🚀 go-pugleaf

Happy Halloween! Well, Halloween +1 I suppose. I hope you all
concluded the month of October with lots of candy and partying, as it
is meant to be concluded. Equally, I hope you filled the other 30 days
of that month with lots of video games. I mean, it's getting dark and
cold out there; what else is there to do?

So, yes, we have once again reached that time when I restart our
monthly thread asking people to list what games we've all been
playing. I really keep meaning to post these articles on the last day
of the month but inevitably I find myself desperately trying to FINISH
that last game, leaving me no time to write. Well, I guess the first
of the next month is acceptable too. Anyway, you all know the drill,
so let's get right to it.

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Short and Sweet
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* This War of Mine (new)
* Alan Wake (replay)
* Battlefield 4 (PS3) (new)
* Uncharted 1: Drake's Fortune (PS3) (replay)
* Deus Ex (with Revision Mod) (replay)

TL; DR 
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* This War of Mine (new)
The (not-so) hidden context of this game is to make players realize
that - despite everything taught us by FPS games - War Is Hell and
generally should is something to be avoided. While the explosions and
gunfire of a battle might get the adrenalin pumping, it also causes
suffering, anguish and destruction, permanently scarring those
involved. "This War of Mine" (henceforth "TWoM") tries to show this by
putting the player in the role not of a heroic gun-toting soldier who
mows down thousands of nameless goons on his way to victory, but as
one of the faceless civilians huddled down behind too-thin walls
hoping not to become a victim of the carnage raging around him.

Unfortunately, while the message is a vitally important one, the game
doesn't tell it very well. For one thing, I'm not sure who it is
really aimed at. The more adult crowd who might appreciate the
slower-paced gameplay are probably well aware of the horrors of war
and don't need the lesson; meanwhile the foul-mouthed tweens
populating online servers who would greatly benefit from the lesson
wouldn't have the patience for its slow and grinding pace. And the
game is slow, representing the gradual and tedious attrition of the
human condition as you run out of food, water and other precious
resources while being forced to make difficult choices. Even moreso
than a game like Dark Souls, "This War of Mine" is a program where are
not expected to ever win; it is expected that - like the unfortunate
victims in real wars - your ever-eroding status in the game will only
have one likely outcome: death. Yet even knowing this, I still found
the game far too long. As designed, the game only offers the player a
handful of options; with resources so short, these options are even
further curtailed, and whole weeks of game-time can grind by without
your characters doing anything. It might be realistic, but it's also
quite boring.

Which is, of course, this title's whole problem: "This War of Mine"
may intend to show off the "dark side" of war, but most of us play
video games to escape from the less pleasant aspects of life. While
games like "TWoM" or "Papers Please" are important to the development
of games-as-art, furthering the medium into something that is more
than just a twitch-based challenge into something that has a message,
ultimately they aren't much fun to play. Worse, TWoM sacrifices its
own message in the few instances it tries to spice up the gameplay;
the night-time scavenging runs can be as intense and adrenalin-filled
as any Call-of-Duty encounter, but the consequences - both physically
and psychological - to the characters involved are equally shallow.
You actually start looking forward to the night-time sequences because
you finally get to do something beyond household chores and watching
your characters slowly starve to death. The horror of the situation is
completely lost, turning TWoM into the very sort of arcade game it is
supposedly the antithesis of.

I can appreciate "This War of Mine" for its message and goals, but its
actual implementation was lacking. It's probably the sort of game
everybody should play once, but it is very hard to recommend paying
for the privilege.


* Alan Wake (replay)
One of the frequently-made complaints about Alan Wake was about how so
much of the game was spent wandering through dark forests. Well yeah;
the game is set in the Pacific Northwest and dark and scary forests
make up something like 99.99% of that locale. And no doubt about it;
Alan Wake makes these treks a scary experience; even without the
axe-wielding minions coming at you from all sides, the spectral
darkness and sound effects are extremely atmospheric and terrifying.
In many ways, those late-night nature walks are some of the best parts
of the game; I enjoyed the alternatives - the asylum levels or the
passage through the junkyards and lumber-mills, for instance - far
less. But - on my fourth replay - I could also start to understand why
people were becoming bored with the forest as well; it does get a bit
repetitive. I started sprinting through the shadowy woods rather than
soak in the dreadful ambience as was my habit on earlier
play-throughs.

But make no mistake: I still loved this game. While the story might
not be that great (it revels unnecessarily in its own complexity, and
entire chunks could be easily cropped without affecting the plot in
the least), it absolutely nails the creepy and surreal Twin Peaks
vibe, with a lot of memorable characters and situations. Five years
old, the game still looks gorgeous and has some gorgeous set-pieces.
The gameplay is solid too; it provides the player just the right
balance of power and vulnerability, and does a great job mixing up
combat and exploration. I particularly enjoyed the episodic
construction of the game; it broke the story up into easily-digestible
chunks (and provided convenient stopping points for each gaming
session). The plot recaps at the beginning of each episode were really
great at keeping the story on track; too often - amidst all the
running and shooting - important plot details can be forgotten and the
recaps are useful reminders as to why we are doing all this running
and shooting.

The two DLC packs ("The Signal" and "The Writer") were less
satisfying. The former was extremely combat heavy, often pitting the
player against hordes of enemies in extremely tight quarters; the
story was a bit of a shaggy dog too. "The Writer" was more
imaginative, with very surreal level design but it often felt more as
if the developers were just having fun with their tools than trying to
present a cohesive experience. Neither really advance the story any
further than did the original game, making it hard to recommend except
to the most die-hard fans.


* Battlefield 4 (PS3) (new)
There were so many reasons for me to avoid this game. I'm not a fan of
the series to start; the multiplayer aspects bore me, and the
single-player campaign - introduced in Battlefield 3 - was equally
unappealing. Battlefield 4 didn't get the greatest reviews either,
indicating I was unlikely to get a great experience even if it were to
my taste. Plus, I was playing it on the Playstation 3 (hey, it was on
sale!), which meant an already lackluster product was further
tarnished by last-generation graphics and awful controls. Yet despite
all these reasons not to play, I pushed on anyway. And Battlefield 4
did not disappoint in its crumminess.

I know it's not fair to rag on a game playing on old technology but
man, this port looked awful. I don't think the PS3's limited
capabilities are entirely to blame either; I've played far better
looking titles on the console. I think the developers just didn't care
enough to do a good job. I swear, I've seen better textures on the
Playstation 2; it was that bad.

The gameplay didn't fare any better. The best I can say is that its
single-player campaign was better than that of Battlefield 3 in that
it felt /slightly/ less scripted and more open. But that's really
damning it with faint praise; B4 has the usual bombastic, one-note
story common to the type. I honestly had a hard time telling any of
the characters apart or even remembering why I was shooting all the
people that passed in front of my crosshairs, and even now I cannot
recall who the the bad guys were. It was an utterly forgettable
campaign, notable only by its lack of originality. 


* Uncharted 1: Drake's Fortune (PS3) (replay)
The original Uncharted is, in the end, not that good of a game.
Looking at the sequels, we can see it has all the basic elements in
place but the developers had not quite perfected the mixture. Its
aging production values - lower resolution textures, and a limited
selection of animations and too-similar looking levels - are
forgivable given the target platform and release date; this PS3 game
is almost a decade old after all and - for all it starts becoming
repetitive after a while . The game does have some moments of beauty
still, with a few set-pieces that still stand out today. 

Uncharted's gameplay is less interesting. A fusion of Tomb-Raider
style platforming and Gears-of-War cover-based shooting, it does
neither well. The platforming is the more entertaining part of the
game, save that it is extremely linear and too forgiving; there's no
opportunity for much exploring and very little challenge. The combat
is less so; the targeting - especially with a gamepad - is poor, there
are too few weapon types, the AI is not particularly challenging and -
worst of all - the battles go on far too long. A few on-rail vehicle
sections and unexpected quick-time events mar the experience even
more. The story is properly cinematic, but here too it is obvious that
both the developers and voice-actors haven't quite figured out the
characters and universe; the plot is less integrated into game too so
it all feels very shallow and - dare I say - video-gamey. 

Almost all of these issues are corrected in the sequels (and perfected
in the seminal "Last of Us" game); the first Uncharted stands out
largely as the "practice run" for those better games. For its gameplay
experience, it isn't very good but as an almost archeological
exploration of how the series developed it is an interesting journey.

* Deus Ex (with Revision Mod) (replay)
"Revision" for Deus Ex is a free mod (sadly only compatible with the
Steam version) that is a compilation of several other mods that
enhances the graphics and gameplay of the classic game. It is an
impressive piece of work that unfortunately does little to improve the
original.

Graphically, the tweaks added by Revision are almost unnoticeable. It
adds DirectX9 lighting and texturing effects, but I was hard-pressed
to see the changes. A good number of the character models were
revamped; the changes here are more easily seen but - limited by the
game engine - they still look very poor compared to modern games.
Some extra textures were thrown in as well, but the bulk of the game
still relies on the dull grey and dingy textures that make up most of
the world, so here the improvement is minimal as well.

More notably, almost all the levels have received tweaks in their
layout; some more than others (the Paris levels, for instance, have
been completely redone). From a visual standpoint, they are far
improved; the layout is far more realistic and visually interesting.
Unfortunately, this all comes at a cost to the gameplay; the flow of
the game is ruined by these changes. Deus Ex was already a huge,
rambling game with not enough attention paid to providing direction to
the player; Revision only increases these problems. Too often I spent
hours wandering the city looking for that /one/ door needed to get to
the next part of the game, an issue only worsened by the new map
layouts not matching the directions given by the pre-existing
voice-acting. The gameplay - long Deus Ex's strength - was further
marred by Revision's changes to its delicate balance; the originals
allowed one to sneak, puzzle or fight ones way through most encounters
but Revision unnecessarily increased the strength of many doors and
locks without increasing the number of available tools to get past
those doors. Too often I was forced to shoot my way through a
checkpoint despite my preference for stealth. I'm fairly sure that the
Revision team also altered the strength of enemies as well, which
meant combats were drawn out; certainly I died more often than I
remember on earlier playthroughs. 

Speaking of which, this game /really/ made me appreciate modern games
ability to auto-save at important checkpoints. The amount of replaying
I had to do because I wasn't manually saving every five minutes was
not funny. Another issue of contention was that a lot of the written
material in the game wasn't saved to the in-game journal (and with the
increased difficulty there was often little time for me to sit and
read all the stuff where I found it). This was especially annoying
with regards to the many pass-codes necessary to bypass electronic
locks; I actually had to write things down. It's a shame that these
issues weren't fixed by the mod.

Still, Deus Ex remains a classic game, even if it doesn't shine quite
as brightly as it did fifteen years ago. It introduced many elements
to FPS games that we now take for granted. Revision was a valiant
attempt to revitalize the game but ultimately I felt it did more harm
than good. I can appreciate the effort but I think that the next time
I return to the grimy battlefield of Majestic12 and the Illuminati,
I'll be doing it without its assistance.

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So a little bit of the old and a little bit of the new is what kept me
entertained this month. How about you?

What have you been playing... IN OCTOBER 2015?