PS4 Me?

You can ask most people, I can find the good in anything. Find me the worst game you can think of and I will come up with a decent argument for at least one part of it. That's just me. I try to find the good, acknowledge and catalog the bad, and move on. When I'm investing time in something I don't want it to be a waste, so I at least make it a learning experience. It's not about convincing myself that something bad is good, it's about understanding why decisions were made the way they were, specifically in games.

Slightly to that point, there is something to be said about being both a gamer and a game developer. In many ways they are one in the same. Gamer me continually pushes game developer me to create better experiences, and as a game developer I am always looking forward to advances that allow for new ways for players to experience games. On the other hand, it sometimes takes away from the excitement of announcements, because many times the features and experiences we, as an industry, want players to have are all very similar. We see things moving certain ways, shaped by societal changes. We actually put a lot of work into predicting the future and what players are going to expect from games by the time a product we are working on launches. So in some ways, Game Developer me tempers what gamer me hears.

So all that said, game developer me agrees with a lot of what Sony said in their PS4 unveiling. Games being a more social experience. The barriers of use being broken down. Predictive algorithms that end up tailoring your experience to be more about what you enjoy as a player. These are all great things that will absolutely be a boon to developers. Gamer me, though, heard what they were saying, was excited, then let down by what was shown, because the promise of this new experience was not apparent in any of the new titles that were talked about. Sure, the share button is cool, and it absolutely goes to the point of barriers of use being broken down that I mentioned earlier, but gamer me has seen clips and streaming PS3/360/PC games already in the past few years. The social aspects mentioned all sound great, but nothing was shown really making use of any of them. Don't get me wrong, the games shown were all technically impressive, but none of them sold me on the ideas that they spent the first half hour talking about.

Killzone - visually great
Driving Club - More photorealistic than any GT game
Knack - Potentially fun premise
Infamous Second Son - I've confirmed what was shown was in-engine, so nice!

Third-party stuff is more difficult for me to gauge, simply because I admittedly play a lot more on my PC now, so if it's going to be available on PC that's where I'm going to buy it since I've invested quite a bit of money into it. Comfy couch comments need not apply as I've wired HDMI to my TV from my PC, so I'm just as comfy as I would be playing on a console. So while Watch_dogs looked AMAZING, they've basically confirmed it for PC...and it was confirmed to be running on a PC at the Sony event. I liked what I heard about Destiny when it was unveiled this past weekend, so that hasn't changed. I'll definitely get it on a platform where I'll be able to play with the most of my friends. So all that stuff was nice to see.

I just wonder, in general, if Sony did themselves any favors by announcing early. Sure, it allowed them to talk about what their thought process is for their new system, but again, nothing they showed really utilized much of what they talked about. In addition, the expectation at E3 for them will be, "Well what else new do you have to show us?" So if they come out and just show the same games, but further along and more in-depth, it could be slightly problematic from the aspect of competitors potentially showing new games too. People are going to be more excited about the things they didn't know about versus learning more about something they already knew about. Hopefully they have some cool, new games to show at E3 as well that aren't just third-party offerings available elsewhere too.

So while game developer me really digs the platform potential that was talked about today, gamer me just didn't see it in action enough to get excited. When I have a PS4 (and I will, I'm not even going to try to convince myself otherwise) I will play and enjoy Infamous Second Son, Knack, whatever Media Molecule and Naughty Dog come up with, and many other exclusive titles for sure, but I'm disappointed that we were told about what Sony's vision of next-gen was, without really seeing that in practice.

Operation: Game Maker

Yes, I know it's been awhile since I've updated. My bad. No excuses, really...just need to be more stalwart in doing it. But, now I have a new project. If you know me or have read my blog, you have inevitably been introduced to my son, Ian.

As he gets older, I thought back to things my father and I used to do together as "projects." Those things in which lessons were taught, knowledge was passed down, etc. For some it was restoring a car. For my dad and I, it was hunting/trapping/fishing.

Now, I'll be completely honest. There was only one of those three activities that I actually enjoyed, which was fishing, but I enjoyed doing them all as they gave me and my father time together. Most that know me know that I'm a geek and was a choir guy in high school, so there was admittedly a bit of a gap between the things that I enjoyed versus what my dad did. But he was always proud of my accomplishments, even if he couldn't relate to the enjoyment I got from it. It was the same with me and hunting/trapping with him, I know it made him happy to have me and my brother there with him, and that was enough.

So I began thinking about what I could do with my son that would be in a similar vein. Luckily, he's a lot like his father in his love of games, so I was thinking about things such as mods for games like Skyrim or Torchlight. With something like this, I could teach some game design lessons and such. For whatever reason, I thought, "Well, we could just make our own game." There are many tools out there to facilitate this, but I wanted something that would be simple enough for him to use. I ran the idea by the wife and she thought it sounded neat. Then I ran it by him and he was ecstatic! He's been really big into RPGs recently, including some of the classic ones, so I decided to go with this:

I remember RPG Maker from waaaaaaay back when, and it's advanced quite a bit. Sure, it's still a top down, party based RPG that you get, but it fits the qualifications for what I wanted in being easy to use. What was really cool, as if it were a sign, is that the makers of the program just launched boxed copy sales of it literally the same day I decided to do this. In addition, it was buy one boxed copy, get one free. Since I needed two, this was great!

So in addition to updating with other stuff, I'll be updating with progress on our game. I expect this to be a long project, so it will likely be years before it's even done. It'll be something we do in between other activities together.

Warmachine 3: GAME ON!

So tonight we played our first real game of Warmachine with the Battlebox armies. I'd played a game with the wife over the weekend, but it was more just trying to learn the ropes a bit better. Tonight, my son and I threw down. He played Khador while I played Menoth.

So, in Warmachine, you have a Warcaster, which is essentially the chess equivalent to the queen and king combined. So they are your most powerful unit, and most important. If they die, you lose. They are what power your Warjacks, which are the big robots. They give them focus (which you'll often see on the table as the glass beads) in order to let them do cool things.

Menoth Warcaster

So, quick timeout. I'm not super happy with how my Menoth guys turned out. They're OK, but could be a lot better. If anything, they actually have given me the drive to continue and learn proper shading that isn't the quick dip method. Now back to the game!

Going over the rules

Each unit in the army has different values for things like movement and attacks. Speed, for instance, is how many inches a unit can move. There are all sorts of things units can do, and if you want to know more about how to play you can check out the quick start rules here:

http://privateerpress.com/files/WarmachineMKII%20Quick%20Start%20Rules%20Front.pdf
http://privateerpress.com/files/Warmachine%20MKII%20Quick%20Start%20Rules%20Back.pdf

From here on out, it's going to be pictures of our game. You'll see who wins at the end.

Armies deployed and ready to play

Ian making sure his setup is good

My initial setup

Ian contemplating his move

Ian moving units forward. RUN!

Moving his warcaster to ensure that they stay within range to give his Warjacks focus

My light warjack up against one of his. I ended up taking out his movement console with a charge attack plus melee attack

Good, up close picture of the fully touched up Khador jack

Rolling to see if he is going to hit

NONE SHALL PASS!!

So yeah, my light warjack is not in a good place after a charge attack from his man-o-war infantry units (not funny, he died after this)

So I took out one of his man-o-war with a ranged area-of-effect attack (think an explosive blast) then decided to roll my warcaster within range to using the spell Cleansing Fire, which /should/ have really hurt the entire infantry unit, as they were clumped up. Yeah, that didn't work, leaving my warcaster out in the open with nothing to do. Oh, and he was within charging range of the man-o-war units. Oops.

High Exemplar Kreoss, wondering if he chose the right direction in life

Apparently not 

And your winner!

Warmachine, Part 2: Painting Khador

So as I mentioned last time, I was priming based on the colors I'd be painting the minis. First up was Khador, since they were colors that were easier to paint than white.

Now, I want to mention again, this is my first attempt at actually painting minis, and I'm also painting to just get them what is considered table ready. Neither of these armies are going to end up being ones that any of my family members use, so perfection is not required here. Just getting something that looked decent was the goal. Oh, and I used cheap paint too. (blasphemy!)

So here is the first Khador jack I painted, but before I'd done any touch up work or the "dip method" (which I will explain in a minute)

And here is the entire Khador army prior to dipping.

Now, dipping is a quick method used to shade minis. While more experienced painters will use a wash to get down into grooves and make the mini "pop" as it were, people like me or those painting a ton of things will use the dip method to do it. To dip, you go buy a can of this:

There are a few ways people do it. Some people take their mini, submerge it in the liquid, then shake it around to get the excess off. Some people attach their mini to a drill to get it off. No, seriously:

Me? I brush it on. You end up with a very glossy mini.

To get rid of the shine, you use some matte finish.

Stay tuned for next time, in which the Protectorate of Menoth warjack takes a mud bath (oops)

Warmachine, Part 2: Assembly and Painting Begin!

First, some bad news. The sand table inserts, despite turning out great, got warped so they don't fit into the table. So I've had to go with a different solution for that. You'll see it later, and no it wasn't the Zuzzy mat.

Anyway, for those unfamiliar with miniature wargames, let me show you what you get.

So, just so were clear, this are individually bagged minis (sometimes they come on sprues that you have to cut them out of), but they aren't put together. You have to do that yourself. Sometimes, it's a bit like getting something from Ikea without having instructions. Luckily, the Warmachine minis are pretty awesome and its evident what you have to do. That doesn't stop it from looking like this when you take them out of the bag though.

So, a little bit of super glue and a couple of hours end up producing the following:

Priming them is the next step in the process. You prime the minis so that paint will better stick to them when you go in to do detail work. You want to prime in colors that make sense for what the base colors of the mini will be.

The first army was Khador. Their colors are darker in nature, as seen by the mini here (not painted by me):

I primed black because of this. If I could have found a red primer, I would have used that, but black will work. It may mean I need to layer on more paint when painting, but that's OK.

To prime them, I put a little bit of tacky stuff on a piece of cardboard (obviously the black one there) and primed each individually. The goal is to do it enough to coat the entire mini, but not so much that it pools and ruins detail. So you want to keep the spray can at least a foot away while spraying too. You'll go through a bit this way, but they turn out good.

The next army was The Protectorate of Menoth. They are more of a white base. (again, not painted by me)

So I primed these guys white.

Yes, I did mess up the bases a bit moving them from the painting cardboard piece to the drying area. Live and learn! I have to do the bases with dirt and fake grass bits anyway, so I'll touch those up then. I'll give the primer a full 24 hours, then the actual painting will commence!

Warmachine Update: Table is done!

So the sand ended up working well, and has now been painted. Only fail was doing it in the basement, as it wasn't well ventilated. That isn't exactly true...It ventilates up into the house, so I'm having to air things out.

Only thing left is to put some straps on the boards so that they can be easily put in and pulled out. then to get decorations for the table.

Anyway, here are some pictures:

Warmachine, Part 1.5: Battle Scars!

OUCH!!! Got that trying to scrape excess sand off...but most of it is stuck on, which is exactly what I want! More glue tomorrow, and we'll see how it is after application on Wednesday.