Deadpool the good, the bad and man is he ugly.

Let us first get something out of the way. This is not a movie for everyone. The humor is not for everyone and in fact some people will find it way to over the top. It might also be one of the most intelligent movies you watch this year.

But to me the movie is perhaps the most genuine depiction of a hero on the big screen so far. This most likely comes from the fact that Deadpool is a movie that the fans birthed. Nobody at studio level was interested in a R-rated superhero movie, or so the story goes. But Reynolds and the fans pushed and pushed until the project was greenlit.

Exactly how much of this is true we will most likely never know. But it makes for a perfect backdrop for a little movie that could.

So Deadpool the character is the creation of Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza. An intentional or unintentional (depending on who you ask) riff on the DC character Deathstroke, who should be familiar to fans of the Arrow show. Deadpool quickly developed in to a sort of “adult” version of Sinderman in regards to his banter and antics. Somewhere along the way he also picked up the habit of speaking directly to the reader of the comic. He is a hyper-violent mercenary who just so happen to do some good every now and then… Usually with a lot of collateral damage.

Now the movie for most part is a note by note recreation of Deadpool. Sure a few small things have been omitted such as exactly how he got his powers and they made him a tad bit more likeable. Beyond that he is every bit as foul and crazy as one should expect.

The story goes thusly. Wade Wilson is a gun for hire that falls in low with a stripper and finds out he has terminal cancer… everywhere. He get a offer to be the receiver of some superpower that will save him. In order to save his life and relationship he says yes. He comes out with a awesome healing factor and the looks of… and I quote…  “Freddy Kreuger if he facefucked a topographical map of Utah” But he has one shot. The guy in charge of the facility Ajax told Wade that he could restore his face if he wanted. So Deadpool breaks out and goes on a hunt for Ajax. After a lot of violence and some tender tender moments Deadpool track his nemesis down and… Well... More violence happens.  

Deadpool is not a movie you watch for its deep and engaging story, even if this one under all its sarcasm and forth wall breaking nonsense is surprisingly well crafted. It is easy to just see the dirty jokes and over the top action scenes. But beneath this does some really smart things. Like how it takes you in to a stripclub but elegantly refuse to spend any more time on the environment then it does any other. Or how it use the X-Men character Colossus as a counterpoint to Deadpools R-rated antics. Colossus is a genuine nice guy in the comics and this make him a perfect counterpart to Deadpool. There is also a really good chemistry between the actors in the movie and especially between Dreadpool and Weasel. Now we know there will be a sequel since the movie broke all projections and I think some records. My only fear is that the next movie will have more studio involvement in order to try and reproduce the breakout hit… And that never turns out well. 

Splitting reality.

So in the recent history of video-gaming there has been some serious talks about nipping and tucking content. It started with Day1 DLC and similar. Something that most people feel miffed about (but most often to me seemed to be a bored art and asset team putting in a few extra hours.) and while we did not really see the nightmare scenarios materialize. But it is not open to debate that we today have a culture of micro expansions and other forms of DLC in pretty much every game. Enter Telltale Games. The by today crowned masters of episodic content re-wrote much of how games would be released. They proved that a good idea did not need a complete game. Rather they took a cue from TV and told their story in small bite sized chunks.

With this came a new dawn. One we are just seeing the effect of. More and more companies try their hand at carving their games up and selling them ala carte. The biggest names right now being the FF7 reboot and the upcoming Hitman game. Now I have no real problem with this approach as long as the design from the start is to produce the game episodically. Since you really need to have the pacing down to a pat. Each episode having its own narrative structure. To see if Sqeenix can do that with the FF7 game will be interesting, because that game will need all the help it can get. If nothing else it will be a horrid train wreck and we all go back to playing the original.

Now as for hitman you would think the design of the game would make it perfect for episodic content. Make each contract an episode. Fill it out with the overarching story and let the player do them at their own pace. If well designed Hitman contracts have several solutions and paths to said solutions. But here is the thing… The game in question have changed model about twice a day. So to now carve up a game that was not designed for episodic content to begin with can lead to some very awkward storytelling and really poor pacing. It also tells of a really poor confidence in the product. Now going forward this could turn in to a really annoying trend, because companies love to lower the barrier of entry and being able to do so without the stigma of F2P must sound really tempting. But it is also a very different way of making games and I doubt that many companies have the agility and flexibility to pull it off.

But what I look forward the most is when the asset flipping early access trash that populate the dark side of Steam figure out this… Not only will they sell you shit games, but they will sell you shit game chopped up like a game tartar. 

That will be glorious. 

Dividing the Division

So I had the opportunity to take a look at Ubisofts now shooter franchise called the Division as they did a stress test this weekend. The game is a third person shooter, which is to say that the camera in the game is placed slightly above and behind the player character. So you will always see the world as a little drone flying behind your in-game avatar. Beyond that you pretty much just use a variety of guns and shoot at a variety of humans that for some reason seem to have a disagreement with you. You find new stuff and level up in classic role-playing fashion as you follow a set story. That is the short of it.

Now if one where to flesh things out a bit more one would start with talking about the story, what little we know about it. Basically some form of bio weapon goes off in New York on black Friday in a not too far future. As panic and pandemonium rise “the Division” springs in to action. A covert agency with sleeper agents formed in to small cells their mission is to secure the city and restore order by any means possible. You are one such agent. This is about all we know right now but as we get closer to the release I guess more info will be made available.

So you start out as a newly activated agent, given some basic equipment and told to secure a foothold on Manhattan. The stress test was limited to a small section around Chelsea Pier and up to Madison Square Garden. But the full game will include a slightly scaled down version of the island of Manhattan. Once you get the HQ up and running it will be your hub for missions, upgrades and all the cozy home improvement an agent could need. The game more or less have two modes. The first you encounter is a single player instance that let you and some of your friends work through the story. This thing is instanced and no random players will show up. The other part are what is called the Dark Zones. These areas have much higher levels of contamination and act as player against player areas as well as regular computer controlled opposition. Going in here ill-prepared will lead to a quick and merciless death. But this is also the place to get the best gear and other rewards.

Now as I mentioned the game takes place in Manhattan for now (no word on when or if other parts of New York will be added.) and this is not some random jumble of buildings with a few landmarks thrown in to sell the illusion. No this is sometimes an eerily close recreation of the areas in the beta. Sure we still see most work go I to the landmark areas and they are a picture perfect recreation. But the rest of the map seem to be close enough that you could use visual confirmation and google street view to navigate. The rest of the visuals are as impressive. The weather look good from the sunny days to the full on snowstorms that set your vision to about a few meters. Now my computer does not have the power needed to render this in it´s full glory but i´l provide a small clip here to show you what it might look like.

The game also has some really impressive AI that act much like a player would, trying to avoid your attacks and flank you. They also tend to look for better cover when you move on them and should you overpower them sometimes they turn tail and run. Another really impressive thing I how your bullet interacts with the many cars that are spread over the maps. I did at one point manage ti line up a shot through three cars and in to the tire of a truck, not only did the tire pop but I could trace the patch of the bullet through the windows of the cars. These small details does a lot to immerse you in the environment

Now it is hard to tell if the game will become repetitive and how well the story pans out but so far I have seen a good variety of side missions ranging from repairing antennas to tracking down a missing person. As far as gar goes the game so far have done a good job at making the guns and equipment not only feel useful hut also unique. There is a distinct difference between the m-4 and the ak-47 beyond the visuals. Same goes for the skills and gadgets you pick up along the way, they all have their use and promote one type of gameplay or another. This way your character plays different and customization goes more than skin deep.

Now that bring me to the skin you inhabit in the game. I did not play around very much with the physical editor to much as I was short on time but once in-game there is a slew of modern clothing to make your avatar stand out from all the other backpack tooting gun nuts trying to retake the city. These are cosmetic and have no impact on your stats so you never have to give up that awesome beanie you just found because that headband had +2 killing on it.

So to sum it up, the Division seems to be a solid game and while some cuts had to be done since the first reveal such as tablet controlled drone strikes and the slight downscaling of Manhattan it is massive step forward for games published by Ubisoft. So I simply tip my hat to Ubisoft Massive and wish them the best.