Friday Not at the Calgary Entertainment Expo 2017

A shorter post, since for the first time in many years, I didn't head down to the Expo at all on the Friday. It was a mix of not really being interested in any of the programming and already being done my shopping on the Thursday.

Instead I went to play Outlast 2 with Shauna. We played about an hour and a half of the game, which really, is only the beginning because we got stuck on a part early-in and I got exceptionally mad. Then Shauna made the executive decision to just play on the easiest difficulty so we get more of the story and experience and less of the frustration.

So what do I think so far? Well, starting with a few positive points, the atmosphere and story so far seems to be pretty good. I am curious about what's going on and like the set up for the game. Seems like they've added some new functionality and more gameplay elements for stealth and survival...however...

It's not scary. Not yet at least. I don't know if I'm de-sensitized or if it's the subject matter, or a setting I don't find frightening. It just isn't terrifying. It's disturbing and kind of scary in a "man there's something very wrong with everything here," but if I'm completely honest, I laughed way more than I felt any ounce of tension in that first couple of hours. I think having a segment where an enemy comes out of no where in a bottleneck and instantly kills you despite your efforts to hide or run away really ruined any atmosphere or tension that had built up. Aside from the camera element and some of the control feels, it does not seem like an Outlast game yet to me.

I already know what the problem for me is, and that doesn't make it a bad game. The original Outlast scared the crap out of me because it was in a setting I already find uncomfortable (mental asylums and medical environments) and had characters and inhabitants that just weren't "right". It was unsettling. You didn't know what these people's motivations were, you didn't know what was going on in their heads, they had been tortured and experimented on, half of them were violent, and the rest of them were hysterical or messed up in one way or another. You had patients staring blankly at television screens, banging their heads against the walls, standing in corners, wandering aimlessly stuck in their own delusions, or some that were still there, but had simply seen too much and wanted it all to end. Then, you were stuck in a box with them all. Isolated, trapped and forced to be a witness. Even as an outsider, you end up being a part of the horrors happening. The pacing was good, incremental and tension was built naturally.

Outlast 2 so far is a different kind of unsettling that just isn't...terrifying, because even though you get dragged into it unwilling, you still aren't PART of what's going on. Maybe by the end this will change with some sort of revelation or element that ties everything together, but for now this is a united religious fervor or "effort" rather that takes a bunch of normal looking and acting white dudes and gives them the singular trait of religious fanaticism. The other parties seem to equally be driven by religious reasons (albeit opposite) and are more annoying than frightening. You still feel like even though you can't fight back physically, you can fight back mentally. You can deny that fervor when in Outlast 1, as much as you try to stay "sane," it's impossible to separate yourself from what you're seeing and experiencing.

So no, I'm not scared. I think I'm going to enjoy the atmosphere and be disturbed by the imagery, but I'm not going to experience the terror of Outlast 1 that included the unsettling patients and the Groom and the utter hopelessness and horror of the situation. Perhaps it's just the theme or maybe the game will surprise me by the end, but I feel like I'm going to laugh a lot more than cry in this one.

I Forgot a Title

I just realized I had an opportunity to do a soundtrack Thursday today...and totally didn't think of it. Oh well. Here, have a Life is Strange Episode 1 Soundtrack. It is very mellow.

Yeah so about Life is Strange. I think I will be LPing the rest of the episodes when they come out. This will be a slow LP as the next episode will be released in March. I've had enough positive feedback to continue however. It's interesting how many mixed reviews I have received about it. Seems as though the general consensus is: love the main character, like the character development, dislike the cliched (and unrealistic dialogue) and there was nothing that was really HATED. My opinion?

Character development: good
Voice acting: Some good, some awful
Dialogue and Writing: Some good, some awful, some unrealistic
Interactions between characters: Mostly believable if not a little cliche, but some motivations and actions really confused me. I couldn't understand the reasoning behind Max not contacting her best friend for five years for instance...
Setting: A little bland, but the characters are the focus
Style: Meh. Don't love, don't hate. I like the little details. I like the small funny bits. Some of the models and art looked...weird to me, but other parts were quite beautiful. I loved Chloe's design. Max has this perpetual look of exhaustion about her, which is fine because she's a stressed out student.
Mechanics: Kind of hilarious at times, especially when I couldn't get the football part right and the girl kept getting smoked in the head. Again, a little cliche with the time control.
Music and sound: Suits the game. I enjoyed the soundtrack. Hopefully that won't result in copyright issues on YouTube.
Additional notes: All the boys in the game all seem either creepy, scary or high. The exception is the teacher (who is like built up to be the best human being ever in Max's eyes) and the principal who just wants money. Also I think I have an irrational hatred of Brooke. She was kind of an asshole. I expected so much more from you Brooke.

I am interested in continuing this myself. I want to know what the consequences of my actions will be, and how much it changes the story (I plan to play through again without recording and try different options).

Lord of the Rings: The Third Age will be finished by the weekend. Sanitarium should start next week. I plan on finishing the recording of Dead Space this weekend. Mesk and I will finish Hunted shortly. Shauna and I will continue Murdered: Soul Suspect (of which I actually think we're almost done). And Alien Isolation continues to clog up my drives as I slowly sift through the CONFIRMED 34 crashes that we experienced during the series.

First Impressions of Sassy Creed 3

So, for the first time in my life I got a limited edition of a game. The swag for Assassin's Creed 3 was pretty sweet, but I'm praying that the game will be worth it. I was a little sceptical about the whole American Revolution setting...mainly because it's been done so many times. Granted, it's one of the major events of the period, especially in North America, and the majority of the target audience wouldn't care about say...Canadian events or anything, but still, I have my doubts. I'm always looking for something new on the playing field, so I pray that the game will deliver more than it has given me so far.

I'm a history major and so I've studied a lot of these events in school. Mainly, I have been studying history of Aboriginals and Metis in North America (Canada mostly, but I have knowledge of American groups as well). I am eager to see how "accurate" the game is in tone, setting, and interactions between people. I was extremely excited to see that the main Assassin for the game is going to be a Native American, but so far all I have been playing is some random British noble. I'd love to say he was foppish, but he's not really. Just something about his personality rubs me the wrong way. Maybe it was the first assassination and his reaction to the little boy that saw him. That was fucking creepy. Then the other characters so far are either unlikable or bland. The Brit grew on me by the end of my playing session last night, but so far I'm hoping that the other character arrives soon. I think I know where the story is going with this, but I'll have to wait and see.

The interface is awful. The best interface the game has offered so far has been in Assassin's Creed 2. From there it has gotten progressively worse. While in Brotherhood and Revelations I understand that there were more tools, weapons and functions to incorporate, it just got messy. I do not like what they've done for this game so far. One major fault is the guns. I got so frustrated last night because the player can't just autolock on a target the same way. Now British McAssassin must lock-on, which only improves accuracy and zooms in a little, then the player has to move to aim. It took me WAY too long to figure out how to blow up some god-damned barrels, right after it took me WAY too long to figure out how to switch weapons. I had to put up with British McAssassin pulling his sword out and flailing around like a moron for minutes on end while I just raged. There was another part where I had an ally following me and was supposed to make him hide so the guards wouldn't detect us. I got fed up with trying to target hiding places for him so I decided to experiment a little. I decided to just avoid the guards on my own, leaving my ally to flail around the guards and rooftops on his own. He wasn't detected, even when he walked right in front of the guards.

In addition, I couldn't figure out how to open "e-mails" that the player gets and I couldn't access game information (as in the info the player is given to give historical background or character profiles) until I was off the bloody ship. Half the time I was wondering what the hell I was supposed to be doing or pressing because the "tutorial" dialogues in the corner of the screen only appear for a few seconds, then they never appear again. Thank God I played the other games so I had an idea of how to play despite the new commands and features the developers put into the game. I cringe to think of what newcomers to the series will have to go through.

Lastly, this game is SUPER buggy (though I shouldn't be surprised...the game uses Havoc). The other games had minor problems, but so far in the 30-40 minutes I have played so far, I have seen horses standing on the sides of  walls (as in they are VERTICAL to the player), floating guns, broken lip movements in cut scenes, mugs flying out of people's hands to rocket into the ceiling and curbs of the street launching British McAssassin up a couple feet. While this all highly entertaining, it is really off-putting. I can't get into the story when conversations involve characters staring creepily, speaking without moving their lips or other parts of their faces. I can accomplish the same level of immersion by playing with two plastic dolls.

Because of these elements, I have a bad first impression of the game. It doesn't do everything wrong however. For instance, I really like the way eavesdropping missions are handled. Pickpocketing got an upgrade from just ramming into people as the player passes them. Now the player must actively work around guards and sneak up from behind to pick pockets. Lockpicking was an interesting, but completely unnecessary (and a little annoying) aspect that the developers added. I appreciate the attempt to bring more skills an assassin would have into the game though. The small details are interesting too, such as the random (if sometimes boring) conversations you can have with various people and the little events that occur in the background (such as stealing fruit or someone getting tackled).

As for combat, I'd say it's about as good as the other games in terms of the melee. I saw little difference If anything, I thought it was a little more difficult as there weren't as many parry or deflect kills that Brotherhood and Revelations were notorious for. Though, I was disappointed that I couldn't pick up a broom I found and beat people with it. As for the guns and ranged...well I've already raged about that. Oh except the reload times. That was frustrating. Yeah, I get it's historically accurate and guns at that time actually took that long to reload, but this slows the game down too much. I'm glad that the enemy's aim is shit, otherwise Id be dead before I got halfway through reloading. I sincerely hope that better guns in the game have shorter reload times.
 
The freerunning is as awesome as ever. I forgot all the problems when I finally got on the roof and ran around dodging soldiers and leaping between houses. Running on the roofs also make A LOT of noise, which I find hilarious because I just imagine the people inside wondering what the hell all the thumping noises are. I haven't bothered to go after the pages yet as they always disappear before I can figure out a) what's going on, and b) where the hell the pages are. 

Also, you can pet dogs, cats and sheepies. I haven't tried to pet anything else yet, but I hope that the player encounters other, maybe wilder, animals. I would love to try and pet a bear. Regardless, I thought that was a cute little addition. I just hope British McAssassin can't get tapeworm...