Humble Bundle Loses What Makes Itself Special With THQ Bundle

The launch of the latest Humble Indie Bundle yesterday was an unusual one. Rather than being met with the usual reaction -- people spreading the word, maybe some praise being bestowed for a strong selection of games -- this particular one instead prompted complaints that the Humble Bundle has lost its way. That's because it consists of games published by THQ, a company which, despite its ongoing financial troubles, is far larger than those we normally see featured in these bundles. While I don't find the situation quite as egregious as others do, I do think this is a step in the wrong direction.
The first Humble Indie Bundle was launched in early 2010, and it's still easy to see why it was so appealing: Buyers could get five great indie games for Windows, Mac, or Linux without any DRM, and at any price they deemed appropriate, be it hundreds of dollars, a few pennies, or, in the case of that particular bundle, nothing at all. To sweeten the deal, purchasers could freely decide how their money was divided up between the developers of these games, the organizers of the bundle, and a pair of charitable organizations, the latter of which made it so five games could be had in return for nothing more than a donation to charity.
Subsequent bundles continued these practices, offering multiplatform, DRM-free indie games at any price. Some have offered soundtracks to go along with the games, and others have offered additional incentives for those who exceed the average purchase price. Outside of concerns that these bundles, along with things like Steam sales, are devaluing games, it's difficult to find any source of complaints about Humble Indie Bundles.
More recently, the Humble Bundle has begun to experiment with different ideas. This year has seen four different bundles centered around Android games, one dedicated to music from the likes of MC Frontalot and Jonathan Coulton, one for eBooks, and one for Double Fine's Amnesia Fortnight game jam. The Humble THQ Bundle, as it's called, is also undoubtedly viewed as an experiment, but it's one that strays too far from the basic tenets that define the Humble Indie Bundle.
One of the major problems with the THQ bundle is the fact that it doesn't benefit developers. Whereas the money allocated to developers in previous bundles actually went to the people responsible for making the games, that is not the case here. THQ is a publisher, not a developer. While its money allowed the games included in the bundle -- Darksiders, Metro 2033, Red Faction: Armageddon, Company of Heroes (along with expansions Tales of Valor and Opposing Fronts), and, for those who pay more than the average, Saints Row: The Third -- to be made, the developers themselves won't see a dime of the money generated by this bundle. It could be argued that money that ends up in THQ's pockets will go on to fund future games (well, maybe not any Red Faction games) developed by Volition, Vigil Games, 4A Games, or Relic, but it doesn't change that the people responsible for creating these games won't get any money. Buyers could always direct their money to charity, though the default split heavily favors THQ.
Also conflicting with what we've seen from most bundles in the past are operating system requirements and DRM. A number of times games have introduced Mac and/or Linux support as part of their inclusion in the Humble Bundle, and it's become something of a reliable way for getting games for Mac or Linux gamers. All of THQ's games here are Windows-only. This was also true of the Amnesia Fortnight bundle, but that was a much different set of circumstances.
In addition to codes to redeem on Steam, Humble games for computer can always be downloaded right from the Humble website, DRM-free. That's not the case with the THQ games, and the decision is perplexing -- maybe THQ doesn't want to release DRM-free versions of its games, but it's been noted more than once that those willing to pirate it can easily do so. Giving legitimate Humble customers a DRM-free option would not impact that. Double Fine distributing those prototypes exclusively through Steam is understandable, but restricting the THQ games to Steam-only is much less acceptable. As a heavy Steam user, I'm happy to get Steam codes, myself, but there are people who don't want to be bothered with any form of DRM, no matter how widely accepted it may be.
As an aside to all of this, it's hard not to consider THQ's financial position when thinking about why it did this. It's in a dire situation and could potentially run out of cash, so maybe it's looking to looking to bring some money in by capitalizing on older titles not producing much revenue otherwise. The amount it's likely to make from this (it has surpassed $2 million in only 16 hours, and is fast approaching $2.5 million with 13 days to go) won't be what makes the difference in THQ's future, though a few million dollars certainly can't hurt. Assuming THQ digs itself out of its current hole, it may also see a sales boost for sequels to some of the included games, like Company of Heroes 2, Metro: Last Light, and Saints Row 4.
There's nothing wrong with experimentation. GOG.com tested the waters with selling newer games and ultimately dropped its classic game-only focus, but it maintained its other pillars: DRM-free games, bonus goodies, worldwide releases with fair pricing, compatibility with modern operating systems, and solid customer service. The Humble THQ Bundle seems to abandon the very spirit that the Humble Indie Bundle was founded on -- including, most importantly, the whole 'indie' aspect. Although this doesn't signal an end to the sort of indie game bundles we've come to expect, the THQ bundle could have a detrimental effect on Humble's reputation, perhaps by sending new customers to alternatives like Indie Royale or IndieBundle.org. A lot of people may not care, and it is an admittedly good bundle, especially for the cost. But whatever the case, beyond the immediate financial gain, this bundle doesn't do Humble any good.

SimCity: Launch Woes And Perplexing Political Statements

The launch of SimCity has been... interesting? Disastrous? Obvious to everyone at the exact moment they found out it was going to require a constant connection to EA's servers? Entirely avoidable? Let's go with interesting.

What if you wanted to play a private game by yourself while the servers were offline, or while you didn't have access to the internet? You're out of luck for no good reason. Multiplayer is so important that you're not allowed to play without it, even though you can totally play without it - provided you're logged in to the servers.

At first no one could play SimCity at all because the servers were unable to handle the task. A minor inconvenience, to be sure. Then basic functionality was stripped away to make the game somewhat playable some of the time.
Even ignoring the server issues, SimCity has a surprising amount of rough edges. Sims, traffic, power, water, and sewage all behave in the exact same way, dribbling into the first available building instead of heading anywhere in particular. The first casino you can plop down is the only one that can actually make a profit. Emergency vehicles all respond to the same minor fire as the rest of the city burns to the ground. There is a constant demand for industry even when it's not needed at all. As it turns out, you don't need any industry or commercial buildings as long as you have a few parks. Hugely important gameplay systems go unexplained, and can only be grasped by trial and error, often revealing ideas that are completely counter-intuitive.
In spite of all this, the act of playing is incredibly pleasant. The music is pretty much perfect, as is the act of dropping buildings into place and zooming in to inspect your handiwork. More often than not, I'll find myself tinkering around for hours before stopping because of a server issue, a glaring bug, or obnoxious design decision. There's a lot of potential in the game. It's too bad that EA pushed the always-online down everyone's throats, that Maxis couldn't iron out the most glaring problems, and that the game is ultimately a series of puzzles with specific solutions rather than an open-ended toybox. Even though the circumstances surrounding this game are very different, in some ways it's reminiscent of Spore.
I've also been surprised by some aspects of SimCity's design that seem to have sprung from the mind of an Ayn Rand acolyte. A progressive tax system, for example, simply cannot be put in place. Why? Wealthy sims have lower tolerances for tax rates than medium and low wealth sims. They will complain and ultimately move away if they have to shell out more than 10%. While this initially seems like a tongue-in-cheek commentary on real life, there's no way around it. This is presented something you have to accept.
Of course, this is also a game where the government is completely in control of every building in a city, so I'm not suggesting it's a Tea Party simulator. I'm just saying that there are a lot of eyebrow-raising moments that could be misinterpreted as an endorsement of some wacky political beliefs.

• Only lower class, uneducated sims commit crimes. They are also the only ones who make mistakes, get into accidents, and set fires.
• When the godzilla-like giant monster rampages through a city as part of a disaster scenario, it crushes everything in its path save for buildings that fly the Don't Tread On Me flag.
• In another disaster, the meteor storm, only the parts of town that "deserve it" are devastated.
• The game fudges the amount of sims in a city, only simulating a tiny fraction of a population. So, basically, only 1% of the sims really matter.
• When you look at an expanded map of the Titan Gorge region, you'll note that the trees are arranged in such a way as to create a political cartoon of a wimpy scientist making up global warming and feminism.
• You're expected to respond immediately when a rich sim's house is too close to a low income building. When there are shooting deaths, however, you don't have the ability to limit the sale of guns.

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag Bedtime Story or Legend?

Now, those of you who have found your way to this article are quite likely Assassin’s Creed fans. And it’s safe to assume that the prospective Assassin’s Creed IV storylines and gameplay enhancements are eating away at your soul. Many would say that Assassin’s Creed 3 was a disappointment. Then again, others wouldn’t. Likewise, it would be wrong to expect everybody to hold high hopes for AC 4. But those of you who have watched the trailers and after the news have definitely formed opinions about how you would like the story to progress. And if so, you most definitely harbor great expectations from the game.

The ending of AC 3 was unprecedented to say in the least. Juno always looked like the wicked witch of the west, but then again, anybody who uses excess eyeliner and garbs themselves in flimsy translucent curtain sheets wouldn’t be entirely palatable to the eyes. Desmond gets knocked out cold (or so I hope is the extent of the damage that has been done to him), Minerva chickens away, and Juno is out to make Prada designers weep. So, planetary destruction has been averted, (though whether planetary dominion at the hands of a deranged futuristic yet ironically ancient psychopath is a debatable price to pay,) we don’t know who our new protagonist in the present is going to be (more about Edward Kenway in a minute), and Abstergo’s lead scientist was shot in the head by underpaid security ( they need to upscale the graphics this time, the guards really looked quite happy when they shot the old man in cold blood under the apple’s influence).

Have the other “Gods” truly died out? Or is it another ruse fabricated by the cunning Juno? Will the assassins (or what remains of them) unite with Abstergo to battle a greater evil (evil is a strong word to use, but that‘ll have to suffice until stronger motives behind Juno’s actions are disclosed)? Will we be seeing more of Connor (Like we played Altair in flashback sequences in the previous installments or in any way possible since I really want to see more of Connor and I’m certain a fair deal of you guys want to too) ? If a much segment of the game is going to be based in the present (which it has to be unless they want to end up making 5 more parts), will the game still stick to classic AC third person action or will the studio resort to an FPS style HUD (switchable perspectives like in Star Wars Battlefield would be mind blowing)? Or will our new Sea Scoundrel be enough a treat to avoid making the present sequences very immersive? A lot of unanswered questions, but we’ll have to wait for the game to answer them.  Right now though, I am excited about just the one new toy we’ll be given: Edward Kenway.


“A pirate trained by Assassins” is what he allegedly is. According to what the trailers show, he is much like Ezio, only without the restraint and the honor. I suppose that makes him all the more classy. Ed’s (if I may be permitted to discuss him so,) outright disregard for his opposition and undeterred resolve are blatantly clear by the way he swings over to his victim vessels and mercilessly executes enemies with his duals (tomb raider inspired?).  He has Black Beard’s respect (so much for having to build a reputation in the game). He guts templars in plain sight and walks away with their women (I won’t use the politically correct designation to be given to their female companions since this is public). He does a threesome and keeps the women waiting for a minute or two until he boards another ship and slaughters every living thing he sees under his hood, and then he goes back to amusing himself. There is no confirmation of him being an assassin himself, though he has clearly been trained by the creed.  So, here are a few words to describe Edward Kenway: killer, idol, scoundrel, playboy, kleptomaniac, pirate, stud and most importantly (I really want to term him this, though I have little credible information to back my assumption), Assassin. This guy’s going to drive fans nuts (Even newcomers to AC for that matter).

But is the stud act just a veil to hide a dark and tormented past? We know that Edward’s son is Haytham. But who were his parents? Were they assassins too, or just innocents caught in the crossfire, slain at the hands of the templars… or perhaps the assassins themselves? Edward is evidently against the templars, though it is still unclear whether he gives a bilge-rat’s fart about the assassins’ motives. Perhaps he is simply pursuing a personal vendetta of some sort against the templars. Or he simply knows the joys of freedom being a pirate and so wants everybody else not to be deprived of it at the hands of the templars either. But if so, how did his son end up as the leader of the templars? I must agree with the templars’ notion of “order through control”, it’s promisingly much more efficacious than “prosperity through freedom” (if only the templars consisted of fewer murderous bastards). But liberty, as said by George Washington, is a plant that once takes root, grows faster than a weed. Which is ironic since that should rally many to the cause of the assassins, though we discover in AC3 that the brotherhood is nearly gone. In the very least, one could hope for Ed to be hopelessly love-struck by  a woman, in spite of his affinity for magnetizing women (It’s been too long since AC last saw real romance, not bed activity). Well, I hope for the sake of the folks up at Montreal that they manage to answer these questions and plug in all the holes in the plot. Or they’ll have another “revelations” to answer for.

Brilliance in Gaming – Persona 3 and 4

Persona 3 and 4

When creating a story, one of the most important aspects to consider is how to get the reader involved in the world and care about its characters. A writer could craft a world of intricate design and depth, filled with multi-dimensional characters with fantastic developments over the course of the story. However, none of that would matter one bit if the reader never makes a connection with the characters, and ultimately never ends up caring what happens to them.
While the concept is simple and easily recognized, the solution to the problem is not so readily apparent. In the medium of books and movies, the methods to do so are quite limited. The easiest and most common way is to make the characters relatable and likeable. That’s why an archetype such as the underdog is so prevalent in entertainment media. We often consider ourselves as underdogs going through the trials and tribulations of day to day life, so when we encounter one in a story, we end up rooting for them. Given books and movies are purely a non-interactive medium, the creator gets to choose everything the reader/moviegoer sees- nothing more and nothing less.
In the medium of gaming, the avenue in which the developer can help the player feel more invested becomes larger, but also more convoluted as well, due to the introduction of the all-important interactivity that makes games what they are. After all, when the player is free to choose to go around the world spending the minimal amount of time interacting with its characters, how can the creator have the player even begin to care about the world that they’re in? Many games would go with the route of unskippable events and cutscenes to deliver the necessary information and personality to try and grab some attention from the players, but that’s no different from what they do in movies. Isn’t it a missed opportunity when they have the almighty tools of choice and interactivity but end up falling back on what other mediums are forced to use because they lack creativity? Wouldn’t it be better if they could somehow use a mechanic in the game play itself to encourage the players to learn more about the world and its characters?
That is exactly what Persona 3 and 4 managed to do with the introduction of the system, “Social Links”.

Social links, go!

The premise of Social Links is rather simple, but its effectiveness resonates throughout the entirety of the experience. Each significant character the player runs into is assigned an “Arcana” such as Strength, Devil, Tower, Lovers, Chariot, Fortune and many more. As the player spends more time with the character associated with a certain arcana, the ability to fuse personas of the same arcana type increases substantially. When the Social Link is maxed, the player is given access to fuse a new high-level persona, which ends up being some of the best personas in the game. Given the personas the player brings to battle dictate their combat potential outside of standard equipment, it’s not an understatement to say that fusing powerful personas is essential to success.

Fusing powerful personas is rewarding and essential to success.

Outside of NPCs, spending time with the main characters of the game, that will all play a major role in the story as party members, has additional rewards on top of what’s offered normally. As the Social Link ranks are leveled up, they gain access to new great passive and active skills. The ability to help up a knocked down ally or even a skill to guard a blow for the player that otherwise would’ve been fatal are a few of the many rewards to entice one to spend more time with the main characters and learn more about them. Considering they’ll be the ones to see the most screen time, it makes sense to prioritize learning more about them first. It behooves the player to spend time with the characters in the game for the game play related rewards, but essentially that’s just a catalyst of encouragement for the much greater intrinsic reward. Each and every character in the game has a unique personality, many of which might not seem so obvious until the player gets to know them better. Social Link ranks are divided by numbers from one to ten, and while the early levels will have the player simply shooting the breeze and hanging out, by the end it’s not uncommon to have helped in a life-changing event for the character. Giving advice and seeing each character make mistakes and grow over time is its own reward. While the player is unlikely to enjoy the stories that every single character has to tell, I would be rather shocked if at least a handful doesn’t feel compelling, hitting close to home to many relationships we’ve held in the past.
Persona 3/4 are games with strong emphasis on time management. The players are allotted a limited number of days to accomplish their goals, and the game will eventually end when enough days has passed whether the player wants it to or not. That means every action that the player takes has a consequence to a degree, and the choice to spend time with someone when there’s much else to do in the world has significant weight associated to it. This will mean that the players are able to pick for themselves who the interesting characters are and enjoy spending time with them, while ignoring the ones that do not appeal to them, essentially tailoring the overall experience to their own personal tastes.

The characters you interact with are all charming with their own little perks.

Also, the idea of how we are connected with each other and strengthened by the bonds that we share is a central theme in Persona. It’s something that can resonate with just about anyone in the world because it rings to true to reality. After all, just who are we really without our family and friends to support us? Just as we count on them, we yearn to be needed by others and take solace in a sense of interdependence that makes the world go around. The Social Links highlight this fact, and emphasizes its necessity both in game play and story. You could be wondering, “how effective is this system really?” If that’s the question you’re asking, I challenge you to name five characters from a recent, more prolific RPG. Go ahead, name me five memorable characters from Skyrim, and no, the guard that took an arrow to his knee doesn’t count. I’ll bet that you most likely can’t. However, a game that I bet most people will be able to name five characters from is the Mass Effect series. You might be wondering what Mass Effect has to do with Persona, but did you know that there were rewards for talking to your crew in the form of bonus powers, equipment and paragon/renegade opportunities? The same thing applies to the vast majority of Bioware games, with Dragon Age games also having a similar system in place even though their scope and effectiveness is decidedly smaller than in the Persona games.

Mass Effect games also use game play mechanics to encourage character interactions.

It’s no coincidence that all the Persona games that came before 3 and 4 didn’t have Social Links, and never quite received the critical acclaim and fans that the recent titles enjoy. While most other developers were busy making games be more like movies with high budgeted cut scenes to tell their stories, hoping that the players will give a damn, Atlus decided to take matters in their own hands to craft a system that encouraged the players to care. It single handedly tied together the central themes of the game while allowing the players a great deal of freedom in who they could interact with, essentially tailoring the experience to their own personal tastes. Then, they complemented the system by giving the players a limited amount of time, which gave weight and greater meaning to all the choices they could make. Ultimately, we would laugh and cry along with the characters, and feel compelled to see the journey to its end. When it’s all said and done we would put the game away, feeling as though we were saying farewell to a dear friend.
All of that facilitated by the introduction of one single system.
Brilliant.

Remember Me: Building a Terrifying Future in a Familiar Landscape

Jean-Maxime Moris never intended to make a game about the city he calls home. As creative director of Remember Me, he considered basing his game everywhere from Sydney to San Francisco to Tokyo. Eventually, Moris and his team at Dontnod Entertainment settled on Paris. In the process, Remember Me became one of the true rarities in video games: a story set not in an exotic alien world or a mythic fantasy landscape, but in the creators' own backyard.
Early in the development of Remember Me, landlocked Paris just didn't make sense. Back then, the game's working title was Adrift--a reference to its story based on global warming and the world's rising sea levels. It was to be a game set in a coastal city, with water playing a critical role in how players traversed its flooded landscape.

"The main character would have to navigate with a wakeboard, grappling from one Jet Ski to another," says Moris, with the self-aware chuckle of a man who has just realized how silly this probably sounds in retrospect. "It's a long ways from what we have now, but that was the idea we had in the first weeks and months of conception."
While researching potential settings, Dontnod went so far as to send one of its art directors to Seattle to take reference photos. But as development on Adrift progressed, the criteria for the setting began to change. "The ground was shifting beneath our feet," says Moris. "We were starting to focus on the theme of memories, which quickly became much more interesting to us than global warming."
Early in the development of Remember Me, landlocked Paris just didn't make sense. With the move from global warming to memories--and a title change to go along with it--Dontnod traded one unsettling future for another. In the second iteration of the game, memories have become a commodity. New technology has allowed people to tap into the human mind and turn thoughts and recollections into commercial goods. Memories are bought and sold, the source of income for massive corporations and addiction for those who can't resist the allure of secondhand nostalgia.
The idea of a coastal setting was no longer paramount, but the need for a standout location remained. As with global warming, it's hard to sell a video game rooted in a high-concept story about the commodification of the human mind. Dontnod needed a city that would grab people's attention. Someplace recognizable. Someplace iconic.
Suddenly, one option began to make a whole lot of sense. It was the same option Dontnod could study from the windows of its own office: Paris.
The City of Lights was certainly grand enough, and being able to make research trips by hopping on the Metro rather than flying halfway across the world was a convenience too large to ignore. But Moris was reluctant. He didn't want to earn a reputation before his studio's first game even shipped.
"Early on, we weren't willing to go with Paris," says Moris. "We didn't want to be labeled as 'that French studio' doing 'that French game' about memories and social networks in Paris." It certainly didn't help that Remember Me's story about the makeup of the human mind treaded dangerously close to the heady and abstract subject matter one might associate--however stereotypically--with traditional French cinema.
But that reluctance eventually wore off. Moris and his team considered their options, and Paris just felt too right. "At some point we said, you know what? It is a good choice," recalls Moris. "Paris has rarely been done in games. It's iconic. It's one of the most visited cities in the world."
With the game's location finally decided, a small strike force got to work accumulating a mountain of reference material. Their job was to look toward the future and extrapolate contemporary trends in everything from architecture to fashion.

"The art and writing teams worked alongside a team of universe creators who were hired to do research," says Moris. "They spent the first six or seven months coming up with this 1,000-page bible of what the world might become 100 or 150 years from now. All the designers and the artists had to do was decide what they wanted to dive deeper into. There was so much data that we could only do two or three percent of it in the game. But that was a great starting point. We knew we were standing on solid ground."
In deciding which year the game would take place, Dontnod looked to George Orwell.
We didn't want to be labeled as 'that French studio' doing 'that French game' in Paris. The team became fascinated by two parallel futures: the one depicted in the dystopian classic 1984 and a theoretical future dominated by the powerful social networks that have emerged within this past decade. In Orwell's story, people live under the suffocating weight of a bureaucratic regime that keeps tabs on its citizens' every move. In Remember Me's future, society has cut out the middleman entirely. People's compulsion to share every last detail of their lives through technology and social media is a different means to the same end.
"2084 is the next step after 1984," says Moris. "It's about going from a vertical representation of society where you have government at the top, people at the bottom, and in between is this huge monolith of bureaucracy. Now we're uploading everything people could want to know about us of our own will."
That said, Moris is keen to stress that the future Dontnod has imagined is less of a bold proclamation and more of a thought experiment. "We're potentially--and that's a very important word--giving up huge parts of our freedom and private life without stopping to wonder what's at stake," claims Moris. "The game isn't saying burn your smartphone, burn Facebook. That's not what we're saying. But I think it's worth asking questions."
This is not the Paris you've seen in postcards. It's both familiar and foreign. As you make your way through the game, you experience a patchwork landscape of cafe-lined boulevards and ramshackle slums. A boulangerie in the Saint-Michel district sells baguettes and pain au chocolat as surveillance drones buzz eerily overhead. Before you ever get to see the Eiffel Tower you must first survive a trek though Deep Paris, the wretched underbelly of the city filled with people so eager to get their fix of memories they've become completely disconnected from reality.
It's all part of Dontnod's effort to use Paris as a lure, drawing you in before revealing a very different city from the one you expect to see. "We wanted to give the player an entry point grounded in reality," says co-art director Michel Koch. "It's important--if you want to create a believable sci-fi world and not a fantasy world--to have realistic elements so that the player can feel like he knows this world, that he can live in this world."
"When you have those grounded elements, you can build the over-the-top buildings, the flying drones in the streets, the robots sweeping the floor. It creates a great contrast between this reality and our projection of the near future."

Nowhere is that contrast more apparent than in the city skyline. Iconic landmarks and classic Parisian architecture are dwarfed by sleek skyscrapers outfitted in glass and neon signage. Being able to create that juxtaposition was another reason Dontnod found itself drawn to Paris as a setting for the game.
It's important to have realistic elements so that the player can feel like he knows this world. "Paris has a very low skyline," says Moris. "You have the Eiffel Tower, Montmartre hill, Montparnasse Tower--and that's about it. Everything else is flat. We have very stringent regulations on how tall buildings can be. And that's perfect, because in the same way we were extrapolating social networks into the future, the city itself had to be an extrapolation of today. The fact that the foundation was so low really allowed us to build these high, bigger-than-life structures."
This is the world that Remember Me's main character, a former memory hunter named Nilin, finds herself in. Nilin has the power to hack into people's minds and steal their thoughts. But at the game's outset, Nilin finds herself with no memories of her own: her mind has been completely wiped. She has to explore this unfamiliar world in order to fill in the gaps.
In that regard, Nilin's journey is a lot like the player's. The vision of Paris that Dontnod has created may look familiar on the surface, but tread deeper into it, and a foreign and unsettling world emerges. You almost want to tweet about it.