Economy of Effort

5 Things I Think I Think about…

1. I think the Wii version is the only one I can stand playing. This run-through of RE4 was the third time I tried to play the game. The first two false-starts were on the GameCube and the PC. I found the one-stick control style on the GameCube to be abhorant. The PC version looked beautiful, like a completely different game compared to the Cube and Wii versions (just from the high resolution support, really). But even with a 360 gamepad, the game was insistant on mapping movement and aiming to the left stick.

By moving the aiming system to the Wiimote and putting movement on the nunchuk, the Wii version is the only one that uses a true two-sets-of-axes system - you know, the control approach that is the reason every gamepad comes with two analog sticks now. You still can’t move and shoot at the same time, but the player’s left thumb is no longer performing this awkward double-duty while the right thumb twiddles… itself.

The Wiimote aiming scheme isn’t a 1:1 mapped “pointer” like one might intuitively expect. Rather, the Wiimote acts, as one Gamers With Jobs poster describes it, like a giant right analog stick. It’s nice and responsive, and allows for pretty good fine aiming control.

There were some baffling control issues from time to time, though. When aiming through the rifle scope, the Wiimote no longer controls aiming, but rather the nunchuk stick does! This is jarring, of course, because the rest of the game uses the Wiimote for aiming. But what is worse is that the nunchuk stick is very sensitive, in part (I imagine) because it’s only used for movement and camera control throughout the rest of the game. Aiming through the scope with the hyper-sensitive nunchuk stick is a bitch and a half. I understand that the rifle scope is a “fixed view” rather than a floating aim cursor like non-scoped weapons. But there still ought to be an option to aim with the Wiimote, which offers the fine movement control that the sensitive nunchuk stick lacks.

Oh, and to add one little wrinkle: I’m an inverted control sort of person. Not just thumbsticks, either, but mice too. Everything. Aiming with the Wiimote is pretty natural, but at first I found myself having a hard time dealing with the nunchuk’s stick for “looking” around while aiming. Pushing “up” to look down is natural for me, but at the same time it felt at odds with how my right hand moved to go “up”. Trying to switch the nunchuk’s stick back to Normal, however, was disasterous. Eventually, my brain was able to deal with the slight disconnect, and my inverted thumbstick and pointed Wiimote worked in harmony.

2. I think the Wiimote-aimed exploding headshot is one of the most satisfying “kills” in any game I’ve played recently. I could very easily spend these 5 Things just rattling off complaints about the game. In fact, that’s sort of what my first draft of this looked like. So I took a step back and tried to put my finger on why I enjoyed the 16 hours I sunk into this game. I’ve been a fan of previous Resident Evil games, but this one was a very different experience. The one thing that I could point to with zero hesitation was the satisfaction behind every well-placed shot. Being rid of the awkward, uncomfortable feeling of trying to aim with my left thumb (my “non-aiming” thumb, you could say) helped with this feeling, I’m sure.

3. I think the visuals in this port deserved some attention that they didn’t receive. It probably looks just fine on an SDTV, but blown up on my 47″ 1080p panel, even with the Wii component cables, RE4 on the Wii was a jagged, muddy mess. This doesn’t truly come across in screenshots, which don’t look particularly bad. But in action, the game’s great detail was partially lost in the upconversion process.

I understand that the game also makes use of the Wii’s “deflicker” filter, which softens and blurs the image. Some Wii games, like Super Smash Bros. Brawl, make this filter a user-selectable option. RE4, however, has no such option. The blurred image doesn’t do enough to deal with the heavy aliasing. Really, it just blurs away any edge definition, and makes it difficult for things to stand out from the background.

At the very least, I wish the Wii supported higher output resolutions.

4. I think the game really tried to piss me off. None of the sections in this game were unduly difficult. A couple required repeating, but nothing brought progress to a halt or raised frustration levels from excessive challenge. The game was quite adept, though, at doing small things to piss me off.

I’m OK with the tank-like movement in RE games. I’m not OK with areas that have enemies drop from above to land right next to me, irritatingly poking at the weaknesses of the RE combat style. (This one wasn’t too bad on the Wii, where I could reach the edges of the screen with the crosshair even before holding the button to go into “aim” mode, but I can’t imagine how much I would have howled at these situtations if I had to deal with the GameCube aiming.)

I’m not OK with enemy and boss types that involve running around with the enemy off the screen the majority of the time. You didn’t make the RE4 camera or combat system for these. Don’t do them. The Garridors (the blind claw guys) and the Gigantes were just awful. Some of the worst moments of the game.

I’m not OK with the maddening inconsistency with how enemies react to taking bullets to the face. Some enemies, like the big dudes with axes, might normally stumble after taking a bullet or two to the dome. But then, randomly, they would decide that they could shrug off a half-dozen hits to the face on their way to closing the gap and slashing you with a devastating axe chop. Look, is a bullet to the face going to deter this guy or not? Don’t making a certain approach to an enemy a winning tactic 90% of the time, but then gash me for half my health the other 10% of the time.

I’m never, ever, ever OK with item boxes that contain a trap instead of an item - in this case, a snake. OK, if it’s a DnD-style game, and detecting traps is part of the game world, fine. But if not, what’s the point? You’re not turning the box into a risk/reward scenario. The player has to hit up every single box. He/she is totally dependent on them for acquiring sufficient supplies to progress. All sticking a snake in there does is punish the player for a choice that he/she has to make. (And yes, I know killing the snake yields a healing item. It doesn’t make the idea any less dumb.)

5. I think I had my best gaming “ticking bomb” scenario ever. Near the end of the game, there’s a boss fight (Krauser) that requires beating the boss and exiting the “room” before a 3-minute countdown timer hits zero. As I finished off Krauser and bolted for the exit, my time ran awfully low. When I got to the exit door, there was less than a second on the clock. But I had to stick 3 things into the door to reveal a door behind it that I could actually exit through.

I mashed the “A” button as fast as I could. The clock wouldn’t count as the game “placed” the objects, but it would start back up again as soon as one was placed. I mashed faster. By the time the actual exit door was revealed and control returned back to me to register one last pound of the “A” button, the clock was down to 00:00.07 - seven hundredths of a second.

I don’t know how punishing the game is when that clock reaches zero. Maybe there’s a second or so of hesitation, or maybe being all the way by the door was “clear enough” of the blast. Or maybe it was indeed instant death at 00:00.00. I didn’t intend on finding out. All I know is that when I saw Leon finally enter the door with seven hundredths of a second left, I thought to myself, “oh damn!“.

Tangentially inspired by the Rebel FM podcast’s “Game Club” episodes, I had a fun idea that I’m torn over whether I should try to get people interested in or not.

The Rebel FM Game Club episodes involve the people on the show playing a certain game that most of them have either not played or not completed, and discussing it on the show. Then they pull ideas from their listeners about what game to do this with next.

I had a vision of what a *Legion* Game Club would be like. Instead of a group of people playing an old game they’ve missed, it would be a celebration of the multiplayer games nobody else is playing. Whether it’s a 2nd-rate shooter from 5 years ago, or a tacked-on multiplayer mode in a game people only played single-player, we would give that game one shining night of multiplayer action. We’d wallow in the game’s antiquity or general badness,  declare someone to be the night’s “winner”, and then quite possibly never speak of it again.

I imagine people buying $5 used copies of Nerf Arena Blast off of Amazon, or digging through GameStop’s original Xbox ghetto shelves to find a copy of Conflict: Desert Storm or Outlaw Volleyball or something. Hell, who wouldn’t want to spend one night rocking each other in the Xbox version of Counterstrike? Or playing the known-awful multiplayer modes of Starbreeze’s shooters? And not just shooters - we could play strategy games like Earth 2140 (available on GoG.com!) and stuff like that. Even popular games - as long as they’re old! - would be great, like WarCraft II. Whatever the people that want to participate vote on as the choice for that month.

It would just be guys tearing ass through the multiplayer games that can be found in the GameStop bargain bins, on GameTap, GoG.com, Steam sales, etc.

I think it would be a blast, but it would require a good group of people who were willing to actually track down and spend a few bucks on cheap old games. Maybe if I served up the idea with sufficient bombast, other people would think it’s cool too.

My brother was struggling with a poor wifi connection from his upstairs room to the Airport router downstairs at his house. Given that it is a house he shares with roommates, I figured instead of trying to solve the problem of making wifi reach all ends of the house (especially since the house is in Los Angeles and I am not), I thought a better plan would be to make him a setup that will allow him to pick up wifi signals better, as well as repeat them in his local area.

So, inspired by an article I read a few months back, I cobbled together a little something to do the job. Not quite as elegant a form factor as the article’s tripod-mounted beauty, but a little more sensible for setting up on top of a bookshelf, or carrying around in a duffel bag.

The key components here are:

• Linksys WRT54GL wifi router
• Super Cantenna off-the-shelf “cantenna”-style 2.4 GHz antenna
• DD-WRT firmware build with AutoAP included

The WRT54GL is the go-to router for anyone that wants to run open source firmware (and even if you’re just a regular wifi user, you want this). Here, we use a build of the DD-WRT firmware with AutoAP built in, provided by the AutoAP Sourceforge project.

AutoAP is a brilliant little script that scans for open wifi connections, finds the strongest one that provides you a “live” connection to the Internet, and connects the router to this access point and repeats the signal. It also allows you to set a list of “preferred” networks for AutoAP to prioritize above random points. The easiest way to get AutoAP is to install a firmware image that comes with it. I used the AutoAP NG v24 Micro build offered up on AutoAP’s Sourceforge downloads page.

Installation involves simply logging into the router’s default firmware, and using the built-in firmware update function to “update” to the open-source firmware. (The Linksys firmware seems to like IE best - stupid Linksys - so for safety, I flash the firmware through IE. Though I have done it in other browsers before, I have also had the admin panel get pissy on non-IE browsers).

Once the DD-WRT firmware with AutoAP is installed, the router needs to be set up as a repeater. All the instructions you need on this part are here. The idea is to make the router set up to connect to remote access points as a client and repeat their signal, while also offering up its own SSID  that you connect to. The router’s “physical interface” represents the router’s connection to the remote access point, while the “virtual interface” is your private repeated version of that network, complete with the SSID and encryption of your choosing. This makes things easy, as while the router jumps to different access points, your client machines connect only to your private SSID.

When the router is properly set up to work as a repeater, then AutoAP can be used. AutoAP functionality can be accessed from a web browser at http://routerIP/user/cgi-bin/autoap.cgi. (Bookmark this, as it’s not available through the regular DD-WRT panel). It’s pretty self-explanatory as to how to turn “on” and “off”. When turned on, it will connect to and begin repeating whatever open network it can find with the strongest signal. AutoAP will automatically “fill in” the SSID information of the newly-repeated network in DD-WRT’s Basic Wireless settings tab (what you yourself would fill in if repeating a signal manually - and which you can still do when you switch AutoAP off. This is necessary when you want to repeat a WPA/WPA2 encrypted signal, as AutoAP can only deal with open or WEP-encrypted access points  - and only the latter when keys are known).

A repeater works best with a nice high-gain antenna to work with. The Super Cantenna is a convenient off-the-shelf solution. Unlike the nearest Pringles can, it has a handy tripod that allows you to control tilt and even horizontal-axis rotation (”rolling” the cantenna away from it’s “upright” position can lead to a better signal in some cases). Moreover, it’s got an RP-SMA connector and an RP-TNC adapter. The WRT54GL’s removable antenna connections are RP-TNC connectors, so the included adapter takes care of compatibility. Unscrew the existing antennas (at least one of them - you can leave one on if you want, which you may consider if you find you need an omnidirectional antenna to help extend the reach of your repeated signal), and using the Super Cantenna’s RP-TNC adapter, screw the Cantenna in. Done!

You may want to play around with the “Xmit Power” option in DD-WRT’s Wireless -> Advanced Settings area. Higher can mean better range, but too high can mean excess noise and degraded signal quality. It’s something one has to play around with to find the optimal setting for their environment.

So, there you have it. Perfect for hopping onto the open wifi of the hotel next door, when your hotel proves to be too cheap to provide it themselves. Or, if you’re in a living situation where you don’t necessarily control all the wires, it lets you establish your personal repeated wifi haven.

In honor of Peter King’s “5 Things I Think I Think” musing on the NFL, I present my own “five things” on games I have recently played.

Let’s kick things off with 5 Things I Think I Think about…

1. I think I’m in love with the “sandbox” approach to shooter battles. The game Far Cry was when I was funneled through hallways and tunnels is probably a game I would have played and enjoyed, even if at a C+, B- level or so. The game Far Cry was when I was allowed to sneak through brush, survey hostiles in the distance, plan a course of action, and execute it, is a game I loved.

For a game that wasn’t strictly a stealth action title, I was surprised at how reasonable and “fair” the enemy’s ability to detect the player was. There were very, very few instances of “how the heck did he ’see’ me?”. I always felt comfortable that, if there was enough brush in front of me to block them from my view, I would in turn be blocked from their view.

I really enjoyed the freedom of being able to approach situations from many different angles. I often eschewed taking vehicles and running through what was clearly a planned “vehicle” sequence, opting instead to creep through the vegetation. It was extremely satisfying to be able to exercise a little creativity in playing the game. So many games really force you to flip the “off” switch in your brain and just follow in-game cues. How many times have you been playing a game and asked yourself, “what am I supposed to do?”, instead of, “how can I approach this?”. As gamers, we’ve become conditioned to try and seek the designed course of action. Years and years of “locked” doors and invisible walls have taught us to turn off the brain and follow the cues.

Given this newfound love for “sandbox” FPS battles, it seems like kismet that the FPS games at the top of my “to-play” list are the following: Crysis, Crysis: Warhead, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, and Far Cry 2.

2. I think the mutant menace was extremely overstated. I didn’t play Far Cry back in 2004-05 (save for the demo), but like any forum-dwelling gamer, I’m well aware of its reputation: “a great game, until those damn mutants showed up”. So when the mutants - Trigens - showed up in level 5 (of 20), I thought the jig might be up. I’ve been disciplining myself to pull the plug on games before they outlive their ability to entertain me, as it’s my nature to simply want to finish them anyway. So, from mission 5 onward, we were on orange alert. And a few early encounters almost led to premature deletion, as getting pounced by one of those bastards was essentially insta-death.

But just before it all fell apart, the tides turned. I got a semiautomatic combat shotgun, giving me a capable counter to the pouncing mutants in close encounters. Then the “CryVision” night vision/thermal goggles were acquired, allowing me to hunt them in the outdoor areas. The mutants didn’t dominate the rest of the game, as new enemies are often so prone to do - just when a mutant-heavy sequence would become tiresome, the game would swing back to encounters against the  reasonably clever human AI enemies. And most important, the tunneled indoor areas always gave way to more expansive outdoor segments, returning the game to its bread and butter.

I would have preferred the game sans-mutants, which makes Far Cry 2 appealing, even if it’s quite a different game. But the mutants failed to live up to their game-destroying reputation.

3. I think I like ridiculous, juvenile “sexual content” a little too much. Please don’t misunderstand me. I know a pathetic appeal to teenage nerd sexual fantasy when I see it. Like the obnoxious fawning from the demon girl in Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. But here’s the thing…

… I just don’t care.

I love it. Exaggerated virtual girls with over-the-top, oversexed attitudes and bodies to match… I love it all. No matter how fake, or how transparent the manipulation, I’ll happily wallow in a sea of horny video game girls.

4. I think waiting a few years to play the game was a good idea (also: Steam sales are the best). When the game was new, playing Far Cry at 1680×1050 with everything cranked to Very High would’ve been a pipe dream. But with a nice midrange 8800 GT, that’s exactly how I played the game, with a framerate that was permanently well above 60 fps. So, so butter smooth. I’m a stickler for framerate. Nothing looks better than a game that runs silky smooth. I have Far Cry 2, and I can get good framerates with decent detail settings right now, but I’m not firing up the game again until I get my new video card.

I bought Far Cry a couple of weekends ago, during Ubisoft’s week of Steam sales. The weekend sale was a 4-pack: Beyond Good and Evil, Far Cry, IL-2 Sturmovik, and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, all for $9.99. I already owned BG&E and IL-2, but I figured that would just make Far Cry and Dark Messiah $5 each. I definitely got my $5 out of Far Cry.

I’ve never regretted a Steam sale purchase, but I continue to regret purchases I didn’t make (WHY did I not buy Vampire: Bloodlines for $10 back in October??)

5. I think I’m glad I played the game on Medium difficulty. Far Cry was not a forgiving game. I think one of the reasons I was able to live with the mutant presence was because I wasn’t playing on one of the advanced difficulty levels. Playing on harder difficulty levels is something that I’m trying to discipline myself into doing. Too often, I cheat myself out of a rewarding challenge by just going with the default difficulty setting. Although it is fun to just blast through a game with no frustration, I have found that, like a badly coached sports team, I “play down” to the competition. I just cruise through on autopilot, and eventually find certain parts hard because I’m not really trying.

Far Cry was not one of those games. I have no doubt that I could have prevailed on higher difficulty settings, but with a lot more frustration. Certain scenes clearly exist to beat the player senseless and force him/her to re-play the section many times in order to “get it right”. I was certainly annoyed by a couple of them, and I have no doubt that dealing with them on a hard difficulty would’ve put a real dent in my enjoyment of the game. For this title at least, chickening out was the right way to go.

• I am totally not RTing @TheWanderer14’s GDC booty call. #
• There’s something wonderfully manly about owning a 4WD truck. Even one with seat warmers. #

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• Started Killzone 2. Has the awful “move stick, pause, see movement on screen” dead zone/input delay of crappy FPS games. May quit this one. #
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• PLEASE tell me that World in Conflict: Soviet Assault will be on Steam on launch day… #

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