To say that I’m ‘a little bit keen’ on Naughty Dog’s awesome work on the Uncharted franchise, would be a mammoth understatement. I think that I’m mildly obsessed with Uncharted - I have played Uncharted Drake’s Fortune and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves on each difficulty, poring over the details and taking vigorous notes.

A friend of mine, who knows full well my obsession with Uncharted, linked me an article on CGSociety regarding a certain Art Book.

This wasn’t an ordinary art book, it was the Folio Edition - bound in leather, packed with images and delivered with a certificate of authenticity by way of Registered post.

Complete with gold seal, the certificate is signed by Naughty Dog’s Evan Wells (Co-President), Amy Hennig (Creative Director), Robh Ruppel (Art Director) and Erick Pangilinan (also Art Director). The certificate is signed using real ink – which is always a nice touch.

The production values of this book are glorious – a faithful testament to the stunningly lush environments of the game (which inspired my ‘palette’ exercises looking at colour schemes used in games).

This book is an absolute treat for a true fan like me. So I thought I would share the love around through photographs. Behold!

Was delivered to work. Agonising wait until home time.

Sealed in plastic to protect it from the elements in transit.

Closeup of the intricate gold phurba icon and lettering.

Plastic removed to the reveal suede leather presentation box.

Open the suede leather box to reveal the suede leather bound book!

Certificate of Authenticity confirmed by the undersigned (real ink!).

Close-up of the signatories and accompanying gold seal.

Inside the front cover (the certificate was originally placed here).

Inside the back cover.

Fig 1. Blood splattered title card - first of more splattering to come.

Jeff Lindsey’s inspired Showtime series DEXTER is an absolute favourite of mine.

For those not familiar with Dexter, he fills his day as a forensic analyst with Miami Police Department, focusing on blood-splatter. In his spare-time, Dexter satisfies his blood-thirsty “Dark Passenger” by performing ritualistic killings of victims who themselves are guilty of murder.

Dexter meticulously orchestrates his kills and leaves no forensic evidence – following the “Code” of his father with a strong focus on remaining un-caught.

I admire the writing, production and actor performances – all of which are subtle, deliberate and significant. Having watched Season One a number of times through, I am intimate with the finer details on which the iPhone game is based.

Narrative is fundamental to Dexter; it is a truly an art to encourage such audience sympathy and compassion while ‘rationalising’ what Dexter does as different from any other psycho killer.

It’s nice to see this intelligent writing carries through to the game – right down to the instructional journal text, revealing Dexter’s macabre internal monologue.

The game narrative also fills in gaps where the television version skips over or isn’t able to show a deeper level of detail to the player in a meaningful way – such as investigating victims homes.

Fig 2. Low-poly girlfriend Rita

Face to face interaction is THE most compelling feature of this game.  As Dexter, you gather vital information to advance the narrative – whether discussing a work-related topic with a colleague or conducting brutal victim interrogation. Conversations can be held in three ways: dark, neutral or light in order to get the answers Dexter is looking for (please see Fig 2.).

The way you conduct these conversations directly influence Dexter’s Mask and Dark Passenger balance -a constantly visible meter indicating Dexter’s psyche. When he loses control of his Dark Passenger and his Mask slips, he’s become no better than the people he hunts.

Balancing these two halves of Dexter is the cleverest mechanic in the game.

Here, as a player, you are able to think like Dexter and embody scenes featured in the television series with gameplay consequences.

I was deeply disappointed with execution of the game, though it is an interest piquing mix of puzzles and abstracted action sequences.
In this delivery of Dexter, the interface and its icons are rough and unpolished.

The journal loosely leverages the thematic I associate with the case files he receives from Camilla, at the Station.

I couldn’t help questioning why I have a picture of myself, shushing myself while holding a knife, in my own journal.

Mission objectives are sadly pre-baked. Highly regimented and fixed, players can reach a victims guilty conclusion by walking around until something happens and tapping the appropriate icon when it appears.

Of the puzzles, lock picking is fairly interestingly implemented – though it is beyond me why the inner workings of the lock are blood splattered.

The largely customisable control scheme does little to prevent clumsy clod-hopping; Dexter runs practically everywhere.

Also, considering the (lack of) stability of the iPhone platform, providing the option to save at any point during the game would have been greatly appreciated.

Some of the full motion videos are quite good. Transitioning gameplay, they leverage a near film-like quality in the story-telling.

The lighting and the animation strike me as very effective; especially the sequence when Dexter is surveying the cling-film cocooned Donovan.

This is nearly always dashed by pregnant load times between the full motion video and gameplay with no indicator of whether the game is hanging in limbo or still loading.

Though some of the voice acting is not original, it doesn’t hurt the game too much – considering the sheer amount of voice-acting on Michael C Hall’s part.

With such seemingly massive production values, this game is a very interesting addition to the Dexter universe and the iPhone platform in the terms of content and execution.

Judging by the quality of some the actor’s 3d models and the closeness of the storyline, the development process was not hindered by Showtime or other property owners – if it was, it is not apparent and I applaud the game’s producers.

I do hope there is a console / pc release to be had in the future as this offering barely whet my whistle.

Fig. 1 - Team Fortress 2 - The Team

Team Fortress 2 originally came as part of Valve’s “Orange Box” collection. This shotgun blast comprised of five games: Half Life 2, Half Life 2: Episode 1, Half Life 2: Episode 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2 (TF2) – now sold separately.

TF2 (and Portal) are stand outs for me. Visuals in the game are very appealing and while it looks like a first-person-shooter cross with a Pixar film, it can get a little messy. The aesthetic is something to be marvelled, a far cry from first glimpses – which was along the same lines of Counter Strike mould – boring and generic (please see Fig. 2).

Fig. 2 - First glimpse at Team Fortress 2 - looks like some changes were made.

With this iteration of Team Fortress, Valve has managed to make something ‘new’ and ‘fresh’ out of the nasty potatoes at the bottom of the fridge. They didn’t just cut out the green-tinged-bits – they scrubbed it, gave it a lick of paint and polished it to a point of blinding perfection.

Props appear as though pulled through a 1950’s time warp. Server racks, chairs and various wall fixtures all contribute to a highly enjoyable experience – should you have the time to admire them before getting gibbed.

Something especially nice is the continuous support from Valve: pumping out new maps with ‘new’ mechanics (e.g. upcoming payload), distributing community-created maps, releasing class-based achievements and new weapons which all help to maintain ongoing interest in the game.

Team Fortress 2 is a classic scenario of us v. them, good v. evil, red v. blue. Both of which beat it out until someone achieves the goal – be it capture the flag, capture point, payload or death-match (arena). More time can be spent playing with respawns during the round.

There is a class for every type of gamer regardless of your playing style. Scout, Solider and Pyro for running to the frontline and sorting things out; Heavy, Engineer and Demo for holding fast and sorting things out; Sniper and Medic for hanging back and sorting your team out and; Spy for indulging your slippery back-stabbing bastard tendencies.  Each class also has their own personality which is conveyed through the ‘Meet the Team‘ shorts, making them into more of a ‘character’ rather than a ‘class’.

TF2 has so much polish you can see your face in it and call it your own. It’s cutesy without challenging one’s masculinity too much and it’s fun — without incorporating hyper-realistic textures right down to the pores on your opponent’s nose giving it a much lighter, humorous atmosphere.

Character design has been very carefully considered by diligent Valve artists combing through the details. Different classes give a clear read for the player by the silhouette they cut on the horizon with enough friend-or-foe identifying colour on their uniforms (see Fig. 3).

Fig. 3 - Uniform colour gives a very clear friend-or-foe read for the player.

“For every action there is an equal, but opposite, reaction” – the  strengths and weaknesses of classes is important to balance play. For an overly efficient spy infestation, a trigger-happy pyro burning everyone in sight will help stem the problem.

From Team Fortress Classic, TF2 has addressed emergent techniques (such as throwing all your grenades when near death) which made it miserable for new players. These sorts of high damage, unsportsmanlike like techniques have been downplayed in favour of making each class is relatively simple to start playing and contribute to your team.

I find the difference between a highly-organised-ninja-squad and ducks milling about, is a headset and a little leadership – which is often difficult to come by on a public server. A string of unanswered kills results in that player becoming your Nemesis and vice versa with your Domination of someone. I find this riles me into such as state that causes me to chase them down and get done again. Being cross never solved anything – if you can’t stop them, heal up someone who can.