Jake J fights his Steam backlog

In which Jake tries beating his whole Steam backlog. He probably loses interest.

[jakejuliettfightsgames]

A mission statement

But first, a bit of a story.

Defining my focus on YouTube has been a struggle for me. My first set of videos were academic-adjacent and folks seemed to like that. But honestly, I don’t like being an authority -- particularly because I felt like I was pretending to be an authority.

So I took some time off. A lot of time off. I did other things, tried other video ideas, and focused on life. I have never been sure I would come back to doing videos, but then this past January, I decided to start back up.

I’ve shot quite a few things and experimented with my format a lot. But I liked none of them. I liked parts of them, but overall they weren’t speaking to me -- which meant they probably wouldn’t speak to you, the viewer.

Something has happened since January though -- my Dwarf Fortress video blew up. The love I’ve received on that video (and subsequently some of my other videos) has been incredible. Not to mention it’s been a huge surprise -- I have no idea why people started checking out my stuff considering I haven’t posted anything since April of last year.

One thing has come up a number of times in comments: I have helped folks be more open to trying Dwarf Fortress (or, in a number of cases, go back to it). That’s a cool thing for me, considering that my experience with Dwarf Fortress was so limited.

I think I can do this with other games. For any number of reasons, cool games get lost by the wayside or they don’t reach outside of a limited audience. I would like to try to help with that. I want people to fall in love with games, not just enjoy them for a few days and then move on. I want to help folks find reasons to play gamees that they wouldn’t normally play. I want to help cool games get the attention they deserve. I want to showcase new ways to play old games

But that means I need to make some changes to my channel -- some changes that better suit my style:

I’ll be making all kinds of different videos. Sometimes I’ll do analysis, sometimes Let’s Plays (I hate that phrase, by the way), sometimes I’ll do tutorials. My intent is to make videos that will help a game have the best chance at being accessible by more people.

I can’t keep up with gaming trends. Instead of doing one video about one game, I’ll do a series (which, again, might contain a variety of different video types). For now, I plan on focusing on two or three games at a time.

I won’t stick to a schedule. I’ve said this before, but I can’t keep a schedule. I’ll release things as regularly as I can but ultimately, my kid will dictate what I can and can’t do from day to day.

So here it is. My focus. My mission statement:

I find ways to help people love games that can be difficult to love.

Please enjoy my shit :-)

[jakejuliettfightsgames]

I played Dwarf Fortress -- and I’ll undoubtedly play more later

Dwarf Fortress has this reputation for being very difficult. It kind of is -- well, it’s kind of complicated. There’s a learning curve, because the menus are really REALLY dense and inconsistent in some places. Also because it’s hard to know what to build without some guidance.

That said, having taken the time to learn those things, I think Dwarf Fortress is a lot of fun.

And I think more people should play it.

And I think the best way to play it is with a Starter Pack, but without fancy graphics -- the ASCII characters are the charm. Plus, then it looks like you’re playing a much more difficult game than you actually are :-)

I don’t have much else to say about Dwarf Fortress, honestly. I will say I have always found games (and software, for that matter) where you have to spend a significant amount of time learning it before you play annoying. However, Dwarf Fortress makes a good case for it.

Vim makes a good case for software being that hard, if you’re at all interested.

[jakejuliettfightsgames]

I played Out There Somewhere

...and it made me think of Portal. The first one.

Two quick asides before I get into this game:

In looking for the game’s banner, I discovered this game was made by the same folks behind Towerfall Ascension (a game I haven’t played but have seen played and I can see the similarities)

Studio MiniBoss is based in São Paulo, Brazil. That’s not particularly relevant, but cool to see popular games coming out of South America.

Out There Somewhere is about a space police officer giving chase to a monster named Grigori, The space police officer’s name is Yuri, and he has a teleport gun (and later, a gun gun). I’ve just told you everything you need to know.

While this game uses narrative sort of in the same way as Cave Story, narrative doesn’t really seem that important. Mostly characters just say things like “Oh you need that part? It’s that way.” or “Grigori is the worst!”. But that’s fine, because this game is great without any story. I think the dialogue exists solely to remind you to keep going.

The gameplay, though. This is a great example of exploring a rich mechanic. I’m reminded of a Chris Hecker quote from his blog post “Potential Unreached” where he says (in reference to developing Spy Party) “Every single time I add something simple at the human scale...I find interesting gameplay laying all over the floor!“ I think MiniBoss probably had the same experience here, because they just kept finding new and interesting ways to explore that teleport gun.

Maybe they could’ve made a longer game exploring the teleportation gun, but this sort of felt like the perfect amount. If the same concept were done by a Triple A studio, they might have to introduce more complexity to keep play “more fun” past the point where Out There Somewhere (OTS) leaves off. I imagine statements like “What if we upgraded their gun to a submachine gun?” or “Let’s have different teleports assigned to different buttons!” might get tossed around. Maybe they’d add more mechanics that would only get used once or long-winded NPCs that would stretch the game into a 20-25 hour long experience.

But that’s why this game works -- it’s short, and to the point. Cave Story had  as much narrative as was necessary. Portal explored the mechanics of a portal gun, but left before the gameplay became boring. OTS is just as long as it needs to be, and while the game feels like Portal aesthetically, it also mimics Portal’s gameplay purity in only letting you play enough to leave you satisfied.

I did have one issue though -- that boss was sort of out of nowhere. I felt unprepared -- the boss fight felt fundamentally different from the rest of the game. Most of the game has you thinking about puzzles but not really worrying too much about your health. The boss fight requires you to do both, and it was far too difficult for me -- I just didn’t do it. I decided that rather than getting overly frustrated over the boss fight, I would prefer to just let it be. I might go back, but probably not.

Out There Somewhere, overall, is a damn good game. It’s a great exploration of a basic game mechanic and the game stays interesting throughout.

[jakejuliettfightsgames]

I am playing Stardew Valley

Why am I so into these persistent gaming experiences lately?

I’ve never played Harvest Moon, the game which Stardew Valley apparently takes much of it’s inspiration from. I’d probably like it though, and if there’s a Harvest Moon that exists on a handheld, it could very well be something that I sink a lot of time into.

Stardew Valley is also something I can see myself sinking a lot of time into. The progression is very slow and deliberate (or at least it was for me), and every new step I take is very satisfying. The non-farming things I can do are also quite rewarding, so I find that going fishing or fighting in The Mines aren’t activities meant to distract me or give me something to do -- they are legitimate alternatives to just farming. Like, I can make pretty good money just fishing and selling the fish. Early in the game, foraging makes a lot of sense because you don’t really have the means to make money any other way (or feed yourself for that matter) -- most money making activities take time.

That’s another great thing about this game -- money is not the end goal. You get money from many of your quests, but you also get the satisfaction that you’ve helped the town and the people in it. Delivering gifts to people makes them like you more. There’s a lot to be done in the town, and money isn’t really the motivating factor (at least, the game doesn’t seem to be designed that way).

I need to step away from this game for now, but I’m going to keep it installed so I can come back to Boshvark Farm and help the people of Pelican Town further.

[jakejuliettfightsgames]

I’m playing Bunker Punks

And I love it!

I’ve never been a big fan of First Person Shooters, but Doom has always held a special place in my heart. I think it’s the potential Bullet Hell you can get into when playing.

Bunker Punks is Doom as a procedural-generated corporate sabotage shooter. The enemies play like much more dynamic Doom enemies. The hallways are tight and winding (and confusing) just like Doom. The soundtrack is techno Doom. The bullets are easy to dodge, like in Doom. And to boot, the potential to get yourself into some deep shit just because you ran into a room too fast is much like Doom.

It’s sort of like Doom turned to 11 -- it’s faster, harder, and more intense than Doom. For those reasons, I love it -- if you die or get hit, you know why. You aren’t expected to take damage like most FPS games (which is just one aspect of the FPS that I can’t stand...don’t get me started).

I’m counting this game “fought”. I didn’t beat it -- I probably never will. But I’ll keep coming back to kick ass alongside Molly Pop and Cleopatra Rex.

Oh, and the characters! Classic Doom-style action hero, and the voice acting just adds a layer of enjoyment like very few games these days.

Yeah. Bunker Punks is Doom Plus, and I suspect it will be installed on my Steam account for some time (I’ll play when I get bored of whatever other game I am playing).

[jakejuliettfightsgames]

Hello. I did play/am playing/will forever play Fallout 4

...and I’m not sure why.

I have put an ungodly amount of time into Fallout 4. I’ve always loved the Fallout series, and while I think that they are all generally great games, I find myself playing Fallout 4 even more -- despite the fact that I think it’s not really a Fallout game.

Fallout 4 has dropped many of the elements of Fallout games which make it...well, Fallout. The expansive dialogue trees? Gone. The ability to beat the game any way that you like? Also gone. The ability to explode open doors? Gone (though I think Fallout 3 might’ve gotten rid of that -- I can’t remember).

My point being that the reasons I fell in love with Fallout games in the past have been greatly whittled down into something simpler and more accessible for a wider audience. And that’s okay, but the loss of mechanical variability makes for a much different experience. In Fallout 3, you could take care of some enemies just by talking them down -- a feat that’s not typically possible in Fallout 4. Most of the narratives are scripted and linear, which is a bit of a bummer.

Having said all of that, Fallout 4 is a great game. The workshops, the new version of VATS, and the shooting mechanics all make for a really fun experience. I just feel like the “Fallout” in Fallout 4 wasn’t necessary -- you could put any license into this game and it wouldn’t play fundamentally differently.

I guess there’s something to be said for a game that’s mechanically sound (though not technically sound -- I’m looking at you, flying Deathclaw)

...that could house any property. That makes for a less satisfying Fallout experience, though.

I do love this game, and I want to write hundreds of pages about it, but for this blog I think that’s enough. I’ll be back, Preston, so don’t worry about your stupid Raider-infected settlements.

[jakejuliettfightsgames]

Hi. I just played BroForce

http://www.broforcegame.com/

BroForce is clearly meant to be fun. The game loop is pretty obvious -- go shoot some guys, rescue your friends, and you get to play as your friends, some more different guys. And, of course, each character is based on an action movie hero, which just makes it WAY more fun to "catch 'em all!"

The developers of this game did something interesting when they chose to make all of the game's characters blatant rip-offs of action movie heroes. Instead of spending time and energy on deciding the origins and beliefs of each character, they decided to leave that up to the player -- assuming the player recognizes the character from their movie role. In other words, the characters already existed, which afforded the developers more time to decide on the mechanics instead of the story of each possible dude. Allow me to compare the characters in BroForce to the three main characters in Grand Theft Auto V. In GTAV, you can play as Michael, Trevor, or Franklin. Each individual has an elaborate back story, but none of them really play all that differently from each other. They run, jump and shoot pretty much the same regardless -- so functionally, Michael, Trevor and Franklin are the same character: the narrative and aesthetic is what makes them fundamentally different.

Compare this with BroForce. Each character has their own narrative and aesthetic, of course, but Free Lives didn't bother writing those. That information exists elsewhere. Each character functions differently based on who they are. For example, Brade fights with a sword, as the corollary does in the movie Blade. He does all of his fighting up close, which means you have to constantly be weary of being shot or blown up because you can't just take cover. However, his attacks are very strong, meaning you can dispatch a large crowd pretty quickly before they even realize you're there. Meanwhile, Brominator, the Terminator knock-off, carries a minigun which demolishes anything you shoot it at. However, the force of it propels you backwards, meaning you'll only be close enough to kill a bunch of guys for a moment.

You see how each character has to be played completely differently? BroForce also forces you to learn strategies for each character by randomly assigning a new bro to you each time you die or rescue a fellow broski. In conjunction with destructible environments and vehicles to play with, the game provides you with a good amount of freedom to beat the level as you'd like.

For as functionally sound as this game is, I can't ignore it's narrative. I couldn't help but think, every time I started this game up or heard the announcer, how decidedly MURICAN this game is. I imagine this aesthetic was chosen as a satire -- the logo is a steel eagle flexing his guns in front of some American flags after all. Even so, I'm constantly reminded of the all-too-familiar narrative -- a bunch of muscle-ey white dudes (or "bros") go to someone else's country and start gunning down everyone who looks threatening. The bad guys (a phrase I really kind of hate) are stereotypical "bad guys" with no real reason to be fighting you. It kind of reminds me of that episode of Futurama where Fry and Bender join the military and they go fight aliens because, according to Zapp Brannigan, "They stand for everything we don't stand for! Also they told me you guys look like dorks!"

Is this a good enough reason to not enjoy the game? Of course not. As a game, this one stands pretty well on it's own. The narrative is essentially non-existent, but I was constantly reminded that this is a game that revolves almost entirely around a series of annoying stereotypes. Free Lives definitely leaned hard on those action hero characters, to the game's benefit. However, relying on the typical "shoot those guys who are different from us" narrative just feels, at best, lazy and, at worst, racist.

Just to round out my complaints about this game, this game suffers from being pretty same-y. I had the same complaint with Assassin's Creed -- at some point, it's pretty obvious that you're just doing the same thing over and over again, with no added difficulty each time. Granted, I didn't finish this game either, so maybe the difficulty ramps up later on. Then again, if a game can't compel me it's interesting enough to complete it, then that's on them.

I must say the various characters in this game are a lot of fun to play as -- except for MacBrover. Oh my God, this guy's a giant pain in the ass to play as (although, I do find it hilarious that your enemies catch the dynamite if you throw it at them)! I also found myself laughing a lot at the absurdity of this game. It bears mentioning that the mechs in this game are REALLY cool. But, ultimately, I don't really like to stick to playing a game because it's "fun" or "cool". I need more hooks than that.