Remembering IGPX

Back in my early college days I watched an anime called IGPX. It recently started rerunning on TV, and I thought I would do a post of my thoughts on the show, now that it has been a number of years since I first saw it.

IGPX ran for two seasons and was another take on the giant mech genre. It took place in the year 2049 when the world’s most popular motorsport is the Immortal Gran Prix, (or IGPX) in which people raced giant mechs. Each race pitted two teams of three mechs against each other, and each mech was piloted by a single person. The race took place on a 60 mile course and went for three laps. While giant mechs racing is somewhat interesting by itself, what spiced things up a bit was that the teams would fight each other during the race.

A pair of mechs go head-to-head

The story of IGPX follows Team Satomi, who have finally broken out of the lower leagues of the IGPX and made it into the highest tier of racers (called the IG-1). Season 1 of IGPX chronicled their progress throughout their first racing season and their eventual victory in the IG-1 tournament, while Season 2 took place a year later and showed Team Satomi’s next racing season where they defended their title and dealt with a number of personal issues amongst the team.

The main thing I liked about IPGX was the racing, which is a odd considering that I'm not really a racing fan when it comes to tv or movies. I've been told that the real reason people watch NASCAR is for the excitement of the crashes. I'm thinking the reason I liked IGPX was something similar to that, in that the races were more than just races and were full of action sequences.

At the starting line

Another thing I particularly liked about the IGPX was the distinct design philosophy of each team. While the overall outlines of the mechs were similar, each team's mechs reflected their personalities and styles. True, the designs were quite outlandish (as is usually the case with giant mechs in anime) but each one somehow seemed fitting for the team it was a part of.

But as much as I liked IGPX, anyone who watched it would tell you the show had a few problems and can understand why it only lasted two seasons. One of the first things that comes to mind is that, in spite of how cool the races were, the rules of the race did not entirely make sense. A number of little things, most notably how next to nothing happens in lap 1 and how fighting does not begin until lap 2, pervade the show. Another major flaw with the show was that the action/storyline off the track was not always interesting. The show explored the stories and relationships of the various persons on Team Satomi, but some were less compelling than others.

This brings me to a completely off topic question: why is it so often that teenagers are piloting giant mechs? There’s always the young prodigy pilot, who is really good, but has emotional/psychological issues that inevitably almost ruin things for everyone else, (or sometimes do) but then he/she has an epiphany/experience that makes sense of it all, and goes on to right his/her wrongs and be an amazing pilot. Stop me if you’ve heard this stoyline in some form or another a hundred times already.

You might wonder why anyone would allow teenagers to pilot giant mechs. You might also wonder why one of them would be allowed to bring a cat along. In the real world these would be sensible questions, but not in anime.

When thinking of other things to compare IGPX to, what comes to mind is the original Fast and the Furious movie. Fast and the Furious was primarily about car racing and crime associated with cars, and starred Vin Diesel and Paul Walker. These two (at the time) were not know for their acting strength, but the movie still worked overall because it never went too long before there was another race or some sort of action sequence with the cars. IGPX was similar to this in that the storyline outside the races was hit-and-miss, but in each episode there was either some sort of race or at least the buildup to it.

Some interesting concept art

Despite its problems I enjoyed IGPX while it lasted. If nothing else it did give me one of my favorite quotes in all of anime, which perfectly encapsulates one of my frustrations with a few other animes that I’ve watched. In one of the early episodes of season 1, Team Satomi is racing against Team Black Egg, and Satomi’s lead pilot, Takeshi, can’t land a hit on Black Egg’s lead pilot. Takeshi does a lot of screaming as he has his mech throw strike after strike and hit nothing but air. At that point the coach of Team Satomi, Andrei, speaks through the radio to Takeshi and says “Why don’t you stop shouting at him and just hit him?"

The Memory Train

Last night I was going over some of the photos from my trip to Europe last year while listening to Nujabes music. As you might imagine, I started thinking about taking another trip. I opened my web browser and visited the website of Deutsche Bahn, the German rail authority. For those of you who do not know, Deutsche Bahn is the definitive source of information on European train schedules. In both Italy and Spain I remember the local train ticket offices using it rather than their own national websites to check information on trains. As the melodious flow of Nujabes played in the background, I started typing in various starting and ending destinations. Paris to Barcelona. Amsterdam to Berlin. Vienna to Venice. I wasn’t searching for anything in particular, and it was only for about half an hour, but something about looking up schedules and examining the maps took me back to those days before and during my trip when I would sit at a computer with my train pass in hand, and the possibilities for exploration and discovery seemed endless.

A Taste of Boulder: the Walnut Cafe

I've been on something of a break from blogging, but now I'm trying to get back into it. My goal is one post per week. That being said, my job sucks up a major chunk of my time these days so it will be much harder to keep writing than in the past.

A few weeks ago I got photos for a Boulder restaurant that I've been wanting to spotlight in this series. Today our journey through the Boulder food scene takes us to the self-proclaimed favorite breakfast and lunch joint of Boulder; the Walnut Cafe.

I don't know if the Walnut Cafe really is Boulder's favorite breakfast and lunch joint, but I can confirm that it had some very tasty offerings. It is also right across the street from where I usually have my car's oil changed, so I sometimes grab a meal while waiting for my car to be ready. Since I'm normally there in the morning, I'll be speaking to the Walnut Cafe's breakfast offerings.

On a recent visit, I got pancakes with a side of breakfast potatoes and a chocolate chai tea.

The Walnut Cafe has everything you would expect in their breakfast menu: eggs, waffles, omlettes, pancakes, a variety of breads, grits, potatoes, meats etc. They also have a selection of vegan, gluten free and even tofu offerings (none of which I like, but this is Boulder, so such things are kind of mandatory). Though there's nothing particularly outlandish or unusual about the food you get at the Walnut Cafe, the focus of the restaurant seems more to be in doing ordinary things well (a hallmark of many good restaurants). I personally enjoy their pancakes and toast, which are actually combined in a menu item that I think is called the Big Dipper (there's a photo of it at the end of this post). Any visitor to the Walnut Cafe should also be sure to give the chocolate chai tea a try. It is quite good.

My friend Ed prefers his food a bit more colorful than I do.

Another thing I like about the Walnut Cafe is that it is not a large restaurant. Being slightly on the smaller side, the Walnut Cafe works well for more personal meet ups where you and your friends don't have quite as much background chatter to listen to. Big restaurants certainly have their place, (they work well for large groups) but places like the Walnut Cafe are preferred by people like me who prefer one-on-one or small group meals.

The inside of the Walnut Cafe

That will do it for this edition of A Taste of Boulder. Do you like simple, but well done breakfasts? If so, the Walnut Cafe might be for you. Pull up a chair, enjoy a filling meal and get your day off to a good start.

The Big Dipper. Yum.

Leaving Eden

Sooner or later the dream ends. The last 13 months have been some of the best in my life, and 2012 might go down as the best year ever. I quit my job, spent 3.5 months traveling overseas and got done so many things that simply were not possible while I was employed. I made significant gains in both intellectual and spiritual progress and even slimmed down a bit. But alas, my financials, as good as they are, cannot sustain me forever in their current condition, and the need for a source of income is upon me once more.

I am going back to work, but maybe for the last time. One thing that has occurred to me is that I did very well in planning to leave my job and travel, but I did not have as much preparation for what came after that (the "end game" as I call it). This next time around I will not be committing the same oversight. Within the next few months I plan on paying off the last of my debts. Then, preparation can begin in earnest.

DBZ Syndrome

I watch a bit of anime. Not much; mostly stuff that runs on Adult Swim and a few things on Youtube and Netflix. While I've enjoyed a number of shows, there have also been several that have frustrated me because of a thing I call DBZ Syndome. If you haven't guessed, DBZ stands for Dragon Ball Z, the name of a famous anime from the 90s. Simply put, DBZ Syndrome is when you have an episode of a show where a whole lot of nothing happens. Usually this involves a lot of stare-downs between characters, shouting, power-ups, narration, inner monologues and more time wasters that are intended to build drama or suspense, but utterly fail to accomplish anything but fill up time. I coined the term DBZ Syndrome after watching a number of episodes of Dragon Ball Z. At one point there was a fight between two characters that lasted five episodes, but everything that happened in those five episodes could have been done (far more effectively) in two. Reflecting on this needlessly drawn-out fight scene, I came to realize that the problems found therein were also present in several other animes that I had seen, and thus the concept of DBZ Syndrome was born in my head.

I'm guessing people more familiar with anime might say that what I call DBZ Syndrome is just a Japanese way of conveying emotion and building drama. I'm not saying they're wrong in that regard, I'm just saying DBZ Syndrome sucks.

A Taste of Boulder: Beau Jo's

It’s time for another entry in A Taste of Boulder. Today’s featured restaurant is a pizza establishment called Beau Jo’s. I’ve been meaning to do an entry on this place for a while, but it wasn’t until recently that I got the photos I wanted to showcase for it.

As said earlier, Beau Jo’s specialty is pizza, though not just any type of pizza. What Beau Jo’s is best known for are “mountain pies” which are slightly smaller but very dense pizzas. Mountain pies look much like a regular pizza, though with a large, thick crust. See the photo below for an idea of what I’m talking about.

You can order a specialty pizza, or create your own. All the various cheeses, sauces and toppings that you would expect are available. There’s even a substantial gluten-free section of the menu. You can also order a pasta or sandwich, but that’s not the reason you go to Beau Jo’s. Your drinks are served in glass jars manufactured by Ball, a Colorado firm that also builds satellites. One more nice touch, and one of my favorite things about Beau Jo’s, is the honey you are given with the pizza. This may seem like an odd thing, but the purpose of the honey is that you put it on the crust of the pizza, so you get something akin to bread and honey when you get to that part of the pizza. It is of course completely optional, but I think you’re missing out if you don’t take advantage of it.

Ed (left) and Shawn (right) ponder the possibilities.

The last time I was there with my friends Ed and Shawn, we ordered one of their specialty pizzas that was called the Motherlode, and I can only describe as meat, on top of meat, on top of meat, on top of meat. I remember it had pepperonis, sausage, ham, salami, and meatballs. Needless to say, it was delicious (but if you are vegetarian or vegan I imagine you would find it horrific).

Digging in. You can see the complementary honey in the bottom center of the photo.

I cannot stress enough how filling these pizzas are. Their appearance is deceptive and you might think that you should have ordered a larger size when they bring your pizza out. Beware, these are not the sort of pizzas you get from the likes of Dominos or Papa John’s where a young male can easily devour a medium size pizza in a single sitting. Beau Jo’s pizzas are not the biggest, but are very filling. The pizza shown in the photos above that my friends and I ate was packed with toppings and it was a team effort by all of us to consume the whole thing. For those of you who scoff at our small stomachs, you can always prove your manhood by taking “the challenge”, which is an actual menu option. If you choose to do so, you will be served a 14 pound pizza and given one hour to eat it (you are allowed a partner to help, which is recommended). Successfully consuming the whole thing within one hour means the pizza is free and you get recognition for beating the challenge. Failure results in you having to pay for the pizza, which I believe costs about $80.

Congratulations, you completed “the challenge” of reading this blog post. More will go up in the coming months as I can get proper photos.

Games Deserving Sequels: Mirror's Edge

UPDATE: At E3 2013 it was announced that a new Mirror's Edge game was in development and that it is a remake of the original, rather than a sequel. This news makes the final paragraph of this blog post obsolete, and I'm just fine with that.
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It's time for the third and final entry in my series on video games that I think should get sequels. In our finale we take a look at the first-person parkour adventure game titled Mirror’s Edge. This game has the distinction of being the weakest of the three in the series in terms of the quality of the original, and yet is the most likely to get a sequel at some point.

Concept art for Mirror's Edge.

Mirror’s Edge puts you in the first-person perspective while bounding across a city landscape. You’ll be running, jumping, sliding, rolling and climbing through the city in a parkour fashion that is reminiscent of platform games like Prince of Persia. In Mirror’s Edge you play the role of Faith, a courier who is part of a network of runners that deliver packages outside the law. The city of Mirror’s Edge is a totalitarian state, and the network that Faith is a part of is portrayed as a group of people working against the system. The setup is somewhat interesting, and the fact that your character is not a hyper masculine badass but instead an Asian girl whose strength is more in running than fighting is a nice change of pace. The storyline follows Faith as she runs across the city, trying to prove the innocence of her falsely accused (police officer) sister. You’ll experience the usual conspiracy, plot twist and betrayal common in many video game stories, and while the narrative is ok overall, I do wish the cutscenes were done differently, as in the game they are animated in a style that looks like old Esurance commercials.

Clean, beautiful and under government control.

Playing in the first person is the primary distinction between Mirror’s Edge and other platforming games. The running, bounding, sliding and rolling is played out as if you were doing it yourself. At the same time, Faith’s arms and legs are visible and move while running and platforming, which helps build immersion into the experience and keeps you from feeling like just a floating camera. The camera itself shakes a bit while moving, just as you might imagine it would when Faith is running and jumping everywhere. It is surprising how well this first person perspective works, and while you’re not doing anything new or innovative in terms of the actual movements, they somehow feel fresh and exciting in the game.

Stick the landing!

Mirror’s Edge also has an interesting momentum mechanic. Faith does not have a single run speed, but rather builds up speed as she runs and successfully executes a series of movements. This momentum can be lost, however, should Faith do something like take a hard fall, mistime a slide or run up against a wall. The momentum mechanic can be something of a two-edged sword, whereby it can be very satisfying to nail a long sequence of movements at full speed, but also frustrating to be brought to a halt by a mistake or not knowing what to do in a particular situation. Mirror’s Edge is arguably just as much a rhythm game as a platformer, and loss of momentum can seriously damage the rhythm of your playthrough. That being said, the momentum mechanic is still largely a positive one, adding immersion and a bit of realism to the experience.

Maybe entering through the upper level wasn't the best idea.

The one thing that really breaks momentum more than anything else though, is the combat that is sprinkled throughout the game. Local police are not amicable to Faith’s activities and are frequently trying the capture or kill her. While it is made clear early on that Faith should try to evade or outrun the police whenever possible, there are times when combat becomes unavoidable. Enemies will shoot at you from a distance, but once you get in close they will try to melee you. When this happens you will be given a cue that lasts a fraction of a second, whereby if you hit the proper button Faith will disarm the enemy and take his weapon. Unfortunately this disarm mechanic can be finicky and the time window for it is so small that successfully executing it can be very difficult. After awhile I stopped trying to disarm enemies and instead did either a jumping or sliding kick followed by some punches to deal with them. Though this felt a bit more in line with the game’s parkour vibe, it still hurt the pacing. It also doesn’t help that the hit-detection was frequently off.

Combat doesn't quite fit with the rest of the game.

As a result of these combat scenarios, you will occasionally have the option to use a gun. If you disarm an enemy or pick up his gun after knocking him out, you will steal his weapon and can potentially use it against other enemies. The actual gunplay of Mirror’s Edge is fairly weak, being both loose and imprecise. This is surprising because the game was made by Dice, the developers of the Battlefield series. To Dice’s credit, the gunplay does make a bit of sense in that Faith is not portrayed as skilled shooter. As a runner, you are generally discouraged from using guns as most of them will slow you down and keep you from being able to perform the movements needed to proceed in the game. Faith also cannot reload any gun she picks up, as she only took the weapon and not any spare magazines, and this in a way works with the theme that Faith is always moving and does not stop to loot the bodies of fallen enemies. Overall the gunplay kind of makes sense, but it’s still terrible. I’m really not sure whether it was intentional or just poor mechanics.

Guns do not work the way you might think.

The art style of Mirror’s Edge largely fits the general narrative of a city under tight control. Bright white is pervasive everywhere, giving the city a sterile and ordered feel. In addition to white, each area of the game has one or more strong colors (blue, green, yellow, etc) that overlay and help define the scene. One color, red, is particularly important though, in that it is used to help guide the player. As you advance through the game you’ll see objects colored red, and those indicate where you need to go. None of the areas or objects in Mirror’s Edge are particularly detailed, but then again since you’re running much of the time you normally don’t stop to notice. You could also argue that as a runner you’re more concerned with an object’s value for interaction than its looks. One thing you will notice is that for a massive city, you strangely run into hardly any people. With the exception of the police, almost every area is completely empty. This makes sense for when you’re on rooftops or in the sewer system, but why is there no one at the mall? My guess is that placing people in the buildings would only cause problems for gameplay in that they would get in the way. One last thing to note about the design of the areas in the Mirror’s Edge is that some look similar to each other. There were times where I could swear I was in the same building earlier, just with a different dominant color.

I'm going to assume by the coloring that this is a Jamba Juice factory.

The sounds you’ll hear while leaping and bounding through Mirror’s Edge do a good job of complimenting the visuals and building immersion. The footsteps of Faith as she runs along, together with her breathing and exerting herself with each movement all come out right and have you believe that Faith is actually doing what you see onscreen. You hear her hands smack against objects as she vaults over them and the sound of her doing a rolling landing has some real weight to it as her body impacts the ground. On a side note, should Faith take a long fall to her death, you will be treated to a disturbing splattering sound. The ambient music in the background compliments the sterile look of the city, and appropriately ramps up in tempo when you’re being pursued. The soundtrack of Mirror’s Edge also gave us one of my favorite video game theme songs; Lisa Miskovsky’s “Still Alive.”

Because an elevator would be too easy.

From the previous paragraphs I hope you can see that Mirror’s Edge has a number of things going for it, but also a number of problems. Despite its issues, I think the base concept of Mirror’s Edge is sound and I would love to see a sequel. Here are a few thoughts I have on it.

Running through the sewers.

Although continuing Faith’s narrative would be natural for a sequel, the role of lead character could potentially be given to someone new. This is not to say that Faith wasn’t an interesting character, but rather that putting you into the shoes of someone new could also work. Faith of course would be familiar and the easier option, but maybe Dice could go out on a limb and introduce a new character. Regardless, the writing will need some work. The storyline for the first game did just barely enough for me to keep interested, but it could have been so much more. We learned next to nothing about the regime keeping the city under control in Mirror’s Edge, so perhaps the sequel could delve into the system and the people behind it.

Who runs this city, and why do I suspect I'm going down that hole?

As it was the main breaker of the rhythm of the first game, combat should get some adjustment. Hit detection and tweaks to the timing of disarms would help a lot, and an overhaul of how you are able to approach combat could potentially fix the rhythm issue. In Mirror’s Edge you would close with an enemy and then either disarm or strike him. Both cases would bring you to a halt and kill forward momentum. If Faith’s arsenal of combat moves could be expanded so that she could strike or disarm an enemy, all while still moving forward, then the pacing of the game could be maintained while allowing Faith to have combat encounters. For some inspiration on how to do this, a good example to look at would be the recent game Assassin’s Creed 3, in which the main character can take out enemies while still maintaining the pursuit of his target.  

Incoming!

Something also has to be done about the guns in a Mirror’s Edge sequel. As stated earlier, the mechanics behind them were wonky, and using them felt out of line with the rest of the game. Whenever I picked up a gun I instantly reverted to my first-person shooter mentality and stopped playing the game as it was intended. In one particular section, Faith was making her way down through a building and running into enemies as she descended the levels. I disarmed one enemy, took his gun and killed the next guy, took his gun and killed the next guy, took his gun and killed the next guy and proceeded to do this all the way down. In retrospect I think I was supposed to be evading them, but I was unable to overcome my instinct to eliminate the threat rather than run away from it. One possible solution would be to just eliminate gun usage from a future sequel. If Faith took down an enemy she could instantly discard the weapon and already fallen foes would not leave guns to pickup on the ground. Another possible solution would be to refine how guns are handled. In this case, Faith should again have to work with however many bullets are already in the gun and not be able to reload, just like the first game. Faith’s aim should also be improved, and this could be easily explained by saying that in the time between games she has gotten better at shooting. At the same time, actually using a gun should be highly discouraged – even more so than in the first game. I don’t know exactly how, but I really think gun usage should incur the player some sort of penalty. Perhaps killing police/guards rather than disarming or evading them could intensify their response and make them more intent on killing you (kind of like the star level in GTA).

Not the way Mirror's Edge is supposed to be played.

Going on the assumption that Dice would still be the developer of the sequel, it might not be a bad idea to bring in their Frostbite 2 engine to power the next game. Frostbite 2 has already shown its potential for both graphics and character animations in games like Battlefield 3, and could be used to great effect in a Mirror’s Edge sequel. The move set for Faith could be expanded, allowing for the player to pull off more acrobatic maneuvers. It could also be used to create much better cutscenes in-game. While the overall art style of bright white and primary colors should be brought over from the original, more detailed environments and characters would be a major plus for the sequel. In designing the areas of the sequel, Dice should also open up the world for more routes and ways to traverse the environment. A notable problem with the original game was that although you had the illusion of being in a large environment that could be explored, there was really only one overall route to reach your objective.

Can you see the route?

A last thing to do with a sequel would be to expand the game at bit. I get the feeling that Mirror’s Edge was testing the waters of its concept, and now that we have seen its potential a larger game is in order for the sequel. A longer campaign (the first one was only about six hours long) and some extra modes would go nicely. The first game had a time trials mode where you could compete for the fastest times across several courses. Though the courses were often fun and imaginative, the leaderboards were badly messed up with people hacking the game so they could finish a course in less than five seconds. Any sequel will need to have something to protect against this kind of cheating. On the subject of the time trials, I think a solid addition to the new game would be a level-editor that would allow users to create, share and modify courses. Not many people would use it, but there would likely be a few persons who would create some great courses for everyone else to navigate. Dice could publicize the ones they think are the best and give the creators some sort of reward.
 

One of the time trials courses.

So, will there ever be a sequel to Mirror’s Edge? Technically, there was a Mirror’s Edge game for mobile devices, but I’m not counting that as a true sequel for this blog post. But to answer the question; it might just happen. At several points over the past few years, Dice has confirmed in interviews that the Mirror’s Edge brand is not dead. There has not been a firm confirmation that a sequel is in development, but Dice seems to be indicating that there is a legitimate chance of it happening. The original Mirror’s Edge sold a bit over 2 million copies worldwide, which is not a huge number, but not small enough to be considered a commercial failure either. Here’s to hoping we’ll one day bounding across the city in first-person again.

Have faith.

A Taste of Boulder: the Taj

After a bit of a break, it’s time for another entry in my Taste of Boulder series. Today’s featured restaurant is the Taj, an Indian food restaurant just south of where I live.

Located up the stairs, on top of a bicycle store

Those of you who know me know my limited palate and general disgust with certain foods, so the inclusion of the Taj in this series might surprise you. I’ve tried Indian food a number of times over the years and don’t particularly like curry or the general spiciness of Indian food, but the Taj has found a way to offer a few items I like.

A small sample of the food offerings

The standard Indian affair of curry, rice, naan bread, lamb etc can be found at the Taj. Since I’m not all that familiar with Indian food, I can’t speak to whether the offerings are “authentic”, but if nothing else there are several items that I like. The chicken and lamb korma I found to be quite good. I don’t know what flavor the sauce is that they put on it, but it mixed well with the meat and had just enough spice to bring out more of the flavor but not so much that I couldn’t take it (keep in mind, my spice threshold is low, so it might be considered bland to others). The naan bread is also solid and I thought complimented the lamb well. The dish that I had when I was last at the Taj also came with some yellow rice (see photo above). Normally I don’t like that stuff, but my friend Ed (who was with me at the time) suggested I dip the chicken and lamb korma in the rice and two went together fine. I still prefer the naan bread to the rice, but if the bread is not an option I would be ok with the rice. My friend Ed also enjoys their chai tea. One more item of note is the honey chicken. Although arguably a Chinese, rather than Indian item, it’s one of the few types of chicken I actually like and I’d recommend giving it a try.

Ed sat down with me at my last visit to the Taj

The best time of day to visit the Taj is definitely during the lunch buffet hours. Then you can load up on things you like while skipping things you don’t care for that might be included with regular menu items at other times of the day. To get the most for your money, (you can expect to pay something like $10 for the lunch buffet and a few dollars more for regular menu items at other times) I suggest you implement what I refer to as the “Pei Wei strategy”, (a few Colorado people know what I’m referring to) and make this the sole meal of your day. Skip breakfast, stuff yourself to the brim at the all-you-can-eat buffet, and be full enough to not eat again until the next day. While traveling overseas I found this to be a very effective way to save time and money (though I’m guessing it’s not a healthy practice to maintain over an extended period).

Normally the Taj is fairly full, but when Ed and I came for this meal they were in between meal hours. The staff was very kind to seat and serve us even though they weren't actually open for business at the moment.

And that’s the Taj; an Indian food restaurant that I somehow actually like. I didn’t think such a thing was possible, but in town like Boulder you can expect to have your presumptions challenged and possibly even overturned.

Games Deserving Sequels: Vanquish

In my second entry on video games that should get sequels, I present to you another outstanding but under appreciated title: Vanquish.

Time to suit up.

Vanquish is a third-person shooter from the mind of Shinji Mikami, the creator of the Resident Evil series, and was developed by the ever-talented folks at Platinum Games. The game is set in the future on board a large space station orbiting Earth that has been taken over by a Russian extremist group. These evil Russians (the only type that exist in entertainment) have weaponized the station’s massive microwave energy generator and used it to devastate San Francisco. They are now threatening to do the same to New York City unless the American government surrenders. The Americans send their space fleet to fight the Russian space fleet around the station, and while that is going on an American ship full of space marines manages to board the station in order to retake it.  On that ship is your character, a DARPA operative named Sam Gideon. Sam is tasked with rescuing Professor Candide, a DARPA researcher, who can shut down the station’s microwave weapon but has been taken prisoner by the army of Russian robots who have occupied the station. Over the course of the game’s campaign you fight your way across the station, wiping out any Russian robot foolish enough to get in your way.

Bullets, explosions and robots. What more could you ask for?

From I’ve written so far, most of you can guess that Vanquish’s storyline isn’t its strongest element. It gives you sufficient reason for what you’re doing and will move you from one action set piece to the next, but not much beyond that. During the loading screens you’re given bits of text that give more back-story on the characters, locations and tech involved in the storyline, but the game loads new levels so quickly that you can’t read them in their entirety. This gives Vanquish the strange honor of being the only game I’ve ever played where I actually wish the load times were longer. Vanquish’s characters include the tired bunch of gravel-voiced space marines, evil Russians and hordes of robots that need killing. The voice acting is decent for the most part, but slips into the corny and campy on multiple occasions. The characters also never really grow over the course of the game, which is unsurprising given the story being told, but still disappointing because some relationships, like that between Sam and his support operative Elena, could have been much more interesting.

Space marines to the rescue... again.

In spite of all this, Vanquish’s outstanding gameplay makes the preceding issues with storyline and characters nearly irrelevant. Rock-solid shooter mechanics combined with a strong cover system and inventive weapons gives Vanquish many of the same qualities as Western-style shooters such as Gears of War. However, if you approach this game in the same manner as Gears of War you have completely missed the point and wasted Vanquish’s potential. Vanquish places a heavy emphasis on speed, style and skill (a common emphasis in games made by Platinum) and dares you to try and see just how over-the-top you can make its action. Your character Sam goes into battle wearing the ARS battle suit, which allows him to rapidly boost across the battlefield and slow down time. Your suit has limited amount of energy that recharges after a few seconds, but part of the fun is experimenting to see what and how much you can do before the suit overheats and needs to cool down. Should you take a lot of damage, slow motion instantly kicks in, giving you one last chance to either get to cover or to take down the enemies shooting you. In addition to your suit, Vanquish has Sam employing a variety weapons that range from your standard rifles, shotguns and rockets to more fantastical weapons like a gun that locks onto targets and then fires a volley of lasers at them. Throughout the game you can find item pickups to improve your weapons, giving a sense of progression to Sam’s combat prowess. Sam also has a different melee attack for each weapon he can carry. One last thing of note regarding the gameplay is a hilarious little mechanic where Sam can stop in the middle of a fight to take a smoke. While in cover he can pull out a cigarette, light it, take a puff and then toss it, which serves to distract nearby enemies.

Boosting around is not only cool, but also helps dodge enemy fire.

The slow motion survival mechanic is bound to happen multiple times as you play through the campaign, because Vanquish is not an easy game, even on normal difficulty. While most games give you an easy opening level to practice in before going up against harder scenarios, Vanquish throws you into the fire in its first mission. You’ll quickly realize that the cover system and the abilities of the ARS suit are not just gimmicks, but necessary tools for victory. Enemies are out to kill you and bosses present a real challenge. On a side note, I loved the boss fights in Vanquish. Many of the bosses have attacks that will kill you with a single hit, but they are always telegraphed, giving you a chance to escape and making these encounters hard but fair (the way boss battles should be).

One of the boss fights of Vanquish.

Complementing Vanquish’s superb gameplay are its fantastic visuals. The sci-fi cityscapes of Vanquish provide a fitting backdrop for the game and levels are well designed. In one of my favorite sections of the game, you are frantically rushing across a collapsing bridge, while fighting your way past Russian robots with no self-preservation instincts. The only times I thought Vanquish’s visuals and design weren’t so great were the few times where you are in more organic environments, such as when you fight your way through a park. But what Vanquish does better than most other games, regardless of the setting, is battlefield chaos. Every set piece engagement is full of bullets, explosions and moving enemies; all at the same time and for the most part running at a smooth 60 frames-per-second. For a fun little diversion, get into a firefight and try to keep track of everything that is going on. For an even bigger visual treat, go into slow motion where you can clearly make out bullets whizzing past you. Sam’s suit by itself also deserves some mention, as the sheer number of lights and moving parts is impressive. Your gun is itself an extension of your suit, and changes into each of the three weapons you can carry in a cool little morph animation that happens in real-time during gameplay.

Robots everywhere, and not one of them is your friend.

The singleplayer campaign of Vanquish will last you about seven hours depending on your skill and the difficulty level you play on, but is worth replaying. As you move through a level you are given points for things like taking down enemies with style, finding item pickups and completing the level under a certain time. At the end of each section of the game you are given a rating for your performance, encouraging you to go back and try to pull off more stylish kills and complete the level in a faster time. Your score can be uploaded to online leader-boards where you can see how you stack up against your friends and the world. Though I personally didn’t care too much about the scoring system, I did feel a certain satisfaction whenever I earned a good score. There is also a challenges mode, which allows you to take on various scenarios and go for high scores. Vanquish has no multiplayer, and that is the way it should be. Many games over the years have suffered from tacked-on multiplayer modes that were nothing more than checkboxes for marketing material, but Platinum had the sense not to waste time and resources on it.

Just like mechs in anime, the Russians sacrificed plausible mechanical designs in order to store a ton of missiles.

Rounding out Vanquish’s strong features is its audio. Despite everything that is occurring onscreen, the sound from all the gunfire, explosions and collapsing structures never overwhelms the senses. Going into slow motion sounds exactly like you would imagine with low-pitched rumbling and the clanking sounds of moving mechanical parts. The electronic music goes well with the futuristic look of the game and stays at just the right level so that you can hear it but are not distracted by it. Vanquish also comes with multiple language tracks that are fun to try out. After beating the game once, play through a second time but see what it’s like for everyone to be shouting in French, German or Japanese.

Take cover. You'll need it.

So with all that said, what would I like to see in a sequel? More of the same, for the most part. Platinum came close to nailing it with Vanquish, so any sequel could follow much of the same formula as the original. Still, there are a few adjustments I would like to see.

Russian robots are like Pokemon. Gotta kill 'em all.

The biggest item that needs refinement is, you guessed it, the storytelling. Vanquish’s gameplay was so awesome that it could be forgiven for its weak story and bland characters, but it will be harder to overlook this shortcoming a second time. Any sequel will of course have to work within the universe created by the original, but at the same time the lack of storyline and mythos surrounding the Vanquish universe should give enough leeway for any future writers to craft a more interesting tale.

One way to clear traffic.

In the same vein, more fleshed out characters and more character development over the course of the game would help further address Vanquish’s major shortcomings. Just as with the overall storyline, writers of the next game will be hobbled by some of the original material they will have to work with, but the problem is far from insurmountable. Sam and Elena would likely return, and a sequel could explore them and their relationship, as long as it doesn’t turn into a forced romance (completely unrelated to all of this; the Elena in Vanquish is sadly not the same Elena from the Uncharted series, but I like to pretend that she is her descendant). We could learn more about who they are and their work at DARPA, and maybe there could even be a level where Elena gets her own ARS suit and kicks some Russian robot @ss. The leader of the evil Russians could also use some work, as he we didn’t learn much of anything about him and he was portrayed as the old evil just for the sake of being evil cliché. A few more cool female characters that are not just eye candy or token romantic interests could help too.

We WILL be your typical space marines.

Obviously, having a slightly longer singleplayer campaign would be a good addition to any sequel. Vanquish is admittedly more like a sugar rush than a filling meal, but lengthening the campaign by two or so hours is well within reason. I would suggest Platinum aim for roughly the 10 hour mark with any sequel.

Slow motion allows for some stylish kills.

Lastly, Platinum, please don’t ever add multiplayer.

At the end here, we again pose the question of whether or not an actual sequel to Vanquish is likely. The answer is no. Although a sequel to Vanquish is not as absurdly improbable as a sequel to Split/Second, the game in my previous post, Vanquish simply did not sell well enough for Platinum to feel confident about making a sequel. I don’t think we’ll ever see a sequel to Vanquish, which is truly a shame because the original set a strong gameplay foundation for future games to build on.

Games Deserving Sequels: Split/Second

Today I make my first foray into the overcrowded world of video games blogging. As some of you know, I am something of a video gaming enthusiast, and enjoy keeping up with the industry. I am not going to be doing anything that you could call journalism with these posts; they are strictly opinion pieces and are intended as just a way for me to write about some of the titles that I enjoy and aspects of video gaming that I find interesting. If you like video games then you might likes these posts, but I understand that not everyone finds this stuff interesting.

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In our maiden voyage into the realm of video games blogging, I present to you a game that I think should get a sequel; the first in a planned series of three entries on this topic. Today’s entry is dedicated to one of my favorite racing games of this console generation: Split/Second.

Yup, you're driving straight into that.

There are plenty of arcade racing games out there. Some even feature events that players can activate to alter the course or attack other drivers. But I haven't played any that are on the same level of explosion filled insanity as Split/Second. The whole premise of Split/Second is that you are racing on a course meant to be destroyed. There is something of a storyline in this game, about how you’re in a TV show that’s covering this explosive (pun intended) racing league that you’re trying to win, but as with the vast majority of racing games, the story is nearly irrelevant. Your season is broken up into 12 individual episodes, which are broken into six individual events that you try to win. The events include standard races, time trials, and survival modes. In one notable mode, called Air Assault, your car is being pursued by an attack helicopter and you have to dodge its missile volleys as long as possible. In each event you need to place third or better to advance, or achieve a certain time. The better you do, the higher your overall ranking in the season. Each episode finishes with a race against the league’s top-ranked racers, and you need to finish in third place or above to unlock the next episode. At the end of the last episode you need to have earned enough points to be in third place overall or above, as ranked against the elite racers who you faced at the end of each episode, to have “won” the game, (as much as one can "win" this sort of game) though you can always go back and replay old events to boost your overall ranking. If you win the game, you’re treated to a brief cutscene whereby you join the ranks of those elite racers you faced off against and it is implied that a second season of the show is in the works and will be even crazier than the one you just completed. Sadly, no sequel to Split/Second has even been announced.

Let the mayhem begin!

Split/Second’s primary mechanic lies in the various events that you can activate to wreck opponents and/or change the course. These events are called power plays, which are broken into two levels. Level one power plays do things like explode parked cars, hurl construction shovels across the track or drop explosive barrels from a helicopters hovering over the course. Level two power plays are much more dramatic and frequently alter the entire route of the course. Some notable level two power plays include breaking a dam, leveling the cooling towers of a nuclear plant and destroying a bridge. One of my personal favorite level two power plays occurs on the airport course and allows you to cause a jumbo jet to make a crash landing on the runway that you are driving on, forcing you and the other racers to dodge a wall of fire and debris coming straight at you. In order to activate power plays you have to earn them, and you earn power play levels by doing things like drifting, drafting behind opponents and getting airtime by going off jumps. As you do these things a meter at the bottom of the screen fills up and when you have enough you get visual cues that you can now activate a power play that is in range. To earn an all-powerful level two power play you must fill the meter entirely. Each course has different power plays and part of becoming a better player is learning where they are located and the timing to properly use them. Multiple racers can activate various different power plays simultaneously, so you can have times where the entire track suddenly erupts in chaos. Having a parked bus explode followed by a near miss with a wrecking ball and then seeing a smokestack falling down and changing the route might be an audiovisual overload for some, but I personally prefer my racing games to be chaotic, and Split/Second does chaos near perfectly. The visual spectacle is still impressive today, even though the game came out almost three years ago. The excellent audio of explosions, car engines and building collapses, combined with exciting (albeit limited and repetitive) music helps to complete the package of racing insanity. If you have a good sound system for your TV this is a game that will make great usage of it. Split/Second does so many things well that even a person like me who is not the biggest racing game fan can’t help but like it and want a sequel. 

You'll get a brief tutorial on using power plays.

With all that said, there are a few things that I would like to see tweaked or changed with any sequel. The biggest item is the rubber-banding effect in the single player campaign. For those of you who don’t know, rubber-banding is a game mechanic meant to maintain a level of challenge by making the racers in the back of the pack faster to allow them to catch up with the leaders (once the racers in the back catch up the effect is supposed to end). While some amount of rubber-banding is needed in racing games to keep races from being blowouts, Split/Second went overboard with its rubber banding, particularly in the elite races at the end of each episode, meaning that no matter what you did the other races would quickly catch up with you, and usually rocket pass you. Infuriatingly, the rubber-banding mechanic never works in your favor, so if you fall behind in an elite race there is no hope of ever catching the leaders. It's somewhat sad to know that excessive rubber-banding has been the bane of arcade racing games for a long time. Another more famous game that was notorious for this problem was the old Mario Kart 64. If you played on the highest difficulty setting and an AI player took a big lead there was no way you could possibly catch up, unless somehow there was a volley of five blue shells, one after another (and even that probably wouldn’t be enough). Any sequel to Split/Second should tone down its rubber-banding overall, as well as give you a decent chance to catch up if you fall way behind.

The attack helicopter pays you a visit in Air Assault mode.

The second major thing that I would like to see adjusted is the rate you gain power plays in multiplayer. The primary selling point of Split/Second is the power play system you can use to alter the course or try to wreck other racers. In singleplayer the system works well, but in multiplayer you earn power play levels much slower, primarily because it is much harder to draft behind an opponent in multiplayer (and if you’re a terrible at drifting, like me, the problem is even worse). This slower rate of earning power play levels means significantly fewer of them are activated in multiplayer races, which turns Split/Second into a more traditional racing game and completely defeats the point of playing it as opposed to any other racing game. To rectify this, I would recommend in any sequel that the rate at which you earn power play levels in multiplayer be double (or possibly even 2.5x) the rate at which you earn them in singleplayer. This would bring the insanity of singleplayer to multiplayer races and help further differentiate Split/Second from other racers.

Dodging explosive barrels in Survival mode.

Related to the previous point, the durability of racers in multiplayer should be reduced. In singleplayer, the level one power plays that involve explosives (which constitute the majority of level one power plays) are strong enough to wreck or at least throw off the AI opponents, but you are normally able to maintain enough control to avoid being wrecked when you are on the receiving end of the same power plays. In multiplayer all your opponents are human, and thus most of the level one power plays are rendered ineffective unless you can score a direct hit. This results in not many level one power plays being activated in multiplayer and most people instead saving up for the much more powerful level two power plays. This is where the previous problem of earning power play levels very slowly in multiplayer is compounded; you need to earn a stronger power play to have a good chance of wrecking an opponent, but because you earn them so slowly in multiplayer you’re hard pressed to get one before the race is over. The consequence of all this is an online racing experience that falls short of its potential. By making racers less durable, (or the effects of an explosive power play stronger) the usage of most level one power plays in multiplayer would become more effective and introduce a much greater element of risk/reward in driving tactics. For example, do I take a shorter route and drive right past a bus that another player might explode, or do I take an extra second to go wide and avoid it but give my opponents an extra second to catch up or pull way from me?

Part of the fun is discovering what you can destroy.

Another item that ties into the previous two (and is really just an expansion of the last paragraph) is that I would like to see the racing truck class be made a more competitive option. Split/Second’s cars are largely broken into three broad classes of vehicles: super cars, muscle cars and racing trucks. The whole point of the racing truck class is that while it is slightly slower than the other two classes, its vehicles are much stronger and can withstand more punishment from power plays. But as you’ve read above, the racing truck’s durability advantage is rendered nonexistent in multiplayer by the fact a human racer can withstand most level one power plays while using the other two (faster) classes. By reducing the durability of racers, (at least of the other two classes) as suggested above, the racing truck class could fulfill its intended role as the conservative racing option; sacrificing a bit of speed for security.

There are no kill-streaks or bonus points for wrecking multiple opponents, but it's still very gratifying.

The last few items I would like to see in any sequel are easily the least important but would still be nice. The original Split/Second came with 11 courses and 6 modes, and you could get an additional two courses and three modes with DLC packs. I have no complaints for the number of courses and modes in the original Split/Second, but it would be good to increase the number of courses by two to four and add another mode or two in the sequel. Some courses, such as the airport or the canyon, I would be happy to see return in the sequel, though perhaps with some redesigns to keep them fresh. Also, it would be good to allow players to set the number of laps in Quick Play and multiplayer races. Each Split/Second course had a set number of laps (two or three) you go through in a race, depending on the length of the course. The system works fine overall, but there are times where I wish I could do one more lap to catch an opponent or activate a power play that I particularly like. Allowing players to set the number of laps completed in a race would add an extra bit of player control and enjoyment to the Split/Second experience. To avoid the situation where all power plays have been expended and you don’t have anything left to use on opponents, there would be an upper limit on the number of laps (say, four or five) but otherwise you could pick how long or short you wanted your race to be. My last suggestion would be for the addition of a boost system, which is a common feature of arcade racers but was missing in Split/Second. An easy way to incorporate it into a sequel would be for both the boost and power play systems to deplete the same meter, thus adding another layer of driving tactics. You would still fill the meter the same way as before, but if you wanted to give yourself a speed boost for a few seconds you could lose the ability to activate power plays, since your speed boost drained from the same meter you would use for power plays.

The explosion and flame effects are still good today.

With everything I’ve written about what I’d like changed in the sequel, you might think I wasn’t a big fan of Split/Second, but that it not the case. On my personal review scale I would give Split/Second something like a 8 out of 10. It is a good game on the cusp of being a great game. If it were to make a few adjustments we could have something truly legendary. If you’ve never tried it before I suggest at least seeing if you can rent it and then judge for yourself if it’s really the fun insanity that I make it out to be.

Escaping power plays unharmed will give you a small boost to your power play meter.

Will Split/Second ever get a sequel? Honestly, at this point I think only divine intervention could make that happen. Black Rock Studios, the company that made Split/Second was shuttered in 2011 and Disney Interactive Studios, the publisher of Split/Second, decided against funding a sequel due to low sales. The only way I could see a sequel happening would be for a developer and/or publisher to take a big gamble and acquire the rights to Split/Second. However, that is extremely improbable. The video games industry is one of the most conservative industries around, as seen by the general reluctance to invest in new IPs and instead stick with well-established franchises that everyone knows will sell well (such as Call of Duty, Halo, God of War, Mario, etc). For all intensive purposes, the odds of a sequel are effectively zero.