The Walking Dead: Season 2 Episode 3 “Save the Last One”

Episode 3

"Save the Last One"

"Got bit.

 Fever hit.
World gone to shit.

Might as well quit"

– Tree Walker's Suicide Note

In this latest episode "Save the Last One" we get back to the faster pace of the first episode and away from the long, heartfelt, but gore free dialogue which makes me and I'm a lot of other people out there very happy. This episode seems to take its title from the "Last" child being Carl currently still alive, as Sophia has yet to be found and could quite possibly be dead. There's also a lot of character development going on at both the RV and the farmhouse with Maggie and Glenn meeting and bonding over religion and grief and Andrea and Daryl bonding in the woods over 'opting out' and life and death and so on. By the end of the episode it had seemed that everything was wrapped up nicely, sacrifices were made, lives were saved, until the producers dropped a huge twist in the last five minutes which made jaw drop right into my lap.

*** Warning Spoilers***

The episode starts out with an ambiguous Shane scene where he's taking a bath and giving himself a haircut. Slightly confusing as the hot water and electricity give of a pre-Walker time or maybe he finally made back to the farm. Either way it was certainly not the present as Shane and Otis have yet to come back from the high school and sure enough it cut backs to Shane and Otis running for their lives through the dark, dank corridors of a high school. Meanwhile overlayed over this is Rick's voice telling an apparently frequently told story of Shane's playful antics (which I might say includes the theft of a car and creative vandalism). Otis and Shane manage to get stuck on some kind of scaffolding or gym equipment where Otis decides to distract the Walkers by running off while Shane escapes through a tiny window and making a 20ft drop to 'safety'.

I gotta say this about Otis, he has balls or is extremely stupid (knowing men probably some combination of the two) and whilst he manages to divert almost all the walkers attention onto him we can plainly see he's not light on his feet and has absolutely no stamina. I also believe the producers of the show really fleshed out (no pun intended) his character from what I can remember of his character he wasn't the most impressive of characters, was made out to be kind of stupid and I think even his crazy wife had more character than him. At least in the show you can see his character as a real man who hasn't really come to terms with the world his living in (using guns to hunt, blubbering like a baby when he shot Carl), but none the less a decent, big hearted man who dove straight into this suicide mission to redeem himself and to save Carl. Otis' distraction works and Shane manages to break a window and get ready to jump which turns out too long as a Walker manages to grab onto to him, messing up his landing and injuring his leg in the process.

Back at the RV Daryl can't sleep between the noise of Andrea constantly fiddling with guns and Carol crying in his sleep so he goes to take a walk and continue his search for Sophia at night and Andrea decides to come with. Their search ultimately turns up nothing, but a hanging Zombie in a tree with the above mentioned suicide note, his legs stripped to the bone from where Walkers fed on his legs and Andrea swaps a question for an arrow to end his suffering, the question being if Andrea still wanted to kill herself. Even though there's very little Zombie killing or much action we do get to delve into Daryl's past with his story of how as a young child he got lost in the woods for 9 days and how he managed just fine, even made it back home by himself because no one was looking out for him. Back at the RV Dale gives Andrea back her gun and apologises for his old man meddling and Andrea tries to forgive him, only time will tell really if she actually does.

At the farmhouse Glenn and T-dog arrive and meet Maggie again as they're escorted into the farmhouse where they see Carl for the first time since his incident and as they go get T-dog's cut treated Hershel tells Lori and Rick that if Shane and Otis don't come back soon they may have to operate on Carl without the respirator which means he could die or not do the surgery at all and let him slip away quietly from blood loss. Lori becomes conflicted at this and argues with Rick that maybe it wouldn't be so bad if Carl was to die; at least he would be away from the nightmare that is now their reality. Rick can't accept this argument especially as it was Lori who begged Jenna the scientist to give them to chance to just keep going. Carl wakes up briefly before going into a seizure talking about that damn deer which means signals Carl chances of surviving getting lower and lower. This is then well contrasted with Shane and Otis' own fight for survival as they try and escape the mass horde of Walkers on their tail, Shane too injured to walk faster than a limp as they try and make it back to the truck before it's too late.

Jumping back to Carl's bedside the time has come to decide to operate without the respirator, Lori finally gives her consent and everyone rushes around to get Carl ready for surgery. Just when they're about to get started the sound of a truck coming closer to the farmhouse alerts them and everyone rushes out to see Shane limping from the car with all the medical supplies intact. Shane, obviously in shock tells the story of how Otis died off screen trying to cover Shane and eventually giving his life so he could distract the Walkers long enough for Shane to get away. The people at the farmhouse are, understandably devastated at losing one of their group members, but they still manage to get the job done and Carl pulls through after his surgery.

Meanwhile Shane avoids Otis' grieving wife Patricia and goes to take a shower and so we loop back into the scene in which we started in at the beginning of the episode except as he strips the camera focuses on a hunk of missing hair, scratch marks and bruises that seem to tell a different tale of how Otis really died. We are than pushed back into the past with Otis and Shane running for their lives, low on bullets Shane looks at Otis mumbles an apology and then promptly shoots him in the leg! Otis not going down as easily as first though scuffles with Shane as he tries to take the backpack off Otis' back which explains the missing hair and marks. Shane then leaves Otis injured on the ground as he's slowly eaten alive by Walkers giving Shane enough time to get to the truck and escape. Whether this was proof of Shane's growing darkness similar to his erratic actions in the comics of if it was just a hard decision made out of love for Carl hopefully will be explored more in future.

Either way a great ending to a excellent episode!!!

 

The Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 2 "Bloodletting"

Hey y'all sorry to all of my (one) fans about the lack of posting last week, the Internet was being mysterious and illusive so I thought this week I'd give you twice the amount of The Walking Dead!!

Episode 2
"Bloodletting"

It's a waste of time, all this hopin' and prayin'. We're going to locate that little girl, and she's gonna be just fine. Am I the only one Zen around here? Good lord. - Daryl Dixon

***Warning Spoilers***

In this episode we finally get to meet the Greene family and get to the
farmhouse albeit in a slightly different direction than the comic books with
Carl last episode shot in the stomach in a hunting accident rather than a case
of mistaken identity. The episode starts off with a flashback to the pre-walker world where Lori is talking to a fellow mum outside Carl's school waiting to pick him up and talking about the same fight that Rick talked to Shane about just before he fell into a coma. The conversation is a mirror of the conversation Rick had with Shane, Lori admits that she was the one being
hurtful and nasty, but that Rick's calm agreeableness and quite tone in arguments just pisses her off even more. During this conversation the Sheriffs car rolls up and Lori gets the news that Rick has been wounded.

The focus shifts back to the present where Rick is running through a seemingly endless field with Shane an overweight Otis (quite a departure from the comic book Otis, but it does have a purpose) trailing behind. Rick makes it
to the farmhouse with the whole Greene family is there to greet them, including
of course Hershel who takes the boy inside and tries to stabilise him. After
digging one of six (how does he know there are six?) bullet fragments out of
Carl without pain killers in a truly brutal scene that will have you wincing in
sympathy he patches up the wound and explains that Carl has lost a lot of blood
and he needs additional surgery to get those last five fragments out. However
in order to stop Carl from bucking up and down they need to drug him up to his
eyeballs and for that they need a respirator otherwise Carl won’t be able to
breathe. Otis, torn up about shooting a little boy offers to go and raid the
high school turned rescue centre nearby and Shane decides to tag along to
ensure that they can the equipment in time to save Carl.

Back in the forest Lori wonders about the lone shot they heard whilst
Andrea tries to comfort Carol who then has a foot-in-mouth moment when
comparing the situation to the late Amy. Daryl interjects with that delightful
quote above and you just know something’s wrong when the hot headed red neck is
the voice of reason in the group. Sure enough moments later Andrea, conforming
to stereotypes about blonde's and horror stories wanders off by herself and
almost becomes a human happy meal. That is until Maggie swoops in and clobbers
the Walker whilst on horseback picks up Lori and yells directions on how to get
to farmhouse. Very dramatic and leaves the group members with a stunned expression
on their faces.

At the RV T-dog and Dale continue looting cars until Dale notices how
infected T-dog's cut is which gives him a raging fever and an urge to point out
how precarious his situation is being the only black man still alive and
surrounded by two gun toting cops and one racist red neck. T-dog suggests in
what I hope is just fever talk about just packing up and leaving with the RV
and the supplies, to hell with the others. Dale resists and reminds him how
that dumb red neck (Daryl) has saved his life on more than one occasion. Their
little debate is interrupted by the search party's return and Daryl saves
T-dogs life (again) by sharing some of Meryl's STD medicine. Glenn and T-dog
take the spare car and drive towards the farm as T-dog with his infected cut
could use a little first aid whilst the others decide to wait another day for
Sophia who still hasn't turned up by nightfall.

Back at the farmhouse Lori is reunited with Carl and Rick, who's feeling woozy from the two blood transfusions he's given Carl (that one glass of orange juice really didn't help much). Lori and Rick sit down and talk about the options with Hershel and are then shocked (with Rick almost Passing out) to realise that Herschel isn't a seasoned doctor, but rather a vet with no experience performing this kind of operation on humans.


The episode ends on a cliff hanger with Shane and Otis successfully entering the Walker infested school and nabbing the supplies only to find themselves surrounded and, ultimately trapped in the school with just a flimsy gate seperating them from a whole lot of Walkers all trying to make them into tasty manwhiches.

Overall it was a pretty slow episode so for you adrenaline junkies you won’t
find your gore fixes here. Still there is some really nice character
development between Shane, Carl and Rick. Despite brushing him off last episode
it’s still very clear that Shane cares for Carl like his own son. There's also
a nice scene between Rick and Shane where Shane comforts and reassures a very
shocked Rick and you can see that even in spite of the jealousy Shane feels
over Rick's family that he's still like a bother to him. In the search party we
see Andrea come out from her shell with her opening up a little to Carol and,
after a near death experience by herself stick more closely with the group.

 Not my favourite episode of the season, but a very solid effort!

Game On: An Introduction to Girls, Guys and Games

   

Note: This was published in the Metior (Murdoch University's student magazine) earlier this year. The focus was on women's issues and Tim and I based our articles views on women and gaming, Tim's article, on how women are portrayed in video games can be found on this blog as well (somewhere). Just put this up here for fun enjoy!

 

Games and those who play them no longer lurk in the shadows cast by their ugly beige monitors. Gaming has gone main-stream and you would be hard-pressed to find someone who hasn't played some form of game (yes even Minesweeper counts). In fact due to the birth of multiple types of consoles, hand held and even 3D gaming platforms the old stereotype of the basement dwelling, hygienically challenged hardcore gamer has started to fade. In its stead are everyday people, young professionals, couples over 50, whole families and of course university students. For these 'casual' gamers and weekend Wii warriors with their extra sturdy screens(10 percent of all damaged TV's in Australia are caused by Wii remotes) gaming is light, affordable entertainment that has none of the stigma it used to have.

However, this stigma still exists in some facets of gaming life, in particular gaming hobbyists and female gamers. Not that the stigma surrounding 'hardcore' gamers is particularly viscous; it certainly wouldn't be near any level such as the stigma surrounding race or sexuality. Still for this lone female gamer these existing preconceptions about female gamers and just gaming in general breaks my 2D pixelated heart.

For me my gaming addiction started at the very young age of eight years old. It was 1998 and gaming was becoming widespread enough for games to appear on small town country shelves, games with basic characters and large pixels from small time developers who would then go on to become industry giants such as Electronic Arts. I was raised on PC games, first generation RTS and FPS such as Age of Empire and Doom. I learned the valuable skills of micromanaging my minions and honing hair-trigger reflexes in dark 2D corridors which would help me later on as games began to evolve into more complex experiences and with steeper learning curves.

 By the time I was an awkward teens in the 00's I had found companionship with other people with game addictions, all guys, but that was never much of a drawback. As a very rare specimen in the world of LAN parties and online matches I was both respected and feared because of my gender. Being the only girl in a room full of guys huddled over computers I never felt singled out for being a girl, sure I might have been expected to die a little more than normal and subjected to the sometimes over the top gamer tags (lots of your mama jokes), but the guys were generally accommodating, not just for the chance to pwn more noobs , but for my ability  to  make their LAN parties less of a sausage fest.

 

Never in these LAN parties did I ever meet another female comrade, though there were plenty of gamer girlfriends who picked up gaming knowledge by pure osmosis, but never someone who had the same love of games as me and my mates had. Often my girlfriends would look at me in a mix of confusion and horror, for them games were strictly played by guys and any girls who called themselves gamers were flirting dangerously with the being called a tom boy or butch. This idea that in order to play games with boys you had to become one of them originates partly from the trouble women had to go to get accepted into male dominated areas such as careers in business or science. Whilst I'm not saying that women trying to make it in the gaming industry have it easy, in fact women are still woefully outnumbered in game design and the industry overall (women make up just 20 percent of the industry and just 3 percent are programmers) as a gamer I never had the problems that are typically associated with women living in a male dominated community.

At present, the era of gaming as a boys only club is fast fading with the rise of casual games significantly increasing the amount of women willing to pick up a mouse or a controller and see what all the fuss is about. Approximately 52 percent of casual gamers are girl gamers and 4 out of 10 online gamers are girls (not including the guys who say they're girls). Outside the casual market and in the more dedicated users (e.g people with gaming addictions) women make up about 38 percent of gamers across a broad spectrum of games, not just The Sims , but also games like Starcraft, Crysis and Call of Duty.

With the sales of Smartphone's on the rise, gaming has become accessible in a whole new way with applications such as Angry Birds going viral amongst Android and Apple users, many of them women. This is the future of gaming, games on your phone, the ability to play online wherever you are and the increasing awareness of gaming companies for the need to reduce the stereotypes associated with women who play games. With girl gamers such as the Frag Dolls (the first group of girl gamers to win a pro circuit tournament) girl gamers no longer hide in the shadows of their male counterparts, instead they're kicking arse and taking names , a trend that's sure to continue in the future of gaming.

The Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 1- What Lies Ahead

"I don't need all the answers. Just a little nudge, a sign...anything will do"

-Rick Grimes

I hate Monday's. I'm sure most people can relate. Monday's are boring, slow and signify the longest possible time till the next weekend. I say this now because that is about to change, Mondays are about to be the best day of the week!!!(At least to people like me who have no social life) With the first episode of the second season of The Walking Dead premiering today (airing on Sunday nights in the US) and the season kick off did not disappoint. This season looks to be more gory and more action packed than the last season with, in this episode alone the biggest number of creative zombie killings I've ever seen (including a screwdriver and a good old fashioned big ass rock).

 *Warning Spoilers*

We last saw Rick and the group just survive getting roasted when a CDC facility self-destructed, toasting the lone scientist in residence and Jacqui who decided to bite the bullet rather than get munched on by the undead. Andrea tries the same thing and if it wasn't for the old man meddling of Dale she would've stayed there. Instead she drags her arse out of there just in the nick of time and the group puts the peddle to the metal and gets the hell out of there.

The episode starts just where it left of, including a summary/tell all by Rick as he explains to Morgan (if he's listening) the situation. The group are making their way on the interstate and it looks like they can relax for just a tiny moment when the RV breaks down (of course it does) and they're stranded in a twisted metal pile up. The group start to gather supplies and try to clear the roadblock while Dale acts lookout for any oncoming Walkers.

Now I'm not ageist and I'm sure it could have happened to anyone, maybe his cataracts were playing up, but for some reason, somehow Dale misses an entire 50-100 strong herd of Zombies!!! Fortunately there were no immediate causalities, even with one group member almost bleeding to death and another trapped in a flimsy bathroom and seemed the crisis was over and everyone could come out their respective hiding places when two stragglers try and take a bite out of Sophia, one of the youngest survivors which freaks her out enough to go running into the woods.

The rest of the episode focuses on finding Sophia with Rick leading the searches, guilt-stricken that Sophia is alone in the woods because he left her alone while he played bad cop with the stragglers from the herd. After no luck finding her in the woods or in the stomach of a recently fed walker (try not to toss your cookies on that one) the group follow the sound of church bells to a church which still contains a few of its undead parishioners. Once dispatched using their new shiny melee weapons (machete, my personal weapon of choice and some kind of weird claw thing) they determine that Sophia isn't there and decide to head back to the RV after a moment of religious reflection.

Carl, Rick and Shane decide to stay behind and look a little more where they come across a enchanting scene, a relaxed stag just minding its business totally unaware of the trio watching it. Carl approaches the stag and as he gets closer and closer a look of childhood wonder appears on his face....just as a bullet goes through the deer and into his chest.

On the whole the episode was a resounding success and I believe the producers are getting better and better at integrating/transforming scenes from the comic book into TV friendly yet still compelling drama. Anyone who has read the comic books (and cover your eyes for a moment if you haven't, but would like to) will know that in the comics Carl gets shot in the back by one of the men on the farm who mistook him for a Zombie. I have a hunch this was altered to reduce the amount of backlash from anti-child violence groups or whoever gets their knickers in a twist over nothing (which makes me very interested in what they will do with some of the later scenes). Still it was done well and served as a great cliff hanger as I'm sure we'll finally get to meet the inhabitants of the farm in the next episode.

The dynamic of the group has also changed, with people starting to pull in different directions, some wanting to leave (Shane and Andrea) and others trying to control the group in subtle ways (old Dale and his meddling). We also get to see Daryl do a lot more arse kicking and be a lot mellower, with him going out of his way to help T-Dog and the rest of the group. We see Andrea really clam up and get super mean, making her reckless with her gun use and posing as a danger to the rest of the group. On a final note we see Shane in a slightly rosier light, he is under no illusion about the things he's done and he seems to want to do right by everyone else (even if that means slipping away and splitting from the group) considering the role his character plays in the comics it will be interesting to see how his character develops during this season (considering that in the comics he should no longer be alive).

All in all an excellent start to the season and hopefully it will only get better (and gorier).

Bad news for Project Zomboid fans

Hey folks,

If you've read my review on Project Zomboid you know how much I love this game (like this much <-------->) and I was so excited for their latest soon to be released update. This update was finally going to elevate PZ from a pre-tech game to an actual alpha with features like modded maps and most importantly of all SAVE ON QUIT!

However the Indie Stone crew are no strangers to adversity with piracy problems and checkout issues and the hits keep on coming as today, no more than a few hours ago the Indie Stone offices were robbed.By offices I mean the Newcastle flat where two of the three Indie Stoners, Lemmy and Binky worked and lived. It is unclear yet what else was stolen, but the most important and heartbreaking thing was their two computers with just the days away update data. Gone, just gone.And whilst they back up between the two computers all the time external back ups are rare, which means most of their data will never be recovered.

I really feel their pain, not just as avid PZ fan waiting even more time for their update, but as someone who's also experienced random crime. It's a horrible, disorientating experience and my heart goes out to Lemmy and Binky whilst they try and sort their life and their flat. It should also be said that no personal customer information was on those computers so that's a sigh of relief to paying customers and their credit card details.

And whilst this is a severe set back and a very personal tragedy I do believe that in a short while Indie Stone will be bounce back better than ever before. In spite of all the things that have gone wrong so far Indie Stone has never let it get them down (too much at least) and when you put it into perspective that there are just three people trying to make something special, what they've achieved so far is incredible.

From all the people at Squarecrank (the whole two of us) good luck and we hope they catch that arsehole!

P.S To bring up the mood I'm sharing my favourite comic of the day enjoy!

Nintendo Connection Tour 2011 Impressions

By Tim.

Nintendo… The name’s synonymous with most of Gen Y’s childhood, and though it’s easy to see the Big N with rose-tinted glasses of nostalgic glory, I got a hard dose of reality today with previews of the upcoming first-party titles on both the ageing Nintendo Wii console, and new-kid-on-the-block, Nintendo 3DS.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Nintendo Wii, 2011)

The centerpiece no doubt, was the latest installment of Nintendo’s blockbuster ‘Legend of Zelda’ series, titled Skyward Sword. The playable consoles were only running demo versions of the game, featuring three scenarios: a dungeon, a boss battle and a flying mode.

A big feature of the game is in its support of the Wii motion-plus, supposedly giving an even greater degree of control and precision to the movement and combat mechanics. In my opinion, they plain sucked. One source of this feeling was in the axial recognition; the tolerance levels felt far too blurry, as attempting to have Link do a forward thrust often results in him swinging wildly in other directions; If the game’s combat is meant to be fast-paced and action driven, then why did they make the controls so finicky? 

I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to even pull the shield out- I’d tried every logical button combination but the damn thing just hung by my side as I dodged flying arrows left and right. It wasn’t until my friend suggested I try swinging the nunchuck controller that I actually saw some results. It might not seem like the most cryptic maneuver, but when EVERY other Zelda title since Ocarina of Time had the shield designated to a button, this felt like an unnecessarily clumsy and uncoordinated choice.

I think Twilight Princess had it right with the controls; essentially, swinging the Wii-mote was the equivalent to mashing the B-button: it had no directional significance, it only detected when to swing the sword, not where the sword went. That was dictated by the directions on the analogue stick. It felt tight and concise. The pointer function was effective too, making the aiming of the hookshot, arrows, and the boomerang very quick and easy. 

Using the bow in Skyward Sword was one of the sloppiest moments of all- pressing the button wasn’t enough, you had to go into an awkward first-person view while holding down one button, then hold down a separate button with the other hand to actually charge and fire the thing. It felt nowhere near as fluid as the bow on previous Zelda games, where you could fire off arrows on the fly while targeting an enemy. I tried desperately to pull out my bow in the boss fight while targeting him, but my efforts were in vain.

To top that off, the game’s graphics are a butt-ugly, low resolution, low poly mess. I don’t want to get into any of the long-running debates about the Wii and its graphical capacity, so I’ll simply mention the predecessor, Twilight Princess. I remember an article five years back in a popular gaming magazine upon the Wii’s launch, reviewing Twilight Princess, a launch title. The game was praised as a great effort as a Zelda game, but the graphics were criticized as ‘Looking alright, for a Gamecube game’. 

Personally, I thought Twilight Princess was visually quite nice; sure it was no comparison for the hardware monster that was Crysis, but it looked sharp and nice; the environment was nicely detailed, the geometry was pretty and certain elements like ambient lighting and sharp shadow details were effective and pleasing to the eye. As the game was ultimately a port from a Gamecube title, obviously it wasn’t about to push any hardware envelope on the Wii, but visually it was among the best looking Gamecube games (along with Resident Evil 4).

Now flash forward five years; a lot has happened with graphics and gaming in that time, even for the Wii; with games like The Conduit (2009, High Voltage Software) that proved the Wii is capable of high-end graphical processes like bump mapping, detailed lighting effects like reflection and refraction, motion blur and animated textures. 

This helped restore some faith from the visually oriented gamers, and showed that perhaps there is hope for some visually pleasant gaming on the platform, comparable in some small way to what we’ve seen with the PS3 and Xbox 360. Nintendo instead did a complete 180 on this technology, opting for smudgy, bland textures, ugly low-poly geometry and an overall look that appears to be stuck in some kind of 10-year time warp.

Graphics may not be everything, but seriously, what the hell is hanging from that tree?

The system’s definitely showing its age, but some elements have aged more gracefully than others- for instance, I caught a glimpse of some players trying out the Kirby game; I was far more satisfied with the simplistic platformer visuals of that game- essentially they looked like a zazzed-up version of the old 16-bit sprites. I liked it.

All I can say is that the final game had better be something real spellbinding because the demo felt like a muddy, uncoordinated, uninspired mess of a game. A Link To The Fail.

 

Mario Kart 7 (Nintendo 3DS, 2011)

I don’t have much to say about Mario Kart 7. For better or worse, it’s Mario Kart as we’ve known and loved it. Maybe that’s what’s so average about it though, it really doesn’t bring much new to the table. I only played one track, the items were all standard Mario Kart fare, but there was also a bunch of ‘coins’ scattered around the track, which when collected act as both a defensive barrier and increase speed. It’s good to see an otherwise unused feature from the original Super Mario Kart (Super Nintendo, 1992) make a return.

On top of that was the new feature of Kart equipment; you can now equip your Kart with hang-gliders to add a degree of aerial control during long jump sequences. Apparently there will be more stuff in the future, so this could be interesting in shaping the experience of the new game.

I’m pretty sick of the whole ‘3D’ gimmick of the 3DS though. From some articles I’ve read, a significant number of 3DS owners don’t even play with the 3D effect, I really don’t find it adds much to the experience.

I only hope the final version has a better system of online play than Mario Kart DS, which was flawed on a number of levels. I think they got the formula right with Mario Kart Wii; having 12 racers coming together in a drop-in-drop-out system really worked well. I’m hoping Mario Kart 7 supports a similar scheme to this. Good multiplayer has always given longetivity to Mario Kart games.

Super Mario Land 3DS (Nintendo 3DS, 2011)

This felt awkward more than anything; trying to preserve 2D platform mechanics into a pseudo-3D environment really didn’t do it for me. It was cool to see Tanuki Mario make a return (after a long hiatus from SMB3), but overall the experience felt empty. Being a 3D Mario game, I felt naturally entitled to Mario’s plethora of physical attacks from Super Mario 64, but he delivered none. I’m guessing because they wanted to go back to the basic platforming roots.. If so, why’d they still include new features like the U-turn jump, wall jumping and the ability to grip onto wall faces?

The camera angles felt crude and unrefined; unlike the Super Mario 64 camera, which flowed freely and dynamically with you and your environment, the camera here sits statically, giving a fixed side-on look. To move the camera angle, you’ve got to move your left thumb down from the analogue stick and make adjustments with the D-pad; that might not sound like much, but its enough to take you out of the moment- whatever movement you’re doing must come to a complete stop, unlike in Super Mario 64 where the camera buttons were all operated by your right hand, while your left managed the analogue stick. Even then, the camera still felt stiff and unaccommodating.

Starfox 64 3D (Nintendo 3DS, 2011)

I loved Starfox 64 (or Lylat Wars as it was known here in PAL territories). Naturally, I was keen to see what they’d done with the concept some 14 years after the original smash hit took over Nintendo 64s all over the world. It’s still Starfox as we remember and love; the scripted sequences still happen at the same time, in the same way. One thing that did irk me was that while some textures had been overhauled (the water looks fantastic), and new visual effects had been added, the basic geometry of the environment is still the geometry from 1997. This leads to a somewhat paradoxical experience as you go through a very familiar, yet fresh terrain.

Another detail I found obtrusive was the frequent use of subtitles whenever an event occurred; when a boss or Starwolf appears, you get a  text description appearing onscreen about them. This felt somewhat unnecessary, and something that seemed like a better moment for the credits than mid game. It’s a decent game, though the controls take some getting used to, especially for us N64 kids.

At the same time I can’t help but ask why? Why did Nintendo have to go and re-release an old classic title on the 3DS? Why couldn’t they make a new Starfox title for the console, a fresh start? A reboot? In all honesty it feels like more of a lazy cash grab from the Big N on a game that most of my generation has fond memories of, than a genuine attempt at creating a compelling new experience.

I don’t know, I can’t say I got a particularly good feeling of Nintendo’s up and coming first party titles… They felt like a stale mix of rehashed, tried-and-true franchises, but with gimmicky features like 3D (that’s more straining on your eyes than anything else) and heightened motion control sensitivity (that never does what you want it to do). 

The problem isn’t that they’ve forgotten their roots; the problem is they’re too afraid to let them go.

Tim.

Project Zomboid: Pre-Alpha Tech Demo Review

Project Zomboid

Release Date: TBA

Developers: Indie Stone

Platform: PC

Genre: Survival RPG

 

 

 

 Review by Rhiannon Emery

 

 

Argh! Zombies ate my...groin?

First off a confession: I don’t like Zombie games. Surprising to most people who know me and my interest (or as some like to claim obsession) in Zombies I’ve always tried to stay away from the big block buster games such as Dead Rising and Left 4 Dead. The main reason being that for all the blood, gore and dismembered Zombies they all lacked one important thing: Reality. Sure a mad dash to a rescue point through a carnival is plausible and certainly is good, gory fun, but what it isn’t is realistic.

This is where Project Zomboid steps in. Still in development by the guys at IndieStone this game is one of survival, and ultimately death. From the games viewpoint you’re already dead, you just haven’t dropped to the floor and the only mystery left is how long can you stave off death and how exactly you bite the bullet.

All though IndieStone have only released the pre-alpha tech demo Project Zomboid looks very promising as a Zombie survival RPG .In the pre-alpha demo you start off as generic Bob Smith, just a normal guy with a lovingly rendered bald spot and your wife Katie Smith who lies injured on a bed. Katie acts as your guide through this mini tutorial where you learn how to craft bandages, find pillows, administer painkillers and learn how to barricade doors and windows.

After tending to the basics the game also guides you through basic defence and the basic rules of Project Zomboid:

1.      Hunger, sleep deprivation, illness and fear- all these things will affect your strength and your ability to survive the waiting hordes of Zombies. In order to combat these demons make sure you get enough sleep, keep yourself well-fed and even use pills to reduce Zombie induced Panic.

2.      Stupid shit that gets you killed in real life will get you killed in this game. For example on my first play through, heating up a much needed can of soup I was distracted by my harpy wife and forgot to turn the stove off. 2 minutes later the kitchen was in flames and so was I.

3.      When fending off the Zombie hordes be careful and try not to get injured, even just a scratch has a 25 percent chance of infecting you and a bite is almost certain death with a 96 percent chance of joining the horde. 

4.      Your health is very important, sickness or pain can impact on your strength, speed and your ability to remain undetected by those who want to eat you. And just like in real life groin injuries are both hilarious and all too possible, so be on the lookout because Zombies have no concept of personal boundaries.

	A prime example of why you should never accept sexual favours from a zombie.

In the full game the sandbox option allows you to slightly customize your character with skin tone, previous occupation and the ability to pick both negative and positive personality traits such as athletic or agoraphobic. After choosing your character you’re then dropped into a random house and the game begins much the same as the tutorial, except you don’t have to smother your wife in order to skip the tut.

IndieStone is taking a similar approach to Minecraft in the way of both enticing new customers and keeping their current ones interested with the ability to play the unfinished game right away and having the option of downloading updates instead of waiting months for the finished product. With the updates now coming hard and fast after sorting out their piracy and checkout issues IndieStone are adding new features weekly including ‘save on quit’, multiple maps and NPC’s with the ability to form groups of survivors. IndieStone has also opened up the game to modders, currently letting them to create maps, but later on with the possibility of creating entire storylines!

Overall, even though the game is not even in the beta phase of development Project Zomboid shows great promise as the ultimate Zombie RPG, adding refreshing realism into the genre of Zombie gaming. 

Grab a copy of this game before it tries to take a bite out of you. :p

Rhiannon Emery.