem takes over Riku’s body towards the end of the game, the extra scenes help explain how he ends up on the other side of the door to Kingdom Hearts along side King Mickey. None of this is necessary for the plot to make sense, but it is nice to have the game explicitly answer these questions.
Aside from that, the story to the original Kingdom Hearts is all here, and it is as Simple and Clean as it was back then. The first game excelled at telling a simple, Disney-style story. It talks about friendship, heart, and the duality between light and darkness such that anyone in its E for Everyone demographic can understand. While later entries in the series will delve into the more complicated, Final Fantasy-esque storytelling, Kingdom Hearts started out differently, and the writing was better for it.
On a core level, this is the same Kingdom Hearts that I fell in love with way back in 2002. The combat feels grounded. I would not call it “realistic”, but it has a sense of plausibility that later games in the franchise did not quite recapture for me. Even today, the gameplay holds up extremely well. Hit detection is solid and the player has a lot of feedback with regards to when something takes damage or when an attack gets parried.
Having said that, there is key difference that I made a note of. In the original game, when Sora uses a technique like Ars Arcanum or Sonic Blade, he is invincible during both the initial attack and during all of the follow ups. In Final Mix, I noticed that during the follow-ups of either Ars Arcanum or Ragnarok, Sora is open to attacks, making both moves less useful overall compared to Sonic Blade or Strike Raid. I am not sure whether or not I appreciate that change. On one hand, the two moves are not as good as they used to be. On the other hand, not only were they overpowered to begin with, but their reduced effectiveness encouraged me to use other techniques instead. With the addition of new abilities and adjusted level up charts to accommodate them, the game feels fresh even for people who have already played Kingdom Hearts before.
Other notable changes help to bring the game into the modern age. In the original Kingdom Hearts, players needed to scroll down through the attack menu in order to select the contextual commands. The HD version of the Final Mix changes that by mapping them all to the triangle button in much the same way that Reaction Commands work in Kingdom Hearts 2. Follow-up attacks from Keyblade Techniques are also handled this way. Further, at the start of the game, players can choose to either stick with the shoulder button camera controls from the original game, or change it to the right-analog stick. When I saw the prompt, I personally switched it the the right stick as fast as I possibly could. These are both really nice convenience changes that improve upon the game by bringing it into the current gen. Shoulder button camera controls have always had issues, like their limited axis of effectiveness and general unwieldiness. Purists might be turned off, but I welcome the additions.
Kingdom Hearts always had a knack for looking good, even back in the PS2 era. Because of the game’s use of bold colors and a stylized, cartoonish look, the game visually withstood the test of time. With the HD treatment, this is even more true. Everything looks fantastic with the higher resolution. However, given that this is still a PS2-era game, there are some noticeable graphical hiccups that games from that system were known for. For example, they did not have the technical ability to render a character’s high detail face outside of cutscenes. When in gameplay, and even in some cutscenes, the faces on the characters are noticeably of lesser quality. As a port of a PS2 game, this is to be expected. Unfortunately, sometimes the higher resolution works against the game in this case. When uprezzing some of the textures for the character models, there are a few isolated cases where there is noticeable pixelation on them. Thankfully, it is no where near as bad as when Final Fantasy X-2 HD, where most character models had that issue. I only noticed in a few small, highly isolated cases. The pixelation is only a blemish on an otherwise highly polished piece of art.

Overall, Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix alone is well worth the asking price for the 1.5 ReMIX. As of the time of writing, I have yet to complete the boss fight against Unknown that was added to the Final Mix. I do not feel leveled enough to be able to fight him on Proud mode and right now I want to take a break from the game. I also do not currently feel compelled to play through Re: Chain of Memories. When it came out on the PS2, I purchased it and completed it 100%. As fun as that was, I do not feel like I want to do it again after doing it on both the GBA and the PS2. Nonetheless, I am extremely eager to purchase and play through the 2.5 ReMIX when it is released.

This is the premier episode of a new podcast series I will be doing with my friends Sam, Chris, and Garrett. We basically discuss what we have been doing in our spare time. Fortunately for you, this typically results in long conversations on all things geeky.

Fair warning though, this thing is a good 2.5 hours long. Hopefully, you have a long commute to work in which to listen to this.

0:00:00 Introductions
We spent this time talking about the overuse of Hitler, Crispy Creme, and pot in O-High-O. I would say I’m sorry for this, but that’d be a big lie.

0:02:47 I finished Shadowrun Returns: Dragonfall,
I just wrote an article on Shadowrun Returns that came out today, so there’s no point in doing into much further detail about it. Still, I would easily recommend that game. The reason Sam knew what I was going to say about it was that it was our second attempt at recording this podcast.

0:11:19 I finished The Walking Dead: Season 2: Episode 4
I honestly don’t have too much more to say about Season 2. I just wish I had the impression that it was going somewhere. Between that and The Wolf Among Us, TWAU blew this season out of the water. I’d be interested in comparing the sales of both games, because I wonder if they reviews for The Wolf Among Us have been able to give it comparable sales to the hype coming off of the first season of The Walking Dead.
We also talk briefly about post-apocalypse logistics and how much we loved the first season of Telltale’s The Walking Dead.
Also, here’s a link to the imdb of the show that Sam and Chris were talking about during this segment.

0:24:45 DESTINY BURN!

0:25:30 I have been playing Kingdom Hearts 1.5: Final Mix
My fanboy-ism aside, Kingdom Hearts 1 aged very well. One thing I forgot to mention is that many of the bosses were recolored in the Final Mix. Purists would probably be upset, but I thought the recolors really added something to the boss designs.
I do want to add that not adding voices to the new scenes was both really cheap and REALLY lazy on the part of Square-Enix.

0:30:45 We take a brief detour to discuss Extended Play, G4, and Adam Sessler
I do miss that show, but after hearing all of Adam Sessler’s stories of his work on G4, I’m glad that stopped. I don’t need people to go through misery to produce my entertainment. That show had some ups and downs, but it was fun to watch. Again, best of luck to him and the former G4 guys in their current/future endeavors.
Then we go into a few of his “controversies.” Specifically the ones regarding God of War: Ascension.

0:38:10 I started watching Season 1 of The X-Files.
I know that I’m more than a bit behind when it comes to this, but that’s exactly why the internet exists!
And I take this chance to make a stupid pun. I REGRET NOTHING!
The reason I grow quiet in this segment is because the guys start talking about episodes I haven’t seen yet.
I also completely forgot The X-Files had a video game at some point.

0:49:00 MY TURN IS FINALLY OVER!

0:49:34 Garrett bought Guild Wars 2.
And we skip over that without talking a whole lot about Guild Wars.

0:50:15 Garrett played the Destiny Beta (and it’s fuckin’ boring).
I agree with Garrett that the whole Borderlands-esque semi-MMO elements to the game really don’t add a whole lot. As another who has played the Beta, I found it immensely boring.
I should note that all the systems are polished and competently designed. The issue comes from the complete lack of variation. This COULD be reasonably explained by the fact that it’s in Beta. However, if that’s the case, then why release it to the public in that state. After all, this Beta is only to function as a stress test. The core design should be close to finalized by now.
And the plot, from what I have seen, is just too mystical for me to really get into. I can’t help but compare it to Kingdom Hearts and Star Wars in its simplicity.
Sam makes a good point here. At least in Borderlands, although the core mechanic is shooting, each character feels unique thanks to their power set and distinctive silhouette. Even if different classes in Destiny are different, they look the same. Since I didn’t play the other 2 classes, I can’t be 100% sure, but it feels like they aren’t different.

1:25:40 Chris’s turn begins, and he played Shovel Knight
Chris’s comments about Shovel Knight remind me of Egoraptor’s sequelitis videos. Specifically, this one where he makes fun of the industry’s tendency to over-tutorialize. Considering that we mention Game Grumps in this segment, there’s some irony there.
I actually love it when developers make place those kinds of Easter Eggs in their products. It’s a nice little touch.

1:33:25 I detour to talk about Kingdom Hearts again.
To be clear, the Proud Mode from the original Kingdom Hearts is not present in Final Mix. It is completely replaced with Final Mix: Proud. Now that I’m in the late stages of the game, and have access to a lot more skills, this is less of a factor than it was in the early game.
Also, I should learn to never worry about trophies. I don’t know what I was thinking. X_X
Chris is being the smart one here.

1:36:45 Chris plays Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time.
The “uncompressed audio” joke is a reference to Titanfall. That game’s install on PC is 50 GB because all the game’s audio (for all languages) is uncompressed.
As for Sly Cooper: TiT, the game is actually a really good homage to the original trilogy. I’m glad it was released, even if I felt it was a bit easy.
The Spyro and Jak & Daxter concept art in their respective links.

1:43:45 Chris talks a bit about playing Tribes: Ascend.
I don’t have much to add here at all.

1:48:50 Chris discusses his experiences in Titanfall and we go into AI voices.

1:51:55 Chris detours to new information regarding Avengers 2.
And I learn new things about the Marvel Universe.

1:56:00 Continuing with our movie discussion, we all start to talk about how sick we are of grimdark.
I stand behind my theory that darkness in media is partially a reflection of the way we think our world is worse than it actually is. It’s actually pretty sad to think about. Hopefully, we can get some more positive movie messages out there to help counteract all this grimdark.
I should also remember to tell Chris to stop looking at the Escapist forums. No good can possibly come from that.

2:03:30 Sam played Counter Strike: Global Offensive

2:06:55 Sam purchased Gods Will Be Watching

2:08:25 Sam talks about how he lost all of his computer files by install Windows 7.
And the rest of us wonder why he never performed a backup.
This also happens to be how we lost the first of three recordings of this episode. This show was slated to start last week, but we lost the recording.
Like I said in the podcast, losing that many saves and that much progress might cause me to cry and scream. Just one 100% complete save put me in a mad tirade back in middle school. That, might make me stop gaming for a few weeks.

2:23:05 We briefly return to comics to talk about Spawn, Spidey, Cyclops, and other bizarre crap.
To talk a bit about Image Comics. The summery is that Image Comics was originally founded as a safe haven for artists to keep their IP. Then, Todd McFarlene basically destroyed that haven later on.

2:26:30 We end the podcast.
You can find my Shadowrun Returns article here and my game length article here.

In the time I have been writing about video games, I have gone back to play many games from the past. A great portion of those game were old RPGs like the first few Fallout games, Baldur’s Gate, and Planescape: Torment. As a result, I have become familiar with the tropes, designs, mechanics of CRPGs. This is what inspired me to play a game on my Steam list that has been out for a while, but I had never played: Shadowrun Returns. For the record, I am not referring to the shooter called “Shadowrun”, released in 2007. Rather, I am talking about the Kickstarted CRPG developed Harebrained Schemes. Having just completed the Dead Man’s Switch module that came with the game, and the Dragonfall module released later as DLC, my mind is still fresh with thoughts on it.
Given the modular, user-generated content focus of the game, it is great that one of Shadowrun Return’s greatest draws is its setting. I would feel incredibly comfortable saying that the Shadowrun RPG setting is one of the most interesting ones out there. Though this is ignoring some of the finer minutia of the lore, the basic gist of Shadowrun’s world is that our world ran as it normally did, until an event known as the Awakening happened. Afterwards, magic came to the world, along with many of the typical fantasy races such as elves, trolls, and so on. Furthermore, world governments have weakened in power, leaving private corporations to fill the vacuum. Mercenaries called Shadowrunners (which will typically include player characters) get hired by various people in different positions of authority to complete jobs and acquire their next paycheck. Without a doubt, the mix of science fiction and fantasy, combined with the highly political relationships among corporations, lead to a lot of potential for many diverse and interesting modules/campaigns.
And with such potential, it is crucial for Shadowrun Returns to have a robust character creator. Fortunately, the game has exactly that. Whenever the player starts a new module, they must create a new character for that module. If players wish, they can directly spend their initial karma, which is the equivalent of experience points in Shadowrun, on the various skills available to them. Alternatively, they can select one of six pre-made classes to help guide them. The first is the Street Samurai, which focuses on weapon skills. Next is the Mage, who is an expert in spellcasting. After that is the Decker, who can infiltrate the Matrix, a more advanced version of the internet, in order to acquire files and hack various devices in the world. The Shaman can summon totems. A Rigger can control combat drones. And lastly, a Physical Adept can use their chi energy to augment their physical abilities.
As players complete missions in a module, they gain more karma. That karma can be used to enhance attributes, improve old skills, or unlock new skills. It is crucial to develop a character’s stats, because that determines the caps for their skill. For example, Ranged Combat relies on the Quickness stat. If my character has a 4 in Quickness, they can only have a maximum of 4 in Ranged Combat. The fact that both stats and skills are raised with the same resource encourages players to specialize. In general, there are not many “wrong” builds in Shadowrun Returns. Should the player specialize in only a handful of skills, they will generally find themselves able to handle most situations. Even outside of combat, a specialist would usually be able to find a dialog prompt that requires those talents.
On the other hand, what better use is there for your character and their abilities than to fight. Shadowrun Returns utilizes a system extremely similar to the one found in X-Com: Enemy Unknown. In fact, they are so alike that players of the latter will feel quite at home here. Turns have one phase each for the player, the enemy, and any neutral parties. On the player’s turn, their character and any allies accompanying them each get 2 Action Points. AP can be spent completing action like firing a weapon, changing position, casting a spell, or going on Overwatch to intercept an enemy on their phase. Each enemy will also get 2 AP on their phase. Phases will alternate until either all player characters or all enemies have been defeated. At the end of combat, the player party’s most recent wounds will be healed. Both modules contain many interesting and varied enemy formations. Combined with a very solid system, this allows for highly tactic combat. Finding strong positions, taking cover, and keeping pressure on the enemy are key to keeping the player and their entourage in good enough condition to fight on.
However, there is one element that RPGs thrive on above all others, their stories. Fortunately, both the Dead Man’s Switch and Dragonfall modules are extremely strong in this category. To avoid spoilers, I will not speak directly about the plots to either of these games. However, I will say that the writing is top notch. Since the game uses an isometric 2D style, and does not have voice acting, the script has to be strong enough to make up for that. Rather than animate the characters, the dialog box is also filled in with descriptions like “She’s hiding it well, but you can tell she’s clearly out of her element.” It is very literary in the way scenes play out, letting players use their imaginations to great effect. Both stories also have a very steady build-up and pacing. Lasting only about 12 hours each, both narratives take a decent amount of time to clear without overstaying their welcome.
Dead Man’s Switch ends on a bit of a low note with regards to its final dungeon, but it is otherwise very solid, if a bit on the easy side. On the other hand, Dragonfall does a very good job of stepping up the difficulty without being overly frustrating thanks to its smart level layouts and enemy design. It is also much more open than Dead Man’s Switch’s comparatively linear story. While both stories will eventually funnel players to the same end, Dragonfall feels much more organic and responsive to player action than Dead Man’s Switch. There are obvious, yet subtle ways in which the world reacts to what the player does in the game. In any case, both modules have solid stories with intelligent and thoughtful design.

Shadowrun Returns is a truly impressive game in my opinion. I enjoy it so much that I would feel extremely comfortable calling it one of my favorite RPGs of all time, even more than Planescape: Torment. And Dragonfall is an excellent expansion to the game. Given the modular nature of the product, I am excited to see what kinds of creations players have made/will make. The setting and the mechanics are so solid that I rarely found myself in a position where I did not want to keep playing the game. Should you be someone interested in RPGs, I could not recommend Shadowrun Returns enough. You owe it to yourself to check it out if you have not already done so.

As an amateur, avid game critic, I follow gaming news and releases religiously. As I read press statements, game descriptions, and reports on games soon to be released, there is a sentiment that I repeatedly see among them: One that I cannot agree with. There is a notion from publishers, developers, and their fans that the length of a game should be a compelling selling point. A game that has “50 hours of content” should be more compelling than a similar game with “20 hours of content”. I see why this is an easy mistake to make. Nonetheless, this assumption is incorrect. Length in games cannot, and will not, ever be an indicator of a game’s overall value. This week, I aim to explain exactly why that is.
The biggest reason for this is that the amount of content says nothing about the overall quality of that content. I have mentioned this point a few times in earlier pieces, particular a fewpertaining to Assassin’s Creed 3, but it is one that bears both repeating and elaborating on. A game can claim that it contains “40/50 hours of content”, as Watch_Dogs and Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag both famously did. However, that point does not say how good or how bad that content is. For example, Assassin’s Creed 3 is now infamous for how bad it was, especially in comparison to earlier entries in the franchise. Yet it sold itself partially on the claim that it had many untold hours of gameplay.
Hindsight has revealed it to be a pox on the franchise. The tale of Connor Kenway had terrible writing with laughably camp antagonists. Missions were overly linear to the point where even the exact path players took to their assassination was determined by the game. Collectibles and side content did not serve any purpose nor provide an adequate enough challenge/reward to be gathered for their own sake. Lastly, the ending is a standout for bad endings in games, even when the game was released in the same year as Mass Effect 3. Though the game has many, many hours of content, a lot of it is not particularly good. The only real standouts are the parts with Connor’s father, Haytham. Were all, or even most, of the game’s offerings up to snuff, many hours of it could be a fantastic selling point. However, in the context of the game, all that content ends up being a negative. Other games like Watch_Dogs can be said to suffer the same fate in different ways.
That being said, there are other dangers to relying on the length of a game as a measure for value. When it is, the temptation arises for developers to artificially add more content into the game. As a direct result of these additions, the game’s pacing can be negatively affected. I posit that happened in the creation of Dragon Age: Origins. I already laid out the premise of The Fade in last week’s post and discussed how it hurt the overall game, along with The Deep Roads. While I cannot be sure of it, I am willing to claim that at least The Fade was added in after the fact in order to reach some artificial length for an average playthrough. It is the kind of section that has almost no bearing on anything else in the game, not even in the Circle of Magi module that it is a part of. Modders have proven this to be true thanks to “Skip the Fade”. There are other such examples of content that feels artificial even in other games, like the Navajo scene in Beyond: Two Souls or latex nuns in Hitman: Absolution. Most of them contribute adversely to the narrative pacing.
My final reason for why length of a game does not make for a good measure of quality is that using it in such a way could end up lowering the overall quality of a game’s content. My logic for this is as follows: A developer who believes that quantity is important will attempt to provide as much content for their consumers as they possibly can. Creating all this content requires the developer to spread their resources thin so that more content can be created. When content is created with such limited resources, it will be lesser in terms of quality. Therefore, creating as much content as possible will result in at least some of that content being not as good as it otherwise could have been. While treating length as the end-all-be-all does not necessarily imply that a game will be poor, I would be willing to make the claim that, using this logic, it is safe to conclude that it raises the odds of a lesser quality.

As a final note to this piece, I want to say that I do not mean to say that length should not be a factor in purchasing decisions. What I actually mean is that it should not be treated as the most, or even one of the most, important considerations. When a developer says that there is game “has X hours of play”, you should sit down and think for a second. You should wonder if the game’s design was affected just so that the publisher could use that length as a talking point when discussing the final product. Marketers do count on us being easy to manipulate. That is just the nature of their job. It is the responsibility of us, the audience and the consumers, to be aware and to think about why and how our games were designed the way they are.

It has been some time since I finished my adventures in the world of Dragon Age: Origins and its various DLC packs. To that end, I have been comparing my experiences with that game to others that I have played. What I was pondering through this introspection is the question of narrative pacing in the world of video games. As with most properties of storytelling, the general rules governing narrative pacing undergo changes when applied to this new realm of media. Since a lot of my problems in Dragon Age: Origins came from its pacing, and Awakening felt better because it improved said pacing, it would be pertinent to contemplate the topic in this week’s post.
One of the things that stands out most to me with regards to video game pacing is how players are willing to wait a little longer for the plot to advance, in comparison to consumers of other media. In a book, if the plot was about solving a murder mystery, and then the author spent an entire chapter discussing the philosophical nature of crime scene investigation and criminology, people would wonder why that decision was made. While that information may certainly be tangentially related to the plot and interesting in and of itself, it would not be relevant to the mystery and the main plot of the book. Film also has this kind of problem. If a movie character in a spy movie was talking to another character, then some random bad guys step into the scene for the protagonist to beat up for five or ten minutes, followed by the protagonist resuming their conversation where they left off, the audience would be completely confused. They would think to themselves what the point of that detour was, why it took so long, and why it was not cut from the final product.
However, this is demonstrably not the case in video games. As players, we accept when a conversation in a video game is interrupted by an attack by random gang-bangers. In fact, that tends to be fairly normal as far as games are concerned. The reason is pretty obvious. People purchase video games so that they may play video games. It is okay for the story to briefly take the backseat, because more often than not it is not the reason players are sitting on their couch with a controller in hand. We can comfortably go dungeon crawling for about an hour or so without any advancement of the main plot until the end. The model of story->gameplay->story->gameplay has been a mainstay in gaming for as long as games began to focus on their narratives. Most other mediums would consider it weird for the plot to go so long without advancing in a meaningful way, but that is so common that it still remains a very ingrained model for game designers.
Less, but still fairly, common is when the story of a game takes a detour in order to prolong the length of a game and allow for more gameplay. These kinds of additions can be hit or miss, depending on their context. For example, Fort Frolic is one of the most loved segments of the original Bioshock game. In terms of the central conflict of Atlas vs. Andrew Ryan, nothing major is accomplished in Fort Frolic and the plot comes to an overall standstill. Having said that, both the environment Fort Frolic and the madness of its master, Sander Cohen, are so interesting that most players either would not notice or would not care. Though it adds nothing to the narrative, the game is richer for the existence of this content.
By contrast, The Fade in Dragon Age: Origins is one of the most reviled example of this going wrong, for good reason. While attempting to rescue the mages in the Circle Tower, the player party is ambushed by a Sloth Abomination and forced into a deep sleep. In the world of Dragon Age, a person’s soul is in a spiritual realm called The Fade, home to both divine and demonic entities alike, when sleeping. This sets up a three hour segment where the protagonist needs to break out of The Fade, rescuing his/her other party members in the process. Like Fort Frolic, it does not serve any real purpose beyond adding length to the game. Unlike Fort Frolic, it is not interesting enough in its own right and drags too long to hold the attention of the player. Along with the Deep Roads, The Fade has a major negative impact on the pacing of the game. It is so reviled that there are mods whose sole purpose is to remove that one section from the game. Regardless of the rest of the game, the mere existence of this content does make Dragon Age: Origins lesser.
There is also the fact that gaming is a unique medium in that the skill of the player can also have a direct impact on the pacing. A skilled, or veteran player will have an easier time completing individual sections of a given game, resulting in an overall faster pace than a newcomer/novice player. Books and films have easier times in pacing themselves because they do not require such skill, thanks to their passive natures. The game has a tougher time because the mechanics need to be paced as much as the plot or any individual gameplay section needs to be. Even then, there always exists the possibility than a player will never finish a game because they just cannot complete a difficult mission. It is a unique challenge that I truly do not know how to overcome.
In the end, it is hard to determine if there is a specific pacing that can appeal to the most people. Like many things in life, it comes down to the individual to decide if a game’s pacing is fit for them or not. Movies and books tend to have very specific formulas for the way they are paced, but that is something others have discussed before. Because each game is so radically different from the next, they call for different structures and styles. Each such structure requires its own unique pacing to best take advantage of that. I do not profess to have concrete answers as to how games should be paced or how developers should consider the type of game they are making when considering pacing. However, I do think it is an interesting question to ask after playing a game like Dragon Age: Origins.

Bioware and I have a very strained relationship. I want to love their games. However, their games have a tendency to do everything they can to irritate me. Though I enjoy their writing more often than not (which is NOT license to tell me how much you love/hate Mass Effect 3), there is almost always an odd quirk or two that comes up so often that it becomes a real issue. This is why it has taken me so long to actually sit down and take the time to play Dragon Age: Origins. Last year’s Steam Summer Sale proved the ideal time to purchase the Ultimate Edition of the game, but I had never actually played it up until now. Having finished my playthrough of Origins, I have quite a bit to say about it.
Let us start with the thing that irritated me the most: the combat. I could not stand the combat in Dragon Age: Origins. Battles take place in real time. When the player party comes close enough to an enemy unit, battle starts instantly. Characters draw their weapons and attack enemies, either with skills that consume mana/stamina or weapon strikes. Tactics can be adjusted by either manipulating the step-by-step procedure each character follows, in a style similar to the gambits from Final Fantasy XII, or by pausing the game to tell them what to do manually. At the end of the fight, health, mana, and stamina is restored.
This seems simple enough on paper. However, even though I was playing on Easy, the system presented a number of issues to me. For example, there were a number of times where I found my allies near death. I paused the game to order them to drink a health potion. More frequently than I would have liked, these actions were interrupted by enemy attacks. That is not where I draw issue. What angered me is that when they get back up, they pretend as if the order to drink a health potion never happened and resume their combat routine. In the period it would take me to pause and reissue the order, the ally would typically get knocked down again. This would continue until they died.
On top of that, the combat even outside of circumstances like the one described above felt much like a chore. With few exceptions, encounters fell into one of two categories. One type of fight was so trivial that just allowing my characters to whack an enemy’s shins until they die was more than enough to take care of them. The other type was tough enough that the player would need to pause almost after every single action so that new orders could be issued and time was not wasted. In either of these cases, it feels more often than not that the game’s battle system should have been Turn-Based, rather than Real Time with Pause.
Turn-Based Combat would give players a greater ability to make tactical decisions than the Real Time with Pause system used in Dragon Age: Origins. This would also free them from the burden of constantly needing to stop and pause the game, switching between characters and fiddling with their orders in just the right way. It brings a much needed layer of precision into the gameplay, allowing players to more accurately plan and perform combat actions without forcing them to repeatedly halt the action. Real Time with Pause did not really work in Baldur’s Gate and it does not work with Dragon Age either. I found that fighting became much more tedious in both games because of that system. Not to say that Real Time with Pause cannot work at all. Rather, I do not think it was a strong fit for Dragon Age.
Though I do dislike the combat, that was not my biggest complaint. The thing that bothered me most was the exploration of the various areas in the game. It is typical RPG fare. Players and their party explore dungeons/forests/towns, completing objectives. Along the way, they can find side quests, treasures, monsters, etc. Traps will also be scattered throughout dungeons for Rogue characters to find and disarm. Classic fantasy RPGs are the main source of inspiration, and it clearly shows.
Unfortunately, this is as much a negative as it is a positive. What I mean by that is that most of the dungeons in the game are far too long. Exploring an area just enough to get through the main story can easily take two or three hours, and that is just one area. Dragon Age: Origins is also infamous for areas that can take much longer than that, like the Fade or the Deep Roads. Unlike most other games I have played, I rarely feel like I have made any significant progress in a single session of Dragon Age. The game feels artificially long because of this. As a gamer, I feel that if a single dungeon takes more than one hour to clear its main quest objective, it is far too long. Anything of greater length than that, for a single dungeon, is disrespectful to my time.
The level design was also made worse in the most of the padding came in the form of unavoidable combat. Were it not for all the many, many fights that I would have to go through to get anything accomplished in Dragon Age: Origins, I might have had a more favorable impression of the battle system. Unfortunately, the game throws waves and waves of enemies at the player. Most exits to individual zones are blocked by foes. Even as a Rogue, it was impossible to sneak around them. However, that has nothing to do with my, or my character’s, ability to sneak. Rather, it is thanks to the way the game registers combat. Being “in combat” or “out of combat” is determined purely by how close the player character is to an enemy. When I walked silently across enemy lines without their knowing, I was still “in combat” because they were close to me. Sadly, players cannot change zones while in combat. Even though they did not see me and I was not attacking anything, I was “in combat” and could not proceed without killing everyone in the room. This can be made even worse when the game fails to see that all enemies have been defeated, and takes too long to transition out of combat.
And all of this begs the question. If I disliked so many aspects of this game, why on Earth did I stick to it long enough to finish? To answer that hypothetical question: I did so because the story and lore of Dragon Age: Origins is really interesting. So much so that I compelled myself to push through the torturous parts of the game to get to the next section of story and dialog. Though a lot of the plot is predictable in its own Bioware-way, there are enough twists and surprises to keep the experience feeling fresh. As one can expect from the development studio, the ensemble cast of characters in the game are very well written and come off as believable people. Player interactions with these characters are interesting and change enough small details that the game feels unique to each individual player. Also, unlike The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Dragon Age: Origins makes the player feel like they are having an impact on the world and its people. The world reacts to events that happen in the game. NPCs even comment on and acknowledge past events and deed.
One of the most interesting ways this is accomplished is through the games various origin stories. Based on the player’s starting gender, race, and character class, different origin story options are available to them. Rather than just be a wall of text, these origin stories serve as the start of the game, leading up to the point where the player character becomes the Grey Warden. I played as a Human Noble, and my origin story was reflected constantly throughout the game. I felt like the game tailored itself to my story and my character, which I have great respect for. The ending is also very different depending on the alliances forged and sides taken during the player’s journey, taking the more positive aspects of old-school RPG design.

Ultimately though, I will probably never play through the other origin stories. Simply because that would imply that I have any interest in going through Dragon Age: Origins a second time. I enjoyed the story exactly enough to finish it one time. I could not possibly bear playing the game again. I see why it is a popular game among RPG enthusiasts. For better or worse, it is a love letter to the old school isometric RPGs brought into 3D space. In many ways, I like and have respect for it. However, the time commitment necessary to finish the game, and the annoyances generated by its combat systems, are simply too great for me to really say that I enjoyed the game. I hear Dragon Age 2 changed things around a bit. Maybe sometime in the future, I will attempt to play that game as well. First, I will need to finish the DLC modules for Origins because I hear Awakening is pretty good. Then, I will need to wash the taste out of my mouth with something more palatable.   
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