Upcoming Games - Day 2

We’re getting close to E3 2016, the annual video games convention held in Los Angeles. That means we’re about to get a bunch of previews for games that will be coming out either this year or in 2017, and in that spirit I thought I’d dedicate this week to highlighting several of the games I’m personally looking forward to. Each day I’ll feature two games and a short description of what they are and why I’m interested in them.

Today’s showcase brings us a game about transhumanism and a game with robot dinosaurs.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
   

The Deus Ex games take place in a future where technology has risen to new heights and advanced cybernetics are giving humans powers and abilities once unimaginable. In the preceding game, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, you played as Adam Jensen, the security chief of one of the major corporations that was developing various human augmentations. After a mysterious group raids Adam’s company and leaves him within an inch of death, Adam himself is heavily augmented and tasked by his boss to track down the people who attacked them. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided picks up Human Revolution’s storyline, though it’s not clear which of Human Revolution’s four endings became canonical, if any. In Mankind Divided, the non-augmented human population has become paranoid about potential threats from augmented humans, and they are being rounded up and isolated from the rest of humanity. Adam Jensen returns to once again to unravel a global conspiracy, and maybe this time it won’t turn out that nearly everyone’s lying to him. One of the reasons I’m looking forward to Mankind Divided is that it looks like it will have the same tactical flexibility as Human Revolution for how you approach missions. Granted, my preferred method in Human Revolution involved a revolver with explosive ammunition, but I appreciate that I could have snuck by everyone instead.

Horizon: Zero Dawn
    

Horizon: Zero Dawn comes to us from Guerrilla Games, the studio responsible for the Killzone series. I’m glad to see Guerrilla trying something new, and Horizon: Zero Dawn looks like a fresh beginning for them. Horizon: Zero Dawn is set in a post apocalyptic future where most of humanity is gone and nature has reclaimed the world. Roaming the wilds are gigantic robot dinosaurs, which your character, Aloy, hunts for raw materials. I’m sure there’s some sort of story somewhere in this game, but for now it looks so cool that I don’t even care if there is none. The world looks vibrant, colorful, and it reminds me a lot of Enslaved: Odyssey to the west, another post apocalyptic games with robots that I enjoyed a lot. Last year we got a gameplay demo of Horizon: Zero Dawn, but there’s not been much word on the game since, so this year I’m expecting an update at E3.

Upcoming Games - Day 1

We’re getting close to E3 2016, the annual video games convention held in Los Angeles. That means we’re about to get a bunch of previews for games that will be coming out either this year or in 2017, and in that spirit I thought I’d dedicate this week to highlighting several of the games I’m personally looking forward to. Each day I’ll feature two games and a short description of what they are and why I’m interested in them.

Today we’re going to start with a pair of sequels whose predecessors had high-potential, but fell a little bit short.

Mirror’s Edge Catalyst
 

Mirror’s Edge Catalyst is a game I’ve been wanting since I played the original Mirror’s Edge back in 2009. While technically a reboot, rather than a sequel, I’m just happy that it got made. The original Mirror’s Edge had a number of problems, but also had a lot of interesting ideas, and I even wrote one of my first gaming-related writing pieces on it (found here). Taking place in a beautiful but sterile city under the thumb of a police state, Mirror’s Edge had you playing the role of Faith, a free running courier on a mission to save her sister who was framed for murder. The first-person traversal of the original Mirror’s Edge felt novel at the time, and with any luck Mirror’s Edge Catalyst will refine and improve upon it, while also fixing the first game’s problems, such as the gunplay and there being only one route from point A to point B. Mirror’s Edge Catalyst comes out on June 7, so it won’t be much longer before we start seeing review scores and get an idea on whether or not it’s any good.

Titanfall 2
  

The original Titanfall was one of the showcase games at the unveiling event of the Xbox One. Titanfall’s gameplay demo did everything right and had me hyped for the game. It was a futuristic first-person shooter where you could pilot giant mechs that were dropped out of the sky (what’s not to like about that?). Titanfall was sure to become a favorite of mine…. until I learned that it was multiplayer only. Then my heart sank, and a massive wave of disappointment swept over me. Titanfall looked so cool, but I was never going to play it. So then, you can imagine my excitement when a brief teaser trailer for Titanfall 2 was released recently, and a press release confirmed that it would have a singleplayer campaign. Little else has been revealed about Titanfall 2, hence why the image on the right is actually artwork from the first game, but it will supposedly come out this year, so I am confident it will appear at E3 and we’ll get the full details on what to expect.

Uncharted 4 - The Grand Finale

It’s official; developer Naughty Dog has crafted another masterpiece. A few days ago I wrapped up my playthrough of Uncharted 4 and I can say that one of 2016’s most anticipated games lives up to the hype. Normally I don’t get around to playing games until some time after their release, but in the case of Uncharted 4 I made a point to play the game as soon as I could. Hence why this game is not part of my Late to the Party series of posts, as this time I showed up to the party within a reasonable timeframe.

Nathan Drake's final journey

Because Uncharted 4 only came out just over two weeks ago, I will avoid major spoilers for the story and there will also be no screenshots or video clips from the last few hours of the game. I know there are still many people who haven’t played Uncharted 4 yet, so you don’t have to worry about me ruining the game if you haven’t played it. The downside to this is that I’ll have to skip over few story elements that would otherwise be well worth discussing.

Fighting through the market

Uncharted 4 is the conclusion of Nathan Drake’s story, which began with the first Uncharted game back in 2007. In Uncharted 4, Drake is finally out of the treasure hunting business, has settled down with his wife Elena, and is living a “normal” life. This stable but mundane existence is interrupted when Drake’s brother, Sam, who Drake believed had died fifteen years earlier in a Panamanian prison, shows up and asks for his assistance in acquiring the treasure of famous pirate Henry Avery. Drake is unwilling at first, saying that he no longer does that sort of work, but Sam is in desperate need and Drake reluctantly agrees. Enlisting the help of Drake’s old mentor Victor “Sully” Sullivan, Drake sets out on one last adventure.

Shipwrecked

To put it plainly, Uncharted 4 has the best overall story out of all the Uncharted games, along with the best character moments and character development. The center of the story is the relationship between Sam and Drake, and everything that happens in the game is tied to their history and interactions. They grew up together, but at a certain point they drifted apart and became very different people. One of the things that becomes apparent in the game is that although Sam is the older brother in the purely chronological sense, Drake is the older brother mentally. Drake has “grown up,” so to speak, having moved on and settled down, while Sam is still stuck in the past. As the relationship between Sam and Drake is developed, we also get a deeper dive into Drake himself. In previous games, especially Uncharted 3, we got some glimpses into Drake’s past and his motivations, but with Uncharted 4 we finally get a fuller understanding of who he is and why he pushes himself beyond the point of reason to do the things he does. It’s rare in video games to get a character with this much development, and Uncharted 4 is all the better for it.

High Society

As a game, Uncharted 4 feels similar to the previous games in the series, but has it’s own distinct vibe. There are some very clear influences from Naughty Dog’s last game, The Last of Us, such as the optional dialogue you can participate in and how characters like Sam will move about and explore the environment on their own while you look around. The jaw-dropping set piece moments that Uncharted games are known for have been scaled back in Uncharted 4, so you never get anything on the scale of the train sequence from Uncharted 2. I could be wrong, but it also feels like Uncharted 4 has less combat than previous Uncharted games. This may be partly due to the increased stealth options that give you more opportunities to clear areas without firing a shot, and partly because there are longer gaps between combat than in previous Uncharted games. When looking at the arc of the game, I think Uncharted 4 can be divided into two distinct sections - before the shipwreck and after the shipwreck. The part of the game leading up to the shipwreck feels the most different from previous Uncharted games, while after the shipwreck feels much more familiar. This division, and to some extent the longer gaps between combat, are part of the cause of one of Uncharted 4’s very few weak spots, namely its uneven pacing. Whereas Uncharted 2 and 3 had a strong sense of pacing between traversal, combat, puzzles, and character moments, Uncharted 4 sometimes stretches out individual sections longer than it should. While this wasn’t a big deal for me, I imagine other people may have wanted a pacing closer to what we had in the last two Uncharted games.

Shootout in the Auction House

Though Uncharted 4 plays much the same as its predecessors, there are a number of new mechanics that make its gameplay clearly distinguishable from other Uncharted games. Among the most noticeable are the previously mentioned optional dialogue opportunities, which are triggered at various points in the game and allow Drake to stop and have a short, but often meaningful chat with another character. Supplementing the optional dialogue are a few instances in the game where you can choose one of three replies Drake can make to the person talking to him. Neither the optional dialogue, nor the dialogue choices change the outcome of the game’s story, but they do give you a chance to put a personal spin on a few sections of it. With regards to traversal, the three new things Drake will be doing are sliding down certain surfaces, stabbing a metal pick into porous rocks while climbing, and using his grappling hook and rope to swing across gaps. The sliding and metal pick are very straightforward and normally are just another part of getting from one place to another, but the rope swinging can play an important role in both traversal and combat. In addition to getting Drake across gaps, he can also use his rope to aggressively charge enemies as well as flee from them, and that nicely leads to a mentioning of the new combat mechanics. Compared to previous games, Uncharted 4 has significantly more encounters where you have the option of using stealth, and now there are patches of tall grass that Drake can sneak through to get behind and/or ambush enemies. Enemies also have detection meters, so you can tell if you are in their cone of vision. Unlike previous Uncharted games, if you are spotted by enemies you frequently have an opportunity to elude them and reestablish stealth, though they will spend a minute looking for you before returning to their usual patrol routines. One thing that is strangely missing from Uncharted 4’s stealth mechanics is the ability to distract enemies by throwing a random object nearby them. This is an odd omission, considering it was in The Last of Us. When it’s time to go loud, the gun mechanics are nigh identical to previous Uncharted games. What’s changed is that you can no longer throw back grenades like you could in Uncharted 3, and there’s more destructible cover, meaning you’ll sometimes need to stay mobile to stay alive. One final game mechanic that I want to mention is the only one I got tired of, namely the crates used for puzzle solving. The crates are not bad in and of themselves - they just get used a few times too often. It’s also rather strange that Drake and Sam are often dependent on the crates to get to higher levels, seeing as how they are carrying grappling hooks and rope for most of the game.

Welcome to Scotland

On the visual front, Uncharted 4 has secured the title of the best-looking console game I’ve played to date. Even other console graphics heavyweights like Halo 5 and The Order: 1886 are outshone it. Whether in-game or in the cutscenes, Uncharted 4 is a sight to behold. Every location is masterfully realized - from the frigid shores of Scotland to the open wilds of Madagascar. This high level of quality extends to the characters, meaning Drake and his friends both look great and have outstanding character animations. With how good Uncharted 4 looks, I was pleased to see the inclusion of a Photo Mode that lets you pause the action and capture images from unique perspectives. By adjusting the filters, camera angles, and other settings, you can create some truly stunning images. If you want to change up Uncharted 4’s appearance during normal gameplay, there are multiple Render Modes to choose from in the Bonus menu. These allow you to do things like give the game a cel shaded or 8-bit aesthetic. I appreciate that Naughty Dog took the time to include these bonus features in Uncharted 4, though I would have been content if all I had was the visual excellence of its default appearance. Considering the jump that Naughty Dog made over the course of their career on PlayStation 3, starting with Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and ending with The Last of Us, it boggles my mind to think of what they might achieve by the time they put out their last PlayStation 4 game.

Sampling the Render Modes

Though Uncharted 4 is first and foremost centered on its singleplayer campaign, it does have a suite of multiplayer modes. I’m generally not one for multiplayer, but I played a few rounds and I can say that Uncharted 4’s multiplayer works well and seems smoother and slightly faster than the multiplayer I remember from Uncharted 2 or 3. There are fewer modes than previous games, but the ones that are there are deeper with the addition of new game mechanics. One notable new feature is the ability to summon support characters that can do things like heal teammates, run around and restrain other players, and provide sniper support. To learn these and other multiplayer mechanics, there are training missions that let you hone your skills against bots. Seeing as how I don’t have a natural instinct for multiplayer, the inclusion of training missions was greatly appreciated on my part. I am disappointed, though, that Uncharted 4 removed the online cooperative missions that I thoroughly enjoyed in Uncharted 2 and 3. In previous games, I put in quite a few hours online playing those missions and trying to beat them on the hardest difficulty. With their absence, I’ll probably only play Uncharted 4 multiplayer for another week or so before stopping altogether.

Photo Mode lets you better take in the view

If you’ve never played any of the preceding Uncharted games, you might be wondering whether or not you can jump in with Uncharted 4. In my personal opinion, it’s not necessary to have played the previous Uncharted games to enjoy Uncharted 4, but if you can I would suggest playing the other games first. While Uncharted 4 is a great game in and of itself, you’ll appreciate the story and characters a lot more if you’ve experienced what came before it. Chapter 4, the ending, and the epilogue, in particular, will feel so much more significant if you’ve gone through the entire journey leading up to it.

Four wheeling in Madagascar

As Uncharted 4 is the fourth (actually fifth) game in the series, it’s a fair question to ask how it compares to the other Uncharted games. Personally, I’m not ready to render a verdict on this, as I feel it’s still too close to the game’s release and I’m still high off the experience from my first playthrough. I want to gain some time and distance, and do a second playthrough, before I grade Uncharted 4 against the other games. While I could try to rank the games now, I don’t think I yet have enough perspective to do so in a fair and respectful way.

On the trail of Henry Avery

As I said at the beginning of this post, Uncharted 4 is a masterpiece. It is probably the best exclusive game on PlayStation 4 at the moment, and it’s the sort of game I would show to other people as an example of what video games can be as an entertainment medium. Uncharted 4 is a fantastic conclusion to Uncharted storyline, and I couldn’t help but smile when the final credits started to roll. Other game developers take note; this is how you end a series well.

So long, Drake

Too Much Star Wars?

Is there such as thing as having too much Star Wars? That question came to mind a few months ago when I saw a news article about how Disney had plans to release a new Star Wars movie every year, starting last year and going until 2020. I love Star Wars as much as anyone else, but I do wonder if having a Star Wars film every year for the next several years will take some of the luster off the brand. When Disney acquired Lucasfilm, and by extension Star Wars, in 2012 I knew there were going to be changes and Disney would milk the franchise for all it was worth, but I didn’t foresee them cranking out spinoff movies in addition to a new trilogy. I can’t blame Disney for doing this, and they’ll likely rake in billions of dollars over the coming years, but part of me feels like Star Wars movies won’t be quite as special if they’re coming out on a such a regular schedule. Then again, maybe I’m wrong, and like a drug addict my desire for more Star Wars will only grow with the increased volume of Star Wars entertainment.

"You only see the flaws."

Our parents know us well. Oftentimes they know us better than we like to admit. Last year I gave one of my wood photo transfers to my parents as a gift. They liked it, but in my mind all I could see were the errors I had made in the process of creating it and I was quick to point out where I had gone wrong. Exasperated by my inability to take a compliment or see any value in the things I produce, my mother said, “You only see the flaws." The thing is, she was right. I don't know what it is, but I when I look over my creations the first things I see are the mistakes. Whether it's writing, photography, filming, or any other creative act, I only see the flaws.

Late to the Party - Star Wars Battlefront

I love video games, but it's rare for me to play them right when they are first released. Normally it takes me a somewhere from a few months to a few years to get around to playing to a game. I've got a considerable backlog of games that I've been meaning to play and it hasn't been until recently that I've had the time to start chipping away at the list. With that in mind, I've created a new series of posts called Late to the Party, wherein I discuss the games that came out in the preceding years that I'm finally getting around to experiencing. Today's entry in the series is Star Wars Battlefront.

Remembering Big O - NOW FIXED!!!

I realize this is a self-congratulatory post, but with how good I’m feeling I hope you’ll indulge me this time. Last year in July, I published a post called Remembering Big O, which was my recollection of a particular anime that I watched in college, and interestingly became one of the most viewed posts on this blog. The post was a formatting disaster, riddled with irregular line spacing, missing paragraph breaks, and other issues. At the time I couldn’t figure out what had gone wrong and every time I tried to fix it I would end up with one part of the post looking better, but new problems surfacing elsewhere. After nine or ten attempts, I gave up and left the post as it was. Since then, I’ve been meaning to come back and try again, and this past weekend I finally gave the problem another go. I’m pleased to report that with some effort the blog post Remembering Big O is now largely fixed, and looks the way I originally intended it to. What I ended up having to do was copy out all the text (paragraph by paragraph) to a basic text editing program, properly format it, completely delete the old post’s text and images, and then carefully copy the text back in, place the images and gifs back in their original spots, and make a few more slight adjustments before republishing the post. This wasn’t exactly the most exciting thing to be doing on a Saturday night, but I’m happy with the results. If you’ve never read Remembering Big O and are interested, I’ve included a link to it here.

Late to the Party - Watch Dogs

I love video games, but it's rare for me to play them right when they are first released. Normally it takes me a somewhere from a few months to a few years to get around to playing to a game. I've got a considerable backlog of games that I've been meaning to play and it hasn't been until recently that I've had the time to start chipping away at the list. With that in mind, I've created a new series of posts called Late to the Party, wherein I discuss the games that came out in the preceding years that I'm finally getting around to experiencing. Today's entry in the series is Watch Dogs. Today also sees my first attempt at including a video clip that I recorded while playing the game. Hopefully the embedded Youtube video works properly.

Divergent Paths

Over the last two weeks we've seen the official announcements for the next installments in both the Call of Duty and Battlefield games series. Together, these two franchises represent two of the largest brands in the first-person shooter genre of video games. For me what was most interesting at the time when the trailers came out was not the games themselves, of which we currently know little, but the choice of trajectory for each game's setting. Whereas Call of Duty is rocketing forward in to the distant future, Battlefield is turning back the clock and setting its game during World War 1. For those that haven't seen them yet, I have embedded the reveal trailers of both games below for your reference.

 Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare reveal trailer

Battlefield 1 reveal trailer

After watching these two trailers, I briefly got caught up in the usual hype and short memory that the internet is known for and I was thinking to myself that these trailers represented a major moment where the two rival series were splitting from one another in terms of setting. However, I came to my senses and then remembered that this is actually not the first time this has happened between Call of Duty and Battlefield. To illustrate this, I’ve written a heavily condensed history of the two games. For the sake of brevity, I have omitted most of the lesser titles from each series and focused primarily on the mainline entries.

Both Call of Duty and Battlefield started out as first-person shooter games set in World War 2. The first Call of Duty and Battlefield games came out in 2003 and 2002, respectively, back when World War 2 games were still fresh and popular. Call of Duty stayed in World War 2 for several years, but Battlefield left World War 2 behind in 2004 with the release of Battlefield Vietnam, and in 2005 moved into the modern era with Battlefield 2. The year 2006 saw Battlefield jump into the distant future with Battlefield 2142, and meanwhile Call of Duty was still in the World War 2 era with Call of Duty 3. A seismic shift in the Call of Duty series, and first-person shooters in general, occurred in 2007, however, with the release of the massively popular Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. It’s release was one of the last nails in the coffin of World War 2 games as a dominant force in first-person shooters, and there would be only one more Call of Duty game set in World War 2 - Call of Duty: World at War, which came out in 2008. Meanwhile, Battlefield ditched the distant future to return to the modern era in 2008 with Battlefield: Bad Company. Except for the purely online multiplayer Battlefield 1943 and the Vietnam expansion pack for Bad Company 2, the Battlefield games would hold to the modern era from 2008 all the way until our current year. During that time, there was an interesting reversal, whereby Call of Duty games were the ones jumping around time periods while Battlefield held steady. This was primarily a product of having multiple development studios working on the series, which meant each studio could take the games in a different direction and it also allowed for a new mainline Call of Duty to come out each year. After World at War laid World War 2 to rest, Call of Duty came back to the modern era with Modern Warfare 2 in 2009, but then took a trip into the Cold War with Black Ops the next year. 2011’s Modern Warfare 3 was followed by the Cold War and near-future Black Ops 2, and in 2013 Call of Duty took the alternate history approach with Ghosts. This was followed in 2014 and 2015 by Advanced Warfare and Black Ops 3, respectively; both of which were set in the mid to late 21st century.

Now we’re in 2016, and Battlefield and Call of Duty are changing settings, as they’ve done many times in the past. I suppose the main difference now is that both series are simultaneously moving in different directions, rather than one changing while the other kept to its current setting. Personally, I think the level of hype surrounding these announcements is disproportionate to how big of a story this divergence actually is, but game announcements are normally exciting, so I suppose I can somewhat understand why some people talk about this like it’s a big deal.

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As a side note at the end here, I am forced to acknowledge that the announcement of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare likely crushes my hopes of ever getting Call of Duty: Ghosts 2. [Dramatic scream] Nooooooooo!

Facebook Newsfeed

Last week saw a number of interesting headlines regarding Facebook and accusations of political bias. Specifically, a number of former Facebook staffers are claiming that the Facebook team in charge of the trending news stories routinely suppressed articles that came from conservative news sources. Additionally, these ex-Facebook staff stated that they were told to place certain stories into the site's news module, regardless of whether or not they were actually trending. The report on this first appeared on the website Gizmodo and afterwards was picked up by news outlets like the New York Times and the Washington Post. If you have the time, I suggest reading the original Gizmodo report for the full details, which can be found here. Facebook has been scrambling to mitigate the fallout from these allegations, though I doubt they are going to experience any significant drop in their user base or ad revenue. Even though this whole thing may very well just blow over, the Gizmodo report got my mental juices flowing, and I thought I’d share four things that have come to mind during the preceding days.

First, if you're relying on Facebook as your primary source for news, you're making a massive mistake. While it may be true that traditional news outlets are sometimes guilty of excessively truncating and dumbing-down the news for the sake of a wide audience, Facebook's trending news stories take this phenomenon to a whole new level. There's also the issue that these trending news stories are just that - trending - meaning their appearance is based on popularity rather than actual importance to individuals or society. Simply put, I do not believe it is possible for you to be a well-informed person if you have Facebook as your main source of information.

Second, Facebook is well within its rights to do this and is under no obligation to anyone to have any level of balance in the news stories it highlights. Just as Fox News can legally spin the news in a conservative direction and MSNBC can do the same in a liberal direction, Facebook can highlight and slant news stories any way it sees fit. If you have a problem with this, take it up with the First Amendment.

Third, no one should be surprised by this. I've been on Facebook since 2005, and I can't remember a single instance (until now) when Facebook claimed political neutrality. Facebook is run by people, and its algorithms were made by people, and people have biases. If Facebook's news curators really are as overwhelmingly liberal as the Gizmodo report suggests, then it naturally follows that they would tend to elevate news stories deemed important by the political left while holding back ones deemed important by the political right.

Fourth, this report highlights the incredible, and perhaps disturbing, power that Facebook has to shape people's views. With over 220 million users in the United States and Canada, and over a billion users worldwide, the news stories Facebook chooses to highlight can reach an audience that any other website or news outlet can only dream of. If those users are regularly bombarded with news stories promoting a particular political ideology, its nearly inevitable that some of them will start shifting their views. Even if it's a small fraction, like ten percent, that's still over 22 million people in the United States and Canada and 100 million people worldwide. This begs the question of whether or not we are okay with a single entity having that much influential power over people. That's something our society will have to decide for itself.