Kalimat al-Mutafalsif

Another game review coming at you, took about a week off for the holidays and worked in some PS3 time.

Game: Metal Gear Solid 4
Developer: Kojima Productions
System: PS3
Difficulty: Solid Normal (3rd highest of 5)

Background
Metal Gear Solid 4 is set in a bleak future where war is a driving force for the world economy. Instead of standing armies, countries turn to Private Military Companies (only referred to as PMCs) to fight their wars, and the game portrays these wars as being purely for business sake. The soldiers are all kept in control by nanomachines running throughout their body, and every piece of equipment is 'tagged' to respond only if an authorized user is using it.

Full review below the cut.

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Yesterday I posted a long write up of my thoughts on Fallout 3. In my haste to get that written and get off to bed, I forgot one of the main points I wanted to talk about, although in retrospect I think that it deserves its own post anyhow.

The Hacking Minigame
Scattered across the Wastes, whether in museums, house, or random places that just happen to have turrets nearby, you'll stumble across old computer terminals. These may be useless systems that just contain a random citizen's poetry about the current situation, or control the turret system you're about to walk into, or do anything in between. Some of the terminals are just open, these are almost always of the useless 'poetry' variety. Most, however, are password protected which gives you two ways to get inside of them. Ok, possibly three if there's a "D - none of the above" choice, Such as just blowing up the turret you want stopped.

The easiest way to get in is searching the surrounding area for a password. Yes, just like in real life, the denizens of the Wastes write down their password, and stick it in their desk (or in their pocket, or corpse...). I chuckled a little bit the first time I found one of these in a desk.

The normal way to break in to the terminal is the hacking minigame. I've seen a few of these over time, ranging from simple "Guess the password" Flash games, to HBH and Hack This Site, and this was probably the simplest one that captures the feel of real hacking.

When you open up a locked terminal, you'll see a screen like the following:

At the top you see 'Attempts Left', this starts at 4 most of the time, and counts down. If you ever use all your attempts, the computer is locked down, and unless you have a special skill you're out for good.

Below that is a bunch of plaintext and garbage. This is supposedly a recovered password file, and its up to you to figure out what's the correct password. You do this like Mastermind, you pick a plaintext string, and it'll tell you how many letters are correct, and in the correct spot. If the password was Grapes, and I clicked on Kitten I'd get back 1/6. Statistically this becomes very hard once you get up to hard terminals that have 8 characters and a bunch of choices. The way to make it easier is to look through the garbage for hints. Anytime you find matching braces, parenthesis, or brackets, you select the first one and it'll either remove a dud string, or replenish your allowance. Unlike the plaintext words, you must mouse over the first character in one of these garbage strings to see the whole thing highlighted. On my old TV this was a lesson in squinting and frustration, trying to pick out the parens from braces.

Once you correctly input the password, the computer is forever open to you (and you get 44 experience, regardless of level!).

The Reality
The reason I liked this minigame, is its darn close to reality. Not in the actual skills used, but through the sifting through of a bunch of garbage, trying to figure out what's valuable and what's just another corrupted file. You have to sit there, be patient, and keep trying. In some cases you have to cancel your attempt because you're about to lock the system, and start all over again. Sure, when script kiddies can just release a botnet these factors are mitigated, but at the heart of it all, it comes down to noticing the little things (oh, look, an old Apache install), having to piece things together (Hmm, they plugged all the holes in Apache, but I noticed there's .php pages, maybe mod_php is old), and hoping you're going after a user that's careless enough to leave their password laying on the desk.

And of course, there's always the ability to bypass getting into the system, and simply pick the lock on the safe, or destroy a turret or two and forget about the system.

I picked Fallout 3 up the night before I had surgery with the thought that I'll have tons of time to myself to plug through an RPG. We (a friend that was helping me out at the time and I) logged a good amount of play time, if I can find a way to find out exactly how much I'll edit the post to reflect that, during the next week while I was off from work. Having just hit two possible endings tonight, I felt it was time for a review.

Note: I will keep this as spoiler free as possible, however if you really don't want to learn anything, walk away now. I will give basic geographical/plot background information, and some limited meta information about endings, nothing about the endings themselves.

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I've been laid up for two weeks now due to my own stupidity. Ok, my own stupidity coupled with a 400 pound motorcycle and a extra 3 inches I wanted her in the corner. Ok, my own stupidity, Kari, a corner, and my father and I cracking jokes about hernias (he'd had two by then, I'd had one). So of course, Karma being the fickle mistress she is, she graced me with another hernia (I'm ahead of my father who didn't get his FIRST until my age!). The hernia itself didn't hurt much, it just felt uncomfortable enough while sitting up straight that I took that week off of work.

My surgery was scheduled for this past Tuesday, but I had a friend coming in last weekend for a concert and gaming. What's a boy to do? I took the noble way out, and holed up all weekend with the PS3, new Magic (the Gathering) decks, and a new (to me) game called Gloom in order to feel as good as possible for the concert. I have to say, this game is a winner.

Gloom is made by Atlas Games, a company that makes some fun and compact games, such as Lunch Money that are easily portable, and yet very engrossing. What intrigued me as I was reading the back of the box in a good local game store were the card design and feel of the game.

The cards are clear. That's right, clear. The image on the back of the box shows this:

(feel free to ignore the creepy clown, he's but one of 20 characters)

Every character has a portrait in the center, and some flavor text in various places (name, title, flavor). Each Modifier (What's that?! More later) card has flavor text (name, flavor text), modifiers in one or more of three locations (all on the left), optional rules, and an optional story icon. In the sample picture above, the top top card is an untimely death, but the Modifier card under it has a -10 modifier in the middle spot, see it? It also has a bat as the story icon (this is just a generic 'beast').

Basically the game revolves around stacking Modifiers on top of Characters (you control a whole family, the winner is whichever family has the lowest self-worth). Because the cards are clear you'll see Modifiers or story icons from all the cards below unless you play a card that has something in the same spot. The goal is to eventually kill off your Characters using Untimely Death cards when the have the lowest self-worth possible, hence the name, Gloom.

The fun part is the feel of the game. Knowing just the above the game seems, well, depressing, but it is simply hysterical. Yes, you can play just by tossing cards around like you might in Magic, but the whole point of the game is to tell the sad story of a certain family. Think of it like a good Poe story, if Poe was Dave Berry. In the rules it encourages you to tell more of the story as you play Modifiers and Untimely Deaths, kind of like the old campfire game of everyone adding a sentence to a story, since you can play cards on anyone's Characters. The fun bit here is the usual 'punish' on another player of hurting their character is flipped on its head. So you'll hear "Angel was unhappy since she got beat up by bums, but then she met the man of her dreams and got blessed by the church." "Nooooooo! Why?! I didn't do ANYTHING to you!".

The stories get fun. A friend who's holed up with me since his car is in the shop and has been for weeks was playing purely based on building good story lines. It doesn't get wins but I was dieing laughing at bits of it. For example (card names in italics):

Player 1 (owner of Grogar): "Grogar, the half alive Teddy Bear, went on a trip last week. He went to see his family in Africa, but forgot to bring his water purification tablets. Ever since he's been distressed by dysentery." (-25 total Modifier, -15 on top, and -10 in the middle).

Player 2: "Grogar was horribly distress by this disease, especially when he heard it affected his whole family back home as well. However, when his much-removed uncle, Jimmy, finally succombed to the disease, he left Grogar the family land, all of Egypt! Grogar really landed a legacy." (+15 total modifier, +15 in the center... which wipes out the -10 from above).

Player 3: "After Grogar landed his legacy. he became the talk of the town! A cute young teddy bear named Jenny introduced herself, and not three months later they were wondrously well wed!" (+20 total modifier, 0 on top which wipes out the -15 from Player 1's card, +20 on bottom).

Now in one turn Grogar has gone from being worth -25 (a decent score, all 5 members being worth that is -100 total. My wins usually come around -110 to -130) to +35, a rotten score. Thankfully there's very very few ways to kill off a Character while they have positive self worth, but it'll still take a few turns for Grogar to go back to getting points for his player. More importantly, we now know Grogar has land in Africa, and a newly wed wife, which lets us play an abundance of negative cards and stay within the story!

Overall, my two friends and I have really enjoyed this game. We played 4-5 games last weekend, and I've done 2-3 since then, way more than we played with the Magic decks we all bought. The games can take a while, the three player games lasted about an hour apiece using all five Characters in the families. I'd have to rate it a 4/5 for myself.

Why does it warrant a 4/5?

• It is unique, its not a rip-off of another idea (aka another CCG, or based off a computer game or movie).
• I still get a kick out of the clear cards, they look and feel darn cool. The humor is to die for (pun intended).
• The box is small, easily tossed into a bag, mayhaps even a purse (I don't own one, so I wouldn't know) to have if you're planning on waiting somewhere, or for a picnic.
• Its a smaller game company, I really like supporting companies like SJ Games, Atlas, etc over mass-producing places like Hasbro. The games feel more unique, and usually have a bit more 'flair'.

So why not a 5/5?

• After a few games we could tell what card the opponent would play just by listening to the story, a few more cards would be very welcome. There are add-on packs, and I may pick them up just to get a little more randomness.
• With even a 3 player game we got through the deck one and a half times before the end of the first game, so its something you can expect to happen.
• It comes in a box, not a tin. This is very common, and I dislike it. See box rant below.
• I feel a 5/5 is for games that make me sit back and think "Wow, am I lucky I experienced that. nothing better could be done." You know, like the movie Torque.

Box Rant:
Recently I've become very irked at games that are packaged in cardboard boxes, not tins. For a big game, this makes a bit of sense, such as Munchkin. Big box, can be made of study cardboard, in two parts like a normal box + top. However, for small games that are Chez Geek sized (and Gloom is the same size) or smaller, where the box is one cardboard box with flaps that need to close over the cards, this is not a good solution. It works fine when the cards are in their shrink wrap, but after one game they're a tad bigger, and the flaps never close correctly. They'll get bent, or let cards slide out, or not fit the rules, its just not a good solution, its a hack. Hacks, while clever, aren't right for long term solutions.

The real solution here is tins. Make a tin the same size as that cardboard box and it'll hold its shape. It'll hold the cards. It'll snap closed so you're absolutely sure no cards are falling out in your backpack. Tins work. I'm sure they're not used because of a price issue, but I'm always more inclined to buy a tined game than a boxed one. My hack to fix their hack is ziplock bags. All of my game cards, for all of my games, live in plastic ziplock bags. I know they're not coming out.

A few weeks back I acquired a PS3 (another post on that is in the works), and nabbed Assassin's Creed as my Single Player game for a while. From the previews I was expecting a game with decent open-ended game play, decent graphics, and some good fighting. Boy were my expectations blown out of the water.

Plot: I won't spoil the surprise, somehow it remained one for me even after reading a few reviews. The basic plot ties into the Third Crusade, with Saladin fighting King Richard (more or less). The historical context here is that assassins rose into being during this time as a means of fighting back, with the word assassin coming from the Arabic "hashashin", meaning, well... hashish addicts. Specifically a Muslim sect during the Crusades that may have controlled their assassins with drugs and promises of heaven. Others that don't want to acknowledge possible negative connotations of the word claim it to have come from the leader's name "Hassan" (where Hassansin would be a follower of Hassan). In any case neither word is used in Arabic for assassin any more, so I don't think it should have any charged feelings either way.

The only reason I point out the etymological root of the word is because at one point your character is told that the Crusaders "Control their killers with magic herbs" and had to laugh. In most other respects, however, the designers did an amazing job with the plot.

The game does attempt to address some religious and political ideas but, with one exception, its nothing excessively in your face. The exception somewhat ruins the plot, so I'll hold my tongue further.

4/5

Cut scenes: I enjoyed each and every cut scene in the game, and boy are there a lot! Around the first 45 minutes I started getting bored until I realized I could control the camera and minimal assassin movement which means that you can be your own director! Walk in, announce a kill, and during the ensuing conversation pretend you're in the Godfather. Another great touch is being able to change camera angles on the more important scripted 'boss' conversations, where you can get close ups of the guy speaking, or the innocent victim he's about to kill. Really gives it a good cinematic feel.

All I could ask for is, well, an option to skip them just in case they do get a bit long.

4/5

Graphics: I absolutely loved the graphics in the game. Assassin's Creed has clearly upped the ante for games in the coming year, giving both superb sweeping vistas and decent indoor areas (though indoors wasn't emphasized). The first time I climbed the Citadel in Acre and looked out over the city it hit me just how much work went into this game. It actually reminded me of my time in Tunisia, captured quite nicely in my TV. Running around Jerusalam gave me the same feel, while standing on the Dome of the Rock. Add to that the nice little particle graphics they add in when you find flags, or save citizens, and you'll be wowed no matter what game ya come from.

The combat graphics aren't great as well. When your character performs a kill combo or a reversal it jumps into a cinematic mode and shows one of a dozen (maybe more) moves being performed. As late as the 7th assassination (of 9) I was seeing new moves.

I came into the game assuming the cut scenes I'd seen weren't in game footage, but was greatly surprised to see the whole game looks that way!

5/5

Gameplay: I'll start by saying I really liked the control system. The first five minutes of button bashing made me think I'd make a mistake purchasing the game, but after familiarization (the tutorial is required, but extremely helpful) the controls felt natural. What they boil down to is the four buttons on the 'shape' pad. Triangle controls your head, Circle your open hand, Square your weapon hand, and X your feet. So in the context of walking, Circle is a gentle push to move people out of your way, Square shanks someone, and X makes you blend into the crowd and go unnoticed. When you move into conspicuous mode, those turn into a tackle, uber-shank, and sprint, respectively.

Once you get used to those controls, it makes it pretty easily to do exactly what you want to, such as slink along a rooftop, drop down into a group of guards assaulting a citizen, and shank two of them before they realize what's going on. Along those lines, the combat is very fun. Its fairly easy once you get down all the moves, but by the time you do that a fight can easily pull 10 guards at a time. While its easy to win, if you miss a break and let them get around you its also easy to lose. The combat feels very fluid, and using the short sword gives you a very nice whirling dervish look.

As far as replaying the game goes, I just "hurriedly" (took me a good week and a half doing it hurriedly) played through a lot of this game and yet still have a lot to go back and do. For one, each area has flags hidden in it, hundreds of them, and I've got, oh 50 total. Another fun thing to find is a large number of Templars that you need to kill. Finally, if you didn't do full investigations the first time, you need to go back and actually complete all the annoying flag finding missions for informers. Also its just darn fun running through Jerusalem and seeing how many guards I can get on me. Its like making my own action movie.

5/5

Openendedness (oh yes, that's a word... now): On the one hand you're forced to follow an approximate order of assassinations. However that's a very small hand, as most assassinations let you chose which city to do first. More than that, you can jump between cities if you like, and do the investigations as you want (each investigation being 3 of 6 missions consisting of pickpocketing, interrogations, eavesdropping, or informer assignments). I never once felt like I was forced into a path to chose, nor felt the game 'stop'. After an initial 10-15 second loading period, the entire city was at my disposal and by the end that equals a large area. I could run all over the city I was working in and only have to stop when 50 guards kill me--- erm, when I decide to.

There, again, is an exception that might be a plot ruiner, but at the end of the game I forgave all of it.

4/5

Ending: I loved this ending. At one point this afternoon I jumped up and said in a not so calm voice "Heck yea!" It was an appropriate ending, it fir the period well, and man are the fights leading up to it epic. I said before that knowing all the fighting moves makes fights 'easy', and for the most part this held true. Of course with the numbers you're up against, its darn easy to die quickly as well if you let them start landing blows. And with the final boss fight I died at least three times before getting him, and the fourth was darn close. And then, just before the credits, a lovely plot twist that actually had me come back and do some scenery watching for 10 minutes.

4/5

In the end, this is a game I recommend for anyone that enjoys a little sword play. Its only Single Player, but it does that so well I have to forgive it. You won't be disappointed with this game, even at $50.

About a week ago I asked for a recommendation of a good RPG to play. Having kicked my WoW account goodbye and not really ready to pick up Tabula Rasa for a bit, I've been wanting a good single-player RPG. A friend pointed me towards Oblivion, the fourth game in the Elder Scrolls series. I played Morrowind a few years back, and while I didn't get sucked into the story, the game play was decent enough that I figured I'd give Oblivion a shot.

(Slight Spoiler warning... nothing end-game)
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Tonight was my first Friday night back at school, and I spent it with the guys I'm now living with playing various games I brought back from the summer. I had intended to do a monthly game review this summer, which never happened, so I'll start now.

Game: Quao - The Ultimate Dictatorship Game
Publisher: Wiggity Bang Games, LLC
Players: 3-6 (We had 4)
Length: About half an hour - a full hour, if I recall correctly
Price: $9.95, extremely cheap for this good of a game

Quick Synopsis: This game is what would happen if World War II (the war) met up with Bullshit (the game) or President, udder (heh heh) chaos. Bullshit is a game where you have to get rid of all your cards (aka a Shedding game) without being called out for lying. President is a game where you have to get rid of all your cards, and some players are in a more advantageous position than others. World War II was a crazy time with people making weird rules, alliances, and generally just running amok if they could. In Quao there's one person who knows the special rules (a made up example could be 'No one can say Rumpelstiltskin'), and the rest just know certain rules/cards in play (such as 'At the start of every turn you must make an animal sound and say what it eats). If either type of rule is violated, Quao makes that offender draw a card. The goal is to get rid of your whole hand, whoever does becomes Quao next round. A game consists of 5 rounds, the winner of the 5th wins the game, of course by that time there's 4 Quao rules, and perhaps 10 other special rules in play, so it gets crazy.

Thoughts: This was a really fun game once you got past the 'these rules don't make any sense' aspect of the first 5 minutes. Thankfully it appears they anticipated that period, and included a 'Sample Game' section in the rules that gives you the guts to jump in and figure out that the rules aren't that bad. We ended up getting really paranoid about what the Quao rules where (none of us looked at them ahead of time) and at least I guessed at it and was completely off base. This led to everyone else knowing one major one except for me, and me going a tad bit crazy trying not to break it... of course I ended up breaking it more in the process. That paranoia really captures the idea of a dictatorship, I was scared for my card's life! In the end this becomes an amazing beginner's game, knowing the cards only makes it not fun for the regular players, the newbies can pick it up quickly (it took us a whole 1 round to get going, 1/5 of a game and we were playing like pros) and it'll all be new and funny to them.

Complaints: I want to see a booster pack. By the end of our third game we knew most of the regular rule cards, and about 4 major Quao rules, just with normal turn over of Quao, not looking through them. Barring that, just sell me a deck of blank cards and I'll write them myself (Draw a card!). I feel like 40-50 more white cards, and a nice stack of 25-30 rule cards would do the trick. This game is too good to have me get tired of it quickly so get me more cards!

Overall (Completely arbitrary and non-comparable) Rating: Extremely fun, just too dang short!