It’s been some time since I’ve discussed upcoming MMOs other than World of Warcraft. Since then, Star Trek Online revealed itself to be rather dull, other bloggers have gotten into the FFXIV beta, and there hasn’t been anything more said about the Twilight thing. Thank the Maker. So let’s see what developments have come along lately, shall we?

Star Wars: The Old Republic

Not sure if want.

It was recently announced that Star Wars: The Old Republic will include space combat. This reminded me of the announcement BioWare made about the sex in Mass Effect. It’s aimed to drum up interest. In this case, those of us with fond memories of X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter (if not TIE Fighter itself, one of the best space combat sims EVER) can imagine ourselves enjoying that sort of gameplay in an MMO setting. Some might already be blowing the dust off of their HOTAS setup in anticipation.

However, BioWare’s previous attempts at space combat were somewhat lackluster. The elements of it in the KOTOR titles were a bit dull. I’d love to think that, if they borrowed anything form Star Wars Galaxies, it’d be at least the skeleton of space combat, because it was pretty good in SWG. But I, for one, will be waiting to see the end result.

Warhammer 40,000

Definitely kinda want.

So THQ and Games Workshop have issued a trailer along with some bits of info about the setting for Dark Millenium, their Warhammer 40k MMORPG. I still like the idea of playing around in this universe, but the fact that the trailer shows gameplay as a Space Marine makes me a bit leery. I’m afraid that Space Marines will become the blood elf death knights of Dark Millenium – everybody will be playing one, and they’ll all think they’re the most badass mofo with the best RP story EVAR. I want to know more about the other races and classes available before I render a final opinion, but for now, it seems to be going in an okay direction. More diversity and information, please!

World of Darkness

DO WANT.

In a word: Yes.

In two words: Fuck yes.

Fan boy wank aside, this prospect excites me for a variety of reasons. The World of Darkness is a rich, deep IP, that does supernaturals pretty damn well (especially in comparison to Twilight or Underworld) and contains plenty of basis for both PvE and PvP content. With every type of supernatural their own faction, and some being played by NPCs, there should be something for everybody there.

Beyond that, there’s the fact that the World of Darkness comes to us from White Wolf. Other than employing some extremely cool men and women, White Wolf is owned by CCP. Yes, that CCP. As in “creators of EVE Online.” These cats not only know how to make a decent and well-received MMORPG, they know how to keep it going and make things interesting for those who don’t even play the game. Like having six years of real world revenue get destroyed by a pirate raid. This boosts my confidence in the notion of this project not only launching successfully, but being worth playing and maybe even paying money to play.

For the time being, I’m still playing WoW. But I’ll be keeping my eye on these titles, and as soon as I know more, so will you.

I have an entry created for Blizzard’s writing contest, and while I think it’s okay, I want to be doubly sure it’s highly polished and as Blizzardy as possible. But it’s not about what I think, is it? It’s going to be read by other people.

So I need other people willing to read it. Specifically, I’m looking for at least two.

I need someone familiar with StarCraft. The game has some particulars in terms of lore, background, themes and mood. I want to make sure I’m hitting all of the major touchpoints and haven’t completely botched my timelines.

I also need someone familiar with writing. The words I’ve chosen are in a particular order, but I don’t know if they’re in the best order. I’ve gotten great feedback on Citizen in the Wilds thanks to people looking at the order of my words, and I’d love this little short work to get the same treatment.

Leave me a comment if you’re interested. I can send you an invite to the Google document via the email address you’ll input to post the comment. Once I’m a bit more confident in this, I’ll send it off to Blizzard and start making burnt offerings to any deity within celestial earshot.

I really want this to go well. Like, a lot.

I’ve been a fan of writer/director Christopher Nolan’s work since his shatteringly brilliant Memento. He’s breathed new life into Batman with two equally stunning films, and his somewhat underrated adaptation of the novel The Prestige is every bit as haunting and cerebral as his other work. This year, he brings us Inception. Not only is it probably the best film you’ll see all summer, if not all year, it’s also the best film of Nolan’s career to date.

Yep. Better than The Dark Knight, better than Memento.

The tag line for the film is “Your mind is the scene of the crime.” The concept is that technology originally developed to allow military recruits to train against each other in a consequence-free dreamscape is now being used by professional thieves to steal information from others’ minds in their dreams. This requires the participation of an architect to build the world of the dream, a chemist to balance the drugs required to keep the mark and the team under, a forger who creates cyphers to assist or distract the mark, a point man to keep the mental defenses of the mark’s subconscious at bay, and an extractor to get their hands on the information. Everybody involved needs to remained focused and calm, which is a problem for the extractor, Cobb, whose own subconscious is breaking into the dream worlds his team have built. He needs to go home, and to do so, industrialist Saito offers him one last job – not to steal an idea, but to implant one, a process considered to be impossible and known as inception.

If he hadn’t become a filmmaker, Christopher Nolan may have become a renowned illusionist, the sort of stage practitioner that leaves the crowd breathless and wondering how exactly he pulled off his trick. What’s particularly amazing about Nolan’s work is, not only are we aware that he’s manipulating events like a master puppeteer, he goes out of his way to show us the strings before he leads down a labyrinth of ideas and environments, daring us to keep up. We caught glimpses of this in Memento and The Prestige, but Inception takes this to a whole new level. The rules of the dream, the logic behind the flow of time within the subconscious and the ways in which the mind moves to protect itself are explained in great detail, Nolan shows us how these constructs work, and then takes us on a journey that has us questioning what rules, if any, were broken, and how the story arrives at its conclusion, to say nothing of what that conclusion actually is.

Inception would not work anywhere near as well as it does if it didn’t have such an excellent, top-caliber cast. Leonardo DiCaprio as Cobb the extractor continues to shine in the sort of edgy, mature, hard-bitten roles that have caused me to embrace him as a fantastic actor. He gives Cobb a great deal of haunted depth, and has the burden of carrying the bulk of the film’s emotional and philosophical weight. He does so with grace and not a hint of exertion, drawing us deeper and deeper into the realm of Cobb’s mind.

But that doesn’t mean the rest of the cast is just phoning it in. Everybody’s in top form here. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who apparently can totally rock a suit no matter what film he’s in, seems dedicated to keeping Cobb grounded to keep his job as point man from being to difficult, while Tom Hardy (who thankfully has put that Shinzon debacle far behind him) encourages everyone around him to use their imaginations while he forges the tools they need to pull off their heist. Ken Watanabe shows us many dimensions as Saito, a man who is both the cause for Cobb’s predicament on this last job and the apparent key to his freedom. Cillian Murphy as the mark is more that just a dupe, but to say more would be giving away plot information. And Ellen Page, who’s quickly become one of my favorite young actresses, conveys Ariadne as both the eager young architect recruited by Cobb and the voice of reason inside his head. If Saito has the key to Cobb’s freedom, Ariadne has the key to preventing the interference caused by Mal, played with sublime menace by Marion Cotillard.

Yes, her name is ‘Ariadne’, as in ‘mistress of the labyrinth’. There’s a lot of symbolism in Inception. Since we’re dealing almost entirely in the realm of dreams for the running time of this film, and dreams are populated by people, places and things that hold special meaning for the dreamer, quite a few things that happen between the first shot and the last seem to invite us to interpret them. Christopher Nolan is a skilled storyteller, so the film never verges into completely obscurantist territory like 2001 does, and even as symbols come and go, the plot remains taut and the characters clearly motivated. As I said, Nolan’s confident enough in his skill to show us the strings. That doesn’t mean that those very strings we’re shown can’t be used to mess with our heads.

I admit I had a squeal of delight when Ariadne asks the question, “What happens when you start messing with the physics?” It’s something I never quite got about The Matrix. If you were in complete control of the world around you, why not start messing with things the way she does? The way the real world interacts with the dream world leads to some very interesting situations, from a quick laugh at the beginning of the heist to one of the most inventive and breathtaking fight sequences I have seen in a very, very long time. Not only does Joseph Gorden-Levitt rock that suit, he does what was probably a rather complicated stunt without seeming to break a sweat. The guy’s a pro.

This is a film I will be watching many more times for many years to come. It’s Christopher Nolan’s best film to date, and it will be damn hard to top. I’d love to go see it again right now, in theaters, as the big screen perfectly captures the scope, power and danger of the worlds built within our dreams. However, it’ll also be great on DVD, so that the film can be paused, rewound and analysed with friends over drinks to try and figure out what exactly it all means. I for one can’t wait for those evenings.

A lot’s been said about the ending of Inception. I’ve tried very hard not to give away any spoilers, but let me voice my opinion to the best of my ability. Christopher Nolan is not a bad storyteller. He gives us all the clues we need to figure out exactly what Inception is and means, to him and to us. He doesn’t take the Kubrick & Clark route, of trying to raise many more questions than he answers. He wants us to understand. He encourages us to figure it out. And he provides everything we need to solve the puzzle. The challenge is… can we?

I’d like to think I can. I just need to see it again. A few times. It’s an amazing film, one of the best I’ve seen in a long time, and if ever there was an excuse for me to sell a major organ to afford a high-def television and a PlayStation 3 in anticipation of a film coming out on Blu-ray, Inception would be it. This one’s going to be in my head and in my heart for a long, long time.

Stuff I Liked: Beautifully shot, written and executed. The various dreams are distinctive and gorgeous. The touches of humor are brilliantly timed and delivered. It’s subtle, cerebral and packed with action.
Stuff I Didn’t Like: I am going to miss that kidney I have to sell.
Stuff I Loved: Very strong characters portrayed by skilled, damn good-looking actors. A totally immersive storytelling experience I won’t soon forget. It made me think. It still does.

Bottom Line: You owe it to yourself to see Inception in the cinema. Find where it’s playing and go see it. It might be the best way you’ll spend money on entertainment all year, and it’ll stay with you long after the credits roll. Go. See. This. Film.

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Philip K. Dick is what I would consider a luminary of the genre of science-fiction. He wrote quite a few stories that dealt with concepts like free will, identity and the nature of drug abuse. Somewhere between the adaptation of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? that became the sci-fi classic Blade Runner, and the adaptation of The Minority Report that became… well, Minority Report, we have a little story called We Can Remember It For You Wholesale. The story had, as its themes, the nature of memory, the blurring of the borders between fantasy and reality in our minds, and Mars. Some of these themes survived the adaptation process to appear in the film Total Recall, and while the movie isn’t quite the visionary and atmospheric masterpiece of Blade Runner, it at least doesn’t take its premise in entirely the wrong direction, like Minority Report does.

Arnold Schwartzenegger is Douglas Quaid, a mild-mannered construction worker who dreams of something more, specifically the recently colonized Mars. He can’t afford to take his hot blonde wife on vacation, however, and while she seems content to stay home and lavish him with attention, he can’t help longing for something more. He eventually seeks out a company called Rekall, that offers him the vacation of a lifetime in his head – he can go to Mars, be anybody he wants, do just about anything. He chooses the false memories that cast him as a secret agent. However, the doctors find he’s already undergone a memory replacement procedure, and suddenly our inexplicably built hero is fighting to get free from the facility screaming at the doctors for blowing his cover. They fix up the damage, but it’s too late: Quaid has realized that he is, in fact, a deep cover secret agent who is either working for the evil mining conglomerate that controls Mars or carrying the key to Mars’ liberation. Or is he?

Total Recall was directed by Paul Verhoeven, who brought us Starship Troopers and the truly excellent RoboCop. I’ve heard his World War II Jewish vengeance flick Black Book is up there with these films, and it’s on my queue somewhere. Anyway, when you go into a Verhoeven entry, you can expect gratuitous bloody violence, shameless sex appeal that borders on exploitation, undercurrents of social commentary that are both pointed and hilarious, or a combination of all of the above. Sometimes, this doesn’t work when the elements are weighted too much on one side (*cough*Showgirls*cough*), but Total Recall is an example of the Verhoeven formula working, and working well. It’s not quite as effective as RoboCop, nor does the undercurrent buoy up the rest of the film as it does in Starship Troopers, but it still makes for surprisingly good entertainment.

“Wait… you want me to put this where?”

Arnold can get ragged on from time to time for some of his performances. I for one am still slightly traumatized by Batman & Robin. But his particular brand of on-screen presence works well in Total Recall. He’s not an overt badass, like his character in Predator, nor is he the cold, detached and utterly unstoppable Terminator. Douglas Quaid is, for all intents and purposes, an innocent man, completely blindsided by the turn of events that has him on the run from covert operatives and trying to get his ass to Mars. His confusion and attempts to go with the flow of events rather than glowering or brooding make him far more sympathetic and engages the audience surprisingly well. In spite of all of the violence and special effects in this space rock opera, the affair is held together by an element that’s surprisingly human.

I call Total Recall a “space rock opera” because it doesn’t have the gravitas of a genuine space opera like the original unadulterated Star Wars. Its tone, when it isn’t trying to mess around in your head, is decidedly more Flash Gordon than 2001. The bad guys never seem to hit the good guys with their fully automatic weapons, industrial mining equipment is easily re-purposed as death machines and on a world of mutations, space hookers tend to get ‘helpful’ enhancements like an extra breast. It’s definitely more science fantasy than science fiction, and while that does lead to minor issues later, for the most part it works as an engine of whimsy and bloodshed to drive the story.

“Um… clean up? Aisle 5?”

And for two acts, that story hums along quite well. We’re never completely sure if what’s happening to Doug is really happening or if he’s still strapped to the bed back at Rekall. Hints come along here and there to point in one direction or another, especially towards the end of the second act when a doctor shows up along with Quaid’s wife. That aforementioned expression of somewhat bewildered confusion Arnold wears for most of this adds a bit of necessary weight to the games the story play with the audience’s minds. For the majority of the film, Total Recall seems to be, at least on an intellectual level, trying to be just a touch more than your typical sci-fi shoot-em-up.

Unfortunately, the third act comes down with a nearly terminal case of stupid. Not to give anything away, but the subplot of all of the events possibly being figments of Quaid’s imagination is pretty much dropped and all but the last minute or so of running time are devoted to your typical Arnold action pick-and-mix. There’s a clever little bit with a portable hologram, but other than that you’ve got one-liners, improbable science, the most laughable depiction of decompression I’ve ever seen and endless faceless goons deposited onto the scene straight from the Stormtrooper School of Marksmanship. It just gets a little tedious after a while. I mean, if you’re an Arnold fan, this stuff is candy. Too much of it for me tends to make my teeth hurt.

“Playing Mr. Freeze gave me a headache this big.”

Still, Total Recall is like Starship Troopers in more than just classic sci-fi inspiration and themes that transcend the majority of the film’s action. The two films are similar in that the good bits, by and large, outweigh the bad. It’s not without some flaws that will have you laughing out loud or rolling your eyes, but it’s at least got that space rock opera charm in its favor along with the subtle questions on our perception of reality. All in all, it’s a decent ’90s sci-fi action entry whose rough patches are smoothed over with unique story elements rooted in the works of one of the best science fiction writers of our time. Arnold fans, Dick fans and Verhoeven fans should definitely add this to their Netflix queues.

One last note of interest: This film was originally rated X. Verhoeven had to cut the film with some different camera angles and trim some of the violence to get it downgraded to R for general release. It was also one of the last films to use miniatures extensively, instead of relying on CGI. I think that might add to the film’s charm, and let’s face it, CGI might have failed in bringing us things like that triple-breasted hooker. Because let’s face it, that’s what people remember. It’s like remembering the cake scene as the best part of Under Siege. Or thinking of Labyrinth as a movie about David Bowie’s… pants.

Josh Loomis can’t always make it to the local megaplex, and thus must turn to alternative forms of cinematic entertainment. There might not be overpriced soda pop & over-buttered popcorn, and it’s unclear if this week’s film came in the mail or was delivered via the dark & mysterious tubes of the Internet. Only one thing is certain… IT CAME FROM NETFLIX.

Welcome to post #300. THIS! IS! ALCHEMY! *boots Edward Cullen into a bottomless pit*

I’ve written previously about a little game called Maschine Zeit. It’s about time I did up an official review of it, in the spirit of promoting it, and if I were to sum it up it one word, it’d be “atmospheric.”

In any form of horror-based narrative, any situation where we’re to be put on edge if not scared out of our minds, there needs to be the element of the unknown. We fear what we don’t understand, and we can’t understand what we don’t know, or can’t predict. Basically, effective horror uses the unexpected and springs it on us, whether it creeps across the floor inexorably with stringy hair across its eyes or latches onto us for a mouthful of brain as we round a corner. If we see it coming, it’s not scary.

Maschine Zeit gets that. Boy, does this game ever get that.

The year is 2110. The Machine Age has begun. Humanity is, for all intents and purposes, on its way out. A series of events have put the bulk of the population back on their heels, trying to get their bearings. A population control method, moving people to giant space platforms tethered to the Earth, has not worked as planned. Among the other disasters, gamma radiation bathed the stations and killed most of the people there. This ray burst had two other side effects now coming to the attention of the curious, the adventurous and the insane on the planet below. One, the radiation has changed some of the metal on the stations and given it almost supernatural properties. And two, rumors abound that the radiation has caused the stations to be haunted with strange bio-mechanical beings that were once human. This is the story of Maschine Zeit, the game of ghost stories on space stations.

A lot of tabletop games have one person laying down the tracks of the plot, while the players decide how quickly and with what sort of engine they’ll proceed down those tracks. It’s an effective method for telling collaborative stories, be that one person called a Dungeon Master or a Storyteller or what have you. In Maschine Zeit, the Director might have some plot ideas, but they are not in control of the story. More accurately, they have just as much control over the story as you would as a player. Its system supports ensemble work, a true collaboration of creative minds. No one character is more important than another, and the Director does not impose their ideas on the group.

The way the game is designed, every character has a goal, and achieving that goal leads to a moment in the spotlight. Instead of the timing and circumstances of those moments being entirely up to the Director, the players take steps along the way in their journey through still, decaying sci-fi environments inspired by Pandorum or Dead Space. Not everything will go as planned, of course, but when thing are at their darkest and most terrifying, there’s a chance, built into the game’s narrative structure itself, that a player in that situation will seize control of it by saving a fellow player or destroying the monster-thing with an ingenious trap or uncovering some forbidden truth or getting that bit of magical metal to do exactly what they need it to do. Arriving at those moments, taking the reigns of the narrative and watching the dice fall into place as fate agrees to allow that moment happen, is the very essence of Maschine Zeit.

It’s not a game for everyone. It requires thinking on the spot and its subject matter and atmosphere are not for the faint of heart. But if you find yourself interested in this vision of our future, drawn to the mystery of the stations or just curious about how exactly the aforementioned moments work, check out Maschine Zeit. It’s available today (6/22) on DriveThruStuff.com, bundled with an introductory adventure for a bargain price. You can do a hell of a lot worse if you want an experience that blends horror, science fiction, and tabletop gaming in a way that you will not soon forget.