Tales of the Aggronaut

Think of the Children

February 7, 2017 by Belghast

For the majority of last week I talked about games that I had played at PAX South, and in truth there are still a handful more than I want to discuss. I think that is the real triumph of this years show, that I walked away with so many things that I found interesting enough to write entire posts about. Granted in my super meandering way I end up talking about a lot of things other than the game during each of them. Today is not going to change that. In 2016 the most memorable game at PAX South for me was a game called Ultimate Chicken Horse. In fact this was the sort of experience that I kept dragging people back by the booth to check out for themselves. I don’t have a ton of opportunities to do the whole couch co-op party game thing, and it seems that when I actually do get that opportunity I want to take advantage. I even wrote a couple of different posts about my thoughts talking about just how fresh and interesting the experience was. Now I did not expect to find another game like this, but it seems like it found me.

Ultimately I think I happened to stare a little too long at a booth as I was passing by, and within moments was engaged by someone talking about a game called “Think of the Children”. Admittedly we had not shifted into “lets play all the games” mode yet, and this game was a good part of that mental shift for me at least. The idea apparently came out of a recent game jam and was being groomed into a full game. The concept was simple enough… that you are parents and have to try and take care of a bunch of children. The challenge comes in when you find out that the children are essentially lemmings. They have no survival instinct and instead of simply slowly marching towards the edge of the a cliff… they are going to actively go find danger. The kids might decide it is super awesome to go try and pet a jellyfish… and get stung to death, or mess with a bird… and get pecked to death. Essentially these little buggers are constantly trying to kill themselves and you as the parents are trying desperately to corral or distract them long enough to make it through the timer without losing any of your charges.

This turns out to be exceedingly difficult, and just as you seem to have one group of kids under control… another group goes off and does something truly horrible. Essentially you have a few tools for managing the children… you can either pick them up and move them away from danger… or shout at them which effects every child in range for a super short period of time… before they go right back to doing whatever horrible thing they were planning on doing. You can also temporarily distract children by setting up tables, or deploying a pinata. I found myself largely throwing children away from harm while Rae who was playing with me attempted to set up the distractions. Regardless I was an extremely bad parent and my first time out of the gate I got an F-… and on attempt two I upgraded that to a D. Let me just tell you that was the proudest I had ever been of getting a D in my life.

Sure the game is morbid as hell, given that inevitably some of your children are going to die horrible and stupid deaths. However the gameplay was so fast paced and frenetic that we spent most of our time yelling unintelligible sentence fragments at each other while desperately trying to keep yet another child from going and playing in traffic. I mean there is a clear reason why I am not a parent of anything but animals… because in truth animals have way more survival instinct than proto-humans. Where the game shines is when you are sitting there playing co-op with one of your friends, and if I had an opportunity to do this often I would absolutely suggest this game in your rotation of what I term “party games”. One of the cool things that happens at PAX in general is that you wind up striking conversations with random people while waiting in lines. Each and every time this happened to me it ultimately got down to talking about our favorite games of the show, and this is the game that I kept sending people out into the world to find. It was tucked into a quiet row and was ultimately rather unassuming, but man was it a great experience to play. Even though I don’t have a lot of opportunity for couch co-op I am still going to pick this up for no reason other than to support what is ultimately a really cool game idea. If you find yourself interested in this madness you can check out the official website, or do what I did and just add it to my wishlist on Steam.

Wildlands

February 6, 2017 by Belghast

grw-2017-02-04-10-19-02-05 — laptop screenshot

It’s Monday morning and I am still struggling from whatever the hell I picked up at Pax South. For a period of time last week I thought I had started to kick it… so I backed off the over the counter meds and apparently that was a massive fail. For most of last week I was working on pure adrenaline as we careened headlong towards a super important demo that we had at work for Thursday afternoon. After that happened… I largely started falling back apart and now even though I tried my best over the weekend to get back on the meds I am still struggling. I am hoping that today at some point things start to chill out because we have an even more important demo this afternoon. We are in crazy crunch mode with a big release looming on the all too near horizon, so I know that once I get back in the swing of things I won’t have time to fall apart any further. So hopefully I can survive once again on adrenaline and caffeine to get me over that finish line when I can well and truly have time to fall apart and be sick.

grw-2017-02-05-09-40-03-99 — desktop screenshot

Ghost Recon Wildlands was one of those games that I had only been tangentially following. I remember watching the video when it was announced and thinking that it looked pretty cool. However I generally don’t really go in for “military fantasy” style games like Call of Duty, where I am an operator in a tangential reality to our own. Ultimately this is the big reason why Destiny has continued to click for me… but Division fizzled out is because killing monsters will always feel better than killing people. I knew there was a beta going on this weekend because another friend had been offering invites, which I largely turned down because I thought to myself “I have too many games to play”. However next thing I know my friend Dallian emails me an invite to the beta on the PC so since I already had the key I figured that I might as well check it out. I am largely over my frustrations with UPlay because I guess while playing The Division I learned to accept it. I mean it is still a better interface than Origin… so that is at least something. Over the weekend I tried playing the game on both my i7 x99 980 gtx based gaming desktop and my i7 960m based gaming laptop. In both cases the game performed fairly well… with the laptop getting 30 fps on medium settings and the desktop getting a predictable 60 fps on high settings. I will be trying to remember to caption the source of each screenshot, since I took some from both.

grw-2017-02-04-10-31-05-74 — laptop screenshot

As far as the game itself… well to be truthful it plays a lot like most of these games do. Once you take the setting into account and the fact that you are playing a third person game instead of a first person game… I found it largely indistinguishable from Farcry. You roam the world, taking on baddies while collecting resources for your faction of choice… so that you can then unlock upgrades. The primary difference being that there seemed to be far less story… and way more open world sandbox than a Farcry game. You are encouraged to go interrogate people.. but largely that just makes new blips show up on your map of where to find resources. What I went into the game hoping I would find… is The Division but in a single player fighting the drug cartels skin. There are moments where it absolutely feels that way, especially considering that an awful lot of the sound effects when you secure something come straight from the sound effects we are used to hearing in Division. Where the game excels however is in the use of the drone mechanic, that which it largely feels like a flying camera… gives you a nice tactical advantage going into fights. If you are fast and good at spotting targets you can mark all of the hostiles in an area ahead of a fight and take them one one by one in a semi-stealth manner. I spent a lot of time sniping with my suppressed SMG, because ironically that allowed me to kill things without anyone noticing… whereas my sniper rifle drew instant attention.

The other odd thing about the game is the fact that for me personally… my squad existed for one purpose… to rez me when I got a little over zealous. There was never a fight that I went into where I felt like they were an actual benefit and made the encounter easier. They largely served as decoys to draw fire away from my position. What I did find myself missing however is the cover mechanic from The Division. There were so many places where I really needed to hug a wall and duck around a corner to get the shot… and I found that completely lacking. Maybe I simply did not find the correct keybinds to hold to cover… but whatever the case it was something I was expecting to wound up missing. The other complaint I had about the game is that it definitely feels like a console first/pc afterthought experience. Now moment to moment gameplay and firefights are awesome on the PC, and I found it nice and easy to whittle my way through incoming hostiles. Where it falls down however is that none of the vehicles felt like you could reasonably control them with a mouse and keyboard. While driving something as simple as a jeep I found myself wildly veering from ditch to ditch as I tried desperately to wild around mountainside roads. It is in fact another game about driving crappy vehicles on even crappier roads… and the shockingly even crappier keyboard and mouse controls make this an extremely frustrating experience.

I am largely placing this game in the “it might be fun” bucket, but it is definitely not a preorder sort of situation for me. The demo however really wants you to preorder, in fact it is constantly prompting you to do so. The truth is like most open world games… you spend an awful lot of time wandering through fields full of absolutely nothing. There are vast open spaces of nothing of any consequence that lay between the small bins of things that might be useful. When you start running missions, rather than roaming aimlessly like I do… you spend an awful lot of time retracing areas that you have already been to as you operate out of specific hub locations. Where the game excels however is in town-centric firefights, with the ability to duck inside of buildings and avoid guards… then pick them off at the most opportune time. There is a larger village that you encounter pretty early that is really fun, especially if you allow the Blancos to call in reinforcements. All of that said though, the game still doesn’t really feel like it gives me something unique that makes me extremely interested in its own brand of special ops fairy tale. Especially when Horizon Zero Dawn is right around the corner… and will be a much more interesting world to explore. Video games are largely about escapism for me… and the Call of Duty style game just doesn’t feel escapist enough for me to ever really get hooked.

Advanced Spellcraft

February 3, 2017 by Belghast

I’ve talked about quite a few things that I experienced at Pax South, and this mornings post is going to do some more of the same. I feel like this year more than others I walked away with a treasure trove of things I wanted to talk about. I guess in theory it is because I approached the convention significantly differently than I have in past years. In the past I largely only stood in line to play the games that immediately seemed to be in my wheelhouse, and as a result I am sure I robbed myself of a whole slew of interesting things. The game I want to talk about this morning is a prime example of not being able to rely on our instincts and tastes. If you have read my blog for any length of time you will know that I do not handle “finger wigglers” that well… or to clarify my own personal slang… spell casters. So when I walked past a booth demonstrating a game where the main character is slinging spells left and right, my first instinct is to keep moving. However as a group we stopped and listened to the intricate tale that CEO Louis-Félix Cauchon had to weave. Admittedly what make this game so interesting is just how detailed the spell system is. We got to watch a twenty minute demo covering nothing but how the spell system works, before even getting into the awesome pedigree of the storytelling.

Functionally your character has four spells, which in itself doesn’t seem like a lot. However each spell can be modified with what I have been generically calling “mutators” to change the way it responds. So you might have a spell that at face value is a small point blank spark, however by equipping a a behavior you can make it fire out like a fireball… or by equipping an augment you can make it veer to the right after firing it. If you suddenly decide that you don’t want to throw fireballs… but instead iceballs, you can simply go in and change the base element of the attack. Over the course of this demo of the system we got to see personal shields turn into charge attacks, and glorious cascades of rock from the ceiling in place of a traditional blizzard spell. Now you might ask yourself why on each you would need this level of detail for a spell system apart from the simple “wouldn’t it be cool” aspect. Functionally the magic not only serves as a weapon, but also as a complex puzzle system. So there might be switches that you cannot reach unless you modify your fireball to arc in a certain way in order to hit the trigger. The spellbook also allows you to save off several different configurations of a spell, and in the final version you will be able to give them unique names allowing you to quickly recognize which version of a given spell is your avalanche and which is your frost barrier. The only immediate limit to building insane combination spells is your imagination, and of course your mana bar. Each trait that you give a spell increases its cost, and while it was described that this matters less and less as you go through the game… it does limit your early tinkering. Additionally as you play through the game you find modifiers along the way, meaning your palette of abilities starts small and grows as you progress.

Up to this point we have literally just talked about the technical spell casting system, which in itself is a pretty amazing game. On top of this however they have added what is sure to be a pretty great story. Ed Greenwood of Forgotten Realms fame has penned the story for this game about epic spellcasters, which only makes sense given that he gave us the character of Elminster. Functionally I heard the game described as Harry Potter meets Zelda and that seems fitting, with a huge alteration in that there seems to be a lot more physical puzzle solving with your spells. I find it so bizarre though that I am looking forward to the release of a game about magic users, and that includes absolutely zero armor clad characters for me to bash baddies in the head with. At face value this game is traditionally far out of my wheelhouse, but it was also quite possibly the freshest feeling game concept I saw on the Pax floor. We’ve done so much for martial combat and making it feel interesting and nuanced, but have done so little to bring that same level of nuance to weaving complex spells. Most games give us the option of push button throw fireball, or push button create bubble… but this is the first that I have seen that lets you take that bubble and then project it outwards or trigger another spell after the bubble casts. I have this feeling that in many ways it will have an almost metroidvania feel in that each time you unlock a new ability to give you spells it is also going to open up new ways to solve puzzles and allow you to move deeper into the content.

The game right now is targetted for PC, Playstation 4 and Xbox One and does not have a firm launch date… but we heard March or April mentioned which I largely translated into a “Spring” launch window that might be plus or minus a month. They are doing something extremely interesting to get us into the world ahead of the launch by releasing a comic that updates Tuesdays and Thursdays and explains the world and setting. I love it when I experience a game like this, not necessarily because “woo spellcasters” or anything of the sort, but because this is clearly the love child of a bunch of folks who care deeply about it. Talking to Louis-Félix Cauchon within second it was clear to see just how passionate he was about this game, and the work and imagination that went into creating it. That in truth is what makes the convention experience special. You get to meet the creators face to face and see just how much they love what they are doing. In many ways it feels like Pax South recharges the spark inside of me each year, and gives me fuel to keep going throughout the year. We spend so much time on the negatives, the little details that bother us about this game or that. However seeing a game like Mages of Mystralia shows me instantly that there very much still is magic out there… pun only slightly intended. I would definitely add this to your watch list and check it out when it ultimately releases. I find it so bizarre that of all of the games I have experienced, this one ranks insanely high on the list of “wish I had early access” titles, if for no reason other than to play with the spell crafting system. This is the first release from Borealys Games, but if they can pour this much passion into every project they are going to be a studio we see lots of amazing things from in the future.

Them Apples

February 2, 2017 by Belghast

What has been bizarre to me has been just how different the three years of Pax South have felt personally. During year one I was completely overwhelmed and did my best to hit as many panels as I could while also making a bunch of media appointments. During year two we had roughly sixteen people roaming around in groups of various sizes, so my focus was to spend as much time as possible with as many people as possible. I was also overwhelmed but in a completely different way, with trying to juggle meeting up with folks while also hitting scheduled media appointments. Year three I completely cut the whole parking debacle out of the loop which greatly relaxed the entire experience. Additionally we went from having sixteen to roughly seven… with two pairs of those largely roaming together and leaving me with a semi regular group of three people. This opened up so many doors because three is not an unreasonable amount of people to sit down and demo something together with, and as a result I played way more games during the course of the show. So many that I never actually made it off the main floor or attended any panels. In truth this felt like the best possible thing because it gave me lots of interesting experiences to come back and shamelessly milk for blog posts. It also let me spend maximum time with my friends while attempting to extract the maximum enjoyment. It did nothing for my longevity unfortunately with me making my way back to the hotel around 6 or 7 both nights to hang with my wife and decompress from the days event.

Of the really awesome games that I played, I think the very first that I sat down to play as a group is a card game called Wicked Apples. At first I watched a couple of my group play it together, and when they finished the first round got dealt in for round two. The idea is simple and the card game itself extremely small… I have not counted but it seems like maybe the card deck as a whole is maybe around 35 cards. What I like so much about the game however is just how quickly it can be played. One of the big challenges with most modern tabletop games is that they take a fair bit of time to set up, play and break back down. In most cases you need a dedicated hour or more to really feel like you have enjoyed the experience. At work I have been kicking around the notion of doing some tabletop gaming at lunch, especially since I have a coworker that is way deeper into the weeds than I am in the board gaming community. However the challenge that is what sorts of games can you realistically play in a 30-40 minute window and get enough hands in to make it feel like you actually accomplished something. When I saw Wicked Apples I immediately thought that this game would be perfect for this scenario because each hand seemed to last around ten to fifteen minutes depending on how much stalling from the players.

The game consists of barrel cards, wicked apple cards matching each barrel color, and an assortment of unique apple cards that each have specific effects on them. The game starts by dealing out barrels to each of the players… or in our case simply choosing whatever color you wanted to play. That player the is handed the wicked apple of a color matching their barrel, as well as three random apple cards dealt face down. The goal is to take these four cards and arrange them in any order in front of you face down… but at the same time memorize the position of each card. The goal of the game is not to eat a wicked apple, be it your own or another players. After setup the turn order is determined by the number on the players bucket from lowest to highest, but later in the game this will be determined by the top apple in each players bucket. Each player can take one of two actions: Peak or Pass. Peak essentially means that you can secretly check to verify what apple is sitting in a given slot in front of you, and Pass means that you can take any one of your apples and give it to any other player. After all players have either chosen to Peak or Pass, everyone has to choose an apple that they are going to eat that round. If you are doing this right then all players reveal their apple at exactly the same time… however we were pretty awful at doing this and wound up being a slow staggered reveal. The eating order is determined by the number in the top right corner of the card, and each player performs the actions on their card if possible taking turns in ascending order. The “if possible” is in there because there are situations where for example you have no apples… and as a result cannot say pass an apple as directed by the card.

The game carries on like this until one of two things happen… either only one player is left standing at the end of a round where in that case they are the winner. There is also the possibility that ALL players are eliminated in the same round, and essentially everyone loses. Whatever the case, once you know the rules of the game it goes extremely quickly and I could see playing a bunch of round rapid fire in a short period of time. There is functionally a lot of strategy and bluffing involved in what is essentially a game of memory. Do you pass a good apple to the player beside you and think that ultimately they are going to assume you gave them your wicked apple? Are you going to pass your wicked apple and then follow up by lacing it with the Candy Apple that forces a player to eat that apple next? I absolutely did that last move, while also passing the poison apple to another player that round functionally executing both of them. It is absolutely a game where you know every other players is going to back stab you and do so constantly, so the ramifications of this realization become greatly blunted and just part of the fun. The individual decks at Pax South were $15, and I went back and forth on Friday about picking one up. However one of the first things I did Saturday morning was run back and purchase one, and I am super glad that I did. It seems as though they sold their last deck sometime early Sunday morning, and apparently this was their entire current stock as there are zero available through the website either currently. So yeah… I guess it is probably cruel to tell you about a game that you literally cannot get at this very moment, but I still enjoyed it enough that I wanted to talk about it. Like I said before I personally plan on taking my deck with me to work and trying a few hands over lunch to see how well it works. It is easy to pick up and fast paced enough that I can see this doing really well with a wide variety of players. If you have the chance to check it out in any upcoming shows I highly suggest you do so.