A good question was recently posed on the Ontario Pathfinder forums: where is the cheapest place to buy Pathfinder books in Toronto?

There's really not a straightforward answer to this one. On a normal day, the prices at most of the major gaming stores downtown are fairly equitable. You might save a dollar here or there, but there's generally not huge difference.

That being said, there are tips and to tricks to landing the best prices on Pathfinder materials in the city. As a reference for the frugal gamer, I intend to briefly detail the major gaming stores in the city, what goodies they tend to keep in stock, and how prone they are to put them on sale.

The Silver Snail

Where?

Just off of Dundas Square.

What?

The Silver Snail offers a modest collection of Pathfinder books, mainly focusing on adventure paths and very recent splat books. One can generally find most of the core hardcovers there, but items such as the Advanced Race Guide are more scarcely stocked.

When?

The Silver Snail runs impressive sales three or four times a years. During their March break extravaganza a few months back, they boasted a staggering 40% off all roleplaying books. Keep an eye on their website for bulletins.

401 Games

Where?

Currently near Yonge and College, but moving soon.

What?

The fine people at 401 Games likely maintain the largest stock of Pathfinder hardcovers in the city. A gamer looking for a copy of Ultimate Combat or Ultimate Equipment will rarely find themselves in want. Splat books and adventures paths can also be found in abundance.

When?

The store isn't as prone to major sales as the others on this list, but they do maintain a floating 10% discount on roleplaying books. If you plan on trading in Magic the Gathering cards – a speciality of theirs – you can opt to receive a heap of store credit instead of cash, making it a good opportunity to pick up Pathfinder swag.

The Hairy Tarantula

Where?

Tucked away just south of Yonge and College.

What?

Although the Hairy Tarantula only maintains a modest stock of Pathfinder hardcovers, the store always has a stack of the newest splat books in stock and is likely the best source of flip-mats in the city. Occasionally they tote used editions of hardcovers in their backroom.

When?

The Hairy Tarantula is known for its robust monthly sales, and Pathfinder materials are frequently discounted in the 10% to 30% range. Large sales pop up about as often as they do at the Silver Snail, but rarely receive the same degree of advertisement.

Dueling Grounds

Where?

Floating between Dufferin and Lansdowne stations on Bloor.

What?

Dueling Grounds should be praised for maintaining one of the best-rounded inventories of Pathfinder materials in the city. They carry an ample supply of hardcovers, splat books, and flip-maps, as well as peripheral items such as the player aid decks that are often difficult to find.

When?

There aren't as many noteworthy sales at Dueling Grounds, but keep an eye out for the occasional clearance event. That being said, the store is the only place in the city to find certain Pathfinder products, so it might be worth paying a few dollars more.

BMV Books, Annex Location

Where?

In the heart of the Annex.

What?

Although not a dedicated peddler of nerd provisions, the third floor of the book chain's Annex location often carries overstocked copies of older hardcovers.

When?

Whenever they are in. BMV Books offers a steep discount on everything, and Pathfinder books are no exception. Although they may be a little scuffed, the hardcovers often sell for the unbelievable price of $15 dollars each. Naturally they sell out fast, so camping the place out is almost required.

The Wizard's Cache

Where?

Snuggled next to the Bata Shoe Museum, of all places.

What?

New to the Toronto landscape, the Wizard's Cache is keen on catering to the city's large Pathfinder Society scene. Their stock is fairly limited at the moment, but the proprietor is working on filling his shelves with new hardcovers each week.

When?

Any time. If you're a card-carrying member of Pathfinder Society Organized Play, the fledgling store will provide a universal 10% discount on all Pathfinder materials and dice.

Just a short update this week, as I did not get much of a chance to work on Unearthed due to some family obligations and the Maple Leafs breaking my heart.

The crazy comprehensive sprite asset list I mentioned last week is now complete! You can take a look at it on the starmen.net forums. I'll be adding completed sprites as I edit them, and as they are sent to me by community contributors. It's been pretty quiet thus far, but I'm hoping to build some momentum by the time that May is out.

As usual, you can follow me on Twitter for more up-to-date progress reports. And for inane ramblings.

WildStar is my most anticipated game of 2013. Although there are a number of MMOs on my radar, WildStar is the only one that seems to possess that magic combination of innovation and rock solid production value I look for.

Still, I worry.

WildStar isn't special. It's not going to be ushered down from the heavens on its launch date, heralded by a cherubic chorus of angels. The game is going to have to overcome the same hurdles every MMO is faced with, and there's a good chance it will fall flat on its face.

Today, I'd like to identity three major pitfalls WildStar will have to overcome if the game hopes to carve out a plot of land for itself in the MMO frontier.

Content Clout

Digital soothsayers like to point to World of Warcraft's upcoming ten-year birthday as the expiration date of the juggernaut. Nobody, they say, wants to play a ten-year-old MMO – you might as well be trudging through the original EverQuest or Ultima Online!

There are two frailties to this appraisal. First, due to the lethargic pace of the current console cycle, graphical leaps in video games over the past decade have been surprisingly tame. The visuals of World of Warcraft still hold up surprisingly well today.

Second, and more dominant, World of Warcraft is sitting on ten years of content. This includes four massive expansion packs with dozens of incremental updates made over the years.

Any competitor in the MMO arena has to reconcile with the fact that their game will launch with a quarter of the dungeons World of Warcraft has, half the playable races, and a world a fraction of the size. It's an intimidating prospect, especially now that ransacking the level cap of a brand spanking new MMO over the course of a weekend is considered a mark of prestige.

While it would be impossible for WildStar to match the ocean of content World of Warcraft offers, they at least have to be competitive. It looks like that Carbine Studios is doing their damnedest to ensure that the path system adds robust replayability to their levelling game, but a scant number of details of been released about their elder game.

It's a vital concern to address. Star Wars: The Old Republic neglected the needs of capped players and was chastised for it. Launching with one or two raid dungeons simply doesn't cut it anymore.

What is WildStar?

No one can accuse WildStar of being a feature-poor game. A tantalizing spread has been laid out by Carbine Studios for us to salivate over: two interesting factions, fully realized player housing, player-versus-player action, paths, raids, dungeons, world bosses, interactive environments – the list goes on.

And on and on and on.

A common element among post-World of Warcraft MMOs is that they branded themselves as versions of Blizzard's magnum opus with one additional drawing feature. Warhammer Online was World of Warcraft with intense player-versus-player action. Age of Conan was World of Warcraft with blood and boobs. Star Wars: The Old Republic was World of Warcraft with great narrative and voice acting.

Although each of these games ended up floundering for various reasons, they garnered a great deal of hype prior to launch because they possessed these easily identifiable selling points. A blogger, fan, or journalist could effortlessly sum up why they were excited about these new titles in a single sentence.

The merits of WildStar cannot be distilled in this manner; the game boasts a large number of exciting but eclectic features. While this is a healthy choice from a design perspective, it makes the game an awkward sell. So far humour has been the major recurring feature in the videos and press materials Carbine Studios has released, but that's not enough to electrify an initiated audience.

The developers need to present a ubiquitous hook for the media to sink their teeth into.

Faction Imbalance

Those of you who trudged through Azeroth in the early days of World of Warcraft will recall how difficult it was to play Horde compared to the Alliance. There was a rather obvious disparity in the population pools of the two factions, and this disparity trickled down to handicap dungeon crawling, player-versus-player, and raiding for Horde players.

Why did this happen? Despite the evolution of the Warcraft canon, the Horde was still considered the “evil” faction, a preconception reinforced by the monstrous races that filled out their roster.

There's a natural inclination for players, especially casual ones, to pick a good-aligned avatar – one that better reflects their real world appearance and disposition. Girl gamers specifically favoured the Alliance because, lets face it, the female models for tauren and trolls were (and still are) atrocious looking.

Although the full roster of races has yet to be revealed, WildStar could face a similar disparity. The Exiles are the obviously good faction, and the Dominion barrels head-on into the realm of cartoonish villainy. Although the Dominion possesses a human-equivalent race – a smart move – it may not be enough to mitigate the monstrous natures of the Draken and Mechari.

Especially with the candy-coated Aurin sitting on the Exiles' bench. I'm already predicting these guys to reach night elf levels of popularity. What is it with players and dainty nature lovers anyhow?

With the upcoming re-release of EarthBound on the Wii-U console, I thought it was about time for some "real talk" with all you fan boys and retronauts interested in buying a physical copy of the SNES classic. First and foremost:

EarthBound is not a rare game.

Really, it isn't. Not even close. Anyone who advertises it as such is a liar.

There were 140,000 copies of EarthBound sold across North America. This isn't an especially huge number, but is large enough that you shouldn't worry about supplies drying up any time soon. Log in to Ebay and you can peruse numerous EarthBound listings, with or without the various extras (guide, box) that came with the original game.

So why do people think the game is rare? The fact that there was never a re-release (something that is about to get remedied) has made it less accessible for the average gamer. Savvy sellers are also keen to capitalize on the overwhelming enthusiasm of the fan base; jacking up cartridge prices and hoarding copies to make complete sets.

Prices are dropping.

The good news for all the fans out there is that prices are dropping rather quickly. This has been well documented by Tomato, who has been keeping track of EB economics at his website Buy EarthBound. The average price of an EarthBound game dropped over $25 since the virtual console release was announced, down to about $175!

As news of the virtual console release propagates across the web, demand should lessen significantly. Players will realize that they have another legal option for owning the much sought-after game, and sellers will continue flooding the market with cartridges in an attempt to offload before prices drop even more. This combination of lowered demand and increased supply should have the game trending downwards for months to come.

So why not buy now?

If everyone rushes out to buy a copy of EarthB0und RIGHT NOW, just as the market is starting to soften up, it will beef up demand again and slow the price drop. This is not a good idea!

Sit tight for a bit, wait for prices to drop even more, and be smart when you do decide to buy. Bidding on a game is almost always cheaper than buying it outright, and shelling out the extra dough for a "buy it now" auction will inflate prices even more. Camp out a couple Ebay listings, submit your best bid when the times is right, and you will be duly rewarded.

So when SHOULD I buy?

If I had to guess a sweet spot for buying a copy of EarthBound, I'd probably say August 2013. I imagine prices will have dropped as much as they are going to by then, and they almost always start spiking upwards again leading up to the holiday season.

But remember, I'm not an economics expert or a master prognosticator. Do your own research and find out a timeline and a plan that works best for you. I'd love to hear any strategies you have for buying EarthBound or any other rare video game. Feel free to post them below, or email me directly.

I've been a big bogged down with logistical work this week, so just a quick little update today. I've been working on a forum formatted sprite asset list for use at Starmen.net, in an attempt to recruit a bit of assistance over the next couple of months. I'm confident enough in my spriting abilities to get most of the work done myself, but the more assistance I can wrangle the quicker the project will move along. You can check out the forum post RIGHT HERE.

If you'd like to join in on the spriting fun, feel free to toss me an email or just contribute to the forum post that I linked to. I will warn you ahead though: I have a pretty high standard of quality. If I think I could make a better version of a submitted sprite, I will probably reject it outright. Although I do want to speed Unearthed's development along a bit, I don't want to do so by sacrificing quality.

I imagine I'll have the asset list fully completed by mid-week. You can follow me on Twitter if you want to know exactly when it is done.

(where Michael deconstructs discontinued franchises, and puts forth ideas concerning hypothetical sequels.)

Overview

I know what most of you are thinking right now: "What the crap is Equinox?". Released in 1993 as a sequel to the NES classic Solstice, Equinox failed to generate much buzz upon hitting the market. Players derided its intense difficulty level, occasional glitchiness, and unusual gameplay mechanics. It was quickly designated as a sub-par entry into the Super Nintendo's extensive library, and soon faded from the gaming scene all together.

But a few players managed to overlook some of the game's quirks to see it for what it really is: a unique, isometric, puzzle-platformer unlike any other game released in its era. Is it unpolished? A little. A bit too hardcore? Definitely. But Equinox is a severely underrated title that the gaming community certainly needs to take another look at.

I put Equinox near the top of the list of games I'd love to remake. I think with a little polish it could become a very engaging franchise; one that could bring totally ripped wizards into the 21st century.

What To Keep

Isometric View
I can probably count on one hand the number of games that use the same isometric art style as Equinox. Although unpolished, it immediately adds a sense of depth and immersion for the player and differentiates it from other games from the same genre.

Puzzle Focus
It is tempting to replace some of the puzzles of Equinox with more action-oriented elements, but I believe that would be a major folly. The intricate puzzles of the original game were one if its greatest triumphs. Players should be encouraged to solve puzzles, make maps, and get lost in the sheer vastness of the game without becoming too distracted by superfluous add-ons.

Art Style
Equinox is a superbly sprited game; an especially impressive feat considering the rareness of isometric pixel art at the time. Each dungeon possesses a unique art style - ranging from spooky ghost ship to abandoned laboratory - and the world is brought to life via a vibrant art style. In an era where games have embraced the "brown and more brown" colour palette, it would be nice to see a resurgence of bolder artistic design.

What To Drop

Insane Difficulty Level
The era of masochistic gameplay (Battletoads, Contra, etc) is essentially over. Players no longer want to have to replay large portions of a game due to a simple misstep or an awkward jump. Equinox was notoriously unforgiving in that regard, and I doubt players would be too saddened if the game removed a few spikey death traps and discarded pixel perfect jumping challenges.

Linear Gameplay
Dungeons in Equinox have to be beaten in a linear manner, with broken bridge obstacles preventing any chance of doing otherwise. Opening up the world a bit and allowing the player to explore somewhat freely (a very zelda-esque experience) would lessen the railroading factor and give the player a greater sense of agency. It would also allow for variant game play-throughs of the game, increasing replay value.

Invisible Blocks
Sometimes Equinox's game designers got a little mean-spirited, and decided to hide the solution to a puzzle in an location the player couldn't see. This was a real dick move, and the developers should be keel-hauled for it and it has no place in any potential sequel.

What To Change

Combat
Although fairly well implemented, Equinox's combat system is a tad dull and repetitive. Weapons all have the same basic effect (shoot in a straight line) and offer no variety in battle. Your only strategy is to strafe and spam your enemies into submission as you search for progressively more powerful versions of what is essentially the same weapon.

Implementing different weapon types would help out this problem a lot. Think of the possibilities! Our buff protagonist could flay nearby foes with a sword, skillfully fling a boomerang around barriers, fire a bow vast across distances, or mash enemies and obstacles with a mighty hammer. If we wanted to take things a step further, we could even incorporate these weapons in to puzzles!

Game Logistics
The physical elements and rules within Equinox are finicky at best. Platforms hit-boxes extend farther than they logically should, and many puzzles rely on sudden and subtle changes in direction while leaping through the air. These quirks (and many others) make many challenges in the game frustrating and unintuitive.

How do you fix this issue? Set a consistent set of physical rules for the game, let the player know what they are right from the get-go, and don't introduce challenges that require pixel-perfect reflexes. For example: platform edges should be distinct and easy for the player to gauge, and the protagonist's burly shadow should be extremely visible while in mid-air. If a jump is missed it should be due to player error, not player confusion.

Isometric View
But Mike, I thought you loved isometric views?! I do, but they are not without their faults. The key one being lack of visibility for 1/4 of the game world, which ties into the invisible block point I made earlier.

The obvious solution? Make the game world rotatable in a style similar to Final Fantasy Tactics. This expanded view would reduce confusion, and could encourage new types of puzzles that force the player to view a problem from all available angles.

Final Thoughts

I have a real soft spot for isometric games, and Equinox was among the first that I ever played. It's not a perfect game - or even a great game - by any stretch of the imagination, but it oozes with potential and occasionally gives flashes of the amazing game it could've been. I'd welcome a new entry into the series with open arms

Do any of you folks out on the interweb have thoughts about this game? If so, let me know how fair you think my assessment is and tell me about any changes you would make to the game yourself!

As some of you may remember, there is a short portion in Unearthed that occurs in the magical realm of 8 BIT FLASHBACKS. Although there aren't a lot of sprites to make for this part of the game they took a good while to put together. It was a little tricky to match the pseudo-NES style I created for the map tile-sets!

First up, we have the laboratory administrator. He's a mustachioed moderator.

Next up we have a bunch of scientists. They all mill about the laboratory, working on super amazing scientific things. I tried to create a variety of characters, and ended up using some EB Zero sprites as a starting point for their faces. I think the results turned out pretty well!

Last up for this week are a few bits and pieces of random crap lying around the laboratory. I thief'd some sprites directly from Mother 1 to add yet another dose of nostalgia, including a very familiar robot and trash receptacle.

Just so you all know, I am 100% done all NPC and environmental sprites for Unearthed. This will be the last batch of funny looking guys and girls that I will be making, as I will be shifting my efforts towards polishing off the battle sprites needed for the game.

After my enthusiasm for the previous two installments of the Shades of Ice trilogy, I had high hopes for the thrilling conclusion. Set in the rugged wilderness of the north, it seemed an apt repose from the confined urban environments of Written in Blood and Exiles of Winter. Also, there was a strong potential for wooly mammoths – always a bonus!

Unfortunately Keep of the Huscarl King wound up being a massive disappointment. I was bored, my players were bored, and I think the universe even became a little bored for having to accommodate this slog.

The trajectory of Keep of the Huscarl King is more straightforward than the prior two scenarios in the trilogy. The scholar Skagni has revealed to you the location of a weapon of ancient power in the Realm of the Mammoth Lords. It resides in the ruined fortress of a legendary Ulfen warrior once known as the Huscarl King. The Shadow Lodge intends to claim this weapon for their own purposes, using it's power to garner an advantage against the Pathfinder Society. The players must race on foot to the ruined keep, contending with Shadow Lodge agents, territorial native Kellids, and tundra beasts along the way.

I have to say, I don't find the Realm of the Mammoth Lords nearly as interesting as the Lands of the Linnorm Kings or Irrisen. While the Ulfen are kept interesting by their boisterous over-the-top personalities and the residents of Irrisen by their lawful evil inclinations, the native Kellids are a pretty plain Jane pastiche of Native Americans. They smear their faces with warpaint, are married to their legends and stories, and hunt herd animals with spears.

If you've seen any Hollywood blockbuster depicting Native Americans, you know how a Kellid acts.

That being said, there's some fun to be had dealing with the language barrier. The Kellids only speak Hallit, a language too obscure for any player character to consider learning. The low-level tier more or less rules out truespeech being available, so your party has to get by with pantomime and drawings if they wish to diplomatize with the locals. Expect a lot of flailing hand movements and exasperated gasps from all ends of the table.

If only the encounters in Keep of the Huscarl King were as fun as these roleplaying bits. The scenario has a bit of a bad reputation for being a cakewalk – a shame, considering the high risk encounters present in part two. I blame the low level of difficulty on two problems.

One, an infestation of mooks. The Snowmask warriors that stalk the players throughout the adventure are wimps. They can't dish out or take a hit and they have no decent feats or magic items to work with. Even the barbarian in the first encounter suffers from an embarrassing armour class and CMD. The shadow lodge agents that show up later on fare little better.

Two, full-attacking beasts just aren't that scary. With trip, reach weapon, gunslinging, archery, and crowd control builds being as fashionable as they are, there's really no reason a monster like a Dire Wolverine or a Deinonychus (really?) should ever get an full-attack off. Most of my big scary monsters spent the entire combat on their backs.

The final encounter in particular is a bit of a joke. The incredibly deadly weapon that could sway the balance of power in the Shadow Lodge's favour is neutered in the hands of a mid-level cleric. Asides from the agonizing -4 attack penalty she suffers from for not being proficient with the weapon, the cleric has a dozen better things she could be doing.

Hold Person? Channel negative energy? Command? Nope, she's going to wade into melee and get her ass flanked.

However, the anticlimactic final battle only wins the silver medal for most ill-conceived encounter of the scenario; the gold goes to the stampede.

About halfway in, the players arrive at the opening to a narrow canyon. If they should enter the canyon, the Snowmask warriors hiding above trigger a stampede of aurochs that requires a series of difficult reflex saves and skill checks to avoid. If the players fail their rolls, they are pummeled with a hefty amount of trampling damage.

The thing is, there is no reason to pass through the canyon at all.

The scenario states that, if the players should choose, they can circle around the canyon and continue along unimpeded. There is no penalty for doing so. None. It doesn't even add time to the party's journey. Even if the players botch their perception rolls to notice something is amiss, it takes a massive lapse of common sense to fall for the trap.

Anyone who has seen The Lion King knows exactly how things are going to go down.

That's the modus operandi of this scenario: sweeping set pieces with no pay-off. The noble and savage Kellid warriors are wimps; the ferocious beasts that dwell in the inhospitable tundra are easily declawed; the Shadow Lodge agent wielding the legendary weapon can't even hit with it; and the inescapable death trap is comically easy to escape. Throw in a few irritating constitution and fortitude saves for non-lethal damage, and you wind up with a lacklustre and often monotonous scenario.

My party ended up whipping through Keep of the Huscarl King in three hours due to the lack of challenge. I wouldn't be surprised if they forgot about the adventure after the same amount of time. Despite a few decent roleplaying bits, The Keep of the Huscarl King falters as both a standalone experience and as a capstone to an otherwise compelling trilogy. I can't recommend it.

I'm not usually one to toot my own horn, but I thought I'd share this little tidbit of news with all of you. In March 2012, Anna Anthropy released her book Rise of the Video Game Zinesters: How Freaks, Normals, Amateurs, Artists, Dreamers, Drop-outs, Queers, Housewives, and People Like You Are Taking Back an Art Form and my hack project HyperBound was given a three page write-up!

This was a bit of a surprise for me! I hadn't received very much HyperBound press after the deluge in 2007/2008, and I was never contacted about my inclusion in the book. In fact, I only found out a month or so ago, after it was brought up to a friend of my in passing conversation.

I've included an excerpt of the book below for your perusal:

HyperBound takes its name from “hypertext,” text that’s arranged in a nonlinear structure. (This book is a text: it’s arranged to be read from start to finish, one page to the next. A website, where you might click on a word to “link” to a page about that subject, is hypertext.)

What better model for the nonlinear exploration of text than the space of a digital game, where the player moves around the world by moving her character across the screen, encountering characters, and listening to what they have to say? That’s the part of the design of EarthBound that HyperBound has lifted. What it’s rejected is the fighting. The hack is purely about exploring the world and discovering the text, and original script written by Iantorno and his brother.

 -Page 77, Rise of the Videogame Zinesters

It's a pretty neat feeling to be in a book! I heartily recommend picking up a copy if you want to learn more about indie games, hacking, and just game development in general. It is a pretty neat resource, and features some other neat projects like Sonic 2 XL and the Mother 3 translation by Tomato.

And if anyone wants to feature HyperBound, Unearthed, or any other project hosted on this site in their book/blog/magazine/etc... just let me know. I'm a sucker for free press!

I've been working pretty hard over the last couple days to put together some sprites for the Glensborough portion of Unearthed. Making farmers and townies is a bit trickier than I thought it would be, due to the somewhat erratic art style within EarthBound. I've tried to edit existing sprites while adding my own personal touches, to create new NPCs that still fit the artistic direction of the original game.

First up, a couple of very important sprites: Mitchell's mom and dad. RS commented that the mom looks like a kindergarten teacher while the dad looks a lot like Eric Nagler.

Coming up next we have an assortment of sprites for Chase's friends. I sampled clothing styles from a few different eras, and ended up with a group of kids that look like "generic troublemakers" from across history.

And finally, I have padded out the roster of Glensborough villagers a bit, with a focus on evening out the male-to-female ratio. A few of these sprites still need a bit of tweaking, but they won't undergo any major overhauls before being implemented.

That is all for this week! I'll be working on some fun sprites over the next few days, so be sure to check in on Monday for another update.