Great Googly Moogly! MONKEY ISLAND 2 SPECIAL EDITION!

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 12, 2010

Sometimes, the universe smiles on us, and throws us a bone.

In this case, a skull and crossbones. The universe is feeling generous. Maybe it’s trying to make up for the whole economy-gone-to-hell thing.

Whatever the case, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge is getting the Special Edition treatment of its predecessor.

Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge Webpage

The downside? Sadly, we must wait a little while longer (sometime “this summer”) to replay this newly redecorated bit of gaming awesomeness from the past. They are doing the same thing they did to the first game, with even more improvements – like getting the voice-overs in the “classic” (“retro”) mode, and a hint system that highlights the interactive objects in a scene – helping to overcome the tiresome “hunt the pixel” problem of the past.

Original designer Ron Gilbert comments, “It’s hard to believe that twenty years later so many people would sill love and play Monkey Island.  I would not have believed it if you told me back then.  We were just making a game and hoping we didn’t get fired for having so much fun.”

That’s how making games oughta be. And that’s how classics ought to be made.

Filed Under: Adventure Games, Retro - Comments: 2 Comments to Read

The Bloody End…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 11, 2010

A few days ago I was asked about my favorite RPG of the last decade. Not remembering that Baldur’s Gate II counted (it was released in the fall of 2000), I almost chose Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. It was a flawed gem, but I played through the whole game twice (and part-way twice more).

The Escapist has an article this week about Bloodlines, entitled “The Last Masquerade.” It’s a well-written piece explaining why the game was such a flawed masterpiece. Read it. Especially if you haven’t played the game.

There were a lot of reasons I loved the game, in spite of its glaring flaws. In no particular order:

• The License. They captured the flavor and feel of the Vampire the Masquerade license extremely well. I’ve played the pen & paper game quite a bit, and while I’m sure purists can find lots to quibble about, the game moved… right. It was dark, sexy, seedy, and desperate. And actually making The Masquerade a real part of the gameplay.
• The valid alternate paths – to a point, the game was incredible about rewarding you for choosing different paths of progress. Were you a social vampire, a thaumaturge, a stealthy hunter? There was cool things to be done in all of those areas.
• The awesome, awesome, AWESOME haunted hotel. Everybody I’ve talked to has commented on how awesome the hotel was. This was the one and only game to do a “haunted house” right.
• Therese and Jeanette’s little family squabble. Once I knew they were Malkavians, I’d figured out what was going on. But it was still cool to see it in action.
• The little reference to Trogdor.
• Fairly complex quests with lots of options.
• Ghouling Heather
• Teaching the player why vampires fear werewolves…
• Not shying away (too much) from the challenges of allowing the player to be a Nosferatu or Malkavian.  Those radically changed the game experience all by themselves.
• The endings. Or in particular, the ending if you side with the Anarchs or go your own way. Just watching a video of it doesn’t do it justice… you have to understand the plot and the big ol’ struggle leading up to that scene, and the magnitude of what Smiling Jack has just pulled off…

All those made for a magical experience of RPG awesomeness. If only… if only… if only… it didn’t have…

• The bugs. Oh, all the horrible bugs…
• The first-person shooter gameplay. Especially towards the end, where it became really nothing more than wandering through mazes shooting things. If you happen to be an RPG fan who likes FPS games, then I guess it’s okay. (Like, *cough*Mass Effect*cough* – oh, wait, that’s more third-person shooter….).
• Inconsistency. While so much of the game emphasized a broad range of potential skills and builds, you’d get to sections that were purely running-the-gauntlet FPS battles. Or worse, the boss battles, which  were exclusively brute-force action games that relied upon your character’s combat stats. It  really sucked if you’d focused your skills on things like Seduction, Persuasion, and Research.
• Really interesting physics with absolutely no use in the game.
• As the article suggests, it felt — rushed. Especially towards the end. Some of the brilliant, deep quests of the beginning fell into the pattern of being pretty much straightforward gauntlet-running. The Nosferatu caves. The Sabbat building – ugh!

Still, in spite of glaring flaws, it proved to be one of the most memorable RPGs of the last decade. I still have a stack of RPGs from the last several years that I have never finished — but that was a game I played through twice.  That says something. Perhaps more of an indication of my own weird tastes, but I guess that’s something, too.

But for me, what won me over was that they truly shot for the moon. I’ve little doubt that underneath the surface, the game was a mess of special-case and exception driven code that was a nightmare to navigate. But they tried, dang it.  There were a lot of things they could have done to have been more “safe” with this game, but they chose a gutsier path. And I guess that’s what impressed me.

Filed Under: Mainstream Games - Comments: 15 Comments to Read

TRON Legacy

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 10, 2010

The real trailer is out.

UPDATE: Better site here.

(Thanks BadSector!)

This actually looks like it could be pretty cool. The original was grilled ham-and-cheese-with-extra-cheese. But I loved it. A lot.

I could blame it on the fact that I was a kid when it came out – a kid who had just discovered videogames and was learning how to program. But I still love it –  it’s a guilty pleasure.

So here’s hoping the sequel does not suck. It has every possibility of surpassing the original. Oh, and hey – it’s now got an Oscar Winning Actor heading the bill! And more hot chicks in electric bodysuits. So it’s already taken a of couple steps in the right direction.

Filed Under: Movies - Comments: 7 Comments to Read

Rolston + McFarlane + Salvatore = Project Mercury, Upcoming Single-Player RPG

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 9, 2010

So Big Huge Games – now owned by Curt Schilling’s 38 Studios – is going to be making a new single-player RPG, published by EA. Currently code-named Project Mercury, it is intended to be part of a series of games from 38 Studios set in the same fictional universe.

It involves the creative efforts of Ken Rolston (lead designer for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion), Todd McFarlane (Spawn), and R.A. Salvatore (author of many of the Forgotten Realms books – and creator of famous / notorious drow Drizzt, and the author who killed Chewbacca – under orders from above). Wow. That’s an awful lot of big names involved on one game. We know from sad experience that this doesn’t guarantee a quality game, but I’m interested in seeing how this one pans out.

And it’s slated for a PC release as well as XBox 360 and PS3.

More Details at Gamasutra.

Filed Under: Mainstream Games - Comments: 5 Comments to Read

Free 8 Bit Sound Effects Generator

Posted by Rampant Coyote on

Apparently I’d grabbed this tool a long time ago, but never used it until I was reminded of it by a former coworker.

SFXR is a tool created specifically to help generate sound effects for things like the Ludlum Dare or other “game jam” type projects, but it free for any use. It allows you to create and modify sound effects that sound a lot like they would be perfectly at home in the arcades of the early-to-mid 80’s.

My favorite thing to do with it is just to click on the “Randomize” button and hear what happens… Check it out for yourself:

Dr. Petter’s SFXR Sound Effects Generator

Filed Under: Game Development - Comments: Comments are off for this article

Irony…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 8, 2010

Gee, who would have seen something like this coming? Besides, like, EVERYBODY outside of Ubisoft?

UBIsoft’s DRM Servers Down All Day

With their newest DRM scheme, this means that legitimate customers simply could.not.play.the.game.

But the icing on the ol’ irony cake is this:

“After Ubisoft’s emphatic denial that the pirated versions of both Ass Creed II and Silent Hunter V work properly, we’ve been receiving unofficial reports that, with a couple of slightly peculiar work-arounds, they work just fine.”

So – the pirates who stole the game are able to play (albeit with some inconveniences). The legitimate customers are up the ol’ creek with no paddle, with nothing but apologies from the publisher.

This is pretty much the opposite of what was supposed to happen, isn’t it? Nice going, Ubisoft. You managed to make the legitimate publishers look like total creeps, and the bloodsucking douchebag parasites look like folk heroes.

Update – also from RPS – Ubisoft claims that the downtime was due to DOS (Denial of Service) attacks, and that most (95%) players were still able to connect and play. I’d just want to say two things here: First of all, I expect Ubisoft is doing some major damage control right now, and they’d say this whether it was true or not. But I think it’s probably true – though they may be offering a more conservative view of the number of customers left without service. Second point: While piracy is lowlife douchebaggery, launching or deliberately participating in a DOS attack against a company like this is a whole order of magnitude lower. Yeah, I, too, hope this new draconian DRM scheme fails. I hope the marketplace votes with the ol’ wallet.  But don’t commit sabotage. Support their competitors!

Filed Under: Mainstream Games - Comments: 7 Comments to Read

And the Oscar Goes To…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 7, 2010

Here’s the trailer to every film desperately attempting to get an Oscar in any year…

Just for something completely different… 🙂

Filed Under: Movies - Comments: 7 Comments to Read

Indie Strategy Bundle Deal

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 6, 2010

Only until Monday:

Indie Strategy Bundle Sale

This bundle includes three excellent indie strategy games (Gratuitous Space Battles, Solarium Infernum, and AI War), plus two expansion.

This makes me unhappy. Why? Simple: Our budget is toast right now, and I can’t afford the bundle. And it’s a pretty killer-awesome deal on games I really want. Not that I have to play them or anything, mind you.

But I wanted to make you all aware of the deal.  It’s awesome, and it’s 100% indie – direct from the developers, who decided to pull their resources together and make this happen.

Enjoy.

Filed Under: Indie Evangelism, Strategy Games - Comments: 8 Comments to Read

Game Design – Are There Really Any Rules?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 5, 2010

Way back when, I wrote a post about the “rules of game design” – at least the few that I’d managed to pull out of a few years of working in the AAA games business. Since writing I have now put another three years into mainstream professional games development, and several years into being an “indie evangelist.”

And with even more hindsight, I guess I should ask this question: “Are there really any rules?”

The games business goes by a number of rules of thumb that are actually pretty dang useful. The problem is that they tell you what, but not always why. And the guys in the suits who really don’t know what’s going on, but are acutely aware that their investors want to know what’s going on, tend to abuse those poor little heuristics as if they were scripture.

One of the awesome things I’ve learned from indie game development is how malleable those little rules really are. Even in mainstream – it’s the games that break those rules – but in the right way – that end up being great. Maybe they don’t end up becoming big hits, but they do end up being cult classics with passionate fans.

I guess there are still some good general guidelines and rules-of-thumb that can be considered “rules” – and most good game designers out there know when and how to break them (if they don’t have to answer to someone who doesn’t).  And there are a heck of a lot of bad game designers who break ’em regularly without thinking about ’em (which is why Earnest Adams has his big “Bad Game Designer, No Twinkie” database).

So – as a player – what are the things that really bug you repeatedly about games that you feel there OUGHT to be a rule against it (and penalties to game designers for committing it)?

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 3 Comments to Read

Ch…ch…ch…Changes!

Posted by Rampant Coyote on

We’re in the process of transitioning Tales of the Rampant Coyote over to the new format and software. Things will never be the same again. You can still find the old information here, though:

(Archived) Tales of the Rampant Coyote – Old Format

Some of those ancient articles may be re-posted in the new blog (why not take the opportunity to be lazy and crib off myself?), but not all. Anyway, please contact me if you see anything not exactly working right around here. I expect it will be a few days before all the dust clears.

Filed Under: General - Comments: 16 Comments to Read



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