They're coming to take them away

Recently there was a bit of a blow up around the latest big CRPG (not something you normally say) called Pillars of Eternity. The controversy was around a grave with a message related making a rhyming joke about a man who was ashamed to sleep with a trans person. Kind of a goofy joke you didn't quite expect to see, but it kind of makes sense both with its rhyme and its place within a world that might be more prejudice than real life. Well apparently other people didn't get the joke, and now we have white knights and probably actual trans people up in arms over the issue telling the developer they did something wrong by letting that loose in the game. Lately now (or at least within the past 4-5 years or so) more than ever we've seen this kind of tone picked up within gaming, or occasionally crossing over from other mediums like the Batgirl comic cover controversy (which for the record I'm not well informed in, so I'm not saying the cover was right or wrong, just that a similar uproar happened). Hyper sensitivity and extreme political correctness are not necessarily limited to games or "nerd culture" stuff, but its something that has been aggressively asserting itself into gaming lately. I'm a bit tired of it personally, in case you couldn't already tell from a couple past articles covering similar topics.

Well for starters its a joke... lighten up. Its not even at the expense of transgender people, if anything the funny bit was how a man died from "crying" over the matter that much. That's the actual punchline. Either way you look at it, its mild dark humor that was tossed in and adds a good chuckle while not feeling totally out of place. If you didn't laugh, fine its not the best joke ever, but don't pretend like the developers went out of their way to take a personal jab at you. You're playing a violent RPG set in a grim world that was in reality crafted with a lot of love and commitment from the help of a community, and yet you're going to sit there and pretend like a text based joke referencing another man's life-ending trans-phobia is the thing worth criticizing? Even in fictional context, this is just plain silly to get hung up over. You're traversing a town with hung people, and you're major concern is this one isolated incident with a trans person? You need to sort your political priorities out, I'd think basic human health is a lot more important than the misunderstanding of a small group of people. The game is thick in lore, factions, and obviously you're going to see some bigotry in there as well. That doesn't mean the developers are bigoted, your characters do not speak for you they speak for the work of fiction. I guess it might be true though that some guys out there can't tell fact from fiction.

Now the title seems a little weird, but it stems from an older idea back when this attitude started becoming real vocal, or at least around the start of feminism started cherry picking things to be offended at. The idea was a little defensive of these practices and said "nobody is going to take away your games" to calm down potential fear. Well ladies and gentlemen I present to you the reason why this fear existed. Its not like the head of the feminism mess herself was going to destroy games, but combine that with the misguided journalism articles springing up around similar issues and you have a growing case of people looking to be offended and those people trying to pry out and purify whatever they don't like. They want you to walk on eggshells for them or other people, and when you start listening you gave them to power to push more. As a matter of fact while its possible this can and has happened in other medias, I can't help but wonder if there's a coincidence in how this is an issue in comics and gaming at the same time (and tried to go into Metal with Metalgate). Realistically I don't believe the folks behind this stuff are going to storm in, smash my consoles, and hack my steam account, or burn every retail place to the ground. Nor do I think they'd prevent people from making games. Of course games will still be around, and of course there will still be games I have that I can play for fun. However what I do believe is they'd censor recent titles (like PoE, which the developer is now considering the removal of the joke), and drive fear into the market place. This isn't so much of a fear as much as it is something that is actually happening, although in small amounts. Its no different than the days when people were trying to tell you that blood and gore was too much, all while ignoring other medias that are just fine with it in them. Its people trying to tell you what you can and can't do in a game anymore, and its not covering actual prejudices but instead telling people you're not aloud to mention issues like it at all. You're discouraged to make prejudice characters, have humor that pokes fun at them, or have a character that are just unlikeable, or to give certain characters a weakness, because you might not be appealing to everybody if you do that. That's the kind of message they're sending out. They wont say they want to take away our games, but the reality is they are trying to push that across and take away certain features, topics, and areas of expression within these games. They're narrowing down what is and isn't aloud written by their flimsy code that has constant holes and double standards within it.

I'd actually like to bring up an interesting theory I had recently while playing Metro 2033 redux. Its not a revolutionary idea, but its one that I feel Metro did a good example of. Its world was a violent and miserable one. You had an uncle dying in front of their child nephew, horrific beasts claiming the surface world of the earth, mysterious dark forces getting into people's heads, and of course the name stems from the fact that mankind is forced to live underground because of a nuclear apocalypse and they still can't help but go to war with each other. Its a mean and nasty place, yet its also the one they choose to deliver the message across that this was all pretty terrible and its encouraging you to be a better human. Its a place where you can make a difference and feel good. Its a place where you can give to the poor, spare a "monster" who was protecting their own child simply because you know when to put away the gun, you can try your best to spare the lives of your assumed enemies by sneaking, and you're encouraged to look into the dark threat of the game and have to make the decision between wrecking your entire journey's goal just to do the right thing or cause genocide if you happen to fall under social pressure. To a completionist the message isn't so subtle with the diaries and all; you're being told passive-ness, peace, and forgiveness is a much greater thing than war and gore. However the game's point may not have been to be subtle, the nuclear apocalypse isn't afterall. Its not a coincidental irony that they choose a violent FPS to drop this message in, its an intended part of the program and message. You're trudging through this dark damp and miserable world so that you hopefully tell yourself that you don't want this. Its the same notion that MGS had subtly with nuclear war, the same reason The Last of Us had message about defensive social groups in a hostile fiction, the same reason people are uncomfortable to shoot others in This war of mine, etc. Heck I could even bring Dark Souls into this. In a game that bleak and unforgiving, I had some of the happiest moments, and learned a bit about myself in how I played, reacted to other people, and treated the world with care.

Now what does Mario, Pong, Pac-man, Sonic, and the lego franchise teach you about this stuff by omitting it? Oh right, nothing. Being in some sheltered all friendly environment does nothing to teach you any of this. To be fair neither does Doom, Streetfighter, Uncharted, and other more action oriented games. They're fun for escapist reasons, and while I'll admire that a ton and way more than something like say fully self-critical games, the fact is you don't fix some of those problems by telling others they can't acknowledge it. Art specializes in challenging these dramatic things. It challenges them in... well to put it weirdly, sort of a strawman way (at least normally) of including the problem and then demoralizing it in a way that you want your audience to pick up on. Pretending they don't exist, shutting out other views (fake or real), and demanding everyone play along in this way is a pretty unhealthy and narrow minded view of the whole thing. I guess its no wonder these guys imply a lack of humor in their being.

Its about peace... kind of

So what does all this have to do with a little transgender themed joke? Yeah I guess I'm making it out to be a pretty big deal, but from what I've seen this kind of behavior keeps popping up. People keep looking for things to be offended by. Shadows of Mordor is deemed both racist and sadistically murder happy (M rated action games aren't allowed to have bad guys to kill anymore according to one guy), WatchDogs is racist despite treating civilians fairly equally, comics can't give themselves a cover page without offending feminists, Gannon from Zelda is supposedly an evil middle-eastern stereotype even though he's totally not because he's a fictional species (that turns into a monster) from a fantasy series, and now we've got a crowd funded game told what kind of humor they can and can't have.... and its developers are looking into it. Its hard not to admittedly ask where legit criticism meets with this sort of thing, so for the record I'm not saying a dev is immune to social pressure, but that social pressure shouldn't be used to push the wrong things like political agendas or censorship. There is a difference between the developer like those at DMC improving their game by editing out a line because it was bad, and those who were satisfied with their game and then demanded to change something just to pander to somebodies trigger warnings. "They're going to take away our games" used to be somewhat of an exaggerated counter-argument, but now there's an actual minority of people being very loud and destructive in order to try and make that a reality. They're not looking for inclusivity, they're looking for control. At this point it feels like there are people who are actively looking to be offended (how else would people link Gannon to racism), looking to push things, and looking to demonize certain coincidences or subject material. If they're taken seriously, then I worry very much about the future of the gaming industry, and other mediums they're attached to. I don't think they really will take over or anything, but it is an actual threat, and it carries concern.

Now Playing: BloodBorne

Yeah I know I just did this with Metro, but the article was started around the first 3rd of the game, and submitted right before a later play session where I did a major push to finish it. Loved it, but as luck would have it I'm moving on to the latest big thing starting today. Unlike the last article this one is a true first impression entry, and one that is almost totally blind and early into the game. Heck to give you an idea of how early, its an RPG where I have yet to figure out how to even level up... so yeah. Today, a day after its release, I got BloodBorne as sort of an early Easter present.

So far its pretty good, but it certainly has its share of differences and learning curve. It feels very much like its made by the same team we all know now. Quiet dark lands with cryptic story telling, grunts that you need to time to properly kill, and just some of the general feels that a souls game would have. However its also strangely different. I was told to expect some things like a new health system, an aggressive focus, and I know its technically a new IP, but still some weird things are just different. There hasn't been  single armor/clothing drop and I'm getting the feeling the same can be said for core weapons, stats and classes are recontextualized into something entirely different, I'm almost certain the 1st death is intentional, and the bonfire system is practically non-existent. It'll take some getting used to.

Now I do like the game, but its a bit rough as well. I love the transforming weapons, the game is refreshingly mysterious thanks to the fact that I ignored 80% of the hype (seriously, stop spoiling your own damn games marketing dudes), and the world is amazing. Currently I've got no clue what to do stat-wise, but I'm running around with a whip/cane weapon, and swapping around between a torch and pistol combo. What I don't like however, apart from the infamous load times (which I can live with, but I do think they'll improve things if they get that patch out there), is the fact that the newly aggressive combat doubles that cheap-shot feeling. For example, there are these black coat guys that will occasionally jab a torch at you. Sometimes they do a double dip with the attack, its hard to tell when and how they're able to do the main attack in the first place never the less when they'll cheap shot you with a double hit. The fact that this game relies on speed and aggression over defense, but still moves identical to the older slow paced punch and dodge soul games means you'll see some strange animations or just get hit in ways that feel unfair. Heck that exact torch attack is just the perfect idea, it can go right through my attacks as though it is impervious to the whole stunlock system. I hardly think that's fair, and I expect the game will have more surprises like that in its future even if the combat is mostly smooth outside of this issue.

Now then I'm off to try and push through these darn were-wolf things. I can't break past them, and this'll probably be just like the Tarus demon in dark souls where I spent like two hours attempting to get past that area. Oh and great I'm nearly out of Molotovs, so there's that as well. I'll get through this eventually, and if I have to I'll probably just farm the villagers, run back to the hub zone, and buy better equipment until something happens.

EDIT:

Beat those wolves, got the leveling system in, loved a fight with the big wolf guy (died after cutting him down by a 3rd), got better armor, strengthened my weapon, discovered there's no weight system, etc. I also forgot to mention last time that it surprised me how often health pac- err... blood vials drop. You can carry like 20 of them, they fall from like every 5-8 kills, and using them is fast. Sounds too easy? Nope! Damage output is high, regain makes you take risks to save up your inventory causing you to fail sometimes, and it takes like 2 vials to really heal you up in most cases. Its still a struggle, its just that you're given this feeling of liberty and strong supply for when you do want to use this stuff. It also means they can get away with some aggressive boss fights, I really got to use the vials more so I can take on the cleric a lot better. This game is truly a valid successor to dark souls, striking that perfect difficulty curve twice to make you sweat over the 1st level and still enjoy things. Its got quite a good number of changes, but none feel entirely wrong its just a different way of accomplishing a very similar amazing experience. Now its all new again, and every new creature, NPC, and room feels like its a bold new discovery. So now I'm off to recollect 4000 blood points I lost to that cleric.

Now playing: Metro Redux

Finally found a price I could agree with. Its not like these games weren't worth $50, but I'm stingy in this busy year full of many great releases and so I wanted a better bargain. $15 at Toys R Us? I'm sold! I already played through Last Light on PlayStation 3 and ranked it among one of the best games available in 2013, and I technically owned the very first game from a give-away on PC, but the package here was still a great deal. I hadn't grabbed any of the DLC, and my intel 3000 was running the original in a way that the experience felt drunk and muddy. No seriously, playing the original now on a machine that can actually handle it I'm finding so many "I don't remember that!" moments where it feels like I missed out on all the details my first time around. It feels like a brand new game. Meanwhile Last Light is just worth playing through again with better visuals, it was a great game. So... you wont here any "boooooo! old game port" hate from me, this is more than what I paid for and I'm enjoying things. That being said I'll admit this ain't so much about 1st impressions here, or current thoughts while playing. Playing the game pulls me into this super introvert mode where all I care about is very short term thoughts and what's in front of me, and between that and the fact that I'm already well acquainted by the sequel makes this hard to discuss impressions on. So lets just talk about why this game is so awesome!

So for those not familiar with Metro you're basically playing what I see as essentially another team's Half-life 2. The way I see it there are two modern day HL2 style masterpieces each going their own way with the formula. Wolfenstein is the one that decides to slide things back a little more into ludicrous fun territory while bottled up the same way HL2 is. Metro on the other hand is what happens if it accepted mainstream conventions on its own terms, and played up on the atmosphere and script quality of half-life. That sounds a little concerning on paper, but the real result is an incredible one-of-a-kind game that is well worth any hardcore shooter fan's time.

2 Hardcore 4 U!!!

For starters the set pieces are amazing and make full use of things. Its not like a military shooter where you're doing another mini-gun set piece off a helicopter for the 11th time in your FPS library for no apparent reason. Instead your turret section is a rusty car turret through a dark two way tunnel after you've been saved from two awesome rangers who snuck deep into neo-nazi turf. That's a pretty awesome scene that ends with a cart ride that goes wrong and sends you crashing back into the darkness all alone. Every script is offering something to the action, the world, or the story, and being an interesting section emphasizes the value of all those. Basically if you want me invested in a highly scripted game, you've got to give me both the freedom and the will to explore it, and Metro is very encouraging in that respect. Heck, that's why I'm into games with the half-life formula or feel in the first place. Doom maze games are fun but there's a beneficial balance to including a good amount of lore and story elements that games like this are great at.

Metro is also all about the smaller things and glorious atmosphere. This bleeds in from the survival aspects of gameplay. You need to stack up on ammo, filters, and maintain a mask, all while keeping your equipment charged. You can have masks break or get dirt on them you need to clean off, oxygen runs out making outdoor parts tense, your flash light runs off a chargeable battery with a short life, and some guns are functioning off of pressurized air you have to pump. Oh and you're objectives are on a clipboard you pull out and if its too dark to read you can use a lighter to help see it. That same lighter can be used as an up close light source, and burns thick spider webs as you walk into them. Would you also believe me if I told you Metro has a morality system that is actually subtle? I know, hardly heard of right? Between games like this and Okami I'm starting to wonder if we've actually got amazing moral choice games out there in plenty of places, but only the loud clunky ugly ones are being heard because they're that bad at subtly. With Metro you could actually beat the game and never know there was a system even in place. Sure poor beggars, and one or two obvious binary bits let you make a choice, but there's no clear idea or talk of a payoff. However secretly those alongside subtle bits like what creatures you attack, if you ghost your way through stealth sections, and more add up to separate endings. I've been told that if you're well informed you'll notice the moral choices coming and going with a strange flash and water dripping sound effect, and that's been happening to me constantly in my current playthrough and countless times I have no idea what I did right or wrong. Collect ammo off this guy? Drip! Accept a seemingly mundane task from a guy? Drip! Ignore an NPC to walk down a tunnel for a second? Drip! It happens quite a lot, and my only guess is that I think I'm doing the right thing because I'm playing it my way. That's just awesome. Heck I could go into great detail about how I simply love the fact that, despite fighting mutant monsters of the apocalypse, it turns out some just want to be left alone. Replaying Last Light long ago I discovered entire monster areas can be bypassed by just letting them be, or respecting their territory. This isn't another Skyrim where every single wolf attacks you because they're programmed to be enemies, this is instead a game where you can walk literally right in front of a monster dog thing's face and as long as you don't bother it, he wont hurt you. Of course the thing that makes this tense is that this isn't the norm, and you still don't know for sure if that monster thing you're tip-toeing by is the actively aggressive type or not. Its a great and realistic survival and moral situation, and its an active example of some of the game's story tone. Again this game is all about the smaller things, and its a great little experience.

wipe that mask off and shoot!

So a great shooter with a nice setting, great use of its scripted pieces, good attention to detail, what else is there to go over that makes this a fun ride so far? Well its just one of those games that in its essence capture what I love about my so-called "hardcore" shooter experience. The gunplay is amazing, there's value and lore to discover by exploring, the story gets a little weird in a lovable way at times, and the monsters are just plain awesome. It may have regenerating health and a tight inventory, but it makes the best of both things as the inventory and health are still established in a way that makes you think. They're still powered by resources, and you can really be on the edge of your seat on this game. Heck personally I think this game is tougher than quite a lot of old games I grew up with. I spent well over 30 minutes retrying one small stealth section today, and I still didn't come anywhere close to pulling off my ideal plan once I did make it.


Oh but how does this newer version turn out? Well actually not all that impressive. I mean don't get me wrong I'm still standing on that side of saying you wont get any hate here from me. I don't regret grabbing this game. Still I think its something about being used to the PS4 by now, or just remembering the game as looking so good to begin with, but either way the thing is the visuals feel relatively identical to what I thought it looked like. I'm sure if I did a comparison I'd find plenty of better tuned details, and I know its running better technically given the 60fps, but its just not a jawdropping thing. It just feels normal and it still looks great... just as I described Last Light on the PS3. Again I'm not complaining, previously I couldn't even play the original game right, and all the DLC will be new on Last Light's side. Also a new set of trophies and a share feature is nice. So despite not being mind blown by the graphical enhancements (and still being oblivious to 60fps as usual), its still worth a trip back into these two games. On a similar note of porting I don't know how Last Light stands for sure, but the original is actually full of hilarious little visual glitches I've never picked up before. A door going through a guy, an animation snag, and some minor detection issues. I also think I've managed to occasionally climb on stuff I'm not sure should have been possible. Nothing ever feels broken enough to complain, its actually kind of fitting to the general charm of the game being somehow deep and immersive one second and then silly and clumsy the next. Now I've gone on enough about this game, its time to return and enjoy it some more.

Anti-gravity grief

So lately it would appear that rather than a sequel, Gravity Rush is getting a port... and as you'd expect people aren't too happy about that. Its not because of the whole sequel thing, if anything those guys are happy as this is still news from an unsure franchise that could mean hype building to that sequel, but Vita fans are sad for the Vita's sake. However not all of us are obviously, and I'd like to talk about why I see no harm whatsoever in this.

For starters, people who act like this is going to hurt the vita need to remember Gravity rush released back in 2012. It was demoed and shown off around the time the Vita was launching to build your anticipation. If this game hasn't incentivized you to buy a Vita as it should have, then why would you suddenly run out and grab it now 3 years later. If you buy the Vita at this point, you're expectations of its future should be into the field of japanese games, Indies on the go, or for some weird reason as a companion app to Sony's other consoles. Sure you can grab some great exclusives that are already out there, but almost every single one short of Freedom Wars is at least like a year old at this point (and FW is kind of old news at this point as well) and its nothing new that was excitingly pulling you in with a fierce tug.

On top of that guess who else isn't going to be buying much of Gravity Rush? Vita owners themselves. We're looking at a number of about 10 million or so systems sold at this point, but the number of sold games at retail stays around a comfy number well under 1 million. While this doesn't include digital, its pretty safe to assume that between the sales, give-away + version, and memory card restraints that Gravity Rush wasn't making too big of a profit there either. I'm also going to plead guilty here, there were better things for me at the time of Gravity Rush and I instead relied on my sister's copy once she bought it, and then the + version later as it was available. My point here is, why not give a well loved game that undersold on a slow selling platform to a bigger more alive platform with a lot of the same fan interest in the game? PS4's a perfect fit for this case, and a real test to see if people are interested in this idea. Personally I'm grateful anything at all is being done to help out this IP.

The other thing I would like to note here is that unlike the Tearaway thing, this actually benefits the game in a natural way. All touch motions and whatnot aside, Gravity Rush was an open world super hero game with in-game gravity powers. You could tilt the system to help with gravity flying, but you could also just use the right stick as most people would. Its a fine fit for consoles, and loses so very little in the face of a port. Actually I'd rather have the share features that are built in, and see if they try anything with the touchpad bit. In other words it ain't rocket science to figure that a port could work, and better yet a port to a bigger platform might just improve or add something to the experience (I doubt they'll do much, but it can happen).

So with all being said and done, what really happens if we see Gravity Rush get onto PS4? What harm does it do to the Vita, a console already considered dead with minimal support? I don't like that fact, but Gravity Rush's news has changed absolutely nothing about the situation. It isn't killing it even further, if anything its actually more of the other way around: They actually care enough about one of the few classics to bring it to a new audience, and try to keep it relevant. To that, I say good luck and I might be there to buy the game as well this time around. Oh... and if you're still convinced they hate vita owners, you could go and check out the flash sale where gravity rush is $1, and that's a major edge us lucky guys get that home console only types wont see when they get the chance to play it. So there's that as well. This move isn't an insult to vita owners, far from it. Instead its a great game from the Vita being offered to a wider audience supposedly without any compromises (other than lack of portability). Don't be silly and find some dumb reason to be offended by this move. Its not against you, and if you don't like who it is for then simply look at it like any other product you don't want and buy something else instead. Of course... all this hasn't totally been confirmed yet and it could all just be a goofy rumor, so bare that in mind to. Now that being said, I'd still love it if Sony actually does do something directly for the Vita. It'd be nice if they actually bothered to acknowledge that they have around 10 million users out there somewhere at this point, they just might buy a new game on the system.

Are graphics ever truly outdated?

A perfect fit

I kind of see a valid point in that idea that graphics are better as a style than a tech demo of realism. Its true, if you have something like windwaker or Okami it never truly dies are feels too wrong, worst case scenario is its resolution could use a bump up. Meanwhile Heavy Rain, Crysis, and others are already showing in their age, and some people are totally intolerable to the very early blocky 3D stuff that was trying to take itself seriously like Tomb Raider and Metal Gear Solid. I also can't help but remember a time in which I spoke of Modern Warfare 2 as the best looking 3rd party game at one time, and before the PS3 life cycle was even over I was asking myself what I was possibly thinking because even slightly better COD games were from then on always behind the typical point. Still it only takes the right kind of game to totally change my mind on how I view the more "serious" stuff. Likewise I think maybe a couple artsy games slip up more than they're supposed to, take the old Sly Cooper stuff for example with their robotic mouths, off settling animations, and the low poly looking environments. I also never understood how Borderlands got praised for such a terribly textured world (oh and there's the constant pop-ins). Naturally of course Borderlands and Sly Cooper will age better than say Half-Life 1 has, but its still not perfect and I'd argue some other serious stuff subjectively beats it. I almost feel like a few dated styles end up falling into their own special feel.

Personally one of my favorite examples is from early 2000's stuff, especially on the PC where textures first started coming up as more than flat but as too artificial to be taken seriously. Back then it was also before modern settings had much of a following, so a lot of it was taken place under interesting settings and often cool sci-fi places. Doom 3 (and the very similar looking Alpha prime) probably was one of the best of this type, capturing a very interesting use of lighting, imaginative settings, some solid texture work, and yet models that looked like they walked out of a budget CGI movie. A budget CGI movie I would totally watch and probably enjoy! I love the older CGI styles for some reason, maybe its my love of the old DKC cartoon and Beast Wars, or maybe its because my more late childhood timing which had plenty of Jimmy Neutron, or of course Doom 3 could in itself simply be nostalgic. Either way I just love it for whatever reason. Oh and did I mention the decals? Yeah you could take those strange plastic fleshy models and poke strange metalic looking holes in them with your gun and they'd loosely ragdoll around, it was weird but made the style all the more interesting in retrospect. I spoke with someone recently who on a similar note spoke of nostalgic praises for PS1 and N64 graphics, loving the blocky low resolution and texture wrap nature of those games. I've found people gushing over how revolutionary a game used to be, despite its current age. Whether its only nostalgia, or its a truly interesting look into subjective graphical perception, I feel this was a neat topic to discuss at some point. I'm just a bit tired of only old school 2D and sprite stuff taking all the credit, its really not the only thing that can be enjoyed from older times.

Look at this game's dumb low poly glossed textures... its kind of neat in a weird way

I believe sometimes the aesthetics, visuals, or glitches themselves may in some way add up to a game's own unique style, and it really makes me question when and how a game ever really looks dated in a purely bad way. I can even see styles and feelings come out of more recent stuff. Uncharted tried to be all serious and real, but its goofy physics, flashy items, and super clean corpses make for a strange system that stands out despite how aged the actual engine is at this point. On a similar note I always thought Killzone 2's engine was not just better for its physics and high end quality, but I saw obvious spots where it deviated for realism to have an exaggerated dark tone or glowy sci-fi asthetics... and I guess its worth noting like Uncharted the guns and objects of interest had this strange but appealing gamey flash and you could practically form a battlefield of glitter with dropped weapons. Also I loved Killzone 1 and 2's grainy filter thing, I don't totally understand why it was there but I loved it anyways. Then there's that rushed Unreal 3 engine look some games have, which when done wrong bugs me, but its a style worth mentioning regardless. It has this strange artificially jagged look around random models, strange slime textures that never follow through right, and those physics that are like a wonkier version of Dark Souls' ragdolls (which itself might be worthy of this discussion). Looking down the line, I wouldn't be surprised if we managed to see more recent games become some sort of dated "style" somewhere down the line. Yet these "dated" visuals form almost their own look, unique to the time and date, triggering a sense of nostalgia or strange satisfaction from fans that revisit them and embrace their limitations.

Of course I'm not saying there's anything wrong with an art style that is intentionally unique and unreal. I'll truly stand by those as the better looking games, even if there are exceptions as I mentioned in the beginning. Timesplitters 2 still holds up well today, Ratchet & Clank HD holds up better than Killzone 1 HD, and my favorite visuals on any game on current gen so far is Mario Kart 8. Art wins out over a serious art style, and as we have games like The Order clamp down on cheesy parts showing through I'm wondering if even serious directions will keep a quirky charm like the early 2000s stuff did. Still I feel it was worth discussing that I and a few others out there aren't exactly turned off by older ideas of realism. Sometimes low poly, goofy physics & interface bits, or serious expressions reduced to plastic textures and glitchy ragdolls make for just as good of a time as a trip into Windwaker, and I'll sure as hell take it over Borderlands which still doesn't look quite right to me.

You'll never lose your visual charm to me Alpha prime

Now Playing: Inherit The Earth

Quick story time! Long ago I wanted to try something a little new with my writing. I've always loved culture, symbolism, and I've always loved gothic medieval tones/themes where you have war, religion, and politics. So why not combine them? Fantasy would be ideal in setting as you could have fictional races formed as tribes based on varied cultures and beliefs, and they naturally don't get along with each other putting the world under a tense and fragile state of conflict. However as we all know most fantasy tales just took place with random hero, random quest, and at best some monster for him/her to slay. Its a tried and true but kind of tired formula but almost the only one commonly used and it misses the potential of building up a world that would be so perfect for the kind of story I wanted. So I decided to set this sort of thing up with a story called Wolf Pack. It took place around a fictional world where humans were replaced with more humanized versions of animals to distinguish the tribes. This was perfect as it was easier to understand symbolism (If you made a cat race seem somewhat lazy yet mischievous for example, it was easily relatable to house cats), and you could also form or break relations based on how animals are categorized or compete with each other in the wild. Unfortunately my story crumbled under my own clumsy writing, and I didn't feel like the story was going to truly go anywhere good because its plot was more based on action and dialogue of a society rather than that of a plot arc to resolve something. However the good news is that the story's integrity and idea was never lost in the first place. Well for starters, there's the modern Lego Chima series for kids that sort of runs with the same idea... I think. Secondly, there was something already in place before I was even born (although its shocking close to the date, kind of spooky) doing a very similar concept, only better... and animated... and a video game. Its name was...

Oh and you play as a fox.... sometimes the world just gets things right

Alright so yeah sorry for the delay to the subject, but I feel it was worth mentioning because that really does tie into a part of the appeal of the game for me. Its just one of those games that feels slightly personal in a weird way. I've had my eye on it for a while, but I've only just recently got it off of GOG.com (along with the hilariously clumsy but fun Two Worlds). I had to try it before I buy it though, because the one and only major issue to keep me well away was its genre (point and click). Sure I guess I can see why a point and click was right for such a story and character driven game, especially of its era, but I just never got around to liking them beyond those pre-school games I played when I was little. They have archaic puzzles, unusual logic, and a style of control that will usually keep you away from ever being immersed. However with ITE thankfully it seems the last one is its only real lingering problem, at least based off what I read of reviews and tried off an old demo. So far, the main game shows to be playable for me... but the mouse movement is still annoying.

Now outside of those 3 problems I don't have an issue with these games. Actually I envy the audience that loves them, because I absolutely adore some of the creative minds, settings, and plots driving many of them and sometimes all I want out of a game is a longer better story than I commonly find in movies. So I'm glad to have found one of the few that both interest me, and stray from most of the ugly conventions. Although I did have to look up at a guide once, but honestly I think some of my own ignorance was to blame for not knowing much about what Plaster is (I know it to go on buildings, but didn't know what it looked like bagged up). Supposedly this game replaces dumb puzzles with mazes, and I'm kind of okay with that. I guess that's kind of weird because its harder to solve those if I'm truly stuck, but I think I'm okay with it because its more of a true and legit challenge rather than "Oh here, have a random math/match/slide puzzle that makes no sense here". Of course I mean no harm to the genre, I get that some people like that kind of thing and I'm even making a post defending contrived nonsense (with some limits of course), but its not for me in the way that normal point & click stuff does it. So I'm glad they left ITE out of that mess, or at least kept it down.

It unfortunately shows its age

So anyways how is the game itself so far (as opposed to nagging its genre)? Well honestly that's all up to whether or not you like the plot. If the idea I presented before interests you, well this game does it right and even better. You have a light hearted adventure with some dark implications setting the tone. You play as a fox named Rif who is accused of stealing a powerful gadget referred to as The Orb. So far I only know that it tells the weather, but the characters still make a big deal of it and its been kept safely under wraps for the longest time. Now in order to save yourself, and keep the boars and elk from some potential hostilities, you've got to solve the mystery and return the orb, with the help of an elk and boar friend assigned from each of the bigger armies to make sure you do this right. The game is set in a world where the characters you are dealing with are animals who have formed into medieval fantasy type tribes, and live odd lives related to their surroundings and tribal status. However this isn't actually some alternate medieval setting, its actually science fiction that is so far ahead the science kind of died down. Humans existed, but they either left or offed themselves in some way, and The orb is supposedly one of the things they left behind. This is where the game's namesake comes from (animals inherited the earth from humanity), as well as some the compelling mystery. I haven't gotten too deep to know much about the human plot for sure. What I have seen so far is a lot of good humor, quirky writing, and some clever ideas implemented, and it feels like a good cross between a Disney movie and a mystery game.

The plot mentioned above is what is supposed to compel you in these kind of games. Gameplay wise though it is slightly deeper than what I'm used to. Instead of just clicking blindly and screwing with the inventory, inventory seems limited to 8 things and there's another bar piece reserved for multiple actions. Although it doesn't go wild with things, you can at least do more than click on a guy for the same line. For example, your boar friend Okk can either be spoken to directly for his opinion on something, or you can "look" at him to get a funny comment. Again it ain't much, but these small verbal choices you can try on the world keep you engaged beyond click spamming (though that sadly describes walking, but I'm digressing). Still its the story that'll keep you going as that's the reason you're clicking on anything to begin with. Meanwhile the maze and light thinking bits I've seen so far are ok and handle well, but they're nothing to really write about. Its the success of getting new dialogue, or that first step into a new area, that keeps me smiling and playing as I uncover more of the plot.

Unfortunately the game has had a troubled development and doesn't come out with a happy ending. Thanks to the publishers being the kind of generalizing idiots that insist animals = kiddie the game was dumbed down in its original ideas, and doesn't extend to use tribalism as much as they probably wanted it to. Also supposedly one of the restrictions that followed was that nobody can die, because... kids apparently can't know that being on the brink of a multi-clan war may be dangerous. We're not talking Lego Chima levels of kiddie, but its still integrity breaking. On a related note, the game didn't do well enough to earn its sequel and the series has sort of died on a cliffhanger... sort of. There's a slim chance it may see some kind of crowd funded sequel, but if that doesn't work there is at least a web comic that has given us some story of the aftermath.

Okay I feel like I've written and researched the game more than I've played it. Its time to get back into it though, and I'm excited to see through this adventure. I'm looking forward to the next chance to hilariously trick guards, and close up more of the mystery. So far though, its been fun and I'm glad not to only have seen a weird sort of concept I wanted created, but to also be playing a point & click game I can actually enjoy once again. By contrast I've also grabbed Tormentum's demo off steam, and I can already tell the gameplay for that will be more terrifying than its grotesque art style, but oh well. I got ITE to thank for a good one before I run off and try another bad one.