Being a bit of a recovering CCG-aholic, I couldn’t resist wandering by Konami’s booth to check out their latest collectable “Role-Playing Card Game”, Blue Dragon.  Based on the Xbox 360 title and subsequent animated series of the same name, this tabletop game is (like many of the games I checked out this year) targeted toward the younger set, hoping to peel away some of that disposable allowance income. 

I sat down to a quick half-game to get a feel for how everything plays out, and I had a fun time (while losing rather badly).  Players must tailor their decks around a “Shadow”, the central attacking unit in the game.  This creature begins the game in play, and as the game winds on the Shadow can level up, replacing itself with more powerful versions found in the deck.  In addition to Shadow cards, players also can round out their armies with up to three “partners”, companion units that can aid in attack or defense.   Players attack each other with their units, trying to break through the defenses and whittle down the hit points.  These attacks and defenses can be aided with various special cards called Command and Skill cards, which tack on bonuses or special abilities.

The cards are also the resources of the game, and running out means losing the game.  When cards are used, they don’t usually go into a discard pile, as with most CCGs.  Instead, they fall into an Experience pool, each card having a given Experience point value.  These Experience points are required both as prerequisites for certain cards and Shadow leveling, and as payment for bringing in certain cards and abilities.  Many times it’s beneficial to simply discard a powerful card in order to gain the experience from it, rather than keep it in the hand where it doesn’t necessarily do any good. 

The game played fairly quickly, with a half-game (starting with lower hit-point levels) took only 10 minutes or so.  I played with a pre-constructed deck, but there was a decent mix of cards and some combo ideas leaped out at me even with a simple first play.  All in all, Blue Dragon looks to be a serious contender in the crowded card game market.  Look for a full release later this fall.

There are a few more details up at www.konami.com/bluedragonrpcg

If I asked you to recall that one Gears of War trailer whereMarcus Phenix runs down a narrow street and shoots at an alien withspidery eyes, you might not have any idea of what I'm talking about. But if I asked you to recall that one trailer with the Donnie Darko version of "Mad World" playing, then I bet you'd know.

If I asked you to remember that one Assassin's Creedvideo where Altair is flicking out his wrist dagger and leaping acrosssome rooftops in slow motion ... that could be anybody's guess.  But ifI asked you to remember that one video scored by UNKLE's "God Knows Your Lonely Souls," then I bet you'd know that one too.

Akiller soundtrack can go a long ways -- longer than its typical 3minutes and 30 seconds during some fleeting cinematic presentation. Here's five games coming out in the next several weeks that couldbenefit from having a memorable song scoring a GameTrailers video. These recommendations are probably only half as apt as Assassin's Creed's, and nowhere even close to as brilliant as Gears of War's.  Nevertheless:

 

Spore -- "Into the Ocean" from Foiled, by Blue October

Samplelyrics:  "With envy for the solid ground // I'm reaching for the lifewithin me // How can one man stop his ending // I thought of just yourface // Relaxed, and floated into space."

Starting off withpresumably a lightning flash in a mud puddle, your little spore will"flOw" its way up the food chain, eating and evading its way throughthe evolutionary cycle.  Blue October's "Into The Ocean" draws onimagery reaching from the ocean depths to outer space, carrying yourspore from one cradle of life to the next.

 

 

 

Fallout 3 -- "Consoler Of The Lonely" from Consolers Of The Lonely, by The Raconteurs

Samplelyrics:  "Haven't seen the sun in weeks // My skin is getting pale //Haven't got a mind left to speak // And I'm skinny as a rail // Lightbulbs are getting dim // My interests are starting to wane // I'm toldit's everything a man could want // And  I shouldn't complain."

Withmankind bombed back into the Stone Age -- or at least the 1950s -- yourcharacter will emerge from Valut 101 into a Wild West stage setting. The Raconteurs' "Consolers Of The Lonely" has an eagle-eye fortumbleweed details, sung from a bone-dry throat choked withclaustrophobia.

 Left 4 Dead -- "Believe [Moon Version]" from The Sun And The Moon Complete, by The Bravery

Samplelyrics:  "The faces all around me they don't smile they just crack //Waiting for our ship to come but our ship's not coming back // ...Something's always coming you can hear it in the ground // It swellsinto the air with the rising, rising sound // And never comes butshakes the boards and rattles all the doors // What are we waiting for?"

"Believe"engages minor tonalities that stretch heavy-hearted shadows across theground, while the vampiric organ pulls undead clouds across a groaningsky.  And the Bravery's metaphorical tie-ins with the sedentary and thezombified can't be ignored.  Left 4 Dead looks mighty grim, alone inthe dark.

 

[EDIT:  Urk.  Due to technical difficulties, the Far Cry 2 entry has been chewed up and spit out into the internet ether.  I dunno either.] 

While strolling by the Atari booth on my first hour of the convention, my attention was immediately drawn to what turns out to be my biggest surprise of Gen Con—King’s Bounty: The Legend.  I had no idea this was even in the works, I’m ashamed to say, but now that I’m aware I’m as excited as can be.  Being a huge fan of the original and its spin-off series, Heroes of Might and Magic, I could barely contain myself when I saw that brightly-colored fantasy game staring me in the face.  I quickly set myself up for a quick run-down of the game.

Turns out that King’s Bounty: The Legend has already been available in European markets for some time, and it’s been gathering award after award with its addictive game play.  Those familiar with the original or the HoMM series will instantly recognize the game style, although King’s Bounty is much more an RPG than a strategy.

Players take control of one of three Hero types, and set across the map in real-time action, acquiring quests and goodies as they go.  Heroes also gather forces for their armies, much as in the HoMM series, building up stacks of various forces and critters.  When confronted with an enemy, game play drops into a turn-based tactical mode, very similar to the predecessor games.  Here stacks of units battle it out, moving about the hex map and jockeying for that perfect attack position.  There is a nice assortment of units to choose from, many with some fairly nifty abilities.  To round things out, the Hero units can influence battle with spells and powers, either fueled by Magic or a force called Rage.  Heroes gain experience and levels as they quest about the land, and in typical RPG fashion they gain special abilities as they grow.  Given about 30 levels to attain, players can tailor their Heroes with some impressive abilities as fits their play style.

Graphically, King’s Bounty: The Legend looks great.  From the brightly-colored setting, to the detailed units and spell effects, to the background detail, there’s a constant treat for the eyes.  I didn’t get a lot of time hands-on, but the interface seemed smooth and easily navigable.   I can’t wait to get my grubby little hands on this one, which is currently slated for English-language release sometime this fall. 

Head over to www.kings-bounty.com for a few more tidbits of information.

Gen Con was full of both collectable card games and electronic offerings, and a few games that bridged that gap.  Chaotic is one of the latest titles to make the leap between tabletop and online play, this time targeted at the 6-to-14-year-old audience.  

As a card game, Chaotic is pretty solid.  It’s not terribly deep, but there seems to be plenty of room for creative deck building.  Those familiar with CCGs in general will have no problem dropping right in, since Chaotic features the usual menagerie of monsters and magic (or “mugic”, in this case).  Players set up their creatures to batter their opponents, trying to break through the enemy armies with tactics and various special cards.  Creatures have elemental alliances and a simple set of stats.  One thing that sets Chaotic apart from most games I’ve seen is the fact that few creatures, even of the same name, have the exact same stats.  So even if I and my opponent have the exact same deck build, card for card we may have enough differences to keep things interesting.  

Where Chaotic leaps to the electronic front is through a code on the bottom of each card.  This card can be entered into the online portion of the game to generate an exact virtual copy of the card for use against online foes.  So players can have mirror copies of both cardboard and virtual decks, allowing them to play with friends next door or opponents across the globe.  The online portion is a straightforward virtual game table, with the requisite chat rooms, ranking system, and match-finding areas.  The interface looked clean, and it was quite simple to call out a challenge and dive into a quick match.  They’re still working on spiffing up portions of the game, as they had just implemented some new graphics and sound effects to heighten the game a bit.  All in all, it looks like a neat little CCG. 

In addition, Chaotic also sports a weekend animated TV show to entertain and educate the kiddies about the new cards and some possible strategies.  I haven’t had a chance to check out the show itself, so I don’t know if there’s any quality there or if it’s just a half-hour infomercial in disguise.  Regardless, Chaotic looks to be an interesting CCG for the younger set, who probably already know much more about this title than I ever will.  

For more details, head over to www.chaoticgame.com

October is going to be difficult for me.  Three games (all, strangely, beginning with the letter "F") are conspiring to turn my head into a Scanners reference.  Fable 2 is out October 21st.  So is Far Cry 2.  And Fallout 3 is out seven days later.  Bollocks!  And money isn't the problem.  Unless you consider the fact that time is money.  Then yeah, money is a big freaking problem.

What a problem to have, I know.  Too many good games on the calendar in the next few months.  Not like this year's that far removed from any other, so I'm trying not to complain too loudly.  2007 was The Best Year Ever^TM in the eyes of so many critics.  And while everyone seems burnt on the whole discussion -- not even wanting to touch the argument whether 2008 is even better (it is) -- I know that I can at least get a solid month out of Spore before my Triple-F game series grabs me by the wrists and, like your brother used to do to you, start slapping you around with your own hands.  ("Why you hittin' yourself, Randy?  Why you hittin' yourself?")

But after messing around with the Spore Creature Creator all afternoon in preparation for Spore's September 7th launch, I think I've come up with the race that's going to populate my seas, savannahs, cities, and outer spaces.  And, with a little luck, somebody else's too, if they like and download the design.  Meet the Minohorse:

Nope, he has no legs.  Since the Creature Creator can animate the Minohorse's movements like a snake, he can amble about just fine though, thank you very much.  And the ram horns are certifiably cool in my personal estimation, while lending a tentacle-fetishized-looking branch to his ancestry.  I had more decorative plates running up his chest and over his shoulders trying to simulate Byzantine armor, but I removed them since that ended up looking like he was wearing a blocky, rectangular bra.  Relegating that plated look to his stomach, waist, and wrists proved sufficient.  I painted him with the shiny, scaley, purply skin in order to hint at a sea-going gene somewhere in the mix, and because purple was a leftover sentiment from wanting to give him a vaguely Roman feel of royalty.  I also stuck him with oversized hands, a too-large head, and not-so-scary eyes so that other Spore players hopefully won't find the Minohorse so intimidating that they won't invite him into their world.  He's herbivorous, by the way, so you'll only know him by the trail of munched fruits and veggies.

I have no singular, curatorial narrative to tie this player journal together.  I’ve just been enjoying a steady immigration of memorable moments within The Lord of the Rings Online, some of them loud, some of them soft, all of them keeping me away from the keyboard during this 14-day trial period of Middle-earth baptism.  I’m no power-leveler, sir.  My absorbency levels are high but my movements are deliberate, and I’ve kept my character, Lore-master Sayer of Gondor, moving at a walking pace (literally) through the valley of Archet.

These are a few cemented experiences in my mind, and I’m drawing these off the top of my head; no fact-checking, no reworking my way through them in-game, and with frighteningly little knowledge of Tolkein’s world beyond The Hobbit and a few movies filmed in New Zealand.  (So if I get some details wrong, I apologize now.)  And while these experiences may not be profound, per se, they’ve stirred me to recall what I loved so much about MMOs in the first place, especially after I’ve chewed up and spat out so many betas and free trials and full retail purchases along this jaded brick road.

- I recall standing at the top of Bronwe’s Folly after rigorous flights of stairs bringing it to the treetop heights.  The climb was obviously created as a purposeful reminder of the process to get closer to a holy creator.  But at the top of Bronwe’s Folly, I felt nothing but a sense of claustrophobia from the tightening pillars, no sense of security from its crumbling ledge, and no explanation for its seven-pointed stars.  I left, feeling no need to return.

- I recall the planked, uncovered bridge leading up to the hunter’s lodge on the east side of the lake.  The presence of more dead animals than they could skin brought small whirlwinds of flies to circle above the carcasses.

- I recall taking a back entryway into Blackwold’s Roost, another set of Herculean ruins which further betrayed a greater importance the valley of Archet must have once held for a bygone people.  I remember losing all morale in there, twice, fighting off increasing numbers of brigands, knowing that the right solution was to form a fellowship with other players, and never attempting to do so.

- I recall burying the shepherd after the assault on Archet; putting his bloodied body into the ground, as his equally bloodied flock lie strewn and dead about his brown and green hillock.

- I recall walking, walking, walking the roads, fending off aggressive wolves, boars, and spiders, until I grew in strength and knowledge until even those wild woodland creatures learned my scent and kept away.

- I recall another player, who’d named his character after a Star Wars theme, running in circles around me, never taunting me, but exasperating his boredom by killing off creatures that I first engaged in combat.  Yet we never exchanged any words.

  - I recall two other players who never spoke to me, but walked alongside me from the town of Combe, up and across to the spider-rank fields of a working farm.  One held a banner.  The other continuously jaunted one or two steps ahead of me to make him look like a default leader.  They too never spoke to me, despite my questions, as we walked the roads.

- And I recall seeing the town of Archet, burned down to the foundation in some areas, still trudging with life as vendors, trainers, watchmen, and citizens continued their daily toils.  Some maintained hope while others gave in to exhaustion and bewilderment, but I let Archet go.  I was only a refugee myself, and I allowed that town to slip my grasp.  Seeing it blackened with charcoal affirmed a need to move on, when normally I would have created a family tie with the town.

So this is where my gaming heart now lies.  I’ll admit that my commitment-phobic tendencies with MMOs may very well kick in at any moment.  It usually happens somewhere around the 21-day mark, as the overly-practical side of me realizes that I have to end things now, or pay the subscription fee.  But this could be different.  And for everyone it’s different.  But this one could be the one for me.

[Having been away since beta, Randy is playing through a 14-day free trial of The Lord of the Rings Online.  He tends to be impressed by the little things.]

 

Continuing my wanderings through the great halls of Gen Con, I found my way to the Entropia Universe booth.  Here’s an MMO that takes a rather unique stance on a subject that most multiplayer games frown upon: farming virtual stuff for real money.  In fact, Entropia Universe embraces this “pay for playing” mechanic enough that players can (theoretically, at least) never spend a single real-world cent to while away countless hours in the game world, and they may even come out ahead in real-world dollars.  I have to admit, it sounds intriguing.

So how do they do it?  First, there’s no fee at all for playing.  Players can download the client and jump right in, joining forces with others to colonize the fictional frontier planet.  Second, the idea of “free” is a bit of a misnomer.  Sure, players don’t absolutely have to spend real-world money (which is converted to in-game currency at a 1 to 10 exchange), but if they want the coolest toys, they’ll most likely want to make some sort of investment.  Now, that investment can be real-world cash, or lots and lots of game time.  Entropia Universe is a game about farming stuff—either hunting the local fauna for valuable prizes, mining for minerals, or just running odd jobs for other players for a bit of in-game cash. 

Part of what seems intriguing about Entropia Universe is the thought of these economies springing up in game.  I saw instances where players would team up to gather resources—PC miners would hire PC bodyguards to fend off the local wildlife while they gathered valuable goodies from the ground.  One of the guys at the demo decided he wanted to be in in-game barber, so he kitted himself out with the virtual tools necessary to coif his customers.  After a while, he became bored with this, and he sold his barber’s tools for a tidy little real-world sum.

Entropia Universe has an active in-game clearing house, where players can sell their virtual goods for virtual or real-world cash.  There is also a very active auction/market in place, where players can expect to get much better deals for all their labors.  In addition, should players finally wish to leave the game, they can actually sell off their personal character skill increases (something called “chipping out”, I believe).  I don’t really understand all the particulars needed to maintain liquid real-world assets or all the legal hoops that need to be jumped in order to carry these transactions out, but Entropia Universe has been going for a little while now and there seems to be a fairly solid player base, and subsequently an interesting study on economics.

As for the game itself, it looked and played much like a run-of-the-mill MMO.  There was talk that the game would soon be receiving a face lift and adopting the Crysis II engine, so players will have a bit more to ogle as they go about their virtual-world jobs.

Honestly, this all smacks of a bit too much work for my play time, but I know there are folks out there that are thrilled to enter these virtual economies and set themselves up as merchant princes, mercenary hunters, or daring prospectors.  And you really can’t beat the price. 

Check out www.entropiauniverse.com for more details. 

 

Who knew that The Lord of the Rings Online propagated Barack Obama’s campaign of Hope?

Because it would be in a dismal Blackwold Camp in LOTRO that Sayer of Gondor would encounter a creature that would force him to utterly abandon all hope.  And it would be the first time that I would witness Hope and Dread serving as prominent gameplay mechanics in an MMO. 

Sure, by the numbers, diminishing or bolstering Hope and Dread is nothing more than “crowd control.”  It’s “buffing” and “debuffing” with a high-concept metaphor driving it.  The winter-crackled trees, man-sized cages, and various torture devices scattered around Blackwold Camp could conjure enough Dread on their own without the added benefit of having one of the Nazgul -- a Black Rider -- showing up in the prison camp’s courtyard.  Sayer, my freshly-minted Lore-master, whose greatest feat of “spellcasting” involved lighting pinecones on fire and hurling them Nolan Ryan-style at onrushing attackers, was tousled into this mess through a fit of misfortune.

Nevertheless, I’m not a whiner about what got me in here, since a hooded Ranger by the name of Amdir is breaking me out.  Tonight.  Now.  But not before he tasks me with freeing two other prisoners also in the camp:  Both are Hobbits, and one of them has the further misfortune (in this case) of having “Baggins” in his last name.  And that’s what drew the Black Rider to the Blackwold Camp.  He was promised a Baggins.

Before Sayer even saw the Black Rider, he felt its presence.  The lidless Eye of Sauron flashed almost-subliminally across the screen.  A pulse.  An uncertainty.  And then he rounded the corner and saw the Nazgul, mounted and fearsome, preparing to strike down Amdir, the Ranger that had sprung my escape.

The edges of Sayer’s vision were scraped with the fiery iris of Mordor.  The screen pulsed again, vision blurred, and the colors around Sayer began to drain into muddy, monochromatic grays.  It was looking like Lord of the Gears of War.  My mini-map in the upper right-hand corner was now completely replaced by the burning eyeball.  My Hope/Dread Indicator readings were dropping fast.  My Dread was pumped up to level eight, which I’m guessing is somewhere around DEFCON 1 as far as emergency alarms going off are concerned.  The indicator also read “Terror has seized you.  The fear of defeat seizes your heart often, causing you to cower.”  To further drive the point home, a thumbnail icon was flashing under my health bar indicating “Dread -- Your heart is heavy in the face of such evil.”

And indeed my hero, Lore-master Sayer of Gondor, was no paragon of heroism at that point.  He was ducking to the side, crumpled, holding his hands over his face, wanting nothing more than to run.

So I made him run.

Back the way he came and towards the far, roundabout side of the Blackwold Camp.  The Nazgul maybe 100 yards back now, out of sight, but not yet out of mind.  Still, Sayer’s maximum morale slowly raised from the 80% cap that Dread placed on him.  His ‘effective heals,’ which had been reduced to 84% (a bad thing), crept back towards 100%.  And the increased ‘damage received’ percentage (another bad thing) came back down from their elevated 112% levels.  It was like Sayer’s systolic and diastolic blood pressure was crawling back to within acceptable measurements.

And then, eventually, Hope and Dread had found their zen-sand-garden balance once more.

Conversely to the above scenario, being around benevolent NPCs, like Gandalf the Grey, will make Hope rise, diminishing Dread.  So when an NPC like Barack Obama comes around touting the “Yes we can!” of his hope campaign, I have to ask from a completely neutral standpoint:  Is he borrowing gameplay mechanics from developer Turbine’s Lord of the Rings Online? 

 [Having been away since beta, Randy is playing through a 14-day free trial of The Lord of the Rings Online.  Barack Obama did not approve this uninspired message of hope.]

 

You can’t judge a book by its cover, but they never said anything about games. Which is good because with Rick Nash on the cover of NHL 2k9, I’m buying some version of it no matter what. But I digress, as this is supposed to be about my impressions of the game, not my man crush of the player who could be the MVP of the 08-09 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The intro: The animation sequences and voiceover work are very nice, as are the video segments overlaid onto the ice during the pre-game.

Game play Graphics/Animations: The players almost have a bit of a cell-shaded quality to them, as if Visual Concepts (the games developer) said “let’s remind everyone this is a video game and not a hockey simulation”. I’m not sure if I like the way they’re drawn or not yet. The skating, shooting, stick-blocking, and goalie animations are particularly nice, but the contact animations (anytime a player hits the boards or another player) seem lacking. Maybe they weren’t done when they finished coding the demo, but right now it looks every time players make contact that they’re both going to apologize and say they didn’t see each other coming, because that’s how it looks. Also, you can’t really tell the difference between the relative sizes of players. Granter, neither Pittsburgh nor Detroit (the only two teams in the demo) are what you would call bigger teams, so maybe when Boston’s Zdeno Chara is on screen there will be a noticeable difference.

Controls: With the obvious success of EA’s skill stick addition to the NHL 200X franchise, it was only a matter of time before 2k got on board.  Unfortunately, 2k has chosen the name “Pro Stick Evolution” for the new control setup that uses the left analog to control player movement, and the right analog to control the stick. I know they had to avoid copyrights, but that’s not the world’s best name. The nice thing about it is that it works really well, so I can live with the name. Passing, shooting, blocking, dekeing, and the rest of the standard hockey game moves work as expected on either the new or original controls. The hybrid control set wasn’t to my liking, but some may find it helpful in transitioning from the old to the new control systems.

AI: I know this is just a demo, but I’m a bit concerned about the defensive AI in this game. I should not be able to skate right up the middle into the high slot and shoot on the goalie without one or both defenders moving in to take me out. Maybe they have the defense dumbed down so players can learn how to shoot more easily, but from what I’ve seen so far, the games idea of defense is to have every player on the ice cram themselves into the very front of the goal crease and try to get the puck. I’ll be hoping this is just a basic subset of the AI that was still being completed. It’s a short demo, so it’s hard to see how much effect things like players getting tired, injuries, and penalties will have on the gaming experience.

Fun factor: The demo has a pretty short pickup time, and with the basic control set, I was able to start winning regularly against the AI opponent after the 3^rd game.  Additionally there is a special move modifier button that advanced players will want to try out.

Conclusion: The game looks promising, but I’ll want to take the full version for a spin on my Xbox 360 before I can give a definitive answer to the age old question: EA or 2k? One thing’s for sure; I’m going to give the Wii version of NHL 2k9 a try before I make my final decision. Hockey sticks are maybe the second best usage for the Wii Remote (behind lightsabres, and tied with golf clubs), and everyone I know who plays the NHL franchises has been waiting anxiously for a Wii version. Hopefully, NHL 2k9 will live up to its early promise.

I managed to check out several titles geared for the younger crowd this year, starting with Freaky Creatures, an action-figure/video game hybrid targeting an audience of 6-14 years of age.

Back in my day, we had to imagine our toys into battle, supplying sound effects and cool visuals with nothing but our minds. Freaky Creatures is looking to change that, allowing kids to take their action figures online, kit them out with some individual powers and features, and then duke it out with opponents across the globe.

What kids will get initially is a pack of two action figure monsters, which are by themselves some pretty cool toys. However, also included in the starter pack is a flash drive containing the electronic game portion of the product. With this, kids get an on