In The Game Grinder: Mafia

     You play Tommy Angelo, a down-on-his-luck cab driver trying to make ends meet. One night, you inadvertently rescue two of Don Salieri's henchman. In a bid to show he takes care of his friends, Salieri hands you a wad of money, with an offer for more work. Tommy find this to be an offer he just can't refuse. 
      I have been playing the game Mafia, after it's recent appearance on a ludicrously cheap Steam sale. Mafia is a game I owned in the past, and remember playing it quite a bit. After the steam sale, which I also picked up Mafia II and all of it's DLC, I decided to play the original, before attempting the apply named sequel.
     Mafia was released in 2002 by Gathering of Developers.  Gathering was a 1998 initiative to allow developers control over their IPs (Intellectual Properties), while maintaining a relationship with a publisher. A precursor to the current Indie movement. It was developed by the Czech company, Illusion Softworks.  Mafia is one of those games that tried to do a lot, and accomplished quite a bit, but was sadly overshadowed by grander AAA titles, most notably Grand Theft Auto III, which was the revolution in the GTA series.

The Falconer based loosely on the 1930 Studebaker Dictator

     Much of Mafia is easily comparable to the GTA series. You drive around completing missions for the Salieri mob, which sometimes requires you to drive, sometimes it requires you to get out of the car.

     Mafia takes place in the fictional city of Lost Heaven during the 1930's. The cars are period specific and are fictional (like GTA) but mimic real world counterparts. You may not instantly recognize them, but you can see that they are real life models. Unlike GTA, however, Mafia uses a much more realistic physics engine, making it more like a simulation than the Arcade like GTA. The physics, performance, and damage models are much more realistic. This is where the age old question of: Do you sacrifice realism for game-play?  Imagine chugging up the Gulianno Bridge in your 1920's era auto barely reaching 20mph. It makes for a long drive and it can be a bit frustrating. And you better keep the speed limit around town or you will get the attention of the police (there is even a key that keeps your car under 40). And the police in New Heaven are true professionals, and quickly coordinate their pursuits. It also doesn't help that your car barely cracks 40mph.  Also, the realistic damage models that are present in Mafia quickly erodes your cars already lackluster-yet-accurate performance. After only a few collisions, or 1 head on collision, you will find your car out of action. This can be frustrating on courier missions, where your mission will end unsuccessfully if your car is out of action.
     Where Mafia truly shines, is in its storytelling. Mafia tells a tight, though slightly cliched, mob story. Every part of the game effectively enhances the story being told. The setting of Lost Heaven in the mid-1930's is perfect. The areas range from grimy low rent districts to the neo-classical shine of the down town buildings. The buzz of the cars on the streets and the pedestrians idly strolling buy make this a living breathing city. The music also greatly enhances Mafia. Period specific music is played during the driving sequences and cut scenes. The music in the game includes ragtime, jazz, and blues. And expertly done. I found myself be-bopping once our twice to the wonderful ragtime while driving around Lost Heaven. The voice acting is top notch and uses a number of actors from the HBO Series The Sapronos. The dialogue is spot on, and the action sequences are satisfying. The graphics, are still respectable by today's standards


All in all, this is a wonderful game, which has its hiccups, but tells an excellent story worthy of Martin Scorsese or  Marlon Brando.

The Death of Promikas

This is not so much as the death of a happy blue Draenei Mage. This is more about the death of a World of Warcraft (WoW) player. One simple man's testament as to why I no longer log on and play WoW. What brought this on was an email I received this morning from a dear WoW friend. It was offering me a bounty of things to come back and play WoW, but even the goodies (one character to Max 80, Free Realm Change, among others) the tug to return to Azeroth was brief. I have not played WoW in 8 months, and have no desire to return. I left WoW with my arms crossed across my chest, feeling betrayed. Not betrayed by members in my Guild, they were all swell chums, but by the designers of WoW themselves. But first, let me share my history in Azeroth with you.
In 2005, I first set foot in the World of Warcraft Universe. I logged on and created a Warlock Character by the name of Beowyn. Beowyn and I explored the reaches of the Eastern kingdoms. We marveled at Stormwind, we trudged through Goldshire (this was before it became a joke) and we even teamed up with some random folks to kill that pesky Hogger. Beowyn and I traveled for a while together. Then, in the Deadmines, I fell in with some rather nice folks. They recruited me in their guild, The Onyx Warlords, and I felt comfortable with them. They were nice folks, Gisagny, Torque, and Bubbacat. We chatted about the game as we ground our way to level 40. We got to know each other as we hoarded our gold for our first mount. We became friends as we traveled to Kalimdor and explored its treacherous shores. Those were good times. But like all things, peoples lives changed, and the guild fizzled and I was drawn to the dark side.
Palthu was born out of a desire to do some role playing. I joined an RP server and set up my own RP Guild. I was also dating one of the Guild members at the time (we were not introduced through WoW). The Durotar Trading Alliance was a fun, but relatively short lived guild, as it proved to be too difficult to keep everyone together, and the RP aspect became too much work. Regardless, I continued to play and even started a new main character on another RP server.
Malous had arrived as another attempt to RP in WoW. By this time, griefers were starting to appear, and the experience wasn't quite as rewarding. But, I had formed some friendships in the guild, and they prompted me to keep playing. This was when I first realized that something had changed in Azeroth and WoW. The Burning Crusade had been released and we were all trying to get to 60 so we could experience the new content. I was a member in a new guild, and we were getting along fine. But then things started to change directions. "You must be attuned to get X key so you can enter X dungeon for our Raid on Thursday". Where did the wonder of exploration go, the fun of completing a quest chain? Why did it feel more like I had taken on a second job instead of playing a relaxing past time? I left WoW for the first time in June, 2007
Oddly enough, it was through work that I returned to WoW. I had met a couple of co-workers at my new job that played WoW. They were telling me the wonders of the new expansion pack: The Wrath of the Lich King. I rushed up to the store and bought the expansion and quickly began a new character: Promikas. Prom (as he had become known) began his voyage as a young mage with the help of some co-worker friends. But it wasn't until he met up with a human priest, a member of The Irish. He was quickly recruited and I made a number of good friends within that guild. Not only did I love the members of the guild, but the content in Lich King was amazing. Rich with lore, visually amazing. And just play fun. Everything about WotLK was fun. the daily quests, the raids, the gear. I was learning everything that I needed to know about my character. And this guild was helpful. When the GM retired (after getting married), I followed a core of my 'guildies' to (eventually) Clan of the Fire Dragon. Another great guild. We were working our way up to defeat the Lich King himself when something terrible happened.

Cataclysm was released.

At first, there was great promise. We returned to Kalimdor to wage war with Deathwing and his elemental minions. It started pretty well, but something had changed. It seemed that the designers of WoW wanted to do two things at once. One, make the game more accessible to new players, and Two, make the game far more difficult for advanced players. Innovative new ways to be introduced to the game were set into the early stages of the game. When you would level up, the game was nice enough to tell you what you had earned. It was much easier to get good gear, and the quest destinations even appeared on your HUD.
Part two is what ruined the game for me. To make the game more difficult, the designers relied on converting what made the beginning of the game easier, and just did the opposite for the later parts of the game. Gear was difficult and required immense grinding to get. You couldn't even get into some dungeons with out the right gear score. Respawns were changed to incredibly short time, so after fighting through countless mobs, I would quickly be spawned on, and subsequently killed. Everything about the game became a grind. The new locations were boring and uninspired. They took me back 5 years to the Vanilla content in the original release. The interesting zones, the bizarre look of Outland, and Arctic Tundra inspired Wrath simply weren't there. Even the underwater zones were boring and, worst of all, confusing. The dungeons (when you could get into them) were terribly long, and take an immense amount of time to finish. It was just a poor expansion. I played long enough to get Prom up to 85. But, I just didn't have the heart or desire to continue. Maybe I was mad that I couldn't still roam around in Northrend and quest with my 'guildies' (phasing in Cataclysm is far too frustrating).

While I do miss my friends from Azeroth, I keep up with them through Facebook.
The question now is: Will I ever return to Azeroth? I think I can almost safely say, even Pandaren Monks can't drag me back.

Why Resident Evil Works

Resident Evil is one of my favorite series of games. It was the first game I got for my PlayStation. When I purchased my Sega DreamCast I purchased 2 RE games with the system. When it was time for the Game Cube, it was time for Resident Evil 4. I think my initial love of this long lasting series is its use of the undead as an antagonist. I am a self-proclaimed Zombie addict, and I have been a fan of the Zombie genre long before it was stylish. Thus, my love affair with this quasi-horror game began, and like all good relationships, I never really understood what my attraction was, I just simply enjoyed it.

At some point during this love affair, a movie was born. Not one to race to theaters, I did however race to buy it when it appeared on DVD. And yes, an instant classic was born. Four films later, I am still a huge fan of everything Resident Evil. But, the question always nagged me. Why? Why was this series of games and movies such a hit with me?

For those of you who may not be aware of the RE franchise, let me bring you up to speed a bit. In 1996 a game was released for the Play Station (later known as the PS1), by the video game giant Capcom, called simply: Resident Evil. The name itself makes absolutely no sense. Not Evil Resident, or Residence of Evil. Apparently, the evil is resident, so it is always there. The original game takes place in and below a mansion outside of the oddly named Raccoon City. It seems an evil corporation known as the Umbrella Corporation (not quite as oddly named, but still strange) has been conducting illicit experiments, and the most successful is with genetic engineering viruses for military applications. The result of these experiments is the peculiar T-Virus. A unique gem in the viral world in that it does a whole lot of different things depending on what is infected and at what point infection occurred. The most typical result is the reanimation of dead tissue. Yes, it creates Zombies. Resident Evil popularized what is known in the game world as the Survival Horror genre. Alone in the Dark is the pioneer in this genre of games. In essence, you have very little in the way of offensive weapons and must try and use everything at your disposal and hope to survive: hence, survival horror.

Something about this game struck a chord with people. It was different, it was new. It was graphic (Pre GTA III). It was interesting. And most importantly; it was downright idiotic. In order to make the game more interesting Capcom added puzzles to the mix. But the puzzles were not integrated into the plot as much as they were just thrown in to the game. I recall, with great disgust, this puzzle that required pushing around statues in order to get a gem to drop, then go downstairs and insert the gem into some slot that opened a door. These are the type of puzzles that permeated the first 3 installments. By Resident Evil 4 these puzzles had mostly been abandoned for a more straightforward shoot-em-up style (still very little ammo though).

Which brings me back to my original question: Why is this game such a love of mine. I discovered the answer recently while playing Resident Evil 5. At this point, there are no longer zombies in the game. They are just weird things that appear to be more Lovecraftian than Romero. I am running around Africa now shooting these poor bastards who apparently have been infected with some form of the T-Virus. I have a pretty nice sidekick now, and her name is Zeva. She is a local girl working with the BSAA. What this means, I have no idea. Apparently it has something to do with fighting Umbrella. She can handle herself fairly well. Though I find myself apologizing when I accidentally shoot her, or cut her with my knife. But, she is a stout girl and simply shrugs it off. Oddly enough, I find myself in Africa not trying to end the tyranny of Umbrella, but I am searching for my formerly-thought-to-be-dead partner (not girlfriend) Jill. I had been playing the game for a while, and mostly enjoying it when it struck me…Why I love Resident Evil! It is a silly, silly game. It is a string of B Movies. Ludicrous enemies involved in even more ludicrous plots. I sit in the back with my mounted AK-47 (on my American Made Hummer) while Zeva is using her mounted Gatling gun below me. Folks, this is odd even by video game standards. I asked myself, “Where did all of these African Zombies get these motorcycles?” Yes, I know, video games require suspension of belief and all of that nonsense, but really, there were like 75 motorcycles and a couple of trucks-turned-into-tanks as well. Did they build the tanks before becoming the spawn of Innsmouth, or are they being supplied by some addle minded arms dealer. After fighting off this horde of Motorcyclists throwing axes and Molotov cocktails at my Hummer (provided by the oddly named Delta Force (which even more oddly is not connected to the US Army)), I find myself in this eerily deserted town littered with the bodies of dead Delta Force troops. The driver (apparently a friend of mine) asks: "What did this?" And then is promptly stepped on by this big…thing. When I saw it, I began to giggle. How ludicrous I thought. And while shooting it with my machine gun, it suddenly had these…things pop out of its arms. “Quick, shoot those!” shouts Zeva. And like a good soldier, I did. Well, what do you know, that works. After I shoot the centipede crawly thingies, a giant one pops out of his back. I can stifle my laughter no longer. This is simply silly. And I am pretty sure that answers my question. I truly enjoy Resident Evil because it is silly. Silly as it is though, I find myself drawn to it like a moth to the bug light. Wrestling, South Park, and Resident Evil; silly, simple pleasures of my life.