Counter Strike: A Read for the Uninitiated

I know some people shit their pants when we link to other sites on this one, but this quick read on the appeal of Counter Strike is both funny and spot on.

Best quote:  "Shooting that sniper’s prone corpse, I was basically cutting off his dick so I could keep it in a jar of vinegar, along with all the others, like that Assyrian king way back when."

Get this game and a keyboard and mouse.  Let us play as men.  Or at least as manly as guys pretending to play war can be.

George Lucas hates you.

George Lucas has ruined Star Wars.  This is sort of a common accept fact at this point.  There are so many things that we could submit as evidence here. There are plenty of hilarious songs and honest (albeit, weird) commentaries that all illustrate the point well enough.  Why are there so many kids in the prequel movies? Why did Lucas feel it necessary to have Greedo shoot first/at all?

I would like to talk about a very specific grievance - The Force.

As a kid who grew up on a healthy does of the original trilogy, the Force was always an interesting concept.  I, like many of you, probably spent more than a healthy amount of time staring at a fixed object, concentrating on it, hoping to make it levitate.  It wouldn't be as impressive as lifting an X-Wing from a swamp, but I believed that if I could focus hard enough, or understand the Force well enough, then maybe, just maybe I could do it.

The Force is a mystical power, something to be both understood and felt. Let me support this with some quotes.

"The Jedi are extinct, their fire has gone out of the universe. You, my friend, are all that's left of their religion."

"The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together."

"... I've never seen anything to make me believe that there's one all-powerful Force controlling everything.  'Cause no mystical energy field controls my destiny. It's all a lot of simple tricks and nonsense."

"The Force be with you, always."

For all practical purposes, the Force was like a god, or a spirit that was everywhere.  It was something that couldn't be proven or seen, something that couldn't be quantified by any other standard... It was truly something special.

This all changed with the prequels.  In Episode 1, we get to see a glimpse of a young boy who would someday rule the galaxy with a cruel fist - Anakin Skywalker.  The force is so present in this small child that immediately the Jedi nearby can feel it's presence... So they decide to go and measure it.

Wait. What? They measure it? How is that possible? Midi-chlorians, you say? That's what the Force is made of?  As I sat there in the theatre, I felt crushed and a little bit disappointed.  How could something like the Force be explained as easily as a micro-organism in the blood stream? Yoda didn't really have anything special to be able to lift Luke's ship from the depths of Degobah... he just had really awesome blood stats!

Stepping outside of this, and giving myself more than a few years to be upset and confused, I finally began to see what and why this sort of happened.  As crazy as it sounds, I think it has a lot to do with the secularization of our culture.  Religion isn't as common in people's lives as it was 30 years ago, and apparently this has had an influence on Star Wars.  I'm personally kinda sad about this.  Star Wars was different from other things out there... the Force was something bigger than myself, something that I desperately wanted to be a part of.  Knowing how the Force works makes it... accessible - I just wasn't born with the right blood.  I mean, I could be a Jedi, but really, I'm not genetically fit to make it happen.

(Side note: to see this trend continue, look at the differences between the original Indiana Jones movies and the new one)

Lucas just keeps trying to cover all of his tracks on this too.  It isn't just the quantification of the Force, but also how it works out.  I'm thinking of a horrifying scene in Episode 2 where Count Dooku and Yoda are going at it with force lighting and energy balls... awesome stuff. Then...

"It is obvious that this contest cannot be decided by our knowledge of the Force... but by our skills with a lightsaber."

WHAT?! The skills with a lightsaber are more important than the knowledge of the Force!? You've gotta be kidding me. The whole original trilogy is about the Force, and the way it is the most powerful... well, force in the galaxy.  Lightsabers were a weapon of the Jedi, but the Force is what gives a Jedi his power! (That's actually almost a direct Obi-wan quote, listed above!)

It just makes me so... like this. 

My only real question for George Lucas in this, is why?  It's not like Star Wars wasn't popular or making money.  I was halfway grown when I started watching them, and Return of the Jedi came out long before that.  And it's not like releasing the originals, in their original formatting (dialogue, effects, sound, etc.) wouldn't make money - heck, it would make them billions.  I'd even let them borrow my original VHS copies to enhance them off of, just so there wouldn't be any accidental additions.

Leave them alone, George... just leave them alone.

(Credit for this blog post title to 3N3MY's classy comic-con t-shirt)

Counter Strike: Global Offensive

Counter Strike is a game I've always been very interested in really sinking my teeth into.  It's a game that's long been held as the greatest competitive FPS of all time.  Right up there with the ranks of Quake 3 and Unreal 2004.

With a minimalistic approach in regards to map count, game modes, weapons and loadouts it puts all the emphasis on practice and patience.

I got Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CS) for the PS3 this past Tuesday when it released.  I got it because, as stated, I've always wanted to get into CS, but also, on the PS3, you can play with a mouse and keyboard. Something else I've always wanted to do with a competitive shooter.

So I got the game and I'll admit it takes some getting used to.  What team does what objective and how the maps work as well as what weapons to purchase as well as what gear to focus on.  It's a bit of a steep learning curve at first and in my first 3 matches of playing online I was struggling.  I could tell that there's a really good game in here, but needed to work to get good at it.  It's obviously not a hop and and rock the shit out of it type game.  It's very old school.

I went to Target and bought the cheapest mouse and keyboard I could.  I plugged them into my 2 usb ports on my PS3 and was astounded at how instantly and well they worked.  I can manipulate all in game menus with the mouse and keyboard.  It literally feels just like a pc game.

I spent the next couple hours playing with bots to familiarize myself with the game modes and maps as well as get back into the mouse and keyboard groove.

TJ and I played for a good 2 hours online last night and I must say that the game is simply awesome.

It's 5v5 with only 5 or 6 maps and 4 game modes.  I can honestly say that out of all the maps there's not one I don't like.  It's pretty interesting and a testament to the games staying power with how well the maps work. They truly appear to be perfectly balanced.  How many shooters nowadays ship with 10-15 maps and you end up hating half of them?  I know I do.  In this game....they just....work.

In this game you earn money to purchase guns and equipment to use in the next rounds.  If you die in the following round you're dead until the following round.  If you live through the round you start the next round with all your equipment intact.  If you die....you have to purchase everything over if you have enough money. It's a really neat mechanic that makes your choices matter and really makes you want to play well because when you die you lose more than just a man.  Also, there's no auto aim or aim assist.  If you miss it's your fault.

My only real gripe with this game is that headshots are super king in it.  And I mean super king.  Many times you'll be unloading into a guy and your aim is spot on and then you'll get dropped in an instant.  Even when crouching and firing and small bursts it can still seem hit or miss.  I don't think it's a fault of the game, but just another way that it really makes you work for your kills.  There do seem to be "stand out" guys in most games so it's not like the game is broke.  It just truly rewards skill.

This hasn't really been a review, but more of an urging for you guys to consider getting this on PS3 and possibly get the mouse and keyboard.  The game plays really well with a dualshock, but it just feels in a whole other league with a mouse.

It's a game TJ and I area already putting a lot of time into.

P.S.  This was written very rushed so forgive if it's disjointed and not organized coherently.

Shadow of the Colossus Review

Retro review? Does a game from the previous generation of consoles count?

I have really mixed feelings on this one.

Short review: cool bosses, great music, terrible story, awful controls, busted camera, a boring world, and a sucky hero. I'll just take these one at a time to flesh this thing out.

-There are sixteen colossi to defeat in this game. They vary in size, shape and difficulty. They have different weak spots all over their bodies. You must climb all over them hitting the spots, all while being swatted and holding on for dear life. There's a nice variation. Some have clubs, some fly, some are heavily armored, some require you to use your horse just to keep up, some require you to get creative with the environment. Each colossi almost seems like a gigantic, moving puzzle that you must defeat to move on. Bringing down one of the bosses is extremely gratifying once you accomplish it. Sometimes these battles will last as long as thirty minutes as you try to figure exactly what to do next........or frustratingly get thrown off and plummet back to the ground.

-The world is oddly silent until you come across one of the colossi. The music stirs to life along with each creature, ramping up significantly when you finally manage to climb onto the beast. The tunes vary from one boss to the next, but each theme is very heroic and fitting, considering the task at hand.

-Story? What story? You ride your horse into a massive temple, set your dead girlfriend on an altar and speak to a disembodied voice. You plead with it to bring your woman's soul back from the dead. In order for this to happen, you must roam the land, find and defeat sixteen colossi.

-This is a big one. The controls in this game are monumentally awful. I had to make various adjustments in the menu before I could even begin to play. I had to change look sensitivity, invert the x AND y axis. You run extremely slowly, almost like you have a broken ankle. You seem to have no agility, which is a huge detriment considering you have to climb all over these hulking, squirming colossi to succeed. The jump is really floaty yet difficult to control. Jumping away from a platform while hanging onto it proves to be quite a chore. Also, it took an average of three attempts to simply just get onto the horse. "Jump" and "get on horse" are both the same button, so I would typically set myself up in the proper position, hit the button and instead of getting on the horse....I would jump past it like an A-hole. I didn't discover until about three-quarters of the way into the game that I could hold R1 ("Grab") to assist in getting onto the horse. A little in-game tip might have been useful there. And while I'm talking about the horse, IT has awful controls also. The "steering" on it is terrible and good luck if the camera forces you into a corner (more on that later). While it's certainly faster than going on foot, I never got the sensation of traveling really fast. It's more like a contented trot than a purposeful gallop.

-I HATE the camera on this game. In the thick of combat, it insists on staying right on you. It rarely pulls back to give you a great perspective. It will also "wander" on its own, which proved to be the most frustrating for the flying colossi in the desert. I'm riding the horse trying to fight with the camera so I can actually SEE the beast on the right side of the horse, instead of rotating around to look at NOTHING on the left. Also, when you're riding through the barren land, the camera is always positioned almost at ground level, making it very difficult to see where you're going. This means that you cannot see if a cliff or any sort of drop in terrain is upcoming. Really, really annoying and frustrating.

-The world in this game is a "forbidden land." It definitely creates a sense of isolation, but also a sense of boredom. There is NOTHING to do in this huge world except fight the colossi. I discovered later that there are some collectibles in the game, which actually kinda frustrated me. There are tiny lizards you can shoot to upgrade your "Grip" meter (how long you can hold onto the colossi) and fruit to extend your health bar. I had no idea these even existed. I don't like when games hold your hand for everything, but maybe a little tip to just let me know these things existed would have been pretty nice.

-This game gives me no reason to care about what this character is going through. We see none of his history with this woman. Why should I even care what he's trying to do? Why do I want to bring this person back? I feel like I'm just going through the motions here. Going through the motions with terrible controls. This brings up kind of a sticky point, though. How often do we really even care about what we're doing in games? I mean, this plot is quite similar to every "Mario" game in existence (save the Princess!) but....but....I like playing Mario games! I didn't like playing this, and I hate to boil it down to something so simple, but it really comes down to the controls. I like playing games with great controls. I can forgive sloppy storytelling or butthole characters or boring worlds if I get clean, fun gameplay, and Shadow of the Colossus just doesn't have it.

This game is.....colossally overrated. Zing!

Music in Games: Revisited

The topic of video game music has been covered many times on this blog however after a recent Comic Con trip when I was introduced to the score to Dues Ex, I started to really think about what soundtracks and themes really stand out. I wrote 3N3MY a couple of days later telling him that until now, I had never wanted to play a game solely because of the music. Dues Ex: Human Revolution changed that.  The song Icarus (as I have it) blew me away and really drew me into a game that I knew nothing about, let alone even seen!  This got me thinking about some of my favorite games and how a large percentage of them have phenomenal music scores, much like my favorite movies. A good game has good game-play and and a good story.  A great game as both of these, great sound effects and a musical score that act as the glue that bring it all together.  They make a game feel complete.  A couple of games that really jump out when thinking about this are The Elder Scrolls games and Mirror's Edge. Yes, a game like Mirror's Edge with a score written by some composer unbeknownst to me is grouped in with Jeremy Soule (he has done more games than most of you know).

And why not, lets throw in a list of a few of my favorite songs/themes found in games.  For the sake of this, I'm leaving out classics like the Zelda theme and keeping it short.

In no particular order...

Solar Fields - Introduction (Mirror's Edge)
Martin O'Donnell - Never Forget (Halo 3)
Jeremy Soule - Sons of Skyrim
Lorne Balfe - Assassins Creed Theme (Revelations)
Greg Edmonson - Nate's Theme (Uncharted)

Honorable Mention: BogusRed - Into Golden Sunset (fan remake from A Link to the Past)

And for the heck of it, some of my favorite Movie/TV scores...

John Murphy - Adagio in D Minor
Ramin Djawadi - Main Title (Game of Thrones)
John Williams - Theme from Schindler's List (reprise)
Michael Kamen - Main Theme (Band of Brothers)
Hanz Zimmer - Honor (The Pacific)
Jeremy Goldsmith - Main Title/Locutus (Star Trek: First Contact)

Coins, Coins, Coins...

Try not to judge too much on this one, but I picked up New Super Mario Brothers 2.  At this point, they really should just drop the numerical pretenses and just go with something like "The Next One You Know You're Gonna Buy", but I suppose with all the money Mario has made over the years, Nintendo isn't going to go about changing what works.  Unsurprisingly, not much has changed here.  As with other Mario games, the classic run and jump man sticks to what is tried and true.

Surprisingly though, Nintendo has revitalized one of the most ignored and antiquated game design elements that, I thought, had gone by the wayside - points.  Yes, points matter, or at the very least, are supposed to matter.  The first Mario game on the NES had a point system, but it wasn't paid attention to very highly.  The high score would always reset whenever the console was turned off, and frankly, the only reason they were there in the first place was a shadow of the "high score" mentality from the arcade days.  Arcade games used points as a means to drive competition/sales. It's my theory that when home consoles hit the market, the consumer stopped caring about points, because, well... who's there to beat? Your family? Your friends who come over? Having your initials immortalized in a public arcade box was one thing, but on your own tv? Not nearly as impressive.

Coins are a huge element in this game, but it's hard to explain why...  Coins have always been a means of rewarding free lives (which I'll talk about later) but collecting them was always a consequence of the level completion, not the game's main focus for the player.  Each individual level has a high score of coins collected, which contribute to a cumulative total for total play time.  In an afternoon of owning this game, I've collected approximately 14,000 coins.  There is something... primal about gaming for the sake of seeing numbers rise.  It's almost the same sort of "addictive" quality about prestiging in the COD games... something of a bragging right, even if no one around you truly cares.

"This actually happens in the game... I wish I was lying to you."

Something that creates the drive to make that number rise, is how your personal cumulative total contributes to a global/regional total.  Players from around the world are collecting coins with you, creating a pool that Scrooge McDuck would love to dive headfirst into.  Nintendo has been somewhat quiet about the overall purpose of collecting all these coins... maybe free DLC? Unlockables for all involved... who knows.  I do know that it puts a slight sense of purpose behind playing this game.  It sure isn't the narrative structure that keeps bringing me back to Mario, and it's kinda cool to see Nintendo acknowledge that.

The big N hasn't only changed it's focus, but it's almost gotten sort of post-modern about itself.  Everyone knows that sometime around Super Mario World, lives / 1ups in a Mario games have felt sort of unnecessary.  Most players know multiple tricks to make the number of lives they have so high, the number itself becomes meaningless.  Similarly to the coins, lives work the same way.  I think I have 86 lives at the point of writing this, but the counter has spots for three digits... giving Nintendo the benefit of the doubt, that means they are anticipating me to wrack up lives somewhere in the hundreds.

Talk about sending a message... "Oh what's that? Our lives are meaningless? I guess we'll roll with that... here's 30 free ones on us."  It's almost like they are deliberately making fun of themselves.  Or they are finally catching on to what people need. I don't mean need as far as in the difficulty of the game, but need as in desire of gameplay.  We like to see big numbers, and be impressed with ourselves.  Does it make the game easier? Of course! But that's part of the charm, the allure, the... Mario-ness.

It's a fun game, but you all new that.  It's rare these days that Mario gets a game all about him that doesn't fit the bill.  I don't anticipate anyone here playing this one (I'm almost certain I'm the only one with a 3DS), but I found this new twist intriguing.  I thought the coins would be distracting, and frivolous, but instead I found that it supports a design strategy that Nintendo has been using for a while, it just ups the ante a little, and a new sort of attention to one of the most tried and true Mario elements - getting them coins.

Old News

I'm sure this is old news for a lot of people by now, but man, am I sick of Call of Duty.  At one time it was a surface level frustration, similar to being sick of eating pizza everyday for lunch - eventually you're gonna come back and eat pizza again.  This is deeper though... it gets at me in a deep spot, a place that I feel abused and controlled.

I even enjoy playing it (most of the time).  I can easily say that the only reason I still actively play it is because of who I'm playing with.  The group of guys I play online with (who I do know in real life) are amazing company, but this is the only game they play.  Some play other single player games now and then, some at one time play other first-person shooters, but really, COD is it.

Here is the tricky thing about it all... no one I play with can really articulate anymore, what makes COD better or different than other FPS out there.  I remember when COD4:Modern Warfare came out... it was so easy to see what set Duty apart from the rest of the pack.  Incredibly smooth gameplay, customizable weapons, fast instant multiplayer action.  What FPS doesn't have that stuff now? It's become so routine that no one really remembers what set COD above the competition in the first place... it's just always been that way.  It's Call of Duty, that's why...

I think what makes me so mad at this whole thing is how unashamed Activision is in changed almost nothing on a game by game basis.  I would love to be corrected on this, but aren't all of the current COD games using the exact same gameplay engine that COD4:MW did?  That came out in 2007 - That's 5 years of using the same tech, same gameplay design, same texturing...  How lazy.  Could we add something new please?! If it isn't going to be in gameplay (different style perks, bigger maps, vehicles, etc) could it at least be in the tech (destructible environments, changing levels, better animation reconciliation, less clipping)

On of my good COD buddies came to it's aid here... "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."  Fair enough.  But the truthfulness of that statement in this situation depends solely on your definition of success.  Activision sees the dollar sign as a success.  Because so many people buy it, it must be a solid product.   All those people who buy it, see all the other millions buying it, so they believe it must be a solid product.  This is all an elaborate ruse.  It's a house of cards, just waiting to fall.  Activision knows that as soon as they change anything, it's going to ruin their money printing machine.  As soon as a large enough chunk of the population gets tired of it, they are going to jump ship.

I'm jumping ship.  Bobby Kotick is going to have to come to my house and show me his business model to fix my complaints about COD.  I'd like to say that I won't even play it, but I know myself better than that to make that promise.  I can make the promise not to buy it - my money will not be going to Activision. 

-------

As an additional reminder, here is the quote from Kotick in response to why Activision dropped Ghostbusters and Brutal Legend from their line-up after their merge with Blizzard:


“[They] don’t have the potential to be exploited every year on every platform with clear sequel potential and have the potential to become $100 million dollar franchises. … I think, generally, our strategy has been to focus… on the products that have those attributes and characteristics, the products that we know [that] if we release them today, we’ll be working on them 10 years from now.”

Kinda speaks for itself...

Deus Ex: Human Revolution Review

Last night I had decided it was time to finish Deus Ex: Human Revolution (DE).  Around 5 months ago I hit the 30 hr mark in the game and had a plethora of new games to play so it got temporarily shelved.  The way the game had been progressing I figured I had at least another 12 hours to go, but as it turns out I only had 3.

You play as Adam Jensen.  A normal human cop/security officer that gets almost completely destroyed in the opening section of the game.  You're pieced back together (RoboCop anyone?) without given the opportunity to choose to die or take the augmentations to save your life.  So some months later you're back in the field still working for one of the biggest augmentation companies in the world, Sarif Industries, and in search of the people that not only almost killed you, but that kidnapped several high ranking scientists from Sarif.

DE was an amazingly refreshing and excellent game.  The experimental gameplay coupled with excellent level design (complete with "hero sized vents"), the best soundtrack I've ever heard in any game and some pretty stellar graphics all created one of the most rewarding experiences I've had in any game this generation.

It controls very well and rewards patience.  In case you weren't aware the game lets you play in a myriad of ways, but doesn't necessarily make any of them easy because ammo is limited.  I played it stealth...or at least as stealthy as I could manage with the tools at my disposal.

Flipping open your map you can see yourself and your objective.  The  interesting aspect comes in when you realize that the building you're in might have 5 floors and there could literally be dozens of different paths to take.  Along the way you'll come across guards, locked doors, security cameras, turrets, laser alarms and, of course, the occasional boss fight.

The main cities gave me a huge boner because of how they were conveyed.  It's rare that a game so realistically builds a world that it feels like it could actually exist.  That even if I weren't in it at that moment that it could be out there somewhere.  Tons of attention to detail and an amazing aesthetic really go far and this game does it with the best of them.  Only other games to give me this vibe were Half Life 2, Resistance 3, The Darkness and The Chronicles of Riddick.

I was really happy with the story as I thought it was going to pull the obvious double cross with one of the main guys, but instead it went with the larger ideology of the game in the end.  Is evolving the human race through technology a good or bad idea?  I also really dug Adam's borderline resentment towards those that saved him.  He's not a fan of augmentations and has literally been saved by them and made to be more than man from them.  He's grumpy yet compassionate all at once and I felt like I related to the character.  It is worthy of note that the voice actor not only isn't Nolan North, but did an excellent job.  In fact all the cast did.  Some would argue that Adam's voice is too gravelly, but I really liked it a lot.  Take that Gordon Freeman you voiceless shit!

The game also features a heavy rpg element in that you earn xp and can use Praxis Kits to further augment your abilities.  Want heavier armor?  How about running silently or going completely invisible?  Do you want to jump higher or take no fall damage?  Would you like the ability to hack higher rated locks?  Shoot explosive shells out of your arms?  See through walls?  The list literally goes on and on.  It was awesome to see just how customized I could build my Adam to fit the play of my style.  Since I was stealth I invested heavily in stealth augmentations, but was wise in knowing that the boss fights would own me if I didn't upgrade my armor.

Some gripes are that while the graphics really do shine the facial animations on non-story specific characters can be pretty damn awful and ugly.  The enemy AI can be pretty dumb and the boss fights are bananas bad at times.

I'd say I put in just over 30 hrs into the campaign and that includes quite a few, but not all, sidequests.  For a fps in today's market that number is literally unheard of and I can happily say that the game didn't overstay it's welcome.

I also want to pat myself on the back for challenging myself to play the game without killing anyone and earning "The Pacifist" trophy.  You're only allowed to kill the bosses.  Everyone else has to be knocked out or left alone.  One death to any enemy or npc and it's all over.  Spreading that out over 30 hours on my first playthrough of the game on medium difficulty was a good challenge.  I didn't want to "learn" the game and then go back for it.  I wanted to get it on my first game and I did.  There is only 1 gun in the game that will 100% knock someone out without any chance of killing them and that's the stun gun.  The worst part was is that was the only ammo never for sale.  You only had what you picked up in the game off of enemies or out of lockers.  All in all I would easily bet I had less than 30 shots for that gun in the whole game and I ended the game with 19 in my inventory.  Patience and timing were everything.

Should you get and play DE?  Absofuckinglutely you should!  It's everything that great games are made up of and is a reminder of why games can be so amazing.  A game that bucks convention and goes old school and passes this reviewer's expectations with flying colors.

It's an amazing game that shouldn't be missed by anyone unless....you know....you just like CoD, New Super Mario and Madden.  Which in that case you should just go kill yourself.

Score: 9 out of 10