#NerdsUnite: Ready Player One

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @violent_gamer

I know it may seem a bit weird: a video game review website reviewing a book?  But hear me out: if you have a love for video games, amazing storytelling, and the history of video games, you will love Ready Player One.  It is immediately clear that the author, Ernest Cline, is a sincere gamer, and an even more sincere nerd.  There is literally so much nerd packed into this book it is truly incredible.  Cline has a particular fondness for eighties nerd culture references, but he includes everything right up to present day.  The bottom line is this: if you’re a video game nerd like me, this is the book you've been waiting for.

The book’s plot is set in a semi-apocalyptic 2044 in the United States.  Essentially, giant cities are really all that remain, with vast stretches of wasteland in between.  Around the cities (where the wealthy typically live) are columns and columns of “The Stacks” – towers of trailers piled on top of one another to save space.  As you may guess, the poor tend to occupy the stacks, and it is one such occupant, Wade Watts, that is the protagonist of the story.

Even though the world is falling into ruin, no one really cares too much because everyone spends most of their time in another world, the OASIS.   The OASIS is essentially a giant video game that functions as an online world.  Technology has advanced so that you can virtually immerse yourself completely in the game.  Think The Matrix without the creepy spine thing.  The Oasis offers a world where just about anything is possible – worlds to explore, quests to complete, PVP combat, shopping, schooling – just about anything you can think of.  It does run on its own economy, so you do need in-game currency to do these things.  That’s the problem Wade has: he’s got a virtual universe to explore and no money to do so.

When Wade isn’t going to school, he spends most of his time searching for the “Egg”.  You see, the OASIS was designed by a legendary programmer – James Halliday.  When Halliday passed away, he left a rather strange will behind.  He left his entire fortune (an obscene amount of money) to the winner of a contest he had created inside of the OASIS.  Essentially, he hid a video game easter egg in the virtual world of the OASIS, and the first player to find this egg receives Halliday’s fortune (and essentially control of the OASIS).  Reminiscent of a certain chocolate factory owner’s contest, it is enough motivation for Wade to become obsessed with finding the egg.  He becomes a “gunter”, a person who spends their time studying Halliday’s life in order to find the egg.  A lot of this research boils down to classic eighties pop culture, video game history, and anything in the geek/nerd culture as well.  To keep track of who is winning the contest, Halliday created a scoreboard where anyone who makes progress towards finding the egg receives points.  The scoreboard is empty for a number of years following Halliday’s death.  The egg is simply too well-hidden.  But everything changes when Wade finds the first clue and jumps to the top of the leader board.

The plot focuses on the race to the egg and the various steps to get there that Wade must take.  He comes into contact with both friends and foes along his journey (although all of them are looking for the egg).  There’s the cool best friend, the evil mega-corporation, and the girl of his dreams all to contend with.  And while the overall plot arc may not be anything revolutionary, Cline does throw in some cool twists to keep you guessing, particularly near the end of the story.

The book itself is a very easy read.  It really does feel like a video game, with each chapter being a level or mission to complete.  I have to say I have a hard time remembering having this much fun reading a book.  The characters are incredibly easy to relate to, the plot is engaging and exciting, and the cultural references are funny, nostalgic, and charming.  Cline even manages to throw in some social commentary into the mix, without ever being heavy-handed or patronizing.  He asks earnest questions about what it means to have a “virtual identity”, to have the mask of anonymity when online.  And whether or not true anonymity is real or not.  As our world becomes more and more digital, will we lose ourselves in it, or hold on to who we really are?

I really can’t recommend this book highly enough.  Let me put it this way: if a book references Blade Runner, Pac Man, Star Wars, The Lord of The Rings, Back to the Future, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Mobile Suit Gundam, Firefly, and Cowboy Bebop, it’s going to be pretty awesome.  I had so much fun reading this book, and I hope you will too.

Violent Score: 4.8 / 5

Written by Cooper Sivara. 

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#NerdsUnite: PopCapt, a Human Approach

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Sean. He has a really rad site called Violent Gamer, and he's here today to talk about some of the latest and greatest in the gaming industry. I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT SEAN !!</editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @violent_gamer

In the last couple of days there has been a lot of talk of PopCap, the developers behind the massively popular Plants versus Zombies and Peggle, letting go a large portion of their staff. This seemed immensely odd since they had just announced Plants vs Zombies 2 yesterday. Recently the co-founder of PopCap, John Vechey, addressed everyone in a letter that is incredibly sympathetic to all of those losing their jobs and devoid of marketing terms, it is very human. It is sadly rare for a company to be this open about everything that is going and to address the situation so thoroughly. John explains that PopCap is indeed letting many people go, mostly in their US studio, but they are still pushing forward into the gaming world and trying to deal with the new challenges put forth by the free to play and social gaming market. Here is two of my favorite paragraphs from the post, 

"But this morning we informed our employees about a reorganization in our studios that will include a “Reduction In Force” in our North American operation – mostly in our headquarters here in Seattle – and an “exploratory consultation” to evaluate the future of our PopCap office in Dublin, Ireland.

And now in English: “Reduction In Force” means that some people are losing their jobs. “Exploratory consultation” means we’re talking to our Dublin team about the future of that office and whether we can find a path to improve our profitability in Europe without having to close the operation. Today’s news is something you expect periodically from a company in a fast-changing industry, but it sucks if you’re one of the people losing his or her job. These people are our friends and we don’t like doing this."

Check out the whole post here and see everything he had to say. I wish more companies would take this approach that says exactly what is going on, why it is happening, and what it means for the company. Thanks for checking it out and take a look at my previous post for the news on Planets versus Zombies 2.

-Written by Sean Cargle

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#NerdsUnite: Command & Conquer Goes Free to Play

 <editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Sean. He has a really rad site called Violent Gamer, and he's here today to talk about some of the latest and greatest in the gaming industry. I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT SEAN !!</editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @violent_gamer

Strategy fans everywhere died a little inside earlier this week, when the long awaited Command & Conquer Generals 2 was cancelled and out of its wreckage came free to play Command & Conquer. What has happened to the once massive Command & Conquer franchise? Their last real game was pretty mediocre, you know, the one with space ships, and since then EA has just been throwing around the name merely for its popularity. Free to play doesn't necessarily make a game bad, but few games have done F2P in a way that doesn't frustrate and sever the community. There is hope for F2P RTSs with the upcoming End of Nations, but I can only imagine the horrors that await us with the next Command & Conquer. I don't want to be biased just because it is EA, but look at what they did with Command & Conquer Tiberium Alliances.

Do strategy fans want Facebook in their strategy games?

No, no they do not.

This was just announced on Wednesday and it is following the announcement about Sim City turning into a social game, not so much a deep city building sim. (Check out their newest trailer for Sim City here here.)

They are taking both of these once beloved franchises and turning them into twisted creations that do not represent what made them popular in the first place.

Take a look at this announcement trailer for the new Command & Conquer.

Command & Conquer does have a great engine with destructible environments, The Frostbite 2 engine, which is what Battlefield 3 uses, and it looks visually impressive as a result, but they really need to show off some gameplay so we can see how they are going to handle that.

Are there going to be tanks or jets that are far superior that we have to buy with real money? Or will we have to share things with friends in order to receive energy that we use to build new units?

I hope neither and I hope it is great, but my hope is fleeting and I'm still glad there are games like Company of Heroes 2 in the world.

If you would like to check it out yourself or try to get into the beta for Command & Conquer head on over to their main website. I used to love this series, but EA is showing exactly why a great many gamers are coming to despise them.

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#NerdsUnite: Violent Gamer Review (Spelunky)

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Sean. He has a really rad site called Violent Gamer, and he's here today to talk about some of the latest and greatest in the gaming industry. I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT SEAN !!</editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @violent_gamer

There are so many ways to die in Spelunky and as frustrating at it is, it is so very fun. I've earned fifty deaths in the XBLA version of this rogue-like platformer and I still love it. If you are a PC Gamer you may have played the free PC version at some point or another, which can now be played in your browser, and the developers are still updating that. Derek Yu is still the main developer, but he also has two other people working with him on the game. The Xbox Live Arcade version does have a bit different than the PC version and let me spend a paragraph explaining some of those differences, but before I go into that, a quick explanation for those who don't know of Spelunky.

Spelunky is a game that harnesses the idea of being Indiana Jones and exploring a dangerous treasure filled world of snakes, spiders, skeletons, hornets, frogs, snowmen and so much more. You start in the mines and you make your way further and further down, eventually reaching the jungle, then the ice caverns, then the temple. Each time you enter a level it is randomly generated so every time you go through an area it feels unique. When you die, which is very easy to do and you will die a lot, you start over from the beginning with nothing other than four bombs and four ropes, which you always start with. Each time you enter a new section, like the jungle or ice caverns, there is a man who approaches you and asks for some supplies. If you give him enough supplies you can unlock shortcuts to each area, but the supplies get harder to obtain as you get farther down and you can only give him one thing per playthrough, so you can't instantly unlock a shortcut even if you have tons of money, bombs, ropes and whatever else. It is a very hard game, but the challenge is immensely enjoyable in the same way that people enjoy games like Dark Souls or Dwarf Fortress.

When I first started playing Spelunky on XBLA I thought that multiplayer was online and local, but I was disappointed to learn that it is only local. Local multiplayer is plenty of fun, but it is pretty restrictive, especially in adventure mode. There is a deathmatch mode, but it isn't too exciting without at least two other people and adventure mode feels like the main attraction of multiplayer. In adventure mode you can play with three other players and the screen is focused just on the first player, so if you accidently lose other players then you only have a short period of time to find them or they will die. However, death isn't a huge deal in multiplayer.You can find coffins, like the ones in singleplayer, but these coffins will bring back other players and while they are dead they act as ghosts. As ghosts you can set off traps, move objects, disturb enemies and just generally mess with the environment. Multiplayer is pretty good, even without split screen, but it would be even more enjoyable if you could play with friends over Xbox Live.

If you want to check out Spelunky in action and even with Derek Yu, the main developer, then take a look at this video by Rev3Games. It is lovely and it appropriately expresses my own frustration at the games difficulty, but I wouldn't dare make it easier. The video is fairly long, 18 minutes, but skip to six minutes in it if you want to just see the XBLA version being played by Derek.

Last Comments

Spelunky is awesome, that is all. If you like platformers you really need to give it a try and it does have a demo like all XBLA games. If you happen to like platformers and rogue-like games that have permadeath, then Spelunky is especially for you and you should be able to love it so much that it might just justify the outrageous cost of Xbox Live. If you don't have a Xbox 360, do try the free PC version. Sure it isn't as pretty, but it is still impressive and possibly even more challenging due to the controls. Spelunky costs $15 on XBLA and it is one of my favorite games of the year so far. Thanks for checking it out and reading. 

Main Website: http://spelunkyworld.com/

Violent Score: 4.5 (out of 5)

If multiplayer was a little bit better, and online instead of local only, then this would have been a perfect score. 

-Written by Sean Cargle

#GameReview: The War Z

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Sean. He has a really rad site called Violent Gamer, and he's here today to talk about some of the latest and greatest in the gaming industry. I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT SEAN !!</editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @violent_gamer

Arktos Entertainment and Hammerpoint Interactive announced The War Z, a zombie survival MMO that will put up to two hundred and fifty players in a large area and let them try to survive. Before you say Day Z is better or write it off as a Day Z clone, you should take a look all of the details. They are both zombie games, for sure, but otherwise they are very different. The War Z is indeed an MMO and it will be exclusively for PC. You will be able to play the game in normal mode, where death is merely a setback and you don't permanently die, or in hardcore mode, where your character will permanently die if you are killed. There are strong RPG elements like quests and experience/leveling. Each map will be between 200 and 400 square kilo-meters, which is about 250 miles at max, and players will be able to cooperate or kill each other. It isn't going to be as much of an open sandbox world as Day Z, mainly because there will be safe settlements where players can buy or sell items and leave notes for other players, but it still looks like it has a lot to offer.

Here is the initial list of the features in The War Z:

• Survival Horror MMO with entire game world build around a Zombie Apocalypse
• Two modes of play: Normal (downed characters can be revived after “cool down” period) and Hardcore (death will be permanent)
• Ability to switch between first-person (FPS) and third-person (TPS) perspectives
• Huge maps ranging between 200 and 400 square kilometers
• Meld of PvE (player versus environment) and PvP (player versus player) gameplay
• Unique social elements, including bounties, rewards, help requests, trap setting, etc.
• Safe Settlements: safe cities within the world where players can purchase, sell and store items as well as post notes for other players
• Single purchase, downloadable client with ability to play full game without subscriptions or requiring in-game transactions
• Full developer support with regularly scheduled, free content updates
• Dedicated public servers as well as private servers that can be completely self-managed in game client

One of the first things I wanted to note, in case you missed it in that list, was the pricing model of The War Z. Everyone is always worried about anything labeled MMO and how that means it will gouge them of money, but fear not, The War Z will be available for one single purchase, no subscription, and it will be regularly updated with free content. Sounds too good to be true and it kind of is. There will be microtranscations, but they are doing it like many other these days were all microtransactions do is save time for those who don't have it. They won't provide better weapons or equipment and everything you purchase with real money may also be purchased with in-game currency. You will be able to easily play the game without buying anything with real money and they just wanted to add the microtranscation as a convenient option. 

The War Z will have you scavenging for supplies, fighting off infection and leveling up your character. It has strong RPG elements and you will be able to earn experience, level up and learn new skills that will help you survive. You will also be earn in-game money and purchase supplies in the previously mentioned safe settlements. You will join a game through servers and you will be able to make friends and easily join them on whatever server they are on, or you may even go into a server as a group. Since The War Z is mainly a RPG there will be quests in the game. Initially they thought to have you unlock new areas through quests, like a traditional RPG, but they were inspired by Day Z to drop that idea and to make the world open from the start.

The first world they are going to release will be called Colorado and they will periodically release more based off real places like New York or Los Angeles. This will all be released free to anyone who owns the game. Story wise the game is set five years after a zombie apocalypse and the world is left with few survivors, few supplies, destroyed cities and a few zombies are starting to evolve into something more.  Around the world there will be discarded notes and diaries that will reveal stories and information about the world. The notes and diaries aren't just for lore either, some of them will allow you to find hidden equipment or supplies if you read them carefully. There will also be notes left by other players, which could lead to your demise or end up helping you, depends entirely on them.

The War Z is a survival game, so you will have to eat and drink to survive, but you will also have to find medical supplies to heal injures. All of that is minor compared to the zombie virus, if you get infected with that you are in a trouble. Hopefully you will have a vaccine, but otherwise you will have to call for help from others or find one before you turn into a zombie. The developers haven't clarified what happens once you turn into zombie, like I would love to know if you will just die and have to create a new character, even on normal ,or if the the player have some kind of control over the zombie. It would also be interesting if player zombies were different from other zombies, like maybe they carried a portion of that persons supplies still on them and looked like a fresher zombie.

Like Day Z, The War Z doesn't have a specific goal for players other than survive as long as you can. There is no max level for your characters, but you can complete 100% of a world. There will be missions that you have to complete in order to achieve that and there will be leaderboards as well, all of which will be separate for the two different difficulty modes. Servers can be mixed difficulties, meaning hardcore and normal characters can both be playing on it, or specifically one. If you are on a hardcore server there will be rare and special gear that you can only earn there. Throughout the world there will also be memories, which are story sections of some kind that you can play through cooperatively with friends.

The War Z will be $30 with no subscriptions and a decent sounding micortranscation system (explained in the second paragraph of the post). They are currently in alpha and they are going to be running a beta later this summer for people who sign up on their website or those who pre-order the game, which you currently can't do. They are trying to release the game this fall, but we will see how that all turns and there are many elements of the game that I need to see in action before I am sold. However, I am very excited to see developers taking note of the popularity of Day Z and deciding to go in similar directions, which can only lead to good things. All information is taken from The War Z press release, but it is also from this splendid IGN interview that was put up today. Check that out for more, especially since I didn't cover everything they went over and they have some exclusive screenshots. Thanks for reading!

Main Website: http://thewarz.com/

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/warzmmo

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