Criticisms and other heavier things

A problem of Space

It’s been awhile since I have been really upset about something. Granted, I consider myself a pretty angry person whenever something turns my emotions upside down, or pushes all the wrong buttons within me, or just doesn’t sit right in my head, but it’s been a long time since those things happened.

I wouldn’t have imagined myself getting upset over this, however, and that problem is the seemingly endless problem of overcrowded buses and trains.

There is no surprise that Singapore is becoming more congested by the years. An increasing number of foreign workers and immigrants in the country doesn’t look like it’s letting up, and there is no doubt that has contributed in some sense to the lack of space on public transport vehicles. But it seems there’s a deeper issue at work here, something not easily solved by one single policy or measure.

For years, the Government has been promoting the merits and advantages that an increase in population would provide to the nation. Not least of which, it has pushed the agenda of increasing foreign talent as a contributor to building just a sheer number of people within our shores. It is a logical progression and, to be rather honest, consistent with current practices of modern governments. In order to fill up desperately needed gaps within the ‘engine’ of Singapore’s industries that local people can’t fill, foreign talent must come into the picture.

What gaps are those? For one, the information technology landscape looks to be one arena where few Singaporeans have chosen as their battlefield of choice. And if the information technological field is stagnant, the computer programming field is a literal blind spot. Much as the Singapore Infocomm technology federation keeps fostering the community, they have failed to attract the people that would arguably the most integral, the youth and young adults who would otherwise be brought into a information technology career early on, but would not see the appeal.

We shall see how the many scholarships offered to outstanding Infocomm polytechnic students will pan out, but if stories about IT professionals getting salaries akin to pittances compared to the bankers’, lawyers’, the more appealing professions’.

The quality of the work and the sophistication offered by our homegrown IT people will reflect the trend. Companies like the HPs and the Blackberries of the world will then find it hard pressed to find the people necessary for their implementations. Singapore’s much protected and precious endeavors to build the proverbial Global Village will severely go the way of the Titanic.

In order to keep maintaining these integral industries, of which many others hinge on for the technological edge, there is an active need to fill these posts with external support aka foreign talent. These IT professionals with a deep, entrenched struggle for career opportunities back in their home countries will be more than happy to oblige.

Now, what about lower income job positions, like construction work, shipyard and offshore work? That’s a different consideration, given that it’s even more unlikely Singaporeans are not going to flock to these jobs. Higher educated Singaporeans are getting pushed to do the higher level jobs like Administration or Sales, largely because of the disparity of linguistic and literacy ability. This leads to an insatiable demand for foreign workers, and they aren’t going anywhere in the near future.

The main question is with management, a wise and effective way to equip for or at least be future-proofed for a heavier populated country.

There are two ways (out of many) we can lead ourselves ahead in that regard:

1. Bigger trains, bigger flats, bigger public areas, bigger event halls, bigger everything… What better way is there to combat overcrowding than to make everything more spacious? It is clear our current infrastructures aren’t going to last any longer if four or more totally filled buses can pass by and not stop for passengers. That is not acceptable and a clear sign that our buses aren’t enough. Same goes for the trains.

Some other places aren’t as bad, but the critical places where the masses are at aren’t fitting the bill. Places at prominent spots in Orchard Road should be bigger, with corridors and lobbies that are appropriately designed to fit more than double the numbers we see today. The nation’s population is doubling but the public places just aren’t.

2. What about more frequent public transport services?

Buses and trains coming often should be the rule and not the exception. If private businesses can adjust the frequency of their services and the length of their hours, why can’t public transport companies. They get a chance at higher revenues and the number of jobs could also be further expanded. More buses would mean more drivers, and that would certainly be an outlet for more foreign drivers to step in.

What can be faulted when there could be no downside other than a larger cost of employing and maintaining a greater number of drivers. If that means less frustration for commuters and congestion within public transport, there’s a good chance critics would have one less issue to make a fuss about.

The thing about employing policies to achieve one’s objectives can be a myopic approach to things, however. But more often than not these small measures are beneficial. It is these things that help smooth out all the rough edges, and soon, bigger and more substantial solutions will start to surface.

New bottlenecks will come forth, I’m sure, but they will be inevitable given the scarcity and exhaustive nature of land space. There just isn’t enough space to rise together with the exponentially increasing economic richness of our nation. But I guess those things will be next on the agenda. The Government should be ready to prove their worth soon enough.

NBA 2K13 is like a second time All-Star, it still needs a little push…

Lets talk about some Basketball shall we? You might agree or disagree with me, but does anyone appreciate how athletic the game is, all within the limited space of the court (relative to a hockey rink or soccer field), or how the moves are allowed to be as fluid as it can be, governed by the constraints of the dribbling and ball movement rules. It would be easy to consider all of this, with a total disregard of the other aspects, and yet the shooting and hand-eye coordination skills of the game are just important as anything else.

Now let us take a closer look at NBA 2K13. Accurate game mechanics, check, realistic ball movement physics, check, a rule system that does not favor incessant hitting of the steal button or blatant blocking of layup lanes to stop fast breaks. Those are clear signs of a franchise’s maturity, and the natural next-step for the virtual-Basketball genre.  

Now, what about the almost godlike accuracy of your AI opponents, that leads to highly unlikely shot percentages…or the almost unstoppable momentum-based fast break comebacks that will wreck all big leads (I’m looking at you, Milwaukee) into empty vestiges of earlier quarters?

Thankfully, there are the online modes, where you get to play against human opponents, and the human efforts to score will be hard earned and deserving, but one can’t help but lament about what a pity it is to have such subtle imbalances ruin an otherwise beautiful show of athleticism on the virtual court.

Granted, it has improved a lot on the realism front since last year. The gameplay actually emphasizes a tactical approach to the game this time, and open jumpers actually stand for something. The presence of a shooting opponent’s vicinity actually affects shot accuracy as much as jumping up to block. Player momentum actually favors clear driving lanes to create more secure layups or dunks.

When Derrick Rose, or Kevin Durant, or the almighty Kobe goes up to the rim, though, all of this can be thrown out the window immediately, as their 90+ shot averages rule supreme.  And those 90+ stats on the player attributes become the written word instead of the preordained gameplay code that makes the game tick. Against these All-Star players, all realism is rendered useless and you will be flailing helplessly against the AI opponent’s godlike dunks or pull-up threes.

One thing can be said for this: 2K Sports likes overwhelming momentum in numbers a little too much for comfort. Or so it seems, as you see the opponent team score break after impossible break, after outrageous stops.

But it does look and feel like substantial effort was made to keep the action realistic and enjoyable, building a lead actually works like the real game would a majority of the gameplay, and the achievement of doing so drives on a player to play more, making it a great point of addiction to the game. And that translates to the online play – although the lag is noticeable at times, and button presses take a little longer than usual to initiate on-screen action, the online component is surprisingly playable on the Wii U, despite having the sheer disadvantage of having the sparsest online community of all the top consoles right now. If you can actually get a friend going for an online match, it can be great wits-against-wits action. You just need decent latency to reap the results of your hesitations, jukes and cruel pump fakes, and experience a whole new world of competition and replayability.

Good utilization of the Wii U gamepad to select the formations and tactics is an added bonus, and it actually does form a certain strategic battle mentality where you could, potentially, counter pick formations or tactics to properly neuter the opponent’s choices. However, the ugly parts of having your smirk wiped out by the Boston Celtics after seeing a fourth quarter 20 point lead get erased cannot be ignored.

And certainly 2K Sports need to address this for next year, because it wouldn’t be this pretty then.  

A little too much Dark side but it’s fun. (Darksiders 2)

Games on the Wii U are hard to come by, now that the launch period has possibly died down, and the gamer community has began to clamor for new releases. However, there are always one or two of those titles that somehow go under the radar, and people overlook them.

One good reason is, most obviously, that they are small budget or niche titles. But it seems the monetary limitations of the average customer essentially restricts the number of titles one could perhaps rein in with the purchase of a new console.

So, lets just get it out of the way: Darksiders 2 for the Wii U is a worthy purchase for the new purchaser, or at least should be factored into consideration. Vigil’s Darksiders was a breakout hit, widely regarded as a unique throwback to the Zelda franchise, and Tomb Raider, and even Diablo, a reflection of it’s action RPG roots, tinged with puzzle-based levels that require a fair bit of brainpower to conquer.

The gameplay is purely action-adventure faire, as you navigate as Death, one of the fabled Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, one of the last Nephilim, the much popularized combination of angel and demon (see DMC: Devil may Cry, if you aren’t tired of the concept), set out on a quest to free his brother, War, from his crimes against his own kind and hopefully resurrect humanity. Plunged into the Forge lands, an interesting world of perilous heights, and all of the sudden you get to experience action gaming that starts to grow on you.

The story may be convoluted and, at its worst, a blatant excuse to throw you through themed stages of challenge, but the level design is stellar, with obvious decisions to create consistency with the vines and the stylized (befitting of a Nephilim, of course) wall-running, along with the surprisingly good combo system that favors choosing between heavy and light attacks for maximum tactical superiority. While the combat does evolve at times into a mashing exercise in the mid to later stages, new combat moves and brand new mob introductions allow for a decent amount of variation and tactical adjustment.

But don’t be looking for a super-meta-deep combat system, as the stage puzzles, often involving levers and keys to solve the bulk, are the main draw. Being able to find the right levers to pull will require your smarts, and the logical (yet surreal, which is amazing) flow of how the levels go begin to present itself an epic paradigm where you feel a sense of achievement finding the solution.

But what pulled the game down to tedious degrees are the copious amounts of those same puzzles, a simple principle of “having too much of a good thing can be bad.” A few hours of similarly designed puzzles can be troublesome and make you want to fling that controller, but there doesn’t seem much of a reward for conquering them as well, given the sometimes overly longwinded cut-scenes.     

Simply put, the story and puzzles do get a little long in the tooth at some point, but for a gaming experience to be had, where some of the best level puzzles do exist, it is a must-play for the action adventure fan. If you have an even sparser gaming library to choose from, like in the case of the Wii U, it is pretty much a must-buy launch title to pick up. The option to select items and skills from the Wii U gamepad actually goes beyond the usual extent of novelty to be one of the sticking points of the experience.

Sonic and All-Stars Transformed Racing

Like many universe-spanning spinoff racers, Sonic and All-Stars transformed racing was patterned to ride upon the waves of fandom, to win hopefully with nostalgia, and possibly to bring with it fresh entertainment.

Some fail terribly, but if there’s any real triumph, Sonic Racing does have underlying soul that is surprisingly deep and that will keep you grinding those wheels long after clearing that last racing stage,  all while deliver some of the most fun entertainment this side of gaming.

It doesn’t veer to the side of realism in the vein of the Gran Turismos or the Forza Motorsports, to be frank, but it allows gamers to live out their fantasies of being Sonic The Hedgehog in a racing car that can boost to inhuman speeds, or tranform into a speedboat, or into a demon-fast plane.

Mario Kart, it ain’t, however, because it feels more sophisticated and more attuned to the sleeker (as opposed to cuter) sensibilities of gaming. First of all, the graphics look amped to 11, with a mature style that pops and attracts with beautiful hues, and on the Full HD enabled Wii U, there is serious competition for Nintendo’s own first party properties in the looks department.

Also. If there is any tinge of primitive awkwardness in Mario Kart’s simplicity. Sonic Racing actually touts gameplay that favors a more pronounced strategic use of its power-ups. Speed Boosts wrongly taken jeopardizes a well-worked lead as much as crash-outs, and racers most definitely need to master the use of the weapons to acquire all the race stars in the game.

The replay value of the game almost works itself in from there. Numerous multiplay modes push this game into party-game greatness, and yet it still remains infinitely playable for the casual single player with single races and their themed variants. Ring races and Drift challenges actually help put to test the skills needed to conquer the career mode to utmost completion, which works to every good design points on many levels. Unlockable characters are tangible incentives, as they flow over seamlessly into the more singular modes, open for selection when they are unlocked.

It even tops Nintendo’s own racing offerings with superior level design. There are few instances where conscious design decisions do not simultaneous ratchet up the situational difficulty levels. Every floor-based boost pad is there for a reason and for that, Sega absolutely deserves applause. If anything, this is the one aspect that can show slack and negilence in a developer, and Sega has gone way beyond in ensuring that isn’t the case.

Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed has earned its stripes and most certainly the attention.

Good way to spend 2013 away if you are a fight fan (Game Review: UFC UNDISPUTED 3 for PS3)

At this point, reviewing an official UFC game is like reviewing the new Madden, nothing else on the market competes because there are simply no other meaningful claims to the throne. At the same time, they can be rampant with rehashed elements from what came before, making them some of the most difficult games to review.  With Undisputed 3 however, the fans have no reason to hate.

The action still feels as authentic to the feel of Mixed Martial Arts, which, while it tends to prioritize its grappling mechanics more, is still the best in the business. The hit detection engine has good feedback, and really sticks in good satisfying connections on strikes, complete with blurs for critical hits. The transition system on the ground and standing-up grapples create good maneuverability to open up more dominant positions. The strategic possibilities and variables open up by themselves, and with an attribute point system, diversify even more.

Add the fact that the roster is bigger than ever, and that’s how Undisputed 3 keeps the replay value almost infinitely high. Every weight-class, along with the inclusion of the downloadable Alistair Overeem and other unlockable characters, is well represented, and the striker-grappler matchups have greater variability and fan-novelty as a result. Brock lesnar going up against Alistair will give you genuine memories of UFC 141, sprinkling more fan-service onto the mix.

But that bodes well for the franchise, particularly in the online modes, with a greater incentive to carry on competing, almost to a conventional fighting-game degree. And if that’s not enough, a ranked online mode gives players some serious bragging rights to throw around.

With that in mind, it’s understandable that two of the most prominent inclusions here aim towards adding to the community numbers. The amateur grappling controls provide greater ease towards countering and forcing transitions, but have a tougher time dealing with major transitions. The Pride rule-set (along with an equally legit roster to complement UFC’s) allows head stomps, and makes knockdowns more intimidating.

Side-control elements almost always favors the advanced controls, creating some annoyance for first-time players, but it also forces a need to improve one’s reading and transitioning skills, essentially making the experience more comprehensive in its purposes. Blocking body shots becomes more critical here as well. There is a clear sense of consequence here, which rewards practice and a dog-headed persistence to learn.

It is the closest to a perfect UFC/mixed martial arts experience, and being more accessible to the beginners really adds to its range, making this a worthy purchase for just about any fan or fighting game aficionado. With the news of having no follow-up in 2013, there is no reason to pass up on UFC Undisputed 3. You will be playing this deep into 2013. 

The Walking Dead (a TellTale Games Adventure)

Probably everyone has heard how good The Walking Dead is at some point, given the plentiful accolades it has garnered over the past year, including, most importantly, The Game of Year 2012 distinction. But surely not everyone knows exactly why, if they haven’t played it, which is what makes Telltale Games’ ongoing episodic game the greatest breakout hit in recent times.

If anyone can make an adventure game with this much pull, one has to pay attention. Based on Robert Kirkman’s blistering apocalyptic comic book series, the game has the same moral difficulties and human problems governing almost every major decision you make in the game, that you take to hopefully survive. Much like Garth Ennis’ Comic series Preacher did in creating moral sacrilege, The Walking Dead utilizes the push and pull of human circumstances and choices within a dangerous and malignant world.

Telltale games know exactly what they were aiming for by adopting a point and click interface, with a more relaxed approach for the involved action sequences.  Every single button clearly indicated on the screen reflects what you will say and do, taking the focus off the interface and knee-deep into the story instead, immersing you in probably the best story experience of the year. After just one episode, anyone who just happened to stumble in will most likely find it tough to stop till the ending credits of the last episode roll. A good 5-hour investment into the game will accomplish that.

But what an intense, exhilarating few hours they will be, placed into the shoes of Lee Everett, a convicted killer before the proverbial apocalyptic incident. Once you meet Clementine, a little girl whose parents went missing (but not hopeless, as one quickly finds out), you get sucked fully into the task of making sure she’s safe. Coupled with a sweet innocent outlook, Clementine, as is obviously purposed by the developers, will tug at your heartstrings to the point of intense emotion and sometimes-irrational concern, right to the climatic ending of the last episode.

No small feat, and a testament to their namesake, Telltale knows how to get the best writers on the job to create twists and tragic turns in the story designed to make the gamer bawl to no easy end. The pacing is rarely arduous, nor is the action unnecessary, and the puzzles placed into the mix are up there with the most inventive. So, if anyone has any doubt about the completeness of quality in The Walking Dead, they will be quickly proven wrong in the most jaw-dropping way. The story in which almost everyone in the cast has to stand at a cruel crossroad between life and death while surrounded by the most horrible beings will be there to hook the skeptics as well, and hook them in viciously good.    

Get the game and play it if you have not. I used to think this would be a great adventure game, but screw that; this is just gaming at its heart-tugging best. 

One of the best Marios yet

It’s a new Mario platformer, and with that the idea of what the game’s about comes to mind immediately, but Nintendo still gets you in and entertains you the whole way through. It’s yet another sublime Nintendo moment.

A strange way of looking at a game it is, but when it comes to Nintendo it is certainly a viable viewpoint.  With this new Super Mario title, the good times just keep rolling, and the small nuggets of pure enjoyment ensue. One could see how the title was designed to look killer to sell the system to new adopters.

Every level looks tailored to look brilliant on the true HD capabilities of the new console, and every single design decision feels thought out as in previous games. Except, the jumping controls and movement mechanics feel a tad difficult this time around; accident fast jumps into lava and unwanted trigger jumps off the side of ledges can be fatal and, as a result, a little too frustrating for the beginner.

The same attractive platforms exist, along with some devilishly creative ones, the lowering ones submerged with lava being an example, combine to give the player a taut challenge. That, by itself, looks like an indication of a perfect Mario experience, but there is still a lingering concern that the accidental control triggers contributed to the unwanted death count while traversing the already perilous levels.  

In other cases, the new spin jump modifier, along with the woeful but rather useful Squirrel suit, does provide a better hope of getting past the ever changing, and in some cases, ever rotating platforms. So it’s a difficult tossup between controls that get in the way and an ingenuous scheme that manages to give the gameplay that much-needed flavor and variety.

When that gameplay gets accompanied with trademark Nintendo music and some of the most attractive Nintendo graphics to date, it’s hard to ignore the nostalgia, but they actually heightened the bar of level design here. If any developer knows how to create difficulty without being overly treacherous it is Nintendo. Every single combination of obstacles and enemy is concocted almost down to a science, and that makes clearing them ever more exhilarating, part of the appeal.

So, without a doubt, this is the launch game you should aim to get along with your new Wii U, no questions asked. It’s a new Mario platformer, after all, and one that echoes the best in the series, that is, if you can endure the difficult bosses (including Bowser of course) and levels with dogged determination. 

Resident Evil 6 (for PS3)

Granted, the survival horror genre is not a heavily populated one, but whenever Capcom releases another Resident Evil, it is Christmas all over again. It is after all one of the first critical successes in the genre; the first game paving a lot of the way, and the follow-up being the one that made it all sexy. Resident Evil 4, later on, showed how to pile on the tension without letting up.

Resident Evil 6 was a culmination of all those elements, brought together in a game that clearly takes itself seriously, in every aspect. Just the first few moments of Leon’s campaign do you feel the urgency of the zombie apocalypse, RE-4-style intense moments that draw you into the reality that perhaps you should start stepping up your gaming chops quickly. There is a long journey ahead, and three campaigns from three different viewpoints are just what you can expect.

Relentless are the sequences, and the narratives, and the set areas you have to play through. The combat controls are a derivative from Resident Evils that have gone by and are perhaps most similar to Resident Evil 2’s but with an over the shoulder perspective much like Resident Evil 5’s. So, the story actually feels amplified because of the sublime controls and the more personal perspective you get.

It is reminiscent of the control scheme of the last game, but the writing and the frequency and placement of the enemies are where it all brings RE6 far above RE5, in which piss-poor storytelling and pacing ruined the experience. RE6 has those classic RE moments that define and it is a polished package to boot. But this doesn’t mean RE6 doesn’t have its flaws, it does, the silly button pressing sequences where you will die a lot due to failure…. of not pressing a certain button are an example. But these design decisions do help create a better experience involving obstacles that retch up the tension of the action, so it was a necessary evil, pun intended.

If you are star-ving for some survival horror, and you want to kill zombies with pleasure while still experiencing the sublime game values familiar with the current generation, Resident Evil fits the bill perfectly.