Features

Two years ago, the three of us at Stoic set out to make an epic viking game: The Banner Saga. We did, and people loved it, so we’re making another one. We won’t make a viking saga without the word Saga, and we don’t appreciate anyone telling us we can’t. King.com claims they’re not attempting to prevent us from using The Banner Saga, and yet their legal opposition to our trademark filing remains. We’re humbled by the outpouring of support and honored to have others stand with us for the right to their own Saga. We just want to make great games.

The above statement was issued today by Stoic to Kotaku.com. As stated, The Banner Saga (released 14 January 2014 for PC and Mac) is being targeted by King, creator of Candy Crush Saga, the wildly successful mobile ‘freemium’ puzzle game.

Earlier this week news spread throughout the internet about King’s endeavor to protect its intellectual property by trademarking the word ‘Candy’. This action has far-reaching implications, beyond mobile games, and has caused all kinds of knee-jerk reactions from many different camps. The PR department has been scrambling ever since to mop up the slippery slop that has uncontrollably squirted out of the behinds of, ultimately, the company’s legal advisers. Just because you can do something doesn’t necessarily mean you should. Even so, recognizing the fallout of such foolish decision making, you’d think the decision-makers at King would tread forward but lightly so. As of yesterday, this doesn’t appear to be the case because, in a boneheaded move, now they are pushing to claim the term ‘saga’, and, in the end, are filing against Stoic’s The Banner Saga, which could force the independent developer to change the current (and any future) game’s name.

It is a common and thorny situation in gaming. Part of what makes it so interesting is that the gaming industry is charging forward with such fervor that the laws simply can’t keep up. So we have this perpetual gray area, this wild wild west of intellectual property where companies like King are seeking to stake a claim on whatever they can – Especially now in the months preceding toppling off the treacherous summit of mobile gaming. YEEEEHAWWwww!!!! Did you hear that? It’s a death rattle.

But, again, just because you can doesn’t necessarily mean that you should. Sure, King can throw the book, but what’s going to bite them in the butt is this PR mess. Earlier this week I paid little mind to those who may be affected by the ‘candy’ situation. But now the saga advances forward to PC gaming, and this hits a little closer to home. Not that I’m taking this knuckleheaded move personally, but I do believe that heavy-handed money grubbing actions like such coming from a 15-minute spectacle like King can slow the ebb and flow of innovation. Even King’s released ‘justifications’ for its actions against The Banner Saga, posted and critiqued with vehemence on so many gaming websites, are only hurting the company’s ability to not only rebound from this mess but to gain any traction for anything they do in the future, which, isn’t it funny, is exactly what they’re aiming to protect with these trademarks.

So listen here, King. And listen good:

Walk away, Son. Walk away. Even by so much as meddling with The Banner Saga you are provoking forces you will not be able to control nor recover from, no matter how many loose-bowel lawyers you’ve got standing downwind. Frankly, you were fine pursuing other glitzy mobile games but now you are poking the bear. Go out now with some semblance of dignity or your precious trademarks will be smeared with your own guts and flotsam. Don’t mess with the PC gaming community – especially the indie titles. They are the gems of what it right and true about gaming. They are the future and they will be defended with utmost voracity. You have chosen to flaunt and misuse a confusing branch of intellectual property law, one that has a proclivity to trigger adverse emotional responses. Even if the implications of your legal endeavors are not fully understood you are antagonizing an enemy whose abundance of modes and avenues will be used to swarm and pummel you from every direction, the book be damned.

‘Tis the season! The season of lists! Lists. lists. lists. Holiday card mailing lists. Holiday to-do lists. Wish lists. Naughty lists. Nice lists. New Year’s resolution lists. Even now, as the year draws to a close we’re seeing ‘best of’ lists, ‘memorable’ lists. At that, gaming websites are posting their own 2013 lists. Many of them are console specific, although a fair number of them seem to be arbitrarily arranged. Indeed. The top slots are usually the heavy-hitters, the AAA titles, the games created by monolithic studios. While these titles certainly have their merits, for I have played a few of them, their redundancy on all these dang lists (even appearing on more than one console lists) can mean many different things. But may aim for this post is to not go there…

In fact: nuts to lists.

While I am certainly feeling retrospective, I only intend to name one title – An ‘Honorable Mention 2013’, if you will. In many award ceremonies, an honorable mention is usually treated as a side note to the ‘official’ lists of achievers; a coy pat on the back, ‘good try, sport! Here, have a plaque.’ But, to me, the honorable mention of this post achieves its success by maintaining a sure presence during the 2nd half of 2013. Despite its humble and small-time operation, this game refused to be eclipsed by so many of the games gobbling up these end-of-year lists – and yet, from what I’ve seen, finds itself on nary a one of them. Nuts to lists. Ladies and gentlemen, my Honorable Mention 2013 award goes to:Available on iOS, Android and Windows, Hill Climb Racing is a simple 2D platform game. The player drives an assortment of vehicles across an assortment of stages. Each vehicle has its own traits and each stage has its own conditions. You earn currency on each stage by collecting coins, performing feats, and breaking distance records. The currency you earn is then plugged back into upgrading the vehicles already unlocked, or unlocking new vehicles and stages. The turn is over when you either run out of gas or flip over and crack the driver’s neck; from what I’ve seen, the stages themselves do not run out.

Now that I re-read the last paragraph I am startled at how bland the game looks – insignificant, even. This observation only affirms the intangible greatness of Hill Climb Racing. It is a charming, cartoonish (and free) game that my entire family enjoys. Your scruffy little driver man, Bill Newton, will earn his way into your heart. You make do with what you’ve got, and when you earn that final stepped upgrade, or unlock a new level, it feels like an achievement. If you feel like you’re grinding for coins, turn the game off and come back to it later with an inevitable recharged enthusiasm. Enjoy the ride. Part of the appeal – besides the fantastic music track in the menu screens – is the child-like giddyness you feel when mixing and matching cars with stages. Our family discuss absurd-sounding strategies: Try driving a tank on mars; try the Formula 1 race car on the rollercoaster tracks. A fond memory I have is driving a tour bus, with substandard shocks, up a mountainside. The outcome of such a silly goose endeavor is seen here:

Simple and fun – and that’s it. What’s more, game creator Fingersoft often provide updates with new levels and cars to unlock (In this last update Bill Newton is even donning a spiffy Santa outfit that stays spotless even as his car gets splattered with alien planet muck.) Hill climb Racing doesn’t try to outdo itself. You can pick it up and set it down at your leisure. It is low commitment but wildly entertaining. The game stands strong on its own two legs, and stands tall apart from all those greedy 2013 AAA games. I raise a new year’s toast to Hill Climb Racing: Here’s to another wild twelve months.

Simply put, The Bridge is a king hell bastard puzzle game that will, in any single puzzle, require your brain to not only comprehend but also maneuver up to three different layers of gravity and two ‘black & white worlds’ of reflection, both of which, in any given puzzle, may be occupied by Indiana Jones-like stone spheres, vortexes, and black and/or white keys and their corresponding locks. Everything affects everything else; changing one thing changes everything. The Bridge’s aesthetics is a bedeviling coverup to the fact that the game is pure spatial lunacy. And my brain cannot do this kind of processing. It.just.can’t. I am not wired to be able to patiently envision and enact the solution to these puzzles. My right parietal lobe must be swollen like a raisin or something. The only axons that must be active there are the ones that are still connected to my prefrontal cortex because, like a fat kid with moobs trying to play basketball with the rest of the gym class, whenever the solution to a puzzle exceeds what the axons are capable of they fire currents all the way to the other side of my brain which triggers the impulse to punch my monitor. Dark Souls didn’t even make me rage quit this much.

And, to an effect, co-opping with my brother in Portal 2 has also revealed just how deficient – how squishy – my spatial constructing abilities are. My brother, a bicycle mechanic, and who, upon purchasing a dissembled piece of furniture, can take a single glance at the instructions and piece that sucker together in the same amount of time it would take me, if charged with the same task, to play with my poo-poo. In Portal I’d stand there at the entrance to a new puzzle and would be pondering the mysteries of the universe while sucking my thumb and he would be running around, scoping the place out, and devising our escape. I’m lots of fun to play with.

So, The Bridge isn’t the enemy. Portal 2 isn’t the enemy. AntiChamber isn’t the enemy (Don’t EVEN get me started with Antichamber.) And my brother certainly isn’t the enemy. The enemy here is my flacid right parietal lobe.

There is no saying how much wit, how much depth of thought, how much fancy, presence of mind, courage, and fixed resolution there may have gone into the placing of a single stone of it. This is what we have to admire, – this grand power and heart of man in the thing.

John Ruskin, The Stones of Venice

Valve has a vision.

And it is not some kind of short-sighted crash and cash deal; It will involve more than innovative hardware. This vision looks to the future of PC gaming, one that will be successful only if everybody participates. Yes. The task of building a gaming infrastructure of this type from the ground up will require the efforts of developers and gamers alike. Valve’s vision will blur the line between creator and player even more, thus creating a kind of synergy that will be beautiful and true. This will not happen overnight. Technical hurdles will abound. Forum naysayers will try to impede, to claw down the progress, to sow seeds of doubt. And while the heavy-hitters of the industry stroke themselves over their own regurgitated next-gen consoles, trying to stand tall in their artificial edifices, Valve’s vision will be that wide unnerving rumble they feel beneath their crumbling foundations. In time, these giants will topple and flail about, the naysayers will scurry off, and PC gaming will see a new and triumphant dawn – An enlightening era where the power to create, share, distribute, collaborate, modify and hack is open to all who wish to put forth the effort, and it will proceed with fervor.

It is a beautiful vision, though its implementation is still in the embryonic stages. In three separate announcements during the week of 23 September 2013 Valve revealed the tools for making their vision a reality: SteamOS, Steam Machines, the Steam Controller. The hook at this point is to use these products to get gaming into the living room, onto HDTVs, in front of players who prefer the couch, having never considered – for whatever reason(s) – the advantages of PC gaming.

The finer details about the Steam Machine and Controller are still fuzzy. The Steam Machine is being hyped as a hybrid between console and PC. Valve is presently shipping out prototypes that are stuffed with ‘off-the-shelf’ PC parts to 300 eager beta testers. The approximate dimensions are 12 x 12 x 2.9 inches. Other specs are available via a quick Google search, though let us recognize that the Steam Machines will run SteamOS. The Steam Controller is meant to enable playing of all genres including – that’s right – real-time strategies. Instead of dual analog sticks, it has two pads employing a ‘haptic feedback’ system. You can read about initial user experiences of the beta pad over at Gamasutra, but suffice it to say that the pads are indented to recreate the responsiveness and assignability of traditional keyboard + mouse approach.

If these two components sound an awful lot like just another console – you’re right. How then is this not folly? With the next-gen consoles set to unload during this holiday season, what the devil chance does Valve have to stand against these? Valve even assumes that a large percentage of their customer base already own high-powered rigs and are in no hurry to trip over themselves to acquire a Steam Machine. Many digital journalists and forum participants are already pooh-poohing these devices, citing that, for example, the Steam Box won’t solve any problems it sets out to correct, it will not achieve it’s glorified PC revolution with this hardware – the vision has faded before it has even begun to make itself clear. And were these the only two components, innovative and attractive as they may be, I would agree.

The linchpin holding this grand vision in place is SteamOS, which will run on Linux. The idea is to combat the closed ecosystems of consoles with the power and flavors of running an operating system that is open source. Myopic naysayers are already bellyaching about the immediate compatibility problems with their existing game libraries. And what’s more, mountains of more gritty technical issues also stand in the way (This isn’t meant to be an overhaul of Microsoft… yet). But herein is the glory of the vision. Herein is the power to overcome obstacles with open paths and collective efforts – To fight the good fight, and to do it together.

Valve’s vision has the potential to get more people coding. One of the approaches to get gaming into the living room is to reach a new source of untapped minds. This move is not about creating a friendly co-existence between the disparities and biases of console and PC users. Valve is out to convert. The first phase of their vision will jar loose and attract the attention of those select individuals who may otherwise be ignorant to their own creative and technical potential. Concerning the realization of creative and critical powers Ruskin asserts, “… and from that moment he will find himself a power of judgment which can neither be escaped nor deceived, and discover subjects of interest where everything before had appeared barren.” Living room gamers will no longer have to be passive consumers.

Valve and Linux are the appropriate flagships for this endeavor. When you account Valve’s business approach their success comes as no surprise. The ongoing mentality there has always been one of community and shared contribution. And now that digital distribution is so widely utilized by thousands upon thousands of users – a trend that Valve has perpetuated through their Steam platform – why not continue this mode to attract and support new coders. Each small developer, each contribution, will be a node in a growing infrastructure. Perhaps Valve could come up with special incentives to encourage active participation in some capacity or other. More than anything, it would behoove this entire effort to have a vision statement for everyone to march under – to have a mark of the legion. And let us not forget Linux, the workhorse of this vision. Recent years have witnessed widespread adoption of the Linux kernel, and not just by some weird influx of basement neckbeards and butthurts. We’re talking Google. We’re talking Android…

And now we’re talking SteamOS: a trimmed-down new operating system that is bound attract fresh minds that tore through the walled gardens of gaming consoles (a wild success in itself), fresh perspectives as a result of collaboration, and empowering leading ideas for games, media utilities, source code, pedagogy – all distributed with ease through the digital aether, built from the ground up. Power in the dedication and will of the users. Ruskin seconds these virtues, citing that the success of a construction is found in “pure, precious, majestic massy intellect”. This is the vision. It is glorious. It is right. May we keep it in perspective.

(TL;DR? Better just stick to playing on consoles.)

Paradox Interactive is well-known for their grand historical strategy games. Their flagship franchise just released its fourth title this past Tuesday: Europa Universalis 4. So far the game is being warmly accepted by gamers, both Paradox veterans and the legions of new players that the developer’s other recent game, Crusader Kings 2, attracted into the fold. As a self-proclaimed Paradox fanboy I am neither a veteran or newcomer. My timely history with Paradox began perhaps five years ago. And the only reason I was able to soundly navigate my way through the EU 4 demo is because of the hours and hours and hours and hours and hours I spent playing its predecessor Europa Universalis 3. Considering this, it is easy to let out a chuckle of mirth as I remember the very first time I sat down with EU3:

My time with EU3 concluded a multi-year gap in gaming – a gap not of my own choice, mind you. I did not have the hardware until our new family was graciously gifted an HP Inspirion laptop. And even then, grateful that I was/am to have it, the computer was limited in its capacity to play games. I saw the EU3 for $5 at Half-Priced Books. The game is not heavy on the graphics, though there is much going on ‘under the hood’. Therefore, the laptop satisfied the minimum system requirements. Yes. I was aching to play something/anything. And I enjoy history. So I jumped in.

The packaging included a 148-page player’s manual. Not a strategy guide; a manual. 148 pages. For a manual. Of Mice and Men is 112 pages. Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography is 136 pages. And here is this company with the gall to create a game so detailed, so complex, that it needs a one-hundred-frikking-forty-eight-page manual. And you know what – I read that sucker cover to cover. I embraced the infamous Paradox Interactive learning curve. It was a challenge that perhaps I would not have undertaken if I hadn’t played a video game in soooooo long!

Now that I think of it, EU3 was my first exposure to meta gaming. This was the first time I involved myself with gaming message boards. I freakishly lurked the Paradox forums, reading about player strategies and furthering my understanding of the mechanics. And then Paradox started releasing expansions, one after another after another (The vanilla was terrible, but I didn’t know any better). The forums kept the gameplay fresh and fun.

All elements combined – the monster manual (though incredibly outdated by the third expansion), message boards, new releases – made for a wildly complex and all together satisfactory experience. I had memorable campaigns as: a market-driven Norway, though I didn’t quite get to creating Scandinavia; the Eastern European Muscowy, struggling to keep up with its western neighbors while, on the opposing borders, fighting back the advancing Golden Horde (this was a good one!); and Liguria, a Northwestern Italian province that I expanded to command the Mediterranean. The objective needn’t always be global domination – a characteristic that will always gives Paradox an advantage over the Total War games. Paradox gives the power to pervert history in so many delicious ways.

Indeed, altering history on such an immense scale so soon after my bleak period of non-gaming had really made an impression. Europa Universalis 3’s modest system requirements and detailed gameplay brought me out of the dark ages and into a place of power. The couch was my throne; The laptop my government. My ambition endless as the cycle of time itself. Hail the king, baby.

At the risk of chasing you, dear reader, away at the onset, I dare begin this post by baring a part of feelings to you (let us now hold hands): My life these past few weeks has felt kinda of… wonky. Our family has fallen out of routine a bit. I’m a bit on-edge about the future. I’m fatter now. I get weird pains in my legs. (2% complete) The weather is getting uncomfortably warm for my liking. And my kids are screaming too damn much.

And, in coming closer to the topic of the post, my gaming life has felt a bit complacent. My two main games for the past months have been Crusader Kings 2 and EVE:Online. Both wonderful games; I’m a Paradox Interactive fanboy and EVE has utterly consumed my mind to where I lay in bed staring at the ceiling and mentally tinkering with the fit of my Imperial Navy Slicer frigate. The science and tactics of ship fitting clusters my thoughts, more for ill than good. Analaysis Paralysis is the name of the game at this juncture. It’s gotten to the point to where when I log in I find myself doing nothing more than the following (4% complete):

The situation isn’t any better for Crusader Kings 2. The RTS is engaging and fun! Plotting to assassinate 5 year-old heirs to the throne never – NEVER – gets old! Its infinite replayabilty has become more a distraction than an appeal at this point. I am unable to focus on the strategy of a current campaign because I’m off thinking about how the game’s new DLCs play. And so, recently, I log in and in the main menu screen I end up doing nothing more than this mouse-click melody (fun as it is!):

Simply put, I came to the conclusion that I’m thinking too much. I’m worn out from real life and, when game time comes, I’m too worn out to think constructively (8% complete). I need to get back in touch with my instincts, with my gut! I need a place where thinking won’t get you very far, but sprinting sure as shineola will. Because of this, the download for Call of Juarez: Gunslinger is currently 10% complete.

YES, friends! I need a good ‘ol fashioned arcade FPS in my life, to get my left hand back on AWSD and my right on the mouse. I chose Gunslinger for several reasons, but mostly I’m going with my gut. It was a decision against some of my personal gaming ethics, but, again, screw that for now – I’m acting on instinct. It may not be on sale but at $15 and 5GB, why not? Likewise, this decision is even more significant considering that Steam is offering all Paradox Interactive games 50% off this weekend. Picking up the Hearts of Iron III bundle (for the same price as Gunslinger) seems appealing. But Nay! I must honor my instinct (13% complete) for the wild west calls to me. I played the demo and read the reviews. The Gunslinger gameplay promises to be no frills, no gimmicks. I appreciate the historical application and look forward to romping around in its environs. I look forward to dueling with the great historical persons. The soundtrack is slammin and the gushing blood sound effects are endearing. The dialog and voice acting is authentic. Plus, I’m a sucker for westerns. All things considered to pass up Gunslinger would be illogical. Crap, there I go again – thinking… Here’s to the hope that Gunslinger will jar me loose of gaming complacency (18% complete).

So a friend and I have been granted access to the beta for Infinite Crisis because they had a stress test tonight and I’ll give you the lowdown.

The game is, as I’ve read and now have experienced, more similar to the League of Legends model than the DOTA2 model. That really isn’t all too different because they are both MOBAs (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) but, if you’ve played both then you’ll know what I mean.

The gameplay is solid, the characters are unique with abilities that match the character. The thing about Infinite Crisis that gets me excited is all of the possibilities of character types that are available. Take Green Lantern for example:

These are the Green Lanterns (from left to right) from Arcane (Earth-13), Prime (Earth-0), and Atomic (Earth-17). Each of these characters are Green Lantern but, each version will have their own skills/abilities that reflect their world.

The game lists six earths/universes – Prime, Arcane, Atomic, Gaslight, Nightmare, and Mecha but, the total universes in the comics are 52!

52!

Can you imagine all of the different kinds of incarnations of the Flash there are?!?

The Flash was my favorite from the characters available, I look forward to all of the versions of characters that will come from this game.

I’ll keep you posted as the awesome keeps coming.

For a beta it’s been surprisingly solid thus far.