The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

Brickroad is doing another great FFI LP (how many times can the man play the same game and have me be entertained by it? I don’t know, but I want to find out.) and in thinking about it, it made me want to try things out. See, I never imagined, before reading all these things, doing all these challenge runs, and people make them seem pretty easy, especially in Dawn of Souls, the version I have. So I was thinking “Hey, let’s just do something different from the norm, and do a no-magic run. Fighter, Fighter, Bl. Belt, Thief.” I went so out of my way wanting to do this. I dug out my cart and my GBA SP, which has been unused for years. I was all ready to go.

Then I turned on the GBA SP.

I remember being amazed at how good that screen looked when I picked it up, but holy shit, it was a thing of the specific time period it was in. I could barely see the screen. I also remember how much of a godsend the lighting was, but not so much today. That front light is ridiculous and useless, and I was sitting in bed, trying to play, and was having trouble reading the text. It just looked hideous, and the screen looked dropped behind the front of the Gameboy by like an inch. My mind was kind of blown.

It is kind of amazing how much better my DSi’s screen is than that one. We have come a long, long way since the GBA days, even if some games on the DS don’t particularly look it. I’m not a graphics snob or anything, but we are talking the physical construction of the device. It’s amazing to me that I played so many games on this machine. Completely amazing.

Will I get over it and keep playing Dawn of Souls? Maybe. I only beat Garland before bed, though that involved several stupid, stupid mistakes getting my Fighters killed several times. We’ll see if I can go back to it, and that awful screen, again.

Dear person who is asking me to get on voice for Battlefield: Bad Company 2,

First off, let me just say that you’re awesome. I really appreciate you wanting me involved and wanting to talk to me. That’s really cool! You’re being all awesome and friendly, and that is great.

However, I don’t really want to get on voice, and it’s not about you. It’s about how I play the game.

You all are working to win. You’re calling out enemy positions and coordinating attacks. That’s neat, don’t get me wrong. But that’s, again, attempting to win, a goal I don’t really share. I mean, sure, winning is nice, and I’m not going to throw the game. And if our enjoyment depended on victory, you know I’d be there. Left 4 Dead? No way I’m not voice-chatting. You have to coordinate to have fun.

However, the main enjoyment I get from playing these kinds of shooters stems from two things. One is just completely and utterly zoning out. Maybe putting on a podcast or music and just relaxing while I mindlessly shoot dudes. The other is due to the level progression these games now offer. The second, voice chat does not affect. The first, it does.

Coordination takes energy. It takes thought, and work. It is the opposite of the completely stress-less, mindless enjoyment I work for when I boot up a shooter. Again, in a setting made uniquely for that, I’m down, but I don’t really feel like Battlefield is. I feel like I can be effective by actually playing the Medic role, unlike some people, even without coordinating. If spotting and other game systems are actually working right, which, honestly, is not always the case, most of the benefit of talking on voice chat is mitigated as well. It just often doesn’t seem worth it to me.

You guys are awesome. I enjoy playing with you, and it’s not like I’m not going to get on voice chat and enjoy playing with you all. You are cool. But if I seem hesitant, I just want you to know why. It’s just not how I play the game. It’s not that I don’t want to play with you, it’s just counter to how I approach the thing. That’s all.

Hope that clears up any confusion.

Sincerely,
poetfox

50 Cent: Bitch Stole My Skull is a great game.

Okay, let me explain.

50 Cent: Get on that gun, 50! is a blast to play. It’s ridiculous, and it actually plays well, unlike another “bad” game I’ve been playing recently *cough*DEADLY PREMONITION*cough*

Seriously, this game is 50 Cent, writing fanfiction about himself. Every person knows who he is, and loves his music. He has enough money to hire personal armies. He gets shot directly and gets back up and fights another damn helicopter. He is deadly accurate with amazing numbers of guns. Every inch of this game just oozes “50 Cent wrote this game about himself, so him and his friends can play as themselves and shoot dudes.” And it makes it so fun. The voice acting, the plot, all of it is completely and utterly silly, and you can savor every moment of it.

You’ll savor it too, and not suffer for it, because the gameplay is actually pretty good. It’s a really competent 3rd Person shooter, which passable cover mechanics, a good variety of guns, and plenty of combat. In what might be the most “game-y” mechanic in a game I’ve played for a long while, the fact that the game is constantly popping up challenges of enemies to kill in a set time, and encourages you to get kill streaks and kill combos really makes the game much more engaging. It becomes much more fast-paced, and adds that additional element the game needs to keep you entertained.

The biggest strength and weakness this game has is co-op. As I’m sure you’re aware, co-op can take an “eh” game and make it fantastic, and co-op in this game does just that. It is so much fun. However, the lack of split-screen co-op is a huge, huge oversight. Online co-op is fine, and should be there, but this game NEEDS to be able to be played with someone else on the couch. At the same time, I’ll say that, wanting co-op so bad, I bought two copies of this game, and only paid $30 total. I feel like I still got my money’s worth, but I was shocked and displeased that single-machine co-op wasn’t in the game.

That’s seriously it’s biggest flaw, though. I’m sure all the music and fanservice is fun if I even vaguely knew who 50 Cent was. I thought it really accented the stupid crazy fanfiction feel of the game, so I really enjoyed it, but it’s not really my style. The gameplay is great, and the story is so ridiculous, it’s a lot of fun. You will enjoy 50 Cent: Blood Split Upon Many Grains of Sand if you play it. It’s not full price fun, but this is pretty well the pinnacle of excellent budget game. Get it from a bargain bin, shoot some bitches, and get your jewel-encrusted skull back, mother-fucker.

And seriously, if all that hasn’t convinced you, there is a button solely there to make 50 Cent say 50.

Play the game.

Thanks to Evil Trout, one of the main individuals behind the very awesome Forumwarz, which you know I love, I was able to learn about a small indie game called Digital: A Love Story.

It’s completely fantastic.

I mean, sure, it’s a little cheesy, but you would expect that from such a title. But it’s a very great experience. You should roll through and play it right now, before I talk any more about it. It maybe takes an hour or so to play through? Give it a go and see what you think.

Okay? Did you play it? At least a little?

I really like this game, because it works very similar, both in mechanics and just in what it is trying to do, to Uplink. Uplink was fantastic because it made the things you were doing seem difficult and complicated, while still making them easy enough for you to do with no computer knowledge. You had to type in all kinds of things that you probably wouldn’t have to in most games, but that just made you feel more like a badass hacker, even if actual hackers would be doing completely different things, conceptually.
Digital works the same way, in how it makes you interact with the various BBSes much in the way you would have had to back in the day, but still makes it a bit easier than it would have been back then. The Notebook program tracks everything for you, like a modern game, but you still have to dial the numbers each time you want to connect, which just works wonders for setting the setting and making you feel involved in what you are doing.

At the same time, it’s doing some really interesting things with narrative. You can respond to anyone, send them messages, and talk to them. However, you never actually see what you’re saying. You can only infer what your character (which uses your actual name, if you follow the instructions the game gives you) is saying by what the characters in the game are responding to and saying. This is kind of amazing. You have completely control over what your character does, but not what your character says or thinks. You don’t even get to hear what they think, as you might when playing, say, Nathan Drake in Uncharted or something, where he’s going to make what he thinks clear, because he’s a separate person talking on screen. It’s… a really strange disconnect, especially since the game is designed to look like you are looking at a computer monitor from that time. You are supposed to be the character, and yet you aren’t. It certainly shines even more light upon the characters of the various AIs in the game, and what autonomy they have in their feelings and actions, where you only have autonomy in action, and not emotion.

Highly recommended stuff. I enjoy seeing the gaming medium used in a smart way. This is one of those times.

There has to be a million cool games on the App store, surely. I mean, they’re completely impossible to find, but if I could find them, I bet they would be really great. Sometimes, I start looking around, just trying to find things. Part of me doing this made me download, completely at random, a game called “Let’sTans” because, I dunno, it was free. Then I ended up playing it pretty compulsively for a week.

I guess I’m suggesting you download Let’sTans.

Basically, this is a Tangram game. It’s no frills, really, though I appreciate that you don’t rotate pieces using a two finger gesture, as that can get really annoying after awhile. You tap to rotate, and double-tap to flip the piece. Then you drag it into position. Then you solve the Tangram. Really simple, honestly. There are other modes too, which give you crazy screens completely filled with Tangram pieces, and you have to find the various shapes in the screen. Those are a lot harder, but alright as well. Then, they offer you additional puzzles and modes for small DLC fees.

Frankly, I really had a lot of fun with this. Tangrams are basically perfect for on-the-go, five second entertainment. You can completely one quickly, and you can then completely put the game down. Similarly, it’s perfect to fiddle with while you listen to a podcast. It’s not much of a distraction, but it’s enough to get your brain working while you listen to something nice. As I said, I blazed through all the classic puzzles. The rest didn’t do as much for me, but I still appreciated them being there.

This is a great little package for something that’s free, honestly. Unless you think Tangrams are the dumbest form of puzzle imaginable, you will get some entertainment out of it. Download it and enjoy it. It’s fun, in a simple, uncomplicated kind of way.

This post has Bioshock and Bioshock 2 spoilers, so keep that in mind if you read on.

Brer asked me, as I started playing Bioshock 2, to keep an idea in mind: Is the game being nicer to Sophia Lamb, and her philosophy, than it was to Andrew Ryan? This is a loaded question, of course. He obviously thought it was. Me, I disagree. I feel like both characters received a comeuppance of having their own philosophies turned against them. The difference simply lies in which has the more “brutal” philosophy.

Andrew Ryan believes in a very “dog eat dog,” social Darwinism kind of philosophy. The weak should not hold down the strong. The best will rise to the top, and should be able to shine without being held back, especially not by the government. In his philosophy, people who are weak fail, fall, and die. He considers himself, of course, to be among the strong, those who succeed. Yet, when you approach him in Bioshock, it is obvious that he is not one of the strong. He has lost, for you are here to kill him. He attempts to salvage his dignity by basically committing suicide through you, by choosing death for himself, instead of having it happen to him. But the fact remains: he has fallen, he has failed, and he will die. He gets the “bad” end of his philosophy.

I feel a similar thing happens to Sophia Lamb. She believes in helping the weak, and that “we are all one big family.” She believes in the greater good. Everyone’s actions should serve the needs of the many, not the needs of the few. If that requires sacrifice, then so be it.
At the end of Bioshock 2, at least with the good ending, Eleanor saves Lamb’s life. She provides kindness and charity which gives her absolutely no benefit, honestly. Lamb tried to control every aspect of her life, and will surely continue to. Giving her kindness doesn’t really give Eleanor any benefit, perse.
However, it puts Lamb in an awkward situation. Brer claims that she would go on to work her philosophical magic on the surface world, but I don’t think that’s the case. Eleanor has dethroned her. She’s in control, and I do not believe she is going to let Lamb do anything like that any more. Lamb is being reduced to a lame duck, being kept alive out of kindness. She won’t be able to enact any good on the world, because Eleanor will keep her in check. In fact, she’s really going to end up being nothing but a burden to Eleanor who, if she is really as brilliant and bright as Lamb would believe, is going to do good things, even if they don’t exactly connect with her philosophy. Eleanor will enact some manner of good on the world, and she is holding her back from that. Her existence, from that point, is potentially harming the greater good. She should remove herself, the very thing she tells Delta to do throughout the whole game. She is on the “bad” end of her philosophy.

Ryan’s philosophy is more brutal, so I feel like his fall from grace is more brutal. I also feel like having two games talking about his philosophy can potential put him in a slightly worse light than Lamb, who only had one. Still, I don’t feel like there is a significant difference between their treatment. I’m sure I’m probably missing something, or ignoring something else, but that’s how I felt when I finished the game, and now I have shared it in a bloeg.

Most reviews of Bioshock 2 that I have read start with the fact that this is a sequel that did not need to exist and, honestly, since that’s the elephant in the room, I’m not going to be any different. This game did not need to exist. Bioshock was a neat, near-perfect package that said what it wanted to say and was done. Playing through the first hour or two in the game, I was filled with the feeling that the game was trying way, way too hard. “Ugh, this is so unnecessary. Man, they’re really forcing this in here.”
After you get past those feelings, though, you start realizing that, hey, there’s still a fun game there. Sure, it didn’t need to exist, but it’s still a good time, and they certainly improved, mechanically, on the combat in the game, making it a much more enjoyable game, though perhaps a slightly diminished experience, since you’ve been to Rapture before.

All the plasmids and guns have been improved upon. The plasmids now have levels: you can upgrade them, and then charge them up for additional effects. This gives you a feeling of power progression you simply did not have in the original game. It’s not gaining levels, but you feel like you’re constantly getting stronger, a feeling you didn’t really get from the first game. This is certainly a benefit and helps draw you through the game experience. Additionally, upgrading the weapons fundamentally changes their use, unlike the first game. The Rivet Gun, for example, starts setting people on fire once you fully upgrade it, making it’s use change. It’s also a big difference, making you feel that same sense of progression that you feel with the plasmids. It works.

Combat itself has been improved by the simple fact that you have a gun and a plasmid equipped at all times. You don’t have to switch between them, which makes it much easier to zap someone with electrobolt and then drill them, or complete whatever kind of complex plasmid to weapon or weapon to plasmid maneuver you want to undertake. Add to this the fact that the game constantly rewards you for varying up your attack tactics, much more than in the other games. The research camera is now a video camera, and you get rewards for recording the killing of enemies in a variety of ways, much more than simply shooting them with the same gun over and over. It makes the combat much more dynamic.

Especially important, to me anyway, was the Little Sister collection sequences. The game gives you a very wide variety of traps, from proximity mines to the Cyclone Trap plasmid. These existed, for the most part, in the first game, but you never really had a reason to use them. You could set up ambushes for Big Daddies, I guess, but they never felt required. It was much easier just to charge in there with a shotgun or grenade launcher and be done with it. Now, with the defense of the Little Sisters, the game is giving you a clear reason to play defensively and set up lots of traps. I loved this: it was a welcome change from how I was approaching normal combat. I took the time to completely vary my approach for these sequences, and I had a lot of fun. I can see how someone who decided they were just going to run and gun during those times would find them a bit tedious, but I took them as a reason to do something different, and was rewarded. I found it very fun.

I feel like I need to mention multiplayer, another thing that people claim the game did not need. I only played a round, but I have to say, I can appreciate what they’re doing. They pretty successfully integrated the “Modern Warfare” style of multiplayer progression with the setting of the game. I loved that I got to walk around my little Rapture house, hear propaganda, set up my loadout and crazy splicer attire, and run into battle. I also enjoyed how well they worked plasmids into the multiplayer. Most of them are reconfigured to be debuffs or DoTs. They aren’t just another gun. They really do compliment whatever strategy you’re trying. So, yeah, I wouldn’t be mad at someone for playing the multiplayer. It’s not really compelling enough to get me to drop everything else and play it, but for a kid who got this for his birthday and has no other multiplayer options, he’s going to have a damn good time, and won’t feel like he’s settling for second best.

Yeah, Bioshock 2 was a fun time. It’s not really a “must play” like the first game, but if you enjoy the first, and want to enjoy some better combat in a familiar setting, you really should give it a go. Just expect many elements to be rehashed going in, and you’ll have no problem enjoying yourself.

Well, I beat it. I was unsure if I was going to, but I totally completely completed DEADLY PREMONITION.

I liked it.

I say that with some warnings. This really isn’t a good game mechanically. The open world stuff is tedious. The shooting is awful. It has some strangely-compelling voice acting, but that’s basically it for any sort of decent budget feel to the game. These are all written off by it being a shitty game. “Who cares? It’s crap.”

For some reason, though, I cared. There are elements to the plot that make it seem like everything in the game is working towards something. It gives the impression that there is an overall vision to the game which will make all these weird-ass elements make sense. It made me interpret what was going on as I went along, and then, at the end, it threw a plot twist that, if I hadn’t been looking at the game the way I was, wouldn’t have meant anything, but has, instead, left me reeling and unsure.

Okay, time to talk about the story, so, you know, spoilers ahead.

Agent Francis York Morgan is constantly talking to Zach. It’s obvious very early on that Zach is an alternate personality. York treats him as such. It’s obvious. However, since you’re controlling York, it seems like Zach is a stand in for the player. When you stop the car to pick up a collectible or something, York goes, “Is there something you want to check out here, Zach?” Since I, the player, was the person who made the decision to stop, it seems pretty clear that Zach = Me.
I was going through the whole game thinking of it this way. York is crazy because he has a game-player in his head. That’s why the world is so very “game-y.” That’s why there are enemies in sequences where combat makes no sense at all. That’s why the game looks like an old school PS1 game, because that makes it feel all the more “game-like,” instead of the more structured experiences you find nowadays. That’s why the things anyone does every day, sleeping and eating, are shown as game systems, even though they are, overall, completely inconsequential to playing the game. It’s still something that one would be aware of, and it’s being shown in a video game way, because I am a creature of video games influencing York.

Then the game makes you play as Emily.

At first, I didn’t realize the significance of this. The game still flipped back to York whenever he talked with Zach. It never seemed to miss a beat. I assumed York’s special brand of insanity, namely me, was rubbing off on his love interest. But what this really meant, as was made clear by the ending, was that I, the player, wasn’t Zach at all. Zach was a character in the game. And in the end game, when it becomes clear that Zach is a character, and not the player as character, well, it turns basically my whole interpretation of the game upside down. No longer is the game a commentary about how insane most video game protagonists are, if you look at them from a more normal viewpoint. It’s now a completely different story, and I don’t quite know how to grok it.

Additionally, Kaysen, the last boss, not only refers to the various locations you go to in York and Zach’s mind like they were real locations he can know about, but Harry, as well, refers to those places as real locations. It’s making the supernatural elements of the game real (well, besides the conceit of the purple gas which drives people to rage, which honestly, I can be okay with. The red trees that instantly consume women they are stuck into? Well, I put that into the “insanity” folder) for reasons I don’t quite understand. It also throws in the idea that Kaysen is some sort of Highlander or something, who doesn’t age, right at the end too. I don’t understand the significance of this, either.

Is the game really just a batshit insane experience, with no real purpose?

Again, I may be giving the game too much credit, but it seems like my original explanation could still hold true with the ending. Making Zach a character rips identity away from the player, making the player relive, in a certain sense, the sort of drama of loss of self which young Zach felt all those years ago. It’s also the point where the player loses all control over the story. Sure, there are some boss battles after that point, but from then on, it’s mostly cutscenes. Even most of the final boss battle is scripted heavily. It’s no longer your story, because you are no longer Zach. He’s taken it away from the player, and dammit, it can be as insane as he wants it to be, now that it’s not a video game fever dream, but his story.

But I’m probably just being too English major-y with it.

Still, it’s the fact that I was constantly thinking about interpretations and trying to figure out what it all could mean that kept me playing all the way through the end. On that level, this game was a huge success.

I liked it a lot. I can’t recommend that everyone play it, but I really did enjoy it.

Since I put the tag “Start Profiling” on the last post, I guess that means I’m writing a series about DEADLY PREMONITION. I guess that’s okay. I can write a little more. I still haven’t beat it or anything, but here are some more of my early thoughts. If I ever do finish it, you can bet that I’ll have a review that’s mostly just plot analysis or something.

I mentioned in the last post that this game bit off more than it can chew in terms of systems. This is completely true. DEADLY PREMONITION is attempting to have a huge, open world with hunger and sleep mechanics.

On one hand, it completely fails. Getting around the world is a pain in the ass. I hear one of the side missions gets you a radio that lets you fast travel, but the game won’t let me pick flowers while it’s raining, so I’m still without that particular item for the time being. The world is really huge, and driving controls incredibly badly. Sure, it gives you a decent feeling that you’re seeing all of this country town, but it also is just a huge annoyance driving around. The annoyance is enhanced by how useless the map is. You can’t zoom the map out. It only shows you your immediate area, so you have to scroll around if you want to see more. This makes it nearly impossible to plot a path to your destination if it’s more than two blocks away. You are constantly opening your map, scrolling around to find the next turn, and closing your map. It’s stupid.
The hunger and sleep mechanics don’t seem to do much either. Basically, you have to sleep and eat, and you can buy many foodstuffs and coffee and such in the world to refill those meters. However, it’s never really something that needs to be rationed. You always have plenty of money, and you find tons of food naturally in the world. It’s never anything even vaguely like a problem to make sure you don’t starve to death or fall asleep outside.
The sleep part, especially, isn’t a problem, because you are constantly trying to sleep to move the clock forward. Lots of events only happen at certain time periods, and often the game will put you in a situation where you have to wait half the day to continue the story. Because the in-game clock moves glacially slow, you have to either sleep or take many smoke breaks (which is another mechanic that moves the clock forward, for whatever reason) in order to get on with it.

Still, though, when you really get into the story, you really sort of understand what they were trying to do. You can see all major suspects and characters on the map at all times. You can see them going about their daily lives. They drive to work. They go home at night, after stopping by the grocery store. You actually have to follow their patterns to finish certain side missions, and it does give the entire game world a much more realistic feel. It’s sort of like Majora’s Mask in that way. The world is moving, whether or not you’re acting on it. You can actually go back to previous days to complete side missions, too, so it’s like Majora’s Mask in that way as well. You can go, “Okay, I guess he’ll be here during this chapter at 14:00” and plan a route accordingly. This kind of open world interaction is honestly rarely done. Games like Oblivion or Fallout 3 do it, but they never move key NPCs because you need to be able to find them. As such, it doesn’t feel like much is actually changing, because the only people you actually interact with are always where you expect them. This game moves everyone, even key characters you may need to talk with. They’re all living their lives. It’s cool. And the fact that your character can be hungry, so you decide to go out to dinner with some NPCs and mooch a free meal? Well, hey, that’s cool realism too.

Of course, this sense of realism is coming from a game where I’m shooting Zombie Ghosts that only York can see like… all the fucking time. But it’s neat, if flawed.

Then again, that’s exactly what DEADLY PREMONITION is. Neat, if flawed.

Between birthday and just awesomeness coming out, I just don’t have time for all the games I want to play. This is frustrating, especially since I only tend to write about games I’ve finished on here, most of the time. I go for the “review” and things. But now I’m worried. As much as I want to, I may have trouble finding the time to finish DEADLY PREMONITION. I feel the need to talk about it. So here are some impressions. I’m almost done with the third chapter, for those who are actually in the know about this game. No spoilers or anything, though.

Basically, I find DEADLY PREMONITION incredibly fascinating. Also, I find it a game title I feel required to put in caps, but that’s beside the point. Here is a game that is, at times, so amazingly subtle and well-acted, but at others, is completely stupid, clunky, and ridiculous. It’s just kind of mind-blowing. During a conversation with Brer, he said he wanted to play it because what I was saying kind of reminded him of the weird-ass, obscure Russian PC games he likes. You know the ones: Ambition far, far outstrips budget, but they don’t let that stop them. They try to do everything anyway, with weird results. Add in an odd translation, and you almost always have a mindtrip. I feel like that fits DEADLY PREMONITION perfectly. That’s exactly how I feel about it. It’s mechanics way, way outstrip its budget, which is only enough to make a game that looks mostly like a PS1 game. The underlying soul of the game, though, is outstanding.

Let me tell you what I meant about subtlety. Agent York Morgan is amazingly well-acted. His in-game avatar is awkward and creepy. When his in-game model smiles, you want to scream in terror. But his voice actor is, honestly, amazing. He’s really genuine. I really feel like I get this completely insane dude. He seems real, because he’s being played as real, even in the completely fucked up scenario the game is putting him in. He does little subtle things, like raises his voice a notch or two around elderly NPCs so they can hear him better. He has genuine emotion. It’s almost mind-blowing to see in a game with shooting controls that are potentially worse than the original Resident Evil.
NPCs are similarly well acted. Some of the smaller characters are less well done, but the rest of the main cast has very genuine voice talent behind them. I honestly can’t decide if these are all very, very passionate amateurs who are really getting into the roles, or if they just hired people who were that good. I honestly can say I rarely see voice acting this good in a video game. It’s even more surreal that it stays good, even when they’re saying ridiculous, almost engrish-y lines.

Basically, it’s the voice acting that makes me sit there and wonder if all the janky, low-budget aspects of this game were on purpose or not. There is a grasp of storytelling at play here that the graphics and gameplay might make you think does not exist. It really makes me think I should be looking very deep into every aspect of the game, and try to find meaning.

Then again, I’m probably just giving it the benefit of the doubt because it is charming me. But still, I’m enjoying it, actually. I really am.