Looking at: Grand Theft Auto 5

Rockstar Life

GTA 5's three protagonists

I'm standing in the middle of a busy intersection, in my underwear, laughing as the world around me explodes. I'm a crazed Canadian meth dealing psychopath and I've planted C4 in a circle around me, just to watch the chaos unfold. The area is tearing itself apart and it's all because of me.

I'm driving my luxary car down the street on my way to pick up my best friend. He's an asshole, but we grew up together in the suburbs of Los Santos, a facsimile of Los Angeles, and he's one of the few friends I've got. As a couple of poor, African-American guys we have to struggle to make ends meet, but we always try to find time for a few drinks and a game of darts when we can.

I'm on a golf course downtown and I'm considering beating the guy behind me to death with my 9-iron. He's been bugging me all game and I can feel myself relapsing into my old violent ways. I stop and consider that I'm trying to be a better father and go legit after a life of crime I left behind. I hit the ball and slice it hard left. Killing the man proves to be much more enjoyable.

The Grand Theft Auto series is one of the older IP's still hanging around, having managed to stay alive since 1997 without a reboot or a very long pause. It's a series all about letting the player run rampant in an open world, creating their own stories in-between the story crafted by Rockstar themselves. GTA V is a return to the sunny shores and barren desert of Los Santos, jewel of San Andreas, but is this a trip worth making again or is it just another celebrity face-lift?

Tinsel Town

Scattered around town are random side jobs, almost as good as the plot missions.

In many ways GTA 5 is the same game as GTA 4 was, which itself wasn't to far removed from the GTA 3 trilogy of the early 2000's. As always the game revolves around you doing various crimes as you rise through a seedy underworld all the while trying to keep a level head and stay one step ahead of those who would see you taken out. You'll fight cops, other gangs, private security, and your own morality as you come to grips with the world of crime and violence you find yourself in. It's a dark look at what man is willing to do, and the biting commentary about modern American life is found in every corner.

Once again this crime drama is set in Los Santos (Los Angeles), the jewel of the great state of San Andreas, previously seen in the GTA of the same name. Where as GTA: SA had the entire state to explore, including the cities of San Fierro (San Fransisco) and Las Venturas (Las Vegas), GTA 5 has chosen to instead stick to one city and the surrounding country side. That's not to say the map is small mind you, and indeed it's decidedly larger then any of the previous games, including Rockstar's Western odyssey Red Dead Redemption.

Despite it's enormous size, GTA 5's version of LS and the surrounding Blaine County is, hands down, one of the most detailed and impressive game worlds I've ever seen. There is so much to see in this game that I often found myself flat out ignoring my current objective just to walk around an appreciate the world. The amount of minor detail is staggering, from the way the different districts of LS look and feel different, from the wide open wilderness of Blaine County and the way it all melds together. I've always been a sucker for big worlds begging to be explored and seeing a game outside of the RPG genre pull this off so well reminds me constantly why Rockstar is one of my favorite developers. 

That's sort of the underlying strength of GTA 5, is it's almost psychotic attention to detail in the little things. Thinks like how vehicle engines tinkle as they cool down when parked, or how the pedestrian traffic of different areas changes based on the time of day. It's a level of detail you rarely see in games, save perhaps the admittedly even crazy Metal Gear Solid series, and it really helps to bring the game to life. You could strip away all the story elements to GTA 5 and just sell it as an interactive world and I still would've bought it on that alone. 

Triple Trouble

Michael's problems with his family are some of the most human moments in the series' history.

The story, incidentally, is perhaps GTA 5's most problematic area. Like previous entries into the series, the story revolves around a series of daring crimes committed by a small group of individuals as they struggle to survive against ever mounting odds. The biggest difference this time around is that rather then one protagonist, you control three, slowly unlocked over the games first five or so hours. 

Firstly there's Franklin, a young African-American man trying to shake his gangster upbringing. He's in love with a girl that hates him, best friends with a suicidal moron, and lives with his fem-Nazi aunt that wants him out of her life. Franklin's biggest strength is his ability to drive well and in another one of GTA 5's new features is the addition of special poweres, in Frank's case, the ability to slow time to a crawl and drive with perfect precision. It's a handy feature and Frank's is arguably the most useful. 

Shortly thereafter you're introduced to Michael. Mike is a retired bank robber who gave up his life of crime a decade ago and has been regretting it ever since. He's still got his head in the game, but the game's moved past him and he's playing catch up. More interestingly is Mike's family, a wife, daughter, and son. Family ties was a theme explored in GTA 4, but Mike's is far more interesting then the bowling obsessed cousin of that adventure. It grounds the character in a way not previously explored in the series and does a great job of humanizing him. 

Then there's Trevor, simultaneously the worst character in the game and the best character in the series. Trevor is pure chaos, completely unhinged and ready to go off at a moment's notice. He's a cannibal speed freak, striking fear into everyone around him with his very presence. He's an agent of destruction, leaving a trail of bodies wherever he goes. He's Mike and Frank's best friend, and they're worst nightmare. 

Switching between the three after they're all unlocked is a smooth and seamless transition, allowing you to go to the other side of the map at a second's notice. While it's fun to switch between them during free roaming gameplay, it's the missions that see them working together that really make the game, swapping back and forth for flanking shots and side assaults on unsuspecting enemies lends a new level of depth to the gameplay we didn't see before. It's like playing a strategy game, only really fast and it makes some of the hairier moments all the better. 

Psychotic Episode

Trevor sows destruction wherever he goes.

It's a little to bad these men don't have a better story to tie them together. The plot is best described as "wandering" and it's oddly made both better and worst by the addition of three playable characters. There's no overarching plot to hold everything together like Niko or Cj's quests for revenge in the previous games. I've heard GTA 5's plot described as "people doing bad things" and that's really the best way of describing it, it's just a series of people doing things.. 

That's not to say the writing is bad, actually quite the opposite. This might be some of Rockstar's best work, with a huge cast of memorable characters and dialogue that's both funny as hell and shockingly realistic. The way the characters interact feels real, especially between the three leads, and there's a metric fucktonne of voice work ensuring that every line is delivered perfectly. 

GTA 4's plot was all about the American Dream gone wrong as Niko slowly learned that America is worse then his former life. GTA 5, in response, is the utter rejection and hatred of the modern American life. This is a game completely sick and tired of the world around it, taking potshots at nearly every aspect of modern, post economic collapse America. There's commentary on modern News reports, racial tension, police militarization, reality television, and even other video games. There's something lost in the minutia of it all, and at times GTA 5 seems to forget what's parody and what's just pointing and laughing, but it works more then it fails and paints and ugly picture of the world we live in. 

At times it seems like the game would've benefited from only one main character, and you can sort of see that throughout, since all three men have their own individual story. I would've loved to see the game just centered around Michael's struggles, and it's his plot that seems to have the most weight to it. Sure, the switching is fun, and both Trevor and Franklin bring their own strengths to the table, but it's Michael's struggle between family life, crime, and his deals with the shady government agents that proves to be the strongest part of the game. 

Maximum Pain

First person mode offers a new way to play in the Next-Gen/PC version.

If there is one thing handled perfectly it's GTA 5's shooting. GTA 4's shooting was a step up from the PS2 era, no doubt, but it still felt floaty and off balance. GTA 5 seems to have taken several notes from The book of Max and completely overhauled the shooting. This time around it feels precise and on point, allowing you to deliver perfect shots with ease. It's not quite as perfect as Max Payne 3, but it's more then serviceable in it's own right and never hinders the experience. 

Driving has also received an update from GTA 4. Cars now have real weight to them, depending on the vehicle type, and there's a huge difference between driving a family sedan, a low-rider, or a semi-truck. It takes more then a bit of getting used to at first, and it's easy to spin out accidentally or over-judge a slight calculation, but once everything starts to click it feels as smooth as any number of racing sims. 

Graphically GTA 5 is impressive. Like I mentioned there's a huge level of detail to be found throughout the game, like characters only getting wet to where they went into the water, but all around GTA 5 is a really nice looking game. Los Santos has never looked better and it's rare to see a game world that looks and feels this alive and vibrant, with color strewn about to bring the game to life. There are minor issues, like the lack of reflection on certain surfaces and recycled textures popping up here and there. There's also, at least on the last-gen systems, a huge problem with pop-in and LOD distance causing the occasional crash into a tree that wasn't there before. Out of all the versions the 360 is by far the worst for this, and while it doesn't ruin the game, it really doesn't do it justice either. 

On the audio front, GTA 5 is an absolute accomplishment. Let me start by talking about the radio stations, all of which are awesome. There 17 stations in the default game, plus an additional one for PC players and a custom player station on PC as well. It's a guarantee you'll find some music you love, but even better you can really get into the mind of each character thanks to the radio. It's awesome to drive downtown as Franklin, blasting classic rap songs, or racing around as Trevor to some angry punk music. Never mind the original score, which punctuates the scenes perfectly and always seems to kick in right where it's needed most. 

Beyond the music, the actual audio design is fantastic. I already talked about how great the voice work was, but it goes even further then that, with the streets of Los Santos sounding like actual busy streets. There are innumerable pedestrian conversations, either between people on the street or into their cell phones. There's the distant sound of dogs barking, or emergency vehicles whizzing along. There's the subtle hum of traffic, complete with the odd radio turned up way to loud. GTA 5 might be one of the best sounding games I've ever played, and it's so well done I doubt many people will actually realize. 

On PC and Around the World

Multiplayer is often as hectic as the singleplayer.

I haven't mentioned it up till this point, but this review is largely based off the PC re-re-release of GTA 5, which is hands down the best version. I'm not just saying that because I prefer PC gaming, but I've played the PS3, 360, and X1 versions of GTA 5 and the PC version beats them all hands down. This isn't just another console port, and while the 18 month delay from the original version might seem a bit long it's clear right off the bat the wait was worth it. Rockstar received a lot of criticism for GTA 4's sloppy PC port, and it's been rumored that's why Red Dead Redemption never made the leap. It's clear they've learned from this as the PC version out preforms all of the console versions with ease. 

First of all, it's just a very well made port, with a full suite of graphics options to suit your needs. My little brother's rig is definitely starting show it's age and yet he had no issues running the game smoothly. More then that, it's rewarding for people that put time and money into their machines by offering 60fps, and while I'm not usually one to get hung up on frame rates, it's impossible to not see the difference. 60fps is much smoother then 30 and the game as a whole feels better for it. It does tend to dip down, especially when shit starts to hit the fan, but I've never seen it go lower then the high 40's. 

The PC version also looks better, even then the next-gen console versions. The lighting is sharper, shadows handled a bit better, and there's more minor details rendered. All of this can be seen from the included 1st-person mode, courtesy of the PS4/X1 version. While I still prefered the game in 3rd-person, it was nice to see how much work was put into making 1st-person a completely viable option, and it's impressive to see how well it works. 

The other thing I haven't talked about yet is GTA Online, GTA 5's multiplayer portion. GTA 4 included an online suite too, but that was more traditional. GTAO is structured as a stand-alone MMO packaged with the already lengthy single-player, and as of now it also includes the option to take on heists. There's enough here to keep you busy, sure, but playing with a group of friends, especially the heists, is the way to go and provides some of the best, action packed experience the game has to offer. 

All of this can be captured and logged thanks to the PC version's full video editing suite. GTA 5 isn't the first game to feature a video editor, but it's certainly one of the better ones. Short clips can be recorded during normal gameplay, either single or multiplayer, and edited together with a whole host of options. What's great is that you're not even limited to the your camera, as the recorded video is produced as a full 3d screenshot, allowing you to move the camera wherever you want. There's also the inclusion of Director Mode, allowing you to take control of any character in the game and do whatever you want with them. Want to make a video of Michael's daughter going on a killing spree? Now you can. 

Crime Spree

Trevor and Michael's strained relationship works well thanks to great performances by Ned Luke and Steven Ogg.

Rockstar have earned themselves a name by making grand, sweeping games worth playing and talking about, and GTA 5 reminds us why. While it's story might not be as strong as GTA 4's, there's no denying the strong cast of characters and biting commentary offered up by the three leads. GTA 5 points a mirror at modern American life and forces us to admit that it's a shitty, shitty place to live in, THEN the game gives you a hammer and lets you smash the mirror to bits. Whether or not they know it, and I think they do, Rockstar have created one of the best pieces of cynical parody in gaming ever. 

The GTA franchise have always been great games, and GTA 5 continues that tradition in style. It's a completely confident game, bursting with content and personality. It's a game worth playing, if not for the great gameplay or awesome dialogue, then simply because everyone else is playing it too. 

image sources:
http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/1quk34/a_map_comparing_the_sizes_of_all_the_major_gta/

Looking at: The paid mods debacle

The poster child for paid mods, The Shadow Scale armor.

Punching the Sleeping Bear

Steam's full page ad and FAQ about the program.

What is modding? It's a lot of things. It's an art form unique to the world of PC gaming, for the most part. It's a form of expression for those with the talent or the time. It's a gesture of affection to a particular game, either in the form of additional content to bugfixes the developers may have missed. Lastly, it's one of the last truly open sector of the gaming community, unchecked and unregulated and completely anarchistic. 

Or at least it was. 

On April 23, 2015, Valve, the creators of the Half Life games and the immensely popular Steam digital distribution platform, and Bethesda, creators of The Elder Scrolls series and one of gaming's biggest publishers, launched a new program through Steam's Workshop service. The Workshop was a way for modders to upload their mods and the community to download them, and while it might not have been quite as popular as other mods sites, it was convenient and innocuous enough for no one to really care. 

But suddenly there was a new banner on the homepage, along side a sale of Skyrim. The banner read:

The Steam Workshop has always been a great place for sharing mods, maps, and all kinds of items that you’ve created. Now it's also a great place for selling those creations.

With a new, streamlined process for listing and selling your creations, the Steam Workshop now supports buying mods directly from the Workshop, to be immediately usable in game.

Discover the best new mods for your game and enable the creators to continue making new items and experiences.

The idea was to allow mod creators to sell their work in exchange for real money. On paper, this sounds great, since some modders have put hundreds of hours into their mods, everything from complete overhauls that change the way Skyrim is played to entire expansion packs rivaling those from Bethesda themselves. Certainly these people deserve to be rewarded for their hard work right?

Cloud of Greed

A number of mods available, checked by Checktilda.

Whatever Valve/Bethesda's original supposed intentions were, the truth was obvious. They had found a way to make money selling DLC to players without any work on their part. Bethesda would get more DLC then an entire factory of coders could churn out and keep their game running well past it's shelf life (Morrowind, Skyrim's grandfather, still has an active modding community a full decade post launch). Valve, meanwhile, would get attention to their Workshop and another selling angle for any game that had workshop integration, including titles like Cities: Skylines, ARMA 3, or the recently updated Dying Light.  Meanwhile, modders that have put dozens of hours of work into something will finally receive a fair pay for their work. 

Except they get ripped off the most. 

See, Valve and Bethesda decided they needed to get paid too, and why not? Bethesda made Skyrim, along with the mod tools people use, and Valve were putting up their server space for hosting. Obviously they needed to get something out of this deal. The valuation they came up with:

30% of profit goes to Valve
45% of profit goes to Bethesda
25% of profit goes to the modder. 

That means for every dollar a mod makes, the modder is only seeing 25cents, kind of screwy considering their the ones actually doing all of the work here. There were other limitations too, like how a mod had to sell at least $400 before the modder made a cent. This is in stark contrast to the supposed Apple store split of 70/30, with 70% going to the content creator. While it could be argued that App creators are making original content and modders are just creating derivative work, that valuation is still incredibly low for a lot of people, and it's obviously just Valve and Bethesda trying to pad their pockets. 

The God is Bleeding

One of the many protests. The petition to kill paid mods reached 130,000 signatures at Change.org.

It's impossible to get an exact time-frame, but it's clear that the paid mods were almost immediately unwelcome. The first I heard of it was through panicked and angry messages on a board I happened to be reading on the toilet, and I rushed to my computer to confirm the rumors. It was true, paid versions of things that had been free for ~20 years. Obviously there was going to be some upset. 

Upset might be underselling it a little bit. 

At first there was the confusion. People couldn't believe that something like mods would be sold for money. Sure, there were mods that evolved into full games, like Counter-Strike, Team Fortress, or countless others, but these were the rare case that stood out. 

Then there was the anger at Valve. "How could they do this?" "Why would they do this?" For the longest time Valve could do no wrong, and all of a sudden this was happening. In internet terms it was like watching a cute kitten suddenly transform into Hitler, Third Reich and all, and this was it's fuzzy, cuddly kristallnacht. 

Then there was the anger at each other. "What kind of greedy bastard would expect money for a mod?" "Well, why should we work for free?" There was bad blood boiling on both sides, like the creator of Garry's Mod Garry Newman stating:

Garry Newman @garrynewman

Valve broke the modding community... by revealing that most of them are cunts.

2:16 PM - 24 Apr 2015

Meanwhile one member of the Skywind team (a mod to inject the entire game of Morrowind into Skyrim's engine) stated:

"if you got into this activity with the explicit purpose of making money, you’re delusional. And if, when presented with a completely exploitative method of achieving it, you jumped on it, you’re a fool. Nobody owes you anything for time you yourself chose to expend."

Modders began to feel like they were entitled to a decent pay, while gamers felt they were asking to much of a community already nickeled and dimed to the last cent. The media was worse, with sites like Polygon praising the program (although that particular article seems to have disappeared), and other sites like Forbes calling it a disaster. It was a war between groups that had been friends for a very long time, and we're likely going to see repercussions from this for an even longer time. 

People began to take out their anger on Steam, taking to the forums to insult anyone who bought mods, anyone that put their mods up for sale, and anyone that supported Skyrim. Skyrim's user approval rating dropped from a 98% percent to 84%. That might not seem like much, but Skyrim's positive ratings were a mountain, and that mountain just shifted a long way. This drop has taken Skyrim from the top 10 games on Steam, down outside of the top 1000 games. 

There were the protest mods added to the workshop, everything from an in-game version of Gabe Newell, to just simple protest signs to... horse testicles for $99. Modders began to pull their work wholesale from both the Workshop and Nexus, either in protest or to protect themselves. 

Steam had been the god of PC gaming, an untouchable pseudo-monopoly towering above. And that god just bled. 

The Issues

Animated fishing, the first mod to be taken down due to infringement. Had the program continued, it would not have been the last. 

Like I said, on paper the idea of allowing people to charge money for mods isn't a bad thing. Some teams create content that's definitely worth money. If the rise of Youtube celebrities or independent bloggers (this writer, sadly, not included) taught us anything it's that if people are willing to pay you, then you can get paid for your work. But there was a host of issues with the program that prevented it from ever being a good idea:

1) Tradition. Mods have always been free, whether or not people liked it. Trying to change a decades old tradition can't happen overnight, and even if we create a system that works, like the much proposed donation button, it's unlikely that the vast majority of people will be able to turn this into a living. 

2) The split. People on both sides, save a few outspoken individuals, agree that the split between the modders and the companies is outrageous. Valve and Bethesda were making bank doing very little work and it didn't seem very fair. 

3) the legal issues. Mods have always existed in a legal grey area, allowing their creators to use otherwise copywritten work because no one was making money off it. It's why there's a Game of Thrones mod for Crusader Kings, because the mod wasn't taking money away from GoT's copyrite holder. Now that these mods were being sold as products the grey area turned dark black and it was only inevitable before lawyers got involved. 

4) Other mods. This is a two pronged issue: 

First was the brutal civil war within the mod community itself. Modders called paid modders sell-outs and accused them of ruining their artistic integrity, while paid modders called the unpaid a bunch of unambitious idiots holding back progress. It's created a lot of tension it what used to be a tight-knit community. 

The Second issue is that of mod compatibility. This might be an issue unique to Skyrim, but it's the only game affected so it's what I'll run with. See, Skyrim mods often require a lot of work to run, and sometimes, especially complicated mods, require other mods to run. Less then 24 hours after it's launch we saw two mods taken down because the creator hadn't gotten permission from an animator to use the animator's work. Then there were infrastructure mods, like UI overhauls or script modifications that were necessary for a lot of different mods. These infrastructure mods either didn't get a kickback from any sale that required them, or worse, would require users to buy additional mods to get one mod to work. 

Here's the breakdown:

ModA needs ModB to work. ModA is for sale, but ModB isn't. ModB's creator never sees a cent of ModA's sale. 

ModA needs ModB to work. ModA is $.99, ModB is $9.00. ModB is necessary to run mods C-F and is free to charge what they want because in order to run any other mods, people need to buy ModB. 

5) Mod piracy. This was a new threat, created almost overnight. There were two versions of mod piracy going on. The first was people stealing free mods from other sites and trying to sell it as their own. Thankfully no mods outside the original 19 were ever added, but it's likely this would've been an issue in a very short time, as many of the non-protest mods under review were stolen. 

The second issue was the idea of normal piracy. People didn't want to pay for content they felt should be free so they took to illegal torrenting. I won't link it here, but I have confirmed reports of the paid mods appearing on The Pirate Bay and other torrent sites. 

"It takes a big man to admit he's wrong." 

Community reaction was... less then stellar.

People raged over the weekend. The PR wasn't working, and even the media was turning against the idea. Gabe Newell himself tried to diffuse the situation on Reddit, only to be disgraced and embarrassed. It was clear something had to break, and the community wasn't going to back down. 

PC gamers are entitled, but it's an entitlement that comes from tradition. For the longest time they've held themselves far above the console gamers with things like regular sales, better graphics, higher framerates, and a much larger library of games. Whereas console gamers have grown to eventually accept the worst things about their platforms, like paid internet connections, graphical downgrades, and almost constantly paying full price for games, PC gamers rage against their machines, often until something changes. 

In the evening of April 27, less then a week after it's launch, the paid section of Skyrim's workshop was taken down. It was a hasty retreat, with many of the links pointing to the paid mods still being active as of this writing less then 12 hours later. Representatives from both Valve and Bethesda made statements, which I'll include below, in full. 

Valve:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/3435tu/paid_mods_in_steam_workshop/

We're going to remove the payment feature from the Skyrim workshop. For anyone who spent money on a mod, we'll be refunding you the complete amount. We talked to the team at Bethesda and they agree.

We've done this because it's clear we didn't understand exactly what we were doing. We've been shipping many features over the years aimed at allowing community creators to receive a share of the rewards, and in the past, they've been received well. It's obvious now that this case is different.

To help you understand why we thought this was a good idea, our main goals were to allow mod makers the opportunity to work on their mods full time if they wanted to, and to encourage developers to provide better support to their mod communities. We thought this would result in better mods for everyone, both free & paid. We wanted more great mods becoming great products, like Dota, Counter-strike, DayZ, and Killing Floor, and we wanted that to happen organically for any mod maker who wanted to take a shot at it.

But we underestimated the differences between our previously successful revenue sharing models, and the addition of paid mods to Skyrim's workshop. We understand our own game's communities pretty well, but stepping into an established, years old modding community in Skyrim was probably not the right place to start iterating. We think this made us miss the mark pretty badly, even though we believe there's a useful feature somewhere here.

Now that you've backed a dump truck of feedback onto our inboxes, we'll be chewing through that, but if you have any further thoughts let us know.

Bethesda:

http://www.bethblog.com/2015/04/27/why-were-trying-paid-skyrim-mods-on-steam/

After discussion with Valve, and listening to our community, paid mods are being removed from Steam Workshop. Even though we had the best intentions, the feedback has been clear – this is not a feature you want. Your support means everything to us, and we hear you.

It's damage control at it's worse, because it was obviously damage control. It's so rare for companies to admit they were wrong, and even rarer for them to completely 180. Even Micrsoft only removed a few of the "features" of the Xbox One, and that was before it's release. This wasn't backpedaling, this was... this:

Uneasy Silence

As of now, April 28th, the paid mods section is down. Neither company has made further statements and Skyrim is slowly rebuilding it's review score. It's unlikely Skyrim will ever have paid mods again. 

That's the thing about this though, is that "Skyrim" won't have paid mods, and it shouldn't. But Valve didn't say they were removing the option, just they were removing it from Skyrim. Other games have already admitted their interest in paid mods, including Space Engineers and, considering his inflammatory statements, Garry's Mod.  

Paid mods could, possibly, work. Yes, there's certainly the unpleasent idea of being sold a constant stream of DLC when games already cost an arm and a leg, and yes there are numerous uncertainties about the system that will need to be addressed, like a longer refund period in case of a mod-breaking update. A donation system is prefereable, certainly, and the experiment has failed, but there is the grounds for a system in the future. 

This has been pointed out elsewhere, but it's likely we'll see this idea re-attempted in the near future. The best avenue for this would be a new release, and Valve admitted that their biggest misstep was trying to invade a well established community, some of whom have been around since Morrowind. We'll likely see this attempted again in a future Bethesda title, and their upcoming E3 appearance will be more telling when it comes. 

It's over for now, and everyone is slowly slinking back to their holes, awaiting further news. We've seen the face of paid mod content, and it's an ugly, disgusting beast. Whether or not it'll ever rear it's head again, that remains to be seen. 

Image Sources:

http://ec0c5a7f741a6f3bff65-dd07187202f57fa404a8f047da2bcff5.r85.cf1.rackcdn.com/images/X6BdGgoKIdT2.878x0.Z-Z96KYq.jpg

http://i1-news.softpedia-static.com/images/news2/Steam-Workshop-Now-Supports-Paid-Mods-Skyrim-Gets-Premium-Items-Free-Weekend-479223-2.jpg

http://static1.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1535/15354745/2854228-2832875602-28535.jpg

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--NfRXhIti--/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/1227696896714866095.jpg

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--ViZoOzKN--/1227897868503046504.png

http://techgage.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Current-Thoughts-On-Valve-680x445.jpg

Looking at: Dark Souls 2

The Old Guard

The odds will often be stacked against you, you'll need patience to get through.

The first Dark Souls has been called a masterpiece, one of the most important games ever released, and one of the best RPG games ever made. Accolades have been heaped on it for nearly every aspect, from the brutal difficulty, open ended nature, interconnected world, and sparsely told plot threads. Indeed, between the PS3 version and the PC re-release (which was recently FINALLY moved off of the terrible Games for Windows Live) I've put dozens up dozens of hours into fighting and dying in Lordran. Clearly a sequel was inevitable, and early 2014, Dark Souls 2 was released upon us. Is this a dungeon worth delving, or was this death in vain?

The Darker Soul

occasionally you'll have a chance to indulge your inner firebug to solve puzzles.

Like it's predecessors, Dark Souls 2 is a game about dying, fighting, and dying some more. You've come to the land of Dranglaic to seek treasure and fortune and have instead become cursed to stay there forever, trapped between life and death. To heal yourself you'll need to kill the four guardians and rekindle the primal fires before slaying the land's monarch and claiming the throne. In order to do this you'll suffer through a series of challenges killing all sorts of monsters and bosses along the way in your campaign of destruction.

DS2, like Dark Souls and Demon's Souls before it, keeps it's plot purposely obfuscated, and likes to deal out small amounts of plot or lore through background osmosis, rather then hand it to you straight up. It's easy to miss the entire plot of DS2 and you'll often need multiple play throughs to understand some of the finer points of the lore. It's not that the game is poorly written, quite the opposite as there's a wealth of backstory to be found if you go looking for it. Rather DS2 is content in letting you piece together the world yourself, giving you the ability to do this and letting you figure it out. It can be disorienting at times, as you try and figure out what your goal is, but it's oddly refreshing in the face of modern games that just give you everything without leaving anything to the imagination.


Killing in the Name

Fighting with others can make any challenge just that much easier to handle.

This idea of letting you figure things out extends out to the gameplay. DS2 is a tough game, but it's a malleable game as well. Theoretically the entire game can be beaten with the starting equipement, as long as you get good enough to work within that parameter. That's one of my favorite things about the Dark Souls games, is that despite their intense difficulty, you really can play whatever way you want. For instance, one of my characters was named Punchy Joe. He never wears shirts and only fights using a pair brass knuckles. Using this hilariously underpowered character I've cleared about a quarter of the game with minimal issues, all because I adapted to how to play differently.

That's the trick of DS2, is that you'll need to adapt to win. Every fight is memorable, from your first zombie swordsman at the start, to the elephant man I just killed 20 hours in. All of these are constantly fresh in my mind because they have to be if I want to succeed. I learned quickly that the elephant man's pike has a long range, so I learned to stay even further away, just like I learned that the swordman slashes twice then stabs. Learning from your mistakes is the only way forward in DS2, and lord knows you'll make a lot of mistakes.

There's another reason the fights in DS2 are memorable, and that's because like it's predecessor they often lean towards quality and less to quantity. A level might only have a few enemies in it, and some of the areas are so small you can see the end of them from the beginning. The trick is that you'll suffer for your finish, and while there may only be five enemies in your path, it'll take you forever to chip away at them. Fights like this are often the norm and it's rare to see you facing a crowd, save for one particular boss fight. You'll need to conduct fights like an opera, making sure to only fight what you can handle at any given time and leaving room for a quick pull from your healing flask or breaking open a slow-acting life stone.

Accidental Death 

There are some truly gorgeous vista, but they often hold untold horrors. 

DS2 is a bigger and more ambitious game then the first one, and while this means that certain aspects have been improved upon, there are also numerous parts of the game that just don't work as well as the first one did. There are more then a few issues that didn't come up as much in the first game and, while none of them are necessarily game breakers, they do dampen an otherwise fantastic experience.

The first and most notable issue is the enemy AI. Dark Soul's AI has always been problematic, ever since the first entry Demon's Souls. The enemies only know to charge you and use their set of attacks, and don't bother with self preservation. While that means you can occasionally draw enemies into traps meant to kill you, I noticed that their AI was particularly inconsistent in DS2, often teetering between devious and dumb, flanking me one minute and walking into my obvious attack the next. Even more inconsistent was how the enemies fought me, lunging straight past me with one attack only to stun-lock me with the next three strikes. The simplest foe became a mini-boss fight when he managed to get me into a corner with attacks I couldn't block.

That brings me to DS2's biggest issue over the first one: your ability to avoid damage. In Dark Souls avoiding damage was all about dodging or blocking. You either had to be quick with a roll or carry a good shield. Either way it was possible to make it through much of the game while avoiding damage, making the few times you did get winged all the more strenuous because of how much they hurt. In DS2 something feels... off with the whole ordeal and it's largely due to some tweaks to the hitbox detection. More then a few times I've noticed the game subtly adjusting enemy attack patterns just so to make sure their hit lands, and the dodge-roll seems to have far fewer invincibility-frames then the previous game. You'll get hurt a lot in DS2, and sometimes it doesn't feel like a fair fight because of it.

Japanese Gothic

Each new area is introduced as you step into it, inviting you to explore it's secrets. 

Levels in Dark Souls had this interwoven feel to it, like the whole world was slowly unfolding before your eyes as you explored. Even with the most bizarre areas there was a logical progression to it all and there were plenty of secret passages and shortcuts to uncover. The world wasn't all that large on reflection, but what it lacked in size it made up for in spades with it's detail.

DS2's world is bigger sure, and there's a lot more to do, but all of this comes at the cost of logic and reason. There's an abundance of pointless areas that serve nothing more then to transition you from one dungeon to another, and the flow of the game often doesn't make much sense. Why does a ruined tower lead me to an underground shipyard? Why does a mining town lead me to a volcano fortress? It's confusing and seems much more piecemeal then the first game, like the levels were designed separate then made to fit regardless. The individual levels themselves are great, offering challenges and puzzles galore and are often a joy to explore, but getting between them often feels boring and it's a good thing fast travel is unlocked from the start.

Graphically DS2 is impressive, albeit not as good as it's own E3 trailer some time ago. The lighting does a good job of selling the somber and dark mood, while obfuscating traps or enemies. The texture work is decent, although falls apart upon closer inspection, and everything has a purposely ugly and ruined look to it. The various pieces of equipment all look fantastic and unique from each other, and there's a myriad of ways to make your character stand out, from the crazed jester to the noble knight and anything in between.

The audio work is similarly well done, with a great soundtrack of dark and moody music, just quiet enough to fit any scene while just loud enough to be heard over the clang of weapons. Weapons all have a distinct sound to them and everything from tearing through flesh and armor to smashing down doors sounds weighty and bombastic. Enemies often have their own unique soundbites letting you know their around the next corner, but rarely giving them away.

There's only a small handful of friendly NPC's to talk to, but the voice work is decent enough. They manage to sell their lines, often with an air of uncertainty, either about you or their current predicament. More entertaining are the souls completely lost to the madness who really just have fun with their characters. There's no one as charming as Solair or Patches, but the characters of DS2 are memorable enough. It's especially handy that the majority of them move to the central town during the story, meaning they're easy to track down and talk to again.

Mass Grave

You're not really the hero, more of a janitor come to clean up the mess. 

Multiplayer returns in DS2, largely unchanged from the first game. You'll be able to summon other players to your world, or be summoned to other worlds, through the use of in-game items, allowing you to team up and take down bosses. The changes this time are in how the humanity system works. In DS2 you can turn human at any time, no longer reliant on bonfires to do so, but the trade is that every death while not human lowers your overall health, down to a possible half bar. This makes staying human that much more important as you'll often need as much HP as possible, even just for the purposes of exploring.

The other big change in terms of multiplayer is the idea of Souls Memory. Rather then lock multiplayer summoning to a certain level range, it's now based on your soul memory, that is, the total accumulation of souls (in-game universal currency) you've gained with your character. That means a level 80 character can play with a level 20 character, so long as they're both in the same Soul Memory Bracket. It's a bit confusing at first, but it simultaneously makes it easier and harder to play with people, based on how much of the game they've played as well.

Once again, DS2's multiplayer is an all-or-nothing game, meaning that if you want to play with other people you'll also have to be willing to allow other players to invade your game. These encounters are often both the best and worst part of the game as I lost count of how many times I was backstabbed because of a bad connection between me and the invader. There is now an option to play offline hidden within the game, but it removes much of the best parts, meaning you'll have to take the good with the bad.

Sins of the First Scholar

The Pursuer Knight, a formidable foe that will chase you throughout the game.

The original DS2 came out in early 2014, and was a moderate success. There were three DLC packs released, each containing a new dungeon with new challenges and items. Seeing as it's 2015 and publishers are money sucking scum, DS2 has received the HD update/game of the year treatment in the form of Sins of the First Scholar. This version collects DS2 and all of it's DLC while changing the graphics over to DirectX 11 and changing up enemy placement for a new challenge.

Right off the bat the best thing about SotFS is the 60fps lock. I've never been one to get into arguments about frame rates, but it's undeniable how much better DS2 plays at 60fps. It's a fast and fluid experience that really enhances the experience. There is some concern about weapon durability falling faster due to a glitch, but From software have already promised to fix that in an upcoming patch.

As for the new enemy placement, while it does balance out certain areas, From seem to have made the same mistake as Hotline Miami 2 thinking that more enemies equals a better challenge. It's unfortunate to see a game like this take such a terrible misstep and while it never ruins the game, it does make certain areas feel like a slog rather then proper challenge. Worse, with some of the new challenge it's difficult to recommend SotFS to a new player, despite the upgrades and multiplayer stability because the level of difficulty in some areas goes above and beyond to be annoying.  It's not a bad upgrade and I'm glad I got it, but it doesn't really do the Dark Souls name proper justice.

Dead and Buried

From shaded forest to rain slicked fortresses, DS2 is a big game.

It's unfortunate that Dark Souls has earned a reputation as one of the most difficult games ever made for a few reasons: First, it means that any half-baked indie game promising a challenge refers to itself as "Dark Souls-like". Secondly, it's just not true. Sure, there is a challenge to the Dark Souls games, but only if you fail to adapt to the game and begin to play with it as it would you. Dark Souls isn't just a game to be beaten, it's a game that dares you to embarrass it, make it feel sorry for ever trying to pick a fight with you. That's when it's at it's best and you truly begin to enjoy it.

I've never liked the idea that a sequel cannot be better then the original game, and saying a sequel isn't good because it's not the original annoys me. Unfortunately, that's simply not the case with DS2, as it's just not as good of a game as the original was. Maybe if it had the original director, or maybe if AI scripting was just a little bit better, or even if the levels were a little more concise this would be a better game. The fact is DS2 just has a few to many issues with it, and that's what keeps it down. Still it's still one of the best RPG's in recent memory, and definitely worth playing for anyone looking for a great challenge. At the very least, it's more Dark Souls, and that's exactly what I wanted.

Looking at: Tomb Raider 2013

First Lady

this is Lara as we've never seen her before, and that's a good thing. 

Talk about games long enough and the topic will likely touch upon female characters in games. There's no denying the lack of great female protagonists in game, so much so that there's only a handful of notable names. Arguably the most controversial of these is Lara Croft, the short-shorts wearing, gun-wielding heroine of the long running Tomb Raider series.

Ms. Croft has one of the most turbulent histories of any hero, regardless of sex. Everything from her outfits, to fan-made modifications, to the actual quality of her games has been scrutinized over the years. Finally Lara got what every character fears most, a reboot in the form of a new origin story seeing her face her first challenges as a young adult.

Like most reboots, Tomb Raider13 would be a "departure" from the previous games. Thankfully, unlike Eidos' attempts to reboot Hitman, or whatever the fuck they call Thief, the Tomb Raider reboot is not only a great game, but one of the best in it's perspective series.

Dragon's Tooth

Lara often finds herself alone to reflect, for better or for worse.

Departure is the key word here, as TR13 is completely separated from the rest of the series, save of course for the heroine. Once again you strap on the boots of Lara Croft, this time in her early twenties, as she traverses some foreign land in search of treasure. At least, that's what the set up is.

In reality the expedition into a south Asian island chain known as the Dragon's Triangle, inspired by the real-world Devil's Sea. The place is supposedly cursed by ravenous storms that tear ships apart and, sure enough, Lara and co. find their ship... torn apart. Stranded on an island it quickly becomes apparent that all is not well, especially after making contact with the crazed gun wielding rape cult that inhabits the Japanese ruins.

The island itself is a pretty cool setting, littered with awesome vistas, ancient temples, and forgot Japanese war bunkers. There are leaps in the logic, but the world feels well constructed enough and transitions are believable most of the time. There is an odd amount of ancient wooden structures situated in/on cliffs, but these often contribute to the great action scenes, so it's sort of forgivable. Even better is there's a tonne of lore scattered around the island telling a variety of different stories about the various inhabitants, everyone from the ancient islanders, to WW2 vets, and even the insane cult you face down through the game. It's great world building and adds a lot of detail.

It's a world worth exploring too. While the game is decidedly linear, there's a lot of hidden rewards for exploring off the beaten path. Being a modern action game, there's also an RPG system where Lara can upgrade her equipment and abilities slowly over time using salvage scavenged from the world. It's a bit of a strange system, and there's some leaps in logic as this archaeology student MacGyver's an AK47 out of an old Japanese machinegun and some scrap metal.

Beaten and Battered

Despite the shift in tone, there's no shortage of tombs to raid.

TR13 is a much different game from it's predecessors when it comes to the tone and story. Whereas the earlier games were bubble-gum pop this is hard punk metal, screaming in defiance of it's own parentage. Lara and her friends are in a shitty situation and the game makes damn sure you know that as angry men swear and shoot at you. There's more then a few brushes with death and horrors far beyond any mummies from the first game. This is a gritty reboot in every sense of the world.

Even more terrifying is what the game is willing to do to Lara herself. There's no reverence for the character this time around, and she's far from invincible. Just getting through the story will beat the hell out of her. God help you if you fail one of the game's action sequences however, as your reward for this is seeing Lara get mutilated in ways that would make most horror games puke. She'll be stabbed, beaten, and generally tossed around like a ragdoll to an almost shocking degree. There's no doubt that TR13 is trying to distance itself from the old games, but it's almost shocking how far it goes with it.

The story itself is well told, with a small collection of characters. You're never confused as to what's happening and there's constant incentive to continue through as the situations get more and more ridiculous and the stakes get higher and higher. I guarantee there's at least a few dozen god-awful version of this script that came dangerously close to getting released, but thankfully what's on offer is well done and fits the game perfectly.

Scenic Vistas

Things rarely go well for Lara or her friends, and you'll be on the run throughout the game.

Graphically TR13 is pretty good looking. It does a great job of creating a real sense of place and mood on the island, and there's a lot of detail that makes each location feel more believable. There's a good variety of locals too, with forests, bunkers, ancient castles, and shanty towns all begging to be explored.

Character animations are awesome too, which is good considering how much stuff can be going on at once. There is the occasional strangeness, like getting caught on stairs, and Lara's "scramble" is almost hilarious in it's franticness, but it's all serviceable.

More over, the audio design is great. The voice over work is phenomenal, with every character delivering a lot of personality. Lara is the main star, and her newest VO actress has done a great job, especially considering all the shit the character goes through this time around. All of the main cast sound well done and believable, and enemies have enough unique dialogue that repeats are rare.

Survival of the fittest 

The constant shift in landscapes will keep you on your toes throughout the game.

TR13 seems like a game that wasn't really supposed to be as good as it is. Like I said, it's almost a guarantee that there are several late beta version of this game that are absolutely unplayable. It's a dark, gritty, mature reboot of a franchise best known for booty shorts and second rate platforming. There's no way this should've worked.

And yet, despite that TR13 hits it out of the park. The story is well told, the characters believable enough to care about, the action intense, hell even the platforming works better then the old ones. Tomb Raider 13's biggest issue isn't that anything in the game is bad, it's that it almost completely obsolete's all of it's predecessors with how great it is. Lara may have gone through some rough patches, but she back and better then ever.