Of Blocks and Coffee: Lego Star Wars and Legends & Lattes

This post has my combined thoughts on a game and book that I finished recently. The game is Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker, and the book is Legends & Lattes by author Travis Baldree.

Let’s start with Lego Star Wars. This is the latest game in this series, re-telling the story of the entire 9-movie series using Lego creations and minifigs and a lot of creative revisioning of the tale to make it more family-friendly. There’s been more in the series previously starting with an adaption of the three prequel movies, then a second game adapting the original trilogy, and then a third title that combined all six movies. An adaption of the first of the third trilogy followed later, but that was it until Skywalker Saga was announced.

What we have here is a neat package that covers all the movies in 45 levels that are unlocked as semi-open-world areas once the story mode for each has been completed, plus some space content for the ships you collect. To paraphrase the book of The Princess Bride, this is the “Good Parts" version.

I was hoping this would be something great, as a fan of both the Star Wars universe and the Lego Star Wars adaptions but it’s just … fine. I suspect my high expectations haven’t helped – anything that you’ve hyped up to yourself is going to have a hard time matching what you’ve imagined it could be.

But to sum up briefly, most of the levels are built around platforming and shooting with the minifigs you collect and unlock, with simple minigames for different activities and the occasional vehicle section. As you play through the story of each level, you’ll unlock it to come back in freeplay mode, which allows you to use different characters that the ones available in the story. This lets you access areas you didn’t have access to due to lacking required abilities – for example, having additional quests locked behind characters who you can only speak to using a protocol droid.

If you’re looking for a reason to come back once you’ve finished the story, this is it. But I’m happy to stop where I am, having seen how the developers told their version of it. If you’re interested in seeing how it compares to the movies, you might want to give this video from ElAnalistaDeBits a look as it’s doing exactly that kind of comparison.

I had a pretty good time with it overall, although I had a few problems with the camera just not wanting to give me the right view for a scene and controls for spaceships feeling wrong whether I inverted the Y axis or not. And my reactions are definitely slowing as I get older, so having so many times where an immediate response was sought… I’m feeling creakier with every cutscene.

And speaking of cutscenes, if you’re curious about the story but just can’t see yourself buying the game, they've been compiled on YouTube (of course). You can see the style of humour used within the first 15 seconds, like it or not.

Now to something I enjoyed a great deal more.

I first heard about this book as a post on Twitter from author Travis Baldree (you can find him here), showing off the cover art. On the strength of that and the synopsis of the story, I pre-ordered it on Amazon immediately.

High Fantasy with a double-shot of self-reinvention

"Worn out after decades of packing steel and raising hell, Viv the orc barbarian cashes out of the warrior’s life with one final score. A forgotten legend, a fabled artifact, and an unreasonable amount of hope lead her to the streets of Thune, where she plans to open the first coffee shop the city has ever seen.

However, her dreams of a fresh start pulling shots instead of swinging swords are hardly a sure bet. Old frenemies and Thune’s shady underbelly may just upset her plans. To finally build something that will last, Viv will need some new partners and a different kind of resolve.

A hot cup of fantasy slice-of-life with a dollop of romantic froth.”

There’s a lot to be said about stories that are both wholesome and fun, and following this quiet little story of a retired adventurer looking to find some peace also finding a family… It’s genuinely heart-warming, with characters who I came to care for. Right now, the Kindle version is dirt cheap on Amazon, and I’d recommend giving it a try. (I don't want to say too much for fear of spoiling the mostly-gentle story beats, as it's a story that's all about the journey - maybe enjoyed with a hot beverage and delicious baked goods as you sit somewhere comfortable)

In other news, I’ve re-subbed to World of Warcraft and I’ve picked up my oldest character (now with grey hair, to kind of match mine) with a view to getting him up to 50 and into Shadowlands. For all it’s flaws, it’s good to be back.

A PC Gamer and a Switch Walk Into A Bar

How often have you had the chance to pick up a device which is completely new to you? I think the most memorable example of that was when I bought my first Android cell phone. This was in the early 20-teens and it was an early Huawei device, the Ascend G300. It was a budget phone, which meant almost no memory and minimal storage capacity.

It was also such a new user experience for me that it took me almost a week to work out how to answer when somebody called me. And while there were some useful applications, I didn’t think that it was going to be a gaming device for me on the strength of that initial experience. It also didn’t help that the device really was underpowered as only a budget Android device of that era could be, with not enough RAM and not enough onboard storage to really do much with it.

Roll on to the heights of 2019, where my stepdaughter was given a Switch Lite for Christmas by a well-meaning relative. Sadly, it was given without any games, and a sad time was had by her (although we picked up a couple of titles she wanted as soon as we could). It’s now 2022 and I just discovered the dust-covered device sitting in a cupboard with a flat battery. And I wondered, what is it like to use and actually play games on?

My History

I’ve been a gamer, well, almost since the beginning of home computers. From my first experiences with a localised console called the Fountain Force 2 around 1980, I’ve followed with great interest the progression from 8-bit to 16-bit to now 64-bit home computers of varying levels of complexity, and alongside them the gaming experiences that they gave life to.

Aside from my time with desktop computers of various lineages, there were a few detours to enjoy the Sega Master System, then the Sega Megadrive/Genesis, the Nintendo 64, and finally the original PlayStation, but I’ve always kept coming back to “real” computers. And alongside those, handhelds have been a very Nintendo thing for me, held back by a failure to invest in rechargeable AA batteries. From the original Gameboy, a Gameboy Advance, a DS, and finally a DS Lite – and an Atari Lynx in there somewhere – these kept me company before I deciding mobile gaming also became a phone thing.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I was also a latecomer to touchscreen cell phones with my first being a woefully underpowered and under-specced Huawei Ascend G300. I was able to move up to an iPhone 6 Plus a little later, fortunately, which held my interest until I grew tired of the walled garden of accessories for Apple devices and graduated to a Samsung Galaxy S4. And yes, I did need to rebuy all my games. I’ve been a gamer on Android ever since, and my current daily driver is a Xiaomi 10T Pro that’s feeling its age, along with a Samsung Tab A7 for ebooks and a handful of games.

But my gaming home has always been various flavours of PC, dating back to a 386 in the very deep dark distant past – I’ve actually upgraded my computer from that lowly 386, piece by piece. 386, then 486, then into a new case with an ATX power supply as a k

Right now, my workhorse is incarnated as an aging AMD system in desperate need of an upgrade (along with a bigger hard drive or two). It’s still plenty for Skyrim which, like many people, I’m tempted to reinstall, but it’s not quite there for modern titles like Horizon Zero Dawn. I’m fortunate that my gaming budget is more Vampire Survivors than Cyberpunk 2077, so this isn’t necessarily an issue.

The Switch’s History

Now, I’m sure everybody at least knows what a Switch is, Nintendo’s follow-up from both the 3DS and the unfortunately-named Wii U. It launched to quiet interest, and proceeded to conquer the world as the handhold that both Xbox owners and PlayStation owners could play without surrendering their sense of superiority.

In my stepdaughter’s case, it was a device she wanted in order to be able to play Minecraft with her friends without being tied to a laptop, but with actual controls (unlike almost all tablet gaming). Of course, time passes, and the cool place to virtually meet with your friends changes. The Switch moved from desktop to shelf to cupboard, and I stumbled across it while looking for something else which is honestly still lost.

First Steps
The first thing to do was, of course, to dig out the charger as the batteries were thoroughly dead. After that was the import thing: creating a new user on the Switch itself, and hooking that up with an account.

Of course, I also need to get used to the buttons being backward. XY/AB on my Xbox controllers becomes YX/BA on the Switch. My muscle memory isn’t impressed. It might not have caught me up so much, but they still make A the primary action button, and you use B to cancel.

But back to the set-up.

With a new user comes the ability to link it to a Nintendo account. I’m fortunate that I have one lying around from my brief time in Animal Crossing and a much longer time playing Dragalia Lost on my phone. Of course, this runs into another hurdle – long passwords and touchscreens don’t mix well, especially if you can’t see what you’ve typed because there doesn’t appear to be an option to reveal the password you’re typing.

This turns into an extended endeavour where I need to find the right login for the desktop Nintendo site to find the login there, discovering that it won’t work with my email address but will work if I create a username to login with, and re-type my very secure password many, many times.

Once I was logged in, I opened the home screen and clicked on the eShop button. And was told I needed to update the system. Click on System Settings, then System, and then install the update.

<hold music plays briefly>

Back to the eShop. “Enter the password for your Nintendo Account.” Two failed attempts later, I’m in!

And now begins the quest to find games to try.

Nintendo has never been known for great online functionality, and after a quick look through their online store, I’d say they’re not a great deal at better with storefronts. The section of their site is a single page that loads in new pages of products as you scroll slowly down, and there’s no ability to sort the page – that would honestly be useful while looking for something cheap to try. The Current Offers page says there are 1110 items to choose from, but I don’t like my chances of finding something genuinely good very quickly.

It turns out the Search option is what I need: while there are only three narrow ranges of available prices by which you can search if that’s what you’re looking for, and you can change the sort order to sort by price (low to high), which came to my rescue. Add in filtering by Genre, and it’s relatively golden.

Free Games

By the way, these are just random quick thoughts, not reviews. I don’t currently have a debit or credit card so I can’t buy anything through the eShop (and yes, when they say “PayPal” they really mean “a credit card connected to your PayPal account”), and for an experiment like this, I don’t have the disposable income to throw away on games that I may not enjoy. This isn’t Steam, where you can throw back the dead fish and get a refund; I’m a blogger on a tight budget, not a professional writer with an expense account. So yes, I recognise that I’m not going to be experiencing a Super Mario or Breath of the Wild experience, but honestly, that’s not what I’m curious about.

In the end, I decided to take the easy way out and download a couple of free Pokémon titles, Pokémon Quest and Pokémon Café Remix. I’ve played them both on my phone – I’ve completed Quest there – so they’re relatively known quantities.

I’m also going to add cubic MMO Trove, which I’ve played to excess on PC. And last of the freebies will be Elder Scrolls: Blades, which I’ve also put a few hours into on my phone. But for now, intermission time while things download, I make a hot drink and plug the Switch back in to charge.

It turns out both of the Pokémon games are really just touch-screen! They’re free so I shouldn’t feel cheated, but … it’s just like playing on a much heavier and more cumbersome phone than the one I played them both on originally. Maybe these weren’t the best ones to showcase what the Switch can do.

Quick thoughts on both Pokémon games: really, they’re the same as they are on my phone. Both are touch-controlled, and I’m not sure there’s much more to be gained from playing them here. (It’s a pity that Genshin Impact is still “in development,” as it would be interesting to it on a portable device with physical controls – when it was installed on my phone, it was just for daily logins because I hate virtual D-pads, and my actual play sessions took place on the PC)

Now, Trove is an interesting experience with controls. There’s only one drawback with it, and that’s something I’m going to refer back to later in more overarching terms. But it’s not designed for play on a small screen, and that hurts the game as there’s a lot of useful text which is quite difficult to read, and as such, there’s a lot that you may miss in terms of tips about what controls do. It’s also kind of challenging to line up the mining laser unless blocks are right up close. But I think a lot of this is just me. But it’s time to play some games with bigger budgets.

Last up is Elder Scrolls: Blades. Again, this was one that I played first on my phone. But in this instance, I grew tired of the slow drip-feed of chest rewards (and therefore slowing collection of building and tradeskill items, and in turn progression) while they were fine-tuning their monetisation, and the slow everything else. But it turns out that this one is unexpectedly kinda fun, even with the combat going from “touch the left and right sides of the screen to fight” to “press the left and right triggers to fight”.

The forced countdown timers for opening chests appear to have gone – it used to take varying numbers of hours for chests to open, with more valuable chests taking much, much longer. The downside to it is that progression is still slow, inventory management is a slog, and the UI is built around the notion of needing to physically move to the different vendors and crafters in your town. To sum up my experience: outside of the main gameplay loop, playing the game is like wading through molasses – just not as much fun.

I had a very, very short go on Asphalt 9: Legends, another free title, but it was very clear very quickly that I no longer have the reflexes for this.

Getting Fancy

These two are the games that my stepdaughter owns on cartridge, so there are slim pickings to choose from. (Technically three games as there was also a Harvest Moon title, but I know from experience that that kind of build-a-farm-and-relationships title is not my cup of fun)

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a game I’ve seen pretty much everywhere ever since it launched – even now I’ll see people showing off downright majestic towns that they’ve built. I’m not one of those people. In Fallout 4 the things I built were really big hovels, but I was at least curious.

And yet, I bounced hard off this one. I’m usually playing late, late, late at night, and there didn’t seem to be any NPCs in the game who were awake and out in the world to interact with? I want to start playing and everyone in the game is asleep, and on top of that, I just can’t see where the fun – for me – is in collecting things to build things I don’t want for NPCs I don’t know well enough to like with the hook being I need to pay off a debt to a critter I don’t know.

I’d rather go back to Fallout 4, where the rest of the gameplay loops are interesting enough for me to find a gameplay reason to accidentally sink hours into building ugly settlements.

Last of the bunch is Ni No Kune: Wrath of the White Witch. I haven’t played a lot of JRPGs in the last few years; mostly because I just haven’t had the time thanks to some big lifestyle changes (and having a 3-year-old changes your priorities). But back in the day? A JRPG was a fun time.

Aaand … not a fun time. That was an adorable story that pushed all my wrong buttons with its design. Let me count the ways.

• Unskippable cutscenes
• Long unskippable cutscenes
  
• Unlikeable main character
• Unironic use of “Golly!”

I’m not saying it’s a bad game – the overworld map is quite impressive, for one thing. It’s just the epitome of “not for me,” which is kind of a pity.

But putting all those experiences together brought to the fore what has been my biggest issue with the device.

Don’t Get Old – It’s Something Something Blurry

As you get older, many people – especially myself – find their vision gets worse. Especially once you hit 40 as our eyes join in the fun while the rest of your body is cheerfully continuing to deteriorate. Specifically in my case, something called Presbyopia, or  gradual loss of your eyes' ability to focus on nearby objects.

To sum up, when not wearing my glasses I have trouble focusing on things beyond around 8-10 inches from my eyes - 20-25cm for readers in civilised countries. Now, the problem for me is I’m wearing glasses that are no longer the right prescription for me, so things that are between 10-24 inches (25-60cm) or on the far side of arm’s length are blurry with glasses on.

It turns out the optimal distance for me to hold the Switch is at head height and around 8” from my face, and that’s not a comfortable position for any kind of extended play – maybe if I was sitting in the floor, in front of a short table that I could rest my elbows on?

And no, I didn’t hook the Switch up to a tv. For one thing, I couldn’t find a cable for that. But aside from the purely prosaic, if I wanted a big-screen experience I already have a PC for that – although I’m not sitting in an especially comfy chair.

Final Thoughts

So, that’s how it all went down. Having no interesting games in my budget may have skewed things a little, but really the inaccessibility of gaming on a small screen when your eyes are munted – yes, that’s a real Kiwi word – is pretty much a fun-killer for me.

Admittedly if you could give me a 10-inch or 12-inch switch, I think it might be a much different story – maybe hooking up one of those portable 13” monitors that get advertised for hooking up to a laptop? I don’t think it’s an especially price-effective solution, but it’s a fun idea.

Really though I can’t see the Switch (pun intended) ever replacing my tablet for AFK gaming, although the actual library of games on my Samsung is completely different to what I play on the PC due to the difference between keyboard and mouse vs a touch-screen. There’s also the issue that comes up with almost every Nintendo console at least where you’re leaving your existing game library behind, unless you want to be running two (or more) systems.

I understand that backwards compatibility has made that less of an issue with Xbox and PlayStation, although it’s not entirely a non-issue as yet, but Nintendo’s efforts are much less impressive (and still requires you to re-buy emulated and ported titles from their older platforms if they’re available).

The Steam Deck is an interesting looking alternative – I’d love to see a third-party 12-inch version of that hit the market in the future, which I understand is a possibility due to the far more open nature of the hardware and software, but I think for now my bad eyes and the rest of my creaky self will be perched in front of my PC when I want something fun (and complex) to play.

For now, pew-pew.

Revisiting old blogs, and putting keys to pixels.

 2016. Well, really 2014. It's been a while.

Between then and now have been health scares (unrelated to pandemics), new relationships, across-the-world-moves, marriage, children, employment, health scares (related to pandemics), overwork and burnout, unemployment, and I still haven't tried balut.

For western readers, don't Google it. I'm not kidding.

As part of my pivot away from recent technical support mismanagement, I'm getting back into my blogging and/or writing and/or textual creativity. (I'll leave the poetry to talents like Internet of Words though, who I suspect won't be aware that she's responsible for me getting off my virtual, uh, couch)

I'm still gaming, but I'm more limited to SP-MMORPGs. Which is to say, the game is an MMO, but I'm just single-playering it up because honestly I don't have the spoons (or the time) to build up the new circles of friends/acquaintances required to get the most out them.

The most timely I've been lately was getting dressed up as a fancy penguin in Lost Ark while I completed what I think was the first story ark, I mean arc. Honestly it was an extremely well-polished title, but it was running up against the limits of my dexterity with the multiple weapon sets for the sharpshooter that I was playing.

Now, as an aging gamer I've discovered that having controls so complex is something that I find extremely challenging - it's like trying to learn to type on a chording keyboard, but the bus you're riding will explode if you go under 150 words per minute. And the keyboard is on fire.

I've run into this with some console ports in the past where to perform certain actions you needed to press the D-pad in a certain direction while simultaneously pressing one of the face buttons. There might have also have been a title I tried where you also needed to press one of the triggers - a three-button action - but I'd rather think that might have been something from a bad dream.

This is the kind of situation that isn't helped by having a full keyboard full of, er, keys that you need to keep track of. It's fine for a space simulator like Elite where you have the time to look down at the keyboard to find the control that arglebusters the flimflamometer*, but for an action title that requires constant attention while a boss character whales away at you it's not healthy to take your eyes away from the action.

I'm not sure if the complexity required to access all the verbs of a modern game is something that we'll one day be able to overcome, but I sometimes wonder if they've become an expected part of the gaming experience - another barrier for the self-proclaimed gatekeepers to point to with gleeful cries of "Git gud!"

I'd also be interesting in knowing how accessible this type of design is for those using accessibility tools or custom controllers - I can imagine there being as much variance in dexterity across the spectrum of disabilities as there is for gamers using vanilla layouts. That might be an interesting rabbit hole to venture down sometime.

Right now my primary exploring the shiny semi-cubular worlds of Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, which is a remarkable evolution from the adorable-yet-mumbly first title in the series. I've finished the first four episodes, and I'm looking forward to the rest. (My plan is to unlock freeplay for all of them, and then see how they play as open-world)

Cancellable hot take: the original game wasn't that bad, despite being based on the prequel trilogies. More cancellably: the first prequel was the movie I enjoyed the most of the three.

As far as other games go, I've been performing Wizard Chores (the minimum of daily check-ins) in aging MMO Rift for a couple of months now, mostly collecting daily unlocks and completing pet missions for artifacts which get almost immediately resold on the auction house.

I managed to get one character to 65 before running out of steam, and lacking the motivation to play on in the face of a massive increase in required XP. (The level cap is 70 right now, and will likely remain there until the game gets closed given the attention being given to it by their publisher, Gamigo)

Then I picked up a character of the opposite faction and got her to 60 before, again, running out of steam. Really, steam is in short supply. But some of the mount designs are fun, and they've been in themselves worth doing a daily login to collect a random free one each month. (I've also been subbed in the game for a few months for the bonuses, which make leveling a lot easier, but I think I'll be letting that lapse while I explore other games)

I think that's where I stand in regards to my gaming of late. I've only a handful of four games currently installed on my phone, and they're all old and either premium titles without ads or I've paid to remove the ads - the limits in F2P titles leave me respecting those games about as much as they respect me as a receptacle where they can obtain free monies. I'm tempted to pick up some more games (to play on my 10" tablet - yay for aging vision issues), but there's really a limited number of interesting premium or pay-to-remove-ads/pay-to-unlock titles that are genuinely interesting to me. (Honestly I'm more likely to open an emulator, and take a hit of nostalgia)

But all in all I'm planning on making posts here a habit - possibly random ramblings like this, possibly reviews of indie titles that catch my eye, or at least thoughts about whatever I'm playing at the time. And maybe even something focused and long-form, should I find my muse. (And feel free to hit me up on Twitter where I frequently should know better)

Catch you** in a bit, maybe with some more thoughts about Lego Star Wars once I've made some more progress there!

* Not technical terms

** The Internet

Re-emerging From The Depths

Post soundtrack: Maxine Nightingale – Right Back Where We Started From

Just a short teaser (insofar as anyone would really feel teased in any way, shape, or form by my return to blogging) about my starting writing again, with an eye to writing on a semi-regular basis again.

My go-to game right now is Marvel Heroes 2015, which is about to turn into Marvel Heroes 2016 (with some new content I’m very much looking forward to digging into), but I’ll be heading back into Legion when that resurfaces.

Right now, though, it’s back to my gameplay notes and plans for posts. <disappears in a puff of procrastination>

DLC Loves My Wallet

Post soundtrack: Barrett Strong – Money

While I’ve been waiting for the pre-expansion patch to come out for WoW, I’ve been spending some time with three free-to-play games on my pc and iPad. And my experiences have covered the spectrum from “That’s the way to do it!” through to “The developers just want me to open my wallet, don’t they?”

I’m a cheap gamer, I’ll just come out and admit it. Mostly it’s because I don’t have much in the way of disposable income, but it’s also because I am cheap. (I drink supermarket-brand instant coffee, what else do I need to say?) Anyway, I’ve been dabbling some more in Defiance (although I’ve let that slide since picking up MH), playing Godus (insert gem to continue), and getting heavily into Marvel Heroes 2015 (I must resist the temptation to buy an alternate costume for Punisher – for now, at least).

I’ve already written about Defiance, so I don’t think I need to add much there (although I’ll probably explore Silicon Valley eventually, when the MH’s siren call has faded). So that leaves Godus and Marvel Heroes. I think I’ll leave Heroes to another post (to do it justice), so that just leaves one title to talk about.

This has been developed by Peter Molyneux-led 22 Cans (whose previous project was the cube-clicker Curiosity), and is nominally a god-game in the style of Populous, which was successfully Kickstarter-ed to much acclaim (and cynicism about the ability of Molyneux to deliver all that was promised) in 2012. It’s since been released both on Steam and as a free-to-play title on iOS. (I’m talking about the latter version here, as I don’t have the pc version – mostly because I’ve no interest in paying for a desktop game with f2p timers)

Visually it’s a pretty game, I’ll give it that. The stylised graphics work well, and the sound work is “good enough” (although nothing really stands out on the audio front). The problem for me with the game is the gating mechanisms, and the way the disguise the lack of anything to do in the game besides adjust the terrain as best you can (I’m not counting the ship missions, which just frustrated me to the level of pointedly ignoring them), and spread out over the land like a stylised cancer.

Just an aside, there’s one audio aspect that really irritates me. Somebody thought “Hey, wouldn’t it be cute if there are musical notes that play when you touch each dwelling to collect the belief? And if you touch enough, it makes a song! But if they don’t touch one fast enough – maybe they’re collecting their crops or minerals or scrolling the map or something – then let’s play a discordant note that totally ruins the ambience of the experience!” <grrrr>

There isn’t any combat. Nor much of anything, apart from “expand flat terrain, tell followers to create house on flat ground, repeat”. Eventually houses get bigger, and you can clumsily manipulate thicker areas of the terrain, and you unlock the ability to combine groups of abodes into settlements, and later into villages. But there doesn’t seem to be much more to the game. (They introduced a “happiness” mechanic, but I think I broke it after wiping out all of the “opposing” native population using a couple of my more malevolent god powers)

The technology tree, such as it is, consists of cards which are made unlockable by achieving quantity-goals of “Population > x”, “Number of Farms > y”, or “Number of Mines > z”. Then you are required to use in-game stickers to unlock each card, which gives you the ability or bonus on the card. Stickers are either purchased in packs for increasingly large quantities of gems, or are occasionally found in chests which you discover in the game world (these are sometimes stuck underground where you have to terraform to expose them, which can be problematic if they appear beneath the sea, beneath the lowest point of the seafloor and are unreachable – or occasionally found just outside of your zone of influence, which is equally unreachable). Chests spawn randomly after storms – about the only reason to explore the game world, aside from expanding your colony or collecting belief.

The odd thing is… For all the crap I give the game, the experience of terraforming and expanding your territory is surprisingly satisfying. It’s just incredibly frustrating that the rest of the game is so focused of separating a fool and his money.(I’m currently sitting on a population of almost 5000, which unlocks a x5 buff on belief generated by abodes near trees – which would be useful if trees didn’t get clear-felled in the process of creating flat land to build on, a great example of the game design)

Disclaimer: I cheated at the start – there’s a common work-around for time-gated games on portable devices, where you get the game to where you have to wait, then set the device’s time forward, and switch back to the game and continue. So I guess my gamer ethics are a little flexible. Anyway, at the stage of the game where I am currently, when I collect my belief during in-game housekeeping in the morning I end up with over 120k (probably getting closer to 150k tomorrow, due to my current expansion). So once over that initial hurdle, belief is less of an issue (although still a limiting factor, due to the necessity of leveling mountains.

But I digress.

I was thinking about free-to-play and DLC, and the way developers want to make money out of their hard work, and the three approaches these games bring to the table.

The first is the wholly-consumable approach that Godus embodies. The game is inherently limited by both belief (which is granted by playing the game) and gems (which are primarily purchased for real-world money). Once you’ve spent all your belief, there’s not really anything interactive you can do in the game – you have to wait until more has been generated, and then collect it. The problem is there isn’t much to do with it, aside from terraforming – it’s a pretty shallow game. (Also the conversion of $-to-Gems is what feels like a typical mobile/f2p money-grab)

It just feels like the Godus devs want me to be distracted by the pretty graphics while they pick my pocket.

The second is DLC and consumables in Defiance. They offer cosmetic options (it’s pretty much the only way to get new outfits and headgear – which are on special right now – aside from a scarce handful you unlock by playing through the story missions), expanded content (new in-game content and an additional playable race, for example) and of lockboxes. The downside of lockboxes (which cost $4-$5 each) is there’s no guarantee you’ll actually get anything out of them that you want – or even anything useful. (There’s been some community work done with the in-game-currency-purchasable ones here, giving some firm numbers on what drop)

The problem here is that the power curve on your gear is not only very shallow, but itemisation is ridiculously random – sure, you might get a great orange (legendary) item, but there’s no guarantees that the affixes will make it any better than a blue (rare) of the same type. Spending real money is no fun when you feel out of the gate that the odds are very much stacked against you. (I have a similar perspective on Star Trek Online, but there’s a much larger pool of item types in-game, and you can sell STO’s lockbox keys to buy things you actually want)

While I don’t mind picking up the DLC while it’s on special (and I might someday pick up a cheap retail box, for the extras that unlocks on a free account), there’s just a feeling that the game is on maintenance support.

The approach that Marvel Heroes has made is similar to that of Defiance with unlocks, consumables, and lockboxes – but with the addition of quality-of-life purchases in the form of inventory unlocks. You get a single hero when you start playing (you can pick from a pre-selected 11 of the current roster of 37), and can unlock additional characters through a currency earned playing the game (Eternity Splinters).

Additional heroes can be unlocked either by purchasing a particular hero outright, by purchasing a “Random Hero” unlock, or occasionally dropping in-game (admittedly rarely, with no guarantee that it’s for a hero you haven’t unlocked – but you can use a token for an already-unlocked character to give it a boost to the power if it’s “Signature” power). Alternate costumes for heroes can also be purchased with real money, or drop in-game (again, albeit very rarely, and with no guarantee that it’s for a character you’ve unlocked), or are rewards from the equivalent of lockboxes.

And speaking of lockboxes, there are a couple of takes on them. There are cards which offer random rewards (including exclusive costumes, pets, and consumable buffs). There are also themed lockboxes, the last example of which (Cosmic Lockboxes) offered a guaranteed random hero or costume token and random consumables or other items.

The odd thing was, after playing the game for a week, I was already so happy with the gameplay and the way they make money off it, that I quite happily bought a couple of 5-packs of cosmic lockboxes, and a couple of stash tabs. And this week I picked up the Hawkeye hero pack on Steam, and bought an unlock for Cyclops.

I guess what I’m saying is when it comes to spending money in-game, it helps to feel I’m actually getting something for it. With Godus, it feels like the developer keeps on leaning over my shoulder and commenting “Gee, this is taking forever, isn’t it? You know, it’d be soooo much quicker if you just buy a pack of gems or two, you know, to speed things up.”

With Defiance, the game itself is fun, but the feeling is less “Hey, here’s this fun new DLC that adds feature X!” and more “Lockboxes! Get your Lockboxes here! Guaranteed chance of giving us money – and maybe you’ll get something you won’t immediately vendor!” I think part of the problem is the extremely tight focus on combat, and lack of other avenues to explore (crafting comes to mind immediately, as does the lack of exploration in the small and strongly theme-park-ish map).

Marvel Heroes? Well, I have to admit, when the game first came out I was very doubtful about it. I mean, you couldn’t even create your own character, in this modern era of customisation! But after finally giving it a try (probably thanks to all the times Scott on The Final Score commented on how much he’s enjoying it), it’s surprised me with its fun gameplay and the very even-handed manner in which they’ve chosen to make their money without restricting gameplay.

The lack of inventory space is kind of grating (and the inventory system itself is clunky), but the cost to expand it isn’t exorbitant. It helps that your inventory is account-wide, but it does get tricky (and starts feeling cramped) when you’ve unlocked multiple heroes and start saving items for crafting and hero-specific unique items.

Basically, with MH I don’t feel like I’ve been nickel-and-dimed, and I’m getting value for my money. (Although I’d be a lot less likely to feel I’d been screwed over if things actually cost nickels or dimes, but that’s a rant for another time when I argue for reclassifying most in-game purchases as Macrotransactions)

If you’ll excuse me now, though, Cyclops is about to save the world again, and I’m going along for the ride.

As Seen On TV! In Print! Or On Your PC!

Post soundtrack: The Beatles – Paperback Writer

So, now I’ve replaced my dead power supply (which cost me my first night ticket to Guardians of the Galaxy, as I had to get a refund then use the money for a shiny new not-dead PSU), I can tell you that I’ve been distracted by a free-to-play MMO-ish title which is tied to a currently-screening US TV series. Yes that’s right, I’m playing Defiance (which is now available again on Steam, after it was unavailable for a while due to stuff when it changed to f2p).




And it’s kind of alright. (Which is to say, it scratches my current itch for a third-person not-really-cover-based shooter based around Rift’s eponymous, um, Rifts) This in turn led me to watch (finally) some episodes of the series, and I was relieved to discover it’s actually pretty fun. Like the game, actually. Just with a bit more charm.

It’s been a curious experience, spending time both actively playing the game and passively watching the series. The differences between the two mediums really shine through: especially the depth and scale (and personality) of the series compared to the physically small-yet-interactive (within the limitations of being an MMO with such a focus on combat systems), scope of the game.

First, a little context. The world of Defiance (both the game and series) is set in the aftermath of an unsuccessful invasion of Earth. Partially terraformed into a nearly alien planet, an uneasy peace has been reached between the surviving humans and the assorted races that have now made Earth their home.

The series is set in what used to be the city of St. Louis, now the town of Defiance. A small regular cast gives you an intimate view into the lives of those endeavouring to make something for themselves in this new world. The game, however, is set in the San Francisco Bay area (some 2,800km or 1750mi away, which should make cross-overs problematic in a time where most travel seems to be by land, often over very broken terrain), and has the player taking the role of an Ark Hunter, a combat-savvy salvage expert who ends up involved in local affairs and saves the day (repeatedly) by shooting things.



The cross-media interaction seems to come down to special episodic content in the game, which may feature characters from the series – I’ve completed the first episode, which featured Nolan and Irisa. And there are what are called EGO codes featured in the show (or at least, outside the game) each week, which will give you an in-game bonus when added to your account. (They expire pretty quickly, so there’s no point in delaying entering them)



As I said, the game really satisfied a desire to shoot things – something sadly lacking in the MMOs I’ve played – I’ve never felt any interest in Call of Duty, Battlefield, or other military shooters, so I can’t comment on that genre. But, aside from occasional server irritations (lag, more lag, and sometimes everything-is-phased-most-of-the-time-and-also-laggy – which I came across briefly on the weekend) which usually comes right after server restarts, it’s been a fun and bullet-filled experience.

The levelling mechanic is called EGO, which refers to an implanted AI. As you do more – complete missions, pursuits (a form of achievement-hunting), challenges, local events or Arkfalls – your bond with your EGO grows stronger, and you unlock more powerful abilities. This takes the form of a board with four primary active (and upgradeable) powers (Blur, Cloak, Decoy and Overcharge) located around which are an array of passives which you also unlock and upgrade. You can only have one active ability at a time and a limited number of passives (up to 9 at EGO 1000), so it becomes a matter of choosing one and picking passives that support the ability’s style of gameplay (such as bonuses to cloak duration and cooldown, and extra damage while cloaked).



Another entertaining aspect of the game is the vehicle system. Especially the way it appears out of nowhere when you summon it. Sometimes you just whistle, and it appears. Anyway, there are three classes of vehicles: Runners (4x4 bikes, and my favourite so far), Rollers (cars or pickups, more durable than bikes but not as easy to control, especially off-road), and Cerebus (heavy vehicles, like driving an oil tanker when you’re fresh from a Runner). There are in-game challenges that award EGO for successfully completion, but I haven’t tried these yet. (There’s also a fast-travel system that takes you directly to a handful of locations around the map, which are handily also locations of equipment vendors)

Aside from your EGO rating, you gain specific experience with each class of weapon and vehicle, gaining perks with each as you use them more. There’s a level cap of 20 with each, so trying to cap yourself with everything is an additional challenge for those wanting a goal to chase.



There’s no crafting, but there’s a surprisingly subtle weapon-modding setup. Four components for each weapon (barrel, magazine, sight and stock) which affect the performance in various ways. (For example, I’m currently adding a fourth mod slot to my new sniper rifle to let me add a custom stock, which will cut down recoil by 10%) There are also sets, and using 2 or more of the same set can add additional bonuses. Also, sights come in three flavours. One which improves accuracy without affecting weapon zoom, and two which either increase or decrease default zoom level while adding the visual effect of using a scope while aiming.



The weapons themselves have several rarity levels, and can currently be upgraded through the use on an in-game currency (but that’s apparently being effectively taken out with the big upcoming content patch). But! A weapon being higher rarity is no guarantee that it will be better than a lower rarity weapon of the same class - the variety and performance between weapons of the same class can make a remarkable difference, regardless of their EGO rating (indeed, you might be using your beginning weapon for quite some time).

One limitation you run into pretty quickly is your limited ammunition capacity. Each weapon type draws from the same pool – 15 for heavy weapons (grenade or rocket launchers, for example), 50 for sniper rifles (both bolt-action and semi-automatic), up to 500 for light machine guns (LMGs). This can be worked around by using different loadouts (new players have access to two and can purchase more in-game, or by manually switching to different weapon types), but you’ll often find yourself looking for a nearby weapon locker to reload.



There are three other consumables: grenades (which are fairly self-explanatory), spikes (which create a small area buff), and stims (a personal buff).

What you wear is purely cosmetic, and has no effect on stats - headgear is separate to outfits, so you can mix-and-match (for better or worse). Some do look cooler than others though, but you won’t have access to many for a while (unless you pick up some in the store for real money). Also you can expect a good many reskins of the same costume models, but I guess that’s par for the course.

Along with the public events that you’ll run into while exploring (this is usually a fairly simple combat event, maybe repelling a couple of waves of bad guys (or bad aliens, or bad bugs, or sometimes bad cyborgs). The meat of the game (other than following missions) would have to be the Arkfalls, which are public events on a larger scale. (There are also player-summonable Arkfalls you can unlock with the Arkbreaker DLC, where you fight your way into fallen Arks and have interior areas to clean out – the standard ones are pretty much all exterior events)

These are pretty hard, requiring as many people of you can get – fortunately this isn’t that hard (provided there are people on), as the rewards for participation are pretty good. Just don’t expect to be very high on the scoreboard at the end, if you’re a low-EGO player. The open, tagging-free nature of the game is a definite plus in this situation. (Along with WildStar, I really wish WoW would take more steps in this direction – their group-centric philosophy really grates sometime, and not just when you’re fighting to tap mobs)



The game really has a theme-park feel to it, feeling like a super-violent Disney which is heavy on the Mad Max and Starship Troopers homages, especially in the early levels. But I found the curious thing is just how small the terrain feels – in some ways like a compressed version of something real, but much more static especially when you cross the (smaller) remains of the Golden Gate bridge. (Seriously, the vehicle physics are fun if not too realistic, but it’s still kind of jarring to watch your character drive into alien vegetation and instantly come to a halt as if it was made of concrete – and remain seated and not reacting to the deceleration, but that’s a different complaint)

On the whole, despite the lag and difficulty spikes (and wooden characters, and the fact that your avatar NEVER SPEAKS), I’m enjoying the game. Well, apart from a couple of boss fights in the main quest line that frustrated me by bumping up the difficulty substantially. The earlier one wasn’t too hard once I worked out the mechanics, but the one I’m on now (I think it’s very end of the main quest chain) is a very unforgiving 3-phase fight which has really left a bad taste in my mouth. I think I’ll end up abandoning the chain completely, and focusing instead on the episodic content and DLC (having picked up two of the five DLC packs so far). Plus there’s some new content due in a couple of days

As a pick-up-and-play game, it’s proven to be very entertaining. And it’s left me curious to see how Rift will run now – on my old system I had to turn off the advanced renderer in order to get a playable framerate; I’m hoping I’ll be able to get better results out of my new system (even though the video card is still the weakest link).

I’ve also started watching The Strain. The first episode was actually, well, just kind of mediocre (apart from the makeup effects, which were mostly pretty good – I think there’s just something about the actor playing Eph which grates on me). But I’d heard good things about the novels, so I gave them some time and intention. And after reading the trilogy came to the conclusion that they don’t suck, but they felt like a pretty sparse read (possibly due to the influence and origin of the first novel which started as a script and was then expanded into a nominally full novel). They do put an interesting twist on vampire mythos, and the origin story revealed in the third book takes them into an interesting new place.

Anyway, as a result of this I’ve been thinking about cross-media franchises (of which quite a few big games have become – not least of which has been WoW, due on the big screen in a couple of years).



It could be fun. I don’t recognise the logo, though. (Did they really need to change it?)

Off to see Guardians of the Galaxy later this week though. Which should make everything better. (Well, apart from the mobile game, which was just a Battleheart clone with irritating controls.)

Just Like Starting Over

Post soundtrack: what else?

Almost three years? You’d think I’d been busy or something… So many games, birthdays, the discovery of an entire genre of music, more games, coffee, weight lost and regained, still more games, health issues, coffee, old love lost and new love found, and – to top it all off – yet more games. Oh, and coffee.

I’ve been contemplating getting back into writing for some time now, but I’ve just had my original WoW account unlocked (after some credit card annoyances at the time of the annual pass, which left me locked out unless I jumped through hoops which I refused to do at the time), which has brought me full circle, with Ringle, Pringle, Dingle and all my other alts playable yet again. And I’m looking at slowly easing my way back into my writing on here.

I still dabble – currently MMO-wise I have WoW, WildStar and STO installed on my just-upgraded pc, along with some single-player games from Steam and a handful of games on my mostly-wonderful iPad. I ran into some fairly crippling performance issues with WildStar after upgrading my pc (which left me unable to play enjoyably for the second half of my free 30 days – something I’m still feeling a little bitter about, as the game has a lot of potential), and reinstalled Neverwinter out of curiosity (it runs much better than it previously did - unlike WildStar).

Last week I finished a marathon paragon play through of Mass Effect 1 and 2, now I just have to finally buy #3 (and all the DLC) so I can put the series behind me. (I’m not sorry that I missed all the kerfuffle about the truncated ending, and hey, now I’ll be able to experience the complete DLC-inclusive experience!). I tried to start a second renegade play through, but I just couldn’t do it – I’d like to think it’s just that I’m that nice. Feel free not to disillusion me.

I’ve also playing through Fallout 3, with Skyrim and BioShock 1+2 installed and waiting for me to give them some time after I’m bored exploring the wastelands. Briefly dabbling in Landmark, but I’ve never been much of a builder – maybe when they add combat? Might give Rift a little play as well, as it should look a little better now I’ve upgraded.

But at least for now I think I’ll be spending the next few days updating addons and getting re-acclimatised to my much-loved old WoW characters, and making a start on levelling somebody up to 90. I actually invested in another copy of WoW after my old account was locked, and have levelled a few characters up to 90 horde-side, but I just haven’t had the emotional investment with them that I have with my dwarven family. Hmmm, with two active accounts I can even transfer all my old characters into my vanity guild – Lobsters, Ho!

It may be good to be the king, but it’s even better to be the dwarf. Again. Finally. (But ooooooh, that horrible gear…)