Talynebear

It now makes perfect sense why Waldo has always been so hard to find. I like the idea that Waldo was raised and trained by ninjas is a clever idea. Of course, there's still one person that would have no trouble finding him...





See more: Where Waldo’s Story Began

Motherfucking Banner Saga, man. I've been anxiously awaiting this game for the better part of a year, and it's finally arrived. I was up until the wee hours of the morning playing, and I can't wait to finish my other stuff today to get back to it.

Everything you need to know about the combat and the artwork can be found in my original post about Banner Saga: Factions, the free-to-play multiplayer component, and all of it still rings true. The combat is deep and engaging, and the game's art and animation continue to be stunningly gorgeous. In fact, I'd say that the beauty of the game outweights any problems, and there are a couple of small ones.

The core game takes all of that, and adds an RPG campaign to it. You get characters, they live and die, you level them up, you can even get simple items to alter their effectiveness in combat. The story is told mostly through very slightly-animated stills, in old-school fashion, though from time to time you're treated to something more elaborate.

It's pretty linear... think Oregon Trail with vikings. You truck your army along a path towards your destination, and along the way you stop to deal with a variety of issues. Some play out through cutscenes, text, or actual battle. While doing this you also have to manage your supplies (making sure you have enough food to feed your followers) and nurse injuries. There's a lot of reading involved, but the story is decent, and its important for making decisions.

The decisions you make seem to effect the outcome of the game, up to and including losing characters that you've been leveling up. That caught me offguard. A Varl I had been taking to battle was suddenly killed "offscreen" so to speak, due to a poor decision on my part about how to handle a situation. There is no quick load, or easy way to restart. You play through the consequences of the choices you make. Even if you lose a battle, the game churns on, with a different outcome.

If you're not into the story, you could conceivably skip through all of the dialogue stuff and just play the battles... and you'd still have a hell of a fun tactics game. But I feel like you would be cheating yourself out of a more engaging experience. I can't say that the story is the best I've ever seen in a game (so far), and it can be a little lore-heavy at times, but I'm still enjoying it, and getting to know the characters makes a big difference when I take them into battle.

If a character falls in battle, they don't seem to be permanantly dead... it isn't like Ironman in Xcom. Instead, they're out for the match, and remain injured for a period of days, during which they operate at a handicap. As I mentioned earlier though, they can certainly die as a result of story choices, so you have to watch out there.

The voice acting, when it's there, is passable... mostly because it's thickly accented. The music is outstanding though, and adds as much to the battles as the visuals do.

I don't know how long the game lasts yet, but I do think it's good for at least two playthroughs, just to see what variations you can find in the story. Of course, you can also always play Factions if you find yourself wanting more combat. I'm hoping that the few new classes in the single-player campaign will make their way into the multiplayer component in the near future, along with some new maps. Team battles would also be a very welcome addition.

So go check out one or both of the titles, if it sounds like something up your alley!

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Maybe that is why the acronym for League of Legends is LOL, eh?

Okay, so I’ve never actually played League of Legends myself. I know some people who do and they all enjoy it, but RTS games have never really be the genre I gravitate towards. They are more of an occasional distraction… A one night stand, if you will.

I’m not saying they can’t be fun. I’m just saying that if they’re there I might play them, but it’s definitely not going to be a long term relationship. Capish?

Lost in translation

Just in case you were wondering from the video, the last two officially released Dreamcast games were Karous, by Milestone, and Triggerheart Exelica, by Warashi. Both were exclusive to Japan.

I was working at Best Buy when the Dreamcast was first released. I remember seeing customers watching by the display, seeing either NFL 2K or NBA 2K on the screen, and asking each other, “Oh, who’s playing today?!”

In hindsight, it’s funny to think that anyone ever thought that was real. But then again, fifteen years from now we might be laughing at our own selves for thinking that the current game titles look good.

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Most of the characters in Mega Man games are either stationary or on a continuous loop. You’re not really waiting for the characters to appear on screen before they start moving.

When I was creating Super Mario Bothers, I had to add code that would prevent certain goombas or koopas from moving until the board had reached a certain X coordinate. It’s a lot easier to just create the behaviors for an enemy and release them upon your virtual landscape than it is to make them listen for a specific trigger before activating.

I really need to get back into programming some more games and such. I mean, I do front end development for a living. So technically, I “am” programming all the time. I’m just talking about getting back into some of the meater languages that require more left brain activity. Nonetheless, thanks for humoring me during this little rant.

That’s just adorable. Roll is taking care of her brother just in time for him to go back out into the world and slaughter their robot brethren. That’s right, I went there. I took something cute and made it dark. That’s just how I roll. I see a red door and I want it painted black.

It’s simply amazing how realistic the can make video games these days. I bet playing this game is like playing someone playing a video game.

On an unrelated note, do you think the artist of this comic intentionally made the video game’s title screen match the shirt pattern of Tycho from Penny Arcade or is that just a strange coincidence?

“Dracula’s castle has once again appeared, and Johnny Belmont knows that can only mean one thing! Dracula is back!!! And it’s only a matter of time until the towns folk start acting all emo and goth. Drinking there coffee and smoking cigarettes, reading poor me poetry to each other. And seeing how Breaking Bad is over now, Johnny really doesn’t have anything else to do anyway, so it would seem a battle is fated.”

Going to be honest, this game in not easy. But in the short time before you meet your untimely death, it is fun to play.

Controls
Arrow Keys ~ Movement
Up Arrow Key ~ Jump
X ~ Use Whip
Z ~ Holy Cross
Down Arrow Key ~ Slide
Press Up Arrow Key while sliding ~ Slide Jump

Looks like there’s a new Akira/video game mashup poster. Not bad…

According to Gilles Bone, the creator of this illustration, here are the weapons in no particular order:

…Doom‘s BFG, Mario Kart‘s Blue Shell, Pokémon‘s Pokeball, Halo‘s Plasma Grenade, the Portal gun and a broken Chain Sword from Warhammer forming the arms of the throne. On the back we have Kratos’ Swords from God of War, Sora’s Keyblade from Kingdom Hearts, Frog’s Masamune from Chrono Trigger, the Dagger of Time from Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Squall’s Gunblade from Final Fantasy VIII, Cloud’s Buster Sword as well as Sephiroth’s Masamune from Final Fantasy VII, “Save the Queen” from Final Fantasy IX, opposite to it Link’s Mastersword from Legend of Zelda, Soul Calibur and Soul Edge from Soulcalibur V, and last but not least, Nightmare’s Soul Edge Phantom from Soulcalibur III.

Wow!

I would be willing to play a remake of the original Mega Man that looks like this. I think it would actually be pretty cool to see in motion.

Filed under: Business Models, MMO Industry, Opinion, WildStar, The Nexus Telegraph, Subscription, Buy-to-Play

We've known of WildStar's business model for about a month. I wrote about it when it was first revealed, and at the time I thought there wasn't much more left to say. The model is what it is, people are going to be unhappy about it (as they have been with every single MMO business model announced to date), and the world will keep turning. Nothing more to say.

In this case, I was wrong. Nothing specifically has changed, but I've had more time to think about the model as a whole and see what people are saying about it, especially when contrasted with other utterly archaic models on display elsewhere. (Not that I'm naming names.) So let's give this business model a second glance. I still think it's got some interesting potential, but I'm increasingly of the mind that it's a missed opportunity that's going to come back in a bad way.

Continue reading The Nexus Telegraph: WildStar's big missed (business) opportunity

The Nexus Telegraph: WildStar's big missed (business) opportunity originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 23 Sep 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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