Liber Mendaciunculorum

Fiscal Mismanagement

2006-06-17T01:06:00.000+01:00

Is it wholly possible that I will spend £1000 on PC and console gaming in the coming six months, if I can actually get that much disposable income.

I hate generation turnaround. Nevertheless, I am Square-Enix's bitch, and must obey.

Photorealistic

2006-05-17T13:53:00.000+01:00

Photorealism. Who gives a shit?

I've been inspired to rant by a Gamecentral article nicely articulating what I've been feeling for some time, shortly: Photorealism is a technical achievement, not an artistic one.

Go the photorealistic route and you are in, if not certain, then severe danger of sapping all the art from your graphics. Why? Because you're copying reality, not coming up with a distinctive style of your own. So many next gen games are looking exactly the same.

Shifting to films for a while - can you name me one entirely photorealistic CGI film that has been a success? Maybe that's not a great example, and a better indicator is that there's no one, after a the few mainstream experiments in the field, who wants to do it. Uncanny valley may be to blame. Maybe the poor quality of other aspects of existing photorealistic films. Maybe it's because it's easier, and cheaper, to have actors who will do all the things (sweat, blink naturally, etc.) that CGI still has trouble with. Maybe though, it's that beyond the gimmick photorealism gives you nothing distinctive.

Photorealistic graphics, in games or film, needn't sap the art from their presentation. Film is my indicator here - an incredible range of visual style and artistic expression can be found in the arguably more limiting field of, y'know, actual actors, acting. If the goal of photorealism is to emulate real people, why can't you use the better cinematic techniques with it?

Most of gaming is stuck in a world of technical achievement first, vague overblown attempt at art second (if at all). The only possibly artistic advance I've seen in gaming between now and, say, the late 80s is in the quality of music written for some games, some of which can now easily stand beside cinematic pieces. But for God's sake, people, get some decent writers in. Please. But that's another rant.

The problem with going down the more stylised and/or more arty route is simple - not everyone will like it. Everyone can oooh and aaah at the latest shiny-but-empty graphics advances, not everyone will appreciate a new style. Not necessarily because gamers are philistines who don't know what's good for them, either - some people just don't get along with some visual styles.

But some day, there will be nowhere else to go. Photorealism will simply be the norm, just as 3D is now. Maybe then, finally, game producers will be forced into making major innovations in gameplay and maybe even, *gasp*, the artistic merits of games. But I'd rather they started now rather than be forced into it by burning out all possible technical achievement first. Technical advance will happen, almost inevitably, but at this rate games-as-art may never do.

Yay for obscure Japanese gaming

2006-01-30T01:38:00.000Z

Well, hopefully not that obscure. But my collection of Nippon Ichi games has been taking up far too much of my time recently.

What I like about the Nippon Ichi games, I've decided, is that they press all my otaku buttons. They have a very Japanese feel, which has been kept even through the translation (and the American version even allows you to hear the original voice acting... damn the lack of a big otaku market in the UK). And dammit, if your sense of humour goes that way, and mine certainly does, they're so funny. Games on the whole are too po-faced these days.

So, here are some quick (and spoiler free) looks at my collection....

Disgaea: Hour of Darkness (Makai Senki Disgaea)
If you've heard of a Nippon Ichi game, it's probably this one, and rightly so. Fun, addictive, and with the tightest plot (though that isn't saying overly much) of the three I own, it's also a work of parody par excellence. If you ever wanted to see the complete piss taken out of Japanese Anime conventions and genres, bad superhero cartoons, Heaven and Hell, and the Power Rangers, complete with a side order of ribald humour, sarcastic demons, and exploding penguins, look no further.

Of course, it has its flaws. Like any parody, things have a tendancy to fall flat when the story tries to get serious for a bit; like any game, once you master the system you can abuse it to high heaven (though the game designers are aware of this, and it's only through such abuse you can get yourself into any state to challenge the hard-as-nails optional bosses - whether you consider this a flaw or not is up to you). It's also worth noting that the English voice acting (all you'll get if you have the PAL version) does consist entirely of the sorts of stock voice types that have brutalised dubbed anime - their saving grace is that they are well performed, fit the characters, and that using such stock voices actually lends weight to the parody aspects of the game script.

Another major flaw of Disgaea is: it isn't currently available. No, you can't have my copy.

Phantom Brave
Really quite a different beast to Disgaea, Phantom Brave is far more serious yet also far lighter in mood. Changes to the battle system make combat faster, but rather less tactical, and though the humour is still present it is an incidental element and lacks much edge. Phantom Brave also made it far more difficult to "powerlevel" - a good thing in some ways, but it means I still haven't had the patience to play through the game's extras, which as in Disgaea require rediculously high level characters. And those stock voices are back, and faring badly with a more serious script and some rather corny lines.

I personally find Phantom Brave easily the weakest of the three I've played, but that's probably more a personal taste thing than a comment on the game itself - I'm just not a fan of the fluffy/serious style.

Makai Kingdom
The one that's been eating up all my time recently. Makai Kingdom is in both story and combat system an attempt to combine elements of the more strategic, darker Disgaea with the smoother playing, more serious Phantom Brave. Sadly, it all goes a bit wrong.

The combat system, while better than Phantom Brave's, has many essentially superfluous elements that tend to complicate matters, though it brings back one nice tacitical element from Disgaea - the ability to get bonus damage for ganging up on enemies. Powerlevelling is made easier again, but only once your characters get beyond a certain point and you bother to go and find the rather obtuse method of achieving it. This puts it out of the way of people who'll shout it down as unfair, and available to those who want to be able to take on the obligatory raft of additional, super-tough fights in reasonable time, which seems a nice little compromise.

The story is in many ways an attempt at a grown-up Disgaea (Makai Kingdom is the only game of these three where the central characters are adults - and interestingly, the only one where the story characters aren't even playable, at least at first). However, it never quite knows where to pitch itself - is it a dark comedy, like Disgaea, or just dark? There are some hilarious moments in the first half, but all the humour falls away in the latter stages, and the (main) ending seems a little rushed and anticlimatic. The script also has a little too much of that oh-so-Japanese filler - having charaters just yell the other's name at each other.

But sod all that, I'm having fun.

A double edged note: To parents of younger children and adults worried about playing cute cartoony games
All three of these games (yes, even the lightest, Phantom Brave) may have cartoon style visuals, but all are rated 12+ for a reason. Disgaea has some quite ribald humour, and a little blood at the end, Phantom Brave has a lot of blood at the end, Makai Kingdom manages blood, ribald humour, some homosexuality references if you want to see them, and even a reference in the main script to an attempted rape that is only very slightly stepped around by euphemistic wording. Add to that the fact that you need a certain amount of age, experience and cross-cultural knowledge to fully appreciate most of the humour, and you're hardly looking at a "kiddy" game.

Update, Cos Vels Told Me Too

2005-11-30T21:52:00.000Z

Yay for blogging. You do a couple, then none for a month, then none for six months.... Anyway, on prodding from The Velsadan, I am updating. And not only adding a new post, but I've also updated Kefka with all his quotes (50+ of them). Refresh for more madness.

*waves to Vels*

I may, with startling unoriginality, update with my impressions of the latest Harry Potter film, when I can be bothered to go and see it.

Post of Many Nerdnesses +3

2005-06-08T17:00:00.000+01:00

Okay, been a while. I suck.

Nerdness the First:
I am now a team member, in a techie/builder position, at the wonderful NWN PW/Persistant Campaign TORIL. Life's been a little slow there for the past month or so, but now we people DMing again there should be twists and turns of plotness aplenty. Or something. Yoy!

Nerdness the Second:
I've hit a nasty block in my conlanging recently. Somehow I just can't get a proper description the Fluvic verbal system to come together on (e-)paper. Bah.

Nerdness the Third:
Went to see Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. Just because... well, you have to, y'know? Well, I was pleasantly suprised: absolutely friggin' hilarious. Ewan McGregor's Alec Guinness. Palpatine's "hehehe I r soo ebil" moments. Anakin wearing black from the very beginning. Actors trying to look serious and troubled whilst saying the word "younglings". Droids. Wookies. Yoda....

Yoda rocks.

A Par-tay Political Broadcast

2005-04-21T22:20:00.000+01:00

The rest of the world, and the rest of the country, may not have noticed, but here in England we're in the grip of election fever. Or election sniffles. Or something. Anyway, I'd like to take this opportunity to speak up for the Monster Raving Loony party.

So, I hear some cry, who the hell are they? To those I say: Click the link, moron. Meanwhile, the slightly more in-the-know call out, "WTF? Why should I waste my vote on them?"

I'll let the party's official Manicfesto do the talking.

Tired of the relentless spin of the main parties? Monster Raving Loony is for you:

"On the eve of the dissolution, we take the liberty of recalling to your minds the considerations which, in our judgement, should weigh with you in the exercise of your rights as voters during the next few weeks.

We firstly intend to sack anyone who writes such nonsense as the opening statement"
- Official 2005 Manicfesto

Worried about immigration?

"Immigration: everyone wanting to come and live in the UK will be made welcome, so long as they are over the age of 85 and accompanied by both parents."
- Official 2005 Manicfesto

Or the environment?

"Half the grey squirrel population will be painted red in order to increase the red squirrel population."
- Official 2005 Manicfesto

Or the state of the Health Service?

"To solve the increasing obesity problem and global warming, all TVs and home computers must be run only by exercycle generators. A phase-in period of this major remedy will be allowed - maybe 5 to 5m minutes."
- Official 2005 Manicfesto

The rising crime rate?

"Anyone caught breaking the law will be made to mend it."
- Official 2005 Manicfesto

Education?

"We pledge to reduce class sizes by making the pupils sit closer to one another and issuing them with smaller desks. "
- Official 2005 Manicfesto

And what about national defence?

"All WMDs will be made highly visible so that we can find them."
- Official 2005 Manicfesto

Plus the Join the Pound campaign, the total bastard tax , grants for Grants, Obligatory Policies We Haven't Really Thought Through But Might Win Us Cheap Votes, and more totally nonsensical policies on pensions, sport, pets, the Queen, etc., etc.

A crazy party for crazy times: Vote Monster Raving Loony.

You know you want to.

Online At Last

2005-03-27T21:38:00.000+01:00

The Menducia website is finally up, though in very very very beta stage. Woohoo!

Still need to update Kefka so he's got all his quotes though.

Make Up Your Damn Minds

2005-03-25T08:45:00.000Z

Alright, for complicated reasons involving ownership, names and racism, the ZBB wiki is no longer the ZBB wiki. I'm taking the link off until people can sort themselves out. Eep.

Byebye Wheldrake, perhaps the only GMT Neverwinter Nights DM in existence. Hope to see your PC around if there's any time I can actually play now... dammit.

The frogs have set up a pond of ill-repute at the bottom of the garden. Spring has truly sprung.

TESTING

2005-03-18T21:40:00.001Z

TESTING 1 2 3....

Bloody hell, it appears to be working. I still need to finish the Kefka quotes archive, but hopefully the rest is OK. Knowing my scripting skills, it isn't. There's always something. I won't know if I've kept the comment scripts intact until someone actually comments, which will probably be a while.

Anyway, for now:

OMFG, i r having a blog!!!11

Another Post

2005-03-18T21:40:00.000Z

The Menducia link will take you to Google news, as the site isn't up yet. When there's a site to go, and I edit the link, it will take you to my conlangs/conworld pages.

I should probably add a ZBB Wiki link too. Narf.