Leave it to Avengers director/Buffy-creator Joss Whedon to surprise us all with his presidential endorsement.
You'd think, given his liberal leanings, that he'd be all about Barack, but no; he's a Romney man. Though, not for the reasons you might think.
Even though the game is nice enough to tell you the odds every time you squeeze the trigger in XCOM, there's still an underlying feeling of "how the hell does this work", or sometimes "WHY THE HELL DID THAT JUST MISS".
The answer lies in numbers, and those numbers were last week very helpfully explained by Neil Brown, who in a couple of blog posts breaks down not only the facts behind shooting percentages, but also follows it up with an interesting piece on "save spamming", and how the game's "Iron Man" mode is about the only way, however imperfect it is, to stop people cheating a probability-based system.
If the detailed explanations and images are bit much, just stick to the graphs and know that "rapid fire" is a move that's statistically a lot better off than the game makes it sound.
Randomness vs Canniness, or Programmers vs Savescummers [The Sinepost]
Probability in Games: XCOM[The Sinepost]
New York, Kotaku HQ included, is in for a wild start to the week when Hurricane Sandy touches down. Shame about the name, since we all know the real cause of hurricanes.
Hurricane Warning [Brother Brain]
If Hurricane Sandy doesn't wipe out their releases in the American northeast, Tuesday will see two heavily anticipated arrivals on retail shelves: Assassin's Creed III and the reboot of Need for Speed: Most Wanted. There's also Assassin's Creed: Liberation on the Vita, starring a completely different protagonist. For pro wrestling fans, WWE 13 brings the Attitude Era to life.
One note, beginning this week we're glad to invite Dealzon, our partners in producing The Moneysaver each week, to provide an expansive and authoritative look at the week in coming releases, on consoles and PC, both retail and digital downloads, hardware, re-releases and special editions. If it's new this week, you will find it below. Consider TWiG a bookend to Moneysaver.
• Karaoke Joysound (Wii)
• Professor Layton and The Miracle Mask (3DS)
• Tekken 6/Soulcalibur 4 Bundle (360, PS3)
• Primal Carnage (PC)
• PS3 500GB Console Assassin's Creed III Bundle
• PlayStation Vita Wi-Fi Assassin's Creed III Liberation Bundle
• Assassin's Creed III (360, PS3)
• Killzone Trilogy Collection (PS3)
• Sports Champions 2 (PS3)
• WWE ‘13 (360, PS3)
• LEGO Lord of the Rings (360, PS3)
• Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth (360 Kinect)
• Need for Speed Most Wanted (PC, 360, PS3, PS Vita)
• NBA 2K13 (PC Download)
• Okami HD (PS3)
• Toy Story Mania (360, PS3)
• Nike+ Kinect Training (360)
• Zone of the Enders HD Collection (360, PS3)
• Tekken 6/Soulcalibur 4 Bundle (360)
• Toy Story Mania (360 Kinect, PS3 Move)
• Transformers Prime: The Game (Wii, DS, 3DS)
• Wreck-It Ralph (Wii, DS, 3DS)
• Assassin's Creed III: Liberation (Vita)
• Ragnarok Odyssey (Vita)
• Smart As (Vita)
• Hello Kitty Picnic (3DS)
• Myst (3DS)
• The Trash Pack (DS, 3DS)
• Moshi Monster Moshlings Theme Park (DS, 3DS)
• Bratz: Fashion Boutique (DS, 3DS)
• Lalaloopsy Carnival of Friends (DS, 3DS)
• Winx Club: Magical Fairy Party (DS)
• ThunderCats (DS)
• Natural Selection 2 (PC)
• Lost Chronicles of Zerzura (PC)
• Deer Hunt Legends (PC)
• Painkiller Hell & Damnation (PC, Mac)
• Death Rally (PC)
• SpellForce: Faith in Destiny (PC)
• Alan Wake: American Nightmare (PC)
• Guns of Icarus Online (PC)
• Rockstar Games Collection Edition 1 (360, PS3)
• Cargo Commander (PC)
• 007 Legends (PC)
• Football Manager 2013 (PC)
• Saints Row the Third: The Full Package (PC)
He renamed all his teammates for his friends, he put himself on the roster and took all of the best equipment. He rebounded from painful defeats—or, eh, restarted a few here and there—and scored fist-pumping victories in all the others. He felt all the vicarious thrills that every sports video game offers.
But when Garth DeAngelis emerged triumphant at the end of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, he didn't really feel like he saved the world.
"I thought, 'I just won a championship,'" said DeAngelis, the game's lead producer, "with my XCOM team."
DeAngelis, 31, is 6-foot-5, a native Baltimorean tormented for his allegiance to the New York Giants. "My folks grew up in New York," he says in his defense. He played college basketball before joining Firaxis, XCOM's studio. The guy is a jock.
So he can pick out all of the ways that XCOM—the strategy game that tasks you with repelling an extraterrestrial invasion—is like a sports video game. It features personnel management, and development, and an economic system supporting both, plus third-party proposals that amount to trade offers. Gameplay unfolds as a set piece, like baseball or American football, full of the same tension and precipitous decision-making.
It's as a games designer and an athlete that he picks out what makes XCOM most like a sports video game.
"You can fail in a sports video game; you might not win the championship," DeAngelis said. "That's not a staple in the current gaming landscape, except for sports games. In traditional games, you're used to losing and then restarting. But it's OK if you lose a mission in XCOM. In fact, you're going to lose missions in XCOM."
I've written before that only sports move forward from a decisive loss—which is not exactly true, as strategy titles feature this outcome constantly without jeopardizing the overal goal. Still, DeAngelis is right. You may undo all of your mistakes by reloading quicksaves, and reach the end of XCOM without a single defeat, but it would feel as inauthentic as an 82-0 season in his other favorite game, NBA 2K13.
Failure in other mission-based narratives in gaming either force you to retry or, simply put you back out into an open world to acquire whatever you need to win or advance—whether that's experience points in an MMO or your next wristband in Forza Horizon or whatever. If it doesn't count, it can be undone.
Failure is permanent in XCOM—you can see it any time you visit the memorial of dead soldiers in the barracks, or when a nation is at maximum panic level, and you can't give it a satellite, and the mission there is simply too dangerous to pursue.
"When you lose missions or lose soldiers, or lose a nation, you've got to surge forward and have your coach give a rallying speech," DeAngelis said. "It's an important component of the original."
For me, the greatest similarity is in the unit cohesion. Put me on a map in a military shooter, even in a cooperative/competitive match like capture-the-flag, and I still don't really care how the other guy does. I'm engrossed in my own statistical performance or simply not looking like an ass.
In XCOM, where I am not a participant, per se, but a director of the combat, I'm utterly committed to the success of the team—and that really is sport at its finest. I'm not concerned with the star performance of my team's most talented individuals, and I can't say the same for my approach to a game like Madden. I could bomb it at a single receiver all day long, sure, or even throw him the winning touchdown. Those decisions are a far cry from sending an assault specialist charging unguarded on an enemy's position to save a teammate's life, at the cost of his own.
That happened this past week, and I wrote up a medal citation for the guy my corporal was named after. "If you follow the #XCOM hashtag on Twitter, it's a constant stream of players telling stories about their friends," DeAngelis said. As Firaxis was developing Enemy Unknown, "I did another talk about emergent narratives in XCOM, and I ended it thinking, 'This is totally sports video games as well,' DeAngelis said. "They're the ultimate video games enabling players to tell their own stories. If someone's holding out in contract negotiations, maybe that's why you're not passing him the ball on the court. It's a major part of the fun."
I'd be only half-kidding if I said XCOM was the sports video game of the year. It's not recognizably a sports video game—even if it's an adaptation of a well designed, much beloved game that a generation of adults grew up with as kids. There's no league license, no real-world performers, its cover stars are backlit and unidentifiable.
But the game grasps just enough of the themes and structure of a sports title to provide the same visceral, emotional payout of a hard-fought win. Every time I get done with a difficult operation, I return to base, exhale, and thank God I don't have to make a life-or-death decision with my next choice. I don't run back out on the field after an enormous road win in NCAA Football, either. I savor it. But despite responsibility of these decisions and the dread of making the wrong ones, I can't wait to get back out there.
"We were noticing a lot of players would come back and say things like, 'I got my ass handed to me,'" DeAngelis said. "'Man, I can't wait to dive in again.' When we were in alpha, after I had one of my first full playthrough experiences with XCOM, when I beat the game, I immediately wanted to fire up a new game. I normally don't want to do this in a single player game unless it's a sports video game, and I want to begin a new season."
"I was thinking, 'This could be a really cool gateway game, into sports,'" DeAngelis said.
The maker of Plants vs. Zombies is teaming up with the American Dental Association to offer free copies of the game as Halloween treats, balancing out the usual bagful of teeth-rotting sugar and plastic every kid scarfs down on Nov. 1.
This site "StopZombieMouth.com" offers the printable coupons in .pdf form. (Dentists also are giving out packs of PvZ trading cards, with game codes, to kids). Yes, you may print out a code for yourself, but unlike the mini Mr. Goodbars, there's really no point in hoarding them. One will do.
Stop Zombie Mouth [Official Site]
Death, taxes and a shooter atop the chart of Xbox Live's top activity. Since Major Nelson has publicized the numbers, the most popular game on Xbox Live—this is according to unique users playing the game while logging into the service, not just those playing multiplayer—has always been a first person shooter. Gears of War. Halo. And, for more than two years running, something from the Call of Duty series.
That came to an end this past week, when Minecraft's Xbox 360 edition emerged as the most played game on the Xbox 360. Back in May, the title—a console adaptation of the PC game, sold over Xbox Live Marketplace, now—finally broke Call of Duty's stranglehold on the top two of Xbox Live's most active chart, something not even FIFA, the world's most popular sports video game, could do.
In the week of Oct 15, Minecraft took No. 1.
There's a story-within-a-story here, as Major Nelson, who reports these figures, does not release them every week. Sometimes the charts just aren't that interesting week to week. Others could assume that a game with a heavy multiplayer component that flops might not want to be embarrassed by a post on an official Microsoft site.
So when Major Nelson does put out these figures, it's for a reason, even if it's not fully stated. Minecraft going to No. 1 is, frankly, historic, and not just because it isn't a shooter. It's a downloadable title. And even if Mojang is a zillion-dollar enterprise, this still is considered an indie game. An indie game that knocked Call of Duty from its No. 1 perch, two weeks before its next game comes out.
Live Activity for the Week of Oct. 15 [Major Nelson]
With two days to go in the PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale beta the game's developer, SuperBot Entertainment, has released this video covering the basics of the game. It's an attempt to answer a lot of the questions the studio has been fielding since the beta opened Oct. 16, but it also functions as a video tutorial for the main game.
The video underlines the importance of blocking (and learning how to throw, to defeat blocks). Dodging and air dodge also seem to be important moves to deploy. If you see special items, use R1, that picks them up and activates them.
YouTube video uploaded by Superbot
With Hurricane Sandy bearing down on New York City, Isaiah-Triforce Johnson (real name: Isaiah-Triforce Johnson) has been told to vacate his position as first in line to purchase a Wii U at Nintendo World in Manhattan. The console releases in 21 days.
Johnson had begun the vigil on Oct. 22. Johnson was told by Rockefeller Center security, the landlord of the premises, to leave by 6 p.m.
He says he will be allowed to return to his same position—first in line—when the emergency has ended.
Despite the suspension of his stakeout, Triforce's mood seemed to be upbeat. "I'm a diehard Nintendo gamer but I'm not going to die hard for a video game system," he tweeted.
Triforce says he is accompanied by just one other person, "but he's not on the line for the Wii U yet. He's just out here with me because he's a friend." This means Triforce is not, technically, forming a line for the Wii U, but rather a point.
As for the resumption of the Wii U line, Triforce is determined to be at the head of it. "People are going to camp the week of. I'll be ready for them," he said.
On NeoGAF late last night, someone discovered that the awful warehouse of pretension Urban Outfitters was selling cloned Nintendo 64 controllers. This can only mean one thing: Hipsters have discovered that console generation and will now commence to telling everyone they enjoyed it before you did, but now they don't anymore because everyone notices that they enjoy it, even though they actually do want you to notice.
Because I have no 'Shop skills (which is secretly why I administer this contest) I thought, "What I wouldn't give for a shot of Nintendo Sixty-Fourrr Kid in a trilby, with a van dyke and a turtleneck cradling a copy of the Utne Reader." Hence, our current photoshop challenge.
Brandon and Rachel Kuzma were 9 and 6, respectively, on Christmas Day in 1998. That means they're 23 and 20 today, right in the wheelhouse of Urban Outfitters target demographic, or at least the ages most of their shoppers pretend to be.
So for this challenge, setting is going to be important, because slapping a bunch of hipster crap on Brandon and Rachel is only going to go so far, especially given the low-res quality of the exploitable. Café and farmer's market settings are good, so is anything mudane but Instagrammed all to shit to make it look profound.
If you need the original video to pull a screengrab, it's here, 16 million views and all.
Here are the rest of the guidelines for entering.
1. Create your 'Shop and save it to your desktop.
2. Go to the comments beneath this post and click "reply."
3. Click "Add Image" in the comment window.
4. Click "Upload an Image Instead." Then click the "Choose File" button. Browse your desktop, find the image, and click "open."
5. If you prefer, you can upload the 'Shop to a free image hosting service. I suggest imgur. Then click "Add image" in the upper right above the comment window. Paste the image URL into the field that says "Image URL."
6. Add editorial commentary (you can't post an image without some kind of text in the comment field), then just hit submit and your image will load. If it doesn't, upload the image to imgur and paste the image URL as a comment. I promise I will look at it.
7. This is important: Keep your image size under 1 MB. If you're still having trouble uploading the image, try to keep its longest dimension (horizontal or vertical) under 1000 pixels.
All set? Great. Now, Gentlemen, start your 'shopping!
