Something went wrong. Try again later

LinksOcarina

This user has not updated recently.

233 285 14 15
Forum Posts Wiki Points Following Followers

Reflecting on Current Events - Mafia 3 and Raging Against The Machine

It has been a long time, nearly nine years, since I have made a blog post here. Part of that is simply due to life getting in the way, but another part is how I have become almost a semi-professional critic within that time, working for websites such as Blistered Thumbs before it closed and now writing articles for the website TechRaptor. This piece though, is fully based on my own thoughts and opinions and is not affiliated with any website. The current events of the world right now - the COVID-19 Pandemic, the protests against police brutality after the death of George Floyd, and the inadequate leadership of politicians and police commissioners alike - has inspired me to take action, the only way I know how; to showcase a profound lesson found in a video game that many would often dismiss because of its technical shortcomings; Mafia 3.

Mafia 3 is perhaps the most prophetic game on the market right now. With a news cycle of unfiltered anger festering until it finally explodes in massive waves of anger, the U.S is, at times, literally on fire, burning and leaving further scars that make up the underside of our history as a nation. Times like this, ones of great duress and rage, are often reactionary to the conditions that lead to the chaos. A modern-day reckoning has begun across the United States, one that seems long overdue in some respects, but for many it is the backdrop of the reality of our society. Yet Mafia 3, for whatever reason, showcases that rage against the machine in such a pointed way, it is hard to ignore it right now given the circumstances.

A lot of this can be seen through the lens of Lincoln Clay, the games protagonist. Lincoln is sort of a pastiche character, part Django from Django Unchained, part Private Taylor from Platoon. He is a veteran just passing through New Bordeaux in 1968, when he is roped into meeting old friends and given a taste of power by an old mentor, Sammy Robinson, the local leader of a small-time black gang looking to carve up a piece of New Bordeaux for themselves.

Narratively, Lincoln’s struggles are transparent when the Marcano family, the organized head of New Bordeaux, has Robinson and his gang killed after a job that was to make them a more independent outfit. It is important to note that the massacre of Robinson’s crew is not presented as a hate crime, at least on the surface. Rather, it is a necessary action by the Marcano’s to preserve the status quo. Lincoln survives, just barely clinging to life for a time under the care of Father James Ballard and CIA operative and friend of Lincoln’s from Vietnam, John Donovan.

Father James and Donovan are very clichéd characters in a sense, representing the relative morality paths Lincoln can take to sedate his own agenda. Donovan is pompous and smug but encourages Lincoln to burn down New Bordeaux and remove the Marcano family from power. Father James though is the voice of reason, the angel to Donovan’s devil. He knows from experience the anger Lincoln has because he too, once had it. He warns Lincoln early on that his path to burn down Marcano’s world is a one-way road, “and once you start down it, there ain’t no turning back.”

On the surface, Mafia 3 seems to be a game that uses racism and racial discrimination as backdrop, a selling point to fuel the motivations of Lincoln and subsequently the player. Yet the game is much more nuanced in how racism is handled here. Lincoln’s desire for vengeance, power, and respect is almost beat for beat the echoes of any sort of romantic Mafia-styled narrative. Yet it adds a new layer into the mix, one that has past narrative roots are now mired in the language of the modern-day struggles for basic human acceptance. Lincoln nearly becomes Black Rage personified; an angry, vengeful man who has been tossed into the grinding gears of the world machine, only to come out the other side to rip it apart, screw by screw.

To put it another way, Mafia 3 is systemic racism personified as a video game and ignoring that aspect of the framework is to ignore the narrative point of the game itself. It does not try to be subtle about this point either, as many parts of the game’s mechanics pretty much enforce this in ways that overtly punish the player. Carjacking and firebombing in poor, black neighborhoods is almost too easy as the cops are incredibly slow to investigate. Doing this in white, suburban areas however, sees a near immediate response. Hell, these neighborhoods always have your wanted meter ready to go, since a black man in a white neighborhood is already suspicious enough.

All of this, of course, is followed by the saccharine smiles of “gentle southern folk” who take off their masks the moment a person like Lincoln turns the corner. It is enduring the smugness of Remy Duvall, a charismatic radio host with the smugness seen from real life far-right pundits, such as Gavin McInnes of The Proud Boys. It is constantly facing the prejudice and struggles of a world that is seemingly uncaring about the plight of those who need the most protecting, a world of order that mafia leaders like Sal Marcano, the head of the Marcano family, lament is disappearing.

Duvall and Marcano are worth exploring a bit because both represent the kind of problems Lincoln must contend with in Mafia 3. Duvall is simple as an overtly racist villain. He is filled with smarm and looking for a fight to punish blacks, hippies, even Italians like the Marcano family, whom he has legitimate business ties to. Duvall feels entitled to put them in their place, out of power from their rightfully owned land. He is also the leader of the Southern Union, a stand-in for the KKK; their grand wizard who uses influence to push the ideology forward.

Marcano himself is contrasted by not being explicitly racist, much like most of the Marcano family. There is a prejudice against Robinson and the black gang, but it's out of greed over hatred. Sal Marcano pines for the old days, where folks would not be “uppity” against him and his power. In a way, killing Robinson and his gang, simply because he can get away with it, showcases the power dynamic Mafia 3 spends a whole game effectively deconstructing, neighborhood by neighborhood, through gameplay.

It is this world, this society that already rendered Lincoln second class due to skin color, that he burns to the ground in his personal war with Marcano. It is a society that is remarkably familiar to many of us; especially considering the powerful messages shown in the wake of the death of George Floyd and countless other black and brown men and women over the years. Floyds death has become a rallying cry against police corruption and systemic racism against the marginalized. It has become a symbol of societies broken system of justice that has empowered the few to rule over the many. It is not the work of some bad apples, but rather the society itself that allows this constant string of injustices to continue. To fester. To boil over with explosive rage.

Yet society is often hypocritical to this rage because many in society do not see themselves as the ones who should be raged against. Take the tech industry, for example. Many tech conglomerates from Google to Facebook to Apple are often touting their more liberal, progressive attitudes towards civil rights and expressions. Yet deep down it too is plagued by systemic racism. There is a lack of black and minority leaders in the tech industry, a widespread gap of gainful employment as well. Constant allegations of oppression and prejudice, even the use of tokenism to satisfy charges of poor behavior have also been noted and clearly seen by many publicly. Tech companies claim to stand with movements to usher in change but are ultimately charged with virtue signaling when confronted with their own refusal to do so themselves. The tech industry, and yes, this does include some video game companies, struggles with this systemic rot because they righteously feel they are beyond reproof. They may not be a Remy Duvall, overtly racist and proud of it, but they are a Sal Marcano, wanting the status quo at all costs, including allowing personal and private prejudices to keep that status.

This is the hypocritical world Lincoln tears down, block by block in his personal war. When critiquing Mafia 3, many critics and fans alike focused on the games shortcomings as a product, while quizzically dismissing or misunderstanding its message. As a product, Mafia 3 is not perfect, the way the game mechanically engages with the player is particularly overloaded with banal repetitiveness in comparison to the storyline. It feels like busywork, too much check listing in a sandbox that struggles to hold attention. Tastes are changing away from that sandbox gameplay as being too derivative.

Yet that repetition also showcases the systematic destruction of the world around them. All of this is punctuated by the violence of Mafia 3 being visceral and raw with each flick of your knife or pull of your trigger. Lincoln's rampage through New Bordeaux is violent and not subtle on purpose; he wants Marcano and, to a lesser extent, New Bordeaux to see the blood-soaked path he carved to the top.

Throughout though, Lincoln is constantly tempted with more power, more control, and in effect, becoming the next Marcano. Donovan is emblematic of this possible character arc. As a CIA goon he is pretty much used to flexing his power over others; Lincoln included. He and Lincoln are friends, and Donovan does care about Lincoln, but they are not equal otherwise. Lincoln, to Donovan, is also a tool that is used to carve the path through the Marcano family, and him not-so subtly saying to Lincoln to take power for himself, even killing the advisors Lincoln recruits along the journey, makes this somewhat obvious. Donovan is portrayed as over the top and smug in a way that is frankly annoying but serves as the perfect foil to the metaphorical angel of Father James.

Yet even Father James, for all his screes, knows his power as a voice of reason is shaky. Throughout the game, Father James becomes more and more despondent, almost depressed, at seeing Lincoln unravel as he sated his rage with fire and blood. His monologues throughout the game, which uses a semi-documentary feel as a framing device, become incredibly morose and bitter, to the point where Father James admits to something he learned decades ago; that the world will always have systemic problems, and no amount of destruction will stop it.

It is a bitter, almost nihilistic scene, one that showcases the hopelessness Father James has seen throughout the years. Great change, no matter who is pulling the trigger, is always mired in the final revelation that the world does not work the way he tried to live. More than any other scene in Mafia 3 sums up the narrative themes than this; Lincoln knows his path is one of rage. He knows how the world works, how the world will judge him, brand him a criminal, another thug amongst the downtrodden who is gotten too big for his own good.

Martin Luther King Jr. famously said in an interview in 1968, that “violence will only create more social problems than they will solve.” He has condemned riots by the black community as the way forward for African Americans in the 1960s, believing his path of non-violence, now almost propagandized by history, to be the only solution to injustice. Yet even King was wise to note why riots occur. His now relevant The Other America Speech sums this up cleanly:

“I think America must see that riots do not develop out of thin air. Certain conditions continue to exist in our society which must be condemned as vigorously as we condemn riots. In the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard, and what is it that America has failed to hear is it has failed to hear the plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years, it has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met, and it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo, than about justice, equality and humanity.”

King is prophetic ultimately, that violence begets violence, and that proper justice and humanity is how we break that chain. Father James tries, in vain, to break Lincoln from this cycle. Lincoln is too myopic to see that, and much of the game itself, a well-crafted, bloody massacre of racists, criminals and establishment scum on constant repeat almost shows how fruitless true vengeance can be.

Can Lincoln save him from himself? Can one really rage against the machine and come out better for it? The gameplay of Mafia 3, and the whole thesis, says no. Yet there are a few moments, and one key ending, that contradict this. Lincoln kills all the Marcano family except for two members. The first, Vito Scaletta, was the previous protagonist of Mafia 2. Vito is himself an outsider, a ‘carpetbagger’ dumped onto the Marcano family. Vito later becomes one of your advisors and can be optionally killed if ignored or deciding to betray them like Donovan suggested. The second is Enzo Conti, the only member of the Marcano family to acknowledge and justify Lincoln's actions by apologizing to him personally.

Enzo is particularly interesting because that acknowledgement shows Lincoln can, in effect, offer forgiveness. Enzo is even more ‘old school’ than the Marcano’s, but he recognizes the injustice of the system, the injustice of the wrong committed against Lincoln and the Robinson gang. The death of his friends is inexcusable, and Enzo acknowledges this fact and walks away from his position.

There is also Marcano himself. After the death of his son Giorgi, Marcano acknowledges Lincoln as well, grieving as a father would over the death of his child, coming to terms with why this happened. For a moment, Sal Marcano is totally sapped of his power. For a moment, Sal Marcano finally understands what it means to be grinded up by the system. Lincoln has won; vengeance and justice, intertwined, has been served and Marcano, knowing his fate is already sealed, cannot ask for forgiveness despite this.

Sparing Enzo and finally killing Sal Marcano are just steppingstones to the real moral, the real choice Lincoln must decide on, and that is whether or not to continue the systems rot. Violence has begat violence, but what did it solve for Lincoln? In this case, old school Mafia leader Leo Galante, the man who Sal Marcano answered to, offers Lincoln a gilded cage to take over New Bordeaux for himself. Like Father James prophetically claimed, there will always be another Sal Marcano, another Sammy Robinson, another Lincoln Clay.

Does this solve anything in Mafia 3? No, it just continues the rot, now painted over with the blood on the hands of Lincoln. This ending is also incredibly bleak, leaving Father James to assassinate Lincoln himself in the end. The other option, however, is to walk away. Lincoln's fate was sealed the moment he took to the path of vengeance, it is a path that once he started down, there was never any turning back. The games ending though is resonant because it tries to justify the wisdom of Dr. King’s own words, that caring for the status quo of society is standing against freedom, justice and equality.

New Bordeaux changes, depending on who is in charge, but ultimately it never recovers from the baptism of fire in 1968. Lincoln Clay destroyed the machine in his rage and can possibly destroy himself in the process. Yet, the machine is rebuilt, re-wired exactly as it was before making nothing change at all. The final epilogue shows Lincoln on the run across the world, finding some solace, but at the same time never acceptance, in the world around him.

This is the dark lesson Mafia 3 has for us; that the systemic problems of race, class, status and power are part of the system built around us. Destroying that system is not just tearing down the layers of power, that is busywork and fruitless because ultimately, it can be rebuilt and made more powerful. It will take fundamental change in us coupled with changes to the system, to foster a better sense of justice that does not celebrate violence. In other words, we must recognize that we are part of the problem, and work to become the solution.

It was too late for Lincoln to learn this lesson, but maybe there is hope for us in the real world. The current protests over the death of George Floyd, coupled with systemic leadership clinging to the status quo have sparked something fierce in America today. Systemic racism is just one more problem of a broken society that can be fixed, but like in Mafia 3, if we're not careful it can consume us to repeat the same mistakes, cling to the same power and all of its seductive influence. We rage against the system, that is easy when our voices are drowned out by the systems apathy, but personal complacency creates the negative conditions that perpetuates the cycle to continue.

That is a tougher challenge to overcome, but one that can only be defeated when we recognize that complacency within ourselves.

Thank you for reading.

4 Comments

Separate but Equal: the Narrative and the Gameplay


The recent release of Dragon Age II has kind of compelled me to write this piece. It is something that has been on my mind for years, something that is starting to become a grim reality that anyone who is a fan of video games is facing. It is also something that, whenever talked about, usually is met with skepticism and scathing remarks, probably because the subject is difficult to discuss.

For me, and many gamers, there is a point to where we begin to yearn for something more, something tangible and fun but at the same time compelling and emotional. Many gamers are mostly right-side brainers when it comes to this question; they want something fun and they will seek out what will sedate their cravings. Be it shoot-em ups, deep RPGs, sport simulations, whatever it may be, gamers will pick their poison and pretty much sink hours upon hours into titles for inherent satisfaction. And while this is a common and wonderful pastime to pursue, the past several years there has been a movement slowly gaining ground that is just as powerful in terms of enjoyment.

Narrative structures in games have come a long way from the exposition found in manuals back in the 8-bit era. Stories in gaming have increasingly become more complex, and even tiered like the movie industry, showcasing AAA blockbusters, B-movie experiences, and enthralling dramas to name a few of the genres that we see. From as early as the SNES we have seen narrative structures begin to evolve into a more cinematic experience. Be it 50 hour RPGS made by Bioware or SquareEnix or the exposition seen in Bioshock and Heavy Rain, many games have crossed a threshold where the focus is now not only on visuals and gameplay mechanics, but also narrative structure and characterization. It is impossible to see a review or write an article without mentioning a storyline in a game. Even sports titles have crossed this threshold now, creating custom made stories such as what was seen in Fight Night: Champions.

But as narratives become more prominent in games, many fear that aspects of gameplay will begin to suffer. Typically the story and the gameplay design were often segregated; considered separate parts of the development cycle and often included in the final product after the gameplay was created. Most games often have a tacked on story which gives way to stilted narratives, while on the flipside we see story heavy games suffer with terrible gameplay design. In a way, a game like Call of Duty would be the former, while Heavy Rain would be the latter for a comparison.

Now narratives in games are more than just stories; they need to be either meaningful or entertaining to the user which would give them satisfactory enjoyment out of the experience. Take Grand Theft Auto IV for example.  That was a game that, no matter how good the narrative was in hindsight, there was great inconsistencies with the structure and tone of the story. The world is an alternative take on modern day America, satirically mocked by a foreigner making a life for himself. But the seriousness of the tone was not matched by the world itself. For example, the radio stations, fake advertisements, sexual innuendos and euphemisms all compounded a mixed message. It became less of a satire and more of a schizophrenic experience.

On the flipside is the game Saints Row 2. The game is the bizzaro of GTA IV because its world is cartoonish in many ways; the missions and sexual innuendos here also satirize typical American culture and the gang lifestyle, and do it better than GTA IV did. Going to the extremes of absurdity created a more light-hearted and entertaining experience. But like GTA IV the tone was inconsistent; this time mired by more serious moments that were meant to tug at heartstrings and make you feel empathy for a character that, by all intents and purposes, murders people wantonly and is dressed like a clown.

It should be noted that both Saints Row 2 and GTA IV also had problems with their gameplay. Saints Row 2 attempted to go for a more cartoonish experience, but the structure of missions and the perks for doing side missions to perfection often lead to the game becoming broken due to cheats like infinite ammo or special weapons designed for max killing. GTA IV attempted to inject realism into the game by adding cell phone conversations that call during missions, use of the internet and photography, and even scheduling events on your phone. All of this was annoying at best and use in game to push the story along at least once each, pretty much adding too many features that creeped into the gameplay. It is an annoyance that occurs for the first half of the entire game, learning new features even after 15 hours are invested into the title.

So the marriage of narrative and gameplay is far from perfect in the examples above. We see a lack of focus in terms of how a story can be told, because the gameplay mechanics and overall design can showcase inconsistency if left unchecked. We also see gameplay mechanics look out of place and less fun if they are not implemented in a way that could actually benefit the player, or at the very least a way that would not annoy the player because it can detract from the overall experience. But the past few years there have been some great examples of achieving an experience that is both entertaining due to narrative and gameplay features.

Which brings me back to Dragon Age II. The game is far from perfect, and everyone agrees with that. The gameplay elements are less polished than they should be and have those same annoyances that begin to creep into the gameplay as GTA IV had. But Dragon Age II is important in another way, and that is the attempt at marrying gameplay elements into an evolving narrative. Note that this is not a new technique, as Bioware has attempted this numerous times before with games like Mass Effect, Jade Empire and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Other games such as Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 and Demon Souls have also done this, but to varying degrees of effect.

The gameplay in Dragon Age II is fluid to fit two different styles of play. One is a tactical style that allows the user to pause the game during action to select abilities and actions for each party member, or to set tactics that allow the games A.I to control the movements of your non-controllable companions. Both methods work well and are valid attempts at tackling the numerous enemies that you face in game, and give the player a lot of freedom to experiment with the makeup of the party. The second method is to play it action-style, again using hotkeys for special abilities and hitting buttons for basic attacks and pre-determined combos already in canned animations.

Both methods are valid ways of playing, making party makeup crucial to balance encounters, especially on the harder difficulties. But the gameplay is not just the combat or the micro-managing of items and such, but also in terms of storytelling.

Dragon Age II follows in Mass Effect’s footsteps in telling a narrative story through the eyes of a single protagonist, known as Hawke. How you play as a character affects the world, and as such the gameplay in game. Depending on choices of allegiance with NPCs in game it can lead to different or deviances in the questlines later in the games ten year timeline. We also see the reactions of companions to your choices; they can become angered or inspired based on the choices of dialogue. In many cases, party members would react like any human (or elf ) would, and either vilify or exalt the hero Hawke for his decisions.

It not only affects gameplay due to the types of quests that become available, but also due to the final makeup of your party. Your companions are not just a group that is rallied together and blindly follow you; instead they have motivations, convictions and opinions that allow them to freely choose what they wish to do. Early on in the game you lose one of your siblings in the prologue all because of the class you decided to play as. That changes the makeup of the narrative immediately, and therefore changes the story for the remainder of the game. Later, the surviving sibling can die again, or be removed from the game and join a faction that you have no control over, only making guest appearances throughout the storyline until the climax where they may either rejoin you in battle, or die by your hand.

In fact, several characters in Dragon Age II have their fates all in your hands. Without giving too much away, there are several points in game where companions will leave the party forever, die by your own executions, or even fight you if your points of view disagree. The characters are fluid enough to fit into any role the story can dictate, and again the gameplay changes drastically with the amount of companions you would have left, and how they, and you, would react to the events that occur in game.

And the beauty of all of this is that, for the most part, it is unavoidable. You cannot save your sibling in the prologue, you cannot prevent the events the characters occur, and you cannot dictate how they will react. Towards the end of the game I had the choice of killing a companion for a grave act he preformed, or letting him live and either fight with us, or run away. In the end, no matter how much I agreed with him about the situation in the game, I had to kill him because it was what Hawke, my character invested into the narrative, would do. From a gameplay standpoint I sacrificed one character for two others, and from a narrative standpoint I followed through with my own convictions, however hard it was to do so. That is masterful storytelling, and the outcome was, for a moment at least, a coupling of narrative and gameplay elements.

We have seen narratives and gameplay go hand in hand before. From the audio diaries in Bioshock  to the timed conversations in Alpha Protocol , many games can encompass the gameplay into the narrative, but few can find the perfect harmony for an entire game. Dragon Age II was a step in the right direction for finally ending the segregation of story and gameplay, instead of making it a specific instance where the gameplay and story are combined; it attempts to encompass the entire game as a narrative experience.

Does it succeed? In the end, no. Limitations to the gameplay and the story structure force it to reach a conclusion that, while it makes sense from a narrative standpoint is inexcusable in terms of gameplay. There is also a disconnect between interactions still, and the numerous glitches and errors that mire the game world are too noticeable to not be mentioned. But what Dragon Age II does right is that it opens the doors for endless possibilities of seeing these two separate elements merge into one, becoming equally important as to how a game can stand on its own without one side or the other criticizing the importance of their respected camps being the reason to play the game to the point of venomous vitriol.

In the future we will see more innovation and attempts made by developers to encompass a storyline into gameplay elements. Dragon Age II may not be the best game ever made, but it is important because it takes the first steps into a larger world where the consequences of one’s actions early on can affect the outcomes based on the narrative. It was able to blend narrative and gameplay in a way that was fluid and complex, a way that forces the player to make decisions that will change how the game is played. For some, the future will be a revelation as to how games will be viewed. For others it shall be barely noticeable because they deem it pointless. For everyone though, they will be enriched by experiences unparalleled before because these separate but equal parts to a game will finally be separate no more.  
4 Comments

Links Top Ten: Games of the Year 2010

 

A disclaimer before I begin.

I guess I am one of the few exceptions for this, but I normally hate reading and making top ten lists. It is just an excuse for people to pretty much spew their opinions, however validated, onto internet forums and blogs and then bash trolls, fans and readers everywhere which may disagree with their opinions.

Let’s face it, top ten lists are popularity contests that are rarely, if ever, in the correct order for the people reading them. As subjective as they are though, they do form a purpose; it can honestly showcase aspects or opinions you don’t normally see. With this all in mind, I want to present my top ten games of the year 2010.

It has been a wild one to be sure. A lot of great games, and a few phenomenal ones, have graced the numerous console systems out there. Whether you agree or disagree with this list is not the point, but I do hope to showcase several games that, to me at least, exemplified what makes a good game and why it should be played. Now I will say that if I never played the game, it won’t show up on this list, and that includes some big titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops, Donkey Kong Country Returns and God of War III, so don’t expect to see them on here.

Without further ado, here are my top ten games of the year.

 

10. League of Legends (Riot Games)

 

Ok, I admit, I am cheating already since League of Legends launched in late November of 2009, but I didn’t begin playing it until around February 2010 and since then I have been hooked, so for me it counts as a game that came out this year. Possibly one of the few games I keep coming back to every once in a while just for mindless team based fun, League of Legends is one of several spiritual successors’ to the Defense of the Ancients mod from Warcraft III, where you must destroy the enemy teams base with the coordination and abilities of your teammates heroes. The beauty of the game in the strategy of the game, each champion has various abilities that can tip the scales in your favor if coordinated properly, and there are a slew of items, runes, and even a repec tree that augments the base stats of your selected hero.

Since its release, League of Legends has also followed a free to play format, offering a majority of its functioning services for free, with extras like costumes and rune pages as cash deposits. It is possible to play the game without spending a dime, and that alone makes it noteworthy. The community is also amazing; with Riot doing what it can to differentiate League of Legends from other DOTA games like DOTA Allstars and Heroes of Newerth, offering special events and a rich lore that has begun to grow and expand the League of Legends universe. If you are a fan of DOTA or of just strategic role playing in general, the game is definitely worth a look.

 

9. Assassins Creed: Brotherhood (Ubisoft)


Continuing a trend from a series that has really picked up since last year, Brotherhood is, in all honestly, a short game through the single player experience, but an important one in the grand scheme of the multi-game storywise that Ubisoft has set up for us. You again control Ezio Auditore die Firenze, an ancestor of the series protagonist Desmond Miles, as he attempts to rebuild the Brotherhood of Assassins in Rome, Italy during the decline of the Renaissance. The game may be short, but the new features do add depth and also add some new possibilities for future titles, such as co-op gameplay or team objectives in the single player mode.

But where Brotherhood shines is the multiplayer, and that is why it is on this list. Even more so than Modern Warfare 2 or other FPS multiplayer games, Brotherhood takes a novel concept and executes real well, how do you make assassinations shine with eight guys running around a closed space? Using powers and sneaky tricks make the multi-player heart pounding and exciting, as well as engaging overall fun. It is not a chore anymore to wait to be sniped by a level 50 gunman, or worry about someone somehow cheating. In the end, it is all based on skill and wit, and that alone is something lost in some multiplayer games today.

 

8. Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey (Atlus)

 

The Shin Megami Tensei series has become one of the most pristine examples of JRPG’s in recent years, gaining popularity thanks to the Persona series and slowly surpassing Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy as the RPG series around the world. Strange Journey is no exception here, going back to its roots as a dungeon crawler with a Sci-fi aesthetic. The story is remarkably adult, dealing with issues of religion and belief as well as the manifestations of demons and the seven deadly sins, all located in a growing black hole in Antarctica known as the Schwartzfelt.

While the game is more of a throwback to turn based RPGS with dungeon crawling first person modes, it is the typical SMT gameplay that keeps it engaging. Raising your demon pokemon from lowly slimes and pixies to powerful demigods from various forms of mythology and folklore is not only for the faint of heart, since it requires excessive grinding at points, but at the same time rewarding for beating the game. While not as difficult as Nocturne, Strange Journey is a remarkable RPG with great psychological depth, although it would be hard to recommend it for everyone.

 

7. Costume Quest (Double Fine)

 

Double Fine has recently decided scale back its projects after the mediocre success of Brutal Legend, and the results include a light-hearted RPG in the same vein as Super Mario RPG, borrowing the quick time mechanics to do battle against evil goblins and trolls on Halloween night. You star as a kid whose sibling is kidnapped by these greedy gremlins because they want all the candy on Halloween, and your sibling happens to be dressed as an overgrown candy corn. The game is really short, clocking in at less than six hours and highly repetitive, but the charm is in the design and dialogue, which is witty and what you would expect from Double Fine these days. Hell, collecting all twelve costumes alone in the game make it worth a look, but the simple pick up and play mechanics make it all the more easy to get into.

Apparently Double Fine is, at the time of this writing, already expanding Costume Quest with some DLC. I sure hope that a game this innovative and charming can keep making an impact, because if nothing else, Costume Quest is perhaps one of the most unique games to come out this year, and that is saying something since it is a downloadable title that can be lost in a sea of great games, from the somber Limbo to the bloody Shank. It takes a lot to stand out, and Costume Quest did so in spades.

 

6. Fallout: New Vegas (Obsidian Entertainment)

 

Fallout 3 was a great game, but what is amazing is that New Vegas almost surpasses Fallout 3 in terms of its scope and scale. New Vegas has you play a courier in the Mojave Wasteland, left for dead by a zoot suit wearing vagrant who steals a package from you. What follows is a series of unfortunate events that pits you against several factions all vying for one location, the still standing Hoover Dam.

The game improves on Fallout 3 in numerous ways, with the factional system being the most prominent one. Now you can have good or bad standing with different groups instead of being attacked by raiders every ten seconds, even when you are wearing their armor. It also adds a lot to the role playing aspect, talking your way out is usually more successful this time around than in 3. The hardcore mode offers a crazy challenge for gamers, and the companion system has been revamped and now works real well. Plus the companions have personalities and quests instead of just being another body to attack things. These are just some of the changes, and all glitches withstanding, New Vegas proves that Fallout will stay a fixture of excellence if it continues redefining itself.

 

5. Minecraft (Mojang Specifications)

 

Anyone who loves games knows about Minecraft. A pet project by indie developer Markus Persson, Minecraft is a sandbox style game which is simple in structure, but vast in scope. You essentially can create anything in this world by digging, mining, crafting and constructing through a random generated map of caves and islands. Clever gamers have created roller coasters, fortresses, a replica of Rapture from Bioshock and even the Starship Enterprise through a meticulous combination of patience and perseverance.

What makes Minecraft particularly special is the fact that the game has never been released fully yet, it is still in its Alpha stage. And yet, it has already generated over 600,000 purchases into the Alpha with over 2 million users playing the game at least once before. That alone is impressive, and very telling on how good and addicting Minecraft actually is.

 

4. Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar Games)

 

When I first saw screens of Redemption, I wasn’t impressed. I was never a fan of Red Dead Revolver, and I didn’t expect much from Grand Theft Equine until I actually played the game for the first time. Where Rockstar games misstepped with the story in GTA IV was the strange dichotomy of the seriousness of the story with the goofiness of the world around it. Here, there are few, if any, laughs to be found by strange events or witty jokes. John Marsten’s quest for Redemption in a world that doesn’t understand him is compelling and a wonderful character study about how times change people, and people can’t let go of the past.

The game design is standard sandbox play, but the narrative this time around is worth going through and so compelling it is hard to put Redemption down. The extras around the world add to the realism, from bounties to treasure hunts to gambling and cattle herding, each peripheral activity makes the game feel more realistic and authentic in 1910’s America. Yes it is distracting at times, but nothing beats getting random phone calls from your cousin to visit a strip bar, which can instantly take you out of a game. And the multi-player’s open ended structure was also well crafted, offering a slew of gameplay modes and activities both in and out of typical deathmach scenarios that Rockstar could constantly add-on to this for years to come. Redemption is not perfect as some would say, there are still snags in the narrative and structure of the game that I feel a dash of linearity would fix, but it is easily one of Rockstars best, and one of the best of the year.

 

3. Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (Ninja Theory)

 

An action platformer starring an apathetic brute named Monkey in a dystopian future is a hard sell for a new I.P, but Ninja Theory was able to draw from Chinese Mythology the core of the Journey to the West story and create a wonderful game. Visually striking and aesthetically pleasing is just one half of the coin, and despite some gameplay quirks that many found boring and repetitive, Enslaved worked because at its heart was a relationship between unlikely allies. Monkey is a hulking mass of independence, and his controller Trip forces him, through enslavement, to help her go home after being captured by sentiment machines which now control the landscape. On the run and constantly fighting, the two, after beginning as enemies, slowly become friends and companions through harrowing moments rendered in gorgeous cut-scenes.

Enslaved works as a story piece to show how games have come so far. It is a narrative driven by visuals, with the gameplay secondary, but it is such a good narrative it almost transcends the gameplay faults and quirks to become something truly special. The sad truth is the game is already out of print despite being released in October of this year, selling around 800,000 copies by the end of November. Enslaved is a fun romp and a great character study, and in the right hands a fun game to master despite the repetitive nature of the gameplay.

 

2. Kirbys Epic Yarn (Good Feel/ HAL Laboratories)

 

How does Nintendo do it? Year after year, they take a core group of franchises and try to reinvent them to make them fresh and engaging, and in most cases they are always successful. Ok, Metroid Other M backfired, but Kirby’s Epic Yarn shows how the big N still has this magic within them. Kirby’s adventure takes a strange turn as he is sucked into a giant, magic sock by the vile wizard Yin-Yarn. Now a piece of string, Kirby must fight fabric with friction as he traverses through various worlds using his powers to collect beads and find secrets.

What makes Kirbys Epic Yarn so enchanting is the style. Only Nintendo, no doubt guiding the two studios who created the game, could come up with Kirby as a piece of string fighting similarly styled creatures. It is an aesthetic that is just downright amazing, so much so even the VGA’s, which I despise, gave Kirby a Best Graphics Nomination. The gameplay is also addicting and simple to get into, and frankly, it is just nostalgic to play a platforming Kirby game again that is akin to Dreamland on the Super Nintendo. The only complaint is that it is far too easy, but even then that’s a minor problem with such a great game.

 

All of the games above have one or several aspects that make them great. Be it game design, story elements, emotional attachment, gameplay; the uniqueness of this list is possible because of the innovations and conventions we seen in games today. No matter how clichéd a game can be, the strength of a good game is how it is shown, played, and viewed. But one game encapsulates everything, in my opinion, which is seen above; a great storyline, superb dialogue and emotional cut-scenes, and exceptional gameplay. And that is Mass Effect 2.

 

1. Mass Effect 2 (Bioware)


Bioware shows how games can be taken to the next level in a way that is both entertaining yet artistic. As the resurrected Commander Shepard, you need to fight the Collectors, a secretive race of aliens abducting whole colonies of humans by assembling your dirty dozen of specialists, each with their own baggage in the vast galaxy they call home. The story is almost perfect, the dialogue is poignant, witty yet engaging and the games engine shows cinematic quality that is unlike everything I have seen in games before. Mass Effect 2 also had the ability of being influenced by the first game in the series based on specific choices from that game carried over via save states here, and the trend will continue with Mass Effect 3, offering a different experience each time for those who brave the whole trilogy.

What makes it remarkable is that this core idea of your actions in game speaks volumes for gamers. Decisions are not exactly black and white anymore, but you need make tough choices that can literally kill your own squad mates without a moment’s notice if you are not careful. The gameplay is also more than just corridor shooting and cover firing, but it employs some great Role Playing elements that can make fights either exceedingly difficult or a walk in the park depending on your builds. Mass Effect 2’s weaknesses are there, but in the grander scheme of things, of what makes a game standout; it is as close to perfection you can see in a year, and my choice for the number one game of the year.

 

So there you have it, my own top ten. I have to admit, after writing this I feel a bit better about doing some more top tens, although it needs to be something special I think for me to continue. But what do you think? Do you agree with this list, or is there something I am missing, or should play if I haven’t that is worthy of this list? Let me know, and if you ever come across one of these games and have never played them before, give them a try. You will not be disappointed.

19 Comments

Playing Wargames: The story of “Under Ash”.

With “Medal of Honor” being released today, I did want to bring up another first person wargame that has been in development and was released in the year 2000, a classic known as “Under Ash.”

Now many of you reading this right now may be wondering, what game I am talking about. Well, the game in question “Under Ash” is a 2000 first person shooter conceived and developed by independent game developer Radwan Kasmiya. Kasmiya is a long time gamer living in Damascus, Syria, who developed “Under Ash” with a team of five back in the late 1990’s. The game, based on the real life events of the First Intifada, a declared uprising of the Palestinians against the occupying forces of Israel from 1987-1993.

Now many of you are probably thinking, “oh no, this is going to get serious.” Well, the game has you star as Ahmed, a young Palestinian who feels obligated to become involved in the conflict by taking up arms against Israel. The twelve hour first person shooter features no medpacks, no intel to find, and no possible way of winning, since the uprising ended in Palestinian defeat. If you are shot once, the game ends. If you shoot innocent lives, the game ends. The game is designed to be difficult to mirror the conflict itself, a conflict that is continuous to this day.

Despite being an indie game, it was immensely popular in the Middle East, selling around 500,000 units as of 2010. The game also spawned a sequel, “Under Siege” which has sold over a million copies in the region.

But why am I highlighting two games about the Israeli-Palestine conflict? Well, for perspective sakes frankly. Kasmiya’s game is, of course, controversial for several reasons. It is seen as a major piece of propaganda to Israel, and ironically enough, a weak form of propaganda in Palestine. Internationally, the game itself is often cited as propaganda and a weak attempt at recruitment for the cause in Palestine. But Kasmiya would be the first to point out that this is not the case for “Under Ash” and “Under Siege”. “These are indie games, not propaganda.” He ardently says, noting that “The news likes to put fire underneath stories.” A truer statement if there ever was one.

An experience like “Under Ash” does not just make for a challenging game, but it is also a teacher of sorts for gamers, and not just of another struggle and culture from our own. The unbiased and real presentation “Under Ash” and its sequel present to gamers is an approach many FPS wargames should take, at least when dealing with the storyline. No B-movie action plots, no generic “opposing forces” or jingoistic pride for the “theoretical good guys” in many wargames. What is needed is a raw, harsh representation of both sides of a conflict need to be made, without the attachment of stigmatized labels and media-induced controversy.

But what Kasmiya’s true goal here is not to create a political statement, but an experience that would resonate with many young Middle Easterners. “If you compare my games to a triple-A shooting game, I lose. What I can do is create a unique story.”

 Kasmiya’s story is one that does this. You can’t willingly switch characters in the game, or change the sides and play as the “theoretical good guys” over the “theoretical bad guys” in the game, because there never really is a good or bad side in open conflicts. This is an important lesson, especially since the flack that “Medal of Honor” recently received for including Taliban fighters in the multi-player aspect of their game cause last minute changes to the game before launch.

The U.S military, citing this acknowledgement of the concept of the “theoretical good/bad guys” are necessary for a video game, decided to pull support for the game, which deals with the modern war in Afghanistan. The U.S military decided to pull the game from Gamestops located on army bases, and then pulled any support for the game all-together, with Electronic Arts, in return, renaming the Taliban as the generic “opposing forces” team.

This controversy is not new, as those who remember Konami’s “Six Days in Fallujah” which dealt with a real life battle and interviews of both American and Iraqi soldiers and the use of Al-Queda in multi-player. That game too, was highly controversial and was removed from production by Konami, with developer Atomic Games still searching for a publisher.

What is fascinating to me is how much controversy we have for the real life events of our armed forces when the realm of video games becomes involved. Games like “Call of Duty” and “Medal of Honor” have, when dealing with World War II, never been shy of depicting real life events for gamers to enjoy and live through, and not just on the side of the Americans but also for the British and Russian forces as well. “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare” implied modern turmoil with Russian Nationalists and Middle Eastern Insurgent Fighters as the primary antagonists in the first game, using the efforts of the U.S Military and the amoral British Special Forces as the vanguards of the security of the free world.

The second game in the series was much more poignant, with it being an inside job at the expanse of sustaining war, an aspect of Call of Duty, while I have adamantly dismissed as a slice of typical, espionage war fiction this side of Tom Clancy, is not without its moments of brilliance into the plot. The now infamous “No Russian” mission comes to mind, but even Kasimya believes that is not crossing a line in a sense. “The media created that line.” Says Kasimya. “It is a virtual line. That virtual line is in the mind.” In a sense he is correct, as the hubbub over the mission, I felt personally, was misplaced for “Modern Warfare 2” and was integral to the plot of the game.

But instead of waxing on the particulars of one game, what lessons we need to gleam from this is that controversy in any form can occur for a good game. But how that controversy is dealt with is what would make the game, as a statement of the developers, more poignant. Would removing the name “Taliban” from “Medal of Honor” really be a detriment to the U.S forces in Afghanistan right now?  Should a game like “Six Days in Fallujah” be published because of its more grounded approach at a specific battle in a recent war? Would playing a game like “Under Ash” or “Under Siege” be considered propaganda because they take an eerily realistic approach at events in the past and opt not to gloss it up with staunch jingoism and propaganda? In the end, only we as individuals can decide what we feel is right and wrong about games like this, because there is no right or wrong answer to this conflict.

Soruce: http://kotaku.com/5654958/a-game-about-insurgency

5 Comments

Modern Myths, Interactive Adventures


Throughout my years in school, even to this day, I have always been fascinated by the stories of mythology and legend. The fantastic stories of Greeks like Perseus and Odysseus to Athurian Legend have been great facets of shaping my psyche on storytelling and narrative, as well as my current interest in the genres of Science Fiction and Fantasy to this day.
Now, a lot of people have at length discussed how Mythology has played a part in a ton of mediums, such as Movies like Star Wars, to even comic books like Superman and Batman. Some had allusions to mythical tropes and storylines (Star Wars is the best example, since it follows the typical “Heroes Journey” archetype proposed by Joseph Campbell, which he called the monomyth.) to even making outright references to the stories of old. (Comic Book characters like Wonder Woman and Thor being prime examples of the use of myths such as Norse gods and the Amazonian warriors.) Many have claimed that these mediums have become the “Modern Myths” of today; stories that follow the patterns of the heroes and villains of old and project the trials, tragedies and conquests of subsequent characters. Even fantasy and sci-fi fiction has followed in this footstep.
But to take it one further, video games have been doing pretty much the same thing, creating their own mythologies with the ever growing cast of recognizable company mascots that crop up every year. In the past twenty years, every character in a game has transitioned from a nameless nobody to at the very least a named, recognizable sprite. And this has gone on since the NES debuted with Mario, (renamed after being called Jumpman, for example.) Pac-Man, and Donkey Kong being prime examples.
But what make these characters transcend is their own mythologies. Perhaps the most well known is from “The Legend of Zelda” series, that since the first games created has, until a few months ago when Nintendo finally admitted that it didn’t exist, has had debates by legions of fans over the chronology of the entire games catalogue.  While bringing up a dead issue like this, as Nintendo has officially said that there is no timeline in the games, it also brings up a major point about how Zelda has become another monomyth; the fact that fans still debate the timeline even after this move was made shows this higher thinking of the overall storyline.
The character of Link also follows the typical tropes; from a young boy to an adult, he undergoes a series of trials to uncover keys and tools to rescue the world from a terrible evil, and in using his tools he overcomes physical and mental obstacles. This is basically the Hercules of Hyrule, but instead of using brute strength, poison tipped arrows and a tunic made of Lion hide, Link’s arsenal includes bombs, the Hookshot and the Fairy Bow.
Link’s adventures are just one example of the individual stories we can see. RPG’s have typically been forerunners of this entire concept, JRPGS and Western RPG’s alike, from “Persona 4” to “Dragon Age Origins” also follow the monomyth theory with similar results. This is also why the art of story-telling has become the integral part of an RPG game, because the method of telling it is the same, it is what is added that makes it a worthwhile journey; the interaction between the companions in your group, the decisions you make in game to achieve your goals, and the eventual confrontation between either an ultimate evil, or a personal one.
This is especially seen in games with a degree of choice in them. One of the best examples I can think of is “Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Calibur.” (As a sidebar if you own a Wii or a Nintendo 64, do yourself a favor and get this complex and awesome strategy game.) The game has you follow a young adult who, through dialogue choices and conditions in battle, can make him go on various different paths in a complex story arc which involves tactical battles and strategic fighting. One of the subplots in the game is the relationship with your characters father, a shamed knight who killed another noble because he was protecting your childhood friend, and the future king, from an assault. Because of this your relationship with both your friend and father is destroyed, and during the game, you can either seek vengeance, or choose to kill your father mercilessly, penance, to reconcile with your father, or despair, by killing your father in self defense. None of these decisions are easy to make, and the paths to them can change the fabric of the story immensely, making your character chivalrous, tragic, or an even more personal villain.
It is moments like this that truly show us how mythology tropes can translate into the moments of a video game. These moments shape the story for the final confrontation in many ways, and change the outcome of the game for those willing to sit through a long play time. But what makes this possible is how many games have developed this mythology behind them. First Person Shooters and Platformers are other examples. A game like “Halo” portrays the Spartan Master Chief rather well, showing his plight in what seems like a losing war against a superior foe. But the efforts of staunch yet unlikely allies, former enemies reconciled for a similar cause, and even an eventual self sacrifice, resonates a chord with people. Any problems telling a story and characterization aside, the structure of a deep mythology is already present in a game series that has already expanded to the realm of RTS’s and expansion series involving other characters other than Spartan 117.
Platformer Brawlers like “God of War” “American McGee’s Alice” and “Metal Gear Solid”showcase other examples of twisting stories in their own way. Each is based off a myth, fairytale or an espionage caper, and each presents characters, items and references from their source materials. This hybrid of reverence to the source materials and the addition to the stories presented creates a new mythology line to follow. The exploits of Snake, Alice and Kratos shows how mythology not only influences the designs and names of video games, but also the types of stories that can be told with an emphasis to the “one vs. many” aspect of them.  Each has its own clever spin on what has come before them, and keeps the old myths, as well as creates new myths, for younger generations.
Now some series it is harder to translate into this monomyth theory, but that can also be said for other mediums as well. Mythology follows characters on personal journeys, finding solace, vengeance or just living, or entire worlds in epic clashes and constant turmoil against some opposing force of “evil.” Racing games while usually paper thin and about the racing in the end, do not typically fall into this category. Neither to sport games nor simulation games for that matter, they are typically about the mimicry of real life. In many ways, mythology is more of a gateway to a fantasized world than an experience of a present day phenomenon. A good myth transports you to a world that does not exist, an experience that can never happen, but is parallel to our own, be it technology seen, characters explored, or journeys travelled.
But those interactive adventures are important none the less, as they remind us that mythology is still present today. I truly believe that video games, more so than comic books and movies, can be a gateway to truly exploring the potentials of storytelling tropes found in established mythologies from around the world. Many of the games above, “Zelda”, “Halo”, “Persona 4”, “God of War”, and so forth already have established worlds that share devotion by millions who have experienced them. The story may be the same, but how it is told and presented is how mythology, and storytelling as a whole, survives for an eternity. You don't just read the myths here, you experience them, shape them, and enjoy them in a way that was never imagined before.    
4 Comments

How I Stopped Worrying About the VGA's and Dropped This Bomb

  

As the holidays draw closer to us, three things happen. One, a ton of shopping for your respected holiday, but it Christmas, Chanukah, or Festivus to name a few, will likely get done. Second, you’ll get fat with all the food you will eat. Always. Lastly, it becomes award season for all the entertainment industries, which begin to pump out the best stuff of the year, supposedly, in the span of eight weeks before January.

So what does this mean for video games? Why it’s the annual Spike TV Video Game Awards, a piece of poop that for the past six or so years has airs on the “network for men” channel to promote the best video games of the year. With star-studded hosts like Samuel L. Jackson taking center-stage with some other B-list celebrities, the VGA’s have become a fixture for the video game world, a fixture that is more like a dark stain on the souls of mankind that needs to be removed to the depths of hell as soon as possible.

You might be wondering right about now, why am I so bitter towards something that can be seen as harmless? It promotes decent games all the time and it also gives us some credit as a medium. To which I reply with a snarky roll of the eyes and say you’re wrong. The Spike TV VGA’s is really more detrimental than you think, because what it does is cater to the lowest denominator for the audience in the end, turning what a night of deserving accolades should be into a political popularity contest for the masses to enjoy. Granted this is similar to the Oscars and the Grammys, but at least they hide it better. The VGA’s are just blatant about it.

So what is really so bad about it? Well, for starters, it’s the inconsistency of the reward categories. Last year, there were 25 categories for games to win awards in. This year, they added four more to the list, some of which repeat themselves. It also the categorization’s in the past that sometimes made no sense. 2007 was particularly bad, having “Best Military Game” and “Most Addictive Videogame.” As major categories. The categories seem to come and go as they please. “Best performance by a male/female” voice actor (which for some reason is ALWAYS A KNOWN CELEBRITY over an actual voice artist.) disappeared in 2007, when it was a part of the ceremony in 2006, and was later added in 08 and the upcoming awards show this December. The inconsistencies’ make it hard to track anything in terms of a narrative of the show. The only staples are genre awards (usually best shooter, action game, RPG and sport sim and console games) and the two big awards (Game of the Year and Best Studio/Developer.)

Speaking of celebrities, they put a lot of emphasis on them over the games themselves, and even less emphasis on the game developers and producers. Unlike a more stable award show like the Interactive Achievement Awards (IAA), the VGA’s try to make things as flashy as possible for everyone to I guess enjoy.  The celebrity hosting, cameo’s and promotions for the celebs in-game essentially mask the purpose of the awards at times; which is honoring the hard work the developers did. Granted, the VGA’s used to have a designer of the year award, but that was dropped for two extra categories for the celebrities. In fact, of the 29 categories, five of them deal with celebrity voices in game, and some of these categories are repeats of themselves, like “Best voice” and “Best Male/Female performance.” The choices are all different, however, so perhaps it was just a bad ploy to get more celebs in the running.

Then we get nonsense categories like “Most Anticipated Game.” I mentioned this briefly above, but when your award show is going to hand out an award for a game that was not released yet, and is all about hype, there is a problem. In fact, a lot of the games nominated are usually the result of hype-fueled debates. These categories take away from the show, turning it into the prom contest we don’t need to see.

Another problem is the timing of everything. Most award shows begin around February, with selection throughout January on the previous year awards. The VGA’s seems to do things in December, and selects games in November. The timing is way too short of a deadline to pick a good list, and since the year is not finished yet and three of the five games up for game of the year came out literally within the week of the nominations being announced, it is hard not to draw conclusions over a major problem of biased nominations. The three games in questions, “Modern Warfare 2,” “Left 4 Dead 2,” and “Assassins Creed 2” were all hyped up to be the best games of the year, and while I am sure each has its own strengths and weaknesses, the fact that they came out days before the announcements of the nominations is a major problem. It once again seems to be more about hype over results, and while many gamers will argue for one over the other, the simple fact that other games which are just as good, or even better in some opinions, were left out on the cold.

And perhaps the most damning thing the VGA’s can do is being biased. As I said, the Oscars and Grammys do it all the time, but nine times out of ten they can mask it. Here, it’s blatantly obvious ALL THE TIME. Take, for example, “Muramasa: The Demon Blade.” While it was a really niche title in terms of it’s play style, and it was on the Nintendo Wii, it was beautiful, frantic and overall fun, an experience this year that is being overlooked at the VGA’s because it was not nominated in any category. Even for “Best Wii Game” it was shut out, and instead we get “Madworld” and “Wii Sports Resort” two games that, while good, paled in comparison to “Muramasa.” The inclusions of these two show something about the VGA’s. For one, they rely on bigger name companies, SEGA and Nintendo respectfully, over an obscure developer like Vanillaware and Ignition entertainment. It also shows a major difference between tastes of gaming; “Muramasa” was a Japanese developed game which looked the part, the latter were games that looked more western, or at least not as Japanese as they could have been depending on the company like Nintendo and Sega. Lastly, one can argue that “Madworld” is included just because it waas  rated M filler game that was on a Wii. This can bring up a whole new debate if it win’s best Wii game over the likes of “Punch Out!!” and “Super Mario Bros. Wii," although to be fair this is unlikely.

But the shafting of “Muramasa” is not the only oversight. Other great games this year, “Dragon Age: Origins,” “Scribblenauts,” and “Blazblue” each got shafted in their own way. “Dragon Age” is up for best RPG and PC game, but not game of the year, developer of the year, and best cast. “Blazblue” is only up for best fighting game this year, and not for soundtrack and graphics. Lastly, “Scribblenauts” was shafted by being nominated for best Hand held game only, and is not up for any other categories like best developer, which it could be nominated for.

Now granted, the majority of the games nominated were chosen for a reason in their categories. And this is where varying opinions as to why these games are up for game of the year, or why other games are not nominated at all. But, it seems to me at least, the bottom line always comes down to two things, money and ratings. To put butts in front of the boob tube they need to pick the big draws. There is no denying games like "Modern Warfare 2," which had so much pre-release hype and sold around 2 million copies on launch day, is a big draw. It puts any Wii gay nominated for Wii Game of the year to shame, in fact I doubt those five games combined can even be half of  what "Modern Warfare 2" has sold in general since launch. There is nothing wrong with popularity in this sense, but it is the business-like mentality that lets games like "Muramasa" slip by. It is more about the bottom line over the merits of the game; to sell it for viewers at home they put the AAA titles, whether they deserve it or not, up for nominations over the little guys which, to some gamers, should at least get some degree of recognition for their hard work.

And this is what you can say separates the VGA's from other award shows. The Oscars, despite being political, at least nominate movies that, while for the general audience may not enjoy, understand, or like them at all, they get the recognition they deserve. Not every "Gladiator" or "Lord of the Rings" movie nominated would win either, sometimes we get the more obscure "Crash" or "The English Patient" over something more well known. It is debatable if they deserve it again, but the fact that they are nominated is recognition for the merits of the medium they are trying to present. For games, it comes down to partially what is known to be popular through sales and word of mouth, and partially what is familiar to the general population. 

 

The Spike TV VGA’s are, in effect, the obvious popularity contest you would expect at a high school prom. The most likeable to the masses get’s the top billing, even when they don’t deserve it. The flashy celebrity appearances, the lack of respect for the developers, both mainstream and independent, the total exclusion of deserving games in numerous categories all concocts a disgusting potion that frankly is not worth our time as gamers. Yet the problem persists because now outlet’s like Gamestop try to promote the VGA’s as much as possible. There is nothing wrong with that, but when the popularity contest is getting more ink than the peer-reviewed award shows, like the IAA’s, there is a serious problem for the industry as a whole, because even the Oscars, for all of its political dealings, is peer reviewed. If we want to be taken seriously, the IAA’s, or an IAA-style award show needs to be pushed more over the bloated mess that the VGA’s takes on every year. We may not be able to stop it, but as time goes on and gamers grow up with their medium, I just hope that they discover how much of a stinking turd this award show is.

But you know what? What is the point? Everyone reading this knows that the VGA's are a joke, so why make this point. I guess there really is no point to the pointlessness, other than a plus one rant for my own ego to stroke for a week. But frankly, the fact that no one talks about issues like this is a problem if you ask me. Every year many games shout in disdain against the VGA's and other subsequent award ceremonies, so what is stopping these said gamers from showing it to others out there. There is no point to this, but I guess I shouldn't worry either, because everyone knows it in the end as well.

25 Comments

The Narrative of Video Games, Part 1

 

Today it is hard to imagine a world without video games, let alone the style of games many newer generations have become accustomed to. Like in “Back to the Future, Part II”, the scene where Marty McFly plays “Wild Gunman” in the Café 80’s, a young kid exclaims “You use your hands?! That’s a kid’s toy!”

It’s stranger still to think that video games have essentially been perfected to the point where innovation is now more about control over graphical upgrades, something that is actually new in the industry, if you really think about it. When many of us were young, innocent children, the “Bit Wars” was raging, and the birth of fanboys blossomed into the intellectual masturbation that we see now on the internet. We have seen 8 turn to 16, 16 to 32 and 64, and 64 cartridges to CD technology, and finally CD’s to Blu-Rays, on the PS3, at the very least. The progression has been rapid and fruitful for all.

But in this shuffle of technology improving graphics, sound, and controls in various ways, one thing has always stood as a problem in video games; and that is adequate narrative structure, or storytelling, if you want to be less pretentious about it.

Going back to the 8 bit days, video games with stories were about as common as a surfer in Utah. That is, as obscure as you can get. The reason? Well, I don’t know. Perhaps it was graphical limitation or more about the gameplay in those days. Hell, some of the most successful and addictive games have no true story to it. Look at Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, even Guitar Hero in the modern day; it was all about improving yourself to go that extra mile that one time to make it count, building skill and coordination.

Now a disclaimer I guess is warranted at this point. A lot of the following has been discussed ENDLESSLY on various forums, be it videos, articles, other Vox Pop entries myself and others have made, and so forth. So if I’m regurgitating something said before, without giving credit to that person, I’m sorry. But in the end, were all fighting in the same corner for the same cause.

Video games began getting stories back in the day through exposition and minor text quips. RPG’s primarily led the way to this, with Final Fantasy and pretty much everything done by Square and Enix being an example. It was simple at the time, minor stories that drove characters, usually a group chosen to save the world and what not, and the rest was made for you to follow in a linear fashion.

Other methods of storytelling were usually through the game manuals and text, such as “Legend of Zelda” being a prime example. Everyone who read the manual knew that Zelda was the princess and was taken by Ganon, and our hero Link was there to stop him. It gave a small, sufficient backstory that has pretty much anchored the entire franchise to this day.

It wasn’t until the mid 1990’s that stories began to become somewhat complex. Characters emerged to become emblems of adult themes, like Lara Croft (before she sold out), Duke Nukem (before he disappeared) and Sonic (before he sucked.) The simple stories of save the world, find the macguffin, and so on pretty much existed, but were still well masked thanks to well done gameplay. Even a few of the more elaborate stories, like those found in Ocarina of Time or Final Fantasy VIII, had simple objectives, but were fleshed out with characters that can be personified more easily than previous generations.

But one thing is still lacking, and some people tend to get touchy when this is mentioned. Most stories in video games are pretty generic at best, and at worst, rejected plots to B-movies Ed Wood would blush at. Now I’m not implying that games like Halo, Gears of War, Final Fantasy XII, or even Super Mario Galaxy have bad stories. I’m downright saying they have them!

If you really think about it, storytelling is more of an artform, like everything else in video games. And telling a story that is interactive, productive, and let’s players control the protagonist’s fate, is hard to accomplish. A lot of it is the art of telling a story in general, narratives, plot, characterization and other literary constructs can be added to a game, but so can havoc physics and motion controls. Just because it’s in there doesn’t mean it will work. Conversely, a well written story can be a poor game, because while the writing may be similar to the works of Mark Twain or Edgar Allen Poe, the gameplay can suffer for being repetitive, bland, unresponsive or uninspired.

It is hard to strike a balance between these two seemingly polar opposites. For example, look at “Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time”. Some would argue that the story in “Ocarina of Time” was actually decent, and I would be among those to defend it. It had an epic feel, enough twists to keep us interested in the narrative, had little exposition and overall was told really well. But, in hindsight, what was really new about it? It was generic fantasy, taking cues from Lord of The Rings, old mythology, including Greek, Roman, and Japanese, and even a bit of surrealism from the likes of Lewis Carroll and J. M. Barrie. It blended it well, but it was still cliché and compared to great epics, not as memorable. What was memorable was the gameplay, being a powerhouse and innovation for 3-D adventures even to this day.

Tim Schafer’s Psychonauts is the antithesis of Shigeru Miyamoto’s Zelda. It was well designed yes, but had poor gameplay elements, old school platforming and generic combat. But its narrative was complex, creative, and it made the game stand out, in gamers eyes at least, more than it did in the general public. It has become a cult classic that deserves recognition because of its saucy banter and clever design, a true pillar of art like Ocarina of Time is. (but that’s another story.)

While both games I have mentioned each were great games and will always be so, what they lacked is a problem that affects even lesser games out there. Games heavy on design but light on story can have appeal as what they are, obvious, B-movie romps, like “God Hand”, “Madworld”, or  “Wet”. When these B-movie games take themselves seriously, like say….”Halo”, then it becomes hard to really enjoy the experience.

“Halo” is a decent game; don’t get me wrong, but anyone who says its story is amazing either never experienced something like “Moby Dick.” It is laughable frankly to see it compared to the “Star Wars” by some fanboys, because “Star Wars” was at least a great story that had depth, characterization and a real sense of tension and release. “Halo” is like a 5 graders interpretation of a massive franchise, more comparable to the riveting dialogue of “Predator” over anything else. It’s not good writing to make paper-thin characters. If anything, Halo revolutionized the FPS with it’s design over it’s story, both on and offline, but it hasn’t done much to draw people into it’s narrative. In fact, a lot of the excess, the novels, machinas, and other little tidbits created around the Halo games have fleshed out the story more than the games themselves.
 
But how does this all really hold up? Well, next month I will look at some examples of a storyline told correctly, or at least in the ways they can be, which hopefully will be used as paradigms for the future of video game story-telling.

1 Comments

Facing Changes, Choosing None

 

They say that you are often harsher on the ones you love. When a family member did something stupid, or a girlfriend said something nasty, people push back because they have a deep affection for them, and eventually work out their problems through various means. True love and passion comes from solving differences, and accepting changes and compromises from others.

But, sometimes it is very hard to accept change. Hell, it is natural almost to reject it after you become comfortable in your routines. And it is also hard to compromise and stay true to those compromises, something many have attempted to and failed to do over the years, from politicians to athletes, entertainers to editors.

Why all of this sentimental stuff? As a long time gamer, one company has often stood out over the rest due to their innovation and their quality of work, and that company was Nintendo. The Japanese giant not only saved video games, but is arguably the pioneers of commercial video game playing today, thanks in part of the Nintendo Entertainment System, or the Famicon in Japan. With the help of visionaries such as Shigeru Miyamoto and Gunpei Ioki, Nintendo created some the most memorable franchises in video game history, from the Legendary Zelda series to the iconic Mario Bros. series. It goes without question that Nintendo is the most celebrated and adored video game publisher in the world.

But that was then. For all of Nintendo’s achievements, therein lies one, fundamental problem, and that is Nintendo’s adversary to change. Nintendo as a company has been a leader in video game consoles since 1984, but it was during the past decade, in the onset of the 3-D era, that the golden age of video game makers began to falter, leading to both positive and negative innovations in today’s video game market.

Nintendo’s problem is that with each new generation of consoles, there is a major adherence to do things their own way. While commendable, negative aspects often emerge and prove somewhat fatal to the consoles created. The 64 bit era brought Nintendo’s final cartridge console, the Nintendo 64. While the console was powerful, small, and very efficient, the limitations of cartridges were showing, thanks to poor musical qualities, use of static pictures, and graphical slowdown (until the expansion pack came out, which became required for some high-end games like Perfect Dark and Donkey Kong 64.) plagued many games on the system. While most of these are aesthetic problems, the hardware unable to match the larger capacity for disc and DVD games being put forth by the Playstation and Playstation 2, created by Sony.

It is worth mentioning that Nintendo had a deal with Sony to create a system that would have been produced by the company, but the deal fell flat in 1995. This lead to Sony going solo, creating the Playstation one system and the rest is basically history. While it is still unclear why Nintendo refused to use discs, the overall impact of that decision changed the landscape of video games forever.

While the Nintendo 64 was still a successful system, it was the lack of conformity that doomed the next project, the Nintendo Gamecube. A system again, was at best mediocre in graphics but had some astonishing gameplay advances, put forth some great products. The problems again were the formats of the discs, which Nintendo embraced, in a mini format. These discs lead to a lack of DVD usage again, and more importantly online support and connectivity, which was experimented on in the Playstation 2 and fully implemented on the Microsoft X-Box, the new competitor in the market. Once again, Nintendo offered connectivity between their hand-held games and the Gamecube only, using game link cables as the connector to consoles. While Nintendo-published games essentially pimped this idea, 3 party support, already waning, was almost non-existent on the console.

With the advent of the 7 generation, Nintendo’s trump card was the Nintendo Wii, a console which uses the motion control scheme to play games. While innovative, charming, and capable of taking games to new territory, once again Nintendo drops the ball on many aspects that would solidify their position today. For one, online connectivity is available, but through the use of friend codes, instead of a service that connects all such as X-box Live or the Playstation Network. These cumbersome codes make friend making on the system very difficult and at best offer short, quick online matches for specific games only.

Nintendo, in an attempt to focus on their new control scheme with the Nintendo Wii, decided to change their market strategy, one that has proved to be successful if only initially. Casual gaming is a mainstream industry, thanks to cheap flash games like Peggle and Bejeweled, “casual” gamers have drifted towards the console for quick fixes and simple minded fun. Also thanks to this market, however, are rampant shovelware titles that are created for quick cash in’s, flooding the Wii’s market with game after game filled with poor control implementation, mini-games and cheap gameplay value. This also leaves good games in Nintendo’s library, such as Capcom’s “Zack and Wiki”, or THQ’s “De Blob”, with low sales despite utilizing the controls of the system to their benefit.

 The problems with shovelware aside, the technical capabilities of the Nintendo Wii are blown out of the water by the two major competitors’, this time the X-Box 360 and the Playstation 3. Both boost a stronger game library, more third party support options that do not fit a “casual” market only, and arguably better first party game experiences. Nintendo, in an attempt to focus on the non-gamers, has alienated the gamers themselves, and what’s more, Microsoft and Sony are now attempting to cash into the “casual” crowd their motion controller schemes and emerging casual gaming markets.

So where does this leave Nintendo? Many fanboys would let the big N go on these missed opportunities out of support for their great franchises, despite great titles by Mario and Zelda every now and then, it seems that Nintendo is quick to embrace nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake. Their primary first party games, while often the best games created, as many would attest to, are based off of their previous achievements. The only new franchises that can be considered a success for gamers is the Pikmin series, developed for the Nintendo Gamecube, while other series such as Nintendogs, and the Wii series, are viewed as by-products of the “casual” push by many hardcore gamers. Even major series, such as Mario and Metroid, have suffered a bit due to the lack of innovation put forth from previous efforts by Nintendo, and sometimes rightfully so.

But this is just the tip of the iceburg for the company. With the eventual onset of digital downloads, where can Nintendo go from here? The world of video games is changing again after almost twelve years of using discs and 3-D graphics. Nintendo has shown it is ardent to follow its own path, but the choices made along the way have been at best questionable, and at worst disastrous. While the Nintendo Wii is the top selling console right now, many believe that it has reached it’s peak in sales, and will suffer a major decline in the coming two years. The casual market is becoming stagnant and now it’s competitors plan to one-up what Nintendo has essentially pioneered, and chances are they will create a better overall experience for the video game population.

It is hard to be a fan of a company like Nintendo and notice the faults that have held it back for years, but only a true fan would acknowledge these faults in the end. Nintendo is facing a questionable future by not letting go of its past, by blazing a new trail that, for every positive aspect that is brought out from it, several negatives one easily counter. The future of games will change again, and for Nintendo to survive it must not choose to do nothing.

2 Comments

The Digital Download Saga: Why it Will Initially Fail

Note that this was written back in April of 2009, before the announcement of the PSP Go.

 
In the month of May, the game Patapon 2 will be released for the Sony PSP. This is a game that will be very critical in shaping the future of gaming, even if it doesn’t know it. It’s not due to some innovative gameplay mechanic or a new game design either. It is actually due to its distribution, which will in turn be a forerunner for the probable future of video games. That is digital distribution.

Digital distribution is the selling of full games through downloads, similar to add-ons and arcade games on X-box live, the Wii virtual console, and the PSN, for example. The difference is that they are fully fledged games, such as a full version of Halo or Bioshock, a complete series of Elder Scrolls and Final Fantasy, or even a fully updated roster for Madden and NHL. Digital downloads will give access to full, current-gen games to be downloaded for a fee at your own home. No longer will hard copies be the norm of attaining video games, when everything is downloadable, sales and distribution will be all done on the net, and it will happen.

This is the future of gaming, no doubt about it. And it is a natural progression as well. You have the current trend of game add-ons and full, retro games online already available, as well as custom new games that have been created by small, independent companies. Hell, the upcoming version of the PSP will feature only digital downloadable games, eliminating the use of Hard USB disks for the future.

But sadly, I feel it will fail now, at first, at least. It is not because I love hard copies of games, which I do because owning a hard copy of a game is so ingrained in my psyche it’s almost impossible to not enjoy these hard copies. But I feel like we may be jumping the gun in making Patapon 2 the first ever digital download title for the PSP, for a couple of reasons.

First and foremost, Patapon 2 is a very niche game. Not to detract from the game at all, but it’s not a blockbuster like Final Fantasy or Madden. It’s a great title for a limited audience, namely the hardcore gamer crowd and those who know a good game from a bad one. But for the average consumer, Patapon 2 will be a very hard sale for what is not familiar, especially since its quirky design and very unorthodox gameplay mechanics make it look exotic.

Another aspect that might lead to this failure is the fact that this is being done with little fanfare. Retailers like Gamestop and GameCrazy are promoting the game for the PSP, but the fact that it is a downloadable game is not being mentioned, nor is part of the official press kit for retailers. Granted, some employers will be mentioning the game to the interested parties, but learning that the game is fully downloadable might detract from that.

This is actually similar to Grand Theft Auto, The Lost and the Damned for the 360. When it came out, both as a digital download and a hard copy, there was some confusion by consumers who thought it was a stand-alone game in retail stores, and squandered $20.00 without having a copy of GTA IV. It was a good experiment by Microsoft, but without letting people know of the digital download or that you needed the GTA IV game to play Lost and the Damned probably made the hard copy of the disk less desirable in stores, and maybe detracted from sales overall of the add-on.

One final piece that makes a digital copy of Patapon 2 a bad idea in terms of sales and profitability is the fact that it’s on the Sony PSP. The system has a turbulent history, with three incarnations and a fourth one ready to be released. The sales of the system though are not as solid, paling in comparison of the Nintendo DS. Over $50 million PSP systems have been sold worldwide, compared to $96 million DS systems, a margin of nearly 2-1. Respectable sales for a handheld to be sure, but the switch to digital downloads only might again confuse many consumers who are not kept abreast to the changes in the video game market, and again this might deter people from purchasing a PSP and other PSP games.

For digital downloads to work, retailers and game companies need to work together to actually educate people in the downloadable features of games. Many parents and gamers don’t know about Microsoft Point cards, for example. Telling them what the cards do will probably alleviate the confusion somewhat, and may even grant parents and casual gamers the curiosity to look at digital downloads in a new way, and research it themselves. Hardcore gamers know this is coming, and perhaps preparation is in order for us, but we also need to prepare everyone in the process.

So Patapon 2 will be a great experiment, but it will not speed up the process of digital downloadable games. But it will also not deter the ongoing change from hard copies to digital downloads. While I personally feel that a mixture of both hard and digital copies is what will ultimately be successful (and I’ll save that for another article.) the future of gaming is coming hard and fast, and we are able to see the bits and pieces of it manifesting today.    

10 Comments

The Sequel Effect: Part II, Bioshock and the Artform of Gaming

 
 Note* This was written in October of 2008.

Today I heard some news that I didn’t find surprising but at the same time was adamantly against. The sequel to the hit game Bioshock was revealed as a cutscene extra on the Playstation 3 version of the game. Yes, a sequel to a game that is the perfect storm of gaming, excellent story, sharp graphical design that really is considered art, and fun gameplay mechanics with few bugs; it is easily one of the greatest games ever made. But a sequel? I know video games are essentially a commercial art, but I find it odd and somewhat underhanded to craft a sequel to a game that had a definitive end to it. Granted, the bad ending to the game is somewhat interpretational to a continuation of the story, but that is a stretch.

But this article is not about Bioshock; it’s rather what Bioshock represents to most gamers out there; an art form that is trying desperately to reach a plateau of acceptance. Games like Bioshock are a new crop of games that are pushing the boundaries of what can be done with the entire medium, and with some care and time, the medium can rapidly achieve the success that many wish it to, instead of being added onto the crumbling apex that sequels seem to do.

Firstly, Bioshock was a gorgeous game not only in terms of graphical detail, but also in terms of art design. It is rare that a game can feature great artistic measure and diversity for every level in the game. One of the levels in Bioshock has you running through a farmers market, lush with green trees and colorful wooden signs signaling the sale of various produce items, intermixed with a steampunk art deco design that towers throughout the fictional world known as Rapture.

Bioshock is not alone in the visual merits of an art form. Recent games like the downloadable Braid on X-box live, Dead Space, even older games such as Okami and Legend of Zelda, Wind Waker, showcase a degree of artistic measure and detail that can be varied and appreciated by gamers of all temperaments. Each of them has excellent level designs, vibrant environments, and a sense of wow, be it in space, along the ocean, or even under it.

The second ingredient to the tour de force was the story script. Bioshock was a game that had a thoughtful, well planned out storyline that question the very morals of the player himself. The good/evil concept has been used to death, but Bioshock was able to implement it in a way that made it almost invisible, intermixed with clever plot twists and strong dialogue choices. Few games can claim this prize; even the most revered franchises, such as Zelda, Mario, and Halo, have stories that are at best paper thin or painfully obvious. Heck, the games enemies had character, and that is something sorely lacking in most games today. Lastly, the gameplay mechanics were polished and varied enough to keep the interest of the target audience. Great scare sequences within the game, smart gameplay using both the weapons and plasmid powers in conjunction with your current environment were well placed and thoroughly thought out.

While this ever-glowing praise is almost a rehash of what I felt about the game when I made a user review, the point is that each of these aspects can be seen as a form of art. Most gamers see all three together as a whole package, while a more casual crowd would focus on the main aspect to them, be it gameplay, graphics, or storyline, and make their claims there. What is important is to not lose sight of all three aspects, and any aspects in between, be it the voice over cast, the mini-games, or the graphical prowess. The possibilities for games to explore complex themes like Bioshock did are both endless and somewhat daunting.

Which brings me to my very problem with a sequel for a game like this. While I don’t discourage all sequels made for a game, it is important to first understand that some games don’t need a sequel. A game like Killer 7, for example, needs no second game to elaborate the features or the storyline, whereas a game like Gears of War is perfect ground to make sequels in, because they can continue the adventures of the main characters thanks to the environment created in it. Because of the designs Bioshock went with, a sequel would only mean two things in my mind, the pandering to the fanbase, and the chance to make more profit.

Most game franchises make billions of dollars from sequels after sequels of the same core game design. The EA sports games are the best example, since 2001 the game has been pretty much the same, with minor tweaks in the gameplay such as adding a new mode, updating rosters, or creating some arbitrary feature few people will likely not use. Legend of Zelda as well over the years has had minor changes to the core design, find a quest, go to a dungeon, get a special weapon, and use the weapon to solve puzzles and kill the boss.

While tired and true, sequels sell, and most sequels are designed not for the artistic merits of the franchise established, but for the chance to make more revenue for the corporations and developers of the game. There is a reason that Mario Party has 8 incarnations, or that talks of Halo 4 are abound right now. The games may have been good in their first incarnation, but the experience has slowly eroded into a former shell of itself, and it is self-evident. Halo 3 was one of the most hyped games of last year, and while a decent game, the hype was unjustifiable. The game is good, but not that good, and it’s clear to many gamers that the charm of Halo is losing it’s luster, meaning the game has almost ran it’s course.

Call me selfish, but I don’t want to see Bioshock fall into that category. Maybe a sequel will be a good thing, and this entire rant is all for naught. Maybe I am making a mountain out of a molehill, a non-issue to a bigger problem. But I do question what the commercial success of Bioshock will do for it’s own future. Firstly, the creators of Bioshock do not want to make a new game, saying that it is a standalone game for them. In fact, the only reason a sequel is in the works or even exists is Take-Two’s doing, with their chairman Strauss Zelnick coaxing 2k Marin, an offshoot of 2k Boston (the original development team for Bioshock) to make the sequel. Plus the fact that there is rumors of a focus on multiplayer aspects over a single player experience disturbs me, because Bioshock as a multiplayer game does not seem like a good idea to me.

The game is a perfect example of what games can do as an art form, and while a sequel may continue this perfect example for the better, it has been a trend in the industry thus far to rehash older material in a shiny wrapper and pass it off for the sole purpose of commercial gain. The jury is obviously still out as to how Bioshock 2: Sea of Dreams will be; a continuation of a great artistic achievement is likely, and if it does happen I will be the first to say I was wrong, but I can't help but feel wary of a sequel to a game that really does not need one to continue, fix or change the gameplay mechanics or the storyline that was penned for it. Be that as it may, the sequel effect takes charge again, and like the Sword of Damocles, hangs upon a threshold that can lead to either the benefit or hindrance of the very argument that is represents.

7 Comments
  • 19 results
  • 1
  • 2