Category: Rant

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CD Projekt RED Doesn’t Owe You Better Mod Tools!

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Gamers are an odd bunch.  CD Projekt RED made one of the most massive RPGs of all time in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, released 16 free downloadable content packs, and are hard at work on two expansions they say will add over thirty hours of play time to the game, but a group of PC gamers are saying they are going to boycott the company.  Did CD Projekt RED encrypt their game with some sort of virus like DRM scheme (I still remember Sony!)?  Nope.  Actually there is no DRM, the problem is that some gamers feel that the free mod tools that were released aren’t good enough.

That’s right the free tools you can use to change and add to the game are not all encompassing.  I mean how dare CD Projekt RED even release their game.  It is like some sort of travesty.  Sure since the game is DRM free you could simply decompile it and use or make your own tools, but that is besides the point!  Or this could be some sort of major overreaction on a massive scale.  Yeah I am definitely thinking this is an overreaction.  I mean I am not even sure how gamers think they have the right to be so upset.  Sure there is nothing wrong with asking if CD Projekt RED is ever going to update the tools with a few more features, but to be mad about a developer bending over backwards to make gamers happy is baffling.

I would love to say that this is the first time gamers have been so upset by so little, but I can’t.  Heck they had already blown-up about The Witcher 3 because they thought the graphics were “downgraded” from the promos they saw earlier.  Gamers did have a couple of instances were the promos did look better then the game that shipped, but overall The Witcher 3 is one of the best looking games ever made, so to be so angry about amazing visuals is so mind bogglingly off-base I can’t even begin to understand where they are coming from.

All of this to say game developers owe us nothing.  They make a game, and if we like it we buy it.  That is the relationship, and I have to say The Witcher 3 is a game that pretty much everyone should play (if you are an adult).  It is that good.  Now if the lack of complete mod tools and slightly less than perfect visuals mean that you are uninterested in the game, fine don’t buy it.  That is your choice, but if you bought the game before the mod tools were out, and now you are angry they are not up to snuff, that was the gamble you took.  It is shame that “all” you got for your money is “only” one of the greatest modern RPGs of all time, and you can only mod it a little (or a lot if you wait for people to make their own tools).  I hope you will be able to deal with those poor amazing graphics too.

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Why All Excitement Over The Non-Announcement Of Warcraft 4?

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So RTS (real time strategy) gamers everywhere lost their collective minds when Blizzard said they were open to making a Warcraft 4 once they shipped the third and final installment of StarCraft 2 this fall titled Legacy of the Void.  Now don’t get me wrong, the Warcraft games are super influential and they are thought of as some of the best ever made.  Plus without them Blizzard wouldn’t have had the universe for World of Warcraft, so I get that a new title in the franchise would be welcome news, but this is Blizzard we are talking about.  It has taken them five years to finish the StarCraft 2 expansions, and I shouldn’t even say that since Legacy of the Void hasn’t shipped yet.  There is still time for them to announce a delay.

Now to be fair I have never been a big RTS fan.  I am just not good at them and there are so many games to play that I never felt like I needed to invest the time to get proficient, so maybe I am just immune to the hype.  Still if Blizzard is just saying they are open to making a Warcraft 4 that means even if they do decide to make it, it will not be out for at least ten years, maybe more.  That is just the pace that this studio operates.  That means maybe my one year old daughter might be old enough to play it “should” it come out in our distant war torn future.  If you are excited for Warcraft 4, I don’t mean to rain on your parade, but I would take a deep breath and focus on other games for awhile.  Perhaps Total War: Warhammer could tide you over?

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So About That New D&D Movie…

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Warner Brothers after much legal wrangling has gotten the rights to make a new D&D Movie.  I am less than excited.  I love that another big budget fantasy movie being made, but not one based off the Dungeons & Dragons franchise.  Sure there have been a couple of good D&D books written to base the movie off of, people swear by The Legend of Drizzt for instance, but most of the books are more like The Dragonlord of Mystara.   Which is to say terrible.  I may get in trouble for saying this (some people love their D&D lore), but you don’t play D&D for the great stories that were written about the D&D universe, you play D&D for the stories you and your friends make in the D&D universe.

D&D is about having a good time with your friends and trying to brake the GM’s will.  To see if you can take the story he is building somewhere completely different, and to try random stupid things with your character’s skillset.  Now there is a good movie you can make about that, and the movie The Gamers: Dorkness Rising comes close, but that is not a movie Warner Brothers is going to throw a bunch of money behind.  The number of people who want to watch a bunch of nerds play D&D and then zoom in to the action in their minds is limited.  Like pretty much me, and the guys making the “The Gamers” movies.  They could even try and make a Jumanji style movie where the players were sucked in to their story and they had to complete the campaign to return home, but that would still will not sell to the masses.

So instead we are going to get another attempt to try and turn the D&D universe in to some giant sweeping epic with people quoting their dialog like Shakespeare, and other people Wayansing it up to try and add life to the picture.  (As an aside I don’t blame Marlon Wayans for the D&D movie, he was doing what could with what he had.  Which was nothing.  Maybe less than that even.)  I will no doubt watch the production of the D&D movie with interest, but Warner Bros is going to have to role an 18 or better to make a decent film, and after the last two outings their dice seem to be producing a lot of natural 1s.

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Batman: Arkham Knight Is About What It Takes To Be The Batman!

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Kotaku ran an opinion piece on why they think the story in Batman: Arkham Knight failed, you can read it here, but I think that the author missed the point of the story.  This is not a game about Batman dealing with this humanity, or how he is falling apart, this is a game showing what it takes to be Batman.  This post is going to contain some spoilers, so watch out if you haven’t beaten the game.

At every turn in this game Batman is dealt a blow, personal or professional, but he keeps going.  He powers through.  Due to the events of previous games his sanity is also starting to tear, but instead of interacting with Joker like the author of Kotaku would like, he knows the hallucinations aren’t real, so he forces himself to ignore Mr. J.  Never giving the Joker of his mind the time of day.  If he was to interact, he would be giving in to the madness, and proving that point every time you do sort of interact with the Joker the hallucinations get worse.

The author is also mad because the game doesn’t let you fail enough.  As Batman you are always winning.  You always beat the bad guy, or destroy the tanks (those awful tanks).  Well of course you do, your Batman!  There are setbacks sure, but you do what you have to keep crime off the streets.  To keep the shell of your city intact.  You will win at all costs.

Kotaku wanted to see a Batman that was merely human, but Batman is more than that, he is a symbol.  As a side quest you even meet the next Batman, so you know that this is not the end for the cape and cowl even if it is for Bruce.  Speaking of Bruce, Batman: Arkham Knight also points out one more thing.  Batman isn’t the mask, Bruce Wayne is.  That is why Wayne is discarded at the end of this game, and why when the Joker is caged in Batman’s mind Batman says, “I am Batman!”, not, “I am Bruce!”.  Bruce Wayne is disposable; Batman is forever.

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Do We Want A Killing Joke Movie?

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One DC’s big announcements at Comic-Con was the they are making a Batman: The Killing Joke animated movie, and just this week it was confirmed that the “THE” Joker himself Mark Hamill would reprise his role as the Clown Prince.  Now The Killing Joke is a landmark graphic novel, and I am always okay with Mark Hamill’s devious laugh tickling my ears, but do we really want a Killing Joke movie?

The Killing Joke is about the Joker trying to drive Jim Gordon crazy, and pushing the Batman to break his code not to kill.  Real light reading.  Again a great book, but not one I am sure that I want to see acted out.  Between the torture of Jim Gordon, and assault and crippling of Barbra Gordon it will be a hard movie to get through.  I don’t expect all movies to be daisies and lollipops, but The Killing Joke might just be too grim to watch.  Especially one featuring a mainline comic book hero.

We will see how this pans out, and Mark Hamill has wanted to do it for years, so I am sure that DC will make the best possible movie out of it they can.  I just don’t know if I will want to watch it.  Knowing me I probably will, but I may not be very happy with what I will witness.  Hey at least we will get an Oracle origin story out of this right?