jdodson | Cheerful Ghost

Damsel in Distress: Part 3 - Tropes vs Women in VG

"This is the third installment in our three part mini-series exploring the Damsel in Distress trope in video games. In this episode we examine the rare Dude in Distress role reversal and then take a look at the use of "ironic sexism" in retro inspired indie and mobile games. We conclude with an investigation of some titles that attempt to subvert or deconstruct the traditional damsel narrative."

The next installment from the Anita Sarkeesian "Tropes vs Women in Video Games" series has dropped and you can check it out embedded above. Let me know what you think of it in the comments below!

Gaurodan: Hatch & Then Destroy Everything

"Long forgotten is the legend of Gaurodan, the bird of thunder, and his fight with Guayota, the fire beast. But now mankind has discovered the egg of Guayota within Mount Teide, and it is only a matter of time until Guarodan returns from the sky to fight the beast and punish us for awakening his ancient enemy.

Fly around the Canary Islands as Gaurodan, and destroy cities, armies and colossal creatures in your path throught this frantic shmup, created for the lovers of classic games that require mastering."

Gaurodan is a very fun retro 2D pixel shooter where you play as a very large "bird of thunder" as you bring your brand of chaos to the world. Gaurodan starts as you emerge from a volcano as an egg and smash everything in your path until you hatch. From there you lay waste to as many buildings, helicopters and tanks you can in the time allotted.

Gaurodan is a totally free Windows & Linux download (Mac is in development) from Locomalito games. Locomalito games releases all its game for free and provides donation links if you feel inspired. They also provide some pretty awesome download options for each game in that you can download the game poster, DVD cover, user manual, trailer and soundtrack as well.

For the price, Gaurodan is well worth the install and if you feel so inclined, donate as well.

http://www.locomalito.com/gaurodan.php

Heroes of Cosplay Season 1

Just heard about a new upcoming SyFy show called "The Heroes of Cosplay." Looks pretty interesting and I really want to check it out. Thing is, I cut the cable cord along time ago and just do the online video and Netflix. Hope this is available to Stream in some form.

Really hoping they give equal billing to Comic and Video Game Cosplayers!

What do you think, does this kind of thing look cool or meh?

The Humble Deep Silver Bundle

"Pay what you want and get the urban warfare open-world adventure Saints Row: The Third; the prequel open-world action-adventure game Saints Row 2; the swashbuckling fantasy action RPG Risen 2: Dark Waters; and the hack-and-slash RPG Sacred 2: Gold Edition. Pay over the average and receive the survival horror RPG Dead Island: Game of the Year Edition and Saints Row: The Third - The Full Package, which includes a bunch of DLC. And if you pay $25 or more, you’ll get the sequel to Dead Island, Dead Island: Riptide."

An interesting Bundle here including some pretty popular games. I have heard great things about Saint's Row the Third and the Dead Island series. This is also a pretty good deal considering you get Dead Island: Riptide + everything else for $25 and Dead Island: Riptide is $40 on Steam straight up.

Anyone picking this up? This Bundle is Steam Keys/Windows only.

http://www.humblebundle.com/

Travis Admin wrote on 07/31/2013 at 02:32am

I have a few of these, but it's a damn good price for everything. Dead Island is one of those games I started but never finished. Imagine kinda Left 4 Dead + Borderlands + Dead Rising. I think it would be more fun with a group, so if a few people pick this up, I smell an event!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 07/31/2013 at 02:35am

Huh, good idea. Ill see what I can do.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 07/31/2013 at 02:56am

Risen 2 looked interesting, but that price for DI: Riptide is totally worth it. I'll pick this up, for sure. I've played Dead Island on Ps3, and picked it up again on Steam when it was cheap. My PC handles most games really well at the highest settings, but loading DI sends the fans into overdrive.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 07/31/2013 at 03:00am

That's good to know. I have a reasonably new PC and it handles most stuff. I wonder how it would handle Dead Island?

Oh well, plan on upgrading the video card whenever, I just hope the power supply can support a new one.

Travis Admin wrote on 07/31/2013 at 03:02am

Mine handled the first Dead Island with a mediocre video card, an AMD integrated card. I've since upgraded so it should be good. Though you might try to search that out and see if you can find some similar configs to see if people have any issues.

beansmyname Supporter wrote on 08/01/2013 at 10:25pm

Picked this one up so I'd have Saint's Row 2 and The Third in Steam. Sadly, neither of them run under Wine, but I may be setting up a Windows 7 installation soon JUST so I can play some of these titles.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/02/2013 at 12:51am

Yeah, I still have windows kicking around for that reason entirely. I hope over the next few years Wine gets better and more games are released cross platform.

gmlawton wrote on 08/02/2013 at 01:38am

This is definitely a good deal. I've already logged 8 hours on Saints Row II in just a day.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/02/2013 at 02:16am

@gmlawton awesome. Have you played Saint's Row The Third yet? I nabbed that in the ol' THQ Bundle and have yet to play that one yet. Heard good things about it.

gmlawton wrote on 08/02/2013 at 02:45am

@jdodson No, I haven't touched it yet. I hadn't played either, so I figured I'd start with 2. I have heard really good things as well. I can't wait to dig in. Risen 2 looks good too, but I haven't really heard anything about it.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/02/2013 at 02:58am

Haven't played Risen 2. I did play Sacred 2 on PS3 and it was pretty good. Offers a Diablo-ish kind of experience that is pretty fun.

beansmyname Supporter wrote on 08/02/2013 at 04:45am

@jdodson @gmlawton Saint's Row: The Third is one of my top three games ever. It's sequel is one of the key reasons I want to beef up my PC and am even considering installing a legitimate copy of Windows to play it.

The gameplay is very similar but the humor is cranked up to 11 and the action is non-stop. Admittedly, I prefer SR2's approach to taking over the city and the costume variety (without DLC) was better in SR2.

(Aside: If ever anyone wants to play SR:3 on the PS3, give a shout. I paid for the game on that platform, too.

Tungsten wrote on 08/02/2013 at 04:57am

For the 2 hours or so I've played it so far, Dead island has been fun. It's actually a pretty decent action RPG wrapped in a cliched zombie FPS.

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BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea

"BioShock Infinite is a first person shooter where players assume the role of former Pinkerton agent Booker DeWitt who is sent to the flying city of Columbia on a rescue mission to save Elizabeth, who has been imprisoned since childhood. Through the powerful bond they form, Booker is able to augment his own abilities with her world-altering control over the environment."

This upcoming Bioshock Infinate DLC looks awesome but can some explain to me how Booker and Elizabeth show up in Rapture? Unless its spoiler territory I am curious what your thoughts are.

Travis Admin wrote on 07/31/2013 at 02:30am

It's most definitely spoiler territory. A small hint: Think about the second word of the title.

I am *so* excited for this. I can't wait.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 07/31/2013 at 02:34am

Interesting, thanks Travis. Very interested in playing Infinite and I imagine ill pick it up when it hits GoTY. Do you suggest I complete the original first?

Oh, apparently new Bioshock Infinite DLC is out today too, "Clash of the Clouds."

http://metro.co.uk/2013/07/30/bioshock-infinite-dlc-returns-to-rapture-clash-in-the-clouds-out-today-3904503/

Let me know how that turns out, curious what the quality of all of it will be.

Travis Admin wrote on 07/31/2013 at 03:01am

Yes, I suggest you complete Bioshock 1 first. Bioshock 2 is less necessary. Ken Levine didn't even really want to make that one, it was made by a totally different team, and isn't necessary for the plot of Infinite.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 07/31/2013 at 03:08am

Will do, thanks Travis.

beansmyname Supporter wrote on 08/01/2013 at 10:37pm

Really disappointed that they opted to go to Rapture again. That story has been told...twice. Seems like such an easy choice that I instinctively rebel against it. Why didn't they explore the "Infinite" possibilities and take Booker & Elizabeth somewhere we hadn't seen? Oh well...perhaps the NEXT DLC will show some semblance of the imagination and creativity that led the first and third installments of the series to be so popular.

Travis Admin wrote on 08/02/2013 at 02:43am

beansmyname, did you play Infinite? There are some good story possibilities in Rapture, and they couldn't really go back to Columbia again. Though I guess they could have gone in an entirely different direction, but that's better suited to a new game rather than DLC.

beansmyname Supporter wrote on 08/02/2013 at 05:05am

I did, Travis. Absolutely loved it. Not just for the wonderful story but for the telling of that story. I was glad they resisted the temptation to make an open-world game where the player shuttles back and forth from checkpoint to checkpoint and instead gave the player a Disney-style attraction with violent animatronics gone awry.

As I was composing the earlier response, I had a similar thought about revisiting Columbia, specifically Songbird. That was the character I most wanted to see again in DLC. As interesting a character as Songbird is, it's story has already been told. Songbird's direct involvement in the latter part of the game and the bits and pieces of its history provided by Elizabeth's part of the tale imbue more than enough life into Songbird. Columbia shouldn't really exist for Booker the way it did, either.

Visiting another dimension(?) in DLC makes more sense to me than another Bioshock because writing another sequel that parallels these would only seem cheap. You know, like Bioshock 2.

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A Great Gun Crafting Shoot-a-palooza

I picked up the Steam early access of Mercenary Kings last week and have been very happy with Tribute Games latest shoot fest. Since the game is an early access release it lacks some of the features and polish that it will showcase when it reaches its final launch. That said, the game is very playable and very fun.

Mercenary Kings is a 2D side-scrolling shooter in the style of Metal Slug. You start at your home base and from there can go on missions, craft guns, purchase items, form multi-player teams and more. The aspects of the early access version that shine for me are the gun crafting and missions.

During each mission you kill a swath of bad guys. Randomly these bad guys drop loot such as lead, polymer or acid. You can use these drops to craft gun components. You can use the components to make a gun build that suits your fancy. This is a cool feature because instead of crafting a gun and then scrapping it for another one later, you can just rebuild your gun to meet your new specs. So if you want a pistol with 80 rounds one mission and a shotgun the next you can do that.

The missions are fun and offer some nice variety. As you complete the missions under your current level sometimes you unlock other missions where you go back to a particular level to accomplish another task. One feature I really liked was the ability to go back and replay a mission as many times as you want. I found that useful for collecting cash and resources to craft certain gun components I wanted before tackling harder levels.

So far, I have run up to one boss and it was very fun. All told it wasn't too difficult, but it was the first boss I found and I am still a low level.

Right now the only controls supported are with a USB controller and I believe the best support is through the 360 controller. I recently read a blog post that mentioned keyboard support is coming in a patch soon so if you are keyboard bound it won't be a problem for long.

If you are looking for a great retro flavored 2d side scrolling shooter with a few rough edges, I heartily recommend Mercenary Kings.

http://www.mercenarykings.com/

The Firehose: Don't Starve, Skyrim, Rust & RoN

As shown in the vidoe above, YouTuber Lore creates some great fast fact videos for popular video games. In this episode she covers the new indie game, Don't Starve.

The folks that brought us Gary's Mod are working on a new game, Rust. Its an open world multi-player shooter similar to Stalker that contains Werewolves & Mutants.

http://garry.tv/2013/06/21/the-story-of-rust/

PC Gamer recently featured Rise of Nations in its "Reinstall" series. Rise of Nations has been installed on my PC for years and I still play it with some of my friends, I *heart* nukes.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/07/14/reinstall-rise-of-nations/

Falskaar, a pretty awesome Skyrim mod was released. Alexander J. Velicky, the mod creator hopes it will draw the attention of Bethesda to land him a paid gig at the studio.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/07/16/behind-falskaar-a-massive-new-skyrim-mod-and-the-19-year-old-who-spent-a-year-building-it/

beansmyname Supporter wrote on 07/30/2013 at 04:06pm

Methinks there's a link missing for that last one. ;)

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 07/30/2013 at 04:44pm

Its the embedded video. I moved the quote to the top and gave it a bit more context.

BR Supporter wrote on 07/30/2013 at 09:45pm

I saw a bit of gameplay on rust. It looks like something I will try out when it gets later in development. It looks kinda buggy right now which makes me want to wait until its a bit better before playing it. I don't want to get frustrated playing it and get the wrong impression.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 07/30/2013 at 10:29pm

Agreed, I think there is a point with early games where its a bit too early.

BR Supporter wrote on 07/30/2013 at 10:40pm

It looks like a really good concept though. I like that you can build a base wherever you want.

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Fez 2 Cancelled, Sadness Ensues

"It's with a heavy heart that we announce that FEZ II has been cancelled and is no longer in development. We apologize for the disappointment"

That wasn't something I had expected to hear this morning. But yeah, Fez 2 has been cancelled. It seems this has been brewing for sometime and recently came to a head for Phil Fish, creator of Fez. I don't want to outline the series of events here, there are plenty of gaming websites dedicating themselves to cataloging each bit of information. If you are interested in reading more, i'll provide a link.

That said, it seems Phil Fish is leaving gaming entirely and I find that sad. I saw Indie Game: The Movie and he seemed like a guy very concerned with making the best game he could. I wonder how well I would do under similar circumstances myself, but I think the final product speaks for itself, Fez is a beautiful game.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2422377,00.asp

I hope this doesn't effect Fez coming to OSX or Linux, it would make this whole thing even more unfortunate.

** EDIT 7/29/2013 ** Polytron has confirmed, Fez will still be ported to Mac and Linux. Very happy to see this. https://twitter.com/Polytron/statuses/361976275088310272

Travis Admin wrote on 07/29/2013 at 02:38am

First of all, I'll say that I *really* hope he changes his mind. Fez is awesome, and I'd love more of it.

I'll also say that Marcus Beer seems like the last person I'd want to have a beer with.

I'll also say that criticism is far too rampant. He doesn't deserve at least half of what he gets. So I'm sad that I'm about to add some more...

Phil Fish's ego is incredibly fragile. This has been a problem for him since Fez was first shown. He can't handle any kind of criticism. There are some comments you ignore, and others you respond to, and when you respond you do so in a way that doesn't invite more trolling. With Phil it's just one shitstorm after another.

He went so far as to tell a man to kill himself, this is not how adults act, especially adults in the public eye.

That said, in general I'm sympathetic to him, and the reasons he and Blow were called out were ridiculous. Jonathan Blow, who's (correctly nor not) notorious for being arrogant, handled this very maturely. He made a dig at the absurdity of it without getting insulting, etc.

So come on Phil. We love your game, and we'd love to see more from you. Just stay off Twitter and let the other employee at Polytron handle the PR.

Travis Admin wrote on 07/29/2013 at 02:42am

I think a secondary point that may be as important is:

Game journalism sucks!

Seriously, the coverage from most outlets, and the original "journalism" that started this mess are a decent indicator of the problems in journalism.

Journalists asking "hey would you like to comment on this thing we don't know all the details about yet?" enough times for Fish and Blow to get annoyed shows this pretty well.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 07/29/2013 at 04:38pm

I agree with your point on game journalism lacking. Beer's entire rant was that Fish and Blow suck because they didn't respond to some XBox story in the way he wanted. It seemed for him that was a horrible situation that needed to be called out.

His priorities are messed up.

And I also agree with you about not calling for people to die in an argument. Lets all stay alive out there.

hardeyez wrote on 07/29/2013 at 11:52pm

I'd also have to add (having shipped several games myself), that you just have to toughen up. Someone always hates what you make, and you just hope someone else loves it. The worst thing possible is for people to not care at all.

And really, with every title I shipped, the external critics were *way* more tolerant than we were to our own creations. Shipping a game (shipping any product) is incredibly hard. It never meets your expectations, it's never what you had envisioned and could always be made better with a bit more tweaking. Shipping involves putting a stake in the ground and saying, "here's what we have" and releasing something good enough that a group of people will love it. It's painful. The compromises are painful to even get to that point. There's never enough time/money/resources to get it perfect, so you shoot for great and limit scope. There's always the goal you had in your head sticking around poking at you when you get the critique to start rolling in.

But, every dev I've known wants people to care about their creations and that means taking the hate along with the love...

Travis Admin wrote on 07/30/2013 at 02:42am

"Shipping involves putting a stake in the ground and saying, "here's what we have" and releasing something good enough that a group of people will love it."

I've heard it said that you never finish any creative work, you just know when it's the right time to send it out into the world.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 07/30/2013 at 04:07am

Good summary hardeyez. I think developing a thick skin is important.

After playing Fez quite a bit I can say that Fish really released a great game. I have found a few rotating game bugs where I end up dying, but since there is no negative for dying its not a huge deal. So, yeah they did ship with a few bugs and the game is on 1.0.7 and still have a few. Again, not a huge deal, the game is beautiful.

beansmyname Supporter wrote on 08/01/2013 at 10:44pm

After watching "Indie Game: The Movie," I hope Phil got enough from sales of Fez to live the rest of his life in peace. The guy seems like he could really use it. In fact, I'm considering picking up a copy even if I can't play it.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/02/2013 at 12:52am

Fez is currently being ported to Mac and Linux as we speak by one of the dudes that does the Humble Bundle porting. So, you will be able to play it on your platform of choice.

My guess is that this is part of some future bundle, but we shall see :D

I decided do go ahead and play it on Windows and all I can say is WOW, the game is incredible.

beansmyname Supporter wrote on 08/02/2013 at 04:52am

That is great news. I wonder if the ports will be in Steam or standalone as has been the case with several of the Bundle titles. Either way, I'd be pleased just to play it.

I'm willing to take the chance it'll run under Wine. If it doesn't, I wait for the port or run it in Windows, which I'm going to have to install to play Saint's Row IV. Then, when it does appear in one of the Bundles, I allocate more to Child's Play.

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Sword & Sworcery Infographic: 1.5 Million Served

http://www.capybaragames.com/images/S+S_infographic_sitesize.jpg

"With over 1.5 million copies sold, it’s pretty obvious that #Sworcery has been a resounding success. And we’d like to share a few details of that success with you. There’s not that many titles out there that began on iOS and made their way to this many other platforms over time, so we hope that this info is helpful in some way/shape/form."

Good for The Superbrothers & Capy. It's cool to see great games find an audience.

http://www.capybaragames.com/2013/07/a-sworcery-infographic/

Fun Gunslinging Shoot Em Up

Recently I downloaded the Call of Juarez Gunslinger demo off Steam and recommend you give it a try. Not too many demos hit Steam, so its cool to get one worth checking out. I previously picked up Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood used at Gamestop and had such a bad time with it I actually resold it.

That said, Ubisoft did a great job with Gunslinger and absolutely nailed the western feel. The shooting is top notch and I love the way the different six-shooters feel as you use them. The game features a recharge element where you can pause time and the game allows you to one shot bad-guys as they freeze. This is really useful for busting in to a room to freeze everyone and then shoot them all in the face quickly. At one point you have a rifle and do that and actually seems like you are charging in, western movie style.

I wasn't particularly in love with the way the game presents the story. It starts by someone telling a story and you are playing through the descriptions he gives. I felt this was a bit off and just wanted to go at the game alone for the most part.

Since the game is a free demo download on Steam, I seriously recommend you give Gunslinger a try.

jdodson1

2755 Posts

Damsel in Distress: Part 3 - Tropes vs Women in VG

Gaurodan: Hatch & Then Destroy Everything

Heroes of Cosplay Season 1

The Humble Deep Silver Bundle

BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea

A Great Gun Crafting Shoot-a-palooza

The Firehose: Don't Starve, Skyrim, Rust & RoN

Fez 2 Cancelled, Sadness Ensues

Sword & Sworcery Infographic: 1.5 Million Served

Fun Gunslinging Shoot Em Up