Janitorial duty, trying not to get shanked, and punching people

These days, I’ve found ways to keep my homework load down as much as possible, and be able to play games. So as such, I’m actually playing three games equally.

Of the three, I’ve been playing a lot of Planescape: Torment.

 

I adore this game. The setting is fantastic, the party consists of RPG characters you’ve always wanted to be, the plot is complex but never confusing; seriously, it is a work of art. Outside the lackluster combat, (which isn’t the point of the game, but I wish it was more involving) everything else is still top notch stuff.

With modern games having a huge focus on morality, I’m still of the opinion that the way Torment (and to a lesser extent, the other CRPGs of the time like Fallout and Baldur’s Gate) pulls it off better than the contemporaries.

It’s not so much about being good, evil, or neutral, but just being you. Which okay, that sounds like a vapid facebook-generation marketing slogan, but Torment never feels like it punishes experimentation. Special mention has to go to being an evil character, which is absolutely chilling. You can do so much bad to people in non-violent ways. Right now, I’ll leave it at that, but seriously, its really cool. 

I’m enjoying the heck out of my stay in the city of Sigil. Despite how much I get shanked!

 

Sometimes, though I can only take so many knives to the kidney, so Dustforce, is a great pallet (and organ)  cleanser.

So far, Dustforce is okay. I don’t know if it’s just my computer sucking, or if it’s badly programmed; but most of the time it seems to be running at half speed. I’ve tried getting it to run faster by defragging my PC, setting my resolution at different settings, turning off graphical flourishes, and minimizing it, but nothing seems to make it smoother. 

But game design wise, it's good. The mechanics click with each other rather well.

However, any time I play it I get this sinking feeling that something’s missing. I don’t know quite what it is, but I can’t lose myself in it like I did with Bastion.

    

 

Other than that, I’m (still) dinking around with King of Fighters XIII, concluding that Clark is a destroyer of worlds.  I’m at the point where I’m starting to pull off Hyper Drive combos that take away 60-80% of an unlucky person's lifebar. Pulling these off feels really nice, like all my time in practice mode is paying off. 

The real fun of the game is playing it with my friends. The lot of them like it as much as I do. Can't say I hate it, being in company with a bunch of KOF fanatics is the bee-knees.

Sometimes, the little things are what you need.

2012 Hype Train

So inspiration has struck dry right now. As of late I've been mostly doing homework or playing King of Fighters XIII. 

Until then, I guess I'm here to do one of those “what we're excited for” list. So, all aboard the hype train. Next stop, 2012.  (wow, can I get more new games journalism?)


Under Night In-Birth

French Bread, I love your stuff. But please, and I mean this lovingly, buy an English dictionary before you name a game again. I have no idea how you came up with a title worse than “Melty Blood.”

Horrendous title aside, UNI-B is looking pretty snazzy. I'm a huge Melty Blood fan, so not only is it cool to see a talented group of developers break out from making fan games to a completely original ones; the game they're making looks fantastic.

French Bread and publisher Ecole, have been pretty tight lipped with info, but from the characters shown, huge sprites, giant slashes, and a breakneck speed, I think we're in for quite a treat.

Character with the best weapon: Linne or Orie

Skullgirls
Oh god another fighting game. By now it's pretty much impossible for me to say different nice things about the genre, because so many games are doing it well. Skullgirls just happens to be another one of those.

I don't know if it's going to live up to the hype, but I do like seeing that it's trying to fix what was broken with tag team games.

That being said, I can respect that. Fine tuned/well balanced tag team games seem to be in short supply, and with the kind of positive buzz around the tournament scene, I think Skullgirls is going to rock.

Character most likely to be played: Parasoul

Dustforce

 

I'm dying to play this. The concept is cute, it has a nice look, and the focus on building and sustaining momentum is a nice change from usual platformers.

 

I'm not far from saying that this might be closer to my dream game of “2D Jet Set Radio” than anything else. And it's also also is looking to contain a blissful soundtrack.

Best of all, it comes out Tuesday! Waiting is irrelevant!

Janitor most likely to be put on duty: Cool old guy with a leaf blower

Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown

Virtua Fighter 5 is the best 3D fighting game ever made. Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown will be an even better Virtua Fighter 5.

Deep. 

 

Character I'd like to kick in the throat most: This one ^ 

Dragon's Crown

Wow, if this list were to be put anywhere it would imply I have a bias towards arcade-style games. :P

Anyway, Dragon's Crown is looking like the successor to the excellent D&D arcade games. The game has been in development for a long time, director George Kamitani has had the idea in his head for about 13 years, originally planning it to be a Dreamcast game.

Either way, I adore 2D beat-em-ups, Vinillaware's gorgeous art, and the fact that Mr. Kamitani has gone on record saying that Dragon's Crown is his "dream game." 

 

You can only expect good things from here.

Character with least frightening amount of muscles: Wizard

So that's a brief glace at 2012. Unlike last year, I don't think there'll be too many disappointments.

Now if you excuse me, I've got a 100% KOF combo to practice. Those 1 frame links aren't going to link themselves! 

BastioRuga (spoilers)

If you've met me, you probably know I have two favorite video games.

- Ikaruga is my favorite.
- Bastion is my other favorite.

So I started thinking,“Why do I like these games over everything else?”

Then it hit me. Its because...

 Ikaruga and Bastion are the same game

What do I mean?

Well...

Both star a male protagonist, who is young, has white hair, and is a former soldier. Their ,stories take place in a nontraditional, post-apocalyptic setting.

Both heroes are guided by an old man who gives the hero a care package to fight evil.

Both games have a dark haired, vaguely aristocratic man from another culture as the antagonist.

Both games feature a dark haired female protagonist/love interest, from another culture, who dresses in a strange way.

Both games were made by a team that is less than ten people big.

Both games took about two years to make.

Both games revoke the ability to kill things in the final act.

Both games feature the theme of overcoming regret. 

Both games came out on a year that ends with "1"

Both endings are of the bittersweet variety, and take place in the sky. 

But yet, they're a little different...

Setting Sail, Coming Home

I've said some incredibly bitter things about games. 2011,  in my opinion, was a tough year for gaming. Sure, we got good games, one of them my second favorite game ever, but with the way big name developers are, it's pretty apparent that they're getting even greedier than before.

Because of that, gamers have become a lot more cynical. Myself included.

I see this as a double edged sword. On one hand, we're seeing fans call out developers on malpractice, the aforementioned greed, and cutting corners. Hell, things like fan activism actually worked. (my regards to Operation Rainfall.) I've also seen fan involvement change a game for the better. (Skullgirls)

One the other, it makes gamers less fun to be around. Many a person argue over game design despite not knowing much, if at all about it. (again, myself included, I need to get out of that habit.)

Then there's arguing about things that actually matter to the consumer. While usually people discussing said issues have their hearts in the right place, more often than not, it goes... overboard. Something I'm sure any current gamer has seen enough of. To me personally, keeping up with all of the drama issues is emotionally draining.

That isn't to say that I don't want people exploring “what makes games good,” I welcome more of this stuff, and honestly I bet I'll see more of it. Just I wish it could be in a better format than “internet flame war.”

Alright, I’m getting too ramble-y. My thoughts are these:

It's an uneasy time for gaming, the old model of how games used to “work” are slowly being deconstructed, reconstructed, subverted, and all those other TV Trope words. There's a lot of change going on, with not a lot of it being not necessary good or bad, but some kind of open-to-interpretation gray.

Thus, this leads to many people not knowing what to think of it all. And for plenty-a-person (me) to somewhat find a way to deal with this stuff, they think cynically and want things to go back to the “old days” which is just as open-to-interpretation gray as modern gaming.

Regardless of me trying to make sense of the industry and finding answers to the cornucopia of issues, I want to say one thing:

I'm tired of cynicism.

Like I said before, cynicism is draining, and with “not liking anything” being in vogue right now, it's hard to get away from it all.

Which is why I'm writing this new blog. I want a place where I can take a step back from how cynical and depressing gaming can be; Instead try to show how fun and creative games can be.

However, I'm not going to make this all sugar and rainbows though. (anyone ever taste the two together? It's kinda like lasagna.) I want to still have some subjective credibility due to my plentiful amount of opinions, but rather, instead of saying them outright, I'm going to express them with less bite and more praise.

Why am I saying this? The answer lies in something I have to confess.

I've been quite a jerk when I put my thoughts out there. I don't want to be that way anymore. I'm truly sorry if I was ever that way to you.

The concept and style I was trying to find on my previous writings like Mash to Win, Blog To Win, and Late To The Party, is what I found here. Something I'm really happy to know.

So, here's to a new start; The stepping stones to writing the blog I've always wanted to write.

I hope you can join me.


-Kam








P.S. It might also be a place where I geek out too.