Category Archives: Video Games

Uncategorized, Video Games

Why Did The Twist in Knights of the Old Republic Work?

Leave a comment
God grant me the ability to pull off bald as well as Malak does, I'm going to need it in the next few years.

or

PLEASE DO NOT ADAPT KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC

In the post-Rise of Skywalker era of Star Wars, fans frequently call for the return of material from the Expanded Universe (EU) or Legends. Dissatisfaction with where ROS left the story has left fans eager to revisit material from an age when they were happy with Star Wars. This sentiment has only grown with the work of uber-fan Dave Filoni and his Mando-verse, which has reintroduced favorite Legends characters into canon. Recently, for example, Ahsoka brought Grand Admiral Thrawn to live action.

As Filoni works through the top of the “Disney Please Canonize” list, and ignores the ones that aren’t compatible with the new canon (Dash Rendar and Mara Jade will live on forever in our hearts), the calls regarding Knights of the Old Republic into the canon have been consistent and loud. Beyond bringing the game into canon, something we might anticipate if the remake ever actually comes out(and have optimism for, as KOTOR characters continue to appear in Action Figure form, and star in the mobile gacha game Galaxy of Heroes), fans have repeatedly expressed an interest in adapting Knights of the Old Republic into a Disney Plus series or a movie.

KOTOR is on my personal Mt. Rushmore of favourite games. Alongside Homeworld, it is forever near or at the top of said list, with the other two spots probably shifting in and out of a broader list of mostest-favouritest games depending on my mood. Star Wars itself has always had an outsized footprint in my psyche. I grew up on the X-Wing novels, playing the Decipher card game and, of course, many Star Wars Video Games. Rebellion, Shadows of the Empire, Rogue Squadron, Racer, X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter, Jedi Academy, and quite a few more.

However, KOTOR rose above the rest. My nostalgia undoubtedly obscures my vision to its flaws and creakiness, and I suspect that had I played them back-to-back (especially with the Restored Content Mod), KOTOR 2 may have exceeded the original in my estimation. You might call it The Last Jedi to KOTOR’s Force Awakens, and I mean that as a compliment to both games. But KOTOR stands alone in my mind as the pinnacle of the many, many, many attempts to bring Star Wars into the video game medium.

I’m going to beg for an extended pardon for what is to be a lot of generalization to come in this section. If I refer to something as being the opinion of a group of people, I do so only to illustrate a point. For example:

When asked about what makes KOTOR so great, some fans will give specific answers. And I agree that the soundtrack IS great, the characters ARE well realized, and, despite being in a fully 3D game rather than its usual home of isometric pseudo-3D, the DnD based combat IS well balanced and interesting. The fans who offer these answers are likely doing so in an attempt to give a non-vanilla answer to the question immediately after giving such a common answer to the “What’s your favourite game of all time?” question that spurred it. However, much like KOTOR, vanilla is a GREAT flavour, and saying so does not make you boring. The vanilla answer to what makes KOTOR so great is, of course, the “Story”.

“Why the scare quotes around story there?” I hear you ask. I’m glad you asked, rhetorical reader, because it’s the whole point I’ll be attempting to make here. Despite KOTOR being one of my favourite games ever, and despite my undying love of all things Star Wars (I consumed ALL of Book of Boba Fett AND Obi Wan like I skipped breakfast AND lunch), I do not want Disney to adapt KOTOR. Not as a live action series, not as a comic book, not as a movie, not as a trilogy of YA novels, and not as a Dave Filoni-produced animated series. The why is also why I think the twist in KOTOR worked. If you have somehow made it this far into my weird blog post about this 20-year-old video game, don’t know the major twist, but ARE interested playing in this game, go play it! It’s been ported to mobile devices and you can get it for the Switch, or for almost nothing on Steam, and I clearly recommend you do so. Okay, spoiler warning issued.

Continue reading Why Did The Twist in Knights of the Old Republic Work? →
Video Games

Thirty Flights of Loving

Leave a comment

Some games have blown my mind with the quality of their storytelling. Braid’s clever use of familiar cliches told us about how perspective changes everything. Red Dead Redemption told us an amazing tale worthy of Leone. Metal Gear Solid 3 made you pull the trigger on Naked Snake’s mentor, the best use of integrating gameplay into storytelling I’ve ever seen. But I’ve never come across anything like Thirty Flights of Loving. To be fair, I’ve never come across anything else labelled a “Video Game Short Story” either, but Thirty Flights of Loving’s storytelling prowess isn’t fundamentally anchored to its gameplay(or lack-thereof) structure. It’s a proof of concept. It’s not hard to imagine adapting the cinematic jump-cut style of storytelling to a game with adventure mechanics, and a creative designer could adapt them elsewhere. TFoL opens with you descending down a staircase into a bar. You are immediately given a taste of Chung’s quirky style of humour; Mecha-Presidente, Prohibition License, and so forth. As a long time Blendo Games fan, I love this quirky stuff. I’d also recommend checking out the turn-based Homeworld-type game “Flotilla” for more of this, along with a brilliant game.

The music playing sets the mood perfectly. Its tinny nature puts us in the past. This is the kind of bar you are intimately familiar with, despite the fact that you’ve never been in one. You pull a lever disguised as a photo and descend into a hideout. A plethora of cliches assault you. A giant map, boxes of bullets, two compatriots. Interacting with them begins a series of flashes that quickly establishes everything you need to know about the situation. You are part of a crew, these are your partners in crime, they each have specialized roles. But at the end there’s something else. Caterer? Best Man? Whose wedding is this? Was it a job, or something else? Are there social bonds in this crew that go beyond our business? It’s hard to say. You advance to the whimsical aircraft, and are suddenly transported to a room, with your female teammate clicking an empty gun at you, covered in blood, with the game’s title flashed over the screen.

Thirty-Flights-of-Loving-Blendo-GamesDo you have questions? Does my summary so far seem insufficient? Then play this game.

Continue reading Thirty Flights of Loving →

Movies, Rants, Video Games

Mystery

Leave a comment

Ever since it became public a few days ago, I cannot stop watching the trailer for Metal Gear Solid V. Every time, I search for the new clue that will unlock what’s going on. Are the super natural beings helping or hunting Big Boss? The first thing we see out of place in the gameplay trailer is someone who looks suspiciously like Psycho Mantis. Are the super natural things, all of which resemble things from Big Boss’ past, merely the result of Psycho Mantis digging into his subconsciousness?  My good friend Nick and I have been discussing this trailer at length, pausing at moments and analyzing what we see. The scarred face man doesn’t have a tattoo on the back on his head, so he likely isn’t Hot Coldman. If Ground Zeroes opens with the infiltration of the Cuban base, and Mother Base gets raided while Big Boss is infiltrating the Cuban Base, then you likely play someone other than Big Boss during Ground Zeroes. I wondered why I couldn’t stop watching this trailer and dissecting it, then I remembered the last time Nick and I did something like this.

Continue reading Mystery →

Rants, Video Games

Mass Effect 3(Dialogue Wheel 6)

Leave a comment

In case you didn’t guess, Spoilers Ahead:

I’m not writing about Mass Effect 3 to complain about the ending. There’s been enough said about the subject that I don’t feel like I have much to add. Except that there is one logic behind the madness: DLC.

With Shepard dead, and no Mass Relays left, Bioware can write DLC that fits onto all save games. Characters can refer to the indefinite article “Shepard”, none of the crew will know exactly what happened, and you can have non-Shepard adventures on this convenient jungle world. The only thing bioware has to do to make the DLC specific to your own Shepard is change some lines, change which charaters are around. Without access to the galaxy at large, we cannot see the broad outcome of our actions.

Like I said, though, I’m not writing to talk about the ending. I need to preface this by saying that until now, I’ve been a huge fan of the dialogue wheel Bioware games. I never played the Dragon Age games, but Knights of the Old Republic remains one of my favourite games, as does its sequel. Jade Empire was an awesome game, and I was all about the Mass Effect games at first. I consider all 6 games to be a part of the same progression.

Continue reading Mass Effect 3(Dialogue Wheel 6) →