Clang, Clang, Clang Went The Trolley

The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry…


When this happens, just remember: DON’T PANIC

After a brief moment of rest, I continue on with my analysis of Siren, which is starting to grow a bit long in the tooth at this point, if I’m to be honest. It certainly wasn’t my intent to drag out my conclusions on the title over such a long period of time, but somewhere between attempting episodic content and Siren being…well, Siren, things definitely took a turn for the worst. No matter, as I should at least address my long belabored point of the trolley problem, or at least my mention of troubling affairs using word play that involves a problem with a trolley in it, and also trolley related problems that upend the traditional standard of trolley problem affairs.


All about the pretense of pretending
to be real while realistically pretending

I was kind of planning more of a concerted denouement of where I think Siren’s design methodology made apparent just how hard it utterly shits directly on the shiny new linoleum in terms of sublime satisfaction, and I think the closest to whatever that article might have looked like is now replaced with the one we are both currently experiencing. So yeah, super quick tl;dr version of where we are at right now: traditionally stylized PS2 survival horror game with lacking scare factor feels aimless in it’s approach of mystery. The story: never really materializing, the characters…kind of just there? The enemies-a mess of big old whatevers that do stop you, but in the most basic and annoying of ways. Siren’s “innovative” ability they try to shoehorn into the game to stand out from the crowd called “Sightjacking” ends up being a huge headache, as the trial and error factor of using someone else’s sight to not get seen gets old so quickly, you’ll likely try to just remember where the mainstay enemies and avoid them, and then try to navigate without the ability all together any other moment you’re playing just to save yourself from restarting for the nteenth time.


Anything to try and change the future at this point

Which, that last description I gave by the way, was more or less “the moment” Siren kind of came into focus for me, as all of the issues with the game came into focus during the aforementioned “Trolley Problem” that I have made mention to these past few articles. Essentially, all of the flaws Siren has comes to a front in the mission where you control Akira Shimura at Gojaku Peak, where you end up controlling a hunter with a rifle attempting to escape what is pretty much a trolley yard. When the mission first starts, you might be jazzed that right off the bat, you’re starting with a gun, and that the gameplay may really start to pick up after a bunch of random ass missions with random ass fools running around a random ass village may finally get some much needed momentum.


Brace yourself for a rude awakening, amigo

This mission helps to condense every bad idea Siren has in a nutshell, and may be the big litmus test for a lot of players on whether or not you even want to keep playing the title. I know I certainly took a second to stop and think about it. Where to start? The level involves a bunch of narrow corridors, and one big open area. There are a number of Shibito (enemy combatants) with rifles against you, which leads you to believe maybe sightjacking will help spare you? The problem ends up being twofold: you can’t control your character when sightjacking, and the riflemen kill you quickly. You can normally survive one shot, but the amount of time it takes for you to ready your gun, find them in the mist, and shoot them, is usually waaaay more time than it takes for them to follow up with another shot, and I don’t think I ever survived the second bullet.


An unedited photo from one of my sniper battles
in Siren

On top of that, once you know where they are, the sightjacking is more or less pointless: they generally are looking in one of two places, and the sightjacking honestly is so sluggish, it usually just sets you up to get nailed. The character animations are also ungodly slow, and the aiming is jank as shit. If you combine all of this frustration in conjunction with constant restarts, and the notion of why enemies with guns just don’t work that well in a scary manner related to the fundamental ideas of what makes survival horror work in the first place, you will likely start to feel existential about the whole thing and ask “Just why?” Don’t get me wrong: sniper battles have their place: I love engaging in them in many shooters, and there are even examples in single player games where they can be thrilling, and in some games the back and forth can be downright intense, but both gunplay and the sniper battles in Siren are so far removed from any element of survival horror you’re left positively dechuffed about the whole notion of it.


We know sniper battles can work, some just involve
a character named The End as opposed to the end
of your time with a game becasue of a shitty sniper battle

To add insult to injury, one of the main hooks of the level involves taking out one of the snipers with a runaway trolley. If you don’t know this going in, and don’t end up going to the right place or make an assumption you can take the sniper out in the same manner as you have done in the past, you will be instakilled in a pointless sniper battle, as the game does not want you to engage in a direct conflict with the sniper, but does not make this more clear, nor has the game at any point hinted that you can use major objects in the environment to take out enemies, nor is this level called “Trolley Trauma” or some cheekily named title to imply heavy trolley combat use.


*Prompt not pictured: Lose Mind*

You hopefully figure out after enough consecutive losses in the sniper duel (unless you shut the game off forever because you’re done with Siren’s bullshit), that you can activate a trolley somewhere else, and then your problem is solved. This was suppose to be a much more elegant setup to my point of “The Trolley Problem”, but I’m just going to have to finish this article up and decide if I can elaborate upon it in a more interesting fashion without Siren clouding my judgement. Anyways, The Trolley Problem ends up becoming the idea involving the danger of creative judgement related to progress in a video game. On the one hand, if you make a point of ingress less obvious either with a quirky solution, a hidden ability obscurely hidden, or some non-obvious trigger in which to activate, allowing the way forward to become apparent, is the challenge to the player discovering this element worth the risk of alienating them from finishing the game by effectively turning them off from continuing to play? A worthwhile idea worthy of investigation for another day. As for Siren, I think we are about ready to wrap this up.

To be concluded…
~Pashford

Derailing the Trolley Problem

Those times you look at the clock and you just start sweating profusely.


What I look like every time I sit down with a time
limit to write an article for ATE on a work day

Gonna take a moment here to break the veil of focus on the subject at hand by asserting: I do not appreciate today. More so in relation to my time related woes, as this particular piece I wanted to write involving thoughts on Siren felt like it was going to be one of the more substantial pieces of the lot, but my schedule has absolutely betrayed me this day. I’m essentially announcing a preface to this article that it’s just going to be loaded with issues; so totally on point in discussing Siren.


If Siren was a race car, it would be sponsored by
Raisin Bran

I’ll likely just chop my main idea into two articles, whatever, this game is not worth angrily vomitting blood over. So little is. Refocusing on the matters at hand: Siren…for those of you following along: not going very well, to say the least. Between failing to deliver on some basic expectations with some known talent of the industry, to somehow totally fumbling the formula of what a classic PS2 based survival horror game consists of, there isn’t much that Siren has been getting right as I have seen it during my play through.


This article of Siren brought to you by Billy Mays

So, there’s two major elements to what I’ve been referring to as “The Trolley Problem” in being (basically) the de facto moment of recognition I had, when I realized everything that encapsulates what’s wrong with Siren was kind of crammed into a single mission, as it were. The other element will involve some decontructionism and discussion of the classic thought experiment you are likely familiar with, and see if we can’t kind of pick it apart a bit in it’s relation to Siren as an experience, and maybe even play with the metaphysical nature of how we can even apply it in different contexts within this situation.

Trolley related issues are so much easier to deal
with in Raccoon City: Drive the vehicle into the Nemesis

Which I guess now would be a great a time as any to bring up what I used as a throw away gag a couple of articles ago, which detailed an ability that the characters share in the Siren universe for relevant story reasons I gather, but I haven’t quite arrived at that moment of fully fleshed out exposition as of yet. In any case, that ability is called “sightjacking”, and it seems to be one of the main thrusts in differentiating Siren, though like most things involved with the game, the theory vs the execution leave much to be desired.


Hello me, it’s me again…

“Sightjacking” ends up being pretty aptly named, as it very much is just being able to switch your viewpoint to see through the eyes of another character at any given point, enemies included. One of the warm up missions so to speak, has you stealthing through part of Hanuda village, following a lady who is leading the way, and you utilizing the sightjacking to navigate the area unharmed. You can just press L2 and see what they see in first person perspective, so you can end up being able to see not only the playable character you’re controlling, but obviously the surroundings, enemy positions, where they are looking, etc, to help you navigate safely. This ties in with those stealth elements I mentioned earlier, too, as most characters lack weaponry, so being seen usually ends up being a fail state. Sightjacking is suppose to be an essential element that not only makes Siren a distinct experience, but an ability that is suppose to be a game changer.


The “change” in the game usually transitions from
ongoing to over, mind you

Now, some of the more astute of you reading this may be thinking to yourself at this moment: if sightjacking is so integral to Siren, why did it take Pash almost four articles worth of time to even bring it up? An excellent question to ask yourself. To wit; I’m only now bringing up the idea of sightjacking, due to the fact that sightjacking essentially does jackshit in the grand scheme of things. One of the main reasons for this unfortunate reality being true is the ability in question brings into stark focus the fine details as to why Siren is like a lost child that has wandered into the middle of a movie.


Siren, you’re out of your element!

I find myself grappling with the very notion of being able to surmise the staggering litany of ways in which sightjacking ends up completely showing Siren’s ass, especially when one hones in on the very essence of how it relates to one of the elements of “The Troller Problem” I have so exhaustively alluded to. The ability, in almost a darkly perverse kind of way, acts as a weird voyeuristic peek into the depths of the minds behind game design, but in the sadly bias manner of one lacking self-awareness, as peering through the eyes of “the other” pulls back the curtain of understanding in seeing what ways we ultimately failed to see or understand “the other” in that very moment.



And with that sadly, just as I was ramping up to something juicy, I am out of time to write today.

To be continued…

~Pashford

Next Stop: The Trolley Problem

SSDD…


Not always applicable in a literal sense when considering
some stories detailing the horrors of everyday inanity

For any of you following along who are keeping score, the points we have up on the board so far involve one mention of how expectations may have led me astray in my ongoing disappointments with Siren as an entity, and then another point against the head scratcher that is the implementation of the design choices within the context of Siren, as two major game series that are deeply similar in nature kind of already wrote the book on how you do a PS2 survival horror game the right way.


Not that the PS2 was in short supply of worthy titles
to enjoy playing within the survival horror realm

As hinted at yesterday, I was ramping up my continued analysis of the title with the allusion to “The Trolley Problem”, which is a more complicated assertion than may see obvious at first, but we’ll get there in the end. It’s worth it to note that some of the revelations involving the trolley problem have to do with some of the red flags and warning signs I’ve touched upon in my first couple of brief write-ups, though I think it’s worth a mention that it’s easy to understand the kind of game that Siren is if one has the classic idea of Resident Evil or Silent Hill in mind. Siren does distinguish itself in a couple of unfortunate ways. Number one, the narrative is non-linear and hops around over the course of several days, as a small group of disparate individuals attempt to escape the cursed village of Hanuda, with the story kind of playing out in the vein of if Tarantino had a crack at a biopic based in Silent Hill.


Head over heels kinds of horrifying

Like a lot of what Siren does, the theory sounds great, but the execution is totally lacking when it comes down to execution. The usually welcome ambiguity surrounding the mystery of the narrative that comes as a package deal with survival horror games in being kept in the dark and slowly piecing the fragments of truth together almost breeds nihilistic contempt in the Siren environment, as the cut-scenes due very little in servicing exposition, leaving you nearly always confused as to what is really going on. Since the narrative is non-linear, and focuses on multiple individuals, the player is constantly thrust into a new scenario or point of view in rather quick succession, without having a full grasp of how the last mission was relevant in the overarching story, or without a greater sense of even who the character(s) were that you were spending time with


Like her for example, who is…uh, and did the, um….

Which I think is a glaring flaw that can’t be overstated enough, as each “mission” (scenario, what have you) that you will control or spend time with a character(s) is generally speaking only about five to ten minutes, which means you won’t end up feeling fully immersed or even starting to relate or become familiar with who you’re even spending time with. The complete lack of connection and or familiarity with such a large cast of individuals, or being so distant from the very character of the town of Hanuda itself completely betrays the games larger sense of self-identity and worth, with the end result almost feeling as if you’re spending time wandering on random hikes in a mostly vacant province somewhere, never fully being at the whim of any built suspense or lasting tension, as you simply have no clues as to why you should be rooting for or against these characters or setting in the first place.


Siren is obscured in a horrendous fog of mystery…
almost to the point of self-negation

For any of you keeping score still: I have yet to mention specifically what kind of enemies exist within Siren, where as up till now if totally unfamiliar with the game, you may have been stuck with an image in your mind akin to zombies or random characters of vaguely unsettling repute. Which, works towards my notion of “fill in the blank writing”, as the context clues already given have granted you a somewhat accurate assessment of what the cast is up against. The official enemies involved are Shibito, also referred to as demons ingame, but they very much act as zombified humanoids which seek to stalk you. They honestly are pretty chill, as they seemingly still have some sense of routine about them, as they kind of go about what appear to be daily habits, which lends itself to the “stealth elements” I mentioned awhile back. Which are…somewhat relevant in the grand scheme of how the game plays out, but in more ways than not, tend to reinforce that nihilistic contempt. I also mentioned just how aimless and laxidasical the whole approach behind Siren feels, almost as if you wandered onto the sound stage of a horror film in between takes after the director has said cut. The scene is set and the actors all look gruesome, but they’re all just goofing off casually pretending to haunt instead of selling an actual scene of horror.


Honestly, kind of what it feels like when one of
the Shibito catch up with you

I realize I didn’t follow up on the implication I asserted yesterday in regards to how the trolley problem is endemic to what plagues the design or very concepts of Siren at a core level, and if you feel these articles are any bit aimless and meandering in portraying the kind of energy you can expect from Siren, I’m definitely doing my due diligence as a writer in helping to connect you with the Siren experience at large in the most effective way possible.

To be continued….

~Pashford

Red Flags and Warning Signs Pt.2

I started detailing yesterday my descent into the horrifying madness that is Siren.


When the red flags are so obvious,
you just start proudly incorporating them
into your wardrobe

Part of the issue that became immediately apparent to me about the dimensions of horror I was to be confronted with when playing Siren was the terrifying notion involving the ramification of expectations that would follow. Much like I do with most games I start, I went in fairly blind when beginning Siren, knowing little to nothing about the title. All I really knew prior to starting the game was that one of the minds behind Silent Hill was a key player in bringing Siren to life. I hadn’t previously considered what, if anything, this had done to shade my expectations of the title, but what became abundantly clear quite early on was that inspite of this game having the original writer and director working on Siren that worked on Silent Hill, would not mean in any way, shape, or form that Siren would inspire the same levels confidence that SIlent Hill effortlessly did.

I know they say comparison is the thief of joy,
but it was just such a bloody good time

Now don’t get me wrong, the evidence for Siren sharing a writer/director totally tracks; the ambiguous, psychologically tormenting mystery of the cursed town, the infamous air raid siren haunting the player with it’s wails, the trademark fog that blankets the darkened landscape…all part and parcel of where Siren *would* take cues from SH. All of that is largely what entails the video part of the video game experience, however. For reasons that are ridiculously obvious from that acknowledgement, Siren was going to be struggling right proper with the other half of that terribly relevant noun we know as video game, but perhaps the team that worked on Siren didn’t fully get the memo on.


Which one could say about a lot of creators, truth be told

Okay, maybe that last sentiment is a bit harsh, but a lot of the design decisions in Siren leave me scratching my head, especially considering, if one were to take cues from either Silent Hill or Resident Evil in terms of quick tips on how to do it right, it feels as if one would be hard pressed to get it wrong at all. To that point, it’s not even some of the stereotypical trip ups that register complaint with folks as to why Siren goes off script in the wrong ways: stuff like weird camera angles, tank controls, low visibility, or lack of weaponry are all par for the course in my eyes for late 90’s, early aughts survival horror; it’s some of the other elements at play, that on paper, sound like excellent ingredients for an innovative recipe of a delicious survival horror dish, but both the technology and the execution of the design end up betraying the experience of Siren entirely as a result.


…I’m sorry, do *what* now to Hisako?

Much like my episodic series on the Resident Evil 3 remake, I’m playing through Siren bit by bit each day, so the drip feed of content is relative more so to my progress than anything else, hence the format of the morsels of thought to digest on the matters at hand as we attempt not to get derailed in discussing the more frustrating elements that comprise playing Siren, which, was a fitting turn of phrase used just now, as next time, we will examine what ended up being the first big realization something may have been truly wrong with Siren….

…and that’s the trolley problem.

To be continued….
~Pashford

The Milks Gone Bad: Horse Armor Edition

“…find him, and close shut the jaws…of Oblivion.”


Holy shit, Patrick Stewart.

Did we give that man a fucking Oscar for best narration of a video game trailer?! Those lines still live rent free in my head to this day because of the gravitas Stewart can deliver with. God damn, I say! Dude could sell jet-skis to peeps living in the Sahara. Unbelievable. I yearn for trailers of that prestige in this day and age, something was definitely flowing in the water in the aughts for video game prerelease hype, that’s for sure. In any case, as amazingly fun as it would be to do a look back at Oblivion, I merely brought that old gem to the forefront, as it ended up popping into my head when I this article from Kotaku involving the hearty chuckle that was horse armor.


So young, much naive. Such armor. Wow.

The irony of article can’t be overstated, though I do take this moment to posit the notion this isn’t even like, new news. I swear I’ve read about these statistics before, maybe even from Kotaku as well. Not to knock their journalistic integrity or anything: sometimes one has to wheel out a golden oldie to remind folks of what was. To wit; horse armor selling well should surprise absolutely no one, as Oblivion was a massive game, DLC was basically a new concept, in many ways, horse armor kind of being the first attempt of even doing it on consoles (I know you could buy additional content online before this, hush), and it was soon after a massive launch and was dirt cheap. I know a lot of people can point their fingers and blame devs for abusing what they see as mercenary like practices for DLC, but it was ultimately gamers that used their wallets to set the standard. Reminds me of two interesting legacy articles I wrote about more than a decade ago on similarly related matters. Mad, innit?


Mad, innit?

Speaking of mad, IGN delivered some insanity with a new trailer and some screenshots involving an upcoming FPS entitled Bad Cheese, which looks to be some kind of psycho-horror romp based on the trauma of surviving an abusive household through the perspective of a mouse young-in who is attempting to survive a weekend with a dysfunctional guardian while the mom is away.


I will be shocked if hiding doesn’t play
a key element in surviving unscathed

The game has a hand drawn art style, and is animated like an old classic 16mm style cartoon film; almost like a mashup of the horror elements of the Binding of Issac, and the visual stylization of Cuphead. The screenshots and trailer available through IGN look to be positively ghoulish, so go give it a look. Though there is very little info on the title, the game is already of a worthy sort on my radar, and is the kind of game I wake up for in the morning, as the entire experience looks to be dripping with atmosphere and oozing with character. Definitely keep this one in your sights.


Speaking of hamfisted segways…

News about a new Bond game has me reeling, and mostly in a good way. The new title(s), code named “Project 007”, was first announced back in 2020 by IO interactive, the same developers that delivered upon us the stellar Hitman titles. IO CEO Hakan Abrak sounded confident in what the team was going to be able to deliver:

“What’s exciting about that project is that we actually got to do an original story,” said Abrak. “So it’s not a gamification of a movie. It’s completely beginning and becoming a story, hopefully for a big trilogy out there in the future. And equally important and exciting, it’s a new Bond. It’s a Bond we built from ground up for gamers. It’s extremely exciting with all the tradition and all the history there is there together to work on this together with the family of creating a young Bond for gamers; a Bond that the gamers can call their own and grow with.”

Honestly, it would be super easy to be all gloom and doom about a new Bond game, with any title in that series perpetually living in the potential shadow of the quality of Goldeneye to compete with, but I actually have a good feeling about this one. If for no other reason that the project is in the extraordinarily competent hands of IO Interactive, who went above and beyond proving themselves with the Hitman series, I think we’re all in for a treat when this one finally hits store shelves, and if we’re all crazy lucky, maybe the game will even rock hard enough to spawn a new franchise for us to be blown away by.

…

Look at that, I even finished without making a shitty Bond pun.


You said it 007

~Pashford

Pokémon, Streaming, and Final Fantasy’s…

Quite an amazing realization that my desire to actualize thoughts through writing is only ever impeded by the presence of a keyboard in front of me.

I can put my thoughts “in” the computer?

Today is definitely one of those days I’m attempting to squeeze blood out of stone right now, as a lot of the gaming news I see is a little bit too by the numbers to share for my liking, and I haven’t really started any new games as of late. I’ve have one article idea in mind for awhile now, but that bun still needs more time in the oven before it will be ready. The problem is only furthered by the notion of me not even really sure who I am even writing for, the demographics of that happening are completely beyond my reckoning, and something I even brought up in my recent musings involving Pokémon “getting real”.


Which the series has displayed flashes of,
from time to time

Maybe it was obvious by the article’s conclusion, but my insistence was in fact sincere, even if it was dressed up in irony…largely the approach I’m known for. “Getting real” in this instance was more of an insistence of getting more relatable, as the series needs to propound it’s very core fundamentals in order to grow. Not just in the competitive realm of course, though a focus on what makes the meta-game tick would do wonders for long time players, but also within the notion of being relatable to the every day. The games have this weird habit of being too abstract almost, their own little world feeling too microcosmic in scope, or “shut off” from greater realities, whether they be fictionalized accounts or otherwise. I think Pokémon Go did tap into an idea of creating greater context for the game series, and something the games would benefit from moving forward.


Nintendo could also just continue to get fucking weird
with it, take the easy route, give the fans what they want

Whatever floats your S.S. Anne.

I also saw this little tidbit involving the PS5, with Sony SVP Naomi Matsuoka uttering the phrase: “Looking ahead, PS5 will enter the latter stage of its life cycle,”. I can’t fathom why any Sony exec would even begin to dream about saying this phrase out loud anywhere on this planet ever, let alone when they’re still hyping up the announcement of the PS5 Pro and even still selling the regular PS5 as their go to console which is currently seeing new releases.


Whole lot of nope coming out of the Sony camp
recently, with varying flavors of nope to choose from

I know my existence is not the end all be all of what dictates the gaming world, but I haven’t even obtained a PS5 as of yet, inspite of my desires to do so for the last four years. In my defense, the first two years of the god damn thing’s existence saw the device being next to impossible to find, and following that, it really wasn’t until the last few months I even gave a shit about a successive number of games launching for the system that would compel me to get it. Hearing now that the PS5 is in it’s twilight years isn’t exactly a comfort in raising any kind of hype levels for a system I have always remained relatively luke warm on, and now the only silver lining I’m left with is the very notion of much cheaper hardware being available with the inevitable launch of the PS6 on the eventual horizon.


Some random PS6 mockup I just pulled from google.
I know it’s fake but, probably close, right?

Over in Microsoft land, the company announced they would finally allow users to stream their games, after a long line of delays involving the eventuality. This does feel as if a massive delay in what should have been an obvious go to option for Xbox players for awhile now, but better late than never. MS apparently had to clear up some licensing issues publishers and developers in regards to being able to stream as one of the biggest culprits for the delay. As I mentioned during one of my Gamescom articles, Microsoft is positioning itself in a very peculiar way these days, in terms of how easily and accessibly you are able to enjoy their offerings regardless of system or setup. On top of how many big publishers and devs they do have at their disposal, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they make a big pivot in the future to focusing more on software, streaming, and online services as being favored over hardware. Reports have always suggested the hardware side of things for Microsoft has always been an area of discomfort in regards to their gaming offerings, and with Game Pass helping them to generate so much money, the whole shift in market perspective might make more sense than one thinks initially.


Though Microsoft has a track record of doing
very stupid things, so it’s hard to say what their next
greatest bed-shitting extravaganza will take the form of

And finally, the gaming world is faced with an epic conclusion of sorts, as iconic Final Fantasy composer, Nobuo Uematsu, has announced Fantasian Neo Dimension will be the last title he works on as a video game composer, effectively announcing his retirement from the industry. With decades of releases under his belt, and essentially setting the standard for how RPG’s should sound like with his work at Squaresoft throughout the 90’s, the industry icon made a short statement involving a press tour for the upcoming release date of Fantasian Neo Dimension, which launches on December 5th for most platforms, with a simple sentiment: “This is my final project as a composer of video game music. I hope you’ll pick it up and play it! Thanks for your support!”.


The characters from the game reacting to the news:
even they were shocked to hear it!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some Black Mages songs to go listen to…

~Pashford

Only Happy When It’s Pain

The grandiose feeling of absolute inanity.


If you’re the type of person who loves the idea of watching
grass grow, and what follows soon thereafter,
boy do I have the game for you

As I attempt to gather thoughts about video games, and pour over news articles within the consideration on reporting about them or providing my own insight into the matter, I am struck with a complete absence of compulsion to do either. The truth of the matter would suggest that ever since the destruction of Raccoon City, I have been adrift on the sea of malaise and discontent within the world of gaming at large.


The stagnation may be an aftereffect concerning FOMO involving
not being able to spend time with my pointy headed boi in this,
his hour of reprise

Which you know, happens. We all have our off days…it’s just when those off days turn into off weeks and then months is when things really start to become problematic. I’m beginning to think I’m going to have to reconsider my approach to either how I process ideas about the industry, or my playtime in general involving video games, cause there is plenty *to* write about, and lots of interesting games to play and share thoughts on, but this current headspace I’m subsisting in is most certainly unbecoming of one who wishes to be a Johnny-Fucking-Appleseed of gaming glory and wisdom for all to partake in.


The escape room involving Johnny
Appleseed sounds so terribly ominous

I still have a litany of games I need to play through, with serious doubts about how many I’m going to see to completion. It’s less me not being interested in them, and more me attempting to prioritize some kind of synergy with writing articles for ATE, as some games are great, but I can’t always necessarily get ideas out of my time with them. I’m still loving on the expansion to Elden Ring, but the experience ain’t exactly a creatively inspiring one, as I’ve gone on about before. A lot of the games I do end up enjoying in question are more due to the experience, making the act of playing and the enjoyment there after hyper non-lingual. More of a feel, less of a tell.


The Power Glove being an interesting example of feel vs tell,
as after you’ve got a feel for it, you will tell others not to

The Legacy of Rust expansion involved with the recent release of the Doom 1 and 2 bundle is a fantastic new episode for the series as a whole, as from top to bottom, it’s a real banger. New weapons, enemies, great level design, amazing OST…it’s got the goods. It’s crazy to think I’ve basically been playing a level of Doom since I decided to start playing through Doom 2 on the PS4…nearly to the day last year. I absolutely can’t remember why I even started doing so, though I want to say I may have gotten wind that Sigil II was going to see a December release last year, and wanted to get back on the Doom train in anticipation. It did finally launch on December 10th, and I remember doing a mad 4 hour binge on Ultra Violence and played through the whole thing in one sitting.


Hell yeah

I am still slowly but surely making my way through Echoes of Wisdom, more or less out of respect for the Zelda series as a whole, though the game is a fantastic follow up to the idea of what was the remake to Link’s Awakening. It is simply time that thwarts me, and little else. The same goes for putting more effort into at least getting the non-bad ending for Portrait of Ruin, as I ended up just getting the shitty one and and calling it a day. I so often treat that which I love with so much flippancy, one looking into my daily machinations would wager I enjoy my enemies and the feelings of contempt more than my compatriots and the warmth of joy on the regular.


The all-consuming nature of failure empowers me with gusto

In some last ditch effort to try and topicalize my writing, Sakurai, father of Kirby and creator of Smash Bros, posted a video marking the end of his awesome Youtube series ‘Creating Games’, with some poignant closing thoughts. Not only did he reveal that the “Bros” in Smash Bros came about as a suggestion from the late great Satoru Iwata, putting forth the notion the fighters weren’t really fighting, but friends settling a little disagreement, but Sakurai goes on to close out with a touching tribute to his former boss and good friend he had in Iwata. An excellent sentiment and worthwhile moment, that reminds us all to celebrate what was, in order to respect how far we’ve come, and to help build an even brighter future moving forward.


Cheers to you, Mr. Iwata

~Pashford

Video Game Remakes: Playing It Safe

Certain days, you feel like you have energy enough to save the world.


Other days, getting out of bed feels like a heroic effort in and of itself

My two modes theses days, it seems. I always look forward to writing about video games for ATE, but will often times lament I do no possess the time required to come up with a truly bangarang idea involved with the matter, so it’s random asides posited where need be. Even though the article that spawned this next thought involving the MGS3 remake is weeks old, I was struck with the notion that I don’t always write about the game series that are my favorites, or the stuff I’m always super excited about. I generally go where the most popping headlines feel like they lay in the gaming landscape, even if it’s something as straight forward as commenting on remake qualities. I can totally understand why a lot of remakes recently are accused of playing it almost “too safe”, as any major deviation whatsoever is seriously derided, which is something I even was reminded of recently in my replay of the RE3 remake.


Seen here: what happens when autocorrect sabotages my attempts
at an angry critique in dealing with the RE3 Nemesis remake

Going off script is a big risk, and most gamers just don’t have the stomach for it, but it’s not necessarily due to them being sticks in the mud or totally resistant to new ideas. A big part of what makes the original content of the game so enjoyable is not just the ridiculous nostalgia factor involved with the title, but the sense and sensibilities of the game and the industry at the time. Change too much of what made the design work, and you’re essentially just doing an interpretative dance version of the original property, with the name only being present with none of the magic involved.


Other times, getting a clash of opinions over “what works”
in regards to a remake is maybe the best one can even hope for

Especially when you consider that millions may ride on a series success with one break out title, like the recent release of the Silent Hill 2 remake playing it largely safe, combined with the ridiculous layoffs that have plagued the industry as of late, and the playing it safe route starts to make a lot more sense. I know this isn’t always possible within the confines of development or even feasible depending on the title, but focus on the big, core idea first, flesh that out, and then throw in some microcosmic sense of deviation somewhere in the title, whether it be a mini-game, an experimental chapter in single player, a specialized playlist in multiplayer. I think there are enough positive examples of games making the strong case for concentrating on creating an effective delivery platform first and foremost instead of just “a game” so to speak, cause then you have a whole universe to play with, instead of just a satellite drifting through the vacuum with some shiny bling adorning the side.


Not to discount the simplified short and sweet approach
in making games in their purest, distilled forms…remake or otherwise

I suppose I’ve shifted tracks here a bit, from what makes a remake work to just video games in general, but I think the sentiment buffs out. There is something to be said about the formula of game design, and I’ve even commented on this in regards to questioning just how different or deviated could the new Zelda game, Echoes of Wisdom even be before it ceased to be a Zelda game and became something else entirely? Not saying be lazy and cash in on the same old idea year in, year out like Call of Duty or Madden, but play to your strengths and know your weaknesses. Sometimes, it’s not about saving the world, its just getting out of bed that day that starts the whole being a hero process.

~Pashford

The Chilling Origins of Blizzard

Regardless of platform, running in the 90’s…


…is the last place you want to be.

In certain respects, in any case, and like most things: context is key. Which relates to my quickie today, as I recommend you checking out a really insightful interview over on Eurogamer, involving Tom Phillips talking to Jason Schreier about his new book, “Play Nice“, which launched just a couple of days ago, and details the vast history of the entirety of Blizzard. A monumental undertaking, which Schreier comments on by saying his initial intent was to just cover the recent years of the companies massive, modern day success story that would ultimately lead to Activision’s takeover of everything Blizzard. However, when Schreier started getting into the weeds of the project, there was so much more of a story to tell.


Hellish tales about Blizzard’s backstory…
even beyond just the development of
the Diablo series, from the sounds of things

The book sounds exhaustive, with Schreier going into in-depth detail in his interview with Phillips involving the very early days of what made Blizzard tick, their eventual rule under Bobby Kotick, and the myriad of controversies that followed:

“From a business standpoint, it’s impossible to understand why it matters so much that Activision did this kind of takeover at Blizzard, and started interfering with their operations more, without understanding where Blizzard came from in the first place. Also, how Blizzard was started by video game fans who wanted to make games that they love playing, in contrast to a lot of other gaming companies in the 90s. And also from the cultural standpoint, it’s impossible to understand how we got to the point where the State of California was suing Blizzard for sexual harassment and discrimination without looking at the rise of that ‘boys club’ culture and where it came from in the 90s, when it was nearly all men at the company.

You can see how Blizzard became the company it did, how some of those cultural elements that started in the 90s lingered and evolved, and how they turned into both good and bad aspects of Blizzard. You can’t tell the modern Blizzard story without going way back from the very beginning, so the early parts in this book expanded a lot more than I ever thought they would.“


The devil is in the details

It’s always a painful reality when one realizes there favorite creators or the people behind childhood nostalgia were responsible for so much heinous betrayal behind the scenes, but it is a story all too common in the media industry these days. Though Blizzard may have put out some of gaming’s most iconic games, like Diablo, Starcraft, and World of Warcraft, the companies lewd and illicit behaviors created a litany of litigation and a catastrophic amount of collateral in it’s wake on the way to the top of the mountain of success. The interview over on Eurogamer is an engaging and sobering warmup to what looks to be a damning indictment of one of gaming’s best kept secrets. Check it out.

~Pashford

The Crossroads of Reality

Feeling like I’m siting on a helicopter after surviving a zombie apocalypse…or a failed dinosaur park experience.


Low key convinced any of the endings involving
Resident Evil games with peeps tiredly escaping in
helicopters were inspired by Jurassic Park.
Inspiration, uh…finds a way

Another week done and dusted, and one that has left me feeling tired…but the good kind of tired. Didn’t discuss a wide variety of topics on ATE this week, as I was mostly replaying and elaborating on my own thoughts related to the Resident Evil 3 remake, which had a delightfully surprising amount of philosophy that spawned from the games deconstruction, which is pretty much as good as it gets in my world. I kind of wanted doing even more run-throughs of the RE3 remake, as there were still a few final trophies for me to get, involving some of the harder difficulties, but I had already played through the title several times in as many days, and having already spent a week writing on the subject material, it felt as if I should put the matter to bed.


Not unlike some other recent adventures I have recently had

I’d posit the notion that this splendiferous slide into some savory surival horror insantiy has lit a fire under me, and will kickstart a campaign of interest to commence a death-march through any number of other Resident Evil titles much like I have in the old days, but I genuinely don’t know if that is the vibe currently bubbling under the surface. As mentioned, though I am the good kind of exhausted, I do think I must spend some time with my thoughts and ponder the way forward, whatever it may be. If I do end up leaving the topic of Resident Evil alone, now would likely be the last best time to mention bloodydisgusting got some of the actors together who starred in the live action opening of the original Resident Evil game, and needless to say it’s pretty awesome, so go give it a look.


Starring: ALBERT WESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSKER

I love how that mother fucker is just wearing sunglasses in a forest at night on a police murder investigation and everyone around him is like “yup, checks out.”. No wonder the S.T.A.R.S member all got took. Nice investigative deduction skills, dipshits, wonder if something is off about this guy?

T’would be there ruin, as fate would so rule.


Wesker even wears his sunglasses in his work photo, he’s a fucking
scientist my dudes.

Putting aside the perfectly over the top absurdism of 90’s villians, I do find that I suffer some bizarre version of what feels like the not-as serious equivalent of a postpartum depression of sorts when finishing a game, especially when it becomes more herculean of a project involving writing and trophy hunting. Even after I’ve reached my conclusive work on the topic at hand, this mood tends to set in where I reflect with melancholic repose on what has passed, the feelings and thoughts I may take away, and the fleeting nature of impermanence, in all of it’s bastardly abstract formats. I’m reminded of Schopenhauer’s thoughts on people who read, and how some may be too voracious in their habits, in not taking the time to digest, comprehend, and self-reflect on what they’ve just consumed, but mindlessly filling the void without any meaning or understanding attached to the experiences. I would tend to concur that people don’t give themselves enough time to appreciate and sit in their own thoughts on any given matter before moving on, so I think what I’m feeling is for the best, however somber in nature it may be.


Contrast is key in illustrating both the human condition and
good storytelling, though both concepts may be codependent
on each other

I think in the spirit of taking a moment for one’s self, I’ll leave it short and sweet for today. Remember to always give yourself some time to ponder and process, so you may have a chance of moving forward an enriched individual. Till next time.

~Pashford