Articles by ROCsteady
Glancing at the iphone app store can be a daunting experience. The selection appears endless when deciding what to purchase and such choices are made simpler by the games that are free. Vampires LIVE is one free choice offered by independent game developer Storm 8. Here we have more proof of the iphone's accending relevance in today's game market in this simple MMORPG. The buzzing forums and countless faqs dedicated to this one game are a testament to its addictive game play. You will spend your time building clans and abilities by attacking others online. There are no worlds to explore here. Here we have a text screen with pretty icons and stats facilitating your adventures as you make your sections and watch the events unfold. It is important to manage your clan's abilities in an efficient manner, especially in attack and defense if you hope to win battles. Missions are completed with the swipe of a finger and drain your energy which can be restored only with time. Health and energy must be managed as well. These allow for the attack on other clans and force you to regulate an often times complex attack strategy. This mechanic is what makes this game a strictly for commutes and quick fun. The more you play the more powerful you become and you'd better make sure to play often because you are open to attack and thievery while idle. The charms of Vampires LIVE extend from it simplicity and the "drop in", "drop out" game mechanics. If you are looking for a well designed way to while the minutes at the bus stop or the doctor's office check this game out. The price is surely right!
Note: Since this review, Storm 8 is being sued for being in violation of the Federal Fraud and Abuse Act for stealing the phone numbers of its players. Apparently Storm 8 has written the software in such a way that it automatically accesses and collects the user's phone number. The section of the Federal Fraud and Abuse Act in question lists that it is unlawful for computers to be accessed in this way. Some analysts are saying that personal phone numbers aren't on par with social security numbers but this feels like shady dealings anyway. Storm 8 blames the number stealing on game bugs but the lawsuit brought by Lynnwood, WA resident Michael Turner claims
"only very specific and specialized soft ware could do so".
Some of Storm 8's other titles include
Zombies LIVE and
Ninjas LIVE. While this is strange and not forthright of Storm 8 the game still stands as solid and addictive if you don't mind having your number swiped. This type of behavior is becoming increasingly common in
"free-to-play-games" so I urge you to play them with these caveat: Don't expect a full ride on anything with a free price tag. Things of this nature are designed to find creative ways to get you to pay or siphon information from you. Check to see if the game developer has a site with faqs or even forums with a community to get a bigger idea of what to expect. When all else fails go out and buy a game. You will likely have less surprises and a more solid investment
This past September I flew out to Seattle for North America's largest gaming convention the Penny Arcade Expo. I thought I'd share some of the highlights of my now favorite con including my slightly embarrassing first attempt at cosplay as the indomitable Kanji from Persona 4 (ironically, I chickened out of bleaching the hair). I also had the pleasure of meeting the impossibly charming Chris Furniss. A sometimes guest on the GayGamer Podcast, Chris knows who's who in the world of gaming and when not cosplaying as a dashing vault dweller he runs a fairly fetching podcast himself at The Weekly Geek. What are some of your own favorite conventions? Who are your favorite characters to cosplay?
Ah the 80's! Entire outfits were arranged with leg warmers in mind and in your face product placement dominated the commercials for anything Nintendo. Long before Wii Fit was firming our bottoms into more pleasing shapes there was Dance Aerobics for the NES. This work out program used a variety of exercises and Nintendo's floor peripheral: the Power Pad. As the player progressed through a series of routines with mounting difficulty, mistakes would be counted and removed based on total performance. Also included were the Pad Antics mode with music memorization and Twister-like games and an Aerobics endurance mode for players who desired more of a challenge. These "totally hip" exercises promised hours of entertainment, especially for the casual onlooker. Dance Aerobics provided solid use of the Power Pad paving the way for our current dance pads and games like Dance Dance Revolution.
Attending PAX this year was a revelation to me. For the first time I was able to link up with other like-minded adults in handheld lobbies designed for multiplayer gaming. I was delighted by the sheer amount of gamers, increasing the chances of gaining that elusive "mingle" xp in games like The World Ends With You. With so many games requiring interconnectivity to unlock some of the best content, situations like this practically demand the hauling of my entire DS library to an event like this. But who has time to wait for a Con? It looks as if the answer is coming from Yahoo, at least in New York City anyways. Starting this week Yahoo has enabled anyone with an Internet ready device to surf the web free from Mayer Bloomberg's city street turned tourist park right on Broadway and 42st street. This means DS/DSi/PSP owners now have an iconic location to inspire you to get out of the house and into the limelight for gaming. The entire street is ladled with red folding chairs smack dab in the middle of the center of the universe. With WiFi capability this makes it a veritable haven for gamers and techies to get together and game. Knowing the scads of fashionable gay gamers in New York love Broadway as much as I do, meet-ups and pre show dinners could coincide perfectly with the restaurants and theatres literally feet away from this hotspot! I will be on the forums this week to try and set up some holiday gay gaming fun!
Attention: This is Not Safe For Work! With all the negative hoopla surrounding Infinity Ward's grenade spam video I was beginning to lose all faith in gays being shown in a positive light in the world of gaming. I got a treat when I spied this clip of Dragon Age: Origin's gay romance. Read: Spoilers! Here we have what has to be one of the most well-realized representations of gay sex in a video game to date. The scene walks us through a dialogue tree that leads to a graphically romantic tryst with the male protagonist and Zevran the assassin.
After hearing about BioWare's inclusion of a gay relationship, I'm sure many were prepared to be bored by some half baked, heterosexist pandering a-la Mass Effect's alien/lesbian rendezvous. Here it feels deliberate and respectful. In fact, while there are differences between the straight love interests and the gay male option, the romantic scenes of both orientations are given equal diligence.
With this bare-chested and unflinching portrayal, it feels as if the depiction of gay sex in video games has reached a new level of equal treatment. This is more than just a mincing gay pirate (Temple of Elemental Evil) or an evasive fade-to-black: there's choreography, tenderness, humor and even an element of sexual politics to Zevran's post-coital conversation. Kudos to BioWare for adding a bit of a gay storyline to their game and for dealing with gay romance as even-handedly as they do the heterosexual options.
Once, long ago there was a boy who was in love with a small grey box. Inside this box was a doorway to seemingly endless adventure, a bastion of hope throughout the doldrums of summer and an unfailing escape from an intrusive Italian mother. Over time this grey box was traded for another grey box and then another. As the years passed the worlds began to become increasingly real, developing more life like detail and a third dimension. It was so that an afternoon could melt away in moments, an evening in the blink of an eye and when the morning sun would pierce the veil of sleeplessness, this boy, who was now very much a man would look up from his digital stupor and wonder: "How in the hell did the camera in Dissidia Final Fantasy pass QA in testing?!"
When a game takes you out of the moment it can be the worst feeling. It can make you feel betrayed by a product on which you've spent your time and money. This is especially obvious when the camera is not doing what it's supposed to be doing. By its nature the camera should provide a streaming, panoramic feed of the environment and take into consideration all factors that may impede its execution. This creates countless variables that if not properly appraised can cause gaming displeasure. Case in point: the camera and targeting system in Final Fantasy Dissidia. In this RPG/Action Fighter the targeting system acts as a sort of quick reference when lost in the often times labyrinthine stages, reconnecting you to the location of your advisary. The problem here is not the target itself, it is the lack of an immediate return to an over the shoulder perspective when one is not targeting a foe. I feel it is important for me to say the camera is by no means broken but having to constantly baby sit the most pertinent of mechanics in a game so dependent on its 3-D environs hinders the game's ability to cast its spell. When a game looks as pretty as this one, breaking this spell is a tall order but this is not a first in a Final Fantasy action game.
A similar problem occurs in Square's/Disney's Kingdom Hearts. Here the camera is set so close to the avatar that the environments feel practically squished inside of Sora's shorts. It generates a clunkyness to Sora's movement making it very difficult to find your way around unless there is an object or heartless to target. The platforming segments become maddening trials in approximated depth perception forcing the player to guess on their landing marks using memorization and imagination while battling the camera. This generates game time spent on these platforming "puzzles" formulated of pure guesswork that is frustrating and not fun. Anyone that tells you that this adds to the challenge would be absolutely correct but this type of challenge comes out of poor design rather than careful planning and it breaks the cardinal rule in any RPG: don't pull the player out of this world, don't break the spell. Both games manage to address camera problems and as a result make the games playable. Here are some of the mechanics utilized in attempt to fix the aforementioned issues.
In Dissidia, in open spaces you can use the d-pad to reposition the camera manually, again pulling you out of the experience and forcing the player to make awkward choices. This works when the enemy battler is at a distance but when things get tight the camera drops the view forcing you to either relock onto your enemy or reposition the camera. So we find ourselves quite literally at a loss while running from a death-dealing blow. In Kingdom Hearts you can utilize the dodge and jump features to assist but it can quickly become exhausting for those less tenacious. For Dissidia this arises when activating the "quick move". Used as a catch-all for most interactions between avatar and milieu this one button has the potential to pull your character out of harms way, if the camera didn't need to be manually turned around Every. Single. Time! This forces the player to think of the current view and imagine stage elements from a reversed angle read: not on the screen! So if you are running from one of Garland's finishing attacks and you need to run up a wall to move out of harms way the player must imagine the surface and layout of the wall in perfect detail otherwise the quick move fails and the player loses the match. Again poor design; A player should never have to move towards themselves into an area "off the screen" this much. I understand that this is sometimes nessecary, however this type of mechanic would only truly work if utilized in a real world, panoramic, 3-D environment. With a surround screen the player could physically turn their body around to continue the action. On that 40" HDTV or PSP it just feels awkward.
Now SquareEnix/Disney did something magical with Kingdom Hearts 2. Here the camera opened up the perspective and removed the player from Sora's asscrack. Rarely will the player find themselves in tight spaces and one could use the targeting system for what it was meant for: targeting enemies and chaining combos. For manual direction when necessary the pan controls were moved from the awkward shoulder triggers and placed befittingly on the analog sticks making combat and exploration a truly enjoyable experience. This game represents a prime example of how to design a camera that works with a player not against him.
I should mention that in Dissidia I am coming close to logging 200 hours of playtime and the original Kingdom Hearts gets an annual play through. I am in no way saying these games are poor. Quite the contrary, I love them. They both excel in story and manage to walk us through themes of family, courage, and coming of age. Each character shines from a pantheon of psychological archetypes fleshing out the concepts of free will and choice. Yin and Yang. These games are important but because of camera issues they both escape perfection.
In a game with three dimensions the camera is the most important mechanic. Without a good camera the player is constantly called upon to bridge the gap between poor design choices and the world created within. This often times generates play mechanics out of necessity causing frustration and pulling the player out of the experience. In a world as rich and complex as our own it is up to us to portray our best stories in a light equally comprehensive by not leaving the finer details by the wayside. This is when games can truly be seen as art, an expression of our consciousness, uninterrupted and seamless as possible.
Care to share some of your own adventures with the wonky camera?
The casual game market is a flutter with hundreds of mini games on the web and it looks like EA has jumped on the viral bandwagon to help promote Spore. This week a brand new Facebook app was launched allowing the Spore experience to follow you wherever you go! Being a fan of the game's hyper cute creatures (and a closet fan of the tamagotchi) I was excited to see what this game was about.
While simplified, Spore Islands generates that same feel of being a god in your own back yard. I downloaded the application right from my Facebook page. Bright music and colors flourished the screen and I was immediately charmed by the game's presentation and simplicity. I selected from scads of play areas including, a jungle, a frozen brook, and my personal favorite: the lagoon. When I selected my island I was prompted to make my first creature. I studied the pros and cons of having ferocious fangs for attack over the more subdued pincers which are largely built for defense. The feet and body were chosen for sturdiness and finally I colored and christened my monster: "Willy the pink water devil"! Ready for the games to begin I elected to "see my creature in action" and watched as generations of Willys ate, fought, and reproduced on my island. After 150 turns passed (approximately 2 minutes) Willy gained experience which can be used to evolve. I can also choose to monetize for more evolution points and to speed up the process of what appears to be a fun and addictive distraction.
I enjoyed the original game and I am always up for a little Spore. I like that this allows for competition between you and friends who might otherwise be daunted by a more complex character creator, proving you don't need heaps of stat variables (or current gen graphics) to have a little mindless fun. Yay!
I have one serious RPG crush this console generation and this has my steady, Square Enix slightly jealous. Square originally stole my heart with Final Fantasy but while producing a lackluster showing over the past few years (do we really need another re-skinned tower defense game?!) Atlus has been quietly sneaking over to my apartment late nights and touching that special place that only deeply involved JRPGS can ever reach. My appetite has been most recently satiated with Demon's Souls and now Atlus lends its hand with the localization for the new Shiren the Wanderer. This rougelike was originally slated for a Wii only release in Japan and while nothing is official it appears Japanese retailer Rakuten has this game in their catalogue for sometime in January. This time around you will have two AI controlled characters and rebalanced gameplay. So get out those tenacious RPG caps and keep your fingers crossed we actually see this psp version stateside.
Yesterday when I logged onto my Facebook account I noticed yet another invitation to Farmville: The Farming Game! I let out a winded sigh and proceeded to delete the invitation. When I first signed up for Facebook, I quickly began to notice the incessant flow of ads for games and applications. Now, I can understand the practicality behind use of a localized arena to reconnect with old friends and the obvious networking factors but Facebook for gaming? Something seemed fishy to me and it sure wasn't the picture with you and your friends wearing sushi rollers as nipple clamps this past Halloween. After some more research I discovered some of the more delicate facts about this "free" addictive gaming craze and what it is doing to empty your wallets with out you even realizing it.
At a glance the major games are flowing from the hands of Zynga (Farmville) , Playfish (Pet Society), and Playdom (Mobsters). The games pull you in with their free game play offers and social networking (who wouldn't want to start a multi-million dollar crime syndicate with their friends?!). The majority of these games are well designed with a variety of classes and jobs all worked into an item based economic info structure that rewards you with in game cash incentives. At first this seems harmless enough until you realize that progress, dictated by leveling up is hindered by the amount of time not playing the game and certain items are only made available by using your real world credit card or mobile phone. Far be it for me to condemn a company for developing a brilliant way to make money. If the product is satisfying, (as several of my friends will evangelize to no end) and people are willing to pay money for said product then I applaud you. But here is the fishy part. For those squeamish about parting with their hard earned cash they can opt into the broad world of lead generation surveys to bolster their in game cash flow.
Have you ever loaded a website and got bombarded by ads promising free ipods or HDTV's if you just completed a simple survey often times requesting personal information? These are lead generations. Lead Gens are used by ad companies to generate sales potential based on local demographics and are used to develop cold call lists. These are responsible for much of the spam in your inbox and is a key way games like Farmville are using sneaky ways to siphon money from you. In one Farmville lead gen when you complete the survey you are told your results must be sent to you via text message and you are prompted to enter your phone number. What you are not told is that you have now officially signed up for a monthly subscription for 9.99. As you can see the ad tells nothing of a subscription fee resulting in those less Internet savvy falling prey to this heinous scheme.
I will be the first to tell you I am in favor of anything lucrative and game related. These casual game applications become a wonderful arena for the shrewd entrepreneur to step into the light, make some cash, and possibly add to our lexicon of game play sensibilities. Spore Islands is a gem (check out my review tomorrow). What I cannot condone are the shady, under handed dealings that lie, and all but steal from it's consumers while subsidizing the gambling addictions of thousands of housewives across the nation.This nastiness places mistrust in the very demographic these companies are trying to influence and would surely stifle any curiosity I might have as a web based game consumer. When push comes to shove and the product is quality (as it very clearly is in some instances) tell me what to expect up front and you will not simply have me as a sucker for the month but rather a customer for life.
This morning I entered the Botanical gardens of Batman Arkham Asylum prepared for a fight with my favorite villain Poison Ivy. I was even prepared for the obligatory vagina plant boss that greeted me with its' life draining weeds and poisonous "spores" straight from that duel clitoris. What caught me off guard was the amount patience and memorization required to survive this boss battle. I found my self tearing my hair out and yelling at the TV much like I did my first play though of Mega Man in 1987. This yelling is a wonderful indication that those in development did something right here. I should be jumping out of my seat! It means I am invested in the game and it is quite surely doing its job of creating an engaging interactive experience. This very refreshing in a climate where powering leveling often saves the day. In Batman Arkham Asylum it does not matter how many armor upgrades you have or how powerful your batarang is, it is your movement that counts. Constant vigilance pays dividends; this is the kind of game play that does not forgive mistakes. As painful as it can be to have to restart from scratch after one single misstep I find mastering a boss' attack patterns to be more rewarding than plowing through an end boss with some tricked out uber sword. These types of sensibilities brandish the vibes of a difficult platformer and have their roots in battles like Megaman's "Rock Monster" and King K. Rool's end game gauntlet from Donkey Kong Country. While the last two may share a 2-D perspective the lack of a third dimension does little to diminish the difficulty. Both games require spot on timing and pattern recognition built within fairly solid control schemes. Here the two manage to take the play control (the good and the bad) and allow it to become entirely realized as a full-scale instrument. In these instances the player is forced to utilize even the subtlest variations of the jump mechanic to persevere. It is my belief that the simplest mechanics work the best in games and while Batman's collection is not perfect it builds on these formulas by adding the some extra dimensions.
The general movement of Batman feels top heavy creating an exhilarating sensation of traveling impetuously towards danger but it also makes the avatar slightly obtuse in its' handling. This results in having to plan out your moves a second or two beforehand to avoid missteps, especially in times when the grappling hook is made ineffectual. In this fight the small island Batman is trapped on is laced with deadly vines that affect a specified area at a time and one is forced to use the run and dodge in tandem. Since the island is so small and it is easy to get trapped in corners you are forced to utilize both mechanics collectively. This essentially recreates the dangers of the Mega Man Rock Monster boss battle but broadens it by forcing you to react on a 3-D plane.
It only gets harder when the unarmed goons join the fight and you are forced to weave in and out of the vines while managing what can be called the most delicate of Arkam Asylum's mechanics. The combat system at first glance appears simple and "mashy". Only by mastering dodge and counter will you find yourself chaining the higher combos. Moving successfully through a chain of button presses transforms this combat system into a silent rhythm action mini game with free flow quick time qualities. This creates a sense of urgency and effectively forces the player onto a level of competence he might have otherwise not bothered to achieve.
I love it when a boss battle has me getting off my couch, steaming with self-righteous indignation. It makes winning all the more satisfying. It is my belief that games should be designed with mechanics in mind before anything else. If a game does its job right the boss fight should combine these mechanics into a sort of waltz celebrating the well-crafted instrument being played. Batman surely delivers with this epic fight with the lovely lady Ivy.
What are some of your favorite boss battles and what mechanics cause you to salivate?
Last week I showered you with snapshots of Capcom's upcoming Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom. Today I'd like to continue my love letter to Japanimation and Fighters with an oldie but a goodie. The upcoming Wii game is not Tatsunoko's first foray into the game market. In October of 2000, Takara released Tatsunoko Fight. This Japan only title flooded consoles with its' tag team anime fantasy battles. While developed by Takara the game's technical mechanics dance closely around those of Marvel Vs. Capcom and Street Fighter. The system is compiled of light and heavy attacks to be chained together to form unblockable combos, which can be segued into ultra combos as one takes or receives damage. Standard fare to be sure and at a time when others like MvC2 did it better it is easy to see why this game never made it here to the states.
Despite the developer opting out of more original mechanics, the game is flush with bright animations and authentic voiceovers. The fight roster is fleshed out with appearences from several of Tatsunoko's more illustrious shows; Casshern from Neo Human Casshern, and Tekkaman from Tekkaman: The Space Knight. Takara also created an entirely new IP for the story elements surrounding game called Volter: Denkao Senka Volter. All three are scheduled to make appearances in Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom. The entire project is rife with fan service for those familiar with the series and further explains this title's achieved success.
"A serious house on serious earth." The sub title of this symbolic tome speaks of what is to be found inside this version of the Asylum. You will find no camp here. While standing as the inspiration for Batman's recent visit to the Asylum on the console front, this source material takes the Dark Knight further into a selective kind of dementia. H.P Lovecraft once said of fear: We are afraid of what is unseen and unknown. Here you will see and be subject to injections of horrific and primal imagery that pulls together as a sort of personal nightmare. Writer Grant Morrison (New X-Men) and painter Dave McKean (The Sandman) masterfully pull you into the world of Arkam speaking to you as an individual perhaps coming to the island for treatment and even more so than the game, puts you in the shoes of Batman himself. If you loved the game as I did and have a stirring curiosity for the mythos created therein you may well enjoy another visit to Gotham's house of death and madness. This version is currently available at most comic stores and online for 17.99, includes an extensive forward and the original script.
And girls who like girls who like rumble packs!
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