Loads of fun with Loadout

 
I am a very competitive person.

Some might say that's a bad thing and that I should relax but I enjoy it. It makes games fun for me.

In fact most of the games I'm really into have some sort of competitive component. Dark Souls and World of Warcraft would have to be two games that have totally consumed me.

I PVPed like mad in WoW - in fact my first toon is ranked champion while my last toon, a warlock, spent most of his time poping heads in Athari Basin.And in Dark Souls I love invading peeps and claiming souls. There's something about gearing up and going out of your way to collect stuff which you then use to wreck other players. Now I'm not saying that I'm hot shit at it, in fact I've learned to channel my competitiveness a little, but I do really enjoy playing against other players.

I've never been one for online shooters though until I wrapped my virtual trigger finger around Team Fortress 2. Then I started playing that for hours upon hours. I even got into collecting those damn hats >_<

Well recently I started mucking around on the beta servers for an up coming third person shooter called Loadout, and this thing really has me hooked.

My Loadout home screen

I actually can't remember how I came across this game but I do remember going nuts trying to get my hands on a beta key. It didn't take too long as a simple Facebook message to the games page returned a link to a key for me to grab.

Since then I've been having a blast with Loadout. The best way to describe is that it's like Team Fortress meets Unreal; in that it's very cartoony looking with the action being arcady.

I know these days we judge our online shooters with such games as Call of Duty or Halo, but Loadout is more about casual fun, at least to me.

Rather than trying to be "real and authentic" with its gameplay, Loadout is over the top and frantic.

A typical Loadout match gets very hectic. You might have the occasional sniper with a 10 kill streak but he probably died like 20 times himself. As soon as the countdown timer ends, the screen is splashed with blood and body parts. The death animations are actually a lot of fun to watch and you can't get head shot without letting out a "o shit hahahaha" when it happens.

This is my baby

The biggest pull though is the games loadout system itself. You don't just pick two guns and an item, instead you actually get to craft your choice of weapon right down to what kind of trigger it has to fire. The closest I've come to this would have to be the Free to play shooter Black Light, which has tones of weapon customizing, but Loadout takes that concept and pumps it full of crack - because the results are just insane.

The cool thing is that even though you have people running around with lightening chain guns and 6 barrel rocket launchers that fire like anime mechs, everything is so well balanced. When crafting an item everything has it's pros and cons - so you don't make something that is the best "killer" but rather something that best suits your play style.

Aside from the awesome weapon building you also get to create your toon. Currently the game has two hero characters that you can customize, one of them looks a lot like Rambo and the other Mr T, and the devs have said they'll be releasing a female character as well sometime soon.

The main theme of the game seems to draw very heavily from the action movie culture of the 70s and 80s. Think Terminator, Commando, Cobra or anything else staring the cast of the Expandable and you'll find some reference to it in Loadout. One of the cosmetic options is even the jacket that Arnie takes from the punk in Terminator 1. In fact it's called "stolen punk jacket"

I've got two skins I role with, one being sort of a post apocalyptic theme and the other a rip off of Rick from Splatter House.

I actually cost me game money to take that shirt off.

 Both have the same weapon set up - but I have some other muck around builds as well.

I actually just keep things pretty simple. Yes the weapons with the light shows are fun but nothing beats a slug to the face. But this could change as every time I see someone using an interesting looking weapon I have to try and build it for myself. There's actually an area where you can try out all the guns you've made, but what I would love is a way to share and view other peoples schematics.

There are a few draw backs though as the game currently has a limited number of maps, and in game currency to buy weapon parts and cosmetics are hard to come by. Plus even though there are a huge possible combination of weapons - everyone just uses rockets. Including me :P

At the end of each match you get a wheel to spin, which in turn rewards you with various prizes like weapon parts and "space bucks". So far I've been getting a lot of XP and very little cash. So I went and bought a starter pack.

You're weapons level up as you spend rank points to open up different tiers in the weapons components. The most I've invested in is the Harbinger you can see in the pic up top.

Loadout should be out of closed beta soon and when it hits Steam you should definitely check it out if you're a fan of online play. The community are a pretty cool bunch, but all online groups have the occasional ass, but so far I haven't run into one. The Devs are petty cool to and you can tell they really love what they have and are constantly keeping touch with the fans for ideas and suggestions. You can also catch some live streaming of their games every now and then too.

Now watch this awesome trailer:

A Day At the Beach wins a World TV Award.

And then I won a World TV award.

A short film I did with my FBC TV crew called "A Day At the Beach" won the World Television Awards 2013 Science/environment category for the Best TV Programme on “Creating Ozone Safe Generations".

Now I get to present the Film at the Asia Media Summit, which is a global gathering of broadcasters from around the world, scheduled for the the 29 May in Manado, Indonesia. That's where I get presented with my award too :)

According to the website there's going to be 500 representatives from various broadcasters at the summit so it should be very interesting. 

I was so damn excited when I heard that I had won. It was 1am on a Saturday Morning and I had just finished a few hours of playing Loadout when I got the call from my Boss who had gotten an email telling him I had won. I actually just sat there kinda like "o really... awesome"

Inside though I was kinda in shock because this was my first international award, and a World TV award at that - which is pretty huge.

The film was a made as part of the workshop I had attended in Malaysia.

 As far as films go I never make anything I wouldn't watch. So when I set out to make something on Ozone Depletion one idea just jumped into my head.

After hearing all this talk about stop ozone depleting substances by the year 2050 I started thinking about what kind of effect that would have on us here in Fiji. Can Fiji or the whole Pacific wait that long? What will happen before then? or after that?

Check out the "Boom Mic"

So what came out in scripting was a ravaged Fiji in the year 2063 and the rest just fell into place.

Drawing from such things as Cormac McCarthy's The Road and even a bit of Jack Vance's Dying Earth stories soon the script was locked into place.

I had a great crew working with me too so after about a week of planning and a day of shooting we  knew we had something awesome going. I'm lucky to always have a crew that sort of trusts me with concept and planing and especially direction.

I wanted to make the short informative, while still being accessible, so I had written a father and daughter reflecting on all the things that happened to Fiji for it to be the dry, barren place it was in the script.    

We shot the project down at the Sigatoka sand dunes which gave us the perfect back drop for our story.

Before the actual day of the shoot my buddy Samu Soqoyawa and I went up to the dunes to check out the location. I shot a small video of the location on my handycam just to get a feel for the place. I then cut this into a little "mood video" that I showed the crew to give them a sense of what I was trying to capture. I also used this is a site reference when scripting.

The Day of the actual was shoot was a lot harder as the area gets a lot of rain. So it meant packing equipment up now and then, sometimes in the middle of takes, so we didn't get it wet.

What was also interesting is that I had planned to have a  CGI character in the story as well. A computer that talks to the father and daughter, explaining things about the Ozone and the effects of the depletion.

The design for this A.I was pretty simple but looked great - and I owe a lot of thanks to our graphics guy and my friend David Whiteside for his designs. I'm lucky that he is a huge video game buff like me so he had a lot to draw from. In fact he designed all the graphics I animated based on a few crude sketches I had given him. though our render resources and such was pretty scarce - I thought the end product with the AI turned out great.

Lending her voice to the AI, that we named Jacki-0, was the lovely Jacqueline Speight from our very own FBC TV news desk.

The score for the short was done by our very awesome sound guy Jone Nakasamai, who actually composed the main theme a day before we submitted the film for the award.

Our two leads Peceli Rokotuivuna and Ny Vann were great sports. As we had one camera it meant we had to do a lot of multiple takes to get the different angles. Even Seremaia bui Cabecabe who was our drive for the day helped with carrying equipment up and down those mad high sand dunes.

In the end we had something we were all very proud of and to have something that is essentially a work of passion recognized with an award like this is truly amazing.  

Here's the trailer for the short - which plays on FBC TV on the 15th of May at 6:30pm. I'll have a copy online soon after I get back from Indonesia.

Dark Souls 2: Gameplay Reveal

Dark Souls. Nothing else comes close.

Well there's Demon souls ... but Dark Souls is hands down my ultimate gaming experience. I came across  a comment somewhere that read:

"I haven't finished Dark Souls ... stuck in the tomb of giants"

This was then followed by a reply that said:

"Don't blame you... that game is hard"

To which I thought "Fuck that"

I finished Dark Souls 5 times. 4 times on one character which stayed at level 125 while the world got harder around him. Saying that Dark Souls is Hard is a serious under statement. But the game doesn't punish you for mistakes, it punishes you for not learning from them.

Now I don't need to go into any more depth about how much of a hard-on i have for Dark Souls, you can actually just read about it your self on my past blog up dates about it.

Well now after Dark Souls there's only one other game that I'm truly anticipating, more than anything else. In fact it's greatness actually makes everything else pale in comparison. That Game is Dark Souls 2.

From the day I saw the announcement trailer I've been burning (for lack of a better word) to play this game. It's not just the difficulty - in fact that's not my biggest pull - it's the world that you live in when  you play Dark Souls, that's what I'm looking forward to revisiting.

The lore, the characters - nothing beats Dark Souls.

Today the dark gods were kind enough to grace us finally with a Dark Souls 2 Gameplay video. I wish I had recorded my reaction to it because I'm sure my Jaw was dropped throughout the whole thing.

Check it out.



Now if there was one thing that bugged me about the gameplay it was that the player seemed to take a lot of hits. Some of those early bits in the video against those undead soldiers were a bit disappointing because if you take hits like that in Dark Souls you'll be seeing a reload screen shortly after. Plus he seemed to move a little too fast in that amour - something I'm not used to seeing in Dark Souls.

But I loved the atmosphere and the environment throughout the video. It reminded me more of Demon's Souls over Dark Souls because it seemed to have more of a horror aspect to it. And that boss in the carriage - looked freaking awesome. And that bridge with the dragons... fucking hell. And that bit with the monster crashing through the wall... o my god.

I can not wait to see more of it. Dark Souls 2 seems to be shaping up very nicely... Praise the Sun!

Go Goa Gone: Bollywood finally gets bitten

As a kid I watched a lot of Bollywood films, mostly a lot of movies staring Amitabh Bachchan.

Till this day he is one of my favorite actors, and not just out of Bollywood. His film Toofan was something I watched over and over again as a kid because it was the closet thing I could get in terms of a "superhero" movie which was in my mother tongue.

Amitabh Bachchan as Toofan (Hurricane)

 As I grew older and got into movies, mostly horror movies, I started drifting away from Bollywood a bit. Through my folks I would still catch a few of the classic films, but mostly I grew up on 80s horror out of the states. 

I don't think I've ever been excited about a Bollywood film since my Amitabh Bachchan days, but this week I came to know about one film from the mother land that has me pretty pumped.

Go Goa Gone is an up coming Zombie Comedy from Bollywood. Not only are these guys finally putting out a Zombie movie... but they've decided to make it funny. Which is cool because even the supposed "serious" Bolly Horror movies like Purana Mandir (Another favorite) have elements of comedy and the usual sing and dance, which detracts a lot from the tone of the horror.

The film is being directed by the duo of Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K who are US based film makers originally from India. And looking at the trailer for their film Go Goa Gone you can tell that these guys love zombie movies.

I see hints of Shawn of the Dead in there, as well as sharp nods to most zombie movie cliches. My particular favorite is the "Bad Ass" character in the film as played by Saif Ali Khan. His a Desi boy parading as a Russian lol.

The film has already gotten some major hype online and was even trending the other day on Twitter. With zombies being everywhere these days, just the novelty of a Bollywood made zombie movie brings a bit of freshness to the genre.

 The premise is pretty straight forward, but provides the rigth set up:

When three friends head to Goa to get their minds off all their stress, they realize that their visit has been rearranged by zombies. Seeking the help of an Indo-Russian zombie slayer named Boris (Saif Ali Khan), they must fight together to defeat these intruders!

Check out the trailer and tell me that it doesn't look like fun.

Spec Ops: The Line. This is my dream, this is my nightmare

So yesterday I finished Spec Ops: The Line

O my god.

I've always felt that video games have potential to be the current form of narrative. Like books, video, TV, or what have you... Video Games are the new form of story telling. They aren't something to simple be played any more. The problem with this is that most games bank on hooks and game mechanics which provide replay value. In this day in age when the gaming market is so competitive you need to give the player something that's worth investing their time and money in.

This leads to shit like multiplayer games, death matches and what not. Simple game hooks that are easy to pick up and carry on so as not to loose the gamers attention.

It's with these things in mind that I wonder how the heck did Spec Ops: The liner ever get made, and I know that there are other critics that share my sentiments.

"The Line's" hook isn't so much in the gameplay, although I really enjoyed it, instead The Line brings you in with story. And yes there are heaps of games with great stories but the Line does an incredible job of slowly soaking you into itself.

Spec Ops: The Line tells the story of a small squad of Delta Force operatives sent to the shattered city of Dubai after a massive sandstorm has rendered the city uninhabitable. You play as Walker, the leader of the Delta squad. Your mission: locate the survivors of the 33rd Brigade led by the mysterious Colonel Konrad.

It starts off pretty average, you shoot at people and yell out orders.

But then something happens. Your character starts to question what's going on. Why are we shooting these people... do we need to kill so many to move. It's this semi breaking of the 4th wall to make you question your actions that starts Spec Op: The Line's descent into darkness.

The thing is, it's not that The Line doesn't make you do things you don't already do in other shooters, in stead it's innovation lies in the fact that it makes you feel like shit for doing it.

Anyone who has read Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" or seen Apocalypse Now will be familiar with the story. "The Line" is the gaming link to Conrad's Novel the way Apocalypse Now was the film link.

There are heaps of articles and such all over the net now about how awesome this game is, and so many articles discussing the ideas and theme the game puts across. There's even a really cool write up which has a real Marine commenting on the game and giving his 2cents on all the cool stuff the game accomplishes. And this one in particular called "Don't be a Hero" is a great read as it has a lot of insight shared by the Devs in the making of the game. There even an article that tries to break the game down psychologically.

Earlier I was talking about how a game like this would be such a hard pitch to sell to a publisher. Because the beauty of The Line is in exploring the narrative and like all good narratives, it's the ending that nails it. The narrative being so focused does aim the whole thing towards a more leaner style and one might think that this takes away from such things as "re-playability" but I found myself immediately starting the game again on a higer difficulty.

And like all good narratives... I didn't mind "reading" through it again. The ending totally floored me, and though I could see hints of it coming it didn't diminish the impact in any way. As if the ending wasn't enough of greatness... the game throws in a killer epilogue as well.

Choice and consequence is what resembles a "hook" in The Line. And though a lot of decisions seemed forced on to... it feels legit because you feel these same limited choices can forced on to real people out the fighting wars. Its so easy to sit back and criticise those involved in conflict,  accusing them all of all sorts of things while not really know what it's like to be in their war torn shoes.

I'm not saying that The Line is an exact replica of what these people go through... but it's clear that the devs wanted to hammer some of that feeling home. Watching the characters decay and break as you lead them from one circle of hell to another is intense and engaging.

Also... to some extent. Spec Ops the line feels like a horror game. Not in 100% of the term, but in the way it messes with your head, making you question everything around you... and the way there's something horrifying waiting to be seen around the corner.

I've played a lot of games... and loved them for all kinds of reasons. But I can't remember the last time I played a shooter and thought to myself: "damn what have I done?"

There's a quote in the game which really struck me when I heard it, and of all the 4th wall breaking stuff... this one really naild it:

"The truth, Walker (player), is that you're here because you wanted to feel like something you're not: A hero"

Play any game... what are you if not the hero?

Not here... not in The Line. A hero doesn't do what I did to get to the end. A hero doesn't stand for any of this. Spec Ops: The Line takes situations and scenarios that would otherwise be considered "Bad Ass" in other shooters and makes you feel like a psycho for doing it.

There's nothing glorious in killing... no matter what it's in name of, and The Line will cut and bleed this idea into your head... before it makes you shoot it off.