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Been a strange week holding off the wrap-up of my look-in at Fantastic Arcade. Things just were uncommonly busy over the weekend, had medical issues Monday, and then Tuesday morning became one of many people wrapped up and shaken up by a national news story on the University of Texas campus here in Ausitn. Still shaking that off. But I wanted to finally finished and get out what was going into the final two days of my Fantastic Four series. As such here's a double-shot as I line up my final eight short thoughts on event, starting with one very much reshaped by events on the very campus I'm writing from at this moment.
1 – I've always been supportive of the idea of games like Danny Ledonne's Super Columbine Massacre RPG! Or Melleindustria's Operation: Pedopriest which were here on display. Not so much that I like the idea of playing through such a horrific event, but exactly because it makes me uncomfortable. I've always thought the greatest failing of WWII and modern war shooters is that they don't make me uncomfortable, “No Russian” being the glaring (and incredibly overblown) exception.
A lot of that got completely shaken up Tuesday morning when my plan to go back and play a little Kingdom of Keflings before doing some writing got completely thrown off track when 19-year-old former UT student Colton Tooley, whom reported was fascinated with U.S. Gun control policy, took an AK-47 to campus and decided to shoot off several rounds before taking his life in the Perry-Castañeda Library. Thankfully, no one other than Tooley was hurt. Taking in many witness accounts, one has to wonder if he ever actually intended on ever hurting anyone. Not that it takes away from the fear in the moment for the people locked in the buildings on campus waiting to see what would happen.
I'm not sure how I feel right now about them. Really it may take some time and just investigators figuring out what were Tooley's motives and many of us getting closure on the incident to really get to a point where I really know how I feel. I don't think I'll ever reach a point where I think they should never be done. But is a stark difference between being uncomfortable from seeing a of portrayal of something you've never had a comparable experience and would never like to be actually have happen and being uncomfortable because you'll lived through the experience simulated or something similar.
2 – In late to the party news, I played finally played Playdead's LIMBO. Yes, it is absolutely and amazing experience. It just seems to nail everything, including being flat out one of the more creepy games I've played in a very long time. Hanging and floating corpses across the world, and gruesome deaths a aplenty in this game. But rarely does a game, particularly at this price put together so many thing so well. Definitely plan to buy and finish this at a later date.
3 – In my apparent further quest to come off like I'm on Twisted Pixel's payroll, I'm gushing even more about Comic Jumper in just some of the decisions made for the game after sitting with CEO Michael Wilford as he showed me the two comic worlds I hadn't already played. While I'll have an official preview (running up really late with the release next week) on XBLA Fans soon, I wanted to touch upon an example of detail in design that's why I like this game so much.
In the Silver Age comic world starring Paper Lad and Origami Kid, Twisted Pixel tosses in a few references to just the general state of comics and society surrounding them at the time. Most notably as Star inevitable pushes his comments into offensive territory, a stamp indicating an violation of decency appears onto the game screen. This is in direct reference to the Comics Magazine Association of America's Comics Code Authority which through pressure attempted to act as a censorship agent back in it's early years. It's subtle ? okay the half-screen-filling stamp is anything but subtle ? but it's one more thing that really shows the amount of love and understanding of history Twisted Pixel is putting into Comic Jumper.
4 – The Wizard Takes All panel focused on something I've found a rather annoying selective oversight in the undying campaign of some Western RPG fans to paint their Japanese counterparts as so much more derivative and unimaginative. It was a larger discussion on the general prevalence of it in media in general looking at movies and books, but frankly Western RPGs (and even JRPGs in the early Final Fantasy/Dragon Quest vein) are sorely guilty of being the same tired story of wizards, magic, and medieval imagery, and the reluctance chosen one. I walked out of the discussion involving Eddo Stern, Jim Munroe, and Tom Hall.with the impression it's just easy to keep telling to same tale without having to spend time educating the consumer on new concepts or a lexicon. I'm totally in step with Stern's viewpoint that we're in need of broader range of stories to be told and worlds to explore across the board. Which is exactly why I'm a fan of seeing the Persona 3s, Jade Empires, Mass Effects and Yakuzas of the world. I didn't grow up worshiping at the dark elf temple of Tolkien and could use more breaks from the derivatives of his work.
And to close out, my own personal awards for the show, with significantly less cultural and monetary value than the real awards
5 – 48-Hour Machinima Contest: My personal pick was The Bone Orchard. Take nothing away from the awesomeness of actually winner Dance Dance Retribution which was an amazingly funny piece of work. But the overwhelming machinima pieces I've seen in my sort time watching the animation form have been comedy. Not that it's easy to comedy, but seems easier with much the limitations of expression. Which is why I'm fan of what Jorge Campos and company pulled off in creating a story with a twist devoid of comedy, just playing on emotion. That said, I'm showing both the love below:
[embed:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcmfniI-c40 ]
[embed:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeWu2_JUzIE ]
6 – Favorite Indie Spotlight Game: Monaco. In the fairness to the other games I hadn't touched before, I didn't consider Machinarium for this as I'd been playing and loving it for weeks coming into the event. But I really like the general idea of the 4-player co-op game surrounding a group of thieves pulling off heists. Developer Andy Schatz still has work he's doing on it and more promising changes in store, but even as it stands now getting together with four other people and trying plot out the perfect crime was as fun an experience I had with almost any game present.
7 – Favorite Indie Showcase Game: LIMBO. Surefire sign I like a game. Not only am I consciously making excuses not to move on to other things when I know I'm in a time crunch, but the person playing at the station next to me and I are helping each other through parts and cheering each other on in our experience.
8 – Favorite XBLA Game on display: Comic Jumper and it's not even close. I had a lot of fun with the old school feel of Super Meat Boy. Trials HD is Trials HD, a great game for having an audience around and enjoying failure as much as success. I even embarrassingly shared with Kathleen Sanders quite a bit of love for A World of Keflings, which was totally unexpected for a style of game that isn't usually my own.
But I just absolutely loved all that's come together in Comic Jumper and can't wait to actually get a change to play through it from beginning to end. The writing was hilarious, the subtle nods and work put into to the styles of comics were evident even to me as a person that has never bought a comic in his life is isn't a fan of the art form in itself. Which might be one of the highest compliments I can give to anyone: being able to get me to care and appreciate something that rarely interests me in any way whatsoever.