Gather round folks its story time! This is the story of a little site called Polygon.com, who have, just today, released their impressions of the Xbox One, and accompanying games. Polygon has been releasing an episodic self-documentary about themselves for a little while now called "Press Reset", which it turns out they got a little help funding. From who? Microsoft. And how much you ask? $750,000. Here's that fact being confirmed on twitter by Arthur Gies, the head reviewer for Polygon:
So since Microsoft is literally funding their website, you'd think that they would give the Xbox One a glowing review right? Well that seems to have been the plan, what with the final review score being 8/10 (.5 better than their PS4 review), however looking at the review itself tells a different story. It's full of statements like this:
and
and
and
And it goes on. Despite all of these criticisms however, they still offered both a glowing final score and a notably higher score then their competition. Another note about the review is that it frequently cites features that have not been implemented yet as positives, as they will be positive when they launch. Why is the review so self-contradictory in this way? Especially when the same company slams the PS4 in their review with statements like:
When the Xbox One review makes no mention of these shortcomings that both systems share. Why is it like this? If I were a more cynical man I would say that it's because Microsoft believes that people still undecided on which system to get are dumb enough to only look at the final score, rather than read an in depth review. If I were more cynical I'd think that part of Microsoft's deal with Polygon for the $750,000 was to have the Xbox One beat the PS4 in final score no matter what, and that the content of the review itself was never part of the deal. If I were more cynical I'd believe that right now Polygon is live streaming 12 hours with the Xbox One and instead of praising the system that their site declared the "superior machine", our hosts banter would be punctuated with quotes like "Why won't this just work?" (referring to voice controls) and "I hate this game." (referring to Dead Rising 3, a game they praised in their Xbox One review as a "truly next-gen experience" and gave a final score of 7.5/10).
Oh wait. That last one is real.
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
I Just Want To Smash Things
Let’s talk about Smash Bros. I know the PS4 came out last
week, and the Xbone comes out Friday, but every news organization on the planet
is covering those things, I’d rather talk about this:
For those not in the know, Project M has been an attempt
four years in the making to improve Brawl’s gameplay and return it to the level
of competitive combat that Melee offered. It has been a long time coming, and
characters have been reintroduced a few at a time over the years, but now it
looks like everything is ready. The technology behind the improvements this
team has made to the game is nothing short of miraculous. When Brawl was first
being modded, the limitations of the modding engine became very obvious very
quickly. At the time, no one even though you could do full model importation or
real mechanical tweaks. It wasn't until very recently that it was possible to
actually add a new character without
removing an old one.
This is a big step for competitive smash, as Project M
tournaments have happened, but they ave never been the standard. The competitive
Brawl scene is largely dead anyway, due to the nature of the game and the lack
of a community consensus on a unified mod engine to play on. The other primary
mod set that people use is Brawl+, which sticks closer to its Brawl roots, but
still tightens up the gravity and other changes. Brawl+ has had the advantage
of not needing the time it has taken Project M to really get up and running,
since the changes are much more subtle. Project M, however, has shown a lot
more promise as a balanced platform, and has a more dedicated team, so it will
hopefully be supported with balance patches for a long time.
I’m very excited about this new version. I still have my Wii
hooked up and everything solely for Smash Bros, and probably will for the foreseeable
future. Smash Bros U is looking great so far, and everything Sakurai has said
about it so far has been overwhelmingly positive and beneficial to the health
of the game. It’s going to be at least a year before the release of the next
Smash Bros, but I’m going to try to not be freaking out the whole time. The
announcement trailer still gives me chills.
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Maybe I'm Just Getting Slower
I realized today that I've been playing a lot of turn based
and strategy games lately. Between Fire Emblem, Pokémon, the new Age of Empires
2 expansion, and the new XCOM expansion, it’s been nothing but strategy for me.
I've played a few other games in the interim, like Batman: Arkham Origins and
Wonderful 101 but I've just had a strategy bug to itch for the last few months.
Part of it is that I have this weird thing where I have never been a fan of any
real time games on handheld systems. With the sole exception of Mario Kart I
basically only play turn based and tactics games on handhelds if possible. I
guess it’s because I feel that whenever I’m playing a handheld game, I should
be able to stop and put it down at any second, since I’m playing them on the
go.
The new XCOM expansion is pretty excellent. It’s basically a
sequel to Enemy Unknown, using the same core game and engine and adding a ton
of new content. Enemy Within more than triples the number of gameplay maps
available, and adds new options for unit upgrades, mission structure, and
gameplay modes. Everything it adds breathes new life into the game, and fixes a
number of issues many people had with the original version. I’m about to start
playing it now, and I’ll post more impressions once I get some time with it,
but the reviews have been almost universally positive.
Age of Empires 2 HD got a new expansion as well, which is
surprising considering how old the original game is. It’s a pretty barebones
expansion, only adding a few new civilizations and campaigns. The Forgotten
also adds a couple of new features and improvements, like built in streaming
with Twitch TV and built in spectating for online matches. For such an old game,
getting any expansions at all is pretty impressive, and I don’t know what else
they could do to improve the game that wouldn't ruin the nostalgia of being an
HD remake of a 14 year old game. It isn't much, but I’ll take it.
Obviously Pokémon is still eating up most of my gaming time,
and I’m approaching 200 hours. The amount of work Game Freak put in to rebalancing
the scene for competitive play is fantastic, and it has rekindled my love for Pokémon
battles. I’m almost sad that Pokémon Bank is coming out next month, and with it
will come a flood of perfectly hacked Pokémon from the earlier generations. On
the other hand I really want to use a Heatran on my new team, so
win-some-lose-some.
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Expectations? Ha!
A new Call of Duty game comes out today! This being a gaming blog and all, I should probably talk about it, but screw that! I'm running a new D&D campaign!
Dungeons and Dragons is really fun, if you've never played it. I know I'll get a lot of flack for this, but my favorite version is 4th edition, because it has the most interesting and balanced combat engine of all the RPGs I've played, and I prefer to play D&D like its Fire Emblem. If you like tactics games, D&D is basically a tactics game with a story you write yourselves, and act out through improv.
I usually fill the role of DM, or Dungeon Master, the person who runs the game, and controls all of the monsters and NPCs. The last time I DM'd a campaign was years ago, and it was awesome until it resulted in week after week of me trying to kill and overpowered adventuring party. See, there are two ways to run a campaign, as a storyweaver and friend, who just wants to share in cool experiences with his party, or as a malevolent force, hell-bent on slaying the party and putting them in mortal danger as frequently as possible. As you can probably imagine, the second one is super fun, and it results in this DM vs party situation where the DMs job is to hit the party hard enough to kill them, but not so hard that they claim it's unfair. Your primary goal is to make them wallow in despair, and accept their fates. Victory for a slayer DM comes not when the party is dead, but when the players accept their fate, and blame themselves for their failure, instead of your brutal campaign.
That ended up sounding significantly more evil than I intended, but the point is the same. If you are the kind of person who likes developing challenges, traps, and encounters, and then watching your friends try to navigate them, then DM is the job for you. I bring all this up because I have been coerced into running a short campaign by some friends, and I'm really getting into it. Here's the campaign background for the first encounter:
Your group, [group
name] is a small organization in the business of conducting, less than
scrupulous missions for being who are willing to pay your fees. Your services
aren’t cheap, but you have a reputation for silence, discretion, and honor. [Group name] is based in the undercity
of Polis Agora, an ancient city of
magic and power that was founded long before the convergence. The native
Agorans are a peaceful, spiritual people, who have had trouble dealing with the
influx of technology and power that their city has faced, and very few still
live in the city itself. Since the convergence, this once great trade city has
been overrun with gangsters, thieves, and con men, who have been trying to
overthrow the local government and install their own puppet politicians. Due to
the cities ancient laws, the title of Duke
of Polis Agora has been passed down through named successors, and each Duke
has picked a native Agoran replacement, and for the last 200 years their office
has been as resistant to change and corruption as possible.
The current Duke, Duke
Torlief, is known in the public eye for being aloof and likeable, but
behind closed doors he is a strong negotiator and a powerful ruler, who refuses
to yield to the ruffians who would steal his city. He is also a man of honor,
and refuses to turn to illegal or unscrupulous means to shut down his
opponents. The Duke’s cabinet, however, is not so valiant, and is willing to do
anything to maintain native Agoran control of the government. One such cabinet
member has even gone so far as to hire [group
name] under an alias, to assassinate notorious gang boss Baron Darost.
Dungeons and Dragons is really fun, if you've never played it. I know I'll get a lot of flack for this, but my favorite version is 4th edition, because it has the most interesting and balanced combat engine of all the RPGs I've played, and I prefer to play D&D like its Fire Emblem. If you like tactics games, D&D is basically a tactics game with a story you write yourselves, and act out through improv.
I usually fill the role of DM, or Dungeon Master, the person who runs the game, and controls all of the monsters and NPCs. The last time I DM'd a campaign was years ago, and it was awesome until it resulted in week after week of me trying to kill and overpowered adventuring party. See, there are two ways to run a campaign, as a storyweaver and friend, who just wants to share in cool experiences with his party, or as a malevolent force, hell-bent on slaying the party and putting them in mortal danger as frequently as possible. As you can probably imagine, the second one is super fun, and it results in this DM vs party situation where the DMs job is to hit the party hard enough to kill them, but not so hard that they claim it's unfair. Your primary goal is to make them wallow in despair, and accept their fates. Victory for a slayer DM comes not when the party is dead, but when the players accept their fate, and blame themselves for their failure, instead of your brutal campaign.
That ended up sounding significantly more evil than I intended, but the point is the same. If you are the kind of person who likes developing challenges, traps, and encounters, and then watching your friends try to navigate them, then DM is the job for you. I bring all this up because I have been coerced into running a short campaign by some friends, and I'm really getting into it. Here's the campaign background for the first encounter:
It is a time of great turmoil on the Material Plane. It has been 200
standard years since knowledge of the multiverse became widespread as the
result of the time wizard Amser’s
devious plans, and gave rise to what is now called The Convergence. With travel and communications between planes now
a common occurrence, beings with wealth, power, and knowledge seek to plunder
and control areas of the multiverse once inaccessible to them. Many of the old
gods and other greater beings have retreated, as this rapidly changing world is
causing disturbances not even they can predict, and the resulting power vacuum has
given rise to numerous emperors, gang leaders, and false prophets who seek
power for themselves.
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