'Yooka-Laylee' will be my kind of game

             Yooka-Laylee is looking like a dream-come-true game for me. I knew since its reveal on Kickstarter that it would be Banjo-Threeie in spirit, but now that I see the screenshots and videos, I really see just how much Banjo-Kazooie magic is going to be in this game.

            The look nails it. No surprise that Steve Mayles of Banjo-Kazooie designed the characters. The style of the characters and the world are totally Banjo-Kazooie. And I can glean transformations from the screenshots (that really takes me back. Remember all those cool transformations in Rare’s 3D platformers?). The soundtrack is composed by David Wise (Donkey Kong Country), Grant Kirkhope (Banjo-Kazooie), and Steve Burke (Viva Piñata). Chris Sutherland (voice of Banjo and Kazooie) will be voicing the duo as well (the voices will be B-K style murmurings).

            According to Playtonic’s website, Yooka-Laylee will have five worlds, special moves, puzzles and (of course) platforming. Yooka and Laylee collect “Pagies” (the new Jiggies) to unlock more areas, and throughout the game meet a cast of “oddball” characters and “hulking” bosses. The big bad guy is corporate overlord Capital B (who is, yes, a bee. In a suit.).

           Yooka-Laylee will release on April 11, 2017 for Windows, Mac, Linux, Xbox One and PS4. The Wii U version has been cancelled, but Playtonic plans to bring the game to the Nintendo Switch. Preordering the game on PC, Xbox One or PS4 gives one access to the “Yooka-Laylee Toybox”, a sandbox, demo-esque gameplay experience that samples what it’s like to move around as Yooka and Laylee (this had been available to certain backers as well).

The Steam and GOG releases have a “Digital Deluxe” option, a copy of the game that includes the soundtrack and a digital manual and artbook. The standard version of Yooka-Laylee is forty dollars; the Digital Deluxe edition is fifty.

Check out some screenshots and trailers below:

 

 

 

 

Overdue Update: 11-1-16

            I let my blog get away from me.

            Time for a new post…and a new post topic. This post topic, “Overdue Update”, is for when I allow much time to pass before adding a new blog post. For this first Overdue Update, I’ll list the games I’ve been playing and the ones next year that I’m anticipating.

            Since my last post back in August, I’ve continued multiple game replays. This includes, as usual, a lot of Thief fan missions, but also other game titles like Deus Ex. This one is special because I haven’t revisited the game since my first playthrough, so this is my first replay of the title. I’m playing it with the fan-made High Resolution Pack. It’s quite enjoyable!

            My new game rounds include dabbling back in DOOM every so often, continuing to wander the wastes of Fallout 4 (haven’t even gotten to the DLC), and continuing MGSV (just recently got to some new, really well done story bits in part two).

            Dishonored 2 comes out on the eleventh. I will likely purchase and download it in time for Christmas break.

            Next year will be great. I’ll list the main ones again: Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Persona 5, Luke and Laylee, potential Quake Champions beta, Prey, Resident Evil 7, The Bard’s Tale IV, and the System Shock remake. Sounds great!

            Another three months (or two and a half), another blog post.

            Coming up: more thoughts on Fallout 4 and MGSV, and summaries of a few Thief FMs.

Back in style.

Currently Playing, 8-10-16

          Half-Life 2 replay:

            I’ve replayed most of the classics to near death, but there’s an odd one here or there that I haven’t revisited much. One of those is Half-Life 2, a game that I love but, despite having replayed its predecessor thousands of times, have only replayed once or twice, and those times years ago. I’ve kicked around the idea of going back through it again for a long time, and recently, on a whim, finally started it up. As soon as the menu opened up to the City 17 plaza scene and I heard the Combine soldiers’ radio communications, I knew I was in for a treat and that neglecting Half-Life 2 all these years had been a mistake.

            The G-man intro and Dr. Breen’s welcome weren’t as mystically amazing as they were in 2004, but I was drawn in nonetheless and soon wanted nothing more than to live in Half-Life 2. It’s a great game.

            The pacing is just right. There’s no overlong intro, you almost immediately are moving around in the gameworld, the characters, classic Black Mesa staff and newcomers like Alyx, are introduced in timely succession, references to the first game and fan service are present but not overwhelming, and soon enough you’ve got a crowbar. From what I remember of my earlier playthroughs, and as I’m sure I’ll come to find out again, the pacing remains perfect throughout the game. This includes shooting, solving puzzles, experiencing scripted narrative sequences, and controlling vehicles. Each component is served up just right in good time, with nothing outstaying its welcome.

            The atmosphere is well done in that it’s Half-Life but also successfully dystopian city. I remember reading somewhere that part of the creative direction for Half-Life 2 was to create the Half-Life feel in a new setting by establishing the same elements from Black Mesa and placing them into City 17. Valve certainly succeeded. I’m in a dystopian city…but it’s definitely Half-Life.

            I appreciate more design elements now than I did back in 2004. This is the principle I’ve experienced of appreciating the finer aspects of art and entertainment—and I guess of everything—as we grow older. One such moment came near the end of Water Hazard when I took out the helicopter. The pesky thing that had been bothering me for much of the latter half of the level I was finally allowed to destroy—and just when the chopper’s destroyed husk crashed on the ground, a well-timed music cue played. Perfect! This little detail I had never noticed before.

            Speaking of music, I love the music, both new and original. The audio is another area in which Half-Life 2 has new content but also enough classic content to make it feel like Half-Life. My only gripe is that some loading zones can cut a music track short before its intended time to stop. A minor gripe, yes, and perhaps my only complaint with Half-Life 2.

            I want to post more on this fantastic game as I continue my journey through it. I’ll end this post by once again citing the pacing as this game’s greatest strength. How elements from the first Half-Life, and one unique to this sequel, are introduced is very well done on Valve’s part.

            Well, then, on to Black Mesa East, and then Ravenholm, and then the dune buggy, and then…ah yes, it’s all coming back to me!

Thoughts on the The Witcher III's Blood and Wine DLC

            The Witcher III is my favorite game of 2015, and Blood and Wine is my favorite gaming experience of 2016 so far. Blood and Wine gave me a new, beautiful land to explore, a solid main quest line, a good crop of side quests, fun characters, a wonderful soundtrack, and more great Geralt dialogue. There are each a good thing that all people need.

 

 

            Blood and Wine’s location, the country of Toussaint, is breathtaking. So much that I hesitate before fast traveling back to the other lands of Witcher III, though I am, as far as I can tell, finished in Toussaint. Though no more quests await, I can’t help but frolic through the fields, taking screenshots and delighting in the music. The rolling hills and valleys of Toussaint are some of the most beautiful game visuals one can see in 2016.

            Toussaint is based on France. It’s not too difficult to discern this, given the many vineyards, the accents of its people, and the look of its buildings. Toussaint offers a refreshing change of scenery and environment from the rest of Witcher III’s Temeria, much like France does, I’m sure, to northern Europe. I can’t say for sure as I’ve never been to France. (But I have been to Toussaint!)

 

 

            The soundtrack lives up to the quality of the base game’s, if not even surpasses it. The music that plays as you explore the world complements the beautiful, rolling visuals. The battle and dungeons tracks are great, and I loved the theme it plays when you are investigating a scene. Each track has a French sound to it. I’m not a music expert, so I can’t elucidate here on all the nuances of French music—but you’ll know what I mean.  

            The main quest involves a beast plaguing Beauclair, the capitol city of Toussaint. It has been killing prominent citizens in extremely violent fashion. Duchess Anna Henrietta, ruler of the region, summons Geralt and offers him a contract to slay the beast. Geralt finds out, soon after he has undertaken the task, that slaying this beast is going to be more difficult than it is for most contracts. This main quest line is enjoyable, if victim to some cliché plot devices that, honestly, most narratives fall to. There’s even a ‘secret background character that suddenly comes into the picture in a “did I mention” sort of way, at just the opportune moment to make you think “surely not…but of course!”…’. But the use of these ploys does not detract from the main quests’ overall quality. Like the major quest lines of The Witcher III, there’s excellent dialogue, a couple key choices to make, tough boss battles, and good set pieces. It’s more of what you loved from the base game.

 

            Ditto for the side quests. You’ll fight plenty of monsters plaguing vineyards, encounter a few anguished spirits, help a few folks with curses (like an unfortunate werebird), and meet colorful characters throughout. A new feature in this DLC is furnishing a home—one of the side quests has Geralt restoring a house given him by Toussaint’s duchess. All the quests amount to a hefty amount of content for a twenty-dollar DLC package. Even still, if you’re as Witcher III-crazed as I can be…you’ll be wanting more.

            This DLC comes along with an update to the base game that improves the user interface and makes other minor changes. One of these that I appreciated is that the game now pauses the action when you bring up the menu to change signs, rather than only having the game enter slow motion when you do so.

Blood and Wine has great quests, great visuals, a great soundtrack, and brings improvements to the base game. I loved it. It got me back into The Witcher III, after all, and got me psyched for a new-games-plus! (The option of a new-game-plus is one of the more recent updates around the time of this DLC.)

 

Thoughts on DOOM

Thoughts on DOOM (4) (called Doom in the review)

            No game is perfect, but id’s 2016 Doom reboot perfectly melds the Doom experience with present-day shooter design.

            My initial thoughts on Doom veered towards “This isn’t the kind of Doom I want.” My ideal Doom recreation would be built of labyrinths, with monsters placed throughout. Instead, Doom gives linear set pieces with demons spawning in combat-zone style a la Painkiller. “Once again, a shooter reboot fails to capture the real classic shooter design,” I thought. But I was quickly won over. Doom is a great game, and perfectly reboots Doom.

The core of the game is shooting and otherwise tearing apart demons. There is some simple strategy to be had, though. After shooting each demon for a while, and just before the next shots would fell them, each demon glows a blue or yellow color. This means you can perform a “glory kill” on them—a melee attack that has you finish off a demon in always bloody, sometimes creative ways.

One glory kill on the Mancubus has you tear out his stomach—or some other, apparently explosive, organ—and shove it in his mouth. You can then watch as he explodes and organs spill out. Delicious—but, not all are as detailed as this. Some just have you break a demons’ arm and knock it in the head with it. Others boringly have you just punch a demon forward. (Not everything can be a hit.)

These glory kills have the demons drop more health. Chainsaw kills have the demons drop more ammo. These gloriously gruesome attacks are one-hit kills, even for the bigger demons, but each chainsaw kill requires fuel. The bigger the demon, the more fuel you need. You could use bits of fuel each on a group of lesser enemies, or all of it on a big one. The big one will net you more ammo.

So as you go about killing demons, you’ll perform glory kills and chainsaw kills depending on how much health or ammo you need. You’ll probably be performing these regardless, as they are ceaselessly satisfying.

As I noted above, most combat in Doom takes places in “battle arena” like scenarios. Each of these have health and ammo pickups littered throughout, and a lot of them have jump-pads and teleporters. When demons start coming, battle music, metal in style, starts playing. Think of how Bioshock Infinite’s battle music worked, if you need a point of reference. Really, Bioshock Infinite’s battle scenarios are a good point of reference for Doom’s, as are Painkiller’s. But Doom is better than both of those for what it does.

All the shooting and killing takes place across surreal landscapes in the UAC Facility on Mars and the demons’ abodes in hell. The visuals are what really drive home Doom’s throwback nature. It was while firing rockets at a giant horned and hoofed demon, with a surreal hell landscape in the background, and while blasting my double-barreled shotgun at a Pinky demon as he charged towards me in a surreal research-facility hallway, that I thought to myself how much this game harkens back to the shooters of yore. There is great nostalgia here if you grew up with the original Doom and its contemporaries.

Extra touches keep the game from being a totally straight shooter. You can upgrade your suit, say to be more resistant to weapon splashback, and you can unlock and upgrade weapon mods. These are basically alternative fires. Think of an old FPS game with secondary fire, and then imagine being able to switch between multiple secondary fires and being able to upgrade them. Yeah, it’s cool.

There is some story here too. A few characters speak to you, the player, and there’s some backstory on all this UAC / hell / Doomguy stuff. The way id worked story elements in just enough, to keep them from hampering the run-and-gun Doom experience, is as near perfect as it can be. I was impressed by how lightly and neatly story bits were segmented in. What was there worked, and it didn’t dominate the experience. For that matter, there’s also a codex that you can gain entries to for each demon, weapon, character, and location. It’s interesting stuff, if you care.

Did I mention there are secret areas? And Quad Damage (among other powerups)? And a couple cool, classic-FPS-style boss fights? And red, blue, and yellow key doors? Well, there are all these things, and a whole lot more goodness, that I didn’t touch on. And I didn’t do Multiplayer or Snapmap. But, of course, I loved the singleplayer. Based on that alone, id’s 2016 Doom reboot is a fantastic game, that perfectly brings classic Doom to a present-day shooter design. I love it.

And now, id can focus all their time on Quake V.

Thief Mission Writeups Continued: "Songs of the Cavern"

Thief Mission Writeups Continued

Completing the work of my advanced project blog by writing on each Thief mission…see thiefdesign.blogspot.com and morethiefdesign,blogspot.com…

Thief Gold, mission 10: Songs of the Cavern

            My favorite Thief Gold addition to The Dark Project’s mission suite is the opera house level, or, “Songs of the Cavern”. It has one my favorite atmospheres and some of my favorite side stories. So put down your brochure, pop-up those pretentious spectacle things, and…no, I’m not going to keep up the opera house metaphor thing. I need to get to the writeup.

            To get the Talisman of Water, Garrett needs to navigate some underwater caverns where the Keepers set up some booby traps when they locked the talisman away down there. There shouldn’t be anything more than a few poisonous spiders, so it should be a simple job. Garrett even has an old pal, Giry, to ask for help. Giry, a has-been ticket-teller at the local opera house, lives in the caverns Garrett must travel through, and so can help Garrett navigate them.

            Things aren’t so easy for Garrett. The “few poisonous spiders” have wrapped up and sucked dry old Giry, and so Garrett is on his own. The cavern is also home to a few ravenous craymen, adding to the danger. Even still, the caverns, on their own, don’t make for a very satisfying Thief mission. There’s some watery tunnels, some craymen, a few booby traps…the Talisman of Water is nothing to get! But wait—the chest is empty! And there’s a note written by a certain “Lady V.”, dropped by a dead guardsman, that details how they, Lady V.’s guards, should procure a valuable artifact. And, off in the distance, there’s a man singing opera…

            Okay—the mission is just beginning!

            Raul is a crazy old hermit who once was one of the owners of the opera house. Lady Valerius, also of the opera house, cheated him out of it. Now he lives in a shack in the tunnels beneath the opera house. This much is gathered from his crazed singing. Raul sees in Garrett an agent of revenge. So he hands Garrett a map of the opera house and a key to several of its doors. He directs Garrett up a nearby rope that hangs down from an opening into the sewers that lead to a secret entrance in the opera house, sending him up to nab Lady Valerius’ newfound prized possession—the Talisman of Water. Garrett can avenge Raul and continue his quest in one swoop.

            Some of my favorite atmospheric moments in Thief come from Garrett entering the opera house. Just as you come up into it from the sewer tunnels, a heavy, deep ambient noise—a stereo version of the ‘indoor wind noise’—sets in, and the immensity of the opera house rises around you. This is just the basement you’re in, but it’s humongous, and large set pieces from different acts fill many of the rooms. String plucks and violin sound occasionally filter in, as if ghostly noises from the opera house’s past. The whole mood of the basement is ghostly, in fact—you feel this opera house has a few phantoms that could jump out at any moment. But, as it is, no such phantoms are here—or, at least, they don’t jump out.

            As Garrett ascends into the opera house above, different ambiances play. The heaviness of the basement dies down into a more subtle ambiance, and trumpet noises, suggesting a performance, filter in. Garrett may walk around the public areas upfront—with a beautiful fountain and décor—or duck into the private rooms and backstage area. He may also cross into the performance hall, and tip toe across the stage even—in full light—at which point he says, “I’d love to stay for the show, but I’ve got a feeling it’s time to move along now.” I always wondered what the audience thinks as they see a cloaked figure run across the stage (most likely they mutter “Is someone there? Hm, probably rats.”).

            A few of my favorite conversations can be heard in the opera house. There’s Benny and straight-guard-guy with the “cloak-check girl” conversation; there’s Cribs, the in-house playwright, tutoring a young singer, who proceeds to mutter the greatest insult in Thief dialogue; and there’s a couple of snobby upper crusts, one of whom lays out a cheesily funny insult to the other. On the topic of humor, I love how the map of the opera house, drawn up by Raul, exudes of his characters (“CRIBS!” marks Cribs’ room; similar for Lady Valerius’ room).

            The Talisman is simple to get once players nab the appropriate key. A secret passage, one which old Raul likely used, leads to Lady Valerius’ chambers, where the Talisman is kept. In typical Talisman fashion, it emits its element—water bubbles rise up from the chest. (What isn’t so simple is fulfilling the loot requirement, especially on expert.)

            Garrett’s opera house adventure is a fun romp with memorable characters and a ‘renaissance Phantom of the Opera’ vibe that melds well with the rest of Thief I’s dark medieval atmosphere. I think it, along with Guild and Mage Towers, makes The Dark Project a more complete journey. And who couldn’t love Raul?

-Thief as Noir

            It’s not rocket science to note that Thief: The Dark Project’s story is similar to the hard-boiled crime stories of classic noir films. Ken Levine, who worked on the initial story design for Thief: The Dark Project, acknowledged such in one of the Irrational Behavior podcasts. It’s akin to noting Half-Life 2’s story similarities to 1984—it’s an easy comparison to make.

            But, for fun, I will start here a series of posts drawing comparisons between Thief: The Dark Project’s story and those of noir films.

            This time, the film is Kiss Me Deadly. I recently watched it for the first time. Comparisons between its story and Thief’s aren’t across the board, but here are some (do note that there are spoilers below for both Thief and Kiss Me Deadly):

            -Mike Hammer is like Garrett: Both are the guy who comes upon a big opportunity, pursues it for the money, and ends up getting deep into something that is wider and graver. Both are also seedy antiheroes who are not scrupulous (Garrett a thief, Mike a crooked divorce investigator).

            -The cops / official investigators are like the Keepers: Both are shadowy organizations that work in the background and know more about what’s going on. In these cases, (spoilers) knowledge of the return of the Trickster (via prophecies) and knowledge of a… well, I won’t spoil that.

            -The Carver woman is loosely like Viktoria, in that she is a femme fatale who leads the Garrett / Hammer character further astray.

            -Don’t think there’s a comparison for the Trickster. The climactic moments from both could be compared, though…(won’t spoil them here)

            See? That’s all. I’m just having a little fun. I’ll be noting things like this with other noir films (as I already stated above). Next up I’d like to do The Maltese Falcon and then The Third Man—two films that I have seen, but not for a good while.

            Cheers!