Articles by VorpalBunny
As with many of the writers here at the GayGamer.net castle, I've had a huge chunk of my time swallowed by playing Dragon Age: Origins. As we already have a review and sex scenes with Zevran, I wanted to write about another piece of the game across which I ran (and one more piece after that--but that includes finishing the game, which I should manage this weekend).
In Denerim, the metropolis, in medieval terms, of Fereldan, there exists a brothel you can visit called The Pearl. If you speak to the madame there, she gives you the option of choosing your preferences, whether that be male, female, a surprise, or both.
Choosing both gives you what you see in the screenshot I captured up top. So, while many of us are going YAY! about the inclusion of Zevran and Leliana, below the fold you'll read about an issue that's made me frown.
Slated for a 2010 release, Square Enix has officially confirmed Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC, developed again by IO Interactive. A website has launched, featuring two videos, one of which Dawdle reported (it includes the duo running about nude). Screenshots and more videos are promised in the future, and the website is to be fully launched in 2010 as well.
The new video is also set up to be a surveillance camera observing Lynch taking a bowling ball and using it to bust open a door. The grainy textures and surveillance equipment seem to be the theme this time, with the reported aim being to explore new levels of realism and intensity. Considering the pedigree of the first game, that is certainly enough to make an eyebrow raise if it succeeds.
From the press release:
"Gamers are always looking for something new and that is exactly what they are going to get with Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days," said Niels Jørgensen, general manager of IO Interactive. "A special thanks to gamers worldwide for their feedback. They are certainly in for a shock as we, with immense pride, welcome back our two dear, violent and somewhat unfortunate friends."
It appears that recent scans of Famitsu, as seen on Kotaku, have confirmed that No More Heroes will be coming to both the Xbox 360 and PS3. Apparently, it is slated for release in Japan on February 25, and will include upgraded graphics and Very Sweet Mode, where one can have the females of the game scantily clothed (in which I have no particular interest, but I'm also no Humbert Humbert to a young, teenaged assassin). The title is to be No More Heroes: Hero's Paradise.
No More Heroes certainly numbers among my favorite titles on the Wii, and I will be excited for it if this gets it more recognition and play. Then again, I recall being absolutely thrilled when my controller started speaking to me as if it were a cell phone (don't worry, I'm often easily amused), so am not sure how I'd feel about such a game on a different console. It was a game whose novel uses of the Wiimote certainly carved itself into my memory; as well as roommates' when I needed to recharge my beam katana.
Over at the PlayStation.Blog, they've offered a preview of what we can expect from the PS3 Firmware 3.10 update (which, if you're paying attention, sounds similar to what Xbox Live is also doing):
The latest update incorporates Facebook into the PS3 experience. By linking your PlayStation Network account to your Facebook account, you will have the option for the PS3 to automatically update your Facebook News Feed with Trophy and PlayStation Store activity. This update also enables developers to set specific criteria in their titles to publish additional game information to your News Feed. You can then check out your updates, and those of your friends, on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media favorites through the PS3's built-in web browser.
Their blog post also includes a video, in which you may or may not have interest. Nothing overly game-changing, but it is curious to see how the two console publishers are continuing to both improve their services while competing with each other.
No official word on a when, just the ever-ubiquitous PR word soon.
Clint Hocking, whom you may know as part of Far Cry 2, wrote a blog post this weekend examining the article that popped up in the New York Times Magazine about indie games. He was interviewed for the piece, and this serves as a retrospective on the piece over all (which includes Jason Rohrer, Jon Blow, Jenova Chen, and many more).
The post starts with the recognition that only a certain subset of gamers really cared about the question of whether or not games can or have the ability to be art. He acknowledges that games are entertainment, just as any artistic medium may be. It is the realization that more and more, major publications are posing such thoughts and questions as well, meaning there is a relatively new medium through which people can experience art, or simply expression.
His issue, however, is how the New York Times Magazine article seems to push that in seeing more art in games in the future, there will need to be auteurs, or a strong authorial intent coming from the side of the game developers.
Hocking succinctly sums it up in this paragraph:
But in some ways, I feel this is the very purpose of games. Every other artistic medium is authored in the traditional sense: the message passes down from author to audience through the medium. But games (as we know) are different. Input is expression, and when players input their expression it passes back into the medium, where it feeds back against predictions the author(s) made about the kinds of things players might express (never reaching the author directly).
The idea is not that developers give us a story and that's it, but that this is a medium through which the player can be part of the formation of the narrative and experience. It is among the reasons I myself enjoy gaming so much; it feels like rehearsals for a play, or the process of writing out a story, poem, et cetera. It allows me not to just experience, but create and share the joy of authorship while making the play completely my own.
Which is not to say I mind strong authorship in games. The old Sierra and LucasArts adventure games hold a prominent place on my games shelf.
PETA's Super Chick Sisters now has a sequel, New Super Chick Sisters, with the return of mustachioed chicks. This time the target is McDonald's, and there appears to be much more humor injected in its cutscenes, particularly at Mario's expense: mustache ride license plates, Yoshi abuse, et cetera.
Unlike with their game concerning KFC, this one addresses the concern that McDonald's has ignored claims to alleged chicken mistreatment and suggests a more humane method of kill, rather than an outright ban on eating chicken itself.
Unfortunately, or fortunately for those not interested in the political points made (and trust me, I have lots of criticisms for PETA myself), half the political message is buried in chickens who stand by and require you to stand and wait for their message to fully load, which creates gameplay that doesn't really communicate well the full intent or pertinent information.
Be warned that progression also eventually nets you a video where you get to see PETA's I'm Hatin' It campaign, which features videos of the chicken mistreatment.
The game also features an unlockable character, the Princess Pam whom you are set to rescue from the evil clown.
Available both on their website as Flash, and downloadable for PC/Mac.
Via Kotaku, a piece on Reuters today reminds me that November 14, this Saturday, is the second annual National Gaming day. That's right, the American Library Association has put up a site with a list of participating libraries and activies.
Goals this year:
- Raise awareness about the use of games as a library program;
- Expose people to new types of board games;
- Establish connections between local board game groups and the library.
The article linked takes a bit of a step back to speculate about videogames, specifically. Apparently libraries will offer a chance to play games, but not just any (after all, ratings will also play a key point). The focus is on games that have historical weight, whether or not that is explicit. Examples are games like the upcoming Assassin's Creed 2, particularly the focus on a younger version of Leonardo Da Vinci than to whom we are more accustomed (though I still lament Commedia Dell'Arte acting troupes into which I can lose myself and improv). Taking historical figures and putting them in games is certainly one method of such a historical overview, but there is also a mention of just creating the general ambiance of a time period, from the fashions to architecture, and even social conventions.
The issue not discussed is how accurate these depictions may be, or if there are problem areas (such as with Velvet Assassin, where a woman who had been raped and executed by Nazis took morphine to run around in a slip with flowers on screen). Then again, how many films and novels are questionable about the history they depict? Are games a good first step into historicism and the skepticism we are should bring to reading anything regarding history, even primary documents?
After all, what is history but a fable agreed upon?
Considering Valve has decided to spend $25 million on advertising for the sequel to Left 4 Dead, it should come as no surprise that the contest for Left 4 Dead 2 is similar to last year's:
Take a funny, interesting, scary or otherwise unique photograph of you or a friend in front of one of L4D2's outdoor media placements (billboards, bus ads, etc.) and you could win a custom Xbox. All entries will be reviewed and judged by Gabe Newell, president and founder of Valve, so be creative!
Entries must be submitted by Sunday, November 15, winners chosen November 18. The winner will receive a special 'infected' Xbox 360, custom designed. Twenty-five runners-up will receive an autographed copy of the game.
To think, just last Saturday I came across one of those billboards here in Chicago. How many others have seen this advertising campaign out in the wilds?
As someone who normally skips deleted scenes and such on his DVDs, I was surprised to see how loud a squee I let loose over the fact that LucasArts found 'deleted scenes' from Secret of Monkey Island. As found on the LucasArts Workshop blog
My name is Adam Bormann, and I was one of the designers on the Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition. One of the things I worked on was the new hint system, which meant a lot of digging through the old original SCUMM source code to figure out how Ron Gilbert, Tim Schafer and company were tracking the state of different puzzles and whether Guybrush had completed something or not. One thing I quickly noticed was that Ron and Tim had left a lot of notes in the code, explaining why things were the way they were, or putting a date when a certain bug was fixed. This was fascinating to see and read. The other thing I noticed is that when they made some changes, they left the original versions of the code in there, but commented out, so that it wouldn't be used.
Among the scenes are right before Fester Shinetop kicks you into the water, after emerging from said water to speak with Elaine, with the crew, et cetera. The full scripts, again, can be found right over here.
This makes all makes me wonder if any of the other SCUMM games included such code, as I longingly look back at Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle.
While it's a bit too early for me (25 hours and only 22% complete with my mage playthrough), Bioware has released the Toolset to Dragon Age:Origins here.
Among the features:
- Create your own add-ons to extend the main campaign in new directions
- Tell stand-alone stories in the Dragon Age setting or in a setting of your own devising
- Share resources with other modders to enhance each others' works
- Look "under the hood" to see how memorable moments in Dragon Age were done
Or, if you want do something other than mod, here's something for the intrepid filmmaker:
Also included is a dedicated cutscene editor with a wide variety of powerful cinematic capabilities. The cutscene editor is a movie-making toolset in its own right; it is quite capable of producing stand-alone works of machinima if one so desired. All of the in-game footage in Dragon Age was produced using it. Lip-syncing and facial animation is fully automated, making lifelike performances easy to accomplish.
The last bit makes me chuckle, but then again, having been on stage a few times, the critic in me does fault Dragon Age for stiff animations and not really believable facial performances. At least you know that's taken care of for you.
Since I'm curious to see what this can do, and don't plan on booting it up until I finish the game, feel free to add me on their network and share with me anything you create. Name, Redgren (link only works if logged in).
The above video is an interview with Dario Casali of the L4D2 team, talking about the iteration of level design and how it has progressed from the first game. While so far it is nothing like this entry from L4D (perhaps my favorite developer blog entry of 2008), it gets more behind the design process and theory of how to maneuver both the director AI and players--particularly how to do so beyond what was done in the first game.
Of particular interest is how different maps scale better to different modes of play, such as versus. The idea of mazes and larger maps to navigate, so that the director AI has more with which to work, sounds like it could either be overkill or make for a more tense experience (knowing Valve, I'd expect the latter).
Also of note, via Kotaku, is that Left 4 Dead 2 preorders four times the first. It's not really a surprise when one considers how strong the first game was, and how it was an untested IP, but this was said anyway:
"As we get closer to launch we see the reaction to the demo, pre-orders are four times what Left 4 Dead 1 was, people's excitement, the boycott itself and how it's changed... I think people are just excited now," he said.
Count me among the excited; though a large part of that is the ability to play Rochelle, as there aren't too many black female protagonists in games as yet.
More videos, covering Realism, Scavenge, and Survival mode are available at the G4TV blog.
Just received this e-mail, and thought you'd like to know:
Dear VorpalBunny,
Your free instant streaming disc for PS3 should arrive by Friday, Nov 06, 2009.
Meanwhile, add TV episodes & movies to your instant Queue now so you're ready to watch instantly when your instant streaming disc arrives.
-Your friends at Netflix
Yay!
And girls who like girls who like rumble packs!
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