Category: Videogames

Heroes of Dragon Age Interview

My buddy Paul Semel of PaulSemel.com has an excellent interview with Heroes of Dragon Age producer Tim Lander. For those of you not familiar with the game, Heroes of Dragon Age (Android, iOS) mixes strategy and collectible-card gameplay. It uses several characters, races, and locations from the Dragon Age universe, expanding on some of the rich history that was merely touched on in the games.

I urge you to check out the interview…for several reasons. As many of you know, I’m a mark for the Dragon Age series, but I also have a professional interest in this particular title. In fact, I’m going to ask several of you RPadholics to play it for a completely informal focus group of sorts. I really, really want your opinions on this game.

Oh yeah, here’s a snippet from the interview (please read the whole thing when you have a chance!):

Capital Games have a history of making deeply strategic experiences, and since fans of Dragon Age are also looking for a deeply strategic experience, it was a natural fit. Our focus then simply became creating an experience that was easy to play but hard to master, with accessible gameplay, visually stunning graphics, and an experience made for phones and tablets.

I’m most excited about making Heroes Of Dragon Age continue to be an incredible experience for our players. These games have long life spans, and we’re dedicated to providing additional content, both in terms of new features and additional characters after launch. We want to give them lots of reasons to come back to the game and keep playing for years to come.

I’ll start another story shortly for your assorted thoughts on Heroes of Dragon Age. Now I’m going to bug Paul about why he didn’t lead with the obvious introductory statement: “Tim Lander. I think I know your brother, Zoo!”

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What Are You Playing This Weekend?

Sadly, it doesn’t look like I’ll be playing much of anything this weekend, aside from mobile games. I’ve been having stupid electrical problems in my apartment. From Sunday night to Thursday morning, I didn’t have power at all. LADWP checked out my circuits on Wednesday and fixed things as best they could. It looks like the wiring in my place is shot. I’ll have power for two or three hours and then the circuit breaker will hit. I have to close all the circuits in my place, go to the electric room in the garage and reset my circuit there, flip back all the circuits in my apartment, lather, and repeat as needed. So yeah, this kind of sucks. It makes uploading video files extremely difficult. It makes long console gaming sessions impossible. It also means that I shouldn’t leave anything perishable in the refrigerator unless I plan on being around my apartment the whole time to babysit circuits. There are certainly worse problems to have, but this one is quite annoying.

So kindly cheer me up by letting me know what’s on your weekend playlist!

The Banner Saga Finally Gets a Release Date

Stoic Studio’s The Banner Saga was the first videogame Kickstarter project I backed. I made the decision to contribute $25 to the game’s development back in April 2012. The initial pitch said that The Banner Saga would be published in November 2012. Numerous delays, feature additions, mismanagement, and opposing lunar tides have caused the game to be delayed…several times…and several times more. Stoic Studio has finally committed to a hard release date for The Banner Saga and has announced it with a fancy launch trailer (embedded below). The Banner Saga is finally landing on January 14, 2014.

There are several takeaways from my experience with The Banner Saga. I’ve learned to be more skeptical of Kickstarter pitches. As a fan of creators (of all kinds), I went into the project with an extremely naive attitude. It never occurred to me that most of these pitches over-promise and under-deliver. I loved the romantic ideals behind these pitches and blinded myself to reality. Kickstarter was going to give developers freedom, unshackling them from publishers that stifled their wondrous creativity with monetary demands and obligations to shareholders. Unfortunately…

…most of these developers need to be shackled by publishers. There are a few independent publishers that are totally capable of making a game on time and on budget. They’re the minority. Kickstarter pitches have shown that most developers need a babysitter to keep them on track. When left to their own devices, most of these companies are behind schedule and/or over budget. While many creators yearn for freedom, the reality is that many of them need an overlord to keep them in check. While a lot of what I’ve written in the past has been pro-developer and anti-publisher, please don’t think I’m discounting the role and importance of videogame publishers.

All that said, I wasn’t really bothered by The Banner Saga’s numerous delays. I expected some of them and after a while I totally forgot that the game existed. I’m happy that it’s coming out next month and looking forward to playing it. As a fan of tactical RPGs like Final Fantasy Tactics, Disgaea, and Ogre Battle, I loved the ideas behind this Norse-themed tactical RPG. I gave the developers $25 because I thought The Banner Saga would be a fun game to play and wanted to see it published. Sure, it took much longer than I thought it would, but I’m getting what I paid for.

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

In the immortal words of Mitch Taylor, “This is it!” After battling a slight cold, lots of video editing, and a side project, I’m finally — finally! — going to start Beyond: Two Souls this weekend. The timing is excellent. GDC Next and Blizzcon are right around the corner. I should be getting review units of the Nexus 5 and (thanks to a special favor — love you!) iPad Air next week. There’s even a small chance that I’ll snag a consulting job that’ll take me out of the country. All of those things would have gotten in the way of Beyond: Two Souls. Thankfully, the imperfect storm of activities won’t hit until next week. This weekend, it’s all about (hopefully) falling in love with Quantic Dream again.

So how about you? What’s on your weekend playlist?

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

Gah! This was supposed to be the weekend where I finally start Beyond: Two Souls. Unfortunately, I was a little sick after Vapetoberfest 2013 and am way behind in video editing. Part of it was from the germs that float around any convention and part of it was that I often had to yell because of the frickin’ speakers at the show. Ah, it happens. RPadholic N8R and I had a good time, and got a bunch of fun content.

Anyway, my goal is to finish all the Vapetoberfest 2013 videos by Sunday. Hopefully, I won’t be too tired to start Beyond…and won’t be too distracted by Eastbound and Down. *sigh* I’m not going to get to play the game until next weekend, hey?

So how about you? What’s on your weekend playlist?

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

RPadholic N8R and I are heading down to Long Beach later today to sip some gin and juice with Snoop Dogg cover Vapetoberfest. We had a great time at last month’s Electronic Cigarette Convention in Anaheim and snagged 18 video interviews. Hopefully Vapetoberfest will be similarly fun and productive.

While I’m at the show, I’ll be playing one of the secret games that I was consulting on. There are a few aspects of secret game that annoy the hell out of me, but I’m very much addicted. My excellent friend Paul (please read his web site!) gave me his copy of Beyond: Two Souls and I’m really looking forward to giving that game a whirl when I get back. Of course if Nate and I get some solid content from Vapetoberfest then I’ll be editing videos for at least a week, so I’ll just have to be content with staring at Beyond’s box. Ha!

How about you? What’s on your weekend playlist?

PETA Still Hates Nintendo: Pokemon Red, White, & Blue

The morons at PETA have released another Pokemon parody to take advantage of the hype surrounding Pokemon X and Pokemon Y. The latest misguided attempt to raise awareness to the organization’s cause is Pokemon Red, White, & Blue. This time around, the group is challenging people to evolve (get it?!?) by urging them to become vegetarian or vegan. Here’s an excerpt from the campaign:

For generations, humans have loved Pokémon, but if Pokémon came to our world and saw how we treated animals, would they love us back? Be a hero for real-life animals by pledging to try vegan.

With the huge selection of delicious vegan meats and alternatives to dairy foods and eggs available, there’s no excuse not to give a vegan diet a try. We’ll send you delicious recipes and tips for living cruelty-free to help you along the way.

Some of you will recall that PETA has a history of picking on wholesome and harmless Nintendo games. In the past, it went after Super Mario Bros. 3D Land with Super Tanooki Skin 2D and attacked Pokemon with Pokemon Black & Blue.

While there are certainly several great reasons to become vegan or vegetarian — both for personal health and the good of the environment — it’s hard to take PETA seriously given its history with Nintendo. When you see mainstream media go after Grand Theft Auto or Call of Duty, you can see how a violent videogame can be taken out of context to blame social disorders and further an agenda. Exploiting a Super Mario Bros. game or a Pokemon game is just dumb. At worse, those games aren’t the least bit offensive. At best, they’re quite positive. Twisting them in a negative way in order to push your message is pathetic.

Personally, I would love to be vegan or vegetarian. After thinking about PETA’s use of Pokemon to push a meat-free agenda, I want to devour a Smith & Wollensky ribeye.

Anyway, what do you think of PETA’s latest use of Nintendo characters to promote its agenda? Do you agree that it’s a bad way to push a good message? Would any of you like to join me for some all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ in PETA’s honor?

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What Are You Playing This Weekend?

I recently finished two fairly involved consulting gigs, but I’m still playing both of the games for said gigs. Part of it is that I want to make sure that I didn’t miss anything and part of it is addiction. I’ve been playing both of those mystery titles hardcore and it would feel weird to quit them cold turkey. Hopefully my buddy Paul will let me borrow his copy of Beyond: Two Souls. I’d love to start that game. The reviews indicate that it has many of the elements that I loved in previous Quantic Dream titles. Aside from that, I have a ton of vaping reviews to catch up on…before I fall behind again due to the upcoming Vapetoberfest con.

So how about you? What’s on your weekend playlist?

This Week’s Videogame Releases

It is a marvelous week to be a gamer! Millions of people will be picking up Pokemon X and Pokemon Y this week. As someone that spent 700+ hours on Pokemon Pearl and a former writer of a weekly Pokemon column, I’m completely psyched for this game. Another one that’s high on my personal wish list is Beyond: Two Souls. Most of my videogame-journalist friends love it, but a few of them aren’t into it. It really depends how much of a Quantic Dream mark you are. As many of you know, I’m a big-time mark for Quantic Dream games. Fans of awesomely quirky and wickedly deep tactical RPGs should definitely pick up Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness. I absolutely love that series. Honestly, between the three games I just mentioned, I could be a happy gamer for the rest of the year (and more). Lastly, two game-of-the-year editions are hitting store shelves, for those of you that have missed them: Borderlands 2: Game of the Year Edition and Dishonored: Game of the Year Edition.

So, any of you picking up new games this week?

Plastic Piranha Jason Brice Talks Rekoil

Watch Plastic Piranha president & CEO Jason Brice talk about his upcoming game Rekoil. This first-person shooter for Windows PC and Xbox 360 emphasizes skill and balanced gameplay. In the interview, Brice talks about Rekoil’s various modes and different weapons, as well as what makes the game stand out from the competition. While I enjoyed several deathmatch rounds of the game, one of the things that charmed me about Rekoil was the little details. For example, it has a capture-the-briefcase mode instead of a capture-the-flag mode and it has black barrels that explode instead of those deadly red ones we all fear. Those flourishes aside, a lot of hardcore shooter fans have been high on Rekoil. While Brice agrees that it’s a “pure shooter,” he also explains why it’s great for casual fans of first-person shooters.

For more information on Rekoil be sure to check out this excellent preview on PaulSemel.com.

Rekoil Preview