Sequel Problem

This issue may be eternally discussed. This problem is just what many gamers come to ask when a good franchise takes hold. Maybe today it is less an issue than twenty years ago. But boy!, how many times have we asked ourselves after playing Mega Man or The Legend of Zelda or any similar game: what happens with all the cool stuff?

Sequels are many times long-awaited games that just let us bask in the goodness of a great system, a great story or just a great character that inspires us. Recently I had played Mega Man X and, once finished, I started the next part when the problem bugged me again. I had killed eight Mavericks, destroyed an airship and cooled a lava factory down, getting every power up. I was all-powerful now and ready to get the rest of the enemy robots when I realized that Mega Man had become a wimp again… but how?

Let us just recap the beginning of Mega Man X 2: you are looking for your enemy. That is it. No explanation to what happened to your awesome weaponry, how the heck you disposed of such useful implements. You just start a weakling again. Do not misunderstand me here. I know that the games are supposed to start hard and that you have to grow, so you can feel accomplished. In the dawn of gaming not much thought was given to the issue.

For example Zelda. In the first part you have all items from the dungeons. In the second you have to find the candle again. And some of the objects of the first part… are buried in a lair again! How did the enemy do that? I sometimes wonder how crafty an evil guy can be to be, at the end, just beat because they gave us enough time to get all back again.

There have been some good solutions to that. For example, in Ultima VII, when you start the expansion pack The Serpent Isle, you immediately get smashed by teleporting lightnings. All you can keep at the end is aq few rocks. It may sound really mean, but it was a good excuse for the disappearance of your already powerful gear. In Zelda’s Link’s Awakening you actually set out on a voyage and your boat sinks. The only thing you can savage from the wreckage is your sword and your shield. Those were good excuses.

In Mega Man, nothing is said. Maybe Wily dresses up as a servant in your house and takes all away. Although it does not explain why he does not reuse some of the stuff up to Mega Man 7. Every Zelda game starts with a wimpy Link with three hearts. How does that happen?

Nobody will know for certain what happens between each sequel. The games are not bad, and the suspension of disbelief only lasts a few minutes and becomes later a joke, but it is still this detail that always comes into the mind of any gamer and his favourite series. Not all do that, though. So now it is time to get into wild suppositions on what happens with your things every new game. As for me, between Mega Man X 1 and 2, I always suppose our dear hero just left the things at home and he can’t find them anymore. And he is extremely lazy. What do you think guys? If something like that happens in your favourite franchise, what do you speculate? There must be some really creative answers out there! Just comment.

May they smile upon your way!

New Old Hobbit

Lately movies have tried to emulate the epicness we had seen in the famous over three hours films like Ben Hur and others. Not only that, they want to surpass the amount of material they can show in a very limited format. We already had to suffer through a Harry Potter 7 1 and 2 and through the last part of the Twilight saga. Now, the odd adventure of the Hollywood filmmakers has continued with the ever classic The Hobbit.

I will be completely honest here: I did not want to watch the movie. But this wish was not because I loathed the final product, but above all because the new trend of parting al movies into smaller parts. But let’s start with the positive aspects, shall we?

The picture was just great. It is the usual Peter Jackson greatness, mixed with this gross image of the enemy that, just by the looks, is easily identifiable. Orcs are back, also more complex goblins. But greater yet is the image of the 12 dwarves. Neatly dressed and well-played as semi-barbaric folk only interested in gold and smashing an orc’s head, they were greatly portrayed by each actor. Definitely a big win.

Also, previous actors continued to show off their talents, making this movie memorable. But above all, the main character again managed to daze all the viewers. The great scenery was just, like in The Lord of The Rings, bedazzling.

This part of the review, though, you might already have read dozens and dozens of times. So, after having said the niceties and the big wins, I want to really focus on my main criticism of the movie. I liked the movie personally, but I had to delay the review because of one detail: I wanted more opinions. I asked co-workers and friends to tell me how they felt with the new movie and what they had experienced. Two answers were given to this question:

a) It was a great movie.

b) I slept during the movie.

Now, both these reactions stem from the same problem: while those interested in Tolkien and the wider mythology have come to embrace the extras that have drawn out the movie for over two hours, the normal viewer, who is expected to see this movie with the hardcore fan and interested, will not like it.

Fili and Kili, two of the twelve dwarves.

Even now some people tell me, when we talk about the Lord of the Rings trilogy, that it was at times boring, but it basically achieved what it was made for: to entertain the normal movie-goer. The Hobbit, on the other hand, as achieved what the previous trilogy had avoided almost perfectly: boredom over long periods of time.

Parts of this is due to the freedom of time Peter Jackson and crew got. The movie is riddled with scenes that are not precisely needed, even though they add. But even then, they tend to throw the Middle-Earth timeline into disarray. The scene with Radagast is one of those. Suddenly, the Mirkwood turns into the dark wood in mere days, when in the books it has been dark for hundreds of years. Now Sauron has been dead for less than 400 years, even though the third age began with the dead of him and it has been running even more centuries.

The sheer pressure of making more and more story does not only lengthen the movie unnecessarily, but it also makes the supposed continuity vanish step by step between The Hobbit and LotR.

Many elements do not belong in the movie, like Azog and others, but I accepted them, since the public needs more action. Besides, if the movie would have followed the book exactly, the first part would have been very boring. Still, it managed to be boring. The idea of making so many pictures out of ONE story just does not make sense for me. It is not necessary, and although it is interesting, it can be more difficult than useful. Now we have a public separated in two strongly divided parts and, although The Hobbit will make a nice dozen of Oscars again, it just follows the new merchandising pattern of Hollywood: more material, more movies, more time and more sales. This movie could have been done easily in two movies, but then again, we buy anything that has a good name on it. Don’t we?

May they smile upon your way!

PS: Investigate to understand: Orcs in daylight? Seriously?

Controller rage

Since the WiiU has appeared on the markets, I have been kinda interested in the controllers. These elements are of vital importance, since this is the way we communicate with the game. Throughout its history, Nintendo has had different controllers from console to console, while its competitors have changed the input device very little on each of their renditions.

Thus today I will focus only on Nintendo controllers, since they have been very prone to change. Also, I will explain how I felt the controllers. I am not an expert on console history, so I may do one or two wrong suppositions on the creation of the devices. In any case, this is more a description on how I handled the different changes. Also, in sake of keeping it short, I will not touch the handheld systems.

Source: http://www.geekstir.com/the-evolution-of-nintendo-controllers

NES

Maybe the most basic controller, it was a simple way to steer the characters. Two action buttons (A and B) and two selection buttons (Select and Start), these buttons pretty much shaped the way the buttons are shaped on a controller. Just check the X-Box and the PS and you will see exactly those two selection buttons on each of them. It was very functional back then, and the D-Pad was, even after the Game & Watch games, very new and very easy to use. The Atari had used back then a joystick, which was nice, but a little bit unwieldy. Only drawback was the position of the different buttons. They were in one line, which were a bit uncomfortable to play with, somewhat not ergonomic. Later renditions of the same controller tilted the buttons, making them easier to reach.

SNES

My favourite controller ever created. Period. It had the exact amount of buttons, making it possible for many variations of movements for fighting games and even action games. L and R were included, making the idle fingers on the top of the controller active and ready. Most amazing of all was the fact that they could now port computer games like Doom on the console, since computer games required a lot of buttons to play. The buttons were also tilted, and the corners rounded, which made all the buttons more reachable. It was also the time when they included the extra buttons, X and Y. Why Z had not been a first choice for designation, though, I still do not understand.

N64

This controller is maybe one of the most interesting in what Nintendo had to offer. There were a ton of extra buttons: the four C-Buttos and, finally, a Z-Button. But specially the form of the controller was weird. Although its focus was to be a controller you could use in two ways, you mostly used the trigger arm in the middle. The Z was perfectly placed to emulate a little gun that was perfect for playing shooters and similar games. It gave you the feeling that you were actually shooting at your opponent. Maybe it is because of that Golden Eye was also a huge success.

Game Cube

My least favourite of all and the one that tried to emulate the PS maybe a little too much. Although the buttons were simplified, I still don’t get why the A-Button was so big and why the B so small. Not much to say, I only played Smash Brothers on it.

Wii

Now, I don’t know hot to conceive this controller. Even though it was more a motion stick for the game, once the novelty was over and you settled on the sofa, the controller was somewhat weird and fun. You had it technically separated into two parts, so you could make yourself comfortable however you liked. Even though the idea of the 1 and 2 buttons seemed good, it was strange to know forget about the A and B designation. Later peripherals would get the old names back, but trying to say “press 1″was really awkward after years of playing the old way.

Even though I am a big Nintendo fan, I still prefer the PS controller over every other controller. It is just perfect and, even though it has a lot of buttons, it is easy to access. If there is something Nintendo missed here, it’s the consistency. Each generation was an interesting new experiment, but after the standard SNES controller, they swerved too much out of a comfort zone, trying always to be different from the competitors. I don’t think it was necessary, but still they did, and at the end it was a slew of nice childhood memories.

May they smile upon your way!

Unending World

Now that the doubts of many, serious or not, have been settled, I think it is a good idea to review our most recent event that never took place: the so-called mayan “prophecy” of the end of the world. I think that by now most people know that the 21st was the en of an age, not of civilization as we know it.

But why all the hype around the topic of the end of the world, and why so many misinterpretations, even after mayan people and historians often clarified it was just a change? The problem lies within the way we perceive time.

By perceiving time I refer to how we connect past, present and future in our minds. This simple connection, which is a cultural phenomena, pretty much decides our attitude towards plans, projects and even life within a society. Social scientists today have concluded that three main perceptions of time, each with its own variants, existed throughout human history. In my terminology, I will just call them cyclic, finite linear and progressive.

• The cyclic time perception is a rural one. It bases itself on the observation of nature: seasons, day/night, moon phases, etc. This time proposes that there is no change in human existence and that all is the same. If a time ends, it is just to restart everything from the beginning. Usually this perception was used by the ancient civilizations, who really barely saw a change in their lives.
• The finite linear time stems mainly form the judeo-christian mythology. There, everything is predicted, but it has a clear beginning and a clear end. In other words, genesis-apocalypse. It is a straight line though, so there is a clear distinction between future and past and each event is singular.
• The progressive timeline is the timeline of the scientific age. This has technically no end (big bang to, oh I don’t know, big crush?) and it usually goes from the primitive to the more civilized. This timeline can be a bit tricky, since it talks about scientific progress and many studies and philosophers today doubt a lot of it being a good representation of time.

So once we have set the different times, we can analyze how we think. Usually, our modern society thinks in the progressive way, since many of us are believers that mankind is doing better and better as the ages pass. But at the same time, thanks to our christian heritage, we have this necessity of finding and end to everything. When confronted with a cyclic process, we always try to find the beginning and the end.

When the mayan decided to finish the calendar for today, they did it for a reason. It was the end of an age, and counting days in the 11th century beyond the year 2012 would have been excessive. Just imagine: you have to calculate without any electronic help, day after day and then carve it into stone. I already think that predicting for 1000 years was too much. There was thus no need to think further.

Christianity, since its beginnings, is a religion that looks forward to the last days of humanity. Mostly because of the enactment of justice that many feel is overdue, but also to end the suffering and to enter into paradise. There were many dates given: some around a big calendar-based event, like around the year 1000 and the 2000, others by some personality that proved to be bad to some population: kings, presidents, even clerics and other religions.

In today’s mentality, everything is an excuse to find an end of the world. Our last was somewhere in march. Now we had set the final on this friday and nothing happened. Now I am waiting for someone to find Newton’s calculations to set the next end of days in the 50′s of this millenia. Somehow for us it is incredibly attractive to imagine this all will end, even if it just a fantasy and it never happens when we predict. It is a fascination inherited to us by a very old tradition of just beyond the grave.

May they smile upon your way!

Fear to Read

Some people may think I am one of those uptight readers that only loves great classics of the fantasy genre. Some other may think that for me there exists only Tolkien and Martin and their great classics. Even those old writers lie Lovecraft adn so on seem to be my only favourites. Now, I must accept that it is quite the contrary. I love exploring “bad” writers, people who write for specific universes or based on certain games, with no hope of ever making a real New York Times bestseller with that novel.

I read most of the Dragonlance novels. Or better said, I ate them up. Now, my new obsession for obscure books has taken me on the road of the Warhamer 40.000 universe. I already knew the game since long and, with it, broad parts of its universe. I just had not read anything around it. I must say that, up to now, I am pleased with the results.

Now, I usually don’t like to talk much about those books, since most of the people don’t even know what WH 40K is. But then again, I found a specially good one. It is part of a series called “The Horus Heresy”, which I have come to like a lot. The book I am reviewing is Fear to Tread by James Swallow. Be fairly warned: most of you will not be interested in its contents. I usually would recommend the book only to those who would understand if I mention the following words: Primarch, Ceramite, Servitors, Augurs  and Khorne. If none of those do ring a bell in you and make sense together, then you maybe will hate this book after page 20.

The novel in itself has a great atmosphere in its first half. Even though a veteran player of the tabletop game may already know how the Chaos armies work, the author manages to maintain an ambiance of mystery. Much of the text revolves around the meeting of an unknown enemy with the Blood Angels, the Space Marine chapter with a great rage issue. Even though the warriors are super strong and almost invincible, when facing the forces of the Warp the first time, they really have trouble understanding what they are facing. The whole situation and the way it is told creates the necessary tension, so the reader really believes the total ignorance of the Emperor’s elite.

The last battle though, is very long and follows a standard telling of many engagements. It is interesting, specially when the whole chapter turns beserk and starts killing each living being they can find. Tragic is the fall of the Primarch, Sanguinius, who at the end wakes up to save the day. The enemies were also quite effective. specially the appearance of the unholy fortress at the middle of the novel really makes the reader’s guts wrench… once you discover what it is made of.

Many moments surprise are to be found. The destruction of a planet, a city that turns into a living being and so on made me really want to read on to see how the Space Marines could solve such a tight situation. The ending, though, was not that surprising anymore. I won’t spoil the ending, but the fallen angel won’t be the one the writer expects you to believe. It was more like a typical clichéd ending of sacrifice which made the story end a bit bland, but in a consistent manner.

In a whole, I must say that this is my favourite Warhammer 40.000 novel so far. It has an excellent storyline and a great atmosphere that makes you forget what you already know about the game. A definitive must read for those who play the games!

May they smile upon your way!

TMNT Lost in Time – Remembering the Lost Gems

Many times we are appalled by the quality of the movie to game adaptations that flood the marked today. Just watch most of the Harry Potter series and you will notice that the games were made in such a rush, that no one can find the fun that this game is supposed to convey. But it has not always been so. Back in the age of the SNES, we had a lot of fun games that were adapted from TV series and moving pictures: Aladdin, The Lion King, etc.

Now, as those who have read the blog a bit know, I love the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I read the comics, I play the games whenever possible and even enjoy the series. I may be considered a fan, if it wasn’t for my lack of fanaticism when following a series. I watch whenever I can. Still, I can assert that I really love them.

Back when the SNES was all the rage, the TMNT had a handful of excellent adaptations. Today we will focus on only one of those: Turtles in Time. Adapted from the arcades, the game is an excellent beat ‘em up, in which the turtles get banished by Shredder into different time periods to fight old and future mutations. I can remember the nights my fiends and I played this game for hours just to finish it.

It was an excellent port to the SNES. Even though the number of players was limited to two due to controller restrictions, the fun was nonetheless fantastic. The enemies were the same and the turtles were there in full force. The graphics were great and it felt like playing the actual cartoon of our time. Even the music was interesting. I definitely enjoyed the Shredder fight at the beginning, in which you had to throw the Foot Soldiers at him.

Another thing that had drawn my attention back then, although it was not new, was the use of voices to announce some levels and some things that happened during the game. Picking up a Pizza turned into a “Pizza time!” yell that felt really satisfying.

This game not only serves as a proof that good games can be made on TV series, but also that ports can be good… unlike the disaster Mortal Kombat turned int by just changing the color of blood to the color of sweat and eliminating the fatalities. Definitely worth a play through.

May they smile upon your way!

Heretic – Remembering the Lost Gems

Playing electronic games un the 90s was not as easy as one might think. But it was as equally exciting. While these days shooters and sports games sprawl around the market, almost choking any other genre, the first person shooter was an exciting new innovation. And it was one that we all could get behind, even though it had a controversial start.

Those who remember the first person shooters in their starts will immediately think about Wolfenstein, in which you had to kill a myriad of people dressed in blue and brown and with blue eyes and blond hair. Then, after that, we started enjoying some satanic goodness when kicking hell’s ass as a futuristic space marine in Doom I & II. The levels were, each in its own right, somewhat complex, convoluted and there was so much backtracking to do to get the main door open to exit the level. Best of all, the lack of full motion videos provoked the need to use a bad and simple story that was even more effective than most of the latest Final Fantasy sequels.

Then there was Heretic. The name in itself was not quite flattering, but the computer game in itself was a very good Doom clone. But this time you had the chance to get medieval on the evil forces. As far as I understood, back in my youth, you play a cleric/wizard who has to defeat some demonic power int he form of a wizard that was ready, as always, to level your world. Simple, clichéed maybe, but effective.

The weapons were a little built different from Doom, and I do not only mean the animations and the sounds. There was this powerglove, for example, ready to blast out any enemy at close range. the Phoenix Staff was also something quite cool to shoot with. Somehow, they managed to really program upon the basic Doom game and still create a different world.

Also quite interesting, although not as amazing, was the creation of the inventory system. Here you could select an item that could aid you during your prowling across the ruins of ruined castles. Things like timed bombs and power up books were part of the standard arsenal, but most incredibly was the inclusion of some skull with wings that made you fly.

Enemies were also great. The common enemy, the gargoyle, flew, which meant that he was even in the later levels a huge threat. But other monsters would soon follow, like the alien look-alike that clawed at you at close range once he saw you, or even worse, the different big metallic heads that made different kind of attacks. This game had thus a lot to explore, making it a separate game of Doom.

One little detail I loved, though was the ambience. The songs were quite calm and there was even a mysterious evil laughter from time to time which always had me on full alert. Who knows if it was an enemy on the other side of the wall!

definitely, this has been a game I have been returning to for ages. The level design was wicked, the feeling was great and the game was, in some way, scary and pretty deep. Some secrets could only be accessed by using the flying item!

May they smile upon your way!