Worth Reading: 11/02/12

I’m putting together this edition of Worth Reading really late on Friday afternoon, moments after having my soul crushed by the never-dying, machete-wielding Jason Vorhees. You’ll have to forgive me for not having paragraphs of reflection on the past few days, and instead quickly point you to what I’ve gathered this week.

Apologies for not having a game to point you to, though. Rather than suggest a game I didn’t have enough time to vet, I’d rather just cut that section and focus on the material that I can stand behind.

God damn you, Jason. God damn you.

(I will have my revenge on a later episode of Spookin’ With Scoops.)

Hey, You Should Read These

• "What Went Wrong With Silicon Knights' X-Men Destiny?" by Andrew McMillen for Kotaku (this link won't work until Kotaku is back online--the site was knocked offline by Hurricane Sandy)
• "Death March: The long, tortured journey of Homefront" by Rob Zacny for Polygon

Hopefully you had a chance to listen to the podcast this week, in which we spent more than an hour talking about the various issues raised regarding ethics in games journalist in the past few weeks. It’s probably not the last time we’ll have something to say on the subject (and if you have questions, ask!), but rather than delving deeper down that rabbit hole on Worth Reading, I wanted to highlight a few excellent pieces of games journalism filed recently. These are pieces that deserve your clicks, as the only way more of it will be produced is if websites know they can have reporters spending weeks researching material that will only end up in one, big piece. There’s not much of a financial incentive to do that, and we have to support the websites that do engage in that. Bravo to Polygon and Kotaku.

If You Click It, It Will Play

I Don’t Know About This Kickstarter Thing, But These Projects Seem Pretty Cool

• Whatever you think of Gerztron, I wish more Kickstarter games attached prototypes.
• There aren't many god games these days, and Maia proposes being the god of a space colony.
• Sir, You Are Being Hunted should get backed for its name alone. Luckily, it also looks great.

Valve Just Launched Greenlight, So Here’s Some Games That Don’t Look Terrible

• Broforce. Broforce? Broforce! Wait, Broforce. Right. Broforce.
• Heard nothing but great things about Walking Mars for iOS. Maybe I'll just wait and play it here.
• Dino Run is not really a new thing, but if you're into dinosaurs, it's some good, mindless fun.

Oh, And This Other Stuff

• Not everyone wants to have games move them, and that's okay. Journey did that for me, though.
• A colleague, Matt Hughes, passed away of an apparent suicide this past week. Tragic.
• Leave some tablets with Ethiopian kids who've never used a computer, and what do they do? Hack it.
• Someone created a text-based multiplayer shooter. No, I am not shitting you.
• An excellent interview about the state of the industry with Peter Moore.
• Following incidents, GDC has reminded folks about its code of conduct policies. Will PAX be next?
• Whammy Jammy is a game jam about music-based video games, aka my faaaaaaavorite.
• If you haven't played Dust, then play Dust. After that, read this fascinating postmortem.
• It was tragic when games journalism lost Kieron Gillen. His piece on The Cradle is sogood.
• Test your video game knowledge in this video.
• A fascinating piece on the so-called "randomness" of XCOM.
• Rami Ismail of Super Crate Box on why Hotline Miami is an important game. Warning: spoilers.

I’m putting together this edition of Worth Reading really late on Friday afternoon, moments after having my soul crushed by the never-dying, machete-wielding Jason Vorhees. You’ll have to forgive me for not having paragraphs of reflection on the past few days, and instead quickly point you to what I’ve gathered this week.

Apologies for not having a game to point you to, though. Rather than suggest a game I didn’t have enough time to vet, I’d rather just cut that section and focus on the material that I can stand behind.

God damn you, Jason. God damn you.

(I will have my revenge on a later episode of Spookin’ With Scoops.)

Hey, You Should Read These

• "What Went Wrong With Silicon Knights' X-Men Destiny?" by Andrew McMillen for Kotaku (this link won't work until Kotaku is back online--the site was knocked offline by Hurricane Sandy)
• "Death March: The long, tortured journey of Homefront" by Rob Zacny for Polygon

Hopefully you had a chance to listen to the podcast this week, in which we spent more than an hour talking about the various issues raised regarding ethics in games journalist in the past few weeks. It’s probably not the last time we’ll have something to say on the subject (and if you have questions, ask!), but rather than delving deeper down that rabbit hole on Worth Reading, I wanted to highlight a few excellent pieces of games journalism filed recently. These are pieces that deserve your clicks, as the only way more of it will be produced is if websites know they can have reporters spending weeks researching material that will only end up in one, big piece. There’s not much of a financial incentive to do that, and we have to support the websites that do engage in that. Bravo to Polygon and Kotaku.

If You Click It, It Will Play

I Don’t Know About This Kickstarter Thing, But These Projects Seem Pretty Cool

• Whatever you think of Gerztron, I wish more Kickstarter games attached prototypes.
• There aren't many god games these days, and Maia proposes being the god of a space colony.
• Sir, You Are Being Hunted should get backed for its name alone. Luckily, it also looks great.

Valve Just Launched Greenlight, So Here’s Some Games That Don’t Look Terrible

• Broforce. Broforce? Broforce! Wait, Broforce. Right. Broforce.
• Heard nothing but great things about Walking Mars for iOS. Maybe I'll just wait and play it here.
• Dino Run is not really a new thing, but if you're into dinosaurs, it's some good, mindless fun.

Oh, And This Other Stuff

• Not everyone wants to have games move them, and that's okay. Journey did that for me, though.
• A colleague, Matt Hughes, passed away of an apparent suicide this past week. Tragic.
• Leave some tablets with Ethiopian kids who've never used a computer, and what do they do? Hack it.
• Someone created a text-based multiplayer shooter. No, I am not shitting you.
• An excellent interview about the state of the industry with Peter Moore.
• Following incidents, GDC has reminded folks about its code of conduct policies. Will PAX be next?
• Whammy Jammy is a game jam about music-based video games, aka my faaaaaaavorite.
• If you haven't played Dust, then play Dust. After that, read this fascinating postmortem.
• It was tragic when games journalism lost Kieron Gillen. His piece on The Cradle is sogood.
• Test your video game knowledge in this video.
• A fascinating piece on the so-called "randomness" of XCOM.
• Rami Ismail of Super Crate Box on why Hotline Miami is an important game. Warning: spoilers.

Thanks Patrick.

Damn

I totally missed out on the Friday the 13th stream. I will have to wait for the archive to know your true pain, Patrick. But thanks, as always, for putting this together!

Love these every week, thanks Patrick.

"why Hotline Miami is an importnat game."

Oh man that Skate 3 video is hilarious. The bugs make it look like a Garry's Mod video.

Can we post the answers to that quiz here? Because I'm doing that.

For the most part, pretty easy.

Well, I read that save scumming article about XCOM. Honestly, if a player is inclined enough to save and reload after every single shot then why do people feel the need to stop them?! Only a small percentage of people will do that, and it hurts no one else. For example, I wouldn't do it because it's tedious and I don't like to cheat. Why should I care if someone else does though (in single player anyway)?

I feel like the way the system works now makes it feel like the hit/miss numbers aren't right. Maybe it's just me. Anyway, I feel like I'm paying for this save scumming deterrence, and I'm one of the ones who wouldn't do it. Even if not, people get too anal about video games. Let others have their fun.

Fuck Jason and Friday the 13th. You had him Patrick!

@Video_Game_King: W is Worms

That Skate video is hilarious.

The text-based shooter is ridiculous but kind of fun. Managing to kill somebody who fired upon you first is a huge rush.

@bushlemon:

That explains it. I've never really had any strong exposure to Worms games.

Good stuff, Patrick. Always surprised by how much you come across in just a week.

Can't wait for you to try to beat the NES Nightmare on Elm Street.

I have indoor work for tomorrow, so like I did last winter, I will turn on the Podcast.

Thankyou for that little bit of SS2 yesterday. I have my physical copy, and though I am not good at these kind of things, I will hunt down those exc files to make it work on Windows 7.... and even some of the mods. But I like my SS2 pretty vanilla, so I do not need much. I want their (looking glass's) vision, not somebody elses.

just to say, I love the electronic biased music for SS2......Devo should have contributed a track or 2....say the beginning of Gut feeling.

@RanmaRanma said:

Well, I read that save scumming article about XCOM. Honestly, if a player is inclined enough to save and reload after every single shot then why do people feel the need to stop them?! Only a small percentage of people will do that, and it hurts no one else. For example, I wouldn't do it because it's tedious and I don't like to cheat. Why should I care if someone else does though (in single player anyway)?

Is it really even cheating? They aren't breaking the laws of the game in any way. Sure, it gives them an arguably unfair advantage, but that's how they like to play- and they've probably been doing it for 20 years now. And I'm assuming you can't do it in multiplayer, which is the real meat of a strategy game in any case.

Kieron Gillen has gone on to write the absolute best comics at Marvel, so games journalism losing him was for the best.

Thanks for the ups and great set of lookies as usual Mr. Scoops. That article by Rob Zacny on Polygon is one of the finest works of games journalism I've read in a long while and I'm hopeful that more behind the curtain stories start coming out. The two done by Mountain Dew/Doritoes man on Portal and Mass Effect that can be found on the iOS store are also wonderfully done pieces and show that it doesn't all have to be doom and gloom.

I missed the actual Friday the 13th stream but intend to catch it as soon as it's up on the site. Word on the street is that it didn't go well =(

@Timnoldzim said:

@RanmaRanma said:

Well, I read that save scumming article about XCOM. Honestly, if a player is inclined enough to save and reload after every single shot then why do people feel the need to stop them?! Only a small percentage of people will do that, and it hurts no one else. For example, I wouldn't do it because it's tedious and I don't like to cheat. Why should I care if someone else does though (in single player anyway)?

Is it really even cheating? They aren't breaking the laws of the game in any way. Sure, it gives them an arguably unfair advantage, but that's how they like to play- and they've probably been doing it for 20 years now. And I'm assuming you can't do it in multiplayer, which is the real meat of a strategy game in any case.

Timnoldzim I think the "real meat" of any game, strategy games in particular, is completely dependent on the player. Not everyone plays multiplayer. I personally do (sometimes), but right now I'm having all kinds of fun with the single player campaign in XCOM: EU. I'm overjoyed to see a game over screen on a console game for a change. I like that, if i fuck up too badly, everyone dies and the game tells me "ah well, you shouldn't have done that. Idiot. Now start over from the beginning." Makes me want to start over and show it who's boss all that much more. I agree with you 100% about save scumming though, hey it's a system in the game, if you can find a way to exploit the system to gain an edge, well then good goin'

Thank you so much for the link to the postmortem on Dust, Patrick! That game's background is crazy!

Had a blast playing that text-based shooter. My K/D ratio was through the roof! Thanks for the link.

Skate is not the skating sim I thought it was :D

Also, I don't think Hotline Miami is important, but it sure is sick, perverted, disturbing and sort of repulsive.

I completed it twice. First time in one sitting. In both a good and perhaps a bad way it feels like everything guys like Jack Thompson are scared of. It feels like some sort of brainwashing experiment. An addictive, pulsing, beating and head bopping one.

"The trick that Hotline Miami employs perfectly is offering no time for thought during its violent gameplay and then offering abundant need for reflection through pause and uncertainty of narrative."

Nonsense. I never stopped thinking "What the fuck am I doing!?"

@patrickklepek After using the link to Kotaku in your article, I came across this and thought (if you hadn't noticed it) that it is a great thing that I feel your personality and drive would find interesting.

Reading that last article, I must say, I am deeply, deeply disappointed that something as striking and unique seeming as Hotline: Miami eventually devolves into the kind of ego-stroking "arty" experience you normally only get in experimental films made by insufferable art students. I'm afraid I have absolutely no interest in that game anymore, and am glad I didn't spend any money on it between the Quick Look and now.

@Deusoma: To be fair, Hotline Miami isn't as heavy-handed as the analysis makes it sound (he did spoil the entire game in one article). The intermissions are mostly just creepy and disturbing if you don't think too hardly about them, and they pace the game nicely. It's nice to have a game that has a message but still plays well. The ending is a bit less subtle, but it's just about a minute-long dialogue at the very end of the game.

That text-based multiplayer shooter is rediculously awesome. There's your new typing tutor. ;)

Read both of those articles this past week and man were they long though they were really interesting. It's always fascinating to hear about the inner workings of game companies and how hard it is to develop games, even ones that turn out mediocre or worse. From the look of things, both companies suffered from a lack of direction or developers were mismanaged by incompetent leads who try to make bold claims and expectations that they can never deliver.

Oh, well OF COURSE the Germans are playing Punch the Custard.

I tried typing shoot that dude and was disappointed when nothing happened.

Waking Mars is super cool, it's like Metroid if Metroid were about gardening.

Absolutely loving Spookin' with Scoops, and it was cool to see it referenced here, as it makes it even more hilarious. I remember picking out Friday the 13th as one of my Christmas presents as a kid and I hated it – seriously only played it twice. I really dug Clock Tower on the SNES; the 2-D graphics looked great compared to the PS1's primitive polygons.

@RanmaRanma said:

Well, I read that save scumming article about XCOM. Honestly, if a player is inclined enough to save and reload after every single shot then why do people feel the need to stop them?! Only a small percentage of people will do that, and it hurts no one else. For example, I wouldn't do it because it's tedious and I don't like to cheat. Why should I care if someone else does though (in single player anyway)?

I feel like the way the system works now makes it feel like the hit/miss numbers aren't right. Maybe it's just me. Anyway, I feel like I'm paying for this save scumming deterrence, and I'm one of the ones who wouldn't do it. Even if not, people get too anal about video games. Let others have their fun.

Lots of people will take advantage of it if it's available. It doesn't have to be someone doing it constantly over the course of the game, even picking a few critical shots here and there can cheapen the experience. I can certainly see why they did it.

Whether or not you agree, though, it has no impact on things if you aren't reloading in combat. Your randomness is not diminished at all. The only way you'd even know this was happening is if you reloaded mid-combat. So your claim that you are "paying for this save scumming deterrence" is kind of dubious.

@Deusoma said:

Reading that last article, I must say, I am deeply, deeply disappointed that something as striking and unique seeming as Hotline: Miami eventually devolves into the kind of ego-stroking "arty" experience you normally only get in experimental films made by insufferable art students. I'm afraid I have absolutely no interest in that game anymore, and am glad I didn't spend any money on it between the Quick Look and now.

Not really. There actually IS a story. It's not hokey-pokey artsy stuff, it has a coherent real story. And it's pretty damn interesting at that. The guy writing the article didn't even unlock the secret ending. So yeah, don't listen, play the game, it's great.

Forget Grand Theft Auto, Burnout and Fable, Punch the Custard is the reason I love the UK games industry.

What's the "U" in the test your knowledge video? I got all other games, this one's killing me.

Edit: Got it.

I didn't feel inclined to load any previous saves in Xcom because that's part of the the fun, let the pieces fall where they may, right?

Until I missed a shot when the game predicted a "100% chance to hit, 75% chance to crit". It just missed. My assault had her Alloy cannon point blank in it's face, the game told me there was no way it could miss, and it fucking missed. Fuck that bullshit, save scumming for life, or at least that one mission. Game's great, but it gives way too much of itself to random chance. Demons/Dark Souls are still the kings of the generation for games that prove to be both difficult and fair.

I think I just wet myself at the Descent vid...

Punching the custard sounds like some weird masturbation technique.

It's sad to hear about what happened with Matt Hughes. I think the guy just wanted to be hired full-time and it never came about for him. Really tragic.

Forgot how funny Skate 3 videos could be

Kinda surprised at how much attention the Polygon / KAOS studios collapse article has gotten without anybody remembering that Gamasutra did the same story a few months back.

I'm port nat.

I love these "Worth Reading" pieces. I work Wednesday through Saturday and this provides great reading material for "off-time".

Another bit of gaming thing going on this week is the film 'Wreck it Ralph' is out & while I didn't think it did a great job with the 3d glasses (compared to something like 'Monsters vs. Aliens'), Ralph is a pretty good film that dives into an alternate view of the arcades with plenty of amusing moments & acres of favorite characters from various games.

That Skate video just made my weekend.

The Silicon Knights article is up on Kotaku AU(from the same writer who did the Team Bondi LA Noire expose)

Silicon Knights is now LESS THAN FIVE PEOPLE, including Dyack.

HOLY SHIT

@Morridin said:

I think I just wet myself at the Descent vid...

Yeah, that was fantastic stuff. Would've preferred the Mac/PlayStation version of the soundtrack, but still, amazing.

Xcom article was better than I thought it'd be.