Gaming Experiment

I'm doing an interesting experiment at home. A few weeks ago, I got two RPG's, and I decided to play through both of them at once. A few days later, I got another RPG, but haven't played it much. And since, Mass Effect 3 put out another piece of DLC, I played through that as well. And World of Warcraft works its way into my daily routine fairly often. So I have a bout 5 games on the go at once (really, SWTOR is the only one I haven't played recently), but only the first two count. WoW I've played so much that's it's routine. I know pretty much exactly what I'm going to get. Mass Effect 3 doesn't count because I go full bore on it. I rarely stop to do anything else when I'm playing it (yes, it's just that awesome). And while King's Bounty: Warrior's of the North is in fact a new game, I've played both its predecessors, and so I know what I'm going to get - a solid strategy/RPG with tongue planted firmly in cheek. Plus, as I mentioned before, I haven't played it much.

So really, the two games I'm experimenting on are TheWitcher 2: Assassin of Kings, and Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. Besides having colons in their names, they have a few other similarities. They're both Fantasy RPGs, so a lot of swords and sorcery, monster slaying, loot-finding, and plot-advancing goes on. Both have mainly weapons based combat with limited magic tossed in. Both are action RPGs, in that each press of a mouse button is a swing of a sword (or other weapon), so a lot of button mashing goes on. Both have crafting systems (so, you know, sticking close to the fantasy RPG guidebook). Both have experience points and levels that a character gain, advancing along different paths to maximize certain abilities. Both have inventory systems that have to be managed (occasionally micro-managed), but that's pretty standard. The only RPG's I know of without real inventory systems are Mass Effect 2 & 3 (which are more shooters that RPGs at this point), and Magicka, which stopped being fun and started being frustrating after about 2 hours. Which is why I no longer play Magicka.

Anyway, they're both two different games, by two different companies, so they have two completely different looks and two different feels. The biggest difference between the two games, however, is attitude. Kingdoms of Amalur (KoA) is very earnest. Its heroes are good, and do good things, simply because they're the right things to do. The bad guys are evil, and do bad things for the evulz. The character that really drove it home for me was a guardian of a small town (sheriff-like) who agonized over his inability to protect one of his citizens. He was all "Woe is me. I'm a terrible person because I couldn't stop this crime. Here, take my wonderful sword because you did such a better job than I did." ("well, thank you. Can I have your shield as well if I go kill those giant rats over there?" And yes, Giant rats were the first enemies you fight in the game, thus further solidifying that the game reads off the standard RPG tropes list we're all used to). It's like the developers read Lord of the Rings and said "I want to make a game of that."

The Witcher 2 is almost completely the opposite. Everything is very grey. Good people do bad things for the right reasons. Villains to good things for the wrong reasons. Most people are greedy, selfish bastard-coated bastards with bastard filling who constantly try to manipulate the people around them. Alliances and allegiances shift seemingly randomly, but I tried to stick with the people who were ... well, less evil most of the time. It didn't always work. It's like the designers read A Song of Ice and Fire and said "I want to make a game of that." Which they didn't, because the games are actually based on a series of Polish books and short stories about the hero of the game, Geralt of Rivia, and they take place about 5 years after the last book, with some convenient amnesia so players who haven't read the books can jump in without getting lost.

I got lost anyway. Actually, I got lost in both games. They both throw a lot of lore at you, but at least they both had the presence of mind to make the protagonists just as confused as the players. Geralt has amnesia from being killed, and presumably brought back to life. The hero of KoA (who we get to name ourselves, so I chose Mjolnir) has amnesia from being killed and definitely brought back to life. So, more similarities, I guess.

The Witcher 2 follows the fracturing of several kingdoms after their kings are slain by a witcher. The opening cutscene shows one such assassination, and its petty cool. It also stars a heavily scarred witcher who could probably play linebacker in the NFL. He's BUILT!

Anyway, Witcher is actually a bit of misnomer. It's a neologism (even in Polish), but a better translation/description would probably be Hexer. Geralt can cast certain signs that do things. Light things on fire, trap things to the ground, blow things over (several months before Fus-Ro-Dah), provide protection, and one that should probably be called "Jedi MindTrick." You can convince people of things, from "Tell me what you know" to "Fight these people for me." Hilarity ensues.

KoA has a 'magic' system based on three different playstyles. So there are Might abilities (warrior stuff), finesse abilities (thief/rogue stuff), and sorcery (the actual magic stuff). The Might side has a spell that causes huge spikes to come out of the ground when you slam into it. A finesse spell would be to fling knives out in all directions (wait, why is that sound familiar?) and the sorcery side will have you shooting lightning at your foes. You cast them by choosing one from the hotbar to activate it, and right-clicking to cast it. Quickly hopping around the hotbar (and enough mana, the resource used to cast spell and abilities) can have you electrocuting your enemies, stunning them enough for you to impale them on giant spike from the ground, right before you lop of their heads with your sword (which is, as per standard RPG tropes, larger than you are).

The inventories are different, but similar to ones in other games. The Witcher 2 follows the Fallout/Elder Scrolls route and assigns pretty much everything a weight. Geralt can only carry 300 pounds worth of stuff, which would give anyone a workout, but seems strangely limited when you're trying to carry 87 pounds of iron ore and 136 pounds of timber around so you can make a bunch of knives later. KoA follows the standard Bioware path and makes everything take up one slot of space (although items that are the same - like mana potions - can be stacked into one slot). The amount of slots can be upgraded by buying backpacks from vendors, giving me flashbacks to Dragon Age. The one thing I really liked about the inventory system was how it handled crafting components. Most of the time, each crafting component was its own item, taking up one slot by itself, or stacking up to some arbitrary number. So picking azaleas would take up one slot, and picking rhododendrons would take up one slot, and picking roses would take one slot. In KoA, all the crafting components are held in a bag, which only takes up one slot for each craft. Fantastic! Every game should have this! Including The Witcher 2, where I may have wandered around with 12 pounds of tulips taking up valuable weight.

The crafting systems are different too. Sure, there's alchemy in both, but even that's widely different. In KoA, there are three professions: Blacksmithing, Alchemy, and Sagecraft. Blacksmithing is used to break down any gear you get into its component pieces, as well as a sort of core of the original item. So a sword might have a sword core, as well as a hilt, bindings, and rivets. Shields might have grips as well, which might also appear on daggers, but not on staves. You can make items by using the core and an increasing number of items, depending on your blacksmithing skill. So a crafted sword might only have a sword core and a hilt. Increasing blacksmithing will add bindings, then rivets, then grips, and various what-nots. The order depends on what you're trying to craft - weapons, or gear for each specific playstyle (again: Might, Finesse, and Sorcery).

Alchemy is made from ingredients picked from the world (plants that can be picked sparkle), although if your alchemy skill isn't high enough, you can fail at picking anything ("Oh man, I squished these petals again!"). These ingredients can be used in recipes bought from vendors, or can be used to experiment to try to find your own recipes.

Sagecraft is used to create gems, which can be added to weapons or armor to increase stats. Weapon gems can be put onto weapons, armor gems can be put into gems, and utility gems can be put onto either, provided that the gear has the slot for gems at all. Gems can also be sold for tons of money to vendors, so that's a nice boon when your gear isn't good enough to have slots (or you find gear without slots that's better than gear with slots. That happens to me a lot. 20 hours in, I've used maybe three gems. Mind you, I've also made a boatload of cash selling gems).

In The Witcher 2, Alchemy is made from materials from picking flowers and from parts of whatever monsters or animals you slay. There are dozens of different materials, but each one has one of eight ingredients, and it's the ingredients that matter. So there are a lot of different ways to make the same potion, while also making it possible to save the more valuable resources for more valuable things, like diagrams.

The other type of crafting is from diagrams, and those can't be used yourself. You take the exact materials (not ingredients) to a craftsman, and they make whatever it is for you for a fee. Usually more than you can sell it for, to prevent gold farming. Oren farming, actually, because the unit of money is called orens. Anyhow, I managed to pick up a few useful diagrams and got some sweet armor, as well as some sweet armor enhancements (basically gems) from diagrams.

Now that I've ruminated on the subject enough, I've found the biggest difference between The Witcher 2 and Kingdoms of Amalur. And that is this: while putting in equal hours into both, I've finished The Witcher 2. And while it was a good game, it just kind of stopped. Okay ... that's nice and all, but it means I'm going to have to shell out for The Witcher 3 (which was probably the point of so many sequel hooks). One or two things get wrapped up, but the overall plot is far from over, and that's really annoying. I have no idea how much more time KoA will require, but I'd hazard a guess I'm near halfway through. I've probably put about 20 hours into each, and while a 20 hour game would be a fantastic length for a first person shooter (because it has many more hours with the multi-player component), it tends to be a bit disappointing for an RPG. The big caveat to all this is that as an RPG, there's a lot of replay value. I suspect that if I made a few different choices, I'd wind up with an entirely different plot. So I might have to put in 20 more hours to find out what it is. You know, just as soon as I've finished Kingdoms of Amalur. And King's Bounty: Warriors of the North. And World of Warcraft. And Star Wars: The Old Republic. And whatever new piece of DLC is coming for Mass Effect 3. And maybe Dragon Age 2 again. So if you don't see me until May ... you'll know why.

Ha, just kidding (not really). Anyway, the point of this whole thing was to determine if I could play two games at once and not get too confused. Ultimately, the answer was yes. Certainly, there were times when I tried to click on things during KoA when I should have pressed F, or pressed F in The Witcher 2 when I wanted to pick something up, but by and large, the experiment was successful. What that says about me, I have no idea. Have I reached the tier of RPG gamers wherein I'm experienced enough to keep two concurrently played games completely straight in my head? Or does it just mean I spend too much time in my room?

Zombie Column: Multi-review

I got to a number of entertainment events in the past while (and strangely few Christmas parties, but that'll change soon enough). They had nothing to do with each other, so it's a multi-review instead of a mega-review. I'll start with the most recent and go in reverse chronological order, because why not. This past weekend, after much waiting and finding no one to go with, I finally went to see Skyfall. First, allow me a few 007 puns.

Headline after Daniel Craig was hired: Blond, James Blond.

What does he invest money in? Bonds, Savings Bonds.

How does he reconnect with distant kin? Bond, family bond.

At this point in time, we know what we're going to get with a Bond flick: He beds three women (one of them on the bad guys side), there's a vehicular chase of some kind (usually cars, but The World is Not Enough had boats), and gadgets that are unusually handy, but only once (although the recent movies have toned down the gadgets). This one sticks pretty close to the checklist, even if it takes things from other movies as well. I noticed influences from The Dark Knight, Live Free or Die Hard, and just about every episode of Burn Notice (including the shotgun shell light with light bulb bases. That's always a good homemade spy weapon).

Still, just because it's derivative doesn't mean it's not good. I liked those three I just listed, so put them all together and you'd get something good as well (just don't try this with ice cream and bacon. Seriously). The acting is good, the humour is funny, and the girls are pretty. Even if there were too many contrived coincidences (the villains plans were kind of built on them), it's still a theatre movie for me.

Oh, I should mention that previews included A Good Day toDie Hard (I'm all in on this. ALL IN!), Django Unchained (maybe. I still think Quentin Tarantino is wildly overrated, but I'm a Jamie Foxx fan), Gangster Squad (probably not) and Iron Man 3 (Yes. Duh).

Friday night I went to see Handel's Messiah with a few friends. I always have to remember to say Handel's as well, because if I tell people I'm just not that into The Messiah, they assume I'm an atheist. Thanks a lot, Handel! Way to ambiguously name your masterpiece. Anyway, I'm not that into Handel's Messiah, but I figured it would be healthy for me to take in cultural events and be with other people. Plus, it's fun to go with people for whom it's their favourite piece of music (at the moment, mine's probably Fireand Honor by Audiomachine). I may not have fallen asleep at any point, but there were definite moments where I was trying to do 3D trigonometry in my head (angles on Tetrahedrons are no fun without paper). Still, I stood up in the proper places (mainly because other people also stood up) and avoid laughing too obviously at the choral members who forgot their songbooks (two of them. Sitting there, without books. Surrounded by 130 people who remembered. Awk-ward). Whoops. And I didn't make too many jokes at the expense of the last song. It's the one with all those meandering Amens. Most Elaborate. Prayer. Ending. Ever.

Last weekend I had the pleasure of watching a two-man play called Twinkle. I kept getting confused if it was Twinkle or Tingle, and was relieved when I didn't portmanteau the words into Tinkle ("Yeah, I went to Tinkle at a friends house last night." "Um, what?"). It's an intergalactic interactive improvised Christmas trip through the stars, or something. It's small enough to be performed in a house, so a nifty place called the House of Commons hosted (no relation to the government). It's also a kid-friendly play, so we were encouraged to think like kids (It’s slightly alarming how easy that was for me). And yes, I got to participate, as did most other people. I got to wear a Darth Vader mask as a Darth Vader-like villain (I'm assuming for copywrite reasons). I discovered it's impossible to wear that mask and not talk like James Earl Jones. Fun times were had by all, and my only quibble is that I'm not sure how many kids would get the "Open the pod bay doors." reference. Mind you, I'm not sure how many adults would either.

So that's my recent entertainment activities. Christmas will be here soon, and I'm sure that will leave at least some time to watch movies, so look for more Zombie Columns soon!