Dreams: Splinters of the Mind's Eye

Note: this blog has been migrated to Medium, with the articles here available to preserve permalinks. Please see this post at https://medium.com/@ianrbuck/dreams-splinters-of-the-mind-s-eye-f5ee18ca8f83#.up10r52iy

Dreams are easiest to remember and make sense of right after you wake up, so I usually try to write them down in detail right away. Sometimes I don't have time though, and so I end up quickly jotting something down before going to breakfast. I have several of these stacked up, and I present them here as they were worded by my half-asleep mind.

Video Game Idea
Medieval poverty simulator-the game gives you practically nothing, throws you out in a world that is not easy to live in for a peasant.

Sure, it can be a social commentary on current economic crappiness.

A Normal Day at Camp
I was with a bunch of camp staff, playing games together (such as hiding two people in a barrel and making someone who didn't know what was going on look for them). I could bounce up onto the roof to oversee everything. Some guy came to do some construction work or something. He found what appeared to be some take-out boxes, but they actually contained a couple of talking crickets that were our pets. Somehow he mistook them for food. I tried to stop him, but another staff (who looked a lot like the neighbor in Captain America Winter Soldier) was into him and told him that the rest of us were crazy to make herself look good.

Cast in Doctor Who
I was cast in Doctor Who as the Master (apparently he was going to make a return in the next season). My family was really excited and supportive, and it didn't seem odd to anyone that BBC was casting an American.

I Have No Idea
Midnight chicken nugget run turns into time travel, expose another time traveler.

Worst Podcast Ever
We were recording an episode of the podcast at +Dominick Benedetto's house. +Rachel Wolters was on the show as well. We were using my phone to record it and all of the show notes were handwritten. There were lots of errant noises that were loud and unacceptable. I kept my enthusiasm up though.

Hammurabi's Borderlands
Note: I was a passive observer in this dream.
The characters from Borderlands 2 were sitting around reminiscing over all of the glorious bloodshed they have caused. It comes back to bite them in the butt when someone comes and pays them back eye for an eye. In particular I got to watch Krieg get cut open with his own hacksaw. His insides looked cartoony, like the Heavy when you operate on him in Surgeon Simulator 2013.

The Walking Dead
Again, passive observer
The characters from the first season of The Walking Dead (the game, not the show) were all running from Larry. They split up, and Larry started chasing Mark down this weird set of stairs.

The Grumpster
Passive Observer
A movie about a group of aliens who have disguised themselves as a family going to summer camp. The part that stuck out at me was not the aliens. One of the other parents was played by Jeff Goldblum. One of the children called him a "Big ol' grumpster." He got all indignant and said with the grumpiest face you ever did see "Who you callin' a grumpster? I'm not a grumpster." And he proceeded to grumble for a good long while.

The Walking Dead: 400 Days Review

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It seems a little odd for an episodic game to get an extra chapter after its final episode is released. The Walking Dead: 400 Days is a DLC that serves to bridge the gap between the original game and Season 2. It introduces several new characters who will appear in Season 2; they are playable in this DLC, but I do not think that they will be playable in Season 2.

There are five characters, and you can play their stories in any order. They all take place within a couple hundred days of the zombie outbreak. They also occur relatively close together, so some common characters and locations appear in multiple chapters.

Notably this pit stop diner

The decisions you make in each person's story determines the decision they make at the end of the episode. This in turn will affect where they are and who they trust during Season 2. Interestingly, almost none of the decisions from Season 1 have an impact in 400 Days, though they will undoubtedly have a greater impact in Season 2.

Obviously it only makes sense to buy this DLC if you are planning on playing Season 2. If you are as invested in The Walking Dead as I am though, it's pretty much a no-brainer and well worth the $5. I leave you now with some assorted screenshots.

The Walking Dead Episode 5

Note: this blog has been migrated to Medium, with the articles here available to preserve permalinks Please see this post at https://medium.com/@ianrbuck/the-walking-dead-episode-5-ba4eb7921307



If you missed my reviews of the previous episodes, check them out here and here.

Wow. Just wow. I've experienced quite a few season finales in my time, and this one certainly ranks up there in epicness and emotional intensity.
In comparison to the previous episodes of The Walking Dead, this one felt more linear; it had way fewer puzzles than the previous episodes, and the ones that were present were much less complicated (I was perfectly fine with this changeup); the decisions I had to make also felt like they carried less weight, but that was mostly because they had less than two hours to make any difference to the story.

The decisions you made earlier in the series mostly affected who was with you during this final adventure, and I am sorely tempted to play through the series again to see how this would play out with different people.

I think that it was a plus to focus entirely on wrapping up the plot during this episode. After each chapter I found myself thinking come on, just one more even though it was 4 in the morning and I was really tired.

The quicktime events also felt more meaningful because it was possible to fail them and not have a game-over on your hands. After a couple of them I wondered what would have happened if I had succeeded; would the outcome have been better? Was it even possible to succeed? I love it when the game makes me uncertain about the internal mechanics of the game.

 There were LOTS of memorable  moments in this episode, more than any other episode in the series. Many characters including Lee and Clementine had badass moments that elevated my respect for them even more.

Telltale did a really good job of keeping the atmosphere consistently tense; I found myself hyperventilating during portions of the game where I was in no danger whatsoever.

That's about all I can say without spoiling it for you, so here are a few more screenshots:

If you want to see all of my screenshots from this game, check them out on Steam. Some of them will give away plot points though.

EDIT: You can now read my review of the 400 Days DLC.

The Walking Dead Episode 4

Note: this blog has been migrated to Medium, with the articles here available to preserve permalinks Please see this post at https://medium.com/@ianrbuck/the-walking-dead-episode-4-6fdf0b783862

I was going to play this episode on Sasha and let you all know how it looked in 3D, but it turns out that The Walking Dead does not synchronize save files (I thought everybody did that nowadays) so I am back on Vera the laptop. Which is fine, as this isn't a graphically intensive game. I played a little of the beginning of the game on Sasha just to see how it looked in 3D; while it looks good and everything renders at the proper depth, 3D really doesn't add much to the experience. I almost prefer it without 3D because it feels more like a graphic novel that way.

I talked about the gameplay aspects in my review of the first three episodes, so I won't go into that here.

This episode really notched up the suspense and intrigue. As usual they had plenty of heart-wrenching moments, and a few others that seemed like they were going to be heart-wrenching, but turned out to be good in the end. Here are a few, and I won't tell you which is which:

One of my favorite things about this episode was the character Molly. Instead of trying to tell you why, I will show you:

She's a badass, is what it boils down to. And who can't help liking a character who named their ice pick Hilda? Seriously.
Alright, I admit it; I have the hots for her. Kind of the same way I had the hots for Carter back when I was watching Stargate for the first time.

Unfortunately that is all I can tell you without giving away spoilers. Episode 4 is all the more reason to buy The Walking Dead; of course Halloween is coming up and I can't see Steam not putting this game on sale. So I would recommend waiting until then.

See all of my screenshots here. I can't guarantee that there won't be any spoilers there.

EDIT: You can now read my review of Episode 5.

The Walking Dead, Episodes 1-3

Note: this blog has been migrated to Medium, with the articles here available to preserve permalinks. Please see this post at https://medium.com/@ianrbuck/the-walking-dead-episodes-1-3-42d97c69e8fc

I picked up The Walking Dead last week when it was on sale for $15. I had been hearing a lot of good things about the game from both Game Informer and PC Gamer, so I figured I couldn't go wrong. I'll try to write this review without giving too many spoilers.

The Walking Dead takes place in the same universe as the comics and TV show, but it is an entirely new cast. I think this is probably for the best, because a lot of games that try to recreate a movie exactly fail miserably. It is also being released episodically, which means that you pay once for the game, and when each new episode is ready you get to play it. I think their plan was to release them monthly, but the third was a little late.

You are placed in the role of Lee Everett, who at the beginning of the game is in the back of a police car on his way to prison. Very soon after the zombies start popping up, you meet Clementine, an eight year old whose parents were away in Savannah when the outbreak happened. Obviously her motivation is to find her parents, and Lee's motivation is to protect her at all costs.

A theme that pops up on a fairly regular basis is the effect that all of this apocalypsness can have on the people who are living through it. This is conveyed several times by showing Clementine seeing something awful happen.

The gameplay is driven by quicktime events, puzzles, and choices.
The quicktime events only occur when you have gotten grabbed by zombies or are otherwise in immediate danger. They aren't ridiculous, mostly just mashing Q and then hitting E to finish it off.
Obviously the puzzles take place in between high-action parts of the game, and usually involve figuring out how to open this door to get this item which you need to complete this task. Oftentimes the areas with puzzles also provide a nice opportunity to chat with other members of your group and get to know them better.
Speaking of the characters, they are the ones that drive the story, and almost all of the choices you have to make have some direct effect on the members of your group. Some are blatant "save person A or person B," but others are more subtle ones that depend on dialogue options or how you decide to divvy up the dwindling supplies. The screenshot above is of me deciding to chop off a guy's leg to free him from a bear trap; I didn't fully realize it at the time, but I could have chosen not to do it. I was just doing what I thought was necessary. I tried everything else first, I swear.
The fact that the consequences of your actions are not immediately apparent is what really sells the sense of realism for me. For example, after I lost a certain character, I spent a long time (outside of the game during my real life, mind you) analyzing all of the choices that I had made leading up to their death. I was trying to think of a way to save them, but I'm still not sure if I could have done anything. The fact that I don't know if the event was scripted or happened because of my choices really shows you how well it is doing its job. I am probably not going to go back to try to change that moment, because I feel that that would cheapen the experience.

Here are a few more screenshots for your viewing pleasure.

The game is notorious for little bugs like this one. There should be a kid in her arms.

To see all of the screenshots I have taken, go to my Steam page.

EDIT: See my review of Episode 4 here.