Artemis' Bog - videogames

In defense of scope

Unknown — Sun, 07 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Today (bear with me, I know it's pretty much the dark and stormy nights of essays), I felt like writing. As I begin writing this article, my very own country once again stands on the edge of the abyss. As a result, I decided to come back to the familiarity of my video game rants.

I do not hope to convince, only to express yet another yearning within me. As I have been experimenting with many formats, and touched a bit about this on my Why I write article, I open a window into myself, and wish that this piece is a seed from which more may grow.

What I crave, what I desire, what I long for is better scoped games.

Structure is a lie. Linearity is for weaklings. So I will say the big bad phrase and then immediately proceed to ignore it: I have never once in my life played an open world game that was good because it was an open world game, only in spite of it.

On Inventory Mistakes

Unknown — Sun, 17 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The first real article that I wrote on that blag was about game saves in video games. A piece of information that you don't have if you discovered this article in 2023 is that each and every one of my articles has tags, for when one day, I decide to implement a meaningful tag system on my blag. The two tags of that 2013 article were the following: "videogames", and "rant". The latter of which should be indicative of the content that is to come in this article.

And get ready because ranting is what I do best.

The Half-Life 2 Cinematic Mod

Unknown — Sun, 06 Jul 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Half Life… There is so much to say about these games that I'll almost don't know where to begin. I love Half-Life. I discovered this game years ago, sometime during my (pre)-adolescence and I was astonished: it was awesome! Still, there are people considering it the best FPS ever made, even, the best game ever made. I, personally, wouldn't be able to say whether it or Duke Nukem 3D should be granted the title of best FPS ever: that's how good it is.

Half-Life 2 was a worthy sequel. A game like Half-Life having a worthy sequel is so rare that it could be considered a miracle, but after all, has Gaben ever disappointed any of us? After that, Valve released two standalone expansions continuing the series: Half-Life2: Episode One and Two. They were once again worthy sequels and for years, we have been waiting for the final conclusion of these magnificent games.

This article isn't dedicated to those masterpieces. Instead it focuses on the Half-Life 2 Cinematic Mod. A mod that supposedly "Raises the outdated graphical appearance of the Half-Life 2 trilogy to a state-of-the-art level, while giving it a more stressed, darker and minatory look.".

Does it? To answer this question, we'll have to deconstruct it piece by piece.

Alan Wake: a case study about game saves

Unknown — Tue, 19 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000

A few days ago, I started replaying Alan Wake. Why ? Because it's a really good game; I enjoyed it and I wanted to replay it, but mostly because I hadn't played it in Nightmare mode, which is the real way to play this game. Of course, this point is subject to debate but I consider that if you do not have access to the whole content of the game, then you're playing a limited mode. I will not spoil the game in this article, I will merely describe gameplay mechanics and its saving system. For those who have never played the game, its main character Alan Wake is a writer and you will find some of his manuscript pages in the game. In Nightmare Mode, the game is harder and you can find more pages. I played the normal mode during my first play-through and I was disappointed when I noticed what I missed. Since enough time passed, I decided to replay the game in Nightmare mode.

I had forgotten about how horrendous the saving system was: there is none! The game is only composed of checkpoints! It's also divided in narrative arcs called Episodes that you can replay at-will but even if this is a nice idea, it is not relevant to this article. Don't get me wrong, I greatly enjoyed this game. Sam Lake is an amazing writer and Alan Wake's story is a prime example of a perfect structure and captivating narrative. The gameplay and its rhythm are well balanced and renewed enough that it doesn't become boring. Alan Wake is a great game that deserves to be played. You should probably go buy it. Anyway, it's good but its checkpoint system is terrible.

On game saves

Unknown — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 00:00:00 +0000

The option to save in video games is an important feature to gamers everywhere. Without it, your progression in a game is limited within your gaming session. When you play Super Mario Bros or Prince of Persia, you have to beat the game in one sitting. There's nothing else you can do ! You have to finish this game or to fail. But nowadays, games are longer. Unless you're playing Call of Duty Ghostly Modern Ops 27, you can't beat a modern game in one sitting.

But before I begin to explain the implications of every saving method that I can think of and which one is the best, I shall warn you that I am a PC gamer and that my opinion will be focused on that aspect even though, I'll try to think about good console implementations.