Lots of competing interests come into play this week. We consider Kirby vs. Commander Shepherd, Diablo III vs. the free market, Nintendo vs. their shareholders, Syndicate fans vs. Electronic Arts, and the brain of our special guest Joel “djscman” Dehn vs. the manual for Battleship: Galaxies. Also, the embargo for Gears of War 3 is lifted and Tom Chick is unimpressed.
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One Mr. Tom W. Chick has been known to say “Fuck Star Wars” as his reaction to the new films, games or, well, anything. I don’t even think it has to be Star Wars related any more. While I don’t hate Star Wars as much as Tom (though I do hate it quite a bit now), I discovered that, after playing Dead Island, I’m done with sewers.
This quote from Adaptation sums up my feelings nicely:
John Laroche: Look, I’ll tell you a story, all right? I once fell deeply, you know, profoundly in love with tropical fish. Had 60 goddamn fish tanks in my house. I skin dived to find just the right ones. Anisotremus virginicus, Holdacanthus ciliaris, Chaetodon capistratus. You name it. Then one day I say, “fuck fish”. I renounce fish. I vow never to set foot in that ocean again. That’s how much “fuck fish”. That was 17 years ago and I have never stuck so much as a toe in that ocean. And I love the ocean.
Susan Orlean: But why?
John Laroche: Done with fish.
I’m just done with sewers.
While reading the manual for Sengoku, Paradox’s latest strategy game, I came across some good news and some bad news. First the bad news. In the section on a character’s age statistic:
Death becomes more likely every year after age 40.
Way to cheer up your older demographic, Sengoku. Now the good news. Under the section on relationships and spouses:
In feudal Japan, men were not limited to one wife, so it is possible for your character to marry up to four women.
Sweet! Although that might explain the shorter life span. Also, way to pander to male gamers, Sengoku. History is so dude-based.
In Sengoku, a primary resource is your character’s honor, which is sort of like his mana, except that instead of casting fireballs, he spends it to do history stuff. Honor isn’t easy to come by. You can buy it by giving gifts to the Emperor in the form of your hard-earned cash, or you can buy it by handing out land to your vassals. Also, you can play as a devout Shintoist, which earns your character an honor income. Shintoists get honor, Buddhists get warrior monk reinforcements, and Christians get guns. Even feudal Japan had red states.
However, there is one more way to earn honor. Each province can build various types of manufactories for special bonuses. If you build a pottery manufactory, you earn honor. I have no idea what this is modeling, since my frame of reference for pottery manufactories is 1) that time my girlfriend dragged me to Color Me Mine, and 2) that canoodling scene in Ghost with Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze. Probably not what the creators of Sengoku had in mind.
