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Dragon's Dogma

There are fantasy games a plenty out at the moment to whet my appetite, so Dragon’s Dogma barely appeared on my radar until I spotted it on a few gaming websites. Dragons, swords, magic, all familiar aspects that make an exciting fantasy world, but what was different about it? My interest was stimulated by the mention of customisable ‘pawns’ that would join you in your quests as well as being involved in the online features of the game. Being able to customise characters is nothing new, but I relish the idea of being able to make customisable groups of characters to join me on any fantasy journey, rather than being subjected to generic companions that you either love or hate. For example, the thing I most loved about the early Final Fantasy games was the ability to at least name your characters, which meant that at the time I would name them after my real-world friends and family. In that sense, I wasn’t going on a journey with a bunch of strangers, but rather my school-friend Jon, who instead of a young teenage boy was a hulking knight, or Keiran; instead of a lazy student was a mystical mage. So if Dragon’s Dogma allows me to go one step further and make multiple companions of different appearances, it’ll be a certain buy for me. So, the demo is out, and I have decided to give it a go.

Immediately on the menu screen I dismissed the actual game portion and headed to the ‘Character Edit’ section. It lists the ability to customise your main character, and your main pawn. Supposedly this may mean that you can only customise one of your pawns to play with, which is better than nothing I suppose. First up, gender and name. You can create a 12 character name, and then a predetermined ‘moniker’ which displays for players with parental controls enabled – supposedly to shield younger players from the grand mage Asshat or the mighty knight Dickface from causing offence. You then are offered a choice of 16 ‘base bodies’ which have a pretty extensive range. You have the bog-standard average man, followed by a slightly leaner version, then a hulking barbarian sort of character. From there, however, you can choose a more hobbit-like body, older men, teenage boys, dwarves and hulking bodybuilders. Next up is a choice of six voices, which you can test out in a range of grunts and battle-cries. Whether this will extend to a speaking role for your character is yet to be seen, but I have the feeling you will be one of those silent ‘Elder Scrolls’ speakers, speaking in text rather than voice. Then come changing face shape and hairstyle – some particularly amusing, but a good choice nonetheless. Then you can change the eyes, with a slightly odd option of having either one, or both eyes permanently closed...a blind character would be an interesting outing perhaps. From there is the normal adjustments to eyes, ears and mouth, nothing special, so you can continue on to the body. It seems that selecting a preset is merely for those who want to jump straight in, as you can pretty much edit each part of the body as you see fit in this section, from height, weight and skin colour, all the way to the musculature of the arms and legs. You can change the characters posture to be more hunched or with a more puffed out chest,  and then a slightly weird setting for your stance to be more ‘ladylike’ or ‘macho’, which seems to merely change the position of your legs and how wide you hold your arms for your body. Not really sure what to do with that one. Then, a multitude of scar options, which extend from your face to parts of your body, depending on how battle-hardened you want your character to be. Add wrinkles for a more mature character, and no fantasy game would be complete without the addition of beards and moustaches. Even to male characters you can add make up, but I couldn’t find anything that brought out my knight’s eyes so I left that option blank. That done, you repeat the process in creating ‘your constant companion throughout your journey as Arisen: your main pawn’. Sounds interesting, no? This done, I continued on to the ‘Prologue Quest’

Strangely, I wasn’t given the option to start with the character I had just spent the last twenty minutes making, but I guess this is a demo after all. So, I tread through a dreary cave area and OH MY GOD IT’S A DRAGON, WHY IS THERE A DRAGON?!?! I have some companion with me, but I doubt our swords and shields will help us here, and OH MY GOD IT’S BREATHING FIRE AT ME! We run, headfirst into some goblins, which are a much easier enemy to slay it seems. The combat is a bit clumsy for this bit, there doesn’t seem to be a lock button to direct your attacks so I was flailing around for a few moments before my sword struck true. But hey, practice makes perfect I’m sure. I’m led to a mysterious ‘stone’ which grants me some pawns to help me. Again, not the one I created, but some welcome allies nonetheless. One of them turns out to be a mage of some sort, while the other carries the bow. They help out well enough in the next battle with goblins, though I feel I missed the opportunity to command them properly.

We then get a glimpse of a nasty looking beast. Great. We continue through some dungeon-like area and one of my companions exclaims that they have found a survivor. Looks like I’m massing quite a little group here – good to know. More goblins to fight – there are some slightly jarring moments of slow motion when one of my companions seems to do something which is meant to be useful, but really just distracts from me bringing steel justice to my foes. Still, I’m sure it will be explained more in the game itself. He just seems to shout things like ‘I will distract it!’ which is great, I guess. Then another WTF moment, some beast with a lion’s head and a snake attached to its back appears and gobbles up one of the knights that my group had rescued, for all the good it did him. While fighting, two of my companions latch onto the beasts back, while my mage prevents it from breathing fire upon me. A nice touch to see that they are at least smart enough to fight for themselves. Then I realise that I too can climb onto the body, so I climb up the neck of the snake that the beast has for a tail and sever it, a pretty gratifying experience. Then we move on to sever the goats head on its back until only a lion-head remains. Defeated, thus ends that mission. Not bad on all accounts, but I will have to try the next mission too.

In this instance I am looking to hunt down a griffin causing trouble to farmers and such. I take the role of my created character in the role an archer this time, and my customised pawn is with us too with a huge sword. Nice. First a group of goblins need to be dispatched and I am able to test out the archery option. It’s easy to use, but I only get a few shots off before a great griffin swoops down to spoil the fun. One of my companions bravely clambers on the beast’s back just as it takes flight, yelling for me to take out the wings. What I wouldn’t give for friends as foolhardy as that! It also seems like the pawn that I created earlier is hacking away, which I am grateful for, while the mage among my companions has granted my arrows and daggers the power of fire. Choosing the right companions is sure to be a prominent feature in this game. Whilst the battle rages on, the griffin decides to take flight to spare itself the cuts and to be free of my arrows range. My pawn, decides to pick up the body of one of the goblins we killed earlier, stating that it will ‘serve as bait’ to bring the fiend down again. Very clever.  However, it seems I wasn’t paying attention to the slightly small and not very attention grabbing health bar, and while I’m notching arrow after arrow the griffin exacts revenge and knocks me to the ground, killing me in the process. Oops. Second time round I manage it by climbing on the body itself, plunging daggers into each lump of feathers I can find. And that’s the end of that demo.

I guess I like it, but I want to know more about how the game actually works. The combat mechanics have been the focus, but I want to know more about the story and the companion options. Whether or not a poor student like myself will be willing to buy the game is yet to be seen, but I’ll be keeping my eye out for any more information that heads my way. In any case, the game is out sometime next month, and if you fancy giving it a go, the demo is free on the Playstation Network right now.

Alex Reviews...

The Hunger Games

Surprisingly; I had no knowledge about The Hunger Games up until the hype that surrounded it's release in cinemas this Spring. It was the same with Twilight - maybe I was a few years too old to be the target audience when the books originally came out, or perhaps I was never the target audience, or perhaps I was just plain ignorant, but I didn't really know anything about this series until around a month or two ago. So, I had to read the book first - lest I be one of those people who spouts about how amazing a film is and what a fan I am despite only being privy to it for about 3 and a half minutes. I bought it on a Saturday morning and had finished it on that Saturday evening - it wasn't a particularly long or taxing book, but it was addictive. There were a few points which I found myself confused with, but generally it was a good read - not an amazing read, but a good one nonetheless. I think part of the reason I wasn't overly awed by it was due to it's similarity to one of my teenage loves; Battle Royale. Now, I saw the film adaptation of Battle Royale first in all it's Japanese-gore glory, and then I happened upon the very well done, very graphic manga version, until finally reading the book a few years later. And yes, sure, Battle Royale makes The Hunger Games seem terribly tame in comparison, and I particularly liked the manga version in it's ability to make you truly connect with the characters that you knew were destined for a gruesome demise. But this doesn't mean The Hunger Games is bad in comparison, not by a long shot, because what I've read and seen so far has a lot to offer as well.

Now, again, I haven't read Catching Fire or Mockingjay yet, but like I said I wasn't blown out of the water by the book, but the film seemed to have been getting a fair amount of positive press. And by fair I mean a shit-load of positive press. So I went along with my little sister who also hadn't read the book until a few days beforehand, not entirely sure what to expect but fairly certain I wouldn't feel disappointed. Of course, like most adaptations of novels, the film is cursed by the fact that it has to keep you attention while telling a story in a limited amount of time, so certain scenes were shortened or changed, some characters were omitted entirely, so I'm sure die-hard fans have something to complain about, but not having an extreme emotional connection to the book, I have to say I quite liked the film. I thought Jennifer Lawrence (X-Men: First Class, Winter's Bone) did a good job as a stern, bad-ass heroine, and the rest of the casting was pretty decent; Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, and Stanley Tucci added their talent alongside a very sinister Donald Sutherland, and the 'kids' chosen to play the tributes forced to kill each other did a fine job too, with honourable mention to the little sweetheart who played Rue (Amandla Stenberg). The action was pretty tense at times and did a good job of reminding us that this wasn't an action film where you were meant to enjoy the fight scenes, rather fear them, and for those who hadn't read the book each altercation must have had them on the edge of their seats. The settings were particularly impressive, not in the actual arena for the games themselves, but in the scenes leading up to it; a sort of futuristic but still approachable vibe with energetic costumes and smooth architectures. 

In terms of criticisms, at some points I think that if I hadn't forced myself to read the book first, a lot of the fine details would have been lost on me. Perhaps that's a good thing - people should do the work and read first, but some of the details of the premise of the film weren't stressed upon enough, nor the relationship between the two leads. My sister thought that it was a bad idea to have the audience in on the knowledge of what was happening outside of the games, as in the book it is told very much through Katniss' (Lawrence) perspective and you are more in tune with her feelings and thoughts, but I think that it would have been too much to ask of an audience to have them put the pieces together without some form of narration, and that would have taken from the action of the film. Not only that, it would have severely limited the screen time of some of the co-stars, who are sure to help make this series into a success. There are two other pieces of criticism that I don't hold but have heard of - the casting of Rue, Thresh and Cinna as black characters and the how Jennifer Lawrence is apparently too 'chubby' to play Katniss.

Black actors playing black characters: I found this depressingly hilarious that the tweets circulating by what I hope to have been a minority of 'fans' of The Hunger Games expressed an outrage that some of their favourite characters from the book had been 'changed' to be portrayed as black instead of, well, I guess white. No. It wasn't changed. The characters were described as black in the book, and so they're black in the film. In fact, Katniss was described as olive-skinned which is a much more ambiguous reference to what ethnicity could play her. What pisses me off more is - even if the characters weren't described as black, does portraying them with a black actor really destroy the film? I don't think so. Morgan Freeman didn't screw up Shawshank Redemption. Idris Elba didn't screw up Thor - the backlash for that was equally ridiculous - and Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury in pretty much all the Marvel films leading up to The Avengers, well, he kicked ass enough for them to change the way he was presented in the comics. In short, people are stupid.

Chubby Katniss: I understand why people are displeased with Jennifer Lawrence being cast as Katniss, but I don't agree with it. Yes, in the books, Katniss is presented as coming from an impoverished family in the beginning, and is also bound to have lost a fair bit of weight during the Hunger Games itself. But come on, really? This isn't an Oscar winning adaptation of a classic - it would be ridiculous to expect an actor to shed that amount of weight for this sort of film, while still being fit enough to take on what must have been a pretty physical role. Could they have picked a skinnier actress? Sure, maybe, but I don't think the fact the Jennifer Lawrence actually looks like an attractive and normal sized woman takes away from her acting. And, it might not be a popular truth, but producers do want a certain amount of sexiness in their lead roles - and Lawrence is hot. Bella Swan in the Twilight series was meant to be plain and average as an offset to Edward Cullen being carved out of diamonds or whatever, but despite Kristen Stewarts limited acting palette, she is still gorgeous. Like Haymitch says in the film - it helps to be desirable, and in order for The Hunger Games to be the blockbuster that it will be, you need a bit of hotness to catch your eye, which is also why you have Liam Hemsworth - only the little bro of Thor! - and Lenny Kravitz on the roster as well.

All in all, should you see The Hunger Games? Definitely. Should you read the book first? Maybe. Will you be socially estranged if you don't see it? Most probably.

The Girl on Fire

In other news...

Get the gay out of our games!

Both this clip and the one at the bottom may have spoilers, just in case

For those of you who don't know, Mass Effect 3 came out last month - I decided to not post a review of it 1) Because I'm lazy and 2) Because it would probably focus on the big thing at the moment - the ending, and I would hate to ruin it for anyone even if many people are upset by it. But, it seems the ending isn't the only thing that has people up in arms, some gamers (apparently) are mortified by the inclusion of same-sex romance options in Mass Effect, and have hit out at Electronic Arts for releasing such filth for our children to ingest.

Except, no, actually the game isn't for children, it has a 15 rating in the UK and a mature rating pretty much everywhere else. So no, this isn't some weird attempt to thrust homosexuality into the psyche of children everywhere. Also, as I have said before, you don't have to indulge in a homosexual romantic relationship, nor any relationship for that matter, the option is merely there if you want your character to go along that path. The thing is, this is a game that is set in the future, so actually I would find it weird if there wasn't some sort of reference to homosexual relationships - they do exist and, thank goodness, in the minds of most sane people they're becoming more and more accepted. It's just so aggravating that people aren't sated with their right to speak out about policies that restrict the rights of the LGBT community to a fair marriage and life, they have to try and encroach on any sort of art form that they don't agree with. Also, the scenes (as shown above) are in no way graphic or obscene, and there is nothing within the games that pressurises you into having a relationship with any man, woman, alien or whatever, so once again you have to believe that this is just a group of people who have heard about the game and one particular aspect of it, and have run with it and decided that it must be the culmination of all the homophobic nightmares they've ever had in computer-generated form. Idiots.

So it seems the thousands of letters carry a threat of boycotting EA games unless they cease their distribution of such games. You know what, I think EA can survive without bigots playing their games, and I think the true fans of Mass Effect, Star Wars: The Old Republic, The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim (not EA, I know), Dragon Age, and all other games that allow even the suggestion that homosexuality is an acceptable and normal part of life, all fans will be happy to know that idiots like these aren't playing the games; I wouldn't want to be associated with these fools in any way, so they can go play in motorways instead.

Beware, both of these clips will probably have spoilers, though not drastic ones

Mr. K's View: IAN McEWAN SOLAR

Hi people its mr K here, i've been thinkin of what id be able to post on my mans alex the boss mans wonderful creation here. He's the wordsmith, im the artsy part of the Bteam. so lets give it a shot today im gonna talk about a book that i feel raped my mind and eyeballs with its boredom, while pissin in my koolade and trying to persuade me its just a lil added applejuice for some extra kick. IAN McEWANs SOLAR

Now after reading this book I was to put it kindly pissed, what the fuck are the chances the after reading the the devils scrotum which is Gun slinger, id move on to an equally diuretic book. First of all this book is not funny in the slightest whoever at the Sunday times who got quoted saying it was must of been smoking crack or held at gunpoint. It is BORING AND BLAAAAAAND, at times I felt like it was torture reading it but I felt like a runner in the marathon who has gone too far to say FUCK THIS. The Story is about Michael Beard a Nobel prize winning physicist I just felt a slight urge to vomit thinking of righting fully about what this things about or maybe it was the fried chicken omelette dinner at 1 in the morning. who knows just to be safe I am not getting into details on this book don't wanna spoil the hours of "fun ;)". This book was weird for me because it was mainly comprised of the author talking bout the main characters thoughts and actions, not much dialogue going in this. To be fair it had highs and lows overall but the highs were the three times when you got to that OHHH SHIT moment when you think here we go its on, to only find out nothing fucking kicks off! its like the author is purposefully teasing you with the possibility of something really interesting actually might happen. I couldn't attach to any characters at all in this book and SPOILER ALERT! didn't give to fucks that he had a heart attack on the last page. The main character was so fucked up in his mind I got no idea why the author thought he'd only get slapped once. there was so many fucking opportunities with his wives, the love rivals and the centre to have a decent book. It's like someone found a cool interesting book and decided to take it and try and rewrite it to avoid most of the interesting shit but hint that once upon a time it was written different.But what do i know, this is just my view , who am I. I enjoyed getting this off my chest ill be posting more of my thoughts soon on here. MR. K www.keiranmorris.blogspot.com