psycho-tetris

My last post referencing the synergy between Russian metal and upcoming RTS, Stalin vs. Martians, got me thinking about the role that music has played in my personal game history. I'm sure we all have that experience of particular albums becoming attached to certain periods in our lives. Whenever I think of my 2 year stint in Hawai'i, I can't help but hear Goodie Mob and Outkast playing in my head. While sound might not get encoded as deeply in our engrams as smell, it still has the capacity to evoke strong emotional memories.

In particular, I started thinking about how certain albums in my past got linked with particular video game experiences. There is no doubt that the right music can lift a mundane game experience into the stratosphere of the sublime - and there are few greater joys that having the visceral rush of a true "gaming moment" enhanced by the soundtrack of our lives. Here are a few of the pairings that I still recall with deepest joy and respect:

1991: Tetris and Psychocandy










Like hordes of other college freshmen, I got pretty addicted to Tetris. I mean, look at that awesome level back-drop! Back in '91, not everyone had a computer (weird, I know), so I used to steal time on my friend Pat's Mac whenever he was in class or napping. Pat's roommate, Moses, unknowingly exposed me to a brand new world of music. Moses had no particular interest in Tetris, as I recall, but he'd often blast obnoxious alt-rock and industrial while the rest of us gathered around Pat's computer, taking turns and competing for high scores. I'd never heard The Jesus and Mary Chain before, and at first, I hated the sound. But eventually, I discovered a profound ecstasy in matching oddly shaped blocks while listening to the droning vocals and guitar of the Reid brothers.

1998: Commando & The Stooges













I don't know exactly how this got started, but AF downloaded some emulators so that the house on Del Oro could play shit-tons of arcade classics. I know that IS got pretty obsessed with Time Pilot (hell, we all did) and BD showed amazing prowess with Donkey Kong. But nothing got us more pumped than playing Commando and listening to "1969." I mean, it felt like the two were designed for each other. Thinking about this gives me shivers.

1999: Half Life and Vegas













It's hard to talk about Half Life without getting all nostalgic. Let's just say: those were good days. It was Santa Barbara, living 2 blocks away from Leadbetter beach, and weekends were often spent moving back and forth between the ocean and AF's computer. Half Life was my first online gaming experience; it was all about Deathmatch, memorizing maps, right-clicking grenades, crowbar sneak attacks, gleeful laughter. Pop on a pair of headphones, crank up Crystal Method's Vegas, and run & kill. It sounds so juvenile, but I'd be grinning from ear to ear for hours at a time.

2000: Vigilante 8 and The Cult of Ray











This is a tough one, only because we played V8 so god damn much, listening to everything in our collection while doing so. Exile on Main Street, Los Angeles, New York Dolls, White Light/White Heat were on the hit parade. But there's a subtle synergy between shooting red missiles up Dave's ass and hearing "The Marsist" just get cranking. I won't lie to you: V8 was (is) a great game, on its own without support. But V8 + good tunes + friends = Heaven.


Well, you get the idea. Sad to say, I don't have these synergistic, orgasmic experiences much anymore. In part, I think, it's because I play a lot more PC games vs. consoles nowadays and the modern PC memory-sink makes it a bit difficult to play Itunes in the background. But that's not to say it doesn't happen still. Just recently, I started getting in deep with Dawn of War II, which is a pretty visceral experience on its own. Serendipitously, I discovered that DOWII supported by Queens of the Stone Age provides one hell of a rush. Zooming in close to watch your Dreadnaught wreak havoc on some Eldar while listening to "Better Living Through Chemistry" is pretty f'ing thrilling.

2009: Dawn of War II and Rated R

stalin vs. martians

Please watch me and bask in the glory of Russian metal band ANJ:



Thanks again to the blokes at RPS for alerting us peons to such awesomeness. Somehow, in a way that I do not fully comprehend as of yet, this video will be featured in upcoming absurdist real-time strategy game, Stalin vs. Martians. A quote (poorly translated to boot) from the "ideology" of the designers:

"Obviously, the main concept behind the game is pretty much clear if you can see its name. It just speaks for itself. The fact that such game exists is quite an event. It doesn't really matter what's behind the name or if the game is playable at all. The concept is enough. Simply makes your brain explode.

Meanwhile, we decided to move a little bit further than making up a bizarre concept and product's weird name. Stalin vs. Martians is also a good real-time strategy game. Probably one of the best in years and years. You can quote us on that."

And from the FAQ:

"Vopros: Can we play as Stalin himself?
Otvet: Yes, but not from the start. Stalin is our commander and he gives us orders. Closer to the grand finale he will appear on the battlefield as a playable unit - a huge colossus, five times higher than any other creature. Just like it was in the real life."

I desperately hope this is true.

steampunk star wars

For some reason, steampunk and Star Wars sound like they'd go together like peanut butter and chocolate. I suppose it's because both genres mix old world themes and ideals with new world technology. In the case of Star Wars, the throwback is further than Victorian era England - more like 12th century France. From a child's perspective, the overwhelming coolness of the Star Wars universe was based upon its success in melding Medieval fantasy (sword fights, princesses, magic) with futuristic sci-fi (lasers, spaceships, robots). Darth Vader was black knight, sorcerer, shaman, and mad scientist all in one. How can a 7 year old boy possibly resist?

Steampunk similarly melds 19th century style (petticoats and parsols) with alternate history mechanistic invention (clockwork robots). And thus perhaps it doesn't stretch the imagination much to re-paint the Star Wars universe in a steampunk veneer:

(by Eric Poulton)

I absolutely love this vision of Obi-wan Kenobi by Marcel Mercado...


Everyone's favorite bounty hunter, Boba Fett, as imagined by Bjorn Hurris:
Another by the same artist - this time, Yoda:


And finally, a series of Darth Vader reinventions:

(Eric Poulton; a clockwork Vader - love it!)

(Marcel Mercado)

(Alister Lockhart)

(Daniel Helzer; truly, more machine than man)

defense grid: the awakening

Ages ago, I blogged about the sublime and somewhat embarrassing joy of tower defense games. They are designed for casual distraction - quick, easy to pick-up & play, and cheap. There are dozens of free tower defense games you can find on the interweb, but I'll admit I haven't played any of them extensively except for that timeless classic, Desktop Tower Defense.

Tower defense games are all based on the same principles. You have a map with an entry point and an exit. Enemies, or "creeps," appear at the entry and make their way unintelligently (using simple deterministic rules) towards the exit point. As player, your job is to build defense towers that will destroy the creeps as they pass by. The more creeps that escape, the more "life" you lose, until the game ends. The strategy of tower defense comes in 1) placement of towers and 2) types of towers. You can place towers in such a way as to create a maze for the creeps, thus making their journey longer and giving you more opportunity to destroy them:


In addition, there are different tower types to build. Some may have a high rate-of-fire but only target one creep at a time, whereas others can damage large clusters of creeps but only occasionally. You get the idea.

Tower defense games are an amusing distraction but as a general rule, I typically require more meat in my gaming diet. Plus I'll admit to being somewhat of a graphics whore - I mean, I invested in this fucking Windoze PC and whammy-dine graphic card, I want to see some benefits.

Enter Defense Grid: the Awakening.


If we ignore the absurd colon-ized title, Defense Grid is the best thing to happen to tower defense games since... well, Desktop Tower Defense. Furthermore, I'd argue it's the penultimate tower defense experience. It's got 20 different maps to play on, each presenting different strategic challenges. It's got 15 different creeps to deal with, ranging from the simple test-drone...

... to devastating Juggernaut...


It's got 10 different tower types to play with and each can be upgraded twice:

• Gun: Versatile machine gun turret. Especially effective against shielded and flying enemies.
• Cannon: Long-range projectile weapon. Low rate of fire but heavy damage. Effective against strong and shielded enemies.
• Inferno: Flamethrower-based tower, with continuous rate-of-fire. Effective against large groups.
• Laser: Laser that inflicts damage over time. Effective against fast enemies and certain bosses.
  
• Tesla: Fires lightning bolts. Deals more damage the longer it is charged. Effective as a last line of defense at exits.
• Missile: Anti-air missile tower.
• Command: A tower that increases revenue per enemy killed and reveals stealth units within its radius.
• Temporal: A tower that emits energy pulses and dramatically slows enemies within its radius.
• Concussion: An area of effect weapon that fires explosive grenades. Effective against large groups.
• Meteor: A long-range tower that launches a superheated fireball at the enemy. Effective against large groups. 3rd-level upgrades of this baby are a thing to behold.
  

And it's got pizazz:

(crossfire!)

Defense Grid is a thoroughly visceral experience. The creeps come in waves and you'll typically need to defeat ~15 or so to progress to the next map. By the time you get to wave 15, you'll be in tower defense heaven: juggling tower builds & upgrades, shoring up weak spots in your defense, suddenly realizing you have nothing to defend against fliers, and basking in the multicolored glory of your impenetrable defense network.

The creeps in Defense Grid have a goal. They want your power cores. So their first stop on the map will be the power core station, they'll pick up as many as they can carry, and then they'll head for the exit. In order to build towers to prevent them from escaping, you'll need resources. You typically start each map with enough resources to build half-a-dozen simple towers, and you acquire more resources every time you destroy a creep. The fundamental challenge of the game is to make sure you keep building and upgrading towers as you collect resources to match the increasing difficulty of the waves. Pause too long to enjoy the scenery and things can get ugly fast.

Since screenshots don't really give you a feel for what this game is like, here's a brief trailer:



Defense Grid does so many things right, I have to give props to the designers. The maps are aesthetically pleasing and varied enough that you're always looking forward to what's next. Some maps tightly restrict your tower placement points, which challenges you to make every decision count. Some maps give you enormous freedom of where you can build towers and in these, the goal is always to create some sort of twisting maze-o'-doom for the creeps. For example, here's the map "Waste Disposal" - one of the most difficult in the game:

The creeps will take the shortest path to the power cores, so you need to cut off their movement with towers. But maps like Waste Disposal give the creeps more than one path to take, so the pressure will mount as they sneak by your defenses. You also have to worry about line-of-sight (towers placed in front of other towers will reduce their effectiveness), timing of upgrades (while upgrading, a tower doesn't fire), and creep decoys who draw your tower-fire while their more armored comrades rumble past and steal your cores. For such deterministic little bastards, the behavior of an entire wave can begin to appear strategic.

For the obsessive out there (and that's pretty much anyone who likes tower defense games), each map also comes with a number of "challenge modes." For example, you can try to earn silver and gold medals on each map by getting higher scores and ensuring that none of your power cores leaves the map. Some challenge modes limit you to only 10 towers total - some give you a set amount of resources at the beginning but that's it. I can't emphasize how much more depth and gameplay these modes give Defense Grid. It is thoroughly addictive trying to achieve a Gold Medal on every map at the hardest difficulty level. Fortunately, the designers included both a speed-up function and autosaved check-points which facilitate rapid trial-and-error in the pursuit of perfection.

I've poured dozens of hours into this game and enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. For a measly $20 on Steam, it's a bargain waiting to suck every last free moment of your time. Indulge.