Nuclear Monster

  • The Walking Dead Box Art
    Photo Credit: Telltale Games

    The Walking Dead’s comics and TV show are a little different than most Zombie stories. Those stories are usually about the Zombies or a series of characters who fit into a few repetitive stereotypes. The Walking Dead, by contrast, offers more interesting characters and a feeling that they never have the option of making a “Right” choice.

    The Walking Dead: Season One episodic game by Telltale Games is similar on the surface to older adventure games. In those the player is tasked with clicking on objects and characters to initiate actions and conversations, solving puzzles and ultimately reach a straightforward conclusion. After playing through the first season’s five episodes (which have now been compiled into a boxed product for consoles) it’s clear that the difference between this adventure and others is in how mature the conversations and decisions are.

    I played the game on PC through Steam and was introduced to a new episode every few weeks. I’m not sure how critical that waiting period was to the experience, but it definitely felt like the right way to play it. People who purchase the boxed copy and blast through the season in a weekend are missing part of the experience. Telltale has been doing episodic games for a while now, and though I’ve purchased a few other seasons of their games I’m not ashamed to admit that this is the first I completed.

    The graphics are simple and cel-shaded, the art style was clearly chosen to fit the time budget so that each episode would not require too much in the way of new content. After all, most big-budget games require huge art pipelines to create all of their content over the span of years when The Walking Dead had just a few weeks to take in the feedback from the previous episode in designing, scripting, and executing the next. This art style doesn’t get in the way of the story, which was definitely paramount to the designers.

    The voice acting is generally great, and the characters never sounded out of place or disconnected from the events of the game.

    Unfortunately, the PC version was clearly not perfect from a technical perspective. The first issue I ran into was that if you have an Xbox 360 controller plugged in the game wouldn’t start under Windows 8. After unplugging my controller, the next issue was that my save games were lost when I tried to continue with the game into the 5th episode. A workaround posted to the Telltale Games forum from other users who had gotten stung by the same issue got me back into the game at Episode 5, but not without losing many of the decisions I had already made. In a game where those decisions change almost everything about the story and even what characters are in the game, it can be very frustrating to lose them. I believe it to be a testament to the game’s writers that I continued on to the end regardless and I will also go back and play through again just to bring my saved game into Season Two the way I had originally played.

    Many of the sights in this game are horrifying, but often not as horrifying as the behavior of some of the characters. Sometimes that extends to the protagonist, Lee. If you decide to play it, know that you’ll probably get dragged into feeling for the characters and might even shed a tear when it comes time for a few of them to die. Nobody is safe in this game. To give you an example, oftentimes as Lee is introduced to new characters you are given the option of how you would like Lee to describe himself. There are some details of his history that he might not want folks to know, but if you decide that he should share them then they might trust him more than if they find out later on. Even if you make no decision at all, you’re oftentimes left having made a choice when the “fuse” underneath your list of options burns out. There were quite a few times when the game’s events were so startling I could not bring myself to even pick from that list.

    Instead of relying on goofy puzzles and tedious inventory actions as in other adventure games, this gripping attachment to characters and decisions that you interact with and effect makes The Walking Dead Season One so amazing even when compared to the Comic or TV series. Although those decisions may ultimately lead to a very similar conclusion, that you had an effect on it and the characters who joined you for the journey is amazing. I cannot imagine how difficult it was to write for all of the options from episode to episode. At the end of each you are presented with a list of percentages on the major decisions you made compared to those of other players.

    Telltale are fantastic storytellers and I can’t wait to see what happens next. I wish I didn’t have to play through the game again to keep my choices for Season Two, but that technical glitch cannot overshadow what a tremendous accomplishment this season was. If you have any interest in the way of the future in dramatic storytelling, you would be remiss to skip out on The Walking Dead.

    5 out of 5 Puffins

  • Your mum is so stupid, she bought tickets to XBOX Live

    Bad Kids Jokes

  • SW-AIP5-GLOWPURPLE-4
    Photo Credit: Slickwraps

    Obviously, the Slickwraps Vivid Purple Glow Wrap for iPhone 5 isn’t a case. It’s basically just a series of stickers you apply to your iPhone to make it look different. Any protection the stickers might offer is coincidental.

    It looks pretty neat, right?

    Application is fairly straightforward, everything you need is provided including a screen protector. The only other thing you need is some fairly steady hands.

    And it does look good, when your surroundings are dark enough.

    When the lights are on it looks a little like a storm-trooper on my Black iPhone with the white stickers.

    However, within a few days or a week it’ll start to fall apart.

    Here’s what mine looks like after less than a month:

    Slickwraps iPhone
    Photo Credit: TimeDoctor Dot Org

    After less than a week the top piece fell off.

    After two weeks the discoloration had gotten pretty bad around the earpiece.

    Slickwraps iphone earpiece
    Photo Credit: TimeDoctor Dot Org

    Finally, the bottom piece has started to disengage from the lower-left hand side of the phone. Once this happens, it gets pocket fuzz covering up the adhesive and is pretty much unfixable.

    Slickwraps iphone bottom
    Photo Credit: TimeDoctor Dot Org

    Do you want your phone to look like this? The glow effect still pretty nifty looking in the dark, but it’s rarely dark enough to trigger the effect unless you’re sleeping. In which case, who cares?

    The best part of doing this review was when I took the Slickwrap off my iPhone 5 and it still looked great despite having had stickers all over it for the better part of a month. They’re not using low-quality stuff here, as is evident in the adhesive leaving no residue on the device. The problem instead is that this is the best level of quality you can get until material science makes some kind of ridiculous breakthrough that allows us to stick devices into a cheap home 3D printer and then they come out glowing in the daylight.

    I’m throwing this Slickwrap in the trash, because that is what you do with a sticker once you remove it.

    0 out of 5 Oil Slicks

  • The king talks about a “hobo stew” later on.

    The King of the Cosmos is back in Touch my Katamari from Namco on the PlayStation Vita, but this time he’s all about breaking the fourth wall and talking about how fans are upset with the more recent games in the Katamari series. It’s a nice setup. However it is not exactly welcome when this game doesn’t make up for six weak sequels.

    So much of Katamari’s status was due to the original game’s surprisingly fun and original gameplay. When I first bought the Playstation 2 game I had no idea what to expect, my local retailer had only one copy and they were surprised anyone was going to buy it. But I’d caught word that it was something special. Not much has changed since then despite sequels for every platform. Rolling up every object in sight into a huge ball is still your overall objective.

    The few unique levels in the game don’t really stand out, but there is a new gameplay element that is actually kind of fun. Or it would be, if there were more opportunities to use it while playing. For the first time you can stretch or squish the Katamari using the front or rear touch screens while rolling to fit into places the regular ball-shaped Katamari couldn’t.

    Like the game’s few unique levels, this touch feature is underutilized. The most time you’ll spend using it is during the tutorial. Sure you could use it during regular gameplay, but there aren’t enough situations to do so. I’d hate to be forced to use touch features, but it’s almost worse that Namco actually came up with a good idea and then didn’t use it.

    I wouldn’t really mind the lack of innovation in this iteration if there were more stages to play in. This is really the crippling blow to the game. I saw everything there was to see in a little over an hour.

    That’s OK when there’s some kind of amazing narrative or replayability, both of which are missing from this game.

    Katamari games have always had this great colorful texture palette that is a nice change from most every other game out there. It’s combined with fairly simple graphics which is why it’s a surprise when the game can get a little choppy in the frame rate department while you’re rolling your Katamari on the larger levels.

    I had a few laughs at the King’s expense and enjoyed what I played, but I just wish there was more of it. Katamari games have never been super challenging, and they shouldn’t be so all the game really needs is more stages. I’m usually hesitant to equate gameplay hours to money, but in this case it’s impossible to ignore. King of the Namcos, lets put a little bit more effort in next time.

    3 out of 5 Calamaris

  • Keep watching, there are some great insider tips towards the end.