Shadowrun Returns: Decking

Well, since I am now making videos about shadowrun returns, I feel I have a nice launching platform for talking about detailed points of the game. Lets talk about a very interesting part of this world, the Matrix.

Well, it has its similarities to the movie matrix. You "jack in" to a worldwide computer network. While in there, you can interact with visualizations of programs and directly effecting data and real world machines. In world, deckers use portable keyboard/computer decks with them and directly access proprietary systems that aren't hooked up to the global network.

In game, this results in a secondary world that your character can enter into and have battles in. You have to invest into a series of programs and IC units. Summoning IC units are offensive or defensive autonomous programs that will aid you in battle, but can only be summoned once during a session so you can't just have them suicide for you. Programs act like spells in the real world, costing action points to cast with various effects.

The art design while in the Matrix is quite good. With bright lights, and enemies in a nice red shade, it has a very striking look that differentiates it from the rest of the game. It doesn't feel as cluttered as the real world levels, but that works since its supposed to be the inside of a computer.

I especially like the integration of the matrix world with the real world. It doesn't happen often, but there are battle sequences that are integrated with a hacking segment. Entering into the matrix takes your decker out of the battle sequence. But each single turn of the real world battle adds up to three rounds INSIDE the matrix. Since you don't really want to leave your character helpless in front of a computer during a battle, this accelerated pace really works well. Naturally, having a character who focuses on decking results in a less battle ready character. So I honestly really appreciate the effort put towards making the decking options feel valuable, even in the context of a gun fight.

Below is a video I made to demonstrate a great side mission that features a very well integrated decking segment during a battle.

Bionic Commando Re-Armed

Well, I finally got the upload to work. So my career as a youtuber begins now!!! Again.... Yeah, its my second pass at this, but before it was just silly philosophy videos.

Bionic Commando Re-armed is a supped up remake of the NES classic. I played the original and it was a good game, I just never got interested enough to finish it. The HD remake is quite possible one of the best remakes EVAR. Not only does it update the art assets but also makes great changes to the game mechanics. Now you have actual health instead of dying instantly. It also completely redesigned the boss fights to not be so awful. I also like how the game maintains the 3 life mechanic, where by you get booted out of the level when you run out of lives. Adds a nice level of tension to the levels, especially on the last life.

So, getting into the recording and uploading is going to take some practice. I have to get the game sounds down. I also have to find my commentary voice. I absolutely can't just sit there and play the game. I liked whenever I freaked out when the suicide enemies charged me. I may go for a more manic style.

Video Compression

So I finally figured out a way to compress Fraps videos. Gets them down to about 400 Megs and makes the youtube uploading SOOOO much faster. So I will be shifting my focus to making some shadowrun playthroughs. I will still be finishing my Dreamcast reviews, but these commentaries will be taking up my focus from now on. I will still post on this blog, but they will mostly be said videos. After I finish the shadowrun vids, I will move onto a System Shock 2 playthrough.

Crazy Taxi: A Dreamcast Review

Just two more games to review. This week, its the Dreamcast classic Crazy Taxi. This game was adapted from a popular arcade game of the day. In it, you are a taxi driver. You pick up fairs, deliver them to there destination and get paid. What makes the game memorable is the absolutely bat shit insane car physics. Your taxi is not of this earth. It weaves and accelerates with no regard for your safety or the cars structural stability. And boy, its fun.

Team Fortress 2: Updated

I've gotten back into TF2 lately. Not as much as I used to, but I found a nice CTF rotation server. Now, some time ago I posted a guide on how to play pyro. I went into great detail about how you play with other classes and the weapons available to the pyro. Well, the game has changed a little since I was last big into the game.

I still attest that the pyro is a women.

A big change was that they have gotten rid of ALL item set bonuses. I guess they did this to take care of "Pay to Win" allegations. So now the polycount pyro set isn't valuable at all and feel free to ignore the hat. There have also been new weapons added and some changes to others

1. Rainblower and Lolichop: With the release of the Meet the pyro video, these weapons were added. They are a simple reskin of the flamethrower and the fire ax. They are mildly amusing, but I don't like the rainblower. Its funny, but the rainbow effect gives you a really bad feed back on whether you are hitting people.
2. Phlogistinator, Degreaser and Backburner: These items got a damage hit. They all now do 10% less damage, bringing the Phlog and Degreaser below standard and Backburner has the same damage as the base. The Degreaser has been brought into a more balanced position, but I can't see any reason you would want Phlog any more; its just way too gimicky. I don't like the loss of damage on the Backburner, but it still has its valuable flanking use. 
3. Scorch Shot: The newest Flare gun. I don't personally like it. It does less damage than basic flares and gets no bonus damage on flaming targets. What it does do is knock back targets and leaves flare on the ground that will ignite people who touch it. This is an interesting idea, but I cannot justify losing the shear damage of crit flares.
4. Neon Annihilator: An interesting new melee weapon for the pyro. It gives guaranteed crits under water, but does less damage out of the water. BUT, in an interesting twist, this item also removes sappers. A strange mix up of the axtinguisher and the homewrecker. If you are on a map with a lot of water, this can be surprisingly effective choice.  

Now, this is nothing big in terms of pyro itemization. You have to be a bit choosier when it comes to your specialty Now there has been some VERY interesting changes to OTHER CLASSES. So let me discuss how it has gotten so much harder to be pyro in this game. 

1. The DemoKnight: The demoknight has gotten a lot scarier for the pyro. Now, the chargin' targe gives ignite INVULNERABILITY. This makes targe knights IMPOSSIBLE for you to deal with without the shotgun. You can't crit flare them, you can't axtinguish them. You can't deal with them. On top of this, there is a new, far more annoying grenade launcher. The loose cannon has a lot of different feature, but the most annoying is that it allows the user to shorten the flare, meaning the damn thing can blow up before you even get a chance to reflect them. Demo's, especially smart ones, are now a huge potential threath. 
2. Spy: The spy hasn't gotten much new. But the spy-cicle is specifically designed to counter act the pyro. If held when ignited, the spy will extinguish themselves and become invulnerable to fire damage for 2 seconds. Combined with the dead ringer, a properly decked out spy can actually effectively run from a pyro. There is a counter technique. Even though the spy can't be ignited, there will still be a sizzle sound as long as they are in the fire cone. So if you know the probable escape route, you might be able to keep track of the spy for 2 seconds. 

I have to say that the community, even with all the Free people, can still be very good; as long as you like derping. Serious players better get some like minded friends on a private server. 

Icarus

Princess-icus

Not that Icarus. Actually, I want to talk about two "Icarus"s. Guns of Icarus Online and Pit: Kid Icarus.

Damsel In Distress: A Response

Some time ago, Anita Sarkeesian started a Kickstarter to fund a three part video series on how women are portrayed in video games. I have watched all the videos, the third of which was released 11 days ago. There was some controversy about the way she made the money and about her ripping off her backers. I have no idea whether this is true and frankly I don't give a damn. She made the videos. And since she disabled comments on her Youtube videos, I will be responding here.

I won't deny that there is definitely A LOT of games that portray women as helpless damsels that need rescuing. And there might very well be some deep seated cultural issues with the trope over all. But I have a problem with HOW Anita portrays video games in these videos. She, very one-sidedly, condems video games as a medium for maintaining the trope of the Damsel in Distress.

And she makes good points. Princess Peach using her mood swings as her powers in her first starring role is pretty stupid, and shame on you Nintendo. But she doesn't acknowledge the number of games that either overcome imagined gender roles, or flat out ignore them in favor of making a fun game. Some truly fantastic games are made that don't rely on the damsel in distress trope. Skyrim is an entirely gender neutral game that successfully allows ANYONE to make their own story. She glances over the strides made in the latest Tomb Raider game and glaringly omits any discussion of Samus in the videos.

Just off the top of my head, I can think of a game released recently that makes excellent strides with the damsel in distress trope. In Shadowrun Returns, an early mission has you tracking down a fellow runner who has information you need. It turns out she got captured during a job and you and her boyfriend need to save her. BUT, once you free her from her torturer, she pulls a shotgun and helps you shoot your way out of the building. And from then on you can hire her to help you on jobs. She isn't portrayed as a damsel, per say, she is portrayed as a professional who messed up and needed help. The fact that she was a women was irrelevant, especially considering how inept her boyfriend was.

And Shadowrun is a recent game that I can think of just right now. There are plenty subversions of the damsel trope in games. Anita makes almost no mention of them. Its not that counter example's don't exist, she just doesn't want to talk about them.

Another point I would like to make is that video games are certainly NOT the source of the trope itself, nor are they the most damaging example of its use. In my opinion, movie's are a far worse purveyor of the "Women are to be saved" mentality. This is because video games are primarily interested in being fantasy worlds, while most movies give some indication that they are based on reality. Young children are unlikely to draw much from Mario saving Peach all the time, but they may very well be influenced by Adam Sandler's never ending stream of sexist jokes.

This simply comes down to presenting both sides of an issue. It may not be necessary to always do this, but these video's definitely would have benefited from a more balanced view of the game industry. Anita seems like a smart women who knows her feminism (in a good way) and did her research on the video game industry. As such, I can only assume she neglected to mention GOOD examples of female's portrayed well in games deliberately to strengthen her argument. I find this practice, combined with her disabling of comments on her videos, distracting from the value of her message. Please, open the forum and mention the positives.

Enviable research 

http://www.feministfrequency.com/2013/03/damsel-in-distress-part-1/

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater: A Dreamcast Review

Oh yes, Ebay is great. I am expecting a delivery of Crazy Taxi sometime this week. That will be next weeks review. Now all I need is Shenmue, Sonic Adventure and Powerstone. But this week, we are taking a look at one of the cornerstones of late 90's games: Skateboarding sims.

There was a weird "XTREME" craze in the late 90's. Suddenly, extreme sports were reaaaaaally popular, catapulting sports like skateboarding motorcross to new heights of popularity. Oh sure they had fans before, but now they just were every where and were marketed to kids like crazy. And at the head of the campaign was sports master Tony Hawk. This guy oozed cool to us young kids growing up and seeking an identity. Not only did he seem like the only cool adult out there, but he also made a living skate boarding. As far as we were concerned, he WAS the dream life.

coooooooooool

Mighty Jill Off

So today I fired up Super Meat Boy for the first time in a while. I got pretty far in it, but never made it ALL the way through. So after moving computers, I lost my save files. Passing through the earlier levels, I got to  warp zone I never hit in my first play through. And that is where I encountered the Might Jill. 

Mighty Jill off is a free ware game. Available for download by anyone. Google it. Get it. Love it or hate it. 

I like it. Its an interesting twist on platforming mechanics. Jill can jump like 5 stories into the air. But you can stop her accent at any time and the gently lower her down while tapping the jump button. This tapping really reminds me playing Super Mario Land: 6 golden coins, where the bunny hood would glide farther if I tapped the jump button rather than just holding it down. But back to jill, I like how this just really upends most platforming mechanics. If you just tap the jump button, Jill does her full jump. For most games, you have to hold down the jump button to get such high jumps. But Jill just shoots right up there. And the levels are not afraid to put trap spikes on the ceiling to stop you. I guess I should warn you, this is one of those super punishing platforming games. Its not as bad Meat boy, but its not easy thats for sure. 

But probably my favorite part of this game is just how casually sexual the story is. Jill's out fit is essentially a leather gimp suit. The "story" is that Jill was licking the Queen's boot and the Queen decided to throw her to the bottom of the tower and has her climb back up as a show of loyalty. I don't know why, but I find this to be one of the best random excuses to have a platforming adventure ever. And even though Jill is intentionally portrayed as chubby, I find her character design surprisingly compelling. 

Not sure what that says about me.....

SPORTS GAMES!!!!! A Dreamcast Review

Well, its finally time. I have run out of easy reviews. Honestly, I kinda free-wheeled on all my previous dreamcast reviews. I had played plenty of the games when I got them, so I had little reason to go back and play them for the review; I knew how I felt about the games. Now, I am going to review that two sports games that came bundled with the console when I bought it: NFL 2K, and F355 Challenge.

The Legend of Zelda

I've had a couple of game crusades in my life. My first was the Earthbound series, where I emulated and beat all three games in the series, including the rather crappy NES one. Then, my next campaign became beating Battletoads, which took me 2 1/2 weeks. I've had another idea for a gaming quest floating around in my head for sometime. Complete play-throughs of all the 3-D Legend of Zelda titles: Ocarina, Majora's, Windwaker, Twilight and Skyward.

I own the gamecube version, but this still looks awesome

Now despite being solidly in the Nintendo Camp, me and Zelda haven't actually played as much as you might think.I have played a lot of the games, but I have only finished four. I beat Link to the Past on GBA, Twilight Princess when it came out, Spirit tracks on loan from a friend and Link's Awakening as a 3DS download. That means, despite owning Ocarina of Time, Windwaker and Skyward sword, I have yet to beat them.

Now that just doesn't sit well with me. I'm simply not ok with this. And I want to beat these games. I am waiting until Majora's comes out on the Wii U before I attempt this. But I would also like to record me doing this, for internet uploading. But I have several obstacles to this. First, there is no way to record console footage without buying some hardware. Now, the price tag on these boxes aren't prohibitively high, but combined with the cost of a the Wii U and at least 1 game and we are talking over 500 dollars. Second, my home internet suck for uploading. I don't know why, but even mildly sized files can take hours to upload to youtube. And I don't know how to fix that.

So for now, all I can do is try to make plans on how I can accomplish this effort. I like the idea of uploading essentially a noobs playthrough of the Zelda games. But as yet, this dream sits beyond my reach.