Watch out, France. There are mutalisks in your cities. Either this is a fake video created by Blizzard to help build up hype for StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm (out March 12 for PC (and, hey, is that Day9?)) or France had seriously better get their stim packs ready.
Rules, mechanics, interaction—games are complicated beasts. And so are we, the players.
When we play games with each other—that's when truly fascinating things happen. We can't help ourselves: anything we touch becomes a messy affair. Games are no exception.
Sometimes what happens is poignant—like finding and losing a friend in Journey. Sometimes it's ridiculous, as the large-scale battles and betrayals in EVE Online show. Sometimes what happens in multiplayer games is downright horrifying.
Even just looking at the way multiplayer and social games are constructed, the ways they allow us to interact with one another is complex. Maybe you command a whole platoon, like in M.A.G. Maybe you find a way to assuage loneliness. And naturally, the games have a knack for tapping into our fierce, sometimes almost animalistic tendency to be competitive.
Welcome to The Multiplayer, a weekly column that looks at how people crash into each other while playing games. Though, that makes it sound as if it's purely about communities and not the way the games work. Naw. Actually, the way people collide while playing games can influence the design, too. Developers respond to what people do, after all.
Once you play a game for long enough, you start developing quirks, you start considering high level strategies—usually, it's stuff that's not explicitly intended by the developers, but that players do anyway.
Sometimes, that stuff goes far enough that a game becomes better thanks to how the community decides to play. There are a number of mechanics (if not gametypes and entire genres) in multiplayer games that only exist because they were adopted by players.
Canceling in Street Fighter? That comes from a bug in Street Fighter 2 that allows players to cancel moves by doing other moves.
Skiing in Tribes? That can be traced back to players exploiting the physics in Starsiege: Tribes in order to accumulate great momentum.
Can you even imagine those games without those mechanics? Madness. But the only reason we have them as explicit mechanics now is because high level competitive play folded those tactics into their respective metagames.
The metagame doesn't always get adopted by the developers as with those examples, but even so, it's still cool to look at the player ingenuity involved in developing popular tactics and playstyles.
I'll dive into that stuff on occasion, because really, few games can match the unexpected, nuanced thrill of what players mold multiplayer games into. Multiplayer gaming often takes 'play' to heart, because it inspires players to stretch what a game allows them to do.
The point is to look for anything that might give you an advantage, or at the very least, make the game more interesting. Some games contain entire worlds within that minutia that most players might not be aware of—like evaluating tier lists in fighting games.
There are just so many variables, so many opportunities. Not to break a game, but to make it more interesting than anything the developers could have imagined. Together.
Here is the beauty of multiplayer games, then: we stretch and bend them in unexpected ways, sometimes changing them along the way. And in return, they strip us naked and reveal our tangled nature. It's a wonderful relationship.
I'll show you how that is in the coming weeks here at Kotaku every Monday at 6PM Eastern.
If you're curious, when it comes to multiplayer gaming, lately I've been playing Fire Emblem: Awakening against other folks. Mostly, this has meant getting my ass kicked by others and then restarting, but that's okay. One day, it'll be my team that people fear.
Then again, what if my team is out there, terrorizing some low-leveled players? I wouldn't know! My team info gets sent out thanks to the game's sharing functionality, but I don't get to see the battles they're a part of. That kind of strips away the excitement, to be honest.
Aside from that, I'm looking forward to Gears of War: Judgement later this month. Fun fact: Gears is the franchise I've spent the most time in, ever. We're talking like, hundreds upon hundreds of hours, almost entirely spent in the King of The Hill gametype. It's the type of game that feels like putting on an old, comfortable pair of jeans for me.
Oh, and I'm probably going to jump into League of Legends soon. I hear this is both a great and awful idea. I'm sure you'll hear my thoughts on it soon enough.
Feel free to comment on what you've been playing lately, or what you'd like to see covered by this column in the future. And naturally, remember to tune in next week!
Ah, springtime. A time when young men's thoughts turn to the sweeter things in life, like milk chocolate molded eggs filled with white and yellow fondant, the world's tastiest faux embryo—the Cadbury Creme Egg. A snack I once held in the highest regard, though as of late our relationship has changed.
I must begin with an apology to our friends in the United Kingdom. Our U.S. Cadbury Creme Eggs, distributed by Hershey (much like the Nestlé Kit Kat), aren't the grand and glorious Cadbury Creme Eggs you are used to. They lack the strength of character and moral resolve. They are very much American.
And I must also send my condolences to Australia and New Zealand. Once lands ripe with fresh Creme Eggs, factory restructuring has led to the majority of their fondant-filled eggs to be imported from the UK, a process that leaves the normally runny filling stiff and sad. I can only imagine their pain.
They can no longer enjoy that supreme seasonal snack sensation the way I enjoyed it as a child, cracking them open and letting the filling slowly drip onto my face (it was meant to be my tongue, but I missed more often than not). It was sweetest, most innocent bukkake, wrapped in colorful foil and hidden within the plastic grass of a basket that had something to do with Jesus.
Since the Cadbury Creme Egg's named debut in 1971, several mutations have arisen as part of the normal marketing process. Some, like the vomit-inducing Giant Creme Egg, have faded from memory. Others, like the Chocolate Creme Egg, Mini Creme Egg and the Cadbury Caramel Egg, appear on store shelves around January of each years, riding the coattails of their famous cousin.
And lo, did I eat them.
I'm not sure the "proper" label can be applied anymore, at least not in North America.
It looks perfectly normal, brings back the same childhood memories of feeling vaguely sick around Easter time, but there's something just a tiny bit off about today's Cadbury Creme Eggs. They are smaller.
Before 2006, the average American Cadbury Creme Egg weighed 39 grams and contained 170 calories. Today's eggs weigh 34 grams and contain 150 calories. No big deal, right?
You are so wrong. So, so wrong. Seriously, why are you even here. Go take a class or something.
Sorry, I get passionate about this. You see, the original Cadbury Creme Egg was perfect. The perfect amount of chocolate. The perfect level of sweetness. Optimal fondant volume. They were crafted to be exactly the right amount of horrible crap. An Easter basket consisting of a single unit would be enough for a sensible child (there are no sensible children).
Lowering the size threw off that delicate balance. There's not quite enough chocolate. The tongue doesn't fit in the hollow as well as it used to, and the creamy payoff not nearly as satisfying.
I'm sure Cadbury would cite cost-cutting or perhaps even health concerns as reasons for the reduced size. I say that's bullshit. The real reason? Suddenly one Creme Egg isn't quite enough. Two is far too many, of course, but don't tell your stomach that. And hey, since it's cheaper to buy a four-pack you might-as-well do that. Next thing you know you're dead at the bottom of chocolate and fondant pit, and Hershey/Cadbury is pulling out your gold fillings with pliers. Devious. Borderline evil.
Further confusing the size issue is the Mini Creme Egg.
A miracle of modern miniaturization, what's most impressive about the Mini Creme Egg is that the grand illusion remains intact despite its small stature. I wouldn't begrudge Cadbury for filling these tiny beasts with all yellow or all white, yet here we are, perfect.
The problem with these is that, with the exception of running out completely, there is no way to know when to stop eating them. There are words and numbers on the back of the package, but I could not tell you what those mystical symbols mean. For all I know they are a spell to get you to eat more Mini Creme Eggs.
To Cadbury's credit, they have managed to maintain the ratio of chocolate to fondant enjoyed by the regular Creme Egg, but the thinner chocolate and lighter filling just makes devouring an entire hen house's worth that much easier.
I have no idea how these things are still being manufactured. They are horrible.
Purchase a container of the cheapest chocolate cake frosting you can find at the dollar store. Take a heaping spoonful and place it in your mouth. DO NOT SWALLOW OR CHEW YET. Now take big old bite of a chocolate bar. Top it off with a few squirts of Hersey's chocolate syrup. Now chew. That's the sensation of eating a Chocolate Creme Egg.
If I needed that particular combination—if I could not live without it—then I would die.
In summary, not a big fan.
These are not Creme Eggs, but they are sold in the same section and I have to justify purchasing them, so here we are.
The Cadbury Caramel Egg might be the finest caramel delivery device known to man. It's like a glorious Caramello sphere, without the odd feeling that I'm taking a bite out of one of the Italian-American friends I had growing up on the outskirts of Philadelphia.
When I die, I want my casket filled with Cadbury's creamy caramel. I might have to go through a few dry runs first.
"Dry runs" probably wouldn't apply to that situation at all.
Despite attempts by Cadbury to sabotage its own greatness with strange sizes and questionable offshoots, the Cadbury Creme Egg remains one of my deepest and most abiding snack loves. It'll never be the same again, but every bite is filled with decades of fond(ant) memories.
Thanks for the candy baskets, Jesus!
Water levels can be pain in the ass, especially when unnecessarily complex gameplay mechanics meet blurry, monotonous graphics. But that's not always the case. Truth is, there are water levels (or places where water plays a key role) that look really refreshing, relaxing, and that might even possess a special, eerie atmosphere (several parts of Final Fantasy X come to mind). Now those are fun to explore.
Do you have pleasant memories of a good looking aquatic area? Reminisce (with visuals) in the comments below.
sources: darkl3ad3r's LP, FF Wiki, firebirdonfire's LP, ClassicGameRoom, KH Wiki, MIKE65707LP, Antimazon's LP, MrRagetastic96's LP, WoWWiki, Sonic Wiki
Shut down by the lawyer-mans at the beginning of February, the My Little Pony fan-made fighting game still lives. The glum backers and developers of Fighting is Magic may have to go on without using MLP art or characters—but they will have the creator of the current animated series in their corner.
"Mane6," the coalition that had been working on My Little Pony: Fighting is Magic until Hasbro took notice, this weekend said Lauren Faust, the producer and creator of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, would lend her support toward creating a game with all new characters in a different setting, to steer clear of Hasbro copyrights. Said Faust (according to Mane6):
Hey folks! I'm so super psyched to be a part of this! I hope I can do my little part to help Mane6 finish up this game in a way that stays true to the spirit of the original—but in a way that can freely be shared! I hope you like what we come up with.
The "moves, mechanics and style" of the original game will be preserved, it'll just look (necessarily) different from what everyone originally imagined. "This means a lot of work for us, and a bunch of new challenges, but we're excited about the possibilities that come along with them," wrote the Mane6 team.
The reboot is still in the early concept stages, otherwise, but for Fighting is Magic fans, it's nice to know the work done is not completely down the drain.
M6v2 [Mane6]
Following a struggle with the tech folks following a fault in the SimCity press servers, the lost city of Fahey's Folly—aka the SimCity on the Edge of Forever—was found once again. In celebration, I unleashed red-hot dino fury.
Since I'll be using my own Origin account and retail servers for our upcoming SimCity review, Fahey's Folly didn't have long to live anyway. I think destruction by a Spore-looking Godzilla stand-in is what the city would have wanted.
The scaly bugger doesn't do all that much damage anyway—this video is actually the third of three dino attacks. Thanks to the GlassBox engine, any destroyed buildings are quickly replaced once the rubble has been bulldozed. Natural disasters just aren't what they used to be.
EA assures me that the bug that kept me from my city was an issue with the private servers the press preview are being held on, and should not affect retail customers, so hopefully noone should have to lose something they love, get it back and then kill it ever again.
At least not in SimCity.
The consensus seems to be that Aliens: Colonial Marines isn't a very good game. But that doesn't mean Aliens can't make for entertaining playthrough videos. Ah, the wonders of YouTube.
Enter the always-amusing Criken, who has been uploading his playthrough of Aliens: Colonial Marines to YouTube for the past couple of weeks. He just finished the series this weekend, and it's definitely worth watching in its entirety. It goes through the good, the bad, and the ugly of the game. Mostly the latter two.
The benefit of watching these is that you can see what people go on about when they criticize Colonial Marines, but without having to play yourself. And you'll probably have a laugh along the way—pretty good deal, if you ask me.
The first video is above. Here are the next two:
It felt like something was off with the AI when I played, but man, I had no idea it could get this goofy. Then again, I could say that about a lot of what Criken shows in these.
Aliens Colonial Marines: Close Encounters of the 1st Kind [Criken2]
Aliens Colonial Marines: Close Encounters of the 2nd Kind [Criken2]
Aliens Colonial Marines: Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind [Criken2]
My friend John found this hanging in a first-grade classroom here in NYC. It's for the kids' writing workshop. I think we're going to start using it as the Official Kotaku Review Guide from now on.
The best part? No mention of review scores.
Journey wasn't just one of the best games of 2012, it also had easily one of the best soundtracks. Composer Austin Wintory assembled a remarkable collection of instruments and tonalities, the sort of holistic musical concoction we rarely get in games.
With this new video, you can listen to the entire Grammy-nominated soundtrack and follow along with annotations from the composer himself. It's a cool way to learn more about one of the best game soundtracks in recent memory, and also a good excuse to listen to that lovely Journey music one more time.
Check out The Adventures of Dash, a puzzle-platformer where you control a narcoleptic boy. Every dream has a different art style. The game is from former Infinity Ward (Call of Duty) creative strategist Robert Bowling's new development studio, Robotoki. Here's the Kickstarter.