GiR by GIR: Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor

Good news guys. We have a new feature as part of this whole turning-the-blog-into-a-real-website business that’s been popping up over the past couple of weeks. One of the goals for this ongoing ‘transformation’ business was to produce more content on a weekly basis. To accomplish this, and just because he loves talking about games, the GIR is officially joining the Care and Feeding of Nerds as a contributing author. His game reviews will now be published under the heading ‘GiR by GIR’ (the first GiR being an abbreviation of Games in Review), and his existing posts have been edited to carry this heading as well. He’ll formally introduce himself to you in a separate entry to be published in the very near future. I’ll still be writing game reviews and commentaries as well; think of this as just getting more gaming goodness for your browsing buck. More writing for us and more fun stuff to read for you! Everybody wins! I’ll let the GIR take it from here.

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor is Monolith Production’s newest take on gaming in Tolkien’s carefully crafted world and they have succeeded in setting a new standard for Open World adventure ARPGs, particularly those set in the realm of fantasy. This comes as a pleasant surprise, as I was a little wary heading into this title considering the quality of some of Monolith’s past titles, namely The Matrix Online and Tron 2.0. However, those missteps are a fairly long time gone and Monolith did manage some modest successes in the years since (like the FEAR franchise). It also helps that, as a pretty big fan of both books and films about Middle Earth, I’m already sold on the setting. That being said, I’m here to tell you though that even if you are a total stranger to these lands, you should still be giving strong consideration to picking up Shadow of Mordor because of the biggest trump card it brings to the table: the Nemesis System.

Before we get to that, since I'll will be spending the bulk of this review discussing it, let’s check off some basics. As noted, this is an open world along the lines of Grand Theft Auto, Watch Dogs, and Sleeping Dogs with the usual collectibles, side quests, and so on. This foundation is paired with typical ARPG combats that allow you to level up skills and gear. Incidentally, your initial set of equipment never changes (Bow, Sword, Dagger). However, Runes, a system of unlockable skills and abilities that you can add to gear, those base weapons are kept feeling fresh and powerful from the beginning to the end of the game. Stealth plays a considerable role and manifests in a manner similar to Assassin's Creed while combat tends to be combat-focused and will feel familiar to fans of the God of War and Batman’s Arkham franchises. If it seems like I’m glossing over some of these things it’s because the concept of open world ARPGs isn’t really new and, if that was all Shadow of Mordor had to offer, I wouldn’t have bothered reviewing it.  The crown Simarils, as it were (hey, I warned you I'm a Tolkien nerd) is the aforementioned Nemesis System.

The game itself is set apparently sometime between The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring. You play as Talion, a Ranger who guards the Black Gate. His position is overrun in the opening cinematic and *SPOILER ALERT* he dies along with his family and everyone else in the immediate vicinity only to become posthumously paired with a mysterious wraith. Are the purists done gnashing their teeth? I know it may sound absurd, but let’s not forget we’re here to play a game and so certain concessions have to be made plot-wise to wedge this bit of fun into such a well-established world.  I may be a fanboy but I’m also a gamer and, while I can’t deny Shadow suffers a bit in the lore department, if you can suspend your disbelief long enough to get to the top-quality gameplay I can promise you won’t be disappointed. That being said, Monolith is far from ignorant of the weight of the property they're working with. While the main story line acts to facilitate the core gameplay, the various side quests and collectibles are packed full of accurate bits of lore that relate and allude to the larger fiction itself. 

But I digress. With his new-found wraith BFF in tow, Talion sets out on a quest for revenge and this is where the game truly shines. As you make your way through the world it evolves and changes with or without you.  See, the Uruk-hai and goblins don’t just sit around waiting to be victims of Talion’s revenge, but have lives and goals all their own. They struggle for power, infamy, and glory amongst themselves. Each encounter you have with them and all adversaries you face will alter how the narrative progresses. I don’t simply mean that you if go left versus right you'll end up in either crags or open plains. Rather, each time you come in conflict with a particular Uruk if you die and fail he will remember and make sure you don’t forget, taunting you repeatedly. Maybe his vanquishing you resulted in his promotion and now has more powerful bodyguards protecting him the next time you cross blades. But what if HE was the one who didn’t survive, you ask?  Well then maybe the power vacuum you created, the resulting gap in the chain of command, has allowed some enterprising upstart get a promotion. This new commander recognizes the source of his good fortune and is grateful to you. Consequently, he can then be turned to your cause and against his own kind. These sorts of events aren’t entirely scripted. Some certainly are, but the vast majority seems to emerge out of simply wandering, exploring the map, and interacting with the NPCs you happen across. 

Perhaps an example from my own time harrying the Uruk forces will help illustrate. 

I somewhat casually engaged a patrol of Uruk in order to free some human slaves. Things were fine at first as I cleaved my way through the enemy ranks, but soon the noise of battle and the piles of corpses drew unwanted attention in the form of a pack of Caragors and additional Uruk patrols.  Things were quickly spiraling out of hand as the Caragors didn’t discriminate who they mauled and ranged units launched spears and arrows liberally into the melee with the mentality of, "Kill ‘em all and let Sauron sort em out". The damage was starting to add up and, as much as I hated to admit it, it was time to flee; discretion is the better part of valor and all that. There was just one small thing I had overlooked during my escape plan: the possibility that an Uruk Captain I thought I had killed earlier, Zathra the Savage, would chose that exact moment to show up and settle our old score (namely that I had dropped a laundry basket-sized wasp's nest on his head, cut off most of his face, shoved him into a fire pit, and left him for dead maybe 30 minutes prior). As we locked blades, he swore this time I’d be the one who lost his head, but it was in that moment that  previously unnamed Uruk scout would seize this opportunity to kill-steal and shot me in the back of the head. Zathra gets a promotion, nameless goon gets both a name and a promotion (to an even higher rank than Zathra), and I got to die.

The interesting thing here is that Zathra and I had a history and the Uruk Formerly known as No-Name just stole his glory – and the game accounted for it. From that point on Zathra has a new motivation borne from his frustration at home landing the killing blow on me and this blossomed into a power struggle between him and No-Name. While I haven’t done so yet, it seems that Zathra might be open to the idea of helping me overthrow No-Name so that he can take his rightful place as chief and, in turn, get the honor and glory of killing me himself at a later date. That was the moment where I realized Monolith might just have introduced a new system as revolutionary as the games whose mechanics it had so liberally been pulling from. This was a level of emergent gameplay and relationship-building I have never seen in an action adventure game before. This wasn’t a scripted story and this wasn’t a pre-generated plot based villain. As a result I in fact found myself extremely engaged in the developing and ongoing drama I had with each of these specific Uruk Captains than I was in the main quest line. That’s not to say the main story arc is bad, but, rather, is a testament to just how powerful these little personal dynamic story arcs are.

The game seems to have a pretty steep learning curve if you aren’t already familiar with things like Batman’s Arkham or Assassin's Creed style systems. Some folks have complained about the finicky parkour/wall climbing aspects, but these individuals can’t provide examples of where it’s been done better. The level of difficulty, combined with almost too little direction in such a massive sandbox, as well as lack of accessibility mechanics-wise may turn some folks off, but if you can stick it out there is mighty fun to be had here and heaping amounts of content. That last point is particularly refreshing considering how short some AAA titles can be these days. If you do find yourself having difficulty perhaps this beginner's guide, courtesy of Game Informer, will help.

Shadow of Mordor provides a solid bedrock on which I hope a full franchise and not just DLC can be built. I’m sure there are more stories that can be told about Middle Earth that aren’t rooted in the films and I would love to experience them using the formula Monolith has presented here. Again, I cannot stress enough how excellent the Nemesis System is. I strongly recommend picking this title up at your earliest opportunity.

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor was reviewed on a Windows PC using a gamepad controller.  It’s Rated M for Mature and is out now for PCs on Steam for $49.99 USD for the base game with optional season pass content for an additional $24.99 USD. The game is also available for Xbox One and PS4.

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Cosplay: Rage of the Red Lanterns

And just like that October is staring us in the face. Seriously, where did this year go? I know I say that a lot, but it’s continually astounding that each successive year seems to pass more quickly than the last. Just crazypants.

Anyhow, with the onset of October we begin to see the preparations for Halloween kick into high gear. Or, rather, actually seasonally appropriate gear since we’ve been seeing Halloween paraphernalia all over most retail outlets since mid-July. Bleh and fie on holiday creep. A couple years ago I described that, despite centering around costumes, Halloween does not hold any special appeal for me. At this point in the year I’m usually borderline burnt out on costume-making and see the holiday as more of an opportunity to eat all the noms and watch all the animated Halloween TV specials. This year I’ve been game to at least make a few new pieces, if only to indulge my addiction have fun and get practice with certain techniques that’ll hopefully be of use in other ventures.  

So for Halloween I’ve made a variant on the Mera costume I wore for Gen Con. The first version was standard/pre-New 52 Mera; the new iteration will be Mera as she was depicted during her brief tenure in the Red Lantern Corps during the Blackest Night arc. Mera’s Red Lantern garb is similar to what she’s usually drawn in, but has a decidedly more predatory feel. Her green scalesuit is swapped out for a red one and there are distinct alterations in her accessories.

To make the scalesuit I used this shiny fabric and the same basic pattern from the green suit. Besides the fabric, the one other change I made between the two suits is that I moved the zipper from the back to the front. Though doing so makes the suit easier to wear, I don’t think I’ll make that a fixture in any future catsuits as the suits tend to present better with the zipper hidden away.

The Red Lantern version of Mera’s suit has a few other features that her green suit does not, namely shoulder/wrist spikes and a stylized Red Lantern insignia that begins on her abdomen and extends up towards her shoulders. Both the wrist and shoulder spikes ended up being made from fabric (red Lycra and a plain white cotton respectively) that I shaped with some hot glue and floral wire. The spikes may end up being remade if this costume makes its way to a convention, but this quick-and-dirty method is perfectly fine for a Halloween party.

During her stint with the Red Lanterns, Mera wields a trident that features a large red stone in the center of the main crossbar. It’s different from the five-pronged weapon that Aquaman usually carries and, were this for a con, I’d have made a replica. However, since this is for Halloween I’m going to try and get some more use out of the trident I had commissioned for Gen Con. The poor trident was a little worse for wear after its outing in Indy. Between being handled for hours and making the thousand mile trip back home its paint has lost most of its luster and I’ve had to reinforce the two outermost prongs. A little Gorilla glue, a few passes with some 800 grit sandpaper, and this Krylon spray paint has given the trident new life.  

That leaves the crown and accessories. The shoes and earrings that saw use in the green suit Mera outing will get to make another appearance. The Red Lantern ring is this (borrowed from the GIRs collection). The crown, however, needed to be made from scratch as it’s quite different than the standard crown of the Queen of Atlantis. Per the comics, the headgear is broad tiara that simultaneously rests on the wearer’s hairline and also frames the face while coming to a point at mid-forehead. Foamstock (a.k.a. craft foam) is a good choice to attain this unorthodox shape while also being very lightweight.

Foamstock is one of those much-lauded crafting materials in the cosplay world, and for good reason. It’s cheap, lightweight, extremely pliable, and plays well with most other craftables. It’s also a member of a very large family of synthetic materials called thermoplastics. We’ve talked a bit about other types of thermoplastics earlier this year during the construction of the Transistor and, since hard acrylics like plexiglass and foamstock are plasticy cousins, some of the tactics we used to work with one will function similarly with the other. The biggest similarity between hard acrylics and foamstock is the thermo part of thermoplastic. Heat not only gives each of these synthetics their initial shape, but can be used to reconfigure them into something new. One of the more significant differences, however, is the amount of heat that you can safely expose each to. Foamstock has a much higher combustion point than hard acrylics and it responds more quickly to a heat source.

Why is that? Is it because there are air bubbles in the foam?

That’s a big part of the difference. Though there are air bubbles in both types of material, there are definitely more in foamstock than there are in any of the hard acrylics. Those bubbles (which are usually carbon dioxide that’s been forced into the plastic) are what make foam light and pliable. Correspondingly, those bubbles are the primary differentiator between the two major types of foamstock: open cell versus closed cell foam. Open cell foam is usually what you find sheets or rolls of in a craft store. It gets its name from the type of bubbles, or cells, inherent in the foam itself. They are ‘open’ in that they frequently merge or share ‘walls’ with one another, leaving very little actual plastic in the finished foam. The bubbles in closed cell foam, however, do not share walls or merge with one another; each bubble is completely self-contained within the plastic. This causes closed cell foam, like Sintra, to be much denser and often more expensive than its free-flowing sibling.

For the crown, I purchased a visor made from open cell foam from the bargain bin at Michael’s. Often craft stores will sell pre-made foamstock items that make for excellent foundations for costume pieces since these items have already been coaxed into a curve or other helpful shape. I removed the plastic backstrap from the visor, then folded it in half and traced an approximate shape of Mera’s crown onto it in pencil. For large cuts in the foam, it’s ok to use scissors (smaller or more intricate cuts tend to go more smoothly with an Exacto knife). After the initial cuts, I refined the shape with an Exacto knife, then cut out the small accent pieces for the crown from a sheet of slightly thicker foamstock. A quick pass with a heat gun allowed for additional shaping, particularly of the small triangle that drapes down onto the forehead. We’ll go over the specifics of how to use a heat gun with foam and other lightweight thermoplastics in a separate post.

Hot glue and foamstock get along swimmingly so it only took a little to affix the accent pieces. Once everything was situated I broke out the new ingredient: gesso. Gesso is an often acrylic liquid primer traditionally used to prep canvasses before an artist would begin to paint. Cosplayers often rave about gesso because it creates a smooth painting surface on porous things like foamstock or its thermoplastic cousin Worbla. Despite working with foamstock before, I’d never felt that my pieces were large or vital enough to warrant the purchase of a separate priming agent. However, as I now consider the options for making giant feathers, I wanted to give gesso a go, if only to see how well it worked and how much weight it would add to a piece.

The gesso worked brilliantly, taking mere minutes to apply and adding negligible weight to the crown itself (though we’ll have to see if that holds true for larger pieces). It cut down the number of coats of paint I needed to apply by about half while also making the reds vibrant and the golds lustrous and genuinely metallic. Furthermore, the gesso allowed for a finite degree of control over the texture of the piece, which will almost certainly come in handy in future projects.

A bit more hot glue to attach a pair of plastic combs to the undersides of the crown and it was done! Now with the costume part done all the focus can go towards making new, fun fall recipes for Halloween. Keep an eye out for those posts in the near future!

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GiR by GIR: Gauntlet

It seems that writing for the blog just might suit the GIR, because he’s back with another game review for us. Woot for his second entry and also for what seems to end of this year’s new video game drought! (Also, for more PC gaming goodness, please feel free to join our Steam Group)

Image courtesy of Arrowhead Games

The remake of the classic arcade game Gauntlet has finally arrived courtesy of Arrowhead Games Studios, the same folks behind the much beloved Magicka.  While I myself never played much of the original Gauntlet, despite its appearance in so many arcades, I did log plenty of hours on the N64 version: Gauntlet Legends.  For the uninitiated, the Gauntlet series follows a fairly simple formula typical of the hack'n'slash and beat'em-up genres. 1-4 Players chose from the classes available, in this edition the Warrior, Elf, Valkyrie, Wizard, and battle hordes of monsters while collecting loot inside a dungeon. 

Each of these heroes has a fairly distinct play style with a unique move set and control scheme.  Let’s look at them individually.

Image courtesy of Arrowhead Games

The Warrior -  He uses an axe that has a basic slash, a Bullrush to knock down groups of enemies (which can eventually be upgraded into a leap attack), a whirlwind cleave that grants limited invulnerability during execution, and a high damage but irritatingly precise overhead chop. 

The Elf - Has a rapid fire auto-attack that does low damage, an escape roll to weave through waves of onrushing attackers, a charged up high-damage skill shot, and a bomb he can plant for some AOE/crowd control. 

The Valkyrie - I've spent the majority of my playtime with this champion. She has a basic sword attack, a penetrating spear thrust which not only carries her through enemies but often drops them with a single hit(on normal in any case), and, best of all, a shield which blocks any projectile or normal attack. Eventually this last ability upgrades to not only block but reflect incoming projectiles and finally morphs into a Captain America-style shield throw(which can be wildly unpredictable when it ricochets). Throwing the shield disables the blocking function until it returns to you. 

The Wizard – Last, but certainly not least. This class will feel distinctly familiar to those who have played Magicka.  Each of your buttons represents an element; push two then the cast button to unleash effects as varied as chain lightning, ice beams, fireballs (lobbed for aoe or on a direct line for single target), and several more combinations.  While there aren't nearly as many combinations as you’d find in Magicka, there are more than enough to keep things from getting repetitive as you forge your path through the dungeons. 

Additionally, each of the heroes can unlock and purchase upgradeable relics which provide myriad effects such as a freezing nova, a rapid burst of speed, or even the ability to turn an enemy into a succulent turkey leg. Mmmm…turkey leg. You'll power these relics through the use of potions that you discover in the dungeon alongside the food you will inevitably shoot and gold you will inevitably loot. This brings us to an important point. The nicest new feature I've found so far is that, while hunting your food is a classic staple of the Gauntlet games, in its newest incarnation there are now masteries which provide benefits for accomplishing certain goals over the course of your playthrough. Yes, even shooting the food.  So while it might suck to lose out on that sweet, sweet meat when you desperately need it, do it often enough and you'll actually unlock a mastery so that destroying the food will grant you a portion of life back regardless. This is true for things like dying as well. In their effort to make you less afraid of failure, Arrowhead has found a way to soften the various blows enough to keep even the most reckless or clumsy of players having fun and engaged in the act of progressing through the adventure with plenty of objectives to chase.  That said, I'm not trying to imply the game is easy or made for casuals. Arrowhead included several levels of difficulty which will challenge even the most veteran players and reward them with Vanity gear to customize the look of their chosen champion.

But what about the actual gameplay? 

Honestly? There isn't a whole lot of variety in the types of monsters you face and with 3 Zones, 4 Doorways per zone, you're only looking at about 4-5 hours of playtime for a single run-through on normal. I think that Arrowhead expects most people to beat it once with each class or grind away at the higher difficulties, which isn't an unlikely outcome if you have a solid group of friends to tackle these with. Gauntlet has always been best with friends and the same remains true of its newest incarnation. The game, while technically possible on single-player, isn't really enjoyable on the easier difficulties. It's grueling slog through room after room of either kiting massive trains of guys hoping to take a few swipes here and there or just brute-forcing your way through in a war of attrition with food.  I'm sure some folks out there could manage it, but I found the solo experience to be pretty miserable. 

On the flip side, it's one of the best Co-Op experiences (You can play Co-op either local or online) I've had all year and I can easily see myself wanting to try out each class at least once.  Skillfully chaining special moves and herding the hordes of the baddies hunting you down in order to kill them in the most efficient way possible is a real blast and the 70/30 cooperative/competitive split is a hallmark for the Gauntlet franchise. Let me take a moment and explain for those again not familiar when I mention the 70/30 split.  While you are all working together to get through the dungeon alive, there's also a strong incentive for each player to be the one with the most gold at the end of each level.  Arrowhead has even added a fun little twist where each level has a special crown; kill the monster wearing it and it drops to the floor. The first player to snag it and put it on their head can try to wear it out of the level, but take a single hit and it goes flying for someone to snag the rebound. It's always an amusing moment when half the group is trying desperately to kill the spawning towers that generate monsters and the other half is just making a mad dash to collect all the gold in the room.  Or, better yet, when the jerk with the crown needs food badly and you manage to snipe it right before they can get to it. Hey maybe if you wanted the food so bad you should have let me get the crown!   

So all in all I'd say check it out, if not right away then for sure during one of Steam's many Sales. It's a good time if you can get at least one friend to tag along and great with a full party of 4.  Despite the relatively short run time the price is right at $20 and it's out on Steam now.

Assorted final thoughts:

- Some sort of gamepad controller (vs. your keyboard) is highly recommended. 

- If you do want to give it a shot solo I strongly recommend using the Warrior or Valkyrie. 

- It's got Steam Trading Cards and Achievements if that sort of thing matters to you.

- The Leaderboards seem to be broken or easily exploited so you’re best off not getting too invested in them.

Gauntlet is rated M for mature gamers ages 17 and up. This review was drafted using playtime with the Windows PC version of Gauntlet. The game is slated to be released on iOS and Linux later this year.

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This Week in Geekdom

It's really Sunday again? Well ok then. The past couple of weeks have been pretty busy here on the blog and hopefully you guys feel that any recent changes have been reasonably good ones. Last week I mentioned that the medium-to-long term goal for all these shenanigans is to turn the Care and Feeding of Nerds into something a bit more sophisticated, or at least more robust, than just my occasional digitized mutterings. Part of getting to that goal will be publishing more content, so we're hoping to get to the point where there are at least 2-3 posts a week in addition to this weekend wrap-up. Obviously, if any of our new features isn't working out, let us know on any of these. The idea is to make the site better, so let us know if we've gone astray. Fingers crossed though that our internet mad sciencing produces some goodness. But enough administrative chat; let's get down to the week in geekdom.

Movies/TV

In the bad-but-also-perhaps-good news category is this confirmation that a movie version of Y: The Last Man is officially dead.

It may have had its release date bumped back, but Jupiter Ascending is doing its best to prove that the delay is worthwhile with this new trailer. 

Apparently live TV musicals are going to be a thing. After last year's live production of the Sound of Music, Peter Pan will be getting similar treatment. Bonus: Christopher Walken will be Captain Hook.

As if Pride and Prejudice and Zombies didn't merit enough nerdy anticipation, it has been confirmed that Lena Headley, Charles Dance, and Matt Smith will be joining the cast.

Bryan Singer will be directing the third installment of the new X-Men movie franchise: X-Men: Apocalypse.

William Shatner will have a special cameo in the still-untitled third volume of the rebooted Star Trek series.

Comics

After decades of squabbling, Marvel and the estate of Jack Kirby have reached a settlement concerning the intellectual properties of the comic book legend. 

Games

On Tuesday Blizzard announced that, after seven years of development, that they would be cancelling their next-generation MMO Titan. When asked for a reason as to the cancellation, Blizzard responded that they, "couldn't find the fun." Right.

The amusing retelling of live-action Oregon Trail.

Halo 5: Guardians as retold in Minecraft.

Science/Technology

It's one of the most beloved features of the reading experience: a deep waft of book smell. But where does that storied smell come from? Here comes the science.

Researchers from Oxford University believe that the roasting process may be the culprit behind severe peanut allergies.

On Wednesday, Okayama University Hospital announced that it successfully completed a novel procedure that allowed a mother to donate segments of her lungs to her ailing son.

Wednesday also produced exciting new developments for India's space agency as their Mars Orbiter Mission (a.k.a. MOM) successfully entered the Red Planet's orbit.

Anthrax has a long-held reputation has a weaponizable bacterium. Now a group of MIT researchers hope to give the much-feared ailment a new, more positive role as a potential vector for chemotherapy drugs.

Robot butlers are not only becoming a reality, but may be available in a store near you in as little as one year's time.

It's only mere molecules in breadth, but a team from Penn State University believes that their research has produced in the strongest material in the world.

The latest edition of Physical Review Letters contains a description of what may be the closest we've come to producing significant amounts of energy from a fusion reaction.

The entire history of the universe in 10 run-on sentences.

However, there may be a challenge to that universal history. This alleged new theory posits that our universe may have been the offspring not of a Big Bang, but of a hyper-dimensional black hole.

Conversely, a physics professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has produced this research indicating that it is mathematically impossible for black holes to come into existence. Make up your minds people!

In 2006 the International Astronomical Union handed down one of the most controversial verdicts of our time: that Pluto was no longer a planet. Eight years later, the debate over Pluto's Fate has new life and may result in reclassification for the 'dwarf planet'. 

Poor unloved Pluto

The latest edition of Science features this research from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy that indicates the discovery of complex organic molecules in deep inter-stellar space.

What do the current crew of the International Space Station and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy have in common? The number 42.

Have you ever wanted to go to space? Perhaps pioneer the celestial bodies beyond our exosphere? Cyanide and Happiness has just the video for you!

If you're convinced that staying on Earth might be a good idea, then a team of chemists from the University of Pennsylvania have good news for you. The researchers claim that they have been able to observe and study the chemical reaction that keeps our atmosphere clean. 

A new DARPA program called Electrical Prescriptions, or ElectRx, aims to give participants in the program highly advanced healing abilities via microscopic implants. There's been no word on the construction of implants that will provide the bearer with adamantium claws.

 General Awesomesness/Feats of Nerdery

Members of the US Fox Valley Composite Squadron have captured the Guiness World Record for Highest Paper Airplane Flight (from a High Altitude Balloon). The paperboard aircraft bore a 14" (35.56 cm) wingspan and was able to cover a distance of 82 miles (131.97 km) after being released from a weather balloon.   

This is what happens when the good people behind Cirque de Soleil get their hands on some drones

Crowdfundables for Your Consideration

Woot for new feature! As the name suggests, every week we're going to provide brief descriptions for a handful of fun, innovative projects that are in the active crowdfunding phase and the corresponding links for you to find more information and/or offer your support. If you have a project that you'd like to bring to our attention, let us know.

First up is an unorthodox-looking game from the trio of minds behind Big Potato. Their project, Bucket of Doom, is a fast-paced, think-on-your-feet party game for terrible people in the vein of Cards Against Humanity. It aims to merge the absurdity of Cards with the storytelling aspects of other excellent party games like Snake Oil. There are only 9 days left on the Kickstarter, so don't delay if you want in on this fun!

That Which Sleeps has already surpassed its crowdfunding goal, but you may want to give this project a look anyhow. This offering by King Dinosaur Games bills itself as a re-imagining of the Black and White style god game. Players take on the role of a Cthulhu-esque Old One and wreak havoc on an unsuspecting populace all which avoiding being forcibly returned to their demonic slumber. The game will be available on all operating systems (yes, including Linux) and aims to be distributed through both Steam and the Humble Bundle Store. Check out their Kickstarter page for more details or vote here to get the game greenlighted on Steam.  

   

As always, best wishes for an excellent week ahead!

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GiR by GIR: Invisible Inc.

We've got a special guest post on our hands. After years of helping behind the scenes at the Care and Feeding of Nerds, the GIR is stepping out from the shadows and putting his thoughts to paper...er...html. In the following he tackles the Early Access incarnation of one of the most sought after demos of PAX East 2014: Invisible Inc. The game has already come a long way since its appearance at the BCEC, but is the Early Access worthwhile? Lets find out.

Invisible Inc., the latest offering from Klei Entertainment, may still be in Early Access but that doesn’t mean you should overlook it.  While the label of Early Access is applied more and more liberally every day, Klei has done it right with a substantial chunk of playable content right off the bat and reasonably frequent updates.  Personally, it was an easy decision to buy in and check it out as they are still operating off the good will garnered from previous excellent titles like Mark of the Ninja and I was pleased with what I found despite some obvious quirks which I chalk up to the Early Access aspect. 

Essentially a turn-based tactical espionage game, you are given control over a team of Operatives, each with their own specialties (Sneaking/Hacking/Etc.). Your goal is to Infiltrate, Hack, and Steal your way through the infrastructure of various corporations in order to gather enough resources to complete a penultimate mission given to you by the game’s narrator, the mysterious Central. Each safe or guard you successfully burgle yields secret files that can be used to level/power up your Operatives, granting them new abilities or enhancing existing ones.

To best, if not the simplest, way to describe Invisible Inc. is that it seems like Klei made a smoothie out several other games:

1 part art direction from Evil Genius

2 parts tactical grid & turn based systems from X-COM Enemy Unknown/Enemy Within

1 part stealth from Mark of the Ninja

1 part roguelike/Rogue-Lite from FTL

It's a combination that might make you raise an eyebrow at first but I have to say it tastes delicious.

The stylized comic art meshes superbly well with the tongue-in-cheek spy theme

At first there isn’t much roster variety with only 2 Agents at your disposal, but as you take on various missions via the World Map, you’ll be given opportunities to rescue more. Your new charges then become available for future operations, or at least until your run ends but we’ll come back to this point in a bit. 

Here is where we see the first flavors of X-COM.  On the global map, several locations of interest will pop up each indicating the following: The Corporation you are targeting, The Mission type you are undertaking, and the Degree of difficulty.   It’s important to review all your options because, as you’ll see the deeper we dive into this game, the fundamental mechanic at work here is every decision will have consequences, be they intended or not.  Target too many vaults to grab cash for upgrades and you might find yourself forced to use only 2 Operatives the whole time. Conversely, target too many Detention Facilities to free additional Operatives and find yourself perpetually broke with no money to make them powerful enough to survive.  There are even some apparently rare special missions that afforded an opportunity to steal prototype technology which provided unique and powerful benefits not only to your Operatives but the Incognita System itself.

 

The what system?  Right, so after selecting a mission your agents will be dumped into a procedurally generated series of rooms full of guards, safes, and computer terminals which represent the complex you’ve chosen to infiltrate.  Using an action-point-based system with a standard square grid you set about trying to complete your objectives without being caught and killed.

I've played roughly 6 hours and can confirm that no two map layouts I've encountered have been the same

The Incognita System, which had once been the title of the game, is the tool that allows you to hack the various security cameras, turrets, and safes you come across.  Doing this though requires a resource PWR(power...I see what you did there) which is obtained via hacking Terminals.  Once again we see the fundamental mechanic of Risk/Reward at work. Do I hack the camera to help track a guards movement, disable to turret to run down a hall or open a safe to get cash for upgrades?  So many choices, so little PWR, so little time. That’s the other thing constantly working against you in Invisible Inc. Once you've embarked on a mission a gauge in the upper right corner of the screen that represents the Security Forces’ awareness starts ticking up.  The longer you stay the more security cameras activate, and more guards flood the building to hunt you down.  It’s up to you how long you want to stay before you make a mad dash for the elevator that allows you to escape.  I myself was forced to cut my losses on more than one occasion and chose to fail a mission rather than throwing an Operative to the wolves, but be warned an Operative left behind stays behind! Unlike X-COM, there is no way to “recruit” new Operatives and, while you can revive someone during a mission with special items, once that specific mission ends, unless you got them to the elevator alive, they are gone from your roster until your next play through.

While this is primarily a stealth game in terms of you needing to hide behind cover objects to break line of sight, there ARE ways to combat the guards in the form of tasers, and one un-lockable operative even comes with a sniper rifle(with a clip size of 2).  The tasers don’t raise the alarm but only knock guards out for a limited number of turns, the rifle can kill but this often causes a rapid escalation in difficulty in terms of what the Security forces begin to deploy to stop you. The overwhelming force Security can bring to bear and the perma-death features ensure you will likely fail at some point and end up with a TPK.  But all is not lost!  As noted earlier in the review the game is meant to be Rogue-like or rogue-lite even in that you gain long term experience which unlocks new starting gear permanently in the form of Incognita functions or new Operatives.  You still only start with 2 but you can at least begin with say, the Sniper and the Safe Cracker as opposed to Generic Stealth and hacker. It's similar to how you would unlock different ship hulls in FTL. 

So in theory you should do a little better each run though you’re still primarily at the mercy of the procedurally generated layout.  If I’m honest I did find it frustrating that the very first mission labeled “Lightly Guarded” could be twice as difficult as an end game mission labeled “Very Secure” simply due to the layout offered up by the procedural generation, but hey if you've ever played ANY game with that as a feature you should know what you’re getting.

  

Bottom Line, TL/DR: Considering Klei's history of high quality AA titles I feel confident recommending this as a solid purchase. Per the Klei FAQ via the Steam Store Page the core set of content will be done in early 2015 at which point the current of $15.99 will increase to $19.99.

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The Blame Game

Sometimes even the best laid plans get waylaid by chaos. In this case, as with so many others that rile up the ranks of Geekdom, chaos has taken the form of an internet kerfuffle. Our regularly scheduled post will appear tomorrow so we can chat about the maelstrom stemming from this article: “Denise Dorman Asks – Is Cosplay Killing Comic Con?”

Image credit

Wait what? Where’d this come from? What kind of insane claim is this?

Hold up; let’s start at the beginning. This past Saturday, Ms. Dorman, wife of comic/sci-fi illustrator Dave Dorman, wrote this post and published it to her personal blog. Note the title she uses for her post and give it a quick comparison with the header that Bleeding Cool assigned to the same post when they cross-published it (with Ms. Dorman's permission) on their site two days later.

Oh, so Bleeding Cool just turned it into clickbait then? What’s the big deal?

Yes, Bleeding Cool crafted a provocative headline in the hopes of getting the post to go viral. Given how prevalent the article has become since Monday, it would seem that they were successful in that endeavor. However, though the title was designed to incense, it’s not as though that idea (that cosplayers have changed conventions for the worse) was conjured from the ether. Dorman’s essay is a first and also allegedly collective second-hand account of what it’s like to be an exhibitor at a comic book convention. Her contention is that, for the creative minds that comprise the foundation of these events, the act of attending and exhibiting is no longer a profitable venture. She cites her personal experience along with that of her husband at 2.5 events that took place earlier this year: Wizard World, San Diego Comic Con, and GrandCon (which was halfway over as of the time of her writing). At each of these, the Dormans either barely covered their expenses or, in the case of SDCC, lost money. Ms. Dorman attempts to shore up her case by drawing on testimonials from other creatives attending these conventions before drawing this conclusion:

I have slowly come realize that in this selfie-obsessed, Instagram Era, COSPLAY is the new focus of these conventions–seeing and being seen, like some giant masquerade party. Conventions are no longer shows about commerce, product launches, and celebrating the people who created this genre in the first place. [emphasis is Ms. Dorman’s]

She then deploys an anecdote about an “uber-famous artist who traveled all the way from Japan” who was allegedly summarily ignored for the duration of SDCC, “…while the cosplayers held up floor traffic and fans surround the cosplayers – rather than the famed industry household name – to pose for selfies.” [emphasis is again Ms. Dorman’s]

Then she launches into the following:

The hard-working artists and creators who are the very foundation of this industry…the reason there even is an industry….those creatives who have busted their asses and spent money they perhaps didn’t have to spare in order to be there exhibiting for–and accessible to–the fans…have been reduced to being the background wallpaper against which the cosplayers pose in their selfies. At what point do you start to wonder if–other than your faithful, loyal regulars who are like family and who find you every time–the general fandom population even gives a shit about the creators more than they care about their Instagram profiles? [emphasis is yet again Ms. Dorman’s]

Ms. Dorman’s frustrations are certainly understandable, no one likes to spend time and money on ventures that are not worthwhile, but her ire is at least partially misplaced. It is no secret that conventions have undergone many considerable changes within the past decade or so. We’ve talked before about how SDCC in particular has grown and morphed into something that barely resembles its earlier incarnations as the impetus for the con has shifted away from comics and towards general pop culture (usually in the form of visual media). The problem that Ms. Dorman describes is also neither limited to comic book conventions nor is it an issue that plagues only exhibitors. Back in February we discussed the repercussions of a convention experiencing rapid growth and the often hard choices that would-be attendees are left with in the face of rising costs and diminishing con resources. Just last week we covered the importance of helping new, independent conventions gain traction and become self-sufficient. In all likelihood, it’s an issue that many of Ms. Dorman’s readers could have readily related to had she kept the scope of her post focused on exhibitor experiences and the painful economics of convention attendance.

Instead, she blamed cosplayers.

When the chips were down in the height of what she has termed 'my fit of rage' her primal, gut-reaction instinct was to blame cosplayers.

She has since attempted to clarify this accusation in this follow-up post, claiming that, amongst other things, “I have friends who cosplay.” Related aside: has the ‘I can’t be a bigot; I have friends who are [insert group being denigrated here]’ line ever successfully convinced someone that the speaker isn’t prejudicial? Ok, so maybe her original post was written out of frustration; that frustration is real and widely held, but that doesn’t excuse the conclusions she so very publicly drew. You lose the right to claim that it's just mutterings on your personal blog when you claim to speak for an industry, then give your content over to re-bloggers in the hope of getting more attention for your cause.

The real issue isn’t the outburst itself, but the sentiments surrounding it. Ms. Dorman conflates egotistic, ungrateful, and ignorant attendees with cosplayers. It’s unfortunately a set of assumptions that cosplayers have had to deal with for ages now. The follow-up post attempts to delineate between cosplayers and the true object of Ms. Dorman’s ire without going so far as to actually term the latter as what we colloquially know them as: fake geeks.

It's the new breed of attendees who are there because someone said it's cool to be there; they are the ones completely unfamiliar with the comics industry. They are the ones who attend any hard-to-get-tickets event just to boast online. They are the people I take issue with.

What a novel argument you’ve crafted! *coughcough*

While it’s good that Ms. Dorman made something of an effort to extricate her foot from her mouth, that effort is nearly as inelegant as her original contention. In her words, “I think the emphasis on Cosplay is symptomatic of a shift in the larger Cons from being a commerce-driven event to being a social gathering-driven event.” She then goes on to blame fake geeks in so many words.

What's baffling is why Ms. Dorman is focusing on cosplay at all. She had an excellent example of the actual problem at hand in her first post when she mentioned that long-time exhibitor Mile High Comics was considering pulling out of SDCC after suffering a $10,000 USD loss at this year's convention (the final figure was a $6,000 USD loss). What she didn't do was take five minutes to read over her source material (or actually cite it correctly, or follow up on the successor posts by Mile High's president, Chuck Rozanski, despite the latter helpfully linking them to one another). Mr. Rozanski's three-part series about being an exhibitor at SDCC 2014 is a succinct and heartbreaking look at what it's like to be a comics retailer right now. He carefully lays out how volatile the industry is and how retailers/exhibitors are largely at the mercy of major publishing houses and convention associations. He employs various anecdotes from his 42 years of SDCC appearances and his emotional investment in the con experience is readily apparent, but there is nary a mention of attendees and certainly no blame being foisted their way.

Mr. Rozanski is almost certainly not alone. The GIR and I have heard similar complaints from artists, craftsmen, and game developers in our travels through various conventions. Their angst is rooted in the dual-pronged offensive of ever-increasing costs associated with exhibiting at a con and decreased awareness of price point foundations from attendees. It's not surprising that, after years of having free 2-day shipping and very low prices from big-box vendors, many people have become bottom-line focused and disconnected from what exactly goes into developing novel content and value associated with that process. You often see this in the FAQs on the websites of artisans were said professional will detail exactly why their wares are 'so expensive.' This is a problem that affects just about anyone in a creative profession and can be remedied by just taking a little time to learn about a vendor's craft then, if you so choose, cast a vote of confidence with your wallet.

Again, it's a very real issue that can definitely cause and foster frustration. It also has absolutely nothing to do with cosplayers. Ms. Dorman has the advantage of an industry insider's view, an advantage she's since squandered with her rants. It's a subject that merits discussion, especially if we're to preserve things like brick-and-mortar comic shops and friendly local game stores, but casting blame and alienating segments of your base demographic is not the way to go about generating awareness.  

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This Week in Geekdom

Happy weekend everyone! Whew, what an awesomely busy week. There was a vague mention of certain ventures a few days back and, though we're still in the very early stages, that basically translates into the medium-to-long term goal of building out this little blog into something more like a "real" website. Part of achieving that goal will be delivering more content and creating more interactive opportunities for you guys (woot for more free stuff), so be on the lookout for more features in the not-so-distant future! 

TV/Movies

The amusing Twitter war of one-upsmanship that has been ongoing between directors JJ Abrams and Zack Snyder was taken to a new level this week when Mr. Abrams released this footage of 'his' Millennium Falcon:

While we're in a Star Wars frame of mind, rumors about the forthcoming film abounded this week and included these potential cameos and this Obi-Wan Kenobi spinoff movie.

Nick Frost, he of Shaun of the Dead and The World's End fame, will be starring in this year's Dr. Who Christmas special.

Tywin Lannister may reach Game of Thrones audiences from beyond the grave.

It's official chimichanga aficionados. We'll be getting a Deadpool movie on February 12th, 2016.

Games

If you happen to both a fan of Minecraft and the owner of a Windows phone, you got quite a treat this week. Microsoft's Xbox chief Phil Spencer confirmed that the recently acquired and widely beloved game will be made available on the phones. He also hinted that bringing the game to other Windows moble devices, like the Surface, was not out of the realm of possibility.

Violent video games have long been held as an easy scapegoat for any number of social ills, particularly those affecting young people. However, a new study detailed in the latest edition of Psychology of Violence indicates that such games may actually have a variety of interpersonal benefits.

One intrepid Counter-Strike fan has turned the entirety of the indie exploration game Gone Home into a playable map in the popular first-person shooter.

Science/Technology

On Thursday, the Annals of Improbable Research and Harvard University handed out their annual Ig Nobel Prizes for distinguished but unorthodox scientific inquiry. This is a brief rundown of the winners and their fantastical projects (who knew that cured pork could stop nosebleeds?). 

Throughout this year, we've chatted about the purported discovery of the gravitational waves stemming from the origins of the universe. Though that study is now under review, the question remains: How does one see the origins of the universe?

GPU makers Nvidia came up with a novel way to promote the quality of their wares. On Thursday the company released these images of the Apollo 11 landing that had been re-created and rendered with Nvidia products. The images were created in an attempt to prove that the lunar landing did, in fact, occur.

Can you guess which of these is a real lunar landing image? (answer: the one on the right)

Lockheed Martin will be resurrecting defensive turrets as a features on their military grade aircraft and giving them a modern upgrade in the form of lasers.

The long, improbable, and filled-with-missteps history of Radio Shack.

Paul Martin, the Inspector General of NASA, issued a report this week concerning the agency's preparedness to deal with near-Earth objects that may prove hazardous to our continued survival as a planet. Mr. Martin is not pleased. However, the U.S. Air Force may be able to assist in this endeavor.

Beautiful and deadly; this is a close-up look at some of the most contagious and lethal pathogens known to humanity.

Speaking of threats to humanity, chemists at North Carolina State University have discovered a method that will cause liquid metal to be manipulated into specific forms. Their work bears a not insignificant resemblance to the T-1000.

General Awesomeness/Feats of Nerdery

Here's a reinvigorated martial art that would be great to see more of: longsword fighting.

They are Batman...all 542 of them.

Nathan Yau of Flowing Data has taken 21 pop songs and distilled each of them down to minimalist graphs and mathematical expressions. The results are both impressive and amusing.

It's no secret that people sometimes go to great lengths to spoil their beloved pets, but sometimes those efforts yield amazing results. Meet artist Ben Dror. He developed this 'car' for his pet fighting fish Jose.

As always, best wishes for an awesome week ahead!

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And the Winner is...

Number 3!

Congratulations and thank you to everyone who participated in our very first giveaway. I'm hoping that there will be more of these in not-so-distant future!

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