My Thoughts on Deus Ex

I am now about 10ish hours into Deus Ex and I do have to say I am enjoying my time with the game very much, but I think I rested it on too high a pedestal. Anticipation has a funny way of helping us set unreasonable goals for a work of art, and especially one so ambitious from first time developer Edios Montreal.

Don't get me wrong or misread my criticisms here, this is certainly a $60 purchase. With that said...

Deus Ex is what Metal Gear would be like if it were well written and had a sense of artistic direction. It is very deep and conspiracy-ey (totally a word, despite what spell check would lead you to believe), but the characters and plot actually make sense and it has a very strong visual and aural tone. Deus Ex certainly gets an A+ for writing and for environment. I actually find myself reading most of the emails and eBooks I find lying around.

I think it is really funny that all of the voice acting is so top notch except for the lead. Seriously, did anyone actually listen to his dialogue? All I can ever hear him say is "Harvey Dent.... CAN WE TRUST HIM?!?!" That aside this is the best voice acting in a game, well since this.

The biggest glaring misstep is really what the game expects of you. A lot of reviews have stated the game rewards you for playing your way, but in my experience that is only true if you are an explorer who likes to spend hours combing around maps searching for every last detail. When I have a game that has such a thick plot and engaging scenarios, I don't want to spend the next hour and a half breaking into people's apartments or doing fetch quests for strangers. I get a strong feeling though if I don't I will miss valuable experience points and loot to sell.

I know Edios Montreal spent a lot of time making these sprawling, beautiful and grotesque environments for us to explore, but I would say it was too much. With a story focused game I want to focus on the story. It really rips me out of the immersion when I have a team of experts waiting to support me in my mission and I am running around doing errands for the local Triads. I know that is how it is in this post GTA3 world, but I really wish the game was probably about 66% of it's length and more focused, because the highlight of this game is the great mission levels and sneaking/fighting your way through.

I have only been through one boss fight so far as well, but I can say it was a battle of attrition. Having a character that is solely focused on stealth and hacking and then having to have a shooting match with a human tank..... it can be frustrating. Needless to say there was a lot of "load last autosave" going on until I finally figured it out.

Now, in my old and stuck in it's ways mind, the greatest cyberpunk game ever to be released was the legendary Shadowrun on the Sega Genesis. The game has not aged well beyond the prism of nostalgia, but it was GTA3 7 years earlier. With RPG elements. And cyberpunk. And an actual plot. And actual GOOD writing. In 1994. On the Genesis. The game was awesome. I dream and opine daily for a current-gen update to this game. I imagine a cyberpunk elder-scrolls with hacking, corporate espionage, a huge urban sprawl, and spectacular writing.

Deus Ex is the prefect example of a really great game that could have been legendary had it been a little more focused. Granted I still have easily 50% of the game to get through (and I will actually finish this game), but my mind still dreamily thinks about what could have been rather than what is.

Some day Shadowrun, some day.

Duke Nukem (and the videogame industry) is Sexist, and another Post About Marketing

I read this amazingly well written article on Kotaku scribed by Lydia Heitman. It was all about how terribly Duke Nukem was marketed, and it isn't a surprise because the project is a failure in every way. It really is the zenith of how the video game industry does not understand it's customer base at all.

Stay with me!

Bethesda is stupid because they are wasting money on marketing for the already hyped up sequel to The Elder Scrolls Oblivion, Skyrim. Like all good PC master race out there I can not wait until November when this game comes out and would get a second mortgage on my house for the privilege to play it. I'm already sold. The demographic that Skyrim appeals to is me. We know the game is coming, and we will pay full price on release day.

Seeing ad's for Skyrim on sites like The Escapist is like watching an advertisement for the Next Food Network Star during an airing of the show; I'm already watching. You don't need to waste time and money getting my attention.

When Valve spent millions of dollars to air a television commercial for Portal 2 what was in the video? Was it Glados? Was it Chell? Nope! It was two adorable robots hugging. Why you may ask? Because Valve knows that people like me are already going to purchase the game no matter what they do, so they want to get my wife to buy it. They wanted to advertise to another demographic who wasn't already predisposed to having a favorable view.

Advertising a game like Duke Nukem is tough. Most people old enough to remember the original (ME!) have long outgrown the mechanics and spirit of the game. People who are younger and into FPS's are curious. The people you want to market to are the people who wouldn't normally purchase your game, but might be interested. You don't need to market sex to young men because hey; it's what they (we) will flock to like flies on stink.

If Duke Nukem was really a good game they would go after the second largest demographic in our indusrty (women over 25!!!!! Its true!!!!). Let's not also forget that the largest group who consumes video games is men over 25 and the second largest is women of the same age range. We have careers, spouses, often kids (yikes!), we have mortgages, life insurance, and real world problems. We aren't college kids or teenagers. We don't care what our parents think about games. When Duke Nukem 3D came out we were 11 to 15. Now we are in our late 20's to 40's. We don't care about digital boobs, we care about a fun escape from our normal, mundane lives. We want a mature plot, a well realized world, and a story that can make sense. That doesn't mean it can't be full of dick and fart jokes, but that won't be enough to make a successful experience.

Problem is the game is crap, so they thought they could pull a fast one on "hardcore" gamers and throw a fastball by us. When a game is actively marketed towards me (the apex of the largest consumer demographics for video games, see previous paragraph) it makes me very wary, because I know what games I like. I know what sequels are good and which are crap, I know what new IP's look awesome. I'm too savvy for box art blurbs. If you aren't marketing towards a new demographic to whom you can expand your userbase, and instead are solely focused on who should be your bread and butter it is indicative of a big ol' desperate move.

That is clearly what the king has become.....

Epic Fail.

BioWare vs. Bethesda

I love March because it means it's time for not only PAX East, but also March Mayhem on the Escapist. We are getting to the final rounds of voting for our favorite developers and there are some really interesting matchups, the most interesting right now being BioWare vs. Bethesda (hence the name of this post). By the way you have been warned; BEWARE OF SPOILERS!!

Despite being a huge fan of both developers, I opted to vote for BioWare mostly because Dragon Age 2 is out right now this very moment and I have been having a blast with it. A very good friend of mine decided to troll me for my public display of favoritism which really got me thinking about both developers. In my opinion Bethesda and BioWare are the two best Western RPG houses the world has ever seen and for two very different reasons.

Bethesda creates the best worlds, period. Despite spending easily 200+ hours with Morrowind I never actually finished the game because I didn't need to. I had more fun exploring Vvarfendel, reading all the amazing books, drinking in the different architecture of Vivec, the Telvani towns, the ashlands, etc. Granted the magic system was pretty useless endgame, the alchemy system was broken, and the hit detection was incredibly questionable; didn't matter. The game was magic with a V8 engine, 12 gig of ram, wrapped in bacon, and pure awesome sauce spread all over. I spent easily as much time with Oblivion and the continent of Cyrodil. The cool, weird architecture was replaced with more familiar high fantasy archetypes, but the game world was so meticulously well crafted that I had an amazing time closing gates, exploring towns, and (like any great open world game) picking flowers. The gameplay trailer for Skyriim looks nergasmically fantastic!!



BioWare games are really fantastic because no one tells a story quite as well as BioWare. From KOTOR to Mass Effect to Dragon Age, no developer has ever written characters that are as vivid and that suck you in. The quests and decisions in BioWare games are also so incredibly well thought out it actually gives one time to pause and really take into account the weight of one's decision and how it will affect the story and the world. When we had to decide between Kaiden and Ashley staying to set off the bomb in Mass Effect, or whether to spare, kill, or enslave Loghain, I never really cared about the characters in any other game like I do in BioWare games.

BioWare have made it pretty difficult to really support their studio as a fan lately. Despite having an amazing time with Dragon Age 2 right now, I am certainly not the first to report the game was obviously rushed. From the same subpar graphics to the environments that are used over and over again, the game certainly would have benefited from another 6 months to a year of development time. The flood of premium DLC as well has been down right disrepctful to fans and consumers willing to spend $60 hard earned USD's (or the local equivilent if you live elsewhere) to play a complete release. Dragon Age Legends on Facebook can cost up to $99.99 (as much as both Dragon Age's 1 and 2 combined on Steam right now) to play consistantly without waiting for energy to refil. Hell, Dragon Age 2's presence in the marketplace this soon really only leads me to think that the game exists soley to fund the upcomming MMO "The Old Republic" (which does have one of my favorite game trailers ever).



One advantage for Bethesda is that they certainly do not have the aggressive release schedule BioWare does. The last full priced entry in their catalogue was Fallout 3, which came out in 2008. Their next release will be Skyriim, which is due to release November 11th this year, approximately 3 years later. Figure the game began development in 2007 I would estimate.
I absolutely love this philosophy. Every game Bethesda releases is always of such high caliber and concept, and despite being hardcore action RPG's always are a commercial success. I would rather wait 5 years for an amazing game then 3 for good enough.

Despite the clear lack of development time for DA2, BioWare still has a huge hit and an amazingly fun, tactical, and deep RPG that has characters that are written incredibly well. The game is certainly compelling despite itself. If both studios ever could join hands and come together to create a game, it would absolutely epic.

Bottom line is there is certainly room in my heart for both. Only thing is Hawke is here now FTW! I mean, that is certainly points for BioWare; their lead character's name is Hawke.

My unabashed love for The Elder Scrolls

Yesterday Bethesda unleashed the first gameplay trailer for TES5 and, like most of geek culture, I had such a nerdgasm that resulted in the necessity for a fresh change of pants. Let's all enjoy the trailer again, shall we?



In case you couldn't tell by my verbal toungbath above I love the Elder Scrolls series. Why you may ask? They have all been really buggy, have had throw away stories, and mediocre mechanics. What is so exciting about them? What really makes them as epic and successful as they have been? I will tell you exactly what; because the games would not work as movies or books.

TES is all about exploration and interaction. Like most people, I was 60 hours deep into gameplay in Oblivion before I even really paid any attention to the main quest. I had more fun with the dark brotherhood, getting enveloped by paintings, venturing into caves to find old akaviri artifacts, and just getting lost in a wonderful fantasy world. I have spent 100 hours or more in Morrowind and never finished the story. Didn't need too. Too much fun to just explore and be a part of the world. You can't get that experience with a movie or book. You are always an outsider looking in. You are always a slave to the artist's story and not free to really create your own.

Anyways, SQUEE!!!!