A Sane Man of an Insane World

I mean, it hasn't been that long since I've posted this, right? I mean, not much has really changed with Dragon Age. After all, Bioware is still calling it a "Dark Heroic Fantasy", it still has a combat system that can't decide if it is real time or turn based, and it probably still has characters that are remarkably similar to certain character from Baldur's Gate 2.

In truth, not a whole lot has changed with Dragon Age. But for once, they actually decided to let out some little things - well, a lot of little things, rather - that have changed the picture.

First off, let's start off with the fact that this game is hard. Dragon Age is undeniably a hard game. Reviewers have said it time and time again: you will wipe alot, and you will wipe hard. Higher levels and superior equipment and spells will be a great boost, but they will not be the deciding factor in who wins each battle. You will have to use something that most modern gamers are very much unused to - tactics! Strategies! Using your superior brain matter to overcome the AI!

I know a lot of players are gonna complain on the forums about it. And I am just going to gloat at them like the inferior beings they are. "Of course you died! You don't take advantage of the environment! You don't surround your enemies and use buffs to enhance your characters!"

I strongly suspect that we are going to get a repeat of alot of the brainhurt we got when Storm of Zehir came around - people say the game is too hard because they are idiots. "Enemies keep on ambushing me, even though I invested no points at all in sneaking and I have no rangers or thieves in my party and I have all Paladins!!1!1!!"

Secondly, I like the casual talking that your party members will have while you are just walking around the world. Nothing will trigger it. It adds a dimension to the characters that forced conversations don't possess. And it sounds to be very amusing when the sarcastic Alistair and the wry Morrigan send jabs back and forth as you go across town.

Thirdly, you can have your bones broken! When your party members come back from losing all of their health in a fight, you'll notice something. They'll have wounds. Surprisingly, people don't fight as well when they have a broken leg or a wound across their groan. They can be patched easily enough, but what if you run out of medkits?

Well, the game gets a lot more interesting. 

Lastly, I just need a good party oriented RPG that actually tries to tell a story, even if it is one I have heard half a dozen times before. I just want to recreate that feeling I got with Neverwinter Nights 2, or Knights of the Old Republic. The Witcher is the best RPG to come out this generation, but I still like my RPGs with people to fight along me.

And seriously, I need to stop being so stingy. How am I supposed to love this hobby if I hate every other game that comes out?

Fallout 3 is still a horrible pile of shit though.

(From Wikipedia: Downloadable content (commonly referred to as DLC) is a form of digital media distributed through the Internet. The phrase is used to refer specifically to content created for video games that is released separately from the main video game release. The phrase has, however, also been used to refer to any type of digital entertainment media distributed online.)

In a nutshell, DLC is content that adds to a videogame. This can essentially be anything from a costume to a mini-expansion, adding hours worth of content to a game for a modest price. Now I don't know when exactly the concept of DLC first came around in the sense we know of them today. It certainly started with the Xbox a good 8 years back. With Xbox LIVE, and consoles finally entering the internet a good 4 years after the PC, being able to download new stuff was not just an damn fine idea. It was downright inevitable.

So, skip a Videogame Generation, and take a look at DLC and it is everywhere. You can't escape it. Developers always say they will give DLC support. If DLC is right there on Day 1 it is praiseworthy. Heck, DLC is now commonly addressed in FAQ on most videogame websites. It is as common as the ridiculous regenerating health. You can't escape it!

But I don't like DLC. On the surface, it is good. More content for just a little bit more cash? What is so wrong with that?

Well, it is when you are charged $4 just to have an Xbox LIVE avatar that it is bad. It is bad when you have to pay for an unlockable costume, or $2 for a single weapon that DLC is bad. Pretty much, it is when instead of given you an opportunity to test your skill at a game you are tested at how thinly you can stretch your wallet that DLC is bad.

In fact, a lot of DLC sucks in this regard. Now, there are some instances where the developer has the balls to not charge you for more. Mainly VALVE - they never charge you for anything beyond the actual game. Portal's challanges? Free update. Team Fortress 2's new hats and guns? Came with a patch. Left 4 Dead's new campaigns? Again, one big update.

The problem with DLC is that it is way too much for too little. Recently, Bioware announced their first DLC for Dragon Age: Origins - Warden's Keep. $7 for a quest that we are assuming will last a few hours.

That is just too much. Think about it - for the PC, Dragon Age's MSRP is $50. The game itself will last a very long time - reviewers say anywhere from 30 to 60 hours on a single playthrough. With additional Origin stories, that could easily be tripled.  That is at minimum of, what, $1 (or less) for every hour.

The DLC is asking for twice the price tag for not even a fraction of the original game's play time! 

Now, do not get me wrong. I fully and completely understand why DLC is a necessity. Videogames are becoming more expensive. Budgets are getting bigger by every year, standards are getting higher. But $50 for a game isn't cutting it any more. Not even $60 is good enough for most console releases. Companies need extra income to stay afloat.

That is where DLC comes in. But the problem is that they are too much. And it is becoming more of an issue where developers may very well cut content from a game to sell it as DLC. It is not ridiculous to assume that one day some big name company will say "Insert Credit Card for Ending".

And players everywhere will do so willingly.

Thanks to Kotaku, I have been informed of some absolutley bizarre news.

Next Tuesday, the next video game in the long running First Person Shooter franchise, Wolfenstein, is being released.

It is up against that hellspawn of a game, Madden 10.

The project's director, via his Twitter, has said the following:

Here's the deal folks: if Wolfenstein outsells Madden 10 in August I will personally pay for your copy (keep your receipt) - SPREAD THE WORD

That was yesterdat at 10:51 AM.

I am tempted enough to contribute to this madness!

This is so ridiculous that I can't even be offended. Also: EA knows their bastardization of Dante's Inferno is a piece of shit, so instead they pornography it to get sales. Good job EA.

There are few games in the field of videogames that divides players as much as this one does. One end, it is horribly glitchy, has some of the worst combat you could ever see in an RPG, and the character models aside, it is not at all a good looking game. On the other side of the spectrum, you have some of the most finely written dialogue you could ever hope to see in any medium, its characters are so well written that they seem real life human beings, and it has a wide range of options in handling the objectives in the game. You could persuade your way past the guards, suck their blood like that Vampire you are, or sneak past them like you are the next Solid Snake. There is a lot of hate, let me tell you. But man, for someone who loves his options and his stories like I do, there is so much to love that you have to wonder why bother hating it at all? Let me give you all one good reason why you should grab this game from your nearest torrent site. This right here is the Haunted Hotel at Santa Monica beach. You think you have seen scary in a video game. You probably thought you had seen it all. "Pfft!" You will think when you are given the task to retrieve the pendant from inside the Hotel that control the ghost that haunts it. "I've seen Horror movies. I saw Alien and didn't even flinch! I'm a new age man. I watch SAW and I can handle this pussy Hotel ghost like it was nuthin'!" You will be wrong. My hand was shaking the whole time. I couldn't even keep my mouse steady. My palms were sweaty. It was like Niagara Falls all over my Microsoft Sidewinder (the new spiffy black one, not the one that looks like a boomerang). I had to wash my hands for a whole minute, soap bar and all, before I was convinced I was clean enough to continue gaming. People, that scene is pure atmospheric brilliance. Saw what you will about that sewer level, where all us persuasive characters are forced to run for our (un)lives from those Death-on-Legs because we were too busy investing our points into Persuasion and Seduction rather than "I'm Gonna Woop Yo' Ass!". The Hotel Mansion alone made Vampire Bloodlines one for the record books. And that wasn't even the best scene. There is this one scene where you are confronted with a Cannabilistic Vampire, and this is where the game throws some moral-philosophical head spinners our way. See, this vampire wanted us to send some poor chap that had seen her doing her stuff down to her lair so she can make sure the guy doesn't tell a soul about her. You will do it. It will make perfect sense in all of the world for you to do it, even for those extremelly moralistic individuals. You will do it because she presents the case - and quite well, I might add - that you are no different from her. You suck blood, the life force of humans. She eats them. They are both horrid, damnable acts. What makes what you do so much better than heracts of survival? None of it does. So that is why you do it. And that is why I love this game. Because it is more than a game. It is about things, stuff that you need to think about, to ponder about, to debate with yourself. That is a sign of good storytelling folks, not how much fanart is dedicated to your game on DeviantArt.com. I'm not even finished with it yet. If it weren't for the fact that The Witcher and Arcanum and Planescape: Torment are patiently waiting for me to finish them, I'd do a second play through as either the butt kicking Gangrel or those crazy I'm-gonna-debate-with-a-stop-sign Malkavians.

I. Bioware bases nearly all of their storyline on the idea of "Absolute Good versus Absolute Evil" Ever since their inception into the RPG universe with Baldur's Gate, there was a certain familiar feel with their storylines. You can't help but have the feeling that you have been there before, just in diffirent shoes, and maybe with a different reason to be there every now and then. That is because Bioware almost always relies on the classic "A Hero must Rise to destroy a Great Evil that Threatens to Destroy the World!" plot archetype. Now, this is a classic archetype, and rightfully so. It is often found in the likes of mythology and folklore. J.R.R. Tolkien brought this into mainstream with his The Lord of the Rings, and George Lucas even more so with the vast majority of his Star Wars movies. However, just because a story archetype is classic does not mean it is all good either. After all "classic" is just one stone throws away from being "cliche". We need more than just a mold for a story to be good. We need interesting characters, character relationships, a villain that is truly worthy of being called a villain, the development of the characters, etc. You can have all of the plot twists to your heart's desire, but if it does not have a heart, what is the freaking point? Simply put, plot twists alone do not make a story "good". And Bioware seems inept of understanding this fact. In Baldur's Gate, you were a SPOILER! Spawn of Bhaal, the God of Bloodshed,, and you must stop your SPOILER! evil half brother from replacing your divine father, and save all of Baldur's Gate in the process! Baldur's Gate II was a very refreshing change of pace, when you instead were out to kill the bastard that tortured you and killed one of your friends. The villain was also very compelling, and you understood his actions. He was an interesting character, as well as a plausible villain. What was at stake was all that mattered - your own neck. It was an epic storyline for all of the reasons that most people do not think is epic. Unfortunately, Bioware did not like it, and went back to its roots with their next games. In Neverwinter Nights, you must stop an ancient evil from conquering the city of Neverwinter. The singleplayer game was quite bad, but in return, they gave the community an amazing editor, which allowed users to create their own games! Sure, most of them were crap, but a select few were quite stellar, and were worth the price of the game and its 2 expansion packs! With Knights of the Old Republic, you are tasked with saving the Republic from the evil Sith! Oooooo. In Jade Empire you must stop a horrible person from conquering the Jade Empire! Hrm.... where have I heard this before? And in Mass Effect, you, once again, have to stop some horrible evil from destroying galactic civilization as we know it! People, how on Earth is this not getting tiresome? Bioware is recycling the same story archetype 4 games in a row (surely soon to be 5 with Dragon Age in October)! And people praise Bioware for good storytelling? Laughable. Now, I understand that just a story archetype alone isn't enough to condemn a story. It may still very well be a "save the world" storyline, but there could be enough twists and turns and interesting scenarios, well written dialogue, and compelling characters that it will be a good story. Unfortunately, Bioware rarely has any of those things. Their plot twists are far too rare, and rarely do anything for the storyline, that makes them truly effective. Their dialogue is often quite crude, with the appearance that they were scratching them onto stone rather than writing them with pencil. Sometimes, the dialogue is just downright cringe worthy. In some cases with Baldur's Gate, they were even laugh worthy at how campy it all was. II. Bioware Recycles Their Characters for Nearly Every Game Baldur's Gate II is one of the strongest games in Bioware's lineup, and they know it. Not only was it, fun, engaging, an open world, and full of dozens of characters that can be a part of the player's party, but it also had an engrossing storyline, and it was full of strong characters, especially the villain. So, instead of bashing their brain boxes together and trying to think up of ways to recreate the magic in their subsequent games, they decided to just downright copy it, paint it another color, and just call it new! Basically, nearly every single party NPC after Neverwinter Nights can be easily be described as a BGII character with a different name and backstory. This weakens the overall narrative of the story overall. III. Bioware's perception of "evil" is just mindlessly killing people and/or being a bully Let's face it people. Being a murderer is not the sole way in which you can be classified as evil. In the same respect, being a bully, asking for money from someone for just saving their lives, is not evil. Evil is when you totally and absolutely remove all measures of hope and perseverance from someone. It is when you leave them as a lifeless husk, when you screw a woman despite you having no affections for her whatsoever, and right after that going to the local whore house, leaving her on that bed. Evil is using that woman's affections for your own selfish ends. Evil is when you totally and absolutely remove the humanity from people, leaving them as a soulless husk for you to do with as you please. So, those are my 3 main reasons as to why Bioware does not tell good stories. Good day and good gaming.

I want it said right here and now that I absolutely love all things Castlevania. I love the liberty IGA took with the Dracula mythos. I love the larger than life characters. I love the mythology, the gothic art style, I love the techno-orchestra-symphony soundtracks that have been a part of the franchise ever since Symphony of the Night. And I love what I see with Lords of Shadow. The graphics are beautiful. I love the music, I love the voice acting, and I love the idea of a man willing to embrace the darkness to bring back his wife. Now, this is all from just a trailer, and a short one at that, but I am very happy with what I see. My prospects for this are very high, especially since Hideo Kojima is reportedly heading this up. About time that he got away from Metal Gear Solid. Granted, I loved what he did with that franchise, but that is all he has been doing since 2000! He needs room to breathe, and MGS3 and MGS4 were almost claustrophobic.

I am just about sold. I must have gotten the Cowboy bug from my grandfather.

Stealing is bad. Stealing is something you just don't do. You don't go into a candy store and just steal that Hersey's Kiss. You don't take what is yours, and you only get possession of something when you hand over your hard earned cash for it. You work hard, you spend hours after hours doing whatever it is that you do, you get your paycheck, you pay your taxes. You pay for insurance and food and gas and electricity and your cable. After all that, then you get to spend your hard earned money on anything you please, if that suits your fancy.

It's a system that makes sense. That is how economy works, in a nutshell. We all make a service or product, we get money, we pay for our essentials, then we buy our luxuries. And who made those luxuries? Why, somebody who was making a service, just like you.

So, what does our morale upbringing tells us when we think of stealing? Why, we remember that it is almost like we are stealing from ourselves. Thus, stealing is wrong. One hundred and one percent, all the time, always, and forever.

Right?

Well, not really. In the videogame industry, there is something called pirating. Pirating is essentially when somebody downloads a videogame and does not pay for it. Somebody steals a game. From the outside, this is all bad.

Things are never quite so simple, however. What if, oh let's say, a computer game installs data gathering software on your machine, without your permission? It doesn't even say so on the box, even? What if this software not only sends data, but by doing so, it creates a back door on your computer for hackers to get into your computer? What if, sometimes, this software doesn't even allow you to install the game that you legally bought? Even better, what if the software decides that you did not buy the game – even when you did – and takes out some essential object from the game, like a character or mission objective? Oh, and before I forget, this software gives you a limited amount of activations, and after that, you have to buy the game – again! - to play it.

I have some bad news. This is all real. This is SecuROM. Many major publishers, such as EA, Atari, and 2k Games, use SecuROM.

This is just one reason why people pirate. So that they don't have to deal with this crap. If a major publisher decides to treat you, the customer, like a criminal, you might as well throw one back. SecuROM is, on the surface, an anti-pirating program, but it is easily cracked within days, if not hours. SecuROM has never once prevented a game from being put on torrents or sites. As an anti-pirating tool, SecuROM fails on all fronts.

That is one of the reasons why I recently pirated “Dead Space”, a phenomenal game. It is a great game, with some certain flaws to the PC port. I wanted to play the game, but I also did not want to have my computer become security flawed. I should be able to play a game without having that risk. That's why some of my friends pirate. They shouldn't have that risk. Just because we choose not to play on the consoles does not mean we should be punished.

I have other reasons why I pirated, sure. I wanted to see if I liked it. There was no demo of “Dead Space”, and even then, demos usually only contain the good bits of a game, leaving any major faults out, giving us an improper impression. I have a one-third rule: I play a game one third of the way through. If I like what I see, I buy it. If not, I uninstall it and move on with my life.

There is also the issue of if the game will work on my machine. Now, I have Windows XP SP3, 2.5 GB of RAM, and an ATI X1650 PRO 512 MB videocard. Most games released today should work, but there is always the off chance that it won't. So, I pirate games I want to play, just to be safe. After all, since all opened softwares can't be refunded at most stores, I am given very little choice. Either I buy a game that may or may not work, and thus have a chance of forking over fifty dollars for nothing, or I pirate it and see.

The sensible thing to do would be to pirate it. Since fewer and fewer companies are giving us PC gamers demos – and even then, those demos give us a foggy view of the actual endgame product – you really can't ask why we pirate.

Now, of course, some people pirate so that they don't have to pay. I understand that. I love free stuff. But is that why I do it? No. I pirate to see if the game will work, if I will like the game, and so that I don't have to deal with SecuROM.

It should be said that people will be responsible when they are given appropriate power, but we know that isn't true. I can only speak for myself when I say I am doing what I think is right, and I do so responsibly. Just because people pirate does not mean they are bad people.

Now, some would say that pirating is bring down the industry to its knees. That's what the chairman of “Iron Lore Entertainment” said. He put the blame on those of pirated a game released prematurely as why his company went out of business.

The thing is, they did something very fishy. For all pre-released and thus, pirated, copies of Titan Quest, once you left the cave of the tutorial level, you got a crash to desktop error. It was programmed into the game.

But, they did not say if it was a fatal bug, or if it was an anti-pirating maneuver. They just crashed the game, leaving the player to their own conclusions. It didn't take long for word to spread like wildfire that Titan Quest was a critically flawed game. “Don't buy it!” everyone said. They were the prophets of doom, and they preaching the word of how Iron Lore Entertainment was releasing a game you couldn't even beat.

Of course, this didn't happen in the commercial products, but the damage was done. Iron Lore Entertainment still had the time to release an expansion pack to Titan Quest, but it didn't take long afterwards for THQ, the owner of Iron Lore, to announce they would be closing down Iron Lore.

So, do you want my opinion? I think it's a mixture of those who pirate and don't buy the games they finish (as well as in theory like, since why would you finish a game if you did not like it) as well as the developers who put in anti-pirating software that punish those that do buy the games.

Developers, stop laying the blame on pirates, because it's not just us. It's you too. Your anti-pirating software backfires. It actually prompts more people to pirate!

And to all my fellow pirates...if you like the game, give some support to the developers. If you like the game, buy it. If you don't, just delete it. But don't play a game and not pay for it. As much as you would like to think otherwise, these guys need to eat as well! Everyone is suffering from this Recession, and you aren't helping things.

I have never been good with staying with a blog. I would always say "Okay, this time, I swear to the almighty God, I will see this through. There will not be a week that goes by where I do not post something." And time and time again, I always mess up. My name is Matt. I was born and raised in the Norwood suburb of Massachusetts, but moved to central North Carolina four years ago. I am currentley attending a community college, and will transfer to UNC-G in Spring of '10. What do I love? Pretty much everything but sports. I read comic books (yes, that includes graphic novels and manga), play videogames, read books (mostly in the form of science-fiction and fantasy novels, although I am planning on expanding), watch movies and TV shows. I am also a hopeful author, and am working on the fantasy setting for my first novel. My choice of politics are... unusual. I did not vote for the two main canidates for Presidency. Yes, that means a write-in. I am definied as an Independant, but I would offically define myself as a "Conservative with some aspects of liberal, with a great deal of Constitutional Conservatism". I offically supported Ron Paul as president, and kept my "Ron Paul for 2008" bumper sticker after he offically dropped out of the race. I still have it on my car, and when I get a new one, I'll probably find some way to move it to my next car. For my videogame choices, I believe that it will never become an art form as long as it puts gameplay over story. They need to be of equal value, just like wordplay is of equal value to the story and characters in novels, and the skill of the actors and the cinematography are just as important as the script. I detest recent "ground breaking games" such as Fallout 3, and somewhat, Prince of Persia (2008), which advocates idiocy and lack of substance and care over intelligence, critical thinking, and well written dialogue. I'm much less lenient with movies, but I prefer drama over comedy. I will only go to a romantic comedy if my girlfriend - when or if I acquire one - wants to go. My favorite movie of 2008 was The Dark Knight, mainly because it was such a good character driven story, and a great telling of the fall of Harvey Dent. I do plan to watch "The Wrestler" which, from what my friend tells me, had the best actor (Micker Rourke) of the year. Slumdog Billionaire is another movie I want to see. As for comics? I am a huge Vertigo fan. I love "Ex Machina" and "Y: The Last Man", and "Sandman" is pure gold. Alan Moore is the God of comics, with "Watchman" being the best Trade-PaperBack in the industry's relativley short history. "Miracleman" is the lost treasure of the industry. Books? George R. R. Martin is king. A Song of Ice and Fire is the best fantasy series of all time. Screw "The Lord of the Rings"! The best J.R.R. Tolkien did was essentially give fantasy a big head start. Robert E. Howard is a hell of a writer, with Conan being one of the best fantasy leads ever. So, that's me. Matt, a guy who has way too much time on his hands and just as many tastes. Hope you enjoy the ride.