Back From The Neverhood: Armikrog

I've been playing video games for a long time. Since our family first got a household computer, my brother and I have been playing games on it. We never had a console until Christmas 2001 saw my parents give in and buy us (me) an Xbox. However, I will always look fondly back at those days spent playing those games on the computer, installed in blocks of anywhere from one to six floppy diskettes. Commander Keen, Treasure Mountain, Gizmos and Gadgets, Operation Neptune and many, many more.

Then there came the CD games. Wow. CD-ROM's. They were something else. The games got bigger, better, more intricate. One game that I will always treasure for its oddness and its beauty is the 1996 release The Neverhood, from the creator of Earthworm Jim, Doug TenNapel. This game was a claymation, point and click adventure game that was funny, bizarre, beautiful and difficult. It was a puzzle solver with as much humour and challenge as the first Portal installment. We spent hours on that game, playing it over and over again because the characters like Klaymen, Hoborg and Klogg were so much fun.

That is why I practically screamed with excitement when I saw that the creators of The Neverhood had started a Kickstarter campaign to make a "spiritual successor" to The Neverhood. As if Skullmonkeys hadn't happened.

If you watch the Kickstarter video - and I highly recommend you do - this game looks just as fun and even more bizarre, using the same wonderful claymation techniques that made The Neverhood so awesome. And the voice talent! Veronica Belmont! Jon Heder! ROB PAULSEN! COME ON!

There are some really great rewards on this one, including copies of the game, t-shirts, art books, comic books, soundtracks and - if you've got the dough - a credit in the game as either a thank you or "additional animation". Because they teach you how to animate and then let you animate on the game!

I've pledged and I hope you will, too. Let's get these guys up and rolling!

Mahalo.

Just a Recommendation

I wrote a rant not long ago about how video games don't cause gun violence. If you're still interested in the topic of gun violence and video games, I would highly recommend this article, also from Cracked, that illuminates some of the points I made and extends on them - especially the "video games as living out fantasies".

Mahalo.

Stop it! Stop. It. Stop.

This can't wait anymore. I've been trying to avoid writing this for a long time, having just sort of skirted around it in polite conversation, but now I can't. I just freaking can't and it's because of a tabloid article I found through Buzzfeed.

I'm going to say this and I'm going to say it once; video games do not cause people to become more violent. Gamers are not some horrible, sadistic group of murderers just waiting for their chance to spring into rage-murder action all over the nightly news. We just simply aren't.

This topic has been breached time and time again and I think it was best summed up by Cracked columnist Robert Brockway.

"Americans are, and always have been, an incredibly violent society," Brockway writes. The first school shooting in this country happened before there was a country."

After Sandy Hook, Joe Biden sat down with a council to try and work out gun legislation and the "role guns have in today's society" with a bunch of video game designers. And now, the New York Daily News is on that trolley. This argument was put forward after Columbine and Virginia Tech. Worse is that Anders Breivik said he used Call of Duty 2 and World of Warcraft to help train himself. Luckily, the rest of that article is condemning the use of video games as the reason for mass shooting is unfair and in fact is being called racist. I recommend checking it out.

Here's the inside scoop, people who don't understand video games: we like them because they are fun, not because they are training us to murder people. What they can do is provide an outlet for rage fantasies.

And don't jump all over me for that because we all do it in our heads. Everyone had had that fantasy of pushing the slow-walking person down the stairs or punching the annoying person so hard in the face that their skull explodes or any number of other ridiculously-over-violent-for-the-situation fantasies. And anyone who says they don't have them is a liar. Video games allow some of us to act out those rage-fantasies in the safe confines of non-reality. Many times after a long day have I said to my roommate, "Excuse me, but I have to go shoot some stuff for a while." And proceeded to kill many, many faceless bandits in Borderlands 2 or zombies in Left 4 Dead and after about an hour of that I feel so much better.

In this vein, you can't have it both ways, America. You can't use video games to help train/recruit for the armed forces and then turn around and say that video games are evil and are making people more violent. People said it of violent films and yet look at films today! They aren't making people more violent, we just appreciate the pretty explosions or stylized violence or excess of blood splatter. Do you know why? Because we know these are fantasy and not reality.

You can bet your ass that if we were to see something that violent in reality it would make us sick. It's one thing to fire a fake gun in a game, it's quite another to fire one in real life. It's one thing to beat up on dragons with your fists (thanks, Skyrim, for that opportunity!) but it's quite another to watch someone being actually bullied and beaten. The internet and the gaming world can sometimes be filled with jerks - like any other world such as sports or business or acting - but we're not full-fledged demon spawn.

Video games don't make us violent. Stop making us villains. Learn what correlation and causation is. Just because they played video games doesn't mean that that's why they did the things they did. It only alienates us and makes parents more worried for their "gamer kids". My folks' only worry for me was that I didn't play outside enough - but that's because my skin is so pasty that I burned so easily!

We're not aliens. We're not monsters. We play them in games but then we come back to reality. We will not become killers because we play video games. We are not violent. More often than not we're the kids who are bullied. And don't argue that this causes us to snap and take out our violence on innocents. While that has happened, doesn't make it a characteristic of all gamers.

Don't let one bad apple spoil our very interesting bunch. We have a lot to offer and we are no different from you except that we have a hobby you don't understand.

Mahalo.

The Day Has Come (Closer)!

Hallelujah friends, for this is a joyous day!

In case you haven't heard, a bill has finally been introduced into Australian parliament to allow the classification of R18+ on games!

Years! Years we have been fighting for this - over ten years according to the article in the technology section of News.com.au - and finally it's happening.

It is an actively foolish thing that this country, wherein there is an R18+ rating for film and television, has no such rating for video games - a landscape which contains just as much if not more violence and mature content, especially within the last decade. In the words of IGN's Luke Reilly, “This has been such a tiresome issue for so many years; it’s great to finally have some real light at the end of the tunnel".

Yes, Luke, it is nice.

The main issue seemed to be that people thought young players would "have more access" to R18+ material if the rating were to be introduced, but this concept is ludicrous. They have the same exposure to R18+ films and television, but we still have them. And kids will find a way to sneak in to watch them, too. But for some reason, that is acceptable behaviour for film and TV and not for games. Why?

It seems that the government, and those lobbying against the rating change, see video games as something that only young people do. Something that is juvenile. Something that is not R18+ material. Well, they are wrong. Those people who were young gamers when gaming first came around? They're adults now. They want to play games that are adjusted to their level of maturity. And yes, you can be mature and still play games.

And parents, if you do not want your children playing these games (just like you didn't want them watching those films or TV series) then it's simple: do not buy it for them. Pay attention to what your children are playing or, better yet, pay attention to what you are buying them. Don't just give in when they want Hack and Slash 4: The Bloodening, if that game has an R18+ rating, it is not suitable for them. If you buy it for them and you don't like it when you discover what it is months later, it's your own fault.

There, I said it.


I'm glad to finally see the government seeing reason on this topic and I hope that this bill passes. Because, honestly, I like to do things legally. I don't want to live in a place where if I want to play the original Left 4 Dead 2  - with all its bloody, gory glory - I'd either have to buy a copy from America, or download an illegal, hacked version. And I don't really want to do either of those things. I want to support the Australian businesses who sell them.

Come on, guys. Let's get this one right.

Mahalo.

A Quick Note on Video Game Music

In "Unsung Heroes" - and once more in this post - I noted some excellent soundtracks and how fun it is to listen to them even outside of the gaming atmosphere.

I just want to take the time to note two more soundtracks that are totally worth noticing and giving a listen to. And they're both from Rockstar Games.

The first is the slightly eerie and intriguing soundtrack to Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare, a zombies and cowboys epic. The music is the right mix of western and zombie movie and worth giving a listen - especially since the soundtrack is a huge part of both of those cinematic genres.

The second is L.A. Noire, a visually stunning and fun game set in 1947. So, as you can imagine, the music is jazzy-noir and very of the time. Noir, too, is a genre wherein the music is a radically important part of the cinema, so this faithful soundtrack is definitely worth it for lovers of jazz, noir and video-gaming.

Mahalo.

Xbox "720" Rumours

Thanks to Huffington Post, IGN, Kotaku and a few other gaming sources, some rumours about the next generation Xbox - the "720" (not what it will be called, but it is what people have dubbed it for the moment) - are starting to be solidified.

There are a couple that are intriguing, but the most argued over seems to be the release date. The most recent guess, according to the aforementioned sites, seems to be in the late quarter of 2013. Sure this is a year after Nintendo releases it's new Wii U later this year, but that's no biggie.
This means we have a full year to enjoy our current games before, basically, we never play them again and use only things for the new console - which is, unfortunately, really seems to be how all this ends up working.

Another intriguing development, according to a Kotaku insider, is that the new console will come equipped with a Blu-Ray player and the "Kinect 2", a new version of the motion-detector gaming add-on for Xbox 360. It's said that it will have an on-board processor that "would enable a new Kinect to more effectively detect users' motions". So, you know, be better at doing what it's supposed to do. Good news. Not that the original Kinect is bad, mind new, but it is limited.

Numbers and letters concerning the new consoles power are also being thrown around, some saying that the "720" will be 6 times more powerful than the 360, with Kotaku's source saying that that's "the right ballpark and that Microsoft is estimating they might even get to 8x the Xbox 360". 8 times the power. The thing is already pretty damn powerful, I can only imagine what's coming next! And, knowing Xboxes (Xboxs? Xboxi?) as I do, the size of the power supply that comes with it with need its own liquid cooling system.

It is also said that the processor is being based off the Radeon HD 6670, which is currently released, which asks the question of whether the graphics on the machine will be out of date before it even hits the market. I have to trust the team at Microsoft that they know what they're doing, but we'll just have to wait and see.

Here's hoping they address that issue instead and be more like, you know, every other home electronic device currently on the market and won't need an external power supply at all. I have to tip my hat to Sony on this one in making an amazingly powerful and advanced gaming machine - with arguably better graphics than the 360 - that does not require an external power supply have the size of the console itself. Kudos.

By far the biggest development, however, has to be the fact that a purportedly reputable source from within Microsoft has said that they are working on software (or maybe its hardware, it's unclear) that will prevent the console from playing used games. This would kill business like Game Stop and reduce revenue from your local game stores like Game, JB Hi-Fi and EB. They are "unsure how they will implement the system" but Luke Plunkett of Kotaku seems to find that he understands the movement towards this kind of technology.

"In fact, if it ends up being correct, it makes total sense. Why? Over the past year we’ve seen developers, publishers and then even platform holders like Sony embrace the idea of the “online pass”, a concept designed to either prevent game trade-ins or get more money out of those skipping new purchases," he writes.

"It’s a movement that, as time goes on, will only pick up steam. And now that nearly all major publishers are on-board with the idea in one form or another, the next logical step is to embed the practice in gaming hardware."

 While he's right, it would severely limit your ability to lend your games to friends and family or any of the behaviours that gamers have so embraced in our culture.

Wired's Chris Kohler says it's possible that the games will be a hybrid of the disk, which will contain the content and likely a unique access code, and downloadable, one-user-only games like for phones and tablets.

No one knows for certain that any of this is spot on but, as the speculation of commenters is being slowly confirmed in one way or another by their contacts in the industry, I am certain that what is true is that when the "720" does come out, it will be an entirely new gaming experience to what we are used to now.

Mahalo.

Looking forward to 2012? I am.

Hey all!
In a departure from my more recent (and very sparse) posts, I want to take a minute, as a gamer, to tell you why 2012 makes me excited to be such.

With the exciting year that was 2011 that saw the release of Dead Island, Skyrim, Dead Space 2, Dragon Age 2, Portal 2, L.A. Noire, Duke Nukem Forever, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Gears of War 3, Rage, Batman: Arkham City and Halo: Combat Evolved 10th Anniversary Edition, among many, many others, it's hard to see how 2012 will beat that. Well, here are some of my - and the world's! - most anticipated titles.

1) Diablo III:
Need I say any more? Gamers across the globe are looking forward to this tremendous release. Though the release date has been repeatedly, a recent article has shown that that is no longer because of the South Korean Game Ratings Board, but now because Blizzard are still fiddling with the core systems. The various trailers being released make it look as if this game will be an epic return to the world of the first two Diablo titles and I, for one, am desperately looking forward to it. Especially because, hey, let's face it, when has a Blizzard game ever - really - been sub-par?

2) Bioshock: Infinite:
After the sleeper hit, perfectly crafted Bioshock release in 2007, I was hooked. The game's atmosphere and writing were unmatched in most games I had played up until that point - with the notable exclusions being Half-Life 2 (2004) and Portal (2007) - and it created a first person shooter with a seriously intense and well-crafted storyline, which is hard to come by.
Though the sequel, Bioshock 2 (2010), was somewhat less amazing than its predecessor, it was still an en-RAPTURE-ing game (god I am sorry for that).
Now, the third installment in the series - which is neither a direct sequel or prequel, but merely set in the same sort of world - is being released this year. Bioshock: Infinite features similar gameplay concepts in a world seemingly as well crafted and equally as horrifying. With trailers and gameplay footage abounding, this game has shown us that 2K is back with something far more enticing and exciting than Bioshock 2 and one which I am incredibly looking forward to.

3) Halo 4:
I know, I'm full of franchises today, aren't I? Halo, for me, is one of the most important games of my teenage years - barring, of course, Starcraft and Diablo II. I don't know what it is about the game, but it's like my Star Wars. I find every aspect of the world and its characters fun and interesting. I've read the novels, the comics, watched the fan films, seen the short animated films, kept up with a lot of the extra promotional stuff, I have the soundtracks and I've even learned to play the main theme on guitar. What I'm saying is, I like this game. I like the world. It's also the only four-players-on-one-console game that Xbox really has at the moment, and it's killer and the blurb for the new one really says it all.
It's a game franchise that means a lot to me even though I know the story is somewhat lame and cliched. I don't care. I want this game.

These along with films like The Devil Inside, Red Tails, The Grey, Man on a Ledge, Safe House, The Raven, The Cabin in the Woods, The Avenger, Rock of Ages, Prometheus, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, The Dark Knight Rises, Frankenweenie, The Hobbit, World War Z, Django Unchained and, despite being in 3D, The Great Gatsby, this is going to be a pretty good year.

Mahalo.

Red Dead Redemption and New Xbox 360

Ok, so I know I'm a little late in coming to Red Dead, but cut me some slack, I've been saving up and my Xbox has been broken.
This, however, was delightfully rectified when EB Games announced a deal that trading in your old 360 would give you a significant discount on the new sleek, quiet, huge HD Xbox AND a free copy of Red Dead Redemption. My ears burned and I traded in.
My oh my oh my.
First of all, the new plastic smell of the new console was almost like heaven incarnate at this point. The new Xbox, not only sporting a huge 250 GB HD (almost unnecessarily big), but is quiet as a mouse. The new power pack barely makes any noise which makes it sound less like it's going to explode than the old model did.

Alright, so, Red Dead. This game, honest to goodness, is more fun than it has any right to be. I mean, really, it's just GTA on a horse in the Wild West - but for some reason, that makes it BETTER.
The open plains of the beautifully constructed world are astounding and the little addition of people either needing your help of trying to kill you by the side of the road is a cute touch towards the reality of 19th Century West America.
Although the protagonist (hero or villain is your choice) is a fairly opinionless avatar of the stereotypical mysterious stranger with a dark past, he is still enjoyable. His a well-defined character in terms of animation, and his lack of too many opinions kind of allows you to role-play him any way you like - though that could be my Dungeons and Dragons playing twist on a less than well-written character.
The story, however, is quite enrapturing in a strange way. I mean, it's typically Rockstar Games/GTA in that you go to different people for missions whom the previous mission-giver introduces you to, but their stories are more interesting than, "I hate this mob boss, murder him for money". I like the, "I'm a creepy grave robber searching for my lost treasure, let's go find it - this will include a lot of murder and mayhem".
Speaking of murder, the fighting - especially the duel-style Dead Eye feature - is more fun. This could be because you have a foreseeable limit to your ammo and you only really carry max 4 choose-able weapons at a time - my favourite is the Winchester Repeater. It also FEELS like a Western flick, with the grungy hero who's good with a gun and enemies slumping over, falling off roofs, etc.
All in all, a shining review for this game. Mahalo.

A Gaming Adendum

I think this needs to be stated outside of my earlier post about Activizzard and StarCraft 2. Let's face it, as gamers, gaming companies have us by the balls. They create the games that we want to play, we buy them and that's it. They dictate the rules, the code of conduct and the fashion in which it is to be played and, outside of official patches and unofficial fan creations, the game more or less stays the same. And they always will have the same formula.

We may, as gamers and internet users, sit idly in front of glowing screens and rant about the things that are important to us - this is the only power we have to change ANYTHING. This is important to note. The only way things get changed is by speaking out - whether this be as a protest on the street or a well-meaning blogpost to and about the right people or thing.

What will NOT get things changed is flame wars. We need to be more eloquent with our anger, explaining WHY this kind of things simply won't do anymore. More eloquent than, "yur a fag lolz" and "this is fucking shit, ffffffuuuuuuuu blizzard!11!!!" These outbursts of nonsensical jabbery won't get you anywhere. In fact, they will set back the cause.

The world already sees gamers as ineloquent, infantile, useless leeches of human decency, and when I look at some of the bastards on forums and MMORPGs, it's hard to not agree - sometimes. Most of the time, however, when you have people like my friends or Husky and HD and the professional players they host in their StarCraft tournaments, or just that one nice guy in World of Warcraft who helped you find your way to Orgrimmar rather than shouting at the top of his virtual lungs, "NOOB FAG! ORGRIMMAR IS EASY TO FIND LOL".

Gamers are, actually, intelligent and thoughtful folk but they are often the quieter ones. The louder gamers, the ones Jack Thompson and the angry media latch on to like leeches at a blood party, are the ones who do not represent us. I don't know if I can stress any of that enough. If we want gaming companies to take us seriously when we ask for change, we need to do so not only en masse, but eloquently and thoughtfully. Then, and only then, will they take what we have to say seriously alongside their educated and competent game designers. Mahalo.

The Uphill Battle

I've avoided this for long enough, I think. Normally I don't complain all that much here and just stick to personal writing and reviewing, but I cannot simply stand by anymore. As those who know me know, I am an avid and long-time gamer - I will happily admit that I like all sorts of computer, console and tabletop games. But it seems remaining a gamer in the new market is becoming more and more difficult, with certain gaming companies taking what can be seen as an anti-gamer stance, or more specifically, non-loyalty to their long-time gamers. I'm looking at you Blizzard/Activion...Bliztivision...Activizzard. Whatever.

My first and foremost complaint comes with the release of the long awaited and anticipated (for seriously over a decade) game of StarCraft 2. I, like most other gamers, loved and continue to love StarCraft 1 and still play it, enjoying it's more or less perfection of the RTS (real-time strategy) gaming model. Not only that, but you were guaranteed to be able to play with your friends whenever you wanted. After Blizzard merged with Activision, it seems to have turned its back on us ever-trusting fools and royally flipped us the bird.

One of the top priorities of an RTS (or what SHOULD be a top priority of an RTS) is multiplayability. That is, playing with more people other than yourself, whether in the same room, house or country. StarCraft 1 had LAN support which allowed computers, connected in the same house or room via wireless or direct-cable connection, to play in the same game with one another without having to be connected to the internet. One benefit of this is the epic fun that all gamers know, known as LAN Parties. You and your friends bring your computers and play a lot of games together, simple as that.

Blizzard (or, more accurately I believe, Activision) has made the direct and forceful choice to remove LAN capabilities from StarCraft 2 for good. That's it. Period. The reason given by Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, is that they want to give a gaming experience so good, that people "won't even want to have LAN parties". I'm sorry, what? Have you ever PLAYED games? That's one of the benefits of being a gamer! Here is H-to-the-usky-Husky talking about all these issues in a video accompanied by kittens. I know it's 25 minutes, but if you're interested in the issue, it's worthwhile.

But "Ah," I hear you cry, "surely without this, you can still play online?" Of course, but another thing being removed is the chat and unique game names from the new Battle.Net service - the online multiplayer system for Blizzard games. This makes not only chatting with your friends difficult, but organizing games with your friends a huge pain. With no unique game names, how are we to know which "4v4 [Map Name] Melee" are we supposed to join? There will be hundreds!

Ah but wait, maybe there won't be. In the old Battle.Net system, you could choose which region to play in (Asia, US East, US West and Europe) and could therefore meet a whole bunch of new people. No longer! Your StarCraft region will now be chosen for you depending on the address given in your Battle.Net account - say goodbye to all those friends you made in StarCraft 1, you won't be able t play with them anymore unless you falsify your address, or buy multiple copies of the game - something which I'm sure Activision's CEO would love.

Another rumour circulating the web is that the previously free service of Battle.Net will now become a 'pay by the month' service similar to Xbox Live. This will definitely make being a gamer even harder, and once more limiting the scope of the multiplayability of a multiplayer game!

What strikes me most, out of all of this, is that Blizzard have always been a gamer-loyal company, always releasing top-quality games that are loved by all - what gamer doesn't have fond memories of Diablo, StarCraft, Warcraft or WoW at SOME point? All these games are great and, despite the fact that they often took FOREVER to be released, they did so because it was to make the game better, to make sure it was perfect. It seems to me that now they are releasing an unfinished, sub-par sequel. Despite the decade-long wait for a game which looks in Beta to be possibly one of the most fun RTSs of all time, I could wait a little longer for them to get this baby right.

What is frustrating is that, through all of this, I know I will still buy it - hell, I preordered it. I WANT to play that game. Desperately. And Activizzard knows that. They know we gamers will fork out the necessary money to play the games we want to play, even in spite of all their glaring flaws. And that goes double - if not triple - for StarCraft 2. The only way we can get things to change is if we stand up and say, "Hell no, no more, we aren't buying your games unless they are done right and are made loyally for your fans". But, unfortunately, I cannot see that coming.

Funny Games Hedges Its Bets

As I type, I have just finished watching perhaps one of the most disturbing films I've ever seen. Written and directed by Caché's Michael Heneke, Funny Games is a powerful deconstruction of the presentation of violence in the media, and the expectations of the audience. Those of you who have seen either Caché or any other of Heneke's films know that he likes to disrupt the audience's experience by giving them the unexpected in the most powerful way possible, and Funny Games does just that.

A happy, wealthy suburban family George (Tim Roth), Ann (Naomi Watts) and their son Georgie (Devon Gearhart) are just beginning their holiday in their beautiful summer home when two creepy and soft-spoken teenagers, Paul (Michael Pitt) and Peter (Brady Corbet) invade their home and proceed to toy with the family for their own twisted amusement.

Ann: Why don't you just kill us?!
Peter: Never underestimate the importance of entertainment.

Exactly. Heneke is clearly toying with the audience's desire to see a film where the family is tortured (physically and emotionally) with the real possibility of death. This is done in a fashion which can only be described as "soul destroying" as you watch the family desperately trying to get free from the grasp of these insane people, whilst simultaneously making the audience uncomfortable with some very unexpected moments of breaking the fourth wall from Paul. The film comments on how violence is seen in film and on the news, how the audience is separated from the violence by the television screen, but that doesn't stop it (philosophically) from being real.

Paul: [Fiction] is just as real as reality because you can see it too.

Overall the film is stylistically brilliant and very well scripted, but definitely not for the faint of heart. Although the viewer is uncomfortable for almost all of the film, it is still (for lack of better terms) an enjoyable watch - that is, if you don't mind your soul being just a little destroyed. Mahalo.