Dungeons and Dragons: "Alignment" part 3

            I have played Dungeons and Dragons for more than 15 years.  Lately, I have not had access to any other players and so I have just been kicking around ideas that normally would be in a game and instead I am just going to post them on my blog.  This is going to be a reoccurring thing as I just keep hammering out things and not all of them can be turned into elements in my “random fantasy novel ideas” folder.

What Have I Got: A Web of Alliances

            Last week I talked about some other morality systems in geek culture, the not so black and white dichotomy of “Babylon 5” and the traditional virtues and vices of “World of Darkness”.  This week I am going to take a look at an iconic franchise in RPG’s, “Fallout”.

            Traditionally in RPG’s a computer or the Guy running the Game, let’s abbreviate that to Game Guy or GG for short, need a way to evaluate in shorthand how the world views the player character(s).  Are people afraid, hostile, friendly, guarded, or horny?  The spectrum of human emotion is a broad one dictated by the personal philosophy of the observer and the reputation of the observed.  How do you try to box in these things?

            Dungeons and Dragons tends to rely on alignment for the default.  If you are a good person and you meet an evil person they will at best see you as naïve at the start, maybe someone to exploit, maybe a direct threat to their interests.  There is variation based on how much depth the GG wants to give them, but that will usually be the rough starting point.  Chaotic people clash with Lawful, Good with Evil, and Neutral people presumably clash with other Neutrals about what not to feel all that strongly about.

            That is the thing about Neutrals.  You never know where they stand. It sickens me.

            Anyway, here are two examples of how the Fallout franchise has handled that question.  One is complete shit and the other is adequate.  I then give a bit of an insight into my own attempts to harness one of these systems in my own games and the pitfalls I found with it.  There is also a lot of "Skyrim" discussion in there too.

 

This is what "Web of Alliances" traditionally means.
This will make more sense later.

Fallout 4: “I didn’t bother”

            I chose not to give any thought to Fallout 4, because I played that game as an extreme loner and therefore missed out on most of what they decided was important, specifically how your NPC allies feel about you.

            Hey, Bethesda, if you want to make interpersonal interaction and team building a core component of the game’s story maybe don’t make “Lone Wanderer” a perk at all.  Maybe gear your game mechanics to couple with your other game mechanics…. and the story instead of having such obvious divisions between each of the parts.  And cut all the bloat, it is impossible that anyone in development thought “Ghoulish” was worth anything, whoever was pushing for it should be purged.

            One of these days I should go on a long rant about “Fallout 4” and its numerous bad decisions and how they kneecap the ever loving hell out of the good decisions which made the game fun.  One of these days.

            Whatever.

 

Endurance 9, are you high?
If you are going to have a shit perk you should at least make it the lowest ranking one.

Fallout 3: “Murdered by an entire village over a fucking fork”

            There is a youtuber I follow who made a 90-minute video delving into the depths of “Fallout 3 is Garbage (and Here’s Why)”.  You don’t have to watch it, but I feel it does present numerous things about not only “Fallout 3” but the rest of the Fallout franchise and its value as a game series and story setting.

            I never really connected with “Fallout 3” for many of the reasons he points to primarily because of the shallow binary choice aspect to it.  Blow up a town that has done you no wrong or don’t do that.  This is not a meaningful choice.  The idea that doing evil, especially in a covert fashion, would have any effect on how people look at you is questionable considering the amount of anonymity that the setting would afford people in it.  “Karma” is a terrible system.

            I mentioned my issues with the bad over simplification of the morality system in 4^th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons, but “Fallout 3” takes it a step even further.  The game’s AI is too stupid to have a rational reaction to minor transgressions.

            Go ahead and steal something, doesn’t matter if someone sees you, you lose karma.  Go ahead and steal something while someone looks, and even if the object is literal garbage they will lynch your ass.  I have been stabbed by the town doctor because I grabbed the controller weird while shifting in my seat.

            This is the limitations of the technology, obviously you can’t make fully thinking individuals, especially in town that could be obliterated at an early stage in the game.  A massacre committed by you.  For no reason.  But, I point to this because this sort of draconian blunt simplicity is used by lazy players and GG’s without thought.

            It is not fun to punish characters who are not playing the way you think they should with wildly disproportionate punishment or knee jerk in game terror.  It is also not okay for players to get a kick out of brazenly derailing the game because, “My character is going to steal, and I am willing to burn this whole village down if they tell me not to take apples without paying.”  Hey, dipshit, while you are trying to shock humor everyone with your edgy character everyone else is waiting to get on with the story.

             (If it is not clear I am admonishing my younger self for having committed these sins, I am trying to help you learn from my mistakes so that you can be a better player).

Fallout New Vegas: “You can tell a lot about a guy by the company he keeps”

            This system… actually works really well.  If you don’t know much about “New Vegas” (understandable, because at the time of its release it was way too buggy and as a result failed to gain the traction I feel it was due) let me tell you a bit about it.

            In it the post-apocalyptic Mojave Desert.  You are a mailman that has survived being shot in the face and buried in the desert.  You are now out for revenge on the guy who did it and along the way you meet a variety of colorful characters and learn the intricacies of numerous factions.  There is a war on and thru chance you are drawn into the conflict as an agent for one of the 3 primary factions… or you are out for you.  You’ll need resources, allies, and an army to win the war for your chosen side and that means either killing or winning over the numerous groups of the wasteland.

            There is no good and evil (well, there is certainly an evil side, kind of hard to spin the faction with all the slavery, misogyny, cultural extermination, mass murder, and luddite sensibilities as anything other than “evil”) instead you are viewed as being on good or bad terms with each primary group.

            The three primary factions differ in notable ways.  The democratic New California Republic are nominally the good guys but they are stretched thin and plagued with numerous frailties, it seems inevitable that if this war isn’t what beats them then something down the line will.  There is Caesar’s Legion, dozens of tribes banded together into a grand autocratic military that is sweeping the nation, they are the aforementioned “evil” side.  And there is the leader of the powerful city state of New Vegas, the notorious Mister House, who wants to run New Vegas as a model of pre-war glory, utilizing his robot army to protect his glitzy city from all threats.

            Taken along with the option of, “None of the above” you can actually populate the traditional alignment system of Dungeons and Dragons with each faction, House is Lawful, NCR is Good, Caesar is Evil, and taking control and pushing out the others is Chatoic.

            If it were at all possible, I think this sort of system would be ideal for Dungeons and Dragons.  It is not possible.  A GG would have to first think up all of the factions, their priorities, and their primary members.  They would have to have a key central conflict, WAR IS A GOOD ONE, and the players would have to understand each one, which is difficult because inevitably one of them is going to look worse than the others from the start.

            For an instance of how difficult it is to create a real parity, think of the Imperial Legion at the start of Skyrim, it is really hard to justify why your character would work with them after they were about to have you executed when you were not even on the list to be executed, and it is really hard to justify joining the Stormcloaks if your character is anything other than a Nord or maybe an Orc.  By the Eight they yell, “Skyrim is for the Nords” when fighting, naked jingoism is not attractive.  Make Skyrim Great Again, I suppose.

            Beyond that, a video game can keep a score card in the background keeping track of favors and favor that the player has done and curried, a DM would be punishing themselves if they tried to keep track of all of that information in any consistent fashion, how do you measure the weight on an action or a trespass?  And good luck getting all the players to agree to help any particular faction, better luck trying to get them not to follow only one, better-better luck keeping them all from descending into backstabbing.

            How do I know?  Cause I tried it.  Woof!

The Red Crusade: “Unfortunately the experiment ground to a halt”

            I had a war campaign that I put a lot of creative energy into and while I still consider it a great idea (I will one day just make a multi-week blog about the details of it once I get past all of these more general topics) the campaign eventually slowed down and then stopped.  It was not entirely the fault of the premise, we all had lives and there is only so much mental energy two lawyers, one physicist, and a graduate student can put into Dungeons and Dragons.  That being said let me show some ideas and my big failing.

            There were two big sides, the Maunder Empire which resembled Rome or Byzantium in a state of confusion and in many ways collapse.  They were the Lawful to Lawful-Evil side of things, but they had their strong points (if you were Human or Halfling and really liked having a well regimented society with great architecture and functional utilities).  They are led by the nephew of the previous emperor and up till recently they were the most powerful military on the planet, it is only because a dozen things went wrong all at once that they did not handily win the war.

            Beyond the “We are really good at illustrating all of the best things about orderly state run society, but are kind of racist” there were parts that were far more open to reform and even saw the war as a time to push thru new ideas.  It had an evolving status quo.

            The other side was the Alliance, or “Barbarian Horde” as they were called by the Empire.  They were made up of a diverse group of beings from the neighboring continent that had pushed off the colonial yolk of the Maunder and were now on a counter invasion.  They were led by the Infamous Red, a half red dragon who married High Empress Jessica, daughter of the now dead previous Emperor.  The validity of the marriage was suspect (as Jessica was 13 when they got married), Red wanted to install himself as a Governor General with Jessica as a puppet ruler.  He is the Chaotic to Chaotic-Evil side of things.

            That being said, Red’s side was far more diverse, Jessica is legitimately in love with Red and is no longer a child (she is currently 23 and their marriage was non-sexual until she was an adult) and is looking forward to being the figurehead of an empire while most of the real work is done by her friends in the Alliance.  The Alliance was all about democracy, plurality, and choice.  But they were also brutal, and many members had a biological need to destroy many, Many, MANY functional structures and upend the Maunder civilization that would cost millions of lives.  And that is assuming they would all manage to keep moving in the same direction rather than stall out or implode.

            In addition, each side had sub parts, The Empire had 12 different regions, each under siege from some other threat (Yuan-ti, Demons, Undead).  The Alliance had different racial factions (Catfolk, Humans, Goblins), and there was a half dozen smaller satellite countries that had pro-Empire and pro-Alliance positions within each (and I based all of those countries off real life countries).  There were also monstrous powers, churches and cults, and criminal organizations, all of these were exploiting the chaos of the war to push their agendas.  My creativity went into bloated and complex overdrive.  My players couldn’t keep up and became less interested in seeing any nuance.

            The party never even thought that joining the Empire was an option.  Even though one of their first and greatest allies was a Colonel in the Empire and that most of their crew and allies were educated in the schools and colleges of the Empire.  And this really comes down to my fault I guess.  I did the same thing “Skyrim” did and had them start off in an island prison run by the Empire called The Salt Box along with a bunch of other political dissidents.  They escaped the facility, destroying it utterly in the process, and became a group of mercenary adventurers with a crew of political dissidents.  KIND OF HARD TO LOOK AT BOTH SIDES WHEN THE FIRST IMAGE IS OF THE WORST PART OF ONE SIDE.

            I tried to keep the idea of working with one side, then the other, but ultimately it proved a bit fruitless.  The party committed to one side completely, so much so that one player COMPLETELY ignored a major plot that I had designed specifically for his character.  He didn’t think it furthered the interests of Empress Jessica enough and he was playing things Lawful Stupid.

            That issue with his character kind of percolated into why I dislike the traditional alignment system so much.  Because his version of lawful as being so inflexible and single minded and my conception of lawful as being flexible enough to act without direct orders but be conflicted about it were so at odds with one another that it killed the story dead.

Next Time: My Favorite Solution

            I should have kept to a golden rule, “Keep it Simple”.  But “Simple” is the issue I have the problem with.  I like complex, my mind gets off on seeing the linking parts and contrasts between actors in a story, and while I did resent that my player did not take the quest hook I kind of resent that his behavior up to that point hadn’t keyed me off to what he would do when I offered it to him.

            There is no perfect solution here.  But I do think that there is a better system that Wizards of the Coast already has, and has already put a lot of thought into.  So next entry (and perhaps the last on alignment) will be the system that I wish they had just integrated into Dungeons and Dragons back in 4^th Edition.

            WHAT COULD IT BE!?

JOOR ZAH FRUL!

The Beg for Attention:

            If you venomously disagree with me, please tell me why in the comments.  Feel free to leave links to your own blog on the topic or articles that you have found helpful.  Or write your own counterpoint to all this (or parts of it) and come back and post a link. 

            Maybe you had some kind of knee jerk visceral reaction to my bad mouthing of “Fallout 3/4” maybe you would like to air your grievances in the comments.  I actually do read the comments, maybe even respond.  Sometimes I think about them for a while, ruminate on them, and then perhaps integrate them into my thinking and grow as a person.  Not often of course the vast majority of internet comments and culture is toxic waste and really needs to have been spanked more as children.

            Alignment is the most debated thing in Dungeons and Dragons because, as I wrote, we all have personal values.  So share your feelings much as I have and experience the glorious indifference of the internet.

            Have Fun!

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My Top 10 Video Games

            I have not been posting nearly enough this year and I want to steer back from that.  To that end I have found a 30-day blog challenge and will be writing out entries, hopefully I can get all thirty days without any breaks, and if I manage to do that (since August has 31 days) I will think of an additional entry to write about.  I have done a 30-day challenge before, it for movies, but that was a while back, feel free to read those too if you like.

            Today is day 31 and the topic is “Top 10 Video Games”.

            This and yesterday’s entry (which were my favorite games "20-11") were not a part of the original 30-day challenge, I added them to replace categories that I decided to excise for being lame.  Some of these games I have talked about before in this series, and some I have talked about before that, so I will link to those when apropos.  Cause I have written more than 25,000 words on freaking video games this month and I am pretty tired so I am not going to bust my ass on a rehashing of what I have already done.

SO LET US BEGIN!

I sincerely doubt this game is in many top 10's.

10) Fable

I have already talked about this one.  But to give a quick rundown of that: a game that emphasizes humor and a whimsical tone with basic gameplay and basic fantasy story.

           

This is probably on more lists.

9) Resident Evil 4

            Haven’t talked about this one yet.  This is the only good “Resident Evil” game.  It drops most of the BS science fiction to instead focus on a Lovecraft type horror, with giant monsters, twisted monstrosities, cults, zombies caused by parasites rather than a virus, and a plot to insert mind control parasites into the white house.  It is often playing things with a tongue firmly in its cheek, goofy elements, and random puzzles.  While most RE games take themselves too seriously RE4 lets you throw eggs at people.

As for mechanics it has the best quick time events I have seen in a game, though it is also probably responsible for that mechanic being added to every other action title that came out around that time.  The controls do not allow you to move while aiming, instead requiring you to be still while lining up shots in an over the shoulder camera model that works shockingly well.  There are also siege-defense, which allows you to push furniture in from of doors, or shove ladders away from windows, a small but really cool way to interact with the environment that adds to the survival horror element.

Lastly, the game is all about escort quests, as you attempt to save a damsel (the president’s daughter, Ashley) from the monsters, and it is the gold standard in this type of gameplay; Ashley anticipates your movements and gets out of the way, she takes cover behind you, she ducks when she doesn’t have time to get behind you, she can be sent thru some windows to unlock doors or throw switches while you keep the cultists off her, and in one of the cutest aspects of the story she gives a “yeah” mini fist pump when you kill a bad guy.

Resident Evil 4 is a fun and adventurous game that has a good sense of humor and solid gameplay.  I love it. 

           

This is definitely on top 10 lists.  Everybody loves this thing.  I kind of feel mainstream by picking it.

8) Portal

            I have talked about this one too.  And mentioned it positively a couple times.  To some up, it is a tightly designed puzzle game with one of the best mechanics, best bad guy, and best senses of humor in all of gaming.

           

I imagine people's negative reception to the ending of 3 might make this game unfairly neglected during award season.

7) Mass Effect 2

            I have talked about the characters of the Mass Effect series, but this is my favorite entry in the series specifically because of how good those characters are.  While I do find the action gameplay fun what I am really here for is the space politics and the space drama.  I like seeing the bigger issues of the galaxy explored thru the microcosm of diverse crew members you interact with.  It is funny, sad, and awesome in numerous measures.  One of the truly great games of its time and one of my personal favorites.

           

I am so out of juice these captions are giving me trouble.

6) Super Smash Bros Brawl

            I talked about how Nintendo is my favorite developer and this is a good example of why.  The only fighting game I like because it is so easy to play, and much like the rest of Nintendo, it is about having fun not really about giving everyone a competitive system to waste one’s life mastering.  (Note: I think E-Sports are stupid, they are as inane as any game and give you none of the exercise of sports and none of the creative or educational benefits of non-competitive games like Dungeons and Dragons).

            “Smash Bros” just takes bright characters and goofy environments and tells you to have fun with them.  The meta-narrative is that of all the characters all being toys and acting out the play battles of the “Master Hand”.  This even ties back to my discussion of “Alan Wake” yesterday, that I like the idea of characters taking on a life of their own and fighting to break free of their creators as the characters in this game square off against the Master Hand at the game’s ultimate conflict.

            I am sure if I had a WiiU that would be the iteration of the series that I like the most, but I don’t, so it’s not.

I've got to find a way out of here...

5) Spec Ops: The Line
Already talked about this one.  It is a dark exploration of the impulses that make people want to be a hero and the destruction such a self-serving drive has on the world.

Said the Joker to the Theif.

4) Age of Empires III

            Already talked about this one.  It is a Real Time Strategy game set in the colonial era of history.  It has lots of different units and a fun system for gathering and managing resources.

           

Breath that glorious desert air.

3) Fallout: New Vegas

            I beat this thing into the ground with my praise and the amount of time I have spent discussing it.  A mailman is left for dead, and now he is back and out for revenge in the post-apocalyptic desert of Vegas.

           

My brain is tired.  Maybe I wouldn't be cut out for it.

2) Psychonauts

            I already talked about this thing with a glowing review of how I wish I could live in this world.

This is from the opening cinematic of the game, but I have my doubts as to whether this would be the best place to settle down.  The river has advantages, but the mountains might make it too difficult to get enough workable tiles.

1) Civilization V

            This is my favorite game.  At time of writing I have 4100+ hours logged on this game via Steam.  This game introduced me to Steam and I have spent many a long night up playing it.  I love it, and I still to this day suck at it because I have no interest in ever playing it against anyone else.  “Civ” is what I do so as to busy my hands and mind while watching Netflix, Channel Awesome, or whatever else might be on the internet.

I have innumerable complaints and compliments for this thing (I still have no idea how the religion mechanic works), but I don’t want to list them all.  It would be pointless to as that 4100+ hours count would just underline how I have not let anything stop me from playing.  I have learned a lot about historical figures and great wonders of the world because of this game, and I look forward to “Civilization VI” later this year.

            What are your top 10?  What do you think of “get gud”?  How much time have you spent on your favorite game?

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If you like or hate this please take the time to comment, +1, share on Twitter, Tumblr, or Facebook, and otherwise distribute my opinion to the world.  I would appreciate it.

Best Video Game Story

            I have not been posting nearly enough this year and I want to steer back from that.  To that end I have found a 30-day blog challenge and will be writing out entries, hopefully I can get all thirty days without any breaks, and if I manage to do that (since August has 31 days) I will think of an additional entry to write about.  I have done a 30-day challenge before, it for movies, but that was a while back, feel free to read those too if you like.

            Today is day 26 and the topic is “Best Video Game Story”.

I have kind of already talked about this game in this series, and I reviewed all four parts of its DLC months ago (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4) so what I have to say might be a little redundant, but whatever, this whole series of blogs is incredibly derivative.  I am just giving my unsolicited opinion on media because I need something to write about to keep the word producing juice in my brain flowing and this is easier than being original.  But, I digress.  My favorite video game story comes from “Fallout: New Vegas”. 

Yeah, I am talking about this again.  I like the setting.

Let’s start with some flaws.

When I first played this game it was bugged up the butt.  “Vegas” was constantly crashing, freezing, and even without those technical hiccups I could see the edges where Obsidian ran out of time and money to finish the freaking thing as the fast travel options were limited and there seemed to be areas the game just didn’t bother to create at all, for instance: is it too much to ask to be able to fast travel to each section of the Strip?  Or to important locations within Freeside?  Why is there only one area in which you interact with Caesar’s Legion when there is so much of the map on the other side of the river?

There were also lots of missing character/story options: No romance options even though there is a straight and gay companion option for such things whether your character is a man or a woman?  Why can’t I give the army of robots to the NCR to help them win a war for democratic ideals?  Why does my scientist pal’s loyalty mission only work when I am siding with the NCR, because his stated preference for game ending involves an independent Vegas?  Why are there only 3 casinos when actual Las Vegas has many to choose from?  Why is it there are only three tribes (Khans, Brotherhood, and Boomers) outside of the Strip that are noteworthy?  Why aren’t there more quest chains with the Followers of the Apocalypse as their goals most align with my real life beliefs in regards to how and why technology can improve people’s lives?

Regardless of these short comings the underlying premise is damn near perfect for me.  Two armies, one following the trappings of America (distorted by the irradiated mists of time), the other following Ancient Rome (distorted thru the irradiated mists of time).  Between these gather storms is a city built on luck, chance, and showmanship, led by a man obsessed with the past and a glittering view of the future cast in the image of that glorified past.  Which side do you want to choose?  Do you want to side with the democratic New California Republic whose sin is pushing out into the wild frontier and disturbing monsters in their wake?  Do you side with Mr. House, dictator of New Vegas, who is playing every side against each other in a complicated game to insure his city is run his way?  Or do you want the world to return to a state of sustainable primitivism with Caesar’s Legion, a misogynistic slave army bent not only on conquest of Vegas, but to create a Pax Romana in a world without the dangers of atomic technology that led to the fall of human civilization hundreds of years prior?  Or is there a forth option?

 

Yes, there is a 4th option.

Let’s move on to why I like it.

This may surprise you all but I am highly educated in two areas, American Politics and Urban and Regional Planning.  I have great interest in the management of people and resources to best utilize them for the future.  The idea of two militaries clashing over control of water and power while small local bands of people with their own needs and priorities caught in the middle is just perfect for me.  Identifying stakeholders in a situation, identifying various needs/wants and filling them as efficiently as possible to cultivate goodwill and a sense of connective tissue between communities to create a greater whole (in this case to settle a war) that is right up my philosophical alley.

When I played this game the lack of detail given about your character, the Courier (a mailman who was shot and left for dead only to rise up to being a power player in the war for Vegas) appealed to me.  Rather than in “Fallout 3” in which you are given friends, a home, a father who loves and cares about you, and you are stuck inheriting dad’s insane quest to build a really big water filter, in “New Vegas” you set out on your own quest for your own reasons, be it just for revenge or to solve the mystery of why you were “killed”.  I am effectively playing myself in a post apocalypse that speaks directly to what I want to do in the real world.

Like I listed before, the thing suffers from technical issues all over the place, but that really only makes me wish they would do a remastering of the game for this console generation.  Put in the environments you didn’t have time to finish, put in the romantic quests you didn’t have time to put in, put in more weapons and clean up the very basic modifications system, and add in a weather cycle and clean up the graphics.  As lame as I thought a lot of the DLC was I still played it all thru to the end, and I would not have balked at having more.

You know what else is kind of strange about this game?  The more I find out about “Fallout” and “Fallout 2”, games I have yet to play, the more I think that “New Vegas” was the “real” #3 in this series.  It expands upon the themes of the original games better, it feels like a natural extension of those events, and when elements from those games show up (like Supermutants, the Enclave, and the Brotherhood of Steel) they don’t feel out of place.

There is no logical reason why some things that showed up in #3 should be in Washington DC, because all of them originated on the West Coast of the US and were either destroyed or never moved out of there.  What I am saying is “New Vegas” makes more sense within the logic of the franchise and that feeling permeates down into the writing on the small scale interactions with the characters.  The whole thing feels more real.  I feel that this game is definitely worth playing, though if you have been playing 4 this one will feel a little stiff, though a lot less stiff than 3 does. 

It is still, often bugged up the butt.

Now to talk about SPOILERS when I look at each of the endings.

How you chose to resolve the story is also up to you, though I felt that one option always won out in my mind over the others and that is the Wildcard option, rather than looking back at the idealized past of Mr. House I instead chose to move Vegas forward toward a less certain and more chaotic future that still looks pretty bright.  (I should note that I mostly chose that option because the solution to the issue I REALLY wanted was not presented, in which I give the NCR the army of robots and have Vegas and the surrounding territories enter the NCR as new citizens under the protection of that army, my character then runs for and becomes President of the NCR down the line, but that wasn’t allowed anywhere but in my imagination).

As for the other paths in the game, I have no desire to play thru the game in Caesar’s Legion, it is the purest “evil” story path the game offers and when I see on message boards people trying to say, “the Legion is a surprisingly grey option, they aren’t pure evil” I just have to shake my head as I remember how many people were crucified for no reason… OR the REALLY BAD and IN YOUR FACE issue that EVERY WOMAN is a slave by default in their society and subject to BEING RAPED at the whim of any Legion soldier.

Mr. House isn’t bad, he is the Lawful Neutral option of providing order but in a reactionary way, the idea that he wants Vegas to be independent is fine, but to dress it up like it was before the war and to have him as the brain in a massive army of killer robots is concerning.

 

I get by with a little help from my friends.

I will continue with SPOILERS as I point out each of the companions and why I like them.

Arcade Gannon is my previously mentioned scientist friend whose loyalty mission I never managed to trigger, which kind of made me lose my shit a little at the game.  Which is a shame, because I read about it and it sounds great and gets him some cool power armor to wear which is a big step up from the lab coat he normally goes around in.  He’s voiced by Zach Levi, you know, Chuck from “Chuck”.  He was the human companion I used the least (4^th overall).

Craig Boone is a tragic badass with a useful ability and having him around was awesome.  I love his backstory.  I love his motivations.  I love his grim voice provided Jason Marsden who has been in so much stuff in my life it is kind of weird.  Seriously, I think I have ascribed Marsden’s voice to characters in my literal dreams.  Boone was the character I used the second most.

Lily Bowen is a giant monster who can turn invisible and used to be a sweet old lady before being transformed into this god awful thing.  Her story is sad.  She is a tragic figure that represents ramifications from the original “Fallout” game.  She is voiced be David Pizzuto, who is not a recognizable name even though his voice seems to be in a hundred things.  I barely used Lily as a companion she was 5^th on my list.

Raul Tejada is a ghoul mechanic I rescued from a crazy monster who wanted him to fix its robot.  I barely used his character because I found him constantly referring to me as “Boss” weirdly off putting and he is 6^th overall.  He is voiced by Danny Trejo, one of those guys who is cool to a level that is kind of strange, he is basically the old badass in any movie that Samuel L Jackson didn’t have time to appear in.

"Who you are comes from the choices you make when life gets tough."

Whiskey Rose Cassidy is broke, drunk, and has a chip on her shoulder because her family legacy, a shipping company, has been reduced to corpses and ash.  She is the companion I spent the most time with even though her ability is almost completely useless.  I don’t know why, maybe because she is kind of a jerk; maybe it is because I seem to have a thing for red heads; maybe it is because like my character, she is also a mailman that the world has conspired to destroy.  She is voiced by Rachel Roswell who is known for… This, and only this.

Veronica Santangelo is a member of the Brotherhood of Steel and one of their harshest critics, which almost gets her and me murdered by them at one point.  She is my third favorite companion because she combines the right blend of cute and sarcastic and I generally agree with her about the Brotherhood’s failings.  She is voiced by Felicia Day, one of those rare people that could be described as perfect as she seems to have no flaws and works in and around numerous things I enjoy.

Or it is an extension of my thing for redheads.

 I can’t think of anything else to say.  Hopefully this bloated word balloon was not a complete waste of time.  I put off writing this entry till the last minute, I even moved it back a couple times in the marching order because I knew I would end up writing so much.  Yeah…  What is your favorite game story?  You do not have to write so much to express your feelings, but if you do I promise to read it.  Does the game have Batman in it?  Is it “Never Winter Nights”?  Is it “Tetris”?  If it is “Tetris” I think you might have a mental disorder because “Tetris” has no story and any you ascribed to it is probably just your own madness talking.

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Favorite Video Game Protagonist

            I have not been posting nearly enough this year and I want to steer back from that.  To that end I have found a 30-day blog challenge and will be writing out entries, hopefully I can get all thirty days without any breaks, and if I manage to do that (since August has 31 days) I will think of an additional entry to write about.  I have done a 30-day challenge before, it for movies, but that was a while back, feel free to read those too if you like.

            Today is day 9 and the topic is “Favorite Protagonist”.

            This one was not hard, as this protagonist just keeps showing up in game after game that I love to play, that is Me, the nameless protagonist from a laundry list of roleplaying games.

            Try as I might to escape my own feelings when it comes to playing video games, that in real life I would not rob from or murder innocents, in video games I am always the good guy.  I have never blown up the settlement of Megaton, I never have beaten the game on behalf of Caesar, I have never played a bastard.  And that is because, in video games I have the power to be the sort of hero that I wish I could be in real life.  I can help everyone, and if they would just listen to me I would be willing to help even the maniacs and monsters of the world, but instead I just have to make sure they don’t hurt anyone else.

            This is why I am going to talk about “Fallout New Vegas” (I have done this 4 times in the past, but this is a new thing to talk about, so stick with me).  In FNV, you do not spend time with your spouse and child, you do not spend time with Dad in the Vault, you are not the chosen one, and you are not someone who matters.  You are a mail man who was shot and left for dead in the middle of nowhere.  It is thru your actions that you rise to power and make your way in the world.  You are beset on all sides by armies and megalomaniacs who want to shape the world to what they think it should be.  You actually shape it.  You can save the day, free the people, or trample the innocent.  It is a game in which I am making the decisions and the game in which I felt most like I was the person in the world.  This feeling is chiefly why I hated the “Lonesome Road” DLC so much, because it tries to retroactively give you a backstory and in my opinion it fails.

Also, they fixed almost every game mechanic issue I had with 3.  For instance the guns slowly falling apart as you use them, they don't fall apart nearly as fast.  In 3 guns appear to have been made out of graham cracker tied together with toilet paper.

            When I first got the game I found the level of choice to be too daunting, I did not want to commit to anything because I didn’t want to close off opportunities.  I missed out on companions because I (much like in life) am kind of a loner.  And ultimately picking a side wasn’t much of a choice at all.  There is only one ending I could think of that the game did not give me the option to choose, and I am fine with that, there are limits to any narrative, and even in a world in which my decisions matter I frequently can’t make it all go the way I want it to.  I make do.

            There are plenty of characters whose stories I like to go thru, Alan Wake, Leon Kennedy (that one time he fought C’thulhu monsters in Spain anyway), Lee Everett, or Captain Martin Walker, but even when I make decisions for them, none of them are me, and what I want most from video games is the freedom to be myself in a fantastic world, and I think most people would agree with that, hence why the idea of VR and Holodecks are so appealing in fiction.  We want to be in the story.  I want to be the protagonist of my own adventure.

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"Fallout: Lonesome Road" Review

I finished playing "Fallout: New Vegas" the other week. It is the 2nd time I have played thru it and I played all of the DLC. I decided to play "Skyrim" a bit and it is good, but I miss playing Fallout. It is just a more interesting universe.  Fallout, for those who do not know is a dark comedy action RPG, it is set in a post-atomic war wasteland, but contains technology that is akin to a 1950’s vision of the future, personal computers that have black and green displays, robot security guards that look like Robbie the Robot of “Forbidden Planet”, an emphasis on the “Golly Gee” era of television, and Norman Rockwell like fashion.

Fallout has laser weapons straight out of sci-fi b movies of the 1950’s, and it makes lots of commentary on social engineering, forms of government, and perceptions of who people are, what they believe, and why they believe it.  While the 1950’s is key to its foundations the post-apocalypse angle is also at the forefront as ruins dot the wasteland of the old world, most of civilization is based around scraping together resources from the past, and making due with what they have (for instance, the currency of the wasteland is Bottle Caps, because they last for a long time, and are difficult to replicate).

            Until the upcoming “Fallout 4” due later this year, I guess I will just talk about the four DLC adventure packs for the last game with each of their positives and negatives, because none of them are flawless… And some of them are more slag than ore.

Let’s have some categories for evaluation: Story (which considering how this is an RPG and writing is probably the biggest draw, it is pretty important), Environment & Characters (because Fallout has always been about exploration), Enemies and Loot (who do you kill and what do you get from their corpse), and lastly any Gameplay issues (cause it is a game and that is a big deal).

 

"Lonesome Road": from a writing standpoint THE WORST ONE!

Story:

            A man you have never met, blaming you for something you never did, lures you to a place you’ve never been, to destroy a place you have never seen.  And the thesis statement of the antagonist is, “you are an asshole for having played thru this.”

Environment & Characters:

            I hope you liked the drowning-in-brown-fog of “Dead Money” cause this thing has so much fog and dust in the air at the start you will have a hard time seeing buildings let alone the skinless goons you are trying to fight.  Admittedly that only occupies the 2^nd chapter encounters.

And chapters is the best way to describe this, as the whole DLC is a linear corridor with 5 distinct sections. 1) The initial bunker in which you fight some robots, 2) the dust bowl, in which you fight your inability to see who is shooting flares up your ass, 3) an underground area, in which you fight lizard like morlocks who are frightened of the flares and flashbangs you stole off the other guys, 4) an overpass, which you will come to know well as you are murdered multiple times and have to trek it again and again, and 5) the temple in which you have the most frustrating Sisyphean boss battle ever against the worst character in not only the DLC, but the entire game.

            Who are the characters you will encounter on this journey?  There are 2.  One is a robot who only communicates in beeps like R2-D2 and who occasionally plays audio logs.  The other is the antagonist… The worst character I encountered.  Ulysses, AKA “I do not fit the tone of these games at all”.

Why is Ulysses god awful?  All he does is phone you up from time to time via your tiny robot pal to call you an asshole, and lay blame on you for how completely fucked this whole area is.

He is the dullest and most self-serious character in the game, rambling in pseudo-intellectual musings every time you encounter his voice.  And you can tell the creators just loved him, as his entry on the Fallout wiki is nearly as long as the central villain, Caesar’s entry.  Apparently he was supposed to have been a companion at one point in the game’s development, the only one who was to support the Legion’s cause of slavery and autocratic cultural annihilation.  Yeah, go fuck yourselves.  At no point does this mopey Mary Sue jerk off even approach the coolness that you think he has, instead he is just the emo kid in the back of class who won’t shut up about how we’re all so awful.  BARF!

Apparently there is a small number of Ulysses fans out there... As I was shocked to learn this artwork is not ironic.

Enemies and Loot:

            There are some robots which you have already seen in the rest of the game, and the human-ish soldiers you fight are a group mixed from Legion and NCR troops that got stuck in this valley, there is also an obnoxious number of Deathclaws, or as they could be more accurately described: the earthly manifestation of Satan and they will wreck your shit.  The new bad guys are the aforementioned subterranean lizard men with venomous claws, who use swarm tactics to take down the Deathclaws and (in theory) my fat ass.

This guy freaking nailed it.

            Thing is, many of these bad guys are totally wrecked by the treasure, which gives you the Flare Gun and turns fighting Deathclaws into a game of red-light/green-light.  The flare gun causes all Aberration type monsters to flee when hit with it, meaning that you let your robot pal shoot at the fleeing Satan with its tiny laser pistol while you just flare the thing whenever it starts running back to attack you.  You have 500+ shots for the flare gun when you get it so you will be fine so long as you just occasionally hit with it.  For the lizard men… the flare gun also works, but you can use flash bangs to spook off even more of them at a time if you want.

            The game does have a signature weapon which shoots tiny rockets at a ludicrous speed and you get an accomplishment for fully augmenting it with 40,000 caps worth of modifications… The thing blows, I found it too frantic for my usual play style of deliberate and cautious attacks, and it adds yet another visual effect to obscure the screen when you are fighting in the dust bowl.  It ends up becoming one of the most expensive guns in the game and it does nothing for me.  Maybe it was supposed to be a parody/joke element, the name is RED GLARE, but it makes no sense as a joke.

Gameplay:

            Let’s go back to talking about the final showdown with Ulysses.  This guy is wearing a sleeveless leather coat and he fights with a bow staff.  I am wearing power armor and unloaded 6 missiles at him (and I know a few things about explosives at this point) and it dropped him to 10% of his health, he then regenerates so quickly that I could not finish him off.  Apparently this asshole has one of the highest hit point totals in the game and one of the highest regeneration rates.  Even when I tried pinning him in a corner and grinding him with a chainsaw he just blocked me with his staff.  It is a bullshit fight.  And it caps off a long line of fights that are frequently laborious repeat uses of the same flare gun then laser gun rinse and repeat strategy over and over.

            The only exploration aspect of the Lonesome Road is blowing up nuclear warheads that litter the landscape to access new areas… which massively cheapens the role of warheads in the setting, and does a lot to rob the area of danger.  Especially when preventing a nuclear attack is the goal of the final fight, “Why bother stopping the launch?  I have been setting these things off all day, what’s one more?  The things are only powerful enough to blow up a gas station and the radiation disappears in a minute.”

 

"Oh No.  A snow globe, the recurring motif used to illustrate Mr. House's obsession with keeping New Vegas pristine and locked away forever as his personal possession is broken.  Further illustrating how this expansion is so out of tone with the rest of the material."  Or maybe that is just my reading.

Overall Final Verdict:

            I am going to spoil the plot of this encounter.  Apparently prior to the start of the game your character delivered a package to the town that used to be on the Lonesome Road.  Ulysses was in that town and liked it.  That package caused a warhead to go off destroying the town, so now Ulysses wants you dead.  So a guy you have never met, wants to kill you for something you as a player did not do, to a place you as a player have never been to, and even if you did do all of those things you did not mean to cause the explosion so it isn’t your fault anyway.

            THIS IS BAD WRITING FOR AN INTERACTIVE MEDIUM.  It is also an easy fix.  Just have the game’s first mission be delivering a package in the area and then you get shot in the face by Benny and end up in a coma in a vault medical facility, you wake up and get treatment by Doctor Mitch, and then you are sent on your way.  The explosion of Lonesome Road happened while you were in the coma, nothing else changes, and you get to see the before and after of the place.  That seems to be something they are doing with “Fallout 4” as your character is from the pre-nuke world and emerges in the wasteland having been frozen in the interim, so it would work here.

            This thing sucked, and between the bad guy being boring to talk to, the story being so disconnected, and the ultimate conflict being both boring to play and lacks impact because of the nature of approaching that conflict (you can’t have someone explode a dozen+ nukes and walk around in it and then expect me to give a shit about a few more going off)… I loathe this expansion, and only labored to finish it out of a sense of obligation.

This is a Deathclaw.  Do you see the "Satan" thing I mentioned earlier?  Or maybe more of a Krampus?

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If you like or hate this please take the time to comment, +1, share on Twitter or Facebook, and otherwise distribute my opinion to the world.  I would appreciate it.