That Part with the Homage to Adventure Games

Writer's Note: While it requires some editing -- I pass from present to past tense seemingly at random -- the bones of this vignette align in my own brain. This acts as a continuance of sorts of my blog post "Hitting the Mat."
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I hear waves.

No explosions, bullets, or foreign voices reach me. The pressure is off my leg and I feel warm. I move my arms and open my good eye.

I'm lying on warm sand.

I struggle to my back and prop myself on my elbows. In front of me, waves roll into the beach but 20 meters beyond the waves an opaque whiteness like a wall or some kind of fog blocks further view. To my right and left the white sand beach extends another 20 meters or so and seemingly blocked by the same fog. I rub my eye. The recent explosions and shockwaves may have done more damage than I realize.

I look again with a fresh eye, trying to blink my way passed the wall of fog.

Directly behind me are three palm trees. Nestled amoung them is a large wooden packing crate with the lid not quite nailed on. Beyond those objects, more fog.

I blink some more then gather myself.  I stumble for a step, but I managed to get my body to the crate and palm trees.

There are two dozen bottles of water, sunscreen, wool emergency blanket, a first aid kit, a bag of netting that turned out to be a hammock, a couple dozen k-rations, and three formal suits.

I stripped down and salved my wounds with ointment, wrapping gauze and bandages where I was bleeding or oozing most. I dry swallowed two pain pills. My stiff fingers worked enough to stretch the hammock between a couple of the trees. The effort exhausted my already spent carcass so with the small amount I had left I eased myself into the sling.

For the next two weeks, I healed under a never-changing sky and perfect weather. I drank most of a bottle of water a day, and what appetite I had was met with stale k-rations. The pain in my side receded to a dull ache and most of the rest of me felt much better in my little beach bubble. But I was restless.

The Ants Came Marching

There's an analogy here, that I'm trying to figure out how it could apply to video games and the industry as a whole, especially in light of some dramatic changes that are happening on the retail side of things.

When wood starts to rot, especially in a low-rise apartment building -- due to exposure, poor maintenance practices -- there's an increased risk for carpenter ant infestation. Colonies thrive in this kind of environment so it's not uncommon that if the conditions repeat themselves elsewhere in the building that satellite colonies are created.

They can cause a lot of damage, or at the very least increase the damage already being done to the structure, to the point where wooden members can fail. There are warning signs associated with a carpenter ant infestation but those are often handled by spraying insecticide. And sometimes that's as far as it goes.

If the owner of the apartment can't readily see the problem, it will often leave his mind. Keep up the spraying, keep down the appearance of ants.

But take a seat across the street. Are there a lot of woodpeckers attacking the building? That's a sure sign that the infestation has gone from "manageable" to a job that will cost multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars to address. Not only does it indicate a strong likelihood of an infestation that would cause most of us creepy crawly nightmares, but it also provides a clear indication on how much the building is rotting from the inside out.

Like I wrote above, somehow this example is an analogy for the video game industry... It needs a lot of work at this point. Both the analogy and the video game industry.

"Draw Nothing"

Applause for Snake Eater

Maybe it was in the original PlayStation version but I have to hand it to Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D for making a huge nodding homage to those classic James Bond film openings, complete with song track that makes reference to the title of the game.

Besides getting me all nostalgic for watching Bond films, I wouldn't mind that instead of Naked Snake being the star of the show Konami just dropped Roger Moore into the central role.

Mass Effect 3 - Report 3

I'm side-stepping the whole "ending" controversy. I don't even think I'm that close to the end at this point. From what I've been reading though, some of those gamers need to get over themselves. And the entitlement issues on display... I'd say those complainers are doing themselves a disservice by shining a spotlight of outrage on themselves. I might have more to say about this when I finally reach the end but so far, the game has been pretty enjoyable even if hitting comic book and sci-fi/fantasy beats overshadows some of the cooler aspects of the Mass Effect universe.

Why does it feel like the writers on Mass Effect 3 were constantly referring to Marvel Comics for inspiration? A couple nights ago I led my team in saving people from a "School for Gifted Youngsters." The entire set-up and execution felt like I repelling an assault on the Xavier's mansion.

Mass Effect 3's version
of Half-Life 2's Citadel.

Last night Shepherd activated a couple of thumpers to attract a sandworm. While she didn't ride the worm, it did send an impulse to my brain to read Dune again. Layered on top of that, is that this all happens in the shadow of a giant spire reminiscent of the Citadel in the middle of City 17 (see Half-Life 2) which, if you remember, is under the effects of a suppression field which basically means people aren't having kids (or even have the desire to try). And the whole reason Shepherd and crew are headed to this spire is to reverse something called the "genophage" which has kept race of ultra violent aliens -- the krogan -- from reproducing and overrunning the galaxy. (Replace "genophage" with "suppression field.")

Had I not played Half-Life 2 or read Dune I wouldn't have drawn any parallels or mumbled to myself about an "homage or something." But I did both. (And read far too many Marvel comics.) So, when these things come up I wonder why BioWare didn't do something more "original" and cool within their own universe.

Let me be clear about this point: I'm enjoying the game.

"A Radical 20 Years" -- DONE

In case you missed it on The Armchair Empire, all four parts of the Radical Entertainment 20th anniversary feature have now been posted:

• Part I - Founding
• Part II - The Middle Years
• Part III - Trials & Tribulations
• Part IV - The Next 20 Years

I've noted this before, but overall I'm relatively happy with the way the feature turned out. I obviously would have loved input -- any input at all -- from co-founders Rory Armes and Ian Wilkinson. The latter in particular because he spent 16 years with the company. That's a whole line of untapped information and history that I just didn't get access to even though I fulfilled the requirements he laid out in our one and only chat. Never got a call back after repeated calls and even a letter that was mailed to his office. At least with Armes, I was gently told he wasn't interested.

Assistant: Rory will not be participating in interviews at this time.
Me: So, when will he be participating in interviews?
Assistant: (muffled words) Rory will, uh, not be participating in interviews.

Be that as it may, it's too much energy to hold a grudge. The article could have been much richer for their participation no doubt. I'm just thankful that at the very least Dave Davis was forthcoming enough to shed some light on the early days.

I'd also like to thank, in no particular order, Eric Holmes, Dave Fracchia, Matt Armstrong, Tom Legal, Ken Rosman, Kelly Zmak, Chris Ansell and Steve Cherrier for giving me some their valuable time and sharing their insight. Thanks!

Gotham City Imposters: Actually Played It!

There was a recent patch (a big one) for Gotham City Imposters. I put a lot of hope into that patch -- that the connection issues and finding a game would make it playable. With actual people. And for longer than five minutes.

From my brief play time last night -- full rounds of team deathmatch for a stretch of 30 minutes -- it seems the patch has cleared up the problems I was experiencing. I played for 30 minutes, went from level 4 to (almost) level 8, unlocked a bunch of stuff, but had to to call it a night because the patch took so long to download. (Some of us have to get up and go to work in the morning!)

But the most important aspect is that after that initial rush of "Yay, it's working!" I was actually having some fun with it. And all those ""Team Fortress 2 with grappling hooks and skates" reductions aren't completely out of line, it does feel like the game is trying to carve out it's own identity. At least, so far.