Trashed Post: State of the Bioshock

I was going to trash this post sitting in my Drafts section but decided to let it out, unfinished, into the light of day.  I’ve pretty much come to accept what I see as Bioshock’s shortcomings.  Will I finish the game?  I don’t know.  It just hasn’t really been fun for me and there is just so much other stuff I’d rather be doing, and other games I’d rather be playing.  This will be the last time I’ll talk about the game here…unless I finish it.  So here is the scrapped post:

Just so you all know I am still playing the game…occasionally.

My previous thoughts are here so I’ll try not to repeat myself, but I still  don’t quite get what the big deal is.  I’m not going to touch the story, the art, the graphics or the soundtrack since all of those reveal a level of attention and quality unsurpassed, or even equaled, by games past and present.  No, my problem is with the gameplay.  Let me address the points in bullet fashion:

• AI: The AI for splicers is, to put it simply, dumb as a rock.  Sure, they seem concerned about staying alive (evidenced when they run away to hit a med station, the economics of which I won’t address) but seem almost uninterested in actually taking me down.   Plus, they all do the same thing.  As far as I can tell there are only three kinds of splicers: hittin’ you guys, shootin’ you guys, and explodin’/burnin’ you guys.  Some have minor variations: climbing walls, teleporting, hacking security bots but none of them actually do anything different.  They don’t work together in any meaningful way.  Maybe it’s intentional, a fact that the smarter AI of the Big Daddies would seem to support.
• Character Models: I can’t blame Bioshock too much for this one, every game does it.  But the splicers don’t look very different from one another…or maybe it’s just me.
• Rails: While many reviewers harped about the organic and detailed world of Rapture I have to wonder if they were playing the same game as me.  Rapture, cool art deco architecture, creepy lighting and atmosphere aside is just a fancy dress on that same old FPS level design.  It lacks an openness (in terms of when you can go where, not in terms of open spaces) that hearkens back to the very earliest shooters.  The levels feel contrived and never organic.  In truth, and perhaps a weakness in the game, is that the level design serves the story forcing you down a predetermined path.
• Colored Keys: Once upon a time there was a game.  In this game you would come across a door banded in red (or blue, or yellow, or green) that just wouldn’t open.  Low and behold in you travels you would come across a key that was red (or blue, or yellow, or green) which would open the aforementioned door.  This game was called Doom.  Now, Bioshock isn’t nearly as obvious but each major section of the game is, in truth, a key hunt.  Save the trees by finding the serum, assemble the bomb, take pictures of certain things, etc.  Each of these quests inevitably unlocks that mysterious door which, unfortunately, only really leads to the next key hunt.
• Ill-timed Narrative: A minor item but sometimes my allies/antagonist chime in at terrible moments when I can’t listen (or read subtitles), which is shitty since they generally have interesting things to say.

I know Bioshock tries to do some revolutionary and innovative things but I don’t think it really accomplishes them.  I know the whole save or kill the Little Sister thing is supposed to draw you into the narrative with a serious moral quandary and, as a result, engender a deeper emotional attachment to the proceedings but I just don’t feel it really works that well.  However that single element seems to be the only real moral conflict in the game and you’re left literally no other choices in determining how the narrative unfolds.  I’ve already harped about the plasmids, but similar abilities have been tried elsewhere with more success and, the real clincher, none of your abilities ever really offer you alternative means to getting things done only slight variations on the same method.

All this leads me, almost ineveitably, to the conclusion that as well-crafted and powerful as Bioshock’s story is it actually gets in the way of the game.  Film is a wonderful medium that through the use of well crafted story and stirring visuals transports the viewer outside him/her-self and can bring them to places, and create expierences, encompassing the entire range of the emotional spectrum.  Games can do the same thing, but I’m not sure that Bioshock’s methodology is necessarily the correct one.  It takes steps in the right direction certainly, by forcing players to contemplate their moral standpoint and reaction to the decisions they have to make, but it seems to me that the game largely ignores one of the most powerful aspects of video games: the ability of the player to craft the story through their own decision making.  As ambitious as the game is it tries to hard too walk a middle ground between film and game, makes too many concessions towards the latter rather than the former, that it falls just short of being revolutionary.

Eee PC: Classic gaming platform

Now that I’m the owner of a shiny new Eee 1000H I did what any new laptop owner should do…clutter my hard drive with tons of distracting materials.  Last week really spurred things into overdrive with the release of the original X-Com: UFO Defense on Valve’s Steam service.  Once Steam was installed and X-Com purchased I ended up spending a solid portion of the weekend playing the game while making almost no kind of actual progress.  I had almost forgotten how painfully difficult the game could be, particularly when taking on the game’s Terror Sites (when aliens attack a populated area).  I’m only on my second terror site and, thankfully, have yet to come across any Chrysallids (they attack civilians and turn them into zombies which after a certain amount of time, or when they are killed, turn into Chrysallids themselves).  Regardless, the current level is bitch with my squad of mostly rookies struggling to hit the broad sides of barns.

The whole rookie thing would be less of a problem if my casualty rate weren’t somewhere well above 50%.  Maybe I should be playing on easy.  X-Com’s gameplay has held up surprisingly well over the years with game play as excrutiatingly tense as it ever was.  Given how hard this game is I’d almost be afraid to see what current AI would do to my poor squad.  It’s a shame that the sequels never quite lived up to the original (Terror from the Deep was pretty cool, but it was downhill after that) and I blame that lackluster sequels (and mediocre clones in more recent years) for the reasoning behind X-Com’s lack of a modern successor.  I hope that the Steam version sells well enough that current license holders 2k Games (if the Steam “My Games” page is to be believed) take notice.  Rumors abound that something was/is/has been in the works but there has never been anything concrete announced.

Playing X-Com has also got me interested in more “classic” PC games for my Eee PC.  I tracked down a copy of System Shock 2, a game I have fond memories of playing but never completed.  I played through the training levels and it runs extremely good on the feisty little Eee but I was struck by the undeniable similarites to Ken Levine’s latest game Bioshock.  Everything from the Psi powers (plasmids) and hypos for healing (both psi points and health), to the audio recordings, to the hacking game, to the vending machine for ammo and items everything in System Shock 2 is a template for Bioshock.

To add fuel to my classic PC gaming fire I got my beta key for GOG.com (which looking today isn’t even necessary since it seems you can create an account w/o a beta key) regardless the guys at Good Old Games have a nice little service that offers old PC game for around $5 or $6 each.  You get to download the full game, DRM Free, plus frequent bonus materials as well.  The developers have gone out of their way to provide links to relevent mods for the games as well.  To clincher is that the games are vetted to run on various operating systems including Vista (the bane of old games!).  The Eee’s lack of an optical drive means that I may end up blowing some extra cash on games I already own (looking at you Fallout) but it’s a slick site that I certainly hope suceed.  My life will be complete if they end up adding Interstate ‘76.  Between that and X-Com I might never have to play a new game again.

Ok that was hyperbole, but still.

Anyhoo, needless to say I am much pleased with Asus’ little netbook with its lengthy battery life and capable Atom processor and look forward to future classic gaming when the current industry inevitably fails to meet any of my expectation.

Review: Sly Mongoose by Tobias S. Buckell

Sly Mongoose

Tobias S. Buckell

Tor, 2008

[REVERB] SPAAAAAACE ZOMBIEEEEEEEEEES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! [/REVERB]

If this were a perfect world I’d end this review now and you would all go out and buy the book now.  But our world certainly ain’t perfect so I guess I should say a little more.  If you’ve read Buckell’s previous books Crystal Rain and Ragamuffin you’re likely familiar with cyborg ultra-badass Pepper who, as Sly Mongoose begins, is plummeting from orbit to the surface of a gas giant in nothing more than a space suit.  The rather exciting introduction is certainly an attention grabber but also serves a vital purpose in forcing the typically super-powered Pepper to use a bit of innovation to get through the novels later action.

Speaking of action Sly Mongoose has plenty of it.  Buckell seems to have taken some lessons from Ragamuffin, a certain scene involving no gravity and a minigun, and pulls together some compelling set pieces starting with Pepper’s introduction, continuing through Timas’s travel on the surface of Chilo, and ending right at the titanic conflict at the novel’s climax.  The three novels Buckell has written so far certainly show a strong progession of a writer with a clear eye for action (especially those “oh shit” moments) that has only grown with each book he has written.   Pepper is a fun character, though a familiar archetype, and Buckell’s deft manipulation of his cirumstances here add a bit of depth to his personality that is great to see and damned fun to read.

Buckell, as in his previous novels, brought in a Robin to our Batman in the form of Timas.  Timas is a character I initially wrote off as a carbon copy of John de Brun’s son but who, rather early on, turned out to be a more well-rounded and likeable character overall.  Timas, thanks to his young age and small size, is able to fit inside the pressure suits used to delve to the surface of the gas giant he lives in order to perform vital maitanence on the mining engine.  In a bit of brilliant social insight Buckell introduces the fact that Timas uses a brutal combination of diet, excercise and bolemia to manage his weight and size that is at once shocking and believable given the vital importance of the need to keep the surface machinery running.  Timas proves to be a rather interesting character, thanks mainly to his strong opinion on duty and his quick thinking, that far eclipses any of the other “buddy” characters Buckell has previously introduced.

Sly Mongoose serves as testament towards Buckell’s to craft a sequel framed in a shared world but with a picture and story completely different from previous outings.  Admitedly some reference to earlier evens from both Ragamuffin and Crystal Rain might confuse newer readers but I think that Sly Mongoose stands on its own with extraordinary ease.  At the same time Buckell manages to hint at some of the grander events in store for Pepper and company.  Indeed the novel’s quick pace and action certainly left me wanting more in the end, not because it was really missing anything but because what was there was so damned slick that I didn’t want to stop reading.  I certainly recommend you check out both Crystal Rain and Ragamuffin but think if your looking for a good, fast-paced space zombie action story than you can’t really go wrong with Sly Mongoose.

Review: The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan

The Steel Remains

Richard Morgan

Gollancz, 2008

If you’ve read my blog before you’ve like come across my incessant links to previews and reviews for Sci-fi author Richard (K) Morgan’s first entry into the realms of fantasy.  You might also have noticed my rant regarding the need to import the book from the UK rather than wait until its February US release date.  As an internet goer you might have noticed, perhaps participated in, some of the hoopla and hubaloo surround the book’s supposed hype-machine.  Now, book in hand and finally complete, what do I think?  The Steel Remains follows the same themes as Morgan’s Thirteen and his Kovac’s novels dealing with issues of violence, social acceptance, and and the nature of humanity itself.  As a work of fantasy it isn’t nearly as revolutionary as one might expect and portrays the aforementioned themed directly and without flinching from anything.  There were two main thoughts as I finally finished the novel:  Why wasn’t it longer? and When the hell does the next book come out?

Read on for more

Does Time Life love me or hate me?

While visiting the site for the upcoming Ghostbusters game, in hopes of determining what the hell is going on, I stumbled across an interesting banner ad for the Real Ghostbusters. Which led me to discover that Time Life will be selling a box set of all 140+ episdoes (plus the lame Slimer and the Real Ghostbusters) in a single box set of 25 DVDs (<— not a typo) including 12 hours of bonus content.  The only problem?  the $180 price tag.  Which of course works out to just over a $1 an episode but still.  Ouch.

Also, not available in stores.  Get Smart had the same deal and took YEARS to finally make it into brick and mortar stores (split into season boxes) so the same will probably happen here…dammit.

Direct your eyes, and wallets, over here for the product page.

PAXsplosion!

OK now that I’m beginning to emerge from my post-PAX depression (it begins when the house lights come on after the final round of the Omegathon) I figure I can comment a little on the goings on.  PAX was packed.  With a number cited just over the 58,000 mark it was see of geeky delight.  While there was certainly complaints on overcrowding, particularly with some people being turned away as events filled up quickly, I am still suitably impressed at the level of enthusiasm and community evidenced by the PAX attendees.  Sure there is a certain geek stratification but by and large the feeling of solidarity at the con is certainly something special.

Con highlights:

• Mega64 panel=awkward fun
• Wil Wheaton panel= “How can one man be a whole panel?”  Wil: “Kinda like this baby!” Plus: Wil as Shatner sings Happy Birthday.
• Dedicated cowbell guy during “Don’t Fear the Reaper” on Rock Band.  Seriously. Real. Live. Cowbell.
• Spy and Engineer performing “Sabotage” on Rock Band.  The irony was not lost on me, sirs.
• Left 4 Dead.  Didn’t get to play it but watching a horde of around 10+ zombies swarm 4 PCs was chill inducing.
• the Fallout 3 airstream.  I <3 Bethesda.
• Judy Nails cosplayer/Activision employee.  Truth be told I’m more of a Casey Lynch fan, but still, props.
• MC Frontalot:  Yellow Lasers and Goth Girls plus bonus JoCo appearance.
• Darkest of the Hillside Thickets:  Lovecraft frickin’ rocks!
• JoCo+Felicia Day= Dorkgasm
• Rock Band 2 drums=bueno!
• and more!

Con cons:

• Give some 3000+ people pipe cleaners to play with and what is the most likely thing they will build?  If your answer was penis than you are correct.  Some major phallic fixation going on from the 4 foot long elaborate 3d pipe cleaner models to 10+ foot long 2d sculptures I quickly rocketed beyond wry amusement into being creeped the fuck out.  Seriously the line room was covered in penises. WTF.

I might have more to say later about the awesomeness of PAX but right now many a site and personality have impressions and breakdowns of PAX that say things way better than I can:

Tycho’s post after PAX

Khoo’s post after PAX

PAX Forums Picture Thread

PAX Forums Video Thread

JoCo’s Impressions

JoCo’s Set List and video links

The slightly condescending Arstechnica write-up

GameSetWatch’s PAX-related opinions

GamersWithJobs PAX Wrap-Up

ScrewAttack’s PAX Wrap-Up

Wil Wheaton’s Post-PAX Comments

Mega64 Podcast 63 w/ footage from Panel! At the Expo

Rocco’s (of Mega 64) flickr page

Work Marathon ‘08

To any faitful readers out there noticing the lack of new posts: “I’m sorry.”

It’s the end of summer and some staff juggling at my part-time job left me with extra shifts.  Throw in my actual full-time job and one has a 7 day work week totaling over 50 hours.  Add in the fact that I’ve been doing that for about 3 weeks (I think I’m in week four, but honestly I’m passed the point of knowing for sure) and it’s no small surprise that I haven’t posted in 5 days.

I do have a couple of things for you coming up.  At the very least I’ll have a review of The Steel Remains up within the next week as well as a review of the debut CD from Scars on Broadway. Next week I’m heading out to Seattle on Wednesday for PAX.  It’s still up in the air whether or not I’m going to bring my shiny new Eee 1000H with me, but I’ll have pictures and commentary on my return (I’m sure my own meager opinions will be buried under the deluge of professional bloggers/journalists doing the same, oh well) at the very least.

Keep your eyes on the skies.

NY Times Essay on YA Fiction

I don’t remember any kind of “Young Adult” fiction from when I was a teen.  Looking at the YA market as it is today I wish there had been such a thing.  Not that I didn’t find stuff to read back then, I did, but there are so many interesting YA titles out now that (while I will most certainly enjoy them as an adult) I would have liked to experience in my younger days.

The essay is by Margo Rabb and appeared on July 20th and is well worth a read for those interested in reading and literature.  Sherman Alexie (whose Indian Killer is one my favorite novels) has perhaps the most interesting, and perhaps unsettling quote, of the piece:

“One person asked me, ‘Wouldn’t you have rather won the National Book Award for an adult, serious work?’ I thought I’d been condescended to as an Indian — that was nothing compared to the condescension for writing Y.A.”

Interesting stuff.  The essay can be found here, so head on over and take a look.

Landmark year(s) for RPG gaming?

Some of the release dates are a bit hazy but it’s looking to be interesting year for RPG video games. I’ll start with the big two:

Dragon Age, Bioware

I was initially put off this long developed title thanks to a crappy “story” trailer. I was later sated by the awesome gameplay trailer that looks like a 3D version of an old Infinity Engine game:

Great stuff. Release Date? Early 2009 is the best Bioware has offered. Far enough away for me to enjoy other gaming goodness coming down the pipeline. Check out the recent interview with Greg Zeschuk, Co-Founder, BioWare over at MTV Games.

Diablo 3, Blizzard

I shouldn’t have to say much here. Unlike some fans, I think that Diablo 3 looks pretty frickin’ cool. The major downside here is that lack of release date. Looking at the gameplay trailer for Dragon Age above and the Diablo 3 gameplay trailer I wouldn’t be surprised if an early (winter or spring) 2009 release date isn’t in the cards:

So what else is coming worth looking at?

NWN2: Storm of Zehir, Obsidian

Much like Dragon Age, the latest Neverwinter Nights 2 expansion plays to the fans of the old school Bioware/Black Isle games offering full-party customization (like Icewind Dale) and free-form dungeon exploration (like Chapter 2 of Baldur’s Gate 2 with its bajillion and a half side-quests). The wiki entry mentions it foreshadows the big cataclysmic events that precede the change to 4e Forgotten Realms. It is from the wiki entry so I don’t know how much stock to put into that. On the other hand Wizards of the Coast hasn’t announced any info on where the D&D video game license is going with the advent of 4e so tying the game closer to the Pen and Paper FR might make sense. Release date is supposed late 2008 but I wouldn’t be surprised by early 2009 as well.

Divinity 2, Larian Studios

The original game, Divine Divinity, was heckled for its rather silly name and accused of being a Diablo clone. The former I can’t argue against but the latter was rather unjust. Divine Divinity had more in common with Baldur’s Gate than it did with Diablo thanks to its focus on character and story over intense action. I never did beat the game, it was pretty massive, but certainly have fond memories of playing (and dying, frequently) and of the solid music backing the game. No release date as of yet.

The Witcher: Expanded Edition, CD Projekt

The game already came out in the states once already but the folks at CD Projekt weren’t happy with how things turned out so they decided to patch things up, fix the translation, throw in some new content and release the game. It’ll be available as a full retail product and, I think, as an expansion for current owners. A dark, adult oriented action RPG it was a game I wanted to play but missed out on in it’s initial release that I hope to catch again. Release date is mid-September.

Fallout 3, Bethesda

I’ve mentioned it before, if you don’t know about it you should.

There are other titles that I didn’t mention here like Fable 2, Too Human and a new game from old Gothic team, and I wouldn’t be surprised by new announcements and sleeper titles over the next few months but the above titles represent the titles I am most excited about.

Review: Ghost Road Blues by Jonathan Maberry

Ghost Road Blues

Jonathan Maberry

Pinnacle Books, 2006

Pine Deep, PA is the spookiest town in America; known nationally for its haunted hayride, quaint shops, and Halloween focused economy.  But Pine Deep hides a dark past and harbors a sleeping evil that, as Halloween comes nearer, begins to wake and spread a wave of violence and death.

Maberry’s Stoker Award winning novel opens with a flashback to a confrontation between the Bone Man (a guitar slinging, migrant worker, avatar for good)  and a man named Griswold (a serial killer and a perhaps something worse).  In this opening section good triumphs over evil, the Bone Man slaying Griswold, but only for a moment as the Bone Man is ambushed by locals and becomes the victim of small town bigotry and racism.  Bone Man, the hero, goes down in history as the killer when in truth he was the hero.  This blend of human horror mixed with the supernatural is something Maberry continues to expand upon throughout the novel.

Maberry opens the story proper with a classy bit that I won’t ruin, introducing one of our main protagonist: Malcolm Crow.  As is often the way in horror stories the protagonist is a bit twisted, a little sullied.  In the case of Crow he is a recovering alcoholic fascinated with the macabre.  He isn’t a bad guy but he is certainly odd.  A trait that follows with many if not all of the other characters.  As off-kilter as our hero(es) might be they don’t hold a candle to the villains.  Vic Wingate, a man who takes pleasure in beating his son and is also somewhat of a “disciple” and friend of the Griswold.  Karl Ruger, a career criminal with extremely violent tendencies and last, and perhaps my favorite villain, Tow-truck Eddie, a man who hears the voice of God thinks of himself as the Sword of God and does some pretty twisted things as such.

Maberry manages to create some truly interesting characters and shows a deft hand at creating gruesome and atmospheric scenes. Unfortunatley some of this is spoiled by pacing.  The disparate viewpoints of characters both good and bad drag a bit and, once things ratchet up towards the climax, don’t leave much room left for the explosive ending.  There are times when this slower pacing works, the tension of the hostage scenes with Ruger in particular benefits from the switching viewpoints of the parties involved, but the overall plot of the novel doesn’t really benefit from the snail like pacing.  That’s not to say the pacing ruins the novel, it doesn’t, but I think trimming a bit of the chaff (the novel weighs in at 476 page and, I think, about 140,000 words) might have made the book more of a page-turner.

By the time that climax comes you realize that there is no possible way all the stuff hinted at in the novel can possibly happen in the space that is left.  I knew going in that this was the first in a trilogy so I guess I should have suspected as much but I had hope that more of the cool, supernatural stuff hinted at throughout the book would have occurred in the book.  I was disappointed in the novel quite a bit, especially the ending, and almost skipped the (almost unnecessary) epilogue.

The writing was good and the plot interesting but things just didn’t mesh for me.  I had my issues with characterization as well and never really felt attached to protagonists of the novel and found the antagonists much more fascinating and felt Maberry’s writing was strongest when dealing with more horrific elements of the story.  Will I read the sequels?  Maybe, next time I have a long wait between other books I’m waiting for, but I’m not going to go out of my to do so.

Recommended?  I don’t know.  Maybe my disappointment with the story is clouding my judgement but for now I’m going to go with Not Recommended.