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Topics - Isara

Pages: 123
61
News / MOVED: Brute Reviews Has Been Blacklisted by the IGDA!
« on: November 22, 2014, 05:45:07 PM »

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Stupidity, affects all people; all races, genders, ages, independently from access to food, water, heat, proper sanitation, technology and medicines. The first recorded case of stupidity was lost in time, and the earliest ones can easily be found in the oldest historical records.

This disease also affects both very, brilliantly intelligent people, and as well very unintelligent people at various times, rates and severity. Which can lead from mild physical or mental injury to severe ones, including death.

Animals, including household pets have shown hints of stupidity, and similar results. Yet we are worried about ebola, the flu, and cancer.

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The Flood / I was supposed to be doing something in real life…
« on: November 16, 2014, 03:51:29 AM »
But I forgot... Any ideas?

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Gaming / Disappointment at Blizzard
« on: November 10, 2014, 08:37:51 AM »
Their new announced title is a disappointment. Not in terms of gameplay, story, or the elements that maybe will make it an enjoyable game. Overwatch seems to tackle onto a really specific genre dominated by few games, most particularly by Team Fortess 2, which is the closest thing to the genre of FPS.

The disappointment I am talking about is... That's not Blizzard. Certainly the characters can have fascinating personalities, and maybe they can be meaningful to play as. However, who would have seen Blizzard doing this kind of thing before?

Nobody would have guessed. Blizzard makes epic fantasy or science fiction games. One way or another, they made this kind of thing for almost a decade and have gathered a mixed, loyal player base that went to Blizzcon to witness the announcement of Overwatch...

Which wasn't directly aimed at them. Overwatch isn't aiming to the players of StarCraft 2, it's not aiming to the players of World of Warcraft, but it's aimed exclusively to teenagers. I do get that image just simply by looking at the graphics, the lines, and the presentation.

I am disappointed, that in effect, Blizzard gave the middle finger to fans who may have been over the years, excitedly awaiting for a new epic story, or maybe something from Blizzard and are met with a Team Fortress 2, Dota 2, and Pixar hybrid.

It may not be a bad game, but many loyal players have been excluded, and cast completely aside. All the time of enjoying Blizzard games, buying, reading the books, comics and extended stories that were made thanks to WarCraft, StarCraft, and Diablo... All cast aside for gag humor, and a completely different audience.

Does anyone share a similar feeling, or any kind of thought that agrees or disagrees?

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The Flood / What do you think I look like?
« on: November 09, 2014, 03:29:34 PM »
I am curious how everyone thinks I look like in their head...

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The Flood / MOVED: Sep7agon Xbox 360 Theme
« on: November 08, 2014, 07:33:33 AM »
This topic has been moved to News.

http://sep7agon.net/index.php?topic=11236.0

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The Flood / Typical Staff Conversation
« on: November 05, 2014, 08:57:59 AM »
Ever wondered how our chat conversations turned out within the staff? Well, there you go…

Code: [Select]
[11/5/14, 4:53:09 PM] Yutaka ~: Mein Fuhrer
[11/5/14, 4:55:20 PM] Isara: Ja, das ist scholl, Yutaka.
[11/5/14, 4:55:30 PM] Isara: Ich eine Sep7agon, ich eine reich.
[11/5/14, 4:55:32 PM] Isara: Sig heil! SIEG HEIL!
[11/5/14, 4:55:50 PM] Trist 5382: Heil Isara!
[11/5/14, 4:55:58 PM] Yutaka ~: SIEG HEIL!!!

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Serious / MOVED: Attention, Isara
« on: November 02, 2014, 05:33:00 PM »

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Gaming / Video Game Concept
« on: October 31, 2014, 10:17:07 AM »
There are many first person shooters out there, and once upon a time it was also really popular to create WW2 action games. Lately the industry has moved on, and the titles with a focus on WW2 have been less, and less over the years.

However, a dream of mine is to actually make a WW2 game, and a FPS no less. With a focus on the story, art and war. The issue is that usually FPS games, and action games in general tend to avoid really depressing or sad moods, as they tend to have bright shades to let the player continue with the flow.

What my vision is... Is the vision of a game that tries to take one of the darkest times for humanity and showcase all sorts of emotions, experiences, violence, the strive for peace, despair, death and life through the experiences of a German soldier in WW2.

Picture the heroism, the feeling of glory, the achievements and slowly let the whole mood desaturate as more destruction is witnessed, more death, rumors, secrets and denial, and the truth. To achieve this whole vision, the retelling would be done through the use of appropriate classical music, and an art style that lets 3D blend as art, but at the same time attempting to be using a realistic gameplay for damage, challenge and amounts of enemies.

I don't think it would be a "fun" kind of game that will make you go "woo, look how I killed that guy!" but rather a game that allows the player to explore a game that gives different reactions based on the different moods of someone's story.

70
Serious / College Feels Pointless
« on: October 31, 2014, 08:49:02 AM »
I am at the second year of my studies, but it feels wholly pointless. There are nice things, the place's great, the people are nice, and the professors quite good and supportive to strive to do more work...

But it's also filled with moronic idiots that I'd rather wipe my hands with them before even dealing with them, the students from the US tend to be mostly stereotypical and always within in their social circles meanwhile they spout some nonsense about getting out of your comfortable area when they have a huge student loan to pay their "vacation" to a semester in a US college in Greece.

The Greek students... There are two kinds of them; those who do study, and the huge number of people who are there, drinking coffee in the cafeteria and wasting their parent's money at a private institution. Without having some kind of realistic ambition, interest in a craft or maybe talent in some cases. (The lot of them also get quite a huge number of financial aid, too)

I'll sound like a bitch, but I do have talent, I do have interest in what I do and I love it, but college is just making me more arrogant as the assignments feel like leg work. They are not challenging, and it feels idiotic to do "group assignments" just to deal with the fact that the other person will fuck up things and whatever happens I will have to gather the pieces to put things back together. The programming course was in Java, it was nice, but there was no challenge there either.

I want challenge, I want the brutal kind of challenge with competition, and to actually feel the A slapped onto my courses worth my time and effort. Whenever I am slapped with a grade, it only leaves a bad taste, a sense of disappointment and lack of achievement.

What's the point? It's not challenging, it feels like legwork, and it lacks any kind of fascination as the challenge didn't get any good after my first year. Whenever I talk about video game development I am met with lack of expertise, interest and misunderstanding.

71
Gaming / Video Game Survey
« on: October 28, 2014, 10:44:24 AM »
Hello, I am running a short survey on video games for a college project. I would appreciate any submissions to it. Any feedback is welcome, and I would like to hear thoughts on the questions given. (You can also skip any question you are not comfortable with)

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Survey has been completed. Thanks everyone.

72
The Flood / Sexy Commando
« on: October 21, 2014, 11:53:38 PM »
YouTube
Well, there you go.

73
The Flood / [AMA] I am Isara, the newly appointed admin
« on: October 18, 2014, 05:23:24 PM »
It's 1:20 AM, and I spent all day tinkering with OS X. Ask me anything you feel like.

74
News / October 2014 Survey
« on: October 16, 2014, 04:11:01 AM »
Since we are working onto improving the overall experience with Sep7agon, and with Cheat's permission, I have decided to take a survey. All the entries are anonymous, you are not obliged to answer at all questions, and after submitting one may be able to come back and edit their answers.

The survey ends October, 18th 2014 at 5 PM GMT.

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The survey has ended, thanks for participating!

75
Gaming / MOVED: Food for Thought #03: Metal Gear Solid: The Phantom Pain
« on: October 13, 2014, 05:06:16 PM »
Food for Thought #03: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain was moved to  News.

Read the article here:
http://sep7agon.net/index.php?topic=7256.0

76
News / Food for Thought #03: Metal Gear Solid: The Phantom Pain
« on: October 13, 2014, 05:04:11 PM »



There's a fascination in being a secret agent. Something that perhaps started from the stories of espionage between secret agencies of one nation against another. In truth, Metal Gear Solid is a series that focuses on infiltration, and effectively completing a mission.

However, it's much more than that. Metal Gear Solid games tend to touch sci-fi, paranormal, fantasy themes even, letting the player to have a broad exposure to many subjects. One solid example is secrecy in Metal Gear Solid, in Metal Gear Solid 2 is about information, data and its gathering, Metal Gear Solid 3 tackles a more cold war theme about weapon advancement, and loyalty, Peace Walker about nuclear deterrence and Metal Gear Solid 4 is more akin to the grand awaited finale to an action-packed story filled with many interesting characters that can only be compared to hollywood due to its focus on cutscenes. (Which people criticized for taking up plenty of the game, but that's another story)

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain features a battle-scarred, rough-looking, and vengeance-driven Big Boss. Since the events of Ground Zeroes— where Mother Base has been destroyed, all the great feelings that came from building it in Peace Walker, gathering many people under your wing, and driven by the same goal; freedom, a place to be, is slowly destroyed. It can only be compared to taking a great painting and desaturating it, and then staining it with blood and images of horror.

There's quite a theme. Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes actually also covers rape in one of its darker shades. Of course, such a sensible subject was met with plenty of criticism. After all, it's not that easy to portray such a traumatizing event, but at the same time avoid the player from dropping the controller from mere disgust.

Did anyone ever want a game that traditionally featured a darker theme return to its origins? Metal Gear Solid was quite dark as a game, but the mood became brighter in the following titles. When someone is met with Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is met with not only questions— as Kojima enjoys pitching different theories and fantasies, but surprise.

Surprise of a character's deep change. Personalities change over the year. Some events make us better people, other events... Make us worse. Big Boss, Kazuhira Miller, and Quiet are actually examples of such dramatic personality changes. How is it to play a game which over the years featured characters whose personalities were one way, but due to the events in the story they changed?

Quiet was met with the most criticism out of those three. The reason is that she's a female, but also goes around with her torso exposed. Personally, I don't see an issue. She's not a “babe” kind of character, which is shown easily from the trailer, but there is a solid point in that; if Kojima Productions doesn't give a proper and cohesive story about her personality, and clothing choice then it will only add validity to the idea that she was made that way to appeal to the male audience.

Returning to Big Boss, he now trains children to war which he only did that a little in the past, but now he does it actively, and is unending loyal to his fallen comrade-at-arms. His lust for vengeance against Cypher slowly takes over, turning him, his loyal friend, Kaz, and all of Mother Base into devils.

The intent was to show such a dramatic change. To let the player play as the villain. Effectivelly and practically from what one can witness from the game's release material, Big Boss is the anti-hero of the story, including all the main characters that are featured.

Being a villain can be enjoyable, but only if the right triggers are pressed towards the player. Someone who blatantly becomes “the bad guy” without a reason, or expresses emotions, feelings and thoughts that have no reasoning behind them will not be a fun character to play as. Instead, one with a story, and reacts with emotion, feelings and proper dialogue is likely to be successful in delivering the message.

What do you think about characters changing personalities in games? How do you think that a change in personality affects your enjoyment of a character such as Big Boss?



Food for Thought is a series of critical outlooks on games written by Isara exclusively for Sep7agon.net. Metal Gear Solid, Konami, Konami.jp, and the Konami logo are trademarks of Konami in Japan and other countries.
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77
Septagon / Patch Notes
« on: October 12, 2014, 10:42:36 PM »



I'll be working on miscelleneous patches at the same time I am focusing my work on the next version of Sep7agon. These patches are mainly style-related ones, but also some small features are included. Note that I will be reporting here the patches I have finished, and I think are worthy of being a version of their own, but the time of their application in the main forums will differ. (Due to the differences in timezone, schedule and all other practical reasons between Cheat, and I)


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  • [2014.10.13] Care Patches 1.1.0
    • Retained all the live patches to the pagination
    • Fixed an issue where the background showed in the pagination on the body
    • Changed notification, error, and informative message colors
    • Adjusted list bottom margin
    • Alerts now have a darker theme
  • [2014.10.12] Care Patches 1.0
    • Added pagination buttons on all applicable pages on the current forum
    • Modified successful PM notification style, and BBCode for the Code tag


78
Septagon / Sep7agon_V2 > Project Thread
« on: October 09, 2014, 03:20:38 PM »



The next step of Sep7agon's website is being developed. Unlike what has occured on Bungie.net with the latest updates which drove off most of the community, my objective is to instead cater towards the community.

Community driven content, from news posts, reviews, other articles, to spotify, youtube, and so on are to be given a focus whenever someone visits the main page. Links and profiles reworked to look sleek, clean and showcase your participation in the forum, and gaming profiles.

The plan is quite straightforward. What I hope to achieve in the following months from October is to create a more engaging, cool, and unique website based on what was liked, and what is currently favorable in the community.

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  • October 2014
    Initial sketches, designs and interactive versions.
  • November 2014
    The design is implemented to the current forum software in a testing ground.
  • December 2014
    At some point in this month the new version is released.



Now, the purpose of this thread is for me to share the ongoing progress to exchange feedback actively with users and staff. I encourage everyone to leave their thoughts to each new submission, elaborate ones, simple ones, that will help with shaping what's being worked on.

79
Gaming / I'll probably never play the Vault of Glass
« on: October 07, 2014, 10:31:41 AM »
I live in Greece, where most people don't own a PS3 nowadays nor can afford moving up to a PS4 or Xbox One easily. The community online in Greece is not that huge, and it's usually tight-knit within small groups. (If I could play with anyone from here then it would lag extremely)The only way I was able to meet someone to play with (roughly, as we can't talk to each other via a microphone) was when I was by the cave for hours and I was able to "socialize" by practicing my shooting against a cave and friending people at random.

I can't speak with anyone on the tower, and messaging each and every individual is daunting, annoying if you are a stranger and sometimes they don't accept messages without a friend request. Random people are friends-only in their fire team, so I can't just tag along.

Sometimes I can just wave to people, and see them go. Or I go first. Depends if I am late with my grinding schedule or not. I'll never play the Vault of Glass, as it's all shattered into pieces, just like this game's online socialization capabilities. For an anti-social person with certain tendencies I find myself surprised at publicly ranting about something like this.

So, were you able to do the Vault of Glass, and were you able to actually socialize in Destiny?

80
News / Food for Thought #02: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
« on: October 06, 2014, 04:55:09 AM »



I love pirates. I actually enjoy all sorts of games that have to do with pirates. Sailing the seven seas (usually it's just the Caribbean though) with my ship and crew as we lay waste to merchants and militants alike, finding treasures in the land, skirmishing against gentle entrepreneurs such as us, and sacking towns.

So, why is it enjoyable to play as the pirate? Maybe as I said above, it's the fascinating and unique capability that era can offer for adventure. Certainly sailing a ship at the time wasn't such a pleasure, some voyages tended to be long, sometimes food shortages or abusive captains, and also the worry that someone might attack one at any point must have been something harsh to live with.

Yet, in a game like Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, you can play as a pirate freely. Explore the land that is available to you through the open world, go into towns and explore them as they are quite open for exploration with unique locations and events.

This leads us to the main character, and star of the game's plot, Edward Kenway. A no-good sailor who resorts to the wild life of a privateer to satisfy his greed, and lust for success. He's neither a Templar nor Assassin at the beginning of the game, yet he piques both sides throughout the game and eventually joins one side as the story develops.

Where's the enjoyment in playing a character such as Kenway? Well, the answer basically lies within the concept of fun as playing as a pirate. Kenway's life, shaped out of foppery and whim, followed by his ambitions is one that suits perfectly with the role. A more shy, or less brave and bold character wouldn't have suited such a story, because during reckless and insane stunts Kenway pulls of, chances are that they would have backed out.

Therefore, it's a game that has done right to create a character such as Kenway, in that specific setting and location and even era. However, there's the plot outside the “historical simulation” that talks about another main character, who was recently employed by Abstergo Entertainment.

Abstergo Entertainment in the story is one of the many companies owned by Abstergo – or the Templars, if you will. After the events of Assassin's Creed III, they were able to take the memories of Desmond Miles and then they plan to use them to produce entertainment devices which conveniently cover exciting bits of certain bloodlines for the player to enjoy.

So yes, a player finds oneself playing a game within a game. Where you are living the life as a Caribbean pirate, and then as some geek in an office. This part of the game with Abstergo Entertainment holds the major role for the “today” part of the story as there are returning characters who play an interesting role or two.

However, for those who have played through Assassin's Creed III and know what happened, why does Ubisoft continue the same plot? By all means, since Desmond Miles does not appear in the modern story anymore, does it mean that the story has found stagnation? A more conclusive answer will hopefully come with the release of Assassin's Creed Unity on that matter.

Skimming through the internet to read the reception, and sales of the game were a quite good. Reviewers and players went forward to praise the game as superior to Assassin's Creed III. Why is Black Flag received better than Assassin's Creed III?

Maybe the answer is not really that complicated. The nature of the story of Assassin's Creed III is one full of political intrigues, and the main customer base in the US maybe was affected not only by the story, and the context, but a main character that did not live up to the role of an Assassin. Previously it has been covered as to which Connor's issues may be in the game, but the narration of the game perhaps also played a more important long term effect than what one would normally assume.

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is a fun, exciting and adventurous game to play, for those who seek the life of a pirate, and those who seek adventure in the Caribbean or simply want to experience the next step in the story will always find what they are looking for.

What do you think about Black Flag, and do you think that it truly stands out as superior when compared to the previous title— Assassin's Creed III? And, what does it mean for you to play as a pirate?



Food for Thought is a series of critical outlooks on games written by Isara exclusively for Sep7agon.net. Assassin's Creed, Ubisoft, Ubi.com, and the Ubisoft logo are trademarks of Ubisoft Entertainment in the U.S. and/or other countries.
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81
Gaming / Food for Thought: Assassin's Creed III
« on: October 01, 2014, 12:56:00 PM »
Connor, a character with a story filled with blood, and the intrigues of colonial America primarily seeks revenge, and answers for the major events in his life. His mission, however, does not consume him, and it does not become bloodlust, as he remains uncorrupted.

The main issue with Assassin's Creed III can't be found with its strangely placed military patrols atop the roofs of Boston, nor the British soldiers who may appear in key locations whenever a mission is taken even though control of the area already belongs to The Sons of Liberty or the peculiar changes in combat that followed from Assassin's Creed II.

However, it can be found within the main character, Connor, the assassin. When he speaks, when he is shown in cinematics, and whenever he is faced with a moral dilemma, Connor does not appear brave, albeit his decision should give that exact feeling.

That happens because Connor's facial expressions and voice acting do not always match with the momentum at hand. Where there are lines when he's confronted to express emotion, Connor not only replies with lack of emotion or his emotion—anger is the default one at many points, but also his body language is bland as the camera usually focuses on the face, ignoring that Connor might move his hands in a certain manner.

This is not directly evident in the first acts of the game. A younger Connor has a much better way to express his feelings, and his body language reflects what goes onto his mind. When he is given the Assassin's blades for the first time during that scene one can witness the transition from rage, to excitement, and humility.

So, where does it begin? When does his emotions mismatch his body language? During the next segment of the game, it progresses steadily. The first hints can be noticed when Connor declares war and plants the hatchet some of the lines are not accompanied by the body language being shown.

Certainly, this also applies in side missions, and sometimes even in Desmond's story. Many characters have this issue, but major ones  do not show it, actually, the major characters do not show this issue as much Connor does towards the end of the game's story.

A moment that I memorized though and it became evident is when Desmond admits that he hates killing. Without any kind of warning, or explanation, even though the moment is harsh, it is strangely brought that Desmond has a hard time to kill a person.

The sudden input of this emotion is simply thrown there, and it also applies on Connor as his usual input is anger or simply playing the overly good hero. As long you keep playing as Connor, the more you catch up on those bits, and the more it stays on your mind.

Assassin's Creed III is a great game, and has some problems. These problems do not disrupt the gameplay to most players. Yet, with some insight, when you notice that your character's emotions become bland, it hurts the story which at the start is exciting and slowly, over the course of the game drains itself, as all the major characters.

What do you think about Connor's personality, and do you find that over as the game progresses the character's emotions become drained out as I have experienced during my play through?



Food for Thought is a series of critical outlooks on games written by Isara exclusively for Sep7agon.net. Assassin's Creed, Ubisoft, Ubi.com, and the Ubisoft logo are trademarks of Ubisoft Entertainment in the U.S. and/or other countries.

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82
Septagon / Forum Images
« on: September 28, 2014, 10:49:31 PM »
I think the forum images should be closer to what they looked in older Bungie.net. The current images are nice, but they feel very casual with the unique style of the community.

 Here's an example of what I am talking about.

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