Category Archives: Duality Games

I ran Duality Games from 2008 to 2011, writing game reviews and opinions on the video game industry. I also wrote a smattering of articles for other outlets, including The Washington Times Communities and The Whitworthian. All are included here.

Epic Review – Dragon Age: Origins

24 Tuesday Nov 2009

Posted by in Duality Games

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , ,

There are games out there that truly immerse you. You put your headphones on, lower the lights, settle into your chair, and lose yourself in the game. “Dragon Age: Origins” is one of those games.

There are games whose world is so complete and fleshed out that after spending time in it, you’re almost surprised when you can’t find it on the map. “Dragon Age: Origins” is one of those games.

There are games in which the sense of progression, of character interaction, of epic story is so great that not only do you feel like the star of a Hollywood blockbuster, but you completely lose track of time and are only alerted to the fact that it’s 4 a.m. by your face hitting the keyboard. “Dragon Age: Origins” is definitely one of those games.

Origins of heroism

When you first fire up the game, you’ll create a character. This is a hallmark of role-playing games, but “Dragon Age” puts a bit of a spin on it. Your decisions during the character creation process will dramatically affect your experience.

You pick your race: dwarf, elf or human. Your choice affects which class your character can be (i.e., dwarves can be warriors or rogues, but not mages), which in turn affects your back-story.

The back-story is what makes “Dragon Age” truly unique. Instead of dropping you into the one-size-fits-all shoes of a generic hero, you’ll play the first few hours of the game as just another average citizen. Your concerns are not those of saving the world – they’re of the more mundane variety. You might be a city elf preparing for your wedding day, or a dwarf noble dealing with political intrigue, or one of four other origin stories. These three- to six-hour intro sequences serve to bridge the story gap that most games leave between your character being an everyman to being a hero.

At the end of every origin story you’ll be inducted into the Gray Wardens, a group of warriors dedicated to battling the darkspawn. From here on, the story is largely the same for all characters, but the player still has remarkable control over the details of how things turn out.

Technical excellence

If you’ve played “Knights of the Old Republic” or “Neverwinter Nights 2,” you’ll feel right at home here. Bioware’s classic under-the-hood turn based combat system makes a glorious return in “Dragon Age.” Combat is visceral and well-animated; you can pause at any time during play to issue commands or just to catch a breather – something you’ll find yourself wanting to do often as the difficulty ramps up. Battles against particularly challenging foes often culminate in deliciously satisfying finishing moves. After finally bringing down an ogre near the beginning of the game (a feat that took many, many attempts), my dual-wielding rogue made all the effort worth it by leaping onto the falling beast’s chest in slow-motion, using her daggers to scale his bulk, and finishing the kill with a blade through the face. Just about every battle in the game is a challenge, which adds greatly the atmosphere of desperate struggle.

Graphically, the game isn’t all that special. Characters and equipment are, by and large, meticulously detailed and stand up brilliantly to zoomed-in scrutiny. The game world and environments take a hit for this, though, as there are few that will take your breath away.

Gameplay, however, is as tight as a drum. The combat is smooth and, aside from a few AI issues, flawless. Exploration is intuitive and rewarding. Leveling makes real differences in your character’s power level.

A tale of dragons

The story is long, intricate, and satisfying. The darkspawn have risen in what the land of Ferelden knows as a Blight. Three times in the hundreds of years before the game, Blights have ravaged the land, led each time by an arch-demon. The arch-demons are rare High Dragons, discovered and tainted by the evil darkspawn. Soaring through the storm-stained skies, breathing fire and striking terror into the hearts of defenseless citizens, they are the impetus behind the horde’s relentless onslaught.

In the game’s history, each time a Blight spilled across the lands, the Gray Wardens rose to meet its devastating tide, and each time the darkspawn broke against them like waves on unforgiving rocks. You are one of the few remaining Gray Wardens, and it is your task to build up an army powerful enough to meet their threat.

Along the way you’ll gather a party of characters. Each character has a full and complex back-story, complete with hopes and dreams, deep dark secrets, and even personal preferences in regards the various gifts you can find and offer them. You can choose to interact with each character and grow closer to each one, finding out more about them and increasing their level of trust in you. Alternatively, you can treat them like dirt and spurn their every suggestion. Or you can ignore them. It’s up to you.

The only complaint about the story is a small thing: the main quest tends to get lost in the quests leading up to it. Dealing with an abomination outbreak in the Circle Tower or stopping a werewolf plague in the Bracilian forest just seems more immediate and more fleshed out than the task of stopping the Blight ever becomes. So much time and effort goes into building your army and gathering allies, the final battle ends up feeling more like an afterthought. And, without spoilers, I must stand before you and say that final battle is a rather major anticlimax. At least it ties up loose ends and doesn’t demand a sequel (though I hope that there is one).

Content concerns

On the content side, there are some issues. Religion plays a prominent role in the game – the Imperial Chantry with its revered mothers and lay priests clearly draws heavily from Roman Catholic and Islamic influences. While the player is never forced to pay fealty to a deity or worship in any way, there really isn’t any getting away from it in-game.

That said, it fits with the game’s fiction, and in my play-through I never noticed direct attacks on Christianity or any religion. There are themes throughout that alert gamers will pick up on (all truth is essentially equal; all roads lead to heaven; if it feels good, do it; etc.). While it would not be wise to play the game with one’s brain turned off, most of these issues can be navigated with a little thought and previous conviction.

Language pops up now and again, but never at any serious level – a refreshing change from the direction that many so-called “mature” games are taking these days. Alcohol and drug abuse also make appearances, but not in graphic ways.

Sexual content is perhaps the game’s biggest red flag. In a few places, characters appear rather scantily clad. The worst offender is Morrigan, a shape-shifting mage who will join your party early in the game. Her default outfit is a bit on the revealing side, to put it mildly. Attempts to alter her attire are thwarted by the fact that the most powerful equipment available to her is of the same category of revealingness. It could be argued that the getup fits with her character (she was raised in isolation from society, and she’s something of a seductress), but in my opinion it largely distracts from much more interesting facets of her persona.

A few non-human (but distinctly human-esque) female enemies appear topless with only a bit of their modesty saved by curiously inflexible locks of hair. The ability to be become sexually involved with a select few of your party members is also there. It’s entirely optional, doesn’t cross a PG-13 level of explicitness, and one character, to his credit, treats the act as something more sacred than a kiss. But the overall feeling the game gives is that it’s just a natural part of every casual romance. The cheapening effect this has on the relationships you develop with these characters is apparent.

As for violent content, there’s an odd mix here. Blood plays a prominent role in everything about this game. Gouts of it erupt during battle, it stains many of the game’s menus, and characters will be spattered in it after even the mildest of violent confrontations. Even the game’s signature logo dragon is made of blood. In spite of this, however, the violence is otherwise largely non-graphic. Other than the occasional decapitation, there are no gaping wounds or realistic blood-letting. I suspect Bioware choose this platelet-coated direction to add to their supposed theme of “dark fantasy,” but in reality it’s just kind of ridiculous.

In climactic conclusion…

In the end, the game largely overcomes its flaws and objections. There’s a great story told here, one that touches on themes of self-sacrifice, redemption, forgiveness, love, faith, justice, and a myriad of other encouraging concepts. It’ll also give you your money’s worth – while I didn’t keep track of time as strictly as I should have, my first play-through was at least 100 hours long, and I left a decent amount of content unfinished. There are two DLCs available at the time of publication, with one more on the way. Both are extremely well done and add significantly to the game – well worth their price if you don’t happen to get a version of the game that includes them.

Dragon Age: Origins is definitely one of the best games of the year; perhaps the best, period. The gameplay is engaging and polished to a fine sheen; the story is an epic page-turner; and while there are content concerns, for the mature adult gamer these are relatively minor, especially in the face of the positive themes the game espouses. I completely recommend it, and would love to hear your own experiences with the game. Leave a comment, let me know how it went down for you.

Jerod Jarvis is an independent gaming journalist and founder of Duality Games. He maintains gaming columns for The Washington Times Communities and for The Outpost. When not blogging madly about games, he freelances for the Spokesman-Review in his hometown of Spokane, Washington and attends school at Whitworth University. Check out his presence on Facebook and Twitter to stay up on Duality Games updates and the inside scoop on the gaming news you care about.

Dumb game ideas…that worked

20 Friday Nov 2009

Posted by in Duality Games

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , ,

Throughout history, man has had ideas. Some of these ideas have been strikingly good, such as the wheel, fire, popcorn, and the entire Hardy Boys series. Others, sadly, have not been so good.

Social laws dictate that most bad ideas will naturally die out. Ideas like grunge music, Nazism, and Dane Cook’s sense of humor are all examples of unfortunate things that thankfully haven’t stood the test of time.

However, there are some extremely poor ideas which, for one reason or another, haven’t died out. This is particularly true in the gaming arena. Sometimes this is because it turns out the idea wasn’t so bad in the first place; other times it’s more because the gaming public in general isn’t the most discerning group of people.

This week’s column will examine a few of these bad ideas, and attempt to explain the series of events that led to them not dying like the unfortunate travesties they may or may not be.

Fun...
Fun…

Pong: What!? Pong? The grandfather of games? Surely, Mr. Jarvis, you aren’t blaspheming against the Progenitor?

Well, yes. I am. Seriously, think about it. Who was the guy sitting around in his office so incredibly bored he thought it would be cool to create a game in which two white blocks float around while another white block floats around between them? Even allowing for the fact that there weren’t any other games to compare the idea to, surely someone looked at the screen at some point during the creation process and said, “Kinda lame, ain’t it?”

Of course, Pong stood the test of time. This is more a testament to fact that people really had no lives in the eighties than any genius of the game, however – Pong would have been a big deal to a culture in which muscle cars were no longer made and everyone listened to Rick Astley.

Psychonauts: If you haven’t played Psychonauts, shame on you. It’s a fantastic platformer with a real sense of humor and a great storyline. Developer Double Fine has since jumped the PC ship by releasing Brutal Legend on consoles only, so I blame all of you who didn’t buy the game for my current state of unhappiness.

That said, the game is a bit of an odd concept. The story is about a kid with psychic powers who sneaks into a psychic summer camp to learn how to be a psychic warrior, which he does by entering various characters psyches and platforming a lot. It’s the kind of idea you’d expect to come up towards the end of a caffeine fueled all-nighter, kind of like the one I pulled before writing this article…

However, the game is quite solid and enjoyable, and still available for purchase if you look hard enough. Do yourself a favor and buy the game; doing so will enrich your life and also remove the curse of my wrath from your descendants.

Now that we've had our six hour meeting, gentlemen, let's get to grinding!

Now that we’ve had our six hour meeting, let’s get to grinding!

World of Warcraft: Ok, put your pitchforks down and douse the torches. Come, let us reason together, says the Lord. Think about this game with me.

Here is a game that is quite literally so boring that it requires you to play with a large group of other people just to keep it interesting. This is not a game. It’s a social experiment in group management.

You might work at a job where your boss breathes down your neck, the guy in the cubicle next to you won’t stop making annoying sounds, and the quirky guy down the hall who really shouldn’t have been hired seems bent on making every task as much of a chore as possible. You flee your place of business, peeling out of the parking lot while thanking the powers that be you’ve survived another day.

Then you go home, fire up World of Warcrack and log into Ventrilo, and do it again. Except the irritating coworkers are replaced with the disembodied voices of your guildmates. And you’re strangely ok with this?

The success of WoW isn’t entirely mysterious. The backstory is impressive; the amount of lore and the completeness of the world that has been created is a little ridiculous; the game mechanics have been honed down to a fine science. But who was the guy who stood up at the Blizzard corporate meeting and said, “I know, why don’t we throw out all the storytelling and everything else lovable and cool about the Warcraft IP and make a game that actually encourages hours and hours of mindless grinding in the pursuit of a lonely life in a basement somewhere?”

Rereading that last paragraph, I realize I may be a little bitter. I was a big fan of Warcraft III…give me a break.

Puzzle Quest: The idea behind Puzzle Quest is mixing role-playing (traditionally a hard core genre) with Bejeweled (traditionally a casual game), tossing a few swords and spells into the pot, and standing back to see what kind of horrific Frankensteinian mashup emerges from the mix.

Surprisingly, a quite enjoyable little game rose from the unholy grafting. Puzzle Quest has all the charms of your typical casual game (colorful, family friendly, easy to pick up and play) with many of the elements usually reserved for more in-depth titles (character progression, some semblance of story). The game works in spite of its unthinkable origins.

If you don't click this image, you're life won't be complete
Lawl…

Twilight: Ok, so this isn’t a game. But the new movie just came out and I can’t resist right now.

Let’s just be honest. These movies are basically an excuse for young girls to goggle at shirtless guys with big pecs. At the risk of my Man Card spontaneously combusting, I will admit that I did read the first book. I will also admit that it wasn’t all that bad. But these films are a travesty on everything that is good in the world. Things like “good acting,” and “my eyes not bleeding.”

What was Meyer thinking? A story about vampires…that sparkle!? Vampires…do not…sparkle! They guzzle the platelets of the living! They rise from the grave in the dead of night to stalk hapless innocents, may or may not transform into bats, have a deadly fear of crucifixes and are completely and totally unable to have children (they are dead, after all…). And they most definitely…do not…sparkle.

I need to sit down.

Jerod Jarvis is an independent gaming journalist and founder of Duality Games. He maintains gaming columns for The Washington Times Communities and for The Outpost. When not blogging madly about games, he freelances for the Spokesman-Review in his hometown of Spokane, Washington and attends school at Whitworth University. Check out his presence on Facebook and Twitter to stay up on Duality Games updates and the inside scoop on the gaming news you care about.

This week in Games: 11.17 edition

17 Tuesday Nov 2009

Posted by in Duality Games

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, ,

It’s been a busy week and a half or so on the gaming front. Modern Warfare 2 was released to absolutely staggering sales (it put up about twice the money in 24 hours that The Dark Knight did).

The game put up some impressive scores among reviewers. I wasn’t able to get my hands on it, but I’m sure if I had my review would sound something like “while MW2 is a technically proficient game – even an excellent game – its irritating habit of stringing the player along through a series of adrenaline points and using utterly ridiculous endless enemy spawn points to spew baddies in your direction until you move past a magic cutoff point, coupled with a few areas in which the game pushes moral boundaries in ways nobody has any business pushing, I’m sad to say it’s just not my cup of tea.”  In short, a bit like the first game.

That said, if somebody wanted to send me a copy, I’d give it a whirl and probably revise that statement.

THQ*ICE has announced a content update for their funky little free-to-play MMO Dragonica Online: The Thief as a new playable class. I must confess, I hadn’t ever heard of this title before I received the announcement, but it looks entertaining if you’re into funky little free-to-play MMOs. New content is always a plus – check it out.

In other news, Assassin’s Creed II was released for consoles Tuesday. All signs point to this being a hit – if you liked the first one, there’s more to love here; if you hated the first one, Ubisoft is promising a better experience for you. I had an opportunity to see a demo of the game at PAX ’09 a couple of months ago – it looks slick. Ezio replaces Altiar  as the main character, freerunning now over the rooftops of Renaissance-era Italy, boasting a wrist cannon and Da Vinci’s flying machine as elements of his repertoire. Sadly, however, the PC version of this fine game won’t be arriving til early next year. Sorry, faithful. The consoles have stolen from us again.

Left 4 Dead 2 was also released, to the cheers of some and the cold-hearted boycotting of others. There’s a group of about 35,000 disgruntled Valve fans lurking out there who feel that the developer/publisher is doing them a very wrong turn by making another game; an odd position, in my opinion. They have a few valid points, but Valve has a nearly perfect record when it comes to publishing excellent games, so I’m inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt. And hey, Felicia Day is a fan, so it can’t be all bad.

Jerod Jarvis is an independent gaming journalist and founder of Duality Games. He maintains gaming columns for The Washington Times Communities and for The Outpost. When not blogging madly about games, he freelances for the Spokesman-Review in his hometown of Spokane, Washington and attends school at Whitworth University. Check out his presence on Facebook and Twitter to stay up on Duality Games updates and the inside scoop on the gaming news you care about.

One year!

14 Saturday Nov 2009

Posted by in Duality Games

≈ 2 Comments

Yes!  Duality is one year (and three days) old!  Have some cake.

Just thought you’d all like to know.

Jerod Jarvis is an independent gaming journalist and founder of Duality Games. He maintains gaming columns for The Washington Times Communities and for The Outpost. When not blogging madly about games, he freelances for the Spokesman-Review in his hometown of Spokane, Washington and attends school at Whitworth University. Check out his presence on Facebook and Twitter to stay up on Duality Games updates and the inside scoop on the gaming news you care about.

New blog on the Washington Times Communities

03 Tuesday Nov 2009

Posted by in Duality Games

≈ Leave a comment

Hey y’all

I’ve got a new gig up and running over at the Washington Times Communities (a subdivision of the Washington Times, a major paper in the DC area).  It’s pretty sweet.

Anyway, all of you should check it out and leave comments on my articles and all that good stuff, just cuz you love me so much.  I’m going to work on making sure that I put stuff on each site (the Times and here) that is exclusive so that it won’t just be a bunch of double posting, but that’ll depend on time and the number of things there are to write about.

Please feel free to send article suggestions my way, or if you stumble upon any breaking game news be sure to let me know.

Keep the faith, n00bs.

Jerod Jarvis is an independent gaming journalist and founder of Duality Games. He maintains gaming columns for The Washington Times Communities and for The Outpost. When not blogging madly about games, he freelances for the Spokesman-Review in his hometown of Spokane, Washington and attends school at Whitworth University. Check out his presence on Facebook and Twitter to stay up on Duality Games updates and the inside scoop on the gaming news you care about.

Modern Warfare 2 goes too far

03 Tuesday Nov 2009

Posted by in Duality Games

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

,

While many controversies over objectionable game content are blown severely out of proportion, recently leaked footage of Activision’s upcoming “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2” indicates that this time, the moral outrage might be justified.

Some background. If, by chance, you were kidnapped by sentient lemurs several years ago and forced to perform slave labor in their isolated underground metropolises, you might not know that the first Modern Warfare was, and is, a rather big deal. It sold something like three berjillion copies, and is easily one of the most technically proficient, intense games of this era.

Modern Warfare 2 looks to fall into the same sort of mold; however, recently leaked gameplay footage revealed a sequence in which the player controls a terrorist gunning down hundreds of civilians in an airport.

Quite frankly, the footage is disturbing. The game is a first person shooter, so the violence is seen and enacted from a first person perspective – the player is the one committing the heinous act. The player and several confederates exit an elevator into a crowded airport and open fire into a crowd of unsuspecting civilians. The player then proceeds to make his way through the airport, gunning down wounded people trying to crawl to safety, and hunting those that managed to escape the initial onslaught.

Needless to say, the footage has caused a bit of a stir on the interwebz. Activision was quick to respond, first trying to get the leaked video taken down, and then releasing a statement.

From the statement:
“The scene establishes the depth of evil and the cold bloodedness of a rogue Russian villain and his unit. By establishing that evil, it adds to the urgency of the player’s mission to stop them.
Players have the option of skipping over the scene. At the beginning of the game, there are two ‘checkpoints’ where the player is advised that some people may find an upcoming segment disturbing. These checkpoints can’t be disabled.
Modern Warfare 2 is a fantasy action game designed for intense, realistic game play that mirrors real life conflicts, much like epic, action movies. It is appropriately rated 18 [M] for violent scenes, which means it is intended for those who are 18 and older.”

The statement goes on to say that the sequence is skippable, doesn’t represent overall gameplay, and is apparently important to the story.  By implication, it would appear that you play someone who infiltrates a group of terrorists, and to maintain your cover you are required to participate in the act of slaughter.

This brings up several issues. First, it seems ludicrous to me that violence of this magnitude is needed to “establish the depth of evil” in a badguy. Honestly, wouldn’t just showing the aftermath of the bloodwork accomplish the same thing? We know that the Nazis are evil even though we didn’t help them slaughter people; Osama bin Laden remains just as evil without having participated in his acts of terrorism. A scene like this isn’t necessary for any story – at best, it’s one option among many; at worst, it’s a crutch to get around actually having to write a narrative that is compelling without ultraviolence against the innocent.

Another problem is a bit more on the practical side: a sequence like this will really set the evolution of games back a bit. People in general don’t know enough about games to put something like this in context. When the media latches onto this story (and it will), there will be an anti-game outcry that might surpass anything that we’ve seen thus far. Ammunition like this is just what gaming’s enemies need in order to promote censorship and get traction with legal action. We’re still reeling from the Mass Effect “sex scandal” – we don’t need this.

Also, there is the implication that the scene is important to the game because it will get an emotional reaction out of the player. This is turn implies several things about the way Activision views its audience, the most prominent of which is that we’re a bunch of amoral clods.

Gamers, look me in the virtual eye here for a second. Are we really so immature, so disconnected from reality and from a moral compass that we need a situation this extreme to get a reaction? Are we really so calloused that it takes the senseless slaughter of hundreds of innocent lives for us to feel uncomfortable? I would really like to think otherwise.

I know that there are of some of you out there who just play games as mindless entertainment. And I know there are some who get their kicks and giggles from fantasizing about hurting people. But I would really, truly like to believe that there is a sizable portion of gamers out there who retain a grip on their humanity strong enough to sense a moral problem smaller than this elephant in the room. It’s as if the developers decided we’re not intelligent enough to feel guilty or uncomfortable just playing as a terrorist, but that instead we need to be clobbered over the head with a ten-ton moral outrage in order to to get a reaction. It’s a little insulting, to be honest.

I hope and pray that the developers decide to change the direction of this game a bit, else they’re headed for what could be the biggest controversy in gaming history. And I suspect they’ll find themselves in that controversy without much support from the core gaming crowd, who wish to be treated like men and women of intelligence and moral judgment.

Jerod Jarvis is an independent gaming journalist and founder of Duality Games. He maintains gaming columns for The Washington Times Communities and for The Outpost. When not blogging madly about games, he freelances for the Spokesman-Review in his hometown of Spokane, Washington and attends school at Whitworth University. Check out his presence on Facebook and Twitter to stay up on Duality Games updates and the inside scoop on the gaming news you care about.

Dragon Age: Origins – The Version Woes

28 Wednesday Oct 2009

Posted by in Duality Games

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Those of you out there who aren’t total n00bs at paying attention know that Dragon Age: Origins is being released next week.  Bioware’s latest epic is showing all the signs of a modern classic: Dragons, swords, rich characters, dragons, intense combat, robust story, and dragons.

As excited as I am for the game to be released (look for a review right here in the relatively near future), I’m starting to get more and more frustrated with the marketing tactics that Bioware is employing (or allowing to be employed).

You see, Dragon Age has been bitten by the Windows Vista bug.  No, no, I don’t mean it’s fatally flawed.  I mean that the game is being released in like 18 different versions.

Most of the major game retailers, digital and otherwise, are pushing their own variation on the Dragon Age: Origins theme.  The core game will remain the same wherever you buy it, but through in-game items, exclusive quests, even an entire DLC that you only get with certain versions, each retailer is offering a different experience with the game.  Even PC Gamer is getting in on the customizable game, offering an exclusive quest line only available to those who buy the holiday issue of the game.

It’s true that most of these exclusive items won’t affect gameplay all that much, or will be available to everyone eventually.  But it’s still a frustrating experience as a customer looking to buy a game when everywhere I look it’s a different package being offered to me.  As a gamer, I don’t want to have to choose the optimum package that will give me the best experience playing the game. I want the freakin’ game, and I want the whole bloody experience in exchange for the truckload of money I’m forking over.

Instead, though, I’m forced to alt-tab between Steam’s “Digital Deluxe Edition,” Amazon’s exclusive cocktail of special in-game boots and rings, Gamestop’s confusing mess of something that sounds like something I’d want while playing, and still feel like I’m probably going to miss out on something if I don’t track down and check out what everyone else is offering.  And now I have to buy a copy of PC Gamer, too.

Back in the distant past (aka, five years ago or so), when you bought a game, you bought the whole game.  Then collector’s editions became popular, mostly because publishers realized they could squeeze a few extra bucks from a our emaciated wallets by including a few bells and whistles alongside the game.  These usually game in the form of a “making-of” DVD, a soundtrack, or maybe a collectible doo-hickey (swag!).

This was all fine and dandy.  Going into the store, I knew that I could either get the game, or I could shell out an extra ten dollars and get the game with an action figure.  Now, I go into the store, and I have no idea what I’m getting.

Sadly, as brick and mortar stores struggle to find ways to keep pace with digital distributors like Steam and Direct2Drive, this is probably a trend we’ll start seeing more and more of.  Eventually, I hope that publishers come to their senses with stuff like this however.  You’d never see the latest Hollywood blockbuster given different treatment at different theater chains (at Regal Cinema’s, Frodo destroys the ring; at AMC, a lava dragon gnaws his face off).  As the industry matures, respect for the medium will, in theory develop.

Until then, I’ll get back to deciphering exactly what I’m going to be missing out on when I get my copy of Dragon Age.

Jerod Jarvis is an independent gaming journalist and founder of Duality Games. He maintains gaming columns for The Washington Times Communities and for The Outpost. When not blogging madly about games, he freelances for the Spokesman-Review in his hometown of Spokane, Washington and attends school at Whitworth University. Check out his presence on Facebook and Twitter to stay up on Duality Games updates and the inside scoop on the gaming news you care about.

Review – Batman: Arkham Asylum

26 Saturday Sep 2009

Posted by in Duality Games

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

You may remember a shortish while ago when I wrote up a preview of the new Batman game that was making its way towards release. At that point in time, I played through a short demo which let me pulverize a few bad guys to twitching pulps, and stalk a few others from the rafters like a dark nightmare.

Needless to say, I found this to be quite entertaining, and I spent the next few weeks hoping that the rest of the game would be as epic an experience.

I’m very happy to report that it totally freaking is.

The game is set on Arkham Island, the chunk of rock that is home to Arkham Asylum.  The Asylum is that lovely establishment where so many of Batman’s arch-nemeses end up after he punches their faces in with his bat fists.  The Dark Knight has just captured the Joker as the game opens, and is en route to the Asylum with said super villain.  Shortly after arriving, however, the Joker breaks free of his guardians and takes control of the facility, releasing several choice ultra baddies (including Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, Bane and several others) to wreak general havoc and mayhem.

The rest of the game boils down to Batman bringing the island back under control. As far as story goes, it’s nothing revolutionary, but it’s done with enough polish that the simplicity of the plot doesn’t ruin anything.

Where the game excels is atmosphere. From the outset, you’re sucked into the game’s world. The controls are oily-smooth, fluid and intuitive; very rarely is there a disconnect between the player’s intentions and Batman’s actions. Combat is handled almost exclusively with the mouse (I haven’t played the console version(s), so you Xboxians will have to just roll with me for a minute). The shift key makes occasional appearances for special combos. The simplicity of the system might have resulted in boring button mashing in a lesser game, but it succeeds here because the developers realized at some point during the creation process that the strength of this game doesn’t lay in depth of control, but rather in the pure eye-candy of watching Batman do his mojo in a cage full of hapless baddies. Rather than being boring, the simple controls remove a potential distraction from watching what is probably the best third-person combat system in any game ever.

When faced with a roomful of hulking inmates-on-the-loose (the game will at times sic you on around 20 of them at a time, though you’ll usually  be facing groups of five to ten), Batman moves in a scarily lifelike manner, never skipping a frame or glitching through animations as he smoothly transitions from smacking some guy with a pipe to catching the fist of another dude and pushing him to his knees before giving him an epic knockout kick to the face. The sheer fluidity and brutality of the combat captures the feel of the two latest Batman movies perfectly.

Even Batman isn’t bulletproof, however. When faced with a group of armed foes, the game’s stealth system comes into play. Now, in some games, stealth is used to hide from people and sneak around unseen. In this game, however, stealth is used less as a pansy way around a fight and more as a way to systematically pick off a cadre of overconfident punks deluded enough to think their silly guns will save them. Remember the scene from Batman Begins where Batman is stalking those guys guarding the shipping containers? That’s exactly how this feels: the game lets you play a total ultra-predator, striking from the shadows and leaving no trace of your presence beyond the pile of unconscious foes.

The game’s areas are designed with an impressive degree of creativity and skill. After the initial section of the game, you’re free to explore Arkham Island and make your way to different areas. As the Joker slowly takes over more and more of the place, you’ll need to scramble between different areas in order to quell the firestorms he stirs up, all the while slowly piecing together your enemy’s evil scheme.

As much as the game impressed me, however, there are a few concerns. While language doesn’t crop up too often, the thugs you beat into sacks of unconscious meat occasionally spit out profanity just before being pulverized – which is understandable in context, but still worth noting. Also, while there is no overt sexual content in the game, both Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy sport provocative outfits, and reference is made to Ivy seducing a guard in an escape attempt.

The main concern I have with the game, content-wise, is that it is rated ‘T’ (for Teen) by the ESRB. Ostensibly, this is because Batman never actually kills anyone in the game. This proves to be little more than a loophole, however; this game is more violent than a lot of ‘M’ (for Mature) rated titles. For reference, the Halo games are nowhere near are graphically violent as this game is; neither is Mass Effect or The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Combined with the dark Batman setting, you have a game that isn’t appropriate for the younger demographic, and in my opinion should have been given a more restrictive rating.

Basically, if you’ve seen the two latest Batman movies, expect that type of content from this game.  If those were too much for your tastes, this probably will be too.

From a quality perspective, there are a few niggles. A few odd decisions were made throughout the game, including perspective shifts (from third person to first person), which do little except confuse the player;  a sequence with Killer Croc, which was a bit of a letdown for several reasons, the most glaring being the fact that you don’t actually get to fight him; and a few other minor irritations not worth mentioning.

Batman: Arkham Asylum is an incredibly solid game, capturing the Batman atmosphere with perfection. It lacks the compelling and thought provoking storyline necessary to make it a full blast masterpiece (leading me to disagree with Gamesradar’s assessment of the game as the new Bioshock), but is still a standout game in its own right. While the content seems a bit much for the mild ‘T’ rating, if you’re up for some Dark Knight beat-down action, it doesn’t get any better than this.

Jerod Jarvis is an independent gaming journalist and founder of Duality Games. He maintains gaming columns for The Washington Times Communities and for The Outpost. When not blogging madly about games, he freelances for the Spokesman-Review in his hometown of Spokane, Washington and attends school at Whitworth University. Check out his presence on Facebook and Twitter to stay up on Duality Games updates and the inside scoop on the gaming news you care about.

Review – The Witcher

12 Saturday Sep 2009

Posted by in Duality Games

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

,

Maturity is a funny word that isn’t very well defined in our culture. One person will tell you it has to do with age; someone else might say it’s more about wisdom. A noob would probably tell you it’s all about the f-bomb and scantily-clad women.

Sadly, the minds behind the nearly-great The Witcher belong to that last camp. The Witcher was released some time ago, and was later re-released as an enhanced edition which indicated that it was no longer broken (the original release of the game was fraught with more than a few technical issues). As is so often the case, a sale on Steam prompted my decision to pick up a review copy.

As far as gameplay goes, The Witcher moves along fairly smoothly. Graphically speaking it’s nothing special, but a unique combat system and fairly solid roleplaying elements make up for it. The story and setting are also intriguing, if only in their distinctiveness.The game is set in a fantasy world, but one that differs from most fantasy game worlds in that it doesn’t feel like a page ripped from The Lord of the Rings. Instead of battling orcs you’ll be chopping up drowners, alghouls and the carnivorous plant-like echinops.

But it wasn’t really any of this that intrigued me about The Witcher. Much of the hype surrounding the game had been based on its supposed “maturity.” It was billed as a game in which there was no right or wrong, only choices and following consequences.

That’s an interesting concept. Moving away from the overused save-the-puppies equals good, punch-infants-in-the-face equals bad morality model is a good thing from a pure game-mechanics perspective. Clear-cut, black and white moral choices, while appropriate at times, quickly become cliché and also seem to question the intelligence of the player to a degree.  And in truth a definitive black and white moral decision isn’t all that common in the real world either.

However, The Witcher isn’t at all content with just attempting to change up a game mechanic.  The overall theme of the world is supposed to be one without any hard and fast morality.  One of the notable early attempts to shoehorn this into the player’s consciousness comes at the end of the first act. Through a series of unfortunate events, the player is confronted with a decision: side with a mob of angry villagers and lynch a woman accused of being a witch, or side with the woman. The villagers are a rather dirty lot, guilty of everything from adultery to murder to child trafficking. But the woman isn’t a much better example of all that is good and right in the world – she’s had a hand in most of the crimes the villagers committed, including providing the poison for one man to kill his fiance with. Side with the mob, the woman gets murdered. Side with the woman, she walks free. Either way, you become an accessory to all the crimes of one party or the other.

The point is supposed to be that good and evil are relative depending on your perspective. But no matter how twisted the scenario is presented, it can’t stop the innate response most players will have when trying to make such a decision. Unless they’ve had their consciences calloused over by running over old ladies in “GTA IV,” the player will walk away from each of these scenarios feeling like they’ve done something wrong. The game doesn’t allow you to feel noble or heroic for saving a woman from a lynch mob, but rather makes you feel slightly dirty and unsure of whether you chose the lesser of two evils.

String enough of these flashpoints together and you end up with a chain of just really depressing events.  Again, supposedly this is mature…felt more emo to me, but what do I know. Granted, it could be argued that this is a realistic kind of scenario, where you never really know if you did the right thing in a given situation. But that would assume two things: first, that there are no knowable moral absolutes (aka, the kind of morality that only works in a fantasy world); second, that it’s therefore fun to play in a video game.  I’d be the last to argue that all games need to be lighthearted and fun, but The Witcher crosses the line that separates an enjoyable, thought-provoking experience and an experience more akin to stuffing handfuls of broken glass directly into a major nerve cluster.

All in the name of maturity.  The same maturity that apparently dictated the game needed full frontal nudity, rampant casual sex, and foul language (most of which is so ridiculously out of place in a fantasy game it shatters the immersion).  I must not have been watching when the word mature stopped being a characteristic of the adult and started being the catch all label for things that real adults look down on.

In conclusion, this is a game for the truly mature to pass on.  Look to Half-Life 2, Bioshock, or Deus Ex for some real examples of games for grown-ups, and I’ll let you know when the next game worth spending your money on hits the shelves.
Jerod Jarvis is an independent gaming journalist and founder of Duality Games. He maintains gaming columns for The Washington Times Communities and for The Outpost. When not blogging madly about games, he freelances for the Spokesman-Review in his hometown of Spokane, Washington and attends school at Whitworth University. Check out his presence on Facebook and Twitter to stay up on Duality Games updates and the inside scoop on the gaming news you care about.

PAX reports!

11 Friday Sep 2009

Posted by in Duality Games

≈ Leave a comment

My first experience with PAX was, in a word, overwhelming.  Sights, sounds, thousands of people, hundreds of things to see, games, gear, cosplayers, public demos…the first five minutes were a classic case of sensory overload.  But, being the gamer I am, I quickly saw past the visual effects and got right down to navigating the core gameplay.

To my disappointment, I didn’t get as much swag as I had been hoping for.  In a way, this is good, because if I had, I would have needed to hire a U-Haul to get home.  The highlights include a print of Sam & Max artwork by Steve Purcell, a free copy of Knights of the Old Republic on Steam, and a Dawn of War II t-shirt.  Other than that, just a collection of generic pins, posters, and a copy of  Lord of the Rings Online, which, being the MMO hater that I am, doesn’t do much for me.

It was still very much worth going to, however.  I was able to spend some time talking with a rep from Bioware about Dragon Age: Origins, and got to get my hands on several upcoming games.  Cooler still, I was able to attend the first stateside public demonstrations of Splinter Cell: Conviction, Assassins Creed II, and Star Wars: The Old Republic. Not too shabby.

And so, I bring you my PAX 09 report of games I found worth writing about.  There will doubtless be a few I miss, so apologies in advance to those who didn’t impress me enough to warrant space in my long term memory.

Splinter Cell: Conviction

The new Splinter Cell went through a rather startling evolution part way through its development cycle.  The original vision for the fifth game in the series appeared like it took more cues from Assassins Creed than its own predecessors.  Sam Fisher looked like he hadn’t slept, shaved or showered in at least a month, and meandered through crowded streets to avoid detection.  This direction intrigued me when I first saw some concept footage, but apparently the feedback was negative because the game has been totally revamped.

The Sam Fisher gamers will be experiencing now has more in common with Jack Bauer and Jason Bourne than Altair or even his old self.  Instead of strategically stealthing through shadows to avoid detection or to wait for the perfect moment to ambush an enemy, the stealth action is now paced at a full sprint.  Sam runs, rolls, jumps, and pounces through and from the shadows, using them less as a place to hide and more as a place to strike from.

It seems like a cool idea on paper, but the sad truth is that it kind of tramples on everything I love about the original games.  The idea of being a fast and unstoppable killer never occurred to me playing any of the first four games – a fact which I appreciated.  You had to be stealthy because if you were spotted by the ten men with guns, you would be killified.  This strikes me as not only realistic, but also nail-bitingly tense if done right.  And it was done right.

The new Sam apparently fears nothing.  The stealth mechanic is now far less strategic, and in fact has much more in common with a generic cover system, a la Gears of War. Not that good cover systems aren’t cool, it’s just…not Splinter Cell.  The slow, nerve-shredding, precise stealth action was exactly what made the Splinter Cell games so unique and awesome.

The level of violence has also been amped up considerably.  This is now Angry Sam.  The old Sam would perform some pressure point manipulation and maybe a little threatening knifeplay to get information from enemies.  Conviction’s Sam smashes their faces through urinals and into walls and then snaps their necks when he’s through with them.  Blood flows freely, Sam speaks gravelly, and carnage flows without much thought or remorse.  In the old games, a fatality usually meant you had messed up and been seen and had to resort to violence to save your own life.  In this game, a level without fatalities will be very much the exception.  Which from a content perspective doesn’t sound entertaining or appropriate, and from a gameplay perspective just sounds really boring.

So, to sum up, the game looks senselessly brutal, faster than a stealth game really should be, and disrespectful of the source material.  Probably one to skip.

Assassins Creed II

I have a confession.  To my undying shame, I have yet to complete the original Assassins Creed.  Assuming I’m not buried under deadlines over the next couple of months, that will be corrected.  But even so, the sequel is looking pretty fantastic.


There’s not much that looks revolutionary in comparison with the first game.  Altair has been replaced by Ezio as the lead character, another assassin in the same order as his predecessor.  The game is set in Renaissance era Italy, which is predictably rendered in stunning and beautiful fashion.  The designers appear to have kept all the good bits from the first game – exploration, immersible world spaces, smooth parkour and ego boosting assassination moves – and tightened up some of the frustrations.  Namely, combat looks cooler, and assassinations will apparently be a little less formulaic.

Also, getting to play with Da Vincis inventions is a stroke of genius and will hopefully add to the novelty value considerably.  Here’s hoping you can fire the sleeve pistol while gliding above the city using the steampunk-looking wings.

Dante’s Inferno

This game intrigued me when I first heard about it some time ago, if only because of what it’s based on.  However, it appears that there will be little to see here.  It’s a God of War clone stuffed with ultraviolence and sprinkled heavily with sexual and just-plain-gross overtones.  It does appear to be technically proficient and smooth, but that doesn’t register easily when you’re rolling around trying to avoid being poisoned by the vomit of an obese, nude, demon woman.

Enough said.

Deathspank

This is the latest creation of Ron Gilbert, the guy behind the Monkey Island games.  It’s an action roleplaying game with a unique art style and what appears to be a pretty sharp sense of humor.  You play as Deathspank, and evil-vanquishing knight who is apparently working his way back to the top after a failure of some kind.  The five minute demo I saw had enough laughs in it to get me excited for this game’s release. Probably one to look forward to.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

I’ve said it before – I get more excited about this game every time I see something about it.  Even though it’s an MMO.  Even though it’s not KoToR 3, in spite of their pithy little PR campaign that it’s 3, 4, 5 etc.  In spite of those things, this looks like a really excellent game.  The amount of voice over it will contain is absolutely staggering.  Every character, including the player, will have full voice over, and if the demo footage is anything to go by, it’s pretty well done voice acting to boot.

The thing that has me truly excited, though, is Bioware’s emphasis on story in the game.  Every character class will have its own unique story arch.  When taken in context with the scope of the game, that could mean each class will have a campaign that rivals the length of most single player games.  And since it’s an MMO, they’ll probably keep adding content to it.  If the quality matches the quantity, this could be an absolutely mind blowing experience.

Only time will tell.

Dragon Age: Origins

This is definitely one to look forward to, albeit with a bit of caution.  I had a chance to spend some time playing through the first little bit of the game while at PAX.  It feels like a tasty combination of Knight of the Old Republic and a delicious high fantasy universe, sprinkled with the seasoning salt of Bioware’s legendary storytelling ability.  Of course, there’s also Bioware’s recent unfortunate trend of adding sexual content to their games to consider.  We’ll have to see how it plays out.

The interesting twist with Origins is the way their handling character backstories.  In most RPGs, you’re either force-fitted with a backstory, or you’re asked to invent your own tale of how your character found their way to the threshold of heroism at the beginning of said game.  Either that or your character has amnesia, which means the game you’re playing is probably cliche and not worth your time.

Origins, however, takes a different approach.  When you create your character, you’re asked to pick a race (Dwarf, Elf, of Human) a gender, and a class (warrior dude, magicky type, etc.).  Then, you’re asked to select a general background (city or country elf, noble or common dwarf, and so on).  Those choices determine which origin story you will play for the first few hours of the game.  Noble dwarfs play one story, magicky humans another story.  The origin story will tell the tale of the events that led your character from an otherwise normal life to the hacky-slashy type of living that makes up a good RPG.  It’s not quite as immersive as Fallout 3′s trick of starting you out in your mother’s womb, but it’s a neat way to approach the genre nonetheless.

Origins will be released for Xbox and PC in early November, followed by the PS3 version a couple of weeks later.

Jerod Jarvis is an independent gaming journalist and founder of Duality Games. He maintains gaming columns for The Washington Times Communities and for The Outpost. When not blogging madly about games, he freelances for the Spokesman-Review in his hometown of Spokane, Washington and attends school at Whitworth University. Check out his presence on Facebook and Twitter to stay up on Duality Games updates and the inside scoop on the gaming news you care about.

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started