Retrospective RTS: Warzone 2100

So another week has passed and I have found myself without a time period to play Starbound for the purpose of this blog.  For you see, I usually look do organise content for this blog over the weekend ready for Monday, but this weekend I found myself blindsided by a hangover from not a great deal of beer which probably shows how long it’s been since I've ‘properly’ drank.  Just like with anything, it’s all good then one time it’s just awful =/.

Anyway, enough about that because I would like to talk about something I have been doing this past week and that’s playing the campaign of an old RTS game called Warzone 2100. 

RTS games have always been a staple of my gaming interests with titles such as Warcraft, Command and Conquer and Total Annihilation.  When I only had a PSX thou, there were only a few titles I could play outside of going to a friend’s house to use their PC but I battled through the awkward controls to find some great titles.  It was on that old PSX I first encountered Command and Conquer as well as its follow-up Red Alert, but one month there was a demo in the Official PlayStation Magazine for a little game called Warzone 2100 that kept me playing way beyond its perceived time-length.  Warzone 2100 was special to me because of what it did.  It had this expansive tech tree I had only previously encountered in a game like Civilisation and a highly customisable set of tanks using a relativity simple body/propulsion/turret manufacturing tool giving me the ability to make lots of different kinds of vehicles of offensive and defensive properties.  Around this time in my life, I had a large number of constructional toys like K’nex and Lego in which I would make custom objects like cars and bipedal robots so it’s natural to see how I could be enthralled by a system such as this. 

Warzone 2100 features a mix of vehicles, cyborgs, VTOL and Hovercrafts alongside a whole host of structures.  Screenshot taken 13/4/2015

Warzone 2100 originally came out in 1999/2000 depending on where you lived, but for me it wasn't until a couple years later when I had a PC to use myself and a good friend who let me borrow it over a period of a couple weeks.  This was a great time for me, because I got to see how far the customisation went and experienced things like VTOL crafts and cyborg manufacturing plants filling my mind with even more possibilities.  I would play skirmishes just to build lots of different kinds of vehicles and compare them to each other not really thinking about the AI or what affect my decisions made on the battlefield.  RTS’s like Command and Conquer were always great, but Warzone 2100 just had this unique selling point (to the best of my knowledge) where I feel the only thing that gets close is the wide range of units a game like Total Annihilation has (and continues to create via community support).  That being said, after my two weeks of playing I had greatly enjoyed my time doing this one thing but it would be many years until I saw this game again. 

The start of Alpha mission 1 starts the player on a small map where they progress throughout the initial campaign.  screenshot taken 5/5/2015

I originally found out about the wz2100 project during my time at university in the year 2009.  I had been discussing old games with a housemate and I could not for the life of me remember the name of this game.  I knew of its customisable tanks and nuclear war scenario but the name had completely eluded me.  Out of some sheer determination (or luck) I found out what it was from random YouTube video watching and quickly found out that it was still being updated as an open source program.  Since this day, I have played it ever so often (a bit like DK2 in reference to this post) but only recently have I actually played the campaign which has allowed me to have a new appreciation for this title. 

A couple missions later, the base has grow from your own construction and the map has greatly increased.  Screenshot taken 5/5/2015

In your typical RTS campaign, you will have a mission that features a map and you carry out the objectives in an appropriate manner to reach the end goal.  After doing this, you will most likely move onto a new map with new objectives and only have a rare chance to return to the previous map (e.g. early CnC Red Alert Allies missions).  What Warzone 2100 does is that during each of its main campaigns, it has a core map which gets built upon with the addition of ‘away missions’ to bring in a new map ever so often.  The core map keeps all your buildings, units and defensive structures where they were even in away missions where your base continues to manufacture vehicles, generate resources and gather research.  When you start the campaign you have a relativity small map of a few valleys and a single clear movement path, but by the 9th mission the map is around 4 times bigger where you've built multiple outposts across the zone signalling past victories.  It also keeps these earlier sections relevant, as in later missions the enemy retaliates with unit drops across the map requiring the player to bolster their previous defenses or position units accordingly. 

The manufacturing features a 3 point design with many different combinations.  Screenshot taken 5/5/2015

The away missions create an interesting twist on the ‘no base’ mission type with the addition of a transport that can carry up to 10 units every couple minutes to the away mission spot.  Add on top of this the continuation of production while away and you can (in a simple format in comparison to modern titles such as Planetary Annihilation) management 2 maps at the same time which I find thoroughly enjoyable.  In these missions, you don’t just grab a load of turreted vehicles, but mix in a building truck, commander node or repair tool to give your LZ a defensible position and increase your map awareness with sensory towers.  I've never been too keen on ‘no base’ missions in titles like CnC, but this feels great for the setting because it keeps that link of my available resources while still requiring me to make decisions regarding my troop movement. 

Starting off in a away mission, the LZ is being protected while the units scour the nearby landscape.  Screenshot taken 5/52015

So, in a rough assessment that’s what my previous week has come up with.  Warzone 2100 will always hold a positive memory for me and going back to playing it again recently has showed me how much a game such as this still has to offer to the player.  Of course, the great work of the wz2100 project has allowed this game to continue working with updates but I hope that in the future we can see a modern interpretation of this game.  Maybe we already have in some light (I kinda gave reference to Planetary Annihilation earlier) which if you know of please comment, but I just don’t feel I've all its components come together quite like it.  

The Soundtrack of my Past: music from the video game world.

When I did my retrospective on video game architecture, I naturally started to think about other forms of media that I’ve experienced in the gaming world.  Topics like ‘story interpretation’ and ‘aesthetic choice’ came up, but I felt that when it comes to influences sound design and music has been the most prominent example outside of architecture.  If one was to think that architecture influenced my career choice and interests; music opened me to new genres and ways to use instruments while finding ways to find similarities when meeting new people. 

The selection of music I want to talk about today is a mixture of OST’s (original soundtrack) and licensed titles that I feel continue to be relevant in this day and age. 

Sonic the Hedgehog 2: Hill Top Zone

Hill Top Zone Via YouTube User "SonicKAI"

Hill Top Zone.  Image from http://sonic.wikia.com/

The music from such titles as Sonic, Zelda and Mario has drilled melodies into heads of children and adults alike, making them instantly memorable with a healthy dose of nostalgia.  From the title screen jingle to the ‘swing-like’ presentation of Casino Night, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 creates a great mix of tunes fitting into the backdrop of each zone.  At first, I didn’t really known which tune to mention here but as I thought about it more, the upbeat chimes of Hill Top zone won out against the undertones of Mystic Cave. 

Hill Top zone’s tone to me has a feeling of an ‘easy-going/upbeat’ nature that one feels previously in Casino Night with a natural backdrop of mountains being circulated by wispy clouds.  It’s the sort of tune I could imagine listening to while in transit that unknowingly gets your head bobbing with a smile casually breaking through.  I have heard those who compared it to a country / folk song (with particular note towards the intro sections) which I can agree with, but the steps in melody during the chorus section give it a dynamic true to the Hill Top environment as the player traverses the level through a series of see-saws and moving platforms.  This zone for me was the transition between the easier early zones (Green Hills => Casino Night) and later challenging levels (Mystic Cave => End) and I feel the music in question reflects this change.  Mystic Cave after Hill Top has a spooky undertone that presents an unknown enemy so that’s why I feel this transition is appropriate.  This is why Hill Top zone’s tune sits at the top of my thoughts of this era of my very early gaming life. 

Total Annihilation OST by Jeremy Soule

WarPath via YouTube user "Markel A."

Building up for war in TA.  Image from http://en.wikipedia.org/

With the advent of the family’s first home computer, my interest in games slowly moved into the PC space to where nowadays it’s my primary gaming platform.  At this time, I had a friend of mine whose dad played quite a few different PC games.  This list included MechWarrior, StarCraft, Unreal Tournament to name a few but the first that perked my interest was Cavedog’s RTS title Total Annihilation.  TA felt special because of the wide range of things that could be done that I wasn’t able to do playing command and conquer on my PSX.  Setting behaviours and independent build orders for factories felt amazing while the maps had a fantastic mix of small skirmishes and massive all-out warzones.  Regardless of the gameplay, one of the most memorable things from this game was the soundtrack and its ability to fit the situation perfectly with music that I had never attempted to listen to.  These days, an orchestral is of course quite often to the point where it can sometimes meld into the background, but being introduced to this fantastic score by Jeremy Soule at a young age just added to the grandness of the battle so that the volley of bombers was met with a similar explosion of sound from the orchestra.  If I was to pick a favourite, it would have to be track #4 (WarPath) as it a song for battle that has its own build up that other ‘battle’ music from the score don’t match up for me.  This choice may also be done to me choosing to have this song play when the ‘auto’ option for music stopped working one day for some reason, but there’s a reason why I wanted to hear this tune. 

Being open to the view that classical / orchestral music is for me and not some tired, old-fashioned genre only for the posh has allowed me to enjoy a great deal of its music as time has gone on.  I have followed Mr. Soule onto other games like Oblivion, Skyrim and Guild Wars 2 but others like Harry Gregson Williams with the Metal Gear Solid franchise have done a great deal to show the world how much material video games have to offer. 

Dave Mirra’s Freestyle BMX: Social Distortion - Don’t Drag Me Down

Don't Drag me Down via Spotify

A part of the wider extreme sports titles at the time.  Image from http://en.wikipedia.org/

These last three songs all fit under a similar banner, but I thought I’d start with the one that I experienced first.  When this game came out, I was about to 11 and nearing the quintessential time to be different and start taking note of my views against others (aka being a teenager).  Things like growing out my hair came later, but sometime around this period my music reflected that of a more typical ‘rock’ vibe listening to bands like Good Charlotte and Linkin Park where I could be stereotypical in a whole new way (haha).  Extreme sports games have a dual interest for me as one; it featured a nice mixture of skill based gameplay and alternative culture and two; the soundtracks featured a lot of rock to play along to that I could fumble an air guitar to in-between tricks and passing the controller for HORSE (score attack mode). 

Anyway, Dave Mirra’s Freestyle BMX isn’t one of the names that usually comes up in this genre (especially as it competed with Matt Hoffman being supported by neversoft) but it featured that much loved rock soundtrack for me to play along with.  I can’t really remember much from the soundtrack, although there is one that I will always put my finger on as a song that probably kept me playing past the point where the game was enjoyable.  Don’t Drag me Down by Social Distortion had all that I wanted; distorted guitars being played in an angry tone with a voice that sound like he had been down but never out.  It reflected the desire to try and get the harder challenges as I didn’t want to be beaten with this song becoming an anthem of sorts to keep me trying.  The other thing (and probably the more important reason why it stuck for me) is that it didn’t fit into the typical angst rock but felt more like a guy talking about his ongoing life experiences.  In essence, it was positive rock for me (if one can say such a thing) and remained strongly in my mind until I rediscovered them in my later teens some 5-6 years later with Guitar Hero.  The song was Story of My Life and now I own most of the albums.  I hope to see them live one day but being outside the US that is a bit difficult.  Regardless, here’s to a mediocre game giving me one of my favourite bands to listen to of all time. 

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3: CKY - 96 Quite Bitter Beings

96 Quite Bitter Beings via Spotify

Mid-trick for the player while the rift from CKY blares out.  Image from http://en.wikipedia.org/

Pro Skater 3 came out a year later on the PlayStation but I didn’t really get to play it until a year or so afterwards at a friend’s house.  During this time, I got to play many rounds of HORSE and heard its range of Motorhead and Ramones alongside the more typical Alien Ant Farm.  Although I would say that Blitzkrieg Bop is a fantastic tune that is instantly recognisable, my time playing single player was often met with the ‘out of the blocks’ punch that 96 Quite Bitter Beings brought to the table.  That intro rift that repeats multiple times during the song was all I wanted to hear while playing Pro Skater 3 because it felt like the song made me play better and score those brilliant combos needed for some challenges.  I didn’t care for the lyrics or the tone of the band’s concept; it was just those rifts that I wanted to hear again and again.  To give a similar example outside of the gaming world, I would say the ongoing rift to Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes has the same effect to a lot of people I grew up with. 

Unlike SocialD, CKY never became a band I wanted to hear more of.  That maybe down to not going out to look for them or that they didn’t come up again in a game, but they didn’t perk my interest beyond the rift of 96.  I did actually get to see them live a couple years ago at Sonisphere, Knebworth, but I did kind of feel lost until they finished up with 96 and I heard that rift again in real life. 

Aggressive Inline Skating: Reel Big Fish – Sell Out

Sell Out via Spotify

I only played a demo, but Reel Big Fish made it a great time to be had.  Image from Google search

I only ever got a demo for this game, but my god did I play the hell out of this demo for hours on end.  This was a skating game like any other, but it had mild progression with its mechanics; allowing the player to improve their ability to move, jump, twist and grind through performing relevant tricks.  Looking back on it, it was obviously grinding for grinding but it’s easy to see why progression has become such a significant part of games these days because of the amount of time I sunk just into a demo that I could save my progress on. 

Because I played this so much, I naturally got to listen to its music a lot which featured a mix of ‘rocky’ tunes that had a nice mix of instruments and tones about them.  There was however one tune that stood out beyond the rest in the form of a little Ska-Rock piece by Reel Big Fish. 

Sell Out was great for me because it added the dynamics of brass instruments into the equation without losing the regular feel of guitars and drums that I grew accustomed to.  It was happy, upbeat and had character that allowed the rest of the soundtrack to quickly fall into the background with my playtime.  It was a great song to listen to during my playtime but ironically didn’t stay for much longer.  Not long after playing this demo, I didn’t know the name of the band as the game only showed the song title and I didn’t have access to the internet to check.  Back then I was still using the radio and Top of the Pops to find new music so Sell Out drifted into the past. 

Fast-forward to my life as a 20-something at university and my friend asks me whether I want to see a band live called ‘Reel Big Fish’.  Being obvious to who they were I said yeah but wanted to get a taste of what their music was like.  A link was sent to me with the words ‘yeah this is their most well-known song’ and my eyes lit up instantly.  A couple weeks later I saw Reel Big Fish live and have seen them a couple more times thereafter.  The memory of a demo I played some 8 years earlier jolted my system and for that I was able to see a band I had always wanted to hear properly and like SocialD, have become one of the bands I listen to on a regular basis. 

Looking back at my time, I would have to say that the typical teenager rock vibe appears very strongly here.  However, through the medium of video games, I’ve been able to find those couple examples of songs that stuck out beyond the rest and became the foundation for my musical tastes nowadays.  I listen to more genres of music than I ever before and most times its through games that I have experienced them.  Whether it’s the remixed works of OCRemix bringing life to older titles or the beautiful tracks from modern titles like Transistor, they all have something special to them that I wish more people had the opportunity to listen to. 

Thanks for reading, now I’m going to continue replaying Transistor because The Spine is calling.  

Video Game Architecture: my experiences from the past

A couple days ago, I was watching a couple twitch streamers when I took notice of what music was being played.  It was a collection of OCremix tracks featuring reinterpreted music from titles such as Sonic, Megaman and Jet-set Radio amongst other things which very quickly embedded classic melodies into my head for the remainder of the day.  While this was going on, it got me thinking about how much music, licensed or otherwise, I got into from the medium of video games which still holds a strong point of influence to this day.  Originally, I was going to talk about it this week, but as a means to keep the subject of architecture in context, I thought I would talk about a couple architectural pieces from games during my childhood / early teenage years that I particular find great.  There may be some crossover with level design, but the primary subject matter is that of architecture. 

Sonic the Hedgehog 2: Metropolis Zone

Sonic and Tails come up against a foe in the Metropolis Zone.  Image from the Sonic wiki (http://sonic.wikia.com/)

For many people, the Casino Night levels aesthetic or Chemical Plants soundtrack will hold a special place in their heart.  But for me, from an architectural point of view the way Metropolis creates a feeling from its design of ‘overcoming the odds’ and ‘getting through the machine’ is perfect for its placement within Sonic 2.  As a child I never owned a Sega Megadrive, so playing Sonic 2 was always on a time limit having to leave the communal gaming space or a friend’s house.  Usually, I’d end up getting to Oil Ocean and getting stuck on Act 2, but every so often the moons would align and Metropolis Act 1 would appear to greet me. 

Its heavy industrial feeling and challenging enemies (for me at the time) was quite appropriate as it tried to ‘keep me down’ and slow my progress.  The series of ups and downs through pipes, screws and cogs diffused the idea of progress as I tried to figure out whether I was taking the right path.  A particular moment I can remember is at Act 2, where the play needs to make a series of drops at the right sections to continue moving forward a little bit like the later bowser castles of Super Mario Bros. 

Looking back at it now, there are a new set of little touches that I feel make it great.  The way in which the levels physical ground is green makes me think of oxidised copper that originally shone greatly against its backdrop.  The feeling of the level feels like the industrial machine keeping you from achieving a goal, which of course has seen a number of iterations in social history with the working class being kept moving along by the factories they work in.  I do mention this often but Metropolis the film (1927) has some similarities that go beyond the naming. 

Metropolis holds this place because of its way in which it defined overcoming a challenge in my early childhood, but nowadays makes me think of my interest in engineering.  In particular my view of ‘Function over Form’ and that defined engineering can create great pieces of architecture that hold a unique form in their own way. 

MediEvil 1: Entrance Hall / The Time Device (City of Madness)

Clocks with a magical symbols bestow upon them.  Image From the MediEvil Wiki (http://gallowmere.wikia.com/)

The MediEvil series will always hold a special place for me as a game that made my time while having a Playstation One.  I never owned a Nintendo console (outside of the Gameboy colour) so where Zelda or Banjo Kazooee are fond memories of Nintendo 64 owners, MediEvil 1 and 2 occupies that spot.  Anyway, onto the levels…

Zarok’s domain features 3 levels at the climax of the game being ‘Entrance Hall’; Time Device’ and ‘Zaroks Lair’.  All three come under the umbrella title ‘City of Madness’ which one could draw a couple different conclusions from like the madness of the population enslaved by Zarok, his tiresome work to rule the land of Gallowmere or something in-between it all.  The ‘Entrance Hall’ has this rather typical magister / warlock tower feel to it with its spiral staircases and large library rooms, but the ‘Time Device’ contrasts this completely with industrial era mechanisms and multiple references to time.  The way in which runes (the game’s keys) are linked in with the clock-face near the beginning of the level is enjoyable to solve alongside the later time-based mechanics.  While doing this, the industrial vibe of the gears and railway system don’t feel out of place, but have their own ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’ aesthetic that the game is somewhat influenced by.  

Zarok's railway system and personal train in the shape of a skull.  Image from the MediEvil wiki (http://gallowmere.wikia.com/)

For example, the train it’s a steam engine in the shape of a skull that clicks its bones as it moves along the track. 

Like with the Sonic example, the industrial feeling of the area has something special that has influenced my design preference of engineering, but where MediEvil differs is through its application.  The mythical setting gives a nice twist on the industrial feel which shows we can play with the visuals but still keep the concept of the function at hand. 

Crash Bandicoot 2: Sewer Tunnel levels (multiple versions)

Crash being welcome into the sewers.  Image from Crash Bandicoot wiki (http://crashbandicoot.wikia.com/)

After the first warp room of Crash 2, you’ll find yourself a level that features a mixture of pipes, ducting, fans and wires that make up the sewer tile set.  The hollow sounds of Crash moving, the metallic soundtrack (as in the material not genre) and the aesthetics did much for these levels to remain my favourite in the game; bringing together a nice mix of challenge and pace that I didn’t feel in other tile sets.  One particular item I feel makes this possible are the circular doors that define each room, giving the player a mild sense of interest for what could be on the other side. 

As well as its industrial feel, the theme of it being a sewer opens the level up to some nice additions.  Much like MediEvil and its magical / mythical touches; Crash 2 adds water with electric eels shocking the ground intermittently, toxic waste in the style of rolling barrels and nitro boxes littered around to give that impression of a sewer system being hazardous.  The way in which I tried to avoid sewer water for being bad was as much the obstacle of electrified eels as was the fact that it was sewer water.  That being said, having an aversion to water maybe down to the infamous section of Chemical Plant Act2 in Sonic 2 which saw many people panic at the rise of the water level and subsequent frantic music. 

Timesplitters: Spaceport level (SP and MP)

Spaceways from a central atrium.  Image from Timesplitters wiki (http://timesplitters.wikia.com/)

Multiplayer shooters are nothing without its ability to create a diverse range of levels that accommodate a varied mixture of game modes and weapon types.  Keeping with my Playstation1 => 2 childhood, one such game that lived in my console at the time was Timesplitters; a fast-paced fps with a great cast of interesting characters, varied weapons and unique settings across a number of different eras and potential timelines.  To give an example of this, Cyberden and Spaceways both depict a futuristic setting but go for different interpretations of what that may incur.  Cyberden goes for a more industrial, dystopian feel while Spaceways goes for a cleaner, more technologically advanced aesthetic that one may consider utopian. 

If you’ve been reading through my influences, you may think why I went for the cleaner Spaceways over the industrial Cyberden?  I did consider this at first but on reflection it’s probably as simple as Cyberden feeling like not much was going on / a bit bland while Spaceways has a spectrum of colour injected into it.  Thinking about Spaceways a bit more, I feel that’s down to the concept of Futurism and our perception of what the future will look like with our ever expanded access to information and technology.  The way in designers construct these ideas of the future are a fascinating piece of our cultural history and for me, the way in which they use our modern times as a benchmark for the future brings out some nice results.  For this example, at the time I had recently gone on my first holiday outside of the UK to Gran Canarias (an isle of the west /north-west coast of Africa) and experienced air travel for the first time.  The process of the airport and its checks though its layout and aesthetics felt similar to the way in which Spaceways presented itself, be it with stronger contrasting colours.  I’m not one for sci-fi really, but the potential for what could be has always been a thing I enjoy. 

Reading through these examples, to which I could probably add quite a few more, you may notice a strong presence of industrial / mechanical aesthetics creating an environment to interact with.  Looking back at my foray through the world of architecture (in particular my interests in Brutalism, Futurism and Deconstructionism) it’s surprising to see how much of my interests have potentially come from the medium of video games.  Even nowadays when I look at the games I play places that have interesting uses of engineering stay with my memory the best.  The Black Citadel of the Charr in Guild Wars 2 is a mix of fire, metal and harsh mechanical workings that feels special amongst the more traditional settlements of the Human or Norn races to name such an example.  Having time to look back at this has surprised me as much as it’s made me smile and I know it’s going to be a similar feeling when it comes to my upcoming retrospectives.  I hope you found this interesting and possibly find the little pieces of your history that may have influenced you more than you know.  

*Images from relevant wiki sites of games relating to this post for non-profit use as a means to discuss the subject matter*

Returning to the MMO Space: Guild Wars 2 and my Experience of the Previous Week

Resuming play of an MMO can be met with a number of reasons; social circles and renewed interest from your peers; lack of interest from current titles available to the player; new content via an internal patch or external expansion would name a few.  For me, I’ve experienced a mixture of these factors alongside keeping up to date via YouTube channels and livestreams via Twitch and in short, this last week has been really enjoyable for me getting back into the world of Tyria.  The new areas create an interest mix of verticality and meta-events and although the most recent story arc (Season 2 Living World) has come to its conclusion as of January 2015, I’m looking to set aside some time to go through it all sometime in the next couple of weeks.  With all this being said, my observation of the playtime I’ve had has brought up a number of topics I’ve discussed previously that I want to bring up in a retrospective manner. 

Initial playtime: Exploration

After getting to grips with the changes made to the UI, I travelled to the new areas of the Maguuma wastes which feature heavily in season 2 of the living world.  I first entered the Silver wastes, not knowing much about the zone and roaming around getting an eye on the environment; being quickly met with a cavalcade of events situated at a fort in the south / south-eastern part of the map.  For the next hour or so, my gameplay was exploration through combat which felt frantic but natural in the journey, leading to a boss battle similar to the marionette event of season one where I had previously stopped playing.  In this short period, I had re-learnt my favoured profession (Engineer) to a workable fashion and explored the entire zone reinforcing my desire to keep playing and see what was next. 
Dry top (the second new zone to explore) for me was an unguided journey through the vast verticality that the zone presented, much to the enjoyment of myself.  Exploration and finding new stuff has always been a draw for many players of MMOs (and all types of games to a certain extent) and for me this is no exception.  Seeing a distant treasure or high platform and figuring out the path to take up there without a guide can be an experience met with both enjoyment and frustration but for me it’s all a part of that casual sense of seeing where the road takes you.  I still need to explore the entirety of this area, but I’m looking forward to seeing what it has to offer. 

Mid-week playtime Experiencing Content and Changes

After a couple days playing in the PVE world, I rocked up into the PVP content of both structured PVP (sPVP) and world vs world (WvW) to see how I would fair in such an environment.  I had previously partaken in these game modes in a casual sense with a desire to try different builds and see how they worked, but had an mind-set of being a responsive player in terms of the play/counter play.  To go back to our spectrum from last week, I was moving from the ‘casual’ sense of initial exploration into a more centred position in which I wanted to perform well.  My first couple games went very well with very few deaths and good contributions through kills and capping, but as I met more skilled players my lack of current experience showed.  That being said, I do have a feeling that I would want to get better and maybe in the future be involved in an organised pvp team.  Whether reality will allow that is another thing (as the last time I was massively involved in pvp was WoW some 7-8 years ago, when I was in my teens) but there is definitely a view of mine not just to use pvp as a means to get rewards and grab achievements. 

Mid-late week playtime: Achievement Points and a dip into min-maxing

When I was playing last year, I had a sizeable achievement point score that very few of my guild mates had.  At that point, it was a combination of playing since the 3 day head-start and purposely hunting specific achievements to improve my score but if you were to say I was ‘hard-core’ into something that was the closest I got to.  Now I have returned, my point score is naturally far behind those who kept playing so there is pretty much no way in which I can compete with people who have double my score.  That being said, achievements in a sense of completing challenges set in specific areas or gameplay modes still interest me so I have been slowly racking up the points getting around 500-600 in a week (which is close to what I averaged in a month depending on the content).  This is of course bloated due to a number of ‘fluff’ achievements that I’ve got this past week, but I would say that this is my ‘endgame’ in a roundabout way. 
I have done a small amount of min-maxing in terms of ‘if I’m in zone x and achievement y is here I should do it’ but I’m not going out of my way to make sure this happens.  Where I currently sit is positioning my alts in specific areas to gather materials and the likes on a daily rotation while I continue to have the bulk of my playtime on my main characters (which are currently my engineer and warrior).  However, I am using the warrior rather than resource gathering to get a couple weapon and enemy type kill achievements so in a roundabout way I’m still min-maxing but it’s through natural play and not specifically choosing an area that gets the job done in the fastest way possible. 

Overall, I’ve really enjoyed my time in Guild War 2 over the past week and as long as it keeps my interest level at this point I can see myself playing for the foreseeable future.  If I have something to learn from my original playtime, I would say that I should take on a wider range of the spectrum between ‘casual’ and ‘hard-core’ as a means to not burn-out on content as well as being involved in what the world has to offer.  My week of playtime has featured this range of play style and taught me a little about my gaming habits from a teenager into an adult so here’s to future and finding more weird architectural theory crossovers to talk about.  

Concluding 2014: My Experience in the World of Gaming

As many of you experience during this festive time of year, it can get rather busy roaming around the land visiting family and friends to exchange gifts, eat a lot and have a hangover.  Naturally, this has affected my ability to put time aside for writing which I’m getting around to fixing while trying to figure out what’s happening for the upcoming New Year’s celebrations and watch the Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2014 (I know, a glamorous life I must live…)

That being said, I can’t put it all down to extenuating circumstances as I have had the last couple days available to write; with the intention of creating a small piece on man-made mountains and their appearance as antagonists in games coinciding with previous posts on a similar fashion.  As it is the end of the year one can find themselves in the mind-set of ‘I’ll wait until January to start anew’ alongside the range of resolutions many people make, so to give the above topic a proper post alongside actually writing something, I’m going to write about some games I liked playing this year.  This isn't going to be a quantified list as I don’t think that this will be more of a streaming conscious than anything, but I hope you find the explanations interesting at least.  I should also say that these games aren't all releases of 2014 but more of a retrospective on my time spent gaming over the past 12 months. 

 *Images are from a collection of screenshots I've taken over the last 12 months*

Path of Exile

I had briefly played this game through a number of betas, but with its entry onto Steam and Torchlight 2 elite hardcore mode getting a bit annoying to achieve I saw a chance to return to the title.  I played roughly during the months of January-May and got a great deal of enjoyment from the mechanics of the game from start to finish.  The skill gem system was a totally new experience for me, as I naturally built up an array of spells, abilities and auras to use across my cohort of exiles in a number of different ways.  This was further expanded through links and augments that mutated said skills to explode, split, fear, stun and more to the point where a skill could look considerably different on use.  The bartering system was enjoyable to partake in as well, as I didn't look up guides for it and naturally experimented with items to see what would come of them.  If I was to level a complaint, I’d say that the armour sets felt a little bit too samey during my playtime (which could be down to the aesthetic choice of the exile environment) but regardless it was a really enjoyable free to play game that doesn't look to nickel-and-dime you to have an enjoyable experience. 

 Firefall

One of my first posts was about this title and since then I haven’t gone back to it.  Now I've had time to look back on it I can say I still hold the idea that it’s an enjoyable game and would be great if it wasn't so repetitive in the gameplay through the mission board system.  The big events grabbed me alongside the smaller ones that scattered the landscape and if it focused more on these akin to something like Guild Wars 2 I feel like it would have kept my interest for much longer.  That being said, it was a game that was developed for a very long time and maybe it was never going to truly work as they had envisaged.  To end on a good point thou, getting around the environment was really fun especially the glider / kite system. 

Wolf Among Us

This game came out in October 2013 but I didn't pick it up until the Summer sale of this year which by then was in its finished state with all episodes available of season one.  I had briefly played Telltale’s The Walking Dead on my phone in the spring and liked my first try of a visual text-adventure (I’m not 100% of its genre but that’s a close approximation) so as it was cheap I thought I’d give this one a go.  I instantly played through episode one and loved the gameplay, playing through the rest of it over a period of a week in the late evenings so that I wouldn't be disturbed.  I wanted to figure out where each fable came from and what sort of life they were living, alongside the possible outcomes of my actions as Bigby Wolf.  I tried to answer dialog options how I think I would act in the situations presented alongside remembering to use the ‘silence is an option’ mechanic from time to time.  Alongside the gameplay, I really love the aesthetics of the Wolf Among Us particularly in the options menu and title/credits of each episode.  The running title of Bibgy walking through the streets of New York with its purples blues and blacks looks brilliant and a particular frame of this became my pc wallpaper from July to October of this year.  This game may not have the direct human connection of the previous Walking Dead for some, but for me the Wolf Among Us was a greatly enjoyable experience for me that have me more open to narrative games in the future. 

Game of the Year 420 BLAZE IT

This year I’ve looked to try new games whenever possible to try and broaden my horizons in the medium.  Sometimes I end up in some weird places and this is one of them.  I won’t put an image up, but just download it and embrace the crazy that this is. 

Civilization V: Brave New World

I originally bought Civ V on release and got a lot of enjoyment from it; harking back to the series’ second installment I use to play on the PlayStation as a much younger self.  That being said, picking up Brave New World during the summer sale filled me with renewed interest in the game.  The addition of trade routes, religion (I skipped Gods and Kings), spies, ideologies and the revamped cultural victory added so much depth for my play style as I prefer to go for non-combatant victory conditions.  Recently, I’ve got more and more interested in the finer details as I attempt to play on the higher difficulties of immortal / deity and I’m not being put off by the losses.  There are 4x’s that are much more in-depth, but Civ (like many others) has that personal connection and I hope that this series continues to remain strong into the future.

The Stanley Parable

Very few games have made me genuinely laugh in my life, but the Stanley Parable’s standalone release this year was brilliant in being mundane on the surface but hilarious underneath.  I played the earlier source mod for this during my time at university thanks to it being featured on Extra Credits “games you may not have tried” many times, but the recent release added a bunch of new possible ‘endings’ to the parable.  To those who aren’t aware, it’s a first-person narrative-driven game where a narrator takes you through a story.  What that story maybe, is pretty much up to you and I hope more people get to experience this fascinating and enjoyable experience. 

Warframe

I've played this for around two years and this year it’s clocked up a sizeable amount of my time gaming, but somehow Warframe remains to be a game I enjoy playing nearly every day.  Being involved in the game for this length of time, it’s great to see how far they've come from when I started playing; from around 6 game modes to 20 with improvements to the former as a means to continue to make the experience varied.  Alongside being my most played game this year, it is also a free to play title that allows the player to decide what level of investment they want to take.  Like I’ve mentioned in previous posts, as its free give it a try and you may enjoy what you see. 

Transistor 

Although I did dismiss the list idea at the beginning of this post, if I was to quantify the games I played this year Transistor would probably take the top spot.  This has been the only game since Skyrim that I’ve bought on release and I completed it in two short bursts of playtime; but the time I had with this game was both an aesthetically wonderful game and narratively fascinating experience.  On the surface, Transistor follows Super Giant Games previous title (Bastion) in terms of the narrative progression of an isometric combat game where a smooth-voiced narrator takes you through the world.  Upon playing Transistor, you can see how the combat has some more dynamic rpg-like mechanics and through this get a greater understanding to people who exist in this world.  Even thou I’ll admit I’m not 100% sure on the story; the journey itself was interesting enough to keep me wanting to find out more with some particular sections of the game getting a genuine response from me.  With all that being said, it is backed up by an amazing soundtrack which features a mixture of slow beats, calming melodies, high-octane melees and chilling songs; in particular The Spine and Smoke Signals somewhat fall into this last category in my opinion.  I’m looking to play through the game again next month and I know it’ll draw me back in.

To bring this all to a somewhat conclusion, I think that 2014 has been a year for me where narrative driven games have raised higher up on my interest level.  I briefly talked about my shift of gaming habits in the ‘monogaming vs. polygaming’ post but my general media habits have changed quite a bit.  These days I watch very little TV or films because I don’t feel invested in the story or potential plot.  What these narrative games have given me is a way to enjoy stories in a medium which I feel has the potential to go further than is conceived generally.  I hope that going into 2015, I get to enjoy a larger mix of narratives in games and in turn find some interesting connections to architecture that I can write about.  Other than that, have a great New Year’s and amazing 2015.