Special Episode 1: Interview with Max Schaefer
We have a special treat for you all! The Polygamerous team tracked down the infamous (ok, not so infamous, more like famous and we think he’s pretty awesome ourselves..) Max Schaefer, CEO of Runic Games. Darcy, Russell and Andy sat down (sadly Mike was only lurking in the bushes) and grilled him mercilessly for hours on end (ok, only an hour, but we really WANTED to talk forever.. Especially Russell..). It was an amazing discussion about Torchlight, Max’s history in gaming and a bunch of new exclusive (I think) information and surprises on “what’s next” for Runic Games and the Multiplayer Online game in the Torchlight universe.
Max shared what it’s like working with a committed team of developers to overcome the challenges of starting over from scratch and just what is in a name. We discussed the influences and decisions that went into developing Torchlight and its accessibility for players. If playing Torchlight as a single player game has whet your appetite for a Torchlight MMO, you’ll be excited to hear the hints and tidbits Max shared of what’s to come. Could there be a co-op in the works? Never want to give up your pet? You’ll want to listen in on this fantastic interview.
We suggest that, like Andy, you sit and listen to this one over and over. Thanks again Max and Runic Games for this opportunity to drag out this information, kicking and screaming.. If you can’t tell that we are big fans, then you just didn’t listen close enough.
If you HAVEN’T played Torchlight yet, what are you waiting for? (It even works on Netbooks!)
Game Review – Bioshock 2
It can be hard to live up to expectations. Heck, just imagine being little Suri Cruise, you’re expected to be both good looking and certifiably insane. Rough. Video game sequels, however, are quite often superior to their predecessors. Developers are able to improve upon what came before, with better controls, more intricate level designs, or higher production values; they also get the opportunity to flatten major faults like a Yankee fan at a Red Sox convention. The problem facing Bioshock 2 is that they are trying to create the follow-up to one of the most beloved games in the last decade. In a lot of ways it’s like trying to follow up Star Wars or The Matrix – how do you please the ravenous, bloodthirsty fans while at the same time eliciting the praise of the critics? To further complicate matters, the team behind Bioshock wasn’t even involved in the creation of its sequel, so many fans approached Bioshock 2 with quite low expectations. Would we end up with a stink bomb like The Matrix Revolutions, or a work of art like The Empire Strikes Back? The answer is neither. Bioshock 2 is an excellent game, but it doesn’t quite reach the admittedly lofty heights of its sire.
The first thing you’ll notice upon entering the world of Rapture is that it is, well, still Rapture. Bioshock 2 takes place in a different section of the underwater city, but it has all the charm of the first game. The game world is rendered in the same art-deco, 50’s era style. The major details of the environment are the same right down to the security systems and vending machines. (Am I the only one who finds it odd that Andrew Ryan, in creating his “utopia”, thought it was a good idea to put ammo vending machines everywhere? He had to know that would be BAD.) In terms of level design, it gets off to a slow start, but by the mid-game some great set pieces start to pop up, like a ruined amusement park and a giant water tank with a nefarious inhabitant. Overall the look of the game is great and just as detailed as the first, yet I didn’t find the world nearly as haunting this time around. It’s most likely just a case of “been there, done that.” I’ve seen the spider slicers, the Big Daddies, and the creepy Little Sisters – at this point I’m largely desensitized to the denizens of Rapture.
A hallmark of the entire “shock” series (and there are more, try to find yourself a copy of System Shock 2 sometime if you can) is fantastic sound design. Bioshock 2 is no slouch in this area, featuring the same spooky sounds from the Big Daddies, Little Sisters, and more. They also utilize the same retro music style, that some love and some hate (I am in the former camp). The voice work here is also very well done, and the story is propelled again by various audio diaries scattered throughout the levels.
In terms of game play, Bioshock 2 features some genuine improvements. The idea of using both superpower-like plasmids and classic weaponry has always been great, but its implementation in the first game came up a little short. In theory, using the two together could make for some great combo attacks, but the limited way you could only use a plasmid OR a gun, and the janky way you switched between them made pulling off fancy combos difficult. In Bioshock 2, you can thankfully wield a gun in one hand and a plasmid in the other. It works very, very well, and makes Bioshock 2 a far superior pure shooter than the first game. At one point, I set a splicer aflame and immediately nailed his still-burning body to the wall with the spear gun. It was one of the coolest combos I ever pulled off in a video game, and it made me giggle like a Catholic school girl. I almost wish they could do some super special edition of the first Bioshock with the combat engine from Bioshock 2.
Aside from dual wielding, the way hacking works has also been vastly improved. The fluid and pipes mingame from the first Bioshock is gone, replaced by a simpler and more efficient system. The new hacking system consists of a meter with a moving needle, and in order to hack a machine you need to stop the needle in a special green or blue area. It’s a much more streamlined implementation, but just as challenging. Besides the actual act of hacking, Bioshock 2 also includes the ability to hack machines from afar with the remote hack tool. You no longer need to constantly zap machines long enough to hack them, but can now do it from a safe distance, which is particularly beneficial with the nasty turrets.
The selection of plasmids and weaponry is tweaked in mostly minor ways. The available plasmids are mostly the same, with some minor changes, but as you buy the more powerful versions, they have more significant effects. The third level of telekinesis, for instance, will let you pick up and throw smaller, live enemies. The weapons list has been tweaked as well. Gone is the wrench, replaced by the drill – it can be used as a simple melee weapon or spun (if you have the fuel) for extra gory damage. I enjoyed the addition of the rivet gun, which is a very accurate, fast firing weapon, and the spear, which can do a LOT of damage if you can hit with it. One of the biggest improvements in the area of weaponry is the dedicated melee button. You no longer have to switch to your melee weapon to bash enemies over the head in the absence of ammo.
Another change in Bioshock 2 is the way you collect Adam. In Bioshock you simply needed to kill a big daddy, harvest or save his little sister, and profit. Well, those salad days of easy Adam are gone. In Bioshock 2, you also need to carry the little sister around with you and gather the Adam from corpses. Well, you know what happens when little sisters are gathering Adam, the junkies come out of the woodwork to try to take her. Your job, of course, is to keep them at bay. This proves to be quite difficult early on, as your arsenal is fairly limited, and the splicers come from every angle; but it gets easier as you collect more powerful weapons and plasmids, along with nifty toys like the mini turret. These gathering events are white-knuckle exciting, and a great addition to the game play.
The difficulty of Bioshock 2 is a bit on the erratic side. I played through the game on normal, and found it just shy of frustratingly difficult in some of the earlier sections, most notably during the gathering missions. By the game’s midpoint, though, the difficulty subsided dramatically; this change is most likely due to an increase in weapon and ammo selection as well as ever more powerful plasmids. I found myself feeling nigh unstoppable in the game’s climactic final battles, and approached each new area with reckless abandon.
Now, you can’t talk about Bioshock without discussing the story. I won’t spoil anything here, but the fact is that the story is excellent, but not on the same level as the story of the original. It doesn’t have the same crazy dramatic turn to make your jaw drop, but twists like the one from the first Bioshock are few and far between. Heck, M. Night Shyamalan has been trying to recreate the mega-twist from The Sixth Sense for over a decade with little success. The story still provides plenty of twists and turns, and provides a good deal of insight into just HOW things went wrong with Rapture. The problem with the story in Bioshock 2 is that it has so much to live up to; if it were to be taken on its own merits, it would garner much higher praise.
One surprise with Bioshock 2 is the inclusion of a multiplayer mode. I had doubts about it, but I found myself pleasantly surprised by its quality. It isn’t a hackneyed, at the last minute addition, but a full-featured multiplayer experience. It has ranks, loadouts, unlockable weapons, plasmids and boosts, and a multitude of maps and modes. It’s obviously not as complete as Modern Warfare, for instance, but it certainly holds its own. It also manages to fit the multiplayer into the greater context of the Rapture universe in a believable way.
I came into Bioshock 2 with fairly low expectations. The first Bioshock is one of the greatest gaming experiences I’ve ever had, and I had my doubts that a different studio could continue the story in a worthwhile way. While not on the same level as its predecessor, Bioshock 2 is a brilliant game in its own right. The uniquely beautiful, broken world of Rapture is a place I could visit again and again. The developers may not have gone in any original directions with the story or the world, but they got the most important elements just right. The environments are well-laid out and detailed, the audio is top notch, and the improved game play elements make for potent and enjoyable gaming experience The addition of a solid multiplayer mode only enhances the overall value. So while I don’t believe Bioshock 2 is a GOTY candidate, I enjoyed every moment I spent under the sea, and look forward to going back again soon.
Score: 4.5/5 Stars
Review by PartTimeDruid the author/creator of The Invisible Eyeball, a blog about Movies, Games and More! This review is reposted with the permission of PTD. You can find the original post of this review at The Invisible Eyeball.
The opinions of all reviews on Polygamerous are not necessarily the opinions of Polygamerous or the other Authors/Editors/Podcasters of Polygamerous.
Ep 13: Lovely Lisa’s Crazy Chicken Riot
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Another special guest graces our.. um.. “hallowed” halls. Samodean from Massivenerd.Net joins us to raise the nerd banner. We go over gaming news, new releases, some Dragon Age rumors and, of course, the 5 deals in 5 minutes. |
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call in to our voicemail at 407-584-POLY (7659)
Tips for playing Heavy Rain
You probably know him better as Stop from The Stoppable Force, but occasionally, Phil plays other games, too (and writes about them!). After all, you can’t play with just one.
No doubt at least a few of you are considering picking up the latest game from Quantic Dream, Heavy Rain. Heck, I can think of at least three of us here at Polygamerous who’ll probably be getting it. Unfortunately, a lot of people are probably going to end up disappointed with their experience, because unless you know what you’re getting into, you’re not going to have a satisfying gaming experience playing Heavy Rain.
Luckily, I’m here to help you with that with two tips that should improve your experience.
Tip 1: Manage Your Expectations
Did you play Fahrenheit (aka Indigo Prophecy)? If so, you might know what you’re in for with Heavy Rain. If not, I’ll break it down for you: David Cage and Quantic Dream don’t make traditional games. If you like playing a game solely for the story, this is the production company for you. Quantic Dream games place a lot of value on the plot, the setting, and the characters – not always so much on the gameplay. Some segments of Fahrenheit were basically glorified games of Simon, while others were quick-time events of the “Press X to Not Die” type.
Heavy Rain appears to have fixed this a bit, with its gameplay seeming to fit better with David Cage’s intention of having motions on a controller mimic the actual actions on-screen. However, the reason this is such a big step is because this really isn’t just a standard game. From day 1, Heavy Rain has been promoted as a “Hollywood-level film noir experience.” Notice the key word there: experience. You’re going to be making decisions and using a controller like you’re in a game, but what Quantic Dream really wants to do is draw you into the world of Heavy Rain. Connect with the characters. Really get into it.
The problem, which you might have read in other reviews, is that Heavy Rain starts out really, really slowly. I mean really slowly. Brushing-your-teeth, taking-your-kid-to-the-mall slowly. Don’t give up! This is all part of the experience of drawing you into the world that QD has created to set their story in, and helps you connect to Ethan Mars, Scott Shelby, and the rest of the cast. Which leads me to step 2…
Tip 2: Don’t Spoil Yourself
I think Ars Technica’s Ben Kuchera put it best: “It may also be a good idea to become something of an Internet monk until you buy and finish the game.” A lot of sites have been throwing spoilers around willy-nilly with regards to Heavy Rain (Ars has one of the spoiler-free reviews) and you can end up ruining the experience for yourself if you’re not careful. Stay away from Heavy Rain spoilers. Every movie’s better if you don’t know what’s going to happen in advance.
Further Reading
The above linked AT article on playing Heavy Rain has more good ideas, including picking an appropriate difficulty level – that way you guarantee that the story you’re seeing is based on your decisions and not the PS3 “going easy on you” or keeping you from ever succeeding – and not reloading because you make a decision you don’t like the outcome of. I highly recommend reading it.
So who out there is going to be picking up Heavy Rain? Let us know what you think of it (but, please, spoiler-free)!
Editorial – Follow-up (Video Game Movies)
by Ninth Batter (You can find Ninth on his blog Nobody Like You. Where he works on a machinima of the same name. He is also a frequent contributor to Polygamerous)
Remember the editorial I wrote about videogame movies? Well I have recently had an extraordinary and insightful look into the future of videogame movies. This last Monday I was invited to a dinner party in lovely Burbank California(well as lovely as anything can be that’s located 12 miles from downtown L.A.) by a friend and former co-worker. I won’t get into the specifics but in attendance were people from: IGN, G4, Warner Brothers, Legendary Pictures, EA, Microsoft, Insomniac Games, Bioware, and CBS.
A good part of the dinner was spent talking about Mass Effect 2, Bioshock 2, Heavy Rain, and World of Warcraft. But about half way through the dinner(it was pizza and buffalo wings if anyone was curious) the topic changed to videogame movies, specifically ones that are planned on being developed. I was truly amazed at the list of “probably gonna be made” and “working on getting made”. What was a surprise to me was how many animated movies are being planned. Here’s a list of some of the animated movies discussed.
- Ratchet and Clank feature film to be released. It is being intended as a children’s movie in the style of a Pixar film.
- Crackdown Anime. To be intended as a straight to DVD release.
- God of War Anime. Another straight to DVD.
- Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic Anime. This one really got my attention. Right now the plan is for it to be released co-siding with the release of the Old Republic MMO. It is likely to be released as two separate movies covering the story of Revan. Their idea is to have the character of Revan be a bit morally ambiguous, sometimes making a “bad” choice but doing it for a greater good. The first movie would be covering the start of KOTOR to the first fight with Darth Malak and the second covering the rest of the game. The emphasis of the movies will be about story telling with short bits of fighting and light saber fights in the style of the original trilogy(more character interaction and less leaping from one lava bucket to another). Needless to say the entire dinner party simultaneously nerdgasimed.
In all honesty animated movies make a lot of sense for videogames. Most of the cannon and imagery for videogames will have to be either animated or computer generated. Recently Dante’s Inferno released a animated film to co-side the game and it has done pretty well. Also, a movie with computer generated models to go with real actors can take 2-3 years to make while an anime can be made in about 6 months if you have a few studios working on it at the same time. Which brought the dinner conversation to it’s next topic, planned live action videogame movies.
- Halo. This one has been around for a while but Bungie has the creative rights and won’t start production until they have a great script and director.
- World of Warcraft. This is another one we’ve known about and is actually in development.. The main character is set to be a new hero described as a "kick-ass Human" and "Anti-Thrall". With Sam Raimi as the director and Charles Rovan producing, it’s being set up to be a blockbuster.
- Gears of War. It will follow delta squad and keep all the same characters but the plot may change from that of the game.
- Bioshock. This one actually surprised me. The talk there was to have it be about the fall of Rapture but keeping the character Jack and the “would you kindly” plot device.
- Fallout. The “current” plan is to have it set in the world of Fallout 3 with the main character being a vault dweller but not necessary have the plot from Fallout 3. However until they’re sure they can’t be sued by Interplay they won’t do anything.
- Mass Effect. They want to have it set up as a movie trilogy being almost identical to the “good” Sheppard storyline of the three games. However some characters may have a less important roles or be cut from the script altogether. One of the characters mentioned being cut was Kaidan Alenko and having just Ashley. Also Sheppard will be male and be modeled after the “default Sheppard“.
- Legend of Zelda. Apparently they plan on taking their time making it, some 3 years and it’s story will be unique, not following any of the games. Although Link will be rescuing Zelda and Ganondorf will be the villain. They want it to have the “feel” of a Lord of the Rings movie but have it be less of an epic.
It should be noted that most of the live action movies have been put on hold while they wait to see how the World of Warcraft movie fairs. The only problem with waiting to make a live action movie is videogames can be the flavor of the month and live action takes a long time to make. But fortunately these franchises have had a big enough impact that they will have a good 5 year span to start production of the films. And it should all be noted that there are MANY A-list actors interested in being in these films. One that really surprised me was Robert Downey Jr. expressing interest in playing either Atlas or Jack in Bioshock.
So basically the success or failure of the World of Warcraft movie will greatly influence videogame movies to come. If it does poorly plan on seeing many of these titles lose their funding. And be expecting a lot more animated movies about videogames to come. But all in all this appears to be a really good direction for gaming media. After all, almost every good sci-fi and horror media to come out recently have been videogames. And the consensus of the discussion is that videogame movies are being set up to be the next “superhero” movies.
Oh yeah I should probably note that all of this took place at a unofficial dinner party and can/should not be taken as what will be happening in either the movie or videogame industry. It is all subject to change and I do not speak on the part of any of the companies or products mentioned. And you can’t sue me now because I gave a disclaimer. KOTOR movies woot!
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