Today is a new day. The sun is shining, the air is fresh and spring is in the air. It’s time to do a little spring cleaning.

Below I illustrate systems or concepts I found interesting while playing Conviction.

1. Michael Ironside is Sam Fisher
2. Cover Mechanic and Resource Management.
3. VO, or as the AI like to say “asshole this, asshole that!  Think that will work asshole!  Asshole!  Asshole!”

Michael Ironside is Sam Fisher
Not system or even design related I know. At first I was taken aback and wondering how his arms grew back after that dreadful fall from that mars elevator. I realize his voice is not new to Splinter Cell fans. It was however new to me. His voice acting, coupled with excellently written dialog made Sam’s many cut-scenes and quips quite bearable. To celebrate, for the first time on GToB, I’ve embedded a youtube video. Watch it.

O that’s nice!

Cover Mechanic and Resource Management
Normally I wouldn’t bother covering the basics of the stealth genre. I feel that it is the responsibility of the game studio to create a set of systems that facilitate the switch from stealth game play to action/combat game play to exploration. Being the fifth version of Splinter Cell from Ubisoft Montreal, they’ve had a lot of practice and have done a good job of the systems IMO.

I found the execute mechanic to be an excellent example of the system inter-relation I mentioned above. This specific mechanic is highlighter beginning at 3:22 of the below video. The player can choose to leave “being hidden” to attack the AI, then quickly restore that state using execute. However, to use execute efficiently, the player must observe the AI from stealth. When playing Conviction, you will do this constantly.

Reconnoitering is important. Run and gun is not the name of Conviction.

VO or the Asshole Extravaganza
Ugh. I couldn’t find an example of what I’m referring to here. You’ll know what I mean when you fire up the game.

The enemies are almost constantly spouting the same inane vulgarities. There is some mix up, more then most studios are willing to create. I would have preferred less swearing. It’s comical in a sense. I hear “asshole” about a thousands times throughout the game. That’s ridiculous.

I would challenge you to count each time you hear ass hole during your play through and post it in the comments.

Summary
I really liked Conviction. The story, solid. The environments, solid. The core, solid. Go play it.

Finally!  Wordpress breaths again!  Serves me right for keeping around 2 year old plugins…

Moving on!  I have many updates and plenty of observations, things I like and other GToB none sense!

On with the show!  Below is the list of games I either am currently playing, have played (and beaten) and plan to play in the coming month.

1. Splinter Cell: Conviction – 360 – Beat
2. Civilization 4: Mod Fall from Heaven 2 – PC
3. Super Street Fighter 4 – 360 – zomg awesome
4. Blood Bowl PC: Dark Elf Edition

It’s a wonder I have any time.  I’m sooo excited that I can post again!  Eat it Intertoobs!!!

I look forward to getting back to a normal schedule. I will check back with a summary of my gaming activities and thoughts on the state of the industry soon!

TTFN

1. I’m working on a new Things I Like Template.  It will have pictures.  Please keep the mass hysteria to a minimum.
2. I like Dante’s Inferno.  I disliked Darksiders.  *shrug*
3. I participated in a Game Dev MW2 tournament.  Lemme tell you, the guys from Neversoft are really good.
4. I’ve been busy at work on a super secret project that no one can talk about.

WoW Stuff:

1. I switched to Shadow.  I may write a couple shadow guides for the bosses in ICC I’ve dropped.
2. My offspec is holy.  Blizzard did good.
3. I no longer PvP.  Sad Panda.

STO Stuff:

1. I am having a lot of fun with this game.
2. This game is a big change for Cryptic Studios.
3. You can play it in bite sized chunks.
4. They need to fix their UI design.  It blows to put it nicely.
5. They need to fix their player training of the UI.  That blows harder.
6. They need to make more of the episodes open instance, seriously.  This will open up opportunities to create excellent single player content AND encourage people to play together.
7. They need to make the lower tier ships valuable.  I don’t know how to solve this issue but it’s there.  Currently there is no reason to use a lower tier ship once you rank beyond it.

Finally, they need to keep the faith.  They have a GREAT game.  This guy should be banned from posting.  Check out the section of Update 1, he basically invited people to stop paying and playing their game if don’t “get it”. I understand focusing on your core audience that will continue paying for your game.  That’s CCPs model, slowly building up your player base for the long haul.  What I don’t get is why he said it.  Elitist clubs may work in a real social atmosphere or even as focused groups within a games community.  I don’t know if that works as a marketing tool.

That’s all the updates I have for now.  More to come soon!

I could make arrangements to lend them to you if you like.  I have Hot Fuzz, but not Shaun of the Dead . Oh that would be cool if you don’t mind.  I’ve seen parts of SHAUN OF THE DEAD but nothing from HOT FUZZ.

I’ll get Hot Fuzz to you.  We’ll figure out how to get Shaun of the Dead to you as well.

On another note, Daybreakers was interesting.  The ambience and world were setup very nicely.  One of the first times where I actually felt uncomfortable watching the opening silent review of the world.  It was uncomfortable for its setting, not its delivery.

Unfortunately despite the artful representation of the world, the script was poorly written and unfortunately for the actors, poorly directed.  I don’t blame actors if the script and direction sucks unless the actors are horrible, which they aren’t.  It seemed to me that the actors did the best they could do given the script.  Well, this stands for everyone except Ethan Hawke and Sam Neill.  They both did exceptionally well with the script.

On another note, I’m not sure how I feel about FX guys making movies.  First the debacle that was AvP: Requiem and then Daybreakers.   I liked the former enough to shell out enough money to see a non romantic vampire flick.  I refuse to give money back to the AvP franchise unless someone reputable takes the reins again.  I know what you mean, reminds me of the movie SPAWN.

Exactly!  Except for the sound track, Spawn is utterly forgettable.  At least that movie had that going for it.

Of final note, the final action scene was an orgy of blood and body parts… in slow motion.  A complete deviation from the rest of the movies’ tone, which was conversational and a sort of the world will end if we don’t stop it kind of plot.  Sounds like the wanted to shoot their wad for the ending?  Was it like the shoot out in DUSCK TILL DAWN or the SILIENT HILL movie?

Neither.  The context for the final… well… I can’t call it anything except for an orgy(and not spoil anything in the process) is close to neither.  Mainly because not only are you, the audience, a passive participant, but also the characters with whom you have a mild emotional connection to are passively participating as well.  The entire scene is then ignore for the remaining 10 or so minutes of the film without remorse.  No reference, no closure and literally a western inspired ride out into the sunset.

Other then my criticisms, it is worth a watch.  Just one.  Not worth owning.  I would relegate it to NetFlix streaming should you have that service.

Oy, this was supposed to be a short email. *palm face*

I’ve spent that last couple months running 10 mans with some close friends.  That’s been an amazing experience.  However, an itch was never satisfied while doing that.  So I left and joined a 25 man guild under my old guild leader, when running Naxx at the beginning of Wrath.  I LOVE it.

I’m a shadow priest now, I’ve moved on from disc pvp.  Which means I’m apart of the face melting crew around the globe.  Its a different level of focus and concentration.  Thank you to Shadowpriest.com for making this transition really awesome.  Elitist Jerks gets an honorable mention as well.

For instance:

If you begin an encounter poorly, there isn’t a way to bounce back.  In other words, didn’t pull off that perpetual come back.  In other words, the combats must be executed well, not flawlessly or you die and have to re-load.

For instance, its easy to see where the inspiration for the combat came from.  Have you ever played a DnD game?  Have you played 4th edition DnD?  Have you played Baldur’s Gate?  (I feel horrible at referencing their own game, sorry Bioware.)

Another Bioware title within the same universe, Dragon Age: Journeys.  Where its easy to adjust your tactics and bounce back from a poor decision.  This is built into the game because its turn based.  Watching the combat unfold due to your choices is simple to understand.

Playing the real time version is a little less forgiving.  I don’t mind having to pause the game every second or so to manually adjust a character a two, that’s enjoyable for this type of game.  What I’m talking about is that perpetual come back situation.

I like when combat in a tactics focused game feels like the manual, or balance meter, in Tony Hawk.  The idea is to keep the difficulty and choices with the arrow to the center or top of the meter.  When the meter starts to slide towards one way or the other, adjustments needs to be made to bring the arrow back to center.  Being able to effectively bring the arrow back to the top of the balance meters is bacially the perpetual come back.  If in Tony Hawk getting the arrow back to the top of the balance meter were exceptionally difficult, that would be called a slippery slope.

I mean that’s the point right?  The point is to force the player to make heroic choices?  Choices that provide that momentary “aha!” feeling when that simple choice lead to certain victory.

Unfortunately I’m not privy to the combat design discussions or even direction over in cold Edmonton Bioware headquarters.  So for all I know this is “working as intended”.

However, I am enjoying the story.  Even if I don’t understand or immediately see the consequences for my actions.  I’ve saved a life here, saved a life there.  Nothing terribly important in the grand scheme of things in DA:O.

Leaving combat aside and on a humorous note, if Bioware continues with this ridiculous everyone covered in blood conversation cut scenes, maybe they’ll have animations of the characters, I dunno, wiping off the blood?  Maybe have an opener like:

“Hey, you’re covered in blood.  You obviously killed everything on your way here.  Now giving you’re a FUCKING KILLING MACHINE, why should I risk my life talking to you since obviously I like living… and did I mention you’re covered in blood?”

P.S.  There’s no mention of sex here because unlike what I felt like the forced sex scene and relationship that happened in Mass Effect, I actually enjoy how the romance is progressing in this game.

You know it doesn’t happen after I decide to kill one(Ashley or Kaidan) and let the other live (Ashley or Kaidan).  I mean WTF, I treated Kaidan like shit the entire game and he followed me around like a futuristic head ache ridden love sick beaten dog that was told twice.  Maybe my female Shepard was a Scorpio and he a cancer.  Yeah, that’s makes sense…  Oy… *palm face*

I always preferred Chaos and the Tyranids.  For years I played Tyranids.  There was nothing quite like throwing 80 Hormegaunts from 2nd edition across the table towards whatever army I was fighting.  It didn’t really matter who they were in the end.  160 dice against any foe causes wounds.  My apologies readers if you have no idea what I’m talking about.

With 4th and 5th edition I became increasingly interested in Chaos.  I never liked Nurgle and I always thought the history of the Heresy to be quite dubious.  I believe it resonates with my lack of understanding of Fanaticism.  So imagine my surprise when I’m in a local book store and I see a novel titled Fulgrim.

I immediately picked it up, read the back cover and a flipped to a random page to see the quality of the writing.  I was confronted with nouns, characters and settings in Pre-Heresy 40k.  I was in heaven.

Each book paints the pre-Heresy Imperium in a very interesting light.  Almost each new planet must negotiate with super warrior who arrive and basically say “Well you were once human from Earth so we own you.  Follow us or die.”  Yeah, fanatics.  Even the good ones are still… ridiculous.  Moving on.

I’ve devoured each book and I’ve increased my scope and knowledge of the 40k universe.  Of note would be the Emperor’s last execution of a major religious leader on conquered Earth, Uriah Olathaire to be exact.  It is detailed in Tales of Heresy.  Fantastic story.  The Emperor is quite a fiend.  I suppose there is always the argument “The ends justify the means.”  I will leave you the readers to find that novel.  If you are a fan, you’ve already read them.

Which brings me finally to my dislike of the Space Wolves.  I dislike them.  Maybe its the models.  Maybe I just don’t like Vikings, or whatever culture the SW are based on.  What I’m particularly latching on to is the statements in this video.

The tension between the Space Wolves and the Thousand Sons has been set up for about 2 books now, Tales of Heresy and the Battle for the Abyss.  If, as the authors suggest, the Thousand Son’s were turned to chaos because of a betrayal by the Space Wolves, it will solidify my dislike of that legion forever.