My time with Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns release

Traditionally, one enters the expansion of an MMO with a number of thoughts.  There is a sense of anticipation regarding the new content available to experience; a drive to explore the new environments and discover rare treasures and Easter eggs; a determination to take on the new challenges before you and continue to forge a story of your character amongst other things that make an MMO special.  That being said, my time with expansions in the past has kind of been marred by the feeling of a need to ‘rush’ through the content so you can remain on par with the overall progression.  Whether it be rushing to max level so you can start gearing up for the end-game raid, or practising with your new skills to stay competitive in the new pvp season, for many players a lot of the content will fly past them swept up in xp numbers and the occasional ‘ding’.  Over the past few years, this concept has become less and less appealing to me, so to have Guild Wars 2s new expansion Heart of Thorns not following this convention with no level or gear cap increase has renewed my interest in playing through such content.  Now I've had a couple weeks with Heart of Thorns, I would say that it has been a thoroughly enjoyable one that I'm looking forward to its continued progress.  

The new character select screen has a nice UI fade-out showing off your character and the jungle motif.  Screenshot taken 22/11/2015

Heart of Thorns takes off from where Season 2 of the Living Story left us with The Pact in tatters after the attack by Mordremoth which tore the airships from the sky and sent Sylvari into an internal conflict as the jungle dragon twisted their thoughts.  The Pact Commander (the player character) is charged with picking up the pieces of The Pact while leading a small band of adventurers (more commonly known as Destiny’s Edge 2.0) to bring an end to Mordremoth; something which requires a great deal of exploration and information gathering.  

The story in this expansion has evolved from the game's initial release in 2012, removing the side-by-side dialogue cut-scenes and replacing them with in-game NPC conversations which feature in a mix of both open world and story mission instances; making the conversations feel a lot better in terms of context as well as getting the player character to voice / emote their thoughts to groups of people.  It is clear that these story missions have also learnt from the previous Living Story seasons with the addition of movement / vehicle mechanics (see the Zephyrites for such an example) but where it has added its own new feature is through the integration of the mastery system added in Heart of Thorns.  

The vines of Mordremoth cracking the stone it falls upon, show-casing the power of the expansion's main antagonist.  Image from Guild Wars 2, Heart of Thorns release trailer via YouTube.  Accessed 23/11/2015

As I mentioned earlier, Heart of Thorns doesn’t have any level cap increase which may spark the question “what character progression is there to be had?”  Masteries is what answers this through an alternative levelling system that looks to level environmental skills to aid one’s journey through the Maguuma Jungle.  For example, one can learn how to use a glider to assist in getting around the map in short bursts.  As you put more mastery points into this skill (a currency obtained by completing HoT objectives / achievements) you learn how to use up-drafts to gain height, stealth techniques to stop enemies knocking you out of the sky, and leans to become more efficient.  On the surface, this doesn't really do much, but in depth it gives the player a great experience of the map much like a metroid-vania; where you find a canyon you can’t cross at first but with that one skill improvement you find a way to reach the other side.  For me this was experienced early on in my playtime when I didn’t have access to the jumping mushroom skill (Itzal mastery).  There was an event involving the recovery of wyvern eggs from a plateau that took some 30-60 seconds to climb normally, but with this mastery I was able to reach the top in 10 seconds, allowing me to have a much greater contribution for the event.  I feel it's a rather clever way to extend the playtime of maps, because you can’t just rush through it 100%’ing everything without taking time to learn the new skills.  As I mentioned previously, I was one to rush through to end-game in previous MMos but my time in HoT hasn't felt rushed and in turn i’m taking note of more of the landscape, its characters and events.  

Flying high in the canopy showcases how much space is in the map.  Draw-distance aside, it's pretty big.  Screenshot taken 22/11/2015

Another thing I'm loving about these maps is the verticality they hold reinforcing the importance of these new masteries and depth of the playable space.  Before the expansion launched, there was a lot of talk about how each map would have 3 levels of interaction (Roots, Jungle and Canopy) and although each level doesn’t constitute a full map, it does add some interesting dynamics to the game-play.  The first map of the expansion (Verdant Brink) has you fighting in the jungle during the day, but when night falls you find yourself up in the canopy battling with one of the zone’s boss battles using your newly honed gliding skills to stop you meeting an untimely end below.  Although I have thoroughly enjoyed playing through this content there is something that has marred my experience being performance issues when interacting with large groups of players.  Having 15fps when trying to dodge a large fire breath attack from a rampaging Wyvern Matriarch creates its own unique challenge, but it is definitely one that I would like to not contend with.  This of course wouldn’t be an issue once I get my new PC built, but for now if you’re someone who has a low-performance PC you will probably find yourself sticking to the small form content such as the story and adventures.  

This boss event requires the players to glide off and throw eggs at it to make the ground safe and continue the fight.  Screenshot taken 22/11/2015

This is not to say that you’ll have a worse experience because one of the things i’m loving about HoT is its range of content available.  Adventures have been a great deal of fun for their ability to add small parts of competitive events without the taxing performance above.  These challenges are dotted around the map (usually correlating to a nearby outpost which may have conventional events tied to it) and task the player with racing/fighting/flying/etc their way to achieve a gold, silver or bronze reward.  These adventures also have leader-boards on them, which allow for players to hone their skills and look to get on the top of the leader-board for all to survey, which personally has been a task that I usually come mid/high in the rankings.  The adventures also have a nice connection with the mastery system, as many challenges are easier to achieve higher scores through the use of said skills e.g. Tendril Torchers has a mesa which one can access via a jumping mushroom, allowing you to clear a large number of tendrils that otherwise wouldn’t be accessible.  

Alongside Adventures, finding hidden mastery points adds to the enjoyment of exploration.  Screenshot taken 22/11/2015

As you can probably tell by this post, I am very much enjoying my time in HoT, but if you’re from a traditional MMo point of view, you maybe thinking that not having a level/gear cap increase somewhat diminishes the experience of an expansion.  This of course can be an issue but I feel that HoT has created an enjoyable combat loop with enough customisability to keep it fresh.  Since entering the HoT maps, I have tried a number of builds on my trusty engineer ranging from heavy damage condition builds to the more supportive boon / healing builds which have been relevant to keep some of the my more ‘glassy’ companions alive.  New stat combinations in gear have helped in making these builds more viable, but the addition of the specialisations have added a new interesting dynamic to my favourite profession in the name of the ‘scraper’.  This build gives the engineer a proper melee weapon (tool kit has been around but i’m classing it as a skill in this context) in the Hammer alongside an array of mobile drones to assist you in combat.  Like with many players, I went for my specialisation straight away to give it a try and found myself getting a lot of fun out of the build with its mixture of CC and combo fields, but in the long run I think I would need to properly invest in a gear setup to get the most out of it.  

Engaging with other specialisations has been a mixed bag of feelings between co-operation (pve) and competition (pvp).  I love how different weapon types like shields, torches, warhorns have these interesting skills such as the Chronomancer with their shield; but the learning process to properly know how to act on these skills has been a bit annoying especially due to my low performance set-up.  To give you an example, the Chronomancer elite skill ‘Gravity Well’ is a large aoe that causes float, pull and knock-down but due to my graphic settings and culling I get a very faint outline of this skill, if anything.  I also have a similar experience with the Dragonhunter skill “Hunter’s Ward’ because the barrier won’t show up on my screen, so naturally I knock into the barrier and potentially not get off that life saving elixir throw (speaking from personal experience in spvp).  Naturally, this will improve when my hardware improves, but i’m in that awkward space of not sure whether the range of skill effects correlate with a reasonable means of educating yourself to act upon it.  

A check-list with little hints to the next objective makes achievement hunting fun in-game rather than a chore.  Screenshot taken 23/11/2015

The last thing I wanted to talk about was something that on the surface is really minor, but I absolutely love as an explorer / achiever.  In the past, if you had an achievement with multiple tasks to hand (e.g. coin collection in Dry Top or the Dive Master) you had little means to know which ones you were missing outside of external guides.  In HoT, they have now put in a proper list system for these achievements so it's much easier to have a in-game / world means to discover and explore.  When I first came back to Guild Wars 2, I wrote about this explorer nature and how it really gets me involved in the world, so having this information available to me keeps me from alt-tabbing to Dulfy and just following a guide (not that it's a bad thing I just personally prefer the current setup).  

The Scrapper with his drones give Engineers a new way to play.  Image from https://www.guildwars2.com accessed 23/11/2015

Overall, I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in HoT as an experience continuing my enjoyment of the world of Guild Wars 2 and the MMo as a genre.  Having a expansion that doesn’t right off your achievements of the past couple years as well as giving you new challenges to go up against seems so logical that looking back at the WoW/Rift expansions makes them look ‘old-fashioned’.  A level cap increase feels arbitrary and now i’m enjoying the maps because I like being there, not because I need the xp to get to the next place.  This expansion respects your time whether you want to spend 30 minutes a day doing a couple events or power game your way through a 10 hour binge in meta events and raiding; which is something I hope stays relevant in the months to come.  Whether you’ve played many MMos or completely new to the genre, I think this game and its recent expansion Heart of Thorns is a great game to get involved in and experience what it has to offer.  

Blog: Updates and the General On-goings at the Moment

I recently looked back at this blog to see topics I had discussed in the passed when I realised its been quite a while since I last put finger to keyboard. As is usually the case, life has a way of giving you lots of things to do so here's a quick update on the past 2 months.

IRL

Work commitments have been keeping me busy for the majority of my time as I'm getting involved in a number of side projects which have been occupying the time I would of set aside for writing this blog. These projects included guided talks, exhibition design and lectures for professional qualifications which naturally allow me to make more progress towards my goal of a curatorial / archival role within the museum and heritage sector. That being said, I can't blame it all on that otherwise I could just organise my time more effectively, but the times where I have thought to do blog writing I find myself attending a social event or being incredibly late getting home due to delays on the London transport links. To give context to such a point, last Sunday it took me 3 hours to get home whereas a normal journey would take somewhere in the region of 80-90 minutes. It doesn't stop you from writing, its just takes you out of the mindset.

A somewhat related point to this is the 'fun' of moving as I'm looking to move much closer to work to cut down on my commuting time. Organising viewings between work and getting as much information as possible takes up a surprisingly large amount of time which I haven't had to deal with in the past. This has been compounded by the fact that recently I applied for a job much further afield back in my university home of Plymouth so between moving 20 miles and 250 miles has brought another set of tasks to accomplish at the moment.

As well as this, I recently turned 26 which brought a nice mixture of nights out and time off to do nothing (more on that later). I went out on Halloween dressed up (something I very, very rarely do) and ended up getting home at like 6am which I haven't done a night of that length in quite a while but was welcome the next day by remnants of face paint and quite the hangover to contend with. Again, I could have been writing during this time but I wanted a couple days to myself which has become the topic of a post I want to write about that I have hinted at from time to time; a factor of a player dwelling in a game and how it fits in an individual / solo environment. It basically talks about “the lodge” of architectural theory being a dwelling of personal space and how much private time one can have in a space where you're accessible through multiple means at a moments glance. This may come across as introverted, but we shall see when we get there.

Gaming

The majority of my time gaming has been taken up by the recent release of Guild Wars 2's expansion, Heart of Thorns which has been an interesting time for me. It has been very different to expansions I've played in the past (WoW, Rift, ESO, etc.) due to not having a gear / level cap increase and I haven't felt like I'm in a rush to 'get to the end game content' that I would race towards, which in turn has allowed me to enjoy it a great deal under my own terms. I am going to do a proper discussion on it soon, but it has been a highly enjoyable time over the past week and a half and I look forward to what's coming next from Arena Net.

As my time for Guild Wars 2 has increased, my time in Warframe has decreased by quite a bit. I'm in an awkward space with that game because I enjoy the gameplay loop but the RNG nature of its loot system is causing my enjoyment to wane. The fact that I'm getting a load of new things in GW2 may have something to do with it but I think I may need to have some time away to truly get back into it. Its a bit like last year with GW2 where I took a couple months break and found myself enjoying it all over again. For now, my Tenno is docked with its dailies grabbed each day but not much more than that.

With the recent release of Fallout 4, I have also perked my interest for the franchise by replaying Fallout New Vegas alongside its DLC on a new luck-based character. As someone who usually 'powergames' Fallout with a high-intelligence character on energy weapons, It's been an fun experience going through with a sneak / guns build with high critical hit chance. I've also gone for a karma neutral character role-playing as someone out for personal gain which has opened me up to some new interesting quest-lines that I haven't experienced before this play-through; showcasing the recognised re-playability of these titles years after their initial release. By the time I fully finish New Vegas, I would like to start on Fallout 4, but that depends on my last point of a new PC build.

I have mentioned before how I'm looking to build a new PC as my current one is ~8 years old and definitely showing its age. As my post on low-performance gaming shows, it hasn't been all bad but I've got to the point where I would really like to play modern games on a smooth frame-rate as well as nice graphical fidelity. My PC build is coming in around £900 but I'm currently in an awkward space of “do I build now or wait until the sales?” That being said, it does ask the question “which sale?” because we have black Friday, Christmas and January sales over the horizon and I may just end up saying “f**k it!” and buying it anyway. Time will tell but as long as it stays under £1000 I think I'll be happy.

Well, that's everything regarding the last couple months in my life. Writing this up has been important for me because its a step back into the blog space which is important because I need it to be regular for someone to be interested in. A lot of this maybe words thrown into the twisting nether of the internet and its vast accessible information, but if you find these posts interesting that's what gets me to continue on. Anyway, next topic will either be the 'Player Housing from the individual' or 'Thoughts on GW2:HoT” so look out for that on Monday.

Now back to the 101 other things on the list :\

Thoughts on Guild Wars 2 Raiding

A couple weeks ago, the guys at Arenanet did a live-stream talking about the inclusion of “challenging content” coming alongside the release of the game's first expansion, Heart of Thorns. The stream went on to discuss the nature of its raiding content; outlining its large set pieces and difficult encounters that will require the co-ordination of your group (of which has been set to 10 players) to overcome significant opponents. Over the past couple weeks, I've 'ermed and errred' over this subject trying to think about how I would like to discuss it, but I feel I've got to a point where I feel it best showcases my thoughts. These thoughts come from two particular areas: my interest of architectural theory and my experience of raiding in traditional MMOs such as WoW and Rift.

Many years ago raiding up against Onyxia in WoW.  Screenshot taken 19/08/2006

The subject of raiding in essence is quite simple; stringing together challenging bosses broken up by trash mobs and narrative to give context and pacing to the environment. Its the way a significant force can be tackle in a narrative, that may present them as an almost impossible mountain to climb but through determination and skill it can be overcome. This of course is a strong feeling to have in a game like an MMO (and kinda any game really) but grouping together with like-minded people and having that roar from a VoIP server upon success is amazing to experience. I experienced this in WoW during Vanilla and Wrath as well as Vanilla Rift as both a healer and DPS which to a certain extent was a while ago, but with Guild Wars 2 I have the potential to experience that once again. That being said, I'm not sure whether the game (or myself) can live up to what raiding is.

My first time seeing Rag was a memorable experienced hampered by the nature of Molten Core.  Screenshot taken 17/12/2006

The most clear point on this subject in my opinion is the nature of the current content; that focuses heavily on grouped-up 'blob-like' movement with enemy movement that plays into this. There are of course reasons behind this such as boon stacking (stacking large numbers of buffs on the party in quick succession), ease of access to resurrecting downed players and that players are rarely punished for acting in this way. To a certain extent, it makes me think of the traditional “boss vs. tank” then everyone else that I experienced in my days of raiding in places like Molten Core as the factor of the number of players doesn't matter visually. Of course the damage matters but the enemy doesn't care as it just sees 'enemy'.

World bosses maybe large but the same tactic applies.  Screenshot taken 14/09/2015

The second point, more relevant to my interests, means that the environment and its narrative is somewhat fractured by this. Whether you're in AC, CoE, Fractals or an open world meta event boss you adopt the blob and keep on attacking and the background becomes blurred to a certain extent. You maybe doing world bosses for 3 or so hours but all that's changing is the backdrop; a theatre if you will that revolves the background from a townscape to a forest during a performance but the actors are still conversing in the same prose. A couple weeks ago when I did a post about arenas I did say that the combat loop can be engaging if the arena gives you an engaging environment and narrative to get stuck into, but at the moment Guild Wars 2 content in the above examples doesn't give me the same feeling.

A large boss that hopefully looks to be more dynamic in its movement and actions.  Image from https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/designing-challenging-content/ accessed 14/09/2015

Going back to my earlier paragraph on raiding, one of the pieces I did discuss that its not just the bosses but the connecting sections that add to the experience of a raid. Personally, I feel that this is what Guild Wars 2 currently has a lot of potential to set themselves apart. They have a enjoyable series of jumping puzzles, open world explorable dungeons and guild puzzles that create an interesting mix of combat and cryptic problem solving allowing groups to use logic and deduction to balance the combat they experience in the vast amount of a game like Guild Wars 2. Going back to my time raiding, the process was very much so a “trash->boss->trash->boss” loop and although if the bosses are engaging this can work, having these interest mid sections that replace trash at points (trash->boss->puzzle->boss) it can keep people interested for longer with a level of pacing appropriate.

Using mechanics like gliding has the potential to give us those interesting connecting paths.  Image from https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/designing-challenging-content/ accessed 14/09/2015

These thoughts naturally follow into quite a few posts I've made on this blog in the past. Pacing is a subject from “Walking Simulators” because of the tone rarely changes and the pace remains static alongside the “Arenas” that need to not just be arenas but means to create grand set pieces and times of lull so that the player doesn't tire of the content. In architecture we do this with room sizes, lighting levels, furniture arrangement, level changes, open plan vs. closed and an overall consideration for the human interactions that may go on such a space which together play a lot into our thoughts of how we remember it. Did that museum take you through a story of a by-gone time or did it feel somewhat out of place with a bright background on the content of a tragic event. As space does this in the built environment, so must a digital one.

To conclude, challenging content is a great more than just difficult encounters. The importance of the spaces engaging the player so that context and motivation is given for players wanting to overcome the challenge. Difficult bosses is one thing, but difficult bosses with pathways, narrative, times of intense feelings and lulls in the pace all make an experience like a raid so much more. Will GW2 do this? Time will tell but I hope that becomes a memorable experience for those who look to take on its content. Only like 5-6 weeks to find out and personally I'm looking forward to it.   

Pathing, Walking Simulators and Architectural Theory

With the advent of games such as Dear Esther, The Stanley Parable and Gone Home amongst others the discussion of the medium of ‘video games’ has gone onto have some great (not so great) debates to whether these fringe cases can be considered games and to what extent do they portray an experience.  Although the term ‘Walking Simulator’ has negative connotations, I am in the school of thought that does believe that the term does have use and it should be used until we can come up with  better one.  I see it similar to the term ‘Moba’ that I personally don’t feel fits the genre of games such as Dota and LoL but do see that nothing suitable has come up yet. 

I have written a couple versions of this outlaying my thoughts on the subject and it’s been a difficult task to finish due to the nature of the above term creating some heated debates, but I feel that after a couple attempts I’ve got as close to my thoughts on the matter as I can.  Overall, I’m looking for it to be expanded upon greatly, but here’s some detail regarding this hypothesis. 

When I first experienced this genre it was one of intrigue; seeing an alternative means of engaging the audience in an experience that avoids the traditional method of creating conflict (whether that be with a direct battle or a task to accomplish).  I strolled through their environments, listened to their stories and felt a great deal of overlap with the essays on architectural theory I was reading at the time that focused on the fluidity of architectural form (something that if you’ve read this blog before will understand that’s one of my fundamentals from the medium).  Reading about the Heidegger Lodge or the re-purposed version of the Lake District made a game like Dear Esther play the theory out on my screen while theorists like Leech and his critical analysis of the above theory presented a nice counter point.  Finding ways to interact with a space in a virtual world is a key point for many people who play games because of the exploration factor (more on that here) and having something which focuses on that has the potential to open games up to lots of new people who may be put off by the traditional image of games being a competition or similarly ranked challenge.  The thing is thou, this original feeling was 5 or so years ago and I feel some significant things have happened in that time that caused me to develop my thoughts on the genre.

Over the past couple years, I’ve played three games that I believe are brilliant in presenting a narrative while marrying it with a number of other factors of game design to further improve the experience.  These titles (Thomas was Alone, The Stanley Parable and Transistor) present story through the actions of the player which has become a sticking point for many of the ‘walking simulator’ games that today look to grab my attention.  As I have experienced others say it was a new way of thinking 5 years ago but now it’s established and needs its next step.  

Thomas was Alone gives character to squares and rectangles by their dimensions making the regular red square (Thomas) an everyman to the smaller minded orange block or welcoming, larger blue block against the backdrop of a simple, but enjoyable puzzle-platformer.  

The Stanley Parable puts the player at the forefront of decisions as the narrative flex’s and bends to your will whether the narrator agrees with you or not.  Its ability to recognise the exploring player’s desire to search every cranny with a section like ‘the broom cupboard’ is brilliant by design and hilarious upon discovery.  

Transistor creates a world where everything adds to the narrative with the player’s use of the mechanics only reinforcing this feeling.  Learning more about characters through playing with different ability setups as the world changes throughout the playtime subtly but inevitably means a lot even if I don’t personally feel fully knowledgeable on the finer details of the story.  

Stanley is of course a game that would fit the ‘walking’ genre, but it’s so much more than where we started; not even taking into consideration how traditional games have found ways to tell a story.  They all take that earlier theory of the ‘map’ and ‘path’ which I originally felt with the genre and makes it all the more relevant as a player plots their path and takes note of personal experiences they had along the way.  The earlier titles have a certain feeling of the vernacular to them which is where we bring us to the newest title from the Chinese Room called ‘Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture’. 

Last week I got to play some of Rapture and over a couple hours I would say that my time on this game was somewhat lacking.  Yes, the title look great and it had snippets of an interesting story, but with my above experiences in games I just felt like it was missing something to give it character.  For those of you unaware of the game, Rapture takes place in a quiet English village where the aforementioned rapture has happened and we as the player are tasked with exploring the landscape and piecing the story together.  Although this game has received positive praise, others have commented on the ‘dead-ends’ and movement mechanics (a run function wasn’t fully discovered until after the game was released) alongside a story with not particularly likeable characters who take part in the story.  All that being said however, I feel that the subject of ‘paths and maps’ in theory could have given it more character to enhance the story and potentially make the overall package a greater experience. 

So what do I mean by this?  Well, the game’s environment of a quaint English village is lovingly crafted that is understandable, but when I look at the finer details it has a certain feeling of the everyday / vernacular.  If they were going for a rather typical village outline then yeah sure the game has accomplished its goal of that look, but I feel that it could of played with the interiors a bit more, akin to a modern day village with its planning permissions.  With this concept, I refer to the means of which places like villages tend to have a designated look to make sure dwellings fit into the overall aesthetic of the place, but this doesn’t stop augmentation of interior features and personal touches which allows home owners the ability to make their home special.  To take this back to my earlier point of ‘paths and maps’ this practice is there in Rapture but only in a simple format in that I’m taking a path that doesn’t feel mine.  I may be asking too much from this game to look to consider this idea of player mapping through architecture, but I hope it’s something they may consider in future titles they work on. 

As I said at the start of this piece, I have generally positive thoughts for the ‘walking simulator’ genre of game but it has shown that from its humble beginnings the way in which we present a narrative has evolved over time to where you can’t just move through a space and tell a story.  Through playing with the environment, diverting the player’s impression of what will happen and making them an integral part of the story rather than a camera; all games have the potential to create an interesting narrative however they classify themselves.  Whether you like walking simulators or dismiss their nature, we’re all getting better ways to tell stories that I hope continue into the future.  

Warframe PvP: Personal Thoughts as of Update 17

PvP in Warframe for me has always been an odd thing due to its difficult upbringing.  When it was first brought up, the star-chart conclaves were something I only tried briefly and the dark sectors were something I never really tried out of confusion / not really being invested in the game mode.  The most recent standalone version with game modes of CTF and Kill Confirmed have perked my interest for PvP again, but with the recent changes in update 17 to the movement mechanics its sitting tall at my weekend’s playtime for a number of different reasons. 

PvP in Warframe is still in somewhat early stages but it has strong opening gamemodes.  Screenshot taken 15/8/2015

The most prevalent feeling of this playtime is one of nostalgia; a moment where I am in an arena wall hiking around the map trailing my target instantly takes me back to 10 or so years ago with one of the two titans of arena shooting being Unreal Tournament (the other of course being Quake).  For me, UT (alongside Total Annihilation) were the first PC games I played online and having the frantic nature of UT Deathmatch on a map like Deck 16 cemented my enjoyment for PC gaming and the larger spectrum of competition.  The Arena shooter became my first stop for many years of gaming, going through the entire UT series (UT, 2k3, 2k4 and 3 as of writing) with modern titles such as CoD just not fully scratching such an itch.  For me, it was never the gunplay that personified these games (be it weapons like the flak cannon being my favourite anyway) but an enthusiasm for the movement controls with particular focus on the 2k4 iteration.  Whereas in a modern title you will have a jump, crouch, sprint and maybe a slide; you could dodge into double jumps, wall hikes into somersaults, rocket jumps and other environmental based movement techniques to make your ability to remain a difficult target an extra step of the FPS mechanics we all know and enjoy.  It also gave a sense of speed as with learning such mechanics, you could greatly increase your travel speed meaning that it gave an overall feeling of speed to the gameplay that military sprinting or short-term jetpacks just don’t truly match in my opinion.  With Warframe’s new movement mechanics that follow a similar toolset of wall hikes, double jumps, leaps, rolls and bullet-time esc slides, PvP’ing gives me this feeling of having to use my movement as an extension of my in-combat play so that I am able to try and gain short-term advantages so that I can defeat the enemy.  Traversing the maps, jumping into a battle to nab a kill and then dart back out with a slither of health is something that very rarely loses its charm and I can see that my previous enthusiasm for the arena shooter could be found in not an FPS but a third-person shooter which has somewhat surprised me. 

That being said, I would be lying if I made a 1:1 comparison and I do have some issues that have cropped up during these hours of play.  Some of these are self-critical while others are at the gameplay.

Jumping away at the right time to be ready for the next skirmish.  Screenshot taken 15/8/2015

First of all, I have had to play a lot with my controls / mouse sensitivity because of the significant change in enemy movement type from PvE to PvP.  The overwhelmingly majority of Warframe’s PvE enemies work on the same plain as the player with a relativity slow-regular pace as the AI does make use of cover and squad like groupings whereas a player is naturally unpredictable.  Traversing the map I have noticed a small need for increased sensitivity, but when I end up in a dual-like situation with another player one is wrapped into a swirl of leaps and slides as you try to gain an advantage for a couple shots and in those situations I could probably do with upping my sensitivity by around 40%.  I do have the option to change my sensitivity on the fly, but I feel like it’s going to take a couple hours to find the right balance.  In terms of movement, I also feel that sometimes when I go to roll I’m not rolling which is getting me shot / stabbed but I have a feeling this maybe down to my aging hardware / reaction speed.

Although I performed well during matches, the last 2 or so minutes would see me knocked off my podium finish.  Screenshot taken 15/8/2015

Secondly, I feel like there is an unnecessary ‘deadzone’ time in some movement which makes the flow of gameplay feel off-balance.  To those of you who may be confused by my choice of word, I am referring to particular moments in moving; aiming with a weapon after a sliding movement and landing after a jump beyond the regular jump height.  The First of these has been a recent issue of mine since Update 17 where there’s a short-term ‘sway’ out of the slide where the camera catches up with the player so I feel this is something that may need some work on through patches, but the second is more difficult to discuss because I can see the reasoning behind it.  Having a player stagger if they don’t land a high jump properly makes sense as it encourages you to chain movement together in an appropriate manner, it’s just the smaller cases of jumping regular to a space a couple steps below your original jump point is where it feels off in comparison to the PvE gameplay I have experienced.  There have been a number of moments where I’ve thought “why” on a map such as the corpus ship tile-set where I traverse the side crates onto the lower health pickups with no problem but stagger on the nearby gradient changes. 

Thirdly, and possibly the most subjective, is the experience of comparative skills and the interplay between them.  It’s always difficult to discuss a subject like this without going too much into balance and whether “x is OP” but I will try just to give my experiences during this time.  I personally have been trying quite a few weapons and personally I’ve felt an affinity for shotgun use with a heavy sidearm and polearm but I haven’t been able to find a frame that fits the playstyle that I want to going with that.  I tried using Volt, Valkyr, Saryn, Zephyr, Chroma and Frost but I just can’t get a great feeling of “this feels like what I want”.  A skill / attack that one shots me as a Volt (with a small armour rating so you may consider that there are various attacks that do it) would also do the same to Saryn (a frame with a much higher armour rating) and I personally don’t know what to make of it.  I try to think of ‘counter-play’ but other than ‘run away’ there isn’t much I’m coming up with and that’s not the best situation in these circumstances.  Then there’s Jat Kittag, a weapon that I know is a slow, formidable weapon but in PvP has just been an aggravation for me.  In both PvE and PvP it has a powerful knockback for the surrounding enemies but with one particular experience of mine I feel it may need a bit of tweaking.  The times where I’m battling with someone and I get hit by it so be it, but when I’m mid-air and dodging away from it at a decent height from the ground I don’t feel like I should be staggered / knocked down by it.  I understand there are mods to make you immune to such affects after being knocked / staggered, but I’m not on the ground or near to the blast so I don’t think I should be affected.  I will of course play more to understand this gameplay situation, but as of now for me it’s an unenjoyable play where counters I have looked to make haven’t been viable. 

Lastly (and possibly a secondary point to all the above) having peer to peer connections is much more noticeable in this game mode than in PvE, with myself experiencing a number of situations where I’ve been killed around the corner when in terms of the connection I’m most likely still occupying the space I was before I moved into cover.  This is of course a factor of the overall game and experienced in other games that use P2P such as CoD; so in an ideal world I would love the use of dedicated servers as then I’m less likely to either a) have the above situations happen or b) blame less of my performance on a factor like lag.  For the meantime, I’m going to try to work around it and get better. 

Overall, I have greatly enjoyed my time PvP’ing in Warframe this weekend and would recommend it just to try at least.  The gameplay is fun and removes a lot of what people do find annoying about the PvE side of gameplay – farming / grinding.  If you’re someone like me and are looking for an arena shooter, this may intrigue you until the genre properly finds its way onto the main stage of gaming, but other than a few “ARGH” moments from myself it gave me a similar feeling to those older titles.  

The International Amongst Other Things

It’s been a couple weeks since my last post, but you’re remotely interested in the E-sports / competitive gaming scene you’ll probably understand why by the title.  The last two weeks have predominately been a work, watch Dota, sleep, work, etc. so most other activities have been pushed to one side.  For those of you unsure what I’m on about let me explain. 

The International is a tournament for the Game Defence of the Ancients (Dota) in which 16 teams from around the world compete to see who will be crowned world champion.  The event goes over two weeks (first week group stages, second week playoffs) with the playoffs being held at Key Arena, Seattle to a public crowd in the thousands alongside a vast online audience.  This game, as well as the genre it sits in (with games such as League of Legends, Smite, Heroes of Newerth, etc.) have greatly grown in popularity over the past 10 years from humble beginnings to the point where it packs physical stadiums and potentially rivals some traditional sports in viewership as more people are introduced to the concept. 

This year the International is in its fifth year (Ti5) and the figures are crazy.  In its first year the prize pool was $1.6million whereas it tops around $18.3 million today.  The production quality has also greatly improved; with fully established game analysis pre and post-game, commentators being assisted with standalone camera and statistics staff so that they can focus on the game itself, and stage itself that feels like it has a lot more prestige and competitiveness about it through its design and direction. 

The growing prize pool largely funded by community support is one of the indicators of the increased awareness for E-sports.  Image from esports.inquirer.net published by Wykrhm Reddy.  Accessed 10/8/2015

The stage sits in the middle of the arena giving spectators a good view whatever angle they may be sitting in, with large screens positioned above the players’ pods.  The stage itself is the Dota 2 logo (A red square with 3 slashes through it) with each team’s pod being situated on the outer slashes looking at each other.  This is important because whereas in most tournaments, the players are positioned towards the crowd and not in sight of each other allowing for the potential of a team to see how the opposition is reacting to the situation adding a psychological element to the competition.  The stage itself also was dynamic in its lighting arrangement as it changed the image being projected on to the floor in relation to what was going on.  For example, during the game it projected the map onto the stage with each team’s respective side (Radiant and Dire) being shown to give an added visual representation of the battle.  It would then change in team fights when certain skills were used that have high impact like Enigma’s Black Hole (a skill that pulls enemies into a small circular spot over a period of 3 seconds while immobilising them).  Lastly, the Aegis of Champions (the trophy for the event) sat at the tip of the middle stripe throughout the event so that players were always aware of what was on offer.  Even if it didn’t consciously give a response, one could imagine that sub-consciously it played on their thoughts. 

The stage projecting the map with the corresponding side for each team.  Image from Twitter @TobiWanDota  https://twitter.com/TobiWanDOTA/status/628340868911464448  viewed 10/8/2015

As I have commented on in the past, events like this feel on par with traditional sports and I feel E-sports (or competitive gaming depending on your definition) will continue to grow to the point where we can see it more commonly in the public eye.  I may have a vested interest to see this as I have been playing / watching these games for a decent amount of time, but I think the testament to its potential success is through those who watch from non-gaming backgrounds.  Watching competitive Dota when living with others and seeing how they become more and more interested in it over time shows that it can be entertaining without the vast amount of knowledge it requires to play properly.  Seeing a big team engagement happen with a commentator getting enthusiastic about it while the crowd roars to an impressive play is somewhat easy to understand whether its Dota, League, Football, Rugby, etc. 

Now it’s all over I’ve got many days of YouTube content to catch up on, but we should be back to normal service next week.  I shall leave you with the final moments of the grand final brought to you via DotaCinema…

PoE Awakening: initial thoughts

Path of Exile’s first expansion has been in development for a while now with access to the beta to those who wished to do so, but its retail release has just come up prompting me to go in and see what’s what.  Over the past couple years, PoE has been a game that has garnered a lot of enjoyment from me and being able to experience new maps, bosses and skills allows me to continue to find fresh pieces of content that keep me interested in the game’s overall lifespan.  Today I want to talk about my experiences; first as a player and secondly from a design perspective. 

Playtime Experience

To get the most out of this I decided to make a new character in the soft-core “Warbands” league which features randomly generated enemy groups designed via a particular element e.g. a flame war band using flame/ searing totems, fireballs and other similar skills.  I made a Scion with the old spectral throw with elemental damage (somewhat similar to buzzsaw to those playing) with some room for new gems to experiment with and quickly got back into playing a class that I enjoy right behind the Templar.  Right from act1, I was able to experience the great additions that were on offer as Nessa (the potion and misc vendor) has a second page that features a nice range of low-level skill / passive gems at a price that a newly made character can easily acquire.  Moving into the act itself, I very much appreciate the changes to the waypoints as I have found myself doing less of the ‘running around finding it’ this time around which in turn has speed up my interim gameplay and made my playtime feel much more streamlined.

When talking about the experience being streamlined, one cannot talk about it without mentioning the shift of maps as a whole through the acts.  Each act has had a map removed (Coves, Forest and connecting Sewer) where they didn’t suit any purpose but to get the player to an ‘active’ map (inactive meaning no quests or significant event) as well as significantly changing Act 2 in regards to Bandits / Vaal.  In this version, you can clear the bandit quest before you interact with the Vaal vessel as the Vaal ruins that featured before the Wetlands now go after it.  To me it feels a lot better to get the bandit quest done and then focus on the Vaal because sometimes I would get to the Wetlands and feel like I’m going backwards and forwards to achieve my goal.  In Act 3 not much has changed but having 1 less floor in the Lunaris temple makes it feel a lot better as floor 2 could drag a bit. 

The flaming lava-falls of Kaom's realm fit alongside the monsters that follow a similar characteristic.  Screenshot taken 20/7/2015

Act 4 is of course the new act and as of writing I am at the Harvest collecting the organs to meet the game’s new end-boss; Malachai, The Nightmare and hopefully succeed in a relativity short amount of time as I’m only on normal with this new Scion.  Leading up to this moment, act 4 has been very enjoyable as the enemies have made me more aware of my positioning and take more time to move out of the way of attacks and telegraphs.  Even in the first map (Aqueduct) the named ‘boss’ of the area is a large bird-like creature that body slams after a short period of flight constantly so it requires you to move around to use the available space to your advantage.  As you continue to progress through the acts, the bosses ramp this up with enemies like Kaom and Corrupted Piety engulfing large amounts of the ground in negative space (such as flames / poison / etc) giving me the feeling of being back in wow raiding with things such as the famous Helgen Dance in Naxx.  Throughout all of this I’ve had one death due to my own mistake but overall I feel like the difficultly is appropriate for the content and I look forward to trying these fights on the higher difficultly. 

The Aesthetics / Design

The corridors between arenas balance the frantic battles against its small stature.  Screenshot taken 20/7/2015

Act 4 has a brilliant mix of map design and monster design that are able to do a lot with spaces that on their own aren’t too interesting.  I say this because a number of the maps (Dried Lake, Daresso’s Dream, etc) are a collection of channels and arenas but are able to instill life into the space within the context of its setting (see this post for my thoughts on the subject).  The Dried Lake may not be much to look at, but the mix of enemies’ present give the narrative of a battlefield of time long passed all the more presence with a somewhat washed-out, grey beach alongside a couple huts.  The large monsters that are a collection of many skeletal archers are particularly great as you can see individual archers acting on their own to attack you, while being a part of a larger monster that is intent on killing you.  On top of this, the way it splinters when you kill it offloading a couple of the archers to act on their own is a nice little touch which turns an enemy that fits a basic ranged combat role into something with a bit more detail.

The Darkness of the mines hide a mass of monsters awaiting your arrival.  Screenshot taken 20/7/2015

 

On the subject of enemies, there are some great interactions throughout the act which make the maps feel more alive and combative.  To give an example, the stone men in the mines throw pieces of themselves at the player with the potential to be stunned / knocked back in a darkened environment that can make it difficult to distinguish type add to the aesthetic of a mine that has sealed to the world for a long time where corruption has taken its time to manifest in the inhabitants.  Another example can be found in Kaom’s realm, where a number of enemies attack underneath the ground through lava channels leaving a burning path for the player to either dodge or experience the effect of burning.  It fits into the background of lava flowing like water as well as getting the player ready for the later battle with Kaom which requires a lot of dodging lava fields and fireballs to get through alive.  Although these are great examples, what I feel encapsulates great design is through Daresso’s dream and the two maps that feature within it. 

Daresso's Dream and the pits make a small square space into something special.  Screenshot taken 20/7/2015

Daresso’s story of being this young lad brought into the world of battle is setup in a great way through these two maps because of the way the character narrates while you progress.  Daresso talks about his time becoming a fighter, entering the fighting pits and making his way up to the gladiatorial arenas while you progress through the same areas has allowed me to learn about his story where previously I may of quickly skipped it through dialogue.  His story is one that feels the most prominent in my mind when it comes to Path of Exile because I was able to play it and when a story can marry itself to gameplay in such a way I believe they can truly work wonders together.  The maps themselves maybe a couple arenas with connecting paths, but the arenas have character that makes it a great place to interact with.  The ‘dream’ map has these small, muddied pits that have wooden-spiked gates that trickle enemies into the space giving me the impression of a skirmish/ brawl whereas the gladiatorial arena has crowds, side entrances and trapdoors that all throw enemies into the battle as you make a name for yourself.  There are a few pillars dotted around to punctuate the arena floor, but that’s all it needs because the fight does all the talking.  Even with all this going on, the final battle with Daresso fits into his own battle for the King of Swords; having a much more intimate space as two combatants wait to see the first show doubt and strike hard. 

The gladiatorial arena is just a larger square but does a lot with the space provided.  Screenshot taken 20/7/2015 

Overall, the Awakening expansion for Path of Exile has been a great deal of fun to play which has allowed me to interact with parts of the game that I haven’t done so in the past.  The overall flow of the game feels better and the new act 4 has a great mixture of monsters, maps and boss fights to keep many a player interested up to the end credits and beyond.  I hope you give it a try and see how much is going on beyond the genre title of an Action RPG that is free without you feeling like you’re missing out if you choose not to purchase its micro transactions. 

Couple more weeks and I may try hardcore again….

Low-Performance PC Gaming

As I mentioned recently, my new job has open opportunities to be involved in new things and have a suitable level of disposable income.  The conventional side of my thoughts have expressed interest in things such as suitable accommodation, learning to drive or a potential holiday; but naturally the ever-present idea of a new PC build has made itself known.  It’s been 8 or so years since the last PC build (with a GFX card change and RAM stick addition) but the box’s age is definitely showing with many modern titles either not working or having very poor performance.  A title like The Witcher 3 is something I would love to be playing but with my old AMD dual-core CPU and ATI 4850HD the more likely result is a machine that gives up and explodes.  With all that being said, I would say that my time gaming on a low-performance PC has been an enjoyable experience has taught me a lot about the customisability that a platform like PC has to offer. 

To roughly break this down into three factors, I would say that they are “New games are still available”,  “Cost factors” and “Configure for performance”.

New games are still playable

The City of Novigrad in Witcher 3 looks great and I hope to play it in the future.  Image from Witcher.wikia.com accessed 13/07/2015

When you have new games like The Witcher 3, Dragon Age: Inquisition or Batman: Arkham Knight; it can difficult to stay positive when they all pass you buy with a Canyourunit Fail result very clearly showing your machine’s inferiority.  However, in this same time-frame we’ve also had such titles like Hotline Miami 2, This War of Mine, Shovel Knight and the wide selection of Tell-tale narrative games that continue to improve as time goes on.  These games are not without their interesting game mechanics, diverse aesthetics and narratives that look to discuss themes that aren’t always talked about in general media.  For example, This War of Mine is a game set during war time that puts you in the shoes of a civilian trying to survive the conflict; tasked with collecting supplies to sustain a small bombed settlement while dealing with the moral implications of survival in such an environment with a dark aesthetic to match. 

This War of Mine showcasing the other side of war.  Image from thiswarofmine.com accessed 13/07/2015

As well as games, game engines such as Unity have done a great of work to give developers a means to create games on a relativity slow budget and have available players from a similar column.  One of the most popular games (if one would use Twitch numbers) over the past year or so is Hearthstone which is a well-produced Unity-engine card game that even runs well on a phone; giving players an enjoyable, free to play experience that continues to create new content for people to enjoy. 

Cost factors

Hearthstone gives a great deal of enjoyable for no upfront cost and minimal performance requirements.  Image from us.battle.net accessed 13/07/2015

Continuing on from my Hearthstone example, the prevalence of free to play titles has greatly helped those on a small budget experience more games than ever before.  It is understandable that there are those who dislike the model citing games like Hearthstone, Dota2 or LoL where A player may spend over the amount of a AAA title and then some for a questionable amount of content (quantity and quality of course), but the model has seen great improvements over its short lifespan.  All the above examples, as well as Path of Exile and Warframe are free to play games I enjoy even on an old PC and with significant updates such as PoEs recent Awakening expansion (which introduced a new act, skill updates, item additions and more all for free) shows there are still great times to be had on a low spec machine.  To this day, my PC and its part replacements have cost a total of ~£300 and its current lifespan of ~8 years puts a rough annual cost of £37.50 which is on par with a console. 

Configure for performance

config files and registry tinkering allows for games old and new to run tailored to your needs.  Screenshot taken 13/07/2015

This I believe is the most prevalent factor in my time on a low-performance PC as it has allowed me to learn more about the finer details when it comes to playing games.  To many, configuring .ini files is extremely easy but if like me you never had to use them and stick with an in-game options menu it may seem like a daunting task to accomplish.  Over these past few years, I do take time to configure and tailor a game to my liking so that I get the right balance of performance (frame rate of at least 30 stable) and graphical quality which has meant that a game like Guild Wars 2 where I didn’t feel confident pvp’ing due to performance drops is now suitable for me as competitive game modes naturally need smoothness in performance.  This factor in my gaming life revolves around one particular example that I would like to discuss now:

The natural mod-ability of a game like Skyrim helped me play it when it seemed unlikely.  Screenshot accessed 13/07/2015

In November 2011, I was sitting in my bedroom at university late one night when Steam popped up saying that “The Elder Scroll 5: Skyrim was now available”.  At this time, I was using my laptop (the one I’m typing with now which overheats and its PSU is held with tape) and was well aware that it wouldn't do well with such a title, but reflectively clicked purchased anyway and awaited its download.  Upon entering the initial scene in the cart, I noticed a terrible frame rate of around 10 as well as input lag which quickly got me demoralised with the prospect I wouldn’t be able to play it for over a month until I had access to my PC (the one that was still kind of old at the time but not as bad as today).  At this point, it was 1 am and I decided that “no, I’m going to see what I can do with this” and trawled the internet for some solutions.  With the help of some forums and the PCgamingwiki page on Skyrim, I spent the next couple hour’s fine tuning my settings and testing that initial scene to see what performance I could grasp at with the modification of effects such as shadows and LOD; eventually finding a mod that looked to reduced graphical quality below the in-game minimal parameter.  By 3am, I had done my testing and now I was sitting at around 28fps which was as far as I could feasibly go without breaking things and found myself engrossed in a world right through to 10am when I decided it was time to go get breakfast.  Yes, I could have just waited until the Christmas holiday period and enjoy this game without all the hassle, but due to my perseverance /stubbornness to play this game, I was able to enjoy Skyrim in that initial period of exploration when something new is available and we’re all trying to figure out what’s over the next hilltop. 

So that’s what gaming on a rather old PC means to me.  Of course there are games that I would love to play now that aren’t available to me, but with the great selection on offer I don’t feel like I’m missing out or that I’m a second-class citizen.  When I do end up getting a new PC, I will of course love having the great looking graphics, quick load times and the likes but I know that if I’m not able to upgrade again for a while I can keep enjoying this medium of gaming and the experiences it provides. 

P.S. pcgamingwiki.com has been very useful over the last couple years.