Week of Blogging - Day 1

Today is the first day of my challenge to write one short blog post a day for seven days. I thought it would be appropriate to start with a short post on writing itself.


The Spark

Some people can put out a steady stream of consistent writing. I am not one of those people. My writing comes in fits and starts, with large blocks of text being cranked out in single sessions, followed by days or even weeks of nothing. Normally I will start writing and go for awhile before hitting some sort of roadblock, at which time I save the work I've done and then put it aside until I get the idea or wording I am looking for. Whenever I enter into one of those breakout moments where I  have the next thought or revision of what I'm working on, I try to keep writing until I've completely exhausted that moment, even if it takes me late into the night to do so. Then I'll spend the next few days or so thinking over what I've written and where I want to go next. You can think of my writing as somewhat like the flame from a natural gas leak. It takes a little while for the gas to fill the air, but with a bit of time you have enough so that a small spark will ignite a fireball. I burn through the material I have ready, and then days pass where the thoughts start building up again, ready for the next breakthrough. All I need is a spark.

Upcoming: Week of Blogging

About two months ago, a guy I know marked the two year anniversary since he had done a writing project whereby he wrote 100,000 words of fiction within a two month period. Inspired by this, I've been meaning to do my own writing project, though on a significantly smaller scale. What I decided upon was to do a week of blogging in which I would have to do one post a day for seven days. These would be short posts since I have limited time for writing with my normal schedule, but even this will be a challenge since most of my posts take days or weeks to hammer out with plenty of spontaneous ideas and revisions occurring. I don't know exactly when I will start this, but I am thinking sometime around April 30. The topics have already been planned out, which I know is kind of cheating, but I needed to do that in order to have any chance of pulling this off. To be fair, I have not written a single word of any of the posts and will not write any posts ahead of their scheduled days. I'm not sure how this will turn out, but if nothing else it should be a worthwhile challenge.

Gaming Universes

Recently I found myself watching a show on youtube where a group of guys were discussing which fictional universes they would like to live in and which ones they would not want to live in. I decided to run this mental exercise myself with regards to universes found in some of the video games I've played, and came to the conclusion that although there are many that I enjoyed playing through, most video game universes I would never want to actually live in. Below are several of the video game universes I would never want to live in and why.

Batman
Why any sane person would want to live in Gotham City is beyond me. It is more or less guaranteed that you will be mugged, beaten, raped and/or killed.

Mass Effect
There's a lot of cool stuff in the future, but it seems almost all of today's problems still exist. Even if you're born in a good part of the galaxy and enjoy a nice life, all of that will comes to an end when the Reapers show up.

The Last of Us
Why would you ever want to experience the zombie apocalypse, especially one this grim?

Resistance
Similar to the The Last of Us, except the Chimera have crazy guns, alien technology and are actively wiping out humanity.

Halo
Similar to Resistance, but on a galactic scale.

God of War
If you see Kratos, run. If you live in or anywhere near the ancient Greek world, run. Then again, it probably won't save you.

Final Fantasy 10
Living everyday in fear that a giant monster called Sin will come and kill you. Even if you never run into Sin, you still have to deal with all the other monsters that inhabit the land. Come to think of it, a world infested with monsters seems to be a common element in all the Final Fantasy games.

Transformers
As a human, you're completely expendable.

Call of Duty/Battlefield
If you live in a major city or nearby anything that would be cool to blow up, then you're just waiting to die.  Even if that doesn't happen you'll probably be murdered by a child or teenager shouting racial and sexual slurs at you and then you'll get teabagged while you lie dead/dying on the ground.


Now, there are a few video game universes that might not be so bad, depending on the context. Below are a few universes that might be ok under certain conditions.

Assassin's Creed
Since the war between the Assassins and the Templars is hidden from public view, you could potentially live a normal life completely unaware of what was going on. Then again, if you're a Templar you'll probably be quietly stabbed in the back by an Assassin, and if you're an Assassin you'll be forever on the run from Templars seeking your death.

Uncharted
Like Assassin's Creed, you could live your whole live blissfully unaware of Nathan Drake's escapades, other than the occasional sudden drop in the world's pirate and mercenary populations. If you're an ally of Drake, you actually have a good chance of surviving and maybe even getting some cool ancient treasures, although you would probably have a bad case of PTSD from the stress that accompanies Drake's adventures. If you're an enemy of Drake or a mercenary for hire, then you're dead and you just don't know it yet.

Split/Second
Are you in the show or not? If you're just a spectator this could be really cool to watch, assuming that somehow the contestants are not dying every time they get blown up or wrecked. If you're in the show then you better pray that respawns are for real. This line of thinking would also apply to the MotorStorm universe.


Are there any video game universes I would actually want to live in? I'm still thinking that one over and if I come up with any I might do a post on them.

Top 20 Recap

I recently finished the countdown of my top twenty favorite console video games of the PS3/Xbox360/Wii era and it occurred to me it might be good just to write out the list itself in a single post for sake of being easier to read. In retrospect, I probably should have done each game as an individual post rather than in blocks of five, but what is done is done. For an explanation of how I went about choosing the games for this list, see the first entry in the countdown (dated 12/7/13).


20.Wii Sport
19. Batman Arkham Asylum
18. Spec Ops: The Line
17. Flower
16. God of War 3
15. LittleBigPlanet 2
14. The Last of Us
13. Prince of Persia (2008)
12. Red Dead Redemption
11. Transformers: War for Cybertron
10. Split/Second
9. Journey
8. Vanquish
7. MotorStorm Pacific Rift
6. Resistance 2
5. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
4. Infamous 2
3. Battlefield Bad Company 2
2. Uncharted 2
1. Mass Effect 2

Last Gen Favorites, Part 4: 5-1

This is it, the final five in the countdown of my top 20 favorite console games from last generation.

5. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood

(Honorable Mention: Assassin's Creed 2)

Calling in the assassin recruits.

The original Assassin's Creed was a promising but somewhat flawed game. Assassin's Creed 2 realized the potential of the series, making significant improvements to the game structure, but for me Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (referred to hereafter as just Brotherhood) is where the series found its strongest expression. While the storyline of Assassin's Creed 2 is a bit stronger, in my opinion Brotherhood is a bit better overall as a game, mainly for a few notable improvements in gameplay. Brotherhood continues the story of Ezio, who is sort of the Renaissance version of Batman except that he kills people. A lot of people. The Assassin's Creed series tells the story of the struggle between the Templars and the Assassins over the course of history, which is actually interesting, but these are games, so I'm going to focus on gameplay when talking about them. Brotherhood was the first game in the series where offense was just as viable as defense in regular combat. The original Assassin's Creed suffered from a combat system where the only times going on the offense was a good idea were when you were making stealth kills, chasing down a target, and a few boss fights. The vast majority of the time you would just wait for enemies to attack you and then counter them. Assassin's Creed 2 made a few improvements to the system but you were still playing defensively at least 90% of the time. In Brotherhood the combat system was tweaked yet again and allowed for more offensive options. The biggest change was the ability to chain together kills, which shortened fights that would have normally dragged out in the previous two games. When you kill one enemy, if another is standing nearby you can immediately move to him and kill him too, and then repeat until either all enemies are dead or you run out of enemies standing close by. Another feature Brotherhood introduced was the ability to recruit and level up other members of your assassin order. At certain points in the game you can find a new recruit and then send him/her on missions to gain experience. Gaining experience levels up the assassin recruit and with each level you could upgrade the recruit's offensive and defensive capabilities. Your assassin recruits can be used in regular gameplay and are handy as both backup in combat and as assistance in pulling off your assassinations. The assassin recruits have shown up again in successor Assassin's Creed games with changes made to the system, but it was Brotherhood's original design that I found most enjoyable. These and other gameplay elements are what makes Brotherhood my favorite game in the Assassin's Creed series. Other games in the series have done certain things better, but for me Brotherhood stands as the best overall Assassin's Creed.

4. Infamous 2

(Honorable Mention: Infamous)

Going evil.

The original Infamous was a good game. Infamous 2 was a great game. Superhero games have had a checkered history with plenty of turds to accompany the gems, but the Infamous games have truly been gems. Infamous 2 is the story of Cole McGrath, an ordinary guy who, in the first Infamous, was given electric superpowers and then had to decide whether to use his powers to help save his city or to abuse his powers for his own selfish gain. Towards the end of the first Infamous, Cole learns that the reason he was given his powers was so that he might fight The Beast, a god-like being who is coming and will destroy humanity unless stopped. Infamous 2 begins shortly after Infamous ends, with Cole trying to prepare himself to take on The Beast. Unfortunately, The Beast shows up before Cole is ready and overpowers him, destroying Cole's home of Empire City and forcing Cole to flee to the city of New Marais (which is loosely based on the real city of New Orleans). There he hopes to become strong enough to defeat The Beast, who is slowing making his way towards New Marais. Infamous 2 takes everything that made the first Infamous good and improves upon it while fixing some of the problems of the original. The "parkour" (a term I use loosely) system is refined to be more precise and the city has some new items to help Cole more efficiently traverse it. Audio and visuals are also improved, with the in-engine cutscenes looking almost an entire generational leap from the original game. New Marais, like Empire City before it, is alive with friends, foes and civilians alike with ample opportunities for you to flex your hero or villain muscles. Cole's powers are also expanded beyond just electricity, giving Cole new options for combat and traversal. The karma system of the original Infamous returns in Infamous 2 with Cole's decisions and behavior giving him either positive or negative karma. As Cole becomes increasingly heroic or villainous he unlocks new powers that reflect his stance as either a superhero or superjerk. Good powers tend to be more about precision and maneuverability while evil powers tend to be more about brute force and disregard for collateral damage. Your karma ultimately decides which of Infamous 2's endings you get, and a notable change from the original game is that Infamous 2's good and evil endings are very different. Whereas the original Infamous' endings were really just the same situation with different details, the good and evil endings of Infamous 2 are night and day, giving you good incentive to play the game twice and experience both the good and evil paths. I've personally played through Infamous 2 (and Infamous) several times now, and will definitely play it again before I buy a Playstation 4 and the latest game in the series; Infamous Second Son.

3. Battlefield Bad Company 2

(Honorable Mention: Battlefield 3)

For the first few weeks I was the guy on the ground.

One of the marks of a truly great game is that it can be fun even if you're terrible at it. As a general rule, I am pretty bad at online first-person shooter multiplayer games, lacking the twitchiness and quick reflexes needed for success in most of them. But with Battlefield Bad Company 2 (and Battlefield 3) I enjoyed multiplayer so much that I kept coming back again and again, even as I was getting murdered at every turn during the early days. Bad Company 2 (referred to hereafter as just BC2) does have a singleplayer campaign, and a decent one at that, but the Battlefield games have always been a multiplayer first series and they remain the only video game series whose online multiplayer has held my interest for an extended period of time. Part of the reason for this is just how much you can do in Battlefield multiplayer. The open maps and vehicles available to you give you a lot of options for how you choose to prosecute your objective. You can grab a tank and drive straight at an enemy position, or you can take a helicopter to provide support from the air or you can try to sneak around on foot (just to name a few options). Another reason I have enjoyed Battlefield multiplayer is its emphasis on teamwork to win a match. While with games like Call of Duty a single really good player can carry an entire team to victory, in Battlefield a single really good player will certainly gain lots of points, but without working with his teammates he will still lose. Like other Battlefield games, BC2 uses a class based system for the type of soldier you play as and each class has its own specialty that contributes to the team. The assault class hands out ammo, the engineer class specializes in destroying and repairing vehicles, the support class heals teammates and the recon provides long range reconnaissance and sniper support. I found every class enjoyable to use, even the recon class, (I'm a terrible sniper) which I modified from a sniper to a close-quarters specialist who ran around in a ghillie suit with a shotgun (the "wookie with a shotgun" as it is sometimes called in the Battlefield community). BC2 did not have many game modes, but the ones that it did have were about as solid as you could hope for. My favorite was Rush, where a team of attackers trying to destroy a progressive set of targets and a team of defenders trying to stop them. After much time I actually did get decently good at BC2, but not because of any inherent skill on my part. I had learned the maps, studied the tactics and unlocked weapons and equipment; all through many hours of being murdered over and over again but coming back undeterred because the game was just that much fun.

2. Uncharted 2

(Honorable Mention: Uncharted 3)

Just another day in the life of Nathan Drake.

You can think of the Uncharted games as something like a modern version of the Indiana Jones movies. They tell the story of Nathan Drake, a treasure hunter who scours the world  for antiquities. In Uncharted 2, Drake is talked into helping his old associates Flynn and Chloe steal an ancient oil lamp from within a museum in Turkey that contains a clue to the lost fleet of Marco Polo. Drake gets the lamp but is betrayed by Flynn and left to rot in a prison cell. Bailed out by his old friend Sully, Drake learns from Chloe that Flynn is working for a psychopathic war criminal named Lazarevic who is attempting to locate Marco Polo's lost fleet. The lost fleet holds clues as to where to find the fabled city of Shambhala and the Cintamani Stone, a treasure that will grant great power to whoever holds it. Drake and company thus set off on a globe-trotting quest to beat Lazarevic and Flynn to the stone and keep it out of their hands. If all this sounds a bit crazy, that's because it is. The storyline of Uncharted 2 (and the other Uncharted games) goes off the deep end at several points, but it is the one of the best told crazy stories you'll experience in gaming. It is said that a good story starts with good characters, and Uncharted 2 proves that maxim with a cast of characters and interactions between them that sell the storyline and keep you invested. Married to the story and characters are strong gameplay mechanics and game design that make you want to keep playing; both to advance the story and to experience everything the game has to offer. You'll go from exploring and puzzle solving one minute, to fighting mercenaries the next and then you'll find yourself on your way to the next locale as Drake tries to stay one step ahead of Lazarevic and Flynn. The timing and pacing of events is near perfect, keeping the story moving forward without giving you combat fatigue or boredom from a lack of excitement or interest. Sprinkled throughout the game are a number of great setpiece moments that the Uncharted series is known for, such as fighting across the rooftops of Nepal while being chased by an attack helicopter and the best train ride in any video game ever (play the game and you'll know what I mean). The locations of Uncharted 2 are all beautifully realized and full of detail. A personal favorite of mine is a mountain village that Drake is brought to after being wounded. After waking up, Drake slowly walks through the village, taking in the scenic landscape and trying to interact with villagers who don't speak a word of English. If Uncharted 2 consisted only of its singeplayer campaign, it would be an outstanding game just for that, but it also includes a small but strong multiplayer suite. I was a bit skeptical when developer Naughty Dog announced that Uncharted 2 would have multiplayer in it, but when the game launched and I had a chance to try it out I found myself quite impressed. The game mechanics of the singplayer campaign have been translated very well into mulitplayer and the game modes, although basic, were enjoyable to the point that I consistently played multiplayer for about a month and a half (which is saying a lot since I normally am a singleplayer-only type of gamer). Uncharted 2 is a masterpiece of a game, and nearly got the top spot on this list. However, there is one game that I liked even more.

1. Mass Effect 2

(Honorable Mention: Mass Effect 3)

Fight for what's left.

There can be only one. I couldn't possibly describe everything that made Mass Effect 2 great in such a small space, so I'll limit myself to just a few items. As a role-playing game, Mass Effect 2 (referred to hereafter as ME2) represents one of the best realized game universes ever constructed with a cast of characters so diverse and expansive it boggles the mind to consider of how developer Bioware thought it all up. Set in the future, the Mass Effect games tell a story where mankind has expanded out into the galaxy, encountered alien races and found its place in the galactic community. ME2 begins with your character, Commander Shepard, getting killed when his ship is destroyed by an unknown alien vessel. Resurrected by a shadowy pro-human group known as Cerberus, Shepard is put in Cerberus' employ and sets off to investigate the aliens that killed him and find out why they have been attacking human colonies. Along the way he recruits a diverse cast of humans and aliens to join his crew and fight alongside him. Underlying everything that goes on is the impending threat of the Reapers, an race of advanced sentient machines who will one day arrive and wipe out all advanced civilizations in the galaxy. As Shepard treks across the galaxy the web of mysteries is unraveled and in the end Shepard leads his team on a suicide mission to take the fight straight to the enemy. For a game that spans the galaxy, ME2 has a fittingly massive cast of characters and lore. Every main character (and many side characters) has their own backstory, personality and aspirations. Every race has its own history, social structure and beliefs. Every planet has its own unique composition, geography and ecology. One of the things I enjoyed most about ME2 is that you're rewarded for exploring the galaxy and getting to know the characters. With each world potentially holding items, sidemissions or characters that can help you with your mission, or that are just interesting find, you'll want to check every area to see what's there. Each of the characters you can recruit has their own sidemission which gives you, on top of the chance to earn more experience points, the fuller details of who these characters are, why they think the way they do and gameplay bonuses. Helping them also makes them more willing to help you, which is especially critical to the final mission of the game. One of the other major features of ME2 is the ability to make choices that affect how the story plays out. Some of these choices have only subtle effects while others have major consequences. Most of the choices revolve around how to resolve a particular situation. How you choose to proceed builds your ranking as either a Paragon or a Renegade, and if you build a high enough ranking on either one you unlock new options for how certain events play out. Other choices are more straightforward and can be morally neutral, but even these mundane decisions have their effects on your experience. One of the most common decisions you make in the game which characters to take with you on missions and who you select has both minor and major consequences. Each character has their own specialty which affects how you play the game and they also have their own opinions on what's going on, meaning you'll get different bits of dialogue depending on who you choose. But perhaps the biggest decisions of all come right at the very beginning of the game. Unless you've imported your save file from Mass Effect 1, at the start of the game you will create your own Commander Shepard, choose from six character classes and decide how the major events of Mass Effect 1 played out. These decisions and the ones you make as you play the game can make each play-through different, and give a serious incentive to play the game multiple times to experience all the ways your choices can play out. ME2 is not a perfect game. There are a few slight technical and gameplay deficiencies in ME2 (and the Mass Effect series in general) but the story, cast of characters and universe are so strong that they overwhelm any nit-picking I can come up with. Mass Effect 2 is my favorite game of last gen and truly a legend.