Story Time

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:

"The Xbox One is a hundred dollars more than its direct competition, and several third-party games run in lower resolution than they do on the PS4."

and

"A notable disappointment is the absence of real-name support at launch. One of the PS4's most enjoyable enhancements has been postponed for Xbox One until an unspecified future date. Microsoft has also dropped social-network integration, which seems like a short-sighted reaction to the lack of users of the Xbox 360 apps."

and

"It isn't perfect: Saying "Xbox" at certain times practically fills the screen with green-colored voice options, which can be distracting. Kinect demands full names of movies and games to start them, so you'd better get used to saying "Ryse: Son of Rome" instead of "Ryse." Cross talk was also an issue — when multiple people were speaking conversationally, commands often went unheard."

and

"Not all the changes are home runs, though. The new bumpers split opinions at Polygon — some editors feel they're more difficult to click than the 360's shoulder buttons. When compared to moving the "Black" and "White" buttons on the original Xbox controller to the shoulders on Xbox 360, this modification seems superfluous at best and a detriment at worst."

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:

"Sony's currently announced slate of platform exclusives is thin — shy of Infamous: Second Son, there's little to carry the PS4 through the spring and summer of 2014."

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.

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.

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.

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:

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.

 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.

Writer's Block

Blarrrrrrrrrrrg.


I have no idea what to write about this week. All I've been doing for the last week is playing Pokemon, and I already did like 3 posts about that. Batman came out, and my roommates seem to be in love with it, but I haven't really touched it yet. Microsoft continues to screw the pooch with the Xbone launch, but that isn't even news at this point. Mountain Dew Game Fuel is back, and super delicious, but that isn't exactly news either.

Nintendo announced that that sexy Legend of Zelda: Link Between Worlds 3DS XL is coming to North America, and that's pretty sweet, along with announcing some awesome new colors for this holiday season.

Delicious

Uhhhh...


I'm excited for the new XCOM DLC, but that isn't for another few weeks. Halloween is this week, but all of the festivities I'm going to be a part of aren't happening for another week or so, for scheduling reasons, and so I'm not really feeling the holiday spirit. Also the new Magic: The Gathering Commander decks come out Friday, and they look pretty sweet.


I guess that's about it. Back to breeding Pokeymans.

Pokemon: A Retrospective

I was going to do a review of Pokemon X and Y, but I realized that Pokemon games are enormously difficult to review. The contents of the review have to change dramatically depending on who the audience is, because many of the improvements from game to game, and most of my favorite new features, are only significant to hardcore or long time players. Even major updates to the game could be seen as revolutionary, or obvious, depending on an individual’s connection to the series. I can talk about how the graphics are now full 3D for the first time ever, and the camera and battle sequences take a cue from the Pokemon Stadium games, and that will sound amazing from one perspective, and trivial from another. Conversely, if I tell you that Destiny Knot can now pass down 5 IVs from parents, significantly improving the yield for IV breeding, half of you will give me blank stares while the other half jumps up and down with glee.

So that’s why I’m going to be writing sort of a retrospective of the Pokemon series, or the main games at least. Pokemon has always been a game that has offered a ton of hidden complexity, under a cute, kid friendly shell. Contrary to popular internet complaining, Pokemon has always had hidden stats and tedious training in one form or another, but it wasn't until comparatively recently that these factors have been well documented and critically considered. It’s these elements of simplicity and complexity that, when held in perfect balance, enthrall so many people and generate record breaking sales.

These elements of complexity and simplicity, combined with a “minute to learn, lifetime to master” mentality, are what make Pokemon so successful and long lasting, especially in the face of competitors. Since Pokemon’s explosive burst on to the scene in the 90s, a number of copycat, monster collecting series have come and gone, in an attempt to capitalize on the Pokemon frenzy. Nearly all of them, however, have fallen by the wayside, usually as a result of elements which made their unique universes too complex for their audience to handle. The two most famous Pokemon “knock offs” are Yu-Gi-Oh and Digimon, and while they both survive in one form or another today, neither of them even come close to the sales or brand power of Pokemon. This is primarily because in an attempt to be ahead of the curve, both series resorted to creating a multitude of new mechanics and monsters much faster than their player base could keep up with, and as a result their players gave up out of frustration.

Pokemon is a paragon of self-control, in this sense, as they tend to make lots of little changes gradually, so no generation of games feels dramatically different from the previous one, and the core mechanics of the game barely change at all. A number of critics penalize the Pokemon franchise for “releasing the same game every year”, but unlike other series such as Call of Duty, where worthy competition comes out at the same rate and yet they do the bare minimum to get by and coast on their brand recognition, Pokemon was the original big “monster collection” game, and is still the most popular one today. Pokemon manages to outperform the competition every time, not only because of their brand name power, but also because of the level of quality that dwarfs every major competitor. Nintendo knows what they’re doing when it comes to handheld games, it’s sort of their thing.

Anyway, short version is: Pokemon is great, the new game is great, if you want a cute RPG where you can force your monsters into a pit fight with your friend’s monsters then go buy it!

Travelogue: New York Comic-Con 2013

This entry is a special one for me, because even though it hasn't been exactly one year since I started this blog, my experiences at NYCC 2012 were what drove me to start a blog in the first place, so this is technically my one year anniversary. Go me.

My feelings about NYCC haven’t changed much from last year, it’s still the next best thing to San Diego Comic-Con, and it still offers a wide variety of awesome things to do. Parking is still a nightmare, but you take what you can get in one of the biggest cities in the world. The crowds were immense, but there were plenty of staff to help out and keep lines moving, and everything went smoothly all in all. In addition to general con madness I got to play a number of games, which was fantastic, and got to see a couple of really cool panels.

I got to play Bayonetta 2, which is looking to be fantastic. It feels just like the first game, which is a good thing, but with an upgraded climax system and pretty new graphics. I’m not kidding when I say that this 5 minute demo rekindled my love for spectacle fighters.

Got to play Super Mario 3D World, which is shaping up to be the most evil game ever conceived. The NSMB series is already known for killing friendships with its unintentional head bounces and bubble death system, but SM3DW adds a communal life pool, the ability to troll power-ups even more, and levels that feature Mario Party style cooperative minigames. All of these elements combine into a game which will leave friend groups sweltering and tensions high. Deceptively pretty game, only purchase if you hate yourself and your friends.

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is basically just more DKCR, which is totally fine with me, since DKCR was great. There are a bunch of new enemies and obviously improved graphics, but I'm pretty sure that the 2014 delay was to ensure that it didn't have to compete with Mario rather than completion problems, since the game engine is literally the same. 

Finally A Link Between Worlds is something amazing. It totally captures the feel of old school Zelda games, and will be a welcome return to form for the Zelda series. I also saw the Eiji Aonuma panel, where he revealed lots of new information about the game, and also admitted that past games in the Zelda series have had a bad case of hand holding, and he hopes to fix that going forward. I love everything about than sentence.

Oh, also Pokemon came out. That happened. It didn't even take long to write this, but I'm already getting withdrawals, so I'm going to go back to playing. It's really really good. Not gonna lie, next weeks blog post is probably just gonna be me ranting about how awesome it is. Probably.