AnarchistRant: Games do Not Make People Killers

The question about if there is a corrupting influence of video games on players is one very close to our heart here at the GAC and it was entirely unsurprising that the absolutely heartbreaking recent tragedy in Newton CT is being capitalised on too prove that video games are responsible the actions of Adam Lanza.

I can't being myself to write the details of the tragedy but if for some impossible reason this has passed you buy you can find them here.

Firstly, case of perspective, this is a deeply heartbreaking tragedy, this is not an opportunity for attention seeking and initially we had no intention of commenting on it.  Unfortunately, as we had predicted the finger of blame is being pointed towards the gaming industry by those too afraid to look a little harder and find a convenient scapegoat.

We have already touched on the subject before and for that just check out this entry.  It will be an eventual aim of this project to publish a full and unbiased analysis of the impact of video games on people, taking into account the relevant studies and pointing out those that fail to support the conclusion they have reached but for now here is out view which will be expanded on in a Vlog on our YouTube channel.

The problem is that Adam Lanza was clearly a mentally ill young man, no sane person would murder their own mother and the 6/7 year old children in her care.  It is a tragedy of huge proportions as is any senseless loss of life.  The cause for his mental instability is unclear and his unhealthy response to violent entertainment may have acted as a catalyst for his imagination, fuelling his specific methodology for his crimes but the fault doesn't lay with that entertainment.  The reason I know this is because I can gleefully play Manhunt, Hitman, Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty or any other game that people who seek attention from the media chooses to pick and I have and would never harm another person except out of self defence, let alone murder my own mother and small children.  He was disconnected from reality and clearly lacked human empathy, that is the sign of someone who is mentally ill, not a gamer.  We, as gamers, understand that we are engaged in a fantasy and have no interest in acting out on them, no matter how cool the experience is.  It is certainly a fact that those of mental suffering with the kind of antisocial mental illness are drawn to extreme forms of entertainment.  This is the same argument that has been levelled at books, music and films and at every turn this has been shown not to be a corrupting influence, the obsession with it is however a potential cause for concern.  If your son or daughter is sitting in a dark room playing COD muttering "Die, die, die" with no sense of enjoying the experience (which would show they are aware they are wilfully engaging in fantasy) under their breath you don't blame the game they are playing if they do something terrible, you turn the power off to their room and take them to see a therapist immediately.  

Not all media is suitable for everyone, the very young and the mentally deranged can form an unhealthy connection with it and that is when you seek an intervention because there is something wrong, not with what they are reading/listening to/playing but with their mind.  They need help, taking the media away won't help them, they were damaged before and they will be damaged after.  

As a parent this may not be your fault, it may be something natural but it is your responsibility to know your child's mind and to do something about it because their mental health is on you and those who supply care to your children.  Sometimes you need to ask difficult questions and face unpleasant truths but every mass shooting of this type was avoidable, not by limiting the access of anything in particular (of course 0 guns means 0 shootings but the US is clearly not going to take things to that extent) but by identifying mental health problems and addressing them.

AnarchistRant: The Walking Dead Game Disc Release

"Don't forget your fan-base."

That should be an official rule for whatever medium you work in. Case in point: The Walking Dead for those of you who don't know the walking dead stated out as a comic book which is published by image comics. The book has earned image comics national renown and has become so popular that it became a TV series on AMC. The series has received praise both from critics and fans alike. Now that the Walking Dead has conquered TV and comics Image thought it'd try its hand at video games and the game has received many awards and is many a critic and fans game of the year. I applaud The walking dead for its ability to draw appeal from the different forms of entertainment it's a very hard thing to do and almost nearly impossible to achieve. To have such cross appeal means that Robert Kirkman and Image comics Truly has a brand that is very unique and special. However in its success it seems that both have forgotten who brought them to the dance: the fans.

I didn't have a "season pass" for The Walking Dead game instead I was hoping that Tall Tale games would release this game on disk. Call me crazy but i like having a physical disk in my hand and i don't have the money to go buy a new PS 3 with more memory so I have to manage my downloads carefully. Imagine my disappointment when i went to my local comic book store which also carries games and they said to me "We don't have The Walking Dead game its a gamestop exclusive." It got me thinking that Image forgot that it was comic book fans that made the Walking Dead the success that it is. True they gained new fans when they brought it to TV but these fans were encouraged by the tv show to go buy the book thereby increasing sales.

Image and Robert Kirkman should say this " We know we have a huge comic book fan-base lets do something special for them to show our appreciation for all their support." they could ship copies of the game bundled with the newest Walking Dead trade paperback and charge a special price for them both. Or if they really want to make something special print a walking dead omnibus complete with all 17 volumes of the trade paperback and bundle it with season 1 of the walking dead TV show and video game and make it a comic shop exclusive. It would go a long way to show the hardcore fans that they are appreciated.

My name is artisticgamez and this has been my pipebomb.

The Gaming Anarchist Collective and Being a Gaming Anarchist

Occasionally the question arises "why gaming anarchist? Isn't that a bit puerile and outdated punk rock behaviour?" It's an interesting one and it should really be clarified somewhere along with a more in depth description of what we are here for so here goes.

There was a lot of thought that went into the choice of name for this project, lots of ideas were banded around before we decided on the name of the group as the Gaming Anarchist Collective. Even so there is a chance that some assumptions can be made on it. This group doesn't ascribe to any specific party political ideal, members and contributors can and do have a wide spectrum of views. We are gamers, that's an easy one; we are a collective, we work together as a single entity; and we hold an anarchic view, this is where things can get sticky.

Anarchism, nothing to do with an over-the-hill, culturally irrelevant butter salesman

The meaning of anarchism has been deeply mismanaged by the punk movement and has almost turned it into a cultural irrelevance (personally I love punk music but that isn't the point, I also love metal but I don't think devil worship is a good idea).  It does not mean being a disruptive force for the sake of disruption alone.  It is the belief of the current state of affairs is wrong and seeking to change that according to a driving ethos, that ethos isn't fixed so what any given person or group that claims to be in any way anarchistic could be opposed to wildly different things, which I believe is where the confusion comes in.  Anarchism comes directly from the Greek "an" (no) and "arkhos" (leader) and reinforces the fact that this movement is intentionally faceless, not through cowardice but through necessity as well as our aims. We also refuse to accept leadership from the industry, they are facilitators and people we fund to entertain us. The gaming industry isn't a government, it is a business that produces a non-essential product, a product there is a huge market for, a market that is being poorly served by some people who stand on the shoulders of the originators of this industry and risk ruining it for everyone by taking advantage of ever increasing complexity. To give it a film analogy it is like comparing Charlie Chaplin to Adam Sandler.

Any name of a group unless it is a unique brand name (not ones that use twee respelling of real words) will have unavoidable connotations to pre-existing ideas or philosophies. If you consider the political philosophy that you could ascribe to our title the closest etymologically would be collectivist anarchism. Collectivist anarchism is a political doctrine that states that the means of production should be owned by the masses and people should benefit according to their labour (which diverges from Marxism which states all take according to need). Taken purely in the sense of a consumer capitalist culture that might initially sound ridiculous but there is a difference between a philosophy within a system and a desire for a certain system of government.  If you did some reading into the philosophy from the perspective of the narrow aims of this project it works out as a pretty good fit. The name as it is was selected organically from the meaning of the words not in order to ascribe to an ideal, there is no desire in this project to change our respective economic or political system. If that was the point this group certainly wouldn't have anything to do with gaming, instead we would have V masks on and be standing outside banks. Our aim is simple and achievable, to improve both the view of gamers and the health of the gaming industry.

It is easy for people who believe a company in a free market can do whatever they want and consumers should just accept it to label people who disagree as "commies", "lefties", "Marxists" etc and that is bullshit (people also do this to anti-prejudice movements when they ascribe the "far right" neo-Nazi groups as being opposed by extreme beret wearing ultra liberals). Demanding value for your money is the basis of capitalism, money has a value in terms of investment into a task either with labour or financial investment or the rarity of a commodity. If you have a job where you work for a salary you will know how much your time is worth according to the economy, it's stipulated in your contract.  We can either pay less for what we get or get higher quality for what we pay for, those are the only agreeable options.  This project is entirely devoted to the spending of disposable income and how much that can buy you and we believe everyone is paying too much and getting too little for it, it is as simple as that.

A overly simplistic meme but nicely sums up the absolute opposite of our aims and what some people may immediately think of

To stick with the political analogy the gaming industry is an entertainment medium, as such it is a non-essential commodity. The means of production, i.e. game development and production, are in the hands of those businesses that does the work but they have no value without the consumer. They exist and prosper by consensus and financial investment of their customers. A plough in the hands of a farmer who grows a crop that nobody wants is just scrap that could be better used by someone else to better effect.

The entire perspective is wrong, as with politics, the people shouldn't fear their government, a government should fear their people. In the same way the gaming community is in control, not the developers or the producers, some people desperately try to wrestle that from their benefactors, the gamers.

To put it into a graphic and fairly unpleasant metaphorical imagine the gaming industry as a large powerful person, let's call him Jim. You're an insignificant speck to Jim, a single cell organism, bacteria that lives in it's intestines, consuming whatever by-products he produces, there are lots of other little cells like you, some consuming different by-products of Jim's, some the same but ultimately there is no competition between these cells as there is more to consume and more space to exist that you could ever want. Jim doesn't care how his body works but it seems to, he does what he wants and everything is find in his world. If Jim changes his diet then the composition of his by-products will change, some of the bacteria is fine, consuming away oblivious to what is going on. There is other bacteria that can't consume anything from what Jim produces and increasing numbers of the cells keep dying off, not that Jim even notices or cares, he is doing fine. Eventually Jim's the by-products of Jim's metabolism has changed so much that entire populations are missing that used to co-habit quite happily for the benefit to all. You see the fact is that these aren't parasites, Jim can't just get rid of them, they have their own tiny by-products that in large enough numbers sustain Jim's existence. Individually they are fairly meaningless but together they keep Jim's body running, to what extent that is Jim really can't tell and without them before he knows it Jim suffers kidney failure, no more Jim.

Individually we are specs to those in the industry but we each generate the money that it needs to exist, it is a symbiotic relationship and not a parasitic one. There is a balance to be found, between cost and value, between piracy and slavish copyright enforcement, between popularism and banality, between Microsoft and Sony. Division creates profit for those who don't deserve it, as gamers we are one socio-economic group, we don't need to play the same things, be able to afford the same things, own the same platforms of be of the same skill level. We just want to be able to spend some time playing games if we want and we should want that same freedom for others should they wish.

There are some people who like to stand up as voices of public opinion and that is great but ultimately they need to balance their desire for their message and their continued recognition for their opinion and in the end they all either put on a tweed jacket and sell butter on TV or disappear into obscurity. We are happy to be unremembered, playing games is ultimately an unimportant thing, it's a fun way to pass the time but it isn't a way of life, it doesn't separate us from other people, it just serves as an opportunity to being some people together.

We intend to bring the power to the gamers because we are obscure, the person writing this will probably never be individually recognised for it because ultimately recognition doesn't matter. What matters is that anyone who joins us or supports us or is influenced by us want the same thing, a thriving video game entertainment industry. No leadership is needed, each person has their role to play and for some it is to talk, for others it is to listen, for some it is to organise and others to create, but if we act as one and stand together we will meet our goal.

Everyone will support different caused under this banner of positive change and a healthy industry. Some may focus on DRM; some on increased consumer rights (i.e. returning a game if you think it's rubbish) some it will be to fight the media's impression that all gamers as potential murders and rapists who are all men who live in their parent's basement; some to point out that variety and creativity is better than predictability; others to find a better price point for games (either through a healthy retail price or preventing DLC price gouging), the list goes on and on.

Ultimately it is about finding a balance we can all live with, nobody gets what they want all the time but as a community the gamers and the industry (most of which are gamers anyway) can find the point where the industry can grow in a sustained way by producing quality products. There are some simple things all paying consumers can all do without resorting to activism to be heard in a way that hits hard:

• Do not buy DLC that clearly should be part of the game and has been held back i.e. anything created during the main development cycle, by buying the game you should get these included in the retail release. 
• "Real endings" e.g. Azura's Wrath 
• Missing levels e.g. Azura's Wrath (again), Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Assassin's Creed 
• Game changing upgrades e.g. Street Fighter X Tekken (gems), Dragon's Dogma 
• Extra characters e.g. Street Fighter X Tekken (especially when it's clear the content is on disc, complete or not) 
• Anything that can be unlocked by playing the game 
• Do not buy games in stores that offer retailer exclusive DLC or download that content 
• Pre-order any game you are interested in (be cautious of non refundable deposits in stores) and be willing to cancel it immediately upon the news breaking about any bad practices or a weak demo 
• If a publisher has a history of releasing GOTY, complete, gold editions etc never buy the initial release, wait them out 
• Do not buy any game that contains user limiting DRM, that goes double for single player offline games 
• Do not pre-order digital content 
• Do not buy anything digitally that is the same price or more than physical media 
• Do not buy any competitive online game if you have reason to believe that any patching or balancing issues will not be addressed by patches but a new iteration e.g. any fighting game from Capcom 
• Do not buy any game that insists on agreeing to terms of service that damage your consumer rights, legal rights or change your ownership of the product into a revocable "licence" 
• Do not buy any game if the servers are cut for a previous title within 2 years of launch e.g. pretty much any online EA game 
• Do not buy any game that is published by a company that bans users for voicing opinions on the quality of a product 

If enough of us follow these practices the companies will feel it in their profits and will quickly adjust their marketing strategy, they want to prosper and will do what it takes to remain profitable. It takes having convictions, you don't need to consume anything in the gaming industry any terms of service of practices are there because we allow them to be there. There is one thing holding us back from this, excessive fan service for a developer, publisher or IP. Nobody HAS to buy any product in the gaming industry, it is an entertainment medium, this is an attitude that above all needs to change for the good of everyone. If you had to buy something on day one and were so excited to get it home and play the hell out if it I understand, we all do, we aren't dismissing your fan-hood or considering you as less than any other gamer but you are wrong, that shouldn't be the end of our conversation, it's the beginning.

If a production company has the rights to an IP you enjoy boycott it, even if it kills the IP off for good, something will come along to fill the hole left by nostalgia. If you love gaming or even just quite enjoy it you need, like with all things, a sense of proportion and discipline, without it the industry will soon reach saturation point where more and more people become excluded. Some people love that, that they have something that others don't, the problem with that attitude is firstly it's selfish and secondly it just goes to prove that you had to pay over the odds to get something, it's self defeating. We have already seen subscription plans for consoles being tested out in the US by Microsoft, if we don't pull the market back we will end up with a price plan like your mobile/cell phone or else be forced to pay outright for an inferior model. Even as I write this an article popped up saying there will potentially be two tiers of next generation box, a proper console and an "accessible, budget conscious machine for casual gamers." That isn't a good idea, it's an excuse to turn consoles further towards being the cost of a desktop PC which consoles have thrived as being the cheaper plug and play model that doesn't need upgrading until the next generation. Bit by bit what built this industry is being chipped away by people who don't understand their own market but do understand how to sell stuff to credulous people. The people who are sucking this industry dry rely on loyalty, you owe them none, they should be respectful to the people who buy their products.

Together we can make a difference.

AnarchistReview: Hitman: Absolution

About

Name: Hitman: Absolution 

Developer(s): IO Interactive

Publisher: Square Enix

Genre: Third person shooter, stealth

Players: 1

Online?: Yes (asynchronous) 

Platforms: PC, Playstation 3, Xbox 360

Platform used: Playstation 3

Review

It has been a long time since IO Interactive resurrected Agent 47 and unless you count the more polished version of Blood Money onto the Xbox 360 (and we don't) this is the first entry in the series to be made for this current console generation and with the impending launch of the next generation it will probably be the last.  Hitman was the IP that IO Interactive was built on and in many gamers their confidence in them may well have been shaken by the promising but flawed Kane & Lynch and it's ridiculously short and disappointing sequel.

It would be worth declaring an interest first of all, we are massive fans of the Hitman series.  Personally I have played every version and played them to death so in order to give people a reasonable idea of what to expect I will split this review into two parts (which we will be doing for all ongoing IPs in the future), for the series fan and for someone trying it out for the first time.

Alvin!!!!!!!!!!!!

Review for the fans:

First off here's an excuse to just stop reading, if you have been looking forward to a new Hitman game I don't think you will be disappointed.

The game takes the tried and tested formula of and adds a few modern twists that bring the series up to date.  The new graphics engine looks fantastic, the rag doll physics is less hilarious, the throwing objects for distractions is smoother, the NPC interactions are improved, the dark humour is still there (if a little diluted) and the shooting is more satisfying.

If you have been concerned by the Assassin's Creed style "Instinct Mode" then you can rest easy.  In the easier difficulties it works as a hint system, highlighting relevant NPCs, targets or objects as well as highlighting objectives and offering clues ("you could drug his coffee" for example).  In all but the hardest difficulty (which strips everything out including the HDD) the "Instinct Mode" allows you to avoid eye contact with NPCs who would be suspicious of that bald guy in Gary's clothes who just walked by.  This is a finite resource which regenerates in time, is regenerated by certain actions (i.e. subduing a guard and stashing his body) or not at all depending on your difficulty.

As you would expect the higher the level the guards become more numerous and more alert depending on the difficulty.  The different difficulty levels also follows on the tradition of changing the ability to save, the first three levels allow you to activate checkpoints that saves your progress (gone are the number of hard saves you can make) and the top two leave you on your own, as you would expect you are expected to play the level through in one run or not at all.

"Whoops, um, this officer? This is for gutting fish, here let me give you a closer look"

One enhancement to the mechanics cribbed directly from another Eidos IP Deus Ex: Human Revolution, namely the cover based stealth system, allowing you to stick to cover and quickly switch from one piece of cover to another which fits well, it shouldn't all be "knock out/kill someone, steal their clothes, hide the body, walk somewhere, rinse and repeat."

It's not all good news.  Depending on how you look at it the campaign is less of a Hitman game than previous instalments and more of a progressive narrative.  Previous games had you performing hit after hit with your signature arsenal leading up to an impending final boss, the story was always something of a secondary thing. *Minor Spoiler Alert* After the prologue you are on the run from the agency and you need to give up everything but your filament wire which may make you feel a bit cheated by the narrative, however there is something of a moment of cheer when you are reunited with your beloved Silverballers.  Also not every mission contains a hit, for example the second mission after the prologue is entirely an infiltration mission with the follow up being a long escape from the bungled hit.  It is clear that the logic behind this was that as a single mission it would be too challenging on the higher difficulties so early in the game but you can be forgiven for feeling pissed off at infiltrating the building, finding the targets room, crawling into a vent and the screen going black, mission over.  What?!?

"Hello? Police? There has been a terrible accident......"

The real joy of this game comes from the Contracts mode.  This gives you free reign to pick a level, target up to 3 NPCs as targets, set conditions, make the kill and send it off to your friends list and challenge them to match your skills.  This isn't just limited to your friends list, IO create their own as well as they have stated that they will pick the best public Contract challenges and make them accessible to everyone with full leaderboards.  Anybody who is a fan of the series remembers comparing their best run-throughs of certain maps with their friends, now you can go one better with what some have dubbed a deadly game of HORSE "I've just killed those three people with a single shot from a sniper rifle and escaped whilst dressed as a chicken, try topping that!"

I have heard some people going on about the basic character of 47 has been changed, that he has all of a sudden grown a conscience.  I'm not sure that's the case, I remember his church gardener days from Hitman 2.  Like all psychopathic people he is may appear cold to the outside but through the centre is an almost sickening streak of sentimentality for anything they identify themselves with most when the time comes to make a decision. In my opinion 47 has never been a hero and isn't a hero here.

Ultimately there is nothing here to put off a hardcore fan, everything I love about this series is retained and in most cases enhanced, although the single player campaign is more story at the expense of fun missions the Contracts mode makes up for that and gives this title the longevity to be played for years to come.

Review for the First Timers

If you have never played this series you may well be wondering what the fuss is all about.  Hitman was one of the first games to ever use rag doll physics back in 2000 and it's open level design was made the series a true evolution in gaming and joined Metal Gear Solid as iconic tactical action game.  It's hallmarks of being able to steal NPC costumes (and in later instalments stashing their bodies in containers), creative ways to kill your targets and lots of black humour stood it in good stead and all of these are retained in the original.

There are some things that this game has that flies in the face of what you might expect when measured against it's counterparts on the market.  The game is not designed to be forgiving, you should expect to reload games from the optional checkpoints (not available on the harder levels and there is no option to save) or from the very beginning often.  It is designed to be a stealth game not a flowing action narrative.  Sure, you can treat it as a cover based shooter but expect to have your ass kicked if you do and you won't experience any of the best the game has to offer.

Agent 47 - The cheerful life and soul of any party

The AI is more advanced than many stealth games, you will find yourself changing your costume often in order to move from one area to the next, I have seen reviews where they expressed frustration where they dressed up as say a police officer then complained that you were spotted by the other police when they were blending in.  I don't know what your initial reaction was to reading that but if it was "that's bullshit, in Assassin's Creed I can stand with monks and I am invisible" then take a second to think, these characters are designed to be on the look out for intruders, you waltz up dressed in the clothes that belong to someone they know, of course they will be suspicious whilst unrelated NPCs will ignore you.  As an example one of the early levels you have hotel guests, hotel maintenance, electrical contractors, hotel management, maids and mercenaries.  If you are a mercenary everyone in the hotel will treat you like the armed thug you are and let you walk about however you like, however come too close to another mercenary and they will know pretty quick that you have Steve's shirt on and he doesn't remember working with a bald guy and will get suspicious, if you don't get out his line of sight pretty quick he will follow you, blow your cover then try to catch you then sound the alarm (depending on the type of NPC they will start shooting).

The game is designed to be played tactically, you have multiple routes and multiple methods.  The difficulty levels are designed to ease you into the way of playing the game.  The "Instinct Mode" which feels a lot like Assassin's Creed's "Eagle Vision" or Batman's "Detective Mode", in the easier difficulties it will show you what you can interact with, where your target is and where the guards are and their path through the map, as you go up the difficulties the access and functions of this mode get disabled until all you have is the finite ability to turn your head away to avoid suspicious glances.  The game is also designed to be played over and over in different ways which is why the accumulated level bonuses are sometimes contradictory e.g. go through the whole mission in your suit and wear X costumes or multiple ways of dispatching your targets.

Keith Carradine plays the main antagonist (not pictured) clearly unconvinced by David's "suicide" he hires a look alike to go out for revenge with his gimp and blind sidekick

For multiplayer rather than going for PvP deathmatches they have developed a Contracts mode.  This allows you to pick any campaign mission, select up to three NPCs and execute them however you like, you can then set this up as a challenge to your friends to complete your challenge with the conditions you set.  It has a build in bullshit detector, by which I mean that you need to have completed the challenge yourself before you can post it so the only limit to the difficulty is your own ability.  As well as this there are some developer created challenges and they will be selecting the best from the community and providing them for public play with global leaderboards.

This game has a lot to offer but requires a little commitment to get used to the play style but when you can walk in, dispatch your target with everyone thinking there has been some kind of terrible accident you are playing the game the way it is designed to be played.  That said there are lots of ways in between, to achieve the Silent Assassin award in each mission you need to be a ghost who facilitates tragedy but that doesn't stop you being able to find a nice vantage point and shoot your target in the head and escape in the confusion or execute every guard you find.  All of these are ways to play but ultimately the game rewards you for playing like a cold professional killer not a maniac, collateral damage gets in the way of getting your job done.

Latex clad murderous nuns because.........um..........no we don't really know either but we do know it has and will continue to piss some people off

Ultimately this isn't a traditional shooting game nor is it at all like Assassin's Creed which people will be comparing it to.  The missions are fairly short puzzles with multiple solutions and you are encouraged to take your time and experiment, the excitement comes from the tension not the violence.  If you are looking for a fast paced action driven game that you can blow through and move on to the next one you should look elsewhere, otherwise this title belongs in your collection.

DLC, Online Passes and DRM

There is no DRM on this title, which is always good news.  There is an online pass which had stuck in our throat until they relented and made it free for all to download which earned this title GAA status.  There are a number of fairly inexpensive outfits and weapons that were available as pre-orders from different retailers.  This is a real negative for us, the idea of store specific pre-order DLC is really irritating, it is a cheap commercial trick to force you to use a certain retailer and also to force pre-order over day 1 or later purchases.  Thankfully unlike the Resident Evil 6 different challenge maps or the Robin DLC for Arkham City these costumes are fairy innocuous and don't really affect the game in any meaningful way and has been overshadowed to us by essentially removing the online pass by making it free to all.

Summary

Pros

• Stunning visuals
• Great music and voice-overs
• Huge replay value
• Wide range of gameplay options from casual to hardcore
• Creative and satisfying online mode
• Murdering a gangster with Fugu poisoned cocaine
• Free online pass
• I almost forgot Kane and Lynch 2 existed

Cons

• Campaign too heavy in story at a cost of entertaining assassination levels (it feels a bit like you start part-way into the game, especially if new to the series)
• Missed opportunity to include older missions into Contracts mode (A New Life or A Dance With the Devil from 2006's Blood Money would be favourites)
• Huge numbers of NPCs and graphical details limits level maps to smaller than previous titles
• Latex-clad killer nuns and some of the other darkly comic overtones are a shade too subtle and could be misrepresented as misogynistic
• Retailer specific DLC
• Having to wait 6 years for it

Overall: Great, an essential buy for anyone who is a fan of the IP or the stealth action genre and a strong recommendation to anyone else.  If undecided as the online pass is free you might want to consider renting first to get a feel for how you like our murderous baldy clone friend.

GAA - Hitman Absolution

Hitman Absolution has just done the impossible, going from pissing me off to making me damn happy.  The friendly courier has just delivered my copy of Hitman Absolution, after opening the box I found the bane of my life, an online pass.  For those of you who don't know the online content of the game is a mode where users can create their own hits from the games existing levels and post them online, sounds like loads of fun and as someone who has played the previous versions of the game over and over having the opportunity to vary the already varied levels in potentially thousands of different ways.

The game was shaping up to be fantastic value for your money if this kind of experience if your thing, it's certainly mine and that code potentially changed my feelings on everything.  Minutes after Tweeting this I found this short article that has stated that Square Enix has made a sensible decision.  After shipping the games complete with the online pass codes someone in the organisation has considered the current consumer backlash against this kind of penalisation against used games.  They have since decided to remove the cost to the online pass so it is available for obtain at no cost.

Congratulations Square Enix, for that you have earned yourself the second ever GAA status, I hope this decision is one you stick to for your future releases.

Did Square Enix chicken out on it's online pass?  The answer is irrelevant, ultimately  they made the right choice

Announcing the first GAA - Anarchy Reigns

After announcing our MAC and GAA status a week ago we have kept an eye out for any titles or companies who have demonstrated any of the behaviours since that warranted being out first entry and we have one and we are very proud to announce it is for positive practices (don't worry we will be compiling a shit list and roll of honour from the last few months but we wanted to find an inaugural entry).

The Gaming Anarchist Collective's first GAA title and ironically it's titled - Anarchy Reigns

We have been keeping a fairly interested eye on the western release of Platinum Games' title Anarchy Reigns.  An online beat-em up that has 16 player brawls (yes 16!).  The concept is fairly simple, larger than life characters, many reappearing from Mad World  beating the hell out each other in a series of maps and game modes inspired from first person shooter games .  Notoriously punishing to first time player but contains no advantages to progression (no enhanced damage or health or unlocked moves) besides perfecting your technique which is something that Street Fighter X Tekken got wrong (Capcom, shove those gems up your ass).

There are plenty of reasons before today we were cautious of this title, the combat isn't as fluid as titles like Bayonetta (who appears as a DLC character available from the launch special edition), the offline campaign is laughably short (but then this is designed for online PvPvPvPvPvPvPvPvPvPvPvPvPvPvPvP), no attack cancel, inescapable throw animations and the difficulty involved in delivering a good beat-down when one of your opponents can come along and smack you in the back of the head.

With a release date only a couple of days before of the Ninja Theory take on Devil May Cry which is possibly the most polarising title in the gaming community I have ever known the publishers Sega needed to do something to make enough noise for people to take notice of this fairly obscure title (when you consider their other Q1 2013 release is Metal Gear Rising: Revengence, which from our hands on play of a couple of weeks ago, oh my God, this is the action game people are waiting for) dropping a month after.

The question is what did Sega do to promote their game? Announce a huge amount of DLC?  Insult anyone who has criticised the game? Create cheap publicity through some stunt? No, they slashed the price from the lowest I have previously found of £37.85 down to an RRP of £19.99.

That's right, £19.99, less than you would pay for a second hand copy of the anniversary release of Halo in Game.  That offers terrific value for money and even if, once we get our hands on it, we aren't blown away by the game we are proud to hold this title up and say it is the first holder of the GAA status.  I truly hope this title is a success for both Sega and Platinum Games so that the industry can sit up and take note.  Just charging a standard premium price for a game, irrespective of longevity or quality is an insult to your customers.

EDIT

As an update to this story our favourite online retailer Shopto.net is offering this game at the even lower price of £17.86.  Available for preorder here

EDIT 2

As another update amazon.co.uk are going one step further and offering the game at £15.32

AnarchistRant: Halo to the Christmas hype monster

The release of Halo 4 along with Assassin's Creed II signals the rush towards the Christmas season of huge blockbuster releases.  If you are like some of us and are a day one purchasers you can expect your wallet to take quite the bashing this month.  Not including the re-release of already successful products like Mass Effect Trilogy and Saint's Row 3, Batman Arkham City (the latter two represent better value than the original and make for essential purchases for those who have interest and haven't already picked up) there are some huge releases this month. Most of the key high profile releases with the biggest followings are listed below (by release on the first platform):

2nd November

Assassin's Creed III

Need for Speed: Most Wanted

WWE '13

Football Manager 2013

6th November

Halo 4

13th November

Call of Duty: Black Ops II

20th November

Hitman: Absolution

23rd November

Lego The Lord of the Rings

30th November

Wii U console + launch titles

Far Cry 3

Zone of the Enders HD collection

This doesn't take into account the numerous cash in games like Little Big Planet Karting, Avengers Kinect, Zumba, Andrew Lloyd Webber sing & dance along which will no doubt be average to poor which are purely designed to take advantage of well meaning Christmas shopping.

With the average price of these games around £40 in the UK if you wanted to get your hands on the big games of the season you would be looking at a whopping £400 this month not including the new Nintendo console (£250 for the most basic model, not a bad price to be fair for a new console launch with the premium bundle packs  with one game coming in at £330).  Ouch, unless you have a health bank account or family happy to spend a fortune on you during the holiday season people are going to have to economise.  That doesn't even cover some of the big Christmas gift games like Fifa.

With advertising for some of these titles beating you about the eyes and ears all day every day (Halo, Assassin's Creed and Call of Duty being the key offenders who have been pushing their new title for what seems like forever) so you can be forgiven for being swept up in the Hype.  

Most of these games aren't an unknown quantity, if you are fans of the franchise or genre you are unlikely to be disappointed with the products but do you NEED them immediately?  For some of you the answer will be a resounding yes, at least for a few, highly competitive on-line players of games like COD will feel a desperate need to get on the leaderboards early otherwise they will be forever be left behind.  

Taking the example of COD the question is with Modern Warfare, World at War, Modern Warfare 2, Black Ops and Modern Warfare 3 still swelling with 30,000,000 players of the franchise is it likely that you will either be the global number 1 or be short of players in the earlier iterations? Even someone who has every COD released to date (and I do) it is fair to say they have not significantly changed to the point of making the earlier versions redundant in terms of fun or visuals.  Not to mention that this current model has done a great job of turning a great single player experience into little more than a few hours worth of tutorial for multiplayer and none of the production values or voice talent will convince me otherwise.  I can say for experience that if I look at the accounts of people of my friends list very few of them even touch the single player campaign in the first week or release where I personally experience the narrative of the story, feel short-changed with the length and depth of the experience so play multiplayer to get some more life out of the title only to get my teeth kicked in by the online community.

The fact of the matter is that some of these games are shown to be or are sure to be good, in some cases really good, although reviews aren't necessarily anything to go by you are unlikely to see anything below an 80% average for any of them.  Not bad at all, a rating like that pretty much promises you a game that will at least be enjoyable to most gamers whether you like the genre or not.  As of right now Assassin's Creed III is sitting at around 85%, Halo 4 at 87%, Need for Speed at 84%, FIFA 2013 89% and WWE '13 at 80%.*

If you are the sort of person who only gets games at Christmas or only want the absolute best here are a list of games that have been released in 2012 that have an average review score* as high or higher than the new high profile Christmas release titles mentioned above.

• Journey
• Mass Effect 3
• Xenoblade Chronicles
• Guild Wars 2
• Trails Evolution
• Mark of the Ninja
• Borderlands 2
• Dishonored
• Xcom: Enemy Unknown
• The Walking Dead
• Max Payne 3
• Darksiders II
• Sleeping Dogs

These games are hardly hidden gems and some of them (*cough cough* Mass Effect & Borderlands) have some highly questionable DLC practices but it might be worth considering that for those of you that don't spend much money on their gaming collection that there are always alternatives to the big titles of the minute. Not to mention that with the exception of Hitman, Zone of the Enders and Far Cry these holiday season launch games are sequels of games that were released in the last 12 months.  

Just look at Batman: Arkham City, as great a game as it is and as much as I love it if I knew that waiting a year would give me the game for a fraction of the price with all extra paid content included it would have been bumped down my list and I would be picking it up now instead.

At the end of the day shop around, do your research, have patience and be confident that any game publisher needs us far more than we need them.

*review aggregate obtained from gamerankings.com

Introducing: MAC & GAA

In line with the Gaming Anarchist Collective's mission statement we are introducing out new MAC (Make A Change) and GAA (Gaming Anarchist Approved) status for new release games and publishers.  In response to our general infuriation we want to maintain a list of games that are on top of our list of annoyance and praise.  

In the case of the MAC games don't have to be a huge step forward in poor practices but they will reflect a warning from the Gaming Anarchist Collective that these need to change, this may be for any infringements of Our Ten Commandments for the gaming industry.  The specific reasons will be stated.

For the GAA games there are strict criteria, they must have not broken the ten commandments and must also be a decent game, this isn't a reflection of true gaming greatness but it will say that in the opinion of the Collective that if this game interests in you that you won't be getting shafted for it.

Some of these choices may feel unreasonable to gamers so feel free to comment, all thoughts are considered. We want to have something that draws a line in the sand and the contributors of this project will use their own personal power to not support a product with this status and we would encourage you to do the same.

This does not reflect on the quality of the product, some of these games may be incredible but ultimately they are just games, we will not spend money on even a ground breaking product if they come with poor business practices.

We would be willing to consider any nominations for these lists

AnarchistRant: What Dishonored shows about the real face of humanity

After committing some serious time to Dishonored over the last few days I have noticed an interesting trend from the critics and supporters of the game alike that shows something of the true nature of gamers.  Much like Deus Ex, which it is hard not to see the parallels to (being as it is at it's more basic level a very similar game with a theme swap from cyberpunk to steampunk and swapping sci-fi tech for mystical powers) most of the talk seems to be about the option to not kill.

This is something contrary to the media and the non-gaming public's views on gamers, they always go back to talking to the infamous COD: Modern Warfare 2's "No Russian" mission (where you are undercover in a terrorist group as they, and you if you choose, slaughter hundreds of screaming and fleeing civilians who committed the simple crime of catching a flight at the wrong time) or false representations of Grand Theft Auto (taking examples in the game to extremes and claiming it's a rape simulator etc).  The public face of the news and moral values depict gamers as misanthropic sociopaths being brainwashed into murdering innocent civilians which we all know is not true, some gamers take their games too seriously, spend too much time playing or choose to bully other players online and this needs to end but making people evil?  No, I don't accept it.

To give some perspective here are a few home truths about myself, I am a pretty dark individual, I have what some would be consider a sick sense of humour, when the mood takes me I play the most brutal and sadistic games I can get my hands on, I did grow up watching inappropriate films, I love the music of Marilyn Manson, Slipknot & Hatebreed, I am a very angry, adrenaline fuelled person and I have read books that half the Christian Right would burn every copy of, I am very loud, I talk too much and I have daddy issues.  I will let you form your own image of me in your head.  I'm an asshole huh?  To contrast that I am fairly intelligent, well educated and work in a highly exclusive industry, my pay is good, I am a very sweet guy, highly moral, I respond deeply to emotional storylines in tv and film, hell, I cry at the film Where the Wild Things Are (and I mean cry, like my tshirt is soaked and I am wailing like a baby) when not involved in conversation I tend to sit quietly and keep myself to myself, my life is full of laughter, the friends I do have I love dearly, I don't wish or cause harm to anyone.  

Like most people I am a walking contradiction, I love to switch off from reality and relish some brutal media, be that a film or video game, book or music but at the same time I love humour and emotional compelling storylines that engage my sense of morals and emotions.

People are complicated, the media always seeks to turn a complicated issue into black or white when it is never that simple.  When it comes to the gaming industry there are many different kinds of games and there is no specific person who fits into one category.

Dishonored and the like highlight this conflict that most of us feel, you can play the game as a brutal killing machine, utilising, crossbows, guns, explosives, swords or more creative mystical powers, launch your victim off a cliff, summon flesh eating rats to devour them and that is just a few.  This method is fun, satisfying but it comes at a cost, the more you kill the more dark and violent your world becomes.  You can also go for a more pacifist approach, killing where only absolutely necessary or not at all, this is a true challenge of your skill in the game and much like life living according to a moral code that you set yourself is a hard one.  Nobody is telling you to kill, you don't fail your mission, let's face it your character is an assassin after all.  The game does something quite exceptional for the player, if they are absorbed in the story, your deeds are gauged by the reactions of a small child, a little girl who your character saved, protected her whole life, hell you even play hide and seek with her during the tutorial stage.  If you act heroically  knocking out guards and stashing their sleeping bodies and dishonoring your targets instead of murdering them she sees you as a handsome hero, even drawing a picture of your smiling face with sun shining and the word daddy written on it.  Let me tell you that the deeply sentimental side of me genuinely had an emotional reaction to this, I felt proud that this sweet child could look up to me, seeing me as a heroic protector and even father figure.  Contrast that to the reaction you get when you return blood soaked and vengeful, she is scared of you, her picture shows you exactly as you are, a monster, perhaps a necessary evil but still an evil.  Except it isn't necessary is it?  If only you behaved differently this girl wouldn't wake up in the night screaming, it makes you want to be a better person.

Now, it's fair to say this won't be the reaction of everyone, you might be the kind of player who doesn't engage with the storyline and in that case this emotional response doesn't apply, does that necessarily make you a bad person?  Of course not, we are all different.  Did you play it, engage emotionally in the game, refuse to switch off and gleefully haunt this child who trusts you? Maybe you need therapy.

The question is what does this tell us about gamers in general?  We need to find a simple generalisation, because let's face it, responding to defamation from people and the media with a thesis won't help.  Gamers play violent and brutal games when they want mindless entertainment, when engaged emotionally they will show their true human nature and most will take the high moral path, no matter how hard that is.  

Nobody considers the avatar of others in an FPS deathmatch as a life they are taking, nobody worries in Dead Space or Resident Evil if the infected human you brutally murdered has kids at home, nobody thinks the driver you just jacked in Grand Theft Auto will need counselling from their experience.  This is because they aren't treating these games as an alternate reality but a mindless escape from it and the reaction of games that promote engagement and real in game moral consequences to your actions is that those who play mindlessly will often go the more immoral route and those who seek emotional investment will behave more morally.  This is simply down to the fact that this isn't reality, it is fiction, just like a book, music of films.  Of course you can spot a potential psychopath if they replay "No Russian" over and over, relishing the screams of the dying but these people already exist, it is a mixture of their upbringing and their nature and of course some gamers go on to do terrible things "inspired" by a game.  The simple fact is that the game didn't "make" them do it, they were already like it, it's just that their chosen method happened to have a muse that in everybody else's hands is fine.

As a final word this argument has nothing to do with the exposure to children of violent games, this isn't anything to do with the gaming industry, this is down to the parents, games have ratings, if you buy them for your children either out of their sense of peer pressure or your ignorance you are to blame, not the developers, not society, you.  You failed your child, now take steps before they potentially harm someone.

AnarchistReview: Baldur's Gate 2

With the news of Obsidian Entertainment's huge Kickstarter success  this week, setting new records with $4,000,000 invested in their concept Project Eternity, inspired by the hugely successful Dungeons and Dragons RPGs of the late 1990s and early 2000s.  The Neverwinter Nights 2 developers who are mostly noted recently for creating the South Park RPG The Stick of Truth that looks truly promising and comprise of some of the key member of the Black Isle development team.  Who created and or published some the most definitive RPGs of all time, Fallout 2, Planescape Torment, Icewind Dale 1 & 2 and last, my favourite the Baldur's gate series.

To this day Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn is a game that I have put more time into and played through more times than any other game so in tribute to this return to the old school and to celebrate a remastered re-release of this title next year I present to you, the AnarchistReview of the Bioware classic Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn and it's expansion Throne of Bhaal.

Based on the hugely popular role playing Wizards of the Coast brand of fantasy Baldur's Gate 2 follows on directly from it's predecessor. Your player created character is a child of the Dark God Bhaal, the Lord of Murder and has recently finished his previous adventure where you learn of your heritage and defeat your half-brother Sarverok, another of Bhaal's children, an all round vicious bastard in every sense of the word.  Following character creation (for those of you who dread this there is a choice of 4 pre-generated characters) introduction cut scene (which for me was my first exposure to the story, having not played the original at this point) your protagonist awakes in a cell in a murky dungeon with no idea how you go there being tortured and experimented on by the villain of Tron and Time Bandits David Warner who as power hungry mage Jon Irenicus provides some of the most iconic lines from any game I have ever played, here he is breaking out of a prison designed specifically to hold powerful rogue mages in bad ass fashion.

In essence the story begins with you escaping from your prison discovering some of your old companions on the way, some of them ready to join up with you and seek revenge for their abduction, others due to a bad case of death just generally lying about waiting to be revenged.  You manage to escape into the city of Athkatla where your childhood friend, budding mage and generally sweet person Imoen is captured, alongside your captor by an order of wizards for using magic inside the city without permission.  From this point, like many of the open world RPGs you are now dumped in the centre of a huge world with a specific ultimate task to perform, no idea where or how to do it and nothing but the few bits of crap you managed to scavenge on your way.

Jon Irenicus might look like a drag queen gimp but he's all business and is out to literally tear you apart for his own ends

A lesser game might boast that as the totality of the plot but not this game, freeing your friend is just the first in the series of steps that places the whole of the Forgotten Realms in peril as you struggle against a sociopathic mage with an all consuming lust for power.  The story is immense, spanning 4 CDROMs which if that doesn't make you think wow you don't remember that this is the time of the floppy disc being the most common source of document transfer.

The main campaign is truly epic in it's own right but isn't something to be rushed as it has wide reaching effects on your party.  You hunt down Irenicus via earning passage to the isolated island prison Spellhold, fight your way through the underdark to a Machiavellian city of the matriarchal dark elves (drow) and onto an elven city to save the Tree of Life from being destroyed and with it the city then into hell to finally face your tormentor for the last time.  The expansion pack Throne of Bhaal sees you on a Highlander style mission to defeat all your fellow Bhaalspawn who are fighting for their fathers throne as the lord of murder, the question is what do you do when the throne stands empty and nobody stands between you and ultimate power as the new Lord of Murder?

Aside from these main quests which are fairly weighty on their own as with all RPGs most of the fun, adventure, humour and dark storyline take place in the sidequests where you face truly powerful mages, both living and as undead liches (in various states of insanity) as well as most races and groups made famous in the fiction, no two missions are the same.  One will have you playing detective to find a deranged serial killer with clues and NPC dialog leading you to the culprit, playing the UN in a race war alongside the usual dungeon crawling fun.  One of the most memorable moments for me is where you discover a quest giver has manipulated you and not only that is an enormous red dragon (I won't tell you which and spoil the fun), the most powerful breed of the standard "chromatic" (evil) dragons, considering their different colour kin so beneath their power level they aren't worth killing (I know, racist bastards).  Bored with his fun and having achieved what he wanted he gives you an opportunity to realised you are outmatched, take your reward and skulk off, deciding that you won't let some uppity wyrm tell you what to do leads to one of the most protracted and challenging battles of my gaming life.  I learned that their legendary arrogance against their kin is warranted  taking out a black dragon three levels earlier was a walk in park next to this beast.  The game is full of gems like this and is what sets this game as the red dragon of RPGs.

Most of the quests give you an opportunity to change your reputation and alignment with your chosen actions, effecting the game world as you go.  As with most games this gives you the scale of good to evil but unlike games such as Mass Effect where they are polar concepts you are following a general philosophy or behaviour, you can be; lawful good (Captain America), neutral good (Spider-man), chaotic good (Robin Hood), lawful neutral (James Bond), true neutral (Han Solo in episode 4 of Star Wars, before he got all loved up), chaotic neutral (Captain Jack Sparrow), lawful evil (Boba Fett or most classic Bond villans), neutral evil (Mystique or any femme fatale), chaotic evil (Riddick or a serial killer of your choice)

You develop the protagonist from a fairly powerful baseline in the scale of Dungeons and Dragons into, thanks to the expansion pack a being of literally god-like power at level 40 (fit to slap the generally ultimate mortal magical power in this universe Elminster in the face with his puny level 29) with your own home in hell.

Created using the infinity engine this world is realised in incredible detail for it's time, with rendered effects that at the time may seem run of the mill and less detailed than your average mobile phone game but in it's time it was groundbreaking, I can only hope that the high definition remastering in the re-release next year gives it half the wow factor it had then.  The game also boasts a first class voice cast, practically a who's who of yesterday and today David Warner, Jim Cummings (who steals the show as Minsc, more on that later), Michael Gough (forget Michael Caine, the real Alfred is in the house), Jennifer Hale and Michael Bell to name but a few.

You won't be hunting alone however, you have a large roster of potential allies on your quests, up to five in your party at the same time, these are, in order of going from babysitter to Charles Manson

• Aerie: A lawful good cleric/mage, deeply damaged by her past, sweet, vulnerable, child-like but deeply intelligent.  Can be deeply annoying and romancing her is like trying to seduce a girl who was abused by her dad who blames herself and didn't turn into a crack head and/or prostitute
• Keldorn: Lawful good inquisitor, a wise hugely powerful paladin who is really useful in a scrap against the forces of evil
• Mazzy: Lawful good fighter, a halfling who if it was allowed would be a paladin, instead committed to generally heroic good deeds 
• Imoen: A Neutral good thief/mage who your initial quest is to rescue, her initial exuberance wanes due to her experiences in the game, unless you are intending to turn your character into a full on psychopath her rare mix of classes comes in really handy
• Minsc: Chaotic good ranger, if you have only one play through of this game and you don't include Minsc the berserker in your party you are missing out big time.  A bat shit crazy force for righteousness who's witch he was serving as bodyguard to, Dynaheir, killed by Irenicus for the bad luck of travelling with you.  With his miniature giant space hampster Boo (hell yes you read that right) he is truly mighty in combat and leads to some of the best NPC dialog and interactions with other party members and world NPCs.
• Nalia: Neutral good thief/mage, haughty noble with a compassionate soul to the poor as long as they remember their place and her's.
• Valygar: Neutral good stalker, wanted criminal with a real prejudice towards magic and mages
• Anomen: Lawful Neutral fighter/cleric, acolyte on his path to knighthood which as the player have a vital hand in his passing of failure of his trials (changing his alignment accordingly), a spectacular bullshitter and a romance option to a female character
• Cernd: True neutral shapeshifter, a calm natured werewolf who as a former city guy turned lover of the great outdoors (for obvious reasons) has the verbal quirk of loving any metaphor to do with nature 
• Haer'Dalis: Chaotic neutral bard, part demon, sporting blue hair and an aura that makes otherworldly creatures uncomfortable, charming and witty so you best have your best comebacks to hand
• Jaheria: True neutral fighter/druid, hard willed widow who will take control if you won't and patronising to anyone who she considers less worldly wise, a romance option if you fancy trying to seduce the recently bereived, you should be ashamed of yourself.
• Jan: Chaotic neutral thief/illusionist, eccentric gnome who is a master craftsman of unique weapons and tools only he can understand enough to use, a big fan of telling stories that seem to go absolutely nowhere 
• Yoshimo: True Neutral bounty hunter, calm, cunning and evasive who you encounter early on and his lock picking skills come in very handy
• Viconia: Neutral evil cleric, sharp tongued drow with some powerful stats, a nasty habit of picking on those weaker but beyond this hard hide is a decent person and a potential love interest
• Edwin: Lawful evil conjurer, a haughty and powerful mage with a pretty damn funny party quest and some serious animosity and history with Minsc.
• Korgan: Chaotic evil berserker, a truly psychotic killing machine of a dwarf who can generally clear an entire room using his duel wielding axes 
• Sarevok: Chaotic evil fighter, you can choose to bring your evil half-brother back from the dead, with no supernatural powers, do you want to show him a path to salvation or leave him the hateful violent mess you know and love to hate  

With this long list of possible mixtures you will witness friendships, banter, bullying, animosity, theft, storming off in a huff or even violence, I have never such a complex, well written interplay or npcs been created in a game, unlike so many games where you end up with genuine feelings for your party, something that I have yet to see replicated in anything in modern RPGs.  Often you will find that certain companions lead to specific ways to complete a quest, my favourite being allowing Minsc to keep talking to get you committed to an asylum rather than break your way in.  Pawns in Dragon's Dogma, the set party and script of the final Final Fantasy series and the bland companions in Skyrim don't even come near, the closest equivalent being Dragons Age Origins which in many ways is the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate but it just fell short of the levels of greatness of it's muse.  Choosing your party does more than pick the powers you want to concentrate on, it makes a statement to the world and the rest of your companions, you are who you associate with and if your actions displease your team members expect to hear about it and potentially to never see them again.

Leaving the best to last it's time to cover the gameplay, the interface is a point and click one, allowing you to select any number, or all of your party to position themselves on the map with a couple of clicks.  Combat is initiated with a simple click on your enemy, this initiates the complicated process of turn based attacks following the Dungeons and Dragons rules, taking into account the chosen attack, effect spells, armour, status effects and plays this out.  This can be a frantic affair so in order to allow for more considered strategic battles you can pause the battle with a quick hit of the spacebar which allows you unlimited time to change weapons, line up your next spell to case, assign movement or heal, once you unpause the battle continues and the actions you have selected will be undertaken.  The Forgotten Realms are a dangerous place and is certainly not a game to treat as a hack and slash like Diablo, protective spells and healing whilst taking down any magical defences your target has is essential in large monster or boss battles.  Unlike the more forgiving games your companions can die very easily and in some circumstances be entirely vaporised with all your lovely loot they were storing gone forever so go into battle unprepared at your own risk.

As a person who has never played Dungeons and Dragons myself I found this game extremely accessible once you understand the basic concepts, it has lead me into enjoying dozens of the works of fiction like the R. A. A. Salvatore Drizzt books (who makes a cameo appearance in this game, if you are a fan of his and take his name he will be pissed, especially if you are making him look bad) although I have yet to put a cape on an sit round a table to play the real thing.  This game is full of nods, jokes and cameos that the die hard Dungeons and Dragons fans will love, not to mention a fair few pop culture references.  If there was only one RPG to be saved in the world I would step over Skyrim, kick FFVII into the ditch and grip this game to my chest with out a doubt.  Go for the eyes Boo!

If we ran the world....Commandments of gaming: Part 1 - Publishers & Developers

And lo did the Gaming Anarchist revolution come to power and there much wailing and gnashing of teeth from the industry as their profiteering ways are forced to seek the moral ideals of creativity, value and worth, and ultimately they saw that it was good:

1. Thou shalt have no lord but thy customers
• Your product is produced for your customers and your pride in your work, profit is an ultimate pay off for any game worth it's salt but putting profit before the product is a cardinal sin and leads to fear of taking chances with creativity and turning a potential great game into a standard one
2. Thou shalt not worship thine IP above the artistic integrity of thy product
• Beware the cash in game, this includes 0.5 games (faux squeals  creating an improved version of the previous installment, with the notable exception of a few, e.g. GTA: San Andreas, these aren't full retail price games but overpriced add-ons, a particularly good example of these are Assassins Creed: Brotherhood & Revelations or Halo: ODST & Reach) and using your popular characters/personalities in cheap microwave games (games like the terrible Sonic Freeriders spring to mind or the "Clive Barker's...." formula where successful creative people from other industries front a weak game, stop this, Tony Hawk started off with some great games, American McGees Alice was brilliant but in general knock this off). This goes double for film/tv/comicbook game tie ins, with the notable exceptions of the Batman Arkham series, Telltale's The Walking Dead & Back to the future most are just terrible half-assed cash cows.
3. Thou shalt not release incomplete games
• Your game on release should be a complete product, if you have ideas for additional content within 6 months of release of a game it should be part of the initial release. Particularly nasty examples is the From Ashes dlc for Mass Effect 3 and the "true ending" for Asura's Wrath.  Dlc has it's place but it should not be a bribe to make people pre-order before they have a chance to know the quality of your product. A special mention to Capcom should be noted as they manage to comit both 2 and 3 at the same time, releasing complete retail games in order to add a couple of dlc characters and repair broken functions in the previous installments (in the case of Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom within 6 months).  Also see yesterday's blog regarding Activision.
4. Thy customer is thy friend and is to be trusted
• Piracy is of course the enemy of developers profit from a game but treating your customers with nothing but suspicion damages the relationship, practices like limiting the number of times a game can installed on a computer, forcing a computer or console to be permanently online in order to play offline content do nothing but damage the enjoyment of the player.  I for one will never forget the time I installed Dead Space on my PC, then for a reason of OS issue I needed to reformat so I installed again, when I bought a new machine that officially locked my disk and the brand new product became officially unusable 
5. Thou shalt not utilise false pretences of security to profiteer 
• Online passes, digital games, terms of service have all been promoted of sensible and appropriate ways to protect the security and ease of access of gamers but ultimately they all come down the the same thing, profit. Online passes, instead of preventing illegal pirating of games are in effect a tax of second hand games, digital games at release cost up to 25% more than games sold on disk, terms of service seem to become more and more about preventing litigation against the developer or making obscene abuses of power (such as Diablo III, where you agree that you do not own your game, you are simply allowed to hold a licence for as long as Blizzard want to keep you connecting to your server which is required to play even offline).  
6. Honour thy customer
• Some game developers are increasingly acting like rockstars, treating their customers like the worms they are, well let me just make this clear, you aren't the Ramones, you are game coding geeks, your veneration comes from your customers and every time you denegrate your customer base you lose respect and you risk being taken at face value, as an asshole who doesn't deserve attention or our money.  Your product isn't perfect and not everybody will like it, this can come in the form of mild criticism to genuine feelings of being cheated either through a game bring fundamentally broken, falsely advertised or being gouged for too much profit.  These people aren't "crying" they aren't "radical gamers" or "haters" or "babies" they don't deserve banning from your forums, or even from the games they paid for.  They are your customers, you listen to their comments, no matter how unfair you think they are, consider them, maybe act on them or maybe tell them why you won't but in a buyers market they are to be listened to 
7. Thou shalt not steal
• This one is pretty much exclusively aimed at EA, be it the dlc that was charged and not delivered, with no refunds offered or using Origin software as spyware to check third party software and even personal documents. Stop it, just stop it, that is all
8. Thou shalt not plagiarise your peers
• When a new game comes along that truly breaks boundaries, either in style, gameplay or setting and it does well you can set your watch for a huge number of games to pop up that clearly cashes in on this.  I am not talking about being influenced buy your peers or developers evolving their own formula, these are perfectly natural and lead to evolution of the industry. I am talking about every second third person action game since God of War containing huge QTE sequences, the huge number of shooters that took the formula of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare that practically every FPS is a tedious propaganda video directed by a second rate Micheal Bay, or even, God help us all, beat games with peripheries  Even if some of these games are decent in their own right for the God of War formula notable games like X-men Origins: Wolverine and Dante's Inferno but these are few and far between in a sea of "me too" trash.
9. Thou shalt not seek to bribe reviewers to sell your product
• Reviewers traditionally serve a vital role for the consumer, filtering out the dross and offering heart felt recommendations that can be trusted by gamers and non-gamers alike in order to make informed purchases.  It is hard not to spot the way that clear bias is being demonstrated and in situations where some reviewers have refused to give up their integrity being forced to give up their jobs (just look up Jeff Gerstmann if you don't believe me).
10. Thou shalt not fall back to annual instalments
• There is a particular kind of game on the market that lends itself to annual updates, sporting games, online shooters etc but with games like the WWE franchise, licenced EA game sport sims and COD, where in general the upgrade to the game is somewhere between negligible to nothing. All that is needed is a series of updates to amend rosters/maps perhaps patches for improved textures, fell free to charge an annual subscription but a full retail price for essentially the same shit every year plus huge amounts of dlc that is version specific so becomes obsolete every 12 months.  If you have a massive game changing engine/physics upgrade by all means release a new product but this method of cashing in on the christmas present market is a terrible practice.

AnarchistRant - Activision thinks you are morons

Supprised to see the excitement surrounding the anouncement from Activision that Call of Duty Elite will now be free, previously in the UK this was £34.99 or $49.99.  In the couple of hours after the anouncement was made a quick google search showed almost 3 million hits, every one I have seen is praising their brave model of giving such a premium service away to their customers for nothing. 

As a footnote to this wonderful giveaway there were a further 2 anouncements with regards to their new release Black Ops 2.  Aparently having an Elite account no longer gives you access to the multiplayer maps in monthly installments, these are however available by purchasing a season pass!  Yes you read that right, they took away what was worth paying for Elite, offered the remains for you for free and instead charge you a season pass for the previously included DLC map packs for £34.99 or $50.  Unless you are a goldfish you would recognise those numbers as familiar because they are the same as the Elite subscription charge!

What this means is that in essence you are paying twice for your game, once for the game and again for anything beyond the bare bones maps.  Each year Activision have increased the amount and the cost of the DLC for this anual game, meaning you are paying through the nose for a few more maps that in essence become obsolete when the new installement and then you pay for a new game and new maps.  I say new maps, more often than not a fair number of these "new" maps are old maps that you got for free in earlier games.

Frankly Black Ops 2 is the first one in the series since World at War I won't be picking up on day one (or possibly ever) due to the compounded factors of paying Oliver North (if that doesn't make you spit teeth look him up) to promote the product and as I don't play multiplayer much (mostly prefering a game's narative to social online play) so the increasingly obsessive online community (split, as it is, mostly between children and people in their 30s/40s) that make any online play after week one pointless because the people who play it 24/7 gank your ass three seconds after spawning (don't even talk to me about the MW3 spawn camping!), one of my little brothers managed to clock up 38 days in online play in one year of MW2. 

I might have still invested my money in the latest installment, play the single player campaign then spend 20 hours or so over the next year in online play but this is really more than I can stomach, I am not sure what pisses me off more, the fact that Activision thought they could con everyone with such an obvious scam or that it actually seems to be working.

AnarchistReview: Dishonored

About
Name: Dishonored
Developer(s): Arkane Studios
Publisher: Bethesda
Genre: First person stealth action/adventure
Players: 1
Online?: No
Platforms: PC, Playstation 3, Xbox 360
Platform used: Playstation 3

Review

I will be honest I have been cautiously optimistic about Dishonored, the lack of hype until fairly close to release which is more than I can say for some games that get presented as the second coming months if not years before it hits the shelves.

With a playing style style that puts me in mind of the Thief and Hitman series (it is hard to see the parallels throughout the game but that is no shame) you control a mystically powered bodyguard turned assassin bent on revenge against his murdered empress and to rescue her adorable daughter and to bring her to power.  At the beginning of each level you are presented with a target, often some sub missions and multiple paths to achieve your aims. Do you run in all swords and guns slaughtering anyone who gets in your way? Summon swarms of flesh eating rats to devour your enemies as you stride through like a dark vengeful God? Use your powers to hijack body after body as you possess yourself to your goal? Simply sneak from cover to cover or any combination of the above. All the permutations are pointless to go into but I'm sure you get the idea.

Don't be fooled by this into thinking this is a Bethesda free roaming open world do what you like affair, that really isn't the aim with this game, you aren't getting a sandbox game. You are placed into fixed levels with a clear "kill your target or do something to remove them non-fatally from the political game." This does give some nice variation but ultimately you are restricted to one of two options, killing is bad, stealth and dishonouring of your targets is good. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, you are presented with multiple paths through the levels and ways of dispatching your targets depending on your preferred style of gameplay. However there is a certain pull towards the "right way" or doing this. As with most games with a moral component going by the more fun dark path is ultimately less rewarding than the painstaking light one, much like life. There are plenty of books, audio logs and upgrades peppered around the level to keep you interested too.

The design of the game feels unique yet strangely familiar, this might be due to my years of playing Thief (for those who don't know a first person steam punk series where you could approach your target openly except your protagonist Garret couldn't defend himself if a haemophiliac toddler tried to  take him down) my recent play through of The Darkness 2 (where the character and art design feels very similar) and the fact that steam punk is so ubiquitous as the clever and unique setting it's long past being old hat.

The controls are mostly very responsive, the lack of zoom aim is refreshing as is the bobbing  crosshair that doesn't make you feel queasy. My only gripe with those is the holding down the peek from cover button feels too much like left is separate from right, the transition between the two being slightly awkward. The menus respond nice and quickly as does the quick select wheel, even if a few times I found the wrong item selected and instead of possessing I fired a sleeping dart. The AI is pretty good, the NPCs interact well, often sharing a handy tip or complaining about their day, however I couldn't quite understand how they don't spot half your torso poking out being a pillar, especially given the terrifying skull mask you have on.

The autosave feature kicks in at the completion of quest markers or passing into a new area so if you are anal about achieving a high score it may be worth saving and reloading often.

Ultimately this game grabbed me and I loved it, accepting it's minor faults I got fully lost in the experience. This is a truly last gen game in the best possible term, what you buy is what there is, a complete game, it relies on a strong single player experience of compelling story and solid mechanics. As much as I enjoyed it and will play it through again I hope there is no sequel, or if there is one it follow in the footsteps of Fable and makes a sequel which takes the key mechanics and world but creates a new story. Hopefully unlike Fable, if it does go this route, it won't ruin the entire premise of the game in the process.

Summary

• Engaging storyline
• Solid single player experience
• Creative and distinct universe (hardly unique but enough varied sources for inspiration create a unique amalgam)
• Lots of gameplay choice to match your style even if it is largely tailored to a binary ending
• Distinctly not an FPS (if you want a steam punk COD the shooting mechanics will leave you cold)
• A must for any fans of Hitman, Thief, Deus Ex et al
• No multiplayer (if you need deathmatches, co-op or leader boards for your experience look elsewhere)
• Solid comic style graphics (really brings shades of The Darkness 2 to mind)
• Any AI flaws or minor control clunkiness is easily forgiven
• Good enough not to drive me mad at the non-British spelling of dishonoured