Remember when we said we’d (probably) be back for a game of the year podcast? Well, we’re certainly no liars, so enjoy the last gasps of the InsaneBearcast as we discuss our favorite games from 2012. Spoilers: the ghost alien eats everybody at the end.

Share/Save

The day has come, friends: InsaneBear is officially shutting down. If you missed it and would like a more detailed explanation as to why your favorite source for video game discussion and criticism is going into permanent hibernation, feel free to check out this post. Other than that, I’d just like to thank everybody for their support over the past 45 months. Now I task you to keep carrying the fire, keep livin’ your dream, and keep this wonderful medium of ours in your heart.

Share/Save

Klungo Saves teh World

Well, this is it folks. The end of the line. And what better way to send out InsaneBear in style than with the final episode of Let’s Finish in which [spoilers!] we save the world! We’ve been attempting to finish Banjo-Kazooie Nuts & Bolts/save the world for so long that we decided we could play this final episode with the TV off. So no video this time around; just wonderful, wonderful audio. So sit back, close your eyes, and savor the last moments of Let’s Finish.

Share/Save

Score: Classic
Difficulty played on: Minimal (harder of two difficulty settings because it removes puzzle and dialogue tips)
Time to beat: Around 12 hours
Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC
Loved the most: Probably has the most diverse, fleshed out, human cast of characters I’ve ever seen in a game, and they all adapt dynamically to some of the hardest-hitting player choices ever seen in the medium.
Hated the most: The bare-bones mechanics of the Point-and-Click Adventure genre are serviceable (if not a little frustrating at times), but they really make you long for the potential of more organic interaction set in this riveting universe.

As you may know, this will be InsaneBear’s last review. At first I had planned on reviewing my most anticipated game of the year, Borderlands 2. But anticipation quickly turned to boredom and I have yet to beat Gearbox’s quirky kill-fest. Then I saw Amnesia: The Dark Descent on sale and thought that surely the horrific indie darling would provide the change of pace I wanted. Well, it is horrific, but more in the “gameplay systems so visible and predictable that all sense of tension is lost a third of the way through the game” sense. I was at a loss and ready to write one of the most scathing reviews I’ve ever published, but before I could finish it I happened upon this gift from the gaming gods. Having never watched the show or read the comics, I went in with no firm expectations and was astounded to find my faith in video games restored by a Point-and-Click Adventure. In fact, I would say that not only has The Walking Dead restored my faith in games, but it has actually given me hope for this medium having a brighter future. So I write this review now instead of finishing my critique of Amnesia because this is the game that you need to hear about, that I have a burning desire to tell you about. Please, go buy it.

I was over zombies by 2008. I really just don’t understand the obsession with them. They’re boring and encourage lazy game design. And I still think so. What’s wonderful about The Walking Dead is that it’s not really about zombies at all; it’s about people. And because each and every person in the game is written so believably, this zombie game is a more relatable and human experience than about 99% of the games I’ve ever played. But what really makes this game so special is its demonstration of how choice and interaction can truly elevate this medium above any other when said choice and interaction affect characters we care about. To put it simply, The Walking Dead exploited emotions I didn’t even know I had by making me feel like a parent. What other game can say that?

Things start out in a strange place for video games: the back of a police car. See, you play as Lee, a former university professor who has been convicted of a murder, and you’re on your way to your new 8X6 home. But as a conversation unfolds between you and your weathered old driver, ambiguity begins to seep into the cracks of Lee’s story and we’re left to decide whether our character is a cold-blooded killer or a victim of circumstance. But either way, you’re locked up in the back of a squad car. This brief intro really serves as a great analogy for the inescapable disaster shambling down the road and the moral uncertainties that come with it, because by the end of the very first episode your concept of how a “good” or “bad” man acts is challenged. And it is challenged again and again as you march toward some promised land of survival with a scared little girl by your side.

By time you escape the crashed squad car and meet said little girl hiding out in her tree house from the horrors of a zombified baby sitter, you’ll have mastered the simple mechanics of The Walking Dead. Like most Point-and-Click Adventure games, the core gameplay consists of your character entering a specific area and scouring the scene for clues to solve whatever puzzle is blocking your way. You’ll sneak around a zombie-infested parking lot and figure out a way to silently take them all out using nothing more than the objects you find laying around; you’ll search your group’s makeshift fortress for evidence of who’s been stealing vital supplies; at one point you’ll even find yourself in the pickle of needing a quarter in a post-apocalyptic world. Thankfully you’ll never be doing the same thing twice and all of the puzzles have logical explanations.

That said, The Walking Dead does run into the same problem of every other game in this genre when you spot solutions that should clearly work, but they aren’t the solution. This can be especially frustrating in the few bits where the developer-intended solution isn’t apparent due to necessary objects blending into their surroundings. To be fair, this isn’t an issue at all on the normal difficulty setting because all objects that you can interact with have icons displayed above them, but on Minimal mode, interaction icons only appear when you scroll over the appropriate object, but the activation vectors are so precise that you can easily miss them. This becomes a serious issue in Quick Time Events where you only have a couple of seconds to hit a zombie in a specific spot before it literally punches a hole through your gut and starts pulling intestines out like a clown trying to find the end of his handkerchief. I saw this hiccup as less of an annoyance than the normal difficulty setting’s inexplicable decision to alert you whenever your dialogue choices could have a lasting impact, so I dealt with it, but an auto-lock feature sure would have quelled the disconnect I often felt with my avatar.

I say avatar instead of character because there’s a very distinct difference. The avatar–the collection of pixels that are stylized to resemble the look of the graphic novel–can sometimes frustrate in its imprecision and limited set of actions. But the character–Lee, protector of Clementine–feels so human that your emotions are most certainly broken if you don’t connect with him. This connection is built up through a different kind of QTEs: dialogue. In a welcome change from the protagonists of the Mass Effect games and almost every other dialogue-driven title out there, your character won’t awkwardly shift his weight back and forth while you take eons to weigh the pros and cons of every word in your dialogue choices. Instead, The Walking Dead implements a visible timer that barely gives you enough time to read all of your choices before the characters around you take their own initiative. This simple addition to the superbly written and voiced dialogue does wonders to add tension, consequence, and realism to character interactions and I hope to see all character-centric titles adopt this mechanic in the future. When you only have a split second to decide who lives or dies, you act on instinct (or the instinct of the character you’re role-playing) and can actually find out some profound things about yourself.

You might think I’m being hyperbolic in saying that this game has anything profound to offer, but it does not deal in the realm of the light and dark side. Nearly every choice in Telltale’s masterpiece has no right answer and will leave you wondering if you made a good call. I lied, I stole, and I killed when I didn’t have to, and I’d do it all again to make the world a safer place for my little girl–a little girl that was a total stranger to me just weeks before. I tried avoiding these acts at all costs when Clementine was there to witness them because I didn’t want to see judgment in those big brown eyes, hear fear in that meek little voice, but I did what I had to when I had to, even if she didn’t like it. I did what a parent does.

Of course not every choice directly affects Clementine. In fact, most focus on the ragtag band of survivors that you travel with throughout the game’s five episodes. You’ll join arms with a wise old hobo named Chuck, a hard-boiled reporter with a hidden soft side, a fumbling idiot of an adolescent who comes of age before our eyes, and many more. But the most interesting people you come across are those with families, because they directly reflect Lee’s relationship with Clem. These people are more predictable than the loners that you’re never quite sure you can trust, but their mission to protect their own makes them so much more dangerous. My most trusted friend (despite his moderately racist comments toward my character) throughout The Walking Dead‘s harrowing experience was a husband and father by the name of Kenny, but the relationship is so much more interesting and dynamic than typical video game alliances because of the ever-present knowledge that he’d kill me to protect his son just as I’d kill him to protect Clementine. Trust and family are two of the biggest themes in this original adventure through Robert Kirkman’s universe, and the writers at Telltale never miss an opportunity to test what those things mean to you.

Granted, this is a linear narrative that always ends in the same place. Some of the people you’re with at the end might change, but a lot of the choices you make regarding other group members are a bit illusory. Thankfully it never feels cheap or forced when a choice you make is negated, because it’s always negated by another character’s actions; there’s only so much you can do to stop a guy from bashing someone’s skull in if he really has his heart set on it. What’s important is that you feel like it’s your story by the end and that the choices the developer makes are ballsy ones; there are moments where you will literally drop your jaw. And while the episodic structure is more of a vehicle to throw consistent characters into different scenarios (Episode 2 could be completely self-contained) than a cohesive, building story arc, the character development that happens along the way holds the plot threads together just enough to get you to the brilliant conclusion. Some people might be turned off by the lack of resolution in it, but for me, this game is all about the fatherly feelings Lee develops for Clem and the ending exploits that in a flat-out heart-wrenching marriage of gameplay and narrative.

If there’s one thing that I can really complain about with the first season of The Walking Dead, it’s that I can’t come up with an argument as to why it couldn’t be done with a choose-your-own-adventure book and a stop watch. Point-and-Click Adventure gameplay is by no means bad, but I think that it can be very limiting. There is so much fascination with Robert Kirkman’s desperate setting and the themes it explores, so much intrigue with the human characters that radiate love and hate and humor and insanity, so much potential in this beautifully realized game-world that I can’t help wanting to be even more immersed in it. The Walking Dead is by no means a perfect game, but it is an important game and I’ll go as far as to call it the defining Point-and-Click Adventure of the past decade. And with more toys and a bigger sandbox, this franchise could define the future of video games entirely.

Share/Save

This past weekend I had some special adventures with friends. You might say I had Kinect Adventures! Actually I will say that: I played Kinect Adventures! I also played Fruit Ninja, Kinect Sports, and one of the Dance Central games. Now I’m a young man in the best worst shape of my life, but I’m a young man nonetheless, and today’s the first day that my shoulders aren’t aching like an old man’s.

That’s right, folks, Microsoft’s Kinect will give you a workout. Granted, I think the shoulder pain has more to do with me getting a little overexcited with some of the punches I was throwing and swings I was taking than any kind of healthy exercise, but the point is that you’re going to be moving. And if you don’t have to sit out a round to take a breather at some point, then you’re not doing it right.

But is there anything inherently good about moving around and actively engaging in games? I mean, the objective of games isn’t to keep you in shape, so is it any better to jump in the air than sit on a couch when playing them? No. What matters is how fun that mode of engagement is. Kinect definitely has an advantage with its social focus (can we stop pretending online gaming is social?), because when you’re hanging with friends, making an ass of yourself for a level-closing snap-shot that can then be uploaded to the interwebz (only if you have XBL Gold, though…gotta make that money, right, Microsoft?) will always be way more fun than it reasonably should be. But would you ever want to play this thing alone? Absolutely not.

See, the “non-gamers” that we were with were having a blast shaking their booties around and just being generally silly. But every person in the room who actually plays games repeatedly complained about poor motion detection that often proved the difference in competitive games. For example, in a boxing game we played as part of Kinect Sports, I would deliver a hook to the body immediately followed by a straight-arm knockout blow…except that Kinect was too slow to pick up my second punch, simply leaving me exposed to a counter-attack. Then there’s the issue of precise movement often being far less effective than simply spinning as many flailing hands in front of the screen as possible. And these are not problems isolated to one game, but global issues that frequently popped up in a variety of games.

One of the better games was a simple soccer affair, and I have to believe it’s a direct result of kicking being a more deliberate motion that doesn’t really allow blind speed to trump precision. Then again, maybe it’s just because the Kinect was set up closer to our knees than our hands. But how many people have entertainment centers that would allow the system to be set up five feet in the air? All I know is that my foot movements were never misread, while hand movements weren’t detected on a semi-regular basis. And this highlights how important physical placement of the system is. Pretty much every game we played paused every few minutes to tell us we needed to back up, but unless you’ve got at least ten feet of space in front of your console, that can be difficult to do.

The bottom line is that while the sheer silliness of contorting your body in all manner of ways or pretending you have any business being in a dance off (terrible muzak and all!) is fun, this is not the elegant gaming experience for a more civilized age. Anybody who’s serious about gaming knows that speedy, precision control is paramount; if you’re ever thinking about the controls, that means there’s a disconnect between player and avatar, effectively destroying any sense of immersion. And call me old fashioned, but if we’re not escaping to virtual worlds and losing ourselves in them, then what’s the point of playing a video game? Kinect definitely has potential to be an awesome supplemental control that allows for more engaging contextual actions, but until Microsoft packs it in with every console and developers can tinker around with it without worrying about appealing to any specific demographic, then you should just save your money and go outside for some real adventures.

Share/Save

As previously stated, I had planned to do one final post for each of InsaneBear’s eight posting categories. But if you’ve seen the Grand Theft Auto V post immediately preceding this one, then you’ll notice that I’ve already done a “Reactions” post. Well, kids, just watch the video and you’ll understand why this had to be posted. Double Fine’s just that awesome, and I think that Amnesia Fortnight is exactly the kind of thing that lends them the credibility to go ask gamers for Kickstarter money. Here’s to the day when publishers are but a quaint memory. Sic semper tyrannis!

Share/Save

Okay, first of all, can we call agree that the musical selection for this trailer is the funkiest thing you’ve ever heard in a video game? Rockstar sure as hell knows how to make an impression, I’ll give ‘em that.

But onto the news. The three protagonists will be Michael, a retired east-coast bank robber with an itch to return to the game, Franklin, an up-and-comer trying to climb past the petty crime of ‘hood life, and Trevor, a crank-cooking country boy with an entrepreneurial spirit to match Tommy Vercetti’s and the sociopathic nature of the players who once controlled that forefather of mayhem. We’ll be able to switch between these three protagonists at any time, and the other two will go off and do things on their own when we relinquish control, making for some delicious intersection opportunities. What makes the chance of an organic run-in even tastier is that one of these three protagonists is actually an antagonist to the others. I’m guessing Trevor.

While the three playable characters will give Rockstar the opportunity to explore a greater variety of social circles and mission types, they’ll also exploit geographic differences as well. Reports are saying that GTA V‘s version of Los Santos will be bigger than the worlds of GTA: San Andreas, GTA IV, and Red Dead Redemption combined. Yeah…

Now I have to admit that I have my doubts about the “bigger is better” mindset. I find it hard to imagine a world this large being filled with interesting things to do, especially with the limitations of current generation hardware. How alive will the sprawling streets of Los Santos feel if you can only enter a select few buildings? Will a trek into the forests of the surrounding countryside feel like anything more than a virtual hike, and a repetitive one at that? Rockstar is saying that the vastness of the world is necessary for players to fully appreciate flight, which will evidently be a major focus in GTA V, but I’m just not willing to give the benefit of the doubt that flying will magically make an empty world feel more alive. I sincerely hope I’m proved wrong.

But if there’s one place Rockstar’s latest is making undeniable strides it’s in the mission structure. As you can see in the trailer above, GTA V is going to focus on set-pieces in a way that none of its predecessors have come close to doing. Rather than working toward one climatic job, “the game is structured around a series of five or six mega-heists which take place throughout the game, and which other missions lead up to.” It’s all part of an effort to make sure that players don’t feel like they’re constantly doing the same thing. If the actual “mega-heists” capture the Uncharted level of set-piece quality seen in the trailer, then this might be the first GTA where I remember more than three missions. And supplementing that sort of thrilling directed experience with the freedom of an open-world is a potential best-of-both-worlds formula.

There’s plenty more to learn about Grand Theft Auto V in this lengthy write-up from The Guardian (possible cameos from GTA IV characters, the introduction of a scored soundtrack), and surely a we can expect a steady bombardment of new details as we near the game’s Spring 2013 release. But what’s important to take from all of this is that Rockstar’s flagship franchise is back with a vengeance. As always, the writing is almost a lock to be industry-leading (that “let’s bounce” bit has me frothing at the chance to get into these characters’ lives), and more importantly, the Houser bros seem to be harvesting the best elements of all their past games and shaking them into this California King sized brew of gameplay. Will everything mix together cohesively without tasting watered down? Will Rockstar stop interrupting the game with the movies they’ve always wanted to write? Will there be jet-packs? All of these questions will be answered in time, but for now, Rockstar’s doing what they do best–getting people to talk about their game.

Share/Save

Surely we live in a blessed age.

Share/Save

Rather than leave you with the AAA’s run of the mill set-piece collections that are carefully engineered to get as many people digging into their wallets as possible (though this BioShock: Infinite trailer is pretty snazzy), I thought I’d make this final trailer one that might actually make you look into a game. You know, read about it. Remember when we used to do that because video games didn’t have $100 million marketing budgets that essentially ruin all the mystery a game might have held before we even play it? Well I do, and that nostalgic old feeling got me so excited that I just couldn’t settle on one trailer. So have seven instead!

Now the game you see in the above trailer is called Mak. What instantly stands out about it is the gorgeous visual design that’s clearly been inspired by Super Mario Galaxy. But rather than Nintendo’s eternal platform plumbing, the core gameplay in Mak revolves around using objects in your environment to build structures that can then be used to solve puzzles. The wonderful thing about it is that there is no “correct” thing to build. Creativity is the name of the game and the small development team fully expects players to devise solutions that they themselves never dreamed up. And with rocket power, force-fields, electricity, balloons, portals, and more all acting as potential modifiers, the possibilities are staggering. If you’re interested in hearing more about this quirky physics-based Puzzler then go ahead and read this in-depth preview from Edge. I know Verge Game Studio’s maiden project is on my radar!

But that’s not all that’s on this writer’s radar. Because it just so happens that big ole space-stations on the moon are pretty hard to hide from the bleepity-bloop machine. What I mean by that is that Routine, a permadeath First-Person-Horror title inspired by the likes of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alien, and Silent Running to name a few, is a pretty intriguing prospect. The game’s creator, Aaron Foster, is really stressing the tension and terror brought on by the possibility of “real” death in a game, and this Edge write-up gives some good incites into why he settled on such an uncommon approach to failure. Not a whole lot is known about how the game will play on a second to second basis, but if the trailer’s any indication, the atmosphere is certainly there.

But let’s say that getting your eyes clawed out by the cold steel of robots gone rouge is a little too scary for you. Then how about getting your head eaten off by a “moon bear king”? Seriously, it’s not as bad as it sounds! After all, Sony’s Puppeteer lets you try a few on for size, imbuing you with unique traits that help you to get through a variety of platforming scenarios while your virtual audience oohs and aahs with delight. If you want to read up on the game some more then this Edge article is a good start, but you shouldn’t really need to go any further than the breath-taking trailer and its imaginative puppet-show art style. Heck, I’ll even throw in a second trailer just for your viewing pleasure.

Then because I have a special soft spot in my heart for Horror games, we’ll return to that genre for a moment with Montas, a First-Person account of an accountant’s nightmarish existence. No, really. What really sparks my interest about this game is the fluidity of movement. Most Horror games handicap your motor capabilities to that of, well, a handicapped person. Montas, on the other hand, seems to border on primitive parkour, which I can only imagine will make for some thrilling chase sequences. Oh, and it will support the upcoming virtual reality “Occulus Rift” headset, which might actually have something to it with developers like Valve, id, and Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” Persson pledging support.

Speaking of fluid movement, how about that Cloudbuilt? Described as a sort of 3D take on old speed demons like Sonic and Mega Man, Cloudbuilt‘s breakneck platforming is coated in a lovely anime-style aesthetic that’s sure to set it apart. And frankly, any game that aims to make the very act of moving fun is worth a look in my eyes.

Lastly there’s Quadrilateral Cowboy, a game that really isn’t suited too well to the trailer format but sounds fascinating nonetheless. You probably should read this preview for the game after watching the above interview, because I’m just immensely tickled by a game that aims to teach the basic concepts of programming in a fun, empowering way. Plus, cyberpunk.

Okay, and because I really want to throw a wrench into the linear, violence-coaster mindset that AAA development is perpetuating, I’m going to throw in this bonus trailer for a 15 minute game called Thirty Flights of Loving. Check it out!

I hope that you’ll take the time to look into at least one of these inventive independent titles and when you find your expectations pleasantly subverted, you can say a word of thanks to InsaneBear’s rotting corpse gentle spirit and know that it is surfing that tasty digital wave all the way to Internet Heaven.

Share/Save

Share/Save