Let's Play: My First Attempts

I've got some recording software up and running, so I've been attempting some Let's Play videos. If you're not aware, Let's Play means recording myself playing a game and adding commentary. The commentary can be done during or after I play the game itself, but I personally prefer videos with live commentary that reacts to the gameplay. So far, I've made:

a quick test using Peggle Nights,


A full mission in Wing Commander,


and a full (crappy) run of Dodonpachi,






It's a lot of fun to do these things, but it is difficult dividing my attention between playing and talking. I plan to do a few more next week, and I'm definitely open to game requests. I've had one on youtube to do a Dodonpachi Daioujou LP and I'm considering it.

The Star Wars Jedi Outcast Multiplayer Treatise

A Guide to Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast Multiplayer

1. The Basics and Etiquette

Jedi Outcast is a game with a unique multiplayer atmosphere. When you're just starting out, it can be a confusing experience. If you do or fail to do certain things, you might be picked on or even kicked by the denizens of a server, so it is very important to know how to behave. Admittedly, this has turned many players off of the multiplayer experience, but for most servers this is just a fact that must be accepted if you want to really play the game. How and why these practices came about is beyond the scope of this guide, but rest assured that you will learn everything necessary to start out Jedi Outcast's multiplayer on the right foot.

When you first fire up the multiplayer portion of the game, you'll want to immediately head over to the setup screen and configure your player. It's a sad fact that if you go onto most servers with the default white name of "padawan", other players are going to assume you're a noob and they will treat you as such. A few servers will kick a "padawan" player outright. Avoid these baseless judgments and choose a name for yourself before you start. You'll avoid some potential trouble later on. Optionally, you can give some color to your name in the same way as any other game based on the Quake 3 engine: with the ^ character, followed by a number. Play around with different numbers to discover all of the colors. It is also possible to switch colors multiple times within the name, so enjoy personalizing your experience.

When you're done setting up your character, it's time to jump into a game. When you hit "join game", you probably won't see any servers initially. Go and change "source" from "local" to "internet" up at the top of the screen, and then hit "get new list" to connect to the server list. This late in the game's life, you probably won't see a large number of servers, but there are plenty to choose from.

Jedi Outcast is unique in that most gametypes are not actually what you think they are. If you see a server running the map ffa_bespin, chances are it's not actually a free-for-all deathmatch with weapons and force powers where every man fends for himself. Most servers running this map, particularly clan servers - you can tell these by the clan tags at the beginning of the name, naturally - disallow weapons and run mods that specifically disable force powers except for jump, offense and defense. This will apply to other servers running other maps, and it might not apply to every server running ffa_bespin. Still, this is a fair generalization. There are a few other gametypes, but it mostly boils down to duel and not-really-FFA gametypes. If you want to be sure about the details of a server, you can always select it in the list and hit "server info" to find out what mod it's running and who is playing on it. Keep an eye out for servers that have nobody but bots populating them! You'll recognize bot names easily because they sound like characters from the single-player game and they have all-white names. Make sure a server has real people before joining, unless you just really want to kill some bots. But then that's not why you want to play multiplayer, is it?

If you want to play online in a deathmatch with full force powers and weapons, this guide won't be of much help to you. Hunt down a server that allows these things and have fun! Let's briefly cover duel servers before moving on to the main focus of the guide. On a duel server, players are put into a queue as spectators while two players duke it out in a one-on-one lightsaber duel. Typically these don't allow force powers either. On a duel server, when you get your turn to play, you'll want to start out with a bow to your opponent (see below) before beginning the fight. Most servers also frown upon kicking the opponent (doing a wall-flip or side-wall-flip off of an opponent will damage them and knock them down) and attacking an opponent who is on the ground due to a failed saber-lock. Let them get back up and then resume the fight. Aside from that, there isn't much to say.

From here on out, I'll assume you're on a "regular" FFA server. These servers have a lot of unwritten etiquette rules that baffle most new players. For starters, when you enter the server you'll want to make sure you have the right force powers allocated. Max out your jump, saber offense and defense before entering the game. When you enter the game, your lightsaber will be on - turn it off! Running around with your saber turned on conveys a threat to other players and make them feel uneasy. Even though the gametype is called "free-for-all", it is not correct to attack any other player - unless they attack you first, of course. The real point of this game mode is to duel other players.

"Why not just play on duel servers?" you might ask. The answer is that in duel servers, only two players are fighting each other at any given time. On a FFA server, with the help of mods - the vanilla game cannot do this - any number of players can be dueling at the same time. To instigate a duel with another player, you hit the challenge button. The default button is k, although I prefer to have it closer to WASD so I don't have to reach for the button. When you're engaged in a duel with another player, you and the other player get full health and are covered in blue. This means no other players can damage you, and you cannot damage any other player. Of course, other players can still get in the way, because you can not run through them no matter what. It's courteous to avoid duels already in progress at all times, so you won't interfere.

When a duel begins, you have to bow to your opponent. Just hit the crouch button, and optionally look down to simulate a bowing motion. The duel begins when both players have finished bowing. If you don't bow, your opponent might not know you've started, which is unfair to him. Believe me, you'll get yelled at for not doing it, at the least.

At the end of a duel, one player will be dead. No matter which one is you, be sure to say "good fight" or "gf" (to chat, hit the y key). This is like bowing - you just have to do it, or you'll get hell from the other players. Besides that, it's just a nice thing to say. If you're the winner of the duel, remember to shut off your lightsaber! Go challenge some more players to duels and have more fun!

2. Beginning Combat

Want to know how to win a lightsaber duel? You need to start here. There are three lightsaber styles to use in a fight:

2.A. Blue Style Basics

Blue style is the fast, weak style. It lets you chain up to ten attacks in a row with no restrictions. Each hit does fifteen points of damage, which isn't much but can add up over time. The special attack of the blue style is the lunge, probably the most useful special of all the styles. Crouch and hit forward and attack to do a lunge. The lunge is great because it moves you quickly forward and disrupts the other guy's lightsaber, knocking it away and preventing him from attacking. The rear attack is the backstab, and it's good, but other rear attacks are more useful. Blue is mostly used to counter red.

Because blue is so weak but so fast, your strategy needs to be to avoid damage and play very defensively. Dodging and counter-hitting is the only way to use blue effectively. Use the lunge judiciously but try not to be predictable. Crouch during a blue combo, and you can chain a lunge after your combo for a surprise hit. Above all, the main attack in blue is the sway. Swaying is the act of moving left and right rapidly to swing horizontally. With blue, you can do this pretty fast, and it's a good way to rack up some fast damage. Crouch while swaying to get under the opponent's defenses in some situations.

It's dangerous to rely on blue style too much. You could spend half the duel whittling away at the opponent's health with blue, only to be the victim of one solid red hit and be losing the fight just like that. There are also counters to every blue attack, and if your opponent knows what he's doing, you'll have some difficulty executing any good attack against them. As a beginner, my advice is to only use blue to lunge. It's far too difficult to successfully win using blue's regular attacks. When you get more skilled, you might use blue to finish off a weakened opponent with quick attacks. Outside of this scenario, I don't advise using it much.

2.B. Yellow Style Basics

Yellow style is the medium style. Medium speed, medium damage. Up to five attacks can be chained together with no restrictions. Each hit does thirty points of damage, which is pretty respectable. The special attack in yellow style is the death-from-above, or DFA. Hit forward, jump and attack at the same time while facing an opponent at close range to do this move. The DFA does a lot of damage, but it's a stationary close-range attack so it's very difficult to hit with. It leaves you wide open to a variety of damaging counters as well. The rear attack in yellow is a spinning swing, but for the risk involved it doesn't do that much damage. Yellow is used in a wide variety of situations, but typically to counter red or sometimes other yellow users.

Yellow style affords a little more in the way of offensive options than blue. Two yellow hits is roughly equal to most red attacks, so it isn't hard to give out damage equal to or better than what you get. Even so, it's good to play defensively by dodging attacks as much as possible and counterattacking. As with blue, the sway is a great attack and crouching while swaying can get under the opponent's defenses sometimes. There are also other combos to mix up your offense; vertical hits mixed with diagonal rising swings can land an unexpected hit. Experiment with different angles in different situations.

Yellow is very versatile but takes skill to use properly. A good yellow player will time his opponent's swings, and count the number as well as pay attention to the type of swing, and counterattack accordingly. Generally, I don't advise using the special or rear attack in yellow at all. It's not worth the risk in either case. When you get more skilled, you can experiment with setups for the DFA.

2.C. Red Style Basics

Red style is the slow and powerful style. Only three attacks can be chained together, with the following restrictions: The same attack can be chained to itself only once, e.g. two vertical swings in a row at most; attacks can only be chained if they are zero or forty-five degrees away from the previous attack, e.g. "horizontal right > diagonal-down right > vertical" is a legitimate combo, but "horizontal right > vertical > horizontal left" is not valid. Each attack does varying damage based on when during the swing animation the attack lands. The general maximum damage is sixty points, but if the swing lands at the beginning or very end of the animation, it may do less. The vertical red swing does much more damage compared to the others. It varies more as well, but typically it's around one hundred points maximum, making it the most powerful normal attack in the game. The special attack in red style is the red death-from-above or DFA. Begin any normal red swing, and at the beginning of the swing at the point right before your character swings the lightsaber forward, hit forward, jump and attack all at once. You will jump forward and swing downward, resulting in a one-hit kill if you manage to land the attack. The sheer power of this attack is offset by the fact that it is virtually impossible to land against anybody competent. The rear attack of red is similar to yellow's: a spinning swing behind you. It does a good amount of damage and is worth doing when combined with a jump. A jumping rear attack is an advanced technique that will be covered later. Red is great for attacking against any style, but weak for defensive options.

Red is the style of attack so accuracy of attacks is very important. Horizontal-right swings have the most range of any normal attack, and it makes for a good approach. It also has the advantage of sometimes knocking back the opponent's saber, disrupting his defenses. This attack can defeat the sway of both yellow and blue because of this property. The vertical red swing is the most powerful normal attack, but it has its own weakness: it requires a lot of accuracy. A yellow or blue user can be adept at dodging sideways around vertical red swings in order to hit you from the sides. Vertical red attacks are great against other red users though, as you can risk being hit by a single horizontal attack in order to land one vertical attack. It will be well worth the sacrifice of health. The diagonal-down-left swing is also a useful one in red, because it is the fastest attack you can perform. It works well at counterattacking a jumping opponent. Swaying with red is, of course, impossible because of the combo restrictions.

Red requires an aggressive play style and accurate attacks, but you get some serious power for your effort. The special in red will kill anyone in a single hit, but - well, just don't do it. You won't land it and you'll get punished severely by trying. Due to red's ability to counter the other two styles, it's a good beginner style to learn. Typically at least one player in a duel will be using red at any given time, making it useful to know.

3. Advanced Techniques

There's a few advanced techniques that not as many people know/do in the game.

The Running Lunge

The main weakness of the regular lunge is you need to stop running to crouch. If you crouch while running, you enter a roll. Thus, you need to stop running, crouch, and then execute the move, at which point the opponent knows what you'll do. To get around this limitation, you can use the walk button (default left shift). If you crouch while walking, you'll crouch rather than roll. While running forward, hit the walk button and then immediately crouch and hit the attack button. It will be so fast, you will appear to run right into a lunge, surprising anyone who doesn't know it's possible to do that! Believe me, this works, and people still don't know about it. After you learn this, there is no reason to do the stationary lunge except to purposefully trick people.

The Jumping Rear Attack

A stationary rear attack is fairly useless, with the possible exception of the backstab. To make it more mobile, when the opponent is directly behind you, you can jump backward while hitting attack. Time it right, and you'll jump and execute a rear attack in midair! This won't hit often, but it's a safer way to do this attack than standing still like an idiot. Best used with the red or blue rear attacks.

Extended Range Red Horizontal

The red horizontal-right swing is versatile and effective, but sometimes the opponent knows the range and can dodge it every time. If you notice the animation of the swing, your character will end the right-horizontal swing with his right hand outstretched to the right, holding the lightsaber. Take advantage of this animation by turning ninety degrees to the left as the swing finishes. The longer range will catch many opponents by surprise and add some damage.

Fake-Roll

Want to fake the opponent out a little? Try rolling forward but not actually moving forward! During a forward roll (forward + crouch) simply move backward, and you'll roll back along the ground as if sliding. Not useful as an attack, but can be used to trick the opponent. This only works for the forward roll, not any other direction.

4. Counters

4.A. . . . to blue

Blue offers two main attacks: swaying, and lunging. To counter the blue sway, a red horizontal or even vertical swing with proper aim will make them regret standing or crouching in one spot for long. A blue lunge will adequately counter the blue sway. Yellow is difficult to use as a counter to the blue sway, but doing a yellow sway right back at him can often work. Each of your hits will do double the damage of his, and you'll likely do more damage than him during the exchange, but the element of randomness leaves a risk to be considered. It's possible to use the yellow DFA as a counter - a blue sway typically lasts through ten swings, and the opponent might be surprised enough by the DFA that he will fail to cancel his swaying and avoid it properly. Against a blue lunge, recognize that the lunge is a linear attack. Dodge sideways around it and attack at the exposed rear of the opponent. Most normal attack is adequate for this, although a few red swings are slow enough that it's possible for the opponent to dodge them, or even turn toward you and do a second lunge before he is hit.

4.B. . . . to yellow

Yellow offers more varied attacks, which makes countering difficult. Countering the yellow sway can be done in blue with the lunge. With yellow, you can counter the sway with a vertical swing to penetrate the overhead defenses of the opponent, but this has an element of randomness. A less risky strategy is to count the opponent's swings in the sway. Remember that a yellow combo only lasts five attacks at the most. Wait until his fifth attack is almost finished, and then rush in and attack for one or two hits, before immediately backing off. With red, the horizontal swing is recommended, because a vertical swing is too easily dodged by a yellow user. Yellow swings are slower than blue, so you tend to move farther to the left and right while swaying, compared to blue. Countering the yellow DFA is fairly easy. As long as it doesn't hit you, the fastest thing to do is a running lunge on your stationary and defenseless opponent. If you have the time to wind it up, a vertical red attack is very damaging. It is even possible, with fast reactions, to wind up a red DFA, but this becomes dangerous if you delay too long.

4.C. . . . to red

. . . horizontal swings

Don't get hit by this attack! Jumping and rolling are good ways to evade it. With blue, lunging into the horizontal swing will generally succeed, but there is some randomness and you may take damage regardless. Otherwise, wait for the swing to finish before moving in to attack. The ending animation of the horizontal red swing is long and leaves the opponent open for a moment to counterattack. With yellow this could mean rushing in and hitting vertically. It's also possible but dangerous to use a yellow DFA as he swings. Using red, a vertical swing is a great counter to the horizontal swing, and you don't even have to worry about being hit! Run straight into his attack while winding up your vertical swing, and he'll be left with much more damage than you, provided you succeed. It's also a bit safer to wind up the red swing by running backward first to stay out of range of the horizontal swing, before moving forward on the down-stroke of the vertical hit for massive damage.

. . . vertical swings

Definitely do not get hit by this attack! Fortunately it's not hard to dodge. Move to either side and you'll avoid it, unless he's very fast and accurate. With blue or yellow, follow up a dodge with swaying. With red, you won't be able to respond quickly enough in close-range after a sideways dodge, so just retreat after dodging and begin a new attack. Backing off in a straight line and winding up a vertical hit at the same time can work, but you need to know the range of your attacks precisely.

5. Attacking Options

5.A. . . . with blue

Lunge! Aside from this, blue doesn't have much in the way of offensive options. You must wait for the opponent to do something before running into range and swaying.

5.B. . . . with yellow

Yellow is also a counterattacking style, but it's possible to poke the opponent a little. Run in with a single yellow hit before running back out to avoid damage. The combo "vertical > sway" can sometimes be effective. Running in and immediately swaying might do damage, but if the opponent is smart he'll back out of it and come back with one of the counters presented above. With yellow, feinting is also a smart option to provoke the opponent. Try a fake-roll or even just moving in and out quickly, making it look like you want to attack. When he does something, counter it!

5.C. . . . with red

Any swing can make a good attack in red. Take advantage of the slow speed of red attacks, and launch swings at odd angles while running forward. If you begin a diagonal-rising-right swing for example, you can begin running forward before the swing has finished even winding up. Mix up the direction of your movement and the swing direction to confuse the opponent, such as swinging right while running left. Never underestimate the power of the vertical swing! If you master the accuracy of this swing, you'll win duels quickly and violently. Jumping while winding up a red swing can be a good idea, but don't do it too often. A diagonal-downward red swing or a lunge can defeat any normal jumping attack.

6. Training

Improving your skills doesn't have to be just guesswork. There are some particular exercises and methods to improve your game at a rapid rate. I've discovered or developed all of these in the process of one-on-one training with several players in the course of my career with the game. These are effective and they work. I've had players progress to near my level of skill in only a month or two of training with these methods. Find a partner or a cooperative player and get to it!

Learn Red Attacks

Practice red attacks against a wall. Learn the exact range of each attack, and learn how far you can run during an attack to land the hit. Use the wall marks from the lightsaber to see feedback of what hits and where.

Learn Red Attacks, Stage 2

With a partner, duel with only red versus red. Learn the timing and range of your attacks and the opponent's. Know how to dodge red attacks and you will learn how the opponent will try to dodge your attacks.

Learn Red Attacks, Stage 3

Fight real duels using only red style. Learn to deal with yellow and blue opponents. Learn how to attack without being counter hit.

Learn Evasion

A partner will attack you using red, trying their best to hit you. Your job will be to avoid getting hit. If you take a hit, exit the duel and restart completely. You cannot attack. See how long you can survive.

Learn Evasion, Stage 2

The partner will do the same thing. Instead of only dodging, your goal is now to use yellow style to win the duel, without being hit once. If you get hit, exit the duel and restart. Use your dodging skills from the previous exercise to avoid damage, but now you must recognize openings in the opponent to hit once or twice with yellow before evading. It is important not to get greedy by attacking too much.

Learn Evasion, Stage 3

Same as before, except use blue style. No lunging.

Learn Yellow Style

With a partner, fight duels using only yellow style against yellow style. This fight is fast and furious. You'll learn just what yellow is capable of and how to avoid fast attacks. This should increase your reaction time as well.

7. Final Thoughts

To excel at Jedi Outcast Multiplayer, you can not be predictable. As I've shown, every move in the game has some sort of counter. Don't stick to a single style for the entire duel. Remember every option at your disposal, including every special move and every evasive option including rolling and jumping. Keep in mind that you can flip off of walls to get behind an opponent. Sometimes avoiding damage is more important than dealing it. You can easily estimate the opponent's health by keeping track of when you land a hit, based on the amount of damage I've told you each attack does. Keep an eye out for when the opponent's shield drops, as this is the simplest visual cue to his health. If you have less health than the opponent, plan your strategy accordingly. If you have more, you can afford to take more risks.

Get out there and own some people with a lightsaber!

How to Botch a Demo, according to Rebellion

Rebellion is the developer of Aliens vs Predator, the upcoming reboot game of the 1999 PC classic. I was tentatively optimistic about the game, and today the demo finally came out. Let's examine just why this demo is probably the worst advertisement Rebellion could ask for!

First, some backstory. When Modern Warfare 2 came out, and PC gamers everywhere unleashed a torrential flood of rage over the lack of dedicated servers, Rebellion announced they would fully support dedicated servers because they care about the PC gaming community. Hooray! The internet rejoiced and began praising AvP alongside Battlefield: Bad Company 2 for having features that are simply standard on every PC game released since Quake. So, this week, the demo was announced, and it would be a multiplayer demo! Wait, what? Let me explain just why a multiplayer demo is a bad concept for a game that ISN'T entirely multiplayer:

The purpose of a demo is for potential consumers to sample the game and decide if they want to buy it based on how much they enjoy the demo. When your demo is multiplayer only, it's not so easy to get a feel for the full game. It's an inherently competitive atmosphere, with each player trying to win, so learning the controls and mechanics of play aren't so easy when you're thrust into that. A prospective player hops onto the game to try it out, and they end up getting killed over and over while trying to learn the controls. It makes them feel frustrated and that feeling becomes associated with the expectations for the full game. Besides, a lot of players (including me) are interested in certain games for single player, not multiplayer. I didn't particularly care about AvP's multiplayer, but now the only way I can get a feel for the single player of the game is to play the multiplayer, and that's not very easy.

This decision to release only a multiplayer demo for a game with a substantial single player campaign is only the first in a series of monumentally stupid ideas! Let's go through them one at a time:

1. The demo does not have dedicated servers! Seriously, do they even care at all? The player has zero control over their experience. You just hit "quick match" and you get to stare at a screen saying "searching for game" for twenty minutes until you arbitrarily get put into a game or kicked off of matchmaking for timing out. And that's not an exaggeration. I watched the clock, it takes around twenty minutes to find a game. That's just not acceptable. I don't care if some developers think it's "easier" than going through a server browser to find a game, it takes MUCH longer, and it gives me much less control and feedback. What exactly is it doing while it says "searching for game" for twenty friggin minutes? Why exactly does it time out sometimes? I have no idea because it won't tell me. I understand this is the first night of a demo, and there aren't that many people actually playing yet, but it's a symptomatic problem for matchmaking and it's there whenever I've tried it on other (console) games. It sucks. And here's the kicker! Remember how I said the full game was announced to have dedicated servers? And yet the demo doesn't. How is the demo supposed to be a way for the player to sample the full game and figure out if they want to buy it, when the demo doesn't actually represent the experience of the full game?! If the demo DOES represent the experience of the full game, there's no way in hell I'd play the multiplayer of it, which only leaves the single player. But I guess I don't need to sample that, because Rebellion said so.
2. The other major consequence of not having dedicated servers is that players host servers. This means lag, and I mean a LOT of it. The game is barely playable half the time. Of course I don't know how MUCH lag, because the game is kind enough not to tell me what my ping is! Seriously is it that friggin hard to do this, when every PC game since the beginning of time has done this?
3. Next, while there are scalable graphics settings and it works fairly well on my computer at low settings while looking decent, there is one very annoying and non-optional feature of the graphics: motion blur. If I turn fast, the screen blurs annoyingly. This makes quickly turning or aiming behind me very difficult, which shouldn't happen in a PC game. I don't know if I'd mind it terribly in single player, but in multiplayer it has no place.
4. So how about the actual gameplay? I'll just break that up into each of the races you can play as, because they all have serious issues.

Predator
You spawn with no weapons but claws. No disc, no speargun, no plasma caster, nothing. Invisibility doesn't make you nearly invisible enough either; marines can detect you with their motion sensor (if you move at all) and aliens can just see everyone, all the time, everywhere. Predators also don't have as much health as the original game, so they go down to a few shots from marines or melees from aliens. Their super-jump ability consists of holding down a button and then auto-jumping to a marker that pops up onto the terrain. While doing this, you can't turn more than a few degrees, so jumping and turning around is just not possible.

Aliens
You automatically stick to every surface. You wouldn't believe how annoying this is. The original game had a crouch button to hold down if you wanted to wall-walk, but this game has no crouch button. I guess that's too complicated. If you run to the edge of a platform, instead of jumping off you will start walking down the edge. If you are running and casually bump into something, you'll wall-walk up it even if you don't want to. Oh and did I mention that Aliens had wall-hacks? Because they can seriously see every nearby player through walls as a bright outline.

Marines
The humans unequivocally suck. The other two species were DESIGNED to prey on humans. I can understand this in the single player, because the Marine's campaign is supposed to be like a horror game. This shouldn't be the case in multiplayer! Regardless that the lag made it impossible to aim or react properly to enemies, the marine only has a pulse rifle to start out with. No grenade launcher attachment like the first game, it seems, which was the main balance in that one's multiplayer for the humans. As a human in this one, you're just going to walk around and hope you can hit an enemy before they close into melee range, because at that point you're done. Also you better hope you aren't facing more than one enemy at once, or you're done. It's frustrating and it isn't fun to play as a Marine online.

Common gameplay problems:
The entire melee combat system is simply broken for multiplayer. Normal melee attacks by predators and aliens will kill other species in around two hits. When you get hit with a melee attack, you go through a hit animation in which you are stunned and cannot move or turn or attack. This leaves enough time for a followup finishing hit without any possibility of defense. If you get hit by one melee attack, you're probably going to die. Oh, there's a block button, but it doesn't help much beyond preventing that first hit (which it probably won't anyway). Oh also, melee has auto-aim, which will track enemies during the animation. I can understand this on a console game, but on the PC it's stupid and inexcusable because it just removes any remote semblance of skill from the melee system. Although, the grabs throw any remote chance of balance straight out the window as it is! If you are behind an enemy, you hit E to grab them and insta-kill them. They cannot defend themselves. Already that's a big red flag for anyone who knows anything about multiplayer balance. And yet, it gets worse! While grabbing and killing someone, you are stuck in this animation that lasts a good three seconds. During this animation, you can be shot at, and you can even be grabbed yourself, and there's nothing you can do to defend yourself! It's entirely possible to be grabbing another player, when a player grabs you, and a player grabs that player, and so on. No one can defend. If you are killed in the middle of the kill animation, the original victim won't even necessarily survive; if they have been killed during the animation, but the animation itself isn't finished yet (e.g. the predator stabs an alien in the face, and is about to throw him to the ground) you still can't move, and if you get grabbed or killed at this point, you'll die and your victim will die and neither of you can defend yourselves! It's a real mess. I can't imagine why anyone thought this was a good idea for multiplayer!

I'll keep a jaded eye on how the single player turns out for this game, but I'm definitely no longer excited for a frustrating, laggy and unfair multiplayer experience. Luckily, the multiplayer for the original 1999 PC game has recently been resurrected, and it plays far better, so I have that to fall back on!

Dune: The Ultimate Strategy Game

I'm a big fan of Dune. The original six novels by Frank Herbert are the pinnacle of modern literature. I'm also completely baffled about why no one yet has made an accurate adaptation in other forms of media. Ok, the Sci-fi Channel miniseries was pretty accurate to the storyline, but it got a lot of small details wrong for no real reason. The David Lynch film got so many aspects of the details and atmosphere correct, but completely dropped the ball on the storyline. The "weirding modules" undermined the whole theme of environmental shaping and human ability triumphing over technology. I don't even want to talk about the continuation books by Brian Herbert.

Since this is a video game site, though, I'll talk about my problems with the Dune games. The first Dune game was a graphical adventure game which was alright, but of course took a LOT of liberties with the story. Dune II has the distinction of being the first RTS game as we know the genre today. Dune 2000 is mostly a graphical upgrade to Dune II with a better GUI and more usability features, but not much new. Emperor: Battle for Dune once again sets the bar as Westwood's first 3D RTS, but it was still very similar to the other games. Through the course of the series, environmental aspects such as sandstorms and sandworms were added, but they just serve as random ways to lose a few troops here and there. And these games all share the same very major problems: they feature large armies consisting of gun-wielding soldiers and tanks and walking mechs battling on the open sand of Arrakis.

In Dune, personal shields will block the movement of any fast-moving object. Guns, explosives, fast-moving knives and swords are all useless against shields. Lasguns are useless because they cause a reaction with shields which blow up both shooter and target in a nuclear-sized explosion. The only way to penetrate a shield is a slow-moving blade, usually covered in poison of some kind. Sword and knife fighting is the prevalent form of combat, with a particular style of fast defense and slow offense used to penetrate shielded enemies.


On the open desert of Arrakis, shields can't be used because it drives the giant sandworms crazy. They'll come and attack everything in the area. Know what else summons a giant, hungry sandworm? Any rhythmic vibration on the sand. This means anyone walking around on the sand (except Fremen), as well as vehicles on the sand, will get eaten within a few minutes.

What does this mean? It means that open warfare between large armies on the plains of Arrakis isn't feasible. The only people trained to walk without rhythm on the sands are the Fremen. It is possible, of course, to battle on rocky surfaces, such as in sietch or in the mountains, but then land vehicles would be fairly useless and soldiers would be able to wear shields. In the books, all major fighting takes place in the city of Arrakeen or in the mountains. Combat in the desert is relegated to guerilla attacks by Fremen, or ornithopters outfitted with lasguns. Everywhere besides the desert, warfare consists of shield-fighting.

In the games, large armies fight all over the open sand using tanks, walker mechs, and guns. If a worm comes, it will randomly go after one or two units at a time and kill them if you don't simply run away. The worms in Emperor: Battle for Dune appear to be about five meters wide and don't move very fast. The worms in the books are at least forty meters wide and are probably the fastest things on the sand. When they eat something, they commonly attack from under the sand below their prey, swallowing before the target can even move. The only escape is for a carryall to carry the person or vehicle into the air.

Now, I understand that Westwood would make Dune games be very similar to their Command & Conquer games. Set C&C in the desert, add random sandworm attacks, rename some units and you've got a Dune game. Problem is, this just isn't accurate to the books and I think it can be done better.

Here's my ideal Dune game:

• Rather than straight RTS, I'd make a mix of a galactic map and real-time battles between armies.

• The galactic map would function similarly to the Total War series, but real-time rather than turn-based, in a way similar to Sins of a Solar Empire.

• Your great house would be tasked with taking over planets and gaining share in CHOAM and seats in the Landsraad. Politics would be an important part of the game.

• Different planets would have environmental factors which recruit different types of units. The environment shaping people and cultures was a major theme of Dune, and it would be a large part of the game as well. People recruited on Caladan or Kaitain might be weaker soldiers than those recruited on Arrakis or Salusa Secundus, but would be cheaper to maintain or take a shorter amount of time to recruit. This could affect resources as well on a per-planet basis, depending on the environment. Of course Arrakis is the home of the spice. Giedi Prime might be a good source of slave labor as well.

• There would be a way to deal with the Tleilaxu, Ixians, and Spacing Guild. Illegal technology from the Ixians; gholas, face-dancer assassins and twisted mentats from the Tleilaxu, and bribes to the Spacing Guild for secret enemy orbital surveilance.

• Special agents, such as those found in Total War games, would include Bene Gesserit, Mentats, skilled swordsmen, and various types of assassins. These might help improve the effectiveness of your resource gathering or upkeep costs (mentats), or help with diplomacy (bene gesserit), or improve the effectiveness of an army (swordsmen), or of course kill rivals. It might be an interesting idea for mentats to open up new strategic options based on their intelligence, or perhaps to give advice from time to time on what an opponent is probably up to.

• When armies of opposing houses meet at a planet (they cannot fight in space, the Spacing Guild owns all space travel), the game goes into a real-time battle. The coexistence of the galactic map and real-time land battles would work similarly to Total War or Star Wars: Empire at War. The galactic map would be paused while a battle goes on. The units you have on that planet in the galactic map will be used in the battle, and the environment will determine how the battle plays.

• The real-time battles should play out in the style of Total War mixed with Dawn of War. Due to the nature of combat in Dune, battles would consist of smaller squads of highly skilled shield fighters, perhaps with larger squads of less skilled, non-shielded fighters to lead an attack. This would naturally consist entirely of melee fighting - swords, spears, knives. I think Dawn of War/Company of Heroes does smaller-scale squad-based infantry combat very well. Battling over strategic points of the map would fit Dune's more cerebral form of warfare. I would also like the units you start a battle with to be all you have, like Total War. This makes the strategy of the galactic map more important, and makes battles more chess-like.

• The disciplined legions found in Total War may or may not be accurate to Dune. It could work, but faster movement with more micro would make a better game I think, and especially considering the smaller numbers of units. Total War works the way it does because of the massive armies which seem out of place to me in Dune. On the other hand, no real-time recruitment during a battle also means much shorter battles due to the smaller numbers and faster movement of units. I think that due to the shields, it would take a while for squads of equal skill to kill each other, so strategy in the galactic map would be especially important to ensure you have a superior fighting force going into each battle. Among equal armies, superior strategy should always win out. I suppose each system of combat has its advantages and disadvantages, and the books don't get specific about which is more accurate.

• Regardless of the specific combat system, I like the stamina and morale system of Total War, and this would be included for each squad. There would be many factors controlling how fast a unit becomes tired or how fast they will rout when losing a battle.

My idea is pretty similar to a once-in-development Dune MMO that has long ago been cancelled, although I'd prefer it as a single-player game with multiplayer battles like Total War. This game could also potentially come about as a mod for one of the Total War games (Rome?). If you're a modder reading this, GET ON IT ALREADY!

Making fun of a random list I found on the internet

First, take a few minutes and glance through this list of the "20 Games That Changed Gaming Forever." Or is it the "20 Most Innovative Games Ever Made?" The article's title says both, although they mean different things. Keep this list open for reference as we journey through it together:

#20: Portal
This is undeniably an innovative game, unless you want to consider the indie game Narbacular Drop that was the predecessor to Portal, and was essentially the same concept. It was made by the same team, and was pretty rough, so I guess I can concede this one. Portal was the first commercial game of its kind.

#18: Dance Dance Revolution
The article claims "Before DDR, music-based videogames were a virtually unknown niche genre. But DDR changed all of that with its patented "dance platform" that enabled players to bust a move instead of busting their thumbs on a typical game pad." So, while they acknowledge it is not the first music game (which it wasn't), it was the first to utilize a unique controller. I guess they forgot Beatmania, which had a DJ controller and came out a year before DDR? If DDR didn't actually innovate in the way they claim, then maybe it "changed gaming"? I don't know, the guitar hero series seems to have much more in common with Beatmania than DDR. I suppose that's debatable.

#17: Resident Evil
The article says "Alone in the Dark did it first, but Resident Evil made it iconic." So...it didn't innovate, then? I guess it must have "changed gaming", then.

#16: Bioshock
First complaint right off the bat, the article lists it as a 360-only game. I guess they forgot that it released on the PC simultaneously, and was also ported to the PS3 later? Now that that's over with: I just...I have no clue what this is doing here. It was a great game, but it was essentially a dumbed-down, steampunk version of System Shock 2. How does the article claim it innovates? "But the real spark in the BioShock experience was the realization that you could choose to be the hero or the villain"; "BioShock is also enormously influential for advancing steampunk chic." It was the first game with a morality system that let you choose between good and evil actions to affect the outcome of the story? No, that can't be it...that's been a part of gaming for a helluva long time. In fact right now I'm playing through Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, which gives you moral choices every five minutes and has two fairly different endings to the story based around that. So, Bioshock was the first game with a steampunk art style? Certainly not. That style has been a staple of (mostly japanese) RPGs for a long time. Did Bioshock change gaming? Not that I've noticed...what games after it have tried to emulate anything it has done? I really can't think of anything.

#15: Warcraft
"Though Dune II technically set the modern real-time strategy (RTS) genre into motion, it was Blizzard Entertainment's Warcraft: Orcs & Humans that turned a fringe game style into an international sensation." Changed gaming? Yes. Innovative? No. They admit that Dune II did it first, right in the first darn sentence!

#14: Final Fantasy VII
The article doesn't present a single reason for this game being innovative, because it just wasn't, aside from being 3D. But I can concede that it was definitely influential.

#12: Geometry wars
This entry says flat out that the gameplay itself isn't revolutionary. Anyone who has played Robotron can tell you that. Instead, the article claims that the way that Geometry Wars was digitally distributed has changed gaming by popularizing downloadable games. Um, I don't know about that. Even if we discount the PC and just make this claim for consoles, the first game on XBLA to hit a million downloads was apparently Uno. Maybe that helped just as much as GeoWars? I don't really know.

#11: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Hahahaha! I guess "identical to the previous three games, but this time it's not set in world-war-II! Oh and it added one new feature to the multiplayer that essentially gives players the ability to choose an unfair advantage over others!" means "innovative." I suppose you might make the claim that a few console shooters after CoD4 have copied its perk system for multiplayer, which makes it influential...but the fact that this is on the list but games such as Super Mario Bros. (the first platformer!) or Quake (the game that essentially created online multiplayer deathmatch) or any number of other far more famous and undeniably innovative games are not, is just ridiculous.

#7: Halo
There's no denying that Halo changed console gaming. Practically every FPS since then has had regenerating health, for example. I don't necessarily like the WAY in which Halo changed gaming, but it certainly has. Sigh.

#3: World of Warcraft
"World of Warcraft was by no means the first MMO, but it was the game that perfected the rules and the experience." Once again the article flat-out admits that the game is not innovative. Just because its the most popular game in its genre, does not mean it innovated, or even that it changed gaming! One might argue that MMOs today all try to copy WoW, but one could also just argue that those MMOs are all trying to copy Everquest, since that's what WoW essentially tried to do.

#2: Grand Theft Auto III
Aside from the fact that it was just a 3D version of the standard GTA formula, I guess it did innovate.

#1: Doom
I'm mentioning this one because it's probably the best entry to this list. I mean, it started the FPS genre! Oh, what's that? Wolfenstein was the first FPS, not Doom? Nevermind.

So, now that I've established just how ludicrous this list is, how about all of the games that should be here, but aren't? Like, I don't know, the games that CREATED GAMING AND EVERY GENRE WE PLAY TODAY? Spacewar, Pong, Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Wolfenstein, Dune II, Adventure...compared to any of these games, NO game of the last 10 years can even be considered "innovative" or "influential."

Quick Game Impressions

It's been a while since I posted. There's been no shortage of games to play, so here's what I've been playing:

IL-2 Sturmovik

Most flight sims are a bit too complex for me to take the time to learn them. IL-2 is different because it's not as hard to jump into and shoot up some planes. I especially like it because of all the interesting differences between the capabilities of WWII planes and modern jets. In Aerowings 2, for example, I can do a loop or immelman pretty much anytime because of the afterburner. With a prop plane, speeds are in general much lower, and you don't get enough thrust to do a loop or immelman a lot of the time. This means that height and potential energy plays a far bigger role. Also, because there's no missiles, IL-2 requires you to be right behind another plane, in close proximity, in order to even hit anything accurately with machine guns. It sure is rewarding when you finally do blast an enemy out of the sky, though!

Ghost Master
I remembered hearing about this a long time ago when it was released, and it sounded interesting. It was on sale a while ago so I nabbed it and tried it out. You control ghosts and try to scare all the humans out of a house. It's kind of boring and the controls suck. Luckily I didn't waste much money on it.

Zeno Clash

Here's a unique first-person beat-em-up. The style is some sort of weird mix between prehistoric and . . . I don't really know what. It's a lot of fun, but I wish it had a little more to the combat system. As it is, there's pretty much the regular punch which can become a three-hit combo, plus a charge punch, a grab which leads to two attacks, and a counter-attack. That's about it. There's some weapons, which are also pretty unique, but they're nothing new for the FPS genre. For an indie game, this one is pretty great.

Punch Out!

Nintendo put out a new, good first-party Wii game? Really?! That's right, Punch Out has been remade and updated for the Wii. It has a collection of fighters from the previous games, plus at least one new fighter in Disco Kid. The gameplay itself is exactly the same. You dodge, duck or block punches by recognizing the telegraph of the opponent, and look for an opening to knock his face off. There are no new moves for little mac. When I say it's the same, I mean it's EXACTLY THE SAME. It's not that big of a complaint because the formula is still great fun, but it would have been nice to see a little more gameplay. Being a Wii game, it also features optional motion controls for punching with the wiimote and nunchuk, and I really like it. There's the optional balance board for dodging, but I don't have one. I imagine it wouldn't work out well, because dodging requires a LOT of timing and I don't know if the balance board would be good enough for it.

Empire Total War
Really good! Kind of buggy. Not a big fan of the naval combat, but it's a good addition for those that want it. Just play this!

Dreamcast!

This week I decided to buy a new console. And by "new" I mean "I haven't owned one before". This is also the first and likely only console I own made by Sega. If you haven't guessed which console it is by now . . . well you're an idiot because it's in the title and there's a big picture of it right up there ^^^

Just why in the heck did you buy a Dreamcast? you might wonder. My answer: because it has some AWESOME games. Also, because it's just one of the best consoles ever, and here's why:

-it was the first console with online play, and yes people actually played it, and it was actually FREE. And it had cross-platform online play between the Dreamcast and the PC for some games before anyone else was even contemplating it

-it was the first console with mouse+keyboard support, with awesome FPSes supporting it like Half-Life and Quake 3

-It has hardware that's almost identical to NAOMI arcade boards, which means it got some kickass flawless arcade ports like Ikaruga and Under Defeat

-It was a console designed for hardcore gaming - it had simulations, fighters, shmups, platformers, adventure games, puzzle games and also many unique genre-defying games. The small number of FPSes released supported mouse+keyboard controls

-Despite its commercial death at the hands of the PS2, there is a dedicated homebrew and hacking community to this day, and there are still commercial games being made for the system! Karous came out just two years ago for the Dreamcast, and due this year is another shmup called Dux. Incidentally Dux looks like a crappy R-Type clone to me, but I have to give them credit for supporting the Dreamcast, and some people do like R-Type and would probably enjoy Dux

A Dreamcast goes for around $50 these days, and the games go for around $5-$10 at most. However, because of very poor anti-piracy measures implemented in the system, no one has to pay ANYTHING for Dreamcast games aside from the cost of blank CD-Rs. No boot disc or modding is required to play downloaded or backup games on the Dreamcast, and because all of those games are now out of print it's perfectly fine! If you have $50 to blow and you don't really want any of the current generation consoles, consider going back and discovering some gems of the last generation!