Lately, I have been replaying Kingdom Hearts 2 via the Final Mix in Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX. As many of you are probably aware, I am a very big fan of the franchise. To that end, especially now that I am replaying the core games in the franchise, I have been thinking a lot about the franchise. When reflecting on many of the plots and central premises of the series, I began to notice some issues. Though I do have a love for the franchise, I must acknowledge the gripes I have with it. It is one of these gripes that I wish to more closely analyze this week.
Specially, what we will to examine are merely a few of the game’s premises. They are as follows:
  • All worlds were all once part of a larger, united world.
  • Events in the past separated and segregated the worlds, with impassable walls of light.
  • “Special help” is required to bypass these walls and travel between worlds.
The more I think about it, the more I realize that many scenes in the mini-plots of the various levels call these central tenets into question. Some of the small details in these scenarios call into question, if not outright contradict, these three central tenets.
As an example, let us examine the scenario for Beast’s Castle in Kingdom Hearts 2. This level comes from the classic Disney film “Beauty and the Beast”, and, as one would expect, takes place in the castle, owned by the Beast, from the movie. The castle serves as the entire location for the world, as indicated by the title. It is also home to not just the Beast, but Belle and the servants that were transformed into furniture as well. At a specific point in the scenario, the Beast asks Belle to leave the castle because he feels that he no longer deserves her.
For the purpose of this article, we will not be discussing character motivations or anything of the like. Instead, our discussion will mostly stick to the logistical issues regarding this request. Primarily, the issue at hand is that even if Belle wanted to acquiesce, leaving the castle, she has nowhere to go. The entire world she lives in begins and ends with the castle. Without some form of outside assistance, she has no way of leaving to another world. The only way she would be able to go to another world is if she hitched a ride on Sora’s Gummi Ship. Since Sora and company are not allowed to “meddle in the affairs of other worlds”, this is not an option.
The other way to approach is to assume that there is a second part to this world that we never see in the game. Though I suppose it is certainly possible, it seems extremely unlikely. After all, the title of “Beast’s Castle” implies that there is nothing else to this world. If there was, then the title would logically be a bit more broad, describing an entire town or village. Again, this is not to criticize the notion of Beast asking Belle to leave. This is merely exploring the fact that this request implies, in the best case, a whole different element to the level that likely does not exist.
Atlantica is also another problem spot that opens up this type of conversation. This world, like how Beast’s Castle draws from “Beauty and the Beast”, takes inspiration from “The Little Mermaid”. In Kingdom Hearts 2, Ariel falls in love with a surface-dweller named Prince Eric, just as she does in the movie. Like the case of Beast’s Castle, this raises some logistical problems with the base premises regarding the worlds and how they are separated.
Chief among them being that Prince Eric seems to come from nowhere in particular. Here, we encounter the opposite problem that we encountered in the Beast’s Castle scenario. Instead of trying to explain how somebody leaves the world, we are trying to understand how someone could have entered it. Like before, it has been established that one cannot travel to other worlds without special help. Though it was possible in the original Kingdom Hearts, since the darkness destroyed walls between worlds, this is no longer the case. At the time of Kingdom Hearts 2, the impassable walls are present once more. Even with the ship Prince Eric sails on, he would not be able to travel to Atlantica from an outside world.
The other possibility, similar to the case with Beast’s Castle, is that he hails from a location in the world not known to the player. Again, this is technically possible, but unlikely. Were it the case, there are additional questions raised. It would call into question Sora and companies need to transform themselves into sea creatures to blend in with the locals. After all, were there to be a whole area of surface-dwellers, one would just land there instead. Furthermore, the title, like in Beast’s Castle, implies that the sole domain of this world is King Triton’s undersea kingdom. Therefore, I would logically have to conclude that this hypothetical location that Prince Eric comes from is unlikely to exist.

Now, the existence of the contradictions does not necessarily mean that the storytelling, or even the plot itself, is invalid. What it does indicate is that the developers at Square-Enix had difficulty either in keeping track of their lore, or adequately explaining it to the writer(s) of these scenarios. This has been an issue for Square-Enix for quite a while. For better or worse, Square-Enix, and particularly Tetsuya Nomura, has now become infamous for convoluted plots and writing. While I do appreciate the desire to make intellectually stimulating stories that cause fans to audiences to think about them, the plot to Kingdom Hearts is frequently criticized for the many elements that can be astoundingly hard to keep track of without assistance. Still, the games are extremely fun to play. As for the 2.5 ReMIX, the added content makes it easy to recommend to anyone who has an interest in the franchise, regardless of whether or not one has played these games before.

This is an interesting episode. Garrett and Sam were each out for various reasons. (You know how it is with various reasons.) As a result, it was just Chris and I. This is not the first time the two of us have recorded something by ourselves, so we knew we would be able to handle it.

0:00:00 Introduction
We have a new (unknowing) sponsor, in personaforums.txt. I follow a lot of strange “.txt” accounts.

0:01:15 Viewer Questions
The guys who sent in questions this week got shafted a little, because only half the cast was here to answer. Still, Chris and I handled our own. This section went by pretty quick this week.

“I want to know if any of you guys have come into contact with a game called The Zoo Race?”
Like I said in the cast, only from the JonTron video.

“Have any of you guys seen that movie, El Arca?”
Nope. And given what I learned in this podcast, I don’t think I want to.

Remember, if you wish to send in questions, comments, or something you’d like us to talk about, send it into thetexturepop@gmail.com or submit it to one of the group’s various social media accounts. They’ll in the YouTube description.

0:07:00 Gaming News
Aliens: Colonial Marines was pulled off Steam
I wish this was Steam doing something to clean up their storefront. Unfortunately, this is mostly about contract disputes. Those are too messy to really get into, because the legal-speak can be difficult for a non-lawyer like myself to parse. A lot of games are in limbo because of that very thing.

Mighty No. 9 is nearly finished
We discuss a lot in regards to this news.
But I’m genuinely interested in hearing what people think about whether or not Mighty No. 9 is a rip-off of Mega-man or not. It’s an interesting question.
And now I know Inafune didn’t make the franchise, he’s just well-known for his work on it. Good to know.

Final Fantasy XV (and female Cid)
I am personally completely okay with the prospect of a female Cid. The only through-lines with Cid is that there is always a character in Final Fantasy named Cid, and he’s always a technical expert relative to the technology of the world he inhabits. I see no problem with a sex change, providing the other attributes, which are common among Cids, hold.
BTW, Dukes of Hazard was the movie franchise I was thinking of during this segment. I have no idea how I forgot. The outfit brought back memories of seeing those kinds of movies. Watch the trailer in the link above, and you’ll know why.

Awesome Games Done Quick 2015
It’s a spectacle to watch, and still on-going as of the time of this publishing. You guys might be interested in checking it out.

0:29:00 I beat Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth.
For the record, I did not even achieve 100% of the game. I wrote an article about my feelings on the game’s pacing. Overall, it’s a good game, but you need to really like old-school RPG design to enjoy this game. Liking Persona 3 and/or 4 isn’t necessarily enough. It’s mostly a gateway Etrian Odyssey game, with a Persona wrapper.

0:36:30 I watched Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded (via Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX)
It’s so pointless, that I feel extremely annoyed by it’s existence. This should have been a small novella at the most, because there’s not really enough story to justify it. Fortunately, I didn’t have to play it, because 2.5 only has the cutscenes (which is the less painful way to consume this media).
Most Kingdom Hearts fans hate this game for a reason.
It was also 5 hours long, longer than it took me to watch 365/2 Days in 1.5 ReMIX.

0:41:10 I just beat Kingdom Hearts 2: Final Mix (via Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX)
I have gone on record several times, criticizing the writing on Kingdom Hearts 2. Atlantica, for example, is distilled awful in one segment of the game for a variety of reasons. In a more general sense, it went from a Disney-plot with Square-Enix characters to a Square-Enix plot with Disney characters. The difference is noticeable.
But it plays just so well. And there is a ton of new content added to Final Mix. Even people who 100% completed Kingdom Hearts 2 back in the day would be well-served by purchasing the 2.5 ReMIX. It’s worth it for this alone, but the addition of Birth by Sleep makes it a must-buy.

I must also confess that I took the whole “What do they eat?” thing from Shamus Young. I’ve mentioned him before, but you should check it out.

0:54:30 I finished my Holiday Movie Binge
X-Men: Days of Future Past and Kick-Ass were alright movies, but not great.
Guardians of the Galaxy, however, was an awesome movie, and a great finale to my holiday binge.

1:01:50 Chris has been playing more Assassin’s Creed 3.
And I am loving every single complaint he has towards this game.
There are interesting things to it, but most of the game is so terrible that it’s not worth it.

1:08:15 Chris has played Wolfenstein: The New Order.
It is legitimately surprised at how good this game is. As Sam has said before, it almost feels like the Wolfenstein brand name does not severe a game this good. It’s well-written, plays great, and brings up some interesting points.
Still, it does have some flaws, and we call a few of them into attention here.

1:16:00 Chris has been playing Destiny…
…and he enjoys it. And there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s a solid shooter. I can vouch for that from my time with the beta.
It just feels empty. There’s not a lot there. That is the part of the game that is lacking.
There are also just so many strange design decisions. Chiefly among them is the fact that you cannot access the game’s lore in-game. You need to go online to view them. That just doesn’t make sense.
I would love to have been there to see how these design choices were made. It has to be incredibly fascinating.

1:28:20 Wrapping Up.
In which I encourage Chris to embrace his tastes in gaming.

There is an interesting thing about saying that I will not play anymore ATLUS games for a while. That is, “a while” is a relative term. In this case, it means “until another ATLUS game comes out that I want to play”. With the release of Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth, that time came much sooner than I anticipated. This game represents an interesting new take on the Persona franchise. While it is a crossover between Persona 3 and Persona 4, it is also a crossover in terms of mechanics. The makers of the Etrian Odyssey and the Persona franchises co-developed Persona Q. As a result, Persona Q represents a synthesis of the two franchises’ mechanics and design ideologies. In many ways, this improves upon the gameplay. In other ways, there were a few setbacks. One of these setbacks is what I wish to talk about this week.
The problem I am referring to is one that JRPGs frequently get wrong: The pacing. Far too often, RPGs do not know how to properly pace themselves out. As a result, the game begins to grow stale too early, making the rest of the game more of a test of endurance than an enjoyable pastime. Persona Q suffers this as well. Around the time of the 4th of the game’s 5 dungeons, the game began to drag on. I found this particularly peculiar because I had played through the entirety of Persona 3 and 4, approximately 70 hours each, and enjoyed my experiences even to the very end. With Persona Q, I was getting tired around 50 hours in. Though the game is certainly fun to play, there can very well be too much of a good thing.
In Persona Q, dungeon-crawling is basically the only thing that the player does. As foreshadowed by the title, players must explore the various labyrinths, all based around specific themes, and beat the boss at the end of each one. Each labyrinth is composed of a series of floors. In each floor, there is some form of gimmick that must be worked around in order make it to the next level. Each gimmick is usually pretty simple on its own. The difficulty comes from the fact that the floor is typically fairly large. If the player is not doing any of the side-quests in the game, a typical level will take approximately one hour to fully explore.
On top of that, since the play is largely inspired by Etrian Odyssey, the player is responsible for drawing, marking, and maintaining the map of the current floor as they progress. Assuming the player’s map was drawn with sufficient detail, solving the gimmick of the current floor should take about 10 to 15 minutes. Combined, this means that at a minimum, it will take approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes per floor, assuming that the player is only aiming for completion. Since the typical labyrinth is 4 floors long, followed by one last floor for the boss, it will take almost 6 hours to explore. That is six hours of playtime with little in terms of variance in scenery, enemies, or gimmicks in the labyrinths.
To contrast this statistic, Persona 3 and Persona 4 operate differently. Though the two games present dungeon-crawling differently, they are similar in their approaches. Persona 3 has one single dungeon, the tower of Tartarus, that players ascend gradually throughout the entire game. The tower is composed of six different blocks, each with its own decor. Further, each block is subdivided into smaller chucks of about 10 to 15 floor, with its own assortment of enemies and a mini-boss at the end of each level. The floors are procedurally generated. On each floor is a randomized assortment of treasure chests and monsters. Furthermore, there is a staircase that advances to the next floor.
Persona 4 does not use the imagery of ascending a tower, but the style is quite similar. There are a series of dungeons that the player needs to explore. Dungeons are approximately 10 floors in length. At around the middle floor of each, there will be a mini-boss, with the actual boss awaiting at the final level. Despite this difference, the rest acts much like Persona 3’s Tartarus, with procedurally generated layouts for each floor.
A given floor of a section of Persona 3’s Tartarus, or a dungeon of Persona 4, will take approximately 10 to 15 minutes total, including exploration, combat, and finding the exit. With a worst-case scenario estimate of about 15 floors per section of Tartarus in Persona 3, or dungeon in Persona 4, this means that it will take about 2 hours and 30 minutes to complete any one section. This is less than half of the time required to complete a labyrinth in Persona Q.
Having said that, it is crucial to note that while it takes less time to complete one dungeon, there are many more total segments in Persona 3 and Persona 4. As a result, the total time spent exploring these areas is, at the very least, comparable. The difference is in the pacing of the player’s progress. Since the player is completing these individual segments faster, they get the feeling that they are making steadier progress. In truth, there is no real difference in the amount of progress afforded by a single play-session. However, the impression is that players are clearing areas in Persona 3 and 4 faster than they are in Persona Q.
There is another way that Persona Q failed at pacing out the game. At the game’s core, there is only one activity: Dungeon-crawling. The game is distinctly lacking in terms of variety. Aside from exploring the labyrinths, the player can take Strolls around the culture festival where the game takes place in order to talk with party members and watch them interact with each other. Further, they can partake in Persona Fusion, a franchise staple. Aside from buying and selling equipment, items, and materials, there are also a number of side-quests that can be taken. These quests involve doing small favors for other party members, or locating specific areas and/or defeating specific opponents in the labyrinths. Since these side-quests often lead to players reentering the labyrinths to do further exploration, they add to that poor pacing. After all, since players are already in those labyrinths for several hours at a time, letting them take a break from this by sending them back in, often to the very floor they just advanced from, sounds a little silly.
By comparison, Persona 3 and 4 allow players to spend about as much time outside of the dungeons as they do inside. When not exploring these locations, players can, as in Persona Q, manage equipment and fuse personae. However, they may also spend time with other characters in the game world to build relationships, which can be drawn on to power their personae in fusion. As many of you know, this Social Link system is a mainstay in later games of the Persona franchise. Alternatively, they can spend time improving their social stats, like Knowledge or Courage.
Both games also offer a diverse set of side-quests. Though some of them require players to delve back into the dungeons to find specific items, most of them involve exploring the town. Some involve looking for people wandering around on specific days. Others involve finding an item in the area. Overall, since most of these excursions do not involve dungeon-crawling, they improve the pacing by giving players a way to take a break from the usual exploration, while allowing them to better prepare for the next time they enter a dungeon.

Ultimately, though Persona Q, Persona 3, and Persona 4 take around 70 hours each to complete, the former is paced significantly worse than the later two. This is something that only makes itself apparent after investing large quantities of time into each game. Otherwise, these pacing issues are much harder to pin down. Persona Q, while still a very solid RPG, is a difficult beast to recommend. It is only really worth playing if you are a huge fan of either Persona 3 or Persona 4, preferably both. Further, it feels much different than a typical persona game. Though I have not played Etrian Odyssey, I have been told that the additions and changes to the series formula were mostly taken from that franchise. As a result, the game is best for those who enjoy Etrian Odyssey, or are interested in the series. I believe that may be where I failed to meet the prerequisites, as those elements did not appeal to me. If you are not that interested in Etrian Odyssey, I would honestly recommend passing on Persona Q, as you are not really missing much in. It is nice, but hardly necessary, to see the Persona 3 and 4 casts interact in their respective primes.

The Texture Pop turns 21 episodes old this week. As everyone knows, 21 is the legal drinking age in America. As a result, we took the podcast on its first wild party.

That might explain what happens every episode. In other news, Garrett is back, but still kinda sick.

0:00:00 Introduction
Title drop already.
We’ll get to the Far Cry 3 stuff later.

0:02:50 Viewer Questions
“What are some of your favorite overlooked games?”
Dark Cloud 2 is definitely my favorite overlooked game. It takes from so many genres: RPGs, Action-Adventures, Rogue-likes, and Simulation games. It blends them all together so well that it’s amazing.
Wild Arms 3 is another. WA3 does a lot to fix many common problems with JRPGs. Spells have a minimum amount of MP needed to cast them, but they are otherwise free. Characters use Vitality to recover HP after a battle. And there are also the random encounter cancelling mechanics I talked about in the cast.
I’d also like to mention Shadow Hearts as another overlooked game. We’ve talked about it in previous podcasts. Sam’s pick of Atelier Iris reminded me of Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis, which I like for similar reasons.
I love questions like this, because they give me opportunities to gush about games I loved from back in the day. You should also pay attention to what the rest of the cast thought. Their picks were as interesting as mine, and it shows you what kind of games we all play.

“Do you guys have an old-school genre of video games that you wish to make a comeback?”
The only things that came to mind are non-Nintendo 3D Platformers. Even then, I’d only like them to make a comeback as smaller, $10-15 budget titles so that they maintain what made them great. This was a difficult question, as there were often many reasons why old genres died out. If they were $60, they’d have to be something like Mirror’s Edge, with very high production values.

“Is there anything you’d like to see/not see in the new StarFox game?”
I had nothing to add here. StarFox isn’t really my area of expertise.

0:34:50 We give Garrett space to better explain his Game of the Year choices from last week.
Since he wasn’t present to do so himself, We tried to do it in his stead, but none of us believe we did his picks justice.
I’m going to let this part stand on its own.

0:42:25 Gaming News
PlayStation Network and Xbox Live got hacked on Christmas Day
The worst part of the whole thing is that the entire reason for the hack is that the hackers thought it was funny. There was no statement to be made. There’s no good reason for hacking into a network anyway, but that just makes it hurt that much more.
It is also interesting to note that Sony was hit much worse than Microsoft. Sony really does not seem to have a solid grasp of cyber-security. They should probably get on that. After all, this is far from the first, or even the biggest, hack they’ve had in recent history.

Hatred reinstated on Steam Greenlight
Since we didn’t talk about it last week with the Game of the Year stuff, we talked about it on this episode instead.
I think an interesting debate over the open-garden versus closed-walls approach to marketplace curation. There are merits to both approaches, but Steam doesn’t really adhere to either philosophy. Were they to show more consistency, I would be okay with their decision. It’s the inconsistency that is the problem.
The argument of censorship is another thing entirely. This isn’t censorship, end of discussion.

1:06:50 Sam played Destiny (on Xbox One).
Such is our fate.
It’s a good shooter, with solid mechanics. There’s just nothing to do with those mechanics.
And nothing to the story at all, except the stuff that you have to look for online.

1:20:00 Garrett has been sick with the flu.
And it sucked. (This is mostly why he couldn’t make the podcast for a while.)

1:25:20 Garrett saw Frozen on Ice
And we also talk about me watching the movie, since I did that this week. It’s a Disney movie. I don’t need to say anything else. I am a sucker for Disney movies, so I loved it. People who dislike Disney movies won’t like it either.
I like how it subverts typical heroic and villainous roles by making the Ice Queen the hero and the stalwart knight the villain.
We also detour to discuss movie theaters and other things movie-related.
The Destiny video we talked about during this segment is here.

1:33:00 Garrett talks computers and Steam Sales.
Windows, computer parts, the works. Not much more to add here.

On the topic on Steam Sales, this current sale (as of the time of writing) hasn’t really been that great. My wallet has been mostly safe. I bought a couple of things, but nothing worth talking about here.
But Chris did…

1:37:30 Chris played The Walking Dead: Season 2.
And he highlights the two biggest problems of the new season.
First, the new cast doesn’t really stand out all that well from every other group of survivors in a generic zombie apocalypse. They don’t feel as interesting as the original group from the first season.
Second, we have already wisened up to the Telltale formula, where none of your choices made a difference. It is more of a movie where you affect the tone of the interactions, for better or worse.

1:43:50 Chris had Christmas Oreos.
So we talk Oreos briefly. It took him a whole three days to do it.

1:46:20 Chris discussed his Christmas haul.
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Wolfenstein: The New Order
Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag
The Ratchet and Clank HD Collection
$10 Nintendo EShop Card (for Megaman X on Wii U)
Guilty Gear Xrd

Not a bad haul. A lot of quality games in this assortment.

1:48:10 Chris played the Ratchet and Clank Collection
It is interesting to see how those games evolved over the years. The first game is easily the worst of the three, and they got so much better over time. Even as the worst, it’s still a great Ratchet and Clank game. As they series went on, the developers learned many lessons about both characterization and gameplay. You can see it in the design. The thing we talk about with Ratchet being a huge jerk was one of the biggest problems. Like we said, they performed this same routine better in Tools of Destruction.

The Going Commando/Up Your Arsenal Developer Commentary LP can be found here.

We also discuss HD re-releases in a general sense in this segment.

1:58:50 Chris also got Gears of War: Judgement
He didn’t play it, so we didn’t discuss it. However, we get into a really interesting conversation about the class of games that exist purely to milk a successful franchises. Games like Gears of War: Judgement, God of War: Ascension, and Halo 4. We all know why these games exist, but it doesn’t make it any less annoying.

2:01:10 Chris played a bit of Assassin’s Creed 3.
This is, by far, the worst main series Assassin’s Creed game. He just finished the best part of the game, and it’s all downhill from there.
I absolutely cannot wait until he gets through Sequence 8. Everything after Haytham’s segment was bad, but that segment in particular was awful.
The mission design was bad. The story was bad. The protagonist was boring. It is so terrible. Hearing Chris complain about the game will be Catharsis.

2:05:20 I played more Persona Q.
The biggest issue by far with the game is its pacing. It is about the same length as Persona 3/4, but it is purely dungeon-crawling. You can take breaks to talk to the people in your team, which coincidentally happen to be the best parts of the game.
The combat isn’t even a problem either. It’s fun. The reason the pacing is so bad is because every single floor in the Labyrinth is a massive puzzle that takes about 10 minutes to solve, but about an hour to draw a complete enough map that you can solve it.

2:07:30 I beat both Wolfenstein: The New Order and Far Cry 3.
Which I wrote an article about here. I took a lot from the conversations Sam and I have had in the past when I wrote that.
I spent most of this segment complaining about Far Cry 3, because the story of the game is a bunch of horseshit. Both games play very well. I’d easily recommend them both, but Far Cry 3 grinds my gears. Vaas was easily the best part of the writing. Once he left, the wind was blown right out of the game’s sales.
I find the discussion here, comparing Tomb Raider to Far Cry 3, to be very interesting. There are many parallel’s between those games. And overall, I found Tomb Raider much more palatable. Having said that, there are merits to both games.

2:22:30 I started my Holiday Movie Binge.
Inception
It wasn’t anywhere near as trippy as people said it was. Still, it’s a great movie. Leonardo DeCaprio and Ellen Page pull off great performances.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
If you like video games, you’ll get a huge fan of the film. I really liked it. Micheal Cera plays a great maladjusted mid-20s dude.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier
I like the difference in tone this movie had to other Marvel movies. It’s a bit obvious in terms of social commentary, but overall I loved it. It’s still a superhero movie, but a much more “grounded” one.

Frozen
See above.

Thor: The Dark World
Tom Hiddleston is a great Loki. There really is no other person I would have in the role. Aside from his performance, the movie isn’t bad, but it is not as good as the other Marvel movies.

The LEGO Movie
I really enjoyed this movie. Up until the plot twist, it is a very cute movie with great, if obvious, social commentary. Once the plot twist is revealed, it becomes a very emotional story. The movie does so many things right that I would easily recommend it. Everything is awesome!

2:44:30 Wrapping Up.
My Wolfenstein/Far Cry 3 article is here.
Sam’s itch.io article is here.

Though this may surprise the people who read my articles, I play more than just RPGs. Surprisingly enough, the last two games I have beaten have something in common. They attempt to teach similar aesops through their stories. However, one performs this task very well. The other fails so miserably that the writing can only be called marginally better than a David Cage game. These two games are Wolfenstein: The New Order and Far Cry 3. This week, I plan to compare the two in order to help explain how one failed and the other succeeded. The reason is that I strongly feel that they were both making an attempt at the same thing. That is, they wanted to mock the kinds of protagonists we see in the shooters that are released year after year.
To that end, they have a similar tone in terms of gameplay style. Both Wolfenstein and Far Cry 3 have a very arcade-like style to the way they play. By this, I mean that they can throw many enemies at the player and feel reasonably confident that the player has the ability to take them all out. Missions, especially towards the end of the game, tend to have enemies swarm the player in waves. Typically, these enemies die very quickly, but there are a few enemy types that require more skill to take down. Furthermore, because health and ammo do not fully-regenerate, there is an element of resource management required. Players must mind either their total health and/or the number of healing items they have, on top of their body armor and the number of bullets left in their inventory. Excessive use of these resources will make future battles more difficult. Combined, these elements give off a sense of power, but require tactics in order maintain their advantage.
On top of that, both games have sections with stealth elements. In these areas, the objective is to eliminate the opposition before they have the chance to raise the alarm and call for reinforcements. Players can just charge-in guns blazing, but they are better off if they take the time to stay undetected. Various tools in their arsenal can assist them by giving them silent attack options. Minor RPG elements are also included. With them, players can develop their character’s skills and physical abilities in order to perform better. They can customize their character in order to best suit their playstyle, be it stealthy assassin, commando, or somewhere in between. With this, both games offer a sense that the protagonist is slowly developing over the course of the game, yet never lacks in skill.
Even in terms of story, there are many similarities. Both games have the player go against foes that are irredeemably evil. Wolfenstein: The New Order, as one might expect, has Nazis as the primary opponent. Far Cry 3 pits the player against kidnappers, slave traders, and drug dealers. In this way, they do not focus on the effects of violence on the enemy you are fighting. Rather, the focus in more towards the protagonist and how they change as a result of being thrown into the violence, becoming an active participant in it. Wolfenstein shows how years of fighting Nazis have affected BJ Blazkowicz’s mental health. Meanwhile, Far Cry 3 demonstrates Jason Brody’s decent into a spiral of death and violence after being kidnapped and ransomed by Vaas and his pirate crew. Though Far Cry 3 also uses the progression system to better demonstrate the transition, both games take close looks at their player characters.
However, there are crucial differences in these stories. The compound effect of all of these differences helps to explain how one game succeeded while the other game failed. The first difference is in the likability of the protagonist and his supporting cast. In Wolfenstein: The New Order, BJ Blazkowicz is shown in a pretty positive light. Throughout the course of the game, he often goes out of his way to assist the people he fights along-side, and not just in terms of completing missions for them. He is also frequently seen talking with other US Army and Resistance fighters, helping them cope with the realities of the world they live in. For example, early in the game, a younger recruit is visibly shaken by the war with the Nazis. BJ approaches him with tips on how to calm oneself down after going through traumatic events. We are also given reason to care about the supporting cast. Each character has their own quirks, personality, and reasons for fighting the Nazis. While some occasionally slip into jerkwad territory, they always have a reason to do so. The character Fergus, to demonstrate the point, gets a little angst when he realizes that he is an old man and is not able to fight as well as he did way back when, feeling like he is holding the team back. Overall, the characters are very well written.
The same cannot be said for Far Cry 3. In that game, almost every character that is on the protagonist’s side, including Jason Brody himself, is insufferable. The game opens with them holding several wild parties and imbibing massive quantities of alcohol, using their rich parents’ money. Then, they complain about their love lives and other such nonsense. All of them are the exact same character, just with different faces and genders. Even when Brody changes over the course of the game, he simply becomes another flavor of jerkwad. He transforms from a stupid, rich, white boy into a stupid, rich white boy with drug-induced delusions of being some great warrior. If anything, he becomes even more irritating as the game goes on. Unlike in Wolfenstein, the cast of characters is completely unlikable, which makes it hard to care about them when they go through their ordeals and change as a result.
Another major difference is the time-table for the ordeals in each game. In Wolfenstein, BJ fights against the Nazis for decades. At the end of the game, he reaches a point where he realizes that he has been fighting Nazis for so long, over half of his lifetime, that he can no longer do anything else. As a result, he is okay with sacrificing himself to save the world from their evil. Since he cannot live in the world he helped to save, it is preferable to end it all when he is no longer required to fight. It is a distinctly dark moment, but an important one. Most video game shooter protagonists can experience much horror and return to civilization at the end of the day as if nothing happened. Wolfenstein decided to instead play their protagonist completely straight by having him struggle for decades and realize that he cannot do the same.
Far Cry 3, meanwhile, takes place over the span of at most one or two months. Because of this significantly shorter time-frame, Jason Brody’s “growth” from a novice into a full-fledged fighter is much less believable. Vaas, the game’s (technically) secondary antagonist, makes a remark that best underscores this point. Paraphrased: “You think that you get a couple of tattoos and a few guns and suddenly you’re a ‘warrior’, white boy!?” Though said by a character who is certifiably insane, this statement is no less true. No matter how much training and conditioning one undergoes in a month, they cannot make such a dramatic change like that. Those fundamental changes take years. The events of Far Cry 3 would be traumatic. However, they would not just turn some nobody into a cold-blooded murderer, at least not so quickly. As a result, any commentary Far Cry 3 is attempting to make on video game protagonists feels meaningless.

Ultimately, though Far Cry 3 is obviously the more well-known and popular of the two, it fails on a much more fundamental level than Wolfenstein: The New Order. Wolfenstein is more successful at subverting its mechanics and teaching the aesop at the center of both games. Even in a general sense, Far Cry 3 is terrible in terms of its storytelling. Having said that, both games are still really fun to play. The stand-alone Blood Dragon DLC for Far Cry 3 better demonstrates this by re-contextualizing the mechanics with a story that takes itself significantly less seriously. It is so much better than I would easily recommend it over the original game. From what I can gather, the writers of Far Cry 4 also learned a lot for the failures of the previous game in the franchise. Wolfenstein is also worth taking a look at, if you can find it at a discounted price.

So, as a relatively new video game podcast, it is required by law (Section 1337: Subsection 707: Article 070)  for us to do an end-of-the-year podcast. In order to still keep it in our usual style, we opted to use mostly original “awards”. Also, instead of naming our collective “Best Game Ever”, we instead each have our own list of winners.

Though this podcast is short, it still has our signature style. Also, Garrett was extremely ill before the recording, so he skipped out. However, he did give us a list to read out during the show. Lastly, if I feel the need to, I will try to pick out any honorable mentions and write about them here as well. So, without further ado:


(Note: Persona 3 was not, in fact, the Game of the Year. In fact, we never even mentioned it in the podcast.)

0:00:00 Introduction
My joke here was a not-so-subtle jab at the VGAs from Geoff Keighley, and its commercialist nature.

0:01:20 Our take on 2014.
Overall, it was a pretty disappointing year. We saw a lot of mediocre games, surprisingly bad games, and glitch-prone games. There were many games, but mostly it felt pretty poor.

0:03:55 Best Presentation
My Pick: Transistor
What can I say. It looks gorgeous, it sounds amazing, and it plays smoothly. That soundtrack is so good, that I still listen to it now.

Chris’s Pick: Mario Kart 8
No one can deny that the game looks fantastic. Nintendo games have always looked fantastic. The two biggest things Nintendo always manages to nail is quality in terms of both gameplay and presentation. You can be generally assured that a Nintendo game is a quality game, and Mario Kart 8 is no exception.

Sam’s Pick: The Wolf Among Us
The contrast between the harsher blacks and the more saturated color palette is really eye-catching in terms of visuals. The main theme and the other tracks in the soundtrack really match the tone. With stellar vocal performances, it is no wonder it made Sam’s top pick for Best Presentation.

Garrett’s Pick: Watch_Dogs
I wish Garrett himself could defend this nomination, but I hope we did well in our defense of his pick. The game looks great visually, and the various effects give it a nice look.

0:10:55 Best Character
My Pick: Shay Patrick Cormack (Assassin’s Creed: Rogue)
I find him as a character to be immensely fascinating. He was very fleshed out, and given a believable back-story and character motivations. Many other Assassin’s Creed protagonists felt a bit more one-note, but Shay has a bit more of a personality to him. This is particularly true when you compare him to Arno in Assassin’s Creed: Unity.

Chris’s Pick: Shovel Knight (Shovel Knight)
I cannot add any more to this pick than what Chris said, as I have not played it for myself. I will say though, that to make such an impression without voice acting of any kind is an accomplishment.

Sam’s Pick: BJ Blazkowicz (Wolfenstein: The New Order)
As someone who just played it myself, I can defend this pick. I found him to be a pretty interesting character. Though the game plays like a fun adventure, the character takes himself so seriously that it is appealing in an odd way. He’s more than just a lunkhead.

Garrett’s Pick: Pagan Min (Far Cry 4)
I’m just going to let Sam do the defending here. He knows more than I would.

0:18:55 Most Disappointing Game of the Year
My Pick: Watch_Dogs
I was really, really hoping for more of a stealth/hacking game. I thought doing that in the modern day could be really interesting, so I had high hopes. What I got was an okay, somewhat creative third-person shooter with terrible vehicle sections. It is not a bad game, but I was not satisfied. On top of that, the story and Aiden Pearce were both some of the worst pieces of writing I’ve ever seen.

Sam’s Pick: Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor
This is a pretty good pick. Since Sam is such a big fan of The Lord of the Rings, he must have been massively disappointed by the story and how terrible it is. The main quest missions were also really bad, and the environment is a little empty.

Chris’s Pick: Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
I don’t have much to add, since I’ve pretty much never enjoyed Borderlands. However, this is the first I’ve heard of the game ditching the O2 mechanics at the end of the game. I did not know that you go back to Pandora.

Garrett’s Pick: The Elder Scrolls: Online
I completely forgot that this came out this year. What more do I have to say? This was a terrible slap in the face to all of the fans of the franchise. Considering the subscription fee on top, there’s no wonder people hate it. Excellent pick for this particular award.

0:30:25 Most Underrated Game
My Pick: Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor
I understand why Sam hates this game so much. Truly, I can. However, I had a lot of fun with it. Sure, it’s not amazing. But the gameplay is solid and the Nemesis System is extremely interesting.

Chris’s Pick: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
I’ll just let his discussion of it stand. Again, I didn’t play it.

Garrett’s Pick: Transistor
Critically, though the game did well, people did not like it as much as they did Transistor. It is also not as widespread. Despite that, there is a lot to love. It plays well, and there are many layers to the story.

Sam’s Pick: Titanfall
People quickly moved away from this game after it came out. Though not a bad game, it is one of those “trendy” games that you need to play on launch day, or else don’t waste your time. Since it was multiplayer-only, this was even moreso the case.

My Runners-Up: Assassin’s Creed: Unity and Murdered: Soul Suspect
We talked about it on the show, but Assassin’s Creed: Unity’s technical problems overshadowed all of the good things it did for the series. It was so good at mission design and character customization that I loved it. The side-missions are also really good.
As for Murdered: Soul Suspect, I only thought about it after the show aired. A lot of people wrote off this game when it came out. Although it is really easy, and the “combat” is a pain in the ass, the writing was pretty solid and I grew to like the characters. Also, I’m a sucker for murder-mysteries, so this was up my alley.

0:43:15 Biggest Surprise
My Pick(s): The Walking Dead: Season 2 (and The Wolf Among Us).
I think these two go together because I had the opposite expectation for both games. I expected to fall in love again with The Walking Dead: Season 2, and find The Wolf Among Us pretty mediocre. Instead, The Wolf Among Us greatly impressed me. At the same time, I was underwhelmed by The Walking Dead: Season 2. So yeah, these two picks are together because they’re reasons are very closely related.

Chris’s Pick: Dragon Age: Inquisition
This is Chris’s pick primarily because he was so disappointed with Bioware after Dragon Age 2, Mass Effect 3, and The Old Republic. With Inquisition, it seems like they’ve gotten their mojo back. It’s a good thing to see.

Sam’s Pick: Wolfenstein: The New Order
It plays well, but Sam was more surprised with how serious and grim in terms of the story. It seemed unlike what one could expect of a Wolfenstein game, so it definitely qualifies as “Biggest Surprise”.

Garrett’s Pick: Alien: Isolation
Given how Colonial Marines threw the Aliens license into the ground, this is definitely a good choice.

0:52:53 Game of the Year (of the Century, of the Universe, this year)
Sam’s Pick: Dark Souls 2
I’m honestly surprised at Sam’s apprehension at choosing Dark Souls 2. This has been the game he has come back to over and over again. After losing several saves, and playing tons of it without getting exhausted. The only thing that can stop him from playing Dark Souls 2 is the knowledge that more Dark Souls 2 is coming out soon. That says a lot about the game.

Garrett’s Pick: The Evil Within
I really wish Garrett was there. I don’t feel like we did justice to the defense of his choice.

Chris’s Pick: Hyrule Warriors
Considering the amount of time Chris has spend with Hyrule Warriors, this should come as no surprise. Like Sam and Dark Souls 2, the fact that he has spent so much time with it says a lot about the game itself.

My Pick: Shadowrun: Dragonfall
After playing all sorts of CRPGs, Shadowrun Returns is one of the best ones I have ever played. Dragonfall fixes all of the minor problems I had with it, on top of having an excellent campaign. In terms of CRPGs, it’s the closest thing I will get to perfection.
Assassin’s Creed: Unity and Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor were games I did consider, but ultimately their flaws were too great to overcome. Still, I feel they are worth mentioning as solid runners-up.

1:04:43 Best ATLUS Game (That Brandon Has Played This Year)
(This is mostly a joke, referencing the fact that I played so many ATLUS games this year during my “Season of ATLUS”. Still, there’s a point in here somewhere.)

Chris’s Pick: Persona 4 Golden
I did not play Persona 4: Dancing All Night (since it’s not out yet… and I don’t care), so this is the next best thing.

My Pick: Shin Megami Tensei IV
Like I said in the cast, once you can choose skills in fusion inheritance, you don’t want to go back. Plus, the Press Turn System is really good for quick, decisive battles. Lastly, the game improved a lot on old-school ATLUS game design.
Persona 4 Golden was a close runner-up though. Unfortunately, it created Marie. That is unforgivable.

Sam’s Pick: Digital Devil Saga
This was hard, because I didn’t play Persona 3 this year. Still, he made a good choice, with the limited information given.

1:06:45 Good-bye.

Often, I find myself taking a more critical look at games than I otherwise intend to when writing these articles. Typically, my mind tends to focus on what could have been improved, identifying positive aspects only in passing. In the spirit of the holidays, and in light of what I have been playing recently, I feel it is time to invert this. My topic for this week, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, has much valid criticism that can be levied towards it. However, there is a lot of good that is worth discussing.
In particular, the Nemesis System has a lot of potential for improvement and reiteration. As one might expect from a game with “Middle-Earth” in the title, Shadow of Mordor takes place in the same world as Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series. Because of this, the game’s enemies consist almost entirely of Sauron’s Orc Army, including the Captains and Warchiefs. What is interesting about the Nemesis System is that it allows this army to change overtime in a more systematic nature than other video games have been able to do in the past.
Basically, every Captain or Warchief has a Power Rating and a list of combat traits. These traits can consists of strengths, such as bonus attack power or invulnerability to ranged attacks, and weaknesses, like instant death from stealth attacks or a fear of other creatures in the game world. Overtime, by performing feats and gaining recognition for other orcs, these leaders can increase in power. As they do, they will start to lose weaknesses and gain strengths. It is even possible for them to duel other bosses for promotions. Forcing the player to run away, or killing them (the protagonist is immortal, so he will just respawn) will also result in an increase in power. Further, the enemy leader in question will remember any confrontations players have had with them and comment on them in future encounters. Players can also sabotage a commander’s attempt to gain power by completing optional side missions.
The most obvious positive of this mechanic is that it allows for storytelling born purely of the system itself, in an emergent manner. Out of all of my friends that also played Shadows of Mordor, many of them can recount the tales of their struggle against one or two particularly powerful orcs, which they know by name. Though my particular example’s name has been forever lost, I can distinctly recall my struggles against a powerful orc captain and his poisoned weapon, with increased physical attack power. The more he killed me, the stronger he grew, eventually gaining immunity to both ranger attacks and close-quarters finishing moves.
Each time I fought him, he would mock me for my continuous losses against him and his forces. Eventually, these victories against me gained him the rank of warchief, and two loyal bodyguards. After my seventh attempt, I finally caught him by surprise, diving from my perch, shoving my dagger into his backside. A tense ten minute exchange of hit-and-run tactics eventually turned in my favor, as my final ambush resulted in his stinking head being ripped straight off of his cold, lifeless corpse. It is worth noting that this exchange between myself and the now nameless warchief was not part of the main campaign at all. This was entirely driven by the systems at work, created by my interactions with the game on the fly. Many other such stories were created with this system, and each of them were unique to the player involved.
Another advantage to this system is that it requires very little in terms of explanation. Though the game does tutorialize it during the main campaign, my experience with the game, and those of many others, demonstrates how unnecessary it was. Generally, most of us were already spending so much time fighting captains and warchiefs that we had already figured out the nuances of it before the point in the story where we were supposed to learn. Simply by interacting with the systems, we found that it was fairly easy to understand how these mechanics worked together and how we could interact with them. This is not to say that the tutorials should not exist, as obviously some gamers might take more time and/or teaching to understand what is going on. I am merely stating that the simplicity of the system itself makes achieving said understanding a less arduous task.
The last effect of the Nemesis System, and the most interesting in my opinion, is the ability it gives the player to manipulate and control, both directly and indirectly, the enemies they fight. Through the choices of which side missions to complete, leaders to go after, and how they approach encounters, the flow of power in Sauron’s army will be altered. As a result, the player’s actions shape what kind of forces they go against. Continuous failures (or inaction) and deaths will result in stronger enemy forces in the area. Conversely, taking out enemy captains and/or stopping them from gaining power will keep them weak and easy to kill. Worth mentioning is that there is no, “You chose X, so Y happened as a result,” like we find in many RPGs. Rather than doing this through some binary choice, is it done in a systematic manner. No one decision will have a dramatic effect, but the player’s attitude towards completing objectives will affect how many opportunities the opposition has to grow, giving them indirect control over these leaders.
However, this is not the only way players can assert their influence over their foes. Very late in the game’s main story, the protagonist gains the power to “Brand” orcs, giving him control over their thoughts and actions. When they are weakened or scared, it is even possible to do this to the captains and warchiefs in the army. In this way, players can insert spies and double agents into Sauron’s army to gain control of portions of it. There is much potential to be had through this mechanic. For example, if a particular warchief is causing trouble, it is possible to brand one of their bodyguards, or get another one of the player’s already-controlled captains into that position. When the time comes to strike, these “bodyguards” can be ordered to turn on their own commander, granting the player an extra advantage they may not otherwise have been given.
The addition of Branding also affects the flow of power. Since players do have a hand at indirectly influencing the flow of power, they can use this influence to funnel more of the power to the captains and warchiefs currently under their control. At the same time, they can starve the forces they want to take over or eliminate, by helping their allies get stronger. Instead of participating in side-missions, hoping to prevent the captain’s success, they will be assisting him in completing his objective. Much like in Assassin’s Creed: Rogue, this is a very interesting inversion of mechanics.

With this Nemesis System in place, Shadow of Mordor shows the power of systematizing elements in the game to give players their own opportunities to affect the game world. Though the game itself suffers from really bad writing, the mechanics are solid. I earnestly feel that given a different lore to work with, and more solid mission design and writing, these systems show great potential. Though fairly simple, I foresee a lot that could be done with this core.

Another week, another podcast. This one is probably one of, if not the best one yet, in my opinion. It encapsulates pretty much everything that we stand for at The Texture Pop.

Garrett once again had to miss out, but he’ll make for it when he gets back! Aside from that, there wasn’t much more unusual activity surrounding this cast. The recording just went particularly well.

0:00:00 Introduction.
Brought to you, as usual, by FFXIIIFanfics.
Co-Sponsored by Hot Pockets.
(Note: The lawyer that resides in my head would like to inform you that we do not actual have any sponsors.)

0:04:59 Gaming News
Rise of the Tomb Raider is published by Microsoft
This and the Street Fight V exclusive story really go hand-in-hand. Neither one really seem logical on the part of the developers. On the surface, they appear to lose much more than they would hope to gain. These two franchise sold very well, so they didn’t have the same excuse Bayonetta 2 did.

DLC Weapons in the Call of Duty: Advance Warfare.
I don’t think we’ll be able to determine how good/bad this is until it’s out. How they implement this will really determine.

Destiny “Strikes” Locked Behind DLC.
Obligatory Destiny reference.
Yes, it’s SHIT! We’re all pretty unanimous on this. It’s astounding how low this game suck, given that Bungie developed it.
This goes into a broader conversation regarding DLC in gaming.

0:28:30 Sam finished Far Cry 4.
Overall, not bad. For better or worse, it is a lot like Far Cry 3. If you enjoyed the last one, you should probably get this one.

0:32:45 Sam finished The Wolf Among Us.
I do feel like my decision to play it as it was released really hurt my enjoyment of the game. It’s a good game, though. I personally found it much stronger than The Walking Dead: Season Two, yet not as strong as The Walking Dead: Season One.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with an episodic release. I just feel that for a murder-mystery, it didn’t work as well as it does for other genres.
But the episodic format does have it’s advantages, as we discuss here.

0:42:30 Sam got further in Dragon Age: Inquisition.
From what I gather, it seems to really improve a lot over the issues I had regarding Origins.
The conversation here regarding RPGs and choices is definitely worth listening to here. We, as people who play lots of games, often see through what they designer is doing. But many people who aren’t as familiar think it’s incredible, because it is.

0:50:45 Sam bought a few games.
Child of Light
The game is boring and the couples are annoying. And since the gimmick is that ALL of the dialogue is in couplets, it really grates on the nerves.
As for the game, I see it’s potential, but I did not find the combat or any of the mechanics interesting.
Still, it’s an Ubi-Art game, so it looks amazing.

Lichdom: Battlemage
Not much to discuss beyond the conversation.

The Vanishing of Ethen Carter
This goes into a good point regarding games that refuse to help you. While games like Myst have a good cult following, there is a reason why they did not catch on too greatly. Games need to offer some form of assistance, even if the player does not have to take it.
As a general rule, if I feel the need to visit GameFAQs, something went wrong.

Need for Speed: Rivals
Not much to say.

0:59:35 I played more Persona Q.
I don’t want to feel bad for Teddie, but the game makes me feel bad for Teddie.
I do like how the game addresses HP/MP management. Thanks to the Sub-Personae, you basically get an amount of house money to spend before using your actual HP/MP. This Gamasutra article goes into more detail.

1:03:45 I beat Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor.
This Destructiod article explores what I mean when I discuss the tutorials.
As for the Branding, I like the idea. I’ll be posting something more about it this weekend.
I like the mechanics of the game, but the story does leave much to be desired. It’s sloppy writing, and I cannot deny that. Still, the way it plays would still make it worth going through, in my opinion.

It’s weird that Sam and I are reversing our usual roles in this discussion. I like a nice change of pace. He’s right, the main story is a heaping pile of suck. However, the whole package is pretty strong.

1:16:20 I finished watching The X-Files.
Shame that Garrett couldn’t take part in this conversation. Season 7, David Duchovny’s last season as a main cast member, was really the pinnacle of the series. Once he left the cast, it kinda all went downhill. The new guys they brought in weren’t bad, but the magic that Fox Mulder and Dana Scully had was never recovered. The chemistry between Mulder and Scully never really came across with John Dogget and Monica Reyes.
We were probably a little harsh when talking about Dana Scully’s character at the start of this conversation. In the story, Scully often takes a harsher, more skeptical view than she actually has because she feels she needs to balance Mulder’s “Everything is real.” Later, she does the opposite. When John Dogget joins the team, she takes on more extreme “believer” views than she had, to balance out his skepticism. It makes her a lot more interesting than you’d initially be led to believe.
It’s a very interesting series, and the first seven seasons are great. The last two aren’t as good, and the finale was terrible.

(And yes, I was playing Binding of Issac during this recording session.)

1:24:30 Chris finishes college.
Congrats to him!

1:25:30 Chris played more Mario Kart.
Them golden tires.
Them time trials.
Such interesting.

1:32:30 Chris saw a 2-pack of Two-Pound Resse Cups (but didn’t buy it).
And that’s a lot of Resse Cup. You would have to eat it like a Resse Cup Pie.
Kinda makes you reflect on our Hot Pocket conversation at the start, doesn’t it.
We talk about all sorts of sweets and candy and other sweet food “stuff” in this segment.
TITLE DROP!

1:40:50 Chris talks pizza.
And he had a LOT of pizza, with buffalo wings.
Chris has a much greater iron stomach than I do.
We also get into a discussion about water and soda prices, and the difference between Coke and Pepsi.
Another discussion regarding movies and my Holiday Movie Habits ensues.

1:49:00 ASSASSIN’S CREED 3 IS SHIT!
We mostly just shift into a general discussion about the whole franchise at this point, so it’s worth labeling as it’s own segment.
Then we just talk about Ubisoft in general.

1:53:30 Wrapping up.
And next week will be our Unconventional Games of the Year (That Are Worth Talking About) Commercials…. um… AWARD SHOW! See you then!

We have a very unique guest with us today. Adonisus, or as you might know him “That one guy who always sends in viewer questions.” He has one of the more unique voices on the cast.
Garrett wasn’t feeling well, so he skipped out.

Aside from that, you probably won’t find anything strange about the podcast. It’s shorter than usual, but contains everything you’ve come to expect.

0:00:00 Introduction
And yet another quote from FFXIII Fanfics.

0:01:17 Gaming News
The VGA Awards was our biggest story of the day. It is was certainly better than previous VGAs, but it still has that VGA soul that I disliked from the Spike awards.
This was completely independent of Spike, and it wasn’t even broadcasted on television, so I don’t know why this turned out the way it did.
I have nothing further to add to this conversation. It was very comprehensive.
We also detoured briefly to discuss Assassin’s Creed: Unity again. To be fair, we had yet to release our last podcast when we recorded this, so many of my thoughts on the game were unknown. These were fair questions to ask.

Afterward, we discussed the PlayStation Experience. Though I have since watched the keynote, my knowledge at the time of this recording was only limited to second hand accounts, so my input was limited. Now that I have watched it, my opinions are parallel to the others. Destiny, once again, gets mentioned.
The Street Fighter V announcement was also part of the PS Exp. What I suspect is going to happen is that Capcom is going to release vanilla SF V to PS4, but later “Super/Ultra” editions will go to all major consoles and PC.

0:29:45 Adonisus got a Wii U.
And we discuss a lot of the good games that are either already out on the Wii U, and coming out for the holiday season.

0:37:50 We discover Adonisus is from Macon, Georgia.
So we talk about the game, because there was no comic or TV show ever.
I really don’t think of the comics or TV show when talking about The Walking Dead. They don’t even come up in my mind.
As for the location. It’s Georgia. Listeners already know what I feel about Georgia.

0:43:10 Adonisus played Dragon Age: Inquisition.
Recent Bioware games have this problem where they are all extremely polarizing. Either you love them, or hate them without any real middle ground. Our discussion at the beginning of this segment is indicative of them.
Still, from what I hear, there is a lot to like about Inquisition. A lot of people enjoy it and I can see why. Hopefully, I will get Dragon Age 2 out of the way so that I can get to it soon.

Sam and Chris asked me about why I like Leliana so much. I think that it just came down to the fact that she’s my type. I like girls that are sweet, but able to handle themselves just fine. Leliana is that kind of girl. There’s really nothing more to it.
I also like her backstory of being betrayed and going to the church for salvation. I’m not a religious person, but I find those characters interesting.

0:59:30 Sam played South Park: The Stick of Truth.
And not much more to say other than that it’s okay. A bit of a shame, really.

1:00:20 Sam got to meet George Weidman aka Super Bunny Hop
If you haven’t seen any of Super Bunny Hop’s videos, you should watch some of them. They tend to be very informative and interesting for the kind of people who would read this blog or watch the podcast. Check him out.

Since they played Super Smash Bros. and Super Mario 3D World, we spent most of this segment talking about those games.

1:10:20 Chris has been prepping for college finals.
And everyone knows how painful they are. I just finished mine a few days ago as of the time of writing.

1:13:00 Chris got the golden kart in Mario Kart.
Yay, him!
“[Mario Kart’s] Grand Prix is very much like a Rogue-like.”

1:17:00 Chris talks about the new South Park episode.
It was about YouTubers and Let’s Plays. They had PewDiePie in the episode as a character.
I don’t watch South Park, so I’ve not much to say about it.

We also use this segment to discuss the virtue of LPs, and how they can help us preserve older games. After all, our computer’s might not be able to run many games after years of innovation.

I also have my own unfinished LP series, Disclosure Alert, which you can watch. It was mentioned in the episode.

1:27:00 I played more Persona Q.
Going back to Persona Q 2: The Reckoning (God Damn It!)
Naoto is Yu Narukami’s destined waifu. I will not hear any objections.

1:30:30 I played Shadows of Murder (Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor)
It is a great game bound to a really boring story. From a system’s perspective, this is an amazing game worthy of Game of the Year. However, the plot lacks any form of self-awareness and there’s nothing noteworthy going on. It feels a lot like a tutorial for the game proper, which is the Nemesis System.

Which is by far the most interesting aspect of the game. The developers managed to create a way for enemies to grow and evolve, memorizing and learning from past events, growing in power, and becoming your rival.

1:40:00 We talk a little about This War of Mine.
Hearing the comparisons of people who have been in similar real world events to those in the game is really fascinating. When it comes down to it, people are very cooperative, and games don’t tend to allow that.

1:45:30 Wrapping up, but first viewer questions.
“Did you guys read the novel, ‘Ready Player One’?”
Nope.

“Do you guys miss having an adventure mode in the new Smash Bros.?”
That’s a question the others are better off answering.

We kinda just end afterward.

Last week, I talked a lot about Assassin’s Creed: Unity. Specifically, I went over the myriad of poor decisions that, while not affecting the main game too heavily, brought down the entire package. The inclusion of social media, companion apps, and microtransactions all contributed to the impression that Ubisoft was nickel-and-diming franchise fans for all they were worth. Still, the package as a whole was not bad. There were many positive improvements made to the usual Assassin’s Creed formula. It is these that are the subject of this week’s piece. I feel that they are worth talking about as much as the negative qualities. Positive criticism is just as much, if not more important than negative criticism, as they say.
The most notable addition to the game is the increased focus on character customization. There are two ways in which this is done: First, through the use of a character progression system. At the beginning of the game, the protagonist is relatively unskilled. He only knows basic parkour and combat abilities. As the player completes missions, the gain skill points. These skill points can be spent unlocking extra health, combat finishers, ranged techniques, and even classic moves like the Double Assassination and the Air Assassination. At first, it seems strange to be locked from many of the franchise’s iconic moves. However, there is a clear sense of choice and progression granted to the player as a result. Skills fall into one of four different specialties: Close Combat, Ranged Combat, Health, and Stealth. It is up to the player to invest their points either in one of these specializations, or some combination of them. Whatever they decide on will ultimately determine how they play the game, as there is a notable difference between each choice.
The other way is through equipment. As in previous Assassin’s Creed titles, primarily the Ezio trilogy, players can purchase new weapons and armor throughout their playthrough. Back then, those armors were straight upgrades. One armor was objectively better or worse than another piece of armor, and the same could nearly be said of the weapons. In Unity, this is not the case. Every piece of armor has passive abilities that are conferred to the protagonist when worn. Like as was the case with skills, these effects fall into the four categories of Close Combat, Ranged Combat, Health, and Stealth.
Weapons, on the other hand, come in several flavors of their own. The player can have only one melee and one ranged weapon at a time. For melee weapons, players can use a sword for balanced damage and speed, spears for longer range and comparable speed in exchange for less damage, or heavy weapons for extra damage at sword range, but with slower speed. In terms of distance weaponry, the choices are pistols, which come in accurate single or close-range multi-barrelled varieties, and rifles for extra long-range combat. No one piece of equipment is important by itself. When the whole package, including armor and weapons, is combined with the skills as outlined above, it produces a player avatar that is almost wholly unique for that of every other player’s. As a result, though the general control scheme is the same for all, each player will be able to craft a protagonist and playstyle that is wholly their own.
This feeds into one of the biggest improvements made in Unity’s design, the new take on Assassination Missions. Rather than the more linear, semi-scripted sequences seen in Assassin’s Creed 3, Black Flag, and even the recently-released Rogue, the developers took a different approach. Referred to a “Black Box-style”, these segments strongly resemble what one would get from either the original Assassin’s Creed. What can best be described as a rudimentary version of Hitman-style “choose your approach” gameplay, Unity’s Assassination Missions are more free-form in the way they play out. Instead of following a linear script, with minor deviations, players are just given a zone of operation and the objective “Kill [Target Name]”, along with the number of possible routes, secret routes, and guards on location. Players only fail the mission if die or if the target escapes the area. Though the player is shown a couple of “opportunities”, side missions which they can completely to make the assassination easier, they are given no further direction than that. The game asks them to think for themselves and figure which method they would prefer to take out a target.
This is a fantastic change to the way these missions usually play out. Being able to decide for oneself how to approach a situation is empowering to a significant degree. I personally appreciated the autonomy, as it made me feel like I was an assassin in a way I have not since playing either the original Assassin’s Creed or Hitman: Blood Money. Scouting the area to plan the approach, getting close without being detected, and striking at the right moment are all parts of that feeling. Though it is indeed possible to charge in, sword in hand, the player also needs to be careful when making this choice. While it is technically possible to charge in and shiv a target, that is only advisable to someone who has invested heavily in Close Combat and Health. Other characters will lack the damage output and survivability, as combat has taken a turn for the tougher and guards will easily dispatch the careless. Most characters will require more subtlety and thinking in order to accomplish their objective, using a playstyle better suited to their skillset. There are multiple possible methods and approaches, but the game will not judge the player for whatever one they take. Whatever works is a valid option, no matter how silly.

That is the best thing that Unity has done for the formula. Players now have much more freedom to think for themselves and plan out their own approaches to missions and general gameplay. Despite the many, many flaws present in the game, there is a lot of potential here to expand upon these ideas. Still, I fear that after Unity’s poor reception, Ubisoft will learn the wrong lesson from this. Rather than expand upon the good of this game, they will simply retreat from it in fear after their technical blunders and unnecessary additions brought the whole thing to its knees. Perhaps another year would have polished off some of the glitches, but the fundamental design decisions talked about last week would not have changed. This seems to be what Ubisoft wants. Until they realize how bad a decision that is, they are going to suffer for it.
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