I’m pretty sure everybody reading this has at one time or another had the experience of overpromising something, only to underdeliver in the end. Whether it’s a competitive game of League of Legends or a magical presidency of hope and change, we all know what it’s like to make commitments we’re just not able to keep. While I know I never actually promised anything as part of this series of articles, I was secretly hoping to be able to do one thing before I finished, and that was explain in detail how the combat system works. Unfortunately, I’m here to tell you that isn’t happening. Several weeks of scrutinizing the combat results and flipping through the manual has driven home the fact that short of learning assembly language or whatever COBOL derivative developers use to make games these days, the only way I’m going to be able to come through with that information is to steal it from Gary Grigsby’s hard drive. And since that’s something I’m loath to do unless fighting the terrorists, I’m going to have to settle for the layman’s version. I hope you’re not too disappointed.
The good news is that it doesn’t really matter, anyway.
After the jump, make peace with our bipartisan compromise solution to combat results. Continue reading →
You can’t trust people who play videogames. They see things that aren’t there. Cheating AI, rigged die rolls, stacked decks. Or, worse, smart AI where there is no such thing. Piecemeal attacks are the AI probing your defenses! Bad pathfinding is actually a feint, or maybe even an attempt to flank you! Then they post these things on the internet. Then it’s true, because the bar for something being true on the internet is pretty low.
So when I heard in a few places that the AI in Shogun 2 spawns free armies in the fog of war, I didn’t really pay it much attention. I’ve played a fair bit and I’ve never gotten the impression that was happening. But more to the point, I couldn’t care less, because the AI provides exactly as much of a challenge as I want. If that means spawning free armies in the fog of war, spawn away, Shogun 2.
But it turns out no such thing is happening. An unidentified developer from Creative Assembly explains that the AI plays by the same basic rules as the player. But you can hardly blame people for being so flummoxed that Creative Assembly has made such a great game with a formidable AI. I know how they feel.
Test Drive Unlimited 2 starts in a weird place. A rooftop dance party near the coast of Ibiza. Normally that would an annoying way to start a game based on driving. But you’ll come to realize this is a game based on two core concepts: driving with friends, and expressing your inner douchebag.
After the jump, the douche-doo that I do Continue reading →
Hero of Leaf Valley takes an interesting approach to tutorials, and I’m of two minds about it. For farming and fishing, the controls are explained to you and you’re cut loose to try them out on your farm. But for other tasks — riding horses, mining for ore, cutting lumber, and cooking — you can do “part-time work” for your neighbors.
After the jump, how hard can it be to cut down trees? Continue reading →
Source Code is Moon director Duncan Jones’ sophomore effort. Are our expectations too high? Find out on this week’s podcast. And at the one hour and one minute mark, this week’s 3×3 is our favorite uses of CG in a movie.
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Ever get frustrated because you couldn’t quite figure out how to make a jump? That was driving me crazy a couple of days ago. I spent about twenty-four hours believing the jump was impossible. It had to be a glitch. It wasn’t. I was just doing it wrong. But I spent an awful amount of time trying to will that ledge a little lower, a little closer, so I could make the jump.
Forget that frustration. In today’s level, The Mind Factory, the platforms obey you.
With young Princess Bethany ushered back to the castle, Varrick can get back to his quest for the lost fountain. The book was a bust but perhaps the peasant locked up in the stocks will know where this mythical font lies. Firstly, however, our merchant friend needs to tend to his profession and today that means a trade mission.
After the jump, who is Drusilla and what does she want?! Continue reading →
Victory conditions are wargames’ great balancers. Without them, you’d have to play many games for fun, because one side would have little chance of winning. No one thinks that the Germans had any chance of winning the Battle of the Bulge, in the sense of achieving their strategic objective, which was the capture of Antwerp. But failing that, how can you call any other result a victory? Germany was going to be completely laid waste in the next six months, so who cares if the Panzer Lehr brigade made it to Dinant? Pacific theater games are the same way: the chances of the Japanese defeating the U.S. militarily, or forcing a surrender, were probably nil. What would a Japanese victory in the Pacific look like, anyway? Rising Sun over Sacramento? Unlikely. So for a Japanese player, you might just have to make it to September 1945, which would be a month longer than the historical Japanese lasted. That’s the whole, “Can YOU do better than Admiral Yamamoto?” slogan from Avalon Hill that I remember 25 years later, whereas I can’t remember the specifics of a scientific article I read last week.
After the jump, math, geography, book quotes, and 100+ bombers Continue reading →
Somebody–we’ll call him Mr. 42–asked me the other day if I knew where to find the moves for my Pokemons, because finding the moves might reduce my frustration with the game. This was an exceedingly fair question considering my previous entry in which I said, repeatedly, that I had no idea what to do with Bide. I have indeed figured out how to check out the moves of my little dudes. That’s not the problem. The problem is match-ups.
Which again became glaringly apparent when I descended into the museum basement for my rematch with Lenora.
after the jump, Throh-down Continue reading →
The contrast between racing and driving is monumental. Most days we all drive; few of us ever really race. It should come as no surprise then that game developers almost always let us race, giving us the kind of escapism that is gaming’s greatest strength. It doesn’t matter how we race. It could be with stock cars, finely tuned rally cars, British touring cars, or even just an old car on its last legs. But by doing this the game industry sullies the noble automobile. Sure, it’s fun to get out there and test your mettle against a swarm of other motorists but it’s only an ephemeral adrenaline-fueled moment from the greater wonder and soul of the motoring experience.
For a long time, I was content with that. But I’ve watched too many episodes of Top Gear. At some point, Jeremy Clarkson burrowed into my head and his reverence for motoring made me realize that developers have never just let us drive.
After the jump, Test Drive 2 is not about racing Continue reading →
Social interactions are as big a part of Harvest Moon games as taking care of your farm. Already in Leaf Valley, I’ve made friends who’ve taught me how to care for chickens and cows, mine, cut lumber, and fish — and in most cases, paid me for it. But you know, I don’t want to come home to an empty house forever. It’s time to pick my wife.
After the jump, meet the future Mrs. Whatever-My-Last-Name-Is Continue reading →
