So, for what feels like about the 20th time, I reinstalled the old strategy game "Republic: The Revolution" again.
The game is...unique. Set in a fictional ex-Soviet Union splinter state named Novistrana, it allows you to lead a political revolution against a corrupt, dictatorial government.
There are 3 central Ideologies: Influence, Wealth and Force. Depending on the route your party follows, you will acquire new members with different views and form a different type of government over time.
For example - a typical Influence party will primarily use traditional rallies and canvassing to gain support, while a Force based party will perhaps use crime or intimidation to further it's agenda. A Wealthy party will seek to sway minds with flashy ad campaigns and use financial ruin to attack other parties.
It's all very odd and interesting. Unfortunately, that's where Republic starts to fall flat.
It's crammed to the brim with interesting ideas and mechanics, but the gameplay is nothing short of infuriating at times.
Take the way your party progresses: You will take out a "support increasing" action, such as a poster campaign, to increase your support in a city district. However, you can only win support from neutral Proletarians who don't support any party.
This means you have to damage opposition support before you can harvest it for yourself.
This leads to seemingly infinite "Damage Support" actions followed by "Increase Support" actions. Of course, opposing parties are doing this all the time too.
You end up winning one district, then immediately losing the one you held before. As a result, it sometimes feels bloody impossible to actually sway anyone for more than 5 seconds.
Another highly annoying design failure is that you cannot see what your party members can eventually unlock as they level. This means that you'll spend hours meticulously levelling up a guy to find that he is rubbish.
I have a "Political Activist" as one of my party members. At about Level 10, he only has 3 very mundane Influence actions. He can't even damage hostile party support. This essentially means that I have spent several hours in-game using him to unlock useful abilities he doesn't have. To get a useful party member, I have to fire him and hire someone else, meaning all my effort was totally wasted. Very, very annoying.
By contrast, you sometimes get an "uber member" who seems to be able to do everything. This is also useless. Since you need to order your political members to be working together every day (one weakens support, for example, then the other gains you support right after), having one guy able to inexplicably do loads of different stuff is actually counter-intuitive.
The objectives are also frequently ridiculous. My current goal is to "Attain 60% support in 4 areas around the Church District."
I have three methods of gaining support at present - Canvassing, Poster Campaigns and Graffiti. Both Graffiti and Canvassing create Sleaze, which basically means other parties can print it in the paper (they almost inevitably discover your actions), then you get all your support utterly destroyed in that region.
So even my "gain support" actions lose their support about 1 day later. Excellent! Now, I have majority support in all those regions, but that counts for jack. I need exactly 60%.
The local Socialist Union party (AKA the Commies) are a bunch of criminal arsehats, and will vandalise the utter shit out of my territory the minute I convince some of their proles to support me. In return, I must consolidate my support by launching graffii campaigns in their territory and reporting their acts to the papers.
This results in an endless back and forth in the papers of "OMG, COMMIES USING VIOLENCE" followed by "OMG, OTHER GUYS USING GRAFFITI".
As a result, the objective is mind-numbingly annoying to achieve. In addition to all the above, there is some kind of retarded player handicap in effect, or so it seems. Whenever you really start to take some territory, you'll suddenly find all the other parties gang up over one evening to totally rape your support base with a sudden all-out attack of graffiti, vandalism, crime waves and leaflet campaigns.
It sure is fun to work for about 2 hours and then lose it all instantly!
Now, supposedly you can counter this. A dickhead working for the local hoods keeps organising attacks on your supporters? Use your Business contact to drop a massive debt on his head, then laugh as he deserts his party and lives a poor life of ruin.
Supposedly. In actuality, the Weaken Character attacks are piss weak, and you have to perform them about 5 times to get a guy to leave his party. Then they just hire someone else >_> <_<
Of course, while you're ruining his day your guy is also unable to be supporting you with poster campaigns and the like too, meaning other parties will quite happily destroy your own support anyway. Everything requires way too much micromanagement - why should the player be punished merely for knocking on the doors of some proles? It's simply not feasible to constantly keep your actions secret, especially when only one of your 3 guys has that action available.
The end result feels like a game that could have been fantastic (interesting concept, a story that feels fresh and intriguing, an environment that is large and very ambitious) but is really let down by some stupid design choices.
Sunday, 7 August 2011
Friday, 29 July 2011
How To Make A "Realistic" FPS Game
Having played a lot of FPS games in my time and getting frustrated over all the same issues in every single one, I thought I'd write a nice little list for any developer that wishes to make one in the future :D
The Unofficial Official Design Document For Any Bestselling "Realistic" Shooter
Step 1: Get a Theme
It's an unwritten rule that FPS games can only be set in three different times:
1 - World War II
2 - Vietnam
3 - The (Near) Future
Any other setting is a breach of design ethics.
In the near future, the game must centre around America versus Unnamed Middle Eastern Nation. If you want to get really, really creative, replace the UMEN with Russia or China.
Step 2 - Create Some Maps
Maps can be set in three different locations only:
1 - Snowy mountains
2 - Bombed out Arabic street
3 - Bombed out Russian street
Any other locations aren't plausible enough.
Step 3 - Dim the Colour Palette
In real life, everything is either grey or brown. The more grey and brown you can fit into your game world, the more realistic it is. A sufficiently realistic game will be able to make even blood and explosions look a muddled shade of brown-grey colour.
Step 4 - Make Everything Hard to See
Everyone knows that walking out of your front door, you cannot see further than 15 feet in front of you due to vegetation, fog and swirling debris in the air.
To make your game really realistic, add loads of trees, plants, shrubs, bushes fog, fire, smoke and dust flying around in the air. You'll know your game is realistic enough when the people playing it are completely confused as to what is just down the road. Blades of grass on the hills in the distance should be easily mistaken for enemy sharpshooters.
When players start shooting at man-shaped trees shrouded in gloom and saying "What the heck? That cactus wasn't a Tank?" you know that your game is truly blessed with realism.
Step 5 - Make Death Inevitable And Instantaneous
War is Hell. You should educate players that this is the case by making almost every gun one-shot kill them and survival for more than 10 seconds utterly impossible.
In real life, it's common knowledge that a 9mm sidearm can punch through a three foot solid cinderblock wall and kill someone in one hit to their little toe. To make your game an accurate simulation, your firearms should be equally deadly, if not more so. Cover should be for aesthetics only - bullets and explosions should tear right through it in seconds.
To be really accurate, you should make sure players have no idea what in the holy fuck is killing them most of the time. This is best achieved by giving everyone and their dog the ability to drop artillery, silent helicopter attacks, heavy machinegun bursts and huge bombing runs from jet planes at the press of a button, anywhere they like.
Spawn points should also belch players out in front of tanks, high explosives and mines at every possible opportunity.
Step 6 - Add An Annoying Class/Ability/Weapon
Commonly known as "The Noob Cannon" or "The Noob Class" or "That Sodding Gun That All The Lamearses Use".
The high level of realism in your game may make it less attractive to "casual" gamers. To increase your mass market appeal, add a retardedly powerful bigass machinegun or rapid fire sniper rifle to your game. Hell, it's even realistic (sort-of)! Make such a gun extremely accurate, give it a massive clip and practically unlimited damage potential. You'll soon have players falling over themselves to buy the game.
Even better, make it a DLC item. Players will be shelling out their hard-earned in no time.
Some players will also be unable to work in a team. Hence you must make it easy for them to grief their teammates and/or whore kills without helping the team. A modified Sniper class is ideal for this kind of player, so be sure to include it in your game. Give it a cool name like "Recon Master" or something, to make sure all the kiddies use it.
Step 7 - Encourage The "Pro" Mentality
To really get your game up in the sales, make sure to design obnoxious achievements and add a "Humiliation" weapon. Monitor your forums, and delete any posts that aren't roughly like the following:
"Zo me an' mah clannn p0rned some pubb1e pub-serv0r bitzhesa last nite and i got Like a 50:1 K/D ratio LOL fear my pwnage LOL fuk yerrrrrrrrrr u all noobs bitczhessz LOL!!!1"
Step 8 - Let The Money And Good Reviews Pour In
Make an expansion pack that has 2 maps and 1 gun for £59.99 two weeks later. Swim in cash, repeat.
ALSO IN THIS SERIES!
How To Make A Game That Is Actually Realistic And Not "Pseudo-Realistic"
AND
How To Make A Game That Is Actually Fucking Fun To Play
Sunday, 26 June 2011
Oblivion and Schizophrenic Difficulty Settings
So I reinstalled TES: Oblivion the other day, and so far I am once again hooked. Playing as a hardcore mage for the first time, the amount of options (especially seeing as I am now finally in the Arcane University) are mind-boggling. I'm finding Wizards are considerably stronger than Warrior types so far, because they don't need to rely on a wide range of Skills or gear nearly as much, plus they can do very high damage.
However, the game still clearly suffers from a bizarre lack of balance. Upon gaining access to the Uni, I created my first spell - a Fire Damage on Touch effect that I named Ashburner I. It does a total of 62 damage in one big hit, far more than my previous 15 damage cold spell.
I proceeded to absolutely massacre wild beasts with that and my Weakness to Magic spell, plus a healthy dose of Hand To Hand punching.
Then I went to the Arena, and the fights were all pretty easy, aside from one, which just struck me as absolute BS.
The guy with the Grey Aegis shield was the opponent. I don't know the exact stats, but the shield appears to convey absolute, 100% resistance to magic on the wearer. Combined with this he has a decent longsword (Silver) and, most infuriatingly, ridiculously powerful fireball and fire touch spells.
My character relies on magic to do damage and has a crippling weakness to getting hit with it (A Breton for some resistance, but +100% vulnerability due to my Apprentice birthsign).
The fight proceeded thus - he would throw a fireball at me, ignoring my summoned partner, and it would "home in" on me as I dodged. I'd never seen that happen before, but it definitely was in this fight. Said fireball would take off 75% of my health. He'd then do it again...DEAD.
This was followed by me trying to get closer to him, to use my fists. He blocked with the shield, then Fire Touched me. DEAD.
Next time I brought my Silver Dagger, and kept poisoning it. I hit him a few times by deflecting his sword, but then he point-blank Fireballed me. DEAD.
Meanwhile, every magic attack I did was naturally 0% effective. To top it off, he had ridiculous hitpoints. I must have hit him about 100+ times with that dagger to kill him in the end, having to Quicksave part-way through the fight to actually beat him.
In the end I defeated him by standing absolutely still and dodging the fireball at the last second (worked about 30% of the time >_>) and chugging health and Fire Resistance potions like Pepsi. I'd run away at close range so he couldn't Fire Touch me to death instantly, instead waiting for him to swing the sword so I could deflect and attack.
It was very tedious and felt utterly unfair as opposed to challenging. This was followed by me looking at the shield on the floor and seeing that it was worth 15,000 gold. Lawl.
I'm now waiting for the wildnerness encounters to become ridiculous, I'm sure it will happen soon :(
However, the game still clearly suffers from a bizarre lack of balance. Upon gaining access to the Uni, I created my first spell - a Fire Damage on Touch effect that I named Ashburner I. It does a total of 62 damage in one big hit, far more than my previous 15 damage cold spell.
I proceeded to absolutely massacre wild beasts with that and my Weakness to Magic spell, plus a healthy dose of Hand To Hand punching.
Then I went to the Arena, and the fights were all pretty easy, aside from one, which just struck me as absolute BS.
The guy with the Grey Aegis shield was the opponent. I don't know the exact stats, but the shield appears to convey absolute, 100% resistance to magic on the wearer. Combined with this he has a decent longsword (Silver) and, most infuriatingly, ridiculously powerful fireball and fire touch spells.
My character relies on magic to do damage and has a crippling weakness to getting hit with it (A Breton for some resistance, but +100% vulnerability due to my Apprentice birthsign).
The fight proceeded thus - he would throw a fireball at me, ignoring my summoned partner, and it would "home in" on me as I dodged. I'd never seen that happen before, but it definitely was in this fight. Said fireball would take off 75% of my health. He'd then do it again...DEAD.
This was followed by me trying to get closer to him, to use my fists. He blocked with the shield, then Fire Touched me. DEAD.
Next time I brought my Silver Dagger, and kept poisoning it. I hit him a few times by deflecting his sword, but then he point-blank Fireballed me. DEAD.
Meanwhile, every magic attack I did was naturally 0% effective. To top it off, he had ridiculous hitpoints. I must have hit him about 100+ times with that dagger to kill him in the end, having to Quicksave part-way through the fight to actually beat him.
In the end I defeated him by standing absolutely still and dodging the fireball at the last second (worked about 30% of the time >_>) and chugging health and Fire Resistance potions like Pepsi. I'd run away at close range so he couldn't Fire Touch me to death instantly, instead waiting for him to swing the sword so I could deflect and attack.
It was very tedious and felt utterly unfair as opposed to challenging. This was followed by me looking at the shield on the floor and seeing that it was worth 15,000 gold. Lawl.
I'm now waiting for the wildnerness encounters to become ridiculous, I'm sure it will happen soon :(
Monday, 20 June 2011
Series Review/Discussion: The Shadow Line
*Contains some spoilers*
So I somehow missed the excellent BBC Drama series The Shadow Line when it was on over the past few weeks. I heard about it through a friend yesterday and promptly set about watching it on iPlayer.
I must say I was pleasantly (and unpleasantly, given the nature of the programme) surprised.
The series has some moments in which it loses "Oomph" a little, but overall I would say it was a very tight and well acted Drama.
The basic plot concerns the murder of a drug lord, the instatement into power of his reluctant right hand man and the investigation of the murder by the police, the gang and an unknown third party.
Amazingly, the script (and some spot-on acting by Christopher Eccleston) actually manage to make the Heroin-dealing mastermind Joseph Bede a highly sympathetic character whose fate eventually adds a huge emotional swell to a highly charged ending. Surprising and also very pleasing to see such reversal of traditional roles in media.
Rafe Spall is great as the slimy psychopath Jay Wratten and Stephen Rae turns his character Gatehouse into a ruthless, efficient and incredibly evil man that you will utterly loathe as the series goes on.
Chiwetal Eijofor also plays DI Jonah Gabriel very believably, and he is able to present both a confused and shattered man and a decent human being simultaneously.
I found the middle episodes the weakest of the lot, but they were still enjoyable. The beginning episodes set things up very well, the later episodes all have very sharp knife-edge twists and the ending episode in particular is an hour of near non-stop revelation and shock.
In The Shadow Line, there are no happy endings. Good does not always prevail, and there is indeed the question of what "good" actually is.
In fact, when we look at the nastiest characters, they tend to be the ones that consistently profit most from the events of the series. Interestingly, however, the question is raised of whether they are the true winners over the more "noble" characters, who generally aspire to have more than money or drugs.
The only thing I found confusing (and perhaps I will not on subsequent re-watchings) was the police corruption plot overarching with the main story. Not only does this plot result in one of the most surprising and gut-wrenching twists, but it also gets very complicated to the point of confusion. In the end, I could witness the acts the characters commit, but not always their motivations.
I got the impression I was meant to know why, but it was hard to remember every small detail.
The series is also the absolute darkest I can remember ever really seeing on TV. The ending just didn't let up and felt very much like a Shakespearian tragedy - many of the characters really do not get what they deserve.
In a way though, this relentless bleakness is strangely appropriate. It almost feels like after the long tunnel that came before, things just could not have possibly ended happily in any plausible fashion. After so many murders and drug deals, so many personal heartaches for the main characters, a happy ending would have looked flippant and inconsistent.
I highly recommend you catch the series on BBC iPlayer if you haven't already, it's up for 3 more days. I know that I'm certainly going to be getting the DVD so that I can live through that final nail biting episode again at some point.
5/5.
So I somehow missed the excellent BBC Drama series The Shadow Line when it was on over the past few weeks. I heard about it through a friend yesterday and promptly set about watching it on iPlayer.
I must say I was pleasantly (and unpleasantly, given the nature of the programme) surprised.
The series has some moments in which it loses "Oomph" a little, but overall I would say it was a very tight and well acted Drama.
The basic plot concerns the murder of a drug lord, the instatement into power of his reluctant right hand man and the investigation of the murder by the police, the gang and an unknown third party.
Amazingly, the script (and some spot-on acting by Christopher Eccleston) actually manage to make the Heroin-dealing mastermind Joseph Bede a highly sympathetic character whose fate eventually adds a huge emotional swell to a highly charged ending. Surprising and also very pleasing to see such reversal of traditional roles in media.
Rafe Spall is great as the slimy psychopath Jay Wratten and Stephen Rae turns his character Gatehouse into a ruthless, efficient and incredibly evil man that you will utterly loathe as the series goes on.
Chiwetal Eijofor also plays DI Jonah Gabriel very believably, and he is able to present both a confused and shattered man and a decent human being simultaneously.
I found the middle episodes the weakest of the lot, but they were still enjoyable. The beginning episodes set things up very well, the later episodes all have very sharp knife-edge twists and the ending episode in particular is an hour of near non-stop revelation and shock.
In The Shadow Line, there are no happy endings. Good does not always prevail, and there is indeed the question of what "good" actually is.
In fact, when we look at the nastiest characters, they tend to be the ones that consistently profit most from the events of the series. Interestingly, however, the question is raised of whether they are the true winners over the more "noble" characters, who generally aspire to have more than money or drugs.
The only thing I found confusing (and perhaps I will not on subsequent re-watchings) was the police corruption plot overarching with the main story. Not only does this plot result in one of the most surprising and gut-wrenching twists, but it also gets very complicated to the point of confusion. In the end, I could witness the acts the characters commit, but not always their motivations.
I got the impression I was meant to know why, but it was hard to remember every small detail.
The series is also the absolute darkest I can remember ever really seeing on TV. The ending just didn't let up and felt very much like a Shakespearian tragedy - many of the characters really do not get what they deserve.
In a way though, this relentless bleakness is strangely appropriate. It almost feels like after the long tunnel that came before, things just could not have possibly ended happily in any plausible fashion. After so many murders and drug deals, so many personal heartaches for the main characters, a happy ending would have looked flippant and inconsistent.
I highly recommend you catch the series on BBC iPlayer if you haven't already, it's up for 3 more days. I know that I'm certainly going to be getting the DVD so that I can live through that final nail biting episode again at some point.
5/5.
Saturday, 4 June 2011
Blood Bowl Races: Nurgle
So the first team I will be taking a look at will be the Nurgle team.
Nurgle are essentially a variant of Chaos teams. Nurgle is the God of Disease in the fluff, and as such Nurgle teams are made of of slimy, infectious zombie-esque abominations.
They are one of the best teams in the game for infuriating your opponent. Right from the start they have skills that make passing very hard for the other team, Foul Appearance will sometimes really mess up your opponent's blocking and they only get more irritating as they continue to level. Tentacles will make an Elf cry.
At high level, Nurgle can also be an effective bashing team. Regenerate + AV 9 means their positionals are exceedingly tough, so they can weather an onslaught of hits, then use their own strength and mutation access to really pile on pain in return.
Nurgle are similar to Chaos teams in that they have the same glaring weaknesses and strengths - a total lack of starting skills means the team is very vulnerable to Turnovers and failed actions early on, but universal access to Mutations and a lot of Strength and General access means the team can be very varied and effective once skilled.
They are also very slow, being only marginally faster than Dwarves. This means their offence is extremely weak, and they cannot expect to win by 2 TDs very often if they win at all. Poor speed and Agility is the largest weakness of a Nurgle team.
Nurgle differ from Chaos in that their Big Guy fills a completely different role (and is in fact the centre of their play) and they also focus on a disruptive gameplan rather than purely bashing skulls (though they can be good at that too).
Let's look at the player types:
Rotter
Number Limit: 1-16
Cost: 40,000/Free.
Movement: 5
Strength: 3
Agility: 3
Armour Value: 8
Normal Skill Access:
General
Mutation
Starting Skills/Traits:
Decay
Nurgle's Rot
Suggested Skills:
Dirty Player
Wrestle
Fend
Claw
Foul Appearance
Tackle
Suggested Doubles:
Guard
Mighty Blow
Sneaky Git
Unlike Chaos, who have the all-round Beastman, Nurgle teams have a dedicated Lineman known as a Rotter. Rotters are actually damn good for a measly 40,000 gold pieces, packing average Strength, average Agility and respectable Armour. However, they are slow at Movement 5 and have the Decay trait.
The Decay trait means that any serious injury (a Casualty result) will cause 2 injuries instead of one. For this reason, Rotters have short lifespans despite their reasonable AV. Lack of Regen and a doctor on the team means they are down and out when injured. They are the soft target that enemy teams will undoubtedly be trying to get off the pitch.
However, for cheap fodder that can get in the way of the opposition and play the ball in emergencies, they're very useful. They make excellent foulers out of the box and become more deadly with Dirty Player.
Mutation access also means Claw is an option, meaning they can be quite dangerous against high Armour opponents, just don't expect them to last long in a fight.
Foul Appearance en masse can also be used to get your opponent's veins throbbing. If you want to lengthen your Rotters' lifespans (and make them hyper annoying), give them Wrestle and Foul Appearance. Bashing teams will give themselves a hernia.
Finally, they (along with all Nurgle players) possess the "Nurgle's Rot" skill. This means any opponent with a STR of 4 or less killed on a block or foul action by the player will come back as a Rotter for free. The exception is players with Regen or Stunty, who can't be "infected".
This means that you never really have to worry about buying Rotters - just use free mercs if your team is bashed up and/or get replacements from players you kill.
Nurgle Warrior
Number Limit: 1-4
Cost: 110,000
Movement: 4
Strength: 4
Agility: 2
Armour Value: 9
Normal Skill Access:
General
Strength
Mutation
Starting Skills/Traits:
Foul Appearance
Disturbing Presence
Regeneration
Nurgle's Rot
Suggested Skills:
Block
Mighty Blow
Claw
Tentacles
Stand Firm
Guard
Prehensile Tail
Grab
Doubles:
Dodge
Ah, the Warriors! These guys are the killing machines of the team and the central pillars of your defence and offence. With a high Strength rating, two great disruption skills from the start (FA and DP), high AV and Regeneration, they are some of the toughest and nastiest players in the game.
They get access to General, Strength and Mutie skills on normal rolls, meaning you can customise them to be really hard hitters (Block, Mighty Blow, Claw...) or infuriating roadblock players (Block, Guard, Stand Firm, Tentacles, Prehensile Tail).
I like to have at least one killer for making my all around life easier on the pitch, while at the same time really playing to their strengths as an "annoyance" team by giving them roadblock skills as much as possible.
Their only weakness is low Movement and their lower Agility (when compared to Chaos Warriors). For this reason you want to handle them in two ways: firstly, keep them in the thick of the action, beating people senseless.
Secondly, plan where you most need them before you need them there. Their slow movement means you can really be caught out if you're not already positioned where you need to be.
Try and keep their Disturbing Presence auras spread around the pitch (or overlapping on potential pass targets). This will usually wreck any hope of a passing game, even with teams like Elves. Foul Appearance shuts down an opponent's attack 1/6 times and they lose their action unless they try to reroll it.
This means your Warriors are most annoying when just standing in the way, so I wouldn't recommend skills like Piling On if you go the killer route, since you're weakening yourself.
Block is an absolute must on first skill, I'd turn down anything but +1 Strength for it. If you do get a Strength increase, Tentacles is fantastic.Dodge on doubles can be great combined with Block + Guard, but I wouldn't take it early on.
Beast of Nurgle
Number Limit: 1
Cost: 140,000
Movement: 4
Strength: 5
Agility: 1
Armour Value: 9
Normal Skill Access:
Strength
(Mutation & General on doubles)
Starting Skills/Traits:
Disturbing Presence
Foul Appearance
Mighty Blow
Tentacles
Nurgle's Rot
Regeneration
Really Stupid
Loner
Suggested Skills:
Block
Stand Firm
Break Tackle
Grab
Guard
Thick Skull or Juggernaut (last skill perhaps)
The Beast of Nurgle is the cornerstone of Nurgle play. No other team relies on their Big Guy like Nurgle do.
This ugly mofo's Tentacles make him an absolute nightmare for Elves, Goblins and other dodgy opponents with low to average Strength. He also has the same AV and Regen as a Warrior and DP and FA too.
The Beast should always be positioned in such a way that he is tying up the opposition's most dangerous scorers. If no scorers are around (e.g. you're playing against a slow bash team), try to keep him away from killers on his own, especially if they have Claw.
He is still very tough with AV 9 and Regenerate however, so don't feel too afraid, just be aware that he is an important anchor for your play. Gang him up with your Warriors to create a formidable line, or keep him in a position where he can lock down anyone who gets past your front defences.
While he has Mighty Blow, the Beast also has Really Stupid. This means you will want someone next to him at all times, and even then he will lose his Tacklezones (and thus Tentacles) if he rolls a 1 and goes Stupid. This can be disasterous.
If you have players wrapped up in Tentacles, it may be worth not using the Beast in your next turn, and so avoid rolling for Stupidity. Losing the Tentacles can sometimes mean the difference between winning and losing - and trying to score an Injury by hitting with Mighty Blow is often not worth that. Only hit with him if you have no real risk of losing the ball or giving away a Touchdown if he goes Stupid.
He also has Loner, meaning he has a 50% chance of eating your rerolls. Without Block and with Loner, he is very unreliable when hitting people.
If the ball ever gets loose from your opponent (and it should do with Nurgle - that's your job), get your Beast on it immediately. This will really mess up Dodging teams, and makes life very hard for Strength teams too.
I tend to get Stand Firm on mine as a first skill, to make him near impossible to push away once he is lodged in somewhere. After that Guard is a good pick. Break Tackle is very good for stopping him getting tied up by one crappy opponent. He can also try to shove his way into cages with it and get his Tents around the ball carrier.
On Doubles Block is excellent because it makes his hits less risky and also keeps him stood up and in the way. Pro is also good (for rerolling Stupid). Alternatively you can get him Claw, giving him the Claw + Mighty Blow combo. This will make him very dangerous and a good killer, but it's a dubious skillup for the reasons above - he should not really be hitting often. He is not a Minotaur, and trying to use him as such will usually ruin your game.
Pestigor
Number Limit: 1-4
Cost: 80,000
Movement: 6
Strength: 3
Agility: 3
Armour Value: 8
Normal Skill Access:
General
Strength
Mutation
Starting Skills/Traits:
Horns
Nurgle's Rot
Regeneration
Suggested Skills:
Extra Arm
Sure Hands
Two Heads (very good for ball carriers)
Big Hand (for a ball retriever, preferably with +AG)
Block
Wrestle
Tackle
Pestigors are very, very useful. Rotters make reasonable ball carriers with AG 3, but they are slow. Pests give a much needed speed boost and with Sure Hands or Extra Arms make perfect carriers. They are also tough with Regenerate and with extra skill access and no Decay, they are far preferable to Rotters.
You can also go the "killy" route and take Block, Mighty Blow, Tackle, Claw, Piling On and so on, but I prefer to leave that stuff to the Warriors. And if you want pure killing power, Chaos is likely a preferable team in the first place.
Pestigors are also very expensive for what they are. I usually take two until the team has some skills (in TV matchmaking anyway). This ensures you are not enormously outskilled by your opponent's team too fast.
Since Nurgle tend to lack Tackle early on (another big weakness), I like to build a Pestigor with Wrestle, Tackle and perhaps Strip Ball. Wrestle in particular acts as a kind of "alternate Tackle" early on for you.
This gives you someone you can leave in the backfield - with Horns Pests Blitz with +1 Strength, essentially making them Strength 4 on Blitzes.
Not only is this great if you're cornered in possession, but it's also very useful for Wrackling down Catchers and the like as they sneak into your backfield. Then you can get your Rotters to stamp on them, or wrap some slimy tentacles around the ball!
Nurgle Summary:
Nurgle are one of my favourite teams in the game. For all their strengths however, they can be very hard to play consistently with. One tiny mistake can mean the difference between winning or losing. I don't enjoy such a good record with them as I do with teams like Orcs and Norse.
Even so, they are rewarding to play when things go smoothly, have a lot of room for development and watching your skills make your opponent's turn absolute hell is a joy!
Now get out there and infect some pointy-earred pansies!
Nurgle are essentially a variant of Chaos teams. Nurgle is the God of Disease in the fluff, and as such Nurgle teams are made of of slimy, infectious zombie-esque abominations.
They are one of the best teams in the game for infuriating your opponent. Right from the start they have skills that make passing very hard for the other team, Foul Appearance will sometimes really mess up your opponent's blocking and they only get more irritating as they continue to level. Tentacles will make an Elf cry.
At high level, Nurgle can also be an effective bashing team. Regenerate + AV 9 means their positionals are exceedingly tough, so they can weather an onslaught of hits, then use their own strength and mutation access to really pile on pain in return.
Nurgle are similar to Chaos teams in that they have the same glaring weaknesses and strengths - a total lack of starting skills means the team is very vulnerable to Turnovers and failed actions early on, but universal access to Mutations and a lot of Strength and General access means the team can be very varied and effective once skilled.
They are also very slow, being only marginally faster than Dwarves. This means their offence is extremely weak, and they cannot expect to win by 2 TDs very often if they win at all. Poor speed and Agility is the largest weakness of a Nurgle team.
Nurgle differ from Chaos in that their Big Guy fills a completely different role (and is in fact the centre of their play) and they also focus on a disruptive gameplan rather than purely bashing skulls (though they can be good at that too).
Let's look at the player types:
Rotter
Number Limit: 1-16
Cost: 40,000/Free.
Movement: 5
Strength: 3
Agility: 3
Armour Value: 8
Normal Skill Access:
General
Mutation
Starting Skills/Traits:
Decay
Nurgle's Rot
Suggested Skills:
Dirty Player
Wrestle
Fend
Claw
Foul Appearance
Tackle
Suggested Doubles:
Guard
Mighty Blow
Sneaky Git
Unlike Chaos, who have the all-round Beastman, Nurgle teams have a dedicated Lineman known as a Rotter. Rotters are actually damn good for a measly 40,000 gold pieces, packing average Strength, average Agility and respectable Armour. However, they are slow at Movement 5 and have the Decay trait.
The Decay trait means that any serious injury (a Casualty result) will cause 2 injuries instead of one. For this reason, Rotters have short lifespans despite their reasonable AV. Lack of Regen and a doctor on the team means they are down and out when injured. They are the soft target that enemy teams will undoubtedly be trying to get off the pitch.
However, for cheap fodder that can get in the way of the opposition and play the ball in emergencies, they're very useful. They make excellent foulers out of the box and become more deadly with Dirty Player.
Mutation access also means Claw is an option, meaning they can be quite dangerous against high Armour opponents, just don't expect them to last long in a fight.
Foul Appearance en masse can also be used to get your opponent's veins throbbing. If you want to lengthen your Rotters' lifespans (and make them hyper annoying), give them Wrestle and Foul Appearance. Bashing teams will give themselves a hernia.
Finally, they (along with all Nurgle players) possess the "Nurgle's Rot" skill. This means any opponent with a STR of 4 or less killed on a block or foul action by the player will come back as a Rotter for free. The exception is players with Regen or Stunty, who can't be "infected".
This means that you never really have to worry about buying Rotters - just use free mercs if your team is bashed up and/or get replacements from players you kill.
Nurgle Warrior
Number Limit: 1-4
Cost: 110,000
Movement: 4
Strength: 4
Agility: 2
Armour Value: 9
Normal Skill Access:
General
Strength
Mutation
Starting Skills/Traits:
Foul Appearance
Disturbing Presence
Regeneration
Nurgle's Rot
Suggested Skills:
Block
Mighty Blow
Claw
Tentacles
Stand Firm
Guard
Prehensile Tail
Grab
Doubles:
Dodge
Ah, the Warriors! These guys are the killing machines of the team and the central pillars of your defence and offence. With a high Strength rating, two great disruption skills from the start (FA and DP), high AV and Regeneration, they are some of the toughest and nastiest players in the game.
They get access to General, Strength and Mutie skills on normal rolls, meaning you can customise them to be really hard hitters (Block, Mighty Blow, Claw...) or infuriating roadblock players (Block, Guard, Stand Firm, Tentacles, Prehensile Tail).
I like to have at least one killer for making my all around life easier on the pitch, while at the same time really playing to their strengths as an "annoyance" team by giving them roadblock skills as much as possible.
Their only weakness is low Movement and their lower Agility (when compared to Chaos Warriors). For this reason you want to handle them in two ways: firstly, keep them in the thick of the action, beating people senseless.
Secondly, plan where you most need them before you need them there. Their slow movement means you can really be caught out if you're not already positioned where you need to be.
Try and keep their Disturbing Presence auras spread around the pitch (or overlapping on potential pass targets). This will usually wreck any hope of a passing game, even with teams like Elves. Foul Appearance shuts down an opponent's attack 1/6 times and they lose their action unless they try to reroll it.
This means your Warriors are most annoying when just standing in the way, so I wouldn't recommend skills like Piling On if you go the killer route, since you're weakening yourself.
Block is an absolute must on first skill, I'd turn down anything but +1 Strength for it. If you do get a Strength increase, Tentacles is fantastic.Dodge on doubles can be great combined with Block + Guard, but I wouldn't take it early on.
Beast of Nurgle
Number Limit: 1
Cost: 140,000
Movement: 4
Strength: 5
Agility: 1
Armour Value: 9
Normal Skill Access:
Strength
(Mutation & General on doubles)
Starting Skills/Traits:
Disturbing Presence
Foul Appearance
Mighty Blow
Tentacles
Nurgle's Rot
Regeneration
Really Stupid
Loner
Suggested Skills:
Block
Stand Firm
Break Tackle
Grab
Guard
Thick Skull or Juggernaut (last skill perhaps)
The Beast of Nurgle is the cornerstone of Nurgle play. No other team relies on their Big Guy like Nurgle do.
This ugly mofo's Tentacles make him an absolute nightmare for Elves, Goblins and other dodgy opponents with low to average Strength. He also has the same AV and Regen as a Warrior and DP and FA too.
The Beast should always be positioned in such a way that he is tying up the opposition's most dangerous scorers. If no scorers are around (e.g. you're playing against a slow bash team), try to keep him away from killers on his own, especially if they have Claw.
He is still very tough with AV 9 and Regenerate however, so don't feel too afraid, just be aware that he is an important anchor for your play. Gang him up with your Warriors to create a formidable line, or keep him in a position where he can lock down anyone who gets past your front defences.
While he has Mighty Blow, the Beast also has Really Stupid. This means you will want someone next to him at all times, and even then he will lose his Tacklezones (and thus Tentacles) if he rolls a 1 and goes Stupid. This can be disasterous.
If you have players wrapped up in Tentacles, it may be worth not using the Beast in your next turn, and so avoid rolling for Stupidity. Losing the Tentacles can sometimes mean the difference between winning and losing - and trying to score an Injury by hitting with Mighty Blow is often not worth that. Only hit with him if you have no real risk of losing the ball or giving away a Touchdown if he goes Stupid.
He also has Loner, meaning he has a 50% chance of eating your rerolls. Without Block and with Loner, he is very unreliable when hitting people.
If the ball ever gets loose from your opponent (and it should do with Nurgle - that's your job), get your Beast on it immediately. This will really mess up Dodging teams, and makes life very hard for Strength teams too.
I tend to get Stand Firm on mine as a first skill, to make him near impossible to push away once he is lodged in somewhere. After that Guard is a good pick. Break Tackle is very good for stopping him getting tied up by one crappy opponent. He can also try to shove his way into cages with it and get his Tents around the ball carrier.
On Doubles Block is excellent because it makes his hits less risky and also keeps him stood up and in the way. Pro is also good (for rerolling Stupid). Alternatively you can get him Claw, giving him the Claw + Mighty Blow combo. This will make him very dangerous and a good killer, but it's a dubious skillup for the reasons above - he should not really be hitting often. He is not a Minotaur, and trying to use him as such will usually ruin your game.
Pestigor
Number Limit: 1-4
Cost: 80,000
Movement: 6
Strength: 3
Agility: 3
Armour Value: 8
Normal Skill Access:
General
Strength
Mutation
Starting Skills/Traits:
Horns
Nurgle's Rot
Regeneration
Suggested Skills:
Extra Arm
Sure Hands
Two Heads (very good for ball carriers)
Big Hand (for a ball retriever, preferably with +AG)
Block
Wrestle
Tackle
Pestigors are very, very useful. Rotters make reasonable ball carriers with AG 3, but they are slow. Pests give a much needed speed boost and with Sure Hands or Extra Arms make perfect carriers. They are also tough with Regenerate and with extra skill access and no Decay, they are far preferable to Rotters.
You can also go the "killy" route and take Block, Mighty Blow, Tackle, Claw, Piling On and so on, but I prefer to leave that stuff to the Warriors. And if you want pure killing power, Chaos is likely a preferable team in the first place.
Pestigors are also very expensive for what they are. I usually take two until the team has some skills (in TV matchmaking anyway). This ensures you are not enormously outskilled by your opponent's team too fast.
Since Nurgle tend to lack Tackle early on (another big weakness), I like to build a Pestigor with Wrestle, Tackle and perhaps Strip Ball. Wrestle in particular acts as a kind of "alternate Tackle" early on for you.
This gives you someone you can leave in the backfield - with Horns Pests Blitz with +1 Strength, essentially making them Strength 4 on Blitzes.
Not only is this great if you're cornered in possession, but it's also very useful for Wrackling down Catchers and the like as they sneak into your backfield. Then you can get your Rotters to stamp on them, or wrap some slimy tentacles around the ball!
The lads!
Nurgle Summary:
Nurgle are one of my favourite teams in the game. For all their strengths however, they can be very hard to play consistently with. One tiny mistake can mean the difference between winning or losing. I don't enjoy such a good record with them as I do with teams like Orcs and Norse.
Even so, they are rewarding to play when things go smoothly, have a lot of room for development and watching your skills make your opponent's turn absolute hell is a joy!
Now get out there and infect some pointy-earred pansies!
Sunday, 22 May 2011
Themes in Pulp Fiction
*Contains spoilers*
After finally watching the legendary Pulp Fiction today, I must conclude that it's now pretty high up on my "favourite films" list.
Not only is the film absolutely studded with stars but an unusual narrative method (typical of Tarantino), intriguing characters and really great dialogue makes the film an absolute pleasure to watch.
I've noticed films I like the most tend to be unorthodox and genre-busting. Pulp Fiction certainly fits those labels. It really is impossible to categorise - one minute you'll think you're watching a black comedy, then the next scene cranks up the tension like a spot-on Thriller. Then suddenly you'll be hit with the comedy again. While you're still laughing, something happens to knock the wind out of you and make you think a bit. Then you're laughing again.
Like the cheap stories from which it takes it's name, it's crammed with tales from beginning to end that can change tempo like this in the blink of an eye. It's like a whole bunch of narratives were taken and then linked beautifully using the same characters. I think the title is less a direct reference to those "trashy" paperbacks and more a hinting of the strange grittiness attached to the story.
While undoubtedly violent (and definitely heavy on the cursing), the film seems to use these two assets to full effect rather than throwing them around for the hell of it.
The film felt very noir-esque in parts, with dialogue so dramatic it bordered deliciously on being surreal. It defies the noir label though, and is instead an altogether different beast. Noir is merely one style it wears like an item of clothing and casts off when suited.
I found the film to both be immensely sad (in the specific case of one character), and yet uplifting as a net emotional effect. The themes only really hit you when you sit back and think about what you just watched.
It's definitely structured for this retrospective effect, which I think is a great credit to Tarantino's abilities. Shot in non-chronological order, you will struggle to remember what happened exactly when even after watching - then you want to watch again to confirm whether your ideas and theories on the meaning of the film are correct.
*Spoilers from this point on*
Now that I think about, the central core of Pulp Fiction lies in the revalations that each character throughout the movie experiences about themselves. These shining moments of clarity (or lack thereof) both control the characters' fates and define their personalities.
Take Jules, the most obvious example. He starts out as a hitman capable of pondering such details as what burgers are named in France, but is apparently oblivious to the horrific nature of the murders he commits. The irony to his life and what is actually important in it seems to dawn on him slowly as the film progresses.
His spiritual awakening is crowned in his final last glorious moment in the diner. I think Jackson deserved an Oscar for his performance here, nomination be damned. His delivery of that speech ("You are the weak. And I am the tyranny of evil men. But I'm tryin'...I'm tryin' real hard to be the shepherd.") seems to suddenly bring the chaotic shifting of the film to a grinding halt. Balance is restored with Travolta's Vincent Vegas character giving a quick laugh before the credits, but the haunting quality of that dialogue and the piercing look in Jackson's eyes stays with us.
Jules' introspection not only seems to give him a new reason to exist, but it also gives the film it's reason to exist.
However, this soul-searching is not limited only to Jules. Look at Bruce Willis' character, Butch.
Butch starts the film apparently morally corrupt - he visits Jules and Vincent's mob boss Marsellus (Ving Rhames) in order to throw his next boxing match for money.
However, he then fights the match anyway and wins, accidentally killing the other man in the process. Having craftily bet on himself, he gets the money for both throwing the fight and winning it, tremendously pissing off Marsellus. When informed of the man's death, Butch apparently doesn't care.
His crowning moment of change comes when later trapped in the lair of some demented rapists. Having freed himself, his enemy Marsellus is still trapped and is being horribly violated off camera.
Butch pauses at the door, his freedom in front of him, and we see in his eyes that he is having his "Jules" moment. Now comes the deciding factor, the decision on what he will be for the rest of his life. He sees past his grievance with Marsellus and redeems himself by returning to save him from a greater, pervading evil.
Jules goes from shouting his Biblical reference and then executing someone coldly to reciting it remoresefully and almost sorrowfully in his last scene.
Similarly, Butch's unpleasant attitude is gone when he last speaks to his girlfriend. The rage is gone from his demands and he no longer seems tortured. Even from the sound of his voice we can hear that perhaps he has learned something more important to him than all that money
Lastly there is Vincent and Marsellus' wife Mia (Uma Thurman), easily the two most tragic characters in the film.
Vincent is effectively Jules if he had never had his realisation. He is incapable of seeing the greater meaning to his life - or rather he seems to, but shuts himself out from it.
Vincent is in a bathroom at 3 very signifcant times:
- During the beginning of the holdup of the diner.
- When at Mia's place before she overdoses on Heroin.
- At Butch's flat, waiting for him, when Butch instead surprises and kills him with his own gun.
All of these times, he is reading a cheap comic, with the camera panning significantly to it after his death.
There have been many interpretations of this, including a rather interesting feminist reading that can be seen on Wikipedia.
Personally, I haven't delved that deep into it, but I think the bathroom itself is a more simple metaphor for Vincent's isolation from the most important things that are happening all around him, just as he is isolated mentally from the most important things in life.
He chooses to go there and isolate himself almost unwittingly at crucial moments. While there, he engages himself in a trashy and cheap alternate reality. His life itself is exactly like what he is reading - ungrounded in reality and shallow, meaningless. Yet he does not realise.
He talks early in the film about the sensuous act of massaging a woman's feet, and yet we never see him in a relationship. The closest he gets is to Mia.
With Mia, we get the sense that they would be perfect for each other in a parallel dimension, which is partly what makes their last interaction strangely heartbreaking. After saving her from her OD, Vincent blows her a kiss (unseen by her) and then walks away alone.
When he is in the bathroom at her apartment, he convinces himself in the mirror to simply leave without getting any more intimate with her. The obvious explanation is he fears Marsellus' wrath, but more implicitly I believe he fears himself. He fears getting what he wants, because he doesn't understand it.
He loves Mia, but he can't even realise that. He just cannot get what he wants.
Ultimately, his same self-isolation and failure to comprehend life leads to his death at the hands of Butch. His existence is pointless and pathetic, just like the comic book, and the look of startled shock on his face before his demise tells us that that is his moment of clarity, sadly all too late.
Mia is hewn of the same material. She lives with Marsellus, but seems strangely troubled. She snorts coke like it's going out of fashion, her life similarly empty. She is at her happiest with Vincent, and yet is powerless to change her lonely destiny.
For a film apparently about the apathy and nihilism of modern culture and the sudden twists of fate that command life, Pulp Fiction has a strong undercurrent of the power of choosing one's own destiny that seems to belie all that came before.
That, I think, is the primary wonder of the film.
After finally watching the legendary Pulp Fiction today, I must conclude that it's now pretty high up on my "favourite films" list.
Not only is the film absolutely studded with stars but an unusual narrative method (typical of Tarantino), intriguing characters and really great dialogue makes the film an absolute pleasure to watch.
I've noticed films I like the most tend to be unorthodox and genre-busting. Pulp Fiction certainly fits those labels. It really is impossible to categorise - one minute you'll think you're watching a black comedy, then the next scene cranks up the tension like a spot-on Thriller. Then suddenly you'll be hit with the comedy again. While you're still laughing, something happens to knock the wind out of you and make you think a bit. Then you're laughing again.
Like the cheap stories from which it takes it's name, it's crammed with tales from beginning to end that can change tempo like this in the blink of an eye. It's like a whole bunch of narratives were taken and then linked beautifully using the same characters. I think the title is less a direct reference to those "trashy" paperbacks and more a hinting of the strange grittiness attached to the story.
While undoubtedly violent (and definitely heavy on the cursing), the film seems to use these two assets to full effect rather than throwing them around for the hell of it.
The film felt very noir-esque in parts, with dialogue so dramatic it bordered deliciously on being surreal. It defies the noir label though, and is instead an altogether different beast. Noir is merely one style it wears like an item of clothing and casts off when suited.
I found the film to both be immensely sad (in the specific case of one character), and yet uplifting as a net emotional effect. The themes only really hit you when you sit back and think about what you just watched.
It's definitely structured for this retrospective effect, which I think is a great credit to Tarantino's abilities. Shot in non-chronological order, you will struggle to remember what happened exactly when even after watching - then you want to watch again to confirm whether your ideas and theories on the meaning of the film are correct.
*Spoilers from this point on*
Now that I think about, the central core of Pulp Fiction lies in the revalations that each character throughout the movie experiences about themselves. These shining moments of clarity (or lack thereof) both control the characters' fates and define their personalities.
Jules
Take Jules, the most obvious example. He starts out as a hitman capable of pondering such details as what burgers are named in France, but is apparently oblivious to the horrific nature of the murders he commits. The irony to his life and what is actually important in it seems to dawn on him slowly as the film progresses.
His spiritual awakening is crowned in his final last glorious moment in the diner. I think Jackson deserved an Oscar for his performance here, nomination be damned. His delivery of that speech ("You are the weak. And I am the tyranny of evil men. But I'm tryin'...I'm tryin' real hard to be the shepherd.") seems to suddenly bring the chaotic shifting of the film to a grinding halt. Balance is restored with Travolta's Vincent Vegas character giving a quick laugh before the credits, but the haunting quality of that dialogue and the piercing look in Jackson's eyes stays with us.
Jules' introspection not only seems to give him a new reason to exist, but it also gives the film it's reason to exist.
However, this soul-searching is not limited only to Jules. Look at Bruce Willis' character, Butch.
Butch
Butch starts the film apparently morally corrupt - he visits Jules and Vincent's mob boss Marsellus (Ving Rhames) in order to throw his next boxing match for money.
However, he then fights the match anyway and wins, accidentally killing the other man in the process. Having craftily bet on himself, he gets the money for both throwing the fight and winning it, tremendously pissing off Marsellus. When informed of the man's death, Butch apparently doesn't care.
His crowning moment of change comes when later trapped in the lair of some demented rapists. Having freed himself, his enemy Marsellus is still trapped and is being horribly violated off camera.
Butch pauses at the door, his freedom in front of him, and we see in his eyes that he is having his "Jules" moment. Now comes the deciding factor, the decision on what he will be for the rest of his life. He sees past his grievance with Marsellus and redeems himself by returning to save him from a greater, pervading evil.
Jules goes from shouting his Biblical reference and then executing someone coldly to reciting it remoresefully and almost sorrowfully in his last scene.
Similarly, Butch's unpleasant attitude is gone when he last speaks to his girlfriend. The rage is gone from his demands and he no longer seems tortured. Even from the sound of his voice we can hear that perhaps he has learned something more important to him than all that money
Vincent and Mia.
Lastly there is Vincent and Marsellus' wife Mia (Uma Thurman), easily the two most tragic characters in the film.
Vincent is effectively Jules if he had never had his realisation. He is incapable of seeing the greater meaning to his life - or rather he seems to, but shuts himself out from it.
Vincent is in a bathroom at 3 very signifcant times:
- During the beginning of the holdup of the diner.
- When at Mia's place before she overdoses on Heroin.
- At Butch's flat, waiting for him, when Butch instead surprises and kills him with his own gun.
All of these times, he is reading a cheap comic, with the camera panning significantly to it after his death.
There have been many interpretations of this, including a rather interesting feminist reading that can be seen on Wikipedia.
Personally, I haven't delved that deep into it, but I think the bathroom itself is a more simple metaphor for Vincent's isolation from the most important things that are happening all around him, just as he is isolated mentally from the most important things in life.
He chooses to go there and isolate himself almost unwittingly at crucial moments. While there, he engages himself in a trashy and cheap alternate reality. His life itself is exactly like what he is reading - ungrounded in reality and shallow, meaningless. Yet he does not realise.
He talks early in the film about the sensuous act of massaging a woman's feet, and yet we never see him in a relationship. The closest he gets is to Mia.
With Mia, we get the sense that they would be perfect for each other in a parallel dimension, which is partly what makes their last interaction strangely heartbreaking. After saving her from her OD, Vincent blows her a kiss (unseen by her) and then walks away alone.
When he is in the bathroom at her apartment, he convinces himself in the mirror to simply leave without getting any more intimate with her. The obvious explanation is he fears Marsellus' wrath, but more implicitly I believe he fears himself. He fears getting what he wants, because he doesn't understand it.
He loves Mia, but he can't even realise that. He just cannot get what he wants.
Ultimately, his same self-isolation and failure to comprehend life leads to his death at the hands of Butch. His existence is pointless and pathetic, just like the comic book, and the look of startled shock on his face before his demise tells us that that is his moment of clarity, sadly all too late.
Mia is hewn of the same material. She lives with Marsellus, but seems strangely troubled. She snorts coke like it's going out of fashion, her life similarly empty. She is at her happiest with Vincent, and yet is powerless to change her lonely destiny.
For a film apparently about the apathy and nihilism of modern culture and the sudden twists of fate that command life, Pulp Fiction has a strong undercurrent of the power of choosing one's own destiny that seems to belie all that came before.
That, I think, is the primary wonder of the film.
Friday, 13 May 2011
Iniital Impressions: Crackdown 2
Being a new owner of an Xbox 360, I didn't play the original Crackdown much. I had the odd blast round a friend's place and found it fun.
Hence when I got the chance to get the sequel for a good price, I leapt at it.
Crackdown 2 sounds great on paper. You're a law enforcement "Agent" in the near-future, set to restore order to a chaotic city by any means possible.
Unfortunately, after a few hours of playing I'm rather underwhelmed by the story of the game. Crackdown 1 wasn't exactly a novel, but it seemed to have various gangs and factions as well as tasks such as assassinations that you had to carry out.
The sequel ditches that, and instead has two enemy factions: "Cell", a terrorist group who has sufficient power to actually control areas of the city completely and the "Freaks", weird lab abominations that devastate the city at night.
Now, as someone who enjoyed Prototype, this is starting to sound familiar - zombies and an enemy human faction (with Cell replacing Prototype's military enemies).
In addition to that there are also the Peacekeepers, your cop allies.
Unfortunately, this potentially interesting setup is destroyed by a clunky intro. Not only do we get next to no information of who Cell are or how the group works, but the whole concept of "Freaks" seems pretty ridiculous. Are we honestly meant to believe that a serious, professional leader of a law enforcement agency would dub ravenous monsters "freaks" as their official name? It's kinda laughable.
In addition, the monsters just aren't fun to fight. Unlike Prototype, where you could rip zombies to pieces with your own biological talons, Crackdown just lets you shoot them or beat on them a bit. It's more fun just to avoid them entirely and plough through in a car.
Cell baddies are fun to fight, however the lack of background info on them makes it seem a little pointless. The concept of a group of psychotic nutters banding together to take over a city is intriguing, but they're played in a totally one dimensional manner. The game only gives them the bare minimum of depth.
They will scream anarchist remarks ("You're going to get some of your own medicine, pig!") at you and cry out for help when shot ("I'm hit, arrrgh my leg!" brought a grin to my face as I kneecapped one with my rifle).
That brings me onto another thing - the locking system is a pain in the arse. Skirmishes are often frantic, with Cell guys hiding behind cover and their reinforcements roaring in with vehicles that look like they're straight out of Mad Max.
This gives a great atmosphere, but the target locking system can quickly make it frustrating. Sometimes you'll want to shoot a guy in the legs to stop him getting to a hiding spot, or hit his arm so that he can't fire back. Instead you'll randomly not be able to switch aim and you'll spend precious seconds being shot.
Other times I've been shooting away at a terrorist, tried to lock another and instead end up locking something totally random, like a civillian car driving the other end of the street. This is again, very frustrating.
However, I must say I'm enjoying the game overall. The sense of freedom is immense and there are simple pleasures to be had. Speeding in a police car, sirens blazing, slamming into a bunch of baddies and then leaping out of the still-moving vehicle to pump the rest full of lead is very satisfying.
I look forward to getting my special abilities up and then making a more thorough (and most likely more positive) assessment of the game.
Hence when I got the chance to get the sequel for a good price, I leapt at it.
Crackdown 2 sounds great on paper. You're a law enforcement "Agent" in the near-future, set to restore order to a chaotic city by any means possible.
Unfortunately, after a few hours of playing I'm rather underwhelmed by the story of the game. Crackdown 1 wasn't exactly a novel, but it seemed to have various gangs and factions as well as tasks such as assassinations that you had to carry out.
The sequel ditches that, and instead has two enemy factions: "Cell", a terrorist group who has sufficient power to actually control areas of the city completely and the "Freaks", weird lab abominations that devastate the city at night.
Now, as someone who enjoyed Prototype, this is starting to sound familiar - zombies and an enemy human faction (with Cell replacing Prototype's military enemies).
In addition to that there are also the Peacekeepers, your cop allies.
Unfortunately, this potentially interesting setup is destroyed by a clunky intro. Not only do we get next to no information of who Cell are or how the group works, but the whole concept of "Freaks" seems pretty ridiculous. Are we honestly meant to believe that a serious, professional leader of a law enforcement agency would dub ravenous monsters "freaks" as their official name? It's kinda laughable.
In addition, the monsters just aren't fun to fight. Unlike Prototype, where you could rip zombies to pieces with your own biological talons, Crackdown just lets you shoot them or beat on them a bit. It's more fun just to avoid them entirely and plough through in a car.
Cell baddies are fun to fight, however the lack of background info on them makes it seem a little pointless. The concept of a group of psychotic nutters banding together to take over a city is intriguing, but they're played in a totally one dimensional manner. The game only gives them the bare minimum of depth.
They will scream anarchist remarks ("You're going to get some of your own medicine, pig!") at you and cry out for help when shot ("I'm hit, arrrgh my leg!" brought a grin to my face as I kneecapped one with my rifle).
That brings me onto another thing - the locking system is a pain in the arse. Skirmishes are often frantic, with Cell guys hiding behind cover and their reinforcements roaring in with vehicles that look like they're straight out of Mad Max.
This gives a great atmosphere, but the target locking system can quickly make it frustrating. Sometimes you'll want to shoot a guy in the legs to stop him getting to a hiding spot, or hit his arm so that he can't fire back. Instead you'll randomly not be able to switch aim and you'll spend precious seconds being shot.
Other times I've been shooting away at a terrorist, tried to lock another and instead end up locking something totally random, like a civillian car driving the other end of the street. This is again, very frustrating.
However, I must say I'm enjoying the game overall. The sense of freedom is immense and there are simple pleasures to be had. Speeding in a police car, sirens blazing, slamming into a bunch of baddies and then leaping out of the still-moving vehicle to pump the rest full of lead is very satisfying.
I look forward to getting my special abilities up and then making a more thorough (and most likely more positive) assessment of the game.
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