Tag Archives: Baldur’s Gate

Cooperative Gaming

Posted by on May 5, 2011 No comments

Oh, the wonders of modern age gaming!

Having played and spent quite a while in alternate, virtual worlds, I currently thoroughly enjoy the fact that games have a starting point and finally (often also unfortunately) a point where they simply end. What lies between these two points can last from a few hours to over a hundred hours. But still, it is not endless. Games like <insert here the name of your favourite MMORPG> are perhaps a bit too time-consuming and addictive for my taste. In addition, those places are filled with people who are way too young to speak properly and also to understand that bad equipment does not explicitly mean that the player has no skill whatsoever.

Then again, social gaming is a lot about who you play with. Playing split-screen cooperatively  on the same console is simply a lot of fun. Feedback and emotions are expressed spontaneously and instantaneously. Unfortunately it is not always a possibility to have a LAN party (which is arguably the best form of gaming), but cooperation comes pretty close. I would most likely rather stay inside on a sunny day and fight off all those invasions of alien lifeforms with my best friend. Sounds like my kind of good time! Back in the Baldur’s Gate era it was even fun to play singleplayer games with friends. It sure is a shame that there has not been much of that lately. Even in the virtual world, I will rather stick with players I “know” to some extent.

There is a clear distinction between cooperative and other multiplayer games. Working in cooperation means working together towards a common goal. So, it is not enough to merely have two players bashing the hell out of each other – unless, of course, there is a somewhat reasonable plot there somewhere that explains all of that. That being said, there are some excellent single-console multiplayer games, such as the whole Soul Calibur series, which simply belong to a different category altogether.

I can forgive a lot of shortcomings in case a game offers some sort of cooperative gameplay. It does not matter if the plot is full of holes and nonsense (kind of like Lost Planet 2 and Borderlands), as long as it is fun to play together. Sometimes controls (have you ever dashed in the wrong direction by accident in Gears of War?) and difficulty levels (the game being way too easy, like Borderlands) may cause some trouble. In the end, it is all about how the game nurtures your teamwork. It seems that the game industry has also noticed the rise in interest in cooperative gaming as there has been quite a plethora of quality cooperation available on consoles for the past few years.

Luckily gaming skill is really not an issue (though it might limit the spectrum of available games) as you can normally compensate for that by lowering the difficulty setting. Naturally, people tend to have different tastes in games and some sort of compromise might be required. Of course, there are games such as Super Mario Galaxy 2 that are, at least for the most part, universally designed for anyone. Be wary though: in case you play games, but do not like SMG2, you just might have a defective brain.

To mention a few of the best ones I have come across so far:

  • Doom – probably my first cooperative game, worked quite well over a serial cable
  • System Shock 2 – excellent cooperative mode to defeat the lovely (though crazy) Shodan
  • Dungeon Siege – a Diablo-like hack’n’slash with experience and weapons, need I say more?
  • Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Las Vegas 2 – terrorist hunt sure is fun
  • Gears of War 2 – the sheer amount of action is almost overwhelming
  • Splosion Man – an easy-going arcade game with some great puzzles and playability up to four people

A good source for a lot of reviews on co-op games would be Co-Optimus. My advice is that next time you play a game, grab a friend along just for the heck of it. As always, it is wonderful weather for gaming!

– Joona

PS. I can hardly wait for the co-op action that Dungeon Siege 3 and Gears of War 3 will most likely provide once they come out.

Senya Ichiya

Posted by on April 1, 2011 No comments

17 nights. Never before in my life have I spent 17 nights in a row at the same hotel, but I guess there’s a first time for everything. I have to admit that towards the end the sojourn began taking a toll on me as the environment was not really designed for the creation of anything meaningful. Luckily, those days are now over and I am finally returning to Tokyo to assess damages, empty my trash cans that have probably become alive during my absence and eventually resume work as usual.

The Bard’s Song

I was recently relayed the list of final changes I have to make to my thesis before I can get it printed. The list was substantial and overwhelmed me in such a way that instead of tackling the issue I opted to spend the following couple of days protecting the Sword Coast from the Iron Throne.

Once I get back home, however, my diet will consist of finishing the thesis, writing a paper to get my final 3 credits, go to work, study Japanese and write more job applications. The order of importance may vary.

Tokyo Safety Disclaimer: I won’t drink tap water and I hired a guy with a Geiger counter to follow me wherever I go and help me make my saving throws against radiation with a modifier of +3. Looking at that last sentence, I get the feeling might have played slightly too much D&D during the past 24 hours. I will also try my hardest not to get stuck in an elevator when the blackouts strike. Or maybe the opposite. It could prove to be quite the introspective moment when stuck in an elevator alone for a couple of hours. I could become enlightened or… bored?

Just Communication

Thanks to long train trips and relentless queuing for muteppou, I’m really close to finishing reading the Love Hina series in Japanese. While the comic itself is a relatively repetitive and stereotypical love story about a hopeless purikura nerd and a tsundere, there is one peculiarity that really sticks out when following the events unfold in this day and time: Love Hina relies heavily on plot mechanics that imply that geographical separation equals complete loss of communication. Anyone reading this blog may now realize this is not the case, anymore.

The original comic was published between 1998-2001, as arguably one of the last contemporary stories that were able to realistically rely on the aforementioned equation, which was effectively destroyed within a few years by the increasing prevalence of mobile phones and online communication. I felt it was rather interesting thinking that in only 10 years, a common and plausible storytelling device became unusable due to its now ludicrous nature.

Not unrelated to the previous paragraphs, I am also looking for a new manga series that includes full furigana, so suggestions are very welcome.

-Antti

P.S. Just arrived in Nerima, everything is fine.