I had a good Sunday of gaming fun. Went into town to play some Warhammer, then went up to a guy's house for our regular RPG sessions. First up was character generation for our upcoming Scion campaign.
Scion is a really interesting game I find. For those who don't know, it's a tabletop RPG where the characters are the offspring of classical deities from various "real" pantheons, such as the Roman/Greek gods, the Voodoo Loa, The Norse gods, etc. The stories it has in mind are of the grand epics told in the days when those gods were worshipped: slaying demons, roaming the globe, ancient magical artefacts and other some awesomeness. According to some of my classicist friends, it's basically an RPG of American Gods and the Percy Jackson series (ie books I haven't read. Oh well).
It's from White Wolf, and so uses a system similar to it's World of Darkness games: roll a number of dice equal to a Attribute + a Skill, then count up the number of successes (dice of a certain number or higher), the more being the better. The difference here is that this game will 1) have you rolling much more dice than usual and 2) you get automatic successes from your character's Epic Attributes (part of the various arrays of godlike powers you get as a Scion). This, combined with the extra spells and power granted by your divine parent means you will be doing some epic superhero stuff right out of the gate (flinging cars around, inciting whole crowds to riot, jumping chasms, you name it).If you're into those kinds of stories, ancient mythology, or superhero type gaming, I wholeheartedly recommend Scion.
The first session was really for character generation, although we got some role-play in to do our characters' 'visitations', our first meetings with our godly parents, which was fun. The GM also got us on the adventure hook (something in Crete....oooh), so that'll be fun methinks.
The second part of the evening was the regular Star Wars Saga Edition game, which I've already mentioned I've recently started running. Some re-jigging of the PCs stats by one of the players so that the party was far less broken (though the brokenness had originally been somewhat accidental) meant that I could give the party an actual challenge during combat *gasp*. After interrogating a Force-user they'd captured during the previous session (players never fail to surprise me), they had to repel some boarders in the form of two baddie Force-users and a big ol' droid. The droid lasted about as long as I thought it would (that is to say, the longest), and even the Force-users did their part now I'd actually figured out how to use Force powers properly. I've actually got something in mind for the rest of the plot now, as opposed to basically ad-libbing it for 3 weeks, which is a big step forward.
I'd do a little review on Saga Edition as a game, but it's been out of print for about 3 years now so there'd hardly be a point. To put it in a sentence: go find Star Wars Saga Edition if you like Star Wars and know the rules to D&D fairly well (it's a d20 game).
And that was my weekend in gaming :)
I might make a regular thing out of reporting on these games, it's good for reflection and heck, someone might read it XD.
Scion is the property of White Wolf.
Star Wars is the property of Lucasfilm. Saga Edition was created by Wizards of the Coast.
Warhammer is the property of Games Workshop.
Monday, 28 February 2011
Saturday, 26 February 2011
Total War: Shogun 2 - demo
Like I'm sure many of you, I was blown away by the trailers for Total War: Shogun 2. Not only did they look great, the fact that the battle footage clips were in-game recordings was even better. Now a demo is out, so I took a dive in to see if the game behind the pretty pictures lives up to the hype.
Playing this game was a tad weird for me, as I hadn't played a Total War game since Rome. I looked at Medieval 2, (having found the first one to be fantastic) without ever actually playing it, and Empire and Napoleon completely passed me by. But I've got to say, even after so long, it felt comfortable as ever playing through the missions on offer in the demo for Shogun 2.
The demo consists of a skirmish mode and a tutorial, which I went for. You are quickly but comfortably introduced to all the mechanics within 2-3 hours of play, including the battles.
First, the campaign mode. The interface is a lot more streamlined than I remember, with units and buildings able to be queued up easily without wandering through menus and such. The colour scheme and art style is lovely, and you can really be drawn into the campaign by the map alone. A feature I really liked is the Arts system. Arts are little talents that can be picked up along two trees: the Arts of War and Arts of Chi. The trees, and the Arts within them, provide a variety of different bonuses, units and abilities, and you can pursue researching them in any order. Research is automatic as well: you don't have to select an Art to begin researching it. After an Art is researched, the game will inform you which one it will research next, which is useful in case that's not the one you want.
The demo tutorial also lets you try out the battle mode, which is just plain fun. Units are controlled with the tried and tested leftclick-select-rightclick-order system. You order units into formation by drag-and-drop, or group them together (damn useful for two-pronged attacks) and give them one of several flavourful formations depending on how you want to use them (Cavalry-based defence, missile attack , etc). During multi-player (so the game says, I didn't get to use that, but it's in one of the tutorial siege battles) the matches use capture points to represent key areas and buildings on the map, from shrines to gatehouses to the tenshu, which when captured will win you the game.
Total War has a tradition of being a thinker's RTS, and it doesn't let up here, even in a demo. The scenarios forced me to work out how to use the terrain to my advantage, and split second timing and advanced tactics (two things I could never get quite right) were key to winning the day (I managed). However, the game does it's beat to not get in the way of your clever warmongering, helping you get there with the controls and interface, which remains clear and concise in the battle mode.
Wow...that was a lot to say about a demo. The demo hints at a lot more, including naval battles (which I couldn't try) and many more agents and units to throw around (ninja are fun on and off the battlefield). I thoroughly recommend that all gamers, especially fans of the series, RTS games or Japanese military history, to give this demo a go before March 15th when the game is released.
Comment down below :)
Total War: Shogun 2 and the Total War franchise are the property of The Creative Assembly.
Playing this game was a tad weird for me, as I hadn't played a Total War game since Rome. I looked at Medieval 2, (having found the first one to be fantastic) without ever actually playing it, and Empire and Napoleon completely passed me by. But I've got to say, even after so long, it felt comfortable as ever playing through the missions on offer in the demo for Shogun 2.
The demo consists of a skirmish mode and a tutorial, which I went for. You are quickly but comfortably introduced to all the mechanics within 2-3 hours of play, including the battles.
First, the campaign mode. The interface is a lot more streamlined than I remember, with units and buildings able to be queued up easily without wandering through menus and such. The colour scheme and art style is lovely, and you can really be drawn into the campaign by the map alone. A feature I really liked is the Arts system. Arts are little talents that can be picked up along two trees: the Arts of War and Arts of Chi. The trees, and the Arts within them, provide a variety of different bonuses, units and abilities, and you can pursue researching them in any order. Research is automatic as well: you don't have to select an Art to begin researching it. After an Art is researched, the game will inform you which one it will research next, which is useful in case that's not the one you want.
The demo tutorial also lets you try out the battle mode, which is just plain fun. Units are controlled with the tried and tested leftclick-select-rightclick-order system. You order units into formation by drag-and-drop, or group them together (damn useful for two-pronged attacks) and give them one of several flavourful formations depending on how you want to use them (Cavalry-based defence, missile attack , etc). During multi-player (so the game says, I didn't get to use that, but it's in one of the tutorial siege battles) the matches use capture points to represent key areas and buildings on the map, from shrines to gatehouses to the tenshu, which when captured will win you the game.
Total War has a tradition of being a thinker's RTS, and it doesn't let up here, even in a demo. The scenarios forced me to work out how to use the terrain to my advantage, and split second timing and advanced tactics (two things I could never get quite right) were key to winning the day (I managed). However, the game does it's beat to not get in the way of your clever warmongering, helping you get there with the controls and interface, which remains clear and concise in the battle mode.
Wow...that was a lot to say about a demo. The demo hints at a lot more, including naval battles (which I couldn't try) and many more agents and units to throw around (ninja are fun on and off the battlefield). I thoroughly recommend that all gamers, especially fans of the series, RTS games or Japanese military history, to give this demo a go before March 15th when the game is released.
Comment down below :)
Total War: Shogun 2 and the Total War franchise are the property of The Creative Assembly.
Bonus Post: Writing a Saga is hard...
I've been running a Star Wars Roleplaying Game campaign over the last couple of weeks, and so far it's been fun. There have been some good fights (I do so like RP combat), great little moments of roleplaying - one PC managed to stall an enemy attack by asking for their accounts, yay for bureaucracy - and the whole group seems to be enjoying themselves.
However, planning the damn thing has been one of the most taxing metal exercises I've put myself up to. I decided to run the campaign at level 10, because I thought it would be fun to have super-powered characters playing. That's become the hindering factor, however, because two of the group know this game FAR better than I. They've managed to create the most stupidly broken characters I've seen in a d20 game; one of them is a Jedi who fights defensively all the time, so I can't bloody hit him, and even if I do he just slaps my bad guys back for more than they gave; and a face-man-type character who can literally talk his way out of harm, even robbing actions from the bad guys and giving them to the party.
On paper, these sound like the best things ever. However, it means I've had to go to pains to ramp up the difficulty level of the combat encounters just so they don't cakewalk their way through. As a crazy rabbit* once said, "Frustration!"
Got one encounter down, gotta actually get the plot written...it's gonna be a long night....
Star Wars is the property of Lucasfilm
The Star Wars Roleplaying Game: Saga Edition was created by Wizards of the Coast, though no longer in print.
*Max from Sam and Max
PS: The demo for Total War: Shogun 2 is currently downloading from Steam, so I'll probably have post up for that by the end of the night :)
However, planning the damn thing has been one of the most taxing metal exercises I've put myself up to. I decided to run the campaign at level 10, because I thought it would be fun to have super-powered characters playing. That's become the hindering factor, however, because two of the group know this game FAR better than I. They've managed to create the most stupidly broken characters I've seen in a d20 game; one of them is a Jedi who fights defensively all the time, so I can't bloody hit him, and even if I do he just slaps my bad guys back for more than they gave; and a face-man-type character who can literally talk his way out of harm, even robbing actions from the bad guys and giving them to the party.
On paper, these sound like the best things ever. However, it means I've had to go to pains to ramp up the difficulty level of the combat encounters just so they don't cakewalk their way through. As a crazy rabbit* once said, "Frustration!"
Got one encounter down, gotta actually get the plot written...it's gonna be a long night....
Star Wars is the property of Lucasfilm
The Star Wars Roleplaying Game: Saga Edition was created by Wizards of the Coast, though no longer in print.
*Max from Sam and Max
PS: The demo for Total War: Shogun 2 is currently downloading from Steam, so I'll probably have post up for that by the end of the night :)
Do look at this!
Here's a link to a blog my friend writes on. It's good fun to read (and watch, for they have videos :O ).
Give them a look:
Friday, 25 February 2011
Welcome to the Black Crusade
Have a look at this first: http://tinyurl.com/5u7pclx
Nice way to pander to your audience, FF Games. ;)
Honestly, I've no idea how much demand this game has had. All I know is that in most of the RP sessions I've been in, there's been a decidedly PvP sentiment going on. It takes a seriously common cause to make your PCs not want to kill each other, or at least think twice before leaving each other behind in a minefield. I've genuinly had to tell the party cleric, "No, for the third time, you CANNOT side with the evil dragon, you are the good guys."
So...I don't know whether Fantasy Flight's newest Warhammer 40,000 shaped offering, Black Crusade, will be either the cure or simply the therapy for this RPG trope. The fact that the party will consist of people fighting under the same banner (the good ol' Eight Point Star), and yet will still want to murder each other and wear the entrails for armour (hell, I'd give them a couple of points for it) will be difficult to plan for; that's right fellow GMs, we may have to...*shudder*...improvise.
I think every 40k Role Player will have either tried playing Chaos or considered it, or at the very least begged the GM for it. I'm wondering how they would represent Chaos influence; I mean, Corruption points are out the window, as are the means to gather them (unless you want players killing at will as the only way of gathering power). There will have to be some factor to kerb the more overt aspects of Chaos worship (unless you're a Khornate, in which case go nuts), and I'm looking forward to see how they handle that.
The announcement has only just come today, but I'm a big fan of the 40K Role Play range so far; the rules work for me and they've covered some good gameplay themes, from horror and intrigue to open warfare to galactic exploration. This looks like a good way to show the darker side to a universe that's already almost pitch black.
Warhammer 40,000 is the property of Games Workshop Ltd
Black Crusade and Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay created by Fantasy Flight games
Also, apologies to any non-40k enthusiasts who got lost in there. I'll get back to something a little more mainstream later.
Comments down below please :)
Nice way to pander to your audience, FF Games. ;)
Honestly, I've no idea how much demand this game has had. All I know is that in most of the RP sessions I've been in, there's been a decidedly PvP sentiment going on. It takes a seriously common cause to make your PCs not want to kill each other, or at least think twice before leaving each other behind in a minefield. I've genuinly had to tell the party cleric, "No, for the third time, you CANNOT side with the evil dragon, you are the good guys."
So...I don't know whether Fantasy Flight's newest Warhammer 40,000 shaped offering, Black Crusade, will be either the cure or simply the therapy for this RPG trope. The fact that the party will consist of people fighting under the same banner (the good ol' Eight Point Star), and yet will still want to murder each other and wear the entrails for armour (hell, I'd give them a couple of points for it) will be difficult to plan for; that's right fellow GMs, we may have to...*shudder*...improvise.
I think every 40k Role Player will have either tried playing Chaos or considered it, or at the very least begged the GM for it. I'm wondering how they would represent Chaos influence; I mean, Corruption points are out the window, as are the means to gather them (unless you want players killing at will as the only way of gathering power). There will have to be some factor to kerb the more overt aspects of Chaos worship (unless you're a Khornate, in which case go nuts), and I'm looking forward to see how they handle that.
The announcement has only just come today, but I'm a big fan of the 40K Role Play range so far; the rules work for me and they've covered some good gameplay themes, from horror and intrigue to open warfare to galactic exploration. This looks like a good way to show the darker side to a universe that's already almost pitch black.
Warhammer 40,000 is the property of Games Workshop Ltd
Black Crusade and Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay created by Fantasy Flight games
Also, apologies to any non-40k enthusiasts who got lost in there. I'll get back to something a little more mainstream later.
Comments down below please :)
Dragon Age 2 Demo impressions
Yeah, everyone who cares will have played this by now, but still here's my two cents on the demo for Dragon Age 2.
First thing I noticed were the fight mechanics (being that the very first bit is a big fight with a feckload of Darkspawn): they're so much faster and streamlined. The issue one can have with turn-based fight mechanics, such as those used by every Bioware game except for Mass Effect, is that it can slow down the action with taht pause between attacks. However, what DA2 does is keep the interval between the damage infliction (you can see a character's DPS rating in the pause menu), but there is almost no space between animations, meaning you have a proper-looking battle going on, which is far more dynamic and exciting.
The interface is a lot more strealined, with the icons made msaller (though still clear) and the character portraits and life bars sitting neatly in the bottom left corner. Everything is easy to find without being in the way.
The demo gives you a taste of the levelling system. Most of the stats are handled by 6 core attributes, which affect all other stats on a one-to-one basis, meaning that every point you put in will make a difference. Powers and abilities come from a set of talent trees which correspond to different specialties within your class. You can pick powers from any of these trees to mix-and-match, making for a nice level of customisation.
A word on gore: lots. Where in the first game you would cut a baddie up, now you're likely you chop him in half at the waist, which is quite satisfying. Oddly, the blood splash on PCs is toned down from childishly over the top to, well, not so much. There's a bit, but no longer so much splatter that it's distracting during conversations. Basically, the blood is in the fights, not out of it.
So, Dragon Age 2: it looks to be an improvement over an already great game. Obviously it'll take the a play of the full thing to show us how good it is, but that's what the 11th of March is for .
Think I'm wrong in here? Tell me why!
Dragon Age 2 is the property of EA and Bioware.
First thing I noticed were the fight mechanics (being that the very first bit is a big fight with a feckload of Darkspawn): they're so much faster and streamlined. The issue one can have with turn-based fight mechanics, such as those used by every Bioware game except for Mass Effect, is that it can slow down the action with taht pause between attacks. However, what DA2 does is keep the interval between the damage infliction (you can see a character's DPS rating in the pause menu), but there is almost no space between animations, meaning you have a proper-looking battle going on, which is far more dynamic and exciting.
The interface is a lot more strealined, with the icons made msaller (though still clear) and the character portraits and life bars sitting neatly in the bottom left corner. Everything is easy to find without being in the way.
The demo gives you a taste of the levelling system. Most of the stats are handled by 6 core attributes, which affect all other stats on a one-to-one basis, meaning that every point you put in will make a difference. Powers and abilities come from a set of talent trees which correspond to different specialties within your class. You can pick powers from any of these trees to mix-and-match, making for a nice level of customisation.
A word on gore: lots. Where in the first game you would cut a baddie up, now you're likely you chop him in half at the waist, which is quite satisfying. Oddly, the blood splash on PCs is toned down from childishly over the top to, well, not so much. There's a bit, but no longer so much splatter that it's distracting during conversations. Basically, the blood is in the fights, not out of it.
So, Dragon Age 2: it looks to be an improvement over an already great game. Obviously it'll take the a play of the full thing to show us how good it is, but that's what the 11th of March is for .
Think I'm wrong in here? Tell me why!
Dragon Age 2 is the property of EA and Bioware.
Thursday, 24 February 2011
We Dare...WTF?
I've just been on Kotaku, and they've reported on a new game, We Dare, being made by Ubisoft for the Wii and PS3.
For the story go here, see the trailer, read the article, then come back: http://tinyurl.com/6z6epo7
What the hell? Talk about niche market, Ubisoft! Who buys a Wii for that? Who plays a Wii for that? Are you honestly expecting this to be the reaction to this game. You know Wii games aren't played like on TV, it's a far more subtle affair, not the waving around and overacting you think we're into. Unless you're drunk...like the players of We Dare would likely be...I think I see the reasoning.
I think it takes a lot more than a themed Wii game to get friends...or anyone...shagging. Not to mention the fact that, well...I know this may just be the sterotype, but people who enjoy uninhibited recreational sex and people who enjoy games, whether casually or as a hobby, generally don't create that big an overlap on the old Venn Diagram.
Maybe I'm wrong, it might sell. Not got high hopes though. Just expectations. That it won't.
Think I'm wrong? Tell me why.
We Dare doesn't seem to have a site yet.
We Dare is the property of Ubisoft.
Kotaku is the property of Kotaku.
For the story go here, see the trailer, read the article, then come back: http://tinyurl.com/6z6epo7
What the hell? Talk about niche market, Ubisoft! Who buys a Wii for that? Who plays a Wii for that? Are you honestly expecting this to be the reaction to this game. You know Wii games aren't played like on TV, it's a far more subtle affair, not the waving around and overacting you think we're into. Unless you're drunk...like the players of We Dare would likely be...I think I see the reasoning.
I think it takes a lot more than a themed Wii game to get friends...or anyone...shagging. Not to mention the fact that, well...I know this may just be the sterotype, but people who enjoy uninhibited recreational sex and people who enjoy games, whether casually or as a hobby, generally don't create that big an overlap on the old Venn Diagram.
Maybe I'm wrong, it might sell. Not got high hopes though. Just expectations. That it won't.
Think I'm wrong? Tell me why.
We Dare doesn't seem to have a site yet.
We Dare is the property of Ubisoft.
Kotaku is the property of Kotaku.
Red Dead...Something?
I've recently been playing Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare. First off the bat: it's friggin' awesome! I do love a good zombie shoot, and there's no loss of it here. Hell, it's the first thing you do. There is that staple of the zombie genre: less ammo than usual, but thankfully Rockstar had the good sense to make it not much of a hindrance.
"There are no shopkeepers", as the game points out early on, which means you can't actually buy ammunition, so you have to rip it off of corpses or get it from ammo drops in the towns you free from zombies. You'll stock up quickly without much effort - so much for the Apocalypse - and proceed onto murder after gleeful murder of the local walking dead.
This is made even more simple by the Deadeye feature (I'm assuming this was in the original Red Dead Redemption, I haven't played it), which slows the world down to a crawl (think the opening titles of Zombieland), allowing the pefect headshot. This means that if you're carrying, say, 50 bullets...that's 50 dead zombies, right there. Go save the world.
Here's the fatal flaw to this game, one tiny thing that niggles me: the name. Seriously, they couldn't have been more imaginative? Undead Nightmare sound's like a good B-movie, and it IS a DLC rather than a sequal, but I would have appreciated a little more effort.
Here's my idea, a better title for a great game: Red Dead Reanimation! I like it, it fits nicely with the titles of the other games.
What do you think? If I'm wrong, tell me why.
Comment please, either way.
Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare are the property of Rockstar Games
"There are no shopkeepers", as the game points out early on, which means you can't actually buy ammunition, so you have to rip it off of corpses or get it from ammo drops in the towns you free from zombies. You'll stock up quickly without much effort - so much for the Apocalypse - and proceed onto murder after gleeful murder of the local walking dead.
This is made even more simple by the Deadeye feature (I'm assuming this was in the original Red Dead Redemption, I haven't played it), which slows the world down to a crawl (think the opening titles of Zombieland), allowing the pefect headshot. This means that if you're carrying, say, 50 bullets...that's 50 dead zombies, right there. Go save the world.
Here's the fatal flaw to this game, one tiny thing that niggles me: the name. Seriously, they couldn't have been more imaginative? Undead Nightmare sound's like a good B-movie, and it IS a DLC rather than a sequal, but I would have appreciated a little more effort.
Here's my idea, a better title for a great game: Red Dead Reanimation! I like it, it fits nicely with the titles of the other games.
What do you think? If I'm wrong, tell me why.
Comment please, either way.
Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare are the property of Rockstar Games
Alice: Madness Returns - trailer thoughts
Alice: Madness Returns is a sequel to American MgGee’s Alice, a dark action adventure game from 2000 based upon Alice in Wonderland. It got good reviews, but I have to say that I never got round to playing it as I was only just getting into gaming at the time and I was way too young for it.
There are currently 3 trailers out for Alice 2. Trailer 1 is a short and sweet affair: it opens to a swinging key with a voice counting down from 3, then fades to show a girl, obviously our Alice, sitting in a room that has human arms hanging from the ceiling...well, no one goes to Wonderland looking for subtlety. She’s looking down, and the voice asks her to tell us of Wonderland. The camera zooms to her face, she opens her mouth...and lots of blood and teeth come spilling out. Nice, guys. Well, this is definitely Alice 2, no doubt about that. Not much else to go on in terms of game content, but it was an early teaser, so that’s ok.
Onto trailer 2 then: it shows Alice walking through a town square, then pause to look at a little diorama of the Mad Hatter’s tea party. She sees two ghosts in the glass, turns around, but they’re not there. The diorama then lights on fire (so you know it’s awesome), then tentacles (yes, frickin’ tentacles) come out of the case and drag Alice through the fire and through the back of the diorama case. Now, I dunno about you guys, but I’ve seen the Internet; I see a young girl in a skirt, tentacles and aggressive non-consensual grabbing. This may not be Japan, but the connotations are still funny. Still a good trailer, a little more hinting at the story/enemies, but still too early to make assumptions.
Trailer 3 is a MUCH grander affair. Alice is seen walking through a lovely Wonderland scene, and encounters the Caterpillar (still hasn’t kicked the hooka habit, poor guy needs a good ol’ intervention). The oversized stoned grub then flap some butterfly wings and rears up menacingly, while the scene around Alice burns in a spontaneous volcanic eruption. The scene transitions to the Mad Hatter’s table, where the old crowd are gathered: he then screams “Attack!”, and sics a giant teapot-cyclops-thing on her (genuinely the weirdest thing I have seen in a trailer). Alice then proceeds to stab the attacking table furniture in the eye with a knife – the Vorpal Blade, so I’m told (I’m damn sure that 1) that thing was a sword, fucking anticlimactic, and 2) Alice didn’t have that in the book, but what do I know) – and the trailer fades out with the girl’s face, grinning ear to ear with blood all over her. Ho-lee shit, people.
So far, the trailers don’t say anything about the actual gameplay, but it can be assumed that it will be similar to the original. I didn’t play the original, so that would be a bit lost on me if not for the helpful information on the website for the game, which is linked at the bottom of this entry. The game will boast it says, upgradeable melee weapons including the Vorpal Knife thing; intuitive and rewarding puzzles; and being able to explore Wonderland and meet all the weird and wonderful people therein...and likely beat them with Vorpal sticks.
There are some screenshots out, but no gameplay vids have been released yet, which suggests the game is well into development yet not so far in as to be able to prove anything, but that’s ok. American McGee has a good track record, and the first was supposed to be really good.
The game looks to be attempting to innovate on platform action gaming and good for it. What I’m worried about is this notion of making the Wonderland universe darker. I mean, it was a good idea for a first game, but I do wonder if the sequel is symptomatic of either the renewal of the property by Tim Burton, or this whole idea of making childish things darker so the grow-ups can enjoy it without feeling guilty.
And if it’s that, I say: making something darker does not make it more “mature”, no matter what the ESRB rating says. I mean, have you seen Splatterhouse? If you want to enjoy Wonderland, you are allowed to do it in its original guise as a children’s story. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was about an innocent little girl having a good time meeting strange new people in a weird and wonderful place. Do you really have to add all the blood to make it acceptable for your age group? You see this in several adaptations: when X-Men got the film treatment, they took all the colour out of the costumes, because the grown-up geeks considered themselves too old and respectable for their heroes to wear spandex.
I shouldn’t really throw that at American McGee though, I think he’s definitely trying to do something different artistically; the whole thing about making stuff darker needlessly bugs me.
So, predictions: Alice – Madness Returns looks to be an interesting game that should shift on the shelves, and will likely be great aesthetically. I’m not sure what to expect of the gameplay, as there’s little to go on. My gut instinct would have me think cynically, that it’ll be just another hack n’ slash platformer, but I’d like to hope for enough innovation to make it memorable. The trailers aren’t brilliantly put together, and the third one felt a little disjointed on first viewing, so I’ve not been grabbed as much as I otherwise would have. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious, so I’ll keep an eye on it.
Alice - Madness Returns website: http://www.ea.com/alice
American McGee's website: http://www.americanmcgee.com/
The trailers are there. Watch them, make your judgements and please feel free to come back here and tell me what you think. If I'm wrong, tell me why. If you'd like me to look at anything else, please say so.
Alice: Madness Returns and American McGee's Alice are the property of EA and American McGee.
There are currently 3 trailers out for Alice 2. Trailer 1 is a short and sweet affair: it opens to a swinging key with a voice counting down from 3, then fades to show a girl, obviously our Alice, sitting in a room that has human arms hanging from the ceiling...well, no one goes to Wonderland looking for subtlety. She’s looking down, and the voice asks her to tell us of Wonderland. The camera zooms to her face, she opens her mouth...and lots of blood and teeth come spilling out. Nice, guys. Well, this is definitely Alice 2, no doubt about that. Not much else to go on in terms of game content, but it was an early teaser, so that’s ok.
Onto trailer 2 then: it shows Alice walking through a town square, then pause to look at a little diorama of the Mad Hatter’s tea party. She sees two ghosts in the glass, turns around, but they’re not there. The diorama then lights on fire (so you know it’s awesome), then tentacles (yes, frickin’ tentacles) come out of the case and drag Alice through the fire and through the back of the diorama case. Now, I dunno about you guys, but I’ve seen the Internet; I see a young girl in a skirt, tentacles and aggressive non-consensual grabbing. This may not be Japan, but the connotations are still funny. Still a good trailer, a little more hinting at the story/enemies, but still too early to make assumptions.
Trailer 3 is a MUCH grander affair. Alice is seen walking through a lovely Wonderland scene, and encounters the Caterpillar (still hasn’t kicked the hooka habit, poor guy needs a good ol’ intervention). The oversized stoned grub then flap some butterfly wings and rears up menacingly, while the scene around Alice burns in a spontaneous volcanic eruption. The scene transitions to the Mad Hatter’s table, where the old crowd are gathered: he then screams “Attack!”, and sics a giant teapot-cyclops-thing on her (genuinely the weirdest thing I have seen in a trailer). Alice then proceeds to stab the attacking table furniture in the eye with a knife – the Vorpal Blade, so I’m told (I’m damn sure that 1) that thing was a sword, fucking anticlimactic, and 2) Alice didn’t have that in the book, but what do I know) – and the trailer fades out with the girl’s face, grinning ear to ear with blood all over her. Ho-lee shit, people.
So far, the trailers don’t say anything about the actual gameplay, but it can be assumed that it will be similar to the original. I didn’t play the original, so that would be a bit lost on me if not for the helpful information on the website for the game, which is linked at the bottom of this entry. The game will boast it says, upgradeable melee weapons including the Vorpal Knife thing; intuitive and rewarding puzzles; and being able to explore Wonderland and meet all the weird and wonderful people therein...and likely beat them with Vorpal sticks.
There are some screenshots out, but no gameplay vids have been released yet, which suggests the game is well into development yet not so far in as to be able to prove anything, but that’s ok. American McGee has a good track record, and the first was supposed to be really good.
The game looks to be attempting to innovate on platform action gaming and good for it. What I’m worried about is this notion of making the Wonderland universe darker. I mean, it was a good idea for a first game, but I do wonder if the sequel is symptomatic of either the renewal of the property by Tim Burton, or this whole idea of making childish things darker so the grow-ups can enjoy it without feeling guilty.
And if it’s that, I say: making something darker does not make it more “mature”, no matter what the ESRB rating says. I mean, have you seen Splatterhouse? If you want to enjoy Wonderland, you are allowed to do it in its original guise as a children’s story. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was about an innocent little girl having a good time meeting strange new people in a weird and wonderful place. Do you really have to add all the blood to make it acceptable for your age group? You see this in several adaptations: when X-Men got the film treatment, they took all the colour out of the costumes, because the grown-up geeks considered themselves too old and respectable for their heroes to wear spandex.
I shouldn’t really throw that at American McGee though, I think he’s definitely trying to do something different artistically; the whole thing about making stuff darker needlessly bugs me.
So, predictions: Alice – Madness Returns looks to be an interesting game that should shift on the shelves, and will likely be great aesthetically. I’m not sure what to expect of the gameplay, as there’s little to go on. My gut instinct would have me think cynically, that it’ll be just another hack n’ slash platformer, but I’d like to hope for enough innovation to make it memorable. The trailers aren’t brilliantly put together, and the third one felt a little disjointed on first viewing, so I’ve not been grabbed as much as I otherwise would have. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious, so I’ll keep an eye on it.
Alice - Madness Returns website: http://www.ea.com/alice
American McGee's website: http://www.americanmcgee.com/
The trailers are there. Watch them, make your judgements and please feel free to come back here and tell me what you think. If I'm wrong, tell me why. If you'd like me to look at anything else, please say so.
Alice: Madness Returns and American McGee's Alice are the property of EA and American McGee.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)