AJ Ruminates: I like rubbish games and I cannot lie

2011 has not been a good yearin regards to games. Those who say that a pessimist is never disappointed and intimate that this is a bad thing have clearly never experienced all of their positive feelings being shattered by having none of their minimal expectations met.

So far all of the major releases that I have been looking forward to have been disappointing. Each game has pretty much attempted to sucker punch me by claiming to be top tier and proving to be nothing of the sort. It becomes hard to remain hopeful for any of the other titles I was looking forward to when games like Outland have snagged me early on through extremely slow pace and jarring narrative choices.

So, with my optimism in tatters I decided to ignore the AAA titles and embrace the darker, nastier side of large commercial releases.
The games I have been playing would, if anthropomorphicised, be the Dirty Dozen – a rough and ready crew of losers on a suicide mission with no hope of redemption in death.

Through them I have rediscovered my gaming mojo and it feels so very good to be happy again, albeit still extremely cynical about every new hyped release (to be fair that is not a particularly new sentiment).

There has been beauty to be found in each one of these miscreants and without them I may have resorted to something drastic – like buying a Wii – to try and find some meaning in this gaming life.

I wrote about Knights Contract and Mindjack recently and these were the forerunners of my plumbing the depths of the bargain bin. So far the other games I have touched on are:

Army of Two: The 40th day


This is an all-round better game than its predecessor. The mechanics of moving from cover-to-cover and swinging aggro between the two soldiers actually works this time. The level design is also more interesting and varied despite being entirely set in one city. Even the simple cover and gun requirements have had extra twists added to them that actually keep the gameplay fresh, be it protecting civilians or trying to take out patrols before they seal off vital extra unlocks for your weapons and armour. It pains me to say that this game is actually good but it really is, and if you are looking for a cheap co-op shooter to tie you over until Gears of War 3 I cannot recommend it more. Especially as it is now going for about 15-20 dollars.

Bladestorm: The Hundred Years’ War


This game is a spin-off from the Dynasty Warrior series. The twist is that the conflict is all Anglo/Franco and this game demands that you don’t get involved in the combat as an individual, instead switching between different squads. The game is still grind-heavy like its brethren but it is the perfect, non-threatening Sunday hangover game. There is also an appeal in watching your formation of 20-strong, mace-wielding, skull-mask wearing freaks decimate a group of charging cavalry.

I will admit that this was actually introduced to me a long time ago but it is only recently that I have grown to really appreciate the game’s finer qualities, like being able to unwind after a stressful day and kill thousands of soldiers.

Trouble Witches NEO!


This is a no-frills 2D scrolling shooter from SNK Playmore. It derives most its best bits from better Cave bullet-hell shooters and is all the stronger for it. It’s a light-hearted shooter (partly thanks to some of the worst localisation this side of Castle of Shikigami 2) with just enough depth in it to be worth trying to one CC. As implied above there are better shooters out there, but if you have an itch which can only be scratched by dazzling patterns and endless waves of shooting then Trouble Witches NEO! Is a lot better than you may have been led to believe.


As a result of this experiment I encourage readers out there to shun review scores for a week or month. Just go for whatever seems appealing, regardless of what its Metacritic rating may be. Buy it; you might surprise yourself.

I will be buying D&D: Daggerdale this week in the hopes that it is just about good enough to justify the purchase. I won’t be playing LA Noire for the reason that optimists can only be disappointed… or in denial.

Incidentally, I do not like Stake: Fortune Fighters.

Comments

25 responses to “AJ Ruminates: I like rubbish games and I cannot lie”

  1. oddvorbis Avatar
    oddvorbis

    I'll be curious about your opinion of daggerdale. Its been in my demo queue for a while.

    The only games which gave me any figment of joy in the last months were patapon 3 on PSP, Zenonia 2 on Android (mix diablo and secret of mana), and old old burnout Revenge from 360 games on demand.

    Really bad for AAA titles so far, and looking at E3, it looks like another year of garbage.

    1. badgercommander Avatar
      badgercommander

      @oddvorbis, my 'opinions' on D&D Daggerdale should be out tomorrow, if not sooner.

  2. Walker Avatar
    Walker

    My favourite releases this year have been Mount&Blade: With Fire and Sword and Space Pirates and Zombies. Recent good bargain bin pickups have been Mirror's Edge and Alpha Protocol. Free XBLA game Harm's Way is also great fun.

    The only big title I'm looking forward to this year is Skyrim. I'm not quite sure why, given that it will probably be more like Oblivion, which was rather lame, than Morrowind, which was brilliant.

    1. badgercommander Avatar
      badgercommander

      I tried out Alpha Protocol this year, it strikes me as a quirky failure that just didn't have what it takes to appeal to me. The RPG mechanics in the Spy setting just didn't work (can you say ludo-narrative dissonance 3 times quickly?) and the story wasn't as compelling as I had hoped. To top that off the game crashed on me and corrupted my save after 2 hours of playing it.

      I should be puting a review up for Mirror's Edge on the badger commander site soon as part of my 'What makes a Metacritic score' theme I am doing so I won't say anything about it just yet. As for Harm's Way, that has been sitting on my hard drive untouched since its release. I will make sure to check it out.

      Skyrim… I don't like those types of RPGs all that much so I am probably going to pass on that one.

      1. Walker Avatar
        Walker

        A little late, but what ludonarrative dissonance, specifically? I didn't find AP particularly bad in that regard.

        I thought the RPG mechanics worked quite nicely. Accumulating experience is an obvious fit in a game charting the development of a beginning agent into a seasoned veteran, and if I play a movie-inspired superagent I'd better be able to pull off extraordinary feats.

        The main story isn't very compelling, but I don't need compelling stories in games as much as compelling gameplay. AP's charm for me is in the impressive variation in your interactions with the game and its characters, and in piecing together the various players' backstories and roles in it all. The game has remarkable replayability value.

        1. badgercommander Avatar
          badgercommander

          For me it was the fact that the skills and mechanics are copy pasted from a fantasy role playing game and forced to fit the spy template. The hand to hand stuff and hacking stuff was fine but the stealth and shooting mechanics (the cool down on shots and the invisibility) just broke the immersion as they felt very much designed for a game that supports a swords and sorcery fiction. Certainly the transition of the character in regards to his stat improvement sort of makes sense but it is simply the fact that I can't get over the fact that they needed to be a little more inventive in how the abilities worked.

          As for the choices that can be made, it did seem quite interesting how your choices did really make a difference, but when the main character only has one tone to every reply it just grated. By that I mean you choose an apology option and the guy just turns into a smarmy, sarcastic arsehole with no genuine apology in his lines. That wasn't might choice, I didn't want to be a dickhead, because if I had wanted to I would have chosen one of the other four options. As a result I always found myself responding with the 'professional' option because it was the least annoying of the lot.

          1. Walker Avatar
            Walker

            I can't agree. I really don't see how cooldowns are any more natural fit for swords and sorcery than for guns. It's a game balance move. In either case, sure, they could have gone for something a little more inventive. In case of AP, specifically, with their movie inspiration some sort of dramatic appropriateness might have been cool, though that sort of things works better with tighter rails.

            Of all the abilities Shadow Agent is the hardest to take, but I figure it's a representation of the implausible stealth occasionally exhibited by all the action heroes. Things like endless SMG clips seem much more inspired by action movies than fantasy games, and things like criticals and chain shot are a much better fit for modern firearms than bows, since the former have things like magazines and sights.

            The unexpected reply is a problem with games that give you a summary rather than exact lines, yeah. AP, at least, has the consistent stances. If the 'apology' was, say, a 'suave' option, it probably wasn't going to be very heart-felt. The motivation behind the dialogue system is to evoke the response you want from people, though, whether it's to gain their cooperation or piss them off.

          2. badgercommander Avatar
            badgercommander

            Sure it might be a design choice to have cool downs, but I don't like it and seems like a lazy copy of exisitng mechanics.

            You don't seem to have had a problem with them but I just couldn't get behind it as I already stated, the design choices didn't feel coherent with visual representation. I understand why they were made, mainly for the sake of gameyness and giving the user a sense of progression within an RPG system, and I am not saying that this won't work for some people.

            As for the game engine not working any better/worse in a swords and sorcery world. All of those mechanics are lifted directly from the likes of Baldur's Gate and Oblivion and even make sense from narratives as far back as stuff like LOTR. Mages don't bust out fire balls left right and centre because of how physically draining it is.

            Not doing a super shot with your super shotgun, because your super bullets have to cool down makes no narrative sense. Why do you even have super bullets in the first place, unless you are basing your spy game on Eraser?

            Unexpected replies should not be the norm and that is one of my problems with a lot of dialogue systems. However, Alpha Protocol was a pretty jarring example. If the Apology option had been framed as 'Apologise' then that would have made sense as it would have been denoted it as more snarky shit from snarky arsehole agent. It didn't.

            You say that the motivation is to evoke certain responses from people. The guy's vocal delivery is not consistent with that idea as the way he responds to pretty much every dialogue choice made me want to punch him in the head. Seeing as my preferred path is to take a neutral stance on most things, that doesn't work for me.

          3. ShaunCG Avatar

            I knew you guys would have good discussions. :D

            AJ, regarding the Alpha Protocol dialogue system, you and Chris Avellone are in agreement on that: http://nightmaremode.net/2011/07/interview-with-c

          4. Walker Avatar
            Walker

            Magic being physically draining is just a game balance or narrative convenience given plausible justification, and it was rarely implemented with coolouts in the old days, before MMORPG designers lifted that mechanic out of RTS games. Your examples are a little odd, as neither of those games used coolouts.

            If AP had copied Baldur's Gate, you'd have a number of slots for abilities you'd fill before a mission and could use each slotted ability once. (That might be a pretty interesting tactical challenge, actually. Be prepared.) That's an AD&D mechanic, lifted from Vance's Dying Earth stories.

            If it worked like Oblivion, using the abilities would use up Mojo, which would replenish over time, or maybe by performing suitably agent-y actions; perfect for an Austin Powers game.

            And, clearly, AP doesn't have super-shots for a super-shotgun. Instead, Thorton has super shotgun skills. By hitting enemies in just the right spot at just the right time he achieves maximally effective shots. The concentration it requires is mentally exhausting, however, and he needs a little breather before busting out the moves again. It makes perfect narrative sense.

            I get that that broke your WSoD, it's a mileage thing. But, really, games are going to have game mechanics, and they are going to be more or less artificial. Sometimes you just have to suspend disbelief and go with it. You yourself described the execute system in SC:Conviction, where Fisher can visualize a series of shots but can't execute it before he punches somebody in the face. How does that make any kind of narrative sense? It just seems a little arbitrary to get hung up on coolouts in Alpha Protocol.

            I wanted to punch Thorton on occasion myself, but that, also, is nothing unique to AP. Sometimes I wanted to stop playing Omicron: Nomad Soul because I didn't want to pick any of the dialogue options presented to me. By and large, though, Mike carried himself alright. The vocal delivery seems irrelevant to functionality, as the characters in the game can't hear it.

            I find Alpha Protocol really great fun, if obviously flawed and occasionally frustrating. It's a shame it didn't work for you.

          5. badgercommander Avatar
            badgercommander

            Clearly me misremembering the mechanics in both Baldur's Gate and Oblivion. Pretty sure they had cool downs in both but I might be getting them confused with KOTOR and the like. I would go back and verify it but never, ever, want to waste my time with Oblivion again. Although the Mojo thing already sounded more intersting than hat was in AP.

            With the mechanics in Splinter Cell, it is about the feel that the game is trying to convey. Certainly, you boil it down to Sam Fisher has to punch people to put instant kill into effect. But the game is more about the idea of creating set pieces and the melee mechanic encourages those set pieces. If, like in WET, you could simply slow motion kill all the time, the ability would eventually dissipate in value and appreciation. It doesn't so you feel rewarded when you pull it off, it makes you feel like a badass, which is what the game's aim is. Also, this ability is not locked off to the player by a mandatory time period, it is down to the player to trigger this through their own skill and perspicacity.

            The skills in Alpha Protocol are switch flicking on and off. There is no narrative convenience or plausible justification given to it like in the case of the magic powers dictated by the swords and sorcery genres it is based on (although you pointed out that I might need to get my facts straight on that one as to which games I am thinking of). You have offered your idea of why this might be but that creating your own story to support the fact that you like the game.

            I could tell you how, like in Clerks, Return of the Jedi is really dark because of the independant contractors on the Death Star but that is all my own personal justification and could just as easily be debunked.

            Interesting points nonetheless, I can't be bothered to try AP again as much as I respect Obsidian.

          6. Simon_Walker Avatar
            Simon_Walker

            KOTOR doesn't have cooldowns either. It uses D20 system, that is, a system explicitly designed for sword&sorcery RPGs, and as such has mana, renamed 'Force Points'. The 'Mojo', obviously, is also mana renamed, a direct copy paste from fantasy games you said you didn't like.

            Unlimited slomo worked just fine for Max Payne, giving the player the power to turn every encounter into a set piece–if they wanted to. It works nicely in Red Dead Redemption, too, where I do very appropriately feel like a bad ass (much of the time). SC:C being explicitly built around set pieces suggests that every encounter has a solution the designers intended, and that the player's challenge is to find it. I'm not sure that would make me feel like a bad ass, but then, I haven't played the game.

            The melee-activated mark and execute mechanic still doesn't have any plausible narrative justification, but it doesn't seem to bother you. Clearly the game does a good job to motivate you to suspend your disbelief over it unlike AP. Cool.

            I'm not creating a story to support the fact that I like the game: you have that exactly backwards. I am willingly suspending my disbelief, by using a justification that works for me, to allow me to get on with the game and enjoy it for what it is. This is no different in nature, and I think more productive, than you constructing a caricature of what is going on to help dismiss the game.

            But, WSoD is very much a YMMV thing: what breaks it for one doesn't bother another. If a game (or a film, or a book) doesn't work for you, it doesn't work for you, and there's no point wasting time with it. Alpha Protocol, in particular, is a tough game to love. There's a lot of crap to get through to get tot the bits that are enjoyable.

          7. badgercommander Avatar
            badgercommander

            Okay, I think my definitions of cool downs is different then. I remember playing KOTOR and going 'why can't I do that move, oh, it is because I have to wait for a bit before it is ready'. The same with things like casting illusion in Oblivion.

            Max Payne didn't have infinite slow motion it had to be replenished with pick ups or it had to recharge over time. The second one did introduce a system where you could bump the amount you had by stringing kills together, playing Max Payne was exactly why I didn't like WET.

            In the defence of Splinter Cell, and as I wrote in the piece, Splinter Cell: C is exactly the opposite of that. Certainly there are more obvious solutions to each setup but really it is down to you how you go about it, the game even gets more interesting when you cock it all up and have to either escape or go in all guns blazing. The part about narrative sense is a bit of split off, my original problem was that the mechanics didn't make sense in the world and as a result found me questioning the gameyness of it. Whereas the melee-into-instant-kill-spree feels right in the Splinter Cell's mood and world (akin to the set pieces of Taken and the Bourne films). The lining up of the shots and the sudden explosion into violence is completely akin with those kinds of films without having to relegate these moments to cutscenes.

            Sorry, I didn't want to sound insulting with the 'creating a story to support', as you seem to have misunderstood my intention and then justified my statement. You are suspending your disbelief and then finding a justification that works… Why else would you do it unless you like the game?

            I only used that caricature as an illustration that if I really wanted to justify something to myself I could. With AP I don't like the game, so the things that jarred were not washed away (as you stated it is a tough game to love), I didn't want to forgive the game its inconsistencies because there was too much to over come. That is not to begrudge you the fact that you were willing to make that leap.

            Also, you have completely lost me with your acronyms.

          8. Simon_Walker Avatar
            Simon_Walker

            Ah, okay. KOTOR and Oblivion use a mana pool system, which is common in fantasy games, while AP uses a cool down system. (Dragon Age uses both, for all characters.) Sure, they are both designed to limit access to powerful abilities, but they are different enough that it's worth making the distinction. (The line gets blurred with rapidly regenerating mana and global cool downs.)

            In mana pool system all abilities draw from same resource pool while cool downs apply to individual skills. In Oblivion, you can cast a Fireball several times in a row until your mana runs out, at which point you can't cast any spells; in Alpha Protocol you will have to wait until you can use Chain Shot again, but you can still use any other ability in the meanwhile.

            Both systems can be found in all sorts of games. The bullet time in Max Payne is an instance of a mana pool system. And fair point about the game, I was really thinking about shoot dodge which was cheap enough you could use it all the time.

            I still think you have suspension of disbelief backwards. I don't suspend my disbelief because I like a game, though that certainly makes me more willing to do so. Rather, when I start playing a game I willingly attempt to suspend my disbelief by default. If I start playing a game, I don't do so because I want to hate it; I do so because I want to enjoy it, and so it makes sense to give it the benefit of doubt. It usually takes repeated abuse from the game to break my WSoD. The ability system in AP didn't bother me; I successfully suspended my disbelief over it, even before I got deep enough that I found I like the game.

            Willing Suspension of Disbelief, Your Mileage May Vary. HTH, HAND.

          9. badgercommander Avatar
            badgercommander

            Ah I see. The distinction is clear although I rarely made it before (cool down stuff).

            I do go into most games with my brain switched off to the stupid. Actually, in some cases I will actively embrace the stupid and write it off as awesome. For other games all it takes is for something to get a little annoying and the rest comes crumbling down with it. It is the same with films, Predators helped me embrace the stupid, but Law Abiding Citizen did not (to use two example of exceptionally stupid films). It was all about the approach.

    2. ShaunCG Avatar

      Hey man!

      At some point I hope to try out Space Pirates and Zombies as it looks up my street. Brutally frustrating by the sounds of it, but hey.

      Skyrim I am keen to try out, as I loved the hell out of Oblivion. Even if every attempt to play it now just leads me back to Fallout 3 instead. Morrowind I think I came to too late to get into.

      1. Walker Avatar
        Walker

        I thought I should try to establish some presence around here. Maybe one day I'll register an account, too.

        At few points SPAZ switches gears on you, which is good, but also jumps the difficulty, which is not. I reached a point where I think I may need to revert to an earlier point and level up a bit.

        Whaddaya mean "too late to get into"? Morrowind's a great game no matter when you get around to it. I have a character going just now. In fact, hindsight and failures of Oblivion have only made me appreciate it more. I think it's the best cRPG I've ever played.

        Also: try out Harm's Way. Meet me on the Live. I dare you.

        1. ShaunCG Avatar

          I've bought Morrowind twice on two different platforms and started playthroughs four or five times, but I just can't get into it. I don't really know why. At this point I'm no longer inclined to try, and instead just regard it as one of those classics which simply passed me by. :)

          Harm's Way. Hmm, well. I'm not buying new games as my bank account has been left bleeding out in a darkened alley after my holiday. That said I did just buy Frozen Synapse so I could join in a league with the Gaming Daily guys. Therefore my challenge to you is: sell it to me.

          Or I'll just download it. Just checked your original comment again and you mentioned it was free. My reading comprehension and memory are as fine as ever!

  3. badgercommander Avatar
    badgercommander

    My thoughts exactly. Am still hoping that EDF is going to be good and I have Dark Souls that should be a reliable bet.

  4. Dylan Avatar
    Dylan

    I like rubbish games too, which, as you point out, includes a lot of AAA titles. LA Noire is the ideal example. Its story is a mess. The game is completely broken from the design stage up. It's not even a game when it tries to be, and nothing makes sense, narratively or functionally.

    But I just simply can't stop.

    71 cars found. 22 landmarks. 1 video reel. 5 DLC achievements not picked up yet. Each one tickling at my mind at all times. Must complete. Must complete.

    I think flaws in games enhance character, as long as there was character there to begin with.

    1. ShaunCG Avatar

      I do so hope you're going to write something about this game for us!

      1. badgercommander Avatar
        badgercommander

        I am waiting for a bit and the price to drop and then I am going to do the 'mentally challenged' play through on LA Noire

        1. ShaunCG Avatar

          Are you calling Dylan mentally challenged? Because that's my job.

          *prepares to mock Frasier again*

          1. badgercommander Avatar
            badgercommander

            I don't want to go into any details in case someone steals my idea.

    2. GordoP Avatar
      GordoP

      All that car searching, landmark finding and achievement hunting sounds like me and Just Cause 2…just thinking about it makes me want to finish up the .4 percent of the game I have not completed.