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Category Archives: McMillan’s Codex

McMillan’s Codex #58: The RPG Protagonist

09 Wednesday Nov 2016

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McMillan’s Codex #58 by C.T. McMillan

The RPG Protagonist

In addition to a microcosm of cultural stagnation and mental illness, Twitter is also a great way to interact with artists and individuals we admire.  Even as the site bleeds users and revenue, people continue to use the platform as intended.  One YouTube personality I follow, Razorfist, is best known for his highly-developed vocabulary, quick and wrathful wit, and love of all things metal.  Back in August, after the release of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, he shared an review of the game and I was awestruck by what I discovered upon following the link.

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That review was written by Alec Meer for Rock, Paper, Shotgun and focused on the game’s protagonist, Adam Jensen.  Meer asserted that Adam was not an active character.  He went through the motions, unfazed by the events of the game’s story.  He was not connected to the world, whereas in the previous game he had relationships with other characters.  At the conclusion, Meer cited Geralt from Witcher 3 as a good example of a better character.

Meer is wrong.

I assume he has played other role-playing games, yet he misunderstands the genre’s fundamental principle: the role-playing.

Characters like Adam Jensen are designed to be above their games’ worlds because they are you.  When you talk to other characters, your choices for dialog each correspond with a set of morals matching your chosen path.  If you want to be a bastard, pick the angry option.  If you want to be a pacifist, pick the nicer option.  The same principle applies to gameplay where you can avoid killing people: take the stealthy approach, or clear out whole levels with extreme prejudice.

The point of role-playing games is to give you a problem to solve in your own way.  There is always one right answer, but you have the means to find that answer with whatever method you prefer.  This entails character building where you pick skills and talents for a play-style that fits your preference.  You become who you want to be, above all others, because the game was made to make you the best there is.  That is the quintessential role-playing experience that has remained unchanged since Dungeons and Dragons.

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In place of Adam Jensen’s emotions we substitute our own and speak through him as a witness.  Adam is the vessel through which we change the game and find the solution to the problem.

Furthermore, Meer gets many details about the game wrong.  Adam Jensen is still very much a part of the world through the people he knew in the previous game and the most recent.  David Sarif comes back for a quest, his ex-girlfriend Meghan is vital to the story’s events, and Adam has a handful of coworkers and acquaintances he interacts with throughout Mankind Divided.

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And his example of Witcher 3 at the end does not make sense.  Geralt is a bad example to contrast Adam because he is the same exact character.  In the story, he was made into an unfeeling sociopath through training to be a more efficient monster hunter.  Like Mankind Divided and every role-playing game ever, you have the option to be a fleshed out, active participant in the world or remain an unfeeling killer.  The only way the events of the story matter is if you decide they do like with Adam.

_______

CT McMillan 1

C.T. McMillan (Episode 169) is a film critic and devout gamer.  He has a Bachelors for Creative Writing in Entertainment from Full Sail University.

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McMillan’s Codex #57: Berserk Musou (Trailer Analysis)

19 Wednesday Oct 2016

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McMillan’s Codex 57 By C.T. McMillan

Berserk Musou (Trailer Analysis)

 One of the great things about this blog is getting to talk about whatever I want. My pieces on Dawn of War were excuses to talk about Warhammer 40k. When I wanted to write about cyber punk, I reviewed cyber punk games. Now I am analyzing a trailer to talk about one of my favorite manga and anime series: Berserk Musou.

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Berserk is the story of Guts, a mercenary driven by bloodlust in the war-torn kingdom of Midland. After one battle, he joins the Band of the Hawk led by the charismatic Griffith on his own journey to greatness. That is about as much as I can say without spoilers.

One unique aspect of Berserk is the historical fantasy setting. The time period is roughly grounded in the latter years of the 100 Years War with crossbows, cannons, intricate plate mail armor, and castles. There are also supernatural beings with elements of Lovecraft and body horror just behind the curtain of this seemingly medieval world. On top of these visually stunning elements are the usual manga tropes of big impractical weapons and characters that border on superhuman.

What makes Berserk a great story is its themes. One theme is Man versus God. The later parts of the series focus heavily on characters working towards a goal that stands in the face of their fate.

Another theme is the dueling ambitions of two characters that are bound together and how their desires affect each other. Encompassing the whole is a very dark tone that sets the series apart from normal manga and anime fare. There are atrocities, rape, and grotesque imagery that could only come from nightmares.

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Berserk Musou’s trailer has a lot to say in terms of gameplay. As per the signature of developer Koei Tecmo, the genre is large scale hack ‘n’ slash. You fight hundreds of enemies at once on a closed map. There are combos, special moves, and you can play as multiple characters. There are also mild RPG elements and item usage. A lot of Koei Tecmo games follow this formula within the context of another property like Zelda, Gundam, and their Dynasty series.

Musou is the same, but in the Berserk universe. The playable characters include Guts, Griffith, Casca, and a small host of other familiar faces. The enemies you fight are not unlike the same soldiers and monsters the characters encounter. I cannot tell how close the game’s story follows the manga/anime story, but based on the available characters and Guts’ look, Musou may cover everything up until the infamous boat arc. Because Berserk is also unfinished, I doubt Koei Tecmo will make up their own ending, lest they incur the wrath of us fans.

According to the trailer, some of the cinematics will consist of clips taken from the Berserk: Golden Age anime movie trilogy that was released not long ago. This was a reboot of the first anime that came out in the 90s, but with a lot of added content from the manga. The trilogy was a jumping off point for the new anime that follows the Black Swordsman arc, 20 years after the original anime. As a fan, the new anime is a big deal despite the poor animation. 

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Berserk as a manga/anime was almost made to be a videogame. While you may lose a lot of the nuance and themes that make the series great, the ability to slaughter soldiers and monsters in droves as Guts is just awesome. We fans have been pining for a proper videogame adaptation, a continuation of the anime, and an end to the manga hiatus before author Kentaro Miura dies. Hopefully Berserk Musou will satisfy our epic enjoyment of this story in dynamic game form.

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CT McMillan 1

C.T. McMillan (Episode 169) is a film critic and devout gamer.  He has a Bachelors for Creative Writing in Entertainment from Full Sail University.

McMillan’s Codex #56: Homicide v. Everyone

05 Wednesday Oct 2016

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Bro Team Pill, CT McMillan, McMillan's Codex

McMillan’s Codex #56 by C.T. McMillan

Homicide v. Everyone

Back in April I reported on a lawsuit against Jim Sterling by developer Digital Homicide. DigiHom was suing for $11 million on 10 counts of libel after Sterling negatively reviewed their games. It has been almost two years since the feud began and there has yet to be a resolution. I sympathize with DigiHom, because when artists are criticized after devoting a lot of time and effort into their creations in a very competetive field, trying to just move on can be difficult. Criticism is an attack and I understand why they would have this sort of reaction.

And now I am going to take back everything I just wrote.

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I am not the most active on Twitter, but when I see something that interests me, I pay attention. Bro Team Pill is on there daily, perusing the Internet for madness that brings him comfort in knowing there are people more insane than himself. Since the Crash Override Network leaks ironically exposed the anti-trolling group as trolls themselves, he has found great pleasure in posting screenshots of documents with his reaction.

One day I was looking at all the nonsense and spotted the above excerpt from what looked like a court document. I know whom Karl Pilkington because he is the whipping boy of Ricky Gervais on Idiot Abroad and The Ricky Gervais Show. The use of his name is obviously a joke. What caught my attention was that this was somehow a serious piece of evidence. I searched through Bro Team’s tweets and found another choice quote:

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I thought back to the interview between Sterling and DigiHom’s Robert Romine. The game Shooter Tactics described in the post was the subject of Sterling’s criticism and the developer responded with a tirade brought upon by trolling commenters. I was reminded of the interview because Romine described the emotional turmoil that Sterling inadvertently caused by creating a movement of trolls to target his games. I asked Bro Team if the excerpt was related to the Sterling/Digihom feud and found myself vindicated.

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I did more digging and discovered the would-be developer had sued an entire Steam Group. (A Steam group is like any other social media group, but on the Steam digital distribution service.) The members of the Group in question, “Digital Homicides,” are being charged with harassment, stalking, and tortious interference for $18 million. Because the 100 members use screen names, James Romine, DigiHom’s representative, did not have anyone to target. The company that created Steam called Valve was then sent a subpoena for the personal information of the “Digital Homicides” Steam Group members. In response, Valve pulled every one of DigiHom’s games from distribution. As of now, there has been no word from the Romines on the situation.

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Often we root for the little guy, the downtrodden that are so low they cannot easily fight back. For a while I was on DigiHom’s side. I have never been criticized to the point I felt offended because I do not take anything that seriouslyly. Nevertheless, I could still feel sorry for them. But the drama with “Digitital Homicides” is beyond the pale of inappropriate. To sue average commenters for not liking your terrible games is attempting censorship. Their recent behavior has not only changed by opinion of the situation, but my feelings on them as a “developer” and individuals. They are pissed off hacks so desperate for recognition that they have made themselves an enemy to all, and utterly destroyed any credibility they might have had in the videogame world. I hope they learn a hard, expensive lesson from the mess they have made.

Aristotle once said, “Criticism is something we can avoid easily by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.” Because DigiHom is so driven by ego and arrogance, they could not ignore the negativity deservedly heaped upon their games.  Criticism of games is like any other medium, but these days some of us have become too fragile to take even constructive criticism.  If you cannot tolerate criticism, just say, do, and be nothing.

Or listen and grow stronger.

_______

CT McMillan 1

C.T. McMillan (Episode 169) is a film critic and devout gamer.  He has a Bachelors for Creative Writing in Entertainment from Full Sail University.

 

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McMillan’s Codex #55: Modded

21 Wednesday Sep 2016

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Bethesda, Mods, SONY

McMillan’s Codex #55 by C.T. McMillan

Modded

As a console gamer, sometimes I envy PC abilities. Computer gamers can change out graphics cards for upgrades, use mouse and keyboard, and have easier access to online features.  And there are mods.

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Mods are additions or alterations to videogames.  This can include texture/model/audio swaps, cheats for gameplay, or a completely different game built from the ground up.  Mods can even improve games, like the PC releases of Dark Souls.  The possibilities are endless , and the fact modding is impossible on consoles is depressing.

Bethesda fully embraces the creativity of the mod community.  The company encouraged mods to their games by releasing Creation Kits for their Fallout and Elder Scrolls games.  As a result, new weapons, armor, characters, and gameplay elements have been created by fans and are available open-source online.  There is a mod to display the full dialog options for Fallout 4, another that changes the dragons in Skyrim into The Macho Man Randy Savage, and a mod that creates a whole other scenario in New Vegas.

With Fallout 4 and the upcoming re-master of Skyrim, Bethesda wanted to bring mods to consoles.  Using their free online service, you can download mods directly to the game.  While there is a limit to how much memory you can use, this is one step closer to having full mod support.  However, when the June launch date came and went, only the Xbox-One was given mod support, and PS4 owners like myself were left out.  For months I wondered what happened before word came down from Bethesda earlier in the month:

After months of discussion with Sony, we regret to say that while we have long been ready to offer mod support on PlayStation 4, Sony has informed us they will not approve user mods the way they should work: where users can do anything they want for either Fallout 4 or Skyrim Special Edition.

Like you, we are disappointed by Sony’s decision given the considerable time and effort we have put into this project, and the amount of time our fans have     waited for mod support to arrive. We consider this an important initiative and we hope to find other ways user mods can be available for our  PlayStation audience. However, until Sony will allow us to offer proper mod   support for PS4, that content for Fallout 4 and Skyrim on PlayStation 4 will not be available.

We will provide an update if and when this situation changes.

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I am frustrated, but not surprised.  I expect nothing less from the company that lost custody of Spider-Man, allowed the creation of Pixels, and thought remaking Ghostbusters was a good idea.  For a long time I thought Sony’s gaming department was better than the company as a whole.  The way they handled their systems, the games, and their developers in the past was the pinnacle of management.  After this story, however, I worry what may come in the future.  The real question is why would Sony deny mods?  Why would they stifle creativity when their competition seems to be getting along just fine?

One likely answer is in-game achievements.  Mods are essentially cheat codes where you can do whatever you want, including avoiding the element of challenge.  From what I gather, Sony takes achievements very seriously, and they want to make sure player get them honestly.  Why any human being would care about rewards in a game baffles me.  If they were monetary incentives, then I would understand.

Another answer is the risk of performance issues.  I found out that Sony wanted all of the mods tested on PS4 before they were made available.  Bethesda just wanted to put them out regardless of impact because they know their fans are creative people.  I totally understand because mods tend to affect performance and Sony would like their console to function at peak efficiency.  Bethesda is also notorious for letting bugs and glitches ship with their games.  You could argue that Sony is just looking out for themselves, but Bethesda also knows their fans are talented enough to fix their games, and share those fixes with the rest of the community.

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To be honest, I do not know the real reason, nor does anyone else.  But what I do know is that as a player, having creative control over my games is a great opportunity.  If I remain confined to a closed system, I have no choice by to break free.  Bethesda is the best user-friendly developer that understands their fans.  Perhaps the time has come that I learn how to build a proper computer and abandon consoles.

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CT McMillan 1

C.T. McMillan (Episode 169) is a film critic and devout gamer.  He has a Bachelors for Creative Writing in Entertainment from Full Sail University.

McMillan’s Codex #54: The Abyss

14 Wednesday Sep 2016

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BroTeamPill, Failthrough, Minecraft Story Mode

McMillan’s Codex #54 by C.T. McMillan

The Abyss

My favorite pastime is watching Jackass, The Eric Andre Show, and other people hurting each other for comedy. The appeal is seeing someone do the things I cannot and reveling in their stupidity. One could argue the Internet allows such content to thrive, and that we have an inherent desire to see people hurt themselves. Not often enough do we notice the depth of misery these individuals probably endure. Why would they self-harm unless they hated themselves, and wanted to feel something other than depression? Misery is inherent in YouTube comedians like BroTeamPill, but upon watching his Minecraft Story Mode videos, I saw something much darker.

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Story Mode is an episodic title based on Minecraft, a survival game with a heavy emphasis on creativity. The developer Tell Tale is best known for episodic games based on intellectual properties like Walking Dead, Fables, and Game of Thrones. In total transparency, I have never played a Tell Tale game, so I cannot attest to the accusation that the games’ choice system is meaningless. From what I have seen, no matter what decision you make, the outcome is always the same.

However, I can confirm that Story Mode can be played without playing. Most of the dialog choices and quick-time events are timed and if you choose not to press any button, the game will make the choice for you or you fail without consequence. You can miss a prompt and progress like nothing happened. In YouTube gamer culture, this is known as a “Fail-Through.”

Before uploading his videos on the game, BroTeam played Life is Strange, the acclaimed episodic series best known for including LGBT themes. To make his play-through interesting, he made up a drinking game where you take a swig when the characters said cringeworthy or stupid dialog. As a result, he became very intoxicated. Following the same formula he set out to play Story Mode, taking a drink when exposition was delivered as characters were walking in a hallway, when his predictions came true, when the game played itself, and when the characters were left in a room leaning against the environment.

The first video titled “A grown man decides to play Minecraft Story Mode” began as expected with wheezing laughter, many sips taken, and bathroom breaks between cuts. He intentionally failed the button prompts that would result in success regardless and picked the ellipses option in dialog that did not interfere with progression. In his commentary, BroTeam related not wanting to proofread a paper to the writing of the game and how older titles with fail-states gave him gratification as a kid.

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In the follow-up, “A grown man decides never to play Minecraft Story Mode,” his commentary did not change from the last video. As he continued to play, however, I noticed an escalation in BroTeam’s general despair. He knew what to expect with the lack of fail-states, bad writing, and story tropes, but his reactions came with a hint of hopelessness behind his reactions.

I thought nothing of it until Tell Tale released a fifth episode of Story Mode and BroTeam put up another video called “ok I played the minecraft stories again.” That was when I think he realized nothing would be good ever again. All the flaws of the game and those shared by others will always be there because that is what contemporary games have become. He has seen the seams that hold together modern gaming and could not help but unravel them. Underneath that skin of mediocrity, cut corners, and bad writing he found an abyss. In that abyss he saw the good old days were gone and future was just more of the same.

More dialog options and choices that led to the same outcome. More story tropes that were so formulaic Blake Snyder would approve. And no more fail-states that used to make games worth the challenge. Already affected by the superficiality of game culture that birthed his nihilism, BroTeam found himself in an endless nightmare where these ideas have become reality. Gamers would consume them without thought like mainstream news or fast food. They just like them because they are games and games are supposed to be fun, right?

The worst part is BroTeam did not stop playing them. Like a martyr punishing himself for the greater good, he played more episodes of Story Mode as they came out. While his reasoning is probably far beyond my own, I believe he played the game to point out the flaws. He wanted to show everyone what modern gaming has become to expose the mediocrity and criminal incompetence. By getting drunk playing terrible games, he showed us what must be fixed to restore games and the industry to their former glory.

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Perhaps I am thinking too much about simple highlight reels from live-streams of a fat Canadian getting smashed. I should not be surprised at BroTeamPill’s reactions because I have been a fan feeding off his misery for years. After so much delight, I finally felt bad for laughing. I would never subject anyone to play a videogame like Minecraft Story Mode, and I know that because of him. He stared into the abyss and returned with a dire warning that we must heed if we want games to be good again.

_______

CT McMillan 1

C.T. McMillan (Episode 169) is a film critic and devout gamer.  He has a Bachelors for Creative Writing in Entertainment from Full Sail University.

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McMillan’s Codex #53: Metal Gear Survive

31 Wednesday Aug 2016

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McMillan’s Codex #53 by C.T. McMillan

Metal Gear Survive (Trailer Analysis)

There is no denying my Hideo Kojima bias.  I like his awkward but compelling writing, how he separates story from gameplay, and the pseudo-realistic aesthetic.  Even as I grow cynical I still like what Kojima has done.  While I cannot abide by Konami’s treatment of him, I try my best to remember that there are always two sides to a conflict.  Perhaps the company had a good reason for sacking Kojima and destroying his legacy.  We will never know the whole truth, but what I know for a fact is Metal Gear Survive looks like trash.

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I am sure there are worse trailers, but I cannot recall any that come close to the mediocrity of Survive.  I have no idea if these qualities will translate to the final game because no one, including hardcore fans of Metal Gear, will buy a copy.  If first impressions are critical, and Metal Gear Survive has committed suicide.

The trailer starts with footage from Ground Zeroes, a demo and prologue to Phantom Pain in which Big Boss travels to a black site in Cuba before his army of mercenaries is wiped out.  The footage shows the every end where Boss escapes the sinking wreckage of Mother Base.  Then there is a change of perspective to Random Soldier that is left behind before he is sucked into a portal in the sky.

He reappears in a desert environment where zombie-like creatures with unicorn heads attack him.  He fends them off with a pipe before other living people come to his aid with bows and spears.  When the zombies are dead the group takes Random Soldier to a cliff overlooking the ruins of Mother Base.  Then there is a cut to the group fending off unicorn zombies gathered at a fence surrounding the ruins.  They show off a specific and nonsensical rocket powered arrowhead that spins and drills into zombies.

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Why would you put rockets on an arrow that will not work unless you score a hit first?  You know how difficult archery can be in tense situations like a zombie attack?  You could miss your shot and waste this totally impractical armament.  At least with explosive arrowheads there would be splash damage in the event you miss.  The trailer ends with the group looking up to the camera rising above them before something roars off screen, possibly a metal gear.

What makes the Survive trailer bad is the lack of theatrical finesse.  From watching so many trailers, specifically announcement trailers, each one is structured like a short film.  There is usually a story and the protagonist’s actions show off gameplay.  Take for example the announcement trailer for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.  While the actual story is not the same as the final game, the trailer establishes the theme of cyborgs becoming an oppressed minority, and new augmentations that influence gameplay.

The Survive trailer does not show anything about the story past the setup.  I could accept that if the rest of the footage was not so clinical about showing off gameplay.  Right after Random Soldier gets to the ruins, there is a montage of what weapons you will use, including that impractical arrowhead.  The whole scene takes place in the same location with no other environments shown.  There was no reason for taking such a matter of fact approach unless the editor was too lazy to apply some form of theatrics or the available footage was already terrible.

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I can only talk about the Metal Gear Survive trailer for so long because there is nothing to analyze.  The footage reeks of low effort and even less faith in the project.  I imagine Konami wanted to shove this out to let everyone know they are still making games.  They have so little hope in their own game they did not even try at proper promotion.  If a company does not care about one of their products, why should you?

_______

CT McMillan 1

C.T. McMillan (Episode 169) is a film critic and devout gamer.  He has a Bachelors for Creative Writing in Entertainment from Full Sail University.

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McMillan’s Codex #52: On The Real Silent Hill Experience

17 Wednesday Aug 2016

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McMillan’s Codex 52 by C.T. McMillan

On The Real Silent Hill Experience

Only a few videos on YouTube can claim to be documentaries.  Hundreds of thousands of videos reviewing entertainment media could be classified as insightful if the focus were not on theatrics and a notion that audiences have short attention spans.  Not often enough do you find a critique so meticulously thorough in information that it transcends the humble confides of the Internet.  The Twin Perfect channel knew better than anyone how to make such a video with their series, The Real Silent Hill Experience (TRSHE).

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Started in 2010, the series covers the Silent Hill videogames, the spin-offs, movies, and comic books.  The videos, 43 in total, discuss a different title and subject in as much detail as possible.  To back up their statements, there are quotes and materials taken from the games and related behind-the-scenes footage.  While there is an obvious bias, the fact that Twin Perfect took the time to provide evidence makes what they have to say compelling.  They also use citations with the title, date, and publisher on display at the bottom-right corner.

Each episode details the rise and fall of Silent Hill, from the first to last, and everything in between.  As Twin Perfect covered the games, the scale of the videos increased with the degrading quality.  Another factor that played into the length was YouTube’s time restrictions.  When they were lifted the titles Twin Perfect covered were contentious enough to warrant hours of discussion.

The longer videos are the best beginning in 2012.  At the time the publisher Konami began excising their videogame department.  Before the departure of Hideo Kojima, the company’s worst decision was the Silent Hill HD Collection.  Featuring the second and third game, Collection was a treasure trove of glitches, re-recorded voice work, and graphical mistakes that ruined already perfect games.  Twin Perfect covered all of these issues with the voice acting saved for a separate episode, comparing the HD re-masters to the originals in mind-numbing detail.

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The limits put upon their abilities and scale likely contributed to the staggered release of videos.  Following Collection came Silent Hill: Downpour days later and Twin Perfect’s review of the game did not come out until 2013.  Two years later came an episode on the inspirations of Silent Hill before a review of Silent Hill: Book of Memories this year.  For fans the wait was excruciating, but I think the long-term schedule made them more compelling.

Typical reviewers put out as much content as possible.  To maintain an audience one must release new videos on a consistent basis.  If episodes of TRSHE were released all at once in a row, I doubt some information would have come to light.  The level of detail and research in each video is so meticulous, I cannot imagine what would have been lost if Twin Perfect had not taken their time.

The tragedy of TRSHE is that Silent Hill is more or less over.  Book of Memories was the last series-related piece of media to come out.  Silent Hills almost happened before the Konami/Kojima drama killed the project in the crib.  Twin Perfect’s consistency in covering Silent Hill was so thorough there is nothing left to talk about.  One solution could be to re-analyze Silent Hill: Homecoming and Origins, the start of the series’ decay, with as much depth as Downpour.  Only time will tell.

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I never thought about Silent Hill before The Real Silent Hill Experience.  Thanks to Twin Perfect, I learned enough about the series to I feel as though I know games like the back of my hand.  Above all, the effort of Twin Perfect is transcendent of the subject matter and platform.  Even if you do not play videogames, The Real Silent Hill Experience is well worth a watch for fans of documentaries.

_______

CT McMillan 1

C.T. McMillan (Episode 169) is a film critic and devout gamer.  He has a Bachelors for Creative Writing in Entertainment from Full Sail University.

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McMillan’s Codex #51: Hearts of Iron IV

10 Wednesday Aug 2016

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McMillan’s Codex #51 by C.T. McMillan

Hearts of Iron IV

Trying new things can be daunting. Traveling, shooting a gun, and performing a stunt can be exhilarating and stressful if you have never done so before.

Videogames outside your preferred genre can be like that: you must consider the time and money required. You may play a game many people praise, but find your interest dissolving. That was my experience leading up to the purchase of Hearts of Iron IV (HoI).

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I first heard about the game upon revisiting a YouTube channel I long since abandoned called DevilDogGamer. The titular DevilDog is a fan of all things military and HoI’s WWII setting appealed to him. Sometimes he delves into strategy, the game’s chosen genre, but unlike typical strategy games, HoI does something totally different.

The grand strategy genre takes elements of strategy and makes them bigger, complex, and depth-full. As you control units and their production, you must research technology, manage a country’s ideology, industry, and infrastructure. This scale of control is the heart (no pun intended) of HoI’s gameplay.

Imagine you are America in 1936 and you want to recruit an army. In an ordinary game, all you need is a building that produces combat units. In HoI, first you have to consider your level of manpower. In my case, my manpower was low because as America I was isolationist and disarmed. I could still mobilize an army, but the process took a while.

To change these factors, I could wait until WWII officially began or change America’s political ideology by appointing communist or fascist officials into government. After making my choice the political spectrum would shift from Democracy to whatever I chose. From there I could make changes to the economy and military systems to allow for better army production.

Then I had to make arms and equipment for my forces. Production requires factories, so I needed to build military factories in my available territory. Each state has a factory limit and I also had to consider importing resources, which requires civilian factories. You get to a point where you must choose between having a well-equipped small army or a massive horde armed with muskets. There are also the essential materiel like tanks, airplanes and ships if your ambitions are global.

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The stat values or strength of the arms and equipment is determined by what technologies you research. From weapons to science there are several upgrades and modifiers that become available, but you have a limited number of research slots, and each takes months of game time to complete. Luckily, time can be sped up and extra slots can be unlocked later. Once the technologies are unlocked they can be applied to production. If an army has outdated equipment, they will be replaced with the new.

The most important part of gameplay is combat. Before marching on a rival you want to conquer, you must justify a war goal with your government. Then you can move your army to the border, establish a front line your army will hold, and declare war. Along the frontline your army will spread out into individual units, making movement easy as you guide the army. Alternatively, you can set up an offensive line that your army will march to automatically. Here the micromanagement of equipment comes into play as your army’s stats are pitted against your enemy.

When playing HoI, you must consider all of that. Every move you make does not occur without considering all the variables. You cannot march into enemy territory without figuring in the infrastructure required to keep your army reinforced. You cannot build up forces without taking into account the required manpower. The complexity of gameplay is so immense I had to rely on second-hand materials to learn what the game’s mediocre tutorial could not teach.

What drew me to the game was the fact that you can change history. HoI takes place in the earlier years of WWII, but the events that followed can play out at random. If you turn off the game’s historical accuracy modifier, other factions will do whatever they want. Germany may defeat the Soviet Union, Japan may conquer Siberia, or the United Kingdom may take the whole of Africa. With the country you pick, you can change the course of history. What if America remained isolationist and let Hitler run rampant or became a fascist empire that took over South America? The possibilities are endless.

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For all the faults in learning how to play and the massive complexity, Hearts of Iron IV could not be more worth consideration. Once you understand the mechanics the game becomes engrossing and a great challenge. Moreover, the alternate history angle makes the experience an absolute blast.

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CT McMillan 1

C.T. McMillan (Episode 169) is a film critic and devout gamer.  He has a Bachelors for Creative Writing in Entertainment from Full Sail University.

 

McMillan’s Codex #50: Death Stranding (Trailer Analysis)

03 Wednesday Aug 2016

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McMillan’s Codex 50 By C.T. McMillan

Death Stranding (Trailer Analysis)

Metal Gear Solid (MGS) would not have made such an impression on me without director/writer Hideo Kojima.  For all their faults I admire the games for the story and how they strike a balance between gameplay and narrative by keeping the two separate.  Between spats of fun action are long cinematics that epitomize Kojima’s various inspirations in the form of military fiction that borders on realism.  After studying the games I feel I understand the man, but I am perplexed by his latest endeavor, Death Stranding (DS).

Screen Shot 2016-07-30 at 4.41.08 PM

Following his storied departure from Konami, the videogame division of Sony was quick to hire Kojima and his team, leading to the formation of Kojima Productions.  After months of speculation DS was revealed at E3 2016 in a trailer.  Of the many reveals during the event, Kojima’s latest stands out the most.  There is a lot to unpack with many possibilities and interpretations based on three minutes of footage.

The opening frame is a quote from William Blake’s Auguries of Innocence:

“To see a world in a grain of sand

And a heaven in a wild flower

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand

And eternity in an hour”

What this excerpt and much of the poem seems to imply is that everything is connected.  Nature, mankind, and the divine play a part in each other, their destinies and actions perpetually linked.  The idea of existence being connected comes through in the following footage.  The camera pans forward above black sand and turns to a pile of crabs on their backsides, each with a black cord in their mouths.

The camera follows one cord before a handprint appears in the sand, which fills with oil.  More handprints trail towards a naked man on his side, wearing a pair of handcuff on one wrist.  The man wakes up and finds a naked baby with a cord in the navel crying next to him.  The man takes the baby, and a cut reveals the man to be modeled after actor Norman Reedus.  The man holds the baby and appears to cry judging by his expression.

Then there is a close up and the baby disappears, the man’s hands covered in oil.  Smaller hands appear in black on his thigh as they trail to his knee.  Then he looks to the horizon and stands, the camera remaining stationary as his scarred, tubeless stomach comes into view.  Then there is a cut to a rear shot of the man on a beach with piled whales and fish and icebergs in the distance.  In the cloudy sky floats five figures with legs together and arms folded across their chests.  The figures disappear before the title appears.

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From what I can glean from the symbolism is that everything is connected.  As Auguries of Innocence describes nature, mankind, and heaven are linked by their actions and I am getting a strong Matrix feel from DS.  I suspect that energy is gathered by draining living things via the black cords.  Perhaps this was the result of desperation, the oil soaked beach implying a resource disaster may have occurred, or that Earth has been taken over by a force subsisting on humans and animals.  Another indication that people are being used for energy is that the baby turns into oil after disappearing.

This consumption of energy is forced because the man has severed his cord based on the abdominal scars.  The handcuffs on his wrist show he is opposed to an authority that has most likely implanted the cords.  His reaction to holding the baby shows he feels genuine sadness that people are being controlled and has made freeing them his mission.  On his neck he wears “dog tags” that are probably trophies from people he killed or reminders of those he has lost.

As for the five figures at the end, they could be boss characters.  Kojima he has an affinity for bosses in small groups throughout his games.  Dead Cell, Cobra Unit, and Beauty and the Beast Corps from MGS number in less than seven members.  Maybe the five figures are bosses that the man is trying to defeat.  Also, their pose is similar to the posture of villains like Anubis from Zone of the Enders 2 and Screaming Mantis from MGS4.

This detail is rather unimportant to what I found, but I thought I would share my thoughts.  The song playing in the trailer is “I’ll Keep Coming” by Low Roar, an indie group from Iceland.  The lyrics describe being dead or being silence, but coming back to life or resisting depending on your interpretation.  The setting on the beach is similar to Vik i Myrdal, a village in southern Iceland with black sand and similar rock formations like those seen in the ocean at the end.

Kojima is the kind of man that will include things he likes into his games no matter their significance.  From anime to movie references, MGS is filled to the brim with a lot things that are irrelevant.  He also loves good music and on social media he praised Low Roar and the song “I’ll Keep Coming.”  Furthermore, the song title was used in the promotional material for Kojima Productions’ mascot Ludens.

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As a fan I am well aware of the possibility that Death Stranding is an elaborate ruse hiding the real game underneath.  Phantom Pain and PT are still fresh in my mind and I am anticipating the reveal that the game was Zone of the Enders 3 or Silent Hills all along.  Based on usual trends, in a year or so we will see more of the game, including actual gameplay.  The trailer leaves much to be desired, but I feel there is still so much to discover that I cannot see.

_______

CT McMillan 1

C.T. McMillan (Episode 169) is a film critic and devout gamer.  He has a Bachelors for Creative Writing in Entertainment from Full Sail University.

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McMillan’s Codex #49: Call of Duty 4 (Modern Warfare)

27 Wednesday Jul 2016

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McMillan’s Codex #49 by C.T. McMillan

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Since reviewing Advanced Warfare, Call of Duty (CoD) has been on my mind. Infinite Warfare is just months away and all I can think about is where everything went wrong. In the past I explored how the series has evolved and decayed with each installment. Because the last truly great entry was nearly a decade ago, I have become used to the mediocrity. I have spent so much time talking about why CoD is no longer good that I have failed to mention what made the series so compelling. Modern Warfare 2 is arguably the last best CoD, but looking further back I realize the game’s predecessor is far greater.

0000002999What makes Modern Warfare (MW) exceptional is simplicity. Each level consists of you shooting people and moving to an objective marker to shoot more people. Along the way you defend an area, plant explosives, or sneak past enemies. At the game’s core MW is as basic as Doom (2016), but not as incredible.

The set pieces are probably the best handled. Instead of being short vignettes to tease players because the developers hate you, they take up whole levels. The famous “Death From Above” mission is an extended sequence where you play a C-130 gunner providing covering fire for a ground team. You are put into the guts of a gunship and your vision switches to infrared.

The plane rumbles while the crew fills you in on the situation. The entire mission is you flying over a town covering the ground team with three available weapons. The spotter calls out shots and enemy movements that play out in real time. The crew also reacts to what is happening on the ground in a casual manner while the team will radio in as a gunfight plays out in the background.

“All Ghillied Up” is another great set piece that became copied and pasted throughout the series. The level is a flashback to an assassination mission in Chernobyl where you play one of two snipers sneaking into the Exclusion Zone swarming with Soviet troops. You wear the titular ghillie suit, a camouflage garment that makes you look like a Wookiee, and crawl through the overgrown foliage with rifle in hand.

0000002994Your partner provides instruction as you come upon guards to take them out quietly. At one point you encounter an army marching towards you and must lie in a field to avoid them as they walk over you. Later you move into the heart of Chernobyl where the environment has taken over. You pass through the Swimming Pool Azure, set up a firing position in a worker’s housing block, and exfiltrate from the Pripyat Amusement Park.

MW also does the modern warfare aesthetic well before the concept became a joke in videogame culture. The game takes the CoD signature of playing multiple characters, across multiple theaters of war, and applies a modern context. Instead of fighting in an open field or small town like in past games, the sections where you play an ordinary soldier take place in urban environments. Firefights are close and intense with a lot of exciting moments like a tank rolling through the streets and a nighttime battle.

When you play as an operator in the SAS, your missions are low-key and far more complex than those of the ordinary soldier. You are always alone with your team without an army to back you up. You work behind the scenes, taking care of the small problems that lead to bigger ones. In one instance you infiltrate an active combat zone that you are not directly involved with to rescue an informant. Towards the end combat becomes more intense where you fight off a small army and a helicopter while riding in the back of a truck.

0000002991Returning to the first Modern Warfare reminded me of what once made Call of Duty great and what the new games get wrong. Too long has the series wallowed in a monotonous slog of pointless gameplay features on top of hollow set pieces and broken promises. Modern Warfare proves that you do not need more to be good, and that having more could mean stagnation in the long run.

_______

CT McMillan 1

C.T. McMillan (Episode 169) is a film critic and devout gamer.  He has a Bachelors for Creative Writing in Entertainment from Full Sail University.

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