Game name of the year? Secret Ponchos

Posted on by Nimgimli

secretsonchos_outlaws_web
I just decided: the world needs more video games based on spaghetti westerns.

Secret Ponchos is a new console game from Switchblade Monkeys coming later this year. If you’re going to PAX East, they’ll be in Booth 1031.

If, like me, the universe has conspired to prevent you from being at PAX, you’ll have to content yourself with this trailer and the press release that follows.

Here’s the press release:

killer_wanted_sidebarThe Debut Game from Switchblade Monkeys – an Independent Team Comprised of Former Senior-Level Staff from Blizzard, Hasbro, Radical and More – Features Intense Gun-Slinging Action, Devastating Special Moves, Larger-Than-Life Characters and Loads of Style

Switchblade Monkeys is proud to announce Secret Ponchos, which blurs the line between gameplay genres and conventions and creates its own original feel for multiplayer combat that pits players against each other in intense Wild West battle. Scheduled for release on consoles later this year, a pre-alpha preview of Secret Ponchos will be playable in booth 1031 at PAX East in Boston, March 22 to 24.

Check out the debut trailer on YouTube.

Engage in one-on-one duels or all-out gunfights as one of several unique and customizable outlaws – each with his or her own strengths, weapon types, special moves and play styles – in a game that rewards tactical awareness, precision timing and player skill. Add in melee attacks, an original line-of-sight mechanic, cover fire, destructible cover objects and more, and Secret Ponchos is a game with exceptional depth.

When the team at Switchblade Monkeys began development of the game, they left behind the overtly corporate, money-driven world of commercial game development and set out to create something of a passion project between a group of friends. They studied elements from their favorite games, including team shooters, fighting games and isometric action-RPGs, as well as the style and flair of graphic novels and classic spaghetti westerns, to create a game they could call their own.

“Secret Ponchos was created by a new development philosophy,” said Yousuf Mapara, president and creative director at Switchblade Monkeys. “Instead of following a business-oriented studio model, we just set out make the game the way a group of friends gets together to form a rock band, and to see how far we can take it. If we make something we love, put our all into it every day and enjoy the creative process, hopefully we will make something others like, too.”

For more information, visit http://secretponchos.com.

So there’s this game I like called SimCity…

Posted on by Nimgimli

Old Smokey Woods
I’ve been waffling back and forth on this post for a couple of days now, because I know it’s going to get me into a pissing contest with someone who disagrees with me and I keep thinking “Do I need this aggravation?” But my sense of injustice is getting to me so here goes…

SimCity had an awful, awful launch. There’s no doubt about that. And the game still has bugs (totally unheard of for a new game, I know), in particular the issues with how traffic flows. I still think EA should have given people refunds when the servers were crushed for the first 4-5 days after launch, but they didn’t. I guess a free game is something but still… I felt a little bit like I was being held hostage when they refused to give refunds, even though I didn’t want one.

But all that was THEN and I’m hear to talk about NOW.

And in the NOW, I’m having a lot of fun playing the new SimCity.

Since the game requires an Internet connection… wait, let me get this off my chest first.

Any comments whining about the always-connected requirement will be immediately deleted — this wasn’t a bait and switch — EA & Maxis were very up front about the game needing an Internet connection. If you don’t like that requirement, then there are lots of other games to play. If you don’t like it and you still bought the game, then you’re a very silly person and I have no sympathy for you. I mean I wasn’t crazy about that aspect of the game but…

Since the game requires an Internet connection I’m playing in a region with friends. In this respect SimCity is like a lot of MMOs — sure you CAN solo but the game is meant to be played with friends and is much more fun that way. In an ideal world you’ll be playing with people that you socialize with outside of the game, so that you can swap stories and ask for favors easily, since this too adds to the fun. When a friend asked me to connect an abandoned city I’d taken over to a railroad spur, it was better than any ‘quest’ the game offers you.

Anyway I’ve been pretty obsessed with SimCity this week. I play it right up until bedtime then I lay awake thinking about what I’ll be doing next. But I don’t mean for this post to be a review…

I mean this post to be a condemnation of the mob mentality of gamers.

Before SimCity launched there were quite a few very positive reviews from various outlets. Once the game launched and the servers crumbled under the weight of the customers, everyone started (rightfully) condemning EA for not having been better prepared. But now that the server issues are mostly fixed, that condemnation has stuck around. Suddenly all I’m seeing are posts about the flaws in the game, and if you comment on one of these posts saying you enjoy the game…well it’s like throwing a de-clawed kitten into a tank of hungry sharks. The mob turns on you and rips you apart. I speak from experience. You’ll be told how stupid your are, or you’ll be accused of being a Maxis ‘plant.’ If your opinion differs from that of the Mob, YOU are invalid.

It irks me. With the server issues cleared up this is essentially the same game that was so favorably reviewed. How could it have been a great game a few weeks ago but total dreck now? It can’t. Either the reviewers didn’t really play it critically before launch and now that the general populace is playing, we’re essentially exposing what a crappy review job they did, or they’re mad at EA (or just piling on) and so picking apart the game to find things to fault it for. Trashing SimCity now is an easy way to rake in the ad impressions, after all!

Please understand that if you’ve actually played SimCity and you honestly don’t like it, I have no beef with you. In fact I’m sorry that you didn’t have a chance to get into one of the beta (aka demo) weekends to try the game out before you bought it.

But if you’re one of these people who were super-psyched about the game based on reviews before release, and now you’re trolling comment streams talking about how much the game sucks and EA sucks and blah blah blah based on the gaming sites pulling a 180 and now slagging the game…here’s an idea: grow a damned backbone and try thinking for yourself for a change. If you can’t get first hand experience then just stay out of the comment threads because you can’t know what playing the game is like if you haven’t played it.

Now, let me try to leave on a more constructive note.

SimCity is called SimCity. It isn’t called SimCity 5. If you’ve played SimCity 1-4 and loved how they became increasingly complex over the years, you probably won’t like the new SimCity. This is a reboot more than it is a sequel and it plays more like a simulation of being a Mayor rather than a God-Game. You plan the city but you don’t have to drill down to the minutia of where to run power lines or water pipes. Much of that kind of thing is abstracted. This is part of why I like SimCity and didn’t like SimCity 4. By the time Maxis got to #4 the game felt like too much of a chore for me, in the same way I never liked The Sims back when you had to tell each little person to use the toilet or else they’d just piss on the floor. Must I do EVERYTHING around here!? πŸ™‚

If you need to win, I’m not sure SimCity is a good fit for you. You can make a ‘winning’ city without using a lot of the tools at hand. For instance, the new curved roads tend to be more fun to use than efficient, in the same way stacking bricks is a lot more efficient than stacking bowling balls. But the curved roads can be fun to use. Also there is no “winning” condition so why box yourself in by min-maxing things?

Also as mentioned there are still bugs. Sometimes you have to work around them, or you can just choose to slam your head into the wall instead until you hate the game and your family and your dog. Your choice, but if you’re a wall slammer I suggest giving Maxis a few months to polish out the bugs. You’ll probably save some money too.

SimCity feels like it’s 65% game and 35% software toy. There’s definitely challenge here but there are also ways to circumvent the challenge or break your city due to bugs. You need to be flexible and have a certain sense of whimsy to really enjoy it, I think. Use features based on whether you think they’re fun or make your city cooler, rather than based on if they’re the most efficient way to play.

TL;DR:

1) There are plenty of people playing and enjoying the heck out of SimCity in spite of what you might think from reading gaming sites and their comments

2) If you haven’t play the game, you don’t know what you’re talking about so stop yammering in comments and making yourself look ignorant

3) The game requires an Internet connection. If you don’t like that, vote with your wallet and don’t buy it. Not liking it doesn’t make it OK to steal a cracked version. If you do that, you’re just a stinking scumbag. Plus you’ll miss out on:

4) Play online with friends…it’s much more fun that way

Kicking around Kickstarter: Is my annoyance justified?

Posted on by Nimgimli

I’ve been pretty down on Kickstarter lately, at least as a game-funding service. Most of my ire revolves around games that change from what is stated when you pledge to what eventually gets made, and much of that change is driven my stretch goals. At least that is what my gut has been telling me.

This morning I decided to stop listening to my gut and actually gather some data. I made a list of all the Kickstarter games I’ve backed and where they stand.

Six of the projects I backed either failed to make funding or were canceled:

Class of Heroes II – Failed $96K/$500K 4/27/2012
Tortured Hearts: or, How I Saved the Universe. Again = Failed $12K/$300K 4/29/2012
Gravitaz – Failed $7K/$25K 5/10/2012
GUTS – Failed $10K/$60K 9/29/2012
Project: Gorgon – Failed $14K/$55K 11/3/2012
Wildman – Canceled $504K/$1,100K 2/11/2013

There’s not a lot to say about the failed projects from an end user point of view. I know Eric Heimburg is still moving forward on Project Gorgon (he’s an Asheron’s Call veteran) and Chris Taylor sounds like he’s going to get the chance to do Wildman via http://na.wargaming.net/ (I think?).

Next up, projects that have been published:

FTL – Published $200K/$10K
Battle of the Bulge – Published $37K/$20K
Chivalry: Medieval Warfare – Published $85K/$50K
Akaneiro: Demon Hunters – Published $204K/$200K

Of these four, I get the feeling that three of them launched Kickstarter campaigns to ‘finish up’ a project and that Bulge was the only one that kind of lived and died on Kickstarter. My friends really like Bulge but the system was a little too esoteric for my tastes. Still, the project was delivered as promised so I’m calling that a win.

FTL is interesting to me because it was one of the first Kickstarter projects I backed and it came before the Kickstarter fad took off. The team brought in a lot more cash than they asked for, but I guess ‘stretch goals’ hadn’t been invented yet, so instead of using the extra cash to add a multiplayer mode or 3D effects or a /pizza command, they published the game they promised, and its really good. Another definite win.

And then there’s the Big List of Projects We’re Waiting on.

Wasteland 2 – $2,933K/$900K 4/17/2012
The Banner Saga – $700K/$100K 4/20/2012
Valdis Story: Abyssal City – $49K/$8K 4/27/2012
Aura Tactics – $11K/$5K 4/6/2012
The Dead Linger – $154K/$60K 4/29/2012
Shadowrun Returns – $1,836K/$400 4/29/2012
Starlight Inception – $158K/$150K 5/8/2012
Nekro – $158K/$100K 5/4/2012
Grim Dawn – $537K/$280K 5/18/2012
Republique – $555K/$500K 5/11/2012
Xenonauts – $154K/$50K 6/10/2012
Legends of Eisenwald – $83K/$50K 5/22/2012
Clang – $526K/$500 7/9/2012
Auro – $14K/$7K 6/29/2012
Shadowrun Online – $558K/$500K 8/14/2012
Castle Story – $700K/$80K 8/26/2012
Crea – $27K/$15K 8/7/2012
Steam Bandits: Outpost – $55K/$30K 8/19/2012
Mercenary Kings – $116K/$75K 9/13/2012
Expeditions: Conquistador – $77K/$70K 9/12/2012
Greed Monger – $90K/$30K 11/30/2012
Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption – $409/$400 11/20/2012
Meriwether: An American Epic – $44K/$35K 1/6/2013

I’m not going to talk about each of these individually but I wanted to call out a couple of them. Also it’s clear that I went Kickstarter crazy last spring and I have a lot of money tied up in these games. Too much so. That’s no one’s fault but mine, of course, but I think it’s a good thing I got a little jaded or I’d be in the poor house by now!

The Banner Saga really is the root of much of my Kickstarter discontent. You know the story by now. The project was for a single player game that was going to be out by the end of last year, but they got so over-funded that they decided to build something more elaborate, and along the way they decided to spin off the multiplayer aspect as a stand-alone, micro-transaction driven title. That has launched, but the game I put my money in for still has not. Last I heard they’re aiming for late summer at the earliest.

See the FTL entry above. I would’ve been much happier if the team had made the game they promised and delivered it when they promised, then used the extra funding for a sequel or something. This was the first time that ‘stretch goals’ meant ‘changing the product into something unrecognizable.’ I was also really turned off by this blog post by Banner Saga team member Alex Thomas. It’s a rebuttal to a another piece that could’ve been written by me. Thomas is doing a real spin-job around this stuff. Anyway I could go on and on about my disappointment over The Banner Saga but at the end of the day I’m just looking at it as $50 lost in a bad investment. Not the end of the world.

Now let’s talk about The Dead Linger. I LOVE these guys. They’re being really transparent in their development. The game hasn’t published but they have given backers access to an alpha build. This is kind of what I’m looking for in a Kickstarter project. I feel like I’m part of the process, or at least I could be. I could play the alpha and give feedback and watch the game come together (and it’s the game they promised in their pitch). I feel 100% positive about my choice to back this team.

Legends of Eisenwald is worth mentioning because they’re very close to release, as far as I can see. They’ve offered backers a beta build and the game looks really good. Excited to see this one launch!

Clang is an unusual project for me because I just backed it as an idea. I doubt I’ll ever play it (don’t want to buy a bunch of hardware just to play one game) but this is a true case of me ‘investing’ in the gaming industry. I want to see them make this game even if I won’t ever play it.

Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption I backed because a friend on G+ was talking about it and it was in danger of not making its goal. In some ways these are the most rewarding Kickstarter projects because you feel like you actually made a difference. As this is an adventure game, I probably won’t even play it, but hopefully my friend will, and he’ll have fun, and I’ll feel good about doing my part in helping the game get made.

Also there’s one more project I want to mention: Project Eternity – $3,986K/$1,100K 10/16/2013 This was the first project I backed, then withdrew my pledge from, based in part on my Banner Saga experience (they were throwing stretch goals around like mad) and on the fact that they just felt greedy to me. They were well over their goal and still pushing up-sells really hard (in the form of add-on pledges). They really left a bad taste in my mouth. Hopefully the game will be worth it.

Whew so that’s a lot of text, but when I look back, if I had opted not to back The Banner Saga I don’t think I’d be nearly as ‘anti-Kickstarter’ as I am. The jury is still out on a lot of games I backed…some of them probably will never make it to fruition. But some of them (like Shadowrun Returns) I’m super-excited about.

It’s also clear I was much too liberal about throwing money at projects last spring… spent far too much money on these projects.

So I think going forward I just need to be more careful and perhaps pledge towards the end of a campaign rather than at the front of it. If a project has made its goal it doesn’t need my cash until it hits retail. That way I won’t get disappointed by stretch goals. It’s always going to be a risk, of course. That’s just the nature of Kickstarter. But when you pick the right projects you can feel really good about them.

(I should note that these aren’t all my Kickstarter projects; just the game ones. I’ve had pretty good luck when it comes to other products on the service.)

Random: Gamersfirst using SimCity problems to tempt us back to Fallen Earth

Posted on by Nimgimli

I don’t even know what to think of this. Here’s part of an email that hit my inbox last night:

We know you’ve been unfaithful. You’ve been dallying with that new game; you know, that one that’s technically a single player game but you’re being forced to play it online because PIRATES or whatever. And yet, try as you might, that other game just won’t return your affections. With all the “challenges”, disabled features, and random performance issues, it’s nice to know you can return to the warm, loving embrace of that game you’ve always loved, Fallen Earth. And what’s better, Fallen Earth won’t even hold it against you! Not forever, anyway.

Bonus points for the image in the email:

broken_image

There’s something delightfully ironic about sending out an email calling out the technical difficulties another game is having, and managing to do it with a big fat broken image link in your email.

Public Service Announcement for those who bought SimCity digital from Amazon (Update: Or EA!)

Posted on by Nimgimli

Update: EA is now promising a free game to everyone who has activated their game by March 18th. At least that’s how I’m reading it. Details here. It’s not as good as a refund but it’s at least an acknowledgement that they screwed up and owe their customers something.

According to a post on CNET Amazon is making an exception to their normal “no refunds for digital content” policy in the case of SimCity.

Leave it to Amazon to show EA how it’s done, though. You’re in luck if you ordered a digital version of SimCity through Amazon and want to return the game. CNET spoke to an Amazon customer service representative who said the company currently allows refunds of the digital download of SimCity, which actually goes against company policy, but the massive influx of refund inquiries left Amazon with little choice. This move follows Amazon’s temporary closure of SimCity digital download sales yesterday, which lasted for nearly half a day — Amazon now sells the game again but warns users about server stability problems.

At the time of this writing, consumers posted over 1,500 reviews of SimCity on Amazon; over 1,350 of those reviews contained very critical comments and rated the game as one star, the lowest rating possible.

The Amazon rep indicated that the green light for refunds of the SimCity download could end at any point. “People are pretty upset [about SimCity],” said the rep, who has worked with Amazon for several years. “I haven’t seen anything like this before, even when people were upset with Diablo III.”

(Emphasis mine.)

If you purchased from Origin, your only recourse is to ride out the server storm and wait for things to settle. It can’t be much longer at this point.

Closing comments because this really is just an info share. I’m way sick and tired of arguing about this launch.

Defiance and I are having our first fight

Posted on by Nimgimli

I’m excited about the SyFy show Defiance, coming in April. And I’m excited about the Trion game of the same name. I can’t talk a lot about why due to an NDA but I have been in a beta weekend and I’ll leave it at that. I have the game pre-ordered.

But today came news that is giving me second thoughts.

Defiance is an MMO shooter. It costs $60 but has no subscription fee. All indications are that it’ll have some kind of cash shop. I’m basing this on the fact that pre-ordering Deluxe versions get you bonus items like

  • +5 Increased inventory space
  • 30-Day scrip boost
  • 30-Day XP boost

Those sound like things you’ll be able to buy in the cash shop, don’t they? And that’s fair… with no sub fee Trion and SyFy need some way to pay for keeping the servers up, right?

But all along we’ve heard a ton about ‘transmedia’ and how events might start in the TV show and end in the game, or vice versa. That suggests an ongoing stream of new content in the game based on advances in the TV show. I was pretty excited about seeing how that works out.

Today however, we got word of a Season Pass for DLC. $40 gets you the first 5 DLC packages. Here’s what they say about DLC:

Join the fight and save big on 5 DLC packs with the Defiance Season Pass. Enjoy a new playable alien species, new weapons and vehicles, missions, and rewards – plus a bonus Hellbug Combat Cap and Lock Box – a 20% savings!* This is the ultimate package for the true Ark Hunter!

And now I’m concerned. If we’re getting new missions and species via DLC, does that mean all this ‘transmedia’ stuff is going to be in the DLC that we have to pay for? At that point, isn’t this just a subscription, basically? If you watch the show and some big event happens and then you log into the game and find out to access this new content you have to pay $10 for the DLC to get it… I mean it isn’t literally a subscription… you could just skip out on that new content. But the transmedia aspect is one of the unique things that Defiance is bringing to the table.

Now, let’s be fair. It might be that there will be plenty of new content dished out in addition to the DLC, and if that’s the case I’ll be less concerned. But right now it isn’t clear.

I think Trion needs to be a lot more transparent about what sorts of content we will get outside of paid DLC, and exactly what that $40 is going to get us.

$60 box price (standard edition) + $40 Season Pass + cash shop to upgrade things like inventory slots… suddenly Defiance is sounding pretty damned expensive.

In general we gamers need to make more noise about this kind of thing. Publishers urge us to pre-order or buy season passes and they often are very light on the details about what exactly we’re paying for. Even looking up at that list above… +5 Inventory Slots. What does that mean? Does a basic account have 100 slots, in which case +5 is a mere 5% bonus? Or does a basic account have 5 slots, in which case +5 is a 100% bonus. We don’t know, but we’re supposed to trust the publishers and pre-order anyway.

Publishers: If you have faith in your game, give us all the information we need in order to make informed decisions.

Of course as I said, I’ve pre-ordered… so clearly I am part of the problem.

Disconnected, but here’s what I’ve been playing lately

Posted on by Nimgimli

I’m not sure when it happened, but somewhere along the line I hit a point where all my gaming was being tracked by someone, somewhere. If I played an Xbox game, my Xbox Live friends knew it. If I played a PS3 or Vita title, my PSN friends knew. On the PC, Steam and Raptr both paid attention to what I was playing and let my friends know.

But when I start playing a 3DS game it’s like I drop off the radar. Sure, I have exchanged Friend Codes with some of my 3DS owning friends but Nintendo kind of shuffles the Friends stuff off to the side. I do think I can see when a friend is online but I don’t think I can see what they’re playing. I’m not 100% positive though since it’s so cumbersome to check that I’ve never bothered to do so.

All of which is just a rambling waste of space before sharing the fact that I’m still playing Fire Emblem: Awakening and still loving it. I’m moving through the story very slowly and spending a lot of time leveling up my troops via bringing in Bonus Armies and fighting on DLC maps. I realize it’s only March but Fire Emblem is an early contender for my personal game of the year. If you have any interest at all in strategy-RPGs, get this game, even if it means buying a 3DS to play it on. Yup, it is a system seller, in my opinion.

I’m still poking at Ni No Kuni too. I sometimes let it sit for as much as a week before I go back in and grind a little bit more. It’s such an un-even game. Long passages of mindlessly grinding mobs followed by short bursts of interesting boss battles. I seem to remember there was some kind of a story but it’s dished out in such tiny, infrequent morsels that I kind of forget what it was all about. Probably if I could stomach boring grinding night after night I’d remember.

I’m not against grinding, really. I’m grinding in Fire Emblem honestly. The different is that Fire Emblem has a combat system that makes grinding fun, while Ni No Kuni has a combat system that just feels sloppy and imprecise to me. Most of the time spent in grinding battles is taken up in getting into and out of the battle system. The actual fights take seconds and usually I just spam the attack key until everything falls down. Mana potions are so expensive that I rarely use magic unless I’m right outside town (so I can hit the Inn and recharge my mana).

Part of this is my own fault. I switch up Familiars too often so now my characters are in their 30s but my highest level familiars are closer to 20, which means I have a lot of work to do catching them up. And random mobs tend to run away now which adds to my frustration.

But I’m going to keep soldiering on! I’m determined not to give up on this game!

Follow up: Sword of the Stars: The Pit – Stats and Skills

Posted on by Nimgimli

the_pit_skillsI just wanted to follow up on something I got completely wrong on my last post about Sword of the Stars: The Pit.

I griped about not knowing what statistic impacts which skills. I was looking for some kind of textual pop-up menu or something to explain this to me, but developer Kerberos Productions reached out to me on Twitter to point out I wasn’t seeing what was right in front of my face. Stats and skills each have an icon that indicates how they’re connected. I’ve highlighted the column of icons in this screenshot.

Turns out I was way off! Next time I dive into The Pit I’ll be better prepared!

Thanks to Kerberos for the help.

Once again, you can get The Pit for $8.99 at GamersGate or download the demo from the game’s website.

First Look: Sword of the Stars: The Pit

Posted on by Nimgimli

When a game contains “Sword of the Stars” in the title, the first thing you think of is space, right? Ships and planets and mining and tech upgrades…SotS is an established space-based 4X IP.

TutorialSo the first thing I have to tell you about Sword of the Stars: The Pit is to forget all about that. The Pit is actually a sci-fi based roguelike. It is set in the SotS universe, but don’t worry if you’ve never played those games (disclaimer: I haven’t… crazy right?); that’s all just for flavor. The story, if you must know, is that a plague is turning the entire population of a planet into ghouls and the only hope for a cure lies at the bottom of a fabled pit in the Feldspar Mountains where the Suul’ka (I guess if you’re a SotS player you know who the Suul’ka are) once had a base.

So off you go, you brave Scout or Marine or Engineer you, to delve deep in an attempt to find the cure.

This is an old school rogue game. Turn-based combat, random effects on consumables, permadeath (actually I haven’t died yet but I’m assuming it has permadeath) and a constant tension between your two primary resources: health and food. Health slowly regenerates over time, but as it does, hunger grows, and food is scare in the pit.

If you don’t like Roguelikes, stop here. There’s nothing about The Pit that is going to change your mind. If you do like them, read on.

Character StatsThe Pit has a ton of stuff in it. You’re constantly scrounging resources and finding machines that you can use to craft those resources into something usable, in theory. Your first problem (besides all the beasties and bots that want to end you) is that many of these machines are damaged. Luckily you have a chance to repair them. I’ve been playing a Scout and she’s not great at repairing these things and more often than not they go from “Damaged” to “Ruined” when she tries. I suspect the Engineer is better at this, and I fear the Marine is probably damned near hopeless.

Which brings me immediately to my biggest gripe with The Pit. Your stats are never explained. You can guess that Strength influences melee attacks. Brains probably helps with all the crafting skills, which leaves Finesse to control how accurate you are. But I’m just guessing and I’d like to know for sure. Update: I got this bit completely wrong. See this post for details but the short version is that stats and skills all have icons to indicate how they are inter-connected.

Same with Skills. Does the Melee skill only influence bare-fisted punching, or does it also enhance the Knife and Blade skills. Speaking of which, what’s the different between “Knife” and “Blade” anyway? I was ‘born’ with a Knife..maybe there are swords in the game only I haven’t found one yet?

Not a deal breaker but it’d be nice to know this stuff.

I like a good Roguelike and so far I’m liking The Pit an awful lot. I’ve only gotten down to level 7 (of 30) and my Scout is level 6, and I’m playing on Normal level (2nd of 4 in increasing order of difficulty). The first couple of levels were a little easy but I still had my moments.

Trap!There’s nothing quite like the heartache of having your weapons and armor damaged badly, finding a broken repair station and, in attempting to bring it online, ruining it completely. After that happened I took to using my fists on a lot of the easier enemies since I’ve only got this one knife and if it breaks I’m screwed. I do have a couple of pistols of course, and so far ammo isn’t a huge concern, but as a roguelike player, your instinct is to hoard things.

Like grenades. I was hoarding every frag grenade I found. Then I stepped on a trap that destroyed my entire supply of frag grenades? Fiendish! What kind of evil mind came up with that? Stranger still, some traps have beneficial effects, like speed boosts or even heals.

For the more ‘serious’ roguelike players, there might actually be too much stuff going on. You have to collect or discover recipes to craft with (I’m guessing those are the same from game to game) and in addition to the potions with random effects that most roguelikes have (here called serums) there are bio mods for both weapons and armor that likewise have random effects. In my game so far I’ve consumed a purple serum that knocked my Brain stat down two points permanently, a black armor bio mod that bumped up the armor rating of a piece of gear by 10%, and a black weapon bio mode that improved the weapon’s durability by 20%.

A few aspects do set The Pit apart from the other roguelikes I’ve played. First, when you level (at least on Normal difficulty) your health returns to 100%. That makes things a lot easier. Every time you level you also get points to use to increase your main attributes (Strength, Precision, Brains) and your many skills.

Second, the game incorporates a field of view mechanic. Monsters can sneak up on you if they approach from your blind spot (which is fairly small). The tried old roguelike mechanic of running away gets more tense when you can’t see if the monster is still chasing you, and if it’s gaining on you!

If I’ve piqued your interest, there’s a six level demo that you can try out, or if you want to jump right in, the game is only $8.99 on GamersGate. That’s an introductory price that’s good for a week. After that it’ll be $9.99.

Oh, and there’s a tutorial that’ll teach you how to play. It features an annoyingly abrasive ‘drill sargent’ and mostly you won’t need it to learn how to play, but it does give you a glimpse of what you can expect as you venture deeper into The Pit. The first couple levels are pretty basic.

A few tips:

C brings up the stat page
Escape aborts rest mode

Hey, I tried making a video… this is the first time I’ve every tried to narrate a game I’m playing and I had both technical and performance problems (turns out I don’t multi-task well) but dammit, I made it, I’m gonna post it!

A little while later…

Dead

Fire Emblem: Alas, poor Ricken

Posted on by Nimgimli

I was really looking forward to the release of Fire Emblem: Awakening and so far I haven’t been the least bit disappointed. I’m loving it!

This time out Fire Emblem has two modes: Classic and Casual. In Classic mode, any unit that is killed in battle is gone for good (unless it’s one of the main two characters in which case it’s Game Over). In Casual mode, they’re just out for the battle and bounce back up after you win. I first started playing in Classic mode but got to a point where I couldn’t get through a fight without losing a ‘major’ character. I thought I’d spread my experience around too thin and that I didn’t have a powerful enough party to get through the next fight, so I decided to start over.

And in so doing, I decided to go with Casual Mode. I knew if I picked Classic mode and got in the same jam and had to start over a third time, I probably wouldn’t. So I restarted, got to the same point as in my Classic game and beat the battle I was stuck on, even though my characters were about the same level.

So then I went back to my Classic game, tried one more time, and got through the battle without losing anyone. So now I have 2 games running concurrently, which makes me feel a bit more brave about my Classic game. I decided I’m going to move forward with it and if a character dies, he or she dies. No more bailing out on a game because a soldier has fallen.

But I can’t just let them die without commemorating them in some way…but that’s what my blog is for!

He shouldn’t have been with us. Chrom had ordered him to stay back at Headquarters to guard it, but young Ricken had other plans. When we accompanied the Exalt to confront the King of Plegia, Ricken secretly followed us, and it was a good thing he did. It was Ricken who rescued Mirabelle, though in truth we nearly lost them both, cut off as they were. But our forces prevailed, the Plegians routed, and we headed home.

Had we only stayed true to our path.

Instead we wandered the countryside a bit, visiting shops in an attempt to restock our gear. It was while doing this that we came upon a Merchant Caravan being attacked by Barbarians. We rushed in to help. It was a chaotic battle, with some of our troops headed to the entrance of a nearby village to help a lone defender and others picking off straggler Barbarians in preparation for confronting their boss. In all the confusion, Ricken paused for a rest within range of several enemy archers. They skirted past our armored defenders and peppered him with arrows. Tragically, Ricken fell. The archers paid the ultimate price but alas, that won’t bring Ricken back. His youthful enthusiasm will be missed.

At least the village, and the mysterious woman who was defending it, were both saved. Ricken would be pleased to know that much, at least.

Your sacrifice will be remembered, Ricken! You were the first of us to fall but I fear you will not be the last. We have a long and bloody war ahead of us.