Hard Sell

Puella Magi Madoka Magica is a mouthful. It's also a deceptively good magical girl anime series and a hard sell.

I mean, how do you convince a non-anime enthusiast that PMMM is worth watching when it's promotional materials look like this:

It's understandable for a person to see that and write off the show as some girly crap that isn't up their alley. But that would mean they miss out on the creepy awesomeness that is Puella Magi Madoka Magica:

The plot gets rolling when the titular Madoka and her close friend Sayaka encounter a strange cat like creature called Kyubey who offers to grant a wish in exchange for becoming a magical girl. The catch is that magical girls have to fight witches, monsters that secretly prey on humanity, causing accidents and suicides. Rounding out the initial cast there's also Mami, a veteran MG who shows the newbies the ropes, and Homura, an enigmatic MG who is opposed to Madoka forming a contract.

Don't trust anything that doesn't blink

At 12 episodes PMMM is light on filler. Revelations and plot twists keep the pace up and the viewer (sample size: 1) interested. Characters die, choices are made and idealistic people find out they are not in the right series.

Of particular note is the visuals. The character designs are simplistic allowing fluid motion, and the backgrounds are elaborate and lavish or austere and bleak. But the witches, their familiars and the labyrinths they inhabit are the high point. They have different, sometimes rather jarring, animation styles which emphasis their alien nature.

As much as I like this series, it's not perfect. Madoka and Sayaka are painfully naive and idealistic, and the former also has a saccharine and squeaky voice. I was also a little down on the ending, but that's because I'd seen something similar in another anime where it felt more right. But these are minor quibbles (and ones whose presence I can understand even if I don't like) in an otherwise fine piece of media.

 (this one's just here for the Facebook thumbnail (which then stopped working after I added it, sigh))

Temperamental

It's been almost a year since my last published post. That's terrible. But I've also been in full time employment for almost a year, which cuts down on my free time, and writing a blog that no one reads isn't exactly a high priority in comparison to dealing with my backlog of games and shows.

But there's nothing that's really grabbing my attention right now, so I guess it's blogging time.

Anyway yesterday at work I was looking up the four temperaments in TV Tropes to help myself create better characters (after the the plot central 2 or 3 the rest tend to be either devices or just flat characters filling roles). I followed a link promising more detail and bloody hell did it deliver.

You see I had been just thinking of the temperaments as an outdated pseudo-psychology and a means of writing inspiration, but I kept encountering phrases that so eloquently described how I think and feel. Whether or not everyone falls into one of these classifications I don't know, but I'm fairly sure I do.

I am melancholic/phlegmatic, or possibly phlegmatic/melancholic. I think the former is more likely, but that just be because I want it to be so.

...hmmm there's really not much else I can say about this. Personal insights/discoveries really aren't that interesting to anyone not involved. So I guess that's it. Perhaps in the near future I'll write something worth reading and promoting.

Wherein I talk about prequels, remakes and why FF8 probably shouldn't have one

People who have had to put up with my complaining over the years are probably aware of my dislike of prequels, which I see as self indulgent and unnecessary.

We already know how it's already going to turn out so there's no tension and how the pieces got into that position is generally not interesting enough to warrant a direct telling. One of the things I like about A Song of Ice and Fire is that the rebellion before the first novel is slowly filled in through dialogue as characters bring up various events. We get the key notes for a story without actually having to go through the entire thing (and given that this is George RR Martin it would be a doorstopper).

Furthermore prequels can't meaningfully add to the world, as any new characters and places have to be gone in some way or another by the end otherwise we'll be left with plot holes when we get to the original work. So you really can't meaningfully expand the world, merely stretch what's already there.

Remakes are very similar. Instead of new content that is largely irrelevant, it's just the original content again, and so we know what's going to happen (probably). Seriously was there any good reason for the American remakes of Let the Right One In or Funny Games (did we even need the original Funny Games)?

But remakes are not without merit, if the intent isn't just to use the work as an easy source of already created material. They can be used as a reinterpretation, taking the source material in a different direction (eg the Rebuild of Evangelion series) or style/tone (The Thing). The intent could also be to improve accessibility of the source material, bringing the advances of time into past fiction. Of course this doesn't always work, just look at Night of the Living Dead and it's two remakes that most zombie movie fans probably don't know of.

This works better for video games as the march of progress is a lot more significant for them than films, as the player's direct involvement can be improved. Look at Ocarina of Time 3D, it's got everything the original had as well as better polish, handling improvements and additional content.

And now we sorta get to my initial idea when I started this an hour or so ago: Final Fantasy 8 (also I'm over hyperlinking things). Now Sony has been making HD remakes of popular game series', but so far they've been sticking with PS2 games cause it's comparatively little effort for a lot of profit. But if they every decided to rehaul some PS1 games I sincerely hope they don't do FF8.

As a PS1 it really couldn't do both free camera 3d space and good detail, so to have a pretty pre-rendered background we had to make do with still camera angles which could be rather awkward (but atmospheric) in games like Resident Evil or Silent Hill.

As I've been replaying FF8 recently, I've had a chance to notice things that are foreshadowed earlier on. One such thing is the moon, which becomes a plot point of sorts later on. As with much nonrealistic Japanese stuff, the moon is freaking huge, so naturally a player will notice it from time to time, but maybe not just how frequently it pops up.

The reason for how the hell this is related to my above ramblings is that if hypothetically FF8 every became proper 3D, I fear the moon would lose some of it's mystique if you could just look up and the thing would be right there looming over you (don't get me wrong it'd look excellent), kind of like how monsters often lose some of their terror once you see them for what they are.

Now here's some pictures to distract from this unsatisfying ending.

It starts off tame.

Maybe it's just the angle...

...or not.

But not matter where you go...

...there it is.

To be fair, you'd expect it to be visible at the Lunar Gate.

I'm not sure if those are just clouds.

Also Lunatic Pandora (best gibberish name ever)

Ruckus and Nonsense

Good news there's something that bothers me enough to blog: Durarara!! and all it's failings in comparison to its predecessor, Bacanno!
First some brief details on Bacanno! (which I'm surprised I haven't blog about before).
It's set in the prohabition era of America and follows three plot lines (set in 1930, 1931 and 1932) simultaneously, with a large roster of interconnected characters, many whom are gangsters, immortals and/or dangerous psychos. In 1930 we watch as a couple bottles of immortality elixir swap hands while the owners try to track them down; in 1931 several gangs try to take the same train hostage with messy results; in 1932 nothing happens in a way that can be interestingly summarised.
Baccano! is an enjoyable experience of over the top action, eccentric characters and gratuitous violence, and I recommend it to anyone who might be interested.

All this makes Durarara!!'s flaws all the more annoying. You see both series were originally light novels by the same author, both are animated by the same studio, and it seems that both somehow inhabit the same universe.

Durarara!! once again follows a diverse cast but this time is set in modern Japan. There is a supernatural element, a headless rider, as well as a 'normal' character who none the less performs superhuman feats. I can't really sum up the plot because despite having more episodes than Baccano! Durarara!! manages to have less happen, which brings me to my first compliant:

• Nothing Fucking Happens: okay that's a slight exaggeration, there are story arcs, but in the time it takes to complete the first one, Baccano! has almost completed its three arcs at once. 'But Durarara!! is a different show with a different tone,' a hypothetical fan might say which suspiciously leads into my next point;

• The Tone Is Shit: discarding the ruckus of its predecessor Durarara!! adopts a slower, more philosophical tone. Who needs gun fights and fun when you can have teenagers angsting and stuff. Now I like me some philosophy and can sink my literary teeth into a weighty and ponderous sci fi novel if it's done well but as you can probably guess I don't think that's the case with this show. After all I didn't even realise it was supposed to be slower and more thoughtful at first, what with the scythe wielding rider and the Anonymous-style gang. I just assumed it was action or maybe a thriller, and if your audience doesn't know what it is supposed to be then you are doing it wrong;
  

• Terrible Narration: sometimes I dream of a world where 'show, not tell' is enforced as law, if nothing else it'd put a stop to lazy storytelling like narration. While Baccano! had some narration, it took place within the story as one character explained things to another. But Durarara!! just has several omniscient disembodied voices directly talking to the audience. And even there is some justification coming later (I haven't finished the the last arc yet) it doesn't excuse the quality. The narration is that awful kind that tells us all the things that it shouldn't be used for eg what the characters are thinking or feeling, or worse, things the audience can work out for themselves;

• Weak Characters: despite having alot more time dedicated to explaining their backstory, many of the characters are noticably flatter than Baccano!'s, feeling more like devices than people. The audience surrogate is bland even for the standards of audience surrogate characters but the biggest offender is the closest thing the series has to antagonist is worse. He's supposed to be this cunning information broker who trolls people and manipulates events just to cause chaos for the sake of it and yet I don't buy it. He's this way because that's his personality, it's just because that's what the plot requires;

• Undeserved Popularity: yeah I know this is subjective, but it's also what I feel strongest about (and actually is the cause for this entire post). Durarara!! was better received than Baccano! and that just makes me mad. You know how people talk about stuff being dumbed down to the masses, well here it is. The simultaneous plots have been removed cause people don't want to have to keep up, the violence is removed cause people are squeamish (okay fair enough on that point, not everyone likes faces grinded or fingers bitten off) , and the setting has moved to teenagers in modern Japan because people can't relate to things that are slightly different.

I'm never sure how to finish so I'll just make this bitter generalisation: the masses don't deserve good entertainment. Now I'm going go find something better to watch.

Thursday Night, Kinda Bored

Ever forgotten about something you really liked? Just had it slip your mind one day, only to suddenly recall it later in all it's glory? I had just this happen to me recently, when I realised I had forgotten about something that had been very enjoyable many months ago. No I'm not talking about this blog (stupid), I'm talking about possibly the best series based on unlicensed use of copyrighted material. I'm talking about:
For the uninformed, Dead Fantasy is a 5 part (at the moment) series of web videos that pits characters from Final Fantasy against ones from Dead or Alive. But don't let the premise fool you, this isn't just some stupid internet video that exists for the purpose of fanservice. No, DF is a very skilfully created story full of technical skill and good choreography that exists for the purpose of fanservice.

But I don't want to just gush about how awesome I think DF is; I want to talk about an element of the series that I only noticed upon rewatching it. It could be my imagination but it seems to that the creator Monty Oum put alot of thought into how the series would unfold. Okay I can't articulate exactly what I mean so I'll give a quick summary to hopefully demonstrate what I mean.

Part 1 starts off comparatively tamely with only 3 fighters. It establishes the capabilities of some of the cast and the general tone of the series. A couple more fighters jump in and the whole thing is a fun few minutes, the perfect intro to pull in new viewers.

Part 2 is much like Part 1 only...more. We see some interesting team combos, and to keep things fresh there is either a change in the environment or a new character ever couple minutes. Part 2 demonstrates that the action of DF is diverse and flexible, not just girls whaling on each other. It ends with all fighters being teleported away in pairs, with the promise that we 'haven't seen anything yet'.

Part 3 goes in the opposite direction to Part 2; it's a 1 on 1 within a single building. It is also one of my favourite fight scenes in any visual media and the one of the reasons for this blog post. Part 3 is a fast-paced, well choreographed duel that shows that DF isn't just mindless spectacle but has some thought behind what happens. The episode ends with one character getting bloodied (a shocking first) and then a short scene setting up Part 4 as well as hinting that there may actually be some sort of plot.

Part 4 has a much different tone and style to Part 3 (and 5 but I'll get to that). It's full of colour and explosions, lulling the viewer into thinking that Part 3 was just the odd one out, and that everything is just fun and superficial.

Part 5 follows on from Part 3 and is intent to shock the viewer. Not only there bloody, but now there is death (presumably), with faceless ninjas getting sliced up. There is also more plot, indicating that there's a reason to what's happening.

And that's all there currently is (Parts 6, 7 and 8 are all under development). As I was attempting to communicate above, I like to think that the way Monty Oum has paced the Parts is intentional. That he has a good story in mind and is telling it in a way to avoid alienating viewers. It's a lot easier to get people to watch a cool 4 minute fight than a video that is the beginnings of a story featuring game characters and multiple worlds.

So....here's a cool 4 minute fight.

No seriously, there will be spoilers

While it's fresh in my mind, I'm going to discuss (laughably implying that you the reader have some degree of input) the movie Sucker Punch, which I only just saw.
Now while it should always be assumed that there are going to be spoilers I would like to stress this point more than usual, as in my usual egotistical style I'm going to talk about what bothered me and how it could have been fixed. After all who else knows what's objectively the best choices for a film than a 22 year old with no experience at anything commercially creative?

Don't answer that.

One of the things I liked about the first third or so was the ambiguity of it all. As the reality shifted I was initially unsure of what was happening exactly and so was forming various theories. At the time of the samurai fight I was wondering if every major event would shift to a different locale/style and maybe by the end everything would just suddenly fall neatly into place and be awesome in retrospect (like what Darker than Black did for me).
But then we go back to the brothel and you see the three layers and where they fit. So then I was hoping for something surreal to happen, that would throw a spanner in theory by being outside of the previously established rules. Hell, Total Recall had me less sure than SP.
Also I'm not counting the angel at the end, that was established in the opening monologue.

And then there's the end message. Having been denied some twist at around the lobotomy scene, I was hoping for some clever meaning behind everything. Instead SP ended with the conflicting message of 'you have what you need so fight' and the last two girls not having what they need so one has to be sacrificed.
Now one could argue that the point is that ultimately Babydoll will be happier this way, retreating into fantasy (maybe) from a world where everyone she loves is dead. But that's docilely accepting one's fate; fighting would be more of carving a new better place in the world. Instead Sweet Pea escapes because apparently she was the protagonist all along.

That's another point that really pisses me off. It's just so pretentious to be like 'haha you idiot viewers thought Babydoll was the protagonist, shows what you know, isn't this film clever and deep'. Regardless of what the film may claim, she is the protagonist. The plot follows her and her personal problems, the realities are fabricated by around her, and she is the one who gets the plan from the freaking angel.

I'm getting tired now so I'll wrap things up with the last main point I can think of. The action needs some work in my mind. The girls are an unstoppable fighting force, which is perfectly acceptable it's a fantasy, but that also means that there's no tension in the scene.
As the scenes are abstractions there is also a lack of emotion to the scenes (your mileage may vary). Except for that one time, there aren't any hardships or personal triumphs or whatever because it's not really happening, and only Babydoll is privy to them anyway.
So what's left is just spectacle. Don't get me wrong, it's good spectacle, but without any threat to the characters or emotional weight it losses a lot.

And that's an incomprehensive post about what I didn't like about Sucker Punch.

PS: Too much slow motion while overly loud music plays.

Chaos

Like usual I haven't updated this blog in ages and so I'm starting this post talking about how I haven't updated. And now I'm talking about how I usually talk about it, which sadly isn't the first time it's happened. Before things more recursively meta let's just get to the point.

I had no idea in mind when I started this, no well thought out thesis about why something sucks and how everyone should listen to me. No this post is just going to be another one where I have several topics with no coherent train of thought between them. They're just stuff that I've been thinking about (and hopefully someone else wants to hear about).

(Like last time, some of you may have already heard me prattle on about these already)

First off: Just Cause 2, in particular the end.

JC2 is a sandbox, third person shooter with vehicles. If that sounds familiar to you it's because it's one of the most frequently used combination of genres in games at the moment. It's like unnecessary sequels for films in that they are both ridiculously common and hopefully in a decade we'll all shake our heads and laugh at how things were.

But I digress. You play as Rico Rodriguez, an unstoppable god-like action hero who works for the CIA the Agency. Rico is sent into the fictional Asian island nation of Panau which is run by an oppressive regime, to locate your fellow operative/mentor Tom Sheldon who has gone dark and possibly rogue. To track him down you must generate chaos to weaken the governments hold and win the trust of various terrorist factions.

Pictured: espionage

A couple story missions in and you find Sheldon who tells you that he had to go as deep undercover as possible as things are serious; you're just told to keep doing what your doing (fun enjoyable sandbox-based destruction).

Fast forward to the end and it's time to take down the dictator Panay and hopefully replace him with a US-friendly puppet. You seemingly take down Panay and then it turns out that it was all about oil. That's right oil (admittedly it's a lot of oil). Without Panay suddenly Russia, Japan and China are all making their move to try to get control before the US.

And then Panay (whose somehow still alive) launches a nuke at each of the four countries. For the last mission you must grapple onto and disable the nukes. For the last one Rico reprograms it (apparently that's possible) and sends it crashing into Panau's oilfield, destroying it so now one gets it. Rico, Sheldon and associates sit back content that there won't be a world war and I bang my head on the desk at the stupid third act.

There are several things that really irk me, and hopefully you too. The developers had all the pieces to make a coherent, adequately logic end story and then they sudden;y drank paint thinner and put it together wrong.
You'd think that since Sheldon had to go dark for big important information gathering it would be because he was trying to track down where the nukes were. That's reasonable, nuclear weapons are high stakes and anyone would be secretive about them. But no, he was just trying to track down Panay or something, and the nukes caught him and EVERYONE ELSE by surprise.

And then there's Rico taking out the oilfield. This pisses me off on every level, to the extent that if we added another level I would pissed off on that too. But enough tortured metaphors, there's a bad climax to criticise.
Firstly there's the obvious safety concern. Nuking an offshore oilfield (one with more oil than the rest of the world combined!) is not going to end well. Rico and co end the game sitting on a boat with their backs to a huge mushroom cloud, discussing what to do now. They figure that the Agency will be rather mad that Rico destroyed more than 50% of the world's oil but they've got this nice tropical paradise to retire to or something. Except that they don't as any of the following might now befall Panau: nuclear fallout, tidal waves, poisoned water, oil fires, economic depression, collapse of government and order.

About the only disaster that won't befall Panau

And then there's Rico's reasoning. Sure any of the four countries involved getting control of all that oil would shift the balance of power and could quite possibly result in war. But Rico isn't allowed to gain any good karma points from this. You see when generating chaos not everything you do is destroying military bases and propaganda, this also things like water towers and transformers for tiny little villages. So Rico isn't allowed to do anything redeeming. He's a horrible person with the facade of a good guy. I suppose in retrospect his final act is perfectly in character, causing destruction for a weakly justified goal.

So remember way back at the start when I said I'd cover several things. Yeah well...I'm not.

Generic Title

Okay my guilt for leaving this blog dormant has reached the point where I'm actually going to finish a post so let's do this. I've been wracking my brain to find the nice middle ground between things I can talk about at length and things that people might actually care to read about.

So instead of a post about anime no ones heard of or games no ones played I'm going to rant about particular scenes in moderately well known films, Iron Man 2 and Sunshine.

(If you've watched these films with me then you probably will have already heard these thoughts)

Iron Man 2

It's the final fight of the film, Iron Man and War Machine have taken out all the Hammer drones in an adequate fight sequence. Ivan descends from the sky in a tougher looking suit, ready to wreck their shit up as only the main villian can (or rather should). War Machine steps forward and launches his trump card superweapon the Ex-wife, basically a super bunker buster. It bounces off Ivan's armour and Iron Man asks derisively "Hammer Tech right?".

Seriously what the fuck?

The joke is supposed to be that Hammer and his company are incompetant and can't build decent weaponery. But the joke falls apart if you think about it at all.

Only minutes ago War Machine's armour had been under Ivan's control and Iron Man had been desperately trying not to get his face blasted off by WM's chainguns; which happens to be Hammer Tech.

And what if the Ex-wife had worked? Sure it would have blown Ivan away, as it would have IM and WM. Why would you fire a high grade explosive in close range? And how come none of the characters make any attempt to escape/avoid it?

While this all probably sounds trivial and nitpicky, my main point is that our supposed heroes show a worrying lack of perception or foresight, which given that they are wearing power armour, is kind of a big deal.

Sunsine

While the IM2 bit was me raging at plot holes, for Sunshine it's more about missed opportunities.

Let's look at the final couple scenes: Capa (the protagonist) blows the airlock, venting all the air in the spacecraft, presumably killing Pinbacker (the psycho killer). He releases the bomb, jumps through empty space from the ship to it and gets inside. There he finds Cassie (the only other survivng member of the team) and Pinbacker, who inefficiently tries to kill them. During this time the bomb is INSIDE THE SUN. Capa and Cassie escape Pinbacker, Capa sets off the bomb, and any of the budget remaining is spent on special effects.

While I do like this segment, it seems like they went overboard making Capa the hero (he does more in the last act than most of the characters in the entire movie), Pinbacker the villian (did we need him showing up one more time in the bomb, isn't being inside the Sun enough danger?) and Cassie the useless woman (her only contribution to run to the bomb thereby leading Pinbacker there). Here's how I would have preferred the sequence to go.

Capa blows the airlock, explictly killing Pinbacker. He releases the bomb and jumps from ship to bomb. He doesn't get inside, let's say because of safety restrictions eg no opening doors this close to Sun. He remains on the outside and watches as they went the Sun, thus referencing his recurring dream of being on the surface of the Sun which is mentioned earlier in the film. Meanwhile Cassie realising the situation activates the bomb, given that in an earlier scene Capa explains to her how it is done. The bomb goes off, this time without having as much time engulfed in nuclear fusion.

Bear in mind I do like these films, and as a result I hold them up to a higher standard. In my mind the better something is, the more jarring a bad bit is.

Remember when I had a blog?

Well all my tests are done for the year so now I'm out of excuses for not updating this blog. Since there's no single topic sitting on the top of my mind like some horrifying spider I'll do another one of those weekly updates I did last post (you know, at the start of October).

First and foremost, the game I could talk about for several hours and my friends can listen to for several seconds: Minecraft. One of the main reasons this game appeals to me so much is there are just so many potential anecdotes. For example between the last post and now I've:

-Carved a valley through a mountain (because I could). I then roofed the entire thing in glass and started to send lava over the top.

-Discovered my first underground cavern. I had been expecting it to be the size of a house or two like the ones that are topside, only to find it was the size of the shopping centre, full of monsters and ores.

-Started multiple forest fires.

-Opened a portal to hell, a world full of a stone that burns eternally and monsters that manage to be worse than Creepers. What's worse than a silent creature that spawns in the darkness and suicide bombs you? How about a something that flies, spawns everywhere, shoots fireballs and screams constantly.

-Used the hellstone to create walls of fire for defence, lighting and just sheer fun. Fortunately there were no trees left nearby to burn down.

-Lost the entire save file......

.....moving on.

I finally got around to watching Scott Pilgrim vs the World. Going in I didn't have strong feelings either way; I liked the comic but I wasn't convinced they could be adequately adapted. Here's an abridged summary:

Pros

-Good implementation of title cards, narration, scene transition etc, as both a throwback to the comic and as just creative film editing.

-The final fight. While I preferred the comic's version, how the 'extra life' part was handled was a unique twist that caught me completely off guard.

Cons

-Michael Cera. I know it's mean-spirited and heaps of other people have already complained but he didn't have the manic energy I associate with the character.

-The various comments by onlookers during fights just don't translate well. In comics talking is a free action, but in any other medium you can't have dialogue without affecting the scene to some degree.

-Uninteresting action scenes. Despite (or maybe because of) the flashy visuals I felt no rush, no excitement while Scott was fighting. I've heard plenty of people over the years talk about special effects-centric scenes being incredibly dull but until now I'd just written them off as stuffy critics and nerds nostalgic about older films.

Neutrals

-I didn't care about Ramona in the slightest, but I can't hold that against the film as I felt the same about her in the comic.

-Negascott lost all of the emotion depth (it was one of my favourite of the actual serious scenes) that he had in the comic. However what they did do with him was both funny and unexpected so the two points cancel out.

In the end I'm apathetic about the movie. Shocking, me displaying that emotion, but what more can I say? There's nothing substantial that either excites or aggravates me to any significant degree.

There was going to be a third thing but I'm tired now, so just imagine me saying whatever you want to hear.

Odd Picture Choice

Foreshadowing!

I had this idea to help myself update regularly by doing a weekly post that just talked about the various media I had consumed recently. This was a week or two ago. As you might guess, I've already let the schedule slip before it even really began. But Apple just crashed TF2 and I'm too bitter to play anything now.

The first order of business is Minecraft. After hearing good things about this game from multiple sources I gave it a go. And for a couple days I thought it was freaking brilliant.

You are placed in a world made up of cubes of various materials that can be harvested and turned into various items. Also at night monsters spawn and murder you rather effectively if you haven't built some shelter. Beyond that you are left to make your own fun (like Garry's Mod) in a world where basically everything wants to kill you (like Dwarf Fortress). Unlike these two games however, Minecraft is a lot more accessible (once you've browsed the wiki).

Here's some of the shenanigans I got up to while I played.
Since monsters spawn in darkness I decided to convert my house to glass in my spare time when I wasn't doing things such as...
...building a tower to the top of the sky. Unfortunately you cannot walk on the clouds. Naturally the next step was to dig to the bottom of the world which was considerably more difficult. At the bottom there's several nearly complete layers of unbreakable stone. If enough gaps line up the can reach the void beneath the world. So naturally I decided to link the tunnel containing the infinite abyss to the ocean of infinite and see if I broke the game:
Nope, but apparently stairs break the water physics.

I found a strange level of enjoyment linking the ocean to the tunnel. The inability to tell where you are in relation to everything lead to me making a series of tunnels coiling all around the place, and there was a sense of suspense because I never knew when I would strike a another tunnel, which may have been full of water.

Ultimately what turned me off the game was the lack of goals as I'm not obsessive enough to be one of those people that make huge scale structures and models. Once the multiplayer gets stabilised (the game is still in alpha) I will give it another look.

Since I'm running longer than intended I'll finish up with Highschool of the Dead. When visiting the Madman site for an unrelated reason I came across this show andwas intrigued by the idea of the Japanese take on the the standard zombie apocalypse scenario. Turns out it is the same as the western one except with lots more fanservice.

No seriously, lots of fanservice.

After getting over my initial disappointment that this wasn't a dark and slightly serious work that the first episode made me believe, I came to except the show for what it is: an entertaining romp full of bloody and breasts. It's not a work of genius but it still rates higher to me than most zombie fiction.

Oh right, I haven't actually really said anything about the show itself: great animation, adequate attempt at plot, one brilliant musical homage, serviceable action, mostly fast paced, no gore despite excessive violence and blood, fanservice (cannot stress that enough), possible second season.

The Silver Age Begins...

Now that I've got a scanner I can subject you all to the various pictures that I can't reproduce in MS Paint. Here's a brief comic showing my standard reaction to the presence of a cat:

Audiosurf Vs Beat Hazard

While working towards the last achievement in Beat Hazard it occurred to me that I'd never got around to doing a comparison between Audiosurf and Beat Hazard despite there being no good reason not to. After all I frequently lament the fact that I find it difficult to rate media in a vacuum or in relation to it's context at large, but not in a direct comparison. So why the hell haven't I done this yet?

Anyway, AS and BH share the same premise, using your music to generate the level, but take it in two different directions genre-wise. AS gives you a track the length relative to your song choice and you 'race' do it, collecting coloured blocks to make groups of 3+ whereas BH gives you a top down space shooter where the firepower is determined by your music. These are both games were basically the entire goal is to get a high score. For convenience I'm going to harness the ultimate power.....of subheadings.

Visuals

The great thing about superficial things is that they're generally easier to discuss. AS' visuals could be summed up as simplistic. There isn't much in the way of textures, so everything is rather blocky and reminiscent of virtual reality in older films. Not that there is anything wrong with this; you're a car collecting blocks for points, not some war-wearied soldier or something. While the objects may be plain, the colouring is actually important. The blocks are colour-coded for value, with hotter colours being worth more. Further more, the track and background take on a hue relative to the speed of song/track, with the slow sections being blue or purple, and the fastest, most intense parts red.

BH is probably the better of the two games in terms of actual visual quality. The spaceships have some detail, and there's plenty of bloom. The catch is there's too much bloom. You see, visual distortion is a deliberate game design choice.

Artist's representation of a climatic boss fight, probably.

Unfortunately BH doesn't take a note from AS and so colour is meaningless in the gameplay. With the exception of the grey ships and the yellow missiles, the colours of the various explosions, lasers and so forth all alternate through a neon spectrum with no apparent rhyme or reason.

Gameplay

AS can be rationalised into two different styles: combo and evasion. In combo you collect the various coloured blocks and the challenge is not getting yourself in a position where you can't make groups of 3+. You can select from several racers each with their own unique abilities which further varies the gameplay. In evasion there is only one colour to get, but there are also negative grey blocks, which hurt your score noticeably, so the challenge has a lot more focus on fast manoeuvring and less quick decisions. There is only one racer choice for this (because evasion style is really just a racer's ability).

BH has several actual gameplay modes, but the core challenge remains the same: you continuously shoot while dodging oncoming objects. Beyond that there's the choices of when to use a screen-clearing bomb and when to stop shooting to raise your point multiplier. This is what kills a lot of BH's longevity for me as all rounds play out basically the same, whereas AS as some variety.

Music Relevance

Despite being a fundamental part of both games, there isn't too much depth to the effect music has on the games. In the end it is really just the speed of the song that does anything. AS changes the gradient of the track based on the song, with slow parts being uphill and fast naturally being down.

In BH your musics speed effects both the size and power of your shots, and the frequency of the enemies. Your weapons will vary between a pea shooter and a death-beam that covers a quarter of the screen, and the idea is in the lulls where you guns are useless, the idea is to play evasively and raise your daredevil multiplier. Sounds pretty cool right? Just like communism, in theory it works. As far as I can tell which enemies spawn and in what amount seems to be all determined by the difficulty and not be the music at all. I've had plenty of times where I've had massive lasers but only a couple asteroids to destroy, and other times have been stuck with the pea shooter and had to survive against two bosses.

Longevity

These are both score-based games. There are no definite goals and accomplishments, as any success just means that now the bar is higher. Personally I'm really not interested in games like this; I want to have more concrete goals, and I can't stand that feeling that there is no ceiling, I could always do better.

AS has a noticeable lead over BH in this area, as each song has its own global leaderboard complete with comment, whereas BH has just a leaderboard for highest scores in general or something (I really don't know exactly, BH doesn't present it after a song unlike AS).

Conclusion

Whether these games are worth playing depends on how into the whole 'your music makes the game' idea. If you really like that then you'll probably be disappointed, but if you already like the genre of either game anyway, then you might get more enjoyment out of it than me.

What I would like is a game that is a cross between AS and Mario Kart. I like the idea of a song making the track but I hate the implementation. I want people to race against, I want weapons, I want the track to be a circuit rather than a straight line. But that's not going to happen. Or is it?



No.

Epic

It's been too long since I've actually finished and published a post.
It seems like a weekly ritual that I must start typing something, my head swimming with awesome sounding sentences, only to realise that I have no idea how to tie the increasingly mundane sounding sentences together, and that my central idea is flawed and limited. And then I close the window and another draft is orphaned.

But enough of that, I want to talk about James Cameron's Avatar.
First off I'll say that I was pleasantly surprised by the film. I was well aware of the cliche storm (and in fact knew the entire plot) and was prepared for a long unnecessary film full of visuals that I would not care about. And I got all that I had expected: weak plot, stupid message, CG vistas.
But what I didn't expect was the level of quality. Everything may have been unoriginal but at least it was adequately done. For instance I initially groaned when there was a voice over at the start, but it had both an in universe reason (instead of say some all seeing disembodied voice) and was present through out the entire film (none of that very beginning and then very end when the audience has forgotten crap).
If I had to give it a rating on the fly, I'd say 3/5. Not worth the decade of work or deserving of the hype, but much better than I had expected.

Now that I've got that done, I can get to the meat of this post: discussing the setting. Bear with me, this will be awkward.
When you look at sci fi worlds you can often hazard a guess as to whether they are built around established rules and their consequences, or whether it just follows the rule of cool. Avatar is an interesting film as I think it was conceived as just a bunch of awesome ideas (floating mountains, world trees, pterodactyl mounts) that then had reasons made to hold them all together. It's contrived but it's better than no reason at all.

So the planet Pandora is rich with Unobtainium, which is a multi-purpose material that is incredibly valuable and a tradition trope of sci fi universe. The presence of this substance (I assume, it better be fucking canon or else they've got one hell of a contrived coincidence) allows the development of basically a tree-based network that connects living creatures, acts as a pseudo-afterlife, and contains an alien god-mind. It's the cross between the internet and the Farplane.

What's the problem then? Remember the end battle, with the military about to win only for the forces of nature to arrive and wreck their shit up. Sure it's a deus ex machina but at least there's some foreshadowing; it's not completely out of nowhere.

No what bothers me is this: how does Eywa communicate with all the predators? Does the wildlife just plug into trees in their spare time? One could argue that there was some sort of wireless communication but that completely undermines the whole premise of the bio-USB's and is not hinted at what so ever. It happens purely because the plot needs it to.

This same level of reasoning occurs in two other situations. The first is the mind transfer bit at the Tree of Souls. Apparently Pandora's plants can connect to the human mind via our skin, kind of like how when your put a book next to a TV, the story is shown on the screen. Fine I'll ignore this one, it only happens twice so it's not in your face all the time mocking logic. The next point is though: the freaking avatars.

The drivers get in their tanning beds, see some stock swirling vortexes, and then bam! they are controlling an alien body. How is this possible? Are their brainwaves being broadcast between bodies? If so wouldn't the floating mountains interfere? A side effect of this slopping planning/design is that it trivialises the whole Pandora USB thing. Who cares about wired stuff when there's wireless.
Something I don't understand is how this problem even came up. They could have made it that the drivers have to get body modifications done on them, namely a one of the neural links. The drivers could be hooked up to their avatar and transfer bodies. We'd lose the possibility of a driver being disconnected whilst in their avatar, but we'd gain the threat of their human body being killed when their are out playing space elves.

I came up with this in idea in like ten minutes; Avatar was being designed years ago. Go figure.

My Day at Supanova

Having just got back from Supanova, I decided it was a blog-worthy experience. Since I don't have a particularly good camera on my phone, I'll be providing MS Paint pictures to compliment the text. Enjoy.

The morning started low key, as there's only so much excitement a person can have when they have no real expectations except that a lot of money will be spent. My only concern was who was coming with me and how we would get there.

Several weeks earlier I had mentioned Supanova to my group of friends, and there had been plenty of agreement, even from people I know would not enjoy going. As the days past I would occasionally bring up the approaching event in conversation when relevant but never managed to get a definite answer of who was going.

Finally I posted on Facebook in a last attempt to get clear responses. All I really got was advice that it would be better to go on Sunday than Saturday. Fine fine I though, this group doesn't do organisation well. Or at all. Everything will be done on the fly then.

So Sunday. I kill several hours waiting for some sort of communication from someone. Nothing, no phone call, no email, no Facebook message. Eventually I spy Keiran online only to discover that he had no money and thus was not going. Given that he was one of the people I moved the date from Saturday (which was better for me) to Sunday, at that point I lost it a little.

Just a little.

At this point I resolved to go alone, and hope everyone else has an unpleasant bowel movement.

The next part was surprisingly simple. Getting there was quick, parking was effortless (although expensive), and the line moved deceptively fast. And inside lay Supanova, my first convention.

The first thing that struck me was how comparatively normal I was. If there was a normalcy scale from 1 to 10, even with my attire (all black with an Ergo Proxy shirt and my Trilby hat) I would score an 8, beaten only by people wearing completely normal clothes (9) and people dragged there by their significant others (10).

This was my first experience with cosplayers. As a closeted one myself, I could not decide whether these people are brave (for having the guts to make a spectacle of themselves) or just sad (for not understanding that just because you want to do something, doesn't mean that it is a good idea). I found I have a similar response to cosplayers as I did to prostitutes: I'm not comfortable starring directly at them even though I'm allowed to, and I have a strong urge to ask them where they went wrong in their lives.

I can't bash the cosplayers completely. While most of them were generic mainstream characters (I'm not sure whether I saw more Naruto or Bleach characters) and girls in outfits that they could not pull off, them were some good/interesting ones. Two that come to mind are the fairly awesome xenomorph outfit, and a girl that I think was dressed up like some sort of representation of GLaDOS.

I wish I had asked her...

The sheer amount of people proved to be rather daunting so I sought out higher ground to get a good view of the entire convention. At this point I spied the guest autograph signing area and more importantly, Summer Glau. Not content to wait in the massive line, I nonchalantly edged towards the table. At about four metres I burst into a sprint, leapt the table, scooped up the rather startled actress and flew off into the sky. At about this point the fantasy ended and I went to look at more shops.

Not pictured: actual events.

Whilst wondering aimlessly I encountered some sort of Nintendo booth, complete with No More Heroes 2. After playing a Ranked battle and impressing at least one 12 year old, the nice lady at the counter informed me that I could buy the game for $25. given that I had bought the game several weeks earlier for around $80, I died a little inside.

After the monetary loss by technicality, to check out the Madman booth again for potential bargains. Naturally there was none as the only things that are ever cheap in life are things I already own. Since my quest for cheaper DVD's had been a complete failure, I bought Darker than Black and Rebuild of Evangelion 1.11 (at a slight discount when I mentioned that I already had bought the earlier edition). Why? Because like France I'm always ready to concede. Yeah that's right, I went there.

Aware that there was probably other stuff I'd like to see/buy, I decided to leave. With no one to make witty observations to, I didn't have enough interest to plunge into the crowds. But I left with a resolution, that I would return in several years time, only this time I'd have more money and a better group of friends. And it would be awesome.

To be continued...

Total spending:
$25 entry
$12 parking
$75 Darker than Black
$20 Rebuild of Eva 1.11

Wherein I like to use the word wherein

I should continue to set up my shiny new Facebook account, but frankly I hate where everything is and how it works so instead I'm going to do a blog post ie this one you are reading right now.

And hello I suppose to any newcomers via Facebook. Welcome to a world where quality is an afterthought at best.

This morning I finally got around to finishing Shadow of the Colossus. For those who don't pay attention to the pretentious video game culture, SotC is a PS2 game that apparently is one of God's children and doesn't get enough praise.

Ok I'll admit that looks awesome

The player character Wanda/Wander travels to a bleak land to raise a girl from the dead. To do so he is set the task of slaying the sixteen colossi. That's about all the plot for the majority of the game.
The gameplay is fairly simple as well. You trek through a vast, almost lifeless land till you find the colossus you're after. Combat consists of you climbing on the bastards to get to their weak points and commence stabbing. If the name didn't clue you in on it, the colossus for the most point are BIG:


After you work out the trick to scaling and killing a colossus you are are sent back to the central temple where you are given your next target. And that's pretty much the entire game. The only other thing to do in the big wide world is to hunt for lizards and fruit which get really small increases to your maximum grip and health gauges respectively, but that's only there for obsessive completionists and people who want to survive on hard mode.

Minimalism is pretty much the theme of SotC. The visuals of muted, the music is absent when you are exploring the world, and the dialogue is present only briefly. Not that any of this is a bad thing. The stark simplicity gives the game a unique feel and identity.

This is why SotC is so fondly reminisced about by many critics and gamers. What I don't like is how everyone forgets the game's flaws in light of this style.

Really there is only one relevant flaw, one that makes in anything else (awkward camera and horse handling, and the occasional physics glitches) fade in comparison. When you are climbing along the colossi, they will thrash around in an attempt to throw you off. Fair enough, I'd try my hardest to get a spider that was on back off. While they are doing this, Wanda can only hold on tight and wait for the colossus to stop. This prevents you from climbing further or charging up a stab.
Where I lose my patience is that there is sometimes little if any time between thrashes. All you can do is hang on and watch your grip bar slowly decrease, which naturally causes you to fall when it reaches zero. Several of the fights were dragged out purely because I wasn't getting an opening to attack. And this soured the SotC experience for me.

I can't get excited about an epic fight to the death because I know the last five minutes will be me hanging onto a giant's head and screaming in frustration. I can't feel saddened about the dead colossi in the end credits either.

I'm not saying that the entire game is ruined, but between the flaws and the internet's over-hyping, I just can't appreciate Shadow of the Colossus as much as everyone else.

Wherein I talk about trivial matters

When I signed up to Twitter I had the idea of doing mini-posts, only to discover the whole 140 character limit. I was hesitant to do it here cause it seems like a kind of tease, similar to how you are playing a game only for the the end boss and credits to jump out at like the two hour mark or something.
I'm going to do it anyway though, cause I've got vague thoughts and no one to humour me in real time.

Idle thought number one

Rebuild of Evangelion 2.0 was finally released on DVD in Japan, so I'm downloading what I hope is a subbed rip. What I can't grasp is how Gainax seems to hate money and success.

1.0 was released in Japan in 2007 (screenings) and 2008 (DVD). It wasn't until 2009 that Australia got it on DVD. Now I could except this for an unknown movie or even one of middle-level popularity, but this is the anime equivalent of Watchmen; they should be getting this out as fast as possible.

Gainax, like a lot of Japanese companies, do favour the whole updated release thing which is suppose does milk money out of obsessive fans and collectors....like me.

The other cause for my bafflement at Gainax is the absence of inducing nostalgia. Other franchises have got nostalgia generation down to an art.
Recent Legend of Zelda games have made a habit of squeezing in music from previous games, Motoko Kusanagi can't go a movie/season without jumping off a tall building and cloaking midfall, and most of the Metal Gear series seems to be call backs to earlier instalments.

But despite remaking the original series in glorious high budget detail, no one has truly tried to deliberately get the fanbase screaming. Where are the homages and shout outs to iconic elements (actual plots and characters in the remake don't count).

Really the point of the last two paragraphs has been these two questions; where is a new version of Cruel Angel Thesis? and where is a new version of Fly Me to the Moon? They should be big and dramatic and orchestral. Look at what FF7's One Winged Angel has done to a generation. Evangelion could do that too. Twice!

Idle thought number two

Can't remember anymore.

Finally

Ghost in the Shell.
...
...
...
Christ this will be tough. For convenience I will be assuming that you the reader are familiar with GitS and will not hesitate to spoil anything from the movies or TV seasons.

The Ghost in the Shell franchise generates a good deal of ambivalence for me. There are parts that I really love and parts that I really hate. The two sides meet, cancel out, and leave me unable to decide how feel about the series.

GitS in some ways is a return to science fiction's roots, ie showing the effect of new technologies on society. But unlike the sci fi of many decades ago it still tells a story and doesn't let itself get bogged down in intricacies of how it all works (that's the philosophy's job).
Naturally there are many plot points based off the impact of cyberbrains but GitS really shines in the subtleties when it doesn't draw your attention.
The most common example would be simply all the times when anyone casually communicates via what is essentially telepathy. A more awesome example is in the end of the first film. The snipers have lasers that are invisible to normal eyes, so they can have laser sights without alerting the target (unless their eyes can also see them). Simple but clever.

The counter point to the above is the philosophy, the deeper effects of a world full of robotic bodies and mind-hacking. For starters, it just isn't well implemented. There are occasions where someone (usually the Major) either asks a vague question or stares off into the distance, despite it being not the appropriate time (in either the plot or pacing).
Look at the first film again; Section 9 have just apprehended a victim of the Puppet Master and then everything is put on hold for the Major to go for a swim.
Innocence has what I can only believe is a parody of this guerrilla philosophy in the scene where Batou and Togusa are investigating the remains of the gynoid. The doctor present begins to talk all deeply about dolls for no good reason while Togusa just tries to get straight answers and Batou ignores both of them. To me, Togusa's exasperation and the doctor's tangential musings can only be a self aware joke by Production IG. Which makes it worse because that means they are aware of the awkwardly wielded philosophy.

Often tied into the philosophy in GitS is the politics. It generates obstacles and antagonists, and often leaves Section 9 struggling between what's right legally and right morally. What it doesn't do is be interesting.
All the politicians are the the 'Director of X' or the 'Such-and-such Minister'. Their motives are generally personal gain and their beliefs are either vague or outright unknown. They tend to be devices and contrivances more than characters and most disappear into irrelevance as quickly as they came.
What baffles me is how dull the politics is in GitS. The setting is perfect for it and the philosophical questions that get raised could be expressed in a smoother fashion. If some of the political groups or leaders were properly upgraded to the status of secondary characters and given some depth beyond 'nuisance' I think GitS could turn one of its weaknesses into a strength. Here's an example of what I mean:
Cyberbrains and cyborg bodies are divisive issues I'll call X and Y respectively; from here we can create four generalised viewpoints;

-'Luddites', Anti-X, Anti-Y: this group is full of those that feel threatened by the new tech. They feel that one loses their humanity and individuality the more cyberised they become.
-'Futurists', Pro-X, Pro-Y: this group is all about improving oneself, removing limitations, pushing the boundaries. The new tech is another step for society and personal freedom.
-'Instrumentalists', Pro-X, Anti-Y: like the futurists, this group is all about taking humanity to what they believe to be the next step. However they view the next step as only involving freeing the mind and dealing with cyberspace. To them any sort of physical body is a hassle,a distraction and something that will eventually be obsolete.
-'Realists', Anti-X, Pro-Y: this group is the inversion of the instrumentalists. Cyberbrains are the threat to humanity and cyborg bodies are the way of the future.

And there's four new factions who each have more depth than the majority of the ones in GitS. From here you could also weave philosophical ideas into the plot more smoothly; eg when dealing with some radical futurists that are now indistinguishable from androids the question of what constitutes a person could be raised. It beats having the Tachikomas do it at least.

Things a feeling a little too negative so let's look at another positive: the animation. I know it's shallow in comparison to the above but it must be said. GitS looks good, in all its animated forms. Quality is often related to budget and so it is natural that a popular franchise such as this will have more money to spend on the visuals than a lesser known show. But what makes GitS great and worth mentioning here is the fluidity of the animation, which in to me is more important than the actual level of detail.
All too frequently in anime there are moments that can only be described as wonky or awkward, which mostly occur in action scenes. It's the times when the characters gracelessly shift stances or casually ignore conventional time or motion. This tends to be a result of adapting straight from manga, as the panels will only show the important actions, and the movement in between is left unknown.
Getting back to the topic on hand, GitS rises above this to frequent fault. And in the action scenes it really shows. If only the action was a bit more frequent.

For a long time when I thought of Ghost in the Shell, I thought of it as primarily action, but with depth behind it. But as time progressed I realised I was getting the proportions of the genres wrong. GitS is not an franchise about gun play, it's just that sometimes the philosophy leads to someone firing a shot.
While typing this was going to say that GitS needs more fighting less talking, and then attempt to come up a valid explanation about why I know more than the makers of a wildly successful franchise. But then it hit me; GitS doesn't need more action, it needs more suspense.
Let's look at the episode in 2nd GiG where Section 9 has to take down the rogue military helicopters: I was thinking "this looks great" and "yes finally some action", not "oh I hope they make it out alright".
I say this because I've recently been re-watching Death Note and there are times were you're not sure who's going to come out on top and how. And this is mostly when characters are just talking, so when there's car chases and explosions involved it is even more intense. Whereas the dialogue in GitS is informative but dry.

Tied to this lack of suspense is the characters. They are a bunch of super skilled counter terrorists, equipped with cutting edge technology, and against direct conflict they are basically never threatened. Section 9's real threat is bureaucracy, which like Superman's Kriptonite is kinda lame.
The Major Motoko Kusanagi is an issue all by herself. She's the most talented (better than the rest except in their specialised fields), most knowledgeable (able to quote obscure philosophy to ease) and most focused (remains professional almost always) member of Section 9; she's practically a Mary Sue. The Major's only real flaws are her disconnectedness to humanity and slight psychotic tendencies. These sound like they are fairly major (no pun intended) but are downplayed considerably: her disconnectedness never seems to interfere with predicting how people behave and the psychosis shows up so very rarely and briefly.

Batou and Togusa bother me as well, but for a lesser reason. In comparison to the Major they are more rounded individuals but the plot treats them like devices. Batou's purpose seems to be to fail so the Major can succeed, to the point that he needs her assistance in a Batou-focused episode (the one with Angel's Feathers). Similarly Togusa mostly gets attention when the plot Section 9 needs to fail or at least be challenged, and what better way to do that than with the soft fleshy human.

Despite saying all this I still like ghost in the Shell; it's better than much of the anime out there. What I can't decide is whether it is a good show that could be great. or whether I just want it to be something it's not.

PS Although the date says the 9th, this was actually finished on the 22nd. Make of this what you will.

PSP Shenanigans: A True Story

I don't want to do my TAFE work so let's hear about a frustrating chapter of my recent life.

Ever since I'd sold my Gameboy Colour several years ago, I had not had any real desire to get any kind of portable console. My Ipod was enough in most circumstances and there were rarely games that caught my eye anyway.

Last year though I became aware of Dissidia: Final Fantasy, a fighting game which pitted the mian hero and villain of the first 10 games in the series against one another. It had the two thing I like in my fighting games: recognisable characters and unconventional gameplay.

But alas Dissida was PSP only and there was no real chance of it being ported (games only get ported from consoles I own, not to). As any person with basic comprehension will have figured out, I bought a PSP.

Realising I just spent several hundred dollars for a single game, I looked for others in an attmept to justify my purchase (although Dissidia did get me through Brisbane with my family so it has been fairly worthwhile).

On the suggestion of internet personalities I like, I bought Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles. The downside with this is that it is a remake of game from era when games were still at ridiculous arcade difficultly, and so I'll probably never finish this. It did come with Symphony of the Night which was decent.

So it was around this point I decided I should actually do some research on the console I bought several months earlier cause I'm all about careful planning. Turns out that the PSP is the loser by far in comparison to the DS. It has a weaker battery life and game library. Just like with the N64 I made my choice and it was the wrong one.

Only recently a lot of my friends have been getting into mod chips for their DS's. Why don't I do the same I thought. Well I can't because my PSP is a 3000 with version 5.5 on it, and no one can hack that. Oh boy, things just keep going my way (irony).

And that's basically where I am now. Really the only good thing about the PSP is that it is region free so I can get games from the US and Japan. If only there was something particularly worth while.

PS I apoligise for all the dryness between the few interesting parts.

Steam Sale Conclusion

It's been almost several months but here we are at the end. One last post to bring all the games together in comparison and then let's never speak of this again.

Even before I finished all 10 games I had begun to try and rate them only to discover that I was more lenient the less I remembered about the game. This raised the question, what's a better indication of a game's quality? The recent memories of me frothing at the mouth over bad controls/camera angles/etc, or the more distant memories where the emotions attached have faded.

A more forgiving person would probably pick the latter as there would hopefully be less rage-induced bias but for me that just raises another issues: do the games deserve to be critiqued in a calm rational way. After all, the frustrating gameplay is still there, I just can't recall it as well anymore.

So here's the not-definitive-by-any-means-but-don't-expect-any-better final ratings:

10 - Painkiller

As the only game I couldn't bring myself to finish, Painkiller receives the very shameful ten. Seriously, who designs a boss fight to have several unavoidable parts where you take fall damage? When I'm more afraid of the physics than the giant flying demon, something is just plain wrong.

9 - Indigo Prophecy

I liked the premise and I was open to the interactive movie thing; too bad the premise went off the deep end and the gameplay was just badly implemented. When I encounter bad story/characters/setting I can get over it if the actual gameplay is good enough, and vice versa. This game obviously had neither and practically collapsed on itself while I watched with morbid fascination.

Here's where things get hard. Do I rate the remainders based on my initial feelings or current ones? What about originality? Is a game that tries to do something new but fails better than something that one that sticks to a formula and succeeds? Is replayability a factor?

8 - Eufloria

I'm actually a little surprised I put this here. The aesthetics were pleasing, so pleasing that they caused me to remember there's really nothing more to this game. No tactical depth, no evolution, no plot, no characters, no emotion. Eufloria is like some strange drug; you are doing something fairly boring for many hours, but you just don't care and you keep going back to do it some more.

7 - Beyond Good and Evil

I really want to put this higher because it has actual characters and tries to do something to my emotions unlike many of the games further down which seem to be excuse plots filled with 2 dimensional people. But then I remember the dull melee combat, awkward vehicle driving, and broken stealth. If only BGaE had had more focus instead of trying to be so many different things.

6 - Torchlight

I've put this game at 6. I've also played 53 hours according to Steam (I really want those last few achievements dammit). Two statements shouldn't go together but here we are. Torchlight shouldn't be above BGaE but that's what happens when your gameplay ain't broke. It may just be a pretty looking 'make numbers bigger' simulator but at least it works.

5 - Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3

RA3 gets this position by the virtue of being the last game left to place. There are no glaring flaws and no shining brilliance. It does have the advantage of having a lot more cash to toy with than basically all the other games bar Mirror's Edge, but this is countered by huge amount of nostalgia I have for earlier C&C games.

4 - Braid

I wish I could come up with a good reason why this game should be placed lower but I can't. As frustrating as I found the late game, I can't fault it for being difficult (except for a few parts that were just plain unintuitive). Despite the frequent pretentiousness of both the game and its fanbase, the gameplay both functions and is not repetitive, which is something I can't say about the previous games listed.

3 - Mirror's Edge

The time spent playing ME was a combination of screaming at difficult sections, cursing at screwy programming, and cringing at the plot. What put this so far up (down?) the list is that one day I may decide to replay this game, which is something that I won't consider for some of the others here, including Braid.

2 - Trine

I went to the enough of getting every single achievement for this game. It in my eyes is fully completed and experienced, Trine has nothing more it can offer me. But like Mirror's Edge I can see the possibility in a year or two of going back and playing it again. It also helps that there are no massive flaws in the game. Trine is the Mario, an all rounder in various stats/features, and in this instance that proves to make it the better than most.

1 - World of Goo

Things were always in WoG's favour. Where every other game was an unknown to some extent, WoG was something I had played and finished in the past but wanted to own for myself. It also has the honour of having a second post to make up for deficiencies in the first one. Other games probably needed that treatment but I didn't feel guilty enough to do one. I could mention actual features of the game which I think earn it the number one place but I'd prefer to go anecdotal. When I finish a good game I get a little sad as there is no more for me to play. Of the 10 games, only World of Goo caused this to happen and that is why it is in first place.

Steam Sale Review: Beyond Good and Evil

Finally last game:
When you look at that, what do you expect? When I bought this game all I had to go on was that picture, the title, and people occasionally mentioning this game as underrated.

What I expected:

I figured BGaE would be a mix of genres. There would be some Indiana Jones/Tomb Raider style adventuring mixed with some multi-faction conspiracies and some good old cosmic horror elements.

What I got:

Space opera.

You see those space ships in the above picture? I thought they were meteors. I hadn't been this wrong about a genre of something since Lost.

For those who may not know, space opera refers to series like Star Trek or Star Wars; sci fi at its softest.
BGaE takes place on a little planet called Hillys, under attack by a mysterious race called the DomZ. You play as Jade, a reporter who also looks after a bunch of orphans on a lighthouse. In need of cash to power the shield protecting the lighthouse, you take up a job to investigate the why the Alpha Sections (a military group whose exact political position is rather vague) are doing such a poor job of dealing with the DomZ.
Naturally there's revelations, tragedies and a big space battle by the end.

BGaE is another one of those games who, much to my chagrin, contains several gameplay styles. The on foot sections remind me of 3D Zelda games what with the basic platforming and 'dungeons', but the actual combat is fairly weak. There are also times when suddenly it becomes a stealth mission and then you are playing a poor man's Metal Gear Solid. Outside there's what seems to be a big open sandbox until you realise there's almost nothing there, and what is there is probably compulsory. You explore this pseudo-sandbox in a vehicle that handles like someone from Indigo Prophecy (woo continuity nod). and finally there is a small degree of RPG gameplay, but like the sandbox is either compulsory or just irrelevant.

As I must have said before, I'm not fond of things that jump between moods or genres. While I don't won't all fiction to instead to become either grimdark angstfests or wacky lighthearted romps, I wish that tone wasn't allowed to jump so far.
An early scene in BGaE has Pey'j your pigman accomplice demonstrate his fart-powered rocket boots. Much later in the game Jade breaks down after [MASSIVE BUT FAIRLY OBVIOUS WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IT SPOILERS]. For me the emotional weight of the later scene was lessened by the earlier scene, and all of its ilk.

It's been so long since I actually played this game I've forgotten most of the details, and all I'm let with are slightly bitter memories. There's nothing inherently terrible about this game (hmm I think I've already used that exact phrase previously, never mind), there's just nothing particularly good about it. BGaE has developed a fanbase so who knows, perhaps this is all just a combination of my very high standards and my disappointment that this was not what I expected.

If nothing else I can say that BGaE is an experience you don't get all that often despite containing alot of typical features, kind of like Fifth Element.