First off, this episode was supposed to be posted yesterday, but both Sam and myself completely forgot to do so. For that, I would like to apologize to you guys who are watching us.

Early on in what can be generously referred to as my game criticism “career,” I wrote this article comparing the collectibles in Tomb Raider to those in Assassin’s Creed 3. As I said in this episode, the collectibles in this game, namely the diaries and the artifacts, really add depth to the world, the side cast, and Lara herself. Whereas in AC3, all of it was frivolous. I feel this is worth pointing out because so many games do so little with collectibles that they are almost entirely pointless.

I said my criticisms regarding Sam in a general sense here, but we’ll go into further detail as the game progresses. For a game that has such a well-written female protagonist, to rely on the damsel-in-distress trope feels strange and tiresome in comparison. Sam’s one of the worst types of damsels, so it comes off as even more irritating.

Like Sam, Whitman feels like another tired trope, that of the incredibly obvious betrayer of the team. His motivation is also one of the worst. Survival isn’t why he betrays us, it’s because he wants to be the one to document all of this. It’s so bad that it’s laughable.

One of the last scenes we see in this episode is the uncomfortable “rape” scene. I can somewhat understand why this scene exists, because it helps to reinforce the kind of opposition Lara will be facing as the game progresses. These men are so deranged that they think nothing of forcing another into a sex act unwillingly. Furthermore, it gives him an excuse to get close enough for Lara to be able to grab the gun in a plausible manner, making her first kill. In the end, it does work, but it still could have probably be handled better.

As we also mention in the episode, the time between our first kill, and the first fight against human beings is on the small side, for good reasons. In the ideal world, the developers would have been able to hold off on giving us pistol ammo. However, I do believe the transition was handled with much more skill than Jason Brody’s was in Far Cry 3.

Though we missed in during our conversation, Lara has a very good line right after her first genuine fight. When climbing up the rope ladder, she is talking with Roth on the radio. He says “[Killing those guys] can’t have been easy.” She responds with, “It’s scary just how easy it was.” That’s really all you need. Even though the transition was somewhat rushed, the acknowledgement that the character is better in violent situations than could or should otherwise be expected helps alleviate that tension.

It’s hard to really say what happened this week, I suppose with Sam and I releasing the previous episode, recording Interactive Friction’s new season, and doing this episode all in the span of about 4 days, we must have lost track of all the conversations that took place on and off the air. As a result, we did end up repeated a lot of what we said in the last show. Since Chris didn’t get the chance to see any of it, I suppose it’s all good. The audio this week wasn’t that good either, so I sincerely apologize for that.

Also, we had no viewer questions this week. If you have a question, comment, or something you’d like to be read on the air in a hilariously bad/inappropriate accent, you may send it to us at thetexturepop@gmail.com.
0:02:00 Gaming News
Battlefield Hardline doesn’t want you to feel bad for killing dudes.
I suppose that I can understand this thought process. AAA gaming tends to, for better or worse, appeal to the most common denominator. Since most people who buy Battlefield: Hardline will be the same types of people who buy other Battlefield or Call of Duty games, EA and Visceral has to assume that they either don’t want to, or won’t, think about the potential repercussions for their in-game actions.
Having said all that, it is extremely disappointing, and very tone deaf, to make this story about a cop without changing and recontextualizing the gameplay to fit that new environment. Combat between cops and criminals is not the same as combat between military forces and terrorists, so there’s no reason whatsoever for them to be so similar. It’s a wasted opportunity.

Valiant Hearts director leaves Ubisoft to go into the indie space.
I find this interesting only because this story is becoming more and more common as the years go on. A lot of the people who have spent years working in the industry are getting sick of the way AAA developers are treating them, so they’re leaving. In light of the many horror stories we hear from AAA, Now that publishers are becoming less and less necessary in the era where any person can just build a website to sell a game, the dynamic is changing in a good way.

0:19:00 Chris played Dragonball: Xenoverse.
I’m actually oddly interested in Dragonball: Xenoverse, but not enough that I’m willing to purchase it for full price. It looks like it would be pretty fun for a Dragonball fan, but otherwise fairly average.

0:37:50 Chris watched the first episode of Powers on PlayStation Plus.
I don’t know much about it, but what Chris said made me interested.

0:46:50 Garrett talks about his week.
But eventually we start talking about movies, specifically…

0:51:35 Garrett watched Lady in the Water
Since movies are notoriously not my strong suite, I’ve not much more to add.

1:06:30 Sam has played more inFamous: Second Son. *MAJOR SPOILERS*
Because we talked about it after finishing our Interactive Friction recording session, it was difficult to remember what Sam said to me only versus what we spoke of on the air last week.
That said, I still think Second Son is an interesting case study to show just how far we’ve evolved from the days of moral choice systems. The game is trapped in the past, with no acknowledgement of how both storytelling and game mechanics have changed.
Given what we’ve said about this game in the past, I believe that Sam’s idea of shorter DLCs focusing on a single character and power set would work much better for the game.

1:25:20 Sam played Killzone: Shadow Fall.
I know very little about Killzone, so there’s not much to add here.

1:32:10 Sam played Korean MMOs with his anime friends.
Honestly, do I NEED to say anymore? He had to “live his anime life.”

1:42:30 I played more Dragon Age 2.
I appreciate the faster-pace in the combat and dungeon-exploration. Compared to Origins, this game is paced significantly better. Having said that, it does have it’s issues. We’ll probably talk more in the next podcast about this very topic, since I did finish it after this recording.

1:52:00 I played a bit of Papo Y Yo.
I just wish I had more to say about it. It’s much the same problem I had with Contrast. It is a good game, but not enough material for discussion.

1:54:30 Wrapping Up.
Garrett recommends Overwolf, which does not sponsor us.
Interactive Friction’s Tomb Raider season has begun.
We also did a bonus episode on Blood Dragon.
My Far Cry 4 article is also worth a read.

Welcome everyone, to the new season of Interactive Friction. After talking about it so much during the Far Cry 3 season, we decided to go into more detail by covered the 2013 reboot of Tomb Raider.

I know it’s strange to spend so much time discussing font choices and subtitles, but that something that is so commonly done wrong in games that there are not many examples of well done subtitles. The only reason that is a major pet peeve of mine is that it took me a long time to upgrade from SD to HD when I first got my PS3. Because of the way HD gets downgraded, a lot of text became extremely difficult to read on SD television sets. A lot of that frustration can be easily escaped by just making smarter choices in font and presentation.

We also enables TressFX, and honestly it’s not that great. When Lara is just running around, then it’s okay. However, when she’s more active, it’s far too bounce-y, to the point where it’s distracting and immersion-breaking.

It is also interesting to view this tutorial in contrast to the “parody” tutorial we just went through in the Blood Dragon episode. The game is really good at using these initial gameplay sections to teach you basic mechanics without patronizing you without pointless pop-ups if you have already played it or other games like it before.

One of the throughlines we are going to explore as we advance this series is how similar Far Cry 3 is to Tomb Raider in terms of the overall story arc. However, Tomb Raider handles not only the transition from scared college kid into hardened warrior significantly better than Far Cry 3 does. It is much more believable and Lara earns her character arc much more than Jason Brody does.

For example, in the first episode of Far Cry 3, we had already made a human kill. Though Jason felt bad about it, the game spent almost no time dwelling on it. In that same episode, we were already acquiring weapons and firing them at animals. At this point, the only kill Lara has to her name is a deer, and she’s completely broken up about it. While Jason has already started fighting against people, Lara is still in process of getting her bearings and figuring out how to stay alive, making her feel a lot more like a human being than Jason ever really did. Plus, she has the added benefit the player being able to see her face, giving us a better window into how she feels.

We’ll talk a bit more about what else Tomb Raider does to make the transition from normal person to warrior more believable, but that will happen as we progress through the game’s story.

In the next few days, Sam and I will begin our second season of Interactive Friction. But before we do that, we thought it would be nice if we wrapped up a few loose ends surrounding Far Cry 3

What Blood Dragon really demonstrates is how fun the core mechanics of Far Cry 3 can be when the developers just let loose and have fun with the whole thing. Unlike vanilla Far Cry 3, Blood Dragon has a lot of heart behind it, even if it does have parts where it falls flat on its face.

Stylistically, the game does well by invoking the style of a bygone era. I love the color palette this game chose to use, because it stands out among many of the other games, The whole glowing-things aesthetic also provides contrast with other games.

There are also a lot of design decisions that are really nice. Since this is a smaller game, it makes sense to unlock many of the skills that took Jason so long to get at the start of the game. The linear leveling system helps avoid bogging down the player with choices that aren’t that important. All sorts of other minor details really give it its own style.

The rest of our commentary stands out on its own, so I’ll let the video speak for itself.

Before we close, I would like to make an announcement. Season 2 of Interactive Friction will be posted on Monday, March 16, 2015. The game we will be playing is….

A Let’s Play Series is born! Welcome to Interactive Friction: Tomb Raider!

This week is an interesting recording session. Chris could not make it, because he has a new job. The rest of us, however, were more than able to make it. Since it was such a weird week, the podcast was posted pretty late. On behalf of the cast, I would like to apologize to you, the viewers.

0:00:50 Viewer Questions
“What do you think of Anita Sarkeesian’s 8 point suggestions?”
Turns out I was wrong about when this came out, because I found an article talking about it as of the time of writing.
At the time of the recording, none of us saw this particular talk, so we tried to get away with discussing this in the general sense.
Now that I have read those points, I don’t see the issue with any of them. They make logical sense and the problems they address are real problems.
One of the throughlines I see repeated in comments to these points, and other issues raised by Sarkeesian, is that they tend to think that she wants to apply these points to all games. That is not true. What she wants developers to consider these suggestions and try to incorporate them more often. I also want to point out that the only angry comments we have ever gotten on this show came from the one episode where we defended Anita Sarkeesian when GamerGate was still a thing people cared about.

“What games are you guys looking forward to in the next few months?”
I was pretty nervous when this game came up, because I honestly could not think of anything on the top of my head. We’re still in this initial rut brought about by the dawn of new gaming consoles. As a result, the number of new titles, at least in the AAA space, that have my interest is small.

0:18:50 Gaming News
Steam Machines/Controller announcements
The thing about the Steam controller is that it is basically trying to make the keyboard and mouse more viable for a home theater setup. Honestly, I’m not sure how many game will benefit from such a device. Maybe it’s just me, but I am fine with the idea of having a KB & M on my lap as I play.
As for the machines themselves, I’m not sure who the target market for them is. For most people, they are better off just upgrading their PCs and home theater setups at the price these machines cost. Even at the lower end, a gaming console is about as good and easier to add to whatever setup you have.

Maxis is shut down by EA.
I don’t think anyone is surprised by this announcement, but to do this at the same time GDC is going on is a little painful. EA has been on people’s shit list for a long time because of this behavior, so I doubt it will change.

0:27:10 I played a new little game called Hand of Fate.
I have slowly, gradually begun to love this little game. As an aspiring game designer, I think the way it combined so many different mechanics into a cohesive whole is brilliant. It’s difficult to explain, but immediate obvious when you start to play and/or watch someone else play.
Just be warned that there are technical issues in the game. It’s not perfect, but it’s good.

0:35:35 I played Dragon Age 2.
I don’t hate the game, but it does have its flaws.
The biggest problem is honestly the combat. I am getting so tired of all the waves and waves of enemies. What I would have done to improve the game is to give each enemy group a leader, with significantly higher stats than the others. Once the leader falls, than the other units will retreat.
Also, Carver and Anders are some of the most irritating people I’ve ever had in an RPG party. The game isn’t the best thing I’ve ever played, but it’s not bad. I can see how fans of Dragon Age could not like it.
I didn’t mention it in the cast, but I had a huge problem at first because it felt like I was just doing nothing but sidequests. As the game went on, the game evolved from that, and I began to like it a lot more.

0:53:10 Sam tried a PS2 emulator.
And we had a pretty good conversation about old PS2 games, regional differences, and how different regions respond better or worse to different stimuli.
The Nier comparison shots of the Japanese vs. North American protagonist can be best show off with this image.

0:59:51 Sam got a PS4.
We kinda go rapid-fire through the games he purchases with it.
The other big discussion involves graphics and how technology is improving.

1:10:30 Sam played inFamous: Second Son.
I know we talked a lot about it when I played the games, but I was nice to talk with Sam about it, since he now has the experience that I have from playing.

1:30:30 Garrett talks about his week.
In this segment, we cover:

  • Five Nights at Freddy’s 
  • League of Legends 
  • voice acting 
  • music 
  • Cards Against Humanity 
  • shoes 
  • Campbell’s soup and other foods 
  • CSI 
  • Hotline Miami 2
  • alcohol
  • watching other people sleep on Skype?
  • consumption of meat

1:59:55 We talk about game engines.
The recent news that Unreal 4 and Source 2 will be free inspired this conversation. For guys like Garrett and myself, who are aspiring game designers, this is a huge boon.
We get into a side conversation about Watch_Dogs and how terrible it was.

2:13:30 Wrapping Up
My Outlast article is here.
Interactive Friction: Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon is here.

By the time this piece is published, I will have already completed Interactive Friction’s season of Far Cry 3. When taken with my article comparing it to Wolfenstein: The New Order, my opinions of that game cannot be made any more clear. That said, I have always had a fascination with Ubisoft’s products. They always manage to make enough good and bad decisions that excellent conversation can be had. Though I have many complaints regarding Far Cry 3, I enjoyed it enough to purchase and play the sequel. This week, we will discuss Far Cry 4.
Those who played Far Cry 3 will find themselves right at home. In that respect, the game is fairly iterative. Players take a trip to an exotic landscape that would feel at home in the pamphlet of a travel agency. Once there, they do the things that have become so deeply linked to the typical Ubisoft game. Enjoying the fight against hordes of nameless, faceless soldiers, climbing towers, conquering outposts, and hunting animals and collectibles are all the order of the day here. Nobody should be particularly surprised by this. In this way, the game is just as derivative as one can expect. The fundamental gameplay loop is the same, with no real big changes occurring. Because of this, most gameplay-related criticisms that have been made of a AAA-game published by Ubisoft in recent years could be levied towards Far Cry 4 and be just as accurate.
What distinguishes Far Cry 4 from the rest of Ubisoft’s big games are smaller, less visible changes. The game is less of a unique title in the lineup and more of a refinement of the formula that has been used repeatedly for the past few years. Some of these updates are a step up, while others have more mixed results. Exploration in particular has been vastly improved for this sequel, with the new helicopter allows for more freedom and verticality when traveling around the map. Even without it, the wingsuit from the previous game can be purchased very early on, which allows the player to safely jump off of high cliffs and move huge distances. Autodrive even removes the tedium of driving from waypoint to waypoint in order to get to different objectives.
The story is also much more bearable than what was present for Far Cry 3. Unfortunately, it is not because of the characters the player will spend most of their time interacting with. Honestly, most of the major characters come off as either one note or bland. Despite my intense loathing of Jason Brody, at least he does have some character, if not a great one. Far Cry 4’s lead character, Ajay Ghale, is a blank slate. He comes to the fictional country of Kyrat in order to burying his mother’s ashes there, completing her dying wish, getting swept up into the politics surrounding the region. Taken by Pagan Min, the king of this nation, Ajay soon finds himself rescued and recruited into the Golden Path, who oppose his rule.
The Golden Path is headed by two people. Sabal, the man who rescues Ajay from Pagan Min, believes that sticking to old customs and traditions, including the status of woman as second-class citizens. Counter to his ideals is Amita, who wishes to abandon tradition and take a more progress stance towards Kyrat’s future, funding it primarily through the trade of illegal drugs and narcotics. As the third man, Ajay is often forced to make binary moral choices in support of one person’s plans over the others. I found the whole affair painfully dull. Although they are the two characters that players interact with more than any other, they are the least interesting part of the entire game. There is simply nothing else to those two aside from their chosen stances on how Kyrat should be ruled. One could even make a drinking game out of the number of times Sabal uses the word “tradition” in his dialogue. As the player avatar, Ajay is robbed of whatever chance he had of decent characterization because of this dynamic of being the mediator between two uninteresting paths.
And that is a real shame, because the rest of the supporting cast is much more interesting. First and foremost, the chief antagonist, Pagan Min, steals the show whenever he is on screen. Voiced by Troy Baker, Pagan is very clearly aware of his role in the plot. He chews the scenery in every appearance, which is why he ultimately comes off as strangely likable compared to the other characters in the cast. Min is the bad guy. He knows it and is willing to let loose and have fun with it. Regrettably, the man only makes a scant few appearances in a plot which is, at least in theory, all about taking down his regime. The plot twist regarding his history with Ajay’s parents also recontextualizes the main campaign in a way that is oddly self-aware, to the point where one could say it openly mocks the video game conventions that the rest of the plot takes for granted. Even if he is not Vaas, and does not make many appearances, the game is made better for his character.
Most of the side-quests are given to the player through characters with unique views and idiosyncrasies. The quests to hunt legendary animals for the game’s carrying cases is delivered to Ajay by a fashion designer who believes that garments can only be truly beautiful if they are practical as they are stylish. A radio DJ with a tendency to just say whatever inane thoughts come to mind gives the player the side objective of shutting down Pagan Min’s propaganda centers. The local weapons dealer is also a missionary who needs someone to help him atone for his past crimes by killing the people who still commit them and reclaiming their ill-gotten goods. Not only do these characters entertain the player, but they also serve to contextualize many of the side-missions in a way that Far Cry 3 never really did aside from the radio towers and outposts. I understood more clearly in this game why my character would have a vested interest in going out of his way to do these things, and the side-cast was instrumental in that.
Which is great, because those smaller characters are part of what make Kyrat such an interesting playground. The other big draw is the land itself. Taking a helicopter and flying high over the terrain reveals impressive and beautiful vistas. Though I am not one for graphics, there is no denying that these moments make the game look fantastic. The nation also has a very interesting and well-written backstory, especially when compared to the islands from Far Cry 3. Ajay’s parents, the previous king, Pagan Min, and the Golden Path all have detailed and rich histories with each other, which helped flavor the game so that it felt like players were in a living, breathing place. Kyrat is as much a character as the rest of the game is.
Unfortunately, despite the praise I have for the game, I do have one serious complaint. Somebody at Ubisoft needs a stern talking to with regards to collectibles, because the sheer amount of them in this game is absurd. Some of them, specifically the letters from an 18thcentury explorer and pages from the journal of Ajay’s father, provide interesting reasons to explore the world by giving the player stories to discover. However, the rest of the collectibles are pointless. They consist of spinning wheels, shooting evil(?) masks, and tearing down propaganda posters. Not only are the reasons for doing these activities unclear, but there are so many things to collect that most of the game’s roughly 40 hour playtime comes exclusively from these innocuous trinkets. The propaganda posters are particular egregious because there are an excessive 150 scattered throughout the game. Eventually, someone at Ubisoft is going to wizen up to the fact that artificially injecting length with pointless collectibles does not make gathering them up fun. This revelation will sadly come too late to help Far Cry 4.

Far Cry 4 is, for better or worse, an upgraded Far Cry 3. If you enjoyed that game, you are going to enjoy this one. It is very similar in terms of how it plays, and the new location offers a bit more freedom in how players explore the world. What sets it apart mostly is how much more self-aware the writers of this game seemed to be compared to the writers of the previous game. Despite using similar tropes, this new awareness makes the plot a lot more tolerable, even humorous, than it otherwise would have been. That said, if Ubisoft’s standard formula for AAA games has begun to wear you down, Far Cry 4 is not going to do you any favors. It is a good game and a fun experience, but you have to be aware of that before you dive in.

Out of curiosity, I decided to try out this whole “scary game” thing again. With Dead Space 2 and Dead Space 3 out of the way, “horror” games are apparently something I do now. For this reason, and sheer curiosity, I decided to try out Outlast. Originally released on PC in 2013, moving to consoles almost a year later, Outlast is an indie-developed survival horror game. Developed by Red Barrels, the game chronicles the adventure of journalist Miles Upshur. Armed with only a notepad and a camcorder, he investigates a tip about an insane asylum doing unethical experiments. This week, I discuss how it both succeeds and fails its intended audience.
As the game began, I admit that it scared me in a number of ways. The initial scenes all to their best to set an atmosphere of creepiness. The tension runs high and, while I was aware that eventually I was going to get scared, I did not know in exactly what way. For a fairly long stretch, the game built tension without attempting to cache it out. It is subtle in the way that it began to unsettle me in those opening scenes. When the scares finally began to happen, that tension amplified them beyond what would be normally expected.
Unfortunately, the horror began to fade quickly the further I progressed. The game tried to give the player a brief reprieve every chapter, in order to help restore tension between encounters. Sadly, none of them are as long as that first moment. Furthermore, they grow shorter and shorter with each successive chapter. Without that tension, it just never gets as scary those initial scenes. Events are no less disturbing, and remain gruesome throughout, but the illusion of danger fades along with the suspense. Compounded by the predictability of the encounters, horror is the first feeling to get invited, but leaves before the party is over.
Fortunately, the game offers more than just that. Even when the horror fades, there is a noticeable thrill in the act of playing the game. This is because the protagonist cannot confront enemies. He has no combat ability, so in a straight up fight against the insane asylum patients will result in a swift and painful death. In order to stay alive, he has to either hide, stay out of sight, or run circles around them to get to his objectives and get out.
This means that there are generally two strategies when going through one of these encounters. The first one is a bit more slow and methodical, along the lines of a traditional stealth game. Players slowly move about in the shadows, watching inmate movements and trying to stay out of sight. Hiding under beds or in old, rusty lockers can help facilitate this idea. Since the protagonist’s camcorder has a nightvision mode built in, the player has a slight advantage in that he can see better than his pursuers. In the ideal world, the player will be able to find whatever item they need to precede, usually a key or something, and get out before any is the wiser.
But, that rarely ever happens. As a result, most players will inevitably shift to the other possible strategy. That is, they will run as fast as they possibly can. Since there is no stamina bar, no penalty will in incurred for just sprinting aside from all the noise that is generated. Even more fortunately, Miles Upshur runs faster than most of the enemies in the game. This makes it entirely possible to just rush through a given segment by sprinting through the level, gathering everything needed before the inmates even get a chance to blink. Once players realize that most enemies will take 4 hits to kill Miles, 2 for stronger ones, this tactic becomes more viable. After all, it is perfectly acceptable to take a few hits while sprinting. Even if things get bad, it is easy to break line of sight and hide in a locker to recover for a bit. This is part of why the game gets less scary, but just narrowly escaping a powerful foe by outwitting him is exactly why it becomes more of a thriller.
There are also a number of collectibles scattered throughout the game. By recording events with the camcorder, players can unlock notes detailing the protagonist’s opinions on the events of the plot. Documents located in various places also provide detail regarding the purpose of the asylum. Lastly, since using nightvision requires charge (but not the act of simply using the camera normally), the player can collect and store up to 10 batteries to reload into the camera and restore charge. The notes and documents provide some mildly interesting reading, even if the story is fairly forgettable in and of itself. On the other hand, the batteries can be fairly scarce, particularly in the early game, so picking them up will be almost required.
Speaking of the story, it is very bland. You, the reader, probably groaned at the premise that I mentioned at the start of this article. Honestly, it does not get much better than that. If you have watched a movie, you can predict the twists and turned that you will encounter in the story. None of it is bad. However, nothing stands out from other, more well-known pieces of horror-themed fiction. Secret government experiments, horrible mutations, evil ghosts/monsters, and other devices have all been used before. This is also true of the the trope of the intrepid reporter risking his life for a major scoop. Though players will get through the game, it will not be at the forefront of their minds once they finish.

That can almost be said for the game itself. It is fun to play, and does its job. However, it does not do enough to stand out among its contemporaries in the horror genre. After beating it once, it is highly unlikely that it will be remembered for long. As a smaller, more independent game, this can forgiven. I would even recommend a playthrough for people who are desperate for a horror fix. With that in mind, most people will not be losing much if they skip out on it. Though good, it is not great and the players who are likely to enjoy are just as likely to have played better.

So, we here at The Texture Pop have begun to make an earnest attempt to reduce the overall length of our podcasts to more manageable levels. I know I have said this before, several times, but I believe that we can stick to it this time.

Also, we did not receive any viewer questions this week. If have any questions, comments, or thoughts for us, feel free to send them our way at thetexturepop@gmail.com.

0:02:30 The only piece of news this week.
Leonard Nimoy has passed away.
I think I can speak for many people when I say that he will be missed. He’s made many contributions to the world through what he’s done and the roles he’s played. Few people can claim to live a life as full as his, so we took the time to acknowledge that in this segment.

0:06:50 Garrett plays League, reads books, has a birthday, and hangs out with friends.
And this all happens in the span of a few minutes.
Also, I just realized that the new League of Legends character Garrett was talking about has a Kabuki mask. That’s the word we spent so much time not thinking of.

0:17:00 Chris talks about an anime fighting game.
And Sam is just enthralled by it. I’ll be honest, I mostly zoned out until Chris said “Yu Narukami” and/or “Persona.”
I just wish talking about the game didn’t involve the word “inbirth.” I’m not entirely sure why, but that just doesn’t sound right.

0:30:20 Chris talks about buying Dragon’s Dogma.
And hilarity ensues. At least he was able to see the silver lining and use his misfortune to his favor. All’s well the end’s well.

0:32:50 I finished Far Cry 4. *spoiler*
I have an article due soon on Far Cry 4. As a result, I will let the conversation here stand.
It’s a good game, and better than it’s predecessor, but I don’t think Ubisoft can keep producing Ubisoft: The Game for much longer. The formula is growing stale. I just don’t think that it’s sustainable.

0:46:25 I finished Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition
There were parts of the game I enjoyed. As a whole though, the game isn’t really that great. It is only worth playing if you need an excuse to hang out with a friend.

0:54:50 I played more Muramasa DLC.
Still worth it.

0:57:40 Sam played Resident Evil Revelations 2: Episode 1.
It’s a shame the first episode wasn’t that great. Still, it’s hard to talk about games like this until more episodes get released.

1:10:50 Sam played Nosgoth.
And (successfully) attempts to convince us to install it so that we can all play together.
While the game sounds really good, I am almost immediately put off by the nature of the microtransactions. In short, those prices are way too high. Still, I love asymmetric multiplayer, so I would say it’s probably worth trying out.

1:22:55 Sam picked up Ranma 1/2.
I’ve heard of it, but never read it. Seems a little too out there for me.

1:26:00 Wrapping Up
Remember, you can send us stuff at thetexturepop@gmail.com.
Sam’s Saya no Uta article is here.
My Final Fantasy VI piece is here.

Like many gamers in my age group, Final Fantasy served as my entrance into the JRPG genre. Before my initial playthrough of Final Fantasy X at a cousin’s house, I had never really given them much thought. Since then, I have been gradually playing the other Final Fantasy games whenever the opportunity arises. With my new-found mass of free time, I decided to use this chance to play through the 6th of the franchise’s numbered entries. Aside from the 3rd, it was, until recently, the only non-MMO main-entry that I had yet to play. Because of many of the old school fan-base call it the best game in the entire series, I was more than interested.
Released in 1994, Final Fantasy VI was originally released for the SNES in both Japan and the United States. Back when the US first got the game, it was the third Final Fantasy game released in the region, so it was titled “Final Fantasy 3”. To this day, there is still a degree of confusion born as a result. However, subsequent releases have attempted to correct these errors by giving the game its proper title, now that Final Fantasy has become so well-known throughout the world. The version I played for this article is the version for the original PlayStation, obtained from the PlayStation Store and played on my PlayStation 3.
What I found most interesting about Final Fantasy VI is how much darker in tone the story was compared to previous entries. This is especially true since the 5th entry in the franchise is known to be one of the most light-hearted by far. The game is not shy about killing off very prominent story characters (but no one in the main party). In fact, the protagonists learn magic by holding onto the corpses of magical beings called Espers, turned into gemstones called Magicite. The villain is also one of the most well-known for being the only Final Fantasy villain to ever succeed at destroying the world. Though it may not be the darkest game in the franchise, it is definitely one of them.
And of course, the tale would not be anywhere near as good if it did not have a excellent cast of characters. This is something that Final Fantasy VI has in spades. The game is interesting because it is one of the few in the series that does not have a true protagonist. Some of the party members are less vital to the story than others are, but none can be truly said to be the driving force of events by themselves. The story is more about how all of these characters, from different regions and with their own unique backstories, gather together under a common banner to fight the evil empire.
As villains, the Gesthal empire serves its purpose well. Particularly, Kefka is one of the franchises most infamous villains. In a nutshell, he is what one would get when combining the joker with the resources of an organized military and immense magical power. Callously destroying many villages and ending countless lives, Kefka serves as a great motivation for players to keep playing. Furthermore, thanks to the superb translation, his dialog throughout the story will just as often entertain as much as it will horrify. He has so many memorable quotes that there are pagesdedicated to them. The cast of characters work, and are a massive part of why the game is so well-loved.
The other reason the game is notable is because of what it did it terms of design. In the beginning, Final Fantasy VI plays like any other Final Fantasy before. Though the map is large an open, players traverse it in a linear fashion, from point A to point B. Later on, after an extremely important plot event, the party gets separated. From then on, the world is much less restrictive. Taking the role of one particular player character, the goal shifts to gathering up the party in preparation to challenge the final boss. It is made clear at this point that who the final boss is and where they are hiding. At this point, it is possible, though difficult, to skip the rest of the game, head directly to the end, and finish it.
Alternatively, players can try to find and retrieve all of the old party members, deal with their baggage, and prepare them to come together to tackle this challenge. In essence, all of the content aside from the last dungeon at this point consists of side-quests. Those missions are about 15 hours of the game’s roughly 40 hour playtime. Fans of modern-day RPGs like Skyrim and Mass Effect 2 probably will not be too impressed by that. However, since this game originally came out on the SNES, this was an extremely bold and revolutionary move at the time. Honestly, it is a little surprising that this style of RPG took so long to become mainstream. The transition from linear JRPG-style play to that more familiar to us in the west was handled smoothly, and the game is better for it.
Despite how much I enjoyed it, the game does have some noteable blemishes. Unfortunately, these flaws have much more to do with circumstances than any real measure of quality. First, at least on the PlayStation version, I noticed an issue with loading times. About 2 or 3 seconds are required to transition between scenes or to go to the menu to use items or manage characters. While that does not sound like much, having this same slowdown compounded over the hundreds of times these events will happen in a given playthrough can become a major nuisance. Since I had this same problem with the PlayStation versions of other sprite based RPGs like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy V, I suspect it had more to do with technology than anything else. It is nothing Square could help, but it is nonetheless a source of frustration.
The other issue, at least for me, comes from the time in which Final Fantasy VI was originally designed. Back then, random encounters were seen as one of the best, and most well-known, ways to make sure that players always have the opportunity to strengthen their party before a boss fight. Given how much game design has evolved since then, I can no longer subscribe to the thinking that random encounters are a good game design decision. Personally, I find them quite frustrating, especially when I am in the middle of navigating a dungeon, among many other grievances the typical method in which they are implemented. Again, it is hard to blame an SNES game from 1994 for following standard genre conventions of the time (especially when it challenges others), but it can be a detractor for people who subscribe to modes of thinking similar to my own.

As a total package, Final Fantasy VI is a classic game that is definitely worth completing at least once if you have even a cursory interest in the genre. There is good reason to consider it one of the best entries in the Final Fantasy franchise. In some ways, it can be seen as an experimental game, and a precursor to the more open-worlds we see in video games today. Even from a modern perspective, it aged more gracefully than many of its contemporaries, serving as a good example which budding game designers can learn from. In all, it has earned its place among the pantheon of legend RPGs, but you are probably not surprised by that.

This week, I’m the only one who played video games. Well, in between our usual shenanigans.

0:01:00 Viewer Questions.
“Do you think that The Order: 1886 is a symptom of a trend among AAA developers to makes games more like movies, even if it means sacrificing gameplay in order to achieve it? Is the race for cutting-edge, movie-like graphics ultimately doing a disservice to AAA gaming and gaming in general?”

In short: No, and likely.
I don’t believe that The Order did not try to be more like movies at first. What I hypothesize is that they simply used that as an excuse to justify 30 FPS and letter-boxing. I would further speculate that the true reason is that lower frame-rates and letter-boxing is easier on the system, allowing them to do more for graphical fidelity.
Considering how many delays it had, I would not consider The Order to be a rushed title. But what likely happened is that after investing so much time and money into the game and seeing no return, Sony cracked the whip and said “You have to release SOMETHING!?” We talked earlier about Peter Molyneux and what a train-wreak Godus was without a publisher. Ready At Dawn likely just wasn’t prepared to make a AAA game on current-gen consoles, and this was the result of their unpreparedness. They needed graphical fidelity, but lacked the skill to pull it off.
The Forbes article that I mentioned is this one.

“How awesome is Kamala Khan?”

Boy, am I glad Chris and Sam were here to answer this question.

Now, Adonisus got his questions answered. If you would like us to answer your question about life, love, and video games, feel free to send us an e-mail at thetexturepop@gmail.com.

0:12:05 Gaming News
Assassin’s Creed: Unity no longer needs the Companion App or Initiates
If you’ll recall my initial thoughts on Assassin’s Creed: Unity, this was a major problem for me. Now that this latest update fixes that problem, I think the game is significantly stronger for it. Unity handled both of these services the wrong way, and they need to rethink it for the next game.

Invader Zim returns in comic form.
Though I can’t remember it too well, I distinctly recall watching Invader Zim with as much excitement as I watched Courage the Cowardly Dog as a child. If memory serves, I had a great time watching it, but specific jokes and episodes elude me. Still, I am excited to see it return.

Dawn of Justice’s Aquaman is revealed.
When Sam said that this guy looked like the Prince from Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (the only game from the Sands of Time that I could not bring myself to finish), I reacted strongly. This is because the went so far into “dark and gritty” that it honestly became completely insufferable. If that’s any indication, DC fans should stay away from this movie.

0:31:05 Sam didn’t do anything this week.
Working, editing videos, and applying to internships took up all of his time.

But him and I did finish the Far Cry 3 season of Interactive Friction, and we’re excited to show you the next season.

0:36:00 Garrett is live-tweeting the Oscars.
And I don’t know movies… so I can’t comment on much beyond my limited knowledge of the Baldwin siblings.
This stuff is more Garrett’s area of expertise, so I’ll just let it stand on its own. This conversation changed from one about the Oscar’s to one about movies in general anyway, so why not?

The IMDB page for Voice of a Distant Star, the movie Sam mentioned in this segment, here.

0:41:30 Garrett had no school due to the weather.
So we talk about both weather and the book that Garrett bought to pass the time: Good Omens.
And of course, Garrett played League of Legends. The novelty there is that for once, he just played “for fun.” I find the need to specify that one plays a game “for fun” to be very disturbing.
For the record, Garrett was right in that Birdman won Best Picture. His prediction was right.

0:52:50 Garrett wanted to talk about Kitty0706’s death.
Garrett took it particularly rough, so I’m glad he was able to get it off his chest. It sounded like he needed to.

0:57:40 Chris did a little “thrifting”.
And we discuss the haul that we obtained through this practice.
That’s pretty much this whole segment.

1:12:30 Chris rants about gaming controllers.
And we talk about several bad, or way too expensive controllers.

1:20:30 I have been playing Far Cry 4.
It’ll be interesting to contrast this with its previous game. There’s a lot to like, and there are huge improvements in both the story and the gameplay. If you like Far Cry 3, you’ll like Far Cry 4.

1:30:00 I also played a bit of Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition in co-op.
It’s not bad, but it’s not good either. It’s somewhere in the middle.
If you don’t expect to be scared, have a partner, and enjoy some action, then you’ll enjoy it.

1:38:10 I played one of the DLC modules for Muramasa: Rebirth.
And it’s pretty good DLC. If the module I played is any indication, they are all exactly as long as it needs to be, and no more/less.
Sam also just learned that Nekomatas are actual things in Japanese mythology.
We even get into a more general discussion regarding DLC/expansions, price, and value. It’s interesting to take this conversation in context with our discussion about The Order in the beginning of the podcast.

Then, after bringing up Interactive Friction, we discuss Far Cry 3 and 4 even more.

1:52:20 Wrapping Up.
As I said, we’ve finished Interactive Friction.
Also, I published an article about Dead Space 2.

And again, if you want us to answer your burning questions, shoot us an email at thetexturepop@gmail.com.
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