dlcA videogame zineby Stef and SarahISSUE #3/OCT 2014

dlcA videogame zineby Stef and SarahISSUE #3/oct 2014Welcome to the third issue of DLC, in which I decide to try and get a new issue written in two evenings. It seems mad that issue #2 was only out last month, it already feels like it’s been ages, but lucky for you there’s a lot to talk about.

Going forward with DLC itself, I’ve started having some grand ideas of setting up a proper online thing, most likely just a nice simple wordpress site, but it will be nice to have a more regular outlet for this stuff, rather than all of a sudden deciding to see how much I can write in the space of a few days before breaking. I also feel bad for Sarah as I barely give her enough time to do the (excellent) illustrations!

As we get into the last quarter of 2014, I have come to a shocking realisation that there are probably more games coming out than what I actually have time to play. I still have yet to finish The Last of Us, but for good reason as my

time has been taken up by a lot of Destiny and FIFA 2015 - the former I’ll be writing about in a lot more detail (probably on the next page actually). Which - as buying new games at full price goes - have been pretty fantastic value for money. November is looking like a pretty hectic month for new game releases though, and that is a bit worrying! I’ll go into that more in a bit as well.

I’ll stop rambling on here, it’s time to write some articles. Thanks for taking the time to read this zine, it’s definitely appreciated.

Find us on facebook by searching “DLC Zine” and tell us what games you’re playing at the moment.

So, I bought a PS4 purely on the excitement and buzz surrounding the release of Destiny. It’s the first time I’ve had a new games console within a year of it being released, and it’s definitely been a good purchase - already having a PSVita and PSPlus (the subscription service that Sony offers with multiple “free” games every month) meant that I’d accrued a decent backlog of indie games and cross-buy titles that I’d be able to play on the new machine. But Destiny was the one I was waiting for. I went to preorder it a few times, but got worried it wouldn’t arrive on release day.

On the night before it came out I decided to go to the midnight release at a fairly big Tesco in Birmingham. I’d seen midnight openings before for new FIFA

games, and expected the same kind of affair - lines of like-minded people, a few stressed out members of staff, and some bewildered shoppers who only expected to stumble in and buy some milk or something in a vastly empty shop. Needless to say, after all this imaginary build up, it came down to me, Sarah, and four other random people standing awkwardly around the customer services desk while a single member of staff bought over a cardboard box precariously filled with game boxes. I got a free tshirt, it was worth the trip, as late and awkward as it was. I had the game.

Over the next few weeks me and a few friends played the heck out of Destiny. The team-based nature of the game - it’s a first person

I still don’t know whether Destiny is a good game or not.

shooter with RPG elements at it’s most basic - meant that we were scheduling evenings to play the game together and level up at the same time. It was a really nice way to play through a game, we went through all the madness and the failed strikes together, and we kind of gained our own narrative because of this. Which is a good thing because, as you probably might know by now, the story and narrative in Destiny is actually pretty non-existent.

Throughout the game, you go from planet to planet completing missions and shooting bullet-sponge bosses, and honestly? I’m not sure I could tell you why we were doing these things, and this opinion seemed to appear in almost every review or blog that I’ve read on the game since. Then a few weeks ago there was someone claiming to be a member of staff who worked on the game answering questions on Reddit, who claimed that the story was scrapped at the start of the year, and people left, and people were hired to write the Grimoire Cards (essentially unlockable bits of story and lore that you can read in a standalone app/website) which would contain the story as such. Whether this is true or not remains to be seen.

But this is the thing. Destiny’s

story is entirely unremarkable, but that never stopped the game being enjoyable, at least in the context of playing it with friends. The thing with playing with other people is that you have a constant dialogue happening with your teammates, so when a mission ends, you’re likely to want to talk about the piece of equipment you just got, or the relief of finally defeating a strike boss that didn’t seem possible a few hours ago. I found that sometimes a post-mission cutscene felt like it got in the way of those natural conversations, and surely if there were more of those parts, maybe it would have gotten in the way even more? A counter argument to this however is that if the cutscenes and the story were actually any good, that could create even more talking points, and would probably add a lot more to the feeling of the overall game universe as well. I’ve yet to find someone who is satisfied with the Grimoire Card system.

I think a really good comparison to make here might be with Mass Effect 2... mainly as I only just finished playing it recently before starting Destiny. With Mass Effect 2, certain things happen towards the last quarter of the game which really add a

But I’ve spent around 70+ hours playing it since it’s release. And the combat is pretty amazing actually. And I’m never having a bad time playing. I can’t explain it. I started writing this in hopes that the act of having this conversation with myself would help to resolve the whole situation but nope. It’s a fun game, with great multiplayer, and some amazing environments and challenges. It’s just missing a real story.

Going forward, I can’t help but feel hopeful that the DLC content (hey that’s the name of this zine!) could potentially improve the game in the areas where it is weakest - Bungie claim to be listening to the community a lot, and surely in terms of story, Bungie know that all eyes are still on them to deliver something better. I’ve heard tales of loot heavy RPG Diablo 3 suffering from an underwhelming initial release, but then improving vastly through later add-ons. Fingers crossed that we’re able to look back on Destiny and say the same thing.

-SP

lot of agency to your actions - if you don’t drop everything to react to a certain event that happens, it has a real effect on how the final acts of the game play out. This felt amazing to play out as it really did help to drag me into the game, and was a great way to enter the aforementioned final act.

With Destiny, this agency isn’t here at all. There is no urgent reason for you to start the next mission, in fact, if you want to just muck about on Earth and shoot mindlessly into a cave for some speedy loot drops (RIP Loot Cave), why not! It’s not the end of the world or anything, relax! I can’t help but think that a bit of urgency, combined with a more gripping story, could have done wonders for Destiny.

And, I mean, this is talking about the game leading up to when you hit level 20. After level 20, the game transforms into a sort of limbo when you’re just doing strikes and patrols over and over again to finally be able to afford legendary equipment and weapons, which in turn helps you to level up further. I’m at level 27 and a half now, and until I get some exotic armor, that’s pretty much the level I’m stuck at. And this is the strange turmoil. Written down, and written about, Destiny doesn’t seem like it’s a good game.

So if you read DLC #2 you’ll know that I have had a recent obsession with Football Manager (tl:dr? Wolves and heartbreak times a lot), so when my old university housemate asked me if I wanted to go see a documentary about the new game, I thought, well, why not?

It was playing at the cinema at Star City just outside Birmingham, which is the most amazing/incredible/insane/nightmarish of places, that I literally had never been to before, at least until a few weeks ago, when it was the only cinema that was showing the Aubrey Plaza zombie film “Life After Beth” (which was a solid 7/10 out of a movie). On that occasion we witnessed the most indecisive family trying to choose a film at the till and failing, a lady picking up an extra large pepsi badly resulting in the drink going all over her (and slightly on my

shoe) and also we had the longest wait ever to go into the screen because they were taking their sweet time cleaning it up. Star City Vue is a truly special experience.

Anyway, this was a Tuesday night, and was a bit quieter and less manic, and the evening was to be comprised of the following:

Football Manager DocumentaryPreview of the new Football Manager gameLive Q&A streamed from another cinema by the head guy behind the game.

A pretty stellar lineup I think you’ll agree. We get to the screen, and we are literally shown to our seats - this was a pretty classy affair. We walked in to some amazingly dramatic classical music and get ready for an Experience. There’s a twitter hashtag being promoted on the screen for the live q&a - I

I went to watch a documentary about Football Manager and it was quite interesting

take a quick look at it and marvel at people all over the country commenting on the dramatic nature of the music playing, and also of the distinct lack of any female presence at this event.

So the documentary starts, and it’s really quite interesting. There’s a whole legion of Football Manager fans who like to suit up for Cup Final days - My obsession hasn’t taken me down that particular rabbit hole just yet, but there’s always time. The first half of the documentary goes a lot into the history of the game, starting with Championship Manager all the way back in the 90’s. I get very nostalgic about all the flashing text boxes.

The rest of the documentary goes into the process of making the games now, whether it’s looking at the motion capture work that goes into the 3d game engine, the people who go and scout out the teams in the name of up to date statistics, and even looking at the players regarded as amazing unknown signings in the game, who in the real world never got to be quite as good as their digital counterparts.

The documentary comes to an end, and we’re treated to a 30 minute long feature about the new game, Football Manager 15. There are a bunch of changes but nothing

stands out from memory, except the main menu is now on the side rather than at the top. It looks like a very nice shiny update, which I’ll possibly end up getting (more on the awfully good Autumn for games coming out later on).

Then the live Q&A with head Football Manager man (Name goes here). Which is interesting, but the presenter asking the questions is a weird and fairly unfunny man in a suit. There are some interesting questions asked, a particular one that stood out was about adding in women’s teams to the game (the answer: not until there’s at least 10 leagues worldwide with an attendance like our championship, which makes disappointing financial sense I suppose. Perhaps the people behind FM don’t realise the positive push they could give that side of the game, oh I don’t know). The Q&A lasts about 40 minutes, and then it’s time to go. We exit to a windy deserted combination fairground/car park. This is Star City after all.

So what was my overall impression of the night? To sum it up in one, simple phrase, most likely said by me at least twice on the way out;

“..I really want to play Football Manager now.”

-SP

I am ridiculously late to the Minecraft bandwagon. That’s a good way to start this off. Somehow the whole thing just sort of passed me by, and for the last three, maybe four years, I’ve had intentions of giving it a go.

There’s a person at my work who tells me all about the server he’s bought for his daughter to play online with her friends, there’s literally dozens of students who always want to show me some youtube video showing some crazy mod, and that’s not even mentioning the amount of times I have to stop students playing Minecraft on the library computers because someone has some homework to do!

So yes. With getting a PS4, I have finally jumped onto the

bandwagon, crowded as it may be. I’m starting with just the vanilla game – no mods on consoles obviously! If I get pulled far enough in, maybe I’ll upgrade the RAM on my aging laptop and give some of the cooler things I’ve heard a try (robots that mine and sort materials for you? TELL ME MORE. Anyway, that’s in the future. This is what I’ve managed to do so far.So on my first day, I decided that making a base would be a really good idea. I decided this when it got dark and I forgot that

My first few daysplaying

Minecraft

creepers, spiders and skeletons were out to get me. So I survived until the morning, and then I started digging out a base in the side of a mountain (as you do). It doesn’t take me long to make a large enough cavern to put a few chests and crafting tables down. I decided that it would be really nice to have a seethrough wall so I can lookout for evil creature/watch the sunset.

A little sidestep for a second – yes, watch the sunset! There’s a lovely correlation between stunning, yet simplistic views, and some of the most tranquil music I’ve ever listened to, and it really made the first time I saw an in-game sunset in Minecraft feel really great. The following there was the same thing again, but with added rain, and I literally loved every second of that feeling.

So after digging a whole lot of sand (to melt in the furnace to make glass), I complete my base and give it a few extra exits just for fun. Now, the mountain that I dug my base into is right next to a big underground cavern – which will be perfect for exploring and mining better materials of course. But currently, I find myself running around it a lot just to get to the nearby forest on the other side of the chasm. I

get a brainwave – what if I built a treehouse over in the forest, and then made a walkway over the pit to get back to my base. A few hours later, I’ve got a walkway, completely lined with fencing (to prevent any accidents obviously). My world is starting to take shape.

My next step was to start exploring. I ventured into the cavern next to my mountain home, and started exploring. I came across some redstone (an important resource used for making a lot of technical objects – think of it like the electricity of the minecraft world) but sadly couldn’t mine it as my tools were strong enough. I went further down into the labyrinthian caves, until – in a cruel twist of fate – I fell down a gap straight into a lava pit. I respawn into the world with nothing, all my possessions are gone, melted away into those glowing red blocks.

And this begins my experience with Minecraft. It’s a perfect way to spend some time if you want to give your mind a rest after some more traumatic game experiences (Always looking at you, The Last of Us). If you haven’t given it a try yet, maybe now is finally the time to get a little bit lost in it’s mostly tranquil world. -SP

Ok, so this is a pretty self indulgent little article - there are a lot of games about to come out, and obviously as a normal human being with bills to pay etc, I can’t afford all of these games, both in terms of money and time. So I have to make choices. This article is my decision process. Off we go!

Pokémon omega Ruby/alPha SaPPhiRe (3DS/2DS)

I’ve been into Pokémon since Blue came out many moons ago, but Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald were the games that I never got, so for them to be remade on the same engine as X and Y is pretty exciting! I’ve heard mentions of many

new mega evolutions, but more importantly, it’s been rumoured that by having these games and X and Y that you’ll be able to catch all 700+ Pokémon. I’m scarily excited by this. I got 149 out of 151 on blue (I never got an ekans/arbok, how silly). Might be a nice Christmas holiday challenge?

Will I be getting this? Very likely.

bayonetta 2 (Wiiu)

I’ve heard many a good review of this recently, from what I can gather it looks like a very over the top action game, with massive bosses, combos to learn and something about throwing houses in a hurricane? I don’t know, it

“There are too many good games coming out in the last few months of 2014 and I need to figure out what I actually want and/or have time for” AKA: A Round Up.

sounds like a very fun game, but possibly not one I’ll be buying just yet.

Will I be getting this? Maybe later.

littlebigPlanet 3 (PS4)

LittleBigPlanet has a reputation for being a fantastic platform series, and the only game I’ve played so far has been the Vita version of the game, which was pretty fun, but playing it on my own did make it a little bit boring. The idea of playing it with others is where this game makes a lot of exciting sense to me. It looks like more of

the same with added Hugh Laurie voiceacting. Nice.

Will I be getting this? Very tempted.

gta V (PS4)

I did buy this for the Xbox 360, and got roughly 30% through the main story? I am very tempted by the trailers comparing the graphics, and the new version looks so lovely. I’m thinking if I trade in the old game and get the new edition it might serve as a nice upgrade. (Although I’m hoping there aren’t any issues with online this time, that wasn’t a good time at all)

Will I be getting this? Definitely maybe

SaintS RoW iV (PS4)

I never got Saints Row IV – the release of GTAV kind of overshadowed it a few weeks after release. It looked amazing and insane back then, and combined with the “Gat out of Hell” add on, it looks even crazier now. An open world adventure that I’m exciting to have a go on. I mean seriously, it has a dubstep gun.

Will I be getting this? It’s pretty high on the list!

aSSaSSin’S CReeD unity (PS4)

I’m a bit torn about this game – the whole “we can’t put female playable characters in the game” debacle is kind of awful really. They had a female protagonist on the Vita Assassin’s Creed game so it’s not exactly new territory for them. So far, everything else I’ve seen about this game seems really interesting, with the multiplayer definitely adding an extra element to the game. I can imagine having four of you running along the buildings and rooftops must be pretty fun.

Will I be getting this? I’m very very very tempted.

binDing of iSaaC RebiRth (PS4/PSVita)

This insane little dungeon crawlery game is coming to PSPlus next month on it’s release, so this is a dead cert either way. I’ve been excited to play this for so long now though! Imagine being in a dungeon in a Zelda game, but it’s a hundred times more crazy and messed up. And your tears are your main weapon. I hear many stories about people playing this game for more hours than AAA titles that they own, so I’m super excited/terrified for

this game to finally come out!

Will I be getting this? Yes.

I think this worked. You’ll be hearing a lot more about some of these games in the future! -SP

DLC 3Written by Stef Purenins@tinyspells-tinyspells.bandcamp.com-lightningstef.tumblr.com

Illustrated by Sarah Graley-@sarahsketchbook-oursuperadventure.com-rentquest.com-treetrunksdiy.bandcamp.com

They join musical forces at- sonicthecomic.bandcamp.com

I would imagine DLC #4 will be out in the new year! Look out for that.

dlcISSUE #3/oct 2014We have a facebookpage--> “dlczine”