Talking Spiraling

A blog about games, super heroes, movies and of course e-sports. I am from Poland and I will be biased because of it.

[spiralingworm]

Jupiter Ascending… wait… wrong movie

Io is one of the moon orbiting Jupiter and is named after Hera’s priestess, Zeus lover and of course mythological character. Io is also name of the movie currently available on Netflix and I don’t like it…

I think my biggest problem with this movie is that trailer was really misleading for me. I was expecting nice post apocalyptic escape from earth story. Characters against all odds try to rush to rocket starting zone. Drive through empty towns that are not really scary just hollow. Like for example they would need to cross some crooked bridge, but they need to do it fast because their oxygen tank is low. Fly the balloon in mist so thick that they scooped some vanilla ice cream while dodging Eiffel Tower. They would succeed or not, either way I would be fine with it. Meanwhile the biggest action scene here is when Anthony Mackie goes to town on juicy tomato.

This movie is 90 percent talk, they talk on her farm, they talk while driving through misty town (one town, to be clear), they talk in some fancy devastated restaurant and they talk in the art gallery. Yes, Io tries to be a symbol, or metaphor if you will, for various more or less important talking points. I guess if you want to make more philosophical movie you don’t want incorporate Bay style explosion in the mix, because you will draw viewers away from important things in your work. Although it would be nice, if you would be honest about it in you trailer. Is it actually all smart and fancy?

Well… short answer. No. Definitely not. Sam (Margaret Qualley) continues the work of her father to slightly alter our genes, so human could survive different atmosphere. The air is so bad, because human race fucked up and pretty much everything dies after breathing for like 5 seconds. Oh and just to be clear her father is dead, but she choose to hide this important information from Micah (Anthony Mackie), her long distant more than BFF and pretty much the whole world for about 2/3 of a movie. Here is my first problem with this plot, and maybe I am terribly arrogant here, but wouldn’t it be a smarter move to just leave earth so everything would stabilise? I guess with this logic whole science work would be pointless, but it’s not like this movie confirms my train of thought in last scene. Instead Sam desperately holds to legacy that her father “left her”.

So when she finally decides to leave earth with the last shuttle, because Micah generally forced her to, the movie drags for like another 30 minutes. I think they tried to hype this last escape a little bit, build some momentum with anticipation, but it lead to more talking and tiny amount of driving in the fog. Of course in the final “tear-jerking” plot twist she decides to actually stay here with her last resort “experiment”. All in all the movie is pretty forgettable, but I guess it doesn’t tarnish the brand like Death Note by Netflix.

[spiralingworm]

The whole mobile debacle

So Blizzcon 2018 happened and I am sitting here feeling like a typical dad… Not mad just disappointed.

To understand why I feel this way you need to understand something about me. I really had bad time deciding what genre is my personal favourite, but after a while I finally settled for hack’n’slash. Nothing just engages me enough like slaying endless groups of monsters in preferably isometric camera position. Sadly platformers and shooters were pushed to 2nd and 3rd position and this saying a lot, because I considered Doom 2016 my game of the year a while back. So to see the IP that started all this love for me turned into a mobile game, when there was a promise of “multiple projects to share later this year”… It’s just heartbreaking.

You might be thinking now that I despise mobile games, but this is really not the case. I would love to use my phone to game more and believe me I tried to look for Diablo clones for my android. They just weren’t any to capture my attention in any shape or form. I think part of the reason is the controls, the touch screen isn’t ideal for h’n’s and I doubt that it ever will be. Touch controls aside the size and the way you need to hold any phone can be really tedious. Personally my hands feel super weird after 30 minutes of play time, and I don’t about you but I can play my favourite games for longer than that. Lastly I think the more complicated a mobile game is, in terms of mechanics, the less fun it is. Simple games or turned base systems really work wonders for the platform. That is why I settled for Tetris and simple game called aa for when I want some play time on phone. I also enjoyed Battle of Polytopia and Kingdom Rush, but I just “finished” them. Hack’n’slash is really heavy on reaction times and more precise movement were touch screens struggle, so I doubt D:I could achieve the goal of satisfying me.

You could say that I might be wrong this time (not that I wasn’t multiple times), because of all companies in gaming Blizzard is the type of brand that delivers. They surely spend a lot of time on it to battle the problems mobile titles have and we have nothing to worry about. Except this isn’t being made by Blizzard. Yeah they assigned their artist, writers and designers to this project, but majority of the ground work was made in Netease Inc. The company that was known for making Wow clones or even Diablo clones for mobile. So nothing here truly feels like Blizz work. Even the cinematic just feels off for me, like this wasn’t made with Blizzard’s Mark of Quality. On top of everything Netease is also known for heavily monetising their work so, if you were in this group of people that called Diablo 3 RMAH pay to win you will maybe want to eat your words soonTM.

With all this turmoil one thing makes me happy, because no matter who we were before Blizzcon 2018 (Blizzard fan, Diablo 1 fan, Diablo 2 fan, Diablo 3 fan, Diablo 3 hater or heck even if you switched to PoE, because D was dead for you for long time) we all just said “Nope” and Blizzard felt it. I really feel for the devs on stage, especially since I really enjoy D3 and I think Wyatt Cheng is the big reason why. So when he met dead silence while announcing Diablo Immortal, when he got asked if this is an out of season april fool’s joke or when he got boo’ed on stage, I am not gonna lie I was happy we all are on the same page with this one. I have no sympathy for the dev that shouted “Do you not have phones?”, I am 99% sure it was Wyatt though, he jumped onto train tracks by himself.

It’s not like companies can’t go mobile. I just think that there is a time, place and mood for everything. Nintendo put their beloved IP on mobile, and nobody was angry about it. They showed Super Mario Run with Jimmy Fallon, nobody in their right mind could be angry for that. Bethesda maybe showed Elder Scrolls Blade in front of E3 crowd, but they also run a teaser for TES6. At least we know that Beth haven’t forgotten about people that mainly play on PC or console. Instead Blizzard went full EA, announcing mobile title for beloved IP, when fans of the originals felt neglected for years. At this point it is hard for me to believe when higher ups from Blizzard tell us that they are preparing other Diablo projects, they just aren’t ready to show us anything yet. In this highly volatile market when announced games get scrapped and long running companies just die with no warning the words of some old dad mean nothing to me.

PS. I can’t even play Diablo Immortal, because my phone isn’t supported.

PPS. No, I am not going to upgrade my phone to play a game… My fiancée would kill me.

[spiralingworm]

Horizon: Atheism Dawn

Warning: I will be spoiling some of the Horizon lore and pretty big story plot points. Maybe don't read this, if you plan on finishing Horizon: Zero Dawn.

Horizon is an exceptional game in my eyes. From the very beginning till the very end I was engaged in Aloy story. The combat system certainly helped in keeping me hooked, because for every secret the world had to offer there was a satisfying fight to back it all up. Giant robo dinosoaurs roaming the land are the best thing I encountered on my PS4. There is this strangely satisfying feeling of aiming at specific machine parts, releasing the arrow and watching green damage indicator going up. The sounds...

(Photo Mode #1)

The sound feedback you receive as a player is just awesome. You know when you made a good shot , you know when you should dodge and you know when you screwed up. Only thing better than sound in this game are the visuals. This game just looks gorgeous. I don't know how exactly Guerilla was able to pull this out, but I am pretty happy for them. Especially because I got to play this awesome game, and engage in this beautiful and rich world. Rich in lore and sense.

(Photo Mode #2)

This game just makes sense. Everyone here happens for a reason and pretty much everything is explained in some way. By the end you know everything you should know and you are eager to learn more. The world is filled with small lore that explains small quirks that the old ones bothered with. There are the obvious comedy holo letters, but you will also find some scary ones. Like how big corporations roamed the world and use their power to silence the criticism in brutal fashion.

(Photo mode #3)

The Old Ones understood the world and how all of this stuff works. Their technology was sophisticated and thanks to that they had the ability to create anything at will. Their multicultural society was beautiful. Technology lived side by side with religion and everyone was okay with it, because they had pretty good grasp on universe. Let's flash forward to present time. Tribal times.

Now for the bigger spoiling part.

There are three major tribes present in the game Banuk, Carja and Nora. All three of them have their own religion and reasoning behind those faiths. In many ways those humans are very primitive and they read the universe wrong. All three of them built their faith on wrong perception, because of insufficient data. Humans are scared of things they can't easily explain and religion gives you those answers and all are happy. Pretty much...

(Photo Mode #4)

Banuk live in their small village in peace with what are normally pretty aggressive machines. When you enter their tiny encampment you will see robots standing still and people worshiping them. Everything is of course in calming shade of blue. Banuk priests will tell you that their holy cries and prayings are the reason for all of this. That they can create the signal that somehow calms those creatures down. High above the village lies small easter egg from the old ones. The big ball that transmits calming signal to all creatures around. There is nothing magical about it.

(Random non-scripted encounters. The world just lives.)

Carja are praising the sun. Literally the sun is a god in their world. They are also the most civil ones among three you meet. They made some advancments in technology and society. Their new king is actually quite nice and reasonable man. Yet they still think this big ball of fire in the sky has consciousness and is responsible for life on earth. Well it is partially true, but not in the sense Carja believe. The point that they get right is the understanding that sun treats everyone equally. Burning everyone the same way... well depending on you geographical location.

(Photo Mode #5)

So we arrive to the third tribe our tribe and by our I mean the tribe where Aloy was born. Nora worship the All-Mother deity which lives inside giant mountain. This tribe is lead by High Matriarchs and you are eligible for this title by being a grandmother, and you grandchildren need to be alive. I actually like this conditions, because if you are old enough for the job you probably know a little bit about life. Of course there are some exceptions and you will experience them playing the game, but hey it works. The deity is actually an artificial intelegence in charge of gatekeeping. Giant mountain is just a big vault of the old ones, and the key to opening the door is possessing correct DNA. Which no one in Nora tribe actually have so no one can actually enter the vault. Ironic isn't it?

(Seriously spoilers now)

So you play as an outcast Aloy from Nora tribe that needs to prove that she isn't the lesser one. Why she is an outcast? The vault is actaully a repopulation center left by the old ones and Aloy is the product of this place. Machines left her at the front gate soon after birth in hope that the tribe will take care of her. The twist here is that matriarchs treat her as impure, because All-Mother said so. Due to malfunction in DNA database AI just couldn't recognise her. So they banish a child which is unable to move it's limbs properly. Banishing to live alone in the wild that is. Thank fuck for another outcast Rost, because he took care of this little child.

(Photo mode #7)

I mean I could even kinda understand their position, because they don't know any better. However it is hard to not see a correlation between this world and our world. In both advancement of technology and religion trying to explain the world. I generally believe that the world will end by some genious scientist going a step too far. I generally believe that the world would be a better place if not for medieval ways of killing brilliant minds. I mean just think of it. What could Galileo accomplish, if not for the threats of literally burning him alive. That said religion is a great way to find morality in this cruel world, just not the only one.

Oh and by the way when Aloy starts to understand more of the world, by actually researching what The Old Ones accomplished, she is seriously sick and tired by this religious bullshit...

[spiralingworm]

The Fair Play

So yesterday Polish ski jumping team took the gold medal in Lahti. It was a nice win, they got the early lead and did not let go for the whole tournament. If you never met any Pole, you need to know one thing. We are very to quick to catch a fever for something just to drop it as quickly when things go south. Everyone is an expert when Polish sportsman play well. Ski jumping was very popular when Adam Małysz reign supreme in this sport couple of years ago. Today we still have some great jumpers and one arguably the same class as Małysz if not better. The thing is I don't feel this rush anymore.

(Polish winning team.)

I think one of the reasons I am kinda iffy about sports in general is the fairness issue. For example in jumping wind plays a huge role and as we all know nature can be unpredictable. So when this sport was in development people figured out to change height of start bar based on conditions. This creates another issue in terms of fair play that you cannot always make it so completely balanced. No matter how sophisticated the rules and mechanics would be there is no chance to make it completely fair. With technology still in development maybe one day we will have this sport really fair and balanced.

(The technology will consume us by the way.)

Still the technology can also give unpredicted unfair, at least in my eyes, advantage. There was this trend, and I am really bad at remembering, when I think Germans tested new suits with hoods. In theory this should help with aerodynamics when flying. I am not quite sure what happened with it, but in my eyes this was not exactly. Formula 1 is basicly based on this technological arms race and that is very exciting but on the other hand it can lead to some serious head aches for judges.

(Running in action.)

Spiraling you are being somewhat unfair, because athletics is basicly a whole category of various sports where this kind of disadvantages does not exist. Actually... yeah you are right, but from my point of view only short distance runners are worth watching here. Of course unless some Polish guy or girl can win, remember this Polish almost tribal mentality? Yeah so I don't actually enjoy classical sport, but computer games on the other hand.

(Still one of my favourite wallpaper.)

Today is the last day of Intel Extreme Masters Katowice where players from all around the world compete in Counters Strike Global Offensive, League of Legends and Starcraft 2. I love it. The enjoyment from watching how great players control their units, champions and crosshairs is immense for me. I think I like it, because when I was a teenager this was the first thing time when I trully understood the rules. That and the fact that I was kinda fat and bad at sports... Yeah this helped immensely in my disliking of sports.

(What a nerd!)

So there I was young with my gaming hobby watching WC3 tournament replays. I watched players like Grubby, Moon or Sky doing their best to win the game and take the grand prize. It was actually kinda tedious and archaic when I compare it to todays experience. You needed to go throught the process of finding interesting replay in the database, downloading it and then watching it. Controlling the camera in a perfect way so you won't miss anything important. I still enjoyed it greatly, because it was fun the see micro battles on my computer. WCG was awesome.

(This song is catchy. Be warned!)

This was my first experience of watching games with commentary. Bad video quality and bad web video player in general made for some exceptional horrendous viewing experience. Yet I still was amazed at the fact that someone played a game, casters were providing their voice and crowd was cheering for some great moves. Plus there was this one time when Polish CS team won the whole thing in China. Yay for my Polish nature. Then came along Youtube and various personalities that created shoutcasting for WC3. In general those guys picked, watched, provided commentary and uploaded the whole clip to the service. At this point I was hooked and still am pretty much to this day.

(Why?)

So this entry is called Fair Play, but why? It is actually quite simple. I consider video games to be the best sport in terms of fair play. It may seem like a bold statement, but the biggest disadvantage that I can think of is latency and that would be it. Time and money investment that are required in esports are pretty much the same as any other sport if not lower on the money part. The thing is that in normal sports there will always be a human error in judging. There will always be some minor rule breaking by players not picked up by judges. I am looking at you footbal players, and while I am at you the drama is sometimes just sad. Like there are some guys that could be serious actors if not for their football jobs.

(Game characters. Yay!)

On the other hand we have video game where rules are set by game designer and electronical overlord keeps everything fair. This overlord cannot be bought or persuaded. He sees something out of order and does not allow it to even happen. With internet power everyone can compete and everyone have equal chances. With services like Twitch and Youtube professional players have great relationship with community not exactly seen in other places.

(World divided by variety.)

The other very important factor for me is the setting. When you watch football, basketball, athletics, snow sport or curling it is always about humans using their body and mind to win. Sometime while using some specifics set of tools, but there is nothing funky. In esports? Starcraft is a strategy game where 3 races, human like terrans, high tech protoss and beast-like zerg battle to the death. Counter Strike is a shooter where terrorists want blow up some structure and swat team is there to stop them. League of Legends/DotA2 two opposing teams of five players pick from diverse pool of champions to dominate the battlefield. This list does not include everything, because there are games like Overwatch, Hearthstone, Rocket League, World of Tanks or Smash. Games are interesting and that is because I loved watching them.

(Everything is okay.)

All that blabing makes you think I hate traditional sports, but this is far from true. I am actually watching european athletics right about now with addition to IEM. Especially since Polish guys and girls are getting pretty nice results in Belgrade. I just think that talking about esports will put a stigma on you, because this is all made up. Well of course it is. This is the bigest selling point for games and loved them for it.

[spiralingworm]

Let's Switch it up!

So us you probably all know I like Nintendo products. There are couple of reasons for that, but I think nostalgia has a lot to do with it. I liked playing games like Contra or Mario in my younger times, because those games were simply fun. Nintendo still has some great ideas when it comes to game designing. I think Splatoon is one of the prime examples here.

(You’re a kid, you’re a squid now!)

For those of you that don't know about what game am I talking now Splatoon is a team based platforming arena shooter about squids. Oh and paintball... You win by covering map with your team colour, and by turning into a squid you can swin in your paint for higher movement speed and longer jumps. If this very brief explanation doesn't seem exciting for you it's okay, because I really think you need to play it or extensively watch to understand. This whole bizzare concept for a game came from young team of game designers in Nintendo. In the world of really violent shooters like Titanfall 2, Doom or Battlefield the non-violent route seems risky to say the least. Nintendo is known from this high risk high reward move or in other words cheese.

(Triforce... cheese joke...)

Nintendo's whole bussines relies on three fundamentals let's call this a Triforce for humour purposes.

Zelda

Link started his adventure on Nintendo Entertainment System with Legend of Zelda and it quickly proved everyone that he is here to stay. There is something magical about all those games starring Link. Maybe it is everyone's dream for the grand adventure where you save a princess. You know the one that takes place in a kingdom far, far away. You just pick up a sword and charge into unknown. Is it safe out there? Of course not and that is why you have a sword. Maybe it is the fact that Link is just another random noname boy and he simply believes that what he is doing is right. By the way this is courage App... back to the point. I know that this seems like a typical  story in typical world by lazy writer, but I don't know it just works. It is simple and it is fun.

Mario

Platformer about a plumber who saves a princess, but in Mario defense those games actually have very little story to it. This game is all about precise jumps and last second decisions. Nobody actually cares who Mario is, why he is here or why the hell he has a mustache. He just is here to beat King Koopa and his minions and free princess Peach from her prison. Ridiculous? Of course it is, but again this a game about story. Everyone plays Mario for great level design and interesting mechanics or power ups. Thanks to the succes of the first game Mario became an icon for Nintendo. So much so the company venture into other genres with him like kart racing or RPG. He even was briefly considered as a playable character fo Splatoon and thank Jim they went with squids. Mario is on the front line for gaming not just for Nintendo.

Gimmicks

Wait, what? Yes, I think that trying to be as innovative as possible with every product is the fundament of Nintendo and it is the most important one for them. It is at the same time a blessing and a curse for them. I mean just look at the Wii succes versus Wii U failure. Yeah the marketing for the latter was just so painly bad that it is hard to even comprehend, but it is also showing the mentality of Nintendo “Play big or don't even bother”. They create hardware that relies on some new interesting idea and then they will try to build a game that use it to its fullest potential. Most of the times this approach really works and we receive a well balanced gameplay that is just fun to play around. The problem appears when N will try to reinvent a wheel and gameplay will suffer because they refuse to use schematics that simply work. Nintendo is Nintendo biggest enemy in this situations.

(That was actually very good)

Okay so with all that in mind let's talk march 3rd and the upcoming release of Nintendo Switch. Brand new hybrid of handheld and stationary console which was, for a very long time, known under a codename NX. As, hopefully, you can see the premise is simple but actually really exciting. Play your games on a TV and when you need to leave your home just snap Joycon's on the console and take your game with you. Even the click sound is something that still sits in my head and does not want to leave. I don't know this console just spoke to me when on october 20th this clip saw the light of day. It was awesome till like 5 minutes after the clip realeased. It went only down for me after that.

(My excellent hype versus time line)

I think the biggest problem for me is the attitude that Nintendo presented after that. They simply refused to say anything about their shiny new console until January 12th. They didn't want to comment on anything, not even a confirmation that Skyrim would be ported for the device. Why would you show gameplay of a game if you aren't ready to acknowledge it will be on your console. You could say that they wanted to avoid drowning in sea of mud that is christmas, but for me this just shows that you don't believe in your product. You don't have anything new this holiday season so why in the hell you go silent? Okay so maybe this is just my gamer ADHD speaking. Maybe the January presentation will be awesome and it will be all fine.

(I feel kinda meh..)

Well... yes and no. The price is actually quite nice and of course the games are actually really interesting. Of course we already knew a lot about Breath of the Wild and it actually looks really good from gameplay perspective. There is of course new Mario game which looks really weird and awesome at the same time. The hat throwing in particular seems like a mechanic that can provide really hard and really satisfying manouvers. Splatoon is coming back with some more splatting and while it looks like just more of the same it is fine, because this game is just that good. Of course Nintendo wouldn't be itself if it didn't introduce something entirely new to the table.

(Arms a new IP)

Arms is game about putting on some boxing gloves and stepping on a ring to fight 1on1 with some absurd enemy. Oh and your character is also absurd just to let you know. I mean the over stylisation is fine, because at this point you just don't expect anything else from Nintendo. Not to mention that they are the company that actually can deliver when it comes down to simple fun from gameplay. So actually while Arms may as well seem really stupid it can actually work pretty well.

(Series of mini games.)

1-2 Switch is actually series of mini games that tries to show off what an actual hardware can do. In most cases you don't even need to look on the screen to play. There are games like cow milking, wizard fight, cowboy quick draw... Simple stuff that will entertain your guests for like an hour and it will be put back to the box and never shown again. In their defense Wii Sports is on the second place when it comes to copies sold, but it also was bundled to Wii for a very long time. 1-2 is not budled it is a stand-alone product with MSRP 49.99. This is a lot I don't care how many mini games are there.

(Those are of course included in base console, but additional cost...)

I think this is the problem I have with Switch the cost is low, but not as low to reason day one/year one purchase. It may seem like there is a lot games coming to Switch now in March, but no. Mario will be released in holiday season. Arms will be month or two after Switch and the same goes for Mario Kart. Splatoon 2? Summer 2017. Of all that games only Zelda and 1-2 Switch  is coming day one. No, wait Bomberman R... wait no... Do I want to count it? Well early adopters sure as hell will need to do it because there is nothing else they will be able to do with this device.

(Wii U got crap for too big controller. How is it any different?)

There will be no video apps available for them at launch and before you ask. No, not even Youtube. Meaning that you are either happy with Zelda or will use Switch as shiny statue on your shelf. I don't expect Zelda to suck as the matter of fact I can safely claim this will GOTY for 2017, but some choice would be nice. Surely we can compromise I mean Wii U had some awesome internet browser and almost everything worked there. There is only one small exception for this Nintendo Switch will not feature aa internet browser on launch. If and when it will appear remains a secret. Not that you could use internet on the go. Switch will not have sim card slot for 3G or something like that. So maybe let's turn to third parties, indies of this world.

(The indies)

So there will be World of Goo on day one, great. Except people that would want to play this game already did on other devices. We have Binding of Isaac great game that will debut on march 17th, but wait currently only for NA region. Despite claiming on the presentation that will not be region locked we still need to jump through hoopes of company own regional politics. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't sometimes pissed on Sony for the very same thing, but I swear Nintendo is worse. We also have Shovel Knight great game... here actually have a list and sort by date here. It seems like a lot but keep in my mind that most of those are just rereleased products. Please don't exactly believe people saying something along the line of “X game is amazing I bought it on y, z and t, and I will buy it for Switch”. I mean maybe believe them, but are you seriously consider them sane? For comparison PS4 here, and of course sort by date and look at day one/month one anything after that is pointless.

(JoyCon)

Remember when I said that the biggest enemy of Nintendo is Nintendo? I think the villain strikes again. Aside the horrendous accessory prices for Switch. Single Joycons that presumably are perfect for a grown-up. Like hell they are... There is the problem of power. There is reason as to why specifics about GPU or CPU can be found only in rumours and leaks. Official specifications here basicly says “Yes, we have a GPU here.”... Well I hope so. The internet got mad about Mohammad Alavi comment "No. F*** no. No you're not going to be able to fit Titanfall on it. That's the same Zelda from the Wii U [laughs].". This is Respawn Entertainment senior designer saying no to prospect of porting TF2 to Switch. Just to let you know they did exceptional optimisation for PS4 in my eyes. You receive nice 60 FPS and I swear sometimes I blinked and missed the load times for couple MP matches. The amount of work needed to downgrade a game like this so it will work like this is absurd and not worth the money. AAA developers would need to create games specifically for Switch and they will not create games for a platform that doesn't sold well. It didn't sold well because people are not especially keened on buying Nintendo only exclusive device... I mean I have Wii U, but I am not entirely sane... exactly... So the playerbase will stay low and... You see where I am going here? Okay, but you could say Wii and try to shut me down this way.

(Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii)

Well the whole premise of motion controls simply worked for everyone. Gramma, granda, mother, father, uncle, three year old sister, that cousin that hate games. Pretty much all of them know how to swing a tennis racket or play golf using Wiimote. The stereotypical housewives played Wii Sports to stay fit and it was a perfect sell. I mean if there was one thing that nerds don't do is exercise. So no I don't think Switch even remotely compares to what Wii have to offer. Not to mention that those housewives does not have any reason to buy a new shiny box. At this point I am fairly convinced that Nintendo hardware would endure atomic bomb, napalm strike, Cyclops laser beam, dropping from 100 meters and Hugh Jackman.

(That’s right!)

As always only time will tell if Nintendo is a genius or they will need to live through another generation of weak sales. I wish I was wrong. I wish that Switch will be a great game changer, but at this point I think there only be one true game changer. Pokemon. If there ever was a franchise that literally moved consoles and people bought a device only to play one game it is this one. It would also need to come with the news of killing New 3DS. It is possible, but when?

[spiralingworm]

Put a Coin to Continue

So what happened? Last time you saw me I was planning to play No Man's Sky. I succeded on that part at least. I was engaged into Hello Games creation for the most part. I know this game is really controversial topic, but I honestly enjoyed the gameplay. With the “new” foundation update, which is foundation to foundation of the foundation to NMS, the next things to come look really exciting. This isn't a blog post for that, this is a post to explain why SpiralingWorm was hiding under the rock for like half a year. The simple answer is that I think I was bussy with private stuff, with social stuff, work stuff and actually playing games. So in grand scheme of things I think I took too much.

(Just too much...)

I was hoping to pump blog post after post in really short amount of time. This was I think my first big problem. I went into this loop of coming home after work, which on its own can be really tiresome, maybe watch something or play some game, spending time with my girlfriend, thinking about the upcoming “deadline” for next blog post, reading internet news, eating, sleeping, working, writing post. Maybe for the seasoned writers this is like typical tuesday, but I still need some time to think everything through. So when I tried writing every 3 to 4 days I was exhausted with all this. Maybe after a while when I will have more experience things like this will come naturally, but for now I think I need to dial down.

(Fresh, clean and full of ideas)

I still want to write blog posts, because despite energy drain I was enjoying the process. When I was thinking about what should I write this time around I was actually excited. I love to think about random stuff when go somewhere. Sometimes long lonely travel times all of a sudden seem like 5 minutes. Sometimes games give me this push to strategise, and I think this is part of the reason why I like them so much. I hope this new found push to write is here to stay. So what I was up to gaming wise?

(Yeah!! Sweat and nausea)

First thing first PS VR, and I love this tech. PC equivalents (Vive or Rift) of course are superior in terms of both available power and tracking. The screen is relatively debatable issue, but let's not go into details. I always thought that of all three (I am not counting Samsung Gear... just no...) Sony's creation will have the highest chance to brake into the mainstream. PCMR will be angry by what I will say next but what the hell, Sony is actually pulling it off. Resident Evil 7 is an example of AAA game that fully exploit the VR immersion. Batman Arkham VR while short was just freaking awesome. The feeling of being in the game was just remarkable when I drove a car in Driveclub VR demo. No regrets of picking it up on launch day.

(My banner is foil, so better.)

As for regrets... Titanfall was this game I was never actually able to play, because Xbox exclusive and my PC not being good enough, So when second game launched I was kinda meh about it. I mean I didn't think of it as a bad game, but I wasn't so eager to play it. So when one time I got an email from Sony with a discount coupon I said to myself “Ahh... What the hell.” As always with shooters I started and finished campaign before jumping on the multiplayer. After Doom singleplayer I was actually meh about it, but I am not gonna lie that MP portion of TF2 just knocks Demon Slayer in one swift hit. I am looking up to the future of this game also.

(Great shot!)

About new things on the horizon there is Horizon. Post-apocalyptic world full of animal machines and primitive tribes that calls us the ancestors. Devasted cities with abandoned skyscrapers simply blend into the nature that took back the land. I just hope that Alloy will be fun to play and it won't end after 8 hours. I guess we will see on february 20th when the embargo lifts.

So that will be it for a while, but I hope to write something again soon. For now I hope For Honor will prove me wrong and be a smash hit. After beta I am little dissapointed (teeny-tiny).

[spiralingworm]

Thy Hype Consumed

There is a game releasing in Europe tomorrow. A game so big that it is even hard to imagine how big.

18,446,744,073,709,551,616

Creators pretty much made their way with a fact that their game will never be fully explored. It is impossible to do so in reasonable amount of time. Whole population of earth, and I mean everyone from toddler to 120 years old granny, playing 24/7 without any sleep would need 76 years to discover everything. This simple calculation was even made with impossible claim that everyone would discover a planet every second. No travel time and there is a travel time.

(Out of space and Prodigy. The electronic music grandfathers. I love them.)

The space simulation games are now starting to pop out like rainbows after rain. It is magnificent. With Elite: Dangerous already out on PC (and Xbox One, I think) and Star Citizen in the making for PC there is no better time to be a gamer than now. The possibility of being in a space ship and just cruising through darkness excites me. I never really got into Homeworld, I loved the concept, but I was too young back than to understand it and play properly. So tomorrow morning when I will finally be able to put a disc into my PS4. After I will download 800 MB of a patch. I will just do what I told you. I will start exploring the universe.

(The word you are looking for is 18 Quintillion.)

So now when I gave your brain time to wrap around this number we can talk how. The answer is both simple and complicated. Procedural generation. There is a number of mathematic equations and algorithms that build the universe for you. One number (the seed) is put into the splicer, the machine puts out different variations endlessly and that numbers are used to create planet after planet, and stars, and anomalies. The set amount of rules are in place for it all to make sense and create fun gameplay. One thing you need to need to consider that this is the simplest explanation I can think of right now, but it isn't that simple. There is a line of code after line of code that makes this all possible. The amount of work put in by the studio is astounding, and they gave it pretty graphics.

(Promo screenshot from a game. This is what it looks like.)

This is really important for me and I know this sounds shallow. Graphics are important to me but maybe not in a way that you think. This isn't the fact that I expect photo realistic graphics and I will not play anything below that. I mean pretty much my ownership of both PS4 and Wii U speaks volumes that this isn't the case. The game can be pixelated or blocky, but when made aesthetically pleasing I am good to go. The colour pallet is straight up into my alley and the ingame models look great. I just love how it looks. I am really happy that they did not choose more realistic vibe and went with this vibrant colours. This gives engine more space for gimmicks, and weird creations. This way the game will be able to sometimes shock you more. Me eyes are satisfied, but what ears?

(65 Days of Static band that made music for the game.)

The music is this bizzare mixture of ambient, rock and trash falling from the 5th floor. Lovely trash I want to add. Wikipedia calls it instrumental math and post-rock. Funny how a game where mathematics play such a huge role music is also math. It maybe that I am really excited about this game, but when I hear 65DoS I can almost see exploration. The music is really another reason why I think this game will be The Game of 2016 for me. OST from games are huge part of my music education. The large variety of genres within this category is what keeps me interesting. How finite music album can be suitable for infinite universe? It cannot. That is why sound designer for Hello Games chopped the album into small little pieces and created a procedural music generator. Portal 2 had something similar to this. Maybe that extreme like this, but they definitly went couple of miles more so players will not get bored.

(Sean Murray the head of Hello Games.)

But what do you actually do in No Man's Sky? Excellent question asked by large amount of people. Partially it is true that devs didn't make an effort to explain what is NMS. I say partially because I do not feel this is true. This information is on the internet in various interviews. Now this is the point where a lot of people get angry. They seem to think that HG should done more. I feel otherwise and I am pretty happy with information that I got. I know what to expect. I kept my imagination down, not because NMS doesn't excite me rather the opposite, but if I would go in with  some crazy picture I would be disappointed. I think this is what happened to a lot of people they let their brains go wild and when various leaks hit the web they felt letdown by HG. The hype train went strong for far too long in this one and when it derailed the crash was brutal. This is an exploration/survival game with resource gathering. You need to take care of your suit to not die from cold, heat, toxic etc. You need to respect the wilderness or it will disrespect you. If animals are no much to you it will be the robotic sentinels job to kick you down a notch. You will be learning the language of alien races and trade with them. You will buy new ships and upgrade your old with tech modules. You will find new planets and animal species every day and name them with what you suits them (there will be a lot of controversy with this one). In all this there will be a main “story” quest: Travel to the center. I used quotation, because it is more like a main theme than a thing that you should do. You can do whatever you want, you can travel wherever you want. You are a space explorer after all.

PS. I will create a sub blog here with my very own Captain's Log. I will try to make couple of registrations with my every playthroughs. More interesting planets will probably receive some bigger text. See you in outer space!

[spiralingworm]

I am too old for this...

This I think will be kinda short, because to be honest I feel really tired. I don't know what it is exactly. Part of the reason is maybe the falling air pressure in Poland. Second reason is that I lost 2 hours of my life on a “class” conducted by very uninspiring person. About a subject that I actually already knew quite a bit and this whole exercise was pointless. Anyhow my mood got me thinking about enjoying media when your brain needs sleep.

(Generic photo #1)

Pretty only think I can do now is either watch or listen. Anything above that could possibly end in huge failure... Hmm... I cannot exactly multitask right now to both watch and write this blog so lets go with music. Currently listening to 65daysofstatic check them out really good music. Music is so forgiving that you can listen it in any state. Good music gives my brain illusion that he is being massaged. This actually kinda funny feeling. This state of trance. The greatest things of all is that different people achieve it by different type of music. I think it is the case of our brains vibing on huge spectrum frequencies. It's like with headphones everyone has his own different scale.

(Generic photo #2)

What about movies? It is actually harder to do. I think the biggest problem is the addition of plot. Music in albums has this whole integrity, but you can sleep through couple of song and enjoy the last song. With movies you sleep for 15 minutes and you realise that Jack is dead, apparently some horrible accident, and Jenny is pregnant. Or Jenny died and Jack is pregnant? It wouldn't be so bad if you rewatch your favourite movie because you know what happened to Jenny. Let's be honest for a second you wouldn't snooze when you watch your favourite movie. So when you fall a sleep and loose plot it is actually horrible and pointless to watch the end.

(Generic photo #3. This has a cat,)

Books? Yeah, right. If you consider loosing 15 minutes of movies is bad try loosing whole chapter of a book. Brain reads words but he always forgets to hit save button. I can almost see the words just flying away from pages into thin air. After a second you just stare at a blank page. Jenny? It isn't funny how sad that sounds.

(Generic photo #4)

Video games are really hard on low fuel. Most of them are really engaging and require quite a lot of your attention. You can perform simple things or routines that are engraved into your brain but good luck doing anything more. This large hydra will behead Kratos in matter of seconds. I played Diablo 3 once on tiniest amounts of energy. My brain just said “No” and turned off for like 5 seconds next thing my wizard stands in some dark corner with nothing to do. So games are also not so great.

(Last bunt not least generic photo #5)

So how beer works on me? Or quite literally any drink. I am really sleepy. I cannot quite enjoy drinking and playing/watching as much as you would think. This why I never really could get into this drinking games with... games. I would start yawnig before 3 sips. Maybe it is for the better you know? When I played Lineage 2 I never really did anything stupid while drunk. While my clanmates seek their gear next morning. I never always understood the point of all this. You sacrifice your mobility and reflex for what? Skewed perception of the reality? If you need this to enjoy the game you play maybe you should reconsider your purchase? I don't know I am tired.

[spiralingworm]

The Tower of Oli City

So empathy wasn't always my stronger suit. You learned this from my previous blop post. How about something different but strictly correlated with empathy. Without empathy it is actually quite hard to name and describe love. Love is in songs, poems, movies. Love is in the air. Love is everywhere but video games. Well not exactly but the concept of love in games is still in embryonal forms.

(Bioware really old rpg making studio)

Pretty much the only place where love is present and is actually “in development” is the RPG genre.  Bioware is the RPG dinosaur by gaming world clocks. So naturally they seen a lot and they tried a lot. They know how to make interesting character development. They like to put some romantic action to their titles. Just to be clear it isn't as easy as walking to partner and hitting sex in dialoug options. Well maybe when interacting with NPCs that are prostitutes, but that costs in game money. You actually need to perform actions and direct your character in a way that is in line with your love interest morale code. Seducing partner can an interesting quest on its own in RPG.

(Bulletstorm pretty cool FPS by Polish studio People Can Fly.)

Quests... Maybe this is the case. Other genres just do not have quests. There aren't as much for storytelling. The other genres are more about their mechanics. Developing interesting characters is still important in newest Battlefield, but maybe not so much as the gunplay is. Spending long hours in dialogues figuring out what is the best political move is standard for Witcher series. It would be a giant waste of time in Street Fighter V. So maybe it is like in movies. There are romantic comedies for those that want some heart breaking scenes and there are action movies for those that want some heart stopping scenes.

(Promo art for popular TV series Arrow.)

So aside from games I like TV series in general. I have a lot of them on my list. Arrow, Gotham, How I met your mother, The Big bang theory... to name few. Just like with games I don't have a specific “genre” I watch what I like. I think that every show has some specific theme that fits the form. I like those TV series more than traditional movies because they do not end as fast. I like my steady stream of entertainment. Short bursts of movie awesomeness when they end bring me this bitter aftertaste that I really do not enjoy. So what happens when a show about super heroes tries to implement love...

(Olicity... [=.=])

Olicity... I retyped this in case you missed my initial disappointment. So Arrow is a show about Oliver Queen a guy that (kinda) spent 5 years on hellish island where he learned all of his skills. He is great at martial arts and wields both sword and bow like a pro. On top of that he wore green in newest season. Now when I think of it he is kinda like Link from Zelda games... Sorry, back on topic. Arrow was fun. It was truly a great super hero series. Great action, great villans and nice plots. Every season was about Oliver and his friends dealing with increasing in difficulty danger. It was always about figuring out how to deal with a lot stronger opponent. Until they came up with a great idea that Oliver will fell in love with Felicity Smoak.

(Arrow now.)

It isn't a shot from some standard soap opera. It is a shot from latest season of Arrow. Show that I loved so much. All of sudden it wasn't about catching some bad guys. Script is now full with dialogue that has nothing to do with super heroes. There are more scenes with people sitting on a coach in some generic apartment than arrows fired. Every line now is full of... feelings. It sounds like I am a bad person, but somethings work for a reason. Arrow grew in popularity because of comic geeks that were sick and tired with standard TV touchy feelings. People wanted new action packed and exciting hour of entertainment. Pretty much the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe is possible with those people. Arrow 4 was like a stab in the back for them and for me.

(The big bang theory the nerds dream show.)

When we are on topic of geeks, nerds and comics... Let's talk about the other show that I love. The one about four awkwards and one girl. There was something special about first few season of TBBT. Between technology, chess and D&D there was also this much darker colour pallet. Which slide perfectly into this troll cave theme. Before everyone started having sexual intercourse this show had different kind of fun. I blame Raj for it. When he wasn't able to talk to girls without beer this show has this great synergy. Now the show became the new Friends. I love friends, but I would much rather see more Spock episodes. This show became standard generic TV...

(This a bar graph describing my favourite pies. HIMYM jokes.)

I think the biggest problem is the growing popularity of those series. When they become mainstream they will try to become more mainstream to catch wider audience. That means more content that appeal to mass market and love is always “good” for this. As sad as it may sound this will actually grow the interest for those characters. The shows will continue to be succesful and play large rolls in people lives. Just not in the lives of people that helped them start all of this. For me I want to see a day when Olicity tower will fall and crumble. Maybe by some spectacular explosion, I don't know. The ends justify the means.

[spiralingworm]

dir c:\reactions\empathy

When you think about empathy in about every media you will always get some great examples that really teaches it. For movies I think one of the best examples is The Green Mile with Tom Hanks. I cried more than a standard person when I first watched it. Chopin cis-moll nocturne has some really sad vibes all around the score. I didn't even tried with this example, I just typed Chopin nocturne into Youtube search tab. In books there are some great examples from Russian writers, for example Crime and Punishment. The classic story teaching kids how to not get out of debt... Kidding... I mean world would be a better place without old money grabbing bastards, but this is a story for another time.

(I think one of the oldest games out there Pong.)

What about games? They are a part of media and can deliver on meaning in couple of different ways. Why no one has some great examples of games that can show some signs of empathy? I think part of the reason is the fact that they are still quite new. The generation that truly understands gaming is maybe in late twenties or early thirties. Yes there are people now playing games that have 75 years worth of experience points, but they are in the minority. With such a young media bigger corporations tend to cater to kabooms and tratatas. Majority of young people won't just sit trough some classical piano concert without yawning. I am sorry for saying that, but this is a fact. The good news is that it will get better when gaming community will get more mature. The bad news is that it ain't gonna happen soon.

(Classic game Contra. All about kaboom. To this day I remember the opening theme.)

So we will have the Contras and CoDs of this world still beating sales numbers records every year. We will still see shooting and in consequence killing as main mechanic in games. The thing that drives those sale charts now. Games are supposed to have winning conditions. There are debates as to what actually is a winning condition, but the simplest is shoot'n'kill. I think the best game in the first half of 2016 is Doom. This is the opinion of the first half of gaming right now. You want to know what the second half thinks is the best? Overwatch. Both games are shooters that are all about killing. This is the problem with games right now. They stab main characters in the back to create an emotional reactions.

(Doooooommm...)

Since we are on the subject of Doom. This is really controversial topic, because whenever there is an argument about games being evil someone will always say the name of id smash hit. So I would always defend games with some kind of argument, of course. Until I watched recently another documentary about how games train to kill. There was this US army officers giving his thoughts why good old Doom was great for training new recruits. Essentially it boiled down to the twitch reaction that shooters teach our brain. He argued that games delete this empathy check before pulling a trigger. You know what? He is right. As much as it pains me to say it this argument actually has a point. Games will teach you to not hesitate, if you hesitate you will loose. This of course can go both ways good and bad, but that wasn't in this documentary. With all that said there is something else I want to point out.

(Transistor. Supergiant Games.)

There is this argument that games cannot achieve emotional reaction through plain mechanics. My question is why they need to? Think of it this way. Can a painting force our heart to skip a beat? Can a song do that? Movie? Text? Live performance? I bet most of you answered yes. So if all of this can. Why carefully planned and put together game cannot make someone cry? It has all those elements. Music running in background with images on the screen. Poems or small trivia can always show up in your character hands in form of some letter or book. Cutscenes are essentially short movies. Games have plot, it isn't always bombastic, but it is there. So why games cannot? I think Supergiant games is a studio that truly knows how to make this mastepiece of games. They released two games (Bastion and Transistor) and they haven't missed a beat with those. I eagerly await for Pyre in early 2016.

(Indie > Indyk which means turkey in Polish.)

Sad part of gaming industry in 2016 is that innovation in games doesn't exactly come from big companies. I guess it can be said for all of the media, but my hobby is gaming and not pop music. The thing is that when you have a big company and shareholders to think about you need to play it safe sometimes. Yes, some small variations are present in AAA, but it is hard not to see that most of them are shooters. This is where indies come into play. Small studios that need to play risky to get out there. Nobody will care about another CoD clone, but make good farmer sim that will evoke some Harvest Moon nostalgia and Kabam! Stardew Valley. You can thank me later if you didn't know about this game. Spiraling said to this one person livivng under the rock. If you want to see some empathy titles you need to stop looking on standard retail shelfs.

(Stop and enjoy the view for a moment.)

Movies have Green Mile. Music have nocturne cis-mol. Books have Crime and Punishment. I guess what I want to say is that I learned empathy by other forms of media. This knowledge helped me recognise empathy in games. Small bits of it were always present there, but in the chaos of inputs they can be easily bypassed and forgotten. So it is sometimes on development studio to stop the player and try to show him something else. Force him to rethink his actions and maybe sometimes come out as a better person. Big players think that people hate invisible walls. So it is on small ones to sometimes teach us something. In the end everything bad has some tiny little white light inside of it. Games can tear you up too. Games can teach you empathy.

[spiralingworm]

Classic Power Spike

What is your definition of classic? Is it maybe 12 Angry Men? The classic movie from 1957 about a jury of 12 men and they were angry? I don't really know to be honest. I know my brother holds this movie to high regard. Maybe it is some theater spectacale like... emm... You know theater represantive knocked to my door once. He wanted to sell me some kind of memberiship card. After long talk about how it is great to watch live performance he really left angrier than he came. I think it has something to with me saying “I don't plan on going to theater anytime soon.” He seemed nice...

(Cho Seong-jin winner of XVII International Chopin Contest.)

I am no expert in music as much as you would now think. I like the piano music there is something really daunting about it. I just cannot point my finger on it. If you ever watched Cloud Atlas you would listen to this magnificent Sextet. There could be a lot said about this movie, personally I loved it, regardless I consider music to be excellent. Every 5 years in Poland there is this contest. Finest pianist from around the world try their best to capture the spirit of Chopin. Last year was fun and exhilarating. I watched as much as I could and I am looking for 2020 (Cyberpunk anyone?)

(Fiat 126p one of the most popular car in Polish 20th century.)

You could consider something like Ferrari or Porsche to be called a classical car. You know I actually consider this 126p to be the correct answer. This car filled my young life with quite vast amount of memories. Even though my family never owned one, my neighbours did. It was such a huge part of our culture that to this day everyone smiles when they see “Maluch” on streets. I mean Toddler is actually the very best car ever created. It is cheap and it is so small that it will fit anywhere. What else do you want?

(Knights and Merchants. Awesome 1998 RTS game for PC.)

Anyhow I digress. This is my gaming classic. This is the best RTS ever created, Starcraft isn't worthy to clean his shoes. It was something magical about this game. Colourful graphics and joyful music feel your eyes and ears all the time. You will need to take care not only for building supplies or army equipment, but also food for everyone. To this day I can remember the sound of sausage in the making. To make the most basic unit you were required to establish quite healthy economy. This was very time consuming and brutal, but I loved this about it.

(This is a Pegasus. NES clone. Very popular in Poland.)

K&M isn't actually that old you know. Before the very first PC my parents bought us Pegasus (technically for my oldest brother). Console that enabled me to play game like Big Nose: The Caveman, Ultimate Stuntman, Dizzy The adventurer or Micro Machines. I know that this is a clone of NES and there is a lot higher profile games out there, but those are games that I loved. This is actually the very reason I own Wii U right now. The thing is I could never truly experienced those games. I was too young back than. I would love to play those games true to the original today.

(Actual Nintendo Entertainment System)

I am not the only one. People still make some money on selling old cartridges and retro consoles. Internet auctions are filled with offers. Gamestop offers selection of preowned software and hardware.  Huge part of seedrunning is about playing those old games. The love to gaming for many people started with Nintendo console. For me it was a clone, but you know what I mean. With this hardware out of production there is no real way to recreate this true “classic new” feel. I know there are emulators, but it just isn't the same. There is still demand for console that would play this games, even more so lately. People just want to recapture their childhood, but also those games are excellent and they deserve this second life.

(NES mini will release 11 november 2016 for $59,99.)

I think that with this classic spike lately Nintendo deicided to capitalise on it and their made the move. This november you will be able to buy NES Mini with 30 games already installed on it. I mean this console is so retro that even the box looks like old times. Everyone loves this Nintendo move. I think this is the best way to play those Toddlers of gaming. Recreate the 8 year old fun times. Everyone is concerned (rightfully so) about perserving the gaming heritage. In times when trademarks rule the world and most companies do nothing for rotting games. Nintendo makes at least this simple gesture. I mean just look at it:

·         Balloon Fight

·         BUBBLE BOBBLE

·         Castlevania™

·         Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest™

·         Donkey Kong

·         Donkey Kong Jr.

·         DOUBLE DRAGON II: THE REVENGE

·         Dr. Mario

·         Excitebike

·         FINAL FANTASY®

·         Galaga™

·         GHOSTS‘N GOBLINS™

·         GRADIUS™

·         Ice Climber

·         Kid Icarus

·         Kirby’s Adventure

·         Mario Bros.

·         MEGA MAN™ 2

·         Metroid

·         NINJA GAIDEN®

·         PAC-MAN™

·         Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream

·         StarTropics

·         SUPER C™

·         Super Mario Bros.

·         Super Mario Bros. 2

·         Super Mario Bros. 3

·         Tecmo Bowl™

·         The Legend of Zelda

·         Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

Just magnificent!

[spiralingworm]

Old Dusty Ketchup

If scientist would discover a way to breed any kind of animal species from scratch, doesn't matter if this species was extinct, currently low population or never present, and they would put a poll up “Which species should we do first?”. You know who would win? Dinosaurs? Good guess, but no. Those Jurassic Park flashbacks would put some people off. Elfs are friendly, right? Technically not animal, but also no. They are really environmental friendly. Stricter laws protecting forests wouldn't go well with this bigger companies. They would lobby against it like hell. Actually the answer is pretty simple.

(To protect the world from devastation.)

To unite all people within our nation. I like Pokemon and internet does too. If you think that you would win in internet poll with The Internet, think again Boaty McBoatFace. The passion that internet has sometimes for the stupidiest things is beyond me. Pokemon is just one of this phenomena that cannot be exactly explained. I think part of the reason is nostalgia. You just think of the days when you were young and you see Pikachu running along Ash.

(I think Ketchum was supposed to be the play on Catch 'em phrase.)

I mean who did not like this goofy young dude. I think he was supposed to be a standard kinda guy. Everyone wanted to be like him. Travel around the world with their friends, fight through challenges and gather those funny pets. Yes, he was clumsy and sometimes stupid, but we all wanted to wear his white and red baseball cap someday. Have small crush on Misty and be very good friend with Brock.

(Anti-Pokemon campaign by PETA)

I think the biggest saying of the Pokemon power is that even PETA hated them. This universe is all about enslaving animals and using them to fight your way to fame and money after all. It was even funny when I first read about it. Pikachu shouting that he never cared about Ash and how he will finally be free. At this point I shouldn't be bothered by old not understanding young, but still. Pokemon is just so much more than this. Young demographic aside this was a show about maturation problems and friendship.

(Three Pokemons from first generation.)

I am switching between past and present tense so much both in my head, because this show ended for me long ago. Yes new Pokemons are created every day. New iterations for Nintendo handheld Sun and Moon are in development. New anime episodes are written, animated and voiced. Yet I just can't comprehend this new bizzare creations. I mean look at Chandelure:

(Yes this is a Pokemon.)

The constant push for new innovative creation in next generation gives us those things. I just can't force myself to understand all this new Pokemons. Old ones were simple, because they were fresh ideas. There was no need to cross type anything. Simple insiparations from nature wealth or rich fantasy lore. So naturally:

(Pokemon Yellow, Saphire and X side by side.)

I played Pokemon games on my PC via GBA emulator. I liked them. They were those nifty created JRPG about catching 'em all. You would train your own Pokemons, explore quite a huge world and fight for gym badges. PETA please don't hate me. Good music helped with giving you this adventurous feeling. You just pick your starter Pokemon and go.

(Pokemon GO for android and ios smartphones)

So when augmented reality game about catching those little fury creatures finally went live I was... Meh... about it. You go into the “wild” and throw Pokeballs at Pikachus and Squirtles of the world. You train them and you fight for badges in gyms. This is an amazing idea on paper. Using real background for Pokemons to run around playing with themselves and hiding from you. You could walk into tall grass and wild Rattata would ambush you. I understand this would be really hard to acomplish, but that is why I am not interested in it. The tech isn't here yet. Now we have a static Pokemon standing in the middle of some country President office. Just chillin.

(Hololens by Microsoft.)

If anything I am quite excited for what Microsoft will have to offer. This could be the true augmented reality experience. Maybe it won't be such a big franchise as Pokemon. Hardware could be limited to use only in your home. This tech is still a huge unknown, and yet I am still looking up more to this than to Pokemon GO!

(Pokemon GO players found 2 dead bodies and couple unconscious people.)

All in all this feels like glorifying Pokemons and hating on Pokemon Go, but this is isn't the case. This franchise will help bring more people into this genre. Pokemons will grow and help update this very niche type of games. People around the world go out to catch this breath of fresh air. They go out to meet different people. They will socialise and they will create new community. They will create new relations with each other. Pokemons are back again and they do what what they know the best:

Teaching friendship.

[spiralingworm]

The Price of an Hourglass

Every new invention that comes into the mix, artsy stuff especially, needs some validation. Except theater, this genre of performance art is old so it doesn't need that. In fact it is so old that ancient Greeks were joking how old it is, probably. Every now and then there is something new. Old guys hate it, because they either do not understand it and/or just think old is superior. New blood thinks it is great because it is their spin on things. Both sides come up with arguments against one another, because heated discussion is what drives humanity.

(Comics! Yeah! No source, because I am not quite sure.)

I mean just look at politics. Their main selling point is “Argument winning” ability. Televised debates are always quite popular. People just want to see who destroys who. Parliament on the other hand is a different kind of beast, at least in Poland it is watched for comedic values. So we are kinda trained to prove that our case is superior. We Figure out this clever points how to downplay others like for example cost efficiency. I mean main selling point in car commercials is how long can he drive on one liter of petrol. For games it is amount of money spent per hours played.

(Arkham series is what started my love for Batman.)

We, as gamers, came up with this argument to beat movies. One ticket to the cinema to see Force Awakens costs about 25 PLN. 25 PLN divided by 2,25H screening gives us about 11 PLN/H entertainment value. Now lets look at a Witcher 3. Finishing the main story will take us about 45 hours (source) for about 130 PLN (for PC at release, if my memory serves me right). This calculations give us about 3 PLN/H. It looks pretty good for games, right? We win!

Well...

(Math taken from www.maxwells-equations.com)

As for everything that is put out of context it can be manipulated and straight up missleading. This statement is escpecially true for raw maths. There is a reason that every academic piece of work that is based on calculations has essays upon essays attached to it. For example I picked Witcher 3 in this example not only because Wiedźmin 3: Dziki Gon, but more for his genre. You see open world RPGs are always filled with content and upon that you need to account for time spent in dialogue trees and inventory menus. If I would take Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 with about 8 hours (source) for 199 PLN (again PC with my memory) it would give me stunning 25 PLN/H for singleplayer content. Now this Star Wars 11 doesn't look that bad, does it?

(Photo hosted by en.wikipedia.org)

Why I bring this up? They are clearly different things. One is a noninteractive type media and the other is an interactive type of media. One is strictly packed together without alterations and the other gives freedom of choice (at least it prides itself with those allegations). Both are mainly sitting experience that is based on pointing your eyes into this small colourful box. That is the only common thing I can think of. Yeah they both give us excitement and joy, but that is true for every media. Even dissecting them for review purposes needs two completely different aproaches. They aren't made for everyone and you need to like this or another type of media to enjoy it. I mean I think it is quite reasonable.

(Graph by me. Paint skills are almost excellent.)

I just have one problem. Over the years PLN/H argument shifted from games vs movies fight, I think it was when people realised this war was stupid, to this gaming civil war. One game is better than the other because it is more cost efficient. Civilization is better than Witcher 3 because it is more cost efficient. Witcher 3 is better Call of Duty because it is more cost efficient. People are fixated on this to the point of no return. I mean you can make a judgemant call that you don't want to pay this price now and wait for Steam sale, becasuse at Steam sale everything all of a sudden is cost efficient even if you will never play the damn game. You cannot just say “I will wait for CoD to be 3 PLN/H”. This faulted thinking is what drives me crazy whenever I see it.

(Angry Meme. No one knows the author, probably.)

Not only this trend is stupid, we established that, but also it doesn't make sense to only look at raw math, I proved that (I guess). There is so much more that goes into games. The game could be long but for you this content will be simply boring. The game could be short but those 3 hours could be action packed and exciting. 9 hours game could have zero replayability while 3 hour game could be replayed by you 15 times. Not only that this whole argument is entirely subjective and this ratio is only true for you. You cannot for certain say that another person will find the same to be true for them. When you assign this number to game you kind of misslead people. I guess what I want to say is look at the whole picture. Will YOU be able to replay Witcher 3 multiple times? Will YOU be able to sit through long Total War turns? Finally, will YOU have fun playing the game? In the end the games are design to bring joy to you.

[spiralingworm]

Games, Videos and Speed

I always loved games. Part of the reason why is that they provided me with this escape from reality. Every game is an option for you to get into the shoes of some hero in some universe. Whether you want to be a space marine that fights hell spawns on mars or maybe you are a fan of Star Wars and you always wanted to be a Jedi. Or maybe you always wanted to build your own medieval village. Help it survive throughout tough winters. Games got you covered.

(photo hosted by www.dailymail.co.uk)

Downside to my hobby is that it was always associated with this stigma that games are only for children. It is actually quite hard to talk about games with someone outside internet. It isn’t just a problem that you need to find someone that shares your enjoyment for this hobby. If this would be the only problem I pretty much would be fine with it. Every hobby has this problem. The problem is that non-gamers just roll their eyes extra hard whenever you even start talking about it.

(The Big Bang Theory, Penny ruined my shot so I blacked her out. Sorry...)

Even if you would overcome the childish problem there is this game nerd problem. You like games? You are probably awkward, introvert, sweaty and do not have a girlfriend. Girls also play games you say? I agree. I know quite a lot of them. Guys only argument is actually great point for antigamers so they tend to leave girls out of the discussion. Understandably, of course. Anyway I like playing games we established that, but what if I would told you that I enjoy watching someone playing them.

(www.twitch,tv)

I think it all started with my older brother playing them and I would just sit along side of him. So when various stream sites started (among them Twitch) to rise in popularity I was actually quite happy. I have Twitch app on my android, I have it on my chrome and Wii U quick dial. One of my first download when I bought PS4 was a Twitch app. Various personalities from small to big play huge selection of games from indie to AAA and they stream it straight to the internet. You could be good at the game and provide some serious insights on the mechanics or you could be an entartainer and provide fun times and laughs or maybe you only watch. Either way you are welcomed.

(https://gamesdonequick.com/)

Now stay with me. There are people that will pick up a game and challenge themselves to reach the end as fast as possible. Games have bugs and glitches that can be exploited to skip some level, get your character faster or just annoy you. Speedrunners will break a game, dissect it and than submit their times for the internet to judge. They will breeze through difficult parts like it was nothing. They will use sometimes mind-boggling tricks that only they can understand and explain. GDQ events are this week long marathons where game after game is played 24/7. Some time I see games I did not know existed. Other time I see this exhibition of tricks achieved only by mastering the game. Or you could also tune in for some funny moments, they always happen. But why they play?

(They help less fortunate. That is all you need to know.)

You stared watching this stream and you listen to what is going on. In addition to runners you also hear this announcer that talks about donations from around the world. American speedrunning community gathers money for charity twice a year, this time for Doctors Without Borders. Some people chip in because they love the game, some just want to help, but there are also those that donate for the incentives. You can win a Kirby Plushy or a brand new Xbox One. Just donate and you will be eligable to enter the raffle. No matter the reason you are helping in the end with your contribution. On the time of writing this article Summer Games Done Quick raised $584,568. You cannot help because you do not have money to spare? Tune in and bump the viewers count for more visibility. You will also watch commercials that bring some additional funds. You just hate USA and you want this culture to die?

(http://www.europeanspeedsterassembly.com/)

Sweden is a cool place. They are quite open minded. They have Dreamhack. Vikings anyone? ESA is similar event only differnce is that this takes place on my continent. When checking the schedule you will see flags from all over the Europe playing. Which for some can be some additional motive for watching because in the end nationality is understandably a large portion of our culture. For me this small white and red flags mean a lot. I am sure to watch them even if form of a VoD.

(Those funny moments...)

Be sure to watch SGDQ 2016 now here.

Or ESA later this month here.

[spiralingworm]

PS+ Misunderstandingness

There is a lot that can be said about this service. For some paying for multiplayer functions on PS4 could be “The Big No No”. PC never had this problem, if you don’t count MMO games. That is different kind of a beast though. PS3 had this for free, so it can be understandable that some fans would be confused.

(photo by endgadget, but watermark spoiled that already...)

A lot of people liked it about Sony back than. Microsoft charged for it on X360, the 3′s rival. It was one of the advantage for owning PS3. I don’t want to bad mouth MS here. There is a lot more good things that 360 could achieve thanks to paid service. Like for example higher quality servers, it was important in various MP titles, but I do not want to talk about that.

(image by blog.us.playstation.com)

You could also take advantage of various offers and deals that pop up exclusively for you as a PS+ subscriber. Those are always really subjective. Not every game on sale is for you. Not every sale is actually a sale for you. You could also argue that paying subscription fee for than to pay less for a game is... Well stupid to say it blatantly. Nevertheless deals are present here for subscribers and you can sometime buy something cheaper.

(image hosted by www.psu.com)

The biggest draw for most people to pay Sony (or Microsoft) a yearly subscription however would be The Instant Game Collection (or Games with Gold). However Microsoft started his program a lot later. Understanable, because 360 was “winning” “console wars” last gen. Selection of usually 2 games per console that are available for every subscriber free of charge. This was the biggest draw for everyone to pay ~50$ a year in PS3 era. Sony offered a lot of AAA games back than. You could pretty easily justify paying Sony. I mean you could argue that you are sometimes paying for games you do not like or games that you already finished and forgot about.

(Broforce indie game created by Free Lives and published by Devolver Digital)

So a lot of people wanted for Sony to bring less popular games. Maybe some indie games. That came with its set own of problems. Not all games are awesome... I mean I am not requiring for them to blow my mind every month. Sadly it isn’t as justifiable now as it was back than. There are some shining examples like for example Broforce or Rocket League. July selection isn’t even up yet and I am confident that this month will rock. Just because Furi is up for grabs and this game gives me shivers just by watching the trailer. Not to mention the Paragon starter pack that I already consider buying. July free games look good.

About this free part and the title misunderstandingness. Whenever I say “free” I actually quite literally mean it. I consider it a bonus. I bought the subscription for MP. To play games like Doom or get some additional features in upcoming NMS. I am not paying to get 4 free games a month. Yes they are nice and yes technically it isn’t available for everyone free of charge. But... You really want to argue with me that about this ~5$ (or ~16PLN for me) a month is a big deal? Everyone nowadays expects games to be cheaper. Everyone wants everything to be free to play with paid unlocks. Star Wars Battlefront is getting some flack for season pass price. They cannot afford it because they want to also buy X game, Y game, Z game, S game, T game... you get my point. 

(Vifon instant soups are quite popular in Poland)

Some people cannot afford gaming at those prices, because of various reasons. I am not bashing at those people, I was those people. Humble bundle, bad pc and unhealthy diet were my jam. Every summer sale was like a mini christmass for me. I was able to feed my gaming hunger for relatively cheap. This isn’t the best way to play your life however. I would not recommend it to anyone.

(Barney Stinson “How I Met Your Mother”)

Fortunately I am considering my purchases a lot better now. I do not need to play every game now although very tempting. Since I don not buy everything I have a lot more time per title. I can enjoy the game more, because I can get better at it or explore it more, or in case of MP titles... I can play MP(?) more. Which usually gives me more hours per money spent per title which in the end give me more justifiable purchases. I can buy games that I want day one. I only buy games that I know I will be spending more time on. It is riskier (the day one), because of how unpredictable the games are today, but I can take a hit and usually I can be okay. Even if the general public thinks the game is trash and I enjoy it I am okay with that. Buyers remorse is severly mitigated for me.

(Furi game by The Game Bakers free for July subscribers)

Now to the point I actually wanted to make 16PLN a month compared to things I get with PS Plus is easily justifiable. It is less than one time trip to KFC. Compared to already quite expensive gaming as a hobby 16PLN is really a free expense. I know it sounds like I am some wealthy jerk, but this isn’t the case. I need a job to be happy and stay alive. Games aren’t just magically appearing out of thin air. They are the hard work of many people. They also need job to be happy and stay alive. Most vocal cheap gamers aren’t actually the ones that have no money. I bet you that they can afford it they just refuse to recognise someones work. You know public transport in Warsaw is paid (shocker I know) and whenever ticket inspector randomly checks a bus or tram there is always a person that doesn’t have a valid ticket. Funny thing is that most of those people wear expensive clothes. They aren’t looking hungry or unhealthy. They are simply cheap bastards that refuse to not be selfish.

Thank you for reading.