The coming of yet another disappointment?

When the original Xbox was the hot thing in town, there was a game. It was supposed to be awesome: a vast world to explore, a progression system based on your actions, deep choices and the ability to play hero or villain. Your adventure was supposed to take your character from childhood to old age, your model was supposed to change depending on many factors, including your weapon choices and your food.

What did we get? The original Fable. A game with limited exploration possibilities, stupid progression system that made your character age artificially, a boring story with only a few choices that had real consequences, a story unchanged by whether or not you were hero or villain. A disappointment to all who had been following the game’s development and Peter Molyneux’s, its director, wild promises. When you first can leave the tutorial area, your mentor asks you to meet him in the inn of a nearby town. However, I went for a little exploration and leveled up a bit. When I went out of the Guild, with my new spells and such, I had changed artificially. Instead of seeing my character grow while using a sword, I saw him grow by clicking on a button to increase my strength.

However, my astonishment went one step further: my character had aged! His training had taken 6 years of his life (yeah, I leveled quite a bit while exploring). No mention of time had been given, yet my status clearly recorded him as being 24 years old! Going to the town, the mentor was still there, waiting for me, as if he asked me to join him the day before.

Then I wanted to explore; but most of the world is in fact blocked to you. Until you’ve accepted a quest, and performed it, you cannot progress. So you have to ultimately do quests that in no way have a link to the overall story, like bringing stuff to a merchant beyond a forest, or some other crap, to make the story progress. The promise that quests could be done on two sides – for instance, if a farmer wanted protection from bandits, you could protect his farm or help the bandits! – was also a lie; very few quests in the game allowed you to do that. Most were basic, honorable, heroic stuff. Plus, the promise that the “epic" story was going to take a few years of my character’s life was technically true: discounting the leveling-up aging process, the story could take place in as few as a few DAYS, but clever storyteller force us to be captured at some point and leave us to be in jail for a few years. So technically true; but it was a cheap way to make a story seem to take a long time instead of a few days to be resolved.

When Fable II was announced, I tried not to hear much. However, the game did not do much better; side quests necessary to advance the plot, same enemies, same progression, linear path; a chapter where you are captured to make the story artificially longer; the arena also mandatory instead of being a side quest (grats for recycling your boring story elements, BTW); plus, at the end, it was really unclear I was fighting the final boss! Spoilers ahead: You just found the third hero that’ll help you defeat the bad guy, when the city is attacked. You run through some subterranean corridors, trying to escape, when you are met, on the outside, by a giant version of the flying, triangle UFOs. I beat it without even breaking a sweat. Then, we are transported to the huge evil tower, and we confront the bad guy… and there’s not even a fight. The final boss WAS the triangle UFO. Talk about un-epic.

Not to mention that without even stopping to level up and not doing all the side-quests, I ended up with just about every skill you could want! I think I had two or three missing, and I think I may have had a few XP potions left. Too easy.

Oh, but, but the game allowed me to buy houses. Great! Now I can play monopoly and make money to buy garbage! Color me bored.

So now the third Fable is about to be released. First we had a game that broke countless promises and turned out to be a bland action game with lite-RPG elements; then we had a souped-up version of the same game, with the ability to buy houses and a dog. Now… we can touch people? Is that the great gimmick in this game? That’s all they could come up with? Touch people to make them react to you? Wow. This feel like the most tacked-on feature I’ve seen in a game! You can hug virtual characters! Yippee! Why don’t you concentrate on making a quality game instead of adding useless stuff?

This may seem like a rant, but every Fable has incredible potential. Fable 1 was probably too ambitious, but Fable 2 does not have that problem. Fable 2’s problem was that they focused on unimportant elements and recycled some of what had been done before: the arena being mandatory in both games and the MC getting captured for years are inexcusable repeat of something that had been poorly done before. I’m not expecting Fable 3 to be that much better. And it’s too bad, because the series has its charm, I want to love it… it just left me disappointed and bitter two times too many.

Demo roundup on the PSN

The PSN store has been updated last night, due to a maintenance scheduled for today. However, BlazBlue’s latest addition to the fighter roster, gentleman werewolf Valkenhayn (and actually one of the Six Heroes and Rachel Alucard’s very own butler!), was not added, despite the availability of the patch and the fact that the Japanese PSN apparently got it already. Oh well, it left me enough time to try Blade Kitten and Enslaved demos.

Blade Kitten is an action platformer pitting you as a cute catgirl fighting with a flying sword. The game is straightforward. You simply jump, crawl and climb your way around in 2D (in a 3D environment, with 3D models) and slice enemies on your way, avoiding traps and collecting points. Despite a charming look, the game’s cutscenes so far have proven uninteresting and will likely prove way too girly for macho Halo veterans who prefer bald, stout and muscular heroes. I skipped those, as the voice acting made me cringe. The controls feel a bit off, as the character seems slippery, but the mechanics are otherwise fun; peering through the How to Play guide allowed me to glimpse that the game may have some interesting depth, as there were a lot of things covered, from unlockables (costumes and weapons) to mounts. It seems mostly like an enjoyable game, nothing more.

Enslaved is an action platformer, but this one is more reminiscent of Prince of Persia: climb along poles, jump from platform to platform, hang in there, and fight mobs with style. The graphics are great, there is a nice use of color (when you get to see the blue sky for the first time, it’s amazing, despite being, you know, a simple blue sky – the color use is that good) that set it apart from gray and brown games like Killzone and Gears of War. The story seem uninteresting, you play an escaped slave… who escapes five minutes after being captured.

My biggest gripe with the game is that when I saw the first enemy, a wicked looking mech, I thought "this game is going to be awesome, I'll probably have to avoid that guy", thinking it would meld some stealth in there, but once I got my hands on my weapon, I realized that was not going to be the case: I quickly and easily dispatched the mob. Despite the lack of danger, the combat was satisfying. I noticed pieces of the robots were hanging in mid-air for no reason, a slight bug that made me cringe as it was detracting from the otherwise great art.
All in all, definitely try both these demos, they're free after all. I was not interested in Enslaved before that, but now I might see how it turns out. As for Blade Kitten, maybe if I want a cute and retro 2D platformer I'll pick this one.

Useless rage

If you’ve been following TGS (Tokyo Game Show), you might have noticed a few announcements that have made the boards on the Internet rage, or rather fill with trolls. It seems to me that this kind of behavior is that of spoiled children, but whatever…

Devil May Cry is rebooted as DMC
A new trailer shows off the new entry in the popular Devil May Cry series by Capcom. This is clearly a rebooting, as the Dante we know is younger, skinnier and sports dark hair. The setting seems more futuristic, too, as evidenced by the massive structures in the city. The trailer is classic Devil May Cry action, with Dante kicking the butts of various monstrosities.

Yet despite this, people are trolling. And I mean SERIOUSLY trolling. Whining about his dark hair or the fact that he is skinnier shows how superficial some gamers are. The Dante of the trailer is royally kicking the asses of various demons, showing off his gun skills with style, and with attitude (flattening his cigarette in the face of a demon as he is holding it nonchalantly by the neck). No matter, people scream (in CAPS please!) that “this is not Dante” or that “the series is ruined”.

I can’t guarantee the game’ll be great. But I can say I’m glad they’re rebooting the series (and apparently, people who are complaining about lack of continuity in the character or setting are ignorant of the very meaning of “rebooting”!) because the franchise had grown stale. People can not like the new Dante look; but the amount of trollage it gets is annoying, and as far as we know, changes are more cosmetic. The outrage at changing Cole’s appearance in Infamous 2 was understandable, as the game was a proper sequel; this is not.

Marvel vs. Capcom 3
If you’ve played Street Fighter IV (or its “expansion” Super SFIV) and liked it, you will surely like MvC3. Capcom (I see a pattern here…) is giving the same treatment to another franchise, Marvel vs. Capcom which, as you may have guessed, pits classic Marvel characters against Capcom’s, so you can finally know who, between Ryu and Spiderman, is the strongest!

The game is going to have more than 30 characters (I heard it may have as much as 40, but those are so far unconfirmed rumors…). About 20 have been announced, and the other trollage coming out of TGS is about the latest reveals…

Capcom’s latest revealed fighter is Tron Bonne, a minor character in the Mega Man series. She got a bit of trollage of her own, but nothing compares to X-23.

Who’s that you say? She’s one of Marvel’s addition, and she is a mutant who have powers similar to Wolverine, meaning she has claws and the like. Now without having played the game, people are up in arms, screaming “Wolverine clone!” and “Why insert such a boring – unimportant – unknown – insert any other adjective imaginable - character instead of X”! I understand she may not be the best known character of the Marvelverse, but people have to understand… she’ll be one of 30 characters. THIRTY! I for one am glad that they pick new, lesser known characters. This is the third game in the franchise, after all, and I’m glad they take risks by not doing it “all stars”. Videos of her and Tron Bonne show the characters have much potential to be fun (especially the latter, IMO, who gets hilarious moves), and whoever they announce as the remaining characters, this is one game I’m looking for. I’ll decide who’s my pick only after, you know, I actually PLAY the game? What about you trolls? Nothing better to do? Why not pick MvC2 online (on PSN or Xbox live), if you're SOOOOOO disappointed they didn't include X character yet?

Gathering professions to grant XP in WoW

This week, we learned something that surprised me: apparently, gathering professions based on nodes, namely Mining and Herbalism, are going to grant experience. That’s right: you’ll gain level as you gather up ore and herbs! I think this is a good idea, because leveling while gathering is tedious; presently, you can’t do one effectively without gimping the other, since they are not compatible.

Savvy WoW-ers will notice that neither Enchanting nor Skinning are included in this; Enchanting being both a gathering and a craft, such a boost was likely unnecessary. Skinners may feel left behind, but you already skin by killing enemies, thus gaining experience… even with Herbalism and Mining getting this XP boost, skinning will likely remain the best to combine leveling AND gathering, especially since so many quests involve you killing mobs that are skinnable, allowing you to do three things at once (which obviously is nothing new).

The downside to this is that gathered materials are probably going to be much more common on the AH, which means less profit for gatherers. On the flipside, it might become easier to simply buy materials to level your crafts!

On that note, on the verge of the release (PTR are soon to be live, which probably means a really close release! Rumors have stated a November 2 release date… which would make sense), I don’t play much, and I’m not alone. I wanted to level my Death Knight's (Darkevangel, Norgannon-US, Horde) Mining and Blacksmithing, but BS is hard! Especially since I don’t use any of the lower level stuff, I don’t have much motivation. Besides, Blizzard stated that they want crafting skills to be less of a chore, so maybe I better wait.

Scrap that. Once Cataclysm hit, I’m making three new characters, no less (filling my slots on Norgannon): a Worgen Priest (either Discipline or Shadow), a Goblin Mage and a Troll Druid.
Final words: Operation Gnomeregan and Echo Isles events are live! I haven’t done all of it yet (I'm currently playing another MMO, Florensia, probably more on that later), but the beginnings of Operation Gnomeregan is really funny.

Games I look forward to

Catherine
Yes, this is a game title. I guess Halo and CoD fans are not the target audience of this game. Maybe I am, I don’t know yet how the game is played. Is this an action game, an RPG, a platformer, a puzzle game or what? I have no clue.

Why do I look forward to it then? First because this is Atlus, makers of the awesome Persona series, game in HD, for this generation of consoles. People hoped for Persona 5, instead they gave us this. Apparently you become a sheep in your nightmares, and there are hands seeking to kill you, presumably to eat you. Oh, and you climb an endless staircase in your underwear, too.

Does any of that make sense? Did I mention you slept with a girl presumably named Catherine? And that there are hordes of talking sheep and a murder mystery? Yeah, that’s my kind of game.

Seriously, though, the game looks like it’s going to be pretty unique, so I figured I’d put it in my blog. Rumors say that it is an action adventure game, where you investigate in a city and live your nightmares, trying to unravel the mysteries. Wilder rumors put the game in the Persona universe, due to the fact that Vincent, the main character, appears in Persona 3 Portable. Here’s the trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAQmLbHyyK8

Decide for yourself.

The worst trends…

Today I’ll post a rant about one of the worst trends in videogames right now.

Leveling monsters
I was exposed to this heinous trend for the first time in Oblivion (of the Elder Scrolls series). Leveling monsters mean that your enemies grow up in power as you do; gain a level, and they grow a bit stronger. In theory, that's a good idea. It means the player should always be challenged, and never too much, by the enemies he (or she) encounters.

The problem with that is that it shows up in RPG, where often, part of the fun is to level up your character, and in some case part of the strategy too. It effectively renders pointless the idea of leveling, since you’ll never be able to truly dominate enemies, and when stuck against an enemy you have trouble fighting, say a boss, leveling will do you no good.

This trend can be found in generally open-ended games, like Mass Effect, Fable and Dragon Age, and this is understandable, as the developers have no clue where the player will be headed first.

Still, it feels like learning a new spell or reaching a new height in strength is not as satisfying, since you know the next enemies you’ll encounter will have magically leveled up…

The worst offender I played was Oblivion, which is an otherwise stellar game. During my first playthrough, I didn’t know how I’d level up my character. I had played Morrowind, but had not decided what I wanted to play. So I ended up leveling a few characteristics and making a diverse character. At first, I had no problem; goblins fell to my swords and spells, and I quickly leveled. At some point, however, enemy types started changing. No more goblins in sight in any dungeon: they were replaced by the much tougher Minotaurs, who were then replaced by the annoying Will-o-wisps. At that point, I had not realized that enemies were leveling with me, so I leveled up. And once I was strong enough to easily take down will-o-wisps, I had to fight other creatures (my next character, a pure fighter, had a terrible time during those few levels where you fight Will-o-wisps, because of their resistance to weapon damage, yet somehow the later levels seemed incredibly easier!)! The points I had spent in non combat-related abilities really brought my character down.

In a game where it is possible to level a character with out-of-combat capabilities, this system shows even greater problems: how to balance for both? Plus, I always thought it was lazy on the part of the developers. Instead of giving exact stats to a wide number of creatures, they simply scale them up.

Solution: Either return to the old-fashioned system, where some areas where tougher than others and other easier, or make sure the difference between levels is not substantial enough to make low level monsters too easy for characters of higher level. In such a scheme, a level one character would be challenged by fighting one or two goblins at a time; a level 20 character with good gear would beat those goblins, and then some, with relative ease, but not to the point of making the encounter trivial.

Regenerating health
When Halo came out, I loved the regeneration function. It was cool, it was new to me (as before that I didn’t play much shooters, aside from Turok and Perfect Dark) and it fit well with the character and universe. For those who don’t know or don’t remember, Master Chief had then a shield bar that regenerated if you could stay out of the fire for a while, as well as health points that you lost when your shield was depleted. Your health could be recovered by taking health packs.

However, it was good then because it made sense. Master Chief wears that shiny green armor, and it has a shield protecting him from harm. However, the regenerating health has spread to the point where you can’t seem to find a shooter that does not use it. Gears of War, Call of Duty, Killzone, you name it, the characters in all of these games have a magic regeneration power that is never explained. Let’s say it makes sense in sci-fi games (nanobot regen or shield or whatever – I can live with that, but at least say it during the cutscenes!) but in CoD games, not so much.
Solution: Explain why a character can be healed! Or use the old system, if you can’t find an explanation. Better yet: why not add a Medic mechanic? Your character is hurt, you shout medic, and an NPC comes to heal you. You need to be out of the fire or the medic risks being killed too. For instance, in Gears of War, one of your buddies might carry a first aid kit. It would definitely make sense in CoD and it could also be used to great effect in multiplayer matches!

Leveling as a Healer

(This deals exclusively with WoW)

I have seen a few articles around on the subject, most notably on wow.com. I thought I might join in the fun, since this is how I leveled my own main, and to this day, only 80. Her name (the female model of draeneis is just so much better than the beefy male model, especially for a healer!) is Elekaylla (Norgannon-A, US). Although I started as a healer, I prefer DPSing for now, although the new tools we will get in Cataclysm will undoubtedly make me at least try healing again.

Now if you have 10 level 80 characters and are looking for the latest in raid strategy, go elsewhere, this is strictly about leveling!

I started this character after one of my friend started playing a Hunter. I wanted to try healing, and so I did. As soon as I could, I started queueing in the Dungeon Finder. For a healer, this tool is a blessing. It allows us to practice our trade, while leveling quite fast and racking up good items.

I know for some people, the Dungeon Finder is less efficient than questing for leveling. I guess your mileage may vary on that, but as I picked quests, I had usually a few good xp-boosters each time I set foot into a new dungeon. Of course, if you plan to level as a healer, you’ll probably quest a bit too.

This is the reason I picked a shaman. First, the priest is more fragile, so questing is more often interrupted by healing and drinking. The Water Shield and Mana totems of the shaman means less downtime, and as a shaman, I can bolt things up to oblivion or smash them with a big club. While leveling, I usually set my totems (Earthskin, Searing and Mana) and then cast lightning bolt, immediately followed by a Flame shock. Why not the Shock first? Simply because the time for the lightning bolt to travel is not instantaneous. Thus, when the enemy would start running toward me, it would get hit by the first bolt, and then I would either cast more bolts or start hitting hit, depending on mana.

Against tougher enemies, I’d use Frost Shock, then run back, lightning bolt, flame shock, and then either spam LB or attack. This tactic would avoid me a few hits when I knew enemies could hit me hard.

Eventually, I caught up to my friend’s Hunter and would even reach the final levels before him. Now, to be fair, eh spent a lot more time chatting than I did, but I still managed to level to 80 before him in about half the time! When I say the Dungeon Finder is a boon, I mean it!

What does this story tells us? First, healing and leveling is totally possible. Sure, things fall faster as DPS, but until level 40-50, the difference is not as great, which is why I bought Elemental spec at level 64. Second, the Dungeon Finder is infinitely useful for healers. The same leveling strategy would undoubtedly work for tanks too, and I might try it sometime (maybe a Paladin), but I already have too many alts!
I am also leveling a Blood-Elf hunter (Artémis, Norgannon-H, US; notice the “é” on the “e”), and I am doing so mostly through PVP, which is harder due to longer queues, but once I get into the battlegrounds, boy do I level fast! Last weekend was Arathi Basin Call to Arms, and in three BGs, I gained three levels, moving from level 31 to 34 in about two hours and a half of play time, including a long time spent at the auction and flying on taxis! Try it as well, it might means longer queues for me!

My favorite games, part 4

My next in this “favorite games” series is a fighter: BlazBlue. This is a relatively new title, and a newcomer in the crowded genre. Its first installment, Calamity Trigger, was released last year, with a perfect timing: Street Fighter IV (also a great game) had just officially relaunched the 2D-fighter games.

BlazBlue will feel familiar to fans of the Guilty Gear series. Both sport stylized anime looks, weird characters, a completely insane story and deep gameplay. The number of fighters in the first BlazBlue (BB for short), 12, was not exactly stellar. However, you have to keep in mind that this was a whole new franchise: none of the characters existed prior Calamity Trigger. You also need to know that unlike SFIV and other games in the same vein, BB's characters each has a totally different fighting style.

Whereas SFIV’s fighters share some characteristics (how many characters are based off Ryu?), BB’s combatants each has his or her own flair. This is achieved by one of the main “attack” button, the Drive (or D). Since each character has his or her Drive, they are inherently unlike each other. For instance, Ragna, the main character, has a drive that allow him to steal life from his opponent. For him, it is essentially a real, fourth attack button that drains life. On the other hand, Hakumen’s drive is an energy ring that allows the fighter to reverse attacks, while Rachel's D button summons a gust of wind that affect her moves.

Even the main character’s strategies, outside of their drive, distinguishes them from the others. Arakune’s moves allow him to teleport and disappear, Tager can magnetize enemies to draw them toward him (which allows the player to pull insane throws), and Nu/Lambda opens gates that slow enemies down. Add the fact that when playing Carl, you control his sister/doll, that Rachel and Mu place “traps” on the battlefield, that Jin can freeze his opponent, and you might understand what is meant by “diverse”.

Otherwise, the game is just as deep, if not deeper, than other 2D fighters. Combos need real skill, unlike button-mashing fests, and expect spending a lot of time in the air as you’ll jump, double jump, jump-dash and jump-throw around.

The game’s story is out of this world. It involves energy (seithr) from some place (the Boundary) accessed through the Cauldron, robotic clones, vampires, time loops, alternate dimensions, destiny and much more. Don’t try to make sense of it now, take what info is given to you as you play and, beyond the technical mumbo jumbo (Murakumo units, Nox Nyctores, Ars Magus), you’ll see just how deep the story is.
The new game, Continuum Shift, has just been released. Pick this one instead of the other, as you’ll get more modes, more characters for less money, that is, unless you plan on playing Nu-13 (she is replaced by Lambda and plays the same, but is not the same character. To be fair, she IS available, only as Unlimited Character, so usable only in a few modes) or Rachel (who has been nerfed to death).