Elsewhere Focus

Truth and Justice...

... one of my favorite paper and dice rpg's.

You read that correctly. Paper and dice. RPG (role-playing game). Yep. I play Dungeons & Dragons and other games of the like.In 4th grade I was introduced to gaming and I still play when I can.

Truth and Justice is one of those games I play. It is a superhero genre rpg. My friends and I have had a lot of fun playing. The mechanics are pretty simple. Each player creates a superhero using certain guidelines. A superhero is defined in the game by qualities and powers. These attributes are given a rating that helps determine effectiveness in game when tested in a challenge. Dice are used to add the element of surprise and randomness to a challenge. 

Our games always had a little egde of humor to them. Although serious games can be quite successful, the superhero genre is great for adding some laughs. Truth and Justice as a rule system compliments this as the concepts are easy to pick up and conflict resolution is pretty fun and fluid. I've introduced a number of new gamers to paper and dice role-playing through Truth and Justice.

In the most recent game I've run, the characters (under the tutilage of the super-sorceror Magis-T) had to race against time through a busy city to prevent 3 different catastrophic disasters from occuring. These disasters were brought upon by a secret group of villains. An abundance of wonderful absurdity befell our games.

One of the last games featured a villain who was about to bring a tsunami down along the coast of the city. As the heroes rallied to face the threat, one hero thought to call in some help. For you comic fans out there, this would be like a street-level hero calling in the Avengers from Marvel for assistance. I wanted to keep the challenge to the players so I informed them that the secretary of the cities pros said that they were unavailable at the moment. I'm not sure exactly how it started but as an accident, the group of us decided that one of the 'big guns' was called the Dehumidifier. You might be in a tad bit of trouble if the pro in the area is the Dehumidifier and he is unavailable at the moment.

OK, maybe it was for the best he was unavailable. The players managed alright.

After the game I did a drawing of that character just for kicks. Here is the Dehumidifier. He's pro.

Facebook Games...?!!!

Blarg!!! I haz been sucked into dem agin. fail.

Yes, I prefer games of a higher calibur and sophistication, but sometimes...

sigh

I’ve Been Playing Two Worlds…

…One and Two

For a few months now I have been playing Two Worlds (2007) and the sequel, Two Worlds II (2010). Both of these games I acquired through Steam and I play on my PC. First, here is some info on the games.

Wikipedia on Two Worlds:

Two Worlds is a role-playing video game developed by Polish video game developer Reality Pump and published by SouthPeak Interactive for the Xbox 360 and PC.

Wikipedia on Two Worlds II:

Like its predecessor, Two Worlds II is a real-time role-playing game that takes place in an open non-linear fantasy world where players take the role of a single character with whom they can explore and undertake quests.

The official site for Reality Pump is : www.realitypump.com  SouthPeak Interactive can be found at www.southpeakgames.com  and Topware Interactive, a company who played a big role in Two Worlds II can be located here www.topware.com

Of course, if you want to go directly to the site of the game for more information, check out www.2-worlds.com

I’ve got one last link for ya then I will give you my impression of the games. The link is for the Two Worlds Vault over at IGN. If you get into the Two Worlds series, it is worth your time to check this site out. On it you will find detailed information, guides and a community dedicated to this series.  That link is www.twoworldsvault.ign.com   

Ok. So first off. These games don’t have much of a story (or at least not much that I pay attention to), but they do contain a certain amount of game play that I find rather addicting. While these elements aren’t necessarily original, I would say the balance of these elements can be quite satisfying. These include hack n slash, equipment improvements, mixing potions, creating spells, vast inventory options, and a decent skill point system all combined to give a fun role-playing video game experience.

The 3D environment itself is not spectacular but it does have a special kind of charm to it. I have some screenshots that I will add at the bottom of this post. There is a simplicity there that brings a level of believability to the world. I thoroughly enjoyed the first time I had my character scale the highest peak and then looked down at the river that cuts through the valley bellow. It just evoked “Lord of the Rings” to me in that moment, even though the game has nothing to do with Tolkien and his stories. But like many other of you fantasy aficionados out there, Middle Earth, was one of my first and fondest exposures to the worlds of myth and imagination. Almost anything that can take me back to those early times, even for a second, is OK in my book.

 My initial graphics card had a hard time with the second game, but with a modest upgrade it plays wonderfully. I don’t have the resources at this time for a top of the line card. I currently run with an AMD Radeon HD 6670 which is not much but a vast improvement, I have found, from the 4000 series card I had previously.

The game is easy to get into and I like that you have a lot of options of where you can go. You don’t have to stick to a linear path. Sometimes it’s just fun to turn on the game and take out a little frustration on a wandering group of orc bandits. Other times you can get into one of the missions and follow through the plot points; whatever you have time for.  

Two Worlds I & II aren’t perfect. As I mentioned, they failed to capture my attention with story. Character design and the application of memorable characters is not a strong point of either game. There are other little quirks that bother me, but I’m not going to nitpick here.  I am not particularly of the mind to be too critical at the moment. So I am able to forgo those weaknesses, because I really have had a lot of fun playing, and bottom line, that’s what really matters.

There is an expansion for the second game called, Pirates of the Flying Fortress, that I have yet to play and there is also a fairly developed multiplayer option too. I am not really into the multiplayer thing yet so I don’t have much to report on there.

Two Worlds I and II – deviously simple fun that’s easy to pick up, with enough depth and options to last. I’ve had a tremendously good gaming experience playing these.

Two Worlds I

Two Worlds II

The Steamy End of the Year…

…and the beginning of a new one.

Today is the last day of 2011. I’ll admit right now that I struggle with the proper importance of moments like these. It’s typical, I imagine, for one to write about ‘how the year went’ and ‘what I hope for in the New Year’ and all that - but I know you’ve all read crap like that before. Not that I’m trying to be ‘Mr. Original’ here, but I just feel tired with every ‘New Years’ related sentence I try to write down. So instead I thought I would take this moment to talk about something …steamy.

And no I don’t mean I’m going to talk about my sex life!

The sizzle and pop I refer to is an application called Steam. Wikipedia defines steam as:

a digital distribution, digital rights management, multiplayer and communications platform developed by Valve Corporation.

Essentially it is a downloadable client that allows you to purchase and manage PC and Mac games. I discovered Steam early in 2011 when I desperately wanted to give Dragon Age a try and stumbled upon a sale Steam was having. Traditionally I have been a console gamer, dabbling here and there in the PC game arena. Then I found Steam, created my profile (Sagejester) and purchased Dragon Age – I was blown away. Now I realize that Dragon Age was available on the 360, but not instant like a simple download, and not for that price. It got me hooked on Steam.

 What makes Steam tic? Here are some details prefaced from the site:

• Online library of over 1,100 games
• Steam community with groups, friending, chat and tournaments
• Game auto updates
• Special offers including seasonal sales

So I picked up Dragon Age, Torchlight and a few other games for pretty cheap; how could I lose?  Soon other titles would follow and I fell in love with PC gaming. With the right graphics card, I discovered a level of gaming that I couldn’t get on the console. This is not to say anything bad about the Xbox 360 or PS3. In fact, Steam got me back into video games in general. I began to look for the best of the best titles on the consoles to try to match the experience I was having on the PC. I wanted better graphics, better sound, better game play, better stories, better characters; I found myself analyzing every aspect of the production of the games I was playing.

This leads me to a bit of insight about 2011. I got into Steam which got me into gaming more which in turn (through my analysis) stepped up my expectations of what I wanted out of school. Steam introduced me to games like Dragon Age, Bioshock, Borderlands, Fallout 3, Mass Effect 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum & City. For the first time in school, I really got excited about what I might be able to accomplish when I graduated; I saw a place for myself. Although I had a hard time getting through my classes this fall, I stuck with it. Steam was a distraction, but it also helped too. So I guess you could say 2011 was pretty steamy. Hopefully 2012 will be so too.

I see a place for myself designing characters and monsters and models and assets for games and animations. I started at AAU concentrating on VFX but 2010-11 has marked a changeover to Animation with electives focused in illustration. Looking ahead to the spring semester I will be taking intro to anatomy and hard surface modeling. 2012 should be great for classes and developing my abilities.

Oh. Look. I lied. New Years crap. Well, make it a happy one, folks and put some steam into it!