How to enjoy Fallout (part two)

I know I said that having fun in the wasteland was pretty simple, but I finished it this weekend and decided there are a couple more tiny pieces of advice you could really use in order to maximize your enjoyment with the game. Don’t worry, I won’t spoil anything major here and I won’t simply tell you how to play the game a la a proper walkthrough. But you can call this The Absolute Minimal Fallout Walkthrough for Pros^™ if you wish and I won’t get offended.

I already told you to 1) not read any walkthroughs and to 2) read the manual, so here’s 3) and 4).

3) When you start running out of time to find the water chip, you might as well just ask Google. The game itself will give you absolutely no hints on how to accomplish this, so there’s no shame in looking it up. Afterwards you’ll be free to go about exploring and exploding enemies like blood sausages at your leisure.

4) If you try to beat the game and decide to go the violence route without first obtaining power armor, then you’re in for a world of pain. Do yourself a favor and look that one up too.

I believe that’s it. I almost told you to 5) go ahead and let your companions die, which will spare you the tedium of managing their inventories and of keeping them alive, but I have mixed feelings about that so you can take it or leave it. Actually, that goes for all of my advice. I’m a decade or so short of being a Fallout guru.

How to enjoy Fallout

It’s been a while since I advised anyone on the proper way to play a game. That post made me look like a Skyrim apologist: “Skyrim might seem boring – the combat is clunky, the interface is awful, looting and managing inventory is tedious, and the quests are unrewarding – but you’re probably just playing it wrong. Just don’t do anything the game tells you to do. Yeah, all the containers are full of stuff to loot and inspect, but don’t bother looking in them because none of it is any good. What? Don’t ask me why they put it in there. Yeah, I suppose they could have spent the development time making better quests or fixing the broken AI but… just leave it alone, alright? Oh, and ignore all that dragon stuff. It’s anti-climatic. Learn to enjoy fetch quests instead, then it will be fun.”

Hey, I’m sure every blogger has posts they’re ashamed of, right?

UR PLAYIN IT WRONG!!1

Needless to say, my final impressions of Skyrim were not nearly as glowing as my initial ones. (“No way – I can go anywhere and do anything? What fun! Wheeeeeeeeeeee! You need me to do what? I’m the friggin’ Dragonborn! Get your own stupid thingama- ah, this sucks. I’m bored.”) From what I’ve read, this is a pretty common response to the game.

My gaming preferences have changed quite a bit since I wrote that article. I blame this on playing too much Demon’s Souls and reading too many articles about classic RPGs like Baldur’s Gate, Gothic, and Fallout.

No, not that Fallout:

A first person shooter with Fallout stuff in it.

I’m talking about this Fallout:

The original Fallout.

It turns out that gamers with a lot of classic RPG experience (read “hardcore” gamers) have little to nothing good to say about Bethesda’s re-imagining of Fallout. Yet many hold the original game in reverence, some even citing it as the supreme RPG. Get a load of these reviews on GOG.com:

Fallout is one of the few games that can truly be called a classic. Modern games today fare poorly to what Fallout provides… This game is a must for any RPG lover, or someone looking for an introduction to the genre.

Playing this game has been a revelation… if you ever needed an illustration of why shiny graphics should take second place to gameplay, Fallout is it. The depth of the game is incredible…

A fantastic RPG game set in a post-apocalyptic world filled with survivors, mutants and interesting locations, considered by many to be the best game in history… Fallout is a game with a rich world and countless possibilities. Personally I believe that every gamer should play it until the end at least once. I definitely recommend this game to everyone!

Or check out what critics have to say about Fallout:

[Fallout] has the best replay value of any game I’ve experienced to date.

This is one of those rare games that oozes quality from every pore.

When you start the game you’ll be treated to with one of the most chilling, well-written introductions a game has ever been blessed with.

In an age where many are predicting the death of traditional RPGs at the hands of multiplayer extravaganzas, Fallout is a glowing example of the genre, one which positively radiates quality.

You get the impression: If you haven’t played Fallout, you probably should if you want to have a better appreciation for RPGs. I’ll be the first to admit that I was initially turned off by the outdated graphics. What really got my attention, however, is the amount of praise Fallout receives from gamers who are jaded with modern RPGs like Skyrim and Mass Effect. I’m in that camp, so I should definitely enjoy Fallout, right?

Wait for it…

Yes! I totally enjoy Fallout. And you can too if you give this game a fair chance. But before you go and buy it and start playing it, I have one tiny piece of advice. I know I said I wouldn’t tell you the proper way to play a game again – Fallout doesn’t need that anyways – but hear me out.

First, don’t use a walkthrough. There are lots and lots of them around, so you’ll have to be careful in order to avoid them. At times, it will be especially tempting to just glance at a walkthrough. Don’t do it!

You see, part of what makes a game like this so great is the opportunity it gives you to discover things on your own. A walkthrough – particularly the type that tells you every step you should make, every skill point you should invest, every perk you should choose, etc. – robs you of that chance. Unlike modern RPGs that hold your hand, making it impossible for you to lose and taking away all sense of risk and reward in the process, there is no hand-holding in Fallout. Your mission is to find a water chip. “Okay, great!” you say. “I’ll head for the nearest quest marker.” Lo and behold, there is a marker, but you won’t find anything there. At this point, you could consult the nearest walkthrough, but you would be robbing yourself. Go explore! Go get killed! Learn lessons. Make mistakes. Meet people. Ask questions. Gain companions. Figure it out.

I’m willing to bet that most people who have such fond memories of Fallout didn’t have a walkthrough when they played it, since the internet was hardly a thing then.

Second, (and finally) read the manual. Fallout is an arguably complex game. This is a good thing. The manual is your friend.

The Fallout manual is also occasionally hilarious.

Also, the GUI is rather counter-intuitive. So the manual is worth a read for that section alone.

That’s it. See? A pretty simple guide to having fun in the wasteland. So go give Fallout a chance. You won’t look at RPGs the same way after.

Why is Demon’s Souls so good?

I’ve talked about Demon’s Souls here before. That was about a year and a half ago. As it was one of the main reasons I decided to purchase a PlayStation 3 instead of an Xbox 360, it was one of the first games I bought after acquiring the system in 2010. In other words, I’ve been playing this game for almost three years now, and I keep coming back to it for more. There is something about Demon’s Souls that is genuinely compelling, more-so than any other game I can remember from the last few years. In fact, Demon’s Souls is so good that it’s turned me into somewhat of a game snob. The same kind of thing happened when I became accustomed to strong ale, in particular Arrogant Bastard Ale by Stone Brewing Co. After drinking enough of that stuff, everything else kind of lost its taste. The way Stone describes its beer is intended to come off as elitist and arrogant, which is hilarious in itself, but it’s also funny how closely it describes the way I feel about Demon’s Souls (with a few tweaks):

This is an aggressive [game]. You probably won’t like it. It is quite doubtful that you have the [skill] or sophistication to be able to appreciate [a game] of this quality and depth. We would suggest that you stick to safer and more familiar territory – maybe something with a multi-million dollar ad campaign aimed at convincing you it’s [the most awesome thing ever], or one that implies that their [multiplayer and social features] will give you more [friends]. Perhaps you think multi-million dollar ad campaigns make things [more fun]. Perhaps you’re mouthing your words as you read this.

Of course, I’m kidding. But it’s kind of sad that so many people only ever drink tasteless fizzy yellow beer, and so many people only ever play games that are backed by major corporations, that lack any element of challenge or creativity, and that are purely motivated by sales numbers and review scores. Demon’s Souls is not a perfect game. There are a few things From Software could have improved. But my list of complaints is relatively short, so let’s get those out of the way first:

1. Corpses shouldn’t be all that animated. I can understand if a body moves when you step on it, but why do they have to flail about so much?
2. Often, the only practical way to figure things out is to read the wiki – particularly when it comes to some of the bosses (such as Flamelurker, Maneater, or even Leechmonger), unless you enjoy starting over at the beginning of a level with your health reduced to half and nothing to show for it.
3. The interface is rather clunky, especially when comparing weapon and armor statistics. Again, your best bet for choosing the right weapon is probably to read the wiki.

It actually took a fair amount of head scratching to come up with that short list, which should speak volumes on behalf of the quality of the game. Now let’s look at what Demon’s Souls does right.

Hard but fair

Every game should balance its difficulty in such a way that it is neither too easy nor too hard. That much is obvious – and I’m sure it’s easier said than done from a development standpoint – but where most games totally fail at this, Demon’s Souls gets it just right. When I purchased Demon’s Souls, the guy behind the counter cautioned me, saying that “it was a real controller breaker” for him. I have to say that I never had the urge to crush my controller to pieces or throw it at the wall while I was playing Demon’s Souls. I have experienced that level of frustration with a number of other games. For instance, in God of War, there is a section in Hades where you have to climb these spinning columns covered with spikes that kill you in one hit. It’s nearly impossible to climb to the top. If you’ve played the game, you will definitely remember this part:

Pure evil.

The reason I remember it so well is because I had never been so frustrated with a video game in my life… until I played Dead Rising 2 and I had to fight this piece of crap:

Possibly the worst boss fight ever.

Actually, all of the boss fights in Dead Rising 2 are tedious and cheap. Some other rage inducing games (off the top of my head) include Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Killzone 2, Resistance 2, Psychonauts, and Assassin’s Creed. These games are generally very easy with the exception of a few segments where the difficulty is increased to such an extreme level that it requires more luck than skill to get past. To alleviate this problem, these games usually give you a checkpoint right before you are sure to fail, so you can experience the frustration of that segment over and over again until you get the timing exactly right (or whatever it is you have to do) and make it to the next checkpoint. Demon’s Souls never does this. Don’t get me wrong – you will die if you aren’t careful. But, if you are careful, chances are you will make it through most of the game alive.

Don’t be like this guy – he’s not being careful.

Blogger Nick Burgener explains this point very eloquently:

While virtually every press release has touted the game’s challenging difficulty, and many gamers have accused it of being exceedingly cheap, tedious, and frustrating, the simple fact of the matter is that Demon’s Souls is not that hard, as long as you approach it intelligently… It can be very challenging at times, yes, but I think Demon’s Souls represents an ideal for challenging gameplay; it’s not afraid to punish you for your failures, which makes your successes that much more meaningful, and it rewards you greatly for playing well. The challenge is neither tedious nor frustrating; it’s intelligent and personal. As long as you play intelligently, it becomes a surprisingly easy game. (source)

I wouldn’t say Demon’s Souls is ever easy. Aside from that, I couldn’t have put it better.

The story takes a back seat

I’m not of the mindset that games should never have stories. Good games usually benefit from good stories. But some games are so heavy-handed with their stories that their gameplay suffers as a result. Take Dragon Age 2, for example, where the gameplay was dumbed down so badly that all that remained was a shell of an RPG – the only choices to be made in the game are superficial at best; the combat is simplistic and repetitive; the player is shoehorned into following a predetermined path. Apparently, BioWare thinks it’s more important that their game tells a mediocre story than that it implements solid RPG mechanics and interesting gameplay.

We could talk about Mass Effect as well. But BioWare is not the only developer that is guilty here. The Witcher is a pretty solid RPG – there are a lot of choices to make that have interesting repercussions throughout the game; the skill tree is immense; it would take multiple playthroughs to experience everything the game has to offer. But the story, as profound as it’s supposed to be, is boring and trite. These people and the world they live in are screwed no matter what you do, because reality is grim and dark and all that. Normally I can overlook this kind of thing in games, but The Witcher beats you over the head with its story, its lore, its characters, its morality and philosophy to the point of exhaustion. I love the way Dr. Atomic puts this on his blog:

Consider Geralt’s two swords; as a monster hunter, he carries one made of steel for use against men, and one made of silver for use against monsters. Ah, but as Geralt says, “both are for monsters.” Do you get it? Humans are monsters. If you didn’t catch that, the game will ram it down your throat against and again with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Poor Geralt can’t swing a sword without hitting someone prattling on about “Hey, remember that time we raped/murdered/slaughtered that entire village? Good times, mate!” or spewing a stream of profanity that would make a sailor blush. (source)

Most of the game (aside from running fetch quests) amounts to choosing dialog options and watching cutscenes. It asks you to make some really tough decisions, but it’s hard to care about any of the characters because they all suck so bad. Geralt is no better. His personality can be summed up in one word: indifferent.

These people are all jerks, but Geralt doesn’t really care and neither should you.

Demon’s Souls, in contrast, doesn’t get bogged down with its story. There’s actually a great story and a heap of lore to be found in the in-game descriptions of characters, items, and locations, but the better story is the one that’s told through your actions. The gameplay is exciting! The boss fights are intense! These are things I actually want to share with other people – Did I tell you about the time I beat Maneater with a shred of health left? I was literally jumping up and down!

One of the toughest boss fights in the game.

No dialog trees

There has got to be a better way to role play than choosing conversation responses. I can appreciate a game that gives you different ways to develop your character, and I realize that the dialog tree is a long established RPG tradition. But every time I see one of these I physically cringe:

Oh crap, not another dialog tree…

This could be a matter of personal preference, but if I wanted to read a book I would pick something with a much better story than this. What do I really need to know about Moira from Fallout 3? And why is she so eager to discuss her life story with me? For all she knows, I could be role-playing a murderous psychopath. It’s either that or a wussy pushover since there’s usually not a middle ground when it comes to conversation options.

The neutral option is generally preferred.

In contrast, what does Blacksmith Ed tell you about himself? Absolutely nothing! He’ll tell you about his profession, but only what you need to know: “If you need a blacksmith, bring me demons’ souls.” The result: less of my time wasted on boring plot and character details.

He even tells you to get lost. I love it!

Deep, complex RPG mechanics

While most developers are busy stripping RPG mechanics out of their games to provide a more streamlined experience to the casual crowd (Skyrim, Dragon Age 2, Mass Effect), it’s possible to spend hours deciding how to customize your character and equipment in Demon’s Souls. Will you put all the souls you accumulate into increasing your magic power or increasing your capacity for magic spells? Will you spend all your precious upgrade stones acquiring a better spear or a more powerful bow? Chances are you won’t have enough to do both in one playthrough, so you have to decide. Will you give the Yello Demon’s Soul to Blacksmith Ed to forge an incredibly powerful catalyst, or to Sage Freke to learn an unstoppable magical attack? Of course, you could simply consume it for a ridiculous amount of souls. It sure is tempting…

You won’t be getting another Yellow Demon’s Souls anytime soon, so choose wisely.

These kinds of decisions make for a compelling meta-game that you could be playing for years to come, which is why so many people are still playing Demon’s Souls. SnapSlav summarizes my points thus far very well over at No Mutants Allowed:

Demon’s Souls immediately sets itself apart from other RPGs in its unique design. Unlike many RPGs, Demon’s Souls avoids lengthy narrative and exposition, in favor of giving the player full control of their destiny. As a whole, the distinct and creative mechanics of the game are so vast that entire Wiki articles have been dedicated to fleshing out and explaining each particular one. (source)

Not convinced yet? Check out the articles on character tendency and world tendency on the wiki, and there’s a lot more where that came from.

Creative use of multiplayer

Between Quake 3 Arena, Unreal Tournament, Battlefield, Call of Duty, the Enemy Territory games, and a plethora of Half-Life mods, I’ve sunk literally hundreds of hours into multiplayer gaming. I started to lose interest when perks became a popular feature in multiplayer games, after which it always felt like a grind to unlock the next weapon or powerup. Players that have unlocked better perks have an unfair advantage over players that haven’t, which enables them to unlock even more perks, which gives them even more of an advantage. This is by far the most popular model in multiplayer games today.

You want these, don’t you?

There’s also a groupthink mentality that is present in multiplayer games today. I believe this is why the Xbox 360 is arguably more popular than the PlayStation 3, and why games like Halo and Call of Duty sell better than other games that are better in almost every respect. If you have an Xbox 360 and play Halo and Call of Duty, then you are part of a huge group of gamers. It means you suddenly have something to talk about with the people that play those games after school or work, even though there’s not much worth talking about in those games.

Remember that time the red guys were on the ATVs, and the blue guys were shooting at them? That was awesome.

I won’t describe all the details about the multiplayer in Demon’s Souls, since you can read about it on the wiki. Suffice it to say that it’s totally unique. Playing a level with a blue phantom could mean the difference between life and death, and being invaded by a black phantom is an absolutely terrifying event if you aren’t prepared for it.

Victory in Demon’s Souls is worth sharing.

Finally, I can’t tell you how many times I was saved by a message that warned of an imposing ambush. No other game encourages you to help other players by leaving messages for them in their worlds.

A refined experience

These days, developers are always trying to up the ante when it comes to the scope of their games. “You thought Rome was big in Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood? Wait ’til you see Constantinople in Assassin’s Creed: Revelations!” “Forget Constantinople, Skyrim is so big it will take you hours to cross on foot!” (Don’t try this at home, it will literally bore you to death.) I actually gleaned a lot of enjoyment from Skyrim before I realized how irritated I had become with it. But there is an inherent design problem in games where the player can “go anywhere and do anything.” How do you quality test a piece of software like that? The only practical way is to draw a line once you feel you’ve eliminated enough bugs. And, seriously, don’t get me started on the bugs…

’nuff said.

As for infinite quests, they are hardly something to be desired when they amount to nothing but fetch quests and random, meaningless encounters.

Do me a favor and tell that guard over there you never saw me. Or don’t. On second thought, it really doesn’t matter.

Demon’s Souls may not have a map the size of the Amazon Rainforest, but it also has a lot less bugs as a result. (See what I did there?!) It may not have infinite quests, but the quests it does have are worthwhile. It may not have thousands of fully voiced NPCs, but the characters it does have are memorable and charming. It’s a rock solid game with relatively few, minor bugs. The only one I can think of that ever bothered me was the corpse behavior I mentioned earlier.

Bucketlist

This post has gone on long enough, so I’ll just briefly mention some other things that make Demon’s Souls so good.

1. The atmosphere is totally creepy, and is far scarier than games that are supposed to be scary (Dead Space, F.E.A.R., Resident Evil…). Fantasy horror might be my new favorite combination of genres.
2. The level design is smart and unique. What other game has a level like Tower of Latria, or Shrine of Storms, or Valley of Defilement (my absolute worst nightmare)?
3. The graphics (or aesthetics, if you prefer) are extremely polished. Lots of games that tout realism as a strong point (Skyrim, Assassin’s Creed…) look like garbage next to Demon’s Souls, even though it’s several years older.
4. The soundtrack is subtle and beautiful. Most of the time, you don’t hear any music at all, which sets the mood appropriately given the places you find yourself in.
5. Cutscenes are few and far between. When there are cutscenes, they’re short.

Conclusion

Unfortunately, there are not a ton of people that are willing to give a game like Demon’s Souls a fair chance, which means we will only get more shooters and dumbed down RPGs in the years ahead. I’m optimistic though that developers like From Software will always be around to provide those of us that are willing with these kinds of unique, engaging experiences. Failing that, we can try picking up a programming book or two and creating something special ourselves. PS: Despite what it may sound like, I am not at all religious about video games, and I don’t mean to offend anyone who enjoys the games that I criticize. This is just an opinion piece.

How to play Left 4 Dead (and Left 4 Dead 2) in split screen mode on PC

Although this has been documented elsewhere (see here and here), the instructions are mostly geared towards people who want to use a gamepad for one player and a keyboard/mouse for another player. If you are fortunate enough to have two gamepads for your PC, then playing Left 4 Dead in split screen mode is surprisingly easy to set up.

Step 1: Download this Xbox 360 controller emulator by Evaldas Jocys. The file you want is named something like x360ce.App-2.0.2.158.zip, give or take the version number. (Sound familiar? This is the same thing we did for Dead Rising 2.)

Step 2: Extract the zip archive to your Left 4 Dead executable directory, which will be something like C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\left 4 dead.

Step 3: Run the x360ce executable file. When the program launches, it will prompt you to create the x360ce.ini file. This is the file that holds the configuration settings for the program. It will also prompt you to create the xinput1_3.dll file. This is the library file that gets compiled along with the configuration settings and will enable your gamepad to work with the game. Click Yes on both of these prompts to create the files.

Step 4: At this point, you should be looking at a new window that says “New Device Detected.” Leave the first radio button checked – the one that says “Search automatically for settings” – along with the checkbox that says “Search the Internet” and click “Next” at the bottom of the window. Finally, click Finish at the bottom of the next window to import the settings. If the program displays a green box on the tab for the controller you have selected, then you can continue to step 5. If it displays a red box on the tab, then see the troubleshooting section below.

If you’re using two gamepads, repeat this step for the second one.

Step 5: Click Save at the bottom-right corner of the window and close the program.

Step 6: Go to your Left 4 Dead bin directory, which will be something like C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\left 4 dead\bin. Rename the xinput1_3.dll file to xinput1_3.dll.old.

Step 7: Launch the game. Click on Options, then on Keyboard/Mouse. Make sure “Allow Developer Console” and “Gamepad” are both enabled. Then click Done.

Step 8: Hit the tilde key (~) on your keyboard to open the console and type:

ss_map mapname

Replace mapname with the actual name of a map. Auto-completion in the console should help you out here.

That’s it! You’re done. Unless you are playing Left 4 Dead 2. In that case, enter this command in the console once the map has finished loading:

connect_splitscreen localhost 2

When you’re done using a controller and want to use your keyboard/mouse again, go back into Options, Keyboard/Mouse, and disable the gamepad.

Have fun!

What if x360ce doesn’t recognize my gamepad?

Since I normally use a fairly ubiquitous gamepad (Logitech Wireless Gamepad F710), I had never encountered this problem until I tried my other one (PS3 Afterglow Controller by PDP). If x360ce doesn’t recognize your gamepad, it will display a red box on the tab for that controller and the controller diagram will be all grayed out:

Go to the Settings Database tab on the top row of tabs. Under Controller/Device, select the gamepad that’s having problems. Then click on the Global Settings tab to get a list of available configurations from the internet:

I have my list sorted by the Users column. I think that, by default, x360ce will use the highest ranked configuration for your gamepad settings. In my case, it was using the top one in the list, with 5C1EA9F1 under SID and 11 Users. To use a different configuration, double click on another entry in the list. Then click Yes to import the settings. A couple of seconds after that, if you picked the right one, the red box on the controller tab should change to a green box:

At this point, you should be able to push the buttons on your controller and see the corresponding buttons light up in the diagram on the controller tab. This will tell you for sure if your gamepad settings are working. Do the same for the joysticks to make sure those are working too.

If everything checks out, then you can resume from step 5 above.

How I got a decent frame rate in Civilization V

The reason I don’t call this post “How to get a decent frame rate in Civilization V” is because there isn’t a solution that will make the game run smoothly on every PC. Chances are your PC is very different from mine, so this solution may or may not help you. Here are the specs for my rig:

• Motherboard: Asus M4A78 Pro AM2+ 780G ATX
• Processor: AMD Athlon 64-bit x2 7750 Black Edition
• Power supply: PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610 Watt ATX 12V
• Memory: OCZ Technology Titanium XTC 8GB PC-6400 DDR2
• Video card: Sapphire 100283-3L Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16
• Sound card: SoundBlaster Audigy
• Hard drive: OCZ Agility 2 Solid State SATA II 240GB

Honestly, I don’t even know what all that stuff means. It’s obvious that I haven’t upgraded the processor since I bought it, but the video card is fairly new and still ranks highly in benchmark tests. The hard drive is also quite new and is one of the best solid state drives available on the market.

I can play almost any modern game with a solid frame rate. However, Civilization V has proven to be a challenge for my rig. In the spirit of Koroush Ghazi’s tweak guides, here are the results of my own tests with the various graphics settings in the game.

I started playing the game with all the graphics settings maxed out, aside from “Anti-Aliasing” and “VSync”, which breaks down like this:

• Screen Resolution: 1920×1080 60 Hz
• Anti-Aliasing: Off
• Fullscreen: On
• VSync: Off
• High Detail Strategic View: On
• Leader Scene Quality: High
• Overlay Detail: High
• Shadow Quality: High
• Fog of War Quality: High
• Terrain Detail Level: High
• Terrain Tessellation Level: High
• Terrain Shadow Quality: High
• Water Quality: High
• Texture Quality: High

I didn’t experience any issues early on in the game. But, as I accumulated more units and explored more of the map, the frame rate began to dip as low as 15 FPS when zoomed all the way out. Here is a screenshot of my civilization about half-way through the game:

Civilization V running in DirectX 11 with all graphics settings set to high, except for "Anti-Aliasing" (off) and "VSync" (off)

Truly, the game looks fantastic at this level of detail. Especially when “Anti-Aliasing” is turned on, which I couldn’t afford, it’s a visual stunner. Granted, I was loathe to turn any of the graphics settings down. Running the free Fraps utility in the background, I began experimenting by turning “Terrain Tessellation Level” down to medium. When I discovered that this had no effect, I tried turning “Terrain Detail Level” down instead. This had no effect, either. The only graphics setting that seemed to have any effect on the frame rate was “Fog of War Quality.” I cranked this down to minimum, which reduced the cloud layer to a plain, gray prism floating over the game world. At this point, the frame rate only dipped as low as 18 FPS when zoomed all the way out.

This improvement was noticeable, but still not what I would call playable. Next, I tried turning all of the graphics settings down to medium, except for “Fog of War Quality,” which I left at minimum, and “Texture Quality,” which has only low and high as options. Here is a screenshot of the result:

Civilization V running in DirectX 11 with all graphics settings turned down to medium, except for "Fog of War Quality" (minimum), "Texture Quality" (high), "Anti-Aliasing" (off) and "VSync" (off)

Try comparing this screenshot with the one above. I can’t see much of a difference. However, the frame rate still went as low as 18 FPS when zoomed out. In other words, there was no improvement in performance, but also no visible reduction in quality.

The next thing I tried was turning all of the graphics settings down to low, except for “Fog of War Quality,” which I left at minimum:

Civilization V running in DirectX 11 with all graphics settings turned down to low, except for "Fog of War Quality" (minimum), "Anti-Aliasing" (off) and "VSync" (off)

Comparing this screenshot with the one above, there is a significant reduction in quality. However, there was absolutely no improvement in performance. The frame rate stayed consistently between 18 FPS and 28 FPS, which was exactly the range I got when all the graphics settings were turned up to high.

The last thing I tried was running the game in DirectX 9. As before, I started with all the graphics settings maxed out, aside from “Anti-Aliasing” and “VSync.” Also, in DirectX 9, the highest possible setting for “Leader Scene Quality” is medium, although that is not depicted here:

Civilization V running in DirectX 9 with all graphics settings turned up to high, except for "Leader Scene Quality" (medium), "Anti-Aliasing" (off) and "VSync" (off)

Comparing this screenshot with the first one above, which shows the game running in DirectX 11 with all the graphics settings turned up to high, there is some reduction in quality. Most noticeably, the textures are somewhat blurrier in DirectX 9 than in DirectX 11.  However, this is significant improvement over the one immediately above, which shows what the game looks like in DirectX 11 with all graphics settings turned down to low.

Most importantly, running the game in DirectX 9 resulted in a tremendous improvement in performance. “Fog of War Quality” seems to have a significant effect no matter what mode the game is running in, so I kept this setting turned down to minimum, which gave me a frame rate between 26 FPS and 30 FPS when zoomed out.

Overall, I’m very pleased with the balance between quality and performance I found. Good luck!

NOTE: I should mention that “High Detail Strategic View” had no effect in any of my tests. From what I understand, it simply increases the resolution of the map in strategic view.

EDIT: Rowan Kaiser over at Ars Technica mentioned in his review that the Gods & Kings expansion fixes some performance issues.

Have some free, fun indie games

I’m all for supporting independent games with my hard earned cash, especially whenever this conversation comes up. However, there are some incredible indie games out there that don’t require a dime to play. Here are some of my favorites:

• Cave Story
• Desktop Dungeons
• Gang Garrison
• Nudo
• Super Crate Box
• Trilby: The Art of Theft

I should mention that the free version of Cave Story requires a separate download if you want to play it in English, but it’s totally legit and every bit as good as Cave Story +, which you can buy from Steam for just a few bucks.

How to get your gamepad to work with Dead Rising 2 for PC

This was an issue that bothered me to no end when I bought Dead Rising 2 for PC last  year. I put the game aside for several months because, no matter how many supposed fixes I tried, my wireless gamepad simply would not cooperate. Most PC games, especially ones that are labelled with the “Games for Windows Live” logo, come with gamepad support right out of the box. For whatever reason, Capcom or Blue Castle or whoever was supposed to test this functionality didn’t. As a result, hundreds of PC gamers feel that they were ripped off and are unable to properly enjoy the game. I don’t blame them.

Well, I’m happy to tell you that I finally found a solution and even happier to tell you that the game is buckets of murderous fun – once the gamepad works, that is. The keyboard and mouse controls are horrendous. Some games just don’t feel right without a gamepad or controller in hand. Here’s how I got my gamepad to play nicely with Dead Rising 2:

Step 1: Download this Xbox 360 controller emulator by Evaldas Jocys. The file you want is named something like x360ce.App-2.0.2.158.zip, give or take the version number.

Step 2: Extract the zip archive to your Dead Rising 2 executable directory, which will be something like C:\Program Files (x86)\Capcom\Dead Rising 2. It’s important that the x360ce.exe file is in the same directory as the deadrising2.exe file. This is because executable (.exe) files will look for library (.dll) files in the same directory that they reside in first before going to the system directory. This is true for any program running under Windows, at least. I’m not sure how it works under other operating systems. When you run the x360ce.exe file, it will create the missing library files for us in this directory.

Step 3: Double click the x360ce.exe file and confirm that you want to open it by clicking “Run” when the Windows security warning dialog pops up. When the program launches, you should get two additional warning dialogues. The first one will prompt you to create the x360ce.ini file. This is the file that holds the configuration settings for the program. The second one will prompt you to create the xinput1_3.dll file. This is the library file that gets compiled along with the configuration settings and will enable your gamepad to work with the game. Click “Yes” on both of these prompts to have the files created.

Step 4: At this point, you should be looking at a new window that says “New Device Detected.” Leave the first radio button checked – the one that says “Search automatically for settings” – along with the checkbox that says “Search the Internet” and click “Next” at the bottom of the window. Finally, click “Finish” at the bottom of the next window. If the program displays a green box on the tab for the controller you have selected, then you can continue to step 5. If it displays a red box on the tab, then see the troubleshooting section of this post.

Step 5: Click the “Options” tab near the top-center of the main program window and change the hook mode to “Compatibility.”

Step 6: Click “Save” at the bottom-right corner of the window. Close the program and launch the game.

Step 7: One the game has launched, go to Options, then go to PC Settings. Hopefully, you will have the option to enable the gamepad.

If this method doesn’t work for you, try experimenting with the other hook mode settings. I hope this helps someone else enjoy the game.

How to defeat Leechmonger in Demon’s Souls

Maybe I’m just bad at the internets, but I had a really hard time figuring out how to beat this boss in Demon’s Souls. I have a somewhat rounded character build with the most skill points in strength but a fair amount in vitality, intelligence, and endurance. Because of my strength, I can make quick work of most enemies in close quarters with my crescent falchion. However, I generally prefer to lean on my intelligence, attacking enemies with ranged spells or bows and arrows. This is how I approached the Leechmonger battle in the Valley of Defilement. I searched high and low for a ranged strategy with little to no success. There is a detailed walkthrough on the Demon’s Souls Wiki, but I didn’t have the dexterity it suggests to use the ranged strategy, nor did I have the spells it suggests to use the magic strategy. I watched several YouTube videos, especially this one by Symonator, several times trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. It seemed to me like no matter how many arrows or spells I sunk into this boss it would regenerate its health faster than I could damage it.

Without further ado, I present to you the newbies’ ranged strategy for defeating Leechmonger in Demon’s Souls:

Step 1: Before departing, make sure you stock up on healing items as well as arrows (if you’re going to use a bow) or magic restoring items (if you’re going to use spells). I was able to defeat Leechmonger with about 40 arrows plus a handful of spells. For this reason, I’d recommend taking at least 50 arrows if not more like 100 if you are planning to use a bow exclusively. I only had to heal myself a few times during the fight.

Step 2: Check out this map of the Valley of Defilement, which I won’t reproduce here because that would make the author unhappy. At the bottom center of the map is a layout of the boss area. The little number 16 on the left side indicates where you enter the area, and the little number 17 marks the ledge where you will be attacking. Here is a screenshot of the ledge:

Be careful not to fall

You’ll notice you can (barely) see Leechmonger from this vantage point. It’s just close enough to get a target lock.

Step 3: Here’s the trick that took me several attempts to figure out: You must stand at the very edge of the ledge where Leechmonger will be able to hit you with its projectile attack. Have your healing items at the ready because you will need them. If you stand in a very specific spot on the ledge, most of Leechmonger’s projectiles will hit the bottom of the ledge doing you no harm at all. What you must not do is back away from the edge to avoid Leechmonger’s projectiles, thus giving it a chance to heal itself. As long as it continues to attack you, it will not heal itself.

Step 4: Standing at the spot specified above, continually attack with your bow and/ or spells. As I mentioned in step 3, don’t try to avoid the projectiles. Instead, heal yourself as needed. You will be able to defeat Leechmonger relatively quickly this way.

Of course, there are a range of strategies out there for defeating this boss, but this is the only one that worked for me. For instance, if your character has more skill points in dexterity, you might be able to get away with letting Leechmonger heal itself and still be able to damage it faster than it can heal.

Either way, let me know what worked for you in the comments. Good luck!

How to get the most enjoyment out of Skyrim

A dragon approaches

I consider myself a Bethesda games veteran. Between Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3, and Fallout New Vegas, I’ve sunk literally hundreds of hours into these games. Many of those hours were spent bored to tears or swimming in frustration. Yet, no matter how many times I stayed up all night long pouring over loot, organizing my inventory, and vowing to myself that it would never happen again, there’s something about these games that kept me coming back for more. Even though I swore I would never play another Elder Scrolls or another Fallout, it was only a matter of time until I would cave to the pressure and pick up a copy of Skyrim.

I can’t exaggerate enough how happy I am that I did. This time, I’m forcing myself to play the game a certain way and it’s paying off tremendously. Of course, my gaming habits have changed as well, but that story will have to wait for another post. In this post, I just want to talk about how my behavior in the game has changed and how that has made this journey much more rewarding than my experiences with other Bethesda games.

I present to you Dave’s rules for getting the most enjoyment out of Skyrim (or any other Bethesda game, for that matter):

Rule no. 1: Avoid the temptation to pick up every piece of loot you can with the intention of selling it later. Instead, pick up only the items you plan on using.

In both Morrowind and Oblivion, I beefed up my characters’ strength and endurance skills right off the bat and still found that I was always being over-encumbered by the loot I carried half-way through every dungeon raid. The result was that I spent the majority of my time in those games sorting through loot, organizing my inventory, and making trips to and from the nearest town to maximize my profits. During some quests, this can be a major headache. In other quests where it’s impossible to travel, I was stuck having to make tough decisions between items that I didn’t want to leave behind.

Is it possible to make a fortune harvesting iron ore? Sure, but I’d argue it’s much more fun to make money completing quests.

Admit it, you're only going to use that staff once

Since you won’t be picking up all those useless items, you’ll also save a ton of time you would otherwise spend looking in containers. Many dungeons are filled to the brim with dressers, night stands, baskets, and sacks, but you’ll never find anything genuinely useful in these containers, so don’t even bother looking. It’s hard to resist at first, but you’ll thank me later.

Here's one legitimate use for a basket

Rule no. 2: Avoid the main story quest like the plague. Instead, pick up every side quest you can find.

You know what makes Skyrim such a special game? Some would say it’s “the graphics,” but I think most people know this isn’t true. The visual aesthetic in Skyrim can be downright sloppy at times, especially when character models start glitching out or when you get stuck behind a rock and are forced to stare at its ugly texture.

Every character in Skyrim has wet, greasy hair

I would say the most impressive aspect of “the graphics” in the game is how far you can see, but this really only points to the underlying awesomeness of the scope of the game. Skyrim is unique because you can do just about anything in it. You can go anywhere, climb any mountain, slay any foe, and pillage any dungeon. Every item in the game is rendered in detail because you can pick it up, look at it, and usually wield it. Unfortunately, you can no longer throw carrots and other miscellaneous objects you find laying around in the environment at people, which was definitely my favorite thing to do in Oblivion.

The scope of Skyrim is probably the most ambitious to be achieved yet in the realm of digital world crafting, and this is particularly evident when it comes to the side quests. Just about everyone you meet in the game will find something for you to do, whether it’s fetching something for them, delivering something for someone else, settling a dispute, planting evidence, investigating a murder, exploring an ancient ruin, aiding a squad of soldiers in combat, training in magic school, or sapping a mythical tree. These are just a few of the things I’ve accomplished so far by avoiding the main story quest entirely.

Scope

All of this scope amounts to the ultimate RPG experience. With Skyrim, Bethesda gave RPG fans what we have been clamoring for – a truly open fantasy world where we are free to do whatever and be whoever we want, to role-play in the proper sense of the term. I’m sure the main story quest is quite good. But, when you’ve got all this freedom, why follow the path? I’m having way more fun crafting my character the way I see fit than I had following the path in previous games. I think the reason is because I don’t feel any urgency to finish the game. Instead, I feel free to enjoy everything the game has to offer at my own pace. There’s no end in sight and I’m enjoying every bit of it.

That’s all the tips I have for now. Let me know how you’re enjoying your time in Skyrim and if you found my insights helpful or not!

How to build a house in Terraria

I’m having a blast playing Terraria, the Minecrafty sidescroller from Re-Logic. And, since it was on sale just a few days ago on Steam, I’m assuming many others are too. I had a bit of a hard time figuring out what to do at first, so I thought I’d share my findings in the hopes that it will help someone else who’s just getting started.

Similar to Minecraft, the first thing you’ll want to do once you’re in the game is start gathering wood. Your player character comes equipped with a sword, a pickaxe, and an axe right off the bat. Hopefully, you’ll initially spawn in an area with a lot of trees. If you don’t, good luck finding them. I still don’t know how to get out of a cave.

In the upper left corner of the user interface is your hotbar. These items are mapped to your keyboard keys 1-0 so they’re easy to access. Press the number three to equip the axe, then left click at the base of a tree hold the button down. In a few moments, it will explode into piles of wood for you to collect. If you don’t click at the base of the tree but somewhere in the middle, you’ll be left with a stump that you’ll have to chop down later if you’re standing where you want to build.

Chopping down a tree

You’ll want to clear out enough space to make  a small house. If the ground isn’t level, use your pickaxe in the same manner as your axe to chop away at the ground and make it level.

Once you’ve cut down a few trees and have some space on level ground, press the number four on your keyboard to equip the wood you just collected. Left click just above the ground in front of your character to place a piece of wood there. Then, holding the mouse button down, drag your cursor along the ground to place the floor of your house. You can only place objects on the ground a few feet in front of your character, so you will most likely have to move while doing this.

Placing the floor

Placing the walls works the same way as placing the floor. Just left click and drag your cursor to form a box.

Placing the walls

Next, you’ll need to place a wall behind the house in order to keep the monsters from spawning inside. To do this, you’ll need to build a work bench first. Press the escape key to enter your inventory and crafting screen. In the lower left corner of this interface, click on the work bench icon, then click on it again to craft it, then click a spot in your hotbar so you can equip it later. At this point, you can close the inventory and crafting screen by pressing the escape key again.

Equip the work bench in the same way you equipped the wood earlier (by pressing the corresponding number on the keyboard). Then, left click just above the ground in front of your character to to place the work bench there. If you go back into your inventory and crafting screen while standing near the work bench, you’ll have more crafting options available. Do this next, then click on the wood wall icon in the lower left corner. Click on it a few times to craft enough wood walls (you’ll want several dozen for a small room), then click a spot in your hotbar so you can equip it.

Next, equip the wood wall(s), left click in the top left corner of the interior of your house, and drag your cursor up and down and back and forth to fill the entire backdrop of the room with the wood wall.

Placing the wood wall background

Now you’re safe from zombies! But you’re also stuck inside your house. You’ll need to place a door and/ or a platform to enter and exit your house. Go back to your workbench, open the inventory and crafting screen, find the wooden door icon, and craft a couple of these. You might as well craft a few wood platforms while you’re at it, which will make the third entrance to our house. Don’t worry – zombies can’t get through any of them… for now.

Next, equip your axe, chop down one of the walls on the side of your house, equip the wooden door, and place it there in the same way you placed the wood walls and the work bench earlier. To open and close the door, simply right click on it with your mouse.

Placing a door

Do this to the other side of the house too, then cut a hole in the roof for the wood platform. Equip the wood platform, place your mouse cursor where the hole is, then left click and drag your cursor to seal the entrance. You can jump up out of the house this way or drop down into it by pushing the s key while standing over the platform.

Slimes can't get through the doors or the platform

The last thing you’ll need is light. Go back to your workbench, open the inventory and crafting screen, find the torch icon, and craft a couple of these. You can only place torches on walls or on the ground, and not on the background.

There! Now you can laugh as the zombies try helplessly to claw their way into your home to eat your brains. That is, until a  Blood Moon or Goblin Invasion occurs, which I imagine is a frightening thing. Let me know if you have any questions or if I left anything out.