Torment is Torment

Torment: Tides of Numenera is a profound experience for me, and I wanna tell you why.

I'm going to, and it won't take long, but I wanna say something else first.

Not everyone needs to like the same things that you do, or that I do. In fact, that kind of diversity can make latent experiences seem fresh. I didn't come into cRPGs until waaaay late in the game, and now I love them, and I have a huge library from which to choose. Tastes also inform a lot about a person's perspective, which I find interesting, as well.

Also, beware something that only you love becoming popular. No, your original experience aren't at all tainted, but there's a framework in place that says if 'game x' or 'band x' or whatever becomes popular, then its next effort needs to try and appeal to an even bigger audience, and that's where it all falls apart. By trying to appeal to everyone, you end up being loved by no one. You might sell well, but there's not gonna be that person that really latches onto something you've put out there, really relates to it, and then carries it with them their whole life. Look at what EA has done to Dragon Age. DAO and DA2 were intimate experiences with personal stories and great pacing. DAI was ... not. Look at what happened to Star Trek. It went from a thoughtful, pondering franchise to a generic action movie trilogy. Yuck. There's no soul in any of it, and people figure that out after a while.

And don't get me wrong. I fucking hate 'indie fans.' The people that make it their goal in life to only listen to the bands you've never heard of, to swoon over yet another cheap-looking 2D platformer, or to only celebrate films with budgets less than the average income in small town Missouri. There are great big-budget mainstream experiences to be had, just as there are great low-budget experiences to be had.

Along those lines, I've really been enjoying Horizon Zero Dawn, still wish so much that it was on PC, but I adore it nonetheless, and I have many praises for it.

But, Torment ... goddam ... this thing reaches right into my soul and just masturbates it. It's a profound experience, and every time I wanted to try something I thought might break most games, or just wouldn't be an option, I could do here. I'm trying to talk around this, without giving away spoilers.

On a superficial level, it looks like Pillars of Eternity. It's the same engine, actually. This has a totally different color palette, plays very differently (Pillars is real-time, this is turn-based), and most of the mechanics are totally different. Perspective-wise, though, it's highly similar.

And it's really detail-oriented. This is not at all a game that caters to the ADD crowd (I have ADHD, by the way), which I appreciate. It challenges you to pay fucking attention, it has a ton of text, it has a lot of strategy, and it treats you like an adult. If you don't want to ever fight, you don't have to. If your skills are allocated properly, you can never fight. I've had a small amount of combat, by choice, but for the most part, I've been bullshitting my way out of conflicts. It's awesome.

The combat itself is great, but I'm trying to accomplish a specific goal in this playthrough, which I'll talk about in a separate post some other time.

The companions are rich, too. So are the conversations. The writing is great. Oh, and the lore. By the Maker, the lore is amazing, and sooo deep. I've been reading through the novellas, hitting the wiki, pulling out the map, and I still can't get enough. Also, if you're interested, it's based on the Numenera tabletop RPG.

So, seriously, check it out. Give it a shot. I've seen very little coverage on it relative to Horizon, which is absolutely deserving of adulation, but I really think people might enjoy Torment, if they try it. If you're not into cRPGs, it'll be an adjustment, but it'll be a worthwhile one.

Anyway, I'm gonna go play some more.

The Road to Andromeda
Starting tomorrow night, I'm finishing the fight, and starting the end of Mass Effect 3. Come hang out, shoot the breeze, and help me wrap this up. I'll be on Twitch at 2000central/2100eastern. The previous episodes are in a playlist here, and these will be added after.

So, any thoughts on Torment? Lemme know!

-Blaine

I wish they still made games like ...

I have a cycle that I repeat every so often, and I just noticed it. It seems that, every few years, I start to get nostalgic for a certain type of game, or even a certain game. Eventually, that gets busted up as I fall in love again, but I think I'm on the verge again.

Going into the PlayStation era, I was getting increasingly nostalgic for the OLD JRPGs like the original Final Fantasy, and I was pretty put off by the original Final Fantasy VII demo disc. Looking back, I chuckle, because I think I was hung up on some pretty insignificant shit. I think I get stuck on silly details. I'm embarrassed, but things like the enemies not being in a separate window, and the game was too flashy, and nonsense upon nonsense. I also hated the trend that things had been going with the characters being predefined instead of blank slates. Sigh ...

I'd been building up a bit of resentment for a while.

I ended up preordering the game and loving the hell out of it.

Jump to a few years later, when JRPGs were actually really starting to tank in the post-FFX world. Final Fantasy X had left me ... bewildered and despondent. It's not a bad game, but it's a bad Final Fantasy game. The things I liked about it were the battle system and oops, that's the end. The rest of it, for me was somewhere between bland and annoying.

Little did I realize, until years later, that all JRPGs heroes are supposed to sound barely pubescent and squeaky. That really soured the NES and SNES JRPGs for me, as I couldn't get that 'Tidus shriek' out of my head when I read the hero lines.

KotOR saved gaming for me. That game was such a breath of fresh air for me, and the perfect exit point. It really started my departure from console gaming and JRPGs. I was still a little bitter over the direction that things had gone from the amazing Final Fantasy IX to what Final Fantasy X was, but KotOR and western RPGs really saved gaming for me, and breathed new life into my passion for gaming.

However, the cycle started to repeat after that. Dragon Age: Origins was just as amazing for me, but I was disappointed that I couldn't stack actions in advance. Mass Effect wasn't Star Wars, and was a little too action for me. DA2, at least the PC version, still had the combat mostly intact, but I'll never forget the BioWare directive that 'every time you hit a button, something awesome happens' that had me retching my metaphorical guts out. ME2 was an action game with some RPG aspects. ME3 was actually a great game, up until the meaningless ending. DAI ... I loved it at the time, but it has degraded in quality for me with my second playthrough. It's just lotsa busy work, which wrecks the pacing and sense of immediacy.

Meanwhile, I've been loving games like Pillars of Eternity and The Witcher series, so I think I'm transitioning again, but man ... I'd love something like KotOR and Dragon Age: Origins again. There was just something about those games that suited me just right. This is the same damn feeling I used to have with FFVII (which now feels crazy limited.)

So, yeah, I'm definitely part of the problem. I'm one of those awful gaming enthusiasts that gets stuck on one game and is disappointed when another game isn't just a carbon copy (though I don't voice this in forums or harass developers.) Typically, I just push myself to adapt, and I think I've gotten better about it. I've spread out with games like Divinity: Original Sin, Deus Ex, Dishonored, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, etc. Yeah, I know your cutesy 2D platforming indie media darling isn't listed there, nor is your JRPG that is totally indistinguishable from any other modern JRPG, but I am trying them, especially the JRPGs, since I'd love to get back into that space.

I think Pillars is a step toward that One Game to Rule Them All for the next few years for me. And I'm looking ahead at Torment ... drool ...

I'm torn, though. I think it's OK to love what you love, but I also think we should always be looking to expand our horizons. I think a balance between the two is probably best. Most people I know go too far one way or the other, and I probably skew too far toward 'love what I love,' but I do have evidence that I do eventually evolve.

So, how about you? Are you part of the problem? How do you see your gaming tastes evolving? How have they changed?

Six days 'til Torment/Horizon Day, ya'll.!

-Blaine

yeah, so about Friday posts ...

Friday posts are just gonna be kinda late. While Friday is usually pretty chill for me, it is also pretty busy, because the dev team at work has a big idea-sharing meeting all morning, and then we all go for a long lunch, and then I wrap up my work for the week, and then I watch a bunch of dev streams, and then I exercise, and then I go to dinner, and then I stream. You see what I'm sayin'? I think maybe I'll toss up a few really small posts each Friday. We'll see.

Obsidian posted some awesome shit last night and today:




As I've said before, I'm super-stoked about Pillars 2. I was absolutely nuts about the first one, and delivered so much of what I want out of a game.

Yesterday, I streamed some of the latest build of Divinity: Original Sin 2, and my god, it's a great experience. I'm purposely not playing it much, like Torment: Tides of Numenera, so that I can be as surprised and fresh as possible when it finally releases. It's hard, man. Both early access builds are GREAT, and I want those games so badly, but ... gonna hold off, especially since I have so much great stuff to play.

I'm pretty nuts about Elder Scrolls at the moment, so we're just continue with that for now. I'm loving Morrowind, and really looking forward to just throwing myself into it some more. I'm also having a blast in ESO, in which I finally hit level 50, and I may try to finish the core campaign this weekend. We'll see.

I'm also going to continue my Road to Andromeda series this weekend. As you may already know, I've been replaying the original Mass Effect trilogy since September, and we're cruising through Mass Effect 3 now. It's so much fun to share my passion for this series with you all, and I hope you tune into my Twitch channel at 2000 (central time) tonight. I love talking Mass Effect with anyone, and the streams are so much more fun when there's lotsa chatter.

Anywho, I'm off to dinner, so I'll see you cats tonight!

-Blaine

Whoah! Cool stuff hit the internet today!

First, the incredibly vague Squenix - Avengers thing.



I'm intrigued by what this could be, if it ever comes out, since Eidos Montreal and Crystal Dynamics are working on it, but there's absolutely no details now, so let's move on.

Second, this hit around 11AM today, and paired with all the gameplay and details we've seen already for Mass Effect Andromeda, I'm super-hyped about this.



This game looks great, and it's gonna be a cluster-fuck when MEA, Torment, and Horizon: Zero Dawn are all fighting for my free time.

Third, and this was the pinnacle of my day, Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire hit Fig today, and I am over the fucking moon. I threw down money on it, and I cannot wait to see more as the year goes on. Check out the Fig pitch video below.



I adored Pillars of Eternity, and cannot wait to do a full streamed playthrough of it for my second playthrough. If you've not played it, if you love games driven by story and character, give it a try. It's among the best I've ever played.

Also, I'm finally adopting a regular streaming schedule. I'll get more into it in another post, but today, I'll be streaming on my twitch channel from 1630-1800 and 2000-2130 (central). My first stream will be a bit of a chat and variety stream. I'm thinking about showing ya'll some Torment: Tides of Numenera, because it's fucking awesome.

See ya'll in a couple hours.

-Blaine

Quick Resident Evil 7 Impressions

I did a quick one-hour stream of Resident Evil 7 today on my Twitch channel, and I came away with some pretty strong feelings about it.

First, I've been an on-and-off fan of the series dating back to the original on PlayStation, so I'm not really new to Resident Evil. This entry is pretty different from the others, but the series has undergone multiple transformations over the years.

Second, my enthusiasm for the Resident Evil franchise has been flagging for a long time, and more or less bottomed out after RE5.

I'm also a big fan of horror, and I see video games as the last bastion of what can really scare me. I think maybe video games have ruined horror for me in all other mediums, because it's so much more raw in games, and I just can't find a good scare in film, TV, or books anymore. Silent Hill, Fatal Frame, and the first Resident Evil really freaked me out (that fucking dog coming through the window). Oh, and Alien: Isolation.

I wasn't all that hyped for RE7 initially. People don't scare me. They just don't. Any time the baddie in a horror flick is just some dude with a knife or a chainsaw or an axe or whatever stupid shit, it does nothing for me. Make it an alien, monster, undead thing, or something else to which I can't relate or know how to kill, and yeah, I'm freaked. I was very concerned that the game, based on early demos and video, was merely a 'southern Illinois simulator.'

That is not the case, though! It has non-real world elements, and I've seen pictures of monsters in reviews! Once I saw that, plus some very positive reviews, I gladly threw down for the digital deluxe edition on Steam.

So, it's pretty solid. The first 30min were excellent. The default controls with mouse and keyboard actually work pretty well, which is a nice change from most Japanese PC games. The game does a great job setting the mood right away, even with a plot cribbed straight from Silent Hill 2, by providing some not-bad voice-over narration, great use of sound, solid visuals, and well-timed scripted sequences. Usage of light (and deprivation thereof) is a little over-the-top, but maybe that's intentional.

Basically, you start out outside a house, then work your way inside. That sequence is very well done and provides a non-intrusive and mercifully quick tutorial.

Once inside the house, the flow of events is pretty cool. They do a great job with 'theme park haunted house.' There's a lot of great player-driven inspection to be done, some really shocking visuals, some great usages of sound, and in all, it's cool as hell. There's a bit with a VHS tape that is an absolutely brilliant sequence. For me, though, it starts to fall apart a little once you start to encounter enemies.

I'm torn here. Gore doesn't bother me, but I don't like tropes that are used just for shock value. If something shocking serves the story, then I think it's great. There are some gore sequences in this game that serve the story in an obvious way. There's also a fair amount that's just there to be like 'wow, look at us, we're shocking, like Eli Roth's tired shit, wow, look, it's blood and severed limbs, and oh shit, let's keep doing it over and over so that you're now rolling your eyes.' Yawn.

After about an hour, I was tired of the game, and was glad to quit. I almost wish there was no combat and no actual interaction between the player and the ... others. It actually could've been a really cool investigation game, but it slipped into tired tropes too easily and quickly. I'll keep playing, though. There's a lot of good still going for this game, even if some elements of it really rub me the wrong way.

If you wanna check out my hour with the game, here it is.

Watch live video from on www.twitch.tv

Anyway, I'm playing that, I'm also trying to finally push through Setsuna, and I've got my Mass Effect trilogy playthrough that I've had going for a few months, that's leading up to the Andromeda release in March. You can check out the full trilogy playthrough here and below:



I usually have one or two solid pushes (shut up) every weekend, in regards to Mass Effect. We're currently in the very early part of ME3. I stream the game on Twitch, and then upload it to YouTube later.

Also, PAX South is coming up this weekend, for which I'm hyped. Watch it all here, starting Friday at lunch.

Tomorrow (2017/1/26), though, Obsidian is finally announcing Pillars of Eternity 2 at noon (central). I am mega-hyped for that. Pillars is one of my all-time favorites, and I may do another Let's Play series for that this year.

Anyway, I'll try to be on here more. I just need to find a way to introduce myself to the concept of brevity.

I also need to figure out how to be a regular streamer/bloggiest and a busy dude.

Word.

-Blaine

I Love Torment (but it's not what you think, sicko)

I tend to stay away from backer betas.

If I back a game, it's because it's filling a need that I don't see being filled by publishers, or it's a need that I want filled without publisher intervention. I don't want it to have mass appeal. I want it to be very specific in its audience.

Pillars of Eternity is a fantastic example of this. It was the game that first got me excited about the possibilities of Kickstarter, and it absolutely fulfilled its promise, and then some. It's one of the best games I've ever played. It was part of this magical time in which Dragon Age: Inquisition, Pillars, and then Witcher 3 all released in short succession, and I got to play my two favorite series, and a new favorite in the middle, all one after another.

Anyway, I'm really getting off-topic. Sorry, but it was a very magical time.

So, yeah, I backed the hell out of Pillars, and kept adding to my 'backing,' so that I'd get more and more stuff. Including the beta.

What's funny, though, is that I did play a little of the beta, but I put it down rather quickly. I didn't want it spoiled. I wanted my entry into that world to be one that was new, and fresh, and utterly magical.

And it worked out. I held off on playing much of the beta, which was a vertical slice that was early in the game, but not at the beginning. It filled in some lore, but then, like I said, I backed off pretty quickly, and saved myself for release night. When I got the game, it was magical, and many months later, we were both left panting.

And, then along came Torment: Tides of Numenera.

I fucked up. I played a bit of the first beta release, but did the same thing I did with Pillars. I got a bit of lore, and then set it down.

Well, they updated it. A lot. I got kinda curious last night, and ... I made a mistake. I fell in love. This game is utterly incredible. I need to stop. The beta is so good, and so complete, and beautiful, and exactly the kind of game I so badly need ... but the finished product is in 2017. If I keep going, it's only going to hurt both of us. We have to stop. It's what's best for both of us.

But, I played more today. And it was so good. I'm worried. I'm worried that I can't stop.

That's it. I'm exhausted. I'm going to get in bed, and ... read one of the novellas that's part of the mega-backer package that I put down for. I need more Numenera.

-Blaine

Video Games and Streaming Stuff and Stuff

So, I've not posted in a bit. Yeah, I hate seeing these 'dude, I'm sorry I haven't posted but my double-wide burned down and I lost my job, and my dog left me' and all the country song bullshit kinda posts, so I'm not making one. I just haven't really felt like posting anything, and I promised myself I wasn't gonna pressure myself to do recreational things I didn't feel like doing. Now I feel like it again.

I will say that I worked a pretty hectic schedule over the summer, and also took some time to think through a few things. Nothing crazy or worth sharing.

What have I been up to?

Let's see.

 - upgraded all my development and gaming stuff to Windows 10. That's pretty neat. Everything went smoothly. No hiccups or incidents.
 - the Cardinals, predictably, have been doing very well despite the entire goddam outfield getting hurt.
 - I don't remember if I talked about it on here or not, but I finished my epic Dragon Age: Inquisition - Pillars of Eternity - Witcher 3 playthrough that I started in November of last year. I actually shuffled Pillars to the end of that, since I kinda wanted to slow-jam that one.
 - I also played through the final Dragon Age Inquisition DLC, 'The Descent,' which was pretty fantastic.
 - lotsa reading, not as much writing as I'd like; but that's about to change

The big thing, though, is that I'm finally dipping my toe into the streaming world. I'd thought about it for a bit, and after taking some really good pain meds for my back, I decided to really go for it.. I've made some alterations to my setup, I still have some things to work out, but we're kicking off the streaming schedule starting tomorrow @ 1600 central time.

So, on August 21st, 2015, @ 1600 central US time, you can check me out at my Twitch.TV channel and see some live Shadowrun: Hong Kong, see some gaming news for the week, and chat with me about this week's discussion topic.

The intent is to also start posting here more regularly. Sometimes, it'll be quick, funny micro-posts, and other times, it'll be like a feature magazine article. Just whatever I feel like.

Hugs.

-Blaine

2015-07-09

What I learned today:

01. It's way too fucking easy to accidentally blow away a post here from the goddam iPhone app. Fuck.

02. The latest Terminator was fun.

03. I finished Pillars of Eternity, and it was amazing.

04. I need to finally sleep. I'll get with you tomorrow. Kinda pissed about losing this whole post.

2015-07-08

Things I learned today:

01. I need to learn that George Costanza thing where he leaves the room after his first great joke.

02. It's not only years that speed up as you get older, but days, too.

03. I'm reticent to finish Pillars of Eternity.

04. I love being a developer, but it drives me crazy that things are never 'done.' Actually, I straight-up hate that part of it. It actively makes me unhappy, like money shortages and raisins in cookies.

05. I'm not loving my current Star Wars book, Planet of Twilight, but I am excited to move onto Dark Disciple. Remind me some time to tell you about my current Star Wars reading project.

06. I really need to start sleeping more.

RPGoodness

Something I've been mulling over lately is a recent streak, dating back to November of last year, in which my 'core franchises' have each delivered a new entry in the series. Dragon Age Inquisition, Pillars of Eternity, and Witcher 3 all released in a quick, six-month succession, and it's been kinda crazy.

Yeah, Pillars is a new franchise, but it also hearkens back to a different time, when the term 'cRPG' was still a thing, and imagination still colored in a lot of the experience.

In any case, it's been this really weird time in which I've gone from mega-huge game to mega-huge game, when I usually have some down time between monster releases. Given that I almost exclusively play RPGs, and big damn ones at that, I tend to have several months at a time in which I'm spending most of my gaming hours in the backlog, or in an MMO or two.

Instead, I played through Dragon Age (November) up to about the time Pillars hit (March), jumped right into that, then put down Pillars for a bit to play through Witcher 3 (May), which I finished over last weekend, and then I jumped back into Pillars, which it turns out, I'm almost done with anyway.

Of note, I grew up with most RPGs being in the 40-60 hour range, but each of those has been around 100 hours. Granted, I'm much more a completionist now than I was when I was younger, but still ... that's a lotta bang for my buck. And, shit, I was a day-one backer for Pillars, so that was about $20 for me (though I sunk in more later for some more goodies.)

And I expect to finish Pillars this week(end). After that, it'll be the first time since before Thanksgiving 2014 that I'm not committed to a new game. After that, the next new one will be Sword Coast Legends, from the great Dan Tudge, he of Dragon Age: Origins fame.

Oh, and The White March is hitting ... soon? And Witcher is getting a couple expansions, too. And DAI is supposed to get one more real DLC. It would be kinda neat if they all landed in a row.

Anywho, that's all for now. That's been rattling around in my brain for a bit, and I now wonder how long until something like this happens again? Mass Effect Andromeda is next year. Torment will come out some day. And I still have Divinity: Original Sin and Wasteland 2 unfinished ... and New Vegas. And shit, Fallout 4 this winter. OK. ENOUGH. I really do gotta go. I'll holler later tonight.