The Rumble Pack Posts

The Pack’s back at PAX East! In this year’s brunch installment, Kaz, Justin and Nick talk about their favorite games from the show floor, including DuckTales Remastered, Pikmin 3, Contrast, Tengami, The Wonderful 101, Super Time Force, SolForge, Dropchord, Transistor, Guacamelee!, Divekick, Electronic Super Joy and many more!

*Correction – Earlier in the show, we confused the game Contrast with its developer, Compulsion Games.

The Pack attempts a “gritty reboot” before Kaz and Justin set off for PAX East 2013. This week, Kaz rushes into StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, Tony rids the Old West of an Undead Nightmare, Tom embarks on a spooky iOS Year Walk through Swedish folklore and Justin delivers a few final brooms in Ni no Kuni. Plus, polishing Dracula’s turds in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate, Yeti conservation, Lara Croft climbing on stuff, The Lost Vikings sequel you probably never wanted, the tragic traffic jams of SimCity, John Riccitiello’s departure from EA, sudden Minecraft addiction, Antarctic servers and ALF on the prowl.

Relevant Links:

Korean Robocop Loves Fried Chicken

Download Year Walk ASAP

So, the name of this series has remained the same, but the audio quality has improved significantly. This time I tackle showing off 10-ish minutes (closer this time) of the new, and controversial, SimCity. Maybe some of the systems will entice you to brave the terrible servers, or maybe I will only confirm your existing suspicions that the troubles aren’t worth the net result.

Only you can decide!

Having played through Tomb Raider with a laser-like intensity, I’m struck by one lingering thought: “games benefit immensely from the simplest things.”

I was left with mostly positive things to say about the environments, narrative and gameplay in Tomb Raider, less positive things to say about the characters, but no single thing will stick in my mind more than the in-your-face impact and occasional wonky-ness of the hair-rendering system in the game. My particular narrative with TressFX, the ATi proprietary engine used on Lara Croft’s hair, goes something like this:

“I have to turn on this crazy hair thing people are talking about”

**Turns on TressFX**

“On man, that’s really silly looking, well, let’s see if I can just deal with it…”

**Continues playing**

“Oh, damnit, that’s just too weird looking, let me turn that off so I can enjoy the game”

**Turns off TressFX**

“Eww…”

**Turns on TressFX**

Admittedly the hair is over the top, in fact days into the game they posted a patch that, in addition to fixing game crashing tessellation problems, toned down the swoosh-iness of the hair. It really was distracting at first, the effect is much more subtle with the patch changes. If you haven’t seen the hair in action, or you’ve only seen the launch day footage of Lara doing her best Medusa impersonation when the engine freaks out, I’ve recorded a quick clip of the post patch hair in gameplay.

If you found yourself mesmerized, entertained or otherwise distracted from the [non-spoilery-ish] scene you’ll have a good idea of what it felt like to play through the game. Most of the game, for me, was admiring the subtle ways the realistic hair. The tech certainly makes Lara seem more believable as a person, some of the stilted dialogue from the other characters from her crew don’t help their causes but the difference is huge. Mostly for the characters with long hair, particularly Lara’s friend Sam, who looks like a toy doll in game compared to Lara since the render engine can only seem to barely handle one character at a time, according to Gareth.

Think back to some of the characters who could never live up to concept art because of technological limitations. Think of all the female video game characters that had the follow three haircuts:

Not much variety, if you’re lucky enough to get long hair it’s most likely just going to clip through your armor (chainmail bikini more-likely) anyways so you don’t really care that it’s a disgusting static mess of plastic and bad shaders. It isn’t until you see Tomb Raider try out ATi’s hair system until you see how much the effect humanizes a character. I’m sure AMD paid a hefty sum to convince Crystal Dynamics to put it into the game, but I’m glad they’re trying to push away some of the limitations of video game storytelling. They definitely don’t have it perfected but it’s a step in the right direction in my opinion, I hope this is the kind of stuff that makes it to next generation consoles instead of just more polygons.

For some reason Dreamfall: the Longest Journey comes to mind when I think of characters in game no living up to the potential of the character design. I was excited to see April Ryan make a return in the sequel and the concept art I saw really looked like a cool direction for the character. But the result was less than exciting:

We deserve better, the characters deserve better.

This is what happens when the guys miss a week! Justin and Kaz kick off the show with general, mostly positive impressions of the specs that will eventually become the PS4. Later on, Tony shows up to help tackle a massive pile of games, including Kentucky Route Zero, Sim City, Tomb Raider, Etrian Odyssey IV, Ni no Kuni, Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, Brain Age: Concentration Training, Antichamber and Runner2. Whew! Also, Justin hang-ups galore.

If you’ve listened to the podcast in recent months, you know that I’ve fallen back in love with Japanese RPGs. I could do without the grinding and 40+ hour running times, but the sub-genre has taken some major steps forward in the past 12 months or so. It’s a shame that financial realities have kept many of these games out of the limelight, but if you gave up on JRPGs after Final Fantasy XIII crapped the bed, it’s time to come back into the fold.

However, as the title of the post clearly states, I’m leaving out Ni no Kuni for now. I’ve been having a mostly great time playing through its opening hours, but so many insist that this is the old-school role-playing savior, and I just can’t get behind that notion. Underneath the gorgeous Ghibli-fueled animation and the charming world, there’s a really clunky battle system and more dull fetch quests than I care to see in a modern “classic.”

No beefs with the following games though…

Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii)

My runner-up for 2012 Game of the Year, Xenoblade Chronicles rethinks almost every JRPG convention that has driven so many frustrated fans to Skyrim and the like. The scenario is novel enough – a group of adventurers trek across the backs of two suspended titans – but it’s the wonder and ease of exploration that makes Xenoblade so memorable. Huge, verdant fields rival the scope of maps in your favorite MMOs, and you can instantly travel to any major landmark – no need to wait for a mid-game ostrich or airship. Real-time battles with smart A.I. teammates finally realize the potential Final Fantasy XII showed years ago. Every character is highly malleable and quests are streamlined to minimize return visits. If you can get past the time demands – at 60+ hours, an admittedly tall order – Xenoblade Chronicles is an absolute joy.

Sorry that it’s selling for ridiculous prices on eBay!

Welcome to the inaugural installment of the sure-to-be-renamed series I’m calling “Ten Minutes With…”

My plan is to record 10 minutes or gameplay with voice-over commentary that is early or even at the very begin of games that I’m playing. Sure, this episode is a little bit longer than ten minutes, but I don’t plan on holding myself to exactly 10 minutes. I don’t like to be restricted.

I pre-apologize for the audio quality; I was trying to produce this video as easily as possible to encourage making more content for the web site. I’ll look into using the fancy recording equipment I use to record the podcast in the future so you, the viewer, will be able to enjoy the same crystal clear, whiny, raspy voice you’ve come to know and disagree with.

Without further adieu, I proudly, and rapidly, present the very first iteration of “Ten Minutes With…”

We may agree on Valentine’s Day candy, but at least the Pack can get behind Ni no Kuni…or not. This week, the guys have a spirited debate about the critical darling JRPG. But before that, Tony investigates Sleeping Dogs‘ barkest underbelly, while Justin unleashes his babies in Fire Emblem Awakening. Plus, Rayman Legends heartbreak, Nosepass for life, Antichamber conundrums, dreams of a Wii U DD and a Proteus price protest.

Relevant Links:

Kaz “likes” Proteus