Best Stuff on the Net: Errant Signal

I'm a fan of just about every video that Chris Franklin has put out, but his most recent analysis of Watch_Dogs hits home particularly well.  Aiden Pearce is probably the least compelling video game protagonist in recent history, and the game itself is symptomatic of a lot of things wrong with Ubisoft, or even game development in general from a certain perspective.  If you held out on this game, you aren't missing much.

Review: Telltale's The Walking Dead: Season 2

Season two for Telltale’s The Walking Dead has finished up with it’s fifth chapter, marking another success in effective storytelling.  Watching the journey of Clementine play out this season has been a fascinating, terrifying, heart-wrenching ordeal, dotted with peril, loss, and a few hints of beauty.  Fans of the first season that have been holding out for all the episodes to be released will not be disappointed, as Telltale has managed recapture all the drama and tough decisions that go into being the ambassador among a group of survivors in zombie apocalypse.

The focus on Clementine after the ending of season one maybe have been an obvious move for story direction, but it’s been satisfying none the less to watch how she responds to the choices presented to her this time around.  A sense of ownership on what kind of life lessons Lee was allowed to teach her gave most players a sense of ownership to how their Clementine would act for this season.  Would she be a loner?  Did she have faith in people?  Would she be a mediator?  Or would she only calculate the best odds for her own survival?  However you decided to inform her, special credit has to be given again to Melissa Hutchinson’s portrayal of this character, capable of feeling not only like a child, but someone that has been hardened by the harsh realities presented before them.

The supporting cast for this season has been widened, to varying degrees of success.  Returning faces will strike a chord with some players, both from the first season and the 400 Days standalone.  A concerted effort has been made to give a story and motivation to each person.  Some characters seem to have been pushed to the forefront as to be more important than others, which may be hit or miss for some.  If you don’t sympathize with the pushed characters, then some of the story beats might not play as dramatic as presented.

Gameplay is still mostly QTE, but the drama is still effective as ever

Still, it’s hard to deny that painful twinge in the pit of your stomach when you think you’ve found someone halfway decent, only to have what seems like a turn of bad luck rip them away from you.  The action segments play slightly better this time around than they did last season, but in the end are still glorified quicktime events.  Twitch gameplay this isn’t, rather, an elaborate pick-your-own adventure is still the modus operandi for this series. This game is here to tell a story.

Choices this season play out more varied than they have from any of Telltale’s other offerings, which is refreshing to see.  The illusion of control over the path you take in the story is much better maintained this time around, allowing for players to feel a greater sense of agency.  The ending of the season in particular deserves particular praise, seeing wildly different resolutions based on your choices, with very little signaling of such.  I’m torn between saying reload chapter five to see them all, or accept the consequences of your choices for Season 3.  Once again, the illusion of choice presented by Telltale holds up better on a single playthrough, but there’s a lot more variation this time around.

Emotional beats of the series still hold up incredibly when it’s all said and done.  I sympathized with some the pain presented in chapter one, and I bawled like a baby not once, but twice, with how the season closed out.  These guys are still the masters in the game biz when it comes to tugging on your heartstrings, and proving that they are still the best people to have their hands on the franchise.  The episodic format even works in the games favors, with some episodes closing out with significant time passage.  This works better than The Wolf Among Us, with all of it’s events happening in a much shorter time span.

I was incredibly pleased with this second helping of The Walking Dead, and can’t wait to see what Telltale does with a third season.  If you’re picking up all five episodes now, much like the first season I’d recommend spacing them out when playing:  events can get heavy, so giving yourself some time to decompress can help with the experience.

Warning: Great trailer, lots of spoilers, proceed at your own risk...

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This past week is when all the news happened, so we had tons to cover this show. DDoS! Leaks! Studies! E-Sports! ...and a bunch of other interesting stuff.  It's also a full house tonight with Izzy and Miguel thrown into the mix, so kick back and have a listen!

-=Download 4.02=-

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Season 4 of VGR starts now!  Myself, Trey, Ryan and Colleen ease into the new semester by giving our thoughts on the now past Gamescom, along with a few other stories we've plucked from the news cycle. Take a listen and stay tuned!

-=Download VGR 4.01=-

VGR Season 4 starting soon

We've got our showtime slot for this fall:  we'll be doing Tuesday evenings from 9pm to 11pm EST.  Ryan will be taking DJ's place as a regular co-host for this semester.  Him, along with myself and Trey will be playing video game music and talking about gaming news, along with some reviews, so make sure you check it out.

If you want to listen to the show live, you can stream the show from tune-in at the appropriate time:

WUAG 103.1

Otherwise, keep your eye on the blog, I'll be recording and posting as many shows as I can manage for you to listen to at any time.

Resident Evil Re-Remake

While at first glance I'd call this move a bit excessive, more of me appreciates the gesture by Capcom.  REmake is one of the most masterful iterations of the classic survival-horror formula, and to see it given a chance for a much larger release audience is pretty exciting.  Gamecube back in the day just didn't have a large enough install base that this, and other remasters of it's ilk, really got a fair chance.  To this day, you can still find lots of gamers participating in the questionable act of emulating this gem.  Ironically, we're leaving out Nintendo's consoles this time around, just about every other platform however will see a release in early 2015.

This announcement has some great timing with Game Informer's current super replay that is currently going through not only REmake, but the original PS1 version as well.  If you want to see just how radically these two games have changed, I'd encourage you to take a look.