Yes, I'm Propositioning You

It's been over a week since I last filled this space.  It's a shame too, because I was averaging an all-time high in page views per day and when I disappeared, that fell off a cliff.

Where have I been?

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you have some clue about how I've been filling my days without filling these screens with funny little characters that string together to form funny little words that mean something to us. If you don't follow me on either of those forms of social media, the briefest synopsis I can offer you is this: Work called.  I answered.  I'm going to spare you the details of most of it.  Let it suffice to say that the responsibilities of my day job temporarily far exceeded my time allotment for it.  It spilled over into everything else.  Those responsibilities grew like kudzu in the southern heat and I had to grab a machete and spend some time hacking it down.  Okay, so a machete and a flamethrower.  My writing related activities have been almost non-existent for the past week.  My sleeping related activities even suffered drastic cuts.  I can't help it.  I need my job and the money it provides us to almost-but-not-quite meet basic necessities every month.  But I'm back in the writer's saddle again.

One of the activities that forced me to unplug from the matrix for a bit was a camping trip.  Yes, the outdoor kind.  With tents.  And fire.  Ooooh, pretty colors.  Wait, what?  Sorry.  So, I went camping.  In a tent.   On the beach.  On the hottest day of the year so far in coastal North Carolina.  Believe me, it was definitely not by choice.  It was a work thing.  It was organized as a stress release by and for my colleagues and I.  It wasn't bad.  Compared to taking a knife in the eyeball.  It was hot.  There were lots of small biting insects that seemed to know how to squeeze through the netting on my tent.  There were a lot of people drinking tremendous quantities of alcoholic beverages (THIS is phenomenal with juice).  Did I mention that it was hot?

The whole trip did remind me that my wife and I used to go camping.  When we were younger, we'd load the tent into our van and drive to the mountains of North or South Carolina and spend a night or three.  Now, we've been thinking that we should do that again.  Except, our giant two room plus screened porch extremely expensive cabin tent is mysteriously missing its poles.  And an air conditioning unit.  Seriously, I can't figure out what happened to those poles.  I had to borrow a tent for the trip.

When I returned to the real world and plugged back into the matrix, I was reminded by a friend on Twitter that I had missed the release of some phone that came out last week.

For those of you who are regular readers, if any of you are left, you remember that I wrote some flash fiction for a couple of contests over the last few weeks.  I've decided that I'm going to be posting more fiction in the near future.  I am going to have to decide first what is the most appropriate venue for said fiction, but I will be sharing more of my writing with you as soon as I figure it out.

Here are my three options:

1. Continue posting fiction here.  This allows it to be seen by a larger number of people who visit here, but tends to crowd out the other content (news about that will be later in this post).
2. Start a fiction blog.  This option allows me to get a clean start for a blog, but will require setup and design work, as well as the marketing work to get people to go there and read.  I'm not sure I have the time for that effort.
3. Start an online fiction magazine/community/blog beast.  This is my favorite option.  If I could find a few other aspiring writers who want to share writing duties on a fiction blog/online magazine, it would be a great opportunity (I think) to get short fiction out on the web for people to read and critique.  It might also give some other new writers a chance to get some exposure and confidence.  I wouldn't mind designing a wordpress (NOT Blogger) site to host this.  I just don't have the money for the hosting or domain name right now.  The basic premise would be that a group of writers, myself included, would each retain administrative access to the site and each of us would post one piece of short fiction (typically 1,000 words or less - but if it runs long, hey it would be our site, damn it!) each week (serial works are also acceptable).  We would also invite others to post their original works to the blog (as guest writers), showcasing original talent.  I'm not attached to setting up/maintaining this, so if someone else has a burning desire to do that, it's fine, but I'd be more than happy to do it, allowing others to just be responsible for their writing.

Please give me feedback on the above ideas.  If you are interested in #3, please let me know!

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I also have a proposal to throw out into the void of cyberspace regarding this wonderful place I call Geekcentricity.  I think that the wide variety of interests and pursuits that are geekcentric offer an excellent opportunity to cover more aspects of geekdom than I can possibly cover alone with my interests and limited time (remember, I'm in the "Learn My Craft" phase of my very own Operation: Awesome, so I need to have time to write other projects - my game, The Broken Veil, has suffered a horrible lack of attention of late). 

With this in mind, I am initiating my own contest. More like an open call.  Here's the deal: If you have an interest in some geekcentric topic (video games - console/pc/mmo/whatever, board games, ccg's, pen & paper rpg's, photography, technology - phone/computer/whatever, geek-related pop culture, whatever - the possibilities are staggering) and a desire to share your knowledge/passion/expertise with the wider world, then I have an opportunity for you!  Here's what I need:

1. Comment on this post and tell me that you would like to write for Geekcentricity (it is totally voluntary for you, just like it is for me - I have no money to pay anyone). 
2. In your comment, include the type(s) of topic(s) you are interested in writing about.

That's all!  I will contact you and we will decide on a topic and when the post will be finished and ready for posting.  I will retain editorial control (but will let you know in advance about any major revisions) and will set up access for you to post your content here as a guest blogger.  If it works out and you enjoy it, then we can talk about continuing the process, but writing a single post in no way obligates you to any long term commitments.  The way I see it, if you're interested in geeky stuff and enjoy writing, this gives you the opportunity to share that with others without having the responsibility of coming up with daily content or dealing with the setup, marketing or maintenance of your own blog.  It also helps Geekcentricity gain more content and the perspective of fresh minds and voices.  Have a video game that you loved/hated?  Have an rpg you want to pimp?  Got a book you want to tell people about?  Cool iPhone app whose features you want to share?  Awesome new video card coming out that you think would be perfect for gaming?  Want to share the joys and trials of raising a little geek in today's world?  All of those things and more would be perfect!  What do you think?  Is anyone interested?

Okay, there are some things I need your feedback on peeps!  Help me out here.  Drop me some comments.  I'm waiting with bated breath.  Or at least a trickle of drool on my lip.

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Alpha Protocol: A Geekcentric Review

A few weeks ago, I brought you the first Geekcentric video game review.  I am please to welcome you to the second in my ongoing series of Geekcentric video game reviews.  This one is the new espionage rpg Alpha Protocol by Obsidian Entertainment/Sega.




A Geekcentric Review: Alpha Protocol Edition


I've been waiting... anticipating Alpha Protocol for well over a year now.  I put my reserve down on it after reading the first feature on it in Game Informer magazine.  As a fan of rpg's, I was down with an espionage role-playing game, a rare enough bird in its own right, that purports to have character archetypes modeled after three of the greatest icons of the genre, whose names all began, the designers noted, with the initials J.B.: James Bond, Jason Bourne and Jack Bauer.  Any game that has the kick-ass-factor of any one of those three bad-asses is a good game in my book.  Now this game comes along and claims to have the kick-assitude of all three of them?  How could you go wrong?

After a number of delays, Alpha Protocol finally hit stores on June 1, 2010.  After I finished exploring Bright Falls with Alan Wake and spent some time riding around the scrublands of Red Dead Redemption, but before I fired up the bizarre world of Deadly Premonition, I decided to step into the shoes of rogue agent Michael Thorton.

The Story:  The protagonist of Alpha Protocol is agent Michael Thorton who, like most espionage genre protagonists, is soon betrayed by his country and disavowed by his agency.  He becomes a rogue agent on the run, trying to figure out what went wrong and bring those responsible to justice.  In place is a love interest or three, starting with Mina Tang.  There is also a departmental nemesis in Sean Darcy.  Playing the role of the evil corporation is Halbech (sounds like Halliburton) Industries (there's even a W reference or two thrown in just in case you didn't get the satire).

The Graphics:  I have to be honest here and say that those first few minutes I spent with this game were almost painful.  I was fresh off two excellent games with beautiful graphics that blew me away, when I seemingly stepped back in time to the not so beautiful 1st generation XBox days with Alpha Protocol.  The graphics are definitely one of the weak points of this title.  From blank pixels to the laughable dead fish death animations, I was shocked that a game this hyped could look this bad.  If you're one of the people who needs state of the art photorealistic graphics, then this game is not for you.

The Controls/Gameplay:  Despite my initial disappointment, I stuck with it.  The dialogue mechanic in this game is not bad.  I like the timed conversations and the dialogue prompts related to attitudes, such as suave, dismissive, or professional.  Also, the execute prompt is great for those long dialogue scenes that just don't seem to be going anywhere.  The controls for other actions are also pretty well done, if somewhat confusing at times just due to the sheer number of options available.  The closest comparison I have here is one that I have heard often about this game: Mass Effect.  Just not as polished.  I also like the min-games here (always better than blatant contextual prompts) and enjoy hacking computer terminals and picking locks.  The weakest part of the control scheme is the cover system, which usually misbehaves, while the weakest gameplay components are the inane AI and the overall glitchiness (nothing like being stuck in a room when the game glitches out each time you approach the exit, only to restabilize as you get farther away from it).

The leveling aspect of this rpg is not as robust as I would like, with too few options and a path that becomes even more limited as you progress.  I definitely recommend selecting Freelancer and Operative as your Agent History and Specialization to give you the most options for customizing your character.  Even with some weaknesses here, if the gameplay and graphic were as good as Splinter Cell: Conviction, but the Alpha Protocol rpg and attitude-based dialogue systems were left intact, this game would be likely in consideration for Game of the Year.

A word on boss fights.  The way this game handled boss was annoying.  It broke me out of the otherwise narrative structure of the game, much the way bad contextual prompts do, and reminded me that I was playing a game.  Alpha Protocol handles these battles in much the same way it handles graphics.  Like a throwback to games of 5 or more years ago.  I had to pause one boss fight just to laugh at the way the graphics switched to cell shading in the middle of the fight.

Soundtrack:  Most of the time, I wasn't really conscious of the music in the game.  Most of it just isn't that memorable.  There is at least one notable exception though.  The cheesy 80's music (Autograph's "Turn Up the Radio") that plays when you encounter Russian hoodlum Konstantin Brayko was catchy (for all the wrong reasons).  This scene was reminiscent of the farm scene in Alan Wake.  If you've played both scenes, you know what I mean.

Overall:  I won't include any spoilery stuff here for those of you who may not have finished the game (like me).  I'll just close by saying that Obsidian has brought us an extremely uneven game here.  It has some big, ugly warts that definitely detract from gameplay, yet I can't stop playing it to see what impact my decisions have on the outcome of the story (I've already caused the death of one ally because I held duty above friendship).

If you've played this game already, what do you think?

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In Space No One Can Hear You Game

If you know me well as a gamer, you know that my gaming preferences lean away from sci-fi gaming.  This goes not only for tabletop rpg's, but also video games.  Sure, I've played some Mass Effect.  I've played most of the Halo games (though I am considering trading them in... GASP!).  I've played Dead Space.  I've loved me some Fallout 3.  When I was younger... okay, much younger, I played a tabletop rpg called Gamma World.  Does anybody remember Gamma World?  I think WotC did a 3E/D20 remake of the game that never really took off (there were actually 5 editions of the game), then it was lumped in as a campaign type for D20 Future.  Now, they're actually re-booting the game again for an October, 2010 launch.

Also, if you know me well as a gamer, you know that my above mentioned discrimination against the sci-fi genre actually bothers me.  I've explored it numerous times, prodding it with sharp sticks.  Picking at it like a scabbed-over, weeks-old sore.  I've squeezed the icky pus out of it.  I've tried to figure it out.  I have conclusions.  I'm not sure if they're final conclusions.  But they're what I have at this point.  I'll still keep prodding at it.

What brings me to write about this today, you ask?  Okay, so you didn't actually ask.  Actually, my last few in-post questions have gone unanswered.  But I'm stubborn.  I'm a persistent bastard.  I'm going to keep at it, because that's what I do.  What brings me to write about this today is a short post over at Gameplaywright where Will Hindmarch asks a seemingly simple question.

"Why don't sci-fi games sell like fantasy games do?"

There it is.

Will got me picking at that scab again.

Will has a good point.  In order to try to sell sci-fi games, especially of the tabletop rpg variety, the designer mixes in strong elements of fantasy.  Gamma World did it.  Warhammer 40K is an excellent example of the phenomenon.  D20 Modern/D20 Future were redolent with fantasy elements (doesn't help that they were WotC products).

There are some excellent comments on Will's short post.  Rob Donoghue mentions the lack of a "shared shorthand" akin to fantasy's "Tolkien standard."  Several others talk about the fragmentation of the sci-fi fan base.  There are several other great ones to read if you click the link.

For me, the conclusion I have come up with thus far is fairly simple.  It's space that does me in.  There's just too damn much of it.  Justin Alexander writes that "Sci-fi games are often guilty of selling the setting instead of selling a game."  He's right.  The infinite boundaries of space are an attractive selling point.  The writers plug in some cool weapons and some neat looking alien races.  They throw in some spaceships and a backstory for the world that is supposed to draw the consumer in and give them plenty of room to customize the setting, bt then they drop the ball.

The truth is, there's just too damn much space to fill in... well, in space.

If you look at the sci-fi games I've played and enjoyed, video or otherwise, most of them are pretty tightly focused.  They aren't concerned with the infinite expanse of space, but rather with the human (or inhuman) drama of fairly tight locational boundaries.  Whether they are a single spaceship (Dead Space's Ishimura), a single city (Fallout 3's DC Wasteland), or a single planet (as in Gamma World or Borderlands), the focus is tight enough to provide a large enough setting to encourage diverse encounters and scenarios, but small enough to provide boundaries.

Sometimes, a canvas can be too large.

Giant empty swaths of blank space to fill can be intimidating and stifle creativity.  Sure, we love Star Wars and Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica, but we aren't creating those settings as we play.  We're just partaking in someone else's creation as we watch the movies, or expanding on it slightly as we play the games (but gaming in those settings is still too limitless for me).

An example of a focused sci-fi game (so far as I've seen it) is David Hill's Maschine Zeit.  I've written a bit about it here previously.  It does feature a setting where space travel is a given.  But it concentrates that setting on the human and inhuman dramas that play out in focused, if not confined, locations.  David has done a good job of setting specific areas of exploration and interest and encouraging play in manageable bits.

My idea for a sci-fi game?  Take sci-fi back to its roots.  Focus on a single planetary system.  Make space travel limited.  Short distances are possible, but the longer the voyage, the riskier it is.  Exponentially.  The traveling fleet is old and unreliable.  Something happened in the past that has taken away the money or incentive to build new ships.  Maybe this is a somewhat post-apocalyptic game.  The characters are in an outpost system, far from the space traveling civilization to which they once belonged.  Some war or other catastrophe has caused most, if not all, of the military and space-worthy crews and vessels to have been long since redeployed.  Now, this small outpost is cobbling together some ships for bold adventurers to take huge risks to attempt to explore nearby planets and learn what happened, or just gather resources and pool knowledge.  Star Trek was once described as "Wagon Train to the stars." I think that this brings us back to a limited, focused setting that feels more true to that concept.  We're in a lawless frontier.  Scope is manageable.  As characters become more accomplished, enterprising GM's may wish to introduce technology that can expand the world.  It's like a space western.  I like it.

Damn.  Now I have more ideas on my plate.

What do you think?  Feel free to post your thoughts about any of this.

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Shepherd's Pie: Fourth Helping

Everybody knows what a link dump is.  Well, almost everybody.  I assure you it's not a bunch of turds all hooked together and floating in the porcelain pond.  Though I did have Turd Pudding a few weeks ago.  One blog I read calls its weekly link dump post "Applesauce."  Chuck Wendig's "Painting With Shotguns"  paints a much more gruesome and catchy title.  Pun intended.  Deal with it.  I call mine Shepherd's Pie.  Everything, all the week's awesome goodness is thrown in and mixed around.  Sometimes it comes out pretty appetizing and sometimes it just looks like puke on a plate... or on a page, as the case may be. It looks like Wednesday has become the de facto Shepherd's Pie day.  At least on Wednesdays that I decide it is.  Otherwise, it's luck of the draw.  I can do it on Saturday if I want.  It's my place.

And you're my guests.

Welcome to the 4th helping of Shepherd's Pie.

I'll keep it short, sweet, and to the point today. If you love dice, or playing love games with dice, and want to write about a dice-centric topic, Gameplaywright is hosting a Blog Carnival to commemorate the release of The Bones. There's a lot of discussion going on about the role of "just having fun" in role-playing games.  Will Hindmarch shared an excellent quote from that discussion that really spoke to me.  Here is a link to it, but I am also posting it in its entirety here:

"Because a game is about much more than 'fun.' Game play is a meaningful part of our culture. Game play engages a significant part of our personalites. Competition, strategy, puzzle-solving, collaboration, fairness, uncertainty, risk, reward -- these are elements of games that make them fun. When we play a game, we enter a special mental space, separate and different from all others in our lives. We agree -- explicitly or implicitly -- to abide by the rules so that all of the players can engage with the activity in a fair and reasonable manner. Now, 'fair and reasonable manner' can mean that I get to shoot you in the face during the game -- and you have to leave the field when I do -- but once the game is over, there's no more face-shooting.

Thus in roleplaying games, we engage with a system that challenges us. We use a set of rules that forces us from our comfort zone and encourages us to think and act in a manner we would not otherwise. We play the game. We don’t need the game to have fun. We can have fun anywhere, any time. Rather, we use the game to create unanticipated, unexpected results. We use the game to give everyone at the table a role in play. And we engage with that game as a neutral arbiter, to ensure that play is fair."

I think this is a key thing to remember.  Balance in gaming, as well as in any other facet of life, is important.  It's vital.  I'm not talking about game balance.  I'm talking about social/emotional balance.  If you feel you need the game to have "fun" with a particular person/group of people, you should take a step back.  You should be able to have fun playing the game with these people and you should be able to have fun doing other things with them.  Ideally, they should be your friends.  If every gathering you have with them is "gaming only" then why is that?  Whenever you get together, do you only play, or talk about, the game?  Do you get annoyed when people in the group want to do other things or have other interests or commitments?  Do you ignore anything they say that isn't about the game?  This seems to me to be a balance issue.

A few days ago, I shared an amazing piece by Jesse Burneko.  Well, Jesse's at it again.  He and Justin Achilli always seem to challenge me and make me think about games and my views on games.  For that, I thank you both profusely.  I have had my fair share of games that have ground to a halt or collapsed.  I think Jesse's nailed it again when he says that a major contributing factor in this phenomenon is the lack of a clear objective in the game.  He says that most role-playing games (he uses GURPS as an example) are toys.  I prefer to think of them as toolkits or frameworks.  A working game has to be compiled from this framework.  He's correct when he says that most games cannot be played straight out of the box without a lot of customization from the gamemaster.  Most of the time, the gamemaster writes plot hooks, defines characters, creates of fleshes out a game world, etc.  Rarely does the gamemaster, at least in my experience, set out a clear objective for the game.  And Jesse's right, "Have fun" is not a clear game objective.  If you read the above link, you know that everyone's definition of "fun" is different.  One paragraph in particular of Jesse's article resonated with me, because I have seen it happen at my table several times:

"In our Diaspora game Will, as the GM, was operating under the assumption that the game was fairly episodic in structure. He assumed the object of the game was to deal with a string of sci-fi space encounters as you moved relatively quickly from place to place. I, on the other hand, assumed the object of the game was to pursue my character’s personal goals (my default assumption and preference when the game fails to tell me otherwise). Since we were playing towards two different objectives the game ground to a halt. Will kept considering things done and resolved while I was considering those same situations just the tip of the iceberg."

I own this situation.  This is my fault.  The only thing that really matters is, "What am I going to do to make sure it doesn't happen again?"

I finally started playing Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption yesterday.  The game is even better than I thought it would be. I've been calling it "Grand Theft Horse" for weeks, but let me set the record straight.  This has so much more depth than a Grand Theft Auto game.  There are lots of cut-scenes, clear cut objectives, a ton of story.  John Marston is an engaging character with superb voice acting.  On top of that, the world is huge and beautifully rendered and exists with minimal loading screens.  The graphics are far better than even GTA IV.  This is a beautiful game.  I strongly recommend that you check it out.  I'll be writing a more thorough review when I get farther into the game.  I've played for about 8 hours and have barely scratched the surface.

If you have anything to share about any of these topics, please comment.  I loves me some commentage.  Also, check out the links.  There's good stuff there.

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The Hollow Kingdom: Camelot

I've been thinking for several weeks about writing a post on Camelot as the perfect fantasy setting.  A few days ago, I got the prod that I needed to make this post a reality.  Thanks to Justin Achilli for kicking me into action.

"Ask ev'ry person if he's heard the story;
And tell it strong and clear if he has not:
That once there was a fleeting wisp of glory
Called Camelot."

Camelot.  It's one of the most enduring "fantasy worlds" ever created.  The earliest stories of Camelot, of King Arthur and his court, were written in the 8th century.  That means that for about the past 1300 years, there have been stories, poems, movies, songs, video games, and all sorts of things created, all based on this same fantastic kingdom.  Forgotten Realms, eat your heart out.  Azeroth, you're just a baby.  Greyhawk?  A drop in the ocean of time.  Even you Middle Earth, are a youngster compared to that grand-master of fantasy worlds, Camelot.

This is a world so enduring, so accessible, that it became the symbol of a period of American history known for both its prosperity and its turbulence.  Like the Camelot of the medieval romances, John F. Kennedy's American Camelot was known for sterling ideals and unrivaled prosperity, set against a backdrop of lies, betrayal, family rivalries and, ultimately the destruction of the ideal.

Almost everyone knows the story.  The boy, Arthur, is merely an innocent lad.  He is seemingly not destined for power or greatness, but he is chosen by the universe to lead.  He establishes a grand kingdom.  A seat of reason and enlightenment called Camelot.  From there, Arthur leads his kingdom to a time of great peace and unparalleled achievement.  Chivalry rules the day.  Knights pick flowers for the ladies.  Things can't get any better.

"The candle that burns twice as bright, burns half as long."
        - Dr. Eldon Tyrell, Blade Runner

Everyone also knows the rest of the story.  The king's love and bride betrays him.  His family, his queen, his best friend all set the stage for the fall that must come.  We know it must, because nothing that seemingly perfect can last forever.  Even Kennedy's American Camelot ended in a dramatic, violent collapse.  The thing is, with any Camelot, we know it is coming right from the beginning.  We can sense it.  There is an undercurrent of impending doom even in the beauty and perfection.  It is the imperfect fantasy.

The imperfect fantasy.  That's the thing.  I've spent a lot of time over many years constructing fantasy worlds for my players.  If there's one thing that most world builders know, it's that the perfect fantasy is just too damn boring.  There has to be conflict to move the story.  You have to know, in the back of your mind, that Camelot is likely to fall.  Almost sure to collapse.  But for that one special band of heroes.

Look at our literary fantasy worlds.  Middle Earth is on the verge of falling to the Dark Lord of Mordor.  There is corruption everywhere.  It is only by the successes, against all odds and all reason, of the most unlikely band of heroes, that the dark tide is beaten back.  This is not the story of a perfect kingdom.

Look at our comic books.  Gotham is beset by vile villains on all sides.  Crime is rampant.  The city's leading philanthropist is murdered in cold blood on the streets of his dark Camelot.  If it were not true, Gotham would have no need of the Dark Knight.

Look at our video games.  Rapture, the ideal society, is sinking into chaos while Andrew Ryan practices at golf.  Frank Fontaine plots to control the citizenry.

There stories of Camelots are innumerable.  There is always the veneer of prosperity and perfection, but under it all lies the ugly truth.  The queen is false.  The best friend a betrayer.  The energies of the realm's protectors are spent in fruitless pursuits.  They are off questing for their holy grails while the kingdom's seamy underside is asserting itself.  The hero's family are plotting against him.  It is up to the most unlikely of heroes to, if not attempt to save the kingdom, at least to tell its tale so that Camelot may live on.  Sometimes they succeed.  Sometimes they fail.  That is in the hands of those who weave the story.  Maybe your protagonists are agents of the fall.  That is up to you.

In the end, it isn't Camelot's shining example of the ideal society that makes it the perfect fantasy setting.  It's the coming fall that makes it engaging.  It's the imperfection that makes it the enduring legend.  After all, it's but a thin veil that separates the shining Camelot from the abyss.  It could all come apart at any moment.  With as little as a single bullet or a well-placed spear.

Do you find this model to be present in any fantasy worlds you may have built?  Are there any examples in popular culture that I've missed (I'm sure there are)?

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Alan Wake: A Geekcentric Review

Yesterday afternoon I finished Alan Wake.  As most of my regular readers know, I am a horror junkie.  I love all things horror (okay, so all quality things), be it novels, short stories, video games or movies (though I'm not too keen on random and gratuitous splatters of gore).  I know this game fits more into the suspense-thriller genre, but it's close enough.  In fact, one of the things I loved about this game are the homages it pays, whether intentionally or unintentionally, to other great horror icons from Stephen King to The Twilight Zone to Silent Hill, Bioshock and even some scenes reminiscent of Resident Evil and the Left 4 Dead games.  Now, I've read reviews that complained about this title's facial animations and I know that there are people who will like this game and people who will dislike it.  Screw all that.  Welcome to:

A Geekcentric Review: Alan Wake Edition

Just so we're on the same page here, this isn't IGN or Ko-freakin-taku here.  I have my own gaming preferences and this review will reflect that.  I also have to include some frame of reference to the tabletop horror rpg I'm working on, because I did play it with that in mind.  Please note, that I'll keep any spoilers at the end of the review, appropriately labeled, and won't betray any major plot points.

The Story:  Alan Wake is the story of a writer who is suffering from debilitating (for a writer anyway) writer's block.  He and his wife take a trip to the seemingly idyllic small town of Bright Falls, WA for a relaxing vacation. While in Bright Falls, Alan starts to live through the events of a novel he wrote, but doesn't remember writing.  Things in Bright Falls get much more sinister at night and Alan's only feeble protection from the evils besetting the town is light.  This light can come from anything from tiny flashlights to giant spotlights.  It is up to Alan to save himself, the town, and those he holds dear from the evil that hangs over (and under) the town.

I really like the story in this game.  It kept me engaged and wondering what was going to happen next.  The manipulation of light and shadow added an interesting dimension to the game.  There are also some great plot twists along the way.  The biggest weaknesses in this area are the novel excerpts you find along the way, which are poorly written, leading me to believe that Alan isn't that great of a writer to begin with; and the times when story is sacrificed for gameplay.  The latter was particularly evident during the farm scene when the game briefly leaves its strong narrative roots and ventures into arcade shooting gallery territory.

The game is structured into episodes, like a television series, and plays like a tv adaptation of a novel.  Alan spends much of the game running his internal monologue or narration so that you know what he's thinking and how he feels.  I like the structure of the game very much, and I found that the narrative monologue helped cut down on some of what in most games becomes artificial and forced expositional dialogue.  There are a few flashbacks in the game, but they are not too jarring and are handled fairly well.

The Graphics:  The visuals in this game fall into a few different categories, some of which are handled better than others.  The wide vistas of Bright Falls and surrounding area are beautiful.  I found myself occasionally stopping to admire some of the more breathtaking views in the game.  The character modeling is uneven and goes from adequate and occasionally good to distractingly bad.  Alan must use some strong hair gel to keep it shellacked to his head even during strenuous physical activity.  I didn't find the facial animations to be particularly distracting.  I also didn't see too much extraneous and inappropriate hand gesturing (see Premonition, Deadly for an example).  The vehicles and other props are handled pretty well, as are the enemies that Alan encounters along the way.

I love the way the cinematics are incorporated into the game.  I often found my attention pulled in by a cinematic without even realizing it until I saw the graphics shift back into gameplay mode.  Throughout the game are radios and televisions that Alan can turn on to watch the live action Night Springs tv show (a la The Twilight Zone) or listen to the friendly local radio personality.

The Controls:  The controls are the biggest weakness of Alan Wake.  Thankfully, the game is structured in such a fashion that it never becomes a game-breaking concern.  The left analog/left bumper combination to get Alan to dodge attacks is unwieldy at best, and at worst doesn't work at all.  I did have this cost me Alan's life a few times when a dodge didn't register and I was pummeled by an enemy.  The other side effect of the dodge mechanic is that most of the time, when Alan runs, he starts with a strange looking stumble step, as the interface thinks you are trying to dodge before it realizes you are just running.  Shooting at enemies is also tricky and takes getting used to the games reticule being attached to Alan's flashlight beam.  I often found myself hitting the left trigger to unnecessarily boost the flashlight beam before pulling the right trigger to fire.  This cost me battery life on the flashlight, but I imagine it was reflexive due to the controls of games like Call of Duty that use that left trigger, right trigger combo.  The flashlight boosting mechanic was cool, if a bit metagame, but was difficult to pull off with vehicle headlights.  I often found myself changing direction unintentionally when I needed to boost the car headlights to take out an enemy.  As far as the driving controls go, I think this game nailed them.  I thought they were better even than Grand Theft Auto IV, with a more stable camera.

EDIT:  I realized that I forgot to mention contextual prompts...  I hate them.  I despise contextual prompts.  They kill my suspension of disbelief and remind me that I'm playing a game.  Resident Evil 5 did this constantly, prompting me to "press B, press B, press B, PRESS A, now hold down the left analog stick and swizzle it from side to side" and then making me repeat the scene if I didn't get the sequence and timing correct.  Terrible.  Alan Wake has some contextual prompt (such as starting generators, etc.), but they follow my cardinal rule of contextual prompts:  If you're going to use them, make them do the same thing every time. Remedy follows this, so they don't drive me crazy or kill suspension of disbelief.  The contextual prompts here are done pretty well.

Soundtrack:  This game has one of the best video game soundtracks I've ever experienced.  The music is well selected and utilized to optimal dramatic effect.  I love the music between episodes and always listened to the entire song.

Spoilery Stuff:  This paragraph (and only this one) contains some moderate spoilers.  If you don't want that, just skip it!  I noticed two fairly serious plot holes in this game.  The first is with Emil, who we never really meet.  We are warned about him, being told that he was Thomas Zane's apprentice and told to beware betrayal by Emil or a supposed ally like him.  Only it is never developed.  Also, there is a scene in the Sheriff's Office when Alan's agent, Barry Wheeler (who starts the game as a pretty annoying character, but is stealing scenes by the end), is on the telephone alerting a network of people that is dubbed "Night Springs" (like the in-game television series) to help combat the evil, but who never show up to help out.  I like the ambiguous ending and have been pondering the significance of the game's last line since I finished it.  Also, where does the cardboard Alan Wake standee disappear to?  Barry spends so much time carrying it around that I expected it to have some significance.  I also expected the radio host to have a more prominent role in the story.

Overall:  I think this is an excellent game overall.  It handled some of the themes that I plan on tackling with my tabletop rpg pretty well, such as the division of the action in to manageable bits and the shift from the "normal" world into a world where the paranormal is ordinary and back again.  I've read a lot of discussions about how this game isn't scary at all, but I think it is scary and atmospheric and well done.

There you have it, folks.  My take on Alan Wake.  I loved this game, even if it does have a few weaknesses.  I definitely recommend it for all of you survival horror and suspense fans out there.  I am anxiously awaiting the sequel.

Have you played Alan Wake?  If so, let me know what you thought!

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Behind the Shift

This morning I was having some internal debate with myself about mechanics vs. setting in THE GAME.  Thankfully, it didn't come to blows.  It remained a civilized discussion.  The internal discussion revolved around which sections I am working on writing and in which order (setting my writing plan).  At the core of it is one of those chicken or egg questions that can be answered different ways by different people, but I think defines the core of any game (notice that in any incarnation of Dungeons & Dragons, the mechanics are the first thing in the book, while in the White Wolf games, the setting comes first).  What comes first, the setting or the mechanics?

Obviously to me, the setting comes first.  When I began to hatch this diabolical plot to actually sit down and write the game I wanted to play, I had to define the setting first.  I didn't decide on a set of mechanics, then build a setting to fit.  For that matter, are setting and mechanics independent of one another, or can they be?

When I think of setting, I am thinking of more than just the world in which the action of the game takes place.  I am thinking more along the lines of the "story-world."  In my mind, the "story-world" is the combination of the meta plot of the setting and the environmental factors that directly influence, or are directly influenced by the circumstances of the world that are unique to this particular game setting.

For this game in particular, my first thought was that I needed a world that was dark and threatening.  Also, I wanted it to take place in the modern world.  From there, I started listing some preferences.  I didn't want the game to rely on the typical tropes of modern horror tabletop role-playing games.  Hence, I wasn't too keen on zombies, ghosts, vampires, werewolves or mages being the major players in the game world.  Those are all excellent horror tropes, and work well, but I wanted a departure from that.  The average horror gamer knows a lot about all of those things.  Hell, the average gamer or would-be gamer knows many different varieties of them, their ecology, their habits, how they live (unlive?), how they are destroyed, etc.  There are tabletop rpg's out there that handle all of those tropes quite well.  That is not territory I wished to tread.

I also decided early on that it was a must that the characters play ordinary schmoes.  I didn't want supers or monsters as characters.  I didn't even want characters who knew what  the hell they were getting into.  I wanted "Joe the Plumber."  I think that some Cthulhu games (not Delta Green) manage that pretty well, but I don't want the characters in my game to have the gradual spiral into insanity be their only option.  As I've written before, pre-existing games come with a built-in mindset.  Players who know the game almost unfailingly play it a certain way.  So, if I announced that I was playing a certain game, even if I set it in a completely different world and changed most of the rules, but called it... I don't know... Picking Daisies With Cthulhu or Vampire: The Office, people would approach the "hybrid" game the same way they approach a typical game of CoC or Vampire.

So, I knew I wanted ordinary people as characters in today's modern world.  I also knew that I had to do something that would enforce that this was a horror game.  I had to isolate the characters and, vicariously, the players as well.  One additional concern I had was something that has always struck me about horror games in general:  It is damned hard to instill and maintain that feeling of horror (or dread or terror) for long.  In a movie, you have a two hour (or so) timeframe.  In a novel, the reader can put the book down when the tension needs to be released.  I wanted a game mechanic that reinforces breaks in tension at the appropriate points.  Who is to determine these points?  That is where "the shift" was born.

"The Shift" is the defining feature of the setting.  It in fact makes the setting what it is.  Yet, at its heart, it is also a mechanic (perhaps also the defining one) .  To me, it is a marriage of setting and mechanic.  When the players (and the characters) first realize "the Shift" is happening, or even worse has already happened, that reinforces the horror.  It is an unknown thing.  It is dangerous.  It is surreal and extra-normal.  It gives the players the sense, like good music in any drama, thriller or horror movie, that "something is about to happen."  The gamemaster can make the Shift happen when appropriate to the story.  Or maybe the players can, through their characters, eventually find ways (albeit unreliable ones) to spark the event.  Then, when the tension needs to be ramped down, or cut off completely, when the players need to piss or eat or smoke or just tell jokes and talk about video games (or better yet, tell jokes about video games), the Shift can happen again.  The characters are back in the real world.  The immediate danger is past.  The characters have time to rest, research, resupply, and recuperate.  The 4 R's.  The scene, the episode, is over.  Then, before plunging them back into the unknown, the gamemaster and players can do a brief recap of events and  prepare for the next episode.

Props to Alan Wake for showing me what that structure could do for (and to) a game.  I started working on this a few months before that game was released and had no idea that I would see glimpses of the potential for what I was working on actively demonstrated in that game.  Silent Hill has always used it, but Alan Wake makes it even more of a narrative technique.

Now, it's your turn.  What games have you played that have a setting/mechanic feature that reinforces the game to you?  What is that setting element/mechanic?  They can be video games, board games or tabletop role-playing games.  Share with me!

Photo Credit: Stephen Calsbeek

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Turd Pudding

In the proud tradition of "Shepherd's Pie" (or Sheppard's Pie, as the case may be)... I bring you "Turd Pudding"...

As promised, I have a quick teaser with some information on the game I've been working on, which I'm giving a new working title (since it's what I've been calling it anyway lately and since nobody really like the first working title - which was way too long).  But first, a few words about Geekcentricity and search engines.

If you run a blog or a website, there are a few tools available that can give you a picture, or more like a few snapshots, of what your web traffic is like.  I primarily use two of those tools: Google Analytics and Sitemeter.  Before you chastise me for even caring about who visits my site and/or how often, you should know that I realize how inaccurate these things are.  A percentage of my readers get their Geekcentricity fix from the RSS feed.  I use Feedburner to track that, but with all of these tools, I know I still don't get a realistic picture of my traffic.

Why do I bother?  Because it amuses me.  I basically track it for shits and giggles.  And yes.  I can giggle with the best of schoolgirls.

Where was I?  Oh, right.  Tracking worthless statistics with inaccurate tools.  Gotcha.  I'm a baseball fan, so I know all about worthless statistics.  When I go to a game, I don't just watch the game while consuming overpriced food and drink that will speed me to an early heart attack.  I do all that with a pencil and scorepad in hand.  Also, I was DMing when TSR introduced the Comeliness stat, so don't even chastise me about useless statistics.

Sometimes, though... Sometimes I find something interesting.  For example, when I first started Geekcentricity, I got a few visits from someone at LucasArts.  I was all geeked out.  Someone from LucasArts visited my new little blog!  It was like being visited by angels.  Then I started to wonder if I'd inadvertently screwed up and violated copyright or something.  Since my door is still intact, I have to assume that I didn't.  I just wish whoever it was would come back and check out the site now.

Another thing I find amusing is looking at what search engine terms people use to find Geekcentricity.  They used to just be boring and predictable.  I used to read Chuck Wendig's posts where he mentioned the bizarre shit people typed into Google to find his Terrible Minds blog and wonder how he got listed as a result for some of those searches, and lament over why I didn't get any hits from interesting searches.  I lament no more.  Instead of lamenting, I can share some of the wacky shit people have entered to find this place.

Fittingly, the two most common search terms people have been using to get here are geekcentricity and geekcentricity.com.  The 3rd most common result is still "i4e iPhone" which I have never used, reviewed or discussed here.  Below that is the ever popular "'mi llamo es' 'Bob Brent Spiner'" and my two strangest search terms "laxatives she shits herself" and "pissing video."  What the hell?!?  Unless I've been sleep posting (again), I've never written about these things.  You won't find either of those things here anywhere, I promise. Just don't look behind that door.

In case you missed my whole Geek Day post, I've been spending some time playing Alan Wake the last few days and I am really impressed.  The game is divided into episodes (which I mentioned as a preference in my post yesterday).  Each episode after the first begins with an intro of "In the Last Episode of Alan Wake" much like a television series.  I also have to say that the soundtrack is the best in any video game I've ever played (not exaggerating, I pay attention to music), with the music being arranged and positioned just like it would be in a tv series.  I also can't wait to play the travesty that is Deadly Premonition.  The more I read about this game, the more anticipation I build up for it.  Not to mention that I still need to finish Bioshock 2 and Splinter Cell: Conviction and haven't even started Red Dead Redemption yet.  Did I mention that Alpha Protocol releases in a few weeks?  More on that title closer to launch.

Finally, I haven't written much about my game over the past few days.  I had a busy weekend with the day job, but I've been working on it whenever I can.  I have two things I can share with you.

First, the working title.  I knew that my previous one was not the best, but for my own brain's sake, I needed to call it something.  I also  knew that I'd probably burn through a dozen or more working titles before I settle on one that's worth using.  With that in mind, I have a new working title.  For the time being, I'll be using:
The Dark Shift.

What do you think?  I am again soliciting your feedback for this working title.  Please, let me know.

I have also settled on the core attributes I will be using in character creation.

Since a portion of my backstory for the game is derived from Hopi prophecies about the coming of the "Fifth World" (too bad that title is already in use for an RPG by Jef Godesky), I will be dividing attributes into three categories: Body, Mind and Spirit.  The attributes in each category are as follows:

Body
Strength
Stamina
Agility

Mind
Intelligence
Reasoning
Perception

Spirit
Will
Stability
Charm

Each attribute will be ranked on an expanded 9-point Fudge scale (which uses adjectives to describe all traits) as follows:

• (Legendary)
• Excellent 
• Great
• Good
• Fair
• Mediocre
• Poor
• Terrible
• Abysmal

Legendary is in parentheses because it is a level on par with the Strength of Hercules, the Reasoning of Stephen Hawking, or the Charm of Don Juan. 

I'll let you process the above and be back in a few days with more detailed explanations.  Comments are welcome.  Just keep in mind that I have more than this written and have not posted the full explanations of everything at this point, but if you're familiar with Fudge, you should be able to dig into it pretty quickly.

Also, I can see the need at some near future point, to move the more specific game information to a more private location.  With that in mind, I will be creating a site accessible to my playtest group and others who will be giving input into the process.  Stay tuned for details on that as well.

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Geekcentricity's Gaming Guide - Video Version

You've been naughty.  I thought we had an agreement.  In my last post, I said that I was going to show you mine, but first you had to show me yours.  Well, nobody bared their dirty little naked video game secrets for me.  What am I supposed to do, just show you mine without your reciprocation?  What do you think I am?  An exhibitionist?  Easy?

Okay.  You're right.  I am easy.  But you've still been naughty.  You all deserve to be spanked.  Except you.  Yeah, that's right.  YOU. You still deserve it, but you'd enjoy it too much.  Everyone else, line up and prepare for your punishment.

Since I can't virtually spank anyone (I don't even have a copy of Record of Agarest War for XBOX 360 to pretend with either), the only punishment I have available is to go ahead and share my little manifesto on what I look for in a video game.

The other day I was browsing my feed reader and came across an excellent post on Kotaku by Luke Plunkett called "What Are You Looking For In A Video Game?"  Working in the video game industry (and I use a loose definition of the term) for the past few years, I have often thought about this question.  I'm pretty selective in my game purchases.  When I purchase a game, I usually don't run home, play it all the way through in one sitting and then rush back to the store to trade it in on something shiny and new.  I usually purchase games for the long haul.  I make a commitment.  It's rare that I ever trade a game in.  If it's not something I'm going to want to keep, then I usually don't make the purchase.  That's what rental is for.  Of course, I'm a collector.  If I love a movie, I buy the DVD.  I have a huge book collection.  I have close to a thousand audio CD's.  Hell, I even own a ton of LP's on vinyl and almost as many audio cassettes (thought my 8-track collection disappeared somewhere along the way).  No, if I am going to drop $60 or so on a game, it had better be worth keeping.

My preferences in video games may not be anything like yours, but I have standards.  Sometimes I lower them to get what I want, but hey, who doesn't, right?  So, if you want to know what I look for in a video game, then you have come to the right place.  Using Luke's post as a guide (and some gratuitous alliteration, here is my:

Geekcentricity's Gaming Guide - Video Version

Story Is King -  I'm not saying that the game has to have the equivalent of a Pulitzer or Hugo award quality story, but I like the events of the game to be basically story-driven.  I know that it's been debated whether or not games can tell an effective story, and Chuck Wendig has several excellent posts on his blog about this very topic (here, here, here, and here).  If you're interested in the topic, I highly recommend reading them.  Regardless, I like to feel that there is a story driving the action and that I am advancing that story as I play the game.  Also, the story must be interesting/intriguing to me.  An example of this is Grand Theft Auto IV.  Now, a GTA game, or most "sandbox" games for that matter, doesn't usually have a strong story to drive it.  This one, and the subsequent Lost & Damned and Ballad of Gay Tony expansions, were exceptions.  From the first trailer, where we learn about our protagonist, Niko Bellic, the poor immigrant who came to our country trying to escape his sordid past and make a better future only to find that this new land of opportunity was just as soaked in blood, corruption and violence as the world he left behind, I was hooked.  Sure, that story has been done countless times in almost every medium imaginable, but there's a reason for that.  I love books and movies, and I'm okay if a game plays like a movie with the player getting to make some of the decisions that affect the direction of the story.  Which brings me to...

Decisions That Matter -  I like it when the choices I make have some impact on the direction of the story.  I don't care if you have the most well-crafted story ever presented in video game form; if you don't let the player (me) affect that story with the decisions I make in the game, your not going to hold my interest.  A few years ago, I was really looking forward to the game Kane & Lynch: Dead Men.  I love mob stories.  I'm a huge fan of the Godfather movies, along with Reservoir Dogs and other "crimeland cinema."  The story behind Kane & Lynch is a good one, I just got the feeling when I was playing that the writers thought it was so good that they didn't want me to ruin it.  In other words, I don't just want to press buttons because that's what I'm supposed to do when my button pressing doesn't affect the outcome (except potentially causing my character's death).

Contextual Prompts Kill Me -  I am definitely not a fan of gratuitous contextual prompts.  To me, these are a metagame conceit.  They kill my suspension of disbelief.  I don't have great hand-eye coordination or reflexes.  I don't want to have a "press A 16 times in rapid succession then press B and hold it for 3 seconds" pissing contest with a machine.  Why am I pressing "A" all in this context when for the rest of the game, that button does something else?  Make the controls consistent and not a county fair midway contest.  Resident Evil 5, while a good game overall, was full of pointless contextual prompt pissing contests that pulled me out of the engaging story and reminded me that I was holding a controller.  Instead, keep me in the story and let me use the same controls I learned at the beginning of the game.  Even though I'm a huge fan of survival horror (and horror in general) Resident Evil 5 got traded in as soon as I finished it (and I had the collector's edition).  I almost never do that.  I just hated replaying the same 10 minute scene a dozen times just because I couldn't get the button sequence straight.  Leading me right into...

Accessibility -  Like I said, I don't have great hand-eye coordination or reflexes.  Blame my mother for smoking when she was pregnant if you want, just don't make a game unplayable to me because of it.  When I read a book, the author doesn't make me do strength tests to see if I'm worthy of getting to the ending (unless we're talking about Stephen King's The Stand: Complete & Uncut Edition).  When I watch a movie, I don't have to press random buttons on the remote control to get to the next scene.  The "Play" button always does the same thing.  Don't make me learn complex button sequences (see above).  Don't make me feel stupid and uncoordinated by forcing me to repeat large sections of the game ad nauseam until my eyes glaze over and I start to drool on my controller.  Let me get immersed into the game and keep it moving forward. the aforementioned Kane & Lynch and Resident Evil 5 are offenders here, while Bioshock is a great example of how to keep me immersed in the story by keeping the game accessible.  Accessibility also goes for the supplemental materials that are packaged with, or available for, a game.  I want a clear, well written instruction manual.  I want the option of a quality strategy guide (I like the printed book better than having to stop playing, get up and walk to the computer, find the information I need, then go back to the 360 and start playing again) with maps and clear, concise descriptions and bulleted lists of things like achievemens and such.

Social Experience If Appropriate -  Sometimes I purchase a game so that I can enjoy playing online with my friends.  Like it or not, gaming has become a social medium.  Back in my old life (and profession), I used to play the occasional round of golf for the social connections that came with chasing a small, round, white object across acres of chemically treated grass, braving snakes and sometimes even large alligators (because my golf balls were always equipped with homing devices that sought out water, woods, and even sand).  Now, in some circumstances, video games serve the same function for me as a round of golf did then (and a video game is cheaper than a single round of golf).  So, I do own some games just for purely social reasons.  One of the best social games I've played is Call of Duty: World at War.  Besides having Kiefer Sutherland as one of its voice actors, it allows players on XBOX Live that are in a party together to stay in party chat.  Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 doesn't allow this, so it isn't as good as a social experience.  Party chat allows me to talk to my friends and saves me from having to listen to all of the 8 year old kids curse like salty sailors while they teabag each other.  Just as importantly, don't try to shoehorn a social experience into a game that doesn't lend itself to that.  Some games just don't need a social element.  The original Bioshock is a work of art and a complete game, without a multiplayer option.  Same for Fallout 3.  Have you ever played the multiplayer on Bioshock 2?  This is a game that didn't need a social element.  Don't force it.  So many games are trying to be Call of Duty to capture a segment of  that multiplayer audience.  There are enough Call of Duty clones out there already, so stick to what your game does best.  And yes, Dead Space 2 design team, I'm talking to you.

Quality Acting  - The acting, voice or motion capture, doesn't have to be Oscar quality, but it shouldn't look like something from the big screen on MST3K (somebody seriously needs to make a show like that for video games).  Bad acting is bad acting no matter the medium.  Good acting, like Mark Hamill as the Joker in Batman: Arkham Asylum, can take a good game and turn it into a great game.  Like I said before, just being chastised by Jack Bauer, I mean Kiefer Sutherland,  in Call of Duty: World at War, made me want to do better, so that I could hear him say, "Nice work, Marines!"  Even animation should be considered along with the acting.  Don't have the character make inane and inappropriate hand gestures while talking, or give her a flirtatious, inviting facial expression while she's telling me about the giant creatures who kidnapped her child.

Beauty Is Only Pixel Deep, But It's Important -   I want to play games that look good.  If I want to play something that looks like it was made 20 years ago, I'll pull out my NES.  There are some games being made today with incredible visual realism.  LA Noir looks like it's going to be a revolutionary game in this aspect (especially if Red Dead Redemption is indicative of where Rockstar is going graphically).  Good graphics are, to me, as important as good controls.  Graphics problems (among other things) killed Alone In the Dark and made The Saboteur less than it could have been.  On the other hand, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is a beautiful, nearly photorealistic game.  Color is an important consideration here.  Fallout 3 used some green hues to give the world that post-apocalyptic look, but looking at that green-tinted scenery for hours on end made me feel nauseous.  Try changing your HUD color to blue to save your eyes on that one (I'm glad the player gets that option in Fallout 3).

Controls That Make Sense -  If you've ever played the Saw game, you probably found it next to impossible to shoot with any accuracy (unfortunately, Alan Wake is proving fairly difficult in this regard as well).  Give me a control scheme that makes sense and stick with it.  The Medal of Honor games had a great control scheme.  I like the controls in them better than in the Call of Duty games.  The designers of both franchises understand that you need to be consistent though.

If I Wanted To Ride the Rails, I'd Take the Train -  I love traveling by train.  Actually, it's my preferred method of travel.  I don't have to drive, but I do have the time to relax en route to my destination (airplanes just get me there too fast) and the freedom to get up and move around.  I just don't like games that treat me like I'm on a railroad.  I don't want to be given only one path between point A and point B.  Scene blocks are the bane of my existence.  It really bothers me when I'm walking down a street in a game and I suddenly come to a jumbled stack of debris that blocks my path.  I know... My beloved Silent Hill games are egregious offenders in this category.  I believe that even a survival horror game can be made with a wider path, if not an open-world environment.  Kane & Lynch (yes, I keep picking on this title) was a game that punished the player for trying to take an alternate path between objectives.  If you tried to deviate even a little, the game forced you back onto the tracks.  Dragon Age: Origins, for all of its visual beauty, was also a bit on the restrictive side in this regard.  On the other end of the spectrum, I rarely felt boxed in on Bioshock.  Also, Rockstar is the king of open-world games.  They give me choices and let me forge my own way through the landscape.  Also, Fallout 3 has such a huge world that just exploring it can take dozens of hours.

Time is Money -  Time and money are both things I never seem to have enough of.  When I was a teenager, my friends and I used to have games of Risk that lasted for weeks (our parents loved having the board set up on a table in the middle of the living room for long periods of time).  We used to play Dungeons & Dragons almost every day (sometimes all day... sometimes all day & all night and all day the next day).  I no longer have the luxury of time.  I work a more than full time job.  I have a family (my wife & dog count as a family).  I have household responsibilities and recently started a small business.  I also have my writing projects.  Every now and then, I even need to sleep.  I don't have anywhere near as much time for games as I would like.  Even though I love huge, immersive open-world games with hundreds of hours of content (Fallout 3, Fable II and GTA IV, I'm staring at YOU), I rarely have the time to make a sizable dent in them.  So, those games take me years to finish.  Yes.  You read that correctly.  Not months.  Years.  Hell, I'm a fast reader.  I can read a 300 page book in about 6 hours.  Still, because of the size and scope of it, Stephen King's The Stand: Complete & Uncut Edition (one of my favorite books) took me about 3 months to read (so maybe King did give me an endurance test on that one).  I even have to plan my schedule carefully to fit in a 2 hour movie (don't even get me started on fitting in a trip to the time sink known as Wal-Mart - I have a theory that time passes differently there than in the outside world), and once I get behind on a tv series, it takes me forever to catch up (Supernatural, I promise I'll be catching up soon).  For these reasons, I like my games to be built with modern time commitments in mind.  An ideal game, for me, would be about 6-8 hours long OR divided into segments of manageable length.  I finished Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in a single sitting.  So far, Alan Wake is working well in that respect.  It's constructed in an episodic format, like a television series, with episodes that are self-contained enough that I can stop playing after I finish one and not feel like I've lost all momentum in the story if I don't get to play again for a few days.  For all its faults, Alone In the Dark was built in similar fashion.  Even GTA IV gives me short story arcs/missions so that I can do the same thing.  On the other hand, Fable II is a game I look at on the shelf and am not sure when I'll be able to get back to it.  I don't remember where I was in the story and quickly lost all momentum after not playing it for a while.  The time I spend gaming is a valuable investment and I want to spend it wisely.

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So, there you have it.  My gaming manifesto.  I realize that some of these points fly in the face of conventional thoughts about video games.  So what?  It's my list.  You're welcome, in fact I encourage you, to make your own list.

I've shown you mine.  It's hanging out here for the whole world to see.  I even wrote it while on some heavy pain medication (I rarely take anything stronger than OTC Ibuprofen, so this has been adventure).  Now it's your turn.  Show me yours.  What do you look for in a video game?

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Happy Friki Day!

That's it.  I've stumbled onto the truth.  May 18th must be some sort of geek holiday.  Is there a "Geek Day"?  Like Fathers' Day but only with gadgets and games and all sorts of geeky goodness?

[checks Google]

Why, yes.  Yes Virginia, there is a day for us.  And it is in May.  Unfortunately it's not May 18th, but instead May 25th.  I should've known.  "Geek Pride Day" has been celebrated on May 25th, the anniversary of the premiere of the first Star Wars film in 1977, since 2006.  Interestingly enough, the holiday first rose to prominence in Spain.  Wait... a Geek holiday... with a date set because of Star Wars... started and became a national craze... in Spain and not the US?  Wow.  I think we kind of dropped the ball on that one.

Friki is the Spanish word for geek or nerd, so 25 Mayo is the date for El Dia del Orgullo Friki.  Geek Pride Day.  Thankfully the day has caught on in America and Canada, so we do have an excuse to celebrate.  As for me, I'll be celebrating a week early this year.

That's right.  Tomorrow, May 18th (also known in Spain as 18 de Mayo), is my Geek Pride Day.  Unfortunately, because I work in a Geek-based industry (video games), I won't have the day off.  But I am taking the next three days off for a spectacular Geek Week orgy of writing (mostly on the game I'm developing), blogging (more writing), and video gaming.  That last is the reason for the celebration.

Tonight at midnight (which is technically tomorrow morning for you sticklers out there) there are some games releasing that I've been waiting for months to be able to play.  Of the highest profile games being released, I'll be purchasing two of them (I've had them on pre-order for months) at the midnight launch.  Another will have to wait until I've made some headway with the first two, as I have an incredible backlog of games to play and, with my writing project in full swing, I'm not going to add it to that stack just yet.

I'll start with the game I won't be likely to play at all.

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands is one of the four big titles dropping at midnight.  I won't be playing because I've never been a huge fan of Ubisoft's franchise.  This one takes place in the temporal gap between Sands of Time and The Warrior Within.  The main feature of the game seems to be huge combats, with the titular prince fighting up to 50 enemies at a time.  Hopefully, it's better than the 2008 entry in this franchise.  The true focus of the game is to generate hype for the Jake Gyllenhaal Prince of Persia movie that opens in theaters later this month.  Hence the giant cinematic battles in the game.

Video Games | Prince of Persia: TFS | Destiny of a Kingdom Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

The game that is going to have to wait for me to play it is Disney's Split Second.  This game is reminiscent of the old David Carradine film, Death Race 2000.  The premise is mostly identical.  The player takes the role of a driver in a reality television show built around an auto race.  In the race, drivers get the power to detonate high explosives, cause building and bridge collapses, and otherwise take out their fellow drivers.  The only thing missing is the assassination plot at the end.  I got to play a build of this game last year and it was a ton of fun.  It is a white knuckle, fast reaction game where dodging explosions and debris forces split second decision making.  So, the title is appropriate if nothing else.  I will probably rent this game first to see if I want to buy it or just give it a single play-through.



The last two titles launching tonight are Alan Wake, which I wrote about a few days ago, and Red Dead Redemption.

For weeks, I've been calling Red Dead Redemption "Grand Theft Horse."    After all, it is made by Rockstar Games, the folks who brought us all of the Grand Theft Auto games.  The game has two of the features I like most in video games: an open-world environment and story-driven action.  The story was the only reason I liked GTA IV.  I've never been a fan of the GTA games, but GTA IV had Niko Bellic and a story that drew me in.  RDR has John Marston.  The player takes the role of Marston, a former outlaw who has now settled down.  That is, until the newly-formed Bureau of Investigations kidnaps his family and forces him to hunt down his former gang of outlaws.  The story is quite similar to Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch.  The game looks beautiful so far, and I can't wait to play it.  I still think Alan Wake will make it into my XBOX 360 first, but this one will follow soon after.

Video Games | Red Dead Redemption | Launch Trailer HD

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Speaking of video games, a few months ago, I was surprised by the arrival of a game I'd never heard of before, with a release price of only $19.99.  The game was called Deadly Premonition.  I considered checking it out, but after reading the review on IGN, which gave the game a Terrible Rating (2.0 out of 10), I decided to pass it up.  Then I happened upon another article.  This one sang the praises of the game, calling it "so bad it's good."  Deadly Premonition is a campy Japanese open world survival horror rpg that mixes Twin Peaks, the aforementioned Grand Theft Auto, and Resident Evil.  Yes.  You read that correctly.  This has to be the worst game ever made for the XBOX 360, and I'm afraid my system may commit suicide by red ringing when I fire it up, but I can't wait to play it.  Take a look at the trailer and see what you think?  Does it make Alone In the Dark (2008) look better?

I read an excellent article on Kotaku this morning by Luke Plunkett.  It's called "What Are You Looking For In A Video Game?"  Luke's preferences are quite similar to mine (Luke, are you my doppelganger?), and I highly recommend this article, if for nothing else than to get you to think about why you like the games you do like.

 This brings me to the obvious question: What are you looking for in a video game?  Let's play a little game of "Show me yours and I'll show you mine" shall we?  I'll be sharing mine in my post on Wednesday (5/19).
  After I sleep off my Geek Day video game induced hangover a bit.  On Thursday (5/20), I'll be sharing more about the tabletop survival horror role-playing game I'm working on.

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Alone In Bright Falls - Hoping Alan Wake Lives Up To The Hype

See More Alan Wake Screenshot at IGN.com

I don't play video games nearly as often as I'd like to be able to.  On top of the demands of normal life, my day job has added a little extra pressure lately.  There's also the writing.  Let's face it.  Right now, the writing is far more important than gaming.  I'm working on the game I've been writing about here on Geekcentricity.  I've got at least one other project on the back burner, simmering away, getting a few notes and such every now and then, but since the game is starting to really come to to a "rolling boil" in my brain, it's been getting the bulk of my writing attention.  Then there's this place.  I'm still here.  Still writing things other than the game.  And posting them here on Geekcentricity.  But I can see things gravitating.  Most things have been tying back to the game.  Even when I write about something else, I still see the relationship.  I'm okay with that.  I know that it will come back around.  I do cycles.  Since you're strapped in for the ride here, you might as well get used to it.  It'll make the trip must more pleasant.

Where were we?  Oh yeah... video games.

There are a couple of games I'm really looking forward to.  One of them is a game that's been scaring the hell out of me even though it doesn't come out for another 10 days.  It is a horror-themed game, but that's not what's been scaring me.  I'm scared because this game has the potential to be either phenomenal or really, really bad.  The game is Alan Wake.

I know.  The developer, Remedy Entertainment, isn't calling it a horror game.  They're calling it an "action thriller."  Even so, it still looks like it can pack a pretty good scare.  I just hope it works.  Sure, Remedy has the Max Payne games on its corporate resume.  But this game just looks like it's going to break a lot of rules.  That can be a good thing, or it can be something that the XBOX 360 audience is just not ready for, even if they do everything right.

The narrative structure of the game is arranged into episodes like a television series.  It's even said to have been inspired by television series like Twin Peaks, Lost, and X-Files.  I won't go too far into the setting or plot of the game other than to say it is set in a seemingly idyllic small town (Silent Hill anyone?) where the protagonist has gone to break out of a funk-inspired writer's block.  His wife disappears (Silent Hill again?) and he begins searching all over town to find out what's going on.  Except he finds out that he's written a novel that he doesn't remember writing (the game is also inspired by the work of Stephen King - The Dark Half seems to be an influence here).  And the horror novel that he wrote, but doesn't remember?  Well, it starts coming to life.

I can't wait to play this game.  It's been in development for years (first announced at E3 in 2005).  It has an ESRB rating of "Teen."  Those things scare me as much as any game content I've seen.  Not that a game has to be rated "Mature" to be good, but it's a horror... errr, I mean action thriller game.  I just associate the genre with some gore and the accompanying "Mature" ESRB rating.  Still, everything I've seen from this game looks incredible, so I'm stoked about it.  Let's just hope it's not another Alone In The Dark (2008).

Video Games | Alan Wake | Accolades Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

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