Descent: Journeys In The Dark A Descent game in progress on our living room table Over the holidays I’ve been playing Descent: Journeys In The Dark. We have managed four games thus far, so consider this a first impressions kind of thing.
In this game of dungeon-delving adventure, one to five players descend into a monster-ridden dungeon to carry out a mission, kill the inhabitants and take their stuff. One player plays the dungeon’s Overlord, controlling all of the traps, events and monsters the players need to overcome. It’s a very different thing to play one of the heroes than playing as the Overlord.
Descent really scratches that basic Dungeons & Dragons itch I have. Sometimes you need to kill monsters and take their treasure, approaching each room like a chessboard, discussing tactics with your partners in crime, trying not to think too hard about the plausibility off such dungeons.
It’s good fun. While it has a lot of components and the setup can take a while (it’s a Fantasy Flight game, after all), it’s actually very quick to play. A single game can still take a good while (ours have lasted 3-6 hours), but it moves fast.
One thing I’m wondering about is the difficulty of the game. Maybe we just suck or maybe you shouldn’t try playing with just two or three heroes, but thus far we haven’t been able to pass the first dungeon.
It also feels like there should be more substantial content and rules for campaign play. I know that comes in an expansion, but what’s there in the basic rules is just flimsy.
Buying historyI just bought the Dawn Of War “Everything Pack” from Steam. That includes the original (circa 2004) Warhammer 40′000 real-time strategy and all of its expansions (Winter Assault, Dark Crusade and Soulstorm).
It’s a ridiculous 15 €/$ for the whole set. I briefly played this a couple of years back and somehow didn’t get to it, but I’m now so much into Warhammer 40K that I couldn’t resist it. Of course the sequel is right around the corner and looking great, but at least I know that my current PC can handle the older version.
I’ve only bought a couple of titles from Steam previously, but I gotta say it works very well indeed. It makes buying PC games over the internet the kind of almost too easy experience which Play does so well. To think that Steam was considered blasphemous when it originally came out, meeting a wall of nerd rage resistance, and now it feels like the obvious place to be if you want to play on the PC.
There’s a lot of other great offers, as well, including some oldies for 99 cents. It lasts until January 2 2009, so get to it!
Cadian Sentinel Yeah, it's obviously an AT-ST, actually. Click to go big I made this Warhammer 40′000 Imperial Guard Cadian Sentinel today. It’s not quite done, lacking the metal shafts and piping in the legs and the gun’s barrel because I’m out of gray paint, and the base because I’m out of time, but I am pretty happy with it thus far. It turned out better than I expected, although the backside view is boring since there’s nothing but green. I’ll need to think of some detailing.
I wish I had spent more time and effort on the pilot - I figured he wouldn’t be quite so visible with the mostly enclosed cockpit version I opted for. It’s not a disaster, but especially his face could be more interesting.
I like the amount of choice in this model. There were quite a few options to choose from. This is but a prelude and a training piece of sorts to prepare me for the Space Marine Dreadnought I got from Santa. I have wanted one since I was a kid and it feels… very… good… to finally get one. I hope I can do it justice.
Sidenote: The Wordpress image gallery is driving me nuts. I hope the image works for most of you.
Migration woesDue to the number of people having to change their Xbox 360s, I am surprised the topic of migrating to a new console hasn’t been talked about more. I’ve been through it a couple of times, but only this latest migration has really pumped up my blood pressure.
As it happens, I’ve moved to a new console on both the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 lately and it feels fitting to compare the process. I’ve had enough grief from both that I can’t really say which one is the lesser evil, but overall, I’m a little less angry at Microsoft.
The actual process itself is not terribly taxing. You plug in either a Microsoft-branded memory module or for the PS3, any USB memory stick, and copy or move your saved games to that. Then you boot up your new console, sign in to your existing profile and move or copy over your saved games. Resume being entertained.
If only each step of the way wasn’t riddled with tears. In a surprise move, the copying (or moving) of saved games is broken on both platforms. Shouldn’t be terribly difficult, no? Well, yes, if some of the saved games weren’t locked. In a game of virtual Russian roulette, I managed to dodge every bullet I would’ve actually cared about, so this only annoys me. On the PS3, Motor Storm: Pacific Rift, Lost Planet and parts (!) of the Devil May Cry 4 saved games wouldn’t move. On the Xbox 360, same situation, with the additional twist that some of the saved games could only be moved, not copied. Considering the reliability of the whole process, this did not leave me terribly amused. I didn’t make notes of the guilty 360 titles.
Once you have moved your saved games over, thus far everything is working alright. Except the one title I’ve put over some 30 hours into lately, Fallout 3 on the PS3. It does not let me save any of the moved games once I load them up.
To add insult to injury, I started up a new game of Fallout 3, which does let me save the game, to find out that every time I should get a Trophy, it informs me (with a cling) that “You did not earn a Trophy”. Well, thank you. (No, I have not received any Fallout 3 Trophies before.) I haven’t been this aggravated in a while, feels like goddamn PC gaming all over again.
Migrating the profile and in the PS3’s case, the separate Playstation Network profile, was hassle-free. I would have appreciated some user input and information when Xbox Live downloaded all of my small (I think sub 50 MB) XBLA titles while migrating, as this did take an hour or so. Of course it left me in the dark regarding which titles I still have to download manually.
Not that any of that did me any good when I hauled the Xbox 360 to a Rock Band party, only to discover that none of my paid for and downloaded songs work when I’m not connected to Live. I did use the XBLA ownership transfer tool, but either it didn’t work or it doesn’t apply to the Rock Band DLC.
(Edit: Using the transfer tool (which is not easy to find) again, it appears that all of my content now works. I had to re-download all of it, but luckily it only downloaded the licenses from Live, not the content itself.)
It’s clearly a process both console manufacturers have neglected to really work on and something which could leave a sour taste in the mouth for a long while, especially for people who need to go this numerous times, as is likely the case with Xbox 360 owners.
So what’s the new hardware like? Worth all this troble? I moved from a launch phase 60 GB PS3 to the current 80 GB model, bundled with Little Big Planet, and from a launch phase Xbox 360 Premium to the current Pro.
On the Playstation front, I do like the Dual Shock 3 compared to the rumble-less Sixaxis. Even Motor Storm feels like something, now, and I’m looking forward to playing Sega Rally as God intended. The console seems even quieter than before, but the hard drive makes plenty of noise compared to the practically soundless old one. I mourn the loss of two USB ports, but it’s not really an issue. I had the occasional use for the now missing memory card readers. I expected them to at least hang on to their own Memory Stick format. I have a separate PS2 Slim and the support was buggy anyway, so the loss of backwards compatibility does not bother me.
The Xbox 360 change got me a triple-size hard drive, from 20 GB to 60 GB, allowing me to actually install games on the HDD. This is a great improvement, as it completely eliminates the DVD roar. The DVD noise does not sound improved at all, but at least it’s a less frequent invasion of your ears. The power brick seems smaller and it comes with narrower cables, as I’d expect with the supposedly much reduced power consumption.
All told, I’m all for the change, but I could do without the grief, especially since these seem to be a failure of processes on the platform owners’ part.
The Red Star
I first became interested in The Red Star back when it was due on the original Xbox. Then it wasn’t released - though it was finished! - and it was finally put out for the PS2 in 2007. I forgot about it but came across it on a “fifty PS2 games you should get” list some weeks ago. It cost all of 5€ at Play.
What a refreshing game. The presentation is rather low-key, but the rich source material, with its alternate universe take on the USSR of the 80s, makes up for it. The gameplay is simple, but compensates with depth. Basically you pick a character and start going through one-way scrolling levels, beating up enemies in melee and mixing it up with gunplay. It’s very Streets Of Rage, but it really works. The enemies require different tactics to overcome. A couple of times per level, you meet a mechanized boss which requires bullet hell tactics to overcome.
It’s hard, but not excessively so. (I was killed in the tutorial stage!) You can also play with a friend in co-op. Recommended, if you’re into scrolling beat em ups and/or shmups.
Site update, face changeI have upgraded to WordPress 2.7 due to the previous installation having issues with file uploads. Unfortunately my old theme does not seem compatible with the new version. I am now looking for new clothes, nevermind if there’s something weird in this space for a few days.
Sorry about any confusion. I gotta say the new dashboard rocks.
 Move along, nothing to see here A portrait of myselfCourtesy of Wordle.net, this is a portrait of Dusty Gamer at the age of 354 posts. Some surprises in there, too - I mean, “helicopters”? Really? It’s got the top 100 words I’ve used, not including “common” English words.
Tom Clancy’s EndWar
Ubisoft Shanghai’s Tom Clancy’s EndWar is not the first console realtime strategy game, but it is the first I have enjoyed.
Of course it all comes down to the controls: how can you effectively play on a console a genre which was originally built around a high-resolution screen and mouse and keyboard controls? Contemporary display resolutions help, but EndWar’s answer is voice recognition. Now I don’t know about that, but the way it handles the more conservative pad controls is spot on.
I can see that the voice command thing is a big selling point. I just don’t see any need for it. Reviews are saying that it works very well, and I don’t have a USB headset so I can’t check it out, but frankly, the basic controls work so fine that it’s hard to believe that voice commands would be any quicker or more convenient. That, and the fact that as I usually play in the living room with my wife sitting next to me, I wouldn’t feel comfortable spouting voice commands. (I did try voice commanding with the rather more limited Rainbow Six 3 on the Xbox - not my thing.)
The solution they’ve come up with to counter the lack of a mouse is to eliminate the need to scroll around the map. You don’t move the camera in EndWar. Rather, you choose which unit you want to be with and see the action from that unit’s point of view. Naturally airborne units and command units are the best for getting an overall picture of where things stand in combat, but it’s surprisingly easy to command things from the trenches, running with infantry and armor. You can give orders to any of your units despite your viewpoint. It works very well.
I’ve played my first World War III scenario as the Europeans to the final stages (some seven hours in total) and thus far I’ve never felt overstretched, blind or lacking the manual dexterity required to command my troops. It could use more tactical depth as sometimes it can feel that I’m going through the motions, using the same tactics in every skirmish (helicopters beat tanks beat transports beat helicopters, infantry is useless against everything unless in cover). Also the high-level warfare, where the three nations fight for territory, could use with more options and input as currently if feels a bit too straightforward and random. But all in all, a surprisingly solid offering and something I expect to play a bit more of.
Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix tunes
OverClocked was contracted to arrange the music to Capcom’s long-awaited HD remix of Street Fighter II. The results are really very good. I haven’t listened to videogame music for a while, save for the stuff we’re doing at work, and this is really bringing back memories. Let’s just say that I changed my cellphone’s ringtone for the first time in years and years (the previous one being o2’s remix of Nemesis The Warlock’s theme tune by Rob Hubbard).
Get the album from here - it’s available for download free of charge.
Oh, the game? I haven’t really played it yet. I’m waiting for the PS3 release, because pulling those quarter-circles on the ridiculously clunky Xbox 360 D-pad is just not within my abilities. Well, yes, one of those would be nice. Even though it requires a hack to be used on the 360 and even then isn’t two-player… at least I could use it on the PC and the PS3. Or I could just get one of Hori’s single-player models, albeit they’re for single console use only.
Addendum: Well, yeah, of course I had to buy it immediately after checking out the demo for a minute. My wife promptly kicked my ass for the following six matches. I did get the 360 version and with my age-deprived skills, I don’t immediately find the controller a limitation. The game is jaw-dropping gorgeus, though.
Second-hand market, game cost and game longevityMany outspoken figures in the videogame business have been vocal about their need to get rid of second-hand sales. Many have gone as far as likening gamers buying second-hand games to pirates.
Eurogamer has a pretty good overview of the situation, with a bent on seeing things from the consumer’s point of view.
Let me tell you a story. I used to be a poor student, like most of us. Despite this, I was a heavy gamer - all thanks to the second-hand market. I could afford maybe one (1) brand new game per year, but I bought dozens of games, fueling my passion for the videogame market. When I begun to make some money for work, I spent more and more on new videogames. In the end, my passion took me to working in the field, making games.
Very likely none of this would have happened without the second-hand market. Yes, I could buy some discounted titles and borrow stuff from friends, but we wouldn’t be talking about anywhere near the same magnitude. Then of course there’s piracy. A lot of internet-savvy young people wouldn’t cry about their inability to buy games if they could just turn to Piratebay.
The naysayers do not see that the second-hand market is keeping a lot (a lot!) of financially challenged consumers interested in gaming, very likely buying some brand new games on the side, and eventually making enough money to support their hobby, which they’ve grown attached to.
And it’s not just about being limited in spending. I could afford more brand new games than I’m buying these days. The fact is that despite working in the field, I do not see very many games being worth the entry fee. Games are too expensive - they should be impulse buys! Second-hand games are.
Now, couple the high price with the fact that most gamers never (anywhere near) complete their games and you have a situation where people are paying too much for something they feel leaves them unsatisfied. At the same time, the developers and publishers are spending ever-increasing amounts into making ever bigger games, which a tiny fraction of their buying public ever sees through. Why are we wasting all this effort? Why are we asking the consumers to support this practice, even though it gives them zero value?
I have a feeling the industry is far too interested in a fraction of the actual game playing and buying public, making no moves towards accommodating the actual masses and their wallets. They have no right crying about consumers not giving them money if they’re just not offering something the consumers actually want. The problem with only sure-fire hits with massive marketing being a reliable source of profit is all down to this. Consumers can’t take any risks because they’ve been priced out of their hobby.
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