Jolly Roger – a Fallen Star webisode

Back in January, I posited the idea of a short episode (or ‘webisode’) of our Fallen Star series to my fellow partner-in-crime Rob. Being isolated during a pandemic has meant we’ve not been able to meet up in person or finish the recording sessions we need for the remaining full episodes of the show, and it occurred to me that we could use our time apart to put something else together.

As it happens, the idea of mini-episodes has been rattling around in my brain for some time, but I hadn’t intended to do anything about it until we’d got the last two full episodes finished. This particular idea, of showing the character Nilworth floating around in space, was born out of our particular limitations. We asked Andrew if he would record himself at home and then, using a combination of images and computer animation, I put together the above video.

So I had the footage of Andrew, I had some photos of the space helmet and I had a little bit of existing footage. I needed some additional voices from one of our cast, Kevin, who was happy to oblige from his stateside abode. The idea was to create something quite quickly, so I knew I would need to rely on existing 3D assets. I had my space scene, my shuttle and my asteroids ready to go, and I also had my digital spaceman. However, said spaceman was a low-detail model not intended to be seen up close, and certainly not in high definition, so this ended up looking a little fake. Given more time, I probably would have made a more realistic model. Hell, given more time, I probably would have sent Andrew the helmet to put on and given him some lights and a better camera!

Well, there you have it. I have some more ideas for future ‘webisodes’ and I would like to make them eventually – stories set in between episodes, different perspectives and exploring individual characters in clever new ways. But for now, this is a one-off – a little bit of joy and silliness in a difficult year.

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Now Playing: God of War (2018)

I’ve played pretty much all of the God of War games over the years and thought they had run their inevitable course after the protagonist Kratos killed Zeus, so when I heard about a sequel with an older Kratos and his son set in Norse mythology and played from an over-the-shoulder view, I was surprised. And when I learned the game was presented as a single unbroken shot, including all cutscenes, I was intrigued and impressed. So here I am, only a couple of years later, playing through this refreshed and revamped entry in the violent-but-often-poignant action franchise.

I don’t know how long this game took to develop, but I’m guessing it wasn’t quick. It leans on a lot of the tropes that were popular around that time, the ‘dad game’ genre, looking after a child character, survival themes, snowy landscapes and hunting with a bow.

This is more of an ‘RPG’ than I was expecting, and perhaps more than I have a tolerance for these days. The game’s menus offer a bewildering array of options for upgrading your equipment, skills, weapons, spells and enhancements, as well as laying out your quests, side quests, lore and more. Truth be told, even after twenty hours of play, I still don’t understand what everything does and find the menu a bit of a mess. But you can easily enjoy God of War on its normal difficulty with just the odd glance at your gear now and again. The main downside is that many of the side quests and stronger enemies will batter you senseless in one or two hits, which makes venturing off the main path somewhat unappealing, at least until further into the game.

It takes some getting used to using the shoulder buttons for attacking and blocking, but the feel of the action is solid and satisfying, particularly the impact of the hefty Leviathan Axe. A lot of the game is spent just wandering around and hitting things, so it’s important that this feels good. There’s also minor puzzles, environmental obstacles and treasure chests throughout the world, encouraging exploration. Both Kratos and his son Atreus learn abilities that let you pass previously unpassable gates, such as new weapons and magical upgrades to Atreus’s arrows.

Kratos’s journey with his son (and, later, disembodied travelling companion Mimir) is carried by its story and dialogue. Kratos himself is a character of few words, but his personality has been softened somewhat here and he shares his worldly knowledge with Atreus while occasionally getting annoyed by his carelessness or verbosity. It’s a solid setup and an enjoyable journey, even if it does drag in parts and send you back and forth on fetch quests.

Large action set-pieces are not forgotten, and are even more impressive when they are played from a single unbroken view. The sense of scale at times is incredible, with giant creatures that tower above and landscapes that stretch off into the distance. This is marvellous technical achievement if nothing else. I’m not entirely familiar with Norse myths, but I gather this game plays fast and loose with them, and some of the story twists are surprising. And although the game has some tedious and repetitive moments, on the whole I really enjoyed it.

See my full playthrough below. I probably won’t seek out the remaining side quests, Valkyries and whatnot, as I can’t really be bothered.

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