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Just In Bailey: Hate Leads to Suffering

By
Joey Alesia
– February 7, 2012Posted in: Columns, Editorials, Joey's Blog, Just In Bailey, Staff Blogs, Vagary.TV

“The way some video game fans spew awful hatred at the companies who make the things they love makes me sick to my stomach sometimes.” -Felicia Day

 I try to keep most of my articles light-hearted and as thought-provoking as possible.  I like to keep my readers entertained. Then I saw this tweet and it sparked a need to write this piece.  Video games used to be considered nerdy and dorky and only pale, pimple-faced loners played them; kids with no friends and no social life.  Now, video games are a form of social life.  From party games at a friend’s house, to MMOs, to online death matches, video games have become extremely mainstream.  With that type of notoriety, and with the instant access to information that the Internet provides, games, and the companies who create them, are constantly being scrutinized.  We all have expectations and if those expectations aren’t met, we are disappointed.  But, does, as Ms. Day puts it, “[spewing] awful hatred,” actually solve anything?

Games in the 1980s were very simple and usually consisted of small teams; sometimes even just a 1-2 person shop.  As technology has expanded, the development teams for games rival those of Hollywood blockbuster movies.  Sometimes there are hundreds of people working on a game.  These are people just like you and me.  They have families.  They are trying to make a living.  And they are passionate about what they do.  When you finish a game, take the time to sit through the credits.  Sometimes, there is a section where the team members give shout outs and thanks.   Read what they have to say.  Just like us, they work under extreme stress.  There are long nights and huge sacrifices.  All of this is done to bring joy to others in the form of a game.

With the advance in technology, there is a greater chance of a game being buggy.  The nice thing is, these bugs can be fixed quickly as opposed to back in the day when they were unfixable.  We, as gamers, need to be understanding.  If a game has a day-one patch, so what?  We wanted the game released, the development team was given a deadline, and if they missed something at least they fixed it.  If the team didn’t care and wrote the game off once it went gold, I would take issue.  But, if they recognize something that needs to be fixed, and they are working on a fix, then we’re good.  They are human.  Mistakes can be made.  And I for one don’t think that a public apology needs to be issued for every little thing.

Which brings me to my main point: why do people feel the need to be nasty toward developers?  It doesn’t solve anything and can actually make us gamers look ignorant and selfish.  Do you have to like every game out there?  No.  People are entitled to their opinions.  I don’t play Call of Duty because I think first-person shooters have over-saturated the market.  I rarely play online, preferring to be in the same room with my friends.  Those are my opinions.  That doesn’t mean I’m going to hop onto the COD forums and start telling the developers they’re dumb for releasing another game that to me is exactly like the first.

 
Sometimes, developers want to try and reinvent/reboot a series to appease fans.  This can meet with extreme failure (Metroid: Other M) or extreme success (Street Fighter 4 & Mortal Kombat).  And I think the new look for the Tomb Raider reboot is pretty cool.  Recently, Capcom received death threats due to the change to Dante in the upcoming game DmC: Devil May Cry which is intended to breathe new life into the Devil May Cry franchise.

Death threats?  Are you kidding me?  Is that creative decision so detrimental to a gamer’s life that they feel it necessary to issue death threats?  We’re supposed to be a society of civilized people.  And idiots like these drag us back to the dark ages.  If you don’t like the changes, don’t play the game.  No one has a gun to your head.  Actually, I’d rather these clowns just not play video games any more.  They give the rest of us gamers a bad image at a time when the industry needs as much positive press as possible.

I love this industry.  I love playing video games and writing about video games.  Someday, I hope to write for video games.  And because I love this industry, I am critical of it.  Everyone has a right to be critical.  All I ask is that when you’re criticizing a game to keep in mind that someone sacrificed time with their newborn baby to get this game in your hands.  Make your criticism constructive.  Explain what you think needs to be improved.  If you claim to be a gamer, take care of the industry.  Stop with the nonsense.  The more you hate on the industry, the more the industry suffers.

Just In Bailey –an homage to the secret code from Metriod, which allowed you to play as Samus Aran without her suit– is an editorial column at Vagary.TV brought to you by Joey Alesia. Each week Joey will challenge you to look at a different perspective of the characters, gameplay, and/or plot in your favorite games. Chat up your thoughts below, or send Joey an e-mail at Joey.Alesia@vagary.tv and remember to follow him on Twitter @wrkngclsswrtr.

5

What’s Up With Vagary

By
VTV Staff
– February 5, 2012Posted in: Blogs, Columns, Editorials, Staff Blogs, What's Up

While the Vagary staff is comprised of a large group of like-minded individuals, that group has an eclectic range of tastes. What’s Up With Vagary is a chance for a selection of our staff to fill you in on what is sucking up the majority of their time during the past week.

Kyle Baron – Editor in Chief

I’ve been playing Swords and Soldiers. It’s a side-scrolling strategy game where Viking, Aztec, and Chinese armies fight one another using spells and a small assortment of units and structures. Despite its simplistic and charming appearance, things get complicated quickly.

After the entire campaign and a couple online matches, I’m still not sure if the game’s surprising depth ends up making all of the units balanced. Online matches and much of the second half of the campaign result in some messy games won or lost in some surprising ways that feel like exploiting the game rather than exploring more than one strategic option. Despite all of the game’s charm and interesting touches for each faction, I can’t recommend it as a purchase.

Tony Odett – Review Staff

Soul Calibur 5, my life, my bane. I like the occasional fighting game, but when there’s an awful story combined with ridiculous button mashing, I go crazy after a while. Still, at least it looks pretty and the soundtrack works for me. I think I’ll slog through more of this during the week and then get the crap beaten out of me online.

I’ve also been playing NBA 2K12, AKA The Best Sports Game of All Time. Tony O’Connor is taking the Jazz to an NBA championship. I’m unstoppable shooting off the dribble, even with a hand in my face. Really, this is a sports RPG and the finest you can play. For fans of basketball, this is a must own game.

Magnus Risebro – Editor

Since Gears of War 2′s Horde, the bite-sized co-op mode has has rapidly become a staple of shooters, with CoD, Halo, Battlefield and many more each with their respective versions. Resident Evil: Revelations too features such a mode, and I’ll be damned if it hasn’t sneakily chewed up a sizable amount of my time:

Raid Mode, as it’s called, takes segments from Revelations’ campaign, slaps on a scoring-system, and lets two players run through them, ranking their performance. Gunning down mutants side-by-side with another player provides quick-fire thrills, and is made all the more satisfying due to a surprisingly fleshed-out leveling/progression system. There are a handful of guns to unlock, each one found in variants with randomized stat properties (so even if you have the same assault rifle as I, mine could have a higher rate of fire), as well as weapon modifications that boost stopping power, damage, capacity and so on. This, as with any good persistent leveling system, makes the game hard to turn off, as you’ll be too eager to test the power of whatever new gun you just unlocked. A few matchmaking issues aside, Raid Mode is a strong addition to a very solid game. Look for the full Resident Evil Revelations review soon here at Vagary.TV.

Don Parsons – Publisher Relations Liaison and Review Staff

I’ve spent a majority of my week playing Final Fantasy XIII-2. Not to spoil too much of my review, but I am really enjoying it. I love the new “monster taming”, giving the focus of the story to the two main characters yet still offering a vast, dynamic party selection. I’m about 25 hours in at the moment, and while the past hour has been a little frustrating, it has been very hard to put down.

Completing my menu for games this week is my love-affair with Battlefield 3. I’m been playing with the recently-released Mad Catz MLG Pro Circuit controller (another review coming soon), putting it through its paces. Battlefield 3 never gets old, and each time I tell myself “I can only play for an hour, I have work to do” I end up playing for two to three hours.

So that is what we have been up to, what about you? Fill us in by dropping us a comment.

2

PC Review: Star Wars: The Old Republic

By
Jeremy Goodson
– February 2, 2012Posted in: Jeremy's Blog, PC, Reviews

A long time ag….ah, screw it. The iconic Star Wars opening text is too overdone.

It’s been about three years since the rumors of Bioware developing an MMO based on the Knights of the Old Republic franchise first found their way onto the Internet. Those rumors made me ecstatic from day one. The original Knights of the Old Republic was one of my favorite games of all time, and Star Wars is definitely my favorite IP. To add nerd cred to my profile on that, I actually read the books, graphic novels, and comics. So, for anyone that knows me, it shouldn’t be a surprise that I was eating up any juicy tidbits that developer Bioware and publisher EA threw my way over the past three years about the game.

Lucky for me (and an estimated two million others who picked up the game on launch day), Dec. 20, 2011 marked the end of our wait. And worth it it was.

Now, you won’t be in for any big surprises with how the game controls. Bioware did a very good job mimicking the overall feel of most modern day MMOs. Everquest, World of Warcraft, Everquest 2, Vanguard, and countless others all use the standard “WASD” movement with “1 through =” for your hot keys. This makes it extremely easy for any MMO veteran to dive right into the game. The movements are very fluid and combat flows very well because of it. While the user interface may seem a bit clunky at first, it’s very easy to get used to. The main aspect that bothered me was the top-of-the-screen placement of the chat box, but it’s easily moved to the bottom where it feels more comfortable.

The lack of a full customization of the overall UI, though, really does hurt the game a bit. By the time you hit level 50 you have almost too many abilities, potions, and stims to fit on the maximum number of four hot bars. According to Bioware, there is a big UI customization update coming in the near future, so I do hold out hope that this will be fixed very soon.

Another guaranteed aspect of any MMORPG these days has to be the PvP, and SWTOR performs admirably. From level 10 on, players can compete in three different Warzones, similar to World of Warcraft’s Battlegrounds. These include Alderaan, which is a capture point system similar to Arathi Basin or League of Legends’ Dominion map; Voidstar, which is a Plant the Bomb and move to different objectives map; and a very unique mode called Huttball, which is basically an updated version of Mutant League Football.

The Warzones aside, there are also two areas in the game that are strictly for open world PvP: Ilum, a planet dedicated to the insanity of PvP, and Smuggler’s Den, a Free-for-All area on Tatooine where anything goes at any time of the day. Both of these areas help fuel a fairly health Open PvP environment that hardcore players are looking for.

A very neat addition to the MMORPG genre that is found in SWTOR is the implementation of Companion Characters. These NPCs are your brothers and sisters-in-arms that join your crew as you progress through your personal story arc. They can definitely hold their own on the battlefield and they bring a whole new perspective to solo leveling and even grouping without a full party.

Crafting is also dependent on your Companions. Instead of the normal MMO crafting system where you gather materials and spend time standing in front of a forge or loom to make your gear, SWTOR has you send your companions out to gather materials and making things for you. At the end-game, you can actually have five of your six companions all out working while you go out and quest or PvP. This takes a major stressor for some people and reduces it down to a couple of button clicks instead of a giant time sinck. As a person who absolutely loathes crafting in most other MMOs, I truly enjoy the system in SWTOR.

While all of the previous systems and gameplay mechanics makeup the basics of SWTOR, the real backbone that Bioware built the entire game around is its phenomenal story system. In most MMOs, you get a quest from an NPC and go out and kill things and return for your reward – never really reading what the quest giver had to say. In SWTOR, every single dialogue sequence is fully acted out for you in a cut scene (and yes, you can skip if you choose to). This really helps to make you feel like you have an impact on the world around you, and that your story matters.

Every class in the game has their own personal story. I have played completely through the Sith Warrior and Bounty Hunter stories, and am well on my way through the Sith Inquisitor story at this point and can say that each one has blown me away. They flow so well that I want to keep playing just to see what happens next. I cannot say that about any other MMORPG that I’ve experienced. On top of that, the actual voice acting is top notch. Bioware really spared no expense.

End-game is another spot that I feel the developers really nailed. Right out of the gates they had two Raid Zones (Operations as they’re called here) in place. The first is Eternity Vault, and the second is Karagga’s Palace. Both of these offer three modes of difficulty: normal, hard, and nightmare modes. As of right now, our guild is full clearing hard mode on both, and working our way through nightmare, so I have seen most of what these have to offer. We are having a total blast clearing these out, and the difficulty scales well, allowing for new raiders and veterans alike to experience the content at their own skill levels.

Many might argue that Star Wars: The Old Republic isn’t a breakthrough for the MMORPG genre. While I agree that the basic gameplay takes aspects from the other MMOs on the market, to say that it doesn’t change the way that gamers will look at MMOs from now on would be a lie. The superb story arcs, the changes to the generic crafting system, the updated PvP system,  companion characters, and voice acted questing all add new aspects to an aging subcategory in the gaming world.

SWTOR is one of my favorite games released in the past few years by far, and is definitely my favorite MMORPG since I first picked up Everquest back in 1999. There are some bugs in the game that need to be worked out (and actually lead me to lower the score of the game a bit), but the overall feel of SWTOR is that it is an MMO that is here to stay, and sets a new bar for what other companies need to aim for.

Pros

  • Story that is the best of any other MMORPG
  • Companion characters
  • Re-worked crafting system
  • Fun Ggameplay
  • Great replayability with different classes
  • PvP is well balanced

Cons

  • Lack of UI customization
  • Annoying post-launch bugs
  • No guild bank
  • Inexcusably clunky guild and auction house tools

Overall Score: 4/5

1

Just In Bailey: Time to Say Goodbye

By
Joey Alesia
– January 30, 2012Posted in: Columns, Editorials, Guides, Joey's Blog, Just In Bailey, Staff Blogs

My wife loves to read.  She decided after three of George R.R. Martin’s books from the Song of Fire & Ice series that she would take a break and read the first book in the Hunger Games series.  Believe it or not, she finished all three books in just three days.  And as much as she loved the books, my wife was sad at the end.  It wasn’t the ending itself that made her sad.  For her, the adventure was over.  This happened with the Harry Potter series as well.  Here was a series my wife grew up with, and then before she knew it, it was over.  The books finished a few years ago, but the final movie came out just last year.  In the blink of an eye, a big part of her high school and college years was over.  She told me it was like a piece of her was gone.

That got me to thinking of similar experiences I had.  I’ll admit, I was sad when Harry Potter was finished.  I came in around the sixth book.  As late to the party as I was, the series created some great memories for me.  Video games are no different.  You spend hours, days, weeks, even months, immersed in a game just to see it end.  But, it isn’t the end that matters.  As cliché as this may sound, it’s the journey that is the important part.

Take Final Fantasy VI as an example.  People will argue until they are blue in the face, or even passed out from lack of oxygen, that Final Fantasy VII is the best in the series.  To me, FFVI had the best cast of characters and a storyline that was touching AND made sense.  From the moment Terra’s Theme hits and you see her walking in Magitek armor with Biggs and Wedge, the story takes you in and holds on for dear life.

You follow a multitude of compelling characters through a revolution, world-changing catastrophe, and loss of loved ones.  It hits you again and again with emotional moments that make you laugh and cry and do both at the same time.  Then there’s the epic final battle with one of the craziest antagonists in gaming, Kefka.  Once you beat Kefka, the game ends with each character’s story wrapping up nicely.

The game itself can take 60-80 hours if you decide to tackle every bit and do an extensive amount of level-grinding.  80 hours, that’s around 3 and a half days over a few months of playing the game.  That is a lot of time to spend with these characters.  But, when it is all said and done, do you remember what really happens at the end?  Aside of saving the world, I don’t have very fond memories of the ending.  I remember meeting Cyan’s dead wife and son.  I remember Kefka poisoning the water and killing General Leo.  It’s the moments like these that get me excited to play the game again someday.

Games with a compelling story have a tendency to grow on the player.  I don’t think every game needs a story.  Sometimes you just want to play and not think too much.  And then there are games that have a great story that is diluted through unnecessary sequels.  After finishing Assassin’s Creed: Revelations and hearing Ubisoft wants to keep making games for the series, I am worried.  I really enjoy Assassin’s Creed’s storyline.  But with yearly releases I’m growing tired of playing games that are more a small expansion to the story than adding any real meat.  This is a case where I wouldn’t mind if they took a break.  A year or two off would serve the series well, allowing it to come back refreshed and renewing the journey.

Then there are the games that allow the player to dictate how the story goes.  The single greatest achievement in this to date is the Mass Effect series.  Each decision the player makes has an impact on the overall story.  Something you say to someone in the first game could severely impact the ending of the third game.  As such, the journey becomes extremely important.  Unlike most games though, this journey doesn’t just lead up to the ending, it creates it.  So, the ending becomes purely incidental.

Some games even have a journey that has a tendency to lose track of itself.  It gets twisted and convoluted and can’t seem to find itself.  I’ve heard tell that Final Fantasy XIII-2 suffers from this, but I’ll reserve judgment until I play it.  The series I see that suffered the most from this is Resident Evil.  What started out as a zombie outbreak has exploded into a strange tale that spans into Europe and Africa.  Somehow the U.S President’s daughter gets involved and then there’s a plant with a new version of the original T-Virus.  It goes on and on.  The series even lost sight of the genre it created going from survival-horror to survival-action.  I love the Resident Evil series and can’t wait for the next few games.  I only hope these games can put the series back on track.  Even a reboot wouldn’t hurt.  Really, the more you think about it, this journey may actually need an end to make sense of it all.

This leads me to one of my favorite beginning-to-end journeys (as much as I love The Legend of Zelda, there is a questionable timeline and the series hasn’t ended yet).  Metal Gear Solid has one of the best journeys I have ever taken in video games.  Is the story crazy and convoluted?  Yes, it is.  But, in the end, it makes sense.  This is the first series to get me near tears.  When Solid Snake is trying to get through the thermal area in Outer Haven near the end while Akiba and Meryl are fighting for their lives, I was mashing the square button, standing up, yelling at Snake to keep going.  I had been with him since his foray into Outer Heaven on the NES and I was not about to see him die like this.

Not only did the MGS journey have a great storyline, it also had an unbelievable cast of characters.  From Psycho Mantis to The Boss, from Otacon to Raiden, each character made the journey that much more special.  And Snake, be it Naked Snake or Solid Snake, was caught in the middle, trying to survive through lies and betrayal while doing everything he could to save the world from disaster.  His story is one that is masterfully told and has a clear end to it (at least until some wise guy tries to change that.  Please, Konami, let Kojima-San go on to other projects).

So, what is the moral to my story you ask?  Why, it’s the story itself.  We gamers put a lot of time and effort into video games.  We grow attached to the characters and the stories.  Some are short and easily understood, while others can span multiple games and become convoluted.  What is important isn’t how these games end.  It’s the journeys they take us on that matters.  So, while you may feel like a piece of you is lost when you put 80 hours into a game and finally get to the end, just remember the incredible moments you experienced and the characters that joined you on your quest.  Not every fantasy has to be final.

Just In Bailey –an homage to the secret code from Metriod, which allowed you to play as Samus Aran without her suit– is an editorial column at Vagary.TV brought to you by Joey Alesia. Each week Joey will challenge you to look at a different perspective of the characters, gameplay, and/or plot in your favorite games. Chat up your thoughts below, or send Joey an e-mail at Joey.Alesia@vagary.tv and remember to follow him on Twitter @wrkngclsswrtr.

1

Just In Bailey: Cleanup in Raccoon City!

By
Joey Alesia
– January 24, 2012Posted in: Columns, Editorials, Joey's Blog, Just In Bailey, Staff Blogs

(Note: I understand the concept of hardware limitations.  Try to suspend your disbelief a bit.  It’ll be funnier that way.)

It takes a team to make a video game.  You have designers, artists, coders, producers, directors, marketers, and yes, even bloggers.  The creation of a game is no easy task.  There is so much that goes into a video game and we take it all for granted.  Well, I would like to recognize one of the most prominent figures in gaming.  This figure does their job and never says a word.  They are so good at it that you don’t even know they exist.  This figure works all hours and doesn’t even complain about not getting paid overtime.  Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to recognize and say a big “Thank You” to:

The Video Game Janitor!

Have you ever left a room of decapitated zombies only to come back and find it completely empty?  That’s the Video Game Janitor hard at work.  The blood is cleaned up off the floor.  The bodies are disposed of, following proper procedure of course, and even that smell of decay is gone.  The Janitor even disposes of dogs and monsters.  Did something just crash through a window and scare the crap out of you?  No worries.  Just walk away.  It’ll get cleaned up.

 

A funny thing about the Video Game Janitor, not even time travel is an issue.  Across the ages guards are assassinated on roof tops and in alleyways.  From the Holy Land, to Italy, to Constantinople, dead bodies are left everywhere.  But, without so much as a whisper, the bodies are cleaned up off the streets by the Janitor.  The Janitor has seen war, has faced the battlefield, and has cleaned up after every round of Call of Duty.

 

Not even superheroes need to worry about clean up.  It isn’t the NYPD or the Gotham City Police removing the numerous thugs from the crime scenes.  The cops always arrive too late.  Take out Thug #1 and Thug #2 from the Gotham Museum.  Leave the room and come back.  They’re gone right?  And not a siren to be heard or a badge flashed.  The Janitor strikes again!

It would seem there are only a few places the Janitor dare not go:  the barren wastelands of Washington D.C. and New Vegas as well as the land of Tamriel.  The bodies just seem to pile up there.  Why the Janitor chooses to leave these places alone is their own business.  I say the Janitor has gone above and beyond what their original job description was.Sometimes the Video Game Janitor is so good, bodies will get removed before you even leave the room.  Occasionally, the Janitor may get carried away and try to remove a body before it is incapacitated or dead.  Can you blame them though?  It sounds like an awesome gig to me.

So, ladies and gentlemen, the next time you are traveling through Raccoon City with the members of S.T.A.R.S., or though 15th century Italy with Ezio Auditore da Firenze, take the time to admire the cleanliness of the streets, the lack of dead bodies, and the fresh lemon scent.  Don’t just thanks the makers of the games.  Thank the one who keeps things running clean and smooth.  Thank The Video Game Janitor!

4

Progressing Through The Modern Battlefield

By
Don Parsons
– January 23, 2012Posted in: Don's Blog, Editorials, Staff Blogs

It doesn’t matter whether I am mashing the button to get through the green waveform that greets me when I boot up Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, or  the dirty, distorted bass before the menu of Battlefield 3; either way there is only one thing on my mind. No, not social interaction, a key element in first-person shooters to a lot of people, but that next reward. I was only so many kills from unlocking the next weapon last time I quit, and I’ve been anxious to finally be rewarded for my service time and skill.

When shooters took RPG elements and added them to the mix, it was an evolution in the genre. That “just one more game and I’m sure to unlock (insert weapon/attachment/camo here)” mentality is an addictive quality for shooters. Few have mastered the progressive tree of unlocks, but two big franchises you can count on are Call of Duty and Battlefield. They both offer incredibly deep  unlock systems that can cater to various individuals. I’ve sat down and spent some time (3 hours to be exact) with both games and jotted down some numbers to share.

01:00 Hours – The Frontlines

Battlefield 3′s matches lasted longer, which is the most obvious observation. During the first hour of play, I only got four rounds in. Ribbons, something awarded for doing certain things (ie. get 7 assault rifle kills in a round), come frequently and eventually lead to medals. Both are a great source of XP, so collecting as many as you can benefits you in many ways. Throughout those four games in the opening hour, 61 unfortunate soldiers died by my hand and 19 ribbons were unlocked. Most importantly, I leveled up three times, unlocked one gun, and seven attachments (I tried to use the same two guns to keep some sort of consistency).

After an hour, the sense of reward came from leveling up my class (I played Assault pretty much exclusively for this report) to unlock a gun I could use on either side of the battlefield. The first gun in each class is different depending on which side you are playing. So picking a class and sticking with it is beneficial in the beginning, though once you get a sense of how things work, swapping classes to whatever your team needs is how a good soldier fights.

This is where the experiment got fun. Modern Warfare 3 proved its difference in structure from the opening few games. In an hour, nine games were played (opposed to four), 106 opponents were killed (nearly twice as many as in Battlefield), and 12 levels were gained. Let me repeat that part; at the end of hour one, I was level 13. I had unlocked four weapons, and six attachments (again, I used the same two guns exclusively for this experiment). Instead of ribbons, you get accolades, though they don’t add up to much when it comes to progression. I stopped keeping track of them because of that, and that usually after every game I had four to five (five being the max).

My sense of reward in Modern Warfare 3 was simply leveling up. Each level brought something new; weapons, perks, equipment, challenges (something I didn’t keep track of, but they are a serious way to level up if you pay attention to them), and more. Emblems and titles are interchangeable and you unlock them at a fairly decent rate. I unlocked nine emblems and 45 titles (at one level, I unlocked a plethora of flag emblems).

02:00 Hours – The Fight for the Middle

The second hour of Battlefield 3 was a little more tense, and I was on a better team. That meant matches were shorter and equated to more games played. Six games later and I had killed 96 people and unlocked three new guns. One particular game had massive results (33-7 on Rush), so I gained a whopping 41 ribbons during this hour.

Two levels later, I could tell progress was much slower compared to Modern Warfare 3. I didn’t feel let down at all though, as the reward system still offered plenty in terms of weight. I was unlocking ribbons like crazy, and the attachment system (which is much like Modern Warfare 3′s) kept me itching for that next kill.

During the second hour of Modern Warfare 3, I only obtained 77 kills, putting the total up to 183 (opposed to 157 total in Battlefield 3) and got seven games in. Three weapons were unlocked, with seven attachments, but by this point I was level 19. In comparison, I was only level 7 in Battlefield 3.

The close-combat and faster gameplay style of Modern Warfare 3 was definitely showing in numbers. I didn’t need to play a third hour to come to this conclusion, but since I sat down and named the requirements for this field report ahead of time, I decided to stick with it.

03:00 Hours – The Final Hour

In the last sitting, 51 kills were had and one level was gained. Nothing surprising by this point, but five games were played and 21 ribbons were obtained. I unlocked one new gun and four new attachments during this session. While all of these numbers will vary per person, the totals are vastly different between the two games, just like my feelings towards them both in terms of their addictive nature.

First, let’s wrap up with Modern Warfare 3. Progression slowed down (as it should), as during these final nine games, I only gained four levels to hit the final number at level 23. Only one new gun was unlocked (truth be told, I was very happy with my USAS for small maps and the SCAR for more open maps, so new guns didn’t intrigue me), and three more attachments for the guns I used most. My kill count for this hour was a total of 111 kills.

The Final Numbers

Games Played:

Battlefield 3: 15

Modern Warfare 3: 24

Total Kills:

Battlefield 3: 208

Modern Warfare 3: 294

Final Level:

Battlefield 3: Level 7

Modern Warfare 3: Level 23

Weapons Unlocked:

Battlefield 3: 5 guns, 21 attachments

Modern Warfare 3: 8 guns, 16 attachments

Field Report Conclusion

The two games here do progression in amazing ways. While different and unique they also both offer similar concepts, but the real difference isn’t what you are unlocking or why, but the addictive nature of them both and how they are so different. In Battlefield 3′s case, it was leveling up the class I preferred to play to make sure I had both great guns to select from and the proper gear to do my role on the battlefield efficiently. Even though progress seemed slower, I was progressing in different ways.

In the case of Modern Warfare 3, everything is simply faster. The rewards system matches the gameplay, which is a great pairing. You gain levels like crazy, and each level grants you something new; whether a perk, a gadget or a gun. So for the first few hours, you honestly don’t go a single game without unlocking something (with even mediocre skill).

Other games have their own unique (okay, sometimes not unique but blatant copies that still don’t stack up against these two) progression system, but what DICE and Infinity Ward did with their games is unprecedented. They are both true masters of their craft and have designed an addictive architecture to the shooter genre.

Activision provided Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 for this article. EA provided Battlefield 3 for review late last year, which was used for this article as well.

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2011 Year End Awards – Chris Scott’s Top 10 Films

By
Chris Scott
– January 17, 2012Posted in: Blogs, Chris' Blog, Editorials, Staff Blogs

Another year has passed us by and once again I spent a lot of that year watching films, a great many of them in the theater. Sadly I didn’t get to see everything I wanted, stuff like “Drive”, “Moneyball”, “Warhorse” and “The Artist” will have to wait until early 2012 or whenever they are released on video. However, out of what I did see this year, there were a slew of films that kept me thinking about them well after I saw them, the below are the best of those films.

10. Insidious

The ghost story has been done to death, which is probably why I didn’t give Insidious a chance at first. However, this simple tale of parents attempting to save their child from the clutches of evil spirits is a terrifying thrill ride. Directed by James Wan and written by Leigh Whannel, the team behind the original Saw, the film does something many horror films today don’t do, it provides actual scares.

9. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

I won’t deny that I was highly disappointing in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, however Part 2 makes up for it in every conceivable way. If you are a Potter fan, this is the culmination of a journey that started a decade ago and director David Yates handles it with grace and dignity.

8. Our Idiot Brother

Paul Rudd plays Ned, the titular character whom is a free spirit that lives life to the fullest. But the film isn’t really about Ned but rather his sisters, who are so wrapped up in the minutia of their lives that they have forgotten how to actually live them. Ned, through a series of awkward, yet hysterical instances, comes to show them they have been doing it wrong. There is just something about Rudd that is charming and endearing and Our Idiot Brother captures it majestically.

7. Fast Five

The Fast and Furious movies have always been one of my guilty pleasures but with Fast Five, the pleasure is no longer guilty. Fast Five is hands down the best action movie of the year. While the Fast crew already operated like a well-oiled machine under the guidance of director Justin Lin, it is the addition of The Rock that really pushes this film (and series) into overdrive. The Rock looks reinvigorated and once again able to claim the action hero crown and his energy was seemingly infectious as Vin Diesel is on fire in this movie.

6. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

While I’ve yet to read the book, I loved the original Swedish film. I felt it was an engaging mystery with a great sense of pacing, as well as some excellent acting performances. Unsurprisingly, at least to David Fincher fans, this English language version actually improves on the original in nearly every way. Lisbeth (played by Rooney Mara) is a deeper character here and that makes a lot of the changes carry more weight. The only reason this isn’t higher on the list is because I had seen the original and because of that a lot of the tension of the investigation just wasn’t there for me.

5. Source Code

Every once in a while a film comes along and surprises you with how smart it is. Source Code is one of those films. Director Duncan Jones delivers a tight, tense, sci-fi thrill ride and most surprisingly it is done almost entirely by repeating the same eight minutes over and over again. Source Code is a film that makes you think, presenting both a solid mystery as well as some interesting ethical questions.

4. I Saw the Devil

I love a good revenge thriller and there were none better this year than the Korean language film, I Saw the Devil. The film is excessively violent and gory and at nearly every turn it threatens to fall victim to becoming just another torture porn film, but somehow director Jee-woon Kim is able to walk the tightrope instead delivering an artistic tour-de-force exploring the destruction of a man’s sanity in his pursuit for revenge.

3. Hugo

At its core, Hugo is a whimsical story about an orphan who befriends a young girl and has a wondrous adventure but hidden amongst the simple adventure is Martin Scorsese’s love letter to his craft. It is a film about remembering and celebrating the past, while at the same time pushing forward to new adventures. Simply put it is a film that anyone who has a love for the medium should see.

2. Super 8

If Hugo is Martin Scorsese’s love letter to film making, Super 8 is J.J. Abrams love letter to Stephen Spielberg. There is such a classic feel to everything in Super 8 that at times it is hard to imagine that it did not come out 25 years ago. But what the film does the best though is capture the magic of 80s era Spielberg and in doing so Super 8 effectively made me feel like a kid again, entranced by the magic of the silver screen.

1. The Muppets

Call me a fool all you want but nothing this year put a smile on my face like The Muppets did. It is without a doubt the funniest, most feel good movie of the year. It gets everything right about The Muppets and in so doing, delivers a perfect viewing experience that can bring a smile to even the most hardened of hearts.

Those are mine, what are some of yours?

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2011 Year End Awards – Chris Scott’s Top 10 Games

By
Chris Scott
– January 17, 2012Posted in: Blogs, Chris' Blog, Editorials, Staff Blogs

2011 was a good year for games, some might even say a great year for them. For my part, I had a lot of fun with the games I played. Sure, some were stinkers (Homefront) and some left me rather disappointed (Uncharted 3, Mario Kart 7) but, there were more games that left me in a state of utter satisfaction.

I finished 45 games this year (down from 60 last year) and the overall quality of what I played seemed to be greater than last year; considering last year had Mass Effect 2, Halo: Reach, and Pac-Man Championship Edition DX, well… I think you get my point. There are of course games I still haven’t played (Saints Row 3) or had enough playtime with (Star Wars: The Old Republic) but regardless, it is all subjective in the end, so without wasting any more of your time, here are my top 10 games of 2011. Leave your favorites in the comments down below.

10. Bulletstorm

I will admit it, the preview coverage of Bulletstorm made it look like a Duke Nukem wannabe and if it hadn’t come packaged with the ability to play the Gears of War 3 multiplayer beta I may have overlooked it. I am glad I did not overlook it because it was a fun, albeit somewhat crassly written, take on the first person shooter genre. It might have been inspired by Duke Nukem but it does Duke better than Duke did himself and playing with the leash was some of the most fun I’ve had with a weapon in a game this year.

9. L.A. Noire

L.A. Noire is deeply flawed. It features an open-world that has no purpose. It has a weak back half. And worst of all, the interrogation system (which much of the game is centered on) is inconsistent and often frustrating. But it is also a great example of how the adventure genre can still be relevant to today’s gamers. The narrative was solidly crafted and a wonderful attempt to bring film noire to games. The music was some of the best in a game this year. And graphically, the game took things to a new level with its facial animations.

8. Dead Space 2

I loved the original Dead Space, it was a great attempt to reinvigorate the survival horror genre. Dead Space 2 is not a survival horror game, it is a shooter and a damn good one at that. Nearly everything in Dead Space 2 improves upon its predecessor and I loved nearly every minute of it. To me Dead Space is Ridley Scott’s Alien, whereas Dead Space 2 is James Cameron’s Aliens. Both are great but Dead Space 2 (much like Aliens) is more my cup of tea.

7. Batman: Arkham City

Arkham Asylum was a great game and probably the best Metroid styled game I’ve played in years. Arkham City is something different and it took me a bit of time to get used to that but once I did, everything fell into place. Arkham City is a great experience, even if I do not like it quite as much as I like Arkham Asylum.

 

6. Dark Souls

Dark Souls engaged me in a way that I didn’t think possible, especially considering I did not enjoy Demon’s Souls all that much. People claim Dark Souls is hard, I don’t know how much I buy into that line of thinking. The game forces players to be patient and learn how to approach each encounter. Failure to do those things will surely result in a quick death(s) but like many other games, Dark Souls has its own rules and it is unwavering in its adherence to them. It is a game unlike any other.

5. Alice: Madness Returns

Alice: Madness Returns is a platformer with just serviceable platforming, so how did it end up this high on my list? Artistically, no game was able to create a sense of place like Alice did for me. American McGee’s twisted version of Wonderland is truly something special. Additionally the story of Madness Returns is something that really stuck with me all year long. It is a story that touches on some very heavy material and for me at least delivered the best ending of the year.

4. Bastion

Bastion was a game that had caught my eye early on in its development. It had a very interesting art style and the action role-playing gameplay seemed to be right up my alley. What I wasn’t expecting was a story that captured me with its organic deliver method and a soundtrack that still has me in awe of it. Bastion just goes to show that sometimes the best stuff comes in small packages.

3. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Skyrim is awesome, but I have a feeling you already knew that.

2. Super Mario 3D Land

I have had my complaints about Nintendo this year, and I am sure they will continue into next year as well but when it comes to Mario, they have their stuff screwed on right. Super Mario 3D Land is without a doubt the reason to own a 3DS. Sadly, in my opinion, it is the only reason to own one and I can’t recommend spending $200 or so to play this game but if you have a 3DS and don’t already have it, what are you waiting for.

1. Gears of War 3

Epic hit the ball out of the park with Gears of War 3. The single player campaign, which is also playable in co-op, is the best in the series and actually delivers some emotional characterizations to characters thought to have no emotion. Horde mode was drastically remodeled and delivers one of the best co-op experiences this year. Beast mode is an incredibly fun reversal of the Horde formula. And the competitive multiplayer is deeper, more balanced and more fun that it has ever been. The game controls better than ever, the new weapons are a ton of fun, and it looks better (and more diverse) than any Gears game to date. In fact everything about Gears 3 feels incredibly polished. No game offered the complete package that Gears of War 3 did but most importantly, I had more fun playing Gears 3 than I did any other game this year.

 

0

Just In Bailey: I Dream of [Game] Genie

By
Joey Alesia
– January 16, 2012Posted in: Blogs, Columns, Editorials, Joey's Blog, Just In Bailey, Staff Blogs, Vagary.TV

My freshmen year of college I came to a crossroads in my video game life:  Wind Waker had just come out for the Gamecube.  One other guy on my floor and I were the only ones to pick it up.  There was a friendly bet on the floor as to who would beat it first.  No physical incentive was involved.  We were battling for pride and admiration from others.  Actually, it would have showed who was the biggest dork.  He had a huge advantage.  I gave him a handicap.  I would play without help.  He had the strategy guide and the internet at his disposal.  I had to use my knowledge of Zelda games and awesome video game playing/puzzle solving skills.  I even charted each island myself along with treasures and Tri-Force pieces.  I don’t know if was my awesomeness that helped me to beat the game before he did or the fact that it was all I did outside of going to class, but I did it.  Ever since then I decided that I would play games without aid the first time through and then use a strategy guide or cheat or some other help the next time around.  The only exceptions to my rule would be rented games or long games like Final Fantasy.  Like I said earlier though, this crossroad came during my freshmen year of college.  Cheating was a whole other story prior to my time at Northern Illinois University.

 

If you’ve been reading my articles, you know what systems I’ve owned and what kinds of games I play.  What you don’t know if that for each system up to the original Playstation, I owned some type of cheating device.  I also bought strategy guides, but if I wrote about those the article would stop here.  For the NES, SNES, Game Boy and Game Gear, I owned a Game Genie.  For the Playstation and Nintendo 64, I owned a Gameshark.  These devices aided in changing parts of a game’s code and thus altering different areas of the game.  You would input codes at the start up.  The codes could grant things such as invincibility, unlocking different levels or even changing the look of a game.  The devices would come with booklets that had codes for games that were out at the time and you could get more codes via game magazines or experimentation.

 

 

The Game Genie helped me make it through games that were difficult to impossible either because I was too young or the design was bad.  Dragon Warrior for the NES was really hard for a kid six years of age.  With aid of the Game Genie, I didn’t need to worry about losing HP, MP or keys.  I could run through the game in a matter of hours and fight off even the hardest of enemies.  Friday the 13th was another game that was difficult for me.  Not only was it scary that Jason could pop out at any time, it was also insanely difficult and had pretty shoddy gameplay mechanics.  But, again, thanks to the Game Genie, I was able to survive Jason’s onslaughts, sometimes just standing there while he tried to hurt me and laughing at his failure to do so.  It even made the NES game, Karnov, playable.  And for anyone who has played Karnov, you know the hours of frustration that game provided.

One crazy thing I remember when using the Game Genie for the Sega Game Gear was the hidden messages I found.  I was at a friend’s house fiddling around with my Game Gear, tapping random buttons and inputting random codes.  Next thing I know, there is a blue screen with a message saying, “Help.  I’m a prisoner in a Game Genie factory.”  I was in 4th grade at the time and was admittedly pretty scared.  There were other messages too which I don’t remember as much as that one.  Years later, I researched what the messages were and found out they were just little Easter eggs.  Even so, the messages were creepy.

When the N64 and PSone came around, Gameshark was the “in” cheating device.  The codes were longer but allowed for more things to be changed.  Plus, you could save the codes in the device so you didn’t have to keep inputting them every time you start the game.  Being able to avoid level grinding in Final Fantasy VII was a blessing.  The version I remember having was the Gameshark Pro, which let you design your own codes and added a whole new dimension to the game, or froze it and deleted your save data, but mistakes had to be made in the name of cheating.

That leads me to the problems with the Game Genie and Gameshark.  They were great for allowing you to make game easier or add a different dimension.  Too often though, they made games broken.  The devices would delete save data or corrupt your game.  Sometimes, they would make the game too easy.  Have you ever played through the first disc of FFVII at level 99?  It’s not a whole lot of fun.

This is also the reason why I try my hardest not to cheat in a video game either by using a cheat device or a strategy guide or even the internet.  I want the challenge.  I like that feeling of accomplishment.  Even better than that is the “holy crap I found something” feeling.  I don’t frown on using guides or devices.  To each his/her own.  The Game Genie/Gameshark and I had plenty of great memories.  But, that’s what they are, memories.  It’s a sign that I’ve grown as a person and as a gamer.

 

Just In Bailey –an homage to the secret code from Metriod, which allowed you to play as Samus Aran without her suit– is an editorial column at Vagary.TV brought to you by Joey Alesia. Each week Joey will challenge you to look at a different perspective of the characters, gameplay, and/or plot in your favorite games. Chat up your thoughts below, or send Joey an e-mail at Joey.Alesia@vagary.tv

2

2011 Year End Awards- Don Parsons’ Picks

By
Don Parsons
– January 14, 2012Posted in: Blogs, Don's Blog, Editorials, Staff Blogs

2011 is behind us. Looking back, it has been an amazing year for games. While everyone has a very different outlook on the past year’s selection, I’ll take a little time to shed light on some of the shining gems (and dull rocks) I’ve had the pleasure (and horror) of playing. Take into account I haven’t played EVERY game, and I don’t nominate those I haven’t played. With that in mind, enjoy the following pages of thoughts and opinions and be sure to leave a comment with your own opinions.

With love,

Don

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