Congratulations, you've discovered the second and final part of my epic two-part Full Throttle: Remastered article! If you're looking for the first part, it's right here: PART ONE.

I spent all of part one just getting out of the town at the start, but part two covers the entire rest of the game, so if you haven't played the game before and have any interest in going into it without the plot and puzzles ruined, it's probably best not to read anything below this SPOILER WARNING.

Read on »

In this post, I want to discuss some gaming interfaces and user experience features in games. I will use my three favorite games for this present post, but the subject is broader and allows a bigger discussion that I intend to return to, next month.

DEAD SPACE (PS3)

In the horror-fiction game Dead Space, the interface is something to pay special attention to. The character's (Isaac Clarke) main statuses are disposed in a very strategic way: the life meter is located on his back in the shape of a spinal light, the weapon ammunition is showed as a small number when you aim the gun and, finally, the game has an interesting resource that is a luminous laser to help you easily locate the way the character must go (and it saves time in the complex scenario maze).



HERO (Atari)

This one is a relic from the beginning of the video-gaming era. HERO is an interesting case of user experience (UX) and interface with very limited constrols. Atari's joystick has only one button and one directional stick; with only two resources, HERO's designers implemented a wide range of possibilities: when you press the red button in the joystick the character uses its laser vision to kill enemies; by pressing down the control stick the character launches a dynamite do open walls and, finally, when you hold the control stick up the character flies using a jetpack. A very rich interface and UX created using minimal resources.



Entwined (PS4)

One of my favorite indie games Entwined is a great case of interface and usability. All the gameplay is based on how you can manage the two control sticks from PlayStation's joystick. During the whole experience, you must control the two mystic entities by only using circular movements; the user experience is focused on coordinating two different positions simultaneously (a challenge to your dexterity). Entwined is an incredibly created game, using only circular movements in two control sticks, a master class of game design.



On the three cases related in the post, we can clearly see the ideas of how games must strategically use concepts from the user experience field. To finish this conversation I want to share some content from the site nForm about this subject:

"The user experience is not one simple action – it is an interconnected cycle of attempting to satisfy hopes, dreams, needs and desires. This takes the shape of individuals comparing their expectations to the outcomes generated by their interaction with a system. Managing expectations then becomes key to successfully providing a satisfying "return on experience" that delights users and generates shared, sustainable value".

#GoGamers

   We finished off our Dark Heresy campaign on Monday night. We had all sort of lost our interest in the game after almost a year of play. The last few months we have also had several challenges with getting together as a group to play, and that certainly didn't help things.

   So, how did it end? Well, we had just captured a dangerous psyker named Molokoff from Hive Tertiam on Fenk's World and barely managed to escape the planet before it was pulled entirely into the warp. Once aboard our vessel, the Cudgel of Drusus, we turned the prisoner over to the Inquisition. That's when things went to Hell.

   Literally.

   As our ship entered the warp to travel to our next destination, something went wrong. Horribly wrong. Demonic creatures began to pop up all over the ship. We fought like heroes, but watched our companions go down one by one.

   First to die was our 'tame' psyker, Volk. The power of the warp invading the ship began to overwhelm his mental defenses, and I was forced to put him down with a bolt pistol shell to the back of the head. Next was our favorite pilot, "Mad" Murdock (an NPC). On the hangar deck, as we were making our way to the main engineering area, he was dragged down by a horde of smaller demons.

   Third to fall was our chirurgeon, Sister Scythia. She burned down a few demons with her meltagun before a flamethrowing fiend doused her with a barrage of unholy napalm. Probably for the best, as she was not very careful with her shooting and a meltagun firing off in the engineering spaces would have been catastrophic.

   Fourth was our newest recruit, an Imperial Guardsman from the 24th Canopus Heavy Foot. Corporal Jones ran out of ammunition for his heavy stubber - which he toted about with his Bulging Biceps as if it were nothing more than an autogun. After spraying hundreds of rounds into the enemy, he heard that fatal 'click.' Before he could locate any more ammunition, he too was torn apart. Thankfully, he died before they began eating. I think.

   Adeptus Arbites Belisarion Graecus was the last to fall. Using his skills with a bolt pistol, he took out demon after demon with precision aim. The holy inscriptions on the sanctified weapon glowed brighter with every shot, and the Emperor's wrath flowed through the explosive shells, overcoming many a demon's unnatural toughness. But all things must end, and Graecus finally ran out of shells as well. He met his fate, praising the Emperor and pistol whipping a final demon into death as the hordes tore into his armour.

   The Cudgel of Drusus is marked as lost in the warp on Imperial records.

I recently became obsessed with XCOM: Enemy Unknown and decided to try out the player made overhaul known as "Long War" which expands the base game to be exceptionally difficult and in most regards more like an actual war. I decided to blog the exploits of my team in a yet unnamed project. I'd like each post in the series to be a stand-alone short story about the experiences of those involved - with some scattered pictures of the mission highlights. One of the greatest parts of the XCOM series is the stories it generates about these characters and their ordeals. I hope to capture some of that and share it here in this writing project.



Table of Contents

• Mission 1 - Shattered Apollo
• Mission 2 - Severed Line
• Casualty Report - Spectral Vanguard

Twelve years ago, I rediscovered the joy of simple, old school gaming through a rules-light d20 clone called "microlight20".

 A gent by the name of Greywulf was very active in this space and he'd started the old site microlite20.net. It had a blogging feature and my very first oldschool related post was on May 12th: 

https://web.archive.org/web/20100611221707/http://microlite20.net/blog?page=5

Howdy!Submitted by chgowiz on Mon, 05/12/2008 - 13:26Oh, another blog. Yay! :)
My "old" blog is at http://chgowiz.livejournal.com - it's full of other 'stuff', not related to gaming and D20 or m20.
Coming soon to this site, however... the m20 character generator! A basic 'core' version was scratched out this weekend, but now I'm working on a 'better' version that will include Macropedia rulesets.
More to come as Greywulf gets this site up and running...
Links

Heh. Even back then, if a programming or hacking challenge raised its ugly head, I would jump in feet first. That's how I got involved in the One Page Dungeon Template thing...

Anyway, my search for a fun D&D game to play had rekindled in late 2007, early 2008 when I sat down with a borrowed copy of the D&D 3.5 rules and tried to scratch out a campaign for Ultima. After needing spreadsheets and a writeup that felt like a movie script, I realized that I wanted to go back to the days of when D&D (to me) was simple and fun. Thus, I wound a crazy road through microlite20, then through Swords & Wizardry and OSRIC, finally coming back to just playing the originals now that they were commercially available again.

What a fun journey.

Participating in an RPG does something to the brain, I think. There's an imprint that happens.

If you've read Dragonriders of Pern, (spoilers for those who haven't), I think of it similar to how someone imprints on a dragon during Hatching. You discover the game that speaks to you, and it's a match that will never ever quite go away. It's a first love. With all the ignoring of the warts and issues. The first time of escaping your life and living vicariously through the life of a made up character - or as a deity of a made up world. It something that I think has a profound effect on us, especially when we encounter the concept and play as a child. Impression.

For me, that impression was with Holmes (which was, IMO, OD&D levels 1 -  3) and AD&D. I've played other games, I can appreciate other games, but I will always be imprinted with those originals.

I made a list of the things I've written, been involved in or contributed to during these past twelve years and it's told me one thing... I'm part of a special group of players who imprinted much like I did. We're a raucous bunch, opinionated and crotchety about our games, but at the core, I suspect there's a feeling of wonder and joy, much like that first time we picked up those dice and stepped into another world. We love to create, to share and to experience the game again and again.

Happy Anniversary, y'all. I'm really glad I discovered our niche of a niche. I'm here to stay.