Dragon Age 2

This weekend I completed this game amidst a curious reception of two years of angry reviews. I enjoyed the original Dragon Age, as I enjoyed the original Baldur's Gate series. Indeed, for me the party-based RPG trumps the action-roleplaying of the Elder Scrolls series (of which Diablo trumps the Elder Scrolls series too.) For me there is a story in Bioware games, and Dragon Age 2 is no exception.

Except, despite PC Gamer's 95% review, it was lambasted by many in the gaming community. Indeed, one popular (console) gaming website simply put "Dragon Age 2? Please" as its summary of the game, as if it was such a terrible inception of a great series that its failure should be apparent to all.

It wasn't to me.



However, having purchased this from Game in the high street, I must admit I did put it down for a year or so on the basis of such ill-feeling. However, having played it through to some completion in the past month or so, I feel well-placed to give some informed commentary on it.

Character interaction is linear. While other party-based RPGs allow you to tinker with the stats and appearance of your characters, this is not the case with DA2. Although initially this may seem limiting, meaningful character interaction requires certain limits to the variation of your characters. Yes, some of your character are inherently 'evil' and some are notoriously pious. Yet when they do or say something that goes against their grain, but for a plausible reason, it seems to mean something. That, too, the game does this through the medium of 2-3 lines of dialogue between each character is impressive. Complaints have been made about the inability to customise the look of each character's armour. I was not too worried.

Speech options are on a wheel of: diplomatic, blunt and witty. It would have admittedly been better to have these options randomised so, like Deus Ex: HR, you were forced to consider what would have been the best option for you at that time. However, like with some of the championship manager series, what you think is a correct tactic (and what might be an effective tactic in real life) may differ from what the designer thought was suitable. So, again, I was not too bothered by the limited speech options. Romancing different characters was controversial, so I'll let you work that out yourselves.

Quests that seemingly had little impact return later in the game. I received on letter in my in-game house from someone who I had saved on a whim earlier in the game on my rush to completing the main quest. It is my most rewarding experience of the quest. Like a teacher, there are many things done that make little to no impact on ourselves, or even to school life as a whole. However, to the person on the receiving end of those actions, it can be entirely significant.

Combat is excellent. I used to find it tedious, and completed the original Dragon Age with minimal use of my special abilities. I used to want to scrap the combat system and have a purely interaction/adventure based RPG. However, now I appreciate the combat for what it is - tactical (rather than strategic) hacking.

Without spoilers, each act has a different rhythm. Criticisms have been made of the pacing of them all, but I enjoyed them for different reasons. Yes, areas are recycled: the same warehouse is used for at least three different evil plots (it must have a really low rent...) But the quest indication bar and fact that there are 15 or so different areas means that, again, this didn't bother me too much.

The game is less gothic than the original Dragon Age. This did bother me somewhat. Near the end of the game, characters start grabbing swords as big as themselves. Speculation is rife was this was: appealing to popular graphical demands is probably one reason.

I got used to my character's fat face by the end of my quest. But the character generation screen only allows you the excellent bearded face of the original Hawke (the main character)or a Nordrick-inspired effort (google him.)

I'll happily defend the game, and give it a score near into the 90s as far as such scores go. It has great replay value. Its failings are, I think, largely political (in that it is console-friendly, and seems less open-ended than the original DA.) Perhaps the PC-Gamer review should have forseen these, but to those who love the RPG genre, it is superb. Now if I could just get this camera off the heads of my characters a little further...

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So much to write about...

I have a backlog of essays and thoughts I wish to publish to this blog. But suffice to say this is my thought for tonight: today out of necessity I have worked 14 hours with a 15 lunch break and a 25 minute dinner break. It is almost midnight, and I need to read before bed. I will wake up at 7:00am and be grateful that I am rested already, and that I do not have a ridiculous commute.

I have used my google docs and my years of electronic resource cataloguing to plan my lessons for this week. It still took me well over an hour (and most of these lessons I have resource collated already.) During this my gaming computer crashed resignedly. I waved goodbye to a fair number of saved games, and (painfully) my saved multiplayer battles on Shogun 2 and Empire TW (not least my defeat of a level 10 general.)

Fortunately, my work computer wasn't affected. For many years as a student, and as a cover and student teacher, I suffered the stress of a crash that meant I lost the work of my profession. That has yet to happen and, with my cloud computer and HD back-ups, is much less likely to happen again.

But I digress. There are a few games installed on my computer now, largely from my disks. One I want to play before sleep, even for a few moments, is DA2. It has been lambasted; unfairly so, I think. But I will not be able to play it for long, as I think that I need to equally read before sleep. I will not sleep more than 6 hours tonight, but I hope to get my rest in while I do. There is something in the party-based RPG game that stays with me until sleep.

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The Games Industry

This is a fragmented article written from a 15-5-1 plan (see my other website, www.thequillguy.com, for a guide to this plan.) I copied, foolishly, a table into this blog, and only took the details of the plan and not itself overall structure. Therefore, the paragraphs do not develop an overarching point, but they might be an interesting read in themselves:

Some of my pupils, and I, spend a lot of time gaming, and a lot of time at school. But the school curriculum does not acknowledge gaming. While literature is studied and esteemed, and rightly so, gaming is (for reasons I discussed before) still in its infancy as an art-form of credibility. And that itself is perhaps right, too (at least for the current time.) But while subject teachers of ICT are compelled to teach decontextualised application use rather than contextualise them in projects for real audiences, then students will increasingly be switched off from the possibilities of ICT.



Learning becomes (at times) necessarily dull, arduous and involves taking steps backwards - but it requires an element of enjoyment to spark curiosity. Games are, usually, enjoyable. Usually (perhaps a little too often) this is due to the ludic-manipulations of behavioural psychologists. That is, gamers return because they enjoy the achievements that games can give them more than the uncertain and (seemingly pointless) frustrations of school/work life. However, learning urges the person to strive for improvement: bigger, better, more (refined.) Some gaming doesn't seek for improvement, or at least the improvement of the gamer is, how to define it... not applicable for much more than the game.

By that I mean that games like World of Warcraft do not improve every player. That is not entirely accurate: I imagine there is an improvement in some players' communication skills under pressure (because imagine if you had to battle through a monster-infested dungeon for hours only to have the entire game risking upon organising yourself accurate within fifteen seconds intervals and with thirty other people.) Reflexes and memory are also practised. However, considering the hours pumped into the game (1600+ I hear by some players), I wonder if it could be more a catalyst for self-improvement?

Self-improvement is the cover of the game. WoW involves, essentially, a bunch of numbers (your hero, with their stats) attacking other numbers (monsters, with their stats) until they drop numbers (in the form of better weapons.) This formula is repeated until you use the biggest numbers to defeat the biggest numbers so you have the biggest numbers of them all. But how far are the players themselves improved? And are they bothered? I am.

This example, like gaming, hints at how gaming is increasingly becoming part of mainstream consciousness. COD and WoW are lambasted by some gamers. But they are responsible for how many gaming is more a mainstream hobby and, for some, a legitimate creative career.

Yet I looked recently at employment in the Games Industry with mixed feelings. With the projects I run - and my minor modding experience - I wonder what it would be like for those trying to establish themselves in such a profession. This was inspired by several students in my tutor group who have the mix of creativity and determination that I imagine is necessary to succeed. Two factors warn against such a career, though. The first is that compared to other art sector jobs the status of such a position is low. But I guess that isn't a consideration for the artist. And it is a project-based job, rather than a mapped career.

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Space Marine

The Christmas Steam Sale has begun in earnest and in response a few threads have arisen asking whether games such as Space Marine are worth buying.

For the price of £14.99, you'd get about 4-5 hours of enjoyable single-player experience (with a campaign that is 8 hours.) My currency of leisure time is one pint of beer an hour. This rather conservative method of drinking equates, in Hull prices, to £2.50 an hour. So, in terms of the single player experience, it's rather steep.

However, the game manages to sell on its cultural capital of the 40k universe. True to its 1980s indie gaming roots, the 40k universe is brutal. There is no righteous battle for good, or even for bad; only imperialism. There is no war-weariness; billions die on a whim and countless more step forth to replace them. I even read recently of the suggestion that the messiah-figure of the Emperor (who is supposedly guiding humanity during its struggle for survival) could just just a lifeless husk kept as a trophy so mere men can play out the empty fate of humanity.



Graphically the game is able to portray some of this brutality: your chainsword satisfyingly crunches arms off orks; the landing-smash of a jump-pack propelled marine turns heretics into fine red mist; and the game contains an impressive plethora of weaponry.

However, the marines speak, and argue, in British public school-boy accents.

Still, the game is meaty enough. It's just that it's more of a grind in some places than others. After three hours I thought "Gears of Warhammer (but not so well-paced.)"

An immediate sequel is unlikely as I believe PC-Gamer ran an article on how the upcoming W40k MMO precludes one. There isn't much in the way of modding for it, so in the meantime I see Space Marine as equivalent to a limited version of Mount and Blade as Dawn of War's is a limited version of Total War.

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The Witcher Movie

On the recommendation of a Polish lad I teach/once taught, I have found a Polish TV movie adaptation of The Witcher. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi4x8EOMHRM

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Do we ever grow-up?

Here is a response to a post on the PC-Gamer board. Read the thread here.

I've been thinking much about this recently. I've considered seeing being 'grown-up' as dedicating less time to my imaginative life. That is, less time and judos to imaginative experiences than experiences of 'reality.' Reality, by my definition, being that which still exists even when you ignore it: taxes, rain and hunger for one.

Play is a serious thing. Just because we think that we stop playing, doesn't mean we have. I think most of our lives - not least our 'professional' lives - are games with set rules and achievements (and power-ups!) Just because we don't commit all the rules to paper doesn't mean they don't exist in a very real fashion: no-one has told me not to wear an entirely black suit (black tie, etc) to work, so I feel it trangresses on some rule (or another.)

I tell an anecdote from Vygotsky (Russian educationalist) to my kids about how play is serious. A bunch of kids are playing on a climbing frame. Without warning one climbs to the top and shouts in his best pirate voice, "Aye ya LandLubbers! I'm gonna cut out ye gizzards!"


A second kid hangs off and, in his best throaty voice, responds (without prompting), "avast to starboard, you can't best me scimitar!"

The two kids play back and forth until a third kid approaches and says, "can I join in?"

Instantly the game ends, without word. The game could only exist when the rules were both spontaneous and implicit. As soon as the rules needed to be reflected and considered, the fun left the game; indeed, perhaps it was a little too close to reality.

As long as people around you trust you with responsibility, 'growing-up' in the way I feel people connote the term is not necessary. In fact, it is perhaps anathema to living happily.

A final thought I'll leave you with is this: in my school I admire the fact that so many kids can actually be kids. I see 15-16 lads playing tag. These are soft kids; just in a semi-rural community where they are (seemingly) free of the angst of being faux 'grown-up', whatever that might mean.

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Shogun 2 2500 against 6000

Tonight, after a difficult day of work, I resolved myself to return to Shogun 2. Often I find myself after a day that exhausts me that I fancy anything other than an RTS game. RTS is, in itself exhausting. Or, occasionally, exhilarating. Both of which are the same thing, depending on when you come.

So, in Shogun 2, for those who have some familiarity, has an event called Realm Divide. It occurs after you become the most powerful faction in the game. Its consequence is that every faction goes to war with you. As a result, you find yourself in battles like I did tonight; Oda and 6000 troops against my 2500.

Once I read on a forum that you should recruit cavalry - that mainstay of crushing battlefield victories - because you risk the multitude of sieges battles in which they are useless. The truth is, though, that the battles often fought in the campaign often require you to pause your expansion and consolidate your economy. Although that has cost me something like 12 hours and 30 mins of research time, it does mean that often I can have armies filled with cavalry sieging towns that are compelled to attack me.

The reverse happened this evening. After a busy day filled with the intensity of teaching with the gut, I had not time for the joy of war. However, some mental impetuosity remained enough to try to fight the battle I had saved on: 2500 samurai against near 6000 of the opponent's.

I expected to fight a battle where I might (hopefully) decimate 3000 or so my opponents army before being overrun. The outcome was different.

Initially I positioned my samurai on my left - next to woodland - while my archers took the open centre ground. My cavalry - 340 strong Katana cavalry - took a right near some woods. The enemy was initially comprised of some 2000 Ashigaru (militia)and about 800 samurai.

To my luck, the enemy marched his front line of archers, and one of his three generals, towards my far right. I should say that Shogun 2 is accurate in the sense that an army will crumble if its generals fall. And that, as a result, the AI will be rather too bolshy with its generals.

Therefore, when the battle started, I was surprised (although not non-plussed) to see a general supporting his Ashigaru archers. I waited, somehow, until he advanced until he had no chance of retreating, and streamed my cavalry from the woods. One of his generals was swarmed, and cut down in short order. Although his archers shot many of my cavalry from their horses, they weren't enough for me to storm and rout 700 of his Ashigaru.

While I was awkwardly micromanaging this one-sided battle, my samurai began to charge a more even battle in the woodland. While his massed archers were attempting to fire upon my elite troops, they were protected by the woodland.

I should have perished on that field. However, the fact that one of his generals had died, and that I had recently slaughtered 800 of his men, meant that his right flank had entirely surrendered. I moved my morale-busting troops - ashigaru bomb throwers - up to support, but without careful managing they were caught by a unit of Yari Samurai (elite spearmen) and annihilated. Against a more worthwhile opponent (read 80% of the multiplayer component of Shogun 2) I would be dead. Against my happy level, though, I was still in with a shout. My cavalry marched against their right, and along with my general's presence somehow routed their entire 3000 army. Perhaps it was the ability to crumble and roll up this flank, but his army was shattered and fled.

For the first time I faced an entirely new army of 3000 troops with less than 1200 of my own, exhausted, men. However, my advantage was that he was marching on in a line. A human opponent would have surely have formed his lined and crushed me carefully. The computer AI, of course, simply formed his four most elite units and charged. Although he should have routed me, my general somehow convinced my men to stay their ground. Like with all such conflicts, the fact that my fewer men managed to stay sooner shattered the morale of his stronger troops. That, and the fact that I managed to surrounded and rout two of his units in quick succession.

In all, I managed to kill 4000 troops for the loss of 1500 of mine. The game told me this was costly victory. I knew otherwise. For me, it was a game that someone I managed to speculate on a battle when the odds were far worse than I had ever played. And I won. I even watched the replay afterwards.

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