On Ruining Dear Esther

An indie game with astounding production quality sets out into territory beyond known genres.

DISCLAIMER! 

In the course of this article, I will ruthlessly spoil Dear Esther, certainly for those who have not experienced it, and in all possibility for some who have.  

By Thomas Rousse

“There’s nothing better to do here than indulge in contradictions,” says the narrator.  

His British voice is deep and theatrical, tinged with mania.  My avatar crosses the gloomy beach.  Stubborn, I persist in seeking out better things to do than indulge in contradictions.  A wrecked boat beached on the rocks looks intriguing.  Perhaps some clue as to what I am doing here?  

My avatar intrepidly paddles out into the surf for a few moments before sinking into the empty blackness.  I drown(?); I hear the narrator’s voice: “Come back...” and then I am staring at the rocky sand of moments before, yards away from the surf.

*                      *                      *

Dear Esther is unquestionably a beautiful experience.  Jessica Curry's elegiac score provides cohesion and drive throughout the narrative. As the setting reveals more of its secrets, the more difficult it is to believe that the painstaking detail of the island's sparse signs of habitation and subterranean wonder were created by a single level designer, Robert Briscoe (Mirror's Edge).  

Dan Pinchbeck, Ph.D, with a dissertation on the FPS, has crafted a structural narrative shaped by Lovecraftian elements: purple prose that teeters on the overwrought, an unreliable narrator whose sanity is slipping away, and a remote island cursed for generations. Nigel Carrington's voice acting saves the most melodramatic sections of writing from grating, and much of the game's affective power comes from the texture of his voice.

When the developers label the game a "walk'em up," they aren't being coy.  There are no mechanics; your task is only to walk along the path, free to look around and investigate as you please. As the walker progresses across the island towards an aerial crowned by a blinking red light, the narrator delivers what is presumably the inner monologue of the character directed by the user.  The order of the audio segments is semi-randomized and the walker will not trigger every variant in one journey, meaning that the game cannot be completed in the most straightforward sense; every iteration of the game is a fraction of the narrative,  and there is no definitive version to analyze textually.  

The disconnected segments, lacking cohesive pacing and ragged with loose ends, give Dear Esther the feeling of fugue state.  Unfortunately, while the monologue begins in media res, my experience of embodying the character did not.  I came into the game confused, after the "Start" option on the menu brought me to a level selection screen rather than the beginning of the game.  Beyond this initial confusion, the narrator doesn't discuss the destination of his journey until perhaps a third of Dear Esther has passed. 

 Until roughly that point, I had little idea of what was expected of me, or even what I was capable of.  I did not know swimming was strictly limited, or that exploration often went unrewarded beyond the opportunity to slowly trudge back to the main path and the occasional run-in with an invisible wall.  My own uncertainty clashed with the bold soliloquies that periodically issued forth from what I presumed to be my character.  When I heard the narrator say, "There must be something new to find here – some nook or some cranny that offers a perspective worth clinging to," it seemed our thoughts had for once converged.

*         *        *

"I have found myself to be as featureless as this ocean..."  For once, I agree with the voice; when I peer into the water, I see no reflection.  Lately, the voice has been talking more and more about a serious leg injury, unbearable pain, a life-threatening infection and a quantity of pain-killers that would make even Rush Limbaugh blush.  

But the walker plods on without complaint, my steady pace maintained in the face of the character's laments.  The walker's footsteps are often silent, and when audible have the regularity of clockwork.  I look down into a chasm, and as the voice fills me in on its significance, I edge a little too close to get a better look— and fall in.  A black screen, and again the narrator's voice: "Come back..." Vision returns, and I am standing once again before the chasm.

*         *        *

While Dear Esther does a superb job of conveying a sense of place on the island, it makes very little effort to create a sense of embodiment.  The narrator reveals his leg has been badly injured, and as the journey progresses, the grave and potentially fatal nature of the wound is expanded upon.  Complaints about pain become more frequent, and the narrator talks about eating painkillers in the present tense.  Yet while I am told these things, I do not experience any of them.  My pace never slows, even after a few precipitous drops and a steady slog up the hillside.  Even though my inner monologue says I am taking pain killers in the present tense, I never see them.  Furthermore, I have no way to affect the environment around me.  At times, it feels as though I have taken the form of an armless invisible man.

If Dear Esther lacks any kind of mechanical/haptic interaction with the environment (e.g. press A to pull lever), is it still interactive? As more of the tragic tale is revealed, themes of fatalism develop and intermingle with a crescendo of biblical imagery.  The state of the narrator's sanity erodes further. There are spurts of frantic talk about a car accident, conflicting accounts of the whereabouts/uses of Esther's ashes, and previous inhabitants of the island, among many overlapping and often contradictory subplots.  Beyond inconsistency, the story is shrouded in dense metaphors and allusions to other snippets of information that haven't been encountered yet, and may never be.  

It requires mental work and imagination to parse these disparate elements into a coherent tale; that is, you have to bring parts of your own self and judgment into play with the narrative.  Dear Esther interacts with your mind's predilection for constructing story. This interactive process is not so different from what is required of a reader of fiction.  This argument certainly has its proponents; take Jude Richard Posner, one of America’s most respected jurists, who wrote:

Maybe video games are different [from previous media such as film and books].   They are, after all, interactive.   But this point is superficial, in fact erroneous.   All literature (here broadly defined to include movies, television, and the other photographic media, and popular as well as highbrow literature) is interactive;  the better it is, the more interactive.   Literature when it is successful draws the reader into the story, makes him identify with the characters, invites him to judge them and quarrel with them, to experience their joys and sufferings as the reader's own.

That excerpt is from American Amusement Machine Association v. Kendrick, a ruling closely followed in Brown v. EMA, the Supreme Court case which ushered in a new era of constitutional protection for games as speech in the U.S.

As Judge Posner emphasizes, it is too easy to mistake the reader for a passenger along for the author's ride, but creating meaning through reading necessarily involves the experience and prejudice of the reader.  In the dominant paradigm, where mechanics define interaction, Dear Esther falls short of interactivity, and thereby ceases to be a game.  Instead, perhaps we might consider the procedural responses characteristic of the majority of video games to be predominantly reactive.  We should extend our notion of interactivity to warmly embrace any experience requiring interpretation and construction between audience and creator rather than use it as a cudgel to exclude certain genres from Wittgenstein’s “family resemblance” of games.

*                      *                      *

“I will drag my leg behind me; I will drag it like a crumpled hatchback, tyres blown and sparking across the dimming lights of my vision. I am running out of painkillers and am following the flicker of the moon home.”  I seem to be floating on at the same pace as before.  The voice is wilder now.  In a few moments, I come up to the aerial, and suddenly the avatar is out of my hands.  The field of vision moves forward, and then up the ladder—it reminds me a little of a rollercoaster.  The body climbs to the top and leaps, rushing headlong down to the beach and surf below before evening out and gliding back over the landscape, recapping the third act and zooming out into the water before the screen slowly goes back.  And then the same voice, in the same way, says “Come back…”

…

I don’t respawn.  I think the game might be over.

I didn’t even see any fucking ghosts,” I think.  I faintly feel a certain poignancy, an undercurrent overwhelmed by unease.  The screen is still black.  I contemplate the story for a moment.  I fret that I am missing some ultimate scene, some monumental denouement .  I finally get up and start mashing buttons until the menu comes up and I know that it’s over.

*                      *                      *

And so I entered the game confused and left the game confused, though I enjoyed much in between.  Dear Esther would have benefited from more paratextual material to prepare the walker for what to expect, or simply a more strongly motivated beginning, so the user could feel confident of his or her role in the proceedings despite having little precedent in play experience.  The ending confounded me.  While I perfectly understand the thematic resonances enabled by repeating “come back” in a game like Dear Esther, what the developers failed to realize is that was the one song which provided any sort of feedback, an audio cue that clearly signaled resurrection in the player’s limited mechanical vocabulary.  Meanwhile, I was forced to stare into a completely black screen, wondering if the game had crashed at a particularly unfortunate moment.

I recognize this position; in elementary school, I had a teacher who insisted that we not end our juvenile stories with “the End.”  It made sense to me; after all, you could see there simply isn’t any more left—only an idiot would need to be told there was nothing left to read.  In the novel, a form where similar narrative ambitions are developed, the rightward stack of pages represents a finite continue of the tale, a certain fatalism of textual length.  

But the electronic game has few extradiegetic clues as to its finality; the boundaries of one game have no limits interpretable from within the play experience.  The player might just as well expect more, especially in a game roughly a third the length of the average single player adventure campaign.  

Thus, instead of spending that quiet moment pondering the meaning of the narrative, I sat in uncertainty and doubt, fearing from the life of my laptop’s video card.  It was a pity; Dear Esther certainly gives one a lot to think about.

Tommy Rousse wants to dual-class in lawyer and games scholar when he grows up.  Right now he’s studying Games Analysis at IT-University of Copenhagen.  He writes at ludist.com

Keyboard Drumset Fucking Werewolf

Wait, what? A game that involves keyboards, drumsets and werewolves? Is this some Twilight version, man?

By: Katerina Prevelianaki

It has been quite a while since the last time I played an indie game that is not famous (see: popular / mainstream ) or even coming from a “decent” company.

This game is still on its birth crib and straight from the personal blog of its maker, Cactus, a guy coming from Sweden who is making games in an experimental basis. In this try out that Cactus is making, he has the help and support from a few more artists and programmers who have their fair share of work in those games as well.

The name of the game is “ Keyboard Drumset Fucking Werewolf”, a rather strange, long but promiscuous name.

The player controls an Εskimo boy who is a lonesome adventurer. He has no cares in this world and his only goal is to go through certain challenges so that he can listen to a specific song. However, in order to do that you need to awaken the beast that sleeps within the boy and that is when the “real” game begins.

You have to go through different levels that have different design, aims and enemies. You need to jump, run and use some special actions which vary from level to level in order to defeat or avoid the enemies and you must do everything really fast, in fact, there are some challenged that you need to overcome or accomplish just by hitting the keys really fast, if you are not good enough then you lose and you have to start over.

The final level and the boss you have to win over are presented in a way that is provoking you to just get there and “destroy” the place. The boss is covered with mystery, it is a creature called the Unicrash and not much is known about it.

Then to top it all off, the game presents this boss as the ultimate powerful challenge that will make it for you one hell of a ride, and it is so “badass” that there are legends about it saying that it has “wiped out Rome in just one day, had sex with both Cleopatra, Medusa and Madonna on several occasions and made Beethoven deaf by just whispering to him”...now that’s a challenge that every player wants to beat! The controls used throughout the whole game are the arrow keys and buttons Z and X for the main actions.

The music – made by the band called Fucking Werewolf Asso- also varies from time to time getting from intense to more intense but never slow and calm and it is really helping to evoke and bring up to the surface the emotions and mood the game wants you to experience.
The vivid colors, punk music and fast paced gameplay will make you feel on the edge and when you really get yourself immersed in the game, you will feel that there is a werewolf waiting to be awakened inside you as well.

The diversity that the game offers is really pleasant and keeps you focused and interested throughout the game and the amazing art and design style it has is surely an eye catcher
This arcade style game is like a cool breeze among all those common games we have been used to see so far and it looks like it’s a fresh start from a guy who seems to be very promising and with a lot of potential to make something really great one day.

This is how true indie games should be, special, unusual, imaginative, innovative and mindblowing with craziness.

Slaying pigs has never been this fun. Or pink.

by Joanna, the nostalgiafag

Imagine yourself strolling in a pleasant looking area – out in the fresh air, surrounded by fresh, green grass and pretty trees. 

 

Suddenly, you notice this magnificent, stunning, adult, brown hog. You simply must have it. So you chase the hog around the pleasant looking area and enjoy a delicious dinner a few moments later. However, the dinner is interrupted by strange noises. 

Turns out some pigs, very pink pigs, are robbing an innocent man. Being the hero that you are, you run to his rescue. You are very brave and eager to fight. Still, you end up unconscious. You wake up to find that your beloved bracelet given to you by your grandpa has been stolen by the pigs. Now, you are angry. Those pigs are going to get some. And so, the pursue begins.

Tomba! also known as Tombi! (PAL) is a game developed by Whoopee Camp released in 1997 (Japan) for the Sony Playstation. It is a 2D adventure game with some RPG ele- ments. And it is definitely worth your attention.

 The action takes place in an unidentified world, on a group of islands. Turns out, a group of Evil Pigs has been stealing gold from people and casting evil spells all around the area. Previously unaware of all this, now you’re getting yourself right in the middle of this mess. The bracelet you’re after is with the master of the Evil Pigs. In order to get to it, you have to defeat all of the Evil Pigs. 

So you wander through the is- lands, meet characters, gather items, get new weapons and skills and, most impor- tantly, kick some pig ass. Every area has an evil spell casted on it and an Evil Pig behind it. For every Evil Pig, there is an Evil Pig Bag. You have to find those, defeat the Evil Pigs and therefore get rid of the evil spells

The essence of Tomba! lies in its gameplay which is based on a mission or, as it is called in the game, event system. As you go through the game, you discover different events and clear them. There are 133 events in total but not all of them are essential for completing the game. Don’t worry about keeping track. The game provides you with a nice interface where you can check which events have you discovered and which have you cleared. Every event is worth a number AP points. AP points expand your health bar and also al- low you to learn magic later on in the game.

You will also be spending quite a bit of time in the inventory as there’s a lot of stuff to be collected. Basically, the whole game is about collecting, delivering and using stuff, which is not that bad. You just have to be prepared for quite a number of travels.

You can move, run, jump and attack ene- mies with your melee weapon(s). Your motor skills get improved when you progress in the game. For example, you can get an umbrel- la which allows you to float in the air for a bit, or you can get different shorts of short which improve your running speed or jump height.

The gameplay is pretty fluid and not too demanding. The fighting system is very simple – you can either use your weapons or jump on pigs to smash them against something (can give you much satisfaction). The most im- portant skill is actually precision. 

Often in the game, you get a feeling of running through the areas to get to somewhere/do something faster and the animal dash allows you to do it. However, you can often miss jumps, fall off platforms and run into enemies so better be careful. You also have to do a lot of talking. It’s best if you talk to every character in the game. Most of them unlock different events but also give you hints about various things in the game or help you complete missions..

The graphics in Tomba! are nice, flat and very colorful. There were better graphics done in those years but the visuals in Tomba! fit the game perfectly, the characters are animated nicely and, basically, there’s no need for more.

Same for the music – it’s nice, cheerful, more serious when needed and very fitting. The sound effects are also nicely done, especially the ones the pigs make - very enjoy- able. There is no voice acting though. 

Instead there are speech bubbles and some unidentified high pitch sounds which re- place talking. Tomba himself doesn’t say a word, yet still he’s able to communicate. I’ve always wondered if it was (not) done delib- erately or the developers were just lazy or lacking ideas on what Tomba should say.

 Tomba! is not an extraordinary game. It’s not groundbreaking in any way. Still, it is a solid and very playful adventure which you will en- joy even as a grownup. It’s one of those games where you don’t expect and think about blowing away graphics or huge, explorative worlds. 

It’s a game that you plainly enjoy in its simplicity. It’s also one of those games that make you want to play it again over the years. 

To put very simple: oldie but goodie.

Score:
Gameplay: 8/10 

Graphics: 7/10 

Sound: 7/10
Long test-run: 8/10

Final score: 7,5/10

Super Crate Box

The premise is simple: Run, jump, shoot, avoid monsters, kill monsters, collect crates. 
It’s the ingenuity in the way that the basic elements have been put together, make Super Crate Box shine. Out for iPhone and iPod Touch, for $1, it’s an addictive gem that should not to be missed.

By Julian Møller

Super Crate Box is actually a very simple game. It has retro-like graphics, a four-button control scheme, one-screen levels and unintelligent enemies. It looks, sounds and feels like a classic arcade game. And it’s all about beating the high score.

It’s a casual experience that you can pick up when you have a spare minute, but it has hardcore elements as well. You die easily, but it’s easy and fast to start again.

Instead of getting points by how long you survive or how many monsters you’ve killed, you get points for how many crates containing weapons you pick up. When you pick up a crate, your old weapon is replaced with a new one. Because the crates spawn at random positions, you are forced to keep moving around the level, and you never get to keep your favorite weapon for long.

The three different levels all have a hole in the ceiling and one or more fiery pits on the bottom. Monsters emerge from the top and waddle either left or right, turning around when they hit walls. This way, they make their way downwards. If the monsters fall into the fire, they don’t die: They just get angry and respawn at the top in a faster and redder edition. The type and amount of monsters that spawn at a given time is random. The three levels are quite similar, but their different layout makes the pacing and the viable strategies a lot different.

The game has a vast arsenal of weapons, ranging from a devastating bazooka over a almost melee katana and ending with the unforgiving disc-gun and the difficult to time mines. The weapons have very different use cases and potency, which makes sure that the gameplay becomes varied. Somehow the game knows that whatever weapon you just picked up is your least favorite, so it punishes you with sending huge waves down from the ceiling. Or so it seems. The game is full of moments that make you go Oh sh**!, all based on the randomness of the weapons and monster spawns. The game is unforgiving and hard, but never unfair.

The flamethrower is one of the more tricky weapons, as monsters need to walk through the fire for a while before they die.

Super Crate Box is structured in a way that makes you keep playing. In the beginning you only have a single weapon, but slowly, more and more weapons are unlocked, as you collect more and more crates. You also unlock later levels, when you have proved your proficiency in the previous ones. And then, you can unlock the harder versions of the levels, making the challenge even greater. The game also rewards you with vanity unlocks in the form new playable characters. A number of are characters from indie games, such as Super Meat Boy and Canabalt.

When you first start playing the game, you die. A lot. But then, slowly, you start to die later and later. You learn the rules of the game. You get better. You develop strategies, you learn when to retreat, when to stand your ground and clean up, and when to press on towards the next crate.
You actually get better at the game, even though it has many random elements, and that feels great.

Super Crate Box’ single problem is, that the control scheme becomes a bit awkward once you try to get high scores in the difficult versions of the level, when the number of monsters become very high, and simultaneous jumping and shooting becomes required.

The rocket launcher kills everything within its blast radius, but travels and reloads a bit slow.

The only meaningful score I can give a cheap game like Super Crate Box is whether or not to buy it. In this case, the verdict is Buy!!. The game can easily entertain you for many weeks, until you have unlocked everything and raked in all the achievements.

After that, it might be shelved, because new content doesn’t seem to be coming. But — for $1 (6 DKK), this game is a well worth the money and delivers far more value than its price.

Super Mario Boy

Sawing blades trying to keep Super Meat Boy away from Bandage Girl

A meatball on his heroic quest.

By Bert Baker

Boy likes Girl. 

Douchebag hates Boy. 

Douchebag beats up Boy. 

Douchebag takes the Girl. 

Boy is not amused. 

Girl is neither. 

Boy hunts Douchebag down to get Girl back. 

This concludes the story behind Super Meat Boy, which is not remotely a problem. Super Meat Boy is much more superior in other disciplines.

The Many Deaths of Meat Boy

Apart from the essential mechanics of platformer games, such as the Super Mario series or the eccentric Limbo, Super Meat Boy adds one distinct characteristic to the list: stickiness. Being a living lump of meat Meat Boy sticks to the wall and slides slowly down again. This rule helps climbing walls and lets you use them as vertical platforms. After playing the first levels it becomes obvious that sticking to walls is the core notion of Super Meat Boy.

Super Meat Boy is like Poker. Just faster and less expensive. While the controls are easy to learn, it takes time to master them. The difficulty level switches pretty early from easy to a very advanced level, but it never demands the impossible. Although it can get pretty frustrating, after half of the first chapter it becomes clear that trial and error is the way to go and the many deaths of Meat Boy just feel like casualties.

The replay function shows all of your failed attempts to save Bandage Girl. And the one that was successful.

Mandatory Torments

Super Meat Boy is divided in five chapters with 20 levels as well as a boss fight each and an end world with five levels and a boss fight. Every chapter has its own scenario, such as a forest or a hospital, and comes with specific obstacles and traps. The levels themselves reflect the storyline of Super Meat Boy, so the goal is to get to Bandage Girl – the Girl – just to find out that Dr. Fetus – the Douchebag – will take her away from you again. Saws, static and moving, spikes as well as rockets are trying to make a Meat Boys life a living hell.

Every level has a preset time limit, which adds a race challenge to the game and it rewards you with an “A+” if you can beat the time limit. When you die the level quickly starts over again, there are no checkpoints in Super Meat Boy, which can be frustrating in longer levels, but most of the time it just encourages you to do it better the next time. Plus: Once you successfully passed a level a replay is shown, which shows all your attempts at once and you can see where you lost the crucial millisecond that kept you from acing the level.

Optional Torments

Once you aced every level and saved Bandage Girl Super Meat Boy doesn’t end. You can switch to the Dark World and chase Dr. Fetus again, but this time the levels are harder and more merciless than ever before. 

Or you can replay levels to unlock the so-called Warp Zones and reminisce about Super Meat Boys ancestors while rescuing Bandage Girl Mario- or Commander Video-style. 

Or you can go out and collect all Bandages hidden in the levels to unlock other characters, such as a Half-Life headcrab, and continue playing as them. 

Or you can unlock all 48 achievements, which should take all your skill and time, but they also come with a drop of bitterness, because the achievements mostly just reflect your progress. 

And if even that is not challenging enough, there still is Teh Internets, a growing collection of levels built by fans and tested by the developer Team Meat. As you can see the humble storyline is not a problem at all and Super Meat Boy offers more than meets the eye, if you are up to the competition.

Inside the Meat

Apropos meets the eye. Meat Boys visual appearance has more in common with the storyline than with the game play. The nicely drawn backgrounds and objects have a high level detail and clearly state what their purpose is. 

Only minor inconsistency is the cutscenes, which might look cuddly and neat, but don’t feature the same level of detail as the levels. The practicality of the graphics adds to the smooth feel of the controls and animations. The sound effects and the soundtrack are supporting the overall feel of Super Meat Boy and pay their tribute to its predecessors.

Super Meat Boy can be seen as the modern pinnacle in the genre of platformer games and while not being overtly innovative it surely pushes the boundaries with its challenging level design and precise controls.

Although, it heavily relies on the trial and error mechanic and thus has a very advanced difficulty, you will never feel treated in an unfair manner rather than thinking that you are just not good enough. 

And you will try it again.

Live the Epic tale

Is it possible for Bioware, a company that values story above almost anything, to add something new to the MMO genre with 'Star Wars The Old Republic'?

By Nanna Florang Pedersen

I am walking away from an old factory. 

I just managed to get some bombs that I had to deliver to a terrorist cell. I am working undercover and with every step I take I need to be careful not to blow my cover. One of the Agents also working undercover calls me on a hologram. He presents me with a dilemma, either risk blowing my cover and save a lot of civilians, or stick with my mission and sacrifice some civilians. 

I would usually value to save lives but I am afraid that this might blow my cover so I decide to stick with the mission. A few moments later the other Agents call me and describe the damage the bombs did. I feel sad and angry and this is where the new Star Wars game shines: Epic storytelling.  

Before I get carried away I should start at the beginning. As in other MMOs you start in the character creation. The first choice you have to make is to whether or not you are going to ally yourself with the Republic or the Empire. After that you choose which species and class you want to play for example I started with a female human Imperial Agent.

When the creation is done you get the classic scrolling yellow test that Star Wars is so known for and you start to feel the familiar feeling of adventure. The text briefly describes who you are as a person and how your adventure will start.

The start of the game was simple because I had played other MMOs before, however SWTOR has no real structural tutorial. This could make new players feel a little overwhelmed with the information getting thrown their way and with hostile NPCS waiting around the corner, life can be short.  

As mentioned in the beginning is it possible to play your character in any way. You could be asshole of the galaxy, the goody two shoes or just a cocky independent I-don’t-give-a-crap kinda guy. The story part is told through the class quest and completing them will progress my story and further shape my character. Sometimes when I have to make a choice in the game a little sign will show whether it is a light side choice or a dark side choice. This also helps define your character because you do not have to be “evil” to play a sith. 

The class quests are by far the most interesting quests in the game and regular quest can become a bit trivial. It is still the same MMO stuff with “kill 30 sandpeople”. The fully voiced dialogue however can make it more interesting and if you are playing with friends the game provides a roll when you are interacting with NPCs. 

For example I was playing with some friends and as mentioned before I play as a good character, however my teammates were playing as evil characters.  I would chose conversation option 1 and one would chose conversation option 3 but whoever rolled the highest would get to speak. This little feature makes the conversation more dynamic and prevented me from just skipping the conversation while questing with others. 

This is a Star Wars game and just as Han Solo had Chewbacca, Luke had R2- D2 and Jabba the Hutt had princess Leia you also have a companion in the game. The companion work like most pets in other MMOs but with more personality and abilities. Companions can grow to love or hate you, and you get better items when they like you more. This adds to the storytelling and interacting with your companions will also help shape you as a character.

This is also a Bioware game so there is going to be some romance. The romance can be with random NPCs that you meet shortly or it can be with your companions. Some companions might even propose marriage. There are no explicit scenes and the romance mostly consists of kissing and getting different dialogue. This can add to your overall story of the game. The voice acting in this part is also worth mentioning as this is one of the reasons why you as a player would care about what happens to your companions. 

 There are several things I haven’t mentioned in this review because the game is so massive but I have covered what SWTOR adds to the MMO genre. The game feels like a really good story driven single player game with the opportunity to play with others. I feel like this is my story even though I see a lot of other Agents running around. My story in SWTOR is not over yet.

I would give 'Star Wars the Old Republic' a 9/10 and suggest it to all players who love great single player games but also want to play with others. The game is amazing and gives the term story telling a whole new depth.

”In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war” - and ONLY war!

Relic Games deliver on their mantra: “Unleash visible violent death” in their 3rd person shooter/brawler Space Marine.

By René Bech Korsgaard

Wave after wave rushes violently towards me from the vast ocean of green orks and are crushed against my thunderhammer in a foam of red xeno blood. ”Unleash visible violent death” was Relic Games' mantra when developing their 3rd person shooter/brawler Space Marine and they certainly deliver on it.

 Space Marine's best feature is it's unique combat system. You seamlessly move between ranged and melee combat by the use of the mouse buttons in a way that makes the gap between the two systems invisible. It just feels awesome to see a mass of orks charge towards you, while the thumbing sound of your trusty bolter sends round after round of explosive bullets into the mass, mowing down half of the damn xeno's, and then switching to the iconic chainsword once the orks are in melee range to slice the rest of them in a symphony of blood and guts. You truly feel like a space marine. The biggest bad-ass warrior in the universe.

 The only flaw in the combat system is the manner in which you revitalize your health. It is done by performing finishing moves, where a predefined animation is played out to e.g. saw an ork in half. The idea in it self is not bad, since it forces you to constantly stay in the thick of the battle dishing out brutal aw-inspiring finishing moves that makes the battlefield resemble a slaughterhouse. The problem, however, is that you loose control of the character through the entire animation (and some of them are over 3 seconds long), while the rest of the foes can pound you unhindered. This results in the mechanic being unreliable and often times the very reason you die.

Even though it feels amazing to slaughter legions of orks, it becomes tiresome overtime. Relic Games tries to overcome this fatigue by continuously introducing new weapons to give the combat a new flavor, and it works for a little while. But what I really miss is some interesting and challenging boss fights with mechanics reminiscent of puzzles, much like raid bosses in modern MMO's. So if Relic's sister company Vigil Games decides to use the same combat system (or something very similar) in their upcoming MMO, Dark Millennium Online, then it is sure to be a treat.

The second best feature is the graphics. Instead of falling into the trap of trying to make it as realistic as possible, they have gone for more stylization, which stays true to the Warhammer 40.000 franchise. Even though I personally think they could have taken the stylization even further to being reminiscent of Joe Madureira's style from Vigil games, I must admit that it looks great and portraits the dark and bleak future well.

The one aspect in this rendition of the Warhammer 40.000 universe that certainly is not praiseworthy is the narrative. The story of Captain Titus and his squad defending a forgeworld from an ork (and later chaos) invasion is unimaginative and frankly boring, and the little twists and turns in the plot that are meant as surprises are predictable and banal. Furthermore their portrayal of the space marine is skin deep. It only shows their stoic and heroic behavior and completely sidesteps the fascistic holy-er than thou demeanor. So if you play games for their narratives, then Space Marine is not for you.

 In conclusion I'll give Space Marine 4 out of 6 crab legs, and it has it's unique and nearly perfectly executed combat system to thank for it. It really does the space marines justice. However, the terribly poor narrative and lack of depth in the encounter design separates Space Marine from a perfect score.

Fantastic Fantasy

In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the world revolves around you.  You create the story, and the game follows. I highly suggest you buy an alarm clock together with Skyrim. That way you won’t forget to eat and sleep.

Skyrim is a phenomenal, fantastic and immersive experience that feels like so much more than a game. Try it – the only ones regretting it will be your family.

By Jakob Fischer

I looked at the old man. Unmistakingly speaking with the voice of actor Max von Sydow, he explained to me how I was destined for great things. How the fate of Skyrim was in my hands. How I was special. A Dragonborn, with latent powers inside me, beyond anything I could imagine. While I listened to the old man explaining how my powers were connected to the dreaded dragons, I steeled myself for the things to come. The great deeds I knew I had to perform. But most of all I prepared myself for a fantastic adventure that was just about to take shape and define itself, with me as the centerpiece, the main star of the story.

Skyrim, the fifth installment in Rockville-based Bethesda Game Studios Elder Scrolls series, pulls you into its nordic-inspired medieval fantasy setting right from the start, as you, the main protagonist, is forced to attend your own execution. Needless to say, your head stays on your shoulders, and you quickly discover that you are perhaps not the ordinary person you thought you were. 

Available on both Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows PCs, Skyrim features a vast open world, filled with forests, plains, mountains, lakes, waterfalls, hills, towns, cities,  caves, dungeons, castles, and all other kinds of beautifully rendered scenery you can imagine, and expect, of a fantasy world. It is also full of living (and not-so-living) beings which make the world feel truly alive. It is also cramped with hidden places of mystery and adventure, for you to discover during your travels and adventures. Many games have these characteristics though, and many games feature truly stunning visuals as well. So, you might ask, why is Skyrim special?

Where Skyrim really shines compared to other games of the genre, is that you create the story. In many other games you often end up feeling restricted, and is often forced to follow a certain path. This is not the case in Skyrim. Here you are free to go wherever you want, and do whatever you want. If you don’t feel like living up to your ancestry, the game doesn’t force you to. 

Basically, if you want to just explore the mountains, enjoy the scenery and pick flowers, you can do that (beware of bears though – and worse). If you want to pursue riches, explore caves, dungeons and ancient temples, and perhaps try to earn enough treasure to buy a fine mansion in a city, then the game lets you do just that. If you want to be a shadowy thief, breaking into people’s homes and steal their belongings (and perhaps their lives), then you can do just that – at least as long as the city guard doesn’t catch you red-handed. And these are just a few examples of the possible paths the game facilitates for you.

I must admit that Skyrim is one of the most addictive games I’ve tried in a long time. The game really pulls you in. It’s like reading the Lord of the Rings, mixed with a pinch of nordic mythology, except you are the hero and shape the story, and the world around you reacts to everything you do. On top of this sensation of really “being there” and the world lying at your feet, Skyrim has enough plot hooks in every scale across the spectrum which you can pick up on or ignore as you go along. This fine balance in the game means that you never find yourself bored. Somehow, there is always something to do, somewhere to go, things that you just have to do before you turn off the game and go to bed – and don’t say I didn’t warn you. 

Yes, Skyrim really is that good.

Of course Skyrim isn’t completely perfect. The interface which shipped with the game has received some critique from players, and it does feel slightly awkward and clunky. I think that’s just something we’ll have to live with, and a problem I’ve seen before in games that are developed for both consoles and PCs at the same time. The other issue that many younger gamers comment on is the complete lack of multiplayer features. But this cartoon, which compares massively multiplayer game World of Warcraft with Skyrim, points out precisely why: By level four you are collecting apples and killing boars in World of Warcraft (along with a horde of other players doing the same) - at the same level you are slaying a dragon and ripping its soul through its neck in Skyrim. 

And that’s exactly the point and why Skyrim is such a phenomenal singleplayer experience: You are the hero – not just one among a mass of players like you.