Stinger Magazine: General Discussion on articles

How they motivate you? That would be interesting considering the amount of mechanics out there.

What you said about Shinobi enemies, the way they frustrate your attempts at Tate chains, was something I never thought of about them, but it's so true.

Birdman wrote:How they motivate you? That would be interesting considering the amount of mechanics out there.

What you said about Shinobi enemies, the way they frustrate your attempts at Tate chains, was something I never thought of about them, but it's so true.

I was pretty happy when I made that conclusion too. I was looking at how they played and instead of rushing you down (which they do sometimes do), they can also just lock up and put up a defensive wall to destroy your chain. Especially in the last boss, the enemies just want to slow you down and wreck your chain, they aren't there to kill you (though they easily can haha!).

In terms of Enemies Article, not quite sure yet. I'd probably make it about how enemies can motivate the player to use the mechanics, but it's a really broad article without any real...goal? I'll think about it some more.

Question, I'm just typing some nonsense, but any takers if I'm missing anything?

Example of a bad foe (color coded) and why its bad


What should a foe do?


[2 examples per example]

Example of a foe who motivates you to try harder

Example of a foe that forces to experiment


Example of a foe that hinders the game


Example of a foe that forces you to exploit the game


Examples of a foe that forces you to get better


Example of a foe that breaks the rules

Anything to add or examples?

Hinders the game: Regular grunts with Accurate High Damage Hitscan guns in Devils Third.

Forces use of exploits: Yakuza Kiwami enemies/bosses.

Forces you to get better/experiment: Regular God Hand grunts or Ninja Gaiden Black Spider ninja or another enemy.

Seems I can only think of mechanics rather than enemies. Seperate article down the line maybe? Like the Devil's Third example. Is it really the enemies, or the mechanics that govern them and you?

Almost by accident started writing about the new GoW game and am in over 10 pages of just notes. This is not good for my (mental) health haha. Finding it really hard to not only give the game a fair shot, but also find any sort of passion to write about for the game. Need to mill on it for a bit.

GoW4 article is coming along nicely, took a while and even had to consult another writer I know in real life for advice. Eventually we cracked it together! Should be up and runnning before june 15th (my birthday!).

So, some developments!

I managed to get my hands on an editor. A good friend of mine who is a game-developer and university writer, he said he'd check my articles for 20 bucks a piece.

I also bought a microphone, so I'm going to be recording and editing some of the articles. Right now he's checked God of War 1 and DepthvsComplexity. Which would you say I should start off with?

When you say recording, are you just making an audio version, or do you plan on making the topic into a fully-fledged video?

I would go with Depth vs. Complexity. I think the subject as a whole is a bit more interesting and tougher to tackle than a GoW retrospective.

-Kajiwotore- wrote:When you say recording, are you just making an audio version, or do you plan on making the topic into a fully-fledged video?

I would go with Depth vs. Complexity. I think the subject as a whole is a bit more interesting and tougher to tackle than a GoW retrospective.

Fully-fledged video

Oooh nice! Hopefully if you start making videos, we can start to see more traffic over here!

We'll see! I don't want this to become the next Gamefaqs, but it would be great if there were more (active) people!

Well, here we are guys: http://www.stingermagazine.com/2018/06/god-of-war-2018.html

That really was fantastic and must have been quite difficult as an old GoW fan. No one can say that this article is unfair.

No one can say that this article is unfair.

Joking aside, you underestimate the power of the internet. I've already gotten quite some replies that were negative with prime arguments being "that's not how it felt to me". Some people did understand though, which is what matters to me. Not going to lie though this article really hit me, I was quite down when writing it and even moreso when I launched it. Especially since one of my favorite channels suddenly sold out by promoting the axe combat in GoW2018 - and completely missed the point only 4 seconds in. I really dislike the game man, really. I'm going to focus on what I love from now on. Next article will be one to really enjoy!

Well yeah, they will still say whatever. But you know what I mean. You sat down and played GoW2018 more than once, and learned all the mechanics.

I'm going to focus on what I love from now on.
You will, but they won't. Instead they'll cry tears of joy over their high metacritic scores.

Honestly I do get it though, you work on a project for years, you're scared it will flop, and people love it. I am just waiting for the bubble to burst, it is bound to happen. Just hope I live to see it pop.

Next article is almost through the first phase, it is about Enemy design. Very broad strokes but some fun things in it as well. Article for August will probably cover Sengoku3 - just try something else for once :) After that I hope to have enough material to cover the Ninja Gaiden 2 franchise (finally). DMC1 is planned for the 2 year anniversary (I hope).

I hope to one day do Chaos Legion justice, but I think that's a far away dream.

I hope to one day do Chaos Legion justice, but I think that's a far away dream.
Not if you like breathing.

Birdman wrote:I hope to one day do Chaos Legion justice, but I think that's a far away dream.
Not if you like breathing.

Hahaha! You know my rules on writing articles and when I consider myself worthy to write about it, for Chaos Legion that's still a while's away. Unless you write it and I edit it ;p

Yeah lol. I look forward to seeing it someday. I'm no good at writing that kind of stuff though.

I'm looking forward, mostly, to just writing some articles on games I love again. I had a blast writing about Shinobi but all the deaththreats (to this day) about the Depth article, the God of War piece, it is getting tired. I want to have fun again!

deaththreats
What?

I didn't tell you? Yeah I got some threats. Some found me on my old facebook account, others on my stinger mail, some via twitter to harass or threaten me and my family. "I'll cut you up" and stuff like that. People really love their games haha.

WTF? It's not even worth that. You didn't even say anything that bad.

I'm guessing DMC players who are as 'cuhrayzee' as their special game.

One thing I was thinking of that might be worth an article when defining things like depth (you may have gone over this but I have severe memory issues lol) is the difference between combat options vs the combat 'exchange'. By this I mean the fight itself, like what the enemies can do vs what you can do. What kind of fight they can put up. Responses to your actions and yours to theirs. DMC3/4 have more combat attack options, but Knack 2 or MGR imo have better actual fights, though DMC3/4 have a few good ones like Credo. Is this making sense at all?

http://www.stingermagazine.com/2018/07/enemydesign.html

New one!

One thing I was thinking of that might be worth an article when defining things like depth (you may have gone over this but I have severe memory issues lol) is the difference between combat options vs the combat 'exchange'. By this I mean the fight itself, like what the enemies can do vs what you can do. What kind of fight they can put up. Responses to your actions and yours to theirs. DMC3/4 have more combat attack options, but Knack 2 or MGR imo have better actual fights (though DMC3/4 have a few good ones like Credo. Is this making sense at all?

Would be a fun expansion to the one I just made. I sort of get what you mean. More a mixture of enemy design and depthVScomplexity. Have a great combat system be there is rarely enough. Onechambara and its ilk (and even Musou games) have insane combo systems, but because of the boring enemies everyone drops them.

Great article.

Some examples that were removed were some obscure enemies from Lollipop Chainsaw, a nod to Killer is Dead, Chaos Legion (sorry Birdman),
I know what country you're from, what you look like, and my sister's bf is from your country too in case I get lost.

I know what country you're from, what you look like, and my sister's bf is from your country too in case I get lost.

Hahaha! But really, sisters bf from the NL? Didn't know that!

Nice, enemies are one of my favourite things. In video games. Results can vary irl.
One thing that I don't see talked about very often is the interplay between the environment and the enemies.

The best example I can think of is FEAR. How it turns boring, lean-shoot-lean back into an exciting firefight by laying out the map in such a way that the -enemies- have options available to them on how to approach the player.
Horror games like Resident Evil also come to mind: zombies would never be much of a threat if you always fought them in a wide-open space.

I also find myself focusing heavily on enemy states depending on what attack you use. Too many examples to list here.

Yeah that's the reason I focused on them for one, a good enemy quite literally makes the game. As Bird noted, just focusing on the state of enemies and controlling them is half the game. I wanted to cover so much more actually looking back on the article, but it was already getting out of hand. Perhaps a sequel one day

Enemies: Ressurection...

> FEAR
I always loved that when you look under the hood the AI is actually extremely basic. The developer once released some notes on it from the AI designer and what they basically did was program, per room, how foes could react. They gave them multiple 'pathfinding' options like when a bookcase gets knocked over they can slide underneath or jump over it. They also gave them the option to flank the player (a feature usually disabled as, as noted in the article, people tend to not handle that well) but use tons of voice clips to warn the player of this.
If I remember correctly their focus also wasn't on killing the player, but to force him out of the room which is why fights feel so 'dynamic' since they aren't contained to a single room, but a larger area.
Amazing how a few tweaks like that make a world of difference.

Quick note, articles might be sparse the coming few months. I'm working on a big project to celebrate Ninja Gaiden's 30th birthday come October which is taking a lot of work. And with a lot I mean probably will take me 2 months to complete. More on that later.

Some articles I am working on:

Ranking System in Games
Pretty cool one, analyzing ranking systems, their purpose, how they work and if they work well with some examples. Need to do a bit more research into how point systems work and where they come from (probably the oldest board game around). I already reached the conclusion, and it was one that surprised me. Ironically DMC and Bayonetta have...pretty bad ranking systems once you go deep into them. On the flip side, Metal Gear Rising so far seems to have the best one by far..which is odd since I always hated that system.

Sengoku 3 and Beat 'm Ups
A shorter article, but I'm not well equipped yet to deal with this one. Thinking of asking a second writer onboard for this one, or waiting for me to get some more experience with the genre, as well as wait out Gabe's post on it.

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
My all time favorite, barely have notes on it but it shouldn't be a problem.

Boss Analysis: Ornstein & Smough
Really want to bring this 'series' back.

Ninja Gaiden 2 + Sigma 2
I'm not good enough yet to write about it, but it is coming.

Sekiro
Short article on how, while it is a step forward, it is also a step back (in the right way). Setting the record straight that most of its evolutions are just looking at what was done before. Will probably do this one after Gamescom hits.

Second Year Anniversary
Thinking of Devil May Cry, really want to do this one for the two year anniversary. But haven't nearly gone deep enough into the game to warrent me writing this. Not sure what else to do. Any ideas? Other option was maybe interviewing the person who inspired me to start the site, but that's a bit more of a personal note? And I'm not sure I could even arrange that.

Doom 2016
Would be interested in writing about this off-beat game.

Articles I'd like to do in the future are Devil May Cry 2 and 3, Killer is Dead, Yakuza series, a full Nioh analysis, The Evil Within, Demon's Souls, Resident Evil 4, the Batman games, Bloodborne, Guacamelee, Lollipop Chainsaw, Max Payne 3, Shadows of the Damned and Metal Gear Rising.

Games I'd love to cover but just don't have enough knowledge in are ones like Knack series, Chaos Legion, Legend of Korra, Transformers DEF and the Bayonetta series.

Update on the articles. Working on Ninja Gaiden 2 now. I'm watching all the interviews I can find, reading all reviews and god knows what else. I've settled on a 'style' for this one, but it will take some work. Sigma 2 will be covered later-on in a separate article, same with Sigma2Plus. I have over 10 pages of just NOTES, so that's going to be interesting.

I've had a few setbacks this week in my private life which delayed everything, it all ended well but it took my mind of off things a lot. I probably won't have an article this month, but next month will probably see the NG2 article and the NG1 video.

http://www.stingermagazine.com/2018/11/ninja-gaiden-ii-pursuit-of-perfection.html

Here we go!

Nice. Why I haven't played these yet!?

Ha! A question you always ask me about other games it is okay! We forgive you.

I'm telling you, the original Xbox exclusivity is to blame! Not me!

https://stingermagazine.net/?p=1102

Here we go gang! Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2!

Sweet! Gonna read when I get off work.

Trying to revise old articles too, especially now that the site has transitioned safely. Here's the one on Weapon Switching! https://stinger-magazine.com/article/weapon-switching/

https://stinger-magazine.com/article/fist-of-the-north-star-lost-paradise/

New article, more an analysis on the game, its mechanics and why they did it the way they did.

Its a very interesting article. Now I know both its merits and its limits. I'll get the game if they port it on PC or I'll buy the PS4 version in the future. I 100% finished Yakuza Zero and Kiwami in rapid succession not too long ago so I need a pause.

Cool man, thanks! Personally, if you liked Yakuza, I'd recommend diving into that series more first. Yakuza 2 has a great tale and Yakuza 3 is my personal favorite in the series. Such a glorious game that.

Royta/Raeng wrote:Cool man, thanks! Personally, if you liked Yakuza, I'd recommend diving into that series more first. Yakuza 2 has a great tale and Yakuza 3 is my personal favorite in the series. Such a glorious game that.

Already played almost all of them. I miss Yakuza Kiwami 2, Yakuza 6, Kenzan, Ishin and Dead Souls. The PS2 titles were very good, it's a shame they weren't enough successful at that time. My favourite one is probably Yakuza 5.

There's a topic here somewhere which is basically a spoiler-filled rage about the horrors of Yakuza 6, so be ware haha. I think it was "Chatting about games". We weren't that happy with it.

I loved Yakuza 5, absolutely. Also 4. I think the only one I never really liked too much was the first one as the plot didn't hit home with me, especially after Zero's setup for Akira Nishikiyama. Not counting 6 of course which to me is the absolute worst in the series so far.

In that sense: pick up Fist of the North Star. It has the best combat in the series barring Zero I feel, has a lot of fanservice, fun minigames (imo) and a killer soundtrack.

Royta/Raeng wrote:There's a topic here somewhere which is basically a spoiler-filled rage about the horrors of Yakuza 6, so be ware haha. I think it was "Chatting about games". We weren't that happy with it.

I loved Yakuza 5, absolutely. Also 4. I think the only one I never really liked too much was the first one as the plot didn't hit home with me, especially after Zero's setup for Akira Nishikiyama. Not counting 6 of course which to me is the absolute worst in the series so far.

In that sense: pick up Fist of the North Star. It has the best combat in the series barring Zero I feel, has a lot of fanservice, fun minigames (imo) and a killer soundtrack.

I'll probably feel the same way. Some days ago I tried the demo and it was very strange to play at that framerate and with those animations. Good graphics and exploration without loading screens but was it worth it ? Story-wise it has the worst intro ever, I was almost sleeping and I'm a huge fan. Too much emphasis on Yakuza 5's ending that should be put in extras and as soon as the plot is starting a new direction(Akiyama and Chinese Triads) demo stops.

It is only downhill from there sadly. The plot goes absolutely no-where, it has horrible bossfights, no long-fights (not really), the whole plot feels like a bad rethread of Yakuza 3. To me, Kiryu died at the end of Yakuza 5 (not really true, I liked 6 but it was a major step back).

6 is my favorite in terms of solo kiryu stories, ehh 2 was up there as well. The combat variety was almost non existent, and I think that game has like 4 side missions. But I loved the way they wrapped everything up, personally.
I thought it was one of the better looking games too. I also really liked how easy it was to break fools with the mash square move that they pretty much removed in kiwami 2. But again, piss easy. I did hard, no items, base health and felt invincible the entire way through. I really liked all of the fights with teammates, and i guess I see why people like muso games now.
It was fun to get stoned and drunk and just blast through that game. It was just the right game, right time kind of thing for me, I know most people were very disappointed, but I don't know, I loved most of the story. Definitely drags at times, but after 5 and 0, the pacing felt a million times better.
Stuff like running all over town for a blind girl, and the popstar shit in 5 got old almost instantly for me.

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https://stinger-magazine.com/sidestory/action-games-genre/

Finally got this one done, took a while to research it properly and not make it seem like 'just my take'. It's a short article about the genre naming conventions and the discussions around it recently! Let me know what you guys think!

Hm... I don't really agree that "the term “character” doesn’t change anything". Personally, I prefer to refer to the genre as either Character Action or simply Action games these days. I left a comment on TGB's video on the same subject last year that might shed some light onto why I feel this way:

My interpretation of the "character action" label is that the personality of the main character is reflected in the game's combat system. Dante is a cocky and charismatic dude, and DMC's combat is all about style and creativity. Bayonetta is a nimble and sexually provocative version of Dante, and Bayo's combat is a more evasive version of DMC with lots of suggestive imagery. Ryu is a taciturn and disciplined master of his craft, and Ninja Gaiden is all about efficiency and quick decision-making. Kratos is an unrefined brute, and GoW's combat is rooted in rough and primitive destruction. Gene is... Gene, and God Hand is... God Hand. Etc.

But hey, genre labels are always fluid and subjective, so your interpretation is as good as mine. Action Hack & Slash is perfectly comprehensible.