The following is a guest post by Mike Gajeski. You can find his game stream at Heythere Kupo, on YouTube

I was sitting there, grinding my teeth together as I died again and again.  Over and over my attempts to overcome adversity failed and a pit of spikes was the only reprieve my character could find.  “WHY CAN’T I USE THE DAMN D-PAD?” I found myself yelling.  I could tell my pleas were getting more animated as my cats started patting me on the shoulder as if they were saying, “It’s all good buddy you can make it.”  But I could hear the truth behind their mewing, “LOL GIT GUD NEWB.” 

The game just didn’t explain what to do.  It trusted that the intelligence of the player would shine through and figure it out. But I had failed and brought shame upon my ancestors.

At least I could groove to some good music.  It was your usual synthwave 80s stylized jams but, it was fun and kept me focused on the challenges ahead for my character, the music pulsing through me, edging me onward. 

The controller leaves my hands and I put as much space between me and the computer as I can without getting out of my chair.  If I were a comic book character I’m sure a whoosh! would have appeared in Technicolor, blotting me out.

I thought back to the hour or so earlier when I first started up this game.  Oh, did I rejoice at the awesome wall jumping skills!  The art felt so animated and lively it was like the whole screen was moving.  The characters could cast spells that weren’t bewildering but still made me feel powerful as a player.  

How did I go from such good vibes to this?  Why would a game designer ramp up the difficulty so quickly? Was I really so oblivious to game tells that I couldn’t figure out how to get through this gauntlet of seed shooters without losing all my life?  

I stand up, pull my body in all directions to clean out any areas that may have gotten creaky or tense from gameplay, and sit back down to play more of this game.  

Was it worth it? Did I finally beat this stage and move on to something more productive game-wise? Yes. But I didn’t really FEEL the sense of victory because right after I got through the level, another one appeared, even more difficult. There was no reprieve, no solace for my weary fingers; only more danger and difficulty.  

You may be wondering at this point if you should even pick up Mystic Melee and as someone who normally plays turn based RPGs or turn based strategy games a puzzle platformer was a bit tricky for me.  

I’m used to taking my time and almost neurotically overthinking my decisions so a game like this where you need agility and quick decision making threw me off.  I wish I could have gotten the multiplayer going as it seemed like a 36-bit version of Super Smash Bros.  If the game’s on a sale for a few sheckles then I say go for it. The art design is simple but beautiful and the learning curve keeps you right on the cusp of believing you’ll succeed next time, even as you fail again and again, but expect some tricky platforming without a god damn D-pad.  

Mystic Melee was developed by Hypothetical Games and is available on Steam for $14.99. If you enjoy platformers and punishment, it’s worth the price tag.

A guest post from Vourbot on The World’s First And Only One-Off Arcade Game … 

I’m presenting a brag- just in order to shine some light on some times that are a-changing, hopefully, in this stunted version of 2017 that’s a little high on the Trump-age and a little low on the sci-fi. And, for full disclosure, I only went three google pages deep as I attempted to corroborate the brag. But I came up with no opposing material.

The brag is that, possibly- and as it’s just recently occurred to me- I, Vourbot, may be the creator of the ONLY SINGULAR ARCADE GAME IN EXISTENCE since the very first interactive program was written and executed in the 50’s research facility.

Don’t believe me? Well, here’s how I came up with that.

1. I’ve been trying to make video games my whole life, in my mind. I experimented one time with Flash and gave up. I experimented once with Game Maker and also gave up. My background in the field is that I like shmups and I’m an artist. Not a visual artist, but an artist of sight, sound, movement, muscles, adrenaline, pacing, imagination and all of that combined into single linear experience, that’s why I like shmups, duh! I am not a syntax artist, nor am I a code organizing artist, and I barely speak English, and no other languages at all.

So anyways, if you can do the math on that, it’s clear that I’ve spent my whole life as an artist without a brush.

Around October 2016, I gave google another go, looking for my brush, and I happened to come across a program available on Steam for around 40$ called Tall Studio’s “Shoot Em Up Kit”. I was so desperate and rich right at that moment that I gave it a chance. The program promised that “anyone could make a game with drag-and-drop interfaces only, and no programming knowledge or language would be involved, ever”.

Over the next couple of months, as I struggled to get a grip on the program, I learned a few VERY interesting things:

A. The program was an extreme beta release- especially for me. It actually worked very well, had just a few bugs- almost none, but I needed it to do some very specific things that were right past the margins of what was finished with the program. Plus, its documentation, particularly relating to what I needed to do exactly, was nonexistent. So I spent a very long time spinning my wheels, going to and fro, and getting help directly from Tall Studios. And they gave 100% help within 24 hours throughout, basically (it is a very small company and they are passionately developing the program. The user feedback was very important to them- problems plus suggestions). Looking back, the program really worked pretty elegantly the whole time. If the documentation was more robust, I would have had no problems. If I wasn’t cutting new territory, I could have finished my work in two months instead of nine.

B. During the moments I struggled with the program, I’d search for other options; other programs I could invest my time into that were better or easier. Now, hold on to your chair while I say this: in twenty-seven-frickin-teen, there is not another program that does this (as far me as could/can find). I repeat: are no other programs that do this. There are children’s programs, there are logic blocks, there was “sketch shooter” on the iphone, but there is nothing like this program. It lets you take art, place it on the screen, and describe how it interacts- with the only limits being however far they’ve developed the program up to that point (I think Tall Studios has just been working on the program every day for year and years). And, you know, It just blows my mind that they alone are carrying the torch for this kind of usage of common technology. But, I guess we can’t all live in Star Trek land. Gah! It just makes my furious to think about. Thank you Tall Studios!!!

2. So I started making my game. It is a documentary shmup that tells the tale of some out-door concerts that my brother’s band, the Joshua Payne Orchestra, played in Salt Lake City around 2010. It’s called JPO in SLC, and it’s authored by Rest 30 Records: Video Game Division (that’s just me). I’ll be done with the game this month, just in time to show at a local science fair.

3. I’m presenting the game in an arcade cabinet with proprietary controls. I’m only making one. Of course, I’m going to share the program, but it’s really designed to use with the cabinet, and it’s final and sculptural form will be that one object. Plus, as far as I know, it’ll only work properly on the one computer in the cab (I’ve optimized it for that one PC and display in the cab).

4. I can’t capitalize on the game. While I ethically don’t believe in intellectual property, I legally can’t sell the game. I made it using ONE HUNDRED PERCENT art that I gleaned from the internet with google search. There’s sprites from Strider and 1945 II, animations from other people’s indie games that I don’t even know– I typed in “animated gif” and just took what I needed. Plus, lots of sounds and assets that came with the kit (which I think is owned by Tall Studios). Anyways, I’ll do some construction as well as composition on my next game. I’m an artist, though, I’m not going to sell that one either.

So, in conclusion:

1. Before now, up until just last week when Tall Studios updated the “feature-test beta” I’m using that got the super bomb to function properly (I was waiting on that), there was no way for a layman to make a game like this.

2. I only had artistic intentions in the first place, I can’t capitalize on the game, and I don’t have any motivation to replicate it. It will remain a sculpture in the arcade shmup medium. It’s got five long levels.

So…… Is this the only one? Am I the only one? Would you like to make one too? Any “video game artists” out there??

Check out Tall Studio’s “Shoot Em Up Kit”. It will give you your brush.

-Vourbot

Vourbot is back with a review of Tall Studio’s “Shoot’em Up Kit” …it beckon’s the first creaks of the door opening up  on the modern age.

Ever since I saw my first Atari image on the screen when I was a child, I didn’t have the vocabulary to describe it, but I recognized that a new artistic medium had arrived. Then I didn’t really dare to get into it until I was in Jr. High School, playing the Nintendo. The VERY next thing I did was draw and make lists in my notebook, imagining the perfect game. I’d dream about expressing myself with this new medium. I’d think about how I could influence Nintendo to utilize my game ideas.

That was 1989. Skip forward twenty eight years, and it’s still the same.

THERE IS NO PROGRAM THAT GIVES THE LAYPERSON ACCESS TO THIS MEDIUM. That’s an exaggeration, as you may know, or will see in this article, but it is 99.99999 percent solid truth. I just want this to sink in for a minute– the first programs that gave access to manipulation of words came right away. The first programs that gave access to sound and recording came later, with expensive Pro-tools and now free (buy a license) Reaper. Access to images came with Paint, Photoshop and Gimp. But access to images with attached behavior and composition over time and with user interaction never came.

I know that last one is an exaggeration– I made games in basic, I made games with Flash, and I experimented with Game Maker– but you have to understand: it is 2017. I want a program that handles art with the ease of Photoshop, lets me compose them on the screen, and describe what they are going to do. And I want to use common tongue. And I want to compose this artistically, that is all. Not technically. I firmly believe that in 2017, there should be 10 solid programs that do this, and there are none. And I resent that deeply. And I’m left feeling like I have somehow missed the ball, and am the only who recognizes “video games” as a common artistic medium that I should be allowed to express myself with if I want, without technical road blocks and without overwhelming labor. And I do mean “overwhelming”, to those who have never given the medium a try.

Anyways, in comes Tall Studios and the program that they’ve been working on behind my back for the last TWELVE YEARS!! Tall Studios is an indie development 2 person team in Manchester (I believe), who have been ramping up their development steadily, gaining increasing traction, and carrying the torch for all mankind in this area. And their Early Access beta (not presented as a beta, but yes is very beta– defined not only by the rough edges of the program, which is incredibly difficult to learn and use ((also incredibly easy, depending on just what your faced with)), but by the incredibly quick development going on within the program), is available to buy now on Steam.

As a side note- in my research, I’ve also spoken with Bulo Studio about their kit “Shmup Creator: Build & Blast”, which has skipped the beta phase and seems to be aiming for an Alpha release at the end of the summer (according to their blog). http://bulostudio.com/2014/07/04/shmup-creator-build-blast/

But I’ll believe it when I see it, and look very much forward to seeing it– This article is about the amazing Tall Studios.

Here is a snippet from Tall Studio’s blog:

“The concept for the Shoot ‘Em Up Kit dates back way before Little Big Planet and other games with user generated content.  The Shoot ‘Em Up Kit was created in response to some friends whose kids enjoyed designing games on paper but had no way of making those games.  There was plenty of software which allowed you to program your own game, but that’s no good to a 9 year old.  When I was a teenager there was the Shoot ‘Em Up Construction Kit, created by Sensible Software for the Commodore 64 and Amiga computers, but there had not really been anything since.

User generated content has since become quite a popular feature within games.  We extend the simple level building by allowing anyone to create their own artwork, music, sound effects or shader effects to give an unprecedented amount of possibilities for creating games without programming.  People can use the same tools as the professionals, their cheaper or freeware equivalents, or a pen, paper and scanner.

It was great to see the ideas my friends kids had drawn on paper, but I can’t wait to see them playing on-screen.”

-Tall John

(internet name. Tall John and Tall Karen are the two).

Anyways, he’s describing me. I am the 9 year old.

An interview with them is coming soon, but first I’m going to drop my review:

I’ve been working on my shmup masterpiece for the last nine months. It will be finished within another month. I consider it to be made by me and them. Everything finished on the program is amazing. Everything unfinished within the program is a total game-destroying roadblock, and they have cleared, personally, quickly, nicely, every roadblock of mine thus far. They respond to cries of help almost… well, just immediately. They are amazing. The program is going to be amazing.

But that is all beside the point, really. They are passionately carrying the torch that will light an enormous and pitch-black void of artistic expression in our culture.

And, my real review: I think that eventually, and probably very soon with their continued work on the program, anyone as stupid as me could complete my nine-month labors in about a month. -Which is the right amount of labor! The game is awesome! Check this link www.rest30.com but don’t try the link there, that’s MY extreme beta! I’m not as punctual as Tall Studios!

http://www.tallstudios.com/

-Vourbot

Perception is about a blind girl, Cassie, who has brought herself to the mansion of her recurring nightmare. This nightmare always revolved around a rope, a ticket, an apple, and an ax; something she believes is a part of some puzzle she needs to solve in order for her nightmare to go away. As the game progresses, Cassie’s journey to solve the puzzle of her nightmare becomes a time-traveling voyage of piecing together all of the events that have taken place in this house over generations.

I have to admit, when Perception was announced, I was ignorantly intrigued. I never followed it after that, but it’s unique visuals and use of an echolocation mechanic stuck with me. I thought it was going to be another walking simulator like Gone Home or Dear Esther, but it turns out my assumption was only partially correct. It is still a walking simulator, but it incorporates elements of horror. There are hiding spots to utilize, creepy noises throughout the whole house, ghosts appearing and disappearing, not to mention creepy dolls (which are always creepy) and other haunting inanimate objects and contraptions.

The visual style is awesome to behold. At the beginning of the game, it’s hard not be transfixed by snow blowing over the path ahead and the eerie beauty of it cascading over the mansion of Cassie’s nightmare. Her Daredevil-esque ability to see things through echolocation is a pretty cool way of highlighting the world around her. As she navigates the house various landmarks, memories, doors, objects, and totems are highlighted in green, or white; making objectives easier to find and the obvious open door or hiding spot, more obvious. As far as Perception’s horror elements are concerned, the scares were few and far between, however, there were plenty of creepy moments; most notably the “Grim Reaper” like ghost that seems to have a serious problem with Cassie snooping around its sanctuary. This entity shows up for scripted moments as well as random ones throughout the game, specifically when Cassie is making too much noise with her cane. Fucking dick, she needs that thing to see!  

There are audio tapes and notes littered throughout the mansion that help Cassie piece things together, to better understand what happened in this house and why she’s been having this nightmare. Some of the objects she interacts with trigger previous inhabitants’ memories and some of them can be scanned with her phone, translating written words into speech. It’s a cool idea, but there’s an issue: if a blind person picks up a pill bottle and scans it for translation purposes, I highly doubt it would be scanned flawlessly on the first attempt. Also, how does a blind person input any number combination to unlock a safe? They don’t make those things with braille. Do they?  

It’s also a little strange that not every ethereal note Cassie picks up is accompanied by their writer’s narration, and a few others require her to use her translator. It’s a weird design choice that could have been better served if they were all narrated, or all transcribed by her phone. There are a few other problems as well. Most notable among them are the curious audio responses of Cassie hitting the ground or other surfaces with her cane. They don’t seem to accurately reflect what they should sound like. Whether or not her hearing is heightened, that shouldn’t mean the ground she’s striking should sound like a sledge hammer making contact with something. There were also a few times that rickety old doors would send shockwaves of sound throughout a room and other’s (like an attic door) wouldn’t send out any kind of reverberation.

Despite Perception’s imperfections, I did enjoy all of its self-contained story lines. It made Cassie’s adventure through this ghost house interesting and worth the time I invested. While it may not be as dark or well written as the first season of American Horror Story, it was painfully obvious where The Deep End Games got their inspiration. I would love to see them use this formula again and go somewhere darker and more sinister the next time around. Let Perception be the springboard that got you off your feet and make a splash with something bigger and more terrifying.

The original Outlast was a frantic horror game of cat and mouse. It’s mechanics were simple: record everything, run, hide and evade. Throughout it’s entirety, it consistently made my heartbeat intensify, which forced me to pause the game or wait in hiding for an extended amount of time. Outlast 2 serves up the same meaty dish of heart palpitations and sprinkles it with an unwholesome garnish of cerebral terror.

Outlast 2 follows Blake and Lynn Langermann, two journalists out to investigate the murder of a pregnant woman that disappeared in the Havasupai region of Arizona. As they enter the airspace, their helicopter is shot down and the two are separated by deranged locals. After waking up from the crash and finding the pilot skinned alive, Blake stumbles upon a church where his wife is being held and raped by the town’s insane leader, “Papa” Sullivan Knoth. After Lynn and Blake escape the church of Temple Gate, Knoth announces to the town that an anti-christ lives inside of her and she must be killed. During the escape, they are ambushed by his loyal followers, who are then ambushed by the Heretics, led by the equally deranged Val; taking Lynn away to her underground temple to watch over her until the “End of Days”. Everything that transpires throughout the story is as unsettling as it is macabre and felt like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre had a love child with The Hills Have Eyes.

The narrative forced me to go to smaller outlying areas of this decrepit town, populated by a coterie of murderous zealots or outcasts stricken by horrifying diseases; living in dilapidated cabins, shacks, or lean-to’s — many of them littered with feces, blood, entrails, bones or various body parts, unsettling albeit depressing notes and torn out pages from Knoth’s biblead. Other areas were littered with totems of people skinned alive, sacrificial chambers, mass graves, and corn fields. Children of the Corn taught me one great lesson in life, don’t go into a cornfield. Especially at night, hunted by flashlight and machete wielding psychopaths, hell bent on cleansing me of my sins. Another terrifying area is the catholic school that Blake and Lynn attended as children. Throughout the game, Blake is pulled into this nightmare where his childhood friend Jessica, was found hanging from the ceiling of one of their classrooms. Trying to navigate through its dark, dank, and narrow hallways is nerve wracking, especially when a grotesque creature begins stalking you. It didn’t matter if I was in a more open space or navigating tunnels, hallways, or corn fields — having to frantically switch between night vision to see in the dark, or utilizing the microphone to get a better sense of my surroundings and lowering it to conserve battery power to aimlessly search for an escape route was frustrating, even more so with crazy people or creatures right on my heels. Outlast 2 made me feel the strongest sensations of stress and claustrophobia that I haven’t experienced since Dead Space.

Speaking of crazy people, there was always a persistent predator after you in the first game, and while I can’t remember what his name ever was, a good friend of mine — who hates horror games — likes to call him “Big Biggums”. Outlast 2 has a similar antagonist who goes by the name Marta, but for the sake of word play, let’s call her “Maniacal Marta”. She’s a taller, quicker, creepier and more feminine adversary who wields a giant pickaxe that can kill you in one fell swoop, and spews crazy sermons from her high pitched and hoarse diaphragm. As I progressed through this twisted town, the moments in which she was about to show up became more obvious (thanks to her haunting audio cue), but the intensity level kept growing with every new altercation. And to make things more interesting, she’s not the only one this time around. As I got deeper into the game, new antagonizers showed up more frequently. Whether it was a deformed giant carrying an equally grotesque dwarf on his shoulders, shooting arrows of fire in my direction; naked men with face paint, screaming with anger and moaning in pain — probably from the sticks jabbed into their faces — chasing me through a rickety old coal refinery and its labyrinth of tunnels that lie beneath it; or the haunting creature that stalks the halls of the school in which Blake’s recurring nightmare takes place — it didn’t matter who was out to kill me, it was all equally frightening. Even Dead Space (the most terrifying game I’ve ever played) didn’t give me the chills I experienced in the last quarter of Outlast 2. There was a moment where the back of my skull was freezing cold and tingling at the same time. Since I’ve never experienced that sensation before, I had to ascertain that I wasn’t about to have a stroke by pausing the game to make sure my room wasn’t freezing cold (it wasn’t), made sure my pulse was good (about 95 BPM), took a few deep breaths for good measure, took another sip of scotch, resumed the game, and the feeling returned almost immediately. Red Barrels has done a great job of cranking up the intensity of the frantic run-for-your-life gameplay that made its predecessor so terrifying, but the open spaces and new hiding spots got in the way at times. There were plenty of obstacles that got me hung up for no reason. Blake could climb up pre-determined cliff faces with no problem, but the simplest objects were impossible to jump over, turning a lot of hectic moments into trial and error exercises.

Red Barrels has tapped into a more sadistic and insidious narrative that is far more disturbing than anything I’ve ever played. Outlast 2 isn’t the first, nor the last horror title to use the sadistic side of religion as the driving force behind their story, but they make a strong case as to how religion, and the way certain people practice it, can be so evil. The lengths to which Knoth and his community, the sickened outcasts, or Val and her heretic clan will go to appease their god is a pertinent representation of how malleable a human being is to a powerful idea, no matter how vile or heinous their actions. Everything that transpires in Temple Gate is compounded by Blake’s sporadic descent into his foreboding nightmare, where his friend’s death haunts him as he navigates the dark hallways, evading the grotesque monster. Roaming the school’s halls was dark and ominous; complemented by chillingly ambient music. Most horror games (and movies) don’t scare me, or make me feel an intense cold and tingling sensation, but Red Barrels has accomplished this feat and made my head spin trying to understand what had happened well after the credits started to roll. Outlast 2 was one hell of a terrifying experience, and one I will never forget.

Leaving my job after nearly a decade was difficult and bittersweet. I was sad to leave my “home away from home,” but the hardest part was saying goodbye to my crew and my favorite customers. The uncertainty of where I might end up for my next job was nerve wracking, but after lifting that heavy weight off of my shoulders, it was time to enjoy the next few weeks of freedom. I felt like a kid again.

I could stay up as late as I wanted and I didn’t have to worry about adult responsibilities anymore, especially waking up at 4:30 in the morning to prep the coffee shop for the day. I could have enjoyed unemployment by reading a book with a glass of scotch in hand, but as I apprehensively anticipated my first trip out of the country with my girlfriend, Horizon Zero Dawn became the vacation that took me by the balls, drowned me in it’s world, and completely cut me off from any kind of social interaction with my friends, my family, even my girlfriend. To make a long story short, it took over my life.

Before my exotic vacation to the Dominican Republic, my excursion into the world of Horizon Zero Dawn was an incredible precursor. As soon as I pushed the X button, I was thrust into a heartfelt and beautiful introduction to Horizon’s story. Rost, shunned by the Nora, carries Aloy to the one Matriarch brave enough to defy the rules and bless her as a child of the Nora tribe, finally speaking her name — think Simba of the Lion King — causing a lot of controversy within the inner circles. After years of training and receiving the cold shoulder from her peers, she was given a chance to become a part of the Nora again, if she finished first in the Proving; a right of passage for every young hunter in the Nora region. Before the last stage of the Proving, Aloy and her fellow contenders are ambushed by a cultist group and killed on site. The sole survivor Aloy, wakes up in the care of the Matriarch that blessed her, Teersa. She gives her the task of discovering the truth behind the attack and investigate what happened to the retaliation party by traveling to Carja lands as a Seeker, allowing her exclusive access to areas others cannot without the proper rank.

Aloy’s quest quickly became an experience that, not only could I not put down, but one that I could not escape from — it’s all I could think about. I instantaneously became so enthralled and invested in every aspect of this beautifully crafted and rendered world.

It’s overgrown and lush landscapes were captivating, yet alive with a plethora of clues scattered about its various decaying remnants of buildings and landmarks of an ancient Metal World. I explored every accessible area, including places I probably shouldn’t have been able to reach, thanks to Aloy’s impressive leaping ability that would make any triathlete green with envy.

Outside of completing story missions, side quests or errands, the game never forced me to go anywhere I didn’t want to, despite my dedication to see everything. Outside of these missions, I had no problem exploring the terrain to find every Metal Flower, Banuk Figurine, Ancient Vessel, and the various Vantage Points that were generously scattered throughout Horizon’s massive world.

Exploring the five Cauldrons — where the machines are built — was a rewarding experience, borrowing the aesthetic looks of Alien and The Matrix, and combining them into a fun and interesting dungeon crawl that ended with a claustrophobic showdown with bigger, more intimidating machines.

Aside from the gorgeous geography, the power of the Decima engine made interactions between Aloy and the various characters she came across feel genuine, if not real – as if I was talking to actual people. The NPC’s never felt lifeless, save the few bad actors sprinkled throughout the game.

What made these characters more interesting wasn’t just their personalities or even their personal stories, it was the historical influences of ancient cultures. The Nora represent the Native Americans who worship and respect mother earth, or in this case, All Mother. The Carja, under the reign of their 13th king Jiran, orchestrated mass sacrifices to the Sun God (much like the Mayans), leaving his people oppressed and divided until his son, Avad killed him and took his throne with the aide of the Oseram, the medieval Knights of this world; master craftsman of weaponry and arms. This uprising was responsible for the creation of the Shadow Carja and the Eclipse, tribes that dedicated their lives to Jiran’s insidious beliefs and embraced the power of the Ancient Ones to recruit more followers, in hopes of taking back Meridian from Avad. And finally, the Banuk, more akin to Vikings, thrive on their skills as hunters and their ability to decipher scribes of the Ancient Ones.

The highlight of the entire game — and what separates Horizon from every Action-RPG before it — is it’s combat. Aloy is extremely responsive and agile, making any misstep my own fault. There’s no auto lock capability, so I was forced to pay attention to my surroundings on a constant basis. This made every encounter frantic and intense.

Aloy’s arsenal ranges from a plethora of arrows that inflict elemental damage, combat against armor, as well as long range damage for silent kills or to shrink the number of enemies down. Complimenting her bow and quiver is a Slingshot to greatly affect groups of enemies, a Ropecaster to tie down and trip up machines, a Tripcaster (my personal favorite) that lays out trip wires that can look like spider webs, a Rattler that turns arrows into shotgun pellets, and a Tearblaster that rips armor off at close range.

Any good hunter needs to study up on their prey to figure out the best way of taking them down. Every machine has various weaknesses and strengths that require quick reflexes, precision, and careful planning to take them down. Taking down the more simple herds of Watchers, Grazers, Striders, Lancehorn’s, Broadheads, or Scrappers are fun and direct encounters. But taking on the bigger, more powerful machines requires many different approaches. There were plenty of instances throughout the game where my plans didn’t work out so well and I had to think on my feet and unleash everything I could just to take down herds of machines. Taking on Horizon’s more intimidating machines were always nerve wracking and intense, especially fighting Thunderjaw’s or Stormbird’s.

The last time a game completely took over my life was Mass Effect 2. I played that game so extensively that I wanted to get every achievement possible, explore every dialogue option, visit every planet, pursue new relationships with characters, etc. and actively pursuing those was an achievement all it’s own. After a few minutes into Horizon Zero Dawn, I immediately wanted to explore everything it had to offer, take down every machine that stood in my way, kill every bandit that crossed my path, investigate every Cauldron, complete every hunting trial, walk around the beautifully realized and detailed world that Guerilla Games had created and learn about every nuance it had to offer. This game couldn’t have come at a better time; Horizon Zero Dawn is my early contender for Game of the Year.

The third installment of Mass Effect is no doubt the most controversial—in many ways, it built the foundation of geek entitlement that led to the No Man’s Sky debacle. As the controversy primarily revolves around the ending of the game, we’ll come to that in due time. As the King in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland says, it’s best to begin at the beginning.

The opening sequence of Mass Effect 3 gives us no time to breathe. The Reaper invasion is in full force, and they’re already ripping the universe apart. Shepard’s quest for the duration of Mass Effect 3 is to rally the races of the galaxy into a united front to keep intergalactic Armageddon at bay. After a lot of killin’ and bangin’, Shepard trudges into the final moments of the game alone where they must sacrifice themselves for one final decision that will shape the fate of the universe forever.

For the bulk of Mass Effect 3, the gameplay, graphics and characterizations are even more impeccable than Mass Effect 2. The reason that Mass Effect 3 doesn’t quite live up to the bar that its predecessor set does ultimately come down to those final moments. All three of the possible endings did feel a bit same-y, which irked many fans who were expecting more variety in their conclusions, filling the conduits of social media with frothy nerd rage. The outcry became so volatile that the developers actually went back to retool and release another series of possible endings. Little did they know that this one act of fan service would help contribute to the rat’s nest of geek entitlement that we loathe today.

Mass Effect 3: What’s Worse—Angry Reapers or Angry Nerds?

Throughout the life of the trilogy, Mass Effect has been great at setting the bar higher for each installment. From a gameplay perspective, Mass Effect 3 is superior to its predecessor, but it also manages to feel bigger from a narrative perspective. In Mass Effect 2, Shepard had to get a diverse squad of scientists, soldiers and assassins ready to take on an unbeatable foe. Shepard’s task in Mass Effect 3 is just slightly larger—they have to get a diverse coalition of alien races ready to take on a legion of unbeatable foes.

It’s not easy getting all of these different races to play nice with each other. Races like the Krogan are still understandably pissed off at the Salarians and Turians because they created a bioweapon that drastically increased the Krogan infant mortality rate. It was an executive decision, since the Krogan’s reproductive speed and their genetic desire for combat and bloodshed threatened to overrun the galaxy. It’s complex racial issues like this that make the stakes of Shepard’s different missions so high.

The racial prejudices at play throughout Mass Effect 3 do happen to take place in an intergalactic, sci-fi setting, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t ring true for those of us consigned to planet Earth. Again, the narrative is great at portraying the different perspectives at play when a racial conflict erupts. Like all good sci-fi, these different racial issues help to illustrate what Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie calls “the danger of a single story.” It’s Shepard’s job to convince each race to overcome their propensity to reduce the others to a single story so they can present a united front against an enemy that wants everyone dead in equal measure.

Despite telling a story that emphasizes racial tolerance and ideological flexibility, Mass Effect 3 became the target of much controversy because it didn’t align with many fans’ expectations. I’m not saying that these fans’ complaints are totally unfounded. The narrative structure of Mass Effect 3 left quite a few loose ends that we were hoping to get resolved, and the multiple endings didn’t feel that much different from one another. For me, it was a lot like the final season of Dexter. As a whole, I would call Dexter one of the best TV shows that I’ve ever seen. But that final episode was complete garbage and it pissed me off. Despite this terrible finale, I as a fan had to respect the fan/creator relationship. I will forever call bullshit on the last episode of Dexter, but I still love it as a whole.

When something like this happens with video games, it becomes a different beast. Dexter was on whether you were a fan of the show or not. If the ending sucked, what did you care? Fans of a video game franchise, on the other hand, have actually invested their hard-earned money into that franchise. There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with expressing your frustration about a lackluster ending to a property that you cared about, especially if you’ve put some money down yourself. However, organizing a Facebook campaign to unite equally pissed fans under one banner in order to pressure the developers into busting their asses for a “better” ending is completely off base. The fact that BioWare eventually caved to these demands only empowered these actions, thus fueling any and all of the subsequent nerd rage freakouts (See No Man’s Sky, Ghostbusters, Captain America, et al.). It’s something that caused birthmoviesdeath.com writer Devin Faraci to declare Annie Wilkes from Stephen King’s Misery the patron saint of fandom, and I couldn’t agree more.

Andromeda

I’ve been reading some mixed reviews of Mass Effect: Andromeda, and I’ve been reading about plenty of players who have lampooned everything from the character animation to the dialogue. They could be totally right, but I can’t help but feel this early access is either opening old wounds for some, or an excuse to drink the hater-ade for others. Regardless, it’s safe to say that Mass Effect fans are still divided. It sounds like Andromeda probably won’t win you back if you’ve turned your back on the franchise, but those who are just itching for a chance to dig back into a well-designed sci-fi universe will likely be pleased.

Since agendas abound when writing about a hornets’ nest like Mass Effect, I’m not planning on investing too much credibility in any pre-reviews. For now, all I will say on the subject is that Mass Effect has my pixelated heart, and I’ll be gazing longingly at my mailbox like Rose gazes at Jack as he stands at the top of the dining room stairs in Titanic. 

Alien: Resurrection is kind of a crappy movie, but there’s a bit of dialogue between Johner and Ripley that I absolutely love:

Johner: So, I hear you ran into these things before?
Ripley: Yeah.
Johner: What did you do?
Ripley: I died.

This bleak discourse captures the whole tone of Mass Effect 2, in which Shepard and their entire ship gets ripped apart during the game’s opening cinematic. You read that right—Shepard effing dies at the beginning of the game. Not only that, but the only reason that there’s a sequel at all is because Shepard gets resurrected by a shady group called Cerberus, which is basically Mass Effect’s version of the alt-right. Just let that sink in—the hero of the story gets killed, only to be resurrected by a group of terrible people so they can take up arms against the creatures that killed them in the first place. How can you not want to see what happens?

It’s the general consensus that if you play only one game in the original trilogy, Mass Effect 2 is your best bet. I completely agree—it’s a nearly perfect blend of sci-fi action, diverse characters, emotional storytelling and intergalactic exploration.

ME2: Suicide Squad if Suicide Squad Didn’t Suck

Like the first game, Shepard recruits teammates (some new, and some from the first game) to accompany them. Unlike the first game, Shepard is leading that team on a suicide mission through the Omega 4 Relay—a journey that no ship has survived. The combat and loot management system received a complete overhaul, effectively removing the vast majority of gripes that I had with the first game. And yes, most of the character roster is totally bangable, a dynamic that also received an influx of tension and emotion.

The first half of the game feels like an intergalactic version of Ocean’s 11—Shepard spends a good chunk of time zipping around the galaxy to recruit a team that is crazy enough to plunge headlong into the abyss. Also like Ocean’s 11, it’s very easy to fall in love with every member of Shepard’s crew. In order to get the most desirable ending, you’ve got to join each individual crew member on what’s called a “loyalty mission,” which essentially helps the crew come to the conclusion that Shepard is someone that they can follow into certain death. Not only are these missions crucial to a perfect ending, they’re damn fun to play. Each mission gives the player a personal look at the events that made your team who they are, and they’re written with the hard-hitting punch of an episode of True Detective.

Adult-centered storytelling like this makes romantic encounters in Mass Effect feel very at home within the narrative. Up until this point, I’ve probably made it sound like romance and sex in Mass Effect is purely tawdry and cosmetic, but the ability to shoop with one or more characters actually adds a lot of nuance to the game’s story. The options for male same-sex romances weren’t as inclusive as they became in the later Dragon Age games, so take that as you will, but it was surprising how organic each different relationship felt. I credit this to the game’s stellar writing and voice acting, which made any and all of Shepard’s romantic pursuits feel like natural extensions of the story.

One of the most powerful uses of this narrative-driving sexual content comes from a character named Jack. She’s your basic emotionally damaged telekinetic woman with a history of violence, and she’s not a huge fan of being fully clothed—when we first meet her, she’s wearing prison pants and a few strategically-placed straps. At first, it’s easy to write her character design off as some pervy, behind-the-scenes machinations, but the more Shepard talks with her, the more we see that her character is perfectly visualized. Jack is a badass, self-empowered woman who just happens to be into casual sex—but if the player succumbs to Jack’s initial sexual advances, she ends up resenting them for it later on. However, if the player sees through the fact that Jack uses sex as a way to cope with her own personal issues, the two can actually pursue a more meaningful relationship.

Oh, and it’s also possible for Shepard to get straight up murdered by banging a character named Morinth, who is essentially an Asari sex vampire. So, there’s  something for all audiences, really.

Outside of romantic relationships, the wary professional relationship that Shepard has with the Illusive Man (voiced by Martin Sheen, no less!) is a fascinating exploration of moral ambiguity. The Illusive Man leads the extremist human rights group Cerberus. Shepard’s motivations for helping Cerberus stem from the fact that they’re the group that salvaged Shepard’s body and spent a fortune bringing it back to life. As the game progresses, it becomes easier to interpret Cerberus as the one organization in the galaxy that actually believes in the Reaper invasion, but it doesn’t change their history or reputation.

The alt-right comparison comes from the fact that Cerberus maintains a xenophobic ideology toward other alien races, but I also think Mass Effect 2 helps shed some light on why people choose to walk that path. Granted, I think that today’s alt-right largely consists of garbage humans, but working with garbage humans in Mass Effect 2 kind of lets the player step back and focus on the human part of that equation. And, as we’ll see after delving into Mass Effect 3, xenophobic ideologies tend to result in self-destruction.

Next week: Mass Effect 3, racial tension, and the dangers of geek entitlement (that ending tho!).

Capcom Japan announced today that another Felyne skin will be made available in the upcoming Monster Hunter XX (An expanded version of Monster Hunter Generations as we know it here in the States, releasing in Japan this March). This time it will commemorate the 25th anniversary of beloved Japanese franchise ‘Sailor Moon’ and we’ll hopefully be seeing the content come to North America in the form of a downloadable update. 

I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I think Monster Hunter is a pretty decent series of games even though they haven’t innovated a whole lot on their mechanics or repetitive collection systems (along with MANY re-used monsters and assets). On the other we have ‘Sailor Moon,’ which is basically a Japanese national treasure with extreme popularity around the world, but… do these fans really intersect? 

Sometimes Japanese crossovers baffle me a little bit, and this is definitely one of those instances. Maybe I underestimate just how well this DLC will do in Japan or that the producers might be hoping to reach a wider sample of gamers that previously weren’t interested in Monster Hunter. My producer instincts still tell me this is a pretty strange integration, but I am admittedly not entirely versed on the Monster Hunter sales figures in Japan.

Don’t get me wrong, I do think it’s cool that I might get to see Luna help me fight monsters! ‘Monster Hunter’ isn’t exactly a series of all-serious, life or death monster battles, but the Felynes have always been an interesting contrast to an otherwise hunter-driven world. Then again, the game series has also given us this DLC, so maybe I’m overthinking it:

What do you think of the new crossover? 

Darkest Dungeon — Red Hook Studios — PS4, Vita, Mac, PC, Linux — September 27, 2016 — $24.99

“Darkest Dungeon” from “Red Hook Studios,” is a rogue-like turn-based RPG that uses a lot of basic turn-based mechanics, but what makes their title stand out is their Affliction System. There’s a plethora of bad ass heroes to choose from, but instead of making them powerful and unwavering warriors, they opted to make them fragile and tormented souls. The goal of “Darkest Dungeon” is to reclaim the House in Ruin and eradicate the vast population of macabre creatures and demons that were unleashed unto to the land by a man who grew tired of his luxurious and tranquil life through relics and rituals.

The main hub of the game is Hamlet, a village just outside the House in Ruin. This is where you recruit new heroes, view your ancestors memoirs and pay respects to fallen heroes. At the end of every mission, afflicted heroes must be sent to the abbey or the tavern to relieve their stresses of battle, or checked into the sanitarium to treat negative quirks or detrimental diseases. The blacksmith allows you to upgrade weapons and armor once a hero has achieved rank 1 or higher, and the guild allows them to learn new skills or upgrade their existing ones to become more effective and powerful on the battlefield. The downside to all of this micromanaging (unless I suck at this game, which is possible) is how quickly your finite amount of money disappears when you have to upgrade all the various locations that alleviate stress levels and eradicate diseases. New abilities, weaponry, and armor upgrades don’t help, but your heroes need every upgrade possible to better their chances of success.   

Before embarking on any mission, you need to purchase and manage your (costly) provisions. These range from food rations to keep from starving, skeleton keys to enter locked doors or chests, bandages to stop bleeding, holy water to vanquish evil, antivenom to counter blights and poisons, shovels to clear obstructed paths, etc. Torches, however, dictate how difficult or manageable things are going to be for you and your team. More light grants your squad more power, greater scouting skills, and higher damage output, while the darkness adds copious amounts of stress and strength for both you and the enemy.

Every hero has unique statistics and skills attached to them, as well as varying resistance to ailments and diseases. Each class can have four active abilities at a time and work best when  placed in their preferred positions, and are most effective against their respective targets. You can mix and match your squad however you see fit, but because of the Affliction System everyone in the party gains stress throughout the various incursions. On top of the stresses of battling demons, their positive traits can be hampered by the negative ones they inherit along the way, making them less likely to dodge attacks, miss targets more often, or be left more susceptible to critical strikes from the enemy. If their stress levels get too far out of hand, they can become masochistic, hopeless, selfish, or cowardly (to name a few), and they begin to negatively affect those around them; let the stress meter fill up too much and your heroes will die of a heart attack.

The true beauty of this game — underneath the macabre despair that constantly hovers over your squad — is that it starts out stressful and becomes merciless in no time. One moment you will feel like you’re kicking ass and taking names, but within in an instant your entire squad is smashed to pieces, both physically and mentally. The problem with “Darkest Dungeon”, which also happens to be its strength, is how unrelentingly rancorous it becomes. Every little detail of this game was designed to piss you off like a cat being teased by its human who dangles a string high above its head. Eventually, you have to forget it and do something else for a while. Fortunately for those who like punishment and games that test your resolve and strategic abilities, “Darkest Dungeon” will constantly taunt you (like the “Book of the Dead”) every time you see it on your cross media bar.