Reviews – Iain Douglas Stewart

Dark Souls = mature Zelda

By Iain June 18, 2014Reviews, VideogamesNo Comments

This was originally posted on the now-defunct Random Fury! videogame blog.

While the credits were rolling in the last of my Dark Souls videos, I mentioned that Dark Souls was like a mature Zelda. I did have a whole host of other things to talk about related to that topic, but as I was not expecting that video to be the final one, I was not prepared. Well, I am prepared now, so start reading.

When you are a child, life is black and white. It’s the good guys versus the bad guys. It’s full of definites and absolutes. As you get older, more mature, life becomes grey. Several shades of grey. Definites become maybes. Absolutes become wishy-washy possibilities. And this is how I see Dark Souls in relation to the Legend of Zelda series. It is not just the obvious visual elements that I observe as being more mature in Dark Souls. Sure, the visuals are more child-like and cartoony in Zelda, and they are more visceral and realistic in Dark Souls, but it goes deeper than that.

It all stemmed from an observation I made when trying to battle my way through skeletons in a graveyard, an area which is a mere stones throw from the starting area in the game. Well, here’s the first analogy, actually. In life, when you are young you do as you are told, you follow the path. Similarly, in Zelda you tackle areas in the order prescribed by the developers. As an adult you have choices. In Dark Souls you have choices. You can take the easy road, up towards the castle-like structure with relatively easy enemies to fight and bumper rewards, or go into the graveyard and fight unforgivingly fast skeletons who don’t take turns in attacking you, and give up next to nothing when killed. Or even better/harder, go down into the dank, dark and flooded ruins of an old city, with slippery, narrow walkways and full of ghostly enemies that under normal circumstances you can’t even hit. Choices.

So these skeletons were tough, and not rewarding me much upon their death. But I persevered, and went deeper, into The Catacombs. Now, down here the skeletons don’t perish once you’ve hacked their health bars to zero – if the necromancer that controls them is still alive, then they re-animate. You could, in theory, soldier on through the seemingly infinite skeleton hordes and kill the necromancers (you do, of course, have choices), and eventually succeed. Or, you could find a certain ember (which is a magical artefact that blacksmiths in this world use to create powerful weapons), which adds a Holy attribute to a weapon of your choice. What does this Holy attribute do? Well, it stops necromancers from reviving their skeletons. You can see why that helps.

ilo milo

By Iain February 3, 2014Reviews, VideogamesNo Comments

This was originally posted on the now-defunct Random Fury! videogame blog.

ilo and milo leave their houses every morning and meet up under the tree in the middle of the local park and eat maple leaf flavoured biscuits, then at night, they head back to their homes. Every day it becomes harder and harder to simply walk to the big tree in the park, because it seems as if someone re-arranges the park at night! It could just as easily be ilo and milo’s failing memories though… And this is roughly where you, the player, step in. Help reunite milo and ilo every day, find their precious mementos such as records and photographs, make new friends along the way, and restore fragments of their memories – maybe you can help them reunite for good?

I love having a great big dose of spacial awareness and I like to think I am adept at creative thinking, so this game was practically made for me. Dollop the delightfully quant art-style on top and I’m sold – Everything is plush, plump and home-made in this game, all the characters look as if they’d be great cushions, but delving into the making-of sketches that are unlocked later reveals a real macabre feeling which oddly enough sits quite nicely with the darkness of the later chapters – some of the blocks have very creepy smiles! The music deserves a mention as well, as it suits the overall tone of the rest of the game perfectly. Played with all the charm of a gifted but amateur brass band who only get to practise together once a month, the main theme sticks in your head long after you’ve walked away from your console. So much so, that the developers realised it is disgustingly catchy, and challenged you to earn an achievement by playing it with the main menu as your instrument.

Anyway, I’m taking far too long to get to the basics of the game, which should really be a priority. But here I am, gushing about comfy cushions and smiling blocks. So, to be reunited, they need to traverse levels made up of six-sided blocks, but their movement is restricted to the plane they are currently on. They can’t jump to lower blocks at all, and without the help of special tool-blocks can only move to a different plane by making use of special carpets. Here’s an advanced concept: Gravity in ilomilo isn’t an internally centralised, pulling force, it exists like the ozone layer, only with gravity instead of ozone, and feels like it pushes down on characters to keep them grounded. It doesn’t so much keep them rooted to the ground by pulling, but presses them against it with a gentle yet constant push, if you get me. Special tool-blocks are the best way to help the friends meet up, and not only using them with the character that collects them, but getting them from ilo to milo are often central to solving each level. These blocks range from stretchy, puppy-dog faced platforms to small, stoic, solitary blocks – from jolly and angelic looking elevator cubes to rusty, grimacing contraptions that burp when they rotate. Each one is so full of character – and for mostly inanimate objects, that’s no mean feat.

Batman: Arkham Origins

By Iain January 19, 2014Reviews, VideogamesNo Comments

This was originally posted on the now-defunct Random Fury! videogame blog.

Caution, there are spoilers ahead.

It’s rare for me to devote time to a videogame near it’s actual release date. Halo is about the only game I play as soon as it appears in my hands – most other videogames are added to a pile of shame (either physical or digital), marked as “pending” and forgotten about for around twelve to twenty-four months. I would say that the only exceptions are games that Jane and I are looking forward to playing together, and the Arkham series of Batman games. Which explains why my thoughts on the latest Batman game, Arkham Origins, is reasonably timely.

I get around to these games quickly because I enjoy them. Batman is as over-powered as ever – as long as you stick to the shadows and make full use of your inventory, that is. And he still packs one hell of a punch – those slow-motion final hits in combat scenarios are one of the defining moments of the series for me. Combat is an area in which this series excels, and it feels a lot tighter than the second game – countering and utilising quickfire gadgets in particular. Another of my favourite bits which no other game seems to do is the little crime scene investigations – Which is really quite ironic as I can’t stand those TV series where they investigate crime scenes. Those programs remind me of the photo enhancement sketch from Red Dwarf. Anyway, I digress. Solving these mysteries is massively improved in this third game simply by making them more believable and interesting. And you can even rewind and fast forward the timeline in the crime reconstruction to find evidence that flies off, for example. A lot of people have mentioned that this game was buggy, but to be honest I only ever encountered one potential “hit that reset button” bug – somehow landing behind a chemical vat and being stuck, but it was quickly solved by the trusty “waggle the sticks and hit the buttons until you are free” technique.

In the previous game I had pretty much levelled up my core skills before starting the main storyline by clearing out the entire map of thugs and goons. I couldn’t do that in this game as clearing the map is impossible – the goons just keep respawning, especially those larger groups which made up the “Crimes In Progress”. These semi-random set-pieces were a genius addition, and could feature anything from a small group of hoods robbing an ATM, to full on street warfare between the SWAT and the various gangs that are trying to claim Gotham for their own. The other reason my usual strategy was not possible was that I was not entirely sure what the main storyline was early on. The ever-respawning enemies is not a bad thing in my eyes, I welcomed it, but for half the game I felt like I was playing side-quests, and that the main storyline proper would begin soon. Then I realised that it must be the main storyline, so stopped following it altogether and cracked on with some side-quests.

Plants Vs Zombies 2: It’s About Change

By Iain January 15, 2014Reviews, VideogamesNo Comments

This was originally posted on the now-defunct Random Fury! videogame blog. Well, that was unexpected. I booted up Plants Vs Zombies 2 earlier today only to find it has undergone an almost complete metamorphosis. Gone is the isometric overworld map, and in it's place is a linear zig-zag of levels. Some which the game has decided I have completed, some…

Costume Quest

By Iain November 22, 2013Reviews, VideogamesNo Comments

This was originally posted on the now-defunct Random Fury! videogame blog. The premise behind Costume Quest is bewitchingly simple: Kids dress up in Halloween costumes which then become hyper-realistic in combat scenarios. For example, one of the costumes is a blue robot. When roaming around the overworld, it appears to be made from a cardboard box, tinfoil and roller-skates -…

Plants Vs Zombies 2: It’s About Grind

By Iain November 8, 2013Reviews, VideogamesNo Comments

This was originally posted on the now-defunct Random Fury! videogame blog. Well, in my original summation I was wrong on both counts as to what the subtitle actually referenced. "It's About Time" quite clearly references the fact that you have to plow some serious man-hours into this game if you want to get anywhere without paying. I did mention in…

Plants Vs Zombies 2: It’s About Time

By Iain October 30, 2013Reviews, VideogamesNo Comments

This was originally posted on the now-defunct Random Fury! videogame blog. I downloaded this for my Nexus 7 last week, and feel like I've only just scratched the surface to be honest - I'm about halfway through full Egypt completion - and Ancient Egypt is only one third of the current game. It's basically more Plants Vs Zombies, but not…

Fez – An imagination without equal

By Iain October 5, 2013Reviews, VideogamesNo Comments

I was going to write a review of Fez. You know, traditional review structure, explain the story, go over the gameplay mechanics, describe the graphics… But in the end, I decided that would be a waste of everyone’s time. Instead, I am going to gush about the place the game is set, and how it is the most complete imaginary world I have ever encountered. even though I know next to nothing about it for sure. The evolution of it’s inhabitants should be first port of call.

This actually blew my mind when I realised it: Gomez’s ancestors, the ones with the tall heads and only one eye – their village was in two dimensions and their rooms couldn’t be rotated. Did they live in two dimensions simply because they only had one eye? If perception is the key to understanding the world, then maybe. It’s like trying to explain the colour red to someone who cannot see! I digress. They eventually evolved into more Gomez-looking creatures but with large, square heads, and most importantly: two eyes. When you go to their village and it is inhabited, it is clearly in three dimensions, with no rooms being neglected like in the tall-head village, or in Gomez’s home village. Now, this is the bit that felt like a penny dropping into place: The space-squids have three eyes, and can travel through folds in space, quite possibly known as the fourth dimension.

A correlation between number of eyes and number of dimensions perceived.

Street Fighter IV: Official Complete Works

By Iain September 5, 2013Books, Creativity, Reviews, VideogamesNo Comments

I recently posted a little review type thing on another Street Fighter art book, Street Fighter: The Complete History, and it featured a very broad range of Capcom’s internal artists. This, on the other hand, is mostly the work of one man. Ikeno.

It was those gorgeous character select screen portraits by Ikeno that made me look more carefully at the art of Street Fighter IV. Those subtle, overlapping brush-strokes, the vibrant and diverse colours which interweave to give the images warmth and life. The masterful way that faces and leading hands are super-detailed, but everything that is not a natural focal point recede into concept art-like quality. Compared to the dodgy character select screen portraits in the original Street Fighter II – it’s not only indicative of the power increase in consoles nowadays, but also the care and attention to detail that is required in AAA videogame titles. An interesting bit of trivia: the aforementioned portraits were created with the in-game 3D models. Sadly, these models lacked the requisite amount of detail, so Ikeno painted over them. You may think this is cheating, but the 3D models are based on Ikeno’s original sketches and designs, and very closely resemble them, so it comes full circle.

Street Fighter: The Complete History

By Iain September 2, 2013Books, Creativity, Reviews, VideogamesNo Comments

Hi. David got me this book a while back now, and I have been wanting to write about it for ages. While the main focus is art from Street Fighter II, the book starts with Street Fighter and before it ends up at Street Fighter IV it covers Street Fighter Alpha, Final Fight, the X-Men/Marvel vs. Street Fighter/Capcom series, the Capcom vs. SNK games and even goes into the professional EVO fighting tournaments and Chun-Li cosplay. But as I said, it’s main focus is art from Street Fighter II, and that is where this book excels. It surely includes the promo art for every character in every iteration of SFII, tonnes of concept and design pieces, and every single group shot I can ever recall seeing.

It takes in every style: The dorky and awkward original portraits before the fighters personalities had been properly defined. The boldly-lined block colour pictures where all the characters are “attacking” the canvas from Street Fighter II Turbo (you can tell it’s Turbo because everyone is in their alternate colour by default). The younger and wilder anime-style illustrations from the Alpha series. The grittier, more angular style from Street Fighter III. It also very briefly features some of the captivating sumi-e art from Street Fighter IV, with ink flying everywhere. The book also includes a lot of fan-art and art by non-Capcom artists, a neat way of showing the vast ocean of people who love and are inspired by the imaginative characters of the series.

My only problem with the book is that it is a little bit scattershot. I would’ve preferred the artworks to be more organised – via game, artist or character, for example. But to be honest, it is such a small, meaningless complaint, as by browsing through the book, you are encountering art you would not necessarily expect, or be seeking.

Now, enough of the book itself. It finally put names to the artists who drew these amazing pictures of the characters I have loved for twenty years, so it’s time for me to gush like a silly little fanboy and praise them to bits. Here are three of my favourite Street Fighter artists, with a brief description of their art-style.