#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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#GameReview: The Last Story

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Cooper. He writes for 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 COOPER !!</editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @violent_gamer

The Last Story has quite a story behind its development.  Directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi (creator of the Final Fantasy series) and developed by Mistwalker, the game’s soundtrack also claims the legendary Nobuo Uematsu as its composer.  Obviously, the game has quite a pedigree with a tremendous amount of talent, and the experience and skill of the development team shines throughout.  And while Sakaguchi and Mistwalker get a lot right in this game, there are some technical shortcomings that prevent the game from being a true masterpiece.  These hitches aside, however, The Last Story is a wonderful RPG that will not disappoint fans of the genre, and may even give them new hope for the future.

The Last Story has a story that on one level is a bit common.  The plot focuses around an orphaned hero named Zael and his band of mercenary friends.  They get involved in things that are initially way over their heads, and eventually have to save the world from destruction.  Oh, and they have to save a princess with magical powers.  Sounds a bit familiar, right?  Well, while the story certainly isn’t revolutionary, it does find ways to be compelling, mainly due to the characters.  

The characters are, without a doubt, the best part of The Last Story.  Zael and his companions start off as a stereotypical band of ragtag warriors – you’ve got the orphaned hero, the inspiring leader, the thoughtful girl, the boisterous girl, the ladies man, and the dark brooding guy.  While at first it seems that these characters will be forever stuck in these RPG roles, they start to transcend them.  Over the course of the 20 hour story, the characters begin to open up to each other as they overcome hardships.  They reveal surprising depth and emotionality, without ever going into the severely melodramatic.  Despite the fantastical nature of the world, these characters feel incredibly human.  They make mistakes, they act foolishly, they make poor decisions – but through it all they constantly show how much they care about each other.  There are some incredibly inspired moments (particularly towards the end of the game) that are truly beautiful, and that beauty mainly comes from the characters themselves.

Speaking of beauty, the graphics and art direction of the game are superb – for the Wii. This is definitely the best looking third-party game I’ve ever seen on the system, and right up there with some of Nintendo’s own franchises.  The game pushes the Wii to its very limits.  And while yes there is some frame rate issues and some screen tearing, the game looks beautiful.  The art is medieval inspired with a bit of steampunk thrown in, which does look pretty cool.  The battle animations are simple but effective, with a few spectacular set pieces thrown in.  Every once in a while in a big battle you’ll have a bit of a lag, but nothing too major.  Ultimately, even though the game looks like a PS2 game overall, it looks like a beautiful PS2 game.

For me, the main let-down I had with the game was its combat system.  I had heard a lot of really good stuff about it, how it was pretty revolutionary for an RPG.  I suppose that I might have built it up in my head too much, or maybe it’s just not for me.  In any case, I was a bit disappointed.  One of the first things I didn’t like was automatic attacking – in other words, in order to attack with your sword, you just run into enemies.  I like to have control over individual sword attacks, so I changed to manual attacks in the settings.  Once I did that, it certainly gave me more to do.  Unfortunately, however, you still can’t really control the way you attack, it’s just kind of a general slash combo.  You can guard and counter, but there are not really any “attack moves”.  Zael also has a crossbow at his disposal which can be equipped with various arrows.  The problem with the crossbow is that it’s very difficult to aim.  Most of the time I needed the crossbow to take down an enemy quickly, but I had a tough time doing so because I could not aim it correctly.  And there’s no kind of “z targeting system” to help you out, at least to my knowledge.  In fact, the camera can be frustrating as well – it gets stuck at very inopportune moments, and on several occasions I died because I couldn’t see the enemies around me.

There are some very cool ideas in the battle system, however.  For example, Zael can use a “Gathering” power to draw all of the enemies to him while other party members have time to cast spells.  Zael can also do back-flips off walls and attack.  The back flips are cool and effective, but it sometimes takes a while to run up the wall, which can be annoying.  Eventually, Zael can also command everyone in the party, which leads to different types of magic being use that he can then “diffuse” against enemies or to help allies.  While all of these ideas seem really interesting and innovative, they are not executed well because the controls are not tight.  You’ll try to find cover and end up rolling past it; you’ll try to run up a wall and get stuck at the bottom; you’ll be fighting an enemy and then lose sight of them.  And because Zael doesn’t really have that many different attacks, the battles essentially dissolve into you running around distracting enemies (particularly bosses) while your friends cast magic.  While this kind of team mentality is a cool concept, in actuality it turns out to be a bit boring and repetitive.  Overall, though, I think the battle system is one of those “love it or hate it” situations, so other people may love it.  I just was not a fan.

One element that did not disappoint at all was the game’s music and sound design.  Sakaguchi and Uematsu work together incredibly well, with Sakguchi creating beautiful, simple moments with the characters that are lifted to new heights by Uematsu’s music.  The soundtrack is sweeping and epic at times, and nostalgic and intimate at others.  This is without a doubt one of the best soundtracks I’ve heard in a video game.  In a similar fashion, the voice acting is phenomenal.  The cast is a melting pot of different UK actors, and their different dialects work together wonderfully.  The localizations team also did a great job with the dialogue – it’s funny, earnest, and at times truly touching.  For this reason, most of the cut scenes are incredibly compelling to watch, which is a good thing considering the vast amount of them in the game. 

Overall, The Last Story is one of the best games I have played on the Wii.  Yes, it certainly has its technical limitations and problems.  And yes, in my opinion the battle system was not executed as well as it could have been.  But the story of Zael and his companions is one worth discovering.  Though the overall story is nothing out of the ordinary, fans of the genre will really appreciate the subtle twists Sakaguchi introduces that eventually transcend expectations.  Sakaguchi and his team will surprise you with incredibly powerful, simple moments that make you care about the characters and what happens to them.  The Last Story is not trying to reinvent the wheel – it just gets many of the RPG elements right on the nose and then some.  If you’re a fan of RPG’s and still have your Wii, the Last Story is a fitting and beautiful way to say goodbye to the system.

Violent Score: 8.6 / 10

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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#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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#GamerNews: The Humble Indie Bundle V

<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

I used to be able to cover the majority of the indie bundles for PC or Mac, but nowadays there are just so many bundles like the IndieRoyale Bundle, which just released a new one, or the Indie Gala Bundle, but yesterday The Humble Bundle came out with a truly impressive offering. Their new bundle has already made over 1.3 million dollars and sold over 180,000 bundles. All of this is result of the stellar games included in this bundle that is made up of: Bastion, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Psychonauts, Limbo and Superbrothers : Sword & Sworcery EP. Bastion is the game that you only get if you pay more than the average of $7.42 (at the time of this post), but the rest are included no matter how much you pay. I do believe this is the first indie bundle, of any kind, that is full of excellent and popular games. As always The Humble Bundle lets you pay what you want and choose where your money is distributed. So if you wish to give all of your money to The Childs Play Charity then you may easily do so. If you wish head on over there right now, but if you want to hear a little about each game keep on reading. 

Amnesia: The Dark Descent by Frictional Games

I always thought that survival horror games were kind of gimmicky and not designed for those who aren't easily scared, but Amnesia: The Dark Descent has shown me that the genre still has a lot to offer. Amnesia is a survival horror that contains zero combat and focuses on puzzles, story and evading terrifying monsters. The puzzles are varied and just difficult enough. The story is actually interesting even though it starts off with the amnesia cliche, but as it goes on it turns out to be dark, mysterious and mystical. Frictional Games is currently working on a new game of the same genre, but Amnesia is still a fantastic game and one that you can recommend to all types of gamers. If only Amnesia were in the bundle it would still be worth it just for that. Check out this trailer and see how it great it looks in action. 

LIMBO by Playdead

Limbo, like Amnesia, is a dark game in both the literal sense and contextually. It is a side scrolling platformer, similar to Braid, with plenty of puzzles and a distressingly dark artistic style. You take control of a small boy, or man, as you travel through this dark world. There are simple puzzles that merely require you to move an object in order to get past a crevasse and then very complicated puzzles that require you to say...get past a giant spider that will murder you if you pass under it. This game, like one or two other games on this list, originally came out on Xbox Live first and was later ported to PC. Limbo is really short and doesn't have all that much replay value, but it is a really enjoyable and challenging adventure.

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP by Superbrothers Inc. 

Sword & Sworcery EP originally came out the iPhone/iPad and only recently came to PC & Mac. It is another adventure game that requires you to solve puzzles, but unlike Limbo it has no platforming and has a more open world structure. There is a forest to explore, caves, a separate mystical world and much more. The gameplay is very unique and everything about the game has musical inclinations, which explains the EP part of the title. It is an artistic game and the gameplay definitely doesn't resonate with everyone, but the people who like it tend to absolutely love it. I can't recommend it to everyone, but since it's part of the bundle I do hope that if you purchase the bundle you try it for a while at least. Check out this four minute chunk of gameplay. 

Psychonauts by Double Fine/Tim Schaffer

This is the one game that I haven't played, but back when the Double Fine Adventure Kickstarter was taking place I heard about it plenty. Psychonauts presents a quirky story full of interesting characters. Gameplay wise it is mostly an adventure platformer, like Banjo Kazooie or Mario. It never sold all that well, but it earned a bit of a cult following and was critically acclaimed when it came out in 2005 on PS2, Xbox and PC. It is singleplayer only, like all of these games, and recently just came out with updated versions for PC, Linux and Mac. Take a look at this trailer to get an idea of what kind of game this is. 

Bastion by Supergiant Games

This is another adventure game, but a different sort than all the rest. Bastion is plays more like an action adventure game and it has quite a bit of replayability.Nearly a year ago Bastion came out for XBLA and it was loved by many due to it's great art style, interesting story and enjoyable combat system. Later on in the year they ported the game to PC and brought in some new additions, like a portal gun. We reviewed the game back in July and there is a lot to say about it if you would like to hear more about it. Bastion has two ending, many weapons to unlock, many challenges to conquer and a fantastic narrator. Trailer!

This is truly a special Humble Bundle. It is full of excellent indie games, each of which is worth far more than the average price of this bundle. If you don't own any, or all, of these games then check it out. I have one last trailer for you all and it is the official Humble Bundle V trailer. It is fantastic, narrated by a famous narrator from one of these games and I demand you watch it. As always, thanks for reading and if you want to check out some more gaming news head on over to Violent Gamer.

Main Website: http://www.humblebundle.com/#contribute%Pay%whatever%you%want

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