Fright Night

Like I had mentioned last week, my experience with the horror genre in general is pretty limited. I've played a few of the Resident Evil games, most notably the 4th one—clocked in around 20 hours if memory serves. I've played, or was at least in the room watching, Fatal Frame back in the day. Silent Hill 2 comes to mind also, Sean and I played it together for a little while, trying to stave off the fear of it all by laughing at the ineptness the enemies displayed. I never beat any of these games and aside from Outlast, the only other horror game I've beaten was the first Dead Space.

I was always hearing from my friends that Dead Space was sick: Filled with cool weapons, having a creepy as hell atmosphere and being a ton of fun. And can I tell you that damn, was it ever! The only reason I actually sat down and played it though was because of my job. At the time I was working at EA and they were in a transition period so there wasn't much to do. The studio was on the verge of collaborating on Dead Space 2, so to get into the game I read a ton of design documents about the lore and I played the entirety of the original Dead Space.

From what I remember of the game—I did play it over 5 years ago after all—it was really fun. I don't remember it being ridiculously scary mind you; but the atmosphere they created in the game was insane. The thing with space is that it’s quiet: There's nothing outside the ship but emptiness. You hear the ship expanding and contracting and the echoes of the enemies just carry on forever throughout the ship. It's the kind of atmosphere I expect to see in that new Alien's games Alien Isolation.

As you may know I'm a huge sci-fi fan and while I'm not big on horror, the alien series did catch my eye after a while. So I got all the movies and watched them... Well at least the first 2, I could never really sit through the 3rd one and never bothered with resurrection. Alien Isolation is supposed to really hit home with the first movie in terms of atmosphere and overall terror the xenomorph is supposed to instill. Depending on how you approach the game, i.e. being slow and methodical or going fast and loose, Alien Isolation is supposed to take about 15 hours to beat, and boy does it look terrifying.

I'll probably pick it up one day, maybe not. I've heard it's more of a stealth game than it is horror, so that definitely bodes well for me, but do I really want to risk shitting bricks? Who knows! The self-loathing is strong in me some days.

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The Beauty of Turn-Based Combat Done Right, Pt. 2

It’s only fitting to be critical of things you hold dear. At least that’s my thinly veiled rationale for why I consider myself to be a horribly demanding JRPG enthusiast. I torture myself by playing almost any JRPG I can get my hands on, but often label my experiences as resoundingly mediocre.

Sadly, combat is generally worse. Turn-based RPGs (among my favourites in the genre) are particularly notorious for their static or inorganic presentation of visual information and feedback, with one side waiting to be assaulted before being able to strike back. Thankfully, I’ve come across hidden gems whose dormant depth is elevated by thoughtful cinematography and fluid animations. In part 2 of this 2-part series, I continue to outline what makes some of the genre’s best combat systems so great. This week I move into the obscure, and delve into some great oldies.

Legend of Legaia

Legend of Legaia has aged quite poorly. The game’s once cutting edge graphics are now crude 3D sprites that do Minecraft justice. Thankfully, the game’s combat is wonderful, even today. In order to attack enemies, the player chooses between high, low, weapon and magic attacks, which can be strung together similarly to certain fighting games. Interestingly, certain combination strings create special attacks.

The genius of this system is that it forces a player to impulsively chart out various combinations, in the hopes that stabbing a bee three times and then kicking it will also trigger a twirling fire uppercut.  Also noteworthy is how diverse these special attacks are, which goes a long way to alleviating the monotony of fighting the same common enemies over and over again.

Shadow Hearts: Covenant

Shadow Hearts: Covenant introduced a combat mechanic known as the Judgement Ring, which requires players to time a number of button-presses along a ring prior to attacking and negotiating price deals when shopping. Interestingly, some of the Shadow Hearts team were involved with the development of Lost Odyssey, which had a similar, if simplified, ring system present in their combat as well. I imagine that this ring is analogous to the torrent of emotions that flow through our minds prior to making a decision or engaging in some activity requiring a degree of our dexterity. It helps me to sleep when I over-intellectualize good game design.

Xenosaga Episode II

Ah the black sheep. Her burly wool is filled with sharp and pointed opinions that common enemy encounters should walk the line between obscene difficulty and carefully rendered attack strings that enable you to fell a series of enemies in several well thought-out combat attacks. It’s a dogmatic combat system which refuses to allow players to approach encounters any other way other than the single way required to defeat each enemy. What’s more, each character’s attack combos are imbued with particular properties, forcing players to constantly shift their party often during each combat scenario.

Needless to say, many people did not enjoy poor Xenosaga Episode II, and especially despised its combat. I am not one of these people. I felt that the game’s rigid system was refreshing. Combat encounters were more about trying to identify enemy weaknesses, and then exploiting them. In this way, first time encounters with new enemies lent themselves to a tense feeling of anxiety, similar to how I felt while playing Demons’ Souls. Also, the choreography used to telegraph attacks was splendid.

Final Thoughts

I’ve just covered six RPGs whose combat systems remain shining examples of turn-based combat done right. Each is refreshing in its uniqueness, as well as outwardly dynamic. My advice: in order to get the most of each, I urge you play them all at once. 

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Walking Dead: Season 1

Since Halloween is around the corner, I’d like to say that if you haven’t played The Walking Dead: Season 1, you should stop what you’re doing now and play it immediately. Seriously, don’t read past this sentence.

I never played said game until last week since it just got released on PS4. And boy do I feel like an idiot for waiting this long. Regardless, I’m nearly done Episode 4 and I can safely say that the game gets better and better the more you play through it.

The driving force is the dialogue, and I treat The Walking Dead: Season 1 more like an interactive graphic novel than a game. It’s basically a point and click adventure game. Besides this, you’re also forced to answer questions with limited time, and this affects other characters’ responses. I believe the end result in the story is the same, but the dialogue itself makes the journey with the cast worth it.

In the end, you make choices and I often found myself thinking if I truly made the right choice. I don’t think I can name another game that had me stop and think about my actions. Maybe BioShock? Even then, BioShock gave more of a “Good vs. Evil” vibe; The Walking Dead on the other hand isn’t as black and white. You often think you made the right choice, but the reactions from other characters aren’t what you expect. Some characters like getting sort of lied to, while others like a direct or brash approach.

In the end, you learn how to speak to these characters. I know many gamers that feel like they made mistakes with their decisions and restart at the previous checkpoint. I’ve been very tempted to do the same several times already, but so far I’ve avoided second guessing myself. What’s great is talking to other gamers about their decisions and their logic behind it.

If you haven’t played The Walking Dead: Season 1, I urge you to spend the couple of dollars for a truly great experience. It’s more than a game and that’s for sure.

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Disney Infinity 2.0: Toy Box Madness

In this week's installment of "Charlie loves Disney Infinity", we will cover the one aspect of the game that should be reason alone for your purchase: the toy box. Last week, I gave a fair review to the Avengers playset. It wasn't great but it wasn't bad either. The toy box is a whole new ball game my compatriots. Tag along as I implore you to discover the magical features of this game mode.

Firstly, it is in no way comparable to the original toy box from vanilla Disney Infinity. Everything was altered in the game mode, even the controls.  It takes some getting used to if you've been playing the original up until the release of the second. That being said, every change was carefully thought of and perfectly executed. Everything I had wanted in the original has made an appearance.

The new toy box allows you to port over all your previous items and unlockables in a genius manner. By simply placing your figures and playsets, the game automatically ports them over with whatever data you left them with. In other words, if your Cpt. Barbossa was level 15, he'll retain his level and you'll get all his unlocks too. It's a wonderful system that allows you to feel that all those hours spent with your characters weren't wasted. Hypothetically, this will also allow people a chance to unlock items without having to track down playsets you don't own. Say if your friend has the Cars playset, you should be able to just borrow it and place it onto your base to get all the items unlocked for the toy box. Genius; did I say that already? Well it is. Alternatively, using the in-game currency, you may also just purchase the items you need for characters through a new option that allows for the vanilla items to be in game stock.

Secondly, there is indeed a plethora of new items that will accompany your Marvel heroes quite nicely. You get fantastic new structures like the Avenger's tower and some new vehicles to boot. Disney original items have returned alongside some brilliant new ones. The first unlocks was King louie's throne. It's a beautiful piece to drop just about anywhere in your created world. The biggest surprise was the addition of the dragon's den, an item that was an exclusive to Disney theme parks. Not having to spend the crazy amount of dough to get it in-game is a well appreciated bonus. Something entirely new however, is the concept of pre-built games to customize your unique world. They offer pre-built templates for different games that you may have played at one time or another within the playsets. Some of these include gathering, destroying or combat. It adds another layer of fun and playability to your universe. Let's face it: sometimes the construction of your world was more enjoyable than running around within it. That's never the case here. Another option that they added was the builders. You may now place builder units to randomize and create specific structures for you. For example, you may place city builders to build you a city rather than manually placing buildings until you get something you deemed a city.

In addition, they added an interior design mode. In essence, you get to build the interiors of buildings you place in the world. You can place couches, lamps, change the wallpapers and tinker with a vast amount of other editable aspects. As if you thought you spent enough time building a world, these interiors will take hours as you perfect your very own house. Similarly, the power disks make a return with brand new time wasters. I spent a solid hour running around as Drax with the Ghost Rider's Whip disk. I whipped me a mess of baddies. It's mindless, but it's fun. Something different with the power disks is that they have two new classes of disks. You have the costume change disks that if coupled with the right character, they'll change their appearance, e.g. Iron man's third movie costume. They also added team-up disks. This allows you to summon an ally to come to your aid. It requires you to fill a meter but shortly after, you can unleash Yondu or Winter Soldier to wreck havoc.

All in all, the Toy box left me with no regrets. This was clearly the focus for Disney infinity 2.0, as it should be. It's a whole lot of fun and can even be outrageous at times. Try stacking multiple layers in your world and toss in some baddies to see what happens. Maybe you just want to fly around an obstacle course or re-envision the Grand Canyon. It's all here. All the tools you could possibly need are given to you. Now go get the game and create whatever your wee heart desires!

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A Rebuttal For eSports

Recently there was an article that went up titled My problem with eSports and after reading it, I noticed that I felt about the same way towards real sports as he did about eSports. Throughout my life, I've loved playing football. My dad is a coach and I played it during my formative years, from Atom all the way to Midget. I couldn’t get enough of it but the actual act of watching it never really caught my attention. And this goes for most sports: I just never really found it very fun.

This changed slightly when I started watching professional League of Legends, like Adam said in his article. I first started off watching streams to get better. I had heard a lot of streamers studied VoD’s (Video on Demand) of their games to see mistakes and strategies used by their opponents, similar to the way other sports teams might do it. So I figured why not learn from the “best” and see what I can pick up. Overtime I grew to like and enjoy the streamers.

The first streamer I ever started to watch outside of attempting to better myself was Dyrus. Now Dyrus has been around for a long time in the competitive scene and it’s weird to say but I’ve seen him develop over time and become a better player, eventually establishing himself as a dominant force in the League community. The weird part is this is exactly like following the career of a college football player. You see there are a lot of similarities between eSports and real sports, aside from the physicality. There's really not that much different and I think that's why so many people gravitate towards eSports. If you ask a sports fan there’s something innately fun about watching a good game even if you're not invested in the teams; if it’s a good back and forth it’s fun to watch. The same goes for League of Legends: you can watch two teams of unskilled nobodies go at it and if they know what they're doing, the games are incredible to watch. Streaming has made this extremely accessible for the fanbase. At any given moment you can go onto Twitch and see actual competitive League of Legend play, which isn’t as easy with all sports.

The biggest factors though for me are the teams and the players. Professional League of Legends is broken up into five major divisions. There's the North American division (NA LCS), the Europeans (EU LCS), the Korean Championship League (OGN), the Chinese League (LPL) and lastly, the south-east Asian group Garena Premier League (GPL). These divisions each have their own stable of teams all playing against one another during the regular season fighting for the top spots to go to worlds, while at the same time there's also the Challenger division.

When you think about Challenger, consider it the minors to the majors and it’s built up of several teams all jockeying for a spot in the majors. The top twenty teams that climb the ladder in-game are pitted against each other weekly and accumulate wins and losses. After the regular season finishes, the top three teams go up against the bottom three teams in an attempt to knock them out of the LCS (League Championship Series) and take their places. This is honestly one of my favourite aspects of the competitive scene as it allows you to see teams come and go, and it keeps the game from becoming stale. If a team is on a massive losing streak there’s consequences; it forces the players to recognize their position and strive to better themselves or get relegated and have to fight their way back.

The last thing—which I think is the most important—is the viewer to pro interactions that go on in eSports. In eSports there’s not even remotely as much money as in traditional sports, which makes sense, but it forces the players to look for alternative sources of income, which basically means computer equipment sponsorships and streaming. The latter portion leads a lot of players to have great relationships with the community because you're never gonna see a professional hockey player practicing and simultaneously interacting and entertaining a crowd, which is what these guys do on a daily basis.

You see, professional League is a job. Professional players have to play eight to twelve hours a day just to stay relevant in the scene. And I’m not trying to say that they lead the hardest life out there, far from it, but it builds camaraderie and friendship between the players and the people who watch them. All of this culminates into these rabid fan bases you see for these teams because the community feels a personal investment in these players. They want to see them succeed because they know that they can do awesome things. I’ve been a fan of Team SoloMid (TSM) since I started watching the LCS and they have these insane fans—and they really are insane. They're the most diehard group of people out there and they constantly just chant TSM over and over again at live competitions. This affects the players: they’ve come out of so many do or die situations as the winners. It's insane to watch and the feeling you get as a fan watching this is the same as watching any other team you like succeed. eSports may not be considered a “real” or a “traditional” sport but like the wrestling fans of my childhood used to say, "It’s real to me damn-it."

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The Beauty Of Turn-Based Combat Done Right, Pt. 1

It’s only fitting to be critical of things you hold dear. At least, that’s my thinly veiled excuse for why I consider myself to be a horribly demanding JRPG enthusiast. I torture myself by playing almost any JRPG I can get my hands on, but often label my experiences as resoundingly mediocre.  What’s that you say? The world is on the brink of social and economic collapse and only my group of 13-year old amnesiacs can save it? And the best way to accomplish this feat is by inexplicably approaching and engaging in conversations with strangers, and accruing riches by ransacking village homes and talking to their dogs? The genre is silly and bloated by so many tropes that a part of me dies every time I see one spring to life in yet another pre-industrial world whose basis for religion, art and culture has flourished from one of four crystals.

Sadly, combat is generally worse. Turn-based and tactical RPGs (among my favourites in the genre) are particularly notorious for their static or inorganic presentation of visual information and feedback, with one side waiting to be assaulted before being able to strike back. Thankfully, I’ve come across hidden gems whose dormant depth is elevated by thoughtful cinematography and fluid animations. In part 1 of a 2-part series, I detail what makes some of the genre’s best combat systems so great.

Front Mission 5

The Front Mission series is generally distinguished from its contemporaries for leaning quite heavily on its tactical bend, at the expense of its light RPG mechanics. In fact, Front Mission is not traditionally even considered an RPG; though I’m somewhat lenient using the term myself, and thus include it within the genre.

Your party consists of Wanzers, predominantly bipedal mecha that can be completely customized, similar to the Armored Core series. Whenever a party member attacks or is attacked by a foe, the camera pans in to a scene of the two Wanzers attacking one another. Front Mission 5, one of the most recent entries in the series, takes things a step forward by introducing links, a system which enables allies and enemies within range of the selected attacker to participate in combat too. Combat skirmishes feel busy and dynamic, but are grounded in a turn-based design. It’s brilliant, frankly.

Resonance of Fate

I assert that Nolan North’s singular purpose in life was to play as Vashyron, a blond devil may care mercenary who’s day-to-day involves attacking mutants and dressing like Ryo Hazuki from Shenmue. Also, the combat in Resonance of Fate  is stunning. Each of your three party members takes turns moving along a single line while building up an attack metre, enabling them to shoot at enemies. Each party member can equip handguns, machine guns, or grenades, with each serving a very specific role in combat. It’s a droll explanation for arguably the most stylish combat system in the genre:

Valkyrie Profile

There’s a poetic beauty to how Valkyrie Profile’s combat plays out: the player attacks enemies by using four party members, each of which is assigned to one of the PS1/PSP’s four face buttons. Its simplicity and innovative approach to combat both hold up really well, even today. Much of the system’s depth lies in its ability to allow players to time their attacks, cascading one party member’s animations into another’s so as to maximize damage:

Tune in next week, where I’ll discuss three other JRPGs whose turn-based combat systems are marvellously entertaining. Or don’t, and live the rest of your meaningless and dynamic life in ignorance. 

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Dear Destiny

Dear Destiny,

I first saw you in the flesh at Adam’s house; and after the brief moment I had with you, I knew I wanted you. So bad. Without hesitation, I woke up next morning to find you at Best Buy and had to pick you up. I drove home with you by my side and we had hours of fun on our first one-on-one.

It’s been almost a month since we’ve first met, and I still have the same feelings for you as I did when I first met you. We’ve been through quite a bit so far, so much so that I’ve been counting the hours. 72 hours and counting. It’s just that I’m crazy for you and every moment without you feels like forever.

At this point, all I’m doing is grinding. I’m not going to complain about it, grinding has been tons of fun, but I expected more. You told me your story, and I’ve heard it again and again. It wasn’t anything special but you still made me smile when it got down to the action.

All this is great, however I’m left feeling worried. Worried because I’ve been seeing you on a daily basis and that the past few weeks have been nothing but grinding. I think I wanted to keep you for the long haul, you know, build a long-term relationship with you, as you had mentioned. However, being with you so much is taking a toll on me, and I would like to have some space.

Please allow for both of us to have a few days off. We can talk about it later.

Yours truly,

A complete loser.

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Play Outlast This Halloween

Campeau had it right last weekwhen we talked about Killing Floor: It is Halloween week pretty much. All the stores are filled with candy and decorations that will all go on sale November 1st, so why not talk about something scary? Before we started this blog, the PS4 had come out and I had gotten into a habit of streaming pretty much anything I played. I didn't have a huge following, but it was growing. One of the games that helped me the most in this cause was Outlast; for some reason, people like to laugh at people shitting their pants on a live stream.

When I was a kid I couldn't handle anything scary; not movies, nor TV shows, and especially not games. I would avoid that stuff at all costs. Nowadays I'm not so bad. Inherently I'm a fairly jumpy person with this sort of thing, so jump scares are the bane of my existence, but I can get through a scary movie or game no problem.

I still do have reservations with scary games over movies though. Games are just so much worse, with the entire ambiance the developers put in. You're usually more scared when nothing is happening then when some crazy naked asylum freaks are hunting you down. That part is scary too, but only for so long.

Outlast was a fun game and it was pretty scary too. It's not overly long (you can beat it within 2-4 hours if you know what you are doing) but the first time I beat it, it probably took around 6-8 hours. It has a problem with repetition after a while though. Basically you explore, get a bit of story and then get stuck in an area. The only way continue is by finding 3-4 objects around the area (usually filled with crazed lunatics) and then using these objects to fix or move whatever is blocking your progression. Rinse and repeat. It doesn't take too much away from the game since the formula does work, but a little variety never hurt anyone if you know what I mean.

The thing with scary games is that they aren't really scary forever. Sure the jump scares might get you every time, but after a while (normally after you die at least a few times) you start just getting used to it, because there just isn't a severe penalty for dying. You run and run and run away from an enemy with no way to defend yourself, get stuck in a corner and die...then you just reappear at the check point and try it again, while making sure you don't get stuck in the same corner this time. After that happens a few times, all the anxiety and fear the game has instilled in you at this point starts to dissipate.

I'm not exactly sure what the fix would be. Outlast has a mode in it where if you die, you have to restart from the very beginning. If you were to play this mode on your first play through, I'm sure the anxiety would stay with you the entire time, but it wouldn't be the right kind of anxiety. I feel as though you would be more frustrated than scared if you kept dying and having to restart. The mode is cool, but only if you've beaten the game before and know what you are doing.

In any case, if you are looking for something to play over Halloween, look no further than Outlast. It is a fun, scary-ass game that will get you to jump out of your seat no problem. I beat it three times but have yet to try the expansion. I hear good things though. Also it's from a Canadian developer, so win for the Canucks!

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Crucible Is My Destiny

The long awaited Bungie adoption has arrived, with a loadout that will flood your Halo nostalgia with warm fuzziness. I, for one, played upwards of 12 hours of Destiny on the first day and haven't been this addicted to a game since Halo 3. This unique re-creation of the 'Halo ideal' steers clear of 343 industries' botched COD-style Halo and offers the meat and potatoes of any true franchise fan. This is clearly a Bungie game. For those of like-mind and the individuals that believed Halo 2 and 3 were the height of console gaming, you will truly appreciate the single-player to multiplayer transition. The seamlessness that Bungie/Activision created is a genuinely innovative and revolutionary idea. The concept of bringing in-game single-player 'loot' to a multiplayer setting has yet to be achieved so successfully. Yes, you heard correctly: single-player RPG 'loot' into an arena style FPS PvP.

The most beautiful aspects of this game are the most simple. The idea of summoning a pocket rocket bike in 1.5 seconds changes the entire speed of play, and the wonderfully nostalgic Halo-esque music that begins to drum away in PvE firefights, for instance. It feels like Unreal Tournament mixed with Borderlands and Halo to create some freakishly different, exotic game. To the Halo fans that love the moon boots, they're back. Everyone gets jetpacks (unlike in Reach) so the ninja moves are real and fun as hell. The beauty of this MMORPGFPS is it's ability to diversify multiplayer settings incredibly quickly.

Nonetheless, Destiny has a few daunting features: a soft level cap of 20 leaves it open to quick and shallow criticism. The multiplayer's Titan smash is arguably too powerful and some vehicles need to be nerfed but otherwise the game is well balanced. The AI is moderately intelligent but overall quite predictable yet, it is extremely entertaining to kill nonetheless. The 'worlds' are large but not overwhelmingly awe-inspiring. Nor do they have a sense of endlessness that you would expect from a sandbox title. Regardless, there is a lot to explore with winding sub-level 'dungeons' to keep anyone entertained for extended periods of time.

If Destiny is carried properly onto the competitive platform, it has endless potential. The armour variants offered add countless complexities to multiplayer gameplay. The minute stat boosts offered through a wide variety of armour tweaks individualize play styles tremendously. Every player needs to understand their play style intimately to maximize their gear's efficiency. Destiny has the precision and fluidity of the Halo series but the gear complexities of great RPG. It re-introduced the beautifully simple, yet perfect concept of 'weapons on map': The brilliant idea whereby teams need to fight for control of key areas that spawn 'power weapon ammo'. While this game has the potential to be too far reaching to the point of self-harm, it is by no means a Molyneaux game (Fable 2-3). As long as the publishers release competitive outlets for its more genuine gamer audience, it has a lot of potential. That is, after all, the Halo way.

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The Killing Floor

The zombies are back only this time they're not zombies, they're more like creepy lab experiments with zombie-like tendencies. Lately I’ve been playing a lot of Killing Floor which I picked up last year during the steam sale and hadn’t really gotten into playing it until lately. A friend of mine and I were looking for a co-op shooter to play and the horror theme of Killing Floor seemed right up our alley.

The game has an interesting story but it’s not at the forefront; it’s more hidden through dialogue in the objective gametype maps. From what I understand, you and your friends play as the military dropped into hostile areas around England and its countryside, with the sole task of cleaning up failed military cloning experiments, and you can't leave until they’ve all been dealt with.

There’s a ton of maps to play on—either in-game or community created—and they're all fairly open allowing you to adapt to situations and waves differently. For example: bottlenecking weak enemies that can swarm you at a choke point or using large open areas to more easily kite and kill the larger and stronger “Zeds” safely.

When you start the game it comes off as being a lot harder than it really is and it’s because the game has a slight learning curve. Most times when you play a horde-mode game they're slightly more forgiving with the early waves and Killing Floor is no different. But for a new player you won't realize how much damage and how easily the zeds can kill you. Add in the fact that their attacks slow you down, so getting caught in a crowd of even the weakest enemies can mean a quick death. Once you get a hang of the game and its controls, you learn how to kite and kill your enemies while at least attempting to keep them at arm's reach.

Killing Floor also has a class system with perks. They all have their own strengths and weapons, but that doesn't mean if you were playing as a commando you couldn't use a weapon that's good for a demolitionist. The only sideeffect to doing so is that it would just deal less damage because class perks increase damage and capacity while reducing overall weapon costs. Speaking of costs, the game rewards you for kills with cash and a bounty at the end of each round, which you then spend on better weapons, ammo, and body armor, all of which are pretty much necessary if you want to survive till the end.

Now the game has a wide variety of enemies. There’s clots, which are basically cannon fodder and only dangerous if there's a whole lot of them. Then there's gorefast which are a little bigger and angrier than a clot, and also weild a massive sword for an arm. There's also bloats which are massive bloated corpses that puke acid on you; stalkers which are invisible naked women; crawler's,a man spider hybrid that’s straight out of my nightmares; and husks, giant men with a rocket launchers for a hand. There's also sirens which are horrifying women in straitjackets who do a giant AOE scream attack; scrakes which are psychotic men who run at you with a chainsaw and lastly the two toughest enemies: Fleshpounds and Patriarchs.

Now Fleshpounds are these walking behemoths with metal fused to their bodies and giant spiked clubs at the end of each arm. They also have these massive glowing lights in their chest which lets you know there mood. Yellow means all good and red means I am to murder you and everything you love. Once the light turns red, they get increased movement and attack speed and if you don't kill them quick enough they can easily kill a group. Last but definitely not least is the Patriarch. Now the patriarch is the final boss who you fight in a bonus wave after you’ve been to each level. He’s definitely nothing to laugh at; you have to work as a team if you want even a hope of taking him down. He has a massive health bar and invisibility. He's also equipped with a chain gun and a rocket launcher that can kill you in one shot. He’s also the smartest of the enemies. Once you’ve weakened him he'll run away and hide to regain his health and come after you again, so you have to actively hunt him down or else he is nearly impossible to kill. He’ll pick you off one by one making it even harder to kill him in the end.

Killing Floor has seen a lot of love from the community over the years and has a cult following. I was surprised when I logged into it to see how many servers and active players there were. I’ve never started a game and had it just be me and my friend till the end, which surprised me considering the game is fairly old. Another cool note is that they do holiday updates, like for example: as of Yesterday (October 16th, 2014) and on until the 3rd of November, there’s a Halloween event where they reskin the enemies in festive and horrifying outfits. The same goes for Christmas and honestly it’s worth checking out around the holidays because nothing says Christmas cheer like blowing Santa's head clean off. If you’re looking for a shooter to play with a bunch of friends and battle back hordes of mutated freaks, look no further than Killing Floor! It’s on sale on steam now all the way to the 30th of October. There’s also a sequel on the way but there isn’t much info on it just yet, just a couple screen shots and some teaser footage.

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Final Fantasy Type-0 SD: Shouldering the Weight of the PSP’s Failure

Some call me a contrarian. I am often easily swayed by an impulse to eschew popular opinion in favour of obscure alternatives. Take the PSP for instance: I was quite fond of it, and would have gladly purchased several million units of it if I could. That way, the other three people here in North America who purchased the handheld wouldn’t have had to shoulder the unnerving burden of each representing 25% of their chosen market. 

But I digress. For a while, I held onto the belief that Final Fantasy Type-0 would come out here in the West. Whenever I ate food, I imagined that my body was being replenished to live to see the day that Type-0 was packed with English vowels and, if I may be brave enough to say, the occasional meme-worthy scenewhich would cause the internet to grossly exaggerate the comedic value of re-interpreting often culturally specific Japanese ideologies into suitable Americanized banter.

Again, I am digressing. The point of this post is to move beyond petty sarcasm. Several weeks back, I heard that Final Fantasy Type-0 was finally coming out herein the West. However, imagine my (contrarian) surprise when I heard that the game would be released in HD for the PS4 and XBOX One, but not the PS Vita. See, when I purchased a PS Vita several years back, I imagined my PSP’s soul being reborn into its successor. My rational understanding to play portable games on a portable system has since been met with the unfortunate decision by Square Enix to not release Type-0 on the Vita.

So I’ve done the only sensible thing that I could imagine doing when faced with such news: I purchased a PS4 and XBOX One. No, I didn’t. What I really did was pick up a copy of Type-0 for the PSP, and downloaded a patch to play the game in English.  

I haven’t actually put more than a few hours into the game itself yet, but plan on discussing the game in more detail in the coming weeks. Until then, I have a PSP and Vita that require my love and support; I wouldn’t want them to turn into maladjusted adults with faltering self-esteem issues.

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1313: What Never Was

I'm not the biggest Star Wars fan out there but I can still enjoy the series, and I damn sure respect it. I sort of see Star Wars the same way I see the Beatles: I'm a huge Beatles fan, and considering they were together for less than a decade, the shear amount of quality music they put out is crazy. People can choose not to listen or even enjoy them, sure, but they have to at least appreciate and respect what they did. I see Star Wars in the same light. I happen to be a fan of the genre, but personally I've always been more of a Star Trek kinda guy. All that being said, what makes Star Wars so fantastic is its extended universe. There's a stupid amount of novels released for the series and it's pretty impressive how they've never really slowed down. There is so much source material there for anything: games, movies, TV shows, comics... not sure what else you can turn it into, but you get the point! Some of the best stuff doesn't even have a Jedi involved.

For instance, the recently canceled Star Wars: 1313 was going to be about the Coruscant underworld; bounty hunters abound and scum of the earth running rampant. The E3 demo video they had released before Disney purchased Lucasfilm was pretty crazy, and to say that Disney's decision to cancel the game was a disappointment would be an understatement. In any case, the way that Disney is handling the control of Marvel is reason enough to have some hope for the Star Wars franchise and hopefully its future games and not just movies / TV shows.

There is still Battlefront 3 to look forward to though, and considering DICE is handling the development, you can expect it to be good. I know I haven't been the biggest fan of the Battlefield franchise of late, but with a fresh coat of Star Wars paint on it, who knows, maybe it will be better by proxy...at least I hope so.  Unfortunately not much is known about Battlefront 3. Last E3 there was a teaser for it, and DICE released a dev-blog type video for it, where they went on to express their enthusiasm for working with this franchise, but not much else.

Back to the books. Just to give you a little bit of an idea for how many novels comprise the expanded universe of Star Wars, have a gander at this photo:

That's not even all of them. There is another page I did not bother capturing that shows all the novels that take place years after the original trilogy. While I have not actually read any of these novels, I do know some shit does go down. It's also really cool that the novels come with a timeline. There is just so many books, and for anyone just starting out, it's kind of intimidating / daunting to figure out where to go. Speaking of which, I actually picked one of these up the other day. I decided to start with Scoundrels, since it's the first novel after episode IV that actually has characters I know in it...all those "Tales From" books are anthologies of short stories, which I knew I did not want to start with. Let's see how into this I become.

For curiosities sake, has anyone read a handful of these? Where did you start and why?

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Basterds Unchained‏

Like many others in the Gamer Basement crew, I have been plagued by the Destiny bug. It’s all that I’ve been playing and I don’t feel like bothering readers with yet another Destinypost.

To combat my Destiny addiction, I’ve resorted to keeping myself busy — which mostly means work, but also watching movies. A bunch of my friends from work have been yelling “Enzo Gorlomi”, “Dominic DeCocco” or, the best one in my opinion “Antonio Margheriti”. In case you don’t know, that’s a reference to the movie Inglourious Basterds.

Why do I mention Inglourious Basterds? Because, it could be an amazing game! While I love Quentin Tarantino’s style in movies, it might not translate well as a game — especially long conversations — but then I remember how Metal Gear Solid 4 was exactly that, and I think it would be cool to see Mr. Tarantino dip his toes in the media.

With the new Silent Hill game involving Guillermo del Toro and Hideo Kojima, I feel that it would only be natural to see more directors involved in helping to make games. I don’t want to bash video games as a whole, but most can’t hold a light to movies in terms of storytelling. They’re allowed to have a less developed story or plot because games aren’t only about story, but also about gameplay.

I guess directors aren’t in it for the money. Just kidding. If Tarantino would make a movie tie-in video game, I bet you he’d make great ones, or at least gain some sort of cult following like Suda 51 has.

Sure, they made a Reservoir Dogs video game, but it was like 10+ years after the movie and Tarantino wasn’t involved, so it was doomed to fail. And what would make “next-gen” games next-gen? Having a different breed of game. Like a hybrid game/movie a la Metal Gear Solid 4. A hybreed.

For now, I can only dream of how awesome a Django Unchained or a Kill Bill video game would be.

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Disney Infinity 2.0, Part 1: Enter the Avengers

You've got your Iron Man, your Thor and your Hulk at the end of the month. What else do you need? Perhaps a bit more some substance. Disney Infinity 2.0 has been one of my most anticipated games for quite some time now. Take the magic of the first game and add a hefty cast of Marvelcharacters; the results sounded like a match made in heaven. By all means, it is definitely a fantastic team-up, with a few disappointments drizzled into the Avengers playset.

Disney infinity 2.0 is very much the same as the original but with quite a decent and well needed amount of upgrades. New skill trees will have you anticipating your favorite Avenger's super powers as they're gradually unlocked at a decent enough pace. A new combat system to accompany the new skill set is also absolutely fantastic. My gal and I have been playing non-stop and she simply can't get enough of flying around with Iron Man and unleashing all forms of death beams. It's a simple system that expands on the original by adding easy command. You may now hold your attack trigger to unleash one more, click another trigger to unleash a super, hold jump and a bumper to fly. It's all incredibly entertaining but simple, the charm of this series. The attention to detail on the characters themselves is brilliant. For example, Iron Man's flight is sweet and all but when Thortakes to the air, he's followed by a whirlwind of air which further demonstrates the speed he's flying at. Black Widow has an appropriately feminine and attractive hip-sway walk. The effects are bright and colorful and so are the humorous interactions of characters. There are a plethora of vocalisations that will leave you smiling. Since we had pre-ordered, we got Groot as our bonus free figure and we discovered that even the Avengerswill interact with him. You can't help but glee at the first time you hear the exchange: "I.Am.Groot." replied by Thor's "Yes....you are indeed Groot".  In essence, the characters are exceptionally wonderful. They feel severely more sophisticated than the initial cast and are far more immersive.

As a result, the playset for the Avengers is fun simply because you get to mess around with the cast via objective based missions and that is all. The Avengers playset is unfortunately the downside to your entire Disney Infinity 2.0 experience. It's not entirely bad, it's simply disappointing. When we first bought the original Disney Infinity, we were given three playsets in one. All three of those playsets took a few days to complete and were entirely fun. Even the frustrating bits were entertaining and bloody hell, you got to take part in sailing the seven seas and mess up some bad mothas in ship battles. This time around, you spend the same amount for one playset and two mini-game disks.  The Avengers playset started off fun. Initially, we were awed by how big the city was and the character abilities. Then it went downhill from there. Missions constantly repeated themselves and we found ourselves doing the exact same thing throughout the whole playset. It was both dull and frustrating. Sure, there's some fantastic cameos by Sif, Waspand Cpt.Marvel (Carol Danvers, who's one of my favorites), but there was nothing to keep us going except for empty promises. The antagonists are Lokiand Modok, which is fantastic, if only we were able to battle them. There's one Loki boss fight right at the beginning and that's it. We have no idea what happens to Modok afterwards. Supposedly, if you collect all the coins in the city, you unlock the option to play as Rocket and Nova. Through them, you face Modok. Which is the dumbest decision I have yet seen. Nova comes in the Spider-Manplayset which is another $35-45 and Rocketis another fifteen. Why would you have to spend more to get the entirety of the main storyline? They could've easily added some other obscure antagonist for those characters to face off against but why limit us to only one half of the bloody game? It feels stupid and if you're on a budget, you won't get the full experience within the first few weeks. WHAT!!? It's one of those two steps forward and one step backwards situations. The game is still great and you won't really be playing the playsets much other than to get all the unlocks for the toybox. However, it was such a pleasant surprise in the original game to find out that the playsets weren't just a bonus but a genuine fun and clever experience. You won't get that here in Avengers.

All in all, the game is fantastic; it truly is. You get a plethora of fantastic characters with different play-styles that will fill you with joy. Just don't expect much enjoyment out of their default story adventure. You'll get a few giggles as you run rampant in the city but that will be short lived. Oh well: perhaps the Spider-Man and Guardians playset will prove to be better. I'll make sure to review those as soon as I get my greedy little hands on them. Stay tuned for the second part of my Disney Infinity 2.0 article, as I delve into the far superior ToyBox mode, which will guarantee your need to own this game. Until then, ride some rainbows and wreck havoc with an Iron Suit.

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Dishonored Stories Filled With Whale Oil And Clone-Faced Guards

Lastweek I spoke briefly about Mark of Ninja’s impeccable blend of visual aesthetic and stealth. Since then, I’ve put another few hours into the game, which have served to reinforce my initial perceptions of the game. I’ve also begun thinking more and more about Dishonored, a game I played a while back which felt fairly similar.

Of Whale Oil and Clone-Faced Guards

Much like Mark of the Ninja, my time with Dishonored was largely positive. Much of my impression of the game was due to its tone, pace and relatively open maps, which offered the flexibility to approach missions in a large number of ways—similarly to Mark of the Ninja.

More than these qualities though, I felt that much of the story that transpired throughout my time with Dishonored was forgettable: the sociopolitical machinations that served as the subtext for Corvo’s actions throughout the game felt wafer thin in terms of their depth, and belied what could have been a much more captivating tale about whale oil. That’s about the only lasting piece of terminology that has stuck with me about Dishonored.

Fortunately, the general lack of compelling storytelling was offset by the carefully constructed aesthetics surrounding each mission. While the world’s locations, culture and history all felt non-existent or else poorly conveyed to the player, my imagination tended to naturally populate these unknowns, thanks in part to how wonderful the art direction was for the game.

What resulted was a compelling personal narrative which I built over the existing story. My Corvo was a contemplative loner, who chose to keep silent because he felt contempt for the lack of solid writing which went into characterizing him and his world. Killing felt unnatural because all of the guards he had the option of killing looked exactly the same. My Corvo secretly feared that he too looked like these guards under his mask, and so chose to avoid killing anyone altogether.

Of Human Oil and Clone-Faced Guards

Similarly, I fitted a contextual narrative around Mark of the Ninja while playing it. I began as an earnest ninja, silently moving past enemies. Once I completed my first mission, I was presented with a scorecard, detailing all the enemies which I left alive. For not killing anyone, and for not being detected, I was awarded a paltry amount of supplemental points; what amount to the equivalent of killing and hiding six guards was reward for passing through a level in which there was easily three or four times this many guards. Sure they left my ninja cave and went home to study for their finals in looking like clone goons, but I was poorer for it.

As the game progressed, I opted to become an increasingly efficient assassin, and would kill every guard, carefully hiding them afterwards. Now when I escape from castles and derelict buildings, I leave only dogs alive. The rest of the enemies are carefully tucked away in vents and bins. Maybe their bodies eventually smell something fierce, and eventually decompose into what I assume is human oil.

Essentially, I feel that both Dishonored and Mark of the Ninja’s subdued storytelling is to their benefits.  As a result, I am able to make sense of my actions much like I would in a character-creation Western RPG, such as Elders Scrolls or Fallout.  I wondrously await the next half-baked story to bastardize and populate with a wholly inaccurate rendition of the world that the developers intended for the player. Until then, I suppose.  

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Super Smash In Your Pocket

Well the time has come, Super Smash Bros 3DS is here and I no longer have a social life...unless you count playing online, but that's not really social now is it? I’ve been playing Super Smash Bros. since back when it came out on the N64- back when the roster was just 12 loveable fan favourites, all from their own franchises. That roster seems tiny compared to the current roster of 49 characters that they've implemented—with an extra 3 tacked on for the Mii fighters—it seems things have changed quite a bit over the years and a lot of it's for the better.

So since its release, I’ve been spending most of my time playing Smash. The initial grind was for characters and stages but now I find myself trying to unlock more and more challenges and grinding away at them. That’s not to say it's a bad thing, honestly, it’s been the most fun of the game just trying to get better and better scores, more KOs and just general challenge oriented playing of the game. Now I’m not gonna lie to you and say that "I’ve played everyone" and "I've done everything in the game" just yet, but I have played my fair share and so far and it’s been a ton of fun. New characters, new stages to explore and new game types to try out—whether it's old favourites like Home Run Smash or the new Target Attack, you’re bound to find something you love. The new Target Attack is actually a play on Angry Birds, it's surprisingly a ton of fun and that's coming from someone who can’t stand Angry Birds.

I’ve played most of the new roster—except for a few that are just outside of my wheelhouse—and all in all I have to say everyone seems like they would be fun to play in the hands of the right players. I actually have gravitated to the Mii fighters over anyone else; although I find it a little disappointing that they can't be played online (I guess it’s for balancing issues).

One of the really cool improvements they've made on the game are the Omega stages, which basically removes the random elements from a stage but keeps the aesthetic and music, essentially turning every stage into a themed Final Destination, which is awesome. Normally with Smash Bros., there are some stages you just don’t play because some ridiculous elements make them unplayable in a fair fight kind of situation, but that's all gone now thanks to the Omega levels. I found it kind of boring after a while in SSB: Brawl because my friends and I would only play the same 5 to 6 stages, but now any stage can be played without that looming sense of “you won cause of some bullshit.”

I’m not gonna get into too much detail about the characters, because discovering moves and combos is innately part of the fun of the game, but I have to admit that the new editions to the roster have been a ton of fun. The slight changes they’ve made to the old characters have been really nice too. I honestly was really surprised by the game; I didn’t think it was going to be bad, but I had no idea how good it was going to be.

I also expected the controls on the 3DS to be average but I was really surprised at how responsive they were and how quickly I was able to pick it up and play. As someone who hasn’t bought a Wii U yet, I was actually really excited to hear that Smash was going to come out for the 3DS. It was nice knowing I didn’t have to buy a brand new console to play one of my favorite franchises and the game is well-polished to boot.

There's also a competitive online mode that I haven't put too much time into yet just cause of lag and some difficulty with patching but that's the next step for me. I’m gonna post another update next week after giving the game some more time and comment on any meta’s or power rankings I’ve noticed after taking a crack at the ranked mode.

So far, this game has been amazing, and the ease of access for playing local multiplayer is insane! It takes nothing to start up a lobby and start playing with your friends, kudos to Nintendo. If you don’t already have it, you should go out and get it because this is definitely one of the better Super Smash games they’ve come out with.

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