Bottom Line: Disney’s new Alice in Wonderland was a decent movie, but nothing to write home about. It didn’t feel like Wonderland, despite excellent character realization and beautiful visuals.

Midway through the movie, I realized that I wasn’t going to get what I wanted out of Alice. I didn’t think about it much going in, but eventually I realized that the thing I had been most looking forward to in a 3D rendition of Alice in Wonderland was disorientation. I wanted to feel like I really fell down the rabbit hole in the figurative sense, but instead it was just another adventure movie (albeit casted by some wonderfully weird characters). The story was predictable, and Wonderland should never have anything to do with that word.

Don’t get me wrong, the movie did have a few things going for it:

• Beautiful visuals – the Red Queen’s castle was really something, and their realization of the look of the Wonderland characters was excellent.
• Most of the characters themselves were fantastic. I absolutely adored the March Hare. Also of note, the Cheshire Cat was impeccably cat-like, the Tweedles were the perfect blend of endearing and odd, and Depp did a surprisingly excellent job with the Hatter.

I really wish they had just stuck with the original story, and I’m not even a huge Alice in Wonderland fan. They just didn’t capture me with the plot they chose – it was the only bland thing about the movie. Had they taken those characters and put them in a really good, really Wonderlandy story, the movie would have been something special.

In Part 1 I covered leveling, ground weapons, and ambiance of Star Trek Online. Today I continue the overview with space combat.

Space combat is entirely different from fighter-style run-and-gun gameplay that I’m used to in space games. The ships are slow turning, massive things that rely on shields and heavy guns to get the job done. Aptly placed skill points improve meneuverablity considerably, but only to a point. You are always piloting a floating city, not a sports car – and for STO, this is a good thing.

Upgrading a ship comes in four primary forms: 1) Weapons, devices, and tactical consoles, 2) bridge officer skills and abilities, 3) your own skills and abilities, and 4) trading in the ship itself for another class as you increase in rank and gain access to better ships. I’ll discuss each of these below.

Space weapons consist of phasers, disruptors, and photon torpedoes, and can be placed in one of the front or rear weapon slots. The starting ship (everyone gets the same ship until reaching Lt. Commander) has 2 weapon slots in the front and one in the rear; more advanced ships get more weapon slots. Each weapon you equip has a firing arc. Right now my ship is equipped with a phaser bank with an arc of 250 degrees on the back, a disruptor with 250 degrees on the front, and a torpedo launcher with a narrower 90 degree arc. This means that when I angle myself broadside to the enemy, I can fire with both phasers and disruptors. I turn to face the enemy head on to fire off a torpedo. Devices are usually the equivalent of potions in WoW or inspirations in City of Heroes – one-off boosts to shields, weapon power, speed, etc. Consoles, one each for the positions of science, tactical, and engineering, usually provide boosts to a particular ship stat.

Bridge officers are acquired through mission rewards or by requisitioning them for credits at a starbase. You can get one of each class to man the stations on your bridge, each one bringing a single ability (in early levels, anyway) to space combat. You can have more than one of each class assigned to your ship, but you can only assign one of each to the bridge at any given time, one for each station, and will only have access to the chosen officers’ abilities during battle. Like ground abilities, space abilities for both yourself and your officers can be improved through skill point assignments. Note that ground and space abilities draw from the same skill point pool, so you must be careful to allocate skills to both types when you skill up. Space skills can improve virtually any of your ships’ stats, from overall power levels to maneuverability.

When you increase in rank from one grade to the next, such as moving from Lieutenant to Lieutenant Commander, you gain access to new, better ships. You can choose to pilot a cruiser, an escort, or a science vessel and can then begin investing points in a skill tree of the same name. According to Cryptic, cruisers are the slow, beefy, “tank” ships, escorts are the zippy damage dealers with lots of guns but few shields, and science vessels are somewhere in between with a focus on auxiliary systems such as deflectors, tractor beams, and sensors to find and incapacitate the enemy.

It took some time to get used to the control scheme of space flight, but with some practice I was finally able to get the hang of it. Controlling the ship and the camera independently is a must, since the weapons are able to fire from all angles of the ship, and the ship itself doesn’t turn fast enough to keep up with the action if you are relying on “straight ahead” viewpoint. Early space combat usually deals with two or three enemy ships against one, lending itself to some truly epic space battles. Despite these odds, I’m not often killed in space. However, I should mention that defeat is almost as much fun as survival, as your ship explodes in a dramatic, screen-shaking two-part explosion. There is a short respawn timer but otherwise no penalty that I have noticed.

During battles, ships are surrounded by shield indicators which give an instant visual cue as to where their shields are weakest. It looks distracting in the screenshots, but during battle the prominent visual display is really very helpful. Phasers and disruptors are best for taking out an enemy’s shields, while torpedoes are best against the hull, so it is important to see when an opening is present before the enemy can repair or redistribute shields.

After defeating an enemy, they sometimes drop loot in the form of glowing icons. Flying near one enables you to collect what is usually a common ship device but is occasionally a new bridge console or weapons array. Out of combat space loot appears in the form of “anomalous readings” which you can scan and collect certain combinations of to exchange for items in STO’s equivalent of crafting. When teamed, although combat loot is assigned to specific team members, out of combat loot is not (on the ground or in space), so it’s collected on a first-come-first-served basis.

That concludes the STO space overview. Next time I’ll give an overview of the character and ship editors.

If I were to say this is the best MMO I’ve ever played, I’d be lying. It’s not perfect. It has bugs, more than I think an MMO should out of the gate, but not more than is strictly acceptable for the genera. It has UI issues that annoy me, and the default camera settings suck. There is a rather excessive number of currency types. The AI and many of the animations are ripped straight out of Cryptic’s other major release, City of Heroes / Villains. These are all frustrating, irritating, and rather disappointing points about Star Trek Online. That being said, I’m still instantly hooked.

The best part about STO is the universe in which it’s built. Cryptic did a wonderful job of recreating the Star Trek world, from interface sound effects to Lenard Nimoy’s voice-overs while you explore the galaxy. They put all the right sound bytes in all the right places, making any Trek fan, especially those of the Next Generation series and beyond, feel at home. The races are also done well, keeping to their particular species’ quirks. References abound to previous series in the form of descendants of well-known characters. Sulu’s grandson is one of the first characters you meet, and I totally geeked out when I met Tom and Bellana’s son and saw a portion of his story.

That’s all well and good, but a game’s strength has to be in how it plays or the story isn’t worth playing for. STO has two settings which intermingle constantly throughout each mission: space combat / exploration and away teams sent to the surface. Every mission I’ve played thus far has both components, often multiple times before the mission is completed. For instance, you might warp into a system to find the planet of interest guarded by Klingons, so you must defeat them before you can beam down. In another scenario, you might need to defeat a ship so that you can board it. The constant switch between ship and space was disorienting at first, but has quickly become second nature and is an integral part of what makes this game fun. I don’t find either type of combat inferior to the other, although I’m a bit impatient to rank up and receive more abilities which will make ground combat more interesting.

STO has a ranking system integrated with the leveling process. Each rank (ensign, lieutenant, leiut. commander, etc) has grades. You must be Lieutenant grade 11 before you can rank up to Lieutenant Commander. At first this confused me, but it became clear that “grades” are just levels, and the count doesn’t restart at each rank – so you can think of leveling exactly the same in STO as in any other MMO. The levels come as you allocate skill points earned through fighting and missions (comparable to xp), bettering your abilities. The ranks come when you are high enough level, and give you new abilities in which to spend points. This means you don’t unlock a ton of new “powers” as you level, only a few as you increase in rank. You do, however, get different weapon settings depending on what weapons you equip. You also get the abilities of your NPC officers as you recruit them, and you get “kits” to equip which give you one (ground) ability each when equipped. So although the acquisition of innate abilities is slow, you are able to switch out weapons, officers, and kits that augment this.

Each ground weapon has a standard fast-recharge, damage-dealing setting and a longer-recharge special setting. The special setting is either designed to Expose the enemy or to Exploit an already Exposed enemy. Successful ground combat consists of a good balance of both. Fortunately, each player is able to carry two weapons (their NPC officers only get one), so you can carry both an Expose and an Exploit weapon if you choose.

There is a lot more to ground combat that I won’t go into in much detail here, partly because I don’t have time and partly because I’m only level 6 and there is a lot I haven’t experienced in depth yet. Each character gets racial bonuses at creation which often factor in to ground and space combat both. Each class (scientist, engineer, or tactical officer) gets a different skill tree to enhance and different types of abilities, both of which add interest and tactics to ground combat.

I will end here so that I can get some sleep before work tomorrow. Look for an overview of space combat, character creation, and anything else that needs reviewing later this week.

Okay, this will be a bit longer than my previous app review post about design and development apps, because, well, there are a lot more games. I’m sure I’ll miss some good ones, so feel free to leave a comment if you know of any I should check out. Whether the iPhone / iPod Touch is a viable gaming platform is still arguable, but the apps below have me leaning towards yes.

Games!

Dragon Panic, by Clickgamer Technologies Ltd – Okay, so this one only really gets 3 stars (which is why it’s first), but as it has dragons in it, it was the first game I bought for my iPod Touch and I’ve gotta give it mention. The dragon is stuck in a little room in which items of varying deadliness fall from the ceiling. He is controlled by tilt and breathes fire at a tap to destroy said items, which grants him points and prevents them from destroying the floor he’s standing on over lava. Its only use is as a time killer, and there are probably better ones out there, but I’m keeping it on my iPod until someone puts out a better dragon game (hint hint). :P ($.99)

iShift, by Armor Games Inc – Taking its cue from Portal, Shift places the player in the role of a test subject who must pass through various rooms of danger and frustration in order to survive. “Shifting” switches the orientation of the black and white landscape, turning the floor into the ceiling and back again. The game can actually be played online here, but I find it is perfectly suited to the i* Touch platform. Arrows left and right turn into jump buttons when the opposite one is pressed, and a “shift” button is at the top of the screen on either side for easy thumb access. Alternately, you can choose to shift by tilting the device, but I prefer the buttons. I give this puzzler four stars for fun and implementation; although it can be played for free online, but I’d rather take it with me to fiddle with in line at the grocery store than have it eat my time at the PC. ($.99)

Sway, by Illusion Labs AB – Unlike the last two games which were, in order, “meh” and “good” games, I rate Sway as absolutely outstanding. You play as a sort of a cross between a sock monkey and a Lego man. As the story goes, “Wiz made a no-no” and blew up the worlds, so they are now made up of little broken bits of floating islands. You traverse them by swinging (“swaying”) along from hand to hand, gripping by pressing down on the screen and swaying back and forth by touch. It takes some getting used to, but once I got the hang of it (har har har), it became an instant favorite of mine. The background music is upbeat and fun, and a recent update allows you to play tunes from your library as well. I have yet to beat all 25 levels or unlock all 10 characters, and I’ll be a bit sad when I do. Fortunately, each level has a bronze, silver, and gold score to reach, so I’ll have an excuse to replay them. ($4.99, but worth it. Try it for free here)

Icon at Release

Castle of Magic, by Gameloft – This is another outstanding game and ties with Sway as my favorite i* Touch game to date. The vivid colors and playful style are reminiscent of early Spyro games (though with better graphics), while the gameplay is all Mario and Donkey Kong. A d-pad on the left and action buttons on the right provide all the interface you need, though you can tilt your device to direct gems towards you in certain cases. I don’t know quite what else to say about this one except that if you enjoy side-scrolling adventure games like Super Mario World or Kirby, you should enjoy this. As I said, it’s tied with Sway as favorite i* Touch game. ($4.99, well worth it, try for free here)

The following apps I have gotten trial versions of, but have yet to purchase the full games. I mention them here because the free versions have convinced me to pay them money for more; I just haven’t gotten around to it yet. Revised reviews will be forthcoming after purchase if needbe.

Glyder Free, by Glu – A game in which you glide through a surprisingly three dimensional world, using thermals to ascend and gaining speed by diving, while collecting sparkly things. So far I’d give it three to four stars, rating it “good” rather than great, but at $1.99 for the full version I think it’s appropriately priced.

Galaxy on Fire 3D Light, by FISHLABS – So far I’m very impressed with this Wing Commander style game. You take command of a small ship and play through missions to earn cash which you can then use to buy upgrades and newer, better ships. Having only played the free version through the tutorial and one short mission, I tentatively rate it at five stars for graphics and gameplay. ($4.99 for the full version)

Rolando Lite, by ngmoco, Inc – Okay, so call me cheap, but after seeing a striking 322 five star reviews for the new Rolando 2: Quest for the Golden Orchid (which retails at an equally striking $9.99) I still wanted to try a free version. Sadly, there isn’t one, so I fell back to the original Rolando, which does have a demo ($5.99 for the full version). Although I hesitate to spend even $5.99 for an app, I think I may be sold on Rolando 2 in spite of its outlandish price tag. I can best describe the gameplay as Lemmings meets Mario. Just download the demo and see for yourself. :)

Rolando

Rolando 2

I just picked up some really good Apple iPhone / iPod Touch apps from the iTunes app store and thought I’d share.

Design / Development

iCheatSheets, by John Ohl - This convenient app lists the tags, functions, and attributes of 11 programming and markup languages, and even throws in a World of Warcraft command reference. It wouldn’t be much use to beginners of the language of choice, but for someone who already knows their way around and finds themselves going “what’s that tag again?” it’s a nice reference.

HTML Cheat Sheet, by Concentric Sky – Two paws up! Another quick reference app that does just what it ought to do. I got it for a quick ref to ASCII and ISO characters, and it does the job nicely. I only wish it would let you search for a specific character instead of making you browse the lists. Nonetheless, it’s a very complete reference, unlike others I’ve found which leave out one or another character set.

Color Wheel, by Trevor Gray – This is a simple color picker app, the main strength of which is its many color scheme options (Triadic, Split-Complementary, Analogous, etc.). It does not stand alone, but makes a good supplement to the more full featured apps available which do not ever seem to have as many classic color scheme options available.

CliqCliq Colors, by CliqCliq – This is an absolutely amazing app and worth far more than the $2.99 it currently costs. At first glance, it appears simple and plain, but after just a few minutes of exploration, I found it to be loaded with elegantly designed features that do everything – everything! – I want. From choosing a palette from a photograph to creating your own via sliders and RGB or Hex entry; to saving that palette and then emailing it to yourself in Photoshop or Illustrator format, this app is beautifully designed. Not all the commands are intuitive, but once found, they are easily accessed again, and the uncluttered design is outstanding.

Tomorrow, I’ll blog two really amazing iGames I’ve found and a couple I’m looking forward to picking up. Next will come productivity apps, readers, and art apps.

Okay, so Mirror’s Edge now works again, but I’m afraid to restart the computer. I think I’ll just wait until tomorrow night when I shut it down in preparation for the movers and not start it up again until we’re in Nevada.

On a related note, I just discovered that the new Mirror’s Edge map packs don’t work with versions of ME purchased on Steam. Let me say that again – the new downloadable content for Mirror’s Edge is not compatible with the Steam version of ME, and there isn’t any word on whether that will ever change. That’s right, if you got Mirror’s Edge on Steam, you payed the same company the same amount of cash for the same game, but EA does not currently actually support it. Copying the relevant files into your Steam folder doesn’t do the trick. The compatibility issue is rumored to be due to EA’s use of secuROM and Steam’s wiser decision to go with a far less invasive DRM system.

Not only that, but at the time of this writing neither Steam nor EA warns you of the expansion compatibility issue when you buy ME from Steam. The following quote has been added to the EA store site:

Note: Currently this map pack only works with the EADM and disk versions of Mirror’s Edge. If you have purchased the game through another download service, you may receive an error message during installation that will prevent use with the full game. We apologize for any disappointment or inconvenience that this causes.

Apparently their Steam customers aren’t as valuable as their very own Special Store of Awesome customers. It seems we were thrown a bone so we could be reeled in for whatever cash EA could get out of us before the gaming community realized the setup. Sound a bit cynical? Well, this is EA we’re talking about. I’m not going to hold back on cynicism until they clean up their act and stop treating their customers like expendable cash cows.

As for how to get the content if you were unlucky enough to give EA your money through Steam instead of their very own Special Store of Awesome? Apparently it has been put up on ThePirateBay with a comment on how to get it working with a pirated version of ME. I am not advocating piracy, but it seems that yet again, EA is giving pirates a better experience than paying users. There is also a very hacked method of importing the levels from (any version of) the map pack into your legitimate game, but it is unofficial and unconfirmed as to how complete the “installation” is. The following is quoted from the Steam ME forum:

I just verified that I can indeed play (at least one) of the DLC maps in Steam. I used a freeware extractor program to get the files out of the .exe installer after I bought it from the EA store, since it doesn’t install by itself if it can’t find the retail Mirror’s Edge copy.

I copied some of the other resource/whatever update packages though…I don’t know if some or all of them are necessary, or if the DLC maps are missing gameplay or certain features if you don’t have those updates, or what. The main MirrorsEdge.exe isn’t updated since the DLC pack comes with the retail SecuROM version, for instance.
…
I used the open-source Universal Extractor program:

http://legroom.net/software/uniextract

I have no experience with either the extraction software or the method above (and am honestly a bit confused by the wording), but there it is if you’re looking for how to get what you paid for.

Mirror’s Edge and all things associated therewith are the property of EA Games and DICE. Steam is the property of Valve Entertainment.

Well, this is annoying. After posting my glowing review of Mirror’s Edge yesterday, I now find that I’m unable to start it at all today. I get an apparently somewhat common error of the old “has encountered an error and needs to close” message before it even gets past the flash screen. I followed the instructions posted on the official forums, and I do mean ALL the instructions, but to no avail. I decided to post on the forums there, but I am currently awaiting approval in the moderator’s cue. So I don’t forget after sleeping tonight, I am going to record everything I tried here.

Please note that after each step below, I restarted the system at least once.

1) I ran Driver Sweeper to clean out my old drivers (and inadvertently screwed up my USB controller somehow, but that’s another story. That, at least, is all better now.). I then installed the latest drivers for my NVIDIA 8600 from the website (version 185).

2) When that did not work, I tried the version 181 that is specifically designed to work with Mirror’s Edge. Still no luck.

3) I tried the rather odd fix mentioned on the forums of running the game in Windows 2000 compatibility mode with a couple of options checked. No luck running from either the .exe directly or from within Steam. I tried this again after each of the steps below failed.

4) I checked that I have the latest .NET framework (3.5) and reverted it to its original configuration via Add/Remove Programs, just in case it had been corrupted. When I tried to install the service pack for it, it gave me the same menu, so I’m assuming that the v3.5 I installed the other day came with the service pack. No success. Tried step 3 again.

5) I deleted a large number of temporary files from C:\Documents and Settings\[your login]\Local Settings\Temp (nothing newer than five days) and then disabled PhysX from Nvidia’s control panel. No change. Again I tried step 3.

6) I ran Windows Cleanup Utility msicuu.exe and searched for any old AGEIA phyx files, but found none.

7) I uninstalled the Daemon Tools cd emulation software but again was disappointed. Tried step 3 again.

8) I edited the DefaultEngine.ini file found in C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\mirrors edge\TdGame\Config so that the line bUseSound = TRUE now says bUseSound = FALSE. No change. I again tried step 3.

9) I followed Microsoft’s directions for disabling DEP system-wide, a process which involved directly editing a .ini file from deep within the Control Panel. When that had no effect, I also turned off my AVG Free antivirus. No change. I again tried step 3.

10) I downloaded the cracked version of ME from the site listed on the forums, renamed the original .exe file to Mirrors_Edge_bak.exe and moved the cracked .exe file to the Steam apps folder. When this failed, I tried step 3 again, just in case.

11) My next step will be uninstalling and reinstalling ME through Steam, but having deleted my local content, I will now need to re-download the files overnight. I will post my results tomorrow when I decide to mess with it again. Even if it allows me to play immediately after download as it did yesterday, I do not hold out hope that it will let me open the game again on this installation.

After all of this, the game now crashes before it even reaches the splash screen (rather than immediately after reaching said screen as it did a couple of hours ago). I also get the error message twice now (also new) unless I elect to send Microsoft an error report. EA has a wonderful way of turning the most potentially enjoyable activities into looming, time devouring monoliths of aggravation.

Mirror’s Edge looked fun when it first came out, but it also didn’t quite look worth paying new release prices. I mean, it’s a game about running, how complex can it be? I noticed the other day that it’s down to $20 for PC now on Steam, so, as I mentioned in my Twitter, I picked it up. I think I was right in my initial decision to wait for the price drop, but I was also right in thinking it would be fun. It’s so addicting! The story takes place in a future city where the government controls all. People who want to stay “under the radar” employ freelance “runners” to deliver messages and packages around the city. Runners use the rooftops as their highways and consistently do the most crazy stunts you could think of at high speed on their routes (or don’t do them, and fall to a gruesome death on the pavement many stories below, as often happens to me). Add to that the fact that our heroine is being chased and shot at by cops intent, for a reason as yet unknown, on taking her down, and you have an pretty darn exciting game. To get from one area to the next is a constant high pressure puzzle, as you need to negotiate pipes, railings, air vents, and even swinging cranes, often while being shot at from a machine gun out the window of a chopper overhead. It’s really fun to play a game where you have to run away from the bad guys; if you get cornered by more than one or two at a time, you’re toast, so you try to avoid them as much as possible.

Despite the free-for-all feel of rooftop navigation, the game has a lot of built in hints that make it far less frustrating than it would be without them. For one thing, you get “runner vision” which highlights useful objects such as pipes and ramps in red. Unlockable Hard mode lets you turn that off, but it’s a lifesaver for me. You can also hold down the left Alt key (PC) to point your camera at where you should be headed, a useful tool as vaulting across city roofs sometimes means backtracking, and bolting away from firing cops can be disorienting.

I’ve found myself frustrated a few times when I’ve gotten stuck at a particularly difficult jump and had to restart a section over and over again. It’s a familiar feeling from old 2D Mario games – right before the halfway point there’s one little jump platform that you can’t reach no matter how many times you try, and you get sent back to the beginning over and over and over again until eventually, frustrated and ready to chuck your controller through your TV screen, you start missing the simplest jumps back at the beginning and you know you need to just go to bed already. So you do, and then you pick it up the next day and BAM you fly through the whole level with ease and vow never to return to that jinxed, vindictive little platform again. Know what I’m talking about?

Occasional frustrations and user error aside, however, it’s a very fun game. Due to its fast-paced nature it’s also very hard to put down! Oh, and don’t think it’s just a glorified mailman gig; the plot is stringing me along with the best of them – murder, intrigue, and set-ups carry the game along in a most gratifying way. Overall I give it two paws up, waaay up!

Mirror’s Edge graphics are the property of EA Games. Mario belongs to Nintendo (no duh).

Finally got myself a Steam account. Find me there as ShardsOfBlue! :D Mirror’s Edge, by the way, is way fun.

Found out today that Mass Effect 2 is supposed to be released early next year. ‘Course that means it’ll be out sometime around August 2010, but still, I’m excited. :P The first game had a great story and some fun cause/effect elements, and the second is supposed to continue to play off decisions made there.