Video Game Tuesday: Consequences

This week for Video Game Tuesday I’m covering a topic that some people love, and most people hate. It’s all about Consequences!

What do I mean Consequences?: I mean the fact that most games, don’t have lasting consequences for player choices. Most games you just die and respawn or lose a life in a platformer. You can just redo the fight or sequence or level over and over until you succeed or get lucky. Mostly just get lucky for most players.

However some games like Morrowind, and the Souls series are great, they have definite wrong ways to play. It’s refreshing and it helps players improve. It also can suck though if you are hundreds of hours into a game and make a small tiny mistake and accidentally hit the wrong NPC causing it to kill you over and over again. Fun fact I did that in the soon to be released game Dark Souls 3. I was pissed. Thankfully I was early into the game, but it was still a brutal lesson to learn. However it did make me appreciate the consequence of making a simple mistake and to be vigilant at all times.

Thats it for this week’s Video Game Tuesday, but what are some of your favorite screw-ups in gaming? Leave a comment below!

 

Anime Sunday: Gundam Tekketsu no Orphans Episode 01 Impressions

This week for Anime Sunday I’m taking a look at one of the break-out series of this Fall 2015 season. It’s Gundam Tekketsu no Orphans Episode 01 Impressions!

Plot Synopsis: The year is Post Disaster 323. More than 300 years after a great war between Earth and Mars known as the “Calamity War”, Mars has been successfully terraformed and colonized by humans. However even with the technological advancements, the humans on Mars crave freedom against the government of Earth and seek to improve their livelihoods. Furthermore, while most of Mars’ nations have received autonomy, the planet is virtually dependent on Earth for economic development. A young orphan named Mikazuki Augus is part of a group of children who work for the civilian security company Chryse Guard Security, entrusted with the safety of the Martian Princess Kudelia Aina Bernstein, who has plans for her nation of Chryse to secure independence from Earth.

Plot: Where to begin with this one. Well I guess this is Sunrise’s take on what the atrocity we call Child Soldiers. It shows the absolute brutality that is ever present in their lives and what they have to do to survive. It’s not a pretty picture making this one of the most grim Gundam series ever. It’s most certainly not for kids. I thought Gundam Zeta was bad, and I’ve heard that Gundam Victory is so depressing that I can never actually watch it for fear of it affecting my personal struggle with Depression. Gundam Tekketsu no Orphans takes all that and tops it by a huge margin. I’m a little surprised that they got the go ahead to actually make this series. Now this isn’t to say the series isn’t good, in fact everything I’ve just mentioned makes this series one of the best Gundam series I’ve ever watched. There is nothing cheesy, there is very little humor and it’s purely serious to a degree that is refreshing after Reconguista and AGE.

Characters: Orba and Mikazuki, called Mika by many, are the show’s male leads and while Kudelia doesn’t show much of her face in this episode I hope to see her develop into a strong character. Orba is cruel and vicious to those who raise his ire, but is loyal and protective of those under his command and protection, which is mostly a bunch of kids younger than him. Mika is his best friend and the ace pilot for this Gundam series. Mika has very little emotions show on his face, in fact I’ve rarely seen such an emotionless character. This makes them incredibly strong leads and great foils to one another. Kudelia will be an interesting wrench to throw into the mix for them and I can’t wait to see what happens.

Art: It’s amazing, and while it’s not ufotable quality it is the best quality animation Sunrise has produced in years. Reconguista was a travesty and looked like it was produced in 1970 rather than 2013. AGE wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t nearly as good as this.

Music: The musical score is amazing and epic. In addition Man with a Mission performs the opening theme and does an amazing job with it. It’s not the first band I’d have picked for this series, but it’s not the last either.

Overall: This is looking like it will be one of the best Gundam series in decades and is a must watch for all Sci-Fi and Action lovers.

For those who like: Drama, Action, Sci-Fi, Mecha, Gundam, Amazing Plot, Fantastic Cast of Characters, Great Artwork, Excellent Musical Score.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above, but how can you hate it?

Video Game Tuesday: Player Unfriendly Decisions and Their Consequences

This week on Video Game Tuesday I’m taking a look at the ramifications of Player Unfriendly Decisions and Their Consequences.

What is a Player Unfriendly Decision?: For starters let’s settle what a Player Unfriendly Decision is (I’m shortening it to PUD from now on since I’m lazy.) A PUD is a choice a developer makes that they may think is an interesting choice, but really leads the end user (read: You as the gamer) to have to do certain actions that are often detrimental to either their continued play of their product or forces them to play a certain way regardless of their preferred style. What isn’t a PUD is something like a properly specced Talent Build like WoW used to have prior to the Mists of Pandaria expansion pack. Players choosing to make their personal playstyle be ineffective isn’t the developers fault.

A Recent Example of a PUD: God I can’t believe this got into full release personally, and no we never knew about it prior to release because of the level cap in Alpha and Beta. The decision for Destiny to make it so Legendary Engrams didn’t give out Legendary items always was the stupidest decision I’ve seen in a while, and people were rightfully upset at the stupidity of it. That being said it’s not fully fixed and certain things could be done to make the situation better. Sometimes Engrams turn into Ascendant Materials, which are now useless for almost all of the high end players, and this leads the joy of finding one into a bitter disappointment. This can be solved by making it always turn into a Legendary item and sometimes give in addition to that item Ascendant Materials or Exotic Equipment. This would be the easiest and smartest choice Bungie could do to solve this problem, why they haven’t done so I can only guess as to why although some of my friends think it’s because there is a severe lack of programmers working on Destiny at the moment.

Consequences of PUDs: The continual repetition of making PUDs leads to player burn out and disappointment and hatred towards the game and the people who make it. The choice to make the RNG so unforgiving, and at the same time necessary to progress, in Destiny is leading many players to find the quickest ways to beat the hardest encounters often called “cheesing”; and while I applaud Bungie for fixing these exploits the choice to ignore other more pressing matters is an even greater PUD in my opinion. Bugs like the one with Heavy Ammo makes high end PvE play incredibly time consuming for the average player because they don’t use those cheeses, but when they try to do something legitmatly it ends up costing them time and money (both in game and real money due to the requirement of paying for PS+ and Xbox Live Gold time). The particular bug I’m talking about is the one where if a player is wearing any form of Heavy Ammo increasing equipment, they lose a full clip of ammo (usually 2 rockets) per death. This is a major bug that has been around since Beta, if not Alpha, and it’s been nearly 6 months since release and it’s not been fixed. Something like this should have been fixed prior to any fixes made to Raid encounters exploits. Yes pushing the end boss off the edge is highly exploitative, however with the rash of PUDs Bungie has made in regards to Destiny I don’t feel bad for using those exploits in the least.

What Should Developers Do?: Well first off actually listen to what people are saying, granted that most of the internet is a cesspool 98% of the time, but that 2% can give really good ideas. Second let their focus testers play the full game if possible. In a game like Destiny or WoW, the players will always find ways to make their lives easier, which means exploiting any and every advantage even if it’s not something the developer expected. A focus test group is meant to find these advantages because making something doesn’t mean you know exactly how to beat it the easiest and quickest way. If the developer isn’t equipped to handle such a thing, they need to quickly solve that issue (by hiring more people or whatever it takes) while taking care of any bugs that cause players issues prior to fixing problems with code that allows an easier play experience.

That’s it for this week’s Video Game Tuesday.