That's me in one of TWO N7 hoodies, holding a sweet N7 mug. As a fan of tastefully geeky game memorabilia, this stuff is great. The N7 hoodies look like athletic gear (like I said, tastefully geeky), and are made of some surprisingly high quality material. These things are incredibly comfortable. Shame it's 86 degrees in Charlotte right now!

My lovely wife wearing the other hoodie (it's kind of huge on her) while displaying the N7 Playstation 3 armor. It's an N7 chest piece that actually goes on the PS3. Also comes with a cool back side and stand so you can sit the PS3 vertically.

Here she is again holding what is probably my favorite piece of swag: The Art of the Mass Effect Universe. As an artist and a huge Mass Effect fan, finding this at the bottom of the box was a real treat.

Here's the whole haul. Two hoodies, two shirts--one button up, the other a t-shirt--the PS3 armor, a N7 mug, and the Mass Effect art book.

This was a wonderful surprise to come home to today. Thanks to Synthia and Jody for putting on the contest and sending me this mega awesome box of swag!

You play as Geralt, a human hybrid, or witcher, who has some funky powers that make him a natural for the freelance fighting of monsters. Early on in Flotsam, the first town in The Witcher 2, you can convince Loredo, sort of the town sheriff/commissioner, to release your friends from the gallows. This might make you think Loredo is an all right fellow. He won’t hang innocent people, he can be reasoned with.

In many RPGs, a good action denotes a good character. You pick the good replies to the good characters because that's how it's supposed to work when you're playing a hero. It’s all very binary. Good choice, bad choice. Mass Effect 3 is a great example. The good answers are on top, the mean answers are on bottom, and occasionally a neutral answer appears in the middle—that usually pops up to give you an out when romance is an option and you don’t want to trash your love-crossed crew member. If you’re playing as good guy, you can, and probably should, always pick the top answer.

Not so with the Witcher 2.

Later on Loredo, the man that spared your friends from execution, is kind of a dick to you and said friends. He also tries to short change you on a payment for a dangerous task you undertake for him. So maybe he's not the great guy you thought he was. It’s here in most games that you’d turn the binary switch. He’s bad now, so now he gets the bad responses. But…he showed kindness earlier, so is he all bad? Could he redeem himself? In real life, many of us would take the wait and see approach. Maybe later on, when things shake out, he’ll prove himself to be a man you can count on. The Witcher 2 lets you wait and see, to an extent (it’s a game, and does still have limitations).

When Loredo questions you about your knowledge of what’s happening in town, you have a few options. You can tell him what you know, change the subject, or deny knowledge. Ambiguity is at work here again with a very small but important spin. Like Mass Effect, Dragon Age 2 and other fully-voiced RPGs, the Witcher 2 doesn’t display the exact text your character will say. Instead, it offers the gist of his response. This system keeps the pace of dialogue snappy, and makes it less repetitive—it’s no fun to read an option and then hear your character say the exact same thing (as the first Witcher game did). In this particular example, the dialogue option is something like, “I don’t know.”

Now in most games, if you were to select “I don’t know” you would also be selecting to remove knowledge from your character. For the sake of the binary dialogue system, he or she would literally not know what was happening in town, even if you, the player, knew. But pick that option in the Witcher 2 and Geralt replies with something like, “What I do in town is my business.”

How ambiguous! You didn’t remove information from his head. Geralt knows. He’s choosing to withhold information. Loredo was a jerk earlier, despite his initial kindness, so maybe he doesn’t need to know what Geralt is up to in town. This ambiguous response doesn’t hurt the flow of the storyline or the quest, but does add a layer of complexity to the character. It also changes how you feel as the player.

The Witcher games put you in control of Geralt, and it’s up to you to choose his skills, control his actions and play his story. But you aren’t Geralt. You’re more like his director, the angel and the devil on his shoulders, maybe even his conscience. The ambiguous dialogue implies that he is his own man. Think of that pause in the conversation—the one that pops a selector on screen for you to choose an answer—as a reflection moment for Geralt. That’s when you appear, on either shoulder.

“You know what’s going on in town Geralt, but Loredo is a tool, don’t tell him.”

Vs.

“You know what’s going on in town Geralt, and Loredo should probably know, he is the sheriff after all.”

You pick, Geralt listens. You feel in control of the story, even though it’s not your story. This is what excites me about video game storytelling. Imagine watching a scary movie, and right before the character goes down the dark hallway where the killer is waiting, you yell, “don’t go down there” and she doesn’t. She listens, and lives to see the next scene. Was that decision to keep her alive a good one? You don’t know yet. You’re the director, but you haven’t read the whole script.

Again, that bit of ambiguity is a very subtle difference. The Witcher is still working on the same “If this, then that” system that powers every other game, but the smart writing and language muddy it up a bit, make it less apparent. That is the brilliance of The Witcher 2, that is why, if you have any interest in what can be done with video game narrative and dialogue, you should try it. 

What is it?

Fez is a puzzle platformer with a mysterious secret. On your first run through, it’s a pleasing collect-a-thon with a retro art style and a neat rotation mechanic. But that’s only half the game. After completing the initial challenge, you get a peek into a vast web of secrets scattered all over the game world. Truly finishing the game requires cracking a cipher, understanding the game’s hidden language, scanning QR codes, and all kinds of other weird things.

What’s so special about it?

There’s some crazy stuff in Fez, and if you’re up for playing along with a notepad in hand, you’ll likely find it to be a rewarding experience. Games like this are few and far between. It hearkens back to a day before helpful tutorials and map screens. Back when you had to get out some graph paper and draw your own diagrams to solve puzzles. During the week of release, the online gaming community was buzzing with theories and possible answers for the game’s many mysteries. It was sort of like an intellectual scavenger hunt, a communal race to the game’s hidden finish line. If you missed that, no worries, you can still give it a go on your own, or read through FAQs for clues and prompts to help you find the answers.

Five reasons to try Fez

1. It looks great. The pixel art in this game is fantastic. Every rotation reveals another fantastic 2D scene. There are also a number of nice visual flourishes that pay homage to classic games from the 8 bit days.

2. Clever platforming. Jumping around the environment is never very difficult in Fez, but it’s still a joy to do. The way the level changes depending on rotation leads to a lot of little “ah ha” platforming moments.

3. Soothing sound design. There’s a zen-like quality to the sound and music in Fez. From the calming to the creepy, every sound draws you in with a soothing subtlety.

4. Fun for the whole family. Fez is broken into two pretty different games. Before you get to the mysterious stuff, it’s just a charming puzzle platformer. It’s not especially hard, and to be honest, not all that entertaining if you play it in long stretches, but it’s fun enough if you’re looking for a laid back game full of pixelated eye candy. Those that want to dig deeper can, and will be rewarded for it. Because of a change in basic maneuverability, your second time through the game is very different.

5. The great mystery of Fez. I’ll be honest, I didn’t do any of this stuff. I have a baby and a puppy, and a day job, plus ongoing freelance work. I just don’t have the time to sit down with a notepad and stare at a game for hours on end. But just because I can’t do that stuff, doesn’t mean I don’t respect that it’s there. I think it’s really cool that Fez has so many mysteries hidden inside, waiting for the diligent gamer to find. It’s like The Da Vinci Code in a game.

You might like Fez if…

There aren’t a ton of games like Fez, but there are games that have parts like Fez. If you liked the charming presentation and puzzle platforming of Ilo Milo, you might like Fez—though the early puzzles aren’t near as challenging as what you’d find in Ilo Milo. If you couldn’t get enough of the esoteric hidden puzzles in Assassin’s Creed 2, you might be interested in hunting down the solutions to the crazy puzzles in Fez after you beat the game once.

Fez is available now on Xbox Live Arcade for $10 or 800 Microsoft points. Try it! I’ll be back this weekend with the last game in this trio of impressions: The Witcher 2.

What is it?

Trials Evolution is the sequel to Trials HD, but familiarity with the previous game isn’t required. In fact you’re better off skipping the first game entirely. Trials Evolution plays the same, but has a gentler learning curve, more variety, better level design, and a thriving online community. Trials Evolution is a fantastical take on the real world sport of motocross trials, which is sort of like parkour on a dirt bike. Your goal is to drive through insane courses filled with impossible obstacles, while attempting to stay upright on your bike.

What’s so special about it?

Trials utilizes a mostly realistic physics engine that gives you direct control of your rider and bike. While playing you get the sense that they are two distinct entities operating in the game world. The slightest change in rider position or throttle pressure can mean the difference between a perfect run and a bone shattering face plant. This is a game the rewards skillful play and punishes sloppiness.

Five Reasons to Try Trials

1. Fun tribute tracks. There are several tribute tracks scattered throughout the game that pay homage to XBLA hits like Limbo and Super Meat Boy and movies like Inception and Sin City.

2. Creative level design Aside from the tribute tracks there are dozens of creative tracks that are worth the price of admission alone. These tracks range from a crumbling dam to a medieval castle. I have a lot of favorites, but nothing beats the first time you speed through Titan Graveyard.

3. Ridiculous minigames. The silly skill games are a fun change of pace. There’s a wide variety of games to play, including a Marble Madness-like game, an explosion based game inspired by XBLA hit Splosion Man, a skiing minigame, even a game that puts you in pilot seat of a UFO.

4. Versatile level creator. If you’re in to making your own tracks or minigames, you’ll find that the pro editor is quite a capable tool. If you’re like me and don’t have time to make your own, you can enjoy the insane creations of the passionate community. Two weeks out and there’s already a first person shooter, a top down shoot-em-up, a jetpack joyride type game and much, much more.

5. Multiplayer for everyone. You can compete online in head to head races, go solo against the ghosts of the best players, or battle for dominance on each track with your friends. Trials is constantly making you aware of how you stack up to others, and it pushes you try a track one more time.

You might like Trials if…

Did you enjoy the punishing challenge and fast pace of Super Meat Boy? If so, Trials will scratch that masochistic itch (you crazy person you). Trials might have dirt bikes in it, but it’s not a racing game. This is a platformer on two wheels. A test of dexterity and skill every bit as challenging, infuriating and rewarding as Super Meat Boy.

Trials is available now on Xbox Live Arcade for $15 or 1200 Microsoft Points, try it! I’ll be back later this week with game number two, Fez.

Back in like, 1995, my parents bought a computer that had MS Paint on it. I spent hours and hours drawing pixelated pictures with that clunky old mouse. Of course I wasn’t going for a pixelated look then, I wanted them to look realistic. Computer generated imagery was all the rage—1995, it was the year of Toy Story! I had an entire drawer filled with floppy disks, each one packed with goofy pictures (I think 11 year old me called them masterpieces). Sadly that drawer of floppies was lost to time. Sure would love to see some of those pictures again. I remember being particularly proud of an epic portrait of Macho Man Randy Savage.

Anyway, I went back to pixel art for Gamespot.com’s Mass Effect pixel art contest. It was the perfect excuse to give it a go—I like Mass Effect, pixel art and winning stuff. I was super busy with other freelance artwork, so I didn’t get to spend as much time on it as I wanted, but I think it turned out all right.

I discovered while I worked on it that pixel art is a ton of fun. I’m really happy it’s making a bit of a resurgence (for reference see Fez and Sworcery). Making it hits a creative and nostalgic sweet spot. The only downside is that when you’re done, you can’t play it. Once I finished “de-making” Mass Effect into an old school 2D RPG, I was kind of bummed, I wanted it to be real.

I think it might be fun to de-make more games. Maybe I’ll do a whole de-make series and post it on my website. I might be able to squeeze in one or two a month with my other work (maybe, heh). Any de-make requests? Leave a comment of the game, and the genre you’d think it would fit in—like Uncharted might make a good 2D platformer or Call of Duty as a Contra-style shoot-em-up.

Oh yeah, if you have a Gamespot.com account, make sure to swing by here and give me a vote in the comments, mine is Image 2. Thanks!

Note: The Google Play Store is littered with me-too clones and bad running game rip offs. I played several in the genre, and these represent some of the best.

Stellar Escape

Stellar Escape puts you in the shoes of an astronaut fleeing an alien base. You’ll jump, slide, vault and climb around a variety of obstacles through a set of increasingly difficult levels. The exaggerated cartoony animation is superb, definitely my favorite thing about this game. The button layout is under the on-screen action, not on top, so your thumbs don’t get in the way. Though when things get hectic, it can be easy to hit the wrong one.
Price: Free
Micro-transactions? Yes, but only to upgrade to the full version, which unlocks a few dozen more levels.

Wind-Up Knight

Maybe the best looking game on the list, Wind-Up Knight is difficult but rewarding. Seriously, if you can play perfectly, the game rewards you with free gear and level packs. Of course you can pay to unlock levels and gear too. I aced the first set of ten and got the second set free, but I’m not sure I can do the others without losing my sanity. The game has a steady stream of ability unlocks—double jumping, shield guarding, rolling, etc.—to help mix things up and keep you on your toes. The only fault I can find with this excellent game is that the control buttons are a little on the small side.
Price: Free
Micro-transactions? Yes. You can purchase additional level sets as well as in-game points, which you can use to outfit your knight with better gear, e.g., a helmet that can take multiple hits.

Mr. Legs

This one is just plain weird. You play a strange person-like creature with extendable legs. The further you extend them, the faster you move. You raise and lower Mr. Legs to avoid birds and bombs and eat cherries. Simply tap the screen to start moving, and then slide up and down anywhere to extend and retract his legs. The unique art style, quirky music, and easy controls make this one worth playing.
Price: $0.99
Micro-transactions? No.

Temple Run

Temple Run has eaten up most of my mobile gaming time lately. It’s one of the few running games that isn’t from the side or played in landscape. You play an adventurer, dashing through ruins with a cursed idol, while strange monkey-like creatures chase you. The levels are randomly generated and feature a nice bit of variety. You tilt the phone side to side to lean your runner and collect coins littered about the world. Swipe up to jump, down to slide, and left or right to turn 90 degrees. This one has me hooked because of the achievement and upgrade system. Like many games, you can buy more in-game currency with real money, but in Temple Run, the upgrades are just low enough to make you think if you stick with it, you can make enough on your own. And so you try, and try, and try.
Price: Free
Micro-transactions? Yes. You can buy more coins to aid in the purchase of upgrades.

Winter Walk

This simple little game is absolutely delightful (picture at the top). As the name implies, it’s not about running. You play a charming British man in a top hat, out on his evening constitutional. Controls are simple, tap the screen to start him walking through the snow, tap and hold when the wind blows to make him clutch his top hat. The goal is to make it as far as possible without losing your hat. I love this game’s presentation. It’s simple and silly, and the pixel art visuals and retro 8-bit music are great. I also love the polite and pithy ponderings that pop-up as you walk. 
Price: Free
Micro-transactions? No.

Have you ever read a book, watched a show/movie or played a game (ahem…Mass Effect 3) and were hit something really weird at the end? Like something that doesn’t fit? Something that’s way too convenient; a strange, out-of-place person, character or circumstance that wraps the conflict up in one confusing swoop? Congratulations, you may have just come across a deus ex machina, one of the cheapest literary devices this side of the cliché.

I think TVtropes.com defines it best:

A Deus ex Machina is an outside force that solves a seemingly unsolvable problem in an extremely unlikely (and, usually, anticlimactic) way. If the secret documents are in Russian, one of the spies suddenly reveals that they learned the language. If the writers have just lost funding, a millionaire suddenly arrives, announces an interest in their movie, and offers all the finances they need to make it. If The Hero is dangling at the edge of a cliff with a villain stepping on his fingers, a flying robot suddenly appears to save him.

The term is Latin for god out of the machine and has its origins in ancient Greek theater. It refers to situations in which a crane (machine) was used to lower actors or statues playing a god or gods (deus) onto the stage to set things right, often near the end of the play. It has since come to be used as a general term for any event in which a seemingly fatal plot twist is resolved by an event never foreshadowed or set up.

Based on all the online vitriol surrounding the Mass Effect 3 ending, you’d think this was the first time gamers have come across this lazy storytelling tactic. But it’s everywhere:

From books: Tolkien wasn’t above it. Didn’t you think it was odd how many times giant talking eagles came to the rescue?

To TV shows: Every other episode of Doctor Who seems to have one:

“Oh no Doctor, earth is doomed.”

“No it’s not! I’ve got a supersonic earth-saving wiggly wobbleator!”

Movies: Watch any pre-Daniel Craig Bond film. Amazing how Q always gives Bond the exact gadget he needs to get out of a very specific situation later on. It’s never a general-use spy gadget. It’s a pocket snorkel that lets him breathe under water for five minutes, which is the precise amount of time he’ll be stuck in a shark tank later on.

And of course games: *UNCHARTED 3 SPOILER WARNING* Toward the end of Uncharted 3, Nathan Drake picks up a portable rocket launcher that looks like some kind of weird prototype. Minutes later this launcher miraculously fires two rockets under water, which result in the large-scale destruction of the massive underground facility the bad guys are occupying. Also, it saves Sully and closes the door on the mysterious container they were hauling out of the water. Convenient!

Look for it and you’ll find it everywhere. It’s annoying, aggravating and often completely unsatisfying. And yet, it does work in some places. If the story is funny, cool, or quirky enough, sometimes you can overlook it. It’s a gamble for the writer to take—you have to trust that the majority of your audience will swallow your silly twist. Shows like Futurama and 24 are both littered with deus ex machina’s. The former makes up for it with absurdist humor while the latter (mostly) makes up for it with Jack Bauer’s general badassery. Yes it’s incredibly stupid that Angelina Jolie’s character saves the dude in Wanted with one impossible bullet when he’s surrounded by gunned-up bad guys in a perfect circle. Stupid, but kind of awesome, and it fits with the rest of the absurd, fourth-wall-breaking vibe of the film, so it gets a pass. 

I was disappointed with Mass Effect 3’s ending just like everyone else, but to me, it wasn’t a petition-worthy offense. Maybe it’s because I write for a living, or because I consume a lot of stories, or because I knew it was coming, but the ending didn’t rile me up. I shook my head, uttered a long sigh, and then started a new game. They went for a silly slightly-literal deus ex machina, a god out of the machine. The Matrix trilogy tried the same thing, but it was worse there. Then again the Matrix trilogy took a turn south long before the ending. At least Mass Effect 3 is a fantastic game all the way up to those last 10 minutes.

Anyway, this wasn’t meant to be another blog about Mass Effect 3, the internet has enough of those. Just thought I’d highlight the narrative device they used, for those that don’t know. It’s actually in more places than you might think.

I think, most of the time when it appears in games, it’s through a cinematic or through level design (“Look at that, someone left a mounted turret near this enemy encampment”). Throwing in a gameplay-specific deus ex machina would be difficult, because it could require a new mechanic or extra development. Game developers are economical. Why create something the player only gets to use once?

That’s not to say it’s never been done. There are games that feature single-use items or mechanics that completely shift the tide of the battle or story. At the end of InFamous 2, Cole can pretty much fly. Would have been convenient to have that power earlier on.

Now, the fun part! Movies and shows are easy. What other games can you think of that had a deus ex machina?