A Valiant Effort

Over the past few weeks I’ve had the chance to put a few hours into a game that I’ve been curious to try since it came out: Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale (referred to hereafter as just “All-Stars”). Anyone who sees All-Stars in action will immediate note its similarity to the games of the Super Smash Brothers series (referred to hereafter as just “Smash Bros”). Having playing and enjoyed the games in the Smash Bros series, I was curious to see how All-Stars stacked up by comparison. That said, I have to admit that I came to All-Stars with a fair amount of bias against it. When a particular type of game has been so thoroughly dominated by a single series for so long, there is a tendency to view newcomers with suspicion and sometimes even contempt. Having played the Smash Bros games for so long, I was a bit skeptical when All-Stars was announced and the initial details and gameplay footage came out. It was going to be a mediocre game. It had to be. Only Smash Bros can do this sort of game right. It was with these prejudices that I began my foray into All-Stars, but after several weeks of on and off play I am pleased to say that All-Stars is better than I expected, though it certainly has room for growth.

  

Any discussion of strengths and weakness of All-Stars as compared to Smash Bros will inevitably be dominated by game mechanics, so that is where I’ll begin. All-Stars works in much the same way as Smash Brothers, but with one critical difference.  In Smash Bros you and up to three opponents spawn on a stage and your goal is to knock your opponent(s) off the stage such that they cannot get back on it and go out of bounds. When you strike an opponent you increase their meter, which is visible under their name-card. As the meter increases they are knocked back further with each attack, making it easier for them to be sent flying off the stage. Each time an opponent is knocked off the stage you either add a point to your score (while subtracting a point from their score) or you decrease your opponent’s stock of lives, depending on match rules, and the winner is either the person with the most points or the person who successfully eliminated all other opponents (again, depending on the rules set before the match starts). In All-Stars this formula is adjusted. When you strike an opponent you are building up a meter for yourself and once the meter is full enough you can unleash a super attack that can eliminate one or more opponents. These super attacks have three different power levels and each one requires you to build your meter sufficiently high enough to use it. Eliminating an opponent gains you points (and reduces points for your opponent) and the winner of a match is whoever has the most points at the end. Though seemingly small, this difference scoring is quite significant and is the focal point of much of the debate of the comparative merits of Smash Bros and All-Stars.

Everyone building their meters.

I’ve gone back and forth on what I think of All-Stars scoring mechanic. On one hand I found it to be a novel change-up from the Smash Bros formula, but on the other hand it can be a bit frustrating to build up your meter and unleash a super attack, only for it to fail and then you’re back to square one. After much thought, I’ve come to the conclusion that the Smash Bros scoring formula is better overall. The way you score points in All-Stars is not fundamentally wrong, but in Smash Bros you get a much stronger sense of progression in knocking your opponents back further and further, making your attacks feel meaningful. In spite of this issue, there are a lot of things that I really like about All-Stars.

Sweet Tooth (left) unleashes his level 3 super move.

Let’s start with the stages. Each stage that you battle in is a creative interpretation of locations and events found in the various games that the character roster is drawn from, as well as few that are from games that don’t have a character representing them. Each stage will also at some point either transition to different version of itself or be “invaded” by a background character or event from a different game. For example, the Ratchet and Clank based stage “Metropolis” starts out in a futuristic city but after awhile it starts to rain and then the stage is invaded by the hydra from God of War. The hydra will attack players from time to time and keeps everyone on their toes. For those who don’t like this sort of thing you can turn hazards off and there’s also the flat arena with no objects or platforms for the purists, but I personally prefer the variety and insanity of the regular stages. As I played through All-Stars there naturally were a few stages that I gravitated towards, but there wasn’t a single one that I didn’t like.

Careful of the hydra.

I was also impressed by how faithful each character’s move sets were to the characters. Although I haven’t played the games of every single character on the roster, the characters whose games I have experience with played almost exactly the way I thought they would. Everything from Dante’s stylized sword and gunplay to Ratchet’s wacky gadgets and Heihachi’s hand-to-hand fighting played out as if the characters were directly transplanted from their original games into All-Stars. Even characters like Sir Daniel and Spike, whose games I have never played, somehow felt right. That said, this faithfulness to the characters’ original games may have also caused some of the issues I had with character balancing, since a few of the characters (I’m looking at you, Kratos) seemed a bit too strong compared to others. True, character balancing has also long been a problem with the Smash Bros games as well, but I do wish a bit more effort was put into keeping certain characters from dominating.

As something of an addendum to my thoughts on the characters, I found the character “rivalries” in the arcade mode strangely interesting. If you play arcade mode you’re given the closest thing to an actual story that’s found in All-Stars, though it is bare bones at best. Each character is going somewhere or doing something and battles their way through multiple fights with the other characters along the way. In the second to last battle, you face off with your character’s rival in a one-on-one fight and settle the score between the two of you. Some of these rivalries make sense, some are questionable and some are just odd. Still, I found myself playing through arcade mode with every single character to see how their story played out for each of them. I could have just gone to Youtube and saved some time, but I was enjoying my time with arcade mode and playing through with each character gave me a chance to try all of the characters out and see which ones I liked.

The character roster (pre-dlc)

In terms of music and sound, I knew All-Stars was going to be good from the very beginning of the game. The song that plays during the opening video caught me within the first few seconds and from then on I was loving what my ears were hearing. Every stage in the game has its own music, superbly adapted from the original game that the stage is inspired by. The music even changes during the stage transitions, so, for example, you’ll start in Parappa’s dojo with an upbeat hip-hop tune playing, but after a minute or so the dojo walls break down, revealing that the city in the background is under attack by a MAWLR and the music changes to the dramatic synthetic sounds of the Killzone games. There’s also a number of small but nice audio touches throughout the game that add to the package, from the background menu music to the various things the characters say throughout the match. The characters are even voiced by either the original voice actor from their game or someone doing a very good impression of them. From start to finish, All-Stars is an audio treat.

When the MAWLR in the background shows up, both the stage and the music change.

Having finished my time with All-Stars, I’ve been gathering my thoughts on the game and inevitably I’m brought back to the comparisons between it and the Smash Bros games. In a sense, All-Stars can be compared to the original Smash Bros game in that it shares many of the marks of a first attempt that you see in the original Smash Bros game: an overall solid game that is held back by mechanics that need a little bit of finesse, character balancing issues and a comparatively small selection of characters, stages and items. At the same time, an argument can be made that the comparison doesn’t quite work because of the differing contexts that the two games out in. The original Smash Bros game came out in 1999, when there wasn’t anything quite like it, making a truly original experience. By 2012, when All-Stars came out, we had seen three Smash Bros games and a few similar titles, meaning that the genre had been well defined and we had a good idea of what worked and what didn’t. In the final analysis the Smash Bros games are better, but I have to commend developer Superbot Entertainment for making a valiant effort in creating All-Stars, and trying to put a new twist on the Smash Bros formula. With any luck, we’ll one day get a sequel.

I (almost) went to PSX

Earlier today, the PlayStation Experience wrapped up in Las Vegas. I nearly went to this event, and there's actually a somewhat interesting story to this, so I thought I'd write it down and share it.

The PlayStation Experience (PSX) is a video game expo that is focused on games coming to the PlayStation platforms (PS4, PS3 and PS Vita). It was announced back in October and tickets went on sale toward the end of that month. Over the following weeks information on what would be at the expo trickled out and it became clear that PSX was going to be a significant event. I read various articles posted on the major gaming websites and was interested in the event but had no intention of actually going. Then, about two weeks before PSX, I was listening to Podcast Beyond!, the weekly PlayStation podcast put out by IGN, and the hosts mentioned that they were giving away free tickets. To be entered into the drawing you would send them an email and they would select winners from their inbox. I was listening to Podcast Beyond! the day after it went up on IGN, and I decided to send them an email. The thought never occurred to me that I might actually be one of the persons selected. I figured that because it had been a day since they announced the giveaway they were already inundated with emails and probably had even chosen the winners. This was reinforced by a tweet I saw later that day from one of the podcast hosts that he had sent out codes to persons selected in the giveaway.

You can imagine my surprise then, when on the following Monday I got an email from Podcast Beyond! with a code for a free pass to PSX. Maybe they had gotten some more codes from the people at PlayStation since the last podcast, but whatever the case, I was now a winner. At first I was excited. I have never been to any sort of gaming expo but closely followed the coverage of ones like E3, PAX, TGS and Gamescom. Thoughts came rushing through my head of how cool it would be to finally attend a gaming expo and also see Las Vegas while i was at it. Those thoughts were quickly greeted by the realization that PSX was the following weekend and I would have to make a decision very soon on whether or not to go. The next day I sat down with a friend of mine who has been to Las Vegas several times and got his input on traveling there. I looked up airfares and possible lodging online and found that this would not be a cheap foray. Round-trip plane tickets would cost be a bit over $400, even on the low-cost carriers, and combined with lodging and expected expenses for food and cab rides, it would probably cost me about $550 total, maybe more. That Tuesday night I was sitting at my computer, staring at the screen. I was all the way to the page where you enter your credit card info to book my flight and hotel, but I still wasn't sure whether or not to go through with it. There was an internal debating raging inside of me, with one part of me arguing for the coolness of going and another part arguing that the expense was too much. After awhile I decided to go to the gym and sweat it out for a short bit. I find this sometimes helps me get away from the heat of the moment and better process information so that I can make a decision that I can stand by. Over the course of 50 or so minutes, the arguments against going won out. As cool as it would be, the funds that I would spend on the trip could be better applied elsewhere (such as, actually getting a PS4 and some games to go with it). PSX just wasn't worth $550 to me.

On Wednesday I was thinking over what could have been. I knew I had made a good decision, but I was still thinking over what it would have been like to attend PSX. Logging into my email inbox, I printed out my entrance ticket to PSX and made a pledge to myself that I would attend next year's PSX or another gaming expo. In a box in my garage I found an old picture frame and I put my ticket in that frame as a reminder of my pledge. This recent "almost happened" with PSX is catalyzing me to get serious on something I've wanted to do for years now. PSX 2015, here I come.

“It’s your eyes”

About a week ago, I was talking to another guy, and, seemingly out of nowhere, the conversation turned to my facial appearance. He told me that I look like I could be in a biker gang, except for one thing. “It’s your eyes” he told me. He said that my eyes were way too warm and friendly looking for him to believe that I was any sort of rough individual. It would seem that my face is trying to look like a badass, but my eyes tell a different story. With my Mohawk and slowly lengthening goatee, I guess I can understand why someone might think I’m some sort of hard man, though, at only 5’7’’, I think the only people that I intimidate are small children. I also don’t have any tattoos, which I’m pretty sure are a prerequisite for actually being a part of a biker gang or any group of tough guys.

Eyes are something I haven’t thought about much until the last year or so. Mine are brown, which seems to be toward the bottom end of popular eye colors in our society. That said, a few weeks ago a coworker of mine told me that I had the most beautiful brown eyes she had ever seen, so I suppose this is one of those “eye of the beholder” sorts of things (no pun intended). From what I hear, there is some level of credibility to the old saying about your eyes being the window of your soul. I guess a week ago that guy took a look inside, and I can't deny that I want his impression to be right.

A Nation of Lefties

Awhile back I got the chance to play through a game called Ryse: Son of Rome. Officially, Ryse is the story of Marius, a roman soldier on a blood-soaked quest for revenge against those who murdered his family. As I progressed through the game, however, I realized that the true story of Ryse is actually that of Marius, the world's most zealous field surgeon. Everywhere Marius goes he sees infected limbs that require amputation and he is only too willing to help. As a professional surgeon, Marius makes the operations quick, usually with a single slice of his sword, though he seems to leave the job of closing the wound for others, so I can only assume he is followed around by a team of medics who stop the bleeding and patch up all the men lying of the ground. Interestingly enough, it seems that it is predominantly the barbarians' right arms that have come down with incurable infections. I would think that the proportion of left-handed individuals in a society suddenly shot up whenever Marius passed through. It is unfortunate the Marius lived during roman times, as he would have made a great business partner for Ned Flanders.

Sorry bro, that arm's infected.

"It's 2014"

Sometimes things aren't great, but good enough. Back in February of this year, a friend of mine came out to visit and while he was here he and I and another friend went to Denny's. I hadn't gone to Denny's in years, so there was something kind of nostalgic about being there. Back in my college days I would go to Denny's from time to time, and I have a few notable memories from that place. In particular, I think of an infamous hot chocolate drinking contest that was held there, but that's a story for another post. While talking about times gone by, I took out my phone and used the camera on it to take a picture of my two friends. When asked how good the camera was on my phone, I replied that it wasn't great but it got the job done and worked for most cases where I wasn't carrying my regular camera and needed to take a photo. It was good enough. From there the conversation pivoted to a discussion of the year ahead and we agreed that 2014 would be the year of "good enough." Not great, but good enough. From that point on, whenever I saw, heard, thought about something was not great but good enough, I would think to myself that "it's 2014."

Saying goodbye to your castle

A man's home is his castle, or, so the saying goes. At the end of this month I will be moving. I've lived in my current residence for nearly nine years, which is nothing to brag about, but it feels like a long time now that I think about it. Over those years all of my friends have moved, oftentimes repeatedly, but I've been the one staying put and watching the community morph around me.

When you live long enough in one place, you start to feel like you've always been there and you'll never leave. To be uprooting now and moving to a different part of town seems so foreign. The move is only a few days away, but I almost feel like I'm in denial about this. Change is a naturally scary thing, and I can't deny that I'm a bit nervous about everything that will change with this. But change will come. It must come. I will gather my things, close one door and open another.

It's time to leave. It's time to go. Goodbye, my castle.

Sprite soda

I have a strange affinity for Sprite soda. It's not my favorite soda, and there's plenty of other sodas I would pick over it, given the choice, but I'm ok having a Sprite if there's nothing better to choose from. The problem is, even though I sort of like the taste of Sprite, it leaves a terrible aftertaste in my mouth. The nefarious thing is, the quickest way to get rid of that aftertaste is to have another sip of the same Sprite soda I just sipped a minute ago. I believe there's a name for this sort of thing; whereby the consumption of something gives a benefit but also causes a problem that can only be solved by more usage of said thing. I don't know what that's called, but whoever invented Sprite has done exactly that. I feel like I should be upset, but I just can't deny the evil genius of Sprite. Congratulations, whoever invented Sprite. You have created the perfect commercial product.

Homefront Sequel Announced

Earlier this week it was announced that a sequel is being developed to 2011's video game Homefront. The game is titled Homefront: The Revolution and is being developed by the UK division of Crytek, who acquired the rights to Homefront after developer Kaos Studios went under in 2011. The original Homefront told the story of a future where a unified Korea invaded and conquered much of the United States and you played the role of a resistance member who helped fight the occupation. Although Homefront's premise was wildly implausible, it was still interesting and made the final product all the more disappointing in its failure to fully capitalize on its potential. At about only four hours long, the singleplayer campaign was woefully too short and felt like it needed another year in development. There was a small multiplayer suite that played well enough, but it could not make up for the half-baked singleplayer experience. I had originally planned on doing a post on Homefront in my Games Deserving Sequels series, as I thought the concept behind the game was worthy enough of having another studio take a stab at it. Instead, Homefront will at some point in the future make an appearance in my Gaming Disappointments series, where I'll give a little more depth to how it demonstrated that a good concept means nothing if the execution is flawed. (UPDATE: No it won't. I discontinued that series, as you can read about here)

As for the sequel, I'm hopeful that Homefront: The Revolution will learn from Homefront's shortcomings and deliver a stronger experience than what we got in the original game. I am a bit concerned that it is being developed by Crytek, a company that has a mixed record with storytelling in their games. Granted, this is Crytek UK, which is not the same team that made the Crysis and Ryse games, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and remain cautiously optimistic. At the very least we know it will be a good looking game; if there's anything the Crytek guys are good at, it's graphics.

Infamous Chocolate Chip Cookies aka Ricardo's Fitness Sabotage

It's official, I've made it to 100 posts. Thanks to those of you who've checked in from time to time to read my writings. To celebrate, I've posted below a recipe for absurdly delicious cookies. I got this recipe from a friend of mine awhile back. These are officially known as Infamous Chocolate Chip Cookies, however I've made a few slight adjustments to the recipe, which makes me feel somewhat justified in renaming them. From here on out, this recipe shall be called Ricardo's Fitness Sabotage.



Ingredients
3 2/3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt (coarse, if possible)
2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 cup + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
10 to 16oz* of your preferred type of chocolate** in your preferred format***
sea salt for sprinkling
1/5 cup water (optional)

* This depends on how dense you want the chocolate in the cookies. I would suggest starting towards the upper end of your first time making these and then see how you like it. Go even higher than 16oz if you want.
** I have made this recipe with semisweet, bittersweet, white and milk chocolate. All are good, though my personal favorite is semisweet chocolate. Try to go for higher cacao percentages when using semisweet and bittersweet chocolate.
*** I have made this recipe with chocolate chips, discs and chunks. All work, though chunks can be a bit trickier just because of their shape.

Equipment
2 large bowls (and maybe one or two other smaller bowls)
Mixing spoon
Measuring cup(s)
Measuring spoons
Large plate
Plastic wrap
Baking sheet
Oven mitts
Cooling rack(s)
Tupperware or something else airtight to store the cookies in
Small ice cream scooper (optional)
Electric mixer (optional)

The ingredients and most of the equipment.

Let's get started

In one of your large bowls, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix it all together for a minute until you have everything combined as best you can.

The flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt mixed together.

In another large bowl, cream together your butter and sugar until light and fluffy. If you have an electric mixer you can use it here to speed things up, but be sure to either use the lowest or second lowest setting. If you don't have an electric mixer, then a regular cooking spoon will work too; it will just take you a few extra minutes to make sure everything is mixed together evenly. One thing that I find helps with this is to have the butter warm and partially melted. Be sure to scrape down the bowl as needed while you mix.

The butter by itself.

Butter + regular sugar.

Butter + regular sugar + brown sugar.

A electric mixer can be helpful in combining the butter and sugar, but it's not necessary.

Now add in the eggs into the bowl with the sugar and butter. You can either crack the shells and add them in one at a time, mixing in between, or you can ready the eggs in a separate bowl beforehand and then pour the eggs slowly into the sugar and butter. Both methods work just fine and using one method over the other has no significant impact on the final product.

I usually prepare the eggs in a separate bowl.

With the eggs added in.

Next add in the vanilla extract and mix. Here is where you can also add in the optional 1/5 cup of water. You don't really need it but it can help keep the dough from getting overly dry. If you can, try making these cookies once with the water and once without and see which you prefer.

Now start to slowly add in the dry ingredients from your other bowl (the flour, baking power, baking soda and salt combination). I prefer to pour in the dry ingredients in thirds, mixing in between. You could potentially use the electric mixer again at this point, but it can make the dough flaky if you're not careful.

Adding in the dry ingredients.

After all the dry ingredients have been mixed in.

Fold in your chocolate gradually, trying to get as even a concentration as possible throughout the dough. This is easier said than done, and will probably take you a few minutes. It is here that you'll make your decision as to how much chocolate you add in.

This is about 14oz of chocolate.

After a few minutes of mixing.

After you're satisfied with the distribution of the chocolate throughout the dough, you now have the most difficult part of the recipe; resisting the temptation to eat the cookie dough right now. DON'T GIVE IN! Instead, wrap the dough air-tight in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for 1 to 3 days. I usually refrigerate mine for just over 2 days.

Wrapped up.

There's a bit a chemistry behind letting the dough sit. Allowing the dough to rest lets the gluten in the flour relax, which results in more tender cookies. The flour should also more fully and evenly hydrate and some of the sugar will break down into smaller molecules which improves browning and depth of flavor.

A few hours before you bake, take the dough out of the refrigerator and let it warm up to room temperature. When you're ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. If needed, grease your baking sheet.

Start putting small balls of dough on the baking sheet. If you have a small ice cream scooper or a well-rounded spoon that can help. I've read a few people who insist that you should not mold the dough before baking and you should just scoop the dough out with an ice cream scooper or a spoon, but I've not noticed a significant difference in the end product (other than the shape of the cookies). For your first sheet of cookies I would suggest trying out different sizes of cookies to see how they turn out and what you like. I personally prefer to make balls of dough that are about 1 to 1.25 inches in diameter. These will result in cookies that are about 2 to 2.5 inches in diameter.

Dough balls on the baking sheet.

With regards applying the sea salt, there are several ways to go about it. You can apply the salt before, during, or after baking. I normally salt the cookies during or after baking because I have a hard time getting an even salting on the dough prior to baking. By "during" I mean that I sometimes bake for about seven minutes, briefly remove the cookies from the oven to sprinkle on the sea salt and then put the cookies back in the oven for the remainder of the baking. As you might expect, the cookies tend to rise in the center while baking, which means some of the sea salt will just roll right off the cookies when you sprinkle it on. The adjust for this, I oftentimes take a spoon and very gently press down on the cookies to flatten them and make the application of sea salt easier.

Depending on how large your cookies are and how you like them, you can bake the cookies for about 10 minutes for smaller cookies and 15 or so minutes for larger cookies. Again, this is where you experiment to see how things turn out and what you like. The cookies I prefer to make are on the smaller side and I like to slightly under bake them (about 8 to 9 minutes).

When the cookies are done baking, remove them from the oven and place them on a cooling rack or something else and allow them to cool a minute or two.

Right out of the oven.

These cookies can either be served right away after cooling or stored for a later time. If you store them be sure to that they are in some sort of air-tight container.

Enjoy

LOTR Syndrome

Recently I watched through a miniseries on the History Channel called The World Wars. The premise of the series is that many of the major figures from World War 2 had defining experiences during World War 1. Through reenactments and historical footage, the series showed the transitions they went through from their younger selves prior to and during the first war to their older selves in the second. A day after I finished the series, I saw a commercial for a rerun of the series on H2, the History Channel's sister channel, however what was going to be shown was an extended version with extra scenes that did not make the cut in the original showing. This reminded me of how the Lord of the Rings movies had the theatrical versions which you saw in theaters, but when they came out on DVD you could get the extended editions of the movies which included footage that was cut from the theatrical versions. Thus, I have decided to call this phenomenon of showing one version of some sort of media at one time, and then showing an extended version at a later point, Lord of the Rings Syndrome, or, more shortly, LOTR Syndrome. Although Lord of the Rings was not the first film to do this, it is the one that stands out most in my mind, and therefore it gets the honor of having a syndrome named after it.

Unlike DBZ Syndrome, LOTR Syndrome can potentially be a good thing. If the original version was solid, and the additional material is actually meaningful, then an extended versions can be a nice bonus to the experience. If, however, the original version was not so good, then the best an extended version can hope to do is salvage the experience somewhat. I'm still debating whether or not I will watch the extended version of The Worlds Wars, not because I didn't like the series but because I don't know if I want to dedicate the time to it. If I do, I'm hopeful that what I'll get will be the good sort of LOTR Syndrome.

Gaming Disappointments - Medal of Honor (2010)

Today I begin a series that I’ve been meaning to do for quite some time. I have done a number of posts on various video games I’ve like, but I’ve also wanted to do a series on some of my most notable gaming disappointments. These games are not bad, but they did not live up to my expectations. Thankfully, I only have three or four games in mind. We'll start with what was probably my biggest disappointment of 2010; Medal of Honor.

Medal of Honor (2010)

Medal of Honor: Frontline (2002)

The Medal of Honor games started out back in 1999 when World War 2 shooters were still popular. I played several of the Medal of Honor games during the PS2 era and generally liked what I experienced. As it dragged on however, the series slowly stagnated and became fatigued as more games came out, foreshadowing to a lesser degree the fate that would be experienced by the Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk series of games. The military shooter genre had become crowded and other series like Call of Duty and Battlefield were gaining market share by innovating and (importantly) breaking out of the World War 2 setting that the Medal of Honor series clung to. After suffering a steady decline at the hands of critics and gamers alike, the series came to a halt in 2007 and disappeared from the gaming scene. The years that followed were a much needed break, though no doubt some hoped that the Medal of Honor games would never come back. In 2010, however, the series was rebooted in what looked like would be a fresh and interesting start. Trailers like the one below really got my attention:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypRvXaM5IWs

Ditching World War 2 for the modern day, Medal of Honor seemed to be taking a page from the Call of Duty and Battlefield playbooks and finally getting with the times. With a new developer, Danger Close, the game would be set amongst the conflict in Afghanistan and looked to be telling a somewhat more realistic story of soldiers in combat. True, stories of Special Forces units and other elite soldiers are a dime-a-dozen in video games, but I was curious to see how the rebooted Medal of Honor would treat the subject. Enough years had passed since my last Medal of Honor game that I was ready to let go of some of the previous shortcomings in the series and start over with a clean slate. As the time grew closer and closer to release, I found myself really looking forward to the new game. Sadly, when it finally came out I found myself disappointed with the end product.

The enemies are content to just let you kill them.

From the first few minutes of the campaign it became clear to me that Medal of Honor was a functional game, but it also had some problems. The shooting mechanics worked just as you would expect and would be familiar to anyone who has played games like it, but there were some notable technical flaws and the gameplay was run of the mill. Texture and graphical pop-ins and drops in the framerate made it clear that Medal of Honor was not as polished a title as it could be. Ever-annoying invisible walls reared their ugly head and a number of times you have stop to wait awhile for your teammates to perform a certain action or have a conversation in order to advance. I was willing to let things like this slide at first, but as the game progressed I had a hard time ignoring these shortcomings. The game was also too easy on the normal difficulty. This mainly has to do with the game’s absurdly stupid enemy AI. The enemies would shoot and take cover about as well as any others you would find in video games, but they acted in extremely predictable ways and didn’t have any tactical sense about them. Much of the time they would come across as completely inept fighters and you would wonder if the local warlord who hired them couldn’t find anyone better to recruit.

Elite operative? Yes. Interesting person? Not really.

On top of this, the storyline of Medal of Honor didn’t quite click with me. Medal of Honor is a story of soldiers struggling against hostile foes and environments, plans that fall apart and a commander back in America who just doesn’t get it. It’s not a bad story by any means, but I didn’t find the characters all that interesting. On the plus side, several of the characters rock awesome beards, which is something I’d like to see more of in these types of games. By emphasizing realism I think Danger Close tried to give us a story that’s more compelling than that of the average shooter, but it also limited them in what they could do. There’s no particularly memorable mission in the campaign and what’s there has been done already (and frequently better) in other games. The events of the campaign are more like a checklist of mandatory items in a military themed game. Infiltrating an enemy base? Check. Assaulting a fortified position? Check. Sniping? Check. On-rails shooting? Check. Desperate last stand while waiting for rescue? Check. Medal of Honor’s story does everything you expect and does it fine, but not great. You’ll never be blown away by what you’re doing and at about six hours, the campaign is also much too short.

Does this look familiar? It should.

After I finished Medal of Honor’s singleplayer campaign, I decided to give multiplayer a try. Interestingly enough, the multiplayer of Medal of Honor was developed by a different studio than the one that did the singleplayer. DICE, the studio behind the Battlefield series was brought in to build and manage the multiplayer experience, and they did a decent job. There were only a few maps, modes and character classes, but I have to commend DICE for making the most out of what they had to work with. Still, even the multiplayer masters at DICE could only do so much to salvage Medal of Honor’s online experience and what you have is a largely functional but utterly average multiplayer game.

When I first sat down with Medal of Honor I had high hopes that it would be a fresh and interesting take on the military shooter genre and a reinvigoration of a revered series. This was not to be. Medal of Honor was a mediocre game that would be followed two years later by a better but still unexceptional sequel. From what I’ve read, last year Danger Close was restructured and brought into the fold of DICE. There’s been no announcement as to whether another Medal of Honor game will come out, but I fear that if the series does not make some major improvements it will die a second ugly death.

The Piazza San Marco of Boulder

As you may know, back in February a Trader Joe’s store opened up here in Boulder. It was an instant hit and every time I’ve been there during the day it’s always been crowded. The store is smaller than the ones I remember in California, which means the aisles can get crowded, and the layout of the parking next to the store is a bit small so you’ll likely have to park further away during most hours of the day. In the times that I’ve been there I kept getting this feeling that I’d been someplace just like it in the past, but it wasn’t until recently that I finally made the connection. The Boulder Trader Joe’s is the Piazza San Marco of Boulder. For those of you who don’t know, Piazza San Marco is the main square of Venice, Italy. Venice, of course, is a very popular tourist destination and during most of the day Piazza San Marco is overrun with crowds. I was originally going to compare Trader Joe’s to Venice itself, but I realized the comparison doesn’t quite work because even during the peak hours of the day you can get away from the crowds in Venice if you make the effort. With Piazza San Marco, however, you need to visit either early or late to have the least number of people wandering around. Trader Joe’s in Boulder is the same. I only go there during the first or last of their opening hours because otherwise I’ll be bogged down moving slowly through the hordes of customers and then get stuck in long checkout lines. On the plus side, the Boulder Trader Joe’s, like Venice, has some good stuff and is definitely worth the visit. Just mind your timing.

Week of Blogging - Day 7

Today is the final day of the week of blogging. Time for the desperate dash to the finish line.

Why Gaming?

There are many forms of media and entertainment in the world, such as TV, movies, music, books, the Internet, and video games. Regardless of our lifestyles, there's simply too much for a person to remain up to date on all them, so we make choices about what we consume. A number of years ago I made a conscious choice to focus on video games at the expense of TV and movies. I came to this decision after a bit of thinking and realizing that I got so much more out of gaming than the other two. There was nothing wrong with TV shows and movies, and I enjoyed a number of them, but gaming experiences were what really got my interest and I kept coming back to them. I think part of this might be just the fact that video games are interactive media where the player has direct input on what happens on the screen while TV and movies are passive experiences. Of course, one of the consequences of largely sacrificing TV and movies is that I'm missing out on many of the "iconic" shows and films of our day. When people are talking about shows like Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones, I don't have much of a part in the conversation. Maybe if I was unemployed I would have the time to keep up with these things, but even if I was I'm not sure I would want to. Gaming remains my preferred form of entertainment, and if I had more time I would probably use it (in addition to other things like reading and writing) to play some of the games that I haven't had the time get to.

Is my decision strange? Video games are sometimes looked down upon as a phase in one's life that you're supposed to grow out of. Years ago when I told another person about my passion for video games, I was met with a laugh and the reply that all young men my age were into video games and that with a few years I would be over it. I'm now in my late 20s and I can say that I haven't grown out of video games. If anything, my appreciation for them only continues to grow as they mature as a form of both entertainment and art.



And that does it. The week of blogging is now over. I know the quality of the posts all over the board, but I hope you enjoyed at least one of them.

Week of Blogging - Day 6

Northeast Side Story

I like to think that my (nonexistent) writing career began the summer after my freshman year of high school, when I wrote a 120-some page parody of West Side Story, titled Northeast Side Story. Before you get impressed with the length, be aware that I wrote it in play format, so there's lots of empty space on most of the pages. New York City is replaced by the city of Hyperbolic Enmity and West Side Story's two gangs, the Jets and the Sharks, are replaced by the Swans and the Frogs, clubs consisting of ballet dancers and gymnasts, respectively. Local law enforcement is comprised of the Punk Police, a squad of breakdancing corrupt cops who have passion for professional wrestling. There's a boy band named "Young Blood" that is comprised of senior citizens. The rival clubs meet at an adult bookstore and have their big fight on a golf course. Nothing really makes sense, but that is the whole idea. At various points the story is interrupted with random events and even a few songs. Yes, it is a musical and I wrote the lyrics to the songs.

Probably the best thing about Northeast Side Story is that I actually got to use it for a school assignment. In my AP English class we had to do a parody or satire, and I instantly knew that Northeast Side Story's day had come. I can distinctly remember the day when my teacher came around collecting everyone's works, and I dropped my monstrosity into the pile of papers. My submission was larger than all the other papers combined, and the crazy thing is, what I turned in was actually a shortened version of Northeast Side Story. The night before, I had realized my parents' printer did not have enough paper to print out the whole play, so I created a shortened version that was about 80 pages long. I got an A on the assignment, and to this day Northeast Side Story stands as one of my greatest writing accomplishments.

Week of Blogging - Day 5

AI Companions

Sometimes in video games your character will be paired with an AI character that you may or may not have control over. Some are helpful, some don't do much of anything and some are actually so bad that they make the game harder. Today I wanted to spotlight three of my favorite AI companions/teammates.

Agro

Shadow of the Colossus

In a desolate land filled with giant beasts, Agro serves as your trusty steed, helping you travel across the world and even assisting you in some of the battles against the colossi. For me what stands out about Agro is that he (or is it a she?) is one of the few horses in video games that actually behaves like a horse and not like a car with legs. I know not everyone liked this because it made Agro a bit tricky to control, but for me there was something special about this more lifelike portrayal of a horse. Agro was more than just an animal that transported you around at faster speeds than on foot, he felt like a friend.

Elika

Prince of Persia (2008)

If only we were all so lucky as to have a beautiful woman with magical powers following us around. Elika might be the most interesting character on this list in that she is actually the embodiment of several game mechanics that normally appear in non-physical forms. She is your double jump, your magic attack, your guiding light and your checkpoint system. In terms of pure game mechanics, Elika might be one of the best executed AI companions ever, as she never gets in your way or hinders your progress. She also has a likeable personality, so you never tire of her being around.

Victor "Sully" Sullivan

Uncharted series

You'd be hard pressed to find a better teammate to be your backup than Victor "Sully" Sullivan of the Uncharted games. He may be old, but he can still hold his own in a fight and is a friend, mentor, and a father figure to the lead character Drake. In terms of gameplay, Sully actually doesn't do very much, but it's his relationship with Drake and the witty banter that goes back and forth between them that makes him so endearing. Whether helping with puzzles, providing cover fire or just giving advice, Sully has your back.

Week of Blogging - Day 4

Facebook, Then and Now

Like many people, I have had a love-hate relationship with social media. It has its uses, but also plenty of annoyances and absurdities. I joined Facebook back in 2005, which doesn't quite make me an early-adopter, but still one of older members. As an interesting side note, I was actually forced to join by a few friends of mine who sat me down in front of a computer and made me create an account. Back then Facebook was still young and fairly innocent, with only a few features and a simple design. The novelty of social networking was undeniable at the time, and for me it served a useful purpose in keeping touch with friends from high school and college as well as a means of sharing photos. No longer did you have to wait until the 10-year high school reunion to see what other people were up to; with Facebook you now had a reunion almost every day. This of course begs the question, are high school reunions now obsolete?

One of my favorite things from the early days of Facebook were the groups. Back then it seemed most of the groups being created were lighthearted, and I enthusiastically joined a number of them. One of my favorites was a group titled "The most productive thing I did today was create a group on Facebook." The cover photo for the group was a shirtless guy on a recliner holding a N64 controller. Some other notable ones included the Coalition Against Uggs And Big Square Sunglasses, Ninjas for Jesus, The Infinite Gloriousness That Is Undeniably Captain Falcon, I'd Mess With Texas, Raptor Awareness, and In-N-Out Lovers.

Over time, however, things changed. Facebook opened up to more than just college students, which was inevitable (and not a bad thing at all), but it meant Facebook lost that feeling of being somewhat like a club. Groups and individuals got more politicized (again, not necessarily a bad thing) which meant that Facebook increasingly became a platform for spewing bile at others. More features were added and the complexity of Facebook steadily increased over time, which I imagine some people liked, but I personally found many of these things as just more ways to hand over personal information to marketers. For better or for worse, Facebook has grown up and left those innocent days of youth behind.

As Facebook has changed, so has my account on it. I only have about 50 friends these days, and from time to time I purge people that I don't talk to anymore. I've left nearly all my groups and my profile information is now bare-bones. It's been well over a year since I last uploaded a photo album, and my profile photo, which I used to change every three months or so, has not been changed since 2012. There have been several times where I seriously considered shutting down my account, but for now Facebook still has just enough value for me to stick with it. How long that will last, I cannot say.