Beyond This Horizon

The second draft of WFTD is nearly finished. It really should have been done by now, but I changed something at a pivotal moment in the story – I thought for the better – and then realized it just didn’t work, so I went and changed it back again. WFTD is probably the most tricky project I’ve worked on. Hopefully it’ll all turn out good once I finish the final revisions to this draft.

I’ve also been working on a second draft of another novel – SOV. The original draft of SOV was written over a period of about three weeks a couple of years ago. It’s something I’ve always wanted to get back to at one point or another, and after taking a little break from WFTD, I decided to do an initial edit and revisions to that first draft. My goal is to have both novels polished and complete by the end of the year.

In other news, I just completed the final episode of The Walking Dead game. After a somewhat uneventful third episode, the developers really stepped up for the last two. Despite its rudimentary gameplay and the somewhat questionable value of the choices in the game, it was still a great experience

I’ve not played many of the new releases this year, but of the ones I have, The Walking Dead was probably my favourite. A good story and characters that we care about can make a big difference in a game. It doesn’t apply to all types of games of course, but the games in which we can form some sort of emotional attachment in whatever form are usually the ones we remember the most fondly.

War Z (ALPHA)

Buying a game before it’s even finished? Not really the best idea, is it? Why? Well - 1) There’s no guarantee you’ll enjoy the product in its current state 2) Even if you do enjoy the current product, you may disagree with the developmental direction and therefore - 3) There’s no guarantee you’ll enjoy the final product.

Will it all end with broken promises, buggy content, rampant hacking and a rapidly declining player base? Will it be a familiar story of unfulfilled potential? It’s too early to say how War Z will ultimately turn out, but it’s sure been a hell of a lot of fun so far. In fact, it’s probably the most enjoyable multiplayer experience I’ve had since Red Dead Redemption.

War Z is an attempt to cash-in on the success of the DayZ ARMA mod – a zombie survival MMO. I found myself quite hooked just watching streams of War Z, and at fifteen quid, I figured it was worth the risk. I actually persuaded a friend to pick it up too so we could bro-op, which is enjoyable in an altogether different sort of way than playing solo.

Playing alone is extremely tense. You’re on your own, no back-up. With another player at your side you know you can trust, you feel safer, more bold, although you still have to keep your guard up. Although the game is still in early alpha it plays fine and I haven’t hit any serious bugs or encountered any of the hackers I’ve seen others complaining about (at least not that I’m aware of). I guess I’ve been lucky on that front though and it’s just a matter of time.

There’s still a lot of content planned, but not yet added, but even as it is, I’ve really enjoyed my time with the game. It’s still not quite the perfect zombie survival game I’ve always dreamed about, but it’s close enough for now. Hopefully it will continue to improve with time and see a great deal of support, patches and new content. It’s got promise, now we’ve just got to see if the developers can follow through.

Work in Progress: WFTD

I had planned to have a second draft of WFTD completed by the end of October. That’s not going to happen, but I’m not too far off the mark. The short break I took from the work helped. When writing a first draft, I can sit for hours, hammering away at the keyboard for days on end. I wouldn’t say it’s a particularly healthy way to do it, as you emerge weeks later into the light, a withered, pale husk of a person. But a withered pale husk with a shiny new book!

But I can’t handle new drafts or revisions in the same way, I just burn out too quickly. I find it important to set restrictions on what work to do each day. So today for example, I plan to work on five chapters, and five chapters only. There’s always a temptation, if I finish earlier than I expected, to press on and keep going, to do five more. But it’s important to stop, take a break, or just, if I do want to keep writing, work on something completely different. Because I know if I do press on, I won’t be able to approach those next five chapters with the same level of quality or enthusiasm that I did the first. My attention will begin to fade, I might start to rush things, and I just won’t be happy with the end product.

You know, I’d love to be able to finish a draft, and then immediately wipe my memory of it once it’s done, so I can look at the work totally objectively. That would help a lot. But that would also make me forget all the fun I had writing it, which…wait, fun? What the hell am I saying, writing is a bloody nightmare!

I’ve now written over fifty posts on this blog. I never expected to do more than a couple before forgetting all about it, so I guess that’s something.

Now Playing: Dishonored

Dishonored is an excellent first person stealth/combat game. Set in a city in the midst of an industrial revolution, you assume the role of the bodyguard to the Empress. Framed for her murder, you escape captivity and set about restoring the rightful heir to the throne.

The setting is a wonderful mix of steam-punk science and forbidden magic colliding in a world rocked by a terrible plague. It’s a fascinating world, with a lot of history and subtle depth. The story itself is fairly straightforward and predictable, but it is engaging enough to compel you to play through to witness its outcome.

Its cast of characters (with good VA) are all varied, interesting people, but like the setting, the characterisation is incredibly subtle. This is because the player has the freedom to immerse themselves in this world as much or as little as they choose.

Talking to characters, playing audio logs, using the Heart tool and reading the numerous books scattered throughout provides more details and insight into the story and its characters, and also into the world, its history and culture. Its graphical style is reminiscent of Bioshock, which may not be to everyone’s tastes, but I found it quite fitting (although that shouldn’t excuse some rather shoddy textures in places) I also get quite a Half-Life 2 vibe – a city falling into ruin ruled by an oppressive regime. And a plucky resistance movement relying entirely on the actions of a mute weirdo.

Dishonored is split into eight levels, with a small hub section between most. It’s a game with two primary mechanics – combat and stealth. You can play to one extreme or the other (and doing so affects the ending cinematic and a few subtle changes to the game world during levels), or with a mixture of both.

Although you are an assassin, it is possible to complete the game without killing or alerting anyone to your presence. Or you can plough through as a murderous brute. Either way is extremely satisfying (although not particularly challenging – but I’ll get to that in a moment) thanks to the varied range of tools, weapons and supernatural abilities at your disposal, many of which can be used in conjunction in various ways.

The player is given a remarkable degree of freedom in how they choose to approach each mission. Will they use non-lethal stealth? Lethal stealth? Brute force? Or a mixture of all three? There are multiple routes to each primary target and solutions as to how you can choose to deal with them. There are also a number of optional side missions and plenty of collectibles, some for fun, others for upgrades. Dishonored's biggest flaw lies in its difficulty.

I’ve always thought of challenge as an integral component of this medium. I think it’s important a game, no matter what it is, presents some level of challenge to the player. Balancing a range of difficulties to cater to various skill levels can be tricky, I understand that. But challenge is important. It serves as an incentive to keep the player hooked, to improve, to win. Victory feels rather hollow if it isn’t earned.

But even on its hardest setting, I found doing a non-lethal/no alert run relatively easy, simply due to the fact that the player character is simply too powerful. Abilities such as Dark Vision totally breaks any tension from a stealth run. Blink, although smoothly integrated into the environment, really needed to be more restricted in its use, at least on higher difficulties. Possession seems balanced about right in terms of cost and duration, however. Slow time is undoubtedly fun, but makes combat runs way too easy, as you can calmly dispatch multiple attackers at your leisure.

I appreciate the variety of abilities available and having the freedom to use/combine them how I see fit, but it does seem like they needed to be toned down, or more restrictive in their use. Sadly, the only real challenge in Dishonored will come from player set restrictions.

Overall though, I’d still highly recommend Dishonored. It may not be groundbreaking, but it’s an excellent game with plenty of replay value and is certainly going to be in the running for a few Game of the Year awards.

8/10

Between Planets

Progress on WFTD has stalled slightly. I’m currently working on part five and I’ve already made some extensive revisions to this section, but I’m still not convinced I’ve got it right. I know I can always push on and return to these scenes later – they won’t affect how things play out during the Exciting Conclusion – but I feel like I need to get them right before I can continue on. What I really need is Thinking Time.

So I figured I’d take a short break, step back and work on something new for a bit. If I ever feel a little creatively stumped, then looking at another project is always a good way to snap myself out of the funk. And I certainly don’t have a shortage of other projects to work on.

I’ve also been keeping myself busy with the recently released Dishonored, as well as continuing my ongoing Skyrim game. Dishonored, although not groundbreaking, is still very impressive, but I’ll talk more about that soon.

Now Playing: Rise of the Samurai (DLC)

Rise of the Samurai is a DLC mini-expansion to the excellent Shogun 2. The core Total War game play mechanics remain the same – turn based map strategy combined with real time tactical battles. Compared to Shogun 2 and its other, larger expansion - Fall of the Samurai - ROTS feels rather basic and doesn’t really add anything new to the formula.

It’s still pretty good though. I probably prefer the campaign side of ROTS to the battles, which get a tad repetitive due to the limited unit roster. I tend to only play the ‘key’ battles and let auto-resolve take care of the rest. Like Shogun 2, ROTS features a Realm Divide mechanic. I don’t hate the concept of the Real Divide, it certainly makes end-game more interesting than the slow steam-roll of the previous TW titles, but I don’t think it was particularly well implemented.

Although I can only play on medium settings because my PC would melt during the larger engagements, the game still looks really good, and it continues the trend of the excellent ‘art driven’ approach of Shogun 2, something I hope the developers continue with in Rome 2.

I’ve been a fan of the Total War series since the original Shogun, and I thought it was great that they essentially remade the title for the tenth anniversary of the series. It’s a series that I think has consistently improved, expanded, refined and gained more depth with each successive title. There have been bumps in the road (Empire on launch) but overall, I’ve been pleased with how the series has evolved.

I’m really looking forward to Rome 2 next year, although I think I’ll be needing a new PC for that. In the meantime though, I’ve got to finish this ROTS campaign, and I’ve still not started a proper FOTS game either, so there’s plenty to keep me busy.

6/10