Time for another backlog update. I finished another 4 games. With one game (Penumbra: Requiem) carrying over from the last update, this completes yet another quintuple.

1. Torchlight Apparently the only game that I was planning to play trough in the last update. I enjoyed it a quite a bit. It filled a sudden craving I had for a Diablo clone. But there is not really anything about it beyond the execution of a stereotypical formula. In fact, the game depends a lot on players knowing Diablo. So it actually manages to slip in some blunders without anyone noticing. It doesn’t even really teach players how it works. But as a direct Diablo cover song, it does it’s job indeed.
2. Batman: Arkham Asylum Something I have played for the CGL Game Club. Good thing I was finally able to play it. It was sitting on my shelf for a year or so! I enjoyed it quite a bit. I have only rather small nitpicks. I think the “Detective Mode” never really deserved that name. I agree with this assessment on Harley Quinn’s character mismatch. I also wrote a rather lenghty review on some combat issues that rear their ugly heads during the overly brutal challenges. But Arkham Asylum does a lot of things right.
3. LEGO Pirates of the Carribean I bought this one to play it with my GF. She is somewhat of a PotC fan. We got to the 3rd film or so and she lost interest. There are quite a few reasons, I might write about it soon. It basically boils down to a mismatch of our abilities. I kinda ruined the game for her. But the game wasn’t very user-friendly in the first place. So I finished the game alone. I really enjoy the LEGO games. Sure, they are shallow and repetitive. But so are most AAA games. LEGO games are just more honest about it and end up being more consequent.
4. Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers DLC Not really an entire game but I think it counts. I already finished the game quite some time ago. But then 3 DLC packs came out and I just recently found the time to get back to it. An unfinished article I started writing back in the days helped me find my bearings.

I was kinda surprised to notice that it was time to get another game. I was considering a couple of games but couldn’t decide. A lot of people on Twitter suggested Silent Hill 2. I almost went for it but realized that there is an HD version coming up. So I want to wait for that one. Instead, I went for Mass Effect 2. After all, my Massive Interface Fail article is still considered a valuable resource for game interface design by a lot of people. Perhaps it’s time for a sequel So here is what I have on my horizon for the next quintuple.

1. To The Moon I actually finished it yesterday. I will write about this soon.
2. Catherine need to wrap this up. It’s kinda hard to get back into it because I realized I’ll probably never be able to get all the trophies. I just don’t have the patience for the hard mode.
3. Demon’s Souls again, need to get back into it. I don’t want lose touch with character yet again.
4. Modern Warfare 2 found this on my “to play” shelf. I remember that I still haven’t done the black ops challenges. Perhaps I can finish them and finally bury it.
5. Mass Effect 2 obviously…

Recently, I found this post among the old drafts of my blog. I was trying to write a longer post on the decks of Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers back when I was first playing it. Coincidentally, I recently returned to the game to play the DLC. Even though the post is not complete, it helped me to get back into the game. It offers some good overall advice on the original decks in the game. I don’t have the time / knowledge to complete the post so if you have any card-based advice on the decks I haven’t talked about in detail, feel free to post them in the comments. I think it’s still a useful recourse I’d rather not see get wasted:

I already mentioned how I enjoyed the recent XBLA port of Magic: The Gathering. This time around, I’d like to share with you some of the thoughts I had on the available decks. If you never played the game or are not interested in Magic, you can safely skip this one.

Continue reading “The Decks of Magic: The Duels of the Planeswalkers”

Some time ago I reported about none other than Chris Crawford visiting Cologne Game Lab in person. We have just recently uploaded a video of one of his highly entertaining lectures. This is something you may want to check out!

Too bad you missed it, huh? But wait, there is more! The reason why we uploaded it just now is that Chris Crawford will be at Cologne Game Lab again next week! Well, technically not in person. But he will be doing a Webinar like the one back in 2010. And it’s public and free. It’s not as amazing as seeing him in person but it’s the next best thing. Go here for more details.

This time on the Monster Hunter Podcast: Coffee Based Superpowers. Naxhxela finally spills the beans on how to obtain superpowers and remove coffee stains. Also, Monster Hunter!

Get the mp3 of the episode here.
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Enjoy!

Here is a recent Trailer for an upcoming Transformers game that left in in tears… from laughing.

So what I think happened here is that Black High Moon Studios tried to pull an effect like in the infamous Gears of War Mad World Trailer. Back then, the trailer surprised by putting very slow, emotional, famous music with poignant lyrics over quite violent, masculine game-play. The mismatch was effective because it completely blew past any expectations. And yet, there was some logic to it. Gears of War depicts a once rich world that has been devastated by war. The glimpses of it’s former glory make up a melancholic lining that the trailer picks up against the apparent mismatch. Even then, it’s still quite a stretch.

Beginning of this year, The infamous trailer for Dead Island showed the pitfalls of the strategy. The Trailer also features very violent, pop culture infused images set to slow, sad music. Together with some clever editing, it hints at the kind of emotional depth many video game enthusiasts have been looking for in their games for years now. It became almost immediately clear that the game itself would never be able to live up to than kind of expectations. Indeed, the ad turned out to be a hollow, misguided marketing ploy. It’s debatable if it helped Dead Island in the long run. On the one hand, it generated a lot of publicity for what otherwise would have been a mediocre game. On the other hand, it added a sting of disappointment what indeed was a mediocre game.

But apparently, it wasn’t clear enough because here we are again. This time around, there are no redeeming arguments. Transformers is pretty much as shallow as pop culture gets. It’s giant robots that transform into cars, space ships and dinosaurs as they wage an eternal battle of good vs. evil. And that’s ok as long as you just accept them for what they are – a flashy pretext to make things transform and go boom. The original War for Cybertron game seemed to understand that. They took a lot of cues from the Saturday morning cartoon and avoided the any references to the less honest, cinematic version.

Not so much now. The Trailer evokes a depth and significance that is utterly, unmistakably absent from the Transformers universe. The Transformers are giant robots, they live on a completely alien planet. They are emotionally empty as the toys they are meant to sell. There is nothing humane about them. The Trailer evokes notions of loss and struggle. But is death for a machine the same as for us? Optimus Prime died like 5 times already. How are new Transformers born anyway? What did they lost due to the War? How did life look like on their planet before there was war? Do they have families, lovers? Do they have art? If so, where is all that culture now? What did they used to transform into before they transformed into fire-breathing space dinosaurs?

None of this is and ever will be topic of the game. And to be fair, it wasn’t focus of any of the Transformers series either. It’s not why people watch Transformers, it’s not what Transformers CAN address. The Trailer in an embarrassing, involuntary pastiche. It’s unbelievable that Black High Moon Studios would misunderstand the material they working on in such a hilarious way.

Yet the idea behind the trailer is clear. Games want to have the same kind of emotional impact as other media. So big game productions are keen on squeezing their lemons a little bit extra to produce that special juice we are all after. But what they forget is that in order to have lemon juice, you need to get dirty. You need to dig into the soil. You need to make the plants grow and bear fruits. But that’s never what the game industry did. They always went for the simple solutions. Always catering to the fans, always going for the popular choice instead of laying groundwork to nurture generations to come. So they have no lemons now. All they have are plastic lemons. And when you squeeze that plastic lemon, you don’t get any juice. You get a squeak.

EDIT: I originally wrote Black Moon Studios instead of High Moon Studios. I apologize.