lunes, 7 de julio de 2014

Un año de escribir.

Algunos le llaman periodismo de videojuegos. Otros se hacen llamar bloggers y los muy ridículos nos hacemos llamar escribidores (sic), sea lo que sea, es prácticamente lo mismo, escribir noticias sobre el mundo gamer, o reseñas, las cuales son jugar hasta que duelan los dedos, y así cansado, agotado y en el camino hacia la muerte, escribir respecto a lo que jugamos. Eso es ser un blogger.

Hoy cumplo un año, sí, un año de ser un orgulloso y feliz escribidor (sic). Y no planeo marearlos como en mis demás escritos, sino hacer una breve historia al respecto, y espero que quienes lo lean, vean una parte de su aportación a esta aventura que hoy hace un año, inició de manera muy extraña.

El 7 de julio del 2013 venía regresando de San Luis Potosí en un camión, en el cual me decidí a crear el logotipo de mi blog, 99 Coins, nombre que resultó ser el mejor después de haber probado varios como RLX, 1UP, Final Boss. En ese mismo viaje escribí mi primer artículo “Por qué todos deberían de tener un Wii? Y me encantó lo que sentí al expresar de manera escrita mi opinión.

He pasado por decenas de cosas, como hablar frente a un grupo de pedagogía en la UNAM respecto a videojuegos y gamificación, discusiones sobre qué juego es mejor, pleitos interminables en grupos de Facebook, felicitaciones por parte de desarrolladores, conocer personas que me han corregido y aumentado, otras que no me han dejado nada bueno, hacerme de amigos, escribir en dos sitios web especializados en videjuegos, en fin, muchas situaciones que ya no puedo ni acordarme de todas, pero que cada una me han llenado y enseñado a mejorar en esto.

No puedo dar un número exacto de gracias a quienes debo de hacerlo, pero imposible no mencionar a algunos, y esto va a parecer entrega de Oscar.

Gracias por tu Xbox One mi querido Poncho, sin éste no hubiera podido hacer la reseña de Plants vs Zombies, y por soportar mi amor incondicional por Raúl. Luis, el mejor RP que cualquiera quisiera tener. Yuri, ambos somos como Goose y Maverick de Top Gun, nomás no te me mueras hermano. Karenf prinfefa que no habfla bienf, grafiaf porf tu pafienfia. Connie y tu manera extraña de hacerme mejorar con Diablo, como sea pero aprendí. Tocayo David, por tus discusiones que de algo me han servido, échale con ese pequeño Nathan que viene en camino. Axel por nuestro amor compartido por Nintendo y todo lo que conlleva esa pasión. Arved, el hombre inexpresivo detrás de Anim-arte, que sin sus emoticons, palabras y regaños, me cae que no sería el escribidor que soy ahorita, gracias canijo. José Luis, mi mejor amigo, que siempre me escucha mis mensadas y me apoya o no de manera categórica, como un verdadero amigo hace, sin tus zapes verbales –y físicos- no habría logrado muchas de estas cosas. Cheve cheve y sus “¿ya tienes esas simulaciones? ¡¡¡Me urgen!!!”, pues es bueno saber que hay gente que espera mis artículos. Mi primo Miguel Ángel, un maestrazo en todo, un fregón cuyos conocimientos abarcan hasta lo inimaginable, y que conmigo se ha desvivido en decirme “tienes todo para ser el mejor”, a ti, a mi hermosísima, bellísima e increíble prima Marcela, con quien tienen un precioso hijo, millones de gracias. Mis viejos quienes no entienden mucho de esto, pero con respetar que me hace feliz escribir, me felicitan y apoyan sin juzgarme, son los mejores padres, los mejores súper héroes que haya conocido. A las compañías que me han regalado juegos y leído mis reseñas, ya sea Blizzard por Diablo III: Reaper of Souls y hacerme feliz, EA por pedirme las simulaciones que con tanto gusto y pasión hago, Ubisoft, Konami. A ustedes que me leen y ríen mil –al menos eso espero- y que siguen leyendo mis noticias, mis notas, mis opiniones, mis comentarios sarcásticos, a quienes comentan, a quienes comparten lo que hago, me dan opiniones o simplemente leen y ya, a mis lectores, a esos, les agradezco pues todo esto, es por ustedes, y ojalá cada vez sean más.

Pero, hay alguien que es el MVP, y con esa abreviación es como mejor se describe. Una persona que me animó a hacer mi primer borrador, lo leyó y volvió a leer para decirme que tenía potencial –el cual fue de Diablo II-. Fue sincera conmigo y supo encontrarme errores ortográficos, de diseño en mis logos, estilo y sentido de lo que escribía. Es quien escucha mis ideas, por más raras que suenen, y me avienta de nuevo al camino amarillo cuando por alguna razón me salgo de él. “Apoyo” es poco comparado con lo que en verdad hace. Nadie escucha mejor, nadie lee mejor, nadie es más sincero que ella en todo este año que ha pasado desde que inicié. Si existe alguien a quien le debo el ánimo para iniciar, para continuar y no parar, es definitivamente mi editora favorita. Gracias Lore por no fallarme nunca, por entender mis ideas zonzas, y ayudarme a hacerlas buenas, por estar ahí siempre: YOU DA REAL MVP!

Gracias por tomarse cinco minutos para leer esto que les quería compartir, no sé si todos aparezcan aquí, pero los que sí, es porque en algo aunque sea diminuto, estuvieron ahí para mi. Es un año que se me ha ido como agua, y espero continuar en esto simplemente por el gusto de hacerlo y compartir mis experiencias en este universo enorme de videojuegos que cada día se expande más. Esto es por los que me leen y toman en cuenta mi opinión. Mientras ustedes me sigan leyendo, yo sigo escribiendo.

Un año de miles de palabras escritas, decenas de noticas, artículos, notas, reseñas y opiniones, que sinceramente no recuerdo todas, pero cada una es especial porque dejo ver en todas, a ese Andrés que ama jugar. Y escribir mucho. No dejaré de hacerlo, así como no dejaré de agradecerles por su apoyo. ¡Los quiero a todos!

Sinceramente, pero de verdad sinceramente.

Andrés Portillo

 

viernes, 13 de junio de 2014

Serious Wolfenstein

When it comes to shooters, I have played a lot, and obviously enjoyed every one of them, even though not all were as awesome as they should. Right now, I can't think any other than Killzone to spot as my favorite, I mean, the saga. And being more specific, number two is for me, the best.

But, there is that one game which exemplifies perfection -for me- in a FPS: Serious Sam, The First Encounter. As the name dictates, I encountered enourmes amounts of adrenaline for the very first time more than a decade ago. When I was 6 or 7, Atari showed me real fear for being chased by a ghost. Nintendo made me put attention to playability and not graphics. But the PC introduced me to a world of possibilities with Sam. A unique character, with tons of ammo, gigantic weapons, really cool sunglasses and fiery beasts ready to be annihilated, by me. So, I needed this sensation, and guess which one game recreated all of this? Yep, Wolfenstein. Why? Read.

DIE MONSTER DIE
Well, not a real monsters, but robots instead. Oh, and nazis. Yeah, they are the bad guys, the ones ruling the world after winning World War II, and making this planet to obey them. And we all know this is not good for anybody. So, wearing the B.J. Blazckowicz shoes, we cannot allow this to happen anymore. We have to go back from insanity -and a mental institution- and retake the original power we used to have when fighting for USA. Thanks to universe forces, some really attractive nurse, and a pair of old foes, we start the campaign of our lives: bring order and peace to the world. And kill a lot of freakin' nazis!!!

I don't really remember when I lost my mind in the game. Maybe in the second bullet, or perhaps in the third. All I can remember is being not nice since the beginning, because they gave me guns, and that's what you can call "a bad idea". I was a man with a purpose, and I perfectly understand that I was there to kill everything in my way, which one? Didn't know and didn't matter.

There wasn't a single moment when adrenaline wasn't rushing through my veins, nor wasn't excited as hell, because that was what nazis saw coming: hell. As in "eat this half ton of ammo!!!", or "your forehead needs a big fat hole!!!" Violence in every way, and as expected, blood. Tarantino is such a pretty baby when it comes to spill blood, because Wolfenstein showed who the real bad boy is.

The world witnessed how crazy I can be, how insane I can go, and how loud I can scream "die monster nazi die!!!" -no Misfits song relation-. Well, yeah it was. But it is indeed a great song. Let's go back to my Wolfenstein article, shall we?

Is it really necessary talk about graphics? I think not, but since I bring it to the table, I have to say they are great. Not reaching titanic levels but showing off what a PlayStation 4 is able to perform. Decent explosions, fire, good mechanics and great sounds complement a good level design, significant difficulty and great scenarios. These last ones, followed by a successful weather, set the ambient to put up a fight, an epic one. I mean, everything surrounding me, invited to yell: Hey you! Yeah you scumbag! Call your nazis friends, with your nazis colonels and your nazis dogs and start to fire at me ASAP!!!

Maybe Wolfenstein lacks of one or two millions of guns more, but allows to carry them in both hands, and knifes too, so, no time for shields or protection but behind walls, boxes or neither of them. Because the best way to play this game, is running and shooting. Just run and shoot. Don't stop. Well, just sometimes for picking up the ammo resulting from killing somebody.

This is my favorite part from Wolfenstein: machines. They are robots, or robodogs. Its real name is Panzerhund and they kick ass big time, just not mine. Their awesomeness lies in the size, speed, violent way to attack and kill. They doesn't appear all the time, but enough to never miss them. Let’s no confuse them with those dogs with an exo squelleton, whom tend to attack face to face. This is awesome because we can stab the dog right in the neck and kill him, spilling blood all over the floor. Violent? Yes. Double awesome? Hell yeah!

When I finished Serious Sam: First Encounter, I felt excited, relaxed, but also sad. Despite the amount of times I could replay the game, I’ve never felt the same way in the second run of any title. With that game it was different. That’s why Sam is my favorite shooter ever, in the existence of games. The adrenaline rush was the coolest sensation I experimented in my early years of gaming. Well, Wolfenstein: The New Order resembles and makes me remember those days. Maybe not in the same quantity and quality, but almost reached the bar, which is super high.


I’m not done with this game yet, because of the alternatives it gives you, so I’ll still play it till I drop. Seriously, Wolfenstein is my new era Sam.

viernes, 11 de abril de 2014

Thank you Greg

If you, Greg Miller, are reading this, thank you for it.

I write for two sites now, and I recently had a problem in one if them, because they weren't satisfied with my style, my enthusiastic and fanboy style. I took a stand and defend my review. 

Why? Because...

You become my example, and that's why I know inside me, that the only thing to make me successful, is to believe in me and have a lot of faith in my work. That, I learned it from you, from hearing, watching, reading every piece I could. I'll never change my style because that's what makes me the way I am, and I know you believe in this as well. Thank you again for showing me how to stand still. For inspiring me to be a better journalist, and try to go one step at a time in order to reach my goals.

Never stop being you. 

Andres Portillo 

miércoles, 12 de marzo de 2014

Why the world need a The Last Of Us movie?


Since like, forever, I’ve loved movies. And pretty much the same time, I’ve loved videogames. There’s a huge difference between them, but long time ago, people have tried to get them along in both ways: take the game to the big screen, or grab a movie and put it in a console. History has given us a few (or more than a few) examples on how to blow it up, it cross to my mind that horrible Super Mario Bros movie, it makes me sad just to remember. Tomb Raider wasn’t that bad at all but not quite as perfect as the games. Going the opposite way, any Avenger’s game is awful: Hulk, Captain America, Thor, Iron Man. Grosse. Oh my god! Men In Black.

So, taking that step, no matter which side you are, is gigantic. It is not an easy choice despite all those videogames and movies made without truly awareness of the size of the leap. And this is well known for Naughty Dog.

Last week I got shocked with the news about The Last of Us movie. I never thought about writing an article about my feelings for that Neil Druckmann’s twit, because I said to myself: Who wouldn’t want to watch a movie of this game? Well, as long as time passed by and I could think over and over again, I realize how wrong I was, I mean, it isn’t like everyone in the world know this game, in fact, if we compare the population who played TLOU against just the gamer nation, the first one gets short in numbers.

Naughty Dog decided to launch The Last of Us just for PlayStation 3 consoles, and of course, Left Behind, the chapter that narrates the story before original game, plays in this system. So, those who haven’t it, probably never be able to feel everything we, the players, did. 

Today I’m not going to talk about how great The Last Of Us is, or how to play it, or not even say how badly you must go and buy it. I think all of these have been told countless times. Today, as a huge fan of the game, and movie lover, I’m going to explain why the world need a movie based on The Last Of Us game.

STORYTELLERS
Great movies not only have the best actors, or special effects; they are made out of high quality scripts. The writers with a true commitment to their audience, reflects every character’s feelings, on text. And the hard part is to understand it and acting it. It’s a job of several people, including director, producer, actor, camera man, editor, etc.
What happens when your character has a human voice, and a body made of pixels? Well, it might get difficult to express the sensations with this lack of human factor. The Last of Us surpassed this difficulty and showed us a man and a girl with enough flesh and blood. I remember the first time I finished the game, and as days passed, I miss that couple: miss the escapes, the riddles, their games, the long walks. But most of all, I missed the talks, how they hate each other at the beginning, the respect they started to feel, their memories, the sacrifices, and at the end, the selfishness.

So, if this one game made me feel that way, I can’t imagine how a pair of humans would make me experiment. The best stories make the best movies, right? I loved Casablanca, and like many others, I think is one of the greatest romantic movies. Nowadays there are several great productions, but Casablanca remains at the top, thanks to the story.

The Last Of Us isn't the best game of the generation for nothing. I’m putting away the technical resources like playability, engineering, sound and edition. I’m talking about the entire script: a grown man and woman who take care of a 13 years old girl, in a journey across United States, in order to receive guns and ammo for this particular favor. It sounds simple and at first sight, I thought this is going to be boring. The one and only thing that catch me at the beginning, was the fact that I was going to fight zombies (or at least I thought).

As I walk through the game, my priority was to survive, no matter what, I had to survive by killing and having fun. Because “having fun” is the objective of a game. Well, this one isn’t that fun. The Last Of Us tell a story without caring about the joy and excitement of the gamer, it makes us to continue fighting every minute to find out what’s next. Because saving Ellie, turns out a great cause, a just cause. Neil Druckman and Bruce Straley wrote a script beyond the game, they achieve to makes us fall in love with not only a character, but a feeling and a quest, a quest for discover the meaning of what is “a world” for everyone. And they did it twice: the original game, and the DLC.

Both of them finished in a very different way, in fact, one path leads to another, and this is because Left Behind is the story before Ellie and Joel meet. It is rare how Riley, Ellie’s former friend, and a firefly, hides her commitment to the group in order to expose her feelings and enjoy the world as it is then, with her true friend, and the one person she wants to spend the rest of her life, once again, her “world”.

Now, seeing the last chapter in The Last Of Us, fortunately we see Joel and Ellie in peace, like the father-daughter relationship type we expect the entire game, with confidence, but more important, with the fact that he wants her at his side, at all time. Remember, this isn’t a love story, but Joel makes everything at his hands to show how weird love can be. And once again, Ellie becomes “the world” of someone else. Capturing the essence of this, and translate it to the gamer with a bunch of gunshots, explosions, enemies and a great content of action, this my dearest readers, is one the main reasons to make a movie out of this great story.

PRODUCERS
I’m not well aware of Druckmann’s thoughts. I’m aware of his work, his legacy in this industry, and I put my hands to the fire about one thing: production.
Unfortunately, though years, videogames studios have sold their rights to any movie company, and by “selling” I refer to names, logos, ideas, weapons, villains, story, and many more things. The guys at movies decide what they want to write, film, edit and show. The problem isn’t at the choices made, it’s in who decide those. People are interested in the profit, the merchandise, the money, and they never stop to think what could be the best for the saga, the game, and obviously, the gamers. We, the people playing a videogame, never want to see an adaptation, or a movie about how the director or producers perceive the environment of the game.

Here it comes my second reason. Druckmann and Straley belong to the production team. Awesome.

Creative director of The Last Of Us, master mind behind the game and writer Neil Druckmann, knows exactly what he wants, what the movie will need, what the world of TLOU embraces: situation, characters, nature of the dialogues, the fungus, the runners and clickers, everything. It’s his baby, sort of.

The Last Of Us set a standard in storytelling, animation, art direction, playability, sound and music in the industry. Its quality is at the top level in 2013, and I’m not afraid to say, it’s at the top in the generation of consoles. When you find someone who put that amount of energy and dedication to a game, you know it won’t be different in a movie. I mean, with all the awards won by The Last Of Us team, “success” is one of the best words to describe it, reason enough to believe in the imminent success at the big screen.

I can be sure of Druckmann never letting others to destroy the hard work of 5-6 years. I expect nothing less than respect and consistency of all elements. Or it is accord to the game and the whole idea, or it is nothing. Period.

FINALE
Every year, thousands of movies are published, and literally millions of people go to the theater and watch hours of films expecting the next great story, the next classic or the one that wins it all. People find in the movies, something to relate with, like a place, an actor, or a phrase, something tiny or big, capable of make them feel like nothing else, or something to identify themselves.

The world needs a movie about The Last Of Us because it has all of this, because in times without hope, faith in ourselves is the one thing that can save any life, not just ours, but a friend’s, daughter’s, Ellie’s.

I’ll wait as long as the casting, filming, editing and post-production takes to watch one of my favorite games of all time, in theaters. I’m sure I’ll see it tons of times trying to find that detail I missed the last time, and the last and the last till I’m fully satisfied. And because I expected a little with the game, and got the best, now I know I’ll get the greatest.


viernes, 21 de febrero de 2014

Papers, Please

As you know, I now write for Anim-arte.com as a full time hobbie. In time to time I'll post something here, but I'm more interested in video blogs right now. 
I played and reviewed a PC game: Papers, Please. The original, in spanish, is right here: http://www.anim-arte.com/papers-please/
I decided to translate it for one particular reason: let the PP creator, know how I felt about his game. Sorry, his incredible game. Here it is.

Papers, Please

Today, graphics are a main feature to set a grade for a game, among others such as playability, design, music, multiplayer, and so on. But visuals, are mostly which engages the more to try a title, specially now with all the next-gen consoles. I have no doubts about my overwhelming love for all the systems I own, and rarely turn my head to my Mac despite the time it was my main console, and responsible for giving me hours and hours of fun. That’s why, when I want to play any game in my Mac, I REALLY want to play it. What must contain this one, in order to turn on the computer? Originality, that’s what I’m looking for, and I’m picky.

Too many times I read and heard about the greatness of Papers, Please. I didn’t imagine at any point that I would be in front of a Godínez’s life simulation (That’s how we call the regular office worker in Mexico), and, in 8 bits. Getting up early every morning, go to work and achieve a low salary barely to survive, it doesn’t sounds tempting. What could add thrill to a federal worker’s routinary life, who is daily condemned to check passports? Perhaps it’s the commitment to his country, to his family. Perhaps it’s nothing, or just maybe the motivation to go to jail and forget every responsibility. I couldn’t think of nothing, till I played Papers, Please.

Papers, Please, developed by 3909, is a simulation about a communist country, Arstotzka, which get their independency, and now as a new nation, tries to prosper day after day. A lucky (?) lottery result, make us creditors to a job where we are a border agent, which job is deny or allow the entrance to all the immigrants, into Arstotzka.Besides that, we can live at an apartment where our wife, mother in law, son and uncle are permitted to live. This apartment has a daily rent cost and heat. Equally, we should spend in food and medicine when someone gets sick, and illness occurs whenever we decide not to feed or heat our family, because not all the payments are mandatory and it depends if we’re willing to spend our money.

Let’s be clear about something, we are not in front of a The Sims or Tamagotchi type of game, despite it’s such an important part of the story, we’ll never be eating, paying, or getting medical assistance. We are just the head of the family, webring the money and are very careful when comes to save, because at some point we’ll needthose cents or we’ll end behind bars. In fact, the game doesn’t show us the members of the family, they’re important but never influence our job, only our choices.

ONE COMMUNIST OFFICE WORKER’S LIFE

I counted 20 different endings in Papers, Please, and each one is as interesting as any of the others. This endings may vary depending of the time we play: some of them come the first day, some several weeks later, it’s all on our choices, and these are the best part of the game, cause the seem so insignificant but at the end are determinants. The only thing that’s not an option, it’s the job, even though there’s always this chance to do it right, or blow it off. And that’s because the circumstances and people passing the border.

Every mind is a world and never we’ll never know why, some people react in such a bad way before protocols. These may be violated or not, and allow the entrance to unwelcome people. Here sits one thing I didn’t appreciate at the very beginning: if we let some criminal to pass, our punishment will be in order to how many mistakes we’re carrying, it means, if it is our first error to allow the entrance to some terrorist, we’ll have a ticket, not more. I think this is illogical, but those are the rules. All the tickets reduce our salary, every single one. Important: the less the money, the less the chance to fulfill our family’s needs; therefore they could die and we’ll get severe penalties.

It is clear then our social commitment in Papers, Please: being responsible with our family duties.But, the place where we are the most of the time, is in the booth. A very  little one by the way. Here it is where the magic happen, the magic of the game.

In Papers, Please, the screen is divided in three parts. Upper zone shows the aerial view, where we can see the booth and the people in line waiting for their turn, the yard which separates this area and the real entrance where the police is watching, waiting for an incident. Below and to the left, it’s where immigrants stands and gives us their passports and other papers, there is aheight meter (you will use it, trust me) and a mini desk to put any object need to be at sight; there you can have this super important rules book, useful bulletin and the transcription where every word is written. This one shouldn’t be left out of sight, because we’ll need it when not we’re putting attention to dialogues.

The third and last, but not least part is where the game really have its scent: the main desk. Here we’ll put every document needed in order to check its authenticity, we’ll compare against rules book and other papers available as we continue playing, they could be entrance permit, prints, physical description, work permit, and so on. Hidden it’s the gorgeous “Deny/Approved” seal, which isn’t definitive until passports is in immigrant’s hands.

In this very same desktop it’s the button that activates revision mode, and it should be pressed anytime a discrepancy is found, with an x-ray machine we’ll see if there is anything abnormal: this is the only way to act aggressively. Forexample, detaining the subject.

Papers, Please has an incredibly easy process, thus it’s more attractive for how becomes from easy to a little stressing (that’s ok with me!). We allow the next immigrant to come to the booth, “papers, please” and these will fall down to the mini desk. We’ll check if passport is a fake, the expiration date is ok, the person look like the picture, proper gender, the district belongs or exists in the country of origin, and everything they say matches the info on documents. I won’t spoil all the papers that will appear at every moment, because they are intimately related to story.

We’ll have the chance to check documents at our own pace, without forgetting that the more the immigrants checked, the more money we receive.We’ll have to be cautious about letting in those who fulfill requirements, and stop those who don’t. Once our duties end, it’s time to collect what we’ve earned, and to choose our expenses according our family’s needs: ill and hunger. There will be warnings and threats, and it’s up to us doing something about them. I mean: everything matters. Once we spent the money, it’s time to sleep till next day and, back to routine.

The minute I watched the trailer, my sense told me that Papers, Please was boring, and it increased when I read the description. As I mentioned, I wonder how it could break monotony and be great at the same time. It took me just three hours to find out: Molotov cocktails, bribes, bombs as presents in the desk, guns. Yep, guns! And even used to shoot a thousand soldiers and run into hell in any FPS, with PP simplicity, I get too (way too) excited when any of this happened. All I saw were papers and permits, so, when the time for me to use violence arrived, I had a little adrenaline rush, but enough to say “wooooow!” Plenty of wows.

Glory to Arstotzka!

We have no action game here, it’s just a work simulation, but originality is in every corner, every choice, since allow the entrance, till life-changing notes. Papers, Please match against big budget titles such as GTAV, The Last Of Us, Bioshock Infinite, among others. It hasn’t the same publicity, but we as an indie game, it took only greatness to shock gamers.

So, did I enjoy working in Arstotzka? Of course! I do and will whenever I got my Mac at hand. PP will be my first option; load it and check the most of papers I can. Definitely it’s in one of my favorites of the year, because IT IS special, entertaining, original, different and unique. Papers, Please is a view of a regular office worker, and it does reflects all the common things in its life: earn money, expend it, support a family and maybe hate that job. But I keep to myself this: no matter how boring or tedious is your life, there will be always room for surprise and thrill.


Well, I hope everyone decide to try this game. Repeat. Incredible game.

So long, and don't forget to visit me at Anim-arte.com